The Pivot Effect: The Brutiful Pivot: Diane Weaver on Founding, Letting Go, and What Comes Next

[00:00:01] Welcome to the HR Huddle, presented by Sapient Insights Group, the ultimate resource for all things HR. It's time to get in the huddle. Hey everyone, welcome back to The Pivot Effect. I'm your host, Terri Zipper, alongside my co-host, Susan Richards.

[00:00:30] This is the show where we like to talk about you as an employee, as a leader, maybe as a mentor, a coach, what's possible and how to get there. If you're feeling stuck, if you're following rather than leading, if you want to lead, or just feel like you've outgrown what you're doing and you want more, we got you.

[00:00:56] We focus on the skills and capabilities you're going to need to thrive in the future of work, regardless of what that work is, because there's always a future. Sometimes we just have to make it. Joining us today is Diane Weaver. Diane is the COO at Berry Ons and focused on strategy and innovation. Actually, I think she might tell us she's doing some new stuff.

[00:01:21] As a tech founder and speaker, Diane has a really deep grasp of living and leading, especially in this age of intelligence. And so I love the way she grounds everything in not just the work, but in daily living. So she leads with this every day. So I can't wait to get into this conversation.

[00:01:46] My wheels are turning. I'm getting ahead of myself, just getting excited about this conversation. Welcome, Diane. Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to just like unpack things and dig in and just spend some time with you both. So thank you for having me. Awesome. We are delighted that you're here.

[00:02:12] And I have had the pleasure of getting to know you over the last year. And I've learned so much from you. And I just can't wait to share what we've learned about each other and how we have worked together and what you have to share with our listeners. Yeah. So let's get us started.

[00:02:34] Diane, tell us a little bit about the first chapter in your life, because I know you've got a really interesting background. You've got a long history of or a family history of entrepreneurship and innovation. And so I'm very curious to hear about the early days of Diane and what you were up to and in that first career. Yeah, absolutely.

[00:03:02] Thank you for starting us there, because I do think that like this becomes such a foundation. You know, our childhoods and our origin stories become such a foundation for the person we become. But also like as we learn and unlearn things as adults, you know, so much of it comes back to our childhood or our inner child and things like that.

[00:03:25] So I like to start my own story by just with a little bit of context. Right. We all know now with a generative AI, context is king. And so the context I like to start out with is that I grew up working on the family farm and getting chased by paparazzi.

[00:03:49] And so it is quite unusual to have those kind of life experiences from a really young childhood age. And what it helped me understand is a lot of kind of universal truths or universalities about the human experience. And one of those things is that two things can be right at the same time. Two things that seem different can be right at the same time.

[00:04:17] And also that no matter your means and your station in life, you as a human being are entitled to the full array of human emotions and experiences. And no one can take that from you.

[00:04:35] And that has always been kind of my anchor in my own humanity, but also in like some of my, my, you know, North stars of treating everyone with the kindness that you would like to receive, you know, and things like that. So learned a lot of those things early on. I also learned that I did not want to be a farmer or an entertainer.

[00:05:03] I wanted to forge my own path. And mostly I wanted a life of impact and service to, to other people. That was kind of how I started. And, and then I've learned a lot about both of those and, and that you can do all of that and be either of those things, you know, at the same time. But, but back to kind of my family history. So I'm a fifth generation entrepreneur and a fifth generation educator.

[00:05:33] So it's just very natural that I really fell into or was drawn into a career in, in ed tech and really seeing and understanding like the learning and development experience across a lifetime. Right.

[00:05:52] So this is, this has been one of my things, but one of my, um, one, one person in my, in my immediate family who really inspired me was my grandfather. And he was a television pioneer, Pat Weaver. And he, um, he always would talk about how technology, if we're not using technology to better humanity, then what are we even doing? Right.

[00:06:20] And so when, um, you know, in the early 1900s, he, uh, he was a radio pioneer. He built his own radio and he, and he, you know, did a lot of things with radio programming and advertising. And then he translated those, those skills into television. And then he translated those skills into advertising, you know, at scale.

[00:06:47] Um, he had, you know, Coca-Cola global, you know, account for a while. And when he was in television, he was the president of NBC. So he did a lot of really big things, um, by taking skills and innovation in one industry and kind of rolling them over into an adjacent industry.

