I teach communication. And yet getting my ideas out of my head and into words that other people can actually receive takes me a tremendous amount of effort. My brain jumps around. I say the same thing over and over making meaning as I go. My husband thinks before he speaks. I think while I'm speaking. It's like we speak completely different languages. The point is — communication is hard. Even for people who do this for a living. And most of us are making the same fundamental mistake: we think communication is about our ability to articulate. It isn't. Communication is a loop. A process of shared meaning-making. And the breakdown doesnt happen just because someone didn't speak clearly — it happens in the gap between being heard and actually being understood.

What a Sound Healer Knows That No Leadership Book Will Tell You

One of the questions I get most from the leaders is some version of: how do I actually create connection on my team? How do I get people to open up, speak up, feel safe enough to say the hard thing? Psychological safety. Cohesion. Real connection. These are the foundations of every high-performing team — and most leaders have no roadmap for building them intentionally.

So I went looking for someone who does this better thananyone I know. And the answer surprised me. Rachel Kathryn Weber is a Chicago-based energy healer, sound healer, and retreat facilitator who takes rooms full of strangers and has them feeling genuinely safe and connected within minutes. Her work looks nothing like corporate leadership development. And yet what she knows about creatingpresence, vulnerability, and real connection in a group is exactly what leaders say they want for their teams — and almost never know how to build. I've been in Rachel's spaces. I've shown up with my arms crossed, looked like I didn't want to be there, and come back every single time. This episode is about why. Plus: Rachel channels a closing song live on the podcast. I asked. She delivered.

Find Rachel Kathryn Weber at: https://www.earthedempress.com/

Most managers are so focused on getting the work done, they never stop to ask: are we actually leaving room to do it well?

In this episode, I sit down with Reid — engineering manager, deeply well-read, and someone who introduced me to a concept I now can't stop thinking about: organizational slack. Not the chat app. The breathing room that separates a team that can think, create, and adapt from one that's just grinding toward collapse.

We get into why micromanagement is usually fear dressed up as accountability, the difference between being a manager and actually leading a team, and what Rasmussen's Drift model tells us about what happens when there's no buffer left in the system. We also talk motivation — why assuming your team is driven by the same things you are is one of the most common and costly mistakes a leader makes.

Plus: the case for being delusional, and why being a slacker might be the most underrated leadership skill of our time.