Invest in Yourself with Coach Meredith

Finding passion within a line of work is not always an easy feat. Coach Meredith helps clients, whether they are about to make their debut into the professional sphere or finding themselves unfulfilled in their current position, to invest the skills and interests they already possess and put it to use somewhere that brings them more joy. The road to success can be a lonely road filled with multitudes of uncertainty, and on today’s episode Meredith discusess why this drives people to seek out coaching and how her approach may differ from others.

Transcript:

Speaker 1: [00:00:14] Three, two, one, lift off! We have a lift off!

Sam Jayanti: [00:00:34] Welcome, Meredith, to Ideamix radio, it’s wonderful to have you here today.

Meredith Hamilton: [00:00:38] Thank you. It’s exciting to be here.

Sam Jayanti: [00:00:41] So Meredith, you’re a coach who turned to coaching after having a career that spanned other industries. Tell us a little bit about how you became a coach and why you became a coach.

Meredith Hamilton: [00:00:55] Sure. So having been in the nonprofit sector for most of my career, especially after getting my MBA, I realized that I had this very sort of deep passion for people and for potential, and as I grew in my career, became a chief operating officer of this international nonprofit and realized that I just wasn’t as invested in the organizational outcomes as I was in the outcomes of individuals. And so the more I started sort of coaching and mentoring and even having my check-ins at work, I was definitely not as interested in how they were getting their work done as much as I was interested in how they were showing up at work, if they felt like they were having positive experiences and relationships, and if they were dissatisfied at what they were doing. And so it became clear to me a couple of years ago that I really needed to transition out of the sort of operator space and then just use my mission based sort of social justice energy in a way that I felt could really be meaningful for myself and keep me motivated more than I had been, but then also sort of bring the sort of the gifts of mission orientation to coaching. And through my work at Harvard Business School, I’m able to meet with folks across the world and across industries and it’s been really exciting to be able to sort of see the experiences I’ve had in the nonprofit sector and understand likewhat translates across industries, what doesn’t. But have just felt so sort of fulfilled and nourished in the last few years by being able to do this full time.

Sam Jayanti: [00:02:31] It’s so important, I think, that history because, you know, often we find that when clients are looking for coaches, they tend towards coaches who either have worked with other clients in their industry or spend time in that industry themselves because I think that practical experience and the way that it informs your coaching practice is very sort of subconscious and inherent in many ways, right? And I think intuitively, clients sort of feel that and can see that and want the benefits of that.

Meredith Hamilton: [00:03:08] Yeah, yeah. And I think that there’s a real opportunity to sort of learn across industries and across sectors and across any demographic, really. But we all sort of gravitate to our comfort zone. And I think that applies in this way as well.

Sam Jayanti: [00:03:23] So I have to ask because it sprung into my mind and I hope you won’t find it offensive. But you said you were so interested in how people were turning up to work and how they were feeling about what they were doing and whether they were invested in the mission of the organization or not. You know, often people with such a strong interest in other people and how they’re doing might turn to HR, right, and might become sort of HR specialists in some way. Why coaching?

Meredith Hamilton: [00:03:57] So people would be mad at me for saying this out loud but I have a T-shirt that says “Please don’t make me do stuff” and part of it is like there’s a lot

Sam Jayanti: [00:04:06] I need that T-shirt.

Meredith Hamilton: [00:04:08] There’s so much process and minutia when it comes to operating organizations and I think that for so long, I learned in every step of that progression and by the time I got where I was helping to lead an organization, it just wasn’t fulfilling me in the same way. And so I think part of it was just about how to pivot the way that I was learning and the way that I was being challenged. And you know, I could facilitate another discussion on culture, I could have another professional development conversation, I could think about how collaborative structures and decision-making led to organizational success or not, but at the end of the day, I was like, I’ve done this. And I want to both like, become the teacher a little bit, so in some instances where I’m actually helping others learn how to facilitate and how to build culture and how to do some of these things, but also like every person’s unique and so every coaching engagement is a different opportunity to sort of navigate the complexities of the world. And so I sort of had been in the people side of things, being an internal chief operating officer, and so it sort of just ran out of runway on the motivation and learning lane and was really then sort of motivated to do this pivot.

Sam Jayanti: [00:05:27] Yeah, totally makes us. Is there a typical client that you tend to work with?

