[00:00:00] Welcome back to Corporate Fuckery, the show that unpacks the cost of autopilot ambition and what it takes to really redefine success on your own terms. Today's guest, Christie Hoffman, better known online as corporate Christie, is what happens when a marketing exec, a mom, and a full blown spiritual awakening, walk into the same boardroom.
After years in corporate leadership, Christie did what most of us only daydream about. During our 2:00 PM one-on-ones, she hit eject. What started as a meltdown became a breakthrough, a reclamation of her humor, her voice, and her healing.
Now, a speaker, author, and corporate comedian. Christie turns workplace chaos into comedy and burnout into boundary work. Her viral skits and practical frameworks remind leaders how to communicate better, lead with clarity and stop glorifying exhaustion. And her book, the Family Cycle Breaker goes even deeper revealing how the same patterns that drain us at work often start at home and how breaking those cycles can [00:01:00] change everything. Christie is the kind of powerhouse woman that doesn't just walk away from dysfunction. She studies it, satires it, and then turns it into strategy for self liberation. Her work invites us to laugh at the absurdity, heal what hurts.
And remember that power doesn't have to look polished. It can be raw. Honest and gloriously human. So grab your coffee, your crystals, and maybe your HR rep, because today we're talking about burnout, boundaries, and becoming your own damn boss with the one and only corporate. Christie, welcome Christie.
Lauren: I appreciate your time. I had another, podcast interview this week and I was like, you know, I really appreciate the women who have platforms Yeah.
Who are willing to give time to support other women who are building their platform. So I just wanna say thank you because I recognize your time and energy is very, limited. So thank you for sharing it with me.
Christie: You know what, it's my pleasure. It's hard enough to be a woman, so the least we can do is support other women.
We are [00:02:00] way stronger together.
Lauren: Amen.
Christie: Separated.
Lauren: Amen. And I'm so glad you said that because that's really the essence of this entire season. Like powerhouse women build longer tables, they see each other, they support each other, and there's not enough of that in corporate life.
yeah,
Where are you dialing in from? Austin, Texas.
Christie: Oh.
Lauren: I have some friends in Austin. Okay. How long have you lived there for? Are
Christie: likely high quality. So like hook me up because I'm going through a massive shedding season and we could talk about the metaphysical stuff. I was nerding so hard on your show, but if you have high quality women in Austin, will you please introduce me to them?
Lauren: Fuck. Yeah, I will. So, um, great. I'm so glad you started with the metaphysical, because let's start there. Oh
Christie: yeah. I'm like a hippie corporate witch. Okay. Like, I had a big, I had like 160 ego deaths in the last 18 months.
Lauren: so I have this woman, she lives in Austin, and, um, she, I think my Akashic record reader also lives in [00:03:00] Austin.
She has been quintessential to my life strategy and I was thinking about it, you know, as we were getting. Into this space this morning, I was like, you know, these women that like work in the background of our lives and have worked in other people's lives. I, I don't mean to discount the men, but the metaphysical part is really introducing that into your life is really about the destiny and purpose part to me, and my Akashic record reader is like, no, Lauren, you gotta go back to corporate America.
Like, no, Lauren, like this is planned for you. go figure it out and make it work. And it. Without those bits of coaching, like I would have never done it. Like my mind, my conscious mind would've told me to stay broke and poor and whatever, like, and so here I am and I'm, I attribute a lot of my success to being supported energetically and metaphysically.
Christie: I had the same experience where, you know, we can get into it if we want, but I had. Too long didn't read. I had a [00:04:00] corporate meltdown. My life was falling apart to come together. I was going through divorce and I was like, I don't want to touch corporate ever again. And I had a very healing, psychedelic experience.
Yes. Where I was told by the entities who love us so much, they said, no girlfriend,
no. Your
gift is that you went through all of that so that you can create frameworks and talk about what's broken. And you will speak on big stages and you will have so much fun going back to corporate because you will be your own boss and you will be telling the bosses.
Why what they're doing isn't working and they're going to take you very seriously. So like go back. But similar to you, we are, we are back very similar in corporate talking about how to fix corporate.
Lauren: Yeah, and I, I don't even know at this moment if it's like fixed corporate, right? Like, because , yesterday's guest that I had on, she's like, it's imploding from the inside out and there's not much that we can do.
