gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (00:00)
Welcome back. It feels so good to be back. Hi, everybody. It's Leah. Here we are. Welcome to season two of the Good Work Podcast. It's been a minute and all things in their right time. It's really exciting for me to share with you the evolution of this conversation and this work that was started in season one. And
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (00:23)
If you're coming back for season two, I want to welcome you and I want to give you a little bit of context into why we decided to take on some of the questions that we are asking in season two, what to expect and who might find some good company here with us in season two. So first of all, I I wanted to share why why I'm bringing back this podcast, which
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (00:47)
Probably begs the question: why was season one of the good work podcast podcast born in the first place? Why why did I create this podcast? it was it was really born out of a question and a series of questions that I realized that I had been asking myself and others.
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (01:10)
And that had been woven kind of like little, like little threads throughout my experience as a as an entrepreneur, as someone learning how to work in international development, as an artist, as a person, as a parent, and as someone approaching midlife.
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (01:32)
Right. Here I am. I'm squarely in it. And in season one, all of the guests and I discussed this central question: what does good work mean to us? What does that phrase mean? And for me, I take it a couple of different ways. When I think about good work personally, and to me it means the quality of the work that we bring into the world.
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (01:55)
So doing good work, right? Doing high quality work when we are going to learn, teach, create, discuss,
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (02:05)
implement any sort of idea or project or creation or business or plan. Doesn't matter the context that it's in really we we want to create good work. We want it to be of the highest quality. We want to hold ourselves and I know I want to hold myself to a high standard and make sure that the measuring stick with which I'm measuring
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (02:29)
My work is appropriate for the kind of work that I'm doing. So making sure that whatever we're working on, we we give it our best. We we give it our best, we approach it thoughtfully, we approach it with curiosity, with humility, and make sure that the outcome of the work that we are doing is causing no harm and hopefully is doing some good, which brings me to the second facet of what good work.
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (02:54)
means to me and what we discussed a lot of in season one is this concept of goodness and especially existing in the extractive hyper capitalist society that that we live in. And I'm, you know, I've lived back and forth between the United States and East Africa, but I am
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (03:17)
You know, by default, I am experiencing the world through my American lens, right? That's that's my experience. That's the context from which I come. And so wanting to make sure that the work we're doing and that what we're working on is somehow contributing to the greater good, which as soon as we get into lofty and grand concepts like the greater good making an impact.
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (03:44)
doing good work in the world, a lot of us can feel quite overwhelmed by that and and paralyzed sometimes. And so we talked, we talked a lot about, you know, how we approach this aspirational idea that we have of wanting to play our own small part and wanting to each play our own role that's meant for us in repairing the world.
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (04:08)
And that's another way that we can think about the concept of good work. And the the third facet that I like to turn this phrase on its head with is when we say good work to ourselves and to each other. Because as human beings, ultimately, you know, we want to feel
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (04:26)
A sense of connection and belonging and cooperation with one another. And we want to be recognized. for that good work. And we want to be able to say to ourselves at the end of the day, good work. I'm satisfied. I'm content with the effort that I made. And I think we would all be lying if we said we did not want some sort of recognition for the contributions that we make.
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (04:52)
And so we we asked, okay, well, when when has someone said good work to you? And when have you said it to yourself? And do we still agree with and do we want to uphold the paradigms, you know, within which that hey, good work came from? Right? Because sometimes we really,
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (05:13)
Edify and put up on a pedestal overworking and exhaustion and burnout, which I think you know is a bit overused at this point. But we want to be able to say good work and I wanted to expand my understanding and my curiosity about when my guests and I.
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (05:34)
were saying hey good work to each other and to ourselves. What was prompting that recognition? So that is how the good work podcast was born was to answer some of those questions or at the very least to explore them. Right. A lot of the the fun and the delight of podcast conversations, at least when I listen in, is being able to be the listening ear to other people's
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (05:59)
Thought processes and experiences and patterns and insights that that we might not otherwise be able to be in the room for. So it was really fun. It was really it really touched me a lot of the conversations that we had and and it also kind of set off this tripwire in my mind, this kind of
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (06:27)
radar. It was like a little alarm bell, not in a negative way, not in a like emergency. but it it set off this little alarm bell where I was like, hmm, I feel like there is a thread. There's a thread that's running through some of the conversations that I'm having here in season one and out in the world and in the wider expansion of my work and what I am interested in working on. There is a thread in common.
