Imagine Belonging at Work

What happens when the identities and stories we've carried for years no longer fit? In the opening conversation of Lead Embodied: Wisdom for Leading Through Uncertainty, Rhodes Perry sits down with author, keynote speaker, and leadership thought partner Joel Davis Brown to explore the courage it takes to release inherited pain, tell the stories we've learned to hide, and become more fully ourselves. Drawing from his deeply personal memoir, I Had to Become the Father, Joel shares what he has learned about healing, vulnerability, belonging, and the transformative power of telling the truth about our lives. Together, Rhodes and Joel explore what these lessons can teach leaders navigating extraordinary uncertainty and disruption—including what happens when we censor the parts of ourselves that could create the deepest connection and trust. Why Healing Belongs in Leadership Healing isn't simply about repairing ourselves so we can continue navigating the world. It can also be an invitation to know ourselves more fully, reclaim our power, and create a life more aligned with who we are. In this conversation, we explore how: Inherited Stories Shape Leadership. The beliefs and identities we inherit from family, culture, and community can quietly influence how we show up, connect, and lead. Vulnerability Creates Connection. When we stop hiding the parts of ourselves we've learned to censor, we create new possibilities for trust, belonging, and authentic connection. Healing Reclaims Our Agency. We don't have to wait for someone else to give us permission to become more fully ourselves. Healing can begin with telling the truth about what we've been carrying.  Conversation Highlights  In this conversation, you'll hear Joel and Rhodes explore:  The Stories We Carry. How do we begin to recognize which stories belong to us—and which ones we inherited? Belonging to Ourselves. What happens when we repeatedly censor parts of ourselves in order to belong, and what becomes possible when we begin coming home to ourselves? Leading Through Uncertainty. When we don't know what happens next, how can healing and self-awareness help us stay connected rather than reach immediately for control? Embodied Leadership. How can we recognize, in our bodies, when we're moving away from ourselves—and when we're returning to what matters most Show Notes & Resources  🌱 Explore Lead Embodied. Learn more about Rhodes' forthcoming book and the Lead Embodied approach to navigating uncertainty with greater presence, authenticity, and ease: https://www.rhodesperry.com/leadembodied 📚 Join the Lead Embodied Book Experience. Starting next month, paid Substack subscribers can journey through Lead Embodied one chapter at a time, with early access to the book, companion somatic practices, and reflection guides before its retail release in winter 2027: https://rhodesperry.substack.com/p/leadembodied ✉️ Stay Connected with Rhodes. Subscribe to the Rhodes Perry Leads newsletter to be the first to hear when early-bird registration opens: www.rhodesperry.com/subscribe. 🎙️ Follow the Imagine Belonging Podcast. Continue the conversation and explore upcoming episodes in the Lead Embodied: Wisdom for Leading Through Uncertainty author series: www.rhodesperry.com/podcast. Thank You for Growing the #BelongingMovement!

