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2 episodes with both stephanie
2 episodes with both stephanie
2 episodes with both stephanie
Stephanie welcomes renowned singer and worship artist Beckah Shae, whose journey is one of resilience, faith, and unwavering devotion to Jesus Christ. Her music's intimate melodies have the power to touch the human spirit in deeply profound ways. Her story is one of undeniable beauty, resilience, and victory in the face of life's trials, encapsulating the transformative and redemptive power of faith and friendship with God. Beckah's cultural influences, shaped by an upbringing focused on survival and gratitude, shine through as she reflects on her Jewish heritage. She shared how her relationship with Jesus has brought a newfound richness to these memories, opening her eyes to deeper layers of faith and gratitude. Beckah Shae's childhood was marked by chaos and upheaval, which shaped her understanding of God as a friend who provided solace and security amidst uncertainty. Her mom was a source of strength and comfort. Beckah's challenging upbringing led her to establish a profound and authentic relationship with God, whom she found to be her unwavering source of peace, comfort, provision, and protection. Through it all, she saw God as a refuge rather than someone to fear. Throughout the conversation, Beckah Shae emphasizes her calling and purpose as a worship artist, and invites us to enter into our own callings! She resonates with the idea that utilizing her gift of song to worship is her natural vocation, a source of boundless joy. The emotional significance and newfound depth that her old songs have taken on in recent years underscore the transformative impact of music intertwined with the Spirit of God. Beckah candidly shared her journey of facing criticism early in her music career and the pivotal decision to focus on following God's plan for her life. This vulnerability and unwavering commitment to staying true to God's voice amidst external influences serve as a testament to her enduring faith and steadfast resolve. Her journey exemplifies the transformative power of trusting in God's plan despite life's uncertainties and challenges. Both Stephanie and Beckah discuss into the challenges of guiding their daughters to forge their unique spiritual journeys and cultivate profound relationships with God. Their shared insights underscore the delicate balance between providing guidance and allowing space for their daughters to pursue their individual paths, while nurturing a genuine connection with God. Beckah Shae's deeply resonant journey of faith, perseverance, and spiritual growth serves as a powerful testament to the unyielding strength found in a relationship with God. Through her openness, vulnerability, and unwavering commitment to God's plan, Beckah Shae inspires us towards profound faith and resilience, serving as a beacon of hope for all of us as we navigate our own unique spiritual journeys ever deeper into Christ. GET IN TOUCH WITH BECKAH SHAE On her website: https://www.beckahshae.com Exclusive way to experience all of her worship albums: Shae Shoc Stock - USB Flash Drive (Every Album & Music Video) - https://store.beckahshae.com/collections/music/products/shae-shoc-stock-usb-flash-drive Looking for an exclusive event? Consider Beckah's Living Room Concerts: https://www.beckahshae.com/living-room-concert Facebook Page: https://facebook.com/beckahshae YouTube: https://youtube.com/beckahshae Email: beckah@beckahshae.com We invite you to check out the first episode of each of our series, and decide which one you will want to start with. Go to gospelspice.com for more, and go especially to gospelspice.com/podcast to enjoy our guests! Interested in our blog? Click here: gospelspice.com/blog Identity in the battle | Ephesians https://www.podcastics.com/episode/74762/link/ Centering on Christ | The Tabernacle experience https://www.podcastics.com/episode/94182/link/ Shades of Red | Against human oppression https://www.podcastics.com/episode/115017/link/ God's glory, our delight https://www.podcastics.com/episode/126051/link/ Support us on Gospel Spice, PayPal and Venmo!
In today's episode I interview the remarkable Stephanie Brown, a trailblazer in the creative marketing and tech industries, and the brains behind Creative Career Level Up. With roles that include a tenure at Nike and Apple, Stephanie brings a wealth of experience to the table. We explore the power of self-reflection, the art of strategic planning, and the entrepreneurial mindset necessary to catapult your career to the next level. Stephanie shares her personal story of her own transitions in her career, both the highs and the lows. Culminating in her development of an innovative career coaching programme designed to elevate professionals in the marketing, branding, creative, and tech sectors. We'll uncover how Stephanie turned the challenge of being let go from a job into a remarkable opportunity for growth and self-discovery, resulting in not only a successful coaching business but also a property portfolio and a book. We also discuss why it's important not to settle for less in our professional lives, finding joy in our work, and break free from the constraints that hold us back. Whether you're feeling stuck in a rut or on the brink of your next big leap, this episode is full of actionable advice to help you find your path. Episode Timeline: 06:50 Finding income streams to work in London. 13:11 Admiration for flexibility in work-life balance. 26:36 Appreciating job opportunities and the decision-making process. 31:43 Podcasts connect entrepreneurs, expand networks, and foster relationships. 37:43 Seeking advice, networking, and planning a new path. 45:45 Overcoming job boredom and boosting confidence at work. 48:20 Embrace growth, use evidence to reframe narratives. 54:00 Finding purpose in work beyond grand gestures. 1:01:53 Programme framework emphasises self-awareness and exploration. 1:08:11 Reflect on time, prioritise, challenge your narrative. Key Takeaways: Stephanie Brown's experience showcases the importance of self-reflection and having a strategic plan when advancing one's career. The three-stage program (reflect, refine, result) she discusses serves as a guideline for individuals to discover their true career desires, understand the industry landscape, and implement strategies for securing positions that align with their personal and professional goals. The notion of changing one's mindset from passive job seeker to proactive career architect is a focal point in the conversation, as exemplified by Steph Brown's entrepreneurial approach to job hunting and career development. Her success in securing a role at Apple and eventually starting her own coaching business underscores the value of networking, self-belief, and taking an entrepreneurial approach to crafting one's career path. Both Stephanie and Cathleen emphasise the significance of adaptability and learning from personal experiences, whether it is transitioning from corporate life to entrepreneurship, dealing with job loss, or reshaping career objectives. Stephanie's journey, from working at renowned companies like Nike and Apple to leveraging her experiences to write a book and create a coaching program, highlights how personal and professional growth intertwines with the ability to adapt and the pursuit of a fulfilling and flexible lifestyle. ABOUT Stephanie Brown Steph Brown is a seasoned professional with a rich 15-year career in Marketing, Creative, and Tech industries. With an impressive 13-year tenure in senior positions at renowned companies like Nike and Apple. In 2019 she established Creative Career Level Up, a pioneering coaching and training initiative. This flagship programme is meticulously designed to empower individuals within the Marketing, Creative, and Tech sectors, equipping them with the tools and knowledge needed to elevate their careers to new heights. Steph is also an Angel Investor for early-stage startups and property investor across the UK. Connect with Stephanie: Website: Website: www.creativecareerlab.com Book: Fired: Why losing your job is the best thing that can happen to you https://amzn.eu/d/d3TSaam Social Media Links: Tiktok https://www.tiktok.com/@kiwilondongirl Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniebrowncareercoach/ Connect: Find | Cathleen O'Sullivan Business: cathleenmerkel.com Email: cmc@cathleenmerkelcoaching.com LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/cathleen-merkel-2b0991151 Instagram: www.instagram.com/cathleenmerkel Twitter: twitter.com/CathleenMerkel7 FOLLOW LEGENDARY LEADERS ON APPLE, SPOTIFY OR WHEREVER YOU LISTEN TO YOUR PODCASTS.
Family Series "Stories from Siblings"with Joey and Stephanie Alarcon and Lynette Fuson We're excited that you are joining us today. We are continuing on in our family series with “Stories from Siblings”. Siblings each have their own journeys and their own stories to share. When special needs enters into the picture for a family each member of the family is effected. Siblings face a lifelong journey along side their brother or sister. One that often begins with their earliest memories and lasts long after their parents passing. The road they walk down can be filled with lots of hard choices and sacrifice but it can also be filled with lots of joy and beautiful blessings as well. Listen in as we share this 2020 recording from our sibling panel with Joey and Stephanie Alarcon and Lynette Fuson. Sibling Panel: Joey Alarcon is the youngest brother to Chris, who is diagnosed with Down Syndrome. He and and his wife Stephanie have been married for 10 years and have a young son and daughter and baby on the way. Both Stephanie and Joey are Special Education teachers with 4 combined credentials and a Masters degree in Education. Joey teaches Adapted PE in San Diego Unified School District and Stephanie is taking a break from teaching Special Education to focus on raising their little ones. Lynette Fuson is married to Jaisen, a Navy Chaplain, and they are blessed with four sons and 2 beautiful daughter-in-laws. She is also the older sister to Missy, who is diagnosed with Down Syndrome. Lynette has a degree in Elementary Education and a minor in Spanish from Wheaton College as well as a Certificate in Spiritual Direction. After teaching school for 10 years and serving alongside her husband in various churches, Lynette joined the Emmanuel Faith Community Church staff in 2013 where she is the Care & Counseling Director. She is passionate about helping people grow in their relationship with Jesus and live out of the fullness of who God made them to be. Connect with Us: If you enjoy this podcast please share us with others and be sure to follow us so won't miss an episode. We'd love to hear from you so please leave us a comment or rating and connect with us on social media or on our website. Email us Website: Instagram Facebook: Facebook Group Free Youtube Resource Library
Stephanie interviews Edward Loveall, a former thoughtbotter, now software developer at Relevant Healthcare. Part of their discussion centers around Edward's blog post on the tech industry's over-reliance on GitHub. He argues for the importance of exploring alternatives to avoid dependency on a single platform and encourages readers to make informed technological choices. The conversation broadens to include how to form opinions on technology, the balance between personal preferences and team decisions, and the importance of empathy and nuance in professional interactions. Both Stephanie and Edward highlight the value of considering various perspectives and tools in software development, advocating for a flexible, open-minded approach to technology and problem-solving in the tech industry. Relevant (https://relevant.healthcare/) Let's make sure Github doesn't become the only option (https://blog.edwardloveall.com/lets-make-sure-github-doesnt-become-the-only-option) And not but (https://blog.edwardloveall.com/and-not-but) Empathy Online (https://thoughtbot.com/blog/empathy-online) Transcript: STEPHANIE: Hello and welcome to another episode of The Bike Shed, a weekly podcast from your friends at thoughtbot about developing great software. I'm Stephanie Minn. And today, I'm joined by a very special guest, a friend of the pod and former thoughtboter, Edward Loveall. EDWARD: Hello, thanks for having me. STEPHANIE: Edward, would you share a little bit about yourself and what you're doing these days? EDWARD: Yes, I am a software developer at a company called Relevant Healthcare. We do a lot of things, but the maybe high-level summary is we take very complicated medical data and help federally-funded health centers actually understand that data and help their population's health, which is really fun and really great. STEPHANIE: Awesome. So, Edward, what is new in your world? EDWARD: Let's see, this weekend...I live in a dense city. I live in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and it's pretty dense there. And a lot of houses are very tightly packed. And delivery drivers struggle to find the numbers on the houses sometimes because A, they're old and B, there is many of them. And so, we put up house numbers because I live in, like, a three-story kind of building, but there are two different addresses in the same three stories, which is very weird. And so [laughs], delivery drivers are like, "Where is number 10 or 15?" or whatever. And so, there's two different numbers. And so, we finally put up numbers after living here for, like, four years [chuckles]. So, now, hopefully, delivery drivers in the holiday busy season will be able to find our house [laughs]. STEPHANIE: That's great. Yeah, I have kind of a similar problem where, a lot of the times, delivery folks will think that my house is the big building next door. And the worst is those at the building next door they drop off their packages inside the little, like, entryway that is locked for people who don't live there. And so, I will see my package in the window and, you know, it has my name on it. It has, like, my address on it. And [laughs] some strategies that I've used is leaving a note on the door [laughter] that is, like, "Please redeliver my package over there," and, like, I'll draw an arrow to the direction of my house. Or sometimes I've been that person to just, like, buzz random [laughter] units and just hope that they, like, let me in, and then I'll grab my package. And, you know, if I know the neighbors, I'll, like, try to apologize the next time I see them. But sometimes I'll just be like, I just need to get my package [laughs]. EDWARD: You're writing documentation for those people working out in the streets. STEPHANIE: Yeah. But I'm glad you got that sorted. EDWARD: Yeah. What about you? What's new in your world? STEPHANIE: Well, I wanted to talk a little bit about a thing that you and I have been doing lately that I have been enjoying a lot. First of all, are you familiar with the group chat trend these days? Do you know what I'm talking about? EDWARD: No. STEPHANIE: Okay. It's basically this idea that, like, everyone is just connecting with their friends via a group chat now as opposed to social media. But as a person who is not a big group chat person, I can't, like, keep up with [chuckles], like, chatting with multiple people [laughter] at once. I much prefer, like, one-on-one interaction. And, like, a month ago, I asked you if you would be willing to try having a shared note, like, a shared iOS note that we have for items that we want to discuss with each other but, you know, the next time we either talk on the phone or, I don't know, things that are, like, less urgent than a text message would communicate but, like, stuff that we don't want to forget. EDWARD: Yeah. You're, like, putting a little message in my inbox and vice versa. And yeah, we get to just kind of, whenever we want, respond to it, or think about it, or use it as a topic for a conversation later. STEPHANIE: Yeah. And I think it is kind of a playbook from, like, a one-on-one with a manager. I know that that's, like, a strategy that some folks use. But I think it works well in the context of our friendship because it's just gotten, like, richer over time. You know, maybe in the beginning, we're like, oh, like, I don't know, here are some random things that I've thought about. But now we're having, like, whole discussions in the note [laughter]. Like, we will respond to each other, like, with sub-bullets [laughs]. And then we end up not even needing to talk about it on the phone because we've already had a whole conversation about it in the note. EDWARD: Which is good because neither of us are particularly brief when talking on the phone. And [laughs] we only dedicate, like, half an hour every two weeks. It sort of helps clear the decks a little. STEPHANIE: Yeah, yeah. So, that's what I recommend. Try a shared note for [laughs] your next friendship hangout. EDWARD: Yeah, it's great. I heartily recommend it. STEPHANIE: So, one of the things that we end up talking about a lot is various things that we've been reading about tech on the web [laughs]. And we share with each other a lot of, like, blog posts, or articles, various links, and recently, something of yours kind of resurfaced. You wrote a blog post about GitHub a little while ago about how, you know, as an industry, we should make sure that GitHub doesn't become our only option. EDWARD: Yeah, this was a post I wrote, I think, back in May, or at least earlier this year, and it got a bunch of traction. And it's a somewhat, I would say, controversial article or take. GitHub just had their developer conference, and it resurfaced again. And I don't have a habit of writing particularly controversial articles, I don't think. Most of my writing history has been technical posts like tutorials. Like, I wrote a whole tutorial on how to write SQL, or I did write one about how to communicate online. But I wasn't, like, so much responding to, like, a particular person's communication or a company's communication. And this is the first big post I've written that has been a lot more very heavily opinionated, very, like, targeted at a particular thing or entity, I guess you'd say. It's been received well, I think, mostly, and I'm proud of it. But it's a different little world for me, and it's a little scary, honestly. STEPHANIE: Yeah, I hear that, having an opinion [laughs], a very strong and maybe, like, a less popular opinion, and publishing that for the world. Could you recap what the thesis of it is for our listeners? EDWARD: Yeah, and I think you did a great job of it, too. I see GitHub or really any singular piece of technology that we have in...I'll say our stack with air quotes, but it's, you know, all the tools that we use and all the things that we use. It's a risk if you only have one of those things, let's say GitHub. Like, if the only way you know how to contribute to a code repository with, you know, 17 people all committing to that repository, if the only way you know how to do that is a pull request and GitHub goes away, and you don't have pull requests anymore, how are you going to contribute to code? It's not that you couldn't figure it out, or there aren't multiple ways or even other pull request equivalents on other sites. But it is a risk to rely on one company to provide all of the things that you potentially need, or even many of the things that you potentially need, without any alternatives. So, I wanted to try to lay out A: those risks, and B: encourage people to try alternatives, to say that GitHub is not necessarily bad, although they may not actually fit what you need for various reasons, or someone else for various reasons. But you should have an alternative in your back pocket so that in case something changes, or you get locked out, or they go away, or they decide to cancel that feature, or any number of other scenarios, you have greatly diminished that risk. So, that's the main thrust of the post. STEPHANIE: Yeah, I really appreciated it because, you know, I think a lot of us probably take GitHub for granted [laughs]. And, you know, every new thing that they kind of add to the platform is like, oh, like, cool, like, I can now do this. In the post, you kind of lay out all of the different features that GitHub has rolled out over the last, you know, couple of years. And when you see it all like that, you know, like, in addition to being, like, a code repository, you now have, like, GitHub Actions for CI/CD, you know, you can deploy static pages with it. It now has, like, an in-browser editor, and then, you know, Copilot, which, like, the more things that they [laughs] roll out, the more it's becoming, like, the one-stop shop, right? That, like, do all of your work here. And I appreciated kind of, like, seeing that and being like, oh, like, is this what I want? EDWARD: Right. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And you mentioned a bunch. There's also issues and discussions. You mentioned their in-browser editor. But so many people use VS Code, which, while it was technically made by Microsoft, it's based on Electron, which was developed at GitHub. And GitHub even, like, took away their other Electron-based editor, Atom. And then now officially recommends VS Code. And everything from deploying all the way down to, like, thinking about and prioritizing features and editing the code and all of that pretty much could happen on GitHub. I think maybe the only thing they don't currently do is host non-static sites, maybe [laughs]. That's maybe about it. And who knows? Maybe they're working on that; as far as I know, they are, so... STEPHANIE: Yeah, absolutely. You also mentioned one thing that I really liked about the content in the post was that you talked about alternatives to GitHub, even, like, alternatives to all of the different features that we mentioned. I guess I'm wondering, like, what were you hoping that a reader from your blog post, like, what they would get out of reading and, like, what they would take away from kind of sharing your opinion? EDWARD: I wanted to try to meet people where I think they might be because I think a lot of people do use GitHub, and they do take it for granted. And they do sort of see it as this thing that they must use, or they want to use even, and that's fine. That's not necessarily a bad thing. I want them to see those alternatives and have at least some idea that there is something else out there, that GitHub doesn't become just not only the default, but, like, the only thing. I mean, to just [chuckles] re-paraphrase the title of the post, I want to make sure GitHub does not become the only option, right? I want people to realize that there are other options out there and be encouraged to try them. And I have found, for me, at least, the better way to do that is not to only focus on, like, hey, don't use GitHub. Like, I hope people did not come away with only that message or even that message at all. But that it is more, hey, maybe try something else out and to encourage you to try something out. I'm going to A: share the risks with you and B: give you some actual things to try. So, I talk about the things I'm using and some other platforms and different paradigms to think about and use. So, I hope they take those. We'll see what happens in the next, you know, months or years. And I'll probably never know if it was actually just from me or from many other conversations, and thoughts, and articles, and all that kind of stuff. But that's what it takes, so... STEPHANIE: Yeah. I think the other fun thing about kind of the, like, meta-conversation we're having about having an opinion and, like, sharing it with the world is that you don't even really say like, "This is better than GitHub," or, like, kind of make a statement about, like, you shouldn't use...you don't even say, "You shouldn't use GitHub," right? The message is, like, here are some options: try it out, and, like, decide for yourself. EDWARD: Yeah, exactly. I want to empower people to do that. I don't think it would have been useful if I'd just go and say, "Hey, don't do this." It's very frustrating to me to see posts that are only negatives. And, honestly, I've probably written those posts, like, I'm not above them necessarily. But I have found that trying to help people do what you want them to do, as silly and maybe obvious as that sounds, is a more effective way to get them to do what you want them to do [laughs], as opposed to say, "Hey, stop doing the thing I don't want you to do," or attack their identity, or their job, or some other aspect of their life. Human behavior does not respond well to that generally, at least in my experience. Like, having your identity tied up in a tool or a platform is, unfortunately, pretty common in, like, a tech space. Like, oh, like, Ruby on Rails is the best piece of software or something like that. And it's like, well, you might like it, and that might be the best thing for you. And personally, I really like Ruby on Rails. I think it does a great job of what it does. But as an example, I would not use Ruby on Rails to maybe build an iOS app. I could; I think that's possible, but I don't think that's maybe the best tool for that job. And so, trying to, again, meet people where they are. STEPHANIE: I guess it kind of goes back to what you're saying. It's like, you want to help people do what they are trying to do. EDWARD: Yeah. Maybe there's a little paternalistic thinking, too, of, like, what's good for the industry, even if it feels bad for you right now. I don't love that sort of paternalistic thinking. But if it's a real risk, it seems worth at least addressing or pointing out and letting people make that decision for themselves. STEPHANIE: Yeah, absolutely. I am actually kind of curious about how do you, like, decide something for yourself? You know, like, how do you form your own opinion about technology? I think, yeah, like, a lot of people take GitHub for granted. They use it because that's just what's used, and that may or may not be a good reason for doing so. But that was a position I was in for a long