Stop Digging!

In this episode, we continue last month’s overview of the Scotland travel team and explain why cultural immersion matters, with research on self-awareness, identity change, multicultural competence, and transformational learning that occurs when travelers are removed from familiar routines. 

In this episode, Stop Digging! is on the road to talk about learning opportunities with people joining the A-Squared Lamp trip.

This month's interview is with Dorine Lawrence-Hughes, J.D., Ed.D., CPCC, principal consultant of Brazen Communications, about her origin story shaped by educator parents, her path from teaching to a law career and back to higher education and coaching. She discusses distinctions between coaching and mentoring, leadership challenges like criticism and loneliness, the importance of building a support “bench,” and practices such as self-care, community, creativity, and writing/journaling.

Leadership expert Bryan Hughes joins Chris to explore why organizational culture isn't just a "soft skill," but a measurable driver of business performance, trust, accountability, and long-term success. Through practical stories and actionable strategies, they discuss how leaders at every level can create environments where honest feedback, psychological safety, and genuine human connection thrive. 

This month we welcome business coach and author Rob Young of Stage 3 Group, who explains his focus on “stage three” companies—businesses past startup but still chaotic and undisciplined—and his book "Stage 3 Success." Young describes common stage-three challenges, especially people issues like hiring friends or family and struggling to fire or reassign the wrong people, as well as the need for processes, procedures, and leadership structures that many owners were never trained to build.

This month, our host Chris Knierem interviews retired Presbyterian pastor Reverend Doug Rumford, who served 44 years across churches in Connecticut, California, and Kansas City before founding Lorica Ministries to equip people for spiritual vitality and intentional living. Rumford describes rewriting his 1996 book Soul Shaping through independent publishing and now coaching pastors and leaders facing cultural pressures, helping them live from the inside out.

This month's episode is something a little different: instead of an interview, host Chris Knierem shares his experience with chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia. Learn how this affected his life, how he chose to change habits to overcome his illness and gain some useful advice about how to help get yourself out of similar situations. 

This month we interviewed Peter Camacho, CFO, HR Expert, EMT-certified and Boy Scouts of America community leader. He and host Chris discuss leading by example, building trust, and how teaching deepens learning, along with the need for proper training and support when promoting employees as well as the problems with punitive cultures and the importance of open communication, asking for help, and treating mistakes as team learning opportunities.

In this episode we interview self-published sci-fi author JR Winton, creator of the Desolation Trilogy and the Witch and the Rifleman series. Winton explains how a Josiey Wales/Star Wars image sparked his “space western” style, how his hero Reed Cooper drew from old-school lawmen he knew as a child and a fighter-pilot father, and how mentors and life events shaped his grit, rewrites, and eventual decision to self-publish via Amazon KDP with improved second-edition covers and edits. He discusses pitfalls like marketing scams, the importance of discernment and learning from anyone.

In this episode of Stop Digging!, Chris welcomes two language experts, Brian Rovito and Dr. Kaitlyn Tagarelli from Mango Languages. Together, they explore the significance of learning new languages for personal travel, professional success, and cultural preservation. Highlighting unique features of Mango’s conversational approach, they discuss the cognitive benefits of multilingualism and the company's initiatives to support endangered languages. Tune in to discover how speaking someone's native language can enrich lives and create genuine connections across the globe.