THE IMPERFECT SHOW NOTES

To help make this podcast more accessible to those who are hearing impaired or those who like to read rather than listen to podcasts, here are our show notes.

These show notes come via the Otter.ai service. The transcription is imperfect. But hopefully, it’s close enough – even with the errors – to give those who aren’t able or inclined to learn from audio interviews a way to participate.

Leah Komaiko  00:00

I wanted to write I wanted to see straight. I wanted to live in California. I wanted to be on the beach and sing songs with the Beach Boys. I remember that. That’s what I wanted.

Achim Nowak  00:15

Hey, this is Achim Nowak, executive coach and host of the mind fourth act podcast. If life is a five act play, how will you spend your fourth act? I have conversations with exceptional humans who have created bold and unexpected fourth acts, listen, and to be inspired. And please rate us and subscribe on whatever platform you are listening on. Let’s get started.

Achim Nowak  00:47

I am just so delighted to welcome Leah Komaiko the MY FOURTH ACT podcast. Leah has a truly impressive professional background, which includes doing stand up and writing 21 popular and best selling books for kids of all ages, including to recognized modern classics. She wrote a memoir for adults, which was optioned and developed for Hollywood. And as a fellow author, I just wanted to say you’ve been published by some powerhouse places HarperCollins Simon and Schuster Random House, St. Martin’s Press. So these are the big leaks. Leah is the first and only story and branding consultant who got her initial hire with a fortune 100 company. Because she discovered and I love this, which is what I’m reading this the connection between a brand that sticks, and the children’s classic. Liana currently helps both individuals and organizations to find and communicate their essential stories. I can’t wait to talk to you, Leah and also to learn more about how you continue to write the story of your own life. And the next chapter that might be emergent. With that said, Hi, Leo.

Leah Komaiko  02:01

I thank you for having me. Thank you. Thank you so excited.

Achim Nowak  02:06

Oh, it’s so much my pleasure. Because you’ve had I mean this the best sense to unusual career and life journey. I always wonder like when you were young girl growing up, you know how Mom and Dad always asked, Hey, what do you want to do when you grow up? And what was on your mind? Like? How did you answer that question when people ask you,

Leah Komaiko  02:27

I answered that I wanted to. Given my background, I wanted to live in a different house. That’s what I wanted to. I wanted to write, I knew I wanted to write made up my mind early I wanted to be a writer, I had to have a couple of surgeries on my eyes when I was a kid in order to be able to see properly and straighten. So I wanted to see straight. That was like a big vision of mine, which actually very much guided how I looked at my career and how I learned how to listen to people and everything else. But I wanted to write I wanted to see straight. I wanted to live in California. I wanted to be on the beach and sing songs with the Beach Boys. I remember that. That’s what I wanted.

Achim Nowak  03:10

I chuckled to myself, because my sense is a lot of that has manifested for you right.

Leah Komaiko  03:16

I lived in the beach. I had a house right on the beach. I was married to a guy who served a little bit too much. Pretty much. Yes. And I married them. Yeah, we got a divorce at the right time. I still live in California. So

Achim Nowak  03:33

I celebrate with you knowing when to move on in every aspect of our lives. I think that’s good to know how to do that i We have so much to talk about and I I was so intrigued to learn that you have done some stand up in my mind that is connected to writing, of course. But it’s also something that can be terrifying to many people. So would you just tell us how how did that come about in your life? I was

Leah Komaiko  04:03

curious. I knew I wanted to write i People would always say to me Oh yourself money. I didn’t know if I was so funny. But um, I was kind of searching kill, you know, I’m writing and I like writing about can I never like really be in front of people. So I was have going through a breakup of a relationship. You know, when you’re younger? It’s kind of like that. Why not? Maybe I’ll own a spaceship. You know. I started writing some stuff. And I went to the I was living in Hollywood at the time and I went to the Comedy Store Comedy Club. Were like I went to the improv, that’s where I’m at the Comedy Club. And they had this open mic thing there. I went up to the guy that owned the club’s name was Budd Friedman. I said I want to be a comedian. He said that’s very funny. And that’s a

Achim Nowak  04:56

perfect answer.

