Make Life Less Difficult

Send us a message! My guest today is Maya Harris. Maya is a Learning Manager, a Facilitator, and a Coach.  She has spent the past 8 years of her career in global consulting, and before that worked at Unilever.  Her educational journey was focused on engineering and she has her masters from the University of Cambridge.  Maya is also a trans woman and our conversation today focuses on her journey of...

Send us a message! Today’s guest is Paulo André. This is a super special episode for several reasons.  First, Paulo is incredibly thoughtful and has inspiring stories and reflections that he shares. Second, I am not the host of this conversation. This podcast is hosted by Russ Watts!  Russ has been a guest on the podcast multiple times and has also been kind enough to host me.  So, a couple months...

Send us a message! My guests today are Elizabeth and Jakob. This is my first time having two guests and it’s a complete delight to share this conversation with you. Elizabeth was first recommended to me for the podcast by Jakob.  Then, after meeting and chatting with Elizabeth, she had the idea of also having Jakob on to build out their story and journey in a way that reflects how they do life – t...

Send us a message! My guest today is Julie F. Julie and I met through a wonderful organization we both work for a company  where Julie is the Operations Manager. Prior to her work with Educe, Julie worked at McKinsey & Company for almost 6 years. Originally from the US, Julie and her family have lived in Munich Germany for almost a decade.  In our conversation, she shares the journey of how sh...

Send us a message! My guest today is Deiadre Rauch. Deiadre has a degree in engineering from Purdue University.  She’s a structured thinker and kis keenly interested in how the way we think impacts how we feel and what we do as leaders.  Deiadre’s unique blend of business experience, cultural awareness, and a love of helping people to get what they want out of life, prompted her pursuit of coachin...

Send us a message! My guest today is Kelly Kienzle. Kelly is a returning guest to the podcast, after being a guest on episode 14, in October 2021. It’s a sincere treat to have her back and enter into this conversation. Kelly is the founder of Open Circle Coaching.  She provides leadership coaching and facilitation to individuals and teams to improve organizational performance.  She believes that b...

Send us a message! My guest today is Retired Lieutenant Colonel Tony Cerella. Tony has been on the podcast two times previously and has graciously agreed to talk with me again as a bookend to our conversational theme of his retirement from the US Army after 23 years of service. If you haven’t listened to our other conversations, you can find them at episodes 99 and 121.  The first conversation was...

Send us a message! My guest today is Dorcas Cheng-Tozun. Dorcas is an award-winning writer, editor, speaker, communications consultant, and former Inc.com columnist. She is the author of several books including Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul: How to Change the World in Quiet Ways, which we discuss today. Her work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Christianity Today, Image Journal , a...

Send us a message! My guest today is Crystaline Randazzo. Crystaline is a returning guest and was first on episode 69 in July of 2022.  Crystaline is a story excavator and a media creatrix.  She empowers women to catalyze change in their life through the power of storytelling.  She uses the science behind storytelling to help people connect with themselves, excavate their own truths, and craft new...

Send us a message! My guest today is Cassandra Ross. Before I tell you about Casey, let me first say, happy 2024!  This is the first episode to release in the new year and I’m thrilled to be sharing Casey’s conversation with you.  If you are waiting to take action on something in your life, you may find just the inspiration and motivation you need here in Casey’s story and reflections. I have lots...

Send us a message! My guest today is Anne Blunden. Anne has served as the Executive Director of Nursing at both the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre and the King Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz University Hospital in Saudi Arabia.  She also served as the director of nursing at the King Fahad Medical Center. Originally from South Africa, much of her career has been dedicated to the medica...

Send us a message! My guest today is Cherise Tuttle. Cherise is a returning guest and I’m so delighted to get to share this conversation with you.  First, let me say if you haven’t heard our first conversation, I recommend taking the time to listen to Episode 73, where Cherise graciously shares pieces of her journey of grief and loss after losing her husband, Cody, in a paragliding accident. Cheri...

Send us a message! My guest today is Anna McMahon. Anna is a returning guest with our first conversation on episode 61.  If you haven’t listened, I highly recommend it. Originally from Ireland, Anna spent many years working internationally in education.  She now is a Positive Psychologist and Coach, focusing on helping individuals and organizations determine what wellbeing is and how to achieve it...

