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What happens to your communication when someone pushes exactly the right button? Strategy can disappear quickly when the nervous system feels threatened. We become defensive, rush to prove our point, or get pulled into the emotional energy of the person across from us. The conversation may still be happening, but we are no longer fully present inside it. Amy and trial lawyer Jennifer Gardner explore what it takes to remain grounded when the stakes are high. Drawing from decades inside intense courtroom situations, Jennifer shares why self-regulation is not separate from effective communication. It is what makes clear thinking, presence, and persuasion possible in the first place. Their conversation moves from grounding through the body to the deeper work of humanizing the person on the other side. Jennifer also examines the line between ethical persuasion and manipulation, including how likability, empathy, and emotional connection can be used either in service of understanding or as tools for control. The goal is not to become impossible to trigger. It is to recognize the moment you are losing yourself, return to what matters, and choose how you want to respond before fear, ego, or defensiveness chooses for you. Moments That Create Momentum: Don’t Take the Bait – Explore why regulating yourself first can keep conflict from deciding how you communicate.Come Back to the Body – Learn how grounding and breath can help restore clarity when the pressure around you begins to escalate.Humanize Before You Persuade – Discover why understanding another person’s reality can make communication more compelling without abandoning your own position.Notice the Shadow of Persuasion – Recognize how likability and emotional connection can create influence, and when those same tools begin to feel manipulative.Hard Truths Still Need to Be Spoken – See how difficult conversations can create greater inner peace when your actions remain aligned with what you believe. About the Guest: Jennifer B. Gardner is a Los Angeles-based trial lawyer, speaker, and persuasion expert who helps high-performing leaders strengthen their executive presence, communication, and influence. She has operated her own litigation firm for more than 30 years and has handled complex business, real estate, and criminal matters through trial. Jennifer holds executive certifications from the Wharton School in leadership, influence and persuasion, and neuroscience for business. Through The Edge Education, she teaches leaders and lawyers how to communicate more effectively, navigate high-stakes situations, and achieve stronger results with less stress. https://jenniferbgardner.com/ About Amy: Amy Lynn Durham, known by her clients as the Corporate Mystic, is the founder of the Executive Coaching Firm, Create Magic At Work®, where they help leaders build workplaces rooted in creativity, collaboration, and fulfillment. A former corporate executive turned Executive Coach, Amy blends practical leadership strategies with spiritual intelligence to unlock human potential at work. She’s a certified Executive Coach through UC Berkeley & the International Coaching Federation (ICF) In addition, Amy holds coaching certifications in Spiritual Intelligence (SQ21), the Edgewalker Profile, and the Archetypes of Change . In addition to being the host of the Create Magic At Work® podcast, Amy is the author of Create Magic At Work®, Creating Career Magic: A Daily Prompt Journal and the founder of Magic Thread Media™. Through her work, she inspires intentional leadership for thriving workplaces and lives where “magic” becomes reality. Connect with Amy: https://createmagicatwork.net/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/create-magic-at-work https://www.facebook.com/112951637095427 https://www.instagram.com/createmagicatwork https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnEm4h3fUgaq8qgvZpz6dGg Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app. Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you are enjoying the show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.

Today’s Edgewalker card explores how vision can emerge through presence and deep listening. When we slow down enough to notice what others may overlook, we create space to recognize possibilities, patterns, and guidance that can shape what comes next. Start your own journey of reflection, creativity, and intentional growth with the Create Magic at Work Journal or bring the wisdom of the Edgewalker mindset into your daily life with your own copy of the Edgewalker Card Deck. You can find both at https://magicthreadmedia.com/experience

