In this episode of Soar, Taylor sat down with sports journalist and artist, Matthew Wells.

Matthew's niche is an interesting one. While he is an avid sports fan and has covered many different sports, for the past several years he has focused specifically on  Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) .  Matthew is also a sports artist. When he is not podcasting and in the ring covering fights, you might find him painting a portrait of an athlete on the field.

In this episode, Matthew and Taylor talk about:

• Matthew's background in sports journalism and how he got into his niche on covering MMA fighting
• MMA  and what Matthew has learned about growth from watching MMA athletes
• How he has grown by interviewing people
• Advice he would give his younger self getting into this niche

Learn more about Matthew and his art on his website, follow him on Instagram  and Twitter, and watch his MMA-focused podcast the Slip 'n Dip.

In this episode of Soar, Taylor sat down with career coach, Heather Burright.

After a long career in Human Resources and career placement, Heather found herself at a fork in the road due to Covid-19: Go find another job, or start her own business. She chose to start her own career coaching consultancy and she is well off and flying already! 

In this episode, Heather unpacks things like:

• Skills + passion and how the two can work together
• Recommendations for people re-entering the workplace after time off
• How to facilitate successful meetings even in this virtual world
• Tips for people considering a career change

Learn more about Heather and her coaching services on her website and follow her on Instagram and Facebook.

The Soar podcast is back! In this all-new episode of Soar, Taylor sat down with Author, Leadership Coach and Public Speaker Torrian Scott.

The two talked about Torrian's personal journey to his destiny and purpose and how you can find your purpose.  The discussion unpacked things like:

• How do you define purpose and destiny? Are they different?
• How to get to the place WHERE you want to be in life
• Torrian's latest book, Running After Destiny
• Navigating through the head trash and the heart trash

Learn more about Torrian on his website and on LinkedIn.

In this latest episode of Soar, Taylor sat down with Julie Kratz, founder of The Next Pivot and podcast host of the Pivot Point Podcast.

Julie is an expert in diversity, inclusion in the workplace, and career pivots.
She shares:

• Her experience making a major career pivot,
• How to go about a pivot in this "new normal", and
• How to think about inclusivity in the workplace should you make that pivot.

Find Julie online on her website here: https://nextpivotpoint.com/

Season 2 of Soar is about Designing Your Next Normal.

In this first episode of Soar Season 2, host Taylor Shanklin sat down with User Experience designer and working-at-home-while-quarantined mom, Kate Woodage.  Taking principles of user experience design into the home life, Kate talks about her tips for success in designing spaces that work for everyone.

The two moms, Kate and Taylor, get into:

• Why our new normal is like a game of Jenga
• Free-range parenting
• Pop-tarts
• Giving our children some skin in the game in the home life and empowering them to take ownership

Find Kate on LinkedIn and on Instagram.

In this special nonprofit communications edition of the Soar podcast, Taylor Shanklin sat down with communications expert and founder of 1832 Communications, Ephraim Gopin.  Ephraim led an organization through a recession and he is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to messaging and communications. 

In this episode, Taylor and Ephraim touched upon:
- How to thaw oneself out and get unfrozen so that you can communicate
- Inviting goats to meetings
- Pulling in the board in this time of need
- A history lesson from Ephraim's time as a CEO during the 2008 recession
- How to focus on self-care in this awkward moment in time

Sign up for Ephraim's newsletter and follow along at: https://1832communications.com/ 

In this episode, Soar host Taylor Shanklin sat down with best-selling management author, Scott Miller to talk about management "messes" and how the best leaders can overcome them.

Miller leads the strategy, development, and publication of FranklinCovey’s bestselling books and thought leadership, which provide the framework for the company’s world-renowned content and solutions. He is the author of FranklinCovey’s Management Mess to Leadership Success: Become the Leader You Would Follow (Mango Media). He is also the co-author of The Wall Street Journal bestseller, Everyone Deserves A Great Manager: The 6 Critical Practices for Leading a Team, released in October 2019 (Simon & Schuster).  Additionally, he is the host of the FranklinCovey sponsored On Leadership With Scott Miller, a weekly leadership webcast, podcast, and newsletter that features interviews with renowned business titans, authors, and thought leaders and is distributed to more than six million business leaders worldwide. 

Taylor sat down with Scott to talk about:

• The three most critical leadership challenges to overcome
• Some of the messiest challenges and how to overcome them 
• The current reality that managers and leaders are facing, in the era of coronavirus, and Scott's recommendations for those leading teams in this new reality
• What leaders should do when they are taking over the leadership of a team new to them 

To learn more about Scott and websites referenced in this episode:

• Find more about Scott Miller here on his LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottmillerj1/
• Buy the book, Management Mess to Leadership Success here: https://www.amazon.com/Management-Mess-Leadership-Success-Challenges-ebook/dp/B07P884HSS/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=management+mess+scott+miller&qid=1586172881&sr=8-2
• Check out Dr. Amen, whom Scott referenced in the episode: https://danielamenmd.com/

In this episode of the Soar podcast, Taylor Shanklin sat down with Justin Wheeler to talk about his founder stories, having founded both nonprofit and for-profit organizations.

Justin Wheeler has raised over $100+M for charities and has founded both for-profit and nonprofit entities. He got into "building things" at an early age, with his first startup venture being a nonprofit, Liberty in North Korea.  That was followed up by the founding of another nonprofit organization, Invisible Children, and his most recent venture is a California-based startup, Funraise, which helps nonprofits raise money and run more efficiently.

In this episode, the two talked about:

• Some breaking advice on how nonprofit organizations can continue to fundraise in the time of the coronavirus
• What it's like to start a nonprofit vs a for-profit
• Why nonprofits are at an (often unfortunate) disadvantage
• Justin's founder lessons learned with each venture

Check out and connect with Justin on LinkedIn, and learn more about Funraise here.

Something that so many of us face is the juxtaposition of career and home life.  How do you pursue your career hopes and dreams and also ensure that your home life is being nurtured?  Your personal hopes and dreams are important, too.

In this episode of Soar, Taylor Shanklin sat down with Rick Buie, Head of Brand at Amazon Business and Dad Squared.  Rick has already had quite a career early on in his life, and is now the father of two rambunctious boys.

Rick shares his stories of success in how he has propelled the growth of his career while maintaining a good balance and family life.

Learn more about Rick and stay in touch with him on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickbuie/

What if you could use thinking about the future to find opportunity and focus in on what matters most to you?

In this latest episode of Soar, Taylor Shanklin sat down with the one and only QuHarrison Terry.  QuHarrison is a future thinker, the founder of InevitableHuman.com and he is also a growth marketer at Mark Cuban Companies.

In this discussion, QuHarrison and Taylor went into a lot of new territories and riffed on:

• How thinking about the future can help you focus
• The paranormal
• The future of wearables and emerging technology
• What it is like to work every day with Mark Cuban
• Communication and writing things down to keep focused
• Qu's advice for finding and claiming your unfair advantage

For more futurist thinking and to follow QuHarrison, go to https://inevitablehuman.com/ or follow him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/quharrison-terry-728b3a89/