LEADING WITH COURAGEOUS KINDNESS with Mindy Corporon

Howard Brown: 00:00:05

Hello, it's Howard Brown. It's the Shining Brightly

Howard Brown: 00:00:07

Show. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome another amazing show on tap

Howard Brown: 00:00:11

here. I have the incredible Mindy Corporon with me, Mindy,

Howard Brown: 00:00:15

how are you?

Mindy Corporon: 00:00:16

I am wonderful, Howard, I'm so excited to be on

Mindy Corporon: 00:00:19

your show.

Howard Brown: 00:00:20

Oh, It's amazing. Unfortunately, we're gonna dig

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deep a little bit today, we got some topics that make make

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people a little uncomfortable. But we have to deal with some of

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that, as I call it, him and I booked darkness in order to

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shine our lights. And we're gonna we're gonna dig in,

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because I think it's really important that you share your

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story and how it actually goes out into the world. And people

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have to be able to deal with their resilience, their

Howard Brown: 00:00:49

emotions, their feelings in today's world. So let me tell

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you a little bit about Mindy. Mindy is impressive. And I will

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make a quick disclaimer and a shout out to front edge

Howard Brown: 00:01:00

publishing and read the spirit magazine. We share the same

Howard Brown: 00:01:03

publisher our books, and so will shout out to them. They did a

Howard Brown: 00:01:07

great job for us. Were best selling authors and publish. So

Howard Brown: 00:01:11

it's really great. So Mindy Corporon is the co founder of

Howard Brown: 00:01:15

Workplace Healing, and the Human recovery Platform, which is

Howard Brown: 00:01:20

trademarked and we're going to talk about that and what that

Howard Brown: 00:01:21

is, she helps employers transform how they support an

Howard Brown: 00:01:25

employee experiencing life disruption. By balancing, head

Howard Brown: 00:01:30

base, corporate environment, and empathetic heart based support

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leaders preserve long term productivity retention, and more

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Raul, and you are the former CEO of successful wealth management

Howard Brown: 00:01:44

firm. Mindy, you are in the middle of raising two talented

Howard Brown: 00:01:48

young men, young boys, your sons and your dad and your oldest son

Howard Brown: 00:01:53

were murdered by a white supremacist in a domestic

Howard Brown: 00:01:57

violence act, intent on killing views. And in this heytvelt

Howard Brown: 00:02:02

environment today, this is really relevant. You are the

Howard Brown: 00:02:05

author of healing of a shattered soul and 2021 you deliver

Howard Brown: 00:02:09

inspiration from your unique experiences, and mentor how to

Howard Brown: 00:02:13

lead with courageous kindness. I just have to let that sink in

Howard Brown: 00:02:18

for a second Mindy, because it's it's it's so powerful. And I

Howard Brown: 00:02:23

just want to actually always start by saying that your dad

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and your son made their memory be for a blessing for all of us

Howard Brown: 00:02:29

who loved and knew them. That's a Jewish prayer. But we we have

Howard Brown: 00:02:35

to we are honouring their memory by speaking about them today. So

Howard Brown: 00:02:38

thank you. Tell me something and tell my audience something that

Howard Brown: 00:02:42

we may not know about you.

Mindy Corporon: 00:02:46

When you asked me that question earlier, you

Mindy Corporon: 00:02:48

said the okay, you're gonna be prompted to answer this

Mindy Corporon: 00:02:49

question. I was like, I feel like I am such an open book.

Mindy Corporon: 00:02:54

Because I wrote a book. And it was all about me. So I know,

Mindy Corporon: 00:02:58

this isn't like the easiest thing. You're thinking, why

Mindy Corporon: 00:03:01

don't you just have something off the top of your tongue?

Mindy Corporon: 00:03:03

Because I think so much about me is out there. So I think what

Mindy Corporon: 00:03:07

might be helpful is to say to people, especially listening to

Mindy Corporon: 00:03:12

your podcast, and after they hear everything, and they hear

Mindy Corporon: 00:03:15

what I've done, and you just read my bio, and even I listened

Mindy Corporon: 00:03:20

to him when I listened to my bio, I'm like that, that is

Mindy Corporon: 00:03:22

impressive. That is a lot of effort. That was a lot. And I

Mindy Corporon: 00:03:25

look back, and it's a lot of effort. I will say what people

Mindy Corporon: 00:03:28

probably don't know about me is that frequently I wake up in a

Mindy Corporon: 00:03:34

cocoon. And I wonder what is next? I do not always know, what

Mindy Corporon: 00:03:41

is next. You know, I think we I think that we look at people who

Mindy Corporon: 00:03:44

achieve, and we think they got it going on. They're always on

Mindy Corporon: 00:03:48

top of things. And I frequently wake up and think what is next.

Mindy Corporon: 00:03:53

So what people might not know about me is that when that

Mindy Corporon: 00:03:56

happens to me, I pray, I meditate, I pray, and I journal

Mindy Corporon: 00:04:01

and I write out my thoughts. I write out my fears, immediately,

Mindy Corporon: 00:04:05

and I and then I and then I have gratitude. And I turn that into

Mindy Corporon: 00:04:09

gratitude. And then I kind of let it flow. So I think that

Mindy Corporon: 00:04:13

might be really helpful for people to understand about me,

Mindy Corporon: 00:04:16

so that as we go on and have our conversation, they'll they'll

Mindy Corporon: 00:04:20

look back at this and say, that is something that helps her move

Mindy Corporon: 00:04:24

out of that stuck moment. So I get stuck, and to move myself

Mindy Corporon: 00:04:28

out that those are the things that I do.

Unknown: 00:04:30

Well, this is your moment. So you share it you

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share that and that's what you do your your journaling and

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you're writing it down to to get through the moment. So thank you

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for sharing that. So this show is all about the human resolve.

