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Have you or do you feel stress? What is stress and how can we deal with it? Our guest this time is Rachelle Stone who discusses those very questions with us. Rachelle grew up in a very small town in Massachusetts. After attending community college, she had an opportunity to study and work at Disney World in Florida and has never looked back.   Rachelle loved her Disney work and entered the hospitality industry spending much of 27 years working for or running her own destination management company. She will describe how one day after a successful career, at the age of 48, she suffered what today we know as burnout. She didn't know how to describe her feelings at the time, but she will tell us how she eventually discovered what was going on with her.   She began to explore and then study the profession of coaching. Rachelle will tell us about coaches and clients and how what coaches do can help change lives in so many ways.   This episode is full of the kind of thoughts and ideas we all experience as well as insights on how we can move forward when our mindsets are keeping us from moving forward. Rachelle has a down-to-Earth way of explaining what she wants to say that we all can appreciate.       About the Guest:   “As your leadership consultant, I will help you hone your leadership, so you are ready for your next career move. As your executive coach, I will partner with you to overcome challenges and obstacles so you can execute your goals.”     Hi, I'm Rachelle. I spent over 25 years as an entrepreneur and leader in the Special Event industry in Miami, building, flipping, and selling Destination Management Companies (DMCs).  While I loved and thrived in the excitement and chaos of the industry, I still managed to hit a level of burnout that was wholly unexpected and unacceptable to me, resulting in early retirement at 48.   Now, as a trained Leadership Consultant and Executive Coach, I've made it my mission to combine this hard-won wisdom and experience to crack the code on burnout and balance for others so they can continue to thrive in careers they love. I am Brené Brown Dare to Lead ™ trained, a Certified Positive Intelligence ® Mental Fitness coach, and an accredited Professional Certified Coach by the ICF (International Coaching Federation, the most recognized global accreditation body in the coaching industry).   I continue to grow my expertise and show my commitment to the next generation of coaches by serving on the ICF-Central Florida chapter board of directors. I am serving as President-Elect and Chapter Liaison to the global organization. I also support those new to the coaching industry by mentoring other coaches to obtain advanced coaching credentials.   I maintain my well-being by practicing Pilates & Pvolve ® a few days a week, taking daily walks, loving on my Pug, Max, and making time for beach walks when possible.   Ways to connect Rachel:   www.rstoneconsulting.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/rstoneconsulting/ Instagram: @even_wonderwoman_gets_tired   About the Host:   Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/   https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening!   Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast   If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset .   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review   Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.       Transcription Notes:   Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us. Well, hi and welcome to unstoppable mindset where inclusion diversity and the unexpected meet. But you know, the more fun thing about it is the unexpected. Unexpected is always a good thing, and unexpected is really anything that doesn't have anything directly to do with inclusion or diversity, which is most of what we get to deal with in the course of the podcast, including with our guest today, Rachelle Stone, who worked in the hospitality industry in a variety of ways during a lot of her life, and then switched to being a coach and a leadership expert. And I am fascinated to learn about that and what what brought her to that? And we'll get to that at some point in the course of the day. But Rachelle, welcome to unstoppable mindset. We're glad you're here. Thank   Rachelle Stone ** 02:08 you, Michael. I'm honored to be here. Excited to be talking to you today.   Michael Hingson ** 02:12 Well, it's a lot of fun now. You're in Florida. I am. I'm in the Clearwater   Rachelle Stone ** 02:16 Dunedin area. I like to say I live in Dunedin, Florida without the zip code.   Michael Hingson ** 02:22 Yeah. Well, I hear you, you know, then makes it harder to find you that way, right?   Rachelle Stone ** 02:28 Physically. Yeah, right, exactly. Danita, without the zip code, we'll stick with that. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 02:33 yeah, that works. Well, I'm really glad you're here. Why don't we start by maybe you talking to us a little bit about the early Rachelle growing up and some of that stuff.   Rachelle Stone ** 02:43 Yeah, I was lucky. I grew up in rural Western Massachusetts, little po doc town called Greenfield, Massachusetts. We were 18 miles from the Vermont border, which was literally a mile and a half from the New Hampshire border. So I grew up in this very interesting area where it was like a tri state area, and our idea of fun growing up, well, it was, we were always outdoors, playing very much outdoors. I had three siblings, and I was the youngest, and it was one of those childhoods where you came home from school, and mom would say, go outside, don't come back in the house until you hear the whistle. And every house on the street, every mother had a whistle. There were only seven houses because there was a Boy Scout camp at the end of the road. So as the sun was setting and the street lights would come on, you would hear different whistles, and different family kids would be going home the stone kids up, that's your mom. Go home, see you next time that was it was great. And you know, as I got older and more adventurous, it was cow tipping and keg parties and behind and all sorts of things that we probably shouldn't have been doing in our later teen years, but it was fun. Behind   Michael Hingson ** 04:04 is it's four wheeling,   Rachelle Stone ** 04:08 going up rough terrain. We had these. It was very, very hilly, where I was lot of lot of small mountains that you could conquer.   Michael Hingson ** 04:17 So in the winter, does that mean you got to do some fun things, like sledding in the snow. Yeah, yeah.   Rachelle Stone ** 04:24 We had a great hill in the back of our yard, so I learned to ski in my own backyard, and we had three acres of woods, so we would go snowshoeing. We were also close to a private school called Northfield Mount Hermon, which had beautiful, beautiful grounds, and in the winter, we would go cross country skiing there. So again, year round, we were, we were outdoors a lot.   Michael Hingson ** 04:52 Well, my time in Massachusetts was three years living in Winthrop so I was basically East Boston. Yeah. Yes and and very much enjoyed it. Loved the environment. I've been all over Massachusetts in one way or another, so I'm familiar with where you were. I am, and I will admit, although the winters were were cold, that wasn't as much a bother as it was when the snow turned to ice or started to melt, and then that night it froze. That got to be pretty slippery,   05:25 very dangerous, very dangerous.   Michael Hingson ** 05:29 I then experienced it again later, when we lived in New Jersey and and I actually our house to take the dogs out. We had no fenced yards, so I had to take them out on leash, and I would go down to our basement and go out and walk out basement onto a small deck or patio, actually, and then I had to go down a hill to take the dogs where they could go do their business. And I remember the last year we were in New Jersey, it snowed in May, and the snow started to melt the next day, and then that night, it froze, and it and it stayed that way for like about a day and a half. And so it was as slick as glass is. Glass could be. So eventually I couldn't I could go down a hill, it was very dangerous, but going back up a hill to come back in the house was not safe. So eventually, I just used a very long flex leash that was like 20 feet long, and I sent the dogs down the hill. I stayed at the top.   Rachelle Stone ** 06:33 Was smart, wow. And they didn't mind. They just wanted to go do their business, and they wanted to get back in the house too. It's cold, yeah?   Michael Hingson ** 06:41 They didn't seem to be always in an incredible hurry to come back into the house. But they had no problem coming up the hill. That's the the advantage of having claws,   Rachelle Stone ** 06:51 yes. Pause, yeah, four of them to boot, right? Yeah, which   Michael Hingson ** 06:54 really helped a great deal. But, you know, I remember it. I love it. I loved it. Then now I live in in a place in California where we're on what's called the high desert, so it doesn't get as cold, and we get hardly any of the precipitation that even some of the surrounding areas do, from Los Angeles and Long Beach and so on to on the one side, up in the mountains where the Snow is for the ski resorts on the other so Los Angeles can have, or parts of La can have three or four inches of rain, and we might get a half inch.   Rachelle Stone ** 07:28 Wow. So it stays relatively dry. Do you? Do you ever have to deal like down here, we have something called black ice, which we get on the road when it rains after it hasn't rained in a long time? Do you get that there in California,   Michael Hingson ** 07:41 there are places, yeah, not here where I live, because it generally doesn't get cold enough. It can. It's already this well, in 2023 late 2023 we got down to 24 degrees one night, and it can get a little bit colder, but generally we're above freezing. So, no, we don't get the black ice here that other places around us can and do. Got it. Got it. So you had I obviously a fun, what you regard as a fun childhood.   Rachelle Stone ** 08:14 Yeah, I remember the first day I walked into I went to a community college, and I it was a very last minute, impulsive, spontaneous decision. Wow, that kind of plays into the rest of my life too. I make very quick decisions, and I decided I wanted to go to college, and it was open enrollment. I went down to the school, and they asked me, What do you want to study? I'm like, I don't know. I just know I want to have fun. So they said, you might want to explore Recreation and Leisure Services. So that's what I wound up going to school for. And I like to say I have a degree in fun and games.   Michael Hingson ** 08:47 There you go. Yeah. Did you go beyond community college or community college enough?   Rachelle Stone ** 08:53 Yeah, that was so I transferred. It took me four years to get a two year degree. And the reason was, I was working full time, I moved out. I just at 17, I wanted to be on my own, and just moved into an apartment with three other people and went to college and worked. It was a fabulous way to live. It was wonderful. But then when I transferred to the University, I felt like I was a bit bored, because I think the other students were, I was dealing with a lot of students coming in for the first time, where I had already been in school for four years, in college for four years, so the experience wasn't what I was looking for. I wanted the education. And I saw a poster, and it was Mickey Mouse on the poster, and it was Walt Disney World College program now accepting applications. So I wrote down the phone number, email, whatever it was, and and I applied. I got an interview again. Remember Michael? I was really bored. I was going to school. It was my first semester in my four year program, and I just anyway. I got a call back and. And I was accepted into the Disney College Program. So, um, they at that time, they only took about 800 students a year. So it was back in 1989 long time ago. And I was thrilled. I left Massachusetts on january 31 1989 in the blizzard of 89 Yeah, and I drove down to Orlando, Florida, and I never left. I'm still here in Florida. That was the beginning of my entire career. Was applying for the Disney College Program.   Michael Hingson ** 10:36 So what was that like, being there at the Disney College, pro nominal, phenomenal. I have to ask one thing, did you have to go through some sort of operation to get rid of your Massachusetts accent? Does   Rachelle Stone ** 10:50 it sound like it worked? No, I didn't have well, it was funny, because I was hoping I would be cast as Minnie Mouse. I'm four foot 10. I have learned that to be Mini or Mickey Mouse, you have to be four, eight or shorter. So I missed many by two inches. My second choice was being a lifeguard, and I wound up what I they offered me was Epcot parking lot, and I loved it, believe it or not, helping to park cars at Epcot Center. I still remember my spiel to the letter that I used to give because there was a live person on the back of the tram speaking and then another one at the front of the tram driving it to get you from the parking lot to the front entrance of the gate. But the whole experience was amazing. It was I attended classes, I earned my Master's degree. I picked up a second and third job because I wanted to get into hotels, and so I worked one day a week at the Disney Inn, which is now their military resorts. And then I took that third job, was as a contractor for a recreation management company. So I was working in the field that I had my associates in. I was working at a hotel one day a week, just because I wanted to learn about hotels. I thought that was the industry I wanted to go into. And I was I was driving the tram and spieling on the back of the tram five days a week. I loved it was phenomenal.   Michael Hingson ** 12:20 I have a friend who is blind who just retired from, I don't know, 20 or 25 years at Disneyland, working a lot in the reservation centers and and so on. And speaks very highly of, of course, all the experiences of being involved with Disney.   Rachelle Stone ** 12:38 Yeah, it's really, I'm It was a wonderful experience. I think it gave me a great foundation for the work in hospitality that I did following. It was a great i i think it made me a better leader, better hospitality person for it well,   Michael Hingson ** 12:57 and there is an art to doing it. It isn't just something where you can arbitrarily decide, I'm going to be a successful and great hospitality person, and then do it if you don't learn how to relate to people, if you don't learn how to talk to people, and if you're not having fun doing it   Rachelle Stone ** 13:14 exactly. Yes, Fun. Fun is everything. It's   Michael Hingson ** 13:18 sort of like this podcast I love to tell people now that the only hard and fast rule about the podcast is we both have to have fun, or it's not worth doing.   Rachelle Stone ** 13:25 That's right. I'm right there with you. Gotta Have fun,   Michael Hingson ** 13:30 yeah? Well, so you So, how long were you with Disney? What made you switched? Oh, so   Rachelle Stone ** 13:36 Disney College Program. It was, at that time, it was called the Magic Kingdom college program, MK, CP, and it's grown quite significantly. I think they have five or 7000 students from around the world now, but at that time it was just a one semester program. I think for international students, it's a one year program. So when my three and a half months were up. My semester, I could either go back. I was supposed to go back to school back in Massachusetts, but the recreation management company I was working for offered me a full time position, so I wound up staying. I stayed in Orlando for almost three and a half years, and ultimately I wound up moving to South Florida and getting a role, a new role, with a different sort of company called a destination management company. And that was that was really the onset destination management was my career for 27 years. 26   Michael Hingson ** 14:38 years. So what is a destination management company. So   Rachelle Stone ** 14:41 a destination management company is, they are the company that receives a group into a destination, meetings, conventions, events. So for instance, let's say, let's say Fathom note taker. Wants to have an in person meeting, and they're going to hold it at the Lowe's Miami Beach, and they're bringing in 400 of their top clients, and and and sales people and operations people. They need someone on the receiving end to pick everybody up at the airport, to put together the theme parties, provide the private tours and excursions. Do the exciting restaurant, Dine Around the entertainment, the amenities. So I did all the fun. And again, sticking with the fun theme here, yeah, I did all of the auxiliary meeting fun add ons in the destination that what you would do. And I would say I did about 175 to 225, meetings a year.   Michael Hingson ** 15:44 So you didn't actually book the meetings, or go out and solicit to book the meetings. You were the person who took over. Once a meeting was arranged,   Rachelle Stone ** 15:53 once a meeting was booked in the destination, right? If they needed a company like mine, then it would be then I would work with them. If I would be the company. There were several companies I did what I do, especially in Miami, because Miami was a top tier destination, so a client may book the lows Miami Beach and then reach out to two to three different DMCs to learn how can they partner with them to make the meeting the most successful. So it was always a competitive situation. And it was always, you know, needing to do our best and give our best and be creative and out of the box. And, yeah, it was, it was an exciting industry. So what makes   Michael Hingson ** 16:41 the best destination management company, or what makes you very successful? Why would people view you as successful at at what you do, and why they would want to choose you to be the company to work with? Because obviously, as you said, it's competitive.   Rachelle Stone ** 16:59 Everybody well, and there's choice. Everybody has choice. I always believed there was enough business to go around for everybody. Very good friends with some of my my hardiest competitors. Interestingly, you know, although we're competing, it's a very friendly industry. We all network together. We all dance in the same network. You know, if we're going to an industry network, we're all together. What? Why would somebody choose me over somebody else? Was really always a decision. It was sometimes it was creativity. Sometimes it was just a feeling for them. They felt the relationship just felt more authentic. Other times it was they they just really needed a cut and dry service. It just every client was always different. There were never two programs the same. I might have somebody just wanting to book a flamenco guitarist for three hours, and that's all they need. And another group may need. The transportation, the tours, the entertainment, the theme parties, the amenities, the whole ball of Fox, every group was different, which is, I think, what made it so exciting, it's that relationship building, I think, more than anything. Because these companies are doing meetings all over the country, sometimes some of them all over the world. So relationships were really, really important to them to be able to go into a destination and say to their partner in that destination, hey, I'm going to be there next May. This is what I need. Are you available? Can you help? So I think on the initial front end, it is, when it's a competitive bid, you're starting from scratch to build a relationship. Once that's relationship is established, it is easier to build on that relationship when things go wrong. Let's talk about what worked, what didn't, and how we can do better next time, instead of throwing the entire relationship out with the bathwater and starting from scratch again. So it was a great industry. I loved it, and   Michael Hingson ** 19:00 obviously you must have been pretty successful at it.   Rachelle Stone ** 19:04 I was, I was lucky. Well, luck and skill, I have to give myself credit there too. I worked for other DMCs. I worked for event companies that wanted to expand into the DMC industry. And I helped, I helped them build that corporate division, or that DMC division. I owned my own agency for, I think, 14 years, still alive and thriving. And then I worked for angel investors, helping them flip and underperforming. It was actually a franchise. It was an office franchise of a global DMC at the time. So I've had success in different areas of Destination Management, and I was lucky in that I believe in accreditation and certification. That's important to me. Credibility matters. And so I. Involved in the association called the association of Destination Management executives international admei I know it's a mouthful, but I wound up serving on their board of directors and their certification and accreditation board for 14 years, throughout my career, and on the cab their certification accreditation board, my company was one of the first companies in the country to become a certified company, admc certified. I was so proud of that, and I had all of my staff. I paid for all of them to earn their certification, which was a destination management Certified Professional. That's the designation. I loved, that we could be a part of it. And I helped write a course, a university level course, and it was only nine weeks, so half a semester in teaching students what destination management is that took me three years. It was a passion project with a couple of other board members on the cab that we put together, and really glad to be a part of that and contributing to writing the book best practices in destination management, first and second edition. So I feel lucky that I was in this field at a time where it was really growing deeper roots. It had been transport the industry. When I went into it was maybe 20 years young, and when I left it, it been around for 40 plus years. So it's kind of exciting. So you so you   Michael Hingson ** 21:41 said that you started a company and you were with it for 4014 years, or you ran it for 14 years, and you said, it's still around. Are you involved with it at all? Now, I   Rachelle Stone ** 21:51 am not. I did a buyout with the I had two partners at the time. And without going into too much detail, there were some things going on that I felt were I could not align with. I felt it was unethical. I felt it was immoral, and I struggled for a year to make the decision. I spoke to a therapist, and I ultimately consulted an attorney, and I did a buyout, and I walked away from my this was my legacy. This was my baby. I built it from scratch. I was the face of the company. So to give that up my legacy, it was a really tough decision, but it really did come full circle, because late last year, something happened which brought me back to that decision, and I can, with 100% certainty, say it was a values driven decision for me, and I'm so happy I made that decision. So I am today. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 22:57 and, and let's, let's get to that a little bit so you at some point, you said that you had burnout and you left the industry. Why did you do that?   Rachelle Stone ** 23:08 So after I did, sold my my business, I worked for angel investors for about three and a half years. They brought me in. This was an underperforming office that the franchisee, because they had owned it for 10 years, had done a buyout themselves and sold it back to the angel investors or the private equity so they brought me in to run the office and bring it from surviving to thriving again. And it took me about 18 months, and I brought it from under a million to over 5.3 million in 18 months. So it's quite successful. And I had said to the owners, as they're thanking me and rewarding me, and it was a great first two years, I had said to them, please don't expect this again. This was a fluke. People were following me. There was a lot of curiosity in the industry, because this was a really big move for me to sell my company and then go work for this one. It was big news. So it was a great time. But the expectation for me to repeat, rinse and repeat, that kind of productivity was not realistic. It just wasn't realistic. And about a year and a half later, I just, I was driving from the Lowe's Miami Beach. It's funny, because I used that as an example before, to the breakers in Palm Beach. And if you know South Florida at all, it's, it's, you're taking your life in your hands every time you get on 95 it's a nightmare. Anyway, so I'm driving from the lows to the breakers, and I just left a kind of a rough meeting. I don't even remember what it was anymore, because that was back in 2014 and I'm driving to another meeting at the breakers, and I hang up the phone with somebody my. Son calls about something, Mom, this is going on for graduation. Can you be there? And I'm realizing I'm going to be out of town yet again for work, and I'm driving to the breakers, and I'm having this I just had this vision of myself in the middle of 95 slamming the brakes on in my car, coming to a full stop in the middle of the highway. I did not do this this, and I don't recommend you do this. And I opened up my car door, and I literally just walked away from my car. That was the image in my mind. And in that moment, I knew it was time for me to leave. I had gone as high as I could go. I'd done as much as I could do. I'd served on boards, contributed to books, spoken on panels. I wanted to go back to being an entrepreneur. I didn't want to work for angel investors anymore. I wanted to work for myself. I wanted to build something new, and I didn't want to do it in the DMC world. So I went home that night thinking I was going to just resign. Instead, I wrote a letter of retirement, and I retired from the industry, I walked away two and a half weeks later, and I said I was never going to return.   Michael Hingson ** 26:09 And so I burnt out, though at the time, what? What eventually made you realize that it was all burnt out, or a lot of it was burnt out. So I   Rachelle Stone ** 26:17 didn't know anything about burnout at that time. I just knew I was incredibly frustrated. I was bored. I was over in competence, and I just wanted out. Was just done. I had done well enough in my industry that I could take a little time. I had a lot of people asking me to take on consulting projects. So I did. I started doing some consulting in hospitality. And while I was doing that, I was kind of peeling away the layers of the onion, saying, What do I want to do next? I did not want to do DMC. That's all I knew. So I started this exploration, and what came out of it was an interest in exploring the field of coaching. So I did some research. I went to the coachingfederation.org which is the ICF International coaching Federation, is the leading accreditation body for coaches in the world. And through them, I researched Who were some of the accredited schools. I narrowed it down. I finally settled on one, and I said, I'm going to sign up for one course. I just want to see what this coaching is all about. So I signed up for a foundations course with the with the school out of Pennsylvania, and probably about three weeks into the course, the professor said something which was like a light bulb moment for me, and that I realized like, oh my   Speaker 1 ** 27:40 god, I burnt out. And I was literally, at this   Rachelle Stone ** 27:46 time, we're in school, we're on the phone. It was not zoom. We didn't have all this yet. It was you were on the phone, and then you were pulling up documents on your computer so the teacher couldn't see me crying. I was just sobbing, knowing that this is i i was so I was I was stunned. I didn't say anything. I sat on this for a while. In fact, I sat on it. I started researching it, but I didn't tell anybody for two years. It took me two years before I finally admitted to somebody that I had burnt out. I was so ashamed, embarrassed, humiliated, I was this successful, high over achiever. How could I have possibly burnt out?   Michael Hingson ** 28:34 What? What did the teacher say   Rachelle Stone ** 28:37 it was? I don't even remember what it was, but I remember that shock of realization of wellness, of it was, you know what it was that question, is this all? There is a lot of times when we were they were talking about, I believe, what they were talking about, midlife crisis and what really brings them on. And it is that pivotal question, is this really all there is, is this what I'm meant to be doing? And then in their conversation, I don't even remember the full conversation, it was that recognition of that's what's happened to me. And as I started researching it, this isn't now. This is in 2015 as I'm researching it and learning there's not a lot on it. I mean, there's some, mostly people's experiences that are being shared. Then in 2019 the World Health Organization officially, officially recognizes burnout as a phenomenon, an occupational phenomenon.   Michael Hingson ** 29:38 And how would you define burnout? Burnout is,   Rachelle Stone ** 29:43 is generally defined in three areas. It is. It's the the, oh, I always struggle with it. It's that disconnect, the disconnect, or disassociation from. Um, wanting to succeed, from your commitment to the work. It is the knowing, the belief that no one can do it well or right. It is there. There's that. It's an emotional disconnect from from from caring about what you're doing and how you're showing up, and it shows up in your personal life too, which is the horrible thing, because it your it impacts your family so negatively, it's horrible.   Michael Hingson ** 30:39 And it it, it does take a toll. And it takes, did it take any kind of a physical toll on you?   Rachelle Stone ** 30:45 Well, what I didn't realize when I when I took this time, I was about 25 pounds overweight. I was on about 18 different medications, including all my vitamins. I was taking a lot of vitamins at that time too. Um, I chronic sciatica, insomnia. I was self medicating. I was also going out, eating rich dinners and drinking, um, because you're because of the work I was doing. I had to entertain. That was part of that was part of of my job. So as I was looking at myself, Yes, physically, it turns out that this weight gain, the insomnia, the self medication, are also taught signs of of risk of burnout. It's how we manage our stress, and that's really what it comes down to, that we didn't even know. We don't even know. People don't no one teaches us how to process our stress, and that that's really probably one of the biggest things that I've through, everything that I've studied, and then the pandemic hitting it. No one teaches us how to manage our stress. No one tells us that if we process stress, then the tough stuff isn't as hard anymore. It's more manageable. No one teaches us about how to shift our mindsets so we can look at changing our perspective at things, or only seeing things through our lizard brain instead of our curious brain. These are all things that I had no idea were keeping me I didn't know how to do, and that were part of contributing to my burnout. Right?   Michael Hingson ** 32:43 Is stress more self created, or is it? Is it an actual thing? In other words, when, when there is stress in the world? Is it something that, really, you create out of a fear or cause to happen in some way, and in reality, there are ways to not necessarily be stressful, and maybe that's what you're talking about, as far as learning to control it and process it, well,   Rachelle Stone ** 33:09 there's actually there's stresses. Stressors are external. Stress is internal. So a stressor could be the nagging boss. It could be your kid has a fever and you're going to be late for work, or you're going to miss a meeting because you have to take them to the doctor. That's an external stressor, right? So that external stressor goes away, you know, the traffic breaks up, or your your husband takes the kid to the doctor so you can get to your meeting. Whatever that external stress, or is gone, you still have to deal with the stress that's in your body. Your that stress, that stress builds up. It's it's cortisol, and that's what starts with the physical impact. So those physical symptoms that I was telling you about, that I had, that I didn't know, were part of my burnout. It was unprocessed stress. Now at that time, I couldn't even touch my toes. I wasn't doing any sort of exercise for my body. I wasn't and that is one of the best ways you can process stress. Stress actually has to cycle out of your body. No one tells us that. No one teaches us that. So how do you learn how to do that?   Michael Hingson ** 34:21 Well, of course, that's Go ahead. Go ahead. Well, I was gonna   Rachelle Stone ** 34:24 say it's learning. It's being willing to look internally, what's going on in your body. How are you really getting in touch with your emotions and feelings and and processing them well?   Michael Hingson ** 34:37 And you talk about stressors being external, but you have control. You may not have control directly over the stressor happening, but don't you have control over how you decide to deal with the external stress? Creator,   Rachelle Stone ** 34:55 yes, and that external stress will always. Go away. The deadline will come and go. The sun will still rise tomorrow in set tomorrow night. Stressors always go away, but they're also constantly there. So you've got, for instance, the nagging boss is always going to bring you stress. It's how you process the stress inside. You can choose to ignore the stressor, but then you're setting yourself up for maybe not following through on your job, or doing   Michael Hingson ** 35:29 right. And I wouldn't suggest ignoring the stressor, but you it's processing that   Rachelle Stone ** 35:34 stress in your body. It's not so let's say, at the end of the rough day, the stressors gone. You still, whether you choose to go for a walk or you choose to go home and say, Honey, I just need a really like I need a 62nd full on contact, bear hug from you, because I'm holding a lot of stress in my body right now, and I've got to let it out So that physical contact will move stress through your body. This isn't this is they that? You can see this in MRI studies. You see the decrease in the stress. Neuroscience now shows this to be true. You've got to move it through your body. Now before I wanted to kind of give you the formal definition of burnout, it is, it is they call it a occupational phenomenal, okay, it by that they're not calling it a disease. It is not classified as a disease, but it is noted in the International Classification of Diseases, and it has a code now it is they do tie it directly to chronic workplace stress, and this is where I have a problem with the World Health Organization, because when they added this to the International Classification of diseases in 2019 they didn't have COVID. 19 hybrid or work from home environments in mind, and it is totally changed. Stress and burnout are following people around. It's very difficult for them to escape. So besides that, that disconnect that I was talking about, it's really complete exhaustion, depletion of your energy just drained from all of the stressors. And again, it's that reduced efficiency in your work that you're producing because you don't care as much. It's that disconnect so and then the physical symptoms do build up. And burnout isn't like this. It's not an overnight thing. It's a build up, just like gaining 25 pounds, just like getting sick enough that I need a little bit more medication for different issues, that stuff builds up on you and when you when you're recovering from burnout, you didn't get there overnight. You're not going to get out of it overnight either. It's I worked with a personal trainer until I could touch my toes, and then she's pushed me out to go join a gym. But again, it's step by step, and learning to eat healthy, and then ultimately, the third piece that really changed the game for me was learning about the muscles in my brain and getting mentally fit. That was really the third leg of getting my health back.   Michael Hingson ** 38:33 So how does all of that help you deal with stress and the potential of burnout today? Yeah,   Rachelle Stone ** 38:43 more than anything, I know how to prevent it. That is my, my the number one thing I know when I'm sensing a stressor that is impacting me, I can quickly get rid of it. Now, for instance, I'll give you a good example. I was on my the board of directors for my Homeowners Association, and that's always   Michael Hingson ** 39:03 stressful. I've been there, right? Well, I   Rachelle Stone ** 39:06 was up for an hour and a half one night ruminating, and I I realized, because I coach a lot of people around burnout and symptoms, so when I was ruminating, I recognized, oh my gosh, that HOA does not deserve that much oxygen in my brain. And what did I do the next day? I resigned. Resigned, yeah, so removing the stressors so I can process the stress. I process my stress. I always make sure I schedule a beach walk for low tide. I will block my calendar for that so I can make sure I'm there, because that fills my tank. That's self care for me. I make sure I'm exercising, I'm eating good food. I actually worked with a health coach last year because I felt like my eating was getting a little off kilter again. So I just hired a coach for a few months to help me get back on track. Of getting support where I need it. That support circle is really important to maintain and process your stress and prevent burnout.   Michael Hingson ** 40:10 So we've talked a lot about stress and dealing with it and so on. And like to get back to the idea of you went, you explored working with the international coaching Federation, and you went to a school. So what did you then do? What really made you attracted to the idea of coaching, and what do you get out of it?   Rachelle Stone ** 40:35 Oh, great question. Thanks for that. So for me, once I I was in this foundations course, I recognized or realized what had happened to me. I i again, kept my mouth shut, and I just continued with the course. By the end of the course, I really, really enjoyed it, and I saw I decided I wanted to continue on to become a coach. So I just continued in my training. By the end of 2015 early 2016 I was a coach. I went and joined the international coaching Federation, and they offer accreditation. So I wanted to get accredited, because, as I said, from my first industry, a big proponent for credit accreditation. I think it's very important, especially in an unregulated industry like coaching. So we're not bound by HIPAA laws. We are not doctors, we are coaches. It's very different lane, and we do self regulate. So getting accredited is important to me. And I thought my ACC, which my associate a certified coach in 2016 when I moved to the area I'm living in now, in 2017 and I joined the local chapter here, I just continued on. I continued with education. I knew my lane is, is, is burnout. I started to own it. I started to bring it forward a little bit and talk about my experiences with with other coaches and clients to help them through the years and and it felt natural. So with the ICF, I wanted to make sure I stayed in a path that would allow me to hang my shingle proudly, and everything I did in the destination management world I'm now doing in the coaching world. I wound up on the board of directors for our local chapter as a programming director, which was so perfect for me because I'm coming from meetings and events, so as a perfect person to do their programming, and now I am their chapter liaison, and I am President Elect, so I'm taking the same sort of leadership I had in destination management and wrapping my arms around it in the coaching industry,   Michael Hingson ** 42:56 you talk about People honing their leadership skills to help prepare them for a career move or their next career. It isn't always that way, though, right? It isn't always necessarily that they're going to be going to a different career. Yep,   Rachelle Stone ** 43:11 correct. Yeah. I mean, not everybody's looking for trans transition. Some people are looking for that to break through the glass ceiling. I have other clients that are just wanting to maybe move laterally. Others are just trying to figure it out every client is different. While I specialize in hospitality and burnout, I probably have more clients in the leadership lane, Senior VP level, that are trying to figure out their next step, if they want to go higher, or if they're content where they are, and a lot of that comes from that ability to find the right balance for you in between your career and your personal life. I think there comes a point when we're in our younger careers, we are fully identified by what we do. I don't think that's true for upcoming generations, but for our generation, and maybe Jen, maybe some millennials, very identified by what they do, there comes a point in your career, and I'm going to say somewhere between 35 and 50, where you recognize that those two Things need to be separate,   Michael Hingson ** 44:20 and the two things being   Rachelle Stone ** 44:23 your identity, who you are from what you do, got it two different things. And a lot of leaders on their journey get so wrapped up in what they do, they lose who they are.   Michael Hingson ** 44:39 What really makes a good leader,   Rachelle Stone ** 44:42 authenticity. I'm a big proponent of heart based leadership. Brene Brown, I'm Brene Brown trained. I am not a facilitator, but I love her work, and I introduce all my clients to it, especially my newer leaders. I think it's that. Authenticity that you know the command and control leadership no longer works. And I can tell you, I do work with some leaders that are trying to improve their human skills, and by that I mean their emotional intelligence, their social skills, their ability to interact on a human level with others, because when they have that high command and control directive type of leadership, they're not connecting with their people. And we now have five generations in the workforce that all need to be interacted with differently. So command and control is a tough kind of leadership style that I actually unless they're willing to unless they're open to exploring other ways of leading, I won't work with them. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 45:44 and the reality is, I'm not sure command and control as such ever really worked. Yeah, maybe you control people. But did it really get you and the other person and the company? What what you needed.   Rachelle Stone ** 46:01 Generally, that's what we now call a toxic environment. Yes, yes. But that, you know, this has been, we've been on a path of, you know, this work ethic was supposed to, was supposed to become a leisure ethic in the 70s, you know, we went to 40 hour work weeks. Where are we now? We're back up to 6070, hour work week. Yeah, we're trying to lower the age that so kids can start working this is not a leisure ethic that we were headed towards. And now with AI, okay, let's change this conversation. Yeah, toxic environments are not going to work. Moving forward that command and control leadership. There's not a lot of it left, but there's, it's lingering, and some of the old guard, you know, there it's, it's slowly changing.   Michael Hingson ** 46:49 It is, I think, high time that we learn a lot more about the whole concept of teamwork and true, real team building. And there's a lot to be said for there's no I in team, that's right, and it's an extremely important thing to learn. And I think there are way to, still, way too many people who don't recognize that, but it is something that I agree with you. Over time, it's it's starting to evolve to a different world, and the pandemic actually was one, and is one of the things that helps it, because we introduced the hybrid environment, for example, and people are starting to realize that they can still get things done, and they don't necessarily have to do it the way they did before, and they're better off for it.   Rachelle Stone ** 47:38 That's right. Innovation is beautiful. I actually, I mean, as horrible as the pandemic was it, there was a lot of good that came out of it, to your point. And it's interesting, because I've watched this in coaching people. I remember early in the pandemic, I had a new client, and they came to the they came to their first call on Zoom, really slumped down in the chair like I could barely see their nose and up and, you know, as we're kind of talking, getting to know each other. One of the things they said to me, because they were working from home, they were working like 1011, hours a day. Had two kids, a husband, and they also had yet they're, they're, they're like, I one of the things they said to me, which blew my mind, was, I don't have time to put on a load of laundry. They're working from home. Yeah? It's that mindset that you own my time because you're paying me, yeah, versus I'm productive and I'm doing good work for you. Is why you're paying for paying me? Yeah? So it's that perception and trying to shift one person at a time, shifting that perspective   Michael Hingson ** 48:54 you talked before about you're a coach, you're not a doctor, which I absolutely appreciate and understand and in studying coaching and so on, one of the things that I read a great deal about is the whole concept of coaches are not therapists. A therapist provides a decision or a position or a decision, and they are more the one that provides a lot of the answers, because they have the expertise. And a coach is a guide who, if they're doing their job right, leads you to you figuring out the answer. That's   Rachelle Stone ** 49:34 a great way to put it, and it's pretty clear. That's, that's, that's pretty, pretty close the I like to say therapy is a doctor patient relationship. It's hierarchy so and the doctor is diagnosing, it's about repair and recovery, and it's rooted in the past, diagnosing, prescribing, and then the patient following orders and recovering. Hmm, in coaching, it's a peer to peer relationship. So it's, we're co creators, and we're equal. And it's, it's based on future goals only. It's only based on behavior change and future goals. So when I have clients and they dabble backwards, I will that's crossing the line. I can't support you there. I will refer clients to therapy. And actually, what I'm doing right now, I'm taking a mental health literacy course through Harvard Medical Center and McLean University. And the reason I'm doing this is because so many of my clients, I would say 80% of my clients are also in therapy, and it's very common. We have a lot of mental health issues in the world right now as a result of the pandemic, and we have a lot of awareness coming forward. So I want to make sure I'm doing the best for my clients in recognizing when they're at need or at risk and being able to properly refer them.   Michael Hingson ** 51:04 Do you think, though, that even in a doctor patient relationship, that more doctors are recognizing that they accomplish more when they create more of a teaming environment? Yes,   51:18 oh, I'm so glad you   Rachelle Stone ** 51:20 brought that up, okay, go ahead. Go ahead. Love that. I have clients who are in therapy, and I ask them to ask their therapist so that if they're comfortable with this trio. And it works beautifully. Yes,   Michael Hingson ** 51:36 it is. It just seems to me that, again, there's so much more to be said for the whole concept of teaming and teamwork, and patients do better when doctors or therapists and so on explain and bring them into the process, which almost makes them not a coach as you are, but an adjunct to what you do, which is what I think it's all about. Or are we the adjunct to what they do? Or use the adjunct to what they do? Yeah, it's a team, which is what it should be.   52:11 Yeah, it's, I always it's like the Oreo cookie, right?   Michael Hingson ** 52:16 Yeah, and the frosting is in the middle, yeah, crying   Rachelle Stone ** 52:19 in the middle. But it's true, like a therapist can work both in the past and in the future, but that partnership and that team mentality and supporting a client, it helps them move faster and further in their in their desired goals. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 52:37 it's beautiful, yeah, yeah. And I think it's extremely important, tell me about this whole idea of mental fitness. I know you're studying that. Tell me more about that. Is it real? Is it okay? Or what? You know, a lot of people talk about it and they say it's who cares. They all roll   Rachelle Stone ** 52:56 their eyes mental fitness. What are you talking about? Yeah, um, I like to say mental fitness is the third leg of our is what keeps us healthy. I like to look at humans as a three legged stool, and that mental fitness, that mental wellness, is that third piece. So you have your spiritual and community wellness, you have your physical wellness, and then you have your mental wellness. And that mental wellness encompasses your mental health, your mental fitness. Now, mental fitness, by definition, is your ability to respond to life's challenges from a positive rather than a negative mindset. And there's a new science out there called positive it was actually not a new science. It's based on four sciences, Positive Intelligence, it's a cognitive behavioral science, or psychology, positive psychology, performance psychology, and drawing a bank anyway, four sciences and this body of work determined that there's actually a tipping point we live in our amygdala, mostly, and there's a reason, when we were cavemen, we needed to know what was coming that outside stressor was going to eat us, or if we could eat it. Yeah, but we have language now. We don't need that, not as much as we did, not in the same way, not in the same way, exactly. We do need to be aware of threats, but not every piece of information that comes into the brain. When that information comes in our brains, amplify it by a factor of three to one. So with that amplification, it makes that little, little tiny Ember into a burning, raging fire in our brain. And then we get stuck in stress. So it's recognizing, and there's actually you are building. If you do yoga, meditation, tai chi, gratitude journaling, any sort of those practices, you're flexing that muscle. You talk to somebody who does gratitude journaling who just started a month in, they're going to tell. You, they're happier. They're going to tell you they're not having as many ruminating thoughts, and they're going to say, I'm I'm smiling more. I started a new journal this year, and I said, I'm singing more. I'm singing songs that I haven't thought of in years. Yeah, out of the blue, popping into my head. Yeah. And I'm happier. So the the concept of mental fitness is really practicing flexing this muscle every day. We take care of our bodies by eating good food, we exercise or walk. We do that to take care of our physical body. We do nothing to take care of our brain other than scroll social media and get anxiety because everybody's life looks so perfect,   Michael Hingson ** 55:38 yeah, and all we're doing is using social media as a stressor.   Rachelle Stone ** 55:42 That's right, I'm actually not on social media on LinkedIn. That's it.   Michael Hingson ** 55:48 I have accounts, but I don't go to it exactly. My excuse is it takes way too long with a screen reader, and I don't have the time to do it. I don't mind posting occasionally, but I just don't see the need to be on social media for hours every day.   Rachelle Stone ** 56:05 No, no, I do, like, like a lot of businesses, especially local small businesses, are they advertise. They only have they don't have websites. They're only on Facebook. So I do need to go to social media for things like that. But the most part, no, I'm not there. Not at all. It's   Michael Hingson ** 56:20 it's way too much work. I am amazed sometimes when I'll post something, and I'm amazed at how quickly sometimes people respond. And I'm wondering to myself, how do you have the time to just be there to see this? It can't all be coincidence. You've got to be constantly on active social media to see it. Yeah,   Rachelle Stone ** 56:39 yeah, yeah. Which is and this, this whole concept of mental fitness is really about building a practice, a habit. It's a new habit, just like going to the gym, and it's so important for all of us. We are our behaviors are based on how we interpret these messages as they come in, yeah, so learning to reframe or recognize the message and give a different answer is imperative in order to have better communication, to be more productive and and less chaos. How   Michael Hingson ** 57:12 do we teach people to recognize that they have a whole lot more control over fear than they think they do, and that that really fear can be a very positive guide in our lives. And I say that because I talked about not being afraid of escaping from the World Trade Center over a 22 year period, what I realized I never did was to teach people how to do that. And so now I wrote a book that will be out later in the year. It's called Live like a guide dog, stories of from a blind man and his dogs, about being brave, overcoming adversity and walking in faith. And the point of it is to say that you can control your fear. I'm not saying don't be afraid, but you have control over how you let that fear affect you and what you deal with and how you deal it's all choice. It is all choice. But how do we teach people to to deal with that better, rather than just letting fear build up   Rachelle Stone ** 58:12 it? Michael, I think these conversations are so important. Number one is that learner's mind, that willingness, that openness to be interested in finding a better way to live. I always say that's a really hard way to live when you're living in fear. Yeah, so step number one is an openness, or a willingness or a curiosity about wanting to live life better,   Michael Hingson ** 58:40 and we have to instill that in people and get them to realize that they all that we all have the ability to be more curious if we choose to do it.   Rachelle Stone ** 58:49 But again, choice and that, that's the big thing so many and then there's also, you know, Michael, I can't wait to read your book. I'm looking forward to this. I'm also know that you speak. I can't wait to see you speak. The thing is, when we speak or write and share this information, we give them insight. It's what they do with it that matters, which is why, when I with the whole with the mental fitness training that I do, it's seven weeks, yeah, I want them to start to build that habit, and I give them three extra months so they can continue to work on that habit, because it's that important for them to start. It's foundational your spirit. When you talk about your experience in the World Trade Center, and you say you weren't fearful, your spiritual practice is such a big part of that, and that's part of mental fitness too. That's on that layers on top of your ability to flex those mental muscles and lean into your spirituality and not be afraid.   Michael Hingson ** 59:55 Well, I'd love to come down and speak. If you know anybody that needs a speaker down there. I. I'm always looking for speaking opportunities, so love your help, and   1:00:03 my ears open for sure and live like   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:06 a guide dog. Will be out later this year. It's, it's, I've already gotten a couple of Google Alerts. The the publisher has been putting out some things, which is great. So we're really excited about it.   Rachelle Stone ** 1:00:16 Wonderful. I can't wait to see it. So what's   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:19 up for you in 2024   Rachelle Stone ** 1:00:22 so I actually have a couple of things coming up this year that are pretty big. I have a partner. Her name's vimari Roman. She's down in Miami, and I'm up here in the Dunedin Clearwater area. But we're both hospitality professionals that went into coaching, and we're both professional certified coaches, and we're both certified mental fitness coaches. When the pandemic hit, she's also a Career Strategist. She went she started coaching at conferences because the hospitality industry was hit so hard, she reached out to me and brought me in too. So in 2024 we've been coaching at so many conferences, we can't do it. We can't do it. It's just too much, but we also know that we can provide a great service. So we've started a new company. It's called coaches for conferences, and it's going to be like a I'll call it a clearing house for securing pro bono coaches for your conferences. So that means, let's say you're having a conference in in LA and they'd like to offer coaching, pro bono coaching to their attendees as an added value. I'll we'll make the arrangements for the coaches, local in your area to to come coach. You just have to provide them with a room and food and beverage and a place to coach on your conference floor and a breakout. So we're excited for that that's getting ready to launch. And I think 2024 is going to be the year for me to dip my toe in start writing my own story. I think it's time   Michael Hingson ** 1:02:02 writing a book. You can say it. I'm gonna do it.   Rachelle Stone ** 1:02:05 I'm gonna write a book Good. I've said it out loud. I've started to pull together some thoughts around I mean, I've been thinking about it for years. But yeah, if the timing feels right,   Michael Hingson ** 1:02:21 then it probably is, yep, which makes sense. Well, this has been fun. It's been wonderful. Can you believe we've already been at this for more than an hour? So clearly we   1:02:33 this went so fast. Clearly we   Michael Hingson ** 1:02:35 did have fun. We followed the rule, this was fun. Yeah, absolutely. Well, I want to thank you for being here, and I want to thank you all for listening and for watching, if you're on YouTube watching, and all I can ask is that, wherever you are, please give us a five star rating for the podcast. We appreciate it. And anything that you want to say, we would love it. And I would appreciate you feeling free to email me and let me know your thoughts. You can reach me at Michael H, I m, I C, H, A, E, L, H i at accessibe, A, C, C, E, S, S, I, B, e.com, would love to hear from you. You can also go to our podcast page, www, dot Michael hingson.com/podcast, and it's m, I C, H, A, E, L, H, I N, G, s, O, N, and as I said to Rochelle just a minute ago, if any of you need a speaker, we'd love to talk with you about that. You can also email me at speaker@michaelhingson.com love to hear from you and love to talk about speaking. So however you you reach out and for whatever reason, love to hear from you, and for all of you and Rochelle, you, if you know anyone else who ought to be a guest on unstoppable mindset, let us know we're always looking for people who want to come on the podcast. Doesn't cost anything other than your time and putting up with me for a while, but we appreciate it, and hope that you'll decide to to introduce us to other people. So with that, I again want to say, Rochelle, thank you to you. We really appreciate you being here and taking the time to chat with us today.   Rachelle Stone ** 1:04:13 It's been the fastest hour of my life. I'm gonna have to watch the replay. Thank you so much for having me. It's been my pleasure to join you.   **Michael Hingson ** 1:04:24 You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you're there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com . AccessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for Listening. Please come back and visit us again next week.

