October 31, 2023 • 8 mins
Welcome to Unserious! Get to know hosts J.B. Skelton and Molly McMahon as they kick off a season of exploring how to manage and manifest creative impact in an era of constant disruption. Also, there are fireballs.
Follow Unserious in your podcast app, at unserious.com, and on Instagram and Threads at @unserious.fun.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Molly McMahon (00:02):
This is the first time that this digital world is
kind of cannibalizing itself.
J.B. Skelton (00:07):
As creative people , our work can feel like a
never-ending game of twister.
People just don't have thecapacity to do more.
We're constantly asked to adapthow we create and collaborate.
We're looking at thismacroeconomic context To
accommodate new platforms,paradigm shifts, companies are
just really focusing onoptimization, and even social
(00:29):
and political crises.
So if we can't stop change, howdo we manage through a constant
barrage of disruption?
Welcome to Unserious, a podcastthat explores how teams create
and communicate to achieveuncommon results.
Join me, my co-host, mollyMcMahon, and our guests as we
(00:51):
try to have some fun with thechanges that fall into our laps,
because when we can get somedistance from the seriousness,
we see the problem space in anew light.
We see opportunities we mightnot have otherwise, and lowering
the stakes helps us take careof our teams and ourselves.
(01:11):
The culture I try to build isone that is unafraid to try, and
the only real sin is making thesame mistake over and over and
over again.
In the first season, we'reexploring how to manage and
manifest creative impact amidconstant change, in conversation
with some extraordinary leaderswe know and admire.
Tune in and follow Unseriouswherever you get your podcasts.
(01:32):
You can also follow us onInstagram at Unseriousfun.
Molly McMahon (01:36):
Well, that's fun.
That was a great exercise.
J.B. Skelton (01:43):
So Molly and I have known each other for 20
years or so now, but we grew upin the same town, yep.
We graduated from high schoolat the same time we did.
We have lots of mutual friendsbut we had never met each other
until we were adults.
And we met working for theRecon Foundation in Tegucigalpa,
(02:04):
honduras, and I would go downthere for you know, probably a
week or two.
I worked out of Washington DCand Molly was the country
director for the operationsacross Honduras and one weekend
we decided to take a road tripup north.
We go, get drunk as a skunk, wedo.
Molly McMahon (02:28):
Because we're in our 20s.
Let's be honest we're in our20s.
J.B. Skelton (02:32):
Molly and I wake up in the middle of the night
and like, because we're all in,it's like a bunk room that we're
in, it's basically a hostel.
And so I'm like Molly Molly, doyou smell smoke?
So we walk out of our hotelroom, unbeknownst to us, like a
forest fire, and come onto theproperty and, like we were like
(02:53):
oh, snosing, right through it.
And we wander out to the beachand we just sat on the beach for
like an hour or two.
Molly McMahon (02:59):
Smoking cigarettes.
J.B. Skelton (03:00):
Smoking cigarettes Watching the fire.
Molly McMahon (03:03):
Yeah, and that was not the only incident where
JB and I have seen fireballs.
No, we also.
That was just the first time.
That was the first time andmost recently, which maybe could
have been the second or thirdtime, we saw some giant
fireballs together.
This is in the middle of COVID,jb and I snuck out of town to
(03:23):
do some camping in Big Sur.
Yes, so it was like our firsttime out in public masks on
having a burger and a Coke indowntown Cambria and a car
careened off the road andcrashed into a farmhouse shop
(03:44):
and then the shop, caught onfire, blew up.
J.B. Skelton (03:48):
It was like a whole barn blew up and because
we'd had this experience inHonduras.
We know about fires and so,while everybody was kind of
walking towards the fire withtheir cameras, you walk outside
and then we both watched likethis gas main explode, building
on fire and we just look at eachother and it was like and we
(04:08):
ran in the opposite direction.
Molly McMahon (04:10):
While everybody ran towards the fire, we were
like we are out of here.
J.B. Skelton (04:13):
Get the fuck out.
Molly McMahon (04:14):
Because I think we have been trained in Central
America that you do not headtowards the fire, you get out of
there as quickly as possiblebecause bad things can happen.
And so we did and we were likeand we didn't even have to talk,
we just locked eyes andsprinted away together.
J.B. Skelton (04:36):
We wanted to really sort of give our audience
you know, the three people whoare tuning into, listen again an
idea of what, what's in storefor them with this podcast and
with this season, and a bitabout who we are.