[00:07:08] And so that's always, um, also been, you know, in the back of my mind of like, how do I drive creativity and innovation in these ways that can have a big impact on how we humans experience our lives, the world around us learning, um, learning and growing. And how do we each get to our next chapter?

[00:07:31] So that's probably why I'm so excited about this podcast and the focus and, and the topics that you guys talk about here. Um, because it really is a lot of what I think about, you know, uh, Yeah, there's a, there's a lot wrapped up there, right? Like you had some real defining moments in your childhood and growing up.

[00:07:56] And I think a lot of, a lot of people end up doing the same thing their, their parents did or other people in their family, because that's what they know. And that's where they spend their time. And that's what their experiences are. Um, you know, you must have had some real, um, conversations with yourself and some real sort of fear of, okay, how do I break out of this? Because I want to do something else.

[00:08:25] Um, but I also want to take with me the things that I learned right through that process and from your grandfather and probably others. You know, what, what went through your mind? Like, what were you, was it just by accident or were you really sort of consciously thinking, I don't want to do this. I want to go do something else. Yes.

[00:08:50] So, um, it's a great question and just kind of on the spot. But, so I guess I better start here is, um, a little more context, you know, that, that my, my, my father was, um, a really gregarious person, six foot seven, very large stature person, deep voice, booming, right? Just big lit up the room. Right. Right.

[00:09:20] And he was, he was, he was such an interesting thinker on the spectrum, turns out, of course, right? And he, um, and he, uh, he was such an interesting speaker or thinker. He was an interesting speaker as well, but he was such an interesting thinker. And he would always challenge us kids to really get out of our comfort zone.

[00:09:46] And so we would have these kind of childhood experiences that, you know, would, would make us all clutch our pearls now because it's a lot of talking to strangers and things like that. Right.

[00:09:57] So, um, but I do think it kind of planted this seed of, uh, just inherently, if I'm feeling too comfortable, then I am, um, if I'm in a situation where I'm feeling too comfortable, then I'm not pushing myself enough. Or I'm not like, uh, I'm not really like pushing an envelope far enough. Right.

[00:10:24] So I'm kind of one of those people who, who just like, I just, I can't, I can't resist it and I can't be comfortable. I have to feel a bit uncomfortable. It sounds like that classic, um, case of if I'm, if I'm, unless I'm uncomfortable, I'm not growing. Yes. Yes.

[00:10:45] I think that's really at the heart of it because I have this insatiable, you know, curiosity and I, I like the feeling of, you know, novel and new and things like that. So there is, there is some of that, but I have to also say that, yeah, that there was a seed of that in my childhood, but there have been different chapters in my life.

[00:11:09] I've been really, um, you know, just blessed to have different roles within different companies before I started my own company and became an entrepreneur. Um, I was an intrapreneur and an intrapreneur was like a relatively safe space. I was getting a salary.

[00:11:27] I was in a position of leadership and, you know, people trusted me, people, um, you know, people were, people gave me, you know, lots of kudos and things like that. Right. And so to go from a situation like that to, um, to starting something on my own, that was a huge leap. And that was a pivot that, that, um, honestly, I never thought that I would do that.

[00:11:57] I thought that I would just be intrapreneur within large companies, you know, through my career, like bringing the innovation there. Um, and, and so that, that probably was the first pivot where I, where I realized like, oh, there's, there are other aspects about myself and my personality. That I want to explore. And these other new, um, opportunities are going to help me kind of flex those new muscles.

[00:12:27] So when you took that deep breath, leaned into the fear of becoming transitioning from that intrapreneur. And I love that term to entrepreneur. Um, what, what were some of the things that you brought with you, uh, from that, that previous experience? Yeah. Yeah. So, so it, what was helpful is that it was adjacent.

[00:12:56] I was going from, um, adaptive learning software to, um, building a company that helped people, um, see and understand curriculum alignment, um, from different perspectives. Right. Right. And so it was adjacent, it was still learning.

[00:13:18] It was still, um, it was still, it went, it did go from, uh, I, so I had been in, in, uh, K-12. Sorry. I, so I started out my career higher ed. Um, and then I moved to, um, uh, state level and federal level education. And then I went into K-12 cause I was recruited into a company and my son was four years old at the time. And so I was like, all right, brain development and neuroscience.

