The Science Advocate: Why We Need More Champions for Science and Scientists With Jayshree Seth
Science advocacy isn't just about championing research; it's about amplifying the voices of the scientists themselves. This role goes beyond supporting the scientific community – it's about igniting a passion for STEM within the next generation. Fueled by a desire to make the world a better place, Jayshree Seth's journey explores the crucial elements needed to cultivate a future driven by purpose, collaboration, and a deep appreciation for scientific progress.
---
Listen to the podcast here
The Science Advocate: Why We Need More Champions for Science and Scientists With Jayshree Seth
It is my honor to introduce you to my guest, Jayshree. Jayshree is a Corporate Scientist and 3M's first-ever Chief Science Advocate. She joined 3M in 1993 after a PhD in Chemical Engineering and currently holds 80 patents. Amazing. She's not only a prolific inventor and innovator but also a thought leader and keynote speaker. Jayshree was featured in the docu-series titled Not the Science Type. She’s also the author of two amazing books, The Heart of Science: Engineering Footprints, Fingerprints, & Imprints, and Engineering Fine Print, published by the Society of Women Engineers. She is the mother of two kids. Her husband is also a 3M-er. Amazing. It is my honor and pleasure to welcome you to the show, Jayshree.
Thank you so much, Tony.
I’m so thrilled to have you here, and what I love doing on this show is bringing people like you who have done amazing things in the world and spending some time looking at the journey that got them there. How did they get where they're making such an impact? We're going to have fun. We're going to do this through what's called flashpoints. These are moments in our journey that ignited your gifts into the world. I'm going to turn this over to you in a few moments to share those moments that you have seen in your life that have ignited your gifts. You can start wherever you like and share what you're called to share. When you're ready, take it away.
I can feel the warmth of the campfire now. I actually grew up in India. I grew up on the campus of an engineering institution. My dad was an engineering professor. I was surrounded by STEM professionals. It was always understood by all the kids in town on campus that the best thing to do is to g. That was the expectation of both my brother and me. I would say one of the flashpoints could be the fact that I didn't get in. This is the plan, and my brother gets in and then comes my turn, and I didn't get in and thought, "Good. Now I don't have to be an engineer,” because I wasn't so excited about that. I wanted to help people. I wanted to solve problems.
I wanted to improve lives, and it's so funny that nobody has ever talked about STEM fields in that way. To me, it was not something that you would do to do all of the above things that I stated. I was so drawn to feel where I could see this human context, but it turns out my parents are pretty serious about this. They knew something that I didn't. I left home, and I was sent thousands of miles away to be amongst the first to leave our hometown to get an engineering education elsewhere. That completely took me out of this cocoon and put me in a place where I didn't know the language. I didn't know the culture. I didn't know the norms. I'd never seen the food.
It was quite the crucible experience, as I call it, but probably the best thing that has ever happened to me because otherwise, I would have stayed at home because most of my friends who got in didn't go to the dorm or anything. Stay at home and go to your engineering school and all of that. It would have delayed my growing up had I stayed at home in that environment. Here, I was on my own, having to learn a different language, operate in this environment, and then not only live but also survive and actually thrive. It taught me a lot of lessons in looking back. I would say that would be the first.
We're off to the races with this. That's a lot. How old were you at that age?
Seventeen.
Tell me what was going through your head at seventeen. Emotionally, were you devastated or maybe relieved?
It was very interesting now, looking back, I knew that I wouldn't get in. I was sad for everybody else, but I knew I hadn't put in what was needed to get in and I guess I wasn't that disappointed. When I did get to where I got to, I saw that this was going to be interesting. This was going to have to push me to figure out how to manage in this completely new environment. I grew up at home, extremely sheltered. Some of my friends would go out and get stuff and buy things for the grocery list for their moms or whatever. I had never done any of that. The only thing we did was study hard. That's all I knew how to do.
This is more like figuring out there's a bank that you need to go do this. You need to go buy stuff. You need to go to town. These are the buses. You can't read the language. You have to figure it out. People are judging you because they're looking at you in a completely different way than you've been used to. A lot of things that, in looking back, have helped me manage. In fact, that was a much bigger transition than the transition when I came to the US for graduate school. That's how that's how big it was.