Meredith Hamilton: [00:05:36] Not really at this point. Because I work with the students alumni at Harvard, people can sign up to coach with whomever they want. And so people sort of opt in to whichever appointments. And so I’ve had the privilege of people sort of raising their hands to work with me, all industries, all geographies, different points. I just had a coaching conversation with someone who was in her 70s and was thinking about like, what does her retirement look like? And then I have another client who’s like 22 and just out of college. And so I think it really is thinking about what the purpose of the coaching engagement is and so I’m a big believer that the center of everything is joy. And so anyone who’s looking to bring more joy and purpose into their work is sort of a good client for me, and I’m hopefully a good coach for them. But I think this idea that we’re good at so many things and we don’t like so many of them. So like, how do we actually center ourselves in this sort of spot where we’re really good at what we’re doing, we really enjoy it and we’re helping people or systems that are meaningful. And so when I think about coaching, it really is that center, the sort of how I guide my work.

Sam Jayanti: [00:07:00] I love the way that you described that because in the end, it really does boil down to finding joy and purpose, right? And people find it consciously, sometimes unconsciously. And you know, at times you find it for some years and then it goes away and it no longer is as fulfilling as it was. Do you find that, you know, it used to be that coaching, much like therapy, was something that people would turn to when there was a problem that they needed help with. And increasingly. With all the change, whether it’s professional or personal, the number of changes that each of us as individuals has to navigate in our personal and professional lives, that navigation can become an incredibly lonely process. And you sort of want someone in your corner to talk through some of these issues with. Are you finding that more people are turning to coaching, you know, as a positive reinforcement, not just in situations where there’s help needed?

Meredith Hamilton: [00:08:14] Yeah, totally. I think that there’s been such a culture shift around self-awareness, self-care, self-improvement, and this idea that we’re actually sort of inadvertently causing harm when we don’t invest in ourselves. And so this idea that people sort of have permission now in a different way to be thoughtful and proactive and to really value themselves and their experiences in a different way. And one of the things I often talk about is like, I’m not a therapist, coaching is not therapy, but the present is this moment where therapy is often really about understanding sort of how you got here. And I think coaching is often about where you go and how you get there, and that yes, if you do therapy and you uncover like the roots of so much then the coaching can be more effective. But even without that there’s an opportunity to make decisions and exhibit your own agency and how you spend your time and the kind of work you do. And so I think that there’s this permission and this invitation now about sort of living your best life that I think, you know, prior generations either weren’t able to or didn’t understand. And I think the people who are sort of mid-career right now are part of that transitional wave, right? And then you have like millennials who are like, ‘I know I matter, I know my health matters like, we have to figure this out.’ And so I think there’s also this shift of sort of the mid-senior staff of organizations that are really trying to sort of embrace what’s really sort of wonderful about millennials and younger staff while not getting too far off course. But I think there’s just like a ground swell, a shift that invites people to do this differently.

Sam Jayanti: [00:10:07] Yeah, that absolutely makes makes total sense; amplified by the pandemic and here to stay, it feels like, which is a really positive development in our society.

Meredith Hamilton: [00:10:17] Yeah, for sure. And I think like the you know, the it’s not a silver lining, but with the pandemic, like the awareness of mental health and the awareness of isolation and its impact and just the challenges with building connections digitally. You know I wish I was in New York right now. So I think that there’s information now that’s also different and reliable, and it’s not anecdotal. And that’s real. And so while no one would want this pandemic to have happened, it has sort of brought to light some things that a lot of people knew were true but other people weren’t seeing.

Sam Jayanti: [00:10:58] Yeah. Want to chat a little bit about how you work with the various types of people or stage of life that you outlined many of your clients are at. Are they mostly women? Is it about 50-50 in terms of men and women?

Meredith Hamilton: [00:11:15] I would say most people identify as women. Yeah. It’s maybe like, I don’t know, 60-40, 70-30.

Sam Jayanti: [00:11:26] OK.

Meredith Hamilton: [00:11:26] I do think there’s like a little bit more of people who identify as women being like, I need help. Like, can someone pay attention to me? And that is certainly, I think, more prevalent.

Sam Jayanti: [00:11:38] Women tend to be bigger users of coaching. And of course, you know, being a woman, I feel this is because we have a greater degree of self-awareness, in general, and know when to ask for help and are not hesitant to turn to help and ask for it. But I think that’s changing rapidly as men realize it can be a resource and a support and a help and not sort of remedial in nature.

