Still Figuring It Out

About Still Figuring It Out

with Emily & Marc. After doing life, family, and business together for thirty years, we are still figuring it out. Both fiercely independent first borns, we are committed to continuing to grow and try new things in our entrepreneurial adventures.

Publisher

Emily and Marc Pitman

Category

business · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

1 Jan 2024

Latest episode

4 Nov 2026

Latest episodes

60 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   4 Nov 2026

   SFIO 506 - Put Your Imagination in Gear with Lisa Bruce

   📋 Episode Summary Emily is in Maine, and this episode brings in a very special guest: her younger sister, Lisa Bruce. Lisa arrived when Emily was eight, "the biggest miracle" Emily had ever experienced, and she was the maid of honor at Emily and Marc's wedding in 1995. Today she's a preschool teacher, mom, wife, cat mom, crafter, and knitter who has made an art form of being part of her community in Gloucester, Massachusetts. She joins from her deck, nursing a pinky that suddenly stopped working and took her knitting, video games, and dish washing with it. After some playful family history, including how Marc "stole" her sister and the school play she missed for the wedding, Lisa takes Emily and Marc through a day in a preschool room: clothes that can get dirty, potty-training boot camp, circle time, and a lot of noise. At the heart of the conversation is how she teaches kids to play, push through frustration, and wonder. Instead of looking things up, she asks them to imagine. A unit on local birds turned into children naming cardinals by their song and wondering why one had come to their playground. The conversation is warm, funny, and honest. Lisa talks about letting go of the judgments she once held about childcare as a stay-at-home mom, and about work that is exhausting and deeply purposeful at the same time. She ends with what she's still figuring out: genuine patience, being present with her own kids, and knowing when to call it quits on a list that is never all done. 🔑 Key Takeaways • Some work drains you and still matters. Lisa calls hers "an important drain," a helpful counter to the advice to only do what gives you energy. • Wonder is a muscle. When answers are instantly available, choosing to imagine before looking something up keeps that muscle working. • Boredom can be an invitation. Lisa tells kids that being bored means it's time to put their imagination in gear. • Pushing through frustration, trying again, or trying something different are lessons many adults still need. • The first few years of life shape the brain in ways that matter for a lifetime, and the people who care for young children are trusted with something enormous. • Changing your mind is part of growing up. Lisa's view of childcare changed once she was doing the work herself. • You don't have to finish the list to make progress. "It's better than it was" is a way to keep moving forward. 🗣 Quote Highlights • "If you're bored, that means it's time to put your imagination in gear." – Lisa • "In a time where we can instantly know anything, it's really important to use that muscle of wonder." – Lisa • "They're no less important because they're small." – Lisa • "Most of us have an inner critic, but I think some of them are going to have an inner wonder also. They won't know it's Lisa." – Marc • "I made a dent. It's better than it was." – Lisa 🧰 Tools & Mentions • Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst • Lisa's local bird unit — a playlist of local bird songs and a homemade binder of nests, food, and markings that taught her preschoolers to recognize birds and wonder about them. 👥 Who Should Listen • Preschool teachers, childcare workers, and early childhood educators • Parents of young children wondering how to protect their kids' curiosity • Stay-at-home parents returning to work, or rethinking what they once believed about childcare • People in work that is exhausting and deeply meaningful • Busy people who struggle to slow down and be present with the people they love • Siblings who love seeing how a family story keeps unfolding 🎺 That Music! Special thanks to Lexi Moreno, Caleb Pitman, and Zoe Czarnecki for the original music. Lexi Moreno – composing / mixing / mastering / guitar Caleb Pitman – composing / mixing / trumpet Zoe Czarnecki – bass

2. 

   28 Oct 2026

   SFIO 505 - What Do I Want? What Do I Need? Is This Mine to Do?

   📋 Episode Summary Emily is visiting her parents, sorting through more than 40 years of books, tools, and garden supplies, including an oar that hasn't touched water in a very long time. She's also baking apple pie from the trees her dad has tended. So she's been thinking about legacy. For this episode's "do again," Emily brings back the Quarterly Questions conversations from Season 1. They loved the habit of regular check-ins. They just never built a way to return to them, and the six quarters since have included the deaths of Emily's brother and Marc's dad. From there, Emily and Marc wonder why excuses got such a bad name, trade report cards for compass checks, and talk about organizing a planner around values instead of roles. Emily explains why tidy roles never fit her life, and what a co-working space has taught her about crossing a threshold into work. The conversation is reflective, honest, and playful, with a haircut compliment and an accidental drive through Delaware along the way. They end with the questions each of them is carrying forward: What do I want? What do I need? Is this mine to do? And, for Marc, am I being fully me? 🔑 Key Takeaways • Creating a check-in practice is the easy part. Without a planned way to come back to it, it quietly disappears. • An excuse can be a way of not owning what was yours to own. That's different from naming what was out of your control. • Treating reflection as a compass check instead of a report card turns pass/fail into course correction. • Simple questions bring clarity: What did you want? Where are you? What's the gap? • Building your weekly or monthly planning around values, not only roles, keeps what matters in front of you. • Roles rarely separate cleanly, especially for people whose work and caregiving overlap. • "What do I want?" and "What do I need?" can feel selfish to ask, but you can't pour from an empty cup. 🗣 Quote Highlights • "We like to create things, and if there is not a very good process in place to revisit them, then we will not." – Emily • "I really want to get an A someplace." – Emily • "If values are that central to me, why not orient my life around them?" – Marc • "Sometimes together means doing things that support each other, not necessarily being physically present." – Marc • "That's not even my ball to catch." – Marc • "What do I want? What do I need? And is this mine to do? If I say it really fast, it'll sound like one question." – Emily • "Am I being fully me, or am I just being mono-me?" – Marc 🧰 Tools & Mentions • Still Figuring It Out, Season 1, Episode 9: Quarterly Questions, Part 1 — the first of the two original conversations this episode revisits. https://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/show/35d59fa5-fffe-4892-9f2e-24382bb92ee3/id/35518200 • Still Figuring It Out, Season 1, Episode 10: Quarterly Questions, Part 2 — the second half of that conversation. https://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/show/35d59fa5-fffe-4892-9f2e-24382bb92ee3/id/35518575 • Emily's Concord Leadership Group blog post about her dad and the apple trees — the legacy story that opens the episode. https://concordleadershipgroup.com/20576-2/ • Suzanne Stabile — the Enneagram teacher behind the question "Is this mine to do?" https://www.suzannestabile.com/ • FranklinCovey weekly planning — the weekly compass Marc now organizes around his values. https://www.franklincovey.com/ • The Highlands Ability Battery — the assessment that reminded Emily that high and low scores sit on a continuum, not a pass/fail scale. https://www.highlandsco.com/ 👥 Who Should Listen • Married couples who work together and want a rhythm for checking in • People who love starting new practices and struggle to keep them going • Planner and journal people looking for a way to keep their values in view • Parents and caregivers whose roles never fit into neat boxes • Leaders and coaches who give generously and forget to ask what they want or need • Anyone carrying more than is theirs to carry 🎺 That Music! Special thanks to Lexi Moreno, Caleb Pitman, and Zoe Czarnecki for the original music. Lexi Moreno – composing / mixing / mastering / guitar Caleb Pitman – composing / mixing / trumpet Zoe Czarnecki – bass