[00:13:47] I'm totally into this cause I have a four year old. And so, um, and then from there went back into adult learning. Right. Um, and, uh, and, uh, and higher ed. And so, so it felt like a safe enough kind of like edge of the industry and back into something that felt familiar. There was enough familiarity. Right.

[00:14:13] And then the, the, so I had some confidence in there, um, because of that enough film familiarity. Um, but truly, truly like the skills that helped me or served me the best, uh, in that moment was chasing something new, pushing my own envelope.

[00:14:40] Um, um, the desire to, uh, to bring something new and radically different into the world and curiosity about how that might go. I was, I wasn't, I had no idea how big or small it would be or what exactly it was going to do at that time. Um, and certainly it was, it was very different a year in, you know, two years in three years in each year. It was different and different.

[00:15:10] Um, and so just the desire to, uh, to focus on solving one problem at that kind of bigger scale. And of course it's like one problem that has a million problems within it. Right. So there's still like that variety there, um, to tickle my brain. And, cause I need a lot of that.

[00:15:36] And, um, and then also the, um, just the feeling of, of, of being able to enjoy the day to day and the process of it all.

[00:15:52] That I had gotten to a point, thankfully with my entrepreneurship, where I was really enjoying the process and the work, the detail of the process and the work of things. And so I knew, I knew that what I pursued next was going to work because I knew I was ready and able to, you know, roll up my sleeves and do it. Um, I'm sorry.

[00:16:21] Is my internet having a challenge? It is, but it'll be okay because Riverside is recording you locally. So everything got captured, even though we didn't hear it. So we're just going to ask another question. We're just going to keep rolling. Um, it's great. So I, I love that term tickle my brain. Um, uh, that, that resonated with me. That tickled my brain.

[00:16:50] Um, so what was it about this new, new world that you were stepping into that, that caught your attention or tickled your brain that made you say, okay, well, I've got some subject matter expertise. I've got some credibility. I'm, I'm, I'm confident in this, but, ooh, there's still a little bit of a, of an edge to it. What, what was it about?

[00:17:17] What was the edge that you were looking for? Yeah. Yeah. So I think at that point in my career, I was so ready to, um, to kind of be in charge, I guess. And I think with that first startup, that's really what I was chasing is like, okay, now I'm in charge. Now I'm, you know, now I'm X, Y, Z, right.

[00:17:46] And what did you learn when you got to be in charge? Exactly. Right. What I learned was when you get to that point, when you get there, where you think the top is, it's not the top. And you, and you start to see and understand like, oh, I cannot do this alone. I need my partners.

[00:18:11] And so, um, you know, what, uh, how do we give to each other in this partnership in a way that we are both pushing each other and giving to each other? Right. And, um, uh, and, and also then you, as a business owner, you know, you start to walk down the path of, do I, do I fundraise or do I not fundraise?

[00:18:38] Do I take other investor money or do I not take other investor money? You know, and each of these decisions down this path, um, predictably brings more, uh, more, more cooks into your kitchen. Right. Right. And so the desire to be my own chef, you, once you're there, you realize like, oh, I am not my own chef.

[00:19:04] I, I need, I need, you know, other people in my kitchen and also I need to be able to serve my customers. And I think that's, I think the leaders who, who figure that part out that, that, um, what they bring into the world and, um, how the market receives that.

[00:19:27] And the, you know, what the impact is as a result of that, that, that, that is, that is actually your boss, your new boss. Right. Yeah. And, um, and really seeing and understanding that at a new level, um, is kind of like that driving force, um, that, that, you know, that, that you then feel beholden to. Yeah. That is so key. Um, yeah.

[00:19:58] Yeah. Go ahead, go ahead, Terry. Jump in. Yeah. This is taken on all kinds of interesting directions, but it made me think of like, you know, and I know everybody's heard this. It's one of the best pieces of advice that I ever got in my life was always hire people or surround yourself with people who know more than you do. Or know stuff about stuff that you don't know. Right. Right.

[00:20:25] And that's hard for some people, especially when you get to the point where you're the boss, because you think you're supposed to know everything. And to me, it becomes even more important when you're the boss. Right. Right.

