Pancakes and Peacocks: Recent Episodes
Ruth Penfold
Pancakes and Peacocks is on a mission to reimagine work and create the space for us all to thrive and belong. Across industries, across locations, we see soooooo many companies who aren’t able to create an environment where all their humans can really thrive. We think we can do better. We think we can build something different. This podcast explores how we might get there with interviews with thought leaders on the future of work.
Jack Villiers is a student of the school of life, a truly deep thinker and an intuitive creator, I’ve been excited to watch his transition from People and Talent roles to Founder of his own businesses, notably Lead, a leadership development course that you should absolutely check out.
I’ve enjoyed knowing Jack in snippets over the years and I was so excited to noodle around his brain on topics like:
🥞 The fact that for some of us, our gift is not always obvious in the beginning, and that can lead us into thinking that we don’t have one
🦚 The switch between defining yourself through achievements, to a more intuitive way of being
🥞 The excitement around a world where more folks get to show as their fully integrated self
🦚 How everyone has a zone of genius, and if we feel like we are in the wrong place and always swimming against the tide, maybe we are
I loved getting to speak with Jack on these topics and I hope you will too!
David Reay and I first connected when we were both music nerds, with him at Sony and me at Shazam. Right away I was pulled in with his genuine warmth and made it my mission to stay in touch with him.
He remains in the People space, and together we covered big topics around the path to self actualisation and how we might get there sooner. We also spoke of:
🥞 The craziness of the hierarchies we operate in and how we can navigate them better
🦚 Why it should be normal for us to find joy in work
🥞 The importance of understanding the stories we are telling ourselves
🦚 How self talk is our mortal enemy
I loved David’s total honesty in this conversation, and hearing where he is right now is something that I am sure you will find supportive too!
Catalina Schveninger is the definition of sisterhood. We met at an event where she saw me speaking and she put me forward for a big job on the back of it. I am just one of the many people she has done that for and I love that about her.
She’s been a people leader for many years, and has a pragmatic approach to building companies and building our self awareness as humans also. Join as as we dance through topics like:
🥞 How some careers are a messy journey of explorations
🦚 How relationships with others can be a big career catalyst and how we start to build our network
🥞 How we arrive as a true leader when we are interestED rather than being interestING
🦚 How powerful it is to hire for potential vs hiring for qualifications
I came away buzzing from our conversation, and I am sure that you will feel the same.
Ellie Rich-Poole is The Recruitment Coach. She coaches people at a critical moment of transition, helping them to move forward with positivity. She is a true expert on careers.
She has 25 years’ experience in HR, Talent and Head-hunting HR Leaders. She founded her business in 2016 to inspire and support others with their career development.
I loved our conversation as we danced back and forth and looked at:
🥞 The deep introspection needed from all of us to get closer to what we really want
🦚 The power of unlocking our strengths and beginning to develop in a way that helps them to flourish
🥞 Some of the blockers to us making the little changes can get in the way of much bigger more impactful change
🦚 Brilliant insight into exercises we can do to help us figure this all out
I think you will come away with SO much value from this episode and will march immediately to Ellie’s site to grab all those freebies!
Mark Edwards is a culture change and leadership expert working with companies to affect change, he’s also a travel writer (brilliant book found here) and Ted talker (link can be found here).
I have known and loved Mark for many years, and I love the way he’s challenged himself to lean into his strengths and move in the direction of what lights him up. I also love that he has done what he can to encourage others in a similar direction. Learning my own strengths was a huge step in me starting to thrive and realise the value that I brought.
Join us as we cover:
🥞 Learning to lean into our strengths and see them for the magical gifts that they are
🦚 What happens to us when we don’t get to work in alignment with our strengths
🥞 The importance of having someone who believes in us and who sees the strengths that we can’t see
🦚 Embracing the opportunity to be multi faceted in life and in work
I love Mark and I know you will too, and I dearly hope that you decide to explore your strengths after listening to us talk about why we think it matters!
Elvin Turner came across my path when I was stuck on some culture work and I needed some support. Since then I have become a huge fan, and love the practicality with which he approaches how we evolve the future of work.
Elvin is a best-selling innovation culture author, leadership coach, TEDx speaker and associate professor at several business schools. We spoke of things like:
🥞 Figuring out who we need to be in the future to meet and exceed the goals that we are setting today
🦚 How we can invite ourselves and others into making steps towards changing the things we need to change
🥞 The human experience of work, how we relate to ourselves and others
🦚 Creativity and how we tap into it, individually and collectively
I adored our conversation and I am pretty sure you will too.
Perry Timms is a true thought leader when it comes to the Future of Work, but also hands on when it comes to making the changes needed happen. A self confessed idealist and optimist, he is driven by his belief that we can all do better.
