In this episode Elena provides an overview of the ACE framework, one of the core strategies for coaching resilience.
Episode 37: How to ACE Your Coaching Conversations (Coaching Tool Episode)

In this episode Elena provides an overview of the ACE framework, one of the core strategies for coaching resilience.
In this episode Elena once again coaches Kathrina Mendez, a teacher in California we first met in episode 2 where the conversation centered around drawing boundaries, practicing self-compassion, and imagining possibilities.
Seven months later Kathrina finds herself in a different context, confronting new challenges of teaching virtually during a pandemic. Listen in to hear about the quest for growing self-compassion and implementing power doses of self-care to support Kathrina in being the teacher she wants to be – for herself, and her students.
In a new type of episode that comes out once a quarter, Elena shares her wisdom on new beginnings, letting go of what no longer serves, and accepting all the feelings. She shares her 2020 and 2021 words for the year, and how she’s living those words.
This week we’re replaying one of our favorite episodes from season one of the podcast. In this episode Elena talks to Garret Bucks, an educator and organizer of white people looking to organize their friends, neighbors and colleagues for racial equity. Elena and Garret explore the role of white people and how to leverage the tools of Transformational Coaching in this moment of creation where we have the ability to reimagine a better, more just world.
Our next season of the Bright Morning Podcast kicks off in January with all new episodes. Elena will once again be coaching clients and pulling back the curtain on her coaching moves…but this time it will be a little different. Instead of introducing new clients with each episode, the clients you met in season one will be back so you can see how the coaching relationship evolves over time. To kick things off, we’ll listen in on Elena’s second coaching conversation with Kathrina Mendez, a teacher Elena coached in season one around drawing boundaries, practicing self-compassion, and imagining possibilities.
In this Grab Bag episode Elena and her friend, Maia Heyck-Merlin, discuss what topped their list of what they watched, read and listened to in 2020.
This week on the podcast, Elena answers all your questions! Well, many of your questions, including how she “does it all,” what to do if you’re a coach of color working in a hostile environment, and what has had the greatest impact or influence on her as a coach.
Linda Cliatt-Wayman is best known for her 2015 TED Talk, “How to Fix a Broken School” in which she shared the story of how she led the transformation of a Philadelphia high school. In this episode, Elena uncovered how Principal Wayman became the seemingly fearless force of a leader that she appears to be, who her primary influences were, and how she’s navigated changes she couldn’t control.
On today’s episode Elena dives into three approaches she utilized in Episode 27 while she coached Naomi on her pursuit of building an anti-racist school. You’ll hear her talk through how and why she decided to pull on three of her foundational tools: Core Values, Mind the Gap, and Strengths-Based Coaching.
How do we structure our school, during distance learning and beyond, in an anti-racist way? How do we build trust between the adults in our community so we can achieve that? In today’s episode Elena coaches Naomi Mehl Yokota, a second year assistant principal in Los Angeles, as she explores these timely and critical questions.