Heather Larson Intro

0:07
today on the servant leadership podcast we welcome Heather Larson a Visionary leader dedicated to helping people live

0:13
more generous lives and make a meaningful impact with their resources Heather's Journey began at the American

0:19
Red Cross progressed to helping lead Willow Creek one of the largest churches in the world and now centers on Guiding

0:25
some of the wealthiest families in the world to create lasting legacies through her advice firm live give at Willow

0:32
Creek Heather spearheaded the creation of the Care Center a groundbreaking initiative that not only addressed

0:38
immediate needs like food and clothing but also offered long-term Solutions such as employment assistance car

0:44
repairs and dental care Heather's Visionary leadership redefined how churches and communities approach

0:50
serving those in need beyond that Heather has also worked with leaders and organizations worldwide including the

0:56
development of Care Centers throughout Ukraine in this episode Heather shares powerful insights on building a culture

1:02
of generosity practical steps to be more philanthropic and how to make a lasting difference in your community and Beyond

Welcome Heather Larson

1:10
Heather thank you so much for being here today this is a real honor oh thank you Chris I was excited to come and get to

1:15
sit with you today you have had such a fascinating journey and obviously we've known each other for a while um share

Heather's Fascinating Journey

1:22
with our audience about your journey yeah so um actually my first job was at

1:27
the American Red Cross I did PR in marketing for them I had graduated from Taylor University and um moved myself on

1:36
up here in my Toyota with my like little hamburger on top of moving my life

1:42
getting started um post college and I loved working for the Red Cross um which

1:47
was really great taught me a ton but I started to to develop a heart for really

1:53
seeing the church engage in the needs of our world and that's a whole different other story but ended up starting um on

2:00
staff at Willow Creek Community Church um uh a couple years after I moved here

2:05
to Chicago I was there for 20 years and then I started a philanthropy and

2:11
Leadership advisory firm called live give um which is what I am doing today it's going on six years that I have been

2:19
um building my own business and loving it wow your journey is so interesting to

Willow Creek's Care Center Background

2:25
me because Red Cross to Willow Creek to now helping leaders get better helping people be more

2:31
generous there's some common thread there of deep care for others uh I know

2:36
some of the stuff you did at Willow was just amazing uh share with our audience a little bit about the care center how

2:42
that came about and maybe a little bit of your journey uh through that yeah so um when I was first on staff at Willow

2:52
it was a place that was known mostly for leadership and evangelism and it was a place that

2:59
wasn't necessarily living out what I would consider kind of the values of compassion and Justice and I kind of

3:05
assumed that I would always need to go somewhere else as I grew up to uh be

3:13
able to live out those values um but was really able to see some amazing

3:20
transformation that happened in and through people that were part of that

3:25
place and um my role shifted at one point when one of the pastors went on a

3:31
trip with a guy named Bono and got really passionate about uh wanting to do

3:37
something to address AIDS in Africa and that was at a time where there was not a

3:43
lot of um there was just so much stigma around AIDs that there weren't a lot of churches engaging in um in that issue so

3:53
they said hey we're going to do um an offering and you know could we kind of

3:58
shift your job job so that you'll figure out how to Steward this money if we do this like one time um offering for AIDS

4:07
in Africa and that ended up with a fund of a million dollars and it was my first foray into helping to find really great

4:15
people making a significant impact and worked with some people that I learned a ton from in that process um of helping

4:24
to lead our AIDS in Africa initiative well that led to Leading a lot of our uh

4:31
Global initiatives and things that we were doing around poverty and Injustice around the world and um I'll tell you

4:39
this little story here uh so I was actually in Zimbabwe and I was on a

4:45
plane um flying from one side of Zimbabwe to the other and um we were

4:50
dealing with some really hard I just understanding the PIR in that country

4:56
understanding just how difficult life is um for for many of the um people in that

5:02
country and I was sitting next to a local woman who I could tell was very resourced and she could tell that I was

5:10
American and she um she just went on and on about what an inconvenience it was to

5:16
have so many poor people around her and what an inconvenience it was to have so many people who were sick with AIDS and

