The Storied Future: Recent Episodes
Chris Hare
Earlier this year, I traveled to Rockport, Texas to chase redfish with legendary fly fishing guide Alvin Dedeaux and his crew at All Water Guides. The first day was tough fishing. Really tough. Why?
Besides the fact that I’m not great at fly fishing, there was next to no sun, a whole lot of clouds, and a whole lot of shadows. And if you’ve fished there before, you know that you need a lot of light just to spot the fish, let alone cast to them and catch them.
But one of the things you notice when you’re out there with Alvin is that he seems happy, regardless of the conditions. And that seems to apply to his life beyond fishing as well.
Alvin has lived a storied life. From discovering his passion for fly fishing as a kid to becoming frontman for a rock band with a record deal (Nirvana actually opened for them), and from meeting the love of his life and building a life together to establishing himself as one of the top fly fishing guides in Texas.
But last summer, the shadows hit all of a sudden when he lost his wife Lenée to cancer. The cancer came out of nowhere and she was gone within about a month of getting the news from the doctors.
Shortly after, I booked a call with Alvin to talk about a fly fishing trip and on the call learned that he had lost her. He was right in the middle of it and was trying to figure out the path through it, something I can't even imagine trying to navigate. Then in December and February I had the privilege of spending time with him down on the Gulf.
A few months back, I had the privilege of interviewing Alvin. Sure we talked about his journey but this really became a conversation about Lenée’s legacy and the transformational impact she had on him, their kids, their company, and their community.
What struck me about Alvin is the joy that he has in the face of all he’s been through over the past year, in spite of the shadows he’s been walking through.
Please give this one a listen and you’ll quickly see what I mean.
There’s a lot of laughter, some extraordinary stories, a powerful exploration of Alvin's narrative, and yes, there are some tears.
Thanks for telling your story, Alvin. You have taught me and inspired me. And I know your story will continue to help a lot of other people find joy in the journey, wherever they are.
In this special episode, learn about Sienna Jackson’s extraordinary journey from child prodigy to becoming Director of Film and Television Music at The Weinstein Company by the age of 20, to working to build safer and more just workplaces for people everywhere.
Across every stage of her storied career, Sienna has demonstrated an audacious faith in the future and, in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., she is on a journey to transform "dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows."
While at the Weinstein Company, Sienna worked on multiple Academy Award and Golden Globe-nominated original soundtracks. She also had a front-row seat to one of the most notorious downfalls in Hollywood history when Harvey Weinstein's evil was exposed and his career and company came tumbling down.
The lessons Sienna took from that experience propelled her toward a mission-driven career, using her power, skill, and passion to build a better future for people in workplaces everywhere.
Today, Sienna is a Los Angeles-based founder, social impact consultant, and producer. She is the CEO and Co-Founder of Nortera, a tech startup that is working to uncover hidden risk and expose bias and discrimination in the workplace. Sienna is also the CEO of Zoran Creative Strategies, where she continues to drive meaningful change at the intersection of technology, culture, and social impact.
There are few narratives bigger than space exploration, and few journeys that require a more dogged commitment to an unseen future—one that can only be reached through sustained innovation, flawless operations, and a whole lot of belief in that future.
Today's guest, Steve Rader, has worked at NASA’s Johnson Space Center for 34 years, in mission control, developing software for the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station, building command and control systems for the X-38, and working on the Constellation Program. He is currently working to crowdsource innovation at NASA and across the federal government by tapping into a crowd of hundreds of millions of people around the globe.
In today’s episode, Steve and Chris discuss:
- How Steve's upbringing inspired a love of space and an appreciation of the importance of diversity
- Why some organizations fail at unlocking internal innovation, and what they can do differently
- The story of the very first video conference in space
- How the right narrative can become a center of future gravity that overcomes the pull of the status quo and shifts the future to give everyone the opportunity to win, together
And much more!
