Episodes

My guest for this episode is Heather Drummond. I met Heather through my website, believe it or not. She reached out through the contact page on my website, and I actually answered. I'm a little suspicious when people reach out through the contact page, primarily because more times than not, it's a spam message.

But in this case, I got a feeling she was a real person. We started an email exchange, and she had asked me to be on her podcast, which you can find her podcast on Apple Podcast just lik...

My guest for the latest Creative Spirits Unleashed Podcast episode is Anna Twinney. We had the rare treat of getting to sit down together over coffee and tea to have an unforgettable conversation. If you have ever wondered if your animal was speaking to you – or if you could speak to your animal - this conversation is for you. Anna has a way of describing animal communication that just makes sense. I had several huge lightbulb moments in the conversation. We talked leadership, balance, the dance...

My guest for the latest Creative Spirits Unleashed Podcast episode is Lisa Calder. I met Lisa at the Equus Film Festival in December. When I watched her work in the round pen, I was immediately intrigued by her leadership style with horses. She has the precise balance of connection and direction that creates a seemingly effortless dance together, the kind of balance I call Dancing the Tightrope.

This was one of the most unforgettable conversations I’ve ever had. Early on, Lisa shared some of he...

My guest for this episode of the Creative Spirits Unleashed Podcast is Hannah Pasquinzo. Hannah is a successful small business owner, yoga instructor, and coach living in the magical Ozark mountains with her horses, dogs, and cats.

Hannah and I met at the Journey On Podcast Summit in November. She was one of the 12 people who joined in the Ice Bath excursion on Saturday night. She inspired everyone in the group when she stayed in for the target of two minutes, and then said she could stay even ...

My guest for this episode of the podcast is Kate Neligan. From the first minute I spoke with her, I could tell Kate was the kind of coach that facilitates true change. In this episode, she speaks freely about her own transformation, and the less-than-perfect road that led her to embrace the journey more than the end goal. Kate also has a point of view about what makes a good coach and a good coaching fit. Most importantly, Kate realizes that the journey is never complete and continues to work on...

My guest for this episode of the podcast is Sarah V. Barnes, author of She Who Rides Horses. If you have ever wondered if intuition is real or questioned whether you could really trust your instincts, this podcast is for you. Sarah practiced in the logical world of academia before becoming an author. Working with horses taught her to move beyond logic. As she said in the podcast, “I feel like I’m reclaiming my birthright.” I couldn’t agree more. Sarah has a lot of wisdom to offer, both in this p...

How can horses help a person be a better leader? So started this podcast with Amanda Held, an accomplished leader in a variety of settings. She shared compelling stories of what she has seen and experienced, along with quotes like this: “If you ask a question, you have to respect the answer that you get.” Early on, she tells a story of a toxic leader who transformed in a moment after getting a mustang to do something truly remarkable. Except he failed to remark, and it led him to a life defining...

Have you ever noticed how one thing leads to another, then leads to another and so on? This episode came about because I fell off a horse and found Warwick Schiller, who teaches people about horses on Facebook. Except he’s really all about personal transformation. He was a guest on this podcast in May 2020, and then I was a guest on his podcast September 2021. In that episode, I told a story about a pivotal moment in daughter Jen’s addiction journey. Fast forward to the summer of 2022, I get a m...

This latest podcast takes a whole new turn for me. Yet it makes complete sense in terms of the Dancing the Tightrope podcast series. Remember that this series falls under the category of “it takes a village.” In my case, the village I needed was made up of the friends, family and trainers who helped me get back on the horse after my fall in 2017.

My guest for this episode is Marla Steinberg, who happily went along with me when I finally decided to ride a horse again – in late 2018. In other wor...

I’m continuing my podcast series on my book Dancing the Tightrope with Lee McLean, Author and Horsewoman of Keystone Equine in Alberta, Canada. Lee is an incredible writer. She is one of those rare people who knows how to use Facebook to share her messages about horses. She is also a balanced thinker, and that’s what made me ask her on the podcast. Well, actually, it started when I read a post that beautifully described one of the many balancing acts with training horses. She agreed to allow me ...

This episode is one in a series I’m doing for my new book Dancing the Tightrope, What Falling Off a Horse Taught Me About Embracing Pressure, Fear and Uncertainty.

Today’s guest is Bruce Anderson of Natural Humanship. I could argue that this book would not exist were it not for Bruce; I can say for sure what I learned working with him deeply shaped not only the book, but my mindset. Specifically, I’m talking about how I’ve come to view pressure, mistakes, perfection, fear and more.

Mindset is ...

In my new podcast series, I’m talking to the people who are in my latest book. Dancing the Tightrope, What Falling Off a Horse Taught Me About Embracing Pressure, Fear and Uncertainty chronicles my journey from a bad horse accident to getting back on the horse. In other words, I brought to life one of the most age-old idioms.

