The Roadmap to Money and Love with Abby Davisson
Your Working Life with Caroline Dowd-Higgins
Release Date: 06/09/2025
The Curiosity Curve with Dr. Debra Clary
Your Working Life with Caroline Dowd-Higgins
In this episode Caroline interviews Debra Clary, author of the new book The Curiosity Curve: A Leader's Guide to Growth and Transformation through Bold Questions. Clary believes curiosity isn't just a nice-to-have soft skill but a competitive edge that drives agility, innovation and collaboration. Drawing from more than three decades of executive experience, she shows leaders how to turn "quiet quitters" into passionate advocates by creating cultures where structured exploration and bold questioning are woven into daily operations. Learn more about Deb and order her book at . More...
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From Story to Action with Sally Perkins
Your Working Life with Caroline Dowd-Higgins
If you can tell a good story, you can persuade someone of something. That’s the premise of strategic storytelling expert Sally Perkins’s new book, From Story to Action. In this episode, Sally and Caroline talk about how neuroscience research shows well-told stories literally sync the brains of listeners with the storyteller—creating shared experiences that drive decisions and inspire action. More from Sally Perkins: Order Sally’s book and read more about her work at More from Caroline Dowd-Higgins: Head to to , check out or .
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Transform the World with Integrity, Impact and Purpose with Eveline Shen
Your Working Life with Caroline Dowd-Higgins
In this episode, Caroline interviews Eveline Shen, a social change strategist who teaches leaders how to navigate oppression, adversity, and complex challenges without compromising their values or burning out. In her new book, Choosing to Lead Against the Current: The Courageous Operating System for Changemakers, Shen shares her revolutionary framework for helping leaders cultivate sustainable power, turn setbacks into sources of strength, and redefine success on their own terms. More from Eveline Shen: Order her book and learn more about her work at her website More from Caroline...
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Claim Financial Freedom and Build a Life You Love with Steph Wagner
Your Working Life with Caroline Dowd-Higgins
After Steph Wagner experienced financial devastation following an unexpected divorce—despite being financially savvy person—she transformed her pain into purpose, dedicating her career to ensuring other women never feel financially powerless. In her new book, FLY! A Woman's Guide to Financial Freedom and Building a Life You Love, Wagner tackles a sobering reality: 80% of women will manage their finances alone at some point, yet half still defer financial planning to partners. Drawing from both her professional expertise and personal journey, she offers women an empowering, tools-based...
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How to Thrive Working with Fear-Based Leaders Kate Lowry
Your Working Life with Caroline Dowd-Higgins
Kate Lowry is a CEO coach, venture capitalist, and author who has made it her mission to help people not just survive but thrive under toxic leadership. In this episode, Caroline interviews Kate about her new book, Unbreakable: How to Thrive Under Fear-Based Leaders, where Lowry explains why domineering, manipulative leadership is making a troubling comeback—and offers tactical strategies for maintaining your autonomy when working under such leaders. Drawing from her own experience growing up in a hierarchical family and working in high-pressure environments at McKinsey, Meta, and Insight...
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The Unexpected Power of Boundaries with Sheri Jacobs
Your Working Life with Caroline Dowd-Higgins
What if the key to sparking real innovation isn't unlimited freedom—but strategic constraints? In this episode, Caroline sits down with Sheri Jacobs, author and innovation strategist, to explore this counterintuitive fact: boundaries don't stifle creativity, they fuel it. In her latest book, The Unexpected Power of Boundaries: Rethinking the Rules, Risks, and Real Drivers of Innovation, Sheri challenges conventional wisdom about creativity and shares practical strategies for making innovation a repeatable habit rather than a lucky accident. Through stories from Pixar to polar expeditions,...
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How to Reject Competition and Unlock Success w/ Ruchika Malhotra
Your Working Life with Caroline Dowd-Higgins
What if the very thing we've been taught drives success is actually holding us back? In this episode, Caroline sits down with Ruchika T. Malhotra, founder of global inclusion strategy firm Candour and author of the groundbreaking new book UNCOMPETE: Rejecting Competition to Unlock Success. Ruchika challenges one of the workplace's most fundamental assumptions: that competition is necessary for excellence. Drawing on her extensive work with major corporations, insights from business leaders, and cutting-edge research, she makes a compelling case that our obsession with competing is actually...
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The Secure Leader with Jaime Goff
Your Working Life with Caroline Dowd-Higgins
In this episode, Caroline interviews Jaime Goff about her new book The Secure Leader: Discover the Hidden Forces that Shape Your Leadership Story - and How To Change Them. Jaime argues that effective modern leadership requires more than mastering techniques—it demands deep self-understanding. Drawing on attachment theory and psychology, Goff shows how leaders' emotional blueprints shape their behaviors and offers a transformative framework for deconstructing and reauthoring their narratives to lead with authenticity and purpose. The book provides practical guidance on integrating emotional...
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This Isn’t Working with Meghan French Dunbar
Your Working Life with Caroline Dowd-Higgins
When a woman moves into a leadership position at work, she is much more likely to burnout, be depressed and face different criticism than her male colleagues. It's something author Meghan French Dunbar experienced herself, and why she wrote her new book,This Isn't Working: How Working Women Can Overcome Stress, Guilt, and Overload to Find True Success. Meghan interviewed leaders like Eileen Fisher and former Patagonia CEO Rose Marcario to reveal why contemporary business culture disproportionately harms women and causes epidemic levels of burnout. Rather than asking women to "lean in harder,"...
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Unblock Your Leadership with Muriel Wilkins
Your Working Life with Caroline Dowd-Higgins
Muriel Wilkins is a leadership coach, Harvard Business Review podcast host, and author whose new book Leadership Unblocked tackles the unconscious beliefs that prevent leaders from reaching their full potential. Caroline and Muriel talk about the hidden "blockers"—such as "I know I'm right" and "I need to be involved"—that cause common leadership frustrations, and how leaders can recognize when the problem isn't their team or circumstances, but their own mindset. More from Muriel Wilkins: Buy Muriel's book: Follow Muriel on and . More from Caroline Dowd-Higgins: Head to to ,...
info_outline Abby Davisson episode:
Quickening by malictusmusic (source: Free Music Archive) (CC BY)
Abby Davisson is an author, speaker, and award-winning leader obsessed with holistic decision-making (the kind that takes multiple bottom lines into account). After spending two decades making change from within existing organizations, she launched her own, focused on helping leaders make smart choices for lasting success in work and life. The book she co-wrote with Stanford Professor and labor economist Myra Strober, Money and Love: An Intelligent Roadmap for Life's Biggest Decisions, was called “brilliant” by professional poker player Annie Duke; named a top business book of 2023; and is required reading at Stanford's Graduate School of Business.
Prior to launching the Money and Love Institute®, Abby’s professional experience included strategy-focused roles in the public, private, and non-profit sectors, including a decade at Gap Inc. where she led the Gap Foundation and co-founded the company’s employee resource group for working parents.
Abby holds a BA from Yale University (from which she graduated summa cum laude) and an MBA and MA in Education from Stanford University. She lives with her husband and two sons in San Francisco, where she serves on the board of Children’s Day School. She’s also an aspiring tennis player, dark chocolate fan, and resale shopping maven. You can learn more about her at www.abbydavisson.com.
Social media links:
· LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abbydavisson/
· Substack: https://abbydavisson.substack.com
· Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abby.davisson/