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Show Description: As a young working mother in 1985, Barbara experienced the difficulties of finding quality childcare in Washington, DC. After being held up at gunpoint at her ice cream shop on Capitol Hill one too many times, she sold her first business and started White House Nannies. White House Nannies has set the gold standard for childcare in the DC metro area. Barbara is a highly regarded industry spokesperson and nanny expert with a reputation for setting the highest standards of professional excellence. She has been featured on Good Morning America, Larry King Live, CNN, NPR and Fox. What does this entrepreneurial leader know about raising a family with support from a nanny? Discover Barbara's wisdom as Host Kate Ebner talks with her about her vision of how to support executive families while developing life-changing opportunities for nannies. Barbara will share tips working well with your child care provider and how to select the right nanny. Don't miss this Mother's Day special interview!
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Show Description: Growing up in England, Ken Banks was one of four children raised by his mother after his father passed away early in his childhood. Resources were tight and his mother worked hard to support her growing family. Despite hardships, Ken has always seen himself as lucky. Today, he is well known as an innovator, mobile technologist and anthropologist and the founder of kiwanja.net, which enables communications channels for communities in the developing world by leveraging mobile phones and text messaging through offline computers. Ken found his life path quite literally by accident: in 2002 a broken leg while working at a primate sanctuary in Africa led to a big life change -- the discovery of a life work that has truly "switched me on." Since then, this National Geographic Society Explorer has devoted his life to the application of mobile technology for positive social and environmental change in the developing world, winning major awards for his work since 2006. Join Host Kate Ebner to hear the wisdom of Ken's experience and his simple and truly inspiring vision.
Show Description: Dr. Hayat Sindi loves to make science come out of the book by making it an affordable tool. This vibrant National Geographic Emerging Explorer is a biotechnologist working to bring affordable health care to remote, impoverished communities using simple, affordable low-tech solutions. As a child in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, Hayat understood that science is a universal language, like music, love, food and family. Today, she brings passion and focus to the i2 Institute for Imagination and Ingenuity, just one of the many reasons she was chosen as one of the 100 most powerful Arab women in the world Arabian Business. Don't miss this inspiring conversation as Kate Ebner invites Hayat to share her vision and show us how the universal message of science can connects us and transform how we live around the world.
Show Description: In 2010, UNICEF reported that only 10% of rural Haitians and less than 25% of those in cities had access to adequate sanitation facilities. People are forced to find ways to dispose of their wastes, often in the ocean, rivers, ravines, plastic bags, or abandoned houses. At the same time, agricultural output is low due to poor soil fertility, soil erosion and lack of fertilizers. Since 2006, Dr. Sasha Kramer, Executive Director and Co-Founder ofSOIL (Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods), has been bringing EcoSAN (Ecological Sanitation) to Haiti – a low-cost approach to sanitation where human wastes are collected, composted and recycled for use in agriculture and reforestation. Recognized by Huffington Post as a “Greatest Person of the Day,” the work of this National Geographic Society Explorer is inspiring. Join guest host Erin Doherty Gregg to hear how Dr. Sasha Kramer is working with disempowered people and discarded materials, turning apathy and pollution into valuable resources.
Show Description: As a child in East Jerusalem, Aziz Abu Sarah witnessed the deaths of many people he knew in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Like most, he was filled with desire for vengeance, especially after the death of his beloved older brother. Today, however, this National Geographic Society Explorer is an award winning peace activist, writer and teacher who is exploring innovative new ways to create dialogue, understanding and common goals between people around the world who are locked in conflict. What happened that led Aziz to this extraordinary life work? Join Host Kate Ebner to hear Aziz’s astonishing story and find out how he sees opportunities for peace where others see none.
Show Description: "Some believe the golden age of exploration is behind us. On the contrary, I believe we are at the beginning of our greatest age of exploration,” commented Terry Garcia in a recent interview. Since joining National Geographic Society more than a dozen years ago, Garcia has implemented a vision of exploration that has revitalized the Society’s mission programs and defined exploration in the broadest sense. Responsible for the Society’s core mission programs, which support and manage more than 400 scientific field research, conservation and exploration projects annually, Garcia is in a unique position to comment. Join Host Kate Ebner to kick off a month dedicated to exploration with a truly visionary leader whose work connects science, research, education and even entertainment to bring the mysteries of our planet to all of us.