What happens when the qualities that helped you succeed begin getting in the way of the leader you need to become? High performers are often rewarded for knowing the answer, moving quickly, and getting results. But as responsibility grows, leadership asks for something different. The work becomes less about proving what you can do and more about creating the conditions for other people to do their best work. Amy and Phyllis Sarkaria explore this transition through Phyllis’s book, Harvest: A Leadership Story, a fable inspired by more than a decade of participating in the olive harvest in Tuscany. Its central character, Emily, discovers that relentless speed can cause her to miss what is happening around her, including the impact she is having on her team. Their conversation explores the learner’s mindset, leadership self-awareness, rescuing versus developing others, receiving difficult feedback, and why slowing down does not necessarily mean accomplishing less. Sometimes the pause is what allows us to see the tree differently, notice what we missed, and recognize where our own habits may be limiting the people around us. Sustainable leadership is not about losing your drive. It is about becoming intentional enough to know when to use it. Moments That Create Momentum: What Got You Here Can Get in the Way – Explore why the habits that earn a promotion may not be the same ones that help someone lead well.Slow Down to Go Faster – Discover how presence and intentionality can prevent speed from creating more work, mistakes, and disconnection.Stop Rescuing the Team – Understand how constantly stepping in can limit development and keep leaders working below the level they should be leading.Feedback Only Works If You Can Hear It – Learn why receiving someone’s perception without defending yourself is essential to creating greater trust and safety.The Pause Creates Possibility – See how stepping out of constant busyness can create space for perspective, creativity, and a more sustainable way of leading. About the Guest: Phyllis Sarkaria is a certified executive coach, facilitator, and trusted adviser who works with leaders on one of the most consequential — and least examined — gaps in leadership: the distance between how leaders see themselves and how they're actually experienced. Founder of The Sarkaria Group, Phyllis brings more than 30 years of corporate leadership experience to her work, including executive roles in human resources and government affairs. She has led functions as diverse as strategic planning, merger integration, and team effectiveness. Before launching her practice, she served as head of HR and internal coach to C-suite executives at Quidel Corporation, a leading multinational medical diagnostics company. These experiences shaped her deep understanding of organizational dynamics from the inside. She is the author of Courageous Clarity: Navigating the Way Forward on Your Leadership Journey and Harvest: A Leadership Story. Together, the two books explore what it takes for leaders to close the gap between intention and impact — Courageous Clarity as a practical guide, and Harvest as a story that shows, rather than tells, one leader's journey to greater self-awareness, stronger culture, and more sustainable results. https://www.linkedin.com/in/phyllis-sarkaria/ Get Phyllis’ book, Harvest: A Leadership Story, here - https://a.co/d/0gFKi0D7 About Amy: Amy Lynn Durham, known by her clients as the Corporate Mystic, is the founder of the Executive Coaching Firm, Create Magic At Work®, where they help leaders build workplaces rooted in creativity, collaboration, and fulfillment. A former corporate executive turned Executive Coach, Amy blends practical leadership strategies with spiritual intelligence to unlock human potential at work. She’s a certified Executive Coach through UC Berkeley & the International Coaching Federation (ICF) In addition, Amy holds coaching certifications in Spiritual Intelligence (SQ21), the Edgewalker Profile, and the Archetypes of Change . In addition to being the host of the Create Magic At Work® podcast, Amy is the author of Create Magic At Work®, Creating Career Magic: A Daily Prompt Journal and the founder of Magic Thread Media™. Through her work, she inspires intentional leadership for thriving workplaces and lives where “magic” becomes reality. Connect with Amy: https://createmagicatwork.net/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/create-magic-at-work https://www.facebook.com/112951637095427 https://www.instagram.com/createmagicatwork https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnEm4h3fUgaq8qgvZpz6dGg Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app. Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you are enjoying the show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.

Today’s Edgewalker card explores how meaningful connection grows when we approach difference with curiosity rather than distance. By valuing the uniqueness of others and remaining open to unfamiliar perspectives, we create opportunities to bring out the best in one another. Start your own journey of reflection, creativity, and intentional growth with the Create Magic at Work Journal or bring the wisdom of the Edgewalker mindset into your daily life with your own copy of the Edgewalker Card Deck. You can find both at https://magicthreadmedia.com/experience

