Administrators, Principals, Teachers, and Students Provided Inspiring Interviews and Powerful, Life-Changing Content for Personal and Professional Application

FranklinCovey Education today announced the launch of three educational podcasts, Change Starts Here, hosted by Dustin Odham, FranklinCovey Education Managing Director, The Empowering Teacher, hosted by Molly Garcia, FranklinCovey Education Coach, and Realiteen Talks, hosted by Gary McGuey, FranklinCovey Education’s High School Practice Leader and a cohort of high school students. The podcasts were created to provide administrators, educators, and students with inspiring interviews and powerful, life-changing content for personal and professional application.

The Change Starts Here podcast provides content to current and future educational leaders that aligns with the paradigm, ‘greatness is everywhere’ — it exists within their administration, within them, within their students, and in families and communities. The weekly podcast guests join together with the host and audience to learn how to unleash every person’s human potential more powerfully, every day. The podcast releases every Tuesday on YouTube, Spotify, Apple and wherever podcasts are available.

Dustin Odham is a former veteran educator, school and district innovation director, and turnaround specialist. He currently leads several teams across the U.S. and Canada serving school administrators, teachers, staff members, students, and their families by providing them with FranklinCovey Education solutions. Odham is a former Teacher of the Year and Executive Director of Teach for America, where he directed more than 200 teachers impacting the lives of thousands of students in St. Louis, Mo. Prior to joining FranklinCovey, he was a senior advisor to superintendents and principals, creating strategies to improve school performance and increase educator impact and student achievement. Part of Odham's personal mission statement is to make a positive and lasting impact in the life of every person he meets, every single day. He has spent his career helping to unleash greatness in everyone he is privileged to work with and for.

Dustin Odham, FranklinCovey Education Managing Director, said, “I’m so pleased and honored to be the host of our Change Starts Here podcast, which we’ve created for educators who want to learn, lead, serve, inspire and perform in extraordinary ways. ‘Change starts here’ means transformation starts from the inside-out. And interviews with our guests inspire that change, whether you are motivated to adopt the practices you’re hearing about, or you decide to do the exact opposite. Change starts with each individual, in the classroom and in their personal lives, every day. I hope this podcast is a force for that lasting change for anyone who tunes in.”

The first episode of the podcast launched on February 9, 2021. Guests include Julie Morgenstern, The New York Times bestselling author and international organizational expert, Brad Montague, The New York Times bestselling author and creator of Kid President, Stedman Graham, The New York Times bestselling author and businessman, Jon Gordon, The Wall Street Journal bestselling author and positivity researcher, Jody Carrington, psychologist, bestselling author, and speaker, Elena Aguilar, education consultant, bestselling author, contributor to Edutopia and ASCD’s Educational Leadership, and a blogger for EdWeek Teacher, and Geoffrey Canada, President, Harlem Children's Zone.

The Empowering Teacher podcast is a twice-monthly podcast for teachers who are looking to increase their influence, decrease stress, and employ doable-today strategies that nurture a dynamic and empowering learning environment in the classroom and in life. Podcast guests are education experts and leadership-school practitioners from Leader in Me Schools throughout the world who have implemented the Leader in Me process. Leader in Me is an evidence-based K-12 process, developed in partnership with educators, that provides schools with effective practices and tools to teach leadership to every student, create a culture of student empowerment, and align systems to drive results in academics. The podcast releases on Leaderinme.com/weekly, Spotify, Apple, and wherever podcasts are available.

As a former educator and administrator, Garcia’s inspiration for becoming a teacher came from heartfelt conversations with her grandmother, who encouraged her to become anything she wanted to be – the President of the United States or a teacher. For over 20 years, she served as a bilingual teacher, instructional coach and principal in high poverty schools, serving her last 10 years as an Administrator. An inspirational leader in professional development for her school and district, Molly taught workshops on leadership, brain research, and highly effective classroom practices. She is a former adjunct faculty member at Grand Canyon University, where she taught masters-level courses to future principals. She became a principal of a FranklinCovey Leader in Me Lighthouse School, and further expanded her influence in the education arena as a FranklinCovey Leader in Me Coach and Consultant, assisting and supporting schools in implementing Leader in Me. Molly's passion is in empowering and inspiring all students and teachers, particularly in high impoverished areas. She strongly believes "We are all better together."

Molly Garcia, FranklinCovey Education Coach, said, “I am thrilled to be the host of this educational podcast, which has been created just for teachers. From a small seed planted in my heart as a small child by my grandmother, I know I was meant to be a teacher and to have a teacher’s heart. Part of my personal mission statement is to love and serve in the kindest of ways, and so my goal with this podcast is to bring educators together to feel empowered, share their genius, learn from each other and experience the greatness everyone has to offer. Together, we’ll continue to dream, to imagine, and to employ doable strategies that can be implemented in the classroom, today. We will make great things happen.”

