[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:16] Speaker B: Ready. I'm Ricky Chavez and on this show I talk to leaders who know what it means to stand strong under pressure, rise through adversity, and help others to do the same. Today I'm joined by Shore Danny, the founder and CEO of Community now, an organization that is dedicated to violence reduction and resilience programming for individuals, organizations and communities. With a background in psychology and years of trauma informed leadership, she has built programs that help people move from pain to purpose, from survival to strength, and from crisis to healing. This is going to be a powerful conversation about resilience, leadership, and what it really takes to rebuild from inside out.
Welcome, Shore, to the show.
[00:00:53] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:00:55] Speaker B: So excited to be here. I'm glad you are. And. And I'm kind of jealous. You said you were in Mexico now and that's a new lifestyle for you.
[00:01:04] Speaker A: Yes, I'm really excited.
[00:01:07] Speaker B: So let's talk about resilience a little. A little bit. It's not a personality, but it's something built through support, self awareness and healing and intentional actions.
When I hear resilience is built now, not born, what does it mean to you and what from the work you do every day?
[00:01:24] Speaker A: Resilience is the word. Built is interesting that resilience is made right. So resilience within yourself can come from you, but it also comes from your community. Resilience is built by systems that support you and support your lifestyle. Resilience is built by family members that are there to support you, community that supports you. Resilience is built through. Through positivity within our lives.
So to say it's built from within us. We can bring resilience to our lives by bringing positivity into our lives, by bringing wellness into our lives.
But really, resilience is something that is.
It's community. It's. It's more than just the single person. I can't say I can build resilience in me and everything around me is falling apart or failing. You're going to need some support. You're going to need resources and that resource and that support builds that resilience.
[00:02:24] Speaker B: So if you don't mind, share the story. Tell me how this came to be and what in your life drew you to this.
[00:02:34] Speaker A: If anyone knows about adverse childhood experiences, there are 10 of them, traditionally. And there are things that happen to a person negatively before the age of 18. I have all 10.
There are actually some. Those are. That happen inside the home. There are some that happen outside of the home, adversities. And I have about three of those. So I have a score of like 13.
And science, it says that if you have a score of 10 that you are 20 times more likely to commit suicide, like 15 times more likely to die from liver disease. And all of these horrible numbers that just keep growing because of the pain that I was dealt, you know, dealt to me as I was a youth, as I grew up, I didn't know any of this stuff. We had a lot of stigmas about mental health in my family. We didn't talk about it. And I got to a certain age and I literally had a complete nervous breakdown.
I did not understand it. And as I started getting help for that, I went back to school and started studying about psychology because I didn't want to be weak. I didn't understand what happened to me. And as I did that journey of going through school and understanding what happened to me, I realized that it's happened to most of us. Actually the ACE study says that one in six people has at least one ACE. And in San Diego the study says that one in five people have at least four ACEs. So when we're talking about adverse things that happen to us as a youth that we don't get over as we're an adult, then we just carry that pain. So I did, I carried that pain and didn't really know it. But once I started, started studying, I found coping strategies that I can use in my life to deal with my trauma. And I started developing programs to help others starting in elementary schools because that's when it starts before the age of 18. And how do we help young people whose families are going crazy, but how do we help them stay kind of solid within themselves? And that's what the programming is, that social, emotional learning that we can give to our youth that builds that strength and that resilience, that need as they grow older and are still dealing with challenges.
[00:04:55] Speaker B: So what have you learned about the difference between surviving pain and actually healing from it?
[00:05:00] Speaker A: Surviving pain means that you are almost like self medicating, right? But it doesn't have to be a drug.
When you're just dealing with that pain, you end up having different tendencies. Like you have control issues because you are haven't controlled anything in your life, but now you want to control everything, right? It'll come out in different personality traits of you trying to take back the control that you feel you do not have. Now when you heal, you start coping with those tendencies. You start coping with your, your coping strategies such as, oh, I'm going to drink, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'M you know, I'll just drink. And then you start having alcohol abuse. Well, with coping, you would look at your, your tendencies and then you would find positive ways of coping that would be going to community, bringing resour, getting help in these situations. You know, in all of the years I've been doing this, the main thing that I found that people need is problem solving.
