January 6, 2026 • 42 mins
Something shifts when joy stops being a side effect of success and becomes a conscious way of living and leading. In this episode, Amy explores the idea of Exponential Joy with Kristin Joy Ekkens, founder of Exponential Joy™ movement, and how choosing joy on purpose can transform the way we work, communicate, and show up in our lives. Together, they unpack how joy is not about bypassing difficulty, but about developing the awareness, presence, and courage to meet life honestly without losing yourself in the process. Kristin shares how exponential joy grows through small, intentional choices that reconnect you to your voice, your body, and your truth, even in high-pressure environments. This conversation invites you to rethink productivity, success, and leadership through a more human lens, where joy becomes a renewable resource that deepens connection, expands impact, and creates work that feels aligned instead of draining.
Key Takeaways:
- Why Exponential Joy Is a Practice, Not a Personality Trait – Understand how joy grows through intentional choices rather than circumstances or temperament.
- How Joy Changes the Way You Show Up at Work – Learn how choosing joy affects presence, communication, and how others experience you.
- The Difference Between Performing and Living in Joy – See how chasing approval or productivity blocks joy and creates quiet exhaustion.
- How Awareness Creates Space for Joy Under Pressure – Discover why noticing your internal state is the doorway to sustainable joy, even in demanding environments.
- Why Joy Expands Impact Instead of Diminishing It – Learn how grounded joy strengthens leadership, trust, and influence rather than making work feel less serious.
- Returning to Your Natural State of Joy – Understand how reconnecting to your voice, body, and truth allows joy to grow exponentially over time.
About the Guest:
Kristin Joy Ekkens is the visionary founder of the Exponential Joy™ movement and creator of the Joy Operating System (JOYOS™)—a blueprint for conscious leadership, wellbeing, and human flourishing. A TEDx speaker, executive coach, and social entrepreneur, she blends emotional and connectional intelligence, well-tech, and ancient wisdom to help leaders and creators upgrade their inner operating systems. After overcoming severe burnout and autoimmune illness, Kristin developed the EPIC Joy Codes™—Energy, Purpose, Intention, and Connection—to help others transform stress into vitality and purpose into joy. Her mission: to rewire humanity for exponential joy.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinjoyekkens
https://exj.global/joyos-accelerator/
About Amy:
Amy Lynn Durham, known by her clients as the Corporate Mystic, is the founder of the Executive Coaching Firm, Create Magic At Work®, where they help leaders build workplaces rooted in creativity, collaboration, and fulfillment. A former corporate executive turned Executive Coach, Amy blends practical leadership strategies with spiritual intelligence to unlock human potential at work.
She’s a certified Executive Coach through UC Berkeley & the International Coaching Federation (ICF) In addition, Amy holds coaching certifications in Spiritual Intelligence (SQ21), the Edgewalker...
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kristin Joy Ekkens (00:00):
You will have to learn how to outgrow some things you love. You will have to learn that some things are right for a time, but not forever. You will have to learn that moving on from them does not diminish the place they held within you, the importance they have to you, or the impact they had on you. You will have to learn that if you are not growing, you are not really living, if you are not moving on from anything, you are not moving toward something, you will have to learn how to let go of some things that are still beautiful, because you know that they are not quite right, because you know that a deeper peace is waiting the people, places and things that phase in and out of your life come to you for a specific purpose, and once their mission is complete, you are able to move on to the next experience. You will have to learn that the very act of letting go is not failure, but a signal of completion, one of the truest signs that you are evolving as a human being. Brianna Weist, the pivot year,
Amy Lynn Durham (01:14):
hey, it's Amy. Welcome to Create Magic at Work, where we cast visions for a future of work, where business decisions ripple outward to our teams, our communities, the planet and humanity as a whole. If you're ready to edge, walk instead of sleep, walk through your leadership, you're in the right place. So let's start making magic at work
(01:35):
That everyone is Kristin Joy Ekkens, the visionary founder of exponential joy, a movement. She is also the creator of the joy operating system. Joy OS, a blueprint for conscious leadership, well beingand human flourishing. A TEDx speaker, executive coach and social entrepreneur. She blends emotional and connectional intelligence, well tech and ancient wisdom to help leaders and creators upgrade their inner operating systems after overcoming severe burnout and auto immune illness, Kristin developed the epic Joy codes we're going to talk about those today, energy, purpose, intention and connection to Help others transform stress into vitality and purpose into joy. Her mission to rewire humanity for exponential joy. Oh my gosh. What a mission rewire humanity for exponential joy. And I Kristin is a returning guest here on create magic at work, and she's also a cherished colleague and friend. I heard her first present on exponential joy and the joy operating system when we gathered in Fayetteville, Arkansas for our edge Walker facilitator retreat. And it was so incredible. I was like, I have to have you come on the create magic at work podcast, share this joy operating system with all of the listeners, and we are strategically recording this conversation. So it is the first episode that airs on create magic at work in 2026 because we want some frickin joy in 2026 and it's also going to air on my birthday, which I'm very excited about. So first episode of 2026 airing on my birthday. And I just, I sent Kristin a voice note. I was like, I need you to come on to be this first episode, because we have to set the tone in 2026 for joy. I just I'm not having it any other way at this point, because 2025 felt pretty rough, and I know it did for a lot of people. So Kristin, thank you for being here. Welcome back to create magic at work.
Kristin Joy Ekkens (03:55):
What an honor, and thank you. What an honor to be the very first episode and on your birthday. So this is just really, really exciting to be here with you, and that I agree we need to set the tone and intention for 2026, that it's going to be a year of joy, and we'll get into what that means, because we don't mean toxic positivity, Joy. Yeah, true joy, yeah.
Amy Lynn Durham (04:18):
So on that note, I mean, there's a lot of themes around joy in pop culture, in coaching, in I don't know if it's necessarily infiltrating into leadership per se yet. So tell us what's different about exponential joy. Because I hear a lot of themes around joy, and I'm just like, hey, whatever. I'm tired. I gotta get this done, or, like, I gotta keep moving. But I was super impressed with your operating system that that is incredible. So anyways, tell us how that came about and how it's different from the cookie cutter stuff.
Kristin Joy Ekkens (04:52):
Yes, absolutely, I think the first thing is making Joy real for people, because when we look. At joy, and we hear the word, and especially right now, we see around Joy to the world. People say these big, lofty things, even I do around rewiring humanity for joy that's huge and lofty. That's just my massive, transformative purpose. So I'm putting it out to say this is how we come together for this. But I think looking at joy and saying yes, and it's also something that you can bring down to a tangible things that I can do to create and find that, because it's not that you have to seek joy, it's just that it's often covered, because life is happening around us all the time, and our environment, our mental states, our just busyness, the distractions and disruptions and and devastations. I mean, all these things start to just cloud the joy that is already in us. And so that's what I'm really after is to show people how it already is at your power center, and that you just need to get rid of the things that drain Joy so that you can boost it more and have this sense of peace and feel it in every day. So it's making it tangible, and it's using AI to help us with that. It's using ancient wisdom to help us with that. Sometimes it's emotional regulation and breath work. Sometimes it's very tactical systems work and understanding structures and systems. And that's where the joy OS comes in. But I'll pause there, because I think that's making it tangible
Amy Lynn Durham (06:41):
is the most important thing. Yeah, when you mention removing what's draining you, I have a reaction to that, because I start thinking through what I might want to remove that's draining me, and some of the things that come up feel essential to my daily life, operating. How do we discern, how do we make those choices in a clear way?