He is an Author, but in his role of Founder of PTHR, he gets to test his ideas around how we get there. Let him inspire you as we cover:
🥞 The importance of finding ourselves in the work that we do
🦚 Learning to read the signals within ourselves to establish what we really want to do and be in this world
🥞 That we are in an age of collective intelligence, but we are yet to channel it and exploit it enough
🦚 Applying testing when it comes to career changes, follow your passion and letting it guide you
I came away full of ideas about how I might want to shift things in my own world, and I hope you will too.
Dannique Blake and I had an instant connection. She’s a fellow wild mind, and someone who is, like me, constantly looking for new ways to set herself free.
Vibe with us through our COVID fog (we both had it at the time haha) as she shares her wisdom on being a human at work, psychological safety in teams and the power of working with our values as well as:
🥞 Figuring out the steps we need to take with ourselves to tap into what we really want
🦚 How we can turn feedback into the gift it truly should be by guiding the way we get it from others
🥞 How we can build better relationships at work and move past taking things personally
🦚 Really embracing who we are and integrating that into our working lives
I came away energised with ideas about how I might step a little closer to the fullest expression of myself, and I hope you will too!
Gwen Cooper has become a thought partner of mine since our paths first crossed a couple of years back. I love the way she is breaking down how we keep walking the path to becoming the leaders for ourselves that we so often seek in others.
Former CIA agent and now Leadership Coach and team enabler, Gwen has over 25 years of global and cross-industry experience leadership development consulting.
Let your brain start to drink in her wisdom as we cover:
- The value of looking at the more negative side of our values and where they have stopped serving us
- Reimaging work to operate in a way where we get to be the fullest expression of ourselves
- The steps of psychological safety that need to be in place before we can truly innovate, read more on that here
- That’s it is okay to start from where we are, and become deliberate about our work environments moving forward
I came away thinking about how I might start to look at the flip side of my values, and my hope is that you will come away buzzing with ideas also. Let me know what you think!
Leadership isn’t about what role you currently hold, leadership is an energy.By taking responsibility for our role in relationships, we can lead them into becoming something that feels better for all of us. Once I did that, I realised then how much power I truly held in my experience of others.
Stepping into our leadership energy happens when we step into ourselves a little more fully, when we shift from performing into being.
- Being is when we are on the journey to love ourselves.
- Being is when we start to appease less, and ask ourselves who we are seeking to serve in each moment.
- Being is when we know how to connect with the stiller parts of ourselves and do so.
- Being is when we start to celebrate our abilities.
- Being is when we start to live in alignment with our values.
- Being is when live our boundaries.
Being is when we take responsibility for our role in our lives and breath out all the things we are holding onto.
Dialling up our being-ness takes work, and a commitment to do so.
I talk about all of this and a little more in this bonus episode. Have you experienced your leadership energy yet? If you have managed to find different ways to move into being over performing, I'd love to hear from you.
Katrina Collier is an effervescent human being who is a human in every sense, and that shines through in the work she does. She wrote The Robot-Proof Recruiter, and runs workshops and gives talks on how we might humanise the hiring process.
Together we explore a little of that and a lot of how we construct environments that feel a little more human.
Let her warm the cockles of your soul as you hear us speak about:
✺ Trust being at the heart of what it means to create work communities thrive
✺ Relationships being at the heart of what I means to work together effectively, and how we use design thinking to get there
✺ The magic of ideas when they come from the whole work community or team
✺ Trying things, failing fast and move on
I came away full of joy, thinking about how I might create more space to play and I hope you will too ✺
Ps. For those who want a little explanation to design thinking, take a look here.
Claire Haidar is a human whose perspective on the future of work is truly thought leading. She leads WYNDR and Pattryn, both organisations focused on smartly crafting the future of work.
If we want to see whether we can reimagine the idea of work together, considering the smart approaches that Claire mentions will stand us in great stead. We had a few sound issues, but I hope that I have managed to bring it back enough for you to enjoy our conversation in full.
We spoke of things like:
✺ The challenges of the changes in the world of work and the journey we need to go on to truly embrace them, starting with acceptance
✺ That we can’t keep segregating life and work, we have to acknowledge that those things are connected
✺ The importance of viewing time differently and doing real calculations of the things we really need to do with our time vs the time we waste
✺ The responsibility we have as employers to support people to find a true balance with how they distribute their time
✺ The importance of being intentional about the way we design remote first cultures, and the need to start the design of how we come together from scratch
I came away full of new thoughts emerging and ideas about some of the ways we build the way we work into something that feels better and I hope you will too ✺
Maylis Djikalou is a true thought leader in the human transformation space. We connected via our wild minds on a panel and have since become thought partners on life, love and the human condition.
In this episode Maylis shares a powerful perspective on how we might lead ourselves to show up better for others.
We spoke of things like:
✺ The genuine challenge with authenticity and how we move towards it
✺ How we become more intentional as humans as leaders in the way we show up for others
✺ Learning how to sit in discomfort around others
✺ Being present with each other and allowing people to truly bring themselves into each room they enter
How might we lead ourselves to show up more fully for those around us this week?
