The Kindness Matters Podcast
So. Much. Division. Let's talk about how to change that. Re-engage as neighbors, friends, co-workers and family. Let's set out to change the world. Strike that. Change A World. One person at a time, make someone's life a little better and then do it again tomorrow and the day after that, through kindness.
Kindness is a Super-Power that each of us has within us. It is so powerful it has the potential to change not only your life but those around you, too. Let's talk about kindness.
The Kindness Matters Podcast
Creating Hope Through Small Acts of Kindness
Have you ever wondered how small acts of kindness can transform lives? Lisa Demmi returns to the Kindness Matters podcast to share the incredible journey of her nonprofit, The Small Magic Foundation, which is creating pathways to success for underserved youth in the Tampa Bay area.
The foundation stems from Lisa's personal philosophy that meaningful change doesn't require grand gestures or substantial resources—just intentional acts of kindness she calls "small magic." What began as a concept for goal-setting has evolved into a structured nonprofit offering disadvantaged youth access to mentorship, creative expression, and practical life skills they might otherwise never experience.
Lisa shares heartwarming stories about the foundation's early initiatives: gifting musical instruments to committed students, hosting rock painting events where children discover their artistic talents, and planning workshops on everything from financial literacy to leadership skills. The joy in her voice is palpable as she describes the moment when a child realizes "I am an artist" after creating something beautiful with their own hands.
Beyond just teaching skills, the Small Magic Foundation aims to bridge generational gaps and show children that adults can be trusted allies in their development. By assembling a diverse board that reflects the communities they serve, Lisa ensures the foundation addresses genuine needs rather than making assumptions about what children require. Her approach emphasizes sustainability—older participants will eventually return as mentors, creating a continuous cycle of giving back.
Ready to witness how small actions can create profound change? Listen to this inspiring conversation about kindness, opportunity, and the magic that happens when someone simply believes in a child's potential. Then visit smallmagicfoundation.org to discover how you can contribute to this meaningful mission through volunteering, mentorship, or donation.
This podcast is a proud member of the Mayday Media Network. If you have an idea for a podcast and need some production assistance or have a podcast and are looking for a supportive network to join, check out maydaymedianetwork.com.
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Well, hello there and welcome. You are listening to the Kindness Matters podcast and I am your host, mike Rathbun. What is this podcast all about? It's about kindness. It's a pushback against everything negative that we see in the news and on social media today, and it's a way to highlight people, organizations that are simply striving to make their little corner of the world a little better place. If you want to join in on the conversation, feel free, Go ahead and follow us on all of your social media feeds. We're on Facebook, instagram, tiktok. We're even on LinkedIn under Mike Rathbun. Check us out. We're even on LinkedIn under Mike Rathbun. Check us out and, in the meantime, sit back, relax, enjoy and we'll get into the Kindness Matters podcast. Hey, hi, everybody. Welcome to the show. Thank you so much for joining in and for being here, for choosing to listen to the Kindness Matters podcast for 30 minutes out of your day. It means the world to me and I really do appreciate it. Please don't forget. If you hear something here that is uplifting to you or motivating or inspiring and I don't know how this episode could be anything less than any of those things make sure you share it with your friends and family, your co-workers, strangers on the street, neighbors, whoever Let them know that. Hey, I found this really great podcast and it makes me happy to listen to it and, yeah, that would be awesome if you would do that.
Speaker 1:My guest today is she's so cool. This person is the coolest person I know and that's saying a lot because I know a lot of cool people. But I've had her on the show before. Her name is Lisa Demme and she is a public speaker and I had her on. You were on last year. I want to say yeah, and we were talking about inclusion and diversification and equitability. See how I mix those up so that the haters don't hear yes, and it was such a wonderful episode and I really appreciate that and I just feel like old friends getting together again. Same, yeah, the only thing that's missing is the wine.
Speaker 2:Well, I've got water. It's not the same but it'll do for now.
Speaker 1:And I have coffee. So there you go. This is so great because you have been up to so much since we last spoke. Yes, you wrote a book.
Speaker 2:I did. Yeah, oh God, I had it written down, aunt boo-boo has a girlfriend.
