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healthy living

Dr. Ann Hawkins – Chief Innovation and Marketing Officer at Health Karma Group

Dr. Ann Hawkins - Chief Innovation and Marketing Officer at Health Karma Group
About Dr. Ann Hawkins

I am Ann Hawkins, Ph.D. Early in my career, I recognized the time and financial benefits of preventive healthcare, that being wellcare and keeping people healthy. Understanding the positive economic,
personal, and practical implications of prevention and responsible healthcare is the keystone and passion of my education and career.

My mission has been to develop a new dimension of delivering physical and mental wellcare products and services. After my tenure as a university professor and successful sales/marketing executive, I started my consulting firm WellCare Dimensions Inc., a new dimension in healthcare, which was my entrée into wellcare. From there, I developed the 24hr Virtual Clinic providing specialized pre-claim, preventive solutions to decrease physical and emotional health issues for employees, first responders, and students.

The next project is Aretae (being the best you) Aretae positively impacts all aspects of health and wellcare, providing programs and products which provide guided solutions to help people be responsible for their health and well-being. Aretae allows me to follow my insights in wellcare and integrate the next generation of health and well-being professionals worldwide, as, with the Metaverse, there are no boundaries.

I received my Doctorate in Sports Management from the University of Northern Colorado, a Masters in Sports Administration from Idaho State University, and a Bachelor of Science in Health and Physical Education from Colorado State University. My doctoral dissertation evaluated a company & financial savings in keeping employees fit for work both physically and mentally.

Connect with Ann: Email | Linkedin

Listen Now

Listen to the episode now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on your favourite podcast platform.

Resources Mentioned

Aretae WellCare

Health Karma Group

Doctorate in Sports Management – University of Northern Colorado

Masters in Sports Administration – Idaho State University

Bachelor of Science in Health and Physical Education – Colorado State University

Dr. Wayne Dyer Books

Empty Your Backpack by Sam Demma

The Transcript

**Please note that all of our transcriptions come from rev.com and are 80% accurate. We’re grateful for the robots that make this possible and realize that it’s not a perfect process.

Sam Demma (00:56):

Welcome back to another episode of the High Performing Educator Podcast.

Sam Demma (01:00):

This is your host and youth speaker, Sam Demma. Today’s special guest is Dr. Ann Hawkins, PhD. Early in her career, she recognized the time and financial benefits of preventative healthcare, that being wellcare and keeping people healthy,.understanding the positive economic, personal, and practical implications of prevention and responsible healthcare is the keystone and passion of her education and entire career. Her mission has been to develop a new dimension of delivering physical and mental wellcare products and services. After her tenure as a University professor and successful sales and marketing executive career, she started her own consulting firm, WellCare Dimensions, Inc. A new dimension in healthcare, which was her entree into WellCare. From there, she developed the 24-hour virtual clinic, providing specialized pre-claim preventative solutions to decrease physical and emotional health issues for employees, first responders and students. The next project is Aretae, being the best you. Aretae positively impacts all aspects of health and WellCare, providing programs and products which provide guided solutions to help people be responsible for their health and personal wellbeing.

Sam Demma (02:14):

Aretae allows Dr. Ann to follow her insights in WellCare and integrate the next generation of health and wellbeing professionals worldwide. As with the Metaverse, there are no boundaries. She recieved her Doctorate in Sports Management from the University of Northern Colorado, a Masters in Sports Administration from Idaho State University, and a Bachelor of Science in Health and Physical Education from Colorado State University. Her doctoral dissertation evaluated a company’s financial savings in keeping employees fit, for both work physically and mentally. I hope you enjoy this conversation with Dr. Ann Hawkins, and I will see you on the other side. Welcome back to another episode of the High Performing Educator Podcast. This is your host and youth speaker, Sam Demma. Today we have a very special guest from another country, the United States of America. Dr. Ann Hawkins is today’s special guest. Dr. Ann, please start by introducing yourself.

Dr. Ann Hawkins (03:13):

Thanks so much, Demma. I really appreciate it. So US citizens started out in the insurance area or so, so very familiar with the Canadian system, and the more Canadians I meet, you know, I still, I get still get reattached to the Canadian side of and saying all those words out “about” like you’re supposed to.

Sam Demma (03:36):

Love it. So tell the audience a little bit about who you are and, and what it is that you do day to day.

Dr. Ann Hawkins (03:47):

 Sam, I, I was really, really fortunate when I was a, in college, probably before many of you were even born in 1973, I went up to one of my, my college advisor and I said you know, Dr. John, we’re gonna be spending a lot of money on diseases. We could prevent him the next few years. And he put his arm around and he said, You know, Annie, that one’s gonna have legs, stick with it. Well, diabetes type two was not even a disease.

Sam Demma (04:11):

Wow.

Dr. Ann Hawkins (04:13):

So I’ve been very, very fortunate to stay on that path trying to get people to understand the value of their health and that they are responsible for that health. And my impact is what is the financial price that a company typically pays for some, trying to bring somebody back to health.

Dr. Ann Hawkins (04:37):

And that is considerably expensive. And my, I did my research in the early nineties, and so words like presenteeism weren’t around. We didn’t even look at mental health as a, as a causation of what happens to people and how they take care of themselves. So even in the early nineties, I mean, it, we were keeping people healthy. We were saving companies about $2,000 per employee per year if we did do something to keep them healthy. But as you well know, and as the health systems are finding that individual has to realize that they’re worthy of being healthy. And that starts with them as kids and the influences they get from their features and their parents. And sometimes it’s more from their teachers than their parents, because many times they see their teachers more than they see their old mom and dad.

Sam Demma (05:34):

Would you say educators deal with this same struggles and challenges that students do? And if so, h how can educators, you know, take care of themselves? <laugh>,

Dr. Ann Hawkins (05:47):

And it it’s hard. I was college pro professor for a long time. I made it in the US high school system for a year and then went back and got my master’s in on, on to get my PhD. But and we’ve seen it during the pandemic. We’ve seen it now with all of the stuff that’s going on in the states and the number of people that are getting out of education because of, of, of, of, of, of the lack of salary, lack of pay, lack of respect, basically. And cause it’s, and especially if you’re a mom or dad with kids and you’ve got kids all day long, finding that self care, that downtime when you really just are with yourself and are comfortable with that is difficult. Mm. But I think when, you know, taking that downtime for yourself and just be being with your thoughts, meditating, praying, whatever, call it during the course of the day, a during the day, and getting your kids and understand that without putting a class around what you’re doing. I mean, if, if those, if children could grow up understanding that self care, downtime and inward thinking and review was good for them and reaching out to get help when you need, not when you’re so far down the road that it’s take a time to get.

Dr. Ann Hawkins (07:28):

And if could start recognizing that six years by the time they were in high school or on college and had their own children, that would just be a part of their life.

