“Amplifying Black Voices”: real conversations about real experiences that can lead to real change.

Throughout 2020, we presented a special series of interviews on our podcast Entelechy Leadership Stories. We called it “Amplifying Black Voices” and promised to help bridge the gap between what we think you know, and what we need to hear about the true meaning of racial justice, diversity inclusion, and equity.

We felt they were real conversations about real experiences that can lead to real change.

My co-host Kirstin Gooldy and I were grateful that we had been guided to do it.

In today’s article, I’d like to highlight one interview that I think exemplifies what we heard across many interviews. Don Brightmon is an author, with three wonderful personal development books so far. He is also a podcaster of “Going North.” He is head of a Toastmasters group in the Baltimore area, and he was also a John Maxwell Group trainer.

Dom is a bright young leader, and we wanted to hear about his work in the context of the Black experience and the social issues that need to be addressed. Here is an excerpt of our interview:

Dom:  So a little bit of background about me, both of my parents were wonderful, loving folks. My father fought in both World War II and the Korean War. He was a paratrooper in the 80th airborne division, had combat jumps, a decorated soldier. And my mother, she has her master's degree in psychology, and she's all about education. She grew up in a small town in South Carolina. They both hail from South Carolina. And they dealt with basic civil rights. At that time they were going through that whole movement. At that time, they were dealing with that at that time. And when they moved up to Baltimore, especially in the sixties, is when it really got at its peak.

They really had to protect themselves. And they really paved the way for me, because even though a lot of nonsense is going on and it seems like we keep taking two steps forward and making five steps backward is the fact that still, even though that's still happening, I'm grateful for the shoulders of the giants. And my parents were making that way.

Because today with everything like Black Lives Matter – like Black lives do matter. We're not saying that any other lives don't matter. We're just saying that this is a response to the injustice that's out there because really it's all just taking that time to not only listen, but also to take action too, because we can listen all day, but some people don't even listen. Some people listen to see when it’s their turn to speak instead of listening to how they can actually take in the information and see how it applies to their life and see if they can provide a proper response. Or heck, even sometimes the best response is no response at all. And then just seeing what we can do next to actually plan and actually take action from that.

Mark: You decided a public speaking and Toastmasters was going to be important to you. You got involved in the John Maxwell training subject matter. Why was that important to you as an individual?

Dom: It was important to me as an individual because my father always said get your education. Because one of the things that my father regretted in his life was dropping out of high school just to get a job, to try to make as much money as possible. Most of it for him, to be honest because he wanted to buy a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. And when he saved up enough money to get it, then he was drafted. So, when he got into the airborne, it was one of his dreams to fly a plane, all of his life, and he didn't get the opportunity because they said that he needed to get a bachelor’s degree and he didn't have that, on top of being Black.

So instead of flying the planes, he jumped out of them. And instead of being able to fly the airplanes after the war, he ended up being a bus driver for 35 years of his life before retiring from that position.

That's really one of the major things that inspired me to go that route because Toastmasters itself. I discovered that after listening to an audiobook where it mentioned it, and I was actually going to be doing a public speaking seminar for my church. There was a ministry that we started at the time called the corporate development ministry, where we are going to basically equip those in the community with the skills that they need and to help them to be better candidates for employment or even eventually entrepreneurship, if that's their goal.

And we had these big plans to really get things going, but we needed to get some traction. And on that list of items to do with public speaking seminar was one of the things on there. So I chose to spearhead that and Toastmasters help me to solidify that even more in terms of, all right, now, I have a direction to go in. I'll just go on to the Toastmasters network of people, building relationships, maybe secure a speaker for the seminar. And after the seminar was a success, I basically stayed with Toastmasters because I was going to be leaving blessings on the table if I left.

And that's one powerful question that folks would ask themselves every now and then – how can I make sure I don't leave any blessings all of the table in this life that I've been given. Because sometimes we are so busy with life that we don't really see the forest from the trees. Staying with Toastmasters gave me a quantum leap forward and actually take advantage of what they had to offer in the skills that I've been gifted with. Because through Toastmasters I hired a coach, became a coach myself, and wrote, published multiple books after giving a bunch of Inspirational talks and being around people that encouraged me to be there, be the best they can be.

And I was holding me accountable because that's the other thing too, like when it comes to listening and speaking and planning and taking action, you have to also hold people accountable because that's really the glue that holds things together.

Kirstin: I love everything you just talked about, and I wanted to come back to the potential conversation. You said something that I really don't want to skip over because there is something beautiful that you're speaking to and honoring and being okay with standing on the shoulders of those that have led the pathway for you. To talk about not leaving gifts on the table. How many times do we see people be given opportunity and against all odds? But they have this gift and they leave it behind. That's that choice. That's that personal accountability. What am I going to do with what's in front of me? I wanted to thank you for talking about that because there are so many that need to see you for the brightness.

Mark: Dom, given what Kirstin just said, I'm curious what was the fork in the road? You could have gone one direction. You decided to go down this other. Perhaps it was the church event. What was the turning point for you to say I'm really going to pursue education or I might pursue writing or training?

Dom:  I'd love to say it was actually back in 2012 and the classic story that a lot of folks probably know me for saying every now and then is a fact that the year 2012 was a paradigm shift a year.

