Create Magic At Work®

Partnership (A Moment of Reflection)

Today’s reflection explores how meaningful partnerships are strengthened through support, trust, and reciprocity. When we become intentional about the relationships surrounding our work, we can create greater harmony while finding a healthier balance between giving and receiving. Start your own journey of reflection, creativity, and intentional growth with the Create Magic at Work Journal or bring the wisdom of the Edgewalker mindset into your daily life with your own copy of the Edgewalker Card Deck. You can find both at https://magicthreadmedia.com/experience

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The Invisible Work of Middle Management | Doug Barna

What happens when the job everyone assumes is becoming obsolete is actually where some of the most human work is happening? Middle managers live between pressure and people. They translate expectations from above, absorb problems before senior leaders ever see them, and help teams move through conflict, uncertainty, and burnout. Much of that work is invisible until it stops happening. Amy and Doug Barna explore what leadership looks like as AI becomes increasingly capable of handling coordination, reporting, and other technical tasks that once defined management. Doug argues that this shift does not make human leadership less important. It exposes the part of leadership technology cannot simply automate: understanding what motivates a particular person, noticing emotion, listening closely, building trust, and staying present when a conversation becomes uncomfortable. The discussion also reframes the skills we often call “soft.” Active listening, social awareness, empathy, and relationship management are not decorative additions to leadership. They are the capacities that allow someone to lead people rather than simply manage information. As technology becomes better at organizing the work, the question becomes more human, not less. Who can still read the room, recognize the person inside the performance, and help people stay connected when pressure pulls them apart? Moments That Create Momentum: The Invisible Work Between the Layers – Explore why middle managers often carry the human side of leadership that others do not see. When AI Removes the Administrative Work – Discover why empathy, trust, and relationship skills may matter even more as technology takes on more technical tasks. People Tell You What Motivates Them – Learn how listening closely to concerns and frustrations can reveal what someone actually needs from their leader. Presence Changes Difficult Conversations – Understand how shifting attention away from your own discomfort can help create more trust and connection. The Skills We Carry Beyond Work – See how stronger listening, awareness, and compassion can influence not only teams, but relationships and communities too. About the Guest: Doug Barna is a Team Building and Leadership Coach with Acclaimed Summit, LLC. With over 20 years of experience as a project leader and people manager, Doug has dedicated over a decade to studying psychology and organizational behavior, honing the soft skills that are crucial for effective leadership. Doug’s not just another coach; he’s the compassionate mentor he wished he had so many years ago, bridging the gap between a scientific mind and an empathetic approach. In this quest for clarity and connection, Doug developed strategies that cut through superficial tactics and dive into the foundational elements that work. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dougbarna/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dougbarna About Amy: Amy Lynn Durham, known by her clients as the Corporate Mystic, is the founder of the Executive Coaching Firm, Create Magic At Work®, where they help leaders build workplaces rooted in creativity, collaboration, and fulfillment. A former corporate executive turned Executive Coach, Amy blends practical leadership strategies with spiritual intelligence to unlock human potential at work. She’s a certified Executive Coach through UC Berkeley & the International Coaching Federation (ICF) In addition, Amy holds coaching certifications in Spiritual Intelligence (SQ21), the Edgewalker Profile, and the Archetypes of Change . In addition to being the host of the Create Magic At Work® podcast, Amy is the author of Create Magic At Work®, Creating Career Magic: A Daily Prompt Journal and the founder of Magic Thread Media™. Through her work, she inspires intentional leadership for thriving workplaces and lives where “magic” becomes reality. Connect with Amy: https://createmagicatwork.net/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/create-magic-at-work https://www.facebook.com/112951637095427 https://www.instagram.com/createmagicatwork https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnEm4h3fUgaq8qgvZpz6dGg Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app. Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you are enjoying the show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.

Self-Awareness (An Edgewalker Message)

Today’s Edgewalker card explores how self-awareness deepens when we become intentional about where we seek inspiration and guidance. By tuning into something beyond ourselves, we create space to better understand our thoughts, values, and the way we move through the world. Start your own journey of reflection, creativity, and intentional growth with the Create Magic at Work Journal or bring the wisdom of the Edgewalker mindset into your daily life with your own copy of the Edgewalker Card Deck. You can find both at https://magicthreadmedia.com/experience

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Break the "I'll Be Happy When" Trap: Building Habits for Inner Peace | Michele Phillips