Speaker 1:I knew the boo-boo was in there, I just couldn't remember I have a copy around here somewhere.
Speaker 2:I don't know where it is, though.
Speaker 1:Yeah, aunt boo-boo has a girlfriend and that's done amazing thank you um, and then, and now, now, but wait, you're starting another. Not you're starting a non-profit yes and that I I really love the idea of this because it's called the small magic foundation, right yep talk to me about it, tell me all about it, so I can stop talking.
Speaker 2:Okay, First thing is I want to say my name is Lisa Demme and I'm a repeat offender on Mike's podcast. Thanks for having me back on, Mike.
Speaker 1:I couldn't think of anybody I'd have on more.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I started this, the small magic foundations. I actually I registered it with the irs in I want to say 2017 or 2018.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow yeah, um, but small magic actually goes way further back than that. So small magic is this philosophy that I've used for years and years and years. About that you can be kind and it doesn't take any like equipment or money or special training or preparation or anything like that, excuse me. And I call it small magic because it's little, small things that you can do to make people feel, you know, have a better day and yourself, quite frankly. And so the way I talk about it is you know, you wake up in the morning and you can start doling out small magic right then and there. Because and I'll just speak for me is small magic is, um, you know, we're, I'm, I'm very harsh on myself, I'm hard on myself. I think a lot of us are like that. Sometimes I don't speak very nice to myself and sometimes I say things like oh, my God, you're so stupid or whatever it might be.
Speaker 2:So small magic can start right when you open your eyes and get out of bed and you can just be kind to yourself. You can be kind when you walk out the door Hi, neighbor, you can let someone in in traffic. I live in Tampa. I have a lot of opportunities to do that, um, you know, hold doors open, help someone get something from the the high Well, that wouldn't be me, cause I'm short. But you know, you don't, you can do it. Just smiling at someone is small magic, and you have. You don't know how you're going to change someone's life by doing these little teeny things. So then I stepped it up and I started using small magic for goal setting and I thought oh okay.
Speaker 2:So small magic is, it's my, it's one of my keynotes, and it was called small magic for goal setting, and it was breaking your goals into these little tiny things that you can do to get better, to get your goals. Well then I started thinking about what if we put that philosophy towards kids and 2018, I thought I'll create the small magic foundation and what we'll do is we'll give away gifts to children who are in high school, middle school, um, you know, and they have to be in four categories, because there are four things that changed my life quite a bit. It was music, art, fitness and dogs, and so we I assembled a very tiny board and we didn't do anything for probably a year or so, and then, right before COVID, I kind of said you know what?
Speaker 2:the hell with this. I'm just going to give stuff away. And so the first thing I did was I gave away. I was going to give away a bass. I'm a bass player, and so I was going to give away a bass. I'm a bass player, and so I was going to give away a bass guitar and a little bass amp and a strap and strings and a tuner and the whole, all the whole nine yards. And so what I did was I reached out to a bunch of my friends who worked in the school system here in the Tampa Bay area. I posted on social media and I said all right, here's what I'm giving away.
Speaker 2:If you're in this area and you're between the ages of I don't even remember what it was at that point and you're in a music program and you want to win this base, I want to know how you're going to use it, what differences it's going to make in your life and how you're going to pay it forward. And you have to be enrolled in a music program in school. Like's not just. I wasn't going to just give away a bass for someone who's like oh, be cool to have a bass in my house. And so I had um, a bunch of kids wrote these. Uh, they had to write an essay for me, and, um, a bunch of them also had their uh music, uh. Directors write uh like a almost a referral letter for them, and so what happened was I got a lot more than just one really good letter, and so then you gotta choose right yeah.
Speaker 2:So I was whining to my wife at the time and she owned at the time she owned a, a very successful construction company, and she said what, how many do you have? And I go I have three, I've narrowed it down to three and she said let's just give them all something. So she underwrote the other two. So we ended up giving away three bases and three kits and the whole nine yards. So we ended up giving away three bases and three kits and the whole nine yards. Then we ended up giving away a violin and then we ended up giving away the next one.
