Monthly Archives: January 2020

Stacey Meredith Cohen
An educator, a teacher, a spiritual speaker, retreat facilitator
She is an adventurer and always says YES!

Encourage women 38 and above to tap into the adventure within themselves.
She is from Princeton New Jersey. She bought a one way ticket to CA when she was 20
because her home town wasn’t filling her up. She met her first husband and she got pregnant. She went for it! She listened to her gut. She was with him for 11 years. She had to
finish college now. She was a women’s studies major. She was running towards the dreams
she had put on hold. She has the ability to filter out fear.

Is there a secret sauce? She knew how to manage her mind. She trusted herself. Yes there
is fear but she knew she would do this well.

I was taught to trust myself. Her father would always ask her questions that made her think about her experience. She developed a lot about who she was through these conversations. He would say, “I can’t bring you around the world, but I can bring the world to you.” Her father exposed her to different cultures through taking her to restaurants in New York City. She had a great foundation. He sparked her sense of adventure. He passed away right after she gave birth to her daughter.

Tune in to what is effervescent for YOU. What do you want to do? Once our kids get older, we are kind of left with time for ourselves and now we may have the time to focus on ourselves. It is a sense of freedom and also a void but not in a negative way.

She always wanted to be a teacher. She was a Waldorf teacher which focuses on Anthropocentric which is the study of human beings. She got burned out teaching kindergarten.
Someone led her to being a dean of students. She got hired in admissions and she help built a school in Sonoma County and eventually became the dean of students.

She listened to a friend and it resonated with her. She leaned WAY in. A nugget of wisdom. Follow that thread in your life. Create a pattern when you are interested in something, lean in more. Tuning in and leaning in are synonymous.

She was let go from her dream job and she has been on a four year journey to take personal accountability of her mistakes. She wanted to blame Sonoma Academy for letting
her go but it was really her mistakes that led up to it. Her goal was to send her daughter to college debt free. She was a workaholic. She took personal responsibility. Her hand
print was on everything and it was difficult to go back to the school after she was let go. She was on a vision quest for the last four years which allowed her to really focus on
herself. She took another job in Hawaii and that is where she met her second husband. I gave myself permission to fall in love. She is on a path of self discovery.

She turned a negative into a positive. And it takes time to rebuild!

Open yourself up to possibility in the world. You must take time to process. It is all rooted in self love. It is not a quick process. The good news is that once you start processing you don’t stop and you have this gift for the rest of your life. When we get older, it is harder to get through things. Allow yourself the time.

Michael had a brain tumor. It was benign and treatable, It has been a powerful relationship. We went on the healing journey together. We are now on the other side. He goes
after healing.

She began to do parenting coaching but it wasn’t her passion. She found herself telling women to be courageous and adventurous. Women are like perennial flowers, they just
keep blooming every year! Her passion was in travel, experience and impact. She wanted to show people across the bridge. Stacy is going back to her childhood where her Dad
inspired her to travel. She built lots of travel for teenagers to expand their awareness of what happens on this planet. This is what she loves to do the most. How many ways are
there to be and experience the planet together in immersement in style and adventure.

People that travel have more gratitude than others. There are different layers. Especially where there are more differences. For example she sees people that have much less
than us and they are happy! We try to integrate a sense of joy of what we have. Colleen shared a story about travel and an example of this that she encountered in Africa. Integrate what you experience when you get home and don’t complain about the laundry!

Harness the takeaway!

What does the retreat look like? Unpack this for us what the journey looks like.

It starts when you say YES. She wants people to pay for it in advance. Pay in installments. There will be zoom calls to educate people about what they want in the trip.
Creating a container for the trip which is in October to India. There will be intentions set, journaling, discussions etc. There will be time spent with locals and all of the great
things there are to experience in India. It will be a sensory experience and have an opportunity to grow.
What does adventure mean to you?

It means impact. When we say yes to the things that whisper to our hearts, you are making an impact by sharing yourself with others. You are saying yes to being more
vulnerable. It is how we make people feel and why sharing is so important. We are more together! Adventure means getting outside of your comfort zone. In the end, you
learn about yourself.

What kind of excuses do you hear and how do you deal with it? Stacy tells people to lean in. You can have security and freedom. Do it even if it is uncomfortable.
Bene Brown talks about this is all of her books. It isn’t easy but the gifts will help ease the fear.

Choose courage over comfort!

We have a continual rebirth where we have this phase of our lives to be more than we have ever been. When our kids go onto the next chapter of their lives, it gives us the
opportunity to explore our lives. This an exciting time! It is important for our children to see us doing it! Do what you are passionate about!

Thank you Stacy for lifting women up!
iSoulify listeners get $500 off on the price of the trip! So generous.
Sign up at this link:
https://theartoffreedom.clickfunnels.com/sales-page32590441

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Tracy Hamm, Head Coach of UC Davis Women’s Soccer Team

She makes up a 1% of women in the world who have a class A UAFA license.

She has a documentary film about her journey.

It speaks to the hurdle she had to jump in order to achieve this license. 43,403 people in the world have this license and 1% of them are women.
She grew up playing 5 varsity sports. Soccer was her favorite. She went to CAL on a full scholarship for soccer. After graduating she soon realized that there were not a lot of options for a female to further their careers. She first felt like her identity had been stripped from her upon graduation.

2009 the woman’s professional soccer league started and she got drafted to play. San Jose and Atlanta. In between that she was the assistant coach at CAL. What led you to find your passion so early? She grew up playing with the boys as she had two brothers. Her parents made her stay outside all summer. I felt like when I did well at sports, my parents were proud of me. It made me feel good. She was very competitive
with her older brother. She built thick skin. She was committed at an early age. She was a rebel in her early years. Sports kept her out of trouble and grounded.