What if the life you keep working toward is already asking to be noticed? For high achievers, happiness can become conditional. The next promotion. The next revenue goal. The end of the chaotic month. Peace is always waiting somewhere beyond the next finish line, while the finish line keeps moving. Amy Lynn Durham and Michele Phillips explore the emotional cost of conditional happiness, high achiever burnout, and a culture that has normalized running on adrenaline instead of alignment. Michele does not ask ambitious people to stop wanting more. She asks a more uncomfortable question: can you still feel satisfaction with where you are while remaining open to what comes next? Their conversation moves through happiness habits, personal energy, comparison, daily rituals, and the small resets that help leaders return to center when pressure takes over. It also examines the difference between appearing happy and being honest with yourself about what you actually feel. Inner peace is not a permanent destination. Neither is happiness. Both require a relationship with attention, values, and the stories we repeatedly tell ourselves. Maybe the goal is not to stop achieving. Maybe it is to stop requiring the next achievement to prove that this life is finally enough. Moments That Create Momentum: When Happiness Keeps Moving With the Finish Line – Explore how tying fulfillment to the next achievement can leave high performers constantly striving without ever fully arriving. Running on Adrenaline Instead of Alignment – Discover why urgency and pressure can feel productive while quietly disconnecting leaders from their body, values, and internal sense of direction. The Difference Between Looking Fine and Feeling Aligned – Understand why performing happiness for others is different from ignoring your own emotions and disconnecting from what is actually happening inside. A Full Life Is Not a Full Calendar – See how constant activity can become proof of success, while slowing down reveals whether those experiences actually reflect what matters to you. The Story You Repeat Becomes the Outcome You Expect – Hear how changing the language you use about yourself can shift attention from old limitations toward more conscious possibilities. About the Guest: Michele Phillips is a celebrated leadership coach, keynote speaker, and author of two books, the award-winning Happiness is a Habit - Simple Daily Rituals that Increase Energy, Improve Wellbeing and Add Joy to Every Day, and her brand new book, Energize Your Happiness - Tap into Your Personal Energy and Shape Your Destiny. This transformative new book blends neuroscience, behavioral psychology, and spiritual wisdom to help people elevate their energy and shape their destiny. With more than 25 years of experience working with Fortune 500 companies, Michele has inspired thousands to create motivating beliefs, powerful habits, and lives filled with purpose. She is the founder of Key Performance, a sought-after consultant known for her “Write Your Outcome” methodology, and host of the podcast by the same name. Michele has a Master's degree from Fordham University in Organizational Development, and is a certified practitioner of Positive Psychology and emotional intelligence. She wrote Energize Your Happiness to help people build the energy for change. She hosts Write Your Outcome podcast to help people raise their consciousness. She works with organizations to create more conscious leaders and individual contributors. https://www.linkedin.com/in/michele-phillips-9409707 https://www.instagram.com https://www.facebook.com/Happinessisahabitaway

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Finances (A Moment of Reflection)

Today’s reflection explores how financial success can grow from intentional decisions, thoughtful leadership, and clearly defined goals. By considering where we direct our support and attention, we create space for greater confidence and possibility around our finances. Start your own journey of reflection, creativity, and intentional growth with the Create Magic at Work Journal or bring the wisdom of the Edgewalker mindset into your daily life with your own copy of the Edgewalker Card Deck. You can find both at https://magicthreadmedia.com/experience

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The Unpaid Caregiver Crisis: The Hard Truth Workplaces and Families Ignore | Monica Vest Wheeler

What happens when taking care of someone else slowly requires you to disappear from your own life? Family caregiving rarely arrives according to plan. A diagnosis changes. A parent declines. A spouse becomes dependent. Roles reverse, schedules collapse, and someone quietly becomes responsible for another human being twenty-four hours a day. Amy and Monica Vest Wheeler explore the realities behind caregiver burnout, unpaid caregiving responsibilities, and the pressure to keep performing at work while privately carrying grief, medical decisions, and exhaustion. For many working caregivers, the strain is not only emotional. It can affect income, career stability, health, and the ability to remain in the workforce at all. Monica challenges the assumption that families should simply absorb this responsibility without consequence. The conversation turns toward workplace support for caregivers, the limitations of rigid bereavement and leave policies, and why flexible work for caregivers can be an act of both humanity and good leadership. Support can also begin closer to home. Another family member learns the care routine. Someone finally says what is really happening. A caregiver stops answering “fine” and allows another person to help carry the weight. Caregiving can be an expression of extraordinary love. But love does not make a person limitless. Sustainable care requires us to protect the life of the person receiving care without sacrificing the life of the person providing it. Moments That Create Momentum: When the Caregiver Becomes Invisible – Explore how responsibility for another person can consume so much emotional and physical energy that the caregiver’s own needs quietly disappear. The Workplace Mask Caregivers Learn to Wear – Understand why employees may appear composed and productive while privately managing grief, medical crises, and round-the-clock caregiving responsibilities. Why Flexibility Is More Than an Employee Perk – Discover how small adjustments to schedules or work location can help organizations retain experienced employees instead of losing them to caregiving demands. The Cost of Keeping Caregiving a Family Secret – See how shame, privacy, and poor communication can leave one person carrying responsibilities that could be shared across family, friends, and community. Your Life Is Just as Worthy as the Person You’re Caring For – Hear why caregiving cannot require complete self-erasure, and how protecting the caregiver may ultimately protect the person receiving care too. About the Guest: Monica Vest Wheeler speaks with heart, humor, and hard-earned wisdom, helping caregivers, families, and communities navigate some of life’s most difficult moments. Her work is rooted in lived experience, including hundreds of interviews, volunteer work at more than 180 stroke and brain injury camps nationwide, facilitating hundreds of support and discussion groups, personal caregiving journeys, and her own openness about mental health. She has written more than a dozen books on Peoria, Illinois, history, along with five books exploring health, grief, and the emotional realities families face during catastrophic life events. As a writer and presenter, Monica is unafraid to address the questions many people avoid. She brings truth, warmth, humor, and practical clarity to conversations about caregiving, grief, communication, and emotional survival. Her work gives caregivers permission to ask for help without shame, encourages patients and survivors to express what they are experiencing, and reinforces one of the lessons she has seen repeatedly: families who communicate are more likely to stay connected through crisis rather than fall apart. https://www.monicavestwheeler.com https://www.facebook.com/monicavestwheeler https://www.linkedin.com/in/monicavestwheeler/ About Amy: Amy Lynn Durham, known by her clients as the Corporate Mystic, is the founder of the Executive Coaching Firm, Create Magic At Work®, where they help leaders build workplaces rooted in creativity, collaboration, and fulfillment. A former corporate executive turned Executive Coach, Amy blends practical leadership strategies with spiritual intelligence to unlock human potential at work. She’s a certified Executive Coach through UC Berkeley & the International Coaching Federation (ICF) In addition, Amy holds coaching certifications in Spiritual Intelligence (SQ21), the Edgewalker Profile, and the Archetypes of Change . In addition to being the host of the Create Magic At Work® podcast, Amy is the author of Create Magic At Work®, Creating Career Magic: A Daily Prompt Journal and the founder of Magic Thread Media™. Through her work, she inspires intentional leadership for thriving workplaces and lives where “magic” becomes reality. Connect with Amy: https://createmagicatwork.net/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/create-magic-at-work https://www.facebook.com/112951637095427 https://www.instagram.com/createmagicatwork https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnEm4h3fUgaq8qgvZpz6dGg Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app. Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you are enjoying the show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.