Speaker 2:We gave away some some art supplies and then we gave away a scholarship for a kid who wanted to get to a special school and could not afford the application fee. So we paid the application fee and then we didn't do anything, because COVID happened, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wow, that's huge, so that's not small.
Speaker 2:That's huge. It's huge magic. Yeah yeah, small magic sounds so much better though, doesn't it? Huge magic makes it anyway.
Speaker 1:So that's expectations kind of high.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so. So then COVID happened. We all know what, you know kind of what that happened, what that did to all of us, and it kind of sucked the wind out of our sails and, um, I didn't do anything with it again until, um, I won't make this political. But when the election happened last year, the writing was on the wall and I thought you know, I. So I created this organization for kids to be able to get the tools, the resources, the mentors, the, the money, the whatever it is they needed to get to the next level. And when the election happened, I was like, okay, these guys programs, music programs are going to get cut, art programs are going to get get cut. Yeah, kids who are in the communities who need it most are going to get the funding cut. And I said you know what? I? I can't change the world, but I can do something in my community here. So I said I've got my 501. I actually didn't have my 501c3 yet. I was just registered through the irs.
Speaker 2:So I called a friend of mine. Jamie clingman, who's a very good friend of mine, has been someone who's helped me with everything throughout the years and I said I want you to be my board chair and I explained it to her and she was like to her either she's either crazy or she is a very nice human being, and it might be a little bit of both. But she said yes, to me.
Speaker 1:And so we I can't see anybody saying no to you at all, lisa, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:A few people have. Okay, all right, yeah, a few people have, and that's okay because they weren't supposed to be involved. But basically what we're doing now is so we've put together this group, we've got five board members, we've got four advisory board members, um, some people I know, some people I don't know, people who I trust and um have worked with before in many different ways, and so we're right now we're in the stages of I mean, this is all new. I just got my 501 C three. I just got my what is it called? Your uh permission to be able to solicit for donations, and so now Is that separate? Oh yeah, I mean, oh my God, mike, there's all kinds of stuff that I didn't even know you had to get.
Speaker 1:I know, and starting an actual 501c3 is so time-consuming and there's paperwork up the wazoo.
Speaker 2:Yes, and thank God to ChatGPT because it's helped me take a little bit off my plate. I'm not letting ChatGPT write it all, but it's helping me with some of the research and the grunt work and stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we've put together this pretty diverse group. I wanted a diverse group because we're going to be serving, by and large, the underserved population in the Tampa Bay area and so we're going to start off small and um. We had a couple of pop-up events where, um, we did uh, I wish I had one on me Um, these, you know, those big garden rocks, the big flat black garden rocks that people use in there. So I got these big flat black garden rocks. And I'm also an artist, so I had a bunch of acrylic markers. And there was a school here locally, learning Gate Community Charter School, and they were having an eco-fest. And I said, oh what, what do I need to do to be involved in this eco-fest? Because I want to put up a tent. I'll bring a ton of rocks, a ton of markers, and I want to have the kids paint, paint rocks.
Speaker 1:Love that.
Speaker 2:And we did it and it was was so fun and the kids were so excited and I found some truly talented children and so that's kind of like our calling card now is this rock painting thing.
Speaker 2:I don't even know, we don't even have a name for it yet, but we're working on. Um, we're going to, probably, um, we're talking to, the Y. Some local YMCA is here right now to do the rock painting with the kids, um, before school starts. Um, we'll be. Uh, hopefully we're. We're going to partner with a couple other local centers in the area. Um, we're talking with, um, um, oh gosh, what is it? Fostering hearts is another nonprofit here. That that, um, we're going to be doing some work with.
Speaker 2:They work with primarily, well, with foster children but, okay, there's such a big group of people in the tampa bay area who have these non-profits and we all lap over each other, and so I'm like I'm not a gatekeeper. I'm like, listen, what do you need from me? I'll help you. How can I not reinvent the wheel? Let's do something together. And I've been so fortunate to meet Katie Ray and and and Effie Santos and Jamie Klingman, and I mean just so many people. It's ridiculous.