So, molly, why don't you kickus off and tell us what is
unserious and why it's importantright now?
Molly McMahon (04:57):
I really think about it as taking unserious
approaches towards solving ourmost serious challenges.
Right now, work and life feelshard, even if you have
everything that's right.
Even for the most privileged ofus.
We feel like everything issuper hard and I think it's
(05:18):
really around the rate of change, the amount of disruption,
uncertainty about the state ofour planet and our country and
that seeps into our world ofwork.
It's affecting how ourbusinesses run, Many folks
around me.
I come out of a background atIDEO, which is a design and
(05:41):
innovation company, and manyalumni and creative folks I know
from that world were laid off.
This last year I think therewas close to 250,000 tech
workers laid off.
J.B. Skelton (05:52):
Oh my god.
Molly McMahon (05:54):
In the last year and things feel uncertain.
Things feel like you have to domore with less, and it's a time
when we really need morecreative problem solving for
people in planet than any othertime in history.
I believe, and I think a keypart to this is taking the ego
(06:15):
out of problem solving.
So it's around, it's reallyaround thinking about how you
built that collective efficacy,that belief in yourself and each
other that something better ispossible.
J.B. Skelton (06:28):
I think that the stakes have never been higher in
the world today.
I feel like everything isframed as life or death for the
planet, for democracy, forpeople.
When these are problems thatyou're working around in your
day to day work, it feels likethe stakes of everything are
(06:49):
incredibly high, andunseriousness helps lower the
stakes, make problems moreapproachable, make being a
beginner and an amateur atsomething Because oftentimes
we're wading into waters we'venever worked in before Totally,
totally, much more possible.
It makes you able to do it andmakes you able to move and begin
(07:11):
All right.
I think that that's the show.
We really hope that you join usfor our first episode with the
amazing Courtney Kaplan, wholeads Iconic Leadership Coaching
.
Molly McMahon (07:28):
She has been a coach to several of us on the
Unserious podcast and she leddesign operations at Facebook.
She is a fabulous human being.
She dropped some amazing ideas.
A fabulous human being.
She dropped some amazing wisdombombs and it's such a fun
conversation.
J.B. Skelton (07:46):
It's a great one.
I hope that you'll join us.
Tune in and follow Unseriouswherever you get your podcasts.
You can follow us on Instagramat unserious.
fu n.
Thank you so much.
Molly McMahon (07:56):
Thank you.
This is the first time that this digital world is
kind of cannibalizing itself.
J.B. Skelton (00:07):
As creative people , our work can feel like a
never-ending game of twister.
People just don't have thecapacity to do more.
We're constantly asked to adapthow we create and collaborate.
We're looking at thismacroeconomic context To
accommodate new platforms,paradigm shifts, companies are
just really focusing onoptimization, and even social
(00:29):
and political crises.
So if we can't stop change, howdo we manage through a constant
barrage of disruption?
Welcome to Unserious, a podcastthat explores how teams create
and communicate to achieveuncommon results.
Join me, my co-host, mollyMcMahon, and our guests as we
(00:51):
try to have some fun with thechanges that fall into our laps,
because when we can get somedistance from the seriousness,
we see the problem space in anew light.
We see opportunities we mightnot have otherwise, and lowering
the stakes helps us take careof our teams and ourselves.
(01:11):
The culture I try to build isone that is unafraid to try, and
the only real sin is making thesame mistake over and over and
over again.
In the first season, we'reexploring how to manage and
manifest creative impact amidconstant change, in conversation
with some extraordinary leaderswe know and admire.
Tune in and follow Unseriouswherever you get your podcasts.
(01:32):
You can also follow us onInstagram at Unseriousfun.
Molly McMahon (01:36):
Well, that's fun.
That was a great exercise.
J.B. Skelton (01:43):
So Molly and I have known each other for 20
years or so now, but we grew upin the same town, yep.
We graduated from high schoolat the same time we did.
We have lots of mutual friendsbut we had never met each other
until we were adults.
And we met working for theRecon Foundation in Tegucigalpa,
(02:04):
honduras, and I would go downthere for you know, probably a
week or two.
I worked out of Washington DCand Molly was the country
director for the operationsacross Honduras and one weekend
we decided to take a road tripup north.
We go, get drunk as a skunk, wedo.
Molly McMahon (02:28):
Because we're in our 20s.
Let's be honest we're in our20s.
