About This Episode
The future of work is no longer defined by productivity alone—it is being reformed by how organizations prioritize people, leadership, and purpose. In this Expert Compilation episode of The Future of Work® Podcast, three leading voices explore the fundamental changes transforming how we work, lead, and build sustainable organizations.
Kurtis Lee Thomas, founder of Breathwork Detox, shares how workplace well-being is evolving from a perk into a measurable, strategic business priority—impacting performance, retention, and long-term resilience. Stephanie Chung, former Chief Growth Officer at Wheels Up, brings over 30 years of leadership experience to redefine what it takes to build high-performing teams, emphasizing trust, vulnerability, and the neuroscience of winning. Finally, Jasmine Escalera, PhD, a career expert and LinkedIn Top Voice, explores how Gen Z is shaping expectations around work, identity, and success—challenging organizations to adapt or risk losing emerging talent.
Together, these perspectives reveal a clear truth: the organizations that will thrive in the future of work are those that prioritize human experience as much as performance.
About Kurtis Lee Thomas
Kurtis Lee Thomas is the founder of the Breathwork Detox modality and a leading voice in workplace mental health. Through his work with organizations like Nike and NASA, he helps companies bring measurable well-being into their culture, focusing on resilience, performance, and mental health optimization.
About Stephanie Chung
Stephanie Chung is a pioneering executive leader and former Chief Growth Officer at Wheels Up, with over 30 years of experience leading high-performance teams. She combines neuroscience and business strategy to redefine leadership, focusing on trust, vulnerability, and creating winning cultures.
About Jasmine Escalera, PhD
Jasmine Escalera, PhD, is a career expert and LinkedIn Top Voice specializing in career growth and workplace culture. With a background in science and leadership, she helps professionals navigate evolving career paths while analyzing how Gen Z is refitting workplace expectations.
What You’ll Learn
- Why employee well-being is becoming a measurable and strategic business priority
- How organizations can move beyond performative perks into real mental health impact
- The role of trust and psychological safety in building high-performing teams
- Why vulnerability is emerging as a core leadership strength
- How neuroscience explains motivation, momentum, and winning cultures
- Why Gen Z is redefining loyalty, success, and career paths
- How work-life balance and fulfillment are becoming non-negotiable
- Why traditional career ladders are breaking down
- What organizations must change to attract and retain future talent
- How leadership must evolve to align people, purpose, and performance
Transcript
Host AI
[ 00:00:00,650 ]Welcome to the Future of Work podcast, where we explore what’s next in work, workplace, and the human experience.
Host AI
[ 00:00:07,320 ] I’m Nova. Your AI host. Today, you’re listening to a Future of Work Expert Insights, a special format where we bring together the most thought-provoking insights from our top guests around a single topic shaping the future of work.
Host AI
[ 00:00:23,320 ] This episode explores how the future of work is being reshaped at its core through employee well-being, modern leadership, and generational transformation. As organizations move beyond productivity at all costs, leaders are being challenged to create environments where people can thrive, not just perform. At the same time, Gen Z is accelerating a cultural shift toward purpose, flexibility, and self-alignment. forcing companies to rethink what it truly means to build sustainable high-performing teams.
Host AI
[ 00:00:54,110 ] Today, you’ll hear from our guests, Curtis Lee Thomas, founder of Breathwork Detox, and a leader in workplace mental health innovation. who shares how organizations are beginning to measure and prioritize employee well-being in tangible, data-driven ways. Stephanie Chung, former chief growth officer at Wheels Up. and a pioneering executive leader who explores what it takes to build high-performing teams through vulnerability, trust, and what she calls the winning effect. And Jasmine Escalera, career expert and LinkedIn top voice, who breaks down how Gen Z is redefining loyalty, success, and career paths, challenging organizations to evolve or risk losing the next generation of talent.
Host AI
[ 00:01:38,430 ] Together, these perspectives form a cohesive narrative. The future of work will be shaped by how deeply organizations understand and invest in the human experience. Let’s begin.
Host AI
[ 00:01:51,740 ] As burnout rises and performance plateaus, many organizations are searching for answers. Curtis Lee Thomas sees a shift toward measurable well-being.
Host AI
[ 00:02:02,360 ] Kurtis Lee Thomas, founder of the Breathwork Detox Modality and a leading voice in workplace mental health, through his work with organizations like Nike and NASA, he helps companies bring measurable well-being into their culture. In this conversation, Curtis explores why the future of work will be defined by how deeply organizations care for their people.
Host AI
[ 00:02:22,960 ] What does it really mean for companies to move beyond productivity? and begin truly investing in employee well-being.
