From Crisis to Clarity: Leading with Preparedness and Resilience

The Interview Transcript

Hugh Ballou

This is the non-profit exchange and this is Hugh Ballew, your host. I'm the president and founder of Center Vision Leadership Foundation and we work with leaders building out their vision. We're going to talk about vision today, but we're also going to talk about a special non-profit that does a whole lot of really important work. So one of my core teaching principles is great leaders don't react to chaos. They orchestrate clarity before the crisis begins. My friend and guest today is Connie Myers. She's a crisis leadership strategist, international best-selling author and founder of BePreparedBeReady.org. where she equips nonprofit leaders, businesses, and communities to move from vulnerability to resilience. With more than four decades of experience and first-hand insight as a FEMA inspector and trainer, Connie understands that preparation is not just about survival, it is about leadership, capacity, and moments that matter the most. In her work, Connie helps leaders shift from reactive crisis management to proactive orchestration, aligning people, systems, and strategies before disruption occurs. Her approach mirrors the mindset of a conductor, clarity of vision, defined roles, and disciplined execution that allows organizations to perform effectively under pressure. She's the creator of initiatives such as Kits for Kids and Leadership Ambassador programs that empower communities to take ownership of their preparedness and response. Her work is especially relevant for nonprofit leaders who must protect mission continuity, stewardship resources wisely, and lead with confidence in uncertain environments. Connie's message resonates deeply with me and with today's leaders. Preparation is not an event. It is a leadership discipline. When leaders are prepared, they create organizations that are not only resilient, but also capable of sustaining impact and serving their communities to the highest level. So Connie, tell us a little more about your background and you're an expert in visioning. Why is it so important to be very clear on the vision of what you're doing?

Coni Meyers

Because you'll never get where you want to go if you don't do it. Thank you so much for that wonderful introduction, Hugh. That was amazing. Thank you. I discovered visioning after my husband passed away. After he died, I told my two partners I was ready to come back to work and jump right in and just go back to my old life. Well, that didn't happen. I was having calls with the California Association of Realtors, which is one of our big accounts, and others. And the conversation was over here, and I'm over here watching. I'm not engaging, I'm not connecting. And after about two months of that, I realized that my old life was gone, and I've had to figure out what a new life looked like. And I had gone to the church, Mary Morrissey, who has a huge institute now that teaches mindfulness thinking and blends it with faith. And I went to her training, because I went to her church, he had a church in Portland, And I went to the training and I started really practicing visioning. So in order to have a concrete vision, it really can manifest. You have to really look at your entire life. You can't just look at what's my job going to be, or, you know, I need to lose 10 pounds or whatever it is. You have to start by looking at your entire life. You look at four pillars. The first one is health. It's a year from now or two years from now, What is it that I want my health to look like? And envision it, see it, imagine it, draw a picture. The second one is relationships. Maybe you have relationships that need to be improved. Maybe you have relationships you need to let go of. Maybe you need new relationships. What do those look like? And then what is your time and money freedom look like? Let's say you won the $800 billion lottery. What would you do with the money? And then the last one is career and creative expression, hobbies and things like that. And once you answer those questions, because then you have a clear picture of what it is that you want for your life. Now zero in on and what I'm going to be talking about is my career. And I had no idea my career was going to become what it is. My life is 180 degrees different than it was before Tom died. I thank him every single day for this new life because it was such a beautiful gift. By the way, one of the first things I did was write a book on crystalline moments. Crystalline means sparkly or clear, so moments of clarity. And there's always a gift and there's always an opportunity. And that's how I approach my new life. Once you decide you want to zero in on one of those, I'm going to choose career, you then look at, okay, what is it I would love to do? What would make me happy? What would make me jump out of bed in the morning and get started? And then you write it down and you write it from the perspective of gratitude. I'm so happy and grateful that it is 2027 and this is what I've accomplished. You see, you can't go to a vision. You have to come from it. In order to come from it, you have to become it. So once you zero in on what that vision looks like, What are you watching? What podcasts are you watching? What books are you reading? What actions are you taking? What does it look like? And have that clear, clear vision. How are you dressed and going out of the door in the morning? Those kinds of things all put you in that position and create your lifelike avatar. So that's how I started my visioning. Your vision is organic. It's like a business plan. As you achieve one part of your vision, now you've got room for more. And Hugh, if I'd have known my vision was going to bring me to where I am today, I would have said, you are crazy. I didn't think I could write a decent email, much less eight books. So it's been a blessing all the way.