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And when we step into darkness, we can learn from that darkness

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but hopefully not stay there too long. And I am all about get

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back up again. Use your light to get yourself back up and then go

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lift up others and you have certainly a model for that. So I

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would like an eye I get I'm sure it's painful every time that

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could you give us a little from your book, I'll recount a little

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bit about the situation. What happened on that dark day at the

Unknown: 00:05:09

Jewish Community Centre in Kansas City?

Mindy Corporon: 00:05:12

Yes, Howard. I can. It's been 10 years this

Mindy Corporon: 00:05:16

April marks the 10th anniversary of losing my Dad and son. And it

Mindy Corporon: 00:05:22

seems like yesterday. And it seems like forever ago. Do you

Mindy Corporon: 00:05:28

just look at the time when time marches on And anyway, I can, I

Mindy Corporon: 00:05:33

can just remember what I felt like it after your one and after

Mindy Corporon: 00:05:35

your two and now I'm sitting at your, at your 10. And I don't

Mindy Corporon: 00:05:39

have to pick up my book and read it to remember it because I

Mindy Corporon: 00:05:43

remember it so vividly. So sometimes I can't remember where

Mindy Corporon: 00:05:47

my car keys are. Or, you know what, what I'm supposed to do

Mindy Corporon: 00:05:50

next. But I remember April 13 2014. So, so vividly. And it's

Mindy Corporon: 00:05:57

important to say and I'll go through it rather quickly for

Mindy Corporon: 00:06:00

the sake of what we want. I know what we want to get to today.

Mindy Corporon: 00:06:05

But on April 12, we were a family of four. And on April 13.

Mindy Corporon: 00:06:12

We are a family of three. That's my small unit, my larger unit.

Mindy Corporon: 00:06:18

We also lost my dad. So I lost my dad and my son on the same

Mindy Corporon: 00:06:22

day. heard me on April 13. And the way it transpired is I was

Mindy Corporon: 00:06:30

supposed to drive my son Reat to an audition. He was a performer

Mindy Corporon: 00:06:35

as singer a dancer, vibrant, he could memorise books from the

Mindy Corporon: 00:06:40

age of four, he was just this amazing gift. And he was also at

Mindy Corporon: 00:06:47

genius level. So we've had him tested, he was off the charts.

Mindy Corporon: 00:06:51

He was in the special, you know, gifted classes, and he was in

Mindy Corporon: 00:06:54

Boy Scouts. He was just he was just so much. And he really

Mindy Corporon: 00:06:59

lived a very full life could have lived so much more. But

Mindy Corporon: 00:07:04

it's I'm so grateful that he lived as much as he did with the

Mindy Corporon: 00:07:08

time that he ended up having. My dad drove my son Reat to the

Mindy Corporon: 00:07:15

Jewish community centre, because I needed to be at our younger

Mindy Corporon: 00:07:19

son's lacrosse game. So as a parent of two boys, I'm a boy

Mindy Corporon: 00:07:24

mom, and they were in sports. They were in activities. Right?

Mindy Corporon: 00:07:28

It was in theatre. And this was his third performance third

Mindy Corporon: 00:07:32

audition, I had to get him to the other two. And he had

Mindy Corporon: 00:07:35

already made them so he was already going to be in Tom

Mindy Corporon: 00:07:40

Sawyer for the summer, and he was already going to be in this

Mindy Corporon: 00:07:43

great performance troupe for the year. It was a 12 month

Mindy Corporon: 00:07:47

programme Starlight stars for the year. And those he had just

Mindy Corporon: 00:07:51

received acknowledgement of him getting in those groups. And now

Mindy Corporon: 00:07:54

this was the third one. It was at the Jewish Community Centre.

