What song reminds you of 6th grade?

Which one makes you feel invincible? What song got you through a hard breakup? Which one do you play after a miserable day at work?

These are the questions Shaka Mitchell asks in his Come Together Music Project. It’s helped people with opposing political views have a civil conversation about hard topics like immigration, abortion and racism. Surely it can help a creative and an account person get along during a weekly status.

This project is gold. We all have answers to these questions. And each answer helps reveal the depth of our humanity.

A depth that gets lost way too easily under the pressures of timelines and time sheets.

No timeline is worth losing our connection to our humanity. No matter what Silicon Valley or Wall Street tries to tell us.

Welcome to the DesuckifyWork® podcast. The show where we cut through the BS and find ways to make work more fun, more human and less ridiculous. All of which makes your business more profitable, by the way. This episode is part of our ongoing Prohuman Series, in partnership with the Prohuman Foundation.

(If you enjoy this one, please like, share, rate, review or subscribe to the podcast.)

Let the desuckifying begin.

You can follow Shaka on LinkedIn and check out cometogethermusic.org to learn more about his project. And be sure to visit Shaka’s Substack as well.

If you enjoyed the conversation and would like to explore what a more human work culture could look like, I invite you to schedule a free half-hour discovery session. Type “meow” in the calendar invite and I’ll also send you a free DesuckifyWork® t-shirt!

Bye, everyone!

Bonus questions from Shaka:Are there creative ways that you’ve seen people use music to bring people together at work?

And in case you’re wondering:

What song reminds you of 6th grade?Hungry Like the Wolf - Duran Duran

Which one makes you feel invincible?Unchained - Van Halen

What song got you through a hard breakup?Scar Tissue - RHCP

Which one do you play after a miserable day at work?Livin’ on a Prayer - Bon Jovi

What are your answers?

Today is my birthday. The big 5-6. Not a particularly interesting age but I’m grateful for every turn around the sun.

To celebrate the day, I’m sharing a clip from a recent guest appearance on Regina Larko‘s amazing Lead With Your Voice podcast. Regina is a wonderfully empathetic and encouraging podcast coach who helped me find my voice when I started my show a few years back. And she is a generous and thoughtful host... I loved where she took our conversation.

This clip is all about staying in touch with our humanity, no matter what technology brings into the world. I think that’s a pretty relevant birthday message, as I reflect on my 56 years of humanness.

I invite everyone to celebrate being human with me today.

If you run a company, work culture isn’t a part of your job. It is your job.

Everything else, performance, profit, innovation, execution, is downstream from the culture you intentionally create every day.

It’s a hard job. But it’s the one you signed up for. What grade would you give yourself? What do you think your team would say?

I spoke with Kyle Johnston, Jacky Northgrave and Kianna Miller from Gigasavvy—an ad agency based in Orange County, CA—to see what this dynamic looks like in reality.

They are a remote-first agency. Kyle runs things from Idaho. Jacky is a Sr. Art Director in Memphis. And Kianna is a Sr. Account Supervisor in SoCal. They get along well. Even finish each other’s sentences at times. Not easy to do across time zones.

The culture has clearly evolved over the years. From scrappy beginnings in 2008 to a big office in Irvine with a built-in bowling lane to a work your butt off but work from anywhere vibe.

But the most interesting thing I noticed was how they navigate the inherent cultural tensions in any agency.

🐱 Most agency folks have a workaholic bent. We do this work because we’re obsessed with it. And, we don’t want that obsession taken advantage of.

🐱 Most agency folks are relentlessly curious. Leaders need to feed that with transparency and over-communication. And, not burden the team with the weight of every last detail.

🐱 Most agency folks are very opinionated. You’ve gotta let people speak their mind and make their points. And, you better create a baseline of humility and respect or things can turn toxic fast.

Gigasavvy seems to manage all of this pretty well. Kyle prioritizes culture. Jacky and Kianna clearly see their role in bringing that culture to life.

They smile a lot. Genuine full-faced smiles.

That says something. What would the faces say if I interviewed your company?

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Welcome to the DesuckifyWork® podcast. The show where we cut through the BS and find ways to make work more fun, more human and less ridiculous. All of which makes your business more profitable, by the way.

(If you enjoy this one, please like, share, rate, review or subscribe to the podcast.)

Let the desuckifying begin.

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You can follow Kyle, Jacky Kianna and Gigasavvy on LinkedIn. And check out gigasavvy.com to learn more about what they’re putting out into the world.

If you enjoyed the conversation and would like to find some calm in the chaos of work, I invite you to schedule a free half-hour discovery session. Type “meow” in the calendar invite and I’ll also send you a free DesuckifyWork® t-shirt!