Where were you when you were going to school?
I'm from the North. I was you know in a town which is like in the foothills of the Himalayas and the way in the North. This was down south over 1,000 miles away. It's like going from Ireland to Portugal. It's a different language and culture, and it has different food, as I said. From there, most of the students who were at the top of the class were applying to go to US for graduate school. I hadn't thought about that because my parents were already looking for a suitable boy for me. I was going along with other people's plans and the students kept on asking me, “Are you applying?”
I’m like, “Why do you need to know if I'm applying or not?” “If you're applying, we won't apply to the same school because you'll be at the top of the class, and we won't get in.” I said, “Yeah, sure. I'm applying.” I looked up the lowest fee amount, and I looked at the right-hand side of the column to see the dollar amount. I applied to one that had a $10 admission fee because I wouldn't have to call anybody to get that money. That much I could manage. I got in. The letter went home and my parents were like, “What is this now?” I said, “I applied,” and my dad's like, “Great. That's fine. You can go there. We'll start looking for a suitable boy in the US.”
It's good to hear like they were open to that and supporting it. At the end of the day, they want the best for you, I'm sure, and as much as they want the best for our kids.
There's more to that. My dad himself is a PhD from England. This is quite amazing for people to hear. My mother actually went to college away from home, which is a generation ago, which was not something that was a norm from where she came from at all. They had very forward views. It's in my community that it wasn't very common for people to leave home to go to college to become engineers as a woman or leave the country, not married and leaving the country. There were all sorts of social repercussions because of those decisions. I ended up in the US in Upstate New York, Clarkston University in Potsdam.
Women In Tech
You’re a trailblazer on many fronts, but when you think about it from the US context, and I'm not trying to paint too much of a broad picture here, there are not enough women in tech, especially not in the earlier days. It is amazing to see that you're in this field. You're coming into this place where you're going to stand out no matter what, even if you didn't want to. You continue to blaze trails throughout your career. I know you did, but it points out that there's something about you that makes you okay with being the person who stands out and is proud.
It's funny that you say that. My mom actually used those words. It's like, “You can be a trailblazer. It's good. Nobody has done that,” because in no way was she a trailblazer. My dad was a trailblazer. I think that was part of how we operated. Yes, I never thought I wanted to be an engineer, but I have always loved working hard and I always like to see the results from that. When I ended up in engineering, I was at the top of my class, which was mind-boggling, and my kids always said, “Yeah.” No, I didn't think that I could do all of that and I did, but I've always liked working hard. That's for sure.
Tell me what happens next on this amazing journey. How did you graduate? What did you step into?
My second flashpoint, if you will, happened after coming to the US. I was in my Master's program and I was doing a modeling of crystal growth in space. That is when I hit rock bottom because I was like, “Here I am. Is this what I wanted to be doing? What happened to that girl who said I wanted to help people and improve lives and make the world a better place?” I could not find the context in what I was doing. I was like, “Who even cares about what I'm doing? Is this what I want to do?” I would look around the lab. People are running experiments. They're using their hands. I didn't know what I liked. I didn't know what I wanted to do.
I never got a chance to explore and all of that. I realized what I'm doing, I do not appreciate that much and nobody provided the context. Many years later, Tony, I found out that what I was doing was important work because if and when we go to Mars, you're going to have to grow stuff in space . d I was working on modeling that growth, but nothing was explained as perhaps I would have liked. I decided actually to do something that not many students did which is to change my subjects from Masters to PhD. I did complete my Master's and then I quickly changed to a different field.
The reason I did that was in this project, I could make the connection between how what I am working on is going to help someone. Perhaps I got smarter in understanding how to build the context for yourself. You just have to do it. That lit a fire under me. That flashpoint and that fire and then I was like, “Yeah, I can do this and I can do this.” I wrote papers, collaborated with people and was working all the time and it was amazing. I was like, “Yeah. See, I can do this. I'm solving problems. I'm going to help someone by creating this hard diamond-like coating that can be put on tools and last longer.”
