Leaving Well: nonprofit leadership guidance for workplace exits and transitions

Vital Voice Training is a communication consultancy out to revolutionize the conversation about good public speaking and leadership presence — from stressing out about your "ums and uhs" to working creatively at the intersection of you and your context. Since 2014, they've been bringing game-changing public speaking and communication training to individuals and organizations, specializing in building public speaking confidence, navigating difficult conversations, balancing authenticity and situational adaptivity, and bringing out their clients' own unique charisma. Co-founders Julie Fogh and Casey Erin Clark are experienced professional actors — their approach is grounded in theater and performance, neuroscience, somatics, socio-linguistics, and organizational psychology. Their clients are leaders in the finance, venture capital, law, and tech industries, world-changing entrepreneurs, and best-selling authors, as well as in-demand keynote speakers who regularly bring their ground-breaking ideas and perspectives to stages all over the world.

Casey Erin Clark is a voice, public speaking, and communication coach, performer, author, entrepreneur, podcast host, and leader in both the entertainment and business worlds. She is a fierce advocate for gender justice and spends her days speaking, teaching, and writing about the power of women's voices, while seizing fulfilling opportunities to perform on screen and stage. In 2014, Casey and Julie Fogh co-founded Vital Voice Training, a voice and speech coaching company on a mission to change the conversation about what leaders are "supposed" to sound like and empower everyone to own the power of their full vocal instrument and presence. Casey hails from the cornfields of southern Illinois (where she grew up singing with her family Von Trapp-style) and has a BFA in musical theater from Illinois Wesleyan University. She also coaches musical theater pros of all ages, is a member of SAG-AFTRA and AEA, performed at the 2013 Oscars with the Les Miserables movie cast, and sings with the Grammy-nominated and Tony-honored Broadway Inspirational Voices choir. Recommending romance novels and breakfast restaurants is her love language. Will perform the Lafayette speed rap from Hamilton on demand.

Julie Fogh is a voice coach, podcast host, and interpersonal communications specialist who works with speakers and leaders helping them navigate their individual tensions and blocks, revealing the personal power and unique and captivating humanity that exists in all of us. Through Vital Voice Training, Julie and her co-founder Casey Erin Clark blend the toolbox of the professional actor with their powerful frameworks for embracing one's authentic speaking voice to businesses, schools, and organizations all over the country including Thrive Capital, Facebook, Google, NASA and The Hartford. Julie was raised in Seattle and earned her BA in Theatre and Women Studies from University of Washington. She earned an MFA in acting from Northern Illinois University, a rigorous interdisciplinary curriculum that engaged with the physical body, the emotional life, imagination, use of language, character construction, non-verbal communication and the truth of the moment. She has studied with the Moscow Art Theatre and University of Copenhagen and has studied Meisner Technique with Kathryn Gately, Michael Chekhov Technique with Deborah Robertson, and Movement and Period Style with Lloyd Williamson. She loves YA novels, introverts, and her very vocal rescue cat, Ashland.

Read the MM Lafleur piece

Quotes:

When we walk into a room, every time we go into a meeting, we are there for a purpose. We always communicate with a purpose in mind. So we need to give ourselves the agency to ask why am I here and what am I trying to accomplish?

Our mission from the beginning of this company has been to expand our ideas of what leadership looks and sounds like. We do that in part by showing up with more of who we are, even in spaces where that is risky and where that may not always pay off. But we do it strategically, we do it bravely, and we do it consistently so that other people can also do it.

Leaving Well is the ability to really figure out for yourself and for the people that you care about how to button this chapter, how to transition, how to move forward.

To connect with Vital Voices:

Website

Twitter

Instagram

Linkedin

To connect with Casey:

Twitter

Instagram

LinkedIn

To connect with Julie

LinkedIn

~

Take the Transition Readiness assessment

To learn more about Leaving Well

This podcast is produced by Sarah Hartley

It's time to reimagine workplace transitions and the way we say goodbye. Here's the truth: People Leave. We leave towns and cities, and we leave relationships. We leave projects, volunteer opportunities, and appointed and elected seats. People leave jobs too, whether high powered roles and barely paid gigs.

Another truth is that organizations are exponentially terrible at preparing for and navigating workplace transitions. The combination of people leaving and the reality that our workplaces are ill-equipped for those situations makes for perpetually bad exits. I've examined the way people leave, and through the Leaving Well framework, believe we can reimagine and create the art and practice of moving on from a place, thing, role, or job, with intention, purpose, and when possible – joy, and want to invite you into the conversation with this episode.

