From One Season to the Next: A New Chapter for Practicing Connection

Change is part of every journey - even the ones we love most. 

In this episode, Jessica Beckendorf welcomes new co-host Erin Carlson Rivera, and shares parting reflections from longtime co-host Coral Owen. Together, they explore how slowing down, creating space, and staying curious can help us stay connected through seasons of change.

Change is both inevitable and deeply human - and this special episode is all about how we navigate it together.

Join us for an episode that honors the past, embraces the next chapter, and reminds us that connection is something we can keep practicing - no matter where we are in the journey.

Community Challenge:

This week, take a moment to name the space you’re in right now - not just what you’re doing, but what you’re experiencing. Maybe it’s a transition, a settling-in, or a building phase.

Then ask yourself: What am I ready to release to make space for what’s next?

Share one insight or small practice that’s helping you stay grounded in your work or community using #PracticingConnection. Let’s normalize the in-between - together.

Links and resources from this episode:

• Join our LinkedIn group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12879756/ 
• Send us a message: practicingconnection@oneop.org 

Transcript

JESSICA BECKENDORF: [00:00:00] Hi, welcome to the Practicing Connection Podcast. I'm Jessica Beckendorf. This episode is a little different from what we originally planned, my longtime co-host Coral Owen had hoped to join me today for a conversation welcoming our new co-host, Erin Carlson Rivera. 

Unfortunately, Coral was not able to be here when we're recording, but she did share a few reflections with us before stepping away from the podcast, and I'd love to share some of her thoughts with you later in the episode.

Coral has been an incredible partner and presence here at Practicing Connection and at OneOp, and while we'll miss her behind the mic, we're so excited for what's ahead for her, and grateful for everything she's helped to build here. 

And now I'm thrilled to announce my guest today: our new co-host Erin Carlson Rivera.

Erin is a [00:01:00] self-described “chaos wrangler” and communication expert, who spent the last decade with UW Madison's division of Extension, working across programs from community development to urban agriculture, and probably everything in between. Because that's what Extension does, right? She's passionate about systems that make work simpler, kinder, and more sustainable outside of work.

Erin loves to garden, so do I, and paint in gouache style, and in her words, “Eat cheese and read fantasy novels.” And I'm pretty sure that eating cheese is a prerequisite of living in Wisconsin, because that's also on my list. So Erin, welcome. I am so happy that you're here.

ERIN CARLSON RIVERA: Thank you. It's good to be here. It's weird to be on this side of the microphone, but I'm having a good time.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Yeah, you've been co-producing for a little while now. So, let's actually start with what brought you here. 

You've already been doing so much incredible work with OneOp, and with UW Madison Division of Extension. So what drew [00:02:00] you to saying yes to co-hosting Practicing Connection?

ERIN CARLSON RIVERA: Oh, that's a good question. I think it was a weirdly good fit for everything I was already doing. I was often given the fun task of onboarding new people to the office culture,

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Mm-hmm.

ERIN CARLSON RIVERA: Which meant that I did a lot of coaching people and a lot of teaching them about communication and boundaries. And it turns out that's a lot of what we talk about here.

And one thing I love about Extension is how much the work is not possible unless you're collaborating with other people. And this podcast is such a fun combination of sharing stories about collaboration, and then getting into really nitty gritty specific details about, “Here's a thing to try,” and it just is such, you know, like these are the conversations that I'm having with my coworkers [00:03:00] all of the time.

I, like low key, can't believe they're not sick of me, where I'll be like, “Hey, have you tried this?” I try to only offer advice when advice is asked for and not be the person who's always telling everybody, “Try this, try this, try this.” 

But here is this lovely platform where I can tell people, “Try this, try this, try this,” and it's expected and wanted and not, you know, your micromanaging coworker telling you everything to do.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: I would say ‘leader,’ right? You've already brought up how you've had to onboard and coach, and that's a role that you've seen yourself doing, and we talk a lot about leadership on this podcast, so I would say you're a leader.

ERIN CARLSON RIVERA: Well, thank you. Okay. The other less serious, more fun reason I said yes is because since high school people have been telling me that I have a really soothing voice and they really love listening to me talk. [00:04:00] And I was like, great, here's a way where I can share my soothing voice. You know, it feels like a gift.

I have very little to do with what my voice sounds like other than, you know, taking care of it and vocal lessons for singing. But you know, my talking voice is just how I talk. So it feels like a fun way to kind of share this thing that has been really supportive to other people. 

