Unlearning Corporate: Breaking Free from the 9-to-5 Mindset

• Why unlearning corporate habits is key to sustainable business growth

• How the 9–5 mindset shows up in entrepreneurship (and how to break free from it)

• The connection between grief, stress, and productivity in your business

• Practicing self-compassion when you’re overwhelmed or falling behind

• Finding joy at work—even when things feel heavy

• Rebuilding a healthy work-life balance after burnout

• Creating space for both healing and growth in your business journey

• What peaceful productivity actually looks like when you’re running your own business

 “Rest is not a reward. It’s a requirement for resilience.”

“You don’t have to earn ease. Your business can grow in flow.”

“Slowing down isn’t falling behind—it’s recalibrating for aligned momentum.”

“Peaceful Productivity means building your business at the speed of your nervous system.”

“You can honor your grief and still move forward—one gentle, powerful step at a time.”

ANNE RAJOO

So let’s start by you talking us through your journey from corporate to building health and wellness business and how you had to unlearn some of the habits that you had formed in your corporate life and how you could really step into embodying, embodying what you were actually helping so let us know what was on for you in that phase. 

MADDISON SUTTON

Absolutely, I will say that I definitely did not intend to start my entrepreneurial journey at a slow pace. I was in the corporate world for a while, so probably I don’t know how old am I now, like, 15 years I just had a birthday, and I’m like, I cannot remember how old I am. Yes, and I was an achiever, always a high performer. I think I’ve always been in male dominated spaces. I was in the engineering world for a while, then I was in the tech world for the majority of my corporate career. And that never, I never thought that that bothered me. I always was okay with it. I was like, Okay, this just means that I stand out because I’m the only woman, you know, it always, I always thought of it was maybe an advantage. And it wasn’t until probably the last two years of me being in the corporate space that I realized how stressful that really was for me. I realized how much pressure I put on myself to look a certain way, to present myself in a certain way. I again, was a high achiever. I was probably like a top performer of my team. The majority of the time I was on my team, and it was because I held myself to just just really high standard. I was always raising my hand, always over preparing. I always had to be perfect in every meeting. I always wanted to be at the top of the leaderboard, and that worked for me. You know, I was, I was successful in my job, but I always knew that I probably wanted to go to holistic wellness space. That was really what I was passionate about. And about three years ago, my father was diagnosed with cancer, so this was when I was still in the corporate space. And at this time, I think just my high achieving nature, my Go, go, go, always being on top of it, I just could not continue that with the pressure and the stress and the grief that I was going through with my dad being sick. So that was really when I decided, okay, I need to make a shift here. I need to make a shift here for my physical health and also just where my values were, you know, it didn’t align with what I was doing in the corporate space. So that was when I really decided to make the push. But even then I thought, you know, I’m going to hit the ground running when I leave my corporate job. I’m going to do this on Mondays and this on Tuesdays, and I have this like, Action Plan, and I’m going to just like, grind until I’m successful in my new career. Because that’s what the new thing is. Yeah, I’m like, Okay, well, this, you know, it matters more than ever. You know, now that I would be funding, like, you know, security, like, anymore, like, you know, if I can be a high achiever in this corporate space where I had some support, or, well, I guess, probably not, the way to think about it. But, you know, if I can be a high achiever in this space, I can be a high achiever when it matters even more. So that was, that was how I went into my entrepreneurial journey. Now the world had a different plan for me, and the five days after I left my college job my father. So this was not completely unexpected, but I thought I was going to have, you know, six to eight months, hopefully a year, to start my entrepreneurial journey before that happened, transition, yeah, so this really completely changed my plan for starting my business, and this, go, go, Go like I’m hit the ground running, just did not happen. So for me, it wasn’t necessarily a conscious choice to slow down. It was the worst slowdown.

And as hard as that was, and really, I didn’t start, probably took two months off, three months off, which was not planned, but my start was really slow, and it’s become a really beautiful journey, in a way like obviously it was really, really difficult, but it forced me to change the way that I approach business and change the way that I approach work in general, I really had to focus so much more on my well being and my health, and that was not something that I had done previously, and It was not how I had intended to start my business. So for me, this journey from going from corporate to starting my own business has looked a lot less like pushing harder and looking harder, and a lot more of me waking up every day and saying, Okay, what feels good for me today? What feels authentic for me today? What can I do to move my business forward without putting me in a bad place, mentally and physically? 

