The Space Between the Questions

One year in.

When we started Some Goodness, the idea was simple. What if we captured the kinds of conversations we were already having with leaders — the ones that didn’t make it onto the slide deck, but stuck in our minds for days?

We weren’t looking for answers, exactly.
We were looking for clarity.
And maybe permission.
Permission to ask questions we didn’t have tidy language for.
Permission to admit that growth isn’t always formulaic, and leadership doesn’t always come with a playbook.

Now, a year in, that hasn’t changed.

But something else has.

It’s not just the topics that stayed with me. It’s the space in between them.

The pause before a guest answered.
The quiet conviction behind a story they almost didn’t tell.
The moment they stopped describing their work and started revealing their why.

That’s where the real learning lives.

What Makes a Conversation Stick

Some themes came up again and again.
Clarity is kindness. Consistency builds trust. Good strategy has fingerprints.

But the episodes that stayed with me weren’t just well structured. They were deeply human.

Jack Galloway talked about what it takes to enter a difficult conversation with curiosity instead of certainty. How real leadership doesn’t begin with judgment. It begins with a question.

Larry Sweeney reminded us that most people won’t remember your 20-slide deck. But they will remember how you made them feel. Storytelling isn’t a tactic. It’s a way of making your message portable so others can carry it forward, even when you're not in the room.

Stacy Leidwinger brought clarity to messaging, but her insight reached further: consistency isn’t a creative limitation. It’s the thing that turns language into memory.

And Chris Strammiello offered the kind of practical wisdom we sometimes overlook. He didn’t just talk about owning a strategy; he talked about the weight of it. About how owning a morning might be the first step to owning a day, and why space is the leader’s most overlooked resource.

Each guest, in their own way, helped stretch the conversation.
Not by showing off expertise, but by inviting us into experience.

What Leaders Said Without Saying It

There was something else, too. A pattern not in the answers but in the posture.

These leaders weren’t performing.
They were building.
And sometimes rebuilding.

They talked about trust. About learning to get out of the way. About giving others room to lead...not as a tactic, but as a discipline.

They were unafraid to admit what didn’t work.
And they were generous in sharing what eventually did.

That kind of openness can’t be faked.

And maybe that’s what I’ve learned the most this year:
Leadership isn’t defined by the room you command.
It’s defined by the space you create.

Not a Recap, a Reminder

This isn’t a greatest hits post.

It’s a thank you.

To the leaders who joined the conversation with humility and presence.
To the listeners who took these episodes and passed them to a colleague, a mentee, or a friend.
And to those quietly working out what their next step should be, wondering if anyone else is navigating the same tension. You’re not alone.

We don’t have to have all the answers.
But we can keep asking better questions.
And we can keep learning from the space in between.

🎧 Hear Episode 26: A Year of Some Goodness