The Perfectly Imperfect Journey

Mid Life Beginning with Suzanne Beaumont

When Suzanne Beaumont saw an advertisement for a marathon that invited readers to “change their life,” she was 49 and not much of a runner.  But something called to her and she started lacing up her trainers.  Several months later she finished that marathon and had the realization that doing hard things was not only possible, but could also propel her to move out of her comfort zone in other ways.  Suzanne feels like she has had a brand new beginning at midlife and now follows her passions wherever they take her - writing, traveling, and discovering herself.  Listen in to Suzanne’s perfectly imperfect journey.  

 

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. Soren Kierkegaard

 

Bio

Suzanne Beaumont has lived in Wake Forest, NC for 25 years, raised three beautiful children there, and has been writing for the past eight years. She writes to simply know herself and explore the world around her. She studied writing with Natalie Goldberg and is currently studying haiku with Clark Strand.

As Suzanne reads or listens, phrases will often catch her attention and she'll discover a poem or essay that she didn’t know was inside her. And so it goes.

She began running in 2006, and stepped way out of her comfort zone when she signed up to run her first marathon with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s team in training (TNT) program. She’s since run a half-dozen marathons, a handful of ultra marathons, and too many half-marathons to count, and served as a TNT volunteer coach for ten years.

Suzanne recently retired from her long-term career as a software architect, at organizations including Alcatel-Lucent, Research in Motion, Lenovo, and most recently, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina.

She writes most days just like she runs most days; these are her practices that keep her grounded and moving forward.

The Power of Play with Shirin Etessam

Shirin Etessam was born in Iran and enjoyed a fairly happy and privileged childhood.  When her parents immigrated to the US, after some initial struggles, she found her place in high school and began to flourish.  She experienced success after college, working in film and television. Eventually she fell in love and adopted 2 children with her wife, with whom she initially had a nine-year friendship. While everything looked great from the outside, there was a problem bubbling below the surface: Shirin had started losing parts of her soul along her journey and had shrunk into a much smaller version of herself.  When her relationship eventually ended, Shirin began a multi-year, painful process of clawing her way back to her true self, through much self-reflection, spiritual teachings, and most importantly, the power of play.

 

Bio:

Shirin Etessam is a renowned play expert and storyteller, blending her background in film, TV, and branded content with a deep passion for the transformative power of play. Following a pivotal life event, Shirin embarked on a journey that shifted her focus from external achievements to the joys of internal fulfillment through play. With over a decade of dedicated research and exploration, she harnesses the principles of curiosity, creativity, and spontaneity to promote mental and spiritual health. Shirin advocates for integrating play into all facets of life, emphasizing its crucial role in today’s world for achieving true contentment and joy. Her work stands at the intersection of science and play, aiming to enlighten others on its essential benefits for our well-being.

 

Website: https://www.shirinetessam.com/ 

Free to Be: A Six Week Guide to Reclaiming Your Soul: https://www.shirinetessam.com/freetobe/ 

Resilience

Life can be messy. Unexpected things happen, we may encounter issues or struggles, and, at times, things just get hard. No one enjoys the struggle, but as Patrick Ness reminds us - it is not about how we fall - it’s how we get back up. This is the core of resilience. Given the fact that we will all have something that gets difficult, how can we not only survive it but also grow?  Resilience is like a muscle that can be built and strengthened with the right focus and attention.     Listen in to hear about some of our own challenges and the tools we use to get back up again.  

 

In this episode, Sherry references Amy Purdy’s book

https://amypurdy.com/amy-purdys-book-on-my-own-two-feet/

True connection with Shasta Nelson

Shasta Nelson’s brand is all about helping people connect authentically in real life.  For over 15 years Shasta has facilitated, taught, and modeled how to build healthy relationships, and has written a few books about friendships along the way.  Yet it was her own deep connection to the person who eventually became her husband that rocked Shasta’s world, and caused her to lose friends, her job, and the church she was serving.  Shasta’s journey was an incredibly painful one, but she emerged more deeply connected to herself, and as a thought leader in the human connection arena.  Listen in to hear Shasta’s perfectly imperfect journey.

 

Bio 

A pioneer in belongingness, Shasta Nelson is an in-demand keynote speaker, popular media resource and contributor to the Harvard Business Review, and author of three books in which she teaches how to build healthy relationships, including The Business of Friendship: Making the Most of the Relationships Where We Spend Most of Our Time. For over 15 years, Shasta has been translating the science of human connection into actionable practices that lead to greater belonging in our communities and workplaces. Her expertise has activated organizations such as Google and LinkedIn to intentionally create and accelerate the high-trust and resilient relationships that lead to higher employee retention, engagement, and collaboration.

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Shasta has been featured in hundreds of publications such as the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and TIME magazine, and has appeared as a guest on the Harvard Business Review podcast, Today Show, and Steve Harvey Show. Shasta is a two-time featured TEDx speaker, with her first TED talk receiving over 800,000 views, and she has delivered 500+ keynotes for over 20 different industries, including tech, healthcare, nonprofits, education, and more.

