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This episode rethinks meetings from the ground up with organizational behavior expert Dr. Rebecca Hinds. Instead of accepting packed calendars as productive, the conversation reframes meetings as products that should be intentionally designed to create decisions, healthy debate, development, and real progress. Using product design principles, you’ll learn how to cut meeting overload, move status updates to async tools, and use simple structures and signals to measure whether a meeting is truly worth the time. The result is a bold new way to collaborate: fewer, shorter, sharper meetings that improve focus, decision quality, and human connection at work.

About Rebecca Hinds

Rebecca Hinds is the author of Your Best Meeting Ever. She is a leading expert on organizational behavior and the future of work. She holds a BS, MS, and PhD from Stanford University. Rebecca founded the Work Innovation Lab at Asana and the Work AI Institute at Glean, first-of-their-kind corporate think tanks dedicated to conducting cutting-edge research on the future of work.

Additional Resources

Website: rebeccahinds.com

LinkedIn: @RebeccaHinds

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About This Episode

In this episode, Jessica Weiss, positive psychology expert, speaker, and author of Happiness Works: The Science of Thriving at Work, explores why real happiness at work is not a perk but a system you can design. From her first TEDx talk to reshaping Fortune 500 cultures, Jessica shares how bold leadership is rooted in authenticity, trust, and psychological safety. We unpack the five pillars of durable happiness, challenge common myths about happiness, and offer simple, evidence-based practices you can use immediately to build energy, connection, and meaningful momentum in life and at work.

About Jessica Weiss

With a background in positive psychology and over 15 years of experience in corporate leadership, Jessica Weiss brings a unique blend of scientific research and practical business acumen to her work. She has helped Fortune 500 companies, tech startups, and everything in between to cultivate thriving workplace cultures that drive success.

Witnessing firsthand the toll of stress and burnout on both individuals and organizations, she became passionate about finding a better way to achieve success without sacrificing well-being. This led her to pursue advanced studies in positive psychology and develop her groundbreaking “Happiness, Works.” methodology. Today, Jessica is a sought-after speaker, bestselling author, and trusted advisor to leaders who understand that happy employees are the key to a flourishing business.

Additional Resources

Website: jessicaweiss.com
LinkedIn: @JessicaWeiss
Instagram: @thejessicaweiss 

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About This Episode

The most powerful leadership breakthroughs often come from clarity, not new strategy. In this conversation with executive educator and author Margaret C. Andrews, we explore a grounded, human approach to leadership that begins with self-understanding and translates intention into visible, credible results. Margaret shares how pivotal feedback sparked a Harvard course and her new book, Manage Yourself to Lead Others: Why Great Leadership Begins with Self-Understanding, which reframes growth from the inside out, along with practical tools to align values, priorities, and leadership style. Through reflection, real stories, and actionable prompts, this episode offers a clear path to closing the gap between who you are and how you lead.

About Margaret Andrews

Margaret C. Andrews is a seasoned executive, academic leader, speaker, and instructor. She has created and teaches a variety of leadership courses and professional and executive programs at Harvard University and is the founder of the MYLO Center, a private leadership development firm. Her clients include Amazon, Citi, Continental, Walmart, Wayfair, and the United Nations. She lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.
 
Additional Resources

Website: margaretandrews.com

LinkedIn: @MargaretCAndrews 

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Content Warning: mention of miscarriage, adoption journey, mention of anxiety and panic attack

About This Episode

Founder Traci Channer shares how searching for elevated tween loungewear for her daughter sparked The Decided Collection and fulfilling a lifelong dream to start her own company. She opens up about leaving the corporate world, learning the fashion industry from scratch, and the resilience shaped by entrepreneurship. Traci offers a grounded look at building a growing community early and taking action before everything feels perfect. If you are on the cusp of a change, her story is a reminder to start small, stay curious, and take the next bold step.

About Traci Channer

Traci Channer’s journey began with a dream she carried since childhood: to one day start her own company. Though she did not always know what shape that dream would take, everything changed in 2021 when she made the bold decision to leave corporate America to spend more time with her young daughter. That decision would become the spark behind The Decided Collection.

As her daughter grew, so did her sense of style—and the two found it increasingly difficult to find pajamas that felt age-appropriate for Traci and stylish enough for her daughter. Everything felt either too young or too grown-up. Traci quickly realized there was a gap in the market—and she knew she was the one to fill it.

Today, Traci is the founder of The Decided Collection, and she could not be more excited to be building her dream alongside a community of inspiring female entrepreneurs.

