Building a Bold Life After Tragedy | Dr. Kimberly McGlonn | Ep 077

🗣️  Dr. Kimberly McGlonn shares her extraordinary journey from being abandoned by her parents at age 14 to becoming a PhD, educator, and founder of Grant Boulevard, the first Black-owned B Corp in the fashion space in North America.

Dr. McGlonn is an award-winning social entrepreneur whose work has been funded by Beyoncé and featured in major media outlets. As the founder of Grant Boulevard and Blk Ivy (a brand paying homage to Civil Rights Movement figures), she combines sustainable fashion with social justice, addressing climate change and criminal system reform through stylish, sustainably sourced clothing.

Dr. McGlonn opens up about her difficult childhood, the teachers who saved her, and how these experiences shaped her mission to create a sustainable fashion business that provides living wages to vulnerable populations. Her book "Build it Boldly" explores how personal identity can inform purpose-driven business practices.

Key Takeaways:

🗣️  From Abandonment to Achievement: Personal Tragedy to Professional Triumph
🗣️  The Fast Fashion Secret They Don't Want You to Know
🗣️  The Optimism Shield: A Mental Technique for Protecting Against Negativity
🗣️  Turn Pain Into Purpose: Using Personal Struggles as Your Greatest Strength
🗣️  Redefining Success in Business: People, Planet, Purpose & Profit


Chapters
00:00 - Meeting Dr. Kimberly McGlonn
00:27 - The Grant Boulevard Story and Family Journey
01:59 - Surviving Parental Abandonment at Age 14
03:03 - The Teachers Who Saved Her Life
03:10 - Alternative Paths Without Education
04:05 - The Trifecta of Resilience: Mentors, Reading, and Faith
06:12 - The Fighting Spirit That Kept Her Going
08:14 - From English Teacher to Social Entrepreneur
10:45 - Creating Grant Boulevard: A Sustainable Fashion Mission
13:42 - The Problem with Fast Fashion
17:06 - Practical Solutions to Combat Fast Fashion
18:54 - "Build it Boldly": The Book's Origin and Purpose
20:05 - Message to Young People Facing Hardship
22:59 - What It Means to Build Boldly
25:47 - What's Next and How to Connect

📲 Connect with Our Hosts:
Stacey: https://www.instagram.com/staceymgrant/
Mark: https://www.instagram.com/mark_lubragge_onair/

⭐️ Watch/Subscribe to Gurus and Game Changers on Youtube: www.youtube.com/@UCsRyuQWlLAYzM4IyJlF2IWQ 
⭐️ Listen on any podcast audio platform

🔖 Dr. McGlonn's book "Build it Boldly": https://drkimberlymcglonn.com
📱 Follow on Instagram: @KimberlyMcGlonn and @build.it.boldly

#SustainableFashion #Resilience #Entrepreneurship #BuildItBoldly #PersonalDevelopment

Transcript

00:01 - Mark (Host)
So, stacey, we just talked to somebody who, for by all accounts, should not be successful, right, she had some challenges at a very young age, 14 years old. She was in poverty, mother disappeared Like there's a whole lot that went wrong in her childhood life. 

00:21 - Stacey (Host)
Right. 

00:22 - Mark (Host)
And now she's a PhD. She's got her own life Right and now she's a PhD. She's got her own business the first black owned B Corp in the fashion industry. She's uh, she was a teacher for a number of years for 20 years I think, and that's just a number of years and she has the mindset that, like I think, everybody needs to have to be successful and it's part of, partly because of what she went through, but it's also what's inside of her and it's partly because of what she went through, but it's also what's inside of her and she had some mentors too, and teachers. 

00:49 - Stacey (Host)
I mean she talks about teachers and she was a teacher and how they can change your life, and I don't know about you, but I had teachers in my life that changed my life Did you? 

00:56 - Mark (Host)
That's wonderful. I absolutely did, I probably wouldn't have gone to the college I went to if it weren't for a teacher who, you know, took me aside, nice, and said you have a gift in this. 

01:08 - Stacey (Host)
Yeah, that's what happened to kimberly, yeah, exactly, she had people who really believed in her, but she, at the end of the day, really believed in herself and she, yeah, and she continues to believe in her to watch this, listen to this, whatever, send it to your kids I mean, it's just like however long it's going to be. 