Mindy Corporon: 00:07:58

And I expected to drive him and Lucas had a lacrosse game. My

Mindy Corporon: 00:08:02

younger son had a lacrosse game. Reat stepped in and said Mom, I

Mindy Corporon: 00:08:06

think you know Popa ended up picking me said I think you

Mindy Corporon: 00:08:10

should go to Luke says lacrosse game. So now on April 13. I am

Mindy Corporon: 00:08:15

fidgety because I thought I should be driving him and my

Mindy Corporon: 00:08:18

dad's coming to take him. And in the kitchen, I'm waiting on my

Mindy Corporon: 00:08:24

dad to get there and Reat comes bounding down the stairs and

Mindy Corporon: 00:08:28

he's wearing a suit and a tie and a fedora. And I can just see

Mindy Corporon: 00:08:32

him coming into the kitchen and and I said the mom thing. You

Mindy Corporon: 00:08:36

need to warm up your voice. And he did. He did all the me me me

Mindy Corporon: 00:08:40

and warmed up his voice. And then he sang the 36 bars of on

Mindy Corporon: 00:08:45

the street where you live. And then he's saying You're gonna

Mindy Corporon: 00:08:50

miss me when I'm gone. He said mom, they might let me sing two

Mindy Corporon: 00:08:57

songs. And the second song is this one and he's saying You're

Mindy Corporon: 00:09:02

gonna miss me when I'm gone. And I just stood there so proud of

Mindy Corporon: 00:09:08

him and listened to him sing. My dad showed up. The last words I

Mindy Corporon: 00:09:15

said to my son were I love you. Good luck. And he said I love

Mindy Corporon: 00:09:20

you too. Mom did not know those would be the last words he would

Mindy Corporon: 00:09:24

say to me. And I showed up at the JC I showed up at the

Mindy Corporon: 00:09:27

lacrosse game. And here's the interesting thing that lacrosse

Mindy Corporon: 00:09:30

game got cancelled due to weather. I went to the Jewish

Mindy Corporon: 00:09:33

Community Centre I got there before he would have even

Mindy Corporon: 00:09:36

started his audition and I thought this is miraculous. This

Mindy Corporon: 00:09:41

is miraculous that I'm driving in and they he shouldn't have

Mindy Corporon: 00:09:44

even maybe been here or in the building. And I found my dad

Mindy Corporon: 00:09:50

already murdered next to the truck. I pulled into the parking

Mindy Corporon: 00:09:54

lot. And my dad's body was lying next to the truck. And it was I

Mindy Corporon: 00:09:59

was hooked. FIDE, and I pressed on the gas pedal more, and I

Mindy Corporon: 00:10:03

pulled the car. And I just ran to my dad. And it was so

Mindy Corporon: 00:10:07

apparent that there was nothing I could do for him. And it's so

Mindy Corporon: 00:10:14

important for me to share this with you, Howard and all of your

Mindy Corporon: 00:10:17

listeners, because there are, you're gonna call it God, I call

Mindy Corporon: 00:10:21

him God, you can call it the spirits, you can call it, you

Mindy Corporon: 00:10:25

know, people who've crossed over, I was leaning into my dad

Mindy Corporon: 00:10:29

and I felt this pressure on my shoulders, pressure to push

Mindy Corporon: 00:10:33

back. And visually, I knew I could not help my dad and I felt

Mindy Corporon: 00:10:38

this pressure and I stepped back. And I heard the words,

Mindy Corporon: 00:10:42

your father's in heaven, go find rate, loud and clear. And there

Mindy Corporon: 00:10:48

was no one around, there was no one around. And I looked to the

Mindy Corporon: 00:10:51

left, and that would have been an easier path to go to the left

Mindy Corporon: 00:10:54

around his body. But I didn't take that path. I took a harder

Mindy Corporon: 00:10:59

path and I went around the truck. And I found my son in the

Mindy Corporon: 00:11:02

arms of two men. And so the shooter had shown up only

Mindy Corporon: 00:11:07

minutes really before me, and he'd murdered my dad on contact.

Mindy Corporon: 00:11:13

And he had shot rate through the winch through the driver's side

Mindy Corporon: 00:11:17

door. And people had heard gunfire, and they had come

Mindy Corporon: 00:11:22

running to help. The gunman had shot up the place. There was

Mindy Corporon: 00:11:26

glass everywhere. He evidently had shot at about 17 people on

Mindy Corporon: 00:11:31

the way out of the facility. And I had just missed this like,

Mindy Corporon: 00:11:35

barely missed it. I pulled in, probably as he was pulling out

Mindy Corporon: 00:11:40

or at the stoplight past me. The police had even asked did you

Mindy Corporon: 00:11:44

see this white car, they described it, I had not noticed

Mindy Corporon: 00:11:47

that I'd seen it nor had I seen some crazy man driving out. And

Mindy Corporon: 00:11:52

these two men are holding my son in their arms. And after that a

Mindy Corporon: 00:11:57

lot of chaos happened. A lot of chaos. I didn't go with him in

Mindy Corporon: 00:12:01

the ambulance to the hospital because I wasn't there when the

Mindy Corporon: 00:12:04

ambulance showed up. I had been placed inside. So much, Howard,

Mindy Corporon: 00:12:08

I talk about it in detail in the book. And I go through every

Mindy Corporon: 00:12:11

painstaking detail of what happened. But about 30 minutes

Mindy Corporon: 00:12:15

later, my husband and younger son and my mom and my and my

Mindy Corporon: 00:12:20

younger brother and I are all in a car, driving to the hospital

Mindy Corporon: 00:12:23

where we know that they have taken rate, my son. And we know

Mindy Corporon: 00:12:28

that my dad has been murdered. And we're just, it's

Mindy Corporon: 00:12:31

unbelievable. It's an unbelievable feeling. And then

Mindy Corporon: 00:12:34

we got to the hospital. And within about 10 minutes, the

Mindy Corporon: 00:12:38

director of trauma I didn't know that was his role at the time,

Mindy Corporon: 00:12:41

he was the director of trauma and he had been in the emergency

Mindy Corporon: 00:12:43

room. They had called him when Reat was brought in. And he came

Mindy Corporon: 00:12:48

in and he said to the room really no one in particular

Mindy Corporon: 00:12:50

because he didn't know who was who and he said, the young man

Mindy Corporon: 00:12:53

who was brought in from the headshot wound did not survive.

Mindy Corporon: 00:12:57

We lost his heartbeat in the ambulance. And that sentence

Mindy Corporon: 00:13:00

just sent us all on the floor, just that sentence and it was

Mindy Corporon: 00:13:08

earth shattering. And it's earth shattering to feel it again, and

Mindy Corporon: 00:13:12

to say it. And so my life shattered, our lives shattered.

Mindy Corporon: 00:13:17

And then from that moment, we really had to start thinking

Mindy Corporon: 00:13:22

about how are we going to put the pieces together again, and

Mindy Corporon: 00:13:25

that's and then that just changes who I became it

Mindy Corporon: 00:13:30

literally changed the trajectory of, of where I would go in my

Mindy Corporon: 00:13:34

life and for the past 10 years.

Howard Brown: 00:13:38

Thank you, I'm I'm shaking a little bit. I mean, I

Howard Brown: 00:13:45

know you and, and I know your story. I have your book, right

Howard Brown: 00:13:49

here, I read your book, and just hearing you say those words are

Howard Brown: 00:13:54

getting a little bit of emotional, because I'm feeling

Howard Brown: 00:13:58

I'm feeling empathy, but I'm feeling sorrow. I'm feeling a

Howard Brown: 00:14:01

lot of things right now. And two things I want to tell you, I

Howard Brown: 00:14:05

noticed when you were describing Reat, singing and warming up his

Howard Brown: 00:14:12

voice, but even saying that you're gonna miss you when

Howard Brown: 00:14:15

you're gone. And your last words to him. You lit up your light

Howard Brown: 00:14:19

was beaming, beaming, beaming, beaming. So I want to tell you,

Howard Brown: 00:14:23

I noticed that and then the thing that I actually didn't

Howard Brown: 00:14:27

pick up from the book and knowing you, you were like

Howard Brown: 00:14:30

driving into an active shooter situation. I did not know that

Howard Brown: 00:14:34

as well. And this is horrifying. And God I just so many things

Howard Brown: 00:14:41

are you're not Jewish. You were there for a play. You know, it

Howard Brown: 00:14:47

doesn't matter is bullets are indiscriminate. And I you know,

Howard Brown: 00:14:52

I do a lot of work in the interfaith world and in the hate

Howard Brown: 00:14:55

world. So I consider anti semitism Islamophobia Asian You

Howard Brown: 00:15:00

know, bias, it's all hate. And we have to learn that somewhere

Howard Brown: 00:15:04

we don't choose, you know, we can choose to hate, but we can

Howard Brown: 00:15:07

also choose not to hate. And so your world got turned upside

Howard Brown: 00:15:11

down. I weld you know, two times with stage four diagnosis, it

Howard Brown: 00:15:14

comes to a screeching halt. What are you supposed to do next?

