After an 18-year rise through corporate HR—from recruiter to group president across Canada and the U.S.—Dom walked away from a “safe” executive career to build something on his own terms. In this conversation, we unpack why large organizations quietly trade momentum for bureaucracy, how technology and automation empower lean founders, and why “stability” often comes at the cost of creativity, speed, and meaning.

We explore intrapreneurship vs. entrepreneurship, the hidden traps of bloated systems, and how founders can use data, automation, and open APIs to move faster without burning capital. The throughline isn’t rebellion—it’s agency. Building work that’s fun, aligned, and alive again.

No anti-corporate rant. Just lived experience, hard trade-offs, and a clear-eyed look at what it really takes to step off the stable path—and thrive.

TL;DR

* Stability is conditional: Corporate safety disappears the moment priorities shift.

* Intrapreneur vs. founder: Big-company success doesn’t equal personal leverage.

* Tech as leverage: Automation and BI (not hype AI) unlock speed for lean teams.

* Systems can trap you: CRMs and ERPs either enable growth—or become prisons.

* Innovation dies slowly: Bureaucracy rewards optics over outcomes.

* Work-life blend > balance: Fun, purpose-driven work creates sustainability.

* Momentum matters: Small teams with clarity outperform slow giants.

Memorable lines

* “Stability often costs more than risk—you just don’t see the bill right away.”

* “Big systems don’t fail fast. They fail quietly.”

* “AI isn’t magic—it’s leverage if you know what problem you’re solving.”

* “Careers don’t collapse overnight; they stall one approval layer at a time.”

* “Fun isn’t a perk—it’s fuel.”

Guest

Dominic Levesque — HR executive turned founder; CEO of NextWave; author and advisor on leadership, technology, and organizational transformation.

🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominiclevesquecria/🌐 Website: https://nextwav.com

Why it matters

Most people chase stability without realizing it’s borrowed—not owned. This episode is for founders, operators, and executives who feel boxed in by success and sense there’s another way to work, build, and live.

If you’re questioning whether the “safe path” is actually costing you momentum, creativity, and agency—this conversation gives you the framework to rethink what security really means, and how to design a career that doesn’t slowly drain the life out of you.

Call to Action

If this conversation lit something up for you, don’t just let it fade. Come join me inside the Second Life Leader community on Skool. That’s where I share the frameworks, field reports, and real stories of reinvention that don’t make it into the podcast. You’ll connect with other professionals who are actively rebuilding and leading with clarity. The link is in the show notes—step inside and start building your Second Life today.

https://secondlifeleader.com

Most of us chase home on the outside — new careers, new cities, new missions — assuming the right setting will unlock the right identity. But for Socratese, home wasn’t Boston, the Army, or the next achievement. It was the inner place he had been trained to outrun.

In this episode, we unpack why so many high-performers hit professional milestones but feel spiritually homeless, how “hero’s journey” conditioning pushes leaders away from their real identity, and how cannabis (used intentionally, not performatively) became the unexpected doorway to presence, empathy, and actual healing.

We trace the emotional reality of reintegration after elite institutions (military, corporate, startup), how performance culture replaces personhood, and why coming home is always an inward path — never a geographic one.

This conversation winds through 80s action movies, the “meeting crisis,” late-stage capitalism narratives, business ethics, the collapse of real community, and the quiet courage required to stop living other people’s scripts.

No mysticism. No clichés. Just a brutally honest exploration of what it actually takes to return to yourself.

TL;DR

* Home isn’t a location—it’s your inner alignment. Many leaders hit external success while feeling internally displaced.

* Cannabis as a tool, not an identity. For Socratese, it created non-judgmental presence—the state needed for real healing.

* Performance culture steals personhood. Whether military or corporate, the identity costumes eventually crack.

* Disruption isn’t tech—it’s restoring human reciprocity. Real business is two people making each other better.

* The journey inward is the only real journey. Every choice either takes you closer to your true self or further away.

Memorable Lines

* “I came home from the Army, but I didn’t feel at home. Because the home I needed wasn’t a place—it was my heart.”

* “Cannabis didn’t heal me. It put me in a state where healing was finally possible.”

* “We spend years becoming the person others expect, and then wonder why we feel like strangers in our own lives.”

