Picture this: you’re in line at a coffee shop, and someone rattles off an order that sounds like a secret code. Ever been there?
“I’ll have a Quad Espresso, extra whole milk, five sugars with extra vanilla powder, add cinnamon dolce topping, with extra praline, add butterscotch with espresso whip in a venti cup.”
Sometimes I wonder how they remember all the changes, add ins and even the right words to get that desired beverage. Buckle up, because we’re about to dive in the world of unfiltered conversations.
I love me a good cup of coffee. I also love good conversation. I mean honestly both are typically involved in my days. Coaching is about good conversation with thoughtful questions. Training and Speaking is actually just a dialogue with your audience. And all of them should come with a nice cup of coffee.
A few years ago Leadership Harbor launched a podcast called “Dock Time.” With over a 100 episodes we met some really great people, had conversations around a bunch of leadership topics and learned a thing or two about podcasting.
Dock Time after its second season took a bit of a vacation - for several reasons, but the main one was the time. Sometimes you have to give up good to go for great, and the time it took to produce a weekly podcast was good and we sent it to the back burner.
Dock Time is coming back, but I’ll save that story for Kris and Brian to tell. What I’m most excited about is a new podcast of Leadership Harbor, I’m calling it; Growing Up, with Chris.
Around the time we were wrapping up Dock Time I had a conversation with a good friend that has actually led me to the format I’m going to explore in Growing Up. My goal is we’ll focus on things surrounding and impacting youth.
Sometimes we’ll have a guest on and talk about parenting and what it’s like to raise tiny humans into strong contributing adults. Other times may have a guest that on the surface seems to not quite fit, but I love what you can discover in the unplanned.
We’ll take questions and ideas from you and the Youth Impact Facebook Group. I’m guessing the podcast will be a bit like the awkward teen years at times and go through some growing pains and “find itself.” But we’ll find these things together. In fact, if you’re already thinking of ideas, drop them in the comments.
Growing Up, my hope is to be a podcast of our family - just as much yours as mine - all with a focus on impacting our youth - empowering them to live and lead with confidence and influence.
One thing that drove me nuts about producing Dock Time, and I was not great at it, but was the editing - listening to the raw audio files and cutting or trimming here and there, splicing together segments to make it flow a little easier. Taking out the awkward pauses or the misspoken response or words.
I’m just going to be honest with you, Growing Up will not have that. It will be real, raw and sometimes messy. But isn’t that life? Think of the last time you were out and a beverage was spilled - we clean up, refill and move on. That is what I envision Growing U to be, sometimes a bit messy.
It will be like sitting at your favorite coffee shop, in the corner booth. You’re either part of the conversation or or you’re overhearing the one I’m having.
My goal when it comes to editing these (at least until I have a professional to handle it all) is that we’re leaving it all in - no cutting or splicing. I’ll hit record, a conversation will be had, an opener and closer track will be added and at the end we’ll all have walked away learning something.
So, who’s ready to Grow Up? I’m thrilled about this new adventure and can’t wait to share it with you. Get ready to join me in the corner booth of your favorite coffee shop for unfiltered, uncut conversations.
Growing Up, with Chris is not just a podcast; it’s a journey we’ll embark on together - a journey to empower our youth and create a community of confident and influential individuals. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for Growing Up, available wherever you get your podcasts and on the Leadership Harbor website.
Make it a great day,
Chris