Identity Work

Between work, family, and being tired from work and family, hobbies can feel like something we’ll get back to eventually. This week, Adam and Stephen talk about why making room for something fun matters, especially when your calendar already feels full.

The conversation starts with Adam wondering whether to shut down his newsletter at 5:30 in the morning. That question leads to a surprising appreciation for the creative space he’s built, even on weeks when the writing feels hard. Stephen shares how friendship keeps the podcast going and why he’s writing a children’s book for an extremely small target audience: his daughter.

Together, they discuss finding time, talking with your spouse about having an evening to yourself, and letting a hobby evolve without turning it into another job. Along the way, there’s a questionable fantasy-book recommendation, some AI tinkering, and a reminder that a hard day at work feels different when work isn’t the only thing that makes you, you.

Four Takeaways

1. Pick something before you pick the perfect thing. You don’t need to discover your lifelong passion before getting started. Choose something that sounds fun and let the experience help you figure out what comes next.
2. Protect the time, then adjust how you use it. Creating space is often harder than choosing the activity. A recurring evening, an earlier morning, or a standing plan with a friend can make that space easier to keep.
3. Let a hobby stay small. An hour and a half on Thursday nights can be enough. You can enjoy something, put it down, and come back next week without feeling guilty for failing to spend your whole Saturday on it.
4. Give your identity more places to live. Writing, reading, making something, or spending time with a friend can remind you that your job is one part of your life. Those other parts matter when work gets hard.

Chapters

• 00:00 — Welcome back and a shout-out to Eugene
• 01:48 — Answer first: Any hobby is better than no hobby
• 05:01 — Why Adam continues writing
• 07:51 — Making time in the morning or evening
• 11:14 — Friendship, accountability, and a night to yourself
• 13:33 — Stephen’s next children’s book
• 14:23 — Choosing something that’s actually fun
• 17:11 — An identity with more than one part
• 19:20 — Is real estate still part of Adam’s identity?
• 20:35 — AI as a creative outlet
• 22:43 — Always-on questions: home decor
• 23:57 — Trend spotter: email automation and corporate espionage
• 27:16 — This week’s challenge
• 27:54 — A look ahead at our next guests

Listener Reflection

What’s one creative activity you could spend 30 minutes on this week simply because it sounds fun?

What would you need to put on the calendar, change in your routine, or talk through with your spouse to make that happen?

What would you do if you didn’t have to worry about money? Most of us start imagining a different job, a different schedule, or a beach somewhere. Eugene Luning asked Stephen a slightly different question: What if money were taken care of, but you had to stay in your current role? How would you approach the work you already have?

Eugene is the director of The Union and Stephen’s spiritual director, a relationship that apparently began with Adam’s Christmas letter. He joins us to talk about ambition, anxiety, faith, and the pressure to figure out what our lives are supposed to become. We explore what changes when we trust that God knows where we are, and that the people and opportunities in front of us deserve our attention today.

The conversation gets practical: using the space between meetings to reset, building small rhythms of gratitude, and recognizing when a commitment has become something we keep doing because we feel guilty stopping. Lexi joins us to talk about parenting guilt, and Eugene shares a story about his daughter leaving for college that brings the whole conversation home.

Along the way, we discuss the humanity and humor of Jesus, Stephen maintains his unofficial count of Adam’s reading, and we consider whether a meaningful life might feel a little freer than we’ve been making it.

Takeaways

1. There is meaning available where you are today. Career planning can consume our attention. Eugene invites us to consider how we would treat our current work and the people around us if we felt less pressure to secure the future.
2. Small moments of returning can become a way of life. A pause before a meeting, a reminder of past provision, or three things you’re grateful for can help bring your attention back to the present. Doing it once is a place to start.
3. Pay attention to what you’re being drawn toward. Persistent friction can be a reason to reconsider a commitment. Asking what you want to give yourself to can help clarify what you need to release.
4. Let your children experience being deeply loved. Eugene offers a simpler focus for the pressure of parenting: being interested in your children, helping them feel seen, and ending the day with them knowing you’re delighted they’re yours.

Chapters

• 00:00 Introducing Eugene and the Christmas letter that started it
• 01:57 What if you stayed in your current job?
• 04:54 God knows where to find you
• 07:12 Connection and meaning in the present moment
• 12:02 Using transitions to practice presence
• 15:13 Anxiety as a reminder to return to God
• 20:06 Gratitude and building small rhythms
• 24:15 The pressure to keep doing good
• 28:51 Knowing when it’s time to move on
• 31:52 The humanity and humor of Jesus
• 35:15 Parenting guilt and helping children feel loved
• 41:15 Learning to receive love ourselves
• 43:10 Being set free for your work
• 46:57 Trends spotter
• 47:52 Is meaning in work found or created?
• 50:07 Where to find Eugene

Listener Reflection

Where are you waiting for your circumstances to change before you let yourself be fully present? What would it look like to bring a little more attention, love, or freedom to that part of your life today?