And the whole Starbucks thing is like 100% the poster child of corporate fuckery [00:05:00] that's going on. And I like, it's very near and dear to. I live across the water from where Starbucks headquarters is. So like I don't get to go to the Roastery anymore. I don't really support Starbucks anyway, but you know, it is one of those Seattle icon locations and has been for a long time and
it's really sad what happened
Christie: because I don't Oh, you didn't hear Watch the news. I'm so in my healing journey, I don't talk to anyone. I don't watch, I don't watch the news
Lauren: either. yeah, so the Chipotle, CEO, he is the highest paid CEO in the history of CEO's. $98 million. Ew. What a year? Mm-hmm. What was being flown on a private jet up and down the west coast from, San Francisco to Seattle. Probably six months ago. Right. So we both know, 'cause we've been around the block enough times that like new leadership comes in and you have six solid months until shit's gonna go off the rails and change if you're lucky.
So he ends up closing both roasteries, which are here in Seattle, which I don't know if you know, but that's like the [00:06:00] staple, right? Like that's, that's the pinnacle of what. Starbucks experience was like, it was beautiful. It was a lovely place to go down by corporate headquarters, specifically on First Avenue in Seattle.
I have gone there for years and they laid off 900 people. Now 900 isn't a ton, but the lot of the word on the street and social media streets, is that people were trying to unionize because they were tired of, the, the work environment. And so part of the. Claim is that they did it because they didn't want those employees to, to unionize.
So 900 more people without jobs in this area. And it's like,
Christie: you're right, 900 doesn't sound like a big number, but if we add the spouses and children who are affected by people losing that mainstream of income and the stress in those ho households and the
yeah, the
triggered trauma responses of those unhealed parents and how this is going to affect children who will grow up the, the, it's not just 900 people.
It's like. [00:07:00] Way, way more than that.
Lauren: Yeah. That, that was one of my biggest, aha moments in my leaving Nordstrom journey was the ripple effect of these choices and what we do to people's emotional, and identity states is never talked about. And the impact is great. The impact is great on them and everyone around them.
Christie: That might even be the perfect segue. Yeah. Which is what led me to leaving corporate was my third acquisition of my career, and it was so sloppy. Mm-hmm. And people were getting. Fired who were very good at what they did. As you smashed up two companies together, you have redundancies.
But the key players on our smaller organization were getting booted. But these were like very, very important people who were excellent at their craft. Yeah. And the shock and the, the stress and the drama of losing friends, but also. What are we gonna do now that we don't have our main engineer and our mobile app developer and our VP of marketing?
What do you, what? What? [00:08:00] And, and the all hands slides were written in French, but they were being spoken in English and they wouldn't give it. And I remember raising my hand and saying, this would be a very simple thing to solve. This is a very expensive meeting for half of the company to not know what you're saying.
Mm-hmm. You're assuming everybody's an auditory learner. I am not. and they said it, they couldn't afford it, and the meetings had like 40 people in them. We didn't know what we were launching. Nobody knew what they were talking about. Nobody could find anything. And I was like, I'm too smart. And I love myself finally enough to say, I don't know what's next, but I just have to get out of this and just hit eject without a plan, which I know you did too.
Lauren: I did, and it was the scariest shit I ever did in my life. But I had so much peace in that decision. Like I had so much peace in knowing that the universe was gonna have my back and I didn't even believe in the universe then. Yeah. Like not even a little bit. I was not wooey. I had no idea. I had an intuition.
Now is like my superpower that I lead with. So tell us about your powerhouse journey, and then [00:09:00] I would love to understand a little bit about your corporate Witchery and metaphysical side. Yeah. Because that, like, I mean, I got that hit pretty strong this morning that that was part of our day.
Christie: Yeah. It's been a wild couple of years, so.
Mm-hmm. Stop me at any point if you wanna dig into Yeah, no, go. Let's go. TikTok, we'll just start with the opening statement of TikTok saved my life. About, about five years ago I saw a TikTok about, abuse in marriages. And it was a woman who just shut the door. There was no, she didn't say anything.
She shut the door and she locked it. And the caption just said, you're safe. Now if this resonated, you might be getting abused. And I was like, oh my God. And so I, that was the first time I tried psychedelic therapy. I knew that it was this big, dark secret that I was in a very scary marriage on every level, financially, physically, emotionally.
there was a lot of [00:10:00] addiction in the marriage. I was trying, I have people pleasing tendencies and I had an alcoholic mother and a very scary father, so I married both of them. You marry your karmic childhood trauma lesson. If you don't, figure that out. in time. You sure do. As somebody that's been married for 20 years, you sure do.
So a 10 year marriage, you know, 10 minutes into this. This journey. I was like, oh my God, I'm, I'm being abused. I need to get out of this marriage now and immediately filed for divorce. I have two beautiful children, so I also knew I was going to be putting them through a lot. I think that's why I stayed for so long.
