Welcome to Embers and Wind!

While most people remember where they were on 9/11, Guest Mark Pillar recounts his vivid memory being engaged in a Strategic Command simulated exercise, under the direction of Admiral Mies, when Admiral Mies canceled the exercise to respond to the attack on the World Trade Center: “Being a pilot, I mean there’s not a cloud in the sky. And so you’d think that maybe… Certainly air traffic control would not have vectored this airplane into the tower. Probably the guy had a heart attack or something like that and hit it inadvertently. And at the time we didn’t know what kind of airplane it was. We thought it was maybe a private airplane, a small Cessna or something like that. And so as we were watching the first tower burn, we saw the second airplane which obviously was a commercial jetliner, we saw that go right into the building and the fire shoot out the other end. And that changed everything. And Admiral Mies turned and said ‘That’s no accident! We’re under attack. Send a message, messages out to cancel the exercise, and we’ll go into real world operations.’”

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, Mark Pillar shares his first passion was service to his country which he fulfilled by staying with the Air Force and then the Air Force Reserves long after his ROTC commitment was fulfilled. He talks about his work ethic and his willingness to step beyond his comfort zone resulted in him earning promotions “two levels above my competency.” In response to a direct question, he humbly acknowledges retiring as a Two Star Major General. He shares his experience on 9/11 and how he was engaged in a simulated exercise in the Strategic Command Center when the World Trade Center was struck. He references President Bush’s landing in their midst during the first day of the crisis. He shares how the U.S. Military responded to this attack including to the multiple subsequent threats made against the United States. He talks about how he transitioned from full-time with the Air Force to the Air Force Reserves which enabled him to work full-time for Delta Airlines. He notes while their children were growing up, he limited his engagement to their children’s activities and their church as he balanced two careers and traveling for days at a time. He states his retirement from Delta Airlines and the Air Force Reserves allowed him more time to get engaged in Columbus, Indiana where he lives. He shares that his passion for service before self, his military commitment, pulled him into Rotary. He talks about his passion for the Philharmonic and shares his pride for Rotary when 75% of the board members for the Philharmonic were Rotarians, an example of service before self.

To connect with Mark Pillar, his email address is: [email protected]. His cell phone number is: 317-514-7323. He welcomes the opportunity to provide his 9/11 briefing to your organization. He will donate his time. He has no company website. He closes with an invitation for you to accept this benevolent Call-to-Action: “Figure out what your passion is. Not everything can be your passion. But you can serve, you can serve others and heaven knows there’s enough need out there…. You don’t have to lead all of them, but you can participate, and you can help.”

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Embers and Wind!

Guest Bob Lewis talks about how he teaches leaders to utilize behavioral interviewing to help them hire and retain top talent: “I tell people that you can have measurable stuff in behavioral just as skill. But you really have to have strong data to support those behaviors. Just like the question of ‘Are you a good listener?’ how can you tell? The predictive answer is that a good listener talks about other people. A non-predictive answer which is kind of a term that they said they talked about themselves. In that answer, I didn’t get a measurement that they have communication skills. But if I give them a predictive answer, meaning that they have the answer to that question meaning they talked about other folks, then I’m going to ask them several questions around communication. I’m just not going to ask one in isolation. I actually usually ask five questions for communication, and they have to get 3 out of the 5 right to say ‘You know what, I think they’re a good communicator.’ All too often, we ask one question, and then we go around the table and they say ‘Who did you like?’ And they hire that person on who they liked and not the actual data from the interview.”

In this episode, Bob Lewis shares many tips leaders can utilize to both hire and retain talent. He notes past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. He encourages leaders to ask their top performers how they would answer a question they intend to utilize in their job interviews and then compare candidates’ answers with top performers'. He draws a distinction between behavioral interviewing and selection and talent interviewing and shares how he utilizes both to hire and retain talent. He shares how he utilizes the data from the job interviews of new employees to give to new employees in the first 30-seconds as a written document and in the verbal overview he subsequently provides. He talks about strengths and StrengthsFinder from Gallup and how much he values what he learned from StrengthsFinder. He states, based upon his own experience, that people can significantly build their strengths while make only minimal improvement on their gaps. He talks about how he utilizes data from new employees’ job interviews to set goals that build on their strengths and manage the gaps they want to manage. He shares inspiring stories from his work that illustrate how he utilizes the ideas he shares. He notes that he sees his leadership role as being a guide to employee success which facilitates employee learning and engagement. He notes that he utilizes Neuro-linguistic Programming and all three learning styles (visual, auditory, and kinesthetic) in his work.He shares the importance of utilizing the learning style of each employee he leads and being respectful of them and what they say they prefer. He shares as an example that some employees like being praised in front of others while others prefer a private setting. He talks about stay interviews, why some of your top talent stays, and how a leader can learn from them.

