The Mindful FIRE Podcast 24 : Leading with Empathy with Kerri Jacobs
Welcome to the mindful fire podcast where we explore living mindfully on the path to financial independence and beyond. I'm your host, Adam Coelho, and I'm so glad you're here. On today's episode. I'm joined by my friend, Kerri Jacobs. Who's actually a former manager of mine. I'm really excited to have her on the podcast.
Kerri Jacobs has been leading high performing teams at Google in London, New York city, and now the Bay area for over 12 years. Her obsession with empathy and leadership and inclusion in every aspect of life led her to create the program, leading with empathy and to roll it out to leaders at Google.
Kerri is also a member of the 2021 class of Stanford University's CCARE in collaboration with ACA's applied compassion training for architects and ambassadors of applied compassion. A Scot from penny cook. She used to read books, watch films, and see a lot of Broadway shows. But these days, mainly anxiously scrolls, Twitter, and comfort eats.
In her life before business, she taught dance sang in piano bars and wrote a dance and education syllabus for Scottish education curriculum. For primary school teachers. Kerri's facilitation style is not to lecture. She shares horror stories and LOL worthy moments from her own life as a manager, parent, and partner, and keeps it as real as one can, when video conferencing from a garage.
In this episode, Kerri and I explore what empathy is and why it's more important than ever to bring empathy into our interactions with the people we work with. And how really small changes, really just being more thoughtful about how we're interacting with those we work with and those that work for us can make a huge difference and making people feel seen, heard, and cared for. Kerri also shares a number of practices that we can use to create greater empathy and connection with those that we work with.
And she shares how leading with empathy in this way can really not only impact your relationship with that one person, but can also transform your business and the success you're having as a business.
Kerri and I explore how she used to be super skeptical about all of this mindfulness stuff and how she actually came to understand the value of it in her own life when she found herself physically and mentally burnt out from work. How
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You did the “money” part. You saved, invested, and built real options. But if you’re being honest… FU money alone isn’t enough—and you might still feel stuck in “one more year syndrome,” unclear on what you actually want next.
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🔥 WHO I’m creating this for
This is for you if you’re at or near FI (Coast FI or full FIRE) and:
- You feel stuck after “doing everything right,” but you’re not sure what you’re optimizing for anymore.
- You’re caught between freedom and overwhelm (“I could do anything… so I do nothing”).
- You want clarity and momentum—but you don’t want someone to tell you what to do.
🔥 WHAT we’ll do together (over 10 weeks)
In a small group (mastermind-style), you’ll:
- Get clear on what you actually want (beyond expectations, comparison, and “shoulds”).
- Create a big, meaningful vision for your next chapter—one that fits who you are now.
- Learn the brain science behind envisioning (why it works, and how to use it).
- Turn yo...