Mid-Year Check-In: What Your Teachability Index Says About Your Goals

Your teachability index is the number most people never calculate. It predicts whether any class, seminar, or challenge you invest in will actually move you forward.

Natalie Davis and Pamela Cass are back for a solo episode recapping the Reignite Live Mid-Year Success Summit. The event brought together attendees and six expert speakers across two six-hour virtual days, and this episode breaks down the moments, frameworks, and mindset shifts that mattered most.

The conversation opens with a real question: are you willing to learn, and are you equally willing to change? Pam introduces the teachability index, a framework with two sides. Your willingness to learn on one side, your willingness to act on the other. She walks through the math. A ten on willingness to learn paired with a three on willingness to change gives you a thirty percent teachability index. That number tells you more about your results than any goal list or vision board.

Natalie and Pam also take listeners behind the scenes of the summit itself. The event was built around a holistic approach to mid-year business planning, one that weighed breath work, somatic movement, nervous system regulation, and science-backed frameworks alongside goal setting and action planning. Megan McDonald led a thirty-minute somatic breath work session that left attendees grounded, connected, and operating from a completely different place. The feedback from people who had never experienced this kind of work before was immediate and clear.

The summit also introduced the Time Bender framework, covering compression, protection, and multiplication, with a self-assessment across fifteen life areas to help attendees identify where to focus their energy for the second half of the year.

In This Episode:

• How to calculate your teachability index and what your score tells you before you spend another dollar on a course or program
• Why your willingness to change is the factor that controls whether learning produces results
• What the Reignite Live Mid-Year Summit covered across two six-hour days, including speaker topics and the frameworks introduced
• How Megan McDonald's somatic breath work session shifted the room in thirty minutes, and why Pam attends every week
• What the Time Bender framework covers: compression, protection, and multiplication, and how the self-assessment across fifteen life areas works
• Why the summit recordings are available now at $47 and what is included in the workbook

The summit recordings are available now on replay  https://www.leadershipthatshines.com/offers/oV2yUzno 

Save the date: Reignite Live returns January 22, 2027, in person at Casa Sagrada in Loveland, Colorado.

Connect with Reignite Resilience:
 Website: reigniteresilience.com
 Email: podcast@reigniteresilience.com

The Quiet Gift: A Journey of Self Worth and Resilience is now available for download as an audible.  Check it out!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

All of us reach a point in time where we are depleted and need to somehow find a way to reignite the fire within. But how do we spark that flame? Welcome to Reignite Resilience, where we will venture into the heart of the human spirit. We'll discuss the art of reigniting our passion and strategies to stoke our enthusiasm. And now here are your hosts, Natalie Davis and Pamela Kat.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Welcome back to another episode of the Reignite Resilience Podcast. I am your co-host, Natalie Davis, and I am so excited to be back with all of you. And joining me, of course, co-host Pam Cass. Hello, Pam. How are you? Hello. It's been a minute since we've done a recording. I was just trying to. It has. I feel like I'm out of practice. I'm like, what button do I press? Why does it look like this?

SPEAKER_02 1:10

Like, what do we do?

SPEAKER_01 1:10

What are we supposed to say? What do I ask? Do we have a what? What are we talking about? Who are we? What are we what do we do here? What are we why are we doing this? I do love when like every platform doesn't update at the exact same time. And then I they like move my cheese because I'm like, why is this button in a different spot? And of course, I never log in like giving myself enough time. It's like, you have 77 new features. Would you like to learn about them? No. No, I want the same features that I had the last time I logged in so I can just hit record and go with it. But you know what? Technology, it's great.

SPEAKER_02 1:48

So I wonder if Riverside did an update because I told you. Yes, they did. Okay, that's what it is. Because I got on and all my settings were wrong. They didn't my microphone. I'm like, what don't do this to me.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

Exactly. They did a complete upgrade. And when I logged in, it was like, would you like to see what's new? And then it sent, don't get mad at us, Riverside. Then it like sends you to YouTube to watch a whole video tutorial about all of the changes. I was like, immediately, no, closed. No. I will figure it out on my own.

SPEAKER_02 2:16

We have no time for any of that. No, just give me some.

SPEAKER_01 2:21

I'm just like, listen, I'm a I'm a sliding into home kind of gal.

SPEAKER_02 2:24

Like, this is not just do what you need to do in between when I am on it and when I'm off of it.