Bob Lewis’s company website is the website for this episode. To connect with Bob on LinkedIn, he invites you to click on this link to his LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bob-lewis-ms-phr-7a52a45/ He offers his email address: [email protected] and his phone number, 512-740-0889 as other ways to connect with him. To learn from Bob, he invites you to ask him questions by phone, text message, or email. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Embers and Wind!

Guest Lori Phillips states “Through a God wink, a God signal to us, he reconnected us back in 2015. Through just serendipity, we were brought back together and at the time both of us were living pretty miserable lives. Even though you know you don’t show that to people, you aren’t forthcoming with that with people because you’re a little ashamed. Through our reconnection, we were able to go to a women’s retreat. And all we knew was that it was women that we didn’t know coming together, and it was something about positivity. The hand of God, we were placed together in that retreat.

Guest Tonya Hendley added “So we didn’t know what we were getting into. We came together and started learning in this two or three days so much information that there was a different way to live, and that we could create and live how we wanted to. And so I think that it was really empowering to know that life was not happening to us. We were happening to life, and we were allowing life to run us instead of the other way around. And so, I think that we just after that retreat really sat back and said ‘OK, we don’t want to live like this anymore.’”

In this episode, Lori and Tonya talk about being roommates in college and then losing touch with one another. They share their journey learning about positivity after being reconnected with one another. They tell how they started The Positive Vibe Tribe, a Facebook group to help their friends and one another feed their mind positivity because there was so much in spite of all the negativity on their social media feeds. They share how they opened the doors to meet the needs of other people to find more positivity and how their Facebook group has grown to serve 26.9K people. They talk about the Success Principles they learned from their training to become Jack Canfield certified trainers. (Jack Canfield is the author of many books including the Chicken Soup for the Soul series.) One of the Success Principles that they focused on was to take 100% responsibility for your life. Lori and Tonya also learned and now teach people to choose their response instead of react. They share how they became published authors in the bestselling book Permission Granted where twenty women share their inspiring stories about how they gave themselves permission. They describe themselves as the biggest cheerleader for one another. They also hold one another accountable. They talk about their business, Higher Navigation and how it naturally evolved. As they deepened their knowledge and experience with positivity, meditation and healing, people started asking them to provide training and keynote speeches.  

To connect with Lori and Tonya, their company’s website is listed as the website for this episode. Their Positive Vibe Tribe Facebook group can be accessed by clicking on this link:https://www.facebook.com/groups/206626039828963 To learn from Lori and Tonya, they invite you to subscribe to their podcast as a great place to start. Here is the link to their podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/finding-your-way-with-lori-and-tonya/id1565893281.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Embers and Wind!

Guest Richard Villasana states “My empathy for Latino children in foster care came from the fact that they are undeserved in the foster care industry. I have a particular draw to them because of my background which involves doing international business in Latin America, and also, being Latino myself and the fact that these children have special challenges in the foster care system. The foster care system really is not prepared to deal with these children. Because of that lack of resources and education, I feel that these children are being undeserved.”

 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, Richard shares that he grew up In Texas in a household with nine children and loving parents. He shares how he became a champion for Latino children who are in foster care in the United States. He talks about the language barrier and the cultural barrier. He asserts the reason that there are not enough Latino foster parents who speak Spanish is due to cultural differences. He shares stories of children and teenagers who were placed in the home of family and the essential role Forever Homes for Foster Kids plays in helping child protection agencies find family members living in the United States and in other countries. He shares the joy he experiences each time Forever Homes for Foster Kids finds a permanent family relative home for a foster child. He talks about the professional sales training he has received and how that helps him with fundraising and collaborating to help more foster children. He shares his own positive experience utilizing Facebook for fundraising to financially support their not-for-profit organization. He notes Facebook started helping not-for-profit organizations with fundraising three years ago and how that change has “transformed” his agency. He confirms that Forever Homes for Foster Children is helping the federal government reunite children with their parents who had previously been separated by the federal government at the border between Mexico and the United States in accordance with the federal government’s family separation policy. He talks about the book he has already written and is publishing about the effect of this family separation policy on parents and children who were separated. His book includes stories of children who were separated from their parents and placed into foster care that Forever Homes for Foster Kids has helped locate parents and relatives for reunification. His book also projects the long-term effect of this policy upon the United States. 