Leah Komaiko  04:59

Yeah, so You know, I did it for a few years, I was a wreck every time before going on stage. And then the other people would say to me, Look, if you’re not a wreck, you’re not a comedian. I’m thinking, I’m a little bit too much of a wreck. I would there was not that many women doing it at the time. And my writing was good. Because I was just right. I don’t know why. Because I was just writing about breaking up with somebody. I think I still stand tapes up plays out this routine. But the thing of it was, is that, you know, it came down to did I really want to focus my career on being out on the road, and doing this kind of stuff. And more importantly, I grew up in a very classically trained artistic family. Not only was I living in Hollywood, which to my parents, and to me, it was like a huge shock. But when you when you just stand up, at the end of the night, you’re basically in a club with a bunch of drunk people, and I don’t drink. And it just wasn’t fun. But I learned so much. And I got to meet some great comedians,

Achim Nowak  05:58

the thing I’m very curious about, I have a theatre background. But when I envision you or anybody standing on stage, when you do stand up, I see there’s constant immediate feedback, either it lands or it doesn’t. They like it or not, it’s about removal, or not approval. And it’s instant. It’s an instant feedback loop. If he’s in the rest of life, we can sort of mask all of this stuff, but you can’t mask it on stage. What was that like to immediately know, this work? This didn’t work. They liked it, they did?

Leah Komaiko  06:32

Well, I was shocked, because I didn’t know what I was doing the whole time. And as you know, from being a theater person, probably, when you’re looking out into a dark room, you can’t see anybody, you can just hear and then you can at the time, people were still smoking, I think so you can see like smoke, and it feels I’m sure it was just in the state of shock the whole time. But I think that what really struck me were the moments when I realized when I didn’t try, I had my well crafted minds and everything. When I didn’t try. I got laughs without the effort, I got the laughs and that, most importantly, that I didn’t realize what was really funny. Like when I first went up on stage, I had been in a car accident, and I had a neck brace. But I said I’m going up there anyway. But I’m not waiting for my neck to heal. I’m putting this off. So I went up with a neck brace. And I didn’t realize that people thought that was part of the act, that they thought it was funny. I thought it was hilarious. So the point being that I don’t really know what’s funny. I don’t know what’s not funny. But I know that the improv moments were the best. The ones where somebody would like I didn’t get heckled a lot. And when they when somebody heckled me, I could snap back really quickly. And that was like kind of a great moment, although it also felt kind of good. But it was a mixed bag. You know?

Achim Nowak  07:53

What? So let’s play with this one. We’re talking about performance. But I also want to maybe relate this to talking about life in general. You know, there is some people have an improvisational mindset when it comes to life, which is, let me just see where it takes me in response to what life sends my way. And there are those people who plan meticulously, and I’m not saying one is better than the other, but in your experience of life? How are they different from each other? How they’re similar? How they how do they relate to each other?

Leah Komaiko  08:30

You mean, how do they meaning like comedy and, or just how you can

Achim Nowak  08:35

talk about, you can talk about writing, you can talk about stand up, you can talk about how you do life? Are you a plan or in life? You go with the flow and just respond to what comes your way?

Leah Komaiko  08:45

Clearly I go with the flow. Because if I didn’t, I’d be much richer. I think as I just I planned, I’m trying all that I plan. I go with the flow. And I’m also pretty much strategically focused. But that’s taken years to get to Martin, we just like going with the flow. And yeah, I wouldn’t say I’m meticulously plan. No, I’ve often wished that I would be one of those people. But I am not. No, as a writer and as having, you know, you kind of have to plan to a certain extent or you won’t get a page done. But I feel like as I’ve gotten older, I’ve gotten more going with the flow in a good way as opposed to going with the flow of like, just go out with the flow of like a decision. I’m gonna go with the flow as opposed to, you know, you’re in a mudslide, and everything’s just lovely.

