#impact Podcast: Social Impact | Social Entrepreneurship | Careers for Social Good · Regina Larko

Embracing Change & Future Proofing Leadership |Diana Wu David

·46 min·3 clips

Diana says other people often see “so much inside of us” that we cannot see ourselves.

1. Hashtag Impact focuses on community-building, leadership, and change with Diana Wu David, and the episode centers on her Future Proof Community. 2. Regina Larko hosts the conversation, and Diana Wu David brings experience as a former Financial Times executive, leadership expert, and author of Future Proof. 3. The episode asks how people can find their place in the future by building communities around transition, values, and impact. 4. Regina recalls meeting Diana in a cafe in Hong Kong, including the detail that both women had their daughters with them at different stages of early motherhood. 5. Diana says Future Proof was born from her own transitions and from a desire for more community during periods of change. 6. She describes the community as serving people “45 and over” who are designing “that next chapter” by their own measure. 7. Diana revisits the line from her TEDx talk, “what does it mean to live,” and says she now frames it through intentional choices rather than dramatic reinvention. 8. She introduces the “life audit,” which checks values, calendar, relationships, and money against what a person says matters. 9. Regina connects that framework to people who feel lost in career change, redundancy, or a desire to leave corporate work. 10. Diana says community often reveals strengths and possibilities that participants cannot see in themselves. 11. A Zoom-room story shows a woman worried about launching a business, and Watson Jordan reframes discomfort as the place where “the magic happens.” 12. Diana says “the smartest person in the room, is the room itself,” which captures her view of facilitation and group intelligence. 13. She says measuring impact is difficult, so she looks at whether people recommend others to the community, a proxy similar to net promoter score. 14. Diana says most members arrive through referrals, and she treats that as evidence that people found real value. 15. She explains that value also comes from members giving to each other, not only from receiving guidance from her. 16. Fireside chats help members refine their stories, and she links that to competencies such as scanning for the future, purpose-led storytelling, and adaptability. 17. Diana says community building is “incredibly difficult,” and she references pitch decks with 25 community managers in blockchain-based games. 18. She also says communities can be seasonal, citing a women’s group that changed shape over time and still left lasting relationships. 19. The interview is conversational and reflective, with Regina asking direct questions and Diana answering in long, practical examples. 20. Anyone navigating career change, identity shifts, or leadership through uncertainty will recognize the themes, while listeners wanting a quick business-news format may skip it.

As heard by us

Community matters most when people feel enough value to bring others in.

The episode treats community as a practical engine for change. Regina Larko talks with Diana Wu David about how transitions get easier when the people around you care about where things are heading, and how mission-driven work depends on others choosing to join in rather than…

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You want a clearer way to build support around a mission people will actually want to join.

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