For Our Edification

Yes, there is such a thing as followership. So, I invited Sharna Fabiano to talk about it. She's the 2023 chair of the International Leadership Association’s Followership Member Community, host of the "Lead & Follow" podcast, a certified coach, author of "Lead & Follow: The Dance of Inspired Teamwork," and an internationally recognized tango artist.  Sharna is great at using dance as a met...

If anybody knows anything about overcoming obstacles, P.J. Dixon does. Here's someone who has lived a chunk of his life in a wheelchair, yet that hasn't stopped him from living life to the fullest as a wheelchair athlete, international traveler, 10th degree black belt, and a martial arts and women’s self-defense instructor. So, how has P.J. done it??? In this energized interview, we go in about ov...

When my family talked about getting a dog, I talked about how much work it would be for us. What I didn’t anticipate is how much having a dog would teach us about ourselves. Who knew? Wilfred "Woofred" Hester knew. As a professional dog trainer, Wilfred works with dog parents on helping them understand how their behaviors determine their dogs' responses. If things go well, the result is a host of...

Some of the people I admire most are servant leaders. These are folks who put others first. But they do so to help guide groups and communities in specific directions. One of my very cool higher ed marketing and communications colleagues, Jenny Petty, has a such a fascination with servant leadership that she hosts a podcast called "The Servant Marketer." Jenny visited "For Our Edification" for a r...

WRITE TO BEAR ALMS On May 27th, USA Today published the article, "How funders, school leaders can step up to combat philanthropic disparities faced by HBCUs.” The only problem is that I felt the article need a bit more fundraising and philanthropy meat on the bone. Cue our resident fundraising and philanthropy expert--Dr. Halima Leak Francis! Having researched fundraising capacity-building at HBCU...

Halima and I continue our conversation about how people struggle with shame. This part of the conversation goes deeply into leadership. We tackle how chaos aggravates one's feeling of shame while hiding others' feelings of shame. We also go into how organizational culture plays into individuals' feelings of shame and also how accountability can be weaponized. So, how do we deal with feeling shame...

It's so refreshing to have Halima back on the mic with me! She had something serious on her heart and wanted to share it with the "For Our Edification" audience. Halima wants you to know that there's no shame in the struggle.  She has ever so wise words about the importance of showing up when you're in the middle of the struggle and how she works through moments of struggle, even in her job as an...

In this second part of my conversation with Joel Goodman, we talk a bit more about website strategy for colleges and universities. But, an interesting moment happens when we get real about how burnout looks for higher ed marketers and what it's like having to manage egos. Finally, we learn about Joel's new podcast, "Appendix B," which he co-hosts with his Bravery Media colleague, Kristin Van Dorn....

I had something on my brain. No more "soft skills!" Find out why I believe that term needs to go. References: LinkedIn: Why I Hate the Term 'Soft Skills' Medium: Soft Skills: Origin, where it comes from and Concept National Career Development Association: Why We Should Stop Using ‘Soft’ Skills The views expressed on "For Our Edification" do not necessarily reflect the views of any entity with whic...

As a former university marketing and communications director, I can tell you that the job looks fun until it's time to grind. There has been an explosion of higher ed marketing podcasts, in fact, that have gotten quite real about the challenges of being a higher ed chief marketing officer. One of those podcasts is "Thought Feeder," on which I had the pleasure of appearing.  In invited, "Thought Fe...

Doing social media for a brand can't be all that different from doing it for a personal account...right? It is very different. But a lot of folks, including hiring managers, still haven't gotten the memo. As a higher education marketer who has managed social media for three institutions, I know how different and emotionally taxing social media management can be. Jon-Stephen Stansel, who is the dir...

When there are major changes in any company or institution, the focus is often on what the leaders will do. But how do major moves, such as leadership changes or mergers and acquisitions, affect the employees? Change management expert, Dr. Robin M.L. Johnson, joins the podcast to provide insight about the very important role of emotional intelligence and how organizational changes affect those not...

Deion Sanders' leaving Jackson State University to take the football head coach job at the University of Colorado inspired lively debate on social media and sports talk shows. But, somehow, quite a few folks decided that Sanders "saved" HBCUs! I brought in Jackson State alum and PR professional, Eddie Brown, to discuss why the bigger issue is really about how Jackson State and other HBCUs are the...

On January 1, 2022, the mentoring organization, Son of a Saint , celebrated its 11th anniversary. It came from the vision of Bivian “Sonny” Lee, III who wanted to help young men without fathers in their homes. Lee's vision resulted in one of New Orleans’ most respected nonprofit organizations. On the old Eddie Francis Podcast Show a few years back, Halima and I had a chat with Sonny about Son of a...

My dude David Grubb paid the podcast again to talk sports. This time, we had a rich conversation about mental health in sports. David is a sports reporter who has been in the locker room with pro athletes after crushing defeats and he has seen the effects that injuries have had on athletes' mental health. He is even open about managing his own mental health. We talk about what athletes do and don'...

Khalilah Elliott and Jamal Sterling, hosts of "Whatever We Want with Jay & Kay," join the podcast to talk about the powerful role creativity plays in our everyday lives and how creativity is perceived in the Black community.

Dee Holt, the "founder" of Apple Fried Apple visits to talk about going viral and how he uses his Alpha Phi Alpha membership to inspire his students.

We visit the world of motivational speaking with speaker, trainer, author and host of the "Off the Bench" podcast, Mark Wiggins, to chat about the craft and its effect on people.

If you follow me on Twitter, you may have noticed that, at times, I reference narcissistic leadership (#narcissisticleadership). You may even believe that I have somewhat of an obsession with narcissism. The reason narcissism tends to be such a big deal to me is 1) my professional experiences and 2) I researched narcissism in leadership for my master's degree. What a revelation! In this episode, I...

During her vice presidential nomination speech, Kamala Harris gave a shout out to the Divine Nine after mentioning her sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha. Why, on the biggest stage of her career and in a such a critical moment, would she do such a thing?

Eddie and Halima talk to health and wellness success stories Eric and Maleka Beal who lost a combined 300 lbs.

Every September, HazingPrevention.org holds National Hazing Prevention Week to create and share awareness about the dangers of hazing. An instrumental figure in tracking hazing deaths is Hank Nuwer. On the old Eddie Francis Podcast Show, we talked to professional mental health counselors Leslie Brown and Von Eaglin about the psychology of hazing, particularly in the Divine Nine. As a member of a D...

WRITE TO BEAR ALMS August is Black Philanthropy Month, so that means it's Halima time! With such a great celebration, there are many who get into the spirit of giving. One's giving should have purpose, however (thus the supporter of "For Our Edification", the Purposeful Philanthropy Foundation). For this edition of the Write to Bear Alms segment, Halima breaks down how having a philanthropic ident...