The Raw Onion Podcast

Episode 23: The crumble of capitalism - why doing good is now considered a crime - hint hint hint - it’s all by design

About Our Guest Mazarine Treyz [https://healingfromnonprofits.com] is an American multi-hyphenate polycreative – artist, trainer, writer, speaker, human design reader, consultant and facilitator of spaces for radical imagination. She’s worked in the nonprofit, government and entrepreneurial spaces, given over 100 keynotes and workshops in 4 countries, directed 15 online conferences, written 10 courses, gotten ongoing government contracts with five different municipalities, and not done yet. She [https://healingfromnonprofits.com] is a lifelong artist and lives in Oregon with a growing garden, an incredible community, a wonderful human and a sweet little cat. Books [https://healingfromnonprofits.com] Speaking inquiries [https://mazarinetreyz.com] Paintings, prints and workshops [https://mazarine.art] There’s a kind of tired that doesn’t make sense on paper. You care. You show up. You give your best to the work, to the people around you, to something larger than yourself. And still, the exhaustion accumulates. Not because you’re failing. Not because you’re weak. But because something much larger has been quietly feeding on your effort for a very long time. That’s where this conversation begins. In Episode 23, we’re continuing our May series, Roadmap to Resilience, and this time we brought in a voice that reframes the word entirely. Our guest is Mazarine Treyz [https://www.linkedin.com/in/mazarine-treyz/], author, artist, speaker, human design reader, and somatic healing facilitator. Her newest book, Healing from the Nonprofit Sector [https://www.healingfromnonprofits.com/], carries a title that undersells it. Because what Mazarine is really writing about is the way systems are designed to extract from people who care the most, and what it takes to find your way back to yourself when that extraction has gone on for too long. The conversation moved through territory that felt, honestly, like a long exhale. We talked about the particular kind of shame that lives in high achievers: the quiet belief that if you haven’t done enough, haven’t healed enough, haven’t pushed far enough, that’s somehow your fault. Mazarine makes a grounding and clear case that this isn’t a personal failing. It’s a structural one. The overwhelm, the depletion, the feeling that you’re working inside a machine that wasn’t built for you? That is the system working as designed. From there, the conversation moved into what it means to do good in the world while being systematically depleted by the structures you’re working inside. The nonprofit sector is the lens, but the experience is not limited to it. High salary, high status, high output. And still, for so many of our listeners, a creeping sense that something isn’t sustainable. That the cost of caring has become too high, and they don’t know yet what to do with that realization. Anger came up too. Not as a problem to manage or a feeling to apologize for, but as a signal. As information. As something with real intelligence underneath it, pointing toward unmet needs and unspoken truths. Staying with the harder feelings rather than bypassing them is where this conversation lived, and it’s not a small thing. Rest came up as well. Not as a reward, not as a luxury, but as a starting point for clarity, for knowing what you actually need, for understanding what comes next. What moved us most in this exchange is the way Mazarine holds the weight of what is happening in the world right now without sliding into despair. She names the design. She names the harm. And then she brings it back to the body, to the self, to the radical possibility that your needs matter and your feelings are data. If you have ever poured yourself into meaningful work and felt confused by how hollow or depleted it left you, this episode is worth sitting with. If you have been carrying a wordless kind of anger and wondering whether it belongs to you or to something larger, that’s in here too. You can find Mazarine’s book and workbook at healingfromnonprofits.com [https://www.healingfromnonprofits.com/]. If this episode is sitting with you, or if you’re somewhere in the middle of your own version of burnout, depletion, or that particular crossroads that doesn’t quite have a name yet, we’re here. You’re welcome to reach out at hello@therawonionpodcast.com [hello@therawonionpodcast.com]. Stephanie Ohannesian [https://triagebalancedlife.com/] is the founder of Triage Coaching and Consulting [https://triagebalancedlife.com/], where she helps high-performing individuals and teams interrupt the burnout cycles and stress patterns that quietly erode clarity, energy, and confidence. Her work draws on ancestral and heritage-informed methods and is available through one-on-one coaching, group programs, and upcoming retreats. Yoshie Barnett [https://www.lotusflowerjourneys.com/contact/] is the founder of Lotus Flower Journeys [https://www.lotusflowerjourneys.com/] and a Crossroads Coach for high-achieving women in their 40s and beyond. If you appear confident on the outside but feel quietly stuck within, her work might be exactly what you've been looking for. You can learn more at lotusflowerjourneys.com [https://www.lotusflowerjourneys.com/]. Get full access to The Raw Onion Podcast at therawonion.substack.com/subscribe [https://therawonion.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Episode 22: The Story of How Your Ancestry Guides Your Resilience