SPEAKER_01 2:30

Exactly. And and then don't move myself. Make it better, but also keep it the same for me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:36

I don't know if our audience can tell we don't love change.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

No, no. I I I kind of like the idea of it when I know that it's coming.

SPEAKER_02 2:46

You like the idea of change if you know it's coming, and you have plenty of time to prepare and you get a roadmap for what it's going to look like.

SPEAKER_01 2:54

And I had some input on the directive of the change. Yeah, I'll do that. That's all you need. Perfect. That makes clean sense. I think there was a meme about that that uh my brother sent me was so funny. It was talking about like firstborn. And it was like, I'm a firstborn. Of course we like change. As long as we are fully aware of what the change is going to be, we have input and advice on what the change is going to look like, and we can roll out when it's going to happen. Other than that, it's lovely.

SPEAKER_02 3:20

Perfect. It's perfect. Oh my gosh. But we're Virgos, so exactly.

SPEAKER_01 3:28

If it works, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:30

Make it better, but don't change it.

SPEAKER_01 3:32

No, user end experience should remain the same, but on the back end, do whatever you want. 100%.

SPEAKER_02 3:38

100%. I just I don't want to know about it.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

I don't want to know about it. Just make it fabulous. Oh my gosh. Well, I mean, we have not done uh like a session session in a little bit, and uh, we haven't done a one-on-one in a bit. We've had some fabulous guests that have joined us, but I think in the in the in-between, in an interim, what our listeners have probably missed if they didn't join us uh is that we were able to pull our mid-year reignite live success summit together. Um, as you all recall, in January we kicked off the year we were talking about it in Q4 of last year, that we were gonna actually have a time for us to get together live. We did a fireside chat and some goal setting and some planning for 2026. And then just last week uh we had an opportunity to bring folks back virtually to do a mid-year check-in because we're halfway through 2026 and it just actually blows my mind.

SPEAKER_02 4:36

Yeah. Yeah. I just I can't even believe that we're already in this space.

SPEAKER_01 4:41

I know.

SPEAKER_02 4:42

And I I don't know how we got here, but yeah, being able to reconnect in the middle of the year and get that energy that we had back when we did our live event in Loveland, Colorado, it was so much fun. And I was just like energized to be like, all right, I got this next six months.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

Exactly. It was so, it was so good. I think the timing is perfect. If you all are not uh doing a mid-year check-in on like your personal goals and your professional goals, 10 out of 10 highly recommend that you should be doing that. Um, but to do that with just other people, like truly creating a space where we could authentically show up and say, hey, here's what I'm struggling with, here's my weakness, here's what I'd like to improve on before the end of the year. And I here are some things that I put on my goals list that I probably should not have, and I'm taking it off. And I'm giving myself permission to take it off right now. And so that was, it was good. I think it was really good. I this mid-year point, because I I like to keep a big picture calendar of where I'm supposed to be, I'm starting to look at things for January and February. So this is the point of the year where I have this pull in terms of like, what does my wall calendar look like? Because I have six months that are marked out, but I also need January and February of 2027 already. And I'm like, where does that go? Because it can't just live in my head.

SPEAKER_02 6:05

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I um one of the things that I I really loved and appreciated about our events. So we had four amazing speakers that we brought in. And I'm thinking to myself, okay, we're bringing these experts in to talk about their field. And they were so freaking engaged in each other's speeches. I mean, they were asking thoughtful questions and and wanted to get advice. And I was like, oh, they're here to show up and and be in it just like everybody else. And I thought that was such a fun take on it because I wasn't, I wasn't expecting that. I kind of thought we're just gonna sit, oh, we're the speakers, we're not gonna do anything.

SPEAKER_01 6:45

But well, I think it actually goes back to one of the lessons that you shared during our time together um for the summit pan was like, are you teachable? Are you coachable, right? Like in those moments. And I think if you are showing up in spaces and you don't have that curiosity to learn, uh, you should probably question one, why you're showing up to that space, and then two, question, are you putting yourself in a place where you're actually teachable or that you're coachable? You know what I mean? So like that you can learn because there's always something that you can learn and pick up to better yourself. Uh, we're all in different places on our journey, but there's always something that you can pick up, one gem or a nugget or something that you can apply. And all of the speakers absolutely did that. I think I I've even um had some follow-up conversations with some of them, and there are some new goals that are on their radar and um some planning that's taking place, which I love, which is good. That's a good thing.