Main Quote:

Leaving Well is not just about avoiding dreaded PR nightmares, scheduling exit interviews, or scrambling to toggle off access to email accounts. It's so much more than the departure itself. It's about the way we handle transitions, how we prioritize people, and how we ensure the ongoing health of our organization in the face of inevitable change.

Additional Quotes:

Leaving Well benefits not only those departing, but also those staying behind. It mitigates the loss of productivity. It protects the bottom line of organizations and prevents knowledge attrition. It builds company loyalty and a positive workplace environment.

Creating a culture of leaving well does not sow seeds of restlessness.

To connect with Naomi:

Website

LinkedIn

~

Take the Transition Readiness assessment

To learn more about Leaving Well

This podcast is produced by Sarah Hartley

Ingrid facilitates smooth leadership transitions for nonprofit organizations. Ingrid has built a consulting practice that focuses on strengthening nonprofit leadership, especially during transitions.

Over the course of five interim executive director appointments, Ingrid has seen a variety of ways leaving well can be implemented.

She also offers executive search services and guides organizations to develop comprehensive succession plans that promote leaving well.

Over the last twenty-five years, Ingrid has served in a wide variety of roles in nonprofit organizations. This includes eleven years as the executive director of a food system nonprofit, where she built the fledgling organization to be a community institution.

Main quote:

There's a lot of great work being done but people are burning out because they're doing too much. If we can get organizations to work together, they can cut down on some of that and really improve their efficiencies.

‌Additional Quotes:

Leaving well is really being intentional in how you go, and not burning bridges, not taking a lot of knowledge with you that other people don't have. But really intentionally transferring that knowledge, those relationships, so that that work can continue.

To connect with Ingrid:

Website

Facebook

Linkedin

Learn more about the Interim Executive Academy

~

Take the Transition Readiness assessment

To learn more about Leaving Well

This podcast is produced by Sarah Hartley

Jennie supports women who are ready to step into their legacy and maximize the impact they can have in the world. She has dedicated her life + career to building a more equitable world and supporting female founders and leaders at every stage of their journey.

🪩 At Wild Awake, she supports ambitious consultants who better the world through her signature program Consultant Catalyst, which centers on strengthening your systems and operations, elevating as a leader, and creating a magnetic brand + knockout website.

🪄 Delve is a mission-driven communications and creative agency that launches social good initiatives and works with nonprofits to make their work as impactful as possible.

🏛️ Outside of Wild Awake and Delve, Jennie is an elected state representative in Alaska, where she advocates for LGBTQ+ equality, paid family leave, mental health, and reducing violence against women, among other progressive issues. When not working, you can find her exploring Alaska with her family, cooking, reading a romance novel, or taking a course. She has lived, worked, and traveled across four continents + over 30 countries.

Main quote:

I learned and grew so much from the experience of having people who don't know you make judgments about you, make threats against you, come to your home. And if anything, it helped me step into my highest self and feel more confident in who I am and operate even more closely to my North star. Because if every day I knew I was acting in that way, what people said about me meant so much less because I couldn't be shaken. I knew the place from which I was working. I knew the values that I hold.

‌Additional Quotes:

Honestly, I just got scared. And I'm sad to say that because I didn't want to be scared and I didn't want them to 'win'. But I just couldn't do it. If I didn't have kids, I would have just kept going. But I had my family to think about. Ultimately I just felt that it was going to erode me and age me in a way that was going to make me less effective.

To me, success is going to be when a single mom can run for office and be in the legislature. That takes support. It takes planning. It takes thinking.

Sometimes we have this thing where we want to look back. I think we need to just accept where we're at and then focus on what we're doing next because when we're holding on to the thing that we chose or didn't choose to leave, it's taking away from the things that you can be doing and building right now.

To connect with Jennie:

LinkedIn

Wild Awake Creative

Delve for Good

~

Take the Transition Readiness assessment

To learn more about Leaving Well

This podcast is produced by Sarah Hartley

Melanie is a 3x former Chief of Staff passionate about the profession, spreading awareness on how impactful it is, and helping others get into this career path. She's also a mom who loves watching her son grow (a 6'4 high school freshman - lots of growing going on). Her favorite way to spend an afternoon is reading a good book, when she has the time to do so.

Main quote:

We're not just problem solvers, we're problem seekers. So we say 'what are the roadblocks coming up?' What are the risks that we might be running into? What are the gaps that we need to fill, what bridges are we going to cross in the future?' So the Chief of Staff seeks that out and then puts together a strategic plan for it. We're a blend of the strategic and the execution.

‌Additional Quotes:

Chiefs of staff come in and create processes, they improve procedures, create and implement policies, and then hand the work off to other people.

Having a strong Chief of Staff who can be the home base, helping with decision making, making sure all the projects are running on track and getting you out of the weeds means then you can use your bandwidth to really shine.