[00:21:12] And that's what's your part of the book. Yeah. And that's what you're going to do with people. And that's what I'm going to do with people. And that's what I'm going to do with people.

[00:21:38] with people who I can learn from, who I will learn from, right? And then also what I just shared there is like a little bit of old thinking along with new thinking, right? Who I can learn from, what I have actually learned is that that is 100% dependent on me

[00:22:02] and my mindset, right? Because the reality is I can learn from every single person on the planet. You know, there will be, once we have that growth mindset about and curiosity about other people around us, we find something to learn, right? But in this role, it is my job

[00:22:30] to find and curate within my inner circle, who are the people who are going to help me get where I want to go next, help me, help my company get to where I want it to go next. And so, and that becomes, it's, I heard someone recently talk about it in terms of like a personal,

[00:22:56] a personal advisory board. So we all have advisory boards for our companies. But then if you can design an advisory board kind of almost for your life and not that these advisors stick with you through your whole life, but that you can conceptually think like, okay,

[00:23:19] who's, who is my inner circle, who's on my team, you know, kind of thing. And, and who do I want to learn from? And this is a mentor, you know, a people who, people who I respect and just really enjoy being around people who I admire, you know, how they problem solve or the way that they think about

[00:23:44] things or their perspective on life. And I just, I want more of that in my life. Right. So they become, you know, part of this almost personal advisory board too. That's so important, Diane. How did you determine who would be part of your personal advisory board? And, and it's funny, I was, I was going to go

[00:24:06] there and, and, and ask you about, you know, who, do you have a board and what, what's their function and how did you find them? I do. I don't tell people that they're on my board though. That's one of my secrets, you know, in my mind I'm, or even on, you know, I, I do write it out,

[00:24:30] you know, so I'll put it, uh, you know, I'll journal it or something, you know, and, and it's typically like, you know, when I'm working through a problem and I think to myself, all right, who, who is best equipped to help me with this specific problem? And then in addition to that, like who are kind of some of my guiding people throughout my, uh, throughout this chapter. Right. Because I also recognize

[00:24:59] that like, we flow in and out of people's lives, um, just very organically. And I actually think there's, um, I, the, the more that I study up on neuroscience and collective consciousness, the more I, and, you know, you know, magnetism and attraction and physics and everything, the more I start to

[00:25:23] realize, like a lot of these, um, a lot of our paths crossing is actually predictable and methodical. And, um, when we structure our lives in certain ways or do certain things or show up in certain ways, we are able to, um, increase the possibilities of, of more of these, you know, things happening or

[00:25:51] seeing these things when, what these people, when they cross our paths and understanding like, um, you know, how, how and why and what, what might I do with this, uh, next. And I think that's some of the magic here. So people on my board don't know that they're on my board partly because like people are always coming in and out of our, our paths and each other.

[00:26:17] And that also keeps you from ever having to say, you're not part of my board anymore. What would that be? That would be terrible. I feel like I truly, I feel like, you know, when I, when I consider someone on my board, they're a lifer, right? And so they may, they, like our lives might be more involved or less involved over time, but they're a lifer. Like I never want to have that conversation.

[00:26:47] That would feel awful. I would never want to say that to me. We're probably all on, um, people's boards, right? Um, you know, I know people who call me cause they know, they know what I'm good at, right? So, and I, and I know when I get a call from them, they're struggling with something that I'm good at, right? Yeah. Um, but yeah, they never give me, they, they never sent me an official letter that said, thank you for being on my board.

[00:27:17] Well, and, and the reason I ask that is I, I have had several people who say, I want you to be on my personal board. Really? I want you to be part of that. And, or I have a board and, and I think of you as being part of that. And I'll be honest with you, it puts a lot of pressure on, so it, you know, in some

[00:27:45] ways it elevates the relationship a bit. It also, you know, puts a lot of pressure on the person that you've said, you're on my board. Um, so I, I feel like I have to show up with all the answers. Or maybe that's, maybe that's just a Susan problem. I don't know. No, no. I'm, I'm actually not surprised to hear that from you, Susan, because I do feel like you're, you are one of those people where like, yep, we all want you on our board.