Our guest on the first episode of 2024 is Jennifer Riel, an IDEO Partner and Chief Strategy Officer. Before IDEO, Jennifer spent 13 years at the Rotman School of Management, where she taught undergrads, MBAs, and executives how to think creatively about their toughest challenges. During this period, she partnered with organizations to help them build their strategic thinking capabilities and transform their teams. Jennifer also teamed up with Roger Martin to write the book Creating Great Choices: A Leader's Guide to Integrative Thinking.
In this fascinating and wide-ranging episode, Jennifer and Chris discuss:
- The five essential questions at the heart of any strategy
- The beauty of being wrong, the costs of not embracing this narrative, and how being wrong can help you build a better strategy
- The false promises of the consensus narrative and why you should leave it behind and embrace tension
- And how to effectively communicate your strategy from the boardroom to the buyer, and beyond
And much more!
Today’s guest, Jonathan Adler, is an internationally recognized scholar in the study of personal narrative and its relationship with well-being. Jonathan is a professor of psychology at Olin College of Engineering, a senior lecturer at Harvard Medical School, and a theater director and playwright. His work brings together the rigor of science with the wonder and mystery of art, to show how writing a narrative and then living into that narrative can shift the future for the better.
Jonathan and Chris discuss:
- What the science tells us about how storytelling and narratives work
- Why humans tell stories, and the role these stories can play in transforming leaders and organizations
- Why redemptive narratives, such as the American narrative about beating cancer, can be transformative—but why these same narratives can also do harm
- How leaders can use storytelling to navigate narrative conflicts and create alignment around a shared vision of the future
And much more!
Our guest today is Dr. Herminia Ibarra, the Charles Handy Professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School and an authority on leadership and career development. Earlier this year, Herminia and her colleagues Claudius A. Hildebrand and Sabine Vinck published an article in Harvard Business Review called “The Leadership Odyssey,” which explored the correlation between CEO skills and firm performance by examining 235 candidates across 75 CEO successions. Herminia and her colleagues then created a narrative pathway that aspiring CEOs can follow to transform their leadership and increase their effectiveness.
In this episode, Chris and Herminia explore:
- The narrative pathway CEOs can use to elevate their leadership and move from a hands-on, directive approach to empowering and enabling their teams
- Insights and stories from her global bestseller Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader, as well as her book Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career.
- The surprising truth that will challenge your understanding and beliefs about authenticity and purpose, and how to build a new narrative grounded in your identity that can unlock new levels of growth.
And much more!
Today's guest, Brian Janous, is the former VP of Energy at Microsoft. In fact, he was their first ever energy hire back in 2011. Until his departure earlier this year, Brian oversaw energy strategy and sourcing for all of Microsoft’s cloud and AI infrastructure, including procuring renewable energy for the company to meet its carbon objectives.
Since the earliest days of his career, Brian has sought to answer the question, “How do we build markets around the complex machine of the electric grid to drive behaviors that shift the future?” As you’ll hear, Microsoft gave him the opportunity to do just that.
When Brian joined the company in 2011, Microsoft’s market cap was north of $218 billion. Today its market cap has skyrocketed to over $2.7 trillion, thanks in no small part to the company's ability to acquire energy, refine it into data, and use that data to fuel the creation of value in the cloud.
Brian is a natural-born storyteller, and you’re in for a treat.
In this episode, Brian and Chris talk about:
- The power of storytelling in building the world’s largest machine
- Why the future of energy innovation must be informed by the past and grounded in the present
- The breakthrough that converted Microsoft’s CEO at the time, Steve Ballmer, into a true believer in Brian’s and his team’s vision for the future of energy
- The importance of having an enduring narrative that drives your strategy forward
And much more!
Today's guest is Jim Citrin, a legend in the world of CEO search and succession. Jim is the leader of Spencer Stuart's CEO practice. Over the course of his career, he's interviewed over 14,000 candidates and worked with clients on more than 800 searches and succession assignments. Jim's gift is seeing the future—a future that candidates and companies don't always see—and then bringing them together to write that future.
