The Big Picture Class
Reimagining Your Life’s Work
A Group Coaching Intensive
​
March 2 - April 12, 2025
with Kathryn Lorenzen & Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
​​
"There is no passion to be found playing small—
in settling for a life that is less than the one you
are capable of living." ~Nelson Mandela
​
Guest teachers via Special Podcasts: Gregg Levoy, Alana Muller, Yvette Hyater-Adams, Vi Tran,
Kevin Willmott, Eric Maisel, Marianela Madrona, Kelley Hunt, Erin McGrane, and Catherine Kirkland
​
Your work—whether it’s in the arts, in a traditional career, profession, business, or in retirement—can bring you greater purpose and joy. Your work can help you find your own voice and expression, and help others find and amplify the visions so needed for our local and global communities.
Sometimes we find ourselves at a crossroads, feeling a need to reimagine our work. What do you want to bring into the world? What is calling to you now? Is there another way you might want to spend your days, your talent, or your precious energy?
​
The Big Picture Class, a 7-week group experience and coaching intensive, meets you where you are and helps you discover and map out your individualized path. Mentored by experienced teachers and inspired by peers as committed as you are, you create your own new journey for meaningful work, art, or service.
Whether you're just beginning, changing careers, retooling your current work, or revisioning your life for your next act, this class guides you into your clearest next steps toward your callings and how you want to design your life now
​
The Art of Adaptation in a Time of Change
​
The world continues to change rapidly, and many of us want to shift course and learn new ways to connect with communities, resources, clients, audiences, and collaborators. The Big Picture Class incorporates the art of adaptation: learning how and when to shift our work to more easily and fully embark upon the path ahead. You'll explore nuts and bolts of taking imperfect action as well as how to grow greater resilience and clarity.
​
The Experience
​
"This training gave me the clarity and strength to hear the sounds of others along this journey like echoes in the cave I am exploring. I am not alone.”
~ Brenda Magnetti, Head of strategic planning, 9Roots Marketing, Chicago
​
"'Keep doing. Keep doing. Keep doing.' This is one of the most important work that world needs now more than at any other time." ​
~ Mukan Mataal, engineer and mindfulness and resilience coach and educator, Toronto
​
"It's a journey that is worth every ounce of your investment -- time, energy, financial, emotionally."
~ Jade Eby, entrepreneur, consultant, and author, Minnesota
​
"The training gave me the tools to wade through all the possibilities, identify those that best expressed my values, and make a plan for my future.”
~ Diane Glass, former newspaper editor, current poet and writer, Des Moines
​
The Big Picture Class: Reimaging Your Life's Work
March 2- April 12, 2025
This interactive class can be done from anywhere since all components of it are online or on Zoom. The 8-week class includes:
-
Weekly Zoom sessions Sunday evenings for discussions, group work, featured guest teachers, and in-depth learning, all happening March 2, 9, 23, and 30, and April 6 and 13 at 6:30-8 CST/ 7:30-9 EST/ 5:30-7 MST/ 4:30-6 PST. (Note: we do not meet on March 16.)
-
Individualized portfolios you create, in concert with Caryn and Kathryn, of what you need to launch your new work in balance with your life.
-
Online private website featuring weekly discussions, reflections, podcasts, links, resources, and a forum for sharing what we're discovering along the way.
-
Guidance in putting together a portfolio of all you need to reimagine your life's work.
-
One-on-one coaching session every two weeks for a total of four sessions, two with Kathryn, and two with Caryn.
-
Beyond-the Beyond support to help you succeed (see below)
-
All participants who successfully finish the class receive a certificate of completion.
​
Week by Week Topics
Week One: The Story of Your Work
By exploring your work journey so far – including work for income, love, and service – you can more readily see what you love doing, what strengths have most served you, and where you best grow and flourish. You will also gain a better view of what tends to diminish or deplete you and how to aim toward what nourishes and sustains you.
Week Two: The Calling to Your Work
Callings are conversations you can engage in more deeply to better discern meaning and purpose in your work and life. This week, we'll investigate what's calling, the nature of callings as long-term unfoldings rather than bolts of lightning, and how to fully participate in listening and speaking to your callings.
Week Three: The Adaptation in Your Work
By identifying your gifts and challenges, values and beliefs, you can more readily discern what you want and don't want to be central in your next act. You'll look at ways you've adapted in the past, identify your typical patterns for planning and taking action, and find new angles to see and incorporate future opportunities.
Week Four: The House of Your Work
The possibilities are vast for most of us, and some kind of structure is what can make it all work. This week you can “home in” to what sings most to you, and from there, design a potential path. You'll also consider how you want to organize and inhabit your time while beginning to research what resources, connections, or new skills you may need.
Week Five: The Path of Your Work
Building on what you've discovered in our first four weeks, you'll further map out next steps and milestones, plus what support, collaboration, and companionship you need along the way. You'll also explore more ways to navigate when the path goes astray or leads to challenges.