Connect with Eugene

Find Eugene’s writing at unionists.org and listen to The Unionists on Apple Podcasts.

You want people to know what you do. You also don’t want to become the person posting about "7 quick tips to earn $10m a year". How do you put yourself out there while still feeling like yourself?

Adam and Stephen sit down with Harris Fanaroff, founder and CEO of Linked Revenue, to explore personal branding, humble brags, and the fear of being judged. Adam shares his four attempts at finding his voice on LinkedIn, from fintech commentary to weekly meaningful moments. Harris explains how sharing useful ideas and building relationships can create opportunities, even when you aren’t selling anything.

We also discuss what to share early in your career, why human stories matter in a feed full of AI content, and how Harris approaches meaningful work through providing for his family and building a team where people can be honest.

Four Takeaways

1. Start with someone you can help. Thinking about what another person could learn from your experience gives you a practical way to approach posting without making every post a celebration of yourself.
2. Your brand can grow from who you already are. Adam’s meaningful moments helped him notice more of what he values and gave others a clearer picture of him. Being thoughtful, curious, and consistent can carry professional value.
3. Relationships build over time. Harris approaches LinkedIn as a place to share useful ideas, notice who engages, and start conversations. Those connections can become clients, collaborators, or a network to lean on during a career change.
4. You can share while you’re still learning. Early in your career, useful observations, questions, and lessons from more experienced colleagues can give you something worthwhile to contribute. Fear of judgment often keeps people from starting.

Chapters

• 00:00 Meet Harris Fanaroff
• 01:17 Personal Branding Without Narcissism
• 05:51 Adam’s Four Attempts at LinkedIn
• 11:26 Finding Your Why for Posting
• 15:02 Turning Engagement Into Relationships
• 20:04 Humble Brags, Ego, and Sharing Your Success
• 27:18 Getting Past the Fear of Being Judged
• 30:45 Algorithms, AI Content, and Staying Human
• 35:18 Practical Advice for Promoting a Podcast
• 39:09 Providing for Family as the Purpose of Work
• 41:23 Building a Vulnerable Team Culture
• 44:29 Is Meaningful Work Found or Created?
• 45:09 Favorite Places and Finding Time to Be an Adult
• 48:57 Where to Find Harris

Reflection Question

What is something you’ve learned or noticed recently that could help someone else, and what holds you back from sharing it?

Connect With Harris

Find Harris Fanaroff on LinkedIn or visit Linked Revenue.

What would it be like to start your career with AI?

In this episode, Adam and Stephen explore how AI is changing the substance of entry-level work. Young professionals can now produce polished analysis, models, and presentations in minutes, but bypassing the struggle may also mean missing the judgment that struggle once developed.

They discuss why speed is not the same as learning, how managers can help younger employees build judgment, and why time and human feedback remain essential even when AI can produce a strong first draft. They also consider whether every entry-level employee is now becoming a manager, with AI serving as their first team.

1. AI is not simply making entry-level work faster. It is changing what the job requires, replacing some tactical skills with leadership, judgment, and strategic thinking.
2. Struggle can be formative. Building the model or wrestling with the first draft helps people understand how the answer was created and recognize when something does not make sense.
3. Efficiency does not guarantee learning. AI can help someone finish faster, but developing real understanding still requires time with the material.
4. Junior employees need human feedback, peer review, and coaching. AI can challenge a recommendation, but a five-minute conversation with someone who has lived the problem can reveal what hours of research missed.

• 00:00 Welcome and introduction
• 01:27 What would it be like to start a career with AI?
• 03:20 How AI changes the substance of entry-level work
• 05:30 What we learn through struggle
• 09:53 AI, homework, and the importance of time
• 11:49 How managers can help junior employees learn
• 15:02 Why human feedback still matters
• 17:16 Is every entry-level employee now a manager?
• 22:19 Evaluating the process, not just the answer
• 24:48 Trend Spotter: The language and future of AI
• 30:31 Showing appreciation for others
• 31:54 Closing reflection

If entry-level work now requires management skills, how should we change the way we train, coach, and encourage people at the beginning of their careers?