Hugh Ballou

So she just slipped something in here, eight books?Coni Meyers

Coni Meyers

Yes.

Hugh Ballou

And where do we find those? Are they on the website or on Amazon?

Coni Meyers

I use, I took my stuff, most of my stuff off of Amazon. So you can find it on IngramSparks or Barnes and Noble. And I have a couple of them on my website, on my bookshop store. By the way, bookshop.org is a great place to buy books.

Hugh Ballou

Bookshop org, that's a good treat. So that's org, it must be a nonprofit. So in my world, people have, they say they have goals, but they've not written them down. And so in my world, the definition of a dream and a goal are very different. A dream, if you don't, if you have a goal and you haven't written it down, it's a dream. So I would put vision in that category and it's if you have to be, you have to be clear with your vision in order for people to understand what you're doing. Is that true?

Coni Meyers

Absolutely, and it's very important that you write it down because you stimulate different parts of your brain when you're thinking about something. And when you're writing it down, there's two different parts of your brain that kick in to help make it more. People ask, well, you know, my vision didn't come true. Well, you didn't step into it. You didn't become it. You have to become it. And it's kind of like fake it till you make it. And once you do that, it's amazing to me like crazy things happen to me anymore because I have to be very careful what comes out of my mouth because it will happen. So I have to be very careful. That's how I met my new man is there was nobody around and I made a comment and three weeks later he showed up. I see, I just have to be very careful what I wish for.

Hugh Ballou

Yeah, it's like toothpaste. You can't put it back in the tube once you say it. It's quite a surprise. So you made the transition from a corporate job, I guess you would say, with FEMA into running a Two organizations? Do you have your business and this?

Coni Meyers

No, I let the business go. OK.

Hugh Ballou

So it's just you got a full-time chore with this, getting a full-time pleasure getting this.

Coni Meyers

Yes, exactly.

Hugh Ballou

So tell us about your work. What is the ultimate goal of your nonprofit?

Coni Meyers

Well, let me first start, because this kind of explains part of it. I help two countries. companies go from the local market to the national stage before all of this. And when I decided that I had a new life that I had to figure out, I went to the training, but I also sat down and really created my vision for it. And it had nothing to do, I kept asking myself, what does that FEMA stuff have to do with anything that I'm doing, that I'm planning on doing or doing now? And in 2019, the California Association of Realtors, who had my leadership stuff, sent out an email saying, These are the courses or the trainings that we're looking for. And one of them was disasters. Well, I'd always wanted to write a book after spending nine years as a FEMA inspector. And I did over 50 disasters myself. I trained thousands of inspectors. And I'd always wanted to write a book to protect families and kids. Because during that time, I saw firsthand what happens, particularly to kids. And it doesn't even have to be a big, huge disaster. It could be just a crisis. But if it's something where the parents are involved in trying to figure out how to get beyond it or fix it or make it better, these kids are hearing what's going on. And when it comes to disasters, over 50% of kids end up with PTSD. So I wanted to write a book, and then I had this opportunity to write this course for the Californian, and I gave it at their big expo they have. I did also a panel where I brought in a FEMA director and some other people for the educators. And while I'm doing that, I realized that I needed to say a lot more than what this three hour course said. So I wrote a five and a half hour certification course. So I'm out and I'm presenting this certification course. And it's all about how to be a good community leader or do well by doing good and how important giving back is to your overall success. So I am I'm speaking at the National Natural Disaster Expo. And after I got finished speaking, a woman walked up to me and she goes, you need to be a nonprofit and you need to work with kids. So I went back to my booth and I talked a little bit about the certification, but then I'd say, but what we're really after through this is to protect kids. I've applied for my 501c3, which I did the next day. and we're going to be protecting kids through this program." Well, the conversation was, well, that sounds like an interesting concept as far as do well by doing good, or then all of a sudden they said, but I'm really interested. I would love to help protect kids. How do I get involved? It completely shifted the conversation. So I didn't even have a vision yet for that. I had to come back and go, okay, I sat down, I did a bunch of research, and then I sat down and I wrote my vision. I'm so happy and grateful. that we are helping 30 million people be better prepared and more sustainable. And we're doing that through protecting kids. And that was my initial vision. Obviously, it's grown since then just a bit, but our kids are so critically important. Over 70% of parents are worried about their kids' fears, anxiety, depression, potential suicides. Suicide in teens is up over 60%. Over 70% of kids are worried about, is there going to be a planet for me to live on? Am I going to get shot? Am I going to be bullied? Am I going to be harassed online? Am I going to be able to get a job? Am I going to be able to go to school? Young girls are deciding whether or not they want to have children. And the mental health people say the best way to overcome that is to empower our kids. Give them a voice. Help them help us. be a better world. So that's kind of how the vision started and how the whole thing started. Our goal is to protect a lot of kids through our Kids for Kids program.

