In this Business Blast Podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Kristine Sloan, CEO of StartingBloc. Sloan shares a personal story about her seemingly disjointed resume, revealing a consistent thread of leadership across international development, academia, and her current role. She argues that leadership is the unsexy yet essential driver of systemic success. Sloan outlines four competencies she believes are critical for the future of work: connection (building authentic relationships), self‑awareness (self‑management in distributed, automated environments), maturity (wisdom in wielding powerful digital tools), and competence (technical and tactical skills). She critiques the traditional work‑life balance model, proposing instead a "work‑life flow" that aligns personal energy patterns with meaningful work. Sloan offers practical leadership advice—listen, be bold, follow through, and practice kindness—along with a blunt piece of advice to her younger self: "Shut up, you're not always right." On happiness, she emphasizes self‑awareness, peace, acceptance, and the importance of consistently showing up for work, self, and others. Her literary influences include Frederic Laloux’s Reinventing Organizations, the childhood classic The Secret Garden, and poetry by Naomi Shihab Nye and David Whyte. A favorite facilitation quote from Carl Jung—"until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate"—illustrates her focus on conscious leadership. The episode concludes with a plug for StartingBloc’s website.
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Welcome to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by WagsMedia. WagsMedia provides you with everything you need to generate more customers and grow your brand. Head on over to wagsmedia.com, W-A-G-S-M-E-D-I-A dot com, to enter a contest where you can win a free, done-for-you custom website valued at $2,500 for a limited time only.
Now let's jump into the episode. All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Christine Sloan with us and she believes that everyone can participate in cultivating the good in our world. This fact is both terrifyingly large and absolutely actionable, and Christine loves a good action item. Christine is the CEO of StartingBloc. StartingBloc believes that leadership matters. Culture is set and created by people. Christine believes that the culture of leadership must undergo a radical shift in order for us to build thriving, equitable systems on the planet. Welcome to the show.
Thank you.
Of course. Grateful to have you here. We'll dive into the first one. The first one I have for you, Christine, is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
My, the story of my resume, I think, has a good underlying message. And that if you read through my resume, you're probably like, this makes no sense. Like, this girl has jumped all over the place. And actually, for me, there's a really tangible red thread. I worked in international development, I worked in the university space, and then I came to StartingBloc 3 years ago. And I experienced through direct service work and also kind of building new leaders when I was in the university space, that leadership touches every piece of all the systems that I care about. And I couldn't get around it. I couldn't in my direct service work, I was looking to build products and services and like create meaningful employment. At the end of the day, it was public sector leadership. It was leadership within the groups that really determined whether things were successful or not. And so that story of the importance of leadership and also how leadership is incredibly unsexy, but really has led into what I, what I do. Now.
Totally. And I feel like too, just to kind of elaborate on, I think a common theme that I saw from reading through it is culture as well, which is in alignment with leadership, but kind of how it kind of reminded me maybe of what Simon Sinek speaks about, things of that nature. So the next one I have for you is what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
Work is really shifting, and we know that. We know that work is becoming more automated, it's becoming more distributed, kind of our systems of work are changing. But I also think that our relationship with work is changing. The notion of like work-life balance, which can be very annoying to some people, is morphing into what does it look like to have a life that's not necessarily oriented around our work? How do we have work that expresses our values? So many people are looking for those kinds of workplaces. And yet our workplaces are really not in this moment by vast majority set up to kind of accommodate either the structural pieces of the future of work or the more like heart-centered pieces of where we're moving collectively. I would say kind of that culture shift. And so at StartingBloc, we've really been sitting with this for the last 3 years. Have come up with a list of 4 different competencies that we think are really important for the future of work. And those competencies are connection. So that, that are you, are you able to build meaningful relationships? Are you able to really sit with what connection requires? I don't think that authenticity, that's very messy. Self-awareness. So if work is more distributed, more automated, we have to have a lot more self-management. And that's something that is a skill you can be trained on. Third, maturity. So how do we interact with these new systems where with a click of a button, I can impact millions of people? What does it look like to be wise in that situation? And then finally, competence. Like, I think we don't need to lose the thread of competence, that technical skills, real like tactical, practical things moving into the workplace, really, really critical. So those four are kind of how we're seeing this. And I think we're starting about this contributing to this conversation on the future of work.