I thought I could save this. I don't try to save addicts and alcoholics anymore. fast forward. Once you stand up for yourself and start sending boundaries, you realize how many other people liked the old version of you. That was very easy to manipulate and very easy to control. Therefore, I had to also fire my mother, my father, my brother, my other living brother passed of addiction.
He died by suicide. I [00:11:00] was just going through this like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, making major life decisions. Things kept happening and I went through this exercise where I, I found my values and I now use that as a framework Yes. To make decisions. And so I started losing friends who were cheaters, who were, maybe not a growth mindset who were judging my, experiences with psychedelics, you know, telling me that I'm on drugs and ignoring any claim I made of the research of how much this helps with complex PTSD.
So shaking off friendships and just like me and my kids, just like barreling forward, trusting myself and, um, I went deep into childhood trauma. Mm-hmm. And read the book Complex PTSD from surviving to Thriving and was able to oh, pinpoint self-sabotage my avoidance. My neglecting of my health went hard at the gym.
I just, and I started to have this glow up. I started to really spend [00:12:00] time with myself, and at first it was lonely and scary. I'm very, I was very codependent.
Lauren: Mm-hmm.
Christie: I realized I needed to go through this wormhole, this pain of learning to love myself. Otherwise, I was never going to attract a future partner who would love me properly.
Yes. Which is important for my children to see and for me to get to experience.
Lauren: Yes.
Christie: And I started journaling. I started journaling three pages a day and really got to know myself. the shadow work journal's, another one that I like to plug. That helped me a ton. Um, I love that. And through, through the, this like higher self concept, you know, I always had my crystals.
I always had a curiosity about the chakras.
Mm-hmm. And
putting corporate gave me a chance to. I was building other stuff. You know, I'm an, I'm a high performer at heart, so it's not like I was sitting on my hands. Right. But I had a chance to learn about the Map of Human Consciousness by David Hawkins.
Lauren: Yes, I
Christie: do.
My Joe Dispen of meditations twice a day. Yes. I started going deep into, you know, vibrations and, and, [00:13:00] Manifestation and mm-hmm. You know, it's like I had to blow everything up because everything was making me sick and tired and exhausted. And I have a TikTok where I show what I looked like when I was married and what I look like now.
And it's go, it's still going viral. People are like, holy shit, you look like two completely different people. And I'm like, but they're both me. One is the version of me. I kiss her feet that she got me here, she was being abused. Mm-hmm. This version, she would never tolerate anyone speaking to her or treating her a certain way, and she has no problem, even if it's her own blood saying.
You can't treat me this way, I'm out.
Lauren: Yeah. Yep. Yeah. wow. So first of all, both of them are powerhouse women, which I love and I admire, right? Because they have both found a different level of what their power means to them. So I celebrate. Every shift and change you went through? Because my journey was very, very, very, very similar.
I lost a hundred pounds [00:14:00] in the last two years. That was part of my physical. Mm-hmm. But before that, I went through all the energetic stuff of, it Sounds like very similar, understanding the frequency. And that's a lot of what I teach my clients is just finding energetic neutrality. 'cause a lot of us try and just bypass a lot of shit.
Right. And just go to like, well, we just wanna be happy. In this work to become this sovereign part of yourself, I believe you have to like learn how to create that part that has actually never existed before.
Christie: Yes. And, and starting to act like the version of yourself before you become it. You need to, you know, Joe Dispenza talks about this a lot.
He's a meditation. I don't wanna say guru, but like, ah,
Lauren: you can call him a guru.
Christie: He, and he has tons of research to back it up. So I'm not just gonna say he's some guy online. He is very well vetted and he has a ton of success stories. But, he has helped me a lot to feel and embody my future success in order to call it in and in order to retrain my nervous system.[00:15:00]
You talk about this a lot on your show to not be scared of success. I think initially my first year of entrepreneurship when stuff started to work, I got scared and I'd get avoidant and I would doom scroll and plan my content, which. Was really just me hiding and pushing away my gifts. And, I've now since been able to more quickly catch when I'm feeling out of control or feeling scared and I'm able to check in with myself and I've got my inner child and my higher self, and we all sit down.
And we all, you know, my inner child's like, I'm hungry. You haven't fed me today. I'm tired, I don't wanna work. And my higher self is like, we need to take better care of you. We're sorry. She takes accountability and then I'm in the middle, like going like this. Like, yeah. Like I love you guys. I'm so glad we're having this conversation.
I wish we would've done it. At 36 years ago, we didn't know how, but we, you know, having,
Lauren: but I celebrated that you learned it on your own, right? Yeah. It doesn't sound like you had the support system to model that for [00:16:00] you. And when we are cycle breakers like I am, and we can go into that a little here. I don't really talk about it and have it online, but I'm happy to hear.
