Our Co-Presidents possess the skillset of public speaking, which they leverage to educate and inspire others. Despite their different backgrounds, they share a wealth of knowledge and experiences that they are keen to impart. Their portfolio includes Vodafone, EVBox, MCI Global and more. We encourage you to draw motivation from their narratives.
Mae grew up in Arnhem, a city in the Eastern part of the Netherlands, with her older brother, Mother and Father. Never having to move places, Mae stayed within the comfort of her environment, with high school just around the corner and familiar faces all around. In her free time, she played field hockey and tennis at a competitive level. However, in her early teens, Mae realized she felt out of place and unhappy.
While experiencing depression and high-functioning anxiety, Mae masked her inner turmoils to the world around her. After high school, she followed the “standard” route by completing a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and later graduated with a Master’s in Organizational Development and Change. In addition, Mae continued pursuing sports, successfully paving her way to perform at a National Level. From the outside, it seemed Mae had it all figured out.
She reached a tipping point, however, when a series of traumatic events in the past developed into PTSD. Following her diagnosis, one thing was clear: something needed to change. As Mae prioritized her mental health and sought the proper treatment and care, she realized she did not want people to feel the way she did. So she founded Let’s Break the Shame in 2018 to create safer environments in schools, organizations and personal settings. To this date, she has spoken for organizations like Vodafone and EVBox, as well as on various big conferences.
Iris grew up in a small town in Groningen. She is the oldest of three children. Growing up, Iris struggled to find stability as she dealt with turmoil between her parents, eventually leading to divorce. Coming from a broken home meant Iris had to consistently uproot and move, causing her to feel detached from having a place to call home.
Like Mae, Iris has always been athletic and looked to sports to ground herself. She was perceived as a well-rounded child who excelled in sports and school while maintaining a creative spirit. Unfortunately, the high expectations others had of her led to elevated stress with which she did not have the proper coping mechanisms to deal.
During these years, Iris struggled with an Eating Disorder, PTSD, Anxiety and Depression causing her to quit her studies. However, this is not where Iris’s story ends.
She decided to go in a different direction than her peers, leading her to intern at Let’s Break the Shame and eventually working her way up to join Mae as Co-President. She now speaks at several conferences about her life and how she tackles it on her path. According to Iris, you can do life without a 9-5 job, a piece of paper from a university or whatever society tells you. Your path is yours to choose
At the end of 2021, Iris joined Mae as Co-President. Together they run the foundation: Mae focuses on Strategic and Change Management, while Iris focuses on Public Relations and Youth Development. However, their roles do not stop here as both Mae and Iris have published two books regarding their experiences with Mental Health as well as a podcast that delves deeper into the topics laid out in their newest autobiography.
Together they have helped over 1.5M+ people through LBTS’ projects & activities. They have developed, run and analyzed the projects across topics such as organization design, employee engagement, mental resilience, training delivery for managers, transformation programmes, and self-confidence.
Their experience in the mental health sphere enables them to design and generate programs, workshops, and training sessions to create supportive environments in which people can prosper. Complimenting these initiatives, both Mae and Iris offer public speaking services to inspire and empower people and organizations with the hopes of making necessary changes to promote overall well-being.
“Working with the Let’s Break the Shame Foundation was very valuable and helped us to reflect on our mental health in the workplace.
It was great to learn about how we can recognise and prevent stress in ourselves as well as in our coworkers in order to foster a culture of employee wellbeing at EVBox.” – Sarah Czapko, Internal Communications Specialist
We are fully aware there is no “one size fits all” approach, so we offer various packages with a starting price.
After we have discussed your needs and wishes, we will develop a proposal and finalize the pricing.
With your help, we can continue to spread our message and prevent our families from losing more loved ones to mental illness. Every donation is used to educate, prevent and support. We hope to be able to keep helping individuals within their healing process and all others connected to this topic. Let’s make that change together.
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