Recognized nationally in June, Pride Month is an opportunity for us to lift the voices and perspectives who coach, serve, and/or identify in the LGBTQ+ community. ICFTN’s DEIB committee invites you to join us for Kaleidoscope of Perspectives: Pride in Coaching. Led by DEIB Committee member Joyce Kyles, you will hear from CEO Paris Ducker of CSEAA & EAA Coach & CEO Phillis Lewis of Love Doesn’t Hurt as they share various perspectives from the use of pronouns to professionalism and coaching/administrative processes to ensure inclusivity and belonging are achieved and maintained. If you’d like to submit questions prior to the discussion, please send them to deib@icftn.org. Tune in live on Monday, June 12, 2023, at 12:30 CT / 1:30 ET. See you there!!
Calling All Coaches! It is my joy to be one of the hosts for this year’s Listening Tour, presented by The International Coaching Federation-TN Chapter President. Please see the following from our amazing President, Brenda Baird, and make plans to join us. Don’t forget to share widely with your networks.
Join Brenda Baird, President, and the Board of Directors for an in-person gathering of connection and community building. During the event, members and potential new members will learn about exciting new ICFTN programs and get a chance to tell ICFTN leaders what coaches need and want to build impactful coaching skills and grow successful coaching businesses.
Networking and servant leadership does not always have to look or be perfect. But it does always need to be done with sincere purpose. This was taken about 3 weeks ago. It was my first time setting up a full vendor space in nearly 18 months. I just grabbed my ‘vending gear’ and went to the event. I failed to pack the additional proper table cloths and other accessories I usually have on hand for community events. I didn’t neatly put my earbuds, the bags, or boxes out of sight for the photo or during the time that attendees stopped by the table. And you know what, none of that mattered to a single person I met.
This is an appropriate place to share this because advocacy is a major part of the ‘why’ for starting my business. And as business owners, nonprofit leaders, etc., solving the problem and fulfilling the needs of those whom you serve is far more important than how pretty or well put together the staging looks. Next time, I will make a point to have all the things I am accustomed to having, but the servant leadership, passion, and professionalism for which I do what I do will remain the same.
I had the privilege of being the keynote speaker at Harvard University last week for the American Association of Mental Illness’ annual conference. The students pictured are the AAMI board of directors for the school’s chapter.(The event was not a Harvard specific event). Talking about mental illness is very important to me, and seeing these young people coming together to bring about more awareness and resources was great. They also streamed the event to other chapters across the U.S.
While the event was not a Harvard specific event, my being on that campus as a speaker is an experience that I will not soon forget. I’m was a fairly good student in high school. But attending an Ivy league school required credentials that I was not academically strong enough to meet. However, my professional education and personal, lived experiences continue to demonstrate my strengths and knowledge to contribute to society in my own purposeful way.
I appreciate the AAMI Boston Chapter for the opportunity to keynote the conference!
One of my biggest honors this year was to serve as the Keynote Speaker the FBI’s Annual Domestic Violence Awareness program at their national headquarters in Washington, DC. The event was hosted dually in person as well as virtually so that their international employees would have the opportunity to participate. I also had the pleasure of conducting a special workshop with their EAP employees on a separate day.
To know me is to know that law enforcement and criminal justice are extremely important to me. As I shared during both opportunities, my initial plan was to become an attorney. I also had aspirations of pursuing a career in the military-the Air Force specifically. As life would have it, I would not do either in the ways I had originally planned. However, I continue to share my time and talents in both spaces, and for that, I consider myself fortunate and blessed.
