Life Beyond The Numbers

#58 Making Connections - Alison Jones

"So yeah, that sense of making connections, which your brain does all the time. And writing enables you to capture that." Alison Jones
 
Alison Jones and I talk about writing as a way to think. Thinking might seem like a luxury that many of us don't have time to do but Alison makes a case for lightweight, affordable and accessible writing as a thinking tool - all you need is six minutes and a big scruffy A4 pad. Alison shares some techniques such as free-writing and mind-mapping and we chat about the hand-brain connection, the power of visual, storytelling, reading and using writing for communication. We also cover reflective practice, self-coaching metaphors and creativity. 
 
Alison Jones is founder of Practical Inspiration Publishing, a pioneering publishing partner for businesses, and host of The Extraordinary Business Book Club, a podcast and community for writers and readers of extraordinary business books. A veteran of the publishing industry, she worked for 25 years with leading companies such as Oxford University Press and Macmillan. She regularly speaks and blogs on the publishing industry, is on the board of the Independent Publishers Guild and Head Judge of the Business Book Awards. She has written and edited several books, most recently This Book Means Business (2018). 
 
Connect with Alison
Through her website
and her WriteBrained (28-day exploratory writing adventure) wait list
and Practical Inspiration Publishing
or tune into her Extraordinary Business Book Club Podcast
 
Resources Mentioned
Reflective Practice Writing and Professional Development by Gillie Bolton
Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist is by Kate Raworth
The Art of Enough: 7 ways to build a balanced life and a flourishing world by Becky Hall
 

#57 Beyond the Numbers - Susan Ni Chriodain

"And my vision is that that 80 percent number can reduce and more people are engaged in the workplace and enjoy what they do." Susan Ni Chriodain
 
Life Beyond the Numbers was launched in Sept 2020. And for my 1st anniversary someone special, my Dad, interviewed me! I spent a week in Dingle, my home town in Ireland, in late August 2021 and we talked lots about my work, past and present as well as my future vision - so we thought, why not record an episode! Here it is. I hope you enjoy it. 
Curious to know more
Please visit my website
Connect with me on LinkedIn 
and on Instagram or Twitter
or send me an email on susan@beyond-thenumbers.com 
 
Susan Ni Chriodain founded Beyond the Numbers to work with organisations who recognise that putting people first generates the greatest return. Her experience and business acumen stem from a wide variety of commercial and non-profit operational, project and financial roles. For over 20 years she led and managed a wide variety of teams in Europe, Africa, Asia, in-person and remotely. A Finance Director at 33 she learnt that to have an impact required you to be brave, bold and to build strong working relationships. It wasn’t enough to be technically excellent; putting people first was key. She has a practical, no-nonsense approach to understanding and resolving other people’s problems no matterhow intractable they might seem.
 

#56 Gut Health - Caroline Peyton

"Many of us are beginning to learn today just how important it is to know what is going on in our gut. And that gut health is important to our overall health." Caroline Peyton
 
Caroline Peyton has an holistic approach to health and wellbeing. In this episode we start out chatting about how our gut is invisible and we tend to ignore it unless there is a problem. However, making sure that what goes into our gut, how it survives and thrives in there or doesn't and the impact of that on our lives - from moods to stress to ill health is fascinating. Caroline's enthusiasm helps us visualise what is going on and she broadens it out to cover so many areas, including:
If you are a tea and/or coffee drinker are you aware of the impact on your body?
How much hydrating fluid do you consume daily? 
If you have a desk based job how much do you move around and exercise? 
How many pieces of fruit and vegetables do you consume daily?
How do you know if you have an intolerance or an allergy?
And we keep returning to the fact that our bodies are amazing - how it does its best to cope, but sometimes if we push it a little bit too far, it will start to try and tell us that it's not so happy. We have to tune in and listen to our bodies. 
 
Caroline Peyton spent 20 years in corporate management roles and then took the decision to retrain; firstly in Nutritional Therapy in 2009 and then in Naturopathy in 2014. She also holds diplomas in Iridology and Wellbeing Coaching. Caroline helped establish the Naturopathic Nutrition Association and was Chair for seven years. She also became Principal of the Natural Healthcare College in 2013 and supervised final year students’ Clinical Practice training until 2018. Caroline runs her own private practice and specialises in digestive gut health.
 
Connect with Caroline
Through her website Peyton Principles
Her email address is caroline@peytonprinciples.com
YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn
 
Resources Mentioned:
More Salt Less Herbs blog post
Gut: the inside story of our body's most under-rated organ, Giulia Enders
 

#55 Focus on Play - Pauline McNulty

"as adults we've put play and work in opposition and that's another myth." Pauline McNulty
 
Pauline McNulty prioritised career progression above everything else in her life until about 18 months into a role as Chief Risk Officer. The role was meaningful and important but something wasn't working for her. She got really curious about what was motivating for her and came across an article about three primary intrinsic motivators - potential, purpose and play. And she says the way they talked about play is enjoying the act of the work itself. Pauline and I talk about how play shows up our workplaces and in the act of the work itself. We talk about the benefits of play - using play can unlock hidden potential and get more creativity from people. People make better decisions. And generally, you'll be more resilient for whatever challenges are coming down the track. Pauline is not saying this play is a silver bullet. It's an activity, it's also an experience, and it can also be a mindset. How do we design work in a way that feels like play because we're going to get better results?
 