I think I grew up and realized that sometimes you have to create it for yourself and I did well. We then got an opportunity to do a summer internship at 3M. That's the other thing. People like to plan their lives. I think we all do. I think students particularly. However, if you look at my journey, I didn't go visit the college. I didn't wear the jersey. I looked at the $10 and showed up there. I tried to do a good job. I switched from Masters to PhD.”
One day, a lab mate who had done a summer internship at 3M, came back and said, “You should do a summer internship at 3M.” I’m like, “What the heck is that? Okay. I’ll do a summer internship at 3M.” I show up over there,” and I'm like, “This is interesting. They actually do stuff that is helping people and look at this culture of empowerment and this emphasis on collaboration and a communal context of improving lives. This is perfect.”
I did a great job at my summer job there and they offered me a full-time position. That's how I survived. I came through the back door. They didn't come looking for me. I was an intern. I was an intern because a friend said. The friend said because his brother was at the University of Minnesota. It's like a strange connection, serendipity, luck, chance, destiny, whatever.
It’s so cool hearing that story because part of it has me thinking about, sure, they seem like happenstance occasions, but also, it's a sense of you putting yourself in that place to have that happen and taking the chance on these situations and seeing that from a different angle. It has me thinking about reframing situations such that they say, “Maybe I didn't think I was going to get into engineering, but let's see what happens when I do.”
“What happens if I take this path and see what happens, reframe it, and see how the work I'm doing could actually be used for the betterment of society and in a human context?” There's always a way to look at things from a different perspective, which I know that you have a lot of cool perspectives on things. I think that seeing things from different angles has allowed you to take a new situation and make something powerful from it, taking up a potential opportunity obstacle and turning it into an opportunity, if you will.
The Power Of Reframing
I would say so. I think what you said, that power of reframing, I strongly feel that is what allows you to not survive, but thrive in situations. Actually, if we want to put the link to my TEDx, it is about that. It's the power of the context and why reframing helps. I talked through my entire journey and how reframing has helped. Yeah, I think it's powerful. Reframing is certainly powerful.
The power of reframing allows you to survive and thrive in any situation.
I want to talk about that for a moment, not just the TED Talk but also the idea that here you are at an amazing company and doing great work. At some point, you become a thought leader. Do you want to talk about it now?
Sure. I think that would be I think that would be another flashpoint, as you say. I was doing stuff. I went from diamonds working in diapers and I was like, “This is great. I get to learn this,” and did some good stuff there and I started rising up. I was offered the opportunity to go into management. After thinking about it a lot, I said no and was even offered the opportunity to go into business. I said no after thinking about it a little.
I think most people were offering me that because they were seeing something that I obviously wasn't seeing. In my mind, I wanted to stay technical because I thought that would give me the ability to influence the other side rather than go on the other side and influence because I felt the technical people have a much stronger voice if they stay technical. It was surprising to a lot of people because they saw me as the management type. I wasn't an expert in anything. Remember, I had my PhD in a completely different thing, then I went into a completely different thing and I started chasing problems.
I never became an expert in one thing, so my ability to rise up most would have thought would be limited. I was like, “I am going to solve problems. That's what I want to do,” and I created a story around that and I inform influence inspire and all of that. Anyway, I reached the highest level of the technical ladder. Suddenly, I get called one day to take this new role called Chief Science Advocate. That role doesn't exist anywhere. You can quickly Google it.
I was like, “I don't think I can do it because of these four reasons. I never thought I wanted to be in the science and engineering type. Now, you're going to put me as the science advocate, so I have to let you know that. I never secured admission to any top schools. I had my share of struggle to graduate school and I came into 3M through the back door. I just want to let you know.” They're like, “No, you're it. You're being the Chief Science Advocate.” That was another opportunity for me to say, “If I'm going to do it, I'm going to have an authentic voice.
