Dominique and Ken are creators of Lean In With The Kings and The Grow Up Wild Podcast. Lean In With The Kings is a platform focused on Marriage, Family and Fitness. Grow Up Wild is about the experience of others from a range of physical fitness, marriage, family, mental health, and individual growth. Dominique is a return guest on the show and today she is joined by her husband Ken.
The couple’s goal is to reach people who are looking for a platform that deals with everyday issues of relationships, family, fitness while holding on to their individual growth. They created these platforms to share experiences, advice while offering support, a shoulder and an ear. This is their passion.
Join us for a stimulating talk on how they met, how they got into running and fitness, raising their three kids, their platforms together and how running has shaped their lives.
Episode Highlights:
How Dominque and Ken met
How their blog was born
Positive aspects of running together
How to motivate your partner to get into running and/or other forms of fitness
Safety tips for runners
Vulnerability and communication in relationships
Podcasting as a couple and the conversations they share on their show
Connecting with your passion every day
Guest Bio:
Dominique and Ken are the creators of Lean In With The Kings, and The Grow Up Wild Podcast. Lean In With The Kings is a platform focused on Marriage, Family and Fitness. Grow Up Wild is about the experience of others from a range of physical fitness, marriage, family, mental health, and individual growth. Dominique and Ken King are from Northern California, and have three children.
Dominique and Ken’s goal is to reach people who are looking for a platform that deals with everyday issues of marriage, family, relationships, fitness while trying to hold onto their individual growth. They created these platforms to share experiences, advice while offering support, a shoulder and an ear. This is their true passion.
Dominique has always been a runner. Running has intertwined itself in her life at various stages. Growing up she used running as a way to escape her home environment. She used to run and walk between towns trying to make sense of why things shook out the way they did for her. In her older years running was my way of maintaining an unhealthy view of what I thought her body should be.
Dominique and I connected via Clubhouse- The Runner’s Lounge where she and her husband talk about all things running. She is my second return guest, and today she is with her husband Ken. Ken has always been athletic but not a runner in the true sense. He did run as part of his training but it was not a primary focus. Because it is Dominique’s passion and Ken wanted to spend more time with his wife, he decided to join her and now they never miss a Couple’s Run Friday
Get a copy of the book Running Is Cheaper Than Therapy: A Journey Back to Wholeness👉🏾here. It is available in hardback, paperback, and newly released audio form
We discuss in-depth her journey into coaching, her recent award nominations, creating her legacy strategy, working with less represented women in sports and how cancer has impacted her life.
“Sometimes we have no choice but to be first.” Khadijah Diggs is back on the podcast to talk about her recent award nominations and notable achievements. She created the Diversity Infusion Syndicate ( DISK) to promote excellence and sisterhood as well as promote a positive image of women and Islam in general, and to diversify the landscape of triathlon.
She is the first African-American woman to be a member of the U.S. Long Course Triathlon Team and the first women wearing a Hijabi to represent the U.S. in any Multisport event.
We discuss in-depth her journey into coaching, her recent award nominations, creating her legacy strategy, working with less represented women in sports and how cancer has impacted her life.
Episode Highlights:
Getting nominated for several awards as a triathlete and a trailblazer
Getting certified as a USAT Certified Coach
Creating the Diversity Infusion Syndicate- DISK
The remarkable women who have joined Khadijah’s program
Candidate assessment to join DISK.
Partnerships and sponsorships for her brand
Losing her loved ones to cancer and why she races to raise cancer awareness
Various races: Completing Iron Man races, her first international race in Cuba
Guest Bio:
Khadijah is a Mother, Project Manager and a Team USA and Silver Ironman All-World Triathlete. Her MISSION is to Promote a Positive Image of Women and Islam in General through Sports.
“Training and racing started off as my therapy to recover from a failing marriage and the loss of loved ones due to cancer. It has remained that but has also become how I express myself and share who I am as Muslim, a Mother and a Woman.” Her GOAL is to open dialogue and connect women of all backgrounds on a personal level by sharing common experiences, joys and struggles through healthy living, group training and healthy competition. “I have learned traveling all over the country and the World to race, that at the core, we are more the same than different. The struggles of motherhood and just being female are universal and it binds us as women.”
During the pandemic Khadijah started organizing Get-Togethers open to everyone, to discuss common and not so common endurance athlete topics. “It was an amazing opportunity for experienced triathletes to share experiences with new triathletes. It’s like having everyone over, just online. These webinars are located on YouTube Channel or on Google Podcasts and are very informative.
Get a copy of the book Running Is Cheaper Than Therapy: A Journey Back to Wholeness👉🏾here. It is available in hardback, paperback, and newly released audio form
I am a perfectionist. I try to be perfect in everything I do. No one is perfect, it is impossible. It causes me undue stress, and I do way too much. Oftentimes, I feel like I am not good enough. I don’t show myself enough grace.
