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Is This What You Were Built For? | The Still Doesn't Lie | Crafted Clarity · Crafted Clarity: Distilling the Tension Between Success and Significance

0:02
There's a question that sits underneath almost every
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leadership conversation I have. It's really the first thing
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people say. But the longer I sit in the
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room, if there's enough trust and enough space, it usually
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surfaces. It sounds something like this.
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I've been doing this a long time.
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I'm successful, genuinely, but I'm starting to wonder if
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there's more something different I'm meant to do, and if there is
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now what? Questions like that aren't
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warning signs. There are noticeable gap between
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the person who shows up at the office and the person you sit
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with on the drive home. Many leaders ignore questions
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like these, mostly because the rooms they're in don't usually
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have space for it. The board meeting doesn't have
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an agenda item for it. The performance review doesn't
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measure it. And the people who need
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something from you, your team, your clients, your organization.
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They need your answers, not your deep questions.
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So the question goes unanswered. After years of working alongside
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leaders, I know these questions also apply to the organizations
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they lead. As leaders and organizations
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become more successful, The leadership, the teams, the
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partnerships, the work itself no longer aligns with the mission
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and heart of what the organization was built to be.
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And as a result, we can miss our true impact of what we and the
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organization are truly capable of.
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It's a tension behind a similar question that is at the heart of
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this very podcast. How can we distill the tension
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between what we built and what we're built for?
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That same distillation process works in US.
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In fact, it's the distillation process that led me to create
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the space and is the foundation of every episode.
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That process centers around the still, where heat, pressure, and
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time are applied to raw ingredients, and where anything
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that doesn't belong gets separated out, leaving only
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what's true. At the end of the day, the still
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doesn't lie. It'll always reveal what's true.
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This episode marks the 28th Crafted Clarity episode, which
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concludes season one. It was a season marked by many
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significant moments, and while I'm proud of all the episodes,
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what matters more to me are the moments that came from them.
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A leader who reached out after an episode to say I've been
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carrying the question of my purpose in my next season for
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years, and I didn't know anyone else was asking it.
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Could we meet up? Someone who said that they were
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listening to an episode in their car and had to pull off to the
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side of the road to restart it. They'd had a difficult week and
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wanted to capture the raw thoughts and insights the
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episode had stirred in them, Conversations that started
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simply because someone shared an episode with someone else who
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came to mind. They recognize something the
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other person needed to hear. These moments are exactly what
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the space was built for. I've been invited on to other
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podcasts, into interviews, and even onto a radio program in a
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major market. Not because I built a platform,
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but because of the tension. I talk about the one between
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what we built and what we're built for.
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People feel that I've met leaders through the space that I
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wouldn't have never crossed paths with otherwise.
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Relationships continuing around a shared question rather than a
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shared industry. I didn't build crafted clarity
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to become an influencer. What I was after was something
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simpler and harder to manufacture and honest, poor
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with the right person at the right moment.
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So whether you've been here from the beginning or you just found
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the space today, this space is for you.
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But before we look ahead, I want to take a moment the way a
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distiller does after a whiskey run.
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If you've ever been inside a distillery, you've probably seen
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the large stills. Some are copper pot stills and
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others are tall column stills made of stainless steel.
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They both work the same way. Through heat, time, pressure.
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These stills turn the raw ingredients of whiskey, grains,
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water, yeast into the amber spirit in your glass.
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Stills are the source of truth. They remove everything that
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doesn't belong in the whiskey, so what's left is what the
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whiskey was made for, its intended purpose.
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What you might not see is that after a whiskey run, the
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distiller pauses production to assess what the last run
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produced and to understand what's formed and to carry that
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knowledge forward into what comes next.
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That's what this episode is. 27 episodes is a run worth pausing
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on, just like the distiller's pause.
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Season 1 is complete, and before we move into the next season, I
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want to pause to assess what it produced.
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Crafted Clarity started one night when I was staring into a
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whiskey glass around a fire pit. I've been sitting there thinking
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about how that whiskey got into the class, how ordinary
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ingredients go through the right process to become something
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extraordinary. I realized it was the
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distillation process in the heart of the distiller that made
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the difference. The spirit in that class had to
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go through heat, fire, pressure, and time and a lot of time
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waiting in order to become whiskey.
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Each process reveals something different in the journey.
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And that's when it hit me and I literally said out loud, This Is
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Us. As I thought about that last
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part of the process, the aging in the barrel, it all made
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sense. When whiskey ages, the seasons
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do most of the work in the transformation of the whiskey
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from something ordinary to something incredible and
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significant. Hot summers draws whiskey into
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the wood. Cold winters pull it back,
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bringing flavors and elements into the spirit, and along the
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way, a portion of the whiskey evaporates, never to return.
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Distillers call the missing spirit the angels share, and
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they accept this loss because they know that it's the loss
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that concentrates the depth of what remains.