[00:28:17] Definitely. But take us, take us forward, um, to Barry Ons. I, I have just been so fascinated with, uh, what you and the team are doing at Baryons and talk about, uh, bringing all of that richness forward of entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship, um, just a growth learning and mindset shifting.

[00:28:42] Talk to us about the, the Barry Ons or the birth of Barry Ons and how that came about. Yeah, absolutely. So, um, the, the, where Barry Ons starts just is very naturally where the startup that I was talking about previously, Horsetune, where that ended, right? And of course there was

[00:29:08] some, some time between and a gap where I was figuring things out and things like that. But there was this moment, you know, where, um, I realized like I needed to, I needed to step away from Horsetune. We, we had been acquired, which was a tremendous, you know, success. We were so lucky to find a really great partner. And yes. And with the acquisition, the number of universities

[00:29:33] using the platform doubled, and then they were able to double it again, um, double the number of programs that were using the platform within the next year. And so that was tremendous growth that we could not have done on our own. And it was like, all right, this has now become something that's like, that's bigger and, you know, bigger than me and out there in the world doing its own

[00:30:00] thing. And it needed that, right? So baby grew up. It really did. Yes. So I had to cut those apron strings and I had to walk away. And so there was this moment where, you know, a very classic entrepreneur founder moment where, you know, I, I wiped my computer clean. I closed it. I shipped it

[00:30:23] back to the company and, um, and then I got on a plane and I cried in Paris for three days. And, um, and, and that was just, it was just this like letting go, you know, moment. And so they were sad tears and happy tears and grief and joy. And, you know, it was like all of it. Right. And so that was like

[00:30:50] a really important, you know, experience. And yes, I could have just done that at home, but why not do it in Paris? I mean, if you're going to cry for three days, let's go to Paris and do it. Exactly. I'm going to, I'm going to write that down. That's going to become one of Susan's proven practices for entrepreneurship. I highly recommend it. When you sell their company, go to Paris. Go someplace where you're like, I just, just being in this place is good enough. Like,

[00:31:20] so that there's no pressure to go in and do all the sightseeing and all that, all that stuff. But just like a place where you can really just like, let go unwind and, and just kind of let the, let everything flow through you, you know, because that kind of coming down from something like that is, um, it's big. And, um, and I did have a bit of an identity crisis after that. Right. And so,

[00:31:46] um, which is also very normal. Um, so I, I like talking about that part of the story because I don't think that we talk about it often enough. And I think especially, um, like there aren't enough female founders out there in the world yet. There will be someday. Um, but, you know, but, but just being really, you know, honest and open about, about the experience. And, um,

[00:32:15] and I think that first entrepreneurship success, um, understanding, I like to call it brutal. It was beautiful and brutal. Yes. Brutiful. Word of the day. Word of the day. The word of the day is brutal, brutal. And the more that you can like, see it and recognize it for that, it makes the day to day so much easier to go through because you

[00:32:43] can say, uh, this is just one of those brutal days. Another day is going to be beautiful and everything in between. And, um, and it helps you get through, uh, through a lot of the things and, and, and off of the roller coaster and more on to like your own plane of balance. Right.

[00:33:03] Um, and so this, this brutal experience, I, I had a lot of like attachment to, um, of my identity to being a founder to like, you know, to a lot of the actions of the work and the title and things like that. And so I needed to, I needed to separate that and figure out who the heck is Diane in order for me

[00:33:32] to understand what I needed to do next. So of course, after I came back from Paris and again, it was only three days. It was not a long time. Um, after I came back through that art pretty fast. Yeah. Yeah, no, no, it just came in waves and I had no control over it. Right. But, um, but after that two months later, open AI released chat GPT and I was like, oh my God, this just got so interesting.

