An interview with Mary Thompson, owner and founder of Flight Deck Life School.
So what’s this Flight Deck Life School all about anyway? Here we try to answer all your burning questions…
What is Flight Deck Life School (FDLS)?
Flight Deck Life School is here to help those who want to maximize their own personal and professional development, and brings Bible truth alongside carefully curated tools and resources to help you find your callings, develop your potential and learn to integrate your faith life into your real life—in a way that will help you maximize your God-given potential.
Why did you decide to start Flight Deck Life School (FDLS)?
While it took me a while to identify and name it, professional and personal development has kinda been my favorite thing for most of my adult life. I started my career at IBM back in the late 80’s—think power-suits and floofy bangs—as a sales rep. I didn’t enjoy that job all that much because sales and quotas were a bit repugnant to my high and mighty ideals. However, I completely bought in to the training and development culture which IBM was so steeped in.
At the time, my husband and I were young and newly married and had started teaching kids at our large church. Believe it or not, I found a tremendous amount of synergy between my “real” job and this endeavor. Getting up in front of a room of 40 or so kindergartners and 1st graders was a similar amount of scary as talking to CEO’s and giving sales presentations. (At least to me!)
It turned out to have a great deal less risk, though. I couldn’t get fired for my volunteer job. In fact, I resigned several times to no avail. My ministry director simply asked me why I was quitting, and when I’d explain, “I’m failing,” she’d coach me about how to be more effective. I’d agree to try “just once more”. Her advice seemed to always work—on-the-job training and development at work! My confidence grew and my performance improved—not just at church but at work, too!
I wanted to succeed, but felt a little helpless as to how to do so. I had established a habit of NOT putting myself out there.
So—both at work and as a volunteer, two issues were at work: confidence and know-how.
I think this is pretty rare, but I got BOTH addressed in my volunteer situation at church. I was constantly being reassured about how glad they were to have me.
Now, this is important:
It wasn’t just a lot of thank you’s strung together. That’s pertinent, of course, but instead the formula looked more like this:
THANK YOU!!!!
+ we appreciate YOU
+++ reassurance and affirmation
with words like:
God brought you here. You’re a leader.
And specific, actionable instructions to help me “win” in my volunteer position.
Additionally, the ministry leaders demonstrated through their words and actions how they applied Bible truth to everything they did. I learned so much just watching them do their jobs!
My hunger, my heart’s cry was to do God’s will. If I only knew what it was. And if I only had something of value to bring to whatever that might be.
Meanwhile, at work, I was receiving great training, too—especially regarding communication and leadership.
This on-going experience led to a core belief that informs both Trajectory Forward and Flight Deck Life School.
People want to succeed and when they fail to do so, it is often because they lack confidence and knowledge. Proper training and development can address this
Wait, so did you tell us yet why you stared FDLS?
Oops, sorry, where was I?
I enjoyed all the personal and professional development…both at work and at church—used what I was learning in both environments…
As our church grew, and our children’s ministry grew as well, I was saddened to watch volunteers coming in and leaving just as quickly. Or coming and staying but not really engaging and growing and maximizing their own potential. I knew firsthand the ripple effect it could have on someone’s life when they got engaged and started using their talents and strengths on a regular basis!
I pushed leadership to do more training—that’s what had helped me become engaged with ministry and be effective and these newer volunteers needed it, too!
The answer was always, “Yes!! You’re right! We need to do that!” But like most church staff, my ministry leaders had way more to do than they had time for doing. And they weren’t actually with the volunteers I was talking about week in and week out.
After a while, I said, “Could I maybe talk to them after class about what you taught us?”
“Yes, please!”
I had no idea this would be the start of my career in training and development.
Have you answered the question yet?
Argh! No! I guess I haven’t!
So our after-class meetings were super-effective. Life-changing and relationship-building for us and for the people who worked with us.
Kids’ ministry as a whole asked other classes to have meetings, too.
Eventually, I got the chance to write a training program for kids’ ministry.
And then I got the chance to be part of the formation of a leadership-based internship for that same church. I served in that capacity for about five years, and still go back and contribute a number of trainings and teachings for each cohort.
Meanwhile, I started my own company. Trajectory Corporate Training and Consulting began in 2017 with the idea that what was working so well in a volunteer environment could help organizations and companies grow their teams by empowering and fostering the growth of their people.
One thing stayed pretty consistent, though: I got great responses to my trainings.
