Is It Bloody Working? Podcast

Most people who invest in their own development assume the desire to change is always the starting point. It isn’t.This episode looks at a distinction that sits underneath almost all of it - the difference between genuinely wanting to change and wanting to want to change. They’re not the same thing, and the gap between them explains a lot of the cases where inner work goes nowhere.JJ and Alexia get into why people stay stuck even when they’re doing the work. There’s the fear of uncertainty that makes a familiar discomfort preferable to an unknown better, the secondary gains that keep people attached to their problems and the hidden internal commitments that directly contradict stated goals. There’s research here that should stop you in your tracks, and there are client stories that might be uncomfortable if you recognise yourself in them.No cheerleading. No prescriptions. Just an honest look at the condition that sits underneath almost every other obstacle to change.Thanks for reading! This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit iibw.substack.com

The word consciousness has been ruined by two camps. The spiritual community made it mystical. The academic world made it inaccessible. Most people now hear the word and switch off.In this episode, JJ and Alexia reclaim it. Consciousness, properly understood, is the lens through which you experience everything. It shapes your outlook, your range of options, your capacity to hold load without breaking. It isn't your personality. It isn't fixed. And it's measurable.They walk through Caroline Myss's apartment building metaphor (same building, different floor, completely different view), the research that pushed back on the idea that you're stuck with what you've got, and what happens when someone's baseline shifts. Alexia tells the story of a client who burned out at six figures, did the work, and faced the same crisis a year later as if it were nothing.If you've been doing inner work for years and quietly wondered whether any of it is moving anything, this is the episode that names what you've been looking for all along. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit iibw.substack.com

Billions go into therapy, coaching, meditation and wellbeing every year, and almost nobody stops to ask the most basic question underneath it all. If it was working, what would that look like?JJ and Alexia open up the question at the heart of the show. Coping isn’t the same as growing. Functioning isn’t the same as thriving. Feeling better could reflect the sun coming out. So what does real change look like, and how do you know when it’s happened?“The minute the sun comes out, everyone feels better. But that doesn’t mean anything, really.”This episode unpicks why feelings fail as a measure, why the self-help industry’s obsession with ‘managing’ rather than resolving might be feeding the mental health crisis, and why Teflon personal development, the weekends that fire you up and wear off by Wednesday, isn’t the same as a shift in your baseline.It finishes with a question worth sitting with. When you look back at the work you’ve done on yourself, what actually changed in how you function? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit iibw.substack.com

The personal development industry is worth $4.5 trillion globally. Anxiety rates are rising. Mental health statistics are worsening. Suicide rates are going up. Something doesn’t add up.In this first episode, JJ and Alexia go after the question the industry consistently avoids: why does a sector built entirely around change have no standard for measuring whether change is happening? The International Coaching Federation’s own research shows fewer than 20% of coaches use any form of measurement with their clients. A 2021 review in the Journal of Evidence-Based Psychotherapies found that a significant proportion of therapy clients show no reliable improvement. Worse, a subset does the opposite - it deteriorates.But the measurement problem isn’t just an industry failure. It’s a personal one. You can be doing the work for years without knowing whether it’s moving anything or give up right when you’re finally making progress. This episode names the gap that the whole season sits inside. It’s not comfortable, but it’s necessary.Sit Spot: Think about something you’re currently doing for your own growth or wellbeing. Would you know if it stopped working? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit iibw.substack.com

The personal development industry is worth somewhere between $40 and $60 billion a year. The wellness industry is $4.5 trillion. And the most sophisticated measurement tool most practitioners use is asking someone how they feel on a scale of one to ten.This is Episode 0 — the one where JJ Stenhouse and Alexia Leachman introduce themselves, introduce the show, and make the case for why the question Is it bloody working? has been largely, and conveniently, unanswered. Alexia comes from business and marketing, which made her suspicious the moment she crossed into coaching and therapy. JJ comes from broadcast journalism and energy work, and kept running into the same problem from the other direction. Between them, they’ve co-founded Ladder of Growth — a measurement framework built to answer the question that nobody in the personal development world seems to want to sit with. This is the starting point. What you’re working on, why you’re doing it, and whether you actually know if it’s helping. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit iibw.substack.com