Why Are People Craving Diversity

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Opinions expressed in this episode are personal. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this streaming platform. [00:00:10] Speaker B: Good day, everyone, and welcome to another edition of let's Be Diverse. I am your host, Andrew Stout. This episode is dedicated to all my loved ones who supported me through this journey. Those who have left us will always be in our hearts and will never be forgotten. Today I have an interesting topic. The topic is, why are people craving diversity? And my guest today is Sarah Kidlin. Welcome to the show, Sarah. It is such a thrill to have you on here today. [00:00:38] Speaker C: Thank you so much for having me, Andrew. [00:00:40] Speaker B: It has been in the works. Yeah, it's been in the works for so long that I was just excited for the people that were. That are listening. I was being a little bit of a fanboy before we started because I'm just so thrilled to have Sarah with us today, and I'm just. I'm so excited about this conversation. So how are things with you? What's new with you? What's going on in your world? Give us the tea, the deets. Give us it all. What's going on? [00:01:07] Speaker C: Yeah. So, I mean, we're wrapping up summer a week from today. The kids are back to school, so that's exciting. I have focused on having, like, a fun and exciting summer, but really finding the joy in the little things. So, you know, taking an extra few minutes to snuggle my kids or, you know, reading a few extra books this summer, did a few puzzles, just really finding some slow and joyful time. So in the mundane, right, because that's. This is our life. This is what we get. So it's been an awesome summer. I have. I. I think the two fun things I did. One, I went on a big road trip with my daughter. So we're gone for 10 days, the two of us. We traveled to Northern Ontario. I have a sister that lives up there. So we just, you know, swam in Lake Superior every day for a week. It was amazing. And then the other thing I did was learned how to water ski. So at the age of 47, I learned how to water ski. I've tried it many, many times before. One other time I was successful, but I think it was a total fluke. But this summer, I actually successfully water skied a lot of times and learned how to take off and learned how to ski and learned how to land. So that. [00:02:16] Speaker B: That is awesome. So is there. Is there any video footage of this that you're successful at out there? [00:02:22] Speaker C: There is video footage and it'll be coming out on a reel. If people Follow me on Instagram. They'll see it there. Wonderful. I think I failed 13 times. And my son was recording and he said on the video where I finally went up, he said, lucky number 13. [00:02:42] Speaker B: That is so awesome. So. And it's so cool when we learn something new or we learn something that, you know, that we're scared to do. It's so cool that we actually do it. And when we actually do accomplish it, it's such a thrill and. And inspiring, for sure. So I love that. That's super awesome. [00:03:01] Speaker C: It was such a great metaphor for what I'm doing with my clients. Right. We're talking about setting a goal and having the right balance of grit and grace. So, yes, I had grit. I had total perseverance. I mean, I tried and tried and tried and tried, but the thing that actually made it work for me, I think, was a little bit of grace. Before that last attempt, I stood in the water and started laughing at myself, like, what the heck are you doing, lady? And I was laughing and I was like, okay, this is it. And so I was having fun and I took off. It was amazing. And then I, like, got up and was skiing and then I let go of the rope and my husband was like, why'd you let go? And I said, well, I wanna try again. [00:03:43] Speaker B: Yeah, because you felt like you were a pro after that. It's like, oh, I can do this now, no problem. [00:03:48] Speaker C: So we did it like four or five more days in a row. So it was wonderful. It was so much fun. [00:03:54] Speaker B: That is awesome. Well, listen, I'm so happy that you had a great summer. Summer, you're absolutely right. Summer is a time to reflect on things, to enjoy the little things, to enjoy the weather, enjoy the family and. And get away and have some time. A way to think about things and. And recoup and relax. So I'm glad you're able to do that. I know you have such a busy schedule. I do follow you on Instagram, and I could see that you're always on the go. We always have something happening. So I'm happy to hear that you had time to unwind a little bit, which is pretty cool. [00:04:29] Speaker C: Yep. Rest is productive, right? It's so important, so. [00:04:32] Speaker B: It certainly is. So, before we begin this exciting topic, I always have a fun, thought provoking question to ask my guests to get things going. Are you ready for yours today, Sarah? [00:04:47] Speaker C: I'm ready. [00:04:50] Speaker B: So, thinking over the past week, what's one thing you would have done differently? [00:05:00] Speaker C: Huh? What is one thing I would have done differently? That Is a, that is a tough one because I've been having some good times lately. So what was it? Okay, well, today is today I can say I did not move my body enough at all. So I, I usually get 10,000 steps a day and today I'm at only 4,000. So I definitely would have thrown another walk in there today, which I had planned for a walk with a group of people and we just ran out of time. We were doing, we were doing a little event and we ran out of time, so we didn't have the luck. [00:05:39] Speaker B: I, I love that, I love that answer. You know, it's funny that you said, oh, I can't think of anything and any thought of something. So I think there's always something. There's always something that