Episodes

Diane has practical ways to help us to help ourselves to help the Earth. Her real passion is finding choice in what we buy and how we choose to buy, so that we don’t destroy the planet we live on.


Our conversation started with her role in working with Richard Branson, who has been in the news lately thanks to the Virgin Galactic space flight. She has in interesting take on what drives him to make space flight available.


We had several themes in this conversation, which revolved around her ...

Sometimes, you read a book and the lessons stay with you long after you’ve finished the book. That’s what happened for me after I read Terri Tomoff’s book The Focused Fight-A Childhood Cancer Journey: From Mayhem to Miracles. I had the honor of watching this book unfold last year. Terri and I were in the writing in community group through Akimbo where we wrote daily and shared blurbs, plus offered each other encouragement. No one offered more hope and encouragement than Terri, which will not sur...

Sometimes when I’m watching a movie based on real life disasters, like Titanic or The Perfect Storm, I find myself yelling at characters on the screen to STOP. Wait another day! You don’t want the story to end this way! Of course, the people in these stories did not set out expecting the worst. They set out expecting their skills to be up for the challenges that awaited them.


In this podcast, Peter Barr tells of a harrowing adventure he had on a mountain in Nevada last December. In this case,...

Every year, the Masters Water Ski tournament is held in Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain Georgia. It is THE most prestigious tournament in water skiing. This year, my friend Cyndi Benzel was chief judge and asked me to be the judge’s assistant. During the officials meeting the first night we got there, I ran into Tyler just to say hi. We have been connected on Linkedin for years - because water skiing is that kind of sport. You just connect with everyone involved in the sport.


Somehow Tyler ...

When the shutdowns started happening last year, we all had to take our “engagement game” up to another level. Suddenly, our meetings became virtual. Once we mastered the “unmute” and “turn on video” buttons, we had to also master keeping people engaged without the benefit of being in the same room. We could no longer read body language…or yawns.


Vernon Roberts started mastering virtual engagement before it was cool. He and I worked together in the 90’s, teaching accounting, banking, loan appr...

Michele Stowe has a thing or two to say about leading change. She also has a thing or two to say about a lot of the most joyous – and least fun – parts of corporate life.


From the title of the podcast, it’s probably no surprise to you that Michele Stowe is also a self-described comic book nerd. In our conversation, she tells us about how and why she decided to leverage a comic book tool in her coaching repertoire. It’s the kind of thing that makes you tap your forehead and ask “Why didn’t I t...

Michael Cohen woke up to the possibilities of acupuncture when he was told he might not run again after a knee injury. His experience was so profound that he decided to dive deeply into acupuncture and Eastern medicine to learn what this different healing modality is all about. In his journey, he discovered that acupuncture is much more than a way to heal; it can also help enhance athletic performance. This conversation opened my eyes to some nuanced ways of thinking about energy, balance and ha...

For this episode, I’m speaking with Susan Robertson, founder and managing partner of Linceis Conscious Business. She is also the author of two books: REAL Leadership: Waken to Wisdom and her upcoming book, REAL Culture: The Catalyst for Conscious Business.

Su and I have a long history together that covers a lot of different domains. Before Linceis Conscious Business, she was a founder along with her husband Barry of Stop at Nothing, who ran one of the deepest, most effective leadership programs...

It’s easy to confuse our circumstances with our interpretation of those circumstances. In this conversation, Bill Goldsmith shares his own journey from feeling like a victim to loving his life and ending his career “100 times betters than it could have been”. Bill also shares a famous story in The Elegant Pivot, where assuming positive intent literally changed the direction and outcome of a critical team meeting.

If I had to name a theme for this conversation, it would be all about the quality of the question. Nick Miller is a phenomenal question asker – as you will hear in this conversation, where more than once, he turned the table and asked me a question. You will also hear where I asked a question he had no answer for – because I didn’t ask a great question. We covered his weekly sales thought – as he’s coming up on number 1000, on his writing and storytelling mentors, what he learned about asking qu...

In this podcast, Michèle Stanners shares her journey toward reconciliation with the First Nations people of Canada, provides a masterclass in the art of deep listening and demonstrates the value of taking both and artistic and pragmatic approach to facing the challenges of diversity. Her book and podcast of the same name “Unsettled” explores the path to reconciling unconscious bias and racism and build bridges of understanding.

“The more you eliminate the need for control, the more you are open to communication.” -Nahshon Cook

If you have ever heard the phrase wise beyond his years, you are about to experience that. We barely talk about horses – although we do. We mostly cover fear, the need to control, what forgiveness means and so much more.


We started this conversation with me asking him how he connects pain as a gift – and after that, we were off and running. There’s no way I can do his words of wisdom justice....

