Caitlin is serious about the work, unserious about the rules.
Former right-hand to CEOs and CXOs, the millennial powerhouse is now building the communities, systems and conversations that make business and connection more human.
About
Hi, I’m Caitlin Duryea, an existential strategist with one hell of an appetite for exploring the experiences that shape people: the spaces we gather in, the decisions we reward, the conversations we avoid, and the conditioning we inherit.
I've spent over a decade inside the rooms where decisions get made - across boardrooms, consulting firms, and CXO seats serving multiple continents. Now I'm more interested in shaping the conditions that help people make better ones.
Topple works with leaders and boards. Meus works with communities and the moments between people. My writing and media is where I think out loud about the whole strange, beautiful, and mildly tragic business of being human together.
If any of this lights a little fire, I’d love to hear from you.
Topple changes how decisions are made. Meus changes how people gather. Both are about redesigning the conditions that shape how people show up.
FOR WAYS TO WORK AND CONNECT WITH CAITLIN, CHECK OUT HER PORTFOLIO BELOW.
Believing businesses can be better is not a naive endeadvour.
Topple exists because leaders are always making tough choices, but that isn’t really why you’re still thinking about it at 2am. It's leadership development and board services for the generation of CEOs and board members who are done inheriting reward systems that don't match how they actually want to lead — by millennials, for millennials. This is the antidote to growth at all costs because people can't keep being the cost. (And yes - I'm the corporate metaphor of a hopeless romantic about it.)
TOPPLE
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We see time and time again really thoughtful, human-centred business fail, not because they didn’t have what it takes but because they overindexed on advice from investors with misaligned incentives, succumbed to decisions that didn’t uphold their values or the vision, or they did not have the right relationships in place for people to tell them what they really see.
The gap might be in your Board (upward), your leadership team (downward) or perhaps you have your own blind spots (inward). It's thinking about each of these disparate parts as an ecosystem. One that allows you to build your decision making confidence while also holding up a mirror to you.
You do enough performing. Let’s not have to perform for your coach.
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This is for the leaders that don’t believe incongruence is a necessary part of leadership. You don’t need to have one reward system for yourself and a different one for the people you lead.
It’s not just the way you lead, it’s the business decisions you need to make. You see a way to centre people and build or grow more sustainably.
Deconditioning leaders is where we explore the internal rewiring, your leadership behaviours AND the business decisions. Because our true power to reshape the system is when those two things come together.
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How decisions are made inside Boardrooms and deal rooms trickle down across the entire company (and frankly, across the entire start up/scale up ecosystem).
If we can change the criteria for a good decision at the top, we can build companies that don't default into binaries like profit or purpose. We can build the infrastructure and the instruments that allow founders to build a company that reflects their business without compromising on the rigour that’s required to effectively govern.
This is not about diminishing investment returns, it’s about creating the structures that make growth sustainable for everyone at the table.
All of the places you gather matters; how connection is fostered there matters too.
Meus Studios is a a psychology-led experience design and connection studio. We partner with facilitators, leaders, and community shapers to design for what actually changes people — genuine connections, felt experiences, and the science of learning.
MEUS STUDIOS
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We bring the Psychology of Experience to facilitators of group experiences. Less about the curriculum and more about the actual experience. It’s where the art of facilitation meets the science of behaviour change.
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We work alongside community shapers to create more meaningful connection experiences for their communities. Moments that don’t just look good on socials but are felt and remembered long after the day is gone.
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We partner with leaders and company builders to turn high friction moments into opportunities to create a high performing culture that cares about each other in the pursuit of big goals.
“Caitlin can hear an idea, a vision, or a thought, and instantly see a bigger version of it.”
— Founder, Investor & Activist
“This is by far one of the most insightful and probing conversations I have had all year.”
— podcast host