we wish that you know, and it maybe not be something negative, but just like, okay, well, I wish that I could have done this. So I love that you had said, I wish I would have moved more. And I think that's something that a lot of people think about on a regular basis, not just in one day. So I love that you, you came up with that answer. Thanks for sharing that with us and thanks for having a little bit of fun. [00:06:10] Speaker C: Thank you. Yeah, that's such a great question too. I, I just love it. I have a journal prompt. That is what is one thing I did today that I want to do more of tomorrow. And what's one thing I did today that I want to do less of tomorrow. And it's such a great journal prompt. [00:06:25] Speaker B: Yeah, that is, that is a great journal prompt. I'll have to remember those. So why don't we start off with you telling us a little you yourself and of course, your why. [00:06:36] Speaker C: Okay. Yeah. So I'm Sarah Kindlin. I am the founder of Pearl Performance Incorporated. It's a small company. I do, I'm a professional speaker, coach and educator. And I guess I'll tell a bit of the story of how I grew up because that's relevant to what we're talking about today. So I grew up in small town Ontario. Like a map dot, I'll say Pinkerton for any listeners, listeners that want to Google it. But it is a tiny little town in Bruce County. There was maybe 20 houses and my family made up 10% of the population because I grew up with four brothers and four sisters. So there was nine kids. It was a very middle class white community. You know, we all played baseball in the summertime, we played hockey in the winter. At my school there was, you know, one family that had that weren't white all the way through. So from kindergarten to grade 13, that was the diversity that I saw. It's one beautiful family from Ghana. My parents were super welcoming to them, but I'm sure that not all of the people in our community were welcoming to them. I do remember having the mother of the family come to one of our Girl Guide meetings and teaching us about the food from Ghana, which was an amazing. Which was, you know, a great experience for us to learn something new. But there wasn't a lot of diversity. So when I got to university and started meeting other people from other cultures, and even when I got into my career and got learning about diversity and equity and inclusion and the opportunity to learn from other people who are different from you is so amazing. And so I just got a craving for it. Like, I started loving meeting new people, learning new recipes, going to new restaurants, trying different things because you're. You grow by that, right? So although I grew up in a place with very limited diversity, it's something that I crave in my adult life now. [00:08:46] Speaker B: I love that story and I love that you talk about that, because myself, I had, I would say a similar story, but it was kind of the way that I grew up. So I grew up, and I've talked about this a couple of episodes back, but I grew up in a. With parents of a Mick of mixed race. So my mother was a French Canadian from Montreal, Quebec. My father was from Barbados, so West Indian. So my mother was white, my dad was black. So the different cultures of things that I learned while I was growing up, and I didn't really think about it when I was small, when I was young, but as I've grow, as I've grown up, and now that they've passed and they're no longer with us, I've thought about it even more, and it's really come to fruition with me. Even more of the difference. The ways that they raise me because of the way that they were raised and the different foods that I grew up on, you know, the French Canadian cuisine compared to the West Indian cuisine with the curry jerk chicken and the curry chicken and. And rather compared to the tortiers and all that stuff, it's just a different way that they. The foods and like I said, the ways that they were raising me as far as how they were. How they were raised. So it's amazing that you saw that, because I. That's how I grew up, and I saw that, and it was normal to me. But for others, it was probably a little bit Odd. [00:10:26] Speaker C: Yeah. And same for me. It was normal for me, but wasn't. It wasn't until, you know, I worked for 20 plus years for Johnson and Johnson, so we had tons of equity and inclusion training all the time. And it wasn't until like one day I was like watching the pride flag get raised and I just thought to myself, where were all the gay people in my high school? Because I didn't know them. They weren't able to be themselves. They weren't able to be, you know, open and out. That wasn't talked of when I was in high school. And, and they were there for sure. They were there. Right. And it broke my heart. Like it still breaks my heart when I see the, every June when we raise the pride flag. But I mean, whenever you see a pride flag, I think, you know, the people that can't be themselves, it's so sad. It's so sad to me. So, so that's part of my mission. Like, I want people to know that when they're around me, they're safe. That I value diversity, equity, inclusion. I, you know, I have a big heart for it because I want people to be able to be themselves because that's when they're their best. [00:11:44] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think that's all anybody, that's what anybody need, anybody would want. Right? You don't. We're not looking, you know, people, I think anybody is not looking for anything special. I mean, I always say that, you know, most people are looking to be. Everybody's looking to be seen, heard, valued and understood, whether whatever race you are, that's all we're looking for. And when we get it, then we love it. So I love the fact that you and I, and from what I know of you, you, you said it before. You're, you're compassionate and you