I’m so excited to finally share something I’ve been dreaming about for a long time — the Called to Flourish podcast is officially LIVE!
This podcast is for you, American Heritage Girls troop leaders who long to lead with confidence, creativity, and Christ-centered purpose. Whether you’re brand new to troop life or a seasoned leader, my hope is that each episode feels like a fresh breath of encouragement, practical wisdom, and a reminder that you’re not alone in this mission.
✨ Episode One is ready for you right now!
In this very first episode, I’m introducing myself and sharing my heart behind Called to Flourish — plus, I’m giving you a few simple summer tips to help you prep for the year ahead and get the rest you need to lead well when fall comes.
This is just the beginning! I have some wonderful interviews lined up with inspiring women (including my amazing mother-in-law!) who will share real stories, practical strategies, and faith-filled encouragement to help you lead your girls with grit, grace, and godliness.
So pour yourself a cup of coffee, find a quiet corner, and tune in. My prayer is that Called to Flourish becomes your go-to resource for ideas, inspiration, and a little boost of hope whenever you need it.
👉 Listen to Episode One here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-1-an-intro-and-lets-talk-about-the-summer/id1825904379?i=1000716714083
👉 Subscribe so you never miss an episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/called-to-flourish-podcast/id1825904379
Thank you for being part of this community — I can’t wait to grow, serve, and flourish together!
Show Notes-
Transcript:
Welcome to Call to Flourish, the podcast for American Heritage Girls, troop leaders who long to lead with confidence, creativity, and a Christ-centered purpose. Whether you’re brand new to troop leadership, or a seasoned guide, this show is your weekly dose of encouragement, practical wisdom, and actionable ideas to help your girls thrive and help you flourish, too.
Each episode is packed with inspiration for leading your troop well. Creative ways to tackle badge work, fun, camping tips, faith-filled guidance for homeschooling families and smart tools to keep your troop organized and your spirit uplifted. You’ll hear real stories. Proven strategies and faith-driven conversations that remind you why you’re called to this mission to shape girls with grit, grace, and godliness.
If you’re ready to grow your leadership, build community and stay inspired all year long, you’re in the right place. Let’s get started.
Friends, I am so excited. Thank you for joining me on my first episode of Call to Flourish. This podcast I hope will make you just feel so energized and excited about your ministry as a leader in American Heritage Girls. And I thought I’d take opportunity to start off with just giving you a little bit of an introduction.
My name is Kelly Edwards and I am 41. I live in Wilmington, North Carolina. My husband and I have been married, , 17 years now. We have three children. Our oldest son is 16. His name is Nigel. We have a 13-year-old. Her name is Berlin and Esther, our youngest, is about to turn seven on Monday. As a podcast and audiobook enthusiast, I really wanted an opportunity to find a space for encouragement for fellow leaders.
I did see a void where there isn’t a lot of resources for American heritage girls leaders, and that is why I started my. Blog and website Flourish troop co. So hopefully you have checked that out. If you haven’t, I would really love for you to go over there. That’s where I’ve been sharing blog posts and resources.
Anything from Google Forms to slideshows to notion templates to help you. Feel like you’re not reinventing the wheel every time something comes up in your troop. I am noticing that there’s a cycle of regular things that happened during the calendar year, and my purpose is to provide encouragement, inspiration, and resources to help make that job a little easier for you.
Another thing that seems to happen with American Heritage Girls is leaders come and go. So just like in my current troop, we’ve had several troop coordinators over the year. I have been troop coordinator only for two years now. This will begin my third year as a troop coordinator, but I actually have been with American girls since the beginning of the troop in our town.
So way back in the day when my middle daughter, who’s now 13, was only one. And I was, still learning about being a mom and all that fun stuff. I, , saw on my church bulletin that a scouting group was going to be started at our church and they need leaders.
And as a avid lover of all things crafty and camping and. Fascinated with the idea of scouting. I really wanted to be a part of it as a ministry . Even though, my daughter at the time couldn’t even be a member of the group, and she has just been such a sweetheart.
She learned to walk during, my early days of meetings, I became an explorer leader and. She grew up in the troop and now my youngest is doing the same, and it has been such a delight to be a part of American Hair Girls. And one of my favorite things is because I did not start off as the troop coordinator, which many people don’t.
, But I have grown with a troop for. Over 10 years now, I have had the opportunity to see a lot of leadership styles. I’ve been able to see what works and what doesn’t work, and also put my own spin on it. And I’m very passionate about leadership and communication and encouragement and creating a. Sense of sisterhood within my leaders, and I hope that through my posts, through this podcast and also through my interviews with fellow leaders, that you will find the same sort of encouragement that I’m trying to give you.
So that’s a little bit about me. Been American, Heritage girls for over a decade, and I am seeing no end in sight at, like I said, my youngest, she just completed her first full year as a tender heart. ,
Let’s just talk real quick about this summer and what it’s been like for me and also just a few things to chat with you about for the summer.
One of the things that’s been going on with me is that we actually ended up having to move to a new charter this year. , And that has been such a process and I will probably share, once it’s all done, I will share a blog post about it, maybe a podcast about it. So that has added some extra work for me over the summer.