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (06:54)
And I know it's there and I can see it, but I can't quite put my finger on it yet. And that's kind of the the feeling of that I left season one with. And it sent me on slightly longer than expected because as a family we interjected a year abroad back in Nairobi into the mix. So that was
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (07:20)
That was that was interesting, right? and so it sent me on this kind of curiosity journey of trying to figure out what the common thread was between these conversations that I was having with guests from seemingly disparate professional backgrounds, seemingly disparate worldviews.
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (07:42)
Seemingly disparate experiences of what good work means to them. And I thought, I'm gonna sniff this out because it's there's also something that's resonating for me, but I couldn't put my finger on it yet. And and as I continued to listen and have more conversations and run the initial
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (08:03)
Incubator program that we launched in 2025. Yes, 2025. I started to notice a real pattern emerging. And the the pattern that I that I saw emerging was that for
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (08:22)
Was that regardless of what professional background we come from, regardless of what kind of work we're doing in the world, and whether or not our wider society, either nationally or internationally, puts it in the bucket of good work, right? This is worthy good work that is
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (08:43)
beneficial to society. It is social enterprise. It is saving all the people, right? And we know how I feel about saving all the people, right? We don't want to do that. we want to collab and help and be partners together. But I digress. Regardless of those backgrounds and regardless of those different experiences that all of my guests and all of the folks that I was talking with were bringing to the table, the
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (09:07)
Pattern that I saw emerging was that they were all successful people, right? By measure of different measuring sticks, right? We can say, okay, well, what's your measuring stick for success? Does it mean financial success? Does it mean property and wealth? Does it mean community and kinship? as I heard it, as I heard it called on an interview I was listening to yesterday. And
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (09:31)
I love that description, right? Are we are we measuring it by our sense of cultural wealth? the the wealth of connection and feelings of interconnectedness with others. How are we measuring success, right? But regardless of which kind of worldview you were using to define success, everyone that I was talking to was a successful person, considered themselves having.
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (09:56)
Achieved some of the things that they set out to achieve and had received recognition for some of those things. And they also were internally going through this process or reflecting on having gone through this process of making the subtle course corrections that we all make as we walk.
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (10:18)
life's path and particularly as we walk our career paths. And I even hesitate to use the word career because at least for me as someone who has a background originally in the arts and then entrepreneurship and then development work, right? I have a pretty varied career, quote unquote, background, right? So when I hear the word career, it makes me personally feel a bit boxed in.
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (10:45)
Because to me, a career sounds like a linear path where you do this step and then you go on to the next stepping stone and you climb the ladder. And I personally have have had the good fortune to to not have really had that type of experience in my career. So when I say career, please know that I mean your your work in the world, meaning your contribution. It could be your vocation, it could be
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (11:14)
It could be a linear kind of in the same field career. It could be various, various work and development experiences across various spaces and sectors like I have. So when I when I say career, I mean these are folks that were navigating those kind of subtle course corrections in their career path.
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (11:37)
Right. Inside the inside the inside the question of what does good work mean to me? Right. If we are all kind of on our own path and we're all living inside that question, I noticed people having to constantly check in with that question and then make these subtle pivots and make these subtle course corrections to
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (12:01)
Change direction, sometimes not wildly, sometimes really wildly, but to that that there was a constant need for reflecting back on these questions as we progressed in our experience of success and our experience of answering that question what does good work mean to me?
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (12:22)
And what was so interesting to me and what re kind of revealed itself was that the reason why I think it took such a long time for me to feel like I could actually name this thread that I saw running through all these different conversations was because it's it was a very nuanced process. Most of the course corrections and most of the pivots.
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (12:45)
That we intended to make or craved making weren't these huge dramatic, you know, I gotta burn everything down, start from scratch, type of pivots. Because when we hear the word pivot, you know, we think of at least 45 degree angles, right? This is not like a, all right, I'm walking along and I'm just gonna like.
