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C4 Leaders – the ONLY nonprofit to utilize the pizza making process to create space for our companions to be seen, heard, and loved. We also write children’s books, host this podcast, and use the most amazing handmade, hand-tossed, sourdough pizza to bring out the best in each other. Please check out PIZZADAYS.ORG to support our important work.

Season 5 Episode #1 Anna Maria Didio is coming from Philadelphia, PA (inform, inspire, & transform)

You can find Anna via her website: amdidio.com

About our guest: When Anna decided to start a family, she was unprepared for the journey ahead. Years of infertility struggles were isolating and sent her into depression. After two miscarriages, Anna and her husband Richard had a beautiful baby girl. Realizing they wanted to expand their family they began researching ways to do so… but adding to their family seemed impossible. Until… they found themselves at an orphanage in Mexico, meeting a beautiful six-year-old girl.

They thought they found the missing piece to their family puzzle but were unprepared for the trauma their newly adopted daughter’s experience in losing her culture, language, food and everything else that had been essential in her life.

Anna knew she had something to say about her family’s adoption journey so upon retiring from an incredible career as a Human Resource Consultant, Anna sat down at her desk and started writing. It began with a memoir, Love at the Border and has blossomed into writing children's books with the mission of encouraging adoptive parents and all blended families to acknowledge the trauma, various unknown challenges and to provide hope in moving forward as a thriving family.

Anna, thanks for sharing your many gifts with the world, for having the courage to share your story, and for taking the time to capture them on paper with the hope of inspiring families all over the world. Welcome to the show!

TOTD – “Empathy begins with understanding life from another person's perspective. Nobody has an objective experience of reality. It's all through our own individual prisms.” Sterling K. Brown

In this episode:

What was life like growing up?

Listened to you on another podcast and heard you are a hooper… tell me about it.

What are your life’s essential ingredients?

National Council For Adoption: 2022 there were 368,530 children in foster care. Number of children in foster care awaiting adoption is 108,887 with 53,665 being adopted.

57% are adopted by their foster parents with 94% receiving subsidy

Average age of child awaiting adoption 7.6 years old, 43% White, 23% Hispanic, 21% Black, 9% Multiracial

Time in Care for Children Awaiting Adoption – breaksdown in years – 2, 3-4, 5 plus (2 years 25,994, 3-4 27,399, 5 plus 13,497 with numbers going up). Imagine the abandonment, decrease self-worth, self-image…

Different types of adoptions…

The trauma, grief, and loss of adoption

The POWER OF THE CHILD’S STORY…

Blessings of adoption

Challenges of adoption…

Helping your adoptive child deal with the challenges of school and growing up with questions about growing up, birth, no family medical history, family tree…

Tips for listening to your children…

Books…Love at the Border, Many People to Love, How I Wonder Where You Are, Carla the Conqueror..

Professional Help for people thinking about adoption…international vs. domestic, age, gender…multistage process… costs…National Council for Adoption – adoptioncouncil.org

Legacy

Send us a text

C4 Leaders – the ONLY nonprofit to utilize the pizza making process to create space for our companions to be seen, heard, and loved. We also write children’s books, host this podcast, and use the most amazing handmade, hand-tossed, sourdough pizza to bring out the best in each other. Please check out PIZZADAYS.ORG to support our important work.

Season 4 Episode #19 Craig Mattson is coming from Grand Rapids, Michigan (inform, inspire, & transform)

You can find Craig via his website: themodeswitch.com or via his podcast The Mode/Switch

About our guest: Craig is an organizational researcher, author and professor (Calvin University), who recently published his third book Digital Overwhelm. Craig’s areas of expertise are numerous including his original research on the disconnection and intensity many American workers feel in their organizational communities.

Craig’s spiritual wisdom to build a practical framework called "mode-switching" has helped thousands of people transform the stresses of modern work, like email overload, Zoom fatigue, and technological breakdowns – into “gifting opportunities.”

Craig is a deep thinker who loves to explore people’s perspectives in the hopes of transforming his life and the lives of the people he serves. Craig, thanks for sharing your many gifts with the world, for educating and empowering thousands of students, for having the courage to lean into difficult subject matter and conversations, and for being our guest on Life’s Essential Ingredients – Welcome to the Show!

TOTD – “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” Gandhi

Build a habit - to create intention - to live your purpose!

In this episode:

What was life like growing up?

What are your life’s essential ingredients?

What attracted you to the teaching world and your inspirational work as a professor for the past 20 + years.

Communication in Social Business (2018), Why Spiritual Capital Matters (2021), and your latest book Digital Overwhelm (2024)… congrats

6 modes of communication – dialogic mode of communication – characterized by usually two-way conversation and shaped by the values of equity and authenticity…

Mode of Dissemination

“Good Talk”

John Durham Peters – uses the phrase “caringly served”… what does that mean to you?

Mode Switching to create awe and gratitude

Force, Pitch, Quality, and Rate… how to write an email like you talk…

Stanovich’s The Reflective Mind

Tell the story about Jon Berbaum…bleeding out (digital marketing business) during the pandemic…mode switching and asking how can we give here? To infuse his staff with energy…

Chicago Half-Marathon… “again”

Communicating with different generations…creating space for all people to be seen heard and loved….

The importance of family…

I know you love being out in nature… what do you love and how have you incorporated that space into what you do to help people play to their strengths?

What got you into coaching, leadership, podcasting…

Being where your hands are… the importance of being in the moment

The importance of self-awareness and self-love…

Finding fulfillment in life? How do you define fulfillment?

Great coaches and mentors…

Last book or books you recommend?

Values that define you?

Legacy

Send us a text

C4 Leaders – the ONLY nonprofit to utilize the pizza making process to create space for our companions to be seen, heard, and loved. We also write children’s books, host this podcast, and use the most amazing handmade, hand-tossed, sourdough pizza to bring out the best in each other. Please check out PIZZADAYS.ORG to support our important work.

Season 4 Episode #18 Peter Teuscher is coming from Hamburg, Germany (inform, inspire, & transform)

You can find Peter via his website peterteuscher.com (blog, podcast PETER TEUSCHER – Rethinking Happiness)

About our guest: Peter Teuscher is a seasoned life/business/basketball coach, leadership trainer, and author - whose book, "Rethinking Happiness – and the Beliefs that Guide you" – breaksdown the complexities of happiness. With a unique blend of empathy, insight, and practical strategies, Peter is committed to helping others navigate their own path to happiness and success; offering a refreshing perspective on how individuals can achieve their own definition of happiness.

What sets Peter apart is not just professional expertise, but also his personal journey of growth and resilience. Overcoming battles with depression and anxiety, Peter has emerged as a beacon of inspiration, showcasing transformation is possible no matter the current state of your life.

Peter, thanks for sharing your many gifts with the people you serve, having the courage to uproot your life in Canada in order to reach for your dreams, and for being our guest on Life’s Essential Ingredients…

TOTD – “Find out who you are and then do it on purpose.” Dolly Parton

Build a habit - to create intention - to live your purpose!

https://www.peterteuscher.com

In this episode:

What was life like growing up?

What are your life’s essential ingredients?

What got you into coaching, leadership, podcasting…

What is WINNING?

Congrats on the release of your book – 2/22/24 Rethinking Happiness – and the beliefs that guide you…WHAT IS HAPPINESS and has your definition changed over the years?

The value of hardship, struggle, difficulty…

How important is communication as a skill…empathy…define it…

What is leadership?

Humbleness and Curiosity – how can they be the keys to unlock our best life?

The importance of self-awareness and self-love…

Legacy