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You and I have raw ingredients. Our jobs, our gifts, our
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talents, our experiences. And we all have those moments in
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our lives where we feel the heat, the hard seasons, the
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pressure, the transitions. We didn't choose.
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That's our still doing the same transformative work as it does
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with whiskey. And I knew sitting there that I
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had to build a space for this conversation.
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Not just a podcast, but a space. Like two people sitting down
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with something honest in the glass, saying the things that
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don't get said anywhere else, with others listening, leaning
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in to listen because they feel it too.
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That's practical clarity. But what I didn't fully
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anticipate is that this space would do its work on me as well.
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The journey from what I built to what I'm built for.
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And along the way, I've met others on their journey.
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So what did all these episodes actually produce?
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Well, looking back across the full season, 3 themes kept
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surfacing. 3 tensions that leaders were carrying at the
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distillation process kept illuminating from different
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angles. The first theme was loss, The
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kind of loss that comes with formation.
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We talked about this loss in the very first episode through the
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metaphor of the angel's Cher, the one I just talked about, the
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portion of the whiskey that evaporates from the barrel
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during the aging process and never returns.
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Distillers accept this loss as simply part of the process.
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They know that without this loss, the whiskey will never be
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what it's intended to become. Leaders recognize this
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immediately because every leader who has been through a real
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season of formation knows exactly what they've had to
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release a role that no longer fit a definition of success that
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belonged to someone else, a version of themselves they
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performed for years before they understood it wasn't really
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them. We also talked about the loss
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that comes with the ending of a season in episode 6, when good
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years run dry. Naming the loss without calling
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it failure was something a lot of leaders hadn't been able to
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do before. The second theme was identity
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underneath the role. This one kept surfacing in
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different forms across the season.
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The question underneath it was always the same.
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Who are you when you remove the title?
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When the role you've mastered stops reflecting the person
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you're becoming, what's left? In episode 11, Purpose over
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position, we name the gap between what you do and who you
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are. In episode 13, Listening for
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Your Calling, we went further, not just naming the gap, but
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asking what do it mean to actual follow what you were built for,
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rather than what you were simply good at?
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That distinction between calling and competence landed
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differently than I expected, because leaders are often so
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practiced at performing competence that they've stopped
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asking whether the work still reflects their calling.
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This theme gave leaders language for something that they've been
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feeling but couldn't quite articulate.
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And once you have the language, once you can name the gap,
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something shifts. The tension becomes workable
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instead of just uncomfortable. The third theme was seasons.
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We're always in a season, either coming into one, leaving one, or
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going deeper into one. We talked about the human
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experience of being in a season and not fully understanding what
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it's for. Episode 2 The Space between
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named the waiting, the invisible internal work that has to happen
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before anything visible can change.
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Most leaders have little framework for that season.
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They usually experience it as stagnation or even failure.
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Episode 18 What happens when you stay in a season too long?
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Went somewhere harder when familiarity becomes a substitute
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for alignment and episode 15 named the other side of that.
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When everything changes instantly and you didn't see it
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coming. Seasons waiting, change timing.
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These aren't leadership topics most content addresses honestly.
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But there were a lot of leaders. That's where they actually live.
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Without the language for what's happening in them.
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Those three things, loss, identity, underneath the roll,
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and seasons, aren't the only things that we explored, but
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there's a thread that runs through the distillation
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metaphor in this first season, and what they produced taken
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together was something I fully didn't anticipate when I
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started. Permission to carry the question
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without the need to resolve it immediately.
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Language, to name what had previously been unnamed.
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And the discovery. And maybe the most significant
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of all, that none of us have to carry it alone.
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That was season 1. Many podcasts seem sequential
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episodes that build on the previous one or walk through
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chapters of a book. I'd like you to think of this
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one differently. Think of it like a whiskey
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flight. When you go on a whiskey tour,
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you're usually offered a tasting flight, a sampling of very
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different whiskeys, each with a different story, a different
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purpose, and a different finish. The distiller offers you a range
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of expressions and invite you to find out.
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Find which one speaks to you. Our conversations are like that
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whiskey flight. Some conversations will land
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immediately, and some won't make sense until later.
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And the one that makes, and the one that matters most, is
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usually the one that names what you've been tasting in your own
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life without realizing it. 27 episodes so far.
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Different tensions, different stages of the distillation
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process, different seasons of the leadership journey, all
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organized around the same distillation process.
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Distilling that tension between what you've built and what
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you're built for. And just like a whiskey tasting,
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you start where you want, revisit what resonated, and find
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the wand that speaks to where you are right now.
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If you're in a waiting season, the kind where nothing visible
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is happening but something is forming underneath, check out
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episode #2 if you're navigating a season where something good is
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ending. Not through failure, just
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through time. Episode 6 is for you.