It feels a little weird to say that, look, I've lived in Wisconsin long enough that I'm very Midwestern, and I feel like stating facts sometimes feels like bragging.

But, yeah, that’s my other reason.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Well, I've had similar feedback about my voice, so hopefully we are not gonna put anyone to sleep. I'm kidding, I'm kidding. We're just, it's going to be a great compliment, is what I'm trying to say.

ERIN CARLSON RIVERA: We're going to have a good time.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Well, you know, before today's recording, Coral shared a few reflections about her time with Practicing Connection, and I want to share some of those words with our listeners.

So Coral says, “When I think back over my time with Practicing Connection, the [00:05:00] moments that really capture what this podcast is about for me are the ones where we slowed things down enough. To name what people are actually living inside of, not just what they're doing on the surface. Episodes where we talked about ambiguity, transition, gratitude, and hard seasons.

Those stand out not because they offered big answers, but because they made space for honesty. To me, the heart of the podcast has always been about normalizing the in-between and reminding people they're not doing it wrong, just because things feel unclear. Those conversations captured the spirit of the show, thoughtful, human, and grounded in real life rather than perfection.”

I wish I could do an impression of Coral so that you could actually hear that in her voice. But I do want to add that I love what she said about the spirit of the show being thoughtful, human, and grounded in real life. I particularly love that because that was intentional from our very first planning session, like years ago, and it [00:06:00] remains an important pillar of how we do things around here.

So Erin, when you hear that, what does that bring up for you?

ERIN CARLSON RIVERA: Wow. Yeah, that is also one of the things that I love about this podcast. I've just, you know, I've worked at Extension a lot. I've seen a lot of different partnerships and a lot of different people. I've worked with a lot of different people and I've seen a lot of really cool things die, because people wanted it to be perfect before it started, or perfect before they could make changes, or being so uncomfortable with ambiguity that everything just fell apart.

And I love the hopefulness of this podcast, and how we make space for people to be messy, but still equip them and empower them. Hopefully give them tools that they can use to continue trying to make changes, you know, to be in process and not get stuck in the mess, but be realistic [00:07:00] about, “Hey, this is messy and it doesn't have to be messy forever. Here's some things, here's some stepping stones in the river so you can get somewhere new.” 

And that has always been one of the things that I just love about this podcast is this space for being messy, but still kind of - challenge is the wrong word; encouraging people to try new things, to take risks, to not let messiness prevent them from trying.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Well, and to do it together, right. And I heard that, in some of what you were saying there, this idea of connection and collaboration are really, really important to, well, not just the podcast, right, but really, the podcast is the mechanism for the work that we're trying to put out there in the world, and the tools that we're trying to help people with.

And so, you know, people are not out there alone in the wilderness. We're really trying to show them that, not alone. And that, we need to be a little messy together. We need to [00:08:00] coalesce together. We need to maybe ebb and flow between those two things, to make some of those little baby steps.

So when you think of connection and collaboration in your own life or work, what experiences or communities have shaped your perspective the most?

ERIN CARLSON RIVERA: Yeah, this is such a good question. Okay. And I say that about every question, and I'm so sorry, but Jessica, you do genuinely - you ask me questions and I go, “Huh? Oh shoot. I have to think about that one.” 

Okay. So for me, when I'm thinking about the collaboration, one of the very first things that I think about is being in choir. Or being in a theater production. I am a theater kid, former theater kid, and former choir kid. And I spent a lot of time making art, doing plays, singing with groups of people in school who I normally would not hang out with. And maybe we didn't even really like each other that much. [00:09:00] But we had this shared, common goal of, we wanted to create something that was an experience for our community.

And I, you know, it sometimes feels silly to think so much about choir, but I think it genuinely is such a helpful metaphor for how to do things in community. Because if you don't all know what you're doing, if you don't all know the communication conventions, yeah, if you don't know ‘what is my role,’ one person can't be an entire choir, and nobody should try to be an entire choir.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Doesn't autotune help?!

ERIN CARLSON RIVERA: You know, stacking audio, but the joy of a choir is having people working together and working harmoniously. And sometimes you sing in unison, and sometimes you're all singing different things. I love that. And I love how when you're in a section and you're all singing the [00:10:00] alto line, I was an alto, you're all singing the alto line and you have just some note that you're holding for 16 beats. 

And nobody can actually hold breath that long unless you're a trained opera singer. Okay, you can, 16 isn't that long, but I think you get what I mean. There's a really long note and then you stagger your breathing.