The Spark Sessions: Sorry, You Have to Be Yourself - The Courage to Create

What if courage in creativity has nothing to do with feeling brave and everything to do with being willing to be unmistakably yourself? In this latest episode of The Spark Sessions: Resourcing for Creativity, Rachel begins with a song she did not want to write. After forcing herself through three lifeless love songs, she finally surrendered to the one that felt too personal, too strange, and too exposing. It became the work that carried the most truth. That experience opens a deeper exploration of creative courage, one of the five essential resources for creativity. Rachel challenges the belief that we need confidence before we create, reframing courage as the fortitude to make what is ours even when self-doubt is loud. She offers a surprising way to relate to the inner critic, not as proof that the work is wrong, but as a possible sign that something meaningful is at stake. From there, perfectionism comes into focus as another subtle force that can make creativity smaller, safer, and less alive. With reflections on identity, risk, mistakes, and creative relationships, this episode asks a more intimate question: what becomes possible when we stop trying to make the right thing and give ourselves permission to make the thing that is truly ours? Ready to discover your unique creative landscape? Download the Muzi app at http://itunes.apple.com/app/id6739667782 to take the Creativity Assessment, and uncover your Spark profile. Then email your Spark to Rachel at rachel@rachelefron.com for a chance at a Spark Reading, where Rachel will offer personalized insight into what your creativity most needs from you right now. Sparks of Insight: Creative courage is not confidence. It is the willingness to make what is yours, even when you feel uncertain, exposed, or afraid. The song Rachel did not want to write, and what finally surrendering to it revealed about the work that carries real creative urgency. Your inner critic may become loudest when the work actually matters. A different way to understand the voice that tells you to pull back. Perfection can quietly eclipse artistry. When avoiding mistakes becomes the goal, creativity begins to lose its risk, play, and aliveness. A creative courage practice designed to reconnect you with what is uniquely yours to make, including the quirks, experiences, and perspectives only you can bring. About Rachel: Rachel Efron is an Oakland-based songwriter, producer, and creativity coach. She's released four full-length albums of original songs, plus written for such legends as Narada Michael Walden and Journey. Rachel is a premier songwriting coach for songwriters across the world, and has over fifteen years experience helping artists, leaders, and teams find their voice. In 2022, Rachel turned her methods into a comprehensive framework and groundbreaking app, Muzi, to help everyone —artists and non-artists alike—access greater creativity in their lives. email: rachel@rachelefron.com website: https://www.rachelefron.com/creativity-coach-1 Download the Muzi app at http://itunes.apple.com/app/id6739667782 Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app. Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you are enjoying the show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.

