Embers and Wind

Welcome to Embers and Wind!

Guest Susannah Dawn shares “So, all my life, I’ve basically been put in boxes. Either people told me what I am or who I am. In business, I was always told I had to pick a niche. There was always this feeling of confinement for me, that every time I get labeled some way, that I’m going to get boxed. I’m going to get viewed as X or Z or whatever. Once I did my reinvention going into 2022. What it really came down to was me being able to leave a box in my past. All my life I’ve known that I was a girl, and everybody told me that I wasn’t because of the box that I was in. Now, being able to be myself and not feel confined. This is who I am. This is who I’ve always been, and that’s why my motto is what it is. ‘I’m not what I used to be. I am who I’ve always been.’”

I'm your host, Keith Weedman. In each podcast episode, you will hear stories. These stories will feel like a tender wind blowing on the embers of service that glow within you. In this weekly show, you will learn ideas, kindling for your embers. It will be your choice to utilize the gentle wind to ignite the kindling. 

In this episode, Susannah Dawn shares her personal story about moving beyond boxes. She talks about the different boxes that people placed her in. She notes that awareness of being in a box is a step toward moving beyond boxes. Susannah confides that she does not talk much about being transgender. She asserts that she is much more than her sexual identity. Susannah simply states “I’m not what I used to be. I am who I’ve always been.” She shares her joy in moving beyond this box and confides the fear that used to constrain her. She reveals her passion for helping people and companies move beyond boxes. She notes that her move beyond boxes can help you move beyond whatever box you feel trapped in to achieve your career or personal goals because people can easily feel trapped in a box such as a specific job or a career. Susannah talks about how companies can find themselves trapped in a box such as what the company does and who the company serves. She shares examples how she can help your company move beyond boxes that have previously constrained your company. She notes that she became a storyteller through writing stories. She reveals that her passion for writing is the stories. Susannah notes that she now tells stories from the stage. She talks about her consulting work in diversity, why she recommends diversity guidelines and her concerns about diversity policies. She closes the episode with a benevolent Call to-Action to help you apply what you learned in this episode to move beyond boxes and break through any fear that’s been holding you back from achieving your personal or professional goals.

To stay in touch with Susannah, she recommends connecting with her on LinkedIn. Her LinkedIn profile web address is the website for this episode. Her Instagram profile web address is: https://www.instagram.com/susannah.dawn.writer/ . Her Facebook profile web address is: https://www.facebook.com/Susannah.Dawn.Writer. She notes that reading her LinkedIn posts will provide you a means to learn from the content in her posts include moving beyond boxes and breaking through the fear that’s holding you or your company back from what you or ot they want.  

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Welcome to Embers and Wind!

Keith Weedman shares “A good friend of mine, his name is Eric Maalt. He’s a college buddy. He was on the Purdue tennis team. He was playing tennis with his adult daughter in 2021. He noticed while playing tennis that there was a young African American male. He was on the basketball court near the tennis court, and he was on rollerblades. He was really good on rollerblades.  My friend, he noticed how good this young man was. He was impressed. This young man was able to do things that most people could not do on rollerblades. After playing tennis, he called the young man over. The young man was a little hesitant. He wasn’t quite sure what Eric wanted. Eric told him just how impressed he was by how good he was on rollerblades. After first looking down, looked up at Eric and said, ‘Do you really think so?’ This was not what the young man expected to hear from Eric because they were of different races. Eric was Caucasian. This was why the young man was quite tentative in approaching Eric. Hearing sincere, positive feedback from this benevolent stranger was totally unexpected. Eric said ‘Yes.’ I want you to imagine for a moment the young man’s face after Eric said this. Then, the young man said, ‘You just made my day!’ Eric replied, ‘Knowing I made your day just made mine too!’”

I'm your host, Keith Weedman. In each podcast episode, you will hear stories. These stories will feel like a tender wind blowing on the embers of service that glow within you. In this weekly show, you will learn ideas, kindling for your embers. It will be your choice to utilize the gentle wind to ignite the kindling.