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (13:10)
Slowly change my gait on the same path, or I'm going to just walk a little bit outside of the lines of this path. Usually, when we think of a pivot, we think about a huge shift in direction. And what I noticed, and why I think it was so nuanced, is that most of the course corrections that my guests in season one and in conversations with
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (13:37)
Students and participants in our initial workshops and programs and our incubator, they weren't huge dramatic pivots. And there is definitely a cultural myth that we have bought into that transformation requires burning everything down, right? That in order to be a Phoenix.
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (14:02)
There have to be ashes. And that's a beautiful story. And we have stories for a reason because they help us connect to and identify common experiences that we share with each other. And so those narratives are important. But when it comes to the actual practical application and real life experience of wanting.
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (14:23)
Something to feel transformed in our lives. You don't have to burn everything down in order to feel like a phoenix, you know, rising from the ashes. So I noticed that because we have this myth around transformation or pivoting needing to be so extreme.
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (14:45)
It left very little room for conversation around those more subtle, nuanced course corrections. It's almost like we apologized for needing to talk about how murky and confusing, and sometimes isolating and alone we can feel when we are trying to figure out.
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (15:08)
A more subtle direction change. Right. There isn't really a cultural narrative that invites conversation around that. And so, you know, for me, when I reflect on my own my own evolution over the last 20 years in my in my life as a from a baby adult.
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (15:31)
recent college grad until until now, I realized that I had had that same experience where there were times where I felt this kind of tension between knowing that I was ready to to move on to the next thing or to graduate in some way or to goal set a different towards a different goalpost.
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (15:55)
Or that I had a a tug to work on something, but I couldn't even pin down what it was yet. All of those moments of assessing caused a lot of internal tension and
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (16:09)
dissonance. And I say dissonance because I I know that something needs to change, but I should be able to figure this out faster. And for goodness sakes, I've already been successful in X, Y, and Z ways.
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (16:20)
I don't really get to I don't really get to put my hand up anymore and say, Hey, I'm I'm really green at this, you know, I need a lot of help. And the more successful quote unquote I became in the various sectors that I was working in.
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (16:38)
The harder and harder I found it to ask for help because the more I evolved as a leader and the more I stepped into leadership roles in my business, in my development work and the nonprofit world as an artist. And these things were not always happening concurrently, right? They kind of took
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (17:00)
Took turns and the toggles went went up and down and the volume got turned up and down on the different things that I've been working on, you know, in different ways over the years. So this is not a, again, a straight line, which it rarely is for any of us, right? But I realized that the more I stepped into leadership and the more successful I felt, the fewer opportunities I had to really ask for help and to be able to be.
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (17:25)
Vulnerable about this internal tension that I was wrestling with because people were looking to me to be the leader. And when I think back on it and when I think about the conversations that we had in season one, it really begged the question, you know, maybe, maybe when we're asking this question, what does good work mean to me?
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (17:47)
It's part of a larger conversation around our identity. Our identity and how our sense of self and our identity evolves as we evolve, right? As we evolve in our roles, in our leadership, in our career, and how we have to constantly be kind of updating the operating system.
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (18:13)
Within ourselves, so that when we achieve success based on a certain identity that really that we relate to, and then we arrive at the place that we intended to arrive at, often we find that when we get there, the identity that we started with doesn't feel like it fits anymore. And that interior work of asking those questions, who am I now? What do I want?
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (18:38)
Especially when we are in contexts of success, hasn't really been talked about much that I've heard at least. So I want to talk about it. And that's what we're going to talk a lot about this season is the evolution of our identities and how that affects our good work in the world. I'll I'll also likely be introducing you to some of the concepts in my own framework that I've developed called the Moved.
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (19:02)
framework. And this is, I love an acronym. This is my own personal process that I realized I had been going through when I made those course corrections and subtle pivots and subtle shifts that ended up being successful. When I reflected back and tried to look at, all right, well, what was the process that I went through?
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (19:28)
That led to those outcomes, there was a pattern there as well. And so I've codified it to use a fancy word into a framework that I hope will be helpful to all of you as well. So the moved framework. hopefully we'll get a chance to talk about that a little bit. we'll also talk about creativity and creativity as one of the most
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (19:51)
powerful tools that you have in your toolkit to be able to make those more subtle pivots with confidence and alignment and enjoy so that those moments of of course correction and pivoting can maybe not feel so fraught and maybe be a little bit more fun. Wouldn't that be nice?