[00:34:02] And, um, and because of course AI has been around since the sixties and we've talked about AI since 1920s. Yeah. But yeah, but, but generative AI that was available to the public had never happened before. And, um, and so that was very interesting and it felt very much like an internet moment. Right. And,

[00:34:28] um, I, at, during the.com era, I was working for, um, an agency that, um, that only, uh, work that all of our clients were, um, colleges and universities. Right. So I was instrumental in helping to bring learning online, um, in those very early days. And, you know, so I have a lot of fresh memories of how

[00:34:57] and why we did that the way that we did. And it was lowest hanging fruit. Let's just get this done at volume the best way we can. And then we'll come back around and make it better. Right. And I think online learning has achieved that in some ways. And in other ways, there's a lot, like so much further to go. So, but one of the main things that I took from that experience was that I did not want to,

[00:35:25] in this moment of generative AI democratized to humanity. I do not want to put the yellow pages online. I want to do something that previously we would have been impossible to do. And I truly feel

[00:35:44] like one of those things is helping individuals really better understand themselves and better understand their own personal alignment with their own personal compass. Right. And, um, and they decide

[00:36:08] their value propositions and they decide their compass and everything. Right. And then understanding how to navigate through the world with that personal alignment as, as like a really strong compass or anchor, whatever metaphor you like to follow there, whatever one makes sense to you. And, um,

[00:36:30] and importantly, how that anchoring in this moment when we're reinventing the future of work, how important that personal anchoring is in really, um, transforming, discovering, innovating,

[00:36:52] and creating what's next. And so not only supporting individuals in this AI transformation, in and through this AI transformation, but also teams and also leaders. And so that's kind of been the arc of what we've, what we've developed at Baryons. So we know that when we get stuck at work,

[00:37:17] it's oftentimes something very personal that we need to work through to help us show up differently to whatever is happening in the work. Um, and to, um, and sometimes it's shifting perspective. Sometimes it's finding the growth mindset again. Sometimes we're resisting because what's happening at work

[00:37:45] doesn't align with our personal compass. And if we understand our personal alignment very clearly, then we can better articulate to other people why this doesn't work for me, or it would work for me if it looked more like this instead of this. And then you can start to have different kinds of conversations with your teams, with your leaders. As leaders, you can have different kinds of

[00:38:14] conversations with your employees and your direct reports or other leaders, executives, et cetera, to figure this out. I mean, this is, we are in the messy middle of adopting AI through deeply, through all of our systems. There's deep systemic changing happening in and around us, like at a speed that we haven't experienced before. And so this need to understand ourselves,

[00:38:43] to better communicate with the people around us, to stay connected with the people around us. Like those, those are all really big needs, especially in the workplace. And even more so right now, um, you know, as, as things are so tumultuous, um, and, and what better way

[00:39:07] to drive adoption of AI by using a tool that is based in AI to, um, to actually help, um, individuals and organizations make that leap. Yes. I know I, I, I use Barry-On all the time. Um, not on a daily

[00:39:31] basis yet, but, um, but, but I, but I'm in there at least, um, every week. And what I, what I love about the product is, or about the platform is, um, is that it, it feels, it feels genuine. Um, and, um, and it picks up on things that I wouldn't have picked up on myself. And I think when we first started

[00:39:56] talking about, uh, me using it, I, I talked about, um, I, I got more in a 15 minute session with, uh, with Cooper, my Barry-On, um, than I would have gotten, you know, in several hours of coaching, uh, with, with a live coach. So, um, pretty, pretty amazing stuff.

[00:40:20] It, it's so powerful to hear you say that, Susan, because you know and understand the power of human coaching. And, and I think that the, the beauty is when we pair those together, when we have the human intelligence and the artificial intelligence, and you're such an amazing executive coach,

[00:40:44] Susan, and, and for you to see the value, uh, in that, that, that Barry-On brings to that process, you know, is, um, thank you so much for saying that. That's really what we're aiming for is like, how, how do we, instead of either or, how do we bring these things together? We want it both and. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:41:13] Go, go ahead, Siri. Yeah. I, I'm going to take us into the, to our speed round because, uh, we could go on all day. This could be like, you know, three episodes long because there's just so much here. Um, what's something, Diane, that you're better at today because of the pivots that you've made in your career?

[00:41:34] Mm-hmm. You know, I think I'm better at my own resiliency is stronger. Um, I'm better at snapping back into shape when I'm pulled, right? Um, like a rubber band. This is me showing a rubber

[00:41:54] band, right? So, and I'm better at, at allowing myself to experience the, yep, I'm getting pulled and I'm not happy about it or I'm getting pulled and I am happy about it. Right. And then I'm also going to snap back into shape, right? I'm getting better at, um, the self-compassion and I'm getting

[00:42:20] that, that goes into that, um, process and I'm getting better at articulating, you know, at, at articulating the emotions that are, um, involved in that. I am a, I am a technologist first and I, um, you know, I've, I've more recently really put more emphasis on the mind-body connection

[00:42:44] and part of that is my own learning as building baryons, like figuring these things out, you know, some of these concepts are new to me as well. And so, um, so, you know, I think that, like, allowing myself to, like, experience the pull and then, um, with the confidence and understanding that I will go back and into my shape and maybe the shape is different.