Technology is a driving force in public safety today. There are multiple challenges that come with considering which technologies should be adopted and fielded within an organization. Before that can happen, we need to collectively overcome self-imposed barriers to technology adoption, which is the subject of this Disaster Zone Podcast.  The podcast guest is Garry Briese who has had a distinguished career in the fire service. Only recently retiring in January 2025 as the Executive Director of the Colorado State Fire Chiefs. Previously Garry served for 23 years as the Executive Director/CEO of the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) in Washington DC and prior was the Executive Director/CEO of the Florida College of Emergency Physicians for 14 years.   Additionally, he was appointed as the Regional Administrator for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Region 8 of the Department of Homeland Security/Federal Emergency Management Agency in the administration of President George W. Bush. Prior to DHS/FEMA, he was Vice President, Emergency Management & Homeland Security for ICF International, a $1.5 billion NASDAQ-listed professional services corporation.  Today he serves as one of four independent directors on the corporate Board of Directors of WS Darley Company, a 116-year-old family-owned business founded in 1908.  In 2024, Darley had more than $1 Billion in sales as an international pump & fire apparatus manufacturer & distributor for the military, fire and emergency services.   Garry has presented at conferences in Japan, Israel, Germany, Belgium, Brazil, Sweden, Canada, the United Kingdom and across the United States. He is a well-known speaker on leadership and followership and on future challenges for both the private and government sectors. He has broad experience in non-profit organizations and for-profit companies in local, state, national, federal, and international domains His visionary and forward-thinking leadership and accomplishments have been recognized by multiple international and national organizations.Please visit our sponsors!L3Harris Technologies' BeOn PPT App. Learn more about this amazing product here: www.l3harris.com Impulse: Bleeding Control Kits by professionals for professionals: www.dobermanemg.com/impulseDoberman Emergency Management Group provides subject matter experts in planning and training: www.dobermanemg.com