Chris and Jim discuss:
- How Jim helped Hubert Joly and Mark Thompson land their respective CEO roles at Best Buy and the New York Times
- Why delivering great results alone is no longer enough for CEOs
- How to rewrite the narrative about the perfect CEO who has all the answers
- What the succession process looks like, and what boards are looking for in candidates
- How you can use storytelling and your vision of the future to earn trust with the board in the interview process
And much more!
If you enjoy flight metaphors, this is the episode for you! Chris talks to Art delaCruz of Team Rubicon, an extraordinary nonprofit that's shifting the future for veterans and communities affected by natural disasters. In 2021, Art filled the shoes of season 1 guest Jake Wood, the cofounder and former CEO of Team Rubicon.
In this episode, Art and Chris discuss:
- How Art got his start as a fighter pilot in the United States Navy
- The art of navigating the turbulent shift from chief operating officer to CEO at Team Rubicon
- How making high-stakes decisions at high velocity equipped Art for the world of disaster relief in the middle of COVID
- Whether the real Top Gun experience lives up to the movie
- How losing a $40 million plane transformed Art as a leader
And much more!
In 1996, a 27-year-old woman walked into Smith Barney for her very first day as a secretary. A recent college grad with a degree in piano and no business experience, Ivy League pedigree, or marketable skills other than typing fast, it wasn't long before she saw the future she wanted: a career as an investment banker. But that future seemed out of reach. Or was it?
That woman was Whitney Johnson, and she's our guest on the very first episode of season 2 of the podcast. Whitney is the CEO of Disruption Advisors, a leadership development company that can help you grow your people to grow your business. She's also the host of the weekly podcast Disrupt Yourself, whose guests have included Alan Mulally, Brené Brown, Adam Grant, Susan Cain, and Stephen M.R. Covey.
In today's episode, Chris and Whitney cover:
- How Whitney learned to embrace, not run from, her origin story
- The massive influence Clayton Christensen and his work on disruption and innovation had on Whitney
- The importance of "throwing down the pom poms and getting in the game"
- How the "S curve" provides a powerful framework for Whitney's work as a disruption advisor
- Whether it's easier to disrupt yourself earlier or later in your career
- The zen of tennis, piano, and fly fishing
And much more!
The Storied Future Podcast gives high-performing CEOs a front-row seat to candid conversations with leaders who have put new narratives out into the world, and then used those narratives to shift the future.
If you want to create a future where you’re not only proud of what you’ve accomplished, but of how you accomplished it, how it changed you, and who you took with you, host Chris Hare and his guests will provide the insights and inspiration you need to get there.
Guests include Whitney Johnson, CEO of Disruption Advisors; Jim Citrin, Head of the CEO Practice at Spencer Stuart; Pete Sauerborn, Executive Chair of FTD; and Aaron Mitchell, architect of Netflix's 2% cash commitment to Black banks.
In this special episode in honor of Black History Month, Chris is joined by Aaron Craig Mitchell. Aaron is the former director of HR at Netflix Animation Studios, where he helped engineer the company's pledge to allocate 2 percent of its cash holdings into financial institutions and organizations that directly support Black communities in the U.S.
Aaron describes himself as a tortoise (a nod to the Aesop fable that inspired the episode title) because he learned persistence and resilience from an early age—traits that have helped him slowly and steadily drive huge positive change in his career so far.
Aaron has lived a life of extraordinary impact, and he's only just getting started.
In this episode, Chris and Aaron discuss:
- How Aaron's struggles as a self-described, sickly, shy, clumsy, and nerdy kid unlocked a rich inner life of imagination and creativity
- The hard-ass music teacher who made JK Simmons' character in the movie Whiplash look like a nice guy, and who introduced Aaron to a lifelong love of jazz that now shapes every part of his work
- How Aaron worked to fan flames of healthy chaos during Netflix's cannonball into the pool of animation, going from zero to the largest studio in the world inside of a year
- How a Jefferson Dinner in the early days of the pandemic sparked the creation of an initiative at Netflix that has injected $2 billion in cash into Black banks and financial institutions and is now providing access to the loans that Black businesses need to survive, thrive, and grow
And much more!
