imPERFECT: Better After Broken, with hosts Jeff Servello & Susan Hendrich.
Welcome to the premiere episode of the new radio podcast, imPERFECT: Better After Broken. Join us Sundays at 6 pm ET on Sandcastle Radio, America’s Hottest Online Variety & Music Station.
Hosts Jeff Servello and Dr. Susan Hendrich share raw stories of repair, resilience, and what it takes to rebuild stronger. This is a conversation about breaking, healing, and coming back with more clarity, more courage, and more purpose.
Sometimes the break is the breakthrough. And, your best may still be ahead.
Join us on Human Being with Dr. Susan, available LIVE on Saturdays at 10 am ET on Sandcastle Radio – America’s Hottest Online Variety and Music Station. Recordings available on all podcast platforms and socials.
Tony Robbins said, “We do not change until the pain of staying the same is greater than the change itself.” Learn how to prepare for, experiment, make, and sustain meaningful change in your life.
Susan is a dynamic leadership coach, psychologist, and speaker. As host of “Human Being with Dr. Susan,” both in radio and television, she brings energy and experience to the airwaves, exploring what it means to thrive in the modern world.
Susan has a distinguished career guiding high-performing teams and facilitating organizational innovation. Her work focuses on maximizing human potential and creating environments where individuals and teams can succeed.
With a doctorate in Clinical Psychology, Susan’s insights are grounded in deep understanding of human behavior and psychology. She has served as a clinical supervisor and faculty coordinator for the nation’s oldest APA-approved psychology training consortium. Susan was an invited speaker at the World Congress on Mental Health. She’s led thousands of leaders to unlock potential through the power of authentic courage.
Susan is an avid photographer, painter, and genealogist.
When you feel stuck, it’s rarely because you lack options. It’s because your nervous system is running the show.
That’s where the mental Pause Button comes in.
Think of the mental pause Button as a built-in pattern interrupter—a way to stop the stress loop, create space, and choose a better response. Not later. In the moment.
The Pause Button isn’t about calming down for calm’s sake. It’s about regaining agency.
When you hit an internal wall and don’t know what to do next, the Button helps you shift energy, interrupt autopilot, and move forward differently.
The Pause Button Method (3 Simple Steps)
Step 1: Install the Button
Close your eyes for 10 seconds and imagine installing a physical pause button in your mind.
Make it yours:
Big or small
Blue, gold, red, sparkly
Subtle or bold
The design doesn’t matter. The function does.
This button exists for one reason: to interrupt a stuck pattern.
Step 2: Assign It a Job
Your Button’s job is to stop emotional autopilot—fear, frustration, irritation, reactivity.
When you press it:
Emotions don’t disappear
They simply stop driving
You create a gap—and in that gap lives choice, perspective, and agility.
This is the moment you remember:
I’m not stuck. I can pivot.
Step 3: Pair It with New Language
Agility isn’t activated by force. It’s activated by reframing.
Every time you press your Button, say this—out loud or silently:
“If this moment isn’t working, I’m allowed to change it.”
That one sentence gives you permission to pivot:
Mentally
Emotionally
Strategically
Now you’re back in the driver’s seat.
What Happens After You Pause
Once the stuck pattern is interrupted, ask better questions:
What else could be true?
What’s the next right move, not the perfect one?
Where is the opportunity inside this friction?
What version of me do I want leading right now?
If this were a chapter in my story, how do I want it to end?
You’re not rewriting the past. You’re rewriting your response.
And that’s where leaders grow.
Stuckness wants you to believe there’s only one ending. Agility reminds you: you’re the author, not the character.
So the next time you feel stuck— Press the Button. Pause the pattern. Choose differently.
People experience different emotions when faced with change. Change can be viewed as a grieving process of sorts. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross described five stages of grief in her seminal work, ‘On Death and Dying’ in 1969.
The five stages include:
Denial
Anger
Bargaining
Depression
Acceptance (+ Moving On)
Kubler-Ross described the experiences of terminally ill patients and the psychological stages they go through when coming to terms with their condition. Her work on grieving process can be adapted to help us understand that individuals go through these same stages when faced with any big change, including changes at work.
Different Faces – Different Paces
Different people move through the stages at different speeds, and there may be some overlap between the stages. It is important for leaders to recognize this individual process. A person’s history, the organization’s history, the type of change and the consequence of change also impact an individual’s response to change and movement through the stages.
How Can Leaders Help Throughout The Stages?
Shock / Denial
Start communicating that there is a change early on. This minimizes the ‘Shock/Denial’ phase, as people will have begun to see that there is a need for change, even if they are unaware of the form that it will take.
When the change initiative is announced, give reasons that reduce complacency and highlight a need for change. Communicate in a way that is clear and touches people emotionally, not just with loads of data. Fully communicate the end vision of the change and what your intentions are.
Don’t try too hard to sell people on the idea that things are better for them; they are not ready to hear this.
Anger
Practice patience and empathy, and don’t try to suppress conflict. Provide a verbal outlet for people to vent their upset feelings. When leaders provide opportunities for grievances and frustrations to be aired constructively, bitterness and frustration can be diminished.
Although people will be angry that doesn’t mean that what they say has no value, they may have legitimate concerns that could affect the success of the change initiative.
Remember that most likely, people are not attacking you personally. Remain calm and patient.
Often leaders have been made aware of a change initiative long before their teams, so although they may be at later stages (eg, be at “Acceptance/Moving on” while general staff are still at “Shock/Denial”). Exercise patience.
Bargaining
When people start trying to bargain, ask them to give the new dispensation a chance. A lot of bargaining is done while people are still angry. Once the anger dissipates, so does much of the bargaining.
Acceptance
Help people acknowledge that it is the end of an era, support them in their new roles and encourage them to take responsibility. Set goals with them of which they can take ownership.
Continue your role as a sounding board for complaints and questions. Ask ‘How do you feel about this?’ to understand individuals’ emotional state.
Begin to stress the benefits of the new situation and how it can work for the individual.
If new teams were formed, provide help with group dynamics. People are generally less concerned with the tasks they are given than how they fit into a new group.
Plan for some early successes for the change initiative and then communicate them loudly. Once people can see that it is working then they will be less skeptical and more positive about the change.
Make sure the necessary resources are available for them to succeed, be it equipment or training or just coaching and guidance.
Moving On
Empower individuals to take the ball and run with it. Let them find ways of using the new set up to create stretch goals and encourage them to push performance.
Let employees innovate and take risks within the new set-up. Let them not only see ways of making the new system work in their favor but put those into practice.
For the individuals who really are taking the ball and running with it, reward them and promote them. Use them to show others what is possible. Having a fellow colleague really driving performance forward using the changes is worth far more than managers telling people things are/will be better. Once people can see it working for a colleague they will be far more receptive to the change.
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Your turn:
What “stage” of change are you leading through right now?
Susan E. Hendrich 