'cause there was another big shift in my personal life just yesterday. It takes a lot of courage to choose to cut off energy that isn't for you, especially family of origin. And I think it's similar structure to corporate fuckery where it is a known entity and it is socially normalized that this is the structure and this is how everything's supposed to go.
And you should be grateful for your job and you know, all the. All the things, and it's kind of the same mirror with the family unit. It's like, you can't do that to your dad, or you shouldn't do that to blah, blah, blah. Fill in the blanket doesn't matter. But in reality, when it comes into tapping into your own power, those external forces, including your own career and the career path that you have been addicted to creating for yourself and the success that you have been trying to chase in many cases, [00:17:00] doesn't actually.
Fill up the version of you. You talk about it as future self, and I use that as well, like future self doesn't subscribe to these models. And so the, the work is really then to figure out the delta between where you're at and how they do function so that you can start letting go of some of these very.
Difficult structures and ingrained experiences and expectations and really binds so that you can move on to that next version of you.
Christie: Yes. Yep. Mm-hmm. And I've heard you talk about this on your show too. There's. There is a physical process of rewiring your brain, like it's exhausting. You get tired when your dopamine is shot.
Yeah. When your brain is so used to telling you the story on loop. I only have value if I'm doing something. I only have value if I'm productive and achieving. I only have value if I'm beautiful and fantastic, but also people also hate me for being beautiful. This is confusing.
Lauren: Yeah.
Christie: To [00:18:00] catch those stories, sit with them, rewire them, tell yourself news stories, and do that on a repetitive level because it takes many, many times of catching it to really rewire it properly.
I had to take a lot of naps and I grew up in a family where rest was shameful and I was married to someone who would kind of sleep, torture me, not be, you know, supportive of when I was pregnant and when I needed to rest. Would call me lazy if I needed to sleep, would wake me up. And say, what are you doing?
When I was sick and sleeping, it's like, what does it look like I'm doing? And I would have moments of standing up to my, for myself and that person would get scary. So I, I, I'm alone in my home with my children, but sometimes I still feel like someone's coming to get me. Yeah.
And
so learning to like slow down, less is more.
Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. And just give myself some grace because. As much of a rapid transformation as I just painted. I had days where I was crying on the floor, looking at the carpet [00:19:00] fibers, questioning if I even belong on this earth, like having those scary
Lauren: thoughts. I don't mean to laugh, but yes.
It's like the scary thoughts and like, oh my God, what did I, I'm like, I shit the bed of life, it's never going back. I will never be happy again. That's kind of to the point where I got
Christie: Yes, I remember hearing you say that part and those. Those thoughts that you never thought you'd think. And they're scary and they get loud and they're like, you can't come back from this.
What have you done?
Mm-hmm.
Really? You thought you could do this on your own and stand up for yourself? You have really failed yourself, your children. And that's when I saved the shit outta the house and pull out my tarot cards and start. Yeah. You're like, I'm gonna, yeah. I'm just gonna like let the energy go.
Yeah. And yeah, I will say out loud. Very sternly, those voices don't come in as much. Mm-hmm. But back then, I used to like demand that, that energy leave the house. Mm-hmm. I don't know if it was mine. I don't think it was. I, I still believe in angels and demons. I'm not religious. I'm much more spiritual in nature.
I was very religious when as a child. There's a little trauma there [00:20:00] too, but. I felt something move and leave when I would do that. Mm-hmm. It was like a heaviness. I would demand, I would open windows, sage, the house, put salt down, get out all my selenite and like cover my, I have my Moldavite, I'm not wearing it right now.
Yeah. Like you stay away from me, whoever you are. How dare you interrupt my healing process. Mm-hmm.
Lauren: Mm-hmm. We bought this a hundred year old house, outside of Seattle. And again, corporate Lauren was like, it's the same commute into downtown Seattle. I was working at Nordstrom at the time. It's the same commute, really old house.
We had a, a newer, a newer build in West Seattle where we lived. And I walked into this house, we, we did this move completely on a whim, walked into this house and I was like, this house feels good. what is that? This house feels so good. And It was like a circus tent on the inside. These people had no zero understanding of what aesthetic looked like, and I had a vision, like I had a very clear [00:21:00] vision, and my poor husband was like, I have no idea what you think you're doing, but I'll sign my name somewhere.
Sure. So we buy this house. Six months later, I rage quit Nordstrom. We had torn the whole thing apart. Still felt good, like the energy here has still always felt good. Come to find out, it's a house of eight. Now, I am sure that many people listening to this might not know a lot about numerology, but eight has to do, and I always attribute it back to the Zodiac because of my background in.
