Strengths On Fire

Bill Dippel (00:01.806)
Is it could it is it season three? Did I did I just did I feel that there was a shift in the air? I season three feels as if it's upon me. I don't know if I can handle that. And even more impressive for me, season three has some pretty big changes. I don't even know if I I don't know if I can stand the excitement. I'm feeling like I I need to just absolutely

Mary Hamm (00:06.358)
Did

Mary Hamm (00:16.28)
Mm-hmm.

Bill Dippel (00:31.478)
Redo everything I know about strengths on fire. So you think so? Is it time? Well, let's dive into it.

Mary Hamm (00:35.018)
It's probably true, you do.

Yeah, I think it's time for you two.

Bill Dippel (00:44.578)
So that section I just did, I'm gonna use that as a cold open.

Mary Hamm (00:49.652)
Okay.

Bill Dippel (00:51.148)
What what I just did, right? So that'll be in front of our episode. And then now the musical play. Right. I just thought of it thinking, well, that's just me talking and then have you have a little hint of your voice so people will be like, What's that? So okay. Now, now we're gonna go ahead and start the normal one. You ready? So I don't I like I said, we just make this up as we go. So all right, so pause for

Mary Hamm (00:55.212)
Okay. Okay. All right.

Mary Hamm (01:01.984)
Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Mary Hamm (01:11.958)
Yeah. At what point do you want me to jump in on this one? Like okay, okay. Alright.

Bill Dippel (01:15.99)
Yeah, whatever you want, just jump right in. Yeah. I we're gonna we'll jump in and I'm yeah, just jump in right as as you feel comfortable. So all right. So a couple of seconds of silence and then we'll j we'll jump on it. So all right. Are you seeing a timestamp by the way? Okay, good. All right, a couple seconds, then we'll go.

Mary Hamm (01:24.31)
Okay. Yep.

Mary Hamm (01:31.789)
Yes.

Bill Dippel (01:39.79)
And here we are. Season three has kicked off. I I'm overjoyed. I'm excited. And I get I know I are you excited?

Mary Hamm (01:46.838)
Me too.

Mary Hamm (01:51.167)
I'm very excited, yes.

Bill Dippel (01:53.238)
Are you excited? You look excited. I'm just telling

Mary Hamm (01:54.572)
I'm I I'm having a hard time not being excited. Hold on, let me try. Nope. I no, I can't. No. It's not gonna look.

Bill Dippel (01:59.809)
I get the true joy. Okay. Yeah, that doesn't look good on you. That does not look good on you. I have the true joy of it of of announcing a new co-host for Strengths on Fire. A wonderful coach that I've had the joy of working with for quite some time. I in all fairness, big shoes to Phil, Mary, Sarah, Sarah, I I know, right? I and my love for Sarah always grows.

Mary Hamm (02:21.953)
Very my goodness.

Bill Dippel (02:29.462)
So, but I need to announce coming on the show for our third season, a brand new co-host and coach for us, Mary Ham. Welcome to the show, Mary.

Mary Hamm (02:40.513)
Thank you. I'm so excited to be here. And yes, it is very big shoes to fill with Sarah being gone from the show. But maybe we can have her on for a guest at some point.

Bill Dippel (02:51.474)
I think I floated that by her. She's willing to and for our arsonists, for our listeners, Sarah did not move to Bali or do something strange and crazy in her life. Sarah is doing some really big event public speaking things and some other stuff where time issues were becoming a factor. but we were getting a lot of people asking us, Are we gonna do a season three? so with with some work and effort, we've rounded up some

Mary Hamm (02:59.025)
Ha ha ha.

Bill Dippel (03:20.43)
Coaching possibilities and some people to work. So we're gonna change up season three quite a bit. We've got Mary Ham joining us as the co host again, generationally different than me. I'd say I'm I'm probably a little little older than you, Mary. A lot older. But you know just barely. Yeah, yeah.

Mary Hamm (03:33.771)
Just just a just a tiny bit, yeah. No, I'm still considered an elder man millennial, so I'm right there with where Sarah was. Just let you know. Although I think Sarah's a little younger than me.

Bill Dippel (03:39.951)
wow. okay. So again, I I'm s I again I'm not allowed to ask those questions as an older white guy. I can't I don't get to ask, hey, how old are you? So I know it's not allowed. and you know, we're geographically different. I am in Reno, Nevada, as always, coming to you from the great state of Nevada. Mary, you are in Memphis?

Mary Hamm (03:49.399)
You really can't. Nope. Nope. Nope.

Mary Hamm (04:04.0)
I'm in Memphis. Yep. Memphis, Tennessee. It's so very hot here. So so hot. Like I don't even understand why people live here hot. it's supposed to be a hundred and two today with the humidity too. So it's not even that dry heat that people out west like rave about. It's just it's just gross. And I'm from the north. It is a hundred there. Yeah. N well, I've lived here for twenty years now, but yeah, in general.

Bill Dippel (04:08.782)
Ha ha ha.

Bill Dippel (04:16.568)
Yeah. Mm.

Bill Dippel (04:22.196)
I don't know what you're talking about. There's hundred here with like yeah. That's gotta be w even worse. You're not even used to it. It's gotta just be brutal.

Mary Hamm (04:33.824)
It's super hot.

Bill Dippel (04:35.756)
Yeah, yeah. And you know, I don't know what you're you know, complaining about out west. It it'll be a hundred here today with I think ten percent humidity. It's like Yeah, it's spectacular. I mean yeah

Mary Hamm (04:43.288)
Ten percent. Okay. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So you go outside here and it feels like like a a h hot, wet, nasty bath that you didn't ask for.

Bill Dippel (04:56.042)
Mm. Ooh, one that just doused on you when you walked outside. So nicely done.

Mary Hamm (04:59.54)
Yeah. You just all you're just already sweating. When you get out the shower you're still sweating. Like it's just hello. I guess it's good for your pores. How's my skin? Don't answer that.