And it was a series of events that led me to find personal growth. Because up to that point in 2012, I was probably, I had two semesters left to go for my I.T. degree at the time. And I was going to be graduating soon. And on top of that also doing some religious studies to fortify my own, to make sure that I'm really surely built a foundation early in my faith. And just dealing with that as well as the beginning of the decline of my father, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's that year and that even almost losing my part-time job at a local library.

And just those series of events led me to realize that there is an acre as a diamond somewhere that I'm missing. And that came from reading leadership books by John Maxwell. It was his book called “Thinking for a Change” because that's something a lot of folks don't do or they don't do enough is thinking or change. And heck, even if a person's kind enough to acknowledge me as a young leader. Like that's all because I sought wisdom from those who came before me because it's better to be learning ahead from somebody who's made those mistakes as opposed to making those mistakes yourself and the mistakes they made. So trying to lessen that learning curve and that year of 2012 was really the fork in the road where it's like, all right, I've got to change directions here and even fall in love with reading again because that was another thing that held me back. Even though up to that point, I worked on a library part-time for five years. I still, wasn't a big fan of reading because in college and especially in grade school, they give you books that you don't want to read and make you hate reading. And after you’re done, I don't want to even look at another book again, but not realizing that there are so many great books up there that can show you wonderful steps, wonderful life steps, as you can take and apply it to your life to make it even better.

One of those things that help me to better my life was asking myself questions every day because questions require a thought and a response. What good can I do today? And that may be calling someone that I may have not talked to in a while and just asking how they're doing and they'll be pleasantly surprised, but they haven't heard from me in a while. And we are getting a great conversation that may turn into a business for one person or the other. Or even just sharing a kind word with someone else and just taking those different steps and being more intentional with my life instead of letting life intentionally, take me down these other rabbit holes where I may not get as much growth if I'm not as intentional.

Mark: What do you want to hear the leaders coming up behind you? What do they need to hear and what do you encourage them to do? But second to that, the elders, what do you need from us?

Dom:  Sure. I'll see if I can talk about the first part. So the youth part is really just to keep doing what you're doing for those that are focused on their life because there are two camps of folks. There's the camp of people that may have gone to school their whole life, but they may not be learning anything much, especially when some people call it a public fool system, putting themselves at a disadvantage. When a lot of folks, especially in the Black community are born with a disadvantage already when there's no generational wealth in a lot of Black families.

And there is also the other camp of people where they may have that background. They may go to school and they are going to take that knowledge and they do the additional studies and actually take action for themselves. So for that group that actually is fearless and taking action and trying to better life and create businesses for themselves being entrepreneurial. Basically, keep that up.

And for the folks that are in the elder generations to not only learn from the younger generation but also to keep going and keep fortifying your own life as you go along because a lot of elders still have wisdom to give. Young folks have an open ear to listen. What elders have to say, whether you agree or not like with my parents, I love them. I adore them. I respect them, but I didn't agree with everything they said. And even though as I age, a lot of what they said, I realized how smart they were. And my mom is still here. You can still hear them out and take the information and do your own thinking about it and actually think for a change. So make sure that if you have this space where you are actually taking fearless action, that you actually creating a life for yourself that you want and encouraging others to do the same, then keep doing it.

And if you're sitting other people do that, encourage them and equip them and really just hear them out and see what you can glean from your life as well. Because I was joking around with a podcast guest when she was talking about she was turning 60 next year. And I was telling her that 60 is the new 40, since a lot of books who are trying to see the 45 is the new 20, focusing more on health and wellness. And really like if 40is the new 20 and 50 is the new 30, then it only makes sense that 60 is the new 40. And we have a lot of folks out there that are up there and the age where they've reached their second wind and they still have more to give.

So for both groups, like we all have something to contribute and we may have different levels of energy with our contributions, but just be open to and continuing to contribute to each other. So that way we can make it a better collective whole, because we all need each other like we're built as human beings to be in relationships with other people.

It's probably the greatest capital in the world, relationship capital. Another question you could probably ask yourself or even better yet other people is who do you know that I should know. You're building a spiderweb metaphorically of people that you know, that may actually help you out down the road. Because funny enough actually was at a book event a couple of years ago. It's my first book-signing event. And I had basically four sales a day; I sold four books when I brought a hundred.

I've got a humbling lesson that day. And I also got another lesson of realizing that life is a marathon and not a sprint because one lady that I was conversing with, who bought one book, invited me to speak in front of her students at a Martin Luther King day breakfast. And she paid a great honorarium towards me. So I made my money back down the road. And that's all of the power that you need in terms of collaboration and relationship building is the fact that gifts are going to be coming to you in life. They may not happen when you wanted them to happen, but they will happen.

Mark: This has been a terrific conversation. One of the things that we like to think about is to imagine we're having lunch – you've really enlightened us about Black lives matter, but what specifically could we do? What do you think the average person can do to bridge this gap right now? 

Dom:  To bridge the gap is to have the mindset that even though a person may not look like you, they are not always your enemy. Even though the media may portray this person as evil, actually hear them out. Racism still exists; it's been around for hundreds of years and is going to take a while for it to disappear. Just make sure you do the actual action for yourself and take that first step

Get to know Dom better and learn about his work at www.DomBrightmon.com

 Thank you for listening to our podcast; thanks for your questions and your encouragement. As we continue into future episodes, we’ll have more great conversations. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, including Apple podcasts, Amazon music, Google podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and many more.

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Here's to you and your Entelechy as you continue to grow towards your full potential in both your business and life.

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