Arizona Rangers answer the call.
Bonnie Stevens
Pilot Fish May Help You Make the Big Catch
“They’re opinion leaders, the ones that others look up to.”
Hawaii’s Sandra Romer is one such snorkeler. She can free dive to depths way beyond normal human ear pressure tolerance, doesn’t get cold or wrinkly in the ocean and can hold her breath for, like, half an hour.
If you’re going to put on your flippers and be in the ocean anyway, Sandra figures, why not get close to something weird? So, after swimming past the happy clown fish, the beautiful humuhumunukunukuapua’a and the sleepy sea turtles, Romer delights in finding a pale green cauliflower-like frog fish that hop-walks on its fins, spotted eels that go on forever in their snaky, snarly way and a wall of fish the size of an IMAX screen.
And sure, just when you’re getting comfortable with that massive amount of fish doing that synchronized swimming thing, you notice something bigger. . .maybe three feet long with a hefty dark presence swimming slowly, stealthily along the ocean floor with a couple of suspicious-looking buddies almost as big.
Sandra called them “jackfish” and found them fascinating with their shadowy predacious essence. But I got the feeling the silvery fish in the giant school nearby were keeping an eye on them, too, especially when they slid in real close, changed up their direction and darted straight into the perfectly conforming fish. “Whoa!” I garbled loudly underwater – and then discovered how fast I could swim.
I’m guessing author Kelly McDonald had the same underwater discovery, because she writes about “pilot fish” in her leadership book, “How to Work With and Lead People Not Like You.”
Turns out pilot fish are a type of jackfish that would hang around sea going vessels in the olden days. Sailors thought they would lead them to shore. In my case, they more accurately inspired me to lead the way to shore.
In any case, McDonald says leaders need to get to know the workplace pilot fish because they are highly influential. “They’re opinion leaders, the ones that others look up to. They are informal ‘leaders’ because others follow them and often confide in them. They might not even know they are pilot fish, but what they say or do influences others in their sphere,” she writes.
Here’s the deal about pilot fish in the workplace. They can be valuable thought leaders and may be able to clue leadership in about what others are thinking, not in a sneaky sort of way, but in a diversity-of-thought sort of way that may not be reflected at the highest levels of the organization where important decisions are made.
Here’s a great example McDonald offers in her book. Do you know about Skinnygirl? If you haven’t heard of it, perhaps check in with your female pilot fish. Skinnygirl is a brand created by entrepreneur extraordinaire and “The Real Housewives of New York City” star Bethany Frankel that produces low-calorie alcoholic drinks, including wine, vodkas, margaritas and ready-to-serve cocktails.
According to McDonald, Frankel pitched her idea to all the major liquor companies. “Every one of them dismissed her product. That turned out to be a bad decision. She forged ahead on her own, developed the brand, and sold more than 2 million bottles in her first year in business. Two years later, Beam, the makers of bourbon and other liquors, acquired the product and brand for an estimated $100 million! Skinnygirl sales continued to skyrocket: in its first year as a Beam product, Skinnygirl posted a whopping 486% in net sales growth.”
How did the major liquor companies miss this? McDonald says they were all run by men at the time. “I’m betting they passed on Skinnygirl because they didn’t see the need for it.” She calls this a “failure of perspective” and notes that diversity in the workplace does not only include things like skin color and sexual orientation, it also includes diversity of thought.
And that’s why top flight executives need to get to know their pilot fish, because even if they may seem like a fish out of water to the leadership team with their ideas, that diverse opinion may be floating around among the smaller fish and not reflected in the circle of big fish.
The lesson here, there could be a whopper of a business opportunity lurking in the shadows that a homogenous-in-thought leadership team might miss if it’s not paying attention to the pilot fish. Don’t let your Skinnygirl opportunity be the one that got away! QCBN
By Bonnie Stevens
Hear more from author Kelly McDonald on Zonie Living: Business, Adventure and Leadership at StarWorldwideNetworks.com.
Bonnie Stevens is a public relations consultant. She can be reached at bonnie.stevens@gmail.com.
‘Keep Laughing as Loud as Possible’
“Gilbert’s unexpected detour was full of light-hearted messaging: always make the best of a situation; adjust, relax, don’t panic.”