5:24
she just got so overwhelmed by seeing the poverty around her all the time that she had to fly to New York City to get

5:31
retail therapy and I I just felt so

5:37
angry internally and I tried to be kind in the conversation and um I got off

5:44
that plane and I just felt like God was saying to me here you are frustrated and

5:50
angry that she doesn't see the needs in her own backyard but how much are you all doing to address the needs in your

5:56
own backyard how much is your heart breaking for your immediate neighbors as

6:01
much as it is breaking for your neighbors around the world so I came

6:06
back and basically said I want to really help grow what we're doing locally and

6:13
partially what happened um in my job at that time is they said okay fine you're

6:18
passionate about it then figure out a way to build it and that led to us building the care center and um we met

6:25
with um a team of us met with the um principls in the schools surrounding our

6:31
church we met with Community Le leaders and Mayors uh leaders of nonprofits and

6:38
every conversation was the same help us understand what needs that you see help

6:44
us understand what gaps that you see in the community and if you were to write

6:50
our business plan for what this Care Center would be about what would you want us to do because we really wanted

6:57
to not come in as you know a large Church saying like Hey we're now going

7:04
to make the difference we really wanted to come in as you help us figure out

7:10
what you want this to look like how can we support what you're doing how can we partner together how can we shape our

7:16
strategy around things that will serve people in our community and the existing

7:22
organizations in our community so in 2008 we kicked that off and uh you

7:28
happen to remember what 2008 was like it was not the ideal time uh to be doing a

7:34
huge fundraising initiative but uh the generosity of people there uh we were

7:40
totally funded before we even broke ground and it um turned into it was a

7:45
full Choice grocery store where people could come in and pick out their groceries um it's a a clothing boutique

7:53
um at the time was focused on children's clothing because that was the biggest need at the time um a cars uh a car shop

8:02
where uh repairs are done where people donate cars and where they're turned

8:07
around and even given away um to some single moms or some families in need um

8:13
there are also employment services and legal services and actually even a dental clinic and an optometry clinic as

8:22
well as many other things so I actually just this last weekend um my two daughters were home from school and they

8:29
brought a whole bunch of college friends home with them and one of the things we had to do was go take a tour of the Care

8:34
Center um to be able to see I don't have any direct leadership or connection with

8:40
that today but I love cheering on the team there and um we'll keep being a cheerleader for them and the great work

8:46
that they're continuing so that is the story that led to the care center it's

8:51
amazing because I I think a lot of people think about let's solve some short-term needs like maybe food

Immediate Relief And Providing Long Term Solutions

8:58
pantries uh and get get people through a tough time but a lot of the Care Center was about rehabilitating people getting

9:05
them on their feet walking with people over a long period of time to get to where they were sustainable and uh just

9:11
have significantly improved lives yes yeah absolutely so it's the connection

9:17
between immediate relief you have to help address The Chronic need that someone has right in front of them if

9:23
you're hungry you're not necessarily worried about anything else you are worried about getting food especially uh

9:31
for your family so it's addressing immediate needs but then it's helping to address long-term Solutions of what are

9:38
your barriers to getting out of this cycle of poverty what are the obstacles that you and your family are facing how

9:45
can we come alongside of you um to help you overcome those obstacles and then

9:51
how can we do it in a relationship and in an aspect of community and someone

9:56
who's there to become a friend and to listen and to really help understand how

10:02
we can help you in your journey I think one of the coolest things for me about

Care Center Impact On Other Communities

10:08
uh seeing the Care Center develop over the years um is that most people probably think well it was Willow Creek

10:15
of course they could do the care center and well they have the means to do it the resources they're in uh Great

10:21
suburan Chicago all of that um you've actually been able to help tons of people uh through thinking how would you

10:27
do care centers in your local community from from places here in the states to to places throughout Europe could you

10:34
share with us a little bit about maybe one or two instances of how you've seen the Care Center impact other communities

10:40
so I I think one of the things that was most important just for us in our

10:46
process of building it out was a making it customized to the needs in our

10:52
community and having the value of service and humility and bridge building

10:57
with organizations around us and what's interesting is that you have some people

