Ways We Work

Today I'm doing a solo episode sharing some pretty big news and some thoughts on how to bring in more acceptance and adaptability when we're in times of transition. When change enters our life we often try to just carry on with our familiar routines and habits from before, which can feel easier but often end up being more difficult. Content warning: PregnancyHost:@amandahwoodWork with Amandah: Coaching Website

On today's episode I'm talking to Prasanna Ranganathan (B.A., J.D., LL.M.) (he/him) he’s worked as a lawyer, diversity and inclusion consultant and lead, speaker, and social media strategist and he is currently the Senior Lead of Diversity and Belonging at Shopify. Prior to his work at Shopify, Prasanna was a human rights lawyer working on international development and justice sector reform programming with the Government of Canada in countries including Jamaica, Mexico and Ukraine. He has over 15 years of experience in diversity and inclusion, working in the legal profession, the entertainment industry, and in tech. He is a Consulting Producer on the 2021 docuseries Born for Business about entrepreneurs with disabilities (currently airing on NBC Peacock and Crave Canada) and an Associate Producer on the 2016 documentary film Dream, Girl about women entrepreneurs that premiered at the Obama White House.We talk about what it means to bring your whole self to your career, how storytelling has been a thread throughout Prasanna's entire career and the power that sharing our stories can have. We also talk about defining your own personal definition of success and Prasanna shares why joy and gratitude are key focuses for him this year. Having worked with Prasanna for multiple years I knew he'd be an absolute joy to speak with and he did not disappoint.Amandah's Links:@amandahwoodWork with Amandah: Coaching WebsitePrasanna's Links:@prasran on Instagram@PRanganathan on TwitterPrasanna's website

On today's episode I'm talking to Loren Padelford, COO at Podium. Previous to that he was the GM of Revenue and the VP of Shopify Plus for 7 years which is where we both met. He's also a dad and a self-proclaimed space and physics nerd, as well as an amateur EDM DJ fun fact.I met Loren for the first time almost six years ago when I was interviewing for a role at Shopify in Waterloo. And in that time I've been very privileged to learn from him and also witness him grow and evolve as a leader. A big reason I wanted to have him on the podcast is that I know that that kind of growth and personal evolution takes a lot of really intentional work. We talk career, leadership and personal growth and Loren drops a lot of powerful wisdom.Amandah's Links:@amandahwoodWork with Amandah: Coaching WebsiteLoren's Links:@LorenPadelford

In this episode I talk about how I came to the decision to quit my job and the six month process involved to finally make the leap. Host:@amandahwoodWork with Amandah: Coaching Website

This episode is dedicated to self-compassion and why it's so crucial. I share a blend of my own personal experience and research on how self-compassion doesn't just make us feel better, it also makes us better people and more productive. Links:Being Kind to Yourself - Hidden Brain Podcast with Kristen Neff: https://hiddenbrain.org/podcast/being-kind-to-yourself/Self-Compassion Resources: https://self-compassion.org/category/exercises/#exercisesNew Happy - Near Enemies Post: https://www.instagram.com/p/CMSNV8kDCar/?utm_medium=copy_linkHost:@amandahwoodWork with Amandah: Coaching Website

Hello friends, I'm back and we're getting right into it. In this episode I'm sharing my own story: what I've learned since I started Ways We Work all those years ago, and what I've been up to since. But really this is a story about grief, burnout, never feeling good enough and my own journey to discovering just how crucial self-compassion is. This is an adaptation of a talk I gave at a conference a couple of years ago and in sharing that talk I realized just how familiar my own story was for everyone in the room. That's why I'm sharing it here - if I can make one extra person feel less alone in what they're experiencing that feels so worth it to me. If you connected with this episode please let me know on Twitter @amandahwood or on Instagram @coachingwithamandah. Enjoy!

This week my guest is Cat Lee. Cat is a venture capitalist at Maveron, a company that funds seed and early-stage consumer companies. Before moving into the VC space, Cat was the head of Culture at Pinterest and before that held roles at both Pinterest and Facebook in Growth, Partner Marketing, Product Marketing and Program Management. Her resume is nothing short of impressive and inspiring. We talked about why she decided to make the move into venture capital, and how she's managed to explore so many different crafts throughout the course of her career. We also talk about the lessons she learned in her time in tech that she hopes to pass on to the founders she works with, her approach to what she calls work-life integration, her personal values, her passion for culture and a lot more. Cat's confidence, curiousity and ability to throw herself into whatever it is she's excited about is infectious and I think you'll finish this episode with an itch to finally dive into that thing you've been wanting to do. 

This week I'm joined by two amazing guests Penny and Abi who are both Product Managers at Foursquare. We covered their very different paths into product management and tech, the ways they've navigated their careers so far and how well defined career paths really don't exist for the modern workforce. We also get into how they both manage their energy and what work-life balance means to each of them. Speaking with both Abi and Penny in a double interview format was a lot of fun because while they're both in the same role, it was so interesting to contrast how they both approach this space differently, coming from different backgrounds, and working with different teams. They are both so thoughtful and intentional about their careers but also with how they spend their time in general and I learned so much from this discussion. 

