Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Breanna Hatcher and I am a life coach and
trainer. I'm also the program director
of Leadership San Leandro.
What do you love about San Leandro?
To me it's the tight knit community, given that we are
80,000 people you don't feel that way. You feel like you are part of something,
part of a group of people who really cares about each other and want to make a
difference in their town.
Tell me more about Leadership San Leandro. What is your involvement and
where leadership programs originally came from?
I am the program director.
I came in a year and a half ago, my vision was that we would add a professional
development component to the program and seize the opportunity of the 9 Fridays
that we have with people. Be able to develop their skills, talents and passions
over time by giving them insight into who they are, what their strengths are
and insight into what they could do in the community and then connect them with
the key movers and shakers.
Where did the leadership programs originate from?
Our program is 20 years old, which isn't uncommon. They have been around for a while. Chambers
started them because a group of leaders from one city unfortunately all passed
(died) in a plane crash and they realized they had no succession planning. They had no one to replace these leaders for
their city. So it originated for a city
wanting to make sure they have leadership to follow in the footsteps of other
leaders.
To me it's not just political, our city needs people who are
interested in every aspect of San Leandro, from the non profits to the for
profit businesses, we have a huge manufacturing
base. We want to ignite, spark and
explore the talents of people. If the city is succeeding we are all succeeding
. Not just the political entities but
all the business, nonprofit and public entities .
Leadership San Leandro is an amazing program, I am actually part of
this year's class. The
program is
subsidized and we have an event coming up that help the subsidy
We have the Taste of San Leandro which is the only fundraiser
for Leadership San Leandro. The charming
story is that Jack Papazian (who was the director of the program) had the idea of bringing food and wine together and getting
people to pay a set price for that, get
tray of cheese and set them out.
Now we have about 28 wine, food and beer vendors coming for
the Taste of San Leandro. It is about
bringing the community together with great food, wine and beer. We have 3 micro breweries that are somewhat
famous, or becoming famous. Twenty First Amendment, Drakes and Cleophus which
is a new brewery, we are becoming a hub for breweries. All this you get for $40, all the food you
can eat for 3 hours, it pretty miraculous. It's a great way to come together
and meet people you who not meet otherwise.
It's interesting how San Leandro hasn't tried to copy Alameda and do
the wine thing, we have the beer thing, it's neat
21st Amendment are
trying to partner with Cleophus and create a downtown of food tasting and craft
breweries. Get people to come as an attraction, to come and taste beer, not to see them (the other breweries) as competitors,
seeing them as colleagues and collaborators.
It's super cool.
With your business, you don't just do professional development for business
people, you do life coaching. Many
people, including myself have so many wonderful things to say about your
sessions. Tell us a little more about
what you do?
I was in Human resources for 15 years, I have a Masters in Organizational
Development, which is about making organizations better. I realized after years
and years of doing that, talking about how the meeting was bad, and the meeting
about the meeting was bad. It was not igniting
people or sparking a passion or helping them see how they could utilize their strengths
or be their best self. That is why I
wanted to go into the coaching to leverage people for who they are. If people are being their best self and
utilizing their strengths and have the skills and vision to execute on that, be
it in an organization, any organization, our families, our volunteer work. That's why I love the individual one on one,
and that to me is everything, never boring, never a bad day in the shop, it's
always a good day.
Even in people darkest moments there is always a spark of
hope and I love being the person who helps to support that and show them what's
possible, what's next and what they already have inside of them that can make
that happen.
Final words of wisdom?
Just speaking of the City. If you spend a little time
getting to know San Leandro you will really love it. Previously in my corporate life I didn't have
that opportunity, I didn't know my neighbors.
If you just take a moment to reach out I think San Leandro embraces you,
supports you and shows you that whatever you want to do you can go do it, and
you can go do it here!