Speaker 2:There's so many people in the Tampa Bay area who are like, yeah, let's do it. So. So we're, we're, we're working on the bylaws, we're working on the you know all the unfun stuff that you have to do in the nonprofit. But I'm having I told you I was having knee surgery next week, so I'm going to be laid up for a little while. So we're going to be doing some zoom meetings and like laying out the programs. I've got some people.
Speaker 2:You know I feel like I'm talking a lot mike, so you can tell me to shut up no, you, just you go girl so, um, the, the like, the, some of the first few things we'll be doing is, um, we're gonna do a, a big um, like a almost like a focus group with the kids, because what I think they need and what they actually need are probably two different things. Yeah, so we want to do a focus group with the kids, because what I think they need and what they actually need are probably two different things. Yeah, so we want to do a focus group with the kids. Um, we want to see what it is they need to to have a better community that supports them, or what they need to have to be able to get to the next level. And, um, we're going to have mentors and workshops. So we'll like have a financial literacy workshop. We'll have a how do I do an interview workshop. How do I write a resume? How do I network? How do I communicate with Pete, with other people, how can I be a better leader?
Speaker 2:And you know, like the five year olds, it's five to 19,. The five year olds probably won't be doing those classes, but the older will be. With the promise of that, them come back and they're the teachers for the next group of kids. So it's like, absolutely it's. You have to have some skin in the game and I want them to understand that this isn't a handout for them. They have it's. It's, you know, like habitat for humanity. You have to help build your own house. It's the same thing.
Speaker 2:You have to help build your own future so.
Speaker 1:So talk to me more about the different um areas. You said art music and then the one that I you know. I wasn't even listening until you hit dogs.
Speaker 2:Talk to me about those it's going to be quite a bit expanded from those four things. Now that was just when I was thinking a lot smaller.
Speaker 2:It was a part-time thing. Now it will be. You know, I've got someone who's going to come in and teach financial literacy. I've got an art friend who will come in and teach some art classes. You know, I know a lot of people in construction, so I've got some people who can come in and kids how to do little projects or whatever. Basically, it's limited to what funds I can get, what grants I can get, what volunteers I can get. If I can get more, then we can expand more and my hope is that one day we have our own building with the classrooms and the workshops and the kids come back and they take the classes and we do the train the trainers for the kids here locally and that it's a safe place for kids. Yeah, let's, let's, let's cross everything, mike. So that's my big, my big, hairy, audacious goal. But for right now we're going to start off with. What do they need immediately?
Speaker 1:Sure, and what do you find the underserved kids in your area needing most? Because I just put out a call for guests because you got me to thinking about you know there are so many. I mean, here in Minneapolis it's been kind of a thing with the carjackings lately and I'm pretty sure it was that way everywhere, yeah, lately, and I'm pretty sure it was that way everywhere. But the people who are stealing the cars are definitely not old enough to be driving cars.
Speaker 1:We're talking like 12, 13 year old kids, and how do you reach out to that kind of kid and get them away from that type of lifestyle? This may not be related to your nonprofit at all, but it just got me to thinking about it. It's like how do we reach those kids? What do we need to do to break that cycle?
Speaker 2:I'll tell you the first thing I think needs to happen, mike, is they need to be shown that it can happen. They need to be shown what it looks like. They need to be shown that it is possible to happen for them. They need to be shown that there are avenues for them to do these things. And I feel like you know, with a lot of funding being cut right now, you know there's not art classes in school anymore, there's not music classes in school anymore. Art classes in school anymore. There's not music classes in school anymore. Um, there certainly aren't. Isn't financial literacy in most schools? Or? Um, whatever it might be?
Speaker 2:And I, you know, if there's a kid who has a passion, and whether it's science or music or math or whatever it might be, or they want to be a politician, or they want to be a policeman or who, whatever, they want to be a police officer I want to be able to show them. Hey, let's find someone. You know these mentors aren't going to be just like lisa, can you mentor someone? It's going to be like I could mentor a kid who wants to paint, but I'm not going to mentor a kid who wants to do, you know, photography or something. Yeah, exactly, exactly. So I really want to, I really want to put together. You know, we've got a call for volunteers out now. We've got a call for mentors out now. The website just went live. What's today, friday?