SPEAKER_02 7:38

Yeah, yeah. What you were mentioning, it's this um idea called the teachability index. And so it's our um one side, it's our willingness to learn, which if you're showing up to those types of things, you have a willingness to learn. It's pretty high. But the other side of it, willingness to change. And I know I'm I'm guilty, all this is a very much an I statement. I can open up my closet in my office, and there's probably a hundred different notebooks and binders from seminars and classes that I've attended over the years. But if I went through them, I would probably there would be very, very little that I actually took and implemented because life happens. We go to these events, and then the next day we're like, oh, I'm totally gonna, totally gonna implement that in my business. And then we get back to the next day and it's just life hits us, reality hits us again, and then we're like, Exactly, I'll do it tomorrow. And then we don't. And so, yeah, it's going to these, but then to even if it's just taking one small nugget and then implementing it, that can increase your teachability index.

SPEAKER_01 8:41

So I love that. I love that. Well, it's it's interesting that you say that, like your willingness to learn, your willingness to to change.

SPEAKER_02 8:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

That is um a big piece because there uh was like an online challenge um about presence, like keeping an online presence and a video challenge. And I uh for long, long, long time listeners, that's something that I did uh back in the COVID time frame. Like I did this video challenge. I was like, okay, I'm gonna post a video every day for 30 days. And this was during the pandemic, and I started doing it, and then there was like a day that I I would like wind down the day, and um, anyways, and then I realize I haven't posted the video and I've already washed off all of my makeup for the day, and I'm like, damn it, I gotta go record another video and I've already gotten ready for bed. Anyways, I did it 30 days. It was fine. Check, check the box. Well, I was curious about it, right? There was this 40-day challenge that was happening online, um, and I was so curious about it. Um, my willingness to learn, 10 out of 10. Absolutely. My willingness to change, three out of 10, maybe. Yep. Not the same, right? Not the same. Yes. Yeah. And so the like that equates to like the probability of me doing it or applying it like 70%, right?

SPEAKER_02 9:53

Isn't that how it's so you take 30%?

SPEAKER_01 9:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:56

So if you're 10 out of 10 willingness to learn, that's a 100%. Yes. If you're it and if you're a three on the other side, it's three times the 10, that's a 30%. So you're 30%. 30% teachability index. And so I I would challenge anyone when, especially being in the middle of the year right now, is it's it's all it's all good to listen to podcasts, read books, go to classes, do webinars, pay for all the things that come up that say enroll in this online class and we'll teach you how to make six figures in the first month. All those things that we do, that's great. If you're a hundred percent on the willingness to learn, great. But if you are a one or a three or even a five, that's a failing score. You're not gonna do it. Save your money. Spend your money on something else. Save it. Spend it, spend a handbag.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

Or hire or hire somebody to do the stuff for you. Practical. I'm like buy a handbag. You'll feel better about it at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_02 10:59

I mean, you know, whatever, whatever makes you feel good, but exactly.

SPEAKER_01 11:04

No, that is that like whatever that investment is that you think that you're going to put towards this thing that you have a low teachability index, go ahead and hire, outsource it, outsource it to someone else to have them take care of it for you. 100%. 100%.

SPEAKER_02 11:17

So you should literally anything you're going into, any class you're going into, ask yourself the the question what is my teachability index right now? What is the score? And look at both sides, my willingness to learn and willingness to actually do something about it. And if it's low, don't do it. Just don't do it because you're not in that space. But if you are a 10 on both sides, like I am willing to learn this and dang it, I'm gonna actually implement this. Great. Then absolutely be all in on that.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

So and it has to be like an obsession type of all in, right? Like you've got to be obsessed with it. You've got to want it, you've got to know that you're gonna do it. And I think it just because it doesn't line up for me, like right now with this challenge, this 40-day challenge that I was so curious about online. Um, there were people that I knew that were taking part in it. There were influencers that I had look up to, and I thought, oh my gosh, all of these people are doing this. This is amazing. I think I should do this with a third uh thirty percent. Um, maybe it's a not right now, and maybe it's something that you can look into later or at a different season in life, right?

SPEAKER_02 12:23

Yeah, because there's other things that are taking place. Yeah, and you and I talked about in our summit, we talked about what being in the flow state. And when you are passionate about something, you are all in on doing something, it is so easy to get in a flow state and do it. And so I you can ask yourself that question what's my teachability index score? Yes. And then if it's high, then you're gonna be very easily able to get into a flow state. And when you get in a flow state, it's those moments where everything is just clicking and time seems like it just stands still while you get all this stuff done and you're like, holy cow, that was amazing.