Kristin Joy Ekkens (07:10):
Yes, I love that. The key thing is the decision making and when we're making decisions. So I went through a program at Stanford Graduate Business School, and we looked at so our values and valued space leadership is what it was called. And every day we're making decisions, and they're always trade offs. And so I go back to what trade offs are we making? And this is where we can start to look at choices. Are you trading your joy for something that will give you momentary, I mean, even say just momentary happiness. Maybe it's otherwise, you're trading your joy for something that you say it's, you know, I'm I have money, then if I do this. So this is what I hear. Tangible example. I hear people who are in corporate America, and they say, Yeah, I'm very close to burnout, but I have to do this because my family's depending on the money that's coming in from this. And I'll say, so what's the trade off then? And they'll say, Well, I mean, at some point I can't sustain this. But for now, I'm okay, but I'm not happy. And I'll say, and what are some of the things that you're seeing as a result for staying in this role, in this position, in the same space that you're in that's basically draining your joy. And what they come to is to realize, when we start to look at it a little bit more, that if it continues the way it does, that burnout is not just like around the corner, but it's right there knocking on their door, and that relationships have already suffered, that, that their health has suffered, that, like all of these Different things, that also they realized, oh, wait, I have already gone down that path. And so it's not to say everyone must leave their corporate jobs, for example, if it doesn't give them full joy, but it's designing your life with that at the center that joy gives you that peace, and no matter what circumstance you're in, because we can't choose all of our circumstances.
Amy Lynn Durham (09:22):
Yeah, that sounds very realistic to me. And also what's coming up for me is the end of 2025 felt very tired for me all of the things that I was working, even though some of them were really amazing projects that I loved. And I also think back to when I was in the corporate grind. I guess I'm just wondering, how can we hold both? Because the reality is, we do have to work for money and pay our bills. Most of us do. How do we hold both if we're recognizing we're burning out? And I do hear this a lot too, like you were talking. About clients saying, I hear a lot of if I just get through this, then if I just get through this quote, unquote, busy season, then XYZ, and it never gets there. It's always the next time. Well, if I just get through this month, or if I just get through this new project, or if I just get through this, then I'll be able to exhale then, and I never see the then. And so how can we hold both? How do we use exponential joy, the joy operating system to I'm thinking, if we're recognizing this, we could actually start maybe just injecting some of this in the space we are today, rather waiting for the then. And so what does that look like? And maybe this is a great point to start introducing the joy codes a little bit.
Kristin Joy Ekkens (10:47):
Yes, I think it is. It's the perfect place to because what I started to think about from my own life, my own experience of burnout, being in corporate, and then also even, I mean, it's not greener on the other side that you jump to entrepreneurship or something and all sudden it's like, wow, Everything's all set. That's really hard work too. So no matter what your role is, what you're doing in life, that is where you have to figure out that baseline for yourself of what brings you joy, what actually does that? And then you can see it usually, too, once you've gone through a burnout, unfortunately, and you look back, this is what my story was. Is that, you know, at 35 years old, I didn't know that's what it was at the time, but I was just exhausted and my body wasn't functioning, and my brain hurt, and I couldn't sleep, all of these health things that were highly correlated to chronic stress that I didn't know how to manage and emotional regulation that I didn't know how to regulate some of those emotions. And I had two young kids. I was working too much, traveling too much. You know, my husband was doing everything he could for the family as well. And at the same time, it was just so intense, an intense time of life. And what I realized looking back so now, looking at 10 years ago, it's like, wow, what I was missing were the things that gave me an outlet. I removed things that were play. So I stopped golfing during that time, I stopped playing piano, I stopped painting, I stopped reading for fun, and my excuse to myself was I don't have time. And it was like, How can I fit this in? I just don't have time for that. I've got to feed the kids. I've got to do all these things. And what I realized was looking backward, I removed all of the things that made me human and to enjoy life. And so although I thought it was my kids and my husband that I have those relationships, and that's what is giving me joy. Each individual also needs to find what's at
(13:07):
their center that allows them to play and to find a steady ground of gratitude. And so these are actually what I call first before the epic Joy codes. It's this awareness of joy. And so I created thissurvey that shows us 16 attributes of joy, which breaks it down just a little bit more to say, what helps you ground and then through these growth moments like an exponential curve, what helps you connect and grow? So forgiveness is a big one in there, humility, courage, these are all things during growth moments acceptance. So it's to say you will go through growth moments and joy is there, along with grief, along with suffering. It helps you though, set a baseline for what that can look like for you, so that you can move through the growth moments and learn and grow to understand yourself even better, so that you get into this area of give, which is more about your purpose and contribution, and so that you can focus outward. Again, too many people, though, focus outward. And this is what I'm finding through the results that after now there's, you know, not at this point in time, it's only been out for half a year or so, maybe three quarters of the year, I've had over 100 people take it. And what I'm seeing, though, is that people are saying they're very compassionate, and they are in that giving space. But then and those are their top five, but the bottom five attributes fall into the grounding and growing depending what life moments they're in, but the grounding piece that means they're being really compassionate towards others, but not self compassionate. And this is where the epic droid codes come in. I'll pause there if you have any reaction to what I've said.
Amy Lynn Durham (14:53):
First, I'm really struck by your story of sharing that you gave up. The things that brought you joy or that brought play into your life, and I was immediately reminded of one of my favorite reminders from Dr Angeles Arian, who's a cultural anthropologist who shares in many shamanic societies, if you went to the healer and were complaining of being depressed or tired or sad, they would ask you, when did you stop singing? When did you stop dancing? When did you stop enjoying the sweet territory of silence, and when did you stop enjoying storytelling, particularly the story of your own life. And right there, I think, is, is what you're touching on.
Kristin Joy Ekkens (15:48):
That's exactly it, because even the exercise so for me, I loved Zumba, and I did kickboxing, all these things that also went to the wayside, and that was my way of movement. So, like moving our bodies even, and you know, it that you hit it right on the head. That's exactly what it is. When are you, if you're singing, I mean, we know now, and research shows these things. And this is where I blend in ancient wisdom. Is that for your vagal, you know, looking at your vagal nerve and looking at how you actually can regulate your nervous system. What I learned about myself when I dropped all those things that meant and why my body started breaking down is because I went into a sympathetic mode and I could not regulate my body, and it was became a chronic stress thing. I was no longer like singing and humming, which actually regulates your body more I was no longer doing things I didn't realize, like movement that actually would help me go into a space that I could function more effectively.