When Covid hit in 2020, I found myself having to shift. Just like most of us. Work was not the same. The world was not the same. All my races were cancelled. We had no organized bike rides, no group swim classes. My community was no more. My finances took a hit, I lost one of my favourite uncles to COVID. I found myself isolated at home. At first, I had contact with a positive person on a ski trip so I had to be quarantined and could not go back to the hospital. I ended up getting COVID following that same ski trip. Living isolated away from friends, family, and my normal activities took a toll on me. Then I had to have surgery, had to recover , and try to get back to skiing, racing, travelling, life.
The last two years have been challenging. I’ve been tested. Listen in to learn how I’m working on being kinder to myself in life, my athletic endeavours and in my personal life.
Episode Highlights:
The pandemic and having to shift
My experience at The National Brotherhood of Skiers summit in 2020
The need to keep going without taking a break
Getting stuck on what should have been instead of what is
Get a copy of the book Running Is Cheaper Than Therapy: A Journey Back to Wholeness👉🏾here. It is available in hardback, paperback, and newly released audio form
Andrew Williams was very active in sports as a child. As he grew older he was more focused on academics. After he got married, and the birth of his first child he gained weight. It was at that time that he started focusing on running to lose weight . His inspiration to complete a Full Distance Ironman race was born after watching Dick and Rick Hoyt (Team Hoyt) on ESPN.
Andrew refers to himself as an unconventional triathlete. He will not miss a family event for training nor is he attached to any training programs.
He believes racing is about showing his family that you can set goals and achieve them. All it takes is discipline and dedication.
Listen and learn about how Andrew stays disciplined in this sport and how he became comfortable with being uncomfortable.
Episode Highlights:
All the sports Andrew enjoyed playing as a child
Building his physical endurance by running
How he progressed to longer races
Completing his first Ironman 70.3 race in Augusta
What new triathletes can learn on discipline and commitment
Staying committed to his family and to the sport
Guest Bio:
Andrew was born and raised in Racine, WI. Throughout his childhood, he was very active in sports with a primary focus on Basketball. After freshman year he decided to concentrate on academics. During college and early in marriage fitness was not his primary focus either. He got up to 250 lbs during his wife’s pregnancy in 2002 and decided to join a gym at that time. His inspiration to complete a Full Distance Ironman race was struck after watching Triathletes Dick and Rick Hoyt (Team Hoyt) on ESPN.
After moving to Atlanta, his friend Reggie mentioned that he did some short distance triathlon races and he just completed IM Augusta 70.3 and suggested that it was a great race for newer triathletes.
After completing Augusta, he felt ready to take on his bucket list item and signed up for Ironman Chattanooga in 2016. Fast forward to 2022, Andrew has completed 7 Full Distance Ironman Races and multiple 70.3.
It is a lifestyle for him. He shares this journey with his wife and kids. They come to most of his races and are very proud and excited to see him race. He is an unconventional triathlete who’s never had a coach and any training plan.
His family always comes first. Andrew has mastered the discipline of being able to stay out on a Friday night, drink and enjoy life and get up Saturday morning at 5:00 am for a 6-hour bike ride.
He coaches little league baseball, volunteers at his kids’ school and manages a Global Team and travels for work. This is what “Anything is Possible” means for Andrew.
Get a copy of the book Running Is Cheaper Than Therapy: A Journey Back to Wholeness👉🏾here. It is available in hardback, paperback, and newly released audio form
Eric Carson has been living an active lifestyle since the 90s that most of us would be happy to emulate.
He started cycling just to get to campus and back. A friend of his asked him to do a 25-mile bike ride. He thought it was a long way back then.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought him back to cycling, and it became a good addiction and a lifestyle.Carson says his greatest joy out of cycling is camaraderie. He enjoys having a great time outdoors with his tribe.
Episode Highlights:
How Eric got into cycling
How he moved from solo rides to cycling with groups
Getting his motorcycle in 2001
How a sports group changes as members change with time
Struggling to stay active when Covid hit in 2020
Cycling again for the pleasure of meeting friends and having a great time
How to get into cycling and find your cycling tribe
Guest Bio:
Eric was borned and raised in Stamford Ct. He has one brother. Played all three major sports in high school (football, baseball, & basketball)
He received my BS in Electrical Engineering from Northeastern University. While there, he had my first introduction to casual biking. He commuted back and forth to campus and work. He did one 25 mile ride at a request of a friend. and thought that was crazy.
He started taking it a little more seriously in the early 90s and did a few multiple sclerosis rides from Richmond to Williamsburg (160 miles over 2 days). That stretch in the 90s culminated in doing one of the Aids Bike Rides in 1997…..a 4 day 365 mile ride from Raleigh NC to Washington DC. He found it very fulfilling.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought him back to cycling, and it became a good addiction and a lifestyle.
Get a copy of the book Running Is Cheaper Than Therapy: A Journey Back to Wholeness👉🏾here. It is available in hardback, paperback, and newly released audio form
