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The CUInsight Experience podcast: Enough (#215)

“No matter how much success you achieve, you won’t feel like you’re enough if you aren’t fulfilled in the success you have.” – Jill Nowacki

Jill and Randy 215 1320 x 830

Welcome to episode 215 of The CUInsight Experience podcast with your hosts, Randy Smith, co-founder of CUInsight, and Jill Nowacki, President and CEO of Humanidei.

This episode is sponsored by The Sheeter Group - a leading executive benefits firm that meets your retention and succession needs. This includes non-qualified benefit plans, short and long-term incentive plans, compensation studies, scorecard design, performance evaluation, and more. Learn more at sheetergroup.com.

In this season, Jill and I will have conversations centered around leadership, credit unions, and living our best lives. We will have some of the most respected leaders from around credit unions who we are grateful to call friends join us in the discussion from time to time too.

In this episode, we are doing something a little bit out of the ordinary because we don’t have a guest - it’s just the two of us, but this is an incredibly important topic that will probably ring familiar to many of you. What does it mean to redefine success on our own terms and be enough? We discuss how our definitions of success have changed over time, moving away from external measures like titles, growth, and numbers and instead focusing on internal fulfillment and joy.

We share how comparison can be the "thief of joy” and highlight the importance of self-reflection to truly understand what success means to you as an individual. We provide some insights into tools such as the "Wheel of Life" which can help leaders assess different areas of their lives and identify where they may feel a sense of imbalance or lack of fulfillment.

Beyond the resume, we also highlight unique "off the resume" wins that speak to our values and the way we choose to lead our lives, discussing what it looks like to lead from a place of "enough" - recognizing that there actually is no one-size-fits-all definition of success and that true resilience and growth come from a place of self-acceptance as well as self-improvement!

We hope that this episode offers you some practical tips, such as identifying personal rituals that help ground and center you when you're feeling off-balance. As always, feel free to reach out to us and share your thoughts! We would love to hear from you!


Previous episode mentioned: #4
Shout-out: Genevieve Priebe
Place mentioned: Key West, Florida
Shout-out: ChatGPT
Place mentioned: West Hartford, Connecticut
Place mentioned: Africa
Shout-out: Harrison Assessments
Shout-out: Super Bowl

[1:27] – Success is no longer external for Randy and Jill; it now means personal growth, fulfillment, and intentional living.
[3:56] – Randy feels that success means doing what energizes him, not just what looks impressive or fills a calendar.
[6:24] – Comparison to others does not lead to fulfillment.
[9:16] – Randy and Jill agree that true fulfillment requires honest self-reflection to define success on your own terms.
[12:28] – Fulfillment requires balancing the areas of your life, embracing curiosity, and recognizing what truly defines your identity.
[15:21] – Curiosity and commitment are very important, even if they don’t show up on resumes.
[17:32] – True leadership means living from personal values, especially knowing when enough truly is enough.
[20:32] – True resilience requires both growth and self-acceptance, not just constantly striving for more.
[23:42] – When Randy feels off-center, he turns to grounding habits like journaling.
[24:04] – Running helps clear Jill’s head and reminds her that she is whole.
[27:30] – Randy used to equate success with possessions but now feels that simplicity and experiences mean a lot more.
[28:58] – Jill is unlearning the idea that being “enough” requires universal approval and always being liked.
[31:38] – Jill and Randy offer their key takeaways.