This week on Becoming You, we’re diving into the heart of it all: the methodology that’s changing lives, one purpose at a time. Whether you’re a first-time listener or a longtime fan (love you, by the way), this episode is your ultimate guide to answering the question that occupies us all heart, mind, and soul: What should I do with my life? In this foundational episode, Suzy takes you on a no-holds-barred journey through the Becoming You process, a framework she’s honed at NYU Stern School of B...
Mar 11, 2025•30 min•Ep 46•Transcript available on Metacast You don't have to read the news to know that anxiety is everywhere and anywhere these days, endemic across generations and cultures. But where Suzy confronts anxiety most often is in the Becoming You classroom, where her students ask a question many of us have wondered: How can I possibly design my perfect future when my head and heart are consumed with so much worry right here and now? In other words: Can career planning and anxiety even coexist? And if so, how? In this episode of Becoming You,...
Mar 04, 2025•26 min•Ep 45•Transcript available on Metacast In this week's deeply personal episode of Becoming You, we revisit one of the podcast's most loved stories -- about Suzy's swan named, well, "Suzy" -- and bring it up-to-date with an ending that might surprise you, because it certainly surprised Suzy herself. But don't get the idea that this episode is about bird life (although it is...a little)...it's more about human life, and the universal struggle to shed old identities and embrace the scareforia that leads to the new. In such a way, it is t...
Feb 25, 2025•24 min•Ep 44•Transcript available on Metacast Every day, we make decisions—big, small, and everything in between, each one shaping our careers and relationships, and sometimes even the course of our entire lives. And yet, most of us were never taught how to actually make a decision. Instead, we accept the conventional wisdom: "Just trust your gut." Too bad that advice is only right half the time. Yep, research shows that gut has a 50% hit rate. So why not just go toss a coin? Or wait -- there's a better way, and it's so easy too. All you ha...
Feb 18, 2025•21 min•Ep 43•Transcript available on Metacast The Becoming You method of purpose-discovery is based on the premise that there’s one wild and precious life that we’re each meant to live. But it also acknowledges that there’s real life out there. Real life is where we too often cede our hoped-for dreams of purpose and joy to the many seemingly inescapable demands, constraints, obstacles and challenges that come with work and family and well, everything. Real life is why so many of us end up living in “The Velvet Coffin,” a term Suzy uses to d...
Feb 11, 2025•32 min•Ep 42•Transcript available on Metacast What happens when two forces, your home life and your work life —both central to your identity—need you with equal urgency at the exact same moment? Well, chaos happens. Or guilt. Or angst. Or sheer, utter exhaustion. Or...all of the above. In this episode, Suzy gets into a heart-to-heart with Jennifer, a woman who finds herself caught in a battle between two of her deepest values: her unwavering commitment to work and her devotion to her family. It’s a struggle Suzy knows all too well—because o...
Feb 04, 2025•29 min•Ep 41•Transcript available on Metacast The demise of a job is rarely fun, whether it's by our own volition or not. Whether you've been fired or quit or somehow just eased out by mutual agreement and angst, every company separation is a little bit of a public death, and sometimes a personal one too. That's why it's OK to mourn, it's OK to rage -- for only a bit. After that, the work has to start. The inner work. In this podcast, Suzy shares the four probing questions to unearth what really happened -- and what you should do next. Tune...
Jan 28, 2025•35 min•Ep 40•Transcript available on Metacast You can want more in life. You can want less. You can choose to take a walk in dark and snowy woods with four crazy dogs, or you can choose to stay inside by the fire reading Jane Eyre. How edgy, wild, and exciting your life is, or how contained, chill, and peaceful it is – that choice is on you. The answer depends on your value of Scope. And the truth is, all values choices are on you. Except the choice to not live by your values at all, and just…survive. In this episode of the pod, Suzy is abd...
Jan 21, 2025•25 min•Ep 39•Transcript available on Metacast Because we all so ardently want to find our purpose, it's not unusual for people to enter the Becoming You process with the question, "How will I know when I've found what I'm looking for?" In this week's episode, Suzy answers that query with a list of the five stages that invariably lead up to getting there -- all the way there. To the unique place that you were meant to live and work; the territory where you will feel exquisitely alive. Have you traveled through each one yet? Take a deep breat...
Jan 14, 2025•28 min•Ep 38•Transcript available on Metacast It's so bad out there, isn't it? There's war. Violence. Polarization. And sometimes, there's our own work too, weighing us down, because it's so much less than we want and need. So why bother even trying to find our purpose in the morass? What's the point? Hello! Here at the Becoming You pod, we're so happy you asked! Because we have an answer to that question, which is, basically, the case for hope, even and especially when times are like these, daunting, and messy, and too darn scary. Tune in ...
