Please note that the following transcript is auto-generated and may contain errors.

Erica D'Eramo 0:05

Hello and welcome to the Two Piers podcast. I'm your host, Erica D'Eramo, and today's episode is gonna be a little different. This is our 2024

Erica D'Eramo 0:15

year end close, and it's a solo episode, so just me and the mic reflecting on the past year and what we've got ahead in 2025 so really glad to have you join us for this episode and closing out such a wonderful year.

Erica D'Eramo 0:40

So it's hard to believe that we're almost at the winter solstice. It's kind of coming up on the holidays, coming up on the New Year, the end of 2024 and I thought I would just take a minute to reflect on what's been happening with two peers, what's been happening with myself, and what we've got going on and what we've got coming up. So this episode is a little different. Usually, our episodes are really focused on providing resources, either for individuals, or kind of at a systems level, how we can make change and impact the world, to, you know, open up opportunity for folks, or really just tap into some of the insights and wisdom that some of the wonderful guests that we've had can share with our audience. And so today is a little bit less about resources and just more about reflection and what's been going on behind the scenes. I think last year, coming up on this time, I was really focused on, you know, systems and processes, and that definitely helped us. In 2024

Erica D'Eramo 1:45

we sort of had our calendar set up for the whole year, and that really did help to make sure that we were touching on the topics that we wanted to touch on, and reaching out to the audiences in the way we wanted. And also, you know, growing the different parts of this business. So at two peers, we have consulting work that we do. We do workshops, interactive in person workshops and remote, you know, virtual workshops. We do a lot in the realm of coaching. So that's both, you know, individual coaching, group coaching, sponsored coaching, and I also coach on a platform called Better up, which I'll talk about a little bit more later in this episode. But we've just been sort of figuring out how the pie is going to look in terms of, you know, which areas we're focusing on, and so we've seen growth in all three of those areas, the the consulting, the workshops and the coaching, and it's been really exciting. And I think that one area that I had wanted to invest in this year, which I'm going to figure out how to invest more in next year, is around, you know, providing resources like the newsletter, which we had done in 2023 and the beginning of 2024 and I just was not able to really fit that in with everything else going on. So we will see what is in store for 2025

Erica D'Eramo 3:11

but my hope, my intention, is to start sharing something more regularly around a newsletter. Except, you know, in typical two peers fashion, it's probably going to be less around what we've got going on and more around different resources that folks can tap into. But we did get really good feedback on the newsletter when we did have that in in circulation. So I do want to bring that back and figure out a way to do that in a sustainable way. If you're listening to this episode, then you are well aware that we have a podcast. So I do want to you know, like, congratulate all of our guests and give a shout out to my partner, who helps to make this podcast happen and edits and produces all the episodes. We do not have a sponsorship for this I've been approached for sponsorship opportunities for this podcast several times now, and I've turned them all down, which I think sponsorship is actually fine, and it's great for me, though it wasn't a fit, because I don't want to have to promote something every episode and I don't want this podcast to have to be reviewed by a third party and approved by a third party, and add that into the process of producing this podcast. So I yeah, I haven't, you know, maybe in the future, I'm not. I'm never, say never. If the right opportunity comes across, then certainly I would consider it, but it has to be the right fit and something that I truly believe in and would feel comfortable, you know, promoting with or without the podcast sponsorship. But right now, this is just, this is not a money maker by any means. This is just a resource that we want to put out.

Erica D'Eramo 5:00

There. We want to elevate voices that we think are saying valuable things, and we want to connect with folks who are just trying to find their their way through the workforce, trying to find their way through their their professional growth, and, you know, maybe make the workplace a little better for everyone.

Erica D'Eramo 5:20

So that's the goal of the two peers podcast, and we're going to keep this going into 2025 and I might look at doing seasons more. I think in the past, we really did like seasons and then took a break. But we've pretty much done this podcast now for the last two seasons without a break, and this year, we had a podcast every other week, except for one. So we missed one week, and that was the week that we lost one of our our cats, and we had to say goodbye, Mr. Nelson. And it was a very, very sad week, and I just gave myself permission that week to not have a podcast episode go out. And I guess, you know, I would encourage anyone else that's going through grief to get just give themselves a little grace.

