What would you change if you had your very own coach?  Someone who would tell you honestly and clearly how to meet your goals? What would you work on?  Your business?  Your health?  Your relationship? Personal growth - along with healthy relationships and community engagement is part of the troika we promote here all.the.time! 

That’s what you get to hear Kelly and me work on together in real time pretty much every week on this podcast. If you’re listening to this, we’re pretty sure you’re interested in creating a fuller, more authentic life… or maybe you just like listening to us as we muddle around and through the process.

The New Year is when most of us take some time to evaluate how we’re doing and resolve to do better.  If you’re like me, you’ve designed your own life-change program over and over again and tried to gut it out until at least mid-February before backsliding or giving up outright.  (and it’s so friggin painful and disheartening) Sometimes we beat the odds and make major changes.  But is there a key, a trick to making meaningful change? Maybe a coach can be part of the process? 
  
Guest Bios:
This week we not only talk with, but get counseled by two professional coaches.  Friend of the pod Tom Check is back with us and our new friend Ken Kilday joins us to help unpack what coaching is and isn’t, and we explore together the nature of change.  

Ken Kilday has over 20 years experience in corporate leadership that gives him a rich background to draw from. [You can check out their bona fides in the show notes] His defining insight, though, is that people and relationships are what make teams - no matter the size - capable of thriving and adapting. Ken now coaches corporate teams, small businesses and entrepreneurs get what they want from their business. 

Tom Check has been a network admin, a rambling photographer, a nonprofit leader, and now runs a thriving business called Choice Coaching. Tom has a set of communication and listening skills he uses to help individuals make decisions and cultivate changes in whatever area of life that is most important to them, whether it’s quitting smoking, getting in shape, or sustaining their business.      

In this episode, we learn more about personal and business coaching, how it differs from therapy, and how Tom and Ken approach it. THEN, you get to sit in on an actual coaching session as these two smarties help Charles and me figure out some important ways we’ve been blocking ourselves.  Each session only took about ten minutes to really get down to the nitty gritty - we were astonished - and we’re curious what you’ll think.  ​

Show Notes
Key Takeaways: 

• Personal growth takes persistence, focus, and help. 
• First step in creating change is determining if you are actually ready to change. 
• Make changes that make a difference… don’t just take the pill, remove the source of the problem. 
• Commit to small, measurable steps. 

Do a Science:

•  Go after the cause of your dissatisfaction, rather than the symptom. ​

References:

• Ken Kilday’s coaching website
• Tom Check at Choice Coaching 
• The Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS)

Resources: 

• Episode 6 Coaching and Community Weaving with Tom Check. 
• Episode 48 How to Question Everything with Mary Hodges.

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Music Credits: A Hawaiian in Paris feat.-Pierre-Grill

This week, we bring you Laird Christensen, someone who has thought deeply about how we can move ourselves and our communities forward through overlapping crises. This episode covers a LOT of ground: Anarchy, literature, activism, guitar playing, fatherhood, hope, despair, and potlucks as activism. Most importantly, Laird reminded us to ask “What if?” 

Laird Christensen, is the Director, MS in Resilient and Sustainable Communities at Prescott College. Laird grew up in timber country in Oregon, amidst the clear cuts and lumber mills and developed a deep-seated need to connect to wild spaces.  Part of Laird’s intriguing story, though, includes his conscious decision to separate himself from the wilderness and the forests - and to leave the protest lines - to work upstream. To go from protecting one forest to transforming the culture that endangers the forests in the first place. 

We talked about how our culture and economy is based on the idea of scarcity and how the opposite of scarcity is not abundance but sufficiency… can we take what we need and leave enough for others and future generations. 
​
We have such huge challenges in front of us. Getting through covid, repairing our economy, rebuilding our communities. Laird points out, though, that these kinds of crises are the new normal and that we have to work together to build in resilience. Fortunately, he and others have been thinking about how to do just that. Even better, building resilience is something we can do as individuals, neighborhoods, and towns. Listen to the whole episode and see if you don’t get some inspiration and ideas that will help keep you hopeful and engaged.