Astrology, it has to do with car karmic cycles. And like this house, she is here to show me like what I'm actually really, and so it's very interesting that I experienced this whole transformation in these walls that I was so initially attracted to. Mm-hmm. And when you think about your space and you think about the energy in your space, like.
It is part of what creates that safety that I think a lot of us powerhouse women are actually really craving. So I'll transition us kind of to a different topic here, [00:22:00] but I, I think it's really interesting to talk about protecting your energy and protecting your piece because many powerhouse women on the journey of.
finding themselves burnt out or finding themselves in a season of life where they're like, I didn't sign up for this. I don't know how I got here are like, how do I actually create that safety? And for me, it was part of the house. Like she was part of the safety.
Christie: Mm-hmm. and my version of that, I love numerology too.
You and I have so much in common. Anytime I was making a major life choice, because you just heard me say, I cut out so many people. I mean, I counted, I ended. 50 relationships in the last, like three years, four years. But anytime I was handling the grief or like driving, it's always driving in the car where you're just like, what?
What am I doing? Am I on the right path? Am I the toxic one? Am I the narcissist? I would see 4, 4, 4 11. 11. Yeah. Seven, $7 and 77 cents. And so yeah, I got a little like spiritually,
Lauren: OCD
Christie: psychosis [00:23:00] maybe. Yeah. and I love this book. This is the Project 3 6 9 Journal. Yes. I, and they've got this, that book.
Mm-hmm. I turned my whole master bedroom wall. Because I'm healing. I don't need decor yet into a chalkboard. And I would write all my manifestations on it, and I wrote down all the angel signs so that I, and I've memorized them since, but like, it, it has never stopped to like, just make me smile. And I always say thank you out loud when I see it on a license plate, on a billboard.
Lauren: Yeah.
Christie: I say thank you out loud because it always hits me when I'm telling myself a negative story. And I see the number and I'm like, abundance is on the way. We're good. Yeah. Or like, you know, you're on the path. I'm
Lauren: safe. Mm-hmm. It's good. Um, let's talk a little bit about cutting people out of your life, if you're cool with that, because I feel like it's kind of like rage quitting your job right?
The first time is mm-hmm. The scariest. And then after you, get through that. Turmoil. You're like, oh, I could do this. I'm not scared to blow up anything ever again personally. Yeah. I don't know how you feel, but there's not much that I feel [00:24:00] like can actually break me at this point in my life.
I'm not inviting any of that energy in by any stretch of the imagination. But I think what a lot of powerhouse women struggle with, who are looking to really own their value and their understanding of self, sense of self, is that they can't let go of what they have. That, even though it feels like a, that things are built on a house of cards or some ver their version of that, removing themselves feels traumatic.
Mm-hmm. So what's your take on that given the fact that, you know, again, if we think of these structures like our houses and our families, like corporate life, like they're all kind of similar in the, in, in the dynamic of social expectations.
Christie: Mm-hmm. I have a new rule and a new understanding that gives me peace with all of it.
Makes it easy. I don't even have to think about it anymore. my, my number one rule for life that I also teach my children is nobody can tell you that your feelings are wrong or bad.
Mm-hmm. And
that leads into DARVO responses. So when you tell someone, [00:25:00] Hey, like when you're late all the time, it makes me feel kind of bad.
Like I was here on can you try to be on time? Or, Hey, that thing you said in front of everyone, that kind of embarrassed me. I didn't like that. When someone says, and it doesn't matter, even if it's your spouse. When someone says, oh, I didn't mean it that way, or, don't be so sensitive, or, um, it, that didn't even my mom loved this one like that never happened.
DARVO stands for deny, accuse, reverse victim and offender. So it's how you end up apologizing like I used to after someone did you wrong. Mm-hmm. And in my marriage, this happened a lot. So when you try to say and set a boundary, Hey, I didn't like that. If anyone says anything other than, oh my gosh, tell me everything.
Like I, I'm really sorry if they don't own it and get very curious about how to avoid it in the future. They don't. Deserve to have a seat at your table. Mm-hmm. And my new understanding when this happens is if your life experience is a big table, like think of the feast with Jesus. It could have like Yeah.
[00:26:00] People at it. Yeah. Right. Right now I'm in a season where nobody's at my table and I'm just kind of sitting, hanging out by myself. But if you don't clear out space for higher quality connections and people who truly are rooting for you and want to see you win and will be there with you on your darkest days and celebrating with you without envy on your best days, those people can't come in.
