In this episode, Whitney Hess tells the tale of exciting projects, finding focus, and deciding when it’s time to slowly back away.
The story is entertaining and interesting but also full of insights that may make you question how you define — or even experience — failure.
“I’ve made many, many mistakes, but I don’t hold them that way. I don’t really have failure in my vocabulary.” — Whitney Hess
Whitney spent time before the interview checking her receipts. That’s right, she’s got details saved in email and she did her research to get the details straight. It makes for a great story, and there may be a happy ending…
Episode highlights:
- [3:00] Whitney explains her point of view on failure
- [5:00] Whitney looks at her past self and begins the story
- [7:00] Book ideas abound
- [9:00] More ideas, more confusion
- [11:00] She ghosted
- [12:00] The fallout
- [19:00] Have you been ghosted?
About our guest
Whitney Hess is a coach, writer, and designer on a mission to put humanity back into business. She believes empathy builds empires.
Whitney helps progressive creative leaders design their careers and accelerate their missions. Her techniques help people gain self-awareness, identify blind spots, navigate obstacles, and bring their whole selves to their work.
For more than a decade, Whitney was a user experience consultant making technology easier and more pleasurable to use. She has been recognized for her work with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Foundation Center, Seamless, Boxee, and WNYC. She is named as a co-inventor on a U.S. patent with American Express.
Whitney is a two-time graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, with a Master’s in Human-Computer Interaction and a Bachelor’s in Professional Writing and HCI. She is a Certified Integral Coach through New Ventures West and a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) with the International Coaching Federation. She writes on her blog Pleasure & Pain, co-hosts the podcast Designing Yourself, and speaks at conferences and corporations worldwide.
A native New Yorker, Whitney currently lives in Maine with her partner Fredrick Selby. They are in the early stages of planning their circumnavigation.
