Biz About me

Larry Prochazka, Ed.D.

I’ve been teaching and facilitating for decades, since the late 1970’s. My intent is to help people learn to help themselves, to inspire people to grow and evolve and for people to increase their present moment awareness. Your presence matters! Right here and right now! From a leadership perspective, leaders often lose sight of the fact that “presence” defines trust, relationship, creativity, commitment, retention and so many other thing essential to a successful organization. Title doesn’t matter if people are unable to relate.

Growing up on the farm, challenges were practical. Knowing was not as valuable as figuring out a solution and seeing it work! In life, people seem to have an abundance of knowledge but little common sense. Realize what you know, take it inside, integrate it, know how to be it and apply it, make it real and then you have something of value! That’s one thing I help people with and to do it in a world where everyone’s work affects others, your work affects others, relationship is crucial, communication and listening skills essential…then you have a basis for success!

I fell like a 6’4″ post-it note reminding people how to be aware of their presence while handling the details of leading an organization. A general principle that guides me may be helpful for you:

“Who you are speaks so loudly I can not hear what you are saying.” – Emerson

I listened to Simon Sinek’s “Start With Why”presentation. I worked with it, sat with it, felt with it and suddenly, had a blinding flash of the obvious: I’ve ALWAYS been about inspiring other people!!!! More accurately, I’ve always been about living with inspiration, expressing the Spirit within, following threads of what mattered to me most! The byproduct is those around me become inspired. With clarity, that’s my primary focus now, inspiring people to live with clear purpose and meaning in their own life! Live a great life!

A few years ago, while traveling in Costa Rica, learned that “Prochazka” means to walk, go for a walk or to walk about in Czech. That’s what my life has been about. I’ve moved often, explored a lot, am more spontaneous than predictable, look for patterns, feel deeply, listen to my intuition, really love helping people grow, and am interested in living.

I’ve worked as a corporate trainer, facilitator and professional speaker treating my work as a hobby and having time for LIFE! I’ve specialized in the people skills part of business: communication, creativity, team building and leadership. Mostly I’m inspired to inspire others to raise their level of awareness, notice what impact they are causing in their own life and make conscious choices.

When I wanted a break, took my pack, headed off, experienced, learned, grew and brought that back to my work. Travel inspires and refreshes me. It enlarges my world, feeds my Soul and connects me to a world wide family.

When I work with groups, my hope is that the ideas are as valuable in helping them improve their personal life and relationships as they are at work. And my deep belief is: if people are unable to relate to and live what we are doing, any impact at work will be temporary at best!

Manage your focus, be clear on where you are heading, impact others through your presence, take ownership and most of all, care! That’s the formula!

Impact! What is that impact of being? How do you achieve that? What focus do you maintain because it matters to you and you feel inspired when living aligned with it! Over the course of your lifetime, you will far more and deeper impact on people because of who you are, not because of what you know! Not because of your title, years of experience, wealth, etc! Who you are makes a difference!

Inner purpose is more important than outer purpose. If it isn’t a priority, it’s easily overshadowed by following the crowd, doing what “you are supposed to do”, and losing contact with your inner purpose. Here’s how things evolved for me: be authentic, listen, being present, flowing with whatever needs show up in the moment, connecting to my “inner being” and staying true to myself. Choose in the moment: respond, rather than react! Without ever uttering a word, all of us are impacting the people around us. Today, in our logical, conceptual and competitive oriented world, people have turned themselves into “Human Doings” rather than living as a “Human Being”! Big difference. Doing will keep you really busy but is has little likelihood of giving you a sense of fulfillment.

And, where you come from as a person and an organization is felt by others. It’s tangible!

Rich experience!

A scholarship offer led me from NW Kansas to Western Kentucky University. Suddenly, I became aware that a huge world existed out there and I wanted to experience as much of it as possible. Before my father passed away in 2015, he asked me why I travel. I smiled and said, “Dad, you know why I travel. I’ve always chosen to LIVE and experience life.” He smiled knowingly and nodded, beaming me with his happy eyes!

As a child on the farm, I saw stories and photo’s in encyclopedias and would dream. Suddenly, I was out in that world experiencing those things! And I wanted more!

I started that in the late 70’s and then kept expanding. I traveled the US for 15 months interviewing people to learn how to help people learn, backpacked through the Yucatan, hiked the Inca Trail, rafted the Grand Canyon, trekked through Costa Rica, took cooking classes in Northern Thailand, hiked the trails of Komodo looking for the Komodo Dragon and so many more adventures. While exploring “outside” is fascinating, the real work is inside. That’s where my interest lie now.

Transferrable skills!

