Clive Steeper and Sue Stockdale reflect on this guest hosted series 12 and what they enjoyed about the episodes, including:

• The value of reflection
• Overcoming fears and stepping into the unknown
• Leadership, and self-leadership

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Reflections on guest-hosted series transcription

[00:00:00] Sue: hi, I’m Sue Stockdale, your host of the Access to Inspiration podcast. The podcast with the social mission to help you be inspired by people who may be unlike you. As always, we hope the insights from our guests cause you to reflect on your own perspectives about the world and make you think. Over the last four weeks, we have published some guest hosted episodes on the value of mentoring, documenting a river’s journey, overcoming fear of swimming in deep water, and an innovative architecture program run by rural studio in Alabama. I said I’d invite my co-founder, Clive steeper along to get his reflections on the series. Welcome, Clive.

[00:00:45] Clive: Well, thank you very much, Sue. Pleased to be here.

[00:00:47] Sue: Having listened to all the episodes, I’m wondering what your reflections are. Did a theme emerge for you?

[00:00:55] Clive: Yes, A theme did emerge, but also I’d just like to add right up front that how, how fantastic it is that even in those four podcasts, we covered experiences of people in North America, South America, Africa, and Europe we’re really covering the globe. I think that is just great for access to inspiration. In terms of the themes for me, one was around leadership and not just in the way people might think of leaders leading people, but it’s about people leading themselves. And the theme of overcoming fear was the other thing that really came out for me. The way that Pierre talked about how he went into the unknown with the river and then Rob with that interview on swimming and how people take on the challenge of overcoming their fears.

[00:01:55] Sue: Yeah. There is a theme that also emerged for me in a slightly different way, though I was thinking about it in terms of guests that we’ve spoken to previously taking on the role of host, and for some, that was most of them in fact, that was a new experience. So a little bit of trepidation and fear, no doubt. In doing so, taking over the reins and also our fear as hosts and founder of the podcast is, well, we put somebody else in the hot seat. How do they get on? What do the listeners think? So, lots of unknowns all around, which is a good thing, I think, to push ourselves to be adaptable.

[00:02:40] Clive: Absolutely. Performance doesn’t come from just standing still. So going into the unknown is, for me, a fundamental and I think it was also heartening to see that maybe you’ll be out of a job because there’s other people who can do these podcasts so well.

[00:02:56] Sue: Absolutely. It’s, this is a whole point about the Access Inspiration podcast is that everyone can be inspirational. We are just providing the catalyst here to get these conversations to kick off. And curiosity was one of the things that I noticed that was a thread that many of the guests that were talking. we’re following we heard James kisser talk about the curiosity about nature and growing things. Rachel asked him about that. Pierre, of course, was curious was what was happening down down river as they paddled down or allowed the river to take them and also, for example, Andrew Freear, the curiosity that these students must have when they’re not only tasked with designing a building, they’ve got to build it too.

[00:03:44] Clive: Yeah. And I, and I think to, to Andrew’s credit, it’s also he is probably subliminally for the students, but he’s helping them to become more curious because he was getting them to think about things in terms of cultural adaption and not just working on their own perceptions. It’s checking the perceptions of other interested parties or society and parties who may be affected by what they are designing.

[00:04:10] Sue: Well, that’s certainly true and need to understand the bigger system, that we’re any of the people we’re, are operating in. to be able to understand that not everyone views the world in the way that we do.

[00:04:22] Clive: No, absolutely. And, speaking of the bigger system, Racheal, as she was concluding her podcast seemed to me to be reflecting on the stage at which leadership has developed within some of the NGOs such that local leaders could take on more responsibility and show their talents they’re ready to take on bigger roles. And so it’s then down to the NGOs and the government departments or functions to trust these local leaders to take on these bigger roles. I thought that was, was really exciting. And probably the thing that most made me tingle was when Pierre was reflecting on one of his if you like, distillations after his project.

And that was the question. taking the time for life as opposed to having the time of your life because that project for him was a wonderful time in his life. But what he’s realized is the importance of taking time for life are not just being run and organized by project schedules and demands of emails and everything else. It’s actually taking the time to reflect and embrace what has happened and they may be planned forward. And just thinking about how things have changed.

[00:05:44] Sue: Yeah, there’s, there’s so much there, Clive, from what you see it, it was making me think andrew Freear, I think mentioned it in the final podcast, is to leave our preconceptions by the door. can any of us truly be non-judgmental? Can we go into a situation and a conversation with curiosity and seeing what will emerge? Just as in a way we are doing in this conversation, and I hope that listeners have already had the experience and all of the many conversations we’ve already had on this podcast is if, if the host is willing to trust, the person talking, who knows where that thread of the conversation can take us.

[00:06:32] Clive: Yeah. And and perhaps also there is the aspect of tolerance. It’s tolerance in, in how things are going. I mean, being slightly lighthearted, it could be that,I don’t like your Scottish accent so I’m not going to have the conversation with you. Instead it’s saying I learned to live with the Scottish accent, cos I see through that to have the conversation and I think there is so. there is something there about the power of listening as opposed to being controlled by your cognitive biases.

[00:07:03] Sue: Well, you’re making, our listener think perhaps in a different way today, Clive, as we just close these reflections on the last four episodes. What would be your take on recording some other guest hosted episodes in future?

[00:07:18] Clive: I think we should do it. I, I think getting these different perspectives I think is very, very powerful. And as, as Rob Lawrence said when he was speaking about those swimmers who have overcome this fears, they’re amazing people. And I would argue they’re more than just amazing people. They’re inspirational people, but to your point earlier, they probably don’t. So they are inspirational and that’s where I think in these conversations those people will be having, they can help to realize.

[00:07:46] Sue: Well, great to get your perspectives on these last four weeks, these last four episodes.

Clive. Thanks also to our four guests, Racheal Wanjiku Kigame, Brendan Davis, Rob Lawrence and Josh Wasserman, who were our guest hosts. Remember, you can read transcriptions for all of the episodes on our website, access to inspiration.org, and keep in touch with us on social media. Just look for access to inspiration.

We’ll be back again in a few weeks with a new series, and I look forward to connecting with you then. Thanks, Clive, too.

[00:08:21] Clive: Thank you very much, Sue.

Sound Editor: Matias de Ezcurra (he/him)

Producer: Sue Stockdale (she/her)