Meredith Hamilton: [00:12:10] Right, yeah. And I think that the gender split for me is probably a little different because I’m working with MBA students often and there are more men enrolled still. But this idea of, you know, it’s sort of interesting thinking about like women are both taught they can do it all and they shouldn’t need help. And simultaneously, it takes a village, right? And it’s like, there’s no perfect parenting and you’re doing it wrong. And so it’s like, there’s all of these mixed messages. And so that’s the other thing too, is I think that coaching just gives you breathing space, like it gives you an opportunity to actually sit and be like, “What do I think about this? What do I believe about this?” Like, there’s so much input and sensory overload in so many different ways and I think that coaching gives you space to be like, OK, so this is what’s happening, this is how I’m thinking, this is how I’m feeling like, what do I do next? And that, I think, applies to everybody at this point. Like that’s a non-gendered experience. But I do think that the invitation to reflect is certainly now much broader than it’s ever been before. And like people were on Zoom and saw kids running around and saw dogs and saw mess right, and so it’s like, you know, there’s a more holistic picture of what we all look like when we’re not sort of, you know, in cubicle.

Sam Jayanti: [00:13:33] Exactly, it was so divorced from the workplace when we were in cubicles, right, and now there’s no keeping it out. We are sort of the whole people as represented on Zoom, sadly.

Meredith Hamilton: [00:13:44] Right, exactly.

Sam Jayanti: [00:13:46] Yeah. Tell me a little bit about your process with your clients. How do you think about the various stages of coaching them through the time that you work with them?

Meredith Hamilton: [00:14:00] Mm-Hmm. So it definitely it varies for why someone signed up. Like, is it for a session? Is it for transformation? Like, what is it in between? And so I think primarily, it’s really getting to meet people where they are. And so what are they thinking about, struggling with, reflecting on, and then how can I help move people really deeply into the reflection phase? So I’m a big believer that everything is more efficient later, if you know what you want. And you can only know what you want if you know who you are. And so this idea of, you know, so when I can think about like, how do you identify like what brings you joy? When I ask people, it’s not about work. Like, do you like cooking? Do you like knitting like going for runs? Do you like triathlons? Do you like reading to babies? Like what are the things that actually spark joy in your life and then how can you translate that to actual transferable skills in the workplace? And so, you know, someone who likes to bake, my understanding is like, it’s very precise. You need a lot of detail orientation, whereas someone who might be, you know, cooking dinners might just take whatever’s in the cabinet and see what they make. And so I think this idea that how our brains work actually just shows up everywhere. But if we can move people out of the sort of “work brain,” it allows them to oh, I actually really do like this or I really do like that. Okay well these actually translate into sales skills or project management skills or customer service skills or coaching skills, like whatever it might be. And so I think that there’s this real opportunity to have people think about the way their brains work and the way their spirits work as an entry point into what it is they want to do. So I think it’s very common where you might scour the internet and say like what jobs are out there and how do I make a pitch that I should be chosen for this job? And I sort of invite the reverse, like, what would it be like to write your own job description and then go find that job instead of wasting all this time trying to figure out how to sell yourself. And so that idea of putting what we are naturally good at and what we naturally like, doesn’t that make everything easier instead of the slog of, you know, getting through something? And so I think once you have that perspective, then it’s a little bit easier as you’re networking, you can ask more strategic questions. You can sort of, you know, when you’re asking questions about culture it could be about like decision making, like give me an example of how people collaborate in your organization, or tell me about a time when your CEO messed up like what happened? And so you begin to see that you can ask questions that are not just like, “do you like your job?” Because someone else liking their job is not actually relevant. So if you are able to ask questions that can inform your own process, that’s sort of what it looks like. So it’s a lot of sort of ‘where are they,’ the reflection on sort of what their interests and purposes, what does a strategic search or networking look like and then how do you eventually make that transition? And sometimes it’s some new jobs, sometimes it’s within the organization, sometimes it’s to start your own thing. Most of my work is career-focused in some way, but it doesn’t have to be.

Sam Jayanti: [00:17:36] I think you’ve put your finger on two things. And I don’t mean to be overly reductionist, but it sounds like you’re helping people build, or sort of articulate, their self-awareness in terms of who they are, as well as understand, as you said, how their brain works, you know, how do they learn, what stimulates them, what brings out the best in them so that they can actively look for those situations in the workplace or in whatever they choose, whether it’s entrepreneurial or otherwise, to expose themselves to more of what their brain likes. Right?