Sam Demma (07:43):

And so tell me more about the work that you’ve done in this space to try and make that a reality, because I know you’re working towards it every single day. <laugh>,

Dr. Ann Hawkins (08:03):

I set up, because we don’t do healthcare. In fact, my first company was named Well Care Dimensions, a new dimension of healthcare that, of being responsible for your own health.

Sam Demma (08:16):

Mm.

Dr. Ann Hawkins (08:17):

And so when I got, when I, and so we, I was putting together a lot of different programs, different classes. And this is in probably the 1996 I started, so it doesn’t seem like a long time ago to me, but to y’all, it’s a long time ago. So in getting people to really understand, you know, we don’t have, you don’t have to take pharmaceutical. You can take something that’s, and, and natural, you know, I know they’re starving kids in India, but if you’re not, if you’re full, you don’t have to finish your plate. yes. You need to get up and move all the time. And just getting people to understand that the value of being in motion, I mean, we were not developed to be on ours all day long. <laugh> we were be in motion. And I mean, I, we were at a soccer game this weekend for one of my nephews, and this was almost a semi, it’s like the third or fourth level of soccer for eight, nine, and 10, 10 year olds.

Dr. Ann Hawkins (09:23):

And I was watch watching another team warm up and it was really interesting cause a lot of the, and it, this was all, all boys. A lot of the boys that were doing warm up drills couldn’t go step step hop, step step hop. They couldn’t get stopped to hop. And I was like, I, I don’t think they could probably gall because in the States, we just don’t have that much education now to teach those kids how to do that. So part of my whole thing is what do we do to help people get better and be, be, be better? So when I transferred outta healthcare, I got into the worker’s comp because in the United States if work comp, work comp was growing by 25 in cost by 25% a year in 2013, and that’s the only data you can find, I don’t think they want this to know.

Dr. Ann Hawkins (10:27):

And so it was like, and the cost of work comp claims are, I mean, work comp would actually be in the Fortune 500 as a company if it were a legitimate business. Yeah. Jesus. I know. It’s, it’s seriously. Yeah. And so I really wanted to help people get the help that they needed before. And I finally dawned on probably all starts in head, help people to think more open mind to rebut some of those negative thoughts that happen during the course of the day, of which 70% of our thoughts at least are negative. I mean, when you, when you, and get them to be aware of their surroundings and conscious of what’s going on. And the great news is, from all the data that I’ve seen and read and heard, is that we are truly right now in a consciousness growth atmosphere. Mm. And so, I mean, that’s a very, very good thing across the board for kids and for parents and, and for seniors to understand that there are a lot more of us that are looking at the what if it works side then, Oh, I did that before and it didn’t work.

Dr. Ann Hawkins (11:49):

Well, you know, when you were seven and you walk by that dog and it grilled you and bit you and at 27 you can’t pet a dog cause stop it <laugh>. But, and we all do it. We all do it. And I, I mean, and so a lot of the work we’re doing now is basically in that behavioral health space, that wellbeing space the resurgence face, getting people to understand that they are of value. And for all of us being cooped up in our homes for a couple years and cocooning, I mean, it was, and it was really easy to just lay on the couch and eat whatever going eat, watch some television instead of doing something that was moving and active. So hopeful, you know, knowing that we’re gonna get back to that place where we can, you know, where people are out and about more and they’re speaking to other people more and they’re getting together in groups of like-minded people so they can share their thoughts and ideas and move to that next level of consciousness.

Sam Demma (12:51):

That sounds amazing. Thank you for sharing a little bit behind the inspiration and the impetus to the work you’re doing. Tell me about the student program, you know, student First call. I think it’s very unique and good. I would love to hear a little bit about it.

Dr. Ann Hawkins (13:05):

Thank you. And we just, I mean it’s, it’s, we’ve got a student first call programs and they were originally just directed to college students of college students drop outta school in the US every year. And for those college students, and especially for the younger kids, I mean, they’ve been at home, their only impact has been a teacher on a video for the last a couple of years. And mom, mom, mom and dad’s. But the college over, what we do is we give students access 24 7, 365 to behavioral health clinicians who can help them when they need it. So as soon as you call in, you’re actually able to speak to a clinician who can assess you, get an evaluation, talk you off of the edge, and get you thinking differently. Then that counselor will talk you a couple more times if they need to. And then from there, if, if it’s necessary, we can then transfer them to a psychologist or a psychiatrist, which in the states is out outta pocket.

Dr. Ann Hawkins (14:16):

Yeah. Or we can hook them up with their parents insurance plan so that they get in someone. But I’m, I’m, I’m looking at two the middle schools, schools to families liked to say, you know, paid for either 50 50 split by the families and the school district or government funded whatever, to be able to give those parents and their underage children access to a clinician. And in, in the States, we can’t talk to those children with without a parent if parents consent unless they’re over 18. Yeah. But again, if you can get your six or seven year old, and I mean, it is really cool. So I’ve got a 18 year old grandson and a 15 year old grandson. And then the kids we were just with are like 12 and nine. Nice. But the great news is they’re having these great conversations with mom and dad that I, I never could, my generation never could have because our parents weren’t open enough. But if working with a program where the parents and the children could get help and mom and dad could learn and be guided Yeah. On how to be a little bit more openminded about hearing what their kids are saying. Everybody wins.

Sam Demma (15:57):

Yeah.

Dr. Ann Hawkins (15:58):

Everybody wins. And those kids grow up with a lot less baggage on their shoulders than their parents.

Sam Demma (16:06):

I love,

Dr. Ann Hawkins (16:09):

It’s very, very dear friend named Davell. We’ll know exactly who I’m talking about. <laugh>. And he’s, he’s not as old as I am in his fifties, but I mean, he came home one day and his mom said he was like 13. And his mom said you know, I bet all your friends at home arent talking about smoking marijuana. This was 30 years ago. Wow. Right. And so he is like, How did you know <laugh>? Why was a kid too? So he comes home from school the next, this was in the golden days, it went against the law. I understand that everybody was doing it. And sure enough, he enjoyed his first joint with his mom that the kitchen table <laugh>. But they are, she’s almost 90. They are still best friends. They communicate every single day. This mom at years knows everything that, that’s really cool. But we’ve got down those barriers. So both the parents head <laugh>. That’s awesome.

Dr. Ann Hawkins (17:43):

So, but in being able to get that across with the parents at a younger age and the kids at a younger age and the faculty staff and administration to buy in, everybody win.

