Season 3, Ep 1 Thriving in our new Workplace 2.0

Elevate With Grace: Navigating the New World of Work | Season 3 Launch

Welcome to the first episode of Season 3 of Elevate With Grace! Join Claire and Miranda as they reflect on the journey since 2021, discussing significant changes in the workplace and the evolving concept of success. This episode dives into topics such as the impact of remote work, the importance of mental health, effective leadership, and communication strategies in the modern work environment. Tune in for insights, actionable tips, and a fresh perspective on creating a successful career and life on your own terms. Don’t miss out on their reflections, challenges, and book recommendations tailored to help you thrive in 2025 and beyond.

Season 1 - Summaries

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FmCKbt1vQV-Rx65tWDp-clvTIFRlg6iaLNe8h1aN_xU/edit?usp=sharing

Season 2 - Summaries - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NI8RFXPsLI7bL6y54gAzMU1JEovSmEKhpwThELPlutY/edit?usp=sharing

00:00 Introduction: Welcome to Elevate With Grace

00:26 Reflecting on Past Seasons and Changes

01:19 Exploring Success in 2025 and Beyond

02:00 Adapting to New Work Environments

09:10 The Importance of Effective Communication

22:10 Embracing Change and Finding Balance

31:35 Action Challenge and Conclusion

Music created by Claire's daughter Hannah

Transcript

Miranda: 0:15

Are you feeling overworked, undervalued, and stuck in the daily juggle? Knowing you are meant for more? Welcome to Elevate With Grace, the podcast that cuts through the noise to bring you the most valuable insights expert, wisdom and real world strategies with bite-sized actionable tips. We are here to help you Take bold steps towards success on your terms. No more spinning plates, just real progress, real impact and a career and life that truly work for you.

Claire: 0:41

It's Exciting to be back for our first episode of Season three. it's Claire here and if you've had the chance to listen to our season three pre-launch episode, you'll know that Miranda and I have been reflecting together on what's changed since our first two seasons of Elevate with Grace in 2021 and 2022. We shared why now feels like the right moment to return to these conversations with fresh energy, deeper insights, and a renewed commitment to helping women lead with clarity, courage, and grace. If you missed it, please go back and take a listen, but for now, let's get cracking with episode one. For those of you who are with us in the early years in seasons one and two we explored ways to discover your why, cultivate your career, and take smart risks Success often meant survival, juggling all the things and purpose was something that we were curious about and exploring. But maybe not always bold enough to chase. this season, we are here to dive deeper into what success means in 2025 and beyond, and ways that we can build it on our own terms.

Miranda: 1:42

I'm so excited to be here for our official season three launch and pleased that we are jumping into elevate with grace with a new lens. And Claire so thrilled that it's you and I back in this journey together. You are awesome. As you've said, real things have changed and it's taken time to grapple with that. There are things that have remained the same and relevant from seasons one and two. We'll be pulling together highlight from time management boundary setting, habit forming, purpose building or clarifying. In our show notes we're putting a bit of a cheat sheet of what season one and two were. But there's been a lot of change. To be honest, I didn't really know what to discuss last year or even in 23. We've had a lot of grappling, adapting, learning, it really felt like nobody had the answers. I looked to a lot of thought leaders and I think they were all sort of just. seeing how it went. I felt like we were all just waiting for solid ground and it feels like we're there. More understanding that this is going to go forward and not revert back, which is giving me a lot of confidence. It's an awesome opportunity for us to test and learn what this new world look like for ourselves. So we get to be in the driver's seat, which is exciting as well. There's a nice university example you allow the students to walk the best path through the grass and then you make the concrete path. I feel like the last couple of years we've been walking in the grass seeing where we're gonna land. Claire, what do you think stayed the same and what are you excited about in terms of the greater shifts?

