Life Beyond The Numbers

"....it was really, really difficult to walk away from a very solid career. And I think I wanted from the life coach validation, just someone to say, go for it, you're not being stupid, you're not being crazy, just go for it." Natasha Tomlinson   Natasha Tomlinson stepped away from a 20 year career in accounting to pursue her passion. Tasha studied psychology in university and when offered a job i...

"...the more you understand human nature, the more you bring out the best in people." David Lee   David Lee and I talk about our workplaces today are unhuman friendly and that they are largely transactional as opposed to relational. We talk about understanding human nature at work. And David explains 'downshifting', the 'reptilian brain' concept as well as polyvagl theory or, as he calls it, 'cool...

"We are all people. We are all different and unique. We think differently, work differently, process differently, but we are all human. If we work off the premise of people are just people first and foremost, and different from me is okay, can we actually make the world a better place?" Susan Ní Chríodáin    Life Beyond the Numbers is on a break and will be back in early October 2022 with episode...

"I'm becoming the person I'm becoming. I'm following my inner, personal route." Susan Ní Chríodáin   Welcome to episode 100. This is the second in the trilogy of past, present and future. In this episode I talk about my the present and where I am in my journey as well as some of the paths I am exploring.  Is there a line you remember from a poem or short story in school that still fascinates you t...

"And we're all human. And I think that's the main message that I try to bring out in this podcast - it's human stories for human listeners. We are all people. We are all doing our best. And it's wonderful to know that others have been where we are or think like we do or are going where we want to go or can show us things we didn't know." Susan Ní Chríodáin   To celebrate getting to 100 episodes I...

"It's about working together based on your strengths to be able to get the best deal out of the supplier or to get the best relationship out of the supplier." James Meads   James Meads is a location-independent digital nomad. We chat about his choice from a cost-of-living perspective. And James asks why wouldn't we, given a choice, live somewhere where rent/mortgage and taxes are lower without ris...

"I think there should be some sort of law that before you leave compulsory education, you have to do a psychometric on your preferences and how you respond to pressure." Becca Brighty   Becca Brighty is an organisational psychologist and we talk about some approaches, behaviours and preferences that are common in the workplace. First we cover failure. Becca promotes a fail fast culture and has dev...

"Basically you grow up feeling different or knowing you're different - it's not something that other people always pick up around you and it might come across as, 'oh, they're a bit slow' or 'they don't care' or 'they're a daydreamer' or, all of that. And those messages you pick up on them because you're wired to fit in." Siun Prochazka   Siun Prochazka talks to me about people who are neurodivers...

"a lot of the research ... was based around lessons learned. And one of the key things that came out of it is businesses, organisations, almost have a blueprint now. They've got something in place whereby if something did happen again, they would be prepared." Julian Roy   Julian Roy joined me to chat about research he undertook for his MBA thesis on the challenges faced by leaders during the pand...

“Feelings aren't a beacon of eternal truth. They're a negotiation. They're always real because they are a perception inside of you, but it doesn't mean that they are accurate, useful, or true they're things that need to be negotiated. We can reframe them and construct them differently.” Steve Haines Steve Haines takes us in-depth on the transformative power of learning to connect with our bodies w...

"I grew up with a family myth about jet lag. We're Italian, my father's Italian 100 percent. And we would sit around the dinner table and just like chat and he would always tell the story of my foster brother, who the summer of 1971 was kidnapped and travelled non-stop Intercontinental for about four months. And then his grandmother suddenly died during the journey in a luxury hotel in Amsterdam."...

"And the tension sometimes in the office was palpable. And to get things done you had to start to think about how to keep people on a common goal, despite some of the rivalry or politics that people brought with them to the office." Dougal Freeman   Dougal Freeman was working in Iraq during the second Gulf war and narrowly escaped the Canal Hotel bombing in 2003. Based in Jordan with Care Australi...

