Jane Chen On Collapse, Extreme Self-Help, and Healing Yourself
The Anxious Achiever
Trauma Fuels Social Entrepreneurs
Jane argues many changemakers convert personal pain into purpose, often risking burnout and unsustainability.
Work becomes the place where we pour everything we can’t face elsewhere. In this episode, I’m joined by Jane Chen, founder of Embrace, to talk about burnout, identity, and what happens when your worth becomes tied to what you produce. Jane shares how building a world-changing company nearly broke her, why healing can become another form of overachievement, and how childhood trauma shapes your drive to succeed. Tune in to rethink ambition, resilience, and what it really means to choose yourself.
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In this Episode, You Will Learn
00:00 What happens when your dream company starts destroying you?
03:00 Why “self-work” can become a form of escapism.
06:15 How childhood trauma fuels the need to succeed.
10:45 Why so many changemakers are driven by unresolved pain.
14:30 Why you never give yourself credit for your own resilience.
20:15 How Embrace was born in a Stanford classroom.
27:00 The country where 40% of the world’s premature babies are born.
34:30 When identity collapses with your company.
38:00 Hitting rock bottom after 10 years of overwork.
49:00 How does trauma live in your body?
52:00 How achievement becomes a way to earn love.
56:30 Why you can’t think your way out of pain.
1:00:45 What Internal Family Systems teaches about your “parts.”
1:05:00 Why achievement becomes a survival strategy.
1:13:45 Why your worth can’t live outside you.
Resources + Links
Get your copy of Jane’s book, Like a Wave We Break HERE
Get a copy of my book - The Anxious Achiever
Watch the podcast on YouTube
Find more resources on our website morraam.com
Follow
Follow me: on LinkedIn @morraaronsmele + Instagram @morraam
Follow Jane on Instagram @janemarie.chen
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