Are you curious about the creative process, relationships, and the healing power of art? Come hang out with the Rocket Feather team on their first double date with the creative and life partners of Blushing Cactus Photography.  Tracy Fultz and Jeremiah Scheffer inspire us with their bold images, their generous approach to the act of taking pictures, their love for community, and their love for one another.  
To honor Tracy and Jeremiah's love of live music in the Phoenix scene, we feature some song samples from their favorite bands. Enjoy the energy!

SHOW NOTES: 

• Blushing Cactus Instagram: @blushingcactusphotography 
• Elizabeth Gilbert on the Nature of Creativity TED
• Neil Preston - Iconic Rock Photography

MUSIC PLAYED

• Under the Intro - The Bayou Bandits "Take Me Back"
• First Break - Break the Robot "The A List"
• Second Break - The Black Moods "Belladonna"
• Under the Outro - The Bellwethers - "Schizophrenic Zen"

Are you ready for the new year, new decade, new reality? Life in the Roaring Twenties is going to be challenging in ways we can't even imagine. But it doesn't have to be joyless, lonely, or futile. Kelly and Charles have some experience developing the kind of personal and relational skills that give hope in tough times. In this podcast, you get to spend some time exploring the difference between shallow strength and Deep Strength. This episode even comes with a free Deep Strength workout plan that you can start today!
Show Notes: 

• Deep Strength Workout Plan - Download it here
• Teddy Roosevelt's "Man in the Arena" quote comes from his 1910 speech Citizenship in a Republic.
• BIGNESS and Superpower concept courtesy of Fabeku Fatunmise, Kelly's business coach. 
• Rumi's Poem "The Guest House"

 Show Notes: 
Books & Authors Mentioned: 
Ishmael - Daniel Quinn
Bill Plotkin - Important books on soul and ecopsychology
Joanna Macy - Environmental activist, author, and deep ecology.
Richard Louv - No Child Left in the Woods

Are you one of those people who knows there's more to life than what's on the surface? Join the Rocket Feather team for a dive into the depths of soul, growth, and hope for the future. This week's guest is Adam Vellturo, an ecotherapist who has spent the last 30 years guiding people into health and a more complete relationship with their soul. Be sure to listen all the way to the end for Adam's prescription for easy soul work and a recitation of a Walt Whitman poem that are both perfect for clear, cold winter nights. 

In this episode, Charles and Kelly offer up their usual mix of empathy, humor, and wisdom about one of the most difficult topics for all of us: visiting family. They make the point, that even in the most loving, stable, and supportive family, dysfunction, pain, frustration can simmer just under the surface. This podcast presents two very simple, very actionable tips to try for the holidays that might lesson some of the pain and dysfunction. ​

Show Notes: 
Books & Authors Mentioned: 
Arthur Braverman - Translator of Zen Texts
Michael Watkins - Author of Important Onboarding and leadership Books. 
Humberto Maturana - Biologist and Cognitive Scientist
Daniel Kahneman - Behavioral Economist
The Opening of the Wisdom Eye - The Dalai Lama

Other Links and Resources:
Success Through Social Physics - Sandy Pentland TEDx
​MIT Media Lab
TreeHouse Learning Community

The Hero's Journey into Healing, Learning, and Community
Molly McGinn is a learning specialist focused on designing and facilitating leadership and management skills training for global companies and nonprofit organizations. Her life story and intellectual/spiritual journey are much more complex and interesting though, than that LinkedIn-worthy business bio.
Molly has literally traveled around the world - the long way, as she says. As a very young woman she went to Japan to study for a year at a Zen monastery, and then, naturally, became a Pan Am flight attendant. See if you can follow along to hear how that career choice eventually led to her sitting on the edge of the Grand Canyon with a founding member of the Chinese Communist Party. You’ll also want to listen so you can hear about Tibet, the nature of self and community, and for two Zen Buddhist jokes.
Molly has a strong personal dedication to her own lifelong learning and to community building at the local and global levels. Toward the end of this episode, Molly talks enthusiastically about her most recent project, a group of intentional learning communities for promising young people in recovery.
We know you will enjoy this podcast and we hope you’ll respond with some comments and questions.