01:24 - Mark (Host)
It's just like not therapy, but it's great advice. That's probably the best way. Like she's so articulate and so intelligent, she makes sense in everything she says. I lost track of my questions because I got lost in her answers. I threw my questions out and I was hoping like oh, I hope it's not my turn to ask a question because I am so enthralled by what she's saying. 

01:45 - Stacey (Host)
And then I would literally like pause and look at you. Like what do we say? Honestly, I could never be that articulate or smart. You know that's my inadequate. 

01:54 - Mark (Host)
We have to stop there. We have to let them experience it. You have to experience it. It's incredible. You're going to love her. 

01:58 - Stacey (Host)
Enjoy, dr Kimberly McGlon. Hi, I'm Stacey. 

02:04 - Mark (Host)
And I am Mark, and this is the Gurus of Game Changers podcast. We're very excited to have her in studio, kimberly. 

02:13 - Stacey (Host)
Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to have you here. We both are, yeah, okay. So I want to talk a little bit. I know we're going to get into the book and everything that you're doing, but I want to talk a little bit about Grant Boulevard first so that's named after the street where you grew up. It is first company. Could you share how your family's journey on Grant Boulevard sort of shaped who you are today? 

02:31 - Dr. Kimberly McGlonn (Guest)
There's so much about that contributes to the DNA, the fabric of who we are. That lives in the stories of our parents and what they did and what they didn't do, and how they won and how they lost. And that story of Grant Boulevard is very much so that for me they made it into the middle class, they were. They got postal worker jobs. 

02:48
They were federal employees. 

02:50
The first half of that, my parents were really stable and really present and they worked a lot. 

02:55
You know they they opened up a small business, a restaurant, a deli, contestant, and so they were present, but they were, were busy, and then they just collapsed. 

03:05
You know, like that middle, I think that midlife crisis can be really, really challenging this notion of like who am I and what have I done with my life and what do I want to do with my life, and that can provoke lots of anxiety and sadness, and that really crippled my mother, I think, looking back on it, and so she ended up leaving us when I was about about 13, 14, and that changed the nature of everything. You know, like when you have a two-parent household and one parent leaves or dies. Then it becomes how do you hold the middle? And my dad really tried hard to do that, but that pressure created its own sadness and anxiety for him and he settled into some really unhealthy coping mechanisms and so by the time I was solidly 14, I was just figuring out how to feed myself and how to get myself to school and how to get my permission slip signed and and and it just my everything changed. Everything just changed Wow. 

04:01 - Mark (Host)
How long did that last for you? 

04:03 - Dr. Kimberly McGlonn (Guest)
My dad dropped me off at college at 18. I saw him then. I spent most of my holidays in friends' homes around the South, and I saw my mother again when I was 21. It was the next. Yeah, I saw her. 

04:17 - Mark (Host)
From 14 to 21? I saw her maybe twice. You saw her twice. 

04:20 - Dr. Kimberly McGlonn (Guest)
Yeah, maybe twice, maybe three times. I figured out what a lot of us have to learn eventually, which is, who do we want to be? And are we gonna sit at the wall of of loneliness, or are we gonna keep figuring out how to just take one step up it? And I, that's what I really worked on doing. 

04:38 - Stacey (Host)
It's amazing, but 14 is so young. Did you have somebody else who came and helped occasionally? I'd? 

04:44 - Dr. Kimberly McGlonn (Guest)
meet with my English teacher and she'd say this, and then meet with my guidance counselor and she'd say that and and, uh, and so my school community was was really I and I became a teacher and I, in large part, I always had beautiful experiences with lots of really warm, affirming teachers, and so they, my, the teachers in my life, they, they really saved me. 

05:07 - Mark (Host)
They really really, really, really, really saved me you ever think about what your life would have been like had you not gone to college? 

05:14 - Dr. Kimberly McGlonn (Guest)
dancing, which is adjacent to sex work I would have probably done? What would the girls that I knew who were? 

05:21
sure who were attractive and who were, you know, who were just like trying to figure it out. That was the next other way, right? So at 16, 17, 18, I was working one or two jobs. Always, I always had at least one job. Oftentimes I had two jobs, and there was a season in that, when I turned 18, where I was like, maybe dancing, maybe you know. I didn't think explicitly about sex work, but I calculated that that might've been something that would have eventually been made attractive to me. Yeah, there's lots of money involved yeah. 

