Ronderings Podcast Por Ron Rapatalo arte de portada

Ronderings

Ronderings

De: Ron Rapatalo
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In RONderings, Ron talks to his guests about their superpowers, including career advice, diversity, mindset, wellness, and leadership. Ron grew up in New York City, and has been coaching and leading executive searches for the last five years, taking what he has learned from 15 years in corporate, higher education, government, and non-profit contexts. He and his wife are obsessed with reality television, and Ron also moonlights as a men's personal stylist and group fitness instructor. Ron says, "I believe in the power of intuition and deepening one’s self-awareness and impact on others. I believe in the power of connection and transparency. I believe that we must dismantle systems of oppression and racism to recover our fullest humanity. Most of all, I believe our power to change the world starts from changing ourselves first."© 2023-2025 Ron Rapatalo Ciencias Sociales Economía Exito Profesional
Episodios
  • They Want Your Work but Not Your Voice: Ed Reform, Leadership, and Reclaiming Space with Dr. Maya M. Faison

    They Want Your Work but Not Your Voice: Ed Reform, Leadership, and Reclaiming Space with Dr. Maya M. Faison
    Apr 8 2026
    Leadership coach and former statewide education CEO Dr. Maya M. Faison knows what it looks like when organizations want your brilliance but not your voice, and she is done staying quiet about it. In this episode of Ronderings, Ron sits down with Maya, founder of Faison Advisory Group and creator of the UNMUTED coaching experience, to talk about what it actually costs black women to lead inside systems that were never designed for them. Maya grew up in Philadelphia, where a classmate once told her she was not smart enough to get into Masterman, the top-ranked magnet school in the state. Her parents went to the school to apply. The counselor hesitated. But a principal who chose to see her potential advocated for her admission. What Maya found out later was that her older sister had been turned away years earlier. Different principal, different outcome. One block separated Masterman from a school where a third grader could not read the words "press enter to start." That gap set everything in motion. She went from the University of Pennsylvania to Harvard to the classroom, then into policy work as one of the original teacher ambassador fellows at the US Department of Education. She eventually led a statewide charter school advocacy organization for nearly a decade, passing legislation at rates most policy shops only talk about. But behind those wins, the personal cost was compounding. Board members suggesting she hire a white man to run the organization she was already running. Colleagues undermining her team. The quiet, constant pressure to shrink. When Maya started attending EdLoC convenings and connecting with other black women in nonprofit ed reform, she realized her story was not an individual one. It was systemic. Women hospitalized from stress. Women blackballed for speaking up. Women who left the country entirely. That pattern is now the foundation of her research project, I Survived Ed Reform, and the reason she coaches women to stop muting themselves and start leading from wholeness. Tune in to hear why Maya believes your job will never love you back, and what it looks like to lead without giving away your soul. Chapters:📚 01:36 Publish your book at www.leveragepublishinggroup.com 🎒 02:42 Meet Dr. Maya M. Faison: Philly kid, educator, truth teller 🏫 06:19 The little girl who said "you're not smart enough" and the gloves came off📖 08:24 Tutoring a third grader who couldn't read the screen one block from the best school in the state 📻 13:33 Mavis Beacon, summer spelling lists, and a nerdy family dinner radio show 🎓 17:26 Traditional teacher licensure, Harvard, and the long route into policy ✍️ 21:45 Find support for writing your impact-driven book at www.booksthatmatter.org 😤 23:10 "There's this other guy": being told to hire someone to do the job you were hired for 🤝 26:19 Walking into EdLoC spaces and finding out it was all of us 📓 28:35 Interviewing women across the country for I Survived Ed Reform 🏥 30:23 Hospitals, Ghana, and the physical cost of leading under fire 💔 37:12 The biggest regret: putting off families for organizations that moved on without them 🌟 38:19 If you are a leader or changemaker looking for support, check out www.geniusdiscovery.org 📉 41:16 A love letter on LinkedIn and what 300,000 layoffs mean for black women 🧭 44:19 Negotiate from abundance, not desperation 💎 47:54 Maya's Rondering: you don't owe them your soul 👕 50:47 The shirt says healing over hustle and she means it 🎧 58:37 Want a podcast just like this one? Check out www.podcastsmatter.com Links:Connect: www.linkedin.com/in/mayabfaison Website: www.mayafaison.com Faison Advisory Group: www.faisonadvisorygroup.comI Survived Ed Reform: www.isurvivededreform.com Instagram: @mayabfaison Connect with Maya on LinkedIn or visit mayafaison.com to learn more about her coaching work with women in leadership and her upcoming book, I Survived Ed Reform. Connect with Ron: www.linkedin.com/in/rapataloCheck Out Ron's Book: www.amazon.com/dp/1613431473 Leverage Publishing Group: www.leveragepublishinggroup.comPublish a Book That Matters: http://booksthatmatter.orgStart a Podcast That Matters: http://podcastsmatter.comGo from Expert to Thought Leader: http://geniusdiscovery.org
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    59 m
  • From Rupture to Aperture: Peace, Justice, and the Art of Community-Driven Education with Hector Calderón

    From Rupture to Aperture: Peace, Justice, and the Art of Community-Driven Education with Hector Calderón
    Apr 1 2026

    Hector Calderón grew up watching the South Bronx burn, taught himself English through Gilligan's Island tapes, and went on to co-found the first Human Rights High School in the nation.

    In this episode of Ronderings, Ron sits down with Hector Calderón, co-founder and former principal of El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice, educator, racial justice facilitator, and leadership coach with over 25 years of experience building liberatory spaces for leaders and communities.

