Multi-hyphenate AI Consultant: When You Keep Adding 'Kind Of' To Who You Are | Soul Toll S1E9

Final episode of Season One!

CLAIM THE LABEL

By mid-career, most of us have flattened into one identity. One lane. One word on the business card. You can feel it: going through the motions, the hobbies gone, the creativity gone. Aparna Sud refused to pick. If you've ever done the thing for years but still won't claim the word for it - artist, dancer, writer - this one's for you.

ABOUT THE EPISODE

Anusia opens with Flat Stanley: the kid who goes two-dimensional after a bulletin board falls on him and spends the rest of the book sliding under doors. It's how life can feel by mid-career - flat, on autopilot, narrowed to one lane.

Then she met Aparna Sud, who is the opposite. Fully three-dimensional. Aparna is an AI strategy consultant, an abstract artist, a dancer, a yoga teacher, and a neuroscientist, and she talks about all of it like jazz.

Aparna makes the case for staying 3D. She talks about permission - it took her seven years to call herself an artist - and how she navigates by asking which doors are opening, where things feel easy, where the energy is. She reframes being more than one thing: not scattered, but where your distinctiveness lives, especially as AI takes over the flat, repeatable parts of work and what's left is the human part. The thread is the label. The drummer who won't say "drummer." The version of you that fits under the door. And her parting instruction: take a few minutes a week to write down where the doors are opening, and take the busyness back out.

ABOUT THE GUEST

Aparna Sud is an abstract artist, an AI strategy consultant, and a yogi whose work returns to one question: what does it mean to be human, right here, right now. She brings a background in neuroscience, human-centered design, and business, and has taught trauma-informed yoga in women's correctional facilities. Her abstract work explores our shared humanity - the human condition, and why we are here.

See Aparna's art: https://www.inspiredcognition.com (Instagram @a.parnz)

Read her writing on AI, the future of work, and neuroscience: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aparna-sud/

CONNECT

Website: https://soul-toll.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/anusiagillespie

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/anusiagillespie

Facebook: https://facebook.com/anusia.gillespie.5

Business inquiries: hello@soul-toll.com

READ THE BOOK

Soul Toll by Anusia Gillespie: https://www.amazon.com/Soul-Toll-Anusia-Gillespie/dp/B0FN9PSS2N

PRODUCTION

Director: Michael Dynice Writers and Producers: Anusia Gillespie, Lady Unicorn Executive Producers: Johnny Ray, Richard Messinger Lighting and Scenic Design: We Roadie and Grip Inc. Post Production and Editing: Streamography Produced for Warwick TV at Johnny Ray's Music Emporium

WITH SPECIAL THANKS

Eat Well Kitchen of Marblehead Johnny Ray's Music Emporium We Roadie and Grip Inc. Chic Streets Mabel of Marblehead The Yoga Loft Marblehead Ghislain Viau of Creative Publishing Book Design #SoulToll #AparnaSud #FutureOfWork #ArtificialIntelligence #Multipotentialite #Creativity #HumanCenteredDesign #Neuroscience #Reinvention #AnusiaGillespie

Spiritual Warrior: When You're Built Tough But Quietly Searching | Soul Toll S1E8

You can be a jiu-jitsu black belt and read philosophy. You can play D1 football and walk into a crystal shop just to feel grounded. Tough and searching at the same time. Eric Gendron has a name for it. If you've ever gone quiet about a part of yourself because it didn't match the room you were standing in - this one's for you.

ABOUT THE EPISODE

Anusia walked into Eric's crystal shop looking for a Christmas present and walked into a whole vibe. Eric Gendron is a state champion wrestler, a former D1 football player at Holy Cross, a jiu-jitsu black belt, and the owner of Ravenstone, a crystal and mineral shop people drive across New England just to sit inside.

In this conversation, Eric makes the case for the curious skeptic. The history. The science - yes, the same quartz you trust in your watch. And the plain experience of picking up a stone and feeling something you weren't expecting. He walks Anusia through how to choose a stone for how you actually feel that day, not for what you think you're supposed to want.

Underneath the crystals is the idea he keeps circling back to: the spiritual warrior. The fighter who is also soft. The competitor who reads philosophy and isn't afraid to say he's afraid. It's the thread that runs from the movies he wore out as a kid to the way he runs his store now. And his parting note - give yourself some slack, try the thing, one step at a time.