Claire: 2:59

I love that analogy about walking through the grass before we're creating concrete. That's a really good way to describe what we're all feeling and if I reflect back to three or four years ago and where we are now. in my mind, there are some things that are still very important to many people in terms of work and our working lives the criticality of effective leadership is even more important maybe. the need and want to feel recognized and appreciated. Don't think that changed in the last few years searching for growth and development opportunities, definitely an a driver that's always been there. And, and still now, I suppose,, as we've just spoken about, The world has also shifted influenced by, of course the pandemic and then this rapidly changing digitally driven world. there are some different themes that are also coming out now that perhaps weren't there before. one that we're all familiar with it gets spoken about a lot in the press and on LinkedIn is this tension around flexibility and remote work and how we should and shouldn't approach it. Mental health and wellbeing is a much bigger topic that's front of mind, both in workplaces and life in general. I saw that Gallup who does a lot of the employee surveys and data analysis one of their reports recently found that employee engagement levels in the US have dropped to a decade low of 31% in 2024. That's matching 2014 levels and that the decline is particularly notable among workers younger than 35. Linked to this tension around flexibility and remote working and hybrid working is attitudes on career progression and how they're changing. There was a recent survey done by Robert Half in March, 2025 that showed for Australian bosses that three in four employers said that office attendance played a significant role in promotions with only 13% of employers and bosses saying that it played no impact. of course the explosion of generation ai and democratization of technologies in our workplaces, in our lives is playing a much bigger part now than probably what it has in the past. And all of these are really underscoring a very complex and evolving relationship between employees and their work environments. What about you? Miranda? What have you reflected on that's changed and what hasn't over the last three to four years?

Miranda: 5:18

I think it's really interesting the unlearning. There is a lot of unlearning happening from what we used to know or accept versus what we won't. And I feel like the Gen Zs have almost pushed that upon the millennials, it's like, why do you accept this? I don't accept this. This is not how I wanna be as a manager or a boss. and then there's been a lot of pressure and so it's really seeing. Boomers and millennials potentially falling back to type and wanting to go back to how it was when they were in their twenties and this is what you should be expecting in this workforce. I think there's a lot of people that want things to go back the way they were. And then there's a lot of people that are we're gonna keep changing, we're gonna keep improving, we're gonna keep going forward. I also think that workplace growth and development, there has definitely been a push for it. It's always been there, but I think what's changed within that space is that, previously I think we were expected to do it outside of work hours. Occasionally there'd be a training day or something, then follow up that would happen and now I think it's a bit more we're gonna be doing this, but it's gonna be happening in work hours and we're not going to make additional time for that. I also think in terms of that work life balance I think it's always been there probably since the eighties or nineties when work really ramped up and took over lives. But I think the pushback post covid is now a demand. We had a desire for it. It was like, wouldn't that be nice if we could find a way of achieving that? I think it was a personal responsibility to make a work-life balance as opposed to a work responsibility. the shift feels like it's been a work responsibility. And there's been obviously some legislation recently about switching off at seven o'clock for a big portion community to make sure that we do have some of that work life balance, When I think of a new world of work and what's changed, what I'm loving most is that in many ways being invited to reimagine what the future of work could be. optimistically, I feel that this is a great time, to test and learn within a workplace and. I think that really is happening at all levels there's a bit of a pushback both from management and from. All different levels of work to the coordinators are saying this is what I expect. And I think the playback to that is how are you gonna help make that happen? And obviously that depends on your workplace, but there is a lot more thinking and conversation happening at all ages about how we are going to bring this workplace to life. and I'm excited that you and I are having this conversation and that our podcast will be focusing on this as well the rise of hybrid work has really brought a lot of freedoms to the workplace, but it's caused an incredible amount of friction particularly your senior leaders, there is a, a level of micromanagement which feels like it's come back a bit. We want know that our people are working and we don't believe that we're getting sometimes that same level of commitment or dedication they're work from home. experience and the experience I've seen around me is that actually the people are tend to be a little bit more productive when they're working from home, but with a balance some days in the office and some days from home. There's been a little bit more. Pressure on middle management and it has looked like a far less attractive job for younger generations. And I think collectively, that generation come out and said, it's gonna look like this, I'm not sure I want it. I might get a bit more into gig economy or something else. I did a course in 2024 with Inventium, focused around hybrid working and how to find improvements they did a full trends briefing. last year to go through what are the global trends that we're seeing. And a big one was that middle managers were facing that crunch and that there needed to be more support and awareness around it. inventing are doing a great job in terms of bringing that awareness to life and challenging workplaces Atlassian's done a similar, piece over the last 12 months. The great part of hybrid work, is a freedom to design a better week. Design a week that makes sense from a workplace productivity point of view, but also a life productivity point of view. I start very early I have reclaimed family time as a big part of that, which has been awesome. Something that I slipped back to over this time of change. Was one I hadn't experienced for a while but it was, you know, a lot of negative talk. I was getting very frustrated with myself that I wasn't having a lot of great behaviors that I was I guess just a bit exhausted with it all. And couldn't come up with some of this thought leadership that you and I are focusing on. I was really just a bit lost in the weeds. I was not giving myself grace and positive self-talk. So I brought back those 5:00 AM saver habits I speak about in. One of our earlier podcasts really thinking about that silence, affirmation, vision, exercise, and writing. If I don't get to it, I'm okay with it, but I do make sure that I'm doing that a couple of times a week? What are those affirmations of what you are doing right? gratefulness is something we need to continue to think about. How I've communicated and, my expectations for the workforce have also changed, I touched on those in our introduction episode. communication and learning to communicate in this new world is a skill that we are all going to have to be, retrained on in a really, A big way. I don't think anybody is a hundred percent in their communication. now that our world is a lot of non-verbal, there's a lot of email or teams communications. uh, there's a lot of video conferencing