When my public relations business was starting out and I was young and enthusiastic and didn’t think about things like dangerous weather events, I was hired to plan a holiday celebration in which major donors of a non-profit organization would be invited to a field transformed to look and feel like the inside of someone’s house, including a lovely living room with beautiful furniture and holiday decorations, fancy food, pretty lights and talented children playing violins. It would symbolize a place of warmth where people gathered to be together in joy and harmony and giving. And it was a fantastic idea because this large, open lot would be developed into a home one day that would bring people together to create all these good things, and we wanted to offer a vision of this wonderful place.
But, very late the night before the late-morning, invitation-only affair, I sat in my car at the field, frozen in horror and disbelief as gusting, howling Arctic winds tore and punched and battered and whipped and shredded and lifted and dropped the giant tent we had rented, over and over and over again.
So, even later that night, I called the tent company owner to report the scene and he promised to be there early the next day with a new tent and everything would work out in time to bring in the over-stuffed sofas and the strings of tiny lights and the children playing holiday music and the photographer and the fake trees and the hors d‘oeuvres and the dignitaries.
But early the next morning, I sat in my car at the field, frozen in horror and disbelief as the replacement tent was being ripped and pitched and pounded and pummeled and bounced over and over and over again. The obvious answer was to move the event indoors. Turns out, trying to find a large indoor space at the very last minute during the height of the holiday season is not easy. In fact, that morning, it proved impossible.
Some of those involved in the event, my clients, suggested we simply cancel. But I would not give up. People had traveled great distances for this occasion and there had to be a way, even though the winds had whipped the snowy field into a ridiculously slippery glacier. Meanwhile, the event itself was self-destructing – the children couldn’t perform for fear of ruining their instruments in the bitter cold, the photographer’s camera froze, the fake trees were slammed by the winds and lying sidewise all over the ground and the people carrying in the furniture could not walk across the ice slick. There were also some electrical concerns and other safety issues, but the biggest problem that I could see was the ice keeping us from the now sad “house” with the tattered walls.
Fortunately, I had college students interning for me who were also young and enthusiastic. I sent them out to buy every bag of kitty litter they could find and haul back in 30 minutes. We’d spread kitty litter all over the icy ground in a tasteful gravel-like pathway and then we could carry in the furniture and the food and no one would slip! Brilliant!
What we didn’t consider was that kitty litter comes in all different colors and really weird odors.
Moments before the event was supposed to begin, I gave a good look at the ginormous smelly, frozen mess we had made all over this field. And that’s when the major donors and dignitaries arrived, looking cold and confused as they gingerly set out across the pink, green and gray pastel kitty litter path. And that’s also when I lost it. I couldn’t worry, panic or problem solve any more. All I could do was laugh, the uncontrollable doubled-over, crying-so-hard your mascara is all over your face kind of laughter that comes from complete surrender.
I was reading a book by Marc Guss, “Instincts of a Talent Agent,” in which he shared a story about losing his client, comedian Gilbert Gottfried, in New York City. Gottfried, the former voice of the Aflac Duck, was to be in the Advertising Hall of Fame Parade on a float with a giant stuffed duck handing out miniature stuffed ducks to spectators. Later, Guss learned that Gottfried’s driver took a wrong turn. Gottfried’s response was, “One minute, Mr. Peanut was in front of me, the next, we were stuck in traffic behind a city bus somewhere on the West Side.”
Guss writes, “Gilbert ended up handing out his stuffed ducks to random pedestrians in Manhattan.” As we read on, there’s a lesson here. “Gilbert’s unexpected detour was full of light-hearted messaging: always make the best of a situation; adjust, relax, don’t panic.”
In the business world, life can deliver a frozen field of kitty litter or a float-load of stuffed ducks. Adjust, relax, don’t panic, and in memory of Gilbert Gottfried, his family suggests we
“…keep laughing as loud as possible.” QCBN
By Bonnie Stevens
Bonnie Stevens is a public relations consultant. She can be reached at bonnie.stevens@gmail.com.
Housing Market Expected to Remain Strong for Years
Millennials, investors and a lack of inventory are driving demand as interest rates rise.
A lack of inventory, Millennials and investors are playing a huge role in the home-buying frenzy, say the experts, especially in scenic, tourism destinations.