I'm going to be very clear about the fact that, yes, now I am a successful scientist, but I never wanted to go into science because of these reasons and how we need to advocate for it in a context that is communal and pro-social. You're losing out on so many ideas and so many innovations and so many students and so many scientists because of the way we talk, train, track, and typifies them. That became the cornerstone of my advocacy, essentially to say we need to move people from apathy or to break down these barriers and boundaries and you have to communicate in a context that people can see. This has been an amazing journey.
It has put me, as you say, in that thought leadership framework in my head. I always had these. I was always a writer. I could always consolidate, crystallize, love metaphors, analogies, and this and that. It has allowed me to take any situation I see and have the ability to say, “This is what’s going on. This is how we can address it, etc.” It propelled me into this thought leadership mode. Now, there's no stopping me. I'm like, “Who can hear my thoughts? Let's get there. Let's go here. Let's do this.”
I think I've gotten enough validation that these are some great ideas and things that people need to hear. The best part, Tony, is that I don't see many people like me who have, for 30 years, from the trenches driven innovation and can speak to it from that experience. I don't have a single person reporting to me. I'm not a CEO or CTO. I am somebody in the trenches who can give you the real deal. That's why I like this vantage point in this perspective because I also do believe that an authentic, strong voice explaining this is also missing or at least I haven't run across it.
There are so many things I want to react to in terms of what you shared. First of all, I'll start with this idea that you are reluctant on so many friends to embrace who you are in the things that you do. Once you do connect, you go all in your passion, which drives you forward to do the things that you're doing. It seems like this has shown up throughout all the things that you've been doing in life, especially in this role. Clearly, you're passionate about this and driving the impact you can have.
When I think about this particular role, I think about the idea that we often have advocacy is about making sure that the scientists has an advocate on their behalf. If I think of it as a play on words is that we ensure that the passion of the scientists is shown through and they have someone to speak on their behalf and you, my friend, are that person.
Thank you. I think it's about science because we need to advocate for that. It's about scientists. We need to advocate for that. It's also about society because we need to advocate for that so we can all become better. All three come together for me in this advocacy role, going back to my deepest desire to help people make the world a better place. The communal and pro-social side is enjoying the agency that I get from this role.
Coming back to what I said earlier, this idea that a lot of people are reluctant to change, but once they get going, they find that it starts to ease up and starts to become something that they see possible as a path forward that passion or whatever it is that drives them on starts to take over. I think you model that well with what you described as that sense of, “If I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this with my whole self and with all of the passion that I bring to the table.”
I think that's a very astute point. Why do people feel afraid of certain roles, certain opportunities, or certain crossroads because of the uncertainty of how we will react, how the position will be, what we will do in that, etc.? One thing that always allows you to be successful is if you can have it resonate with what you believe. I'm sure you know this better than anybody because you coach people on something very similar. I would have to believe that. When it was perfectly in harmony with my purpose, it was automatically in tune. Reframing and staying authentic to what you believe in and speaking to that brings it automatically and makes things easier.
I think there is a sense of we needed more people who are connected to that and doing work that is aligned with their purpose so that they come to work every day feeling a little more alive.
Yeah, and I feel blessed. I think it's a privilege. I think it's a privilege to find that and help others find that.
Before we move on to the next part where we're going to head, is there any other flashpoints you want to share?
I think those three are probably big ones that I've thought about a lot as to why I feel the way I do. How did I end up where I did? I think those are good. There's one flashpoint that I've been thinking about a lot lately because of some questions that were asked at a different forum. When I was in middle school, we used to have competitions, debates, essays, speeches, singing, dance, comedy, and something else. There were like eight of them that we used to have. There was this one particular year where I won 6 or 7 out of the 8. The prize distribution was going on and my name got called out when we came to my grade, and everybody clapped. I went up and got my little geometry box.
The second one was announced and I went up and got my geometry box. The third one was announced and it was me and then by the fourth one, the clapping started going down. I'm not dramatizing it, but I think by the time I got the last one, I don't think there was a single clap. I took my geometry boxes home. My mother was super excited. She says, “How do you feel?” She asked me this question, “How did the others react?” They're great. They know these things, but the kids are surprised.