 

Website: https://www.shastanelson.com/

TedX Talk: Relationally Fit: The Social Secret to a Longer, Happier Life https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irRtftdsW8E

What Lights You Up with Libby DeLana

One day, when she was a teenager spending the summer in Ireland, Libby DeLana took the bus into Dublin and was awed by the Book of Kells. Little did she know that moment would change her professional trajectory. Fast forward to several years later, with an undergraduate degree in hand, Libby went to culinary school with a friend and discovered that as much as she enjoyed creating delicious food, she was far more enthralled with the layout of a beautiful menu. She listened to these whispers of what really lit her up and had a very successful career in advertising. Fast forward a bit more, and while everything seemed great on the surface, Libby realized something felt off in her life.  Once again, she listened to the whispers, laced up her shoes and went for a walk.  And she has kept walking, every day, for the past 12 years.  Libby has turned this walking practice into more than just being in nature.  She has a whole new chapter in her life, has written a book and hosts a great podcast. Listen in to hear Libby’s perfectly imperfect journey.  

Bio

Libby DeLana is an Executive Creative Director, founder of This Morning Walk™ (thismorningwalk.com / @thismorningwalk / #thismorningwalk) and is co-host of the podcast This Morning Walk with Alex Elle. She spoke at The Do Lectures 2022 with Cheryl Strayed about the transformative power of a walk.

Libby spent her career in advertising and was the Design Director at MullenLowe for 15 years, then went on to co-found Mechanica, a small boutique agency in Massachusetts. Libby’s work has won many industry awards, has been featured in publications like PRINT Design Annual, Graphis Design & Logo, Fast Company, Communication Arts, and has been profiled by the BBC for the series called The Chain in which, “leading figures name the woman who’s inspired their success for the next interview in this audio chain.”  

Please feel free to join this walking community by following @thismorningwalk @parkhere on Instagram or for more info and resources thismorningwalk.com

Find Your People with Maggie Kane

As a young person, Maggie Kane had big plans to leave her hometown of Raleigh, NC, and find adventure in Italy.  While she was lucky to get to Europe during college, it was a volunteer gig with a day shelter for people experiencing homelessness that planted the seeds for her true adventure of a lifetime.  That volunteer gig turned into a paid job and it was through relationships with the people from the shelter that Maggie found her true calling: starting the first “pay what you can” restaurant in her hometown.  Through many twists and turns, and unexpected stops and starts, A Place at the Table was born, and with it, Maggie has truly found her community.  Listen in to hear Maggie's #perfectlyimperfect journey. 

 

Bio:

Maggie is the Founder and Executive Director of A Place at the Table, Raleigh’s first pay-what-you-can nonprofit cafe. She graduated from NC State University in 2013 and began working for a nonprofit with people experiencing homelessness. By befriending many people living on the margins, she saw the challenges of food insecurity as well as providing dignity to those in need. In February 2015, A Place at the Table was born and Maggie never looked back. Opening in January of 2018, Table has served thousands of people in Raleigh with a dignified and an affordable meal, together. Maggie has a heart to serve, a desire to always be inclusive, and a passion for loving people.

She lives in Raleigh, loves to jump rope, and eats a large amount of peanut butter. She loves hiking in the mountains, and all things sunflowers. You’ll find her watching movies at the theaters in those big comfy chairs, skydiving, or breaking away for a quick 2-day weekend trip.

A Place at the Table: https://tableraleigh.org/

Happy Valentines Day

Every February, around this time, approximately 8 billion small heart-shaped candies are created and exchanged.  These candies bear messages of love and care, and are often used as gifts to express feelings for another person.  

In each episode featuring a guest, we ask them if there are any words of wisdom they might share with their younger selves. These words of wisdom are like those Sweetheart treats, but instead of representing love for someone else, they are messages of love directed to our guests themselves, and by extension, to all of us.  We are so inspired by the wisdom our guests shared, so we put all these beautiful words together, as a little love treat for our listeners. 

Enjoy!

 

Thank you to our amazing guests for their words of wisdom: Donna Peek, Darren Gold, Leslie McGuirk, Mike Robbins, Susan Olesek, Laila Tarraf, Nichelle Trambell Spellman, Rachel Bitecofer, Bridgette Corridan, Mary Lin McBride, Ali Ingersoll, Cara Jones, David Richman, Chris Pierce, Chris Tsakalakis, Jill Santa Lucia, Forrest Wright, Aisha Ponds, Donna Rhode, Kristin Firpo, Marney Sullivan, Deborah Egerton, Rebekah Rotstein, Daryan Rahimzadeh, Kat Gordon, Kat Williford, Jeff Slater, Bryan Gillette, Oneika Mays, Vanessa Loder, Kerri Kelly, Seane Corn, Sarah McDonald, Mary Felice, Shelly Tygielski, Joe Walsh, Rebecca Ward, Nicole Swiner, Natalie Grumet, Marti Grimminck, Ava Lashay, Maureen Aarons, Josh Izenberg, Trish Hegarty, Kim Hunter, Ashleigh Parker, Chris Hendricks, Danny Rosin, Michelle Simmons, Katherine Kennedy, Tony Lillios

Hit ‘Em Where It Hurts with Rachel Bitecofer

Please note that there’s some pretty salty language in this episode.