Show Description: Elle Carberry envisioned raising her family in China before she even had one. She also envisioned a more sustainable world where business leaders from global blue chip companies collaborate to develop green technology that simultaneously improves our standard of living and the sustainability of resources on the planet. Watch out, World! When Elle envisions something, it happens. Elle moved her family to China in 2002 to work for IBM in Asia. Today, Elle is the co-managing director and co-founder of The China Greentech Initiative, a unique collaboration of companies – both Chinese and International working together to promote green technology markets in China. Elle is living a double dream making a BIG contribution towards a more sustainable world through better business AND raising her children with the skills and experiences that will help them contribute to a global future.
Show Description: Since Delivering Happiness: A Path to Passion, Profits and Purpose was published in 2010, Zappos has become world-famous for its fantastic company culture, its standard-setting customer service and its innovative methods of hiring, developing and retaining great people. Jenn Lim put together the book with author, CEO Tony Hsieh, and then launched the book into a bus tour and an entrepreneurial start-up called Delivering Happiness. Learn how Jenn and her “rogue” team are seeding a Happiness Movement and hear how this young professional found her calling and her own career path in a tough job market. Host Kate Ebner will explore how the mission to “deliver happiness” illuminates the power of culture on business results -- and what Jenn can teach us all about being happier.
Show Description: When Andrew Kutt founded Oneness-Family School in Chevy Chase, MD, he imagined a place where children learned firsthand that the world is one family. North Branch School Founder Tal Birdsey wanted to build a school for middle school kids in Vermont’s Green Mountains that celebrates the complexity and individuality of children at that often misunderstood age. Laura Kang stepped into the role of Head of School at Eagle Cove School on the Chesapeake Bay because she was drawn to its mission of academic excellence, joy in learning and stewardship of community and environment. These leaders share a common mission to instill joy, confidence and love of learning in students – the success of their schools gives testimony to the difference they are making. What can we learn from them about creating schools that educate the whole child? Join Host Kate Ebner to discover the passion, innovation and philosophies that underlie three powerful visions – and how to take these ideas into your community.
Show Description: The year: 1970. The opportunity: to create a national public radio network that brought high quality original radio programs to listeners across the nation. Don Quayle had already played a key role in building a radio network that linked the major cities of the northeast when he agreed to the job of President of the newborn National Public Radio station. Don't miss a chance to hear the original vision and the fascinating story of how public radio came to life as Host Kate Ebner visits the past with Don Quayle.
Show Description: American business executive Geraldine Laybourne has been a groundbreaking pioneer in the field of cable television programming. Recognized as one of the most influential leaders in the television industry, she helped turn the children's network Nickelodeon into one of the most powerful in television, and in 2002 she launched Oxygen, a new cable network geared exclusively toward women. Known for her out-of-the-box management style, creative drive and commitment to collaboration, Laybourne’s innovations have not been limited to television. The Mentor Walk events that she started in the U.S. have expanded to eight Mentor Walks worldwide. Her passion for helping other women to advance as leaders is a key part of her vision and extraordinary life. Join Host Kate Ebner for a conversation with Gerry Laybourne that will inspire you to think boldly and awaken the vision within you.
Show Description: It's not what happens to you. It's what you do with what happens to you. That sentence guides the path of a leader whose life story plays like a movie. It's also the mission statement of his foundation, One Revolution, which is dedicated to changing the way the world sees people with disabilities by highlighting our universal struggle. Chris Waddell was a promising young skier at Middlebury College in 1988 when a skiing accident left him paralyzed from the waist down. Waddell's journey to dare and ultimately to live fully is a source of inspiration today for everyone he meets. Join Host Kate Ebner to experience the voice, heart and spirit of the legendary Paralympic medal-winning athlete Chris Waddell, the first paraplegic to summit Mt. Kilimanjaro unassisted and perhaps the only one to be named by People Magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World.
Show Description: “One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to laymen. An ecologist must either harden his shell and make believe that the consequences of science are none of his business, or he must be the doctor who sees the marks of death in a community that believes itself well and does not want to be told otherwise.”
Conservation is a uniquely American ideal – affirmative, optimistic and forward-looking in nature. Yet in recent times, the conversation and effort to protect the environment has fallen back into old tactics of fear and criticism. Trout Unlimited CEO Chris Wood is the innovative leader of an exceptional conservation organization that has embraced a philosophy and vision of “collaborative stewardship.” Despite lean times, TU has exceeded its fundraising goals and continues to build support for its results-focused work. Learn how this visionary leader is driving big results in challenging times through a powerful, positive vision that invites us all to get involved. Join Host Kate Ebner to discover the mindset and approach that distinguishes TU and powers its mission.