Prescott, Sedona, Flagstaff and parts of Scottsdale are experiencing the biggest spike in the cost of homes, says Nelson, a longtime realtor and delegated-associate broker with Realty Executives in Flagstaff. He describes a typical real estate scenario like this: “A property recently listed in Flagstaff was built in 1975. It was a three-bedroom, two-bath, two-car garage, single- level house, nicely updated, 1,740 square feet. It comes on the market at $650,000. There were 11 showings and seven offers with bidding up over $800,000.”
Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Bloomtree Realty CEO Nick Malouff has similar stories. He says Hillcrest, inside Forest Trails on the west side of Prescott, was built and sold two years ago in the high $600,000s. “Now, it would probably go in the high $800s – a $200,000 increase in two years.”
A home in Prescott’s Tenney Ranch sold for $589,000 in 2016. “It just went on the market for $1.2 million,” said Malouff. “This is what’s happened in pricing. And it’s not just new homes. An older home in Timber Ridge, built in the late ‘80s, was bought in 2015 for $289,000. It just sold for $639,000.”
Those looking for a 2,500-square-foot home might expect to pay a million dollars, if not more, in desirable areas, says Nelson.
In the North Scottsdale community of Terravita, a 2,400-square-foot home sold in February for $1,335,000. “The house had just sold for $1.1 million four months previous and the new owners did nothing to increase its worth,” stated a report from the Scott Gaertner Group.
It’s largely because of supply and demand, says Nelson. “Right now, we’re looking at maybe a one- to two-month supply in most parts of Arizona. In the higher elevations, there’s less than a month’s supply of [available] real estate at any one time.”
Currently, there are fewer houses on the market than there were last year, plus Arizona continues to feel the impact from The Great Recession when new construction nearly slowed to a halt.
“Builders have been unable to get product out of the ground quick enough. It’s taking about twice as long to build a home as it did a few years ago,” said Malouff. “The pandemic caused more stress and strain on labor and materials. Builders are fighting for the same crews and the cost of lumber and other commodities are all up.”
Also, Millennials have arrived on the scene.
“We didn’t think about the impact of that generation and that’s really what we’re seeing on a national level,” said Nelson. “The Millennial generation is as big as the Baby Boomers and we just did not plan for that many people entering the real estate market with new construction and building. The top end of the Millennial generation is about 40 years old.”
In addition, short-term rentals have become a “market disrupter,” says Wickenburg Deputy Town Manager and Economic Development Director Tim Suan. “The short-term vacation market, including VRBOs, Airbnbs and turnkeys only gained real popularity since 2015. What Uber did to the transportation industry is the same thing as what these short-term rentals are doing to the lodging industry as well as the housing market. Now, beautiful destinations such as the city of Page have hundreds of these short-term rentals in the community taking up housing stock. Just imagine that 25% or 30% of housing in your community is just completely disappearing from the market in such a short amount of time!”
Meanwhile, interest rates are expected to hover around 4% to 5% this year.
All of this has complicated efforts to provide affordable housing in Arizona communities, which is impacting small businesses’ ability to attract and retain workers. Thus, the Arizona Association for Economic Development (AAED) calls affordable housing the No. 1 challenge facing Arizona cities.
Suan, who has held leadership roles with AAED, cites the Verde Valley region as a model for collaboration moving toward a sustainable solution. “Camp Verde, Cottonwood, Jerome and Sedona have formally partnered to address housing with shared resources. For example, Cottonwood and Sedona are both small communities but they partnered to hire a housing manager, which otherwise they wouldn’t be able to do on their own. With that housing manager, they are able to lead the implementation of some of their housing initiatives.”
In addition, Cottonwood has a housing assistance program and Camp Verde has an inclusionary zoning plan to allow for more dense housing, he says. “They’ve even attracted a low-income, housing tax credit program developer inside the community.”
At the same time, Wickenburg is creating a deed restriction program to keep homes affordable in perpetuity and Flagstaff is managing affordable rental units. “The city funds a home-buyer assistance program,” said Suan about Flagstaff. “They work closely with organizations like Housing Solutions of Northern Arizona to offer even more housing solutions.”
While the sizzling real estate market shows no signs of cooling, Nelson expects a strong sellers’ market for at least the next three years. “We don’t see that there’s a change in the market. We don’t feel that there’s a bubble and there won’t all of a sudden be an influx of inventory.”
