Make Life Less Difficult

Send us a message! In today's episode, I shares reflections and ideas on strategies for giving feedback.  This topic comes up a lot in my work as a coach and facilitator. Looking at several different models of giving feedback will hopefully provide new perspectives, ideas for skills to develop, and considerations on how to adjust the style of feedback for the situation and individual.   I bel...

Send us a message! A few minutes of reflections as I take a small break and have a few weeks without new episodes released.  As my life enters quite a few major transitions, I want to continue this podcast in a way that will be sustainable.  It looks like this means there may be some inconsistency in releases along the way, and I'm processing how that will impact me, as I really love having t...

Send us a message! My guest today is Amy Achata. Amy is a clinical mental health counselor.  She believes meaningful connection changes people – and this is what the therapeutic process is all about.  Amy is passionate about encouraging growth and restoration for those questioning their purpose or identity and searching for meaning.  Amy works with people facing grief and loss, generational trauma...

Send us a message! My guest today is… well, me.  Which sounds a little strange to say!  Today’s conversation is a little different as it is hosted by Russ Watts who has been a guest on the podcast several times, after being my very first guest on episode 4.   It was with some trepidation that I stepped into this idea of being the guest for a conversation and see where the conversation would go.  I...

Send us a message! My guest today is Severine Flores. Severine is a certified executive, teams, and organizational culture coach with more than 20 years of experience living and working across Africa, Europe, and the United States.  She facilitates conversations to help organizations and teams become more effective, develop and implement a shared vision, and work collaboratively across diverse bac...

Send us a message! My guest today is Titus Mott. Titus is a returning guest, having first been on the podcast at the very start, episode 5.  Titus was directly influential in me having the courage to start this podcast, through a couple of things we collaborated on – me being a guest on a podcast he was doing at the time plus us recording a few potential episodes of another podcast idea we had.  U...

Send us a message! My guest today is Priscila Hernandez, or more commonly known as Pichi. Pichi is from the beautiful country of El Salvador in Central America.  She works for the US Embassy in San Salvador, her country’s capital.  In addition to a busy job in the consular services section of the Embassy, Pichi is also part of the Adjunct Faculty program, conducting training for colleagues at emba...

Send us a message! My guest today is Laura Baringer. Laura is passionate about living an authentic, values-drive life and continuously figuring out what that means and how to do it.  She’s a former executive and strategy advisor in the global health, adolescence and gender fields and recently opened the first African branch of an NGO, managing a multi-million-dollar adolescent health program. Laur...

Send us a message! My guest today is Russ Watts.  Russ is a returning guest and today we're excited to talk all about Story! We recently facilitated a retreat in southern Tuscany, Italy, that had been planned originally for October 2020, and we finally were able to do it in person.   The power and impact of story has left indelible marks in my own life and it's the underlying passion of...

Send us a message! My guest today is Susan Sjolund. Susan is a marketing and public relations professional whose experience spans the globe.  With over 20 years of experience, she has a track record of success in building and managing high-performing cross-functional teams and collaborating with stakeholders across different departments and levels.  Susan is known as a strategic thinker and commun...

Send us a message! My guest today is Lt Col Tony Cerella. Tony is a returning guest to the podcast and in today’s conversation he shares insights and reflections on retiring from the US Army after 23 years of service. On episode 99, which was released in January, Tony was looking forward toward the month of May and his official retirement ceremony.  If you haven’t listened to that conversation, I...

Send us a message! My guest today is Freya Birdie. Freya has 17 years of global experience working across three continents in the US (NYC, SF, Silicon Valley, Miami); Europe (London, Rome, Brussels), and Asia (Mumbai) focused on management consulting, leadership coaching, organizational and team effectiveness, learning & professional development. Freya is a graduate of the Leadership Coaching...

Send us a message! My guest today is Kenza Barrada. Kenza is the founder of the “We Are One World” or WAOW Project, which is designed to support leaders to realize that each one of us impacts all others, and that change starts with us. Kenza is a senior advisor for leadership development and team alignment, a Mindfulness and MBTI practitioner, and she collaborates with distinctive practitioners an...

