Lisa Hallett, CEO of Wear Blue: Run to Remember, an endurance athlete, and a Gold Star spouse, explains why she believes "ordinary" is a superpower, and not a limitation. She shares how running became the way she processed grief after her husband’s, Captain John Hallett, death in Afghanistan, why community is where our strengths get reflected back to us, and why she's about to run 250 miles from New York City to Washington, D.C. with One Flag Forward, a joint mission with Team Red, White & Blue and Wear Blue honoring military service and sacrifice and sharing a message of stronger together.

Key Takeaways
• Ordinary is not a limitation, it's a starting point: Lisa Hallett argues that accepting "I'm just me" is what makes hard, extraordinary goals reachable.
• Running became Lisa's way to process grief without losing herself to it: "I was not running from my grief, but I was running through my grief."
• Superpowers are relational: they get named, reflected, and grown through community, not discovered alone.
• One Flag Forward is a 250-mile, 5-day run from NYC to D.C. (Sept 12–16, 2026) where Wear Blue and Team RWB carry a single flag hand-to-hand.
• Holding onto "receipts," memories of past hard things you've already survived, builds the foundation for the next hard thing.

Questions This Episode Answers
• Why did Lisa Hallett choose running as a form of remembrance? After her husband, Captain John Hallett, was killed in Afghanistan, running let her feel her grief without letting it consume her. She calls it running through grief, not from it.
• What is One Flag Forward? A 250-mile, 5-day relay (Sept 12–16, 2026) where Wear Blue: Run to Remember and Team Red, White & Blue carry one American flag from New York City to Washington, D.C.
• How can you find your superpower? Ask a good friend. Superpowers are usually easier for others to see in us than we can see in ourselves.
• Why does Lisa Hallett call being ordinary a superpower? Because it strips away entitlement and comparison, and proves that meaningful, hard goals don't require exceptional resources, just the choice to keep showing up.
• How does Lisa Hallett describe community building as a superpower?
She says superpowers aren't discovered alone, they get developed in relationship with others. It’s the opportunity to have a mirror for ourselves as we be in service of something bigger than ourselves.

Chapters
00:00 Path to Extraordinary Starts with Ordinary
2:11 Lisa Hallett Introduction
2:45 Why running, not another form of remembrance
5:28 One Flag Forward: 250 miles, NYC to D.C., and why now
6:36 Hallets Do Hard Things
7:20 The permission in being ordinary
9:05 We're worthy to not be defined by our most difficult moments
11:14 We blossom in the light of others
14:05 How community reflects our superpowers back to us
17:02 The small moments vs. the finish-line moments
23:00 What does Lisa want me to know about the Gold Star Family and Military community
24:10 The Superpower of being ordinary
28:40 Permission to be ordinary and accepting self
33:32 Ordinary proves potential
34:19 How Lisa learned anything is possible
 
Full transcript: https://whatdoyouknowtobetrue.com/video/why-you-dont-need-to-be-extraordinary-to-thrive-lisa-hallett-on-her-superpower-of-being-ordinary

Resources Mentioned
• Wear Blue: Run to Remember: https://www.wearblueruntoremember.org/
• One Flag Forward: https://www.oneflagforward.org/
• Lisa's 2013 TEDX Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9v3TMrsbdg

Music in this episode by Amplify Music

What Do You Know To Be True? is a personal development and leadership podcast capturing insights and experiences with people who've navigated their own reinvention, to be more aligned with their purpose and possibilities.

Each conversation offers new perspectives and inspiration for your next move. Wherever you are on the reinvent yourself path, these conversations are for you.

➡️ For insights into each conversation, subscribe to the newsletter: https://rogerkastner.substack.com/
➡️ Learn more about the conversations: https://whatdoyouknowtobetrue.com/

We're hosted by Roger Kastner and produced by Three Blue Pens. We're recorded on the ancestral lands of the Duwamish and Suquamish people. To discover more about the land you are on, go to https://native-land.ca

#Ordinary #Grief #Superpowers #Running #Extraordinary #Communitybuilding #reinventyourself #LeadershipDevelopment #personaldevelopment #RogerKastner

To mark the third anniversary of What Do You Know To Be True?, host Roger Kastner answers the three questions he's asked most often: what his 80+ guests have in common, how to find your superpower, and how to reinvent yourself to align with your purpose. 

Drawing on a conversation with leadership coach Joel Monk, Roger explains why most superpowers begin as an unmet need, then lays out a seven-part framework for reinvention built on purpose, joy, hope, adaptability, well-being, courage, and community.

