Today, I'm going to be wrapping up season one of the Values Lab. So I'm going to reflect on the conversations I've had thus far and pick out a couple of really interesting themes. And there'll be a bit of a gap before season two. And I will also be working on a product called The Values Map. Actually, I've been testing it out and be bringing that to market. So I'll talk a little bit about that at the end of the episode as well. So welcome to the Values Lab, a podcast series for founders and portfolio career professionals seeking inspiration to live a more values-led life. I'm your host for today, Viran Tuckra, founder of In the Game and Values Map. And this is an episode that's looking back across the across the different guest interviews I've had, four interesting patterns that have emerged over the course of the interviews, or four things I've kind of noticed, which I think are quite interesting, four themes. And I guess the first one I'll start off with is that looking back across the episodes, no one's actually picked the same value. So you probably don't know this, but in terms of when the guests come on, I send the guest a um a calendar link to book. And in the book, the booking link they have to complete a little bit about themselves. And also they've got to pick one of their personal values that they're going to focus in on. So they've got complete choice over what they pick. And I didn't filter or have any influence over this. I was kind of interested to see what people would pick. And I was interested to see, even if people had, you know, they'd chosen the same value, what perspective they came at it from. And despite having this complete choice, no one actually landed on the on the same value. We've had such a mix of values, you know, from independence and courage through to sustainability, best self, all kinds of interesting, interesting things. So I think the for me, what's interesting when we're building out our own personal values and thinking about own personal values is that there's a, you know, quite a breadth of things to choose from. So I'm interested to see when we step into season two, what are some of the things that people pick and whether we'll get some similar values picked or not. But I think we've all got different life experiences, we've all got different parts, and there's, you know, ultimately we've got different things that we that we value. Now I'm sure if the guests had to share their kind of three to five values and they all did that, there'd be there'd be an overlap. But it's so interesting when we're kind of trying to pick one and we're forced to pick one, how much difference that can create. So in sharing that, I'd love for you to think about if you were to come on the show, what would be a value you talk to? And does it overlap with one of the ones that one of the previous guests has uh spoken to? Or is it something that's a little bit new? And I'd love to hear from you um kind of what would be the one that you'd talk to. But I think ultimately the whole point of this podcast is you know, values aren't generic. They're very, very um personal and individual. And it's worthwhile spending time to uh go through the process of identifying what ours are. The second theme, which I think is quite interesting, is the origin stories of the of the values. And I've I love the concept of origin stories. You know, the probably the most famous one is Spider-Man getting bit by a radioactive spider and developing all these powers. In the same way, I think our values are superpowers, but they come from very interesting places. And looking back across the episodes, thinking about um what each guest origin sort of story was for the for the values, there seemed to be the three clusters. Uh there one cluster was around, I guess, parental or familial influences, so people picking up values from a parent figure or from their family or a combination of the of the two. Uh for others, it was around changing circumstances, so actually either starting a business or parenting then puts us under this pressure cooker environment, and then we start discovering what our what our values are through being in that novel and new new environment. So I thought that was what was quite interesting. And then obviously values born out of crisis. So this is a a number of people had shared where they'd got through the to, I guess, a very low point, either through depression or panic attack or panic attacks or burnouts, that going through those very negative experiences and then reflecting on what what happened, coming out of the other side of that with a better understanding of what the values are. So I think thinking about your origin stories. So even thinking about your own values, you know, where are your own values coming from? Are they coming from positive figures in your life? Are they coming through putting yourself into new situations and experiences, or have you gone through a really low point and come out of that learning more about yourself and what what you value? So I think a worthwhile exercise reflecting on where your own values are coming from. Now the third one, which I I I don't want to say but I was staggered by, but it's like, you know, given the amount of conversation about the topic of AI and how prevalent that is, there was barely a mention of AI across the different episodes. We had uh uh Megan talk about using AI as a thought partner, but apart from that, it it barely came up. I guess it's quite interesting when we're thinking about values. I feel like they are one of, you know, when we talk about being more ourselves, connecting more with what makes us human, I do think values is that thing. And the fact that you know the AI didn't come up at all, well barely came up in these conversations, I