Sensing The Future (An Edgewalker Message)

Today’s Edgewalker card explores how the future is shaped by more than careful planning alone. When we remain open to both practical insight and intuitive guidance, we begin to recognize possibilities that invite us to create what has not yet come into view. Start your own journey of reflection, creativity, and intentional growth with the Create Magic at Work Journal or bring the wisdom of the Edgewalker mindset into your daily life with your own copy of the Edgewalker Card Deck. You can find both at https://magicthreadmedia.com/experience

Success (A Moment of Reflection)

Today’s reflection explores how success becomes more meaningful when we define it for ourselves. By celebrating our achievements and welcoming abundance in all its forms, we create space for a life that feels both fulfilling and deeply aligned. Start your own journey of reflection, creativity, and intentional growth with the Create Magic at Work Journal or bring the wisdom of the Edgewalker mindset into your daily life with your own copy of the Edgewalker Card Deck. You can find both at https://magicthreadmedia.com/experience

Soul Weary: When the Work You Love Starts Draining You | Margaret Benefiel, Ph.D & Margie Buchanan-Smith

What happens when work rooted in service slowly disconnects you from the very values that called you to it? For leaders working inside humanitarian crises, nonprofits, healthcare, education, business, and other demanding systems, exhaustion can become more than physical. Margie Buchanan-Smith calls it “soul weary,” the feeling of dragging yourself from one demand to the next while losing contact with purpose. Amy, Margie, and Dr. Margaret Benefiel, explore what it takes to stay human when need is immense, resources are shrinking, and systems increasingly reward compliance, metrics, and upward accountability. Margie brings the reality of decades in humanitarian leadership. Margaret brings a spiritual lens to organizational life, asking how leaders can draw on inner resources when systemic dysfunction cannot simply be worked around. Replenishment emerges not as escape from responsibility, but as part of how responsibility is sustained. So do values alignment, contemplative practice, community, and the willingness to take thoughtful risks. The work does not become less urgent when a leader pauses. Sometimes the pause restores the ability to see clearly. A breath, five quiet minutes, or an honest question about whose rules we are following can reconnect leadership with the people, purpose, and inner knowing that made the work matter in the first place. Moments That Create Momentum: When Compliance Pulls Leaders Away From Purpose – Explore how an intense focus on reporting, accountability, and organizational requirements can disconnect leaders from the people they serve and the values that brought them to the work. What It Means to Become Soul Weary – Understand how sustained pressure in purpose-driven work can slowly deplete a leader’s inner resources, and why burnout can become a signal that something deeper needs attention. Leading From the Inside Out – Discover why creating even a few minutes of space for reflection can help leaders reconnect with their values, balance soul and ego, and respond from a more grounded place. When Success Measures Lose the Human Being – See how an overreliance on metrics, bureaucracy, and traditional definitions of success can obscure the well-being of both leaders and the people their organizations exist to serve. The Difference Between Thoughtful Risk and Recklessness – Hear why trying to eliminate uncertainty can keep leaders trapped in old ways of working, while carefully judged risks create space for new possibilities to emerge. Learn about The Soul of Leadership experience here: https://www.executivesoul.com/soulofleadership.html About the Guests: Margaret Benefiel, Ph.D., founder and CEO of Executive Soul, directs the Soul of Leadership program, which has been offered on four continents over the past 14 years. Over 3,000 executives, managers, and other leaders have participated in her seminars and programs. She has served as Chair of the Academy of Management's Management, Spirituality, and Religion Group, and is currently Vice President of the Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality. She served as Executive Director of the Shalem Institute for over 10 years, has served as Co-chair of the Christian Spirituality Program Unit of the American Academy of Religion, and has held various leadership roles in Spiritual Directors International. Author of Soul at Work, The Soul of a Leader, and Crisis Leadership, and co-editor of The Soul of Supervision, The Soul of Higher Education, Soul Food, and Hidden in Plain Sight, Dr. Benefiel has also written for The Leadership Quarterly, Management Communication Quarterly, Managerial Finance, Journal of Organizational Change Management, Organization, Personal Excellence, Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, America, Presence, The Way, Studies in Spirituality, Radical Grace, and Faith at Work. She lives with her husband in Greenbelt, MD. and enjoys hiking, cycling, reading novels, and scuba diving in her free time. https://www.facebook.com/people/Executive-Soul/100057597423603/# https://x.com/executivesoul https://executivesoulblog.wordpress.com/ https://www.pinterest.com/executivesoul/ Margie Buchanan-Smith has been working in a range of different leadership roles in the humanitarian aid sector for over 30 years, with a current focus on the crisis in Sudan. She has conducted and published research on models of excellence in value-driven humanitarian leadership across the globe. She co-facilitates the Soul of Leadership programme in the UK with Margaret Benefiel. Margie works as an independent consultant, facilitator and coach. As a well-published policy researcher, she is a Senior Research Associate with ODI Global, a Visiting Fellow at the Feinstein Center of Tufts University, and a Fellow of the Rift Valley Institute. https://www.linkedin.com/in/margie-buchanan-smith-2905a01/ About Amy: Amy Lynn Durham, known by her clients as the Corporate Mystic, is the founder of the Executive Coaching Firm, Create Magic At Work®, where they help leaders build workplaces rooted in creativity, collaboration, and fulfillment. A former corporate executive turned Executive Coach, Amy blends practical leadership strategies with spiritual intelligence to unlock human potential at work. She’s a certified Executive Coach through UC Berkeley & the International Coaching Federation (ICF) In addition, Amy holds coaching certifications in Spiritual Intelligence (SQ21), the Edgewalker Profile, and the Archetypes of Change . In addition to being the host of the Create Magic At Work® podcast, Amy is the author of Create Magic At Work®, Creating Career Magic: A Daily Prompt Journal and the founder of Magic Thread Media™. Through her work, she inspires intentional leadership for thriving workplaces and lives where “magic” becomes reality. Connect with Amy: https://createmagicatwork.net/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/create-magic-at-work https://www.facebook.com/112951637095427 https://www.instagram.com/createmagicatwork https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnEm4h3fUgaq8qgvZpz6dGg Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app. Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you are enjoying the show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.

