S11e7: Madison Utendahl – Go Enjoy Your Life. I’ve Got Your Back.

“I can’t say that in 34 years I have enjoyed my life in the way that I do now. That is the shift. That’s the shift post-Hoffman. It’s the shift of doing this work. It’s the shift of my life.”

Six months before Madison Utendahl arrived at the Hoffman Process, she closed her business. The immediate question that came to her in the wake of closing it was, Who am I without this job? She’d realized that her company and her work had become part of her identity. Feeling a complete disconnect from herself without this company she’d worked so hard to build, Madison realized she needed to do something different. Therapy, something she’d done a lot of, wasn’t going to cut it. She needed a serious change. She turned to Hoffman.

In this engaging and spirited conversation, Madison leads us through the before, during, and after periods of her Hoffman Process experience. As we listen in, we’re able to glimpse not only her journey, but some of the Process journey itself as seen through Madison’s eyes.

One of the significant negative patterns that Madison transformed was “control,” one that plagues so many of us. In her brilliant words, she shares the big Aha! she had behind the transformation of this pattern, wisdom that’s true for many patterns. Madison explains, “I learned at Hoffman that control was a survival instinct. If it was a survival instinct that meant I could unlearn it. … I learned that young Madison, to no fault of her own, developed control to deal with her childhood.” 

A major takeaway from Madison’s Process transformation is the realization that the Universe, or whatever you want to call it, has your back. As she says, “the unlock for me, post-Hoffman, is like realizing that God, the universe, whomever, has your back.” So, go enjoy your life!

More about Madison Utendahl:

Madison Utendahl is a multi-hyphenate: founder, CCO, writer, and creative director who, above all, is tired of faking fine. She’s the Founder of Utendahl Creative, a Brooklyn-based creative agency that has built brands for a lot of cool people. She’s also the creator of BURNT, her popular Substack where she writes about burnout with equal parts humor and truth-telling. Madison is a two-time Webby Award winner, AdWeek 100, and Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, and has been on the founding teams of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Refinery29’s 29Rooms, and Museum of Ice Cream.