Show Description: We all want to find our purpose -- that thing that makes us feel like our life matters. Legendary coach, author and vitality expert Richard Leider defines purpose as that deepest dimension within us that tells us who we are, where we came from, why we’ re here, and where we’ re going. Purpose fills us with passion, drive and direction. When all else seems unsettled, uncertain, or impermanent, purpose gives us the will not just to live, but to live long and well. Purpose is not for a gifted few, but something each one of us possesses and can uncover. Vision without purpose is meaningless. Over three decades, Leider’s extraordinary exploration of his own life purpose has taken him all over the world -- and his research about the importance of purpose has shed light for millions. Join Kate to learn how his experiences with the indigenous people of Tanzania inform his vision.
Show Description: As the recent Penn State scandal reminds us, child sexual abuse is a silent epidemic around the world. In the U.S., a shocking one in four girls and one in six boys are sexually abused before their eighteenth birthdays. Meet Michele Booth Cole, Executive Director of Safe Shores -- The DC Children's Advocacy Center, an organization dedicated to working directly with child victims of sexual and physical abuse in Washington, D.C. From the front lines, Michele has developed her own urgent and compelling vision of a society in which children are safe -- and adults act as a community to keep them that way.
Join Host Kate Ebner to learn how to create safety for children in your community. You will be inspired by Michele’s courage and the work of her organization.
Show Description: The New Year always invites us to make bold resolutions and start anew. Yet, year after year, how many of us look at the year behind with some regret, vaguely remembering our faded resolutions? Join Host Kate Ebner and her wise friend, Leadership and Life Coach Bette George for a conversation about how to close this year and begin 2012 with a strong sense of purpose, renewal and direction. Kate and Bette will explain why New Year's resolutions often don't work and will show you how to use visioning to bring new energy and possibilities to your life in the year ahead. You will enjoy the guidance and resources provided to make the upcoming year your best ever. This show is a "visioning how-to" with a focus on 2012.
Show Description: In this era of increasingly complex problems and shrinking resources, can we find meaningful and enduring solutions to the challenges we face as individuals, communities, and nations? On Monday, December 12, 2011, Visionary Leader Deborah Frieze proposes a bold solution to the seemingly unsolvable problems around us. Deborah challenges us to walk out of limiting beliefs and assumptions and walk on to create healthy and resilient communities. Co-author with Margaret (Meg) Wheatley of the book, Walk Out Walk On: A Learning Journey into Communities Daring to Live the Future Now, her vision is based on the core belief that our communities have the intelligence, ingenuity, caring and inventiveness to solve our toughest problems -- and we can do this by stepping into a new paradigm for living.
Show Description: In these challenging times, many Americans have lost faith in the American Dream – a promise that includes "a chicken in every pot," financial success for those who work hard and pursue higher education, and prosperity that increases unfailingly generation after generation. Wendy Philleo, Executive Director of The Center for a New American Dream, will help us look at what has become of the old American Dream. Wendy offers a powerful new vision that showcases new pathways that promote a more socially and ecologically balanced society. She invites us to examine how we define success as a society. In the spirit of the season, Wendy will also share a refreshingly non-commercial vision for the holidays that puts the meaning and cheer back into December.
Show Description: Leadership presence is the difference between leaders who inspire us and those who don't. Host Kate Ebner and CranioSacral Therapist Suzanne Scurlock-Durana have collaborated to bring Suzanne's creative approach to energy and presence to leadership coaches working with executives wanting to improve their leadership presence. As teacher, energy therapist, author and speaker, Suzanne has developed life-changing tools for stress-management and full body presence. She is passionate about teaching skills that allow people to feel the joy of being present in each moment without burning out. Her own inspiring vision is to shift the paradigm from a world of people who are disconnected to the wisdom of the body to a world of embodied and awakened people who know how to draw upon and sustain the body as our most valuable resource. Join Kate and Suzanne to learn how to develop your presence as a leader -- a presence that will ground and support your vision, helping you to bring it fully to life.