However, he does not believe there will be as much of a spike in median home prices this year. “This is a good thing. We need to slow down, that’s for sure.” QCBN
By Bonnie Stevens, QCBN
For more about Arizona’s housing market, visit Zonie Living: Business, Adventure and Leadership with Bonnie Stevens at
Dream Big, Sweet Girls
“Dreams come true if you have the courage to pursue them.”
The then-second grader, who came to visit her grandmother in Florida, left her vacation with more than warmth in her heart. Little Lauren’s imagination was on fire. “That moment was pretty significant for me – the realization that there were people on board and they were leaving this planet.”
Lauren began to wonder what else was out there, and thus began her own countdown to a career in space exploration.
A few years later, Jessica Watkins, growing up under the starry skies of Lafayette, Colorado, decided she wouldn’t be limited by Earth’s boundaries either. “I wanted to be an astronaut since I was about 9 years old,” she said, “because of the desire to explore and an interest in planets, Mars in particular.”
In the same decade that Lauren and Jessica were born, Sally Ride was the first American woman in space. There weren’t a lot of women who had gone where these little girls wanted to go, but dreams thrive in a place where logic and doubt have no power.
“By their very nature, dreams aren’t practical, and neither are they achieved by playing it safe,” writes author Marc Guss in “Instincts of a Talent Agent: Entrepreneurial Takeaways from an Industry Insider.” He says, “You are your own best risk. The time for practicality comes later, when you’re taking your first steps toward success, not when your dream is still gestating.”
Lauren and Jessica both developed a passion for geology and followed similar paths through grad school. The two were guided by the same advisor at Caltech for their postdoctoral research.
And some might say the gravity of their passion for rocks and space pulled them together in Hawaii for a planetary volcanology workshop.
And then, like a dream, their stars aligned again, both called to work on the Curiosity Mars rover, investigating ancient sedimentary environments that might have been habitable at one time.
In 2019, Jessica arrived in the rocky, moon-like terrain north of Flagstaff as one of six women who made up the astronaut class known as the Turtles – it’s an astronaut tradition that your group is named by the one that comes before you – and there was Lauren to greet her.
Lauren, a research geologist with the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, was selected to train Jessica’s NASA astronaut candidate class about basic geology. “Jessica had insider knowledge, but she hadn’t been to the sites before,” said Lauren. “She is very level headed, easy to work with and a great teammate. She has the right disposition to be a great astronaut.”
This month, Lauren plans to return to Cape Canaveral for the April 15 launch of SpaceX, as Elon Musk’s spacecraft carries four astronauts to the International Space Station. “I think I’ll be even more excited this time. I’m emotionally invested.”
That’s because Jessica will be suited up inside. She will be celebrating her 34th birthday in the space station and is on course to be the first black woman to have an extended space station stay. Jessica also has been selected for the Artemis team – the astronauts who are helping Americans return to the moon in 2025. The actual crew going to the moon has not been selected yet, but President Joe Biden has said there will be a woman and a person of color on that mission.
In the meantime, the Artemis team will be back in Flagstaff this year. And yes, the friends will be reunited again, as Lauren helps prepare them for the rocks they might encounter at the lunar South Pole.
Is there power in a dream?
“A dream feels like a big far-away goal that’s going to be difficult to achieve and something that you might achieve much later in life,” said Jessica in a NASA video. “But in reality, what a dream realized is, is just putting one foot in front of the other on a daily basis. And if you put enough of those footprints together, eventually they become a path toward your dreams.”
Marc Guss would agree. And so would Walt Disney, who said, “Dreams come true if you have the courage to pursue them.” QCBN
By: Bonnie Stevens
Bonnie Stevens is a public relations consultant. She can be reached at bonnie.stevens@gmail.com.
Are You Slipping Back into Caveman Brain?
So all that progress we’ve made overcoming common human fears – like speaking in public, flying on a plane or just showing up in person – has taken a hit.
But, we seem to have forgotten how to function in a professional setting. The governor paused at times in his address, and normally (before the pandemic), that would have cued the crowd to clap. Unfortunately, there was an awkward delayed response, as the audience worked to recall how to react.
Pre-COVID, pleasing news might evoke an explosion of applause or even a standing ovation. But now, we seem to clumsily struggle to scoot out our chairs with napkins and silverware dropping to the floor as we move to an upright position in a show of honor and respect. That’s because we have caveman brain.
