Racist whiners are losing their minds, melting down and accusing Kendrick Lamar's halftime show of being "DEI" because of the powerful symbolism and no white performers onstage. Seriously? Contrary to popular belief, DEI is not actually dead...but it's become a bad word thanks to this administration and followers. And they also cancelled Black History Month while they were at it. So how do we celebrate Black history in the midst of this chaos? I have some ideas! #InclusiveCommunications #BlackHi...
Feb 20, 2025•8 min•Season 3Ep. 3
My mother-in-law died in early October, two days before my 60th birthday. We ended up spending almost three weeks in the UK, preparing for her funeral and grieving with family. And now, just after we were beginning to emerge from the worst of the grief cycle, our family and friends are plunged right back into deep grief after the election. I feel numb. My husband and I went to the Japanese Garden yesterday. It was a beautiful day in Portland. We were not alone in seeking solace in the beautiful ...
Nov 08, 2024•8 min•Season 3Ep. 2
I’m rebooting my podcast to focus on communicating for change. This week we’re going to talk about how to uplift people of Hispanic descent. I share statistics about the prevalence of people of Hispanic descent in the U.S. workforce and why it's important to uplift them. In the U.S., National Hispanic Heritage Month is observed from September 15 to October 15. It’s a time to celebrate the histories, cultures, and contributions of Americans whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, ...
Oct 11, 2024•8 min•Season 3Ep. 1
Dr. Ronnie Taylor was born to extremely young parents who divorced after a few years of marriage. His mom converted to Mormonism and moved the family to Salt Lake City to start a new life. Unfortunately, the missionary who converted and recruited her failed to tell the church Ronnie’s family was Black. They weren’t exactly welcomed with open arms. His mom worked and went to college full time, and eventually she remarried. Growing up in Utah as a Black Mormon was tough. Ronnie moved out when he w...
Sep 30, 2022•31 min
Dr. Melissa Jenkins Mangili is a neuropsychologist and medical school faculty member who has reinvented herself as a fashion and fitness model. Her life began with grit and resilience. She and her three siblings were was raised in poverty in rural Maine by a single quadriplegic mother. “The nice thing about being from a small town is that everybody knows each other…and rallied to help us. (My mother) couldn't drive at first. She had to relearn how to drive and get an adapted car. Eventually we w...
Sep 08, 2022•37 min•Season 2Ep. 16
Vernita L. Bowe is a survivor. As a smaller-than-average child, she experienced bullying in school. When she grew up she married the wrong man and wasn’t able to get out of that marriage for 24 years, three kids later. Parenting has been about huge loves and losses for Vernita. Her middle son landed in prison, and four years ago her oldest son Byron died in a car accident. “You really don't wanna bury your children. But what I've learned is all of the promises are gone…all of the things that you...
Jul 20, 2022•29 min•Season 2Ep. 15
Happy Pride! What better month to launch this fun episode and celebrate a wonderful queer story. Growing up in Germany, when Nicole moved to the U.S. as a teen she never felt like she fit in. Then she joined the military during Desert Storm, and she ended up playing Taps for 600 funerals of her colleagues. That nearly broke her. She married a man before coming out as gay, and her dad and sisters rejected her. Around the same time of that rejection, her beloved mom—the only family member who trul...
Jun 14, 2022•52 min•Season 2Ep. 14
This week on the Finding Fertile Ground podcast, I interview Cheryl Parks , sales and mindset coach. Cheryl works with my business coach, Liz J. Simpson, and has provided me invaluable advice and confidence boosts as I reboot my business. Cheryl and I immediately connected, and I was especially lucky to meet her in person in early March, since the Big Money Movement coaching program happens all on Zoom and social media. It was a delight to delve into her background and discover how many ways our...
May 12, 2022•39 min•Season 2Ep. 13
Michele Heyward is a civil engineer who built the U.S. power grid. Now she's a tech startup founder building the future of work at PositiveHire. Michele grew up in rural South Carolina in a three-bedroom house full of kids. She had four siblings. She describes herself as the weird kid, really good at math. Encouraged to pursue science and engineering, she went to engineering camp 30 years ago at 13 years old. “But what really got me sold on engineering was when I was 12, a Category Five hurrican...
Apr 27, 2022•46 min•Season 2Ep. 12
When Gresh was a kid, his military dad worked overseas for a year and this English major/entrepreneur started a family newspaper to keep his whole family up to date on what was going on. His first business was born! This week on the Finding Fertile Ground podcast, I interview Gresham Harkless, Jr., founder of CEO Blog Nation and Blue 16 Media, and host of the I AM CEO Podcast + CEO Chat Podcast. Gresh graduated from Howard University and Georgetown and has interviewed more than 1,000 CEOs, entre...