Send us a message! My guest today is David Achata. David is a returning guest and if you haven’t listened to our first conversation, I highly recommend it.  It’s episode 83.  David is a leadership and team development coach, the author of several business leadership books, and he brings over twenty years of leadership experience into his work.  He’s experienced multiple career changes, moving acro...

Send us a message! My guest today is Alan Questel. Alan S. Questel is known for his clarity, creativity and down to earth style of teaching.  He brings a depth of understanding, humor and gentle human perspective while creating lively conditions for learning.  Alan has taught thousands of people in over 20 countries. He was trained by Dr. Feldenkrais and has created numerous Feldenkrais programs o...

Send us a message! My guest today is Noel Bulger. Noel is a returning guest to the podcast after sharing pieces of his story on episode 100!   Noel is a leadership coach and veteran of the US Marine Corps.   Noel grew up in Ireland and moved to the United States at age 18.  He has had life toss him some difficult curveballs including the loss of his son, PTSD from his time in the military, and a t...

Send us a message! My guest today is Federica Vinci. Federica is the Deputy Mayor of Isernia, Italy.  She’s a recognized Obama Leader Europe 2020 as well as a co-founder of Volt Italia, shaking up politics with activist campaigns and strategic election planning. Federica’s background includes International Public Administration and Community Organizing, with stints as a Harvard’s Kennedy School te...

Send us a message! My guest today is Rob Allan. Rob is a Doctor of Psychology, a registered counselor, coach, facilitator, consultant, business operator, author and speaker. Originally studying medicine, Rob has had a career spanning training and development for adult learning programs, private equity and venture capital, serving as CEO of an acquisition and operations company, working two differe...

Send us a message! My guest today is Andrew Kauffman. Andrew is a returning guest to the podcast and I’m so happy to be continuing the conversation with him.  Our first conversation is on episode 117, and I highly recommend listening if you haven’t yet, as Andrew shared pieces of his journey including his experience coming out as gay as well as being a kidney donor to his father. Andrew is a coach...

Send us a message! My guest today is Russ Watts. Russ has been on the podcast several times and I continue to be so grateful for his willingness to jump into conversation whenever I say, hey, we should talk about that on the podcast!  This conversation today is special is so many ways.  First of all, for context, if you haven’t listened to Episode 4 where Russ shares stories of two mountaineering...

Send us a message! My guest today is Julie Perkins. Julie is the founder of Wyseminds, a company that works alongside female entrepreneurs to them be at their best, feel challenged and good enough to be there.   Julie has decades of experience building brands, growing businesses, and going through some difficult transitions along the way.  In our conversation she shares her wisdom of lessons learn...

Send us a message! My guest today is Michelle Hervy. Michelle is a Menopause Awareness Speaker and Midlife Coach.   After having her own less than perfect entry into the world of menopause, Michelle is dedicated to guiding individual and businesses through the transformative midlife stage.  Her work emphasizes self-care, lifestyle assessment, and the profound impact of mental and physical health o...

Send us a message! My guest today is John Tilstra. John is, as some of you know, my husband.  He and I have talked about doing a podcast conversation together for all of the two years that I’ve been doing the Make Life Less Difficult podcast and we finally did it!  You’ll get to hear the story behind the delay in our conversation so I won’t spoil that here. In our conversation today, we share piec...

Send us a message! My guest today is Sandene Chetwynd. Sandene is a Leadership and wellbeing coach based out of Melbourne, Australia. Sandene has a passion for supporting leaders to identify the combination of skills, behaviours and habits that will make them be better and feel better at work – to be able to have a career that is both rewarding and sustainable. Sandene partners with her clients to...

Send us a message! My guest today is Kenza Barrada. Kenza is a returning guest and if you haven’t listened to our first two conversation together, I highly recommend them (episodes 113 and 119). Today’s conversation happened in response to the earthquake that happened in Morocco just last week.  So you might guess that this conversation has some heaviness to it and we felt the heaviness of our hea...