Meet Your Neighbor - Breanna Hatcher

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!