That day I think something clicked for me that the only person I'm competing against is myself. I think, looking back, that is also something that was a flashpoint, but I don't recognize it at that point. All I felt was the disappointment when people didn't clap. Now that when I'm at this age and I'm looking back, I'm thinking even I wouldn't have clapped for me. The idea is that the only person you compete against is yourself. Actually, I was telling my husband this. My best friends have always been the people who competed with me in the classroom since then and that's the thing.
The only person you compete against is yourself.
It was like, “I'm not competing against you. You are my friend. I'm only competing against myself.” I think that is something if people figure out is quite liberating because you still keep working hard because you're trying to do better than you did last time. There's nothing more inspiring than that. I can do more. I can do this. This is what I did last time.
This time, I'm going to do this, and all I'm competing with is myself. I think that it also made me realize that maybe I have talents and maybe I should put these talents to good use. I think that also became a flashpoint. How is it possible that you can win all these things? You must have some talent that you need to use and that is also a commitment I think I made along the way is. I'm going to use whatever talents it is that I have and that I will compete only against myself.
What you described is fantastic and there's something that I will add to that. I want to say as long as it's done in a way that says, “Yeah, I'm going to compete against myself and I'm not going to put anyone else down. I'm not I'm not here to make anyone feel small. I'm going to do what I can to be the best I can and I'll support others in whatever they need.”
Yes. That's exactly the point. It’s like being excited for everyone, and I tell my kids this all the time. They came home and say, “I came second,” I said, “Did you congratulate her or did you congratulate him?” I want to teach them that you have to be gracious in your own loss because you have to understand that at that moment, if you still force yourself to say congratulations or say something nice, that'll become a habit, and now they know. I'll say, “I came second and Angela. Yeah, I did congratulate her.” They know that's an expectation and that humility and all of that. It took me some time to get there, but I think that's a very important thing. Having my competitors in my classroom as my dear friends also helped a lot because you always want your friends to do well.
This reminds me of what's called Tall Poppy Syndrome, which I'm sure you're aware of or might have heard of, and this idea that sometimes, especially in women, there's a tendency to hold back from doing the best you can because you don't want to stand out. The reality is that it's hurting everyone. We have to do our best. We have to do what we can to the extent of hurting ourselves, but we should do our best because, ultimately, we all deserve to see what we're capable of and all the innovations in the world are because people did their best to put all they can into the world. I think that if we start to hold ourselves back, then we all miss out.
All of these things require balance and everybody has to have their own journey and their own wisdom to get there and it takes a while. It takes a while to reconcile with who you are, what the world is, where you stand in it, and where you want to stand in it, and I think it changes. The one piece I always tell people, and young people especially, is don't think that you're already done. You're not done. Things are going on. Don't act or talk or feel like you're done. I keep telling them, “If you are willing to learn every day, there are different things to be learned.” We can all speak in our wisdom now, 30 years into this career. Have I made mistakes and have I handled myself in ways that I'm not proud of? Absolutely, but have I attempted to learn from them? Absolutely.
I think this is a great lead-in because I was going to go here and you basically have already gone there, this sense of your commitment to supporting STEM and ensuring that the next generation is getting what they need to move in the right direction. Tell me more about some of your thoughts about what the next generation needs to be successful in this field. Maybe there are some key things you can think of that are missing.
It's honestly a win if we can connect their desire to solve problems that we face with the context of STEM. I think we all know the challenges that the world faces, the sustainability challenges, climate change and we know that we need innovation there. If we can have that problem-solving construct and inspire the young folks, I think it's truly a win, and we can do this state of science index and state of science insights essentially from the public perception of science. Since the pandemic, people have recognized that science is so important for solving not health challenges but sustainability challenges.
Science is so important for solving health and sustainability challenges.
We have this connection made because during the pandemic, there was a problem and science could provide a solution. Now, people are beginning to recognize the scientist community does not reflect what society looks like, so we need to get diversity, equity, inclusion, and a sense of belonging there so we can have more ideas. Who doesn't want more ideas?
