Breaker Society

Michael Yoder helps people share their stories. Plain and simple. Michael started his own company to help people do it. As the owner of Truth Work Media, Michael tells stories through speaking, creating websites and creating podcasts, including this one. Michael is one of the reasons I felt confident enough to finally launch. Michael describes this process as walking alongside people and encouraging them to live a story that is worth sharing. He helps others lean into what that looks like for them and he says he has found that most people have a story they are longing to create or be a part of, but often they need help getting there.

Michael, like most entrepreneurs, quit his day job to live a better story. A graduate of Bethel College’s Youth Ministry program, he worked in some form of relational ministry for nearly a decade before starting his first podcast with a friend that changed his life from that moment forward.

In just two years, Truth Work Media is producing nearly 50 podcasts and Michael has added to his team, making the bold decision to scale up his company. We talk entrepreneurship in this episode, but we also get into some “deep” and maybe some “controversial” topics around the realm of Christianity and faith and politics. We basically went wherever the discussion led us and I think it is a pretty powerful conversation about not just settling for the status quo or conforming to fit into some standard of how life is “supposed to be.” 

Visit Truth Work Media: https://www.truthworkmedia.com/

Knowing every student by name, strength, and need is the promise of Highline Public Schools. Under the leadership of Susan Enfield, the district is delivering on this promise by implementing a bold strategic plan committed to ensuring that students graduate bi-lingual, bi-literate with the problem-solving and critical thinking skills that will prepare them for the future they choose.

A former high school English, journalism and ELL teacher, Susan served as Chief Academic Officer and then as Interim Superintendent for Seattle Public Schools before coming to Highline in 2012. She previously held leadership positions in Evergreen Public Schools (Vancouver, WA), Portland Public Schools, and the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

Susan is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, and earned master’s degrees from Stanford University and Harvard University. She also holds a doctoral degree in Administration, Planning and Social Policy from Harvard’s Urban Superintendents Program. This is a great conversation about education, leadership, and having a bold vision for students.

Becky Verner is a PR pro and a 200-hour certified yoga teacher living and teaching around Cleveland, Ohio. Her practice is playful, peaceful & as powerful as people want to make it! In addition to group classes, Becky leads workshops, private sessions, and small group classes or events like fundraisers, celebrations, and more. She has also taught meditation and yoga to students in schools.

She is also passionate about what she calls Yoga to Remember: gentle yoga & meditation events designed to help those who are grieving. Becky is passionate about this form of grief yoga as she lost her mother when she was just 10 years old. 

Beyond that, Becky also does public relations. In fact, she worked for me in the past and earned media placements and interviews with local and national news outlets, and helped lead events for clients like at SXSW Interactive in 2013 and the Ohio Educational Technology Conference in 2013 and 2014. 

Visit Becky’s website at beckyverneryoga.com

National Institute of Mental Health

Benefits of Mindfulness in Schools

Heidi Vega is the Director of Communications for the Arizona School Boards Association. She was named a Top 35 Under 35 by NSPRA in 2012 for her outstanding work and bright professional future. Prior to her work with the Arizona School Boards Association, she served as the Director of Communications and Community Engagement for the Deer Valley Unified School District, where she secured more than $100 million as the grant writer for the Arizona district. 

In this episode, Heidi and I dive into the work she is doing around equity and talk about the issues of diversity and inclusion. We also talk about the state of public education, specifically in Arizona, which has been a hotbed of issues regarding teacher pay and charter schools in recent years. We also have some fun and learn more about Heidi’s military background, how she created her own career pathway, and much more. This is a fun episode!

Follow Heidi on Twitter @Heidi_HVega

Arizona School Board Association Free Equity Webinar Series

Brendan Schneider currently serves as the Director of Advancement at Sewickley Academy, a PK-12 day school located 12 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Association of Independent School Admission Professionals. He’s an Inbound Marketing Certified Professional and Hootsuite Certified Professional.

He also operates SchneiderB Media, a community that provides resources on topics like inbound marketing, enrollment and admissions, social media, technology, branding and much more. It features a blog, email, private Facebook group, podcast and VirCon, a virtual school marketing conference now in its sixth year that will be held online on Saturday, October 13, 2018.

In this episode we talk about how a private school education inspired him to commit his career to private school marketing and admissions, what his goal is with SchneiderB, the latest in trends, and much more. 

Andrea Gribble had 13 years experience in the corporate world when she decided to start her own business. It wasn’t easy, but today, her company #SocialSchool4Edu, has a team of more than 20 and serves nearly 70 school districts throughout the country. After working with her daughter’s school district, she learned that many schools lack the time and expertise to feel comfortable with social media and #SocialSchool4EDU was born from that desire to help other schools do the same.

I met Andrea a few years back at a National School Public Relations Association National Seminar in Chicago and she is infectious. She’s outgoing, friendly, helpful, and humble and in just a few short years she has built her company up by bootstrapping and pure hustle. It certainly wasn’t without risk and turmoil as she will discuss in this episode, which was recorded during the NSPRA 2018 National Seminar in Anaheim, part of my NSPRA Podcast Sessions recorded in the hotel lobby. This is a fun episode about entrepreneurship and following your passions even when things get tough.

Visit Andrea’s company online at www.socialschool4edu.com