Chris closes out the first season of the podcast with a conversation with Erica Brinker, Chief Commercial Officer and Head of ESG at Array Technologies. Erica is an extraordinary leader who knows how to build a brand and prove her impact.
Prior to Array, Erica was CMO at Honeywell, an industrial that historically didn’t believe in marketing. She drove demand through the roof for Honeywell by building a brand campaign that is still driving impact years later. Her insights and approach should prove incredibly valuable for CMOs who are leading through the turbulence of this current economy.
Chris and Erica cover:
- Her early years as a marketer working at Kate Spade, Tiffany, and Ralph Lauren, in a world where brand was everything
- The path she blazed to become Chief Marketing Officer at Honeywell
- Honeywell's Futureshaper brand campaign, which aligned everyone from the buyer to the C-Suite at Honeywell around a shared vision of the future
- How you can earn and grow a trusted relationship with your CFO
- How Erica's desire to change the future of the planet for her kids led to her current role at Array
And much more! Thanks for joining us this season. We'll see you in 2023!
Today, Chris talks to Jake Wood, CEO and founder of Groundswell, an innovative new corporate giving platform that enables companies to empower employees with their own donor-advised funds.
As a former Marine sniper who received three meritorious promotions for leading combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, Jake shares how he overcame fear and chaos on the battlefield. And he explains how the lessons he learned in combat can help company leaders face their own fears and unleash the potential of their employees to win in the midst of chaos.
Chris and Jake cover:
- Jake’s search for a narrative that would give his life meaning and purpose through serving others
- How the storied narrative and culture of the Marine Corps transformed Jake into a warrior
- The origin of Team Rubicon, and how Jake and his team used storytelling to align donors, employees, the public, and volunteers around a shared mission
- How he and his team at Groundswell are transforming the future by writing a new narrative that unleashes generosity to change the world
And much more!
In this episode, Chris is joined by Netflix’s Heather Dowdy for a conversation about her work in shifting the narratives that impact how people with disabilities and people of color with disabilities are received in our culture.
Heather is a child of deaf adults (CODA) who grew up on the south side of Chicago at the intersection of race, disability, socioeconomic status, and technology. She became an engineer and eventually the first director of product accessibility at Netflix. In that role, she sets strategy and helps her team use technology to innovate so they can delight members who have disabilities.
Chris and Heather explore:
- Heather's journey from Chicago to college and then Motorola, Microsoft, and now Netflix
- Her vision of the future, one where we all recognize that no two people and no two disabilities are alike but every person's needs are met
- What happens when a company's stated purpose and the demand for profit collide
- How Heather stays connected to her audience at Netflix to ensure she and her team are creating the most delightful experiences possible
- How we can use AI to unlock greater personalization to meet people's access needs and supplement their abilities
And much more!
In this episode, Chris is joined by a friend, former colleague, and mentor from his time at Amazon Marketplace, Pete Sauerborn.
Pete is a seasoned eCommerce leader with impeccable credentials: a VP at Amazon Marketplace, an MBA from Chicago Booth, stints at Apple and McKinsey, and owner of a $300 million P&L at Teleflora.
But what sets Pete apart is his customer obsession. That’s a buzzword, for sure, but there is no better phrase for what guides Pete.
You’ll hear how Pete’s obsession with serving his customers led him to uncover stories at Amazon about real people that didn’t show up in the data. These stories ran counter to the narrative that Pete and his team were using to run the business—and ended up redefining the future of Amazon Marketplace.
