Short Story Long: Life Lessons from Leaders, Coaches, and Entrepreneurs

Have a story or inflection point to share? Tap here to message us — we’d love to hear it. The career moments that change us rarely arrive with spotlights. Sometimes they show up as an awkward pause in a staff meeting, a simple request for volunteers, and a quiet choice to raise your hand when nobody else will. Becky Fraser sits down with longtime CEO and leadership consultant Barry Moline to unpac...

Have a story or inflection point to share? Tap here to message us — we’d love to hear it. A promotion can look perfect on paper and still feel wrong in your gut. That moment is where we start, with Theresa Gutierrez choosing sustainability over HR and Felicia MacDonald stepping from a large corporation into leadership at a very small e-commerce company. Their stories point to the same truth: a car...

Have a story or inflection point to share? Tap here to message us — we’d love to hear it. A layoff list can change how you see leadership forever. I sit down with Felicia MacDonald, a steady, thoughtful leader who spends years in big corporate publishing, navigates a major digital transformation, and then hits the moment many professionals fear: being asked to plan layoffs. What happens next is a...

Have a story or inflection point to share? Tap here to message us — we’d love to hear it. Career decisions don’t usually blow up overnight. They quietly form in the background, in the stories we tell ourselves about a changed meeting invite list, a new org structure, a shift in feedback, or a role that still “works” but suddenly feels wrong. When we slow down our meaning making and separate facts...

Have a story or inflection point to share? Tap here to message us — we’d love to hear it. A career can look successful on paper and still feel like it’s shrinking you. That tension is where Shahnaz Broucek's story lands: she helped build a mortgage and title company to roughly 55 employees, rode the boom years, then faced the housing crash and a brutal question many leaders avoid for too long...

Have a story or inflection point to share? Tap here to message us — we’d love to hear it. Success can be the very thing that hides the truth: you’re doing well, people trust you, nothing is “broken” and yet something feels off. We talk about that quiet kind of misalignment and why it’s one of the most important signals a leader can learn to read. When the role that once fit starts to feel heavier,...

Have a story or inflection point to share? Tap here to message us — we’d love to hear it. You can “pick your own hours” and still feel like you never stop working. That tension kicks off a candid conversation with executive coach Michelle Davis about the real cost of solopreneur life, from the guilt of taking time off to the constant grind of marketing and business development. If you’ve ever wond...

Have a story or inflection point to share? Tap here to message us — we’d love to hear it. Leadership doesn’t wait for you to feel ready. It shows up when a team is stuck, when a tough decision is sitting untouched, or when the tension in the room is obvious and no one names it. I’m Beki Fraser, and I’m breaking down the leadership skills that matter most in those real-time moments, especially when...

Have a story or inflection point to share? Tap here to message us — we’d love to hear it. What does it take to pivot from a successful sales career into shaping the culture and capability of a global company—without formal training? We sit down with Ed Holinski to unpack the inflection point that moved him from brokerage and risk services into organizational development at Marsh, where urgency, cu...

Have a story or inflection point to share? Tap here to message us — we’d love to hear it. What if the fastest way to lead better isn’t more hustle, but clearer language for your strengths and a smarter design for your team? We explore how to move from forcing outcomes to architecting around what people naturally do well, so pressure drops and performance climbs. You’ll hear how hidden strengths of...

Have a story or inflection point to share? Tap here to message us — we’d love to hear it. A frantic book club, a late-night search, and an unexpected coffee with a hero set off a career pivot that rewired how we think about time, collaboration, and leadership. Becky sits down with author and Enneagram expert Ingrid Stabb to explore why forcing outcomes exhausts us—and how relaxing into our real st...

Have a story or inflection point to share? Tap here to message us — we’d love to hear it. Pressure is rising in many workplaces, but turning up the heat rarely creates better thinking. Becky makes the case that civility is not window dressing—it’s the operating system for clear decisions, resilient strategy, and teams that speak up instead of shutting down. From her own hard-won lessons to practic...