Sex Worker Advocate Mariah Grant is this week's guest on Adult Site Broker Talk. Mariah is a human rights expert who focuses on migrant and sex worker rights, freedom of movement, and labor exploitation. She is a highly effective advocate who works to end systems of oppression in collaboration with impacted communities and individuals, including sex workers, drug users, migrants, and people who are currently or were previously incarcerated. Mariah combines her many years of experience providing direct services to migrant and refugee children and families within the United States and Europe and researching and documenting human rights abuses throughout the Americas, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific to push for long-term policy solutions at the local, national, and international levels. She is currently a freelance consultant working on projects related to sex worker rights, human trafficking prevention, and service provision for survivors. Before consulting, she was the Director of Research and Advocacy with the Sex Workers Project of the Urban Justice Center, where she oversaw research on the harms of sex work criminalization, including police violence, as well as local, state, and federal policy advocacy to decriminalize and destigmatize sex work. She's consulted and worked with the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women, the UN Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights, the International Organization for Migration, the US Department of State, the US Department of Labor, ICF International, Woodhull Freedom Foundation, the Free Speech Coalition, Decriminalize Sex Work, Freedom Network USA, New Moon Network, Protection International, Morrison Child and Family Service, Minority Rights Group International, and the Global Network of Sex Work Projects. In her previous roles, Mariah successfully introduced and helped pass state and federal-US laws and policies to protect the health and human rights of sex workers and survivors of human trafficking. She's also led several groundbreaking research projects on topics ranging from the experiences of sex workers in conflict zones and humanitarian crises to the impacts of district attorney non-prosecution policies in the context of sex work criminalization. Adult Site Broker is the most experienced company to broker adult sites. They've sold and helped people buy more xxx sites than any other broker. Adult Site Broker is the leading company to sell porn sites and buy porn sites. They help their clients work out equitable deals. Check out their brand-new website at www.adultsitebroker.com, the leading destination to broker porn sites. Adult Site Broker also has an affiliate program, ASB Cash, at https://asbcash.com, where you can earn 20% by referring people to buy adult sites and sell adult sites to Adult Site Broker, the porn website broker. For more information, please visit us at www.adultsitebroker.com to help you broker adult sites. Listen to Mariah Grant on Adult Site Broker Talk, starting today at www.adultsitebrokertalk.com