There's a lot of problems and if you don't solve them, you become overwhelmed. So solving those problems one at a time helps reduce that stress.
[00:06:13] Speaker B: You know, when you talk about solving problems, you know, how is it about finding somebody that, that will understand or kind of listen versus somebody that judges, you know, and, or maybe I feel this is my problem, but somebody else may think, no, that's not really a problem. So how, how do people have to deal with that?
[00:06:37] Speaker A: I would do some research. There's a thing called self awareness and it's part of self regulation, right? How do we regulate ourselves?
And in doing that, you need to find awareness. What are your triggers? How are you currently dealing with them? And then looking for new strategies. Right? Like maybe if this is a trigger, not doing it right, not going around that person, removing those triggers or finding ways to overcome them is a really strong way of dealing with that stress.
I kind of forgot your question though, right there.
[00:07:14] Speaker B: So it's just basically, how do I find a community or find a resource that I don't have to worry about being judged about what I feel is a problem versus what they feel is a problem?
[00:07:26] Speaker A: They would say coaching. Now, you know, a lot of our society is saying therapy.
Therapy is saying that you are mentally ill, therefore you need therapy. They do a diagnosis. They, they, you know, they give you a, a diagnosis of something and then they treat that diagnosis.
I think that is misunderstanding. When we have challenges, we need to go to a coach that could be your pastor. Now, if you think that you're going to be judged there, don't go there, right? Go to a mentor that you know, someone that can give you good, you know, objective advice about the challenges that you're going through. Look online and do the research for yourself to make sure that you know what they're telling you is something that' you can, you know, work with and that's valid. But it would be connection, it would be relationships. And when you build those relationships, making sure that you have positive people and people that are not judging within your life.
[00:08:29] Speaker B: So why is resilience something I need to build within, with intention instead of assuming it will just appear.
[00:08:39] Speaker A: Because it won't just appear. I think that's the whole point. It's not just going to come. You are going to have to become self aware and understand what your needs are first. So if you don't understand your needs, how are, how are you going to get that solution? So you've got to become aware, find out what the situations are and then find the resources that you need.
You cannot just sit still and think that resilience is going to come. Now you can, you can sit still and say, have resources coming from the county or different systems like that. Now those you can sit still and you can get. But I don't believe that that really builds independence. I think it builds dependence. So again, looking at your relationships and coming out and being real, I think right now in our world it, we are very fake. Before I used to say that we act like we're gods or computers because everything's perfect, right? Oh, I have the perfect child, I got the perfect job, I got the perfect, the perfect, the perfect. My house is bigger.
And that stress of having that perfect is in something in itself that you need to deal with, right? Because everything is not perfect. We do not.
We are humans, we are flawed. We have challenges. And when we realize that and accept that then we can be more open and understanding with each other. And that I guess builds that empathy, Ricky, that you want to hear about. How do we, how do we receive support and resilience? It's by having empathy and, and others having empathy around us. And again you build that by self awareness and looking at yourself as not being that God or trying to aspire to being a God, but being human and understanding that we have challenges.
[00:10:31] Speaker B: You know, two things I think about when we talk, start talking about this and one is the word avoidance.
You know, I feel like I'm, you know, I'm prior military and I felt like while I was military, I've been out to 24, 25 years already and, and I be, I, I was brought up to just avoid it, just don't even think about it, move on, just deal with it and just go with it. You know, it's, it's, it's just a little, a little hiccup, you can move on.
But in today's society it's a lot more things popping out because people are, don't avoid things. So what are your thoughts about that? When I say the word avoidance, I
[00:11:07] Speaker A: think that it is very unhealthy and the thing you should not do.