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Playfulness (An Edgewalker Message)

Today’s Edgewalker card explores how playfulness is more than a moment of escape. It is a way of approaching life with curiosity, creativity, and perspective, allowing lightness to open possibilities that seriousness alone often cannot. Start your own journey of reflection, creativity, and intentional growth with the Create Magic at Work Journal or bring the wisdom of the Edgewalker mindset into your daily life with your own copy of the Edgewalker Card Deck. You can find both at https://magicthreadmedia.com/experience

Reclaiming Modern Masculinity: How High-Performing Men Are Healing in Secret | Pat Smith

Why do successful men still struggle with burnout, anger, disconnection, and feeling unfulfilled? Amy sits down with men’s high performance coach Pat Smith to explore why professional achievement, physical fitness, and financial success do not necessarily create emotional well-being. Pat shares why many business problems are actually personal patterns showing up at work, and how perfectionism, grief, shame, pressure, and survival strategies can quietly shape the way men lead. Together they explore emotional intelligence for men, the shift from positional power to relational leadership, and why emotional awareness can become a form of strength rather than weakness. The conversation moves through high performance without burnout, emotional regulation at work, psychological safety, masculine identity, accountability, vulnerability, and the importance of creating spaces where men can speak honestly without blame or shame. By the end, what emerges is a broader definition of strength. Sustainable success is not about having everything under control. It is about developing the self-awareness, emotional ownership, and relational capacity to lead yourself and others with greater trust, connection, and resilience. Moments That Create Momentum: 1. When Business Problems Are Really Personal Problems – Explore how perfectionism, performance anxiety, and unresolved experiences can follow leaders into the workplace disguised as professional challenges. 2. The Shift From Positional Power to Relational Leadership – Discover why getting results through hierarchy and authority can create disconnection, while relationships, trust, and emotional intelligence strengthen leadership. 3. The Leadership Mask That Becomes Exhausting to Wear – Understand why trying to appear as though you have everything together can drain leaders and keep their teams from experiencing who they really are. 4. What Emotional Strength Actually Looks Like – Hear why accessing sadness, fear, frustration, and other emotions is not weakness, and how learning to move through them can build resilience. 5. Taking Back the Reins of Your Emotional Life – See how changing language from blame to ownership can help leaders stop giving other people and circumstances control over how they think, feel, and respond. About the Guest: Pat Smith is a men’s high performance coach who helps men become wildly successful professionally without losing themselves in the process. Over the past four years, he’s coached Fortune 500 executives, pro athletes, celebrity actors, business owners, top sales professionals, and men in many other leadership roles. His work is shaped by his own background in corporate sales with Fortune 1000 companies, along with his continued education under Dr. Joe Dispenza during his time as a corporate trainer for NeuroChangeSolutions. IG - https://www.instagram.com/patsmithwellness/ LI - https://www.linkedin.com/in/patsmithwellness/ Skool - https://www.skool.com/success-squad/about About Amy: Amy Lynn Durham, known by her clients as the Corporate Mystic, is the founder of the Executive Coaching Firm, Create Magic At Work®, where they help leaders build workplaces rooted in creativity, collaboration, and fulfillment. A former corporate executive turned Executive Coach, Amy blends practical leadership strategies with spiritual intelligence to unlock human potential at work. She’s a certified Executive Coach through UC Berkeley & the International Coaching Federation (ICF) In addition, Amy holds coaching certifications in Spiritual Intelligence (SQ21), the Edgewalker Profile, and the Archetypes of Change . In addition to being the host of the Create Magic At Work® podcast, Amy is the author of Create Magic At Work®, Creating Career Magic: A Daily Prompt Journal and the founder of Magic Thread Media™. Through her work, she inspires intentional leadership for thriving workplaces and lives where “magic” becomes reality. Connect with Amy: https://createmagicatwork.net/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/create-magic-at-work https://www.facebook.com/112951637095427 https://www.instagram.com/createmagicatwork https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnEm4h3fUgaq8qgvZpz6dGg Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app. Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you are enjoying the show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.