Amy Lynn Durham (16:53):
Why do you think we get to that point? Why do you think we get to the point where we're shutting off these pieces of our humanity for another quote, unquote, another time. Where do you think that? Yep, that edge is, since we're edge Walker facilitators,
Kristin Joy Ekkens (17:09):
absolutely, I think that the challenge is we haven't potentially created this intention for what we wanted life to look like. We haven't designed it. So we're hitting these things, or we feel like these circumstances or things are happening to us, instead of us moving into the space to say, like, yes, this happened. And I'll give an example of this year for me, this happened, and this is how I'm going to approach it. And so instead of just becoming the victim of it, it's it's switching the mindset to be in this growth mindset. And this takes practice and skill, and I think that's where it comes into leadership as well. These things are not things like joy can be practiced and it should be practiced. And if we look at things and stop being curious about what gives us joy, then that's where we may unintentionally remove things or not explore what might actually allow us to see and experience something that's amazing for me. This year, one of my sons, he broke both of his legs, and it was a moment of like, what, what is happening? Right at the same time that I thought business was about to boom, I just created, you know, a few months before that, the joy operating system. I had tested it in terms of an experience, a half day experience in Silicon Valley. It went really well. I started to plan the next one, and when that happened, it was, it felt, at first, like just a rejection, almost, of what I was doing, when I thought I felt like this was on the right path. And then I realized that was my mind, in a sense, playing tricks on me, that that was my In other words, to say is that was my ego saying, like, what? What's going on? This isn't good enough. And what I was realizing that I was doing was trying to control a narrative and a timeline that wasn't mine to control. So I had to quickly, like literally within a day, move out of that mindset to say, What am I grateful for? I am so grateful that it wasn't more than his legs. His legs can
(19:35):
heal. I'm so grateful his head is fine. I'm so grateful. And I just kept going down lists of things I was grateful for to help me shift into a space of gratitude, rather than going down that otherroute of negativity and what's happening and woe is me. And I'm not saying it's you can feel bad for yourself. It's human to have these feelings and to feel. Angry at times, and to go that is human. The challenge is, if we don't move our emotions out of that space, we have to move them back up into this space of of neutral to make decisions that are good. Otherwise, if we stay in that space of like emotions are in that those negative zones. This is where, I think, where we start dropping those things that give us joy when we're playing those zones that are like, not neutral and above. So this is where a lot of the work I do with leadership now is emotional intelligence, cultural intelligence, regulation in this way, but then also embedding and understanding, not just for the individual, but how teams operate and organizations culturally, how they can actually get into a space of operating from a place of joy. And that's where just it leads to those epic Joy codes, because that is where what I'm finding, what I found and tested and realized is, hold on, there are some upgrades. Sometimes we need a full reset. Just if you think about it for our phones, right? Operating systems here, if you think about an operating system, it all sudden you get notified. Oh, time to upgrade. It's like an update is waiting, like, ah, and I've got to plug on make sure it's all set to go during the night. So it can. Can do that. Well, we also need that, because now we're living in these times that rapid change is happening faster than any other time in human history, and we think we can operate the same as we were last week or five years ago, and it's just not true. Yeah, so these epic Joy modes give us these upgrades.
Amy Lynn Durham (21:52):
So when you say upgrade, I also want to add the word reboot, because sometimes when we feel so tired and worn out an upgrade, sounds like a lot of energy, and we definitely will get into what these epic Joy codes are. But I do have one more quick question before that. You also mentioned we have to be really clear on what we want our life to look like, how we want that to be, what is the difference between fantasy, delusion, visioning goals and then being so frustrated that they're not coming into Reality, versus
Kristin Joy Ekkens (22:37):
living an aligned life yeah, that you're talking about, yes, that's such a good question. So this is so when I started that reading, when we started with the reading, the the piece that for me looking at how sometimes you need to the first line was how to outgrow some things you love. And most of these sentences were around you will have to learn. You will have to learn. You will have to learn. And so part of this, to get back to your question, is we do have to learn. We do go through these moments of manifesting and visioning and seeing what we want to see from the future, but when it comes to joy, living in the present is the most important thing, and so we do step back into the past to see what that was like. I said I step back to when I was 35 to tell my 35 year old self, you're okay. It's okay that that happened. Now I'm 45 and because that happened, I have this vision for what needs to happen to help rewire humanity for joy. So thank you 35 year old self for enduring that tough time, because that was a growth time, and now you can let it go. And I get almost emotional about it, because it's like that was so hard. It was such a hard time. And then to tell myself, now let it go. You've learned what you need to learn from that. Let it go. And now it's time to grow into the next space. So the aligning from your question, being able to figure out this is where the epic Joy codes come in. First understanding your energy, that's the E your energy, and how what living in vitality looks like for you. And each person has their own unique set of epic Joy codes. And this is where it's challenging and unique. So it's a framework, but each person has to figure out for them what works for them. And so we experiment, we test these things. So we use innovation language, because that's exactly what it is we're innovating and experimenting on our own energy and what it takes to help us live an incredible life that you. Feel Alive in and then
(25:02):
the next one is purpose. This is where it does come to aligning with your values, with your personal mission, with understanding who you are today and why you're meant to be here today. This isn'tthis huge thing that never changes. And I think sometimes that's when people get overwhelmed with saying, Well, why am I here? What's my purpose? It's like today. What's your purpose? Is it to bring joy? Is it to have moments of joy yourself? Is it to live in a space where you can bring joy to others? What? What is it today that you're here to do? And then so energy, purpose, the next one is intention. So when we think about going in a direction, intentionally moving in a direction, if we haven't set it up for what those intentions are and created habits for ourselves, then you start to go one way, but it may not be aligned with your purpose. And then you're going to feel like you're going off path. I don't believe there is an off path, but it will feel more tension. You'll feel like, well, why is this happening and different things that might be not aligning or falling into place for you? It's because you're slightly off the direction of of where your soul wants you to be in that moment. And this is where coming back and feeling aligned with your purpose again and living intentionally into that, designing play time, designing gratitude time, designing all of that into your life. But it takes habits and designing those in and then the last one, so energy, purpose, intention and connection. You can't do spread this joy and find. You can't just live within yourself on this it's about connecting with others and finding that space of belonging and also rippling joy out to others. So this is where learning how you connect to others?
