Max Lucado, Bestselling Author

There was a woman in Stephanie Duguid’s hometown who knew everybody’s name before they’d finished unpacking their boxes. They called her the Welcome Wagon Lady. She was also Stephanie’s mom. Margie wrote notes. Hundreds of them. She remembered students twenty years after they left her classroom, and she kept showing up long after the welcome basket was delivered. Dr. Stephanie Duguid lost her unexpectedly on her third day as a teacher, and what carried her through was everything her mother had already given away. Fifty years later, those notes are still finding their way back. In this episode: What a Welcome Wagon Lady actually did in the 1970s, and how Margie turned strangers into friends in a matter of minutes The student who held onto the family recipes for twenty years, and the cookbook that came out of returning them A stack of postcards dated 1975, mailed back to Stephanie just a few months ago by a woman she’d never met The weekend Margie came to visit with two suitcases, one for clothes and one for stationery, stamps, and her address book Why social media is everybody’s A side, and how Margie got people to show her the B side Flowers in the morning, a car accident that night, and the third day of teaching that changed everything “What would Margie do?” and what to do when you can’t find a mentor Leading with kindness without letting accountability slip About Dr. Stephanie Duguid Dr. Stephanie Duguid (yes, it’s pronounced “do good”) is a leadership culture strategist, keynote speaker, and founder of Do Good Leadership. She spent more than thirty years in K-12 and higher education as a teacher, athletic trainer, and administrator, and she now helps organizations build cultures where people feel seen, heard, and valued. She holds a Doctorate in Educational Leadership and is the bestselling author of Exponentially Elevate Your Leadership Impact. Connect with Stephanie Website: drstephanieduguid.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/drstephanieduguid Instagram: @drstephanieduguid Facebook: facebook.com/DoGoodLeadership YouTube: youtube.com/@stephanieduguid

What does kindness look like when we start communicating clearly? Think about the last time you were frustrated with someone. Did they actually know what you wanted? Dr. LauraLynn Jansen says most of the friction in our relationships comes from expectations we never said out loud. In this episode, she makes the case that clarity isn't the opposite of kindness. It's one of the most generous things we can offer other people, and ourselves. In this episode: Why clarity is a form of kindness, even when we think of kindness as softness How to recognize the unspoken expectations you're carrying What happens in a relationship when those expectations stay unspoken The "gremlin" and how unclear expectations at work feed imposter syndrome Why so many of us choose silence over asking, and what to do if you're afraid asking will make you look incompetent The basics of Nonviolent Communication: feelings, needs, and requests Why clarity matters even more in a world of AI and automation About Dr. LauraLynn Jansen LauraLynn Jansen, Ph.D., PCC, is an award-winning scholar-practitioner, keynote speaker, and Co-Active coach who's spent more than 20 years helping people and teams build sustainable connection. She's worked across healthcare, government, the military, nonprofits, and private enterprise. Her doctoral research on what it means to feel truly seen earned the Academy of Management's 2023 Promising Dissertation Award. Her signature message: technology can accelerate what we do, but it can't replace how we relate. Connect with LauraLynn: Website: lljansen.com

Have you ever been around someone who makes you feel like you could say anything and it would be okay? Romaine Waller is one of those people. She's the woman who says hi first at the grocery store, the friend whose confidence is "a vault," and the leader who reminds her clinical research teams that at the end of every piece of paper is a patient. In this conversation, Romaine shares why kindness currency is unlimited, how she stays kind and direct at the same time in a highly regulated corporate world, and what it takes to become a safe, judgment free person for the people in your life. In This Episode Why Romaine always says hi first at the grocery store, and the lesson from her mother that shaped everything: "It doesn't cost you anything to be nice" Kindness currency is unlimited. You never run out, and it costs you nothing to spend it "At the end of everything we do is a patient." Keeping compassion at the center of data driven clinical research, and remembering there's a human on the other end of every email Kindness isn't soft, it's a strategy: how curiosity and listening open the door with teams set in their ways What it means to be a vault friend, and how to become a safer, judgment free person for others A first look at FIND T-squared: the Feeling Inside No one Dares To Talk about Romaine's challenge to dig deeper: are your relationships authentic and meaningful, or surface level and exhausting? About Romaine Romaine Waller is a U.S. Army veteran, an operations and strategy leader in clinical research and clinical systems, and a self-described connector of people. She holds a steadfast belief that knowledge and information become truly transformative only when shared, and that the most powerful technology in any room is still human compassion. Her CliftonStrengths of Positivity, Developer, Connectedness, Belief, and Maximizer are basically a fancy way of saying she's going to hype you up, help you grow, and refuse to leave potential on the table. Whether she's leading teams or mentoring the next generation of leaders, Romaine is proof that kindness isn't soft, it's a strategy. Connect Connect with Romaine on LinkedIn. Learn more about Nicole and The Kindness Podcast at nicolejphillips.com.