In this episode, Keith Weedman shares tips to bring joy to people by giving them sincere positive feedback. He tells stories to inspire you of bringing joy to strangers and about the joy and gratitude he felt when Angelia Sloan was a stranger when she brought joy and gratitude to him. He tells a story about what his wife, Marcia. You can feel his gratitude for Marcia in his positive feedback. He shares tips to accentuate the impact of the joy you bring to people, from strangers to (people-you-love). Tips and stories include heightening the joy you bring by giving them sincere, positive feedback publicly, by generating gratitude for them to have them feel your gratitude in your positive feedback, and by combining all three together.

Keith closes the episode with this benevolent Call-to-Action. Give sincere, positive feedback to (people-you-love) during the holidays. Ensure they feel your gratitude in the way you give them positive feedback. You are invited to join me to join me throughout the rest of the year by seizing every opportunity you see to give people sincere, positive feedback. When you genuinely feel gratitude for them, let them feel your gratitude in giving them positive feedback.

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Welcome to Embers and Wind!

Guest and cybersecurity expert Jessie Liew shares how she became passionate about helping parents empower their children to overcome screen addiction by finding herself first utilizing more of her knowledge and resourcefulness to prevent screen addiction for her children: “I didn’t aspire to be a parenting coach. So how it actually got started is because of my background. I graduated in computer science, and my husband is also in Tai Chi. So, two of us, we know that the Internet is very dangerous. All these platform devices are very addictive. Part of the side, we also study how to get users to love to use your apps. We know it’s very addictive, especially not super for children. So, I think for my first one, she didn’t get to use the iPad, the smart phone, headsets in the very early age. She’s seven, eight years old, she was always complaining: “Augh, my friend got it. I haven’t got it. So, she’s kind of like kind of jealous. In year 2020, when pandemic came, covid came, my country announced a lockdown. I realized one thing. My children have to be with the screen all the time.”

I'm your host, Keith Weedman. In each podcast episode, you will hear stories. These stories will feel like a tender wind blowing on the embers of service that glow within you. In this weekly show, you will learn ideas, kindling for your embers. It will be your choice to utilize the gentle wind to ignite the kindling. 

In this episode, Jessie Liew talks about learning in school how to how to utilize the Internet and social media in marketing to make an app addictive. She shares that her background in computer science and cybersecurity helped her safely protect her children from screen addiction by being aware and proactive. She shares tips for parents to prevent their children from screen addiction and to help parents empower their child to overcome scrren addiction. Then, with her friends’ children. In explaining why screen addiction has become such a pervasive problem, she notes that apps aren’t really free because companies sell your data to other companies who pay them to advertise on your profile in a social media platform to purchase their company's product or service. She shares a compelling story about a friend whose teenage son suffered from screen addiction and about her shock in learning that their fights had become physical. She notes helping her friends empower their children to overcome screen addiction inspired her to become a digital parenting coach..She stresses Internet marketing professionals know how to make their app addictive. Jessie asserts that there is a correlation between the obesity problem and the effectiveness in marketing of companies in the food industry. Jessie closes the episode with a benevolent call to action to prevent your child from having a screen addiction.

To stay connected with Jessie, her Facebook profile can be found at this website address: https://www.facebook.com/jessieliewsp. Her LinkedIn profile can be found at this one: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessieliewsp/. Her free Facebook group is the website listed for this episode to help you reduce screentime for your child and increase family connection. Jessie wants you to know she shares tips to prevent screen addiction and access to free training in this Facebook group.

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Welcome to Embers and Wind!

Guest Natalia Nutting shares how you can tell a story to elevate employee engagement: “We love feeling engaged because we feel that we are growing. If you overload people with instructions, they don’t feel engaged because you already told them everything that they have to do, and they have no space for their own growth, for them to figure things out. When it comes to storytelling, if the leader is able to inspire the worker with a little story, then the employee is going to feel like ‘Wow! That is interesting. I actually, I would love to do that.’ You’re not telling them what to do. You’re inspiring them with a story.”