Pauline McNulty has executive-level leadership experience that spans transformational change, risk and assurance. After graduating with a 1st class degree in Computer Science, Pauline trained as an accountant with KPMG. Her ambition led to Head of Internal Audit by her early 30s and Chief Risk Officer of a $3bn organisation by 35. Since the beginning of 2020, in conjunction with co-founding Playfilled, Pauline has built a portfolio focused on enabling sustainable success for people and organisations as a coach, advisor/NED, and advocate. Passionate about inclusion and mental well-being, Pauline was recognised for her work as LSM Executive Sponsor for D&I when she was featured on inaugural 2019 InsideOut Leaderboard.
 
Connect with Pauline
On LinkedIn
Playfilled website and on LinkedIn
 
Resources Mentioned
HBR Article How company culture shapes employee motivation
Dr. Stuart Brown TED Talk
Design Your Life 
Primed to Perform Vega Factor
Nine Lies About Work (Lie #8) makes reference to Mayo Clinic Study
Playful Work Design
Design Good Work, CIPD

#54 You're Not Alone - Louise McMilan

"If someone can take one thing away from what I've said that's going to help them then I'm happy whether that's the mental health side or cancer side." Louise McMilan.
 
Louise McMilan took a career break to beat cancer. Her story is raw and she shares it openly and honestly. But there is more. As she says her cancer is the thing that really changed her own viewpoint on herself. For many years she thought she was wired wrong. She didn't want anybody else to feel what she felt about herself - the anxiety, the depression. She didn't want anybody else to experience that but she found it so reassuring to learn that she was not alone. Louise worked in HR and used to hear the comments. She says HR professionals don't always talk about mental health themselves because they've got to be so robust, they've got to be there for everybody else in an organisation. We've got to remember that they're humans too.
 
Louise McMilan is an inspirational Speaker on Mental Health and Breast Cancer and Life Coach reigniting self belief. She loves to make a difference to people something that has always been a feature of her professional life during her HR career. Now she specialises in: building self-confidence, overcoming limiting beliefs; anxiety/depression; managing stress; managing work-life balance; supporting those living with cancer; life after cancer, midlife reboot.
 
Connect with Louise
Visit her website
Connect with her on LinkedIn
And on Instagram
 
Resources Mentioned
Finish the damn book club
Michael Neil, The Inside-Out Revolution: The Only Thing You Need to Know to Change Your Life Forever
Nick Elston
Yoga with Adriene

#53 Start With You - Nikki Hill

"There's only one person who's truly, truly in control of our lives and it's ourselves and it's okay to spend some time focusing on what's important to us." Nikki Hill.
 
This episode is full of ways to enhance self-awareness. We talk about discovering our boundaries, the things that matter to us, as a way to give ourselves a sense of calm, peace, enabling us to enjoy our life and have the energy we need. When we communicate our boundaries they don't have to be explained or justified. We also explore how we might react when our boundaries are pushed too far and of course we take that to the workplace. Nikki talks about setting up a recruitment business with a partner and the valuable lesson they learnt of bringing their vulnerability and inexperience to the table, not to the point that employees didn't feel safe or secure, but that they actually felt communicated with and understood. We also cover making mistakes, being playful, understanding our strengths and capabilities and being creative in our thinking. 
 
Nikki Hill is passionate about people and creating positive change. She is a certified Mindset & Business Coach and works with individuals who want to create sustainable change in their lives and is creating massive (and profitable) change for creative entrepreneurs one subtle shift at a time. Nikki Hill started her career in recruitment and set up Alexander Hill because of a belief that the individual matters. 
 
Connect with Nikki
Visit her website 
Follow her on Instagram
On LinkedIn

#52 Everything's Okay - Alan Creedon

"Everything's okay. And if everything's okay, what's the problem? And actually, it's a very fulfilling place to be; everything's okay." Alan Creedon.
 
If you ever feel tortured by your own thoughts this episode is for you as Alan Creedon and I delve into talking about our minds in a world of 'shoulds' and 'doing'. Alan explains how to find stillness, connections, how to be and how to use your mind and not be used by it. Alan explains what mindfulness is and the benefits of mindfulness from his own experience: 
worrying less,
far less bothered about what other people thought about him,
being less judgemental, 
fewer barriers to doing what he wanted to do, and
gaining clarity.
Alan talks about nature, nature connection and discovering nature even if we live in an urban setting. We discuss the value of relationships, interactions, nature and creating. And we talk about everything being okay - not amazing, not terrible, but okay. 
 