11:03
who will come in and see the Care Center and they will think oh we're going to replicate this exact same thing I'm like no no no no no don't do that like go

11:11
into your community like the the aspects of how much ownership that there was

11:16
from our entire Community before we even opened those doors was a vital part of

11:23
that because there is just so much of a kind of a perception around hey the

11:29
big donor the big organization is going to come in and they're going to solve whatever problems they're going to throw whatever money at things and the reality

11:36
is is usually those circumstances end up with people really frustrated and end up

11:42
with a lot of missed expectations whereas if you lay the groundwork in a

11:47
healthy way um and in a way that is really out of collaboration and out of

11:52
meeting the needs in that specific Community then you can build it organically together to what is unique

11:58
to that specific Community wow even in that we talk a lot on this podcast about

Servant Leadership Perspectives

12:04
servant leadership and in that whole concept is a beautiful portrayal of servant leadership from from the Geto

12:12
when you think of servant leadership how would you define it or what do you think of my favorite leaders are leaders that

12:20
are constantly learning and growing and constantly curious leaders that are

12:27
looking for new ways of doing things looking for um people who have even

12:32
better ideas than they do and people who humble themselves to say hey I yeah I

12:39
happen to have a lot of experience and your experiences are different how can I learn from you how can I grow from what

12:46
you're doing how can I help borrow some of your ideas to make my ideas even better and I do think that is you know

12:54
one of the core elements of servant leadership is going in to listen

12:59
to learn to grow and to just be in a posture of you know what can I bring to

13:06
the table but also how can I bring something to the table to help serve in whatever Endeavor that we're engaged

13:13
with but also how how can I learn and grow from other people around the table

13:19
as well too well when when I think of you and just knowing some of your story you

International Impact - Ukraine Focus

13:26
behind the scenes have helped lead some amazing in initiatives uh some of it is public where thousands of people have

13:32
learned from you over the years and it's great um both sitting in churches and

13:38
also just as you've spoken at different events and different places uh I know you've also encouraged many pastors

13:44
around the world to think more about how they Implement Care Centers how they be better servant leaders how they grow in

13:50
their leadership skills talk about what you've done a little bit internationally or whatever you're able to share yes so

13:56
I'll I will talk about Ukraine cuz it is just in it's so much kind of in my heart

14:02
uh these days so when uh the fullscale invasion started in Ukraine um several

14:09
years ago I got a phone call from the president of the Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary and he I was like

14:16
who is this person and why do I have this on my schedule today but okay we'll just show up and whatever the

14:22
conversation is and he told me that um as he's looking at what's going on in

14:28
his country he said we're really wrestling as a leadership team with what can we do to

14:34
help not only address the immediate needs of what's happening through

14:39
through the war here but what can we do to really help set up the church to care

14:45
for people long term and to be in place to be able to help with the rebuilding

14:50
on the other side of this conflict however long that that lasts and he said that um he had been to the Care Center

14:57
at Willow and he said the values of dignity and hope and joy and being able

15:05
to help people long term um while also building relationship and sharing Faith

15:10
with them he said you know it's it it is what we would love to build here would you would you help us um so that started

15:17
a whole series of conversations um the first thing I told him was just like you and I talked about was you got to go and

15:24
find people who are already doing this like don't do this alone don't start from scratch um so my next phone call

15:31
with him he had been to the other side of Ukraine and had met with a pastor

15:37
that someone had told him had a similar heart to get some sort of Ministries up and going and that Pastor that he had

15:44
never met before on the other side of Ukraine said you know actually I have a picture in my mind of what I would love

15:50
to develop it's actually from this Church in Chicago that I went to many I was like no way you are kidding me um so

15:58
it just my heart was hooked in that of like okay God what can I do to help cheer on um these people and this team

16:07
so we started doing um I kind of became an Adjunct professor a guest professor

16:12
at the Seminary and helping to train up teams of leaders that would start what

16:17
they call Weare centers they now have 18 Weare centers across Ukraine and um it

16:25
has been an incredible journey and one of the things I love most about it is that um it's it's not it's not a a

