Goonies Never Say Die! How a Micro-Generation Fits in Today
The HX Podcast with Stacie Baird
If you remember making mixtapes off the radio and your parents' only rule was to be home when the streetlights came on, this episode is for you. Jenn and I are zeroing in on our specific slice of Gen X, a micro-generation we're calling the 'Goonies Generation'. We're the kids born in the late 70s who had one foot in an analog childhood of latchkey independence and another in a fully digital adulthood, making us the ultimate translators between the old and new school. We'll take a fun trip down memory lane talking about MTV, arcade games at Pizza Hut, and the terror of Cold War drills,...
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Redefining Midlife
The HX Podcast with Stacie Baird
In this episode, Jenn and I are diving deep into something we know a lot about: being Gen X and hitting that phase of life that people used to call a 'midlife crisis.' We're calling BS on that and reframing it as what it really is... a reboot. With our kids getting older, we finally have the space to ask what we want, not just what our families need. We get real about everything from navigating hormonal shifts and prioritizing sleep over everything else, to why I'm taking a whole pharmacy of supplements and have fully embraced my comfy, underwire-free wardrobe. It's about feeling our...
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Reality Bites: The Gen X Leadership Load
The HX Podcast with Stacie Baird
Hey humans, in this episode of the HX podcast, we're diving into the "Gen X Leadership Load". If you're a Gen Xer, you probably feel like the forgotten middle child, and I found some pretty jarring data that shows just how much we're dealing with. We're the first leaders in history to be sandwiched between four generations at work and two at home, acting as translators between old-school structures and new expectations. I'll share some specific stats from places like Pew Research and AARP on what this dual caregiving really costs us, both financially and emotionally. We were taught to just...
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Your Next Assignment: From Distraction to Restoration
The HX Podcast with Stacie Baird
In this week's episode of our #WorkWell series, I'm building on last week's assignment with a new one that is both simple and challenging. After taking time to reset, I started asking myself a critical question every time I felt the urge for a distraction: "What would actually restore me right now, not just distract me?" It's so easy to fall into mindless scrolling or shopping, but I've found those are just temporary fixes that don't address the root cause. True restoration takes intention, and the only real short-term answer to exhaustion is rest and recovery. My assignment for you is...
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One Thing You Can Do TODAY to Recognize If You Are Tired or Depleted
The HX Podcast with Stacie Baird
Hey humans, we're continuing our #WorkWell series, all about mental health in the workplace. In this episode, we're getting real about the difference between just being tired and being truly, deeply depleted. I know that feeling because I was just there myself. After we recorded our last episode on burnout, I felt almost out of my body, completely depleted and neurologically dysregulated. The only thing that could help was true rest and disconnection. So for this week, I have an exercise for you. It's an ask to take just five minutes every day to journal and really tune in to how you're...
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Stop Making Resilience a Requirement!
The HX Podcast with Stacie Baird
In the second of our small series on Mental Health at Work, Jenn Mason and I tackled a really challenging episode (as you can see by the title). We jumped right in by asking if resilience is being "weaponized" - used as a justification for harmful systems rather than a skill to be supported. We explore the dark side of a resilience culture, where praising people for surviving toxic, high-demand environments becomes a smokescreen for the actual problem. What is the difference between empowering people to heal versus requiring them to manage the harm inflicted upon them by broken systems?...
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You're Not Just Tired—You're Depleted
The HX Podcast with Stacie Baird
In the first episode of our "Mental Health at Work" series, my colleague Jenn Mason and I tackled the critical distinction between being tired and being truly depleted. We start by defining burnout as work-related exhaustion that happens over time, while compassion fatigue comes from the emotional toll of over-identifying with the suffering of others. We contend as well, though, that depletion is a much deeper state that impacts your core motivation and ability to connect, going far beyond simple exhaustion. Jenn and I were candid about how leaders, even us, in our own trauma-informed mental...
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What If You Decided to Believe in Abundance and Gratitude?
The HX Podcast with Stacie Baird
What if we could rewrite the rules of abundance? That's the question I tackle in my latest "What If" episode of the podcast. I believe we're on the cusp of a new era, one where we can move beyond the old, scarcity-driven models and embrace a future of limitless possibility. In this episode, I explore what it would mean to have a world of abundance, not just in terms of material wealth, but in all aspects of our lives: health, happiness, and human connection. I challenge the zero-sum thinking that has held us back for too long and propose a new narrative, one where we can all thrive together. I...
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What If You Believed You Are Enough?
The HX Podcast with Stacie Baird
Hey, humans. I want to talk about something that so many of us struggle with, and that's the feeling of not being enough. This is a part three of a series called "What If". I highly recommend going back and listening to the previous two if you haven't heard them already. I know that shame spiral all too well; when my life shifted in a single moment almost ten years ago, I found myself in a very dark place, believing I was flawed and unworthy. And as Brené Brown's research shows, that's the difference between guilt—I did something bad—and shame, which is the belief that I am bad . Let me...
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What If You Understood Control Is a Myth? Part 2 of the What If Series Continued
The HX Podcast with Stacie Baird
What if you understood that control is just a myth? I know so many of us, especially when we look at the news or our social media feeds, can feel a sense of complete overwhelm, like the world is totally out of control. And in response, we try to control what we can to feel safe and grounded. But what if that feeling of control is just an illusion? In this episode of our "What If" series, I want to challenge your thought process on this. We can do things to have a better life, like drinking more water or taking more steps, but we don't actually control the entire outcome. Research on the locus...
info_outlineIn the second of our small series on Mental Health at Work, Jenn Mason and I tackled a really challenging episode (as you can see by the title). We jumped right in by asking if resilience is being "weaponized" - used as a justification for harmful systems rather than a skill to be supported.
We explore the dark side of a resilience culture, where praising people for surviving toxic, high-demand environments becomes a smokescreen for the actual problem. What is the difference between empowering people to heal versus requiring them to manage the harm inflicted upon them by broken systems?
We talk about how this "grind it out" mentality is often hard-coded generationally, something Jenn and I personally experienced coming up in the Gen X workforce.
We share our own stories and hope you'll enjoy them as well.
Stacie
More episodes at StacieBaird.com.