Howard Brown: 00:15:19

Right? What are you supposed to do next? You lost your dad and

Howard Brown: 00:15:23

your son in a blink of an eye. It's really, really incredible.

Howard Brown: 00:15:28

So if I can

Mindy Corporon: 00:15:31

answer, I first want to answer what do you do

Mindy Corporon: 00:15:34

next? And what I will, what I'd like to say is you breathe, you

Mindy Corporon: 00:15:38

breathe, you just breathe, okay? Because it's hard to breathe.

Mindy Corporon: 00:15:43

It's hard to find your breath, I felt like a building had fallen

Mindy Corporon: 00:15:48

on top of me. And I couldn't breathe. And so that is such a

Mindy Corporon: 00:15:54

heavy, heavy feeling that we get. And I just, it still comes

Mindy Corporon: 00:15:58

to me on occasion. And so I want people to know, what do you do

Mindy Corporon: 00:16:03

next. And literally, the first thing that you do is you

Mindy Corporon: 00:16:05

breathe. And you just breathe, you just breathe again and you

Mindy Corporon: 00:16:09

start breathing. And and then the other thing I wanted to make

Mindy Corporon: 00:16:12

sure that you know this, I think that you do you and I completely

Mindy Corporon: 00:16:15

share the whole interfaith world. So because they were

Mindy Corporon: 00:16:18

murdered by a white supremacist, which it took me probably, I

Mindy Corporon: 00:16:23

don't know, maybe four days to understand to understand that

Mindy Corporon: 00:16:27

and figure it out. I didn't we didn't understand how this

Mindy Corporon: 00:16:30

happened. And so that then clearly we know and we learned

Mindy Corporon: 00:16:35

very, very quickly, that he was a white supremacist and was

Mindy Corporon: 00:16:39

intent on killing Jews, but but part of my initial healing

Mindy Corporon: 00:16:43

process was to find out everything I quote about

Mindy Corporon: 00:16:48

Judaism. And while I was finding everything I could about

Mindy Corporon: 00:16:52

Judaism, I thought I'm supposed to be Jewish. I didn't I thought

Mindy Corporon: 00:16:56

I'm supposed to be Jewish, and I and I talked to some a rabbi, I

Mindy Corporon: 00:17:00

talked to many of my Jewish friends. I talked to them about

Mindy Corporon: 00:17:02

Jesus, what do they know about Jesus? Because I was raised a

Mindy Corporon: 00:17:05

Christian and we had a lot of conversations about that. And

Mindy Corporon: 00:17:08

then the middle of that Howard. months, four months into that

Mindy Corporon: 00:17:12

five months into that a Muslim boy was murdered in Kansas City.

Mindy Corporon: 00:17:17

And his friends wanted me at the vigil, his friend said, can read

Mindy Corporon: 00:17:22

Underwoods mom come to the vigil. And I thought, Okay, God,

Mindy Corporon: 00:17:29

I'm Christian. I was thinking maybe I'm supposed to be Jewish.

Mindy Corporon: 00:17:32

And now I'm going to Muslim boys vigil. So my world was twirling

Mindy Corporon: 00:17:40

at best like whirling, topsy turvy. And and I did a, I still

Mindy Corporon: 00:17:45

do a deep dive and am very open and and ingratiating to

Mindy Corporon: 00:17:50

interfaith conversations and learning about others. And just

Mindy Corporon: 00:17:54

like you said, we are not born with hate, we are taught hate,

Mindy Corporon: 00:17:58

and the shooter in particular was taught hate, particularly by

Mindy Corporon: 00:18:02

his father, I'm not going to pull his mother in I don't know

Mindy Corporon: 00:18:04

anything about his own mother. This man was 74 at the time, I

Mindy Corporon: 00:18:08

mean, he he, quote, should have known better but didn't because

Mindy Corporon: 00:18:11

he was filled with hate he he just had a diatribe of hate. And

Mindy Corporon: 00:18:15

the district attorney said to us, we have never looked someone

Mindy Corporon: 00:18:19

in the eye, who is more evil than this man. So I have come

Mindy Corporon: 00:18:23

face to face with evil. I know it exists. So I wanted to share

Mindy Corporon: 00:18:30

breathing, and our and our joint love as the interfaith work, I

Mindy Corporon: 00:18:37

thought that was important to just pull in right at that

Mindy Corporon: 00:18:39

moment.

Howard Brown: 00:18:41

I appreciate that. Thank you for sharing that as

Howard Brown: 00:18:44

well. And, you know, I have a whole chapter in my book on

Howard Brown: 00:18:48

interfaith relations. And I actually look at it from an

Howard Brown: 00:18:52

openness of getting to know the other culture The food's the

Howard Brown: 00:18:56

history, though. It broadens you, okay. But many people close

Howard Brown: 00:19:01

that off. They want to live in a in a closed loop or a closed,

Mindy Corporon: 00:19:06

we call it a shtetl or a lower, it's safe,

Mindy Corporon: 00:19:08

but they want to live where it's safe. I

Howard Brown: 00:19:10

know. But that's not the world we live in. The

Howard Brown: 00:19:12

world we live in is made up of all sorts of people of different

Howard Brown: 00:19:16

colours and origins and backgrounds and ethnicities and

Howard Brown: 00:19:19

religion. I think it makes it more interesting. So you're an

Howard Brown: 00:19:22

iron. Yeah,

Mindy Corporon: 00:19:23

you're right. It's safe isn't the right word.