Kevin Goldsmith is a brilliant human who has led engineering teams with some phenomenal organisations. He’s someone who intentionally builds his teams to try to craft an environment where humans truly thrive and I love that about him.
He’s been reimagining how people show up together in teams for a while, and has a tonne of goodness to share with us all on some of the things he has been involved with.
We spoke of things like:
✺ The magic of learning from what others are doing well, and calibrating that to your organisation, like Spotify did
✺ The power of building teams with the mindset of collective autonomy
✺ The importance of making other people a priority as a leader, having experienced how much harder it is for you to grow when you feel like you have a leader that doesn’t care
✺ The investment you have to make to be truly straightforward with others
Let’s reimagine and reinvent the idea of work together, to create a space where we can all thrive and feel like we belong ✺
To kick off season two, I was delighted to host Steve Cadigan. Steve is an Author (of the brilliant Workquake), Speaker and Advisor on People, Culture and the future of work as we know it. When I first connected with Steve just over a year ago, I was immediately struck by his passion around this topic.
If we want to see whether we can reimagine the idea of work together, he felt like a great person to start the conversation with.
We spoke of things like:
✺ The rise of the desire for independence from human beings around the way we work
✺ The false foundation of the relationship that we commit to as employees
✺ The old models of work that we exist in that haven’t adopted to the higher velocity of the work we do today
✺ How the way we view learning at school, the fallacy of the right and wrong answer, sets us up for broken thinking in later life
Let’s see if it is possible to reimagine and reinvent the idea of work together, and create a space where we can all thrive and feel like we belong ✺
Welcome back to Pancakes and Peacocks 🥞🦚
2022 will see a little shift in focus for this podcast. The energy is still the same - to inspire people towards creating a life that feels truly joyful - but with the focus on reimagining the idea of work, to create the space for us all to thrive and belong.
As a People and Talent person for over two decades, I realised this year that I have seen similar culture struggles, relationship issues and growing pains play out over and over again within otherwise incredible organisations. Kind hearted, well-meaning, brilliant people come together to build something with the best of intentions. Some of the team (often the leaders) feel like they are creating a great culture, whilst many of the team feel like they are overwhelmed and underwhelmed, all at once. I have been on both sides of that coin at one time also.
Sure, there are magical pockets of people thriving here and there, but they are magical pockets. Across industries, across locations, I see soooooo many companies who aren’t able to create an environment where all their humans can really thrive.
I think we can do better. I think we can build something different. Something where we all actually thrive and feel like we belong.
Why does it matter so much?
Creating the space to innovate is essential, for humans, for businesses and for our society as a whole.
When people are thriving, that is when we do our best work. We become brilliant, bold and even more innovative and apply that energy to whatever we are doing. When we feel safe and like we belong, we are free to innovate without fear. When we feel the opposite, we spend all of our time in survival mode and working on the closest problem in our lives, rather than the ones that might be the most impactful.
With space we can learn how to thrive, and once we create space for ourselves, we can learn how to build it for others.I’ve decided to spend a little time unpacking the world of work on this pod, and reimagining how we might do this better .
Jeff Lester is a brilliant human living a life less ordinary. For the past six years he hasn’t spent time in one place for more than two months at a time. He also teaches yoga, and supports humans with courses that help them uncover the parts of themselves that have long since been forgotten.
We met over the airwaves, with him currently in Atlanta, Georgia and me in London:
🥞 The simplicity of creating an online community that can be sustained with something as a simple emoji
🦚 How physical movement can be a great foundation for really bringing us back into our bodies
🥞 How we overachieve to be admired by others, on the path to realising that we truly are enough just as we are
🦚 Grandiosity and judgement being the close cousin of low self esteem
And of course... joy ✨
Nelio Rodrigues is a teacher of many, and has become part of the fabric of the Notting Hill community through his teaching of Capoeira. At a time where I was seeking belonging, he and his students offered me a place in there community and embraced me. His ability to unlock and harness greatness in others is just one of the things that inspires me about him.
We met over the airwaves, though full disclosure, we are actually neighbours, and had an honest and empowering conversation about who we are and why we are. We spoke of things like:
🥞 Finding a balance between form and strength in movement
🦚 Creating the space in your life for self care and exploring what that really means for you
🥞 Using the changes of the past year to take the opportunity to hit the reset button
🦚 The power to be found in mentorship, inviting in a different perspective to unlock new ideas and inspiration
And of course... joy ✨
I count myself very fortunate to have met Cait O’Riordan on my career path (and life path). She has a big grown up job leading a lot of humans to do brilliant things as Chief Product and Information Officer at the FT, but does so with awe inspiring humanity and a GSOH.