Bill Dippel (05:04.726)
Mmm, so good. So perfect. I absolutely love it. All right. Well, let's, you know what, let's talk about you for a second because I think our arsonists are pretty familiar with my resume, my CV. They kind of understand my background. I've been a just for those jumping into the third season really quick. I'm a I think a nine-year now, nine year, maybe coming up on 10-year Gallup certified strengths coach. I do this professionally. I've done it for

Mary Hamm (05:28.79)
Yeah.

Bill Dippel (05:32.642)
I'm now working in about 11 states and two countries, and absolutely love being a Gallup Strengths coach, walking in and helping people be better at what they do. we have this is our third season of the podcast where we're trying to kind of hit on the notes in the Gallop world and about strengths-based people that Gallup doesn't always hit on all of the aspects of it. Gallup's podcasts are phenomenal.

Mary Hamm (05:36.44)
Mm-hmm.

Mary Hamm (05:59.683)
Right.

Bill Dippel (05:59.818)
there's a lot of strengths based podcasts out there. Ours tends to be a little more conversational, a little more down to the bone, a little more talk about stuff that doesn't always crop up. so that's that's kind of my resume, Mary. Where are you coming from? What tell us about your coaching experience and what el what are you doing for a living? I'm just curious.

Mary Hamm (06:09.549)
Right.

Mary Hamm (06:13.736)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So I again, something that we have very different in in non common. I come from a mental health background. So I am a licensed clinical social worker. So maybe we can do a little therapy work on here. yes. Yes. Yeah. I I knew that that I needed to go into a helping profession of some sort by the age of nine or so.

Bill Dippel (06:28.202)
thank God you can help me on you can help me on this show so much. my day is made.

Mary Hamm (06:45.716)
A a a moment happened there. Anyway, so fast forward many, many years. And then in 2021, we had a traumatic life event happen in our family that shifted the like how we do life a little, or a lot. And my husband got a new job during that time. And coaching is something that we had tossed back and forth for me for a while. but it was a huge commitment and

at that point he looked at me, he was like, just do it. Like you were made for that. Just do it. And so we I went through Gallup's coaching program in in April of 2021. And here I am now. So it's been about five years. I don't I'm not in any countries except for the United States. And really I just hang out in Memphis, but I do a lot of work with mental health practitioners here.

Bill Dippel (07:28.863)
Five years.

Bill Dippel (07:33.614)
Ha ha ha.

Mary Hamm (07:39.401)
and then I I have some groups that I work with as well and I do some one on one coaching as well. My my sweet spot though is talking in front of a large group of people. If you give me a microphone no, then you know, it's it's my favorite. Yeah.

Bill Dippel (07:52.565)
Yeah, yeah.

Bill Dippel (07:57.89)
Yeah, yeah. And I've been fortunate enough to go to a couple of coaching events with Mary and we've worked together in in some workshop stuff and so working together with the Learn Connect Share teams and from a coaching standpoint, yeah. Fan we always love Charlotte and all the team members, but from a from a co hosting point of view, Mary I was just like, gosh, how could I you know, i as if I can try to replace Sarah in some way.

Mary Hamm (08:11.074)
Which is wonderful.

Mm-hmm. Yes.

Mary Hamm (08:27.372)
Ha ha ha.

Bill Dippel (08:27.85)
let's see if Mary Mary has the chops to make it happen because Mary, you're I I believe you come at us from chaos neutral mindset. You wanna explain that for me?

Mary Hamm (08:37.58)
That's what I have been told. Yeah. So this earlier this summer, I believe, someone told me, she looked at me, she goes, You are chaotic neutral. And I was like, what is that? And she was like, You're not, you're chaotic. Like you create this like weird chaos around you, but it's not necessarily good, but it's not bad either. And it's just this like, you just create energy wherever you are, and you kind of

create a little disruption and she's like, but it's good, like it's a it's a fun thing to be around. So I'm your chaotic neutral you know, person here. Woo

Bill Dippel (09:15.987)
Excellent, excellent. And our our regular arsonists right now are probably going, Well, just have her tell us their s her strengths. Just come out and give us your top ten, your top five. We can't do that, right? We're not allowed to do that right now. We cannot. And there's a reason for that. So well, the reason we're gonna get in trouble is again, let's talk a little bit about what we're gonna do this season. So

Mary Hamm (09:27.958)
Right. We cannot do that. No, no. We would get in very serious trouble.

Bill Dippel (09:42.792)
we're changing up this season. first season was all about co alternating coaches and then clients and talking about the effectiveness of Gallup strengths and working together. Second season we brought in some questions, some of the things you don't normally hear around Gallup. Some of the we stepped on some of the third rails. you know, do we do you guess about Gallup? Do you know, do you should you take it more than one time?

how do you know, how do we work in certain circumstances? Do we talk about blind spots? Is it more than just a fancy personality test? We hit all the a lot of the third rails in the second season. Third season, Mary and I are going to walk us through the strengths laboratory. So we as coaches have a couple of tools and different things that we try to do. We're gonna we're not gonna avoid the third rail this year either. We're actually one of the labs we have this year.

steps directly on the on the toes of Gallup as far as what what we should be doing and that would be guessing people's strengths. So as coaches, we traditionally coach people, it's not worth it to guess. Don't try. It's not gonna happen. we we will show you either the success or failure of coaches doing that as one of our laboratories this year. And in that

Mary Hamm (10:37.313)
Ha ha ha.

Mary Hamm (10:41.696)
It's true.

Mary Hamm (10:52.376)
Right. Yeah. And and the difference too the difference too with that is that the people that we're gonna be talking to, they already know their strengths. It's not like we're pr we're telling them we think you're this, you know, so we're gonna do it ethically.

Bill Dippel (11:06.559)
Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We're yeah, when I say step on Gallup's toes, I don't mean we're sticking him in the eye. I mean we're we're gonna have a little fun with some of the things that Gallup says we should and should not do, as strengths coaches. But yes, they're gonna know their strengths. We're gonna take a shot at it. As one of five labs that we have put together. I'm curious, Mary, jumping back to your to you though. So that's why we're not gonna give our arsonists your top five, top ten strengths.