Chris and Pete explore:
- The path that took Pete from reviving his brother’s failing paper route as a kid to growing Amazon Marketplace from 15 people to 4,000
- One of Pete’s biggest failures as a leader at Amazon
- How writing Amazon’s famous 1-pagers and 6-pagers forces an intense clarity of thinking
- Why pain is necessary for business transformation
- The time Chris turned himself into a robot
And much more!
Today The Storied Future Podcast welcomes Kyle Arteaga, cofounder and CEO of the Bulleit Group, an award-winning high-tech PR agency.
From an early age, Kyle believed that the science fiction of movies and television could become reality—had to become reality.
At the core of Kyle and his team’s mission is a recognition of the ways technology has shaped the present, and a determination to tell the stories of the companies that will drive the future.
In this episode, Kyle and Chris discuss how companies that are inventing the future can thrive in the midst of uncertainty and use narrative to change what happens next. They cover:
- The influence TV shows like The Jetsons and Knight Rider had on young Kyle’s vision of what was possible
- How comms can evolve to address the acceleration of invention, the proliferation of communication channels, and the complex desires and demands of customers, employees, and policy makers
- How startups and enterprise tech companies can effectively tell their stories in a way that brings their vision of the future to life
- Why having a strong narrative in times of uncertainty is critical to the future of your company
- How to build an authentic narrative, and the importance of bringing your audience along on the journey
And much more!
Welcome to the seventh episode of The Storied Future Podcast, where Chris talks to Mark Stouse, founder and CEO of Proof Analytics.
If you’ve been listening to the show regularly, you know we explore how leaders use narrative to transform the future of a business. Mark has done that many times over, but his story of personal transformation is not to be missed. He also highlights how analytics can be a powerful tool—an empathy engine—that can help marketing leaders become greater multipliers of the efforts of those around them.
Chris and Mark discuss:
- How the thing Mark detested at an early age—math—eventually changed his life
- Why being a “data-driven” organization isn’t enough
- How Mark proved the value of investing in brand building at Honeywell Aerospace, a traditional organization that had historically spent nearly 100% on demand generation
- The roles of marketing and sales, how marketing mix modeling (MMM) helps align them, and why great marketing is a sales multiplier
- Why understanding time lag is a key to relating marketing performance and sales performance
- The narratives that guide the relationship between CMOs and CFOs, and how analytics can help shift those narratives
And much more!
Today’s guest is Andrew Walsh of Applicate Commerce.
As the president and CEO of Applicate, Andrew is at the helm of one of the biggest shifts in the company’s sixty-year history. The company—previously known as Paint Sundries Solutions—had stayed in their lane for decades as a distributor of applied architectural products.
But the rise of ecommerce was disrupting their linear supply chain, threatening the market share of brands and local retailers, and training consumers to demand more, better, faster, and cheaper.
So they turned to The Storied Future to help them define a strategic narrative that would draw their organization, partners, and customers toward an irresistible future defined by value creation, growth, and transformation.
In this episode, Chris and Andrew cover:
- The history of Applicate Commerce, and the challenges they faced with the rise of ecommerce
- Andrew’s experience as a janitor on the shop floor of Applicate that showed him the power of a cohesive narrative
- How Applicate worked with The Storied Future to create a strategic narrative to guide them and their stakeholders as the business evolved
- The crucial importance of getting CEO buy-in on a new strategic narrative
- Why operating from their values is a catalyst, not a constraint, for Applicate
And much more!
Drop us a line to get a copy of The Anatomy of a Strategic Narrative, The Storied Future's ebook about how we built a great strategic narrative with Applicate Commerce.
Our guest on the fifth episode of the Storied Future Podcast is Ebbie Parsons, III.
Ebbie is the founder and managing partner of Yardstick Management, a renowned Black-owned management consulting firm based in Atlanta, Georgia that helps clients transform their organizations to be more diverse, equitable, and inclusive. They count among their clients some of the top companies in the world, including Netflix, Prudential, EY, Whirlpool, Amazon, Medtronic, and LinkedIn.
Ebbie embodies a relentless pursuit of a future defined by true equity and inclusion, from the boardroom to the front lines of a company.