I'm your host, Keith Weedman. In each podcast episode, you will hear stories. These stories will feel like a tender wind blowing on the embers of service that glow within you. In this bi-weekly show, you will learn ideas, kindling for your embers. It will be your choice to utilize the gentle wind to ignite the kindling. 

In this episode, Natalia shares her unstoppable story about the teacher who became Natalia’s obstacle and how Natalia utilized this teacher as a challenge to prove that there is a different, engaging way to teach, through storytelling. She tells how as a school storyteller, her students taught her to be vulnerable and see the child in every adult, that children just go for it and learn quickly, and that adults really want to do this too. Natalia shares that she learned to move her body through acting without words which helped her overcome her 4th grade encounter with a teacher. She connects what she learned with what she’s learned from Tony Robbins about state, story, strategy. Natalia asserts that storytelling is essential to effective leadership. She shares her passion to help coaches, keynote speakers to become unstoppable storytellers to inspire their audience and grow their business through her signature event, Captivate, that she launches once every 3 months.

Natalia’s Storytelling Campfire for Coaches Facebook group is the website listed for this episode. To stay connected with Natalia, she recommends connecting with her on Facebook or Instagram. Her Facebook profile web address is https://www.facebook.com/NataliaNuttingStoryteller/. Her Instagram web address: https://www.instagram.com/natalianutting/. She encourages listeners who want to learn from N to email her at [email protected]. 

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Welcome to Embers and Wind!

Guest Jenny Maxwell shares why active listening is essential to leading your team at home and at work “Everybody’s basic needs are love, safety, and belonging, every human’s basic needs. We also want to feel seen and heard. When you’re in the habit of telling somebody what to do, that person is feeling invisible which is what I felt for a long time when I didn’t know how to use my voice and speak up and communicate calmly what my needs were and ask for help, even around the house. Using your voice and being given space to share what’s really going on with you, it requires the person on the other side of the table to sit and listen and give you that space. Not interrupt, not interject, not try and tell you what to do, just listen. That’s a very powerful tool to have and lots of people don’t have it. I notice, well I think actually on my coaching journey, like in the beginning. Because you know when you become a coach, you’re really your very first client because you’re applying everything, you’re learning to yourself. And what I realized was that most people in my circle had no idea what was going on with me because they didn’t ask.”

In this episode, personal development coach Jenny Maxwell talks about moving from Ireland with her husband and two sons. She shares about longing for Ireland and hoping their family’s stay in the U.S. would be temporary. She talks about her frustration when she used to be a people-pleaser, giving people solutions to their problems when they had not asked for her help solving them. She notes how volunteering for the local juvenile justice center empowered her to get out of her slump and become a personal development coach. She stresses the importance of active listening and how that describes her coaching work and at home with her children. She notes mindset and mindfulness can help you lead your team. She shares why she recommends leaders practice active listening at work to empower their team. She shares an inspiring story about a non-for-profit executive and how she helped stop micromanaging her team. She provides stimulating responses to questions posed including the differences between a leader exercising the power of their position versus exercising influence. She describes how she empowers her coaching clients blending active listening with probing questions. She shares tips to help leaders to lead their team at home and at work and a story about a client to inspire you.

To stay connected with Jenny, she invites you to connect with her on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram Her LinkedIn profile web address is: https://bit.ly/3soC0dy. The web address or her Facebook profile is: https://www.facebook.com/JennyMCoach. The web address for her Instagram profile is: https://www.instagram.com/jennymcoaching/. To learn more from Jenny Maxwell, her website is the website for this episode. She shares that she has digital downloads on her website that are affordable for those who want to put their toe in the water. She closes with this benevolent Call-to-Action especially for people-pleasers. 1) Instead of giving people unsolicited answers to their problems just listen. 2) Notice how empowering them by listening impacts you.

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Welcome to Embers and Wind!