    Hector traces his path from a childhood split between a burning South Bronx block and a one-room schoolhouse in the Dominican Republic, to landing at the epicenter of hip hop's birth on Banana Kelly Street, to finding his calling at El Puente in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in 1993. El Puente was not a school dropped into a community. It was a community deciding what kind of school it deserved. He shares the three founding tenets that shaped it: education as liberation, disciplines in service of community needs, and integrated curriculum that mirrors how the real world actually works.

    The conversation moves into what Hector does today, coaching leaders through the eighteen inches between the brain and the heart, and holding firm to the Frantz Fanon charge he lives by: every generation must find its destiny, fulfill it or betray it.


    Tune in to hear how Hector Calderón turns every rupture into an aperture, and what that means for the rest of us.


    Chapters:

    📚 01:49 Publish your book at www.leveragepublishinggroup.com

    🌎 02:39 Hector Calderón's story: from the South Bronx to the Dominican Republic and back

    🏫 08:55 Navigating dangerous schools and the move to Queens

    🗣️ 10:06 Teaching himself English through Gilligan's Island tapes

    🎵 15:18 Growing up at the birth of hip hop on Banana Kelly Street

    🏗️ 19:45 Co-founding El Puente Academy: a community building its own school

    ⚖️ 22:58 The three founding tenets of El Puente

    ✍️ 25:29 Find support for writing your impact-driven book at www.booksthatmatter.org

    🧬 29:42 Student asthma research published in JAMA and a vaccination clinic that beat the Department of Health

    🔥 36:47 Coaching leaders today: the eighteen inches between brain and heart

    🌟 42:35 If you are a leader or changemaker looking for support, check out www.geniusdiscovery.org

    📖 44:29 Frantz Fanon and keeping justice alive right now

    🎤 45:35 Hector's poem: in the beginning was the word

    💡 52:10 Learn to turn ruptures into apertures

    🎧 01:00:05 Want a podcast just like this one? Check out www.podcastsmatter.com


    Links:

    LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/hector-calderón-602b4124

    Connect with Hector on LinkedIn and keep an eye out for his upcoming book of poetry, art, and educational reflections.


    Connect with Ron: www.linkedin.com/in/rapatalo
    Check Out Ron's Book: www.amazon.com/dp/1613431473

    Leverage Publishing Group: www.leveragepublishinggroup.com
    Publish a Book That Matters: http://booksthatmatter.org
    Start a Podcast That Matters: http://podcastsmatter.com
    Go from Expert to Thought Leader: http://geniusdiscovery.org

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    1 h y 1 m
  • Issues in Our Tissues: Mindfulness, Burnout, and Conscious Leadership with Amanda Muhammad

    Issues in Our Tissues: Mindfulness, Burnout, and Conscious Leadership with Amanda Muhammad
    Mar 25 2026

    Mindfulness coach and professional development consultant Amanda Muhammad knows what burnout looks like from the inside, and she built a company to help organizations do something about it.

    In this episode of Ronderings, Ron sits down with Amanda, founder of Mako Mindfulness, to explore workplace stress management, psychological safety, and what it genuinely takes to build a culture where people can show up at their best.

    Amanda grew up in Kansas City in a family rooted in movement and faith. Her father ran a karate dojo, her mother became a certified yoga instructor, and a purple yoga mat from TJ Maxx is where her own practice began. She studied HR and organizational leadership, planned the corporate climb, but every workplace she moved through told the same story: people were quietly burning out, and no one was talking about it.

    When she finally decided to make the leap into entrepreneurship, she didn't announce it. She quit her job, told nobody, and spent a full year building Mako Mindfulness in the trenches before her family even knew she'd left. What carried her through was a daily faith practice and a prayer book she kept re-reading from the start. Every time she hit the halfway point, a new contract landed.

    Ron and Amanda dig into the gap between what organizations say about well-being and what their policies actually create, and why generational tension gets worse when leaders stop thinking beyond their immediate needs. They also get personal about why making your life bigger than your job might be the most underrated thing a leader can do.

    Tune in to hear what Amanda's story says about what conscious leadership actually demands.


    Chapters:

    📚 01:50 Publish your book at www.leveragepublishinggroup.com

    🌱 02:41 Amanda Muhammad's Story: From Kansas City to Conscious Leadership

    🧘 04:06 A Yoga Class, a Purple Mat, and a Practice That Stuck

    🙏 10:20 Leaving Corporate, Telling Nobody, and Trusting the Leap

    ✍️ 22:15 Find support for writing your impact-driven book at www.booksthatmatter.org

    💼 23:04 What Mako Mindfulness Actually Does

    🪞 27:05 Collective Care vs Self Care: What Organizations Get Wrong

    👥 31:52 The Leadership Mirror Check

    🔄 32:52 Generational Tension at Work and Who Has to Move First

    🚀 35:08 The Future of Work and the Gig Economy

    🌟 39:39 If you are a leader or changemaker looking for support, check out www.geniusdiscovery.org

    🎨 40:23 Art, Play, and Why Amanda Goes to Museums to Do Her Emails

    🌍 51:35 Making Your Life Bigger Than Your Job

    🎧 01:00:29 Want a podcast just like this one? Check out www.podcastsmatter.com


    Links:

    Website: www.makomindfulness.com
    Instagram: www.instagram.com/makomindfulness

    LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/amandamuhammad
    Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn or visit Mako Mindfulness to learn more about her work in stress management, psychological safety, and professional development for schools and organizations.


    Connect with Ron: www.linkedin.com/in/rapatalo
    Check Out Ron's Book: www.amazon.com/dp/1613431473

    Leverage Publishing Group: www.leveragepublishinggroup.com
    Publish a Book That Matters: http://booksthatmatter.org
    Start a Podcast That Matters: http://podcastsmatter.com
    Go from Expert to Thought Leader: http://geniusdiscovery.org

    For more great podcasts like this one, visit: https://podcaststhatmatter.org

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    1 h y 2 m
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