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Music Credits: 
​A Hawaiian in Paris feat.-Pierre-Grill

HOW NOTES:
Key Takeaways: 

• Disruption, pandemics, hurricanes, and wildfires are the new normal.
• A way to avoid despair is to ask “What if?”
• Sustainability and resilience works at the relationship and neighborhood level.
• Potlucks and music jams can be a way to reduce polarization. 

 
Do a Science:

•  Ask “What if?”

​
References:

• Barry Lopez
• The Timber Wars Podcast
• The Hero’s Journey Wheel
• Wendell Barry
• Tree Communication
• Joanna Macy
• Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
• Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
• The City Repair Project 

Resources: 

• Resilient And Sustainable Communities Program at Prescott College
• 350.org Bill McKibben’s organization
• Extinction Rebellion
• Sunrise Movement
• Transition Town Movement

 
​Related Episodes 

• Ep 55 with Pete Pierson How to Not Know 
• Ep 36 with Rowdy Duncan How to Write a New Story 
• Ep 56 with Charles &Kelly How to Feed a Wolf

What’s it like combating an entrenched problem like homelessness during a pandemic?  What skills and mindset make the difference in good times and bad? How does one get selected Prescott Woman of the Year?

This week we are sharing an episode from another podcast we produce - The Prescott Woman Podcast. In this interview, we talk to Jessi Hans, a nonprofit director who lives a bold and dedicated life. We talked with Jessi a few hundred years ago when we were just starting out and this interview is just as full of community, leadership, and her bold, crazy mission to end homelessness.  It was great catching up with Jessi and if you missed her the first time, go back and check out episode 8.

In 2018, Jessi and her team set the bold (Crazy?) intention to end homelessness in Prescott.  Since Covid, they have redoubled their efforts to house every member of the Prescott community and connect their clients to the services that will help get them back on their feet and back to their lives.  

We talk with Jessi about the Housing First philosophy, leading her team with authenticity and transparency, the value of partnerships, and how to stay human when things get tough.

Guest Bio:
After 16 years in the human services field, Jessi Hans has an understanding of how addiction, trauma, mental illness, and systemic barriers can put people out on the street. Jessi takes a collaborative approach to problem-solving, bringing together people and organizations with the gifts and skillsets to make meaningful progress on difficult problems.  She also works consciously to shift the narrative around people experiencing homelessness to help everyone see what she sees: human beings, citizens, neighbors, members of the community.

Born and raised in Iowa, Jessi earned her B.F.A. at Northwest Missouri State University and she’s lived in Arizona since 2005. She has a wife and three young children. Jessi enjoys quality time with her family, traveling, reading, creating art, and singing.

Jessi was recently named Women of the Year by Prescott Area Leadership. When we asked her the uncomfortable question of why she was chosen for this honor, she told us she thought the award honored her role more than her actions. We think she might be being too humble, but we’ll let you decide why you think Jessi deserves the win.

This is also a perfect episode for this difficult season. In it, we talk about what it means to serve those less fortunate, what it means to have a safe place to live, and how we can make a difference not just by writing checks, but by extending compassion. Anyone else feeling more of the holiday spirit, just hearing those words? Not yet? Keep listening. 

SHOW NOTES
Key Takeaways: 

• Leadership in a crisis demands transparency & collaboration.
• Vulnerability is actually a precursor to agility and creativity. 
• Courage includes tears.  
• Homelessness is solvable.
• Thinking about people as experiencing homelessness rather than being homeless changes the frame from that of helping others, to working with our neighbors.​

References:

• Housing First model
• Simon Sinek - Leaders Eat Last
• Brene Brown - Dare to Lead ​

​Resources: 

• Coalition for Compassion and Justice 
• CCJ Social Media
  • ​Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
• Not from Prescott? Consider donating to Feeding America ​

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