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•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. Want more Becoming You? Learn about the Discovery Day: The Becom...
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. Want more Becoming You? Learn about the Discov...
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. Want mo...
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. Want more Becoming You? Learn about the Discovery Day: The Becoming You Experience . You are always growing and evolving an...
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. Want more Becoming You? Le...
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! Want more Becoming You? Learn about t...
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. Want more Becoming You? Learn about the Discovery Day: The Becoming You Experience . You ...
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. Want more Becoming You? ...
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. Want more Becoming You? Learn about the Discovery Day: The Becoming You Experience . You are always growing and evolving and so are we. Sign ...
Aug 20, 2024•23 min•Ep 16•Transcript available on Metacast We talk about Becoming You incessantly on the pod, but how about a first-hand account of the process in action? Heck yes, we got you! In this episode, Suzy welcomes former student, restaurateur par excellence, and full-time fabulous person Michael Lopez, who recounts his Becoming You journey, and also recommends a good Rosé, which, don’t lie, you need right now. Also on the pod: Suzy and Michael confess: “The one that got away.” Want more Becoming You? Learn about the Discovery Day: The Becoming...
Aug 13, 2024•33 min•Ep 15•Transcript available on Metacast Back in the ‘60s, Bob Dylan made an anthem out of the phrase, “Everybody must get stoned,” but it’s 2024, friends, and pwned is what you must get nowadays…if you want to get over yourself and get better at life. Listen up as Suzy talks about two (count ‘em, two) pnwings in one day that reminded her what true friendship involves, and how not-easy it is to get a relationship A-plus IRL. Also on the pod: Music! Dogs! Party ideas! We’re having fun! Hurry up and join in! Want more Becoming You? Learn...
Aug 06, 2024•35 min•Ep 14•Transcript available on Metacast OK, not always. Sometimes we feel guilty because we should. But other times, guilt is just collateral of a war between our values and the world’s. How to tell the difference? Listen in! Also in this episode: Suzy’s secret mentor, a woman who has made her mad, embarrassed her, and otherwise brought her low, all for the good. Plus, more in-fighting about the best musician of all time. Did somebody mention Pitbull? Want more Becoming You? Learn about the Discovery Day: The Becoming You Experience ....
Jul 30, 2024•41 min•Ep 13•Transcript available on Metacast Doing something you love all day is the dream, right? Well, not if you’re not good at it. In this week’s episode, a cold, hard, realistic – and loving! – look at whether a passion-based career is for you, or anyone for that matter. Also, a long, sad story about a swan named Suzy…and ChatGPT. And if that wasn’t enough, another foray into Suzy’s favorite mistakes, this one involving (scary music, please) ENGINEERS. Want more Becoming You? Learn about the Discovery Day: The Becoming You Experience ...
Jul 23, 2024•37 min•Ep 12•Transcript available on Metacast In this week’s podcast, we recklessly make enemies with everyone who loves kombucha, but for a good cause, the routing out of bad bosses! That is, bosses who think a well-stocked snack bar can cover for a leader who doesn’t have the time or inclination to make people want to come in for…the actual work. GET OUT! Also on the pod: Rants about your personality, snakes, and slow-walking tourists. Honestly, no one is safe on Becoming You, except Pierre. Want more Becoming You? Learn about the Discove...
Jul 16, 2024•38 min•Ep 11•Transcript available on Metacast 
