From Dream to Launch

On By Andy MilneIn microblog

“I’ve been dreaming about this big idea…” Recently the last few big ideas have become realities. I started to wonder about why. Because when they hit just right, the impact is deeper than surface level. I’ve been writing microblogs for the last couple years about a few subjects that have shaped my career, but none like the process I went through to bring my most recent big dream idea into reality.

In summer 2024, I had this feeling in my gut that my sessions at conferences were not hitting home like I wanted them to. While my keynote addresses would hit people at their core and I felt my bucket overflowing, I started to wonder why. In late summer, I started to reflect on a few conversations I have had with colleagues across the country. I teach full time Adapted Physical Education in a rural town 40 minutes west of Minneapolis. What I’m realizing is that teaching students with disabilities every day not only gives me life, but it is something that many general Physical Education teachers need more inclusive stragies. I realized that not every state has Adapted Physical Education teachers like Minnesota. Often teachers will reach out with questions about inclusive strategies or teaching students with a variety of needs. Supporting all students, when you haven’t had enough training or voices of support in your teaching life is difficult, but planning for all students needs to be something all Physical Education teachers do. I started to wonder how I could reach people, with content I was passionate about. I realized the power in storytelling and connection. How can I help more people, connect more people and learn to be better in my own job? How do other people do this in other professions? Then it hit me. A podcast. 

DREAM.

I started to dream about what this could look like, thinking of my experiences with other podcasts with friends such as Joey Feith, California Adapted PE TOY Chris Ahrens and Dr. Scott Macnamara. I remembered what it felt like to connect with my colleagues on Dr. Guy Danhoff’s live broadcast with the SHAPE America Teachers of the Year back in 2022. I loved being brought in and connecting with others. I present at conferences a lot, and thought maybe a podcast would be able to bring some of the best practice to life, but then in reflection, I thought that storytelling would need to be a part of the pod, because webinars are gnerally boring. Adapted PE teachers are humans with amazing hearts, but also the daily rhythms of what we do and how we approach supporting all students needs to be celebrated.

BELIEVE.

I started to talk to my best colleagues about my dream of bringing a podcast to our community.  I brought it up to my Adapted PE MNDAPE colleague friends and all of them thought it was an awesome idea.  I reached out to my buddy 2023 SHAPE America National TOY Jordan Manly, because we had talked about building out the Adapted PE portion of the Health and Physical Education Collective to see if this podcast could be a part of it. Jordan came back with a resounding YES. I connected with a MOSHAPE colleague, Dr. Guy Danhoff, who is an amazing mentor, coach and colleague with a passion for serving and giving back to our HPE community. After talking to Guy, I really started to believe there was a space and a niche for my content.

PLAN.

Together we laid out month by month plans to make this. The first of all the steps was to come up with a name for the podcast. I did not have to think hard because of what I wanted the podcast to accomplish. By January, the Heartbeats of Adapted PE Podcast was named to celebrate both the HEART (storytelling) and BEAT (daily rhythms) of Adapted PE Teachers and those who support all students. Some other steps we needed to complete were the following:

  • Create the name of the Podcast: HEARTBEATS OF ADAPTED PE PODCAST
  • Cast Vision and Mission for the Podcast: CONNECT, INSPIRE AND AMPLY ADAPTED PE TEACHER VOICES AND THOSE WHO SUPPORT ALL STUDENTS.
  • Bringing together colleagues to create an advisory board: 4 SHAPE AMERICA TEACHERS OF THE YEAR, A HIGHER ED BESTIE COLLEAGUE AND DR. GUY DANHOFF.
  • Creating “pitch items” to propose to potential sponsorship partners and SHAPE America. DONE.
  • Create a 1 pager: Available Here
  • Obtaining a sponsorship to keep our podcast going for a year. DONE.
  • Create a schedule of monthly guests for the whole year. SO MANY AMAZING GUESTS IN PLACE!
  • Create Social Media and Youtube Pages:
  • Obtain StreamYard for live interactive broadcasts: DONE
  • Pull together a practice podcast to work out kinks: SO GOOD! DONE!
  • Communicate with the first guests 1 week before launch to make sure everyone and everything is ready for launch: DONE!

LAUNCH

FRIENDS. No joke… 1 by 1 ALL the things fell into place and fell into place quickly. The Heartbeats of Adapted PE Podcast launched at SHAPE Baltimore on 4/4/2025 with the 2024 SHAPE America Adapted PE Teachers of the Year as our first guests. And the best part, Fit and Fun Playscapes who has a mission of supporting all people movement that lines up so well with our vision and mission of connecting, inspiring and amplifying Adapted PE Teacher voices and those who support all students (through movement), will support our podcast for the entire year with their sponsorship! 

Dreaming, became believing which moved us to plan into the launch of the Heartbeats of Adapted PE Podcast. We went full send, less than a year after dreaming about what this could look like! After our first podcast I was on absolute high! From dream to launch, it became reality. While I did learn a lot about sound and microphones my first episode (that was an ooops and I’ll pay attention to the sound/mic level on the next round!), the content with the APE TOYs was absolutely bucket filling and JUST SO GOOD. On the way to each episode, I am surrounded by the most amazing advisory board made up of Jordan Manly, Jessica Matheson, Dr. Megan Johnson, Justin Lund and Dr. Guy Danhoff. When we met the first time, I literally told them that I was good at dreaming big dreams but I’m horrible at bringing the details together. I quickly realized that the people who are on my board are detail oriented and love pulling details towards big dreams as well as making our Health, Physical Education and Adapted PE profession better. With common dreams and that common purpose we are moving forward and building a podcast community 1x per month. I hope you will join us at the Heartbeats of Adapted PE Podcast! Subscribe and follow us!

Our next episode will be released on 5/4/2025: https://www.youtube.com/live/5e-BEEBvtQk?si=-kgm7LfRajA8fny0

You can also watch on the www.hpecollective.online

Or Watch it on the SHAPE America Youtube Page:

We also just dropped the first episode on Spotify and Apple!

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3IbzNSToDdprgCjBn7rh6J?si=vZRULNXfSOWfVmZkgL4YVw

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/heartbeats-of-adapted-pe-podcast/id1810684718

Email any questions to our host Jen Heebink: heartbeatsofadaptedpe@gmail.com

Thanks so much for joining my on the journey from Dream to Launch!

-Jen Heebink

This microblog post was a featured post in #slowchathealth’s #microblogmonth event. You can search for all of the featured posts here. Please do follow each of the outstanding contributors on social media (including Jen Heebink, the author of this post) and consider writing a microblog post of your own to be shared with the global audience of slowchathealth.com

Pair this blog post with the following:

Why I Present by Jen Heebink

Why I Podcast by Nathan Walker

Podcast Picks: 5 Episodes That Deserve Your Attention by Andy Milne

Have you read the latest Book of the Month recommendation?

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