Real with Rocky

There is a quiet voice inside of you that represents your intuition and consciousness, and you have spent so long ignoring it that you have forgotten what it sounds like. You often decline its invitation to return to peace and presence by staying busy on purpose, scrolling past our feelings, and performing a version of "okay-ness" because being honest is much harder than being busy."Coming Home" is a call to stop using motion to avoid meaning. It is the difficult realization that peace is not geographic; it is not waiting for you on the other side of a new city, a new job, or a new country. You cannot engineer the right circumstances to quiet the noise if you are unwilling to change your internal posture.In this The In-Between episode, Rocky sits with a challenging question: What if peace isn't the absence of pressure, but a return to reality and the courage to finally acknowledge the life you actually have?What you'll hear:The Ignored Internal Voice: Why you choose a hundred shallow distractions over one real conversation with your own intuition.The Illusion of Geographic Peace: Why changing your scenery is often confused with changing your posture, and why peace is never geographic.The Difficulty of Honesty: How stopping the "run" forces you to face your weariness, fears, and the people who have been quietly waiting for you to come home.Returning to Reality: How peace is found in the small daily decisions that move you toward the life you want by paying attention to the one you are currently living."Peace is not the absence of pressure. Peace is a return to reality."Once a month, Rocky hosts Somewhere in the Middle, a gathering for people who are done performing and ready to be real. Come be human with us.Get To Know RockyRocky Garza is a keynote speaker, executive coach, and host of Real with Rocky. He helps leaders trade performance for presence and to lead like themselves, not someone else.Connect with RockyCome be human with us at Somewhere in the Middle: https://www.rockygarza.com/confidenceFollow Rocky on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rockygarza/Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rockygarza/Visit the website: https://www.rockygarza.com/

In this episode, Rocky sits down with artist and museum professional Lucia Simek for a reflective conversation about creativity, identity, and the courage to choose oneself. Together they unpack the tension of leaving a high-profile career to reclaim an "origin story," the difficulty of being a "hyphenate" person in a culture that demands linear identities, and the transformative power of vulnerability. Lucia shares how her history of caretaking shaped her leadership, why she is walking away from the "nonprofit machine" to prioritize her essential self, and her vision for creating a hybrid space that truly represents her multifaceted creative heart. This episode challenges listeners to rethink success, embrace uncertainty as an instructor, and recognize the value of staying true to one's core morality.Episode Highlights with Timestamps:00:00:43 — Why choosing a "crazy but healthy" exit from a major museum role was necessary for self-preservation.00:01:10 — The challenge of being a "hyphenate" person with multiple identities in a culture that prefers clear career paths.00:01:52 — Reclaiming an "origin story" as an artist and prioritizing essential happiness over financial security.00:02:39 — Defining "non-negotiables" and shifting focus from fundraising to building genuine community.00:07:38 — Embracing a "revolutionary heart" and the desire to create spaces that benefit the next person.00:10:38 — The vision for a hybrid physical space for art and film that reflects a multifaceted identity.00:13:34 — How deep moral care for a community can be both a leadership strength and an art world barrier.00:20:45 — Reflections on a life of caretaking, from raising seven siblings to bringing those instincts into the workplace.00:30:42 — The speaker challenges Lucia on the fear of asking for help when you are used to being the problem solver.00:45:20 — Why pain and trauma are the "best teachers" and instructors for future choices and personal growth.Get to Know Our GuestLucia Simek is an artist, writer, curator, and museum professional with an MFA in sculpture from Texas Christian University. She spent eight years at the Nasher Sculpture Center leading communications and international programs. In 2022, she joined Dallas Contemporary as Director of External Affairs and was later promoted to Deputy Director, overseeing public programs, publications, and education. She launched initiatives like DC Empty and the NTX Graduate Student Program to support regional artists. After serving as interim director, she was named Executive Director in February 2025. She stepped down in December 2025 to focus on her independent art, curatorial work, and writing, including her upcoming book Occiput through Deep Vellum Publishing.Learn more about Lucia's workLucia as a museum curator:Best in Class: Dallas Contemporary exhibitHeni News: Lucia SimekGlasstire: Lucia Simek to step downPatron Magazine: Doomscrolling by Cheryl DoneganLucia as an artist:Glasstire: Occiput at The Reading RoomDallas Observer: From her eyes to yoursDallas News: Artists tackle issues of identity in CleaverJoin Rocky, LIVE on Zoom, in conversation about leadership, humanity, and everything in between: http://rockygarza.com/confidence