Key Takeaways
• Empathy, curiosity, and connection show up across nearly every conversation about superpowers, a "power" only becomes a superpower once it's used in service of others.
• In roughly nine out of ten conversations, a superpower traces back to an unmet need from earlier in a person's life.
• Purpose gives a superpower its direction, but joy is what fuels people to keep using it.
• Hope, using Charles R. Snyder's definition, means believing in your goals, your path, and your own agency to create change.
• Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs misses something: superpowers and reinvention only fully take shape in community, not in isolation.

Questions This Episode Answers
• What do the guests on What Do You Know To Be True? have in common? Across more than 80 conversations, empathy, curiosity, and connection are the throughline. Guests describe their superpower as something that only became a superpower once it moved from personal skill to service of other people.
• How do you find your superpower? In most cases, a superpower starts as an unmet need from earlier in life. A person finds something that addresses that need, keeps doing it because it's healing, and it becomes a superpower once they start using it to help others.
• How do you reinvent yourself to align with your purpose? Roger Kastner's framework points to seven building blocks: purpose, joy, hope, adaptability, well-being, courage, and community; with community as the piece most self-improvement models leave out.
• What's the critique of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs in this episode? Roger argues it's too focused on the self. Real growth and reinvention happen in relationship, with a team or a community, not alone.

Chapters
0:00 Three Years of Conversations
1:11 The Common Thread of Superpowers
3:54 How to Discover Your Superpower
6:13 Aligning Work with Purpose
9:14 The Power of Community
  
▶️ Full Transcript available here: https://whatdoyouknowtobetrue.com/video/your-superpowers-start-with-something-missing-roger-kastner-on-the-reinvent-yourself-framework

Music in this episode by Amplify Music

What Do You Know To Be True? is a personal development and leadership podcast capturing insights and experiences with people who've navigated their own reinvention, to be more aligned with their purpose and possibilities.

Each conversation offers new perspectives and inspiration for your next move. Wherever you are on the reinvent yourself path, these conversations are for you.

➡️ For insights into each conversation, subscribe to the newsletter: https://rogerkastner.substack.com/ 
➡️ To be in more conversations: https://www.youtube.com/@WDYKTBT?sub_confirmation=1 

We're hosted by Roger Kastner and produced by Three Blue Pens. We're recorded on the ancestral lands of the Duwamish and Suquamish people. To discover more about the land you are on, go to https://native-land.ca 

Keywords
#Superpowers #reinventyourself #Purpose #howtofindyourpurpose #LeadershipDevelopment #personaldevelopment #RogerKastner

Career strategist Sam Alvita explains why traditional career ladders no longer work for career reinvention. Job skills now last as little as six months to two and a half years, and what works when you want to reinvent yourself instead: a "web" of diversified skills, side projects, and personal brand rather than a single job title. She and host Roger Kastner cover the learn-unlearn-relearn cycle, why AI is leveling the executive playing field, and why real reinvention happens in small steps rather than one dramatic pivot.

The big question for the conversation: What if career reinvention is not one dramatic pivot but a practice you return to again and again?

The conversation also covers the learn-unlearn-relearn discipline, why AI is acting as an equalizer in the executive room, and the Navy SEAL principle that the most senior person in the room speaks last.

Key Takeaways

• Job skills now have a shelf life of roughly 6 months to 2.5 years, so a single skillset is not a stable career foundation.
• Replace the "career ladder" model with a "web of work": diversified skills, side projects, and a personal brand reduce dependency on any one employer.
• Great leaders are measured by how well they develop the people around them, not by individual output.
• The Navy SEAL principle, the most senior person speaks last, improves team decision-making by surfacing others' ideas first.
• Simplicity is not the same as ease. Reinvention happens through small, repeatable steps, not one dramatic pivot.

Questions This Episode Answers

• How do I reinvent my career?
  Treat it as an ongoing practice, not a single leap, build a portfolio of skills and projects you can adapt as the market shifts.
• How do I prepare to change careers? 
  Start the learn-unlearn-relearn cycle before you need it: keep adding skills, actively let go of outdated ones, and stay willing to be a beginner again.
• What makes for great teams?
  Leaders who are evaluated by how well they develop the people around them, and who let the most senior voice speak last so others contribute first.
• What is the learn, unlearn, and relearn cycle? A continuous loop of questioning assumptions, acquiring new skills, deliberately discarding ones that no longer serve you, and rebuilding your approach, rather than a one-time retraining event.

