Being “the person who is always SO creative” at work isn’t always easy. But according to Rachel and Suzanne, it’s the quality your boss (and others) want from you more than anything else. The good news is that they believe everyone can get better at it. In this episode, Suzanne and Rachel are on a mission to help you and those around you step up, break out, and in the process, have a whole lot more fun.

Conversation is the key to getting what you want–at home, at work, and in all the spaces between. Just imagine if every conversation you had were a great one– satisfying, riveting, forward moving. Suzanne wishes that life were like episodes of the West Wing…but sadly, there’s no script for that. However, there ARE rules that make our real life conversations so much better and we share them with you in this episode…and Aaron Sorkin won’t make you talk at breakneck speed…while walking.

No doubt you have made many professional and personal decisions based all or in part on loyalty. Most often your loyalty is to a “who,” but it can also be to a “what” (a company, a brand) or even to the idea of loyalty itself. On this episode, Rachel and Suzanne look at where your loyalties lie, push you to think about whether you have a misplaced understanding of the rationale behind those commitments. They’ll tell stories about their own “loyalties gone bad”, and the hard lessons learned. Then, Rachel poses a singular question for Suzanne that she’s never asked before. Suzanne has an answer that may surprise you.

As an introvert, you think you can’t be powerful in a room, or that you need to change your nature if you want to command attention. Not true. In this episode, Suzanne, the self-proclaimed introvert of the dynamic duo, gets some fantastic on air coaching from Tom Yorton, founder and CEO of Shyne Advisors, a practice dedicated to the pursuit of “original communications for quiet leaders.” Rachel is forced to listen to their conversation while on mute. You can hear Suzanne’s giddiness loud and clear to have Tom to herself as he offers some amazing hacks for introverts. Stay through to the bitter end to see how Rachel REALLY feels about it.

I just wish I had a day to myself!” is your familiar battle cry. So let’s say you are gifted a day of me time. Then what? You go back to your regular life of feeling pulled in a million directions, stressed, and taking care of everyone else but yourself. We are challenging this whole myth of “time for myself” and calling bullsh*t on what we see as a fundamental error in how you treat your days. We have a solution– one that will give you more nourishment for yourself, so that you don’t need to run away to find that magical me time.

You look at what your friend or colleague is doing and you wish you could do that, too. You get that gnawing feeling of “I should be more of this…I should do more of that…but then you realize, “but that’s not me.” In this episode we’ll talk about how this experience can actually help you see what you really want and how to go and get it. As one wise podcaster says (listen closely): “The disease of our era is that everyone wants to be and nobody wants to become.” Well, we have the cure.

If you want to really get under Suzanne’s skin, tell her “hey, don’t sweat the small stuff.” Rachel, on the other well-manicured hand, confesses that she’s happier away from the minutiae and does what she can to avoid Suzanne’s control freak “inner hulk” (check out a previous episode by the same name). In this episode, the duo debate whether the big decisions are actually made or broken by the small stuff (and we don’t mean Suzanne).

Some of us like a good fight, and some of us flee at the first sign of confrontation. But no matter what your instincts tell you, there are many reasons to learn why, when and how to argue well. In this episode, Rachel and Suzanne duke it out over their own bad arguing habits, and bring on media expert and the arguing heavy weight champion of the world: Hank Norman. Warning: while listening to Hank, you may feel the desire to throw a good punch. Go ahead. He’s ok with that.

Does the act of giving someone a compliment pave the way for a more productive work meeting? And how do you praise someone authentically, and avoid the “Gap greeter” approach (which is to tell you that your ski hat is so adorable because they’ve been trained to believe that saying that to you when you walk in the door will make you feel like buying more). In this episode, Rachel and Suzanne break down the Art of the Compliment. Also? Rachel bemoans what’s become an all too familiar response to photos on Facebook, and Suzanne shares that she actually really likes Rachel’s earrings, but she doesn’t want to tell her, for reasons that might surprise you.