The Culture Soup Podcast®️

In this episode, I welcome back my dear friend of more than 25 years, Valorie Burton — bestselling author of 14 books, CEO of the Coaching and Positive Psychology (CaPP) Institute, and my mentor coach. Valorie joins me to talk about her newest release, Rules of Resilience: 10 Ways Successful People Get Better, Wiser, and Stronger, dropping September 16, 2025. Together we explore why resilience is more than a buzzword, how it looks in real life (hint: sometimes messy), and why it’s a system you can strengthen with intentional practices. ✨ What You’ll Learn Why resilience isn’t about being “tough” but about getting back up — even when it’s messy. How cognitive distortions like catastrophizing can derail you, and the tools to counter them. The critical link between values, purpose, and resilience. Why resilience should be taught in schools and practiced in organizations. How Valorie applied her own rules while writing the book, facing down her inner “gremlins.” The bonus rule: paying resilience forward to your peers, family, and future generations.

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Here are the **official show notes** for **Episode 200 of The Culture Soup Podcast®** featuring the incomparable **Minda Harts**: --- ##

This week, we step into the second pillar of Call & Response—science. In this episode:

Welcome to the kickoff of the Leadership Revival—a new series on The Culture Soup Podcast that takes you behind the scenes of Call & Response: 10 Leadership Lessons from the Black Church. In this premiere episode, host L. Michelle Smith sets the stage with the “Front Matter”—a soulful introduction to the journey ahead. She reflects on how the book came together not just through writing, but through living. And how its three foundational pillars—history, science, and leadership research—form a scaffolding that holds it all together. This episode features:

The Culture Soup Podcast® – Women’s History Month Episode

Show Notes - The Culture Soup Podcast In this episode, host L. Michelle Smith takes us on a reflective journey back to 2018, when she first launched The Culture Soup Podcast. She shares how an unexpected speaking career and a chance encounter led her to create both a podcast and a book, despite corporate challenges. She then shifts focus to the present, discussing the impact of recent executive orders on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), particularly in the corporate and federal sectors. With canceled sponsorships and shifting priorities, Michelle emphasizes resilience in times of uncertainty, urging leaders to embrace change as an opportunity for growth. Additionally, she delves into the power of artificial intelligence (AI) in leadership and decision-making, highlighting its potential beyond content generation. She teases upcoming AI workshops designed to help leaders integrate AI into their businesses strategically. Tune in for an engaging discussion on navigating change, leveraging AI, and strengthening resilience as a leader in today’s fast-moving world.

In this episode, I take time to reflect on 5 lessons I've learned over the past five years of running my professional private coaching practice. We are celebrating NSC Coaching's 5th anniversary all this month, and we are also observing International Coaching Week. Listen for what I learned along this journey so far about perseverance, determination, focus, relationships and other important lessons that you can take away for your journey as well. I also tease a big announcement that's forth coming. It's a special episode, so tune in!

In this episode, I take time to reflect on 5 lessons I've learned over the past five years of running my professional private coaching practice. We are celebrating NSC Coaching's 5th anniversary all this month, and we are also observing International Coaching Week. Listen for what I learned along this journey so far about perseverance, determination, focus, relationships and other important lessons that you can take away for your journey as well. I also tease a big announcement that's forth coming. It's a special episode, so tune in!

In 2019, I did what many corporate types would call "the unthinkable." I walked away from opportunities at a Fortune 10 after being "surplussed" without a job lined up. Sure, I had opportunities externally. Yes, I had a seedling of a business that I had started, but I wanted to take the time to think through my next step methodically. I had a mission that only a few were aware of, and that drove me to seek out the one thing that I needed to activate it. Could I do it and remain in corporate? I had interested organizations telling me that I could do both-pursue my calling to author books and speak across the country and internationally and work for them. But I knew that would eventually cause friction. I'd lived it already. That one piece was missing that would activate my mission, and a scroll through Instagram and an ad from a longtime sisterfriend and former client would ultimately become the the gateway to my destiny. I let that sisterfriend turn the tables on me this week, and I thought it would be great to finally share my story: how I went from there...to here, five years later with a thriving, global executive and personal coaching and consulting practice, a publishing journey that has been extraordinary and the speaker tour that began in 2015 and has yet to end. What took me from a 25+ year-long career in strategic communication, agency side, agency owner, and client side to here? I pass Valorie Burton, MAPP, MCC the mic on my show, The Culture Soup Podcast ® as she featured me in her global preview call for The Coaching and Positive Psychology (CaPP) Institute. That is where I earned my certification that would tee me up for credentialing at the world's most respected coaching organizations, International Coaching Federation. I began with her Coach Training Intensive (CTI). So it's befitting that I allowed Valorie to throw back the covers on my purpose-driven story. My pen as my sword, my speaking as my munitions, evidence-based coaching, I discovered, would ultimately become my armor. Join me and Val for this inspiring and powerful conversation about what it actually takes to take on coaching as a profession in this special, extended video edition of The Culture Soup Podcast ® brought to you in part by The CaPP Institute. We're continuing to celebrate the five years anniversary of NSC Coaching, and six years for the podcast with this exclusive rebroadcast of "Conversation with a Coach", and it streams everywhere Thursday afternoon.

Where have I been? What have I been up to, you ask? This episode will catch you up, and drop some Nuggets that you probably weren't expecting.