In this conversation, Chris and Ebbie talk about:
- His dream of becoming an astronaut as a five-year old in Detroit, and the belief his parents instilled in him that he could achieve anything he set his mind to.
- His jarring transition from Detroit to what he calls the “real world,” where he saw how the evil of racism wreaked havoc on people’s beliefs about the future and their access to opportunity.
- A meeting at Olive Garden in 2003 where he and his friends cast a vision for the future that eventually led to the creation of Yardstick Management.
- The future he envisions, and how C-suite leaders can move beyond performative DEI initiatives to bring about true and lasting change.
And much more.
Content warning: This episode includes discussion of an experience of Ebbie’s that involved a threat of racialized police violence.
Our guest today is Julie Brown, the extraordinary leader architecting and executing on a massive transformation strategy for a nearly $7 billion HVAC, Fire, and Security division of Johnson Controls.
Julie helps lead a team of folks who are keeping critical systems running smoothly at schools and hospitals across the country. Behind the scenes, though, they’re navigating the uncomfortable upheaval of a digital transformation journey.
Julie cares a lot about her work. But she cares even more about her customers and her team, and she is relentlessly committed to leading with empathy.
In this episode, Chris and Julie cover:
- The joy Julie got from going on HVAC calls with her dad as a kid
- The lessons she learned during her time at Alcoa in the days in the midst of the sub-prime housing market crash, and how this helped her avoid the typical blind spots of planning for the future
- The horrific loss that changed Julie forever and redefined her as a leader
- Transforming care for patients and education for students
- Why empathy is critical in helping employees create a better future
And much more!
In the third episode of the Storied Future Podcast, Chris talks to Bracken Darrell, the CEO of Logitech, about how a design narrative can help any company reinvent itself.
In 2013, Logitech was a computer peripheral maker facing a bleak outlook due to due to a plateau in worldwide PC sales.
So Bracken hired Nokia design guru Alastair Curtis, moved R&D budget out of mice and keyboards and into sectors with growth potential, and reorganized the company around a set of design principles inspired by Dieter Rams.
In the process, they turned transformed Logitech from an engineering-led company into to a design-led company and kickstarted an era of growth.
In this conversation, Chris and Bracken cover:
- How Bracken’s relationship with Dieter Rams made him a true believer in design thinking
- Bracken’s 2007 speech about the coming design revolution and how he brought that narrative to life
- Why he believed a faltering company was the ideal candidate to prove the power of design
- The childhood loss that drove Bracken’s relentless pursuit of a better future
- Why he fired and rehired himself—and why he makes his leadership team do the same
- Logitech’s commitment to a sustainable, carbon-negative, more inclusive future
And much more!
In the second episode of the Storied Future Podcast, Chris talks to Jamie Cleghorn and Rishi Dave of Bain & Company about how to create alignment across the B2B organization, from the buyer to the boardroom.
Jamie is a Senior Partner focused mainly on growth strategy, go-to-market effectiveness, and organizational alignment. Rishi is an Expert Partner in the firm's commercial excellence practice with deep expertise in B2B marketing and digital marketing.
This conversation covers a ton of ground, and centers around a few core principles—perhaps the biggest of which is the importance of talking to people and getting buy-in across the enterprise.
You’re going to get a lot out of this episode, especially if you’re trying to build a strategic narrative that’s integrous from the top of the organization down to the frontlines.
In this conversation, Chris, Jamie, and Rishi talk about:
- How they use the B2B elements of value— a framework designed to help B2B brands measure and deliver what customers want—to drive growth
- What it takes to create strategic narratives that authentically align everyone from the boardroom to the frontline
- How Bain’s Sales Play System helps close the gaps between marketing and sales
- Why CMOS can't afford to not invest in brand and demand
- How a blank piece of paper can be a powerful tool for realigning your thinking
And much more!
Welcome to the inaugural episode of the Storied Future Podcast! We’re glad you’re here.
