Podcast: Moving Communities & Individuals Onward with Onward Coaching and Consulting [#26]
My guest today has well over 13 years of prevention experience, working with individuals and communities that want to grow through strategic and evidence-based solutions. She has led community substance use and suicide prevention efforts AND within that work she coaches individuals in the areas of leadership, finance and wellness.
She is on a mission to inspire, educate, empower and challenge you…and make you laugh from time to time!
So sit back and enjoy our conversation and you never know, we may just get into a conversation about a special rescue dog named Oreo!
https://www.instagram.com/onwardcoaching/
TRANSCRIPT
Dave: Welcome to the prevention leaders podcast. I'm your host, Dave Closson. So honored to have you with us today. My guest today has well over 12 years of prevention experience working with individuals and communities that want to grow through strategic and evidence based solutions. She's led community substance use and suicide prevention efforts.
And within that work, she coaches individuals in the area of leadership, finance, and wellness. She is on a mission to inspire, to educate, to empower and challenge you. And might even make you laugh from time to time. So sit back and enjoy our conversation. And you never know, we may just get into a conversation about one special rescue dog named Oreo, but without further ado, I'm excited to welcome Rikki to this show.
Rikki, welcome.
Rikki: Hi, Dave, thanks so much for having me.
Dave: ahh, yes. I've been looking forward to this episode for some time now, actually, actually, since our paths first crossed in Missouri at the Mid-America PTTC. Now I know a little bit about your background, but I'm guessing a lot of our listeners might not.
Can you. Share just a little bit about your background and what kinda led you to where you work now?
Rikki: Absolutely. I am a Pennsylvania native. I graduated from Pennsylvania state university, so we are Penn state and, uh, three days after I. Graduated from Penn state. I had selected to move to a state and a city where I knew not a soul, because I just wanted to challenge myself to start a life where I knew nobody.
So I moved down to Lafayette, Louisiana and started a job down there at what was essentially a therapeutic boarding school for teenage girls who had some issues, whether it drug use issues or, uh, mental health issues, challenges within their families. They were kind of sent there to this private school.
And so I worked there because I originally thought I wanted to do counseling work and I spent about two, two and a half years working at that school. And it was great. It was a great experience for me. However in that process is when I learned I don't want to do counseling work. And so I got connected with a coalition that was there in Lafayette that had just received what we call a SP SIG grant, a strategic prevention framework, state incentive grant, and they received a little over a million dollars to be doing some prevention, work around underage drinking and drug driving prevention.
In Lafayette, if you know anything about Lafayette, it is the home of the Cajuns and they love their festivals and they love their alcohol. And so this was very much a need in the community. Uh, and so I joined them as their project coordinator and that's kind of how I stumbled into the field. I really didn't know much about prevention and how I could, you know, do, do work for a community.
And that's how I learned. And so, as a process of being a part of that grant, I went and achieved all of these different trainings. I, I, I was actually accepted to be a part of CADCA ambassador program that they had back then. I was the second cohort to go through this where essentially the CADCA leaders said, Hey, we all wanna retire one day and leave.
Field in the hands of some really well trained young people. And so they developed this ambassador program for those, I think it was like 20 to 35. Uh, and, and so you were selected as one from across the nation about 20 of us. And they really invested a great deal of training in us, including going to the national coalition academy and, um, you know, going to the different conferences and just, we had to develop a capstone project.
It was an amazing experience because. I really rooted myself in prevention at that time. And their really ideal was to increase retention in the field. And that has become a passion of mine because as I've now been in the field, like you said, well, over 12 years going on 13, this summer, I really see how this feel really needs to increase retention and, and increase professional development.
That's become a passion of mine. So fast forward, some time from that grant grants end as they do. And I started looking for a job outside of Louisiana. No knock to my Louisiana friends. I love them dearly, but I just was ready to move for a variety of reasons. You know, they joked down there that there's two season.
Hot and February, and that is true. uh, and I'm also a very much an outdoorsy kind of person. And so you quite literally don't, can't do much outside without coming across some rather scary looking alligators and snakes and all kinds of things. So, uh, I've got some great stories, uh, of encountering alligators in the wild and, uh, survive to tell the tale.
