Productive Flourishing Podcast

In this special anniversary episode, Charlie Gilkey and Maghan Haggerty reflect on the five-year milestone of Start Finishing , diving deep into its impact on their lives, the lives of their community, and Productive Flourishing’s evolution over the past 17 years. They explore how doing your best work transforms you as an individual and creates ripple effects for leaders and their entire teams. To...

Topics We Explored: * Mo Bunnell’s new book Give to Grow and why it makes sense to focus on relationships and a giving mindset as the foundation for long-term business success. * How to define business development and distinguish it from pure sales, as well as the importance of strategic helpfulness in developing a business or career. * The logic behind providing value upfront through small projec...

Note to the reader: Team Habits , my most recent book, was released one year ago this week. You might also be aware of Productive Flourishing’s sister publication, Better Team Habits , a spin-off of the book. We’ve had incredible moments over on BTH in the past year. For those not subscribed to both publications I’d like to celebrate the book’s anniversary by sharing with you a singular podcast ep...

Earlier this month Leadership Beyond Borders re-released an episode I did with them a while back, alongside host Kimberli J. Lewis. The conversation centered on how team habits apply in international, remote, and diverse organizations, and to change management. We discussed the need for clear communication as a team habit, with specific channels and protocols, especially on remote and geographical...

I had the pleasure of joining forces recently with Andy Kaufman, current host of The People and Projects Podcast , to discuss team habits — specifically, the high cost of ignoring them — and how and why team habits ultimately shape team culture and performance. Our conversation touched on a variety of generative topics, including offering some practical approaches to:  * enhancing team dynamics *...

Gary Bertwistle (of Mojo Sessions fame) and I had this meeting of minds back in February — truly jamming together over substantial territory: from the need to acknowledge change and challenges in the modern workplace, to building trust and autonomy in teams, and techniques for aligning habits, communication, and belonging. I hope you’ll get as much out of it as I did.  Topics We Explored:  * The n...

Many of us would likely agree on the fact that the dominant, central power structures that make up our system need some reform. That goes for institutions large and small, whether we’re talking about a particular startup company or the global economy. But what is change supposed to look like, and how does it come about? If I could offer one of the basic tenets from Team Habits , it’s that we start...

Key Takeaways: [3:24] Charlie’s background and why he decided to become an entrepreneur. [9:16] It typically takes 18 months to 36 months just to figure out what you're doing as an entrepreneur. [13:13] Mark talks about his career journey from going to film school to going to a corporate company at a franchise company making videos. There, he started to look at which projects he enjoyed the most a...

Key Takeaways: [2:57] Ruby and Eric discuss some of the unique delights and challenges of being part of a writing trio. [7:45] What is the bridge between this book and Morag’s book Cultivate: The Power of Winning Relationship ? [8:05] What are the intentional choices you can make to build ally relationships? [12:44] Ruby and Eric break down the five components of an ally mindset: abundance and gen...

Key Takeaways: [6:20] We are in a media environment that is saturated with messages about how much more we could be doing. [7:27] Charlie, Jenny, and Tara define capacity and what that means to them. [10:51] What are some of the things that can make working in a team overwhelming? [14:17] When our world gets too big, we tend to get disengagement and boredom. [15:38] The difference between rigidity...

Key Takeaways: [3:13] Jennifer discusses finding her voice in the workplace equality movement as a professional, a member of the LGBTQ+ community, and someone who recognizes their privilege. [5:25] Jennifer talks about carrying the LGBTQ identity as a source of challenge, and using it as a vehicle to transform her own leadership. [12:22] When getting leaders and insiders to enact lasting change, w...

Can magic strike twice? As we learn in this episode, it most certainly can. Charlie welcomes Jadah Sellner, best-selling author, business coach, and the host of the Lead with Love podcast. Jadah shares wisdom from her own experience of going from the “green smoothie girl” to an anti-hustle and pro-sustainable leadership business coach. Jadah talks more about her #shebuilds movement, which helps fo...

