Christina: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Taking the Lead podcast where we empower people to be unstoppable. I'm Christina Hoeppner with my co-host Leslie Hoskins and Timothy Kuo. We are in the warmer months. Memorial Day is right around the corner. I know we just talked about that, but do you guys have any other like summer things happening or any.
Trips cuz you know, we all, we all know you guys go on a lot of trips.
Timothy: Well, of course it's summertime for me. So glacier and I go camping a lot during the summertime and we change our walking habits since it's getting warm here in Georgia. We leave very early, early in the morning, but sometimes before daylight to do her walks, you know?
Oh. Yeah, cuz we don't have that hot summer heat on
Christina: us. Yeah, we get jealous of you in the winter, but not in the summer. Yes.
Leslie: Great.
Timothy: Oh, I love, I love going to
Leslie: Michigan in the summertime. Yeah, I wouldn't have thought of that, Timothy. So you have to kind of change your whole schedule a little bit just to make sure you're getting in your exercise and not [00:01:00] over overheating either you or glacier.
I mean, I, I'll
Timothy: walk her if I have to, but if it's just for us to keep our training, I would, don't go outta my way to get her in the heat. So, uh, it's just a smart thing to do, I guess. And I got nothing else better to do. So enjoy the nice, it's nice and dark. But it's lit up so it gets, it gives me more confidence in her because you know, I can see a little bit, but when it's dark, I can't see anything.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. So it builds our confidence back in that she's doing her
Christina: job. Right, right. And contrary to popular belief, glacier is not a white dog. She is Alab lab. No. So Georgia's sun beating on is not nice with not. Black fur coat. I'm, but it gets even hotter, so I'm sure
Leslie: something to think about. See, I'm not a morning person.
I don't know if I would have that energy to get up and, uh, change my whole schedule to get the walks in. I'm up
Christina: at Christina's time. Yeah. Right. And early.
Leslie: Ugh, I'm struggling man.
Christina: Don't worry, [00:02:00] I can change anyone in the morning person. I don't, I don't believe that. Let's
Leslie: try it. Let, let's try it. Get less. You stay up too late.
I would much prefer to stay up late than get up like five minutes early. Well, sleep
Christina: is very important too, but. Putting like cold water on you for thing in the
Leslie: morning. Yeah. Christina mentioned she's doing these like cold showers now. I just,
Christina: I, no, I'm trying to do 'em every so often, like, because I heard about the benefits from them and you know, people are doing those cold plunges.
I can't get myself to do that. So like I'm easy
Leslie: myself, she's gonna do it plunge by the end of the summer. She's gonna have one of those little tugs, so you have to get a tractor supply or something like that. Foot ice in it.
Timothy: So she can get freezer
Christina: burn. Yeah. Freezer
Leslie: burn. Yeah. That's She's gonna come in here in the middle of summer with a freezer burn.
Christina: Exactly. Exactly. I'll be like bee red, but from cold. Yeah.
Leslie: Not warm. The opposite. Not a sunburn. Yeah.
Timothy: Well, you all got planned this summer.
Leslie: Come on. Oh my God. I'm trying to think. Hopefully just some [00:03:00] time. My parents live on a lake, so hopefully some time on the water and swimming. Yeah. My son's really starting to swim.
You just learned how to ride a two wheel bike. Aw, training. So I too, I'm crying. It's too much. Yeah.
Christina: Well, I'm just, you know. I don't know what I'm doing this summer.
Leslie: Honestly, doesn't know what she's doing tomorrow. No, that's
Christina: basically it. You know, I think I have some concerts planned and that's about it.
I'm just kind of taking this summer to like, Relax and do a lot of just fun activities and outdoor activities. Cuz last summer was like wedding bachelorette party wedding, this, that. So this summer hopefully just do some little weekend trips and all that fun stuff. Barking, bro. You go tubing again?
Timothy: No.
Christina: That was dangerous for anyone who hasn't heard that episode. Like I got stuck in a thunderstorm. Yeah. While tubing on a river stuck in the middle of the river and there was no banks to get off on. So, [00:04:00] yeah. We'll we're sticking away from that bird. Just the she'll
Leslie: just stick at the The ice plunge back. No, no.
Rivers on
Christina: tubes on the jump in the really cold lake. There we go. That will be my, uh, thrill of the summer. Oh goodness.
Leslie: That's too much. Too
Christina: much. Yes. But um, you know, today we're gonna chat a bit about some upcoming changes with the Taking the Lead podcast.
Timothy: Yeah. We do enjoy having all our guests on here.
Our, uh, clients, our team members, and all the volunteers without you guys, you guys make this podcast possible. So thank you for being on here and everybody listening, you've done, you helped us out by listening every
Leslie: week. Absolutely, and I cannot believe we are wrapping up season four. I mean, that is absolutely insane, uh, that we are going to be starting our fifth season.
So we wanna make sure that all of you are aware of what to expect as we are approaching season
Christina: five. Yes. [00:05:00] And as everybody knows, because I talk about it so much, these two are always on vacation or they're traveling and I'm here holding it down. Um, so we also made the decision we're gonna move our episodes to every other week.