Claire: 9:42

and I think one of the challenges that we find around communication is there's just so much noise in the press because it's just such. Great click bait I saw an article recently that remember, I think it was a Fortune article. 83% of Gen Zs admit to watching Netflix or watching streaming services during the workday. And we're just battling it out in the media and so drawn in a tug of war from side to side, you've pointed out around the ways that you like to work, and that's the whole concept of this podcast around success on our terms What does success mean to me? What does success mean to you? And what does and doesn't encourage productivity.and I think it's really complex because every workplace is different. There's lots of different performance and behavior issues. As you said, many of us are struggling. With what do we want now, and what does life look like and do I want a traditional leadership journey or do I want more of a portfolio career? It feels like the options are endless and so it's a tricky, and as you mentioned at some points, an exhausting. Exercise to try to navigate that. I like how you, Reflected a little bit on some of those challenges that we had in our earlier seasons. like that you've brought the 5:00 AM back and again you were such a great advocate of the 5:00 AM club and I just couldn't get there. But having said that, though, you talk about having some time in the morning to do things like exercise and write and do daily pages and reflect is so essential to keep our energy levels up. For I have a much bigger appreciation for how I need to have a very different mindset on my response to the rapidly and constantly changing environments that we live in, in order to stay energized, hopeful on the future keep focus. On me being and values led. you mentioned unlearning before and I'm finding that I'm having to do a lot of unlearning from all of the unconscious conditioning over the last 20 plus years over my life and my leadership journey. I try to connect to what's going on now and what do we want our future to be? I think a big focus on being curious and open-minded and connecting much more deeply with our colleagues, our friends, our communities. Curiosity and connection are a real cornerstone for me in terms of the fundamentals of communicating in this workplace 2.0, this life 2.0, I think our leadership styles need to be evolving and be more flexible and open, and the skills of active listening, brave conversations, of that we talked about in previous seasons, I think it's about. Responding in an agile way. moving away from and really being thoughtful about our responses, and being agile about how we respond. We need to approach things and flex our style in a lot of different ways, because the diversity of who's in the workplace and what we all want, from that has really changed a and and I think I mentioned in our episode that for the first time ever in history, in some workplaces there's five generations working in the same workplace, and that's huge. In terms of what people want and need. Respect and kindness and diversity, and especially with that overlay of mental health and wellbeing being a focus. I did see, I think it was Harris Poll, and Express Employment Professionals released a survey in March, 2025 saying that in the US there's been a rise in workplace toxicity, and that 30% of US employees are seeking out new jobs. Because of confrontational behavior among coworkers, issues such as unprofessional communication and exclusion. and so everyone demanding a fair and inclusive and thoughtful workplace is, key for us to all. Contribute to as you said manager struggle at the moment. Because it's really hard to hold that place between your staff and the senior leadership. But for all of us, inclusive and kind workplaces is really on a lot of people's minds. We are bombarded with all different ways that people are communicating with us there's so many channels. I feel like we almost have to be a cyborg in terms of navigating through emails and team chats and text messages and WhatsApp groups. I like to talk about it as communication congestion. There's so many different ways that people can get in touch with each other and so much data flying about so many articles, flying about so much stuff on social media, trying to draw our attention towards so many different priorities that I think in terms of effective communication, what you've spoken about. Even if it's a couple of times a week in the morning, if you can get up at 5:00 AM perhaps a bit later for some of us, being able to really step away from that noise and reflect on what our gut's telling us, what we believe, we think we need, being values led and purpose led so we can really take the bold action that we need to for happy, successful, hopeful workplaces and lives in this year and beyond. you've got a couple of favorite books on this topic so I'd like to hear a little bit more about that.