What if becoming a more grounded, authentic leader isn't about learning another leadership technique—but about coming home to yourself? In this episode of Imagine Belonging, Rhodes Perry shares what's coming this fall as Lead Embodied moves from book to practice. While Lead Embodied won't be available for retail purchase until January 2027, you don't have to wait to begin exploring its approach to embodied leadership, somatic awareness, authenticity, and navigating uncertainty with greater presence and less reactivity. Rhodes introduces three ways to experience Lead Embodied this fall: 🎨 The Lead Embodied Book Experience Beginning in October, paid subscribers to Rhodes Perry Leads can embark on a 12-month journey through Lead Embodied—one chapter, one practice, and one reflection each month. It's a self-paced opportunity to move beyond simply reading about embodied leadership and begin integrating it into everyday life and leadership. 🌿 The Lead Embodied Path Ready for a deeper experience? This six-week immersive journey brings the methodology to life through guided somatic practices, reflection, conversation, and community. Together, we'll explore how to cultivate the presence, awareness, wisdom, compassion, and authenticity needed to lead through change and disruption. 🏢 Lead Embodied for Organizations Organizations can bring this work directly into the challenges their leaders and teams are facing through customized executive coaching and cohort-based leadership development. These experiences help leaders strengthen their capacity to navigate uncertainty, difficult conversations, organizational change, and disruption while sustaining trust, connection, and performance. At the heart of every experience is the same invitation: Stop performing leadership. Listen inward. Come back to what matters. And meet whatever comes next without losing yourself—or one another. Episode Highlights Why we don't have to learn or lead alone Why Lead Embodied is designed to be experienced, not simply read The new 12-month Lead Embodied Book Experience on Substack How paid subscribers will receive one chapter and practice each month What makes the six-week Lead Embodied Path different from self-paced learning How somatic practice can cultivate greater awareness, wisdom, compassion, and authenticity Three ways to bring Lead Embodied into your own life, leadership, or organization How executive coaching and cohort learning can translate the book's ideas into everyday leadership practice Why embodied leadership matters when we're navigating uncertainty and relentless disruption Show Notes & Resources 📬 Join the Lead Embodied Book Experience Subscribe to Rhodes Perry Leads for reflections on embodied leadership, belonging, and the human side of transformation. Paid subscribers will receive exclusive access to the 12-month Lead Embodied Book Experience beginning this fall. Subscribe: https://rhodesperry.substack.com/p/leadembodied  🌿 Go Deeper with the Lead Embodied Path Ready for a more immersive experience? Join Rhodes for six weeks of guided practice, reflection, conversation, and community. October 15–November 19 | Thursdays, 4–6 PM PT Learn more: Lead Embodied Path 🏢 Bring Lead Embodied to Your Organization Explore customized executive coaching and cohort-based learning experiences designed to help leaders and teams navigate uncertainty, change, and disruption with less reactivity and more ease. Explore organizational experiences: https://www.rhodesperry.com/connect 📬 Stay Connected Subscribe to Rhodes Perry Leads for ongoing reflections, practices, and conversations about embodied leadership, authenticity, belonging, and the human side of transformation. Subscribe: rhodesperry.com/subscribe 🎙️ Have a Question for Rhodes? Enjoying the podcast? Send Rhodes a voice message with your question about leadership, authenticity, belonging, or navigating change. Your question may be featured on a future episode—and Rhodes will always send a recorded response back: https://www.speakpipe.com/RhodesPerry  ⭐ Enjoying the podcast? Follow Imagine Belonging, leave a review, and share this episode with someone who could use the reminder that they don't have to navigate change alone. The leader you've been searching for isn't someone you have to become. It's someone you've been learning to return to. Lead embodied—together, let's grow the belonging movement.    

We're living through a tremendous amount of uncertainty and change. Disruption at work, polarization in our communities, rapid technological change, and the stress and grief that accompany them can ask more of us than we realize. In this episode, I explore a question at the heart of my forthcoming book, Lead Embodied: When the pressure is on, who do you become? Knowing what to do isn't always enough. The deeper leadership challenge is accessing our wisdom, embodied compassion, and authentic presence when circumstances become uncertain and the stakes feel high. I share why I believe wellness belongs in our professional lives—and why embodied leadership isn't reserved for CEOs or the boardroom. Whether you're leading a team, building a business, caring for a family, serving a community, creating art, or simply navigating your own life, the way you show up matters. At the heart of this work is an invitation to listen inward, reconnect with what matters, and develop the capacity to respond rather than react. Because the leader you've been searching for isn't someone you have to become. It's someone you've been learning to return to. Episode Highlights Why knowing what to do isn't always enough when circumstances become uncertain The question: Who do you become when the pressure is on? How the body provides information that can expand inner capacity to choose how to respond Why wellness and embodied leadership belong in our professional and personal lives How somatic practices can help you move from reaction toward greater choice Why you don't have to be a CEO to practice leadership The connection between embodied leadership, authenticity, and belonging Why transformation doesn't have to be a solitary experience How Lead Embodied invites us to return to ourselves rather than perform who we think we're supposed to be An invitation to pause, listen inward, and reconnect with what matters most Show Notes & Resources 🕊️ Join the Collective Peace Share While leadership may begin within, we were never meant to do this work alone. The Collective Peace Share is a complimentary virtual gathering for embodied practice, connection, reflection, and renewal. Learn more / RSVP: https://belongingatwork.kartra.com/page/lst282  📖 Learn More About Lead Embodied Lead Embodied introduces the foundational framework behind my embodied leadership methodology. Through stories, science, reflective practices, and a 12-week coaching journey, the book invites readers to listen inward, reconnect with what matters, and cultivate the capacity to lead with greater wisdom, embodied compassion, and authenticity. Learn more: https://www.rhodesperry.com/substack  ✨ Explore Somatic Coaching If you're navigating a particularly demanding season, you're invited to explore what somatic coaching might make possible for you—not by giving you another strategy to follow, but by helping you discover what matters most and develop the capacity to respond from there. Schedule a 1:1 chemistry call: https://www.rhodesperry.com/connect  🎙️ Tell Me What Matters Most I'd love to hear what's alive for your leadership right now.  Record a message: https://www.speakpipe.com/RhodesPerry  ⭐ Enjoying the podcast? Follow Imagine Belonging, leave a review, and share this episode with a leader who could use the reminder that they don't have to become someone else to lead differently. Lead embodied.  