think says to us that um the values is the human human thing. So and I I you know, this is not to say um there's no space for AI or technology, it's got got utility, but I do think a lot of technology in AI has got a different value set, you know, around efficiency, speed, optimization, scale. It's not the human stuff that AI tech does. You know, sometimes it does enable it, but it feels like it enables it, but I think the actual value set that most people have is very much focused on um the stuff that makes us human. And I often think then, you know, that the tech and AI can be a little bit of a blocker. So I know for me, I like I've said this in a number of episodes, my phone is my values blocker, it blocks access to things like creativity and fun, even though sometimes it feels like it is giving me that, it's giving me that at a much more surface level. So I think it's interesting thinking about the role that AI and technology play in kind of how you show up in your business, in your career, in your life. And are you trading something off for that? And is the trade-off something that is important to you? Or is it enabling you? And I think I'm I'm really interested to learn more about these stories, where actually it's a bit of an enabler to our values. But it didn't seem to come up a lot in the season one conversations. And then the last theme, which I think cannot be understated, is how important intentionality is to living a more values-led life. No one I spoke to is doing this by accident. Everyone is living their values in a very intentional way. That's either through conscious choices about how we spend our time and how we design our week, consciously thinking about the trade-offs we're making, building in rituals that are aligned to our values that make living our values not an accidental thing. The words we say to ourselves for self-talk and the mantras we use and all kinds of other techniques and tactics people are using. But it was very intentional. So I think when we think about our own values and how we live in line with them, it's like we need to do it by design. And it's not gonna happen by accident. There's forces that will draw us away from our own personal values because those forces, be that people, be that media, have other values and other things that are important to them and often not congruent. So we've got to be very deliberate about what we what we do. And I do also think, you know, the expression of values happens in in two ways. It kind of happens at this kind of individual solo level, solo level, where we're kind of like how we set up ourselves, how we think, the intentions we set, you know, but also it can be a connective tissue between us where we find other people that are values aligned and we share those values with others and live those values together together with others. So that's my reflection on season one. I'd like to give a massive thank you to all my amazing guests that jumped on board so enthusiastically with this concept. And, you know, it was one of the things that did buoy me. I, you know, sent out these messages to hey, do you want to come on the show? And I just got such positive, resounding uh uh sentiment towards it. And that was so encouraging to see. I'm really looking forward to season two. So we'll be looking at mixing up the format a little bit. So I think I'm still going to be keeping the single values focused, but I might mix up the format and questions a little bit and bring something new in. So I'd love to hear from you if you've got some ideas or suggestions around what that could look like. And as I mentioned, I have been sitting on a product I've been developing in the background called the values map. So it's something that started off as a series of workshops, actually, working with individuals to help them unpack and identify what their values are and then integrate those values into their businesses, the way they show up. And so it's it's something I'm gonna spend a little bit of time on. So one of the reasons I'm taking a break is I'm gonna spend some time on this, on this product and bringing it to market. It's um called the values map, which is very much aligned with some of the things we've been talking about in this podcast series. Um, and um, it's uh something to help people develop an understanding of what their values are. So, you know, that's often a question is well, well, how do I come up with my values? How do I understand what those are? So it takes you through a bit of a process to mapping those, but it also takes you through a process to integrate them into your business and career. So figuring out how do we use our values to really create a unique selling point, to be more distinctive in the marketplace. You know, it's very competitive, it's very noisy because of things like AI. It's like, but the our values, as we kind of touched on one of the themes, are the things that really make us human, really make us stand out. And so um the product and process will help us um get a better understanding of how we do that. Because I think one of the pieces of advice we get quite a lot is, you know, just you know, in the age of AI, be yourself more. But the thing is that how do you do it? And that's what I'm what I'm hoping this uh product will help us answer. So that's uh that's all for season one. Um I'd love to hear back from you if you've been listening. You know, if you were to come on the show, what's that value? What's your origin story for that value? What are some of the things you do, or even your ideas for season two? And I'll be back in probably I'd say three to four weeks with season two. Got some really interesting guests um lined up. So I'm sure you're going to uh love hearing more from them. Uh, and thank you for tuning in.