16:34
replica of what was the Care Center at Willow it's its own expression they they

16:41
exactly took what are the needs and the context in their Community almost every We Care Center has aspects of trauma

16:47
counseling has aspects of helping to care for children who um obviously are

16:53
experiencing so much um just upheaval and just fear

16:59
in their lives and things like art counseling classes you know art therapy classes for kids and things like support

17:06
groups for women who are left alone because their husbands are on the front lines or things to help women start

17:12
businesses because they're now the primary caregiver for their families um as well as you know uh small groups and

17:21
discipleship classes and things as well too so these 18 Weare centers they they

17:26
all look different depending on where they are in the country um but this last June I got to go over there and um lead

17:34
a retreat with the president of the Seminary and um I brought my daughter my

17:40
20-year-old daughter with me and I will tell you it was it was um an experience

17:46
that will shape both of us for our entire lives of just seeing here are

17:52
people who are choosing to stay in the midst of horrific trauma that is just so

18:00
different than anything I can understand but they're not only choosing to stay

18:05
they are choosing to build and to care and choosing to help provide long-term

18:12
support that will be there hopefully long past um the time of this conflict

18:18
and um into the future to be able to help with the rebuilding phase so those are the We Care Centers at Ukraine and I

18:26
am so inspired by what they're doing um I I tell Slavic the president there I'm

18:31
like you you are my hero you took like a seed of a vision of an idea and you grew

18:37
it into so much more and to me that is it's the most beautiful part of what

18:43
Legacy can be is when you know God takes a seed of something and he grows it into

18:48
something bigger than we could ever imagine that is so amazing I I think a

Encouraging Others to Make A Difference

18:53
lot of people have a heart to do amazing things like that um but one of the

18:58
things that they did was they acted on it how do you encourage people to act on dreams that might be in their heart or

19:05
things that they're thinking about or even just take the first step to get involved in making a difference so it's

19:11
it is exactly that Chris it's it's doing something getting engaged finding what

19:17
pulls at your heart finding um what specifically gets you excited you know

19:24
what brings tears to you uh what what are the causes in this world world that

19:29
you would say okay there are a lot of needs around but what are the things that I want to engage in when I am

19:35
working with clients I use a framework uh just for some initial conversations

19:41
that I call Aim and the a is a line pay attention to what aligns with your

19:47
values um with kind of the mission of what you want your life to be about um

19:52
follow up with what is important enough that you're going to say no to other things like saying yes to some is saying

19:59
no to other things in there and then the m is what is mine to do like what what

20:06
is unique to you that you have unique experiences um that that you can bring

20:12
to the table to help make an impact in that area so for example for me with the

20:18
Ukraine situation I had people who are like why in the world are you going to Ukraine and you are taking your daughter

20:25
as well and and for me it just felt so CLE that God had lined up those

20:30
circumstances it aligns with what I want the mission of my life to be about it

20:35
was important enough that I wanted to prioritize that at the top and say no to other things and I felt uniquely that it

20:42
was mine to do um because of the story and because of the connection um to

20:48
Legacy in there so I would say to people don't get overwhelmed with the 10,000

20:53
wonderful causes in the world pay attention to what has God put on your heart what is in your heart that is part

21:00
of the mission of what you want your life to be about it's important enough that you want to elevate it up and yes

21:06
this is what I'm going to say yes to and that you uniquely feel like it is yours to do that is so good I I hadn't heard

21:13
the a thing before but that's amazing uh I know we've talked a lot about the care center and really for the last six years

"Live Give" Philanthropy Advising and Leadership Coaching

21:20
you've been doing some amazing work in the philan philanthropy space in the leadership space um what's it look like

21:27
to walk through with leaders all around the country uh exactly what you're talking about and

21:33
these are some of the most amazing leaders as well uh and most influential leaders too so there are two parts of

21:39
live give the one is the philanthropy advising side and then Executive coaching so with the um philanthropy

21:46
advising side it's coming alongside to help their families or to be able to help uh companies come up with their

