Work Fame with Leanne Hughes

In this episode, I sit down with the delightful Lisa Evans, who went from midwife and neonatal nurse to executive speaker coach and “story midwife” in her forties. Lisa lost most of her hearing after a virus, had to walk away from a 25-year career, then rebuilt everything with a cochlear implant, public speaking and business storytelling. If you’ve ever told yourself “it’s too late” or “I’m not that type of person,” you need to hear this.

We get into the very real stuff that stops smart people from speaking up, contributing in meetings and leading conversations: self doubt, imposter syndrome, dodgy psychological safety and poorly designed meetings that favour the fastest talker in the room. Lisa also shares a much more useful take on introversion and extroversion, and why “I’m an introvert” isn’t a get-out-of-jail card for hiding.

We also pull back the curtain on how she actually designs workshops for technical leaders in mining and resources, how she works with hybrid rooms, and why “let’s just move it online” is often the worst sentence in L&D.

In this conversation, you’ll hear:

• How a sudden, permanent hearing loss ended Lisa’s midwifery career and forced a complete reset in her forties
• The moment a cochlear implant opened the door to speaking, storytelling and a new professional identity
• What really holds people back from speaking up in meetings, presentations and virtual calls
• Why psychological safety is not a buzzword, it’s a pre-condition for contribution
• Lisa’s take on introversion vs extroversion, and why it’s about how you recharge, not whether you “like people”
• How introverts can be powerful speakers and facilitators without pretending to be someone else
• The specific challenges of working with technical leaders and engineers who are told “tell more stories” but don’t know how
• How Lisa designs her workshops so they’re customised, story-rich and flexible on the day (including how she “over-prepares” her slides so she can cut and pivot live)

• • Why copying someone else’s high-energy style all day is a fast track to burnout and flat rooms

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Show notes for every episode at https://podcast.leannehughes.com

Let's connect on all the channels:

Leanne Hughes on LinkedIn

Leanne Hughes on Instagram

Visit my website: leannehughes.com

Email me: [email protected]

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I brought Sean D’Souza into a live community call and he promptly blew up every assumption we hold about marketing, overwhelm, scale and what it actually takes to run a profitable business without burning your life to the ground.

This is the guy who has taken three months off every year for two decades, runs a wildly loyal global audience with zero drama, and still answers emails like a human. He’s the quietest operator in the room and somehow the one everyone keeps recommending.

In this episode, we get into things founders hate admitting: spreading ourselves thin across 17 platforms, pretending we “should” be everywhere, chasing growth for no reason and ignoring the tiny cracks that are actually costing us clients.

Sean breaks down

• why you’re overwhelmed before you’ve even started

• how to choose your one plate instead of juggling seven

• the real difference between a homepage, a sales page and an article (and why most people butcher all three)

• why your list doesn’t need to be big, it just needs to buy

• how to market without shouting

• why consulting, training and leverage are the only three lanes you need

• how he built a business that funds his life instead of consuming it

If you’re tired of being told to sprint harder, this conversation will reset your thinking fast.

Pre-order my new book WORK FAME and get featured on the Wall of Work Fame

Sign up for free for my best articles every week: Work Fame.

Show notes for every episode at https://podcast.leannehughes.com

Let's connect on all the channels:

Leanne Hughes on LinkedIn

Leanne Hughes on Instagram

Visit my website: leannehughes.com

Email me: [email protected]

Would you like to deliver your own private podcast feed to your audience? Sign up for a free trial today at Hello Audio.

In this episode I unpack the strange little origin story behind one of the biggest rivalries in sport and why it matters far more to your career than you think. It’s a reminder that the move that changes everything is usually the one you nearly talk yourself out of. A journalist in 1882 hit publish on a joke, and 140 years later we’re still living with the ripple effects.

I also share the message I almost didn’t send to Justin Langer and what happened next. The lesson isn’t about cricket. It’s about upside, timing and the tiny asks we overthink into oblivion. If you’re playing small or rationalising your way out of opportunities, this one will sting a little.

Expect stories, strategy, and a call-out on where you might be taking the safe option instead of the smart one.

Pre-order my new book WORK FAME and get featured on the Wall of Work Fame

Sign up for free for my best articles every week: Work Fame.

Show notes for every episode at https://podcast.leannehughes.com

Let's connect on all the channels:

Leanne Hughes on LinkedIn

Leanne Hughes on Instagram

Visit my website: leannehughes.com

Email me: [email protected]

Would you like to deliver your own private podcast feed to your audience? Sign up for a free trial today at Hello Audio.

Today I unpack my love-hate relationship with LinkedIn, because something has shifted and pretending it hasn’t is a waste of time. I’ve been on that platform long enough to know when the vibe changes, and right now the mix of algorithm chaos and AI sludge is killing the experience.

I talk through why I’ve gone from posting daily to posting… barely. Why the dribble in my feed makes me question people’s credibility. And why Substack, of all places, is pulling more of my attention than the platform that built a chunk of my business.

This episode is part confession, part strategy check, and part reality check for anyone who’s relying on a single platform to grow their brand. I also share the unexpected upside of still showing up, including a meeting today that could lead to new work.