Jan 08, 2025•22 min•Ep 37•Transcript available on Metacast It has just 15 words -- simple, clear, and powerful. And the minute you're fluent in it -- which is the exact point of this episode -- suddenly the world starts to make a lot more sense, starting with how you're feeling about life, and what you need to do to make yourself feel that much better, more fulfilled, and more authentic. Essentially -- more you. Listen in, and get ready to transform your world with a new lexicon of values. To enter the Becoming You Intensive Giveaway and sign up for the...
Jan 01, 2025•31 min•Ep 36•Transcript available on Metacast And that's what you'll get on Christmas, too -- if you look at your wishlist with new eyes. In this episode of Becoming You, Suzy suggests that your Christmas desires -- unwrapped -- are usually big, flashing arrows pointing directly at your values. And to demonstrate that, she takes us through the three things she is hoping to see under the tree Christmas morning, and ponders what they reveal about her heart, what it so ardently wants. What is your Christmas list telling you about your dream of...
Dec 24, 2024•20 min•Ep 34•Transcript available on Metacast Career success, life success – you want them, but here’s the thing, they will remain ever elusive until you know your aptitudes. Don’t bolt! We know that word sounds like jargon. Or like pure academic BS. But aptitudes are real, and you have very specific ones, and knowing what they are can and will change your life. Take it from Suzy, who in this week’s gasp-worthy pod (yes, just wait and see) tells us how she learned that very lesson the hard way. To enter the Becoming You Intensive Giveaway a...
Dec 18, 2024•21 min•Ep 33•Transcript available on Metacast It is not uncommon for people undertaking Becoming You’s self-discovery journey to notice that the process is, well, impacting their marriage, or even making them wonder if they should get married at all. After all, isn’t there something inherently freeing about finally and fully becoming ALL YOU? It’s a big question, and here’s a shocker, Suzy has a big answer, which includes the best (and only) marriage “trick” she advises — because Becoming You is hard, but Becoming Us is even harder. To ente...
Dec 10, 2024•18 min•Ep 32•Transcript available on Metacast Sometimes, we’re happy- ish and that’s fine. After all, we tell ourselves, no one is overjoyed about everything all the time! But other times, we’re not-so-ok and sense our lives could be fuller, richer, or somehow more authentic. What then? Suzy takes on that exact question this week when she responds to two pod listeners: Barbara, a successful marketing executive who has everything a person could want in life – except a sense of purpose, and Caycee, who finds herself in daily battle with her c...
Dec 03, 2024•23 min•Ep 31•Transcript available on Metacast Buckle up because this week the topic is change -- big change. Specifically, we're talking about career pivots, which are not only good for your personal growth, but often necessary for your professional survival. Does that make them easy? Good freaking lordy-lord no! Are you kidding? That's why this week, Suzy talks to a person who made a brilliant and heroic pivot, only to walk through fire before (eventually) reaching his hoped-for mountaintop. Such a journey will probably happen to you too, ...
Nov 26, 2024•36 min•Ep 30•Transcript available on Metacast You could fill a library with all the books written about leadership, and Suzy's read most of them (and written a few herself.) But over the past several years, she has developed a new rubric which elucidates the four key "personality clusters" -- e.g. personality traits -- that she believes are the true gateway to professional success. In this podcast, Suzy reveals and explains those traits, and to make them come alive with stories and a bit of lively debate, she is joined by Dr. Ellen Gendler,...
Nov 19, 2024•33 min•Ep 29•Transcript available on Metacast It's been a week, hasn't it? No matter your political affiliation, or how you felt about the election, big and raw emotions were everywhere, and, well, let's just say, not everyone was at their nicest. But here's a question to ponder. What would it look and feel like if suddenly, one day, everyone showed up and said, "Whoever you are, and whatever you believe, I love you?" Astonishingly, Suzy had just such an experience the weekend before the presidential vote went down, at a long-planned wellne...
Nov 12, 2024•19 min•Ep 28•Transcript available on Metacast Suzy thought she was going to England for 48 rushed hours of work insanity, only to encounter four strangers — and four questions — that turned her trip the kind of self-discovery journey we all need to take sometime in our lives. In fact, you can take it right now, by traveling along with Suzy as she grapples with her unexpected queries -- and finding answers all your own. To enter the Becoming You Intensive Giveaway and sign up for the Becoming You Newsletter, click here . Want more Becoming Y...
Nov 05, 2024•21 min•Ep 27•Transcript available on Metacast It’s said the cobbler’s kids have squeaky shoes, so could it be life coaches have confused kids with crappy careers? This week’s guest, Suzy’s daughter, Sophia, is here to answer that question once and for all, and as it turns out, she and Suzy share an intertwined story about self-discovery, self-challenge, mistakes, love, loss, and parenting that might just resonate with us all. Press play, and get ready for an illuminating — and intimate — Becoming You conversation. To enter the Becoming You ...
