Hello Kind Soul

Who do you call when you need a real answer?

Dr. Tony Rivera aged out of foster care into a system where only 8 to 12 percent of young people earn a college degree. He earned a doctorate. He says what got him there was a circle of people who told him the truth, and he calls it a board of directors for your life.

Dr. Ebony I. Green and Tony get into building that board, why most of us react before we understand what we're feeling, why everything that needs to be said doesn't have to be said by you, the RAIN technique for when you're about to lose it, and why failure is not the verdict.

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 The KIND Challenge: kindsoulchallenge.com

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Kids in her community were getting locked up as young as nine. The man who killed her brother was offered bail twice.

That contrast is where this exhibit was born. Dr. Ebony I. Green sits down at the Petaluma Art Center in California with Annabelle Nunez, a first-time curator whose show, Chicanos in Cages, gathers artwork made by people while they were incarcerated, many of them children when they first went in.

Annabelle grew up in Santa Rosa, watching childhood friends get taken away young. When her community started pushing to put police back in schools, she felt the whole cycle beginning again and decided to tell the story through art so people couldn't look away.

They get into: how police on campus turn a schoolyard fight into a criminal record, the revolving door of the system, sympathy versus empathy, dressing your kids to avoid a stereotype and what that does to a child, and Annabelle's own journey through isolation and addiction to the moment she forgave herself. It's a conversation about injustice, but also about healing, forgiveness, and keeping your heart open anyway.

Come sit with us.

Content note: this episode discusses incarceration, addiction, and violence.

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There's a place where Black families have gathered, owned homes, and rested for generations, and a lot of folks have the completely wrong idea about it.

Martha's Vineyard has a rich history as one of the few places Black Americans could own property when they were shut out almost everywhere else. Civil rights leaders vacationed here. Families have been coming for decades. And yet the name carries this reputation of being wealthy, elite, maybe a little snooty, that keeps people from ever seeing it for themselves.

In this episode, Dr. Ebony I. Green sits down on the island with Solange Collins, a Brooklyn-raised, Trinidadian-American HR leader who has been coming to the Vineyard for the better part of two decades. Ebony came in with her own doubts, she'd turned down invitations for years, and found something completely different than she expected: a place where people hug instead of shake hands, where elders sit on their porches like they're watching over everybody's kids, and where connection runs deeper than anywhere she'd been.

They talk about community, belonging, rest, and how you turn pain into love.

In this episode:

Why Martha's Vineyard, and the history of Black families owning property here
The reputation that keeps people away, and why it isn't true
Coming in with your own biases about "wealthy and elite" and being proven wrong
A place that feels like a family reunion, with more family added every year
Watching young people be safe, free, and not policed
Why parents can finally breathe, and what that means after Trayvon Martin
Elders on their porches, and having grandparents who aren't your grandparents
"You sit with nine millionaires, you're gonna be the tenth"
How to actually plan a trip here if you don't know anyone
Rest, balance, and how you know when you're out of balance
The sandwich generation, caregiving, and losing the small stuff as you get older
"You die from the inside out, not the outside in"
Turning a childhood of abuse into a life of helping others
Why helping other people heals something in you too
What it means to be a kind soul

Solange Collins is a Brooklyn-raised, Trinidadian-American HR leader and co-founder of Blue Sky Talent, with years of experience across the advertising industry supporting and mentoring people through their careers.

Dr. Ebony I. Green is an award-winning speaker, educational consultant, and author of Acts of Liberation: Opening the Box to Self-Transformation. She helps leaders and organizations treat kindness as a revolutionary force, not a soft skill.

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We raise the vibration of kindness on a global scale.

Content note: this episode includes a discussion of childhood sexual abuse.

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Being nice and being kind aren't the same thing, and mixing them up is quietly hurting your team.

Nice is surface level. Kind is real, honest, sometimes a little uncomfortable, and it's what actually moves people and moves a business forward.

Dr. Ebony I. Green sits down with Andy Herbert, CEO and founder of Be Kind Life, who spent years inside big companies watching people dread Sunday nights. She built her practice on one idea: kindness is not a soft skill, it's a business skill, and the numbers prove it.

They get into: why "nice" leaders actually hurt their teams, coaching people into leadership before you drop them in, celebrating wins with the same energy you give tough feedback, how to lead a team that doesn't trust you because their last leader hurt them, why trust is built in drops and lost in buckets, burnout and quiet cracking, and why the people you should really worry about are the ones who don't quit.

Kindness is a business advantage. Come sit with us.

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 📷 @iamhellokindsoul

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"Asking for help doesn't mean you're weak. It actually means you're courageous."

Dr. Deshaun Washington spent his first four months of teaching drowning in his own classroom and telling no one, until his principals had to step in for him. He learned that the lifesaver you won't reach for gets thrown anyway, just with less dignity.

He became the 2024 Massachusetts Teacher of the Year, the first Black man in the state's history to earn it, finished a doctorate at Vanderbilt, and founded Cultivating Changemakers to teach kids financial literacy.

Dr. Ebony I. Green sits down with him to unpack the thing most high achievers get wrong: the belief that you have to do it alone.

They get into: what to look for in the people you let close, why "self made" is a delusion, the follow-up almost nobody does after asking for advice, being honest when you don't even know what help you need, the layers of help and why you don't have to jump to the extreme, what isolation models for young boys, and how shifting seats at the table changes what you're able to see.