Chapters
00:00 Career Reinvention Is a Practice, Not One Pivot
01:49 Learn, Unlearn, Relearn: The Cycle Every Job Now Demands
05:54 The Navy SEAL Rule: The Most Senior Person Speaks Last
07:30 Why the Career Ladder Is Dead (Skills Expire in 2.5 Years)
09:16 Build a Web, Not a Ladder: Diversify Your Footprint
12:24 What Makes Great Teams: Leaders Are Evaluated on Who They Build
18:51 The Identity That's Quietly Holding You Back
22:26 Meeting Learners Where They Are
28:15 The Marathon Mindset: Bite-Sized Steps Over the Big Leap
31:30 Unlearning: Fulfillment Lives in What You Give
38:02 Simplicity Isn't Ease
40:53 What's Next for Sam and Work Rewritten

Full transcripts available at: https://whatdoyouknowtobetrue.com/video/career-reinvention-isnt-one-pivot-its-a-practice-sam-alvita

Resources mentioned in the episode:
➡️ Sam’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-sloan-alvita/
➡️ Sam’s Company: https://www.byworkrewritten.com/

Watch Next:
▶️You Know It's Time To Reinvent Yourself But You're Waiting | Midlife Reinvention with Sylvia Taylor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z97isd_iNNk&list=PLbWfh34FP_dUcAaCrI31z00_fLdphi6b7&index=6&t=1094s
▶️Still Designing The ‘Perfect Plan’? Become A Good Tryer | Stop Overthinking with Wynne Leon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWK294OpZVI&list=PLbWfh34FP_dUcAaCrI31z00_fLdphi6b7&index=15&t=134s

Music in this episode by Amplify Music

What Do You Know To Be True? is a personal development and leadership podcast capturing insights and experiences with people who’ve navigated their own reinvention, to be more aligned with their purpose and possibilities.

Each conversation offers new perspectives and inspiration for your next move. Wherever you are on the reinvent yourself path, these conversations are for you.

➡️ Check out the site: https://whatdoyouknowtobetrue.com/
➡️ Subscribe to the What Do You Know To Be True? newsletter to get insights into each conversation: https://rogerkastner.substack.com/

We're hosted by Roger Kastner and produced by Three Blue Pens. We’re recorded on the ancestral lands of the Duwamish and Suquamish people. To discover more about the land you are on, go to https://native-land.ca

Keywords
#CareerReinvention #reinventyourself #LeadershipDevelopment #PortfolioCareer #CareerPivot #leadershipcoaching #personaldevelopment #RogerKastner

Leadership coach and former Army Lieutenant Colonel Croft Edwards explains why psychological safety isn't built with words, it's built with your nervous system. Your body broadcasts signals long before you speak, and your team reads every one of them. Croft and host Roger Kastner cover the moment his military training collided with a room full of dancing people, why somatic leadership starts with regulating yourself before you can co-regulate anyone else, and why he calls the body "the Holy Grail in coaching and leadership."

Key Takeaways
• Psychological safety isn't just about what you say, it's about what your body is already communicating before you open your mouth
• You cannot co-regulate someone else if you haven't learned to regulate yourself first
• The body receives roughly 11 million data signals per second, but the conscious mind is only aware of about 50 of them
• The most difficult person you will ever lead is yourself
• Somatics means how you show up in your body as a living, breathing entity, not just a metaphor for "gut feeling"

Questions This Episode Answers
• How to create psychological safety? Show up in an open body rather than a guarded one. Your team reads your nervous system before they hear your words, so safety starts with what you're physically communicating, not what you're saying.

• How to regulate my nervous system? Notice the roughly 11 million signals your body takes in per second (even though you're only consciously aware of about 50), and use small physical shifts, like changing posture or opening your hands, to change your state before trying to think your way out of it.

• What is embodied leadership? Leadership that operates through the body, not just the intellect. Somatics is how you show up in your body's full living, breathing capacity, since the body holds intelligence that most leadership development leaves untapped.

• How can I be more authentic as a leader? Recognize that the hardest person you'll ever lead is yourself, and stay honest about your own reactivity, like arrogance or defensiveness, rather than performing confidence you haven't actually built.

Chapters 
0:00 The Body-Armor Moment 
1:04 From Military Command to Ontological Coaching 
8:30 Going Native: How Embodied Leadership Builds Trust 
15:00 Self-Leadership: The Hardest Person You'll Ever Lead 
20:00 The 10,000-Hour Permission Slip 
24:30 The Body Is the Holy Grail in Coaching 
29:30 Nervous System Regulation: 11 Million Signals Per Second 
35:00 How Your Body Creates Psychological Safety 
40:00 One Practice That Changes Everything

Full transcript: https://whatdoyouknowtobetrue.com/video/psychological-safety-your-body-is-the-key-to-unlocking-connections-croft-edwards 