Send us a message! My guest today is Miranda Holder. Miranda is returning to the podcast after being a guest in February 2022 on Episode 38.  We recently reconnected and Miranda was kind enough to turn our catch up into another podcast conversation and I’m so grateful! Miranda has an amazing story including starting her career as an endurance athlete and at 25, finding herself training for the US...

Send us a message! My guest today is Andrew Kauffmann. Andrew is a coach, a writer and a teacher of creative writing.   He believes that writing be a transformational aid for healing, in coaching, and in all contexts. Trained and accredited by The Professional Writing Academy in the use of expressive and therapeutic writing, he uses stories, metaphor and narrative tools to help his coaching client...

Send us a message! Today is a monologue where I share some thoughts that I'm still formulating.  I'll work on putting resources here over the next few days, referencing books I've read that have influenced my thinking on this topic. Thanks for listening! Support the show Make Life Less Difficult ~    Support: buymeacoffee.com/lisatilstra

Send us a message! My guest today is Amanda Walters. Mandy is a world traveler, a Florida Gator, storyteller, and Human Resources professional.  Mandy grew up in the southern United States.  Her father was a Southern Baptist minister turned hospice chaplain and her mother a special education teacher. Mandy is a graduate of the University of Florida (Go Gators!) and has worked in HR for various org...

Send us a message! My guest today is Mary Seals. Mary is a fellow spouse in the US Foreign Service and we connected because her husband found my podcast through the episode with Gavin McClurg (episode 35).  After listening, he reached out and said, “hey I’m a paraglider, and in the foreign service, and studying to become a coach!”  And that connection led to meeting Mary and ultimately, this episo...

Send us a message! My guest today is Kenza Barrada. Kenza is the founder of the “We Are One World” or WAOW  Project, which is designed to support leaders to realize that each one of us impacts all others, and that change starts with us. Kenza is a senior advisor for leadership development and team alignment, a Mindfulness and MBTI practitioner, and she collaborates with distinctive practitioners a...

Send us a message! My guest today is Sue Callaghan.   Sue is the founder of goldvineco, and a leadership coach and facilitator.   As a leadership coach and facilitator, Sue brings authenticity, warmth, and positive energy to her clients to accelerate growth and effectiveness through self-understanding. She is committed to nurturing happy, successful leaders.   For sixteen years, Sue worked within...

Send us a message! My guest today is Wendy Moomaw.     Wendy is the founder of the Conscious Collaboratory® where she enables systems differently, rethinking old problems through new lenses and inviting multiple perspectives to create new possibilities.    She is the co-creator of Reimagining Workshops - co-creating the 8-week immersive workshop Reimagining Racial Equity , which is a multi-dimensi...

Send us a message! My guest today is Nadia Rivera. Nadia lives and works in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, where she works for the US Embassy.   I first met Nadia in 2019, where she was training to be an adjunct faculty for the Foreign Service Institute – an add-on to her full-time job.  I didn’t know it at the time, but it had just been a matter of days since Nadia had lost her father.  She shared with m...

Send us a message! My guest today is Eka Aleksandrova.   Eka is a talent development consultant, a coach, facilitator, and transition specialist.  She worked for over 25 years in the people development space, shaping people strategies and executing initiatives to recruit and retain exceptional people.  Eka worked for McKinsey & Company for over 20 years and is now the owner of her own company...

Send us a message! My guest today is Baktash Ahadi.   Baktash is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, speaker, facilitator, and human rights activist.   Baktash is a returning guest and if you have not yet listened to my first conversation with him, I highly recommend taking time to listen to Episode 84, where Baktash shared pieces of his and his family’s story of escaping Afghanistan as refuge...

Send us a message! My guest today is Todd Hess.   Todd is a leadership coach whose work centers around The Work of Byron Katie.  (we’ll share a lot more about what that means momentarily.)   Before his training as a coach, Todd had been an HR Executive in the tech industry with companies like eBay, NICE inContact, Vivint Smart Home, Call Tower, and Castlight Health.   After his own transformationa...