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Migration & Diaspora Podcast, a show about all things migration hosted by yours truly, Loksan Harley from Homelands Advisory.  Today, we've got a fascinating episode featuring my friend Salvatore Petronella from Labor Mobility Partnerships (LaMP). About Salvatore  Salvatore Petronella is a migration governance specialist focusing on the EU external dimension, with a special focus on labour mobility and the smuggling of migrants. He is currently the Knowledge and Influence Lead at LaMP, developing proof-of-concepts for EU Member States and engaging with industry representatives and international institutions.  Salvatore previously coordinated the launch and implementation of the Migration Partnership Facility (MPF) at the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD). He also worked at ICF International, leading various evaluation and impact assessments as well as serving as a senior expert to the European Migration Network (EMN). He previously worked at the European Commission (DG HOME) as a seconded national expert on integration policies.  What we talk about I was keen to get Salvatore on the show to talk about his work at LaMP, as I'd been seeing and hearing a lot about this relatively new organisation and was curious to learn more. And because I was curious, well, I thought some of you might be curious about LaMP as well.  So listen closely as Salvatore and I talk all about: LaMP and their work to develop new labour mobility schemes and partnerships.  The broader demographic trends that are creating a need for labour mobility partnerships.  How labour mobility is currently regulated.  How labour mobility partnerships have the potential to match growing labour demands and shortages around the world.  As always, I'd like to thank you very much for tuning in and hope you enjoy the show.  Connect with Salvatore: https://www.linkedin.com/in/salvatore-petronella/  Labor Mobility Partnerships (LaMP): https://lampforum.org/  All the MDPcast episodes: https://homelandsadvisory.com/podcast

