Areej is a psychologist who has turned executive coach and entrepreneur, building something truly unique: a methodology that combines business development, psychology, and strategic thinking. Over 11 years of studying psychology and another 12 in the corporate world, she’s worked with more than 200 high-achieving individuals across 20+ countries. But what struck me most wasn’t just her impressive track record—it was her journey from the therapy room to the boardroom and what she discovered along the way.
From Mental Health Hospitals to Executive Suites
Areej’s career path wasn’t traditional. She started work in mental health hospitals, moved to schools, and then into corporate work as an HR manager. But she describes HR as “the suit that gives me access”—a business card that opened doors to CEOs, leaders, and entrepreneurs with big dreams.
“What drove me was being eager to explore and asking myself the tough questions,” she told me. “Where are you really, really, really happy? With whom are you working? What are you working on, and where will that take you?”
That relentless self-inquiry led her from Jordan to the US, where she studied coaching and met leaders across industries. She interviewed celebrities, high-achieving CEOs, politicians, and even royalty. And in those conversations, she began to see patterns that would eventually become the foundation of her methodology.
The Survivors vs. The Thrivers
Areej’s description of her breakthrough moment was unforgettable. She was on a flight from Chicago to New York, writing furiously, when it hit her: there was a link between all the people she was interviewing.
“I saw two basic elements,” she explained. “First, the achievements they do, and their track record of success. Second, their heart—the passion, how excited they are about what they do.”
But here’s what fascinated her: many of these successful people had lost something along the way. They started their businesses with fire in their hearts, but as they achieved more, that spark began to dim.
“They are achieving, doing amazing stuff in the world, and people are celebrating them,” Areej said. “But what about their heart? What about their inner world?”
She calls these people “survivors”—those who have achieved a lot, but whose hearts are no longer beating at the same rhythm as when they started. The question that drives her work became: How do we help survivors become thrivers again?
The Four-Step Journey: Reveal, Heal, Create, Transform
What emerged from Areej’s research is what she calls the Spark Back methodology—a four-step process that starts not with strategy, but with something much deeper.
Reveal: This first step requires courage. It’s about opening up about the most difficult thing in your life—the thing you’ve pushed away because you thought it wasn’t “the right time” or because you needed to focus on solutions. High achievers are masters at suppression, at pushing forward. But Areej has learned that you can’t move forward until you’re willing to go backward.
Heal: You can’t dream if you’re in pain. You can’t create a compelling vision while carrying emotional luggage that drains you. This step is about healing the heart from past wounds, lifting the emotional burden that weighs leaders down even as they appear successful to the outside world.
Create: Only after the first two steps can leaders develop a new vision—one that comes from their authentic self, not from fear, guilt, or someone else’s expectations. This is about creating something that’s purely them, alone.
Transform: Finally, this is where traditional business consulting usually starts—taking the vision into action, making it a reality, building the right team, executing the plan.
“Every business challenge starts from yourself,” Areej told me. And she applies this framework everywhere—from high-achieving women scaling international businesses to her own children navigating school conflicts.
The Missing Piece in the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem
As someone who has consulted with global organizations and now focuses on women-owned businesses, I was particularly struck by Areej’s observations about what’s missing in the current ecosystem.
“We focus heavily on how to become an entrepreneur, how to open your business—99%, if not more, focusing on strategy, execution, planning, action steps,” she said. “But no one considers the inner world. No one focuses on the woman herself, the one who is behind the business.”
The ecosystem teaches women how to pitch, how to analyze market gaps, and how to raise numbers. But when a high-achieving woman is sitting in a strategic meeting thinking about her family, her kids, and her loved ones? The system tells her she should leave that behind and come with a clear mind.
“No one tells you: you are a human,” Areej said. “How can you be aligned as a whole person in order to achieve and push your dreams?”
This resonates deeply with my own work at the intersection of academia and consulting. We’re quick to prescribe more training, another MBA, another certificate. But we rarely ask: How do you feel? What are you carrying that we can’t see?