But if you have not checked it out, I’m gonna link it in the, in the show notes. There’s a blog post I posted back in May about getting, , a restful summer and a productive summer, and there is a balance between the two, and I wanted to give you some ideas. So the first thing, it’s, if you haven’t already, I would highly recommend doing some sort of ladies night out with your troop leaders.
Either have a potluck at your house. We met at a Mexican restaurant. , This has been our second year in a row where we’ve done that. We’ve kind of sat in this beautiful outdoor patio area and. It’s been so much fun. So I would highly recommend just do a little celebratory thing, maybe hit on a few talking points for the summer.
, But really just let it be an opportunity for you guys to celebrate this wonderful year you’ve survived. And, . Make sure that everyone knows how valued they are as a part of your team. Another thing that I would highly recommend doing is just adding a few things on the calendar for troop activities.
I personally don’t wanna load up our summer with a lot of extras because first of all, we, I find that my turnout is not very high. We usually only get a few families at a time, but I do wanna give people the opportunity to meet up and hang out if they can. So we live by the beach, so we’ve done a couple of beach days and we’re also going to do like a trampoline park meetup and then specially a pioneer patriot pool party, , which will also be an opportunity for us to touch base with the moms of that group.
Another thing if you haven’t already is go ahead and get a new family info night set up if you like to do that. We have just done that as well. So we hosted a night where people came to the church and I presented all about American Heritage Girls and our troop and gave them all the facts and an opportunity to sign up.
If you need some resources for that, I have my slideshow actually available to purchase on my website as well as free notion templates on planning that night and just some blog posts of tips and things like that.
Next is your calendar, . We have a troop welcome site, and if you haven’t already checked that out on my website, I would highly recommend that it is my favorite resource I have available right now. It is essentially like a little website that is private and you’re able to share it with your.
Troop and your leadership. And it has a one-stop shop for all the important information you wanna tell everyone from frequently asked questions to adult, volunteer information, uniform guides, health forms, et cetera. And so this is also where I’ll post our sister groups and our calendar. So that’s the first thing I did with my.
Troop welcome page. When I wanted to refresh it for the upcoming year, I went ahead and updated our Slack channels and added the troop calendar. So here’s my best tip. Not only do you wanna put in just regular meetings and all the fun volunteer things, but I have learned that a good idea is to put in deadlines for certain things.
So, for example, we’re gonna have a picture day. Where we get a picture of all the girls in their uniforms for our yearbook. So that’s on there to let everybody know, Hey, by this day everybody needs to have their uniform ordered and the girls need to come in their uniform for that day. And I also have communicated when the last day.
Is for everyone to turn in any at-home badges or the leaders to turn in their badge work. That way it’s really clearly communicated. I’m not sending out an email sometime in November when it’s all getting lost and saying, Hey guys, don’t forget next week. I need all your badges. You know? So, , I think that that was one of my best thing I learned this year is to put the deadline in the calendar.
The next thing you’re gonna wanna add for the calendar is some sort of leadership training for the summer. My favorite thing to do is to set up a brunch potluck on a Saturday morning. Have all my ladies come, and get an opportunity to have some training that I’ll make for them.
, Just have a nice icebreaker, some yummy. Food and it’s just fantastic. It’s a wonderful way to get some training done, get to know people who are new to the team, and also just finalize our kickoff plans for the year. . Also, if you haven’t already checked, make sure that you have enough people who are CCPR and First Aid certified.
If you haven’t already done that, go ahead and do it and get that scheduled so you’re in compliance for that. All of my leaders. Did it with me two years ago. So we are needing that to be renewed and so we’re already working right now with getting a class scheduled for us to do our training. And then next up is just take time to rest.
One of the things I would encourage you to do is if you haven’t already, maybe set a, a block of time to say, tell your leaders, tell your families, Hey guys, I’m out of the office. You know, questions will come, you know, you can ask me questions soon, but right now I just wanna take some time off to just recharge .
That is my best tip is to just take some time to reflect, think about what worked, what didn’t work. Have you sent out a survey yet? If you haven’t, I also have that on my website. Send out a survey to your families and ask them what did they like about last year and what. Suggestions, do they have what’s, what was their daughter’s favorite part?
I have learned so much from those surveys, and sometimes it is one person being a little picky about one thing or another. You obviously can’t make everyone delighted all the time, but a good leader listens. So pay attention to what your leaders are saying and what your families are saying. And that will help you to just make the most of your fall.
And I’m just gonna finish off with saying thanks again for being here. I hope so much, especially with this being summer, this is the time I feel like where we really do get a chance to get things in order so that the rest of your year is. , Believe it or not, restful and it’s something you can enjoy and not overwhelming.
So I want to be here. I wanna be your partner. I want us to learn from the wisdom of leaders as well. And let us come together to make American Hair Girls a. A lamp on a hill and, , letting our light shine and being a safe haven and a harbor of rest for these girls who are living in a world where they’re getting a lot of confusing and conflicting information.
And we are a place where they can learn that they are loved, they are valued, and that we are here to serve them and their families and show them Jesus’ love. So. Thank you again for listening and I hope you have a wonderful and 📍 blessed week. Bye.