What if the clutter surrounding you isn’t just taking up space, but also draining your time, attention, money, and ability to grow? Amy sits down with simplicity expert and longtime professional organizer Miriam Ortiz y Pino to explore the deeper connection between physical clutter, digital overwhelm, financial habits, and the way entrepreneurs run their businesses. Miriam challenges the idea that organization is about buying prettier containers or finding the perfect productivity app. Instead, lasting change comes from understanding what you actually need, building systems around the way you live and work, and aligning your actions with your values. Their conversation moves from money mindset and financial self-worth to decision fatigue, busy work, digital clutter, sustainable systems, and why doing more is rarely the answer. Miriam also explains why entrepreneurs need to stop waiting for the perfect solution, start paying attention to their numbers, and create businesses that support the lives they actually want. The shift can start surprisingly small. One drawer. One decision. Ten intentional minutes. Because meaningful change doesn’t require fixing everything at once. It starts by creating enough space to choose what matters next. Moments That Create Momentum: The Cost of “For Now” – See how postponing small decisions can become physical clutter, digital overload, and unnecessary mental weight.The System Comes Before the Container – Understand why another bin, app, or tool cannot solve a problem until you know what the system needs to do.Money Follows What You Value – Explore how understanding your numbers can bring spending and business decisions closer to the life you actually want.More Capacity Is Not More Freedom – The secret to actually save you more time utilizing technology.Small Wins Build Capability – How making one clear decision can close a mental loop and make positive change feel more possible. About our Guest: Miriam Ortiz y Pino is a simplicity expert, Certified Professional Organizer, and Money Breakthrough Business Coach who helps busy, creative entrepreneurs connect organization, productivity, and money mindset. With more than 20 years of experience, she helps clients gain control of their time, space, and finances through flexible, practical systems that support their best work and a more satisfying life. One of the first Certified Professional Organizers in the world and a NAPO instructor, Miriam’s work is rooted in helping people simplify what feels overwhelming, build wealth more intentionally, and create more room for what they truly want to do. https://www.morethanorganized.net https://www.facebook.com/morethanorganized/ https://www.instagram.com/moypmto/ https://www.youtube.com/user/MorethanOrganized https://www.linkedin.com/in/miriamortizypino/ https://www.pinterest.com/moypmto https://morethanorganized.substack.com About Amy: Amy Lynn Durham, known by her clients as the Corporate Mystic, is the founder of the Executive Coaching Firm, Create Magic At Work®, where they help leaders build workplaces rooted in creativity, collaboration, and fulfillment. A former corporate executive turned Executive Coach, Amy blends practical leadership strategies with spiritual intelligence to unlock human potential at work. She’s a certified Executive Coach through UC Berkeley & the International Coaching Federation (ICF) In addition, Amy holds coaching certifications in Spiritual Intelligence (SQ21), the Edgewalker Profile, and the Archetypes of Change . In addition to being the host of the Create Magic At Work® podcast, Amy is the author of Create Magic At Work®, Creating Career Magic: A Daily Prompt Journal and the founder of Magic Thread Media™. Through her work, she inspires intentional leadership for thriving workplaces and lives where “magic” becomes reality. Connect with Amy: https://createmagicatwork.net/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/create-magic-at-work https://www.facebook.com/112951637095427 https://www.instagram.com/createmagicatwork https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnEm4h3fUgaq8qgvZpz6dGg Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app. Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you are enjoying the show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.

Today’s reflection explores how moments of solitude can create the clarity we need to move forward. By making space to go within, we can listen more closely to ourselves and consider the decisions that may bring greater harmony and peace of mind. Start your own journey of reflection, creativity, and intentional growth with the Create Magic at Work Journal or bring the wisdom of the Edgewalker mindset into your daily life with your own copy of the Edgewalker Card Deck. You can find both at https://magicthreadmedia.com/experience