Miranda: 14:40

Absolutely. But before we jump into it, resonated so much with what you were saying on noise and the overwhelm of noise. And we know that overwhelm and distraction are just one of the worst things we can do for actual productivity. Creativity. And the way you were saying that, I was like, you know what? There's definitely a discipline only check emails at nine 11 and three o'clock. Trying to really cordon off time to do those emails, to take in that noise, to mute those notifications because people can reach you anytime I've got people in the US and you'll easily just them a team's note and they'll pick it up and it's 11 o'clock for them at night. so now I'm going on emails and I'm setting the delay so that they don't see it until the next day. Or I've got a big note at the top, don't look at this until tomorrow. Take control back from their noise and make sure that we are commanding our time and we are dominating what's gonna keep engaged, both on our personal and our professional lives. I think that's a great success metrics. I am excited to explore that one further then it took everything not to jump in when you were talking about that choice and how choice makes it so hard not to, get just lost in that missed decision. there's a beautiful Trevor Noah interview with Simon Sinek and he was talking about how community, we just feel so lost and the more choice we have. That comes with income, that comes with where to live, the less we connect with our and, even the workplace, things get a little bit challenging and, one of my very quick options is I. can go and find another job. I was so fascinated by that workplace toxicity statistic you'd think it'd be different. people are happier working in these hybrid environments. They're happier, less commute So it's find it really fascinating. I don't think it's completely resolved. How are we gonna get the best. of our culture and also give people the beautiful, hybrid space where they get that they work at because whew, I don't think I'd wanna give that freedom up, I really do wanna have a workplace that, values empathy and kindness. I don't think there's one person out there that doesn't need to do some training, if I can recommend a bit of reading, super communicators, came out, early and Charles Duhe, he could not have been better timed with it he's got a bit of a psychological organizational behavior bend like your, um, Brene Browns and your Adam grads. He's got another book Smarter, faster, better. I'm curious how much of that now in this new world. So I might go back and have a bit of a read this On, super communicators really, looks at those virtual communications and calls'em out for being too transactional that we've lost the nuance of nonverbal cues because we're not having that small talk. We're not finding those moments of connection, to connect us like we're a tribe. Generally what we found is that if people can find a point of connection, then have a conversation about something that's divergent. What we are getting is, I need this deadline, I've got this thing. Your priorities aren't my priorities, and this is the challenge, we haven't connected on anything. So, it just feels like it's constantly grading and you're constantly demanding without taking any energy to connect with me, get to get know me. And it's a subconscious thing. Honestly, I do not consciously think, have I connected with this person and do they value me? but I do know I feel it and certain people can ask something of me and I'm there and other people can ask it of me and I'm frustrated the messaging hasn't necessarily changed. So Duhigee, in this book, he actually recommends that we've Become explicit in how we communicate make sure that it's conscious. We don't just allow what's happened before. You may have sent that email in 2018 and it would've been completely fine. It's not completely fine in 2025. And so we have to almost relearn how to be overly empathetic. I really understand that you're going through that challenge. Can I get five minutes with you on teams and we can discuss what those priorities are. but also that we understand what you've got on so I can reprioritize some other things around it. And me as the employee going, don't you know how busy I am? How dare you? And I get it. You know, because I feel it. There's some great examples out there the CIA. One that he puts in his book is really interesting in terms of that active listening and that kindness, and how it converts from a conversation to having a great relationship with this person that you're trying to convince to be a spy to finding those common connections and those common points of and relationship they're actually now motivated to help you because it's gonna help them. It was fascinating. It took him, Four or five goers, he thought he'd failed before he was able to actually get that right connection. And it's not just being able to have a great chat and whatever, it's obviously a deeper level. also a really good one, um, Netflix there as well, sent out a communication that just lacked empathy, and actually caused, big up arisal in Netflix and a massive change. So now there is. Explicit steps in place in their workplace to ensure empathy, active listening and kindness part of their training modules that everyone has to achieve, that everybody is held to account for. So Workplace 2.0, I think it's become more explicit It's not just what you do, it's not just that you're a high achiever. It's how you're doing it, how you're showing up for others is almost getting a 50 50 measure in terms of importance for your performance. And I think we'll start to see a lot more of that because the impact of your behavior, the 31% who don't wanna be in a workplace anymore is massive. And it's, too expensive, it's too hard. So even if you are performing, if you pull down a whole nother group because there's lost four employees there's gonna be an issue. More so I think than maybe we held people to account before. He also explicitly naming what type of conversation that we're having. So I need to have a conversation that's going to be a bit emotional. I need to have a conversation that's going to be very practical. And I appreciate there's a lot of things going on. So how can I frame that for you Which is uncomfortable but I'm interested to try it. And yeah, just couldn't enough how many times he said explicit your actions. throughout this book. Then the, the other one, I guess just around that hybrid workplace is, that, there has been a lot of conversation in the media about whether it's good, is it to blame for this economic crisis that we're going through? Are people as productive? I think there's been quite a decent amount of study in the other way saying, no, it is. So there is a clickbait to it. But I think if we look at, macroeconomics, are going through a period of, financial challenge. Workplaces are down. I don't blame hybrid work for it. I actually think it's a much bigger issue than, an office work environment. But I think in the moment in 2023 and 2024, when we are going through it and workplaces are looking at their balance sheets and the main thing that's changed is hybrid work. I do think it got the blame for it. and to put that in perspective, we haven't had a GDP of 0.03, which is where we got September last year, since the nineties. So most people in the workplace. Have never lived through an economic hardship. They've never lived through not getting a promotion, not getting a pay rise for, high performance, having, workplace budgets cut, having culture budgets cut, I think they're taking it out on each other a little bit there as well. So do think that it's not just hybrid work that has caused that. There is a lot of benefits to it. Over 50% of Australian workers, are splitting time between home and office. It is a real thing and. Don't know if we can undo that. I think it's going to be a continuation for our future, do think we need to learn to work with it and to also look at those other factors it is very normal globally for us to go up and down in terms of growth like we are, I think, going through what is a normal period in society, Covid definitely helped cause it, we will also go into growth again, so it's a short term pain, hopefully.