Mindy Corporon: 00:19:25

I meant comfort. Like say like, I wouldn't feel comfortable.

Mindy Corporon: 00:19:28

They want to people want to stay where they're comfortable.

Mindy Corporon: 00:19:31

They're comfortable. So I didn't I know when we use the word safe

Mindy Corporon: 00:19:33

that nowadays people are like, Oh, was there a live shooter?

Mindy Corporon: 00:19:37

You know, I mean, our world define defining the word safe is

Mindy Corporon: 00:19:41

difficult. I should have said people want to stay where

Mindy Corporon: 00:19:43

they're comfortable. And they want to be around people that

Mindy Corporon: 00:19:46

make them feel comfortable. And so that is usually what we look

Mindy Corporon: 00:19:50

like. We want to be around people that we look like rather

Mindy Corporon: 00:19:52

than people around that we don't look like or we don't understand

Mindy Corporon: 00:19:55

their foods or their cultures. And and I put myself into many

Mindy Corporon: 00:20:03

people's homes and many people's places of worship Hindu, Muslim,

Mindy Corporon: 00:20:08

Sikh, to find and Jewish to find out more about people when that

Mindy Corporon: 00:20:14

happened. And so the foundation that we opened, was initially

Mindy Corporon: 00:20:18

called Faith always wins. And it was an interfaith foundation and

Mindy Corporon: 00:20:21

isn't interfaith, it still is an interfaith Foundation. We just

Mindy Corporon: 00:20:24

changed the name to seven days. So I know well, we can talk

Mindy Corporon: 00:20:28

about that. Let's talk about that. No, but it was all about

Mindy Corporon: 00:20:31

interfaith the first four years. I mean, everything was

Mindy Corporon: 00:20:33

interfaith, everything. Yeah, well,

Howard Brown: 00:20:35

I want to hear just a little bit because we

Howard Brown: 00:20:37

don't have all the time in the world. But just to take a little

Howard Brown: 00:20:40

bit about how you put the pieces back together again, as best as

Howard Brown: 00:20:43

you could. And then tell me about what you've been doing

Howard Brown: 00:20:45

this, I want to hear about the seven days foundation, I want to

Howard Brown: 00:20:47

hear about workplace healing. So let's let's dive into those

Howard Brown: 00:20:50

those areas. So putting

Mindy Corporon: 00:20:51

the pieces back together, we put pieces back

Mindy Corporon: 00:20:55

together, but it doesn't look the same. Right? It's a totally

Mindy Corporon: 00:20:58

different mosaic. And I should say, I think it's important that

Mindy Corporon: 00:21:02

I say, We, my husband and I and our our younger son, who is now

Mindy Corporon: 00:21:08

21, he was 12. When this happened, he was 12 years old.