"We chose the term mental fitness because in our mind, it's positive because we think of it in connection with our physical fitness. And our hope is that one day we consider going to a psychotherapist in exactly the same way as we wouldn't think twice about going to a personal trainer." Kirsty Ritchie   Kirsty Ritchie and I chat about mental fitness. Kirsty says our ability to be the best person w...

"And I've no doubt that these stories and indeed the stories that all guests share, evoke different memories, emotions, and feelings for you. And I always love to hear them. So please feel free to send me your thoughts. What were your favorite snippets? What were your favourite episodes? Who would you like to hear more from?" Susan   This is a compilation episode and includes snippets from the fol...

"This week I found myself .... I don't know if I was having a reflective moment ... but I've realised that I'm still in the habit of seeking permission and I was thinking about if I wasn't always looking elsewhere for permission I wonder what I would have achieved?" Antonia Taylor   Antonia Taylor left the corporate PR agency world 10 years ago to work for herself and in this episode she reflects...

"A pacemaker is not a death sentence or even a life sentence, it's a lifeline. My role is to send the ladder down for other people. And that gives me a lot of satisfaction. Whether that's heart health, helping people who are going through the trauma of looking for work or people who've failed exams I've been there." Paul Wright   Paul Wright and I talk about finding purpose and how it might not al...

"I have wanted to do a solo episode for I don't know how long now. And it's something that I've really, really struggled with or battled with and found daunting." Susan   In this first solo episode I focus on voice, the gift of voice. I open up about my own thoughts around using voice, particularly in the service of others. I talk about the tension between the desire to do something and the challe...

"We don't have enough social practices or social norms around how to deal with our emotional and bodily intelligence. It's not something that is integrated in the way that we are being. And we are seeing on one side a great awakening where people are beginning to understand, wow, there's so much here that I didn't see, feel, connect with." Madelaine Golec   Madelaine and I begin this conversation...

"I realised, okay, so I've done all this left-brain clever stuff like accounting, finance, languages, strategy, marketing, dah, dah, dah. I feel suicidal. So clearly I am missing something. My father was in sales, my brother is in sales and I realised there were people who were far less academic than me who were leading much happier lives and were not trying to kill themselves." John Purkiss.    J...

"It's so exciting to have my two amazing siblings here to sit down and talk about something that we've talked about. We have had conversations over the years about Aoife and about how it was to have a sister like Aoife. But I feel really honoured that I can sit down with you two here now and talk about her life and about our lives with her and share with other people in the hope that other people...

"...helping people think about the impact of change on people. And a big part of it is around people feeling secure, people feeling that they understand the impact that this is going to have on them, on their relationships. Uncertainty, because uncertainty is a really hard thing for people to deal with. And I think a big part of fear of change, resistance of change are those questions about what's...

"Trying to describe myself has always been really hard. I've never fitted into anything. Someone described me as an edge-walker the other day. And I thought, oh my God, that's the first time anyone's put me into a category that I can relate to." Nat Hunter   Nat Hunter always felt pigeon-holed, like she could only bring a small sliver of herself to work and so she co-founded her own design company...

"When you're a professional that has a mortgage and a family, the time to help is significantly less. To put it bluntly, you have to figure out how you can help others that makes sense within the context that you are." Mason Cosby.    Mason Cosby was laid off at the beginning of the pandemic. A month earlier he got engaged and bought a house. He spent the next four months on the couch applying for...

"And it was a massive learning because I thought, why do I have to fake it? Why do I have to pretend that I'm okay? And I think that point comes to many of us at some point. It came to me really early, I was like 21. It came super early that I'm not going to fake it at work." Greta Solomon   Greta Solomon and I talk about self-expression. We talk about how to express ourselves at work so we get ou...

"Happiness comes from a wide variety of different sources. And actually happiness is not the one single thing that we should pursue because part of being human is the whole world of emotion and feelings. And all of them are valid." Gavin Andrews   Being Human is a compilation, an exploration of the mind-body connection. The body is a source of wisdom and intelligence that is often untapped. We hav...