This special episode is dual streamed and sponsored by The Culture Soup Podcast(r) and PR Yourself Podcast with Leah Frazier who is my guest host for today's show. It is a replay of the DFW Book Signing for Yes Please! 7 Ways to Say I'm Entitled to the C-Suite. It was recorded before a live audience. Listen to part one of the Fireside chat between myself and Leah and then tune in to Part 2 on TCSP After The Show, exclusively on Apple Podcasts. It includes more of the conversation, my reading from the book and the Q&A, which took a surprising and delightful turn. TCSP After the Show is available on a subscription basis. Subscribe today! #YesPleaseBook #TCSPAfterTheShow #TheCultureSoupPodcast

Ever finally get that sponsor and your high hopes are dashed because they just didn't deliver? My conversation with Dr. Christopher Butts, Learning & Development and DEI expert and a voice in my upcoming book Yes Please! 7 Ways to Say I'm Entitled to the C-Suite...we delve into the idea of sponsors who just aren't cutting the mustard and more reasons why Black women are stalled on their way to the C-Suite in droves. Check out part 2 of my conversation, and be sure to preorder the Kindle version of the book on Amazon leading up to pub day on Jun 15. Also, don't miss next week's episode where special guest host Condace Pressley of WSB-TV in Atlanta turns the mic around on me and special gues Dr. Jeff Gardere, America's Psychologist for a lively conversation about the book! #TheCultureSoupPodcast #YesPleaseBook #WomenLeaders

I grabbed some much needed catch-time with my friend Dr. Christopher Butts, Learning & Development and DEI Expert to talk about themes from my upcoming book, Yes Please! 7 Ways to Say I'm Entitled to the C-Suite. He is one of the expert voices in the book, and we discuss the pitfalls of sponsorship, especially for Black women and other women of color and what allies can do to step up fill these crucial gaps. We get pretty specific too. I hope you're ready.

Let's take a look back at my conversation with one f the world's most loved historians, Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. This takes us back to Episode 51 where we discuss his hit show Finding Your Roots and his journey to the show.

Let's talk CULTURE...and when I say culture--I mean the ARTS! I'm throwing it back to one of my favorite episodes as I wrap up a year-long engagement with one of my favorite clients, Lyric Opera Chicago and round the corner on my last term on the board of Opera America. One of the most acclaimed mezzo sopranos of our time is joining me on The Culture Soup Podcast®, and I’m so proud to call her friend! She debuted at the Metropolitan Opera, She’s sung for multiple Presidents. She is on the faculty at Juilliard. She even sang at the home going of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and she is on a mission to tell the story of Black people in opera. Meet the prolific and lovely Denyce Graves-Montgomery! She is the Founder of the Denyce Graves Foundation of which I am an advisory board member, and she is dedicated to telling the stories of Black people in Opera that you’ve never heard before. Tune in on Thursday to hear our conversation where we talk about the importance of seeing Black people in all aspects of Opera…from the stage to the composers, librettists and directors. We also talk about the importance of telling Black stories and seeing Black artist play characters that aren’t historically cast that way. It’s on this throwback episode of The Culture Soup Podcast®.

Women+ leaders in tech have access to sponsors, at the same rate as their male counterparts. That isn't the issue. It's that once women have sponsors, what happens next is often very different. There is also some discrepancies in titles between the genders. Both become obstacles for women leaders who are looking to walk in their power in rooms and at tables as they aspire to E- and C-Suite roles. That's a preview of just a couple of the findings in new research from Dr. Diana B. Allen, Empowerment Champion and Senior Cyber Security Expert. She is also yet another of my fantastic ELC Strategic Pathways sisters. Catch part one on of her episode of The Culture Soup Podcast on Thursday! #podcastsofLinkedin #womenintech #womenleaders

In this current touch-and-go environment, both economically and socially, what should leaders consider now? I speak to inclusive leadership & psychological safety expert Sacha Thompson, ACC the founder of The Equity Equation and faculty member of SOAR Women’s Leadership Academy about it. Join us Thursday March 16, streaming everywhere podcasts play, and live at noon across all of my social platforms. And don’t forget to subscribe to the bonus content, TCSP After the Show & DUETS. Sacha and I are members of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated...and we have a little Soror talk.

This week's episode is all about the message that keeps on giving. It's the message that organization after organization continues to ask for. It's all about knowing your value and how it's a powerful tool in your life and leadership aspirations. We dive in deep as I broadcast from Washington D.C. at the Executive Leadership Council's Mid-level Management Symposium where I delivered the talk twice--once as a keynote in a standing-room only session of about 200+ professionals and once virtually to hundreds more. Be enriched.

Ever considered how language can be leveraged to dictate the rules of a culture? Tonight's episode of The Culture Soup Podcast® is a Coaching Corner episode, and we discuss exactly how that it happens in world events and the workplace and what that works to the detriment of those who are not centered. We also take a deeper dive into today't #YesPlease Ask Me Anything question: How do you get opportunity to pursue you instead of the other way around. Get your journals ready to explore your actions on both topics, and I will also share some of NSC Coaching news and the latest on my recent and upcoming speaking and book signing experiences. Episode 172 drops later tonight. Ask Siri, Alexa, Google or Spotify to play the latest episode of The Culture Soup Podcast®, so simply look for it on any of the great podcast platforms. Thanks for your patience. We had to navigate some tech issues, but we're here!! #tech #culture #executivecoaching