Tracy receives a masters degree in counseling and sports psychology. She thought it would help her in her coaching. She wanted to be a student not a soccer player. She keeps get drawn back to soccer.
Tracy was hired at Santa Rosa Junior College to coach and teach. Working with that demographic was the best thing she could have ever done. Soccer isn’t the most important thing for everyone. It
allowed her to take a step back. She needed to recognize people as individuals and as a whole. If I knew them as a person than it made me a better coach. Everyone needs to be coached differently in order
for them to be successful. Coach to the individual not the group. The little things matter is the way she runs her life. Coaching is so much more than the game. “HOW YOU DO ANYTHING IS HOW YOU
DO EVERYTHING”. This is her motto. The things that the game can teach you translate to everything in your life and vice versa.

Do you put the grocery cart away? The smallest details make a large impact. If you put the cart away, it just made someone else’s life easier. Be responsible for what you can control.

From club to college to coaching. She was coaching at SF State. Being a good coach or boss can be as simple as asking how someone is! It is building respect. It takes time and doesn’t happen overnight. Shared responsibility and collective goals are very important. I place a lot of responsibility on self respect. If you don’t love and respect yourself, it is hard to care about anything. If it is too easy then it is not valuable. It is a meritocracy. The invest in themselves.

They want to build merit and efficacy. The prepare and train for and then they see success. Response to failure is the generational piece and they are not comfortable responding to failure. You have to fail
to have success. They will build confidence. What does a failure response look like? Verbal lashing vs. to continue to go back at it.

Why are we so afraid to fail? Because it is painful. In the world of sports, you let down other people, not just yourself. Failing and change is scary. We rarely focus on deficiencies. We only grow when we focus on deficiency.

She has an amazing credential, a class A license. She put herself in a vulnerable and courageous space that very few woman have ever done. You are walking the walk. You show other woman what is possible.
I like to be the first person to do things. When someone tells me I cannot do something, it is an enormous motivator for her!

US Soccer is the governing body for all US soccer. UAFA is the governing body for all European soccer. You can get licenses waived if you have certain criteria for experience and teaching and coaching. US soccer requires that all coaches be trained.

E,D and F license are done in your state. The C is nationally based. She wanted to skip and got right to the C. And US soccer denied her because she had only played professionally for two years and she
argued this that she couldn’t because of the gap when there wasn’t a woman’s team.

They were alienating an entire demographic. This rule was written without woman in mind. They didn’t have the foresight. She appealed. They said no. She swallowed pride. She started looking abroad. UAFA had a license path. US Soccer would accept national waivers. She looked into Wales who happened to have a residential program. She applied as a professional soccer player. She is a problem solver. She found a way in! You must use creativity when you hit roadblocks. Life is about plan B sometimes.

They wanted her to take the D to get into the C. It was unfair. I did a lot of research to find a different way to get it done. It was about self accountability. I didn’t want to rely on someone else. What was the
motivation to go all the way? It would be hard for her to learn and continue to grow. She wanted to get better. She likes to be the best at everything she does. She wants to be the best she can be. She is thirsty for education and she expects the best for her players.

Tracy applied and she was accepted! This was in 2017. She paid for this out of her own pocket. She got there in a roundabout way. She showed up and had a moment of self doubt. She walked into the room….. HER DAD SAID HALF THE BATTLE IS JUST SHOWING UP. She was looking at the name tags in the room because there were super famous soccer players ALL MALE. No one sat with her which was so awkward. Finally, another female shows up. She sits next to Tracy. They knew they would be best friends!

It was her turn to introduce herself and all the air went out of the room, not only was she female but she was AMERICAN! It was a great week and great camaraderie. She has more experience than most of them. They were all the same level. They were asking her for help. UAFA B.

She went back again to get the UAFA A license. She was invited to come back. This was a different experience. She was prepared. There were one or two that made her feel less than. People were there from
all over the world. She didn’t have the validity because it was an international . You are here because you earned it. SELF RESPECT.

It is a muscle that you build over time. How do you build confidence? How do you build the force? Asking for help is the most important thing. We feel isolated. We are supposed to be really strong. It puts
you in a vulnerable position. It can be the spark that you need for one person to believe in you! We are social beings. We need the inner connection. We all try to be so independent. Being authentic is also a
chance for others to see you are a person instead of what your role is.

We are all people!

We are going back to being a rebel. I am going to push the limit of yourself. Do you need to be a rebel to have the qualities of a champion? When you are not ok with inequality or things that are not fair,
you use that as motivation to push boundaries. We sometimes do need to hear the word NO but due diligence and question why things are the way they are. Manufacture a plan! It came less about her and
opening doors for other women! It gives woman belief and hope.

I felt very proud of myself and I don’t think that people celebrate their successes enough. How do you get the license? You have 480 hours worth of work and self reflection. A lot of theoretical work as well. You have to film five sessions to finish. They let you know if you are ready to be assessed. It was so nerve wracking.

It was so serendipitous. She left SF State and the next day she met her UC Davis team and then she got the email that she passed! Her next step is to get her PhD is Cultural Studies. There is an emphasis in feminist theory. She wants to focus on Woman’s Empowerment. She is excited to further her education.

How do you teach others to be authentic? Tracy thought she had to be like the other coaches but she wanted to be herself and wanted to coach her way. You need to identify who you really are and be confident in what you are doing. Who do you want to be? For her, she wanted to leave a room and have it feel like people are better because she was there. IMPACT is what she wants. She works to be her very best.

INFLUENCE.
I want to make someone’s life better by being a part of it.
https://www.coachthemovie.com
https://ucdavisaggies.com/sports/womens-soccer/roster/coaches/tracy-hamm/688

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