Forever Homes for Foster Kids website is listed as the website for this episode. To connect with Richard, Richard invites you to visit the Forever Homes for Foster Kids Facebook page by clicking on this link: https://www.facebook.com/FAMILYFINDINGMX. Richard states that the best way to help Forever Homes for Foster Kids fulfill their mission is by providing financial support through their website or their Facebook group. He closes with a benevolent Call-to-Action inviting you to share a post from Forever Homes for Foster Kids Facebook page to help educate more people about the needs of foster children. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Embers and Wind!

Guest Paul Glover states “I’m an acquired taste. Only about 20% of those leaders who come to me through referrals actually become clients. Most of the time my approach, by the way I bill myself as the no BS workplace performance coach because I really believe that it is difficult to change. And when leaders come to a coach, they’re looking to improve, to get better, to change. But it’s a hard process and harder than most leaders expect. And I tell everyone that the most difficult person to coach is a person who’s successful. They go ‘You want me to do what and it's going to hurt? Well I’m not so sure that I want to do that. ’ Well that requires commitment. So when I engage in a coaching relationship, there has to be commitment on both sides. I expect the person who I’m going to be coaching to commit to the process. But I also believe that I need to commit, not just my time. So I decided that the way I approach coaching is that my compensation is based on results.”

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, Paul Glover shares his mistakes that landed him in federal prison. He recounts how his hubris resulted in him spending 18 more months in prison. He talks about his journey to own responsibility for his past criminal acts and how it began while incarcerated with time to reflect on his past actions. He shares how coaches helped him to see his blind spots and asserts every leader ought to have a coach, someone to help them see their blind spots. He talks about his choices after being discharged from federal prison. He shares how easy it would have been to let his to leave his criminal acts as his legacy. He owns that his past criminal behavior closed the door on his law career. He explains why he chose to become a coach to utilize his strengths as a persuasive communicator to help small business owners and their leadership teams build persuasive communications skills.  He talks about  antifragility, the ability to use adversity to leap forward, that he discovered in his own journey and how he helps small business owners to use adversity to leap forward. He shares his 3 blind spots that were involved in his criminal acts which led him to prison: the need to belong, the need for approval and hubris. He stresses the importance of employee engagement and the book he wrote ten years ago, Workquake that he is pleased with now because he believes business leaders are ready, thanks to the tsunami of employee resignations, to confront the need to engage employees, a step toward employee ownership he wrote about in his book. 

To connect with Paul, his company's website is the website listed for this episode. You can reach Paul by email:  [email protected]. You can connect with Paul on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulglovercoaching/.

To learn more from Paul, he offers a complimentary coaching session which enables you the opportunity to assess whether his style is a good fit. He also publishes articles on LinkedIn and Forbes. His book, WorkQuake, is available at book stores.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Embers and Wind!

Keith Weedman states “May you and your family be blessed during the holidays. May some of these blessings extend to every day of every year.  Whether you are a Christian, have a different faith or consider yourself to be an agnostic or an atheist, you can experience these benefits each and every day of every year. These benefits are two positive emotions many associate with the giving and receiving of gifts with people they love. They are joy in giving and gratitude in receiving. These emotions are entwined with one another. The more gratitude you feel and express in receiving a gift from someone you love, the more joy the giver feels in giving this gift to you. The reason you want to experience these positive emotions every day of every year is both emotions elevate performance. They do not just elevate performance; they also elevate engagement.”