Sam Demma (17:57):

What keeps you, First of all, you mentioned having these open lines of communication and encouraging students to reach out and ask for help so that they don’t live with too much baggage. funny enough, my, I wrote a book and it’s coming out on November 18th and the title is Actually Empty Your Backpack, <laugh> <laugh>. So I just felt compelled to share you, you mentioned the, the importance of reaching out and, and asking for help, the importance of keeping open lines of communication, getting everyone on board. but I’m curious to know what keeps you personally fulfilled and hopeful and inspired to show up to work every day and try and pursue this outcome despite the big challenge that it places in front of you?

Dr. Ann Hawkins (18:47):

Well, at almost 70 years, we just were able to start we just joined another company so we can even grow further. But, and our kids say to us all the time, you know, what, are you gonna retire? Well, they finally quit asking

Sam Demma (19:01):

<laugh>, They’re retired yet. I

Dr. Ann Hawkins (19:02):

Mean, Yeah. And cause it’s not, we’re not finished yet. We’re not finished yet. And it’s like, there are a number of times when I get down I get upset. cause I’m adhd and my husband is very calm, very soothing. I practice a bunch of times before I found him. But so it’s just, and I say to myself, You say this stuff to everybody else. Listen to what telling people, but how do, how, how, how, how do we do it? Bob and I are very good at and we’ve been in the fitness business for years and years and years before we got what we’re doing now, working out in just this at lunchtime you feed exercise so the blood can flow and that energy that you have can keep moving. And those thoughts keep, you know, and I for if somebody could find something that was a natural, something that you load on serotonin, dopamine to all of those, more of those positive thoughts coming through. And so, but I mean, you are what you create, you are what you think about.

Sam Demma (20:23):

Mm.

Dr. Ann Hawkins (20:24):

And you know, we all go through this. I get it. I leave the band on of these. But it’s when you’re thinking about not having money, guess what?

Sam Demma (20:35):

You manifesting it <laugh>. You’re gonna have more of not having money <laugh>.

Dr. Ann Hawkins (20:42):

Exactly. Yeah. So, and so we, I mean, we meditate ev day too. And so the medic, I am worthy. I am worthy, I am worthy of success. I’m worthy of being about being financially good. I’m worth, I’m, I’m worthy to be attractive. I’m worthy to, I’m worthy for my kids to have this, this, and this. And it takes a while to believe that. But it can just, you know, grow a little bit more and a little bit more. And I wish I could say I did this 24 hours a day, but I don’t,

Sam Demma (21:20):

What would you share with an educator listening to this right now who feels like they’re not worthy, who feels burnt out, who feels the opposite of all these beautiful things you just shared? <laugh>?

Dr. Ann Hawkins (21:35):

 find somebody you can talk to that you trust that will be honest. And I think that’s the hardest part. Sometimes when you’re not being to yourself, you need somebody to tell you that.

Sam Demma (21:51):

Yeah.

Dr. Ann Hawkins (21:53):

And not feel story for you. or, you know, it’s like doing a mental check. Why is this happening to me? And when you start to sweat, when you can feel that stress coming on, and I we’re, I’m still learning this now and into what we work with all the time is helping, it’s like, okay, whatever this stress is, I see this stress. I, I now I’m letting you go. Making me aware. And it’s hard to surrender to that. You know, we hear the word surrender all the time, but it’s if we were supposed to know the future, we’d be pulled the future and we would live so cautiously we wouldn’t have. Yeah. You know, and it’s on my computer screen I have it says always behind you or on your side. Cause the universe, whatever you wanna call, the universe is always on your side. The universe is not fighting against you, It’s fighting for you.

Sam Demma (23:10):

Hmm.

Dr. Ann Hawkins (23:11):

That’s, and I think, Yeah. Well, and to get kids to understand that too, I mean, in the playground, Susie said something to me that she didn’t, I was last picked to be on the soccer team. Whatever it is, it’s, there’s a lesson there. And the bigger the learning and the lesson, the bigger the effect on what happened you. And it’s like, okay, didn’t get it this time. She’s gonna over the sidewalk the first time up, up, up. Now a pebble still didn’t get it. Let’s put this boulder in the street. Right. How many times do we look up and go just why that happened to now and

Sam Demma (23:58):

Experience yourself

Dr. Ann Hawkins (24:01):

Point it. Right. Yeah. Been down that been down that we, we and we, we’ve all been down that path. You know, these barbie doll type Barbie and ken doll type people. If they still have those around, people e even remember, I mean everybody goes through this. The wealthy and the poor, you know, and it’s just, part of it is just how much you can take this in and realize that it is you, it’s not the world. It’s not somebody else’s fault. It’s not somebody else’s job.

Sam Demma (24:36):

Mm.

Dr. Ann Hawkins (24:37):

It’s your,

Sam Demma (24:39):

There’s that honest piece coming back. That’s why I think it’s important. You find an honest friend, you can talk to <laugh>. and

Dr. Ann Hawkins (24:47):

So it’s probably not a coworker. Cause they don’t, they don’t, you know, you don’t know where that’s going go. But, you know, and unfortunately very many of us don’t have friends that we’ve known one. Like, you know, I, I, these stories, this lady I hadn’t seen years was great, but not a lot of us have those anymore. Yeah. You know, if you moved from your hometown or whatever, you don’t have those people. But signing those people that are genuine, that want to help you grow. And you know, churches, synagogues, temples are good spots for that. Ministers, priests, nuns, you know, whoever you feel safe with Yeah. And is willing to share back with you.

Sam Demma (25:32):

Gotcha. when you are not feeling the best, aside from, you know, working on it yourself, who do you kind of lean on or you know, ask, ask for some help.

Dr. Ann Hawkins (25:48):

And I’m so fortunate that I have Bob, my husband. He’s my best friend. My soul made, we’ve been together since two nice whole opposites. But we each other all the time. Like people are like, Well, Dr. Ran and Bob, what do you mean that’s two people. So I’m very fortunate that I have have that. Yeah. But because, and we work a lot, most of our friends are are retired or cetera, cetera. So we’re basically a support system for both of this. Many times he’s more of a support to me. I to that’s I feel I think not, not a lot of couples have that. Yeah. From, and it’s hard to have that as you’re raising kids when you’re learning techniques. <laugh> are,

Sam Demma (26:45):

That’s

Dr. Ann Hawkins (26:45):

Awesome. You know, to find the common commonality, the common place. I mean, and Bob and I are fortunate together since office Bob’s desk. Nice. So we’re one of the few couples that can do that. But you know, if, if it’s not your spouse, a sister, a brother, if it’s not that, you know, it’s amazing who you can meet sitting in Starbucks sometimes. And sometimes people have more, are more successful talking to people that they don’t know. Yeah. Stuff that’s bothering them. Cause it, there’s never gonna be any feedback or any pushback. Yeah. Pushback. Yeah.