We met over the airwaves, rather than our usual pre COVID breakfast catch up, and had a wonderful conversation that covered:
🥞 How important it is to curate groups of people who you can lean on as a leader, outside of your organisation
🦚 How to diagnose what we find most challenging, and make an action plan
🥞 The learning journey you go on as a leader to help inspire the right energy in others
🦚 How to rationalise with yourself when feeling imposter syndrome to help you believe you should be doing the thing you are doing
And of course... joy ✨
David Kam is someone who I immediately became smitten with when I happened upon one of his yoga classes a few years ago. His commitment to his craft - currently one of inviting others to develop their holistic wellbeing via movement - is just one of the many things that inspires me about him. We formed a friendship and our conversations over the years have always been expansive and inspiring.
We met online, with both of us at other sides of London, and had a wonderful conversation that covered:
🥞 Movement, why we become fascinated it and the freedom we can experience in doing so
🦚 Understanding the privilege of having the space to create and follow your heart
🥞 Learning to saying goodbye to the things that you no longer have aliveness in
🦚 The importance of rituals, but the importance in having freedom in how you approach them
And of course... joy ✨
Liz Whitney is a leadership coach who adopts a mindset of total integrity and straightforwardness, and I love that about her. She shifted her career from one in the creative world a number of years ago, after accidentally discovering her new path through experience.
We met over the airwaves, as ever, and had a wonderful conversation that covered:
🥞 The importance of your own healing journey in order to be in a position to coach others
🦚 The importance of developing the right kind of self awareness, to develop rich relationships in you world
🥞 The significance of the moment where her awakening journey began and some of the ways she tried to find her way back in
🦚 How critical those early moments are in childhood are in hardwiring our life script, and therefore how important it is to breakdown the thinking patterns that we have created
And of course... joy ✨
Kaya Cansfield is a life force. Our energies connected in the dark when I first attended her spin classes at Psycle London after she made the leap from corporate life a few years ago (she's also since become both a Coach and Deejay). Her expansive journey over the past few years and her obvious growth in that time are just some of the many things that inspire me about her.
We met over the airwaves, with her packing up her life to make a big move to Abu Dhabi for a new adventure. We spoke of things like:
🥞 The intense need for people in the fitness industry to do their own “work” to create a safe space for the vulnerability of our students
🦚 That there is either love or fear, and that when we are operating from a place of fear, we shut ourselves off from everything
🥞 The importance of movement when it comes to moving energy around your body
🦚 That learning how to feel your feelings is one of the best things that you can do
And of course... joy ✨
Andrew Richardson has become one of my most trusted advisors in the past few years. He recently started his own business with a couple of partners, Eka, a venture capital business focused on backing founders who are building sustainable businesses.
We met over the airwaves, and whilst Andrew’s sound isn’t the best, I think you can still hear enough to make it work. We spoke of things like:
🥞 The power of purpose being not just that you are aligned with the mission of your business, but that you feel like your skills are aligned to what you are doing
🦚 The importance of having supportive relationships around you and surrounding yourself with people who lift you up
🥞 Learning about the shadow we cast, and just how important that is
🦚 The titles we were given as children that we can later learn actually don’t and shouldn’t define us
And of course... joy ✨
Alex Hersham is a brilliant human, he also happens to be CEO and Founder of Zencargo. We connected a couple of years ago and bonded over people geekery. He’s incredibly self aware and has been meticulous in assembling a business that feels good for the people within it.
We met over the airwaves, rather predictably these days haha, but we had a wonderful conversation that covered:
🥞 The highs and lows of the Founder journey, and the simple joy in sometimes just ending the day back where you started
🦚 The importance of honesty in your closest relationships, including the one you are having with yourself
🥞 Developing your relationship with yourself and understanding the importance of kindness🦚 The importance of surrounding yourself with people that you can learn from
And of course... joy ✨
Melissa Coton is one of those magical humans whose energy dances, even when she is stationary. We met when we were both new yoga teachers, and she took the bold step a couple of years ago to leave her corporate job behind and see where her heart took her.
We met over the airwaves, with her in Guatemala, where she’s just decided to move to from Panama, and me in London:
🥞 Being open to the quiet inspiration that others provide us
🦚 Approaching change with a safety net, taking baby steps to change the little things to change the big things
🥞 Of learning to love yourself in all moments, and learning to be comfortable with being right where you are
🦚 Yoga at its essence being about union; union with ourselves to support our connection, and therefore union, with others
And of course... joy ✨
Ps. If you want to join our WhatsApp meditation group btw just holler, all welcome!
I was lucky enough to adopt Justine Borja to the Pen-fold around 3 years ago, when we met by chance at a yoga event in Stockholm, only to learn we were relative neighbours in Notting Hill. Her deep commitment to the evolution of both herself and others is just one of the things that inspires me about her.