The vulnerability of the aerospace supply chain is something we're all well aware of. But when focusing on specific commodities, a worrying picture emerges.   Considering that the industry gets its titanium from Russia, and that there hasn't been much effort put towards de-risking the supply, we have a major issue. At the same time, with 18-24 month lead times, high strength steel is also clogging up the supply chain and causing major bottlenecks.   How does it dig itself out of these specific supply chain difficulties? What are some of the other pressing issues affecting aerospace?   In this episode, I'm joined by leading industry expert, and principal and partner at Aerodynamic Advisory, Kevin Michaels. We talk about aerospace's biggest challenges and steps we can take to overcome them.   Here we are, 18 months after the invasion of Ukraine, and we find ourselves extremely dependent as an industry on Russian titanium. - Kevin Michaels    Things You'll Learn In This Episode   -The issue no one's talking about: Boeing has made significant strides to wean itself off Russian titanium, but is it enough?   -How the industry is managing under supply chain constraints The titanium supply chain is only hobbling along because of a suppressed demand. How catastrophic would this have been for the industry in previous years?   -Growing while under threat From Boeing to Airbus, what are the challenges OEMs are facing in this current economic climate?   -Beware of the “no” crowd With the challenges the industry is already facing, is the ESG consideration making the economics more difficult?   Guest Bio   Kevin Michaels is Managing Director of AeroDynamic Advisory, a speciality consulting firm focused on the global aerospace and aviation industries. He has 31 years of experience, including hundreds of consulting engagements for leading aviation and aerospace companies across the globe. Kevin is a globally recognized expert in the aerospace manufacturing and MRO sectors, and has significant expertise in business-to-business marketing, customer satisfaction, M&A advisory, technology assessment, cluster development, and strategic planning. His experience spans all major market segments, including air transport, business & general aviation, and military.   Previously Dr Michaels was a Vice President with ICF International's Aerospace & MRO consulting practice from 2011 – 2016. He was a co-founder and partner with AeroStrategy from 2001-2011, until its acquisition by ICF. Previously, Dr. Michaels was Director – Strategic Development with Rockwell Collins Government Systems, and Principal with The Canaan Group, an aerospace consultancy. He began his career as a project engineer with aeroengine supplier Williams International. Dr. Michaels holds BS – Aerospace Engineering and MBA degrees from the University of Michigan, and MSc and PhD degrees in International Relations from the London School of Economics.   He is a contributing columnist to Aviation Week & Space Technology and chairs the advisory board of the University of Michigan's Aerospace Engineering Department. In 2016, he joined the Board of Directors of aircraft parts distributor Kapco Global Proponent. For more information, head to https://aerodynamicadvisory.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-michaels-3025914.    Learn More About Your Host:   Co-founder and Managing Partner for Northstar Group, Craig is focused on recruiting senior-level leadership, sales, and operations executives for some of the most prominent companies in the aviation and aerospace industry. Clients include well-known aircraft OEMs, aircraft operators, leasing / financial organizations, and Maintenance / Repair / Overhaul (MRO) providers.    Since 2009 Craig has personally concluded more than 150 executive searches in a variety of disciplines. As the only executive recruiter who has flown airplanes, sold airplanes, AND run a business, Craig is uniquely positioned to build deep, lasting relationships with both executives and the boards and stakeholders they serve. This allows him to use a detailed, disciplined process that does more than pair the ideal candidate with the perfect opportunity and hit the business goals of the companies he serves. 