Ann Herrmann Nehdi started this podcast by saying “balance is a loaded word…and it’s almost impossible to attain…this exquisite balance.” Right out of the chute, we started this conversation by challenging assumptions and diving into her company’s research on thinking, resilience and managing change in times like these.


There’s no one I know who “thinks about thinking” more than Ann. She spends a lot of time working with senior teams as well as those in the “magic middle” of some of the large...

After a 30 year career at Nike, Dwayne Hildreth is exploring new territory with horses and music – and when he does something, he goes all out. He had visions of riding off into the sunset on his shiny new Palomino, only to discover that horse ownership, like almost any endeavor, involves a lot more than meets the eye. Nonetheless, he and his two horses are competing – and winning – in the Reined Cow Horse discipline, one of the most extreme of the horse sports. Yet this cowboy also writes and a...

My Daughter, Jen and I, have actually done several podcasts together over the years, talking about our story through addiction and our adventures working together as a mother daughter team. A little over a month ago, we did a podcast together about how her moment of vulnerability changed everything. We are back for a round two for a very important reason; we are answering the question: Did anything really change?If you have not listened to the first podcast, it is worth your time to go listen to...

Moments of transformation are often also moments of vulnerability. In this episode, Jen Maneely, Author of Dear Parents, Strategies to Help Your Loved One Through Addiction describes a moment of transformation that almost didn’t happen. When facing fears, we often feel like we are going to die – even when the danger is not life and death. Jen describes how she dealt with one of those fears by asking the question “What’s my responsibility here?” With the right kind of support, she stayed with her...

Who knew meeting someone at a ski lake wearing the same T-shirt that said, “Women who behave rarely make history,” would lead to a long, rich friendship. In the 15th episode of the Creative Spirits Unleashed Podcast, I’m speaking with Heike Neumann, Vice President of Marketing for Oracle Corporation. In her more than 25 years of experience working in the US and EMEA to market global B2B (Business to Business) tech brands, she has launched marketing strategies in 23 countries. She is passionate a...

Peter Barr loves adventure and turns into pressure at every opportunity. He also likes to get himself into tight spots to test his wherewithal to solve problems, overcome obstacles and live a life of fulfillment. This conversation is a master class in making the unconventional decisions that may not lead to comfort but definitely lead to personal growth and satisfaction. Peter Barr is a nationally known trail builder, peakbagger and in 2010, completed a through hike on the Appalachian Trail. In ...

Navigating addiction is never easy. In this mother-daughter conversation, we share some of our stories, dilemmas and uncertainties as Jen went through a series of life and death decisions on her road to recovery. Some of the most fun parts of this conversation happened when we learned some never-revealed things about what was going on behind the scenes for both of us.

Every now and then, you find someone who pierces through the noise of all the people vying for our attention with a message that is so clear and compelling, you just have to stop and listen. I found that person a few years ago in Warwick Schiller. Yes, in his videos he was talking about horses. But lots of people are on the internet talking about horses.

Warwick is different. He’s really talking about listening, presence and being. He’s sharing his personal transformation. Moreover, he’s not ju...

From the minute we started the conversation, it was evident that Corey Vaughn is a philosopher. He also calls himself the “hippie husband” of his wife Amelia. It was almost surreal to reconcile the deep thinking man I was speaking to with the fact that he’s one of the best in the extremely intense sport of water skiing. And he is a really, really good water skier. He’s one of only a handful of skiers to have run all 6 buoys in the most difficult (41 off) pass, and he’s been on the podium in coun...

In this special episode, we turn the microphone around and Julianne Neal of Whinny Tales interviews Lynn Carnes, executive coach and Bruce Anderson of Natures View and founder of Natural Humanship™. Real change only happens with pressure and discomfort. It’s a natural human reaction to turn away from both. In this episode, we break down the steps to turn into the sensations of pressure and discomfort so that we build a new personal foundation of inner strength. Using the horse as a mirror and a ...

When Chelsea Mills decided to take up tournament water skiing in her 20’s, most people would have said she was a decade too late. She is now ranked number 8 in the world and still improving. She is also a high level tennis coach. Her window into the world of elite sports has given her some powerful insights into the difference mindset can make. She shares many of her insights with us in this episode.

The ironic thing about developing self-awareness is that we often need others to hold up the mirror so we can see what is really true about ourselves. Nikki Porter, is the host of “Take the Reins, a weekly personal growth podcast for horse owners.” She effortlessly weaves the parallels between the relationships we have with horses and humans. The lessons apply to how we show up as leaders, the way our energy impacts others and the value of genuine truthfulness. We cover a lot of ground in this c...