Here’s another example. I’ve heard successful businesspeople talk about how they’ve forgotten how to speak in a professional setting. A lot of families and pets are not impressed by an advanced vocabulary, and since that’s who we’ve mostly been speaking with or grunting at during the last two years, our communication skills may have suffered.
Being back together with groups of people is causing many of us to trip over our stress hormones and collectively tumble into caveman brain, like the herd of beasts our ancestors may have chased off a cliff. Think of our primitive brain stem throwing our intelligent cortex over its shoulder like a dead prehistoric animal and taking charge, telling our bodies to fight, freeze or flee when faced with a perceived threat. None of that works in a professional setting. So all that progress we’ve made overcoming common human fears – like speaking in public, flying on a plane or just showing up in person – has taken a hit.
Motivational speaker Mel Robbins says we have to trick our brains when fear creeps in. Before she gives a presentation in front of thousands of modern people, in modern clothes, using modern language, she moves her brain from fear to excitement.
“Fear is something that stops us all,” she says, “but it doesn’t have to. Fear is a physical state in your body that is exactly the same as excitement. Your heart races, you might sweat a little bit, you might feel tightening in your chest, you might feel a pit in your stomach, you have a surge of cortisol. It’s basically the way that your body goes into a hyper-aware state because it’s readying for action.”
So, how do we go from fumbling around with dread and move to smooth, positive anticipation? Mel would want us to change this experience for the simple part of our brains.
I get this, Mel. On a recent flight, I pulled an old trick out of my caveman brain toolkit. On bumpy flights, I used to position the little air fan above my seat directly at my face and create the sensation of wind on a roller coaster. “I like roller coasters,” says my caveman brain, now that we have the wheel and some simple machines. “Therefore, I’m having a good time and not thinking about falling out of the sky in this big heavy metal tube that I’m buckled into.”
She also says we should grab an “anchor thought” to reframe our minds from agitation to excitement. “An anchor thought is something that will anchor you, so that you don’t escalate any situation into a full-blown panic attack or into a situation where you screw things up.”
Mel wants us to make that anchor thought relevant to that scary thing. So, instead of focusing on the turbulence, for example, she wants us to focus on the people we love and the fun things that the flight is taking us to.
Like Mel, I like to nudge my caveman brain past the woolly mammoth event, as if the encounter already happened and I’m on to thinking about something that’s fun for my caveman, not scary, like a primitive roller coaster. QCBN
By Bonnie Stevens, QCBN
Bonnie Stevens is a public relations consultant. She can be reached at bonnie.stevens@gmail.com.
Cleansing through Forest Bathing and Chocolate
“The healing ability of nature we use in our program is based on experience and research,” said founder Roy DuPrez.
Grounding or “Earthing” means connecting one’s body to the earth to restore electromagnetic balance. Scientists, doctors and researchers in the film say this act restores and maintains optimal health. Earthing proponents say grounding increases circulation, which carries away waste and results in more energy.
But you might say, “It’s winter and I am not taking off my shoes!”
And I might say, “Fair enough.” Because, whether barefoot or not, there’s a mountain of evidence that suggests just plain being outdoors is good for us.
According to Time magazine, the Forest Agency of Japan recommended in the early 1980s that people stroll in the woods for better health. The practice was called forest bathing, or shinrin-yoku.
Time reporter Alexandra Sifferlin wrote, “In one early study, Yoshifumi Miyazaki, a forest-therapy expert and researcher at Chiba University in Japan, found that people who spent 40 minutes walking in a cedar forest had lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which is involved in blood pressure and immune-system function, compared with when they spent 40 minutes walking in a lab. ‘I was surprised,’ Miyazaki said. ‘Spending time in the forest induces a state of physiologic relaxation.’’’
Another study suggests a 120-minute dose of nature can make us feel healthier and have a stronger sense of well-being. In Yale Environment 360, a newsletter produced at the Yale School of the Environment, Jim Robbins authored an article called “Ecopsychology: How Immersion in Nature Benefits Your Health.” He wrote, “A study of 20,000 people, led by Mathew White of the European Centre for Environment and Human Health at the University of Exeter, found that people who spend two hours a week in green spaces – local parks or other natural environments, either all at once or spaced over several visits – were substantially more likely to report good health and psychological well-being than those who don’t.”