Resources Mentioned
• Croft's company: https://croftandcompany.com/ 
• Croft's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/croftedwards/ 

Watch Next
• Why You Overreact Then Regret It Instantly | Nervous System Regulation with Ashley Douglas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yim5d8FO7Oo&list=PLbWfh34FP_dUcAaCrI31z00_fLdphi6b7&index=13&t=677s

• Is Your Workplace Actually Safe? Nervous System Regulation | Sharon Podobnik Peterson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX6Hs-CQp4c&list=PLbWfh34FP_dUcAaCrI31z00_fLdphi6b7&index=3&t=1522s

• Your Voice Always Tells the Truth, Even If Your Words Don't | Barbara McAfee:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CPwnUdqKwU&list=PLbWfh34FP_dUcAaCrI31z00_fLdphi6b7&index=1&t=1021s

Music in this episode by Amplify Music. 

What Do You Know To Be True? is a personal development and leadership podcast capturing insights and experiences with people who’ve navigated their own reinvention, to be more aligned with their purpose and possibilities. Each conversation offers new perspectives and inspiration for your next move. 

Wherever you are on the reinvent yourself path, these conversations are for you. 

➡️ For insights into each conversation, subscribe to the newsletter: https://rogerkastner.substack.com/ 
➡️ Catch more conversations: https://www.youtube.com/@WDYKTBT?sub_confirmation=1 

We're hosted by Roger Kastner and produced by Three Blue Pens. We’re recorded on the ancestral lands of the Duwamish and Suquamish people. To discover more about the land you are on, go to https://native-land.ca 

#PsychologicalSafety #SomaticLeadership #NervousSystemRegulation #reinventyourself #leadershipdevelopment #personaldevelopment #rogerkastner

Master voice coach, singer, and TEDx speaker Barbara McAfee explains why your imposter syndrome and your most authentic self are running through the exact same instrument, your voice, and why the truth always lives in your belly rather than your head. Barbara walks host Roger Kastner through the five elements of vocal expression (earth, fire, water, metal, air), how internal family systems work applies to the "parts" behind your inner critic, and her central thesis: you can't change your voice without your life coming along for the ride.

Key Takeaways
• Imposter syndrome and your most authentic voice use the same instrument, the question is which one you let speak
• Tone of voice reveals what your words are trying to hide, since the truth lives in your belly, not your head
• Your inner critic is a "part" in internal family systems terms, and it softens when your grounded self, not the part, leads the conversation with it
• Expanding your vocal range literally expands your sense of who you are, it's not just a communication technique
• The five elements framework (earth, fire, water, metal, air) gives you access to vocal registers most people have shut off since childhood

Questions This Episode Answers
• How can I find my voice? Use simple physical entry points into each of the five elements, like yawning like a bear for an earth voice or howling like a wolf for a water voice, rather than trying to think your way into a different sound. Big, playful changes are often easier to access than small, careful ones.
• How to overcome imposter syndrome? Recognize that the same voice powering your inner critic is also the voice of your most authentic self, so the goal isn't to silence it, it's to let the unexpressed parts of you speak safely (through sound, story, or character) instead of leaking out sideways as anger, illness, or shutdown.
• How do I fix my inner critic? Treat it as a "part" that's trying to protect you, not an enemy to defeat. Have a conversation with it and let your grounded, curious self, rather than the activated part, lead that conversation.
• What does a voice coach do? Help people access vocal choices they've shut off, not replace the voice they already have. Barbara's approach is to expand someone's range (through the five elements) so they can match their voice to the moment, whether that's projecting authority or telling a story.

Chapters
0:00 The Shadow Will Speak
1:15 The Five Elements & Barbara's Air Voice Story
3:52 Ancestors, France & The Workshop That Changed Everything
7:03 IFS: The Parts Speaking Through You
9:48 How Secrets & Abuse Live in the Voice
11:23 The Decoder Ring
14:28 A Client Transformation Story
16:24 Why You Cringe at Your Voice 
19:25 Five Elements Practices for Your Voice
24:30 Tone vs Words, Boundaries & Connection
27:26 Coregulation with 1,000 Strangers 
30:20 Trusting Your Multi-Passionate Path
34:59 Training 85 Practitioners & The Next Generation
37:51 "It's Weird and Touchy-Feely" No Longer

Full transcript:  https://whatdoyouknowtobetrue.com/video/your-voice-always-tells-the-truth-even-if-your-words-dont--barbara-mcafee 

Resources Mentioned
• Barbara's website: https://www.barbaramcafee.com/ 
• Barbara's book, "Vocal Intelligence: Leading with Vitality, Presence, and Impact": https://bookshop.org/p/books/vocal-intelligence-leading-with-vitality-presence-and-impact-barbara-mcafee/d7b6df5d69ba9bb6 
• Brain Rats video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOuzuMx9wP4 

