Surviving Toxic Relationships Podcast with The Matadoras · Elizabeth Jane and Deana Lynn

Episode #71: Sick, Stuck, and Still Worthy: Deborah Weed’s Powerful Midlife Comeback

·33 min·2 clips

Debra says her iron was between 3 and 6 when it should have been 15, and a doctor told her, 'You should have been dead.'

1. Surviving Toxic Relationships Podcast with The Matadoras centers this episode on Debra Weed, self-worth, and midlife reinvention. 2. Lizzie and Dina host Debra Weed, founder of the Self-Worth Initiative and the Quills Up movement, and they frame her as a creative builder of Paisley the Musical. 3. The episode asks how a woman moves from rejection, illness, and burnout to a life built around worth. 4. Debra says she was a sensitive child and an empath, and people kept telling her she was 'too sensitive.' 5. She describes going into corporate work, including being director of development for Citibank’s 19 branches and working on a $26 million pavilion with Disney and Universal consultants. 6. Debra says she thought she had 'it all,' but she was not aligned with who she really was. 7. A health crisis then put her in bed for three years, with pain 'like giving labor every single day' and almost no energy. 8. She recounts seeing doctors who said it looked like MS, then Lou Gehrig’s disease, and then saying it was 'all in my head.' 9. Debra says the experience taught her the difference between self-esteem and self-worth. 10. She says a 1943 pure copper penny worth $250,000, and later worth a million, made her ask how much she might be worth if a mistake coin could have that value. 11. A later blood test showed her iron between 3 and 6, and her doctor told her she 'should have been dead.' 12. Debra says the real problem was a fibroid tumor the size of a grapefruit behind her uterus, which doctors missed because ultrasound was done externally. 13. She says different doctors gave different explanations, and that confusion made it easier for others to abandon her. 14. Debra links her experience to women who may have long COVID or other body symptoms and says women often know when something is wrong. 15. She says creativity helped save her life, because she had created musicals and interactive productions since age 16. 16. Debra explains that she turned the penny story into Home Was the Luckiest Penny and later moved toward Paisley’s Last Quill and Paisley the Musical. 17. She tells the hosts that disappointment, not fear, is the emotion that stops people, because repeated setbacks can drain the chemical momentum behind a dream. 18. Debra describes failure as planting a seed and regret as never planting again, while Lizzie and Dina connect that idea to their own midlife work. 19. The tone stays conversational, faith-oriented, and reflective, with the hosts using personal examples and asking Debra to unpack her process step by step. 20. Women in midlife, survivors of divorce, illness, or burnout will likely connect with this episode, while listeners wanting a short business chat may skip it.

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Surviving Toxic Relationships Podcast with The Matadoras