Season 2 EP14 - Michael Neece, Author, In Kind: Consciously Craft a Meaningful Life and Career

Welcome to Season 2 - Episode 14 of The Bridge to Kindness Project Podcast.

On this Episode you will hear from the following organization:

Michael Neece, Author - In Kind:  Craft a Meaningful Liife            00:00 - 14:15

Each episode features interviews on how you can be involved, volunteer, donate and make a difference being a part of these non-profits in our region.  To learn how your organization can become a part of The Bridge to Kindness project send an email to theBridgetoKindness@gmail.com.  Thanks for listening!  New episodes air each week at 1pm on Saturdays.

You can also find out about The Bridge to Kindness Project by visiting our website at www.TheBridgetoKindness.com.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:15

Welcome to season two on episode 14 of the Bridge to Kindness Podcast. I'm Ron Smith. This podcast is made possible through the generosity of EPS, Signature Carpet Care, Expressions Floral Design, and Lindsay Honda. On our website, thebridgedkindness.com, you'll find out more about our mission and have access to links to the organization's websites that we spotlight, as well as an archive of the interviews we have here on the podcast. We would love to hear from you. Whether you're a volunteer or you lead a nonprofit organization, you can reach us through the website or email us at the bridgedokindness at gmail.com. Today we welcome Michael Neese, author of the book In Kind, Consciously Craft a Meaningful Life and Career. As president of Our Future is Kind, Michael teaches people to use the power of kindness to create innovative, productive, and efficient teams. He has delivered more than 750 sessions about team building, kindness, the wonders of the universe, and the curiosity invoked by space exploration. Michael has developed a unique approach to helping teams thrive by talking about kindness through a cosmic lens. As host of Our Future is kind podcast, he interviews executives, futurists, and community leaders to explore what should the future be like? Who will be there? And how can we craft it into what we want and deserve? Welcome, Michael. We're excited to have you with us on today's show. What drives you about your mission?

SPEAKER_02 1:49

Ron, thank you so much for having me on the on the program here. I I think we are kindred spirits, uh, or maybe kindred spirits, uh for sure. Uh yeah, my background is that I've been through six different industries, and everywhere that I went, it was important to have purpose-filled work. That is, you know, obviously the thing that you look for when you're looking for employment. You don't want to be wasting your time and you want to be contributing something back to the world and to people who may need your services. But what I found was that also the other big factor was I love people. Everywhere that I went, it was my supervisor or the people I was in charge of or the customer or the people helping us deliver for the customer. I love people. And what I found was anytime there was a great kind interaction, I would remember it. I would remember it for years. I'd be telling people about it. And anytime kindness was absent, oh boy, you could definitely count on me to uh recount how hard my day had been because of that one interaction. And so that's that's really where it all came from was you know, I've I've been a teacher, a martial arts instructor, a planetarium uh narrator. Uh I've, you know, been in pharma for years, and uh and I've been a writer most recently, writer and keynote speaker. And um, yeah, so I'm just delighted that I get to talk every day with great people like you about kindness and why it's so important.

SPEAKER_01 3:20

You speak of several instances of experiencing kindness. Please share with us one of those stories. Of great kindness given to me?

SPEAKER_02 3:28

Yes. Absolutely, yeah. Um one of my first great mentors was at Moorhead Planetarium. I was a uh college student. I went to the north side of campus at UNC, and there was Moorhead Planetarium, and I walked in and said, Do you hire students? And so I had an interview with this amazing man, Jim Horn. And Jim, he he was, you know, this sort of middle-aged man, and uh, you know, I I didn't know anything about how jobs worked. I thought it could just be some random person in the building interviewing me, but indeed, he was the person trying to look for people for his group. And so he he took me around the building and he was just very kind and and very very warm, very welcoming. And what I found was that he became my mentor for the next seven or eight years, and then that kind of turned into a lifetime commitment. Sorry about that, Jim. But uh he's he's he's really he's taken me under his wing. And anytime I have a a hard thing to ask, um, you know, difficult situation in my work life or even in my personal life, he is there for me. And I don't know why. I don't know why, other than he's just has a full, rich, beautiful heart, and he loves to welcome people in. He remembers the names of people's family members and their pets and what's going on in their lives. And that's what he brought to me as I started being in charge of teams at the planetarium, teams of students. He he would always say, Well, well, what's going on with this young man? What's what what's what's hurting his heart so much right now? And we'd have these great discussions about you know, okay, the person didn't do the thing they were supposed to do, but that doesn't mean you just throw them out like trash. You have to you have to see the human within and treat them beautifully. So I I feel like he helped lay a great foundation for me in thinking about people as people and and loving them deeply.

SPEAKER_01 5:20

You've been able to make those experiences and put them into writing to be an inspiration to others. Tell us more. Sure.

SPEAKER_02 5:27

There's a book uh in kind that I wrote and released a couple of years ago. Um and in kind, of course, is this business expression that's you know, um, you give me geese, I will give you pigs or something, right? It's uh it's the in-kind exchange. Um and and I just realized, you know, if I'm gonna write a book about kindness, especially in the workplace, why not use that expression and change it? So instead of, you know, saying, well, Steve hit Bob and Bob paid him back in kind, which means you're actually giving something that's not so kind, instead of doing that, let's talk about in kind living. And for me, in kind living is all about what's the kindest act I can do in this moment, and thinking about life that way in every moment. So in kind living for me is is what I uh you know put forth in that book. And I talked about the times I got it wrong and was the unkindest person in the room and made those terrible mistakes with the hopes that my readers don't have to go through that pain. They can kind of learn from me and they can say, Oh, here's a better strategy that Michael came up with.

