Carol Weisman founded Board Builders, an international consultant firm focused on fundraising, philanthropy, and governance in 1994. She is the author of 11 books and is writing her 12th.  In 2020, her husband Frank Robbins was diagnosed with Lewy body dementia, Parkinson's disease, and spinal stenosis.

Carol had to take a pause on her consultancy and speaking business to care for him.   Frank, sadly passed away in January of 2025. Carol is now returning to international work, grateful for the time she spent with Frank.  In Life After Loss, she speaks candidly about connecting with the world once again and how life is looking since losing Frank.

“I started grieving the day that he was diagnosed. Because there was no medication. I knew there was no hope.  This was such a downward spiral, Frank died a little bit every day.”

 Carol’s endearing recollection brings her realistic vibe to a very painful experience.   As a listener, you are guaranteed a smile as well as a tear.

“Following a loss, the biggest problem is loneliness especially if you were connected to a lot of people because of your spouse or your work.”  says Carol. 

Carol has started internet dating, describing dating at 76 as really "bizarre”. 

She ends encouragingly. “You recover at that point, it’s a process. It's not an event. You don’t all of a sudden wake up, go to a, some kind of meeting and you're okay.  Every death is different, every journey of healing, recovery, and repair is different.   You have got to find the pathway that works for you.”

Stephen Light shines light on Team Resiliency. “What makes a high-performing, resilient team is when people know that they feel safe on that team.”

He says “The teams who stick together, the teams who understand that we have each other's backs. They feel safe around each other. They trust each other. They are aligned on a common vision, a common effort that they are working towards. They talk with each other, recognising where each other are, they are human to human with each other. And what that does is help people’s resiliency come out, because, when you are alone in the job that you do and you are operating in a silo in the team that you operate in, you don't have meaning, you don't have fulfilment, and life is hard. When a team isn't skilled on how to navigate differences they have between each other, what tends to happen is polarisation”.

The Intersection, Faith, Work, and Life is an introduction to God’s Design for Integrated Living. The Cities Project Global. awakens equip and unleash leaders into the city. Through Leadership Circles, the reach becomes impactful.  The Leadership Circle is a nine-topic worldview journey into faith, vocation, and culture. And it's, a guided journey that facilitates the growth of leaders through these nine topics.  Along the way these leaders get a clearer picture of where to focus their attention.

Dr Robert C Varney and Hugh W Brandt introduce the design for integrated living in a very accessible and practical way.  For instance, Bob and Hugh find that the word’ integration’ is much more helpful than ‘balance’.

Storytelling: Leadership that build healthy communities is such a timely theme to talk about.   

“If we want the best out of our people, we have to treat our people well. You can't rely on them being resilient if you're trying your best to kill them with structure.  We are maturing to be more focused on the contributor, not the contribution. The biggest piece of resilience is believing that you can rebound, you can overcome, you can come back, you can heal. To believe that you can't, proves you can't, and makes it so you won't. You've got to believe that you can overcome.  Being broken will be the anomaly rather than the norm.  You've got to be well before you can help others be well.” says David Taylor Klaus. 

Future-Focus, Well-Being and Resilience focuses on journeys that can keep us well and support our resilience. No two journeys are the same.  We also recognise habits, practices, lessons that nurture us and help us flourish, support us to be fruitful and enable us to move from surviving to thriving.

1.        We love to capture and share pearls of insight and wisdom. These are aired in our podcast, blogs and guest appearances across the world.

2.        We touch on hope as the gift that keeps giving . We explore being future focused as we are shaping our pathway through life and living.

3.        We revisit our definition of success especially in the face of adversity.  How does pain become part of our life story?  

4.        Borne out of the Wellbeing and Resilience Leadership initiative, we are taking a pragmatic view of Wellness, Wellbeing and Reliance.  Prepare to be thrilled, informed, inspired and motivated by Future Focus wellbeing and resilience.

Tesse Akpeki says " When I prioritise finding joy in what I do, success follows naturally.  Creating balance, addressing a tendency towards workaholism, seeking meaning and purpose as I aim for excellence are important features as I flesh out my pathway to wellbeing.

A few years ago I came to the conclusion that I wish to enjoy what I do.   Work hard, yes of course, but not at the expense of burning myself out.  Exploration, discovery, learning and cooperation feature highly through my lens of what matters.   I am ecstatic when the work I do makes a difference to my clients and the organisations I serve."

Leading and governing effectively recognises that “people are an integral factor to ensuring things are done effectively.   Board members, staff, and volunteers need to be empowered, trained and equipped to serve.  The concept of service needs to be embedded within the infrastructure. Internal audit is an essential part of this pathway. Different systems need to be managed, controlled, and reported upon, on a frequent basis.  Where things are not happening as expected, they are investigated, then discussed and corrective action is taken”. Morlai Kargbo, an Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) award winner,  sets the scene for a fascinating conversation.

Lead with two rules   philosophy serves as a foundation for building wide support for the social, emotional, learning, and mental health needs of students. Through the years, Brenda Yoho has seen this and has witnessed the transformative impact, prioritising these essential aspects of education while contributing to a positive and nurturing school environment. What can we do to make change? What do we see? What do we want to see? What do we need to see?  How do we see?

Brenda’s book, “Lead with Two Rules, Feeling Good and Feeling Safe" is a conversational exploration of the origins of the philosophy and offers a detailed account of its practical application.

Celebrating my brother, a sister’s tribute is a special place. Lucy Harrison gives so much of herself to other people.  When TesseTalks sat with Lucy as she paid a tribute to her brother Peter, we knew we were listening to something really special.   Lucy is passionate about bringing awareness to the sibling bond. Understanding how it is when you lose a sibling is so important and it is not talked about much. 

“I'm a bereaved sister “says Lucy as she talks about her grief.    Peter wanted to live life all the time and have fun.  He was so always in the moment. When he was tragically killed, for Lucy it was a trigger for change.

 Wild waters are always going to be there. They may not be raging at this precise moment, but the potential for that disturbance and that turbulence is always there. Good Leaders Turbulent Times And How To Navigate Wild Waters At Work, Martin Farrell’s book is an enriching and purposeful read, full of good, uplifting stuff, with a good dose of reality.

 “Suffering happens, pain happens. We'd better get used to living with the turbulence, which has always been there and is now greater.  Leaders need to find ways of dealing with the pain and suffering that comes up.” says Martin.