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 that many people experience joy in giving and gratitude in receiving Christmas presents with people they love. He notes these positive emotions elevate engagement and performance. These are the benefits he invites you to experience each and every day of every year. He talks about his Toastmaster mentor Jason Carr and how he helped Keith build his public speaking skills. He shares his desire for more people to benefit from Toastmasters.  He talks about the Bartholomew County Works Program (BCW) and the faith Keith has in Jason Carr and Dr. Felipe Martinez (Keith’s pastor) to teach Keith’s curriculum to BCW participants. He shares some of the feedback Dr Martinez received from teaching these training modules earlier this month.  Keith also shares stories to inspire you. He closes with an invites you to express your gratitude to people you love for their Christmas gift to you on Christmas and then express gratitude for the next two weeks for one person you work with each workday.

The website link for this episode is Keith’s company. To connect with Keith, his email address is [email protected]. His cell phone number is 812-343-2697. His LinkedIn profile is: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keith-weedman-34335051/. Keith enjoys getting to know people on Zoom, learning about their work including their successes and challenges. If you are interested in learning from Keith, he offers a complimentary 30-minute, one-to-one leadership training utilizing Zoom for you to learn ideas you can immediately apply to generate benefits from your benevolent action. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Embers and Wind!

Reflecting why he chose this title for this episode, guest Steven English states: “Stepping past the comfortable and the familiar, so many people, including myself, we live in that comfortable and familiar. And when I look back on the last three years, yeah three years, three years and a month, something like that. It actually goes even further back now that I think about it. There were a lot of steps where I was stepping past the comfortable and the familiar. As the end of my biography introduction goes, my background is in science. I was a product and process control engineer, product quality and reliability engineer, reliability engineer, all of that in the semiconductor industry for all those years. And what would have been the default would have been to just stick around in it and not allow myself to express what I really, really felt was the gift that I was given. That’s why I chose that is I feel like if we could have a conversation that’s going to serve somebody, I feel that I want to make that the cornerstone because I know there’s so many people out there who have talents and passions and characteristics that are just not expressed because they are stuck in the comfortable and the familiar.”

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, Steven talks about some of the challenges he has confronted in his own life. He shares he was once an introvert and how Toastmasters helped him find his own voice. He tells how, over the past several years, he kept finding himself stepping past the comfortable and the familiar to utilize his gift and unleash his passion. He shares his belief that introverts can change the world if they choose to step past the comfortable and familiar and invest in themselves. He talks about his personal problem with alcohol. He confides how abusing alcohol led to two arrests and spending time in a jail cell. He shares stories about professionals he has helped change their lives including those who choose to set aside alcohol. He notes that he typically helps his clients address other challenges before they share about their desire to set aside the bottle. He talks about his philosophy to help a professional who chooses to resolve their problem with alcohol in a way that aligns with their beliefs and values. He talks about his TEDx Talk and his willingness to be vulnerable to serve others. By joining this conversation, you may see what this podcast host sees, that Steven’s has the passion and the skill to help professionals unleash theirs.

To connect with Steven on LinkedIn or Facebook, please click on this LinkTree link:https://linktr.ee/stevenenglish512. His company's website is listed as the website for this episode. To learn more from Steven, he has blogs on his company website, vlogs (video blogs) on LinkedIn and Facebook. He also has a link to his TEDx Talk through the LinkTree link. He offers a complimentary 15-minute coaching session that can be accessed from his company's website.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Embers and Wind!

Guest Julie D’Ann states, “Honestly, I have to say, I feel like my entire life has prepared me to come to this moment. I remember when I was growing up always just wondering ‘How do you figure out what you want to do in this life?’ There’s just so much, and there were so many places I wanted to go. I just couldn’t figure out anything. I just wanted to experience things. And now that I look back on my life, I realize that all of those experiences were preparing me for this moment, to come to the realization of my true purpose in life. And finding that purpose is why we’re all here. You have to go through life and experience life to figure out what it is that you want and you don’t want and then you discover your purpose. And my purpose I believe is guiding others, specifically children, to figuring out that there is a process to discovering your true nature and purpose in life. And so it is amazing and it’s a wonderful feeling to have finally arrived. And now being able to share this with the world is so empowering, and it gives you a sense of confidence and resentment? and resolve unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before.”