And I just think about that every time I'm on a team. I want to say, “Hey, let's all plan our vacations so they're timed.” And I just think about singing in a choir where you don't want everyone to take a break at the same time. You kind of want to intersperse it. That's such a silly metaphor, but I genuinely think that it's been really impactful, because those are some of the places where I first learned, ‘here's what it looks like to be a group of people all coming here for the same goal, even if we are different.’

JESSICA BECKENDORF: And even if we don't all get along, like you said before, which I think is, that's such a great point to bring up. I was a show choir and marching band person as well. [00:11:00] And that was such a good point you brought up about, you know, I didn't get along with every single person in my choir or band.

I knew I wasn't a strong singer, also in alto, by the way. I knew I wasn't a strong singer. And what people thought of that, you know, I avoided those people and I stuck with the people who were, but we still had a common goal we helped each other out, right? I wasn't a strong singer and so I didn't do solos.

Other people did that, and that helped the whole choir out. 

ERIN CARLSON RIVERA: Yeah.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: That point. 

So I'd like to switch gears a little bit here, Erin, we've talked a little bit about how you've been part of Practicing Connection in different roles in different seasons. I mean, really, you've been behind the scenes with us since last June. Ao for, you know, a good seven months or so. Seven, eight months.

So what do you see in your time here so far? What have you seen as the heartbeat of this podcast? I feel like that's a [00:12:00] really hard question and I'm so sorry.

ERIN CARLSON RIVERA: Yeah. You really didn't pick any softball questions for me. Okay, yeah. I would say for me, the heartbeat of this podcast is this idea that what we do matters. Both the interviews and the practicasts really highlight how much it's possible to make changes. And when I'm really grumpy, I really need someone to tell me that it doesn't have to be like this forever.

You know, I've had some like navigating processes of burnout and I kind of really wish I had listened to this podcast earlier, because I think a lot of what really shines for me with this podcast is just, ‘here are tools, here are pictures of how it could be, here are pathways to get to somewhere new.’

And I just love how hopeful that is, and this idea that we can make small changes and it will impact our life. And even if things are hard, we [00:13:00] can do it better. And maybe you're not in a place where things are hard, but you could still have it be more or better, or different in a good way. And that you don't have to change everything all at once to get there, you just have to start the process and take little steps. This podcast is so good at really focusing in on the idea that you can just do small things and they can make a big impact, I love that.

So for me that's what, what about you?

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Yeah. So I guess I would say, and this is something that we've kind of already touched on, but for me, the idea that none of us are out in the wilderness doing this alone, even though it sometimes can really feel that way. 

And whatever your profession is, there's a lot of people out there that are doing what you're doing in their communities, and I guess for me, the heartbeat of this podcast is kind of reminding people that they're not alone.

That you can locally [00:14:00] and, you know, nationally, internationally, seek out a community of people who care about the big issues you're trying to address in your community, or who care about the big issues you're trying to address for military families. You're not alone in that. And that to me has been the deep down heartbeat of this podcast.

And maybe I'll share a little bit, Coral reflected on this as well, I love how we're all coming at this from like different angles, ‘cause I think it's pretty well-rounded. And look, we're not trying to just, you know, advertise for the podcast here, but it's a pretty well-rounded podcast, right?

But Coral's reflection goes like this: 

“I think the heartbeat of the podcast is the permission it gives people to be where they are. There's no expectation to be, “Figured out.” It's about noticing, reflecting and staying connected to yourself and others while things are unfolding. That steadiness, that willingness to sit with complexity feels really central to [00:15:00] what this show has been.”

And this is now Jessica again, my thoughts exactly. I think everything you said, Erin, spot on. Everything Coral said, spot on. And of course, everything I said I was, I think is spot on. And really, this idea of not being alone, and of having this idea that what we do matters, Coral's idea of sitting with complexity, I mean, it's all so relevant to this moment of transition, right? 

We have this big moment of transition for this podcast. And I guess I'm wondering, Erin, how do you stay grounded and connected when you're moving through a big change?

ERIN CARLSON RIVERA: Yeah, well, aside from eating cheese, like a good Wisconsinite - it's required. Really. It's literally required. No.

I mean, the cheese here is so good. Why would you not? Why would you not? I actually know people who don't love cheese and I love them. You don't have to like cheese to be my friend, to be [00:16:00] clear. I would say that, okay, we're talking about change. 

What I do most during really tumultuous times, big transitions, is I like to make art. I don't always share it with other people. Sometimes I do, but often I'll do what I call ‘sketch noting’ as a reflection. And I'll ask myself a big question, something like, “What am I going to miss?” Or, “What do I want to bring with me?” Or, “What am I happy to leave behind?” Sometimes that's a really long list.