This time we met online, both in London and in our own versions of the second UK lockdown. We spoke of things like:
🥞 How to start to pay attention to the importance of human relationships, and see moments of connection with people instead of task lists
🦚 Joining the different parts of ourselves closer together so that you can show up authentically with yourself in order to show up authentically for others
🥞 The real definition of health being physical, mental and social wellbeing
🦚 How to conduct your own social health audit, looking at your relationships with everyone, but first and foremost, you.
And of course... joy ✨
Josh Connolly is someone who I only connected with recently, but I have already begun to work with him professionally by inviting him to come and work with the team at Launchpad. Having walked his own path to his own development, he now supports others to do so, by giving phenomenal talks on resilience amongst other things. As a sensitive person, so much of what he talks about resonates with me.
We met over the airwaves, with him in Swindon and me in London. We spoke of things like:
🥞 The untruths we tell ourselves when it comes to our emotions, and unlocking our curiosity to understand ourselves more deeply
🦚 The insidious nature of gender bias that blights our society and clips our behaviour as young people
🥞 That conscious parenting starts with you, and your ability to process your own emotions
🦚 That different things work for different people when it comes to mental wellness
And of course... joy ✨
Kimba Bush is a creator in every sense. Musician, film maker, designer and also, in arguably his most important role, father. His music and his lyrics resonate, but his spirit and his thoughtfulness resonate on an even deeper level. There are many things I love about him, but his honesty and humbleness are definitely two of them.
We met over the airwaves, with both of us in London, as the UK hits its second big lockdown for 2020. We spoke of things like:
🥞 Faith and spirituality, and how a mindset of gratitude can set the foundation for living
🦚 The importance of finding time to do something that you love, each and every day
🥞 If you are not connecting to who you are, you don’t have space inside for other people, stepping into your pain to step into your evolution
🦚 Overcoming yourself, and the voices of doubt that hold you back from stepping into your greatness
And of course... joy ✨
Ps. Check out why I fell so in love with his Union Blak project here.
Sope Agbelusi is an inspiring human being who I actually only connected with this year in the virtual space. I love the fact that he changed everything in his career to explore the path of coaching. I am also inspired by his approach to parenting enables the growth of his children as whole beings. I love that.
We met over the airwaves, with him in Coventry and me in London, and had a fabulous conversation in the small hours of a Monday morning where we talked about:
🥞 The realness of the struggle in the early years of parenthood as a very young man
🦚 The beauty of a partnership where you want your partner to be the very best they can be, and enable one another’s growth
🥞 The challenges of navigating white spaces as a Black man
🦚 Developing self awareness and some of the ways you might be able to unfurl your curiosities
And of course... joy ✨
Kylie Pearsall might actually win the prize for the most effervescent person ever. I love her thirst for life and the positive way she applies herself to whatever she has in her mind to do at the time. She supports wellbeing in others day to day on offshore oil rigs, and supports the world by showing up with the integrity she does without even realising it, whether pixelated or IRL.
We met over the airwaves, with her in Perth finishing her day and me in London just getting mine started.
🥞 Some of the things that we can do to support our wellbeing during the pandemic we are all living through
🦚 Finding your way through the different meditation myths to find your way back to you
🥞 Connecting to ourselves to establish a richer connection with others
🦚 Ruthless auditing and iterating on our life operating models and knowing where to let things go
And of course... joy ✨
Julie Fedele is a fantastically formidable human that arrived in my world around three years ago. I have been watching her step into her fire, more and more each day. Her integrity, effort and consistency inspire me so so much. She is in the product building business, but also invests as well as being a mother.
We met online in the early hours and had the most deliciously connected conversation where we are unpacked things like:
🥞 Overcoming the hard wired belief of not being enough, and how we might look to prevent low self esteem in our children
🦚 Connecting into the sacredness of your hormonal cycles as a woman and learning to celebrate them
🥞 How what really matters in relationship with others is the relationship you are having with yourself
🦚 How we are in a really beautiful moment in history here where sisterhood is really strong
And of course... joy ✨
Mandy Nyarko is a relatively new recruit to the Pen-Fold but my goodness she has made a big impression. I was immediately inspired by her courageousness in building the Startup Discovery School whilst juggling that with motherhood, and the focus and determination she has in creating opportunity for others.
We met IRL, YES REALLY haha, not just online, and had a wonderful interlude together where we unpacked a myriad of different things. We spoke of things like:
🥞 The importance of how we invest in our relationships with others
🦚 The importance of how we invest in our relationships with ourselves
🥞 The concept of space to innovate, and how that is something that not all people have and what we can do about that
🦚 The courage it takes to be both mother and Founder all at the same time
And of course... joy ✨
Welcome back to Pancakes and Peacocks, and thank you for joining me on this podcast journey.
This podcast started when I realised that I had unconsciously built a live with joy at the heart of it, and I felt compelled to inspire others to do the same. Here I share some of my own learnings, whilst also giving you the chance to hear from people who have inspired me along the way.