In fact, that's what I did until I had my Nervous breakdown, I avoided, I ignored. And your body still receives that stress, right? You're still going to have stress hormones and things that are going off, anxiety attacks, depression, all of those are coming from that avoidance.
So if you accept it, look at these things and deal with them head on, you're going to have that uncomfortableness, right? You're going to have some stress, but you will deal with your challenges and instead of avoiding, you will come into more harmony with yourself and your surroundings.
[00:11:49] Speaker B: Okay, so real quick we go. We're almost getting ready to go into a commercial. What's the first step that helps a person begin moving from overwhelm into strength?
[00:11:58] Speaker A: What is the first what step?
Breathing.
Breathe, breathe. Before you get on a phone call, breathe. Before I breathe. Before I came into this, this arena, this forum, breathe, breathe. When you're starting to get upset, do like four or five deep breaths anytime you start feeling startled. And it will settle you and it will give your brain oxygen and allow you the ability to think rather than react.
[00:12:28] Speaker B: Got it? What stands out to me already is that resilience is not accidental. It takes awareness, support, and the willingness to face what is real. When I come back, I want to talk about the leadership, what leadership looks like when people around me are carrying trauma, fear and instability. Stay tuned. We'll be right back.
Welcome back to Battle Ready. Stay connected to this show and every NOW Media TV favorite live or on demand, anytime you like. Download the free Now Media TV app on Roku iOS Unlock non stop bilingual programming in English and Spanish. If you're on the move, you can catch the podcast version of Now Media at www.nowmedia.tv. from business to news to lifestyle, culture and beyond, Now Media TV is streaming around the clock. Ready whenever you are. Now. I'm back with Short. Danny Short. Welcome back.
And this conversation is taking me into one of the hardest realities and leaders can face. People do not always show up whole, calm and ready. Sometimes they show up hurt, reactive and disconnected or exhausted. If I'm going to lead well in the world, in the real world, I need to understand what pain does to people and how strong leadership creates steadiness instead of more harm.
So sure, I, I remember when I used to be an HR manager and director and I used to give these classes. I used to tell people, you know, be kind to everybody because you don't know what happened to them before they took the left or the right into the parking lot.
So tell me a little bit about what your thoughts on that when you're talking to people or when People are at work, how they should handle each other.
[00:14:07] Speaker A: First thing that I do is I do training, trauma informed training with my employees. I do that as capacity building with other organizations so that leaders understand the trauma, trauma and that they are dealing with first and then they can help support those that they are working with. A leader that doesn't think that they have any challenges is not going to be a very good leader to people that do have challenges. So self awareness would be the first thing I'd say for a leader. And after that then it would be understanding. There are several things that I suggest. If it's a large organization, create a mental health room with no stigma, right? Create a room, a space where people, when they become overwhelmed, they can go into the, this little room, a sensory room, and they can be calm and they can, you know, deal with the emotions that they're going through and then come back out when they're ready.
Setting up different wellness components within the organization, different trainings, maybe having a weekly yoga. Bringing humanism into the workplace helps to support that.
[00:15:13] Speaker B: So what mistakes do leaders make when they ignore emotional and psychological realities people carry?
[00:15:20] Speaker A: The mistakes that they make is number one because they're not seeing it in themselves. They're so overwhelmed themselves that they're not able to see outside.
And with those mistakes, they start to disregard the things that their, their people are saying. They start looking more at deadlines, at progress, at, you know, different things like that. When in fact the way that you get those deadlines met and that progress done is by supporting your team and your staff. So it, the, the problem is that they are not supporting their people emotionally and that they should start looking at different ways to bring again that humanism back into the workplace.
[00:16:01] Speaker B: How do you convince a older manager or an older professional that this is real?
I mean, you know, you have some of the older people, even from my error, that kissed avoided everything. So how do you convince them?