In this episode, guest Julie D’Ann shares how her experiences in meditation, yoga, law of attraction prepared her to fulfill her mission helping children become resilient. She tells how meditation inspired her to create a program for children that blends movement with breathwork with directing her mind and what she learned from the law of attraction. She explains what she means by empowerment. She shares stories to inspire parents and teachers. Julie shares her vision for what self-empowered children will achieve with teachers and parents as her partners in helping children be resilient. She references teachers and parents as role models for children and motivates them to be positive role models. She asserts everyone has a purpose in life. It is up to each person to discover theirs for themselves. She shares tips and tricks you can utilize to discover your purpose. She talks about what she learned from law of attraction, that thoughts are electricity and feelings are magnets. Her message is uplifting. You  can feel Julie’s pull to take action to discover your purpose. She closes with an invitation to act.

To connect with Julie, she invites you to send her an email or call her. Her email address is [email protected]. Her telephone number is 865-773-7787. Her free Facebook group is the website link for this episode. Her personal Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100014005230828.

To learn more from Julie, please reach out by email or by phone. Please consider yourself welcome to join her free Facebook group where she shares videos, stories and other things. She would be pleased to share resources she created to help children. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Embers and Wind!

Guest Karen Gibson states “A lot of parents don’t see the need for a parent coach. For tutoring, I made the most when the economy was at its worst because parents will do anything for their children. But they don’t realize when you invest in themselves as a parent, and when you become a better parent, guess what? Your children will benefit from your parenting skills because if you parent the way that you were parented… I mean a lot of parents say ‘I turned out fine.’ But you know how we talked about unawareness. How do you really know that what you’re teaching your child will build resilience? If you’re frustrated with your child. That means when you find yourself saying ‘Why can’t they be more responsible? Why aren’t they listening? What am I doing that’s wrong? It really does take, like you said, parent resilience. Yeah, that’s actually a good course, Parents Resilience Training because we don’t realize that the way we speak to our children can cause childhood trauma. The way we speak to our children can build their self-confidence or destroy their self-confidence.”  

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, Karen talks about her career transitions from special education teacher to student tutor to parent coach. She shares how as a tutor she found herself being a resource for parents. She talks about how in the process of becoming a certified life coach, she decided to learn Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) to be more effective coaching her parents. She explains what NLP is and what mindset means. She shares why she needed her daughters’ permission to publish her first book. She shares that she published her second book, 100 Parenting TipsShe shares inspiring stories about how she has helped parents through her coaching and students through her tutoring. She

To connect with Karen, her company’s website is the website for this episode. You can also susbscribe to her YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMVnelNweEg1_OCp51_aXRQ  She can be found on Instagram by clicking on this link: https://www.instagram.com/lettinggowithaloha/. She can be found on Facebook by clicking on this link: https://www.facebook.com/karen.k.gibson. You can also reach Karen by email: [email protected]..

To learn from Karen, she has two videos from her parenting summit on her YouTube channel. She has two published books available on Amazon. Momma’s Got to Let Go: How to Let Go without Losing Your Sanity: https://amzn.to/2ZHqfnW; One Hundred Parenting Tips Inspired by the Pandemic: https://amzn.to/32EGVgN;   She also provides one-to-one coaching for parents. Her first coaching session is a complimentary session.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Embers and Wind!

Keith Weedman states “Because my passion is benevolent leadership, I found myself captivated by the possibility that a leader can generate and accentuate their feeling of gratitude within themselves and elevate their own engagement and performance while also expressing gratitude for someone they lead and elevating theirs too. For those who know me well, you know that everything you learn from me is relevant in both personal and professional relationships.”

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 shares how reading High Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard influenced him to explore the benefits of expressing gratitude. Because Thanksgiving is this week, Keith draws a correlation between feeling thankful and feeling grateful. He shares how the pilgrims on November 25, 1621 celebrated Thanksgiving with the Wampanoag Indians. He notes how in 1621 the pilgrims felt thankful for being alive after losing more than 50% of their fellow pilgrims during their first harsh winter. He then compares how many people take for granted today their life, life amenities and people they love. The emphasis of this episode is to ensure you feel and express your thankfulness for people you love.  you may want to contemplate whether Keith draws parallels between feeling thankful for people you love with feeling for people you lead. If you believe you have been taking people you love for granted, Keith invites you to express your thankfulness for them to them this Thanksgiving.

To connect with Keith, you can reach him by cell phone at 812-343-2697 or by email, [email protected]. His company’s website is listed as the website for this episode. He prefers to connect with people on LinkedIn. His LinkedIn profile is: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keith-weedman-34335051/. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.