Joy for me isn't about a giddy rush of excitement, it's the steady feeling of calm that you get when you are making choices that walk in alignment with who you really are.
Learning to make those choices, just for you, will be the thing that sets all of us free.
I took a little moment to reboot, and in coming back, wanted to help you learn a little bit about me as host, who I am and some of the things I have learnt along the way. This is Pancakes and Peacocks.
🥞🦚
Hasan Khair is founder of Mavericks Unlimited, a brilliantly authentic business helping founders and startups to grow. Hasan inspires me in so many ways, but his open hearted Maverick spirit is undeniable.
We found each other over the airwaves, with him in Brighton, where he lives with his family (love Brighton) and me at home in Notting Hill. We spoke of things like:
🥞 Saying no to say yes
🦚 The founder growth journey, living as a true Maverick
🥞 Giving away your lego to go and get a bigger new set of lego
🦚 Open heartedness and allowing vulnerability to flourish
And of course... joy ✨
Gabriela Hersham is one of the biggest hearted human beings that you can find. She applies that operating model to the two big jobs in her like, that of CEO of Huckletree and mother of two fabulous children. From the moment I met her, her loving energy and desire to help create community across multiple levels are just some of the things that inspire me about her.
We met on the airwaves, with her in France and me in London. We spoke of things like:
🥞 Turning your natural inclinations into a business
🦚 Supporting innovation to facilitate continuous growth
🥞 Being pro-active in creating equity in the startup community
🦚 The reality of balancing the two big roles in her world
And of course... joy ✨
Spending time with Jason Touray is a little like warming yourself by the fire. His wisdom, his honesty and his passion are just some of the many things that inspire me. Jason is the Founder of Black Unicorn, a business working to drive the working world forward by reimagining how they operate from a People and Culture standpoint.
We vibed over the airwaves, both in different parts of London, for a truly honest dialogue and spoke of things like:
🥞 Evolving past the expectations of others to find your own flow
🦚 Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable
🥞 Re-imagining the world around us to build a future we want to be a part of
🦚 The marvel of Marvel
And of course... joy ✨
I read a great quote recently by a human called Glennon Doyle; “I will not stay, not ever again – in a room, or conversation, or relationship, or institution, that requires me to abandon myself.”
This caused me to reflect again on this notion of abandonment, because that’s exactly the right word for what so many of us do to ourselves. We live a life of separateness, living from the mental energy in our minds but not from our bodies, living for other people but not for ourselves. Why do we do that? My theory is that it is our misplaced survival instinct that kicks in when we are children, our overwhelming drive to stay ‘safe’ that clips and rearranges our perspective of the world and our sense of self within it.
If we get lucky as an adult, perhaps we get inspired to start the journey back to who we really are. The funny thing with this kind of journey though, is there is no beginning and there is definitely no end, but instead a delicious dance of discovery, learning and unlearning the things that we have picked up along the way; the good, the bad, the ugly.
This is me, discussing all of this and a little more.
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June Angelides is one of the most quietly powerful people I know. She has this incredible aura of connectedness, so you fall in love with her instantly, but complements that with positive momentum of the highest order when it comes to creating opportunity for others with projects like Mums In Tech. Right now she works in VC, but her career path and expertise is vast and expansive.
We met over the airwaves, both in different parts of London, where she lives with her husband and three small children. We spoke of things like:
🥞 The signs of stress and how to spot them
🦚 The challenge facing mums returning to the workforce
🥞 The challenges of fundraising for female founders
🦚 Of those times when you can’t yet see what you bring to the table
And of course... joy ✨
Raphan Kebe is a wonderful teacher of movement, with his own distinctive style called Space and Flow. We connected via movement but formed a friendship though honesty and humility. His honesty and creativity are just some of the things that inspire me the most about him.
We met over the airwaves, and dived into an incredibly honest and brave conversation about who we are and why we are. We spoke of things like:
🥞 The joy to be found in discipline
🦚 The danger of the personas we identify with
🥞 Developing a peacefulness with where you are
🦚 The timeframe for real sustainable change
And of course... joy ✨
Mira Magecha is an alternative People leader, who has been leading the charge at Just Eat for the past chunk of time, having started out in consulting. A fellow advocate of lifelong learning, her energy and her pragmatism are just two of the things that inspire me about her.
We met over the airwaves, from our respective home working spaces. We spoke of things like:
🥞 How to step into leadership energy and build credibility
🦚 Getting to know yourself on a deep level
🥞 Belonging
🦚 Getting to the point of liking who you are vs who you think you would like to be
And of course... joy ✨
Anouk Agussol is an incredibly talented People leader who built a phenomenal People consulting firm called Unleashed. They operate across the tech space, and set the bar for doing People stuff in many businesses. Her passion and tenacity are just some of the things that inspire me about her.