A note before you listen: this conversation includes references to childhood sexual abuse and trauma. Please take care of yourself as you listen. EJ and Tarah Kerwin were two therapists already barely keeping up: twins conceived on their honeymoon, four kids under five, a new counseling business. Then a medically supervised ketamine session surfaced repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse Tarah had no idea existed, and overnight her nervous system went from calm to chaos. No diagnosis, no doctor's note, no roadmap. Just EJ, feeling like he got it wrong every day. They talk with Nicole about what he finally said out loud, why kindness here looks like curiosity instead of solutions, and what it takes to stay when you can't fix what's hurting the person you love. In this episode: What medically supervised ketamine therapy actually is, and what happened when Tarah's memories surfaced Why anyone would choose to unearth pain their body spent decades hiding, and what freedom on the other side feels like The difference between supporting a partner through something visible, like chemo, and something invisible The two sentences EJ said out loud that shifted everything, including "whatever level of connection I have with you now, that's enough" Why kindness in a healing season has to include boundaries and honesty about your own needs How intimacy gets rebuilt without pressure, and why "you'll be fine in eight weeks" is not an answer EJ's kindness story about a moment between Tarah and his son he had waited years to see The tool they give every couple: daily check-ins and real curiosity about someone you think you know Naming lost intimacy as shared grief instead of rejection, and why that reframe matters About EJ and Tarah Kerwin EJ and Tarah Kerwin are the founders of Relationship Renovation and creators of the Relationship Renovation Model, as well as hosts of the Relationship Renovation Podcast. Tarah is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and EJ is a Licensed Professional Counselor, and together they run the Relationship Renovation Counseling Center in Tucson, Arizona. They blend raw honesty, humor, and decades of experience to help couples deepen intimacy and build emotional safety, drawing on attachment science and nervous system regulation. EJ also founded Men Who Do the Work, a group helping thousands of men show up more intentionally in their relationships. Their work includes a top 1% podcast, the Relationship Renovation @ Home manual, an online community, and private coaching. Connect with EJ and Tarah Website: https://relationshiprenovation.com/ Coaching: https://relationshiprenovation.com/relationship-coaching/ The Relationship Renovation At Home Manual: https://a.co/d/080cziw4 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/relationship_renovation/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/relationshiprenovationcounseling/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@relationshiprenovation The Relationship Renovation Podcast, wherever you listen

Amanda Fornal was on a panel at SXSW when someone asked her a simple question: what gets you up in the morning? "To do good," she said, and then she said the rest of it out loud. A few days earlier she had heard a venture capitalist argue that the smart money goes to sociopathic founders, not kind ones. It did not sit right with her logically or emotionally. So on that stage she said, "I'm kind, and I'm proud of it. If you don't want to invest in kindness, that's on you." A few days later she had a name for her next project. She built the website, started interviewing, and talked with more than 100 leaders, founders, and investors across more than 35 countries about one question: does kindness actually work in business? Here is what I appreciated about this conversation. Amanda is not asking us to be nice. She went and checked. She read the academic research before she trusted her own instincts, and she is direct about the fact that a business has a bottom line and kindness has to hold up against it. What she found is that it does, through loyalty and innovation and the kind of psychological safety that lets a team say the half-formed idea out loud. We also got honest about something I do not always admit on this show. I told her that kindness does not sell. Companies hire me for resilience and burnout and mindset, almost never for the word itself. Her answer to that is worth the listen on its own. Connect with Amanda and dig into the research Investing in Kindness: investinginkindnessproject.com Be interviewed for the project. Amanda is still taking interviews and invited you directly: forms.gle/o4gMVQWdFLfmugXY8 Take the survey: forms.gle/Tt3THNeyTUu9Qd968 Hypatia Leadership (her executive coaching work): hypatialeadership.com Elephari (the story preservation platform): elephari.com Women in Exploration: womeninexploration.org Founder Buddies: founderbuddies.com Love Is, the documentary: loveisthedocumentary.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/amandadfornal Instagram: @TheOrangeExplorer Kindness Pays: The Business Case for Prosocial Leadership: https://www.investinginkindnessproject.com/blog/kindness-pays-the-business-case-for-pro-social-leadership Kindness and Retention: What the Research Says About Why Employees Stay: https://www.investinginkindnessproject.com/blog/kindness-and-retention