Kurtis Lee Thomas
[ 00:02:29,150 ] What I believe How Google It was like, hey, we need to build really cool offices and workplaces so people want to come to work. I think the shift that we’re going into now is how much do the company care about their employees? And how do they show that here? And I think by implementing mindfulness and realizing that it’s not just hustle, hustle, hustle, and it’s really given them the tools and the resources for real mental health, real, real mindfulness, and watching them dial in. And I see a lot of studies and statistics where companies will be measuring the HR, which is the heart rate variability, which is said to be the one main indicator. If you’re going to measure any one thing on someone to see if they have good health or not, it would be HRV. So we’re into some technology with that as well, so we can go into corporations and show quantifiable results. And I think that’s what it’s going to be about— it’s going to be about mental health and actually caring about the employee’s well-being.
Kurtis Lee Thomas
[ 00:03:30,580 ] So well-being packages are going to skyrocket. And it’s already happened even behind the scenes. When we got paid by NASA, NASA paid us through their health provider. And never before was I ever paid through Blue Cross. And I was like, ‘Oh, this is new.’ Like I got paid by Blue Cross to do this corporate event and it wasn’t cheap. So I saw that. Change is happening behind the scenes so that’s going to be a big deal when these insurance companies start recognizing you know what it is that we do. It’s not an option; it has to happen. People are going to start burning out left and right, and they’re going to leave those companies that are great and paying them well. They’re going to go somewhere else with somebody who actually cares about their well-being. It’s right now there’s people in corporate rooms. You know, I just hired one girl. She was making $450, 000 a year. She took a a tremendous pay cut because she wants to be a part of the vision of what we’re doing. And there’s so many people like that. There’s nurses who burned out that I go and certified.
Kurtis Lee Thomas
[ 00:04:33,120 ] They were teaching breathwork full time. Coaches, trainers. It’s inevitable. They have to do it. It’s just a matter of who’s going to be the leader of the movement, like Google was back in the day.
Host AI
[ 00:04:42,870 ] Curtis highlights a fundamental shift from performative perks to measurable well-being. Where companies that prioritize mental health aren’t just supporting employees, they’re building long-term resilience.
Host AI
[ 00:04:55,320 ] As traditional leadership models fall short in today’s workplace, many leaders struggle to adapt. Stephanie Chung sees an opportunity to lead differently.
Host AI
[ 00:05:05,430 ] Our next guest is Stephanie Chung, a pioneering executive leader and former chief growth officer at Wheels Up.
Host AI
[ 00:05:12,390 ] With over 30 years of experience leading high-performance teams, she blends neuroscience with business strategy to redefine modern leadership. Here, Stephanie shares how trust, vulnerability, and the science of winning create truly unstoppable teams.
Host AI
[ 00:05:29,650 ] What separates good leadership from the kind of leadership that creates truly high-performing, unstoppable teams?
Stephanie Chung
[ 00:05:36,410 ] What I would say is, you know, long term, if we leaders, all of us can step up in our sphere of influence, it could be a department, it could be one person you’re leading, it could be a whole company, right? Or it could be countries. If we take that mentality— which is I just want to create an environment. And you, by the way, you have to be a really secure leader for this, okay? So this isn’t for everybody. Mediocre leadership is dying off quickly, right? Because you’ve got to be secure enough in yourself to be able to say to people, ‘Listen, guys, what is it that I’m missing? Because I feel like this is from where I see there’s this, but what haven’t we discussed? What haven’t we addressed? Like, where am I missing the mark? You’ve got to be vulnerable, right? And you’ve got to bring the whole team. whole team has different gifts and talents, right? You got to bring the whole team in. How can we be better guys? What is it that I, and they, need to be safe enough to go, you know what, actually, I think we’re going to miss the mark on this one because of this. This, this, this, this, and not be shunned, but be like, ‘Thank you so much.’ That’s really good point. How do you feel over there, Daniel? What are your thoughts here? If you can get that kind of synergy going. The way, it can be done.
Stephanie Chung
[ 00:06:36,940 ] You have a team that is unstoppable and you have a team that knows how to perform at the highest level and that that’s leadership. And so that’s what I really want to see. And I’m doing my part to help leaders if they’re willing to listen and learn. This is how you do it. And you don’t need to overcomplicate this. This is how you win. You know what? The science, and I talk about this in the book, the secret to winning is winning.