 

Our conversation with political scientist Rachel Bitecofer was originally released on 8/31/22. Rachel has been a strong voice on saving our democracy and her new book, “Hit ‘Em Where It Hurts: How to Save Democracy by Beating Republicans at Their Own Game," was released in Feb 2023. Given how important her message is, we decided to re-release her episode. 

 

This was a milestone episode for us. Sherry has admired Rachel Bitecofer’s work from behind her Twitter screen for years.  When she used that same screen to ask Rachel to join us on the podcast, we were both thrilled she said yes.  

 

We are even more thrilled with the conversation we got to have with Rachel. Like most of us, she’s had a bumpy road to get to where she is today: a well respected political scientist, polling expert, and commentator who has appeared in the NY Times Opinion pages, on The Daily Show, and in many other publications. But it took her a while to figure it out. After following the Grateful Dead around for a while, she did find out what her “thing” was and enrolled in a junior college. And how did she figure it out?  She paid attention to what was fun. Lucky for us, politics was fun for her, and the rest of us are better because of it. Please listen in to Rachel’s perfectly imperfect journey, not to mention her uproariously funny sense of humor.  

 

As long as I get to experience life, I’m pretty happy.  ~ Rachel Bitecofer

 

Bio

Rachel Bitecofer. Ph.D. is a political scientist and election forecaster turned political strategist. Her interviews and analysis have been featured by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Salon, Politico, The New Republic, Real Time with Bill Maher, CNN, MSNBC and many other prominent news sources.

Rachel was recognized for her novel theory that predicted the size of the “Blue Wave” in the 2018 midterm elections much earlier than other forecasters. She then used her methodology to anticipate that Democrats would recapture the presidency in 2020, more than a year out from the election.

Known as The Election Whisperer, Rachel “The Doc” Bitecofer offers hold-no-punches political commentary and has become a sought-after political strategist. She earned a Ph.D. in political science and international affairs from the University of Georgia.

The Road is All with Josh Gerben

So much of what we focus on in the podcast is about people’s lives and their journeys. Yet, so much of life is focused on the destination.  When Josh Gerben was growing up, he was always more interested in where he was going, instead of where he was at that moment. Josh had a happy childhood, he has built a successful career as an attorney and is a very proud dad and husband. However, it’s only recently that he has come to realize the wisdom of a sign that used to hang in his Dad’s shop; The End is Nothing, the Road is All.  Listen in to Josh’s perfectly imperfect journey and the ways in which he is now bringing more focus to being in the moment.  

 

Bio
Josh Gerben is a trademark attorney and founder of intellectual property law firm Gerben IP. Raised in a family of entrepreneurs, Josh opened Gerben IP in 2008 to test his own entrepreneurial skills.

Since the firm’s opening in 2008, Josh has overseen the registration of over 7,500 trademarks for clients in the United States and around the world.

With 15+ years of experience, Josh is a nationally recognized, sought-after thought leader in the trademark space, regularly appearing in publications such as CNN, Wall Street Journal, ESPN, NPR, New York Times and the Washington Post. Josh also regularly appears on CNBC to discuss news in the trademark world.

Josh also launched his own podcast in 2019, titled “The Josh Gerben Show.” Across the span of 29 episodes, Josh gives a wide variety of tips and advice for small business owners and law firms. Topics covered include, but are not limited to, how to create an effective website, developing a personal brand, digital marketing strategies, and time management.

Links
Podcast:  https://joshgerben.com/podcast/
Website:  https://www.gerbenlaw.com
LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuagerben/

Speaking to What Matters with Katherine Kennedy

We all have a story. But often our stories live just in our minds or hearts, never making it out into the world. Sometimes we hold back because we don’t believe we have anything interesting or important to say, and other times it’s because we simply don’t know how to put it into words.  Katherine Kennedy spent much of her early career helping others tell their story but kept her own truth bottled up inside.  She helped launch young people into academic success and she coached professionals to unearth their authentic truths. But for years she held back from having the difficult conversations in her own life to help make sense of her own story until that finally became untenable. Listen in to hear Katherine’s Perfectly Imperfect journey and her advice on how to access your own story.  

 

Bio

Katherine Kennedy has almost 30 years of experience helping people tell their stories. After two decades of building Summer Search into a national nonprofit and mentoring hundreds of youth, she launched her own coaching business in 2015 focused on helping people speak with more authenticity and confidence. She has coached clients on TED talks, toasts, presentations, interviews and the soul-affirming exploration of telling your story. She has a gift for helping you communicate in a way that lands right in the audience’s heart. This is what she does for others and this is what she did with her book Speaking to What Matters: My story of learning how to share what’s inside.

 

Katherine is a mom, wife, daughter, sister and friend. She is grateful to have found her purpose but knows that it is her relationships with the people in her life that make life meaningful and worthwhile. To her, this is what matters most.

 

https://katherinekennedysf.com/