Actsplore This

To wrap up Season 3 of the Actsplore This Podcast, we decided to switch it up and run through (pun intended!) a recent shared adventure that we embarked on together – our first ever Half Marathon race! 

From the incredibly challenging weather conditions we soaked up, our preparation leading up to D-day, to the revelations we had throughout the race and the hard-hitting life lessons we took away from it, this was definitely a first 21km experience we will never forget!

We are excited to bring you more awesome content in Season 4, so watch this space! But in the meantime, we wanna hear from YOU! Please complete this short survey and let us know your feedback: https://tinyurl.com/vvbzd2yy

See you soon! 👋🏻

This week’s guest is truly a force of nature, with a career at Microsoft spanning almost four decades!

Jean-Philippe Courtois (or JP, as he is commonly known) is the Executive Vice President and President, National Transformation Partnerships at Microsoft. 

His focus is on transforming national economies, helping to create sustainable and inclusive economic growth through digital transformation, one country at a time. 

He’s a huge advocate and is deeply passionate about positive leadership and how purpose-led leaders can generate a positive energy that achieves greater commercial success, individual happiness, team wellbeing and positive societal impact.

In this wide-ranging discussion, we explore his 38 year career trajectory in Microsoft, his North Star and guiding principles that led him towards his Why, and what Positive Leadership looks like in practice. 

JP is also the host of the Positive Leadership Podcast, and you can bet that we took the chance to ask him about his most memorable and impactful moment hosting the pod!

If talking about your accomplishments and the work you have done sounds icky, difficult and obnoxious and you struggle with self advocacy, this episode with Meredith Fineman is for you!

Meredith is the best-selling author of Brag Better: Master the Art of Fearless Self-Promotion, a host, speaker, writer, and entrepreneur. Brag Better is based on her ten years of building a framework for strategic self-promotion grounded in public relations, strategic communications, and leadership professional development. The book is for The Qualified Quiet - those that have done the work but don’t know how to talk about it. 

Master the art of fearless self-promotion by learning to give yourself credit, and get the credit you deserve, in order to unlock career opportunities! Because if you’re not enthusiastic about your achievements, nobody else will be. So grab a cuppa and listen up!

This week, we celebrate our 65th Independence Day with a special Merdeka episode featuring Yang Berhormat Hannah Yeoh, Member of Parliament for Segambut. 

Hannah was the the former Deputy Minister of Women, Family and Community Development as well as the Speaker of the Selangor State Legislative Assembly from 2013 to 2018, making her the first woman Speaker and the youngest of any legislative body in Malaysia! 

We walk down memory lane with YB Hannah on her unassuming journey as an ‘accidental politician’ in 2008, and unpack personal anecdotes and lessons on the trials, tribulations and testimonies she experienced serving our nation Malaysia over the past decade. 

Selamat Hari Merdeka to all our Actsplore This listeners and rakyat Malaysia! 🇲🇾🇲🇾🇲🇾

Have you ever wondered how you can use career storytelling and mindfulness to flourish at work? Are you wrestling with the idea of contentment in your career? if so, this week’s episode is perfect for you! 

This week's guest, Kerri Twigg is an international career coach who uses storytelling, mindfulness, and meditation to help people achieve happiness and fulfillment in their job. Kerrri is also a TEDX speaker and bestselling author of the book, The Career Stories Method. She was the #1 Career Coach to follow by JobScan and was named a LinkedIn Top Voices in 2018 in the Workplace and Management category. 

In this episode, Kerri shares practical tools on how we can learn to articulate our career story, reframe our mindset on career contentment and why mindfulness at work matters. 

(Psst: we even get a live mindfulness exercise led by Kerri in this episode!)

Happy August everyone! As we are now well in the swing of the second half of 2022, we thought of doing a mid-year check in, where we reflect on the first half of the year, look back and ask ourselves if it was what we had envisioned. To ponder on the learnings that we had, and to share our hopes and plans for the next half of 2022 - because before you know it, 2023 will be beckoning! 

Tune in to this episode as we share personal updates about moving home and a new career chapter, half marathon milestones, the nuances of self promotion at work, the importance of play and so much more.

We’d love to hear your mid year reflections and your hopes for the rest of 2022! Don't forget to tag us when you tune into this episode!

Actsplore This podcast turns ONE! 

Can't believe this podcast-side-hustle-pandemic-baby of ours has reached this special milestone! 

We celebrate this occasion with this episode walking down memory lane answering "Ask Me Anything" Questions from our listeners which gives you a Behind The Scenes of the pod - from our most unexpected interview experience, to biggest challenges running the pod and dream guests we'd like to interview! We also had a very special Birthday Giveaway of 6 books and a 1-hour career coaching session thanks to our generous past guests on the pod.

A huge thank you and shout out to our listeners and audience who have walked this journey with us through the past one year, we could not have reached this milestone without you!

If you've enjoyed listening to Actsplore This so far, consider supporting by buying us a coffee here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/actsplorethis

As always, stay connected with us on the following social platforms:

✨ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/02xWljGMOwQEyKWRFFvN3e?si=ff5c510942604b31

✨ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/actsplorethispodcast/

✨ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2907974409513062

There’s a pervasive belief that emotions don’t belong at the workplace and that we shouldn’t wear our hearts on our sleeves at work. 

According to illustrator and bestselling author, Liz Fosslien, this view is unrealistic and stands in the way of our sense of fulfilment and success! 

If you’re on social media, chances are you would have come across her heartfelt and highly relatable anecdotes in bite-sized visuals via the hugely successful @lizandmollie instagram account. 

This week, we explore the nuanced world of navigating and embracing our emotions in the workplace. Liz unpacks why Selective Vulnerability is key to bringing our authentic selves to work, how we can cope with the unwieldy Big Feelings we might be experiencing (Comparison, Burnout and Uncertainty) and detaching our worth from our professional identity. 

[Spoiler alert: Tune in to this episode to learn more about the creative process behind her illustration work at @lizandmollie!]

If there's someone who knows Starbucks like the back of her hand, it's Christine McHugh.

Christine McHugh is an executive coach, consultant, and the Former Vice President of Customer Service and Operations Services for Starbucks.

She first started working as a barista at age 19 and made countless non -traditional career path up the corporate ladder in sales, human resources, learning development, among others, within the organization during her impressive 27-year tenure at Starbucks.

She writes about all of this and more in her book “From Barista to the Boardroom: Lessons about Life and Leadership from a Career in Coffee.”, which was published and released in June 2021. It’s part autobiography and part business memoir on her personal account where she shares fascinating stories of moments of triumph with a dose of vulnerability and an extra shot of motivation! 

Christine left Starbucks in 2017 but certainly did not rest on her laurels. You’re in for a treat with this one. Sit back, grab a cuppa (preferably Starbucks!) and enjoy!

What happens when you take a designer’s mindset of prototyping and apply it to your own life? Can we create a dream job that is meaningful and full of possibility without necessarily changing the job we have? We discuss these questions (and more!) in today’s Season 3 kick-off episode. 

We speak to Bill Burnett, the co-author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Designing Your Life and Executive Director of the Design Program at Stanford University, to understand how design thinking can help us create a life and career that is both meaningful and fulfilling!

In this actionable and insight-filled episode, Bill unpacks how we can apply the concept of prototyping in our own lives to test out ideas and how we can reframe the dysfunctional beliefs that hold us back. (Spoiler alert: stay tuned to hear how you can better manage your energy as Bill walks us through his Energy Engagement map at the end!)