If a bunch of losers and schmuck, schmucks are sitting at your table with bad manners and like eating all the food and like leaving nothing for you. A
Lauren: hundred percent.
Christie: You have to trust that process. and it's scary, but like what's scarier? You know, choose your heart is something I say a lot. It's hard to end these relationships, but it's also hard to stay in them and they keep me behind.
So I choose my heart every day. Yeah.
Lauren: Uh, you, it is about choosing your heart, and I compare it to the boardroom of life and business, right? Like you're sitting at the, at the boardroom and you are the chief emotional officer or whatever you wanna call yourself, and you're the one making the decisions.
And for a lot of the women that I feel like I'm in. [00:27:00] This life to, to serve and support. Like they're looking to create the bigger, richer, bolder version of themselves that, you know, there's only a, a certain percent of a percentage of us Christi that are actually gonna take the journey that it sounds like we both have been on.
And that's not to be disrespectful to anyone that isn't curious or like, doesn't feel like they figured it out. I believe that all of us have the capacity to figure that out if we're willing to put in the work, if we're willing to take the scary steps. Mm-hmm. and. It, you know, some of us do it from a place of crisis and survival.
For me, that's what a lot of that was. speaking kind of back to the family structure and even, I think, you know, when we talk about corporate America, like you can't hold your coworkers accountable for their shitty feelings and their shitty, you know, they're shitty behavior. Like they're gonna do what they're gonna do.
And unfortunately that. Carves out in the corporate structure and dynamic, like your own trauma response. Like I'm [00:28:00] a big believer that everybody's carrying their trauma response through the hallways of corporate life and nobody's actually talking about it.
Christie: Like the guy with the $98 million salary, who thinks that that's okay.
Like, duh. He must have been so neglected as a child. Mm-hmm. Or pushed so hard. That is his way of feeling, seen, seeing, saying, I told you so. Look at me. Meanwhile, there's a trail of metaphorical dead bodies behind him because he hasn't reconciled what happened to him as a child.
Lauren: Yeah, I, I'm totally, I'm totally with you.
And when you find yourselves in those situations and you're having to make the hard truth, like I am always here to be like. Make the hard leap, do the thing. It will work out. Like I didn't believe in anything. And yeah, it was tough. I'm not gonna say it wasn't tough. Like I'm not saying you're not gonna set yourself up for a really hard conversation.
I think you called it a wormhole. And I love that 'cause it is like that whole like, oh my God, where am I going? What am I doing? What end is up? But the powerhouse women are the ones that are gonna survive it.
Christie: Yes. And I'll, I'll just say there was a version of [00:29:00] me who wasn't ready in survival mode with a newborn and a toddler married to an alcoholic.
I wasn't ready to get divorced. I had to get my son potty trained so that he could speak English enough to know that mommy wasn't going away forever, you know? Mm-hmm. Like we do share custody still. so when you're ready, you're ready. But also you're never gonna be ready. So when you're ready enough, go through the wormhole because the universe rewards action.
Yeah. You don't get to know what happens. 17 steps ahead. Yeah, so don't get stuck like, well, where am I gonna live? Who will I be married to one day, whether it's divorce or quitting a job? Where am I gonna work? How am I gonna make money? You don't get to know that information. This is like a matrix video game that's super adorable and actually very easy to play.
Choose yourself.
Lauren: I love that analogy. Uhhuh.
Christie: Take a step forward and a new rock will light up for you to step on. It's scary 'cause you don't know what's around you and it feels like you're gonna fall. Take another step. Another one will appear. Choose yourself. And I swear you've experienced this too.
You're having success with this [00:30:00] show. It's, it's a wonderful show that's already helping me and transforming lives. You have people writing in, you didn't know what this was gonna look like. You just started. I just started. Yeah. And you have to get out of toxic situations and away from toxic people to think clearly enough to even figure out what your one next step is.
Like people say like, I don't, I don't, I can't get divorced. I don't, I don't know, la, la, la. I don't. I don't know. I don't know. And it's , you just gotta get away from them. That's step one. Yeah. That's when the universe will reward you with what's next.
Lauren: I Amen to all the things. And I have started, probably about three years ago using my future self as my ultimate guru.
She has done everything and accomplished everything that I desire. And when I think about the industry that I'm in of coaching and success in life and subconscious reprogramming, and you think about using her as your guide instead of somebody that you're just trying to go find an answer from, like the whole conversation.
[00:31:00] Changes. Yeah. And to me, like even in the corporate setting, the same can be true. Like it's never going to stay the same. Your life is never going to stay in this beautiful little box that you think it's in, whether it's tattered and torn, or whether it's, exactly what you feel like you've created.