Erica D'Eramo 6:07

If the only, yeah, if we only missed one episode this year. I think that's pretty good. But yeah, coming into the holidays and really thinking about how I want that to look how I want the break to look, how I want rest to look, how I want 2025 to look. I want to practice what I preach, and I want to make sure that I give myself grace, and I give anyone else the space you know, anyone else that's working with us, that's either collaborating with us, that's a guest on the podcast, that's one of our clients that we all have the space to pursue the things that both pour into our cup as we, you know, pour out of our cup.

Erica D'Eramo 6:55

So all that to say that we've been doing a lot. It's been busy, and I'm looking forward to doing more in 2025 and doing in a way that feels sustainable. I think coming into the end of 2024 it's been feeling a little bit full. You know, the schedule's been full, which is great. That's what we want. We definitely want the schedule to be full. And I'm so grateful that I get to do work that, you know, lifts me up and that I enjoy and that I look forward to working with my consulting clients and my coaching clients. I really look forward to putting on workshops and designing workshops and facilitating workshops. So I am so lucky, and I think that sometimes when you do work that you really, really enjoy, it's easy to just keep packing it full of stuff and, you know, just keep adding on without really creating the space to carve out. So I'm going to talk about that a little bit more, and the concept of rest. But first, I wanted to just look back on 2024 and we had some great consulting engagements with a variety of different industries where we looked at a range of different things, whether that was setting vision and mission for different organizations. We've worked in the for profit sector, the nonprofit sector, the educational sector and higher ed, and doing a lot of work around employee engagement. And I think that a lot of organizations now are understanding that the talk of diversity, equity and inclusion before is really a conversation of culture and engagement and making sure that everyone is able to, you know, I think it's trite to say, bring their whole selves to work, because that's not really the way it works, but that everyone is at least able to bring their talent to bear and show up as themselves to the extent possible. So there's been a lot of work around engagement, and even some change management and looking at leadership changes and how that looks as well. So exciting work that we you know, we've kicked off a few engagements in 2024 with different organizations, and much of that work is carrying on into 2025 and I'm really, really pleased with what I'm seeing in that realm. And then on the workshop front, we've done a variety of really cool workshops this year. Two of them that I'm super proud of were with the women offshore organization. So Tanya tar and I teamed up to present a workshop at the women offshore inclusion summit around inclusive leadership styles, and we discussed that at length in one of our podcast episodes, and talked about what you know, adaptive Alpha leadership looks like, and debunked some myths around that, and really looked at what sustainable leadership can look like within an organization, and then helped to facilitate a conversation at the women offshore annual conference around parental benefits and what that can look like in organizations that have a large offshore workforce. So that's for both women and men any.

