"A Leadership Development Strategy To Bond And Unite” With Amy P. Kelly

The workplace can be a very stressful environment with a lot of personal problems and disagreements. A leadership development strategy needs to be present in every workplace. There needs to be some GLUE—God’s Love Unites Everyone. In this episode, Dom Brightmon is joined by human resources and talent development executive Amy P. Kelly. Amy takes us deep into her new book, Glue: A Leadership Development Strategy to Bond and Unite, which is about the power of unconditional love in the workplace. Learn the most challenging part about writing a business storybook, what agape love is, and why it belongs in the workplace. Listen to this conversation as Amy reminds us to look at the world through the eyes of God’s word.

This episode is sponsored by the brand new Northbound To Your Success Shop, where you can buy the wonderful logo to advance yourself in t-shirt form, mug form, and even this phone case, if you like a phone case. Either way, click on Shop on GoingNorthPodcast.com. Cop a T-shirt, hoodie or two, and be sure to tag the host when you do so. That way, I can give you a shout-out on a future episode of the show. Let’s get down to business with the episode for real.

We got another super special, awesome human for you, courtesy of my good buddy, who is a freaking special, awesome human that guested on this show in the past, and is responsible for some other special, awesome human here to jump on the show, Miss Tami Matheny, Miss Trademark herself. I do not even think she does transcendental meditation, but we will go with it for TM purposes.

Our guest, in particular, is a fellow Christian. They are both part of teams that start with the letter J and they sound the same too. They are John and Joe because our guest believes in people and works with individuals, teams, and organizations to help them grow. She is a wife, a mom of four, as well as an executive coach, a human resources and development executive who builds award-winning employment brands world-class, corporate universities, and transformational leadership development programs. Let’s give it up for the amazing, patient, and kind Amy P. Kelly. How are you doing now?

I’m doing wonderfully. How are you?

I’m doing wonderful too. Capital Ws all day. The nonsense is working for those who are not catching the audio version, she made a W with her hands. It is like, “Ws all day.” The winning and the wonderfulness. Wednesdays with my love of hump days and making random camel jokes every Wednesday of the week. As you know, with all the introduction, they are not allowed to be 72 and a half days long. Fill in the cavities I may have missed about the amazing Amy herself. If there is anything else I forgot to mention, fill me in. Fill not only me but everybody else.

You did a great job getting us started. That is a pretty good portrayal of the high level. I do like that we started off with the W. That is a good place to begin, a win.

It is not a matter of win. It is a win. Winning all day. With all wins, there are usually some setbacks along the way. At the age of thirteen, did you see yourself where you are now, helping all these wonderful companies and individuals become the best selves ever?

All of my children have benefited from Tami’s books and her work in building confidence for athletes and adults of all ages. When I think of thirteen-year-olds, I couldn’t help but think of my son. I also think about Tami and her work with youth and adults. Was I thinking at thirteen that I would do exactly what you described in the intro? No, because I did not know that that was a career.

I remember making a barrette, having a barrette business, and selling things. At that time, people cared how their ponytails looked. I was there to help them make their ponytails and their braids look the way they needed them to and get their hair in place. I was always trying to solve problems and I loved making a business out of it so that I could help people and do the things that I loved and enjoyed doing while being able to fund my own efforts. I was not thinking in terms of the vocabulary that you talked about, executives and human resources, but I believe I was doing the same thing.

“Outdo yourself by showing honor to other people. Even in the face of offense and opposition.” – Amy P. Kelly

If your company got messy hair, she could help you be a fancy ponytail.

Calm those flyaways, get organized. Make sure that you got yourself a sharp focus so that you know where you are going and everybody else does not get distracted by the woo.

I would usually joke around and say, “The P in Amy P. Kelly stands for a perfect ponytail but it is a deeper meaning.”

The P stands for quite a few things but I like that. It could stand for a ponytail. You are bringing that up and I appreciate that. I do go by Amy P. Kelly for a number of reasons. The summary here is related to service. My middle name is Pauline. That was my dad’s mom’s name. I was named after her, Amy Pauline.

The P, when I got married, my name became Kelly. I had two first names, Amy Kelly. People would say sometimes, “Nice to meet you, Kelly.” It did not bother me at all. It made me say, “I’m going to go with my middle initial.” The benefit of that is I have always believed that the power is on the inside of you and everyone to fulfill their purpose. The power resides inside of us.

With that P in between Amy and Kelly. The P stands for the power on the inside of you to fulfill your purpose and all of those individuals out there reading. That is Amy P. Kelly. I love the power on the inside, ponytail, and potential. There are many fabulous P words if you start with performance, philosophy, and purpose. It is a good and a big letter.

On top of that, it also probably stands for positive leadership. How did you end up joining the John Gordon team because it is interesting? I hosted quite a few folks from the organization on the show bit by bit. It is like, “I haven’t even dug too much.” How did that happen?

