Beautiful Mess

EP16: Amber Williams..."I will never say that there are four stages, seven stages...whatever stages of grief..."

This conversation with Amber Williams was a genuine light bulb learning process for me...
Amber has an exceptional story related to her work as a nurse, arriving at oncology a little later in her nursing career...and then following where life unexpectedly took her next with such courage and commitment.
Amber has also experienced grief in many different ways and the story we focus on here is the loss of her husband Carl in October 2021.
Tune in for an incredible conversation about grief, loss, faith and so many other nuggets!
Amber's work is now also focused on grief coaching... zeroing in on female healthcare professionals who, as Amber herself did, feel burnt out, stressed or who want to keep work from affecting the rest of their life.
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amberwilliams09/
Website: https://www.thegoldengraph.com/

EP15: Lyndsay Dowd: "...What am I really good at? What do I love to do? And how can I help people the most?"

Introducing the iiiincredible Lyndsay!!Lyndsay Dowd is a Speaker, Founder, Author, Coach, Podcast Host, and Disruptor.  She is an accomplished leader, decorated seller and has successfully managed large, diverse, high-performing sales teams over the last 25 years. 23 of those years were spent climbing the ranks at IBM. Lyndsay was also a Featured Guest Lecturer at Harvard University. 
In creating her company, Heartbeat for Hire, she has devoted her career to transforming leadership through building irresistible culture and modern leadership practices to get the best results from their teams.  She has been featured in Fortune Magazine, HR.Com, Authority Magazine, ABC, NBC, FOX and more than 90 podcasts. Lyndsay is a 2 time author  for both “Top Down Culture” and a contributing author to the anthology “Voices of Women.” She also hosts the top 5% globally ranked podcast, Heartbeat for Hire, and is a frequent guest speaker on live and recorded shows.
 Today she is the Chief Revenue Officer for Intry where they are merging the best of technology with the best of humanity to help job seekers and those in transition land the jobs of their dreams.LinkedinInstaFacebookTikTokYouTube Channel

EP14: Nadia Nagamootoo..."Beyond Discomfort: Why inclusive leadership is so hard (and what you can do about it)

Introducing the amazing "Nadia Nagamootoo"...
Nadia Nagamootoo (she/her) is a prolific diversity, equity & inclusion thought leader, a global keynote speaker, award-winning businesswoman, and best-selling author.
Nadia’s work is driven by her purpose to create ripples of change in every organisation and person she touches; striving for a world where everyone feels like it was designed for them.
She is boldly challenging our understanding of leadership, pushing for leaders to recognise the deep, inner work needed if they are to truly embody conscious inclusion.
Nadia has shared her thought leadership in organisations such as PwC, Nestlé, Kingfisher, European Women in Boards, CBRE, Pure Data Centres Group, Henley Centre for Coaching and many more!  She has also moderated panel discussions at global conferences and events, and joined as a guest on a number of podcast shows, such as Confessions of a DEI Pro with Ashanti Bentil-Dhue, Seize the Day with Natalie Miller-Snell, and All Inclusive with Natasha Rainey.Avenir Website: https://www.avenirconsultingservices.com/
Nadia's Website: https://www.nadianagamootoo.com/
YouTube ChannelInstaLinkedinNadia's publisher is offering a 35% off my book until 31st March for IWD - available on their website: https://practicalinspiration.com/Finally, check out the early bird offer for Nadia's Beyond Discomfort Retreat in June: https://www.beyond-discomfort.com/retreat.

Joe Jacobi: Gold Medal Winner Shares Golden Insights about life as an Olympian

An incredible conversation with Olympian Joe Jacobi.
Joe is an American former slalom canoeist who competed from the mid-1980s to the mid-2000s. Competing in two Summer Olympics, he won a gold medal in the C2 event at Barcelona in 1992.
This episode is recorded from his home in La Seu d'Urgell, Catalonia, Spain.Joe shares fantastic life evolutions by virtue of being there.As well as sharing beautiful stories about his family, struggles and triumphs.
Moving to Catalonia was not about reliving or associating really with the success of having won the Olympics many, many years ago.Joe shares why he loves being there for many reasons.We hear his life story from being born and raised in Washington DC, and how his love of love of nature began there, learning to paddle from a young age.Joe's insights are golden and his passion for his sport is very clear throughout our Beautiful Mess conversation. I loved every moment of this!!!
 
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobijoe/
Learn more from Joe Jacobi here: http://joejacobi.com/
Book: Slalom
Did you find value in this episode?  Kindly give the Beautiful Mess podcast a 5-star review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you may listen to podcasts. 
Beautiful Mess Podcast.
Thank you for listening! 
https://beautifulmesspodcast.podbean.com/

Jen Laffin: Converting Inner Doubt to Perseverance and Passion.