About Our Guest Sandy Davis [https://elevateopsadvisory.com/] is a fractional COO, the founder of Elevate Operations Advisory [https://elevateopsadvisory.com/], and the voice behind Elevate Within on Substack [https://elevatewithin.substack.com/]. With over 25 years in operations leadership across investment banking and commercial real estate, she now partners with founder-led businesses to fix the operational breakdowns that quietly stall growth, so founders can stop being the bottleneck and teams can scale sustainably. Her work sits at the intersection of operational strategy and personal resilience. Website: Elevate Operations Advisory [https://elevateopsadvisory.com/] LinkedIn: Sandy Davis [https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandra-davis-abb21236/] Substack: Elevate Within [https://elevatewithin.substack.com/] That moment when life hits you with everything at once. Loss, burnout, identity collapse. You wonder if you’ll ever find solid ground again. Many of us have been there. This week’s episode with Sandy Davis [https://elevateopsadvisory.com/] pulls back that exact layer. Sandy’s story isn’t the polished bounce-back tale. It’s the raw truth of losing both parents within 37 days, right as corporate burnout peaked and her 50th loomed. The white void of grief turning black. Survival autopilot kicking in while the world demanded she keep performing. Then, the slow reclaiming. Through her mom’s journals, sitting with different versions of herself, and deciding to rebuild on her own terms. We peel into what resilience actually looks like when the Instagram version fails. Not quick recovery, but the kind forged in fire. The masks we wear, especially as women navigating corporate spaces. And that inner voice, the little girl, the 20-year-old, still there beneath the noise, still looking for purpose. Sandy [https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandra-davis-abb21236/] now leads as fractional COO at Elevate Operations Advisory [https://elevateopsadvisory.com/], turning founder chaos into scalable systems. But her real work lives at the intersection of operations and personal rebuilding. “My mom gave me what she could,” Sandy said, “so I could become who she couldn’t.” If you recognize yourself somewhere in Sandy’s story, we’re here. No need to have it figured out first. Reach us at hello@therawonionpodcast.com [hello@therawonionpodcast.com] Stephanie Ohannesian is the founder of Triage Coaching and Consulting [https://triagebalancedlife.com/], where she works with high-performing individuals and teams on burnout regulation, stress patterns, and sustainable performance. Her approach draws on ancestral and heritage-informed methods to interrupt cycles that quietly erode clarity, energy, and confidence. She offers one-on-one coaching, group programs, and upcoming retreats. Yoshie Barnett [https://www.lotusflowerjourneys.com/contact/] is the founder of Lotus Flower Journeys [https://www.lotusflowerjourneys.com/] and a Crossroads Coach for high-achieving women in their 40s and beyond who are ready to step out from behind the perfectionism and reconnect with who they are beneath it. If you appear confident on the outside but feel quietly stuck within, you can learn more at lotusflowerjourneys.com [https://www.lotusflowerjourneys.com/]. Get full access to The Raw Onion Podcast at therawonion.substack.com/subscribe [https://therawonion.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Episode 21: The Real Force Behind Resilience

About Our Guest Sarosh Iqbal [https://www.linkedin.com/in/saroshiqbal/] is the founder of Prezio [https://www.prezio.gifts/]. She transitioned from a career in Silicon Valley into building a brand rooted in personalization and meaning. Her journey has been one of resilience: navigating uncertainty, redefining success, and trusting herself through the process. Website: prezio.gifts [https://www.prezio.gifts/] Instagram: @prezio.gifts [https://www.instagram.com/prezio.gifts/] LinkedIn: Sarosh Iqbal [https://www.linkedin.com/in/saroshiqbal/] There is a particular kind of weight that arrives without announcing itself. Not because everything is wrong, but because everything has been held together, carefully, for a very long time. By the rules of the household you grew up in. By the definition of success that was handed to you before you were old enough to ask whether you wanted it. By the version of yourself that learned, somewhere early, that staying within the lines was the price of belonging. That weight