Amy Lynn Durham (27:01):
Okay, when you talked about going back to the past, they'd all to me. It also answered my question of these future visions that myself, that I'll get really attached to. Like, I want my I want to bring this into my life. I want to, I don't know I want to have a lake house or like these material things. I think a lot of us, or I want my life to feel this way. Or I want, you know, all of these different things, of this vision of how I think Joy should look like in my life. And when you were talking about that past experience and speaking to your past self, to me, you can also do that with that future, those future visions also, because there's a part of letting go of what we think our life should look like, to anchor into the present moment and be really appreciative of what's going on today. And I even want to take, like a pin and like, pop that bubble, because it's so closed off, right? And I want to open up and expand for more possibility that I can't even imagine. And I think with epic Joy codes, focusing on energy, purpose, intention, and connection in the present and letting go of what is going to come of that sounds quite powerful. Yeah, so that's what I'm getting from this. Yes, I love that. Any thoughts on that? Because I do want to ask you on the intention piece, yeah, this is where I feel like it can get mucked up with people myself from time to time. The intention, I you know, goal setting. We come from a corporate space. What do you want to achieve by this state intentions? These are my intentions. And then all of a sudden, we're closed off, and then all of a sudden, maybe this exact thing hasn't appeared, and then we're upset, and then we're self blaming, and then we don't have what you talked about in the very, very beginning with your survey. We're lacking self compassion. Well, this isn't turning out to the goal I set, so now I'm not experiencing joy, and now I'm beating myself up. How do we how do we
Kristin Joy Ekkens (29:23):
reconcile all of that? Yes, the first thing that comes to mind for me is when you set these goals, the goals, and you think of KPIs and all of that, they're usually attached to a larger goal. That larger goal, if we're really operating from a joy operating system. That means joy is the heart is the center goal, and the other goals should be coming off of that. So if you track a goal back and you say, I want a lake house, and you say, I've been manifesting this list, I. Yeah, okay, so I'm going to trace it back. So why do you want that so badly? And if it doesn't happen, maybe there's actually a mansion that's sitting there waiting for you instead, but you were looking at this lake house, and that mansion is on the ocean, and you didn't know that that was actually what was meant for you. So, I mean, we use on, you know, kind of a funny example that most people won't be going for, but at the same time, it's, it's, it's the reality of that, if you're intentionally designing and saying, This design must be it, what you're not allowing for is allowing and so you've actually put yourself in not an expansion place, but a constricted and restricted place that things could have, you know, been a place of joy for you, but instead it becomes this achievement that you must have, and that's not joy.
Amy Lynn Durham (30:57):
There you go, right there. It's the achievement piece, the saboteur of the hyper achiever, versus experiencing actual joy as a human being on the planet and living in our humanness of joy.
Kristin Joy Ekkens (31:13):
Yes, yeah. I mean me. My number one strength finder is achiever. My number two is activator. So I say this to people like these, this is like a dangerous combination achiever and activator. When you put someone like myself in this place that I'm see myself as a high performer and now I'm a high performance coach, right? Because I needed to understand the shadow side of that, because I felt like I kept touching it, the shadow side. And that is the same thing is you're working super hard, and this is where, if we haven't regulated our emotions, and you activate and achieve, then you burn out. That is exactly what's on the other side of it. It just because you can't stay in that space if the goal was to achieve rather than to have joy and live from a place of Yeah.
Amy Lynn Durham (32:17):
So good, so good. Okay, so we have the survey that people can take, yes, and what is that, called The Joy awareness survey, the joy awareness survey, and we will put that in. Is there a link to that that we can put in the show notes? I'll absolutely do that. So there's the joy awareness survey, okay, and then there's the joy operating system, with exponential Joy your company, which has been blasted out on all the news media networks right now, it's gaining so much buzz, so excited about that, and you're doing tell us about the cohorts that you've created that people can join to work through the epic Joy codes,
Kristin Joy Ekkens (33:01):
yes, thank you. So one of the things I've tested this year is, first a global membership, and it's a playground, so we call it the joy OS labs, and it's all virtual so that people from around the world can join. And this year, last year, we tested it with a group of women, and said now, because that's what felt was needed and was resonating at the time. And now I'm really excited to announce that in 2026 we are opening that up to everyone who wants to find a playground to play with joy. And we do this with a cultural lens as well, that I bring in experts and people from all around the world, practitioners who, authors, thought leaders, who, who have tapped into joy in a different way and want to share it with others. And so we can find things that actually we maybe never, ever thought that would bring us joy until we experienced it and said, How did I live without this? I need to put this into my daily life now. So that's been so much fun to see happen this past year, and I'm excited to expand that even further. The thing that you mentioned, what I found this is that's the grounding phase, right? Get people grounded in joy. For those who are going through growth moments, because this is where I felt it was really important right now so many people around the world having shifts in their jobs. Maybe it's transitions in, you know, as they age and going through maybe, you know, going into a space of switching careers, having to upskill in different ways that they never expected. So these growth moments as they happen, it's grounding people in joy during those growth moments, and that's where an accelerator comes in. So the cohorts that we're running, it's an. Accelerated version, going through these epic Joy codes, and I'm testing them in different ways. So so for some tracks, so I'll be launching one for executives coming up. We have different time zones that we'll be able to do so in one launching in in January 2026, you'll have to
(35:18):
look at website. I'll give you the link for the different cohorts that will be running. But what we're also embedding in are wearables, and so being able to embed in and actually see for thoseexecutives their emotions, and so that we can help use data to help regulate bio data to regulate emotions, and to dive in more deeply to what are those different tools and strategies for the epic Joy codes that we need to help us boost joy and sometimes reboot, like you said, reboot. Sometimes it's just a little upgrade that's needed in certain areas and for others, it is, you know, I need to all four of these areas do full reboot, and that's when it's major transitions are going through.
Amy Lynn Durham (36:07):
Yeah, I really like the idea of inviting all of us into a joy accelerator when you're going through a growth moment, or, dare I say, even something that feels super difficult or hard or not joyous at all. Yes, I mean, the thought of experimenting with that and playing with that seems quite interesting to play with. So I just want to, I want to highlight that. So thank you for sharing everything that you have available with exponential joy, and the joy operating system and the awareness survey, those are all going to be in the show notes. As I was speaking, I was going through the edge Walker card deck right now, and one of them fell because we are both fellow edge Walker facilitators, and one of the themes in the card deck is playfulness. And I, as you were sitting here talking, and I was looking at you, I was like, Oh my gosh, I feel like the universe almost made the entire playfulness section of the edge Walker card deck sort of inspired by you. Your middle name is Joy. You're Kristin Joy Atkins. And there's different themes of the different playfulness cards. So what I want to do is maybe pull a playfulness card for everyone listening to it to that's meant for everybody to hear this message as we're talking about exponential joy. I love that. I thought that would be fun. Yes, yeah. Like, see, like, the it's, a different person in the card every time, but it's like this element of you, I feel like in all of them, which is so interesting that is to me. You know, I don't know. Okay, so I've got four playfulness cards set out, and I'm gonna let you pick for us and all of the listeners, 123, or four, what's our card for 2026 number three, okay, oh my gosh, look at this. So playfulness in the edge Walker skills and qualities definition is a joyful sense of fun and creativity and an ability to keep everything in perspective. And what Kristin has chosen for all of us for 2026 is this, you go. We got to see we got to post this video,
(38:31):
because the card is like bubbles and people outside experiencing joy. This is like the Kristin Joy Atkins card. Okay, here's our message. Here is our message for 2026 I let lightness and fun guide myway. I let lightness and fun guide my way. And that is, of course, authored by Dr Judy Neal, who created the edge Walker framework. I let lightness and fun guide my way. Kristin, thank you so much for being here today. Yes, yeah, and thank you for bringing joy to all of us. Any final thoughts to us as we move into 2026 anything you want us to hold dear, to remember as we move through the year.
