Real Life With Pamela Lau Pamela Lau

On this brief episode, I welcome Georgene Rice to the show to talk about her calling as a long-standing leader in our community and the upcoming Ignite Women's Conference. Georgene has been a talk show host with KPDQ for more than 30 years and has traveled internationally as a station correspondent. In 2003 Georgene served as the chief spokesman and debater for the Defense of Marriage Coalition, which successfully amended Oregon’s constitution. She has lectured on university campuses and is a frequent speaker and worship leader at Christian conferences and retreats. Georgene has served on several Boards and regularly volunteers for charitable organizations. A musician Georgene and husband Dan have traveled around the world teaching and performing Gospel music.


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Welcome David Stidham to the show today! David serves as the VP of Business Affairs & General Counsel for The Chosen, Inc. Prior to working for The Chosen, he spent nearly 6 years as the General Counsel & Director of Licensing for RightNow Media, as well as 2 years working as an Assistant District Attorney in Dallas, TX. He holds a BBA and MBA from Harding University, a JD from New England Law Boston, and graduate certificate in Negotiation Mastery from the Harvard Business School Online. He and his family live in Denver, CO.

David was a delight to interview as we discuss how God prepared him for a dynamic career and calling in using his legal degrees. Raised in the Church, David found faith crucial in all he did and decided. Through stories and examples, David expresses how God led him through pivotal conversations, relationships and opportunities. David talks openly about his trajectory from business law and marketing to negotiating and finally law school.

After working as an assistant district attorney, David accepted a role at Right Now Media where he worked negotiating intellectual property.

What does it look like for an attorney who follows Jesus to work in the marketplace? David says what keeps him in the race is remaining faithful while making informed decisions. As a leader in his field, David talks about the path to saying yes to varied roles before becoming VP of business and legal counsel for The Chosen.

David talks openly about how his past experiences ultimately prepared him for each next step along the way. His leap of faith from district attorney to director of licensing at Right Now Media seemed right for him as he asked the CEO of the company, "How will you use my skills?"

Through relationships and an unexpected opportunity, David was offered a contract job at The Chosen. During our candid conversation, David demonstrates how humility covers him in the day to day of his life. Being a part of The Chosen has opened David's eyes to how they are doing things in a different way as a Christian television production company. Using his negotiation skills anew in this role, David admits that working Hollywood is testing his skill set like never before. Are people condescending because The Chosen is a Christian show? How is that communicated to David? What does it feel like to negotiate just to get to the table and convince others you belong there?

David calls forth followers of Christ to step into legal roles in various places--even the darker places: court rooms, dark secular places, even Hollywood. Finally, David shares how he keeps his faith alive and building through reading Scripture and prayer.

I hope you will enjoy this dynamic conversation with a leader in the legal realm who is listening well to his dreams and how the Spirit of God is leading him.




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Welcome to the show Donna Johnson who is an entrepreneur who has been one of the most successful and highly respected professionals in direct marketing for decades. She received the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award for her profession. Her story (on stage or in her writing) has inspired millions through her new book, "My Mentor Walks on Water: Spirit-Led Mentorship in Every Area of Your Life. Donna and her husband, Thomas, reside between Wisconsin, Arizona and Sweden. They have six children and eight grandchildren. Their charity "Spirit Wings Kids funds orphanages in India and Africa along with a permaculture farm and soccer academy in Uganda.






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Welcome Ryan Dougherty to the show! Helping people and teams grow is Ryan’s passion. He believes if you love what you do and who you do it with you can achieve amazing results.

Ryan is a co-owner and principal partner at TG Three (www.tgthree.com), a strategy company that equips leaders and Christian institutions to get from where they are to where they want to be. 

Prior to his consulting and coaching work, he served for 20 years in enrollment and marketing at George Fox University outside Portland, Oregon, leading to unprecedented growth. By developing people, creating a pipeline of accountable leaders, and implementing innovative strategy, the university experienced explosive enrollment gains beginning in 2013 resulting in an additional $65 million in revenue. Before departing to launch TG Three, he served as Vice President of Enrollment and Marketing.

Ryan earned an undergraduate degree in Psychology and a Master of Business Administration. He has two great kids–a 16-year-old son and a 13-old-daughter–with his amazing wife, Meredith.

In this episode, we talk about key moments in saying yes to helping people and what that looks like as a leader. Ryan and I talk about how helping people happens when we see the needs around us and step in to offer our skills and giftings. We answer the question of how leaders keep saying the right "yes"? Ryan offers his wisdom by saying, "Do great work in the position you're in and step up when there's opportunity."

Ryan shares about a time when he and his wife faced a trauma in their lives and how each of their lives shifted greatly and what that meant for their leadership lives.

Some questions we unpack during our conversation are as follows:

What is our motivation as we follow the call to being a leader?