[00:16:20] Speaker A: Well, I do a lot of workshops and in those workshops I provide information that just helps people think. I believe that critical thinking or thinking is something that is something that you need to do. You need to take time and look at it. So I have some things that I show that show different coping, different stress symptoms like lack of ability to concentrate or problem with problem solving or you can't control your emotions or you're not eating well or you're overeating. These are symptoms of stress. So once I can help that leader identify their own stress and help them see how to cope with that or overcome it, that helps Them really see stress in others and give them ideals on how to support the others.
So timers, we got to show it, we got to put it in your face. You guys don't listen to us. I have my ex husband military, one of the harder things, you know, but really you've got to be able to get break into that shell and help them to see themselves.
[00:17:29] Speaker B: Okay, so now they see themselves but then they, I, I know just, just the, the today's workforce is a lot different.
So how do what, what tools do you have for them?
Maybe I know you say to see themselves but to I, I guess for lack of a better word, be more accepting.
[00:17:56] Speaker A: Most of these people have been in an environment where they have been conditioned into not being accepting. This is not by mistake. It was done on purpose.
So you would have to on purpose take away those layers. It as you were conditioned into it, you would have to condition yourself out.
I'm not going to say that's easy for most military people. I know they're really rigid, you know, but with time and with them seeing maybe not pushing everything at them at once, but giving you a little bit at a time.
My ex husband now just using him as an, as an example. He now, yeah, he knows it's there now, right. You know he at least now it's but he's still like, but you know, and he's still going to do his own thing. So there are some people that are not going to take into wellness. Right. There are some people unfortunately that are not going to go as far down into it as I believe they should for their wellness. But just helping them become aware, I think you start thinking, you know, once you start seeing the little things inside, you start looking at yourself and, and I think little by those leaders will kind of come around.
[00:19:10] Speaker B: I'll tell you this, you know, I'm retired military and from the military I transitioned into human resources. Talk about an oxymoron, right?
My wife swore that I would get fired in the first couple days, the first week, first month.
And it was a challenge, you know, after the things that I had experienced and seen and how I had been programmed, as you said it to be the way I was to come out and then all of a sudden start experience experiencing everything that was going on out here and, and actually understanding it was definitely a challenge for me. It was definitely.
So how do I balance compassion with accountability so I don't lower the standard while trying to support people?
[00:20:03] Speaker A: Well, accountability is, goes both ways. So the leader needs to be accountable, right? Accountable for their actions, accountable for the project, the workflow, the process.
Then the employees are able to be accountable for the work that they do.
So I think that there's something called trust, respect.
These things need to come into the workplace and they play a big part in how your employees are going to reflect and do the work. So it's with understanding, it's with trying to bring that empathy out and again, just trying to build relationships.
[00:20:46] Speaker B: How would somebody. Continues conversation Somebody out there, one of our listeners, sees this show and they want to reach out and maybe get some assistance from you. How do they get all of you?
[00:20:57] Speaker A: They can reach me at
[email protected] My name is S H O
[email protected] and we'd be excited to support you in many ways. Again, we do racial justice work, we do wellness work, and we also do support for nonprofit organizations.
[00:21:21] Speaker B: And if you look on the screen, I think you see. Is this your website?
[00:21:24] Speaker A: Yes, it is.
[00:21:25] Speaker B: Is there a way on there a button for them to put maybe fill out information or to get with you?
[00:21:30] Speaker A: Yes, there is.
If they go to our website, they definitely can reach out to us.
[00:21:36] Speaker B: And then you'll just, you'll set up an appointment with them or how does that work?
[00:21:40] Speaker A: Yes, I would communicate with them. We'd set an appointment, sit down and talk and see what, you know, supports they're looking for, have those conversations and then organize, you know, support for their organization or themselves. I'm also a life coach, so when you're talking about things like, you know, that just reach me through right there, whatever you're seeing.
CommunityNow.info.
[00:22:06] Speaker B: perfect. The truth is, strong leadership is not just about control. It's about awareness, consistency, and knowing how to stabilize the space when pain is present. After the break, I want to talk about the community's violence prevention and what it really takes to build hope before things break. We'll be right back. Stay tuned.