Show Description: Big vision. Big life. Big inspiration. What's a former teacher doing producing award-winning digital media experiences for kids and families and live action TV shows? Meet Maggie McGuire, Vice President, eScholastic, Kids and Parent Channels Online. Renowned for her energy, passion, creativity and her phenomenal record of developing learning products for the technologically savvy kids of today and their parents, Maggie McGuire knows how to inspire a love of learning. Join Host Kate Ebner to find out what Maggie means when she advises us to "Choose happiness every day" and “Do what you love.” Learn Maggie's "pay it forward" approach to work, raising a family, and her life -- a values-based philosophy that inspires the people around her to think bigger, bolder and braver. Maggie will let us in on her personal vision for herself and her family -- a vision that guides and shapes her life and career.
Show Description: You may have an inspiring vision or goal, but do you have the courage to act on it? Join Host Kate Ebner and Master Leadership Coach Chris Wahl for a powerful conversation about how to move in the direction of your vision, even when circumstances seem to conspire against you and the path isn’t obvious. An expert on adult development and personal transformation through leadership, Chris Wahl brings a compassionate and motivating perspective to the topic of navigating personal and professional transitions. Wahl is a pioneer in the field of coaching and founder of Georgetown’s well-known leadership coaching program that is renowned for delivering transformational learning experiences. You will learn how to approach your own transition with courage, humor and perspective.
Show Description: Women comprise roughly half of the workforce, but only 3.2 percent of the Fortune 500 CEOs. Only 14.4% of executive officers in the Fortune 500 are women. Meet two talented senior executive women who are working to change those numbers. Senior Vice Presidents Karen Dahut and Susan Penfield of Booz Allen Hamilton are bringing along the next generation of women leaders inside the firm and beyond. Join Host Kate Ebner to hear the advice, wisdom and perspective of these two savvy executives whose visions of leadership are as much about giving back as about moving forward. Whether you are an aspiring professional woman or simply want to learn from top leaders whose personal experience yields lessons for us all, you’ll be inspired.
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A substantial number of our nation’s schools are in poor or dangerous conditions – they harbor unhealthy levels of dust and mold, making the air unfit to breathe. With 20% of our country in school, Rachel Gutter recognized a need for making schools healthier and higher performing, while saving energy and taxpayer dollars. Rachel brought this idea to the forefront of today’s education discussion, and aims to have green schools for everyone within this generation. Join Kate and Rachel to learn how her work through the U.S. Green Building Council’s Center for Green Schools is driving improvements in the lives of children and teachers around the country – and educating a new generation of sustainability natives, students fluent in the language of green. All in a day's work, Rachel has met with former presidents, toured cities with mayors, lunched with the First Lady and been featured on CNN. You’ll love the gutsy story of how this English major landed her dream job greening our schools.When the Center for Green Schools at the U.S. Green Building Council was established in 2010 to serve as the driver for the green schools movement, USGBC appointed Rachel Gutter to take the reins.
Show Description: Luck Companies is no ordinary company and Mark Fernandes is no ordinary executive. While it's rare enough to find a family-owned company that has enjoyed continued success for more than eight decades, Luck stands out in another way. It is a mission-driven company whose vision of the future includes igniting the human potential of every single employee, and external groups as well, every single day. Meet Chief Leadership Officer Mark Fernandes who has grown with the company over more than 20 years and learn how he develops and retains high-performing talent by inspiring people to bring their best to accomplish big, visionary business goals. Mark sees himself as caretaker of a mission that is the secret to Luck’s extraordinary success. His passion and perspective as a business leader will inspire you, too.
Show Description: What will the workforce of the future look like? What kind of work will we be doing? Where and how will we work? Will robots do our work?
Join Host Kate Ebner and Guest Margaret Regan, President and CEO of The FutureWork Institute for a look into the future. Regan, an expert in workforce planning, helps companies to see what’s coming - and get prepared. “I’m never surprised,” says Regan. “At the FutureWork Institute, we see the future.” That future includes virtual company meetings that enable an entire international workforce to participate fully, robots that are already doing some work better than humans, and a vision of diversity that includes personal “enhancements” that dramatically improve human capabilities. As work becomes evermore global and technology changes our possibilities, the very nature of work is undergoing a transformation right before our eyes. Do you see it? Learn how to understand and anticipate the future by tuning in to Visionary Leader, Extraordinary Life.
