Reignite Resilience

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Business resilience starts with accepting hard times will arrive, and Bill Derrick learned this the hard way. In Part 1 of this Reignite Resilience conversation, hosts Natalie Davis and Pamela Cass talk with Bill, a business leader, author, coach, and public speaker, about leading his family construction and land development business through the Great Recession. Bill wrote Restored by the Storm about this period and the cancer diagnosis soon after.

Before the recession, Bill believed life was under his control. Around 2006 he sat through a sermon on the three stages of a storm, the time before, the time during, and the time after, and felt glad he would never face one. Then the recession reached his industry. Banks closed across the country. Lenders who once courted his business asked how he planned to repay them. Bill expected a short downturn, and the recession lasted for his companies from 2007 until about 2012.

Bill shares what carried him through five hard years. His faith grew stronger, he read and prayed, and two conversations changed how he approached each day. A financial advisor asked him to name the worst outcome, then work every day to improve on it. A friend suggested he quit and let the banks foreclose, and Bill answered right away that quitting was not an option. He also explains why he began asking bankers for creative payment options, and why admitting you do not have every answer leads to help from other people.

Natalie and Pam add practical tools for anyone facing a crisis at work or at home. They discuss sitting with the worst case for a short time, then moving to action. Bill offers a second question, what is the best outcome, and Pam adds a third, what is the most likely outcome. Bill returns often to the two things you always control, your attitude and your effort.

In This Episode:

• How Bill led a family construction business through the Great Recession from 2007 to 2012
• Why a financial advisor’s question about the worst outcome changed Bill’s daily work
• Why “quitting is not an option” became Bill’s rule under financial pressure
• How to ask for help, and why leaders do not need every answer
• Three questions to ask before a hard decision: worst, best, and most likely
• Why attitude and effort stay in your control during any crisis

Part 2 continues with Bill’s multiple myeloma diagnosis, his stem cell transplant, and his plan to hand the family business to its next leaders.

Listen to Reignite Resilience: https://reigniteresilience.buzzsprout.com
Connect with Bill Derrick

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Disclaimer: The information provided in this podcast is for general informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The co-hosts of this podcast are not medical professionals. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on this podcast. Reliance on any information provided by the podcast hosts or guests is solely at your own risk.

Pamela Cass is a licensed broker with Kentwood Real Estate
Natalie Davis is a licensed ...

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Regenerative education gives teachers a way to shape the systems they work in, and Kirsten Bolton explains how in Part 2 of this Reignite Resilience conversation with hosts Natalie Davis and Pamela Cass. Kirsten, founder of the Grove Educational Council, describes how schools and workplaces get better results when the people closest to the work help guide decisions.

Kirsten starts with why schools need new approaches. Over the past five years, she has watched children’s needs shift before, during, and after COVID. Teachers now teach skills once seen as basic, including social emotional skills and executive functioning such as planning time, organizing work, and finishing a task. She explains regenerative systems, an idea drawn from permaculture, where feedback from inside a structure flows back in to inform what happens next. In a classroom, teachers act as the experts on their students and need systems for sharing feedback and shaping curriculum.

Natalie and Pam connect the model to the workplace, where leaders often feel isolated and left to carry every problem and every solution. Kirsten describes what she saw while researching schools and organizations. The best results came from clear agreements in policy and procedure, flexibility, and warmth between people. Administrators who advocate for their staff create room for risk taking and honest feedback.

Kirsten also explains the difference between a safe space and a brave space. Risk taking and innovation feel vulnerable, so she works to build spaces where people lead with humility, curiosity, and openness to differing views. Nobody holds a brave space for others without doing personal inner work, including noticing triggers and past experiences. Natalie shares a question she now asks when a strong reaction rises: is this me today, or the 10 year old version of me? Kirsten recommends simple habits to make room for reflection, such as a set place for keys, a glass of water each morning, and a walk outside. Fewer small decisions leave more energy for higher value work.

