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JOY Unfiltered: Joy is the strategy
Joy Unfiltered is the podcast where joy gets real, grounded, and useful.
Hosted by Rachel Bents, author of Joy Is the Strategy, this show explores joy not as a reward you earn, but as a practical strategy for living, leading, and feeling better in real life.
Each week, you’ll hear honest conversations, solo reflections, and guest episodes that unpack how joy impacts leadership, wellbeing, resilience, mindset, and connection without bypassing hard things or pretending life is perfect.
This podcast is also the heartbeat of two growing movements:
📘 Joy Is the Strategy (the book)
A deeper exploration of how joy works, why it matters, and how choosing it can change your life and leadership.
✨ The Joy Project
A global, joy-first community built on connection, conversation, and collective momentum.
If you’re tired of hustle culture, burned out on forced positivity, or curious what changes when joy becomes the way forward, you’re in the right place.
Joy isn’t the reward.
It’s the strategy.
JOY Unfiltered: Joy is the strategy
Race, Responsibility, and Real Conversation with Nicole Kelly
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In this episode of Joy Unfiltered, I sit down with Nicole Kelly for a deeply honest conversation about race, inequality, and community in Minnesota.
Nicole shares what it was like growing up in Minneapolis in a multi-ethnic family, with a Black father and a white mother, and how those different perspectives shaped the way she sees the world. We talk about how important it is to ask hard questions, examine our own assumptions, and have conversations that move beyond surface-level understanding.
We also reflect on the impact of George Floyd’s murder, what it means to build trust across communities, and how each of us can take small, meaningful steps toward greater awareness and accountability. This is a conversation about discomfort, courage, and the ongoing work of listening, learning, and showing up for one another.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Growing up in a multi-ethnic household in Minneapolis
- How personal experiences shape the way we see race and inequality
- The impact of George Floyd’s murder on Minnesota communities
- Why uncomfortable conversations matter
- How to question our assumptions and biases
- Small ways to become a more aware and engaged community member
Connect with Nicole
Connect with Rachel
