Grit & Wonder

#2 Im Gespräch mit Anna Riess: mit den Händen Geschichten formen

In dieser Folge bin ich On the Mics mit der fabelhaften Anna Riess: einer Wiener Künstlerin, die Kunst, Handwerk und Design auf einzigartige Weise verbindet. Ihre Arbeiten aus Keramik, Textil und Metall sind nicht nur Objekte – sie erzählen Geschichten.
Wir sprechen über:

Wie Architektur, Poesie und Mutterschaft Annas künstlerische Stimme prägen

Die Spannung zwischen Funktionalität und Kunst – kann ein Objekt beides erfüllen?
Wie schöpferische Tätigkeit eine Form des Sense-Making und sich Verortens in der Welt sein kann
Selbstständigkeit, kreative Routinen und das „Lustprinzip“ (aka: Schaffen, was dich wirklich begeistert)

Wie man mit Kritik umgeht und seiner Intuition vertraut

Mehr zu Anna:
→ Website: www.annariess.com
→ Instagram: @riessannariess → Clayground Retreat

#1 A Fresh Beginning & Feeling Seen

You’re creating, you’re sharing, you’re putting yourself out there—so why does it sometimes feel like the attention you get just bounces off? Why do we crave being seen but struggle to feel it when it actually happens?
This episode is NOT about how to be seen (spoiler: you’re already doing that). It’s about the deeper, trickier part—letting it in.
🌀 Do you allow the love and recognition you receive to really sink in?⚡ What happens when people react to your work? (For REAL, though.)🪞 Are you too busy shaping your impact to actually experience it?🌊 What if being seen isn’t just about you—but about the ripples you create?
I’m diving into all the messy, human emotions that come with being witnessed, and sharing what I’m learning (in real-time) about receiving, listening, and trusting the power we already have.If you want to get in touch: mirjam@soegner.com

Grit & Wonder - Trailer

Welcome to the Grit & Wonder Podcast, where we explore the alchemy of creation. Whether you’re an artist or working in the corporate world, we all share the same desire: to create something meaningful, impactful, touching. Something that reminds us of our humanity.  Hosted by artist and business consultant Mirjam Sögner, this show delves into the magic that happens when spark and vision are paired with discipline and strucutre.In each episode, we dive into ways of how to master the powerful balance between grit— the resilience to follow through —and wonder—the spark of creativity and intuition that breath life into any project. Through intimate conversations with leaders, artists, and innovators from both creative and corporate worlds, we uncover the mindset, strategies, and personal journeys behind making something truly extraordinary come to life.

#33 Why your Least Favorite Emotion is Probably Ruling your Life

For all of us it is a different one.
That most feared, unwanted, gut-wrenching emotion. 
To be clear - there is a huge variety of feelings that no one would consider pleasurable. And most of us would rather not feel any of them.
 I even like to think that its a 50/50 cake: and half of our human experience is constituted by countless shades of "uncomfortable".
 
But there is this ONE feeling that you try to avoid at ALL COST! 
Most of the time we are not even aware of our utter disgust of that particular emotion coz our unconscious mind makes a huge effort to push its mere existence to the edge of perceptibility!That could be anything from boredom, to loneliness, to anger or anxiety…
For me it is disappointment actually. 
And in this weeks episode I will let you in on all the tricky methods our brains apply so we never EVER have to it! 
And that is exactly how our most unwanted feeling is in fact, indirectly running the show. 

For any inquires to coach with Mirjam, questions and comments reach out to: mirjam@soegner.com Find me on instagram @school_of_impact Or book a consult HERE. 


#32 Uniqueness - Blessing or Curse?

I am sure you have also already hit your head at one of the million metaphorical, flashing billboards that yell at you how important it is to carve out YOUR space, corner or niche as an entrepreneur or freelancer. Endless claims are made about what is the best way to set yourself apart from the masses. In this weeks episode I wanna real-talk to you though about how leaning into your uniqueness (which you already effortlessly possess) is the very thing your reptile brain is trying to avoid at all costs. For the simple reason that standing even for good, equals separation from the tribe, which goes completely against our survival instincts! So, ja. No matter how yummy doing your thing can potentially be…it’s very likely gonna feel awful too. 
Now - one could say that I am one of those billboard yelling people myself since all I am doing is supporting people become MORE of their bizarre, wonderful, quirky, magical self. No worries - I have not changed sides. (Although I hope I am not yelling :D)I just wanna bring attention to the fact that ticking that Unique Selling Point box will bring up TENSION and tons of cognitive dissonance.And that is ok… but after listening to this episode I just don’t want you to think that something is wrong with you for not being absolutely delighted about walking a walk that seems to be different from everybody else’s. 
I will also point out particular ways in which that tension might show up, so you can spot it and apply the tools I will teach you to work your way THROUGH the discomfort! Because you can’t shame yourself into free expression! So let’s be unique anyways. 
For any inquires to coach with Mirjam, questions and comments reach out to: mirjam@soegner.com Find me on instagram @school_of_impact Or book a consult HERE.