In this episode, Rhodes introduces Rhodes Perry Leads, a new newsletter exploring embodied leadership, belonging cultures, and the human side of transformation. While the Imagine Belonging Podcast continues to be a space for conversations about belonging, culture, leadership, and community, Rhodes Perry Leads expands that conversation through reflections, practices, and exclusive experiences available to newsletter subscribers. Together, these spaces explore a deeper question: How do we become the kind of leaders who create belonging spaces where people can truly thrive? He also shares how this work connects three parts of the larger Rhodes Perry Consulting ecosystem: 🎨  Lead Embodied. The leadership philosophy and practices that help us respond wisely under pressure, communicate with authenticity, and lead with purpose. 🔮 Imagine Belonging. An ongoing global conversation about belonging, organizational culture, and the practices that help people and communities flourish. 🌍 The Belonging Movement. A community centered on collective practice, connection, and support as we imagine and build a more belonging-centered world big enough for all of us. Because the deeper truth of this work is: 🚫 Rhodes isn't teaching leaders how to belong. ✅ He's coaching leaders on how to become the kind of people who create belonging spaces. Episode Highlights Why lasting leadership transformation begins within The hidden exhaustion leaders are carrying in this moment Why leadership is not simply something we do, but something we embody How embodied leadership helps us navigate complexity and uncertainty The evolution of Rhodes Perry Leads and how it complements the Imagine Belonging Podcast The connection between Lead Embodied, Imagine Belonging, and the Belonging Movement Why belonging is created through the everyday choices leaders make How executive coaching, workshops, keynotes, leadership cohorts, and organizational partnerships bring these ideas into practice Why community remains essential to the work of transformation Show Notes & Resources 📬 Subscribe to Rhodes Perry Leads Receive reflections on embodied leadership, belonging, and the human side of transformation—along with exclusive practices, conversations, and invitations to experiences available only to newsletter subscribers. Subscribe: https://www.rhodesperry.com/subscribe  🌿 Join the Belonging Practice Come together for a guided opportunity to slow down, reconnect, and practice embodied leadership in community. Learn more / RSVP: https://belongingatwork.kartra.com/page/comp-somatics  🕊️ Join the Collective Peace Share Gather in community to share, listen, and cultivate collective care during challenging times. Learn more / RSVP: https://belongingatwork.kartra.com/page/lst282  ✨ Learn to Lead Embodied Curious about how embodied leadership could support you or your organization? Schedule a 1:1 consultation to explore what it means to lead with greater authenticity, presence, and trust. Book a 1:1 consultation: https://chatwithrhodes.as.me/schedule/53ace462/appointment/1957611/calendar/804205?appointmentTypeIds[]=1957611  ⭐ Enjoying the podcast? Follow Imagine Belonging, leave a review, and share this episode with a leader who could use the reminder that they don't have to become someone else to lead differently. The leader you've been searching for isn't someone you have to become. It's someone you've been learning to return to. Lead embodied.  

For years, I believed better leadership meant working harder, knowing more, and holding everything together. In this solo episode, I explore the leadership lesson that changed everything: authentic leadership doesn't happen only in our minds—it happens through our bodies. Drawing from my own journey and my new book, Lead Embodied, I share why embodied leadership is essential for navigating uncertainty, building trust, and leading with greater presence. Leadership Comes Home Leadership is tested during times of uncertainty, change, and challenge—not when everything is going according to plan. In this episode, you'll learn how to: Lead Beyond Performance. Why authentic presence builds more trust than performing confidence. Understand Your Nervous System. How stress shapes leadership long before we're aware of it. Respond Instead of React. How somatic awareness creates more intentional leadership. Return Home to Yourself. Why sustainable leadership begins with self-connection. Episode Highlights [00:01] The hidden cost of high-performance leadership. [03:45] Why leadership lives in the body. [06:20] Knowing what to do vs. accessing it under pressure. [08:50] How stress quietly shapes communication and decision-making. [11:30] Why I wrote Lead Embodied. [14:00] The invitation to lead from presence instead of performance. "The leader you've been searching for isn't someone you need to become. It's the authentic leader already living within you—waiting to be uncovered, trusted, and embodied." — Rhodes Perry Show Notes & Resources 📬 Subscribe to Imagine Belonging Receive weekly insights on embodied leadership, belonging, and organizational culture here: https://www.rhodesperry.com/subscribe.  💬 Join the Conversation What helps you stay grounded when leadership gets difficult? Record your reflections here and connect directly to Rhodes for insights and new ideas: https://www.speakpipe.com/RhodesPerry. ✨ Work with Rhodes Interested in somatic executive coaching? Schedule a complimentary discovery call to explore what's possible: https://chatwithrhodes.as.me/connect.  ⭐ Enjoying the podcast? Follow the show, leave a review, and share this episode with a leader who could use the reminder that authentic leadership begins from within.