Watch Next
• Your Inner Critic Is Trying to Protect You | Janet Livingstone:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOUomW7i2sI&list=PLbWfh34FP_dUcAaCrI31z00_fLdphi6b7&index=20&t=350s

• High-Achievers Stay Stuck For This ONE Reason | Brooklyn Dicent:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qLW1CMu2G8&list=PLbWfh34FP_dUcAaCrI31z00_fLdphi6b7&index=14

• Is Your Workplace Actually Safe? Nervous System Regulation | Sharon Podobnik Peterson: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX6Hs-CQp4c&list=PLbWfh34FP_dUcAaCrI31z00_fLdphi6b7&index=5&t=1610s 

Music in this episode by Amplify Music.

What Do You Know To Be True? is a personal development and leadership podcast capturing insights and experiences with people who’ve navigated their own reinvention, to be more aligned with their purpose and possibilities. Each conversation offers new perspectives and inspiration for your next move. 

Wherever you are on the reinvent yourself path, these conversations are for you. 

➡️ For insights into each conversation, subscribe to the newsletter: https://rogerkastner.substack.com/ 
➡️ Catch more conversations: https://www.youtube.com/@WDYKTBT?sub_confirmation=1 

We're hosted by Roger Kastner and produced by Three Blue Pens. We’re recorded on the ancestral lands of the Duwamish and Suquamish people. To discover more about the land you are on, go to https://native-land.ca 

Keywords
#FindYourVoice #ImposterSyndrome #ExecutivePresence #authenticleadership #personaldevelopment #leadershipdevelopment #reinventyourself #RogerKastner

Sharon Podobnik Peterson, founder of the Center for Conscious Leadership, explains why trauma isn't a diagnosis, it's anything that turns patterns of connection into patterns of protection. She walks host Roger Kastner through the three lenses of trauma-informed leadership, why co-regulation is a leadership skill nobody taught you, and her "unripened tomato effect": how organizations promote emerging leaders before their nervous system capacity can support the role, and then wonder why burnout and imposter syndrome follow.

Key Takeaways
• Trauma is anything that puts sufficient pressure on a system that the response doesn't let it return to homeostasis, not just a single catastrophic event
• Trauma-informed leadership comes down to three questions: am I safe here, do I matter, and am I loved or cared for
• Defensiveness in a conversation is a signal, not a character flaw, it means someone's nervous system has already shifted from connection into protection
• Co-regulation starts with staying in tune with your own nervous system before you can help regulate someone else's
• The "unripened tomato effect": teaching people to perform executive presence without building the underlying capacity for it leads directly to burnout and imposter syndrome

Questions This Episode Answers
• What is trauma? Trauma is anything that puts enough pressure on a system to activate a protective response, and that response doesn't let the system return to its normal state afterward. It's the difference between stress that resolves and stress that gets stuck.

• What is trauma informed leadership? Leadership that engages with people from a place of safety, assuming that everyone you work with has experienced some form of trauma, and looking at nervous system safety through three lenses: the individual, the collective culture, and the systems and structures around them.

• How to not activate a trauma response in others? Stay tuned in to whether the person in front of you is still in connection or has shifted into defensiveness and protection, and give them real choice and agency, like the option to pause a conversation, rather than pushing through.

• How to regulate my nervous system? Start by staying in touch with your own state before trying to help anyone else, since you can't co-regulate someone if you're not already regulated yourself. It's less a single technique than a constant tuning to what's actually present in the room.

Chapters
0:00 What Is Trauma-Informed Leadership?
3:56 Defining Trauma: When Nervous System Regulation Fails
5:21 The Three Lenses of Trauma-Informed Leadership
8:47 Co-Regulation: How Leaders Create Nervous System Safety
13:54 Psychological Safety: Am I Safe? Do I Matter? Am I Loved?
17:00 Burnout Symptoms: The Unripened Tomato Leadership Metaphor
20:29 Holding Space: Sharon's Origin Story & Superpower
36:09 Imposter Syndrome: The Cost of Looking the Part
41:46 Leadership Development As Public Health & Well-Being Requirement

Full transcript: https://whatdoyouknowtobetrue.com/video/is-your-workplace-actually-safe-nervous-system-regulation-sharon-podobnik-peterson

Resources Mentioned
• Sharon's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharonpodobnik/
• The Center for Conscious Leadership: https://www.thecenterforconsciousleadership.com/

Watch Next
• Why You Overreact Then Regret It Instantly | Nervous System Regulation with Ashley Douglas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yim5d8FO7Oo&list=PLbWfh34FP_dUcAaCrI31z00_fLdphi6b7&index=13&t=677s

• Lonely At The Top? Your Nervous System Can Help | Author and TEDx Speaker Kerry-Lyn Stanton-Downes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud41XOScx6Q&list=PLbWfh34FP_dUcAaCrI31z00_fLdphi6b7&index=11&t=2643s 

Music in this episode by Amplify Music. 

