Harnessing Nature’s Wisdom with Jocelyn Hastie

Jocelyn Hastie spent 30 years as an accountant before the combination of a stage 4 cancer diagnosis and a sudden job loss forced a radical turn, leading her to work full-time with horses as a way to foster leadership skills and personal growth. She joins me to talk about why it’s not fair to judge accountancy as boring, how bad management and leadership happens (including her own realization that she was a bad manager), what we lose when we forget the lessons of the natural world and our roots in it, what we can learn from the animals around us—including horses—and more.

Read about a lesson I learned from Jocelyn here.

Episode breakdown:

00:00 Introduction

04:25 Family influence suppressed creativity; art rediscovered after cancer diagnosis.

08:32 Jocelyn reflects on common misconceptions about accounting creativity.

12:39 Accountants add value, not just boring number crunchers.

16:32 Jocelyn’s career choice influenced by her father and education.

20:06 Radical life change after cancer and job loss in 2016.

24:35 Horses revealed Jocelyn's management flaws; learned new leadership styles.

28:09 Importance of authenticity and boundaries, not pleasing everyone.

32:25 Animals and nature as teachers for leadership and mindfulness.

36:05 Jocelyn describes her non-riding retreats and somatic awareness.

40:34 Emphasizes intentional learning versus just-in-case learning.

44:05 Life shifts can come from crisis or noticing “little knocks.”

48:54 Childhood expectations shaped independence; cancer forced acceptance of help.

52:23 Lessons from herd dynamics and horses’ instinct to regain calm.

56:07 Gestalt coaching emphasizes honoring emotions and shaking off fear.

 

If you’ve been tearing up when you encounter other people’s art because you’ve lost touch with your own, we should talk.

Check out the full show notes (now including transcripts!) at fycuriosity.com, and connect with me and fellow creatives on Substack.

Please leave a review for this episode—it’s really easy and will only take a minute, and it really helps me reach new listeners. Thanks!

If you enjoyed our conversation, I hope you’ll share it with a friend.