Mindy Corporon: 00:21:12

And we look back at time that we lost, not only because my dad

Mindy Corporon: 00:21:19

and Reed were murdered, I mean, I mean, that is the catalyst, so

Mindy Corporon: 00:21:22

we lost them. But we also lost so much. Alright, so we lost

Mindy Corporon: 00:21:27

their lives, and then we lost so much. And so to help our son

Mindy Corporon: 00:21:32

Lucas, thrive, he was kind of surviving, but to help him

Mindy Corporon: 00:21:36

thrive, we had to make significant life changes, and

Mindy Corporon: 00:21:40

significant life decisions. And so we put the pieces back in a

Mindy Corporon: 00:21:45

different mosaic is what we have done. And so to talk about seven

Mindy Corporon: 00:21:49

days, so our foundation was originally called Faith always

Mindy Corporon: 00:21:52

wins. And it was named by a Jewish man, a Jewish friend of

Mindy Corporon: 00:21:55

mine, who was originally on our board of directors. His quote to

Mindy Corporon: 00:21:59

me was, Mindy, every time we talk, you have said you, you are

Mindy Corporon: 00:22:05

surviving because of your faith. And so what if we named the

Mindy Corporon: 00:22:10

foundation faith always wins. And so we named that foundation

Mindy Corporon: 00:22:13

faith always wins. And then just a deep dive and, and more

Mindy Corporon: 00:22:17

pragmatic, because I'm very pragmatic, about four to six

Mindy Corporon: 00:22:20

years in, we still were not quite raising the funds that we

Mindy Corporon: 00:22:23

wanted. People say, oh, I want to learn about that. I want to

Mindy Corporon: 00:22:27

know about interfaith, but they don't find it, they do not find

Mindy Corporon: 00:22:30

it, you know what they find, they find kindness, they find a

Mindy Corporon: 00:22:33

kindness, which is if you're inclined to someone who isn't

Mindy Corporon: 00:22:37

like you, that could almost look like interface. But if you don't

Mindy Corporon: 00:22:41

call it interface, and you call it kindness, it's just easier to

Mindy Corporon: 00:22:45

fund it. And the corporation's won't find something that says

Mindy Corporon: 00:22:48

faith in it. They have bylaws that say they won't find faith,

Mindy Corporon: 00:22:51

it took too long for us to talk about the story about who we

Mindy Corporon: 00:22:54

were. So we changed it Howard to seven days and seven days means

Mindy Corporon: 00:22:58

seven days, make a ripple change the world. So can you be kind

Mindy Corporon: 00:23:02

for seven days? Okay, can you be kind for seven days, and that's

Mindy Corporon: 00:23:06

been our mantra from the beginning. We also we teach

Mindy Corporon: 00:23:10

kindness, our specific mission statement is we overcome hate by

Mindy Corporon: 00:23:15

promoting kindness, through education and dialogue. And it

Mindy Corporon: 00:23:20

took, I don't know, three strategy sessions to get to that

Mindy Corporon: 00:23:22

several different years, different board members. And

Mindy Corporon: 00:23:27

it's amazing, it's just it really has been a fantastic

Mindy Corporon: 00:23:30

journey to meet and greet and get the breadth of seven days

Mindy Corporon: 00:23:36

into for sure our region, our Kansas City region, and then now

Mindy Corporon: 00:23:41

we're in about 13 other states. And what that means is when I

Mindy Corporon: 00:23:45

say we're in 13, other states, we offer grants to schools,

Mindy Corporon: 00:23:49

middle schools, high schools and elementary schools who want to

Mindy Corporon: 00:23:52

have a kindness club, or they want to have a kindness walk. So

Mindy Corporon: 00:23:56

we have applications on our website for that. We focus on

Mindy Corporon: 00:23:59

the youth, Howard, because when you and I were younger, I know

Mindy Corporon: 00:24:03

adults said to you adults said to me, youth are going to change

Mindy Corporon: 00:24:07

the world. You kids, you guys are going to change the world.

Mindy Corporon: 00:24:10

And you know what, Howard, you and I we believed them? Yeah, we

Mindy Corporon: 00:24:14

did. We did I believe them. And look where we are you and I are

Mindy Corporon: 00:24:17

making a difference in the world? Well, when we look at our

Mindy Corporon: 00:24:20

youth now, people are complaining about them. They're

Mindy Corporon: 00:24:23

complaining about how much they're on social media. They're

Mindy Corporon: 00:24:25

complaining about what they're wearing, or what they're not

Mindy Corporon: 00:24:27

wearing. I mean, just people are complaining, you know what they

Mindy Corporon: 00:24:30

are, they are also who's going to change the world. So we focus

Mindy Corporon: 00:24:33

on the youth and we give them a chance to play in events. We

Mindy Corporon: 00:24:37

give them a chance to make do activities. We mentor them in

Mindy Corporon: 00:24:42

philanthropy. We mentor them in what does it mean to be kind and

Mindy Corporon: 00:24:47

we are helping them learn to be kindness influencers. So that is

Mindy Corporon: 00:24:50

what has morphed and transformed from the very first day to the

Mindy Corporon: 00:24:55

foundation now called seven days.

Howard Brown: 00:24:58

That's beautiful. Take me into just a teeny bit

Howard Brown: 00:25:01

about workplace healing as well.

Mindy Corporon: 00:25:04

Thank you workplace healing. So in the

Mindy Corporon: 00:25:06

middle of running a seven days as the executor, and President,

Mindy Corporon: 00:25:11

I did that for nine years, and writing the book that the

Mindy Corporon: 00:25:16

healing a shattered soul. And I just want you to hold the book

Mindy Corporon: 00:25:19

up one more time because you have it and I want to show

Mindy Corporon: 00:25:21

people. Okay, so you can see my Silhouette really well, but you

Mindy Corporon: 00:25:26

can't see the background of the book yet. Hmm. Hold it really?

Mindy Corporon: 00:25:30

Behind you. Yes, I know. That's what I want to show the

Mindy Corporon: 00:25:32

background is this painting, right? So I, when someone sees

Mindy Corporon: 00:25:37

the book, they're gonna say, I saw that somewhere else, it's

Mindy Corporon: 00:25:39

gonna be the painting behind me. So I dived into writing,

Mindy Corporon: 00:25:44

healing, a shattered soul to really work on healing. Again, I

Mindy Corporon: 00:25:48

journal, I wrote, also many feelings and emotions and

Mindy Corporon: 00:25:53

specifics about what happened. So I had the foundation and I

Mindy Corporon: 00:25:57

was writing the book, and the book was, you know, kind of in

Mindy Corporon: 00:26:00

process, but at the same time, Howard, shootings kept

Mindy Corporon: 00:26:04

happening, people kept losing other people, I was back at

Mindy Corporon: 00:26:07

work. And I realised that no one knew what to do or say for me,

Mindy Corporon: 00:26:12

and that I was helping them along the way. I was training

Mindy Corporon: 00:26:17

them on what to say and when to say it. And then many people in

Mindy Corporon: 00:26:21

my network are in the C suite. Because I was a co founder and

Mindy Corporon: 00:26:26

owner of a wealth management company, many of the people when

Mindy Corporon: 00:26:29

I went to events, you know, I was, and I'm just don't mind

Mindy Corporon: 00:26:32

going up and saying hello to anybody. So I met a lot of

Mindy Corporon: 00:26:35

people in the C suite. And they would come to me in on in live

Mindy Corporon: 00:26:40

events. And I would say, can I talk to you about my employee

Mindy Corporon: 00:26:43

whose husband died, like, okay, and I realised that there's a

Mindy Corporon: 00:26:48

huge gap, that we have HR resources, we have employee

Mindy Corporon: 00:26:54

assistance programmes, but we don't have training on when

Mindy Corporon: 00:26:58

someone really has a significant life disruption, cancer, stage

Mindy Corporon: 00:27:02

four cancer, how do you talk to someone who has stage four

Mindy Corporon: 00:27:04

cancer, right? If you're thinking, Oh, my gosh, stage

Mindy Corporon: 00:27:07

four cancer, this person may die? What am I going to say to

Mindy Corporon: 00:27:10

them? Right? What am I going to say? And so you, I know have

Mindy Corporon: 00:27:14

helped people talk to you. So I experienced this horrible

Mindy Corporon: 00:27:17

tragedy. And I realised that I was helping people talk to me.

Mindy Corporon: 00:27:21

And workplace healing was born, I wanted more empathy in the

Mindy Corporon: 00:27:24

workplace, I wanted leaders to understand that they could take

Mindy Corporon: 00:27:28

a role, they could have some responsibility, and take a role

Mindy Corporon: 00:27:33

in re engaging employees and helping employees along the way.