Erica D'Eramo 9:59

When looking to become a parent, but what is best practice and how do organizations spread the word about what's available there? So really good discussion, really good learnings coming out of that that I hope will help to improve the industry. And then on, the for profit realm, got to give a shout out to one of our longest term clients, Gutier construction. They've been doing some great work around professional development for some of their leaders that work in the crafts and providing some Spanish language learning that one of our coaches, Dr Luevanos, has been helping with. And then we also present an annual construction safety week workshop and work with the women's group to talk about, you know, leadership skills and various professional development skills. And so I really appreciate that ongoing engagement with gutier, because we've gotten to test out a lot of great content and get feedback, and always really good engagement with them. And I love that. Now we're providing Spanish language learning through Dr Luevanos, who is a frequent guest on the podcast, so you're probably familiar with him. And then on the coaching front, again, I've been really excited to see a breadth of industries represented in our coaching clients. So you know, we've got clients from the energy industry, from renewable energy, from traditional energy, kind of creative arts and social work. And we have a handful, I keep a handful of, you know, a handful of slots open for pro bono work. So we've got a couple pro bono clients right now that are doing really phenomenal work, and I am so excited and honored to get to support them as a coach and see them have the impact in the world that makes me feel really good and hopeful. And so that's that's fantastic. And then we've also had several clients. We work with clients both directly, if they reach out to us, you know, we will work with them directly, and we'll also work with clients that are sponsored by their companies. So we engage with the company itself and put together a, you know, a coaching agreement and provide direct leadership or executive coaching to those individuals through through the organization. And then also in the coaching realm, I've been doing a lot of coaching on the better up platform. So on the one hand, providing coaching on a platform like that means that, you know, I get matched with clients based on my profile, and clients find me and sign up if their company is has provided coaching to them through better up and you know, I really I get to work with some phenomenal organizations like Google, Amex, Swagelok, Pfizer, Mars, like these are some of the organizations that I've worked with in the past. A lot in the tech realm, a lot of engineering type folks, and right now, a lot of my clients are currently federal employees. So whether that's in the Air Force, I have quite a few Air Force clients right now, several NASA clients and Department of Transportation also makes up some of my clients. So that's been really, really fascinating. I'm so honored to get to work with some folks that are very senior in their organizations and doing really impactful work. And I love it. It's just such a opportunity to meet people that I wouldn't normally meet who are kind of all over the country, all over the world, and getting to just have a little, a little ability to support them and the work that they're doing and have an impact in the world. And then I guess, along the coaching lines, I'm currently pursuing my pcc certification. So in coaching, the international coaching Federation provides credentials. And I went through my ACC, CR credential when I first got certified as a coach, and that entailed for me, I did 80 hours of classroom time, and had to do 100 hours of coaching, 75% of which had to be paid. I needed to submit transcripts for approval. So I needed to record coaching sessions with, you know, with permission, definitely record coaching sessions, and they had to meet all of the criteria for competencies and be submitted. And I needed to sit for a an exam that took several hours and and months of studying. So when I sit for the PCC certification, I'll have to take a new exam. So the exam has been updated, and I will have recordings, you know, of my coaching sessions that, again, recorded with permission that will be that I'll have to, we'll have to pass approval based on the different types of competency.

Erica D'Eramo 15:00

Seas. So that's really exciting. I joke that it's kind of like breaking down a golf swing. Even though I've never golfed, it feels a little bit like that realm of conscious competency or uncon what probably was unconscious competency. And now I'm reworking some of the areas that I want to become even better as a coach, so making sure that I'm, you know, taking nice long pauses, giving people lots of space before I ask them that next question, making sure that my questions are very concise, and using client language. These are all the things that I am really excited to keep working on but it's kind of interesting when you become conscious of what you're doing, and suddenly you can kind of see yourself as the coach while you're coaching. But I'm really lucky to be in a great cohort doing that work and improving. And I think, you know, getting feedback on my coaching pretty regularly, and I can already see I don't want to toot my own horn, but I'm going to toot my own horn that I'm a good coach. And I say that because I get that feedback, and I also am so relieved to know that in coaching, there really is no it's a continuous learning, because that's what always keeps me engaged, is like something that I can continuously get better at, can continuously improve on, and so, yeah, it's keeping me very engaged right now, and I'm I'm really excited about all I'm learning and improving on. And who knows, maybe I'll go for the MCC at some point, but for the PCC, you need to submit 500 hours of coaching. So as I was telling up my hours, which I will have 500 hours to submit, I realized that I have coached over 100 people now, which is really, you know, I've come a long way in the past several years. So that was kind of an exciting milestone for me to realize when I when I started to do the math. So switching from the coaching realm and talking about the podcast, looking into 2025

