Turning Anxiety Into Your Growth Edge with Whitney Johnson

The Anxious Achiever

Morra Aarons-Mele

Careers, Management, Mental Health, Business, Health & Fitness

4.7 • 600 Ratings

🗓️ 4 September 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Anxiety doesn’t have to be the thing that holds you back, it can actually be the spark that pushes you forward. In this episode, I sit down with Whitney Johnson, one of the world’s leading experts on personal disruption, to talk about what it really means to disrupt yourself and why growth often comes with discomfort, fear, and uncertainty. Whitney opens up about her leap from Wall Street, building a new identity, the lessons she’s learned as a mother and entrepreneur, and the daily practices that help her stay grounded. She also shares the question to ask yourself when anxiety kicks in, why you sometimes quit or avoid opportunities out of fear, and the exact strategies she uses to handle anxiety instead of running from it. Get ready to grow, no matter where you’re starting from. Highlights 00:00 Meet Whitney Johnson, CEO of Disruption Advisors. 03:30 The privilege of dreaming and why so many people hold back. 05:00 Leaving Wall Street, parenting, and finding a new work-life fit. 07:45 What is disrupting yourself? 12:45 Is anxiety fueling your work ethic or running your life? 17:30 Whitney’s way of breaking the avoidance loop. 19:30 How anxiety shows up in your career and inbox. 23:30 How do you handle the anxiety of leaving a steady job to go out on your own? 27:30 Ways to find strength when anxiety holds you back. 31:00 Why growth is your default setting (and proof change is always possible). 32:45 Whitney’s hack for stopping the anxious cycle. Resources + Links Get a copy of my book - The Anxious Achiever Learn more about Whitney Johnson and Disruption Advisors HERE Find more resources on our website morraam.com Follow Follow me: on LinkedIn @morraaronsmele + Instagram @morraam Follow Whitney: @johnsonwhitney

Transcript

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0:00.0	When you disrupt yourselves, you are stepping back from who you are today to slingshot into who you want to be.
0:15.7	I'm Maura Erin's Mealy, and this is the anxious achiever, the show that looks at the intersection of mental
0:22.2	health and leadership and work and asks, how can we do it all better? I'm recording this on my
0:30.3	49th birthday. And I'm in the process of disrupting myself. And so today I bring you a conversation with one of the world's
0:39.8	leading experts on change and personal disruption, Whitney Johnson. That is her quote you heard
0:46.6	at the top. You know, it's been an anxious summer for a lot of us. I am coming to you today as an independent podcaster.
0:57.4	You know, when I launched this show, it was under the auspices of Harvard Business Review.
1:01.9	And then we went over to LinkedIn, who was a great sponsor for four years. And now we're on our own.
1:07.8	There's going to be some really cool changes coming to the anxious achiever in the next few months.
1:13.1	And I'm excited to sort of enter this new chapter with you. But I feel anxious. Of course I feel anxious.
1:21.5	Johnson, an iconic expert on disruptive innovation, right, says that she feels anxiety too, because when we change
1:30.7	and take risks, we feel anxious, right? But Johnson says, and I agree, anxiety can be a gift that
1:38.3	forces us to do the work of changing, to constantly question ourselves on what we stand for and to try to live our values.
1:46.9	The key question Whitney Johnson asks herself is, am I letting my anxiety control me by acting out
1:54.8	an anxious behavior when in my heart, I know I want to do something else. Am I avoiding change
2:00.6	by acting out anxiety?
2:03.0	It's a great conversation. We dive into our personal stories and the journey of disruption.
2:08.8	So enjoy my conversation with Whitney Johnson. I was reflecting, you and I have known each other
2:15.2	a long time. When we met, you had just left New York City.
2:20.0	You had, I think, recently left Wall Street and were working for Clayton Christensen.
2:27.0	And you had a vision for your life.
2:30.5	I'm just curious, like looking back on that 15 years, from my perspective, like, you totally did it.
	...

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