Achim Nowak  09:39

I appreciate the way you said it in my mind it goes as I get older and you and I are roughly the same ages. I trust the flow a little more and I can I can tell when the flow is not a good flow. And I know that I better not stay in this flow. Right.

Leah Komaiko  09:55

Well put Thank you. You trust. Yes, yeah, yeah.

Achim Nowak  10:01

When you started to write children’s books and your written like, 20, that’s insane. Your first children’s book was that was that a strategic decision? Or did that just sort of happen?

Leah Komaiko  10:12

Now that’s a great story. I got my first kids book, I got a, I got a three book deal, which was really lovely. So my first book, his book, I wrote my first one that I wrote I, I were, I was under contract. So it was a strategic decision. But it was the first book I wrote is my favorite I’ve ever written. It was very crafted, it was very hard. It was very beautiful it was. And then the first book that came out, I threw in the garbage can, because I wrote it. And I thought I owed a book to the publisher. And I thought, This is terrible. This isn’t they’re not going to want this at all. And then I was talking to somebody she said, just send it over there. Anyway, the first book that I wrote, I wrote in two and a half hours, it is the only one that still sells to this day. In print. You

Achim Nowak  11:03

mentioned the title of the book bleeds book, it’s called Annie

Leah Komaiko  11:05

banana. Yes. And it’s been around for 3030 some years. Yeah. And I’ve got that that’s the book that, you know, when I meet people think, oh, that’s me banana, it’s like I wrote that two and a half hours, just kind of, you know, it just kind of flowed out. But that doesn’t happen.

Achim Nowak  11:30

No, it’s so many places to go with what you just said. So as a writer who’s done lots of writing stand up and other kinds of writing. How do you write when it doesn’t just flow out? You know, you’ll have a contract, you’ve got to deliver a book, but it’s not flowing the way any banane? He did. So how, how do you execute under those circumstances,

Leah Komaiko  11:55

like when I think about something that I’m working on now with a client, and it’s under a contract, and I think about the way when it doesn’t work now, it’s very differently than when I was writing back then. But I think what I do now is I just know, to back off, you know, it’s like it’s not flowing, it’s not working, kind of stand away, I walk away from it, maybe I’ll go for a walk. But I know not to panic. Because I sort of started out with the knowing I can do this. It’s always before I start, I always know, okay, I’ve seen the ending of this, I hear the rhythm of it, I know the beat of it, I can do this thing. I’m finding as I get older, I’m a little bit less confident, even though the work is really good. Now, there’s something about being younger, where it’s like, I couldn’t do it, you know. And then time goes on. It’s like, I can’t do anything, except at the same time, I’ve got this going on. And that going on in this, you know, so it’s just different. But I just assume that if I can see the ending, before I get started, I’ll get there.

Achim Nowak  12:59

A word from your sponsor, that’s me. I invite you to go to the website associated with this podcast www.my, fourth active.com, you will find other equally inspiring conversation with great humans. And you will also learn more about the my fourth act mastermind groups where cool people figure out how to chart their own fourth acts. Please check it out. And now back to the conversation.

Achim Nowak  13:34

Since you wrote a memoir, and again, I’m speaking as somebody who’s done a lot of memoir, Ristic writing has been published. So it’s a narrative that interests me in a style. And I know there are so many different lenses, you can use her write about your life. And so when you wrote a memoir, and since your story coach for people, I’m sure you had to think about so what’s the story I want to tell about my life? Like, what what was your memoir about? Or what did you focus on in your memoir?