Erica D'Eramo 17:08

we had some great episodes in 2024 I really loved our episode with GG Renee Hill about community. We had so many good episodes like, it's going to be hard for me to even name any favorites, but recently, we got great feedback on the episode we had with Eliza Simmonds around growth and discomfort, the episode with Keri Baker around the relationships we have with our bodies. That one was probably one of the my favorites from this year, but just so many great guests in 2024 and we've got several really phenomenal guests scheduled for 2025 so I'm excited. And if you know of somebody that you think would be a great fit for the podcast who we should have on, please reach out and let us know, and we'll have a conversation. And if you think that you're the person that should be on the podcast, and you're listening and thinking like I have something that I want to contribute and a resource that I want to share, or some wisdom that I want to share. Yeah, reach out and we'll schedule a conversation and and talk about it. And if we're not the match for you in terms of the podcast, then maybe we know some friends in in the podcast world to link you up with I do also want to give a shout out to Jan Ditchfield, who is launching a new podcast in 2025

Erica D'Eramo 18:32

and so I am guesting on that podcast as one of the one of the first episodes in her new series that she's launching around the business of good. So she's talking about business owners who are mission driven, focused on social impact, but not from a nonprofit realm, and rather from a for profit, but for impact realm. So we have a really interesting discussion on that episode about what does profit mean? And what are our thoughts around money and charging for work? And you know, what does that look like? And how can we how can we feel okay with ourselves in terms of doing the work that we want to do to have the impact that we want in this world in a way that feels sustainable for us? So, great episodes coming up, and we'll share that on our platforms as soon as that goes live. And then, in terms of the personal world, yeah, I I'm so lucky to have such a vibrant and full personal life. And sometimes I think, like, maybe I need a couple days off to just be a bit of a vegetable and and sleep a lot and read and so that's coming up over the holidays for me. But I've been getting up to lots of fun stuff in the like personal, but kind of quasi professional realm. So back in, I guess, probably September, so I stepped into the

Erica D'Eramo 19:59

Vice President.

Erica D'Eramo 20:00

Of DEIB role for the ICF New England chapter. So the international coaching Federation has

Erica D'Eramo 20:08

chapters all over the world. And the New England chapter, I think we're the 11th largest in the world in terms of Chapter size. And so I sift into that board position, and that has been really fulfilling and wonderful. And I'm stepping in following Thea Charles's role in the in the position, and she was in the role for two years, and I got to work with her as a committee member during that time, and she's been on the podcast, so I definitely recommend checking out her episode. I think that was almost a year ago. So beginning of 2024,

Erica D'Eramo 20:46

she was on the podcast. And, yeah, it entails, you know, helping the the board of directors for the chapter understand ways that we can be mindful of DEIB practices. You know how we can foster diversity in the chapter, how we can be inclusive and create a sense of belonging amongst chapter members and leadership.

Erica D'Eramo 21:13

And then recently, just last week, we, each year, the chapter hosts the Coaches Corner at the Massachusetts Gonference for Women. So last week, we were in Boston for that and there were 11,000