Sam Demma (27:31):

Yeah. Yeah. That’s so true. Yeah. I love that. And that’s such a great testament to your relationship. thinking of the educators that might be listening to this I think something that is really helpful when you feel a little burnt out, especially working in the education industry, is remembering why you started in the first place. And a lot of educators get into this field and this work because they wanna make a positive impact on the lives of young people. Do you have any stories that come to mind of students who you ha you know, who have gone down really challenging and struggle filled paths and made a big transformation due to education? and if so, maybe share one or two of them to hopefully rekindle some passion and, and a listener

Dr. Ann Hawkins (28:19):

Umactually in touch with some of my students from interesting. Just got reconnect with somebody on LinkedIn and his daughter is now a sophomore at the college that he actually attended where I, I spoke. But I think biggest one is one of my nephews who in Ohio couldn’t go through graduation cuz he missed so many graduation date.

Dr. Ann Hawkins (28:51):

So, and he was, if there was a chance not to be at school or do something stupid, he picked, he picked. Right. And so his brother identical twin brothers. One brother comes out gay as a junior in high school and the other one is straight. So he fought his whole senior year, the straight one. telling people that just because his brother was gay didn’t mean he was. So all of that stuff going on in, in his head. Well now he works in service as a first responder, has a master’s degree, married to wonderful children and now spends half of his time teaching at the university level.

Sam Demma (29:41):

Wow.

Dr. Ann Hawkins (29:42):

So it just, but it was a rough 18 years for his mom.

Sam Demma (29:48):

Ah.

Dr. Ann Hawkins (29:50):

So it’s really cool to kids say that. And then I used to give some very thought provoking. And so one of them, I, I hand the test out, I’d ask the question and, and they had to, they were the chairman of a fitness center at the college and what, what would they do? And they’d hand the paper back and then I’d hand it back out the next day on, on the Wednesday. And I’d say, Okay, sorry, but we had a 40% decrease in our budget. Tell me why you cut out X, Y, Z and why was there in the first place? Then they’d hand it back in again. And then on, on the last day, I would hand out the papers to somebody else and they’d have to grade them and give that person a budget. And they’re like, Why did you do that? That’s what is going. And I probably had, after I taught that class, I bet 10% of those kids were calling me within the next five years. Doctor Ann, you were right. There was a spell or grammar error on the first your paper handed you back your paper. And if didn’t, this was before spell check was available readily and

Dr. Ann Hawkins (31:24):

Doing, doing this cause this is what your boss. And so it’s, it’s effect and I don’t, are not, it doesn’t appear to that people are understanding or kids are learning that of. So I think, you know, for features, it’s the same with them. It’s, I mean, it’s and that deep breathing really does work. Or taking a pause when somebody says something to you when a child says something to you that really doesn’t resonate. It’s so hard. But it’s just look at that little face and not see the little bad man that’s living in there at that moment. Maybe picture a little angel over that wonderful child and say, I know there’s a lesson in here for me. Just chill. It’s hard, especially when you’re with them, you know, 5, 6, 7, 8 hours a day and now with, you know, breakfast served at schools and child as late as five 30 in the afternoon. Yeah. It’s, yeah. It’s hard. It’s hard for people that are working in offices too, you know, because they just can’t get out and spend the time with their kids. So

Sam Demma (32:53):

Yeah. Along your journey, you’re sharing some really great ideas and I appreciate your insights along your own personal journey to more self-awareness and more impact in the work that you’re doing. What resources have you found helpful aside from actual physical people in your life like Bob <laugh> what things have you found really helpful that you have continuously reread or return to that you think other people might enjoy looking into?

Dr. Ann Hawkins (33:26):

 I’m very much into spirituality. So we, I read a lot of or does homes. I love the mountains, so I love Aspen. So we go there a lot. But just a lot of the Intuits that talk and, you know, Jo Joza, there’s tons and tons of them. It’s just finding somebody that you can listen to on a podcast or read, read a book about, and we kind of all drop into our own authors. so it’s just finding the person that, I mean rights in the Wayne Dyer. I was awesome when he, he was alive. His books are still great. so it’s just looking into whatever talk to you.

Sam Demma (34:14):

Yeah.

Dr. Ann Hawkins (34:16):

 and for some people it’s, it’s the Bible or the Torah or the Quren, but whatever it is. And looking at that and reading it from your perspective, which is probably a very different perspective than how it was written.

Sam Demma (34:33):

Cool.

Dr. Ann Hawkins (34:34):

And so it’s like how do you take these great stories and apply them in your life today?

Sam Demma (34:45):

I love that. Oh, thank you for sharing that. I appreciate it. If someone wants to reach out to you and ask a question or start a conversation or inquire about some of your services, what would be the best way for them to get in touch?

Dr. Ann Hawkins (34:59):

Well, if I give you my email address that’s probably the easiest.

Sam Demma (35:03):

Sure.

Dr. Ann Hawkins (35:04):

Does that work? So I’ll give you which one of easiest We’ll try let’s do DrAnn@HealthKarmaGroup.com.

Sam Demma (35:24):

Awesome. DrAnn@HealthKarmaGroup.com.

Dr. Ann Hawkins (35:27):

Yep. And just in the, what do you talk, what do you want me to talk to about piece? Just put Sam.

Sam Demma (35:33):

The subject. Okay. Subject, Sam. Let’s spam her email with Sam guys <laugh>. Dr. Ann, thank you so much for taking your time to come on the podcast, share some of your experiences, some of the programs that you’re working on and creating. I really appreciate it and wish you nothing but a lot of joy, health, and success. Keep it up.

Dr. Ann Hawkins (35:53):

Thank you Sam, and you are doing such great stuff to be at the age you are and understand what your passion, your calling is now is just awesome. So many kudos to you.

Sam Demma (36:02):

Thank you. All right, we’ll talk soon.

Dr. Ann Hawkins (36:04):

Okay. Byebye,

Sam Demma (36:05):

I believe that educators deserve way more recognition, which is why I’ve created the High Performing Educator Awards. In 2022, 20 educator recipients will be shortlisted, each of whom will be featured in local press. invited to record an episode on the podcast, and spotlighted on our platform. In addition, the one handpicked winner will be presented with an engraved plaque by myself. I will fly to the winner’s city to present this to them and ask that they participate in a quick photo shoot and interview on location. The coolest part, nominations are open right now, and they close October 1st, 2022. So please take a moment to apply or nominate someone you know or work with that deserves this recognition. You can do so by going to www.highperformingeducator.com/award. We can never recognize educators enough.

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The High Performing Educator Podcast was brought to life during the outbreak of COVID-19 to provide you with inspirational stories and practical advice from your colleagues in education.  By tuning in, you will hear the stories and ideas of the world’s brightest and most ambitious educators.  You can expect interviews with Principals, Teachers, Guidance Counsellors, National Student Association, Directors and anybody that works with youth. You can find and listen to all the episodes for free here.