• Transcript

Productivity (A Moment of Reflection)

Today’s reflection explores how productivity is about more than accomplishing tasks. When we celebrate the achievements of others and prioritize work that brings us energy and purpose, productivity becomes a source of fulfillment rather than obligation. Start your own journey of reflection, creativity, and intentional growth with the Create Magic at Work Journal or bring the wisdom of the Edgewalker mindset into your daily life with your own copy of the Edgewalker Card Deck. You can find both at https://magicthreadmedia.com/experience

Learning to Trust Your Inner Yes: Why Success Without Alignment Leaves You Feeling Empty | Chelsea Szabo

Why do high achievers still feel unfulfilled after reaching their goals? Amy sits down with executive coach and founder of Personal Energy First, Chelsea Szabo, to explore why professional success does not always create the fulfillment people expect. Chelsea explains how external expectations, learned definitions of success, and constant achievement can disconnect people from the internal signals that reveal what genuinely feels aligned. Together they unpack how body awareness can help you recognize a true yes or no, why fear can sometimes be mistaken for intuition, and how small daily decisions can rebuild trust in yourself. The conversation moves through personal energy, burnout, workplace pressure, higher-self leadership, and the difference between pursuing a goal because it is meaningful and pursuing it because you have been conditioned to believe it should matter. By the end, what emerges is a grounded reminder: when success feels empty, the answer may not be another goal. It may be learning how to recognize what your body, energy, and inner wisdom have been telling you all along. Moments That Create Momentum: 1. The Success That Leaves You Feeling Empty – Explore why external achievement can still leave you disconnected when it isn't aligned with what truly matters to you. 2. Learning the Language of Your Body – Discover how recognizing your body's natural "yes" and "no" signals can lead to more confident, aligned decisions. 3. When Fear Sounds Like Wisdom – Understand how to distinguish protective patterns from the deeper guidance that supports personal growth. 4. Alignment Happens One Decision at a Time – See why meaningful change often begins with the smallest choices to honor your needs throughout the day. 5. The Most Inspiring Thing You Can Do Is Be Yourself – Hear why authentic presence often creates a greater impact than striving to impress or perform. About the Guest: Chelsea Szabo is an executive coach, speaker, and founder of Personal Energy First. Drawing on more than 15 years of corporate coaching and training experience, she helps high achievers and leaders manage stress, reconnect with their personal energy, and lead with greater clarity, purpose, and resilience. Chelsea is also a certified Energy Leadership Index™ master practitioner, Reiki Master, ThetaHealing® practitioner, and breathwork guide. https://www.personalenergyfirst.com/ About Amy: Amy Lynn Durham, known by her clients as the Corporate Mystic, is the founder of the Executive Coaching Firm, Create Magic At Work®, where they help leaders build workplaces rooted in creativity, collaboration, and fulfillment. A former corporate executive turned Executive Coach, Amy blends practical leadership strategies with spiritual intelligence to unlock human potential at work. She’s a certified Executive Coach through UC Berkeley & the International Coaching Federation (ICF) In addition, Amy holds coaching certifications in Spiritual Intelligence (SQ21), the Edgewalker Profile, and the Archetypes of Change . In addition to being the host of the Create Magic At Work® podcast, Amy is the author of Create Magic At Work®, Creating Career Magic: A Daily Prompt Journal and the founder of Magic Thread Media™. Through her work, she inspires intentional leadership for thriving workplaces and lives where “magic” becomes reality. Connect with Amy: https://createmagicatwork.net/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/create-magic-at-work https://www.facebook.com/112951637095427 https://www.instagram.com/createmagicatwork https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnEm4h3fUgaq8qgvZpz6dGg Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app. Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you are enjoying the show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.

The Spark Sessions: You Aren't Blocked (My Creativity on Fire)

Creative block feels eminently real: it feels like some magical channel closes and our creative ideas are nowhere to be found. But creative block is nothing more than a very tempting illusion. Really creativity is our natural state. When we aren’t creating, it means only that our creativity needs something from us. In this installment of The Spark Sessions: Resourcing for Creativity, creativity coach Rachel Efron explores what happened when the most creatively alive season of her life was interrupted by a devastating fire in her home. For the first time in her life, she felt creativity blocked. But rather than surrender she tried using her own methods on herself. She asked herself what she asks whenever someone comes to her blocked: what is the missing resource for creativity to come back online? In her case, it was rest. And once she rested, she started creating again. Through her own story, a client’s struggle with self-doubt, and an abridged creativity assessment, Rachel invites listeners to consider what their creativity may be asking of them now. At its heart, this episode reframes creative block not as an ending, but as a sign: that our creativity needs something from us. Ready to discover your unique creative landscape? Download the Muzi app at http://itunes.apple.com/app/id6739667782 to take the Creativity Assessment, and uncover your Spark profile. Then email your Spark to Rachel at rachel@rachelefron.com for a chance at a Spark Reading, where Rachel will offer personalized insight into what your creativity most needs from you right now. Sparks of Insight: Creative block is a tempting illusion. The feeling of creative block means only that your creativity needs something from you. What Rachel’s experience after the fire reveals about the creative work involved in rebuilding a life. The five resources necessary for creativity , and how depletion in even one can quietly interrupt creative flow. Rest is more than recovery. Rest is how we clear space in our minds and hearts for new creative ideas. An abridged creativity assessment to help you recognize what is helping and hindering your creative process. About Rachel: Rachel Efron is an Oakland-based songwriter, producer, and creativity coach. She's released four full-length albums of original songs, plus written for such legends as Narada Michael Walden and Journey. Rachel is a premier songwriting coach for songwriters across the world, and has over fifteen years experience helping artists, leaders, and teams find their voice. In 2022, Rachel turned her methods into a comprehensive framework and groundbreaking app, Muzi, to help everyone —artists and non-artists alike—access greater creativity in their lives. email: rachel@rachelefron.com website: https://www.rachelefron.com/creativity-coach-1 Download the Muzi app at http://itunes.apple.com/app/id6739667782 Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app. Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you are enjoying the show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.