Yeah, and I think it's really interesting from all the interviews that I've done, I'm curious if we could dive a little deeper here, what your thoughts are on this. So a question that I'll ask you later, it's what's the key to happiness? I've heard two things. From people and it seems to be a literal split down the middle. When you brought up the word work-life kind of balance, some people say that that's like BS, like there is no work-life balance or they don't recommend it. And some people say that you need a work-life balance. So kind of what is your take on that? I'm just curious.
Yeah, I think, you know, as a woman, idea of work-life balance, now I have to create balance between my work and my, like one more thing, I have to do, that seems exhausting to me. I think of it like more in the sense of work-life flow.
I like that.
Okay. How can I like build a life in which I am attuned to my own patterns of energy, of output, of productivity, of rest, and build a life around that, that may not look like sitting at a desk from 9 to 5, but still looks like working really hard. So I think of it that way.
Yeah, I think so do I. And I've never been— I'm so glad I asked you because it's work-life flow. That is the new thing. Thank you so much. All right, I got it now. I figured it out. Or you figured it out and told me. Appreciate it. The next one I have for you is kind of more general, but so what is your best piece of just like overall business advice? So maybe if somebody's just getting started with a company or starting their own thing because you're the CEO, so maybe speaking on like how you even got to such a high position in the company or things of that nature.
I see it as like basic human things like listen. No matter where you're at in the company, you probably stand to listen. And then on the flip side of that, don't be afraid to be bold. Some of the places in my career where I've gotten into positions that maybe I didn't look like I was qualified for, I just made a very clear ask and was bold in my request. I find that like people who are able to make bold requests find that things come to them. And the problem is that we are afraid to put ourselves out there in that way because it's vulnerable to do so. So that vulnerability that comes with being bold. And then also one big piece that I've internalized within my career is the importance of follow-through. So, so many people don't follow through and it will really put you ahead if you do what you say you're going to do. Or if you're able to say like, I didn't do that thing and I'm sorry, and here's why. That garners respect, it garners trust, and the more trust that people lay in you, the higher you're going to be able to go. And maybe you don't even want to go high, right? But the more satisfaction you're going to get out of your work and your career. And then also just be kind. Like, people remember, you know, this quote, like, people remember how you make them feel, by Maya Angelou, and I really internalize that one as well. As a person who's not inherently very warm or effusive or anything like that, I have learned the importance of kindness in my career.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
Shut up. You're not always right. Yeah, that's very specific.
Okay, just that? Don't do that during this podcast though. We need you to answer Okay, I like it. And the next one I have is, in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
You know, it's probably different for every person. My— I think there's a level of self-awareness that has to come with happiness. I also think that happiness is kind of like a weird state to attain. Hope to attain to. Maybe, maybe like peace or acceptance might be one that I would resonate with more. Just, I think over time, like life's hard. And our willingness to continue to show up for the work and continue to show up for ourselves and continue to show up for one another is really beautiful and maybe doesn't look like happy, but looks like a life well lived.
Yes. And what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from it?
Oh my gosh, I'm like, I identify as Matilda. I love books. The best one, this is the hardest question. A book that's relevant to this conversation that I've read is Reinventing Organizations by Frederic Laloux. It talks about kind of the future of organizational life. My favorite book from my childhood was The Secret Garden. Like that opening of new worlds and the connection to being outside and possibility. And I really appreciate poetry, actually. So I love Naomi Shihab Nye. I love the poetry of David Whyte. I find that poetry, it kind of speaks to the soul of things in a way. Yeah, I could go on. I won't.
No, no, it's— I'm also— well, I listen to audiobooks, but I go wild. Like, I do like 3, 4, maybe sometimes 4 audiobooks a week. I do a lot. So I'm with you. The next one could be just as hard, potentially. What is your favorite quote and why?
Oh, gosh. Tough one. There's one I use in my facilitation a lot, which maybe it's not my favorite, but I appreciate it, which is, um, until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate. And it's by Carl Jung. And I find that, like, particularly as I'm getting older and as I moved up in my positions of leadership, that that when I'm able to bring things conscious, when I'm able to see things as like a bias that I held, when I'm able to expand my worldview, it makes me, I think, a better person and also much more able to relate and respond to a wide variety of situations. Whereas previously I might be like, why is this happening? And so that sense of like gaining agency. Lives within that quote for me.
Yes.
Yes.
Thank you so much for coming on. Really appreciate it. The last question I have for you before we let you go is where is the best place for people to find you online?
www.startingbloc.org.
Perfect. Thanks again for hopping on.
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