Wonder Your Way To Brilliant

How well do you listen... as a leader? As a friend? As a spouse or partner? As a parent? To yourself? I may be biased, but I honestly believe there is no more important skill we can learn. And as much as I love my questions, neither the questions we ask others or the questions we ask ourselves are much good if we don’t really know how to listen to the answers. Tune into today’s episode of Wonder Your Way to Brilliant where we explore the question: How can I listen more deeply? 

Are burnout and stress on your mind as we begin September? On today’s episode of Wonder Your Way to Brilliant, I take on a question that I really needed: “What energizes you when you are feeling burned out?” Here’s hoping that my own self-help explorations will have benefits for someone else as well. So, tune in for this raw and unedited exploration of how to beat the burnout blues.   

On today’s episode of Wonder Your Way to Brilliant I have the privilege of speaking with Rabbi Lynnda Targan, author of Funny You Don’t Look Like a Rabbi: A Memoir of Unorthodox Transformation. Like many of us, there were seeds planted early on in Lynnda’s life that may have pointed to such a choice, but without pausing to heed the call, she might have missed it. With Courageous Curiosity, Lynnda made the choice in mid-life to pursue an unlikely path for a woman with her life profile and has found meaning she never dreamt possible by traveling this ‘unorthodox’ path.  

What’s going on in the hearts and minds of college students as the fall semester begins amidst the COVID-19 pandemic? On today’s episode of Wonder Your Way to Brilliant Courage to be Curious intern, Amelia Winger of Temple University, gets deeply curious about how the COVID-19 pandemic and period of social unrest has personally impacted the education, college experience, and lives of college students. Join us for this powerful conversation with three students, where Amelia looks at how the pandemic has personally and collectively impacted university students across the nation as well as at how this moment in history is catalyzing college students, the future generation of activists and political leaders, to find solutions for the systemic inequities in our society.   

One of the things the current moment most assuredly reminds us of is the fact that change is inevitable, it is constant, and we have little control over its coming and going. So how will we respond? On today’s episode of Wonder Your Way to Brilliant, Mary Marz, Director of Organizational Change Management for Erie Insurance, a Fortune 500 company, as well as Owner & Image Consultant of Perfectly Poised offers insight into why change can feel so stressful and strategies for both overcoming the overwhelm and learning to embrace it in our daily lives. 

Join me for this week’s conversation with Leslie Richards, General Manager of SEPTA (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority). Having risen through the ranks of Township Supervisor, County Commissioner, Secretary of PA Dept. of Transportation to General Manager, Leslie has modeled a path of leadership for women that has consistently focused on raising up others, advocating for equity, and facilitating real and lasting change. Tune into today’s episode to hear more about her journey through leadership as well as how she is showing up to her current challenge of serving as the white female head of the region’s transit system that employs 60% minority workers two months before the outbreak of a global pandemic and the killing of George Floyd.

Join me for a powerful conversation with Dr. Priyam Mammen, Emergency Physician and Public Health Specialist, MOUD Physician, and Adjunct Faculty Member at the University of Pennsylvania. During the conversation, we reflect on the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has accentuated the inequities in our healthcare system and how the healthcare system as a whole is a mirror reflection of our biases, prejudices, and - consciously or unconsciously - determined values as a society.

Gender equality begins with ALL of us. People of all genders need to demand change if we want to break down inhibitive gender norms. Sharon Kelly Hake and Robert Ford have been equity advocates for decades. Tune in as they discuss the role of men and women as allies in the equity conversation. 

On today’s episode of Wonder Your Way to Brilliant I have the privilege of speaking with Elba Pareja Gallagher, Director of Finance for UPS and President of ShowMe50.org, a social impact organization that she founded to advance the representation of women in senior leadership roles across the United States to 50%. Although I first met Elba almost 5 years ago, her name popped up again when I read her post: My Open Letter to the CEO’s: Please stop talking and do this where she calls upon CEOs to stop putting out messages that ‘sound good’ and actually take the practical and necessary steps to achieve real and lasting equity within their companies.  

On today’s episode of Wonder Your Way to Brilliant I speak with Elmer Dixon, President of Executive Diversity Services, a Washington state-based diversity training company. Dixon’s background growing up in an unusually diverse neighborhood in Chicago uniquely positioned him for this later work and his affiliation with the Black Panther movement certainly honed his fierce determination to advocate for equity and fair treatment. Get Courageously Curious with me and listen in to this episode in which Mr. Dixon not only deepens our understanding of the Unconscious Bias problem but offers very practical steps that we can all take to advance our own growth.