Because our next episode is going to be me trying to guess your top five, top ten. and w we're gonna see if if I have the chops or the ability to do so. You have not shared them with me, correct? We are not in that spot. So all right. So this is gonna be I'm I'm up I'm gonna try it. So I like it. All right. No, we'll do it next we'll do it so

Mary Hamm (11:42.924)
That's right.

Mary Hamm (11:50.744)
Correct. Yep. Yep.

Mary Hamm (11:56.556)
Okay, okay, but not yet. Don't try it yet. Okay.

Bill Dippel (12:01.792)
First first episode coming up. We're out one right after this one when you hear us. I will be attempting you'll get our first view of the lab and you'll get our first view of me falling on my face trying to guess Mary's top five. So I'd I love it.

Mary Hamm (12:13.177)
I have a feeling you can already guess some just from talking.

Bill Dippel (12:19.82)
you know, I I I have some options, I have some thoughts. Don't worry, they'll they're coming up. I'm taking notes, right? I'm getting and in the lab we're gonna ask people, give us some examples of your life, things that you're doing. If we're doing the the particular guest your strength side. we get to ask probing questions and get some good stuff out of it. So hopefully we can form a way to get some idea of where you're at. So so also, but I wanna back up for just a moment if I can.

Mary Hamm (12:20.173)
But maybe? Okay. Mm-hmm. Okay. Okay. All right.

Mary Hamm (12:35.661)
Right.

Mary Hamm (12:42.733)
Yeah. Okay.

Bill Dippel (12:49.664)
How often are you using gallop strengths in your mental health world in the in the mental health stuff that you're doing?

Mary Hamm (12:57.835)
Yeah. that's a a little bit of a complicated question. So, I use it every day, personally, you know, I use it every day. I use it it when how I interact with my with the coworkers that I'm with and I and use it when I am working with my clients. while we don't necessarily why I don't know necessarily what their strengths are for all of them, I do know where they shine, right? Or where

Bill Dippel (13:04.447)
Right. Mm-hmm.

Mary Hamm (13:25.571)
There's darkness. And so I can pull out on those things and really hone in on that in a strength-space lens. one of the reasons I went into coaching is because with mental health, you know, it's all about diagnosing. It's all about what's wrong with people. we're shifting as a as a community, shifting more into that strength zone. but overall, like I can I diagnose people, you know, I look at them and you know, these are all your symptoms. This is what's wrong with you. Here's your diagnosis. and with

Coaching, you're able to say, tell me everything that's right with you. What do you love doing? Where do you where do you shine? Where do you see these bright spots? Like when you are on fire about something, what are you doing? Where are you when you're in the flow of things? And so I and that is what that what is what lights me up. it's what lights me on fire. Did I do that right? Did I do that? Right? yeah?

Bill Dippel (14:16.652)
lights are on fire. my. How did you listen to our s did you were you a strengths on fire listener before coming on as a co host? you were an arsonist? w enough to call you an arsonist? Is that fair?

Mary Hamm (14:23.585)
I was. An an arsenic arsen arsenic? Wow, well yeah. I well, maybe I shouldn't answer that question right now.

Bill Dippel (14:34.58)
excellent. Mary, Mary's an onion. We're peeling layers. And the next next episode we're gonna peel some more layers. I feel it already. All right. so I love that you use it every day. That's really that's that's good. I love the dichotomy that you bring up. You know, how generally we're looking for what's wrong or digging in in one aspect of my life. I needed a balance if I'm hearing that right. I needed a counterbalance where how can I

Mary Hamm (14:37.849)
Ha ha ha

Mary Hamm (14:44.056)
Yeah.

Mary Hamm (14:59.054)
Right.

Bill Dippel (15:02.24)
think about and look at what's really great and good and look at the wonder and the the good in people and and then how do we focus that? How can we not only how can we not only clinic clinic have a clinic around the negative, but now maybe have a clinic around the positive, which is something I think Gallup brings up after now almost seventy five, eighty years of of research. How do we clinicize clinicise? Is that a word? Did I bring up a good word? Is that how do we pull through a clinic the positive

Mary Hamm (15:06.637)
Yeah, yeah. Right.

Mary Hamm (15:27.161)
I make up words all the time.

Bill Dippel (15:31.86)
And aim it yeah, me too. Well, as chaos neutral, I assume, you know, neutr your the words have to have to come springing forward. So I love it. So any

Mary Hamm (15:33.399)
Right.

They do. They do. I'll tell you my my new favorite made up word next next episode. Yeah, yeah. It'll come up. It is?

Bill Dippel (15:46.239)
Okay. Ooh, it'll c i it's is it a it it's a word based on themes, I c I'm guessing right now. So all right. how about family, friends, dogs, cats? What do you I mean, what do you got? What are doing?

Mary Hamm (15:52.749)
You'll you'll see.

Mary Hamm (15:57.046)
None. no. I I have a dog that's snoring next to me now. She is a yeah. You can hear it? Okay, well, you know, let me know. I'll I'll throw a little yeah.

Bill Dippel (16:04.138)
I hear that. No, I hear it. Yeah, it's good.

No. I can. There it is. I can hear it just at the just if it's the right moment. There's a little dog snoring going on.

Mary Hamm (16:13.337)
She's loud. I'll be in therapy sessions on my couch sometimes. And they're like, is that your dog snori? I'm like, it is. so she's living her best life in Memphis in the she hibernates in the summer here and and gets out during the winters. And I have two cats. one in one only has one eye, and we call her one-eyed pie. And she has a uh-huh, yeah. She has, I believe she has an Instagram page. You can follow her, one-eyed pie.

Bill Dippel (16:20.468)
Yeah.