And I still have all of my limbs, but. It, it, it was kind of one of those things. I just ready to move. I was ready to, to, to see a new, see a new city, right. Move somewhere else that I didn't know anybody. And because of those connections with the Keke ambassador program, I kind of put out this beacon and just said, is anybody higher?
You know, go anywhere. And, uh, someone who was an ambassador with me, she had actually since moved on, but, uh, from the agency, but she told me my agency in Springfield, Missouri is hiring. And so I did, uh, this was back in the day. So this. 2012, but I did a Skype interview. Uh, you know, today we, we wouldn't think twice about that, but back in 2012, a Skype interview was kind of a big deal.
And, uh, and so I was, I was hired and I moved to Springfield, Missouri. And so, uh, I worked. At that, at that nonprofit at, at CPO for, um, nine and a half years and served as the director of prevention services there overseeing prevention work in 21 counties of Southwest, Missouri. And so, um, got a really new sort of perspective going from a very specific grant for a very specific city, about two very specific, you know, things, underage drinking and drunk driving.
And now I'm covering 21 counties. Of which there's cities and very, very rural, uh, as well as kind of covering the swats of different substances, the emerging trends and all of that. So it was a neat kind of step to take in prevention of sort of widening my. Expertise and my knowledge, as well as now, I was in a director role where I was overseeing a team of preventionist.
And that was really neat too, because as I'm sure we'll get into in a second, you know, that the leadership development and goal setting and helping people, helping to mentor people and coach people, um, To achieve their goals is also a passion of mine. So, and then last summer, uh, I actually left, uh, and started onward consulting, coaching and consulting.
And so it's been a really neat adventure and, and fun, um, bit of time as I've, I've branched into this. So that's my journey.
Dave: Love it. I love it. We're gonna unpack that journey cuz I know there are some wonderful lessons that you've learned over the years, but I first. Wanna stop in on that, that community work you did you moved to a state where you didn't know anybody and jumped right into a role working at the community level?
What was that like?
Rikki: You know, it was culture shock across the board, truly because growing up in central Pennsylvania, uh, while there's a lot of different cultures and the city that I grew in is grew up in is where Penn state is. So there was a lot of different nationalities represented there because of the university, but this was culture shock and a whole different way to move down to south central Louisiana.
And so I was learning that new culture while at the same time, trying to make a. In it. And you know, you can sometimes fight against that outsider mentality and a little bit that was certainly there. But what I loved and became passionate about was seeing the change happen in the youth, in that community and watching really the community readiness increase to address these issues.
Because, like I said, culturally down there, alcohol is very much a part of their lives through festivals. Parents oftentimes are providing alcohol to their youth, um, or, you know, turning up blind eye. And so it was really neat to see that community readiness increase through the work of that grant. Um, I also, this is a side note, but I also, orange is the color for alcohol awareness.
And so we, one of the events that we did each year for that grant was a scavenger hunt involving two. Orange ninjas. And I will tell you, I was one of said two orange ninjas. We died a ninja full ninja outfit in orange, and we would travel across the city and people have to find us and they'd get like cool prizes.
If they found us all to just raise awareness about it. So somewhere buried in the internet are pictures of me as an orange. Ninja
Dave: gotta hit pause real quick and uh, go find those because holy moly, just like there are videos out there of me wearing a three piece suit in a blue school, spirit, wig repelling off of buildings on campus.
And there's posters out there. Even YouTube social media posts, they're on the internet somewhere. I'm gonna pause and see what I can dig up. Be right back. Um, okay. So folks were back. I had to go search Google to try to find those videos. Didn't have any luck, but stay tuned. I'll see what I can come up with.
The search is not over yet. oh. Um, but youth, uh, working with youth that that is such a, a enjoyable, fulfilling opportunity. What, what, what was that like? What kinda wisdom do you have to share with our listeners when it comes to working with youth around prevention efforts? Let
Rikki: me tell you, Dave, this is truly one of my platforms that I happily step onto because I truly love young people.