So not every week, every other Thursday. And you know, as some people may know, they may not. There's a lot that goes into recording these episodes. And between scheduling and getting into the studio, it can be challenging for us with our schedules. So we wanna continue to deliver you the best episodes and this is the way that we'll be able to do that.
So,
Leslie: yes, I know it's gonna be crazy not having one every week, but we really are looking forward to, you know, thinking about our guests and what we wanna chat about. Yeah. And, and, you know, Enjoying our summer a little bit. We do love this podcast. It honestly means the world to us, but um, it is a lot of work.
Yeah, we spend a lot of time prepping and planning and scheduling and so we're gonna [00:06:00] give ourselves a little bit of a break and I think
Christina: that's okay. Yeah. And we're also gonna be, um, sharing some of our favorite episodes in between. So we will be taking, there will still be an episode every other week in the summer, but we're gonna take a little bit of a time.
Off, um, and kind of replay some of our favorite episodes for you guys and for new listeners who haven't, um, heard the podcast before, we're gonna kind of go all the way back to the beginning. So, um, I'm a little nervous to listen to those again, but I
Leslie: know Timothy, do you remember recording our very first podcast?
Or actually we should say even just the practice one that we did? Yes. I
Timothy: remember doing all that stuff at the beginning. It. Pretty new to me. I was a little nervous about doing this, but I guess I slipped into it pretty, it's nice. I'm, yeah, gotten used to doing all this
Christina: stuff. Now that's, yeah. Honey, I had only been at Leader Dog for one month.
Yeah. I didn't even know you guys. I had no idea. I was like, all right, so I'm. Chatting with [00:07:00] two strangers who know each other already, and I have to act like we're friends.
Leslie: Oh my goodness. I thought the chemistry was instant. It
Christina: was. It was. We became quickly friends and then you guys knew too much about my life, so Yeah, I was like, well, I can't get rid of 'em now.
You dove in headfirst. Yeah. That was so funny. Now to think back, because we used a laptop and we like. Teams call. Yeah. When we just like recorded an episode and we played it back and we were like, Hey, is this gonna work?
Leslie: And then I was so nervous. So after so we practiced one time. Yeah. We kind of recorded and honestly we, we did pretty good.
We, for not any of us having podcast experience. I mean, you have a journalism background, so you definitely had more experience than Tim Timothy and I coming into this, but, It was fairly good. And then we came in studio and recorded an episode and we were, Christina and I were so nervous. Yeah. Because we had to share it with our supervisor, our boss, [00:08:00] um, dunny, who's amazing.
And we absolutely love her, but we were so nervous. Yeah. And she kinda, she drug it out. She waited to tell us what she thought.
Christina: Right. I do remember that. We sent it to her and then, Is she ever gonna let us know if this scene is gonna be a go or not? Are we gonna keep doing this? Are we, it was like
Leslie: crickets.
And it was a Friday. By the time we finally heard it was like a Friday afternoon. I remember. And then what she did, she didn't even respond to us. She sent it to senior management and just said really, really complimentary things. Yes. And so it was very, very exciting. Yeah. But we were sweating
Christina: bullets.
Yeah. And we started record. In the fall to launch in January. Cause we wanted to get ahead of the game and like make sure we had some episodes to launch. But yeah, that January launch, oh my gosh. I remember like preparing for that and being like, I have so much to launch, there's so much to do. I manage all the back end.
So I was like, oh man, I have to schedule these all out. Get them out there. So, yeah.
Timothy: Yeah. We were good ahead. We were heading pretty [00:09:00] good there for a while.
Leslie: It's been. It's been very, very fun and it'll continue to be, we have a lot more in store or we have a lot of really great ideas. A lot of people, we wanna share their stories.
Um, and we wanna talk a little bit more just about blindness in general and the community. Yes. So, you know, what's happening out in the world and in the, the blindness and low vision field.
Christina: Yes. And we're so excited to be bringing, you know, new topics into season five, which is so nuts, but, All
Leslie: right. Well we are absolutely gonna keep this one short today cuz we just wanted to keep everybody informed on what we're doing and what we're, uh, planning to do in this upcoming season.
So we do wanna take this opportunity to, again, thank you so much for listening to the, taking the Lead podcast and specifically challenging us and encouraging us and just really being a part of our team. We couldn't do this without you. Thank you again so much Again, I'm Leslie Hoskins with host Timothy Kuo and Christina Heppner.
We [00:10:00] hope you enjoyed today's very short episode. Uh, please stay tuned in the next few weeks to hear some of our favorite episodes until we're back in late summer. Yes,
Christina: and if you'd like to learn more about applying to our free services at Leader Dog, you can head to leader dog.org or call us at (888) 777-5332.
And don't forget, you can reach us at taking the lead@leaderdog.org with any questions or ideas. If you like today's podcast, make sure to hit subscribe and check us out wherever Podcast Stream. This season of the Taking the Lead podcast is brought to you by a longtime supporter of Leader Dog, the Mary p DCI Hallan Foundation
Leslie: Foundation.
As you may know, generous donors like this one make it possible to achieve our. The Mary
Christina: P DOL Halloran Foundation supports the study of mathematics and mathematics education. For more
Leslie: information about our generous sponsor, visit their website at www.dolhalloranfoundation.org.[00:11:00]