Bill Dippel (16:35.548)
Mary Hamm (16:43.393)
yep, that started at some point. And it's not it's not fabulous. You don't have to actually follow her. And I have I've been I've been married for twenty years now to my husband Mike, and we have two kids. one is just dropped her off at college on Wednesday, and so

Bill Dippel (16:52.027)
ho ho ho. don't think I'm not gonna do that. Come on.

Mary Hamm (17:10.034)
I cried a bucket of tears Wednesday night and then maybe a little Thursday morning and I know and I have a twelve year old son.

Bill Dippel (17:10.14)
Mm.

Bill Dippel (17:13.708)
Bill Dippel (17:21.708)
Twelve year old son. How so the daughter is eighteen that just went off, eighteen, nineteen? Mm-hmm.

Mary Hamm (17:26.145)
She is eighteen, she's about to be nineteen, yeah. Yeah. Yep.

Bill Dippel (17:31.018)
I love it. That is really, really good. Hold on, I'm looking up one-eyed pie right now.

Mary Hamm (17:35.234)
no. Yep. And okay, so the story behind that is so my my husband only has one eye now. That was part of the the event that happened in twenty twenty one and part of that process was he lost an eye. Yeah. Yeah. So and then after that we were like trying to find another a cat and we were looking for a cat that had a one eye and so we found one eyed pie. I just hit you with a lot.

Bill Dippel (17:38.932)
Bill Dippel (17:49.172)
No it's

Bill Dippel (18:03.588)
I wow, so you hit us with the cat first.

Mary Hamm (18:04.441)
Lighten the lightened the blow there.

Bill Dippel (18:11.327)
Yeah, you hit us with the cat first and then okay, I got it. So, huh. Interesting. I I got one eyed John. Hold on, I got one eyed here we go. One eye there it is. One eyed pie. no posts.

Mary Hamm (18:23.105)
Is it there? I wasn't making it up. My daughter started it? No posts? that's sad. Maybe you have to be friends with one-eyed pie. Three followers!

Bill Dippel (18:29.789)
No posts. Three followers. 89 following. Three followers. 89 following. 89 following with three follow. I don't know what that means. I'm not a good I'm not a good Instagram guy. So that's okay. I love it. So so husband and cat with one eye. interesting. So yeah. Huh. That's a you know, as go ahead.

Mary Hamm (18:41.963)
It's not my channel.

That's really funny.

Yeah. Yeah. Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah. It's really funny 'cause it's on his it's his right side. And so when he's driving, my son will sit in the front seat and he so he can't see out of this side, right? And so my son will reach over and pop his heated seats on and in the middle of summer in Memphis, like that's just evil. And and he has gotten in trouble so many times because of that. It's really hilarious though. Or like he'll my son

Bill Dippel (19:16.181)
Huh.

Mary Hamm (19:17.303)
He'll like put his finger out and like right next to his head and then say, like Dad and then Mike will turn his head like that and then he'll like be poked in the face. It's fun. We have fun with it now.

Bill Dippel (19:31.228)
I don't yeah, now I'm now I'm I I just I'm I am flabbergasted that you went and found a cat to match the I the eye component of your husband. So I fantastic. That's wonderful. Yeah. I mean you I I get that. And our regular listeners have seen my my two cats meander across the I mean if you're watching us, if you're one of the four people watching us on YouTube.

Mary Hamm (19:33.922)
Mm mm.

Mary Hamm (19:38.356)
Ha ha

Yeah. Well, I mean she kinda just h happened, you know? So yeah. Yeah.

Bill Dippel (19:57.206)
By the way, we lost one of them, because Mary is one of our YouTube watchers. So so now right. So now we have three that watch us on YouTube. yeah, they've seen the cat tails meander across my yeah.

Mary Hamm (20:00.538)
I I am one of them, yeah. Now you have three. Yeah. Okay, well if you're on the three, look check out these earrings. Aren't they amazing? The my daughter got them for me recently and she was like, Mom, I they had a smaller pair, but I figured you didn't want those. She's not wrong.

Bill Dippel (20:11.967)
Those are spectacular earrings. Those are

Yes.

Bill Dippel (20:21.949)
Right, right. Those are those are self assurance earrings.

Mary Hamm (20:26.744)
Yeah. For those that are not I know, you're trying really hard. I'm not gonna give in. for those not watching our beautiful faces speak, they are long red flower there's three flowers. I should have you describe them, Bill. That'd be amusing. Go ahead.

Bill Dippel (20:31.445)
I'm doing what I I'll get there. I'll get there.

Bill Dippel (20:41.823)
Yeah. Yeah, they're they're they're bright pink and red and and gorgeous and just lovely. Love I mean, just part of Mary's whole culture. I mean, it's really just lovely, the whole picture. So I get to spend my days checking in with Mary. I get her on video because that's the way we recorded the podcast. So I get to spend my mornings hanging out with Mary, which I have to be honest, Sarah, Mary, I spending my days with the wonderful coaches and the people around me and watching

Mary Hamm (20:49.498)
Just lovely.

Mary Hamm (21:02.606)
Yeah, it's fun.

Bill Dippel (21:09.971)
watching the podcast grow and have some fun with it. Those have been really wonderful for the last couple of years. So I'm I'm I'm loving the fact, Mary, that you're coming on the show, that you're gonna bring a different different viewpoint, different energy, different light. I've talked to Sarah I'm pretty sure she wants to come on as a guest. So I think we'll we'll get her pretty quickly. We'll have her on as part of the lab. and then I don't I won't be able to I won't get a word in edgewise when that happens. It'll be the two of you.

Mary Hamm (21:19.161)
Yeah.

Mary Hamm (21:24.676)
Right.

Mary Hamm (21:28.792)
Okay.

Mary Hamm (21:32.952)
Yeah. That'll be fun.

Mary Hamm (21:38.042)
Probably not, yeah.