SPEAKER_01 6:33

We hear a lot about what's called corporate social responsibility or CSR, and we encourage businesses to give back to their community and make a difference. What are ways that we can reinforce that message?

SPEAKER_02 6:46

Well, I mean, first thing is to look to your people. Um, if you have people who are, you know, headed in the same direction as you that are working towards your great mission, whatever that mission is, chances are they believe a lot of the same things that you believe and they want to support a lot of the same things that you support. So engage them in volunteerism. Say, hey, we're gonna go and do this walk for breast cancer awareness. Let's go do that together and raise some money. Um, if your company sells widgets, see if there's somebody who needs widgets that you can donate some extra ones to. Um, because we we always have a little slush in our work. There's always a little something extra that's sitting off to the side, and you got you say, gosh, I I I feel really bad. We're not really donating these to anybody. To whom can we give these? And so so I would say that's the other big, you know, opportunity-rich environment is to say, what are the things we're not doing that would just be falling off a log?

SPEAKER_01 7:42

Easy to do, that would really mean something to somebody else. When we come back, we'll talk with Michael about what he sees as the future of people coming together through kindness. That comes your way next. As the Bridge to Kindness Podcast continues, I'm Ron Smith. We'll be right back.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

You're listening to the Bridge to Kindness Podcast. The purpose of this podcast is to encourage you to identify your gifts and talents and to help you identify ways that you can use those to bless others and serve your community. For additional information about the Bridge to Kindness Project or any of the guests appearing on today's podcast, visit www.thebridge tokindness.com or email us at thebridge tokindness at gmail.com. This podcast is made possible through the kindness of EPS, signature carpet care, expressions floral design, and Lindsay Honda!

SPEAKER_01 8:59

Welcome back to the Bridge to Kindness Podcast. I'm Ron Smith. With us is Michael Nies, author, speaker, and motivator for kindness. What are ways you see the future or people coming together for kindness in their communities?

SPEAKER_02 9:14

Uh I I think we need to have safe spaces where people can talk about hard issues. Um there's a man I greatly respect named Daryl Davis. He is a black man who befriends people in the KKK. And he says that when he goes around the country and talks about the the work that he's done and these uh bridges that he has gap, you know, the gaps that he's you know made bridges over. Um he says that he'll stand there at the end and people will come and ask questions, but at the end there's always one person who's kind of hovering in the background. And when they finally make their way to him, once everybody else is gone, they look around and then they ask him, Daryl, I am white and I have a girlfriend and she's black, and I think that my family will go crazy. How do I how do I love them all? How do I treat them all with great, great dignity and and beauty? And I just think that, you know, the future uh that I want to live in is one where we can have conversations, not judge people when they bring up topics, you know, the family who has this harsh view of black people or the black girlfriend who is just about to hear some really nasty, unkind things about her. Gosh, there there are ways of us having these conversations where everybody at the end feels love and everybody has learned something and we all come together. And so that that's my hope is that we listen with open hearts. We we hope uh that there is love right at the tip of our tongues and right at the outermost surface of every particle of our being so that we we can embrace each other more effectively.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

What are some of the projects you have in place that are working to help you accomplish that goal?

SPEAKER_02 10:57

Right now I'm writing a book with 24 of my closest friends. Um the book is called Our Future is Kind, the Ultimate Guide to Making a Difference. And the the all we are doing in that book is trying to solve all the problems in the world at once. That's it. So easy, right? But you know what we are what we are attempting to do is to say what should the future look like? Who is there? How do we honor each other? How do we lift each other? How do we supply each other with our needs? And then my my 24 best friends and I are then giving strategies for how to do it. Like we're sitting here in 2026. Well, what happens in 2126? Gosh, I sure hope that we have figured out a lot of ways of making that bright, beautiful future by then. Um, and so that's that's a big part of what this book is all about is giving people tangible daily strategies for how to give back, how to lift others, how to show kindness to themselves, because good lord, we all know that sometimes we forget to take care of the person that's central in our lives, and it's the person who's carrying so much and could easily, you know, collapse in a heap if we don't take care. So um I'm gonna say it to everybody who's tuning in right now. Take care of yourself. It's important and you matter. What are ways people can reach out to you and get in contact with you? If you go to our future iskind.com uh or if you look for me on LinkedIn, my last name is spelled N-E-E-C-E. Uh, look for me there. And uh I'm always open to hearing great new ideas of how we can spread kindness together.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

You have an inspirational message that really puts this whole idea of kindness into context. Will you share with us as we close out our time together?

SPEAKER_02 12:42

Um, in the vastness of space and time, the universe is 95 billion light years from side to side. And we are here for maybe a hundred years out of the 13.8 billion that have already gone by. We are so lucky to be here. Treat every day like you treasure it because we all should. But even more significant than the fact that we get to be here and taste lasagna and go hear concerts and hug our pets and uh be with our kids. That's that's it. We get to be with each other. We have company on this journey, and uh so treasure every person as if they are a marvelous wonder. Because they are.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

Thank you, Michael. You're doing amazing work. That brings to a close this edition of the Bridge to Kindness Podcast. This podcast is made possible through the generosity of EPS, signature carpet care, Expressions Floral Design, and Lindsay Honda. Special thanks to Michael Nees. Take a moment and think about how you can engage with a nonprofit or an organization in your community to make a difference in those around you. Join us again on our next episode, and we'll profile more individuals and nonprofits in the Columbus region and beyond and share how they help people and how you can be involved. Until then, from all of us at the Bridge to Kindness, I'm Ron Smith. Make a difference, make an impact.