Rick West

For the past twenty-two episodes, we have had front-row seats into the lives and careers of incredible leaders as they shared what made them decide to push go. Whether it was pursuing a new business venture, choosing family over career, or learning to be a leader, each of these amazing individuals shared significant wisdom and insight for us to learn from. Don't miss out on this inspiring finale of the Push Go podcast!

For example, Leslie Godwin showcased how she utilized her inner circle to help guide her in the right direction. Then Ben Kirksey taught us about aligning our careers with our values. Brian Stormes shared how lessons he learned throughout his life shaped him as a leader. And lastly, Erin Campbell emphasized that even though others may label your career as successful, that doesn't mean it's fulfilling. Although we only featured four of the fascinating chats we’ve had over this chapter, the season was filled with great conversations and advice for a multitude of life experiences.

Rick West:

Welcome to Push Go, a podcast powered by Plum, where we highlight the defining moments that impact how we live and work. I'm Rick West. Now for the past 22 episodes or quick math, about 734 minutes, we've had what we'd like to call our front row seat into the lives and careers of incredible leaders. You've heard from working mothers, growing entrepreneurs, and everyone in between on their biggest push go moments, whether it was starting a new business, choosing family, learning to lead a team, or starting to love Mondays again, each of these people gave significant wisdom and insight for us to learn from.

Now, this week on the podcast, we're looking back at some of our team's favorite moments this season. I'll be sure to link all these episodes in the show notes, so no need to push pause and scribble down anything about the episode at this time. Now, the first person I want to highlight is Leslie Godwin. She's a CPG professional turn entrepreneur. She launched the Godwin Retail Group after realizing she valued family and flexibility. And my favorite part was when she was walking through her thought process of being on maternity leave. Listen in.

Leslie Godwin:

I think the things that people were telling me about myself when I was on maternity leave were like, "Oh my gosh, you're so happy. You look so happy."

Rick West:

Outside looking in, you are, right?

Leslie Godwin:

Yeah. And I'm like, "Oh man, all these people are telling me I'm so happy right now." I'm like, "Probably should listen to that." What's different? You don't realize when you're working so hard, what else you're sacrificing, I guess.

Rick West:

Yeah.

Leslie Godwin:

Never in 16 years had I had an entire day free, ever. I never did. And so the ability to arrange your schedule, because as moms, that's all we need. We need flexibility. We will crush it, we will do it. We will knock it out of the park, but we need the flexibility to be able to love on our family and be a mom and not have the guilt there.

Rick West:

I love that Leslie mentions that she used the people in her inner circle to help guide and point her in the right direction. Now, the next conversation that stands out in my mind was my talk with Ben Kirksey on finding the right career move for him. He actually worked with me back in the early days and his take on how to find the right career path was second to none. Listen to Ben tell his story,

Ben Kirksey:

And by August, I got to a pretty low point. And again, that was from a combination of things. Some that it was just outside my control, and then some that was just had caught up with me or over commitment had caught up with me and just being stretched too thin and really failing in some ways with a couple of clients that we had. And that was really the moment when I started to ask the question, what do I need to change? Is this just a time where I need to process through a hard season and really learn and grow from that? Do I really need to do something different? Some people like sales and it doesn't matter what they're selling, they just love the game of sales. For me, I realized that whatever I did, I needed to be able to connect the actual output of my work with a particular social bottom line.

Rick West:

That's the bread and butter of this podcast. The moment when you ask the right question at the right time. Now when Ben decided to ask himself what needed to change in order to align his career with his values, that's when his push go moment happened. I'd encourage you to go back and listen to that episode. It was so good.

Now, another person that was faced with a difficult question was actually our very first guest of the season, Brian Stormes. Except it wasn't him asking himself a challenging question, it was his leadership. He was asked to lead a team at Henkel, and it was his response and growth that changed everything. I can't wait for you to listen in to Brian's story.

Brian Stormes:

And so then it was, "Okay, it's results, right? We'll just get the results." And honestly, that business was in distress, and so I'm going in and trying to fix it and change ways of working, change the culture of that team, and all I had in my mind was results. If you can post the results, then we've done what we came here to do. There was a moment, probably a year in, we're posting great results, and I'm taking pride in the fact that, we came here and we're posting great results. We've turned it, we've turned the culture. And I took pride in the fact that, if I were to leave, would it fall apart? And in that moment, I was like, "Wait a minute. If I left and it fell apart, I have failed miserably as the leader of this team."

Rick West:

And spoiler alert, Brian now leads a stellar team. And his learnings from way back when, have helped inform his leadership. Now, the last person I want to highlight from a fantastic first season of Push Go, is Erin Campbell. She worked in an agency setting for many years to fill her love for people bucket, but during the pandemic, she chose to make the most of her time and start leading a brand from scratch.

Erin Campbell:

Yes. But what happened was is while everyone was figuring out how to adapt and pivot to this new world, while they were distracted, everybody else, it allowed us and our co-founders to go heads down, deep into the category. I come from a bunch of smart people, and so I was always gravitating towards the scientific, data, analytic side, but I always had this softer side as well. This emotional side, this, I will call it human side or empathy side, that I felt like in stories and inside, I didn't have that wording yet when I was young, but that there was something greater beyond what the numbers could tell.

Rick West:

Erin launched Gen Z Brands, did a killer job doing so. Take a look at their site, it'll make your day. Although we only had time to show off four of the folks on the episode today, this season was chocked full of wisdom, great conversations and advice for so many stages of life. Thanks for listening to this season of Push Go, a podcast highlighting the defining moments that impact how we live and work. Again, we just gave a flavor of the chats that we had over this chapter, so you can find their full stories on listen.plumshop.com through the show notes of this episode. Now, before you go, please consider giving us a review on Apple Podcast. We love to read your feedback and it'll help people find us more easily. Thanks for listening, and we'll talk to you soon.