What if your creativity knows something before you do? In this month’s episode Rachel Efron’s asks her most provocative question yet: if dreams can reveal truths outside of our conscious understanding, can our creativity do the same? Inspired by an experience teaching dreamers in Delphi, Greece, Rachel explores the intimate relationship between dreaming and creating, and the associative state of mind they share. Through neuroscience, personal stories, and the strange symbolic conversation between her own songs and dreams, Rachel considers what’s possible when we emphasize the connection between dreaming and creativity. She offers examples of dreams informing creative lives, and suggests that likewise, our creativity can inform our dreaming. She shares examples of her creative work being as prophetic as dreams: songs describing relationships and choices she had not yet experienced. Rachel then invites listeners into a series of association exercises she created to move us beyond effortful thinking (“convergent thinking”) and toward the looser thinking of dreaming (“divergent thinking”). She teaches listeners how to begin developing a dictionary of symbols available to both your creativity and dreaming. Sparks of Insight Creativity and dreaming share a mental process: divergent thinking.Dreaming is creativity practice; creativity is dreaming practice. Anytime we dream or create, we are deepening our relationship to both.If prophetic dreams are possible, what about prophetic creativity? A provocative exploration of whether a song, painting, or poem can sense what is still becoming.Effort is not always the fastest way forward. Stepping away from a problem and doing an “association journey” can lead us toward the small truths we need to make real progress.Rest creates a landing place for ideas. Sometimes what feels like lack of inspiration is really a lack of internal space for your plentiful new ideas. Ready to discover your unique creative landscape? Download the Muzi app at http://itunes.apple.com/app/id6739667782 to take the Creativity Assessment, and uncover your Spark profile. Then email your Spark to Rachel at [email protected] for a chance at a Spark Reading, where Rachel will offer personalized insight into what your creativity most needs from you right now. About Rachel: Rachel Efron is an Oakland-based songwriter, producer, and creativity coach. She's released four full-length albums of original songs, plus written for such legends as Narada Michael Walden and Journey. Rachel is a premier songwriting coach for songwriters across the world, and has over fifteen years experience helping artists, leaders, and teams find their voice. In 2022, Rachel turned her methods into a comprehensive framework and groundbreaking app, Muzi, to help everyone —artists and non-artists alike—access greater creativity in their lives. email: [email protected] website: https://www.rachelefron.com/creativity Download the Muzi app at http://itunes.apple.com/app/id6739667782 Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app. Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you are enjoying the show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.

Today’s Edgewalker card explores how integrity is shaped by the ongoing practice of knowing what we value and choosing to live in alignment with it. When our words, decisions, and behavior reflect those values, accountability becomes part of how we lead and live.\ Start your own journey of reflection, creativity, and intentional growth with the Create Magic at Work Journal or bring the wisdom of the Edgewalker mindset into your daily life with your own copy of the Edgewalker Card Deck. You can find both at https://magicthreadmedia.com/experience

What if getting dressed is less about fashion and more about the relationship you have with yourself? Our clothes communicate before we ever say a word. They can help us feel visible, confident, creative, and aligned with who we are becoming. They can also keep us connected to an older version of ourselves that no longer quite fits. Amy and celebrity stylist and image consultant JenniLee explore personal style and confidence, authentic professional style, and why so many people have closets full of clothes while still feeling as though they have nothing to wear. JenniLee shares why the answer is often more styling, not more shopping, and how career changes, body changes, comfort habits, and old beliefs about clothing can shape the way we show up. They also explore individuality in the workplace, JenniLee’s SPARK Method, the limitations of AI and personal styling, thoughtful travel wardrobes, and the growing possibilities of resale and vintage fashion. Beneath all of it is a deeper invitation to become curious again. Getting dressed can be practical and professional without becoming another rule to follow. It can also be playful, intentional, kind, and deeply personal. Sometimes creating magic at work begins before we ever walk out the door. Take JenniLee’s Style Quiz to help you meet your style archetype and bring more of you into what you wear. https://www.jennileestylist.consulting/quiz Moments That Create Momentum: Style Is a Language – Explore what your clothes communicate not only to the people around you, but also back to yourself.When Your Closet No Longer Fits Who You Are – Understand why career shifts, body changes, and old habits can make getting dressed feel unexpectedly difficult.More Styling, Less Shopping – Learn how working differently with what you already own can reduce overwhelm and reconnect you with your personal style.Professional Does Not Have to Mean Invisible – Discover how fit, color, and thoughtful details can help you show up credibly without dressing like everyone else.Getting Dressed Can Be a Ritual – See how playfulness, creativity, and kindness can transform an everyday task into a more intentional way of showing up. About the Guest: JenniLee is a NYC-based fashion stylist and image consultant with over two decades of experience helping creatives and ambitious professionals dress with confidence, clarity, and intention. Her celebrity and editorial client list includes Scarlett Johansson, Chris Pratt, Lauryn Hill, Elton John, and One Direction, with work featured in Harper's Bazaar, Rolling Stone, InStyle, People, and Real Simple. She also appears regularly on morning shows like Good Morning Atlanta and Fox News Good Day New York as a style expert. JenniLee's philosophy is "More Styling, Less Shopping," and she helps her clients build wardrobes that align with who they're becoming, not just what's in their closet. https://www.instagram.com/jennileestylist/ About Amy: Amy Lynn Durham, known by her clients as the Corporate Mystic, is the founder of the Executive Coaching Firm, Create Magic At Work®, where they help leaders build workplaces rooted in creativity, collaboration, and fulfillment. A former corporate executive turned Executive Coach, Amy blends practical leadership strategies with spiritual intelligence to unlock human potential at work. She’s a certified Executive Coach through UC Berkeley & the International Coaching Federation (ICF) In addition, Amy holds coaching certifications in Spiritual Intelligence (SQ21), the Edgewalker Profile, and the Archetypes of Change . In addition to being the host of the Create Magic At Work® podcast, Amy is the author of Create Magic At Work®, Creating Career Magic: A Daily Prompt Journal and the founder of Magic Thread Media™. Through her work, she inspires intentional leadership for thriving workplaces and lives where “magic” becomes reality. Connect with Amy: https://createmagicatwork.net/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/create-magic-at-work https://www.facebook.com/112951637095427 https://www.instagram.com/createmagicatwork https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnEm4h3fUgaq8qgvZpz6dGg Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app. Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you are enjoying the show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.