Mindy Corporon: 00:27:37

And so workplace healing was born in 2018. And, and now it's

Mindy Corporon: 00:27:41

a, we have a software, I'd laugh because I never thought I would

Mindy Corporon: 00:27:45

own a software company. So that's kind of why I chuckle

Mindy Corporon: 00:27:47

about it. But it was consulting. And now it's human interaction.

Mindy Corporon: 00:27:52

And it's innovative technology. And it's an empathy

Mindy Corporon: 00:27:55

implementation tool for companies. And that's, that's

Mindy Corporon: 00:27:58

what we're working to do is help companies help their Grievers

Mindy Corporon: 00:28:02

get back into the fray of work.

Howard Brown: 00:28:04

And you're still teaching kindness. And I'm still

Howard Brown: 00:28:07

what you call courageous kindness, which is your which is

Howard Brown: 00:28:11

your tagline as well. So I want to take this to a real life

Howard Brown: 00:28:16

right now. Because we here in Michigan, we had a high school

Howard Brown: 00:28:21

shooting, there's been many, the Oxford high school shooting,

Howard Brown: 00:28:25

which and I will actually just honour by reading the names

Howard Brown: 00:28:28

Madison Baldwin, Tate Meyer, Hannah St. Juliana, Justin

Howard Brown: 00:28:32

shelling, they were killed, there was many more that were

Howard Brown: 00:28:35

wounded. And I have to tell you that that hit home because it's

Howard Brown: 00:28:41

only about 45 minutes away from where I live, it affected so

Howard Brown: 00:28:45

many people. And I, I know that I think you even called with the

Howard Brown: 00:28:51

Uvalde school shooting, they called on your expertise there

Howard Brown: 00:28:54

as well. And I know you might have spoken to some folks down

Howard Brown: 00:28:57

there, and there's just somebody to mention. And then just

Howard Brown: 00:29:01

recently, and I know that you've are now in Florida and not in

Howard Brown: 00:29:04

Kansas City, but that's your home base, but just at a

Howard Brown: 00:29:08

celebration for the Super Bowl at the Kansas City Chiefs that

Howard Brown: 00:29:12

in your hometown. Basically, there was a shooting and these

Howard Brown: 00:29:16

are younger kids shooting and many injured in one death. And I

Howard Brown: 00:29:22

just I'm kinda again numb, you know, it's just that where's the

Howard Brown: 00:29:28

the world gone? And on all this violence and, and just it just

Howard Brown: 00:29:35

really hurts me because I live in the world of cancer. And I

Howard Brown: 00:29:38

know that 53,000 People are going to die from colorectal

Howard Brown: 00:29:41

cancer in the US this year. doesn't make it any easier. But

Howard Brown: 00:29:44

the shootings? God,

Mindy Corporon: 00:29:47

it couldn't be stabbed. Yeah. The shootings

Mindy Corporon: 00:29:51

could be prevented. That's the right word that you use the

Mindy Corporon: 00:29:53

right word. The shootings could be prevented. Yes, and you thank

Mindy Corporon: 00:29:57

you for mentioning the students names Who who passed from the

Mindy Corporon: 00:30:01

Michigan shooting that you're talking about? Lisa Lopez Galvin

Mindy Corporon: 00:30:06

lost her life. In Kansas City. There were 1,000,001 million

Mindy Corporon: 00:30:10

people at the Chiefs parade. 1 million people there, and 22 to

Mindy Corporon: 00:30:17

23 other people were injured. And as you said, many of them

Mindy Corporon: 00:30:25

children, and I don't, I don't know their names and I wouldn't

Mindy Corporon: 00:30:28

read them off because they're minors and their and their

Mindy Corporon: 00:30:30

living and they they deserve what privacy they do want. But I

Mindy Corporon: 00:30:34

do know that Children's Mercy hospital had children who had

Mindy Corporon: 00:30:39

gunshot wounds, from age six to age 15, age six, and, and it is

Mindy Corporon: 00:30:46

preventable and looking at the murderer who murdered my dad,

Mindy Corporon: 00:30:51

and my son and Terry Romano. So there were three people

Mindy Corporon: 00:30:54

murdered. So I said that he shot at other people at the JCC. And

Mindy Corporon: 00:30:59

then he drove in his car and he went to Village Shalom, and he

Mindy Corporon: 00:31:02

shot it to more people and murdered Terrell Amano. So the

Mindy Corporon: 00:31:06

three of them lost their lives that day, so he had been taught

Mindy Corporon: 00:31:10

hate. Now, I thought, this is something really interesting. I

Mindy Corporon: 00:31:14

thought, after dad and Reed and Terry were murdered, that when

Mindy Corporon: 00:31:17

people murder or use a gun to to injure someone they must hate.

Mindy Corporon: 00:31:24

And I was corrected very quickly by a mother, who is the she runs

Mindy Corporon: 00:31:30

the chapter of mothers in charge in Kansas City. And, and her

Mindy Corporon: 00:31:34

group focuses on helping people. Right after there's been a

Mindy Corporon: 00:31:38

shooting, they go down and help, especially if there's a student

Mindy Corporon: 00:31:43

involved, but I think they go down for every shooting in

Mindy Corporon: 00:31:45

Kansas City. Unfortunately, they're very busy. So it's

Mindy Corporon: 00:31:48

called mother's in charge. And she said to me, I don't know

Mindy Corporon: 00:31:51

maybe eight to nine months after the murders, I was getting

Mindy Corporon: 00:31:55

invite, you know, could I come? Speak at this? Could I come to

Mindy Corporon: 00:31:58

this? Could I do this? So in the, you know, nine months to

Mindy Corporon: 00:32:01

two year timeframe, I met her. And I said something about?

Mindy Corporon: 00:32:05

Well, you know, they everybody that murderers hates, and she

Mindy Corporon: 00:32:09

said, Oh, no, they don't hate. She said her son was murdered

Mindy Corporon: 00:32:13

for a watch. There was no hate. There was I want that. Greed.