time, right? You know, especially when you're newer to the industry, you're like, oh, well, this is what the company uses, or this is what, like, the industry uses. But, like, how do you start to figure out for yourself, like, do I actually like this? Does this help me meet my goals and needs? Is it doing what I want it to be doing? Do you have any thoughts about that? EDWARD: Yeah. I imagine most people listening to this have tried lots of different pieces of software and found them great, or terrible, or somewhere in between. And I don't think there's necessarily one way to do this. But I think my way has been to try lots of things, unsurprisingly, and evaluate them based on the thing that I'm trying to do. Sometimes I'll go into a new field, or a new area, or a new product, or whatever, and you just sort of use what's there, or what people have told you about, or what you heard about last, and that's fine. That's a great place to start, right? And then you start seeing maybe where it falls down, or where it is frustrating or doesn't quite meet those needs. And it takes a bit of stepping back. Again, I don't think I'm, like, going to blow anyone's mind here by this amazing secretive technique that I have for, like, discovering good software. But it's, like, sitting there and going through this iterative loop of try it, evaluate it. Be honest with, is it meeting or not meeting some particular needs? And then try something else. Or now you have a little more info to arm yourself to get to the next piece that is potentially good. As you go on in your career and you've tried many, many, many pieces of things, you start to see patterns, right? And you know, like, oh, it's not like, oh, this is how I make websites. It's like, ah, I understand that websites are made with a combination of HTML, and CSS, and JavaScript and sometimes use frameworks. And there's a database layer with an ORM. And you start to understand all the different parts. And now that you have those keywords and those pieces a little more under your control or you have more experience with them, you can use all that experience to then seek out particular pieces. I'm looking for an ORM that's built with Rust because that's the thing I need to do it for; that's the platform I need to work with. And I needed to make sure that it supports MySQL and Postgres, right? Like, it's a very targeted thing that you wouldn't know when you're starting out. But over years of experience, you understand the difference and the reasons why you might need something like that. And sometimes it's about kind of evaluating options and maybe making little test projects to play around with those things or side projects. That's why something like investment time or 20% time is so helpful and useful for that if you're the kind of person who, you know, enjoys programming on your own in your own free time like I am. And that's also a great time to do it, although it's certainly not required. And so, that's kind of how I go through and evaluate whatever tool it is that I need. For something maybe more professional or higher stakes, there's a little more evaluation upfront, right? You want to make sure you make the right choice before you spend thousands of hours using it and potentially regretting [laughs] it and having to roll it back, causing even more thousands of hours of time. So, there's obviously some scrutiny there. But, again, that also takes experience and understanding the kind of need that you have. So, yeah, it's kind of a trade-off of, like, your time, and your energy, and your experience, and your interest. You will have many different inputs from colleagues, from websites, from posts on the internet, from Twitter, or fediverse-type kind of blogging and everything in between, right? So, you take all that in, and you try a bunch of stuff, and you come out on the other side, and then you do it again. STEPHANIE: Yeah, it sounds like you really like to just experiment, and I think that's really great. And I actually have to say that I am not someone who likes to do that [laughs]. Like, it's not where I focus a lot of my time. And it's why I'm, like, glad I'm friends with you, first of all. EDWARD: [laughs] STEPHANIE: But also, I've realized I'm much more of, like, a gatherer in terms of information and opinions. Like, I like hearing about other people's experience to then, like, help inform an opinion that I might develop myself. And, you know, it's not to say that, like, I am, like, oh yeah, like, so and so said this, and so, therefore, yeah, I completely believe what they have to say. But as someone who does not particularly want to spend a ton of my time trying out things, it is really helpful to know people who do like to do that, know people who I do trust, right? And then kind of like you had mentioned, just, like, having all these different inputs. And one thing that has changed for me with more experience is, previously, a lot of, like, the basis of what I thought was the quote, unquote, "right way" to develop software was, like, asking, like, other people and, you know, their opinions becoming my own. And, you know, at some point, though, that, like, has shifted, right? Where it's like, oh, like, you know, I remember learning this from so and so, and, like, actually, I think I disagree now. Or maybe it's like, I will take one part of it and be like, yeah, I really like test-driven development in this particular way that I have figured out how I do it, but it is different still from, like, who I learned it from. And even though, like, that was kind of what I thought previously as, like, oh yeah, like, this is the way that I've adopted without room for adjustment. I think that has been a growth, I guess, that I can point to and be like, oh yeah, like, I once was in a position where maybe opinions weren't necessarily my own. But now I spend a lot more time thinking about, like, oh, like, how do I feel about this? And I think there is, like, some amount of self-reflection required, right? A lot, honestly. Like, you try things, and then you think about, like, did I like that? [laughs] One without the other doesn't necessarily fully informed opinion make. EDWARD: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I'm really glad you brought up that, like, you've heard an opinion, or a suggestion, or an idea from somebody, and you kind of adopt it as your own for a little bit. I like to think of it as trying on ideas like you try on clothing. Or something like, let me try on this jacket. Does this fit? And maybe you like it a little bit. Or maybe you look ridiculous, and it's [laughs] not quite for you. And you don't feel like it's for you. But you have to try. You have to, like, actually do it. And that is a completely valid way to, like, kick-starting some of those opinions, getting input from friends or colleagues, or just the world around you. And, like, hearing those things and trying them is 100% valid. And I'm glad you mentioned that because if I mentioned it, I think I kind of skipped over it or went through it very quickly. So, absolutely. And you're talking about how you just take, like, one part of it maybe. That nuance, that is, I think, really critical to that whole thought, too. Everything works differently for different people. And every tool is good for other, like, different jobs. Like, it will be like saying a hammer is the best tool, and it's, like, well, it's a good tool for the right thing. But, like, I wouldn't use a hammer to, like, I don't know, level the new house numbers I put on my house, right? But I might use them to, like, hit the nail to get them in. So, it's a silly analogy, but, like, there is always nuance and different ways to apply these different tools and opinions. STEPHANIE: I like that analogy. I think it would be really funny if there was someone out there who claimed that the hammer is the best tool ever invented [laughs]. EDWARD: Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure there is, you know. I'm not going to use a drill to paint my house, though [laughs]. STEPHANIE: That's a fair point, and you don't have to [chuckles]. EDWARD: Thank you [laughs]. STEPHANIE: But, I guess, to extend this thought further, I completely and wholeheartedly agree that, like, yeah, everyone gets to decide for themselves what works for them. But also, we work in relation with others. And I'm very interested in the balance of having your own ideas and opinions about tooling, software practices, like, whatever, and then how to bring that back into, like, working on a team or, like, working with others. EDWARD: Yeah. Well, I don't know if this is exactly what you're asking, but it makes me think of: you've gone off; you've discovered a whole bunch of stuff that you think works really well for you. And then you go to work, or you go to a community that is using a very different way of working, or different tools, or different technologies. That can be a piece of friction sometimes of, like, "Oh my gosh, I love Ruby on Rails. It's the best." And someone else is like, "I really, really don't like Ruby on Rails for reasons XYZ. And we don't use it here." And that can be really tough and, honestly, sometimes even disheartening, depending on how strongly you feel about that tool and how strongly they feel about their tools. And as a young developer many years ago, I definitely had a lot more of my identity wrapped up in the tools and technologies that I used. And that has been very useful to try to separate those two. I don't claim to be perfect at it or done with that work yet. But the more I can step away and say, you know, like, this is only a tool. It is not the tool. It is not the best tool. It is a tool that can be very effective at certain things. And I've found, at least right now, the more useful thing is to get to the root of the problem you're trying to solve and make sure you agree with everybody on that premise. So, yes, you may have come from a world where fast iteration and a really fluent language interface like Ruby has and a really fast iteration cycle like Rails has, is, like, the most important need to be solved because other things have been solved. You understand what you're doing for your product, or maybe you need to iterate quickly on that product. You've figured out an audience. You're getting payroll. You're meeting all that as a business. But then you go into a business that's potentially, like, let's say, much less funded. Or they have their market fit, and now they're working on, like, extreme performance optimization, or they're working on getting, like, government compliance, or something like that. And maybe Rails is still great. This is maybe a...the analogy may fall apart here. But let's pretend it isn't for some reason. You have to agree that, hey, like, yes, we've solved problem X that Rails really helps you solve. And now we're moving on to problem Y, and Rails may not help you solve that, or whatever technology you're using may not help you solve that. And I've found it to be much more useful to stop worrying about the means, and the tools, the things in between, and worry about the ends, worry about the goal, worry about the problems you're actually trying to solve. And then you can feel really invested in trying to solve that problem together as a group, as a team, as a community. I've found that to be very helpful. And I would also like to say it is extremely difficult to let some of that stuff go. It takes a lot of work. I see you nodding along. Like, it's really, really hard. And, like I said, I'm not totally done with it either. But that's, I think, it's something I'm really working on now and something I feel really strongly about. STEPHANIE: Yeah. You mentioned the friction of, like, working in an environment where there are different opinions, which is, you know, I don't know, just, like, reality, I guess [laughs]. EDWARD: Human nature. STEPHANIE: Yeah, exactly. And one thing I was thinking about recently was, like, okay, like, so someone else maybe made a decision about using a type of technology or, like, made a decision about architecture before my time or, like, above me, or whatever, right? Like, I wasn't there, and that is okay. But also, like, how do I maintain what I believe in and hold fast to, like, my opinions based on my value system, at least, without complaining? [laughs] Because I've only seen that a little bit before, right? When it just becomes, like, venting, right? It's like, ugh, like, you know, I have seen people who are coming from maybe, like, microservices or more of a JavaScript world, and they're like, ugh, like, what is going on with Rails? Like, this sucks [laughs]. And one thing I've been trying lately is just, like, communicating when I don't agree that something's a great idea. But also, like, acknowledging that, like, yeah, but this is how it is for this team, and I'm also not in a position to change it. Or, like, I don't feel so strongly about it that I'm like, "Hey, we should totally rethink using this, like, background job [laughs] platform." But I will be like, "Hey, like, I don't like this particular thing about it. And, you know, maybe here are some things that I did to mitigate whatever thing I'm not super into," or, like, "If I had more time, this is what I would do," and just putting it out there. Sometimes, I don't get, like, engagement on it. But it's a good practice for me to be, like, this is how I can still have opinions about things, even if I'm not, at least in this particular moment, in a position to change anything. EDWARD: It sounds to me like you in, at least at the lowest level, like, you want to be acknowledged, and you want to, like, be heard. You want to be part of a process. And yes, it doesn't always go with Stephanie's initial thought, or even final thought, or Edward's final thought. But it is very helpful to know that you are heard and you are respected. And it isn't someone just, like, completely disregarding any feeling that you have. As much as we like to say programming is this very, like, I don't know, value neutral, zero emotion kind of job, like, there's tons of emotion in this job. We want to do good things for the world. We want our technology to serve the people, ultimately, at least I do, and I know you do. But we sometimes disagree on the way to do that. And so, you want to make sure you're heard. And if you can't get that at work, like, and I know you do this, but I would encourage anyone listening out there to, like, get a buddy that you can vent to or get somebody that you can express, and they will hear you. That is so valuable just as a release, in some ways, to kind of get through what you need to get through sometimes. Because it is a job, and you aren't always the person that's going to make the decisions. And, honestly, like, you do still have one decision left, which is you can go work somewhere else if it really is that bad. And, like, it's useful to know that you are staying where you are because you appreciate the trade-offs that you have: a steady paycheck, or the colleagues that you work with, or whatever. And that's fine. That's an okay trade-off. And at some point, you might want to make a different trade-off, and that's also fine. We're getting real managery and real here. But I think it's useful. Like you said, this can be a very emotional career, and it's worth acknowledging that. STEPHANIE: Yeah, you just, you know, raised a bunch of, like, very excellent points. Yeah, at the end of the day, like, you know, you can do your best to, like, propose changes or, like, introduce new tooling and, like, see how other people feel about it. But, like, yeah, if you fundamentally do not enjoy working with a critical tool that, you know, a lot of the foundation of the work that you're doing day to day is built off of, then maybe there is a place where, like, another company that's using tools that you do feel excited or, like, passionate or, like, are a better alignment with what you hope to be doing. Kind of just going back to that theme that we were talking about earlier, like, everyone gets to decide for themselves, right? Like, the tools to help them do what they want to be doing. EDWARD: And you could even, like, reframe it for yourself, where instead of it being about the tools, maybe it's about the problem. Like, you start being more invested in, like, the problem that you're solving and, okay, maybe you don't want to use microservices or whatever, but, like, maybe you can get behind that if you realign yourself. The thing you're trying to solve is not the tool. The thing you're trying to solve is the problem. And that can be a useful, like, way to mitigate that or to, like, help yourself feel okay about the thing, whatever that is. STEPHANIE: Yeah. Now, how do I have this conversation with everyone [laughter] who claims on the internet that X is the solution to all their problems or the silver bullet, [laughs] or whatever? EDWARD: Yeah, that's tough because there are some very strong opinions on the internet, as I'm sure [laughs] you've observed. I don't know if I have the answer [laughs]. Once again, nuance and indecisions. I have been currently approaching it from kind of a meta-perspective of, like, if someone says, "X is the best tool," you know, "A hammer is the best tool," right? I'm not going to go write the post that's like, "No, hammer is, in fact, not the best tool. Don't use hammers." I would maybe instead write a post that's like, "Consider what makes the best tool." I've effectively, like, raised up one level of abstraction from, we're no longer talking about is X, or Y, or Z, the best tool? We're talking about how do we even decide that? How do we even think about that? One post...I'm now just promoting my blog posts, so get ready. But one thing I wrote was this post called And Not But. And I tried to make the case that instead of saying the word but in a sentence, so, like, yeah, yeah, we might want to use hammers, but we have to use drills or whatever. I'm trying to make the case that you can use and instead. So yeah, hammers are really good, and drills are really good in these other scenarios. And trying to get that nuance in there, like, really, really putting that in there and getting people to, like, feel that better, I think, has been really helpful, for me, certainly to get through. And part of the best thing about writing a blog post is just getting your own thoughts...I mean, it's another way to vent, right? It's getting your own thoughts out somewhere. And sometimes people respond to them. You'd be surprised who just reaches out and been like, "Hey, yeah, like, I really appreciated that post. That was really great." You weren't trying to reach that person, but now you have another connection. So, a side benefit for writing blog posts [inaudible 30:17] do it, or just even getting your thoughts out via a podcast, via a video, whatever. So, I've kind of addressed that. I also wrote a post when I worked at thoughtbot called Empathy Online. And that came out of, like, frustration with seeing people being too divisive or, in my opinion, unempathetic or inconsiderate. And instead of, again, trying to just say, "Stop it, don't do that," [laughs] but trying to, like, help use what I have learned when communicating in a medium that is kind of inherently difficult to get across emotion and empathy. And so, again, it's, in some ways, unsatisfying because what you really want to do is go talk to that person that says, "Hammer is the best tool," and say, "No, stop it [laughs]," and, like, slap them on the head or whatever, politely. But I think that probably will not get you very far. And so, if your goal, really, is to change the way people think about these things, I find it way more effective to, like, zoom out and talk about that on that sort of more meta-level and that higher level. STEPHANIE: Yeah. I liked how you called it, like, a higher level of abstraction. And, honestly, the other thing I was thinking about as you were talking about the, like, divisiveness that opinions can create, there's also some aspect of it, as a reader, realizing that one person sharing their opinion does not take away your ability to have a differing opinion [laughs]. And sometimes it's tough when someone's like, "Tailwind sucks [laughs], and it is a backward step in, you know, how we write CSS," or whatever. Yes, like, sometimes that can be kind of, like, inflammatory. But if you, like, kind of are translating it or, like, reading between the lines, they're just writing about their perspective from the things that they value. And it is okay for you to value different things and, for that reason, have a different perspective on the same thing. And, I don't know, that has helped me sometimes avoid getting into that, like, headspace of wanting to argue with someone [laughs] on the internet. Or they'll be like, "This is why I am right." [laughs] Now I have to write something and share it on the internet in response [laughs]. EDWARD: There's this idea of the narcissism of minor differences. And I believe the idea is this, like, you know, you're more likely to argue with someone who, like, 90% agrees with you. But you're just, like, quibbling over that last 10%. I mean, one might call it bikeshedding. I don't know if you've heard that phrase. But the thing that I have often found, too, is that, like the GitHub post, I will get people arguing with me, like, there's the kind of stuff I expected, where it's like, "Oh, but GitHub is really good," and XYZ and that's fine. And we can have that conversation. But it's kind of surprising, and I should have expected it, that people will sometimes be like, "Hey, you didn't go far enough. You should tell people to, like, completely delete their GitHub or, like, you know, go protest in the street." And, like, maybe that's true. I'm not saying it is or isn't. But I think one thing I try to think about is, in any post, in any trying convincing argument, like, you're potentially moving someone 1 step forward, even if there's ten steps to go. But they're never going to make those ten steps if they don't make the first 1. And so, you can kind of help them get there. And someone else's post can absolutely take them from step 5 to 6 or 6 to 7 or 7 to 8. And you won't accomplish it all at once, and it's kind of a silly thing to try, and your efforts are probably lost [laughs]. Unfortunately, it's a little bit of preaching to the choir because, like, yeah, the people that are going to respond to, like, the extreme, the end are, like, the people that already get it. And the people that you're trying to convince and move along are not going to get that thing. I do want to say that I could see this being perceived as, like, a very privileged position of, like, if there's some, like, genuine atrocity happening in the world, like, it is appropriate to go to extremes many times and sometimes, and that's fine, and people are allowed to be there. I don't want to invalidate that. It's a really tricky balance. And I'm trying to say that if your goal is to vent, that's fine. And if your goal is to move people from step 3 to 4, you have to meet people at step 3. And all that's valid and okay to try to help people move in that way. But it is very tricky. And I don't want to invalidate someone who's extremely frustrated because they're at step 10, and no one else is seeing the harm that not everybody else being at step 10 is. Like, that's an incredibly reasonable place to be and an okay place to be. STEPHANIE: Yeah, yeah. The other thing you just sparked, for me, is also the, like, power of, yeah, being able to say like, "Yeah, I agree with this 50%, or 60%, or, like, 90%." And also, there's this 10% that I'm like, oh, like, I wish were different, or I wish they'd gone further, or I wish they didn't say that. Or, you know, I just straight up disagree with this step 1 sentence, but the rest of the article, you know, I really related to. And, like, teasing that apart has been very useful for me, right? Because then I'm no longer like being like, oh, was this post good or bad? Do I agree with it or don't agree with it? It's like, there's room for [laughs] all of it. EDWARD: Yeah, that's that nuance that, you know, I liked this post, and I did not agree with these two parts of it, or whatever. It's so useful. STEPHANIE: Well, thanks, Edward, so much for coming on the show and bringing that nuance to this conversation. I feel really excited about kind of what we talked about, and hopefully, it resonates with some of our listeners. EDWARD: Yeah, I hope so too. I hope I can take them from step 2 to step 3 [laughs]. STEPHANIE: On that note, shall we wrap up? EDWARD: Let's wrap up. STEPHANIE: Show notes for this episode can be found at bikeshed.fm. JOËL: This show has been produced and edited by Mandy Moore. STEPHANIE: If you enjoyed listening, one really easy way to support the show is to leave us a quick rating or even a review in iTunes. It really helps other folks find the show. JOËL: If you have any feedback for this or any of our other episodes, you can reach us @_bikeshed, or you can reach me @joelquen on Twitter. STEPHANIE: Or reach both of us at hosts@bikeshed.fm via email. JOËL: Thanks so much for listening to The Bike Shed, and we'll see you next week. ALL: Byeeeeeeeee!!!!!! AD: Did you know thoughtbot has a referral program? If you introduce us to someone looking for a design or development partner, we will compensate you if they decide to work with us. More info on our website at tbot.io/referral. Or you can email us at referrals@thoughtbot.com with any questions.
On this month's episode of Conservation Starters, we are joined by Shina Wysocki, owner of Chelsea Farms and Chelsea Oyster Bar, and Stephanie Bishop Thurston Conservation District's South Sound GREEN Program Manager. Together, we dive into the effects of ocean acidification on our local shellfish population. We also discuss the importance of our local shellfish farms for both our economy and the health of our environment. Both Stephanie and Shina share ways local community members can support shellfish farmers and help improve our region's water quality.
We are so excited for today's guest, Dr. Stephen Cabral, who made his first appearance on our show in episode 16. At 17 years old, Stephen Cabral was diagnosed with a life-altering illness and given no hope for recovery. Everyday, he suffered endlessly for many years. It wasn't until he met an “alternative” health doctor whom explained to him how he got here and how he could become well again, that he began his recovery process. It was at this young age that he knew his life would be dedicated to helping others rebalance their bodies and renew their health. Today in Dr. Cabral's online and Boston practice, where he and his team have completed over 250,000 client appointments, he uses Functional Medicine lab testing and Personalized Wellness Plans to help people rebalance their mind and body to recover from auto-immune, thyroid, fatigue, hormone, weight gain, digestive, childhood, mood, skin, and dozens of other hard to treat health conditions. His mission is to help people understand that there is always a reason why you have not achieved your ideal wellness or weight loss goals and that you can and will get well again. Both Stephanie and Marnie have studied and completed their Integrative Health Certifications (Level 1 and 2) under Dr. Cabral and the Integrative Health Practitioner Program. They both have loved having him as a mentor, guide and teacher as they journey through their studies. In this episode you will learn: The five health related reasons that people die early (before 100) and how you can mitigate these risks. The mortality lab tests that Dr. Cabral recommends everyone conduct annually at the age of 50 (or sooner). Dr Cabral's view on how much protein you should consume based on your individual goals. The benefits of intermittent fasting (especially for women) and how to gradually ease into a routine that works for your unique body type. Why making “harder” choices today will allow you to live an easier life in the future, and one free from chronic diseases and the disability of aging. This is such an inspiring conversation talking about a potpourri of topics all related to longevity and healthspan to improve the quality and add years to your life. Helpful links and resources: Equi.life https://stephencabral.com/ Facebook Instagram YouTube Dr Cabral's podcast episodes we mentioned: Fasting: https://stephencabral.com/podcast/2413/ https://stephencabral.com/podcast/2384/ https://stephencabral.com/podcast/2308/ Protein: https://stephencabral.com/podcast/2638/ Reimagining Health Summit (2 day in person event in Florida this October) Early bird special click here: https://reimagininghealthevent.com/ ----------------------------------------------------------- Sign-up for our 7-Day Summer Functional Medicine Liver Detox here. Start date on June 11th. ----------------------------------------------------------- Thanks to our amazing Sponsor, Good Health Saunas. Good Health Saunas is proud to provide top-of-the-line infrared saunas that deliver the most impactful results for overall health and wellness. For more information and for your special discount please visit, Www.goodhealthsaunas.com and mention The Art of Living Well Podcast. ----------------------------------------------------------- Thanks to our amazing sponsor, Organifi. Organifi is a line of organic superfood blends that offer plant-based nutrition with high quality ingredients and less than 3g of sugar. As a listener of The Art of Living Well Podcast you get 20% off ALL Organifi products. To take advantage of your Organifi discount, use the link below and the code LIVINGWELL at checkout for 20% off your order. Order Organifi products now! ----------------------------------------------------------- Ask us a question/make a recommentation We'd love to hear from you! Click here to share your feedback and suggestions. ----------------------------------------------------------- Sign-up for your 15 minute Health Transformation Audit - Click here. ----------------------------------------------------------- Need more protein in your day? Check out these amazing, high quality products from Kion, especially their essential amino acids, which we both use daily. Use code 'ARTOFLIVING' for a discount off your purchase. ----------------------------------------------------------- Let us help you get to the root cause of your unwanted symptoms. Schedule a 15 minute consultation to discuss at-home functional medicine lab testing here. ----------------------------------------------------------- How can you support our podcast? Apple users, please subscribe and review our show on Apple Podcasts,we make sure to read them all. Android users, please be sure to subscribe to our show on Google Podcasts so that you don't miss any of the action. Tell a friend about The Art of Living Well Podcast® and our community programs. Share your favorite episode on social media and don't forget to tag us @theartofliving_well. Shop our Favorite Products: https://www.theartoflivingwell.us/products Connect with us on social media: IG: @theartofliving_well FB: theartoflivingwell Get on our list so you don't miss out on announcements, programs and events. You can download our guests' favorite reads here. Learn more about your hosts: Marnie Dachis Marmet Stephanie May Potter
In today's podcast, my guest Stephanie Haglund from The Rancher's Homestead and I are discussing the various ways to consume beef liver and mask the taste to reap the amazing health and nutritional benefits. Both Stephanie and I had to learn the hard way from eating a standard American diet which led to severe health issues. It's our hope to share our stories so you don't have to learn the hard way. Come learn all about this nutrient-dense superfood and what it can do for you and your health. For more information and any links mentioned in this episode, visit: melissaknorris.com/389.
If you've been listening to Focus Forward for a while, you know that many of our episodes so far have been focused on teens and adults - but what about the younger kiddos? While we tend to think about how Executive Function skills impact us later in life, these skills do start developing in infancy. I thought it would be helpful to explore what Executive Function skill development looks like in young children, how we can better support them and ourselves in this critical stage of development.In today's episode, we'll learn about this topic from three people who have a depth of insight and experience. First up, you'll hear from Maria Ares, who joined me to talk about supporting Executive Function skill development in the littlest ones in our lives. Maria is a speech language pathologist at a public preschool. And, guess what? She's also my sister! After my conversation with Maria, you'll hear from Stephanie Regan and Mariam Mahmoud who joined me to talk about elementary-aged kids. Both Stephanie and Mariam have worked in elementary education and have lots of experience supporting young children. Maria, Stephanie, and Mariam are all Executive Function coaches with Beyond BookSmart and bring their coaches' perspective to the conversation. I know you'll enjoy learning from their expertise as much as I have! Here are some resources related to our conversation:A Guide to Executive Function - Harvard University Center on the Developing ChildPeg Dawson's Smart but Scattered BooksChild Mind Institute Guide to Executive FunctioningExecutive Function Skills by AgeDownloadable Guides by Age from Harvard UniversityFocus Forward Ep 6: What Does Life Changing Executive Function Support (Really) Look Like? Perspective from a mom with kids who have executive function challengesContact us!Reach out to us at podcast@beyondbooksmart.comIG/FB/TikTok @beyondbooksmartcoachingTranscriptHannah Choi 00:04Hi everyone and welcome to Focus Forward, an executive function podcast where we explore the challenges and celebrate the wins you'll experience as you change your life by working on improving your executive function skills. I'm your host, Hannah Choi. Hannah Choi 00:18If you've listened to focus forward for a while, you'll know that many of our episodes so far have been focused on older kids, our teens and college age students. We've covered mental health, coping skills, social skills and college challenges. While we tend to think about how EF skills impact are older children, these skills do start developing in infancy. Babies' interactions with adults help them learn to focus their attention, build their working memory, and regulate their reactions to the things they experience. Everything is new, so they need to learn how to manage at all. As they grow, young children begin to learn planning, flexible thinking and attention. And as a parent or caregiver of young kiddos you might look at them and think "Do they have any executive function skills at all?" They're developing, and rather unreliable, EF skills require a lot of patience and understanding on our part. As I talked about before in my cognitive flexibility episode, it can help so much to learn about EF skill development. And in doing that, we can recognize that children's EF skill development is nowhere near where ours is. I thought it would be helpful to explore what EF skill development looks like in young children, how we can support them by providing tools that help and how we can support ourselves by understanding where they are in their EF skill development. In today's episode, we'll learn about this topic from three people who have a depth of insight and experience. First up, you'll hear from Maria Ares, who joined me to talk about supporting EF skill development in the littlest ones in our lives. Maria is a speech language pathologist at a public preschool. And guess what? She's also my sister! After my conversation with Maria, you'll hear from Stephanie Regan and Mariam Mahmoud, who joined me to talk about elementary-aged kids. Both Stephanie and Mariam have worked in elementary education, and have lots of experience supporting young children. Maria, Stephanie and Mariam are all EF coaches with Beyond BookSmart. And they bring their coach's perspective to the conversation as well. And bonus if you have watched our webinar, How to Reduce Conflict and Transform Your Parenting Through Executive Function, you'll recognize Mariam's voice and wisdom. And if you haven't watched it, you can find the link in the show notes. It's packed full of executive functioning skill approaches, and tips for reducing conflict with our kids. And hey, I'm the host of that, too. All right now on to the show. Hannah Choi 03:09Hi, Maria. Thanks for joining me today.Maria Ares 03:11Hi, Hannah. Thanks for having me.Hannah Choi 03:13Could you introduce yourself to our listeners?Maria Ares 03:16Sure. My name is Maria. And I'm a speech language pathologist and a public preschool where I work with kids who are aged three, four and five. And I also work for Beyond BookSmart wearing many hats, and quite a bit of coaching and coach development and different roles throughout my time with Beyond BookSmart. Hannah Choi 03:35Great. And you're my sister!Maria Ares 03:38I am. Yes, fun fact.Hannah Choi 03:42So you are quite well versed, I would say at working with kids under five or five and under. And I was just talking with someone the other day who was surprised to hear that executive function skills are like they start developing even at birth, and you know, start to show up at written really young eight, you know, at really young ages. So, what do executive What does executive function look like in a kid who's under the age of five? And what are some challenges that might come up?Maria Ares 04:18Yeah, so pretty much every developmental milestone has some sort of executive function skill behind it. But what executive function challenges look like at this age is pretty much everything. Basically, every executive function skill needs to be supported in preschoolers. I would say that almost every preschooler has difficulty with some if not all executive function skills, and that's developmentally appropriate and that's what we're here for, you know, to teach them and guide them and help them figure out you know, these these little skills that help them be people that can do things.Hannah Choi 04:58Yeah, and as caregivers of children, it can be really frustrating because we're coming from a place of having really well, maybe not really great executive function skills, but more fully developed executive function skills. And so it's can be really hard to understand like, why can't they just fill in the blank?Maria Ares 05:16Absolutely. And there's so many blanks you can fill in there.Hannah Choi 05:20All day, every day. And I love that you said that it's developmentally appropriate. Like, that's totally normal. I mean, our frontal cortex, that prefrontal cortex does not finish the finish developing. And we're seeing that you can still make improvements on your executive function skills after your mid 20s, which is about when the prefrontal cortex kind of is finished developing. So obviously, a kid who is little their prefrontal cortex is just getting going,Maria Ares 05:52Absolutely, yeah, they're in the earliest, earliest stages of being able to, you know, show and develop a lot of these skills. And that's really what a lot of early childhood curriculum is centered around is sort of building up the skills that you need, and also the social emotional piece that goes along with executive functioning, and sort of how you can use those skills to keep learning and growing.Hannah Choi 06:18Yeah, and so I imagine that when parents feel it, parents might feel like there's not enough academics going on, it's in a preschool setting. But really, at that point, there's, it is really important to focus on that social, emotional and executive function, skill development. Maria Ares 06:37Absolutely. You need to be able to learn how to learn before you can start learning and being able to use your developing executive function skills to you know, complete different tasks in the classroom, make a project, follow directions, all those things are so important to academics and academic development, but you really can't make much progress academically, if you don't know how to learn first, Hannah Choi 07:01That reminds me of the idea of metacognition, where you in, in order, like as in, which is actually like pretty much the last executive function skill to fully develop. And the idea of metacognition is like learning how we learn, learning about our own brains and how our own brains work. And so it's kind of the same idea like these, the little kids can't really learn the academics until they learn just how to function with other people.Maria Ares 07:30Absolutely, yeah. And that metacognition piece is something that I think a lot about in my teaching. And I tried to help kids remember that everybody learns differently, and that everybody has different strengths, and everybody has different things that they need to work on. I really try often, after a task to ask, "Was that tricky for you? Or was that easy for you?" And then talk about why because starting to build those metacognitive skills, and understand that everybody's brain works really differently, I think is really important. So they can get to know themselves as a learner. And as a person.Hannah Choi 08:10I was just talking with my college client of mine the other day, and we were talking about how exactly that about how, if you have never been taught to notice how you experience things. And notice what like, what's tricky, what's easy. And then you can figure out the why if you've never been taught that, then well, first of all, it's never too late to learn that. But you've really missed out on some really great opportunities to, like learn about your own learning. So I love hearing that you do that with such little kids, because it is something that you have to practice. And I feel like as an adult, I don't remember learning that as a child, I don't remember learning, reflection, and to really think about how I do things and why I do things. And so it's it's great to hear that you're teaching that that early.Hannah Choi 09:07Right and I feel like as a kid, I had an idea of what should be easy and what shouldn't be hard and that wasn't always what I found. And I think that making it an individual thing can really help with self esteem because like Oh that one thing is supposed to be easy, but it's actually really hard for me. If you get if you if you get rid of that whole "is supposed to be easy piece" and think about you as a person and whether it's easy or hard for you that I think that can really help develop a you know, a stronger sense of selfHannah Choi 09:44And comparing yourself to yourself. This used to be hard. And now it is getting easier for me, instead of comparing yourself to other other kids, other people around you teaching kids to learn to compare themselves to themselves and not to anyone else and learn about how they learn. It's also a really great lesson for parents to learn, too. I imagine that let's look at your child's development, your child's progress, just compared to where they've come from, and not necessarily against any other children. Maria Ares 10:18Oh, yeah, totally, especially if there's siblings on the picture. Hannah Choi 10:21So the you I mean, you are saying that there are executive function challenges in pretty much every area off the top of your head? What are some of the most common would you say that you see in your, in your practice in your classrooms? Maria Ares 10:36Yeah, something that first comes to mind is like multi step directions. This can be really hard. attention span, understanding of your own strengths and weaknesses. Problem solving can be really challenging for some kids, and understanding of time is a huge one.Hannah Choi 10:57So do you think that executive function skills are something that parents, like, should spend time working on with their kids? Or are they just going to naturally evolve?Maria Ares 11:08I think the best thing for parents to do is to do a lot of modeling, modeling of your language modeling of planning, talking about the process for things, talking about how you can be present so that you can pay attention. But not you know, not. But I don't think that parents need to be specifically practicing any of these things, because like, we were saying it's developmentally appropriate for kids to still be working on that. But some things that I think can be really helpful are like before doing errands, you can talk about the plan, you know, each thing that you're going to do, and whether it will take a short time or a long time. And then when you're talking about time, I think making it relatable can be really helpful. So while two minutes, I mean, they don't really understand numbers, they also don't really understand time very well. So saying something like this will take as long as it takes to brush your teeth. Or this will take as long as one episode of Masha and the Bear, or this will take as long as it takes to drive to your grandparents' house. And then also give them the number to go along with that. So they start to learn, okay, five minutes is the kind of short time, you know, doesn't take me very long to do something that takes five minutes. But then an hour is like my entire lifetime, a super long time. So then just using those examples, and using that modeling can start to build the foundation of, you know, understanding time management and sort of what we can fit into certain blocks of time. Another tool that can be helpful, is if your child really struggles with multi step directions, or like a multi step plan, just writing out a super quick visual, with maybe a little picture of everything that needs to happen. So maybe they need to put on their socks, put on their shoes and wash their hands or something, just drawing a little picture of each of those and then helping them sort of check it off when they're done with it can really help with the planning and the executing of a of a project or just a multistep task.Hannah Choi 13:22And if someone is not an artist, are there resources online, I'm imagining you can grab some clipart from somewhere.Maria Ares 13:33Yeah, for sure. There's lots of different resources out there. I'm sure there's lots of free resources, but less than pics is a really great website for getting pictures like that. But honestly, you know, you don't need to be an artist stick figures are great. Doodles are great. I think just getting the idea down on on paper or on a whiteboard or something can be helpful.Hannah Choi 14:00And it shows like if you draw it, then it shows your child that it's that it's okay, if you don't have really great art skills.Maria Ares 14:07There is another opportunity to talk about that.Hannah Choi 14:12I love it. That's great. So what would you say that success looks like at this age? And I know that's, I know that's different for everybody. But would you what do you see first as success in that age group?Maria Ares 14:28Yeah, success can look different for every one. Because there are so many skills that our earliest learners are building. For some kids success might look like exclaiming that was easy, which shows that they're thinking about how tasks feel for them, you know, is it easy, is it hard? Success could look like executing both parts of a two step direction. For another success might look like remembering to put pants on.Hannah Choi 14:58Reminds me of a when I interviewed Fran, she said, kids with executive function challenges sometimes forget to put underwear on. So she said success in my house is when they remember to put underwear on.Maria Ares 15:12Yeah, it's it's hard to find a developmental milestone in early childhood that doesn't include executive function skills in some way.Hannah Choi 15:20 Yeah. And it also, something that comes up a lot for us as coaches is the idea of looking for those small wins. And, and it didn't, and especially with this little, these little guys, it's not going to be these huge, you know, they're not gonna like write a paper, and then have, you know, have all these like, massive accomplishments that they've made in their executive function skills, you know, it's going to be more subtle, I imagine.Maria Ares 15:48Absolutely. Definitely, definitely more subtle. You know, they're growing and developing so much every day. So there's so much to notice, and so much to celebrate. And it might not always look like executive function skills, but they're under there for sure. Hannah Choi 16:05And I imagined that there's like there is at any, any age, you might make some progress, and then and then fall back of it and then go forward.Maria Ares 16:15Yeah, yeah. And I think it's really important for parents to remember, you know, just how much their preschooler is learning and developing at one time. And, you know, if they were able to follow a two step direction last week, and this week, they're just, you know, having a really hard time with it. Think about the other things that they're developing that maybe their brain is focusing on a little bit more this week. And I think that we need to cut them a little slack personally, sometimes.Hannah Choi 16:49I agree, and it's, I guess, it's hard because the lens through which we are looking is from the point of view of someone with a fully developed prefrontal cortex and years of experience.Maria Ares 17:01Yeah. And it's also very easy for me to say this about my preschoolers, but when I'm talking about my own child, no, get those shoes on! Hannah Choi 17:08Yeah, That's right. Yes. It's just a two step direction. Yes, or when? When..or my 10 year old. When I say, "Could you put your clothes in the washing machine?" The second step is not mentioned. But it starting it is, is part of it. So he did. He did what I said. But yeah, you did not do the unspoken second step.Maria Ares 17:46Right. I recently made a, like a visual step by step chart for tooth brushing. After we had a little cavity incident. Yeah. So you know, I wrote, I'm just never going to not be a special education teacher. So there's charts and lists and everything in our house of how to do everything. But I had to make a new one, because I didn't include as my last step on the list to clean the spit out of the sink.Hannah Choi 18:16Oh, Yes!Maria Ares 18:20I mean, I thought you don't really need a step on a list for that.Hannah Choi 18:24But here we are. Here we are. And so does she do it now?Maria Ares 18:28Most of the time? Yeah. Right. Which is more than never before. So Right. There's progress. Yeah. And now we can just say, "check your list", rather than "clean the disgusting spit out of the sink", which is a lot easier and you know, feels a lot more. Just feels a lot better to say.Hannah Choi 18:49Yeah, and it takes a takes you out of the equation. You can blame it on the list. The list is the list is what it says. And who knows where that list came from? Yeah, select some internet list or something. All right. Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Maria Ares 19:07Yeah, thank you so much for having me on the podcast. Yeah. Hannah Choi 19:11All right. Have fun with those little kids.Hannah Choi 19:13Thanks. Okay, so now that we've learned about our youngest children's EF skill development with Maria, let's move on to my conversation with Stephanie and Mariam to hear about elementary aged kids and their EF skills. Hi, Stephanie and Mariam, thanks so much for joining me today. Would you like to introduce yourselves? Stephanie, you want to go first?Stephanie Regan 19:35Sure. I'm Stephanie Regan. I'm an executive function coach with Beyond BookSmart and I've been working here at Beyond BookSmart for almost two years now. I was an elementary teacher and worked with children in different capacities for about 10 years.Hannah Choi 19:51Great. And how about you Mariam?Mariam Mahmoud 19:53I'm also one of the executive function coaches. I've been working with Beyond BookSmart for almost a year. I'm and I also have been a teacher since 2010. Working with kindergarten all the way to fourth grade.Hannah Choi 20:07Great. So you guys are the perfect people to ask, you have the executive function background and the elementary background. So great. Thank you for joining me today. So we are going to talk about executive function skills in elementary aged kids. So what do challenges look like at that age? And, you know, as, as I've talked about, in many episodes past, before this, we know that executive function skills develop over the beginning part of our lifetime and don't even mature until we're in our 20s, late 20s. And then, of course, we all have things that we still struggle with, even after that. But what do what are your challenges for kids who are in elementary school look like?Stephanie Regan 20:51I would say organization for for space and belongings is really huge. And what that looks like is a lot of students have a hard time remembering where to put things or where they've placed things or where things go. So that's really important. And also, I would say task initiation too, is hard, especially when you think about how impulse control is hard. And I think about that, when it's time to do homework, it can be really hard for a lot of students to begin homework, and not just kind of relax or do something else. That might be easier. I would also say self-regulation. Yes, definitely self regulation to again, and thinking about impulse control is another area to where executive function skill development is really important, because they're still learning to control their impulses.Hannah Choi 21:38Yeah, and that can show up, like you said, in emotion, it can show up in behavior, and it can show up in emotion. So yeah, yeah. And stuff like that self regulation piece is huge. I mean, even as adults, like how often like, I don't know, I want to throw a tantrum sometimes. But I have to regulate your emotions and appropriate way. And it's harder for the kids, because they're just not there yet. I know like, as a parent, my kids at home have certain things that they struggle with. And I'm sure in the classroom, they also have things that they have to work on. So where do, where do executive function skill, challenges show up for kids in the classroom?Stephanie Regan 22:15In the classroom, it can look like following directions, especially one step at a time. Sometimes directions can be complicated, or it can seem complicated to different students. So really, it can also come down to meeting steps broken down into smaller steps for students. So that's often where it can show up in the classroom. And I mean, there are a myriad of ways in which they can, but I feel like as far as following directions, and following routines.Hannah Choi 22:46That's that. And there's, I was just gonna say there are so many executive function skills involved in following directions, right? You like you have to memory you have to remember the steps you have to pay attention. You have to prioritize the knew the steps that you're supposed to be doing over the other thing that you want to do or that you weren't doing. Stephanie Regan 23:06Yeah, so many involved, not to mention distractions in the classroom, full of students. So, there's a lot going on.Hannah Choi 23:15Yeah, so that self regulation piece and impulse control.Mariam Mahmoud 23:20I wanted to add also organization, like just if a teacher gives a paper, like just getting the paper from the classroom to the house that you like, you have to know where to put it, and who to give it to you what stays home and what comes back. Stephanie Regan 23:32So these executive function skill challenges can also show up during recess. On the playground. So again, thinking about self-regulation, it can be hard to not just make friends, but also share friends. That's come up with a former younger client of mine. And also negotiating play can be really hard. I know, when I was a teacher, there was a rule. That was you can't say you can't play. But it's easier said than done. So self regulation during recess is a huge piece. And some students know, I shouldn't say know, but it's easier for some students to have unstructured time than is for other students. And recess can feel really unstructured. And sometimes, I mean, that that can be good. And it can also be challenging for for students. SoHannah Choi 24:29Yeah, I was just, I was just talking with my my son's friend. So my son is in fifth grade. And I was talking with his friend, and, and his friend was saying he does not like recess. And he was saying he doesn't like it because it's so crazy. And it's so yeah, I guess he didn't use the word unstructured, but I kind of read that, that's what he meant. So yeah, yeah, you just think of it as every kid would just like it because it's a break from doing work. But for some kids, it's it Can we I know I see that it is hard. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. Thank you for mentioning that. Do you have anything you wanted to add Mariam on that?Mariam Mahmoud 25:09Um, I don't think so I think like recess, some usually when we think of executive function skills, we're thinking of like school in like the content area, but like recess is just as important because school is not only for the educational purposes, it's also for the social purposes. So I think like, it was really important that Stephanie mentioned that recess is a huge, huge place where we see those skills take take place, or evolve over time.Hannah Choi 25:36Yeah. And and it shows how truly involved in every aspect of our lives as adults, and as children, aren't these executive function skills come into play, and they truly are self management skills, and, and how it can show up in different areas and how it can also really challenge kids and adults. But mostly, you know, we're talking about kids today really challenged kids, especially because they haven't fully developed them yet, especially there, many of them are still emerging in elementary school, they're just starting to, you know, just starting to access that whatever skill. So it's, it's a Yeah, no wonder it can be challenging. And I think understanding that is it as a parent, or as a caregiver, as a teacher understanding that can make a really huge differenceStephanie Regan 26:30It can. I know, it can be easier when you're in the place where we can take a step back and really think about it from a different perspective or think about it from a more objective view.Hannah Choi 26:40Yeah, yeah. Right. Right. Yeah. And that makes me think of how nice it is to have someone who is not, not like super super, as involved with your kid as you are as a parent. So like a teacher can maybe teach some of these skills to their students, in a like, less fraught way that it might be for a parent, or like a coach or something, somebody who's outside of the family a little bit, and not like with a child all the time with all the baggage that comes along with the relationships we have with our kids?Mariam Mahmoud 27:19Absolutely. I mean, I have two children. One is like, very, very organized. And my younger one is also in fifth grade. And sometimes I'm like, even though I'm an executive function coach, and elementary school teacher, sometimes it doesn't work when I'm telling him the advice. But if it comes from a teacher, or from the coach, then he's like, the next day, like, he's slowly getting it. And I'm like, okay, awesome, as long as the help comes from somewhere, but yeah, it does. It matters. Like sometimes parents, no matter how much we want to get to through to our children coming from outside, like might have a different effect on them.Stephanie Regan 27:56Yeah, that's true. And sometimes it's also a matter of reinforcement. So they're not just hearing it from from mom or dad, who they, you know, have to, you know, see, well, all the time as soon as they see all the time. But, you know, students spend a lot of time with their teachers as well. But it can help too. And you're, you're hearing getting more than one place. Absolutely.Hannah Choi 28:16So that makes me think like, How can parents support their kids executive function, development without? Or maybe not without friction? Because there's going to be friction, that's just part of the relationship. But how are some ways that parents can support their kids?Mariam Mahmoud 28:35Well, I say like, I think like, the best thing, especially for elementary school students is like I turn everything into a game, or something you'd like have them play, like plan that the activity or the school, like, whether it's school, or sports or like a fun activity at home, have them plan it out beforehand. It helps them reach whatever the goal is in mind, and have them thinking, "Oh, what, what do I want to accomplish? And what steps am I going to take to get there?" Like some activities, if you're reading a story at home, you could stop and ask the question like, "What would you do if you were that character?" Or what would happen if the character was different in the story, this helps, it gets their cognitive thinking, like, oh, like, maybe I shouldn't be upset, or maybe the character shouldn't be upset. And then they like kind of connect that to self to what's happening in the real life. So the text to self connections is really important. You can also play like those games, like Simon Says, or card games card games is like my own children, they love card games. It helps with the memory skills, it helps with like paying attention, it helps with a lot of those executive function skills in a fun way. It also allows them to take turns, follow directions, and even like that impulse control, like it helps them like they have to wait their turn or like they can't just like call out so It's a it's a fun way where they're learning the executive function skills, but at the same time, they don't know. It's like learning.Hannah Choi 30:06Yeah, exactly. Right. They're actually learning a ton of stuff. Yeah. And that's also good too. Because as parents, it can often end up that the interactions that we have with our kids are not always super fun. So, so giving, giving yourself a chance to just play and have fun with your kids, while also teaching EF skills at the same time, is really great. Yeah, I think for me, definitely getting out of the way, and trying to trying to move them towards independence, and also move towards having more positive interactions that have less to do with, what do you need? What do you need to do? Are you doing what you need to do? Why aren't you doing this? So being able to support them in that way, is really nice. So I'm a coach, I'm an executive function coach, I have, you know, a ton of knowledge and experience supporting people and kids with executive function challenges. And I've, you know, done a lot of research on it. I mean, I host a podcast about it. So I have a lot of knowledge. And I still struggle to come up with tools and strategies that I can use for myself, but also that my kids can use so that we can work on developing theirs, and also give them this independence and this autonomy that they crave. And that I need for them to have, so that I can you know, just do my live my life. So what are your further things that come up for kids like the organization and the self regulation and the task initiation? What, what are your go to go to tools that you teach to your clients and to their parents?Stephanie Regan 31:50Well, I would say my go-to tool is a checklist. It sounds really Yeah. and straightforward. And I mean, it's a tool that I use on a weekly basis. So it can be easier to teach it and support it when you use it. So I think having a checklist, an example would be a checklist for an after school routine. And that could look like, you know, come home, put my bag away, eat a snack, start homework, it can have a number of things on it. But I think it's good to keep it to like three or five things. I also think if it's visible and accessible, then it's more helpful. So with that in mind, I think it's important to place it where the client or student can see it at eye level, and it can help I think, ease any tension or frustration around reminding your student or reminding a child of what he she or they need to do when they get home. You can also refer to it like, oh, like remember, you have a checklist that you like, do this, or did you do that? Or what is your checklist, say and if it's at eye level, then the student if the if they're if they can read, then a student can refer to it. And also it's important to use simple language toHannah Choi 33:08Or pictures as well. Right? Yes.Stephanie Regan 33:10Pictures. I do like to use pictures. I won't say I'm a visual learner, because you learn differently. You learn different subjects differently or different topics differently. But I I do like visualization. And I do like pictures that can go along with words or phrases, if not, if I think it's necessary. So that can also be really helpful.Hannah Choi 33:36Yeah, we have a list on our door that goes out to the garage with the things that the kids need to bring in. And it's really nice to just be able to say, "Did you check the list?" I don't have to get involved. I just have to say, "Did you check the list?" I had to make the list, but and I hung up the list. But after that, all I have to say is "Did you check the list?" And then if they didn't check the list, you know, that's on them. So and I mean, my kids are older. So it is easier for me to say that's on them if they didn't check the list, but we scaffold them right? We maybe support them if they forget something on the list and then move them towards leaving it up to them if they forget things on the list.Stephanie Regan 34:13And there can become a point in time where they memorize the list. Oh, yeah, hi is a few things on the list and you don't really need to point it out. You know, they can they might come to a place where they have it memorized which is good too.Hannah Choi 34:25Yeah, I was just talking last night with a friend of mine whose kids are in second and third grade. And she was saying that that she was sharing that she also has a checklist for the morning and it says "pack backpack" and she said she's so funny, she was like "I used I even used indented bullets." So she has packed backpack and then indented bullets. And then it lists the things that go into the backpack and she noticed that her son had not been putting the snack in and she's like, why didn't you put the snack in? He said well because it didn't say pack snack. She's like me, it's just to take the pack from the top part. Pack the indented bulleted things. Stephanie Regan 35:04So, yeah, yeah, reminder that students can be very literal people very, very literal. Not just children!Hannah Choi 35:12Don't assume! And yes, that is such a good point. Stephanie, I completely agree. Yes. What about you, Mariam? I'm, what do you like to use?Mariam Mahmoud 35:22No, I honestly like the same as Stephanie, those checklists. For the younger students. When my children were younger, I instead of doing it over and over again, like, I just put it in like, one of those sleeves, like a paper protector, and kind of turned it into like a dry erase thing. So they would check it off, then I would erase it and then use it again. Yeah, brilliant. And putting it on the refrigerator or the same spot every day, like just having it there. Or like, when they were like, a lot younger, any, like little magnets interact and be like, Oh, I got it's on instead of a checklist, like just put like a little tiny magnet.Hannah Choi 35:58Oh, yeah. Smart. I know. Something that Oh, go ahead. Sorry.Stephanie Regan 36:03I was gonna say I'm an adult. And I like checking things off. In Google. I still get satisfaction from checking things off my grocery list.Hannah Choi 36:14yes, I'm the same way I use any list. And when you tap, it disappears. It's very satisfying. Yeah. I also am a big fan of writing things that I did on my list. So if it wasn't on the list, but I did it, I still write it on the list and then cross it off. After the fact.Stephanie Regan 36:33I was gonna say what you said about like, doing things that weren't on the list reminded me of five minute goals, or the idea of doing like, what you can have five minutes, because you could actually end up doing a lot more than you think you thought you could. Another good strategy or tool was like, okay, like if, if something is a fight, or a struggle with your child at home, or even a student at school, or a client during a coaching session? The Five Minute goals out okay, well, let's see how much you can get done in five minutes. And a lot of times, it's also been three minutes with a particular client of mine, but it's like, what, what can you get done in three minutes? And that I set a timer, it can also turn into a game, or it can be more fun. Hannah Choi 37:16So yes, like they're racing. Yes. Yeah.Stephanie Regan 37:20Doing more than you thought you could is also it can also boost self esteem and, and what have you, so that that's also good to.Hannah Choi 37:27Absolutely I love that tool.Mariam Mahmoud 37:29It also enforces our time awareness. Like they're like, Oh, well, that was five minutes, and I was able to put my shoes away and get my backpack out and get a snack or whatever they could do in five minutes. Like, they're usually very, like, amused or amazed that they could, they could do that much in five minutes. So.Hannah Choi 37:47I was I had that experience. When I, I, we have a gas stove. And I really hate cleaning it off after we cook dinner because you have to like, lift up the grates. And there's so many crevices. It's so annoying. And so I found myself avoiding it, which is gross. And then it looks gross. And and so I said oh, you know what I'm gonna time myself is I think that it takes me about 10 minutes. It took me four minutes, like four minutes top to bottom even wiping down the oven door and the handle on everything. Like Hannah. So every time I don't want to clean off the stove at night, I always say four minutes, you have four minutes. Yeah, it's a really good tool. The other thing I really like about five minute goals and that I always say to myself, and anyone else that I'm suggesting use it is that when that timer goes off, and whether you've set it for two minutes or five minutes or whatever, you can then either decide to be done, or keep going. And it's really nice, because it's like a built in permission to be done. I'm only asking you to do this for five minutes. Oh, you're you're into it. You're like, oh, maybe I'll just keep going. Alright, then keep going. But if you're like, No, this sucks, and I don't want to do this anymore. Then you stop it. I really I like that. That flexibility built in.Stephanie Regan 39:04Yeah, I was gonna say it's good for task initiation and also cognitive flexibility, too. It's like, Oh, that wasn't so hard. Maybe I can keep going.Hannah Choi 39:15Right totally gets you to change your perspective on it.Mariam Mahmoud 39:18Absolutely. I use that strategy actually, for my, my one son, he hates going outside. Like he just doesn't like playing outside and the other one like really enjoys it. So I'm like, Just 10 minutes a day after school just go out for 10 minutes a day. And he's out there for like 20-30 minutes like he absolutely loves it. Um, so I'm like this really like it worked. Just setting that and sometimes like if he's tired, he's like, it's a 10 minutes up, but for the most part, like it got him to go outside more, which was really great at our house, at least.Hannah Choi 39:48Yes. And that brings me back up. Always, always, always just start small, right? Anything that can that feels like it's going to be hard. Feels like it's going to be Challenge start small, which is the same thing when you are implementing new strategies that you're using with your kids to try to make some change in either your relationship with them or trying to build autonomy and independence for them. So you have to start small, this is not a change that's going to happen overnight. It's not, you know, you can't all of a sudden throw all these tools at your kids, and be like, tada, magic. It just doesn't work that way. And there's going to be times that we slip, and there's going to be times that, that we forget. And it's just easier for us to just pack their backpack because we're late. And I just want to pack your backpack because you're not doing it right anyway. But as long as as long as we recognize that is not going to happen overnight, and just do small steps, small steps working towards that independence, I think, at least for me, personally, and what I've seen in my clients, it makes a really big difference.Mariam Mahmoud 40:55Absolutely. And celebrate those small successes too. It's really important if they forgot their backpack for a week, and they finally remembered it, but they forgot to put their Chromebook inside. At least they remember their backpack. So like it's a small, those small steps, but celebrating it because it makes a huge difference when you're like, Oh, awesome job, great job bringing your backpack every day. They get that sense of pride. And they get the sense of oh, you know what, I could keep doing this? And I could add on?Hannah Choi 41:24Yeah, and they start to see the benefit of doing absolutely, yeah. And that makes me think about how, like, we only have the lens that we have through which to look like we are adults. And we are looking at their situation through this adult lens. And so sometimes it can be really hard to understand like, why can't you just remember to do whatever it is that I've just asked you to do? So I think, let me do you see that a lot when you're working with parents and their kids like helping the helping each other understand that we're all coming from a different perspective?Mariam Mahmoud 42:02Absolutely. I think that's one of the biggest things that we have to actually talk to parents about it, just put yourself in their shoes. Yes, it is easy for us, because we've already been through it. Or like been, been through something similar to it, you know, like, we can think of a time that you forgot about your dentist appointment, your doctor's appointment, or you forgot to turn off the stove, when you're making tea, I'm like, it happens to all of us. So we really have this, tell them like just try to think as like the five year old or seven year old or even the teenagers, like there's a lot going on in their mind. It might not be on their top of the things to do is to take their backpack to school, like maybe they were really nervous about a test or, you know, one of their friends were sick or something happened, you know, we just have to always think about what are they feeling?Hannah Choi 42:56Yeah, yeah. And that's why I like that whole...like, for anyone who's listening right now, like you're, you're taking the time to maybe learn something and maybe find something that can help you understand your kids, or maybe ease some of the friction or conflict between you and your kids. And then that's how, like our kids can learn from the role models that they have. And if they if like from their teachers, or their elder siblings, or if they have a coach, just they're just still learning and we were all still learning. I don't know, I'm not really sure what I'm trying to say.Stephanie Regan 43:34We're definitely all still learning. And I mean, I have my own example of I mean, I don't know if I should lead with logical consequences, but because it doesn't always it doesn't feel good when you forget to do something. And you know, because there's, you know, the intention of doing it, and there's the impact. You know, it's one thing if it affects you, it's another thing if it affects someone else, but I was just thinking how I mean, it can be good. If it's a small logical consequence. That's not detrimental. For students to be like, oh, like, I didn't, this would, I mean, be for an older client, but I you know, I didn't look at Google Calendar and I've got to have a quiz, a science quiz. So the logical, you know, the, so there's a consequence of forgetting the quiz, which stinks and then But then there's like, Okay, so next time I'm going to do this. Yes. Which is really important for for that awareness. metacognitive awareness and growth as well.Hannah Choi 44:37So do you guys have any other go to tools that you'd like to share with your clients and parents,Mariam Mahmoud 44:41So one go to tool that like, I think all my clients love once I tell them about it as a fastbreak plan. It's basically like, Okay, I have homework to do, and I have studying to do and I have to walk the dog and my chores to do but I also want to play my video games. So it's coming home and having the child like come home, right from school and do everything that's like a priority according to the parents standards. Just break it up like, Okay, let's do read your reading vocabulary words for 30 minutes, then you could do like a five minute or 15 minute break, then let's get back to doing maybe your math work. This will take like, maybe 20 minutes, okay, then let's take a break. I'm just having those little like brain breaks in between it really lets the child kind of have a sense of their own schedule. Like, yeah, I could do this or I could do that and get the child involved with the fastbreak plan, right? It sounds like does this work for you? Like one of my children, like he gets home, he wants his work, done his homework, like he wants it out of the way. The other one, like he is tired from work, and he's like, I want to play first. And I'm like, Okay, let's come up with a routine that works for you. I mean, it took me a while to get there. Because I'm like, No, it has to be like this. But once I have, like, I listened to him, and I told him, like, he told me what he wants to do. Now he gets all of his work done. But he's not doing it, how I would do it, but that's totally okay. He's using basically that fast break plan where he gets the work done. But he has that time to play and just kind of relax in between.Hannah Choi 46:15And I love how you brought up how, like for you, that's not how you would do it. But you you were able to see from his point of view, this is this really is gonna work for him and how his sibling is, had to approaches it differently. And my kids are the same way. My fifth grader he wants to come in, he wants to get his homework done right away. He doesn't want to have anything that he needs to do. And then he can just go and do it. And then my daughter, she likes to kind of spread it out over the over the evening. So yeah. And I think I think that's really hard to do. I mean, it's hard to do, it's hard to see other people's perspectives, like regardless of who the person's perspective is you're trying to see, it's hard to do, and I do, I really think it's, it is absolutely worth taking the time to try to understand. And you know, and if they come up and like I love how you said get them involved. So they come up with a plan that does really work for them. Why do they have to do it the way you would do it? As long as it's working for them? Why not? Why not? Let them discover that on their own? And how much? How many lessons in independence and autonomy does that teach them?Mariam Mahmoud 47:24Absolutely not to mention, it really does reduce that friction. Like it like,Hannah Choi 47:29It gets you out of the way!Mariam Mahmoud 47:31Oh, I wish I did this a long time ago, like it really like, right? He's doing his work. He's getting everything done by the end of the night, which is the end goal anyways. So I actually never works well.Hannah Choi 47:42Yeah. And the consequences, the natural consequences, logical consequences that you were talking about before Stephanie? Like, okay, so here, I'm going to let you, you know, build this plan, and I'm going to, I'm going to trust you to work through this plan. And if you don't manage your time, well, and you are still you know, up doing your stuff late or you didn't get it done, and then you don't get to turn it in, then there's a consequence. And then maybe you are able to, to, you know, learn from that for the next time. And I think, as parents and maybe even as caregivers not not in the role of a parent, but even as a teacher, especially with younger children. You don't want your kids to experience those natural consequences, you don't want them to have a negative experience, you don't want them to feel bad, you know, you just want them to have this like happy existence where they don't experience those negative feelings. But that's where they learn. And that all those opportunities to learn all that is only going to serve them really well as they get older, and the challenges get bigger, and their responsibilities get bigger. And so if we're constantly trying to protect them from those negative emotions, whatever it is, by doing all the things that they forgot for them, then they miss out on a lot of learning opportunities. I think it is important to consider if you have the time and the bandwidth to consider the different aspects of each situation that can be helpful. Mariam Mahmoud 49:13Absolutely. And give the child time as well. Like if if they make their own schedule, and they're like it's gonna work and the first day they didn't get their homework done. It's not going to change overnight. Again, it's progress, like so what I usually do is like, let's try it for a week or two. And then we talk about it what worked, what didn't work, let's tweak. I mean, as long as their grades aren't going down, and there's they're not forgetting their backpack every single day. I let them learn from the natural consequences. And then we talk about what worked what didn't work, and we change it, because that's how they learn.Hannah Choi 49:44Yep, yeah. And it really does take a long time. It's not it's not overnight. I mean, not even for us, you know, it's as caregivers it's it doesn't happen overnight, either. Like if we're trying to change our approach to our parenting. It doesn't happen overnight. So you Yeah. So as for kids who have for kids who have coaches or who maybe they have like a tutor, or, you know, they work one on one with a specialist, how, how do you guys see parental support coming in? They're like, how did how do you? How do you work with parents of young children.Mariam Mahmoud 50:25Um, for me, I just I let the parents know that like, let the child's practice. If we're working on something in the coaching session, like just practice what we're working on reading for us, for Beyond BookSmart, we have those portal notes, right, where you kind of communicate with the parent, what's going on, let them read the portal, make notes and understand what the tool is, share, like sharing the tools that you use at home with the coach or the tutor or even the teacher, just be like, Oh, we use this at home, like, as simple as color coding. Maybe you could try it in the classroom, it really helps when there's that communication. So communication is like the top key of helping the child no matter who they're learning it from. It helps us work together and help them succeed, which is the main goalHannah Choi 51:15It really reinforces that consistency, which is what you need to find any success. Is there anything else you guys would like to add? In your experience as as coaches of young children? Is there anything? Any takeaways that are really relevant for, for Listen, our listeners.Mariam Mahmoud 51:35I think just basically, just like we said, like communication, and patience, and just consistency is really, really key to having your child succeed. And working with the teacher with the administration, with the coach, with the tutor, no matter who your child sees, even if it's if they're basketball or baseball or playing a sport. Just knowing what your child is working on, and having that open communication could help them succeed.Stephanie Regan 52:04I would say the goal is progress, not perfection.Hannah Choi 52:08Absolutely. Yes. i When I interviewed Peg Dawson, she said progress. She said her colleague had a thing on the wall that said "Progress is measured in in years and not months". So it just it does. It does. Takes a while. Yeah. Great. All right. Well, thank you so much for joining me today.Stephanie Regan 52:29Thank you for having us. Mariam Mahmoud 52:30Thank you.Hannah Choi 52:32And that's our show for today. I hope you enjoyed our conversations about executive function skill development in our youngest kiddos, and that maybe it helps with some of those challenges we experience while parenting or teaching them. Thank you for taking time out of your day to listen. Please share our show with the people in your lives who might like learning about EF skills and little kids, you never know. It might just make a huge difference for them. You can subscribe to focus forward on Apple and Google podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts. And if you listen on Apple or Spotify, give us a boost by giving us a five star rating. Sign up for our newsletter at beyondbooksmart.com/podcast and we'll let you know when new episodes drop and we'll share information related to the topic. Thanks for listening!
I'm so excited to have Stephanie Jameson from Divine Soul Journey back on the show ! Here's some background on Stephanie:
Big-Bang, Gang-Bang Theory: Part 6By baranbrat. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories.(This episode includes group sex)Howard scrambled to get out from under Raj and when he placed his hand on the coffee table to stand up, it gave way and he fell again. This time his cock slipped across Raj's lips and when he opened his mouth to protest, the head slipped in!““Howard, get up, get up now or the wedding is off!”Howard crawled away and curled up in a ball and when she saw how scared and frightened he was Amy scooted over to him and stroked his head. “My god Bernadette, can't you see it was all an accident and he was in the wrong place at the wrong time!”Bernadette looked at Amy; “Okay tell me Amy, who's cunt juices are all over my man's cock?'"Aw that would be mine!”“Okay, Amy; who's cum is all over your face then?”“Oh that's okay; it's Sheldon's, my boyfriend!”“So you take a load of cum in the face from your boyfriend while my future husband fucks you, did I get that right?”Amy shook her finger back and forth; “Oh no you don't Bernadette, it was okay for you to ride my boyfriend's cock into tomorrow, last night, but it isn't okay for me to fuck your man's cock, did I get that right?”“Well when you put it that way it doesn't sound fair, but still.”Glenn spoke up; “I think we all need to take a deep breath and began again. Bernadette why don't you start by coming over here and giving me one of your perfect blow jobs. I always knew Catholic girls were great in bed, but your mouth is the best!”Before Howard could respond she was around the chair and as he stepped off the ottoman, her mouth was already open taking his cock in-between her freshly painted red lips.Bernadette and Penny both looked incredible. Their hair was done up and Bernadette's thick blonde hair cascaded around her shoulders and down to her heavy breasts in thick waves of gold.Penny's was straight, but curled at the ends and turned inward towards her gorgeous face and across her straining breasts.Both were in ribbed tight sleeveless t-shirts. With Penny's slightly smaller breasts, Bernadette's breasts swayed under the tight shirt, it was evident neither one of them were wearing bras beneath the shirts.Penny lent Bernadette one of her boy shorts and with her ample ass and thicker thighs, it looked as if Bernadette had then painted on her, her camel toe was evident and a wet spot was already growing larger.Penny's was a little more conservative, but still showed off her gorgeous legs to perfection.While Bernadette attacked Glenn's thick black cock, Howard turned to Amy.Amy reached out and pulled his shirt up and off over his head. Wiping her face free of Sheldon's cum, she leaned in and gave Howard a deep passionate kiss; “Well Howard it looks like it's you and me!”Penny strolled over to Leonard who was sipping coffee in the kitchen; “Well, Leonard; it looks like you were the only one not fucking!”He shook his head no; “Sorry Penny, just finished doing Stephanie doggy here in the kitchen!”“Leonard you dog!”“How about you Penny?” Leonard inquired.“Glenn in the bathroom!” Penny proudly claimed.“Fuck him good?”“Nope! She coyly prolonged her mystery tryst."Blow Job?”“Oh yeah, nice and sloppy, in the tub, real easy to wash off!” She confirmed.“That's where Stephanie is right now!”With a horny tone, Penny posed an idea to Leonard; “How about we grab Sheldon and the three of us head to your bedroom. It's been a fantasy of mine to fuck both of you at the same time!”Leonard was grinning from ear to ear; “You dog, you!”Penny caught Sheldon's attention across the open space, and wiggled her finger at him; “Your presence is requested in Leonard's room!”Sheldon was up, as if shot out of a cannon.Penny met him at the hallway, wrapped her slim fingers around his cock, and giggled; “Okay sweetie, let's see if the two of you can outdo what I experienced last night!”The three of them headed into Leonard's room in total silence and Penny closed the door behind her and leaned against the door; “Alright you two strip, get on the bed and start stroking those gorgeous cocks of yours. I'll start putting on a show for you to end all shows!”Sheldon tore off this shirt, already naked from the waist down, hopped on the bed like a kid on Christmas morning.Leonard pulled his buttoned up over his head as he kicked his slippers off. Pulling off his t-shirt it joined his shirt. He dropped his pants and yanking off his shorts kicked them aside, he joined Sheldon on the bed.He immediately gripped his cock and began stroking his cock as Penny had instructed both of them to do.Penny began by swaying her hips from side to side. Rolling her head around her shoulders, her gorgeous hair floated about her face, neck, covered breasts and back.Unbelting her powder blue robe, it parted and Leonard and Sheldon began stroking their cocks even faster. She continued to sway from side to side and holding onto the belt she slid it back and forth like a stripper does and the robe slowly slid from her shoulders. Penny held it in place about her waist and in the crook of both arms. Lowering her hands the robe slid down her forearms and catching it in her fists she ran the robe back and forth across her gorgeous ass. Turning her back to the bed she leaned over and sticking out her ass, she continued sliding the robe across her ass.Dropping the robe she rose up quickly causing her blonde hair to float back down around her figure, a little more disheveled and looking amazing.Facing the two of the bed, her large breasts poked out lewdly against her white ribbed sleeveless t-shirt. She wet her fingers and rolled one nipple between her fingers, closing her eyes she licked her lips and moaned softly as she did this, she did the same to the other nipple. Back and forth, back and forth she repeated this act and soon the material was soaked and her nipples and areoles were showing through the thin wet material, just waiting to be sucked and tugged on.She turned slowly, her back to the two men on the bed vigorously stroking their cock. She quickly bent over at the waist; her gorgeous blonde hair brushed the floor and her bare feet. She reached back and slowly slid her boy shorts off. As her tight ass appeared she heard both of them groan. Her gorgeous ass cheeks popped from the tight shorts and she held them there sliding the material from side to side making the twin globes shake and shimmy.With one quick shove the shorts hit the floor and she reached up and as slow as humanly possible she spread her cheeks. Her tight lipped pussy, already glistening with her juices, winked at the two on the bed and the inner pink walls were just beckoning them to lick, suck, and finger and yes, fuck it till it was completely sedated.Letting go of the twin globes she reared back and slapped the cheek, again on the other cheek, over and over she slapped her ass cheeks until they were a rosy red.Reached again for the twin globes she spread them apart again and a tiny river of her juices now flowed from her oozing pussy.Rising up quickly and spinning around, her face red from the blood rushing to her head and from the excitement she was inflicting on her perfect body, her long hair fell about her face and shoulders, again covering her tits. She looked so hot and wicked and she licked her bright red lips and biting seductively on her bottom lip slowly ran a fingertip along her bee stung lips; “Don't you two stroke those gorgeous pieces of meat too hard. I'd hate to see them go off before I have some fun with them. If you feel the need to cum before I can play with them. Please yell out so at least I can taste it or have you cum on my red hot ass!”Penny sucked her finger into her mouth; “Umm I can't wait to feel them deep in my throat, oh I'm such a cum slut, there is nothing I love more than the taste and the feel of cum flowing into my mouth and down my throat!”She reached down and slowly raised the tight, wet t-shirt from her belly, up across her large tight breasts and up and over her head. Shaking her head her hair, now tussled, fell halfway back into place.Taking a couple of steps towards the bed she placed one knee on the mattress and leaned over and with Leonard closest to her, her hair swept back and forth across his hairy thighsLeonard's eyes darted from the veil of blonde hair cascading over his thighs and her large stiff-nippled tits swaying before him and he lost it. Letting out a loud groan he spat out; “Oh fuck, Penny; I can't hold back any longer, I'm going to cum!”She let out a squeal of delight and leaping forward, she reached his cock just as the first volley of cum shot from his eager cock. She caught it on the lips and her tongue swept out and drew it into her mouth. Penny covered the shooting cock with her mouth, spurt after creamy spurt slid down her throat. At one point her cheeks bellowed out as he filled her mouth to the max. A drop oozed out of the corner of her mouth and she felt his fingers grip her silky hair and shove her face down deeper onto his cock.Totally spent, Leonard urged her off his cock. She opened her mouth showing him the remnants of his orgasm and smacking her lips together swallowed his creamy cum.She had managed to accomplish just what she wanted to have happen. With one of the guys totally spent for the time being, she could concentrate on the other guy. She could start off slow and once she got going hot and heavy, she figured the second guy would be raring to go, perfect plan!The door slowly opened and there stood Stephanie, her tight red dress was pulled up about her hips and she had three fingers buried deep in her red bush;Three sets of eyes locked on her as she broke up their sexual exploits. “Oh, I am so sorry I interrupted you three, I was just so out of place out there. When I peaked in and saw the incredible strip tease Penny put on, I just couldn't leave. Please, please let me stay and watch! I promise not to get in the way or interrupt you at all!”Penny licked the remains of Leonard's cum from the corner of her mouth and pointing over to the chair she smiled wickedly; “Alright Stephanie; just remember not a peep out of you and just watch, no joining in, that is unless we all agree, but definitely not until I've had my fill of both of these monster cocks, agreed?”She nodded vigorously; her long red hair flew about as she did that.Penny blurted out; “Stephanie, closed and lock the door this time. We don't want any more interruptions!”Stephanie shot over to the door, closed it and locking it moved back to the chair and took a seat at ringside, sitting on the edge awaiting Penny's next move.“Sheldon, spin around so Stephanie can watch me suck your cock while you eat me!”Sheldon leaped up and took position with his head at the foot of the bed,Penny threw one leg over Sheldon's upper body and slid back until her pussy hovered over his face. She felt his hands on her hips as he guided her tasty pussy to his waiting mouth. When his tongue slipped in-between her lips and swept up and down the inner walls of her cunt, she let out a loud grunt and dropped her mouth to his huge cock.She ran her pink tongue around and around and around the huge helmeted head of Sheldon's cock. She pulled away and spat on her hand and began sliding her tiny hand up and down the thick piece of meat in her hand.She heard a groan and looking up, stared directly into the sparking green eyes of Stephanie. She had moved over for a closer look-see and she reached out to swipe a wave of blonde hair that was blocking her view of the expert blow job Penny was giving Sheldon.She stared back at Stephanie with her dark blue eyes and smiled; “Oh Stephanie, we just have to hook up, just the two of us. I want to make love to that gorgeous face of yours!”With that she reached out and cupping the back of Stephanie's head, drew her to her and planted a hot wet open-mouthed kiss on her lips.When the kiss ended, Stephanie was out of breath, she took a seat near the bed and bit her bottom lip and starred back at the sexy kitten on the bed; “My god Penny, now I know why Leonard picked you over me, you are the most incredibly sexy woman I've ever laid my eyes on!”Penny giggled and shook her blonde hair back and forth; “Oh, oh fuck yes Sheldon, I thought Leonard was the king of foreplay, but the way you use your tongue and fingers on my cunt, you win hands down…. Oh Stephanie, you are so wrong! Leonard, just has this thing for me, there is no way you couldn't be just as sexy as I am, sorry for being conceded, but; Oh fuck, Sheldon! Right there! Stephanie, we'll talk later, but right now, I'm so close to cumming and I have to get Sheldon caught up, just sit back and watch!”Penny resumed her attack on Sheldon's cock. Taking it as deep as she could, she pulled her mouth off and a large amount of saliva slid downward toward his balls. Penny caught it in her hand and stroked his cock long and hard. This produced a loud groan from Sheldon as he worked her pussy over even harder.She licked up and down the shaft and her hand followed and she felt his stiffen even more. She palmed his nuts and sucked one into her mouth, her tongue darting out and flicking back and forth.Penny once again took his as deep as she could, but could not get more than three quarters of his cock down her throat.Tearing her mouth from his cock she let out a loud scream; “Oh fuck yes, Sheldon; just like that! I'm so fucking close, more, more, don't stop! Ah!”She dropped her head to his thigh and shook from the intense orgasm. Panting wildly she slowly opened her eyes and planted a tiny kiss on his saliva covered cock!Suddenly she felt a slap on her ass; “Penny?” He slapped her compact ass again; “Penny?” Once again she felt his hand sting her ass; “Penny?”She giggled; “Yes, Sheldon?“"Could you please take me all the way in your throat like you did yesterday?”“I was trying Sweetie, but like yesterday, I'm at the wrong angle!”He scoffed; “Well we both know how to remedy that, now don't we?”She giggled again and in her sweet innocent tone replied; “Oh yes we do Honey, shall we?”“Well of course Penny!”She rolled off of him and onto her back. Scooting around and hung her head off the bed, her shoulders sitting on the edge of the bed. Her long blonde hair cascading to the floor, she looked up and waited for Sheldon.He hurried off the bed and stood directly in front of her and as he leaned forward, she opened her mouth and Stephanie let out a gasp as she watched inch by inch of Sheldon's massive cock disappear into Penny's mouth and flexing throat.Penny's nostrils flared as she took in air, her airway blocked by Sheldon's huge cock. Her tongue got into the action as it slipped out around her widely stretched lips and coated the remainder of his shaft with her saliva.Sheldon pushed forward and the last couple of inches were now buried in her oral cavity.Her legs slid back and forth on the bed and she let out a gasp when she felt a pair of hands grip her by the knees. Her legs were pried apart and she felt a hot breath on her swollen pussy. She let out a muffled scream as Leonard buried his head between her thighs and began licking her clit, pussy and asshole in earnest!“Sheldon and Stephanie looked down at the gorgeous body being attacked at both ends and each had different thoughts.Sheldon smiled as he thought; "Why is this gorgeous blonde even taking a second look at me, my only advantage is my big cock and how well I can execute what I read in the manual. I can't believe just how great she looks, these perfect breasts!” His hands slid down and cupped the twin mounds and rolled her nipples between is fingers; “That flat belly, the way it rises and falls from her heavy breathing, those golden columns of flesh, perfectly formed and that perfect pussy and ass taking my cock like I love so very, very much!”Stephanie stared at the prone Penny and her eyes darted over the perfect body; “My lord, am I turning into a lesbian? I never even though of being with another woman until I saw Penny naked, now all I can think about is crawling between those silken thighs and munching on her pussy just like Leonard is doing right now. Those gorgeous full breasts of hers, I wonder how they would feel when I squeezed them; they look a whole lot firmer than mine. I just want to wrap my lips around those stiff nipples and suck on them. I want to run my fingers through that mane of spun gold and feel it slip through my fingers. That tongue of hers, the way it flicks out and licks Sheldon's cock, I wonder how it would feel dueling with my own tongue. How it would feel flicking across my nipples and those full lips wrapped around my stiff pink nipples. Oh fuck, I can't wait to have her taste my dripping pussy!”Stephanie's eyes were glued on Sheldon's huge cock sliding in and out of Penny's mouth. Her throat muscles flexed as she tightened and relaxed. His hands were all over her tits, mauling them and pulling roughly on her nipples.Penny let out a loud groan as Sheldon twisted her dark beet red nipples and let out a loud stifled moan as Leonard flicked her clit and she came for the second time.Sheldon pumped her mouth faster and faster and letting out a high pitched screech, pulled his cock from her mouth and yelled out; “Where do you want it Penny?”Gasping for breath, she blurted out; “All over my face and tits, cover me with your hot jizz.”Sheldon aimed his cock at her open mouth and the first blast hit with such force that it stung and she closed her mouth. The next shot hit her cheek and shot upwards to her neck and across her shoulder. Again he hit her with a blast covering her neck and up to her heaving breasts. Shot after shot came out and covered the gorgeous blonde and it dripped down her face and onto her forehead and into her hair.Sheldon fell back and leaned against the dresser, he looked over at Stephanie; “Would you like to taste my cum, Dr. Stephanie? I bet you would like to lick all of my cum from Penny's face and tits, well go ahead!”Stephanie was out of her chair in an instant and was licking, sucking and kissing every inch of Penny's upper body and face. From time to time she would lock lips with Penny and feed her the cum she so expertly extracted from Sheldon's huge cock.Leonard looked up from eating Penny and his face too was covered in cum, but Penny's rather than Sheldon's. “Would you like to lick my face clean of Penny's cum too Stephanie?”Without saying a word she got up off her knees, slid around the bed and climbing up cradled Leonard's head in her hands and began kissing and licking Penny's sweet nectar from his face. They locked lips and Leonard's hands slid up and down Stephanie's still fully clothed body. Breaking the kiss he whispered to her; “Alright Stephanie, please take your seat on the chair, the two of us need to give this gorgeous creature the fuck of her life!”Both Stephanie and Penny moaned when they heard him say that, Stephanie out of frustration and Penny out of sheer anticipation of having these two big cocks in her at the same time. She just wondered which cock would invade her asshole and which would fuck her pussy.Leonard was already back at full mast and Sheldon, after watching Stephanie licking the cum from Penny and Leonard was growing quickly.Sheldon stepped back to the bed and cradling Penny's head lifted her back onto the bed. She slid over and Sheldon lay beside her. Grasping her by the arm he rolled her over onto his body and she straddled him.She let out a sigh of relief knowing that Leonard's cock would be the one invading her ass rather than the much larger and thicker cock that Sheldon had. After last night, she definitely wanted in her ass again, but needed some time to recuperate from that gorgeous piece of meat in her.Penny wiggled and slid her body up and down the prone Sheldon, his big dick was standing straight up and as she slid about, it slid up across her belly, then her swollen pussy lips and then up and down between her tight ass cheeks,When she leaned forward it once again flopped to the front and as she wiggled around, his heat seeking missile found her pussy opening, now lodged in-between her tight lips she leaned over even more, her golden blonde hair cascaded all over his upper body and he reached up and locked his lips onto hers. Their tongue slipped out and fought with one another's and she let out a loud groan as his cock penetrated her inner lips and slid rather easily into her tight, wet cunt. Yesterday he had to fight to enter her pussy, but today, after a night of fucking her cunt was becoming accustomed to his length and girth.Penny broke the kiss and letting out a long hiss slowly straightened up and began to lower her sleek toned body down upon Sheldon's thick spear. Inch by thick inch, Penny's womb swallowed up Sheldon's cock. When her thighs rested on his, she knew she had once again taken all he had to give. A smile crossed her lips knowing she had accomplished this, this time with ease and she now began to rise and lower her body and felt him once again, just like yesterday, hitting areas in her womb she didn't even know existed.Sheldon picked up the pace driving his thick cock in and out of her foaming pussy when she leaned forward, giving his easier access to her pussy.When she did this her firm tits swayed back and forth before him and he leaned in and caught one between his lips. He sucked hard on them as her golden hair covered both his face and her tits.Stephanie let out a groan of frustration, not knowing where to look first. Her eyes darted from where Sheldon's cock slid in and out of Penny's dripping cunt, to the erotic sight of Sheldon's mouth sucking loudly on her firm tit. She had to slip off the chair to get a better view of Sheldon sucking on her tit. She wished it was her getting her tits sucked on and being penetrated by that huge cock.Her knees got weak from just imagining that huge piece of meat fucking her. She reached back and unzipped her dress. Shaking her shoulders the sleek tight material fell from them and settled about her waist. She took a seat back on the chair and idly began playing with her full firm tits, still encased in her lacy black bra.Leonard stared at the lovely body Stephanie was slowly revealing, even though he had fucked her already this morning, she was fully clothed when this occurred. Now with her full heavy breast nearly exposed he remembered how great it was to bury his head between those twin pillows of flesh. With all of the weight she had lost. Very little was in her breasts, but it was evident she had worked out seriously and they too had firmed up and looked much fuller and perkier. He couldn't wait to see them exposed, without the sexy bra in the way.He turned back to Penny and his dick jumped. She was now leaning over even more as Sheldon sucked on one tit and then the other. Her ass was pointing upward as Sheldon's cock knifed in and out of her weeping pussy. He slipped in behind her and reaching down swiped his hand across her goo covered cunt-lips and collecting a good amount in his fingers he covered his cock with it. He was as stiff as he had even been in his life, just knowing the ass he had drooled over for the past five years was just about to be his.He gripped his slimy cock and parted her tight ass cheeks with his other hand, leaned forward the large mushroom head slowly parted the starred hole.He heard Penny groan and she whipped her head around; “Just shove that fucking cock in Leonard. I know you've wanted my ass for so long, now you have, Fuck it! Fuck it good & deep!”Leonard saw red and with an animal-like groan shoved hard and the outer ring gave way and he slipped into her hot steamy asshole.“Oh my fucking god, I can feel your cocks rubbing up against the same walls and it's fucking incredible. Come on, both of you, fuck me, use me, fuck me till I can't walk straight. Oh Stephanie, after you and I settle things in bed, you have to try both of them at the same time. I've been in threesomes before, but NEVER like this. Yes, yes, oh Sheldon, fuck me harder!”Leonard and Sheldon got into a rhythm as one pushed in, the other slid out. Back and forth, back and forth the two nerds fucked the gorgeous cheerleader from Nebraska and she would never doubt that men with brains could fuck.Penny was moaning and groaning constantly and as she slammed her body down onto Sheldon's body she went off like a rocket. She shook and started cumming and couldn't stop cumming.The two continued to pound their cocks in and out of her holes and she went from one orgasm right into another one. She shook and broke out into a feverous sweat. She couldn't catch her breath and she started screaming for the two of them to slow down, but they too were caught up in the fuck of their lives and neither one of them paid any attention.Suddenly Penny let out a long guttural moan and collapsed against Sheldon, Penny had passed out from the intense and ongoing orgasm.Leonard popped out of Penny and his still stiff cock bobbed up and down.Sheldon pushed Penny off his sweat covered body and his cum covered cock and thighs sparkled in the light of day. Sheldon leaned over and made sure she was still breathing; “Well Leonard I guess we were just too much for the country girl, what do we do now?”Leonard smiled wickedly as he turned towards Stephanie who was wide-eyed as she looked on at the two stiff cocks bobbing before her; “How about it Stephanie? Penny DID want you to try the two of us out at the same time. Seeing she passed out on us, how about you take over?”She had an innocent look on her face and in her quizzical voice said; Well, I don't know? I really want to, but am afraid I'll pass out just like Penny did!“Leonard slipped off the bed and taking her by the hand got her to her feet; "I know for a fact you are in far better shape than Penny is. After your weight loss and all of that exercising you've been doing I betcha your cardio is in great shape!”She took a step towards the bed and smiled; “Oh what the hell, let's go for it. I just hope Penny doesn't wake up and be pissed at me!”Sheldon scoffed; “If she wakes, I'm sure Leonard and I can deal with it, are you ready?”“Oh yeah, big boy. How about stripping me first and a little foreplay? That way I'll be able to take those two huge pieces of meat in my new tiny body?”She knelt in front of Sheldon, Leonard deftly popped open her sexy black lace bra and as it slipped from her body Sheldon was heard to say; “Oh my, Leonard; have you seen these beautiful breasts?”“Many a times, Sheldon. But not since she lost all of the weight and they firmed up.”“My lord, Leonard; they are magnificent! I thought Penny's were a work of art, but these are even better, if that is possible. Their teardrop shape and the gorgeous light pink tips are breathtaking and these nipples!” He leaned in and sucked on one and Leonard turned her body so he was able to suck on the other one.Leonard's hands were busy too, as he slipped the dress off her slim hips and now knelt before them in just her tiny black thong. Her new ‘peaches and cream' body was very white and against Leonard's skin. She looked nearly pure white.Sheldon coaxed her onto her back and as he snuggled down, he quickly removed her thong and let out a gasp; “Oh my lord Leonard, I've never seen a vagina covered in red hair before, it too is breathtaking, I could look at it for hours, but my urge to eat it outweighs looking at it!”“I'll take a picture for you to look at later!” Leonard said, dryly.“Oh that would be great, Leonard; oh wait, sarcasm?”“Right!”To be continued in part 7.By baranbrat for Literotica
Big-Bang, Gang-Bang Theory: Part 6By baranbrat. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories.(This episode includes group sex)Howard scrambled to get out from under Raj and when he placed his hand on the coffee table to stand up, it gave way and he fell again. This time his cock slipped across Raj's lips and when he opened his mouth to protest, the head slipped in!““Howard, get up, get up now or the wedding is off!”Howard crawled away and curled up in a ball and when she saw how scared and frightened he was Amy scooted over to him and stroked his head. “My god Bernadette, can't you see it was all an accident and he was in the wrong place at the wrong time!”Bernadette looked at Amy; “Okay tell me Amy, who's cunt juices are all over my man's cock?'"Aw that would be mine!”“Okay, Amy; who's cum is all over your face then?”“Oh that's okay; it's Sheldon's, my boyfriend!”“So you take a load of cum in the face from your boyfriend while my future husband fucks you, did I get that right?”Amy shook her finger back and forth; “Oh no you don't Bernadette, it was okay for you to ride my boyfriend's cock into tomorrow, last night, but it isn't okay for me to fuck your man's cock, did I get that right?”“Well when you put it that way it doesn't sound fair, but still.”Glenn spoke up; “I think we all need to take a deep breath and began again. Bernadette why don't you start by coming over here and giving me one of your perfect blow jobs. I always knew Catholic girls were great in bed, but your mouth is the best!”Before Howard could respond she was around the chair and as he stepped off the ottoman, her mouth was already open taking his cock in-between her freshly painted red lips.Bernadette and Penny both looked incredible. Their hair was done up and Bernadette's thick blonde hair cascaded around her shoulders and down to her heavy breasts in thick waves of gold.Penny's was straight, but curled at the ends and turned inward towards her gorgeous face and across her straining breasts.Both were in ribbed tight sleeveless t-shirts. With Penny's slightly smaller breasts, Bernadette's breasts swayed under the tight shirt, it was evident neither one of them were wearing bras beneath the shirts.Penny lent Bernadette one of her boy shorts and with her ample ass and thicker thighs, it looked as if Bernadette had then painted on her, her camel toe was evident and a wet spot was already growing larger.Penny's was a little more conservative, but still showed off her gorgeous legs to perfection.While Bernadette attacked Glenn's thick black cock, Howard turned to Amy.Amy reached out and pulled his shirt up and off over his head. Wiping her face free of Sheldon's cum, she leaned in and gave Howard a deep passionate kiss; “Well Howard it looks like it's you and me!”Penny strolled over to Leonard who was sipping coffee in the kitchen; “Well, Leonard; it looks like you were the only one not fucking!”He shook his head no; “Sorry Penny, just finished doing Stephanie doggy here in the kitchen!”“Leonard you dog!”“How about you Penny?” Leonard inquired.“Glenn in the bathroom!” Penny proudly claimed.“Fuck him good?”“Nope! She coyly prolonged her mystery tryst."Blow Job?”“Oh yeah, nice and sloppy, in the tub, real easy to wash off!” She confirmed.“That's where Stephanie is right now!”With a horny tone, Penny posed an idea to Leonard; “How about we grab Sheldon and the three of us head to your bedroom. It's been a fantasy of mine to fuck both of you at the same time!”Leonard was grinning from ear to ear; “You dog, you!”Penny caught Sheldon's attention across the open space, and wiggled her finger at him; “Your presence is requested in Leonard's room!”Sheldon was up, as if shot out of a cannon.Penny met him at the hallway, wrapped her slim fingers around his cock, and giggled; “Okay sweetie, let's see if the two of you can outdo what I experienced last night!”The three of them headed into Leonard's room in total silence and Penny closed the door behind her and leaned against the door; “Alright you two strip, get on the bed and start stroking those gorgeous cocks of yours. I'll start putting on a show for you to end all shows!”Sheldon tore off this shirt, already naked from the waist down, hopped on the bed like a kid on Christmas morning.Leonard pulled his buttoned up over his head as he kicked his slippers off. Pulling off his t-shirt it joined his shirt. He dropped his pants and yanking off his shorts kicked them aside, he joined Sheldon on the bed.He immediately gripped his cock and began stroking his cock as Penny had instructed both of them to do.Penny began by swaying her hips from side to side. Rolling her head around her shoulders, her gorgeous hair floated about her face, neck, covered breasts and back.Unbelting her powder blue robe, it parted and Leonard and Sheldon began stroking their cocks even faster. She continued to sway from side to side and holding onto the belt she slid it back and forth like a stripper does and the robe slowly slid from her shoulders. Penny held it in place about her waist and in the crook of both arms. Lowering her hands the robe slid down her forearms and catching it in her fists she ran the robe back and forth across her gorgeous ass. Turning her back to the bed she leaned over and sticking out her ass, she continued sliding the robe across her ass.Dropping the robe she rose up quickly causing her blonde hair to float back down around her figure, a little more disheveled and looking amazing.Facing the two of the bed, her large breasts poked out lewdly against her white ribbed sleeveless t-shirt. She wet her fingers and rolled one nipple between her fingers, closing her eyes she licked her lips and moaned softly as she did this, she did the same to the other nipple. Back and forth, back and forth she repeated this act and soon the material was soaked and her nipples and areoles were showing through the thin wet material, just waiting to be sucked and tugged on.She turned slowly, her back to the two men on the bed vigorously stroking their cock. She quickly bent over at the waist; her gorgeous blonde hair brushed the floor and her bare feet. She reached back and slowly slid her boy shorts off. As her tight ass appeared she heard both of them groan. Her gorgeous ass cheeks popped from the tight shorts and she held them there sliding the material from side to side making the twin globes shake and shimmy.With one quick shove the shorts hit the floor and she reached up and as slow as humanly possible she spread her cheeks. Her tight lipped pussy, already glistening with her juices, winked at the two on the bed and the inner pink walls were just beckoning them to lick, suck, and finger and yes, fuck it till it was completely sedated.Letting go of the twin globes she reared back and slapped the cheek, again on the other cheek, over and over she slapped her ass cheeks until they were a rosy red.Reached again for the twin globes she spread them apart again and a tiny river of her juices now flowed from her oozing pussy.Rising up quickly and spinning around, her face red from the blood rushing to her head and from the excitement she was inflicting on her perfect body, her long hair fell about her face and shoulders, again covering her tits. She looked so hot and wicked and she licked her bright red lips and biting seductively on her bottom lip slowly ran a fingertip along her bee stung lips; “Don't you two stroke those gorgeous pieces of meat too hard. I'd hate to see them go off before I have some fun with them. If you feel the need to cum before I can play with them. Please yell out so at least I can taste it or have you cum on my red hot ass!”Penny sucked her finger into her mouth; “Umm I can't wait to feel them deep in my throat, oh I'm such a cum slut, there is nothing I love more than the taste and the feel of cum flowing into my mouth and down my throat!”She reached down and slowly raised the tight, wet t-shirt from her belly, up across her large tight breasts and up and over her head. Shaking her head her hair, now tussled, fell halfway back into place.Taking a couple of steps towards the bed she placed one knee on the mattress and leaned over and with Leonard closest to her, her hair swept back and forth across his hairy thighsLeonard's eyes darted from the veil of blonde hair cascading over his thighs and her large stiff-nippled tits swaying before him and he lost it. Letting out a loud groan he spat out; “Oh fuck, Penny; I can't hold back any longer, I'm going to cum!”She let out a squeal of delight and leaping forward, she reached his cock just as the first volley of cum shot from his eager cock. She caught it on the lips and her tongue swept out and drew it into her mouth. Penny covered the shooting cock with her mouth, spurt after creamy spurt slid down her throat. At one point her cheeks bellowed out as he filled her mouth to the max. A drop oozed out of the corner of her mouth and she felt his fingers grip her silky hair and shove her face down deeper onto his cock.Totally spent, Leonard urged her off his cock. She opened her mouth showing him the remnants of his orgasm and smacking her lips together swallowed his creamy cum.She had managed to accomplish just what she wanted to have happen. With one of the guys totally spent for the time being, she could concentrate on the other guy. She could start off slow and once she got going hot and heavy, she figured the second guy would be raring to go, perfect plan!The door slowly opened and there stood Stephanie, her tight red dress was pulled up about her hips and she had three fingers buried deep in her red bush;Three sets of eyes locked on her as she broke up their sexual exploits. “Oh, I am so sorry I interrupted you three, I was just so out of place out there. When I peaked in and saw the incredible strip tease Penny put on, I just couldn't leave. Please, please let me stay and watch! I promise not to get in the way or interrupt you at all!”Penny licked the remains of Leonard's cum from the corner of her mouth and pointing over to the chair she smiled wickedly; “Alright Stephanie; just remember not a peep out of you and just watch, no joining in, that is unless we all agree, but definitely not until I've had my fill of both of these monster cocks, agreed?”She nodded vigorously; her long red hair flew about as she did that.Penny blurted out; “Stephanie, closed and lock the door this time. We don't want any more interruptions!”Stephanie shot over to the door, closed it and locking it moved back to the chair and took a seat at ringside, sitting on the edge awaiting Penny's next move.“Sheldon, spin around so Stephanie can watch me suck your cock while you eat me!”Sheldon leaped up and took position with his head at the foot of the bed,Penny threw one leg over Sheldon's upper body and slid back until her pussy hovered over his face. She felt his hands on her hips as he guided her tasty pussy to his waiting mouth. When his tongue slipped in-between her lips and swept up and down the inner walls of her cunt, she let out a loud grunt and dropped her mouth to his huge cock.She ran her pink tongue around and around and around the huge helmeted head of Sheldon's cock. She pulled away and spat on her hand and began sliding her tiny hand up and down the thick piece of meat in her hand.She heard a groan and looking up, stared directly into the sparking green eyes of Stephanie. She had moved over for a closer look-see and she reached out to swipe a wave of blonde hair that was blocking her view of the expert blow job Penny was giving Sheldon.She stared back at Stephanie with her dark blue eyes and smiled; “Oh Stephanie, we just have to hook up, just the two of us. I want to make love to that gorgeous face of yours!”With that she reached out and cupping the back of Stephanie's head, drew her to her and planted a hot wet open-mouthed kiss on her lips.When the kiss ended, Stephanie was out of breath, she took a seat near the bed and bit her bottom lip and starred back at the sexy kitten on the bed; “My god Penny, now I know why Leonard picked you over me, you are the most incredibly sexy woman I've ever laid my eyes on!”Penny giggled and shook her blonde hair back and forth; “Oh, oh fuck yes Sheldon, I thought Leonard was the king of foreplay, but the way you use your tongue and fingers on my cunt, you win hands down…. Oh Stephanie, you are so wrong! Leonard, just has this thing for me, there is no way you couldn't be just as sexy as I am, sorry for being conceded, but; Oh fuck, Sheldon! Right there! Stephanie, we'll talk later, but right now, I'm so close to cumming and I have to get Sheldon caught up, just sit back and watch!”Penny resumed her attack on Sheldon's cock. Taking it as deep as she could, she pulled her mouth off and a large amount of saliva slid downward toward his balls. Penny caught it in her hand and stroked his cock long and hard. This produced a loud groan from Sheldon as he worked her pussy over even harder.She licked up and down the shaft and her hand followed and she felt his stiffen even more. She palmed his nuts and sucked one into her mouth, her tongue darting out and flicking back and forth.Penny once again took his as deep as she could, but could not get more than three quarters of his cock down her throat.Tearing her mouth from his cock she let out a loud scream; “Oh fuck yes, Sheldon; just like that! I'm so fucking close, more, more, don't stop! Ah!”She dropped her head to his thigh and shook from the intense orgasm. Panting wildly she slowly opened her eyes and planted a tiny kiss on his saliva covered cock!Suddenly she felt a slap on her ass; “Penny?” He slapped her compact ass again; “Penny?” Once again she felt his hand sting her ass; “Penny?”She giggled; “Yes, Sheldon?“"Could you please take me all the way in your throat like you did yesterday?”“I was trying Sweetie, but like yesterday, I'm at the wrong angle!”He scoffed; “Well we both know how to remedy that, now don't we?”She giggled again and in her sweet innocent tone replied; “Oh yes we do Honey, shall we?”“Well of course Penny!”She rolled off of him and onto her back. Scooting around and hung her head off the bed, her shoulders sitting on the edge of the bed. Her long blonde hair cascading to the floor, she looked up and waited for Sheldon.He hurried off the bed and stood directly in front of her and as he leaned forward, she opened her mouth and Stephanie let out a gasp as she watched inch by inch of Sheldon's massive cock disappear into Penny's mouth and flexing throat.Penny's nostrils flared as she took in air, her airway blocked by Sheldon's huge cock. Her tongue got into the action as it slipped out around her widely stretched lips and coated the remainder of his shaft with her saliva.Sheldon pushed forward and the last couple of inches were now buried in her oral cavity.Her legs slid back and forth on the bed and she let out a gasp when she felt a pair of hands grip her by the knees. Her legs were pried apart and she felt a hot breath on her swollen pussy. She let out a muffled scream as Leonard buried his head between her thighs and began licking her clit, pussy and asshole in earnest!“Sheldon and Stephanie looked down at the gorgeous body being attacked at both ends and each had different thoughts.Sheldon smiled as he thought; "Why is this gorgeous blonde even taking a second look at me, my only advantage is my big cock and how well I can execute what I read in the manual. I can't believe just how great she looks, these perfect breasts!” His hands slid down and cupped the twin mounds and rolled her nipples between is fingers; “That flat belly, the way it rises and falls from her heavy breathing, those golden columns of flesh, perfectly formed and that perfect pussy and ass taking my cock like I love so very, very much!”Stephanie stared at the prone Penny and her eyes darted over the perfect body; “My lord, am I turning into a lesbian? I never even though of being with another woman until I saw Penny naked, now all I can think about is crawling between those silken thighs and munching on her pussy just like Leonard is doing right now. Those gorgeous full breasts of hers, I wonder how they would feel when I squeezed them; they look a whole lot firmer than mine. I just want to wrap my lips around those stiff nipples and suck on them. I want to run my fingers through that mane of spun gold and feel it slip through my fingers. That tongue of hers, the way it flicks out and licks Sheldon's cock, I wonder how it would feel dueling with my own tongue. How it would feel flicking across my nipples and those full lips wrapped around my stiff pink nipples. Oh fuck, I can't wait to have her taste my dripping pussy!”Stephanie's eyes were glued on Sheldon's huge cock sliding in and out of Penny's mouth. Her throat muscles flexed as she tightened and relaxed. His hands were all over her tits, mauling them and pulling roughly on her nipples.Penny let out a loud groan as Sheldon twisted her dark beet red nipples and let out a loud stifled moan as Leonard flicked her clit and she came for the second time.Sheldon pumped her mouth faster and faster and letting out a high pitched screech, pulled his cock from her mouth and yelled out; “Where do you want it Penny?”Gasping for breath, she blurted out; “All over my face and tits, cover me with your hot jizz.”Sheldon aimed his cock at her open mouth and the first blast hit with such force that it stung and she closed her mouth. The next shot hit her cheek and shot upwards to her neck and across her shoulder. Again he hit her with a blast covering her neck and up to her heaving breasts. Shot after shot came out and covered the gorgeous blonde and it dripped down her face and onto her forehead and into her hair.Sheldon fell back and leaned against the dresser, he looked over at Stephanie; “Would you like to taste my cum, Dr. Stephanie? I bet you would like to lick all of my cum from Penny's face and tits, well go ahead!”Stephanie was out of her chair in an instant and was licking, sucking and kissing every inch of Penny's upper body and face. From time to time she would lock lips with Penny and feed her the cum she so expertly extracted from Sheldon's huge cock.Leonard looked up from eating Penny and his face too was covered in cum, but Penny's rather than Sheldon's. “Would you like to lick my face clean of Penny's cum too Stephanie?”Without saying a word she got up off her knees, slid around the bed and climbing up cradled Leonard's head in her hands and began kissing and licking Penny's sweet nectar from his face. They locked lips and Leonard's hands slid up and down Stephanie's still fully clothed body. Breaking the kiss he whispered to her; “Alright Stephanie, please take your seat on the chair, the two of us need to give this gorgeous creature the fuck of her life!”Both Stephanie and Penny moaned when they heard him say that, Stephanie out of frustration and Penny out of sheer anticipation of having these two big cocks in her at the same time. She just wondered which cock would invade her asshole and which would fuck her pussy.Leonard was already back at full mast and Sheldon, after watching Stephanie licking the cum from Penny and Leonard was growing quickly.Sheldon stepped back to the bed and cradling Penny's head lifted her back onto the bed. She slid over and Sheldon lay beside her. Grasping her by the arm he rolled her over onto his body and she straddled him.She let out a sigh of relief knowing that Leonard's cock would be the one invading her ass rather than the much larger and thicker cock that Sheldon had. After last night, she definitely wanted in her ass again, but needed some time to recuperate from that gorgeous piece of meat in her.Penny wiggled and slid her body up and down the prone Sheldon, his big dick was standing straight up and as she slid about, it slid up across her belly, then her swollen pussy lips and then up and down between her tight ass cheeks,When she leaned forward it once again flopped to the front and as she wiggled around, his heat seeking missile found her pussy opening, now lodged in-between her tight lips she leaned over even more, her golden blonde hair cascaded all over his upper body and he reached up and locked his lips onto hers. Their tongue slipped out and fought with one another's and she let out a loud groan as his cock penetrated her inner lips and slid rather easily into her tight, wet cunt. Yesterday he had to fight to enter her pussy, but today, after a night of fucking her cunt was becoming accustomed to his length and girth.Penny broke the kiss and letting out a long hiss slowly straightened up and began to lower her sleek toned body down upon Sheldon's thick spear. Inch by thick inch, Penny's womb swallowed up Sheldon's cock. When her thighs rested on his, she knew she had once again taken all he had to give. A smile crossed her lips knowing she had accomplished this, this time with ease and she now began to rise and lower her body and felt him once again, just like yesterday, hitting areas in her womb she didn't even know existed.Sheldon picked up the pace driving his thick cock in and out of her foaming pussy when she leaned forward, giving his easier access to her pussy.When she did this her firm tits swayed back and forth before him and he leaned in and caught one between his lips. He sucked hard on them as her golden hair covered both his face and her tits.Stephanie let out a groan of frustration, not knowing where to look first. Her eyes darted from where Sheldon's cock slid in and out of Penny's dripping cunt, to the erotic sight of Sheldon's mouth sucking loudly on her firm tit. She had to slip off the chair to get a better view of Sheldon sucking on her tit. She wished it was her getting her tits sucked on and being penetrated by that huge cock.Her knees got weak from just imagining that huge piece of meat fucking her. She reached back and unzipped her dress. Shaking her shoulders the sleek tight material fell from them and settled about her waist. She took a seat back on the chair and idly began playing with her full firm tits, still encased in her lacy black bra.Leonard stared at the lovely body Stephanie was slowly revealing, even though he had fucked her already this morning, she was fully clothed when this occurred. Now with her full heavy breast nearly exposed he remembered how great it was to bury his head between those twin pillows of flesh. With all of the weight she had lost. Very little was in her breasts, but it was evident she had worked out seriously and they too had firmed up and looked much fuller and perkier. He couldn't wait to see them exposed, without the sexy bra in the way.He turned back to Penny and his dick jumped. She was now leaning over even more as Sheldon sucked on one tit and then the other. Her ass was pointing upward as Sheldon's cock knifed in and out of her weeping pussy. He slipped in behind her and reaching down swiped his hand across her goo covered cunt-lips and collecting a good amount in his fingers he covered his cock with it. He was as stiff as he had even been in his life, just knowing the ass he had drooled over for the past five years was just about to be his.He gripped his slimy cock and parted her tight ass cheeks with his other hand, leaned forward the large mushroom head slowly parted the starred hole.He heard Penny groan and she whipped her head around; “Just shove that fucking cock in Leonard. I know you've wanted my ass for so long, now you have, Fuck it! Fuck it good & deep!”Leonard saw red and with an animal-like groan shoved hard and the outer ring gave way and he slipped into her hot steamy asshole.“Oh my fucking god, I can feel your cocks rubbing up against the same walls and it's fucking incredible. Come on, both of you, fuck me, use me, fuck me till I can't walk straight. Oh Stephanie, after you and I settle things in bed, you have to try both of them at the same time. I've been in threesomes before, but NEVER like this. Yes, yes, oh Sheldon, fuck me harder!”Leonard and Sheldon got into a rhythm as one pushed in, the other slid out. Back and forth, back and forth the two nerds fucked the gorgeous cheerleader from Nebraska and she would never doubt that men with brains could fuck.Penny was moaning and groaning constantly and as she slammed her body down onto Sheldon's body she went off like a rocket. She shook and started cumming and couldn't stop cumming.The two continued to pound their cocks in and out of her holes and she went from one orgasm right into another one. She shook and broke out into a feverous sweat. She couldn't catch her breath and she started screaming for the two of them to slow down, but they too were caught up in the fuck of their lives and neither one of them paid any attention.Suddenly Penny let out a long guttural moan and collapsed against Sheldon, Penny had passed out from the intense and ongoing orgasm.Leonard popped out of Penny and his still stiff cock bobbed up and down.Sheldon pushed Penny off his sweat covered body and his cum covered cock and thighs sparkled in the light of day. Sheldon leaned over and made sure she was still breathing; “Well Leonard I guess we were just too much for the country girl, what do we do now?”Leonard smiled wickedly as he turned towards Stephanie who was wide-eyed as she looked on at the two stiff cocks bobbing before her; “How about it Stephanie? Penny DID want you to try the two of us out at the same time. Seeing she passed out on us, how about you take over?”She had an innocent look on her face and in her quizzical voice said; Well, I don't know? I really want to, but am afraid I'll pass out just like Penny did!“Leonard slipped off the bed and taking her by the hand got her to her feet; "I know for a fact you are in far better shape than Penny is. After your weight loss and all of that exercising you've been doing I betcha your cardio is in great shape!”She took a step towards the bed and smiled; “Oh what the hell, let's go for it. I just hope Penny doesn't wake up and be pissed at me!”Sheldon scoffed; “If she wakes, I'm sure Leonard and I can deal with it, are you ready?”“Oh yeah, big boy. How about stripping me first and a little foreplay? That way I'll be able to take those two huge pieces of meat in my new tiny body?”She knelt in front of Sheldon, Leonard deftly popped open her sexy black lace bra and as it slipped from her body Sheldon was heard to say; “Oh my, Leonard; have you seen these beautiful breasts?”“Many a times, Sheldon. But not since she lost all of the weight and they firmed up.”“My lord, Leonard; they are magnificent! I thought Penny's were a work of art, but these are even better, if that is possible. Their teardrop shape and the gorgeous light pink tips are breathtaking and these nipples!” He leaned in and sucked on one and Leonard turned her body so he was able to suck on the other one.Leonard's hands were busy too, as he slipped the dress off her slim hips and now knelt before them in just her tiny black thong. Her new ‘peaches and cream' body was very white and against Leonard's skin. She looked nearly pure white.Sheldon coaxed her onto her back and as he snuggled down, he quickly removed her thong and let out a gasp; “Oh my lord Leonard, I've never seen a vagina covered in red hair before, it too is breathtaking, I could look at it for hours, but my urge to eat it outweighs looking at it!”“I'll take a picture for you to look at later!” Leonard said, dryly.“Oh that would be great, Leonard; oh wait, sarcasm?”“Right!”To be continued in part 7.By baranbrat for Literotica
Jaime Chapman and Stephanie Brown are on a mission to empower military spouses. Both military spouses themselves, the two founded and run the U.S. Military Spouse Chamber of Commerce. Here they talk with Women on the Move Host Sam Saperstein about the unique challenges facing military spouses, why the population is often drawn to entrepreneurship, and the work the Chamber is doing to foster military spouse entrepreneurs. Relocation, pay disparities, and other facts of military life Jaime and Stephanie both describe their own journeys as military spouses. Stephanie tells Sam that she was a business owner in Washington, DC, more than two decades ago when she met her late husband, got married, and moved overseas. “I very quickly became unemployed and unemployable,” she says. Jaime had served in the Army Reserves for six years and thought she was done with the military when she “married into the army” nearly seven years ago. Before they knew each other, both women shared the experience of learning how difficult it was to maintain their professional careers as military spouses, and both were involved in the world of entrepreneurship. Many factors combine to make employment complicated for military spouses: they relocate a lot, there's often a lack of affordable—or any—childcare, and there's often a lack of family or friends to help out due to the relocations. On top of that, they note, there's a big disparity in pay between military spouses and other civilians. Perhaps because of these factors, military spouses have a particularly high rate of entrepreneurship. Both Stephanie and Jaime were entrepreneurs with a passion for helping others, and the two were initially brought together by a mutual colleague who recruited first Stephanie and then Jaime to work on a Military Spouse Entrepreneur Task Force. It was while working on that task force that the idea of the Military Spouse Chamber of Commerce first came to Stephanie. “I one day said to Jaime and [another colleague], you know, we really need to have a military spouse chamber of commerce because I've been working on this certification for military spouse–owned businesses for a long time with USAA and we need a forum through which we can provide this certification and really change things for spouses and small business owners,” she recalls. Launching a network for military spouse entrepreneurs The two women launched the U.S. Military Spouse Chamber of Commerce in 2020. As Stephanie describes, gaining recognized certification of military spouse-owned business was a driving force. “So what we began doing is researching how other third parties and the Veterans Administration actually reviewed and certified veteran-owned service, disabled veteran owned, minority owned, women owned, et cetera. And so we took those best practices and narrowed it down and kind of customized it for the lifestyle of the military spouse.” Another key aim of the organization, Jaime explains, was to help military spouse entrepreneurs with essential business functions like setting up retirement plans and employee benefits for themselves and their employees. “Because the first thing you should be asking when you're self-employed is, how do I save for retirement?” she notes. “But most people are more worried about setting up their website and logo and getting their business off the ground and marketing it when they should be thinking about taking care of themselves.” Today, Jaime notes, the Chamber has 1,100 military spouse members spread across 35 states in five countries running businesses ranging from artisanal handmade products to multi-seven-figure firms. The organization is involved in several legislative initiatives, including a push to streamline occupational licensing for relocating spouses. But Stephanie says one of the biggest benefits has been the recognition of the value of the community. “I think we also are beginning to recognize that there is a huge network out there of other military spouse, business owners that we can turn to, to collaborate, to mentor, which is really kind of the secret sauce,” she says. In terms of how others can support military spouses (and, in turn, support veterans and active military members, who also benefit from their spouses' success), the two suggest a two-pronged approach. First, doing business with certified military spouse–owned businesses, either as an individual or as a business hiring contractors, helps them succeed. And second, anybody can support military spouse–owned businesses by seeking them out and buying from them. Full transcript here
Stephanie McCollaugh of Sophia Financial and Kevin Gaines of FMG Planning, are this year's FiComm and Investment News, Podcast Award-winners in the category of Educate and Empower! Forming the Take Back Retirement podcast, these two felt a calling to reshape the retirement conversation for women over 45 years old. In this episode, co-hosts Stephanie and Kevin share their journey and what drove them to start their podcast, Take Back Retirement. One of their main focuses is to meet women where they are by creating the space for women to concept and understand the possibilities of retirement. They interview women to hear their real-life retirement stories, where they drop the technical jargon and focus on the world's possibilities. Both Stephanie and Kevin attribute their success to not being afraid to take a chance!Podcast Website | https://takebackretirement.com/Sofia Financial Website | https://sofiafinancial.com/about-us/AFMG Planning Website | https://afmgplanning.com/Stephanie's Twitter | https://twitter.com/sofiafinancialStephanie's Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/sofiafinancial/?hl=enStephanie's LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniemccullough/Kevin's Twitter | https://twitter.com/2ndHalfPlanKevin's LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinmgaines/ Subscribe to never miss an episode and connect with us on: Website | https://bit.ly/FiCommPartnersInstagram | https://bit.ly/FiCommInstagramLinkedIn | https://bit.ly/FiCommLinkedInTwitter | https://bit.ly/FiCommTwitter
Impressive - On-Air Consults I Parenting I Child Psychologist
Dr Kimberley O'Brien talks to five-year-old Katara and her mother Stephanie about what life is like when you're labelled a gifted child. Stephanie says they started noticing their child was switched on when she was just a few months old. When Katara lost interest in day care when she was three because the older children she had connected with started school, Stephanie brought her in to see Dr Kimberley. While she was hesitant to find out whether Katara was gifted because she thought it might have been her own parental bias, she decided to go ahead with an IQ test. Dr Kimberley recalls that their main concern was whether Katara would be able to sit through the Stanford Binet (Early SB5) test at the age of three. But she did and the test revealed that Katara was, in fact, gifted. Although “gifted” is the term commonly used in IQ tests, Dr Kimberley clarifies that it's rarely used in a clinical context. She explains that she prefers “high achiever” and focuses on finding ways to stimulate these children and extend their learning in the classroom. Stephanie says this capacity to meet Katara's learning needs was a major motivator when they were deciding on a school for her. Several schools weren't open to Katara starting early and others refused because they lived out of catchment, but Stephanie ended up finding a school that was very interested in Katara. They observed her at day care and put a lot of effort into ensuring they could meet her needs. Katara ended up going to that school and Stephanie couldn't be happier. When Dr Kimberley asks Stephanie about some of the challenges they've faced, Stephanie explains that Katara has had to work on her expectations of being excellent at everything and on her social and emotional resilience because she isn't as emotionally mature as her peers. Dr Kimberley ends by asking Stephanie how she thinks being younger than her peers will affect Katara when she graduates high school. Stephanie explains that they've been working with Katara on the notions of patience and perseverance - that good things take time. Both Stephanie and Dr Kimberley agree that starting school early was the best decision for Katara. What you will learn in this episode: • What being a gifted child or high achiever means • Which cognitive assessments (or IQ tests) can be used in young children • The benefits of finding out whether your child is gifted • How we can stimulate high achievers and extend their learning
Promoting a business while a war rages and the pandemic drags on is a weird freaking sensation. Your body says "go back to bed and stay there" but your brand demands you get out there and "PERFORM, dammit!" How can we be conscious, concerned citizens of the world and responsible business owners at the same time? The official answer: feel your feels, y'all. This week, Annie P. is joined by trauma coach, financial wizard, and dear friend Stephanie Cleary. It's a candid conversation that spans dealing with fear, disgust, burnout, doubt, stress, longing, and deep sadness, but with plenty of laughs and insights along the way. Then, the two mystery-lovers explore the power of scrappiness, community, and self-reliance as demonstrated by high-school Private Eye, Veronica Mars. Finally, Annie brings it all home with homework centered on exploding your network through genuine admiration. *Parentpreneur advisory: this episode contains colorful language. This week's homework utilizes The Dream 100, refined and popularized by the king of traffic, Russell Brunson. Here is a great video that outlines the theory and process in detail, thanks to Funnel Hacking Live. Connect with Stephanie through her website and Instagram! Both Stephanie and Annie are working toward certifications in The Trauma of Money and want to shout out this important, powerful work. Craving connection, co-working, and a way to enjoy your time on LinkedIn? Join our free community, The Legitimati, and do your weekly homework with us! It's also the perfect way to rub elbows with our fabulous guests. Tired of feeling sleazy when you sell - or avoiding "the ask" altogether? Text the word EASY to 411-321 for Annie P's guide to ditching your sales baggage. (Outside the US? No problem! Just text EASY to 1-909-741-1321 on WhatsApp!) For full show notes and more visit www.toolegitimatetoquit.com Extra Credit: Don't forget to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts! New episodes drop every Monday. Reviews and ratings really help our show grow, so thank you for the boost.
This week on the podcast, Stephanie Goss is joined by Nicole Clausen of Veterinary Care Logistics. These days, it feels like the whole world is on backorder. Both Stephanie and Nicole are shocked and surprised regularly, at how many practices they talk to that have absolutely ZERO plan for what to do when things run out and aren't available. In this episode, we are going to laugh, nerd out about inventory, practice management software and home delivery/online pharmacies. We are going to discuss what we can do in the moment when things run out (because even with the best systems in the world, humans happen). And best of all, we discuss what we can do to prepare for the future to minimize the impact of backorders on our patients, clients and teams. Let's get into this… Links: Upcoming events: https://unchartedvet.com/upcoming-events/ It's hard to tell you this but your meetings SUCK – literally, they suck up time, energy and resources from your team. If you feel trapped in the mundane meetings cycle then this workshop with veteran time-management expert Jamie Holms is for you. Leaders, it's time to flip the cycle upside down and do away with the mandatory and unproductive meetings. Learn how to run successful meetings driven by your core values. Are you ready to know how you can spend less time in meetings but have more effective results? It's as easy as putting on your PANTS! Join us on April 6 from 6-8 pm ET/3-5 pm PT for $99 (FREE for Uncharted Members!) Come recharge and get reinspired with your colleagues in beautiful sunny Greenville, South Carolina! Join us for our April Uncharted Veterinary Conference: Uncharted 2022 All Links: https://linktr.ee/UnchartedVet
Family Series: “Special Needs Siblings” with Joey and Stephanie Alarcon Continuing on with our Family Series in this episode we focus on Siblings. You won't want to miss this heart felt and informative episode. Joey Alarcon is the youngest brother to Chris, who has Down Syndrome. He and and his wife Stephanie have been married for 8 years, have a two year old son, and a little girl on the way in August. Both Stephanie and Joey are Special Education teachers with 4 combined credentials and a Master's degree in Education. Joey teaches Adapted PE in San Diego Unified and Stephanie is taking a break from teaching Special Education to focus on raising their little ones. Connect with Us: If you enjoy this podcast please share us with others and be sure to follow us so won't miss an episode. We'd love to hear from you so please leave us a comment or rating and connect with us on social media or on our website. Website: https://hopeonthehardroad.org Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/hopeonthehardroad/ Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/hopeonthehardroad/ Facebook Group:https://www.facebook.com/groups/2621447987943459/?source_id=105530184205752 Free Youtube Resource Library https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsSAfvTkSy87X-fEqtVR2qvo7w9UQBuxz
This week, the girls are bringing on a voice full of soul, a New Orleans Native, and one of Griz's main vocalists, Miss Chrishira Perrier. Both Stephanie and Lacey discovered Chrishira through going to Griz shows, and both were always like, “Who the F#@% is this woman and how can we know her?” After listening to her for years, they reached out to have her on the show to get to know her. In this episode they discuss: Growing up in the 9 Ward of New Orleans Chrishira's high school getting on Oxygen TV for doing the play, Dreamgirls School scholarships & touring Meeting Griz Developing her rapping skills Tour Life Her experience with Hurricane Katrina as a child Her dream & what she's working on Keep up with us online: Chrishira's Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/artist/0A7SwEIXcHDINnTgiHq5M2 Chrishira's IG: https://www.instagram.com/chrishira_/ Oh Here We Go's IG: https://www.instagram.com/ohhherewego/ All Oh Here We Go Links: https://linktr.ee/Ohherewego Stephanie's IG: https://www.instagram.com/stephanieparsley/ Lacey's IG: https://www.instagram.com/thelaceyclaire/ Try out our fav vodka, NEFT: https://www.neftvodkaus.com
The first episode of Season 3 focuses on what authors can do to utilize cross-promotion and reach a larger audience for their work. Stephanie Landsem and Rachel McMillan – two fiction authors with years of experience in the publishing industry – define cross-promotion and its benefits, outline the different forms of cross-promotion, provide examples of how they have used it for their own work, and describe the ways it can increase an author's online presence. Both Stephanie and Rachel emphasize the importance of building a community of support, rather than competition, with other authors. During the episode, Stephanie and Rachel also share: About themselves and their work in the world. The definition of cross-promotion and its benefits. Why there is no competition amongst authors, unlike many industries. What cross-promotion looks like in its simplest and most complex forms. Examples of how they have invested in cross-promotion with other authors. The online growth an author might see when they cross-promote with other authors. The benefits and limitations of more formalized opportunities for cross-promotion. Potential downsides to promoting the work of other authors. How an author can tell when their cross-promotion efforts are working. For our show notes, including action steps, and resources, visit: https://bit.ly/3EAnumz (bit.ly/3EAnumz) Please feel free to send a message to Becky at becky@weavinginfluence.com to share your thoughts!
Both Stephanie and Kels are sick, so the podcast is produced in their pajamas. But it was a good set up for talking about loving each other in sickness and in health.
In this episode of Made For This Podcast, Pastor Esther Vazquez, Stephanie and Jasmine Villeda talk about what is like to be a young single female minister. Both Stephanie and Jasmine are leaders at E2 Church in Elk Grove, CA. Follow Stephanie on Social Media: https://www.facebook.com/stephane.villeda https://www.instagram.com/stephane.villeda/ Follow Jasmine on Social Media: https://www.facebook.com/jasmine.o.villeda https://www.instagram.com/jasmine___vee/ E2 Church Social Media: https://www.facebook.com/e2church https://www.instagram.com/e2church/ Follow Pastor Esther Vazquez: https://www.facebook.com/estheravazquez https://www.facebook.com/jonathanandesthervazquez https://www.instagram.com/pastoresthervazquez/ https://www.youtube.com/jonathanandesthervazquez
What we're talking about: Today I have two guests, Stephanie and Isabelle, and they're here to talk about the Bachelor of Criminology. We discuss how Criminology is related to VCE Legal Studies and Psychology, how straightforward it is to transfer between courses, and how the course is structured. We also discuss exactly what Criminology is and the careers it can lead to. VCE subjects that relate to criminology Stephanie and Isabelle discuss the idea that VCE Legal Studies is actually more aligned with Criminology than Law, so if you like Legal Studies then Criminology is definitely worth looking at. They also suggest that if you like VCE Psychology and are thinking about Criminology, consider doing a double degree with Forensics or Psychology. Transferring between courses and the how to plan your course Both Stephanie and Isabelle have experience transferring between courses at uni, and they highlighted how simple the process is as long as you have a certain WAM (weighted average mark) across your subjects (at Deakin it's currently a 70% WAM). They also talk about different ways you can structure things, like skipping the third trimester to travel, work or complete another study option such as a TAFE course, or using the third trimester to fast track your degree or make up a subject if you underload or fail a subject. Making friends at uni Stephanie and Isabelle met each other just before they began at Deakin through a Facebook group. They discuss ways to meet new people and get involved more in your course before you start and throughout your time at university. Career opportunities Criminology is a really broad course that pairs well with lots of other bachelor degrees. Stephanie and Isabelle take us through some different careers that they can pursue with their degree and share where they currently are planning to go next. Links mentioned: My website: https://www.roadmapeducation.com Your PERFECT Preference List: https://www.roadmapeducation.com/shop/perfectlist Stephanie's course: https://www.deakin.edu.au/course/bachelor-criminology Isabelle's course: https://www.deakin.edu.au/course/bachelor-criminology-bachelor-laws
Both Stephanie and I agree that the old saying, “everything in moderation,” is overrated. The idea has its place, but there are also parts of our lives where it can hold us back… Sometimes we need to be “all in.” In this episode we explore the intricacies of the idea that moderation is the ideal we should strive for. So many of our clients describe themselves as “all or nothing” type people, usually with a negative connotation. We discuss the ways in which you can harness such a quality to work to your benefit as well! Full Show Notes HERE.Mentions:FREE QUIZ What's the #1 Blindspot Keeping Your From Going Vegan the Healthy Way? (Plus an opportunity to book a Discovery Session with Ella!)Hogs & Kisses Facebook PageHogs & Kisses Website (Donations Page)
The Spooky Episode is finally here! Just in time for Halloween..smirky face*Both Stephanie and Elizabeth start the episode off by sharing their personal eerie experiences and then of course get a bit side tracked and spend some time on the topic of intuition.They do however get back to the spooky stuff and share the stories of their grandparents haunted home.. okay maybe not haunted..or is it? New Episodes Every Monday 5AM CTIf you would like to listen to their first paranormal episode, visit the episode called "paranormal experiences and fourth of july fun"
Our guest today, Dr. Stephen Cabral, is a Board Certified Doctor of Naturopathy and founder of the Cabral Wellness Institute and StephenCabral.com. At 17 years old, Stephen Cabral was diagnosed with a life-altering illness and given no hope for recovery. Everyday, he suffered endlessly for many years. It was only after Stephen traveled all over the world and discovered how to combine ancient Ayurvedic healing practices with state-of-the-art Naturopathic & Functional Medicine did he understand how to fully rebalance the body and re-energize it with life. Today in Dr. Cabral's online and Boston practice, where he and his team have completed over 250,000 client appointments, he uses Functional Medicine lab testing and Personalized Wellness Plans to help people rebalance their mind and body to recover from auto-immune, thyroid, fatigue, hormone, weight gain, digestive, childhood, mood, skin, and dozens of other hard to treat health conditions. His mission is to help people understand that there is always a reason why you have not achieved your ideal wellness or weight loss goals and that you can and will get well again! Even more credentials! After 20 years of research study completed, dozens of certifications in the natural health field, over 35,000 client appointments, and a Doctoral Degree in Naturopathy, you can rest assured that Dr. Cabral's knowledge, experience, and compassion are at the top of his field. Dr. Cabral also spent over 5,000 hours of formal doctoral degree work, which included 2,200 hours of internships. These internships were mainly spent overseas studying the very best of natural medicine (much of which is unknown here in the US). His internships included actually studying, working, and living in clinics all around the world. This intimate setting allowed Dr. Cabral to talk in depth with the patients at these clinics and listen to their struggles and path to wellness. He also got to see first hand the remarkable recoveries these people were making. Some of these internship locations included India, Sri Lanka, China, Europe, and various practices in the US. Both Stephanie and Marnie have studied and completed their Integrative Health Certifications (Level 1 and 2) under Dr. Cabral and the Integrative Health Practitioner Program. They both have loved having him as a mentor, guide and teacher as they journey through their studies. In this episode Dr. Cabral covers so many topics with us. We dive into the differences between Eastern and Western based philosophies including Integrative Health, Naturopathy, Ayurveda and Functional Medicine. We also discuss the Rain Barrel Effect and how important it is to empty your rain barrel before it overflows. If you'd like to purchase a copy of his book all proceeds go to charity and it is a phenomenal book that we recommend reading. The rain barrel discussion led us right into the topic of quarterly liver detoxes. Why you should detox and how they are different from a cleanse or diet. More detox info here Dr. Cabral also shares with us that stress and inflammation are two of the most common problems people have today and a few tips that you can do immediately to work on these issues. He also stresses the importance of achieving equilibrium within the body, mind and spirit. He also touches on acne, longevity, stress, motivation and so much more. This is an episode you will not want to miss! You can find Dr. Stephen Cabral on: StephenCabral.com (main page) StephenCabral.com/podcasts (Cabral Concept podcast page) Instagram.com/StephenCabral Facebook.com/DrStephenCabral Relevant links and resources: Equilibrium Nutrition Supplements Marnie and Stephanie are here to guide you. Reach out with any questions! Lab Testing with Marnie and Stephanie (Candida, Metabolic & Vitamins Test, Food Sensitivity Test, Stress, Mood and Metabolism Test, Complete Minerals and Metals Test, Gut Bacteria and Parasite Test) Integrative Health Practitioner Program Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast so that you can uncover strategies, tips and resources from a variety of experts and our own banks of knowledge as you progress on your journey to living well. Please share this podcast with a friend or anyone who you think could benefit from this information. Join our private Art of Living Well Podcast Facebook Community: This is a community where you can directly interact with us and ask us questions and suggest topics for future episodes. Upcoming Art of Living Well Programs: 10 Ways to Create a Healthy Relationship with Sugar - Online workshop - February 26th 7 Day Community Functional Medicine Liver Detox - April 5, 2020 Start date Clean Beauty 101 Online Workshop - April 15th, 12-1:15 PM Shop our Favorite Products: https://www.theartoflivingwell.us/products Instagram: @theartofliving_well FB: https://www.facebook.com/theartoflivingwellpodcast/ Sign-up for our Art of Living Well Podcast email list. (We promise not to bombard you with email). Marnie Dachis Marmet's Website (Zenful Life Coaching) Stephanie May Potter's Website
Have you ever attended an event that was flawless and made you feel special? Kristen Farley and Stephanie Schwartz share a behind the scenes look at the details for Rock Your Trade Show's EmpowHer networking event. They provide important insights including why you always need have a Plan B for every scenario in meetings and events. Listen to how they complement each other in their roles from hotel arrangements to employee events and discover resources you can use for your next event. Have you ever attended an event that was flawless and made you feel special? Kirsten Farley and Stephanie Schwartz share a behind the scenes look at the details for Rock Your Trade Show's EmpowHer networking event. They provide important insights including why you always need have a Plan B for every scenario in meetings and events. Listen to how they complement each other in their roles from hotel arrangements to employee events and get resources you can use for your next event. Stephanie Schwartz shares how she got started in the sports industry playing golf and working first in golf tournaments and has a background not only in events she also worked at an App company for meetings. She shares how helpful her experiences have been to prepare her in her current role. Kristen Farley not only worked at conference centers previously she also worked at Disney and that experience helped her with the invaluable ability to always remain calm under pressure. She has a knack for always knowing how to exceed attendee expectations and know their preferences. Both Stephanie and Kristen share how they helped with the logistics in preparing for the first Rock Your Trade EmpowHer networking event along with the help from Trina Palm. They discuss insider resources and even have a funny story about what not to do when you are speaking at a large event. For more tips about how to host an incredible event, reach out to me. I love hearing from you! A big thanks to the team for helping with our event and to our wonderful attendees who made EmpowHer a memorable networking experience. Credits: As always, a big thanks to Christy Haussler at Team Podcast for editing this episode.
More information can be found at www.socialchangeleaders.net In this episode, we discuss something central and critical to social innovation - mindset. In order to best leverage socially innovative ideas and energy, we all need to collectively embrace a mindset for it. Specifically, you will: Understand what mindset is and why it matters Hear about why a mindset for social innovation is important to anyone who wants to create a better world Learn about the 6 key characteristics of someone with a social innovation mindset Learn some first steps so you can work toward a stronger social innovation mindset including actions you can take starting today as well as longer term strategies such as hiring a coach to guide you in the process of making mindset shifts. In this episode, we reference: Social Change Leaders Podcast Episode #7, 10 Ways to Build a Culture for Social Innovation Carol Dweck, Mindset book and Ted Talk “Developing a Growth Mindset” SSIR article https://ssir.org/articles/entry/essential_mindset_shifts_for_collective_impact Simon Sinek Ted Talk, “How Great Leaders Inspire Action” Click here for show download, Mindset for Social Innovation. Both Stephanie and Traci offering coaching, and working on one's mindset for social innovation is an area they can both address. A coach can help you to see mindset issues you don't realize, help you develop strategies to alter your mindset and help you come up with concrete ways to stick with new activities and thoughts to support your desired mindset. For more information on Traci, you can visit her company website, Social Motion. For more information on Stephanie, you can visit her company website, Genuine Impact. If you have a different mindset you will have a different outcome. - Jack Ma
More information can be found at www.socialchangeleaders.net In this episode, we discuss something central and critical to social innovation - mindset. In order to best leverage socially innovative ideas and energy, we all need to collectively embrace a mindset for it. Specifically, you will: Understand what mindset is and why it matters Hear about why a mindset for social innovation is important to anyone who wants to create a better world Learn about the 6 key characteristics of someone with a social innovation mindset Learn some first steps so you can work toward a stronger social innovation mindset including actions you can take starting today as well as longer term strategies such as hiring a coach to guide you in the process of making mindset shifts. In this episode, we reference: Social Change Leaders Podcast Episode #7, 10 Ways to Build a Culture for Social Innovation Carol Dweck, Mindset book and Ted Talk “Developing a Growth Mindset” SSIR article https://ssir.org/articles/entry/essential_mindset_shifts_for_collective_impact Simon Sinek Ted Talk, “How Great Leaders Inspire Action” Click here for show download, Mindset for Social Innovation. Both Stephanie and Traci offering coaching, and working on one’s mindset for social innovation is an area they can both address. A coach can help you to see mindset issues you don’t realize, help you develop strategies to alter your mindset and help you come up with concrete ways to stick with new activities and thoughts to support your desired mindset. For more information on Traci, you can visit her company website, Social Motion. For more information on Stephanie, you can visit her company website, Genuine Impact. If you have a different mindset you will have a different outcome. - Jack Ma
Both Stephanie's parents made her a secondary priority when it came to having relationships rather than raising their daughter, and Stephanie has A LOT of resentment.
Stephanie loves Molly. Molly loves Stephanie. Both Stephanie and Molly love The Rose and would really like to tell you all about their experience at the LA concert. Featuring military-like aggression, random squeeing, kpop concert lectures and Idol moments. To read the complete show notes, please visit the official website.
More than a feeling? If you listen to enough songs, you might get an idea... but research says it's a bit more than than just a lyric. A feeling? An action? Both? Stephanie brings the heat as a conversation led her to do some of her own special Learn to Like Each Other research! Also, we go over our OCEAN results from last week's episode! Thanks for listening! Listen, Like, Subscribe! Anchor.fm: https://anchor.fm/twopeasinapodcast Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/two-peas-in-a-podcast-a-podcast-about-relationships/id1214756688?uo=4 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/32MQ6tij8Kme8MrLqEvA4U CastBox: https://castbox.fm/ch/2090265 Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1214756688 Pocketcast: https://pca.st/QzuW PodBean: https://www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/ty2a5-52824/Two-Peas-in-a-Podcast-A-podcast-about-relationships RadioPublic: https://radiopublic.com/two-peas-in-a-podcast-a-podcast-a-8gJVJK Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=173368&refid=stpr --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/learntolikeeachother/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/learntolikeeachother/support
The Shifting Perceptions Podcast - Inspiration For Creative Lifestyles
Leave Us A Review This week we had the pleasure of getting lost in the woods with two of the most colorful souls we've had the great fortune of befriending; seasoned RV podcasters, bloggers, and authors Jeremy and Stephanie Puglisi. In the riveting interview, we were able to sit down with two crazy-passionate and multi-faceted people stripped of all inhibitions. They say it like it is when it comes down to parenting, childhood, life on the campground, and how they were able to grapple with the hardships of parenting while making a living and doing what they loved - all in that order. Contrary to popular belief, bloggers and podcasters alike don't always start off thirsty for monetization. The Puglisi couple's output was spun from a genuine place; as both were writers and adventurers at heart, even writing poetry from as early as high school. Both Stephanie and Jeremy have a background in education and a fierce love for their family and they want to share the peace the campground brings to their soul. They're on a mission to share with the world just how humbling and soulful life on the road can be. But Also: Parenting Camping RV Vacations Education Teacher Outdoors Roadtrip Naked gym locker-rooms Quotes: “There was no intention of this being a business; It was just born out of this enthusiasm and came from a genuine place deep in our souls” -Jeremy Puglisi “We try not to dwell on our mistakes because every time we've pivoted, It's really made the difference in our success” -Stephanie Puglisi Links & Resources: News 8: Summer RV Roadtrips with Jeremy and Stephanie Trailblazer Magazine: On The Road RV Vacations Book (Idiot's Guide) Connect with Jeremy and Stephanie Website Instagram Facebook Podcast Youtube Email Connect with The Shifting Perceptions Podcast: Shifting Perceptions Website Join Our Mailing List Facebook Instagram Twitter Connect with Jay Alders Jay Alders Website Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube Pinterest Connect with Chelsea Alders & Companies Om Mamas Doulas Website Sun Dreams Productions Website Instagram Chelsea Om Mamas Doulas Sun Dreams Productions Thank you to Charlotte's Web CBD for their support!* Visit JayAlders.com/CBD & Get 10% Off with Promo Code: ALDERS * Contains Affiliate Links
Stephanie Moniz is mom to Dasan. Both Stephanie and Dasan are featured in the very moving documentary, Tre Maison Dasan, which takes a look at how three boys (Tre, Maison and Dasan) and their families are affected by their parents' incarceration. This film, directed by Denali Tiller, who will be featured in episode 9 of WYMMN, along with Maison, has won awards across the globe and will be featured on PBS's Independent Lens and can be streamed on PBS.org, April 1st through April 14th. While in prison, Stephanie wrote and illustrated Resilient Mr. Ball for Dasan, under the pseudonym, Charlotte Apricot, and can now be purchased on Amazon. Stephanie is working on an activity guide to accompany the book, and has books in the works for children and adults. She also works with The Nonviolence Institute in helping youth to adopt nonviolent solutions to problems.
Stephanie is the pastor at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Formerly she was the Associate Pastor for Campus Ministry at Davidson College Presbyterian Church. She has also served other churches in Kentucky. She is married to Andy Wing, another Presbyterian minister. They have two boys, Isaac and Micah, 4 and 2 years old, respectively. Both Stephanie and Andy are children and grandchildren of pastors. In this interview Stephanie asks those of us not already engaged in self-awakening to take action on our own development. We're invited to encounters with racism. As resources Stephanie recommends the work of Sandra Kim, Safety Pin Box, and the fast-approaching March for Our Lives. Links: Sponsor: United Faith Leaders March for Our Lives: March 24, 2018 Stephanie on Facebook Trinity Presbyterian Church on Facebook Trinity Presbyterian Church Sandra Kim: everyday liberation Safety Pin Box Kenyon College Presbyterian Church (USA) Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary
In this episode, we’re talking about what we’re watching and surprisingly? Both Stephanie and Cherry Cordial watch a bunch of dramas thanks to the Christmas holiday. Stephanie tried to turn Former Roommate Alix’s YouTube gay but eventually gave up and switched to a Chinese ghost drama, Cherry may not have a lot of titles, but the shows she watched, she watched a LOT of. Then we cap off the episode by listing some of our New Year’s resolutions. To read the complete show notes, please visit the official website.
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