Today’s reflection explores how meaningful partnerships are strengthened through support, trust, and reciprocity. When we become intentional about the relationships surrounding our work, we can create greater harmony while finding a healthier balance between giving and receiving. Start your own journey of reflection, creativity, and intentional growth with the Create Magic at Work Journal or bring the wisdom of the Edgewalker mindset into your daily life with your own copy of the Edgewalker Card Deck. You can find both at https://magicthreadmedia.com/experience

What happens when the job everyone assumes is becoming obsolete is actually where some of the most human work is happening? Middle managers live between pressure and people. They translate expectations from above, absorb problems before senior leaders ever see them, and help teams move through conflict, uncertainty, and burnout. Much of that work is invisible until it stops happening. Amy and Doug Barna explore what leadership looks like as AI becomes increasingly capable of handling coordination, reporting, and other technical tasks that once defined management. Doug argues that this shift does not make human leadership less important. It exposes the part of leadership technology cannot simply automate: understanding what motivates a particular person, noticing emotion, listening closely, building trust, and staying present when a conversation becomes uncomfortable. The discussion also reframes the skills we often call “soft.” Active listening, social awareness, empathy, and relationship management are not decorative additions to leadership. They are the capacities that allow someone to lead people rather than simply manage information. As technology becomes better at organizing the work, the question becomes more human, not less. Who can still read the room, recognize the person inside the performance, and help people stay connected when pressure pulls them apart? Moments That Create Momentum: The Invisible Work Between the Layers – Explore why middle managers often carry the human side of leadership that others do not see.When AI Removes the Administrative Work – Discover why empathy, trust, and relationship skills may matter even more as technology takes on more technical tasks.People Tell You What Motivates Them – Learn how listening closely to concerns and frustrations can reveal what someone actually needs from their leader.Presence Changes Difficult Conversations – Understand how shifting attention away from your own discomfort can help create more trust and connection.The Skills We Carry Beyond Work – See how stronger listening, awareness, and compassion can influence not only teams, but relationships and communities too. About the Guest: Doug Barna is a Team Building and Leadership Coach with Acclaimed Summit, LLC. With over 20 years of experience as a project leader and people manager, Doug has dedicated over a decade to studying psychology and organizational behavior, honing the soft skills that are crucial for effective leadership. Doug’s not just another coach; he’s the compassionate mentor he wished he had so many years ago, bridging the gap between a scientific mind and an empathetic approach. In this quest for clarity and connection, Doug developed strategies that cut through superficial tactics and dive into the foundational elements that work. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dougbarna/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dougbarna About Amy: Amy Lynn Durham, known by her clients as the Corporate Mystic, is the founder of the Executive Coaching Firm, Create Magic At Work®, where they help leaders build workplaces rooted in creativity, collaboration, and fulfillment. A former corporate executive turned Executive Coach, Amy blends practical leadership strategies with spiritual intelligence to unlock human potential at work. She’s a certified Executive Coach through UC Berkeley & the International Coaching Federation (ICF) In addition, Amy holds coaching certifications in Spiritual Intelligence (SQ21), the Edgewalker Profile, and the Archetypes of Change . In addition to being the host of the Create Magic At Work® podcast, Amy is the author of Create Magic At Work®, Creating Career Magic: A Daily Prompt Journal and the founder of Magic Thread Media™. Through her work, she inspires intentional leadership for thriving workplaces and lives where “magic” becomes reality. Connect with Amy: https://createmagicatwork.net/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/create-magic-at-work https://www.facebook.com/112951637095427 https://www.instagram.com/createmagicatwork https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnEm4h3fUgaq8qgvZpz6dGg Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app. Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you are enjoying the show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.

