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Ted Talks for Career Coaches

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I reached out to the Peak-Careers Community for TedTalks that inspire, assist or support, or educate us in our work. Some of these are great for our clients and some might be best for career coaches. What I’ve seen, they are great for both.

As always, if you have some favorites, please share them.

Taking Care of Ourselves First.
I realize this isn’t career specific, but I often share with my clients the Ted Talk from KC Davis, because there are times when we just cannot even take care of ourselves anymore. Best, Jessica Edwards

Finding Fulfillment
This Talk is from Alicia Ramsdell’s TEDx Talk in York Beach Maine and a framework for people to find fulfillment in their lives (professionally and otherwise).  Everyone deserves that 🙂. Alicia took my FCD class a few years ago and her business has grown so fast with the great work she does.

Dealing with Rejection
Jia Jiang adventures boldly into a territory so many of us fear: rejection. By seeking out rejection for 100 days — from asking a stranger to borrow $100 to requesting a “burger refill” at a restaurant — Jiang desensitized himself to the pain and shame that rejection often brings and, in the process, discovered that simply asking for what you want can open up possibilities where you expect to find dead ends.

Motivating the next generation.
This talk was given at a Michigan TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. It is about motivating the next generation.
John U. Bacon energizes his audience with the story of the Ann Arbor Huron High School hockey team. This came recommended from a high school classmate I haven’t seen in 50 years. Ann Arbor Huron was one of our hockey rivals in the 70’s and my home town Trenton is mentioned numerous times throughout.

Understanding the next generation.
Here is a link to one I share often with clients in their 20’s. Jon Daniel (recent participant in my FCD class.
Clinical psychologist Meg Jay has a bold message for twentysomethings: Contrary to popular belief, your 20s are not a throwaway decade. In this provocative talk, Jay says that just because marriage, work and kids are happening later in life, doesn’t mean you can’t start planning now. She gives 3 pieces of advice for how twentysomethings can re-claim adulthood in the defining decade of their lives.

Tiny Habits
What if someone told you to floss only one tooth everyday? Or start the new year, not with grand resolutions, but with a simple challenge.. like ONE pushup a day? BJ Fogg shows us that the key to lasting change does not lie in planning big, monumental changes, but in thinking really, really small. Chosen by Fortune Magazine as one of “10 New Gurus You Should Know”, Fogg directs the Persuasive Tech Lab at Stanford University.

Finding Joy.
Cherry blossoms and rainbows, bubbles and googly eyes: Why do some things seem to create such universal joy? In this captivating talk, Ingrid Fetell Lee reveals the surprisingly tangible roots of joy and shows how we all can find — and create — more of it in the world around us.


Self Defining Our Lives.
She talks about intersectionality and how it is at those intersections we find the freedom to create and the opportunity to self-define. Her talk also speaks to the importance of nurturing women, and in her case Black women, who are interested in STEM careers.  Moira (Peak-Careers Communication Specialist).

Thank you to everyone who shared their favorite Ted Talks. I appreciate you.

Jim Peacock is the Principal at Peak-Careers Consulting and writes a weekly email for career practitioners. Peak-Careers offers discussion-based online seminars for career practitioners focused on meeting continuing education needs for CCSP, GCDF and BCC certified professionals as well as workshops for career practitioners and individual career coaching.

He is the author of A Field Guide for Career Practitioners: Helping Your Clients Create Their Next Move and The Adventure of Finding Me in New Zealand. He is also the recipient of the 2020 Kenneth C. Hoyt Award from the National Career Development Association and the Mid-Atlantic Career Counseling Association’s Professional Contribution’s Award in 2020.

Sign up to receive my TOP 10 TIPS WHEN WORKING WITH AN UNDECIDED PERSON. You will also receive the career practitioner’s weekly email on a variety of career topics, industry news, interesting events, and more. (Sign up)

Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America

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By Heather Cox Richardson

Whew…America is in a dark place right now with money running politics and so much power in the hands of a few extremely rich people (oligarchy). The author does a great job at giving us a historical view of our situation from the beginning of our country and what our founding fathers wanted to happen (and not happen) to the late 1800’s – early 1900’s when a small group of very rich men (think oligarchy again) were running our country. Their goal was to keep the power with rich white men and keep people of color and women in their place. (sound familiar?)

