Adam W. Barney

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Adam W. Barney

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Transition Leadership Coach | Operating Rhythms That Hold Under Pressure 🎯 | Author & Podcast Host

10/28/2026

Age does not require you to shrink.

That’s the big thread in Episode 85 of Is Anything Real? with Ande Lyons, host of Don’t Be Caged By Your Age.

This conversation is about positive aging, ageism, reinvention, visibility, purpose, and what it means to keep becoming after 65.

It’s not about pretending age doesn’t exist. It’s about refusing to let age become a cage.

Culture has a way of quietly telling people when they’re supposed to get smaller:
Be realistic. Step aside. Quiet down. Age gracefully. Stop starting new things. Stop wanting so much from life.

Ande challenges that story beautifully.

Because your next chapter does not have to be smaller than your last one.

Episode 85 with Ande Lyons is now live.

Guest: Ande Lyons
Website: https://www.dontbecagedbyyourage.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andelyons/

10/27/2026

My daughter asked why I suddenly stopped and picked up this book at the library yesterday. Part of the answer was simple: I recognized the name. Skye Perryman of Democracy Forward.

Since I'm connected to Skye on LinkedIn, yes, I had a slightly nerdy dad moment seeing her book sitting right there on the shelf. 😄 But that wasn’t really why I stopped.

I told my daughter that a book like "Ordinary People, Extraordinary Times" being front and center matters.

Not just on that shelf. In our minds.

Especially the week before the midterms.

Because democracy can feel like this giant thing happening somewhere else. Campaigns. Headlines. Elections. Institutions.

But it also depends on ordinary people paying attention, asking questions, learning, participating, and deciding that what happens around them is partly theirs to shape.

And that’s where the library piece hit me too.

Libraries put ideas within reach. Ideas about history. Power. Justice. Freedom. Community. Possibility.

A kid can walk in looking for one thing and leave having encountered something entirely different. That’s not small.

So yes, I was excited because I recognized Skye’s name. But I was even more excited that my daughter asked me why I cared.

Because that gave me a chance to explain why the book belonged there. And why the ideas inside it belong in our heads too.

Skye - very cool moment to stumble across your work in the wild.

And an even better one to share with my daughter.

10/26/2026

Who decided relevance has an expiration date?

This Vogue story landed in my inbox this morning and immediately made me think of Wednesday’s upcoming "Is Anything Real?" episode.

The article is about the Ms. Senior America Pageant and women over 60 still competing, learning, creating, and doing things we somehow still treat as surprising.

That’s the part that gets me.

Why are we still surprised?

This week’s guest is Ande Lyons, founder of "Don’t Be Caged By Your Age", and our conversation goes right into that.

Not “age is just a number.”

Something more interesting:

What happens when your career changes, your energy changes, your identity shifts… but you’re still becoming?

Episode 85 drops Wednesday.

And Vogue, your timing could not have been better. 😄

10/26/2026

I'm really good at making introductions.

I love connecting people who might never otherwise meet and seeing what happens. I call those moments *collisions*.

A few years ago, someone suggested I should charge for them.

That never felt right to me. I don't want every relationship to become a transaction.

But here's something I've been learning:

I'm much more comfortable helping someone else make a connection than asking someone to make one for me.

And I don't think I'm alone.

Over the past couple of weeks, I've had conversations with accomplished people whose professional lives look pretty impressive from the outside.

But behind the polished profiles, some are navigating challenges with revenue, finding clients, or figuring out what's next.

Being capable doesn't mean you don't need help.

And being the person everyone relies on doesn't mean you should always be the one carrying the responsibility.

I've been calling this **The Competence Trap**.

It's what happens when something you're good at slowly becomes something you're expected to do.

Capability → Expectation → Obligation.

Somewhere in that progression, choice can disappear.

And the strength that helped you succeed can start limiting what comes next.

That's the focus of this week's *Plugged In Leadership*:

**The Competence Trap: When Being Good at Something Becomes an Obligation**

Here's a question worth asking yourself this week:

**What's something you're good at that you no longer feel free to stop doing?**

The full issue is live now, and you can find it through my profile.

10/21/2026

Okay…this is officially wild. 😳 Is Anything Real? is currently sitting at #1 in my Top Host group. And right now, votes are counting 2X.

There’s a little over a day left before the Top 15 cut, so if you’ve been meaning to vote, this is the moment.

https://tophost.org/2026/adam-w-barney

I genuinely had no expectation of getting this far.

Now that we’re here, though?

Yeah. I’d really like to hold it. 😄

Thank you to everyone who has voted, shared, texted, reposted, and pulled other people in.

Let’s see if we can keep this thing at the top.

10/21/2026

Women in sports leadership is still way too rare. Especially in men’s professional hockey.