What Do You Know To Be True? is a personal development and leadership podcast capturing insights and experiences with people who’ve navigated their own reinvention, to be more aligned with their purpose and possibilities. Each conversation offers new perspectives and inspiration for your next move. 

Wherever you are on the reinvent yourself path, these conversations are for you. 

➡️ For insights into each conversation, subscribe to the newsletter: https://rogerkastner.substack.com/ 
➡️ Catch more conversations: https://www.youtube.com/@WDYKTBT?sub_confirmation=1 

We're hosted by Roger Kastner and produced by Three Blue Pens. We’re recorded on the ancestral lands of the Duwamish and Suquamish people. To discover more about the land you are on, go to https://native-land.ca 

Keywords
#TraumaInformedLeadership #NervousSystemRegulation #PsychologicalSafety
#impostersyndrome #emotionalintelligence #coregulation #personaldevelopment #leadershipdevelopment #reinventyourself #RogerKastner

What if the midlife reinvention you keep postponing isn't waiting for more data or a better plan, it's waiting for you to trust your gut again? For many professionals like you, career reinvention feels too big to trust your intuition and instead let the big decisions be made by spreadsheets, pros-and-cons lists, and taking the safe route of certainty.

Sylvia Taylor calls that inner signal "the sparkle." As an "adapt-ologist" who has navigated career changes across marketing, organizational development, and agile leadership, Sylvia discovered early that her most significant career pivots were never purely logical. They were intuitive. She followed what lit her up, even when the path made no sense on paper.

In this conversation, you will learn:
➡️ How to answer "Who am I beyond my job title?" without spiraling
➡️ Why your gut may be more trustworthy than your brain when considering a career reinvention 
➡️ The difference between hope as a feeling and hope as a daily practice 
➡️ Why hope is an amplifier for adaptability and resilience

=================

Want more info about What Do You Know To Be True?
➡️ Check out the channel: What Do You Know To Be True?
➡️ Subscribe to the What Do You Know To Be True? newsletter to get insights into each conversation: https://rogerkastner.substack.com/
=================

In this conversation, Sylvia introduces the Adaptive Identity Game, a play-based tool she designed to answer the question that surfaces during every midlife reinvention: "If I'm not my job title, who am I?" The answer, she insists, isn't found by updating your LinkedIn profile. It's uncovered by reconnecting with the skills, traits, and metaphors that have been quietly shaping your work all along.

Sylvia shares the tool she created, the Adaptive Identity Game, a play-based tool she designed to answer the question that surfaces during every midlife reinvention: "If I'm not my job title, who am I?" The answer, she insists, isn't found by updating your LinkedIn profile. It's uncovered by reconnecting with the skills, traits, and metaphors that have been quietly shaping your work all along.

In this episode, Sylvia answers the following questions:
➡️ What does reinvent your career mean?
➡️ How can I follow my intuition?
➡️ How accurate are gut feelings?
➡️ How to be more adaptable?

My favorite quote from the episode: 
 "Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer." -Rainer Maria Rilke, from "Letters to a Young Poet"

Resources mentioned in the episode:
➡️ Sylvia's Adaptive Identity Game 

Music in this episode by Ian Kastner.

What Do You Know To Be True?" is an invitation for those who are in the middle of a mid-career reinvention, attempting to pivot from the old version of you, into one that is more aligned with purpose and values, and becoming more of your possible self. 

These conversations are with leaders who have been at that pivot point, who’ve navigated the messy middle, and now creating more meaning in the world through their work. 

Want more info about What Do You Know To Be True? 
➡️ Check out the channel: https://www.youtube.com/@WDYKTBT?sub_confirmation=1   
➡️ Subscribe to the What Do You Know To Be True? newsletter to get insights into each conversation: https://rogerkastner.substack.com/ 

"What Do You Know To Be True?" is hosted by Roger Kastner, is a production of Three Blue Pens, and is recorded on the ancestral lands of the Duwamish and Suquamish people. To discover the ancestral lands of the indigenous people whose land you may be on, go to: https://native-land.ca/

Keywords
#midlifereinvention #reinventyourself #careerchange #intuition #personaldevelopment #leadershipdevelopment #careerreinvention #reinvention #adaptability #personalgrowth #RogerKastner

In this episode, psychotherapist, author, and TEDx speaker, Kerry-Lyn Stanton-Downes, returns to be relational and answer real questions about applying relational capacity to difficult conversations, provide respectful candor in ways that heals not harms, and create emotional co-regulation in the moments that matter most. 