I always have. I've always wanted to work with them and alongside of them in some capacity. And this job has given me that opportunity. I just think that youth are, um, bright and, and talented and have so much insight that oftentimes as adults, we don't really. Think about, or, or, you know, kind of to our shame really utilize.
And so one of my passions is to engage youth in this prevention work. So when I was in Lafayette, I was working with them. Um, they were members of the coalition that was there and we would go into middle schools. And that was back when the national guard had the. Stay on track program. And we were facilitating that program.
And, uh, we, we really worked with youth to have a big Mardi Graw family, free family, uh, not family free family, like say family kind of event for the Mardi Graw parade that was happening where there was no alcohol. There was games, there was bounce houses and the youth were all a huge part of helping us to plan that because they know what they wanna do.
Fund that they could have, and they would be volunteers there. And then here in Springfield, I worked with the four, seven squad coalition, which is students questioning using and abusing drugs. And, you know, they came up with that name, which was. Again, proof that they are just way smarter than me and so, uh, you know, I got to work with them on a lot of different projects.
I think the key takeaways for working with youth are, you know, to, to give them space, to share their voice and not. Overcrowd a meeting with adult, like things, but rather really give them the space to share. I I'm reminded of this story with a, a student who was coming to an adult coalition meeting and we had developed this campaign for sort of raising awareness about a certain drug.
And, uh, you know, we came up with something we thought was real catchy. You know, we're like, this is gonna be it. This is gonna sound so good. And he used to sitting there kind of quietly. And so I, I called the youth out in the meeting and I said, what are your thoughts about this? Like, do you have anything to say, do you think that there's a better way to say this?
Just tell us. I said, you will not offend us and the sweet, the sweet student. He says, well, it's okay. But it would be better if maybe it said this. And jaws dropped because we're like, oh yeah. Why did we not think of that? You know? And so just right, like this like, duh moment of just, yeah, I, I should have given you space to make this, to begin with because.
They just have such a great perspective. And, you know, in prevention we say nothing about us without us. Mm-hmm and that concept needs to be true about the youth. If we're doing prevention for 12 to 1820 year olds, we need to have them at the forefront of what we're doing. And one of my soap boxes for sure is that if you don't have youth involved in your meetings, You need to rearrange your meetings to make sure youth can be there.
If they can't make it to your lunch Turkey sandwich meeting, um, you need to have it at four o'clock when they're out of school mm-hmm or work with the school district to get them to your meetings, uh, because they're just such a vital voice. And so working with youth, giving them the time and the space to really have that input and the safety to do it because that's big too.
You know, when you're sitting, I remember when I was a teenager, if I was sitting in the room of a bunch of adults staring at me for an idea, I would've been. I'm scared. Right. And, and so you wanna give them that safety and that confidence that they do have something valuable to offer and we want it. And so I think that's huge when it comes to youth.
Dave: Yeah. Oh, I, I love it. I love it. Um, not just the wisdom, but the passion in your voice carries through so true. Uh, when you moved to Missouri, how many counties or coalitions were you supported? Like it was mind blowing number, how many you supported.
Rikki: I oversaw the work in 21 counties of, of Missouri and that equated to about 25, 26 registered coalitions, you know, and Missouri has a structure where they're they register with the state of Missouri and that provide, gives them access to technical assistance through.
The program that I oversaw. And so, um, I had a team of preventionist, so I wasn't personally providing all the support to 26 coalitions, but, uh, we each had about five or six that, that we would provide that support too. And they varied. Some of them were very specifically focused on a drug and working through that, like there's an underage drinking task force or there's.
Um, the dream coalition, which works on medication misuse, but then there's also the coalition that's countywide and it looks at data every single year. To do sort of an assessment of what needs to be targeted, what needs to be addressed. And then they pick from there, the strategies that they'll do. So it was very, um, diverse of a, of a different group and different people coming to the table.
But that's what kind of made it fun. It was like every day was different in some ways of being able to support these communities and what they wanted to accomplish.
Dave: Well, uh, you set up my next question. Well, um, what does it take or what did it look like supporting these communities? What did, what did you do to support them?
