Season Two Finale: highlights and future plans

1 - > Catherine Stagg-Macey: I know from your feedback that you've 2 - > been moved and touched in a variety of ways. And I think 3 - > this is the power of real, meaningful conversations that 4 - > that you can have to whether you dial it up at work or at home, I 5 - > just want to encourage you to, to get beneath the surface that 6 - > feel quite easy to stay on with people in our lives. So yeah. 7 - > Welcome to the final episode of Series Two of unset.

At work, 8 - > I'm your host, Katherine Stagg Macy, and this is the podcast, 9 - > where we've been diving into conversations that we often 10 - > avoid at work. So as we wrap up the series, I want to reflect a 11 - > little on this journey with you, and share what might come next, 12 - > I'd love to stay in touch, feel free to email me Catherine at 13 - > conversations at the edge.co. UK and share whatever topics or 14 - > guests you'd like to hear more of about in the future.

And you 15 - > can also sign up for the weekly newsletter just to continue to 16 - > receive insights and updates. 17 - > That think is in the shownotes. 18 - > Let's take a step back. It was two years ago when I conceived 19 - > this idea of this podcast and it emerged in the aftermath of a 20 - > group coaching program that I launched.

That didn't work. It 21 - > was a complete flop actually, no one signed up. And in the funk 22 - > that came after that one of the great pieces of advice that I 23 - > received at the time was to follow my energy. And what was 24 - > it that was exciting me that would take me out of this funk.

25 - > I'd had this idea of podcast and I kept putting it off because it 26 - > felt like a lot of work. didn't feel like I had the capacity for 27 - > it. But at that time, in that place of funk, I was like yeah, 28 - > that that feels really exciting. 29 - > Like some really creative project.

The prospect of 30 - > creating this podcast and having a platform for the conversations 31 - > was exciting. So we're now can you believe it? 80 episodes in 32 - > and unsent work is in the top 5% of global podcasts. That's a 33 - > stat from listened notes, which looks at the popularity of 34 - > podcasts amongst the 3.

4 million podcasts are out there. So I'm 35 - > really proud. I am so proud of the body of work that exists in 36 - > this podcast. And on this journey.

I've had some fantastic 37 - > conversations, a lot of them that I really wasn't expecting 38 - > in my thought of the idea of what I wanted to cover until at 39 - > work. I very quickly came up with 20 topics 80 episodes in it 40 - > just gives you the depth and the breadth of conversations that I 41 - > didn't think we are having at work. So we had things we've 42 - > touched on what HR really wants you to know about HR, how to 43 - > have hard conversations like that's a perennial theme.

I 44 - > think for all of us the perhaps the more obvious things we 45 - > didn't talk about at work like systems of oppression, including 46 - > racism and anti fatness tips for redundancy, making menopause 47 - > business as usual jokes in the workplace and how to deal with 48 - > them. So yeah, the there is so much in the theme of answered at 49 - > work, but I don't think I even realized that. Perhaps 50 - > interestingly, as well as many guests shared really personal 51 - > experiences that we had to engineer Daniel on here talking 52 - > about her burnout on multiple occasions and how she recovered 53 - > from Mia Hodgkinson, talking very openly about her bipolar 54 - > disorder and how she's managed to find a workplace that can 55 - > embrace and understand that recently there was Rebecca manda 56 - > talking about grieving through the death of her son, her young 57 - > son in the leadership position and coming back to work.

And 58 - > then Mr. heric, talking about being transgender, and what 59 - > that's like in the workplace. So really broad range of very 60 - > personal experiences that I was really touched by how open 61 - > people were willing to share. 62 - > And we've had a really wide range of guests as well, like 63 - > senior leaders and founders, the therapist or breathwork, coach, 64 - > financial advisor, interfaith minister, we've had an inclusive 65 - > language expert, and ADHD specialist and HR consultant, 66 - > like really the whole range of voices on the show, which is 67 - > just thrilled me, I thought I'd share with you like a bit of a 68 - > retrospective here what it is that I'm taking away, because 69 - > perhaps it'll resonate with you whatever project you're taking 70 - > on, whether that's a you're at work, or in your personal life.

71 - > One of the key things for me is this idea of energy. So I said a 72 - > few minutes ago that I'd taken that advice, and used where the 73 - > energy was for me to start this podcast. And I think it's just a 74 - > wonderful way of the for those of us overthinking I'm 75 - > definitely in that category. I was thinking under feel and look 76 - > for data and ROI and sometimes the way the we just need to do 77 - > the project because gives us energy and trust that things 78 - > come out of good things come from that.

