In this episode, we are joined by a)plan coaching advisor and social impact leader, Marcus Walton. Announced as President & CEO of Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO) in 2019, Marcus shares how he and his staff transformed GEO's culture to prioritize racial equity in all areas of the organization's operations—all while navigating a world-altering pandemic and a generational racial reckoning. By combining coaching and racial equity principles, Marcus helps individuals lead and create change while navigating inequitable systems. He and his staff at GEO (and by extension, the global GEO community) serve as high-impact leaders who often must venture into uncharted territories with dignity, integrity, confidence, and vision. Listen as Marcus shares what it takes to tackle major goals, how to operationalize equity within organizations, and how more companies can effectively improve their DEI commitments in practical yet powerful ways.

In this episode, we are joined by Darla Lannert, her a)plan coach, Bill Rentz, and Darla’s sister, and a)plan coach, JoAnne Bangs. As a transgender woman, Darla is a leading activist in the Transgender Rights movement, and her story casts a spotlight on the importance of living one’s truth. For Darla, living her truth meant coming out as trans, a decision she describes as life or death. Darla talks about the courage involved in coming out to her large Midwestern family (including JoAnne), bringing awareness to the trans community as a prominent speaker, and the day-to-day challenges of living in a country that doesn’t sufficiently support the LGBTQ community. Through some of her biggest hurdles, Darla has leaned on coaching with Bill as a means of getting clear on what she really wants, then building up the courage to pursue those goals. Bill describes Darla as a fun client to work with, and someone who is always taking on big, ambitious work - a statement made clear by many of the topics covered in this episode.

In this episode, we are joined by a)plan coaching client, Caryn Stone. Caryn has worked with co-host of the All You Need Is A Plan podcast, Susannah Ludwig, for more than 2 years and her story is a true testament to the power of coaching. As with many coaching users, Caryn pondered the idea of working with a coach for some time. When she finally made the leap, she realized it was everything she needed and then some. Caryn shares how coaching helped push her out of her nest, to embrace being uncomfortable, to not worry what others think, and ultimately how to stop feeling “stuck.” It was through her work with Susannah that she learned to get clear on what she wanted in life, get proud of it, then go get it -- a theme we encourage many times over with clients at a)plan. We’d like to thank Caryn for offering us a window into the experience of a coaching newbee-turned-veteran over the course of 2 life-changing years.