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Tracy Lockwood - Owner of PLAY Education Consulting
About Tracy Lockwood

Tracy Lockwood (@PLAY_Educator) is a certified K-12 PE Teacher and has over 25 years of experience as an educator and has taught K-12 students in Alberta, British Columbia, Abu Dhabi and Macau. She was employed as an Education Consultant for nearly 10 years where she facilitated hundreds of workshops for thousands of professionals at the local, provincial, national and international levels.

Tracy is a Master Trainer for the National Coaching Certification Program & DANCEPL3Y (dance-play). She has her Masters in Educational Leadership and has a passion for all things physical education, physical literacy and physical activity.

Today, Tracy runs a successful business, PLAY Education, and works with thousands of children, youth and adults every year around the world to empower and inspire them to move, laugh, connect, and smile, while learning new ways to be physically active and develop physical literacy. 

Connect with Tracy: Email | Instagram | Linkedin | Twitter

Listen Now

Listen to the episode now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on your favourite podcast platform.

Resources Mentioned

PLAY Education

Professional Development Workshops – PLAY Education

Resources from PLAY Education

PLAY Education Youtube Channel

National Coaching Certification Program

DANCEPL3Y (dance-play)

The Transcript

**Please note that all of our transcriptions come from rev.com and are 80% accurate. We’re grateful for the robots that make this possible and realize that it’s not a perfect process.

Sam Demma (00:00):
Welcome back to another episode of the High Performing Educator podcast. This is your host and youth speaker, Sam Demma. I’m super excited to bring you today’s interview with our special guest Tracy Lockwood, who is a certified K to 12 PE teacher. She has over 25 years of experience as an educator and has taught K to 12 students in Alberta, British Columbia, Abu Dhabi, and Macau.


Sam Demma (00:57):
She was employed as an educational consultant for nearly 10 years where she facilitated hundreds of workshops for thousands of professionals at the local, provincial, national, and international level. She is a master trainer for the national coaching certification program and dance play. She has her master’s in educational leadership and a passion for all things, physical education, physical literacy, and physical activity. Today, Tracy runs a successful business; play education and works with thousands of children, youth, and adults every year around the world to empower and inspire them to move, laugh, connect, and smile while learning new ways to be physically active and develop physical literacy. She has an awesome website and brand, which she’ll tell you about all throughout the interview. I’m super excited to bring you this. Can’t wait for you to hear what she has in store. So without further ado, let’s jump in to the interview with Tracy. Tracy, welcome to the High Performing Educator podcast. Huge pleasure to have you on the show here this afternoon, depending on where you’re tuning in from can you start by introducing yourself and sharing a little bit about what got you into education, and then also into the work you’re doing today?


Tracy Lockwood (02:06):
Awesome. Hi everybody. Hi Sam, thanks so much for having me. My name is Tracy Lockwood and some people may have, may know me as the play educator. I have a business called Play Education, but 25 years ago, I actually got into education. And, and really there’s, there’s only a few educators in my family so I, I don’t know the, I guess the reason why I got in, in thinking back is mainly because you know, it was, it was a degree program that allowed me in . And so back, you know 20, actually it was 27 years ago when I was in university, I, I really didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do. And I, I was thinking that I wanted to follow in some footsteps of family members and I, I really, I played a lot of sports, so I thought I wanted to be a physiotherapist or something to do with physical activity.


Tracy Lockwood (03:13):
And, and then in my second year of university I actually played volleyball in my first year. And then in my second year changed schools and got into education. And it was honestly the best thing that, that happened to me in my schooling, because I actually realized, of course I love physical activity. I love physical education. And the fact that I could take physical activity courses that went towards a degree was just amazing to me. I had, I had a great experience in all of my courses and, and that just really helped, helped kind of springboard where I traveled and where I was able to take my EDU education degree. And I, I always say I, I actually teach at the university of Alberta and I always say to my students like this, this degree, this education degree is a passport if you want it to be.


Tracy Lockwood (04:11):
And, and I’m so thankful that I chose that, that career path. And I, I just commend anybody who has chosen that career path. It really turned out to be that I love working with kids. And then in the end, I really love working with adults as well. I just love, I don’t know, helping people. And I thought that I would always do something that was a helping career path and, and this just, just suited me the best. And yeah, I’m grateful that it that’s the way it turned out, got to work with adults as a consultant for many, many years. And of course teach kids for many, many years as well. Nice.


Sam Demma (04:48):
And when you think back to when you were in, you know, college and university and making the career decisions and choices, can you think back to like the finding moments, like you could have chose many different programs or many different options that would still allow you to teach and work with adults and kids? Like why specifically teaching or did you, do you think you fell into this and then realized how much you loved it?


Tracy Lockwood (05:11):
Yeah, I think it, I think it’s, I really fell into it. Based on the fact that when I went to high school, I went to high school to play. Like I was in high school of course, to, to get my diploma, but I really was playing sports. Me too. I, I, yeah. Yeah. And you’re a soccer player. I, I played all sports and did not focus so much on the academics. It was like, yeah, it’s gonna be, I’m gonna be fine. I’m always gonna be fine. And, and I think that hindered my opportunities when I got into university. My first year, I went to a smaller university and, and got to continue to play the sport. I love of volleyball, but then realized that I needed to get my marks up a little bit higher. I needed to actually work a little bit harder.


Tracy Lockwood (06:01):
It was, it was so not a focus. And and just a bit of a struggle. I struggled in certain subjects like math and different sciences. I, I really struggled and I needed that one-on-one attention. But even when I did get that attention, that one- one kind of tutoring in high school, I still struggled. And, and to this day it amazes me that I not only have a degree, not that I’m not smart enough to get a degree. I think I applied myself because I got into education, cuz I was accepted into that program based on my marks after my first year, I kind of brought them up a little bit, but really I am always amazed that I actually have a master’s degree because I always think, wow, I, I don’t, I never liked writing and research makes me wanna have a nap.


Tracy Lockwood (06:54):
so I’m just, I was just thinking, you know, wow, how did, how did I accomplish that? So I, I really believe that, you know, because of getting into education, it kind of, springboarded a lot of loves that I have with physical activity, physical education, specifically got to do my master’s around physical literacy and, and something that I was passionate about. And I think that’s the key now that we’re, we’re just talking that the key is to find that passion. And I think I was able to do that through getting into a program, through them, working through what I love the best, working with kids, working with adults, physical literacy development, all of those things kind of just began to build upon themselves, but they only did that because I have a love for it.


Sam Demma (07:40):
Yeah.


Tracy Lockwood (07:41):
Yeah.