Claire: 21:20

I think it's human nature. You to try to find something quick to blame it on, like hybrid work. I think you'll make a really excellent point there. People are experiencing significant cost of living changes. Like the interest rates have been up high for the first time in 20 years. Sure. Maybe. Older millennials were coming into the workplace as we had the global financial crisis. But really Australia was quite protected from that, Whereas now it's blowing my mind that if I wanted to have a coffee in the city, it's$6 for a coffee and the expense of living now and conversations around pricing, younger people out of the housing market and all of those stresses as well as businesses being under pressure for as you said, the productivity metric and, where we're at as a country from the productivity growth. But also individually we're hurting a fair bit over the last few years, because of the rising interest rates and the inflation and things like that. So yeah the theme of this conversation I think is it's complex I have to get super communicators and read it. You've talked to me about it a few times, you've really enticed me. The last thing we wanted to touch on in this episode is about how we reframe and embrace change in the context of everything that we're talking about. There's so much going on holistically both in our lives and our workplace, and it's shifting and flexing and moving all the time. How do we make sure that we don't continue to be exhausted from it? How do we make sure that we are looking forward to, as you said, experimenting with it, looking for the enjoyment of this new world that we can make work for us at a whole of life level and see it as a real opportunity to move forward and not go back to the way things were or know, how do we look at it with a hopeful perspective, trust in the future and bring a positive energy force to it. That's not, as I mentioned in our pre teaser e an easy thing for us to do as humans. So we are biologically programmed to seek safety and to feel safe and. This relentlessly changing pace coupled with the information overload and the click bait and all that it's not easy to change the way that we think about change but we absolutely need to. Right? And I, am. thinking quite deeply about how we can do that. We really need to find a way to fall in love with the process of discovery and learning and consciously telling ourselves on the daily that we will be okay if we don't know what the outcome will be. We want certainty, like it's human nature. And so learning to build muscles around it's okay that we don't know what we don't know and actually gives us a little bit of permission to experiment and learn and discover. And I think, trying to frame ourselves into that way of enjoying change, it's about. Choosing playfulness as we go about our lives as well and I guess giving ourselves a breather from time to time about this needing to search for purpose and the need to, meet external markers of what constitutes success. This need to look for quick ways and quick wins to make money and to have a fast career path. Everything still requires resilience and hard work and, it's tricky to find that right. Balance. I can't remember where I first heard this concept, but it really resonated with me And it's the concept of eustress and distress and it's two very different types of stress and stress responses. And so eustress is considered positive stress and it's often associated with motivation and excitement. While distress is obviously negative stress, which can lead to physical and mental strain. Then you've got avoidance of stress altogether. And in between is this concept of eustress, which is where you're giving yourself enough stress that makes you feel motivated and thrive. And I think that's where we're trying to look at in terms of finding that balance of getting a great energy source and energy from our daily lives that fuels us and gives the hopefulness that we're looking for and the willingness to maybe take risks, and maybe not look so much for transformational change anymore. It's more about incremental daily change and test and learn and. Those agile strategies are much more helpful, I think in 20, 25 and beyond than I need to transform my life and I need to find my massive purpose. It's much more about trial and error, like you said, about walking through the grass and enjoying the grass before you. Find the concrete path and even if you find the concrete path, maybe you should go back to wandering along the grass every now and then. I don't think it's as linear anymore. And I think there's opportunities in that. A friend of, a friend of mine, Andrea Clark. She just released a new book called Adapt. And, it's a great read. It's a simple read and it talks a lot about adapting in this changing world. her model that she focuses on is got four key steps around adapting effectively to change. And it's being aware and stepping into and leaning into what's changing around Accepting that it's changing. Activating and optimism about that change and then releasing what's holding us back. So I think we're not the only ones that are wanting to talk about this and see a hopeful lens on it and how we can adapt as humans and leaders in this environment. But yeah, I thought I'd mention. That book

