Embrace the Squiggle: Change happens. Growth is a choice.

Leaving Corporate Success to Find Personal Purpose with Lachandra B. Baker

What if the thing that broke you was also the thing that set you free? Lachandra Baker spent 35 years climbing the corporate ladder, reaching executive roles in communications and culture at multi-billion dollar organizations. Then life handed her a knot she couldn't ignore: navigating a high-powered career while serving as her husband's primary caregiver through cancer. Everything she thought she knew about success started to unravel. That unraveling became her greatest squiggle. In this episode, Lachandra shares how she walked away from corporate prestige to found LBB Edutainment and how the framework she built through her own hardship now helps organizations build belonging, amplify missing voices, and connect culture to real business outcomes. They also get into DEI backlash, what allyship actually means, and why leadership has nothing to do with your title. If you've ever had a life event force you to redefine success this one's for you. About Lachandra Baker TEDx speaker, DEIB strategist, and founder of LBB Edutainment. Author of Your Own Biggest Cheerleader and creator of the "Heads, Hearts, and Hands" framework. 💼 LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/lachandrabbaker/] 🎵 TikTok [https://www.tiktok.com/@lachandrabbaker] ▶️ YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@LBBEdutainment] 🌐 Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61586173501365] Work with Maxady Ready for your next step? Maxady [https://www.maxady.com] helps you find the role that fits your skills, your life, and your squiggle. Connect with Your Hosts * Colleen DelVecchio → LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/colleen-delvecchio/] * Ashleigh Beadle → LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleighbeadle/] Subscribe & Leave a Review If this resonated, share it with someone who needs permission to redefine their own success. And leave us a review — it helps more people find the show. 🎙️

Great Leaders Eat Lunch AND Take PTO

We’ve all had that boss that tells us to take lunch and use all our vacation days, but then does the exact opposite. What do you do when you’re hearing one thing and seeing another? You get confused and frustrated. This is exactly why GREAT LEADERS EAT LUNCH! And they take PTO. This episode is all about how to model taking breaks and why it will actually make your team more productive and healthy. So the next time your boss tells you to take lunch while 'powering through,' you know that is not to be copied. And we even discuss the way an employee got their boss to change their ways.  Work with Maxady Ready to take your next career step? Maxady [https://www.maxady.com] helps you find the role that actually fits — your skills, your life, your squiggle. Connect with Your Hosts * Colleen DelVecchio → LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/colleen-delvecchio/] * Ashleigh Beadle → LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleighbeadle/] Subscribe & Leave a Review If this episode resonated, please leave us a review and share it with someone who needs to hear it. It helps more people find the show. 🎙️

The Trust Economy: How Podcasts Build Business Relationships at Scale with Guillaume Jouvencel

What makes you trust someone enough to hand them your business? It's rarely a cold pitch or a clever ad. It's a relationship. The feeling that you already know someone, that you've heard them think out loud, that you understand how they see the world. But how do you build that at scale without personally getting on a thousand calls? That's exactly what Guillaume Jouvencel figured out and it led him to launching a podcast agency. In this episode of Embrace the Squiggle, Guillaume shares the non-linear path that brought him here, and why podcasts have become the most powerful trust-building tool for high-ticket service firms that most people are underusing. Guillaume breaks down how he helps companies stop chasing vanity metrics and start showing up in front of their actual ideal clients. If you've ever thought about if a podcast could actually move the needle for your business (or your career), this conversation will change how you think about it. 💼 Connect with Guillaume on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/guillaume-jouvencel] GHA Podcasts: https://ghapodcast.com/ [https://ghapodcast.com/] His recommended 🎙️ podcasts * Modern Wisdom [https://open.spotify.com/show/2bFbSCIRxMQNICb5VBfLj0] with Chris Williamson * The Game [https://open.spotify.com/show/3cGP6ViUeAVfCyrZbBMFVa] with Alex Hormozi 📚 Books * How to Win Friends and Influence People [https://www.amazon.com/How-Win-Friends-Influence-People/dp/0671027034] by Dale Carnegie * The Compound Effect [https://www.amazon.com/Compound-Effect-Darren-Hardy/dp/159315724X] by Darren Hardy Work with Maxady Ready to take your next career step? Maxady [https://www.maxady.com] helps you find the role that actually fits — your skills, your life, your squiggle. Connect with Your Hosts * Colleen DelVecchio → LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/colleen-delvecchio/] * Ashleigh Beadle → LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleighbeadle/]

What Happens After the Pressure Gets to You: Leadership in the Face of Crisis with Savio P. Clemente

What do you learn when you face cancer, not once but twice? Savio P. Clemente has done it and came out the other side to share the squiggly lessons we all need.  This episode of Embrace the Squiggle, Colleen and Ashleigh speak with keynote and TEDx speaker, board-certified wellness coach, journalist, and two-time cancer survivor Savio P. Clemente about pressure and post-crisis leadership. Savio recounts being diagnosed in 2014 with stage three non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, undergoing six rounds of R-CHOP, and being cancer-free for a decade before a relapse. His experience fighting cancer tought him the importance of integrative healing, compassion, and the power of silence and stillness. 👋 This is Embrace the Squiggle, the podcast that takes you behind the scenes and into the authentic stories of professionals from all walks of life. Each episode offers unflinching honesty, meaningful insights, and inspiration for listeners navigating their own career squiggles. Connect with Savio: https://www.saviopclemente.com/ [https://www.saviopclemente.com/] Follow Savio: https://www.instagram.com/thehumanresolve/ [https://www.instagram.com/thehumanresolve/] Work with Maxady Ready to take your next career step? Maxady [https://www.maxady.com] helps you find the role that actually fits — your skills, your life, your squiggle. Connect with Your Hosts * Colleen DelVecchio → LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/colleen-delvecchio/] * Ashleigh Beadle → LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleighbeadle/] Subscribe & Leave a Review If this episode resonated, please leave us a review and share it with someone who needs to hear it. It helps more people find the show. 🎙️

Finding Your Next Squiggle: Career Moves After a Pause with Renee Ketels

Whether you left the workforce by choice or the decision was made for you, knowing what to actually do next is a whole different challenge. In this episode, we're doing something a little different. Instead of hearing about a squiggle in hindsight, we're in it with Renee Ketels in real time. Renee spent years as a Senior Manager of Design Communications at General Motors before stepping away to raise her kids. Now she's ready for her next chapter — and she's targeting a move into philanthropy and nonprofits focused on women, family, and education. She's networking, doing informational interviews, joining groups, volunteering with United Way. She's doing everything right. So why does the next step still feel unclear? Colleen and Ashleigh sit down with Renee to map out the actual next moves. If you've been out of the job market for a few years (or more), this episode is the honest conversation you didn't know you needed.  If you're job hunting, career pivoting, or trying to figure out what comes after the pause — this one's for you. About Renee Ketels Renee is a former Senior Manager of Design Communications at General Motors, now navigating her return to the workforce with a focus on philanthropy and nonprofits in the women, family, and education space. Connect with Renee: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reneeketels/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/reneeketels/] Work with Maxady Ready to take your next career step? Maxady [https://www.maxady.com] helps you find the role that actually fits — your skills, your life, your squiggle. Connect with Your Hosts * Colleen DelVecchio → LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/colleen-delvecchio/] * Ashleigh Beadle → LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleighbeadle/] Subscribe & Leave a Review If this episode resonated, please leave us a review and share it with someone who needs to hear it. It helps more people find the show. 🎙️