Apr 07, 2022•39 min•Season 2Ep. 11
This week on the Finding Fertile Ground podcast, I interview Chantal Cox, a special educator, author, speaker, and Transformation NeuroCoach™. Chantal lives in Wichita, Kansas, now but she grew up all over the world. Her birth dad is Mexican, but her mom remarried when she was three years old. Her adopted dad was in the army, so the family moved every two years. They lived in several states as well as Panama, Luxembourg, and The Netherlands. Chantal was born a shy, timid introvert. Being the new...
Mar 16, 2022•35 min•Season 2Ep. 10
This week on the Finding Fertile Ground podcast, I interview Devin Tomiak, founder of The Biggies Cards . After losing her youngest brother Grant to suicide 7 years ago, Devin Tomiak became driven to understand resilience--in particular, how to build resilience in kids. As a mom of two young boys, her preoccupation had a unique urgency. She created The Biggies cards, an innovative, research-based take on conversation cards designed to spark fun discussions about BIG social emotional concepts wit...
Feb 17, 2022•33 min•Season 2Ep. 9
This week on the Finding Fertile Ground podcast, I interview Mahlena-Rae Johnson . Mahlena was born in Arkansas but grew up on the island of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Mahlena is a speaker, comedian, author, and communication expert for introverts. After graduating from the School of Film and Television at Loyola Marymount University, earning her MBA at the University of Southern California, and working a variety of jobs, she felt her potential was being wasted in Los Angeles. She di...
Feb 03, 2022•44 min•Season 2Ep. 8
This week on the Finding Fertile Ground podcast, I interviewed Barbie Liss from Toronto, Canada. Barbie is an anti anti-aging coach who guides women as they heal their wounds and shed shame around aging. Barbie found her own fertile ground through a traumatic incident. Her daughter was raped at age 21. Barbie had to work through her own secondary trauma while supporting her daughter. They both entered into a restorative justice process with her daughter’s attacker. According to restorativejustic...
Jan 06, 2022•42 min•Season 2Ep. 7
This week on the Finding Fertile Ground podcast, it was a joy to interview Julie Allen again. I had the honor of interviewing Julie earlier this year for my Companies That Care podcast. During this interview, Julie shared her 15-year battle with eating disorders. She was in and out of treatment during her entire teenage years and into her early 20s. Her breaking point was a rape at 18 that took her eating disorder to a whole new level of self-hatred and lack of regard for her own life with an at...
Dec 21, 2021•51 min•Season 2Ep. 6
This week on the Finding Fertile Ground podcast, I interview Mike Ganino, a storytelling and communication expert, podcaster, and public speaking coach. He’s also husband to Phil and dad to Viviana, who was born at 29 weeks gestation in Mexico during the first stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. I loved hearing Mike’s life story, starting with growing up poor and getting diagnosed with diabetes as a kid. He also shared about coming out as gay in college and finding what he was meant to do in the wo...
Dec 08, 2021•48 min•Season 2Ep. 5
This week on the Finding Fertile Ground podcast, I interview Nura Elmagbari, a Muslim-American mom, wife, scientist, educator, nonprofit leader, activist, and community leader. I met Nura several years ago through my church, Spirit of Grace. Nura was our guest preacher for Mother’s Day, spoke on an interfaith women’s panel, brought her teen daughter to our youth group and talked about Islam, and emceed an immigrant storytelling event. Nura came to the United States as a child when her family esc...
Nov 23, 2021•49 min•Season 2Ep. 4
This week on the Finding Fertile Ground podcast, I interview Paula Dunn , who was born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate. Paula is my first Australian guest, and my first with a cleft lip and palate like me. On her first day of school, Paula was bullied by her classmates and when she told the teacher, she was called a tattletale. The bullying stunted her academic abilities and self-esteem during primary school and filled her with anxiety, stress, and depression. As immigrants to Australia, h...
Nov 10, 2021•46 min•Season 2Ep. 3
This week on the Finding Fertile Ground podcast, I interview Lily Shaw , a powerhouse actress, an expert writer, and an award-winning motivational speaker who was rescued and inspired by the make-believe world of cinema at the age of 7. When Lily was just starting out, her first Hollywood agent told her, “if you only had the right look, you could be Sandra Bullock.” Despite this subtle racism, Lily had some initial success as an actress of color in Hollywood. But none of her talent and skill and...
Oct 26, 2021•50 min•Season 2Ep. 2
This week on the Finding Fertile Ground podcast, I interview Tracey Osborne from Dallas, Georgia. After bouncing around in various locations during her childhood, Tracey got sexually assaulted by her live-in boyfriend the night of her senior prom. It was not her last sexual assault, and soon she found herself in and out of several domestic abuse situations and getting married several times. Tracey shares how she identified her fear of abandonment and broke the cycle of abuse. She also realized s...