After more than 70 episodes asking what makes work meaningful, Adam finally has a working answer: learning with people who make him laugh while providing for his family.

Then AI changed how he experiences all three.

In this episode, Adam and Stephen explore whether AI strengthens our connection to work or quietly erodes it. It can accelerate learning, eliminate tedious tasks, and increase our ability to provide. But it can also remove the small human interactions that make work enjoyable and introduce an uncomfortable question: What happens when the systems we build can do our jobs too?

Takeaways

• Meaningful work is personal. Adam finds it through learning, laughter, and providing for his family, while Stephen looks for strengths, community, and balance.
• AI may not eliminate learning, but it changes what we need to learn and can leave us feeling permanently behind.
• Efficient answers can come at a relational cost. A 15-minute conversation with a coworker may be inefficient, but it can also make work feel more human.
• AI is neither inherently meaningful nor meaningless. The challenge is using it intentionally to strengthen the parts of work that matter most to us.

Chapters

• 00:00 Did Adam finally figure out meaningful work?
• 02:45 The questions that started Identity Work
• 03:50 Adam’s three pillars of meaningful work
• 05:10 Why “people who make me laugh” matters
• 08:33 What happens when AI changes the equation?
• 09:52 Is AI helping us learn or removing the struggle?
• 14:27 Learning versus operating in your strengths
• 19:11 The human interactions lost to efficiency
• 24:42 Will AI help us provide or replace us?
• 27:20 When AI comes for the product manager
• 29:23 Using AI to deepen meaning and connection
• 31:18 Epiphany Corner and the Delve Deck
• 36:55 How is AI changing your experience of work?

Listener Reflection

What makes work meaningful for you? Write your answer in one sentence. Then consider how AI is affecting each part of it. Where is it increasing your connection to work, and where might it be quietly taking something away?

Why can we accomplish ten things and only think about the one we left undone?

In this episode, Adam and Stephen wrestle with the persistent feeling that they are falling behind at work, at home, and in life. Adam shares how competing priorities, unfinished house projects, and an imaginary better version of himself left him wishing for a 36-hour day. They explore research showing why criticism and failure stick more powerfully than encouragement, and whether deliberately remembering our wins can help counteract that tendency.

The conversation turns to Max Lucado’s You Are Special and its story of stars and dots. Adam and Stephen consider the uncomfortable possibility that freedom from criticism may also require loosening our dependence on praise. They discuss receiving feedback without turning it into an identity, defining what would make a day successful, and committing everything left unfinished to God.

Takeaways

• We often compare ourselves to a fictional version who is better than us at everything and constrained by nothing.
• Bad is stronger than good. Criticism, failure, and unfinished work naturally command more of our attention than encouragement and progress.
• Remembering a win is helpful, but lasting security cannot come from placing more stars on ourselves.
• If we want the dots to stop sticking, we may also need to let go of our dependence on stars.
• Choosing two priorities can give a day a clear definition of success, even when many other tasks remain unfinished.
• Our value does not rise and fall with our productivity, feedback, or ability to keep every ball in the air.

Chapters

• 00:00 - The Question: Am I Enough?
• 01:35 - Competing With an Imaginary Version of Yourself
• 02:39 - When Every Priority Feels Essential
• 05:22 - Wishing for a 36-Hour Day
• 06:47 - Why Bad Is Stronger Than Good
• 09:20 - Practicing Daily Self-Encouragement
• 12:08 - Why One Criticism Erases Ten Compliments
• 13:25 - The Stars and Dots of You Are Special
• 16:21 - Can We Release Criticism Without Releasing Praise?
• 18:01 - Committing Everything Left Undone
• 19:53 - Defining What Makes Today Successful
• 22:03 - Seeing Yourself Through a Father’s Eyes
• 24:06 - AI Corner: Unleashing Claude in Slack
• 28:26 - Using AI to Bring More Fun to Work
• 29:53 - Delve Deck: Frivolous Hills to Die On
• 31:27 - Listener Reflection

Listener Reflection

What might change if you allowed both affirmations and criticisms to stick a little less?

For the first in-person episode of Identity Work, Adam is joined by his friend and podcast superfan Griffin Davis. Stephen is absent, so Griffin receives the full Adam Beasley Experience: one microphone, two coffee mugs, and whiskey in the home office.

Griffin recently left The Home Depot, just two months after earning a promotion, to co-found Novora Communities with his best friend. He shares how he evaluated the risk and why he believes the opportunity is worth the leap.