Leah Komaiko  14:07

Right? I was getting old. I was afraid I was getting Oh, this is a while back. So a friend of mine who wound up being my agent. They kept saying I’m all them all them all. Shut up, you know, and stuff like that. She said, Look, if you think that you’re really getting Oh, why don’t you go hang out with somebody who’s really old? Why don’t you go volunteer your time. And one of these, you know, a center where they’re elderly people looking for support, that kind of thing. So I thought, Okay, that’s a great idea. So I signed up, not thinking of writing anything. I signed up and it was to this a service where you are connected with a person who you go visit once a week. And I went and met the person who they connected me with. She blew my mind. I love this woman. I also see her once a week. I saw her all the time for years. And I just realized There’s a book writing within me. And what I was writing about was the terror of getting old. And hanging out with somebody who was 50 years older than me at the time. And her perspective, and it was funny, and, you know, it was, you know, the book was writing me, you know what I mean? It wasn’t like, I think I want to write a book about my life. Because, you know, I tried doing that when I was younger, I’ve got things to say, I didn’t have anything to say. But I had an experience. I was a children’s book, writer, and I had an experience. And I put together this proposal, and I had a wonderful agent. And four days after it went out to sale, there was an auction of six people, it’ll never happen again. It’s just happened, none. But the point was, I guess, when something is meant to be heard. It gets out there. People resonated with

Achim Nowak  15:57

it sound like it was the right story at the right time, right at the

Leah Komaiko  16:01

right time. And the right ability to be able to just be vulnerable, and just say, to really let it loose, you know, to say the things that I wanted to say, you know, and to realize, when you’re saying the things that you want to say you’re probably saying the things that a lot of people are wanting. And that’s what a lot of people are wanting to say, maybe you’re not saying anything that’s going to be whatever, whatever that word is, no, no,

Achim Nowak  16:29

no, both you and I do some work in the corporate world. And both you and I are not corporate people with corporate pasts. So I’m very curious, because part of the fourth act, this is about stepping into new Acts and having different experiences in life. And at some point, you were this very accomplished children’s book author wrote a memoir. And then somehow, you ended up being a story coach, guide consultant for a corporate entity, which is a different planet. How did that first engagement come about?

Leah Komaiko  17:05

Well, first, I never, I mean, I’ve never worked in a corporate environment. And I came from a family where we were discouraged from going into business. Businesses, you know, we’re on creatives. But I needed to make a living. I had a three book deal. And I was living in New York, and that would get me through lunch and a cup of coffee, you know, so I needed to do something else. But most importantly, I discovered that the way that I felt when I wrote a kid’s book, and what I heard and being with I was with over 100,000 Kids, there’s like an intro theory there of having, I realized that if I asked somebody what was the first book that they remember, I remember ever being read to them. And I asked them certain questions, they would respond, and they would open up in a way that answered all the branding questions that I couldn’t stand in about an hour. So we can then take that into who they really were. So that rather than just you know, slapping out an idea of that’s the way to put it up. This is what you who you are and what makes you different. People would have an immediate experience of the kind of like, what originally made them different. What as somebody wants to said to me, this is the first time that I feel like I’m validated since the second grade, it would bring them back to their natural easy voice. And if they had the courage to and when they could see how how much it benefited their business and their leadership, then they are interested in talking to me and that was a that was a long, not a long road. I’m getting started and muddling through but a long road of getting people to understand why they would want to talk to me.

Achim Nowak  18:54

Again, I’m putting myself in your shoes, and I’m thinking about my own journey. Part of what I had to overcome. You know, again, I love working in the corporate world. It’s been, I love the people I work with, it’s been really lucrative for me. But I had to stop seeing folks in that world as the aliens. You know, because that was my old story about people that were different and all of the stories about how we’re similar or different. I had to just throw the garbage bin his they wouldn’t serve me anywhere. But I could also see that people in a corporate Miko, gosh, she’s a super creative, quirky person. But what do we have in common with her? Like what can she teach us? Like these these barriers we all create? How did that play out for you our and what if anything, did you have to overcome

Leah Komaiko  19:44

great questions? Well, I was arrogant. That was start with the value of naivete and arrogance. Ironically, I had a natural head for business early in life. Not always. But I just realized, from the first time that I actually had an opportunity to do this in a very high level environment, I realized that basically you were we were all six year old showing up and we’re struggling to be professional and all these things. All the answer is as to who you really want it to be when you grew up was still there, just shroud it over, and a lot of education and, and techniques and strategies and business ideas and stuff. And so I just had to know that I was going in as quirky and wait for the people who would then say to me, I don’t know what you just did, but you just blew my mind. Let’s go. And I would get those and I would start getting some big companies. And I think it’s how I came up with that it was not trying to be what I wasn’t

Achim Nowak  20:54

beautiful. And I get that even as you’re speaking now. And my I want to test an idea that as I’m as you’re talking about this. What I heard is that the way you get to the moments, where you blow their mind is by asking some very simple questions that allow people to go back to a more original state correctly.