Bill Dippel (21:40.544)
w once again I'll be kicked off the podcast. That's a common theme in our first two seasons. One of us is getting kicked off, either Sarah or I and replaced with the guest that day because they're wonderful. So in in this case it, you know, just happened to be you, Mary, and it actually happened. We you know, it's now you and I. So some of our listeners, we we have I mean there's some ro common themes. I I think as a theme goes too, I need to ask you, thoughts on Taylor Swift, Mary? any thoughts?

Mary Hamm (21:49.934)
Yeah, yeah.

Mary Hamm (21:55.449)
And it actually happened. Right. Sorry, Sarah.

Mary Hamm (22:08.424)
okay. So I've I've heard you guys talk about Taylor Swift a lot in your podcast. So, and and I wa that was actually one of the reasons I was like, I don't know if I'm the right co-host for the show because of all the Taylor Swift references. But here's my disclaimer is my daughter likes Taylor Swift, but not as much as Noah Khan. Okay. So I don't know if you know who Noah Khan is, but I asked her

Bill Dippel (22:12.235)
Yes.

Bill Dippel (22:24.543)
Ha

Bill Dippel (22:31.967)
Hmm I do, yeah.

Mary Hamm (22:34.764)
A bazil you do. So a billion times I would be like, okay, you have front row tickets to Taylor Swift with back backstage passes to meet her afterwards. or you have a concert ticket in the balcony to go see Noah Khan. Which one you would you go to? She was like, Noah Khan. And I'm like, I don't believe that. No, you would definitely go see Taylor Swift.

So I like Taylor Swift. I think I think her lyrics are amazing. Like they're just so thoughtful. I think she g brings a really beautiful dynamic to the music world. But Noah Con it has taken the number one spot in this house, apparently.

Bill Dippel (23:16.679)
in the in the house and in your daughter's heart. I get it. So well you're you know, you're not kicked off 'cause you're not a number one Taylor Swift fan. I I look I like Taylor, but I like a lot of music. So I I get it. I we can we can we can discuss other other artists. But Taylor was Taylor's a big one in our hearts on this show and our arsonists listen. You know what I wonder I gotta guess half of our arsonists are gonna come in on the chat and they're gonna be like, you know, finally somebody else that

Mary Hamm (23:19.854)
Yes, yes.

Mary Hamm (23:26.937)
Not a swifty.

Mary Hamm (23:34.894)
Yeah.

Mary Hamm (23:38.958)
That's okay. Yeah.

Bill Dippel (23:46.471)
won't talk Taylor Swift as much as you and Sarah did. Thank God. So

Mary Hamm (23:47.771)
W well and the truth be told, and if my husband was sitting here, he'd be like, She has no idea about any of this is like I am not a like pop culture. That's not my area of expertise. Like I just I d actresses, actors, I get their faces mixed up all the time. They're all the same. except the ones that are really cute and then I might remember them. I just don't I don't

I don't know. Pop culture is a a struggle for me. Are you writing that down? Are these clues to my talents? my goodness.

Bill Dippel (24:25.96)
I am, I am, I am. I'm writing down no pop culture, all right. So I know what themes might lead to. Right. Hmm, consistency. I I don't like clicks, I don't like people in there. Yeah.

Mary Hamm (24:36.452)
I now I could pr probably I could probably pretend to know

Bill Dippel (24:42.63)
listen to you. Now you're gonna throw me off. It's just not right. So

Mary Hamm (24:45.294)
I'm gonna I could I could hold my own in a conversation by making obscure comments and creating that chaotic neutral in a pop culture conversation. Yeah.

Bill Dippel (24:55.624)
Yeah, yeah, you could. You could do it. I totally I and I believe you could. So but I think if you're dealing in mental health and you gotta have a lot of resources and things that you're re you know, that you can reach for and discuss and have, my guess is you're probably pretty good at all of that. You probably have a a pretty good cadre of tools at your disposal that you can discuss at a moment's notice.

Mary Hamm (25:05.252)
Yeah. Yeah.

Mary Hamm (25:18.988)
Yeah. Yeah, I I might just do that. Yep. I didn't want to give you too much information there. I do. I am. Okay.

Bill Dippel (25:20.639)
Fair.

Lord, look now she's trying to hide them. Hmm. I know. I hear it. I hear it. Hmm. All right, so

Mary Hamm (25:30.969)
With mental health though, I just jumping back to that real fast with my strengths. You asked me earlier how I'm using that every day or in my in my mental health work. And I have been doing some retreats in the past with mental specific for mental health practitioners, but we have more people come than that. with this idea that when you are able to really know who you are as a clinician, you're able to step out of the way and really be there.

Bill Dippel (25:39.55)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mary Hamm (26:00.596)
for your client that's coming. And so if I'm not obsessed with me anymore, then I can show up better for the people who are around me, right? And so that's part of the the work that I do with clinicians is getting to know themselves so well that they can step out of the way and be there, for their person. So it's fun. I like it. Yeah.

Bill Dippel (26:11.028)
Right. Right.

Bill Dippel (26:22.538)
Smart. Smart. I love it. I love it. All right. Well, let's let's talk. Let's give our listeners, our arsonists, the ability to know what the lab looks like this year, what the labs are. let them give a precursor of what's gonna what's gonna hit them on episode by episode. And I think we I think we could pretty much tell honestly all of our arsonists we actually aren't picking the labs. We're letting our guests pick the lab. Is that is that fair? Yeah, yeah. So

Mary Hamm (26:28.824)
Mm mm mm.

Mary Hamm (26:48.962)
Right. Yes. Yeah.

Bill Dippel (26:52.318)
We're if you're a guest on our show, we're we're sending out a prerequisite five lab list. You get to pick the lab you want to work in, and then we're gonna put it on the air for all of its faults and goodness and all the goodness we can do. So let's let's talk about the labs for a second, give everyone a blush of what they look like. The first one we're calling strengths court. We're gonna put a familiar workplace belief on trial.

Mary Hamm (27:07.396)
Right.