Bye, everyone!

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Bonus questions from Kianna:Was anything that we said here surprising or very different from your current working environment or the way you work with your team? Or the flip side, was there anything that you were like, oh my God, me too?

Humans are a messy species.

And that’s awesome. Every drop of joy, meaning, purpose, love, hope and creativity comes from that messiness.

AI creates slop. We’re sloppy, which leads to works of genius.

So what kind of work do we want to be doing? That’s the question Steve Chavez and I dig into during this week’s DesuckifyWork® podcast.

Steve is the Chief Creative Officer at Buntin, an ad agency in Nashville. He’s been doing this kind of work for years. And he’s also my former boss.

Here’s what he thinks about the way we should be working. 🐱 More human imperfectness🐱 More real conversations in person🐱 More magical collaboration

I have a hard time arguing with any of these, even as someone who advocates for remote work. Humans need to bump up against each other sometimes. See what spills out.

So, who wants to make a mess together?

Welcome to the DesuckifyWork® podcast. The show where we cut through the BS and find ways to make work more fun, more human and less ridiculous. All of which makes your business more profitable, by the way.

(If you enjoy this one, please like, share, rate, review or subscribe to the podcast.)

Let the desuckifying begin.

You can follow Steve on LinkedIn. And check out BUNTIN’s site at buntingroup.com. You can also reach out to him directly at schavez@buntingroup.com.

If you enjoyed the conversation and would like to find some calm in the chaos of work, I invite you to schedule a free half-hour discovery session. Type “meow” in the calendar invite and I’ll also send you a free DesuckifyWork® t-shirt!

Bye, everyone!

Bonus questions from Steve:Do you believe that we (the advertising industry) are still in the persuasion business at the end of the day.

Can we talk? I feel like we can’t, actually. At least not at work. We can make word noises out of our faces but most of it is overly polite, passive aggressive, aggressive/aggressive, or corporate gobbledegook.

It’s ridiculous, really. Yet another way our workplaces are distinctly not human.

That’s why I brought Michael Lee onto this week’s DesuckifyWork® podcast. He’s all about making work more pro-human. By helping people have useful conversations, especially ones where we embrace conflict.

Conflict helps us learn, solve problems, make ideas better.

But we spend so much energy avoiding it because our caveman brains fear we’ll get thrown to the Woolly Mammoths if we don’t keep the peace.

Also, most of us suck at conflict. Michael has spent years researching how we can get better at it. And he shares a bunch of those ideas during this episode. My favorite? Arguing for someone else’s POV, especially one we don’t agree with.

That practice alone would probably take about 80% of the suck out of workplace communication. It might have an even great effect on weighty conversations outside of work like politics, religion or your favorite Beyonce song.

My favorite is the one that’s playing out of earshot. But I’d be happy to argue in favor of whatever you like.

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Welcome to the DesuckifyWork® podcast. The show where we cut through the BS and find ways to make work more fun, more human and less ridiculous. All of which makes your business more profitable, by the way. This episode is part of our ongoing Prohuman Series, in partnership with the Prohuman Foundation.

(If you enjoy this one, please like, share, rate, review or subscribe to the podcast.)

Let the desuckifying begin.

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You can follow Michael on LinkedIn. And check out The Civility Initiative at The University of Charleston to learn more about his work and his podcast “When We Disagree.”

If you enjoyed the conversation and would like to find some calm in the chaos of work, I invite you to schedule a free half-hour discovery session. Type “meow” in the calendar invite and I’ll also send you a free DesuckifyWork® t-shirt!

Bye, everyone!

—

Bonus questions from Michael:Why do you like spending time listening to this podcast?

Work sucks less when trust is more than just a word on a company website.

Trust is at an all time low—from corporations to government to media—our faith in our foundational institutions is flimsier than ever. Add AI to the mix and it’s a wonder we believe anything, ever.

We expect people to just show up at work and functional normally in the face of all this? It’s crazy. And if you look around and most workplaces today, “normal” is clearly not happening.

Courage is the way out, according to this week’s guest on the DesuckifyWork® podcast. Maryam Mehrtash is a marketing exec and author who has demonstrated courage since she was barely able to speak, as a refugee from Iran, along with her family.

Today, she writes about courage every week on her Substack—This is Not a Memo. She views courage as a skill. Something we can build over time with “reps.” Start small with something as simple as saying what you actually want for dinner instead of “whatever is fine.” Tell your friend, “I’d love a second glass of wine” instead of politely declining.

Before you know it, you’ll be the weirdo at work who never flinches when the hard thing needs to be said. You may even inspire other weirdos to join you.