Kirsten also shares what she wants to build next, including a book and a TEDx talk, and how schools and organizations connect with the Grove Educational Council for coaching, mentoring, mindfulness and breath work, and team building. Her goal is to work with people who keep her growing.

In This Episode:

• What regenerative education is and how it applies to schools and workplaces
• Why teachers need systems for giving feedback and shaping curriculum
• The difference between a safe space and a brave space
• How inner work prepares a leader to hold space for a team
• Simple daily habits that free up energy for higher value work

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Disclaimer: The information provided in this podcast is for general informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The co-hosts of this podcast are not medical professionals. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on this podcast. Reliance on any information provided by the podcast hosts or guests is solely at your own risk.

Pamela Cass is a licensed broker with Kentwood Real Estate
Natalie Davis is a licensed ...

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Resilience after domestic violence grows from daily rhythm, and Kirsten Bolton explains how she built hers. In Part 1 of this Reignite Resilience conversation, hosts Natalie Davis and Pamela Cass talk with Kirsten, an educator, mentor, and coach with more than 20 years of experience working with children, teachers, and school communities. Kirsten shares how she left an unsafe situation with a newborn and rebuilt a stable home for her daughter.

Kirsten tells her story during Domestic Violence Awareness Month. She returned to the United States after living in Ecuador, became pregnant, and found herself in an unsafe situation. When her daughter was two weeks old, Kirsten left under a 24 hour restraining order, which gave her one day to move out of her home. Her family and a few trusted people helped her through the first days, and she made a clear choice about how to spend the months ahead.

Kirsten describes the practices she relied on. She wore her baby, gave herself the first eight months to focus on being a mother, and stayed in a camper at her parents’ house to find a steady pace. She returned to lessons from her grandmothers, starting with getting up each day and doing the dishes. Daily rhythm grew into weekly, monthly, and yearly traditions, which gave her daughter stability and gave Kirsten steady ground. She describes resilience as an organic process built on relationship and care, a view shaped in part by gardening.

Natalie, Pam, and Kirsten talk through how to start from internal needs instead of external to-do lists, how to receive, rest, and then take initiative, and how this approach teaches a child self awareness. Kirsten’s teenage daughter now tells her when she skipped a meal and feels hangry. The three also discuss the masculine and feminine sides everyone carries, the ability to initiate and the ability to receive, and how embracing rest and wisdom with age supports resilience.

Kirsten also introduces her work in education. She chairs the group that develops curriculum and mentors teachers at her school, holds a master’s degree in transdisciplinary studies and healing education and research, and founded the Grove Educational Council. She explains why the expertise of teachers often stays hidden in a culture built on power and hierarchy.

In This Episode:

• How to rebuild stability after leaving domestic violence with a newborn
• Why daily rhythm builds resilience for parents and children
• How daily routines grow into weekly, monthly, and yearly traditions
• How to balance taking initiative with rest and receiving
• How routine helps a child develop self awareness

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Meaningful Success: How Clarity and Alignment Drive Real Achievement

The Quiet Gift: A Journey of Self Worth and Resilience

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Disclaimer: The information provided in this podcast is for general informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The co-hosts of this podcast are not medical professionals. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on this podcast. Reliance on any information provided by the podcast hosts or guests is solely at your own risk.

Pamela Cass is a licensed broker with Kentwood Real Estate
Natalie Davis is a licensed ...

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Gen X childhood fears shaped a generation of adults who scan every street, study every van, and remember every license plate. In Part 2 of this Reignite Resilience episode, co-hosts Natalie Davis and Pamela Cass unpack the warnings they grew up with and the situational awareness those warnings built.

Pam found a TikTok listing the reasons Gen X needs therapy: the white van, needles in Halloween candy, missing children on milk cartons, stop drop and roll, the War on Drugs, a pop-up clown toy, and the game Operation. Natalie adds quicksand, a fear from TV shows she never expected to face.