Rikki: And that the truth is it was different for each one, the rural communities, you know, there's a very different vibe there and a lot of rural communities, you it's who, you know, and it is very much rooted in. You know, you gotta know the right people in order to make the things happen there. And, uh, I found that consistently across most of the rural counties that we worked in.
And so that support looked a little bit different because it was more about aligning ourselves and offering the help and support, but really letting those key stakeholders take the lead because that's what that community looked to. Whereas in maybe more of like a suburban or. I, I hate to call Springfield urban, if you're all ever familiar with , it's not like a Chicago or anything like that, but, um, you know, the more urban area of our, of our region, um, you know, that that's really about bringing those partners to the table to make sure that you're not siloing work and that there's a lot of collaboration happening among those resources.
Whereas the rural communities may not be as resourced. So you're really relying on the one or two or three people who are. Main stakeholders in that community and the, and the movers and shakers, whereas bigger cities, the support looks different because it's really about that collaboration. What do you have?
What do we have and how can we use these resources to help fill whatever gaps we're identifying? And so the support really looked different. It could, you know, isn't meetings. We would. Help provide support for grant writing or, um, you know, thinking through what is evidence based or not evidence based and really helping to drive them towards those environmental strategies of those great seven strategies for community change.
We, we always pointed them towards those bottom four because a lot of times coalitions can kind of maybe get stuck in a rut of let's just provide information. Let's do another media campaign or let's, you know, do a presentation and training. And those are great. If you're building skills. You know, providing that information, you're gonna change attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors, which is our ultimate goal.
But those environmental strategies we know are, are valuable, you know, beyond measure because it's just like, that's what impacts the community as a whole and changes, sustainable change. And so all that to say, I think the support, you know, look different for all of those different communities, but, um, all rooted in the idea of using the strategic prevention framework and those seven strategies to really drive that change.
Dave: Okay, so you brought it up. So we're going there, the strategic prevention framework. Um, I I'm hearing a, a sense of a lot of strategy, strategic planning, whether it be with the rural or suburban the, the various communities, the coalitions you worked with was the, the SPF your go-to tool.
Rikki: It was. And I really, what I loved about the strategic prevention framework is when I first learned about that, by going through the national coalition academy, mm-hmm , you know, it was like being, you know, drinking out of a fire hose that illustration, right.
It was like, wow, what is this? But now as I've been in the field, so, so long it's it's that that's just sort of ingrained in the fibers of my being of the work that I do. And, you know, as I teach. The strategic prevention framework or the spiff model, uh, you know, I really try to relate it to people of, we do this every day, whether you are planning your trip to the grocery store or your family's vacation or what you're gonna wear today, you're spiffing.
Whether you know it or not, it's just that we're, we're taking that. We're putting it in different language. We're packaging it differently and applying it on a community macro level. And so I think for me, the passion for that framework comes from the fact that just makes sense. It's something that we are naturally inclined to do as humans.
We're just applying it to that community level. And that is, of course we know driven by data driven by the needs that we're identifying in that. And. Call me the weirdo, but I'm the one that loves a good logic model. And so I love the flow of a logic model. I love the, the precision that it brings to the work that we're doing.
And then of course, how relatable that is to funders to say, look at our problem. Here's what we're gonna do about it. And here's what we expect to happen now, please fund us. And so I think that there's just so much value to that, to that whole process. Yes.
Dave: Um, so if, if you're weirdo for loving a good logic model, uh, I wonder what that makes me, because when I had first stepped in the role at the P T T C as the director there, I.
In my one bedroom apartment took a nine foot section of my wall, blue painters tape, different size post-it notes, and made a logic model on how I was going to do the work of the P T T C. It
Rikki: was, you have no idea how much that excites me.
Dave: it was, I might have pictures somewhere in my, you know, archives or whatever those are mm-hmm
Um, but yes, it. It helped me get that, that vision. And, you know, I had the, the, the grant that we had, here's the work plan. And I was coming into four states where I really didn't have much of a network. And I was like, okay, how am I gonna do this work? Mm-hmm . And that logic model brought it all together, gave me that roadmap on how I was gonna get there.