Kristin Joy Ekkens (39:24):
I think that was such a powerful practice to pull that out. And I think going back to for me, my personal mission is to be light and joy and to teach others to be the same. And so in the sense of understanding what light looks like to you, and let that guide you, light and fun and play that to not, not let the hard circumstances that will be around us, don't let those distinguish and extinguish the light that you actually. Really have that wants to burn bright from within, and so this is where we can intentionally do something about it, to let joy be that place that we're operating from, rather than that reward at the end that we may not find if we just keep seeking it in that way. So be intentional this year. Set it as a goal for yourself, but not one that you punish yourself to get to and try to achieve, but that you allow to happen in your life, and it will unfold.
Amy Lynn Durham (40:30):
Thank you. We will end on that note. We will let lightness and fun guide our way in 2026 and thank you for sharing exponential joy and the joy operating system with all of us to kick off the year.
Kristin Joy Ekkens (40:43):
Amy Lynn, my pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.
Amy Lynn Durham (40:46):
I want to thank each and every one of you for being here as we explore what it really means to create magic at work. If this conversation resonated with you, or if someone came to mind while you were listening, share the episode with them. Help others who are looking for these types of conversations find us and don't forget to follow, subscribe, rate and review so you're notified when the next episode airs until next time, keep edge walking, keep challenging the way things have always been done, and keep making magic at work you.
You will have to learn how to outgrow some things you love. You will have to learn that some things are right for a time, but not forever. You will have to learn that moving on from them does not diminish the place they held within you, the importance they have to you, or the impact they had on you. You will have to learn that if you are not growing, you are not really living, if you are not moving on from anything, you are not moving toward something, you will have to learn how to let go of some things that are still beautiful, because you know that they are not quite right, because you know that a deeper peace is waiting the people, places and things that phase in and out of your life come to you for a specific purpose, and once their mission is complete, you are able to move on to the next experience. You will have to learn that the very act of letting go is not failure, but a signal of completion, one of the truest signs that you are evolving as a human being. Brianna Weist, the pivot year,
Amy Lynn Durham (01:14):
hey, it's Amy. Welcome to Create Magic at Work, where we cast visions for a future of work, where business decisions ripple outward to our teams, our communities, the planet and humanity as a whole. If you're ready to edge, walk instead of sleep, walk through your leadership, you're in the right place. So let's start making magic at work
(01:35):
That everyone is Kristin Joy Ekkens, the visionary founder of exponential joy, a movement. She is also the creator of the joy operating system. Joy OS, a blueprint for conscious leadership, well beingand human flourishing. A TEDx speaker, executive coach and social entrepreneur. She blends emotional and connectional intelligence, well tech and ancient wisdom to help leaders and creators upgrade their inner operating systems after overcoming severe burnout and auto immune illness, Kristin developed the epic Joy codes we're going to talk about those today, energy, purpose, intention and connection to Help others transform stress into vitality and purpose into joy. Her mission to rewire humanity for exponential joy. Oh my gosh. What a mission rewire humanity for exponential joy. And I Kristin is a returning guest here on create magic at work, and she's also a cherished colleague and friend. I heard her first present on exponential joy and the joy operating system when we gathered in Fayetteville, Arkansas for our edge Walker facilitator retreat. And it was so incredible. I was like, I have to have you come on the create magic at work podcast, share this joy operating system with all of the listeners, and we are strategically recording this conversation. So it is the first episode that airs on create magic at work in 2026 because we want some frickin joy in 2026 and it's also going to air on my birthday, which I'm very excited about. So first episode of 2026 airing on my birthday. And I just, I sent Kristin a voice note. I was like, I need you to come on to be this first episode, because we have to set the tone in 2026 for joy. I just I'm not having it any other way at this point, because 2025 felt pretty rough, and I know it did for a lot of people. So Kristin, thank you for being here. Welcome back to create magic at work.
Kristin Joy Ekkens (03:55):
What an honor, and thank you. What an honor to be the very first episode and on your birthday. So this is just really, really exciting to be here with you, and that I agree we need to set the tone and intention for 2026, that it's going to be a year of joy, and we'll get into what that means, because we don't mean toxic positivity, Joy. Yeah, true joy, yeah.
Amy Lynn Durham (04:18):
So on that note, I mean, there's a lot of themes around joy in pop culture, in coaching, in I don't know if it's necessarily infiltrating into leadership per se yet. So tell us what's different about exponential joy. Because I hear a lot of themes around joy, and I'm just like, hey, whatever. I'm tired. I gotta get this done, or, like, I gotta keep moving. But I was super impressed with your operating system that that is incredible. So anyways, tell us how that came about and how it's different from the cookie cutter stuff.
Kristin Joy Ekkens (04:52):
Yes, absolutely, I think the first thing is making Joy real for people, because when we look. At joy, and we hear the word, and especially right now, we see around Joy to the world. People say these big, lofty things, even I do around rewiring humanity for joy that's huge and lofty. That's just my massive, transformative purpose. So I'm putting it out to say this is how we come together for this. But I think looking at joy and saying yes, and it's also something that you can bring down to a tangible things that I can do to create and find that, because it's not that you have to seek joy, it's just that it's often covered, because life is happening around us all the time, and our environment, our mental states, our just busyness, the distractions and disruptions and and devastations. I mean, all these things start to just cloud the joy that is already in us. And so that's what I'm really after is to show people how it already is at your power center, and that you just need to get rid of the things that drain Joy so that you can boost it more and have this sense of peace and feel it in every day. So it's making it tangible, and it's using AI to help us with that. It's using ancient wisdom to help us with that. Sometimes it's emotional regulation and breath work. Sometimes it's very tactical systems work and understanding structures and systems. And that's where the joy OS comes in. But I'll pause there, because I think that's making it tangible
Amy Lynn Durham (06:41):
is the most important thing. Yeah, when you mention removing what's draining you, I have a reaction to that, because I start thinking through what I might want to remove that's draining me, and some of the things that come up feel essential to my daily life, operating. How do we discern, how do we make those choices in a clear way?
Kristin Joy Ekkens (07:10):
Yes, I love that. The key thing is the decision making and when we're making decisions. So I went through a program at Stanford Graduate Business School, and we looked at so our values and valued space leadership is what it was called. And every day we're making decisions, and they're always trade offs. And so I go back to what trade offs are we making? And this is where we can start to look at choices. Are you trading your joy for something that will give you momentary, I mean, even say just momentary happiness. Maybe it's otherwise, you're trading your joy for something that you say it's, you know, I'm I have money, then if I do this. So this is what I hear. Tangible example. I hear people who are in corporate America, and they say, Yeah, I'm very close to burnout, but I have to do this because my family's depending on the money that's coming in from this. And I'll say, so what's the trade off then? And they'll say, Well, I mean, at some point I can't sustain this. But for now, I'm okay, but I'm not happy. And I'll say, and what are some of the things that you're seeing as a result for staying in this role, in this position, in the same space that you're in that's basically draining your joy. And what they come to is to realize, when we start to look at it a little bit more, that if it continues the way it does, that burnout is not just like around the corner, but it's right there knocking on their door, and that relationships have already suffered, that, that their health has suffered, that, like all of these Different things, that also they realized, oh, wait, I have already gone down that path. And so it's not to say everyone must leave their corporate jobs, for example, if it doesn't give them full joy, but it's designing your life with that at the center that joy gives you that peace, and no matter what circumstance you're in, because we can't choose all of our circumstances.