Key Takeaways: [4:36] Tara talks about what led her to create the What Works book, a blend of her own personal quest to re-establish her relationship with work and goals, mixed with conversations with people who had all sorts of different relationships to productivity and goals. [6:08] In the process of Tara’s research for the book, it brought up a deeper conversation of how much culture, family,...

Key Takeaways: [4:17] Mark talks about the experience of almost dying from a rare form of lymphoma when he was in his 30s, and how it was the introduction to facing the unavoidable work of the friction that comes with life. [5:32] We must face what is done to us, but we are more than what has been done to us. [5:41] Mark talks about how the pandemic showed our generation it’s time to learn to choo...

Key Takeaways: [4:54] Lisa would consider herself mentally ambidextrous. She likes structure and hard problems but also enjoys free thinking. Both these qualities help her as a storyteller and entrepreneur. [5:04] Lisa talks about deciding that she wanted more out of early retirement than sitting and eating pancakes all day! [8:36] As a polymath, you can both be multidisciplinary and singularly fo...

If you’ve ever wanted to do interesting projects with friends and family but traditional business ownership models didn’t feel quite right, this episode is for you. Kate Strathman is an artist, writer, and rebellious spirit. As a multidisciplinary business owner, Kate taps into each of these traits to help others build equitable team structures and dream up alternative business models that may hav...

This week, New York Times bestselling author and essayist Esmé Wang joins the show. Esmé first talks about growing up with immigrant parents, and how that shaped her ideas of accomplishments and what it meant to succeed as a creative. She details how she went on to go to Yale, became a scientist, and then veered onto the path of writing and how her illness taught her to just “be” instead of always...

Tara Newman is the Founder and CEO of the Bold Profit Academy and host of the Bold Money Revolution. She joins the show today for a conversation about the importance of remembering why most of us start businesses and seek out entrepreneurship, how common growth strategies can lead to a lack of resiliency, and how service providers can avoid the mindset of selling themselves. This is a great episod...

Steven Kotler is a New York Times bestselling author, an award-winning journalist, and founder and executive director of the Flow Research Collective. He joins the show to talk about how we can access flow and empathy during times of crisis, and how we can learn from the innovation over the pandemic and keep it as we move forward. Steven also talks about the inspiration behind his best-selling thr...

In this episode, Angela is back as we discuss why it’s important for founders, business owners, and entrepreneurs of all kinds to consider a sabbatical or a “ slow batical.” Just as it sounds, a slowbatical is a time to slow down, recover, and recharge from career stresses. As a society, we have reached a critical point where we are no longer just working hard but working towards imminent burnout;...

In this episode, Jenny Blake joins Charlie on the show to talk about free time and how systems can help us create more of it in our busy lives. The real goal of effective systems is to help us do our best work, free up our energy, and pursue what matters to us. Jenny and Charlie discuss what keeps people from building the right systems, why our ideas of hard work play into the systems we build, an...

In this episode, Productive Flourishing team members Cory Huff, Steve Arensberg, and Maghan Haggerty join Charlie on the show to talk about the Start Finishing Field Guide, the workbook version of Charlie's best selling book, Start Finishing. In this behind-the-scenes chat with some team members who helped bring the field guide into existence, hear more about some lessons the team learned along th...

 In this episode, Angela joins Charlie on the show after a long hiatus to talk about her concussion rehabilitation process and what she has been going through since July when she experienced a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Angela has been going through an intensive rehabilitation program, and it has been an exhausting experience for her. Her history with TBIs has impacted her in more than one way,...

Ashley Zuberi, yoga teacher, author, and former teammate of Team Productive Flourishing, joins Charlie on the show to discuss how we can reframe yoga, spiritual practices, and mindfulness so that we can integrate them into our days and make them work for us. Spiritual practices and philosophy are best suited to help us live our actual lives more fully rather than trying to create an ideal version...

Jeffrey Davis, branding consultant, repeat guest, and author of the new book, Tracking Wonder, joins Charlie on the show to discuss how we can reconcile productivity and wonder. Our culture’s obsession with productivity has a bias against wonder and yet wonder is essential for our creativity, satisfaction, and belonging. They discuss how these seemingly opposing forces balance each other and allow...