Steve Pantano is the Head of Market Transformation at Rewiring America, where he leads efforts to build and share comprehensive working knowledge of how to replace more than one billion fossil fuel devices with clean electric alternatives. For the past fifteen years Steve worked with CLASP and ICF International to develop policy, market development programs, research, and technical analysis aimed at maximizing the climate benefits that can be achieved with energy efficient appliances and equipment. He spent years before that tinkering with and testing everything from Hydrogen fuel cells to Space Shuttle hardware. He has a Master of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from The Johns Hopkins University.Rewiring America is the leading electrification nonprofit, focused on electrifying our homes, businesses, and communities. They develop accessible, actionable data and tools, and build coalitions and partnerships to make going electric easier for households and communities. Rewiring America helps Americans save money, tackle nationwide emissions goals, improve health, and build the next generation of the clean energy workforce. They believe in an abundant, flourishing, climate-safe future, and know that, together, we can realize one.  

In this episode, Louise and Michelle interview Chris Smart, who has recently returned from racing in Leipa at the ICF with his Eurohound Chili. He gives us a unique insight into international racing, and tells us how it motivates him to improve more than racing in the UK. Chris is also new to bikejor.  This episode is sponsored by the Get Stronger, Run a Faster 5k course, it's great for canicrossers and runners to improve their 5k time and get stronger. Find out more and register for the January course here. 

Sandra Engel: is a graduate Executive Coach who comes to the field with a background in the areas of law and leadership. She has recently retired from the bench as a criminal judge in Albuquerque, New Mexico where she served her community for over 16 years. She is also a licensed and active attorney, previously serving as an Assistant District Attorney for over ten years and has practiced law in the civil and criminal areas for over 25 years. During that time, she has served as supervisor over divisions/teams, and most recently served as Chief Judge of the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court, managing a courthouse, and leading a C-Suite with over 350 employees. She has performed as a trainer, evaluator, and resource director for several court and community programs. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Marketing, and a Juris Doctor degree, both from the University of Alabama. She most recently completed her training with Coaching Out of the Box, an executive coaching program that is accredited and certified by the International Coaching Federation (ICF). She also received her certification from ICF as an Associate Certified Coach. She is a Certified Diversity coach, a member of ICF International and her local chapter, ICFNM, and serves on their board. She is involved in both the local coaching community and legal community in a variety of roles. She specializes in leadership/executive coaching, working with many business leaders and executives.Barbara J. Vigil: served on the New Mexico state judiciary for twenty-one years. For twelve years, she served as a District Court Judge in n the First Judicial District and for over nine years as a Justice on the New Mexico Supreme Court. Barbara stepped down from the Supreme Court on June 30, 2021. In August 2021 Barbara was appointed to serve as Cabinet Secretary of the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department. On May 1, she left that role to pursue other interests. As a District Court Judge, Barbara presided over the children and family court docket for over 10 years resolving over 16,000 cases. In 2010 she was chosen by her peers to serve for two years as Chief Judge of the First Judicial District Court. During her last two years on the trial court bench, she presided over the civil docket. In 2012, Barbara was elected as a Justice on the New Mexico Supreme Court, where she served as an Associate Justice, Chief Justice from 2014-2016 and as Senior Justice. Throughout her judicial career Barbara strived to improve court processes and procedures for children and families. She worked with community stakeholders to garner state and federal funding for programs designed to help children throughout the state. Barbara has served on numerous boards, commissions, and committees, including the Tribal State Judicial Consortium, the Children's Court Improvement Commission, and the New Mexico Board of Bar Examiners. Barbara was born in Albuquerque and grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She received a bachelor's degree in accounting from New Mexico State University and a juris doctorate from the University of New Mexico School of Law. Barbara enjoys travelling abroad and using her free time to support youth and court improvements. Barbara travels extensively abroad. She maintains a lifelong commitment to public service and does all she can to improve the lives of children and families. Judge Shammara H. Henderson: was appointed to the Court of Appeals in 2020 by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham. Born and raised in Albuquerque, NM, she graduated from Valley High School. She received a bachelor's degree from American University in Washington, D.C., where she received a full ride with the highly competitive Frederick Douglass Scholarship. She received her J.D. from the University of New Mexico School of Law where she received the W.E. Bondurant Scholarship and University of New Mexico Graduate Fellowship.After graduating from law school, she clerked for Justice Charles W. Daniels at the New Mexico Supreme Court. She started her career as a litigator with the Second Judicial District Attorney's Office. She later became the Associate General Counsel for the Office of Governor. In 2011, Judge Henderson joined the United States Attorney's Office for the District of New Mexico. She successfully tried criminal and civil cases in the United States District Court and appealed criminal cases in the Tenth Circuit. She developed and presented training and outreach programs across the state for law enforcement as well as community organizations and churches. In 2017, Judge Henderson co-founded her own law firm Henderson & Grohman, PC, which joined Freedman, Boyd, Hollander, Goldberg, Urias, & Ward, PA in October of 2018 where she represented clients in criminal, civil, and administrative matters in both state and federal courts at the trial and appellate level.Judge Henderson enjoys spending time with friends and family, traveling, barre, yoga, and rollershaking as well as community service.Judge Brett R. Loveless: Presiding Criminal Judge for the Second Judicial District Court (Bernalillo County) handling an exclusive docket of felony level criminal cases. Judge Loveless took the bench in 2012.Prior to that was a prosecutor in the Bernalillo County District Attorney's Office for approximately 12 yearsPracticed civil law for approximately five years, doing both plaintiff's work and civil defense.1995 graduate of UNM School of Law.

Ken talks to Peter Roy, Small Cap Portfolio Manager, about their shared excitement for small-cap stocks. They discuss the potential of small-caps in the current market, highlighting the earnings growth forecast for 2024. Peter shares insight into how government spending on infrastructure projects is benefiting certain small-cap companies, such as Herc Holdings and ICF International, and emphasizes their long-term potential. They also take a look at OneMain Holdings and Hamilton Lane, two stocks that have been a welcome surprise in a difficult sector.   Follow Argent Capital Management LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/argent-capital-management/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArgentCapMgt Website: https://argentcapital.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@argentcapitalmanagement Opinions reflect the portfolio managers' judgment on the date broadcast and are subject to change. A list of stocks recommended by Argent is available upon request. You should not assume that these recommendations are or will be profitable.

Are there rebates to help you with saving energy and maybe a new heat pump? We are just starting to see some amazing ones come out and more later this year. We sit down with Steve Pantano, the Head of Research at Rewiring America, where he leads efforts to build and share comprehensive working knowledge of how to replace more than one billion fossil fuel devices with clean electric alternatives. For the past fifteen years Steve worked with CLASP and ICF International to develop policy, market development programs, research, and technical analysis aimed at maximizing the climate benefits that can be achieved with energy efficient appliances and equipment. He spent years before that tinkering with and testing everything from Hydrogen fuel cells to Space Shuttle hardware. He has a Master of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from The Johns Hopkins University.To find out more www.rewiringamerica.orgThanks for listening to Around the house if you want to hear more please subscribe so you get notified of the latest episode as it posts at https://around-the-house-with-e.captivate.fm/listenIf you want to join the Around the House Insider for access to the back catalog, Exclusive Content and a direct email to Eric G and access to the show early https://around-the-house-with-e.captivate.fm/support We love comments and we would love reviews on how this information has helped you on your house! Thanks for listening! For more information about the show head to https://aroundthehouseonline.com/ Information given on the Around the House Show should not be considered construction or design advice for your specific project, nor is it intended to replace consulting at your home or jobsite by a building professional. The views and opinions expressed by those interviewed on the podcast are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Around the House Show. Mentioned in this episode:Around the House Insider Ad To sign up for the Exclusive Around the House Insider membership:Around the House Insider

In this episode, Sujani sits down with Shaniece Criss, an associate professor at Furman university and community leader. They discuss how Shaniece's passion for media and performance led her to public health and how to incorporate your own interests in order to create a job that is fulfilling for you.You'll LearnShaniece's three spheres of influence and how they have affected her career How Shaniece found her way into public health through an interest in media and performanceShaniece's experience going into an MPH straight from an undergraduate degree and the differences she saw between those who had previous work experience in the health fieldWhat made Shaniece decide to pursue further education after her MPHWhat the “golden handcuffs” are and how to take and incorporate aspects of certain professions/interests that bring you happiness to create your own perfect career What made Shaniece interested in academia and where she hopes to progress to in the futureThe importance of being involved in boards and councils and how that can further public health in your communityHow you can start to get involved in various boards and organizationsWhat a day in the life of an associate professor looks likeToday's GuestDr. Shaniece Criss is a multifaceted, enthusiastic leader who works in the areas of higher education, research, government, and health media. In academia, she is an Associate Professor in the Health Sciences Department at Furman University and a community-engaged qualitative researcher addressing health equity and health communication. As a founding member of the Big Data for Health Equity Research Collaborative, she works with university researchers from across the U.S. to investigate how societal issues impact health. At Furman, she partners with the Institute for the Advancement of Community Health and serves as a Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach.Dr. Criss is an elected official on Travelers Rest City Council and serves on the board of directors for Prisma Health and South Carolina Hospital Association. She also serves as a community advisor for the Jolley Foundation and Greenville County Schools. Most recently, she created the Dr. Shaniece Instagram account to educate others about public health. For her professional and community endeavors, she was recognized as one of eleven leaders from across the state with the “Women Vision SC” Award from ETV. In addition, she was named a “ChangeMaker” by Multiplying Good, inducted into the Greenville County Schools Hall of Fame, and received the UNCF Mayors' Ball Community Award. With a passion to implement effective interventions and policies, she earned her doctorate from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Master of Public Administration from Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where she was awarded a Presidential Public Service Fellowship. She has a Master of Public Health from Emory University and an undergraduate degree in communication from Oglethorpe University. As a public health practitioner, Dr. Criss served as producer and host for a national television show for the Ministry of Health in Guyana during her Peace Corps service. She also held positions at ICF International, Centers for Disease Control, and CNN.ResourcesFollow Shaniece on Instagram Learn more about the Peace CorpsLearn more about LiveWell GreenvilleSupport the showJoin The Public Health Career Club: the #1 hangout spot and community dedicated to building and growing your dream public health career.