21:53
giving strategies you know you you have a strategic plan for your business business you have a strategic plan in so

22:00
many different areas of your life you may even have a fitness plan you know you have a health and eating plan you

22:06
know it's people are used to coming up with strategies around different areas but there are so few people who have a

22:13
giving plan of really what what do they want to do with the resources that they

22:18
have and what's the difference that they want to make how do they want to engage other people around them whether the

22:24
Next Generation or other employees at work how do you get other people involved to really help shape what that

22:31
giving that giving strategy or that giving plan is so that's one side of it

22:36
the other side is coming alongside of coaching um with CEOs and with boards

22:42
and because of my experience I have just gotten pulled in to really come

22:47
alongside of um some really remarkable CEOs who just are like I just I need a thought partner I need somebody from the

22:54
outside who can come in and give me perspective who can help me keep my priorities who can help me figure out

23:01
what are the things that I want to say yes to and what are the things I want to say no to I had um one CEO that I was

23:07
working with um him and his family coming out of they had just had the sale of a business that was like a crazy

23:15
amount of money and he was actually scared that the money was going to just

23:21
was going to mess too much with his mind and with his family and so we went through a process of we called it The

23:27
Purge and what are the things that he wanted to get rid of to show that he wasn't holding on to material things and

23:34
one of the things that he did was sell his jet so now when he um introduces me

23:39
to uh others that he's like she's she's a really great executive coach she made me sell my jet I'm like well I'm not

23:46
quite sure that's how you should introduce me but it's it's helping to bring people back to what are your

23:51
values what really matters what are your priorities and cheering them on to help

23:56
to help to do that so what's interesting to me is the philanthropy advising the Executive coaching I didn't start off

24:03
with those as the two aspects of my business but they um one kept leading

24:09
into the other and my clients um tend to actually overlap between those those two

24:15
areas it'll start off on the philanthropy side and they'll say hey can you come in and help us with this board issue or start off on the

24:21
leadership side and hey help us figure out this plan of what we're doing here

24:26
so um that's what it looks like it it works so well together how you have it set up um some people might be

Developing Your "Giving" Muscles

24:33
listening and thinking well of course it's easy to give away money if you have a ton of money um or if you're able to

24:39
sell a jet or things like that and they might be thinking well I I can't give I'm not equipped to give or I don't know

24:46
why anyone would give if they don't have money how do you help people start thinking about generosity so I talk about it as

24:53
developing your giving muscles and I think it is important to develop your giving muscles at any stage and what's

25:00
interesting is even with you know uh families that have a ton of resources

25:06
they still have young kids and you know people in other Generations who they

25:11
have to figure out how do you get started how do how do you how do you learn what you're passionate about and

25:18
how do you learn what it looks like uh to be able to have a great relationship with an organization that you're

25:24
supporting so I actually think the most important part is developing your giving

25:29
muscles when you actually have a smaller bucket of money and you can even do that as a parent in helping your kids in that

25:36
way um to be able to Think Through okay what what causes am I passionate about what would what would I do with these

25:43
resources if I could really make a difference in these ways but every time

25:48
um I am a big believer that transformation happens just as much in the heart of The Giver as it does in

25:54
those people who are receiving the resources and um so I would just say the

26:00
amount of money does not matter if you feel like your bucket is small that does

26:05
not matter at all it's the heart of what you're doing and the process of choosing

26:11
what is important to you and where you feel led to be able to contribute to or to engage in from a volunteer standpoint

26:19
um and every step of the way you are developing those giving muscles and who knows someday you may have a lot more

26:26
that you would be giving away but developing the muscles now is um is

26:31
going to prepare you for whatever your future looks like as far as resources you may have on on the leadership side

Importance of Leadership Coaching and Honest Feedback

26:40
as as you're walking people through some crazy leadership sometimes it's challenges sometimes it's excitement

26:46
sometimes it's just the mundane of leadership uh how do you see leadership

26:51
coaching uh benefiting people um from yourself as a leader when you were a leader I know you had lots of great

26:57
mentor too and lots of people speaking into well you are a leader but but when you were leading these bigger