That's what we need at this point. Not the same ideas reverberating in some sort of an echo chamber. I think what we need is a large swath of demographic interested in science and bringing their brilliant ideas, and we need that. It's the perfect time for us to inspire the next generation to say, “Come on, if you want to do that, we have the pathways to do that,” whether it's STEM, skilled trade, or green jobs. All of those are going to be so needed in the future and we can create that future together.
It's also an interesting time because we have so many generations in the workforce right now. With that, there are challenges of making sure we're all communicating well together but also being able to leverage the knowledge base. As long as we all are talking and working together and are open-minded about what we're able to do together, that's going to make a big difference. It's going to help the next generation and the future generations to be able to leverage from the past generations or what we've learned already and build from there.
Yes, and I think what you said is spot on. We are roughly five generations in the same workplace. I think we all have to step up to accommodate each other. I've seen some things where the older generation may like a certain hierarchy about certain things. I've seen the younger generation who couldn't give a rip for that. I think there are a lot of things that we have to contend with, but if we put these communal and pro-social goals in front of us, I think it forces us all to unite because there's such a strong knowledge base that can't be thrown away then there's so much creativity and new ideas that we need in order to like you said leverage what we know but also create and learn.
Leverage what we know but also create and learn.
This is such a thing that's near and dear my heart, this idea that we need to communicate better. The more technology we have, the more of acquirement it is to communicate more deeply with each other and get to know each other because it's going to require a more in-tune workforce.
The fields in STEM give you a great platform to do that. It unifies, unites, and let us attack these problems.
I could talk to you all day. I love this type of conversation, but I want to dig into one more thing about your journey. You've learned a lot about yourself, this interesting path into being a science leader. Tell me something that you haven't shared already, a lesson you've learned in your journey that you’d like to share.
That's a tough question, Tony. I feel the heat in the campfire.
I put the heat in the fire. Yes.
It was very interesting. This is the one that comes to mind. When I did a bunch of stuff, my kids were like, “You always tell us to go outside of you're comfort zone. This is not outside your comfort zone,” and I'm like, “What? This took so much discomfort,” and all of that. One day, I decided to do something and then once the idea came into my head, it wouldn't leave and it was the following. I also write poems like you and I had written the song and I thought, “It's perfect for 2020.”
The song is called Life is Like a Donut. There’ll always be a hole. I was thinking this is the perfect thing to summarize what happened during the pandemic. A hole was created that'll never be filled, but we still have to go on and we have to support each other and remember that we are in this together, even with the void that was created. I know nothing about the music industry like zero. I don't listen to songs, so I had no idea. I went on LinkedIn and typed music and one person showed up apparently in my connections. I reached out to them. Long story short, I have a song out there and this horrified my kids, but here's the lesson that I learned.
When you are doing something for someone else, it emboldens you. Serendipity came to my rescue. From left, right, and center, all the support shows up and then I find about this I find out about this website called PlayItForward.com where you can upload your song, and anybody who wants to donate can donate. I said, “I'm going to raise money for United Way who is doing such great work in the community during the pandemic.”
Then I felt liberated like I'm doing it for good, so it doesn't even matter if I'm not a great singer. That song is on PlayItForward.com and you can download and it's quite the earworm. I challenge your readers to download it and you can give a small donation and it goes for a good cause. A huge learning for me is that if you are doing for someone else, then you feel emboldened even further. I say if you have goals, that's great. They can give you the fuel for the fire, but to keep the embers burning throughout, it's the communal goal and purpose. That's what it takes.
I can't wait to listen to this song. I had no idea. It's going to be a lot of fun because I can imagine the song is going to be an earworm. It's going to get in my head.
If you do know any country singers, my dream is to have one of the famous people sing it someday. My kids always laugh at me, but I said, “You never know.” Now, they're freaked out. They don't challenge me. I wanted to do things that I tell them to do and I showed them look, “I am not embarrassed. You were embarrassed. I did it for a good cause.” I can carry a tune. I'm not that bad. That's the story that comes to mind.