The journey was both difficult and fulfilling at the same time. Many, many people helped me along the way. For this podcast series, I am talking to the people who help out...

You asked for it, so you got it! We decided to wrap up the The Elegant Pivot Series with a final bring-it-all-together conversation. My daughter, Jen and I have been exploring the five principles in my book, “The Elegant Pivot: An Inspired Move for Navigating Corporate Politics”. While the subtitle may refer to “corporate politics”, my readers are telling me it applies to much, much more. As a refresher, here are the five principles along with the past podcasts we have done.

1: Discern Signal f...

We are finishing up a series that I've been doing with my coworker, colleague, and daughter, Jen Maneely with my book “The Elegant Pivot”. This is a book I wrote and published in 2001. We've been following the five main principles of the elegant pivot around how to assume positive intent. The fifth principle is to develop a spirit of inquiry. And if you haven’t read my book, or need a refresher on the five principles, they are:


1: Discern Signal from Noise
2: Focus on what You Want
3: Take No...

In my latest podcast episode, I again welcome daughter and colleague Jen Maneely. We are continuing our series on The Elegant Pivot. In this episode, we talked about the Chapter titled Master Your Stories.


We had SO many stories about making up stories. All too often, we think we know what the other person is thinking or why they said something. More often than not, we are missing the full picture. In fact, I would dare say we never have the full picture, because we can’t truly get inside som...

My guest for this episode is Robyn Schiller. It was two years ago that I reached out to her husband Warwick Schiller to be a guest on my podcast. He’s a very well-known horse trainer with an extensive video subscription library. Then, a year ago, I got to meet Robyn (and Warwick in person) at the Cactus Reining Classic. We visited after I had gotten to see Robyn ride her reining horse in the show. She mentioned that she used to be in the corporate world, in Human Resources, which definitely made...

My guest for this episode is Geoff Saab, author of the newly published book Low Risk Rules, A Wealth Preservation Manifesto. If the word “manifesto” gets your attention, that’s exactly what Geoff was hoping for. He really does have a point of view on how to preserve wealth. His ideas apply to all of us, even though he wrote the book primarily for entrepreneurs who had sold their business.


Our conversation covered a lot of territory. One of the main themes of Geoff’s book and clearly, in his w...

In my latest podcast episode, I again welcome daughter and colleague Jen Maneely. We are continuing our series on The Elegant Pivot, this time to dive into the practice of taking nothing personally. When a mother and daughter sit down to talk about taking nothing personally, anything can happen.


If we had tried to have this conversation a few years ago, it would have been like navigating a minefield. We would have tried to avoid each other’s hot buttons and not hurt the other’s feelings. Not ...

Don’t think about a big, purple elephant with white polka dots and a pink tail. How did you do? First you had to think about it to not think about it. That’s the point of the principle from chapter 9 in The Elegant Pivot: Focus on What You Want.


This week, Jen Maneely joins me again to share our stories on our successes and failures in applying this principle in real life. We never know where one of these conversations is going to take us. We both had a number of insights as we worked through...

My guest for this week’s podcast is Nahshon Cook. We spoke last year in a very memorable conversation. Over the last twelve months, much has changed. He is now an author. His book is titled Being With Horses, and it was my most gifted book over the last year. He has also begun teaching intensives at his barn for horses and their people. As word of his gifts has spread, he is riding the wave of being more well known, which gives him an opportunity to personally grow in ways serve his horses and c...

Remember those old radios, where you turned the dial, navigating through the noise of static? Up and down the spectrum, turn the dial a little this way and then a little that way, until finally, we find music or a person talking. That’s when you know you found the signal. Actually, new car radios also have noise and signal, but the new technology makes it easier to quickly find the channel.


Recently, I had a lot of noise while purchasing a new car. Well, isn’t the process usually full of nois...

Conflict is necessary for true change. Wait – did I just say that? Does the idea of conflict make you cringe? Come be a fly on the wall in my conversation with Kendall Lyman of The Highlands Group. We started this conversation talking about “mining for conflict” when leading change and this conversation took off from there.


Kendall is the co - author of the book Change the Way You Change 5 Roles of Leaders Who Accelerate Business Performance. We had a wide-ranging conversation on why change i...

For this episode, we are doing something completely different. I am starting a series on my book, “The Elegant Pivot” with the help of Jennifer Maneely. Jen is a thought leader in the addiction community and specializes in helping parents set boundaries with their adult children who are caught up in drugs and alcohol. Having been a student of her own mind and now a sponsor in the addition community for fifteen years, she has keen insights into how our minds work. That’s why I turn to her again a...

My guest for this episode is Kira Higgs, author, facilitator, strategist. If you have ever had something happen to you that made you feel out of control, you need to listen to this conversation. We started with a serious bicycle accident that Kira many years ago that was one of those life defining moments. Listen to how she made choices to navigate through her recovery. It’s a masterclass in wisdom about what we can change and what we cannot change. The whole conversation is a masterclass – abou...