[00:22:28] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:22:33] Speaker B: Denny and one of the most important takeaways from this conversation is that healing is not passive. It takes leadership, systems, care and action. The same is true when it comes to violence prevention and community resilience.
If I want a healthier outcomes, I cannot wait until damage is done. I have to build a connection, awareness and intervention early. So how would I do that? Sure.
[00:22:57] Speaker A: Really?
I believe it's on the systems first, right. Public health should be on every show that we have. And on billboards they should be saying how to balance yourself. Right. There should be some sign saying breathe, some saying you can do it. We lack support within our environment that will help us.
But to.
What was that question? I'm sorry.
[00:23:26] Speaker B: No, you're. You're fine.
How do we build the awareness and intervention early? How do we do that?
[00:23:33] Speaker A: We do that by. Again, I'm going to have to keep saying self awareness in ourselves, because if we are self aware in ourselves, we can help our youth.
So where it begins is in our youth, but that they don't have any control. So it's the systems and the surroundings that are actually impacting them. So where do we start? If you're an adult, you're going to start again with self awareness. Usually people wait until they have become overwhelmed, right? They're going to the therapist, they're starting to take pills. But before that, again, you can start putting things into place, like being positive, bringing positivity into your life, those positive relationships, positive environments. And that's where hope comes in. Hope is a way of bringing positivity to your world. So one of the things would be what to out? Where do you start? What do you take out of your world? Take out negativity, take out the stressful things that are there. Take those out and that's a way to start building that resilience and wellness.
[00:24:36] Speaker B: Okay, so let's move into your nonprofit mission. You know, violence reduction, resilience, resiliency campaigns, and how prevention really works.
When I think about violence prevention, where should the real work begin,
[00:24:53] Speaker A: the cause? Right. Again, I'm going to go to systems.
I believe that systems are the issue because systems are creating a disparity in our community.
And with that disparity, we're seeing a lot of stress and we're seeing a lot of discontent.
So though with the system that would be more equalized, you wouldn't have as many causations of trauma. Right. When you are in a family and you say for generations and a family that's been in need, you're going to see a lot of negative coping strategies. You're going to see a lack of empathy. You're going to be seeing all of that coming through the generations. So what you're going to want to do is stop that. You're going to want to make sure that the systems that are put in place are there to support you. Now, I'm not saying be system, you know, being lumped to a system. Personally, what we can do is we can make sure that we change these systems so that they are supportive to us, that they are more humanitarian, and that we live in a world that is set up for us and our human needs and issues and not a world that is set up for corporate under, you know, corporate gain.
Okay?
[00:26:08] Speaker B: So, you know, it's funny you say that. So this is burning my mind. So I'm a realtor now. I have a real estate team. And, and one of the big things I always hear out here is, you know, build a plan, work your plan. Okay? So that's kind of like your systems, right?
So the, the interesting thing about it is I is I hear them telling the realtors, build a plan, but most of them don't know how to build a plan. What it takes to build a plan, what's in a plan? So right along with that mindset, talk to me about systems. You know, you said systems a couple times, but if I already don't understand what's going on and how to deal with it, how can I put a system in place? Or what resources are there out there to build the system that meets the needs of all?
[00:26:56] Speaker A: First thing you have to do is understand the history of America, the real history. And that's something that community now does. We do workshops on our racial justice settings segment of our program. Because if you don't understand what happened, you don't understand what is, and you don't understand how to move forward.
So with the systems, how do we do that is by understanding how the systems were set up so that we can understand how to change them.
So really it's within us, it's connecting. We need to break away these racial gaps, right? These social gaps and these economic gaps that our systems have put us into for us to come out of them. It would be again, doing that self assessment of myself, looking more at my environment, which would be that history, paying more attention not to the politics, but to the people. What's happening to us, not what is what they're doing, but what is happening to us. And then if you see the state of humanity, then making your planning off of that, and if you don't know the plan, the plan is what you see as what should be right right now. Step one, step two, step three, you'll always be able to connect with other people that are organizers or other groups that can bring other pieces of that puzzle together. Because it's going to be a movement. It's not a single person thing.
