Episode-57; New Ventures and Longest Nights

Recorded: November 24, 2020

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About the podcast

Antlerboy starts off the show with a confession; that he has been seeing other people – in fact quite a selection of other people.  Behind JP’s back but in broad daylight, he has been recording two other podcasts; “Joy and Work” for leading (public) service transformation, and “Transduction” for the systems, complexity, and cybernetics.  He also shares that his launch strategy is rather atypical in that he is purposefully limiting his audience to a “need to listen” basis with a tight circle of trust and with limited outreach.  JP thinks this is a rather odd launch strategy indeed.  But then again, JP got a bit lost (but not surprised) when Antlerboy started talking about the subject matter having socialist and liberal leanings and academic wonks being the source for many of his episodes.

JP expresses concern that Antlerboy’s appetite for strange is insatiable and that he should seek help – this before confessing that he too has recently launched a new podcast himself entitled “Supercharged Supply Chain”.  But JP’s also shares that his new podcast is a bit of a struggle because he is not used to having a co-host who is so much smarter than he is, and it takes a lot of work on his part to be sure to be on his toes. Of course, both Antlerboy and JP wish each other much success with their new ventures.

Our first guest is Sam Storm from Sweden.  JP has known Sam for some time and took notice of the complete personal transformation that Sam has undertaken in the past year; from hoodies and baggie-pants to custom tailored suits.  In the spirit of John T. Molloy, Sam is “dressed for success”.  Sam then shares that he has competed in the Swedish hip-hop cover competition several times and does a pretty good Dr. Dre cover.  It is near peak darkness in Sweden now with a maximum of seven hours of twilight and Sam is finding satisfaction in working with others; coaching and mentoring them on agile tools and techniques with an eye to professional and personal growth.

This leads to a larger discussion on mentoring; and how we often don’t know we are mentoring others (and that others don’t know that we are being mentored by them).  Perhaps it is better this way in that each of us can be more genuine and have the real conversations without feeling the pressures associated with knowing we are examining or being examined.

Our next guest to the bar is a regular, Stephane from Belgium and now in France.  The conversation starts with the renewed lockdown in France and the challenges that will be faced with holiday shopping.  It would appear that many people in France openly rail against Amazon whilst secretly clicking away.  Absurdly, the supermarkets are open for food, but aisles within the supermarket are closed because they sell “non-essential” items (whatever that means) even though they are in the same store.  This is to protect the small shops that sell these items, but are currently closed – even though you can buy these items online.  Government Rules Hurt. Our. Heads.

JP shares with Stephane that he was concerned for Stephane’s well-being.  Usually, Stephane is responsive to eMails and LinkedIn messages, but there were a couple of weeks where Stephane did not respond – not even open a message on LinkedIn.  Stephane shared that he was on vacation, or rather a “stay-cation”.  He stayed in his apartment and unplugged from everything work-related.  How can a person do that for two weeks, couped up in an apartment with restrictions for movement, escaped JP (who would have had to escape).

Lastly, we again call to center stage, Mandalyn, with another acapella rendition of one of her original songs.  This one is a personal favorite of her’s and is entitled “Breaking Up” about the end of one of her relationships a really long time ago. As usual, we sit around the table discussing what-not and such – mostly adding to the previous conversations of the evening, until the last call is shouted and the lights are turned up brighter letting us all know it’s time to go.