Most leaders aren’t burnt out.

They’re functioning.

Delivering. Growing. Carrying.

But underneath that capability, there can be a constant mental load — an invisible weight of control, responsibility, and inner management that never quite switches off.

In this episode of Quality of Mind: Transforming Business, Piers is joined by Nicola Merritt, Founder and CEO of a 60-person M&A advisory firm.

On paper, things were working.

But internally, leadership felt heavier than it needed to.

This conversation isn’t about tactics, resilience strategies, or productivity systems.

It’s about what changed when Nicola began to see the source of her mental load differently — not at the level of behaviour, but at the level of understanding.

• Why high-performing leaders often create unnecessary psychological pressure

• The difference between confidence and deeper self-assurance

• How control subtly becomes exhausting

• What happens when the need to constantly manage thinking begins to drop

• Why clarity doesn’t need to be manufactured

• The shift from striving to something more sustainable

• How leadership matures when mental noise settles

Nicola didn’t lose ambition.

She didn’t reduce standards.

She didn’t step back from responsibility.

What shifted was her relationship with pressure amd clarity.

The constant mental overdrive softened.

She moved to a four-day week.

She switched off her phone on holiday.

She describes finding peace not only in stillness — but in the middle of business noise.

Not because circumstances changed.

Because understanding did.

This episode will resonate if you:

• Lead a growing organisation

• Feel the invisible weight of responsibility

• Are successful but quietly tired of the mental grind

• Have tried systems, structures, and optimisation — but sense something deeper is missing

Quality of Mind doesn’t offer tools to manage your psychology.

It points to what sits before it. What we describe as Before Psychology

And when that is seen clearly, leadership often becomes lighter — without becoming weaker.

• You can find out more about Nicola here. And her business Cortus here
• Explore all things Quality of Mind www.qualityofmind.biz

• 3-minute Quality of Mind Quiz

• Audio Intro Short Course

• YouTube Explainer — What is Before Psychology?

• Watch past clients talk about the power of Quality of Mind here
• Follow Piers on LinkedIn for regular posts and reflections

• Subscribe to our YouTube channel for quick, powerful insight videos

• TASTE THE MANGO YouTube and Sub stack all about Direct Inquiry, Explore for yourself

Most personal development delivers a breakthrough high.

A lift. A sense of clarity. A feeling that something important has shifted.

And then… it fades.

In this episode Piers is joined by Cassie, who is a leader at Shell in Incident Mmanagement for a testimonial conversation recorded over two years after she attended the Quality of Mind Three-Day Open Programme.

This is not a reflection on what felt good at the time.

It’s an honest exploration of what lasted.

Cassie shares how her understanding of Quality of Mind didn’t wear off, didn’t require maintaining, and didn’t depend on tools, techniques, or habits to keep it alive. In fact, she describes how it has continued to deepen naturally, long after the programme ended.

This episode goes beyond the usual “breakthrough moment” and looks at what happens when when meta-realisation have no half-life.

• Why many mindset, performance, and wellbeing approaches fade over time

• What’s different when change comes from understanding rather than effort

• How clarity, lightness, and spaciousness emerge without self-management

• Why Quality of Mind isn’t about fixing yourself or becoming better

• How relationships change when you see others as shaped by experience, not character

• What it’s like to live and work without constant inner commentary

• Why this understanding continues to work because there’s nothing to maintain

Cassie didn’t come to the programme because something was broken. She came out of curiosity.

What followed wasn’t a technique to apply or a state to chase, but a fundamental shift in how she understands thinking, emotion, pressure, and experience itself.

Two years on, she describes a Quality of Mind that hasn’t diminished with time, hasn’t required reinforcement, and hasn’t relied on discipline or practice to survive.

As she puts it simply in the conversation:

“It hasn’t worn off. It doesn’t have a half-life.”

• Leaders and professionals who’ve tried mindset or performance tools before

• People who sense there’s nothing wrong with them, but still feel unnecessary strain

• Those tired of managing their mind instead of understanding it

• Anyone curious about change that lasts without effort

This is not a promise of constant positivity or a life without challenge.

It’s a real-world account of what happens when the misunderstanding that creates mental noise quietly falls away.

If this conversation resonates, you’re invited to explore further

🔗 Learn more about Quality of Mind and the Three-Day Open Programme at qualityofmind.biz

• Explore Find all things Quality of Mind www.qualityofmind.biz

• 3-minute Quality of Mind Quiz

• Audio Intro Short Course https://qualityofmind.online/courses/qomaudiointrocourse/

• YouTube Explainer — What is Before Psychology?

• Watch past clients talk about the power of Quality of Mind here
• Follow Piers on LinkedIn for regular posts and reflections

• Subscribe to our YouTube channel for quick, powerful insight videos

• TASTE THE MANGO YouTube and Sub stack all about Direct Inquiry, Explore for yourself

Most people assume that if life isn’t working, they need to try harder, think better, or fix something about themselves.

But what if the opposite is true?

In this episode of the Quality of Mind podcast, Piers Thurston is joined by entrepreneur and author James Eder, whose has been shaped by a sequence of opportunities, connections, and breakthroughs that seem to arrive when he’s not forcing them. As you listen just notice when something feels lighter — and when it feels effortful. That contrast is the point. In James new book the Collision Code he recounters his stories of finding himself in moments of clarity, flow, and serendipity — often without trying to make them happen.

Together, Piers and James explore:

• Why intuition feels obvious after the fact but hard to trust in the moment

• How effort and over-thinking quietly block clarity and momentum

• The difference between being committed to life and being attached to outcomes

• Why some experiences feel overwhelming at the time, yet trivial in hindsight

• How recognition changes experience more than understanding ever could

This is not a “how-to” episode. It’s an invitation to notice something you may already recognise in your own life — the moments when things worked best before you stepped in to manage them.

If you’re curious about performance, leadership, wellbeing, or decision-making — and you’re tired of hacks and techniques — this conversation offers a different place to look.

Rather than analysing this intellectually, the conversation invites listeners to notice the difference between effort and ease in their own experience — and what changes when the mind stops interfering.

It’s an exploration of something many people already sense — but rarely trust.

About the guest: James Eder is an entrepreneur and the author of The Collision Code, a book exploring serendipity, connection, and the surprising role other people play in shaping our lives. Proceeds from the book support charitable causes.

• Find Out More About James Here on Linkedin or his website here

• And his latest for Charity Book The Collision Code

• Explore Find all things Quality of Mind www.qualityofmind.biz

• 3-minute Quality of Mind Quiz

• Audio Intro Short Course https://qualityofmind.online/courses/qomaudiointrocourse/

• YouTube Explainer — What is Before Psychology?

• Watch past clients talk about the power of Quality of Mind here

• Follow Piers on LinkedIn for regular posts and reflections

• Subscribe to our YouTube channel for quick, powerful insight videos

• TASTE THE MANGO YouTube and Sub stack all about Direct Inquiry, Explore for yourself