Speaker 1:I think it went live monday or tuesday and there'll be a link for that in the show notes.
Speaker 2:Okay and uh, and we've got uh, facebook, uh Instagram and LinkedIn and you know, basically what I've been trying to do right now is just show, like, create some excitement around what we're doing, announcing the, the, the board members, announcing some of the ideas that we have. Um, you know, sharing the mission, sharing the, sharing the thought process, and you know, kind of just getting people like, hey, what is that? You know, I've had a few people go. What are you doing? Which they ask me. That a lot, let me tell you. So, have a seat, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 2:So we're setting up a lot of meetings with people right now. We've had some, you know, some some nice donations. We've got a significant one coming that I don't even want to say anything about it yet because I don't want to jinx it, but it's a. It was a nice surprise to get this donation to kind of kick things off and, um, you know, I've been in the Tampa Bay area for a long time, so I'll be looking at some of my friends and colleagues and saying, hey, you know, let's talk, what do you think, and see what we can do.
Speaker 1:And you were talking a little bit about like carpenters and stuff like that. So will there be like job skills?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so at some point I would like to be able to do that. At some point I'd like to be able to have you know. I mean, like I said, certainly I've been around the construction world a long time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know my wife and some of the guys that we've worked with and some of the girls that we've worked with, and I absolutely know that I could get them to come out and teach a class in you know how do you measure something. I don't want them cutting stuff because I don't have the insurance for that yet. But you know, let's give them a little piece, a little taste. You know like, let's show them what you can build this by using wood and nails and you know screws, and you know I want to show them that they can make things, that they with their hands, that they can do it.
Speaker 1:So that might spark a lifetime of of passion for that kind of thing.
Speaker 2:You just never know.
Speaker 1:When you mentioned that type of thing and I was thinking about how speaking of defunding the Job Corps is on pause. Yes and it's like the vast majority of the participants in that are kids that have aged out of the foster system right, yeah, yeah so that's just crazy, and if, if you guys could step in fill that need I'd let I mean my big, big my big, big, big, big, hairy, audacious goal is that this would be a national program, but I got to get it started here first.
Speaker 2:So, I feel like it's really early. It is very. I mean, this is like the baby days right now.
Speaker 1:So yeah, careful what you wish for, right I?
Speaker 2:know Right. Right, I hope I have that problem. I hope I do, mike.
Speaker 1:There are worse problems to have right For sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I just I think it's so cool because I think a lot, of, a lot of problems that we see in the world today, these are going to become the problems of our kids at some point, or hopefully, not. I mean hopefully, if the kids will fix these problems and we won't have to go back to that. But yeah, just getting kids involved. How are you going to teach somebody how to be a politician? That just popped into my head.
Speaker 2:I mean, maybe politician is not the right word, but I want to teach the future leaders. Sure, because I feel like this generation and the generations behind us have done a really great job of screwing up the world. And I think the kids, the generation who are the kids now, are the ones who are going to straighten everything out, or at least I hope they are. So I want to make sure they have the tools, I want to make sure they have the opportunity, I want to make sure they have every chance they can to be able to live to their potential, because I think those are the ones that are going to make the difference in the world.
Speaker 1:So yeah, and I mean it's what a great way You're already setting that foundation with this, because you're reaching out and saying hey, I can you know what do you need? Let's make that happen for a kid, because as they grow, they'll go, they'll remember that. That somebody cared about what they needed or wanted, if you will and helped to make that real for them. Just my two cents.
Speaker 2:I mean, I think that there's a big, a big chasm between generations and you know, certainly there's a communication issue, or I mean I'm sure when I was a kid and my parents were like I have no idea what you're saying, but whatever you know. But what I want to do is I want to let the next, you know, the, the guys who are younger now, know you could, we're not bad, you can count on us. You, you can trust us, we're going to help you. We're not the enemy, we're the ones who you know like. I want to bridge that gap right as well, because I think, generationally, I've seen it in my work experience where sometimes the generations just don't work together at all. So I'm like, okay, what do I have? I have the experience, I have the connections, I have the, dare I say, wisdom that you know a 10 or 12 or even 19 year old doesn't have. So I want to be able to say and not that I'm saying I'm better than, but what I want to do?
