About Leanne on Demand (Daily pod starts 1/1/25) with Leanne Hughes
Work Fame (noun): a reputation that opens doors before you knock, and attracts the right opportunities to you. Not celebrity famous, not internet famous, work famous.
This show unpacks what it actually takes to build that kind of reputation at work, drawn from Leanne's own experience going from feeling invisible behind a screen to being flown around the world, facilitating executive strategy days and getting pulled into rooms she'd never had access to before. Whether you're building your own profile inside a big organisation, helping your team earn a seat at the table, or building recognition for your industry, each episode breaks down the practical (and sometimes a little corny) ideas that make it happen.
You don't have to find your dream job. You can make your job a dream.
Work Fame is based on Leanne's book of the same name, Work Fame: Get the Projects, Promotions, and Perks You Deserve (Wiley). This feed also carries the archive of her earlier daily show, Leanne On Demand.
Got a question or want help building your own work fame? Email hello@leannehughes.com.
⭐WF5 Winning the AI wrestling match feat. Alan Weiss and Leanne Hughes
AI is everywhere, and depending on who you listen to, it’s either going to make our working lives dramatically better or completely destroy our careers.
I’m replaying a conversation I had with the rock star of consulting, Alan Weiss, on Talk the Walk.
We called it Winning the AI Wrestling Match because I wanted to have a more useful conversation than the usual “AI is coming for your job” doom loop.
Alan’s view? Stop panicking.
AI will absolutely displace some work. But every major technological shift has done that. The bigger question is: what becomes more valuable when information is everywhere and everyone has access to the same tools?
We get into why Alan thinks consultants need to shift from being seen simply as experts to becoming authorities, why critical thinking and process matter more when content is abundant, and why the ability to be genuinely present with another human might become one of our greatest advantages.
One of my favourite lines from the conversation was:
“AI can’t do improv.”
AI can give you an answer. It can help you prepare. It can generate content. It can even sound remarkably like someone else.
But it can’t walk into a room, read the energy, challenge the question you’ve just been asked, tell the right story at the right moment or come up with the perfect retort.
That requires you to be there.
We also talk about:
Why Alan believes we need to stop being so damn pessimistic about AI
The difference between being an expert and being an authority
Why high tech needs high touch
How to develop better critical thinking skills
Why consultants need to separate content from process
The danger of becoming derivative on LinkedIn
Why your own metrics matter more than someone else’s definition of success
How Alan is using AI through his own “Alan Intelligence” platform
Why live experiences, role plays and real-time interaction are becoming even more valuable
The problem with marketing that assumes your client is “damaged”
Why consultants shouldn’t simply give people what they think they want
And, importantly, why there is still a huge amount of opportunity ahead
Listen in, and let me know what you think.
Pre-order my new book WORK FAME (https://getworkfame.com) and get featured on the Wall of Work Fame
Sign up for free for my best articles every week: Work Fame. (https://www.workfa.me/)
Show notes for every episode at https://podcast.leannehughes.com (https://podcast.leannehughes.com)
Let's connect on all the channels:
Leanne Hughes on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/leannehughes/)
Leanne Hughes on Instagram (https://instagram.com/leannehughes)
Visit my website: leannehughes.com (https://www.leannehughes.com)
Email me: hello@leannehughes.com
Would you like to deliver your own private podcast feed to your audience? Sign up for a free trial today at Hello Audio (https://helloaudio.fm?fpr=leanne17).
9 Sept 2026
⭐WF4: Crafting the Work Fame Keynote with Dr. Jason Fox (aka Fox Wizard)
I recorded this one in Melbourne with my good friend Dr. Jason Fox (https://www.foxwizard.com/), one of Australia's Keynote Speakers of the Year, where we'd spent a couple of days together crafting a keynote based on Work Fame.
In this episode Jason and I talk through what we've actually been building: an energetic arc that takes a room, sceptics included, from where they are to somewhere new, built around the contribution idea from the book. Jason walks through how we opened by naming the allergy a lot of people have to the word "fame" itself, rather than avoiding it, and why that disarms the room instead of fighting it.
There's a fun tangent where I use the word "pronia" (my very Australian mangling of pronoia, the idea that the universe is conspiring in your favour) and briefly, gloriously, teach Jason a new word before he corrects my pronunciation. We've decided to keep pronia anyway.
We also get into why we didn't open the keynote with a story, which goes against the usual advice. Jason's take is that too many speakers perform for a camera or a future highlight reel instead of actually showing up in service of the room in front of them. His line for it: dance like no one's watching, speak like no one's recording. We talk about why audiences can spot a manufactured, over-squeezed emotional story a mile off, and why real, unscripted authenticity lands so much harder now.
Jason shares what's next for him too, including a new keynote speaker program and a book that's been ten years in the making.
Head to foxwizard.com (https://foxwizard.com) to find him and sign up to his museletter.
Pre-order my new book WORK FAME (https://getworkfame.com) and get featured on the Wall of Work Fame
Sign up for free for my best articles every week: Work Fame. (https://www.workfa.me/)
Show notes for every episode at https://podcast.leannehughes.com (https://podcast.leannehughes.com)
Let's connect on all the channels:
Leanne Hughes on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/leannehughes/)
Leanne Hughes on Instagram (https://instagram.com/leannehughes)
Visit my website: leannehughes.com (https://www.leannehughes.com)
Email me: hello@leannehughes.com
Would you like to deliver your own private podcast feed to your audience? Sign up for a free trial today at Hello Audio (https://helloaudio.fm?fpr=leanne17).
2 Sept 2026
⭐WF3 Raygun: Work Fame Hero or Villain?
Raygun: Work Fame Hero or Villain?
I watched the Netflix documentary about Rachael Gunn, the Australian breakdancer who went viral at the Paris 2024 Olympics after scoring zero across three battles, mostly thanks to that infamous kangaroo and sprinkler routine.
In this episode I ask whether Raygun is a work fame hero or a villain. I land on hero. Her style wasn't textbook, but she and her husband had total conviction in their own taste, and someone who competed at the Olympic qualifiers confirms in the doco that she fairly won her spot. What I admire most is her third-round decision, up against a world champion with nothing to lose, to leave it all out on the dance floor. That's the pronoia I talk about in the book, acting like the world is on your side instead of holding back out of fear. I also touch on the rumours about her selection, which the documentary shows were unfounded.
This isn't work fame, it's infamy, but there are two things I think we can all take from it: keep doing what you love, and celebrate the courage it takes to actually have a go. As Gordon Livingston said, the biggest prisons are the ones inside our own minds.
Go watch it if you haven't, I'd love to hear your take.
Pre-order my new book WORK FAME (https://getworkfame.com) and get featured on the Wall of Work Fame
Sign up for free for my best articles every week: Work Fame. (https://www.workfa.me/)
Show notes for every episode at https://podcast.leannehughes.com (https://podcast.leannehughes.com)
Let's connect on all the channels:
Leanne Hughes on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/leannehughes/)
Leanne Hughes on Instagram (https://instagram.com/leannehughes)
Visit my website: leannehughes.com (https://www.leannehughes.com)
Email me: hello@leannehughes.com
Would you like to deliver your own private podcast feed to your audience? Sign up for a free trial today at Hello Audio (https://helloaudio.fm?fpr=leanne17).
Who has been a guest on Leanne on Demand (Daily pod starts 1/1/25) with Leanne Hughes
Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.
Alan Weiss
Tim Ferguson
Jan Keck
Jeff Skipper
John McKendry
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
1 ratings
Spotify
4.3 / 5
3 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 53 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
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