To register for the free Chief of Staff masterclass

To check out the Chief of Staff training (with a special discount for podcast listeners!!): use code NAOMI for 24% off!

To connect with Melanie:

Website

LinkedIn

Instagram

The Case for a Chief of Staff - Harvard Business Review

~

Take the Transition Readiness assessment

To learn more about Leaving Well

This podcast is produced by Sarah Hartley

Lisa Marshall is founder and principal of Good Work Consulting, where she helps for-purpose professionals get to the strategic part of their to-do list.

She knows how it feels to be stuck fielding an endless list of to-dos that are urgent and important, but don't necessarily build capacity. And what it's like to daydream about the projects that would make things better (if there were only time to get to them).

She specializes in project management, implementation support, and data visualization and reporting. The work that energizes her the most is connecting people and tools, so that (work) life becomes just a little more manageable.

She lives in Dallas, TX with her husband and two dogs, Eleanor and Franklin.

Main quote:

"If you can create an inflow of all of the tasks and all of the information that comes to you into the work management system that you're using, you will get so much more done. There will not be balls dropped. You'll be able to do more than you thought you could, and you'll be less stressed while you're doing it."

‌Additional Quotes:

"There's dashboards that nonprofits need and they fall into three buckets: executive, analytical, and public facing."

"For me, leaving well is about having a mindset or looking at things through the lens of what's the best that could happen? And that's for the person who's leaving. It's for the people who are staying. It's for the things that are yet to come. But what's the best that could happen?"

To connect with Lisa:

LinkedIn

Good Work Resources

Good Work Services

~

Take the Transition Readiness assessment

To learn more about Leaving Well

This podcast is produced by Sarah Hartley

Minda Harts is a celebrated author and influential speaker, best known for her bestsellers "The Memo," "Right Within," and the YA book "You Are More Than Magic." She is a respected voice in advancing women of color, self-advocacy, and restoring trust at work. Minda frequently speaks at major conferences and companies, including Nike, Google, Disney, Best Buy, Dreamforce, and the Aspen Ideas Festival.

As an NYU assistant professor, Minda shapes future leaders and empowers professionals. Honored by LinkedIn as the #1 Top Voice for Equity in the Workplace in 2020 and by Business Insider as one of the top 100 People Transforming Business in 2022. Minda is currently working on a new book with Flatiron Books, focusing on the crucial topic of restoring trust in the workplace.

Main quote:

"Each and every one of us, our voices are our legacy. And the moment that we allow people to shut our voices down, even ourselves, then that's impeding upon our legacy."

‌Additional Quotes:

"When it comes to trust in the workplace, we don't necessarily put a high value stake on it. In our romantic and platonic relationships, trust is everything. So why wouldn't we want that same character trait inside the workplace with our colleagues, with our managers, with our leadership. Because you can't have equity in the workplace without trust."

"You belong in every room, but not every room deserves to have you."

"Leaving well is freedom. Definition wise it's one no longer feeling confined and I want us all to be free. I want us all to be able to experience our lives inside and outside the workplace, the way that we were created to experience them, which I feel is joy, peace and equity."

To purchase Minda's books:

Talk To Me Nice: Amazon | Bookshop

The Memo: Amazon | Bookshop

Right Within: Amazon | Bookshop

You Are More Than Magic: Amazon | Bookshop

To connect with Minda:

Website

Instagram

LinkedIn

~

Take the Transition Readiness assessment

To learn more about Leaving Well

Laurell Jones served with distinction in the United States Air Force and retired in the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. During her 23 year career she held multiple roles in financial management and financial analysis with increasing levels of leadership responsibility in international and US based locations. In Laurell's post military career she was a Senior Managing Consultant with IBM for 14 years. Laurell has been a volunteer with Dress for Success Tampa Bay since 2018 and currently serves as the President of the Board of Directors. Laurell is passionate about empowering women to achieve economic independence. Laurell is a graduate of Syracuse University and also holds an MBA and MPA. She resides in Tampa with her husband. In her free time, Laurell enjoys mentoring youth, gardening, traveling and exploring Tampa.

Judy Bensinger has a passion for women's empowerment. Judy is on the Hillsborough County Commission on the Status of Women, the board of directors of Dress for Success Tampa Bay, and the Advisory Board of Gems. She is also a team leader for a new, international women's organization: Age of Possibility. Judy sees 2025 as a great year full of opportunity and promise.