We hung out online together from our respective London outposts. We spoke of things like:
🥞 Finding purpose and usefulness
🦚 The importance of flexibility in your response
🥞 Authentic vs inauthentic jerks
🦚 The joy in simplicity
And of course... joy ✨
Chris Abbass is a wonder of a human being. Smart, driven but with this wonderful core of deep thinking to spice things up. He was my co pilot at Shazam but has since gone on to build his own business, Talentful. They help find talent for some of the biggest and best tech businesses in the world.
We met over the airwaves with Chris now based in San Francisco and me of course in London. We spoke of things like:
🥞 Sustainable growth
🦚 Amplifying culture virtually
🥞 Whether the old interview process redundant
🦚 The right kind of anxiety
And of course... joy ✨
To have a sense of purpose is one of the things we crave most in our lives as humans. We want to feel like we are working towards something we believe in and that the things that we are doing create some form of impact.
In this episode I chart my own path towards finding purpose.
Purpose is the thing that drives humans to do the unimaginable and innovate beyond any of our wildest dreams. We ignite a fire in our bellies when we truly believe in the value of something and it connects into something deep within us that resonates.
Employers have woken up to this, and are working hard to codify what theirs might be. On a human level, we all instinctively feel how we might be able to do good things in the world, we just aren’t always fully connected to what that is. The right sparks of inspiration from a prospective or current employer can ignite those dormant notions within us and suddenly we light up, ready to bring our very best to the thing we are doing.
Ultimately though, finding our own sense of purpose comes down to the connection we have with ourselves, so that is where our work needs to begin.
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Renn Vara is a legend within the startup space, and has worked with some of the biggest tech companies as they’ve been growing into the phenomenal companies we see today. He works as trusted advisor to multiple founders and business leaders and I try to find a way to work with him as often as possible.
We met over the airwaves, with him in the middle of his rainy San Francisco morning and me closing out my cold but sunshiney London day. We spoke of things like:
🥞 Nudging over judging
🦚 Authentic love centred leadership through adversity
🥞 Purposeful living, and how that provides joy
🦚 The limits of being a physical being
And of course... joy ✨
Rav Gill is a force to be reckoned with. She started out training as a pastry chef and has gone on to create Counter Talk, a brilliant community for folks within the startup space. Rather fabulously, she has also just published her first book, The Pastry Chefs Guide.
We met over the airwaves, with her to the East and me to the West of London. We spoke of things like:
🥞 Finding joy at work in the hospitality space and shining a light on employee engagement in that space
🦚 Being brave and putting yourself out there
🥞 Having respect for your creative craft and making sure you are rewarded fairly
🦚 Working hard to be in control of your emotions to get out of your own way
And of course... joy ✨
Lars Schmidt is a globally renowned people person who can be found at the heart of a number of value adding communities in the People space. He currently runs Amplified Talent and can be found lighting up the airwaves on his own podcast 21st Century HR.
We met over the airwaves, with Lars based at home in Virginia and me of course in London. We spoke of things like:
🥞 Creating community and providing value to others
🦚 Positivity developed in the face of adversity
🥞 Not being afraid to fail and how that allows space for innovation and experimentation
🦚 Skateboarding being an open source art
And of course... joy ✨
Ross Seychell is someone who brings a calmness and pragmatism to any conversation you are lucky enough to have with him. His reputation as a future focused People leader is pretty much set. He currently heads up People for TransferWise but has worked for some phenomenal companies.
Whilst often we meet up and spin (on bicycles, not just on the spot haha), this time we met on the internet. We spoke of things like:
🥞 Loving kindness in leadership
🦚 The magic of teams
🥞 Autonomy and empowerment in the business environment
🦚 On narrowing the lens into what is most important to you in life
And of course... joy ✨
Andy Ayim is simply magic. Anyone that has met him on their journey would agree he’s just the most interesting human. His deep wisdom and his bravery are two of the things that inspire me the most about him.
We met on the airwaves, from our home based lives, and enjoyed the same fever of the normal catchups we have IRL. We spoke of things like:
🥞 How to learn what makes your heart sing and be brave enough to pivot
🦚 Some tools for figuring out what your super powers might be
🥞 How he is reaching out into a variety of minority communities to facilitate access to things like investing
🦚 Love, and how less is more
And of course... joy ✨
Team dynamics have often been a challenge. How do we find the right way to come together to make sure that the whole team gets to experience a joyful work dynamic. This episode explores some of that, and looks to that of surgical teams and their need to come together effectively and quickly.
Of course the challenge is that, even if we get to the magical place of team synergy, nothing is fixed and things are constantly moving and evolving. Which means to keep creating and being part of that kind of collective team experience, we have have to keep moving and evolving with it.
To do that, and to find these moments more frequently and allow them to happen quickly within teams, I honestly believe this starts with your connection and commitment to yourself.
Every day offers a new opportunity to show up for yourself and those around you.To show up in love, to show up in commitment, to show up with purpose and intention, to show up being clear and managing expectations of those around you well, which ultimately builds trust.