Miranda: 26:35

fantastic. No, it sounds like a great book and I can't wait to check it out. It's exactly what I think we're all looking for, which is how do you adapt to this and what are we thinking about? So a little bonus episode that we should be looking at for that book. And, super communicated. Look, I found it really interesting'cause I am a huge fan of change. I on change. I've always been like, yeah, what's that next challenge? What's that next thing that we're gonna take on? I don't want a role that's the same every day. I wanna be able to, keep adapting to that change and keep changing. And so me, I found it really interesting that I did not adapt very well over the last two years. Like I was really a bit lost in the weeds and I think it was because there was no guarantee, there was a lot of media saying, we're gonna go back to the way it was. There's no direction to where the change is going. I think at all points in time, when the internet was rising, we knew that things were going to be better. We knew that productivity was going to be enhanced. So there was a goal, and some people adapted it really quickly, and some people didn't. But eventually we all got there. The adopters right through to the laggards and we do all eventually get there in terms of this change. But in this area, I think the early adopters were like, why are we adopting, not quite sure where we're going. And I was looking around for those thought leaders to give me that inspiration and direction. I feel like it's coming out now. We're seeing these books coming out in 25 that we finally go, oh, actually I can see that light at the horizon. Let's go and one of the really exciting things, I think as part of that is ai. And the potential of ai. There's a lot of fear around AI and, can't wait to explore that with you in future episodes of the pros and the cons and the, the opportunities and, and some of the maybe pitfalls. But I think that's probably one area that's sort of pulled me out of this to go, hang on, this is something I can control. I need to learn as much as I can about this. And I have over the last 12 months soaked in as much, LinkedIn learning and websites and newsletters and chat, GPT and co-pilot training and Canva training, just to try and understand what it can do, what it means. What are the potential of these, um, these tools that are coming out there? So I think that's pretty exciting, and I can honestly tell you that the, that were there 12 months ago to the tools that are there today, are significantly different. So we all feel like we've missed the boat already or that we don't really understand this thing. And honestly it is changing every day. It is the grass that we are walking through to see how we make that path. That is our theme for todayBefore I think just having the conversation and not necessarily knowing what the end goal is, but knowing that we want things to improve, I think we can reset that expectation as that is our goal. How do we improve? How do we just find better ways of living? How do we find better ways of working? And what are some of the tools that can get there? We might not know what the end game is. But I think that's enough of a rudder or a vision to get me, on board and getting back into those habits and not feeling so tired all the time because that eustress, I have not heard of it in that way, but I've certainly understand, the idea of distress versus eustress and I'm a hundred percent there. there's a lot of noise, there's a lot of distress, there's a lot of. Fear and, risk, adverse behavior. I don't really know how to function. I've really struggled in that space, eustress, in the energy, in the, you've gotta get 20 things done in a day, and it's got like lots of momentum. I'm there, I'm ready. That's the kind of change that I can thrive in. that's what I guess I've learned for myself is that I need to get myself out of those really negative environments. Turn off the noise. Don't watch the news. Try and avoid as much click bait as I can, because once I go down and spiral into that space, I find it incredibly hard to then go, well, what, what am I doing with all of this? Oh my goodness, I'm missing these opportunities. I've got fomo. I dunno which way to turn. What it has done is forced me to really prioritize what's important to me. Is it Diary of a CEO, it's somebody who speaks about that idea of a fisherman who wants to have a quality of life where he works from seven in the morning to two in the afternoon so he can come home, spend time with his wife and kids, and have that great family time. And then there's this, well why don't you wanna own multiple franchises and have multiple boats'cause once you make lots of money, you'll