I feel like it's the former, given the context of the show here, but. I want a lot of powerhouse women to know that they've already created a beautiful life, like they've already done it and in fact it probably looks amazing on a Christmas card or on social media. And what they're actually really craving is that magical part that you just alluded to of like, 'cause they're seeing it in other women, right?
They're seeing it in women like us that they're like, I want what she has. But it's like that's in you too. Be because you can see it in us. It lives in you too. Yeah. And it is the practice of stepping into that trust that you and future you know best to move [00:32:00] you from where you're at, to where you desire to be, and you can't let your conscious mind get so wrapped up in trying to solve and logic all the problems.
That's that high achiever trauma response of , I have to control. A to Z in order for this to work out, it's actually surrendering that control that gives you the magic that you're looking for.
Christie: 100%. Lauren, you want it so bad because future you already has it. So just ease into going to go get it.
Lauren: Yeah, and this is where subconscious change work and the Joe Disp spends a part of life like really changed. What's possible for me and why I do the work that I do is because your model of the world is what actually creates. What's possible for you and at the subconscious level when you can get in there and make the change without having to relive all the trauma.
Because as you know, Christie, like you don't wanna go through all the things again, like you don't wanna go, like you're going to therapy and talking it out for the 14th time and feeling the same way at the end of the session. Mm-hmm. The [00:33:00] subconscious work is actually where those upgrades can feel really natural.
Christie, tell us who corporate Christie is and how you infuse her in all the work that you do with corporations.
Christie: corporate Christie is my higher self.
She doesn't tolerate BS. Corporate Christi is a persona I created to survive many years ago, and now it's become my business that I, I use satire to educate people on why corporate's busted. But it's expanded into why your marriage is busted, why your mom is a jerk, and you gotta get away from her. How to heal your inner child and do the, it's become like a healing persona.
Like she, she does not care who's feeling she hurts because she mm-hmm. Put herself first. So you can find a lot of my thought leadership on TikTok actually. But LinkedIn is starting to be more, I'm very corporate focused, but I'm also talking about, hey, if your marriage has fallen into shit, you're not alone.
It's okay. Mine did too. yeah. What really led to all of this is I used to host an HR podcast called [00:34:00] Flip-Flops and People Ops. So if you work in hr, that's something you'd really enjoy. And what's funny is I had no HR background. I was the disengaged employee and I convinced this company to let me host this show.
and now I host corporate Christie, which, I've used all my knowledge and research. I became obsessed with why does work suck? Leaned really hard into Gallup and, all this data in my own lived experience to create my own frameworks, which are available on my website to when to send the right employee surveys, how to, get employees to take them honestly, what to do with the dumpster fire when it comes back, and how to influence executives and everyone who holds the.
The, the budgets to make investments and convince them that this is the best path to revenue. a lot of my content is very confidence focused and influence in psychology is woven into everything I teach you. So I have a bunch of cheat sheets and templates of all kinds to persuade your way to a bigger salary and just be an advocate for yourself so that you can, do the right thing at work.[00:35:00]
And keep your mm-hmm. Keep yourself sane in the process and not have to read dark psychology to get your way.
Lauren: Yeah. Or blow all your shit up. Yeah. What I've recognized is your nervous system. Like that's what actually happened. You go through the identity crisis Yes. When you blow it up. Right. Like, and I didn't recognize that as I was going through it.
but that's where you can make change now using some of these techniques, these psychologically based techniques. In a way that feels a little bit more natural and a little less scary. Mm-hmm. Sometimes you have to blow it up. You permission to blow it up if you need to.
Christie: Yes, yes. and if it's okay, I, I forgot half of what else I offer, so I also do public speaking.
Great. So if an organization needs someone to come in and, and get everyone excited again about the work, I also do post acquisition pep rallies to be like, what the heck was that? You just smashed your companies together and we have a lot of fun. and I also wrote a book called, What's it called?
'cause I just wrote it. I never stopped working. You, you probably, I hear that about you. It's called the Family Cycle Breaker. I really went deep and, and went explained DARVO and what no [00:36:00] contact was like for me. So if anyone's considering setting boundaries, these holidays coming up or ever with your mother?
the Family Cycle Breaker book is available on my website and it's a really quick read, written, just the way I talk. If you like the way I talk, you'd like the book. Yeah, I love that. It's a helpful resource that I think a lot of people are loving because they're telling me they are. I will
Lauren: definitely go by that because,making the choice to go no contact is the hardest decision. It's like leaving your job.