Jen Laffin is a former teacher turned mindset coach. She joins Isabel to discuss overcoming self-doubt, imposter syndrome, and procrastination.
Her teaching career, filled with the challenges of educating the whole child, has given her the tools to help individuals achieve their goals. From being a social worker and a psychologist for her students to now coaching adults to get past their self-doubt, Jen’s journey is a testament to perseverance and passion.
Jen’s story explores navigating the messy middle of any journey, the importance of mindset, and how to transform limiting beliefs into catalysts for growth. Jen's beautiful narrative will leave you inspired and equipped with practical advice to tackle your own struggles.
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jen-laffin/
Learn more from Jen Laffin by listening to The Flight School Podcast.
Did you find value in this episode?  Kindly give the Beautiful Mess podcast a 5-star review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you may listen to podcasts. 
Beautiful Mess Podcast.
Thank you for listening! 
https://beautifulmesspodcast.podbean.com/
 

Jiten Patel: Stigma of Exclusion to Maximizing Diversity Through Inclusion

How we frame things can change the outcomes. 
Jiten didn't speak English when he first went to school in the UK.  None.   He felt isolated, confused, and alone. . 
When new students, who also didn't speak much English, were assigned seats next to Jiten, offered a perspective to truly feel the stigma of exclusion. 
Isabel, our host, dives a little deeper with Jiten to reflect on these childhood experiences and how that shaped Jiten's future. 
Jiten utilized Project Management skills to create new paths in diversity and inclusion. 
Has your childhood shaped your future in a meaningful way? Leave a comment to let us know your story! 
Feel free to connect with Jiten Patel on LinkedIn or explore his resources about synchronized diversity available and diversync.co.uk. 
 

Tom Doherty: Teen parents, Pivot or Perish, and D-Suite @ Facebook.

We were all born to matter and have gifts to share with the world.That's Tom Doherty's life mission. 
Listen to Isabel navigate through Tom's Beautiful Mess called life.  Tom's incredible story stems from challenges and chaos of childhood as he was raised by two teenage parents, challenges and chaos from childhood.  As well, how he found himself as "the fixer" and National Director for Facebook is Silicon Valley. 
Power Takeaways on this episode of Beautiful Mess:
When you grow up in an environment where you don't know where you're going to be from one day to the next, you're resilient.
What it meant to become a father.
How we show up for our children..."I spend time with them and I love them...it's that simple".
They used to call me "the cleaner" ...I would fly in and fix accounts and fly out again.
The reality of "empty nest syndrome".
Leading teams through the pandemic..."pivot or perish".
Tom's message is #born2matter
...and so so much more!!!!
 
Connect with Tom on LinkedIn: 
http://linkedin.com/in/thomas-dohertyjr
Does Tom's story resonate with you? Tell us how in the comments. We'd love to hear from you. 
 
 

Zora Lazarov: Exploring psychological unsafety

Zora speaks with us about her ‘jump’ from working for a number of high end organisations…Including Apple, Deloitte, Ericsson, Ikea and Syngenta to name a few…as a psychologist, senior people partner numerous leadership teams…to becoming a ‘mumpreneur’ who works with mindset and behaviour disruption.
Through this work Zora crafts really concrete and tangible journeys for leaders to evolve not only their career, but also the evolution of their overall wellbeing.
We cover a lot  in this conversation and I cannot wait for you to tune in.
Zora brings us so much wisdom from her insights in the arenas of neurodiversity, behaviour change, disruption, psychological unsafety, and our day to day choices.
 
Power Takeaways:
20 years in corporate human resources.
Being a mumpreneur in ‘growth phase’.
Exploring how Zora’s ADHD has played out in her life.
Emotional regulation and impulse control.Thanking ADHD for giving Zora the courage to jump out of Apple.
Relating impulsive decisions to buying dogs and houses (and whirlpools!) 
When male executives are given the space and opportunity to take off the harness
We often see the ‘A’ in the alpha male as one thing…very quickly it can turn to Anxiety or Apathy.
To help ‘armour down’ and to offer powerful tools for these leaders so that they have choice over their behaviour again.
What does it mean to have psychological unsafety?
Exploring what “beautiful mess” means to Zora.
Connecting this framework to parenting her two children.
Planting the seeds of her business in the garden of growth…and we have to be ok with our garden looking like a beautiful mess of a garden.
 