SPEAKER_01 12:59

That was amazing.

SPEAKER_02 13:00

Yeah. But if you don't have a high teachability index, you are never gonna get in the flow state. It's gonna be like you said, oh, it's the end of the day. I took my makeup off. I don't want to do this.

SPEAKER_01 13:09

I don't wanna do this. Yeah, that's yeah, that's the old version of me. Now I just don't even participate in the entire college.

SPEAKER_02 13:16

Well, you know what? Sometimes we have to learn by doing.

SPEAKER_01 13:19

Exactly. Exactly. Oh my gosh, I love it. Well, that was one of the that was one of the nuggets and gems that we shared um during the two-day summit. So, you all, it was amazing two days. Uh, I shouldn't say two full days. We had um basically six hour days. We we broke it down um both on a Saturday and a Sunday, had some phenomenal individuals come together. We were able to create this space that was truly supportive and magical and safe and filled with data. That was probably one of my biggest takeaways was that was there was more science-backed evidence in the modalities and practices and information that was shared over the weekend that absolutely blew my mind. And there were moments where we were like, okay, we're gonna nerd out for a moment, but we're gonna bring it back until how it applies.

SPEAKER_02 14:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:08

That is not how my brain operates. I love data. I don't need to see all of the extras in it. I don't need to see how we've compiled it. I just need to know what it means for me. And so I have gratitude for us being able to speak to all learning modalities by providing that anchor in terms of the data and where it comes from, plus the application, which is my inside. I like that, right? That's more of the let's apply this to life. What does this really look like?

SPEAKER_02 14:35

Yeah, and I and I like it because there are so many people that are like, okay, this, like, why do I need to do this? And they need to know that science behind it and actually how it does impact the brain, the nervous system, how we think, how we process, all of those things. But then we took it and then we actually applied it and did some of those practices, which um those were really powerful. And the feedback we got from the people in the audience who did it with us, because we did a 30-minute breath work activity. So that was a that was a lot. And for somebody like me, who I'm pretty sure I'm self-diagnosing myself as being ADHD as an adult, I think I'm like I've gone into it.

SPEAKER_01 15:21

I mean, 30 minutes from call that career onset, it's because of our industry, but that's okay. We're gonna continue.

SPEAKER_02 15:30

So, so yeah, so I it it's hard for me to be still just breathing when I'm thinking about all this stuff I need to be doing. Um, but it was good.

SPEAKER_01 15:46

Yeah, it was I didn't even realize that it was 30 minutes. Um, I truly just, I mean, so much so. I'm gonna have to apologize. There were some people that were sitting in the waiting room, and I didn't realize because like part of the exercise was to have your eyes closed. And as we were opening our eyes, and it was like people are in the waiting room. I'm like, oh shoot, okay. Oopsies, whoopsies. I was in like full meditation. No to self-lesson learned. Have somebody else watch the waiting room while you're actually participating in all the activities. But yeah, like that 30 minutes, I felt flew by and um completely grateful. Megan McDonald, uh, who was one of our past guests on the show, took us through this um somatic breath work exercise. And I not only am I grateful to Megan for the gift that she brought to all of the participants, but also to all of the participants in holding a space, right? Because this was a mid-year business planning success summit, right? Like how, and the way that we have been tradition traditionally programmed to think about business planning and success. It's all numbers and action and doing and doing and doing. And we were intentional about incorporating more of a holistic approach at business planning and doing that mid-year assessment and spending some energy in being. And this somatic breath work felt like it truly spoke to that, and everyone was able to show up and um support each other, right? Like that was that was the beautiful piece. Um, people that had never met before that were so supportive of one another and creating a safe space. So that was awesome.

SPEAKER_02 17:25

Absolutely. And um, what I love, Megan does this every Wednesday. Tuesday, I can't remember. Wednesdays, Wednesdays, Wednesday smooth. And it's fun when you go into those sessions. You've got these like CEOs and these execs that are showing up to do like a 30-minute break in the middle of the day just to do the breath work. And that has been a great reset when I'm able to make it, it's it's in my calendar steady. If I'm able to make it absolutely go, and it's been it's been really good because uh I've got that monkey mind where I'm just always going. But since I've been introduced to, you know, Rachel Jane and her work, and then Megan, who I met through Rachel Jane, doing this type of practices allows us to be more fully present. And it's interesting when I've started doing this, the difference I see in the relationships I have with 100% my clients or anybody that or even speaking on stage.