Show Description: What is enough? Enough time...enough wealth...enough material possessions...even enough self-development? When we realize, even for a moment, that all we need is right in front of us, the possibilities for our lives begin to shift dramatically. Seven Stones Leadership founders, Jen Cohen and Gina LaRoche, share an alternative approach to the pursuit of endless abundance that can show us all how to live together more sustainably, happily and harmoniously in spite of lean times. Join Host Kate Ebner and her guests for a discussion of a powerful – even radical – new context for the American dream: the context of exquisite sufficiency. We will explore how believing in scarcity drives us in ways that do not serve us – and how sufficiency can be the antidote to anxiety, fear, distraction and shame. Jen and Gina will help you see a future you can believe in for your own life, one that will lead to a sustainable life for all.
Show Description: How does our past inform our future? What does education owe the young people of today? What does The University of the South have to teach us about the future?
These are just a few of the questions that Host Kate Ebner will explore with Dr. John McCardell Jr., Vice Chancellor of Sewanee, The University of the South and former President of Middlebury College. Dr. McCardell, a well-known Civil War historian, reminds us that “memories give meaning to the past and inspire hope for what is to come.” Dr. McCardell has provided visionary leadership in two academic institutions, calling for a bold forward-thinking plan that honors the past while establishing a clear new path toward the future. Today, Dr. McCardell is guiding The University of the South to envision and become the southern liberal arts college of the 21st century.
Dr. McCardell is recognized nationally for his strong stand that young people should be given opportunity, accompanied by both accountability and responsibility.
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Show Description: He calls it the “coolest, weirdest job” out there, but Ross Martin is turning heads across industries as a visionary leader in the business of creativity, innovation and strategy for Viacom’s Media Networks.
As Executive Vice President and Founder of Scratch, Martin leads a new kind of creative team within the walls of Viacom Media Networks, a cultural force that's transforming how brands connect with audiences and consumers in powerful, new ways.
A master of collaboration, Martin draws his inspiration from “the visionaries around me” and is known for his ability to encourage creativity, passion and genius in his teams.
Join Host Kate Ebner and Visionary Leader Ross Martin for a lively conversation about practical benefits of cultivating out-of-the-box thinkers and his own inspiring path.
Show Description: A stellar career in television. Boundless work opportunities. A beautiful family at home. And a vision that puts it all in perspective. Amy Friedman is a visionary creative executive who has started her own company so that work can support life, not consume it. Join Host Kate Ebner to hear Amy Friedman, Nickelodeon’s former Creative Director, share how she did it, what she’s learned and how you can create a vision to guide your own life.
Show Description: Our world is on an unsustainable path. Scientists warn that we are rapidly approaching dangerous tipping points after which life as we have known it will be irreversibly changed. At the same time, we are poised on the verge of a possibility so magnificent that we can barely imagine it. Using technical and social solutions already available, we can safeguard our planet’s capacity to sustain life – now and for future generations. Jim Kiles has dedicated his life to developing living networks for positive change. Drawing on his background as a media guru and successful entrepreneur, Jim now leads FOUR YEARS. GO., an innovative global campaign inviting people to take individual and collective action towards a more just and sustainable future. FOUR YEARS.GO is on a mission to shift the course of the future in just four years time! Join Kate Ebner and Jim Kiles as we explore this audacious call to action and hear Jim articulate a vision of the future that will inspire you to take a stand.
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Show Description: What is the story you’ve been telling about your life up until now? Whether or not you realize it, the way you think about and tell your own life story is having an enormous impact on your future possibilities. Host Kate Ebner and Dr. Neil Stroul of Georgetown University’s Leadership Coaching Program, explore how the stories we tell about our lives – and the roles we assign ourselves in those stories – create conditions for success or may hold us back. In order to be visionary, we need to understand the relationship of past, future and present. Come listen to today’s show and find out how to learn from your life, and use your past as a catalyst for the success you really want today and in the future.
Show Description: Do you have a vision for your life and career -- and a plan to make it happen? Many people hesitate to develop powerful and inspiring visions for their work and their lives. Yet being forward-looking is one of the five top characteristics of the best leaders. Join Host Kate Ebner and renowned Leadership and Life Coach, Talane Miedaner, author of Coach Yourself to a New Career, to discover how to create a career vision that will enable you to take charge of your career and your life. Learn how to translate your vision into strategies and tactics that lead to the results and outcomes you really want for your career and life.
Free for you! Get started on your own vision with this quick and easy 6-question visioning exercise.
You will receive your vision statement in your email immediately once you click 'Submit'. Just click here to begin.