Guest Samantha Sanders shares a few of her steps toward finding the right fit in tech “Well, my dad was in DevOps, so I've been surrounded by tech pretty much all of my life. We always had the latest technology and just naturally kept up to date. But really, I didn't really know what I wanted to do when I grew up and spent a lot of time in the retail industry, job hopping a lot, especially as a military spouse, moving all the time. And then I got into project management and really kind of fell in love with all the processes and such. But it wasn't all that flexible as much as I had needed. So, I had pivoted to recruiting and I knew that tech was the future. And being surrounded by it my entire life, I could obviously see that and see it growing in front of me as I aged. And so I learned how to speak tech. I even took a Python programming language course, data analytics course, and just kind of fell in love with it. But that aspect wasn't really for me, so I decided to do recruiting for it instead.”

In this episode, Samantha shares why Missionbox Solutions is the right fit in tech. In addition to her father being a veteran with acareer in tech, she states her husband is currently in the Navy, and they are stationed in Japan. She shares that her affinity helping veterans find the right fit in tech aligns with Missionbox Solutions' (a veteran-owned startup) mission to help company’s find the right fit in tech. She asserts the right fit for a candidate is the right fit for the company because candidates who find the right fit will fully engage, stay longer, and advance within the company. She shares this is why her bias to ensure candidates find the right fit aligns with Missionbox Solutions’ mission to help companies find the right fit. She shares many desirable qualities and behaviors veterans possess to help listeners understand why Missionbox Solutions has many veterans who have found the right fit in tech at Missionbox Solutions. She describes her company’s 5-step process for helping a company find the right fit for a position in tech. She confides that because Missionbox Solutions is a startup, they do not yet have stories to share to inspire listeners. She shares many tips to help both listeners and companies find the right fit. Samantha notes that a complimentary newsletter, Tip for Techs, filled with tips to help job candidates find and land the right fit in tech.

If you want to connect with Samantha, she encourages you to connect with her on LinkedIn. The website for Missionbox Solutions is the website for this episode. Her LinkedIn profile is: www.linkedin.com/in/sanderssamc. Companies interested in exploring whether Missionbox Solutions may the right recruitment agency to help their company find the right fit, can reach Samantha by email  at this email address: [email protected]. She closes with these two benevolent Calls-to-Action: 1) She invites job seekers to follow her content. She provides a lot of resources to job seekers, from how to get seen on social media by the job you want, to how to do your resume, to how to do the interviews effectively.  2) For companies, if you're struggling keeping up with your reqs and you need help and you need a new hiring strategy for your IT candidates, contact Samantha. She and her colleagues can help. 

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Welcome to Embers and Wind!

While guest Sarah Dawkins’ new course is still being developed, she was asked to share a story about someone who experienced healing from participating in her first edition “So, one of my friends bought this course, and she’s still working through it. It opened her eyes to things she has to do as a part of her healing process. Like just simple gratitude, expressing gratitude for what we’ve got in life now, helps us to look for more positive things, and it helps to reprogram our mind from looking at more negative things because we need the positives to write down three things every day that you have gratitude for. And it’s always about the little things. So, even if it’s a good cup of coffee or a chat with a friend or a walk in the sunshine, just little things to write down. And she didn’t realize that gratitude would be powerful, a healing process, because most people think of the 50-core when they think of healing; so, eat more green vegetables, do more exercise, and hydrate better. But we need to look at the mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of healing, as well, and dig into those because those are what pull it all together.”

In this episode, Sarah talks about her journey from being a registered nurse for 20 years to becoming a holistic health coach. She shares becoming suicidal from clinical depression. She notes prescription drugs she was previously prescribed treated the symptoms without addressing the underlying thoughts and emotions. She notes taking her dogs for walks outside, breathing fresh air, got her back in touch with nature and helped her begin her healing journey, feeling grateful for being alive. She mentions the multitude of health problems she has healed from and how healing herself ignited her passion to help others heal the source of their health problems. She notes how her training as a holistic health coach helped her heal from emotional scars from being sexually molested as a child.  While she notes her strengths from her experience as a registered nurse include her knowledge of disease and human anatomy, she stresses the importance of a holistic approach, including how past experiences influence beliefs and the emotions people experience presently including those do not see the connection. She talks about her book, Heal Yourself, a compilation of stories written by people who have healed themselves from various diseases and published in multiple languages. She stresses every reader will learn how the authors healed themselves to enable others to follow their footsteps. She shares one of the many inspiring stories written by guest authors that are included in her book; this guest healed herself from Stage 3 cervical cancer.

