In this interview, Nicole Howard shares how she deliberately engaged in the T2S Master Class to increase personal thriving and to shape her professional practice. 

Nicole Howard is a Strength-Based Coach, Music & Film Enthusiast, and Lifestyle Branding Photographer extraordinaire. Visit her instagram: @flowlifeimages

Did you ever wonder what it would be like to beat a world record?  We had the chance to interview world record holder Caleb McEvoy about his experience. He officially holds the world record for solving the most Rubik’s cubes while riding a unicycle. It might surprise you to learn that Caleb was only 15 years old when he conquered this record.

Caleb’s process is a perfect example of how aligning your talents with activities you enjoy, combined with gaining knowledge and practice can lead to mastery.  

His official entry in the Guinness World Records reads: "The most Rubik’s cubes solved on a unicycle is 250, achieved by Caleb McEvoy (America) in Ukarumpa, Papua New Guinea, on 31 March 2018. Caleb spent over 2 hours 35 minutes on his unicycle whilst achieving his record."

Like most teenagers Caleb enjoys foods like “pizza, chicken, ice-cream and chocolate.” And like most teenagers, he is just looking for things to do that he enjoys. He is...

Molly Johnston is Talent2Strength's Director of Communications, and has been with T2S since August 2018. She enjoys working for T2S and helping our company grow. In this article, we talk to Molly about how her involvement in helping run her family business, and her past experience working with the general public. Molly has spent years working in government and medical positions, which has helped develop her areas of strength.

Molly lives on a small farm in Oklahoma where they have cows, chickens, horses etc. She and her husband have a business in construction and they have three girls under the age of 7. When she is not spending her time working for T2S she is focusing on juggling her other roles of mother, wife, running a business, and helping tend to the animals. Molly's top 5 themes are: Individualization, Focus, Empathy, Responsibility, and Developer. Over the course of connecting to her talents, Molly has realized just how energized she is by her relationships. She continues to...

A Reason To Feel Good About Our Leaders of Tomorrow 

Anna says participants called their Youth Philanthropy Initiative program, "AP (Advanced Placement) Life because it was like this little incubator for living out the Positive Leadership and Talent2Strength model while getting to learn about philanthropy, and execute a really cool project with funding, which not a lot of high school students have the opportunity to do."

In this interview, Anna Bebermeyer talks about the impact that the Positive Leadership and Talent2Strength curriculum has had on her life so far. Anna is a senior at the University of Tulsa (TU), and was a participant in the Youth Philanthropy Initiative when she was in high school. She is currently a Teaching Assistant for the Presidential Leaders Fellowship and College Philanthropy Initiative at TU. 

An interview with Meryl Naisby coach and strengths trainer shares her experience with T2S Master class and what it has meant to her.

Meryl's Top 5 are:

If you are interested in learning more about the course Meryl is referencing, our next start date is Feb. 21, 2019. Click here to learn more about the T2S Train-the-Trainer  and contact us if you would like to talk over if this course is a good fit for your needs. 

 by Phylinda 

A few years ago I testified at a murder trial. The murder was a senseless tragedy and the evidence resulted in a conviction (the suspect left his cell phone and DNA at the scene. There were witnesses.) It was a memorable experience, but what really stood out to me was how the detectives and District Attorney went out of their way to make sure I was okay, and made me feel safe in what could’ve been a difficult, dehumanizing situation. They were kind even though they were exhausted. The detectives who escorted me to the courtroom had already been up 24 straight hours or more working another case. When the trial was over, I left a voicemail to thank the D.A. and the detectives for their work. I said how they handled the case, and thanked them for their hard work. I was surprised when he called me back. He said that in his 20 years of practice I was the only person from the general public to express gratitude for his work. He said how much the phone call...

Not long ago, I met someone who is a chef that comes to a person’s home and cooks meals for the week to their specifications and leaves. We meet initially and she interviewed me for an hour to find out what my goals are, what I liked, what I didn’t like. She showed up with bags of groceries and went to work without very little conversation. She left 3 hours later and I was blown away.

Although we didn’t talk much while she was here, I did stop through the kitchen as she worked and watched as we made polite conversation. I sampled one of the dishes that was prepared and watched her work. It was delicious and effortless, not just for me but for her as well.

Whenever I cook a meal, it’s something I have to psych myself up and then, while preparing the meal I need to fully concentrate. I read the instructions many times during the process. I constantly doubt if I’m doing something right or putting in the correct amount or doing things in the proper order....

What are the signs that this person isn’t connecting to their themes? Does this person not connect with any of the top 5 themes? Or is it more like one or 2?

After working with thousands of people the debated outcome is that Strength Themes are extremely accurate.  If you have worked through all the following and the person still is not finding their results to be accurate, then I would suggest retaking it. Here are a few suggestions to try if someone is not connecting to their themes. 

- First, try explaining what the themes are. They are patterns of feelings, thoughts and behaviors. What’s a pattern? Well, if something happens 1 time, it’s an event. But if the event happens over and over, then it’s a pattern. For example, if you have an old rug or carpet, you can see the traffic pattern worn into it. If someone walked across it 1 time, it wouldn’t leave a worn pattern. But, if overtime people walk from the living room to the front door then...

The purpose of this article is to provide one of the best ways I’ve found to use your talents to improve communication and relationships. It started with six simple words.

I sent an email to Terrie, one of my closest collaborators. I wanted her to evaluate web application that I thought could be useful for our youth program. So, I sent her an email with a link to the website and a note that said “Look this over and let me know what you think.”

Terrie was not convinced the web application would be useful. Instead of giving me her reasons for why she felt that way, she simply said “Help me see what you see.”

This prompted a powerful moment of self awareness about my themes, particularly my #1 theme of Strategic. It took me a few seconds to see how the web application would be useful, but it took me 20 minutes to type out an email to Terrie explaining my reasoning. It was much easier for me to just say “Hey, look this over and tell me what you...

“Positive” does not necessarily mean “warm fuzzies” or “touchy/feely.” It can also be interpreted in a mathematical sense. A positive number is one that is greater than zero. If I have five apples and someone stole four of them, I would still have a positive number even though something negative happened. From an economic perspective, positive means that the results produced from a course of action are greater than the resources invested. In psychology, positive means forward-moving growth and development for the individual. This is not always a “feel good,” rose-tinted experience.

To the contrary, positive growth often involves tackling negative experiences head-on in order to move forward. Positive means employing advantages at our disposal to overcome adversity, and attack problems where from where we are strongest. Operating under traditional psychology, someone dealing with loss of a loved one or a traumatic experience might start...