05:51
There's lots of money involved in that. That. That might've been the way that it would have played out. What is it about? 

05:55 - Stacey (Host)
you, Kimberly. That just came through Because so many people in that scenario would have been crushed, paralyzed yeah, wouldn't have known what to do yeah, what is it about you? 

06:09 - Dr. Kimberly McGlonn (Guest)
I think it probably exists. I haven't thought about this in that way, but it probably exists. In three, in a trifecta of of like truths. One truth was those women was those, like all of those other strangers, those non-biological figures who were really very fiercely clear that there was another path for me. It was like I was cornered. 

06:33 - Stacey (Host)
You had to, I had to. I was cornered by this. They believed in you. 

06:36 - Dr. Kimberly McGlonn (Guest)
They were like a wall of like. We are standing right here and we're funneling you into college. I love that, I think, because I was a kid who loved reading. There were always in my mind, there were always options, there was always an adventure to be had, wow. So I always had a spirit of like, of just wonder, and I think that was helpful. And I would be really remiss to not say that for me and my language is God that there was that God, my creator, the creator, this force of light in the face of incredible odds. Always, we always held some kind of relationship. That benevolent force always held me, I think, for me now you know I've. I was as a classroom teacher. I taught world literature, so I taught about the Old Testament, the New Testament and Buddhism and Confucianism, I mean we really traveled the whole world. 

07:25 - Stacey (Host)
I love that class, by the way. 

07:26 - Dr. Kimberly McGlonn (Guest)
Philosophy of Religion yeah it's a fun one and I think, for me in this moment, I'm really most interested in theologies that are anchored in a spirit of generosity, you know, like there's a real courage in being generous, because it suggests that I don't have to be so nervous about my own well-being, that it means I have to be cruel, and I think that where I find those traditions that say that I am made richer, I'm made stronger, I'm made more confident, I'm made more beautiful, in really thinking about how to think about other people and making myself small, that has made, that has carried me through every single storm of my life. 

08:05 - Mark (Host)
Oh, my gosh, it's got chills on my arm without any one of those three uh forces of good in your life it would seem that you would not have, you wouldn't be here today no, I I probably would have. 

08:16 - Dr. Kimberly McGlonn (Guest)
I mean who knows? I mean I, I, you know, I've had friends who've completed suicide, people, you know, young women who were in their early 20s who just were broken. 

08:27 - Mark (Host)
A lot of grace yeah, a lot of grace. But I mean to to Stacy's point. There's something in you yes right, you should probably give yourself that grace. Yeah, I will, I will. My dad was a boxer, you know, and I think you have a fight. 

08:39 - Dr. Kimberly McGlonn (Guest)
I have a fight. Yeah, my dad was a boxer and he was really. He was always a feminist and he was always really really clear that he wanted me to and my sisters to think of ourselves as fighters and that we were going to show up, and sometimes that meant we were going to take something on the chin and we were going to punch back, and so that's always been a part of of my energy. 

09:01
In every room I walk in, I don't I don't lead with the spirit of fight, necessarily, but I I think it's really important that it's also part of of the energy that I walk in with, that I I'm a warrior and that that means that I'm not afraid of of a confrontation. For humans who just survive being abused, that's a that's a natural default. And and while my parents struggled with personal crises, they weren't, they weren't necessarily abusive to me, right, they were gone and in that way, that meant that they were. There were certainly years where I was emotionally neglected. They weren't cruel to me, they weren't I, and I never saw their struggles as an act of of attack on me. I saw them as just. I saw their sadness. 

09:44 - Stacey (Host)
So many people would be like well, my parents were like. This obviously turned out this way because of something that happened to me, but that was never going to be you. 

09:52 - Dr. Kimberly McGlonn (Guest)
No, and that doesn't mean like I haven't struggled with anxiety, right. It doesn't mean that I never experienced heartbreak. It doesn't mean wondering, like you know, or wanting more than wondering, you know, wanting them to be able, at different stages of my life, to be more involved. Yeah, and, and then it became like, in order to do the next thing I need to do, I can't wallow, like there isn't enough time to wallow. You know, sadness can be crippling. Oh yeah, and it just for me. 