Meredith Hamilton: [00:18:23] Right.

Sam Jayanti: [00:18:24] And sort of performs its natural best in. When you work with younger clients in particular, you mentioned you do a lot of work with MBA students, they’re at the very early stages of their career. And so often, you know, kind of ‘write your own job description’ may not be as accessible to them as, say, someone who’s in the middle of their career, who is looking at a very different type of set of jobs or opportunities compared to someone coming out of an MBA program. How do you adjust for that and how do you think about that?

Meredith Hamilton: [00:19:03] Good question, I mean, sometimes the students are like, “great. Let me write my own thing and see what happens,” like there’s a real sort of hunger for autonomy and creativity in that way. So it doesn’t produce the same thing, but I do think like the energy is there. It’s, you know, the focus is what will set you up best for success? And it doesn’t necessarily matter what exposure you’ve had to a company or industry, if you can say, you know, “I want to be in a team-based environment where I am helping to ideate and brainstorm, and I have people on my team who are really good at translating ideas to action.” That’s a project manager or a facilitator or a product developer like that could be any number of things. But the idea that it’s a cleared vision. So then when you go talk to people you be like, “I think I want to do this. What are those jobs? What does that look like? Who does this kind of work? Where should I explore?” And so instead of starting from a position or a role, you’re sort of starting with like, “I want my day to day to look like this.” Does that exist? Can I do that? Where do I find that? And so it’s a similar process. It’s just I think they have a very different vocabulary. But at the end of the day, you know, work is just how we spend our time. Like how do you want to spend your time? I think it sort of creates an ability to envision that in a different way. You’re right, if you’re too early in your career you don’t have the vocabulary. But you still probably know how you want to spend your time. I think the bigger shift is when people have families or they have ailing parents or they want to settle down somewhere. I think that is much more of a transition than it is thinking about sort of those early days.

Sam Jayanti: [00:21:05] Yeah, because then there are sort of real capacity constraints, in the sense, that they have to adapt to and adjust for. So there it is. We’re going to do a little pretend, mini coach-me session. So imagine I am a student coming out of an MBA program. I have a few different career choices in front of me and I’m having trouble deciding what is best suited to me and my skills. Over to you. 

Meredith Hamilton: [00:21:38] When we say mini, is this like two minutes or five minutes or… 

Sam Jayanti: [00:21:44] Eight to ten minutes.

Meredith Hamilton: [00:21:47] Okay. Hi, nice to meet you. So it sounds like you are grappling with a couple different opportunities and thinking about how to make decisions. And so I’m curious so far, what have been some of the considerations that you have been thinking about or talking to folks about that even got you down to this list, and then where are you finding sort of that innate struggle that you’re trying to sort out?

Sam Jayanti: [00:22:13] I have a few opportunities before me. One would be to go back to finance, which I came from before attending business school, a common path. The other is to go into an industry that I explored over the summer, which is publishing. And what interests me about publishing is the creative side of it. But this opportunity, given my background and the fact that I come from finance and an MBA, is really on the business side of publishing. And then third, I have a consulting opportunity in front of me where I could choose to specialize in an industry and go down that path to help kind of understand and diagnose problems within that industry and work with companies as clients.

Meredith Hamilton: [00:23:06] Mm-Hmm. And when you think about those paths, that sounded very practical, what gets you most excited? Like, when do you find your energy change a little bit or you sort of perk up and listen differently when you think about what a day in those lives might look like? Where do you find that spark?

Sam Jayanti: [00:23:31] So I think much of what I look for in a career and in a job has been shaped by my early experiences in finance and two key features, which I was hugely intimidated by, but then also I found enabled me to do my best work was the people I was around so the sort of direct individuals I was working for and with, as well as a little bit being thrown from the frying pan into the fire and sort of made to figure it out on my own, even though I knew I was inexperienced and ill-equipped, but had to kind of go do it. But that challenge really made me do some of my best work. And of course, I made mistakes and of course, I screwed a bunch of things up. But that was a very stimulating process to sort of problem-solve for something that I hadn’t done before and really needed to figure out.

