Welcome to Values Conversations
Thought-provoking, heart-warming conversations
with people you care about, facilitated by a professional coach
Thank you for visiting! So excited you're here.
I'm a trained and certified leadership coach, and for the past 8 years I've coached my clients on career, life, and relationship topics using the lens of their personal values. I'm now on a quest for stories, illustrations, and examples of how values bind together families and friends, explored through a fun and lighthearted series of conversations - at no charge to you. I'm currently seeking both individuals and pairs to participate in engaging, recorded conversations with me about this topic.
Learn more about my "WHY", the process, and the benefits, then register your interest below.
You might value...
belonging
financial security
the ability to influence or lead others
learning and growth
health
spending time in nature
adventure
...or something else entirely
What are Values?
Your personal values are the guiding principles of your life. They are what make up your own internal compass, and they represent your unique judgment of what is important in your life. Values drive your behavior, even if you’re not conscious of it. They determine how you react under stress, what brings you joy, and how you interpret the actions of others around you.
For example, I value connection, lifelong learning, authenticity, stewardship of Earth's resources, and a sense of humor, to name a few. These values motivate me and drive me to do or not do specific things in my life, and to appreciate or not appreciate specific experiences.
In my work as a leadership coach and facilitator of learning experiences, I have found the concept of personal values to be the most powerful tool in building greater self-awareness and uncovering new ways to live with a sense of purpose and meaning.
What are Values Conversations?
I'm hosting a series of Values Conversations, a chance for you to learn more about what you value and if you'd like, to explore your values with someone you care about. Here's how it works:
One-on-One Values Conversation With Me
First, learn about your own personal values through an online assessment and then a live Zoom conversation with me. You'll get to talk about what you value, how you live out your values, how you interact with others based on what you value, and more. Estimated Time: 2 hours, including prep time and our Zoom call.
If you are eager to continue learning about values, then you can...
Invite Someone in Your Life to Have a One-on-One Values Conversation with Me
Your conversation partner will also go through the same exploration you did, with my support.
Then We'll All Meet Up Together
You, your conversation partner, and I will join up for a combined session to discuss your shared values and how you express them individually and together. You might find that some of your shared values bind you together in interesting and heart-warming ways. Or understanding the values you don't share might offer some ah-ha moments, and support you in having more patience for one another when your values are not aligning.
If your conversation partner is a member of your family, we'll also explore how values are passed along from one generation to the next, and notice any trends in how your close family members have lived out their values. Estimated time: 1.5 hours, including prep time and our Zoom call.
Who is the right "fit" for a Values Conversation?
This experience is designed for duos (or in special cases, trios) who already know one another well and want to explore personal values together. You can pair up with:
-
Your sibling, cousin, close friend or roommate
-
Your parent, step-parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle or other cherished elder
-
Your adult child or a niece or nephew
As long as there's mutual care and a positive relationship between you already, and you're curious about one another's values, it's probably a good fit. Note that at this time, I'm not offering this experience to couples involved romantically. But if you're interested, and you're part of a couple, you can still complete the interest form and join the waitlist.
What's the point of this?
Our Values Conversations will help me learn more about how people express their values. I want to hear your stories and examples. Some of the information I collect through your participation might be featured in a book I’m writing about personal values. The book will be geared toward individuals and families curious about what they value and living out those values more often.
To participate, I'll ask that you grant me permission to:
(a) record our conversations for my own internal use and
(b) use what I learn in our conversations - examples and stories of how families and friends discuss values - in my future written materials with anonymous attribution.
I will use either direct quotes or overarching themes, but I won't share any recorded content without your written permission. If long portions of your values conversation are used in the final version of the book, I’ll invite you to review and approve that section in advance.
Is there a cost?
Participation for a select number of initial participants will be free - you'll pay nothing. If you go through the entire experience, you'll receive about 2 hours of face-to-face (Zoom) interactions with me around values, and additional resources and materials you can use later with your conversation partner and others in your life.
Sounds kind of uncomfortable.
Is this about politics or religion?
Nope. Neither these values conversations or my framing around values is centered on religion, moral teachings, or politics. This is not the place to hash out why your conversation partner votes for that guy while you vote for another. This is not about telling you what you should value (that never works, it turns out!). Instead, I'll invite you to reflect on the influences that have shaped your values and how they show up today in your actions.
My approach to personal values is aligned with well-established multi-country longitudinal research and the work of independent, non-religious institutions focused on shared values as a way to understand societies and bring people together.
This exploration is intended to be fun, enlightening, welcoming, heart-warming and thought-provoking, all in an effort to help you and someone close to you get to know one another from a new perspective.
What's next?
Complete the form below if you'd like to be considered for this experience. I'll schedule up to 20 conversation partners throughout the summer of 2024, and more if my schedule will allow.
If spots are full for the initial set of participants, then you'll be added to a waitlist. Once I have an open spot, I'll let you know how to get involved.
