Practically on Purpose

The Resume Game vs. Real Life

What does it actually cost to take the road less traveled — and what do you get back? In this episode, I sit down with my Amherst classmate Blake Murphey: liberal arts kid, former finance intern, and US Navy intelligence officer of 13 years. Blake's career reads like something out of a novel — aircraft carrier Intel cells in the Persian Gulf, supporting a SEAL Team deployment in East Africa, NATO in Sicily (yes, on the slopes of Mount Etna), the Pentagon, and now working alongside the people who literally defuse bombs for a living. But what strikes me most isn't the résumé. It's how Blake thinks about time — not as a backdrop to ambition, but as the whole point. We wander through the invisible curriculum of elite college culture: why so many brilliant people funnel into finance (spoiler: it's not just the money), what it actually felt like to leave that path, and what 13 years of high-pressure intelligence work teaches you about staying present when your amygdala is running the show. We also talk about the song Blake sings in his head when everything goes blank under pressure. It's Bob Seger. It works. And honestly, it makes complete sense. This is a conversation about the stories we inherit about success and the courage it takes to write a different one. In this episode: The "default path" trap at elite colleges — and why it's gotten more extreme Finance to the Navy: what a quarter-life crisis in London actually looks like Life as a Navy Intel officer: aircraft carriers, SEAL teams, East Africa, NATO, the Pentagon Working with EOD (the bomb defusal community) — and what extreme stress teaches you about your own mind Breath work, sports psychologists, and the Bob Seger method for resetting under pressure Why time — not titles, not money — is the only non-renewable resource "Do it now. You don't know what life looks like down the road." This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alliecanton.substack.com [https://alliecanton.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Law Is For Smart People Who Don't Know What Else To Do

Jordan Nahmias didn’t grow up dreaming of being an entertainment lawyer. He wanted to be an artist. But a professor suggested he write the LSAT, he did well, and suddenly he was on a track. Once you’re on the track, it’s easy to mistake momentum for destiny. “It is a well-worn groove,” he told me. “Once you’ve made the choice… the blinders are on.” He continued, “Law is the thing that smart people do when they don’t know what to do.” OOF For Jordan, there wasn’t one clean “I’m done” moment. It was more like epistemological dissonance, in his words. He knew for a long time, even going back to law school, but couldn't make himself act on that knowing. But then in 2021, he got into a fight with a long-term client and he was treated poorly in a way he could not shrug off. “I ended up firing them,” he said. “And that was really hard for me… but then I was like, whoa, wait a minute, you can fire people? You don’t have to do this. You don’t have to continually expose yourself to this.” And he realized that i you can fire one client, you can fire them all. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alliecanton.substack.com [https://alliecanton.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Start Being Heard

A Harvard Law grad, negotiation expert, and author of Unlearning Silence, Elaine has spent the last decade teaching people how to have difficult conversations. But it wasn’t until she confronted her own self-silencing that the real work began. We talk about how silence gets rewarded, how it gets internalized, and what it really means to reclaim voice. Bio Elaine Lin Hering [http://www.elainelinhering.com/] is a speaker, facilitator, and former Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School. She works with organizations and individuals to build skills in communication, collaboration, and conflict management. She has worked on six continents and facilitated executive education at Harvard, Dartmouth, Tufts, UC Berkeley, and UCLA. She has served as the Advanced Training Director for the Harvard Mediation Program and a Managing Partner for a global leadership development firm. She has worked with coal miners at BHP Billiton, micro-finance organizers in East Africa, mental health professionals in China, and senior leadership at the US Department of Commerce. Her clients include American Express, Chevron, Google, Nike, Novartis, PayPal, Pixar, and the Red Cross. She was named a Thinkers50 global management thinker to watch and is the author of the USA Today Bestselling book Unlearning Silence: How to Speak Your Mind, Unleash Talent, and Live More Fully [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/720975/unlearning-silence-by-elaine-lin-hering/] (Penguin). * Free Newsletter: https://hello.elainelinhering.com/newsletter [https://hello.elainelinhering.com/newsletter] * Book: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/720975/unlearning-silence-by-elaine-lin-hering/ [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/720975/unlearning-silence-by-elaine-lin-hering/] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alliecanton.substack.com [https://alliecanton.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Where Is My Mind?

On motherhood, meditation, science, psychedelics and spirituality. My brain used to be a steel trap. I negotiated multi-million dollar deals and tracked complex legal roadmaps in my head.These days, I can’t remember if I’ve put coffee in the coffee maker.At first I thought I was just “losing it.”But the more I learn about matrescence, psychedelics and the default mode network, the more I wonder if I’m not losing my mind so much as losing the illusion that it was ever mine. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alliecanton.substack.com [https://alliecanton.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Work Is a Prism (Not a Cage)

What if your job were less a grind and more a mirror, one that reflects your strengths, triggers, and patterns so you can grow on purpose? In this conversation with Erin Hinkle Robertson (fractional Chief People Officer; culture builder), we explore work as a practice of becoming. Erin discusses when she first she saw that work is a prism for self-knowledge. We also get honest about America’s ruthless work culture, the “cult of Steve Jobs,” and how easy it is to lose yourself when identity fuses with output. Then we talk about how to step off the hamster wheel without burning it all down.You’ll hear: * Why many of us were taught to become our jobs—and how to rewrite that script. * Erin’s line in the sand: “I’m not living depleting days.” What changes when you choose ease over depletion. * Chimp Empire ≈ evolutionary Succession: status games at work and how to stop letting them run you. * Practical support: coaches, therapy, and a simple “team of you” to keep your humanity intact. Bio: Erin is an HR strategist and leadership coach who works with managing partners of law firms as well as founders and leadership teams at VC-backed startups, helping them keep pace with rapid growth and change. She helps leaders build high-performing cultures by getting out of the weeds and into the work that actually matters: defining values that stick, developing leadership capacity, and creating teams people actually want to be on. After years leading people strategy inside organizations, she recently re-launched her own practice, BuildRiseHR [https://buildrisehr.com/] to partner more deeply with the leaders shaping what's next across legal, AI, and B2B SaaS. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alliecanton.substack.com [https://alliecanton.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]