Coach Paula

09/09/2026

I was fortunate to go to Chicago last weekend to see the Husker Volleyball team play at Wrigley Field. A sea of red, over 43,000 people cheering on their favorite team at a nostalgic park on Labor Day weekend. It was historic.

When weather conditions put player safety at risk, the game was put on hold. We knew the odds of it continuing were slim. Disappointment could have easily set in. But what seemed to show up for most was a sense of community, joy in the moment — players and fans singing, dancing, cheering, together.

Did they get to see the game they'd traveled hours for? No. Did they get to be part of something memorable? Absolutely.

The plan can fall apart and the moment can still be worth showing up for. Sometimes the win we came for isn't the one we get.

That's a lesson I carry into every coaching conversation — you can't always control the conditions, but you can always choose how you show up in them..

08/17/2026

I've tracked my walking and activity with a fitness monitor for over five years now. Tracking effort, my heart rate, and my activity as the month goes by.

This summer, the old one gave out. So I got a new one.

The new one wouldn't cooperate. It would beep like it was ready and on, and then nothing. Stuck on zero. No time. No effort. No record that I'd moved at all.

One night, walking with a friend who has the same monitor, I mentioned the struggle. She said: turn off your phone. See if it resets.

I did. It worked.

Something about that stuck with me. So much had been going on around me and with me. And not all of it was tracking. I was moving, but something wasn't registering.

I needed what my monitor needed.

Turned off. Paused. Reset.

Not broken. Just stuck, waiting for a moment to start counting again.

So often we keep going, keep moving, without checking whether anything is actually tracking. Without asking what needs to be turned off before it can turn back on.

My monitor needed to be turned off before it could start again. As it turns out, so did I.

What would it take for you to do the same?

This is the work I get to do with my clients — helping them find the pause before the reset. Sometimes the most powerful moment in coaching isn't pushing forward. It's turning off long enough to come back online.

06/05/2026

Big news — I'm a keynote for Connect Norfolk's Summit and I cannot wait!

The topic: Lead Yourself.

Because the best leaders I know didn't start by understanding others. They started by understanding themselves.

I hope to see you there!

📢 Get Ready to CONNECT! 📢
SUMMIT REGISTRATION NOW OPEN!

Join us for the 2025 CONNECT Summit‼️
🗓️ Thursday, June 25th, 2026
📍 The Cove in Norfolk, NE
⏰ 1:30 PM to 5:30 PM!

(Registration from 1-1:30PM, as we promptly start SUMMIT at 1:30PM!)

👥 Event Highlights:

➡️ Inspiring Keynotes & Networking 💡
➡️ Panel Discussion 📚
➡️ Top 20 Under 40 Recognition 🎉
➡️ Hors d’oeuvres & Networking Happy Hour

🎤 Keynote Speakers
1:30PM Jason Love, Midwest Bank
3:45PM Paula Alder, The Growth Coach

📚 Community Involvement Panel
• Erin Sharpe
• Ashton Spieker
• Austin Truex
• Dana Wockenfuss
• Traci Vauble

🎟 Tickets must be pre-purchased
👉 Registration open NOW!

06/03/2026

Tonight I walked the track at the high school — one of my favorite places to land on a summer evening.

I walk almost every day. Have for two years now. Tonight I noticed something more than how many steps I was wanting to get in. My shins don't hurt anymore. I can go further. My step feels lighter. Two years of showing up, and the progress sneaks up on you.

I also realized I had found the right environment to support me along the way — a beautiful June night, the smell of fresh cut grass, a slight breeze, familiar faces with a wave and a smile. My favorite playlist in my ears and my watch quietly doing the counting so I didn't have to.

I'd come so far.

I had so much gratitude. For where I was. For all of it.

So often, we get so locked in on a finish line, so focused on the end goal, that we lose sight of the distance we've already covered. We forget to celebrate how far we've come.

One day we discover — there is no finish line. The track just keeps going. We finish one race, hit one goal, and find another one to start.

So tonight, I chose gratitude over a finish line. I looked back instead of ahead.

And it was enough.