[00:43:14] But, so, like, not, also not getting attached to what past shape was, I guess. Yeah. Very, very resilient. I love that. Um, and I love the term that you used, um, I don't think I've used that before, self-compassion. I, I think a lot of times we have, we need to give ourselves grace, right? But we don't need to feel sorry for ourselves and

[00:43:40] go sit in a corner and cry about it, right? We, but we do need to have some compassion for ourselves and be able to give ourselves grace if we expect to give anyone else grace. It's, it's so true. It's so true. And there's a lot of research coming out about self-compassion. Like, they're actually studying their research studies about self-compassion. And I

[00:44:06] encourage all of your listeners to go and discover it for yourselves. It is a really cool area. I know what my next audible search is going to be. Something on self-compassion. And just one more question for you, Diane. Um, looking ahead, what excites you about your next chapter?

[00:44:27] So looking ahead, um, what excites me is that it's always evolving. Um, I, I have this kind of ethos that I, that I try to live by, which is the definition of finish lines, right? And one of

[00:44:49] those things is that I like to define a finish line as, um, not just that, you know, I've learned something or built something or I've created something and shared it, but that the sharing of it, that somebody else has picked it up and is using it and that there's change or impact on that

[00:45:13] other side, whether it's one person or many people, right? So my finish line is always like, um, out, it's always kind of out there. And so the next chapter is around creating community of practice. It's around, um, you know, having, having more of these discussions with more people. Um, and I'm,

[00:45:38] I'm very excited, you know, about that. I feel like I go through these phases of, um, incubating and then, and then, you know, coming back out into the world, you know, or, um, and, and I like, this might be where my farming background comes back in to play and that self-compassion so that I don't have to be all things at all times, but recognize that like, yep, I plant seeds,

[00:46:06] they're underground, nothing. You can't really see or see or hear anything above ground, but a lot's happening underground. And then, you know, and then things start sprouting out. And so I think things are, you know, sprouting out, there are things that are, um, you know, in use by other people. And thank you so much, Susan, for, for everything that you just said about variants, because it means

[00:46:31] a lot, you know, and, and it, um, and it is what helps us understand, you know, the next chapter of how to do that. Well, you have engaged my gardener's heart, uh, by talking about farming. Uh, that doesn't happen very often on a podcast. So thank you for, uh, for sharing your time with us today and sharing your

[00:46:55] seeds of wisdom with us and with our team and, you know, count us in on that community. Um, we want to be part of, of, um, and whatever is happening in Diane's next chapter. Thank you. So, so that's all we have today. Um, thank you so much for joining us. Diane, how can people find you?

[00:47:22] So people can find me on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is probably where I'm the most active. Um, when I, at some point release a sub stack, you'll also find that from LinkedIn. Okay. I'll say it there when, when it happens. Um, but LinkedIn. So, and I think, I believe I do have the, I have, um,

[00:47:48] the, the hand, the actual like Weaver dash Diane handle. So there's, I've got the first there. Go you, you're the OG. Um, of Weaver Diane. Somebody else has with Diane Weaver. I have the first Weaver Diane. Yeah. All right. Well, thanks everybody for, um, this fun and insightful episode of the pivot effect. Uh, for more great content, visit our website, sapieninsights.com for all things, leadership,

[00:48:18] culture, change, and yes, even technology. Uh, we have an information packed set of reports in our research center. We'd love your feedback on what you'd like to see in that research center. And be sure to listen to our other shows, spilling the tea on HR tech and HR. We have a problem. Thank you again, Diane, for joining us for the great conversation and special thanks to our marketing

[00:48:45] team and producer. Kelly Kuhn leads that group and does a fabulous job for us. And thank you to our subscribers and our listeners and viewers for tuning in. Let us know what you'd like to see on the next episode of the pivot effect. Thanks everybody. Bye y'all. Thank you.