Bill Dippel (27:18.036)
kinda like thinking is woo fake networking or does harmony avoid conflicts? or you should fix your weaknesses and then one of us will be the prosecutor, the other one will be the defender. And with a guest on, we'll we'll either we'll either call them guilty or we will set them free. that'll be that that

Mary Hamm (27:37.326)
Ha ha

that that'll be a fun one.

Bill Dippel (27:45.833)
That'll be fun. We're gonna have s we're definitely gonna have some guests on that are gonna that are gonna be guilty of certain blind spots. I think we're gonna we'll make that happen. I love it. Love it. What's our what's our second one? Do you I think so.

Mary Hamm (27:53.506)
Right. Yeah, yeah. I'm sure there'll be some opinions. So we have a strengths versus reality is our second one. And we will be able to bring you'll be able to bring us a compelling real life story, a conflict, surprising breakthrough maybe, maybe a leadership challenge that might be happening, or maybe just something that didn't go as you thought was gonna be how it went. So we will explore what happened, what strengths were at work, and what others can learn from it.

Bill Dippel (28:22.63)
Hmm. I c I mean just trying to get me to get the technical end of the podcast up could be a whole episode of Strengths versus Reality, right? compelling real life. What did I just do? Story. Yeah. Yeah. Then next up we're gonna we're actually we're gonna kick off the season with Strengths Lab next week, when you get the episode, which will be what we call blind strengths. And I

Mary Hamm (28:29.711)
Ha ha ha

Right. Yeah. Right, right, yeah, yeah.

Mary Hamm (28:49.101)
Right.

Bill Dippel (28:50.698)
Kick this to Mary, and we talked about on our second episode, Let's Make It Happen. So this is the one where I'm gonna interview her. I'm gonna make some predictions. I'm gonna talk to her about some situations she's been in, about what she does. That's why I'm taking notes now about things she's talked about. I don't know what theme goes and selects a one-eyed cat intentionally, but I'll, you know, I'll see what I can do. And then at the end of it, I'll I'll reveal.

Mary Hamm (29:06.843)
I'm not sure your notes are very good.

Bill Dippel (29:19.676)
what I think you are and you'll reveal your results. So our next episode, our arsonists and listeners will be able to actually know what your top ten are. And we'll actually post those in show notes too. So yeah. Yeah. Good point. Good point. They're already in the lab with us. They get to huh, listen to what she does. So I mean, I hear I mean if you're in mental health, all that empathy show I don't know. I'm not making any guesses yet. So

Mary Hamm (29:26.947)
Yeah. So if you're listening now, then they can start taking notes too and kinda make some some guesses.

Yeah. Right. Yeah. Right. Yeah.

Mary Hamm (29:47.962)
Well and and so yeah, we'll talk about that next. okay, so next in our lab we're have the strengths experiment. I think this is gonna be super fun. I'm a little worried about it, like if I were to do it, but okay, so we will discuss a real world strengths experiment, something playful, practical, and slightly ridiculous. Okay, so we'll explore what was tested, what worked, what failed, and what surprised everyone.

Bill Dippel (29:48.059)
All right. So

Mary Hamm (30:14.943)
so it may be that we go out and we only use one strength that day, or like really focus in and hone in on that one. and I don't know, what else would we do with the strengths experiment, right?

Bill Dippel (30:27.194)
Ooh, ooh. Well, we could also say, hey, you know, for this week or, you know, for these three days, you can only use your blind spots. Right? So live in your blind spots for these three days and tell us how that felt and what that looked like. Or we need you to only turn on your top five when you are driving in the car with your kids. What does that look like for you, right? Or how does

Mary Hamm (30:39.449)
Right. Yeah. Yep.

Mary Hamm (30:46.347)
it's like homework.

Mary Hamm (30:54.632)
Right.

Bill Dippel (30:56.564)
How do and then turn it off when you're out? And will the will the kids just be like, what has happened to dad or mom today? What is wrong with them? So so we're gonna throw the strengths experiment out there as something it'll be playful, a little ridiculous sometimes, but I think that'll I honestly thought that might be the one you chose for us to do our first first one so that you and I both spend a day doing something ridiculous and strange.

Mary Hamm (31:02.166)
Right.

Mary Hamm (31:15.621)
For for us.

Bill Dippel (31:21.69)
And then we kinda came up with no, I'm gonna guess Mary's 'cause I only get one shot at that before she sends me her assessment. So I like it. So yeah. The strengths experiment will be fun. I'm curious who's gonna pick those, although it sounds difficult. We're gonna find out which ones I might have to I I know. I'll have to guide some people towards that one 'cause

Mary Hamm (31:27.961)
Right. Yeah.

Mary Hamm (31:32.313)
Yes. Yeah.

I know, I know. th maybe we'll just assign that one to somebody that we're like, you would rock this.

Bill Dippel (31:43.242)
Ooh, I like it. A sign, little bossy. Self assurance. Here I'm writing that down. Hold on, Jim. All right. And then our our last lab, our last possibility is called Unfiltered. this is where strengths failed, right? Or became an excuse, or an organization misused it. or they came up with toxicity about a specific area for strengths on fire.

Mary Hamm (31:48.795)
my goodness.

Bill Dippel (32:13.405)
When it was used incorrectly by a group that said, we're only gonna hire for specific themes, or the report was misunderstood or used incorrectly, or what are the myths around the strengths community that need to change? that'll be one where we're really trying to focus on honest disagreement, where we're trying to get people to come in and be, hey, I really felt like this was a failure or something that that went wrong with Gallup Strengths.

Mary Hamm (32:24.463)
Mm-hmm.

Mary Hamm (32:41.145)
Right. Yeah. It's like the the hot take, right? This is my hot take. And then it's like I you know, Taylor Swift is not the greatest. I said that out loud. no. Taylor, I love you. If you're listening to this, I love you, Taylor. No. Okay, but listen, Taylor, if you're listening, I love you, please let me come to your concerts.