Then the fears turned real. Natalie's partner sank to his calf in quicksand while fishing alone with no cell service. He returned weeks later and stepped into the same spot. Natalie's ex-husband bit into a mini candy bar and found a push pin inside. Her oldest daughter almost climbed into an unmarked white van while traveling through Asia. Her now husband stopped her.

Awareness paid off for Pam. From her front porch, she watched a truck roll slowly down her street. Moments later, a woman lay in the road screaming, and the driver pulled her into the truck and drove off. Pam recorded video, photographed the license plate, and gave police a full description. Neighbors who saw the same scene had no details to offer.

In this episode, you will learn:

• The Gen X childhood fears still shaping how adults move through the world
• Real stories behind the white van, quicksand, and candy tampering warnings
• How situational awareness helped Pam report a street incident to police
• Why younger generations with earbuds and phones miss what happens around them
• How Natalie protected a friend on a Chicago street
• Why talking through childhood fears helps you process and move on

The hosts also revisit the child catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Unsolved Mysteries, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th, and a prank from Pam's ex-husband's best friend involving a fake car breakdown on a dark country road.

If you grew up between 1965 and 1980, this episode will feel familiar. The hosts' advice: talk through your childhood fears, let them out, and keep moving. And watch for vans, quicksand, and needles in your candy.

Reignite Live 2027 takes place January 22, 2027, in Loveland, Colorado.

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Meaningful Success: How Clarity and Alignment Drive Real Achievement

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Disclaimer: The information provided in this podcast is for general informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The co-hosts of this podcast are not medical professionals. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on this podcast. Reliance on any information provided by the podcast hosts or guests is solely at your own risk.

Pamela Cass is a licensed broker with Kentwood Real Estate
Natalie Davis is a licensed ...

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Digital detox lessons arrive from the least expected teacher in this Reignite Resilience episode: a two-year-old on a balance bike. In Part 1, co-hosts Natalie Davis and Pamela Cass talk about presence, boundaries, and the phone habits most professionals never question.

Pam spent a morning on grandma duty, from 6:30 AM until noon. Before heading out, she chose to leave her phone at home. Her first thought: what if something happens? Her second thought: she raised her own kids without a phone, and she needed both hands free to chase a toddler. The two spent an hour and a half exploring the neighborhood, crossing streets, circling ponds, and reaching a park her grandson had never visited. He swung for 30 minutes, blew every dandelion in sight, and pointed at each airplane overhead. Pam came home to zero emergencies.

Natalie admits her phone has become a security blanket. Her partner left his phone behind for a stadium concert. Nothing happened. Pam sums up the mindset shift in one line: I choose for nothing to happen.

The episode opens with boundaries. Natalie turned down a 7 AM Zoom request from the East Coast and offered 8 AM instead. Pam guards her 7 to 8 AM gym hour with the same discipline. Both hosts protect their mornings so they bring full energy to their work.

The hosts also share the story of Patience and Fortitude, the two lion statues at the entrance of the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue. The names fit a day when a guest recording fell through and the hosts pivoted.

In this episode, you will learn:

• How leaving your phone at home builds presence and focus
• What a toddler's curiosity teaches busy professionals about noticing the moment
• How to set boundaries on early meetings and protect your morning routine
• Why your phone turns into a security blanket, and how to test the habit
• How Gen X kids functioned with no cell phones, no Life360, and no AirTags
• The meaning behind Patience and Fortitude, the New York Public Library lions

Natalie grew up a latchkey kid. She remembers forgotten house keys, no phones, and waiting outside until an adult came home. Pam and Natalie compare notes on store intercom announcements, clothing rack forts, and how Gen X parents kept track of their kids. Natalie also shares how she checked Life360 on her youngest daughter right before recording.

Listen to Part 2 for the Gen X childhood fears still shaping how both hosts scan a room.

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Reignite Live 2027 takes place January 22, 2027, in Loveland, Colorado.