Leah Komaiko  21:18

Yes, then we’re original state. And then because there’s I had like, must like some kind of like, tweak in my brain or something. But because I love kids books, I’ve been with over 100,000 kids. I’ve written them and and because they were read to me so consistently, when I was a kid, which was a savior of my life. I can hear store the stories and people. It sounds like I see dead people, but it’s really not, that are just shouted over. So I started talking to somebody, it’s almost like they won’t even realize, like, I’ll ask him a question to get them into the stories like what color was the front of the book? What color was, you know, and somebody would start and say, you know, I don’t remember a lot of I don’t remember, I have no idea. And then once once they heard they were doing a place where somebody was listening to them in a very peculiar or different kind of way. Then they would say, okay, it was green. It was this, it was that. And I would just start asking them questions, intuitive questions. And it would open up for them. They would remember who they were, and they would see the connections most often. I cannot believe I’ve spent my whole career doing this. And I remember reading this book now when I was five years old, and have no idea that was basically shaping the trajectory of my career and everything I wanted. That’s what people were interested. It’s like, really quickly during the last election when that can remember when that was But Michael when Michael Bloomberg was running. You know, in his speech, he mentioned that when he was a kid was part of a city you see, remember reading the book, Johnny Tremaine had kids book Johnny Truman and how it changes and shaped his entire life. And it was like, yes, like when people get it, it’s like a brand something sticks. In a kid’s book, when you’re a child. Unlike any other kind of book, there’s a stick that happens. Like not to hit you with a head stick, but a something that’s sticks and stays. And when people get reconnected with that, they love quickly through what they’ve been struggling with. They come up with better ideas, they they write, they, you know, I’m working with a company now that just sold their business for $3.2 billion. They’ve you know, all sorts of stuff happens.

Achim Nowak  23:30

In a way, you’re like a, I would say like a creative anthropologist, right? You help people on earth things. That’s beautiful. Thank you a question that’s emerging for me. And it’s, it’s a question for me, for you. And for a lot of our listeners. When we’ve been doing something for a while, you know, like you writing children’s books, you know, being a story coach, consultant, excavator. Do you ever get to the point where you go, it’s time to move on? I’ve done this once too often. How do you know when that moment comes? And what do you do when those moments arise? Well,

Leah Komaiko  24:18

the beauty of life I guess, it’s I have so many other challenges and things going on the moments arise, not that I’m afraid that I’ve done this already, but I’m afraid I you know, whatever, what if I can’t keep doing this or I don’t have the clients or I don’t I think about it and then I I find myself continuing to do what I’m doing. I think about it, but it doesn’t, it doesn’t really stop me from wanting to do I’m very I’m very passionate about health about the word I don’t use that often. But I love being able to see grown up people be saved by their own childhood stories and put that into their business. It makes me happy so I you know, I think it just makes me happy and The same time, a year ago, I moved out of LA and I’ve always lived in major cities my whole life, and I’m living in a city with 7800 people, and vultures walking down the street, and everything that I’m completely unfamiliar with. So I have a lot to try and figure out there, you know, it’s just like, Why did I do this? So the point is, I have another adventure here that I’m struggling with and trying to find my way through. And it keeps me balanced.

Achim Nowak  25:29

Well, in this spirit of what we talked about earlier, which is improvisational versus strategic, moving to a small city of 7800, from LA was that a strategic move with a lot of thought behind it? Or? It just came and felt right, and you did it?