This is the work I get to do with my clients — helping them pause and recognize how far they've come. Sometimes the most powerful moment in coaching isn't about what's next. It's about honoring where you already are.

06/01/2026

Sunday is hair washing day. Well, one of them — it happens twice a week. By Sunday though, my hair has stories. It's been worn, sweat in, through workouts, yard work, wind, grass clippings from mowing — whatever the last four days decided to throw at it. Tonight it needed two washes just to feel human again.

The first wash worked. But it didn't feel great — thin lather, ok result, it did the job and nothing more.

The second one? That's where the magic happened. Fuller lather, cleaner rinse, you could just feel the difference.

Which made me think about those instructions on the back of every shampoo bottle that we've all seen a thousand times: Wash, rinse, repeat.

When we try something new — building a habit, a skill we're learning, having tough conversations — we know going in that the first attempt probably won't feel great. The experience might be dull. The result will be fine, but not what we thought it might be. So sometimes we stop there.

Repetition is where it works. The effort builds on itself. You start to feel the difference.

Growth is the same way. The first attempt is necessary — but it's rarely the one that feels amazing. You have to do it again.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

05/28/2026

We spent part of last weekend in Chicago, and hopped on the L. I was taking in the city and missed our stop. We weren't even that far off our path — we could have gotten back on and gone back to the right stop — instead we got off and found a simpler way home.

You see, missed stops are often just part of the journey. The question isn't whether they'll happen — it's whether you'll recognize what's there for you in that moment. Everything is figuroutable. Nothing is lost when you shift your focus from where you were supposed to be, to where you actually are.

What if the missed stop isn't a setback, but an invitation?

Coaching can help you develop the mindset to find the opportunity in the unplanned moment — to see the detour not as lost ground, but as part of the path.

Where in your life are you trying to get back to the stop you missed — when a different route might actually take you somewhere better?

05/22/2026

I sat down the other night to finalize my last post — the one about slowing down and changing your view. Somewhere in the middle of it, my laptop battery died. No charger. I had to let it sit.

The next morning I sat back down at my kitchen table, reread what I had written, and the words just flowed. It was better than the night before.

As a coach, I don't just practice my techniques and tools — I live them. So I paused to notice what was there for me in that moment, chuckling at the irony of the new perspective that hit me that I didn't even know I was looking for.

The post got to breathe. So did I.

Sometimes inconveniences are the pauses we need to see something from another view.

05/21/2026

I walked a street this week that I drive nearly every day. Same street. Completely different world.

From the car, the scenery is memorized — I've driven it so many times, I already know what's there. Or so I thought. On foot, those same trees that line the street form a canopy over the sidewalk, offering a moment of solitude and a perceived distance from the busy road. I stopped and took a picture, because I almost couldn't believe the shift I so noticeably felt.

Routine gives us comfort and familiarity. But comfort and familiarity can quietly narrow what we see — we stop looking, because we think we already know.

That's often when people feel stuck, not because options don't exist... because the view hasn't changed.

In coaching, we slow down and look from a new angle. A fresh perspective doesn't just change the view.

It opens us to possibility.

05/18/2026

What if the person whose approval you've been waiting for... is yours?

That was the question I had the honor of bringing into a room full of women last week at the Women Embracing Business Woman of the Year Luncheon — and it's one I haven't stopped thinking about since.

I was invited to speak in celebration of this year's honoree, Leisa Piper. Leisa is the kind of woman who doesn't just talk about showing up authentically — she lives it. Every single day. In every room she walks into. She is joy, generosity, and genuine love for people wrapped up in one extraordinary human being. She deserved every moment of that celebration, and then some.

But the thing about being in a room full of women who gather to lift one another up — is that something always happens. The conversation gets bigger than the occasion. And what I kept coming back to, for every woman in that room, was this:

You don't have to become someone. You already are someone.

Stop apologizing for her. Stop editing her. Stop keeping her quiet so the room stays comfortable.

That version of you that you keep promising yourself you'll step into someday?

Make someday today.

Thank you to the Women Embracing Business community for welcoming me into your circle and trusting me with your room. You are exactly what women supporting women looks like — and it was an honor to be a part of it.