ANNE RAJOO

Yeah, absolutely, yeah. Thank you for sharing. And we spoke before that, I think it is this, yeah, counter intuitive, beautiful side of the story that now you are truly, truly embodying the holistic and the slower pace, and you can share that with your clients, whereas before it would have been maybe a little bit more difficult to reach to that place because of these habits that you had built over the 15 years of your career and this natural tendency of like, Let’s push through, let’s make this happen, and let’s be successful in that meaning of success. You know that whatever that meant to you at that point, I can imagine that it means something different for you now, and I shared with you that I also lost my mom and quite suddenly, an unexpected and grief and the pain was huge, and I had a business at that point, and was really hard to somehow do any work. I obviously managed to get through that. But I also, for me, it shifted so many things in terms of how I do business, maybe not so much in the pace and things like that that came a little bit later. But for me, I realized I was holding back a lot, and I was very insecure, and I had been dreaming of a podcast. But back then, I would have never, ever done that. But what would happen with my mom was that realization of, like, life is short and you don’t know what’s going to happen. So this insecurity, they cannot stop me, because I’m going to live the life that I want to live, that I’m going to make successful for me and my family. And so it’s like, yeah, it’s incredible that, unfortunately, losses have this sort of powerful shift. 

MADDISON SUTTON 

And I just always find it really fascinating and also very courageous of you Anne, to turn things about into the project. 

ANNE RAJOO

So I just wanted to share that and say, like, you know, like, it’s just a powerful thing to do, to take this journey on and then turn it into something good. But let’s continue with this conversation of like, what did it look for you? Exactly like, I mean, I can only imagine that that is me, maybe projecting onto you, but I was also a lot, go, go, and, you know, like really showing up in, like, the perfect version. And then in entrepreneurship, I felt it’s not, not really working, but I had a lot of emotions around it, like, whatever that’s what I’m supposed to do. And it worked before, but now it doesn’t feel good. Like I had a lot of these dinner talks with myself, of, oh, but if this is, if this, what else can I be doing? Because this was the only way this pushing through and working hard was the only way I knew. So I’m wondering, if you struggle with something similar, we got onto the other side of Yes, of course, we had some force there, but I’m still sure there was some intentional choices and things that you did as well, especially as maybe Time moved on a little bit. 

MADDISON SUTTON

Yeah, I think things, I mean, it’s still honestly evolving for me, I think every single day. But I think there is this blueprint that we have in the corporate space, and sitting in the sales world, where I was, where I really believed if you weren’t getting results, is because you weren’t pushing hard enough, you weren’t trying hard enough, like you just were not you didn’t have what it takes to cut it. And I thought the same thing about starting my business, but what I really found was pushing hard in a direction that does not feel authentic or good for you is what really tires you out. So I did a lot of deep diving, and really I think what has helped my business themselves is me spending a lot of time trying to sort of refine myself and understand, like, who I really am, and understand what my fears are. And I have so many fears of being seen and being heard, and I’ve done a lot of deep work into my subconscious and like, where are those fears coming from? Why don’t I feel okay being my authentic self? You know, what is that fear? You know, like, Why do I feel like if I pursue a more heart-led path, why do I feel like I won’t be as successful there? So for me, it’s been very intentional, like I know that that is my block. I know that the biggest hurdle that I had in starting my business was an energetic block. And so every day I start my day, and have been starting my day with at least an hour of trying to recenter myself and kind of remind myself like who I am and what I want and why I left the corporate world and what happiness looks like for me and like the goals that I’m trying to achieve, it’s really I’ve had to very proactively put myself in that bad, safe place and that mindset, because if I don’t, I will very easily fall back into that pattern of, okay, I Just need to, like, crank out a bunch of work, and that will be to make sense. So every morning, I meditate for about 20 minutes. I’ve recently started doing a more a guided meditation before, when I was starting this I was just meditating on my own. I’ve been doing a more guided meditation to try and be a little bit more intentional with my meditation. I journal every single morning, and I also do something physical that makes me feel good. So I very intentionally, first thing in the day do the things that I know I need to be mentally and physically well,and then directly after that, I have a time blocked off on my calendar, and it’s called simple steps, and it’s something that I do every single day, and it’s just the simple steps that I think, that I know that I can do every single day, that I believe will help me reach my current goals with my business. They’re not completely overwhelming. They’re just the simple steps. And I came up with this because I think, like the biggest struggle that I have with clients, is they think that they need to do these big, massive things to be healthy. They tend to bite off more than they can chew, and that is why they fail at getting healthier. And it kind of just dawned on me, like I’m trying to do these big things, and I’m trying to push really, really hard to get my business going in the direction that it needs to. I need to follow my own advice. And even though I’m not necessarily trying to improve my health because I’m happy with my health and my well being, I can apply the same thing for my business. It is the small steps every day will get me where I want to be. It’s not the big things that burn me out. 