Bill Dippel (32:50.589)
Yes. my god, what? Hold on, I can edit that. I can I can edit it. I can edit that out. No, you know what it's I I I've put that right at the beginning. I'll cold open with it again, so

I always told Sarah I was gonna work to get Taylor Swift on as a guest and she said you'll never make it it's completely impossible. Can you imagine if I actually got right, yeah, totally good. If we got Taylor Swift to be on the show without Sarah on, I think I think we would be she would burn our houses down. It would be like, you know we'd you know what we'd have to do? That'd be a four person show 'cause Sarah'd have to be on co coaching with us. Yeah, yeah.

Mary Hamm (33:15.744)
challenge accepted, Sarah.

Mary Hamm (33:27.289)
Ooh We don't want we don't what it Yeah. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah. that might yeah. You're fired.

Bill Dippel (33:35.516)
Or I'd be eliminated. You and Sarah could do it. So yeah, I see. yeah, so those those are our labs. If you have a favorite, write us. Put a note in the send us a comment, right? If you're having one, you really dig and you're thinking, Hey, I kinda wanna be on this show and I wanna I wanna see where that goes. We're lining up our guests this year already. We have a couple already set up for the next couple weeks. And I would just say, Mary, I'm

Super excited, really happy, gonna have some fun with you and I trying to figure out how the lab comes together. I'm I'm I'm also really excited to hear which ones people choose. Right. I I mean we've given them a group of five. I I don't I always think I know and then I end up being wrong, right? Which ones they're gonna choose. What do you how about you? What do you think?

Mary Hamm (34:11.375)
Yeah.

Mary Hamm (34:15.321)
Right now, I know.

Mary Hamm (34:21.209)
Right.

Mary Hamm (34:24.611)
I I don't know. I you know, my first guest is I think he might surprise us with what he picks. So I hope he does. but I don't know. I think we're just gonna have to see. I'm really excited to have him on though. w your first guest. I know that you already have one too. You're is this like should we be excited? Is this Taylor Swift quality?

Bill Dippel (34:32.797)
Yes, yes.

Bill Dippel (34:40.541)
Got it.

I I I do yeah. Yeah. I have three that are in our hopper that I'm I'm working with. I've only explained the lab to one of them at the moment and and for some reason, I think she really liked the idea, same one you did, which is guess my strengths. but that might be a little difficult in that well, I I I have to be honest about it. She

Mary Hamm (35:03.639)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Bill Dippel (35:12.069)
She is a previous guest on our show and she's dying to come back. So that means at some point in my history I have seen her themes before. however, complete honesty with our arsonists, and I think they'll realize this. I have context number 34, which means I don't think of the past. I mean, I'll get off this podcast and I'll I'll struggle to remember Mary's name. I'm so

Mary Hamm (35:16.091)
okay.

Mary Hamm (35:23.94)
Right.

Mary Hamm (35:31.717)
Ha ha ha

Mary Hamm (35:37.059)
Right. Be like, Hey Bill, who are you?

Bill Dippel (35:40.337)
Yeah, what was the what were you bringing to that, right? And so in honesty, when I think of the guest that we're gonna have on, I can't remember for the life of me anything about her strengths. So if she chooses that one we could probably get away with it. But you know, I'll have to explain that in the beginning too. Yeah. Really?

Mary Hamm (35:53.277)
That's how I am when I watch movies. I can watch a movie one week and then the next week could watch it again and be like, I don't did that did we watch this? And they're like, Yes, we just watched this. Are you gonna write some notes now? Mm-hmm.

Bill Dippel (36:03.581)
Yeah, it's you and my wife share that, right? I don't know hold on. you and my wife share that where, you know, something will come on like one of the streaming shows and she'll be like, Hey, we should watch that and I'm like, Yeah, we did watch that. I tend to remember the movies we watch. I'm like you do remember the guy did the thing and then, you know, that thing happened and then the the guy dies and the woman has to figure it out and kicks kicks butt on ninety and she's like, No, like that's like every movie we watch. So

Mary Hamm (36:19.312)
We did.

Yeah.

Mary Hamm (36:29.062)
Mm-hmm. No, no. I'll I'll have some where like it feels like a a dream when I'm watching it almost. Like I've seen this before somewhere, but I don't actually remember it.

Bill Dippel (36:41.897)
the dreams date. Hold on. That's definitely a that's that's a note I'm taking right there. all right, I love it. Well, so Mary, we've hit on where you're coming from, kind of what you're bringing to the table. So thank you very much for co-hosting, for running this year, making it happen. I I can't think of a a better navigator, someone to keep me straight, especially in the mental health world, because I'm gonna be relying on you heavily for, you know, everything we're gonna do. And

Mary Hamm (37:06.928)
Right, yeah.

We can do s yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. But let me give a quick disclaimer to all of our listeners. This does not count as mental health therapy. Go see your real therapist. I am not giving mental health advice on here. disclaimer, disclaimer, disclaimer. Gotta cover myself, you know.

Bill Dippel (37:12.775)
Yeah. Yeah.

Bill Dippel (37:26.097)
Yes, yes. Hi heavy. He yeah, it's a good disclaimer. I like it. We'll we'll we'll include that

Mary Hamm (37:29.572)
Yeah. Go seek at medical attention if you need it.

Bill Dippel (37:34.151)
Yes, yes. Find find a professional that's not on a podcast that's dealing directly with you. I love it. Well, and I just thank you for coming on. I'm very excited to make it happen and and bringing it together, Mary. Anything else from your life you want to bring up? We've touched on our we've touched on our labs. We've kind of hit on where those are. We've talked about the general format of those that we're letting our guests pick. So if you hear one lab a little more frequently than others, you know it's not us trying to play favorites. We're letting our

Mary Hamm (37:37.872)
Ha ha ha.

Mary Hamm (37:52.017)
Mm-hmm.

Mary Hamm (38:01.818)
Right.