Today’s Edgewalker card explores how self-awareness deepens when we become intentional about where we seek inspiration and guidance. By tuning into something beyond ourselves, we create space to better understand our thoughts, values, and the way we move through the world. Start your own journey of reflection, creativity, and intentional growth with the Create Magic at Work Journal or bring the wisdom of the Edgewalker mindset into your daily life with your own copy of the Edgewalker Card Deck. You can find both at https://magicthreadmedia.com/experience

What if the life you keep working toward is already asking to be noticed? For high achievers, happiness can become conditional. The next promotion. The next revenue goal. The end of the chaotic month. Peace is always waiting somewhere beyond the next finish line, while the finish line keeps moving. Amy Lynn Durham and Michele Phillips explore the emotional cost of conditional happiness, high achiever burnout, and a culture that has normalized running on adrenaline instead of alignment. Michele does not ask ambitious people to stop wanting more. She asks a more uncomfortable question: can you still feel satisfaction with where you are while remaining open to what comes next? Their conversation moves through happiness habits, personal energy, comparison, daily rituals, and the small resets that help leaders return to center when pressure takes over. It also examines the difference between appearing happy and being honest with yourself about what you actually feel. Inner peace is not a permanent destination. Neither is happiness. Both require a relationship with attention, values, and the stories we repeatedly tell ourselves. Maybe the goal is not to stop achieving. Maybe it is to stop requiring the next achievement to prove that this life is finally enough. Moments That Create Momentum: When Happiness Keeps Moving With the Finish Line – Explore how tying fulfillment to the next achievement can leave high performers constantly striving without ever fully arriving.Running on Adrenaline Instead of Alignment – Discover why urgency and pressure can feel productive while quietly disconnecting leaders from their body, values, and internal sense of direction.The Difference Between Looking Fine and Feeling Aligned – Understand why performing happiness for others is different from ignoring your own emotions and disconnecting from what is actually happening inside.A Full Life Is Not a Full Calendar – See how constant activity can become proof of success, while slowing down reveals whether those experiences actually reflect what matters to you.The Story You Repeat Becomes the Outcome You Expect – Hear how changing the language you use about yourself can shift attention from old limitations toward more conscious possibilities. About the Guest: Michele Phillips is a celebrated leadership coach, keynote speaker, and author of two books, the award-winning Happiness is a Habit - Simple Daily Rituals that Increase Energy, Improve Wellbeing and Add Joy to Every Day, and her brand new book, Energize Your Happiness - Tap into Your Personal Energy and Shape Your Destiny. This transformative new book blends neuroscience, behavioral psychology, and spiritual wisdom to help people elevate their energy and shape their destiny. With more than 25 years of experience working with Fortune 500 companies, Michele has inspired thousands to create motivating beliefs, powerful habits, and lives filled with purpose. She is the founder of Key Performance, a sought-after consultant known for her “Write Your Outcome” methodology, and host of the podcast by the same name. Michele has a Master's degree from Fordham University in Organizational Development, and is a certified practitioner of Positive Psychology and emotional intelligence. She wrote Energize Your Happiness to help people build the energy for change. She hosts Write Your Outcome podcast to help people raise their consciousness. She works with organizations to create more conscious leaders and individual contributors. https://www.linkedin.com/in/michele-phillips-9409707 https://www.instagram.com https://www.facebook.com/Happinessisahabitaway

Today’s reflection explores how financial success can grow from intentional decisions, thoughtful leadership, and clearly defined goals. By considering where we direct our support and attention, we create space for greater confidence and possibility around our finances. Start your own journey of reflection, creativity, and intentional growth with the Create Magic at Work Journal or bring the wisdom of the Edgewalker mindset into your daily life with your own copy of the Edgewalker Card Deck. You can find both at https://magicthreadmedia.com/experience