Amy Lynn Durham (09:22):
Yeah, that sounds very realistic to me. And also what's coming up for me is the end of 2025 felt very tired for me all of the things that I was working, even though some of them were really amazing projects that I loved. And I also think back to when I was in the corporate grind. I guess I'm just wondering, how can we hold both? Because the reality is, we do have to work for money and pay our bills. Most of us do. How do we hold both if we're recognizing we're burning out? And I do hear this a lot too, like you were talking. About clients saying, I hear a lot of if I just get through this, then if I just get through this quote, unquote, busy season, then XYZ, and it never gets there. It's always the next time. Well, if I just get through this month, or if I just get through this new project, or if I just get through this, then I'll be able to exhale then, and I never see the then. And so how can we hold both? How do we use exponential joy, the joy operating system to I'm thinking, if we're recognizing this, we could actually start maybe just injecting some of this in the space we are today, rather waiting for the then. And so what does that look like? And maybe this is a great point to start introducing the joy codes a little bit.
Kristin Joy Ekkens (10:47):
Yes, I think it is. It's the perfect place to because what I started to think about from my own life, my own experience of burnout, being in corporate, and then also even, I mean, it's not greener on the other side that you jump to entrepreneurship or something and all sudden it's like, wow, Everything's all set. That's really hard work too. So no matter what your role is, what you're doing in life, that is where you have to figure out that baseline for yourself of what brings you joy, what actually does that? And then you can see it usually, too, once you've gone through a burnout, unfortunately, and you look back, this is what my story was. Is that, you know, at 35 years old, I didn't know that's what it was at the time, but I was just exhausted and my body wasn't functioning, and my brain hurt, and I couldn't sleep, all of these health things that were highly correlated to chronic stress that I didn't know how to manage and emotional regulation that I didn't know how to regulate some of those emotions. And I had two young kids. I was working too much, traveling too much. You know, my husband was doing everything he could for the family as well. And at the same time, it was just so intense, an intense time of life. And what I realized looking back so now, looking at 10 years ago, it's like, wow, what I was missing were the things that gave me an outlet. I removed things that were play. So I stopped golfing during that time, I stopped playing piano, I stopped painting, I stopped reading for fun, and my excuse to myself was I don't have time. And it was like, How can I fit this in? I just don't have time for that. I've got to feed the kids. I've got to do all these things. And what I realized was looking backward, I removed all of the things that made me human and to enjoy life. And so although I thought it was my kids and my husband that I have those relationships, and that's what is giving me joy. Each individual also needs to find what's at
(13:07):
their center that allows them to play and to find a steady ground of gratitude. And so these are actually what I call first before the epic Joy codes. It's this awareness of joy. And so I created thissurvey that shows us 16 attributes of joy, which breaks it down just a little bit more to say, what helps you ground and then through these growth moments like an exponential curve, what helps you connect and grow? So forgiveness is a big one in there, humility, courage, these are all things during growth moments acceptance. So it's to say you will go through growth moments and joy is there, along with grief, along with suffering. It helps you though, set a baseline for what that can look like for you, so that you can move through the growth moments and learn and grow to understand yourself even better, so that you get into this area of give, which is more about your purpose and contribution, and so that you can focus outward. Again, too many people, though, focus outward. And this is what I'm finding through the results that after now there's, you know, not at this point in time, it's only been out for half a year or so, maybe three quarters of the year, I've had over 100 people take it. And what I'm seeing, though, is that people are saying they're very compassionate, and they are in that giving space. But then and those are their top five, but the bottom five attributes fall into the grounding and growing depending what life moments they're in, but the grounding piece that means they're being really compassionate towards others, but not self compassionate. And this is where the epic droid codes come in. I'll pause there if you have any reaction to what I've said.
Amy Lynn Durham (14:53):
First, I'm really struck by your story of sharing that you gave up. The things that brought you joy or that brought play into your life, and I was immediately reminded of one of my favorite reminders from Dr Angeles Arian, who's a cultural anthropologist who shares in many shamanic societies, if you went to the healer and were complaining of being depressed or tired or sad, they would ask you, when did you stop singing? When did you stop dancing? When did you stop enjoying the sweet territory of silence, and when did you stop enjoying storytelling, particularly the story of your own life. And right there, I think, is, is what you're touching on.
Kristin Joy Ekkens (15:48):
That's exactly it, because even the exercise so for me, I loved Zumba, and I did kickboxing, all these things that also went to the wayside, and that was my way of movement. So, like moving our bodies even, and you know, it that you hit it right on the head. That's exactly what it is. When are you, if you're singing, I mean, we know now, and research shows these things. And this is where I blend in ancient wisdom. Is that for your vagal, you know, looking at your vagal nerve and looking at how you actually can regulate your nervous system. What I learned about myself when I dropped all those things that meant and why my body started breaking down is because I went into a sympathetic mode and I could not regulate my body, and it was became a chronic stress thing. I was no longer like singing and humming, which actually regulates your body more I was no longer doing things I didn't realize, like movement that actually would help me go into a space that I could function more effectively.
