Debbie talks to Kathy Davies who teaches design thinking at Stanford and is the co-creator, with Susan Burnett, of the Designing Your Life for Women workshops. The workshops grew out of the bestselling book, Designing Your Life, by Stanford professors Bill Burnett and Dave Evans.

They talk about how design thinking crossed over from product design to designing your life, how the workshops for women got started, and why it is so important to take that first small step – even if you are dreaming big.

Debbie’s experience attending a DYLFW workshop in 2018 led to a three-minute audio recording that was the prototype for this podcast. So you can thank Kathy if you’re enjoying the podcast.

What they talked about:

• Dave Evans’s mantra for the book, Designing Your Life: “Get curious, talk to people, try things, and then tell your story”
• The difficult writing process behind the book (try and fail and try again)
• Why networking is more challenging for women
• Start Tiny: the importance of the first step
• Why women need a safe space to explore and share
• The importance of embracing uncertainty
• Kathy’s surprising advice to her younger and older selves

This is a great conversation with some solid tips on how to use the process of life design to reinvent yourself. It applies no matter what your age and is applicable to both women and men.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans
• Designing Your Life For Women (workshops co-created by Kathy Davies and Susan Burnett)
• Tiny Habits: the Small Changes That Change Everything by BJ Fogg
• The tagline for Debbie and Sam’s blog: “Hungering for Change and Embracing Uncertainty”
• Interview with Dave Evans in which he mentions: “Get curious, talk to people, try things, and then tell your story”
• 3-minute audio prototype for this podcast on SoundCloud
• Burnett and Evans’s new book, Designing Your Life For Work