About Julie Jakopic and iLead Strategies: Julie Jakopic, President/CEO of iLead Strategies has been helping leaders succeed since she tutored her friends in math in third grade. She started her career in retail and was one of the youngest managers for Bloomingdales and Estee Lauder, while still in college. She moved to the non-profit sector, taking her private sector customer service skills to serving families at-risk and her entrepreneurial skills to building organizations. In 2003, she moved back to the private sector, as a Vice President of the Development Services Group and then as a technical director for ICF International, where she leads work with the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. In 2007, she founded iLead Strategies, an organizational development firm that strengthens leadership effectiveness. By helping business, non-profit and government leaders and organizations clarify their vision and then create effective strategies and cultivate the relationships to bring that vision to life, iLead Strategies makes the seemingly impossible possible. Julie is a nationally recognized and respected coach, speaker and strategist. She has shared the stage with President Obama and has been featured as a business coach by WUSA television and appears on or in the Washington Post, Vanity Fair, Al Jazeera WUSA9 and NBC4. Julie is fiercely committed to helping clients get the outcomes they want for their customers, their organization and themselves. Welcome to iLead Strategies' LinkedIn page. Follow us for insights on leadership development, strategic planning, organizational development and change management. What is iLead Strategies? iLead Strategies is an organizational development firm helping leaders of organizations that serve others achieve extraordinary results for themselves, their organizations and those they serve. Leadership requires both vision and realism. It's not just talking about hopes, but securing dreams. It's not just identifying challenges, but achieving extraordinary results.That means being clear about vision, communicating goals, creating effective strategies, committing to action and sustaining the effort. What can iLead Strategies offer me or my business? - Leadership coaching - Results-oriented strategic and sustainability planning - Consulting - Meeting design and facilitation - Training and technical assistance - Change management and program development

Benn Rains explores Jay Powell and the Fed's latest interest rate hike efforts and the ongoing stock market downturn. The episode also focuses on three highly-ranked stocks that have climbed to new highs recently during the market downturn that investors might want to buy. (0:30) - Stock Market Update: Everything You Need To Know Right Now (6:00) - Does Chesapeake Energy's Big Turn Around Earn Its Way Into Your Portfolio? (12:10) - ICF International's Consulting Business is Thriving (15:00) - Esquire Financial Continues To Outperform The Market Podcast@Zacks.com

Mark Lee, Executive Vice President for Global Public Sector at ICF International joins the show to discuss ways he has seen the pandemic accelerate and alter the future of government work. We also talk about some of the ways he has worked with customers as they have learned to navigate the new normal, what agencies should be prioritizing and they look to redefine their customer experiences, and some of his predictions for the next government fiscal year.

This week, Great Minds welcomes John Partilla, CEO of Screenvision Media, a premier cinema, video, and media organization.  Prior to joining Screenvision Media, Mr. Partilla served as CEO of Olson Group, and EVP, Digital Practice Lead, of ICF International.  Under his leadership, Olson Group achieved double digit growth annually becoming the third-largest independent digital agency in the U.S before it was acquired by ICF International in 2014.

This week's conversation encourages us to pay attention to the various aspects of our lives. When something makes you uncomfortable, be curious and explore why it's making you uncomfortable. Question yourself and find out why. Featured guest: Brian Kizito is passionate about human capital and specifically working with young people to re-think their contribution to changing the African narrative. Previously, Brian has worked with young people from 14 different African countries in helping to craft requisite leaders for today and the future. As an everyday student of systems (with a bias on health systems), he enjoys exploring how different micro-parts of systems, their uniqueness, and how these parts can achieve a higher level of functionality by leveraging their shared information, feedbacks, and interactions while performing their respective roles. This has ranged from supporting business processes with global consulting firms (Deloitte East Africa) to the global health arena with (ICF International and others) to governance and leadership (Kenya's Ministry of Health, Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, and county governments). 

Julia has served as SEPA's President & CEO since 2004, providing leadership and strategic direction for the organization. She is responsible for guiding and overseeing all of SEPA's research, education, and collaboration activities for its 1,100 member companies and the broader energy industry. Julia is a visionary non-profit leader at the center of the transformation underway in the electric power sector to a clean and modern energy future. For the past 20 years she has been advising and collaborating with utilities, solution providers and government agencies on business models, grid modernization, and clean energy policies, strategies and programs. She has led SEPA through significant expansion in recent years, including rebranding from the Solar Electric Power Association to the Smart Electric Power Alliance, and merging with both the Association for Demand Response and Smart Grid (ADS) and Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP). Prior to joining SEPA, Julia worked for ICF International where she supported EPA's implementation of the ENERGY STAR program. Julia – a graduate of Cornell University – walks the talk, driving an EV and living in a PV-powered home in Northern Virginia with her husband, two children, and dog.

Nancy Di Dia, Executive Director, Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer & Head, US DICE at Boehringer Ingelheim USA discusses her 15 years as a D&I officer, her personal history, and how she nurtured the development of the D&I programs at a pharmaceutical industry giant. She shares her learnings on how to build sustainable change over time. Nancy Di Dia is Executive Director, Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer & Head, US DICE at Boehringer Ingelheim USA. She brings more than 25 years of change and social experience in overall management, leadership and cultural change in the corporate world. Her experience has spanned financial services and healthcare. At Boehringer Ingelheim Nancy has responsibility for leading a culture of diversity, inclusion, engagement and belonging within BI's Animal Health, Biopharma and Human Pharma business units. In addition, Nancy is an (ICF) International credentialed and certified PCC Executive Coach with a focus on finding impactful ways to engage the brain in sustainable insights and change. She is an active member of the task force for Talent Innovation- a think tank and research group of leading global companies that leverages talent across the divides of gender, generation, geography and culture. Nancy is also on the board of the International Multicultural Institute (IMCI) a non-profit that offers service, knowledge and skills for individual and institutional change through inclusion. She was recently appointed to the Governor's council on Girls and Women in STEAM for the state of Connecticut and continues to act on the PhRMA chief diversity officer council to improve diversity in clinical studies. Nancy is fluent in Italian, an avid exerciser, rower and enjoys gardening, cooking and seeking out fine wines from around the world. #Diversity #Inclusion #SustainableChange

Today's guest is Richard Ross, Director of Emerging Technology at ICF. Richard is a technology executive with a demonstrated history of leading and implementing complex initiatives across the public and private sectors, setting a strategic vision and executing comprehensive digital & business transformation strategies and IT plans. His expertise includes aligning technology and organizational strategy, guiding large-scale transformative initiatives from concept to completion with an executive presence, program management and people development. As the Director of Technology at ICF International, he provides advisory, IT, strategy and other implementation services to Public Sector businesses. He serves as a trusted advisor to organizational leaders with a proven track record of helping them discover new ways to deliver value through the creative use of information technology. Richard understands the importance of people, change, culture, technology and the power of data to capture the value promised by digital transformations and IT modernization efforts. In the episode, Richard will tell you about: The interesting work he does with ICF, What he's learned from his fascinating career to date, Digital Transformation trends in the public & healthcare sectors, Challenges to be aware of on your digital transformation journey, Emerging technologies we should embrace, Use cases of the benefits ICF bring to clients & Advice he would offer to his younger self

Does more data make for better politics? Are new sources of data, on everything from expenses to voting to Wikipedia changes, altering how we think about politics? What can the monitoring of parliament tell us about what impact, good or bad, this is having on democracy? We can now monitor the activities of our representatives in ways we couldn’t imagine a few decades ago, seeing at the push of a button how they vote, what they say and what they spend. Our new project looks at whether new platforms and sources, from TheyWorkToYou to IPSA’s expenses map, are changing the behaviour of those being watched and the attitudes of those watching. Our findings so far show how the new data are being used by a range of people, from activists and journalists to MPs themselves. All these new sources are, at least sometimes, making MPs and Peers more accountable, and subtly impacting upon how they represent us. Data has also helped shaped the expenses expense scandal, proxy voting and reform of the House of Lords. Together new data makes for a democracy we can shape ourselves and use to question, query, and crowds-source. It can also make those we elect more responsive and more responsible. However, in reporting on voting and expenses, the new data can sometimes reinforce old, unhappy stories we tell each other about politics and politicians. About the speakers Stefani Langehennig is a researcher in the Department of Politics at Birkbeck, University of London and a Senior Data Scientist in Public Policy at ICF International. She received her PhD from the University of Colorado Boulder in American politics and political methodology in 2019. Her research focuses on legislatures, public policy, and computational social science. Ben Worthy is a Senior Lecturer in Politics at Birkbeck College. His research focuses on transparency and openness, and he has written on FOI, open data and British Politics.

Julia is a visionary leader at the center of the transformation underway in the electric power sector to a clean and modern energy future. For the past 20 years she has been advising and collaborating with utilities, solution providers and government agencies on business models, grid modernization, and clean energy policies, strategies and programs. Julia guides and oversees all of SEPA’s research, education, and collaboration activities for its 1,100 member companies, including over 725 electric utilities. Julia has led the organization through significant expansion in recent years, including rebranding from the Solar Electric Power Association to the Smart Electric Power Alliance, and merging with both the Association for Demand Response and Smart Grid (ADS) and Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP). Prior to joining SEPA, Julia worked for ICF International where she supported EPA’s implementation of the ENERGY STAR program.

Julia is a visionary leader at the center of the transformation underway in the electric power sector to a clean and modern energy future. For the past 20 years she has been advising and collaborating with utilities, solution providers and government agencies on business models, grid modernization, and clean energy policies, strategies and programs. Julia guides and oversees all of SEPA’s research, education, and collaboration activities for its 1,100 member companies, including over 725 electric utilities. Julia has led the organization through significant expansion in recent years, including rebranding from the Solar Electric Power Association to the Smart Electric Power Alliance, and merging with both the Association for Demand Response and Smart Grid (ADS) and Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP). Prior to joining SEPA, Julia worked for ICF International where she supported EPA’s implementation of the ENERGY STAR program. Julia - a graduate of Cornell University - walks the talk, driving an EV and living in a PV powered energy efficient home in Northern Virginia. https://sepapower.org/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Marianne Craig is a master coach and the co-founder of Firework Coaching Company, home of the renowned and proven Firework framework for helping people change career. From a young age, Marianne realised the value of questioning everything, but that only started to become her profession in the midst of what Marianne calls a fulfillment crisis. She was listening to BBC Woman's Hour in 1999 when she heard a coach speaking. By the end of the programme she was already calling the helpline: she knew it was what she wanted to do for a living.Since then, she has racked up thousands of hours of coaching, founding Firework in 2003, becoming an ICF accredited Master Coach in 2005 and forming many other collaborations including Mirus Coaching for Social Change, Mentor Coaches International and a new project providing pro bono coaching to Extinction Rebellion activists.With 25 years' experience as a business owner, coach and consultant she works with people who are at a life or career crossroads. Her specialism is supporting clients to find meaningful and fulfilling work.In this episode, we talk about:- How, as a working class little girl on a council estate near Glasgow, she first learned about her sense of agency in the world.- How she created the renowned Firework Career Coaching Framework, started Firework Coaching Company and later sold it.- Why she has never got bored of her work with people changing careers.- What she thinks makes a great website for a coach (as one of the first people to have a coaching website) and how to launch it.- How she tried every kind of marketing in existence and what she learned from that experimentation (and what she recommends you do so you don't have to experiment with everything).Plus, starting from Marianne's bugbears about the coaching industry, we get into a fascinating conversation about the morals and ethics of coaching, and ask questions like, is the end is near for ‘the client's agenda' and ‘where were the coaches when the banks went down'?For more information about Marianne, visit: https://www.coachlifeandcareer.com/ or http://www.mentor-coach.com/For information about Robbie's wider work and writing, visit www.robbieswalecoaching.com.Music by My Good Man William: listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4KmeQUcTbeE31uFynHQLQgThings and people we mentioned (that you might be interested in):~4: James Bianco and the Coach's Journey episode with James: https://www.thecoachsjourney.com/podcast/episode-5-james-bianco-beware-your-simple-stories-about-coaching-success~5: Laura Berman Fortgang: https://laurabermanfortgang.com/~10: Coach U: https://www.coachu.com/~30 and ~37: Firework: https://www.fireworkcoaching.com/~38: Kate Edmunds: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/kate-edmonds-5aa25516~39: CTI: https://coactive.com/~40: Careershifters: http://www.careershifters.org/~40: My temping colleague, Amy, and her awesome vintage dress company, Clarence and Alabama: https://www.clarenceandalabama.co.uk/~41: Richard Alderson: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/richardalderson~54: Marianne's ebook, So You Want To Become A Coach - A Guide to Training and Skills for Life and Business Coaching: http://www.mentor-coach.com/become_a_life_coach.htm~55: The ICF (International Coaching Federation) and their levels of credential, ACC, PCC and MCC: https://www.coachfederation.org.uk/credentialing/credential_path~56: Academy of Coaching Supervision: https://coachingsupervisionacademy.com/~58: ICF International events: https://coachfederation.org/events/icf-converge-2019~82: Sir John Whitmore and his book Coaching For Performance: https://www.performanceconsultants.com/coaching-for-performance-book~82: Association for Coaching: https://www.associationforcoaching.com/~90: Climate Change Coaches: https://www.climatechangecoaches.com/~93: Mirus Coaching for Social Change and Alma Neville~94: Robert Holden: https://www.robertholden.com/~110: Exeter Street Hall, the new community centre where Marianne is a trustee: https://exeterstreethall.org/