I was reading an article about protests in New York. A woman joined the protests as they were passing her house and shared with the reporter that she joined because I want to be able to go to sleep at night and not worry about whether her black son will be safe each day. When I read this, my mind immediately went to the notion of Freedom… and what does it really mean to be Free... As a society and as an individual? I invite you to tune into today’s episode of Wonder Your Way to Brilliant and explore with me what Freedom means for you. There are no answers, simply a lot of provocative questions. 

We are living through historic times. Everything is shifting around us from the way we live and work to (hopefully) how we treat others, how we create equity, and what we choose to value -  individually and as a society. As productive as it is, this energy can also make us feel like ‘storm-tossed ships,’ a phrase offered by my guest on this week’s episode of Wonder Your Way to Brilliant. Join me for a great conversation with Lauren Yellin Weinberg of Lasting Change Wellness as we talk about how to make the shift from overwhelm to purposeful action. What steps can we take to find our way through the chaos and get really clear about how and where to focus our energy. 

On today’s episode of Wonder Your Way to Brilliant, we talk about WHAT we mean by connection, WHY it is so important and HOW to create it in ways that feel good. As we know, not all encounters with other humans feel good. What makes for those connections that cause us to lose track of time and let go of our negative thoughts and feelings? What makes for those connections that truly nourish us and touch our hearts?  

On today’s episode of Wonder Your Way to Brilliant we discuss how and why we can fall into the blame game, especially during periods of high stress. Oftentimes, it is those we are closest to who get the brunt of our blame and fault finding and if and when we do, it can be difficult to find our way out. We discuss how to catch ourselves when this begins to happen and how we can stop this downward spiral and change directions. 

On today’s episode of Wonder Your Way to Brilliant. I have the privilege of speaking with Lauren Kahn, a Licenced Marriage and Family Therapist and an ECO-THERAPIST. In this episode, she introduces us to how she journeys with clients into nature to harness the extraordinary healing powers of the natural world as a support to our complex and profound human experience. She also offers us ways that we can all tap into nature in a deeper way for support and guidance, especially during this time of sheltering when many of us have more time to spend outdoors. 

On today’s episode of Wonder Your Way to Brilliant. I have a fabulous and fun conversation with my friend and colleague Sue Abuelsamid, founder of The Curiosity Project and Coach at Constant Journey Coaching. Our topic… What else we can talk about besides COVID! Sheltering at home, there is not always that much NEW happening in our day so connecting in meaningful ways and staying out of the quicksand of the virus conversation can be tough. We offer some fun and profound alternatives to deepen connections at home, at work, and with friends and family on the other side of the computer or phone. Take a listen and get creative with us!

On today’s episode of Wonder Your Way to Brilliant. I get curious about STRESS responses. Do you know what yours looks like? Are you tuned in to how it is showing up right now? We are more than a month into quarantine so it is virtually a guarantee that all of our stress responses are showing up in some way. Tune into today’s episode where we get curious about these responses and how to stop them in their tracks!  

On today’s episode of Wonder Your Way to Brilliant I am posing a question I think EVERYONE should be asking themselves regularly during these times. For the vast majority of us, life has changed significantly over the last 4 - 6 weeks and adapting to these circumstances - that have no clear end date - demands that we reflect deeply on this question. In my experience, this single question can help us find our grounding, can activate our most creative juices and can help maintain stability in relationships that can feel stressed. Tune in to hear the question and my tips on how to use it most productively.  

On today’s episode of Wonder Your Way to Brilliant I am honored to speak with a colleague who has been in my life for about 18 years. Gabrielle Kaplan-Meyer is an educator, author, and speaker… and one of the most ardent seekers and creative people that I know. In our conversation, Gabrielle shares what she has learned about living in response to the unexpected as well as how we might explore our relationship to mortality.   

So, there is seemingly no denying it… even if we were not convinced before or were simply not ‘tuned into it’ before… COVID-19 has made it undeniably clear that we are all interconnected. On today’s episode of Wonder Your Way to Brilliant. We look not only at the teaching of our interconnectedness, but also at the role that our self-preservation and self-care play in restoring and preserving the health and well-being of ourselves, humanity, and Mother Earth.