SPEAKER_01 18:29

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 18:29

You're able to connect with people in just a much more authentic, deep, grounded manner, and it's so powerful.

SPEAKER_01 18:39

And faster. Yeah, it's faster.

SPEAKER_02 18:42

So much faster.

SPEAKER_01 18:43

Significantly faster. And I think that's what uh I absolutely love about these frameworks is that it truly gets back to like the natural human rhythms and cycles that instead of the performative behaviors that we've been entrained to believe as uh ways and uh to have genuine connection with people, it's not. A lot of it is a farce. I hate to say it. Um we really dive back into one connection with self and then how can we genuinely have connection with other people? And it's not just in the one-on-one, like Pam said, like it's great for one-on-one. You have these deeper, richer, more meaningful relationships um in a shorter amount of time, but also with the masses. So, like if you're doing, you know, if you're having a team meeting or a town hall or presenting to 1,500 or 15,000 people, there are people that just have this magnetic magnetism, is what I'm gonna say. This magnetism about them uh when they step into these spaces. And I think a lot of it is grounded in the frameworks that that they've introduced us to. So I'm grateful for that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:53

For our audience, you you probably can think of those people, you know, where you've been in a room and somebody steps on the stage and you are just like mesmerized and you listen to them for hours. And then other people step on the stage and you're like, oh my god, is he done yet? Or is she done yet or whatever? Because there's not of that connection. And so, yeah, it if it's somebody that you are drawn to, like magnetically drawn to, it's somebody that is fully present in their body and showing up authentically. And um, it it's just it's such a cool thing to notice. And that's what I'm just I'm noticing it when I'm out and about and I'm having conversations. People are like wanting to have conversations with me before I even open my mouth and that was not happening before.

SPEAKER_01 20:43

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 20:44

So it's yeah, it it's a lot of fun, and so it was fun to be able to introduce it to all the people that came to our success summit that maybe have never been introduced to that before.

SPEAKER_01 20:55

A hundred percent. I know that it was new for many of the people that were on. Yeah, which I I still love again, but we're when we're looking at like the things that have attributed to our successes and where we are, being able to dump all of that into one weekend. One, I don't even know how that was possible, but we did it. And um, and it's kind of peeling back again, like these outer historical, traditional norms of what success looks like and really peeling it back to to explore like this authentically aligned, fulfilling version of success that people can walk away feeling like they are fulfilled, that they have freedom, that they are making an impact, that they um have the influence, that they are growing, like all of those things that we that we often talk about on the show. So it was that was a beautiful thing.

SPEAKER_02 21:43

I love it. I love it. And the recording is gonna be available to anybody that wasn't able to make it at a very reasonable price.

SPEAKER_01 21:53

Thinking of that, when I plugged it in, I was like, what? This is really reasonable. It's $47. Listen, if you're hearing this, I might be able to do that. I know I'm almost like wait a minute.

SPEAKER_02 22:07

You have basically six speakers who make considerable amount of money speaking in front of groups of people who are all business owners. I was thinking to myself, $47.

SPEAKER_01 22:19

I know. I listen, I was like, what? We are honoring $47 right now because that's what we said it was. It was $47 if you wanted to register and have the experience of having the recordings available. As of today, and who knows, as of today, the recording of this episode is $47. We'll see what that ups to. But I Pam is correct. We six speakers, six speakers, and it actually translated out to seven sessions because we had a brief intro session that took us through um what we did as an end of Q1, like kind of check-in. Um, we introduced this concept of time bender because you know, people are suffering from burnout and experiencing burnout. I shouldn't say suffering, people are experiencing burnout and kind of this um pressure on their schedule. And so we had a workshop uh where we introduced a time bender framework and um looking at compression, protection, and multiplication, the three key pillars of the time bender framework. And so there's a short intro on that time bender framework as well as an opportunity for you to do a quick assessment and introspective work in terms of where you are right now. Like how are you feeling about each area of your life? And we're talking dialing into 15 key areas of your life to see how you feel today. Um, and then making a commitment to where you're going to invest more energy moving forward. So um, yeah, though that is available. We will make sure that we drop the link to access that recording or those recordings if you're interested in purchasing it at the very reasonable price of $47.

SPEAKER_00 24:10

Thank you for joining us today on the Reignite Resilience Podcast. We hope you had some aha moments and learned a few new real life ideas to fuel the flames of passion. Please subscribe on your favorite streaming platform, like or download your favorite episodes, and of course, share with your friends and family. We look forward to seeing you again next time on Reignite Resilience.