How do we lean in to growth and challenge?

What is the definition of "Responsiblity?"

Is being "Over responsible" in a role ever a good thing?

Does a Leader always need to be "Out front?"

What are we leading for and to what end?



Some advice Ryan offers is as follows:

Set time for work is set time for work.

Priorities are a weighting of our responsibilities.

Might we be stealing from another person's leadership and development when we show up for everything?

At the crux of leadership is the concept of love. If we don't love the people we are leading, we will lead with the wrong motivation.

If you have a calling for leadership, determine and discern your motivation.

Just get out of yourself and contribute to others' lives--that's Christian leadership.

If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go with others.

Family is a bedrock for teaching others about leadership.

Leadership isn't about my style; it's about the people who I am leading.



We conclude our discussion with the important topic of support. Trust, compassion, and hope are support. When leaders face transition, they often lose their peer support. Ryan points to Gallup's research that say that you have to have a friend at work for your best work to happen. He also suggests that a boss who cares about their employees shows support. They show it by developing their employees, creating space for trust, and genuine relationship. If leadership is about development and relationship, it doesn't matter how different a person's style or age may be. What matters is that leaders develop others where others are and where they are going. Enjoy the Show!






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You will not want to miss this amazing episode with Denny Lawrence, a Christian leader in the Portland area for more than 30 years who recently retired. Denny has worked for more than 40 years in the hospitality industry including serving as the Director for Hospitality Services for 5 Legacy hospitals in the Portland area. You will hear how a leader's life becomes more focused as they commit and accept leadership responsibilities for the long haul.

Denny talks authentically and candidly about his years serving in leadership positions. In our conversation, he talks about how a leader progresses in responsibility, looks for challenges and works hard at being prepared. Denny's wisdom is offered to us through his experiences from being enlisted in the army, to receiving others' perspectives of him as a young leader, to the time he was fired from a high level leadership position. We talk about the years he was called to serve as an elder to his church and where the support for those long days came from when he was burning the candles at both ends. Denny claims when God calls us to hard things, He also equips us. Stay through to the end where Denny Lawrence offers is best advice to leaders (and he has a lot to say!).



At a recent gathering, I met an international trainer and Christian business coach who wants to support leaders. If you are interested in growing your business and being mentored as a business/ministry owner/leader, please consider joining Here. If you mention my name/podcast, Real Life with Pamela Lau, you will receive 10 percent off.  


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Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, D'Metri relocated to southeast Tennessee in 2012 to attend Lee University, where he received his Bachelor of Arts degrees in both psychology and music with a vocal emphasis. D’Metri went on to work professionally at his alma mater within student development between 2016 and 2021. During this time, he had a chance to serve in various capacities within residential life and housing and student life, including stints as a program coordinator, resident director, and area coordinator. Motivated by helping students come to understand the inherent value and worth they possess as image bearers of God, D’Metri relocated to Newberg, Oregon, to serve the George Fox University campus as director of intercultural life. In his current role, D’Metri hopes to invest in the lives of those he encounters through relationships and opportunities for genuine connection. Outside of work, D’Metri is a passionate worship leader and can often be found helping lead worship at the Downtown campus of his church, Mannahouse, in Portland, Oregon.
In today's episode, DMetri and I cover the wide range of unspoken pressures young, emerging leaders face and what we can do to pay closer attention to one another and the Presence of God in our lives.  We talk about how even small children can learn to become leaders in simple ways as parents teach well.  How does one develop God-given self-confidence? What does that look like and how does a leader serve humbly?  How does God lead young and upcoming leaders when the path is unknown?  Even unplanned? We cover the hard conversation of the difficulties of being a person of color.  Why it's so important (profoundly so) for people of color to see representation at professional gatherings, on LinkedIn, in director positions. We talk about the power of seeing someone who looks like you, ahead of you in a position.  We dive deep into what culture is pressuring leaders to look and sound like.  What happens when you are called to lead but you don't want to be the loudest person in the room? When do you shut down the voices that shout, "Take Charge!"?  How is Jesus' example of being fully present to individuals a role for leaders?  How might the example of Moses whose hands were held up until the battle was won work for us in today's individualistic culture? Where does support come from for a leader? How does a supervisor show genuine support and how might a peer be supportive? When do family and friends need to step in?  What am I valuing as a Christian leader?  In order for an organization to flourish, one voice is valued but how do we value the institutional mission? What's the role of mission and vision while still maintaining value for the individual?  When an organization and an individual work together, it's a form of flourishing.  Why is struggling and suffering over important issues an opportunity for leaders to come to the table for clarity?  Why does "shutting down" the conversation back-fire? We end our conversation talking through how leaders can help keep going the most difficult conversations.  How might our perceived "failures" or the "failures" of leaders ahead of us teach us about what we can do differently?




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