10:18
It was just like I, I'm gonna push, I'm gonna, I want to keep pushing and pushing and sometimes it made me an overachiever or a hyper achiever, right, sometimes that made me really really hyper rational, sometimes that made me really kind of controlling and and it also meant that I was like committed to nine years of therapy and I traveled to like 25 countries and I really was just like, how do I continue to expand my notion of what's possible? And business just became another way of a canvas for distilling all of those lessons into trying to figure out how to build something that still lived in that spirit of inclusivity and radical tenderness, particularly for other women. So tell me about your businesses. I was an English teacher for 20 years and about year 15, I started thinking about. You know, was this really the only thing I wanted to do? You know, I met a lot of teachers, colleagues who love that being in high school, and I was just like at some point I would really like to graduate, maybe. 

11:17
So I took a sabbatical and I traveled by myself, first major solo trip to East Africa. I went to Kenya and I wanted to work with women and nonprofits who were supporting deeply impoverished people. So I did that and came back home and so I watched a documentary called 13th, which is still on Netflix, and it really is a great primer on understanding the story of American institutional development in the last 250 years through the lens of how we define what it means to be criminal, and and the 13th amendment to the constitution in particular, and that really just made me think. Oh, you know, like I really love being in this classroom and I love teaching about the world and I love teaching about marginalization, the american story and the, the ways in which that's created challenges for the, even for us to preserve our democracy. But I thought I really just wanted to show up differently, and so I started thinking about people who'd come home from prison particularly women, the fastest group of incarcerated people in the country and how hard it is for people once they get. I mean, we've all broken the law. I also never walked through the world presuming that I was better than people who had been arrested or convicted or charged because I knew I'd broken the law and that, like radical sense of self, I think, made it easier for me to be like I don't even need to know what you did. If you are trying to do better, if you served your time and you're trying to get it right that ship, then we all need teachers who say I'm going to try my best to funnel you into a new way of thinking about what's possible, and so my teaching practice just expanded into business as a new classroom. 

12:49
So Grant Boulevard was founded in 2017 and it was thinking about could I build a brand that sought to hold in balance the needs of really, really vulnerable people with tender care by providing them a living wage, and could I do that in a way, from a material strategy that didn't ignore my understanding that our planet is in a state of peril? So we set up to do that, you know, to think about fabrics and processes and design procedures. That would just really be radically intersectional, because time is short. You know the things that we're all of us, whether we have the deep science or we've read the history we have a feeling that there is something that's like really, really off and we're all trying to figure out what that solution will be. But my research and my travel has really made it very clear that it's not one solution. It's like we need to all everybody's gotta get to the front line with our with the most empathy that we can kind of rally around for our kids, for our neighbors, and we have to design things that pursue profit because profit is important for growth and experimentation but don't do it in a way that continue to exacerbate the deep class gaps that we have and the significant environmental issues that we're all struggling with. 

14:12
I really looked at pioneers in other industries. You know what Todd Carmichael had done in building La Cologne, the coffee brand, and what Patagonia had done in thinking about. You know what it meant to think about the planet. And then I just said you know the things that call to me, the things that I'm aware of. They are inspired by my own, to some extent, my own, pain, by that experience of my childhood. That's where I'm supposed to be and to go back to those places, which I think is the highest call for all of us. Oftentimes it means we're going to take resources and insights that other people may have, but not with the same thinking about what the way forward might be. I always saw myself as a stylish woman, like I always loved the idea of, like you know, kind of walking in and feeling like I understood the assignment you know, in this space I know what we're supposed to do here, but I really didn't think about I, didn't I never. 

15:03
I wasn't a fashion student. You know it's interesting. Now I teach in a school of design, in a fashion school of design, but I didn't go to school for fashion design. I love thrifting. 

15:12 - Stacey (Host)
I love story. Your mom took you thrifting and she's like find your style. Yeah, and I love that idea. 

15:17 - Dr. Kimberly McGlonn (Guest)
I love the idea of storytelling for always, but I I didn't look at fashion as like this longer legacy of, like Versace in 1999 did the seat. You know, I that was never my, it just didn't do it for me. For me I've always thought about everything I do is like how does it land itself in a longer legacy arc of really trying to be generous with my time and my talents and my treasure? And that just hasn't changed. 

