Doug Ward spent 24 years at Comcast, ending as VP of Support Excellence. In this episode he tells on himself. He shares the project where his intent was to help and the signal he left behind was "put your car on my track."

What you'll learn:
• Why people judge you on behavior while you judge yourself on intent
• The one question that would have saved his project
• How to find out what people say when you leave the room
• How to ask for real feedback from someone who does not want to give it
• When a team member has a voice and when they have a vote

Chapters
0:00 Who are you outside your job
2:18 From a call center job to leading 4,000 people
5:06 The gap between intent and behavior
6:36 The story: balloons, t-shirts, and broken trust
10:19 What he would do differently
11:18 How to learn someone else's intent
12:38 Every interaction leaves a trace
14:48 Your reputation is your brand
15:22 What do people say when you are not in the room
17:06 Honest does not mean pleasing
18:05 The questions that close the gap
19:48 Everyone has a voice. Not everyone has a vote.
21:48 One thing you can do this week

Connect with Doug
Website: elevatingeveryone.com
Free one-sheeter from this episode: https://elevatingeveryone.com/soul-sessions

High-achieving men, leaders, pro athletes, and founders often look great on the outside. But at home, many are struggling in silence. Therapist and coach Sulonda Smith joins the show to talk about the real cost of provider pressure, why men have a hard time asking for what they need, and how to build better communication without feeling weak. This one is for the man who wants peace at home as much as he wants success at work.

Dan Smitley got laid off by someone he called a friend. Then he caught himself coaching her on how to do it better.

This Soul Session is about the inflection point that does not come with a clean ending. Dan has been laid off twice, both times by people close to him. The second time, an accidental screen-share showed him what they really thought.

We get into:
- Why the layoff is the easy part, and the chaos after is the real work
- The "five whys" Dan uses to find his core when everything is uncertain
- Separating how you make money from how you add value to people
- Why faith and family drive every decision he makes
- The cost of being the guy who always helps, even when he is the one who needs it

At 21, Tiffany Chen turned down a six figure Wall Street offer on the spot, with no plan for what came next. Six years later, deep inside a fast moving AI startup that looked perfect on paper, she found herself asking the same quiet question: what are we all actually doing here?

In this Soul Sessions, Tiffany walks Damon through two leaps of faith that shaped her life and the inner compass that made both possible. They get into the golden handcuffs that keep high performers stuck, the immigrant household where security came first, the role her Christian faith plays as a compass, and the ten year journaling practice she uses to check in with herself every six months.

This is a conversation about the difference between climbing a ladder and choosing your own direction, and about answering the one question most people in privileged positions never stop to ask: how much is enough?

No bow on the end. Just an honest look at what it costs to bet on yourself.

You already know what's not working. The job, the habit, the relationship, the version of yourself you've outgrown. So why is it so hard to release it?

In this episode of Soul Sessions, Damon sits down with Stephanie Coleman to unpack the uncomfortable truth most people miss: you don't hold onto things that have no value. If you can't let go, it's because something in there is still paying you back, just not in the currency you'd admit out loud.

Inside this conversation:

• The hidden payoff that keeps you stuck in familiar pain • Why your nervous system reads "toxic but known" as safer than "better but unknown" • The single question that exposes what you're actually getting from the thing you say you want to release • How to tell the difference between a season worth protecting and one you've already outgrown

If you've been white-knuckling a chapter that's clearly over, this one is for you.

Connect with Stephanie: stephaniecoleman.com

There's a museum 15 minutes from my house. I told my wife I wanted to go for four years. This weekend, I finally went.

It wasn't what I thought it would be.

In this solo Soul Session, I'm sitting with something that's been on my mind. Why does the idea of a thing so often feel better than the actual thing? The relationship we imagine. The vacation we plan. The job in tech we chase. The buildup carries a kind of magic that the reality rarely matches.

I unpack a simple framework I keep coming back to. Disappointment is the gap between expectation and reality. The bigger the gap, the bigger the letdown. And most of us are walking around with expectations sitting way above what life is going to deliver.

A few things I'd love for you to sit with after listening: What is something you've been anticipating for years that you still haven't done? If you finally did it, would the reality match the version living in your head? And where in your life right now might the idea be the best part?

If this sparks one honest conversation with someone you trust today, it did its job.

Subscribe for more Soul Sessions, where we talk about the things underneath the things.

#SoulSessions #Mindset #Expectations #PersonalGrowth #Anticipation

Imran Syed sold a company that had been around for over a decade. He fought to keep the deal alive, became CEO to bring it back from the brink, and when it finally closed he turned to his wife, said "I did it," and cried.

Then he looked up and saw the next mountain.

In this episode of Soul Sessions, Imran takes us through the inflection points that shaped him. Switching five schools in five years as his family migrated from Saudi Arabia to Canada. Learning at ten years old that the only constant is the person in the mirror. Watching soccer from the sidelines as the only kid who looked like him, and holding onto it as the one thing that felt like home.

We talk about what it really feels like to go from leading 150 people to leading no one, why he runs toward the things that scare him, and the idea that quietly reframes everything: there is no mountaintop. No nirvana. No end state. Just movement, and the choice to be at peace with it.

If you are in an uncertain season, this one is for you.

Guest: Imran Syed, founder of Hatchproof, building a new way to think about performance and the whole human at work.

Soul Sessions explores the inflection points that shape who we become. New episodes this season focus on curiosity and the people who keep showing up through uncertainty.

Most leadership advice tells you what good looks like. Almost none of it tells you how to access it when your body is in survival mode.

In this Soul Sessions Live, I sit down with Ann De Passos and Kim, two leadership coaches who have spent over fifteen years working with leaders, teams, and organizations through change. We get into:

• Why frameworks like the Five Dysfunctions and psychological safety stop short
• What's actually happening in your body during a big transition (layoff, new baby, career pivot, move)
• The difference between a ventral state and a survival state, and how to tell which one you're in
• Three practices you can start in the next 45 minutes to make better decisions under uncertainty
• Why urgency feels like productivity, and what it's actually costing you

If you're in the middle of a transition right now, or you're leading people who are, this one is for you.

Their experience session is linked in the comments for anyone who wants to feel the difference, not just hear about it.