Cross-Cultural Insights
Having worked across the US, Europe, and MENA regions, Areej sees both universal struggles and cultural differences in how women experience achievement.
In Western cultures focused on individuality, women often grow up feeling that whatever they’re doing isn’t enough—they need to do more, think more about the future, have backup plans for their backup plans. “The inner place is not clearly peaceful and settled,” she observed.
In the GCC and MENA regions, where there’s a greater emphasis on group identity and family, women feel guilty when they focus on themselves. They struggle to find harmony between caring for everyone they’re supposed to support and pursuing their own dreams.
“It sounds different,” Areej said, “but it’s from the same place—you are with yourself, looking at yourself, how you define your identity.”
The weight is the same. Only the source is different.
When Success Doesn’t Look Like You
One of the most powerful moments in our conversation came when Areej shared her own inflection point—deciding to end her first marriage, leaving a prestigious hospital position, and making choices that looked unwise to others but felt essential to her.
“Especially when it’s nice, especially when it’s appealing, especially when people look at it and tell you you’re lucky for having this in your life,” she said. “But you feel: it’s not for me. It doesn’t look like me.”
She described reading an article titled “Why Women Fear Success” that spoke to how she’d been shrinking herself, trying to fit in. The realization changed everything.
“Although it might not seem the most wise decision for people at one point in time, if you feel this is the right thing for you—go and do it.”
This is the kind of courage she now helps other women find. Not the courage to be louder or more aggressive, but the courage to be honest with themselves about what alignment actually feels like.
Advice for the Inflection Points
When I asked Areej what advice she’d give to someone at a major career crossroads—whether just starting out, mid-career, or thinking about legacy—her answer was beautifully simple and profoundly challenging.
“Pause. Stop and think. Ask: how am I considering where I am today, and how does it feel to move forward? What are my biggest fears, and why are they fears?”
Then she offered this thought experiment: “If I removed everyone’s advice and recommendations aside, if there were no one on earth but me and myself living in this world, and there were no fears whatsoever—what would I choose?”
She also suggested imagining yourself at 90, looking back at this moment. How would you want to have honored yourself? How would you want to be remembered?
“Sometimes it’s hard for us to think of what’s happening today,” she said. “We need to go out of ourselves, out in time and perspective. We need to see ourselves as a third party. And then the answers will amaze you.”
The Smart Woman in Hijab
There was one moment in our conversation that I found particularly moving. When Areej went to New York for her coaching certification, someone called her “the smart woman in hijab.” It was the first time she’d heard this, and she took it as an answer from God—a message telling her to honor what she believes in, move forward, and trust that people will appreciate her work and contributions.
“That gave me a huge push and responsibility at the same time,” she said. “To honor what I have and at the same time help others and be open and have conversations that really come from the heart.”
This is authenticity in action—not despite who you are, but because of who you are.
What This Conversation Taught Me
As an educator and consultant who has spent decades helping organizations and individuals navigate transformation, I found Areej’s approach refreshingly human. We spend so much time on best practices, on benchmarks, on what the market demands. But transformation doesn’t start with a strategy deck. It starts with a person willing to be honest about what they’re carrying, what they’re avoiding, and what they truly want.
The Spark Back methodology—reveal, heal, create, transform—isn’t just a framework for entrepreneurs. It’s a framework for anyone who has achieved something and wonders why it doesn’t feel the way they thought it would. It’s for anyone who has lost the spark they started with and wants to find their way back.
This is the kind of conversation I want Global Grit Conversations to be known for—not superficial success stories, but real discussions about the inner work that makes outer achievement sustainable and meaningful.
I’m grateful to Areej for her vulnerability, her wisdom, and her willingness to share not just what she’s learned from 200+ interviews with high achievers, but what she’s learned from her own inflection points, her own moments of choosing authenticity over approval.
Listen to the full conversation with Areej Khataybeh on Global Grit Conversations, Season 1, Episode 1: “The Inner Work of Leadership” here.
To learn more about Areej’s work, visit Spark Back or connect with her on LinkedIn.