If your relationship with LinkedIn feels off right now, this might hit a nerve.

Pre-order my new book WORK FAME and get featured on the Wall of Work Fame

Sign up for free for my best articles every week: Work Fame.

Show notes for every episode at https://podcast.leannehughes.com

Let's connect on all the channels:

Leanne Hughes on LinkedIn

Leanne Hughes on Instagram

Visit my website: leannehughes.com

Email me: [email protected]

Would you like to deliver your own private podcast feed to your audience? Sign up for a free trial today at Hello Audio.

This morning’s episode comes straight from my parked car, because of course I arrived super early for a workshop again. People assume it’s discipline. It’s actually trauma from living near a bridge that collapses into chaos two days out of five. When you’ve been trapped on a 15-minute drive that suddenly becomes a 60-minute crawl, you learn to get ahead of the nonsense.

But today my early arrival came with a twist. The $354 million bridge upgrade finally opened its new lanes this week. And watching it unfold over the last two years has genuinely impressed me. Not because the construction was quick. It wasn’t. It was because the disruption was almost nothing. They managed a massive project in a way that barely touched most people’s day-to-day lives. That’s elite-level execution.

It got me thinking about how often we convince ourselves that big goals must wreck our routines. Training for Everest Base Camp showed me the opposite. If you design the load, you can carry it.

Then there’s the other side of the bridge metaphor. Are we actually solving the traffic problem, or just pushing the bottleneck further down the road? And how often do we do that in life and business? Delay decisions. Avoid clarity. Say yes to things our future selves will resent. Pretend the problem will magically disappear if we inch it a few kilometres out of sight.

Sometimes the bravest move is pulling the issue into the present and asking the uncomfortable question: “If I had to do this today, would I say yes?”

Anyway, I'm off to find a coffee before the room opens. Enjoy the episode.

Pre-order my new book WORK FAME and get featured on the Wall of Work Fame

Sign up for free for my best articles every week: Work Fame.

Show notes for every episode at https://podcast.leannehughes.com

Let's connect on all the channels:

Leanne Hughes on LinkedIn

Leanne Hughes on Instagram

Visit my website: leannehughes.com

Email me: [email protected]

Would you like to deliver your own private podcast feed to your audience? Sign up for a free trial today at Hello Audio.

Today I’m taking you behind the scenes of a values project I’m running for a client who has operated for twenty years with no formal values. They now want clarity for the next twenty years, and my job is to help them create values that aren’t generic, fluffy or destined to die on a wall.

I walk through how I’ve set this up: collecting real employee stories, stripping out my own bias, keeping the integrity of their language, then preparing a core group of twenty to come together tomorrow for the heavy lifting. I share exactly what I’ve told them to expect, why they’ll probably get annoyed with me, and the traps teams fall into when they chase nice-sounding words rather than decision-making tools.

You’ll hear the three things I’m setting them up with:

1. Their actual role in the room
2. What good values really feel like when they’re not corporate wallpaper.
3. The red flags that show you’re playing small, copying the ASX top 500 and kidding yourself that “integrity” is a differentiator.

I also talk about why stories are non-negotiable, why values are ultimately about trade-offs, and why the hardest part isn’t writing them but operationalising them into the day-to-day reality of the business.

If you’ve ever tried to define values or need to refresh the ones you’ve got, this episode will give you a sharper lens and a few hard truths.

Pre-order my new book WORK FAME and get featured on the Wall of Work Fame

Sign up for free for my best articles every week: Work Fame.

Show notes for every episode at https://podcast.leannehughes.com

Let's connect on all the channels:

Leanne Hughes on LinkedIn

Leanne Hughes on Instagram

Visit my website: leannehughes.com

Email me: [email protected]

Would you like to deliver your own private podcast feed to your audience? Sign up for a free trial today at Hello Audio.

Today’s episode is a look behind the curtain at what actually happens when you come home from a massive trip and try to slot straight back into “normal life”. Spoiler: nothing feels normal. I’m juggling a big work week, a suddenly superhuman Peloton ranking, a weighted vest obsession, and a social calendar that went from zero to unhinged in 48 hours.

I also talk about a documentary that cracked me open in a way I didn’t expect, the type of planning philosophy that secretly keeps entrepreneurs stuck, and the one question that hit me like a brick while mapping out 2026.

Pre-order my new book WORK FAME and get featured on the Wall of Work Fame

Sign up for free for my best articles every week: Work Fame.

Show notes for every episode at https://podcast.leannehughes.com

Let's connect on all the channels:

Leanne Hughes on LinkedIn

Leanne Hughes on Instagram

Visit my website: leannehughes.com

Email me: [email protected]

Would you like to deliver your own private podcast feed to your audience? Sign up for a free trial today at Hello Audio.

This week I’m talking with someone who knows exactly what it takes to shift people out of old habits and into new ways of thinking and behaving.

Yoke van Dam is a behavioural change coach, facilitator and leadership trainer with deep expertise in NLP, emotional intelligence, communication and sales. What I love about Yoke is her ability to take big, psychological concepts and translate them into practical tools leaders can actually use. She’s also got sixteen years of corporate and consulting experience, so she understands the reality of organisations, not just the theory.