What happens when taking care of someone else slowly requires you to disappear from your own life? Family caregiving rarely arrives according to plan. A diagnosis changes. A parent declines. A spouse becomes dependent. Roles reverse, schedules collapse, and someone quietly becomes responsible for another human being twenty-four hours a day. Amy and Monica Vest Wheeler explore the realities behind caregiver burnout, unpaid caregiving responsibilities, and the pressure to keep performing at work while privately carrying grief, medical decisions, and exhaustion. For many working caregivers, the strain is not only emotional. It can affect income, career stability, health, and the ability to remain in the workforce at all. Monica challenges the assumption that families should simply absorb this responsibility without consequence. The conversation turns toward workplace support for caregivers, the limitations of rigid bereavement and leave policies, and why flexible work for caregivers can be an act of both humanity and good leadership. Support can also begin closer to home. Another family member learns the care routine. Someone finally says what is really happening. A caregiver stops answering “fine” and allows another person to help carry the weight. Caregiving can be an expression of extraordinary love. But love does not make a person limitless. Sustainable care requires us to protect the life of the person receiving care without sacrificing the life of the person providing it. Moments That Create Momentum: When the Caregiver Becomes Invisible – Explore how responsibility for another person can consume so much emotional and physical energy that the caregiver’s own needs quietly disappear.The Workplace Mask Caregivers Learn to Wear – Understand why employees may appear composed and productive while privately managing grief, medical crises, and round-the-clock caregiving responsibilities.Why Flexibility Is More Than an Employee Perk – Discover how small adjustments to schedules or work location can help organizations retain experienced employees instead of losing them to caregiving demands.The Cost of Keeping Caregiving a Family Secret – See how shame, privacy, and poor communication can leave one person carrying responsibilities that could be shared across family, friends, and community.Your Life Is Just as Worthy as the Person You’re Caring For – Hear why caregiving cannot require complete self-erasure, and how protecting the caregiver may ultimately protect the person receiving care too. About the Guest: Monica Vest Wheeler speaks with heart, humor, and hard-earned wisdom, helping caregivers, families, and communities navigate some of life’s most difficult moments. Her work is rooted in lived experience, including hundreds of interviews, volunteer work at more than 180 stroke and brain injury camps nationwide, facilitating hundreds of support and discussion groups, personal caregiving journeys, and her own openness about mental health. She has written more than a dozen books on Peoria, Illinois, history, along with five books exploring health, grief, and the emotional realities families face during catastrophic life events. As a writer and presenter, Monica is unafraid to address the questions many people avoid. She brings truth, warmth, humor, and practical clarity to conversations about caregiving, grief, communication, and emotional survival. Her work gives caregivers permission to ask for help without shame, encourages patients and survivors to express what they are experiencing, and reinforces one of the lessons she has seen repeatedly: families who communicate are more likely to stay connected through crisis rather than fall apart. https://www.monicavestwheeler.com https://www.facebook.com/monicavestwheeler https://www.linkedin.com/in/monicavestwheeler/ About Amy: Amy Lynn Durham, known by her clients as the Corporate Mystic, is the founder of the Executive Coaching Firm, Create Magic At Work®, where they help leaders build workplaces rooted in creativity, collaboration, and fulfillment. A former corporate executive turned Executive Coach, Amy blends practical leadership strategies with spiritual intelligence to unlock human potential at work. She’s a certified Executive Coach through UC Berkeley & the International Coaching Federation (ICF) In addition, Amy holds coaching certifications in Spiritual Intelligence (SQ21), the Edgewalker Profile, and the Archetypes of Change . In addition to being the host of the Create Magic At Work® podcast, Amy is the author of Create Magic At Work®, Creating Career Magic: A Daily Prompt Journal and the founder of Magic Thread Media™. Through her work, she inspires intentional leadership for thriving workplaces and lives where “magic” becomes reality. Connect with Amy: https://createmagicatwork.net/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/create-magic-at-work https://www.facebook.com/112951637095427 https://www.instagram.com/createmagicatwork https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnEm4h3fUgaq8qgvZpz6dGg Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! 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