J.B. Skelton (02:32):
Molly and I wake up in the middle of the night
and like, because we're all in,it's like a bunk room that we're
in, it's basically a hostel.
And so I'm like Molly Molly, doyou smell smoke?
So we walk out of our hotelroom, unbeknownst to us, like a
forest fire, and come onto theproperty and, like we were like
(02:53):
oh, snosing, right through it.
And we wander out to the beachand we just sat on the beach for
like an hour or two.
Molly McMahon (02:59):
Smoking cigarettes.
J.B. Skelton (03:00):
Smoking cigarettes Watching the fire.
Molly McMahon (03:03):
Yeah, and that was not the only incident where
JB and I have seen fireballs.
No, we also.
That was just the first time.
That was the first time andmost recently, which maybe could
have been the second or thirdtime, we saw some giant
fireballs together.
This is in the middle of COVID,jb and I snuck out of town to
(03:23):
do some camping in Big Sur.
Yes, so it was like our firsttime out in public masks on
having a burger and a Coke indowntown Cambria and a car
careened off the road andcrashed into a farmhouse shop
(03:44):
and then the shop, caught onfire, blew up.
J.B. Skelton (03:48):
It was like a whole barn blew up and because
we'd had this experience inHonduras.
We know about fires and so,while everybody was kind of
walking towards the fire withtheir cameras, you walk outside
and then we both watched likethis gas main explode, building
on fire and we just look at eachother and it was like and we
(04:08):
ran in the opposite direction.
Molly McMahon (04:10):
While everybody ran towards the fire, we were
like we are out of here.
J.B. Skelton (04:13):
Get the fuck out.
Molly McMahon (04:14):
Because I think we have been trained in Central
America that you do not headtowards the fire, you get out of
there as quickly as possiblebecause bad things can happen.
And so we did and we were likeand we didn't even have to talk,
we just locked eyes andsprinted away together.
J.B. Skelton (04:36):
We wanted to really sort of give our audience
you know, the three people whoare tuning into, listen again an
idea of what, what's in storefor them with this podcast and
with this season, and a bitabout who we are.
So, molly, why don't you kickus off and tell us what is
unserious and why it's importantright now?
Molly McMahon (04:57):
I really think about it as taking unserious
approaches towards solving ourmost serious challenges.
Right now, work and life feelshard, even if you have
everything that's right.
Even for the most privileged ofus.
We feel like everything issuper hard and I think it's
(05:18):
really around the rate of change, the amount of disruption,
uncertainty about the state ofour planet and our country and
that seeps into our world ofwork.
It's affecting how ourbusinesses run, Many folks
around me.
I come out of a background atIDEO, which is a design and
(05:41):
innovation company, and manyalumni and creative folks I know
from that world were laid off.
This last year I think therewas close to 250,000 tech
workers laid off.
J.B. Skelton (05:52):
Oh my god.
Molly McMahon (05:54):
In the last year and things feel uncertain.
Things feel like you have to domore with less, and it's a time
when we really need morecreative problem solving for
people in planet than any othertime in history.
I believe, and I think a keypart to this is taking the ego
(06:15):
out of problem solving.
So it's around, it's reallyaround thinking about how you
built that collective efficacy,that belief in yourself and each
other that something better ispossible.
J.B. Skelton (06:28):
I think that the stakes have never been higher in
the world today.
I feel like everything isframed as life or death for the
planet, for democracy, forpeople.
When these are problems thatyou're working around in your
day to day work, it feels likethe stakes of everything are
(06:49):
incredibly high, andunseriousness helps lower the
stakes, make problems moreapproachable, make being a
beginner and an amateur atsomething Because oftentimes
we're wading into waters we'venever worked in before Totally,
totally, much more possible.
It makes you able to do it andmakes you able to move and begin
(07:11):
All right.
I think that that's the show.
We really hope that you join usfor our first episode with the
amazing Courtney Kaplan, wholeads Iconic Leadership Coaching
.
Molly McMahon (07:28):
She has been a coach to several of us on the
Unserious podcast and she leddesign operations at Facebook.
She is a fabulous human being.
She dropped some amazing ideas.
A fabulous human being.
She dropped some amazing wisdombombs and it's such a fun
conversation.
J.B. Skelton (07:46):
It's a great one.
I hope that you'll join us.
Tune in and follow Unseriouswherever you get your podcasts.
You can follow us on Instagramat unserious.
fu n.
Thank you so much.
Molly McMahon (07:56):
Thank you.
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