Uploaded November 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago

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In this episode of WORK: Conversations, Erika sits down with Valerie Jacobs, a futurist. She’s built her career capturing and understanding signals, curating and editing those signals to provide a thesis on trends and conveying and implementing strategies to help companies adapt, morph and evolve into the future.She’s now helping people understand trends, desired outcomes and how to work backwards to lay a strategy and a map that guides you from where you are to where you want to go.

Chapters
00:00 - Welcome to WORK: Conversations
00:18 - Meet Valerie Jacobs
01:14 - How She Became a Futurist
03:03 - How to Think About the Future
05:26 - Why the Future Feels Scary
07:21 - Preparedness vs. Prediction
10:33 - Luck, Timing, and Awareness
13:37 - Starting Valerie Jacobs Futures
16:23 - Purpose, Joy, and Redefining Success
21:13 - The Future of Work and AI
27:22 - Innovation, Risk, and Trying Anyway
34:00 - The Skill of Detachment and Closing

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