Stephanie Chung
[ 00:06:59,980 ] That’s the secret to winning people always like how do you win? You how you win is you win right and the reason why that’s important is because once once you win the brain actually again, it’s an AI, it’s a predictive model. It realizes and recognizes the chemicals that were created, how you’re feeling with that wind, the adrenaline that’s flowing. And what the brain then does is go, ‘I want that feeling again.’ So it’s literally called the winning effect. That’s the science behind it. The secret to winning is winning. But the only way that you win is you have to figure out what makes people winnable. And then once you find that out, then you have to become an ally. Ask, listen, learn. You take action to their win. You do that, leaders and man— you’re going to be like marketable, making a ton of money, because everybody’s going to want you on their team, because you actually know how to lead.
Host AI
[ 00:07:47,550 ] Stephanie reframes leadership as an act of service. One rooted in trust, vulnerability, and creating the conditions for others to succeed.
Host AI
[ 00:07:56,900 ] As career paths become less predictable and loyalty begins to shift, many companies question what’s next. Jasmine Escalera sees a workforce redefining the rules.
Host AI
[ 00:08:08,580 ] Now we’re joined by Jasmine Escalera, PhD, a career expert and LinkedIn top voice specializing in career growth and workplace culture. She has a background in science and leadership and helps professionals navigate evolving career paths with clarity and confidence. In this segment, Jasmine unpacks how Gen Z is reshaping expectations around work, loyalty, and success.
Host AI
[ 00:08:32,669 ] How is Gen Z reshaping the relationship between work, identity, and long-term career paths?
Jasmine Escalera
[ 00:08:38,340 ] You are also a millennial. I’m a millennial. We are still the age, the last of the age of loyalty to company.
Jasmine Escalera
[ 00:08:45,890 ] You have to go in and be productive and show your skill set before you can ask for more. toxic workplace—this terminology didn’t even exist when I started my career.
Jasmine Escalera
[ 00:08:57,990 ] So this is a new generation that has brought in the mindset shift: ‘You show me what you’re going to give to me before I show you what I’m going to give to you.’ And they’re leaning more into work-life balance, flexibility, fulfillment at work. And in fact, if they’re not getting that, they’re job hopping, they’re ditching, they’re moving on. And so I think what we’re seeing here is a change in corporate mindset from loyalty to company to loyalty to self. And what we’re needing to do as millennials is actually support the growth of Gen Z, because if we allow Gen Z to really push the movement of healthy workplace culture.
Jasmine Escalera
[ 00:09:47,450 ] aligning our work to the things that really give us, light us up. are more passion oriented and passion filled. We might actually help to change corporate America into a space where we are more about the employees than anything else. And so I think we really need to foster Gen Z and really cultivate them and allow them to express themselves because I believe that they could actually create some shifts in the workplace. So they’re either going to get the opportunity, we’re going to foster them to have it, or we’re going to see what’s happening. Which is they’re going to start shifting away from corporate America and more into trade jobs, freelance jobs, and work that gives them what they want. Is so much more accessible now. You know, when we were in the corporate space, there was no such thing as TikTok and Instagram, or maybe they were just Instagram might’ve just been. coming up. LinkedIn might’ve just been coming up, but these opportunities now that are available to them to monetize their personal brand and their skills.
Jasmine Escalera
[ 00:10:50,750 ] set and the opportunity now with the way that AI is shifting corporate America for them to say, you know what, the college degree doesn’t even make sense for me anymore. to go into a trade job or even start my own business. We might start to see them just say, deuces, I’m out. I’m going to do something else for myself. And then where are we all at? I think what Gen Z is really noticing is, when we were growing up as millennials, what were we told? Go to college, get the six-figure job in the 401k, you’re set for life. That pathway, that pipeline doesn’t exist anymore. And so what Gen Z is really recognizing is, okay, I go to college and then I. have a lot of student loan debt, but I can’t pay off because I can’t get a job because the market is so flooded. AI is changing the field. I don’t even know if this career is actually going to exist in five to 10 years. So whereas we had longevity and we knew, okay, I’m going to start in this and then it was going to come this. And then it was that—this pipeline just simply doesn’t exist for the vast amount of positions out there. We don’t know how these things are going to change.
Host AI
[ 00:11:59,140 ] As today’s conversation revealed, the future of work isn’t just about performance, it’s about people. Curtis spotlighted the rise of measurable well-being as a business priority. Stephanie reframed leadership as a practice of trust, vulnerability, and shared success. And Jasmine showed us how a new generation is redefining loyalty, purpose, and career paths all together. The future of work isn’t about doing more. It’s about creating environments where people can truly thrive.
Host AI
[ 00:12:29,500 ] Thanks for listening to this Expert Insights episode of the Future of Work podcast. If you found it insightful, share it with a colleague, leave us a review, or check out our show notes for links to each guest’s full interview. Until next time, keep asking not just where we work, but how we work better together.
