Working on Purpose

Running for any office takes enormous amounts of time, energy, and a passion for the cause. Winning the position of Dallas Independent School District Trustee for District 2 is the hope for Dustin Marshall who has long been captivated by the prospect of education reform. His platform includes addressing four main priorities: early education, empowering principals, racial equity, and teacher development. In this episode, Dustin describes his own experience of navigating school and being raised by a single Mom, how he became fascinated by and committed to education, and his rationale behind each of the four priorities he wants to address if elected. Given his full-time role as CEO, husband and father of four young children, Dustin is clearly driven by purpose in his pursuit to win and serve in the trustee position.

Do you love what you do and enjoy working for yourself but feel stretched too thin? Maybe you’re working entirely too many hours without achieving the results you want or deserve? Or, perhaps you aren’t working as productively in your day as you can. Many women start a business to share their professional gifts and hope doing so will allow them precious time for other important parts of life. But for many, the workload becomes consuming without a sufficient return on investment or significant income stream. In this episode, we talk with small business coach expert Leslie Hassler as she shares 7 pillars to help women take their service offerings from hectic and horrendous to sane and successful.

The 1960s women’s movement was of monumental importance to advance the conscious development of women. But what response did it evoke in men? Where do men derive their sense of connection and meaning in today’s times? And how do men navigate their lives against the backdrop of ongoing change in their female counterparts? In this episode, we explore the journey of one thoughtful, engaged man who has spent a quarter century cultivating his own perspective on life on the planet as a man and the wonderful discovery he’s made helping coach his fellow comrades in their common quest toward deeper self-awareness and authentic integration.

If you are considering a career that requires obtaining federal security clearance, or you’ve just been curious about what it’s like to work for the Department of Defense, this episode is for you. Did you know there are countless jobs that require a federal, military, or industrial security clearance, or even a simple background investigation, to be hired? Absent concrete knowledge of the process, many people make avoidable mistakes that result in not obtaining the security clearance they need to start their job. In this episode, a special agent with 21 years of experience conducting such investigations shares his wisdom, experience, and tips to get through the process efficiently and effectively, so you can get to work.

When work is fulfilling and fun, why would you ever want to quit? That’s Bob Hopkins’ philosophy, and with it he has joyously cultivated a long life and career full of profound enrichment while making an impact literally across the globe through an astonishing number of initiatives. His PAVE program, or Philanthropy and Volunteerism in Education, is about changing lives by giving children a new outlook on life through Service Learning and Community Involvement. Bob´s program follows first and second graders for three years. These formative years, with the assistance of college students in their classroom each week, celebrates amazing outcomes. The results have given children self-esteem, that has increased their academics and consequently their choices. Overtime, Bob believes the PAVE program lessen crime rates and eventually eradicate poverty. What an incredibly noble mission and legacy to leave.

Do you constantly feel behind schedule, ever pedaling on the hamster wheel toward an impossible schedule or crazy goals? Are you getting the results you really want – at work, at home, and in life? If not, maybe it’s because you’re not sufficiently inspired or committed to a course of action. Or could it be possible you haven’t yet learned a few simple keys to personal productivity that could literally turn your life around? In this episode, Lauren Midgley will share from her personal arsenal of proven strategies to help you get caught up and on top of your productivity.

People often hunger to find purpose in their work. They wonder, where do others get that sense of mission? And how do I find it for myself? Well, sometimes it appears right in one’s own back yard and is born from simple day to day life. Ask yourself, what do you really care about and spend time and energies on today? And do you know other people who are focused on similar things but need something beyond the current marketplace offerings to address it? If so, you just might find yourself staring straight into the beginnings of your mission and purpose at work, as our guest Charmaine Solomon discovered. And in her case, she and her comrades have taken that initial mission and dream to found a full-day continuing education program for adults with disabilities, and made it into a reality that casts a vision for even broader impact in the future while allowing her to leave a legacy for her special needs son.

Climbing the corporate ladder. Success. Making money. Isn’t that what many of us have been taught comprise the good life? I mean, we live comfortably and can afford a nice lifestyle with lovely vacations. It all should be good, right? Then, how come we don’t feel fulfilled? Why does it seem to get harder and harder to get out of bed and drag ourselves into the office? If you can relate to this story line, this episode may just be one you need to hear. Mary Miller shares her story of career ascent, misery in “living the dream” she worked so hard to achieve, and how she came to see the light on the other side of the tunnel toward a new and ultimately much more rewarding way to do life and career. She shares some of her key lessons along the way and how she has helped other women define their own version of success overruling the “shoulds” they have been told all their lives.

There are distinct moments when life serves up seemingly impossible challenges, predicaments that should completely break us, almost as if to see just what we’re made of. Fresh off a divorce, in career transition, lacking health insurance, and living with a friend in a small apartment, Brandon Cumby was already in a tender place when he received the perfect-storm sucker punch of electrocution and was not expected to survive. Miraculously, with the incredible support of family and friends and his indomitable spirit, Brandon emerged with a new lease on life. He is sharing his story in the hopes doing so will encourage others to dig deep into themselves to go for their own dreams as he is his own. Not only has he recaptured his own health after his devastating accident in 2012, he has since run four marathons and two 50K races. His story is a testament to the human spirit and how living an intentional and purposeful life can be born of tragedy.

If you are at all intrigued with the TV mini-series Making a Murderer, you’ll have to catch this episode. Imagine being arrested, then imprisoned, for a murder you did not commit and spending 13 years behind bars. During that time, you are forced to leave the care and raising of your two young children in someone else’s hands and adapt to the harsh reality of life behind bars. With many other twists and turns, including the confession by a fellow prison mate to the very crime for which he was serving time, Christopher Scott has a worst-nightmare story to tell. Remarkably, he now spends his freedom investigating innocence claims, fighting for release of wrongly convicted people who are still incarcerated, and advocating for legislative changes.