Week Six: The Unfolding of Your Work
Integrating new habits and nourishing practices into your life – as well as more detailed plans for what you will research, explore, and learn in the seasons ahead – can help you turn your dream into your experience. This final week, we'll return to our gifts and callings for further guidance on how to plan the next year while growing clarity and resilience along the way.​​
What You Can Create
and Accomplish
By the end of this class, you will have a clearer understanding of your path to your next act. You will have opportunities to create:​
-
A deeper understanding of your gifts and strengths, with a developed concept for your service, product, art, or pursuit.
​
-
A personal vision and plan for your work (whether for income, growth, art, love, or service), including best next steps and how to sustain yourself along the path ahead.​
​
-
A fuller picture of your work story along with the tools and approaches you need to create a new story that follows your callings now.
-
Clarity on what resources, support, learning, and companionship you need to sustain you in the work of your next act.​
-
An effective and authentic way to communicate your new direction, including how you speak and write about it, to connect with others.
​
-
​An individually-tailored portfolio that maps how to put your vision into action, including articulating your values, plans, research, possibilities, and sources of support for coming years.
​
-
​A journal of writing and other arts for greater exploration of your work, art, or service.​
-
​An inspiring community and effective mentors as you continue down the path of your callings and vocations.​
Podcast Guest Teachers​
We are grateful to Gregg Levoy, Yvette Hyater-Adams, Alana Muller, Kevin Willmott, Kelley Hunt, Eric Maisel, Erin McGrane, Catherine Kirkland, and Marianela Medrano, who are featured in podcasts created just for this class. Here are their bios, following their photos (left to right).
​
Gregg Levoy is the author of Vital Signs: The Nature and Nurture of Passion (Penguin), and Callings: Finding and Following An Authentic Life (Random House) –rated among the "Top 20 Career Publications" by the Workforce Information Group and a text in various graduate programs in Management and Organizational Leadership. He is a former "behavioral specialist" at USA Today, and a regular blogger for Psychology Today
​​
Yvette Hyater-Adams, MA-TLA, is a poet, teaching artist, and proven culture change strategist as well as a highly-sought-after executive coach. A former C-Suite bank executive, management coaching firm CEO, and president of an international institution for leadership, Yvette's writing contributes to the discourse on women's leadership, race relations, personal and community transformation. Here is Yvette's essay, "Transformative Narratives: Women’s Self-Leadership Milieu as a Pathway for Social Change."
​
Alana Muller is a speaker, workshop facilitator, business relationship coach, and author of the book Coffee Lunch Coffee: A Practical Field Guide for Master Networking. She travels the world to share her expertise in building relationships for community, business, and personal enrichment. Here's Alana's columns in The Business Journals.​
Kevin Willmott is an Oscar-winning writer as well as a director, actor, and educator whose films include KKKlansman, Da 5 Bloods, The Only Good Indian, and Bunker Hill. He is a professor of Film & Media Studies at the University of Kansas.
​
Kelley Hunt as forged a distinguished reputation as a recording artist, international touring performer and published songwriter. With over two decades of touring and recording credits and six CDs in international distribution, Kelley released her sixth CD, The Beautiful Bones.
​
Dr. Eric Maisel is best known as the pioneer of creativity coaching. He has authored more than 50 books (his most recent is Redesign Your Mind) and is a regular contributor to Psychology Today. One of Eric's popular programs is the Life Purpose Boot Camp, and he has a special passion for how we make meaning, especially through our work.
​
Erin McGrane is a musician, actress, author, public speaker, professional development mentor, and commercial real estate professional at Clemons Real Estate Company. She appeared in the Oscar-nominated film, Up in the Air, toured the U.S. extensively with her musical group, Victor & Penny, and co-founded an annual immersive event focused on performance, creativity, and songwriting.
​
Catherine Kirkland enjoyed 35+ years as an award-winning art director, illustrator, and graphic design in publishing and advertising. After rekindling her earlier interest in painting, she has made creating and showing her art her full-time business since 2017.
​
Dr. Marianela Medrano is a Dominican writer, psychotherapist, and poetry therapist. She has more than 20 years of experience working for diverse populations. In her work she uses literature as a healing tool. She has extensive training in Mindfulness Based-Stress Reduction with Jon Kabat-Zinn and has taught widely, including at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology.
​
Vi Tran is best known as the founding owner and managing curator of The Buffalo Room performance event space and as the award-winning creator of The Butcher’s Son, an autobiographical refugee story and folk musical memoir about his family’s escape from Vietnam. Born in the shadow of Sai Gon, Vietnam and raised in the cattle country of southwestern Kansas, he’s equal parts sea salt and wheat fields. See his Youtube channel here.
Beyond the Beyond Support
​
Living your right livelihood is an ongoing journey, so we offer you support that goes beyond the class.
You will be part of an ongoing private online group where you can share triumphs and trials, ask for help, and find companionship.
You'll also receive ample resources, including a tool kit of inexpensive sources for DIY websites, printing and promotional material, plus discounted custom coaching packages with Caryn and Kathryn.
How to Find Out More
​
If you're confident this is a right opportunity for you, please click on "Application" below. If you'd like to talk with one of us to explore how this class fits your needs, please click on "Discovery Call" and select a time we can visit more.
​
Find out all the registration information, including fees and other details, here.
Early bird rates until Mar. 1, 2025.
​