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Meaningful Success: How Clarity and Alignment Drive Real Achievement

The Quiet Gift: A Journey of Self Worth and Resilience

Magical Mornings Journal

Disclaimer: The information provided in this podcast is for general informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The co-hosts of this podcast are not medical professionals. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on this podcast. Reliance on any information provided by the podcast hosts or guests is solely at your own risk.

Pamela Cass is a licensed broker with Kentwood Real Estate
Natalie Davis is a licensed ...

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How to support someone through cancer, divorce, or any hard season starts with one question: how do you need me to show up for you right now? In this Reignite Resilience episode, co-hosts Natalie Davis and Pamela Cass talk about emotional projection, the habit of telling people how they should feel during a crisis.

Pam shares her own breast cancer story. After her double mastectomy, her surgeon warned her the first look at her incisions would feel emotional and she would likely cry. Pam got out of bed, rolled her IV to the bathroom, looked in the mirror, and said three words: better than cancer. She felt no sadness. She felt grateful for the diagnosis, the plan, and a body free of cancer.

Now a close friend of Pam's faces cancer, and her doctors keep telling her how to feel. The message from both hosts: you decide how you respond. A doctor, friend, or family member does not decide for you.

Natalie explains why professionals and loved ones project emotions onto others. People remember the high-emotion reactions they witness and forget the calm ones. A surgeon performing two or three surgeries a day builds a picture of what patients "should" feel.

The conversation moves to divorce. Pam avoided people who wanted to talk negatively about her ex. Natalie now answers divorce news with one line: congratulations or I'm sorry, whichever fits. The person tells her which one applies.

In this episode, you will learn:

• How to support someone going through cancer, divorce, job loss, or grief
• Why you get to choose your emotional response to a diagnosis or life change
• The one question Pam asks her coaching clients in hard moments
• How to spot when someone else's emotions start to shape yours
• Why delayed emotions are normal for high achievers and processors
• How to protect your energy from what Natalie's energy coach calls etheric garbage

Both hosts describe how their emotions surface later, often during a sad commercial or a TV series. Natalie teared up in a middle seat on a packed flight watching All Her Fault. Pam lost a night of sleep after binge watching Scarpetta, the Patricia Cornwell adaptation starring Nicole Kidman.

The episode opens with fall weather, espresso martini experiments, Natalie's honey bun fried chicken sandwich in Columbus, and Tuesday fried chicken night at The Regional in Old Town Fort Collins.

Watch on YouTube for the video version, and share this episode with a friend who needs permission to feel their own way. 

Reignite Live 2027 takes place January 22, 2027, in Loveland, Colorado.

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Meaningful Success: How Clarity and Alignment Drive Real Achievement

The Quiet Gift: A Journey of Self Worth and Resilience

Magical Mornings Journal

Disclaimer: The information provided in this podcast is for general informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The co-hosts of this podcast are not medical professionals. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on this podcast. Reliance on any information provided by the podcast hosts or guests is solely at your own risk.

Pamela Cass is a licensed broker with Kentwood Real Estate
Natalie Davis is a licensed ...

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Goal alignment decides whether your work flows or fights you. In Part 2 of this Reignite Resilience episode, co-hosts Natalie Davis and Pamela Cass continue the conversation on discernment and speed of implementation, then turn to alignment, friction, and flow state.

Natalie shares why she threw out her entire business plan at the end of Q1. The plan had measurables and milestones. The plan made business sense. None of the goals belonged to her. She refused to lose another quarter to regret. She pivoted, fixed the plan, and kept going.

Pam and Natalie then take on a common trap: copying successful people. Pam's coaching client returned to her to-do list after someone told her to drop the habit. Natalie runs her team through Asana, keeps a paper to-do list on the left side of her desk, and tested an AI scheduling tool she ended up hating. The lesson: use the system matching how you work.