Self-Awareness (An Edgewalker Message)

Today’s Edgewalker card explores how self-awareness deepens when we intentionally create space to listen beyond our own thoughts. Reflection becomes more than looking inward. It becomes an invitation to receive guidance, ask meaningful questions, and trust the wisdom that quietly emerges. Start your own journey of reflection, creativity, and intentional growth with the Create Magic at Work Journal or bring the wisdom of the Edgewalker mindset into your daily life with your own copy of the Edgewalker Card Deck. You can find both at https://magicthreadmedia.com/experience

Expansion (A Moment of Reflection)

Today’s reflection explores how growth begins by recognizing the strengths that already exist within us. When we value our unique gifts and use them with confidence, we create opportunities that expand both our careers and our sense of purpose. Bring the wisdom of the Edgewalker mindset into your daily life with your own copy of the Edgewalker Card Deck: https://createmagicatwork.net/shop/ols/products/the-edgewalker-card-deck Start your own journey of reflection, creativity, and intentional growth with the Create Magic at Work Journal: https://a.co/d/06N0Hypc

One Diagnosis Away: Why Healthcare Is Failing the Middle Class with Adam Cunningham

What happens when the system designed to care for you requires you to become your own advocate, negotiator, researcher, and risk manager? For millions of people, illness is no longer only a physical crisis. It is a financial and emotional one, intensified by opaque prices, delayed treatment, insurance denials, and the quiet fear that help may never arrive. Amy and Adam Cunningham explore the human cost of a healthcare system that often leaves patients and families navigating alone. Adam’s work with Sylk Health began with a friend’s suffering and grew into a larger question: what changes when people can see real prices, compare international options, and act before waiting becomes deterioration? Their conversation reaches beyond medical tourism or employee benefits. It asks what responsibility looks like when institutions become difficult to trust. For individuals, that may mean seeking a patient advocate or looking beyond familiar systems. For employers, it may mean treating affordable care as a human obligation rather than an expense to absorb without question. Sometimes agency does not arrive as confidence. It begins with the quiet recognition that waiting is also a choice. When people can see their options clearly, they are no longer only reacting to a system. They are participating in the future of their own care. Moments That Create Momentum: The “You’re on Your Own” Threshold: Why accepting that the system may not rescue you can be the first step toward reclaiming control of your care. The Navigation Trap: How years spent waiting, appealing, and decoding healthcare bureaucracy can quietly become part of the harm itself. The Price Blindness Machine: Why medical costs remain hidden until after treatment, and how that secrecy keeps patients powerless when they are most vulnerable. The Credible Threat: How simply having a legitimate international healthcare option can force domestic providers to reconsider prices, even when no one gets on a plane. The Employer Accountability Question: Why offering health insurance is not the same as protecting employees, and what responsible leadership demands when care becomes financially destructive. About the Guest: Adam Cunningham is the lead founder of Sylk Health, a company providing direct access to accredited international hospitals and freely publishing healthcare prices. https://sylkhealth.com/ About Amy: Amy Lynn Durham, known by her clients as the Corporate Mystic, is the founder of the Executive Coaching Firm, Create Magic At Work®, where they help leaders build workplaces rooted in creativity, collaboration, and fulfillment. A former corporate executive turned Executive Coach, Amy blends practical leadership strategies with spiritual intelligence to unlock human potential at work. She’s a certified Executive Coach through UC Berkeley & the International Coaching Federation (ICF) In addition, Amy holds coaching certifications in Spiritual Intelligence (SQ21), the Edgewalker Profile, and the Archetypes of Change . In addition to being the host of the Create Magic At Work® podcast, Amy is the author of Create Magic At Work®, Creating Career Magic: A Daily Prompt Journal and the founder of Magic Thread Media™. Through her work, she inspires intentional leadership for thriving workplaces and lives where “magic” becomes reality. Connect with Amy: https://createmagicatwork.net/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/create-magic-at-work https://www.facebook.com/112951637095427 https://www.instagram.com/createmagicatwork https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnEm4h3fUgaq8qgvZpz6dGg Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app. Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you are enjoying the show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.