Rikki: Yeah. Yeah. I like it. So it's such a useful tool and I think people are scared of it, you know, because, because it's a different way of looking at something or a different way of doing it. But that's what I also love about this field. And the, and the training that I get to offer people is I like to bring it home so that they understand what it, what it really actually is in its basic level.
If you look at it, you can be intimidated, but once you understand the components of it, Oh, I get this. Okay. You know, and so I'd love to see the light bulb moment when I'm training
Dave: people. Oh, absolutely. Um, side note though, you said you had a team of prevention specialists. So let's talk about leadership.
What, what are some leadership lessons that you've learned as you've had your team built your team? But then also, I kind of imagine when you're out supporting those coalitions, you're also helping empower and build prevention leaders there as well.
Rikki: Absolutely. I, one of the things I'm very passionate about is personality and leadership styles and understanding yourself kind of a know that self idea of you need to do some introspection to really understand who you are, whether that's through taking some assessments or resources that are out there to understand yourself better.
Personal counseling, whatever that takes for you to know yourself. And, and then from that, you become a better leader. You be, you show up better in circumstances and situations personally and professionally. And so that, that personal work is where it starts in my opinion. And then one of my favorite things to do is to sort of spark that in other people and to help professionals grow in their confidence in their knowledge.
In their understanding and really just in their ability to get out there and to lead others, everyone is a leader. It doesn't matter if you have a title or not. You are leading those who are under your influence, whether that's your friends, your family, people that you're working with, you don't have to have a title to be a leader.
And so I think that the message that I like to communicate to people through mentoring and the coaching that I do is to truly. Understand yourself so that you show up better in those places, because you are going to then spark other people to be passionate about themselves and what they're doing. So I, I it's, it's a big passion area of mine.
I could talk for hours about various personality and leadership assessments and what that means and what that looks like. But really one of my favorite things was, and one of the things I truly missed the most about that, that position was working with a team and helping to build them up because it. So inspiring for me to see them grow.
And I just come from very much a mentality of leading kind of from the back and, and really pushing the individuals forward because I don't need, I mean, some people really feel like they need sort of that glory and accolade accolades and all of that, but, and while those are nice, I'm not knocking those.
Those are great. I really love to get to see. One of my staff or even a prevention coalition member who had an idea and someone says, yes, you should do that. And a person of influence says that, then you're like, okay, I guess I'm gonna do it. And they do it. And they get sort of the nod for that. I absolutely love it.
I think that we need to be supporting and encouraging one another. And that is part of leadership is really just letting other people. Take the credit, even if you had a contribution, mm-hmm, just be okay with that, because that really could take them to the next level, in their confidence of what they can go do.
Dave: I am so glad our paths have crossed and we can continue to work together. Uh, we are, we think so very similar on many things, not just logic models and rescue dogs, which we haven't even talked about yet, but, uh, one of my big sort of principles is that. Number one. Yes, we are all leaders. That's in the intro to this episode.
Um, but that we have to live by example, if we wanna lead by example. Yeah. Often I hear folks say you lead by example. It's like, okay, so you put on your hat, you put on your uniform, you clocking at work. Okay. Now I have to lead by example. If you're living by example, you don't have to put on or flip that switch or go into, okay.
I'm in leadership mold. You're just leading by being and living authentic. And I feel that is, uh, the most inspirational type of leadership there is.
Rikki: I very much agree with that. I think you, and that's where it really just starts with that internal work, because the more you know yourself and how you show up in situations, the better you can do that.
And then, and that I would have my team take these assessments and so that I can understand them better and know, oh, I see this staff as sort of exhibiting these behaviors. That's how I know he is stressed. Mm-hmm . And so I now, as his supervisor slash leader, need to step in. Give an assist or support in some way, or can I take something off of your plate so that you can go and continue to be, you know, the great person and great prevention person you are.
And so I think that just really helps to know yourself and then know other people's, uh, so that you can best lead.