Natalie also tells a story from a small-group session with Phil Jones, author of Exactly What to Say. When an attendee asked how to build a website like his, he explained the full-time team and the tens of thousands of dollars behind the site. Most people copy the end result and skip the years of implementation behind the result. Build in stages.

In this episode, you will learn:

• How to tell when a goal belongs to someone else
• Why your why, your five-year vision, and your values work as filters for every action
• How friction signals misalignment and flow state signals alignment
• Why copying another person's system slows your progress
• How to build a to-do list around your unique genius
• What entrepreneurs miss when they compare themselves to bestselling authors

The hosts also talk candidly about adulting, entrepreneurship, and the days when you want someone else to handle the hard parts. They wrap with US Open fashion, Derby season, and a preview of Reignite Live 2027.

Reignite Live 2027 takes place January 22, 2027, in Loveland, Colorado. Eight speakers, all past guests of the show, cover the eight key areas of life, including career, relationships, finances, health and wellness, and fun. Search Reignite Live 2027 on Eventbrite for tickets and the full speaker lineup.

Watch on YouTube for the video version, and share this episode with a friend who needs a reset before Q4.

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Meaningful Success: How Clarity and Alignment Drive Real Achievement

The Quiet Gift: A Journey of Self Worth and Resilience

Magical Mornings Journal

Disclaimer: The information provided in this podcast is for general informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The co-hosts of this podcast are not medical professionals. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on this podcast. Reliance on any information provided by the podcast hosts or guests is solely at your own risk.

Pamela Cass is a licensed broker with Kentwood Real Estate
Natalie Davis is a licensed ...

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Speed of implementation decides how fast your goals turn into results. In Part 1 of this Reignite Resilience episode, co-hosts Natalie Davis and Pamela Cass break down discernment and speed of implementation (SOI) as you close out Q3 and plan for Q4.

Pam uses an AI board of advisors built on voices like Oprah Winfrey, Brené Brown, Abraham Lincoln, and Simon Sinek. Her word for September was discernment. For business owners, discernment means choosing what deserves your attention. Without discernment, you spread your energy across every task and stay stuck in the same place.

Speed of implementation measures the gap between learning something and acting on the new knowledge. You attend a conference, fill a notebook with ideas, and weeks pass. The people who act fast build momentum. Pam and Natalie walk through a four-step loop: idea, action, feedback, adjustment. They use their own podcast as proof. The idea came in January 2022. The first episode launched in May 2022. Four years later, the show keeps growing.

In this episode, you will learn:

• What discernment means for business owners heading into Q4
• How speed of implementation (SOI) creates momentum
• The idea, action, feedback, adjustment loop for turning ideas into results
• Why Q4 planning is Q1 planning, and how continuity keeps your goals on track
• Questions to ask when a goal from March still sits untouched in September
• How to spot a goal someone else set for you
• Why quarterly goal reviews beat a once-a-year check-in

Natalie shares her own Q4 wake-up moment. Her wall calendar showed Q4 had arrived, and several commitments from March still waited for a first step. She asks the question every high achiever needs to hear: why is the next step taking six months?

The hosts also point to Transitions by William Bridges, a book on the gap between one season of life and the next.

The episode opens with Virgo birthday season, Pam's surprise New York City trip to the immersive Masquerade show and Hamilton, and a candid talk about protecting your social media feed. Natalie explains how her algorithm pulled her into trauma bonding content and how she reset her feed to puppy videos.

Listen to Part 2 for goal alignment, flow state, and the Phil Jones story every entrepreneur needs to hear.

Reignite Live 2027 takes place January 22, 2027, in Loveland, Colorado. Search Reignite Live 2027 on Eventbrite for tickets.

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Check out our Book Series:

Meaningful Success: How Clarity and Alignment Drive Real Achievement

The Quiet Gift: A Journey of Self Worth and Resilience

Magical Mornings Journal

Disclaimer: The information provided in this podcast is for general informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The co-hosts of this podcast are not medical professionals. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on this podcast. Reliance on any information provided by the podcast hosts or guests is solely at your own risk.