27:03
organizations you had a lot of great sounding boards how do you see leadership coaching play into servant leadership and just leadership in

27:09
general I think it is so important to have somebody outside of your world who

27:16
can give you perspective and who can give you advice and who you invite in to

27:21
observe like help me with what do you see so um I'm actually doing three

27:27
different three 60s right now um for CEOs in organizations and um so working

27:35
with their teams to help gather impact or their boards as well to help gather feedback to help speak back to that CEO

27:43
of how are you really doing and the reality is is when you're in a prominent position of leadership you have a lot of

27:50
yes people around you you have a lot of people that are just wanting to make you

27:57
happy because you know there's something in it for them or they're wanting to move up in

28:02
their career or it just it is super hard to get objective opinions when you are

28:09
in higher levels of leadership and you've got to be intentional about

28:15
cultivating that and inviting that in and um it's I actually consider it a

28:20
sacred honor with the people that I get to come alongside of because they are

28:26
inviting me in to help give them feedback and to help speak honestly

28:32
about what I am seeing in their world and in their lives around them and I

28:37
don't pretend to have expertise in their specific area of what they're leading so you know coming in with humility is

28:43
important but just being able to ask questions and cheer them on without having any skin in the game myself um is

28:51
it it is a role that is extremely lifegiving and I know how valuable it is

28:57
from my Seasons you know working in leadership in a large organization and

29:02
you you have to be intentional about getting advice from outside of your world how did you go about finding

Finding Mentors and Relationships

29:10
mentors and finding people who could give you advice and for people who might not have access to a great leadership

29:16
coach how do you recommend they they go find mentors and people who can build into them we all have mentors all around

29:23
us in our lives it's just paying attention to people's stories so I would say some of my earliest mentors were

29:30
actually parents of my friends that just you know I can remember being a high school student or being in college and

29:37
having conversations with my friends parents learning about their jobs or what they were doing and just asking

29:43
them questions and getting to know their perspective on this world and um what

29:48
they were doing in their career you have people all around you that are on this

29:55
journey of life and this journey of leadership and um I really believe that

30:01
there are people that we can learn from in kind of all walks of life around us

30:06
so it's it's just being intentional to see the people that are in your circles and don't hesitate to say hey could we

30:14
grab a cup of coffee can I pick your brain about this um I am there are some

30:20
people who are super structured about mentoring of like hey let's let's do a six- week curriculum together that is

30:26
not at all me and and I actually felt like that was a lot to ask somebody for

30:33
but just to say hey could I take you out to Coffee I would love to learn from you

30:38
um could you know you know you I know you're an early morning person I know that you love breakfast could I treat

30:44
you to breakfast someday and just hear more about your story in general most

30:50
people love talking about themselves so the fact that you want to learn from them and want to hear their story

30:56
especially if you have No Agenda in the midst of it most people are really open to that um so it's it's Having the

31:04
courage to ask people for time but also having the emotional intelligence not to

31:10
put expectations or so much weight on that that you scare them away yeah

31:16
that's so good I I think back to one one of our mutual friends gave me the advice

31:21
one time of for every area of your life that you care about find a mentor that

31:26
is awesome at that whether or not it's being a dad or your finances or your

31:32
faith or whatever it is find a mentor who's great at that and then take them into coffee like you're saying engage

31:37
them and ask them questions about just that don't expect them to be all-encompassing either at everything

31:42
ask them for input on specific things yes well I do have to say if somebody were to ask me who do you know who is

31:49
the best at developing developing mentors getting to know people learning

31:56
developing Networks I would say Chris Lesnar is the best that you you I mean I

32:04
feel like I'm sitting at the feet of the master here as you ask me that question because Chris you are so intentional

32:10
about that and even just talking to you about you know what conversations that you had recently and who who you have

32:18
pursued again not putting weight or expectation on those people just would you be game for a conversation so I

32:25
would say I learn from you and that and um you really are incredible at

32:32
cultivating great relationships and being a learner with people around you well thank you uh the irony is one of

32:39
the one of the early people that I ever reached out to was you back when I was in uh finishing