Dave: Oh, absolutely. And, uh, coaching wise. So my, my, my kind of three step, not really a process, but three prong approach to coaching starts with who. Just that same, that bill, you gotta build that solid foundation of who you are and, uh, might sound like the spiff, but also what you're working with, then clarify what you want.
Oftentimes, folks come into coaching and say, I want to achieve this. I want this. I want that. But you've gotta take a good assessment of who you are, get clarity of your strengths, your development areas. And then from there, once you have the who and the, what you can come up with the, how you're gonna get there.
Uh, mm-hmm we should do a whole nother episode and talk about coaching. That'd be great. We should. Yeah. Um, but you mentioned mentorship. Is that something you're still doing in your new role with your business?
Rikki: It is. And I really quite enjoy it. I, I provide mentoring for several different prevention, you know, professionals that are in the field.
And I, I love that we meet on a monthly basis and, um, talk through some different. Thing. So we'll kind of start with updates on what's happened since we last talked and what's maybe been some development and then talk through current challenges that they may be facing. If there's anything new to bring to the table and continuing, just work on again, kinda like you said, that how of, what are we gonna do to sort of work towards a solution here?
So that could be helping them process through different staffing issues or, you know, kind of challenges they've faced there, barriers with funding or barriers with community partners that, you know, and kinda just brainstorming and being, being there to help them sort of. Process by picking each other's brains about it.
And, um, and so it's kind of this neat thing. And what I've always sort of, um, thought was interesting is like, you know, you called a mentor meeting or, you know, a coaching meeting and it kind of like automatically puts like the person like, like you and I in a position of, well, we're the coach or we're the mentor.
But what I love about it is if you, if you walk into those with humility, See and learn so much for yourself as well that you can apply. And I think that that's pretty key to a mentoring process is approaching with humility of, I don't have all the answers. I have some thoughts and some experiences, but really we're gonna work through this together.
And I'm probably gonna walk out, still gaining something from
Dave: this. Um, yes, I can relate the, the communities of practice with the MidAmerica P T T C. I may have, uh, scheduled the zoom and set up registration. The convener. But there are folks way smarter than me that joined. And there's so much wisdom in the room and things we can learn from each other.
Mm-hmm oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, I am committed to living and learning and living a life of continued growth and yeah. Always learning. I'm learning from you right here right now. Um, I wanna learn more though about your business. Tell me, what is it? And what all you got going
on?
Rikki: Yeah, I'll try to do the nutshell version because there's probably a lot that could be said, but yeah.
So it's onward coaching and consulting, and truly like, you know, we were talking about the coaching part. It kind of just happens naturally. I am, you know, um, like certified life coach working on that, like focus of leadership and health and wellness and then financial coaching as well. Uh, those are kind of the areas I'm most passionate about there, but really that comes out in the consulting work as well, because there's just a lot of tenants of figuring out what a client wants and helping them to get there through some coaching methods.
And the consulting part is really where I focus. My experience, my almost 13 years of experience in the prevention field to, uh, help these communities across the United States, really help amp up their prevention effort. So I work with communities on strategic planning, providing training on various topics, whether that's spiff, the seven strategies, goal, setting leadership about specific drugs and how to work that in a community, really anything that's prevention prevention, you know, related offering those trainings and, and.
Trying to just help them to achieve whatever plan or goal that they have. So some of that's grant writing, uh, I've, that's, you know, a more recent thing that I've started to take on. I wrote several grants in my former job and, uh, have a decent track record of federal grants awarding, but, uh, you know, it's different, very, very different when you're writing a grant for community that you don't live in and for an agency that you don't work in.
And, um, that's been a really neat learning curve. And I know Dave, you're also very passionate about learning and growing. This journey of starting this business is consulting business has truly been all about learning more and more and more. And so, you know, there's that ask of, can you do this? And. That shaky.
Yeah. Yeah. Like, yeah. And I will, you know, and, and doing it with excellence and, and, and really showing up and, and, and proving to myself that that's something that, um, I can take those skills that I've learned over the last 13 years and apply it a little bit differently, but still apply it and be able to produce a really great product for our community.