Other studies have shown even looking out a window at nature or viewing pictures of natural settings, reduces anger, fear, tension, high blood pressure and the production of stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol. At the same time, connecting with nature also is credited with the increase of pleasant feelings.
Back2Basics Outdoor Adventure Recovery is a Northern Arizona experiential therapy program for young men with addictions. “The healing ability of nature we use in our program is based on experience and research,” said founder Roy DuPrez. “We invite our clients into the environment that’s bigger than they are. We’re introducing them to the outdoors and wilderness as often and organically as we can; organically, meaning we aren’t forcing an agenda, just exposing them to the outdoors. What transpires internally in these individuals is often an epiphany of awareness about themselves and others. Among the benefits, they gain peace, confidence and a sense of self in the world.”
In the high country, we are so fortunate to live close to nature with hiking trails and outdoor recreational opportunities readily available all around us. For Valentine’s Day, consider forest bathing as a gift to yourself and your loved ones. And to further elevate that mood boost and toxic hormone cleanse, no one says you can’t bring jewelry and dark chocolate along. I’m just sayin’. QCBN
By Bonnie Stevens, QCBN
Bonnie Stevens is a public relations consultant. She can be reached at bonnie.stevens@gmail.com.
Living in Gratitude at Altitudes
I prefer to face things that I’m fearful of head on and that’s why I like Flat Iron.
Fleischer found the majestic San Francisco Peaks when she arrived at Northern Arizona University, where she earned her communications degree. For three ski seasons, she sold lift tickets at Arizona Snowbowl and fell in love with the mountain, her alpine family and the culture of the sport.
In those especially snowy winters, she knew she had found her calling. She has trained thousands of people to ski. “The little racers show me what really matters on the mountain – fun!” She has served as the executive director of the Flagstaff Alpine Ski Team for 14 years. “I was honored with running the team that hosted all of my best friends’ kids and my youngest as well.” And she has nourished locals and visitors for nearly two decades in her Altitudes Bar and Grill.
This lean, nimble, fast, smart, skilled and sunny triple black-diamond force is fueled by gratitude.
For her, every day is a new opportunity to soak up her blessings, engage whole-heartedly with others, and find beauty, meaning, abundance, laughter and fulfillment in nature.
And, no matter how many times Lynda clips into her skis, there is a radiance about her that cannot be denied. She has come to play. Her favorite trail on Snowbowl’s technical alpine playground is Flat Iron, a black diamond run starting at an 11,280-foot elevation with a vertical drop of nearly 250 feet.
“Flat Iron is steep and always intimidating,” she said. “I feel strong, capable and conquering when I’m on it. I get the best rush. When you unweight from one ski to transfer your weight to the other, you drop three feet at the top of the run. I like that feeling. I like to be in control of that.”
For Lynda, the mountain has been her workplace for four decades. It’s also her home base and her church, where she feels closest to God. It’s where she builds her strength.
“I don’t like to be afraid of anything, and I try not to be,” she said. “I prefer to face things that I’m fearful of head on and that’s why I like Flat Iron. I make every turn count and finish every turn. I consider it a privilege to be on that mountain and at 62, I continue to push myself.”
Lynda can be described as both hummingbird and wrestler. She is in constant motion as she lightly flutters about her day, but also, solid and balanced in her stance. “I’m not going down. I used to let things bother me – I’ve been beaten up, swallowed and hurt. But now, I let things go that I can’t do anything about. In my world, I realize I can’t fix everything. That understanding helps me to breathe, stay grounded and resilient.”
To breathe in some of Lynda’s contagious zeal for life and also a quick way to absorb some of that quaint mountain ski-town vibe is to walk into Altitudes. This establishment, which she owns and operates with her husband, Paul Joerger, is located in a historic seed and hay building just south of the railroad tracks.
Most days, Lynda will be there behind the well-worn pine bar. She will greet and swoosh you in like a lifelong friend. Hospitality is just part of what she deliciously serves up, along with comfort food and a relaxed, high-elevation atmosphere. Her ski-house décor adds to the flavor of her popular burger. And beware, the sour cream and chives fries are addictive. Her famous Green Chili Stew can only be made with chili peppers grown in the fertile soil of New Mexico’s Hatch Valley, and her buttery, flake-apart walleye fish is flown in from Minnesota’s fresh-water lakes. In addition, she invites her “celebrity New Orleans chef” to raise the heat at Altitudes with his spicy authentic Cajun cooking.