 This episode of the podcast was originally written in response to the Houston Chronicle's endorsement of Sylvester Turner for Mayor in the primary. I'm publishing it now and including a brief update on ICF International as well as a look at what's at stake for Houston firefighters and their families with Election Day coming up.Thanks for listening!---Don't forget to leave us a rating and a review! Also, make sure to hit that subscribe button to stay up to date on the story as we add more episodes!Twitter: @TTFHoustonFacebook: @ThroughTheFirePodcast fb.me/ThroughTheFirePodcastEmail: ThroughTheFirePodcast@gmail.com

ICF International utility business Senior Vice President Patty Cook and Senior Manager Justin Mackovyak joined us to discuss the evolution of utility demand-side management projects. ICF is a well respected and very experienced consultancy that among many other specialties, helps electric utilities manage their modernization and digitization efforts. Patty and Justin spoke about ICF’s work with utility demand-side management programs, especially the success they had helping the Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative (SMECO) with its demand side management programs and demand response. The firm runs over 150 such programs for 46 electric utilities in the US alone, Patty noted, and she and Justin helped us understand what steps they are using to find the best results in those programs as many of their utility clients are looking at how to evolve those programs to match where the industry is headed.

Julie Jakopic has been helping leaders succeed since she tutored her friends in math in third grade. Today, Julie is one of the nation's top organizational and leadership development consultants and coaches. She has shared the stage with luminaries like President Obama and change agent Neale Donald Walsch, and has used her unique blend of experience in the private, public and non-profit sectors to create meaningful change at a grassroots level. She is a citizen activist who recently ran for the Virginia House Of Delegates and in her interview with us, Julie describes what it's like to be a woman in politics, why there aren't more women in politics, and the benefits of women's influence in getting things done.  Julie also shares her own lessons from running in a 70-day primary, and how she has translated that experience into her business and home life. We also explore what leadership is, what it's not, and the keys to getting a lot accomplished in a short period of time. Straightforward and wise, Julie's message is valuable for anyone (both men and women) in a leadership position or who is seeking to create social change in the areas that they are most passionate about. Key Takeaways 1) There is no time and no extra energy for things that don't need to be done. You can get upset, or you can figure out how to laugh about it and keep going. 2) At the end of the day, the world is run by the people who show up. The people who show up make the decisions. 3) Your vote counts. There are delegates who have won by 10 votes. 4) There are a lot of issues. Pick the 3 things you're going to fuss over. Track them, and then get off the screen and go do something. Show up, and keep showing up. 5) Keep in mind that we all really want the same thing; it's the HOW we argue about. 6) Be strong like water. Favorite Quote "Screaming from the other side of the street makes fabulous television...and changes nothing." Julie Jakopic Bio Change Strategist & Leadership Coach Julie Jakopic has been helping leaders succeed since she tutored her friends in math in third grade. Today, Julie is one of the nation's top organizational and leadership development consultants and coaches. A Social Alchemist who's shared the stage with luminaries like President Obama and change agent Neale Donald Walsch, Julie's on a mission to help build the new paradigm of business where leaders thrive at home and at work. Julie created her signature Don't Await It, Create It System to help visionaries transform possibilities into probabilities. A retail manager for Bloomingdales and Estee Lauder while still in college, she branched out into the non-profit sector, working with at-risk families, and developing organizations from the inside out. Since then, Julie has masterfully maneuvered between the private, public, and nonprofit sectors, her signature style a blend of big picture thinking, hands on strategy, and mission driven leadership and organizational development. Author of Planning for Results, a nationally recognized strategic planning tool, and creator of the Don't Await It, Create It framework and event, Julie gets rave reviews as a speaker, coach, facilitator, and strategist known for her pragmatic and optimistic approach. Clients credit her ability to not only build and grow their own leadership skills, but also her uncanny understanding of how to help executives develop and strengthen the talent beneath them. Before launching iLead Strategies, Julie built and led successful teams in her work as vice president and human services practice leader at the Development Services Group and in executive positions at ICF International, The Finance Project and the National Association for State Community Services Programs (NASCSP). She was awarded the Ann Kagie National Community Services award by the National Association for State Community Services Programs, and the Legislative & Public Policy Award by the Alexandria Commission for Women. She holds an MA in Sociology and a BA in Communication from the University of Maryland. Connect With Julie Jakopic Online www.iLeadStrategies.com  

We already took care of CFCs, so these HFC things shouldn't really matter that much, right? Not so much. Kasey helps us dive into how HFCs came about, the problems they're causing, and what can be done to fix them. ----------------------------- SustainabilityDefined is the podcast that seeks to define sustainability, one concept (and bad joke) at a time. Hosted by Jay Siegel and Scott Breen. Each episode focuses on a single topic that helps push sustainability forward. We explain each topic with the help of an experienced pro, place it within our organizational tree, and help our listeners define what exactly sustainability is, episode by episode. We have divided our organizational tree into the following seven sectors: Energy Cities Natural Environment Transportation Business Policy Social Each episode is categorized under one of our sectors and visually depicted within our organizational tree. The more episodes we complete, the more the tree will visually define what exactly sustainability means. www.sustainabilitydefined.com

This week on FEDtalk, experts in both the government and the private sector participate in a panel discussion on human capital issues. Mika Cross, the government chair for ACT-IAC's Human Capital Shared Interest Group; Jeffrey Neal, senior vice president for ICF International; and Bill Fischer, industry chair for ACT-IAC's Human capital SIG, join host Jason Briefel, to discuss what they are currently working on and how the public and private sectors are collaborating.

This week on FEDtalk, more about GAO's recent report on the probationary period and dealing with poor performing employees. Robert Goldenkoff, director of strategic issues at the GAO, kicks off the show with an overview of the report and its top findings. Then, Jeff Neal, senior vice president of ICF International, and Henry Romero, senior advisor of Federal Management Partners, Inc., discuss the wider implications of the report with host Jenny Mattingley, director of Government Affairs at Shaw Bransford & Roth, P.C.

This week on FEDtalk, experts in both the government and the private sector participate in a panel discussion on human capital issues. Mika Cross, the government chair for ACT-IAC's Human Capital Shared Interest Group; Jeffrey Neal, senior vice president for ICF International; and Bill Fischer, industry chair for ACT-IAC's Human capital SIG, join host Jason Briefel, to discuss what they are currently working on and how the public and private sectors are collaborating.

This week on FEDtalk, more about GAO's recent report on the probationary period and dealing with poor performing employees. Robert Goldenkoff, director of strategic issues at the GAO, kicks off the show with an overview of the report and its top findings. Then, Jeff Neal, senior vice president of ICF International, and Henry Romero, senior advisor of Federal Management Partners, Inc., discuss the wider implications of the report with host Jenny Mattingley, director of Government Affairs at Shaw Bransford & Roth, P.C.

Show #89, Hour 1 | Guests: Egon Terplan, Regional Planning Director, SPUR; Derecka Mehrens, Executive Director, Working Partnerships. | Show Summary: Rent control. Owner move-ins. Skyrocketing property values. How do Silicon Valley and the Bay Area try to keep their populations financially diverse, and keep the American dream alive for those with less income? We’ll spend the hour on an examination of the stakeholders, potential solutions, and how other major cities have confronted the issue. Guests: Egon Terplan, Regional Planning Director, SPUR. A regional planner and economic development specialist with more than 14 years of experience, Egon Terplan has authored or co-authored numerous reports and policy studies related to regional planning, economic development, transportation and government reform, including the first-ever report on the Northern California megaregion and a 2011 report on land use planning and high-speed rail in California. Prior to joining SPUR, he spent more than five years with ICF International advising cities and regions throughout the world on economic development and competitiveness. Derecka Mehrens, Executive Director, Working Partnerships. Derecka’s work at WP includes organizing and campaign strategies for San Jose’s minimum wage increase, engaging low-income communities of color in public policy issues, and forming coalitions with the Domestic Workers Alliance, Bay Area Equal Voice Coalition, and California Calls, among others. Prior to joining Working Partnerships she was a director with the California chapter of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), where she set statewide legislative priorities and managed organizing campaigns in 12 regions across the state. Mehrens is currently a board member for the Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice and California Calls.

Scientists are sounding alarms that climate change is happening right now. Inaction looks like a risky roll of the global-warming dice. Erin Gill, Director, City of Knoxville's Office of Sustainability, reviews The climate casino: risk, uncertainty, and economics for a warming world by William D. Nordaus in this podcast. “The climate casino offers a no-nonsense look at why communities should be concerned about climate change and the types of policies that can reduce global climate risks," Ms. Gill says. "Its focus on science and economics helps to—in Nordhaus’ words—‘cool down the rhetoric’ and foster analytical and productive conversations about climate change.” Ms. Gill has over five years of experience managing and implementing environmental programs. The City of Knoxville's Office of Sustainability addresses issues relating to the environmental, economic, and social health of the Knoxville community. Ms. Gill has a Master of Environmental Management degree from Yale University and a B.A. in History from the University of Notre Dame. She has also worked for the EPA’s Office of the Chief Financial Officer and for ICF International in Atlanta, where she helped administer Georgia Power’s energy efficiency programs. She currently serves on the board of the East Tennessee Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council. (Recorded September 17, 2014)

Are you planning a family reunion and have no idea where to start?  Are you integrating family history and genealogy in your family reunion activities? Callian Jenkins is a Senior Technical Project Manager at ICF International. In 2011, she planned and managed a large family reunion in Silver Spring, MD. Currently, with her family, she's in the process of writing a Family Reunion Planning Guide to help her other family members plan family reunions

February 9, 2010: In today’s episode, Jane Van Ryan interviews Jack Gerard, president and CEO of API. Mr. Gerard discusses the state of American energy and how we can improve our nation’s economy through oil and natural gas exploration.