3. 

   21 Oct 2026

   SFIO 504 - Your Checkbook and Your Calendar: Values Revisited

   📋 Episode Summary Emily and Marc start where they always do, with what's on their minds. For Marc, it's the systems we live in and the stories he was told about them. For Emily, it's a Leuchtturm1917 journal with six pages left in the middle, a brand-new one waiting on her desk, and the surprisingly big question of how to begin it. From there they return to values, picking up a thread from Season 1, Episode 11. They talk about renaming budget categories so they reflect what you care about, the credentials that act as signals for ourselves more than for anyone else, and what a calendar reveals. Marc realizes his calendar is already full of values placeholders: working the polls on election days and blocking monthly reading days. Emily names those reading days for what they are, a Sabbath pace with an intentional learning bent. The conversation is reflective and gently playful. They share their personal values lists and end on an idea that stops them both: abundance isn't somewhere we're going. It's where we are. 🔑 Key Takeaways • Labeling budget categories with your actual values (like "hobbies") makes the numbers more meaningful and more likely to get attention. • Some credentials and signals are mainly for ourselves; they help us show up with more confidence and authenticity. • You can see your real values by looking at where your money and your time actually go. • For self-employed people, time is the inventory on the shelves, so how you spend it is a values decision. • Rest, reading days, and "artist dates" aren't indulgences that need justifying; they refill you, and often everything else improves. • Abundance can be a present reality to live from, even in seasons of scarcity. 🗣 Quote Highlights • "This wasn't just an inevitable maturation of human society. This is a confluence of very specific choices and events." – Marc • "When I have an idea, it could be an idea that doesn't need any action really for two years, but it's still more important than the thing that's on my list, like make a dentist appointment." – Emily • "I don't think people really care that I have an ACC. What I think they care about is that I'm a really good coach, and they will become more themselves after working with me." – Emily • "Our inventory is our time. The shelves of our store is time." – Marc • "It's a Sabbath pace, even though it's a very intentional learning pace." – Emily • "I'm not doing this to be productive. I'm doing this because I'm a human and I'm refilling myself." – Marc • "If I really believe abundance exists and is where I'm operating from, it's where I am. It's not where I'm going." – Marc 🧰 Tools & Mentions • Still Figuring It Out, Season 1, Episode 11 — the values episode that inspired this conversation. https://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/show/35d59fa5-fffe-4892-9f2e-24382bb92ee3/id/35462985 • Leuchtturm1917 dotted journals — Emily's notebook of choice for keeping her life and ideas in order. https://www.leuchtturm1917.com/ • The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron — the source of the "artist date," time set aside to do something that makes your heart sing. https://juliacameronlive.com/ • B Corp certification — a business structure Emily and Marc have considered for Concord Leadership Group as a signal of their values. https://www.bcorporation.net/ • International Coaching Federation (ICF) — the professional body behind Emily's ACC credential and the regional gathering Marc describes. https://coachingfederation.org/ • Dirty Laundry on Dropout — the show Marc hears every time Emily asks, "What's on your mind?" https://www.dropout.tv/ 👥 Who Should Listen • Coaches and solopreneurs who find business numbers uninspiring and want them to connect to what matters • Married couples who work together and want their budget and calendar to reflect shared values • Self-employed professionals who feel guilty taking time for rest, reading, or civic commitments • Paper planner and bullet journal people facing the blank first page • Leaders weighing whether credentials and certifications are worth it, and who they're really for • Anyone trying to live from abundance instead of scarcity 🎺 That Music! Special thanks to Lexi Moreno, Caleb Pitman, and Zoe Czarnecki for the original music. Lexi Moreno – composing / mixing / mastering / guitar Caleb Pitman – composing / mixing / trumpet Zoe Czarnecki – bass

Who has been a guest on Still Figuring It Out

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Chris Baiocchi
• Andrea Ferry Daniels
• Dr Jessica Sharp
• Amy Lazoff
• Thu Hue Nguyen

Podcast Authority Score: 34 / 100

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67

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