Plenty For Everyone

In our latest episode, we consider the winter solstice, its meaning, and its relevance to our busy, often hectic lives. Does the solstice have a place in our technologically sophisticated world? And particularly, in business?

For thousands of years, humans have practiced tuning into the rhythms and cycles of nature. The winter solstice – which occurs around December 21st – is in many ways the best example of this connection to the natural world. The shortest day and longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, the winter solstice marks the beginning of winter and has been celebrated by cultures throughout history.

In ancient times, the winter solstice was seen as a time of rebirth and renewal, as the days would begin to get longer after the solstice. Many cultures held celebrations and rituals to mark the occasion. The ancient Romans, the ancient Egyptians, the Native American Hopi tribe, and the Chinese all celebrated the solstice with major festivals of gift-giving, gratitude, and celebration.

 

Moments like the winter solstice invite us to create space for ourselves, our thoughts, our dreams, and our relationships. It's a powerful time to pause, reflect, and contemplate what we’ve accomplished the past year, what we’ve outgrown, and what we want to manifest for the year ahead. It’s a sacred time that can help us evolve into the conscious leaders we seek to be.

As such, it's a great opportunity for executives, managers, parents, and leaders of all kinds to tune in, too. The modern holiday season all-too-often becomes a time to speed up, do more, and spend more. The solstice reminds us that we’re connected to each other and to forces greater than ourselves. We can take a moment to get off the hamster wheel and stop. We can take refuge in the belly of darkness on the longest night of the year. That refuge helps us become more aware, aligned, and intentional with our lives. 

The solstice is a day of hope. As we experience the darkest night of the year, we can trust and know that the lightest days are ahead.

In this episode, we expand on what the winter solstice is, why it is important to us, and how it connects to leaders in business.

It's that time of year when our kids are back in school hitting the books - and, so are we. We're excited to announce that we finished the first manuscript of our first book! It's been on our vision board for years, both individually and together. This summer, we finally brought this dream to ground.

We have a different kind of episode for you today! We were invited to be interviewed by three students who are studying to obtain their Masters degrees in Strategic Leadership Towards Sustainability from the Brighton Institute of Technology in the southern part of Sweden.

It’s a thoughtful and wonderfully stimulating conversation about how we model nature with our work. We believe nature plays a role in leadership and how we coach executives, managers, entrepreneurs and conscious leaders from all over the world.

How do you unlock abundance in work and life to really make a difference with your craft?

 

We've worked with our friends at Beam Suntory on various social purpose strategies and activations for nearly five years, and to be a part of what they've created at their factory and campus is truly special. Four years ago the James B. Beam Distilling company campus was just a set of drawings – now it's a showpiece to both Beam's legacy and their dreams for the future. To say the campus is an upgrade to their prior facility is a major understatement –  beautiful, rustic, accessible, friendly, and hard-working, this is the foundation of the Bourbon Trail and absolutely a must-visit stop.

 

And, we had the privilege and honor to be part of a guest list to celebrate the opening of the renovated campus! We witnessed firsthand the passing of the torch to Freddie Noe as Beam's 8th Generation Master Distiller and our friend and Beam Senior Director Tom Bufalino be recognized for the major part he played in making this vision a reality.  

 

As part of their work, Beam has already donated over $5,000,000 to the future of bourbon through the Beam Institute for Kentucky Spirits at UK. We are captivated by their progress, success, and are proud to have been a part of it.

How do you know when you know?

How do you listen for that knowing?

And when do you know when to take action?

 

In today’s episode, we share our own experiences with listening, knowing, and taking action when it comes to practicing conscious parenting. You’ll hear Jennifer's reflections of her son's healing journey with an update of Riley's accomplishments and Jeff's witness of his son's growth. Throughout the sharing, we hope you'll be personally inspired to have more hope and faith on your own path as you listen more acutely to the quiet whispers of intuition and knowing that land for you.

This past June, we had the opportunity to unpack what it looks like to be human - as a mother, father, wife, husband, partner, coach - and in many of the roles we play. The roles are not always easy, and sometimes a bit messy - but that's all part of the human journey. 

 

In the episode of Plenty For Everyone, we are joined by life coach and dear friend, Marta Brummel. Marta works closely with families and parents to help them “human”. We love hearing this word used in this way as it grants permission to ride the waves of life more gracefully.  We also explore our shared belief and approach of aligning head and heart into everything we do - it might just be the missing ingredient to living your best life.

Tune in as we are joined by dear friend, coach, and executive David Berry of MUNICIPAL. Together we explore the opportunity we each have to courageously practice being human – from striving to be better to knowing we are enough. And, how showing up in our own authentic way creates flow, inspiring the best in ourselves and the best in others.

In today's episode we share a keynote we recently delivered to about 2,000 executives as part of the Responsive Nonprofit Summit, presented by our good friends over at Virtuous. They gave us a remarkable amount of freedom in choosing our topic, and we jumped at the chance to talk about what we perceive to be a growing misuse of the word "resilience." In our view, it's in danger of being co-opted to mean "just deal with it." But resilience really means something far deeper and more profound.

We’ve all lived through a year that has challenged us like never before. For nonprofit professionals, 2020 tipped the scales on a sector that already had trouble taking care of the wellbeing of its members. We all deserve — and need — more. Tune in as we explore moving beyond the myth of the professional life and personal life to surrender into a new definition of wellbeing grounded in the innate health we all share.

What does it feel like to live your purpose? What does it mean, as Jennifer likes to say, to "live on blueprint"? And how do we know if we're on track or off track?

Today we are joined by Sarah Coniglio, the founder and Chief Social Impact Photographer of Project WonderFULL. Sarah took the leap to follow her dreams and leave her full-time job to start her own company committed to documenting the good in this world through photography.

It’s a wonderful conversation that will leave you energized to pursue your passions — and inspired to notice the beauty all around us.

What is purpose, really? And, how do we find it? In this episode, we talk with two of our treasured clients, Elizabeth Carey and Derek Allen of Starr Commonwealth, about finding purpose – and using that purpose as an anchor for your organization in turbulent times. It's a wonderful conversation for anyone working in a purpose-driven business – or working to create one.