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (20:11)
So one of the things that I actually I can safely say I lost my way on this. And one of the big kind of identity crises that I went through in the last 20 years was my identity as an artist and a performer and an actor and a creative and someone who loves to make creative work. I love devising theater. I love the collaborative process.
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (20:36)
Of art making in a group and my identity as an artist, and asking myself the question: does art really matter in the face of all the quote unquote real problems in the world? I there was a point in time when I came back to the US after being in Tanzania for a number of years, and I had really
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (20:58)
I really struggled to find a way to express myself creatively when I was living in Tanzania, because somehow I I had a real cognitive dissonance with the survival mode that I saw so many people existing in there and the
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (21:16)
privileged expression of being able to express ourselves creatively, right? That's something that often only gets to happen once our our needs are met, once our basic needs are met. Right. And there's a tension there too for artists, especially in the US, of how do I, how do I be an artist without being a starving one? Right. And that that question is what led to my entire entrepreneurial career, by the way. But we'll talk in the season about the the
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (21:44)
Importance of creativity. And I really found my way back to this because I truly lost my way when I was asking that question, you know, does art matter? Does creativity really matter in the face of these legitimate problems in the world? And my firm belief is yes, yes, it does. particularly because of the way it helps us solve problems.
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (22:07)
The way that accessing our creative selves and our creative brains and beings helps us see things in a way that we otherwise wouldn't be able to see them. And so creativity and cultivating that is such a powerful tool to use as we navigate these questions. And I realized what a bummer it was that creativity.
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (22:33)
And these other sectors that I had worked in kind of were siloed from each other. It was like, well, you can be a successful, business person and you know, you can be a mime, but ne'er the two shall meet. These two things certainly cannot say anything to each other. And I started to kind of believe that BS and compartmentalize my life when in fact the time that I got.
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (22:57)
Like the most insight and the most clarity around what my next move was supposed to be was when I started to integrate creativity back into my life. So I've had I've found so much joy in the last year at singing with a band again, at theater making again, at starting up the Western branch of the mine company that I was a part of in New York City, out here in the Denver area where I live now. So I
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (23:23)
You know, in painting, even though I'm not a painter, right? And that that speaks to the identity piece, right? What does it mean to paint versus being a painter? What's even that about? Why do we need to frame it that way? So we'll talk about creativity as as a really powerful and potent tool, particularly for high-achieving people who perhaps have an over-reliance on.
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (23:48)
your analytical minds. So I'm guessing that if you're here, you are possibly a high-achieving person, and you may be firing up primarily the cylinder of your analytical mind and your linear thinking mind and missing out on all these other cylinders that could be powering powering your journey. So we'll also
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (24:12)
This season talk about specifically high achieving women. And I really, I really want to be in dialogue with high achieving women who are in major transitions, who perhaps have achieved success that maybe was driven by a need for survival or a need to meet basic needs, a need to succeed, right?
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (24:37)
for for various reasons. And high achieving women get women who are now ready to graduate from that first phase of success where it was all survival driven and achievement driven. And now in a transition that feels maybe how I felt a bit murky on the inside, a bit tense.
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (24:59)
and very under wraps because there's really no space to talk about it. And so I want to I really want to invite some dialogue with high achieving women who are at points of transition in their lives and careers and and hear from them how they listened to what was trying to emerge.
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (25:19)
And what that experience was like for them because we can learn so so much from each other. and always there's so much more that I learned from all of you than I could ever teach you. So I'm really excited to, of course, share, share my own thoughts with you and get to know each other better, and talk about the
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (25:39)
The pivots that that happen in our lives and careers that are a little bit more subtle, not quite as dramatic, not quite not quite as burn it all down. and and the pivots that happen specifically for high-achieving women when we are inside of that question: what does good work mean to me? What do we do with that? So if you are someone who has achieved success in your own right and
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (26:04)
You have kind of reached that initial summit of something that was your dream at some point. But now that you are at the top and you have reached that summit, the journey has started to feel somehow less clear or less fulfilling to you. Then season two of the Good Work Podcast is definitely meant for you. I think you're going to find some great company here.
gmt20260604_172806_r-7DjAFd23Y (26:28)
And I can't wait to talk more with you all soon. So welcome back. Thanks for being here. Let's do this.