And that's something that we're looking at right now. Why are we not supporting our people? Why are we allowing systems to overt?
So I think it all starts right there.
[00:28:39] Speaker B: You know, what signs do communities often miss before Situations escalate into crisis.
[00:28:45] Speaker A: We don't miss the signs. We live the signs. I wouldn't say what do we miss?
I would say that what are we lacking? Again, I would have to go to. We're lacking that relationship with our neighbor. We're lacking those resources that we can pull by being community and coming.
We're not missing it because our systems have put all of this stuff in place on purpose. Right.
Again, going back to history and having to understand how we got here, that is something I think is very huge. And why we do a lot of racial justice training, because you can't see it.
It's been developed over many years. We are born into this.
It's something where you have to step into, step back and do an evaluation. And that is something we each can do. And then when we do that evaluation not of the systems, but of the state of humanity, then we can all come up with some really quick ways of correcting what's going on.
[00:29:52] Speaker B: Okay, so what role do programs, visibility and trust relationships play in reducing harm?
[00:29:58] Speaker A: Everything, right?
Because if you don't trust someone, you can't reduce harm. In fact, you're bringing harm. Trust. Trust and relationships are the biggest tool that we have, you and I Ricky. Connecting and being able to share. Not the fake stuff, right? Not that real high level stuff, but actually connecting, being real with each other is what is going to break this and is what is going to be able to help us to build. So trust and leader. Trust and relationships A leader must have. You cannot run an organization without, well, without trust you're going to see a lot of employee turnover. You know, you're going to see all of these things happening within your environment. But if you put that trust in there by setting up, you know, programming for your personnel again, that mental health room being, having that open door policy, those types of things. Build that trust, trust, build that relationship. I had gone through some ups and downs in my organization really quick. One time, one year I didn't have any funding but I had built relationships with my employees and they literally worked for me for no pay because of the relationship, because of our understanding of the goal, we were able to, you know, I was able to re compensate them, but they worked for free and that didn't. People don't do that. So that is what you're looking for when you're trying to build those connections that, that respect, that loyalty, right? But it goes both ways.
[00:31:37] Speaker B: It's a good world, that loyalty. So what can everyday people do to help build safer, more resilient communities where they live,
[00:31:45] Speaker A: meet your neighbor, get involved in what's going on in your very local community.
Do you know what is it? They have the block parties do things to connect. Right now we are very disconnected our world. And the first thing we need to do is connect with each other, find out what our common challenges are, our common goals, and then working together towards those. Allyship is the most important thing and I will say in history with what is happening right now. This is going to be the third time that the rights have been taken away from a population of people in this country. And if you don't know that, you think like this, what's going on, what's happening, but this is history repeating itself. So right now it would be reaching out to your Hispanic, your black, your minority friends, and connecting and being one, being a coalition of one. Because together we have the power and we have the strength to build community, love, relationships and that positivity that we need to be resilient in our lives.
[00:32:58] Speaker B: What I hear so clearly is the prevention begins long before the headline and begins with attention, trust and willingness to build real connections. When I come back, I want to close this with hope, healing and what it means to lead people from survival mode into purpose. We'll be right back shortly. Stay with us.
[00:33:14] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:33:18] Speaker B: Welcome back to Battle Ready. Stay connected to this show and every NOW Media TV favorite live or on demand, anytime you like. You can Download the free Now Media TV app on Roku iOS and unlock non stop bilingual programming in English and Spanish. If you're on the move, you can catch the podcast version of www.nowmedia.tv. from business and news to lifestyle cultures and beyond, Now Media TV is streaming around the clock. Ready whenever you are. So I'm back with Shore. Danny. This conversation reminds me that hope is not passive. Hope is not denial. Hope is not pretending everything is fine. Real hope is what helps me take the time and the next step to get to a better place. Sure. Welcome back.
