06/11/2026
About Jody Brooks
From the outside, I looked like I had it all together.
A solid career in international education. Senior leadership roles. An award-winning business owner. A reputation for getting results, no matter how complex the environment. But on the inside, I was burning out — and I'd been burning out for years. Chronic stress, people-pleasing, and living out of alignment with my values had left me exhausted, anxious, and quietly wondering who I actually was and what my life was even for. That tension eventually pushed me to the edge of my mental health: severe anxiety, depression, and suicidal thinking, where continuing felt almost impossible.
I don't talk about burnout and mental health as an expert looking in from the outside. I talk about it as someone who's been there. With the support of others and a commitment to deep inner work, I slowly rebuilt my life from the inside out. I started asking different questions: What if my worth isn't tied to my productivity? What if success includes my wellbeing? What would it mean to live in alignment with my values, not just my job title? Those questions became the foundation of the work I do today.
But the roots of my burnout ran deeper than work. Like so many people, I was carrying the weight of childhood trauma — patterns, beliefs, and wounds I didn't even know were shaping my choices. I was also navigating my sexuality in a world that made it hard to be honest about who I really was. And beneath it all was a depression I'd learned to function through, to mask, to push past. For years, I thought that if I just worked harder, achieved more, and stayed busy enough, I could outrun it all. I couldn't.
My professional journey has taken me everywhere — from managing national education programmes overseas to building and running my own award-winning business. I'm also a sustainability expert and a speaker for the United Nations on business sustainability, bringing a long-term, values-driven mindset to everything I do. In every context, I kept seeing the same pattern: good people struggling in systems that didn't understand burnout, overwhelm, or the quiet cost of pretending to be "fine" when everything inside was falling apart. I watched colleagues, friends, and clients slowly shut down, lose their sense of identity, or walk away from lives they once loved — simply because they lacked the tools or support to navigate the pressure they faced.
If your listeners are dealing with stress, burnout, loss of identity, intrusive thoughts, or the sense that they're meant for something more but don't know where to start, I bring a grounded, hopeful perspective. I believe that no experience is wasted when we use it to grow in awareness, integrity, and compassion — and that we can all redesign the way we live. My goal in every interview is simple: to help people feel less alone, more honest, and more empowered to live a life that feels like theirs.
� New to streaming or looking to level up? Check out StreamYard and get $10 discount! �
