Podcasts about Excellence

In this week's episode with renowned photographer, Ashley Kematick, we talk about what it really looks like to pursue a dream while staying grounded in your values. The photography world can feel crowded and competitive, but there is always room for those who choose to do things differently—with excellence, integrity, and modesty.Ashley shares how photographers can stand out not just through talent, but through character. Excellence in your craft matters, but the way you treat people, the way you honor your convictions, and the way you carry yourself can set you apart even more.We also talk about chasing the dreams God places in your heart. Building a business takes faith, hard work, and perseverance. There will always be trends, pressure, and comparison in creative industries, but true success comes from staying faithful to what you believe and who you're called to be. In a world that often celebrates attention and exposure, choosing modesty can be a quiet but powerful way to reflect dignity and respect for yourself and others.Whether you're a photographer, a creative, or someone pursuing a calling, this episode will encourage you to keep going, stay true to your convictions, and pursue excellence in everything you do. You don't have to compromise your values. When you pursue your dreams with excellence, integrity, and modesty, you naturally become set apart.You can find Ashley Kematick here- https://www.instagram.com/ashleykematick?igsh=Mmd0cnFoNnNnZmo4Email-info@ashleykematick.comOnline-www.ashleykematick.com

Top 10 Mental Skills Every Athlete Needs to Master Grab the list here: https://t.co/yoaXVzPw9H-This Episode is Brought to you by:Champions Adjust Use code CAPod10 for 10% OFF

With the war against Iran now in its third week, it has become devastatingly clear that President Trump and his administration have no strategy for the conflict. This week, Alex speaks to Retired Master Sgt. Wes Bryant, a former senior advisor in the Pentagon's Civilian Protection Center of Excellence, about how Secretary of War Pete Hegseth gutted the team responsible for limiting civilian deaths prior to the attacks on Iran. Then Alex speaks to former Senator and MS Now analyst Claire McCaskill about the political ramifications of the war. From rising gas prices and MAGA revolt, to the rejection by international allies to help secure the Strait of Hormuz….none of this is looking good for Trump.

What happens when you combine a $59 Amazon printer, a vintage 2005 Toyota, and a deep desire to spend more time with your family? You get Untouched Blooms, a handmade flower and pet accessory brand that has found its way into the hands of the Kardashians, Simone Biles, and Alex Earl—all without a single dollar spent on ads or PR agencies. In this episode, founder Max Gayle Summersett breaks down the "scrappy" blueprint that allowed her to retire her father and scale a viral business from a 400-square-foot apartment. We dive into her "Triangle Method" for influencer outreach, the power of TikTok Live shopping, and why "Consumer Fixation" led her to the product ideas that changed her life. If you've ever felt like you didn't have enough capital to start, this conversation will prove that creativity is the ultimate currency.Key Takeaways:// Max proves that high-end equipment is a distraction. Starting with a $59 printer and a tricycle wasn't a hindrance; it forced the brand to be creative, resourceful, and deeply connected to the community.// Don't go for the celebrity; go for their inner circle. Max explains how gifting to a target's friends, managers, or even their dog trainer creates a "FOMO" effect that eventually leads to organic celebrity orders.// You don't need a complex content calendar to stay relevant. Max shares how she "rinses and repeats" organic B-roll of her and her 78-year-old father working together, simply by shifting the camera an inch or changing the story angle.// TikTok Live isn't just for selling; it's for real-time R&D. By showing up every other day, Max gets instant feedback on new designs and builds a "stickiness" that a static post can't replicate.// Excellence is the best marketing. By bedazzling packages and doing deep-dive research into a customer's life (like finding a celebrity's husband's team colors), you turn a simple purchase into a "memento" that people are proud to share.Learn More About Untouched Blooms: Website | Instagram____Join the MHH Collective! The MHH Collective is a community for marketers and business owners to connect, ask real questions, and grow their careers together. Join for access to live Q&As with industry experts, a private Slack community, and ongoing resources: https://www.marketinghappyhr.com/mhh-collectiveSay hi! DM us on Instagram and let us know what content you want to hear on the show - We can't wait to hear from you! Please also consider rating the show and leaving a review, as that helps us tremendously as we move forward in this Marketing Happy Hour journey and create more content for all of you. ⁠Join the MHH Collective: ⁠Join now⁠Get the latest marketing trends, open jobs and MHH updates, straight to your inbox: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Join our email list!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow MHH on Social: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

In this episode, Michael J. Domanic, VP and Head of AI at UserTesting, reveals how he drove 70%+ weekly AI adoption across the entire company — turning UserTesting into one of the most AI-mature enterprises in the market. Michael shares why most enterprise AI rollouts fail, and the exact playbook he used to get hundreds of employees building custom GPTs and integrating AI into their daily workflows.Michael breaks down how UserTesting moved from Phase 1 (culture change and grassroots adoption) to Phase 2 (agent orchestration and scaled automation), how he built the governance frameworks that let teams experiment safely without creating chaos, and why the companies that treat AI adoption as a culture problem — not a technology problem — are the ones winning. He also shares his honest take on why AI projects consistently miss expectations and what leaders need to do differently in 2026.Key Topics Covered- How UserTesting achieved 70%+ weekly AI adoption across the entire organization- Why most enterprise AI projects fail to meet expectations — and the root causes leaders miss- How employees built hundreds of custom GPTs for internal workflows without a top-down mandate- The Phase 1 to Phase 2 transition: from culture change to agent orchestration- Building AI governance frameworks that enable experimentation without creating risk- Why treating AI adoption as a culture problem (not a tech problem) is the key to success- How to get executive buy-in for enterprise-wide AI transformation- What "AI maturity" actually looks like inside a real company- Michael's predictions for how agentic AI will reshape enterprise operations- The skills leaders need to drive AI adoption in their organizations*Episode Timestamps*00:00 - Introduction and welcome01:31 - Michael's career background and life journey08:08 - Why AI transformation is about creativity, not technology10:43 - Hiring the right AI transformation leaders14:07 - Building Centers of Excellence for AI17:36 - What UserTesting does and Michael's role32:55 - Achieving 70%+ AI adoption across the company35:41 - How employees built hundreds of custom GPTs39:16 - OKR methodology and governance frameworks43:50 - Creativity as the fundamental skill for future work48:39 - Phase 2: Agent orchestration and advanced AI56:46 - Outlook: Optimism about AI's future impact59:27 - Closing: How honest conversations drive progressMichael's Socials:LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeldomanic/Partner LinksBook Enterprise Training — https://www.upscaile.com/Subscribe to our free newsletter — https://newsletter.theaireport.ai/subscribe

In this episode of the Rox Lyfe podcast, I'm joined by Brad Stulberg.Brad is a bestselling author whose books include Peak Performance, The Practice of Groundedness, and Master of Change. His latest book, The Way of Excellence, explores what it really means to pursue excellence in sport, work, and life.In this conversation, we dive into what excellence actually is - and some of the biggest misconceptions around it. We talk about goal setting for athletes, how to stay motivated when progress inevitably slows down, and why curiosity might be one of the most powerful mindsets you can bring into training and racing.We also get into patience, failure, consistency, and the traps that stop athletes from reaching their potential.If you're chasing progress in HYROX or any performance-based sport, there's a lot in here that will change how you think about training and improvement.

Tom Haberstroh, Amin Elhassan and producer Anthony Mayes are still fiending for the Insights to Excellence from Michael Jordan that NBC has been trickling out since the beginning of the season. Truth Teller Jorge Sedano of ESPN is uniquely equipped to tackle Bam Adebayo's historical evening, being born and raised in Miami while currently doing radio in Los Angeles. We also talk NBA Expansion, test Jorge's knowledge of the Backstreet Boys catalog and discuss who Wemby should replace on his bookcase full of photographs. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to the Illuminati YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Channel⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Basketball Illuminati is now part of the Count The Dings Network. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Join the Count The Dings Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to support the show, get ad free episodes and exclusive content at⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/countthedings⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ILLUMINATI MERCH HAS RETURNED⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - Check it out here:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/CTDMERCH⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Basketball Illuminati! On⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Email us: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠basketballilluminati@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@bballilluminati⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@basketballilluminati⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Get updates for my new book: https://Theperfectportfoliobook.com  -----  Brad Stulberg returns to The Long Term Investor to share a more grounded, more human definition of excellence—one rooted not in perfection or status, but in meaningful work, clear values, and deep satisfaction. This conversation is full of practical wisdom for anyone trying to do great work, stay focused in a distracted world, and build a life that feels both ambitious and fulfilling.   Listen now and learn: ► Why excellence is not the same as perfectionism, obsession, or winning at all costs ► How to build routines that raise the floor when life feels chaotic ► Why focus is harder than ever in the smartphone era—and what to do about it ► How AI can support excellence without replacing the deeply human parts of your craft   Visit www.TheLongTermInvestor.com for show notes, free resources, and a place to submit questions.   Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (⁠https://thepodcastconsultant.com⁠)   Disclosure: This content, which contains security-related opinions and/or information, is provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon in any manner as professional advice, or an endorsement of any practices, products or services. There can be no guarantees or assurances that the views expressed here will be applicable for any particular facts or circumstances, and should not be relied upon in any manner. You should consult your own advisers as to legal, business, tax, and other related matters concerning any investment. The commentary in this "post" (including any related blog, podcasts, videos, and social media) reflects the personal opinions, viewpoints, and analyses of the Plancorp LLC employees providing such comments, and should not be regarded the views of Plancorp LLC. or its respective affiliates or as a description of advisory services provided by Plancorp LLC or performance returns of any Plancorp LLC client. References to any securities or digital assets, or performance data, are for illustrative purposes only and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Charts and graphs provided within are for informational purposes solely and should not be relied upon when making any investment decision. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The content speaks only as of the date indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects, and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others. Please see disclosures here.

Si vous êtes cavalier, passionné de sports équestres, d' équitation , de saut d'obstacles, de jumping : ce nom résonne forcément.Steve Guerdat

Host/Producer: Amy Browne The 3rd No Kings Day is coming up on March 28th FMI re No Kings Day FMI re No Kings Day events in Maine The Digital Security Discussion Group at the Witherle Memorial Library in Castine meets tonight from 5 to 6 pm. This week’s topic is This month’s topic is the Pros and Cons of Digital Surveillance and ID Verification. Moderated by Tom Lamontanaro. In person in the Downstairs Community Room at the Witherle, and over Zoom. To request the zoom link, email kathryn@witherlelibrary.net 36th Maine Women's Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony coming up this Saturday, March 21st, at the University of Maine at Augusta, starting with a reception at 1 p.m., followed by the induction ceremony at 2 p.m. The 2026 inductees are Alane O'Connor, Director of Perinatal Addiction Medicine at MaineHealth Maine Medical Center “who has been in the forefront of addiction medicine in the state”, and the late Frances Perkins, U.S. Secretary of Labor under President Franklin Roosevelt “and architect of New Deal programs that Americans rely on today”. Live and online. RSVP if you plan to attend, by emailing mainewomenshalloffame@gmail.com. FMI: Maine Women’s Hall of Fame website Snow date is March 22 The League of Women Voters – Downeast is hosting an in-person and online discussion on county government in Maine, on Saturday in Ellsworth. Panelists will be Kate Cough, Editor at the Maine Monitor; John Wombacher, Hancock County Commissioner; and Nina Milliken, Hancock County Budget Committee and House Representative for District 16. The event is free and open to the public, Saturday from noon to 2pm at the Moore Community Center in Ellsworth Register here for the zoom link Questions may be submitted in advance by email to downeast@lwvme.o About the host: Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU's News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices, Maine Currents and Maine: The Way Life Could Be, Amy also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and Maine Association of Broadcasters awards for her work in 2017 and 2021. Theme music: BreakBeat Chemists I, 2015 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License The post Around Town 3/18/26: Local News, Culture and Events first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Have you had a performance review in the last year or two? If you have, how did you do? Did you need improvement? Did you meet expectations? OR did you EXCEED expectations? Because here's the thing: when you do good at work, people notice. Your quality of work is, in itself a witness to who God is… a God of goodness, of care, and of EXCELLENCE. Colossians 3:23 says, "Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people." Because the thing is, God is interested in good business, good profit, good attitudes, good character development, and meeting your employee needs. And when we connect God's passion for people with God's passion for quality and excellence the line between the sacred and the secular dissolves and the secular BECOMES sacred.  

How a systemic approach to continuously strengthening relationships builds high performing systems of care In this episode of the Habitual Excellence Podcast, Ken Segel, CRO for Value Capture, speaks with Jeremy Blanchard, MD, System Chief Medical Officer for North Mississippi Health Services, about what it takes to make value-based care real. Drawing on his background as an internal medicine physician, intensivist, military-trained critical care specialist, and healthcare leader, Jeremy shares how his career has been shaped by a commitment to dignity, respect, and giving voice to patients, caregivers, and communities.Jeremy explains that value-based care is not a destination, but a journey rooted in relationships. At North Mississippi Health Services, that means listening deeply to patients, staff, and communities, then building systems that reflect what matters most. He describes expanding residency and fellowship programs, strengthening workforce pipelines, reducing reliance on traveling nurses, empowering frontline teams to own quality and safety, and building stronger connections across the region they serve.Throughout the conversation, Jeremy emphasizes that transformation happens when people feel heard and valued. Through mindful listening, servant leadership, and practical innovation, North Mississippi continues to improve care delivery and strengthen its culture.The episode closes with a reflection on conflict, trust, and growth. Jeremy describes “mining for conflict” as a way to uncover insight, strengthen relationships, and create conversations that lead to better outcomes - showing how values, when operationalized through leadership and systems, can improve care and community health.

From combat missions in the F-22 Raptor to more than five months aboard the International Space Station, Lt. Col. Nichole “Vapor” Ayers '11 has seen it all. SUMMARY In this episode of Long Blue Leadership, Col. Ayers reflects on mentorship, teamwork and building the next generation of warriors and astronauts.   SHARE THIS EPISODE LINKEDIN  |  FACEBOOK     TOP 10 TAKEAWAYS 1. Leadership is fluid: sometimes you lead, sometimes you follow. On Dragon and the ISS, command shifted between Anne McClain and Takuya Onishi. Everyone alternated between being commander and flight engineer, showing that strong teams normalize moving between leading and supporting roles. 2. Team care starts with self‑care. Vapor repeatedly links sleep, rest, hydration, and health to leadership performance. You can't be present for others if you're exhausted or burned out; taking care of yourself is a leadership duty, not a luxury. 3. People first, mission second (to enable mission success). Whether on deployment with 300 personnel or in space with 7, she focuses on taking care of the human—family issues, logistics, burnout, and emotions—trusting that performance and mission execution follow from that. 4. Trust is built long before the crisis. ISS emergency training with all seven crew, plus years of joint training in multiple countries, builds shared understanding and trust. When emergencies happen, the crew isn't figuring each other out for the first time. 5. Quiet, thoughtful leadership can be incredibly powerful. Takuya Onishi's style—observant, calm, speaks only when it matters, and brings thoughtful items for others—shows that you don't need to be loud to command respect. When he spoke, everyone listened. 6. Leadership means being fully present, especially on others' hard days. In both combat and space, you can't “hide” when someone's struggling. Being reachable, attentive, and emotionally available is a core leadership behavior, not a soft add‑on. 7. Normalize mistakes and share lessons learned. From F‑22 sorties to NASA operations, it's expected that you openly admit errors and pass on lessons so others don't repeat them. A culture where “experience is what you get right after you need it” only works if people share that experience. 8. Plan for “seasons” of intensity, not permanent balance. She frames life as seasons: some are sprints (deployments, intense training, big trips); others are for recovery. Wise leaders anticipate these cycles, push hard when needed, then deliberately create room to reset afterward. 9. Model the behavior you want your team to adopt. If the commander is always first in, last out, everyone else feels pressure to match that. By visibly protecting her own rest and home life, she gives permission for others to do the same and avoid burnout. 10. Lean on—and be—a support system. Her twin sister, long‑term friends, and professional peers form a lifelong support network she turns to when she fails, doubts herself, or hits something “insurmountable.” Great leaders both rely on and serve as those trusted people for others.     CHAPTERS 0:00:00 – Introduction & Vapor's Journey (Academy, F‑22, NASA) 0:00:38 – Launch Scrub, Second Attempt & What a Rocket Launch Feels Like 0:03:33 – First Moments in Space, Floating & Seeing Earth (Overview Effect) 0:06:11 – Leadership & Teamwork in Space: Roles, Trust, and Small-Crew Dynamics 0:10:19 – Multinational Crews & Leadership Lessons from Other Cultures 0:14:47 – No‑Notice F‑22 Deployment & Leading a Squadron in Combat 0:18:14 – Managing Burnout: Scheduling, Human Factors & “Crew‑10 Can Do Hard Things” 0:19:46 – Self‑Care as Team Care: Seasons of Life, Rest, and Being Present 0:26:02 – Family, Being an Aunt, and Balancing a Demanding Career 0:28:14 – Life After Space: Mentoring New Astronauts & Evolving as a Leader     ABOUT NICHOLE BIO U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Nichole "Vapor" Ayers is a trailblazing pilot, leader and astronaut whose journey began at the United States Air Force Academy, where she graduated in 2011 with a degree in mathematics. An accomplished F-22 Raptor pilot, Ayers is one of the few women ever to fly the world's most advanced stealth fighter — and she's one of even fewer to command them in formation for combat training missions. Col. Ayers earned her wings through years of training and operational excellence, logging over 200 flight hours in combat and playing a critical role in advancing tactical aviation. Her exceptional performance led to her selection in 2021 by NASA as a member of Astronaut Group 23, an elite class of 10 chosen from among 12,000 applicants. As a NASA astronaut candidate, Col. Ayers completed intensive training at Johnson Space Center, which included spacewalk preparation, robotics, survival training, systems operations and Russian language. Now qualified for spaceflight, she stands on the threshold of a new chapter that led her to the International Space Station. Throughout her career, Col. Ayers has exemplified the Academy's core values of Integrity First, Service Before Self and Excellence in All We Do. Her journey from cadet to combat aviator to astronaut is a testament to resilience, determination and a passion for pushing boundaries.   LEARN MORE ABOUT NICHOLE NASA Astronaut Nichole Ayers   CONNECT WITH THE LONG BLUE LINE PODCAST NETWORK TEAM Ted Robertson | Producer and Editor:  Ted.Robertson@USAFA.org Send your feedback or nominate a guest: socialmedia@usafa.org   Ryan Hall | Director:  Ryan.Hall@USAFA.org  Bryan Grossman | Copy Editor:  Bryan.Grossman@USAFA.org Wyatt Hornsby | Executive Producer:  Wyatt.Hornsby@USAFA.org     ALL PAST LBL EPISODES  |  ALL LBLPN PRODUCTIONS AVAILABLE ON ALL MAJOR PODCAST PLATFORMS     FULL TRANSCRIPT SPEAKERS Host: Lt. Col. (Ret.) Naviere Walkewicz '99 Guest: Lt. Col. Nichole "Vapor" Ayers '11   Col. Naviere Walkewicz 0:00 Vapor, welcome to Long Blue Leadership. We are so thrilled you're here. Col. Nichole “Vapor” Ayers 0:11 Thank you. Thanks for having me. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 0:12 Absolutely. So the cadets get to spend some time with you at NCLS. Here the Long Blue Line is going to get to hear from you. And you know, we can actually go through the list. You know, F-22 pilot, USAFA 2011 graduate, you've been in combat, you're a NASA pilot. The list is probably shorter what you haven't done. But, frankly, I'm just excited that you're here on Earth with us, because the last time we spoke, you called me from outer space. Col. Nichole “Vapor” Ayers 0:35 Yeah, that was a lot of fun. That was a lot of chat with you then too. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 0:38 So let's just jump right in. So if we can just kind of catapult you, and let's do it in the way that they that NASA does, into space, maybe starting with the countdown, and then the Gs you take, what is that experience like? And maybe, what are some things you were thinking about in those moments? Col. Nichole “Vapor” Ayers 0:53 Oh, yeah. So, you know, we launched on March 14. First attempt was March 12, and we actually scrubbed the first launch. So we got all the way down to T minus 42 minutes right before we armed the launch escape system. So that's kind of a big milestone on the countdown. We were having issues with some hydraulics in the clamp that actually holds on to the rocket wall and then let's go. We weren't quite sure whether it was gonna let go, so they scrubbed the launch then, and it was a fascinating — you don't feel like you've got a ton of adrenaline going, but, you know, you feel kind of like you're in a sim. We do some really phenomenal training. And so when you're sitting on top of the rocket, it feels like you're in a simulator, except it's breathing and living, and the valves are moving, and you can hear the propellant being loaded and all of that. And so there's a very real portion to launch date. But then, coming down off of that adrenaline, we got a day off, thankfully. We could just kind of rest and relax and then go again. So everything went smoother the second try. Of course, you know, everybody's nerves are a little less, and everything was — it just felt calmer the whole way out. But, yeah, when that countdown hits zero, I like to say you're being slingshotted off the Earth. That's how it felt. You know, in that moment, you're going. There's over a million pounds of thrust, and it's going. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 2:10 I mean, that sounds like a lot. I can't really fathom in my mind what that feels like. Can you describe it? Col. Nichole “Vapor” Ayers 2:17 You know, so I talked about in an F-22 and an afterburner takeoff, which is the most thrust that we have basically in any airplane on Earth. You know, you get set back in your seat really far. And, if you think of an airliner takeoff, you kind of get set back in your seat a little bit. Multiply that by, like, 10 or 20, and then that happened for nine minutes straight on a rocket. You're just being forcefully set back in your seat for nine minutes straight and just thrown off of the Earth, and in nine minutes, you're in orbit. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 2:49 So when you had your practice, did you experience that level for that long as well? Col. Nichole “Vapor” Ayers 2:54 For the simulators? So they can't that. We can't necessarily simulate the Gs in the sim. So that's like the one part that, you know, we go through the whole launch, but you're sitting at one G the whole time, and throughout the launch, you know, the Gs build, then we back off the thrust and the Gs build again, and then you have an engine cut off. And I like to explain, like, if you could visualize, like an old cartoon, and everybody's in the car driving, and Dad slams on the brakes, and everybody hits the windshield. And then he slams on the gas again, and everybody goes back to their seats. Like, that's what it felt like when the engine cut off and, you know, main engine cuts off, and then within a few seconds, the second engine lights, and you're set back in your seat again. So I like to give that visual. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 3:33 That's really helpful, actually. Wow. OK, so you're there, you're in space. And I guess my first question would be, what's something that, in that moment, you're either thinking or you're just, are you still just orienting yourself? What is that like? Col. Nichole “Vapor” Ayers 3:45 Oh, man, you know, we're still in the seats for the first few moments in space, and we have to open the nose cone. There's some other things that are happening on the spacecraft, and getting ready for a burn, for a phasing burn, to get up to and catch up with the International Space Station. But, you know, then eventually you get to unbuckle and get out of your seat and floating for the first time. I got out of my seat and I'm floating there. It felt like, you know, Captain Marvel when she's, like, hanging out. Yeah, that's, that's how I felt. And, you know, I like to give the visual, because it's like, it's just nothing you've ever experienced in your life, you know. And then you look out the window and the view is something, it's indescribable. You know, I don't think we have the right words in the English language to describe what it feels like to look back at Earth from space. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 4:35 Was there a moment when you're looking out at Earth — did you kind of play back just different things in your life? Did you think about, you know, significance of things, or, like, scope of things, or even just the vantage point? Did it kind of just change things or were you just in awe at the moment? Col. Nichole “Vapor” Ayers 4:49 No, I think, you know, we talked about the overview effect, when astronauts specifically look back at Earth, and it hits everybody kind of differently. And for me, I think the biggest thing you know, when you look at a map of the states or a map of the world, you know, every country is a different color, or every state's a different color, and there are lines that describe the borders, right? And those don't exist in in space. Those don't exist like when you can't see different colored states, right? But you can see the Grand Canyon, and you can see the mountains, and you can see the Amazon, and you can see the desert in Africa. And you get to, you know, you get to learn the world geography by colors and terrain. And it's just a really good reminder that, you know, we're all humans, and we're all on this little fragile marble, just trying to take care of each other and trying to take care of Earth. And so I think that's what hit me the most, was just there are no borders, and we're all the same. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 5:44 Gosh, well, it's a unique and probably highly impressive team that you're with. I mean, we know the road to get to becoming a NASA astronaut is certainly one that is very difficult. Starts from many, many, in the 1000s, down to 10. And so, you know, when we think about leadership, and I've heard you share this before with others, you talk about teamwork and leadership, maybe explain a little bit what that's like in space when you're all so highly effective leaders. You know, what does that look like? Col. Nichole “Vapor” Ayers 6:12 That's a great question. You know, I think for us, it is a very fluid movement, right? You lead one day; you follow the next. And you know, I'll give you an example. So Anne McClain was the commander of SpaceX Crew-10 for NASA. So she was in charge of Crew-10 is our ride up to the space station, and our ride home, right? It's the capsule, the rocket and the capsule. And then we were on Expedition 73 aboard the International Space Station, where Takuya, who it was, Takuya Onishi, who was our mission specialist on Dragon, soon as we crossed into the hatch and he took command. He is now the commander of the Space Station, and Anne and I are flight engineers, and so it's a pretty fluid movement in terms of leading and following. But ultimately, you know, it's just about being a good team and taking care of each other. And I think that being a good leader is taking care of other people. And, you know, we talk about team care — self-care, and team care are like the huge parts that we actually train and learn about at NASA as we go through our training, because you're on this really small space in the vacuum of space for five-plus months at a time, and it's — there are only seven people up there and everybody's going to have a bad day. We're all humans, and you can't, there's no hiding.   Col. Naviere Walkewicz 7:30 What's a bad day like in space?   Col. Nichole “Vapor” Ayers 7:32 People make mistakes, right? We're all human. You might make a mistake on something, you might mess up a procedure. You hope that it's not something that causes a safety incident, right? The main goal for me, at least, was, I know I'm going to make mistakes. As long as I'm not unsafe, I'll be happy. And I think that a lot of us have that conscious decision-making process. But I think that we're also humans and have Earth lives, and your Earth life doesn't stop when you go to space. And so bad days could be something going on at home. Bad days could be something going on in space. Could be an interaction that you had with somebody on the ground that, you know, there's a lot of communication that happens between us on the ground. There are thousands of humans on the Earth that keep the Space Station running. So that day could be anything but it's tough to hide up there. Here, you can kind of like, duck and cover and maybe you just spend the day in an office. But it doesn't happen up there. We have to continue to work and continue to function. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 8:32 So you mentioned that there are seven of you in this tight space. Now, when you go up there, your crew, is it the same seven?   Col. Nichole “Vapor” Ayers 8:38 For the majority of the time. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 8:42 OK, excellent. So one of the things we think about whenever we're leading or we're working with teams is trust, and obviously you have a great amount of trust with the crew that you're going up there with. But then you mentioned you went on to the ISS and you're working with others. What does that look like when it's someone maybe you haven't worked as closely with in a really important mission? Col. Nichole “Vapor” Ayers 9:03 So for the seven expedition members, we actually do train together for a little bit of it, not nearly as closely as, you know, the four of us training for Dragon mission. But because the most dynamic parts are launch and landing, we do a lot of training together, just as the four of us, but we train all over the world. So we go to Japan and Germany and Canada, and we go to, you know, Hawthorne, California, and we go to Russia, and we train with them, and we learn about the Russian segment, and we train with our fellow cosmonauts there. And we do emergency training specifically all together, because it takes all seven of us in an emergency doing the right thing and knowing everybody's roles. And so we train that together as well. And then anytime you're in the same country or same city together, then you get to spend the time outside of the training to get to know each other. And so you actually know your crew fairly well. But obviously, everybody's from a different nation. And we had Americans, we had a Japanese astronaut, we had Russians, so you learn everybody's culture, and it's actually, you know, to your point on being in that small — and not necessarily knowing everybody. There's also a cultural aspect; we get to know each other. We get to learn about other people's cultures and figure out how to communicate and live and work, even across the whole world. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 10:19 What was something that you learned from another culture of astronaut, maybe in the leadership realm, or just something that you took away, that's really something that surprised me, or like to emulate? Col. Nichole “Vapor” Ayers 10:30 I love Taku's leadership style. So Takuya Onishi — he's one of those more quiet humans, and he's super kind, but he is the most intelligent human I've ever met, and he is super-efficient with everything he does, and he pays attention to all of the little things. And so he only speaks up when he thinks something needs to be changed, or when he thinks that, like, we need to go in a different direction, otherwise, he's pretty happy to let you go, like, let you go as far as you want to go on something. And then when he thinks you're gonna run off a cliff, he pulls you back. So when he speaks, everybody listens. And I love that. I think some of that is cultural, obviously, him being from Japan, but I think it's also just his personal leadership style, but I learned a ton from him in terms of how to interact with people, how to let people be themselves, but also how to run a ship, and everybody knew exactly who was running the ship. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 11:22 Wow. And it shows that respect lens that you're just kind of talking about when he spoke. Everybody listens. Is that something that you feel you already had that kind of leadership style or is that something that you've kind of evolved in yourself? Col. Nichole “Vapor” Ayers 11:37 I like to think that that's the way that I lead. That's kind of how I try to be a leader. But we're not perfect, right? Nobody's perfect. And watching him, you know, taking notes from how he interacted with everybody, the things that he thought of, the things that he brought with him for us on station, you know, we get a very limited amount of stuff, personal things that we get to bring with us. And he brought things for the crew that were like, huge milestones for professional careers. You know, just the attention to detail on the human beings around him was pretty phenomenal. So it's one of the things I'm working on to be better at, because I like to think I'm good at it. But I saw the master work. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 12:18 I love that. And something you said about him, he always has attention to detail, and he saw the little things. He paid attention to the little things. I remember a past conversation we had. You had a little nugget from Col. Nick Hague, also USAFA — '98 I believe. And I think he said to you, something about, you know, “Nicole, don't forget that you're squishy,” or something like that. And so have you had more of those moments in there where they're like little nuggets or little moments that actually give you a big return or big lessons in your life? Col. Nichole “Vapor” Ayers 12:46 Oh, definitely, yeah, that one's a funny one, because the space station is metal. Everything is metal, and it's hard and so we still have weight, well, mass. We still have mass. We don't have weight, right, because we're in microgravity. But if you're cooking around a corner and you run into a handrail, it's gonna hurt, you know, if you imagine going 10 or 15 mph into something metal, it's gonna hurt — you're squishy. So that was a great lesson in slowing down and making sure you're watching your surroundings. But one of the things that Anne McClain says that cracks me up, but every time it happens, like, “Yep, this is definitely—," she says, “Experience is that thing you learn right after you need it.” And so we had a lot of those moments where you learn a lesson and you're like, “Ah, I wish I knew that five minutes ago.” And so that's something that applies everywhere. Experience is that thing you always needed right before that happened. But we also like to say Crew-10 can do hard things. That's another thing that was just kind of our motto, whether it's training — some of the training can be really physically demanding. It's really mentally demanding. And it's a lot of travel. When you get assigned to a mission, it's probably a year and a half to two years of training, and then you're gone for six months. So out of that two to two and a half years, you're not home for over a year. So you're all over the world, traveling to train and work. And like I said, we're all humans. We have Earth lives, we have homes, you get situations back home. And so navigating personal lives, navigating professional lives, navigating tough training. Crew-10 can do hard things. We like to say that. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 14:22 I like that. It also talks a bit about your grit. Crew-10 grit. So, talking about hard things, I'd like to take us to the time when you've been piloting the F-22 and you've seen combat. I heard you speaking a little bit before about a no-notice deployment. Let's visit that time in your life. What were you doing? What was your role, and what was something you experienced? Col. Nichole “Vapor” Ayers 14:47 Sure. So I was actually flying the day that we got notified. And, you know, just a standard training sortie — had landed, and some of the maintainers were like, “Hey, have you heard what's happening?” And I was like, “No, what's happening?” And then we had a big squadron meeting, and that's when we got notified, like, “Hey, we're deploying.” We were on the GRF, is what it was called at the time, Global Response Force, and I think some of that structure has changed since I left that squadron, but we knew that once we were on the GRF, there was a chance that we would get activated and get moved somewhere. Didn't necessarily expect it to be quite that quick. I think it was like the next week we got this deployment. So we got notified on a Thursday, I think, and then on Monday, I was taking off.   Col. Naviere Walkewicz 15:31 Oh, really no notice.   Col. Nichole “Vapor” Ayers 15:33 Yeah, so, four days later, we were taking off, and then seven days later, we were flying missions from — we were stationed at Al Udeid Air Base, so we're flying out of Al Udeid within a week. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 15:45 How many with you?   Col. Nichole “Vapor” Ayers 15:47 So when we deploy, we actually deploy with our maintenance squadrons, 300 people. Twenty to 30 of them are the pilots, and then the rest are the maintainers. And so it's the entire squadron. We morph into an expeditionary squadron. And so there are 300 people that head out. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 16:03 So I imagine, you know, on top of the fact that it was such a rapid movement, there's probably things that people had to obviously work through family. This needs to happen. But what were some things that you experienced in that deployment, or even in just that transition? Col. Nichole “Vapor” Ayers 16:21 Again, I go back to taking care of people. I was a flight commander at the time. We had two flight commanders, so I'm in charge of basically half the squadron, and we had a really wonderful commander who gave us the authority and the autonomy to leave the squadron. So, you know, it's about saying, like, “How are you guys doing at home?” Half our squadron didn't even have tan flight suits. You know, we're trying, we're working with logistics. We're trying to get everything ready. Like, does everybody have a go bag? Does everybody even know what a go bag is? Do you have the things you need? So working all of that. And then do you have the childcare figured out? Do you have the — how is all your family doing? Are you ready for this? And then we had to do a bunch of last-minute training before we left. And so it's a really busy time, but it was one of the first times where I felt like I had an influence on the people that were under me, that I had supervised. And so it was a really great experience to solve those problems, figure it out and help people get off the ground in four days successfully, and leaving something, some semblance of structure at home. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 17:24 So you said it was the first time where you kind of really felt that you had that impact. What would you say kind of maybe crystallized within yourself in learning that? Col. Nichole “Vapor” Ayers 17:36 I think it really solidified. I think I said, “I try to lead by taking care of people,” right? I truly believe if you take care of the human, they're going to do a really great job. You don't have to ask much of people at work and in their professional life, if their personal and the human side of them is taken care of and so that's kind of what I mean when I say that solidified it for me, like, make sure that the humans are good to go, and they'll go do anything you want to do. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 18:04 Wow. So while on that deployment, you're leading half of that squadron. What were some of the challenges maybe that you experienced, and how did you grow as a leader during that timeframe? Col. Nichole “Vapor” Ayers 18:14 Scheduling is definitely a tough one. So we flew daytime and nighttime. We basically had an F-22 airborne for almost 24 hours a day for the entire six months, six and a half months. We left and we were told it might be two- or three-month deployment, and then it turned into six months. And then we got delayed up coming home. And so then we stayed through Christmas. And those are the things that really are tough for people. But we have a limited number of jets that we took. We have a limited number of pilots; we have a limited number of maintainers and parts. And so I think for us, managing a schedule between me and the other flight commander, managing a schedule, managing quality of life for everybody, and make sure that we're not burning people out, or that they're not —we're flying eight-, nine-, 10-hour sorties, right? And that's exhausting. It's just you and that airplane with your wingman and a different airplane. And so you have to manage, again, that human factor. The human capital is probably the toughest thing to manage. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 19:15 Wow, and you talked about how the deployment kind of got extended. What were some things, because many of our listeners and our viewers are leaders, and at different levels of leadership and different times in their lives where they're doing that. When you were leading, and you had some of those subordinates, or those that were working with you that really experienced some troubles, through emotions, through some of that. How did you help navigate them through that when you were all in that as well? Col. Nichole “Vapor” Ayers 19:46 Right. You know, I think at NASA especially, we talk about self-care being a huge part of team care. And so making sure I do this in my regular life too, but, you know, making sure that you're getting enough rest, making sure that you're taking care of yourself and your personal life, so that you can truly be present for the other people that need you. And I think being present for others is one of the biggest things that you can do. You know, they may not need a ton of help, or they may not need the solution, but being there, being available and being present for people is really important. But you can't do that unless you're good to go yourself. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 20:18 Did you see that from someone? Did you learn that from someone you saw doing that? Or just, how did, I mean NASA's — you said, NASA, but did you see that at the Academy? Or where did you kind of gather that? Col. Nichole “Vapor” Ayers 20:28 You know, I think one of the things that hit me hard about showing up and being present was actually more professional. I kind of skated through the Academy on minimal sleep, and I was able to manage everything. But I wasn't flying a $143 million airplane. And so, in pilot training, we started to talk about crew rest and pilot rest. That's the first time that I had heard this concept of, “You need to go home and get rest so that you can be on your game.” Because flying airplanes, your decisions have real consequences, right? And you have to be present and available, and you have to be on your game to fly airplanes and do well in airplanes. And then the faster and the higher and the better the airplane gets, the more on your game you have to be. So I think it's something that has just kind of evolved in me. And then, as a leader, I realized, if you don't have any gas in the tank, you cannot help somebody else. And so for me, it's just kind of been, over the last decade and a half, of, wow, I need my sleep. I need to make sure I'm good to go. I need to make sure my human is good, so that way I can help other humans. And yeah, when your decisions have real consequences, it's important that you're present and you're ready to go. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 21:43 Have you seen some of the fact that you prioritize that for yourself, for you as your own human? Have you seen others kind of like see that, view that, and actually take that on as well themselves. Col. Nichole “Vapor” Ayers 21:53 Yeah, I think they do. And I think, as a leader, it's really important to set that example. The commander cannot be the first one in last one out. Like, you just can't do that, because everybody's going to stay until you leave. So setting the example, setting the example of having a good home-life balance as well. Like, home and work have to be balanced. Sleep has to be balanced. Again, self-care is the biggest part of team care, I think. And if you model that, people start to realize it's important. You know, the younger people that might burn themselves out trying to get somewhere, trying to get to the next step, or trying to impress somebody, or whatever the case may be, if they see you taking a step back and they see your success, maybe then they can start worrying about themselves too. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 22:34 I think that's a great lesson, leading by example. For sure. There are probably moments that you experience both at the Academy, while flying the F-22 or as an astronaut, where you don't have the luxury of balance. How do you navigate that and how do you help others get to that space maybe quicker? Col. Nichole “Vapor” Ayers 22:53 I think of everything as a season in life. It might just be a busy season, and you might just have to put some time in but making sure that you are planning ahead and know that you're gonna be able to take some time and reset. And that could be anything, right? That could be personal life, professional life. That could be the four-week training trip that we've got is going to be rough, and its multiple time zones, and it's a ton of training, it's a ton of information. You just have to get through it. But then, that week, when we got home, I made sure my schedule was a little lighter. Whatever the balance is, I think of things in seasons. Crew-10 can do hard things, right? And that came from — you can get through this next training session, right? But we're gonna do a mask-to-suit transition, which is like in a fire, you've got a mask on. You have to get from that mask into your spacesuit. It's a significant physical event. And there's limited oxygen; there's limited ability to breathe in the suit when in that specific environment. And so how do you slow down, take the breaths you need to get in there to not then get to a point where you're panicking, right? Or that you're too exhausted or too hot or overdid, or whatever it is, right? So I think even just that, that is a season. We're going to do two hours of this. That's my season, and then we'll get out of the simulator, we'll take a break, right? And if it happened on orbit, it would be like, “We're going to get through this. We're going to solve the problem. We're going to manage the emergency, and then once things are set, we'll have a moment to breathe.” So that's kind of how I think of it. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 24:21 Did seasons come something, a term that you kind of realized maybe at the Academy, you were a volleyball athlete at the Academy, and so volleyball has a season. But my question is, like, how did you come to that realization? Like, “Oh, I can get through this, and I put it in a bucket of time.” Col. Nichole “Vapor” Ayers 24:35 You learn a lot of time management at the Academy, and when you're in the fall, you're really busy, spring season is less busy, and so you kind of learn early how to manage. Like, “OK, I've got to run. I gotta sprint,” right? “And then I can jog later, or I can walk later.” So, I think you learn that growing up in school, and you know, if you play sports or you do extracurricular activities or other things like that, or even just seasons in life at home, life ebbs and flows. I don't even know when I started saying it, but my sister and I started saying “seasons of life” to each other a long time ago. You know, she's got three kiddos, so she's been in all sorts of seasons. But, yeah, it's just, you know, I think I started to time block things, or block things off and just, and that's the only way you're going to get through life, is if you focus on what you need to do right now, be good at it, and then move to the next thing. You can have an idea of what's coming next, but you have to be present and do what you're doing there. Yes, so, yeah, seasons, time, blocks, whatever you want to call it. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 25:39 I like that. Well, you brought up your sister, and so you're an auntie of three. Let's talk about your personal life and leadership, some experiences you've had navigating your schedule. You're on the road so much. How do you prioritize? I guess the things that are important to you when you have such a heavy schedule, yeah, being on the road and the people that are important to you, right? Col. Nichole “Vapor” Ayers 26:03 Man, I think that for me, my family has been a huge support system my whole life. My twin sister — built in best friend.   Col. Naviere Walkewicz 26:13 And who is older? Col. Nichole “Vapor” Ayers 26:14 She is. She's got me by a minute. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 26:18 OK. Does she hold that over you?   Col. Nichole “Vapor” Ayers 26:20 Yes, of course she does. We've just always supported each other 100% and everything. She's been my biggest cheerleader through all of my life, and I've been her biggest cheerleader through all of her life. And you know, my main goal in life is to be the coolest auntie, like the best auntie, and I would die happy. And they're a huge priority to me. I see them every couple two to three months — since my oldest has was born. So for the last 14 years, just made it a priority, even if it's like, leave late on a Friday night and then get home late Sunday night, I make the effort to go see them and to interact with them. And you know, to help foster them. You know they're growing up. And I love watching kids grow up and experience the world and see what can be done. Their dad's a Marine, their mom's this really successful real estate agent, their auntie' a pilot-slash-astronaut. You know, they've got, like, all these no family that's really not doing very much. Yeah, you know, they've got all these really great role models. And my goal is to just show them that it doesn't matter who you are, like they only ever know me as auntie. Like they know I'm an astronaut, and they love that. Their friends know that I'm an astronaut. Anti vapor, no, no, yeah. But, you know, like, they're always gonna get a big hug from auntie, like, that's, that's what's important to me. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 27:36 Well, you mentioned, going into space, being an auntie. So, would you describe your time and space is, it's probably out of this world. I mean, that's, wow, that's terrible. That's terrible I said it that way. But I think you've mentioned it is kind of the best time in your life. Col. Nichole “Vapor” Ayers 27:52 Yeah. Best five months my life. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 27:56 Best five months of your life, and it's passed. Now, when we think about our evolution, whether personally, professionally, as leaders, etc., we have these ideas in our mind, like, this is the pinnacle. How do you navigate what's next after you've experienced that pinnacle? Col. Nichole “Vapor” Ayers 28:14 Yeah, that's a great question, and I think it's something that a lot of us struggle with when we come home. What's next? We get six months, some time to think and kind of get reintegrated. And you don't necessarily have to go back to work right away. I was able to spend a ton of time with my sister and her kiddos. Yeah, what's next. And I think for me, like the drive out to the launch pad, I was like, “Man, I've made it.” You know, the first time I looked out the window from Dragon, “I've made it.” First time we crossed the hatch, and I went and looked out the glass like, “Wow. The hard work paid off.” And I still feel like that to this day. I would have spent four more months in space if they had asked me to, and I would have turned around and launched right back then the day that we landed, and it was because of the crewmates that I spent it with and the fulfillment that I got from the mission. But I think you can find fulfillment in a lot of ways. And you know, my job, now that I've been back, I'm going to be working with the new class of astronauts and their training for spacewalk. So in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab, our big pool, like, my job is to be their mentor as they go through the spacewalk training. And you know, like, I cannot wait. I'm so excited. I cannot wait to have an impact and try to help teach this next generation of spacewalkers, this next generation of astronauts, to be better than us. I find a lot of fulfillment in making the next generation better. So I think, however the fulfillment shows up for people, I think as long as you can find something, there you'll be happy. Going to space was great, but teaching and instructing and mentoring is also really fulfilling for me. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 29:54 And that will be 10 of them? How many will that be? Col. Nichole “Vapor” Ayers 29:55 Ten.   Col. Naviere Walkewicz 29:56 Ten. So then you'll have 13. You'll be auntie to 13. Oh, that's wonderful. What have you learned about yourself since then? You know, you've evolved as a leader through different situations, high threat, high risk. Safety is paramount. All of those different experiences. And now you're back on Earth and you're about to, you know, mentor. How have you evolved your leadership, and where would you say you're trying to go? Col. Nichole “Vapor” Ayers 30:23 Where am I trying to go? I think, for me, leadership is also about being vulnerable and being open and honest with people about failures or hardships and so, you know, like in the flying community, if you make a mistake, you're immediately like, “Hey, I messed this up. Here's how we fix it.” And that's something that we do at NASA as well, especially on a grand scale, right? Thousands of employees and everybody like, that's the only way that we get to space is by admitting when we've made mistakes, talking to each other about how we fix it and sharing those lessons learned. And so I think that especially when you get into the higher roles of leadership, it's important to go, “Hey, I messed up,” or, “Hey, I don't know the answer.” And being transparent with the people that you're working with. And if you don't know it, but you know where to go find it, like, “I'll get that answer for you,” instead of making up an answer, trying to figure out how to look like you're in charge, right? It's really important to me to also show that we don't know everything. We're human. We make mistakes, and it's OK to make mistakes, as long as you share it, and you share the lessons learned, and you make the next person better. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 31:32 Did you experience that personally? Did you have a moment in which you had to say, “Hey, I made a mistake,” and that's helped you realize that being vulnerable is really important or is that just something you've seen done really well? Col. Nichole “Vapor” Ayers 31:40 Oh, I've admitted a lot of mistakes. You know, I made a couple pretty big mistakes in the Raptor. Everybody's gonna make a big mistake at some point in their life. And, you know, I think that that was something that was modeled really well in the flying community early on. And it's something that's not tolerated if you're not willing to share your lessons learned. It's not tolerated in that community. That's a really good thing. I learned that in pilot training, right? If your buddy in your class makes the same mistake the next day that you made, you get in trouble because you didn't tell them how to how to prepare. And so it's fostered early on, especially in the flying community. I can't speak to any other community because I grew up there, but it's fostered early on, and so it's just something that comes naturally. I think eventually, because you just, you've seen it done so many times, and if you want other people to succeed, you're going to do it. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 32:29 All right. Well, we have two questions left. The first one is, what's something you do every day to be a better leader? Col. Nichole “Vapor” Ayers 32:37 That's a good one. This is gonna sound silly, but I sleep. Like, I'll go back to the self-care thing, right? Like, I put a lot of attention into being healthy, being hydrated, sleeping well. Like, if you take care of your body, your mind is going to do way more for you. And so I think you can show up as a better leader if you show up, rested, hydrated, fed, worked out whatever you need to do to be the best human you can be. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 33:09 That's what I try to do. OK. I like that a lot, and I think that's a good indication for me that six hours is probably not enough. Naviere needs a little bit more. And it's truth, because you told me, though I'm gonna do that. The second one is, if you could go back in time, maybe what's something you would have told yourself — your younger self — or maybe, as our cadets are listening, that you've learned and what they can be doing now to be a better leader down the road. Col. Nichole “Vapor” Ayers 33:34 If you run into a hardship or you fail at something, or something feels insurmountable, or you don't feel like you're ready, good enough, or whatever the case may be, doubt starts to seep in, right? I would say, rely on the support system that you have. Rely on the people around you. Talk about it. Figure out, you know, “Hey, I failed this GR, like, man, this kind of sucks.” And you know, maybe you just need to hear me say it out loud, and maybe I just need to get it off my chest, or maybe I need help trying to figure out the solution for whatever the case may be. So, you know, I had a built-in team on the volleyball team. I had a built-in friends and teammates that I could lean on. Maybe that's your squadronmates or your classmates, or whoever it is, right? And I think finding the friends that you can rely on for the rest of your life. Professionally, I've got a friend here that I met in the F-22 community. We've been friends for almost a decade now, and he's still one of the first people that I call when something happens, like, “Oh, I messed this up today. Help.” So, you know, finding a support system. My sister's the other person that I call first off. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 34:38 She probably knows you're gonna call when you call. Col. Nichole “Vapor” Ayers 34:39 Yeah, we talk way too much. But, you know, having that support system around you and finding people that really bolster you and get you across that line and help you find the courage to take the next step, I think that's really important. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 34:54 I know I said there was only two, but as I've listened to you, I just think you're just you're just remarkable, and maybe what's something that you're proud about yourself as a leader. I would really love to hear that in your, you know— Col. Nichole “Vapor” Ayers 35:05 I think the thing that makes me the most proud as a leader is when somebody succeeds and it's something that I helped them do. I've had somebody come back and say, “Thanks for saying that.” That pushed me out the edge, you know, like, I'm really into building the next generation and make them better than us. And so if I see somebody succeeding, that's good. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 35:27 Well, this has been incredible. Is there anything that we didn't cover that you would love to share with the Long Blue Line in our community? Col. Nichole “Vapor” Ayers 35:33 Oh, man, the community is great. I think I would just say thank you to the community. I've gotten so much love and support from Coloradans, but also the Long Blue Line and the Air Force in general. You know, I love the community that we have. It goes right back to what I just said, right, finding a community that supports you and pushes you to do better and be better. And this is that community. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 35:55 Well, Vapor, I promise I'm gonna get more sleep, and I just want to thank you for being such an incredible leader and guest here on Long Blue Leadership. Col. Nichole “Vapor” Ayers 36:03 Thanks for having me back. Absolutely.   Col. Naviere Walkewicz 36:05 Thanks. You know, this conversation was really incredible with Vapor. I think some of the things that really stood out to me is just how incredible as a human she is. She brings humanity into leadership. She puts people first. She thinks about the team. She works hard. Don't forget to prioritize sleep. But I think really, some of the lessons that we can all take away can hit us all personally, because if you think about people first and taking care of them, and the fact that you have to take care of yourself too, you can go really far in leadership. So I really appreciate her today on Long Blue Leadership. And I'm Naviere Walkewicz, Class of '99. Until next time.   KEYWORDS Joel Neeb, Long Blue Leadership, Air Force Academy leadership, USAFA leadership, military leadership podcast, leadership development, leadership lessons, character-based leadership, leadership under pressure, leading with integrity, decision making in leadership, mentorship and leadership, values-based leadership, service before self, leadership mindset, leadership podcast interview, military leadership stories, leadership for professionals, leadership for entrepreneurs, how to be a better leader, leadership growth.       The Long Blue Line Podcast Network is presented by the U.S. Air Force Academy Association & Foundation        

In this inspiring episode of Whole Hearted Leadership, host and coach Lantz Howard sits down with mental performance coach Jim Murphy, author of Inner Excellence and the upcoming The Best Possible Life. Jim shares his remarkable journey from obscurity to fame after NFL star AJ Brown was spotted reading his book on the sidelines, leading to explosive sales and global recognition. Dive into discussions on overcoming anxiety, embracing suffering for growth, the power of visualization, and living a fully alive life through surrender and sacrificial love. Jim opens up about his recent thyroid cancer diagnosis, miraculous recovery, and how faith has shaped his resilience. Whether you're an athlete, executive, or anyone seeking deeper purpose, this conversation offers practical tools for mental toughness and wholehearted living. Learn more at Jim's Substack or join a Mexico retreat.--Ready to unlock your own inner excellence and lead wholeheartedly? If you're a leader, executive, or professional feeling stuck in anxiety or unfulfilled potential, book a discovery call with Lantz Howard today. As a therapist and coach, Lantz helps high-achievers align their identity, marriage, and vocation for lasting breakthrough. Visit lantzhoward.com or email lantz@lantzhoward.com to start your journey toward freedom and purpose.

Host/Producer: Amy Browne An update on Belfast resident Lawrence Reichard’s upcoming trip to Colombia where he plans to meet with the family of one of the fishermen identified by the US government as a drug trafficker and killed while out on his boat. Earlier report with links to Lawrence Reichard’s writing About the host: Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU's News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices, Maine Currents and Maine: The Way Life Could Be, Amy also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and Maine Association of Broadcasters awards for her work in 2017 and 2021. Theme music: BreakBeat Chemists I, 2015 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License The post Around Town 3/17/26: Local News, Culture and Events first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Supply chains across Africa are being reshaped by sustainability pressures, public health needs, digital transformation, and the growing recognition that supply chain is ultimately about people.In this episode of Supply Chain Now, Scott Luton is joined by special guest host Jenny Froome, Founder and Director of Upavon Management, along with Liesl de Wet, Head of Accelerated Organisational Sustainability at Unitrans and Champion at the Africa Supply Chain Excellence Awards (ASCEA), and ASCEA 2025 award winner Angelina Cumba, Manager, Access to Health Products at VillageReach. Together, they explore the major trends shaping African supply chains today, from climate-related disruption and technology adoption to public-private collaboration and the need to strengthen local capabilities.Scott, Jenny, Liesl, and Angelina also spotlight the fifth anniversary of the Africa Supply Chain Excellence Awards and the program's role in celebrating innovation, resilience, and real-world impact across the continent. The conversation highlights why strong supply chains depend on solid fundamentals, continuous improvement, and leadership that is both practical and purpose-driven. From humanitarian success stories and public health transformation to lessons in sustainability and system design, this episode offers a powerful look at how African supply chain leaders are solving complex challenges and creating models worth learning from around the world.Jump into the conversation:(00:00) Intro(02:02) Meet the panel and their roles in supply chain leadership(03:43) Liesl on penguin conservation and sustainability(06:28) Hobbies and work-life balance(11:15) Top supply chain trends across Africa(16:10) Shifts in public health supply chains(19:55) Why the awards were created(24:18) Angelina on winning and impact(26:59) Favorite winner stories(30:50) The Luke Commission resilience story(33:45) Leadership lessons in supply chain(36:40) Awards momentum and community(37:59) What's new for the 2026 awards(52:27) Leadership reflections and connectionsAdditional Links & Resources:Connect with Angelina Cumba: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelina-c-90304124/Connect with Liesl de Wet: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liesl-de-wet-83903419/Connect with Jenny Froome: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenny-froome-ba3b09b/Learn more about the Africa Supply Chain Excellence Awards (ASCEA): https://www.ascea.co.za/Learn more about VillageReach: https://www.villagereach.org/Learn more about Unitrans: https://www.unitransafrica.com/Learn more about Upavon Management: https://upavon.co.za/Learn more about the Luke Commission: https://www.lukecommission.orgLearn more about Books for Africa: https://www.booksforafrica.orgLearn more about our hosts: https://supplychainnow.com/aboutLearn more about Supply Chain Now: https://supplychainnow.comWatch and listen to more Supply Chain Now episodes here: https://supplychainnow.com/program/supply-chain-nowSubscribe to Supply Chain Now on your favorite platform: https://supplychainnow.com/joinWork with us! Download Supply Chain Now's NEW Media Kit: https://bit.ly/3XH6OVkSupply Chain Now en Espanol WEBINAR- Visibilidad estrategica en Pharma: control, cumplimiento y resiliencia en entornos de alto riesgo: https://bit.ly/4rku7lCWEBINAR- Talent Management Playbook for Supply Chain Leaders: https://bit.ly/4uc2OfBWEBINAR- From Workforce Planning to Hourly Performance Management: How GEODIS Americas Turned Labor Productivity into a Growth Engine: https://bit.ly/4blRfKpWEBINAR- Ahead of Disruption: How AI-First Design Builds Supply Chain Resilience — and Transforms the Teams Behind It: https://bit.ly/4ldRn3bThis episode was hosted by Scott Luton and produced by Trisha Cordes, Joshua Miranda, and Amanda Luton. For additional information, please visit our dedicated show page at: https://supplychainnow.com/celebrating-excellence-leadership-innovation-across-africa-1558

________________________ Get started in April on your most important project. Learn more here _________________________ Retirement planning focuses heavily on finances — investments, Social Security, and risks. But there's another question that often sneaks up on people once the career chapter closes: Do I still matter? Our guest today has spent years researching one of the most powerful psychological needs we have as human beings — the need to feel valued and to add value. Jennifer Breheny Wallace is an award-winning journalist and author of the new book Mattering: The Secret to a Life of Deep Connection and Purpose. Her work explores how feeling significant, appreciated, invested in, and depended on shapes our well-being throughout life. And her insights have important implications for retirement. Because when work ends, many people lose one of the primary places where they knew they mattered — where their contributions were visible, valued, and relied upon. In this conversation, we explore:        • Why the need to matter doesn't diminish with age       • How retirees can build what Jennifer calls a “mattering portfolio”       • The surprising research on relationships and resilience       • Practical daily actions that restore a sense of meaning and contribution If you're thinking about retirement — or already there — this conversation may change how you think about purpose, connection, and belonging in the next chapter. _________________________ Bio Jennifer Breheny Wallace is the author of Mattering: The Secret to a Life of Deep Connection and Purpose.  She is an award-winning journalist and bestselling author whose work explores the power of mattering in our everyday lives. Through research and storytelling, Wallace examines the hidden forces shaping modern life, from the crisis of meaning in achievement culture to the essential role of mattering in personal, workplace, and societal health.  Her first book, Never Enough: When Achievement Culture Becomes Toxic — And What We Can Do About It, was a New York Times Bestseller, an Amazon Best Book of the Year, and a Next Big Idea selection. Wallace is the founder of The Mattering Institute, whose mission is to create cultures of mattering in workplaces and communities, and co-founder of The Mattering Movement, a nonprofit whose mission is to create cultures of mattering in K-12 schools. Wallace has partnered with The LEGO Group on its global Play Unstoppable campaign to address perfectionism and grow confidence through play. She has also consulted with Calm wellness app, Netflix, and is a BCG  BrightHouse Luminary. She serves on the University of Michigan’s Well-being Collective Advisory Council, and the Advisory Board for Making Caring Common, a project of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Wallace is a Journalism Fellow at The Center for Parent and Teen Communication at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. After graduating from Harvard College, Wallace was a journalist for CBS “60 Minutes” and was part of the team that won The Robert F. Kennedy Awards for Excellence in Journalism. She is a contributor to The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post and frequently appears on national television programs to discuss her work. Wallace serves on the board of the Coalition for the Homeless in New York City, where she lives with her husband and their three children. ___________________________ For More on Jennifer Breheny Wallace Mattering: The Secret to a Life of Deep Connection and Purpose by Jennifer Breheny Wallace Website ___________________________ Mentioned in This Retirement Podcast  The Retirement Crisis No One Warns You About: Mattering – The Wall Street Journal Video: Taylor Mali (What Do You Make?) ____________________________ Your choices shaped your career. But when retirement approaches, a new design challenge appears. Not a financial one. A life design challenge. What will your days look like? What will energize you?  What might the next five years become? In the Designing Your New Life in Retirement program, you’ll step back from the fray and apply design thinking to those questions, with a bias for action. Learn more here. Our next two groups begin in April. Join us and get started on your most important project. _____________________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like What Matters Most – Diane Button How to Live a Meaningful Life – Dave Evans Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You – Teresa Amabile ____________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You'll get smarter about the investment decisions you'll make about the most important asset you'll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren't quite done yet, discover what's next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn't just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master's degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He's the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. ______________________________ Wise Quotes On Adding Value “I found this very common thread among the hundreds of people that I interviewed who, when they were going through a life transition—if it was retirement or grief, getting divorced, all these things—what they did over and over again was that they found new ways to add value. And so they would look for what I call in the book a genuine need in the world. And then they would use either their time or their talents or their treasure to meet those needs. It's kind of a handy formula for finding purpose.” On Your Mattering Portfolio “Plan your retirement social portfolio—your mattering portfolio—as carefully as you plan your financial portfolio…You are only one decision, one action away from getting back on that path to mattering.”  

Perimenopause is not the only topic we avoid talking about at work. Mental health in the workplace is another conversation that many organizations still struggle to address openly.In this episode of the Career Gems for the Journey podcast, Leah C. Murphy sits down with Tonya Ladipo, licensed clinical social worker and workplace mental health expert, to talk about what it really takes to create psychologically safe workplaces where people can thrive.This conversation offers practical insight for leaders, teams, and professionals who want to build workplaces where people feel supported, respected, and empowered to bring their full selves to work. In this episode:

“Hubris, Kate. He suffers from hubris!” We're on the cusp of spring, so full credit to Eric Carpenter for pointing out to us how egregious a gap we've had in our roster until now. Have we really and truly never done that spring book to beat all spring books Muncha Muncha Muncha??? Such a thing seems inconceivable and yet… here we are. Today Kate and Betsy discuss bunnies, munching, and the role that illustration plays when our own personal preferences come into it all. Candace Fleming's been having a stellar year (becoming the first person to receive the Children's Literature Legacy Award and the Margaret A. Edwards Award in the same year, in addition to her book Death in the Jungle winning the Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults). Now she faces the ultimate challenge: Whether or not her picture book from 2002 is actually a classic.

A comfortable chair and money in the bank can shorten your career. In this Tough Things First podcast, Ray Zinn discusses why discomfort moves people forward while comfort kills. Rob Artigo: Ray, most people pursue comfort as a goal. If it's comfort you're after each day, you're liable to just become lazy. Am I wrong? Ray Zinn: No, you're 100% […]

Host/Producer: Amy Browne Berit Becker from the Ellsworth Public Library is here with information about the Indie Lens Pop-up documentary film series that kicks off on Saturday, March 21st at 2pm with The Inquisitor: The Life and Legacy of Barbara Jordan. There are 2 more films in the series, to be shown in April and May – Berit will be back later to say more about those. For more information and to register to attend About the host: Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU's News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices, Maine Currents and Maine: The Way Life Could Be, Amy also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and Maine Association of Broadcasters awards for her work in 2017 and 2021. Theme music: BreakBeat Chemists I, 2015 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License The post Around Town 3/16/26: Local News, Culture and Events first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

What does it take to think like a champion? This book will change how you think about SUCCESS — and your English. AJ's English Book Club starts "The Champion's Mind" by Jim Afremow. Champions don't just train their bodies. They train their MINDS. And that's exactly what this book teaches — the same mental skills used by Olympic athletes, pro sports stars, and peak performers in every field. And here's the connection: these mental skills are EXACTLY what you need to master English. Confidence. Visualization. A growth mindset. Feeding the positive wolf, not the negative one. This is the FUEL that powers your English speaking success. In this episode, we cover Chapters 1 and 2 — and I teach you important English vocabulary from the book along the way. You learn English AND you learn powerful success strategies at the same time. That's the Book Club way.

In this episode, Ravi K. Bashyal, MD, Vice Chairman of Patient and Provider Experience at Endeavor Health and Clinical Assistant Professor at University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, shares how patient centered culture, standardized pathways, and surgical specialization have built the busiest orthopedic hospital in Illinois. He discusses outpatient joint replacement, system wide growth, and why humility and human connection remain at the core of high performance care.

Get AudioBooks for Free Best Self-improvement Motivation Mastering Daily Excellence – Jim Rohn Success Guide Learn powerful success habits from Jim Rohn. Discover how daily discipline and consistent action create extraordinary results.

Valerie Ferguson reflects on her leadership as General Manager of The Ritz-Carlton, Atlanta. She explains why community engagement played a central role in her leadership of the hotel and in building relationships across the city. Valerie shares how initiatives like volunteering with Project Head Start strengthened team pride, deepened empathy, and reinforced the idea that hospitality leaders serve their teams as much as their guests. Her perspective offers a clear reminder that strong hospitality businesses grow from strong connections with their surrounding communities.Listen to our episodes with Horst Schulze hereYou may also enjoy: Hospitality as an Engine for Generosity: How Humanitarian Hotels Operates with Excellence & Gives Away 100% of Profits - Chris GreenImpact Hospitality: How Hotels Can Build Community & Drive Change - Donte Johnson & Jason BassWorking With The LeBron James Family Foundation To Empower People Through Hospitality Skills Training - Stephan Bogardus and Tommy Ostrum, Graduate Hotels A few more resources: If you're new to Hospitality Daily, start here. You can send me a message here with questions, comments, or guest suggestions If you want to get my summary and actionable insights from each episode delivered to your inbox each day, subscribe here for free. Follow Hospitality Daily and join the conversation on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram. If you want to advertise on Hospitality Daily, here are the ways we can work together. If you found this episode interesting or helpful, send it to someone on your team so you can turn the ideas into action and benefit your business and the people you serve! Music for this show is produced by Clay Bassford of Bespoke Sound: Music Identity Design for Hospitality Brands

Leading Change Through Love and Excellence What if the most powerful leadership strategy wasn't control… but heart? In this unforgettable keynote, professional speaker and entrepreneur Hanna Bauer shares her extraordinary story as a childhood heart disease survivor, pioneering surgery patient, and visionary leader who turned adversity into purpose. Through powerful storytelling and practical leadership insights, Hanna introduces HEARTnomics — a transformational leadership philosophy built on five essential principles: Hope. Empowerment. Accountability. Results. Trust. Combined with her actionable BEAT Method, this keynote shows leaders how to turn challenge into momentum, uncertainty into opportunity, and vision into measurable impact. Scale Your Organization with Purpose, Power, and HEART. At HEARTnomics, we equip leaders and organizations with a transformational pathway to align vision, values, systems, and strategy—so they can grow with purpose, lead with excellence, and scale with heart. Because real success isn't just about scaling fast. It's about scaling right. Success Requires Scaling But when growth happens without alignment, the cost is bigger than missed momentum. You lose: • Time • Money • Energy • Team trust • And the relationships that drive lasting success. You don't need another strategy document. You need transformation. At HEARTnomics, we help leaders: ✔ Cast bold, clear vision ✔ Build high-trust cultures ✔ Lead meaningful change So organizations can scale with clarity, sustain momentum, and create impact that lasts. Because the future success of your business depends on the leadership you build today. What We Do Implementation Excellence Success isn't just about having the right ideas. It's about executing them with precision. HEARTnomics helps organizations integrate the right solutions, systems, and leadership practices that drive measurable growth. When strategy is implemented with intention and care, excellence becomes the foundation for: • Customer loyalty • Organizational growth • Sustainable performance Our programs are delivered through: ✔ In-person leadership experiences ✔ Virtual training and coaching ✔ Hybrid programs designed for modern organizations HEARTnomics Heart-centered leadership Transformational leadership keynote Leadership through love Leadership resilience Purpose-driven leadership Empowerment leadership Change leadership strategy Organizational transformation Leadership inspiration Motivational keynote speaker Leadership mindset Innovation leadership Culture-driven leadership High-performance leadership Leadership development keynote www.heartnomics.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/bauerhanna/ https://www.youtube.com/@heartnomics https://www.instagram.com/heartnomics/ https://www.facebook.com/hannad.bauer

In this inspiring interview, Ms. Jacqueline Schwartz shares her remarkable journey of overcoming a stroke through neuroplasticity, her diverse career in education, real estate, and training, and her vision for empowering others through her Center for Excellence in Learning.   Professional Real Estate Investors - How we can help you: Investor Fuel Mastermind:  Learn more about the Investor Fuel Mastermind, including 100% deal financing, massive discounts from vendors and sponsors you're already using, our world class community of over 150 members, and SO much more here: http://www.investorfuel.com/apply   Investor Machine Marketing Partnership:  Are you looking for consistent, high quality lead generation? Investor Machine is America's #1 lead generation service professional investors. Investor Machine provides true 'white glove' support to help you build the perfect marketing plan, then we'll execute it for you…talking and working together on an ongoing basis to help you hit YOUR goals! Learn more here: http://www.investormachine.com   Coaching with Mike Hambright:  Interested in 1 on 1 coaching with Mike Hambright? Mike coaches entrepreneurs looking to level up, build coaching or service based businesses (Mike runs multiple 7 and 8 figure a year businesses), building a coaching program and more. Learn more here: https://investorfuel.com/coachingwithmike   Attend a Vacation/Mastermind Retreat with Mike Hambright: Interested in joining a "mini-mastermind" with Mike and his private clients on an upcoming "Retreat", either at locations like Cabo San Lucas, Napa, Park City ski trip, Yellowstone, or even at Mike's East Texas "Big H Ranch"? Learn more here: http://www.investorfuel.com/retreat   Property Insurance: Join the largest and most investor friendly property insurance provider in 2 minutes. Free to join, and insure all your flips and rentals within minutes! There is NO easier insurance provider on the planet (turn insurance on or off in 1 minute without talking to anyone!), and there's no 15-30% agent mark up through this platform!  Register here: https://myinvestorinsurance.com/   New Real Estate Investors - How we can work together: Investor Fuel Club (Coaching and Deal Partner Community): Looking to kickstart your real estate investing career? Join our one of a kind Coaching Community, Investor Fuel Club, where you'll get trained by some of the best real estate investors in America, and partner with them on deals! You don't need $ for deals…we'll partner with you and hold your hand along the way! Learn More here: http://www.investorfuel.com/club   —--------------------

Inspired by a recent guest instructor at NBSS, Jackson wanted to talk about paints and finishes. Richard has a great perspective because of his extensive paint experience. Brent points out that because of UV, there is a big difference in finishes in Texas vs Massachusetts.

In this episode, Ravi K. Bashyal, MD, Vice Chairman of Patient and Provider Experience at Endeavor Health and Clinical Assistant Professor at University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, shares how patient centered culture, standardized pathways, and surgical specialization have built the busiest orthopedic hospital in Illinois. He discusses outpatient joint replacement, system wide growth, and why humility and human connection remain at the core of high performance care.

In this episode, Ravi K. Bashyal, MD, Vice Chairman of Patient and Provider Experience at Endeavor Health and Clinical Assistant Professor at University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, shares how patient centered culture, standardized pathways, and surgical specialization have built the busiest orthopedic hospital in Illinois. He discusses outpatient joint replacement, system wide growth, and why humility and human connection remain at the core of high performance care.

Host Dave Schlom is joined by California Institute of Technology professor Sarah Reisman for an in-depth conversation about teaching one of the most difficult subjects taught on any college campus: organic chemistry.

Host/Producer: Amy Browne Maria Girouard, co-founder of the Sunlight Media Collective, stops by to invite you to a showing of two of their short documentaries [Environmental Justice: An Age-Old Saga: Penobscot Nation Takes a Stand Against Juniper Ridge Landfill (2025), and It’s Not Just Us: Penobscot Nation Puts Environmental Justice to the Test (2026)] on the battle to protect the Penobscot watershed from the Juniper Ridge landfill, just upriver from Indian Island. The event will take place tomorrow (Saturday 3/14) at 2pm at the Sockalexis Arena on Indian Island. No tickets required. About the host: Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU's News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices, Maine Currents and Maine: The Way Life Could Be, Amy also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and Maine Association of Broadcasters awards for her work in 2017 and 2021. Theme music: BreakBeat Chemists I, 2015 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License The post Around Town 3/13/26: Local News, Culture and Events first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Episode 503 of Relentless Health Value features Stacey Richter with Adam Stavisky, Dr. Leo Spector (OrthoCarolina), and Ryan Wells (Health Here) discussing how self-insured employers and specialists rarely connect directly due to intermediaries and fee-for-service "rails."  They outline three common pitfalls when bridging this gap: defining and measuring quality and appropriateness (limits of claims data and missing patient-reported outcomes), achieving scale across geographies and specialties, and ensuring benefit design and incentives so members actually use direct-contracting programs. The conversation frames the evolution of Centers of Excellence from 1.0 (travel to brand-name hospitals) to 2.0 (more local but administratively manual) to 3.0 (new infrastructure enabling direct, efficient contracting).  Health Here is described as a digital bridge to support payment and communication pathways and reduce administrative waste. === LINKS ===

Today's podcast is titled “Do Authoritarians Rule the World? – Part One.” Recorded in 2023, Dennis McCuistion, former Clinical Professor of Corporate Governance and Executive Director of the Institute for Excellence in Corporate Governance at the University of Texas at Dallas, speaks with Barbara Kolm, Ph.D., Director, The Austrian Economics Center and President of the Friedrich August von Hayek Institute, and Robert Salinas Leon, Ph.D., Director, Center for Latin America at Atlas Network and President of the Mexico Business Forum about the nature, rise, and consequences of authoritarianism and autocracy around the world, examined through a free-market, classical liberal lens. …

Welcome to Episode 298 of Autism Parenting Secrets. If your child has tried supplements that were supposed to help the brain but didn't move the needle, this episode may explain why.  This week, I'm excited to welcome back Dr. Theoharis Theoharides, known to many as Dr. Theo.  He is a physician-scientist with five advanced degrees and decades of pioneering research.  Long before neuroinflammation and immune-driven brain dysfunction became widely discussed, Dr. Theo was connecting mast cells, metabolism, and brain health.  In this conversation, we explore why some children can't properly use standard folic acid and how the right form of folate may support better language, focus, and regulation. The secret this week is…  Smarter Folate = Better Brain Fuel You'll Discover: Why standard folic acid may not reach the brain in up to 40 percent of children (9:21) How folate receptor antibodies and MTHFR mutations change the equation (12:17) Why gut inflammation must be addressed before increasing supplementation (18:23) The difference between folic acid, methylfolate, and folinic acid (22:45) Why folate supports language development but does not “treat autism” (50:51) About Our Guest: Dr. Theoharis Theoharides is Professor and Vice Chair of Clinical Immunology and Executive Director of the Center of Excellence for Neuroinflammation Research at Nova Southeastern University. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Immunology at Tufts School of Medicine. Dr. Theo has over 500 publications and is widely recognized as a leading expert on mast cells and neuroinflammation. He is the Founder and Scientific Director of Algonot LLC and has received 37 patents and trademarks. Learn more:www.mastcellmaster.comwww.drtheoharides.com References In This Episode: Algonot Center of Excellence for Neuroinflammation Research Folate Receptor Autoantibody (FRAT) Test Additional Resources: To learn more about personalized 1:1 support go to www.elevatehowyounavigate.com Take The Quiz: What's YOUR Top Autism Parenting Blindspot? If you enjoyed this episode, share it with your friends.

Welcome back to another episode of the unSeminary podcast. We're talking with Brandon Boyd, Executive Pastor at Quay Church in Windermere, Florida—one of the fastest-growing churches in the country. What began as a struggling congregation marked by multiple splits has experienced dramatic renewal and growth since a 2022 replant under Lead Pastor Luke Lazon. Is your church experiencing rapid growth that feels both exciting and overwhelming? Wondering how to scale systems, structure, and culture without losing spiritual health? Tune in as Brandon shares how Quay Church is stewarding momentum while building clarity, accountability, and lasting impact. From flat structure to scalable leadership. // When Brandon arrived in 2024, Quay had grown from 400 to 1,500 people, but its internal structure hadn't caught up. Meetings were crowded, decisions were unclear, and Sunday services were running long due to lack of coordination. The church had been operating as a flat organization where everyone contributed to every decision. That worked at a smaller size but became chaotic during rapid growth. Quay implemented tiered leadership levels: elders at 50,000 feet guarding mission and doctrine, an executive team at 40,000 feet solving forward-facing challenges, and a lead team at 30,000 feet ensuring weekly ministry execution. This created clarity in decision-making and allowed the church to scale effectively. Systems in many places leads to excellence. // A guiding philosophy Brandon has is SIMPLE—Systems In Many Places Leads to Excellence. Brandon introduced tools like Asana for project management, Slack for communication, and Otter for meeting documentation. Agendas are shared ahead of time, action items are clearly assigned, and meeting notes are converted into trackable tasks. Each meeting is defined by purpose—innovation, execution, or decision—so participants know what is expected. The tools support clarity, but the real goal is alignment and accountability. Guarding culture during rapid growth. // Growth creates urgency that can easily become chaos. Quay combats this with clearly defined staff values: Kingdom over castles. Nimble over fragile. Sled dogs over show dogs. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast. Burn the ships. These values act as decision filters. Everyone owns the broader mission, not just their ministry lane. Staff lead by example—serving first, giving first, even parking farther away to prioritize guests. A 2026 staff covenant outlines expectations for spiritual leadership, generosity, and ownership, ensuring alignment as the church continues to grow. Spiritual health beyond attendance growth. // While attendance has surged to nearly 2,700 adults weekly, Brandon points to transformation as the real marker of health. Spontaneous altar ministry has become a defining feature of services—not manufactured, but Spirit-led. People regularly respond in repentance, prayer, and life change. One man publicly confessed infidelity and committed to reconciliation. The church just celebrated 188 baptisms last year, reinforcing that growth is not just numeric but spiritual. Leading through overwhelm. // Brandon closes with a vulnerable reminder: rapid growth can be overwhelming. Leaders must acknowledge that reality rather than pretending to be superhuman. Honest conversations with lead pastors, elders, and trusted peers help prevent burnout. When God calls, He equips—but leaders must stay transparent and supported during demanding seasons. To learn more about Quay Church, visit quaychurch.org or follow @quaychurch on social media. You can connect with Brandon on Instagram at @bgboyd. Thank You for Tuning In! There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I'm grateful for that. If you enjoyed today's show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they're extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally! Lastly, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live! Thank You to This Episode’s Sponsor: Risepointe Do you feel like your church’s or school's facility could be preventing growth? Are you frustrated or possibly overwhelmed at the thought of a complicated or costly building project? Are the limitations of your building becoming obstacles in the path of expanding your ministry? Have you ever felt that you could reach more people if only the facility was better suited to the community’s needs? Well, the team over at Risepointe can help! As former ministry staff and church leaders, they understand how to prioritize and help lead you to a place where the building is a ministry multiplier. Your mission should not be held back by your building. Their team of architects, interior designers and project managers have the professional experience to incorporate creative design solutions to help move YOUR mission forward. Check them out at risepointe.com/unseminary and while you’re there, schedule a FREE call to explore possibilities for your needs, vision and future…Risepointe believes that God still uses spaces…and they're here to help. Episode Transcript Rich Birch — Hey friends, welcome to the unSeminary podcast. So glad that you have decided to tune in today, and you’re definitely going to be rewarded for that. Today, we’re talking with a church that I like to say has platinum problems. Like every church wants to be a fast-growing church. They want to be, or you’ll hear leaders talk about in a season where they’re growing, where we’re capturing a church and a leader in the midst of that right now.Rich Birch — And I’m really excited to talk to Brandon Boyd. He is at Quay Church in Windermere, Florida. This is a fast-growing church. It’s one of the fastest-growing churches in the country. He serves as the XP. And I’m really looking forward to unpacking the story a little bit. Tell us a little bit about Quay and the history there, the story, what’s going on. Tell us, bring us up to speed.Brandon Boyd — Yeah, Rich, thanks for having me on the podcast today. Just such a joy to chat with you and tell all the incredible things that the Lord’s doing at Quay. So I’ve only been at Quay for about like 15 months. And so previously, I’m a native Texan, grew up in Dallas, served my home church in Dallas and another church in the Dallas, North Dallas area. And then the Lord transplanted us all the way out here to Orlando, Florida – Windermere, suburb of Orlando, which is on the north side of Disney World, which is pretty fun. And so I’m married and I’ve got three daughters. I live in a sorority, basically, which is really fun. Rich Birch — Love it.Brandon Boyd — And so when the Lord said, hey, I’m taking you to Windermere, was pretty easy yes for our family, for what the Lord had for us. And so, you know, Quay is a little bit of a replant. And so our church was initially started in the early 2000s and went through like two or three church splits. And we shouldn’t really have a church just because of those splits and what was occurring at that time period. Brandon Boyd — And I would say our church got replanted in 2022 when Luke Lazon, who was our young adult pastor at the time when he became the lead pastor. At that time, there was basically like 400 people that were calling our church home. We were known as Lifebridge Church at the time.Brandon Boyd — And then you fast forward to when I got here in May of 2024, we had grown to 1,500 adults. And then this past weekend, we had 2,700 adults with us, and then about 500 kids and students. And so it’s just been a wild ride these last three years. And I’ve just been fortunate to be a part of it in the past like 15 months.Rich Birch — Well I, yeah, I want to acknowledge that, you know, that kind of growth is, it’s exciting and fun and and have lived through similar seasons in the past, but there is also comes with a lot of challenges and a lot of like real world problems. And so I appreciate that you’ve taken time to, you know, help us think through these issues today. And even just before the call started, we were talking about stuff literally from last weekend that was like, well, there’s a new problem. We got to figure that one out. So excited for this. Rich Birch — Well, let’s talk about when you stepped into the role. So you you you arrive, you know, the church is obviously growing, had experienced incredible growth in the couple years before you got here, went from 400 to 1500. When did you realize that maybe not just that it was growing, but maybe the qualitative, the kind of what kind of growth Quay was having was was maybe a little bit different and was kind of going to inform the next couple of years. Help us think through what was that like when you first arrived, unpack that, you know, those first weeks or months.Brandon Boyd — Yeah. So my my first Sunday was Mother’s Day in 2024. And on that day, we had communion, we had baptism, we had a parent-child moment. And I looked up to us and I said, we’re just not communicating well. So we can’t have all these elements in a worship gathering taking place at the same time.Brandon Boyd — And so I started talking with our XP over worship and creative. And I just said, help me understand your planning process through the week. And so I took that first week just to ask a lot of questions like, how are we sitting together? How are we working together? What’s not working? And then what we started to do was start to organize our meetings behind the scenes. So we really took that summer of 2024 and start putting some processes in place that would help us kind of scale up well.Brandon Boyd — And part of that was we use a project management tool on the back end to make sure that everything is operating well. We use Asana. And some of this is what I learned in Dallas with our team there. And I took that and brought it here and scaled it. And so everything runs through a project through us on the back end. Worship is a project. All of our events are a project. And so everybody knows what is expected of them today. What is expected of them tomorrow, two weeks from now. And it’s also our accountability tool.Brandon Boyd — So back to that first Sunday, when we realized that we had all these things going on, Luke still preached for 40 minutes. And then they looked at me and said, Hey, we’re just always over time on our gatherings. Well, everything’s got to be spelled out. And so that was an initial thought that I said, this can’t be the Wild West anymore. Rich Birch — Right.Brandon Boyd — Because of the rapid growth that we had going on, knowing that we’ve got natural growth cycles coming up, whether it’s in the fall when school starts, and in January. And that’s kind of what we saw happen at Quay in that first year in 2024.Rich Birch — Yeah, there’s a lot there I want to unpack. And I want to get to meetings and and project management. I want to really dive into some of those details. But one of the things I’ve been, as I’ve kind of watched from afar, what’s happened at Quay, you guys have done a good job balancing the past, even just how you talked about there, kind of balancing, talking about the past, but then you know, projecting forward and kind of casting vision for the future, how did the church’s past really approach your, or has that, ah you know, kind of ah impacted your leadership as you’ve approached leading here in the, even in the current, or as you think to the future, how are those two connected together?Brandon Boyd — Yeah, I think just an axiom I live by is I always want to speak respectfully about the past, be honest about what’s going on presently, and optimistically about the future.Rich Birch — That’s good.Brandon Boyd — And so we’re super grateful for the people that went ahead of us that helped start this and plant this church way back in the early 2000s, and then had the foresight to kind of buy this piece of property in Windermere.Brandon Boyd — We’ve got part of our property is not developed yet. And we had a developer show up the other day that offered $5 million dollars for our grass kind of parking lot where we’re going to expand our campus on. But I couldn’t imagine unloading and reloading everything into an elementary school or a high school right now. So we’re super grateful for the people that went ahead of us, not only the pastoral leadership, elders, but also the people that called this church home, that hung on for the hope that something better was coming in the future.Brandon Boyd — And so they’ve been on this wild ride, up and down of, splits, attendance, differences, whatever else, but knowing that, you know, there ought to be a church in this part of Windermere, that there should be a gospel presence, especially in a place that’s so known for entertainment. Like you can stand on our roof at nighttime and see the fireworks from Disney World.Rich Birch — Right.Brandon Boyd — If the wind, if the wind is blowing just right, you can hear the whistle from the train at the Magic Kingdom. I mean, that’s how close we are. Rich Birch — Right.Brandon Boyd — So for a spot in Orlando that’s known for entertainment, why shouldn’t there be a place that is a flag spot for the gospel. And so knowing that those people went before us, knowing that you’ve got people moving here on a daily and weekly basis, we appreciate that, but we also got to look forward to the future.Brandon Boyd — And so we had this opportunity to kind of rebrand our church. So our church was named after our young adult ministry Quay. And a quay is a literal thing. Like it’s a place where ships unload and reload their cargo. And that’s just a metaphor for the church – that the church a place where people can unload the things and that are burdensome and get refilled up with the message of Jesus and take that out into their places of influence, to their schools, to their work places.Brandon Boyd — And so when we cast that vision early in 2025, the people that had been here when all the ups and downs of the church really saw, like this is the moment. And then they saw this surge of people that were coming in to hear the gospel message. We baptized this past year 188 people. Rich Birch — That’s great.Brandon Boyd — That’s adults, children, kids. Rich Birch — Fantastic. Brandon Boyd — I got to baptize my own daughter this past year, which is super exciting. But to see life change. So you go from this really small remnant that was left to see this surge and explosion, to see people, their lives being transformed for the gospel, I think is how they’ve just seen, all right, what’s next? What’s next, Lord, for us? And we’ve got this phrase here that stewardship is our responsibility, that we’re just merely stewards of what the Lord has provided to us. Rich Birch — Right. Good.Brandon Boyd — And so we’re just stewarding this moment. And we really want to set it up well for the people that follow me, that follow Pastor Luke, that follow any of us, that we want to leave it better than we found it.Rich Birch —Yeah, that’s so good. And I just want to honor you for how you guys even publicly are handling all that. Because I think particularly with the growth that you’ve seen, it would be easy to be like, man, isn’t it incredible what’s happening now, but even kind of just forgetting what’s gone in the past. So, you know, honor you for what you’re doing there. I think that’s that’s incredible. Rich Birch —Well, let’s get back to some of those rhythms. So one of the things you talked about was like, hey, we realized, oh, maybe these, ah you know, the meetings, we just, we didn’t have the right, maybe the right flow of information. Brandon Boyd — Yeah.Rich Birch — So let’s talk through what did that look like? How did you how did you pick that apart, diagnose the problem maybe first? And then how did we make some shifts towards the kind of system you’re currently running?Brandon Boyd — So our organization was a flat organization. So when I got here, everybody was involved in every single decision. Everybody, like there was a weekly staff meeting where everybody was there and they were pitching ideas left and right about what we need to do on Sunday, what we need to do for our student ministry programming. And then we had a weekly meeting where everybody was involved with all the event processes and everything else.Brandon Boyd — And so I think another obstacle that we were trying to work past was Luke went from, like I said, young adult pastor to lead pastor. So he went from a peer on the hall to the boss. And so I knew that we had to put some structures in place and we had to scale the organization, and had to put some meeting structures around that. So we created an executive team meeting that meets on Mondays. We created a lead team that meets on Tuesdays. And we put people in those meetings that had influence or had certain gift sets, or we took Working Genius. And so we’ve kind of started to strategize our meetings around Working Genius and putting people in meetings where they thrive. Brandon Boyd — So if they’re an innovator, if they’re a wonderer, then we may need to put them on the front side of work. If they’re more of an implementer and they’re more of somebody that can get the tasks done, they don’t need to be in all these meetings. So what we’ve tried to do moving forward is really name what the meeting is before it’s even called, so people know what the expectation is.Brandon Boyd — So what what we’ve tried to do over the past year is really provide clarity and expectation.Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s good. Brandon Boyd — So when somebody comes to a meeting, they know what they need to prepare, but then they also know what their expectation is in the conversation.Rich Birch — That’s great. A couple things I want to unpack there. First, ah for listeners, we had Patrick Lencioni on talking about Working Genius. If you should go back and listen to that episode, if you don’t know Working Genius, it’s a fantastic tool. Here’s an example of a church is actually putting it into practice, not just like reading the book and putting it on the shelf.Rich Birch — So can you pull apart the, when you say executive team and lead team, the kind of Monday and Tuesday, how do you, what’s the like 30 second definition between those two and their roles and responsibilities between those two groups and who’s kind of comprises those, those teams.Brandon Boyd — Yeah. So our exec, well, it really starts with our elder team. So for a period of time, like our elders had to be really involved just because of the nature of what was going on in our church. But they have since decided that they needed to fly at a higher level. So we’ll we’ll just talk 50,000 feet.Brandon Boyd — So the elders are at the 50,000 feet. They’re really guarding the mission and vision of the church. Rich Birch — Yep.Brandon Boyd — And then you come down to the executive team, which flies at 40,000 feet. And they’re really tasked at making sure that from an executive level, we’ve got you know all the the problems that need to be solved, that we’re looking at the vision forward, that we’re not only looking at the current week, but we’re looking six weeks out. We just wrapped up Christmas. We’re already talking about Easter. and We’re talking about Christmas already for 2026. Brandon Boyd — And then you step down to the lead team. They’re at 30,000 feet. And what they’re doing is making sure that our ministries are humming and running on a weekly basis and making sure that those budgets, ministry resources, calendars, everything are executing.Brandon Boyd — So what we’ve done is the executive team is obviously our lead pastor. We’ve got myself as executive pastor. We’ve got the other executive pastor of worship and creative, Justin Melton. And then we added our spiritual formation pastor, Mike Brook on that team.Brandon Boyd — Our lead team is the executive team, plus our project manager, plus our young adult pastor. Cause young adults are so important and and vibrant to our house.Rich Birch — Sure.Brandon Boyd — And that’s kind of like the impetus for the rebirth of our church. And then we’ve got like people in charge of kind our crews, which is our small groups and then kind of our volunteer teams in that. And so that’s kind of those teams.Brandon Boyd — And then out of that, you’ve got ministry teams that run on a weekly basis. And then our staff gathers for once a month where we pray together. we have some fun together. We eat lunch. And so let’s kind of put some meeting structures that we put in place and the purpose of them.Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s cool.Brandon Boyd — So we’ve kind of walked through 50, 40, 30, 20, 10, all the way down to zero. So everybody knows what the purpose of each of those meetings are.Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s good. I’m assuming so you go executive to lead and then is there then like a weekly team meeting? So each of those people that are on the executive, or on the the lead team, they would then have their, you know, kind of trickle that down that information throughout the organization. Brandon Boyd — Yep.Rich Birch — Is that what that looks like basically?Brandon Boyd — Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s great.Brandon Boyd — You’re exactly right. So those ministry teams meet on a weekly basis. Rich Birch — Right. Brandon Boyd — And so, yep.Rich Birch — Okay. One other thing you said that caught my attention, which is a small, it’s like, since we’re sticking with the the quay metaphor, the the nautical metaphor, it’s a small, like a rudder. It’s not that big, but it’s it’s a huge deal. Actually, people knowing what we’re talking about in the upcoming meeting and being prepared for those meetings can be transformational in an organization. So talk me through what does that look like? What’s your expectation? And then when it’s running perfect, what is the kind of goal that we’re, we’re trying to go towards on that, you know, on that front, obviously that we don’t, we don’t bat a hundred, but I’m not even sure I’m mixing metaphors. Now we don’t bat a thousand. I think it is.Brandon Boyd — Yeah.Rich Birch — What is that? You know, what, what does that look like?Brandon Boyd — Yeah. If you’re batting a hundred, I think you’re batting pretty bad. Rich Birch — Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly.Brandon Boyd — And so what what we try to do, I mean, we’re not afraid of tools. And so we use several different tools.Rich Birch — Right.Brandon Boyd — Already talked about Asana. We use Slack for internal communication. So we we really try to strive that we’ve got to get our agendas out ahead of time and then understand if there is an action item in the agenda so that people can understand what’s expected of them.Brandon Boyd — We use another tool called Otter that helps make minutes and notes. And then we disseminate those to the people so they know what’s expected of them. Otter does a great job of recognizing voices and then they’ll also tag people. Then we take that and dump it into Asana. Brandon Boyd — So if we’re having, we’ll just use our student ministry. If we’re having like our weekly Wednesday night student ministry programming for middle schoolers, they’ll know what’s expected of them from what our middle school director is speaking on to what’s expected from production to what’s expected from our creative team to what’s expected from our communications team on the website, social media, some of those other things.Brandon Boyd — And so we use, we’re we’re not shy to use tools. Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s great. Brandon Boyd — And so we use those tools just to make sure that everybody understands what’s expected before the meeting and after the meeting.Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s so good. I’m an Otter user as well. Brandon Boyd — Yeah. Rich Birch — Use it in my coaching. And it’s it’s ah it’s transformed my own personal interaction with the churches I work with. And then I’ve actually had a number of churches pick it up and start using it. I had an XP, this was before Christmas, texted me after just one week. He was like, dude, this has changed our game because it’s like having someone, it’s like in every meeting having like an incredibly detailed assistant that’s writing notes on everything that’s going on and they don’t they don’t miss anything or miss very little, which is, you know, incredible. Rich Birch — So now let’s talk about so from there. So like I get the idea you’re using Asana, get that Slack, Otter, tools are together. How do you ensure that things keep simple and streamlined rather than becoming con, you know, yeah really complicated and, you know, were just bolting on stuff. How do you think about those issues as, as you’re growing?Brandon Boyd — So I’ve got a phrase that I learned at one of my churches in Texas, and it’s actually an acronym. It’s for SIMPLE. So, systems in many places leads to excellence.Brandon Boyd — So we just try to keep things simple. Like we launch a fourth gathering here. We’re at max capacity on Sunday mornings with all three of our gatherings from 8:15 and 11:45. So we’re we’re launching a fourth one here in a few weeks at Sunday night at 5 p.m. And so if we just take what’s replicable from the Sunday morning experience and add it to the the evening experience. But it’s just the basic thing. Brandon Boyd — So yes, we’ve got tools. Yes, we’ve got Asana. Yes, we’ve got Slack… [inaudible] to call a stand-up meeting and just to make sure everybody’s understand what’s going on and just have a conversation. Like my door, I’ve got an open door policy. And if my door’s open, just come on in and ask a question to make sure that you understand what’s going on.Rich Birch — Right.Brandon Boyd — I think it’s just the basic thing. Rich Birch — Right. Brandon Boyd — A lot of times we can hide behind email, we can hide behind Slack, we can hide behind text messages, but we’ve we’ve just got to be more proactive than reactive and say…hey, if you don’t understand something, then it’s okay to come ask a question because I may miss something because we’re involved at a different level.Brandon Boyd — And so what we try to do is just make sure that we’ve got avenues for people to ask questions, whether that’s having quick standup meetings before we run to a big initiative. We also run things where it’s kind of an integration meeting. So if we’re looking at Christmas, Easter, if we’re looking at another objective where we’re going to get everybody on the table and we’re going to walk through a checklist just to make sure even the most small, minute details are taken care of.Rich Birch — That’s good.Brandon Boyd — Part of it is like we’re a stickler for excellence. So we would say excellence is our standard. And part of that is just kind where we are with Disney and Universal and theme parks all over everywhere that everybody that goes to our church already has an excellence experience whenever they go to that. So why can’t they have the same excellence level when they come to church on Sundays?Rich Birch — Sure. Yeah.Brandon Boyd — So.Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s good. A big issue in growing churches is, you know, the people side. So it’s related to what we’re talking about. But as you’re scaling, you know, your team has to continue to grow as people. They have to, you know, step up their game as growth has accelerated. How are you accelerating whether people are operating at their best contribution? They’re kind of really leaning in, you know, and they’re kind of performing at their highest. How how have you been able to keep an eye on that?Brandon Boyd — Yeah, I think this a growing thing for us. I’ve got a “no freak out” policy.Rich Birch — Right. Good. Brandon Boyd — So we’ve we’ve just got to talk through it.Rich Birch — Right.Brandon Boyd — We’ve only got about 20 full time equivalents behind the scene. Rich Birch — That’s great. Brandon Boyd — So when you’re in a church that’s twenty seven hundred and then you add in kids, you’re easily at thirty two hundred on a weekend basis. We have to run lean and mean knowing that we’re trying to project out for when we need to hire additional staff members or we need to hire some part-time.Brandon Boyd — We’re launching an internship program. And so what we’re trying to do is making sure that our staff team feels taken care of, feels heard, feels supported. And I think a lot of that is being accomplished by when we went from a flat organization, nobody, everybody knew who their boss was, but their boss didn’t know maybe what specifically what their directions were. So as we created the executive team, as we created the lead team, as we’ve got those ministry teams, we’ve created avenues for people to be able to feel supported and cared for.Brandon Boyd — And so what I’ve said to our team is you’re caring for the people just down the rung for us. Obviously, Luke and I are caring for our entire team. But just making sure that we’ve got avenues for feedback, avenues for just encouragement, avenues for conversation.Brandon Boyd — And then what we’re trying to figure out next is how do we hold people accountable? So how do we, yes, we’ve told people what’s expected from them. We actually created like a staff covenant for 2026. Like here here’s our expectations, just in case you’re you’re curious about what’s expected from you. And in case you’re caring, well, I was hired under this pastor and this was what the agreement was, that’s out the door. But as 2026 for Quay Church, just so we’re all entirely clear… Rich Birch — That’s cool. Brandon Boyd — …this is what we’re covenanting, not only, from us as a team, but to the Lord. And so we’ve got that. We’ve got accountability.Rich Birch — What are some of the, just before we leave that, what what are some of the things that landed in that? You don’t have to get into this… Brandon Boyd — Yeah. Rich Birch —…but, you know kind of categories of things that you’re, you’re recovenanting around?Brandon Boyd — We kind of made a joke that it sometimes we just, our volunteers, which we call stewards, they kind of outwork us.Rich Birch — Right.Brandon Boyd — And so like, hello, like we, we want to be the first one in and the last one out. And so in the covenant, it just talks about, Hey, we’re we’re going to be here for all the gatherings and we’re going to set the table and make sure that our house is ready to go before people show up.Brandon Boyd — We’re going to covenant. If we’re going to ask our church family to do something, whether be in a group or tithe or whatever, those things that we ask from the platform, we’re going to do it first. So one of the things that I just said to our staff team today is, we need to give up parking in our staff parking lot and we need to park in the farthest spots away on our grass parking a lot.Rich Birch — 100%, yep.Brandon Boyd — So those spots are ready to go for people. And so it’s just little things like that, just making sure that we’re super clear so that there’s no shadow of a doubt that as we go into 2026 and we kind of anticipated that we would have another growth wave based upon what we saw in 2024 and 2025, that in 2026, we just need to be clear what was expected from them as people stepped into it.Rich Birch — That’s cool. Well, when, you know, everything in a growth phase that you’re in, it can get chaotic pretty quickly, because everything feels urgent. It’s like, you know literally, even just the situation we talked about, and before we jumped on the call. It’s like, oh, my goodness, you know, we had a bunch of new more people show up that we’re excited they’re with us, but now we’ve got figure out how to keep them plugged in and all that. Rich Birch — How do you keep from the urgency turning into chaos? What are you doing to try to really push back in some ways and and keep your team focused? And I like that no freak out, you know, no freak out policy. Like, hey, let’s not freak out. We’ll figure it out. But but what’s that functionally look like?Brandon Boyd — I think part of it is it just goes back to our staff values. And so when we were looking, when I first came on board on this, on the church staff, Luke was like, Hey, we got to rebrand the church now. And I said, that’s a longer conversation that we need to roll out in a smart and healthy way. And also gives us time to cast vision. Brandon Boyd — But that first fall that I was here in the fall of 2024, we rolled out staff values and we really go back to those staff values to help people understand they’re not just phrases that we stick up on a wall, but it’s who we are as ah as a culture, as a people. And so one of our values is that we want to build a kingdom over castles. Rich Birch — Good. Brandon Boyd — So we’re more interested in obviously the kingdom of the church, the kingdom of the Lord, and not your own necessary small little ministry thing at Quay Church. So everybody is all in on the broader conversation of the church. Like I told our staff team this past week, as we look towards the launch of the fourth gathering here in a few weeks: No matter what your role is, you’re all jumping in and helping make sure that facilities is ready to go the next day. No matter what your role is, we’re all going to be nimble and shift to it.Brandon Boyd — Another phrase that we like to use is that we’re nimble over fragile. And so we don’t really hold on to things that that that we’re, that we created. We’re we we’re open-handed and open-palmed. It goes back to what I said earlier about stewardship. We’re just stewarding this whole thing. This isn’t ours. This is the Lord’s.Rich Birch — That’s good.Brandon Boyd — That comes down from our lead pastor to our team. He models that so well. And so we really just kind of run with the staff values. Our other staff values are: we take the risk And so we’re willing to take risks for the gospel, whatever that looks like. We’re willing to push that forward. We want to be sled dogs over show dogs. Rich Birch — That’s good.Brandon Boyd — And so we want to put in the good work and all pulled together in the same direction. “Slow is smooth and smooth is fast” is another one of our staff values. We believe that, yes, we can take time to make a decision, but once we make the decision, then we can run so much faster because we’ve got clarity. “Kingdom over castle” I already talked about. “Nimble over fragile.”Brandon Boyd — And then a last one is we just want to burn the ships. And so this is the day that the Lord has for us. And so while we do look back in the past from time, the past is in the past, and we’ve got today. We’re not promised for tomorrow, obviously. And so what can we do now with what the Lord is doing in our church to make sure that the message of Jesus is available to people not only in this part of Windermere, but also throughout the other Orlando regions?Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s so cool. When you think about Quay today, what tells you that the church is becoming healthier not just bigger? i know there can be like criticisms of, and listen, that comes from a place of h being on the other side of these questions when I’ve led before where there’s like this criticism. They look at something like Quay and they’re like, oh, like that’s just whatever. It’s a fad. It’s going, you know, but that’s not the case. What are some of those, either metrics, or stories, or things that you see happening that say like, oh no, things are actually heading, not just bigger, but also healthier.Brandon Boyd — It’s not like we have a growth strategy on my whiteboard over here and we’re like, hey, we got to hit this marker and this marker by then.Rich Birch — Yes. Right.Brandon Boyd — But I think what’s, I’ll just tell you a quick story.Rich Birch — Yeah.Brandon Boyd — We’re in a collection of what we call Sermon Series Collection of Conversations. So we’re in a conversation about Song of Songs right now. We call it Divine Desire, and we’re walking through that.Brandon Boyd — And the Lord has really blessed what we would call altar ministry. And so at the end of our gathering, especially during the last song, after the message has been communicated, people just come down to the front of the altar for prayer. Rich Birch — That’s great.Brandon Boyd — And we’ve got pastors, we’ve got elders, we’ve got deacons. And some of those things that are being communicated in those moments, like last fall, we had a gentleman come down and he said that he was cheating on his spouse and was repentant. And he’s like, I got to go get her now. And we’ve got to share this right now in this moment.Rich Birch — Wow.Brandon Boyd — So I think we’re seeing like real life transformation take place in the gatherings, obviously through the movement of the Holy Spirit. But then the Spirit is directing people to make inroads right now in that moment. Like don’t leave this building today before you’ve had a conversation with the Lord and you’ve confessed your sin. Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s good. Brandon Boyd — So I think from that perspective, I’ve just been able to see that happen and to see people really take their faith seriously in that moment, rather than just like coming to a worship gathering, getting in their car and going home.Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s so good. I love that. That’s great. Any, you know, the talk to me a little bit more about the response time, the altar time. I would say this for sure is a “trends” may be the wrong word, but like we see more and more churches, you know, employing that, that tactic. What have you learned from just managing that as a normal part of your worship experience? What, what has been, and has that been an add in the last couple of years or has it always been there?Brandon Boyd — I think it’s I think it’s been an add, but it hasn’t been like a programmatic element… Rich Birch — Right. Brandon Boyd — …that we’ve said, we’ve got to have altar ministry. I think it’s just been a movement of the Lord. So last spring we had we had this moment where it was our last gathering of the morning was at 11:45. And then we had this altar ministry where people just stayed and prayed after the end. And I don’t even remember what Luke spoke on. That started at 1:00 basically, and didn’t wrap up till 6 p.m. that night.Rich Birch — Wow.Brandon Boyd — So we’re not manufacturing any of this.Rich Birch — No. Yeah, yeah.Brandon Boyd — I think it’s just the Lord. And I think it’s just being sensitive to what the Lord is doing. And I think it’s the courage of not only Luke, our pastor, but other people that fill the pulpit when Luke isn’t there, that says, hey, don’t leave this room.Brandon Boyd — Our worship pastor, Justin Melton, does a great job of this at the end of each gathering. Don’t leave this room before you’ve talked to somebody, if the Lord is prompting that. So I think from a programmatic standpoint, we just want to be open-handed and just provide opportunities for people either to come forward or go to the next step space to have a conversation. And so it’s just been really remarkable to watch. Brandon Boyd — Like at first, I was kind of like, what in the world is going on? These people are just getting out of their seats and coming down front. But that altar ministry is not only prevalent in our Sunday morning worship gatherings, it’s prevalent in our student gatherings, whether that’s Wednesday night for middle school or Sunday nights for high school, and Thursday nights for our young adults. So it’s just something that the Lord is kind of stirring in and through our church.Rich Birch — Yeah, I was visiting, maybe 18 months ago, I was visiting a church. It was, the year before it was the second fastest growing church in the country. And showed up, and there was nothing about the kind of my pre-experience with this church that would have led me to believe that like, oh, altar time was going to be a part of their experience. And but very similarly, at the end of the the service, it was very like nonchalant is is the wrong word, but it wasn’t it was not a programmatic. We are, you know people know what we’re talking about. Brandon Boyd — Yeah, yeah. Rich Birch — Like we’re not, we’re not trying to, we’re not doing anything to get people to respond. And I would say, I don’t know, two thirds of the room got up and came down or, you know, half the room, it was like a huge portion of the room got up and came down. And I remember talking to the lead guy the next thing, he’s a good friend of mine. And I was like, like trying to pick it apart and understand it from a process point of view. And he was like, Rich man, the fact that we don’t totally understand it is a part of what we think that God’s using, right? Which is is beautiful. So that’s, that’s great to hear. That’s cool. Rich Birch — Are you doing anything with your elders or staff team to train towards that? Because you want to make sure that, you know, the people that are receiving some of that, you know, are kind of thought about it ahead of time before they got down there. Is anything you’re doing on that front?Brandon Boyd — Yeah, we’ve had training conversations and just how to be receptive to what people are sharing and knowing that we’ve we’ve done that with our elders, with our deacons and our staff team and pastors. andRich Birch — Sure.Brandon Boyd — But some of that is obviously there’s there’s going to be greater needs that extend past a Sunday.Rich Birch — Right.Brandon Boyd — So what is the immediate conversation that we need to have? But then if it’s a counseling issue, how can we refer them to a counseling partner? Rich Birch — Right.Brandon Boyd — Are there things that we can handle internally? Part of it is like we’ve just had this rapid growth in our church where it’s like you would assume if you come to our church that we would have this ministry, this handoff, this handoff. So another thing that we’ve had to do this past year is kind of build those handoffs as we’ve experienced some of these altar ministry things.Rich Birch — Sure.Brandon Boyd — Yeah.Rich Birch — That’s cool. Well, it’s been a fantastic conversation. What kind of final words would you have or encouragement would you have to a leader who’s maybe experiencing, obviously what you’re experiencing is super unique across the country, but is maybe experiencing a season of growth that there’s, Hey, there’s, we’re experiencing more momentum. We’re seeing this across the country in a number of churches, but what would you, what would your kind of final words be to them as we wrap up today’s conversation?Brandon Boyd — I think for me, just the final thing that I’d like to say, Rich, is it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Rich Birch — That’s good.Brandon Boyd — I’ve felt overwhelmed in this season, and it’s okay to acknowledge that. And so just to have that space with my lead pastor where I can go into him and just say, look, I’m overwhelmed. I’m going to be okay. But I just want you to know that I am overwhelmed. And then being able to be transparent with our elder board about that. I think that’s just ah a feeling of, as if you’re in a fast-growing church like this situation or other situations, where it’s okay just to acknowledge we’re humans. You don’t have to act like a superhuman, that everything is okay.Rich Birch — RightBrandon Boyd — But just to say, hey, I’m overwhelmed and it’s a season. And then being able to express that not only to your lead pastor, to your elders, but I’ve got friends outside of Orlando that are in pastoral ministry that understand what that feels like. So just creating that network of being able to say that. Because what my fear is that people can just get overwhelmed and can get burned out and can say like, I hate the church. I don’t want to be a pastor anymore. And I believe that the when the Lord calls you, he’s also going to equip you. And so at the same time, you just need to be able to voice that and just say like, I am overwhelmed. We are going to make it through it, but here’s some things that I need help on.Rich Birch — That’s so good. Brandon, I really appreciate you being on today and taking time out of your schedule, packed schedule, I’m sure, to help us today.Brandon Boyd — Yeah.Rich Birch — So I really appreciate that. If people want to connect with Quay, connect with you, kind of track with the story, where do we want to send them online?Brandon Boyd — Yeah, so you can go to our social media. That’s @quaychurch, Q-U-A-Y Church. Also, quaychurch.org. And then I’m on Instagram @bgboyd.Rich Birch — Nice. That’s great. Thanks so much for being here today.Brandon Boyd — Yep, my pleasure.

Let me tell you about where to shift your focus and energy. I spent years believing that success requires perfection, and that we need to have it all figured out before taking a step. Here's the secret: you need to focus on excellence. I'm breaking down the differences between perfectionism and excellence today so you can start showing up. Taking those first steps can be uncomfortable, but that stretch is exactly where the growth happens. It's time to start making moves. In this episode, you will learn about: Why being "ready" is a lie, and how chasing perfection keeps you stuck. The many ways perfectionism is actually self-destructive and holds you back. What excellence looks like when it becomes a part of your life. How to build the practice of excellence so you can finally start showing up. How excellence redirects you towards continued improvement and capacity. What happens once you start taking imperfect action that might surprise you. What you can acknowledge right now that will help you focus on excellence.     Check out The Pink Skirt Project, happening July 9-10, 2026 in Kelowna, BC, Canada.   Want to get unstuck, feel more confident and surround yourself with women ready to help you climb? Join The Pink Skirt Society.   Got a minute? I would love a review! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap, and give me five stars. Then select "Write a Review." Make sure to highlight your favorite bits. Subscribe here. Connect with Renée: @renee_warren www.reneewarren.com

In episode 243, Coffey talks with Dan Dalton about using personality profiles to improve hiring, onboarding, team dynamics, and organizational effectiveness.  They discuss the evolution of personality assessments from paper-based tools to data-driven platforms; appropriate and inappropriate uses of DISC and Predictive Index in hiring decisions; leveraging behavioral data to ask better interview questions; customizing onboarding to match communication preferences and learning styles; aligning managers and employees through mutual self-awareness; using profiles to strengthen team composition and collaboration; applying personality insights to performance coaching conversations; reducing turnover by adapting leadership styles to employee needs; helping young people gain early self-awareness for career decisions; and identifying the “personality” of an organization through mission statements and customer feedback.  For HR teams who discuss this podcast in their team meetings, we've created a discussion starter PDF to help guide your conversation. Download it here https://goodmorninghr.com/EP243  Good Morning, HR is brought to you by Imperative—Bulletproof Background Checks. For more information about our commitment to quality and excellent customer service, visit us at https://imperativeinfo.com.   If you are an HRCI or SHRM-certified professional, this episode of Good Morning, HR has been pre-approved for half a recertification credit. To obtain the recertification information for this episode, visit https://goodmorninghr.com.   About our Guest:  Since 1995 Dan Dalton has worked in various HR roles as Trainer, Recruiter, HR Generalist, Manager, Director and Employee Relations Consultant.  Dan has worked in the Banking industry with JP Morgan Chase and Southwest Bank, the retail industry with Neiman Marcus and the health care industry with, Texas Health Resources, Voyager Hospice Care, McKesson Specialty Health, Texas Oncology, EVP Eye Care and in manufacturing with Oil States Industries. Most recently, Dan has founded P3:14 Consulting focusing on helping organizations and individuals strive to reach their potential. Dan has held a Human Resources professional certification since 2005 and presently holds a HRCI Senior HR Professional (SPHR) certification as well as a SHRM-SCP certification.  Dan earned a BBA in Marketing with a minor in Economics from Southwestern University and an MS in HR Management from University of Texas at Arlington (UTA). Dan has served with Fort Worth HR (local SHRM chapter) as board member and Past President and has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Christian Women's Job Corp of Greater Arlington where he facilitates workshops on resume writing and interview preparation. Dan has been married to Brandi since 1987 and has a son, Calvin James (CJ), daughter-in-law Caiti and two grandchildren Cannon and Charlie. Dan also enjoys binge watching Netflix and Prime shows, ski vacations and any time spent in the mountains. He is an avid baseball fan and has played softball and golf most of his life. Dan and his family are active members at First Baptist Church of Arlington, where he is a member of the choir and contemporary praise team and a Sunday School teacher.  Dan Dalton can be reached at https://p314consulting.com  https://www.linkedin.com/in/dandaltonsphr    About Mike Coffey:  Mike Coffey is an entrepreneur, licensed private investigator, business strategist, HR consultant, and registered yoga teacher. In 1999, he founded Imperative, a background investigations and due diligence firm helping risk-averse clients make well-informed decisions about the people they involve in their business. Imperative delivers in-depth employment background investigations, know-your-customer and anti-money laundering compliance, and due diligence investigations to more than 300 risk-averse corporate clients across the US, and, through its PFC Caregiver & Household Screening brand, many more private estates, family offices, and personal service agencies. Imperative has been named a Best Places to Work, the Texas Association of Business' small business of the year, and is accredited by the Professional Background Screening Association.  Mike shares his insight from 25+ years of HR-entrepreneurship on the Good Morning, HR podcast, where each week he talks to business leaders about bringing people together to create value for customers, shareholders, and community. Mike has been recognized as an Entrepreneur of Excellence by FW, Inc. and has twice been recognized as the North Texas HR Professional of the Year.  Mike serves as a board member of a number of organizations, including the Texas State Council, where he serves Texas' 31 SHRM chapters as State Director-Elect; Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County; the Texas Association of Business; and the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, where he is chair of the Talent Committee. Mike is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) through the HR Certification Institute and a SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP). He is also a Yoga Alliance registered yoga teacher (RYT-200) and teaches multiple times each week. Mike and his very patient wife of 28 years are empty nesters in Fort Worth.   Learning Objectives: Identify appropriate uses of personality assessments in hiring and performance management. Apply behavioral profile insights to improve onboarding and manager-employee communication. Evaluate team composition and organizational alignment using personality data.  

If we abolish the family policing system, how do we respond to child sexual abuse? Abolition helps us create a world where all children are safe and supported by their communities. We're addressing the problem, not just sweeping it under the rug. We speak with award-winning journalist and author Roxanna Asgarian about her essay “Reclaiming Safety for Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse.” Roxanna explores how the current carceral response to child sexual harm—rooted in punishment, separation, and shame—fails survivors and perpetuates cycles of trauma. Together, we discuss what safety and accountability can look like outside of prisons, foster care, and family policing. Drawing from her reporting and lived experience, Roxanna invites us to imagine community-based pathways to healing that honor survivors, hold those who harm accountable, and build the conditions where safety is possible for everyone.About Our Guest: Roxanna Asgarian is a Texas-based journalist and the author of We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America, which won the 2023 National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, and the L.A. Times Book Prize. Her reporting has appeared in The Washington Post, Texas Monthly, and New York Magazine. A survivor of child sexual harm, Roxanna has spent years covering stories at the intersections of child welfare, justice, and community care—centering the voices of those most impacted by family separation and systemic neglect.Episode Notes: Support the work of upEND: upendmovement.org/donateEpisode Transcript: upendmovement.org/podcast/episode303/ Read “Reclaiming Safety for Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse” by Roxanna Agarian. Connect with Roxanna's work at RoxannaAsgarianWrites.com and read her award-winning book, We Were Once a Family.Roxanna discusses Hidden Water Healing Circles and Freedom Community Center.Explore the Reclaiming Safety series: upendmovement.org/safetyCredits: Hosted by Josie Pickens and Jaison OliverProduced by Sydnie Dan'el MaresMixed by Imani Crosby

Recorded on March 7, 2026, at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY. Please enjoy this interfaith dialogue on engaged action as spiritual practice with guest teacher, Reverend Mira Salwani of The Riverside Church, and Sarah Dojin Emerson. The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to Brooklyn Zen Center at brooklynzen.org under ‘Giving.' Thank you for your generosity! Rev. Mira Salwani speaks about “what it means to find home in the midst of chaos,” by “leaning into discomfort as a means to survival.” She explores the value of “extending home and belonging and safety to someone else … and to ourselves.” Reverend Mira Salwani serves as the Minister of Justice, Advocacy & Change at The Riverside Church. She is a daughter of immigrants, a pastor, a preacher, an educator and a public theologian. Mira received her Master of Divinity degree from Wesley Theological Seminary where she earned an award for Excellence in Public Theology and a Community Life Award. During her time in seminary, Mira served as the Associate Pastor of Spiritual Formation at Peace Fellowship Church, working in partnership with congregants, community organizers and activists to end gun violence in Washington, DC. Mira has also served on the launch team of Resurrection City, a Queer and Black led church plant; as the former Community Pastor at Forefront Church NYC and most recently as the Minister for Spiritual Development and Care at Middle Collegiate Church. Her decolonized approach to justice and advocacy have been informed by her lived experience as a “third culture kid” of Philippine and Indian heritage in her birthplace of Hong Kong, and her extensive experience doing ministry in multicultural communities from Australia to the United States. Her journey as a mother of three girls has fueled her desire to bring about social change for their futures and to bring to realization God's kin-dom here on earth for all to experience.

Welcome to the Purple Patch Podcast! In this episode IRONMAN Master Coach Matt Dixon and Brad Stulberg discuss the concept of excellence, emphasizing it as a practice rather than an outcome. Brad's latest book, "The Way of Excellence," explores this idea, highlighting the importance of consistency, integrity, and alignment with values. They discuss the role of routines and stability in managing stress and maintaining performance. Brad shares insights from high-performing athletes and leaders, stressing the need for a balanced identity house with multiple areas of focus. They also touch on the impact of technology and metrics in performance, advocating for a balanced approach that values both process and outcome. Purple Patch and Episode Resources Brad Stulberg's Book: The Way of Excellence is currently 23% off here: https://www.amazon.com/Way-Excellence-Greatness-Satisfaction-Chaotic/dp/0063385945 Fast Track Run Squad: purplepatchfitness.com/fasttrackmarathon Check out our world-class coaching and training options: Tri Squad: https://www.purplepatchfitness.com/squad 1:1 Coaching: https://www.purplepatchfitness.com/11-coached Run Squad: https://www.purplepatchfitness/com/run-squad Strength Squad: https://www.purplepatchfitness.com/strength-1 Live & On-Demand Bike Sessions: https://www.purplepatchfitness.com/bike  Explore our training options in detail: https://bit.ly/3XBo1Pi  Live in San Francisco? Explore the Purple Patch Performance Center: https://center.purplepatchfitness.com  Everything you need to know about our methodology: https://www.purplepatchfitness.com/our-methodology Amplify your approach to nutrition with Purple Patch + Fuelin https://www.fuelin.com/purplepatch Get access to our free training resources, insight-packed newsletter and more at purplepatchfitness.com  

Joined on this episode by the one and only Jake Ryks, and here is a taste of the talking points we we're planning to cover: the importance of training, inspiring the next generation to care, taking pride in the job, recruitment and retention, when it's time to promote, what it means to truly be a “master firefighter,” department morale, leading by example, and what it means to be “the senior man.”We'll also talk about firehouse culture (hazing vs. just having fun), the importance of caring about the little things, not rushing your career goals, Jake's mental health journey and his experience at the IAFF Center of Excellence, the fire story behind the awards he received in 2024, why the fire service matters so much to him, who should—and shouldn't—be a firefighter, and how to walk the line between safe and “too safe,” and risky vs. “too risky.”Enjoy!!!

The people who win long term in this profession usually aren't the loudest, smartest, or most naturally talented.They simply learn how to play the game.In this episode, Leslie Hocker breaks down what it really takes to build world-class excellence in network marketing and why most people struggle longer than they need to.Leslie explains how emotional decision-making keeps leaders stuck, inconsistent, and frustrated, while strategic thinking creates stability, growth, and longevity.She shares the simple shift high-level performers make when they stop reacting to outcomes and start approaching the business as a skill-based game worth mastering.This conversation is about maturity in business. Learning the rules. Playing the long game.Because excellence isn't accidental. It's learned.

In this episode of the Financial Guys Podcast, Mike Hoeflich and Glenn Wiggle tackle a wide range of political issues shaping the national conversation. They begin with frustration over the SAVE Act and the debate around voter ID laws, arguing that adding unrelated policy issues makes meaningful election reform harder to pass. The conversation expands into broader concerns about election integrity, the idea of making Election Day a national holiday, and the challenges of immigration, assimilation, and cultural integration in the United States. Later, Mike and Glenn discuss rising political tensions at home and abroad, including terrorism concerns, unrest in major cities, and America's ongoing conflicts in the Middle East. They wrap up with a sharp critique of Washington's political class, comparing the relentless drive of elite athletes to what they see as complacency among many elected officials—and why accountability and stronger leadership in government are needed now more than ever. (00:01:58) Legislation Focus: Voter ID Requirements in SAVE Act(00:05:42) First Saturday National Voting Day Proposal(00:15:45) Controversy Over Muslims in American Society(00:17:44) Melting Pot Analogy in Integration Process(00:30:03) Athletes vs Legislators: Commitment to Excellence(00:30:59) Politicians' Dedication to Positive Change(00:33:06) Straightforward GOP Senator's Admirable Stance(00:36:31) Barriers to Unseating Incumbents in Politics

"Storytelling helps people understand where they fit in creating the magic." Episode Highlights [00:02:19] Recruiting People Who Believe in Excellence [00:03:29] Explaining the Long-Term Value of High Standards [00:07:48] Getting Buy-In From Your Current Team [00:10:07] Why Accountability Strengthens Culture [00:10:38] Using Storytelling to Define Customer Experience Setting high customer service standards is one thing. Getting your team to buy into them is another. In this episode, Lee Cockerell explains how leaders can recruit, train, and communicate in ways that build a culture of excellence. From better interviews to storytelling that defines the ideal customer experience, leaders can create clarity that inspires accountability and pride in great service. Read my blog for more from this episode.  Resources CockerellStore.com The Cockerell Academy About Lee Cockerell Mainstreet Leader Jody Maberry Travel Guidance Magical Vacation Planners are my preferred travel advisors. Reach out to have them help plan your next vacation. You can reach them at 407-442-2694.    

James Yates and Sam Weaver delve into the Arrow Ballistic study, highlighting arrow drag and lift quantification. Uncover key findings on vein configurations and broadhead dynamics. James then dives into the upcoming 2026 arrow study focusing on FOC. Explore Phone Skope's Mag 360 innovations and Magpie Precision's suppressor seal solutions. Elevate your archery, digiscoping, and shooting skills with practical insights and cutting-edge technology. Talk then shifts towards the other Rokslide.com gear reviews and a recap of the latest Western news. Western Hunter article-https://westernhunter.net/information/the-arrow-ballistics-study-results/ Youtube-https://www.youtube.com/@YatesInTheBackcountry Precision Cut Archery Data-https://www.precisioncutarchery.com/research/arrow-study-2025 Howl for Wildlife- Take Action   Check out Rokslide's 2025 Best Gear- https://www.rokslide.com/best-gear-of-2025/   Visit Rokslide's Rokcast Forum to submit questions, request a topic or give feedback. To be a guest on Tipsy Tuesday please send an email to Sam@Rokslide.com   [ Rokcast is powered by onX Hunt. For 20% off, use Promo Code “Rokcast” at onX Hunt here https://www.onxmaps.com/hunt/app

Brad Stulberg researches, writes, and coaches on health, well-being, and sustainable excellence. He is the bestselling author of The Practice of Groundedness and co-author of Peak Performance. Stulberg regularly contributes to the New York Times, and his work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker, Sports Illustrated, Outside Magazine, Forbes, and other outlets. He also serves as the co-host of The Growth Equation podcast and is on faculty at the University of Michigan's Graduate School of Public Health.

Brigham Dickinson is the co-founder and president of Power Selling Pros, a company that helps home service businesses turn more incoming calls into booked jobs through world-class customer service and call-handling training. After years of studying top-performing service companies, Brigham developed proven systems that help CSRs and office teams deliver exceptional customer experiences that drive revenue and loyalty. Today, Power Selling Pros works with contractors across the country to improve call conversion, increase bookings, and build cultures centered on the "Pattern for Excellence." Brigham is also the host of the Service MVP Podcast, where he interviews leaders across the home service industry about leadership, growth, and delivering remarkable service. FOR MORE GREAT EPISODES: The Mello Millionaire - https://open.spotify.com/show/1jsZaiMgWe0EGaPfLtelDW?si=3de6091af58d41b4 Chapters 00:00:00 Cold Open 00:00:15 Title Sequence 00:00:35 Show Notes VO 00:01:20 Intro Into Interview 00:02:45 Power Selling Pro's Testimonial  00:03:33 Interview Resumes 01:03:02 Outro Check Out My Social Media: Tiktok _https://www.tiktok.com/@officialtommymello Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/officialtommymello/ Facebook _https://www.facebook.com/thomasmello/

In this special Reporter's Notebook, Maria Varmazis⁠⁠⁠⁠, host here at N2K CyberWire, takes listeners behind the scenes of our three-part series on Cyber Coalition 2025 in Tallinn, Estonia. After exploring real-time incident response, cross-border coordination, and the broader stakes of collective cyber defense, this episode offers a more personal, behind-the-scenes look at how the reporting came together. Hosted by the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Centre of Excellence, the exercise brought together allied military, government, and industry teams inside NATO's secure cyber range. Here, Maria reflects on moments that didn't make the final cut — the atmosphere inside the facilities, the pace of covering a live exercise, and the small, human details that added texture to the larger story. If you haven't yet, be sure to listen to all three episodes of the series to hear the full story from the ground at Cyber Coalition 2025. Episode one can be found ⁠⁠here⁠⁠. Episode two can be found ⁠here⁠.  Episode three can be found ⁠⁠here⁠⁠.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we have a special episode of Mea Culpa with our old friend Frank Figliuzzi. Frank is a former assistant director for counterintelligence at the FBI, where he served for 25 years as a special agent and directed all espionage investigations across the entire government. Frank is a regular contributor for NBC News and MSNBC, and also the author of the national bestseller “The FBI Way: Inside the Bureau's Code of Excellence.” And check out his most recent OP-Ed on the MSNBC opinion page, entitled “There's a Reason Why Hoarding Classified Documents is a Crime." Frank breaks down for us the redacted version of the Mar-a-Lago search warrant affidavit and what it possibly means for the Mandarin Mussolini.