Bill Dippel (38:02.504)
people kind of choose the one we're stepping into. So we've got we've got option. Anything else, Mary, that's very I'm I'm sorry about your daughter leaving you for college, right? I'm sorry about the the I'm sorry about the day of tears that we talked about pre-show, you know, I'm

Mary Hamm (38:05.584)
Yeah.

Mary Hamm (38:13.24)
I was hoping you weren't gonna bring that up.

Mary Hamm (38:19.196)
I'll tell you what, you're making fun of it. He was making fun of it a little before. So Bill's kids, I don't know what you did to him, but my. and you can edit that out if you need to, Bill. but I had

Bill Dippel (38:32.986)
No chance, no chance. My kids love it.

Mary Hamm (38:35.576)
I had a a woman at work who well, she's our our nurse manager at work and she I came into her office yesterday and I was like, I'm not okay. And she was like, I know, the first and the last are the hardest ones to launch. And I was like, That's all I have. I only have a first and last. And she was like, That is poor planning on your end. And I I mean, comments like that though are helpful because you can't just sit and mope that your daughter is now, you know, far away from you and

Bill Dippel (38:58.12)
Yeah.

Mary Hamm (39:04.124)
And she's it's only like two and a half hours, but whatever. yeah, it was hard. I I will say I'm writing a book. This didn't come up yet, but it's it's ti title is a a work in progress here, but it's it's looking at the deplorably hard and incredibly

Bill Dippel (39:14.638)
No, go. I'm listening.

Bill Dippel (39:21.99)
Wait, I mi wait, I missed that. Is the title a work in progress? That's the title, or is the title actually a work in pro I see. So I I heard that the wrong way. You said the title is and then you said a work in progress. I went, okay. Yeah.

Mary Hamm (39:26.638)
no, but that would be a great title.

That would be a good title though.

Yeah, I should write that down. I say that a lot. I should write that down and then I never do. but it is about it's looking at the deplorably hard and incredibly beautiful moments in life. And I think dropping off your kid at college is one of those times like it was so hard to do, like incredibly hard. Like we took her, yeah. My husband and I and and my son took off from school and

Bill Dippel (39:50.728)
Mm.

Bill Dippel (39:57.288)
you took her? You took her to the college?

Mary Hamm (40:03.13)
We took her and set up her dorm and everything and and that night left her and it was a really hard time and and but it was also like this beautiful time, right? Of like just seeing her do the thing that she honestly she's been prepping us for this moment since she was like five. So like it's her own fault here at this point. but i it's just a beautiful moment too, right? And beautiful to know that she is doing the

Bill Dippel (40:23.1)
Ha ha ha.

Mary Hamm (40:32.922)
The next thing, the next adventure for herself of really becoming who she is. we should pull her on at some point. Her strengths are they're kicker. A little self assurance there. a little competition there. So it very yeah, yeah. so so yeah, dropping off your kid at college, despite what Bill says, is a really difficult time for a lot of people.

Bill Dippel (40:44.146)
Ooh. d excellent. Excellent. Yes. I love it.

Bill Dippel (41:01.542)
I didn't say it was easy. I just I I've had a couple of people going through it. Again, my kids are older. College is way in the past, right? So you know, I I I sympathize with the heartfelt, right? I have a very, very good friend of mine going through it right now, with both daughters. They were actually born separate years, they aren't twins, but because of COVID they aligned. and so they're literally like

Mary Hamm (41:09.744)
Right, yeah, yeah.

Mary Hamm (41:15.801)
Yeah.

Mary Hamm (41:24.794)
Yeah.

wow, yeah. man.

Bill Dippel (41:31.363)
As we record this, they are taking one to college, actually graduate school, right now. she's been back here for quite some time, and the other one has is fully launched and found a job. And so the two of them have been back here in Reno for a little while, doing what they do, and now they're gone again. So they have to relive the we're so happy to have you home and now this, right? And they have to.

Mary Hamm (41:32.89)
Yeah. Hmm.

Mary Hamm (41:37.787)
Wow.

Yeah.

Mary Hamm (41:43.953)
Yeah.

Mary Hamm (41:55.726)
No, mm, you're leaving again.

Bill Dippel (41:58.641)
Yeah, take them there and get them all set up, make sure that they're they're fully, fully working. And they're and they're wonderful daughters. They're great. They're having, you know, one's a teacher in in Phoenix and the other one's going to be a large equine vet. and is attending is moving to vet school in Idaho. So, but you know, d dad is one of the dad's the dad's the one that's always giving me the the low tier, right? Like, so tough.

Mary Hamm (42:02.554)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Mary Hamm (42:12.629)
wow.

Mary Hamm (42:24.054)
my goodness, right? my goodness. Yeah. My husband is is in a a rough spot right now. So yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Bill Dippel (42:30.694)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So well that's kind of where we're at. That's where we're gonna go. I love the lab idea. Mary, again, thank you so much for stepping into some really big shoes. Come come fill as you can and let's let's see where we go with that. Does that sound safe for you? You Yeah. You ready for this? You ready you feeling it? You ready? She's all set.

Mary Hamm (42:44.501)
my goodness. Yeah. Thank you so much for asking me. Yeah.

Mary Hamm (42:53.309)
yeah. let's go.

Bill Dippel (42:57.436)
Well, on that note, let's get out of here today. tune in next week. You're gonna hear the first part of the lab. We're gonna give it a try. And I can't wait to see if I can take a stab at some some of Mary's top five and figure out where she's at. So with that, Okay. All right. yeah, well I'll I'll keep taking stabs at it. I'll make it happen. So

Mary Hamm (43:10.14)
Good luck. None of the words you've said today creates reassurance for me, but it's fine. We'll see.

Mary Hamm (43:21.786)
Ha ha ha.

Bill Dippel (43:23.332)
All right. with that, really, really joyful to be here. kicking off season three. Tune in next week. We're gonna have the first of the lab and and with that, I'm just gonna sign off and tell everyone we'll talk soon.

Mary Hamm (43:37.436)
Bye bye.

Bill Dippel (43:40.424)
So hold on.