be able to have the time to do that in 10 years time. And that real shift between, hang on. can maybe have a good work life balance and I can have some quality of life now. I don't have to just keep churning to eventually get it when I retire has been a really important shift. I have been trying actively to have more small talk. I used to think small talk was not a good thing. and having learned that connectivity is so important and really thinking about how I show up for my teammates with curiosity and empathy, and I do take that time to have that small talk as opposed to thinking, that's wasting my time and I should be doing something more productive has been a bit of a game changer in terms of making sure that I really connect with the people in my environment. You know, how are you going? How are you feeling? What's going on with your world? And then we can get to the work. I've also given myself more balance. I think I've spoken to that enough, broadening my community. I have actively sought out community, whether it's in my neighborhood. I've volunteered at the school. I've thought about more hobbies and tried to connect with people within my hobby. I've tried things out like park run. Unfortunately it wasn't for me, but I'm gonna keep trying different things until I find something more fitness to get excited about again. I've taken more reading like back, things that I really enjoyed when I was in my early twenties fantasy fiction. Just a bit more of that as well as the reading for learning, the reading to know, the really important books. Claire, you and I recently read Juice as part of our. Book club. That was an impactful book. That was a heavy book. I definitely need it. I still think about it today, but I also, read a bit of Tracy Harding and just escape reality for a minute as well. so certainly looking at that and, reconsidering what I wanna achieve in the next five years and what that balance looks like. Which I think is a perfect way to finish this episode off with an action challenge because I'd love that kind of thinking to go to all of our beautiful listeners. Think about what's changed and what hasn't for you over the last couple of years. Write it down. In fact, if you're happy to share it, we'd love to read it. And we certainly looked forward to going through maybe some of those comments in our next episode. We'd love to see,, what have resonated from what we shared and what you thought was completely crazy. Then really would love to think about, what are the opportunities that you can take control of in this new world of work are you learning some AI tools? Are you having firm conversations about hybrid can help suit you? Are you switching off from work after seven o'clock? What are those things that you are doing? So we'd love to hear it and a bit more of an action challenge for us to move into for the next episode.

Claire: 32:30

I, I just love all your insights. I know that, um, As per usual, we try to keep our episodes tight, but we get so excited about the content, so I am going to leave it at the action challenge. I think it's a great action challenge. I'm looking forward to diving into that for our next episode, particularly because. For the next episode, we'll be exploring what redefining success looks like Given all of the context of work and life as it is we speak a lot about success on our own terms, and how to create it. And so I think that relooking at some of the concepts on how we can do that in this new workplace, 2.0 and our new lives and beyond. We'll be exploring that in episode two next month we can't wait for you to join us for that. We've put all the curated content that we've mentioned today in the podcast episode notes. So please check that out and dip into anything that in. Advise you to take small actionable steps to create success on your own terms For more inspiration, please visit our socials on Insta, Facebook or LinkedIn. We'd love to hear from you. drop us a note in one of our socials channels or email us at Elevate with Grace. At gmail.com Please, please like and subscribe this podcast. That's how we get out there to more people. And please tell your friends about us. If you like us, please don't tell them anything if you didn't like it., And thanks so much for listening. Thank you, Miranda. Always learn so much when I'm talking to you, so I appreciate it. I feel uplifted for the rest of my day today. And I like your idea about doing some book club bonus episodes for our Elevate With Grace podcast. That'd be good too.

Miranda: 34:06

Thank you so much, Claire. This has been awesome and, uh, excited to be back here with you. Thanks so much listeners. Hope you've enjoyed, have a great month. We'll see you soon.