Mindy Corporon: 00:32:19

They don't know how this man who murdered her son didn't know how

Mindy Corporon: 00:32:22

to have a conversation or just be angry about something or just

Mindy Corporon: 00:32:26

want something and realise that he couldn't have it. He wanted a

Mindy Corporon: 00:32:29

watch that her son had. And he came in and shot her son and

Mindy Corporon: 00:32:32

took the watch. He's she said there was no hate involved. And

Mindy Corporon: 00:32:35

that just really threw me for a loop. And so I don't know who

Mindy Corporon: 00:32:39

the juveniles are at all, that have that have been arraigned

Mindy Corporon: 00:32:44

for the most recent shooting in Kansas City. But the

Mindy Corporon: 00:32:48

conversation that's happening amongst many, many people right

Mindy Corporon: 00:32:52

now is students in our area need more? Not just parental but

Mindy Corporon: 00:32:59

parental and adult interaction parental and adult guidance.

Mindy Corporon: 00:33:03

And, and yes, there is, you know, how did they get guns and,

Mindy Corporon: 00:33:07

you know, getting guns out of their hands and all of that, but

Mindy Corporon: 00:33:10

there's also why would anyone that age even want a gun, if

Mindy Corporon: 00:33:15

they had enough adult, you know, engagement that was really

Mindy Corporon: 00:33:18

helping them find a different path.

Howard Brown: 00:33:22

I think it's education that you know, giving

Howard Brown: 00:33:25

them mentorship and guidance so that they they know boundaries.

Howard Brown: 00:33:29

It's a complicated, and it's a whole nother episode that will

Howard Brown: 00:33:32

have you back on and we can dig deep on and all that. That's

Howard Brown: 00:33:35

heavy, it weighs heavy on me. I want to actually turn our from

Howard Brown: 00:33:40

our conversation and put on our sunglasses. We're going to shine

Howard Brown: 00:33:43

the spotlight on you now Mindy. And I want you all look at those

Howard Brown: 00:33:47

glasses. Those are hot. All right. But I want you to tell my

Howard Brown: 00:33:51

audience how they can best get a hold of you. And then I want you

Howard Brown: 00:33:55

to leave, leave with a little inspiration of a quote or a

Howard Brown: 00:33:59

story or lesson and then kick the show back to me to close.

Mindy Corporon: 00:34:05

You know what Howard? I what I want to say is,

Mindy Corporon: 00:34:08

you know for inspiration. I watched the sunrise for

Mindy Corporon: 00:34:14

inspiration. I think about my son's quote, my son's quote is

Mindy Corporon: 00:34:18

live life to the fullest and never give up. He had that quote

Mindy Corporon: 00:34:22

on an Instagram page or whatever social media he was using at the

Mindy Corporon: 00:34:27

time. I had no idea. So I always say live life to the fullest and

Mindy Corporon: 00:34:33

never give up. Because we don't know when our last day is.

Mindy Corporon: 00:34:36

Nobody knows. And I don't want to waste one minute of one day I

Mindy Corporon: 00:34:40

am living life for my dad. I'm living life for my son. I'm

Mindy Corporon: 00:34:44

living life for myself. And I'm living life to help others do

Mindy Corporon: 00:34:48

the same. live life to the fullest and never give up. So

Mindy Corporon: 00:34:52

Howard brown I'm moving it back to you. Thank you so much for

Mindy Corporon: 00:34:56

having me. I'm shining brightly because you shine brightly well.

Howard Brown: 00:35:00

I appreciate that. You missed one thing. How should

Howard Brown: 00:35:02

people get in touch with you?

Mindy Corporon: 00:35:04

Oh, Howard, I always forget about that part.

Mindy Corporon: 00:35:06

I'm sorry. I was thinking so much about the quote. How should

Mindy Corporon: 00:35:07

people get in touch with me? Well, Mindy Corporon, mindy Corp

Mindy Corporon: 00:35:14

or O N, it's super easy to find me LinkedIn. seven days is

Mindy Corporon: 00:35:20

SEVENDays.org. That's our foundation. So it's dot org. And

Mindy Corporon: 00:35:26

workplace healing is workplace healing spelled out workplace

Mindy Corporon: 00:35:29

healing.com. I'm on Facebook. I'm on Instagram, but I really

Mindy Corporon: 00:35:34

don't know how to use Instagram. I need a tutorial. But LinkedIn

Mindy Corporon: 00:35:38

is great. And I would love for people to get hold of me through

Mindy Corporon: 00:35:42

you because I'd like us to stay connected. Well,

Howard Brown: 00:35:45

they can certainly contact me I'm going to include

Howard Brown: 00:35:48

your links in the show notes and also on social media posts and

Howard Brown: 00:35:52

all that. And please, if you want to learn and take a deeper

Howard Brown: 00:35:56

dive into Mindy's story, and learn how to use courageous

Howard Brown: 00:36:00

kindness in the world, healing a shattered soul. It's on Amazon,

Howard Brown: 00:36:04

you can find it on her website and her link pages as well.

Howard Brown: 00:36:08

Mindy, thank you for being here and sharing part of your story

Howard Brown: 00:36:12

and how you've chosen to make the world a better place. And

Howard Brown: 00:36:16

that's what shining brightly, you know, means means to me.

Howard Brown: 00:36:20

I'll give again, a shout out to front edge publishing and read

Howard Brown: 00:36:23

the spirit amplify you my podcasts house. And I just you

Howard Brown: 00:36:30

get a hold of me at shining brightly.com This has been such

Howard Brown: 00:36:33

an amazing episode. And please consider downloading listening,

Howard Brown: 00:36:37

sharing and reviewing. And if we choose to shine brightly, just a

Howard Brown: 00:36:42

little bit each day, which we have today, Monday for

Howard Brown: 00:36:44

ourselves, and then go lift up others and our communities and

Howard Brown: 00:36:49

our neighbourhoods and the world. We will all be in a

Howard Brown: 00:36:52

better place. So thank you. Thank you for being here.

Mindy Corporon: 00:36:55

Thank you, Howard.