I appreciate Richardson’s ability to explain our current situation in this broader context and also bring insight to the people who are trying to destroy democracy today. It continues to amaze me how so many people can be following one person over the cliff of democracy and not see Trump for who he is. But its not just Trump, it is a wide range of people that really began to come together with Ronald Reagan and their belief of “trickle down economy” that gives more money to the rich few white men with the false belief they will share it with the common people. This theory has never proven right….except that the rich get richer.

And look at our country now with the wage gap so high between the middle class and the few extremely wealthy population.

Our country was founded on the tension of democracy and that we would never welcome an autocrat. George Washington left office when he could have easily stayed for many years, but he wanted this country to never have a “king” or an autocrat. We are at a turning point in our country now. If Trump is reelected he has already stated he is a Putin supporter and we already witnessed how he threw out past protocol and he put in only supporters. If they wavered, they were fired and replaced with bigger supporters. That was his kingdom and he wants it back.

I want our democracy. I hope Richardson is correct in that our democracy is awakening.

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI

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By David Grann

The atrocities committed against the Osage Native Americans in the early 1900’s are horrible. I had no idea this happened in our history and I am so glad to see history saved here.

The Osage Tribe owned the land and the mine rights below it. Even when the land was sold, the mining rights remained with the Osage. Once oil was found, they were millionaires. Per capita they were the richest people in the USA at that time.

But the white American’s saw an opportunity to swindle the money out of them, by marrying into the headlights, and by killing 100’s of Osage. The is a horrific documentation of the some of the deaths and the terrible people behind them.

I want to watch the movie now to see how they portray the characters. This should be taught in the schools and never forgotten.

Three Words to Guide Us in 2024

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Another Peak-Careers INTERVIEW  on our Three Words to Guide Us in 2024

My guests today are Scott Woodard – Executive and Leadership Development Coach, Marcela Mesa – Psychologist and founder of Orientarte in Colombia, and Belinda Wilkerson – Founder and principal counselor at Steps To The Future, LLC

We discuss how they choose their three words and what they mean to them.

Watch / Listen Now

Dr. Belinda J. Wilkerson is the founder and principal counselor at Steps To The Future, LLC, a college and career counseling service serving students worldwide. A lifelong educator, she held teaching, school counseling and counselor educator positions in Rhode Island before relocating to North Carolina. Wilkerson is an adjunct professor at Providence College (RI) in the School counseling program. She is a former Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Cumberland County Public Library and Information Center and presently serves as the Vice-President of the Cumberland County Friends of the Library. She is in the second year of her Presidential cycle for the North Carolina Career Development Association (NCCDA), serving from 2023 -2024 as President. Belinda served on the Board of Directors for the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA) Board from 2016 – 2022 and was the VP for Ethics & Standards of Practice from 2019 – 2021. Currently, she is a member of the IECA’s Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA) Committee and a co-founder of the Black IECs Affinity Group.

Wilkerson earned an EdD in Educational Leadership from Johnson & Wales University, holds an M.Ed. in School Counseling and a BA in history/ secondary education from Rhode Island College. Besides IECA and NCCDA, she holds memberships in the Southern Association for College Admission Counseling (SACAC), the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), the National Career Development Association (NCDA), the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) and the Career Counselors Consortium (CCC).

Married with two adult sons, she enjoys her fur family, reading, and traveling. Connect with Dr. Wilkerson on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/belindawilkerson/.

Scott Woodard is an executive and leadership development coach, helping leaders transform from strong to superb. He frames issues so people can take action and achieve their goals – for themselves, their organizations, their communities. He works with individuals and teams to see new patterns and create alternative ways to move forward. Together they identify small actions that lead to big changes.

Scott has conducted workshops and trainings for leaders and teams, to identify their strategic goals and develop measurable outcomes. 