I could definitely ask you more questions about this, but we have come to a close soon. I have one last question I want to ask you. I'm curious about this particular one because I know you'll have a good answer. What are 1 or 2 books or maybe 3 that have had an impact on you and why?
I am definitely a reader. I love books. I got lots of books. My laptop is sitting on a whole stack of books. I will go back to 2020 since we were talking about it. A book that helped me. I am in Minnesota, so Minneapolis, when George Floyd's killing happened. It was raw and revealing and it made me go existential, honestly. It was like, I'm not Black, I'm not White, but what is my role in this? I'm this highly highly privileged South Asian immigrant. I haven't educated myself on any of this.
I felt horrendous, horrible, horrid, and I started educating myself on everything and I came across Dolly Chugh's book. It says The Person You Mean to Be. It's quite amazing because, again, it allowed me to reframe my thoughts and it says being an ally isn't about being a good person. It's constantly striving to be a better person. She argues that you have to be good-ish driving to be better and better. She talks about using your privilege, whatever it is that you consider privilege and using it for others. I started calling in my pockets of privilege.
The Heart of Science: Engineering Fine Print
Actually, what I did after that is I took all the essays that I wrote and we published that through Society of Women Engineers, the books that you mentioned, and all proceeds go to a scholarship for Black, Latin, Indigenous women, and STEM. If I had to say, the second book that made an impact was my own book, if I can say so, because what happened is the universe conspired again. The pandemic is over. It's 2021. I get invited to give the Silas ethics lecture at Georgia Tech. Guess where the first scholar from the proceeds of my book is going out of the thousand school options you have? They were at Georgia Tech. Believe it or not, the universe does conspire.
I went there. I got to meet the student who is going to school because of the proceeds of my book. I was like, “One person can make a difference. It's because other people joined. Other people bought the book and now we have the scholar.” That book became this thing in my head that I decided to write the second one. I said, “I can't stop here.” I would love to let you know, Tony, that now we have four scholars who have been helped with my two books. In the second book, I actually talked about transitions to thrive and survive, and change and reflections that provide perspective and insights into actions we can all take.
Now that we have four, I'm working on, as I tell my family, the final in the trilogy. That's going to be an engineering blueprint. In that one, we're going to do more of a workbook-type thing because I have a lot of people requesting all the time the frameworks and how to operationalize them. I’m so very excited about that. If we can put the link to the two books, that will be great because your readers can buy the books, gift them to others, and don't forget to give five-star reviews because I have no way to elevate this on Amazon and you know that helps and it's a win. It is all for a good cause, the gift of education.
I love that you're having an impact with the book, and it should inspire a lot of other authors to think that way. It's not that the books that we're selling our making massive income on us. It's what we can do is a little things we can do is getting the word out and using these things as a platform to help others. I think that's fantastic so beautiful. I want to start here by saying thank you so much for bringing yourself into the space and sharing all that you did. This was amazing. It’s so insightful, so many great stories, and I'm so grateful.
Thank you, Tony. Thanks for all you're doing. Thanks for having me on your on your show.
Of course, I guess before you let you go, is there any place where people can reach out to you if they want to find out more about you?
On LinkedIn. I am there almost every day. Not as good as you, Tony, but getting there. I'm there every day. Follow me on LinkedIn and then I can tell my kids, “Look, I got more followers,” because they were so freaked out when I was getting on social media and like, “You're worried?” “Yeah, you're going to embarrass yourself.” I'm like, “No, you're worried because you think I'm going to embarrass you.”
It has been a great platform and I've reached out to people like yourself and others through this and it's been great. If people want to read more about what I'm doing on thought leadership type of things, we have an article with Professor Amy Edmondson in Fast Company. Another one with Professor Rita McGrath and then another one with the inspired coach, Tony Martignetti.
Yes, we did. We did a great article together. I enjoyed that. Thank you so much. This is great. Thanks to the readers for coming on this journey. I know you're leaving blown away and inspired to go out and change the world through the work you're doing. Thanks again to all of you for reading.
Important Links
Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! https://www.inspiredpurposecoach.com/virtualcampfire
0 comments
Leave a comment
Please log in or register to post a comment