15:46
So fast fashion has to stand completely opposed to what you do it does and what you believe it does. 

15:53 - Mark (Host)
Nothing sustainable about fast fashion. 

15:55 - Dr. Kimberly McGlonn (Guest)
Nothing sustainable about fast fashion. No. 

16:00 - Stacey (Host)
Nothing environmentally conscious about fast fashion For those people who don't know what fast fashion is. Let's get into it. What are we talking about? This episode is brought to you by Mainline Studios and the Podcast Factory, where great content feels right at home. Located in beautiful Wayne, pennsylvania, our creative rental space offers high-end tech in a space that feels like your best friend's living room. Book your session or a free tour at mainlinevideostudiocom, and back to the show. 

16:27 - Dr. Kimberly McGlonn (Guest)
Fast fashion is a way of describing the speed with which the garment industry moves and the two major pillars that are required to move at that lightning speed. One of them is this encouraging of like voracious consumption, the model of taking workers who are children and more women and not paying them to keep costs really low instead investing in marketing stories. It has all of these other environmental fallouts of this idea of saying to people you're never enough, you can't buy enough to be happy, so it's going to be something that you're going to have to keep thirsting after. Fast fashion was never going to be something that would be a place where I would be comfortable. The antithesis of fast fashion is slow fashion. It's the story of craft. It's the story of what is valued in places like France, like Scandinavia, like Japan, which is this idea that the things that people make with their hands, that they are uniquely valuable and because of how special they are. I want to feed you for something that brings you deep joy and that you are uniquely talented in. 

17:33
And because that pursuit for you is valuable to me. I want to honor what you can do, that I can't do, and that's how I affirm that you have value. And then it becomes an ecosystem where that's what we do. You know, I want, I want to see you do the thing and build the thing that you love, and I want to do that too, and I want to give that to you, and then you give it to me, and then we give it to her and she gives it to them. 

17:55 - Mark (Host)
It's beautiful, yeah that's the putting the people ahead. That's right. 

17:59 - Dr. Kimberly McGlonn (Guest)
That's right and in that way we have enough, because you're going to charge me something that's fair and I'm going to pay it right right like this is the ideal, and I, because I trust you and I value you, I'm going to pay it and in this way, it's not just that we have enough to eat, but we have the real sense of of purpose, because the thing that you build is something that is a tie to something, that feels unique for why you exist. Right, and I find joy in seeing that come to life right it's hard to scale right it is. 

18:28
It is hard to scale, and that's why, I think the other conversation is why are we so insistent on this notion of scale? 

18:35 - Stacey (Host)
Why are? 

18:35 - Dr. Kimberly McGlonn (Guest)
we so seduced by the standard definition of what scale means. 

18:40 - Mark (Host)
Right. 

18:40 - Dr. Kimberly McGlonn (Guest)
Why can't scale mean that instead of having 5 million customers, I have 5,000 customers? And those 5,000 customers are not just dating every ad that comes to them. They're married to me, they're married to my craft, they're married to the relationship that they have with me, and that there's a loyalty there, and I think that's one of the things that we've lost in this pursuit of scale is loyalty. 

19:03 - Stacey (Host)
So how can someone out there support fast fashion but can support what you're trying to achieve here with? 

19:10 - Dr. Kimberly McGlonn (Guest)
With this one radical shift. 

19:14 - Stacey (Host)
Because this is my first sort of entree into it. I'm old, I'm imagining a lot of people just aren't aware that they are perpetuating fast fashion. 

19:24 - Dr. Kimberly McGlonn (Guest)
Yeah, we're not Because we're not supposed to know, that's well put. We're not supposed to know. And then we listen to a podcast and it shatters everything we're not supposed to know. That's well put. Yeah, we're not supposed to know. So you know it's and. And then we listen to a podcast and it shatters everything, let's, let's everybody um, there are a couple of things that we can do. 

19:38
I mean, one of them is like part so much of it. It's like the due diligence that we're supposed to do when we look for interest rates for our homes or when we think about who we're going to marry or go into business with, we have to think about consumption. With that same level of due diligence, you know, like, is there a way that you can buy less in general? And when you do buy, can you invest it with companies where you've researched the founder? Be curious about craft, try to get to know crafters, you know, get furniture makers and jewelry makers and hat makers, and there are all of these people who spend so much time learning something and perfecting it. Support them, I think. Beyond that, you know. Think about thrift. They say there's enough garments for six generations that already exist you know if we never made anything? 