And yeah, and to put 79 - > things off because you don't know what the ROI is, I think 80 - > and helpful to yourself. I remember saying what would 81 - > success look like for the podcast and I was looking for 82 - > very hard stats and my business coach said why don't you just 83 - > drop that and follow the energy? 84 - > And I think if I had been very attached Defining what those 85 - > hard stats were I don't think I would have started in if I had, 86 - > I then would have beat myself up for not meeting those data 87 - > points, which are, were just made up how was I to know what 88 - > was possible if I'd never done any of this podcasting before.

89 - > So the second takeaway for me is a reminder about real 90 - > conversations, the real messy, open, honest conversations have 91 - > an impact. I would personally move by lots of stories here. 92 - > Michelle, tacky Bender talks about experiencing racism in the 93 - > workplace. And I remember feeling really angry in the 94 - > conversation with her about her having to deal with that.

But 95 - > then there's also people like Nick marks and Matt Chang who 96 - > have a lot of experience in creating very positive, 97 - > nourishing, thriving kind of cultures and workplaces. And 98 - > those conversations definitely feeling really inspired. So I 99 - > know from your feedback, that you've been moved and touched in 100 - > a variety of ways, and I think this is the power of real, 101 - > meaningful conversations that you can have to whether you dial 102 - > it up at work or at home, I just want to encourage you to, to get 103 - > beneath the surface that feel quite easy to stay on with 104 - > people in our lives.

So yeah, get real. And the final point, I 105 - > would say, is playing the long game as hard but it pays off. I 106 - > attended a podcast show in London a year ago and one of the 107 - > presenters said, podcasting asks that you indie podcasting like 108 - > this asks that you commit to at least three years before you see 109 - > any reward and broader the broader sense financial 110 - > listenership, whatever the matter is, and in a world of, 111 - > you know, 3.4 million podcasts, it's easy to get caught up and 112 - > comparisons of your favorite big podcast.

But what's more 113 - > important is to keep connected as to why you're doing this. And 114 - > what matters to me is that you're here and listening and 115 - > being moved in some way as I am by these conversations, and the 116 - > podcast gave me that opportunity to do that. So whatever 117 - > undertaking that you're on, I would encourage a longer term 118 - > view than perhaps what feels comfortable, perhaps what's 119 - > useful, I think we live in a world that is overly short term 120 - > in their perspective.

And I think we lose add in a lot of 121 - > growth and learning and joy with that very short term focus. So 122 - > play a long game and see what's what becomes available then. So 123 - > as I wrap up here, I want to say that I realized that until it 124 - > worked just by its very native topics is not always easy 125 - > listening. And thank you, thank you for being here and for 126 - > listening.

And I hope if you just take one thing, one thing 127 - > from these early episodes is that you aren't alone in 128 - > whatever your experiences wherever you are in the world, 129 - > wherever your whatever the type of work you're doing, and the 130 - > kind of culture that you're in that you know, and feel that 131 - > you're not alone. And I hope you see your experience reflected 132 - > somewhere in the show with some somebody story. So what next, 133 - > what I'm dialing back on social media podcast activities, at 134 - > least for the summer, giving myself some space back.

And so 135 - > what happens the podcast and interview that I know, I need to 136 - > take a step back and resource myself some more. In order to 137 - > come back I have two ideas that I'm quite excited about. One is 138 - > a bit more evolved advanced than the other. And that one is 139 - > really based around a step that's that I find incredibly 140 - > frustrating.

That until very recently there in the UK, there 141 - > were more CEOs called John than they were female CEOs and the 142 - > footsie 100. So more CEOs called John than female CEOs and 143 - > managers, it's men and there's a similar stand in the US. For the 144 - > top 500 listed companies alerts. 145 - > The name is not John But Richard or deck or Dickie.

They're more 146 - > Richard decks or Dickies than they are female CEOs. And so I 147 - > would really get excited about the idea of interviewing 10 CEOs 148 - > who by their gender or sexual orientation or skin color are 149 - > naturally just underrepresented in the boardroom. And that what 150 - > has there been experience been in getting to the position of 151 - > the CEO because they I think they would have had such a 152 - > different journey and have a different lens on all of this.

153 - > That's the most evolved idea. 154 - > The other idea is less formed. 155 - > And I'm gonna keep quiet on that. For the moment that I'm 156 - > confident that some space and time off from podcasting would 157 - > allow the creative ideas and the capacity for this work to flow 158 - > again, but I have I'm still coaching, still doing what one 159 - > executive coaching and team coaching.

So if that feels like 160 - > something for you or your team, you get in touch, you know, they 161 - > get ahold of me. And as always, there's my weekly newsletter to 162 - > stay in touch with what I'm doing where I'm going inside 163 - > stories that I like to share in that medium. And yeah, thank you 164 - > again for being part of this journey. With answerde at work 165 - > couldn't be here without you're listening is take care.

We will 166 - > read and signing off until the next season.