That’s part of what makes Episode 84 of Is Anything Real? with Toni Will so powerful — and it’s now live.

Toni is the General Manager of the Kalamazoo Wings, a women’s leadership coach, keynote speaker, host of Women In, founder of Empower Her, and author of Rebellious Success.

She’s also one of the only women in the country leading a men’s professional hockey team.

But this episode isn't just about hockey.

It’s about leadership rooms that confuse familiarity with competence. It’s about gatekeeping disguised as expertise. It’s about what happens when someone walks into a room that wasn’t built for them and leads anyway.

Toni came into hockey from banking and economic development. She didn’t pretend she already knew everything. She led with honesty: “I don’t know yet.”

Then she got curious. She asked questions. She built culture. She brought community into the room. And she turned difference into leadership intelligence.

We also talk about the Kalamazoo Wings’ Guinness World Records, including the largest lightsaber battle, and why fun isn’t just a cute add-on.

Fun can be strategy. Fun can be culture. Fun can be ex*****on. Fun can be how a team invites an entire community into the story.

The deeper thread of this episode is access. When you get into a room, do you use that access as a trophy?

Or do you use it as a door handle — or, in Toni’s language, an elevator — for someone else?

That’s where leadership gets real. Episode 84 with Toni Will is now live.

Watch/listen today.

Toni Will: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonildaniels/
Website: https://www.toniwill.com/

10/19/2026

Meet Marty DelFonic.

He's a Muppet Whatnot. He has his own page. And apparently, he's friends with a Red Sox player. 😂

My mom gave me Marty a few years before she passed away.

I've loved the Muppets since childhood, and one of the things I've always appreciated is how different everyone is.

Different shapes. Different personalities. Different talents.

They disagree, make mistakes, and get into ridiculous situations.

But somehow, they make room for one another.

I've said for years that I'd happily live in the world of the Muppets. I'm only partially joking.

Because I wonder how much more interesting our world could be if we were a little less concerned with making everyone fit familiar categories.

Imagination isn't only about creating new things. It's also about being able to consider a world that someone else experiences differently than we do.

That's a pretty valuable human capability. And one I hope we never become too practical to use.

It's also what inspired this week's Plugged In Leadership newsletter: Imagination Debt: When the World Gets Too Practical

We're exploring how the systems we grow into can quietly narrow what we believe is possible, and how we can start imagining alternatives again.

With a little help from Gonzo, of course. 😂

10/14/2026

Okay, this has escalated. 😂I’m currently sitting in 3rd place in my Top Host group.

12 may be my lucky number, but apparently I wasn’t content staying there.

We’ve got a little over a day until the first cut, and now I really want to see what happens if we keep going.

Is Anything Real? started because I finally acted on an idea I’d laughed off for about 15 years.

I never expected that decision to lead here.

If you’ve listened, been a guest, shared an episode, argued with something I said, or just want to help push this curious little experiment forward, I’d be incredibly grateful for your vote.

👉 https://tophost.org/2026/adam-w-barney

Third is pretty damn cool. But I can see #1 from here. 😄

10/14/2026

Investing is not neutral.

That is the myth Pete Krull and I unpack in Episode 83 of Is Anything Real?, which is now live.

Your money isn't sitting in some ethical waiting room. It's building something. Financing something. Rewarding something.

And whether you meant to or not, your portfolio may be voting for yesterday, today, or tomorrow.

Pete is the founder of Earth Equity Advisors and has spent more than two decades in what he once called “counterculture Wall Street”: helping people think differently about sustainable investing, long-term value, greenwashing, legacy industries, and the economy we are actually building.

This conversation challenges the idea that sustainable investing is soft, niche, political, or just values theater.

Because every investment strategy has a worldview baked into it.

The traditional finance world often frames sustainable investing as the “values” option, as if everything else is value-free. But that is nonsense with a nicer tie.

A broad market index has assumptions. A default 401k option has assumptions. A fossil-fuel-heavy portfolio has assumptions. A clean-energy-focused portfolio has assumptions.

The question is not whether your money has a worldview. The question is whether you know what worldview it is carrying.

Pete and I also get into inherited money, inherited beliefs, circular economies, greenwashing, representation in finance, and why the answer to bad sustainability claims is not cynicism. It's better receipts.

We also introduce a simple audit: Pick one account. Not your entire financial life. Just one account.

Then ask: What is this money currently building? Is this portfolio pointed at yesterday or tomorrow? Where am I hiding behind default? What question do I need to ask a financial professional before I pretend I’m done?

This episode is educational and not financial advice. Please talk with a qualified financial professional before making investment decisions.

Episode 83 with Pete Krull is now live.

Watch/listen here.

Pete Krull: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pkrull/
Earth Equity Advisors: https://www.earthequityadvisors.com/

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