About
What if the struggles you face at work - the exhaustion, the people-pleasing, the feeling that you can't truly be yourself are actually rooted in experiences that started long before you ever set foot in an office? In this episode, hosts Rane and Jo Stewart sit down with Rita Mercer for an honest, warm, and deeply practical conversation about building a healthier relationship with work, yourself, and the systems around you.
Rita Mercer is an author, speaker, mentor, college professor, licensed professional counselor, holistic wellness and mindset coach, Christian minister, and host of the Daring Well podcast. She brings nearly a decade in mental health and wellness alongside over two decades in business, organisational leadership, and human resources. That combination gives her a truly rare perspective on why people struggle at work and what they can actually do about it. Growing up in poverty in Southern Kentucky and navigating systemic racism as a Black woman in corporate America, Rita has transformed her lived experiences into what she calls her "superpower" - the ability to quickly spot broken systems and help people heal from them.
The conversation covers a lot of ground, including how to show up authentically at work without hiding behind a professional mask, navigating race, gender, and systemic inequity in the workplace, and knowing when to push through versus when it's time to leave a toxic job. Rita shares her practical framework for job searching with grace (yes, even when your current job is terrible), how to build meaningful mentorship relationships with clear boundaries, and why people-pleasing is really about a deeper need for control and safety. There's also a brilliant discussion on Australia's "right to disconnect" law, the reality of burnout, and why real self-care has nothing to do with bubble baths.
Links
Daring Well Podcast: https://www.daringwell.com/
Eight Limbs of Aerial Yoga Book: https://eightlimbsofaerialyoga.com
Rita Mercer is an author, speaker, mentor, college professor, licensed professional counselor, holistic wellness and mindset coach, Christian minister, and host of the Daring Well podcast. She brings nearly a decade in mental health and wellness alongside over two decades in business, organisational leadership, and human resources. That combination gives her a truly rare perspective on why people struggle at work and what they can actually do about it. Growing up in poverty in Southern Kentucky and navigating systemic racism as a Black woman in corporate America, Rita has transformed her lived experiences into what she calls her "superpower" - the ability to quickly spot broken systems and help people heal from them.
The conversation covers a lot of ground, including how to show up authentically at work without hiding behind a professional mask, navigating race, gender, and systemic inequity in the workplace, and knowing when to push through versus when it's time to leave a toxic job. Rita shares her practical framework for job searching with grace (yes, even when your current job is terrible), how to build meaningful mentorship relationships with clear boundaries, and why people-pleasing is really about a deeper need for control and safety. There's also a brilliant discussion on Australia's "right to disconnect" law, the reality of burnout, and why real self-care has nothing to do with bubble baths.
Links
Daring Well Podcast: https://www.daringwell.com/
Eight Limbs of Aerial Yoga Book: https://eightlimbsofaerialyoga.com