20:20
oh my gosh, we had no. What nothing else was ever made, and nobody bought, nobody wants to buy. 

20:25 - Stacey (Host)
Yeah, outside of new right they end up throwing out stuff right, you know right well, like they don't have anywhere to give that's right, so I would say like slow down your consumption. 

20:34 - Dr. Kimberly McGlonn (Guest)
Yes, generally, think about how you can think about craft when you're gonna buy. Try to avoid new um. And I would also say, you know there's so many other ways to do it. Swap. You know you get your girlfriends together and be like hey, I just lost 15 pounds, you're up 15, let's swap, sure that? 

20:50 - Mark (Host)
would go over. 

20:50 - Dr. Kimberly McGlonn (Guest)
Well, wait so like I mean, you know, this is radical, this is radical. 

20:54 - Stacey (Host)
You know community. I have a thousand questions, but I want to talk about the book. I want to get it out there. 

20:58 - Dr. Kimberly McGlonn (Guest)
You know it was a lot of these conversations. As I was talking about how I thought about business, I thought that that one of the things I was missing from a lot of mba programs was that there isn't a whole lot of guidance for how do we think about things differently, not even just the doing, just the conceptual thinking about, like how do we see what is and then think yet differently about what might be? And so this book really was born of that. It was like what if I offered a book that was, you know, 70 percent? This is how you actually execute on improving your business in better alignment with your own sense of life's purpose, which is deeply personal. And in doing that, how do you discover that your business can think differently about people and the planet and the reality that it must? 

21:38
The first 30% is just like hey, I'm a girl from the north side of Milwaukee and this is what that taught me, and I hope that people leverage that story to understand their own stories, why they say yes when they want to say no, why they say no when they should say yes. You know why haven't they taken that trip? Why haven't they taken that risk? What are those blocks that set their compass in the world, and then how do they leverage that self-awareness to continue to build things that really produce just a life well lived? 

22:09 - Mark (Host)
You know, you're a standing living example of someone who was that and everything you just said about how far you've come and you get to experience life in all different ways. What is what are you saying to them, aside from like hey, don't give up? 

22:22 - Dr. Kimberly McGlonn (Guest)
I want them to know that the forces of good, the forces of the light, the forces of kindness, of the spirit of endurance, the spirit of the light, the forces of kindness, of the spirit of endurance, the spirit of adventure and possibility, they are stronger than all the forces that tell you to stop, to quit, to give up, to not dream, to not try. They have to first. I want them to accept, I want them to choose that that core belief, that the light, that the spirit of what is good is going to win, and that that that spirit is rooting for them. So, even when they feel profoundly alone and confused, that that's that's. That's a fleeting feeling, because ultimately there's another force, that is that that wants to see their success. 

23:07
I want them to see that everything that they go through, all the things that have made them feel small, that have told them to wilt, that have told them to be afraid, that those emotions are very valid. But they have to sit with them and see what they've come to teach, and then let them leave, because sadness is going to come. Sadness comes to teach us something. Anxiety comes to teach us something. Jealousy comes to teach us what we might want for ourselves, and I want that 14 to 15, 60 year old to know that all of those, those lessons are ripening in them, to show up as of yet another force of good, that that those lessons show you where you, where you're supposed to turn your gaze and where you're supposed to to really to do something that is powerful. It's not, it doesn't come to cripple you. 

23:54 - Mark (Host)
Right. 

23:54 - Dr. Kimberly McGlonn (Guest)
It comes to give you a superpower, that's great. And all that suffering, all of that sadness, all that loneliness, all of that, that feeling like you know, I didn't know what to do it's, it's given me yet. And yet I mean such wide arms to hold people much physically bigger than me when they've dealt, when they're feeling that same way. 

24:14
And from a very sturdy place of survival, of optimism. And that's the last thing I would like to tell that 15, 16 year old is to protect your optimism, because those dark forces are going to tell you to quit. You know they're going to tell you to give up. They're going to tell you to quit. You know they're going to tell you to give up. They're going to tell you to not go. And if you really hold out your optimism as a shield, that that and you carry that shield with you through life, it will protect you when you really feel like you're under deep assault and attack from forces that tell you that you're not enough, that it's never going to work out and that you won't win. So you gotta, you have to, you have to fight right, going back to the idea of being a fighter, and part of that toolkit is that shield of optimism. 