Or it could be a more forward-looking something. It could be,  “What am I excited about, about this new thing?” And then I'll just do little sketches, or I'll draw little comics. 

I find that that really helps me actually pause and think about what I'm doing, because I have to figure out how to turn words into an image. And then it makes me figure out, “What do I actually mean by this?” And [00:17:00] also when I make little comics and sketches of my reflections. I actually go back and look at my reflections later,

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Mm-hmm.

ERIN CARLSON RIVERA: So I feel like it helps me learn better, because I'm slowing down, I'm pausing, I'm reflecting.

So really, I think the true answer to your question is I do reflections, like a true practicing connection podcaster. I pause and reflect about my life, but I just do it with art, because my attention span is too short just sit there and think in only words,

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Hmm. I really love that. The show has always encouraged that idea, the taking a breath, reflecting, giving space for uncertainty and even more directly, like we've actually had graphic recorders during some of our workshops. We've encouraged listeners to engage in creative destruction like blackout poetry, and I'm looking forward to incorporating more of that kind of thing.

ERIN CARLSON RIVERA: As someone who one of her first jobs out [00:18:00] of college was in the creative economy, economic development space, I love to hear anytime someone wants to incorporate more art into their daily practice. You will hear me talk about this again!

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Yes. Oh yeah. I mean, we've also done like improv related stuff too, because that's where some of my background is. So I'm looking forward to it.

ERIN CARLSON RIVERA: Yeah, I think it'll be fun.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: As we wrap up this conversation and look ahead to what's next for Practicing Connection, I'm feeling really, really grateful. I'm feeling grateful for where we've been and where we're going. 

So, Erin, I'm wondering when you imagine the future of this podcast, I kind of want to shift, right, so I'm grateful for where we've been and of course I'm grateful for where we're going and, clearly as a new co-host, I'd love to hear your thoughts on where we're going.

So, when you imagine the future of this podcast, what do you hope it makes possible for our listeners and for the OneOp community?

ERIN CARLSON RIVERA: I want to talk about [00:19:00] how we can make collaboration joyful, how we can make work joyful. I think sometimes work can be a slog, and that feels terrible when you're doing work you care about, but it feels worse when you're doing work you don't care about. 

I think community is really important, and I also think that learning how to be joyful together opens up possibilities that aren't there if we're only being practical. I think joy and practicality are super compatible, and people look at me, they make faces at me when I say that.

I also think whimsy and practicality are surprisingly complimentary, so I love that this has been a very hopeful, reflective space that leaves space for messiness, and I don't want that to ever change. 

But I do also want the tools that we give people and the stories that we give people to also inspire [00:20:00] joyfulness, because I think when things are hard, and any system with people in it is gonna have hard stuff: you know, people are messy and that's hard. 

And leaving space for people to be messy sometimes means that you have to deal with hard things you normally wouldn't have to deal with if you could just kick 'em out for being messy. And so for me, what I have found that sustains a community is when you can develop ways of being joyful together, and develop an identity, not just around what you're fighting or what you dislike, but also about what you love. That's kind of what I want to bring to this podcast. 

I don't know exactly what that's going to look like yet, but that's my hope for the future of the podcast, is that we can have hope and joy as part of our work life, which feels not at all how work is pitched to you.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Yeah.

ERIN CARLSON RIVERA: Part of me thinks “Erin, that's really unrealistic,” but I think -

JESSICA BECKENDORF: That's because you've been told that. Yeah. This is because like society has told us that. [00:21:00] Yeah. So beautifully said. 

Thank you so much, Erin. I am so excited to begin this next chapter with you.

ERIN CARLSON RIVERA: Thank you. I'm excited to be here.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: And that's it for this episode. I want to thank Coral Owen for sharing her reflections in this episode and for all she's contributed to Practicing Connection over the years. I'm deeply grateful to have worked alongside her and to carry forward what we built together. 

I also want to thank my co-producer and now co-host as well, Erin Carlson Rivera, our announcer, Kaylyn Global Mathis, Maggie Lucas and Joyce Vaughn for their help with marketing and Nathan Grim who composed and performed all the music here on the podcast. 

Thank you so much for listening. Until next time, keep practicing.

[00:22:00]

CREDITS: The Practicing Connection Podcast is a production of One-Op and is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, US Department of Agriculture and the Office of Military Family Readiness Policy, US Department of Defense under award number 2 0 2 3 4 8 7 74 3 3.