Tanya Cielo is Sky Marketing's founder and Lead Strategist, and her passion is marketing! She is a certified marketing facilitator with more than 20 years of marketing experience for media companies such as Clear Channel, Cox Radio, Beasley Broadcasting, and AOL. Her work brings new life to her client's marketing efforts and results in revenue growth. Tanya loves networking and is a member of several organizations. She is the Board Chair for the South Tampa Chamber of Commerce and a Board member for Dress for Success Tampa Bay and FBI Tampa Citizen's Academy.

Main quote:

"Our organization fell prey to what many organizations do when you're going about the business of the organization: looking at what's urgent and what's important. Succession planning, I can't underline enough as important. Make sure you carve out time for that very important activity of succession planning, because if you don't, there may become a time when it becomes not only urgent, but a crisis."

‌Additional Quotes:

"One of the best gifts you gave us was the organizational assessment. Something we had not done as a board, something we had not done as an organization. It is a foundation, we'll continue to build on for years to come. That is invaluable."

"I always believe change and transition will lead to positive growth. No matter where you're starting, I believe when you bring in new individuals, new mindsets, new exposure to things, you're going to get better because you're not starting from ground zero."

~

Take the Transition Readiness assessment

To learn more about Leaving Well

This podcast is produced by Sarah Hartley

Dr. Jaiya John was orphan-born on ancient Indigenous Anasazi and Pueblo lands in the high desert of New Mexico, and is an internationally recognized freedom worker, poet, author, teacher, and speaker. Jaiya is the founder of Soul Water Rising, a global rehumanizing mission to eradicate oppression. The mission has donated thousands of Jaiya's books in support of social healing, and offers grants to displaced and vulnerable youth. He is the author of numerous books, including Daughter Drink This Water, We Birth Freedom at Dawn, Fragrance After Rain, and Freedom: Medicine Words for your Brave Revolution.

Jaiya writes, narrates, and produces the podcast, I Will Read for You: The Voice and Writings of Jaiya John, and is the founder of The Gathering, a global initiative and tour reviving traditional gathering and storytelling practices to fertilize social healing and liberation.

He is a former professor of social psychology at Howard University, and has spoken to over a million people worldwide and audiences as large as several thousand. Jaiya holds doctorate and master's degrees in social psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz, with a focus on intergroup and race relations.

As an undergraduate, he attended Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, and lived in Kathmandu, Nepal, where he studied Tibetan Holistic Medicine through independent research with Tibetan doctors and trekked to the base camp of Mt. Everest. His Indigenous soul dreams of frybread, sweetgrass, bamboo in the breeze, and turtle lakes whose poetry is peace.

Main quote:

"You cannot calendar well being. You cannot calendar healing in a workplace. Accountability speaks to the idea that if I'm not breathing, I'm dying. Consistent investment in healing and well being and growth in your organization day to day, not calendared because that says that it's not actually a priority. If it were a priority, it wouldn't be on a calendar. If staff appreciation were a priority, you wouldn't have one staff appreciation day a year."

Additional quotes:

"Storytelling for us is a way of breathing, meaning that on the inhale we draw in the sediment, the nutrient of meaning from the world around us, from the people in our lives, we're drawing in meaning which orients us to the moment, this is the meaning of this moment."

"You can walk into a workplace in the morning and feel the mood of the day."

"The storytelling that says the way we treat each other in our staff meeting is intimately tied to how we are going to treat each other in the hallways, and in the break room, in the cafeteria, at our desks, in our offices, and how we treat each other via email communications and phone calls and how we treat our clients, how we treat the community."

"Change and transition is, of course, the nature of life. It's happening in every moment. The question is how do we relate to it?"

To connect with Dr. Jaiya:

Website

Instagram

YouTube

Books

Also mentioned: Podcast episode with J.S. Park

Take the Transition Readiness assessment

To learn more about Leaving Well

This podcast is produced by Sarah Hartley

Over the past 15 years, Stephen Newland has worked in finance roles at a variety of organizations including nonprofits, startups, early-stage companies, and Fortune 500. Stephen believes in making finance simple & actionable!

When he's not heads down in a spreadsheet, he loves to spend time with his wife and daughter at a local coffee shop or watching his favorite Cincinnati sports teams!

Connect with Stephen:

Nonprofit discount list

Website

LinkedIn

Main Quote:

Once we've got good financial information, how do we turn it into very simple and actionable insights to drive the organization forward? The foundation of that is a forecast. I'm such a believer in it because I have seen it do wonders for organizations.

Additional Quotes:

The absolute best finance people are essentially the Rosetta Stone for financial statements and they can take the financial statements and create a story with it and say, 'here's what the organization is doing.'

Leaving well is providing the space for whoever comes behind me or behind you to step in and have the freedom and flexibility to put their spin on the organization.

~

Take the Transition Readiness assessment

To learn more about Leaving Well

This podcast is produced by Sarah Hartley