He has coached people from all walks of life: corporate executives and elected officials challenged to transform their organizations; Boomers trying to determine the “second acts” of their lives; and new graduates starting out in their first career.

Prior to his professional coaching career, Scott enjoyed a long career as a successful policy advisor to state and local elected leaders in Colorado, helping key decision-makers frame these issues in ways that they could move forward with actionable strategies. He was honored to receive a German Marshall Fund Fellowship in recognition of problem-solving leadership for public sector leaders.  He holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration and a BA in history.

He lives the ex-pat life in Ajijic, Mexico with his wife, a psychotherapist — so he is truly in touch with his feelings.

Scott can be reached by email at [email protected]. He can also be contacted via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottwoodardcareercoach/. 

Marcela Mesa, is a Psychologist, GCDF and FCD Instructor in Cali, Colombia, with 24+ years of experience delivering career services in private practice, passionate about helping people make good career decisions from a broad diversity of social contexts. Trained as a Psychologist in the Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen in Germany, Specialist in Gestalt Therapy and Human Talent Management, founder and CEO of Orientarte in Colombia (www.orientarte.com) and now Orientarte LLC (www.liveyourdreamcareer.com ) in the US, aiming to deliver career services for Latinos living in the US. She is also co-chair of the NCDA Global Connections Committee. She can be reached at linkedin.com/in/orientartemarcelamesa and [email protected]

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Jim Peacock is the Principal at Peak-Careers Consulting and writes a weekly email for career practitioners. Peak-Careers offers discussion-based online seminars for career practitioners focused on meeting continuing education needs for CCSP, GCDF and BCC certified professionals as well as workshops for career practitioners and individual career coaching.

He is the author of A Field Guide for Career Practitioners: Helping Your Clients Create Their Next Move and the recipient of the 2020 Kenneth C. Hoyt Award from National Career Development Association.

Sign up to receive my TOP 10 TIPS WHEN WORKING WITH AN UNDECIDED PERSON. You will also receive the career practitioner’s weekly email on a variety of career topics, industry news, interesting events, and more. (Sign up)

Bald Eagles, Bear Cubs and Hermit Bill. Memories of a Maine Wildlife Biologist

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By Ron Joseph

I thoroughly enjoyed this book by Ron as he shared so many wonderful stories about Maine wildlife and much history of the State of Maine. I loved his stories about being in a logging camp with mostly Quebecois loggers and how he nearly lost his life falling through the ice.

He takes the reader on a walk through the woods and back in time with his life as a biologist sharing when he helped tag some bear cubs, helping to save the bald eagle in Maine from DDT, and a number of people stories to bring his life and love of the outdoors alive.

I met Ron Joseph through a number of mutual friends in the Waterville area where I live and have always wanted to sit with him and learn more about the backwoods of Maine which I love so much. I have not had the chance to sit with him and hear his stories, but this book is a great replacement until I do.

Bunker Hill: A City, A Siege, A Revolution

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By Nathaniel Philbrick

All I want to do now is go to Boston with this book and my brother Steve, and go to every place mentioned to see how our revolution came to be. This book has been sitting on my shelf for so long I forgot when and where I bought it. But I am thrilled to say I finished it and am pleasantly surprised how well the author walked me through the events and characters.

Boston is not the same geographic city it was in the 1700’s and I found myself pulling up google maps to compare to the maps in the book from the 1700’s. My memory of the history of Bunker Hill was fuzzy from my history class in high school (along with a lot of other fuzzy memories 🙂 from that time) and Nathaniel Philbrick brought it back to life for me and filled in so many details.

Not the least of which is that we lost a famous Patriot in Dr. Joseph Warren in the battle at Bunker Hill. He was a committee chair and leader of the movement against the British with Samuel Adams and others. He was also a prominent physician but wanted to be at the front lines of battle. One comment in the book that struck me was that if he had lived, that it is possible that George Washington would not have been our first president! I need to learn more about this man.

For you history buffs and New Englanders out there, get this book. I’m keeping this one.