Amy Lynn Durham (16:53):
Why do you think we get to that point? Why do you think we get to the point where we're shutting off these pieces of our humanity for another quote, unquote, another time. Where do you think that? Yep, that edge is, since we're edge Walker facilitators,
Kristin Joy Ekkens (17:09):
absolutely, I think that the challenge is we haven't potentially created this intention for what we wanted life to look like. We haven't designed it. So we're hitting these things, or we feel like these circumstances or things are happening to us, instead of us moving into the space to say, like, yes, this happened. And I'll give an example of this year for me, this happened, and this is how I'm going to approach it. And so instead of just becoming the victim of it, it's it's switching the mindset to be in this growth mindset. And this takes practice and skill, and I think that's where it comes into leadership as well. These things are not things like joy can be practiced and it should be practiced. And if we look at things and stop being curious about what gives us joy, then that's where we may unintentionally remove things or not explore what might actually allow us to see and experience something that's amazing for me. This year, one of my sons, he broke both of his legs, and it was a moment of like, what, what is happening? Right at the same time that I thought business was about to boom, I just created, you know, a few months before that, the joy operating system. I had tested it in terms of an experience, a half day experience in Silicon Valley. It went really well. I started to plan the next one, and when that happened, it was, it felt, at first, like just a rejection, almost, of what I was doing, when I thought I felt like this was on the right path. And then I realized that was my mind, in a sense, playing tricks on me, that that was my In other words, to say is that was my ego saying, like, what? What's going on? This isn't good enough. And what I was realizing that I was doing was trying to control a narrative and a timeline that wasn't mine to control. So I had to quickly, like literally within a day, move out of that mindset to say, What am I grateful for? I am so grateful that it wasn't more than his legs. His legs can
(19:35):
heal. I'm so grateful his head is fine. I'm so grateful. And I just kept going down lists of things I was grateful for to help me shift into a space of gratitude, rather than going down that otherroute of negativity and what's happening and woe is me. And I'm not saying it's you can feel bad for yourself. It's human to have these feelings and to feel. Angry at times, and to go that is human. The challenge is, if we don't move our emotions out of that space, we have to move them back up into this space of of neutral to make decisions that are good. Otherwise, if we stay in that space of like emotions are in that those negative zones. This is where, I think, where we start dropping those things that give us joy when we're playing those zones that are like, not neutral and above. So this is where a lot of the work I do with leadership now is emotional intelligence, cultural intelligence, regulation in this way, but then also embedding and understanding, not just for the individual, but how teams operate and organizations culturally, how they can actually get into a space of operating from a place of joy. And that's where just it leads to those epic Joy codes, because that is where what I'm finding, what I found and tested and realized is, hold on, there are some upgrades. Sometimes we need a full reset. Just if you think about it for our phones, right? Operating systems here, if you think about an operating system, it all sudden you get notified. Oh, time to upgrade. It's like an update is waiting, like, ah, and I've got to plug on make sure it's all set to go during the night. So it can. Can do that. Well, we also need that, because now we're living in these times that rapid change is happening faster than any other time in human history, and we think we can operate the same as we were last week or five years ago, and it's just not true. Yeah, so these epic Joy modes give us these upgrades.
Amy Lynn Durham (21:52):
So when you say upgrade, I also want to add the word reboot, because sometimes when we feel so tired and worn out an upgrade, sounds like a lot of energy, and we definitely will get into what these epic Joy codes are. But I do have one more quick question before that. You also mentioned we have to be really clear on what we want our life to look like, how we want that to be, what is the difference between fantasy, delusion, visioning goals and then being so frustrated that they're not coming into Reality, versus
Kristin Joy Ekkens (22:37):
living an aligned life yeah, that you're talking about, yes, that's such a good question. So this is so when I started that reading, when we started with the reading, the the piece that for me looking at how sometimes you need to the first line was how to outgrow some things you love. And most of these sentences were around you will have to learn. You will have to learn. You will have to learn. And so part of this, to get back to your question, is we do have to learn. We do go through these moments of manifesting and visioning and seeing what we want to see from the future, but when it comes to joy, living in the present is the most important thing, and so we do step back into the past to see what that was like. I said I step back to when I was 35 to tell my 35 year old self, you're okay. It's okay that that happened. Now I'm 45 and because that happened, I have this vision for what needs to happen to help rewire humanity for joy. So thank you 35 year old self for enduring that tough time, because that was a growth time, and now you can let it go. And I get almost emotional about it, because it's like that was so hard. It was such a hard time. And then to tell myself, now let it go. You've learned what you need to learn from that. Let it go. And now it's time to grow into the next space. So the aligning from your question, being able to figure out this is where the epic Joy codes come in. First understanding your energy, that's the E your energy, and how what living in vitality looks like for you. And each person has their own unique set of epic Joy codes. And this is where it's challenging and unique. So it's a framework, but each person has to figure out for them what works for them. And so we experiment, we test these things. So we use innovation language, because that's exactly what it is we're innovating and experimenting on our own energy and what it takes to help us live an incredible life that you. Feel Alive in and then
(25:02):
the next one is purpose. This is where it does come to aligning with your values, with your personal mission, with understanding who you are today and why you're meant to be here today. This isn'tthis huge thing that never changes. And I think sometimes that's when people get overwhelmed with saying, Well, why am I here? What's my purpose? It's like today. What's your purpose? Is it to bring joy? Is it to have moments of joy yourself? Is it to live in a space where you can bring joy to others? What? What is it today that you're here to do? And then so energy, purpose, the next one is intention. So when we think about going in a direction, intentionally moving in a direction, if we haven't set it up for what those intentions are and created habits for ourselves, then you start to go one way, but it may not be aligned with your purpose. And then you're going to feel like you're going off path. I don't believe there is an off path, but it will feel more tension. You'll feel like, well, why is this happening and different things that might be not aligning or falling into place for you? It's because you're slightly off the direction of of where your soul wants you to be in that moment. And this is where coming back and feeling aligned with your purpose again and living intentionally into that, designing play time, designing gratitude time, designing all of that into your life. But it takes habits and designing those in and then the last one, so energy, purpose, intention and connection. You can't do spread this joy and find. You can't just live within yourself on this it's about connecting with others and finding that space of belonging and also rippling joy out to others. So this is where learning how you connect to others?
Amy Lynn Durham (27:01):
Okay, when you talked about going back to the past, they'd all to me. It also answered my question of these future visions that myself, that I'll get really attached to. Like, I want my I want to bring this into my life. I want to, I don't know I want to have a lake house or like these material things. I think a lot of us, or I want my life to feel this way. Or I want, you know, all of these different things, of this vision of how I think Joy should look like in my life. And when you were talking about that past experience and speaking to your past self, to me, you can also do that with that future, those future visions also, because there's a part of letting go of what we think our life should look like, to anchor into the present moment and be really appreciative of what's going on today. And I even want to take, like a pin and like, pop that bubble, because it's so closed off, right? And I want to open up and expand for more possibility that I can't even imagine. And I think with epic Joy codes, focusing on energy, purpose, intention, and connection in the present and letting go of what is going to come of that sounds quite powerful. Yeah, so that's what I'm getting from this. Yes, I love that. Any thoughts on that? Because I do want to ask you on the intention piece, yeah, this is where I feel like it can get mucked up with people myself from time to time. The intention, I you know, goal setting. We come from a corporate space. What do you want to achieve by this state intentions? These are my intentions. And then all of a sudden, we're closed off, and then all of a sudden, maybe this exact thing hasn't appeared, and then we're upset, and then we're self blaming, and then we don't have what you talked about in the very, very beginning with your survey. We're lacking self compassion. Well, this isn't turning out to the goal I set, so now I'm not experiencing joy, and now I'm beating myself up. How do we how do we
Kristin Joy Ekkens (29:23):
reconcile all of that? Yes, the first thing that comes to mind for me is when you set these goals, the goals, and you think of KPIs and all of that, they're usually attached to a larger goal. That larger goal, if we're really operating from a joy operating system. That means joy is the heart is the center goal, and the other goals should be coming off of that. So if you track a goal back and you say, I want a lake house, and you say, I've been manifesting this list, I. Yeah, okay, so I'm going to trace it back. So why do you want that so badly? And if it doesn't happen, maybe there's actually a mansion that's sitting there waiting for you instead, but you were looking at this lake house, and that mansion is on the ocean, and you didn't know that that was actually what was meant for you. So, I mean, we use on, you know, kind of a funny example that most people won't be going for, but at the same time, it's, it's, it's the reality of that, if you're intentionally designing and saying, This design must be it, what you're not allowing for is allowing and so you've actually put yourself in not an expansion place, but a constricted and restricted place that things could have, you know, been a place of joy for you, but instead it becomes this achievement that you must have, and that's not joy.
