Is curiosity just a personality trait - or a skill we can practise and develop?
In this episode of What The Fear?! I’m joined by Jeff Wetzler to explore what shapes our capacity for curiosity - and how fear can interfere with it, especially when we need it most.
👉 www.gracemarshall.com/podcast
When work becomes performative, our attention shifts.
We start thinking about how it’s landing.
Whether it’s good enough.
Whether we’re doing it “right.”
We slip into proving mode. We move from being in the experience to performing it.
Something gets lost.
Presence. Connection. Joy.
We don’t always recognise fear when it shows up.
Instead, we might notice…
Perfectionism creeping in.
A more critical inner voice.
Comparing ourselves to someone else.
Pippa Grange talks about what happens when fear becomes our GPS:
www.gracemarshall.com/podcast
In this session with @thinkproductiveuk.bsky.social, I’ll be exploring:
👉 How fear shows up when we’re giving and receiving feedback
👉 The patterns it can pull us into (the ones we all recognise)
👉 And the practical skills that help feedback land clearly and constructively
Feedback. We know it matters.
And yet, how often do we put it off?
Done well, feedback doesn’t just fix problems. It builds trust, clarity, and better performance.
🎯 Feedback Without Fear - happening today
🕑 2:00pm BST
Join us here: thinkproductive.co.uk/skills-boost...
“Overperformance isn't random; it is a result of the rules of the game. And it isn't your fault. But there is a lot you can do to step out of the circus and come home to yourself, once you can see.”
Love this from Pippa Grange.
Listen to our podcast conversation: www.gracemarshall.com/podcast
📗 Get your copy here: uk.bookshop.org/p/books/life...
🎧 And tune in to my podcast conversation with Pippa here: www.gracemarshall.com/podcast
Eye-opening, soul-searching and genuinely life-changing, it will transform how you think about work, ambition and what it really means to thrive.”
The book is officially out today. I can’t recommend it highly enough!
Pippa Grange shows that overperformance isn’t the inevitable cost of excellence, but a distorted way of working - one that leaves us depleted and disappointed.
This is a profound and hopeful book, offering a radically healthier vision of success - one that feels as good as it looks.
Here’s what I wrote in my endorsement:
“Most of us have only ever known one way to achieve: go hard, fly high - just don’t fall off the edge. Life. Reclaimed. changes that story.
It spoke to me deeply, challenged me both gently and powerfully (very Pippa - as you’ll find if you listen to our podcast conversation!) and has radically changed how I show up in some of the most important areas of my life.
What a treasure!
It was such a privilege to read an advance review copy of Pippa Grange’s new book, Life. Reclaimed. And it came at absolutely the right time for me.
In my review I called it eye-opening, soul-searching and genuinely life-changing - and that’s not an exaggeration!
When something doesn’t feel right… what do you do?
For many of us, the instinct is to try harder.
Push more.
Do more.
Fix it.
But what if that’s part of the problem?
Listen to the full conversation here: www.gracemarshall.com/podcast
What if the way you’ve learned to succeed is the very thing that’s exhausting you?
Performance psychologist Pippa Grange joins me to explore how overperformance leaves us depleted and invites us to rethink what it really means to perform well.
👉 www.gracemarshall.com/podcast
Before FOMO, there was Kiasu! This Singaporean word was new to me when Ruchika T. Malhotra introduced me to it, but it described something I recognised!
The idea that you have to be quick to get in there otherwise someone else would beat you to it.
🎧 Listen here: www.gracemarshall.com/podcast
And the third is when I got to do the same for Adele Bates at her Speaker Award win last year. I think I made a similar comment about her face (which led us to go digging into the archives for this photo!).
What are your moments of Shoy?
🎧 Listen to the podcast: www.gracemarshall.com/podcast
The second is from my Speaker Award win. I was in shock - as you can probably see on my face! But what I remember most was fellow speaker Chris Bonnello grinning at me afterwards and commenting on “my face” 🤪 His joy in sharing my joy was something I really treasured and we’d only just met that day.
The first - Jamie Lee Curtis celebrating Michelle Yeoh at the Golden Globes. A photo that went viral for its sheer joy, and what it represents: women cheering each other on, rather than competing.
Rather than hoarding or envy, it’s about recognising that joy multiplies when you share it.
It brought to mind these three photos:
Shoy = Sharing Your Joy
I love this idea that Ruchika T. Malhotra shared in our conversation on What the Fear?!
The practice of sharing your joy with others - and sharing others’ joy as it comes into your life - as a practice of abundance and community.
“You’re my community, not my competition.”
Some of my best business moves have come from collaboration with my so-called competitors. When we see each other as community, not competition, the world gets larger. We all win
What magic has been possible when you’ve seen your competition as community?
“If you don’t compete, someone else will get ahead.”
Survival of the fittest.
Winner takes all.
If we dig underneath competition, we often find fear.
🎧 Listen in to my full conversation with Ruchika T. Malhotra as we explore this on What the Fear?!
www.gracemarshall.com/podcast
How competitive are we really - and what’s fear got to do with it?
In this episode of What the Fear?! I’m joined by Ruchika T. Malhotra - author of Uncompete - to question one of the most dominant assumptions in modern work and life: that success requires competition.
www.gracemarshall.com/podcast
A near-constant buzz of low-grade panic.
That’s how one of Zach Mercurio’s research participants described what it can feel like at work.
Not the big, obvious fear we recognise immediately.
But the everyday moments we don’t usually label as fear.
Which do you recognise? What would you add?
If feeling like we matter is such a fundamental human need… how much attention are we really giving each other? The kind of attention that says: I see you. I’m here. You count.
🎧 Listen to my conversation with Zach Mercurio on What The Fear?! podcast.
www.gracemarshall.com/podcast
Affirmation is more than saying “well done.”
It's noticing someone’s unique gifts. Naming the difference they make.
Helping them see the impact they have on others.
A skill that takes practice, not just something that happens with good intentions. www.gracemarshall.com/podcast
Small interactions. Big impact.
Zach Mercurio talks about how mattering is often built in the smallest interactions. Listening, noticing, saying thank you.
Where do you see these moments happening?
And where might they be getting missed?
www.gracemarshall.com/podcast
From the moment we’re born, we reach out for connection.
Zach Mercurio has a powerful way of explaining why some of the behaviours we label “toxic” might actually be signals of something deeper.
🎧 This clip is from my conversation with Zach on What the Fear?! www.gracemarshall.com/podcast
What makes people feel like they matter - and what happens when they don’t?
🎧 If you’ve ever felt unseen at work - or wondered how to build a workplace culture where people can truly thrive - this conversation is for you.
Have you listened to Zach’s episode yet?
www.gracemarshall.com/podcast
One of my favourite moments from this week.
Delivering the opening keynote at the CASE Europe Advancement Operations 2026 conference.
My brief was to open the conference, bring the energy, get people connecting and help set the tone for the next few days.
A real privilege to start the conference!