It's like leaving your multiple six figure job and choosing what's best for you. Yeah, like it is one of the hardest decision. It is not something you just wake up and go, oh, I'm gonna do that today. It's like you have to go through so many cycles of abuse before you find your soul finally says, oh my God, I can't take anymore.
Christie: Yes. And people really judge that decision. You only get one mom. You only get one dad. I didn't go to my brother's funeral. I couldn't be around my family. He was already dead. I love that brother. We were very close. I, I didn't go to his funeral because I didn't wanna be around those people. I was already no contact with them.
So don't let anyone ever judge.
I do think it, [00:37:00] it comes down to judgment and perception, and I believe powerhouse women think that there's a certain standard that needs to be kept in order for us to maintain this.
Lauren: False persona of success. And because of that, we're willing to settle for things much lower than the standard of what we deserve or have actually given to other people. And, , when we start breaking those molds, like it does feel a little wobbly, it does feel a little worm holey, and it is all for your highest good. Like it is all for like that best future version of us. And that's why I say like, what is best for you is best for the entire universe. Yeah. And I, I will stand by that statement until the day I die because I believe that the highest timeline that we choose for ourselves in pursuit of our future self.
Yeah, it is truly where our life destiny, satisfaction, purpose, fulfillment, meaning like it all comes together so beautifully.
Christie: A hundred percent. And go find some high achieving good quality [00:38:00] female friends because we've been kept, modern societies kept us so siloed in these modern expectations of doing everything in the invisible labor.
The men are having a massive ego death. They are, the women are kind of ahead of everyone in this spiritual, oh my God, what have I been tolerating? So the men are kind of lagging behind. I'm gonna speak in generalizations. Yeah. But women are having this, this big spiritual awakening and I'm so proud of all of us.
And the more you can find other good women to build you up and to clinging to. Women belong together. We do not belong in our homes alone with our husband and kids where we can't talk to anyone and we can't have community. It's just very unnatural.
Lauren: A hundred percent. I couldn't agree more.
And my last question for you, Christie, is, what is your message to powerhouse women that are going through it and looking for the other side? Mm-hmm. And like, what's the real lesson here in our conversation? If you could distill it down to a quick statement,
Christie: I think hold your ground. Say what you mean and believe people when they show you exactly [00:39:00] who they are and have no mercy when it comes to asking people to get up from your table.
Lauren: Yeah, I love the Tupac, analogy. I've used that a lot too, of not at my table. Yeah. And I, I don't know about you, but I was raised in a like very cut people off, removing all empathy for people's humanity essentially. And in this season of growth that I have been through, I, I can actually now like with compassion and love.
Be like, you're not for me. Mm-hmm. You're not for me right now. And that feels like freedom because we don't need to be holding resentment about who we're letting go of, including our corporate jobs or our corporate coworkers. Like whatever it is. There's something about that that just feels like a level of success that most people don't know, because a lot of us just want to cut each other off and be like, F off, like, I'm done with you, right?
Christie: Mm-hmm. I think it comes with experience too. So anyone listening who's like in their twenties and they're like, I don't have the, the balls to do this now, but, if something feels off, [00:40:00] you're at least feeling your intuition. That's step one.
My intuition has never been wrong. If something feels off, it's because it is, women are so incredible with our intuition and our ability to feel the situation as it's unfolding. So just keep tuning into your intuition and trust it. If you're not ready to act on it, that comes with age. 'cause you just get so fed up with people's bullshit as you get older that it gets easier.
Okay. It's
Lauren: so true. It's so true. On that note. , Christie, so wonderful to have you. Thank you for your time today. Thank you for sharing your powerhouse story and I look forward to having you back sometime soon 'cause we have hours more of conversation to get through.
Christie: Where do you live? 'cause we need to hang out in person. We need to pull some tarot cards and go knock on the Starbucks door and be like back up. We do. We do, we do. Thank you for having me on. This was. a ton of fun,
what I love about Christie's story is how unapologetically human she is. She reminds us that power isn't just about the comeback, it's about the courage to walk away, to stand your [00:41:00] ground, and to rebuild a version of yourself that actually feels free, because when you start choosing peace over performance and boundaries over burnout, you don't lose your edge, you find your truth. If you loved this conversation, go follow Christie at corporate Christie on TikTok and LinkedIn and check out her book The Family Cycle Breaker. I've linked it below, especially if you're ready to stop repeating patterns that no longer serve you.
And if today's conversation lit something up in you, come join me inside Pivot Club where powerhouse women like you are rewriting what success, safety, and self-worth look like in real time. That's also linked down in the show notes. Until next time, protect your peace, trust your power, and remember how you see your value and how you choose your own freedom is your legacy. I'll see you next week.