Oct 29, 2024•37 min•Ep 26•Transcript available on Metacast Why is it, even after we grow up, we still always wonder what we should do when we grow up? It's crazy -- or maybe it's not. In this episode, Suzy tells the story of finding herself in a room full of hyper-accomplished women, and discovering, much to her surprise and then joy, that they are all asking humanity's always-and-forever question themselves. It's enough to make you feel OK about the twisty-turny journey to the answer, or maybe even better than OK. Speaking of questions, Suzy also takes...
Oct 22, 2024•21 min•Ep 25•Transcript available on Metacast There are the famous Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, which are not just big and hairy, but incredibly terrifying. Then, there are what Suzy calls "The Four Horsemen of Values Destruction." They are also fearsome, and, unfortunately, real enough to gallop away with your life. Listen in this week as Suzy describes and illustrates how the desire for economic security, the lure of expediency, the press of expectations, and the interruption of events might be exactly why your life is moving in the w...
Oct 15, 2024•21 min•Ep 24•Transcript available on Metacast We laughed. We cried. We admitted we were idiots. We counted the ways. Then we said we’d do it all over again. Actually, that was only some of us. On today’s episode, Suzy reminisces about her days at Quadio, the college music streaming company she helped run. Quadio didn’t end up making it, but guess what? This is a story with a happy ending. It is! Quadio taught everyone on the team something they needed to know about themselves — their values. Also in the episode: Invaluable wisdom from the b...
Oct 08, 2024•30 min•Ep 23•Transcript available on Metacast If you're human, you've hated someone. OK, maybe you're special, and you've only stooped to dislike someone, and, if so, good for you. But that's not what this episode is about. It's about the value we call "Belonging," one of the most complicated in the Becoming You lexicon because it's about friends. How we take care of them and how they take care of us, or not. In this episode, Suzy ruminates and pontificates about what Belonging means to her, and how she learned that through her me...
Oct 01, 2024•22 min•Ep 22•Transcript available on Metacast Ten years ago, Suzy traveled to Seattle to film a Today Show segment about a young make-up entrepreneur who was doing business differently. For every pair of false eyelashes she sold, she gave away a set to a chemotherapy patient who was losing her hair. At the time, Thrive Causemetics was based in Karissa Bodnar’s kitchen. The company has been so successful Karissa gave away – HELLO, GAVE AWAY – $150 million dollars to cancer patients and causes. And yet, Karissa would tell you that she’s faile...
Sep 24, 2024•34 min•Ep 21•Transcript available on Metacast Our topic this week is the value of fame – yes, fame is a value! – but why leave it there? In this episode, we also talk about how much we can lie to ourselves about this particular value, not to mention a few others we have hiding in our hearts. Why do we do this? Because we’re human. No getting around it. Also in this episode: Suzy’s profound take on the fluffy Netflix mini-series “The Perfect Couple,” and ruminations on the desire…never to work. Hit play! To enter the Becoming You Intensive G...
Sep 17, 2024•29 min•Ep 20•Transcript available on Metacast When it comes to getting a job – say, the job of your dreams – you have to get existential before you get tactical. But what’s really killer is when you’re both at the same time. And that’s what this episode of the pod is all about, with tips galore from Suzy on both. Being existential, that is, and tactical. Also this week, the Becoming You values-probing question that makes everyone cry. It’s supposed to. To enter the Becoming You Intensive Giveaway and sign up for the Becoming You Newsletter,...
Sep 10, 2024•30 min•Ep 19•Transcript available on Metacast There’s a little voice inside all of us telling us we were born to do something. You know it’s true. Sometimes, this voice translates into our “passion,” and as we grow up, we have to decide whether or not to admit this passion aloud and chase it, for all the world to see, or be logical, and go do “normal work.” In this episode, Suzy discusses the eternal conflict between these two routes, and then, oops, drops an epic rock & roll story on us out of the blue. Also in the pod: A new hack to get y...
Sep 03, 2024•27 min•Ep 18•Transcript available on Metacast Ok, not really! Change is good — usually. And really, these days, what choice do we have anyway? But sometimes, it’s worth the energy it takes to resist change, because you’ve built something worth keeping the same. Tune in to this episode for a story to make that point, and sorry not sorry, there will be blood, we mean “crying.” Plus down-and-dirty advice on landing your dream job, and a new secret mentor crush who can lay someone low with a velvet glove. That’s talent. To enter the Becoming Yo...
Aug 27, 2024•27 min•Ep 17•Transcript available on Metacast Worried about Suzy the Swan? Yes, you and many other listeners too! In this episode, Suzy (the human, not the swan) gives an update on her missing spirit animal, and somehow also manages to make a point about allowing yourself to change, whether you want to or not. Also on the agenda: Madonna, not knowing which path to take, and advice for working parents. To enter the Becoming You Intensive Giveaway and sign up for the Becoming You Newsletter, click here . Want more Becoming You? Pre-order the ...
Aug 20, 2024•23 min•Ep 16•Transcript available on Metacast 
