Self Reflection Guide: Leah Ellis
Episode 49 | Personalize the take aways to your life. The first 2 questions are for everyone, the rest are for premium subscribers.
We say it without thinking:
“Children are the future.”
But in this conversation with Leah K. Ellis, that familiar phrase gets quietly dismantled.
“When we tell kids they’re the future,” Leah said,
“what we’re really telling them is: not yet.”
And after enough not yet, people stop trying.
Leah’s work with child entrepreneurs revealed a simple but uncomfortable truth: kids don’t lack ideas, creativity, or courage. They lack permission to practice agency now.
Instead of managing kids toward outcomes, Leah invites adults to become guides, asking questions, making space for failure, and trusting kids to wrestle with real problems. One word sits at the center of her approach:
How?
Not why that won’t work.
Not here’s the right answer.
Just: How would you do that?
The reflection questions below are an invitation to make this episode personal.
Not abstract.
Not theoretical.
But lived.
- Personalize This Episode to Your Life -
Use these questions slowly. Journal if you can. Don’t rush to “good” answers.
1. Where in your life are you acting as a manager when a guide would be more appropriate?
Think about your kids, your team, your spouse, or even yourself.
What would change if you asked more questions and gave fewer instructions?
2. What failures are you currently trying to prevent—for yourself or others?
What might be lost by avoiding them?
What growth might only come through that failure?
