On the Win Happy Podcast: Life, Love and Leadership

I sat down recently with Greg Canty for his Win Happy Podcast, and the conversation went further than I expected it to.

Greg has a way of asking questions that don't let you stay on the surface. We talked about where Stone By Stone came from, but we also talked about the years before it existed. The quiet girl in school who couldn't bring herself to read aloud in front of a class. The brain haemorrhage that put my own recovery to the test. Losing my son's father to suicide and later losing a business I'd built with my sister. And how the name Stone By Stone came directly out of that rebuilding, one small step taken when a small step was all that was possible.

I don't often tell this story in full. In client conversations I'm usually the one asking the questions, helping someone else work out what's holding their team back or where their own leadership needs to grow. This time I was the one answering, and it reminded me why I do this work in the first place. Leadership isn't a skill you pick up separately from the rest of your life. It's shaped by what you've survived, what you've lost and what you decide to build again afterward.

We also spoke about my work in suicide awareness, which sits alongside the leadership training but comes from the same place. If you've been touched by a loss like that, you carry a responsibility to talk about it honestly, not just to manage it quietly. That's part of why this conversation mattered to me. It's not a polished highlight reel. It's closer to the truth of how Stone By Stone actually came to exist.

If you'd like to listen, the full episode is here: Life, Love and Leadership with Therese Phipps

Thank you to Greg for the space to tell it properly.