are super compassionate. There is no question about that. And I love that you were compassionate with others. And I, I can, I read the things that you put out there and I read the comments that people put and you could just tell that people see that in you. And it's beautiful when people, people see who you actually are and the things that you believe in. I, I believe that that's super valuable and super important. So I love that you do that for sure. [00:12:49] Speaker C: Thank you. [00:12:50] Speaker B: You're very welcome. So let's get into the meat and bones. It is here we're talking about craving diversity. Why do. And I think we kind of talked about it a little bit. I want to kind of delve into this a little bit deep, deeper Here. Why do people crave diversity? [00:13:08] Speaker C: Well, I talk a lot about having a gritty growth mindset, right? And when we're learning new things, we're expanding our mind, we're expanding our perspectives. Right? And so I. I'm someone that craves diversity because I know that it expands my view of things. Right. I can hold my hand up to you like this with my palm facing you, and you will see that I don't have any fingernails, but I'm looking at my hand from this side. I have fingernails. When I turn my hand around this way, you see I have fingernails. Right? We're both looking at the same hand, but from a different view. One of us sees fingernails, one of us doesn't. Right. There's always a different perspective. There's always a different way of looking at things. There's always a different way of solving a problem. And the more diverse perspectives that we engage and encounter, the easier that will be. Does that make sense? [00:14:07] Speaker B: It totally makes 100% sense. And, you know, I love when you said expanded view. I was just talking about this with somebody the other the other day, and, you know, think about diversity of thought, and it comes into play for so many different things. And I feel like a lot of people have this perspective that their way is the way and it's not the way if there's different just because, I mean, your way might be good, a good way, but there's a different way of looking at it. Or there might be a different way of doing things. Not saying that your way is no good. We hate your idea. It's out and out to lunch. But, you know, let's kind of look at a different perspective of it and let's, you know, maybe mold it a little bit differently or have a different way of looking at it. So I love that you said that because I had an extensive, like I said before, had an extensive conversation about diversity of thought with somebody just this week, and it was amazing how whatever situation you're in, whether it's professional or personally, there are so many people that look at things at one lens in one way. And I've never. I. I haven't never been like that. And I'd say in the last five years, it's even expanded my horizons on that. And I look at things so much differently than I did because my mind is broadened and the word yell. Use that. You said my mind is expanding. Yeah. [00:15:46] Speaker C: Yep. And the fun that I have in looking for different ways to do things these days is finding the easiest way. And I'm always saying there's an easier way. There's an easier way. What is the easier way going to be? And maybe it's a friend that's going to tell me the easy way. Maybe it's one of my kids, one of my, like, maybe it's, you know, a colleague, maybe it's the universe. But there's always an easier way, right? There's a different way and an easier way. And I think as human beings, we're conditioned to make things way harder than it needs to be. But there's always an easier way. [00:16:20] Speaker B: So we know why people crave it. Why do you think people resist it? Because I see resistance of it every day. So why do you, why do you think that is? [00:16:32] Speaker C: Yeah, well, I mean I, I live in a very small town now, same as how I grew up at a different town. And currently they're building a lot of houses and the diversity of the town is set to change. And I see that as a wonderful, beautiful thing. You know, I keep, you know, I'm on the chamber of commerce and we talk about, you know, customers are coming. It's beautiful. But some people see that as, you know, a change that they're, they are resistant to. And I really feel like a big part of it is what, what, like their education, like what, what experiences they have with diversity, what they've been told about diversity, be it from their teachers, parents, other community leaders, what have they been told about diversity? Right. And I do think that there is an opportunity for the business associations in small towns to do some education around diversity. Right. Meet somebody who's from say, India and you go to their place for dinner and they cook you the most amazing meal. You get such an appreciation for their culture, you start to understand them. And not that everyone from India is same, but you can then be willing to meet the next person that's from another country and the next person. Right. Whereas if you've only lived in your small town and all of your friends look like you, you may not be as open to expanding your friend circle. [00:18:15] Speaker B: And I love you use the word open as we, you talked about experience there, people not having the experience. You know, why haven't they, what, what's the reasons why they haven't had the experience? And you mentioned, I mean, it could be like maybe their upbringing, maybe they just, they're, they're used to a certain way and a certain upbringing and. [00:18:43] Speaker C: Right. They live in their small town, they go to their small town store where it's all people like them and, and it can happen in the city too, that people don't want diversity. I'm not knocking on small town people. I'm a small town person. So