Leah Komaiko  25:47

Well, very briefly, it was a cosmic move. California word,

Achim Nowak  25:52

forgive me. I can handle cosmic go for it.

Leah Komaiko  25:55

Good. It was very much a cosmic move on my, my brother, who lived here, who was my best friend who had a couple of kids anyway, he’s died, suddenly, my sister had just died. And my best friend had just died. And then I lost my brother. And when my brother died, he left my nieces some money. And they said, why don’t you come on out here, and we’ll help you buy a house, get out, we’ll get a house out here, we’ll get a house we’ll buy for the house. It’s very expensive here. And you can just pay to live in and you can rent everything else. So it was partially like, it was a moment of like, Okay, I gotta go because LA is a mess falling apart. And I was sick of where I was living. I was just, it was strategic. It was cosmic. It was, like, undeniable that I had to do this. I mean, who would pass this up on your nieces? Because they have no more. No more surviving family except somebody in New York, they say we want you around us? It’s like, well, I’ll be there. Long answer to a short question.

Achim Nowak  27:00

I was debating whether or not to tell my own version of this. But I remember, a year, a year and a half ago, I, I was living in a beautiful big compound that I owned with two houses and a lap pool, like it dream space, and a spunky, emerging neighborhood. That’s very hot right now. And I was offered more money than I thought. And I could have imagined for that. And I had been thinking about wanting to simplify my life. And suddenly, very quickly, I realized, if I connect these dots, maybe it’s time to sell this property, which nobody could believe I would. And then the journey becomes, you know, what is there to learn and the new place that we are? Or what is there to embrace, right? What wisdom does it hold that I didn’t? couldn’t access before? Because I was somewhere else? What are you learning about yourself in your new playground?

Leah Komaiko  27:54

I’m learning I want everybody from LA to come up with. I’m learning to acquire, gentler, more boring, strange as little place. It’s better for me, it took me a while to get used to the fact that it was quiet here. And it made me realize I don’t want to be alone anymore. I’ve lived alone for a long time. I don’t want to work alone. You get up here. It’s like, hello, hello. Just made me realize I have a lot of friends in California and around the country for which I’m very grateful. But it made me realize it’s, you know, I need to do more than I thought that I needed to do to come up here. I thought, well, you know, I know a couple of people. So there’s going to be parades coming down the street to alchemy, you know, between COVID and everything else, I’m discovering that. I just I want things to be different. And that I need to wake up every day and just say this is going to be a great day. And I like doing that. Most days I can do that. Because otherwise I’ll be walking around going I can’t believe I just hate to have this fence fix me just like it’s like the money pit you know, but I’ve got a big yard and I’m about to I’m discovering about myself that I got to let go of thinking I’m never gonna know much about myself. That’s really what I’m discovering. Yeah. And welcome. You’re very welcome to come here at a time. It’s a very desirable little town everybody flocks here, but it’s different to be just slapped a flap here as a guest than to live here.

Achim Nowak  29:31

Again, I’m speaking about life transitions moving forward and think stepping into more quiet is that many of us need even if we don’t consciously desire it. And sometimes we don’t know that we need it until we step into it and experience it and realize, oh, this is what this feels like. Right?

Leah Komaiko  29:58

It was shocking for me. I’ve been coming here For years, and I used to always say when my brother was alive. And so you know, it’s great to be there for two days, I gotta get out of here. It’s just quiet for me. And then it’s great to realize I’m here now. Oh, yeah.

