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12 Steps to Success: Navigating change, uncertainty, and what comes next

12 Steps to Success: Navigating change, uncertainty, and what comes next

Written by: Eric Mackay
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About this listen

What happens when the old definitions of success stop working?

12 Steps to Success is a long-form podcast about identity, purpose, burnout, and the messy, uncertain middle of building a life and career. It explores moments of transition, pressure, reinvention, and recovery, especially when clarity disappears and familiar paths no longer fit.

Hosted by Eric Mackay, a senior music industry executive, founder, author, and recovering perfectionist, the show sits between success stories and self-help. These are not highlight reels or tidy frameworks. They are honest conversations with artists, founders, executives, creatives, and operators who have built things, lost things, walked away from roles that looked perfect on paper, and had to rethink who they were along the way.

Each episode examines themes including identity, leadership, burnout, sobriety, creativity, pressure, and the quiet recalibrations that happen when life does not go to plan. The focus is not on how people made it, but on how they kept going when certainty disappeared.

Eric is not a neutral interviewer. He brings his own lived experience into the room, asking better questions, challenging assumptions, and staying with discomfort rather than rushing to resolution. The tone is reflective, occasionally funny, sometimes raw, and deliberately unscripted.

This is a podcast for people in transition. For anyone questioning success, navigating change, or trying to build something meaningful without losing themselves in the process.

New episodes are released weekly during each season, with breaks between seasons.

Learn more at twelvestepstosuccess.com and on Instagram @twelvestepstosuccess.

Eric Mackay Hygiene & Healthy Living Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Self-Help Success
Episodes
  • When Burnout Arrives Quietly

    When Burnout Arrives Quietly
    Jan 13 2026

    This conversation with Marni Wandner explores what happens when burnout does not arrive as a breaking point, but as a slow erosion.

    We talk about creative ambition, responsibility, and the quiet ways people lose themselves while trying to be useful, capable, and reliable. Marni reflects on building a career in an industry that is supposed to generate joy, and the moment she realised that something essential was missing, even though everything looked fine on the surface.

    There is a lot of honesty in this episode about resistance to change, the fear of not knowing what comes next, and the tendency to override internal signals in order to keep moving. Rather than framing burnout as failure, this conversation treats it as information, something asking to be listened to rather than pushed through.

    It is a thoughtful discussion about agency, identity, and learning how to notice when the way you are working no longer matches the life you want to be living.

    What comes up in the conversation

    In this episode, we talk about:

    • Burnout that develops gradually rather than dramatically
    • Resistance to change and uncertainty about direction
    • Creativity, pressure, and responsibility in the music industry
    • Learning to listen to internal signals rather than override them
    • Redefining usefulness and success on your own terms

    About Marni Wandner

    Marni Wandner works with individuals navigating stress, burnout, and career transitions, particularly in high pressure and creative environments. Her work focuses on helping people build sustainable ways of working without losing themselves in the process.

    Links & resources:

    • Website: https://marniwandner.com
    • Instagram: https://instagram.com/marniwandner
    • Instagram: https://instagram.com/futurepresentco

    If you are interested in speaking with Marni about stress management, burnout, career transitions, or thriving in high pressure environments, you can schedule a free call here:

    https://calendly.com/marniwandner/free-consult-call

    About the podcast

    12 Steps to Success is a podcast about what happens when the path you were on stops making sense.

    Hosted by Eric Mackay, the show centres on honest conversations with people navigating change, pressure, identity shifts, recovery, and redefinition. These are not success stories or instruction manuals, but real conversations about how people live inside uncertainty and keep moving without false certainty.

    Stay connected

    • Website: https://twelvestepstosuccess.com
    • Instagram: https://instagram.com/twelvestepstosuccess
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    49 mins
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