Purposeful Pause

10/09/23 • 64 min

Nathan Jones is a former college football coach turned senior living advocate. Nathan was introduced to the world of senior living just out of college, and from the moment he first stepped foot into a senior living community, he was hooked. Since that day, Nathan's mission has been to change the negative perception surrounding aging & senior living through sharing authentic stories of older adults. He does much of this work through his company, Dash Media.
In a prep conversation together for a different episode topic, I learned that Nathan hadn't been returning my text because he was in the hospital. It led to an important conversation together about the nature of work, self-imposed hustle, and the need for purposeful pauses - especially as an entrepreneur in a passion-fueled industry like senior living.
The pressures of keeping up with and responding to everyone, talking about how we're feeling, taking breaks, being a good leader... these and so many more factors of running a business can easily become a compounding snowball of depleting mental well-being.
For content creators like Nathan and me, it is also challenging to experience impactful moments without our brains shifting in the moment to how this will translate to a good story. Ironically, this pulls us out of the moment and fully experiencing it.
This was an important conversation about entrepreneurship, content, mental health, and everything in between.

Previous Episode

Do People In Aging Services Perpetuate Ageism? with Guest, Ashton Applewhite

Season 3 of the Level Up Leadership Podcast kicks off with a rather provocative episode: “Do People in Aging Services Perpetuate Ageism?” [YouTube vide of episode.]
It’s a long title, but I thought it deserved the full weight of the question.
I was SO fortunate to interview Ashton Applewhite. In my readings and study on this topic, I couldn’t find a more compelling and articulate activist than she.
Ashton’s Ted Talk, “Let’s End Ageism” is a masterful storytelling experience that gives audience an opportunity to examine “a prejudice that pits us against our future selves.”
I read her book, “This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism” while on vacation. I’m grateful I had a moment in time without normal distractions to become engrossed in this book. Our episode delves into some really intriguing questions and possible self-examination for those of us in aging services. I hope you enjoy and will reflect on this conversation.

Next Episode

Psychological Safety with Erin Thompson

Erin Thompson shares her leadership experiences, anecdotes and lessons learned about psychological safety in the work place. Erin and I share a lot of similar experiences, and we dug into some examples of environments where safety was not the top priority. We examined potential causes or reasons this is so prevalent in an industry that touts care, warmth and empathy - at least toward its customers.
We also explored practical tips and approaches to create psychological safety and trust within teams.
Thanks for listening to this episode of Level Up Leadership Podcast with James Lee and guest Erin Thompson. Please also check out Erin's podcast "Aspire for More with Erin".