Additional Resources

Website: decidedco.com
Instagram: @thedecidedcollection
LinkedIn: @TraciChanner

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About This Episode

In this episode, we talk with Muriel Wilkins, CEO, C-suite advisor, executive coach, and author of Leadership Unblocked, about how unexamined beliefs can quietly limit leadership impact. Muriel shares the patterns she sees most often in senior leaders, reframes confidence as the willingness to step into uncertainty, and explains how intuition can complement data in decision-making. We also explore vulnerability as clear seeing rather than oversharing, how to lead effectively in misaligned work cultures, and a simple first step to get unblocked by examining your role in the discomfort and choosing a more intentional path forward. If you’re a curious, ambitious leader ready to scale your impact without losing yourself, tune in for helpful reframes, relatable stories, and tools you can use right away.

About Muriel Wilkins

Muriel M. Wilkins, founder and CEO of Paravis Partners, is a sought-after C-suite adviser and executive coach with a twenty-year track record of helping senior leaders take their performance to the next level. She is the author of Leadership Unblocked: Break Through the Beliefs That Limit Your Potential and coauthor of Own the Room: Discover Your Signature Voice to Master Your Leadership Presence. Muriel is the host of the Harvard Business Review podcast Coaching Real Leaders, consistently ranked as a top-ten podcast in Apple's Management category. She was recently shortlisted for the 2025 Thinkers50 Coaching and Mentoring Award.

Additional Resources

Website: murielwilkins.com
Instagram: @CoachMurielWilkins

LinkedIn: @MurielWilkins 

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About This Episode

Dr. Michelle Johnston, award-winning leadership expert and author of The Seismic Shift in Leadership and The Seismic Shift in You, explores how connection, not command, drives performance. Michelle shares her journey toward authentic leadership and unpacks what real connection at work looks like: people feeling seen, heard, valued, respected, and appreciated. She outlines seven practical shifts leaders can implement now, from measuring success through relationships and protecting thinking time to reshaping one-to-ones, running meetings that create momentum, and bringing the right energy into every room. If burnout, low engagement, or turnover are on your radar, this conversation offers a clear, human-centered guide for strengthening culture while still delivering results.

About Michelle Johnston

Dr. Michelle Johnston, named a Woman of the Year, Top Ten Executive Coach, and Top 500 Business Leader, is redefining leadership through the power of connection. An award-winning leadership expert and Clifton A. Morvant Distinguished Professor of Business at Loyola University New Orleans, she blends decades of strategic communication expertise with real-world insights to help leaders thrive. Her bestselling book The Seismic Shift in Leadership illustrates how connection-driven leadership builds stronger teams and better results, and her upcoming book, The Seismic Shift in You, offers a transformative approach to leadership that starts with the most crucial element—you. Michelle extends this work through her global executive coaching, keynote speaking, and her Top 10% podcast, The Seismic Shift, where she engages thought leaders and executives committed to creating cultures of authentic connection.

Additional Resources

Website: michellekjohnston.com

Instagram: @michellekjohnston

LinkedIn: @MichelleJohnston

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Content Warning: description of stroke and recovery

About This Episode

At 28, Bessie Sturgis’s life took an unexpected turn when she suddenly found herself navigating a stroke diagnosis. In this episode, she shares the micro steps that carried her forward like getting up, writing things down, taking five-minute resets, breathing through the hard moments, and how faith reframed her purpose. We talk about caring for two young children while healing, setting bold boundaries, protecting her energy, and reclaiming her voice, including earning a commercial driver’s license after being told she could not. If you need a reset, this story reminds you that small, consistent actions can change everything.

About Bessie Sturgis

Bessie Sturgis’s journey is defined by faith, perseverance, and purpose. After a life-threatening health crisis when her youngest son was eight months old, she fought her way back through rehabilitation, medication, and prayer, vowing never to let fear or doubt hold her back. Since then, she has embraced life boldly: returning to school for engineering, raising her sons with resilience, and giving back to her community. She is living proof that grace restores, healing is possible, and even after the hardest seasons, you can rise, rebuild, and thrive.

Additional Resources

Instagram: @Blessed_is_bess

LinkedIn: @BessieSturgis

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Content Warning: mention of childhood abuse, divorce

About This Episode

Steph Wagner, National Director of Women in Wealth at Northern Trust and author of Fly!: A Woman's Guide to Financial Freedom and Building a Life You Love, shares how telling the truth about your money story can become the first step toward confidence and financial freedom. She opens up about rebuilding her life after a blindsiding divorce and offers practical tools women can use right now, from identifying your money personality to using her 45-20-35 framework to align spending with your values. We explore how to turn fear into growth, build transparency with partners, and create simple systems that support long-term wealth. If you are ready to rewrite your money story with honesty, clarity, and agency, this episode offers the mindset and next steps to begin.

