360: Joy as a Leadership Strategy with Bose Akadiri
We talk a lot about joy on this show. But what if joy wasn’t just a feeling to chase, but a tool you could use to build something — a business, a career, a team, a life?
Bose Akadiri, known as the Joy Amplifier, joins us to talk about something she’s spent her career building a case for: that joy belongs in the boardroom, not just the wellness journal. Bose is the CEO of Goal and Grind LLC, the author of The Stay Joyful Method, and a former Fortune 500 leader who walked away from corporate life to teach people how to use joy as their compass.
Bose shares her two-part framework, the joy bubble and the accomplishments journal, and how together they help you find the overlap between what you love and what you’re good at. We get into the data behind joy and retention, what it looks like to lead a team from alignment instead of friction, and why joy in your finances might be the missing piece you didn’t know you needed.
This is a conversation for the woman who has been told that joy is frivolous, that there isn’t room for it in a serious career or a serious budget. Bose makes the case, backed by both research and her own story, that joy isn’t the reward you get after you’ve done the work. It’s how you do the work.
In this episode, you’ll discover:
- How to build a “joy bubble” that protects what fuels you and your business
- Why an accomplishments journal can change how you see your own leadership capacity
- The data connecting joy at work to employee retention and long-term business health
- How to lead teams from alignment instead of friction
- What it means to make financial and business decisions from a place of joy
- Why having multiple mentors, and being a good one in return, matters for women in business
- The difference between happiness and joy, and why it matters for how you build
Joy shows up in this conversation in the most literal way it could, but it’s also the thread running through every part of our Well Woman framework. Here’s how this episode connects back to it:
✨ Ease shows up in Bose’s reminder that the most sustainable businesses aren’t built on hustle. They’re built on alignment, knowing what fuels you and building your work around that truth.
✨ Joy is, quite literally, the center of this episode. Bose makes the case that joy isn’t fluff. For women in business, it’s data-backed, it’s strategic, and it’s one of the most powerful tools you’re probably underusing.
✨ Impact comes through in the way Bose talks about leading teams: when the people doing the work are rooted in joy, what they produce ripples outward to the organizations they build and the communities they serve.
✨ Self-trust is woven through Bose’s own story, from the nos she said to roles that weren’t right for her, to the practice of becoming her own cheerleader, one Friday reflection at a time.
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✨ Join other smart, high-achieving women to rewrite the rules for how to love, lead, and succeed so you can live with more joy, ease, and abundance, even when life is tough.
🔗 Click here to join The Well Woman Academy™ group coaching program now! https://wellwomanlife.com/academy
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Resources Mentioned
- The Stay Joyful Method by Bose Akadiri
- Playing Big: Practical Wisdom for Women Who Want to Speak Up, Create, and Lead by Tara Mohr
- Inside the Magic Kingdom: Seven Keys to Disney’s Success by Tom Connellan
- Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- The Four Agreements by don Miguel Ruiz
Connect with Bose Akadiri
Website: Goal and Grind LLC
IG: http://www.instagram.com/goalandgrind
FB: http://www.facebook.com/BoseAkadiri
Connect with Giovanna
Website: https://wellwomanlife.com/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/wellwomanlife
FB: https://www.facebook.com/TheWellWomanShow#
YT: https://www.youtube.com/@wellwomanlife128
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/giovannarossi/
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