There was a period of time when I wondered if I would ever make it through parenting my oldest son. If you have ever raised a strong-willed child, you know exactly what I mean. There were years filled with homework battles that felt endless. Reading was difficult for him. School wasn’t easy. There were tears, arguments, consequences, and more than a few moments where I thought my head might actually spin like something out of a movie. There were the teenage years too. The “Hi

From the day Nicholas was born, he had opinions. Strong opinions. He walked to the beat of his own drum before he could walk at all. He was confident, direct, and completely unafraid to tell me—or complete strangers—exactly what he thought. While some children seek approval, Nicholas seemed perfectly comfortable being Nicholas. As a parent, that can be both wonderful and terrifying. When he was younger, his creativity poured into art. He could spend hours drawing and creating

Don't wait for the warning light. I remember when I first started driving, my Dad and Grandpa Harold taught me what we jokingly called the “Hiatt Driving Rule”: Always fill up the gas tank when it gets to half empty. Simple enough, right? Well, apparently I took that lesson very seriously because 32 years later, I still follow it religiously. Honestly, I can’t think of many things I have done consistently for more than three decades, but this one stuck. And if I’m being compl

Building a life of purpose, one brick at a time. In 2018, I attended the WTS International Mid-Career Leadership Program, and although I learned countless leadership concepts that week, one exercise changed me permanently: the Cathedral Exercise. The story is simple. Three people are working on a construction site.The first says, “I’m laying bricks.”The second says, “I’m building a wall.”The third looks up proudly and says, “I’m building a cathedral.” At the time, I didn’t fu

Every introduction, every opportunity, every act of belief creates a ripple. One of my favorite concepts is the butterfly effect. The idea is simple: a small action in one place can create a ripple that extends far beyond what we can see. A kind word. An introduction. An opportunity. A vote of confidence. A conversation over coffee. A mentor who takes an hour out of their day. Most of us will never fully know how far those ripples travel. I often think about this when I refle

What Chatter taught me about imposter syndrome, anxiety, and learning to coach myself.