it's my experience. Experience for sure. But it's, it's just what, you know. Right. And so the more diversity you see, the more you get used to it. Right. [00:19:09] Speaker B: I, when I was bizarre. Oh, for sure. When I was a, when I was younger, I remember having a, having a friend over. I was probably in elementary school and I had a. We walked home. I walked home every day and I had a, I had said, oh, I want to invited a friend over after school. So we showed up at home and my mom was at home and I showed up and she was in the kitchen and I said, oh, hi mom, this is, you know, so and so and I introduced them and they, they kind of looked, they didn't say anything, but they kind of looked like confused because they were like, okay, well you're dark skinned and your mom's white. And they never said anything, but you could just tell that they had that look of confusion of how did that, how does this work out? I don't, I don't get it. I don't understand it. So. And again, you think about these things as you get older. So I put, as a kid, I, it probably, it didn't even phase. We didn't look at it. But thinking back of memories of stuff, it, you know, it's kind of something that I've kind of recently thought about. I'm like, wow, that it, you know, that was interesting at that time and, and how things have changed now or they are changing. I wouldn't say that they're perfect, but they're, you know, they're changing. They're different because like you said, there's different ethnicity, ethnicities in different cities. You know, in big cities you get people from, from Greece, from India, from Italy. Me come from Montreal. There's a huge Greek contingent in Montreal. There's a huge Italian contingent in Montreal. But years ago you probably wouldn't have had that. Right. So it's just, it's interesting how the circle evolved or how things evolved for sure. [00:21:13] Speaker C: Yeah. Talking about all these beautiful communities in Montreal is making me hungry though. [00:21:22] Speaker B: Yes. There's some really good places to eat there, for sure. [00:21:25] Speaker C: Oh, good. [00:21:26] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, there's tons of, tons of restaurants for sure. So we, we talk about the resistance. I want to look at the training on diversity. As, as far as diversity training, would you say that there is a lack of diversity training, not just personally, but professionally Would you say that there's a lack of it? [00:21:49] Speaker C: Yeah. So in, in the corporate world, I like did not realize how blessed I was to receive so much training on the topic all the time. And not just not maybe formal training, but also all of the employee resource groups that were always know, promoting different days and different events and you're just always learning, learning more about different cultures and through various avenues. Whereas as a solo entrepreneur, unless I seek out that training, that training's not coming to me. Right. So many people who have grown up as solar solo entrepreneurs have never had that exposure to that type of training, formal or informal. Right. Unless they've purposely seeked it out. So I do definitely see it as an area of opportunity for, for the small business associations to do more training in that. In that. [00:22:50] Speaker B: So how do you like, what do you like, what do you, in your opinion, how would you say or what would we, what could we do to, to provide more training for like if you had a suggestion, if you were like ahead of an organization right now, what would your suggestion be to your team, of your leadership team to provide more of that training for the employees would be your, would be your thoughts on that? [00:23:23] Speaker C: Yeah, I think that there's numerous ways that people learn, obviously, but I think experiential learning is great. So my thing would be to do like these culture type fairs where even just days where today we're celebrating, you know, Cinco de Mayo, for example, on May 5th, we're celebrating and we're all going to learn about the history of why we celebrate Cinco de Mayo and we're all going to learn about the culture a little bit and maybe we're going to try some food. Right. I think those experiential days are really important. Yeah. [00:24:01] Speaker B: Yeah, I love that idea, Sarah, because I think that's going to be, that would be great also for, for team building as well because it's giving you an opportunity to talk to people that you may not necessarily talk to. So if you're, if you have somebody that's heading up a, you know, if you're doing Cinco de Mayo and you have somebody that's heading up the booth for Franco de Mayo and you never talk to them, it's an opportunity to ask them, you know, what's in that? You know, you can even start a conversation. Very easy way to start a conversation. Oh well, you know, what's in, what's in that? Or how do you make that? Or oh my God, this is so good. Do you have the recipe for it and you know, type thing. So it's a. It's a great conversation starter as well. So I love that. I love that suggestion. [00:24:45] Speaker C: Yep. Now I'm writing that suggestion down for our small town. [00:24:51] Speaker B: Yeah, you should. I think. I think it'd be great. I think it's great. And I. I think I did work for a company years back. I'm gonna say probably about 10 years, and I think they did that. So where I am in Canada, we do, like, with. Where they have a kind of like a. A festival. This d. Does their own pavilion, and they have the food and the music and stuff like that. But this particular job that I had 10 years ago, they did that every year. They did that type of thing where, you know, you'd have part of the social committee, and the social committee would be in charge of, you know, you'd have different groups and, you know, you were in charge of Italy, you're in charge