Speaker 1:is what do you need?
Speaker 2:let me see what I have that I can give you, and if I don don't have it, I want to find someone who does, who can give it to you, to help you get to the. You know people helped me in my life, people you know, took me under their wing and and helped me get to places where I couldn't have gotten by myself, or at least not that quickly, and it's made all the difference for me and my life. And I want to do the same, especially for the ones who who feel like they don't see themselves In the future. They, you know, they you know and I don't again, I don't want to make this political but white kids or kids with With, who have privilege I mean, we're not going to exclude anybody but they have opportunities, they have the financial wherewithal In many cases, they have the connections, they know where to look and their families have already modeled for them. This is what it's going to look like. I want to make sure that everybody gets to see that same picture.
Speaker 1:Yeah, see that same model. Yes, absolutely, it's funny. You were talking about generations. I did an episode a while back with a woman and she talks, she coaches generations and she was saying something that I never even considered that in the workforce today you have two generations that actually have something in common. It's the silent generation, which I mean, that's what my mom was, I'm like they're still working and Gen Alpha, because the silent generation grew up during the Depression right.
Speaker 1:And they scrimped and they saved. They didn't buy new, they fixed what they had. And now you've got Gen Alpha who's getting all their clothes thrifting. Hmm, hmm and they can communicate, and that's what brings them together. And I yeah, that has absolutely nothing to do with what you were talking about.
Speaker 2:I just you mentioned generations and I thought it was interesting. You never know, Mike.
Speaker 1:Just one of my tangents we're good, yeah, so I wish you so much luck on this. Thank you this is going to be so amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, it's been a passion of mine for a long time. You know my mom raised me. She was a single mother for a very long time. When I was younger, you know, and you and I know, that I'm gay and you know my mom was like my biggest.
Speaker 1:Wait what.
Speaker 2:I know, Mike you forgot already.
Speaker 2:I'm shocked, and you know, my mom was my biggest um supporter, my biggest cheerleader, my protector, all of the things, and so she raised all of her children to be of service. Um, and this is something that my mom instilled in me when I was very young, and I've always. I realized that I've had so many jobs and every single one of those jobs has been of service to someone in some way, and so I have this, this calling to help. You know, we've we. I think you and I talked about this last time. You know I do it for free, but free, but those things called bills that you have to take care of, rent, mortgage.
Speaker 1:Yeah, those little minor details. Pesky little details, exactly.
Speaker 2:So I don't have the. I'm not a rich person, I don't have the fortune to be able to fund this myself, sure, but like small magic, you know. To fund this myself, sure, but like small magic, you know it doesn't take like I'm gonna start there and see where it goes. You know, five thousand dollars could make a big difference for this group right now.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, you know, a person doing a, a class could make a big difference for, for, for right now, you know, like me, just taking some kids in and showing them how to paint rocks. I mean, if you would have seen the faces on some of those kids like they were like what? And I'm like are you an artist? They're like, no, I'm not an artist. I'm like, yes, you are, look at what you just did. And they're like I'm an artist. You know, I am an artist.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so yeah yeah, and isn't it such a great feeling introducing kids to something and they're like they had no idea, and then you let them do it and they do it, and that realization, when it hits them, I can do this. Yeah, such a great feeling.
Speaker 2:I want to be able to like plug into their curiosities no-transcript a bird box or gardening, or yeah, I mean that's yes, that's one of the classes that we have that we're talking about, yeah, so yeah, that's amazing I'm really stoked about it and I I'm I'm sorry that I have this surgery coming up, because I'm ready to like start running it.
Speaker 2:You know, 50 miles an hour and I kind of can't with my leg, but you know, I'm like I've got such great people already lined up and I'm just ready to to to start doing stuff now. So uh, good things come to those who wait sometimes and some other patient's quotes and good things sometimes it's gonna be amazing come to Italian Cubans, who push people to do things that they didn't know they could do that's a couple of strong personality nationalities there.