Hugh Ballou

So you set that vision in present tense, which I want to point out. And when I work with startup leaders on that, I say, what's your bold vision? Well, we can't say that because we haven't done it yet. Well, that's not the point. The point is describing where you're going to be. And you are very clear in that. So why is that important? And then shift from that to, um, You said this is external being prepared, external and internal. So why is that present tense language important? And then how does that drive preparedness within the organization?

Coni Meyers

Well, I think it's critically important because you're living it. If you're not living in your vision, what are you living it? If you're going to if you want your life to be better, you have to be living it, the good and the bad. That's the beauty of crystalline moments. There's never a failure. It's always a gift or an opportunity, no matter. My husband's passing was the greatest gift he could have ever given me. And I thank him every day for it. So living that vision, good or bad, if there's things that need to be improved on, then I'm so happy and grateful that I solved whatever problem it is. And you're always living in gratitude. And then you always end your vision with this or something better still, because we don't know what God has planned for us. So we have to leave it open-ended. We can't just say, okay, well, this is it and that's all there is. My vision has grown tremendously over these last couple of years with everything that thanks to you and the prosperity council that I've learned and the beauty of what I'm doing because what drives me are the kids. When they get those kids, oh my God, I had a little five or seven year old at a, a Girl Scout troop, and I had to put the kits all together. The last thing I pulled out was a ponytail band. And she was a tiny, tiny little Asian girl. And she put up her hand. I said, why do you think this ponytail band is in your safety kit? And she goes, well, if my girlfriend is bleeding, it might help stop the bleeding. That was a mic drop for me. It was like, I was so inspired already, but if you're not living that, if you're not living what you're doing, then you're out of sync. You're completely out of sync and you need to find your way back, which you have to do once in a while.

Hugh Ballou

So just drilling a little more. This is great. Drilling down a little more on the preparedness piece. You can't really help other people be prepared unless you're prepared internally. So how do you create this? This culture is the foundation of preparedness and sustainability. How is that important? And what advice would you have other nonprofit leaders out there about that?

Coni Meyers

I think what's really important is to You got to work with your mind first. Mindfulness thinking is extremely important. As a matter of fact, there was a test done, a survey done a few years ago, and they found that by doing mindfulness practices, you increase your clarity, you increase your focus, and you increase your engage ability. And by doing that, so the first thing I do is talk to people about mindfulness and where you're coming from. In a disaster, You've seen it on TV. You have two different types of mindset. One is, Oh my God, I've lost everything. I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't know how I'm going to move forward. And the other one is I've lost everything, but I have my life and my family and we can rebuild. That's a resilient mindset. And I don't care what you're doing in your life. You've got to maintain that resilient mindset as best you can. And the best way to do that is by meditation by having a clear vision you listen to that you recorded on your phone and you listen to your vision every morning before you start your day and you are going to do something in that day that's going to make a difference in that vision to where you move forward.

Hugh Ballou

That is so important. Folks, you're watching this. If you can't capture all these great ideas, go to thenonprivateexchange.org and we'll have a full transcript so you can get all these really good tips and writing or you can listen to it or watch it again. So one of your strong suits is building a collaboration and communities for this. So your work includes the initiatives like the Kits for Kids. So what is the role of collaborators and community play in this?

Coni Meyers

Well, we all need partners. We never do anything alone. This is my little kit. This is what it looks like. And I developed it because kids want to feel safe. And in order to administer and get these kids out there, I need to have partners. I can't do this by myself. I have to be able to collaborate. And people need to understand what real collaboration is. Collaboration isn't, well, you know, I've got this thing I'm going to sell you so that we can collaborate. No, no, no, no, no. That's not collaboration. Collaboration comes with no strings. unless there is a benefit for both or all. So I started the Kids for Kids. The kid is the carrot. The kid is not the final goal. The kid is just the carrot to protect kids and make parents happy and make everybody want to be involved. This kid could be for anybody. It could be kids for seniors, it could be pets, you name it. But what it does is it brings people together and now we can do education. We can provide with partners, like for example, I'm partnering with a foster care company, a non-profit. I'm fostering with food insecurity, with adoption, diabetes. I'm partnering with these other non-profits because we all have the same mission. The mission is to protect kids and to bring awareness to them. And it's been well documented that kids are a much better voice whether we're talking to other kids or whether we're talking to adults and businesses. So by bringing these nonprofits together, what do we have? We have more kids. We have more kids to talk to. One of my newest partners is Kiwanis because they have been dealing with kids for over 100 years. They have an elementary school, middle school and high school program. Their key club I'm working, I was actually approached by a gentleman out of Texas that is in charge of their emergency planning for the Texas and Oklahoma District. And he said, you fill a niche that we don't have. They've got 16,000 kids in their key clubs there. Do you think I'm happy about that? Wow.