of Greece, you're in charge. And they. And we did that. And it was. It was super cool to. To have that. It was a lot of work, but I definitely think it was worth it. And I haven't seen anything like that since I probably. I said I was 10, 12 years ago, and I haven't seen anything similar to that since. So, you know, I don't know if other companies, you know, other companies just didn't seem that they wanted to. To do that or. I don't know, for whatever reason, they didn't think it was per, you know, important important or what have you. But I love that. I love that you put that down. And I really feel like that's a great way to. To. To have conversation and broaden your horizons and learn more about people's culture and that for sure. If you could choose one word to describe yourself, what word would that be? [00:26:38] Speaker C: Yeah, I. I get told this a lot, I think. Well, you. You describe me as a compassionate leader. I think the one word for me is love. I, you know, I feel loved, but I genuinely care for the people around me, and I want them to be successful, and I want to help them in any way I can. So, yeah, that's my one word. I have. I have this little thing on my desk that says, love is your superpower. A friend of mine wrote that for me, but I have a bunch of different iterations of it on my desk from a bunch of different people. [00:27:18] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a beautiful word. And I feel like lots of people don't use it enough because they're afraid to. To say it first for Whatever reason, maybe it's because people feel like it's a different meaning. But you know, when you're a compass, if it's coming from a compassionate source, it could mean, it can mean so much. It can be so special for, for somebody, the other person hearing it. So I love, I love that you use that word. I think that is super cool. And yes, that would be another word that I would say that would fit you to a T. This has been such a great conversation today. Any final thoughts or any thing that you'd like to the listeners to remember throughout this conversation? [00:28:10] Speaker C: Yeah, it's been a beautiful conversation. I've really enjoyed it. I think, listeners, I want you to think about what you can do differently. How can you expand your mind and learn something new about another culture, another person? Try a new recipe even in the kitchen, or go to a different restaurant that you haven't tried. Something I love to do is even if I go to a restaurant I've been to before, order something that I've never ordered before, just try new things. It's so good for the collective, right? And yeah, I think, you know, we talked about some great ideas in terms of experiential education for people to learn more about diversity. And I think, you know, if your listeners have the ability to influence their local business groups or maybe it's just, you know, start with one day, like, how are we going to celebrate pride in our small town this year? You know, my community had their first ever Pride celebration this year, 2024. It was the first time ever that they had a pride celebration. So still lots of work to be done, right? So what other days can we celebrate together where we're learning about a new culture and educating people without, you know, having them sit down and watch a PowerPoint, right? Learning through experience, trying new foods, trying, you know, meeting new people. So, yeah, I think if the listeners can think of one thing that they can take away from this conversation to really help themselves or their community. [00:29:45] Speaker B: I love that thought. I think that's super important of what can we do differently? That is soup. That just hits the nail on the button as far as this conversation goes. And I think we can all do a little bit something. I think we can take the time to do something. And I think if we all did a little something differently, I think we would definitely see many more changes in the world for sure. So I do, I do love that my call to action today out of this conversation was it, or I would say is, you know, we talk about craving diversity and I feel like we need to find ways not just to do things differently, but also to understand people a little bit better, I would say, and understand what they might have gone through or how they might have grown up and what their home life might have been when as they were older and that might have made them the person that they are. So I feel like if you're all the listeners, you're out there, talk to people of a different ethnicity or different background and understand how they grew up a little bit better and I think your eyes will open up a little bit wider and like Sarah said earlier, it'll broaden your horizons on many different things for sure. My final thoughts are I would like to thank you, Sarah, for, for coming on Today. I talked about compassion. I admire your care, compassion. I admire your insight and your mindset. And you, I've heard you talk so much about grit and grace. You have grit and grace. And for me, that is a huge indication of who you are as an individual. And I am so honored and proud to have the opportunity to have this conversation with you. It has been an absolute thrill. Thank you so much. [00:31:57] Speaker C: Thank you, Andrew, so much for having me on the show. I really enjoyed our conversation and I appreciate your kind words so much. So it means a lot to me. [00:32:06] Speaker B: You're very, you're very welcome. On behalf of myself and my guest, Sarah, I would like to thank you all for listening today. And until next time, be safe. And remember, everybody that if we all work together, we can accomplish anything. [00:32:22] Speaker A: You have been listening to let's Be Diverse with Andrew Stout. To stay up to date with future content, hit subscribe. [00:32:34] Speaker B: Sa.