Sam Demma (07:42):
So that’s awesome. Yeah. I’m inspired right now by this rapper it’s American rapper named Russell vitality stage name is Russ and he always talks about this idea that when he was growing up in school, he was terrible. He was a terrible student. He hated school. And if you judged him on his work ethic, based on how much work he put into his studies, you would’ve thought he was a lazy student, but it’s because he just wasn’t doing work that he loved. But the moment you judged him on his work ethic and his ability when it came to music, he was off the charts. And so it sounds like you’re echoing the same ideas when you find the work you love. You know, maybe originally writing was boring and research put you to sleep. But when it was writing, that was related to a topic you loved and research related to physical education, it probably became something that you wanted to pour your heart and soul into. And as a year that has been filled with challenge and burnout, how have you kept your flame going? Cause I know there’s a lot of teachers and educators who are not sure that this is the path they still want to go down because of the challenges they’ve faced.


Tracy Lockwood (08:51):
Yeah. I, it is so true. And so many people have so many stories just about what they’ve gone through in this past while we, our, our pandemic kind of hit a little bit earlier, cuz we were overseas in Southeast Asia. It hit there first. Yeah. And and then we made the choice to, to come back from overseas to come back here. I, I think during this last year and a half or so it’s, it’s kind of reinventing myself. I think that’s what I’ve always done my entire career. If I, after five years, I’m in a school I’m like, okay, I need to reevaluate. If I’m just not feeling that I can contribute as wholeheartedly as I want to. I need to change mm-hmm and I’m, I’m okay with change. I love change and I’m not like a specifically routine kind of person anyways, which so that really suits my personality.


Tracy Lockwood (09:48):
So changing on the fly, changing the way that I do things has had to really come into play this year. So move to virtual, just like most schools, my business was not going to thrive if I wasn’t able to get into schools in person. So did a ton of virtual activities ton of virtual programs and lots of professional development teachers just putting myself out there. It was not easy because this way of learning and this way of, of speaking with somebody and seeing yourself on the screen all the time is so not comfortable. And it definitely was uncomfortable at the beginning. Just like I know a lot of teachers went through some major uncomfortableness with with dealing with how do you get your kids engaged even? And even just to get them turn on their videos. Yeah. I think the more that you do something, the more that you get comfortable with it and that’s exactly what happened.


Tracy Lockwood (10:48):
And just, just knowing that I was helping teachers, I was helping educators with professional development and, and really I have, I had the time they were, they had to jump right in. I had the time to maybe to look at the research, look what was going on out there, just seeing what the best practices were and then to implement them and then to share them with my network that I have mostly in in, in Canada. And so that, you know, that was really key. I, I think just knowing that I could help somebody and, and then of course the, the feedback that you get back from others, whether you’re a teacher, you get those, that feedback from kids, it can help you just continue to, to want to, to do more. And I think that’s what I was getting back from others. Like thank you for this, wow.


Tracy Lockwood (11:42):
This resource, this is, this is great to see. Really in this time I, I just need something practical and that’s, I guess that’s what I’m all about is that, that practical piece, I just wanna give teachers tools. And then also like seeing students online I have had a couple of university classes, like I mentioned, elementary ed classes and I was teaching a physical education, health and pedagogy class. And so it’s all about movement and so uncomfortable as uncomfortable as it is. I, you know, invited them to turn on their cameras as part of participation, not as part of how you, you know, how much you’re going to develop your skill, but just how are you trying? And so I, I think that that really helped just inviting them to turn on their, their cameras. And I really had some great experiences and some amazing students in my classes that, that were so thankful for the course, even though we couldn’t be in person, which would’ve been way better. I guess I, I really get external feedback that external feedback helps me want to do more. Yes. Yeah, that’s, that’s a big part of it.


Sam Demma (12:58):
Yeah. You and I share that I actually have a binder that I’ve filled with a bunch of emails and messages that I’ve received from students after work and presentations. And I I’ll read it to myself before key moments because I find that it’s us stopping us. And most of the time it’s our own like self-belief or self doubt, even when we’ve done great job, a great job. And we know we’re making an impact sometimes just rereading those things and reminding yourself of the impact can have a huge effect. Now I know as a teacher though, specifically, sometimes the impact isn’t heard or seen for like 10 years and there’s these awesome stories where 15 years later, a student sent an email and is like, oh my goodness, miss Lockwood, you know, your class changed my life and your physical education training changed my life. Can you think about, can you think back to any of those specific stories or moments that stick out in your mind from teaching both in, in the classroom and now with your own business?


Tracy Lockwood (14:00):
Oh, that’s such a good question. You know my, my friend Shannon always says that I, I feel the same way that she retains water, not information. So I feel like , I’m kind of the same nice where I I have a hard time thinking about like what happened way in the past, but, you know, there are definitely students that have come forward in just, just recently that have come forward in my university classes just to be, you know, most recent. Yeah. that have said, you know, this is the best course in my degree. And that just is like, Ugh, that makes me feel so, so great. And, and I ha I do have students that because I taught both of my boys physical education when they’re in elementary. Nice. I see the, the kids that they have grown up with that are now adults.


Tracy Lockwood (14:55):
Nice. I see them, you know, and I hear from them based on the fact that they still hang out with my two sons and, and I do hear really great things that that they didn’t always say in elementary, you know, you get the hugs, you get the high fives. Yeah. once in a while you get cards from, from parents that are just saying how thankful they are. But it, it is, it, it is something that you wonder, you know, it, you have to have that self confidence because I always wonder, you know, is that true? But then I have to remind myself, you know, they wouldn’t be saying it if it’s not. And, and then it is hard to, to focus on that. If you get one negative comment, you know as teachers, I still think about, you know, 20 years ago, 25 years ago, when I first started teaching, I still think about the parent that was not happy with their child’s mark in physical education.


Tracy Lockwood (16:01):
And, and that just sticks out. And it, I think that’s just us as human. We’re always trying to get better. And we, we do take in that negative element. Sometimes it’s very hard to break through that negative thought pattern. Yeah. But it just takes practice. And truly, I I’ve been learning that and I still am at my age, I’m still learning to, to, to be positive. There’s a program that I get to be a part of and I hope it’s okay if I bring it up, it’s called dance. Okay, good. It’s called dance play. And to be honest, the, the positive element that just wraps around that program just it’s really all about three rules, be positive, be fun and be yourself. And whenever I teach it, it’s a reminder to myself. So when I say to kids, you know, it’s really easy to be negative.