24:57 - Mark (Host)
That's very well said. 

24:58 - Stacey (Host)
Awesome, the book is called Build it Boldly. So what is being bold? 

25:03 - Dr. Kimberly McGlonn (Guest)
It's really. I think it starts with being really radically honest about all the things that you are, and I'm learning that the more radically honest we are about all the things that you are and I'm learning that, the more radically honest we are about all the things that we are and all the people that we've been it opens up these pathways for connecting with other people and of being of service to other people. So, you know, if you are that 65 year old, if you can say to yourself I am a multiplicity of things and I've been a multiplicity of things, it makes you a stronger leader. You know, it means that all the people who come in to work with you or work for you, it gives you another way of connecting with them. 

25:36
And the most remarkable leaders are people who have just they're just octopuses of portals. They can say I've been poor. They can say I've made a mistake. They can say I've been wrong. They can say I've been, I've questioned my identity, I've questioned my sexuality, I've questioned my future, I've questioned my past, I've questioned my failings, and that means, as they're leading, people feel safe. 

25:59
So the boldest thing we can do it has nothing to do first with anyone else, it's boldly seeing yourself holding radical compassion for yourself, holding kindness for yourself, when you cultivate that, when your voice in your head isn't critical and hard and demoralizing and mean, when you can examine. You know how do I talk to myself. Did I get that? Is that the sound of my mother? Is that the sound of my father? Is that my grandfather, who comes and haunts me and makes me feel, you know, makes me feel ashamed? 

26:32
If we can really work with that, it will make us more compassionate neighbors, more compassionate parents, leaders, voters. It'll make us better able to do what's in the best interest of the common good. And that's a very personal quest, and when I meet people who are, who are unable to do that, it's really, I think oftentimes they're 14 and 15 year old selves where they really haven't dealt with how cruelly they were treated by people who should have treated them with kindness, and so they they're moving with that same sense of of just of resentment and vengefulness because they haven't they haven't really learned how to be tender with themselves they haven't really learned how to be tender with themselves. 

27:14 - Mark (Host)
Well, I'll tell you what I am. I'm happy I intro'd you as a powerful force for good because you clearly are that and everything that you've said here today. Thank you so much. It's been great. 

27:20 - Dr. Kimberly McGlonn (Guest)
I hope that your listeners, that they pick up the book. You know I feel like it's. I've been told it's beautifully written. I've been told that it's really well paced. It's not a massive book. You know. The goal was that that a ninth grader would pick it up and not feel discouraged by it, and that there's some. Really every chapter ends with some key takeaways and there's a workbook that's available on my website If you're really interested in continuing to think about some of these big questions about how our businesses have to be informed by our identities. 

27:51 - Stacey (Host)
Amazing stuff. And what's next for you? Where are you going to go and how can we help you? 

27:52 - Dr. Kimberly McGlonn (Guest)
get there. Yeah, I'd love meeting new people. So please you know, those of you who are listening follow me at Kimberly McGuann on Instagram. You can head over to my website, drkimberlymcguanncom. There will be. There's a book tour that's happening, so if you follow along there, you'll see where I'm showing up in real life. So that's the idea. How do we just continue to in a time where people feel really afraid and really anxious? How do we continue to recognize that, even as things burn, it gives us fresh soil for new plantings, and so let's think about what we're going to plant, what we're going to put in this garden of this country. 

28:28 - Mark (Host)
Fantastic. What a great way to start the day Amazing. It's been great yeah. 

28:33 - Stacey (Host)
I am so pumped, right now this is awesome. Thank you so much for coming on the show. We really appreciate it. Thank you, dr Kimberly McLean, thank you and thank you guys for watching. 

28:41 - Mark (Host)
We'll see you next week. You're still here. You're still listening. 

28:47 - Stacey (Host)
You're still here. You're still listening. Thanks for listening to the Gurus and Game Changers podcast While you're here. If you enjoyed it, please take a minute to rate this episode and leave us a quick review. We want to know what you thought of the show and what you took from it and how it might have helped you. We read and appreciate every comment. Thanks, See you next week.