Pamela Cass is a licensed broker with Kentwood Real Estate
Natalie Davis is a licensed ...

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Open to the magic is not a tagline for Lisa Dunford Dickman. It is the name she gave to the experience that saved her, and eventually to the retreat she now leads so that other women can have it too. In this second and final segment of the Reignite Resilience Podcast's conversation with transformational coach, writer, speaker, and African safari retreat leader Lisa Dunford Dickman, cohosts Natalie Davis and Pamela Cass follow Lisa into the deepest and most personal chapter of her story: the four years she lost her mother, her uncle and godfather, her mother-in-law, and her father, one per year, wave after wave, while returning to Africa again and again to be held by something she could not name but could not live without. 

This segment opens with the final miles of the Camino de Santiago, the moment Lisa's foot stopped hurting after communing with a tree that grows from the inside out, and the discovery that another woman on the trip had the exact same experience without knowing Lisa had it first. It moves through Lisa's first ten minutes on an African safari, watching a pride of lions tear a zebra carcass in half from twenty-five feet away, and the moment she knew with absolute clarity the difference between what is real and what is not. It goes deep into grief, into an owl encounter after her mother died that left her feeling more loved than she had ever felt in her life, and into the heart stent she navigated recently while continuing to do her work and live her life. 

From all of that, Lisa built the AWE system: a three-step coaching framework designed to help people gain awareness of their protection patterns, lay down the burden of self-effort and striving, and step into what becomes possible when you stop trying to banish the parts of yourself that have always been trying to keep you safe and instead love and include them. 

The retreat itself is not just a trip. It is eight nights beginning at the Indian Ocean at a beach villa with whales spouting in the distance, followed by six nights on safari with game drives twice a day, sundowners in the bush, hot chocolate with amarula cream, outdoor pools, claw-foot tubs, luxury canvas suites raised above the forest floor, and a guide named Doomy who once walked within five feet of a lion without his gun and came back to the car laughing. 

In This Episode: 

• The Camino miracle: Lisa's foot stopped hurting after communing with a 400-year-old tree, and another woman on the trip had the same experience without knowing it 
• What happened in the first ten minutes on an African safari that showed Lisa the difference between what is real and what is not 
• Four years of grief: losing her mother, her uncle and godfather, her mother-in-law, and her father one per year, and how Africa held her through all of it 
• The owl encounter after her mother died: two owls, a campfire, a song about Mary, and the most loved Lisa has ever felt 
• The AWE system: awareness of protection patterns, willingness to lay them down, and embodying what becomes possible on the other side 
• What the Open to the Magic in Africa retreat actually looks like from the inside, and why it is a transformational experience, not just a trip 
• The More Life List: Lisa's free anti-bucket list PDF for anyone ready to start imagining what they really want 

Lisa is a featured speaker at Reignite Live 2027 on January 22nd in Loveland, Colorado, and her Open to the Magic in Africa retreat takes place in November. Both links are in the show notes. 

Connect with Lisa Dunford Dickman:
🌐 opentothemagicinafrica.com
🌐 themorelifelist.com — Lisa's free anti-bucket list PDF
📚 Live Like a Lioness: Reclaiming Your Bright Birthright as a Powerful Divine Creator — forthcoming 
🗓️ Open to the Magic in Africa Retreat: November 12, 2026

Connect with Reignite Resilience:
🌐 reigniteresilience.com 
📧 [email protected] 
📘 Facebook | 📸 Instagram | 🎥 YouTube: Reignite Resilience Podcast 
🗓️ Reignite Live 2027: January 22 in Loveland, Colorado 

Subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with someone who has been waiting for permission to follow what feels warmer. 

Support the show

Subscribe to Our Weekly ThinkLetter
Facebook
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Check out our Book Series:

Meaningful Success: How Clarity and Alignment Drive Real Achievement

The Quiet Gift: A Journey of Self Worth and Resilience

Magical Mornings Journal

Disclaimer: The information provided in this podcast is for general informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The co-hosts of this podcast are not medical professionals. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on this podcast. Reliance on any information provided by the podcast hosts or guests is solely at your own risk.

