Alana Winter spent 25 years building a national video distribution business before realizing she'd built something successful without ever asking herself what she actually valued. In this episode, Alana and Maricella talk about being raised by a serial entrepreneur dad who taught her to control her destiny, the moment the business became a grind and she didn't know who she was without it, and the three-year process of figuring out her own core values, and how she helps leaders do the same in a much shorter time frame. They get into the difference between needs, values, and your why (and why most people confuse all three), what she means by "the how matters less than the what," and her story about the bathroom attendant at the Beacon Theater that made me tear up.

About Alana Winter:

Alana Winter is an executive coach, facilitator, and serial entrepreneur who helps leaders navigate the moments when outward success no longer matches their inner truth.

After building and running businesses for more than 25 years, including a nationwide video distribution company and the internationally covered Stiletto Spy School and MI6 Academy, Alana found herself in the disorienting space that comes after a major chapter ends. That experience led her into a deep exploration of identity, core values, and what it really means to build a life and business from the inside out.

Today, Alana works with founders, CEOs, executive teams, and leadership groups around the world, helping them clarify their values, communicate more honestly, make better decisions, and lead with greater self-awareness. Her work blends psychology, lived entrepreneurial experience, and a highly intuitive ability to see the patterns beneath the surface.

She holds a B.A. in psychology from Wesleyan University and has worked with thousands of leaders through EO, YPO, WPO, Chief, and private executive coaching engagements. Her work has been featured by NPR, The Today Show, The Wall Street Journal, Psychology Today, and other major media outlets.

Show Notes:

(00:00) - Nothing To Do Identity

(00:21) - Show Intro And Premise

(00:52) - Purpose Values Episode Setup

(02:05) - Meet Alana Winter

(04:54) - Childhood Dreams Icebreaker

(06:19) - Raised To Be Entrepreneur

(07:37) - Building Video Distribution

(13:10) - Meaning Fades Business Grind

(16:16) - Betrayal And Embezzlement

(23:09) - Burnout Signs And Body

(25:57) - After the Exit Void

(28:09) - Meaning Over Opportunity

(30:33) - Purpose Work for Kids

(33:34) - Three Year Values Quest

(38:15) - Values Needs Why Framework

(44:20) - Living Values Anywhere

(47:16) - Clarity Becomes a Calling

(50:06) - Advice for the Goo Phase

(52:18) - Podcast Closing

What if figuring out who you want to be doesn't start with imagining your future self — it starts with looking at your past one? In this minisode, Maricella walks through a deceptively simple exercise: scrolling through last year's photos to find the one where you look exactly how you want to feel. What she found was more layered, and more useful, than she expected.

From a trip to Greece to a random Tuesday alone in her apartment, this episode gets into how the feeling behind a photo, the memory it holds, and the moment you're in right now are three completely different things. Plus what nostalgia actually is scientifically, why play keeps showing up as the answer, and how to use your past self as an emotional anchor for the person you're becoming.

Show Notes:

(00:00) Intro

(00:38) No Resolutions

(01:42) Why Feelings Make For Bad Goals

(03:03) Future Self and Manifesting

(06:02) The Photos Exercise

(07:57) Three Layers in Every Photo

(09:54) Greece Trip and Disconnection

(12:38) Cat Costume Joy and Buckets

(15:22) Oven Broke but I Persisted

(18:40) The Through Line Is Play

(21:37) Nostalgia and Self Continuity

(24:59) Closing the Gap to Future You

(26:47) Try It and Final Goodbye

(27:59) Outro Subscribe and Connect

Takeaways:

• Go through your photos from the past year and find the one where you look exactly how you want to feel. How you feel right now looking at it is data too.
• Every photo has three layers: how you look in it, how you feel seeing it now, and how you felt when it was taken. They're not always the same thing.
• Play isn't just about fun. The moments that light you up are telling you something about what you need more of.
• Nostalgia isn't only backward-looking. Research suggests it's your brain connecting past you to present you in order to push you toward future you.
• You don't have to picture an abstract future self. Start with a real past feeling and use it as the anchor.

Links:

• Em on the Brain (Emily McDonald) — Planet Em podcast on Spotify / Apple Podcasts
• Emily McDonald on What Now? with Trevor Noah — "Can You Rewire Your Brain?"
• What a Broken Oven Taught Me About Myself — Substack

Find Maricella:

• Substack: https://maricellaherrera.substack.com/
• Instagram: @quitmyjobpod
• quitmyjobpod.com

Host Maricella Herrera introduces a nurturing, candid conversation with Kvon Tucker, CEO and founder of Consciously, a purpose-driven coaching and consulting firm. They discuss fear, courage, and “spiritual abolitionism,” which Kvon defines as helping people release narratives and conditioning that keep them stuck and move toward liberation. Kvon shares his path from studying psychology and workplace behavior to leadership development roles at Netflix, Amazon, and Google. While at Google, he built a coaching practice during the pandemic and new fatherhood, but fear kept him from leaving his full time role. An internal investigation into his online activity and perceived integrity became a breaking point, and he quit on his daughter’s first birthday, later moving toward Costa Rica. Kvon has a vision of helping leaders escape limiting corporate structures.

About Kvon Tucker:

Kvon Tucker is the CEO and Founder of Consciously, a purpose-driven coaching and consulting firm helping leaders grow with clarity, freedom, and purpose. A Professional Certified Coach (PCC) with nearly 20 years of experience in leadership development, Kvon has coached and developed executives at companies like Netflix, Amazon, Google, Meta, and Tesla. His mission is simple: all I know is how to help people grow.

www.consciously.one

Show Notes:

(00:00) Teaser + Intro

(00:52) Welcome to the Episode

(03:25) Meet Kvon Tucker

(05:17) Childhood Dreams

(07:16) Spiritual Abolitionist

(09:18) Fear and Courage Practice

(12:43) Fearlessness vs Recklessness

(15:44) How He Got Into Tech

(17:06) From Depression to Purpose

(24:46) Netflix Amazon and Ego

(29:29) Google Exit Reflections

(32:39) Coaching Origins And Certification

(34:11) Pandemic Dad And Coaching Boom

(37:05) Fear Of Leaving Corporate

(39:26) Investigation And Breaking Point

(41:37) Quitting And Moving To Costa Rica

(44:41) Support Systems Through Crisis

(48:27) Underground Railroad For Leaders

(51:34) AI And Identity Beyond Work

(55:25) Finding Clarity What Do You Want

(57:00) Advice To Past Self And Closing