Resources Mentioned:
Zora’s website: https://www.zoralazarov.com/Zora’s linkedin: linkedin.com/in/zoralazarov
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@zoralazarovInsta: https://www.instagram.com/zoralazarov

E08: Steve Arntz....‘Universal access to meaningfully connected experiences that inspire people to live better lives together

Steve Arntz is the co-founder of ‘Campfire’...and a father and a husband.
Steve speaks about realising what ‘family first’ really means to him…what it really feels like to commit to that statement. 
We hear about Steve’s spouse and children. 
We hear how Steve has managed to get back to his family being the centre of his world and how challenging that has been throughout his entrepreneurial journey.
Steve speaks very openly about what Campfire means to him and all he is building with this work as a founder, parent and entrepreneur.
His mission statement with this work is so powerful:‘Universal access to meaningfully connected experiences that inspire people to live better lives together’.
We explore the seed of why Steve wanted to build this platform and all it provides to support his ‘augmented humanity’ mission with the work and technology he’s building with Campfire. 
The three questions that started everything…
What got you to this place right here? 
Where do you want to go? 
How are you planning to get there?
People just loved these conversations…and still do!
How creating a pack of cards based on thousands of hours of research began the process towards Campfire.
A conversation filled with honesty, integrity and inspiration.
Power Takeaways:
We can trick ourselves into thinking that work first equals family first…especially if your mission driven then work becomes first and family comes second.
It’s taken 15 years to know and feel that family first = family first. 
The mission of Campfire is true and real.
Mission Statement: ‘universal access to meaningfully connected experiences that inspire people to live better lives together’.
How universal access to conversations and connection for people everywhere. 
Technology built that supports facilitated guided spaces.
Reference to Esther Perel’s alternative meaning when she speaks about “AI”...’Artificial Intelligence’.
‘Augmented humanity’ …how can we start to see technology as a way to bring out our humanity and accentuate our humanity we will ‘win’.
The power of asking the question ‘why are you here?’ and ‘what do you want to have happen next?’.
Asked the three questions and then mapped out the data that came back.
How the physical sketches that inspired this work started.
How building a deck of cards was the start of this.
How Steve has moved from being (self confessed) self centric and moved across to ‘others centric’. It can take years!!
How he is devoted to building conversations for people. 
Find the most important relationship in your life and what is the one thing I can do to enhance, build or make that relationship better. 
Resources Mentioned:
https://www.getcampfire.com/
https://www.stevearntz.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevearntz/

E07: Keri-Lynne Shaw …”you are allowed to love what you do and get the pay to match…I love helping people learn how to advocate for themselves and I do think it’s what I was meant to do”

Keri-Lynne Shaw describes herself as a …..
KL describes how much power the phrase has for her when it comes to life and when it comes to career.
We explore the frequent ‘mucky/messy’ situations that KL has come across as a Chief People Officer. How important it is to talk about these messy situations, and how by talking about it allows us to explore the difficult situations we discover in our work.
Most people do not like to have messy conversations. 
There has to be something we pay attention to when it comes to being a leader. Most organisations will cut the development budget first…and so the support isn’t there…and so many leaders do not take the initiative to build self awareness and hold themselves accountable.
The importance of failure, and how in some organisations that either do not allow failure at all…or the fear overrides everything, people cannot grow.
 
How our children can be so different to us, and how we can learn from them.As a parent…there are a few years through the teenage years, you feel like the dumbest person on the planet. 
We don’t have a playbook on being a parent…and the messages that matter most.
We include three diamond questions! 
What do you love?
What are really really good at?
How do you want to make an impact on the world?
The beautiful leaders and the ‘horrible’ leaders…and how we can learn so much from both.
Power Takeaways:
The belief that I have to somehow divide my work and my life …and it’s so important that we get to choose.
It’s such a beautiful idea that we get to see beauty in the mess.
There is no straight line…not in parenting, not in career…not in anything!
Turning failure into learning…everything is learning.
The importance of hiring a coach when you get stuck.
There’s only two things I can control…1. How I show up, and 2. How I treat others… and the rest of it is not up to me.
When we’re triggered, it’s on us to get curious. 
We cannot control other people’s ‘shut down’ or trigger.
Our communication can always be finessed.
How do you think about the red thread in your life and in your career?
You only have a short window to tell your story…and understanding how to tell that story will help you identify the values that match with the company you’re interviewing with.
How to do the money conversation…how to present it and when to present it.
You won’t get to the money conversation until you’ve done your work on the ‘red thread’.
Taking the time to understand yourself, and your value add.
You want the other person to be in a situation where they cannot imagine the world without you.
Leaders that believe in us give us the confidence to do more, and want more and allow us to take the risks.
Feel what you feel when you feel it, and don’t apologise for it.
We need more emotion in work…we need to see those big feelings.
Resources Mentioned:
The Salary Bump
Instagram: @thesalarybump
TikTok: @thesalarybump
Linkedin