Oct 12, 2021•29 min•Season 2Ep. 1
Trigger warning: This episode contains some racist and adult language This week on the Finding Fertile Ground podcast, I interview Daniel Sartin. Daniel is just a bit younger than my oldest son, but he’s survived a lifetime of trauma and difficulty. Born into the foster system, he got adopted and raised by a relative. He was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness even though he is queer, which resulted in deep shame about his sexuality. And then there’s just living while Black. Daniel shared stories abou...
Sep 28, 2021•55 min•Season 1Ep. 53
If you like what you hear or read, visit my Fertile Ground Communications website . This week on the Finding Fertile Ground podcast, I interview Terri Kozlowski . She is a proud Native American warrior of the Athabascan, Tlinglet Tribe and Raven Clan. When she was just 11 years old, her mother sold her for drugs and shut her out on the streets of Albuquerque, New Mexico. After many years of trying to process what had happened to her through therapy, Terri has learned to transcend her fears. She ...
Aug 25, 2021•29 min•Season 1Ep. 52
As a podcaster for justice, I stand with my sisters from the Women of Color Podcasters Community. We are podcasters united to condemn the tragic murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and many others at the hands of police. If you like what you hear or read or would like to see photos of Leslie, visit my Fertile Ground Communications website . This week on the Finding Fertile Ground podcast, I reflect back on the last 13 months. My little podcast is now one year, one month old after starting...
Aug 10, 2021•13 min•Season 1Ep. 51
Note: This episode contains a racist epithet. This week on the Finding Fertile Ground podcast, I interview Lisa Marie Simmons . Lisa grew up in Boulder, Colorado, but now lives in Lake Garda, Italy. I contacted her when I read her post on the Huffington Post, As A Young Black Girl, I Loved My Grandfather. Then I Found Out He’d Been A KKK Member . I have interviewed 75+ people since I started podcasting. I’ve made incredible connections and new friendships. But this one feels different. Lisa feel...
Jul 28, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 50
As a podcaster for justice, I stand with my sisters from the Women of Color Podcasters Community. We are podcasters united to condemn the tragic murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and many others at the hands of police. If you like what you hear or read or would like to see photos of Leslie, visit my Fertile Ground Communications website . This week on the Finding Fertile Ground podcast, I interview my friend Leslie Batchelder. We both sing soprano in our local Rock Voices choir. I’ve al...
Jul 14, 2021•47 min•Season 1Ep. 49
Read more about Amira and see photos on this blog post. Amira Stanley is a mindset & intention coach, end-of-life doula, and anti-racism educator and community activist. She grew up Black and gay in mostly small cities or towns, has lived with pain from hip dysplasia and lost a huge amount of weight so she could have hip replacement, supported her beloved husband through his transition, and has dealt with the emotional trauma of racism all her life, only to discover this one year ago through...
Jun 30, 2021•56 min•Season 1Ep. 48
Read more and view photos here . Lisa Schroeder is a mother, grandmother, chef, restaurateur and author devoted to providing better-than-authentic renditions of traditional home-cooked dishes at her popular, award-winning restaurant, Mother's Bistro & Bar. Lisa is an incredibly hard worker, as all executive chefs are, and she had to work twice as hard as a woman in the kitchen, to be taken seriously. Tragically, five years ago her beloved daughter died in a hiking accident. Now she’s a mothe...
Jun 16, 2021•52 min•Season 1Ep. 47
This week on the Finding Fertile Ground podcast, I interview Melissa Pierce, who I met through Rock Voices Portland, a 140-voice strong rock choir led by my friends Mark and Caley Barstow. Rock Voices’ theme is “healing through song,” which Melissa and I discuss on this podcast. Melissa was faced with a huge crisis in her 40s: she lost her beloved husband unexpectedly and became a single mom in that moment. Now she dedicates her time to supporting other widows, providing the support and guidance...
Jun 09, 2021•55 min•Season 1Ep. 46
Read the full blog post and view photos . This week on the Finding Fertile Ground podcast, I interview Ruth L. Schwartz, a writer, teacher, and consciousness-shifter. Ruth has published eight books and taught at six universities, and now she runs the Conscious Girlfriend Academy , the leading global program supporting lesbians and queer women to date wisely and love well. Ruth was born to parents who were only 18 and 20 when she was born. Her mother had never even held a baby before and they did...
May 26, 2021•46 min•Season 1Ep. 45
May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. I hope you’ll join me in signing the AAPI Visibility Pledge to support Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. After launching my second podcast, Companies That Care , I’ve started alternating each week. This week I interview Christine Cariño, a queer nonbinary immigrant from the Philippines. Her grit and resilience story led to her life’s work with underrepresented groups and communities as a transformation coach and consultant. Born and...
May 11, 2021•30 min•Season 1Ep. 44