“I was destined to be in the hospitality industry,” she explained. “I like people and I enjoy being where people are having fun.”
Lynda lives by a creed of treating others the way she likes to be treated, with respect, kindness and a sincere interest. “When I go to work each day,” she said, “I’m going to see old friends, meet new people and know they are going to come back.”
A big part of having a sunny disposition, she says, comes from taking the time to say thank you. “I am absolutely humbled and grateful for this mountain that called me here, this place, this town, these people, this community that cares and knows what it means to be alive, to be outside and experience life. The mountain provides the backdrop for what it means to be grounded. From here, I am poised for life’s challenges. I have a positive attitude because I feel blessed. You can’t buy that, you have to find it from inside. I just walk around feeling blessed every moment.” QCBN
By Bonnie Stevens
Bonnie Stevens is a public relations consultant. She can be reached at bonnie.stevens@gmail.com.
Navigating with Purpose
Through her education business, This Earth, she brings students into her world of adventure and exploration.
Lava Falls is a Class 10 rapid, the highest rating for rapids under the Grand Canyon’s old classification system. Sure, there’s more intimidating and challenging white water to be found in places like Alaska, says Christa, a seasoned river runner and world explorer who has navigated through Lava Falls at least 90 times since she was 23. But for most people, this is the most formidable natural force they will ever want to face.
Christa, a small woman with a fabulous belly laugh and a full-speed-ahead kind of appetite for adventure, has many titles – archaeologist, paleontologist, geologist, educator – but out here, she is Wonder Woman, a river running superhero, and this is her territory.
Whatever your image of a river runner is, Christa is not that. Don’t be looking for someone who hasn’t seen a hairstylist in eons and wearing a stinky t-shirt, stained and streaked by decades of sun and sweat. Keep moving on down the sandy shore because that would not be her. In fact, she says, “This is where I feel beautiful and strong. I wear my favorite skirts and dresses and jewelry – sometimes three or four bracelets.”
Christa is glowing and having a blast. “I will literally be laughing so hard that I can’t row – not in the rapids, because something bad will happen – but just being on the river,” she said. “This is the real world. This is where I feel most alive. This is my church, my home. I get to spend time in the most extraordinary places in the world and I’m never as happy, connected and fulfilled as when I’m outside. There’s nothing more grounding to me than having my feet on the earth or in the water and being surrounded by something that humans didn’t make.”
And for her, time on the river isn’t just about the big-adrenaline moments. “Part of it to me is that life here is reduced down to its essence,” she explained. “It’s very simple – you’re cold, you’re hungry, you’re exhausted – and when you’re with a group of people, it’s a tribal thing. You take care of each other. Other elements take over and you’re participating on nature’s terms.”
Reinvigorating her boatload of new tribal members, Christa cooks for them and serves them and basically trains them to eat like a river runner. One of her most satisfying and substantial meals is her famous Green Curry. With a mixture of boiled-down coconut milk, tofu, chicken, ginger and peppers, she fortifies five to 30 rafters at a time. “It’s really creamy. I make it for spring and fall trips, not in the summer. It’s warm, spicy and heats you up from the inside out.”
Christa pursues a mission of helping to open the eyes, hearts and minds of river rafting guests to the extraordinary history of our planet and all its creatures. Through her education business, This Earth, she brings students into her world of adventure and exploration. She offers interactive classroom presentations, field trips and lab exercises, and most of all, facilitates discovery.
“Kids do a lot better learning about natural sciences when they are outdoors,” she said. “It makes more sense to everyone. And I love teaching them about fossils,” she added.
Common fossils found at the South Rim are brachiopods, shellfish that are a distant relative of modern-day clams. They lived 270-million years ago when a shallow ocean covered the region. “We talk about what kind of environment these creatures lived in,” she said, “the depth and temperature of the water, and how they were filter feeders, eating plankton that were just floating along.”
Unlike those prehistoric organisms, Christa is doing anything but just floating along. Beautiful, strong and in charge, she has found her strength, confidence, passion and purpose among ancient rocks and powerful forces. It is here that she ponders and appreciates that one of the most powerful forces on the planet today is education. She has “adopted” dozens of girls and women that she calls her daughters in places like Haiti, Guatemala and Nicaragua.