Meredith Hamilton: [00:24:40] Yeah. So part of it sounds like it’s a learning orientation, so making sure that it’s sort of potentially different stuff; you’re experimenting and experiencing as you go. Given that you have some experience and comfort in finance, is there a part of you that is sort of craving that sort of safety net? Or is it actually just your logical brain is saying ‘you can do well at this, you have a good path ahead of you’? Where do you sort of fall on that continuum?

Sam Jayanti: [00:25:15] You know, one of the reasons I went to business school was because I was feeling a little bored with finance. And at the same time as I sit here and consider my options, it’s a very safe path. And I did well at it and know I could continue to do well at it. At the same time, I’m excited by the challenge of a different industry and learning a different set of skills and working with a different set of people.

Meredith Hamilton: [00:25:48] And when you think about those other options, you know, so thinking about the publishing piece, right, so you mentioned that you have this creative energy, you’re excited about, but that you’d be on the business side of things. When you reconcile that, do you see it as a way into a creative industry? Or could you actually see yourself getting some of that creative energy because you’re in that space and you don’t actually need to be like directly in it? So how much of it do you see as like a path into a situation versus more of a path you can stay on and be excited about?

Sam Jayanti: [00:26:25] I definitely view it as a path into a situation because what’s exciting about publishing is the creative side to me, but it’s not an entry point that’s accessible to me today. That said, if I were number counting, then I’d almost rather do that in finance than be totally disconnected from a creative process and still be number counting. Because at least in finance, you’re part of the creative process because it’s the nature of what you do.

Meredith Hamilton: [00:26:56] Yeah, yeah. What is it–the creative bug? Do you enjoy writing? Do you enjoy performing? What is that sort of grounded in.

Sam Jayanti: [00:27:09] I enjoy writing, performing–I have done that in the past. And at the same time, I’m not the sort of person who would take the plunge to go be a writer or go be a performer. I don’t know that I want that to be my career, particularly.

Meredith Hamilton: [00:27:34] What do you see as sort of the unappealing aspects of that?

Sam Jayanti: [00:27:39] I don’t know if I could take the rejection.

Meredith Hamilton: [00:27:43] That is a very helpful insight, right, so to think about where you can find the balance of risk and success, right? So rejection in a creative space sounds like it might feel really personal, whereas if you get like a deal gets turned down or your consulting project gets turned down like it’s less about you. That’s what it seemed like you were saying, is that accurate?

Sam Jayanti: [00:28:08] Yeah, I think it is, I think when you’re turned down because of something you wrote or a role you tried out for, it’s all about you in a sense, right? Whereas a project or a deal or whatever is sort of sure I mean you’re very much a part of it, but it’s a manifestation “of” in the end.

Meredith Hamilton: [00:28:33] Yeah. Yeah. So the last one you mentioned is consulting, and you said it was sort of a pathway into sort of a more specific industry. So sometimes consulting, you can sort of stay in the strategic management gray space. When you talk about going into an industry, is that because you want to? Or is that because that’s sort of been an offer put ahead of you?

Sam Jayanti: [00:29:01] It has been an interest of mine. So I’ve wanted to learn more about the consumer retail industry. And so that’s really the opportunity that I went after with respect to consulting and so that is an opportunity. But what worries me about it is a little bit what we were saying about publishing, that you’re learning a great deal about the workings of the industry but you’re still disconnected from the creative process. So how much impact can you have is a little bit of a question mark in my mind.

Meredith Hamilton: [00:29:45] And how do you define impact in that way?

Sam Jayanti: [00:29:50] I think it’s tangibility for me, like an outcome that really derived from something that I played a key role in. I know it’s not, you know, in very few settings at this stage of my career am I going to be doing something on my own and so it’s like a direct one-to-one thing, but I want to feel a tangible sense of influence and impact on an outcome.

Meredith Hamilton: [00:30:16] Yeah. And so as you think about this next phase, do you have a sense of what you want your day to day to look like? So regardless of which of these paths you end up on or another? Do you sort of have an intuition about how you want to spend your time? What kind of work like kind of pace, frenzy time? How do you envision that sort of ideal state at this point?

Sam Jayanti: [00:30:42] I want some balance I mean I working in finance, I had none, and now I’m at a different stage where I’m about to get married and so there are going to be other obligations that arise coming out of that. And other ways that I want to spend my time. So I also don’t want to be working 20 hour days all the time. Yeah.