Speaker 1:I'm telling you what yeah uh, lisa, thank you so much for giving me the time. Um, we'll throw in a a a link to your book as well thank you, show notes.
Speaker 2:Do you want to talk about?
Speaker 2:that or no, the book we can yeah, so the book is um, yeah, it's the second book I wrote, mike I don't know if you ever I'd ever talked about the first one. So the first one was called think small, the little book with big impact, and that's basically the philosophy of small magic. And then the second book was I actually wrote both of them before COVID and then did nothing with them until after COVID and like, I think, let's see, this one came out this year and the other one came out two years ago, and I actually even have a third book written that I'm like, okay, you can't put them all out at the same time, but this book is I'm Aunt Boo Boo and I wrote a book about my coming out and basically it is the lessons I learned from that journey and realizing that me coming out didn't just affect me, but it was my entire family and how, again, my mom was the protector.
Speaker 1:Your biggest cheerleader.
Speaker 2:Exactly and how she just made me feel okay about being exactly who I am and not trying to be anything else. And the book was written in like three settings once before covid, once after covid and then once again at the beginning of this year, when I was like I gotta put this book out now. I mean because now it's like I feel, almost feel like it was like fate the book didn't go out yet. Because I feel like now it's even more important for not just gay kids but people who think they're different, to realize it's okay, there's nothing wrong with you, you're not alone, you're gonna be fine. I'm relatively fine, you know. Relatively speaking, I'm fine. You know, we talked about that and um and you know.
Speaker 2:So I think it's just a piece, that that it's an easy, another easy read. Don't? Evidently I don't know how to write long books, um, but it just is. Um, it's just a yes, exactly yes, and um, it's just a uh, you know, uh, uh. I hope it's something that will give people both two different sides of people. I hope it will give the people who feel different a place to look at and go. Okay, I am not alone, and I hope it will be. Give the people who love those people a place to understand. This is what we're all going through, because it's not, it's not. I mean, I don't think it's. I don't. Honestly, I don't think it's changed. Coming out now, you know, I think it's, it's, it's done like a wave where when I came out, it was easier for me to come out and then it got really easy. Now it's getting bad again, because I think people are afraid to be who they are and my hope is you know that the pendulum swings again and things get easier.
Speaker 2:And I, you know, I don't want to have to write books like that, I don't want to be a DEI speaker I don't want to have to help kids in underserved communities. I want us to just be people who help people, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, all right. Well, lisa, thank you so much. I do appreciate it. This will be out next week. Okay, awesome, it's going to be a quick turnaround. Okay, great. So look for Lisa Demme, for the Small Magic Foundation, and Aunt Boo Boo has a girlfriend in your favorite bookstore. And, yeah, we'll talk again soon. Thanks, mike, thank you, bye-bye, bye. We'll talk again soon. Thanks, mike. Thank you, bye-bye.
Speaker 1:I want to thank you for taking this time to listen to this episode with my guest, lisa Demme. I hope you were able to take something positive from the time you spent with me. I hope you'll be inspired, maybe you'll be motivated, maybe you'll be inspired, maybe you'll be motivated, maybe you'll be moved. If you experienced any of those feelings, please, please, please, consider sharing this podcast with your friends and family. I'm always striving to offer you a better podcast, so give me some feedback. Let me know how you think I'm doing. Email me, leave me a message. It would mean the world to me to have that input, that engagement with you. Also, feel free to follow us on our social media. You'll find all those links in the show notes. And, yeah, come along for the ride. Let's talk about kindness.
Speaker 1:This podcast is part of the Mayday Media Network. If you have an idea for a podcast and need some production assistance or maybe you already have a podcast and you're just looking for a supportive network to join check out maydaymedianetworkcom and then check out all the many different shows they have, like Afrocentric Spoil, my Movie Generation Mixtape In a Pickle Radio Show, wake Up and Dream with D'Anthony Palin, staxo, pax and the Time Pals. We'll be back again next week with a brand new episode and we would be honored if you would join us. You've been listening to the Kindness Matters Podcast. I am your host, mike Rathbun. Have a fantastic week.