The first episode of the podcast launched on January 5^th, 2021. Guests and topics have included Muriel Summers (From Burnout to Balance!), Sean Covey (From Uncertainty to Opportunity!), and South Carolina’s 2019 National Distinguished Principal of the Year Rhonda Rhodes (From Woah to Let’s Go!). Guests include Dr. Eve Miller, FranklinCovey Education Director of Research, Lynn Kosinski, FranklinCovey Senior Leader in Me Coach, Consultant, and author, and Matthew Trevino, Grammy Nominated Music Teacher.

The Realiteen Talks podcast offers weekly, powerful, timely discussions about topics that matter most to teens. Panelists and listeners are encouraged to think deeply, engage fully, and most importantly speak their authentic truth about issues of the day. The podcast provides a platform for teens to share their genius and to inspire others. These young leaders take on thought-provoking, real-life topics and offer up tools, strategies, and especially hope. While the target audience is teens, educators, parents, grandparents, guardians, and community members are all welcome and will find value in these relevant discussions. The first cohort features 12 students who were chosen to participate from all over the U.S. The second cohort will also include international students. The podcast releases every Wednesday on YouTube, Spotify and Apple, and wherever podcasts are available.

A former educator and athletic director, McGuey has spent the past 20 years traveling across the globe, visiting thousands of schools, and working with administrators, educators, students, and families. He designed and created the first curriculum to accompany Sean Covey’s New York Times bestselling book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens. He co-authored The Inspirational Teacher, which focuses on how to develop relationship with students, and authored The Mentor: Leadership Trumps Bullying, a proactive approach on reducing bullying in schools. He is a highly-respected speaker on the topics of leadership, trust, vision, and personal development and he brings a rare mix of knowledge, humor, and experience to each engagement, with “Learn it, Live it and Give it” as the message he conveys.

Gary McGuey, FranklinCovey Education’s High School Practice Leader, said, “It’s been my pleasure to work with teens over the course of my education career. And, it’s an honor to host this new powerful and inspiring podcast, which focuses on topics that are both current and relevant to teenagers today. I’m always humbled and amazed at their brilliance, wisdom and creativity when they’re given the opportunity to share their voice. Among the deepest human needs is that of bring valued, and Realiteen Talks provides young people a chance to feel understood, connected and valued.”

The first episode of the podcast launched February 3, 2021. Discussions on various topics have included: Leadership is a Choice, Failure is Fertilizer, and Say Yes to Peer Pressure. Upcoming topics include: Acceptance, Body Image, Hope, Pandemic Isolation, Mental Health, and Social Branding.

About Leader in Me

Leader in Me is an evidence-based K-12 process, developed in partnership with educators, that provides schools with effective practices and tools to teach leadership to every student, create a culture of student empowerment, and align systems to drive results in academics. Incorporating some of the world's most respected leadership content, the research-validated process addresses students' social emotional needs and equips them with the college, career and life-readiness skills they need to thrive, adapt, contribute and be resilient in a dynamic world. For individual schools and district-wide, it is optimized for distance learning with best-in-class online delivery of content and coaching that supports implementation excellence and sustained achievement. As a comprehensive solution for learning recovery, Leader in Me supports schools in a COVID-19, post-pandemic landscape. For more information on the process that has been implemented in thousands of schools in more than 55 countries, visit www.leaderinme.org.

About FranklinCovey Education

For nearly three decades, FranklinCovey Education has been one of the world’s most prominent and trusted providers of educational leadership programs and transformational processes. FranklinCovey’s programs, books, and content have been utilized by thousands of public and private primary, secondary, and post-secondary schools and institutions, including educational service centers and vocational schools in all 50 states within the United States and in over 150 countries.

About FranklinCovey

Franklin Covey Co. (NYSE: FC) is a global, public company, specializing in organizational performance improvement. We help organizations achieve results that require lasting changes in human behavior at scale. Our world-class solutions enable greatness in individuals, teams, and organizations and are accessible through the FranklinCovey All Access Pass®. They are available across multiple modalities and in 20 plus languages. Clients have included the Fortune 100, Fortune 500, thousands of small- and mid-sized businesses, numerous government entities, and educational institutions. FranklinCovey has more than 100 direct and partner offices providing professional services in more than 160 countries and territories. To learn more visit www.FranklinCovey.com and enjoy exclusive content across FranklinCovey’s social media channels: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

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