Summary of all our recommendations (and links) below: 

Episode #2 : Lightning Round & Recommendations

Start Your Day

• Andrea – Workout (knowing her, some kind of mini marathon or 5 mile ocean swim) followed by green smoothie, coffee and shower.
• Lori A – Quiet time reading or meditation on the patio, workout in the home gym, make sure the teenagers are awake, coffee on the way home from taking them to school. She makes a point of asking herself:  “What can I do to be useful today?”
• Maryam – Check the phone / email before getting out of bed(sigh… work to do here…), Get lunches ready for school, School Drop Off, Gym. She is thankful she is on the east coast and has time to do all this before the rest of the country wakes up.
• Lori W- Coffee, 10-15 minutes Headspace app and prep for the day complete with a list of priorities, followed by Morning Joe (she’s a Mika fan – no apologies) and news on her ipad. She works out at night so she won’t fall off the treadmill, but longs to be a morning person.

 

Book Recommendations

• Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Duma – Maryam loves this book authored by an Iranian woman who has moved the the US.  She identifies with the challenge and humor of explaining Iranian customs to Americans.
• Journey to the Heart by Melody Beattie & Mindful Work by David Gellis – LoriA thinks these are great resources if you want to jumpstart a meditation practice or just be more focused at work. (Note: the other 3 of us think her podcast on mindfulness is a great place to start!)
• Extreme Ownership – Jocko Wilink & Roar by Stacy Sims- As you may have noticed, Andrea is our extreme athlete and likes to push herself. She likes these books because of their focus on applying military leadership to business and female nutrition for athletes (respectively).
• The Twitters, Periodicals, and Research documents – LoriW has become slightly obsessed with the political process and reads anything she can to help her make sense of things – and get to the facts.  She also strongly endorses Schoolhouse Rock for the country’s politicians and wants you to know she reads actual books often. A recent favorite is Ann Lamott’s new book – Hallelujah Anyway.

Episode # 3: Lightning Round & Recommendations:

Podcast Recommendations

• Andrea – Serial and Stown
• Maryam – Tim Ferris (and Serial and Stown – she likes stories!)
• LoriA – Moth Radio Hour & Up First
• LoriW – Left, Right & Center from KCRW and Design Matters with Debbie Millman

 

High Performance Day

• Andrea- For a race day she will eat 2-3 hours before and then do some visualization.
• LoriA – Not a creature of habit, but firmly believes in lists to help you feel prepared and to help keep focused during intense work days.
• Maryam – Working hard to take the nervousness out of “big” days by building confidence and a routine that makes things feel normal.
• LoriW – Quiet time to focus on what needs to happen and what needs to be communicated, written lists to help with memory and when possible an appropriate musical playlist – when she knows you better she might share some of her embarrassing choices…..

 

Episode #4 : Lightning Round & Recommendations

How Do You Leave It At Work?

This is a hard one and something most have to continually work at – as evidenced by the “free for all” conversation while discussing it.

• Collectively we believe that checklists, having email “black outs”, working out and for at least half of us the occasional glass of wine or G&T and for the other half a green tea to help unwind.
• Keeping focused on what is important – putting things in perspective – is core to any kind of work /life balance
• If you work at home, designate an area for work and try to limit your work to that space.

Team Building

How do you bond a team to prepare them for potential tough times?

• Recognize that that teams are just a collection of humans and the most important thing is to build trust, get them to a point where they know they are there for each other.
• As a leader empathy and compassion matter- they don’t make you seem soft – and humor is fundamental.
• This is the part of the episode where LoriA explains a status report that was once delivered in Haiku.  We feel sure this is a first and, well, her description in the podcast is worth a listen. (Editors note: Two of us on this podcast can confirm this actually happened…)

TV Shows

• Maryam – This Is Us – Binge-worthy and the perfect mix of funny and emotional with multiple story lines so it appeals to to all types of people. Special shout out to Chris Bell who once threatened to de-friend her if a character died, because she sucked him into the show addiction with her.
• Andrea – Big Bang Theory – smart, funny and good for all ages and guaranteed to be showing on a channel somewhere in the world 24 hours a day.  Apparently her family gave her the Big Bang Theory Game for Mother’s Day. No words….
• LoriA – Grace & Frankie – Again,  smart and funny and also innovative in that it treats over 70 women like real people.  Their new business venture alone is worth watching for.  (Plus it has the always amazing Lily Tomlin and we spend a few minutes in awe of how amazing Jane Fonda looks at 79)
• LoriW – Netflix Chef’s Table series – There are 3 seasons and hey  take some of the best chefs at the best restaurants around the world and tell their story.  Not only is the food amazing, but the stories are so compelling.  Kind of like This Is Us, but with better food.

Episode #5 – Recommendations within the playbook

Episode #6: Lightning Round & Recommendations:

Documentaries / Movies

• Lori A – Young At Heart – A 2009 documentary based on a group of seniors (average age 81) that sing classic and current rock covers. Sweet and sad with good music.
• Andrea –  Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. She laughed so hard her son told her to be quiet.
• LoriW – Gleeson – Documentary about a New Orleans Saint football player who filmed his life from the time he finds out he has ALS as the diseases’ journey parallel the like of his newborn son. Equal parts informational, sad, funny – and inspiring.
• Maryam – Lion– A boy from India that gets lost from his village and ends up adopted in Australia. Though he doesn’t even know the name of his home village the story takes us through his effort to find his original family.

Episode #7: Recent and Upcoming Travel Experiences

• LoriA: Asheville, North Carolina – “San Francisco of the South”. Loved it for the beautiful mountain setting, the convergence of Yogis with Appalachian culture, dog friendliness (including the rescue organization Charlie’s Angels allowing the Aloft hotel to foster a dog at the hotel), good food and fantastic music (both coming together at the most fantastic Isis Music Hall).
• Maryam: the Caribbean (always a favorite of her family!) for Spring Break, and just completed planning summer vacation in North Haven, Maine. North Haven is one of Maine’s fourteen “unbridged” islands, making the getting there (planes, car, ferry) part of the adventure… and resulting in a true get-away from the usual hustle!
• Andrea: annual weekend mother-son trip with her older son, Ryan, this year to New Orleans for the French Quarter Jazz Fest where Ryan got to play jazz on stage at the Jazz Museum.
• LoriW: at the time of recording, she was just planning what she described as a “mostly” silent retreat to Assisi followed by good food on the coast. Stay tuned to future episodes to hear more!

Episode #8 Favorite Travel Experiences

• LoriA: any place coastal with wind for sailing – especially SF Bay, Chesapeake Bay, Pensacola and Gulf of Mexico, but not the Brazos River where LoriW learned to sail.
• AndreaG: Still looking for her ideal place, but she gravitates towards tropical with Blue Sand.  But nothing too remote…. she wants to eat and drink without too much worry. 
• Maryam: The Caribbean is always her top choice and she tends toward the same 3 islands. USVI (St John’s, St Thomas). She and Andrea should take more vacations together, because they both love tropical, water, warmth, and the coast.
• LoriW: Different favorites for different purposes. If forced to pick, Italy might win out – perfect combination of good food, history, coast and mountains.  Segmenting them by purpose: London is her go to for learning; Italy for food; Anywhere she hasn’t been for adventure.