Have a story or inflection point to share? Tap here to message us — we’d love to hear it. We trace the quiet moment when hard work stops moving the needle and show how to shift from good intentions to real impact. We share stories about overfunctioning, misaligned roles, and becoming the bottleneck, and we offer simple tools to build ownership and clarity. • spotting the signs you have outgrown yo...

Have a story or inflection point to share? Tap here to message us — we’d love to hear it. Ever chased “go-to” status only to realize it’s costing you results at work and presence at home? That’s the tension we unpack with Robert Heath Sr., a nationally recognized leadership strategist and former Marine Corps officer who rebuilt a struggling unit and, just as importantly, rebuilt how he defined suc...

Have a story or inflection point to share? Tap here to message us — we’d love to hear it. Ever felt like you’re acting like a leader instead of being one? We dig into the real difference between performing leadership and practicing it, and why steady confidence grows from competence, follow-through, and results under pressure. No gimmicks, no borrowed styles—just practical moves that help you choo...

Have a story or inflection point to share? Tap here to message us — we’d love to hear it. A single moment can rewire a life. For Jose Bordetas, it was the birth of his daughter—and the decision to trade the kitchen line and tour buses for a people-first leadership path that scaled from help desk to global operations. We dig into how he broke into tech without credentials, built confidence through...

Have a story or inflection point to share? Tap here to message us — we’d love to hear it. Pressure doesn’t make great leaders—presence does. We dig into why the best leadership moves often begin inside your nervous system, long before a difficult conversation or high-stakes decision. Drawing on lived experience and insights from a previous conversation with Annie Paraison, we explore how to read t...

Have a story or inflection point to share? Tap here to message us — we’d love to hear it. A quiet alarm in the body can be louder than any strategic plan. That’s where our conversation with Annie begins: the moment joy dimmed, restlessness rose, and an inner knowing said it was time to step away from nonprofit work and build something rooted in freedom, fairness, and love. From that leap came Love...

Have a story or inflection point to share? Tap here to message us — we’d love to hear it. We revisit five leaders whose choices show how humanity shapes real decisions under pressure. Fulfillment, empowerment, grace, resilience, and agency move from ideas to habits you can use right away. • Integrating identity with leadership choices • Choosing fulfillment after loss and fear • Shifting from expe...

Have a story or inflection point to share? Tap here to message us — we’d love to hear it. Uncertainty isn’t just noisy—it quietly warps how we lead. Beki digs into the hidden cost of a chaotic year: not only drained calendars and frayed nerves, but a distorted leadership identity that turns visionary thinkers into reactive firefighters. Instead of piling on more habits and rigid routines, we step...

Have a story or inflection point to share? Tap here to message us — we’d love to hear it. Start with the person, not the playbook. That simple shift runs through Beki’s journey from HR leader managing mergers and reorganizations to a coach who helps thoughtful, questioning leaders turn inner clarity into outer results. Across two candid radio conversations with hosts Jim Masters and Doug Llewellyn...

Have a story or inflection point to share? Tap here to message us — we’d love to hear it. I explore gratitude as a daily leadership practice that turns ambition into belonging and presence into progress. There's a simple three-direction exercise—upward, outward, inward—to make gratitude real at work and at home. • gratitude as a lens for work and life • recognition as everyday noticing • self...

Have a story or inflection point to share? Tap here to message us — we’d love to hear it. Plans rarely survive contact with real life, and that’s where leadership truly begins. Drawing on Kaila’s leap from solopreneur to agency owner while becoming a parent, we explore how to trade grind for grace and control for connection without sacrificing results. I walk through the practical tools that help...

Have a story or inflection point to share? Tap here to message us — we’d love to hear it. Ever built two babies at once—one human, one company? That’s the real-world tension Kaila brings to the mic as she shares how a leap from solo designer to agency owner collided with a surprise pregnancy, forcing her to redesign time, pricing, and identity in a matter of months. We walk through the strategic m...

Have a story or inflection point to share? Tap here to message us — we’d love to hear it. What if safety and fulfillment were not opposites, but partners you could design on purpose? We walk through a practical, human path from control to contribution—using a true story about shifting from programming to journalism as a lens for smarter career bets and better leadership. Rather than glorifying big...