* “Business should be: I win, you win. Somewhere along the line, we lost the human part.”

* “You don’t find home. You return to it.”

Guest

Socratese Rosenfeld — Army veteran, tech founder, CEO of Jane, and one of the most thoughtful voices on identity, healing, and conscious leadership.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/socratesrosenfeld/Website: https://www.iheartjane.com/

Why This Matters

If you’re a founder, veteran, executive, or anyone who has lived inside a high-performance machine, you know the cost: identity confusion, emotional detachment, and a quiet sense of exile from yourself.

Coming back home is the real work.Not a tactic. Not a hack.A reckoning.

The leaders of tomorrow aren’t the loudest.They’re the ones who know where “home” is — and how to lead from that grounded center.Call to Action

If this conversation lit something up for you, don’t just let it fade. Come join me inside the Second Life Leader community on Skool. That’s where I share the frameworks, field reports, and real stories of reinvention that don’t make it into the podcast. You’ll connect with other professionals who are actively rebuilding and leading with clarity. The link is in the show notes—step inside and start building your Second Life today.

https://secondlifeleader.com

Rita Malvone did — but only after it nearly burned her out as a leader, a human, and as someone trying to make sense of a career that never quite felt like hers.

In this episode, Rita and I unpack the quiet misery of high-performing corporate people: the ones who smile on Zoom, hit the metrics, answer Slacks at 11 p.m.… and privately wonder why they feel so damn empty.

Rita’s story starts in China, leading a young team while simultaneously building an entire Asia-Pacific presence from scratch. On paper? Impressive.In reality? A slow emotional suffocation disguised as “success.”

She talks openly about being a bad leader — not out of incompetence, but because she was deeply unhappy. The FaceTime culture, the politicking, the performative grind, the “be grateful you even have this job” mindset… all of it slowly turned her into someone she didn’t like.

When the company finally told her she was 47th in line for a promotion, she snapped the trap in half.

Leaving wasn’t graceful. It wasn’t strategic.It was survival.

And looking back, Rita realized something hard but beautiful:You can’t become the leader you want to be inside a system that requires you to betray yourself.

We dig into the aftermath of walking away, the shock of rediscovering joy, the messy years of rebuilding, and how real leadership is less “motivational poster” and more “doing the hard, human, unglamorous work.”We talk about why suffering gives leaders their edge, why authenticity can’t be faked, and why corporate life fails people who don’t fit the mold — no matter how capable they are.

This isn’t a rage story.It’s a liberation story.

No villains. No corporate-hate screeds. Just an honest look at the moment you realize your career is using you more than you’re using it — and what happens when you finally walk out.

TL;DR

* The trap: A prestigious career that looks like success and feels like misery.

* The break point: Being told she was “#47 in line for a promotion.”

* The turn: Leaving corporate, owning how unhappy she truly was, and rebuilding a life that isn’t powered by performance, FaceTime, or pretending.

* The lesson: You can’t lead well while losing yourself.

Memorable Lines

* “I wasn’t a bad leader. I was an unhappy human pretending to be a leader.”

* “We were building the seats as we were sitting in them.”

* “You can’t sugarcoat how miserable you are and still expect to lead well.”

* “Once I stepped out, I finally saw the cage I had been sitting in.”

Guest

Rita Malvone — Leadership coach, former corporate executive in China, and someone who rebuilt her life after discovering her ‘career’ was a beautifully decorated cage.🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ritamalvone/🔗 Website: https://www.ritamalvone.com/

Why This Matters

Most founders, leaders, and high achievers were never taught to question the path — only to climb it.Rita’s story is a reminder that:

* Success without autonomy is just a gilded cage.

* Misery disguised as ambition always leaks into your leadership.

* People don’t need more frameworks — they need leaders who’ve been through fire and came back softer, not harder.

* Walking away isn’t quitting. It’s choosing yourself.

Call to Action

If this conversation lit something up for you, don’t just let it fade. Come join me inside the Second Life Leader community on Skool. That’s where I share the frameworks, field reports, and real stories of reinvention that don’t make it into the podcast. You’ll connect with other professionals who are actively rebuilding and leading with clarity. The link is in the show notes—step inside and start building your Second Life today.

https://secondlifeleader.com