But often, especially when doing Myers-Briggs (MBTI), I’d find individuals coming to me afterward who’d say something like this:
“Oh my gosh, that was awesome. NOW I understand why I struggle so much. I wish my … husband, daughter, boss, etc. could do this with me. Or—I wish I could unpack this more with you.”
And I’d leave feeling really sad because, I, too, would love to help them unpack it more.
Worse, I already know that unless they go home and do some self-study, this would wind up being like a party trick. Energizing and motivating for the time-being, but destined to fade as time went on and life / work / relationships / communication fell back into the same tired and deflating patterns that were present before I ever showed up.
Flight Deck Life School????
Okay, I’m getting there….
There were some individuals from my speaking / training world who did hire me to do private and small-group coaching. And it bore out—the testimonials on my website’s home page come from those experiences.
I could tailor solutions to use the resources and competencies I’d gained and trainings I’d developed.
However, Trajectory was really geared toward consulting and working with companies, and organizations. There wasn't necessarily a clear path for doing work with individuals in that world.
Secondly, most often, I didn't get to integrate a great deal of faith into my trainings and that's a BIG part of finding real growth and change!
I find the Bible to be incredibly practical and useful. I remember still back from my corporate world days being so offended by a xeroxed sign someone had placed on their bulletin board. It said something like, “This is not your real life. If it were, you would have been given better instructions.”
That just isn’t my reality.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12,
“What I want to talk about now is the various ways God’s Spirit gets worked into our lives. This is complex and often misunderstood, but I want you to be informed and knowledgeable.”
Paul is speaking for God here, and so that means
God wants us to be informed and knowledgeable.
And so—while I find the Bible to be incredibly useful and, of course, necessary, I found that Christians, in particular, as they worked to gain confidence and know-how, often struggled in two ways:
The first challenge came because the message they heard on Sunday seemed great while they were sitting in church and amen-ing. But, they couldn’t figure out how to apply it once they got to Monday and their boss was being a jerk, and their kids were acting weird and their whole life seemed to just be giving them a tummy-ache. How do you integrate your faith-life into your real life?
The second way is almost another end of the spectrum. It was as if people never actually left their church bubble. I’ve said I find the Bible to be incredibly useful and practical—and it is, but there’s other great resources and tools available to us—that can co-exist and enhance our personal and professional growth as well!
Flight Deck Life School is here to help those who want to maximize their own personal and professional development, and brings Bible truth alongside carefully curated tools and resources to help you find your callings, develop your potential and learn to integrate your faith life into your real life—in a way that will help you maximize your God-given potential.
How? What does FDLS offer?
The starting line-up for Flight Deck includes these offerings:
A weekly (or so) newsletter— What? More email? That’s an offering??? Well—it is, actually. For over thirty years, my rhythm has been to get in front of people every week—sometimes several times a week, in order to teach them something. Kids, at first. Leaders. Companies. Teams. Organizations.
In order to do that effectively, it’s imperative to put in the time to be with the Lord and hear from Him myself. If it doesn’t mean something to me—and something to me right now, it isn’t going to mean anything to my listeners, either.
That’s still my rhythm, and quite possibly the main reason for FDLS. God shows me something awesome and practical and helpful and I want to tell you!
So—from this letter, you can expect a variety of topics. It could be a devotional, a multi-day Bible study, a book review, a case study or story.
Feel free, in fact—please!!— hit reply and talk back to me!
And, if it isn’t your cup of tea (or coffee), no hard feelings—hit unsubscribe.
Freebies! The first freebie is “8 Ideas to Establish Your Life”. Expect to find more down the road, and perhaps an occasional worksheet or devotional contained within the weekly newsletters!
“BUILD” planner and mini-course. I love me a good planner. My personal schedule has a LOT of time built in for reflecting, journaling, and planning on regular repeat. This contains the questions that help me get in touch with my own heart as I reflect, and to set the intentions that help me fulfill not just what I want to do, but how I want to do them and who I want to be while I’m walking it all out.
“Personality Deep Dive” is the first major course offering because it is the place I prefer to start with clients—whether I’m consulting with a business, offering a group training, or working with an individual coaching client. MBTI is a shortcut to understanding yourself and others around you, and this 5-week investment will pay dividends in your work, relationships, and personal life. Wherever you go, there you are, so appreciating and understanding yourself better enhances everything!
1:1 and specialized training and coaching: Maybe you have something more specific in mind? Reach out and we can talk about it!
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