#31 BEING VS DOING

Whenever you got a lot on your plate - a very normal reaction would be to increase SPEED when trying to shove the stuff off your table. I mean - you are stressed because there are too many things, right?So, it’s just basic math that DOING MORE will get you faster to the end of that seemingly unsurmountable list. Which would finally cause that much needed relief to kick in.
And - YES. If you were a machine without a nervous system, instincts and deeply wired survival mechanisms: basic math would totally do it.Luckily there is so much more yummy complexity and meandering story-telling involved when it comes to the human condition and the fabulous ways how our mind and body work together.
In this week´s episode I will talk about the nervous system and in particular the state of fight or flight to explain why DOING more to escape a perceived emotional threat will usually just produce MORE of the shit you already got and not actually get you an inch closer to the sweet spot on the other side you so frantically try to get to.
We will dive deep into how our feelings are the embodiment of the stories we weave and the thoughts we have about what’s going on and how we can use actively and purposefully BEING what we want to achieve in order to move the needle instead of trying to ACT our way out of the unwanted state.Coz you can’t outrun them feelings - you heard that right.
If this sounds abstract - it’s really not.Listen on. It’s not rocket science - rather a love declaration to process, to physical sensations, to feeling safe around one another and in one’s own body.
If you want to go deeper into Polyvagal-Theory - these are your people:Deb Dana: www.rhythmofregulation.com  
Stephen Porges: www.stephenporges.com
For any inquires to coach with Mirjam, questions and comments reach out to: mirjam@soegner.com
Find me on instagram @school_of_impact
Or book a consult HERE.
 
 
 

#30 PSYCHOLOGICAL GAMES - and how you stop playing them

You know that you have entered the incredibly vast, intricate and devious realm of psychological games when PLAYING is anything else but FUN. We all have been there. That moment when you realize that you have been sucked into someone else’s malicious plot. You feel tricked, betrayed… and stuck AF. Coz no matter in which direction you might move - someone will get hurt, something will break. You have been set up to FAIL.
According to Eric Berne, founder of Transactional Analysis, we play games in order to get a core need of ours met. Games enter the arena when just SAYING what you want seems to be off the menu and we are convinced our desires can only be fulfilled through INDIRECT manipulation. And, yes - you guessed it. Those (clearly subconscious) behavioral patterns are one of those ghosts haunting us from our early days on the planet. 
In this weeks episode I will thus use the perspective of Transactional Analysis to talk you through what PSYCHOLOGICAL GAMES are, what makes them so painful for everybody involved, why we play them in the first place and most importantly - HOW TO GET OUT of such dynamics!!
Get your needs met baby. Stop the games! 
 
For any inquires to coach with Mirjam, questions and comments reach out to: mirjam@soegner.com
Find me on instagram @school_of_impact Or book a consult HERE. 

#29 Solving Problems

Encountering a … PROBLEM - involuntarily sets off the urge to get rid of it. ASAP.We want to have it solved - NOW.Not actually because the problem is a problem - but because we usually feel a tremendous amount of tension when considering something an ISSUE. Their existence inflicts pain - and our reptile brain wants to get out at any cost. Thanks to this perceived threat our brain is lightning-fast in judging whether we have a square or round shaped problem and will try to find a fitting peg from our archive of proven solutions - to get the job DONE. YES - Our brains are problem solving miracles… And this saves a tremendous amount of time! HOWEVER, this strategy does not work when a problem is NEW to you, or society at large. It especially does not work in complex environments, where how A leads to B is not longer obvious. Which is the case more often than not lately, to put it mildly.  In this week’s episode I want to share with you how to FIRST get rid of problems that are not yours to solve - saving you shit ton of time and energy. And SECOND how to apply principles from Agile Innovation Methods to actually withstand the urge to soooollvve the problem and begin with exploring the issue as if it were a fascinating SPACE.  If you have not listened to #27 HOW TO LISTEN, I highly recommend you do that - as this is the base for any meaningful innovation! 
For any inquires to coach with Mirjam, questions and comments reach out to: mirjam@soegner.com
 
Find me on instagram @school_of_impact Or book a consult HERE.

#28 Growing Muscles to Catch Bigger Waves

Whenever we take on a bigger project, lead larger teams or move into more complex work-territories it very often puts us in a „everything-is-a-life-threatening-calamity! If I don´t act NOW we will all sink and die“-state.Leading to exhaustion, self-doubt and a lot of bad decisions.
Let’s say you are a really good sailor in the Mediterranean Sea and have decide to now embark on a new journey out into the Atlantic Ocean. You will probably struggle at first! Its not the nature of the beast though that is out of control here.The Atlantic just is what it is - a body of water with way wilder and bigger waves than the Mediterranean Sea. You just haven’t gathered the skills and nervous system capacity yet to ride those new amplitudes with as much grandeur as the calmer seas. And it’s the absent of skill / capacity what makes everything seem urgent!  In this episodes I will talk you through how to switch off some of the alarm bells without actually going out there fixing problems. How to discern between urgent and important, how to keep the long term vision in mind and what it means to expect the unexpected. 
For any inquires to coach with Mirjam, questions and comments reach out to: mirjam@soegner.com
Find me on instagram @school_of_impact Or book a consult HERE.

#27 HOW TO LISTEN DEEPLY

We all know that there are galaxies between the involuntary perception of those hissing sounds bubbling out of someones mouth in the form of words and actually extracting MEANING from this noise. MEANING that when woven in the service of wanting to understand someone or something deeply can lead you through the labyrinth of chatter to the core of a matter. The underlying cause, drive, motivation, need, desire…
And this is crucial if you are leading a team, if you want to connect to a partner or are creating a solution for a real human problem. You don’t wanna act on or solve for WHAT somebody says. But on what actually drives them. You want to get to the underlying need - which might be hidden to the person you are dealing with themself!And for that you gotta learn HOW. TO. LISTEN. DEEPLY. …You need to find that read thread first to release Ariadne. 
It has everything to do with from which SPACE and with which MOTIVATION you are listening. Our brain is a powerful filtering machine, that when gone unchecked will discard any bit of information that does not have to do with our own survival…So yes - you can easily hear gazillions of brilliant people speak without ever learning anything NEW (That’s how powerful our mind is). 
Listen on to this weeks episode to hear more on how to break the SPELL and on how to find the loose end of, following and weaving MEANING with the red thread.
 
For any inquires to coach with Mirjam, questions and comments reach out to: mirjam@soegner.com
Find me on instagram @school_of_impact Or book a consult HERE.