This week my guest is my friend, colleague and manager Shavonne, or as she's better known as, Shav. Shav is the lead of the Diversity & Belonging team at Shopify and in her spare time, she sits on multiple boards and is involved in several non-profit organizations. I am constantly in awe of how she does it all. We talked about how she managed to find herself in HR and now working in the Diversity & Belonging space, why this work has so much meaning to her, how she protects her energy in what can be an emotionally draining subject matter and how she navigates the ambiguity of the work. I was incredibly humbled by this conversation, Shav brings new meaning to the word hustle and is constantly putting her community, her team and her family before herself. It was a real privilege to have this conversation with her and touch on some of the things we often don't get to discuss when we're heads down in the work we do day today. 

This week's episode is a discussion between myself and two of my colleagues and friends Lily and Amena. I reached out to both of them to get their perspective on how you can continue to grow and evolve in your career and other areas of your life, while also believing you are enough just how you are right now. We touch on things like being allowed to change if that's what you really want, getting comfortable with having different seasons to your life and how self-confidence can give you the space to imagine what else you might want to explore or try. We also dig into hustle culture, mom culture and even mom-hustle culture, and the importance of defining your own version of what success looks like in all areas of your life. My own personal takeaways from this conversation were the importance of letting your life have seasons, you can do anything you want but you can't do everything at the same time. I also personally took away how painful it can be to be motivated by the feeling that you're not good enough as you are right now, instead of being motivated by curiousity and excitement. You can tell both Lily and Amena have put a lot of work into reflecting on what's worked and what hasn't for them and I'm so grateful they both agreed to share their insightful perspectives in this episode. I would really love to hear what you think of this episode and if you'd like to see more discussions like this so please take a few minutes to leave a review or send a message on Twitter @wayswework.

This week my guest is Jannell Lo, she’s a chef at J&P Grocery in Kitchener, Ontario, a private catering chef on the side and runs the food blog MyBFisGF.com - which she describes as gluten free cooking inspired by asian classics and Canadan comfort food. She’s lived and worked in many places around the world and shares how her eight years in the culinary industry helped her discover the parts of working in food she was most passionate about and led her to where she is now. We talk about how she balances serving food she knows will sell with bringing her own creations and new flavours to the community. She shares her own experience working in the intensity of the food industry, dealing with extreme stress and eventually discovering how to bring balance to her work. It was fun to have the opportunity to do an interview in person and get to know someone in my community better. And with that, we’ll get into it.

This week my guest is Katie Philo, she's the Content Manager at BritBox (Created by BBC Studios & ITV) and the host of the podcast When I Grow Up where she unpacks people's career paths and how they've arrived where they are currently in their career. She's originally from London but has spent the last year and a half making a life for herself in New York City. We talk about what happens after you've achieved your dream job, balancing ambition with being present and satisfied with where you currently are, how she's trying to fill the other buckets in her life outside of her profession and what it's like doing all of this far away from her home country. Being fellow podcasters and also two people just obsessed with how people work and what makes it important to them, Katie and I had a very natural conversation that continued long after we stopped recording and I really enjoyed all of the insights she's gathered from years of experience working in over 35 different jobs, as well as everything she's learned from her own podcast guests. She's a lovely human and I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did!

In this episode I'm talking to Claire Baker, she's a women's coach based out of London who specializes in helping women live more in sync with their menstrual cycle. She's been coaching women 1 on 1 all over the world how to work with their cycles since 2013, and she also runs workshops, online courses and has a ton of free resources that you can find over on her website thisislifeblood.com. We talk about the value of batching similar types of work together, the importance of valuing different types of productivity, how you can bring the 1% version of self-care into your routine and so much more.

This episode I'm talking to Tom Creighton, he's currently a design lead at Delphia, a data-focused startup based out of Toronto. He previously made other cool things at companies like Wealthsimple and Shopify. He's passionate about growing the creative community through a variety of means, like through his two podcasts Framework, a podcast about the process of building and bringing a product to market and The Redesign, which is a fun podcast where he and a friend redesign everyday items with usually the end result being a poorly designed version of the original thing - Tom wouldn't mind me saying that. He also spends a good amount of his time speaking and mentoring others in the design community. In our chat we cover decision making, how to make good decisions and the process involved in that, disconnecting your identity from your role, the importance of communication amongst teams, the value of experiments and creating boundaries in both your work and side projects and Tom shares how deciding to work from home was the best the decision for his own work-life balance. This was a fun conversation and Tom has a ton of really thoughtful insights around all of these topics from his own personal experience. 

This episode I'm talking to Mic Berman, Mic is an executive coach, and is currently spending a lot of her time building up great leaders in some of Canada's best tech companies. She's held executive roles in companies like Yahoo, Mozilla and FreshBooks, so she knows what she's talking about when it comes to high performing teams and fostering innovation. She also lives on a farm with her partner, and their animals, producing food for local chefs here in Southwestern Ontario. Mic is a great friend and mentor to me and in this episode we get into so many good topics. She's living proof that you can have a fulfilling career and a huge impact on the tech industry without constantly needing to live in the hustle of it all of the time. I wanted to hear how she balances working in such a fast paced industry, while still living a lifestyle that's truly authentic and sustainable for her. We get into leadership development, how to lead effectively and human-ly, what it means to go slow to go fast and so much more.

In this first episode, Amandah gives some context on how Ways We Work began as an online publication focused on sharing honest conversations about what makes work meaningful for people. She shares why she decided to turn the site into a podcast, what that process has been like and what you can expect from listening.