is what we wanted to start with this month. May is our series on resilience, and before we get into what it looks like in practice, we want to name what it is not. It is not toughness. It is not pushing through. From a neuroscience [https://therawonion.substack.com/t/neuroscience] perspective, resilience is your nervous system’s ability to return to itself after stress [https://therawonion.substack.com/t/stress], uncertainty, or fear, without losing your capacity to think clearly and stay connected to who you are. The brain does not distinguish cleanly between physical danger and social risk. Disappointing your family, stepping outside your culture’s definition of what a woman should want, choosing a path that doesn’t match the one mapped for you before you were old enough to choose, these register neurologically as threat. Which means that every time a woman chooses ambition or independence, something in the nervous system is already bracing. Not because she is broken. Because her brain is doing exactly what it was designed to do. To open our May series, we sat down with Sarosh Iqbal [https://www.linkedin.com/in/saroshiqbal], founder of Prezio [https://www.prezio.gifts/]. Sarosh [https://www.linkedin.com/in/saroshiqbal] grew up in Pakistan, in a household that offered her every opportunity it could, and with it, a very clear script: get the grades, get the degree, fit into the career. She followed it, all the way to a corporate career in Silicon Valley. When that chapter ended, she built Prezio [https://www.instagram.com/prezio.gifts/], a personalized gifting company rooted in creativity and meaning. What that transition looked like in the body, and what it cost, is at the heart of this conversation. What she describes is not clean or linear. She was building something new while raising three children, while fielding the opinions of a community that had its own definition of how a good mother spends her time. The guilt was real. The fear of rejection from the people she loved most was real. And that particular fear lands differently in the body than professional rejection, because family is where the nervous system first learned what belonging means. We also spent time in this episode on the space between shame and guilt, on what happens when a woman’s worth gets tied entirely to her roles, and on what it costs to want something beyond them. And near the end, there is a moment Sarosh [https://www.linkedin.com/in/saroshiqbal] shares about her ten-year-old son that quietly holds the whole conversation together. This is what resilience looks like when it is not performing itself. If something in this episode landed close to home and you find yourself wanting support in working through what it is touching, reach out to us at hello@therawonionpodcast.com [hello@therawonionpodcast.com]. Stephanie Ohanesian [https://triagebalancedlife.com/] is the founder and owner of Triage Coaching and Consulting [https://triagebalancedlife.com/], a practice focused on burnout regulation through ancestral lineage and heritage-informed approaches. She [https://triagebalancedlife.com/] works with high-performing individuals and teams to interrupt stress patterns that lead to burnout, strengthen communication under pressure, and cultivate cultures grounded in clarity, energy, confidence, and sustainable performance. Her offerings [https://triagebalancedlife.com/] include one-on-one coaching, group programs, and upcoming retreats. Yoshie Barnett [https://www.lotusflowerjourneys.com/contact/] is the founder of Lotus Flower Journeys [https://www.lotusflowerjourneys.com/] and a Crossroads Coach. She supports high-achieving women in their 40s and beyond who find themselves at a turning point, often held back by perfectionism, and ready to reconnect with who they truly are. If you appear confident on the outside but feel quietly stuck within, you can learn more or connect with her at lotusflowerjourneys.com [https://www.lotusflowerjourneys.com/]. Get full access to The Raw Onion Podcast at therawonion.substack.com/subscribe [https://therawonion.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Episode 20: ‘The sandwich generation’: why the last phase of life is the hardest for them AND YOU…

Some conversations are soft in tone but heavy in meaning. This one settles differently. In Episode 20 of The Raw Onion [https://therawonion.substack.com/], we explore the neuroscience of the aging brain. we look at it not just as biology, but as a deeply human experience that can leave us feeling confused, tender, and even heartbroken. You know that ache when someone you love starts repeating stories, snaps in a way that doesn’t feel like them, or looks at you with eyes that seem unfamiliar? It’s more than concern. It hurts. If you’re in midlife, squeezed between raising your family and supporting aging parents or relatives, you’re likely carrying this every day. That’s the sandwich generation reality, a crossroads where your heart pulls in two directions at once. Most people in the middle don’t have