“The thing that gives me hope is when I’m actually doing something to make the world more equitable,” she said. “It breaks my heart what people have to go through in other nations. Research reveals that worldwide, countries are better off when they educate the women, but the world still fights that.”
And Christa is fighting back. Through her non-profit organization, One New Education, she has supported young women through secondary and advanced education, where they, too, can find their strength, purpose, power and passion.
As Christa shows us, the natural world, and Lava Falls Rapid in particular, has a lot to teach us about resilience. There are obstacles we need to maneuver around, massive waves and huge holes that we need to pay attention to, and if we get flipped, well, she says, “We’re going to feel like a Raggedy Ann in a washing machine.”
But, as Christa demonstrates, we have everything to say about our own rescue and our own experience. “If you just float along, the journey is going to be harder. If you’re waiting for things to happen to you, it doesn’t always work out as well as you hope. You have to make things happen.” QCBN
By Bonnie Stevens, QCBN
Bonnie Stevens is a public relations consultant. She can be reached at bonnie.stevens@gmail.com.
Northern Arizona Business News Vodcast About to Launch
Zonie Living: Business, Adventure and Leadership Coming in November.
Bonnie Stevens’ Communication Station, with support from Quad Cities Business News, will be shining the spotlight on Northern Arizona’s small businesses, career opportunities and community values, including a vibrant economy, healthy lifestyles, outdoor activities, businesses with competitive salaries and light-on-the-land impact, an appreciation for quality education and lifelong learning, and legacy-minded leaders focused on the next generation.
“We have so much to work with and be excited about,” she said, “innovative entrepreneurs, committed community leaders, a business retention focus, workforce development programs, a spectacular natural environment, astro-, eco-, cultural and recreational attractions, a legacy of discovery and hunger for excellence. This all adds up to an extraordinary quality of life.”
Zonie Living is being developed to create positive awareness, news attention and buzz supported and connected by Dave Pratt’s Star Worldwide Networks and an experienced, professional and creative marketing and production team.
As stated in Stevens’ business plan, “Zonie Living will examine not only what forward-thinking, successful people of excellence are doing and how well they are doing it, but more importantly why and the passion and purpose behind their actions. Aren’t these the smart businesses we all want to support, work for and have in our communities? Aren’t these the quality people we want to see on the slopes, sit next to at the symphony or wave to in our neighborhoods? Isn’t this the landscape and nightscape we want to enjoy and take care of for generations to come?”
From out of the bleakness of a global pandemic, Stevens believes now is the time for positive stories to burst onto the scene and onto the screen. “Zonie Living will offer interviews about business success, meaningful innovations, medical advances, leadership strategies, mentoring opportunities, interesting characters, inspirational people, extraordinary places and high-elevation fun,” she said.
“This is a fantastic opportunity for all of us to get involved in a program that’s pro-business, pro-excellence, pro-leadership and pro-healthy living, promoting our mountain town’s positive, vivacious aspects for achieving the life many dream of,” said QCBN Owner/Publisher Troy Bix.
Along with the vodcast comes a new book from Stevens, “Life Lessons from a Zonie Girl: How to Stay Sunny, Grounded and Resilient.” Also, Stevens is teaming up with pioneering Arizona television news anchorwoman Mary Jo West to offer the CCC2NAU Mary Jo West Excellence in Communication Scholarship.
“The scholarship award, slated for fall 2022, certainly will help a student financially, but perhaps the greatest value is the mentorship opportunity that comes with it,” said Stevens, as she and West will schedule time each semester for coaching and guidance.
“The vodcast, the book and the scholarship are all things I wish I would have had access to in the past, and that is my hope moving forward, that we can all learn from others, gain encouragement, draw inspiration and recognize what a wonderful environment we have all around us. Apollo 12 moon-walking astronaut Alan Bean once said to me, ‘We live in the Garden of Eden,’ and I’ve never forgotten it. To me, he was saying we have beauty and abundance and everything we need for a wonderful life. And that’s what we’ll be focusing on.” QCBN
Zonie Living: Business, Adventure and Leadership goes live Nov. 5. Go to https://starworldwidenetworks.com/shows/bonnie-stevens.