Erica D'Eramo 21:27

attendees, which is incredible,

Erica D'Eramo 21:31

and we coached several 100 people. I don't know, I don't know the tally off the top of my head, but we had a constant stream of people being coached by, I think we had almost 60 volunteer coaches from the chapter, which is also incredible. These are folks who have their own coaching practices. Maybe they coach in house, maybe they have a full time role and pursue their coaching certification in parallel. Maybe they have their own coaching business, but everyone donated their time and traveled to the Convention Center in Boston and and coached and did 20 minute coaching sessions free of charge for any of the attendees. There were some great keynotes. I really enjoyed the conversation with Oprah and Gail. They were pretty unfiltered. I thought it was really like a nice, humorous, but very moving conversation between the two of them. So I'm always lucky when I get I always feel really lucky when I get to attend that conference and I leave feeling like my cup has been filled. And then within the DEIB committee for ICF New England, we're doing lots of great stuff. So we have a monthly educational email that comes out. We are helping with some of the programming in 2025 so we, you know, suggested some programming in previous years, looking forward to that. And then we host a community of practice that meets monthly during the ICF year, and we also run a book club that meets quarterly. So it's been a great opportunity for me to chat with people about books, because if you know me, you know that I love to read books and talk about them with people. So that's been really fantastic. And we've read some great books this year. And then separately, I've also had the honor of being one of the instructors for the University of New Hampshire coaching program, so they've launched a professional coaching program to achieve a coaching certificate. And so I've joined with Thea Charles and Bob Green, who are also instructors on that so yeah, again, it speaks to the power of the coaching community and getting to collaborate with fantastic people on a variety of projects. But this one has been really fulfilling, and so I also feel really grateful to be able to pay it back a little bit because I had a fantastic coaching program when I attended that at coach race, and so, yeah, we are sharing some of the the elements of coaching for, you know, coaches and learning. And then separately from that, I've also had the opportunity to serve as a subject matter expert for the federal advisory committee that was convened to support the US Merchant Marine Academy. So really lucky to be involved with that. I've been helping with one of the subcommittees to just advise on ways that the Academy can improve for the future, particularly around health, safety and wellness. And so that's been a focus area over the past year. And then, outside of the kind of coaching and consulting realm, I've been volunteering as a tutor for English language learners here in Maine, which has been super fulfilling. The English language learner that I was paired with happens, happened to have moved here from Angola, which is a fantastic little connection since I used to work in Angola, and getting to know her and her family has been really wonderful. And also within the community teaching yoga, so I've gotten back into my teaching practice in terms of yoga. I hosted a six week VinYin series recently at Firefly studio in Bath Maine, and that was really fun. And then when I was in Houston recently for a business trip, I was able to do a little yoga pop up where we did a little benefit yoga series. And I had to cap it actually, because people were so interested in doing a VinYin class and contributing to the the causes that we had identified. So we had folks donate to either one of the local rescue organizations or to one of the local nonprofits doing some restorative justice work. And yeah, so off the yoga mat outside of the volunteering, I've also been working on re establishing my writing practice. So for any of my fellow kind of writers out there trying to keep up a writing practice, a la The Artist's Way, or Writing Down the Bones, I feel ya, and I'm working on it, and I'm going to try to get back to my morning pages in 2025 so we'll see how that goes. But the hope is to continue to make progress on on writing, and whether that looks like creative writing or it looks like writing for work, whether that's the newsletter or blog posts or articles might look a variety of different ways. Oh, and articles, yeah, I forgot to mention the Oil Woman Magazine articles that we wrote in 2024 so some great stuff out there, and really appreciate them giving us a platform to contribute. So as we come into the end of the year, and as as we come to the end of this episode, I just want to talk a little bit about rest. I know a lot of folks maybe struggle with this concept of rest, myself included, and one of the learnings that I've had is that inactivity is not very restful for me. So I'm working with that concept as we approach the holidays, and just trying to be a bit more mindful about how I go about doing this thing called rest. So I think that

Erica D'Eramo 27:21

I I'll be taking time off from december 24 through January 2. My calendar is blocked out, so I will be fully relaxing. But I realized that this year, rather than just, you know, try to do nothing, I'm going to fill that with reading, with some writing, probably some coloring books. I'll be doing some yoga. I am going to be subbing and teaching a couple yoga classes during that time, but I love doing that. That's a lot of fun to create a yoga class. For me. That's kind of a creative endeavor. I'm sure I will be doing lots of cooking, because that is probably my favorite pastime and my favorite hobby. And then I think I'm going to try to do some little artist state artist dates here in Maine, and maybe get out to some museums, go for some hikes, but we'll be doing some active rest, because I think this, this brain of mine loves to loves to think, and so I want to make sure that I'm giving it something to keep it active, rather than letting letting it just tumble around. And that's one of the great things about yoga, by the way, I was just having this conversation with somebody today, is that, you know, yoga developed as a way to ready the mind and the body for meditation, and so the hikes, the walks, the gym, outings, the yoga for me personally, that does help my brain sort of just settle down a little bit and and get some clarity of thought. So I'll be investing in that. But if you are interested in kind of thinking through the concept of rest, I would definitely recommend reading anything that Tricia Hersey has written. I've read the book Rest Is Resistance. I highly recommend it, but I'll be rereading that over the holidays to refresh my my memory on it. And then she has a new book called We Will Rest, and I just ordered that from the bookstore, so I can't wait till that arrives. I'm also reading Slow Productivity by Cal Newport. So he previously wrote Deep Work, which I've not read yet, although I it's on my list. So I will get to that. I think I have it on hold from the library right now, but that's that book has been interesting, Slow Productivity. And so I'll be looking to try to implement some of those concepts going into 2025, and then other books on the list. We'll close out this episode with a little highlight of some books that I've either finished or I'm about to read. And then if you either have read it or are going to read it, please feel free to reach out and we can chat and have a little book club chat. I just finished reading Who's Afraid of Gender by Judith Butler.

