Faith Clarke's son, Jaedon, was diagnosed with Autism at the age of 2. Since then, she's been on a roller coaster of parenthood. But Faith isn't the kind of person who just lets things happen. She armed herself with knowledge, awareness and resources -- enough to go around to other parents who were unexpectedly living out the journey of Autism with their children. After Jaedon was diagnosed, Faith eventually created the organization, Melody of Autism to provided resources, community and support for other families. She wrote the book "Parenting Like a Ninja" and has become a fierce advocate for children and parents in the Autism community. In our interview, Faith speaks about how faith impacted her experience with a child with … [Read more...]

Alex Perry has an infectious personality -- cheerful and spirited -- she is the kind of positive warrior everyone would like to have in their life. I'm guessing that's why she's so great at her job teaching people how to craft and share their stories through public speaking. After starting her career working with individuals who were unable to speak -- either from birth or a condition -- as a speech therapist, she transitioned to started her own business, PS with Alex. Alex says: My basic underlying belief is that we all have a message to share and we owe it to those that an't speak to speak well.  I got a taste of her skills last summer, when we met for coffee to discuss a few ideas for speaking I was doing for my upcoming … [Read more...]

Carrie Sheffield dreams really big. And she doesn't just dream, she takes action. Her big, hair, audacious goal (some call it a "BHAG") was creating a media empire in BOLD Media. She's getting there and it's awesome to watch from pretty close by. I've known Carrie for many years on the DC media scene, but we only recently spoke more personally, and it's been a treat. She's a truly, genuine person to respect and quite the role model for young women today. Carrie says: "We exist because we want to build the beloved community that Martin Luther King spoke about....the concept of beloved community, we believe that exists here and now and it's our responsibility to build that everyday." In today's episode, we talk about how she … [Read more...]

Picture yourself in the 7th grade cafeteria eating Fritos, drinking Sprite and complaining about having to go to gym class after lunch. Those are some of my first memories of Lynn Downey. I never would have imagined we'd be chatting it up on a podcast (those didn't exist) gulp 20+ years later. But here we are! Lynn followed her dreams of becoming a Hollywood actress after majoring in theater in college -- and I ended up writing and communicating. I'm so happy we could merge these two crazy professions for an online conversation reunion. Even though we haven't seen each other in years, Lynn's fun personality and confidence shined through. I loved when she talked about ego, self-awareness & how hard we can be on ourselves as … [Read more...]