[00:33:57] Speaker A: Thank you.
Glad to be here.
[00:34:00] Speaker B: Perfect. So I close with healing purpose, hope as strategy and what people can do not to begin moving forward. So, you know, when I was in the military and I know we talked about this a little bit, we always said, you know, hope is not, is is not a strategy. It's, you know, can't hope. You got to actually do something. So tell me, what is hope? Why is it such an essential part of healing and leadership?
[00:34:24] Speaker A: So if you are in a situation and it's a negative situation, how do you get out of it?
You have to hope, right, you have to have hope that something better is going to come. If you do not have the hope of something more positive, then you're stuck in depression. You're stuck in like lack of activity or movement. So, so the word hope. There's a study out called hope and it's healthy outcomes from positive experiences. And what hope is, is it's positivity. It's a hope of something positive happening in your future, right? So without hope, you have no yearning to move forward. So hope is very, very important in our mindsets. We have to hope. It's like dreaming. If you don't dream, they say don't dream, act. But you have to dream to act or what are you acting on? So that hope is right there to build the opportunity of your mind to say, I can have better, I can do better, and then giving you the energy to do it.
[00:35:30] Speaker B: So why is hope such an essential part of healing and leadership?
[00:35:34] Speaker A: Because leaders have to have hope in themselves and hope in where they're going. But leaders also have to have that vision of hope for who they are leading, right? So hope is very, very important with leadership because it, it combines everything. It's like the glue in the mix is the hope, the hope that you can say, oh, we're going to do this event well, you're going to hope that it's going to go well, right? You're going to take all of the actions. Your hope is the vision of what is going to be and then your actions take you there. So a leader must have hope. A leader must have vision so that they can lead and provide that hope and vision to others. Others.
[00:36:18] Speaker B: So what does it look like when I move from survival mode into intentional living?
[00:36:23] Speaker A: Survival mode is like what I did the first part of my life. I didn't deal with it, I didn't acknowledge it. That avoidance that I did that for so long. But when you go into healing, it's again, self understanding and awareness, starting to see yourself and then starting to say, okay, self, and start dealing with the things you see in you. Our society wants us to just push it off and avoid it and know we're just, I'm just going to move, I'm going to work. Even though. But what we need to do now is stop, look at ourselves and heal and deal with us. There are many things Community now is here for you as a life coach, as helping your organization bring these positive things and this strength into your communities, into your home and your, into your organization. So hope starts with that spark of what you can have and then you put in the action.
[00:37:17] Speaker B: You know, I remember being a thousand years ago back in the military, they used to tell us, suck it up. Just suck it up and drive on. Suck it up and drive on. And now, you know, some of the senior leaders are coming, are still from that mindset. What resources do you have for them to have them reevaluate themselves?
[00:37:39] Speaker A: I have a whole program called Coaching for Cultural Success.
And that program is for executives and you know, above. So your directors, your administrators and what that does is it helps you see your organization. It helps you see so that we can start looking at what pieces can we work on to bring that hope, to bring that togetherness within your organization. That starts with a baseline assessment, right, of the culture and the environment that you have. And then when we see the needs of your organization, we're able to build things in to support you, to change your organization to what you want it to be.
[00:38:19] Speaker B: So what role does mental wellness play in building a future that is actually sustainable?
[00:38:24] Speaker A: Everything.
You cannot sustain your life if you're not mentally well, then that's when your, your coping strategies are falling apart. You're, you're that kind of person that's blowing up at people. Nobody wants to be around you, right? You know, so you've got to bring wellness, you've got to bring hope. You've got to bring that into your life, self awareness so that you can heal, so that you can see the needs of others and so that you can support them as well. As a leader, I think it's our responsibility to first assess ourselves and then to use that skill to help others.