Erica D'Eramo 30:00

That was a very interesting book, not the lightest reading I've ever done. It's kind of, you know, a bit academic, but I listened to it on audiobook, which to me, I consider reading, I think it's a an accessible way for my brain to consume a book, especially because I can be doing things like, I don't know, driving or walking while I'm listening to it, and so that kind of helps me absorb better sometimes. But yeah, that's by Judith Butler. And go really, really explores the concept of gender and the history around it, and some of the discourse that's in our current society. And then up next, I've got Against Technoableism by Ashley Shew. So that just came available on my holds list. And then I'm going to be finishing up the humanity archive by Jermaine Fowler. I started that earlier this year, and then wasn't able to finish it in time, and so I'll be picking that up and finishing that one also finishing Black AF History by Michael Harriot, which is hilarious and striking, and I love the way he recounts history. And Jermaine Fowler too, like both, both of them do a great job of, kind of uncovering the hidden history that we weren't necessarily taught in school in a way that's engaging and entertaining and also quite striking. And then The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander is another one that I've picked up. And that one, I think that audiobook, is maybe like 17 hours, so I never managed to finish it before it becomes due again, but it's coming available for me again soon, and so I'll be finishing that one. And then up next on the reading list is The Resilience Myth, by Soraya Chemaly. And yeah, if you've heard me talk about resilience, you know, I have very complicated feelings about it, and so I'm really looking forward to this book. I think that society raises up this concept of resilience in a way that can kind of take take the focus away from some of the systematic issues that we face, and instead focus on individual endurance rather than true resilience. And then another one that's coming up on my list is Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman. I've had it recommended to me by several people recently, and so I'm going to lean into the synchronicity and read that book. I don't know much about it, but it's kind of it's come highly recommended several times, especially when I talk about Slow Productivity, by Cal Newport, or even Rest Is Resistance, by Tricia Hersey. People have mentioned this Four Thousand Weeks. So those are all either digital books or audio books that I've got on the list and then in my stack of physical books that is either on my nightstand or on my coffee table right now. I've got Hope in the Dark, by Rebecca Solnit, so looking forward to that. Imagination: A Manifesto by Ruha Benjamin, A Life Impossible, by Matt Haig, who previously wrote Midnight Library, which I really enjoyed. So that one's fiction and then We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance, by Kelly Carter Jackson, so that one's also sitting on the coffee table ready to be read in front of a nice cozy fire. So that's what I've got in in store for the holidays, is lots of reading, hopefully some good writing and some good cooking and hanging out with the kitty cats and enjoying their company, and no travel over the holidays for me, it's been a lot of travel this year, And I'm excited to not open my suitcase and just hang out at the house and hang out with our chickens and enjoy our little neighborhood and go for some hikes here in Maine. So thanks for joining us for our year end episode and our wrap up of 2024 and a little bit of a view into 2025 and yeah, we'd love to hear from you. So if you're listening to this and you want to drop us a note just to say hello, or to say that what you liked or what you didn't like, I always love hearing from folks. So we will see you in 2025 we'll see you next year, and thanks for listening!