The conversation then turns to a question at the center of Griffin’s new season: Do high achievers have to work long hours? Drawing from Four Thousand Weeks, Adam and Griffin discuss the efficiency trap, accepting that we are finite, and the parts of life we give up whenever we choose to work more.

Along the way, Griffin explains Novora's mission to improve renters’ financial literacy, predicts what the national debt means for the next decade, and joins Adam in questioning whether AI companies can defend trillion-dollar valuations.

Takeaways

• Every career decision reveals what you value. Griffin left a promotion, stability, and strong career prospects because entrepreneurship, meaningful impact, and working with his best friend mattered more in this season.
• You can take a risk without ignoring the downside. Griffin and his wife reviewed their expenses, calculated their runway, and named the worst-case scenario: if the business fails, he gets another job.
• Efficiency does not empty the to-do list. Completing more tasks often creates more emails, responsibilities, and expectations. Everything will never be finished.
• Your calendar should reflect your actual values. Long hours may be worthwhile during a particular season, but they should serve something you deliberately chose instead of comparison, pressure, or the desire to appear successful.

Chapters

• 00:00 - The First In-Person Identity Work Episode
• 02:21 - Who Is Griffin Davis Outside of Work?
• 06:02 - Comcast, The Home Depot, and Career Decisions
• 13:10 - Leaving a Promotion to Become an Entrepreneur
• 16:39 - Building a Business with Your Best Friend
• 18:05 - Novora's Mission and Business Model
• 21:39 - Do High Achievers Have to Work Long Hours?
• 23:34 - Four Thousand Weeks and the Efficiency Trap
• 25:52 - The Infinite Versions of Ourselves
• 28:10 - Retroactive Shame vs. Present-Day Choice
• 32:18 - Do Your Actions Reflect What You Value?
• 34:35 - Comparison, Success, and Celebrating Your Friends
• 37:05 - Griffin’s Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs
• 39:34 - Trend Spotter: America’s $40 Trillion Debt
• 44:17 - AI, Cheaper Models, and Trillion-Dollar Valuations
• 50:20 - Delve Deck: Griffin’s Elementary School Glory
• 51:11 - Is Meaning Found or Created?

Listener Reflection

If you added 15 more hours of work to your week, what would you gain, what would you lose, and would that trade reflect what you actually value right now?

What if the peace is not just an aspiration, but something we can actually experience in our work today?

Adam and Stephen sit down with Kevin Ainsworth, founder of GuideCap Partners, to discuss calling, ambition, contentment, and the burden of believing every outcome depends on us. Kevin explains why meaningful work can be part of our identity, why money fails to deliver the happiness we expect, and how defining success protects us from absorbing the world’s definition by default.

The conversation then turns to Good Word, the faith-informed AI platform Kevin is building to help people navigate real-life questions with biblical wisdom. They explore AI sycophancy, the danger of creating a god in our own image, and how technology might help us become more human without replacing the relationships and practices that make us human.

Takeaways

• Believing every outcome depends on us creates a burden we were never meant to carry.
• Calling does not require knowing the full plan. It can mean faithfully following where God leads today.
• Work is not spiritually inferior to ministry. Using our gifts to serve others reflects how we were created.
• If we do not define success intentionally, we will unconsciously inherit the culture’s definition.
• AI can provide remarkable wisdom, but it can also affirm our assumptions and help us create a god in our own image.

Chapters

• 00:00 - Welcome and Introducing Kevin Ainsworth
• 02:47 - Releasing the Burden of Outcomes
• 05:00 - Is the Easy Yoke Actually Possible?
• 07:09 - Calling, Career, and Daily Dependence
• 12:05 - Should Our Identity Be Connected to Work?
• 17:08 - Why the Most Blessed Are Often the Most Depressed
• 22:26 - Adam Defines Success
• 25:01 - Contentment and the Power of Enough
• 30:44 - Peace Is a Present Reality
• 32:50 - Building a Faith-Informed Alternative to ChatGPT
• 38:30 - What AI Can Teach Us About Wisdom
• 41:50 - How Good Word Works
• 46:55 - Purposeful Work or Unhealthy Striving?
• 51:20 - How AI Could Make Us Less Human
• 53:21 - Is Meaning Found or Created?
• 55:00 - Closing Reflection

Listener Reflection

What outcome are you carrying as if it depends entirely on you, and what would it look like to work faithfully while releasing control of the result?

Comparison Is the Thief of Joy

Why does someone else’s success make us question our own lives?

A former Bain coworker announces a massive startup fundraise. A younger colleague climbs the career ladder faster. Someone on LinkedIn seems to be building the future with AI while we are still figuring out how to write a good prompt. We see the headline and immediately wonder, “Why isn’t that me?”