To stay connected with Sarah, she recommends going to her company’s website, the website listed for this episode. Her email address is [email protected]. The web address for her LinkedIn profile is: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahdawkins/. Other social media web addresses can be found on the website. She wants you to know she will offer a discount when she launches her new course and that she also offers holistic health coaching. Her book is available in 5 languages on Amazon. Additional information can be found on her company’s website.

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Welcome to Embers and Wind!

Guest Tara Gooch shares “The medium sized businesses, well it’s kind of like being, it’s kind of like being in a sense middle class. Right? You have a high class of people that, you know, maybe in that 1% bracket, and then you have medium, you know, income people and then you have lower income level people. And we can all agree, in this economy, it is kind of dangerous to be middle class. A lot of times, they didn’t realize how important it (branding) was whereas larger companies did and already had branding and all of these services kind of baked in, and medium sized businesses didn’t. And they were struggling, and they didn’t know why. And a big part of that is because they lacked presence on social media platforms. And then, watching that business group whose, you know, leaders in that organization, go from not having a business, a really just kind of throwing up spaghetti at the wall approach to social media to having, you know, well developed presence, good personal branding on LinkedIn took their business off and skyrocketed it.”

In this episode, Tara talks about how her education prepared her to focus on helping executives and entrepreneurs build personal brands on Linked by building her confidence and leverage. She shares that she was the first person in her family to earn a college degree. She laughs in confiding that her bachelor’s degree is in environmental biology. She notes, since graduating, she obtained management certification, then in corporate financial management and then an MBA in business analytics. She shares after launching Best Branding Solutions and experiencing significant business growth on LinkedIn noticing that executives in medium-sized companies lacked having a presence on LinkedIn. She describes a LinkedIn profile as being a billboard for personal brands and posts as a means to reinforce your personal brand including who you are and what you do and build relationships. Tara asserts this is a means to retain employees and stimulate interest among prospective customers, potential employees and other stakeholders. She talks about videos as a free means to build relationships. She notes executives and entrepreneurs who are ineffective on camera will build their skill through practicing. She shares inspiring storis about executives, small business owners and entrepreneurs whom she has helped grow their companies’ business by building their personal brand on LinkedIn. She recommends posting daily and identifies an executive who can be viewed as a role model to follow.

To stay in touch with Tara, she recommends reaching out to her by email at [email protected].  She also recommend following her on Linked at https://www.linkedin.com/in/tara-lafon-gooch/. To learn more about her work through Best Branding Solutions,, she recommends going to her company’s website, the link is  listed for this episode.

She closes with a benevolent Call-to-Action to help you build your personal brand on LinkedIn. She asserts your brand needs to be genuine, personalized, and you because people crave authenticity. She shares the pillars of her personal brand include kindness and growth.

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Welcome to Embers and Wind!

In sharing the meditation guest Tal Singh practices and teaches, he reveals his faith in both Sikhism and Christianity: “The meditation technique that they teach is called saas giraas which places the emphasis on the breath, the breathwork. What the gurus taught us, what Guru Nanak taught us, was that we should meditate with every breath. We should be meditating and so that’s the kind of principle behind it. So, the way I teach is actually quite secular approach. So, it’s a spiritual approach rather than being specific to one religion. And actually, believe it or not, I actually follow two religions. I also follow Christianity. I go to the church every Sunday. I am actually baptized as a Christian also by the Church of England, here in the U.K. But I also every Sunday in the morning I go to church and then after church I go to the Sikh Temple or the Gurudwara or the Gurdwara.”

I'm your host, Keith Weedman. In each podcast episode, you will hear stories. These stories will feel like a tender wind blowing on the embers of service that glow within you. In this weekly show, you will learn ideas, kindling for your embers. It will be your choice to utilize the gentle wind to ignite the kindling.