Amy Lynn Durham (30:57):
There you go, right there. It's the achievement piece, the saboteur of the hyper achiever, versus experiencing actual joy as a human being on the planet and living in our humanness of joy.
Kristin Joy Ekkens (31:13):
Yes, yeah. I mean me. My number one strength finder is achiever. My number two is activator. So I say this to people like these, this is like a dangerous combination achiever and activator. When you put someone like myself in this place that I'm see myself as a high performer and now I'm a high performance coach, right? Because I needed to understand the shadow side of that, because I felt like I kept touching it, the shadow side. And that is the same thing is you're working super hard, and this is where, if we haven't regulated our emotions, and you activate and achieve, then you burn out. That is exactly what's on the other side of it. It just because you can't stay in that space if the goal was to achieve rather than to have joy and live from a place of Yeah.
Amy Lynn Durham (32:17):
So good, so good. Okay, so we have the survey that people can take, yes, and what is that, called The Joy awareness survey, the joy awareness survey, and we will put that in. Is there a link to that that we can put in the show notes? I'll absolutely do that. So there's the joy awareness survey, okay, and then there's the joy operating system, with exponential Joy your company, which has been blasted out on all the news media networks right now, it's gaining so much buzz, so excited about that, and you're doing tell us about the cohorts that you've created that people can join to work through the epic Joy codes,
Kristin Joy Ekkens (33:01):
yes, thank you. So one of the things I've tested this year is, first a global membership, and it's a playground, so we call it the joy OS labs, and it's all virtual so that people from around the world can join. And this year, last year, we tested it with a group of women, and said now, because that's what felt was needed and was resonating at the time. And now I'm really excited to announce that in 2026 we are opening that up to everyone who wants to find a playground to play with joy. And we do this with a cultural lens as well, that I bring in experts and people from all around the world, practitioners who, authors, thought leaders, who, who have tapped into joy in a different way and want to share it with others. And so we can find things that actually we maybe never, ever thought that would bring us joy until we experienced it and said, How did I live without this? I need to put this into my daily life now. So that's been so much fun to see happen this past year, and I'm excited to expand that even further. The thing that you mentioned, what I found this is that's the grounding phase, right? Get people grounded in joy. For those who are going through growth moments, because this is where I felt it was really important right now so many people around the world having shifts in their jobs. Maybe it's transitions in, you know, as they age and going through maybe, you know, going into a space of switching careers, having to upskill in different ways that they never expected. So these growth moments as they happen, it's grounding people in joy during those growth moments, and that's where an accelerator comes in. So the cohorts that we're running, it's an. Accelerated version, going through these epic Joy codes, and I'm testing them in different ways. So so for some tracks, so I'll be launching one for executives coming up. We have different time zones that we'll be able to do so in one launching in in January 2026, you'll have to
(35:18):
look at website. I'll give you the link for the different cohorts that will be running. But what we're also embedding in are wearables, and so being able to embed in and actually see for thoseexecutives their emotions, and so that we can help use data to help regulate bio data to regulate emotions, and to dive in more deeply to what are those different tools and strategies for the epic Joy codes that we need to help us boost joy and sometimes reboot, like you said, reboot. Sometimes it's just a little upgrade that's needed in certain areas and for others, it is, you know, I need to all four of these areas do full reboot, and that's when it's major transitions are going through.
Amy Lynn Durham (36:07):
Yeah, I really like the idea of inviting all of us into a joy accelerator when you're going through a growth moment, or, dare I say, even something that feels super difficult or hard or not joyous at all. Yes, I mean, the thought of experimenting with that and playing with that seems quite interesting to play with. So I just want to, I want to highlight that. So thank you for sharing everything that you have available with exponential joy, and the joy operating system and the awareness survey, those are all going to be in the show notes. As I was speaking, I was going through the edge Walker card deck right now, and one of them fell because we are both fellow edge Walker facilitators, and one of the themes in the card deck is playfulness. And I, as you were sitting here talking, and I was looking at you, I was like, Oh my gosh, I feel like the universe almost made the entire playfulness section of the edge Walker card deck sort of inspired by you. Your middle name is Joy. You're Kristin Joy Atkins. And there's different themes of the different playfulness cards. So what I want to do is maybe pull a playfulness card for everyone listening to it to that's meant for everybody to hear this message as we're talking about exponential joy. I love that. I thought that would be fun. Yes, yeah. Like, see, like, the it's, a different person in the card every time, but it's like this element of you, I feel like in all of them, which is so interesting that is to me. You know, I don't know. Okay, so I've got four playfulness cards set out, and I'm gonna let you pick for us and all of the listeners, 123, or four, what's our card for 2026 number three, okay, oh my gosh, look at this. So playfulness in the edge Walker skills and qualities definition is a joyful sense of fun and creativity and an ability to keep everything in perspective. And what Kristin has chosen for all of us for 2026 is this, you go. We got to see we got to post this video,
(38:31):
because the card is like bubbles and people outside experiencing joy. This is like the Kristin Joy Atkins card. Okay, here's our message. Here is our message for 2026 I let lightness and fun guide myway. I let lightness and fun guide my way. And that is, of course, authored by Dr Judy Neal, who created the edge Walker framework. I let lightness and fun guide my way. Kristin, thank you so much for being here today. Yes, yeah, and thank you for bringing joy to all of us. Any final thoughts to us as we move into 2026 anything you want us to hold dear, to remember as we move through the year.
Kristin Joy Ekkens (39:24):
I think that was such a powerful practice to pull that out. And I think going back to for me, my personal mission is to be light and joy and to teach others to be the same. And so in the sense of understanding what light looks like to you, and let that guide you, light and fun and play that to not, not let the hard circumstances that will be around us, don't let those distinguish and extinguish the light that you actually. Really have that wants to burn bright from within, and so this is where we can intentionally do something about it, to let joy be that place that we're operating from, rather than that reward at the end that we may not find if we just keep seeking it in that way. So be intentional this year. Set it as a goal for yourself, but not one that you punish yourself to get to and try to achieve, but that you allow to happen in your life, and it will unfold.
Amy Lynn Durham (40:30):
Thank you. We will end on that note. We will let lightness and fun guide our way in 2026 and thank you for sharing exponential joy and the joy operating system with all of us to kick off the year.
Kristin Joy Ekkens (40:43):
Amy Lynn, my pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.
Amy Lynn Durham (40:46):
I want to thank each and every one of you for being here as we explore what it really means to create magic at work. If this conversation resonated with you, or if someone came to mind while you were listening, share the episode with them. Help others who are looking for these types of conversations find us and don't forget to follow, subscribe, rate and review so you're notified when the next episode airs until next time, keep edge walking, keep challenging the way things have always been done, and keep making magic at work you.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by Audiochuck Media Company.
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.