Alan Creedon is a qualified mindfulness teacher with a passion for the outdoors and nature. He is all about the people and a big believer in cooperation and personal development within the workplace and works with individuals and businesses. He has considerable experience in buying and selling, creating and building markets and helping local, organic food businesses work. He loves being creative and nature plays a big part in that. He writes. He also plays music and composed the music that features on Life Beyond the Numbers Podcast. 
 
Connect with Alan:
On LinkedIn
His Endless River website
And on Instagram 
 
 
 
 

#51 One to Many - Kaveh Sadeghian

"We always say: to design for many, you have to design for some and to design for some, you have to design for one." Kaveh Sadeghian.
 
Kaveh Sadeghian would love to hand over a series of beliefs and systems to the next generation that might undo some of the industrial era and set them up with a little bit more success in terms of integrating their purpose and themselves and their work. We talk about how a systems and scale approach is not the only one and that he says solutions will move at the pace of trust. And we talk about design thinking and inclusive design. Kaveh shares how he first discovered being in a state of flow and how although it is not an inherently efficient state that if we don't have it at work we run the risk of being unfulfilled. We talk about compassion fatigue and how to distinguish between compassion fatigue and burnout. Kaveh speaks passionately about community and the power of storytelling. 
 
Kaveh Sadeghian develops and facilitates transformative educational experiences for mission-driven leaders using trauma-informed, anti-oppressive, and equity-centered pedagogies. Kaveh is currently a Lead Strategist at 2U, where he directs the company’s learning strategy for undergraduate programs. Prior to 2U, Kaveh helped create Penn’s Center for Social Impact Strategy and served as its Creative Director. Today, Kaveh continues his work at Penn as an instructor, where he teaches courses on design-thinking, social innovation, and social impact strategy. As an independent consultant, Kaveh develops and facilitates leadership programming for high-impact organizations, including the Obama Foundation, the Aspen Institute, and the World Bank. He is also a regular speaker and facilitator at mission-driven conferences.
 
Connect with Kaveh:
By email at kaveh@upenn.edu
 
Resources Mentioned:
Centre for Social Impact Strategy U Penn
Inclusive Design @ Microsoft
Kirstin Neff - Self Compassion
Dr. Sandra Bloom - Trauma

#50 A Journey - Kiki Kirby

"We've got to take ownership of our leadership with our people because we're leading people." Kiki Kirby
 
People are at the heart of what Kiki does. As this episode was recorded at the beginning of summer (UK) Kiki and I kick off chatting about the importance of taking rest - not just during the summer but on a daily basis. Kiki has overcome many things in life - her mother died when she was 13, she suffered from burnout at work and is a cancer survivor. In this episode she shares some reflections on these life events and also how she incorporates them into the work she does now. Reflection, she says, is one of the most under-utilised and underused success tools. Kiki is so open and generous with what she shares about how she has evolved and continues to evolve. She admits "I've probably made work the idol of my life at many times." Have you? 
 
Kiki Kirby has developed a methodology that frames and structures the work we do, to help bring clarity to the chaos of any people-related situation. With a successful corporate career in HR and recruitment, Kiki has seen her fair share of people challenges. Having worked for over a decade in consultancy, coaching and recruitment, her whole career has been about people at various stages of their professional lives. Kiki is a heart-centred business and life coach. 
 
Connect with Kiki
Her consultancy business website 
Her coaching business website
On LinkedIn 
 
Resources Mentioned:
Helen Joy @ PeopleSpark
Susan David TED Talk  and her book Emotional Agility: Get Unstuck, Embrace Change, and Thrive in Work and Life

#49 A Sense of Belonging - Jenny Ashmore

"Teams are built on how tense moments are handled." Jenny Ashmore
 
Jenny Ashmore and I chat about the similarities between business and sports especially when it comes to high-performance. Jenny feels that there are some profound techniques we can learn from sport that can easily translate into the workplace - how goals are set, fostering a sense of belonging, dealing with tensions and stress and setting team standards. Safety and feeling safe as humans, individually and as part of a team, comes up a number of times during our conversation. As do the stories we tell ourselves (and we all do it). Jenny asks how we might unpack our realities and check our stories with facts. She also talks about how much we embody, including our values. Jenny has some great insights into how you might assess whether you are better suited to an Exec or Non-Exec role and she talks about how powerful relationships are reciprocal relationships. 
 
Jenny Ashmore is a persuasive and inspirational senior Board adviser, and consultant with 15+ years of Board-level experience across Financial Services, Private Equity, international sports, charities, and member organisations. She is also a former GB age-group triathlete (qualifying for World & European Championships) and as a coach is passionately interested in the components of what drives peak performance and winning podium positions in business as much as sport. This comes after an Executive career working for some of the world’s largest businesses and brands with the best-known household names - Pampers, SSE, Mars, P&G. And Jenny was President of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) for 3 years. 
 
Connect with Jenny:
On LinkedIn
 
Resources Mentioned: 
Belonging: The Ancient Code of Togetherness, Owen Eastwood