In the original conversation, Kerry-Lyn shared the 8 principles of relational capacity and offered to come back to answer audience-provided questions. This is that episode!

Four audience members sent in specific questions and Kerry-Lyn’s responses went deeper than theory. The questions:
➡️ How can leaders use relational capacity to improve emotional co-regulation?
➡️ How do you address someone's dysregulation with compassion? 
➡️ How do other cultures develop relational capacity that we can learn from?
➡️ Is the choice between being right and staying in relationship actually a false one? 
Thank you, Mark Meadows, Wynne Leon, and April McCormick for the questions!

Her answer to the last question revealed something I didn't expect.

Kerry-Lyn identifies the early warning signal we all recognize but rarely name: the moment "but, but, but" enters your internal dialogue, you've left relational curiosity behind. 

The fix isn't trying harder to convince the other person. It's admitting your own defensiveness out loud, what she calls respectful candor. That single move to vulnerability disarms the entire dynamic and invites both people back to what they're really in service of.

Throughout this conversation, from ubuntu and whakapapa, from leader vulnerability to emotional co-regulation, you'll hear her eight principles of relational capacity surface naturally; not because she's reciting a model, but because she's so deeply embedded in the work that it's become how she sees. 

If you've ever walked away from a difficult conversation wondering if you could have held your ground and held the relationship, this episode was made for you.

*** Don't miss another episode with amazing guests - subscribe here: https://www.youtube.com/@WDYKTBT?sub_confirmation=1 ***

Resources mentioned in the episode: 
➡️ Kerry-Lyn’s Company: https://www.berelational.co.uk/ 
➡️ Kerry-Lyn’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kerry-lyn-stanton-downes 
➡️ Kerry-Lyn’s Substack: https://berelationalnow.substack.com/ 

Music in this episode by Ian Kastner.

What Do You Know To Be True? is a personal development and leadership podcast for professionals discovering, building, or already living into their purpose and possibilities. 

Each episode is a real conversation with a guest who's navigated their own reinvention: from discovering a talent built out of something difficult, to now using their superpower in service of others. Their stories offer new perspective, validate what you already know, and inspire your next move. Wherever you are on that path, these conversations are for you. 

Each conversation gives you something real: a guest's honest story, a practice or perspective you can actually use, confirmation you're on the right path, and you're not alone. 

➡️ Subscribe to the What Do You Know To Be True? newsletter to get insights into each conversation: https://rogerkastner.substack.com/
➡️ Visit us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WDYKTBT?sub_confirmation=1

"What Do You Know To Be True?" is hosted by Roger Kastner, is a production of Three Blue Pens, and is recorded on the ancestral lands of the Duwamish and Suquamish people. To discover the ancestral lands of the indigenous people whose land you may be on, go to: https://native-land.ca/

Keywords
#difficultconversations #nervoussystemregulation #coregulation #personaldevelopment #leadershipdevelopment #reinvention #RogerKastner #reinventyourself

Most leaders know when something is off with their team but they steer clear of the difficult conversation. They sense the tension and the confusion, but they lack the courageous leadership and emotional intelligence to say the thing that everyone wants to hear. building. And the team and results suffer.

Retired U.S. Air Force Colonel DeDe Halfhill says that silence is the single most expensive habit in leadership today, and it's costing leaders the very thing they're working hardest to build.

In this conversation, Roger Kastner sits down with DeDe Halfhill, retired US Air Force Colonel, former advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and now a Leadership Advisor and Speaker, to explore why difficult conversations are not a soft skill, but a high-performance discipline.

From Iraq to the boardrooms of corporate America, DeDe's message is the same: the leaders who build the strongest teams are the ones willing to say the thing nobody else will say.

In this episode you'll discover:
➡️ Why the leaders who "do hard things" are often the ones most afraid to have the hard conversation
➡️ How acknowledging the emotional reality of your team builds more trust than any strategy session
➡️ The moment DeDe realized in Iraq that speaking the truth of a shared experience changes everything
➡️ How psychological safety and difficult conversations are two sides of the same leadership coin

Colonel DeDe Halfhill retired from the U.S. Air Force after 25 years of service, including a deployment to Iraq and an advisory role to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. She now works with organizations and leaders to develop the emotional intelligence and courageous leadership skills that drive real team performance because she's seen firsthand what happens when leaders choose courage over comfort, and what it costs when they don't.

