What keeps you humble?
"I know I can always be better than I am today."
After you've toured with John Cougar Mellencamp, Smashing Pumpkins, and Melissa Etheridge, you might also have to think about how to remain humble.
Episode 131: Make Kind Loud - It's the Only Way Out of This Mess
Louisa Garrett used to rely on her sarcastic sense of humor to make people laugh. But when she saw herself through the eyes of her nieces and nephews, as a model for the behavior she wanted to see in them - and in others, she had an epiphany. Being sarcastic was not a kind sense of humor, sarcasm can certainly be funny, but it is rarely kind.
Episode 130: I Will Not Meet Hate at the Door, Lessons of Love and Forgiveness
Episode 129: Travel IS Education, Academic, Personal, and Cultural
Stories as a Tool to Address Anxiety
Callie Kazakoff was surprised to hear from me, and even more surprised to be asked to be a guest on this podcast.
Callie Kazakoff, Student at Montana State University
"I'm only 20! What do I have to add?"
We met when she participated in my session in a day-long virtual leadership retreat. The topic was storytelling and personal brand, in the context of being intentional in the stories we share, particularly when we want to inspire action, or in client and job interview conversations.
Callie caught my attention when she briefly shared a story about stepping out of her comfort zone by signing up for a Semester at Sea study abroad programs, first semester of her sophomore year of college.
That was the timing of my semester abroad to Australia, and I knew she'd have fantastic recent stories of self-reflection, personal growth, humility, comfort zone expansion, and adventure.
She did not disappoint.
Callie's stories spanned from her unlikely decision, as someone who struggles with severe anxiety, to study abroad, to her recent "ah ha" moment in the middle of an anxiety attack while whitewater rafting for the first time.
She is a wise soul, and I see beautiful adventures in her future.
Episode 128: Innovation Storytelling to Build Community and Business
As an innovation storyteller, Susan gets to the purpose of innovation, to serve people, and creates the story that makes that connection for the stakeholders who must understand it.
Susan was highly influenced by the original cultural anthropologist, Bronislaw Malinowski. He believed that to truly understand a culture and all of its complexities, you had to LIVE in that culture. Not just observe it, but be in it, breathing it, eating, sleeping, and arguing in that culture, to truly understand it.
Episode 127: Charged by a Silverback Gorilla, Adam Lewis Walker Knows What an Alpha Looks Like
He had me laughing from the moment we hit record, and our conversation ranged from the end of his Olympic pole vaulting dreams, destroyed knee, and subsequent bout with depression, to his TEDx in 2016, and even included what I'm sure was the subconscious inspiration for the name of his first podcast, Awaken Your Alpha.
Hint: It involves a silverback gorilla in the wilds of Rwanda.
Episode 126: Road Trip with the Rabbi
Stories of Life's Strange and Wonderful Transitions
He was in his early 20s when he decided to hitchhike across the US, just to explore and meet people. It was being on the road in those conditions that made Yonason Goldson an exceptional listener and discerner of each person's truth.
We met via LinkedIn, and I was eager to have a chat with the Rabbi to hear more of his stories, especially after reading his article about the time a young Jewish student asked about the obvious scar on the back of his ear from when he had it pierced years before studying to become a Rabbi.
His TEDx is all about why labels create painful distortions in our relationships, and why we have to be so careful about applying those generalizations to individuals.
Connect with him on LinkedIn, and visit Rabbi Yonason Goldson's website to learn more about his work as a keynote speaker, writer, and teacher. And here's a hint: He makes a great speaker for any audience, he just happens to be a Rabbi and uses his experiences to bring his outstanding stories and lessons to life.