Hugh Ballou

Yeah, that's huge. That's huge. And that was a definitive statement. We can't do everything. And so building a collaboration brings extra financial resources as well, because funders of all types want to support those organizations. They're doing a community wide effort, which you've been successful about. So let's take a pause here and go and look at your your website. And so give people the the URL for the website. What's the link?

Coni Meyers

 It's BePreparedBeReady.org.

Hugh Ballou

And people watching the video can see it. People that are listening to the audio podcast can't see it. So describe it for those people that are audio as well as people that are video. What will people find here?

Coni Meyers

Oh, they're going to find all about the initiative for Kits for Kids and what's in the kits and how to buy the kits or gift the kits. They can either donate or purchase the ticket. They'll understand what our mission is. That house right there, that's from Hawaii. That's the only house that was left standing in Lahaina, not because the people thought about being prepared. They just happened to do the things that they need to do to keep the termites away and keep the wind away. So, but that's exactly why we're doing what we're doing. And the numbers are striking, but if you go, if you go, yeah, so the number one out of four homes last year was impacted by some kind of disaster. Some of them not big, but one out of four homes, that's where we are in this country. And 11 million people were displaced in 2024. Just think about those numbers and statistics. Those are staggering. So what we want to do is we want to mitigate that. We want to reduce that. And the kids are the best voices for doing that, because we will listen to kids.

Hugh Ballou

And you have your courses here. What's Connie Speaks?

Coni Meyers

That's where I'm going to be speaking or what I'm going to speak about.

Hugh Ballou

And you have a Contact button. You have a Donate button.

Coni Meyers

The most important one is on the left, where it says Kids for Kids Initiative. That talks about how to be a donor, how to be how to be a part of the team, how to look for sponsors, partners, all of that. So that it talks about all about how you can be involved community leaders. I was just invited to be on the Clark County Emergency Planning Team, which is here in Las Vegas. And that's all because of my involvement with helping others. So you want to be out there just being a part of something and we'd love to have you be a part of this.

Hugh Ballou

That's why we're in this nonprofit business is to help others. Let's do a few rapid fire questions with short answers at the end. Is it OK? Sure. Shoot. What's the biggest leadership mistake that people make in a crisis?

Coni Meyers

It's called FEMA calls it preparedness procrastination. They haven't done their homework.

Hugh Ballou

 What's one habit every leader should build now?

Coni Meyers

A good mindfulness practice habit.

Hugh Ballou

And then we have crisis. So what's one of the best ways for a leader to reduce the chaos right away when it happens?

Coni Meyers

Mel Gibbons or Mel Robbins rule, the five second rule, five, four, three, two, one, do something.

Hugh Ballou

Love it. One word that defines great leadership under pressure.

Coni Meyers

Resilience.

Hugh Ballou

And give me a sentence that defines prepared leadership.

Coni Meyers

I'm so happy and grateful that my team and I have created a clear vision on how we are going to help our community be better prepared and more sustainable.

Hugh Ballou

 And so what's it mean for a leader to be prepared and ready?

Coni Meyers

Look at your business, look at your life, and determine what is missing if something happens.

Hugh Ballou

What I've heard in this conversation is that preparation is not just about avoiding crisis. It's about building the kind of leadership capacity that allows your organization to perform at its best when it matters most. And we can't predict when that's going to be. Sometimes it's every day for some people. That's what great Conductors do. We don't wait until the concert to figure things out. We have prepared the ensemble so that our performance exceeds everybody's expectations. So preparedness is everything. Connie, you've been a great guest today. I've learned a lot and I thought I knew you, but I don't know Diddley so far. I learned a lot and it starts with a powerful, well-articulated vision that inspires people. And yours was certainly great. And, you know, it's organic, like you said, it grows. Connie Meyers, thank you for being my guest today on the Nonprofit Exchange.

Coni Meyers

I'm so honored that you invited me and I really appreciate everything you do for the nonprofit world. I've been a big recipient of that. So thank you.

Hugh Ballou

You're welcome.