About Steph Wagner

Steph Wagner is a nationally recognized thought leader in women’s wealth and financial empowerment. Her passion for this work is deeply personal. Her own journey—from private equity executive to stay-at-home mom, to single mother facing financial uncertainty, to successful businesswoman—fuels her mission to help women take control of their wealth and build lives they love. Today, she serves as National Director of Women & Wealth at Northern Trust, where she leads the firm’s advisory practice for women and its Elevating Women platform—a national program focused on building financial confidence and helping women use their wealth to create meaningful impact in their families, businesses, and communities.

Prior to joining Northern Trust, Steph spent years advising high-net-worth women navigating major life transitions such as divorce and widowhood. She also built a national consulting practice for wealth management firms seeking to better serve female clients and founded WomenWealthyWise, a platform dedicated to advancing financial literacy and empowerment for women. Earlier in her career, she was Vice President at Gemini Investors, a Boston-based private equity firm. A frequent media contributor, Steph’s insights have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Entrepreneur, Barron’s, Bloomberg, MarketWatch, Kiplinger, Yahoo Finance, and more. Steph lives just outside of Austin, Texas, and is the proud mom of three grown sons. When she’s not working or writing, you’ll likely find her cycling, hiking, on her yoga mat, or chasing after her beloved dogs.

Additional Resources

Instagram: @steph_l_wagner

LinkedIn: @StephLWagner

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Content Warning: brain tumor, brain surgery 

About This Episode

In this inspiring episode, Dr. Andreea Vanacker, an entrepreneur, international speaker, and multi-time author, shares a science-backed path to cultivating steady joy, even in high-pressure seasons. Through her Trilogy of Joy framework built on love, confidence, and gratitude, Andreea offers three simple dials you can turn when you feel anxious, low, or stuck. She opens up about her own life-changing diagnosis, the purpose that followed, and what her global research across 48 countries reveals about fulfillment and resilience. With practical tools for protecting your energy, caring for your mind and body, and connecting your strengths to meaningful purpose, this conversation offers a clear, encouraging map for transforming small daily choices into powerful life change.

About Andreea Vanacker

Dr. Andreea Vanacker is an entrepreneur, international speaker, and 4x author. She is a resilient visionary who turned a life-altering nine-hour brain surgery into a global movement for joy. Her TEDx talk introduced the world to her groundbreaking Trilogy of Joy model. As an accomplished global speaker with business experience in over 50 countries, Andreea intertwines her powerful personal narrative with over a decade of research in neuroscience and positive psychology. Andreea has a Ph.D. in Economics, and her insights have been featured in various publications from Forbes, Fast Company to Business Insider. She is the founder and CEO of One Million Years Of Joy, a media company that comprises a podcast, a global study on joy, an annual Leadership Luminary award and a future documentary of joy.

Additional Resources

Website: andreeavanacker.com

LinkedIn: @AndreeaVanacker 

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About This Episode

When archaeologist-turned-CEO Sarah Goffman stepped into leadership, she led by treating her company like a culture, studying norms, listening deeply, and aligning people and technology to identity. She shares the simple systems that can help turn overwhelm into progress, such as whiteboard priorities, a 1%-better mantra, and journaling outside when clarity slips. We also dive into how real culture is built in everyday conversations, how customer listening fuels her company’s 40-year success, and the leadership toolbox Sarah relies on: clear goals, written values, mentors, and a trusted circle. If you’re stepping into something new, this conversation will help you define where you are, where you’re going, and the habits to get you there.

About Sarah Goffman

Sarah Goffman is the CEO of TCE Company, a telecom and IT firm she boldly took the reins of seven years ago following the passing of her father. She has since led the company into its 40th year in business, honoring its legacy while driving innovation and growth. Sarah holds degrees in anthropology with a focus on archaeology from the University of Delaware and the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, a foundation that shaped her global perspective and analytical mindset. She's a proud member of InfraGard, a volunteer partnership with the FBI focused on critical infrastructure protection, and the Bold Leaders Collective, a network of visionary leaders, and a member of the GTIA Trustmark Working Group. Her journey is a testament to resilience, transformation, and leading with purpose in high-stakes industries.

Additional Resources 

LinkedIn: @SarahGoffman

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