Nobody makes it alone. Come sit with us.

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 📷 @iamhellokindsoul

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"It takes 10 years to become an overnight success."

Cesar's father had an architecture firm in Cali, Colombia. His mother was a banker. Then the cartel wars made anyone with money a target, and they gave it all up to clean grease off McDonald's fryers in Ossining, New York, while their 10-year-old son slept on the couch in the same room.

Dr. Ebony I. Green sits down with Cesar, a marketer with more than a decade in the game, for one of the most honest entrepreneurship conversations on this show. No rented Rolls Royce. No get-rich-quick.

They get into: what entrepreneurship actually costs you, why "you're giving up a 9-to-5 for 24/7," how losing everything more than once shapes your appetite for risk, why AI is an amplifier and not a replacement, the reason doing everything yourself is the thing keeping you slow, what a marketer actually needs from a CEO, and why chasing money alone will leave you empty.

For every entrepreneur who feels behind. You're right on time.

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 📷 @iamhellokindsoul

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What is your bear?

Grief. Overwork. Shame. The thing you swore you already processed. Everybody's got one, and most of us are running from it.

In the Season 6 premiere, Dr. Ebony I. Green sits down with leader and mentor Chanel Ward to talk about what it really means to be seen at work, how to lead a team while you're grieving, and why the bear costs you more when you run than when you sit down and face it.

They get into: spotting cultural misalignment in an interview, building trust with a team that's been burned, "coaching up" when your leader won't see you, why kindness in leadership is transparency and structure rather than softness, what Gen Z gets right about interrogating tradition, and how to design a life you can't be threatened out of.

For every high achiever who's been performing through the pain. Come sit with us.

🎤 Book Dr. Ebony: hellokindsoul.com

Support the show

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In this episode of Hello Kind Soul, I sit down with Lisa Lightman at the Petaluma Arts Center in California — a painter, retired criminal justice professional, and deeply thoughtful human who has spent her life weaving together community, creativity, and compassion.

Lisa shares how working in the courts, diverting people from jail into treatment, exposed her to both the beauty and the heaviness of the human experience. Through it all, art became her lifeline — a practice that soothed and “saved her soul” while she helped others rebuild their lives.

We explore:

• Her path from public policy and criminal justice to full-time art
• How being an artist shaped her leadership and decision-making at work
• The way creativity fuels risk-taking, innovation, and new possibilities
• The magic of community art centers as “third places” where people truly connect
• Simple ways to get involved in art and community, even if you feel unqualified
• The power of showing up, joining, and not staying isolated
• Lisa’s lifelong relationship with meditation and the “sacred pause”
• Why solitude is essential for her creativity and inner peace
• How she built a new life and community from scratch after moving to Petaluma
• What community means to her — as family, support, and shared life
• What it really means to be a kind soul
• Her gentle but powerful advice to anyone struggling: reach out and ask for help
  
  

This episode is a love letter to everyone who feels disconnected, unsure, or “not creative enough.” You don’t have to be an artist to belong in creative spaces. You just have to walk through the door.

—Ebony

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In this episode of Hello Kind Soul, I sit down with powerhouse leader Phyllis Newhouse to talk about what real leadership looks like behind the titles, accolades, and headlines.

Phyllis brings her full self to this conversation — the woman who grew up in a big family, the veteran who served 22 years in the military, the CEO who leads thousands, and the human being who still checks in with her 12-year-old self.

We explore:

• How growing up in a “tribe” taught her value, contribution, and community
• Why success is incomplete if it doesn’t include impacting others
• Her ROCK philosophy: Resources, Opportunity, Connection inside organizations
• The story of an employee challenging her on healthcare — and how accountability shaped her response
• Why great leaders must be willing to sit out front and take the darts
• How faith and keeping God at the center steady her, even in high-pressure seasons
• The concept of your life as an ecosystem — and how she keeps hers aligned
• What to do when God puts you on a “ground hold” and nothing is moving
• How she talks to herself in seasons of disappointment
• The practice of reclaiming your younger self and letting that version of you be proud
• Her daily question: Who do I want to be today?

She closes with a powerful word for anyone doubting their worth, direction, or purpose — and a beautiful definition of what it means to be a kind soul.

If you’re a leader, a dreamer, or someone fighting to get back up again, this one is for you.

—Ebony

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In this episode, I sit down with Gina, the brilliant healer behind Zorro & Leona, to talk about what true holistic healing looks and feels like in real life.

We explore herbal medicine, massage, energy work, Chinese medicine, movement, emotional health, and how all of these systems work together to keep us well — or warn us when something is out of balance.

Topics include:
• How herbs shaped Gina’s earliest understanding of healing
• The body as a feedback system — and why so many of us ignore it
• Emotional pain, organ health & somatic storage
• What Chinese medicine teaches us about chi flow
• Preventive care vs crisis care
• Why holistic healing should be accessible
• Cultural healing traditions and community care
• How healers protect their own energy
• Reiki as energetic medicine
• How to reconnect to your body without shame
• The role of movement in longevity
• The truth about individualism vs collective well-being

Gina ends with a powerful message for anyone who feels like they’re barely hanging on.

This conversation is nourishing, grounding, and full of practical wisdom.

—Ebony

Support the show

Want to support us? Buy us a cup of coffee! https://buymeacoffee.com/hellokindsoul