Tracy Lockwood (17:00):
It’s really easy to, you know, put yourself down. It takes practice to be positive. So when you’re dancing or when you’re doing something, you know, that challenges you you have to say, you know, I got this, I can do this. I am awesome. I look great. It’s a constant reminder. And, and I think every time I teach that program, it has actually built up my confidence level. Because I remind kids all the time. It’s like, oh yeah, remind myself. Yeah. Or, or when I look, you know, I tell kids to look themselves in the mirror when they’re brushing their teeth, hopefully in the morning. And again, at night they say, you know, you are awesome. You’re a great friend. You’re a great you know, sister or whatever brother you’re, you are you know, really great at math or you really kind, whatever it is, you have to remind yourself. So a as I’m telling them, it’s, it’s just a great confidence booster for myself, just to say, yeah, if I’m telling kids to do this, I also need to do this and model it. Yeah. And I think as teachers, we’re always thinking about how we can model and, and those make the best teachers. And I think that’s why a lot of people go into education is because they want to model you know, what they wanna see in the world.


Sam Demma (18:22):
Yeah. Be an


Tracy Lockwood (18:22):
Example and yeah. Be an example, make a difference. So so I think that, yeah, education is, it is a calling, but it’s also a choice. And yeah. And I, I commend people for making that choice because it does take a lot of work and a lot of effort to be a teacher. Yes. Especially now we’ve seen, what’s been happening over the last year and a half with having to switch completely how you teach, but, but you know, it, it, people have gotten through it. And there’s so many ups and downs in that, in the profession as it is. Yeah. But we are super resilient and we teach kids to be resilient and following our own example is going to be, you know, the best for, for everyone.


Sam Demma (19:12):
And at what point in your own journey, did you start getting this inkling of entrepreneurship and decide to start your own thing? And, you know, you mentioned dance play very briefly, just, just in case anyone’s listening to this right now, or you can’t see the screen and you obviously didn’t see what happened before we started recording, but the call started with Tracy playing music and dancing . So just so you know, she is the perfect person to teach this curriculum. But tell us a little bit about, you know, your own company and, and dance play and how they tie together and where that came from.


Tracy Lockwood (19:50):
Yeah. I, I really, I think I have great role models. My, my parents are entrepreneurs. So when I was 11, my parents started a restaurant business and they kept that same restaurant for 30 years. Oh, wow. So I grew up with, with my parents working so hard being entrepreneurs, but then, you know really doing it for themselves. And I think that’s where I, I didn’t realize, but that’s where it kind of started. And when I was teacher for about 15 years, I ended up getting a position as a consultant and worked provincially in the province of Alberta and then elsewhere kind of delivering professional development to teachers creating programs working on curriculum and tying curriculum with health and physical education into all of our professional development. And so just doing that was, it was sort of like I was running my own business, but not quite, you know, being salary employed.


Tracy Lockwood (20:57):
And about seven years ago, dance play came into my life. We were hosting a conference and we needed something kind of fun and different, and we didn’t have anything dance related. So at our conference, we, I, I was just looking online and just found this dance play thing and thought, wow, this is amazing. And so the person who owns dance play Melanie, she said, why don’t you come to a, to an instructor training, had no idea what I was getting myself into. I really am not a dancer. I love music. I love moving to music, but I have never taken any formal dance training. So so when I was taking that, I, I thought this is gonna be super overwhelming. It was the best time of my life. I loved it so, so much. Awesome. And realized that, you know, maybe because I had been thinking about running my own business, I had been thinking about going on my own and consulting, just that idea of having my own hours working from home, just having control.


Tracy Lockwood (22:03):
Maybe I’m a bit of control freak. I don’t know , but I, I do love the idea of structuring my own day. And as hard as I work, that’s how hard my bus that’s, how much my business is going to grow. So, yeah, so I just decided when dance play came into my life, that this was the next thing, this was the additional thing that I needed in order to supplement my play education business. So started started that, you know, about seven years ago and became a region operator. So I can operate in schools and, and then started hiring some instructors and, and really did a lot of it on my own for a few years, and just poured myself into the business and not only dance play, but play education and still delivered professional development, but really wanted to focus on physical education, physical literacy, physical activity.


Tracy Lockwood (22:58):
And that gave me the ability to do that. I, I really feel like specializing is, is important because you become much better in that area. Mm. And and in my other consulting role, I learned so much, I learned so much about research and about government contracts and about school programming and, and just curriculum. And, and really, I wanted to just focus on physical education, physical literacy, and physical activity. And that gave me leaving that job scary as it was, cuz it was a salary job. I, I had a, I’ve had a salary. I had a salary up to that point for 21 years. Wow. And I wouldn’t have been able to leave if I, my husband was an administrator and principal at the time. So I could lean on him and his salary in order to do that. Cuz man, it was tough.


Tracy Lockwood (23:55):
At first I had zero income for at least the first five months and, and then just started growing and building my network. I, I had a, a fairly large network to begin with. So I, I really had to look at all the people that I have been working with for over the years. And that was, that was key, you know, leaning on those people as much as I felt like, ah, I don’t wanna be a leach. That’s the last thing I wanna be. But I also felt that, you know, I’ve, I’ve really built up great relationships with a lot of consultants and a lot of people around the province of Alberta anyways. So I felt comfortable that I could reach out to them. Yes. And, and a lot of them just really accepted the fact that I could bring maybe something different to the table and these practical tools and, and just started going from there.


Sam Demma (24:49):
That’s so awesome. And what is play like, tell us more about play education. Yeah. Why is, why is that the name of the company and what does it do?


Tracy Lockwood (25:00):
Good question. Good questions. Play education stands for physical literacy and you, mm. And originally I had a different name. I think it was energized consulting and I had all of these different names and it was, it wasn’t easy to come up with that. It seems easy now, but in, in hindsight, I, I remember having a journal. I still have a journal beside my bed cuz I wake up in the middle of the night and I have to write scribble messes down. I just have to write. So I don’t forget. nice. So I wrote down like why, what are the things that I wanna do? So, you know, practical, educational, physical activity, all of those things. And, and then it just turns out I was like physical literacy. You know, I did my master’s in that. I really believe in the fact that we have to give kids a foundation in order to build their skills for them to be confident and comfortable and competent and motivated to be active for life.


Tracy Lockwood (26:03):
So that kind of was, was the springboard physical literacy and you stands for play and it couldn’t just be play. So I’m an educator. So education came into play there, so play education and it turns out nobody else had that name. so nice that that I could see. So it worked out great and, and I could get the website, play education.ca that worked out great. And I really just focus on, on professional development for teachers in those three areas of PHS ed, physical activity and physical literacy. Nice. I focus on dance, play programming. And about how many years ago, I would say two years, three years ago, three years ago now I created a resource called focus on fundamentals and it’s supporting the development of physical literacy. And I really wanted something to be a lesson plan guide that had like warmup activities, main skill development activities, and cool down activities.