Achim Nowak  30:13

Now, because this is the my fourth podcast. And the fourth act is really a metaphor playing on the notion that the classic, traditional well written play has five acts. And the fourth act is the act, when we figured out a whole bunch of maybe old drama has been resolved, we’re not ready to die yet. So the fourth act can be an act of discovering new things of exploration, doing more of this or less of that. So if you think of your life and place where you are now, and you’re still doing the same work you’re doing, are you able to say these are some things I’d like to have more of? These are some things I’d like to do less of, or is that too prescriptive? Of

Leah Komaiko  30:59

a question? No, it’s a great question. I don’t know if I’m able to, I’m able to say that I’m i And what I’d like to do more of is, I’d like to work with other people I’d like to find other people to work with. I mean, in addition to my clients, I’d like to collaborate with, you know, somebody that makes sense to do stuff with, I want us I’d like to say I’d like to travel and work with them. I’d be lying. I really not crazy about getting on an airplane right now with everything going on. I think I’m not ready to die. I wish everybody around me that was would not be ready to die. Either. stuff starts happening to people, I’m ready to do things that I think, you know, I’ve closed myself off from. But I’m also ready to recognize that I come I came up here with like, Okay, I figure this out, I’ll get I’ll get a shovel. I’ll do it on the farm and everything else goes slowly. And then it’s slowly and then I, I think Well, at this point, I shouldn’t be able to, you know, just run out there because what matters because you know, and it’s not, it’s not all that it’s so I think the one I want to do more of is work with people doing this kind of work. This particular aspect of work, I love working with people, I want to collaborate with people, I’d like to have a partner in my life again, it’s been a while since I’ve had that. And I feel like I’m in a position to have a better kind of relationship with people. I’d like to discover what I keep saying that this is the best time of my life. So this is the best time of your life. You know, my mind will start dragging me out. But what about but that kind of stuff? But you know, it’s a good time. I don’t have any debts I you know, I’m but I’m certainly not ready to die. No, because I thought was my most both my sister and my mother but a while. So I don’t think it’s not ready to die. It sounds boring. It’s boring.

Achim Nowak  32:56

I appreciate the clarity of your answer. So I’m wondering, because you just offered what I call the wisdom perspective. And if you take what you know now about life that you couldn’t have known when you were a teenager, even though I I was struck by how specific your vision visions and desires for yourself where? What kind of wisdom or guidance? Would you give a younger version of yourself right now that might help them in life? What would you want them to know about life that you know, now that you couldn’t have known when you were young?

Leah Komaiko  33:36

Lovely question.

Leah Komaiko  33:44

Well, gosh, I guess the wisdom I would give them is to consider the possibility like for a long time, I was always saying, when I get older, I’m going to live on a duck farm, when I get all that to consider the possibility that all that stuff’s going to happen. It’s going to show up one way or another. I think the wisdom I would give my younger self is to say, is to teach myself that I’m enough. You know, just let what’s given me enough as I think Eleanor Roosevelt said her husband or some cartoon character, whatever. But let let’s give him the enough. I was always afraid. This isn’t enough. This isn’t enough. I wasn’t enough. And I was watching your your TED talk last night. very moved by that. It’s like how will I know? When enough is enough? It’s when enough becomes too much. You know, but I don’t want I don’t want to get to that point. But yeah, I would try and tell myself that I was lovable the way that I was. I would try you know, I would try and tell myself to not confuse your purpose for being here with anything having to do with saving the Earth. And I will try and convince myself I think if I could to stop looking at what hadn’t been given, and start looking more at what has been given, then I would see more clearly what reality was.

Achim Nowak  35:14

But a beautiful note to end on. I have so many versions of that myself. So I, you were speaking to me directly when you said that now because you are usually accomplished through your writing and so the story work you do with individuals and corporations. For listeners who want to learn more about you, and your work. Where can they find more about you, Leah?

Leah Komaiko  35:39

I’m on LinkedIn. I also have a website, which is pretty much where people reach me. www dot Lia lehkomaiko.com I’m not Japanese if you want to know people ask all the time.

Achim Nowak  36:02

Well, thank you for the gift of this conversation and for being the wonderfully quirky you that you are.

Leah Komaiko  36:11

And that catch you back. Thank you this opportunity. What a pleasure. Thank you. Like what you

Achim Nowak  36:19

heard, please go to my fourth act.com And subscribe to receive my updates on upcoming episodes. Please also subscribe to us on the platform of your choice. Rate us give us a review and let us all create some magical fourth acts together. Ciao