In this episode, Adam and Stephen explore why we compare ourselves to the people closest to us, why we cannot separate someone’s success from the sacrifices that made it possible, and how comparison can become either envy or admiration. They also discuss self-forgetfulness, our desire for praise, the tension between ambition and faith, and the freedom of believing we are not being judged nearly as often as we imagine.

In AI Corner, they explain looping, autonomous AI agents, overnight workflows, and why even active AI users may be much further ahead than they think.

Takeaways

• We need a scorecard. When life and work do not offer an objective measure of success, we use the people around us as the measuring stick.
• We compare ourselves to headlines. We want one impressive part of another person’s life without accepting the pressure, sacrifice, and responsibility surrounding it.
• Comparison is not automatically destructive. The same success that produces envy can also produce admiration, motivation, and gratitude.
• Other people think about us less than we imagine. Much of our fear of judgment comes from an audience that exists primarily in our own minds.
• A secure identity removes pressure. When our worth does not depend on achievement or approval, we can work hard without making every outcome a referendum on our value.

Chapters

• 00:00 Super fans and podcast editing problems
• 01:26 Why comparison damages meaningful work
• 04:45 Why we compare ourselves to close peers
• 05:59 Is comparison inherently bad?
• 08:10 You cannot trade for one part of someone’s life
• 10:24 Social media and self-forgetfulness
• 11:46 Our endless desire for praise
• 14:00 Identity, approval, and God’s grace
• 16:22 Ambition, faith, and releasing control
• 20:06 Stewardship, pride, and appearing successful
• 23:19 Looking beyond someone else’s headline
• 25:25 AI Corner: What is looping?
• 29:23 China’s cheaper open-source models
• 31:28 Mosquitoes, air conditioning, and meaningful work
• 33:23 Listener reflection

Listener Reflection

When you notice yourself comparing, consider the person’s whole life instead of the single headline you envy. Then choose one part of your own life and reflect on why you are grateful for it.

Back pain and late work nights have left Adam stuck on the same question most mornings at 4:45 a.m.: snooze for more sleep, or get up and protect the routine? Adam and Stephen dig into the research on sleep and morning routines, unpack the "worst of both worlds" cycle Adam has fallen into, and land on two very different default answers.

Adam breaks down the six research-backed pillars of a good morning (timing, sunlight, movement, hydration, nutrition, screens, plus mindfulness) and his own step-by-step routine. Then he and Stephen split hard on late nights: Stephen sides with more sleep, Adam almost always protects the routine, and he revisits his old, now-tempered belief that "sleep is for the weak." Along the way: sunrise alarms, a very salty electrolyte habit, and a heart scare that ended with a doctor's prescription to eat more salt.

Takeaways

• Consistency beats quantity. The research Adam found suggests a steady bed-time and wake-time may matter more for meaningful, energized work than the total number of hours slept.
• Doing both badly is the real risk. Setting an early alarm and then snoozing it for an hour combines lost sleep with a broken routine, which turned out to be worse than committing to either option on its own.
• A good morning routine has well-worn pillars. Consistent timing, sunlight, movement, hydration, nutrition, limited screens, and mindfulness keep showing up across the research, even if no one's studying the ideal trade-off between sleep and a solid routine.
• Grace matters as much as discipline. Both hosts land in the same place: aim for a consistent routine, but don't let missing it become one more thing to beat yourself up over.

Chapters

• 00:00 - Welcome
• 04:39 - What Research Says about Sleep and Morning Routines
• 04:51 - What the Research Actually Says
• 08:05 - The Worst of Both Worlds: Snoozing an Early Alarm
• 09:17 - Adam's Morning Routine
• 13:43 - The Six Pillars of a Good Morning Routine
• 15:51 - Screens, Sunrise Alarms, and Getting Salty
• 18:53 - A Scary EKG and an Unlikely Prescription
• 20:47 - Late Nights: Sleep More or Protect the Routine?
• 22:17 - "Sleep Is for the Weak": Adam's Controversial Take
• 26:07 - Bedtime vs. Actually Falling Asleep
• 27:03 - Takeaways: Consistency and Grace
• 28:22 - AI Corner: ChatGPT/Codex and a CEO's Data Warning
• 33:14 - Delve Deck: When Did You First Feel Old?
• 35:58 - Listener Reflection

Listener Reflection: What's one thing you could change about your morning routine to make it more consistent or research-backed? And if your routine already feels solid, how could you give yourself more grace on the mornings you don't follow through?