That’s how we build trust at work, by saying and doing hard things. By living out the values we too casually post on corporate websites. By being reliable even in the face of external madness. Especially then.

So, who’s ready to get weird?

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Welcome to the DesuckifyWork® podcast. The show where we cut through the BS and find ways to make work more fun, more human and less ridiculous. All of which makes your business more profitable, by the way. This episode is part of our ongoing Prohuman Series, in partnership with the Prohuman Foundation.

(If you enjoy this one, please like, share, rate, review or subscribe to the podcast.)

Let the desuckifying begin.

—

You can follow Maryam on LinkedIn and Instagram. And be sure to subscribe to her Substack—“This is Not a Memo,” where she shares stories of courage every week.

If you enjoyed the conversation and would like to find some calm in the chaos of work, I invite you to schedule a free half-hour discovery session. Type “meow” in the calendar invite and I’ll also send you a free DesuckifyWork® t-shirt!

Bye, everyone!

—

Bonus questions from Maryam:If you stripped away your work title, what is the one thing that feels incredibly easy to you but looks like magic to everyone else?

Work sucks less when talking about mental health becomes as boring as talking about going to the dentist.

When it’s just another thing. Like that show everyone’s watching. The game last night. Or that new laundry detergent that really does make your whites 20 percent whiter.

When it’s fully normalized and casualized.

That’s what Paul MacFarlane wants. A return guest on the DesuckifyWork® Podcast, Paul is a creative soul who believes our work should bring out the best in humanity.

And our humanity is crying out for some help right now. AI, layoffs, wars, polarization. It’s the soup we swim in every day. Why the hell can’t we talk about how we’re coping with all of it without making it weird?

We all have emotions. And we’re all bringing ‘em to work despite 100 plus years of effort to keep them out.

Let’s talk about them. Let’s help each other deal with them. Let’s realize that our capacity to feel things is the greatest gift in the universe and is the thing that will guide us through every possible uncertainly that comes our way.

Let’s be boringly, beautifully, unabashedly, human.

Welcome to the DesuckifyWork® podcast. The show where we cut through the BS and find ways to make work more fun, more human and less ridiculous. All of which makes your business more profitable, by the way.

(If you enjoy this one, please like, share, rate, review or subscribe to the podcast.)

Let the desuckifying begin

You can follow Paul on LinkedIn. And check out his site at thepaulmacfarlane.com to learn more about his work and his delightfully human take on the world.

If you enjoyed the conversation and would like to find some calm in the chaos of work, I invite you to schedule a free half-hour discovery session. Type “meow” in the calendar invite and I’ll also send you a free DesuckifyWork® t-shirt!

Bye, everyone!

Bonus questions from Paul:Do you think the normalization and casualization of mental health would be a good thing? If so, how could you help make it happen?

DesuckifyWork® is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Work sucks less when we realize unity does not require uniformity.

A cohesive culture means everything at work. But it doesn’t mean everyone needs to show up in the same way.

In fact, it’s way better when we don’t.

A shared mission? Yes. And the only way to achieve it is if you invite everyone to bring the stuff that makes them interesting to the table.

Neil Ghosh has made it his mission to help make this approach a reality. He’s written a book called “Do More Good” and he’s speaking to folks around the world about it.

One idea I really love—in addition to rewarding performance at work, let’s reward “decency.” The people who do the right thing, are a delight to work with, make things easier, own their mistakes, support folks who are struggling.

The core value under all of this? Inclusion. Giving more people more pathways to be seen and valued. And helping teams bring out the best in everyone.

We do all that, we get more done and those big hairy missions that usually just sit gathering dust on company websites become living, breathing invitations to make an actual difference in the world.

Sounds pretty good to me.

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Welcome to the DesuckifyWork® podcast. The show where we cut through the BS and find ways to make work more fun, more human and less ridiculous. All of which makes your business more profitable, by the way. This episode is part of the ongoing Prohuman Series in partnership with Prohuman Foundation.

(If you enjoy this one, please like, share, rate, review or subscribe to the podcast.)

Let the desuckifying begin.

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You can follow Neil on LinkedIn. And check out his site at neilghosh.org to learn more about his work and his book. You can also check out his recent Fast Company and CEO World articles.

If you enjoyed the conversation and would like to find some calm in the chaos of work, I invite you to schedule a free half-hour discovery session. Type “meow” in the calendar invite and I’ll also send you a free DesuckifyWork® t-shirt!

Bye, everyone!

Bonus questions from Neil:What is one thing in the current work environment that is worrying you, not just for yourself, but for the next generation?