So a lot of that is, is developing there with those clients and, and those contracts that I'm taking on. One of the things I'm most excited. Is what I've been working on for the past year, a new tool for the prevention field that will start in, in Missouri. It will roll out in Missouri and has been rolling out.
But, uh, it's also available. Nationally is an assessment tool for those in the prevention field. I mentioned earlier, a huge passion of mine is retention and growing professionals. In this field. So that that retention really does happen. They feel better equipped to be walking into communities and helping assist, and they see the result of their work.
Therefore, they're more likely to stay connected and passionate about it. So this assessment will help them to sort of assess judge their knowledge on the prevention field. All of the things that that prevention has as, as its tenants. And from that. Any areas that might be a little bit weaker or you might wanna go a little bit deeper on, there are going to be modules and courses that you can take to strengthen your knowledge about that.
And then of course go back and retake that assessment and make sure that you have walked away with the really core components of that. So I'm, I really am so excited about this because it's something that has existed in other professions, but doesn't really exist, you know, very, very. Much in the prevention field.
And I think that will be a huge resource for our, our field across the United States. Maybe even across the world who knows.
Right. Uh, definitely a cool project. And, uh, I'm gonna be jumping in taking that assessment cause I love learning of course, but also learning about myself. Um, but I also just wanted to hit pause real quick on.
I know you talked about the challenge of grant writing for communities where you don't necessarily know the community. You're not a part of it. I don't know if you realize it, but you're pretty doggone good at engaging with communities from moving to Louisiana where you didn't know anybody jumping right into community work, move into Missouri.
Um, you got this. Totally.
I appreciate that, Dave. Thank you. Thank you. You know, and, and it's just really learning the right questions to ask and that's, that's the key to helping to understand and to learn, I mean, really in life in general, right. Just ask questions and that's how you will learn, but, uh, asking those right appropriate questions for a community to help gain an understanding of really where they are and where they're coming from and where they wanna go.
And. That's where those coaching components come in. Exactly what you said, the, the who, the what, and the, how all of that plays a role in walking into a community to help them improve and grow. So it's just neat how it all comes together.
Dave: Yes, absolutely. And, uh, mentoring is that something listeners could jump in on with and join.
How, what can they gimme details? I'm just, yeah. Hit me with it. Absolutely. Absolutely. They're gonna
Rikki: wanna join. Yeah. Well, I appreciate you, your not of confidence there. Uh, absolutely. I I'm taking on more mentoring and coaching clients and, um, you know, and we will just talk and have an initial conversation and see if it's a good fit for where you wanna go and my areas of expertise, but absolutely I would encourage you just to reach out and we'll get connected and see
Dave: if it.
Awesome. Uh, folks, the show notes will be filled with links, both social media and website links, so you can get in touch. Absolutely. Um, I do we, we gotta talk about your, your coworker there. Oreo. Uh, yes. Folks. Rookie has an amazing coworker there at onward coaching and consult.
Rikki: Tell me about that. I could just show you her right now because she's just truly beautiful.
She's the kind of, she's the fun dog that when we're out in public, people will stop me and ask me what she is because she looks so beautiful. She's she is a rescue dog. I rescued her, um, And it's actually kind of a crazy story. I ended up learning after I adopted her. I ended up learning her backstory, which you usually do not, uh, with a, a rescue dog, but a friend of mine, uh, was showing, was showing pictures of my dog to some of her nursing friends.
And this one nursing friend said, hold up. That was my dog. And apparently they had gotten her as a puppy from this, from this farm and had sort of raised her through maybe like, I think she said about eight or nine months. So she was, you know, kind of getting closer to full, um, and, or full, full size and, uh, She, she ran away.
She jumped the back fence and ran away, which I say, you know, she just knew that she needed to make it to me. and she, you know, it's kinda like a Homeward bound moment, except she wasn't going back home. She was coming to my home. Um, and so she was found, you know, by a rescue agency and. That's how I came across her.
I am a runner I love to run. And so my dream has always been to have a dog that will run with me and enjoy it as much as I do. And I found her, uh, so she is a, she's a mix. She definitely has blue healer, which is known as an Australian cattle dog. And, uh, so they love to run out in the wide open. Yeah. Uh, and then I believe she's mixed with border Collie.