Tracy Lockwood (27:11):
So developed this after 10 years of thinking about it, it was a scribble mess at the beginning and it took me about 10 years to finally, you know, develop this resource. But it was a lot of work, but it, it really ties in nicely of what I like to do for people. And that is provide tools and practical ideas that can be used like right away. And, and I think, you know, every things have evolved of course to where I am now, but but that’s, I’m just so happy how things worked out, you know, just taking that risk, which I was, was a huge risk when I think about it now. But I, I said to my husband at the time when I was doing, going to do this, I said to him, it’s now or never. Yeah. You know? And, and so having that entrepreneurial spirit, I always kind of have, I, I, like I said, I believe it was from passed down for my parents. Yeah. I just really wanted to jump in with both feet. So it’s left my position.


Sam Demma (28:19):
That’s awesome. I love the story. I absolutely love it. I, I too grew up in a family that owned a restaurant. Funny enough, my mom and my grandfather owned an Italian Italian slash Greek food restaurant called Joey Bravos. and wow. I


Tracy Lockwood (28:34):
Love the


Sam Demma (28:34):
Name well, yeah. And it was apparently there was a TV show back in the day called Johnny Bravos as well. And so they kind of got inspiration from that, but named to Joey’s and it’s funny growing up there, I would always go in and I would walk into the kitchen. And the first thing I would ask for is one of the chefs’ name was Rav I’d say, Hey Ravi, can I please have the standard plate? And he would bring me at a little plate with cheese, olives, and sausage and I would go and sit in the back and eat them. And I remember going to my doctor’s appointment one time and my pediatrician, Dr. MOS saying, Sam, you gotta stop eating sausages. I had like, I was gaining weight anyways, I totally going off track here. But I, yeah, I so relate to the entrepreneurial spirit of parents, which is so awesome.


Sam Demma (29:19):
And really when we think about it, people that influence us could be anybody, not even just our parents, like as a teacher, you play that same role in your student’s lives as a parent does because you see them for so many hours per day, even when you think no one’s watching, someone could be watching and the actions you’re taking could influence them. For example, you following your dream and passion of starting the business and going down this path might even inspire other educators to believe that they could follow their own dreams and passions outside of the classroom as well. And I just think it’s a really cool story to share. And I’m glad that we carved out some time to share it. If you could go back in time. I think you said 25 years ago, is that when you first started teaching?


Tracy Lockwood (29:59):
Yes. About that 27?


Sam Demma (30:01):
Yeah. Okay. So if you could go SA shaving off two years there, I see you . So if you could, you know, snap your fingers travel back in time 27 years ago and basically give your younger self advice, knowing what you know now, and based on the experiences you’ve had, what advice would you give your younger self?


Tracy Lockwood (30:22):
Wow. I think just trust in the journey, you know, trust that things are gonna work out as planned. I really am an optimistic person. Yeah. But, but there are definite times that I’m like, oh, should I do this? You know, this is a really tough decision or worry about things. And I really believe that I, I, yeah, I, I would’ve told myself to trust and, and the fact that I actually didn’t do a lot of traveling until 45 years old. So my husband and I both, we, we didn’t go overseas until our sons were in grade eight and grade 12. Oh, wow. And so that the idea of like, thinking back when I first started teaching and thinking to overseas travel and teaching in a Canadian international school in Abu Dhabi and then in Macau, like I never imagined, never dreamed that that would happen thinking that I would have my own business, never imagined that that would be where my career would lead me, but I, I truly believe that having an education degree has just really opened a lot of doors has just like, kind of led me into these like different paths and, and, and the fact that I’ve connected with so many awesome people.


Tracy Lockwood (31:52):
My, my network of friends, my network of professional colleagues has, has just been more than I could imagine, but, but, you know, I think it’s based on you, who you attract in your life. And I am open to attracting positive people you know, people who, who want to be better that are constantly learning. I, I just, I feel that because I am like that, I feel like I attract those kind of people in my life and I that’s who I want my life. And, and, and I still have so many, so many friends that that are that way too. And yeah, I, I, I think that word trust is important. I I’m, and, and just kind of ride the ride the wave of life, I think just as it comes. And there’s definitely ups and downs along the way. for sure.


Tracy Lockwood (32:52):
Some stresses especially with living overseas and having to start your light life over. And, and then starting back, back in Canada a year ago earlier than we thought we would come back from the cow. We we had to start our life over in a different province where we chose to start our life over in a different province. I’m trying to network here now, still doing a lot of work back with my network in Alberta. But man, it’s it’s tough to, to build a network, but it’s starting. Yeah. And it’s like little by little, just put yourself out there. And, and maybe that’s the other thing I would’ve told myself, like put yourself out there, girl. , it’s all gonna be good.


Sam Demma (33:34):
I love that. We, we need to set up a part 2 to talk about the, the worldwide experiences, because that’s a whole other conversation The longer we talk, the more questions I ask, the more questions I have for you, but thank you so much for taking some time to, you know, share your intentional journey on the podcast. I noticed at the end, you just corrected yourself. We said, we, we chose to start again in a different province. And that’s so important because you’re taking the responsibility, and it seems like your whole journey has been very intentional. You know, now is the time, time is now I’m doing this. And yeah, I think that’s like a phrase that kind of comes to mind when I think about everything you’ve shared in the past 30 minutes, it’s already been 35 minutes; time flies. That was a good conversation. If someone wants to reach out an educator or principal superintendent’s listening and they just wanna, you know, shoot you an email and have a conversation, what would be the best way for them to get in touch?


Tracy Lockwood (34:31):
They can definitely go to my website. It’s playeducation.ca and tracy.playeducator@gmail.com.


Sam Demma (34:41):
Love it, love it. Tracy, Thank you so much. Enjoy the rest of your summer. This will come out in September, so that’ll sound funny, but enjoy the rest of your summer and let’s stay in touch and I’ll, I’ll talk to you soon.


Tracy Lockwood (34:52):
Thank you so much, Sam. I really appreciate it. Love talking with you.


Sam Demma (34:55):
And there you have it. Another amazing guest, an amazing interview on the High Performing Educator podcast. As always, if you enjoy these episodes, please consider leaving a rating and review so other educators like yourself can find this content and benefit from it. And here’s an exclusive opportunity that I mentioned at the start of the show; if you want meet the guest on today’s episode, if you wanna meet any of the guests that we have interviewed, consider going to www.highperformingeducator.com and signing up to join the exclusive network, you’ll have access to networking events throughout 2021 and other special opportunities. And I promise I will not fill your inbox. Talk to you soon. I’ll see you on the next episode.

Join the Educator Network & Connect with Tracy Lockwood

The High Performing Educator Podcast was brought to life during the outbreak of COVID-19 to provide you with inspirational stories and practical advice from your colleagues in education.  By tuning in, you will hear the stories and ideas of the world’s brightest and most ambitious educators.  You can expect interviews with Principals, Teachers, Guidance Counsellors, National Student Association, Directors and anybody that works with youth. You can find and listen to all the episodes for free here.