Season 4 wrap-up & 2025 Mix tape
Season 4 is done. In this wrap up episode, we walk through the moments that mattered over 9 episodes.
We also look back at the whole year. Think of this as our 2025 Work Mixtape.
Track 1: The Big Idea We’re Taking Seriously
Portfolio careers + contribution over credentials
This year fundamentally rewired how we think about “a proper career”:
Dan went from “12-month contracts feel risky” to “portfolio life might actually be the most secure option.”
Alice shifted from “I need one clear lane” to “I can be a brand strategist and podcaster and AI person – and that’s the point.”
Underneath it all is a bigger shift:
→ Less ‘what are your credentials?’ and more ‘what value can you actually bring?’
Track 2: The Guest Moments That Stuck
Claudia made us see LinkedIn differently: not as performative cringe, but as the most powerful way to stay front-of-mind if you show up honestly and consistently.
Antoinette reminded us that work, at its core, is about dignity, purpose and agency. Everything else is decoration.
Those two conversations alone probably shifted how we show up online – and why we care so much about talking about work at all.
Track 3: The Most Human Work Moments of 2025
Dan cried (more than once) during internal inclusion & belonging sessions, as people shared stories about neurodiversity, parenting, race, and everything else we normally edit out of “professional” life.
Alice ran storytelling workshops where people swapped real stories about “extraordinary things” at work – and remembered that narrative is how humans make sense of chaos.
If there was a theme here, it’s this:
The more complex work gets, the more we need very simple, very human connection.
Track 4: The Funniest / Weirdest Bits
The live coaching meltdown with Simon back in Season 1 still haunts Dan (and apparently quite a few listeners).
The fact that we once tried to “improve audio” by putting a scarf over Alice’s head will forever live rent-free in Riverside’s automatic screenshots.
Antoinette quietly folding the studio loo roll into a neat little point after recording might be the most on-brand detail of any guest we’ve had.
None of this is technically “content strategy”, but it’s very much the reality of how this thing gets made.
Track 5: What We’re Leaving Behind in 2025
Single-lane thinking – the idea that you have to pick one identity, one neat job title, one “shop front.”
Old work reflexes – like racing to be at your desk for 8:30am when no one’s watching, or assuming a “real job” means one full-time employer.
Those habits still pop up, but they’re not invited into 2026.
Track 6: What We’re Carrying Into 2026
Radical open-mindedness about what work can look like – roles, income streams, formats, platforms, all of it.
Generosity as a strategy – saying yes, sharing what we know, helping people without immediately asking “what’s in it for me?”
Some things will come back. Some won’t. Both are fine.
Track 7: Behind the Scenes We Probably Shouldn’t Admit
We had to re-record one of our most powerful episodes because we… didn’t record the guest audio.
We chased a potential guest around a conference venue until she agreed to come on the pod. Zero shame.
Spotify Wrapped screenshots from friends and listeners (where we show up as their #1 pod) are basically our emotional fuel.
Track 8: The Moment That Nearly Changed Everything
Dan almost went back into full-time employment when the fractional/portfolio work felt wobbly. Sticking it out a few more months changed the trajectory of the whole year.
Alice went from using AI to replace her thinking to using it to amplify it – and that shift has totally changed how she works.
Track 9: If 2025 Were a Song…
For Alice, it’s basically Lily Allen’s “West End Girl” on loop – reinvention, rage, and unapologetic honesty.
For Dan, it might genuinely be silence – because with this much information, community, and change swirling around, quiet has become the real soundtrack.
What’s Next
Season 5 is already underway. We’re partnering with She Shapes AI, lining up more live events, and leaning further into this strange intersection of AI, work, dignity and creativity.
If you want to be part of it:
Share this with someone whose work life is in flux
Send us the weirdest thing you’ve seen at work this year
Tell us what you want us to tackle next
Thanks for sticking with us all the way through 2025.
See you (and your career) in 2026.
