The hiatus explained and the future of Make it Thrive

Hi everyone and welcome back to Make It Thrive. It has been a while since I have posted any new episodes, especially since I launched Behind the Brand as a season and I wanted to come on and explain what's been going on behind the scenes and why there has been a pause because it is very unlike me to stop a project or for it to kind of not naturally come to a close and the perfectionism tendency in me is really screaming so I thought I would fill you in essentially and let you know what's been going on why there's been no new episodes of behind the brand and just some ponderings from me I suppose because as my listeners, as my loyal audience who have stuck with me for so many seasons, I just thought it was only fair that I share where my head has been at.

So let's talk about behind the brand. So when I launched this season I was super excited to have an amazing list of brands who I admire and I admire their culture. I admire what they represent. And I really loved the idea of going behind the scenes and hearing about how they work.

And the three brands that I did do episodes with, Vivo Barefoot, Miro and Timpsons, are all brands that I still hugely believe in. But I was due to interview a brand who I admire and it came to my attention that they had two situations currently happening in their culture. One around racism and another around sexism. Two incidents that I was made aware of that the company weren't following through on.

And I heard this from a very good source and I simply couldn't out of the integrity of myself of this podcast allow that brand to come on and kind of celebrate their culture and I told them that I knew about these situations and gave them the opportunity to talk to me about it and they just dismissed it and I was so disappointed in their reaction to these cases that I just couldn't out of my my core beliefs be let them sort of come on the podcast and that was really hard for me so we had to cancel the recording and from then on I was just in this really strange place of wondering whether I wanted to continue the series because I was very fortunate that with the previous brands that I've interviewed they are very vulnerable and very open about the challenges they have had and absolutely there is no such thing as like a perfect culture.

I hope that hasn't come across on this podcast that we're kind of putting companies up on a pedestal that have got it all completely perfect and correct. But what I can't handle is brands who are culture washing and making out that everything is amazing and wanting to make out that everything is amazing and not having the vulnerability and authenticity to deal with very important challenges head on. So that is why I came to the decision that I was going to finish the behind the brands season.

And I just couldn't, I couldn't go through through with it essentially, which is so unlike me. And as much as I wanted to source other brands or kind of pioneer through, they then just sat with me for a moment where I thought, I'm not sure that this is the season I want to continue as it is. It just doesn't feel right. There was this instinct in me that I no longer wanted to pursue this theme so that is why it has gone on pause there has also been a lot of evolution going on behind the scenes as you will know I picked up and started my YouTube channel again last year So that has got some momentum going behind it If you haven checked out my YouTube channel yet, it's Lizzie at Liberty Mind.

If you want to go and see what I'm doing there but I just had this realization that I am kind of toying with the idea of changing my business Liberty Mind and I think therefore the podcast also needs to go through that same evolution as those of you know who have listened to the podcast for a long time because it's been going for gosh like seven seven years now oh my gosh so long and I've gone through this evolution of actually I adore new ways of working self-managing organizations progressive work and that is where my passion is that's where all of my training and specialism has been and my personal professional development has been dedicated to and I just don't feel like I want to do generic culture anymore and the broad the broad version of culture as we know it and as well even the word culture has been so ambiguous for a while and everyone takes such a different interpretation of it that I just don't think the word culture is actually helping anyone or helping us get to the root cause and the problems and the challenges that we're facing.

So I am going through this evolution at the moment of the business. So while that's happening, the podcast is going to go on pause. The other thing that I've noticed is that, as you all know, I've never done video content for this podcast, really. It's always been audio format.

And I'll be honest it's really hard keeping up with other the trends of people wanting video content from a podcast and I just simply don have the facilities to facilitate that especially when a lot of my guests are international and trying to get us in the same place at the same time in the same room with all of the good audio quality and good visuals is simply not an option at the moment. Something I would love to do in the future. So while I'm going through this evolution, the podcast will probably also go through an evolution.

So I don't know when my next season is going to be. I'm going to contemplate what the podcast is and what I want it to represent and the conversations that I want to bring forward. I always loved the idea of it being a different chapter of a book each kind of month or season but even that might change. so who knows everything everything is out I've chucked it all out and I'm starting again basically guys and that's where I'm at so it's probably not the most eloquent episode or the most detailed really it's probably just a lot of rambling so I do apologize but I just wanted to be very honest about where I was at and I will keep you posted of when the next yeah when the next evolution of the podcast comes alive and in the meantime if you want to stay connected with me um you know find me on LinkedIn by all means and also um come see me on YouTube I'm sharing all sorts of things so it'd be great to see you there as well but thank you from the bottom of my heart for being part of my audience, for being a listener, for giving me the faith in this podcast.

You know, I love hearing when an episode has resonated with people. And I've just had so much fun getting to speak to some of the phenomenal guests that I've had on. So thank you for helping me continue over these past years that I have. And it is, it's not a goodbye, it's a see you later.