Meredith Hamilton: [00:31:14] One of the things you said as you were talking was that you weren’t able to do that when you were in finance. And so it’s interesting that both in the answer to what do you want, you actually call out one of these things as something you don’t want. And so is there a lane within finance that you have in your mind that sounds like an appealing opportunity? Like it’s such a big word. Do you see something where you have more of that balance and interest? You’re still learning, you’re still engaged with people. Or does that actually not exist in your mind?

Sam Jayanti: [00:31:52] No I do, I think wealth management within finance is an area like that, where you can have a greater degree of control over your life and have a bit more balance, but also have a creative space and that tangibility of the direct relation between sort of your work and client impact or bringing in a client or whatever it is that you’re working on. I wouldn’t go back to doing what I was doing before where I felt like I had very little control over my hours or balance.

Meredith Hamilton: [00:32:30] Yeah. So thinking about you’re about to go into the next phase of your life–you’re graduating, potential family is on the horizon–when you want to tell your story about what you did in this window of time, what do you think are some of those key messages that you’re going to feel excited or proud to share?

Sam Jayanti: [00:32:53] That’s a great question. I think three things: I want to feel that I learned something new and sort of grew my skill set. I want to feel as though I worked with a set of people with whom I developed deep relationships and connections, and I was as invested in them as they were in me. And I want to feel not, you know, on a daily basis, but in the aggregate, I want to feel that sense of direct tangible impact.

Meredith Hamilton: [00:33:35] And so if you were to think about when each of these different opportunities, one of the things you might consider is really mapping out what those learning operatives and objectives are, what the culture and collaboration opportunities are, and continuing to really refine what impact means to you at different stages. So you have this sort of first stage of your career, there is a way to define impact now, which will be different than further down the road. There’s also the impact on yourself, on your neighbors, on your colleagues, on the industry. And so you have these three dimensions and so doing some more reflection on how those will really line up for you and then being able to talk to people who can answer some questions for you that are about you. So instead of saying like, what did you learn in your job, Sam? Like you don’t need to actually ask those questions. You can say, “I’m really excited about learning. What is a learning environment like? How does your company think about professional development? Do you have access to leaders, then mentors?” And so I think as you can begin to articulate what these different these three points are within each of the opportunities you talked about, then going on to ask people like testing those hypotheses and saying like, “I think this is what it would look like to be in this line of work. Am I right? Is it true?” And as you get additional information, continuing to use that as a filter to narrow in some of your decision making. And obviously, depending on where you are in your journey, it could be that you’re looking at offers, it could be that you’re looking at interviews–we probably would’ve talked about that in the beginning–but I think knowing how much runway you have to get more information, to test these hypotheses, can potentially lead to a really sort of holistic decision that will feed these different parts of you, in ways that will be different and hopefully better than some of the others.

Sam Jayanti: [00:35:44] Wonderful. That’s great advice. Thank you.

Meredith Hamilton: [00:35:48] And scene.

Sam Jayanti: [00:35:51] Exactly, that was great. it’s so, I mean, it’s fun to do that, A. But B, it’s such a useful lens for our listeners who are curious about coaching and what that actually is and what it looks like. And with a particular coach to understand that. So thank you for doing that.

Meredith Hamilton: [00:36:11] Yeah, thank you. It’s good practice. But it’s also like everyone’s style is so different–their energy, their tone. 

Sam Jayanti: [00:36:18] Yes, totally.

Meredith Hamilton: [00:36:20] Like tactical, let’s get in it. And obviously that is not necessarily my approach. But it is fun to just see where these conversations go. Like no matter how like real or made up they are.

Sam Jayanti: [00:36:33] Totally, totally.

Meredith Hamilton: [00:36:35] It’s always exciting.

Sam Jayanti: [00:36:36] I so appreciate having you on the show and thank you for the time.

Meredith Hamilton: [00:36:40] Thank you so much it was nice to see you.

Sam Jayanti: [00:36:42] Great to see you.

Sam Jayanti: [00:36:46] Thanks for listening today. You can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And while you’re there, please do review the show. We love hearing from you, so email us at info@theideamix.com or Instagram DM us. Our episode this week was produced by the incomparable Martin Malesky, with music by the awesome Nashville based singer-songwriter Doug Allen. You can learn more about Doug at DougAllenMusic.com.