If you've ever sensed something was wrong with your team but stayed quiet to avoid the discomfort this conversation is the permission slip you didn't know you needed.

The difficult conversation isn't the risk. Avoiding it is.
 
Resources mentioned in the episode:
➡️DeDe’s Website
➡️DeDe’s LinkedIn 

Music in this episode by Ian Kastner.

Music in this episode by Ian Kastner.

"What Do You Know To Be True? is a personal development and leadership podcast for professionals discovering, building, or already living into their purpose and possibilities. Each episode is a real conversation with a guest who's navigated their own reinvention: from discovering a talent built out of something difficult, to now using their superpower in service of others. Their stories offer new perspective, validate what you already know, and inspire your next move. Wherever you are on that path, these conversations are for you. 

Each conversation gives you something real: a guest's honest story, a practice or perspective you can actually use, confirmation you're on the right path, and you're not alone. 

➡️ Subscribe to the What Do You Know To Be True? newsletter to get insights into each conversation: https://rogerkastner.substack.com/

"What Do You Know To Be True?" is hosted by Roger Kastner, is a production of Three Blue Pens, and is recorded on the ancestral lands of the Duwamish and Suquamish people. To discover the ancestral lands of the indigenous people whose land you may be on, go to: https://native-land.ca/

Keywords
#difficultconversations #courageousleadership #emotionalintelligence #psychologicalsafety #leadershipdevelopment #mindset #personaldevelopment #leadershipdevelopment #reinvention #RogerKastner #reinventyourself

You know when you are overthinking and second guessing a decision, and then once you make the decision you realize your first instinct was right all along? And then there are the other times when you realize gut was dead wrong. That's the paradox of intuition: it's powerful, but it's not always right. And most advice about it falls into one of two camps: "always trust your gut" or "stick to the data." Neither is the full picture.

In this conversation, Nil Demircubuk makes the case for a third option: discernment. Your intuition is ready but it's one input, not the only input. The real superpower is knowing when to trust it, when to lean on logic, and when to go get more information before you decide.

Nil is an Intuition Facilitator and author of “Down to Earth: Demystify Intuition to Upgrade your Life,” and she although she came to learn her superpower was intuition, her education and vocation were deep into analytics and logic.

Nil introduces "priming" as a practical method to access your intuition on demand, not as a replacement for rational thinking, but as a complement to it. She breaks down how to tell the difference between an intuitive hit and a fear-based story, and offers a framework for making decisions that draws on both your inner knowing and your analytical mind.

If you've been second-guessing decisions you used to make with confidence... if you're tired of going in circles when the stakes are high... this conversation is an invitation to stop overthinking and start discerning.

What you'll take away from this conversation:
☑️ Why "trust your gut" is incomplete advice…and what to do instead
☑️ The priming method: how to intentionally access your intuition on demand
☑️ How to tell the difference between intuition and fear-based thinking
☑️ When intuition is the right input — and when logic or more information is what you actually need
☑️ A simple experiment to try after this episode to strengthen your discernment muscle

In this episode, Nil answers the following questions:
☑️What is intuition?
☑️How to develop intuition?
☑️How to stop overthinking?
☑️How to reduce anxiety?

Resources mentioned in the episode:
-  Nil’s Website: https://nildemircubuk.com/

Music in this episode by Ian Kastner.

What Do You Know To Be True? is a personal development and leadership podcast for professionals discovering, building, or already living into their purpose and possibilities. Each episode is a real conversation with a guest who's navigated their own reinvention: from discovering a talent built out of something difficult, to now using their superpower in service of others. Their stories offer new perspective, validate what you already know, and inspire your next move. Wherever you are on that path, these conversations are for you. 

Each conversation gives you something real: a guest's honest story, a practice or perspective you can actually use, confirmation you're on the right path, and you're not alone. 

Want more info about What Do You Know To Be True? 
➡️ Check out the channel: https://www.youtube.com/@WDYKTBT?sub_confirmation=1 
➡️ Subscribe to the What Do You Know To Be True? newsletter to get insights into each conversation: https://rogerkastner.substack.com/ 

"What Do You Know To Be True?" is hosted by Roger Kastner, is a production of Three Blue Pens, and is recorded on the ancestral lands of the Duwamish and Suquamish people. To discover the ancestral lands of the indigenous people whose land you may be on, go to: https://native-land.ca/ 

Keywords
#Overthinking #intuition #logic #overthinking #howtodevelopintuition #decisionmaking #personaldevelopment #leadershipdevelopment #reinventyourself #RogerKastner