Episode 31: Practicing Self-Empathy with Whitney Hess

Sponsored By:
Panelists Justin Dorfman | Eric Berry | Richard Littauer
Guest Whitney Hess (https://whitneyhess.com/) Executive Coach Show
Notes Whitney Hess is the special guest today. She is an Executive
Coach, supporting business leaders of various kinds to help them be
the best version of themselves. With COVID-19 happening right now
it’s affecting everyone. People are stressed, overwhelmed,
emotional, anxious, and have a whole rollercoaster of emotions.
Remember, we are all human and you are not alone. And, if you’ve
never meditated, you will want to after listening to this episode.
01:21 Whitney clarifies what an Executive Coach is and what she
does. She also explains how she differentiates from a Life Coach.
03:00 To cut to the chase, Richard wonders how COVID-19 has
affected her business and how has it affected the way she helps
people during this time. 05:35 On the brighter side of things,
Whitney talks about how people are able to work on legacy code
because their companies aren’t as in demand and they can do various
things that they’ve been putting off. 06:50 Justin wants to know if
maintainers would get a lot of value out of Whitney’s management
coaching, especially helping FOSS Responders who are dealing with
COVID-19. 12:34 “Empathy” is discussed in depth. There is a
misconception about empathy and Whitney also explains self-empathy.
15:59 Eric has a question about persona, and he wonders if there is
a mother and a maintainer and she’s really stressed, has to feed
her kids, teach them, maintain open source and she doesn’t have
time to walk away from her computer, what advice does Whitney have
for that sort of person. Let’s say “meditation” is talked about,
and reprioritizing and re-evaluating our values. 22:37 Richard
talks about how one night he hit rock bottom emotionally and
physically and what he did to make himself happy. Justin talks
about how he was feeling fatigued by everything happening with work
and what’s happening in the world and what he did to feel mentally
separated and enjoy himself. 25:27 Whitney stresses how especially
now, we need to allow ourselves moments of joy. Try to find a
little bit of space to allow ourselves to be happy in that moment.
She goes more into this with some very uplifting advice. Quotes
12:48 “I think a misconception about empathy is that it’s all about
what we give to others, when in actuality it starts with what we
give to ourselves.” 14:28 “You need to put your oxygen mask on
first before you help others!” 17:17 “If you don’t have time to
meditate once a day, meditate twice a day!” Links Whitney Hess
(https://whitneyhess.com/) Whitney Hess Twitter
(https://twitter.com/whitneyhess?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor)
Whitney Hess Blog (https://whitneyhess.com/blog/) “My Neighbor
Totoro”
(https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/amzn1.dv.gti.1cb73a61-ce14-22f8-c897-e68434bc69eb?autoplay=1)
Special Guest: Whitney Hess.