32:45
University I remember reaching out to you and stopping by your office at Willow and uh yeah th those were the

32:51
days exactly and now I feel old okay I want to I want to hit you

10 Rapid-Fire Questions

32:56
with 10 rapid f question where you say just the first thing that comes to your mind okay great and there's no right or

33:03
wrong answer okay who the first person you think of when I say servant leadership Mother

33:08
Teresa and Nelson Mandela sorry I'm I'm giving you two there both of those are great yeah five words that most describe

33:15
yourself passionate joyful

33:20
energetic connected growing love that um favorite author or

33:28
book okay so that is super hard for me and I realize you're asking for a short answer but here this is the reason why I

33:35
love to read and I I turn through books pretty quickly so I don't often um I

33:43
don't often come back to them um unless I'm using it as a resource so I'm going to answer it as the book I most refer to

33:51
okay it's uh the book intangibles of leadership and it is a leadership

33:56
resource that um in my opinion there are a lot of things that help with kind of the um the

34:03
hard skills of leadership and the differentiator of people who really

34:10
excel in their leadership um are those who have those softer skills um that are

34:15
in that book so I would say intangibles of leadership that's good favorite movie oh you're making this so hard cuz I I do

34:23
this I do the same thing okay so um one of my favorite M movies is uh the latest

34:30
Little Women movie um because my girls and I have watched it about a thousand

34:38
times and I love the long just the legacy of that um of that story um and

34:46
yeah it's a great movie favorite food so I am a seven on the

34:53
anagram and uh a seven with an eight- WI um but I love flavors so if you ask my

35:01
husband what I want he will like put his fingers together lots and lots and lots of flavors so I love food I love cooking

35:11
um my favorite would be a huge big

35:16
fabulous salad favorite thing to do in your free time walking on the beach love it

35:24
favorite uh favorite place you've been oh so many good

35:29
places um oh that is so hard you know I I'm

35:36
going to say Paris just cuz we've been back a number of times as a family we

35:41
just had an incredible vacation this past summer that just had lots of memory

35:47
and connection to it so Paris is at the top of my list right now where's somewhere that you want to go that you

35:53
have not been I would love to go to um Australia

36:00
or New Zealand I have not been to either of those places yeah uh what's a surprising effect about

36:10
you oh good question um oh so many different

36:15
directions that you could go in there um I so the surprising part is what gets

36:24
a little uh a little tricky I would say

36:32
um okay I would say this is just for these days I am completely attached to

36:38
my dog so I am a full dog mom and my husband and I are now empty nesters and

36:45
we got a puppy a little while ago um kind of in preparation for the girls

36:50
being gone and that little guy is at my feet he is my um I mean he's like a

36:57
teammate at work I he sits in on every Zoom meeting just sitting at my feet he's um my family never expected that I

37:06
would enjoy a dog so much and I just have never been a huge I mean we've had

37:13
dogs but I they've always kind of been other people in the family where is Cruz I am attached to Cruz just because he is

37:20
with me day in and day out so it would be my my fascination with my dog what

37:25
kind of dog is Cruz uh he's mini bernadoodle okay yeah he's a mini bernadoodle so um yeah he's a lot of fun

37:33
all right final rapid fire question is what's the best advice you've ever

37:38
gotten you're going to laugh at this it's just simple keep going keep going

37:45
whatever you're going through whatever it is that you're facing there is life on the other side of it and you are

37:52
going to be better and stronger because of the good parts of that and because of

37:58
the hard parts of that um so just keep going know that there is hope and a

38:04
future on the other side and um don't get stuck in what is today but keep

38:11
going that's so good well thank you for being willing to be on the podcast I'm excited for people to get to know you a

Closing

38:18
little bit better hear your journey and be inspired by all the cool things you've been a part of a thank you Chris

38:23
it's great to be with you thank you for listening to this episode of the servant leadership podcast if you enjoyed what

38:30
you heard please give it a thumbs up and leave a comment below don't forget to

38:35
subscribe and hit the notification Bell to never miss an update be sure to check out the servant leadership podcast. org

38:42
for more updates and additional bonus content