ABOUT THE GUEST

Eric Gendron is a state champion wrestler, a former D1 football player at Holy Cross, and a jiu-jitsu black belt. He owns Ravenstone, a crystal and mineral shop people travel across New England to visit. He sources every stone in person - at gem shows from Tucson to a folding table outside a Motel 6 - and picks each one by hand.

Visit Ravenstone: https://www.ravenstonegifts.com/

CONNECT

Website: https://soul-toll.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/anusiagillespie LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/anusiagillespie Facebook: https://facebook.com/anusia.gillespie.5 Business inquiries: hello@soul-toll.com READ THE BOOK Soul Toll by Anusia Gillespie: https://www.amazon.com/Soul-Toll-Anusia-Gillespie/dp/B0FN9PSS2N

PRODUCTION Director: Michael Dynice Writers and Producers: Anusia Gillespie, Lady Unicorn Executive Producers: Johnny Ray, Richard Messinger Lighting and Scenic Design: We Roadie and Grip Inc. Post Production and Editing: Streamography Produced for Warwick TV at Johnny Ray's Music Emporium

WITH SPECIAL THANKS Eat Well Kitchen of Marblehead Johnny Ray's Music Emporium We Roadie and Grip Inc. Chic Streets Mabel of Marblehead The Yoga Loft Marblehead Ghislain Viau of Creative Publishing Book Design

#SoulToll #EricGendron #SpiritualWarrior #CrystalHealing #Crystals #Gemstones #EnergyHealing #Spirituality #Grounding #AnusiaGillespie

WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE

The voice in your head telling you you don't belong here is loud. Persistent. So convinced it's telling you the truth. What if it isn't truth at all — what if it's just fear, with bad timing? If you've ever been waiting for someone to figure out you don't belong here, this is the conversation.

ABOUT THE EPISODE

Imposter syndrome lives in the gap between how other people see you and how you see yourself. Kim Meninger has spent fifteen years working in that gap. She came up through tech — EMC, Monster — and now coaches leaders at Amazon, Salesforce, Pfizer, and Bain Capital through the version of self-doubt nobody warns you about until you're already in it. Kim sits with Anusia and takes imposter syndrome apart. It's not a flaw to fix. It's fear. And fear is a feature, not a bug. You can't cure it. You can manage it. Kim walks through where it shows up — transitions, being the only one in the room, hyper-competitive cultures — and what it actually costs you in sleep, presence, and your own potential. The moment is when Kim flips the question. Most people ask how do I stop feeling like an imposter. Kim asks what are you actually afraid of. Then she hands Anusia a list to take home tonight.

ABOUT THE GUEST

Kim Meninger is a certified leadership coach, TEDx speaker, and host of The Impostor Syndrome Files podcast. She spent a decade in tech before leaving to help professionals and organizations make it easier to be human at work, and now coaches leaders at companies including Amazon, Salesforce, Pfizer, and Bain Capital.

Visit Kim's site: https://www.kimmeninger.com

CONNECT

Website: https://soul-toll.com Instagram:

https://instagram.com/anusiagillespie

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/anusiagillespie

Facebook: https://facebook.com/anusia.gillespie.5 Business inquiries: hello@soul-toll.com

READ THE BOOK Soul Toll by Anusia Gillespie: https://www.amazon.com/Soul-Toll-Anusia-Gillespie/dp/B0FN9PSS2N

PRODUCTION Director: Michael Dynice Writers and Producers: Anusia Gillespie, Lady Unicorn Executive Producers: Johnny Ray, Richard Messinger Lighting and Scenic Design: We Roadie and Grip Inc. Post Production and Editing: Streamography Produced for Warwick TV at Johnny Ray's Music Emporium

WITH SPECIAL THANKS Eat Well Kitchen of Marblehead Johnny Ray's Music Emporium We Roadie and Grip Inc. Chic Streets Mabel of Marblehead The Yoga Loft Marblehead Ghislain Viau of Creative Publishing Book Design

#SoulToll #KimMeninger #ImposterSyndrome #SelfDoubt #LeadershipCoaching #WomenInLeadership #ConfidenceAtWork #CareerGrowth #MindsetShift #AnusiaGillespie