Your steadiness will support the steadiness of the team around you.
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Ashley Bathe is an LA based People person who has worked in recruiting over the past few years. Her wisdom and desire for growth has always been something that resonated with me deeply. She’s recently started sound healing and we also talk about some of that here.
She has a wonderful energy about her, and I think that translates brilliantly across the airwaves from our cyberspace conversation. We spoke of things like:
🥞 Setting boundaries when that doesn’t come naturally to you
🦚 Being Double Agents in the corporate world
🥞 Supporting your own life experience and joyfulness
🦚 Being patient with yourself when you make a mis-step
And of course… joy ✨
Alastair Gill is a brilliantly alternative People person. Someone who sees a path for things in an uncomplicated way and someone who isn’t afraid to experiment. I find that hugely inspiring and I admire his view on things tremendously, largely as I share it haha.
We met in cyberspace, so the sound is what it is I’m afraid. That said, I think we made it work. We also had a magical cameo from his son Rowan. We talked of things like:
🥞Navigating the new now for our people and creating a sense of safety
🦚Shaping the new normal and how the world may now change
🥞Shifting mindsets and taking responsibility
🦚How you cannot have peace without war
And of course… joy ✨
We find ourselves in the middle of a moment that none of us thought would ever land in. There’s something so incredible and awe inspiring in the way that the whole world has suddenly become joined together, joined together in the fight against something very real indeed.
I am blessed to be able to work from home, to have loved ones checking in on me and to have ways of living that keep me grounded. For my circumstances and my blessings at this moment, I am truly thankful.
Current events are turning our attention to our inner space, that of our homes, that of our bodies and that of our minds. All of those elements will be important over the coming weeks and months, but our mind and the relationship we have with ourselves will be most important of all.
This is me, sharing some of my thoughts with you on this moment in time.
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Tia Raskin is one of the smartest humans I know, her ability to process data fast and ask the right questions is second to none. She is one of a number of women in my life who inspires bravery and boldness. She currently divides her time between the law and acting, having taken the leap to attend acting school some years back. She worked around the clock to do both and has done a phenomenal job. A former New Yorker, she currently lives in Indianapolis with her husband Jeff.
We met over the airwaves, and caveat: this was my first go at recording a call that way so the sound may not be super perfect. We had a joyful discussion that covered things like:
🥞 The ability to find joy in the face of adversity
🦚 Portfolio careers and developing the ability to listen to the whisper of curiosity
🥞 The flexibility to accept life for what it is sometimes, letting go of expectations
🦚 Reclaiming love as a word, as a thing we feel for the people we interact with
And of course... joy ✨
We live in a world of distraction and disconnection. Before we can move forward in any kind of positive direction, we need to give ourselves the chance to truly listen to what is at play in any given situation. My emotions used to jump up and down and all over the place, with all kinds of different situations triggering my fight or flight defences.
The thing that’s allowed me the space to really stabilise and walk in line with myself, is the work I have done (and continue to do) on stillness. That is, the art of just being. The art of connecting to yourself in such a way that you can determine what is for you, and what you need to let pass you by.
For me that has meant learning to meditate as the backbone, but that isn’t something that’s static and disconnecting me from the rest of the world. True meditation can happen every moment of your waking life if you let it, by simply living in a connected way. Start small, just a few minutes here and there, and see if you start to feel inspired to do a little more.
In this episode I share my journey of learning how to meditate, and even invite you to have a little go with me at the end. Eject at 8.55 mins in if that's not for you, or just skip the 60 second silence and join us again for the closing bars.
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Andy Meikle is a much loved and highly regarded fixture of the London tech scene. Andy inspired me to relax into my work in the People space, and to not take things so seriously. By simply being just who he is, he inspired me to do the same. I'm pleased to say it worked! Making his mark with the phenomenal work he did at Just Giving, he’s now building a business called Hello Self, a business focused on supporting businesses in giving their employees a helping hand towards mental wellness.
We met in Brixton in London, hence the slightly dodgy sound (we fashioned together a makeshift meeting room studio). We spoke of things like:
🥞 Pancakes
🦚 Stopping taking things too seriously
🥞 Where leaders get this stuff wrong
🦚 How Andy creates his best life operating model
And of course... joy ✨
Pancakes and Peacocks is a podcast that explores joyful living in all its forms.
Joy isn’t a new thing for us, we are born full of love and joy. What happens is that we step away from that factory setting into something other than that which we truly are.
When we are living in a way that feels truly in alignment with ourselves, that is where the magic happens. That is where we get to experience joy.
This is the intro episode to the series with just the host, me, Ruth Penfold. Realising the initial life blueprint I had chosen wasn't the right one, I radically changed everything around me in the past ten years to create a fulfilling life with joy at the centre.
This episode gives a chance to learn a little more about the podcast and what to expect as the series progresses.
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