Pamela Cass is a licensed broker with Kentwood Real Estate
Natalie Davis is a licensed ...

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Following your inner GPS is not a metaphor for Lisa Dunford Dickman. It is the actual operating system she has used to navigate six countries, four languages, 40 plus guidebooks, and a life that most people would not dare to imagine, let alone build on purpose. In this first segment of the Reignite Resilience Podcast's conversation with transformational coach, writer, speaker, and African safari retreat leader Lisa Dunford Dickman, cohosts Natalie Davis and Pamela Cass sit down with one of the most adventurous and genuinely free-spirited guests this podcast has ever featured. 

Lisa's story begins with a fourth-grade report on Hungary and a great-grandfather she never met, runs through a college study abroad program in Budapest in the aftermath of the Berlin Wall falling, detours through a five-year life in Bratislava where she danced on the square the night Czechoslovakia became its own country, lands in South Texas at an engineering firm where she met her husband and found her writing path in the same building, and eventually delivers her to 15 years as a Lonely Planet guidebook author hiking backcountry trails in Zion, communing with polar bears in Manitoba, and doing the Texas two-step in dance halls for work. 

None of it was planned. All of it was guided. Lisa calls it the game of you're getting warmer, a framework for following what feels hotter, moving away from what feels colder, and trusting the inner nudges that do not always make logical sense but consistently lead somewhere extraordinary. She turned down a job at Georgetown University with a free master's degree because it felt icky in her body, and moved to South Texas instead. That decision led her to her career, her husband, and the life she now helps others imagine for themselves. 

This segment also includes the beginning of the Camino de Santiago story: Lisa walking 100 kilometers across Spain completely unprepared, in hiking boots with no training in pancake-flat Abu Dhabi and Houston, and what happened when she decided to walk her own walk at her own pace instead of powering through like everyone else. 

In This Episode: 

• Why Lisa believes the biggest risk is always not doing the thing, and how that belief has guided every major decision of her life 
• The getting warmer framework for following your inner GPS, moving toward what burns bright, and trusting your desires as your God-given guidance system 
• How Lisa went from embassy work in Slovakia to a newspaper clerk job in South Texas to 15 years as a Lonely Planet guidebook author by following breadcrumbs she could not have predicted 
• Why turning down a free master's degree at Georgetown for a job in the sun was one of the best decisions she ever made 
• What the Camino de Santiago taught Lisa about walking your own walk and giving others permission to do the same 

Lisa is a featured speaker at Reignite Live 2027 on January 22nd in Loveland, Colorado, and her Open to the Magic in Africa transformational retreat takes place in November. Both links are in the show notes. 

Connect with Lisa Dunford Dickman:
🌐 opentothemagicinafrica.com
🌐 themorelifelist.com — Lisa's free anti-bucket list PDF
📚 Live Like a Lioness: Reclaiming Your Bright Birthright as a Powerful Divine Creator — forthcoming 
🗓️ Open to the Magic in Africa Retreat: November 12, 2026

Connect with Reignite Resilience:
🌐 reigniteresilience.com 
📧 [email protected] 
📘 Facebook | 📸 Instagram | 🎥 YouTube: Reignite Resilience Podcast 
🗓️ Reignite Live 2027: January 22 in Loveland, Colorado 

Subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with someone who has been waiting for permission to follow what feels warmer. 

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Meaningful Success: How Clarity and Alignment Drive Real Achievement

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Disclaimer: The information provided in this podcast is for general informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The co-hosts of this podcast are not medical professionals. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on this podcast. Reliance on any information provided by the podcast hosts or guests is solely at your own risk.

Pamela Cass is a licensed broker with Kentwood Real Estate
Natalie Davis is a licensed ...