language for it yet. Stephanie unpacks the neuroscience behind the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and hippocampus. She shares why nuance fades, reactions quicken, and emotions feel more fragile. Her uncle story stays with you. A simple offer of help with chopsticks read as a threat to his identity and independence. Then she names it: ambiguous loss. The grief of loving someone still physically here, but changing in ways that feel out of reach. No closure, no clear ending. Just this tender, ongoing tension between who they were and who they are now. Because care shows up in simple ways too, Stephanie mentions making raw vegan walnut taco meat [https://minimalistbaker.com/10-minute-raw-vegan-taco-meat/] for her aging parents. Walnuts support brain health with omega-3s, and it's an easy way to nourish without fanfare. If any of this feels close, this episode has something for you. It’s about compassion, adaptation, and what it means to keep loving people as they change. Stephanie Ohanesian [https://triagebalancedlife.com/] is the founder and owner of Triage Coaching and Consulting [https://triagebalancedlife.com/], an ancestral lineage and heritage burnout regulation company. She [https://triagebalancedlife.com/about/] helps high-performing individuals and teams reset stress patterns that drive burnout loops, improve communication under pressure, and build cultures of restored clarity, energy, confidence and sustainable performance. She [https://calendly.com/triagebalancedlife] specializes in one-on-one, group, and upcoming retreats. Yoshie Barnett [https://www.lotusflowerjourneys.com/contact/] is the founder of Lotus Flower Journeys [https://www.lotusflowerjourneys.com/] and a Crossroads Coach. She works with high-achieving women in their 40s and beyond who are standing at a crossroads, held back by perfectionism, and ready to find their way back to themselves. If you are someone who looks capable on the outside and feels quietly stuck on the inside, you can reach her at lotusflowerjourneys.com [https://www.lotusflowerjourneys.com]. Get full access to The Raw Onion Podcast at therawonion.substack.com/subscribe [https://therawonion.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Episode 19: Mid-Life Maxxing

Dr. Stephanie P. Covall, PhD, MA, NBC-HWC [http://realizebetterhealth.com], holds a doctorate in neuroscience and a Master of Arts in psychology, alongside certifications in coaching and integrative health. She works at the intersection of brain science, nutrition, and behavior change, guiding clients toward sustainable health transformations through an evidence-based, whole-person approach. Her practice, Realize Better Health [https://realizebetterhealth.com/], is built on one grounding idea: that lasting change comes not from overhauling your life, but from understanding it. She was exactly the right person for this conversation. Something shifts in midlife. Most of us feel it before we have words for it. Sleep becomes unreliable. The things that used to recharge you don’t land the same way. Your weight, your energy, your memory, your mood. Something just... moved. And the fear that follows that noticing can be louder than the change itself. This episode sits with that. We call it the Great Neural Recalibration. Your brain at midlife is not breaking down. It is reorganizing. It is changing how it processes reward, stress, and meaning. The burnout, the emotional shifts, the fog, the sense that what used to work no longer fits. These are not signs that something has gone wrong. They are signs that your brain is doing something real. We covered a lot of ground with Dr. Covall [https://realizebetterhealth.com/] in this conversation. The relationship between what we eat and how the brain functions. Why sleep is not a productivity tool but something the body genuinely requires. Why the strategies that worked for years can quietly stop working. And the one that surprised us most: what loneliness does in the body, and how many people in this phase are experiencing it without naming it. Midlife is not the chapter where things fall apart. It is the chapter where your brain begins to let go of urgency and move toward something more discerning. Different cultures have understood this for a long time. We are just catching up to it. If you recognize yourself in any of this, Dr. Covall [https://realizebetterhealth.com/] works directly with people navigating exactly this terrain. You can reach her at stephanie@realizedbetterhealth.com [stephanie@realizedbetterhealth.com] or visit RealizeBetterHealth.com [https://realizebetterhealth.com/] for a free discovery call. And if the emotional or identity side of this recalibration is where you’re sitting, we’re here too. You’re welcome to reach out. This is Part 3 in our April aging brain series. Next week, we continue. You don’t have to figure this out alone. Get full access to The Raw Onion Podcast at therawonion.substack.com/subscribe [https://therawonion.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]