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Risk-Taking (An Edgewalker Message)

Today’s Edgewalker card explores how meaningful growth often begins with the willingness to trust what cannot yet be proven. Risk-taking is less about certainty than having the courage to follow your inner knowing, even when the path ahead has not been walked before. Start your own journey of reflection, creativity, and intentional growth with the Create Magic at Work Journal or bring the wisdom of the Edgewalker mindset into your daily life with your own copy of the Edgewalker Card Deck. You can find both at https://magicthreadmedia.com/experience

The Neuroscience of Spiritual Intelligence | Dr. Dawson Church

What if the greatest shift in how you lead, work, and live isn't about learning another skill, but about changing the way your brain experiences the world? Amy sits down with Dr. Dawson Church, award-winning science writer, researcher, and author of Spiritual Intelligence, to explore the growing body of neuroscience revealing that emotional regulation, attention, compassion, and presence are not fixed personality traits. They are trainable capacities that reshape the brain over time. For years, spirituality has often been dismissed as something personal, abstract, or impossible to measure. Dawson challenges that assumption by sharing the research behind the four neural circuits that support spiritual intelligence and why strengthening them can transform everything from workplace performance to relationships and overall wellbeing. Together, Amy and Dawson also unpack why traditional meditation doesn't work for everyone, how evidence-based practices like EFT tapping and Eco Meditation accelerate change, and why cultivating inner awareness may be one of the most practical leadership skills available today. If you've ever wondered whether there's a science behind feeling calmer under pressure, responding with greater compassion, or unlocking more creativity without pushing harder, this conversation offers a compelling new perspective on what becomes possible when we intentionally train the brain that shapes every experience of our lives. Download your free copy of Dr. Dawson Church’s The EFT Mini-Manual and bonus EcoMeditation at https://dawsongift.com/ Moments That Create Momentum: The Brain You Practice Becomes the Life You Experience: Discover why spiritual intelligence isn't a personality trait you're born with, but a set of neural pathways you can intentionally strengthen. The Four Circuits Behind Calm Under Pressure: Explore how emotional regulation, attention, compassion, and self-awareness shape the way you lead, respond, and connect long before a stressful moment arrives. Why Meditation Doesn't Work for Everyone: Learn why quieting your mind isn't the goal, and how science-backed practices can make inner transformation more accessible. Performance Begins Long Before Productivity: Understand why your greatest breakthroughs may come from changing your internal state instead of pushing yourself to work harder. Training the Brain for Something Bigger Than Success: See how developing spiritual intelligence can shift not only how you perform at work, but how you experience your relationships, purpose, and everyday life. About the Guest: Dr. Dawson Church is an award-winning science writer, researcher, and bestselling author whose work explores the intersection of neuroscience, psychology, and human potential. Through more than 100 published clinical studies and collaborations with researchers from institutions including Harvard Medical School, Duke, Emory, and Columbia, his research has examined how meditation, emotional regulation, and self-transcendent experiences can reshape the brain and improve wellbeing. He is the author of The Genie in Your Genes, Mind to Matter, Bliss Brain, and Spiritual Intelligence. Beyond his research and writing, Dawson is the founder of the National Institute for Integrative Healthcare and the Veterans Stress Solution, a nonprofit initiative that has provided free PTSD treatment to more than 22,000 veterans and their family members. He also developed EcoMeditation, an evidence-based practice designed to make meditation accessible to beginners, and continues to share research-backed approaches that help people reduce stress, cultivate resilience, and unlock their full potential. https://dawsonchurch.com/ https://www.facebook.com/dawsonchurch https://www.youtube.com/@EftuniverseEFT https://twitter.com/EFTUniverse https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawson-church-68b4a8/ https://www.instagram.com/theeftuniverse/ About Amy: Amy Lynn Durham, known by her clients as the Corporate Mystic, is the founder of the Executive Coaching Firm, Create Magic At Work®, where they help leaders build workplaces rooted in creativity, collaboration, and fulfillment. A former corporate executive turned Executive Coach, Amy blends practical leadership strategies with spiritual intelligence to unlock human potential at work. She’s a certified Executive Coach through UC Berkeley & the International Coaching Federation (ICF) In addition, Amy holds coaching certifications in Spiritual Intelligence (SQ21), the Edgewalker Profile, and the Archetypes of Change . In addition to being the host of the Create Magic At Work® podcast, Amy is the author of Create Magic At Work®, Creating Career Magic: A Daily Prompt Journal and the founder of Magic Thread Media™. Through her work, she inspires intentional leadership for thriving workplaces and lives where “magic” becomes reality. Connect with Amy: https://createmagicatwork.net/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/create-magic-at-work https://www.facebook.com/112951637095427 https://www.instagram.com/createmagicatwork https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnEm4h3fUgaq8qgvZpz6dGg Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app. Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you are enjoying the show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.

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