In this episode, Tal Singh shares his inspiring story about how he found his calling and purpose in life. He states his journey began when he became a vegetarian, which he describes as a small step. He talks about giving up his vices one at a time. He talks about feeling lost before he changed his habits, found his faith in Sikhism and in Christianity. He talks about the unhealthy lifestyle he used to live which included alcohol and cigarettes. He states that he has now dedicated his life to teach others how to find mindfulness through meditation. Tal notes he is 2 years into his journey of faith and meditation. He describes. He talks about the energy he feels from changing his diet. He shares research about how mediation increases dopamine which elevates motivation and provides a natural solution to mood disorders without the adverse side effects of pharmaceutical drugs. He talks about how meditation increases growth hormone which provides healthier skin and facilitates building muscle. He shares that meditating also increases serotonin and some of the benefits. He also shares the research findings of Professor Herbert S. Kindler that meditation improved team problem-solving skills and lowered the stress level among team members.   

For listeners who want to connect with Tal, he shares his website. His website is the website listed for this episode. To contact Tal, he recommends using the email address on the website, [email protected]. You can also connect with Tal on LinkedIn at this website address: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tal-singh-soulbrite/. To learn from Tal, he offers group events on Eventbrite. He shares these events on his website and on LinkedIn. For people interested in working one-to-one with Tal, he offers to donate a 15-minute session. He wants human resource leaders to know that he offers meditation training for companies and is open to training trainers to teach meditation to company employees.

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Welcome to Embers and Wind!

Guest Cindy Allen-Stuckey is nudging you to make small, positive shifts in your life when she compares your shift with a 2 degree shift: “So, I want you to think of an ocean liner, and they need to make change just 2 degrees. So, they need to shift 2 degrees. To begin with, that’s a very tiny movement. So, I want to think about shift being action. It’s a movement. But the further along that they go with that 2-degree shift, it’s a big movement away from where they were going. My definition of shift is conscious movement away from disappointing aspects of your life. So, you can walk them through life enhancing experiences and feelings that really do serve your highest being.”

I'm your host, Keith Weedman. In each podcast episode, you will hear stories. These stories will feel like a tender wind blowing on the embers of service that glow within you. In this weekly show, you will learn ideas, kindling for your embers. It will be your choice to utilize the gentle wind to ignite the kindling.

In this episode, guest Cindy Allen-Stuckey takes listeners on a journey through her book, The Shift Café – How to STEP into the POWER of your POTENTIAL. She shares about her early childhood trauma, why this resulted in Cindy holding an unfair grudge against her dad, and how something in her dad’s wallet stimulated Cindy to shift from a closed mindset to an open mindset after her dad’s death. She captivates listeners attention as she tells this story. She talks candidly about being born with a heart defect in the 1950s and her heart surgery to correct the problem when heart surgery did not typically have good outcomes for patients. Cindy asserts most people never step into the power of their potential. She wrote the book to help people who want more in life to step into their potential.  Cindy notes that under the direction of her editor, she convened a group of women to read her book and give her candid feedback for process improvement. She shares they became so engaged in reading the book and completing the exercises to glean maximum value for themselves that they did not give as much feedback for process improvement as she hoped for. They did help Cindy confirm that they get more value out of the book when they read it as a group when Cindy or someone trained leads the group through the exercises in the book. Cindy states that she has now led two groups of women and that six of them are interested in being licensed as trainers. She states that she is establishing a licensing process for people interested in becoming licensed trainers to help people step into the power of their potential. Cindy states the first step for someone who may be interested in being licensed as a trainer is to send Cindy an email at [email protected].

For listeners who want to stay connected to Cindy, she shares her website which is the website listed for this episode. She has a Facebook page for her book which can be found at this website address: https://www.facebook.com/TheShiftCafewithCindy. Her LinkedIn profile can be found at this website address: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cindyallenstuckey/. For listeners who want to learn from Cindy beyond reading her book, she shares that she plans to lead at least 4 groups each year through one chapter each week for 12 weeks as they read her book over the course of the next year. For people who do not want to work in a group, Cindy would be open to coaching them one-to-one. Contact Cindy at the email address above for group training or one-to-one coaching.

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