[00:39:03] Speaker B: For someone watching today who feels exhausted, discouraged or even stuck, what is one step they can take to make things right or now start rebuilding,
[00:39:14] Speaker A: do research, start with thinking about what is that you're dealing with and then look it up, right? Look it up and see why really self awareness is going to be the key. Because if we are not aware of what it is in us, we have nothing to work with. You could be trying to fix something that's not even your issue. So it all starts with you. It all starts with you understanding what your again, your triggers are, what your, your things are that make you feel good and then bringing, taking away the triggers, bringing in the good and making wellness and hope and positivity within your life.
It could be divorcing your husband, right? It could be getting a dog. You know, it's so many different things for different people. So I cannot tell you do this one thing, but I Can tell you look within yourself, you know, you know why you're not happy. And if you don't, I have different skills, worksheets and activities that we can do together to help you do some inventory on yourself so that you can identify those things and then you can build strength and you know, change your life into a way that makes you happy, your family happy and bring even wealth and prosperity and all of that. Because when you're unwell mentally it's very hard to think of those things to bring that positivity or new ways to bring wealth or because you're so caught up in your head with all of being overwhelmed and all the stress. So work on your head.
[00:40:48] Speaker B: So sure, if our audience wants to learn more about your work, your organization, where should they go?
[00:40:53] Speaker A: Go to www.communitynow.info our website there. When you get on there, there will be a little drop down that comes up, put your information in there and we will be able to reach out back to you and provide you with any resources and services that you need. Again that goes for from individual life coaching all the way to organizational support. We even work with cities, states, municipalities and trying to bring this wellness concept into everyone's world.
[00:41:27] Speaker B: Okay, all right, so you know we got a few a short time left but let me ask you this one question. So can you give a story or give me an example of an aha moment for an executive or a leader leader who did that self inventory and they finally realized wow, I need to make some changes.
[00:41:48] Speaker A: They worked with the gentleman and he is staff and again doing that pre survey reveals a lot about what's going on in the environment and taking that information to the leader and having them see helps them also to see themselves and see their organization and the culture. That is one way way of getting them to see, you know, organizationally and leadership wise. Personally it would be sitting down, having a conversation and really just having them talk and being able to give them feedback that would allow them to see themselves telling people, having them read, it's really going to be again in your head when you go, you know, I didn't think of it that way or you know, I, I was looking at this totally, you know, this way or it helps. And again that's where that coaching comes in in to be able to be with someone objectively and just be able to talk and allow them with no judgment to help you hear what you're saying so that you can kind of process it.
[00:42:54] Speaker B: So you guys do an inventory, you put some items in place to help the organization grow and manage. And then you maybe go back and do like a re review with them later on to see the steps they're going. What's went well, what's not, hadn't went as well. And then you put another system in place.
[00:43:16] Speaker A: Yes, yes. And we work along with them to put that all in place. So this is a process. Right. It's not like I'm going to come in for a week. This is something that's going to take time. The training for Cultural Coaching for Cultural Success is an eight week program and that's doing the training and getting the assessments done and reviewing what's going on. Then, then you would go into what you're saying, the evaluation of did it work? Where do we need to keep putting in more supports? How do we, oh, we see that this came up. How do we, you know, support that and building it out? So it's living. It's a living thing as we are. And as you work through it, you grow emotionally and you grow kind of basically spiritually, you grow in relationships. And it's great to see when I do this with school systems, so many of them having that Aha. And seeing ways that not only they can help themselves, but help others.
[00:44:11] Speaker B: Wow. What I take from this conversation is that resilience is not about pretending. I am never shaken. It's about learning how to heal, how to rebuild and how to keep showing up with courage and purpose. Sure. Thank you for the work you work you do and the powerful conversation.
[00:44:25] Speaker A: Thank you. And please go to our Facebook page. Every day we do a daily post wellness post. Right now we're in social stress. So every day you'll see something on how to deal with your social stress in the month of May and each month we again, every day we have something else to support you in your journey in life.
[00:44:47] Speaker B: Thanks again and everyone out there watching. Keep building strength, keep choosing hope and keep showing up. Ready. This is battle ready. We hope to see you again.
[00:44:57] Speaker A: Thank you.