In this show, host Chris Hare talks to C-Suite leaders, experts, and innovators who are transforming themselves and their companies through the power of strategic narratives.
Our very first guest is the incredible Mary Shea, currently VP, Global Innovation Evangelist at Outreach and a former principal analyst at Forrester. Chris talks to Mary about her unlikely path to becoming a relentless visionary. Along the way, they touch on:
- Her path from world-class musician to car salesperson to futurist
- Why data is crucial to the successful adoption of a narrative
- Recent tectonic shifts in the sales dynamic, and how technology can help sellers navigate them
- The spoken and unspoken narratives that create inequitable workplaces, and how the data points to a better way
- RISE, Outreach’s pilot program for empowering women in sales and leadership
- Why it hurts to be a futurist, and navigating the lag time between vision and execution
And much more!
If you want to change the future, you need to align everyone—from the buyer to the boardroom—around a shared vision of that future.
On the Storied Future Podcast, host Chris Hare talks to C-Suite leaders, experts, and innovators who are transforming themselves and their companies through the power of strategic narratives. We’ll show you how to change minds, change culture, and change what happens next.
Subscribe today and listen to the first three episodes when the podcast launches on September 22, 2022!
Learn more at TSFpod.com.
Rand Fishkin is the cofounder and CEO of SparkToro. He’s dedicated his professional life to helping people do better marketing through his blogging, videos, speaking, and his book, Lost and Founder. I first interviewed Rand about his experience with depression in late 2018 for a podcast I was planning to launch called "Unstuck in Traffic: Mental Health and the Drive to Work." Then my own depression came roaring back and I got stuck. I never launched the podcast.
Well here we are in the middle of COVID-19. No one is stuck in traffic on the way to work but I know plenty of us are feeling stuck--stuck dealing with depression, chronic pain, sleeplessness, anxiety, and more. So I kicked myself in the ass and said it's time. Time to get unstuck and share the gift of Rand's story and insights with the world. As a marketer it's painful for me to share this with the world without a launch plan, without the branding and without all the razzle dazzle. But in these times people don't need flash. What they need is helpful conversations, and I hope you find this to be just that.
I first learned about Rand through his work at MOZ when I was working at Amazon. At the time I was spending up to three hours a day in traffic to and from work in the darkness and rain of Seattle. I was dealing with anxiety, PTSD, depression, and chronic pain and was trying to keep my head above water on a team with a controlling manager who created a toxic culture of fear that only amplified the pain I had been experiencing since childhood. Sure those were some of my most productive years but they also sucked my soul dry and I eventually lost all hope.
I remember repeating to myself over and over throughout those years as I was sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic, "I feel stuck. I feel stuck. I feel stuck." The darkness only grew darker and every Saturday when the craziness of the work week subsided, I was left with my thoughts and it wasn't pretty. And every Saturday like clockwork, I thought about killing myself. I remember sitting on the edge of the river that runs through our small town one weekend and feeling as if I was being sucked into the river by that darkness.
That desire to end it all stuck with me for years but I eventually found hope. And then I began looking for ways to help other folks in similar situations. That's when I found this article from Rand on A Long, Ugly Year of Depression That's Finally Fading. That helped give me the courage to begin speaking up, to push back against the shame, and to be willing to share my story. I remember telling that story for the first time on The Boss Show podcast. My depression spiked hard after I recorded it and I was in bed for two days after that. But here's the thing. It helped people. I never listened to it. And I never will. But I heard from a number of friends how it had impacted them. And that inspired me to keep telling my story.
Today, I'm not doing great but I'm doing a lot better. I'm alive. Yes I'm struggling with a lot of challenges during COVID-19, but because of Rand and a lot of other great people I'm stable and I'm improving slowly but surely. My life is no longer in danger. I'm a small business owner (which is oh so much fun in this season!). And I'm now able to use my experience to help combat-wounded veterans through The Bar X Project. I hope you find this helpful.