ANNE RAJOO

I love that. Yeah. I mean, this is what I talk a lot about, is this intentional choice of what does really matter, what is really the work that moves the needle, that brings you towards your goals, like you said, and what are the things that feel good and for you, it sounds like your whole morning of, you know, like starting it slow, taking care of your body. I mean, taking care of our bodies is incredibly important, in my opinion, for productivity.

And so it really feels like this holistic approach that you teach, obviously. But what I also share in Peaceful Productivity, it’s not just the doing and the pushing that only gets us so far. Yes, of course, there are periods in our business and in our life where maybe there’s some more pushing required, but it can’t be the status quo. And that’s, that’s what I love. And I love hearing, you know, the stories of like, the real life. How do you apply that to your day? And what stood out to me as well is the point where you said that you always tune into who you are and why you are doing this. I think this also helped me a lot. You know, entrepreneurship is a roller coaster. I have definitely gone through very different phases in my business, from making hardly anything, scraping things together to even survive, to, you know, being successful in my terms, but it’s always coming back to the why? Because when things are difficult, we question ourselves, when things are successful and there are opportunities coming around, left, right and center, and my brain will go back to Oh, yeah, let’s just say yes to this. It’s exciting, and let’s do it. And yes, I can push through, like, Hold on. Why am I doing this well to feel good and to have a more balanced life with my family. And I think if we don’t remember our why, or we don’t know these things from deep inside, we fall back into this, into the status quo that we’ve learned from society, that success means pushing hard and working a lot, especially as an entrepreneur. So I love that share. And what else would you say to the women that you work with who maybe feel that there’s a lot of stress in their work or they feel, I mean, I often hear things like, I don’t have time. I don’t have time to go for a walk. I don’t have time to, you know, take time off. What would you tell these women?

MADDISON SUTTON

Actually, I say along these lines that I used to think that in order to be healthy, I had to try harder, and now I know it’s that I actually need to approach health and wellness with intention rather than force. And I think I kind of going back to, like, the biggest unlearnings from corporate,

corporate you know, you do a lot of things to like check boxes, and you do a lot of things to climb the ladder, but none of these things tend to fill your cup, and none of these things are necessarily like feeding your soul. And often times, women say they don’t have time and they don’t have energy. They do have the time. The reason they don’t have the energy and they can’t prioritize their selves and their well being is because they are so trained, because they’re putting so much energy into things that do not give energy back. They’re putting so much energy into things that do not fill their cup, and that is why they feel this sense of, gosh, I don’t even have the energy to make dinner. I don’t even have the energy to do anything but lay on the couch. And so I would argue it’s not the lack of time, it’s the lack of energy, and it’s because you are putting so much time and energy into things that are not making you happy. And we we do this because we think if we keep doing it long enough, we will get to a place where we will have time and we’ll have energy, yes, and that’s just not the case. I mean, if you look at I mean, people don’t retire till 6265 people later, people are going to have to retire later, just with like, finances. And, you know, things are getting much more expensive. So for me, this was really being serious with myself and saying I can be financially happy and secure, or or I can be like, happy, happy and, well, I wish that more women and more people in general would be honest with themselves about the reason that they’re in jobs, and maybe making more of that, like That decision that lead to do something that actually energizes them and makes them well and balanced. 

ANNE RAJOO

So true. I mean exactly what you said. We we work hard, and we’re like, the day is going to come when I achieve this, then I can take time off when I’ve done that. Then I’m, you know, when I’ve run 20 kilometers, then I’m gonna do it regularly, or whatever it is, you know, like we have this sort of goal that we want to achieve, and then when that happens, then everything is going to be sorted. And especially, I think, with the pushing through. And I had that experience as well, more often than not, it’s our body actually saying, Hey, hold on, nope, this day is not coming because I’m going to put your flat on the floor. And this is enough. And this is the worst place that we can be in if we’re completely burned out and and have nothing to give anymore. And this is, this is the problem, and this is where, yeah, taking the breaks, taking care of your body makes us just so important. I love that. Well, let’s wrap up. You’ve got the beautiful research, and then just share where they can connect with you and what that reset is.

MADDISON SUTTON 

So I have created a reset. It’s a guide for women in the corporate space that are lacking energy, feeling burnt out, feeling like they don’t have the time to dedicate to their health and well being. And I created it because it’s the steps that I generally take at the beginning of working with a client. So I just, I was like, let me just lay this out for you all, like this is if you want to give yourself more time, if you want to get some energy back into your life. These are the steps that I suggest you take so you can find that if you go to my website, if you go to my website, which is, www.wellwithmadison.com you can, you’ll be prompted actually, to download that if you want to. It’s also where you can get more information about me and schedule time to speak with me if you want.