In this conversation we unpack the real mechanics behind behavioural change: why one-off workshops rarely create breakthroughs, how to get results through repetition and follow-through, and what NLP looks like when it’s applied in the wild, not in a textbook. Yoke shares strong examples around reframing, language patterns, and dealing with difficult groups, plus a fascinating breakdown of how to create your own PR and position yourself as someone worth paying attention to.

If you’re a facilitator, coach, speaker or leader who wants people to actually change, not just nod along, this episode gives you the tools, language and structure to make that happen.

• NLP techniques create new neural pathways, but they only stick through repetition
• Reframing language is incredibly effective in conflict and client conversations
• One-off workshops give insight, but long-term coaching creates transformation
• The facilitator’s role is to stay neutral, stay present and listen beyond the surface
• PR isn’t luck — it’s targeted outreach, relevance and credibility signals
• People won’t trust your pitch if they can’t find proof of you online
• Energy shifts when you go live on camera — structuring sessions around that matters
• You build a reputation by showing your work consistently, not waiting to be discovered

Pre-order my new book WORK FAME and get featured on the Wall of Work Fame

Sign up for free for my best articles every week: Work Fame.

Show notes for every episode at https://podcast.leannehughes.com

Let's connect on all the channels:

Leanne Hughes on LinkedIn

Leanne Hughes on Instagram

Visit my website: leannehughes.com

Email me: [email protected]

Would you like to deliver your own private podcast feed to your audience? Sign up for a free trial today at Hello Audio.

This week I’m exploring how something as simple and tactile as Lego can open people up, shift conversations, and spark ideas in ways most traditional workshops can’t touch. My guest is Michael Fearne, founder of Pivotal Play and an expert in Lego Serious Play. He works with everyone from startup founders to corporate leaders, helping them break out of business-as-usual thinking and communicate in more human, meaningful ways.

What I loved about this conversation is how practical and grounded Michael is. He cuts through the myths, the scepticism, and the “I’m not creative” excuses we all hear in workshops. He explains why Lego Serious Play isn’t about building pretty models, it’s about generating insights, levelling power dynamics, and surfacing the stories and ideas people usually keep buried. We also talk through the messy parts: the sceptical participants, the leadership roadblocks, the workshop that went off the rails, and how he learned to handle high-stakes groups with more confidence and clarity.

If you’re a facilitator, trainer, leader or someone who wants a more reliable way to get every voice in the room heard, you’ll get a lot from this one. And if you’re curious about using Lego in your own work, Michael has literally written the book on it and breaks the method down step by step.

• Lego Serious Play is a tool for thinking, not a toy activity
• It democratises conversation by giving every participant a structured voice
• The value is in the stories, not the “model building”
• Reliability matters more than novelty in workshop design
• You must choose clients and environments that match your style
• Leadership groups with fixed mindsets can derail a process if you don’t manage them
• Physical tools work brilliantly in virtual spaces when designed intentionally
• Preparation and environment matter more than most facilitators admit
• A repeatable warm-up sequence builds trust and confidence every time
• Writing a book forces you to codify what you actually know

Pre-order my new book WORK FAME and get featured on the Wall of Work Fame

Sign up for free for my best articles every week: Work Fame.

Show notes for every episode at https://podcast.leannehughes.com

Let's connect on all the channels:

Leanne Hughes on LinkedIn

Leanne Hughes on Instagram

Visit my website: leannehughes.com

Email me: [email protected]

Would you like to deliver your own private podcast feed to your audience? Sign up for a free trial today at Hello Audio.

Today's Work Fame article. Read it / comment over at: https://www.workfa.me/

In today’s episode, I’m taking you behind the scenes of my Everest Base Camp trip. And no, this isn’t a hiking podcast now. This is about what happens when you say yes to something you feel wildly unqualified for, and then get punched in the face by altitude, exhaustion and your own self-doubt.

I share the email that kicked off the whole adventure, the training and prep I underestimated, and the three reasons EBC is tougher than people think. More importantly, I unpack the six lessons I walked away with that have nothing to do with hiking and everything to do with how you lead, create and make decisions when you’re stretched past your comfort zone.

Highlights include

• why the only safe step on ice is a committed one

• how invisible “tightness” limits your performance

• the hidden wall-and-river sitting inside every “quick job”

• what happens when you can’t escape discomfort

• the real gap between what your mind says and what your body can actually do

• how fear shrinks with repetition, not reflection

If you want a raw look at resilience, capability, and what you learn when convenience disappears, this one will hit home.

Pre-order my new book WORK FAME and get featured on the Wall of Work Fame

Sign up for free for my best articles every week: Work Fame.

Show notes for every episode at https://podcast.leannehughes.com

Let's connect on all the channels:

Leanne Hughes on LinkedIn

Leanne Hughes on Instagram

Visit my website: leannehughes.com

Email me: [email protected]

Would you like to deliver your own private podcast feed to your audience? Sign up for a free trial today at Hello Audio.