I went from being interested in camping and the outdoors to c0-teaching a month long mountaineering course. Needless to say, being from the farm, I didn’t have many mountaineering skills. I assumed I HAD to know a lot of those so launched into learning about anchor system, traveling on glaciers, climbing, rappelling, and so forth. Very quickly, I learned that I was wrong!!

#1. The first thing I needed to know to be competent was a mindset! Know what you know! Know what you don’t know! Never pretend you know something you don’t which results in putting people at risk. Find someone who knows and put them in charge!!

#2. Expeditions fall apart because of people/relationship conflicts, not because of lack of technical skills! I didn’t understand group dynamics, dealing with conflict, listening, giving feedback and, essentially, being a good leader! So I launched into learning those things. What happened next surprised me: students told parents to asked if I could come help their company! I realized the same issued affected companies that affected expeditions! That’s how I got into the business of consulting with companies. I joke….but it’s not really a joke, that I’m in business because people are not good at talking with each other!

As a speaker, I find my greatest joy in being authentic, staying present, and helping inspire others to live with clear purpose and meaning. I thrive on helping people discover their own solutions and ways of incorporating them. People often tell me that what they learn is just as valuable to them personally as it is professionally!

After a recent training, I received a comment from one man who said, “I’m still in shock about how much I learned about myself”. YES! That’s what I’m interested in! Helping people who want to grow their lives to the next highest expression of themselves!

Bali Motor Bike Photo’s

I have had amazing adventures starting in 1984 when I resigned from a job, packed everything but my essentials, and traveled around the US for 15 months living out of my Subaru. Twice, I stayed in hotels. As a college professor, I was very discouraged by the education system that rewarded and specialized in teaching students to memorize rather than think and feel for themselves. So I set out on a 15 month adventure to interview people asking questions around the theme of “how do I teach people to learn how to learn”. I was inspired to help people feel and think for themselves, identify their own priorities and values (rather than following those they had been convinced to follow) and start carving out life experiences that inspired, nurtured and enriched their life.

I tried teaching again after that but was exhausted by trying to fit into a system completely foreign to me. As I became better at teaching students to think, reflect, engage and ask questions, I encountered a few annoyed colleagues. In a harsh tone, filled with disapproval, colleagues pointed a finger at me as they said, “I can tell which students have been in YOUR class”! Feeling like I was dying staying there, I left.

Eventually, I started providing corporate facilitation around people skills, creativity, leadership, team building and related topics. My first client was IBM. I was completely intimidated since I had no corporate background. My first program was a huge success. The second program, people were waiting in the hall begging me to allow them into the class. I couldn’t accommodate them because a larger group made it impossible for me to process and engage the activities I used. It was refreshing to learn that I was an asset primarily because of what I had personally learned and experienced but also precisely because I didn’t have any corporate experience. I only saw opportunities and possibilities where others saw limitation and restriction.

Then I started wandering parts of Mexico, Belize and Guatemala. Costa Rica popped up next and then I headed to Peru. A friend encouraged me get my car to the insurance adjuster for old hail damage. I did. They wrote me a check. I used that buy tickets…Denver to Lima to Cuzco, then to Iquitos on the Amazon via Lima and back to the US. WOW…WOW…WOW!!! That opened my eyes even more!

My first trip out of the US was to Thailand. Frightened and nervous, I still trusted my ability to remain calm, deal with whatever showed up and make things work. Boy did they!

Malaysia and Indonesia Trip

PS…I used miles to get there and splurged quite a bit including about 9 flights between islands. Still, this trip cost slightly over $5,000. I could have done it for much less!

Several years ago, I wandered for 3 1/2 months in Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo, Sulawesi, Bali, Komodo and Singapore. Each “trip of a lifetime” seems to open the door to the next one. After years of being primary care giver for my parents, after they passed, I loaded my backpack and wandered for 10 months. First the Yucatan, then a birthday trip to favorite spots in Belize and Guatemala, Spanish lessons in Guatemala, Dia de los Muertos in Oaxaca, first time visits to Queretaro, Guanajuato, San Miguel de Allende before setting off to SE Asia. From Kuala Lumpur to Bali, onward to Raja Ampat in Papua Indonesia, next to Sri Lanka, India, Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia before flying home. Amazing!

Now, I am inspired to inspire people to live, experience, listen more and think less, step into adventures and experiences that are fulfilling and energizing for them.

Covid-19 caused a break in “in-person” facilitation. I’m interested in working with people on topics related to Creativity and possibility thinking, impact of leader presence through “The Spirit Of Leadership” program and integrating “why” and personal accountability into your work and life through exploring a program titled “Count On Me”. Such fun and so rewarding.

Some of my “Global” Family
What a highlight, meeting so many wonderful people on the planet! I’ll head back to Bali before long to see the healers again!