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If you're carrying a role that no longer reflects who you
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actually are, try episode 11. And if you've been in a season
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too long and you stop questioning whether it's still
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the right 1, Episode 18 could speak to you.
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If you're in the middle of a a change that you didn't choose
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and didn't see coming, episode 15 is that conversation.
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These episodes meet you wherever you are.
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And just a side note that you'll find an episode guide at
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craftedclarity.net to help navigate the episodes by theme
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as we continue to add more. So thinking back to the
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distiller, after the distillers pause and after holding up what
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formed, understanding what worked, and carrying that
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knowledge forward, they fire up distill again.
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They continue the production. They lean into new ideas,
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building on what forum to create something even more purposeful,
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something that couldn't have existed without everything that
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came before it. That's where we are.
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As Season 2 gets under way, you'll find new conversations
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each week, each one built around the same whiskey distillation
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theme, a different tension, a different stage, a different
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season of the leadership journey.
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And for every episode, we'll have Tasting Notes.
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A free download on the website. No sign up required.
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Just some reflections to sit with after the conversation ends
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to help you remember what you thought, what inspired you, and
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what you might need to sit with a little bit longer if you want
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to go a little deeper. If you want the conversation
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that happens beyond the episode, I invite you into the tasting
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room. That's our monthly e-mail.
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It's not a newsletter. It's more like a letter from the
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fire pit, a reflection that goes further into what we're
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exploring here, the kind of conversation that happens when
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the podcast ends. But the glasses are still
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helpful. And we'll also have more guest
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distillers, fellow travellers who are navigating their own
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distillation in willing to name it honestly, leaders who've been
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through something real and are inviting us into the
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conversation. And I also want to give you a
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glimpse of what else has been distilling.
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Leaders have been reaching out not just to share what an
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episode meant to them, but to continue the conversation.
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Sometimes it's over coffee, sometimes it's over lunch.
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Wanting to go deeper than a podcast allows.
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And I've been listening. What I'm hearing underneath
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those conversations is a space is needed to bring leaders
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together who are all living this tension.
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So we're developing the Crafted Clarity leadership experience,
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an immersive experience held at local distilleries that takes
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everything that we explore in the space and bring it to life
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in a way that a podcast never quite can.
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Part distillery tour, part Crafted Clarity live, all
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wrapped up with whiskey tasting. If that resonates.
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And if you're one of the leaders who've been wanting more than a
18:34
podcast, stay connected. That's where you'll hear about
18:38
it first. Which brings me to the tasting
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notes for this episode. If you've ever gone to whiskey
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tasting, you take notes of what you tasted, what stood out to
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you, and what you want to remember.
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Here are my tasting notes from today.
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Yours might be different. You're always in a season,
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coming into one, leaving one, or going deeper into one.
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And that season has a purpose, even when you can't see it.
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Whether you recognize it or not, you are being distilled.
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Heat, pressure and time are doing their work in you.
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Not to break you down, but to concentrate on what's true, to
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remove what doesn't belong, to reveal what's always been there,
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underneath the performance and underneath the pressure and the
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accumulated weight of other people's expectations.
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The tension you feel, that persistent gap between what
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you've built and what you're built for, isn't a warning sign.
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It's the still doing its work. And if you're trying to name
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what this tension is, if you're trying to find the language for
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the season you're actually in, consider Season 1 as your
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personal catalog to explore different tensions, different
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stages, different seasons of the leadership journey.
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One of them is for where you are right now.
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And Speaking of tasting notes, there are tasting notes for
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every episode at craftdeclarity.net.
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No sign up required. I want to close today where we
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started that fire pit, that glass that evening where
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something was born. I didn't know then what I know
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now. I didn't know that a question I
20:39
was carrying personally would become a room that other leaders
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needed. I didn't know that a metaphor I
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found sitting by a fire would become the language for
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something that matters to people I've never met, in cities I've
20:54
never visited. But the still does not lie.
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Heat and pressure and time have a way of surfacing what is
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actually true in whiskey and in US.
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What comes through when you trust the process is worth
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everything it costs to get there.
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If you're carrying the question, you're in the right room.
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If this space has given you language for something you've
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been carrying, I encourage you to pass it on.
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There might be someone in your life who needs to find this
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room. Thanks for being on this
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journey. And remember, clarity isn't
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found, it's crafted. Thanks for listening to Crafted
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Clarity. If you're a leader wrestling
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with the tension between success and significance, or if you're
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trying to align your work with a deeper calling, I'd love to
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connect with you. If your organization is facing
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questions about strategy, whether it's alignment, ROI, or
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building confidence in your team.
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This is the work we do every day at ibrand.
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And if you walk this journey yourself, or maybe you're right
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in the middle of it, I'd love to hear your story and maybe even
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shared here on the podcast. You can find me at
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craftclarity.net.