Ahead of Series 3, Annyse and Laura Gallindo turn the deck of cards around and land on Power, Peace and why water might be holding both.

Every episode of Meaningful Conversations starts the same way: a card gets drawn and it sets the tone for everything that follows. But this time, something shifted. Laura Gallindo, the very first guest this podcast ever had, took the deck from Annyse and turned the tables. Annyse drew "Power." Laura drew "Peace." And across a conversation recorded on a retreat, surrounded by friends and a fair amount of exhaling, the two cards turned out to say more together than either could alone.

Where the toe-dip led

It's worth remembering how this started. When Annyse first talked to Laura about the idea for this podcast, it felt bold and more than a little uncertain - can we actually pull this off? Laura saw the vision anyway and helped make it real through the support of Grundfos. What began as a toe in the water has become, almost three series in, something Annyse now moves through with confidence: how to edit, how to publish, how to hold a conversation that matters.

What's changed most isn't the mechanics. It's what the conversations have revealed.

What power looks like when women hold it

Across two series, one thing has become impossible to ignore: there are extraordinary women everywhere, not just in the water sector, doing work that's quietly reshaping how we lead. And they're doing it with a particular kind of power - one that cares deeply and that instinctively holds the whole rather than just a slice of it.

Call it a mothering energy, whether the women themselves would name it that way or not. It shows up as the pull to look after the bigger picture even while grinding through the daily work. It's not the model of leadership most of us grew up watching. And that's exactly why it's been so moving to witness.

There's also been a distinct absence of something you might expect: competition. Guest after guest has shown up not guarding their seat at the table but pulling up more chairs. Nicole Brown named this beautifully - an instinct toward abundance rather than scarcity, a belief that there's enough room for everyone doing this work well.

Why peace and power aren't opposites

Laura's read on her own card: peace is what power looks like when it's nurturing instead of forcing. When it's aimed at sustaining something, not just winning it.

For Annyse, peace shows up in a very specific moment 0 the end of every recording. A kind of relief, knowing there are other people out there carrying the same weight, caring as much as she does. We're wired for belonging. And that's really the offer this podcast has always made: a chance to feel like you belong to something before you ever have to prove it in the room.

Download an episode on your way to the meeting that needs a bit of courage. Arrive already connected.

That sense of belonging is also, it turns out, where confidence comes from. Not from bravado, but from knowing you're not doing this alone. And here's the part worth sitting with – often the calmest person in a room is the most powerful one in it. A regulated nervous system can see paths forward that fear and tunnel vision simply can't. Peace isn't power's opposite - it's what makes power usable.

The industry that hasn't noticed it's holding the cards

Perhaps the most striking moment in the whole conversation: Annyse's belief that water already holds the Power card, whether the sector has clocked it yet or not.

If water doesn't lead the way through the ecological crisis ahead, who will? Being one of the last industries to the conversation doesn't mean water has no power - it means the people already in it, the guardians and custodians of this work, are exactly the ones who need to pick that power up and use it. It's a sector that's been doing extraordinary work quietly, with no fuss - so quietly that most students leaving school never think of water as a place a career could even begin.

Changing that starts, fittingly, with the same thing this whole podcast has been building: belonging. A community confident enough in what it's doing to say so, loudly, and invite others in.

Series 3 launches 27 October. Come find your seat in the circle.