Most of us don't need more advice; we need clarity. We build inner walls to survive, believing that being the strong one who never needs help is what success looks like. We outwork and outlast everything until we stand at the top alone, in a silence we rarely talk about."The Beautiful Boundary" is a pushback against the isolation of the castle. It is not about keeping the world out, but about the quiet, intentional decision of what belongs inside the gate. It is the honest truth that you cannot protect everything, and trying to do so only creates another wall. You are worth protecting, not just your image or your capacity to perform, but your integrity and your ability to be present.In this In-Between, the speaker sits with a challenging question: What if the highest form of love isn't self-sacrifice that leaves you hollow, but the courage to finally put yourself on the list of things worth protecting?What you'll hear: The difference between walls and boundaries: Why walls isolate out of fear, while boundaries invite in with clarity.Being needed vs. being loved: Why confusing the two leads to being useful to a relationship rather than actually being in it.Availability vs. Accessibility: How to move from a defensive posture of being always open to an intentional posture of deciding what moves through your channels.The reminder: Protecting what you love requires the courage to include yourself in that protection so you can better love those who matter most."A life you want is not built by carrying more. It's built by protecting what you love."Once a month, Rocky hosts Somewhere in the Middle, a gathering for people who are done performing and ready to be real. Link in show notes. Come be human with us.Get To Know RockyRocky Garza is a keynote speaker, executive coach, and host of Real with Rocky. He helps leaders trade performance for presence and to lead like themselves, not someone else.Connect with RockyCome be human with us at Somewhere in the Middle: https://www.rockygarza.com/confidenceFollow Rocky on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rockygarza/Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rockygarza/Visit the website: https://www.rockygarza.com/

In this episode, Rocky sits down with creative director and photographer Rambo Elliott for a deeply honest conversation about identity, permission, and what it actually takes to stop performing your way into belonging. Rambo opens up about her autism diagnosis at 36 and how getting that word didn't mean something was wrong with her. It meant she'd needed different accommodations.Together they dig into why curiosity requires rest, safety, and community before it can grow, why so many of us have learned to cry fine while everything's falling apart, and what radical self-acceptance actually looks like when you stop chasing people who can only handle you once every three months. This episode invites listeners to examine the stories they've inherited about who they are, challenge what's actually theirs to carry, and consider what becomes possible when you decide to let you.Episode Highlights with Timestamps:00:01:00 – Intensity and sincerity as a way of life00:02:00 – Getting stuck without knowing it00:02:30 – Autism diagnosis at 36 and the permission it gave00:16:00 – Curiosity as a ripe environment00:19:00 – Performance vs. genuine connection00:22:45 – Emotion as information, not the enemy00:28:22 – Crying fine, the lie we keep telling00:35:38 – Radical self-acceptance and moving on faster00:46:00 – What it means to be humanAbout Our GuestRambo Elliott is a creative director and photographer with a decade of work documenting music, art, fashion, and celebrity. Her background as a neuromuscular massage therapist shapes everything. Her work puts a deep emphasis on connection and vulnerability, and it shows. She's been featured in GQ, Vogue, Rolling Stone, the NY Times, Billboard, Vanity Fair, Essence, and more. She's created album covers and videos for Leon Bridges, done documentary work with Jon Batiste and Takashi Murakami, and shot campaigns for Stetson, Dickies, Lucchese, and Tecovas.Follow Rambo on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rambo/On TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ramboelliottWebsite: https://rambophotography.com/Join Rocky, LIVE on Zoom, in conversation about leadership, humanity, and everything in between: http://rockygarza.com/confidence

The pressure to perform your way through being alive is real. And most of us have been doing it for so long, we don't even notice anymore.We optimize. We refine. We show up steady. We process the grief privately. We hide the confusion because clarity is mandatory and doubt is weakness. We believe, somewhere beneath the surface, that we have to arrive at some perfected version of ourselves before we are worthy of belonging.Just Be Human is Rocky's pushback against all of it.Not a lowering of the bar. Not settling. Not pretending things don't matter. Just the honest, grounding truth that you are a person before you are a performer. And that who you are, in the tension, in the mess, in the tired, is enough to take the next step.In this In-Between, Rocky sits with the question most of us are afraid to ask: What if the goal was never to outperform being human but to finally stop trying?What you'll hear:Why the world's reward for polish comes at the cost of wholenessThe difference between indulgence and honesty and why Just Be Human is neither an excuse nor an escapeWhat it looks like to feel the grief, admit the confusion, and take the next step anywayThe reminder: Be there. Be honest. Be present. Be imperfect."Who you are, even in the tension, even in the mess, is enough to take the next step."Once a month, Rocky hosts Somewhere in the Middle, a gathering for people who are done performing and ready to be real. Link in show notes. Come be human with us.Get To Know RockyRocky Garza is a keynote speaker, executive coach, and host of Real with Rocky. He helps leaders trade performance for presence and to lead like themselves, not someone else.Connect with RockyCome be human with us at Somewhere in the Middle: https://www.rockygarza.com/confidenceFollow Rocky on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rockygarza/Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rockygarza/Visit the website: https://www.rockygarza.com/