Join us for a deep dive with Jessi Hans, a bona fide Community Weaver dedicated to ending homelessness in Everybody’s Hometown, Prescott, Arizona. After becoming Executive Director of CCJ, [Coalition for Compassion and Justice], Jessi set a bold agenda to include and uplift everyone in our hometown. In a few short years, her team and partners have made a huge impact, and along the way, she’s worked to reinvent nonprofit teams, motivate and nurture her family, and consciously find ways to grow and develop as a person. In this interview, Jessi helps us figure out how we can support marginalized people [hint: treat them like full members of the community with agency and value]. Jessi also explains how she continues to motivate herself and inspire her people to work at their highest and deepest levels.  Warning: this episode is NOT a bummer!!

Show Notes
Books Referenced: 
Simon Sinek - The Infinite Game
Anand Giridhardaras - Winners Take All 
Phil Buchanan - Giving Done Right

TEDx Talks: 
Dan Pallotta - The Way We Think About Charity is Dead Wrong

​Coalition for Compassion and Justice

We’re glad that you’ve chosen to be in conversation with us. In this episode, Kelly and I talk about things that matter to us:

• The dichotomy and union of the opposites represented by the brand RocketFeather;
• The difficulty and importance of getting things done while staying true to direction and intention and;
• The real, and beautiful lesson gleaned from a children’s picture book.

We hope you enjoy our mix of deep, personal exploration and accessible fun. We welcome your thoughts on our topics and feedback on our delivery.

Show Notes -
Books Mentioned:

• Everybody Poops - Taro Gomi Amanda Mayer Stinchecum
• King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine - Robert Moore
• Go to www.audibletrial.com/rocketfeather and search for "Big Magic" by Elizabeth Gilbert.

Websites Mentioned:

• Purchase your Zokni match at https://www.genuinewonder.com/s/shop
• Zokni Discussion music courtesy of Bensound.com

​​WARNING: as you might glean from the episode title, we use the word poop and it’s less G-rated synonym quite frequently in this week’s show.

In this episode Kelly and Charles interview Tom Check who is helping people make breakthroughs for them selves AND to build sustaining community. ​

Tom Check is someone the rest of us are trying to live up to. We been Tom’s, co-facilitators, colleagues, and friends. In all of our different experiences with Tom, he always ups the quality of the moment, the conversation, the project, the program. He does that with his powerful intelligence, his drive, and his passion for excellence and efficiency.

In this conversation, Tom talks about the happenstance and drive in his own life, how he came to be a coach, and why he hosts monthly dinners at his house with relative strangers. 

SHOW NOTES:
Books Mentioned- 

• Jocko Willick on After Action Reports 

Other Resources - 

• David Brooks on Social Weaving 
• ChoiceCoaching 
• Four Stages of Development (To me, By me, Through me, As me) Peter Sage 

What would it be like if we could recognize and leave behind the kind of strength that included violence, vengeance, and exclusion? What if we could define our strength by how inclusive, present, thoughtful, and persistent we were as individuals, couples, and communities. In this solo episode, Charles muses that the shift from "power over" strength to "power with" strength will lead to easier, more fulfilling relationships AND give us a chance to survive and thrive in the 21st Century. 

Show Notes
Books Mentioned: 

• Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg www.cnvc.org
  
• He: Understanding Masculine Psychology by Robert Johnson (I actually suspect that the section on emotions vs. mood is in We: Understanding the Psychology of Romantic Love
  
• Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Feire
  

Other Resources: 

• Validate in Place - Charles's TEDx talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjnatTOPcgI 
  
• David Roberts Twitter Feed: https://twitter.com/drvox

​

In this warm, intimate interview, you get to hear about the sense of hope, joy, and connection that Tony Himes brings to his work and his life. Tony has been a Marriage and Family Therapist for over 20 years and is the Executive Director of Arizona Gestalt Institute. Tony completed his Master of Science degree in Educational Psychology and is now an adjunct faculty member at Prescott College.   

During this long, relaxed chat, Tony shares deeply from his own profession and personal experience about what it means to "be in contact" - to connect with oneself or another in a powerfully open, humble, and supportive way. At the end of the episode, you are invited to join in on short exercise to get in contact with yourself.   

Show Notes: 
You can reach Tony and the Arizona Gestalt Institute at: 
www.azgestaltinstitute.com

Books/Authors Mentioned: 
Martin Buber, I and Thou at Powell's Books
​https://www.powells.com/book/-9780684717258