So I've got two herding breeds there, which makes it, uh, very fun to. To be with her. And she's just so smart and so loyal to me. I mean, I could just brag on my dog all day long. um, she's just very attached. She's a really great, uh, emotional support. It, she will, she will love on everybody. I actually, I tell people, I adopted myself in a dog because she's just loves people.
Loves dogs is happy all the time. And, and so it's just like, I'm like, I guess I just adopted like the fun, happy go. Lucky part of my personality. Um, and so it's pretty fun.
Dave: Uh, um, two questions related to Oreo, uh, did the, your, your friend's coworker. Wanna reach out and come see Oreo or anything happen there and everything.
Okay. On that
Rikki: side, she did not. Yeah. I was a little bit worried at first when she told me this, like, she doesn't want her back. Does she? Uh, and, and the answer was no, she never reached out. It was more like, oh, I'm so glad that she found a good home. They had like, I think. Two or three other dogs in addition to Oreo.
And so my personal belief is number one. She needed to find me, but also she's a little bit of an attention hog. And so I think that she just probably wasn't getting enough with all those other dogs. So she was like, I'm a go find somebody who will love just me.
Dave: yeah. Okay, perfect. And then does she join you in your mentoring, your monthly mentoring sessions?
Rikki: She is, you know, I will sell you this. She mostly hangs out in a different room throughout most of the day, but she does have a bed right behind my desk that she'll come and she'll sit on. Um, and she will oftentimes come and make an appearance. It's funny how dogs just know when you get on a phone call, cuz they hear you start talking.
They're like, I should probably be a part of that. And so oftentimes on video calls and things, she'll, she'll poke her head in. And so it's to the point now where yeah. Different clients, they, they know and they're like, hi, are you? And that's, it's fun.
Dave: oh, that is fun. That is fun. I have to get you set up with the doggy cam as well.
So you can switch your webcam out. That's a great idea. Uh, alright, so we're getting, uh, sidetracked a little bit here, but, uh, we've talked about your work at the community level in Louisiana and working with youth. And engaging community members, building relationships, talk about strategic planning, the beautiful spiff and mentoring and coaching.
Um, grant writing. You got a lot going on, you got a lot going on. Uh, so listeners, if you're looking for support, I think you know where to go drop down to the show notes and check out Ricky's website. Uh, I do have one, one last question for you though. Ready
Rikki: for it. I think that I'm ready.
Dave: So, if you were to share one thing with our listeners along the lines of, if you're gonna remember one thing from this episode, remember this, what would it be?
Rikki: You know, that's a really good question. I would say this. It's kind of an inspirational statement. I hope, I hope it is anyway, that prevention works when we make it a priority. And I think that that's true for a lot of our lives and for the different parts that prevention can show up so many times whether you work in this field or you stumbled across this podcast, cuz you heard Dave was a cool guy.
I would say to you that you are, you have a, a role to play in prevention in some way, shape or form, whether that's prevention of drug use prevention of suicide prevention of, you know, a harm reduction strategy, whatever that might be, you have a role, and we need to just make that a priority and keep that top of mind.
The more that we can invest in ourselves. And then from there, the community, the better we will have in terms of our community connectedness, our community value, our community worth. And so, um, you have a role in prevention and, uh, making it a priority is a, is a big key to getting that ball rolling
Dave: Ab so, absolutely.
I'll just, uh, second that, and. It's been a great conversation. Uh, you're gonna come back for a couple more episodes. Don't you worry? We may have to work in like a Facebook live or something or a panel talk. Um, cuz yes, listeners, you know, what's coming cause prevention is better together. That's right. Is all right.
Well, this has been wonderful. Um, gonna drop all kinds of links in the show notes for y'all. Uh, Rikki keep up the amazing work you are inspiring folks. You are empowering folks and you are helping foster and develop prevention leaders that are gonna go forth and change their communities. Keep up the great work.
Thanks for coming on the show.
Rikki: Thanks, Dave. I appreciate it.