It is an amazing group of people that I’m very honored to work with. In one of my roles as a human resources and learning and development executive, I was able to work with one of John Gordon’s books, The Energy Bus, and it was a successful initiative that was summarized by the backdrop of The Energy Bus. Ultimately, John and I ended up writing The Energy Bus Field Guide. It is a companion piece to The Energy Bus. The intention of the Field Guide was to help other individuals, organizations, and teams bring that work to life inside their organizations, with more power of positive leadership.

Working with John, I do not know the number now because it keeps growing. I know it is more than twenty bestselling books about all different topics. The theme of all of it is positivity and how that can be a transformational component, a competitive advantage in your life and in your work. Positive is certainly something that resonated with me before I met John but it is a common thread in the work that we do and the way that we support the organizations that we work with.

That is good work indeed. Making that tapestry of fabulosity. That is what I’m talking about with positive leadership because you are right about John. I think at least 2 to 3 books every year at this point. It feels like the minimum.

I do not have the exact number per year of the last years. I have worked with them for several years. There have been 1, if not 2. I do believe there might have been three one year, but it’s consistent outpouring of wisdom designed to help people bring more positivity to their life and work.

A good thing about his books, in particular, is that a lot of them are wonderful fables with wonderful principles woven in like a wonderful blanket. It covers you up with some good wisdom indeed. The good news is, he was not only able to tag-team up with them for that wonderful Energy Bus Field Guide but in the way, you get to pull yourself away and create your own metaphorical gospel here at this new, wonderful book called G.L.U.E.

I appreciate you mentioning that. My book G.L.U.E is about to come out, officially released on February 9th, 2022. I wrote the first draft n a weekend while I was at an event. We were doing a positive leadership event and serving a client immediately after that event. In between the training and the sessions, I went back to where I was staying and wrote.

It was ultimately a story about some women in business that have a break in their business, relationship, and what they do in that process. I wrote it and I was excited about the fact that I have never had something flow through me the way that it did. I knew that any story may or may not impact everyone that reads it but I felt grateful that the process was unique and special. Probably six months in to fine-tuning it to put it in the type of shape to share with others. Hopefully, bless them with it.

This is the book G.L.U.E and this is The Power of a Positive Team by John Gordon. I have tons of these books but this is my primary one. If you look through it, it has got a lot of stuff written in it because I use it with a lot of organizations and teams. I came to chapter six and in the first paragraph, I had never noticed it this way but it said, “Positivity is the glue in the process of building a powerful team but to truly be a great team, you need to do more than be positive. You need to communicate, connect, commit, and care to create meaningful relationships, strong bonds, and team unity.”

I had been using that for years. It did not mean the same thing before. It was important that after I had written this story about bonding, uniting, and a leadership development strategy based on G.L.U.E, standing for God’s love unites everyone. It was evident to me that those two were complementary. It has been a pleasure to see how that work is related. It is exciting to use it in everyday life and work with people and teams.

I add my penmanship too because you penned the fabulous book in days, especially for those who are of the faith. With this book in particular since you wrote it at a conference, did you have the framework of G.L.U.E in mind before the story, or did you write the story and G.L.U.E popped out of everything you were writing?

It all came within 48 hours. We were doing training. I went back to my room and I could not sleep that night so I started writing. As I was writing, it became an integration of lots of pivotal, painful, powerful, and important relationship moments that I had seen and/or been a part of over the last several years and putting it into a story with the intention of helping others. Either avoid the thing in the first place of breaking apart or going back and understanding some ways to possibly reconcile and recalibrate broken relationships whether they are personal and or work. It all came out at once.

“If people don’t feel like you’re listening and that there’s a connection between the employer, the purpose of the organization, and what they do, they’re going to leave.” – Amy P. Kelly

I did not have an outline. I have an outline for a business book that I’m writing now. I consider G.L.U.E to be a business book. If you are comfortable talking about scripture and business, you can say, “This is a business book.” If someone is not comfortable talking about scripture, religion, or beliefs in business, you might consider this a different type of book. However you categorize it, it is about what I have witnessed but in a fictional way, coming into a story with the intent to bless others and to share the little bit that I may have learned.

It is funny enough that the Bible and business go together because it is a multifaceted book. It is full of stories and great business practices. You look into Proverbs that even look in the wonderful gospels, even Jesus himself. There is a wonderful book out there called The Man That Nobody Knows, where it talks about Jesus being a businessman using classic examples, like even him having a tax collector. It is good for business indeed. I would imagine it would be me being a random nonfiction author and hard to go into the story route. What was the most challenging part about putting the book together since it is telling a story?

With this particular story, you could go deep into every facet of how to walk through a relationship fracture because it is personal and avoiding that. John Gordon was not involved in writing the story but I had learned so much from him that with this particular story, I took a lot of guidance from how he has told me to be simple. You are able to reach more people by keeping it simple.

I have a normal tendency to get into the details and go deep. There is nothing wrong with either perspective. When I was writing this, I had to resist the urge to explain every facet of the possible responses. Some of it I found out internally was pride. I wanted to explain that I understood how people would feel on every side of the situation and it was not necessary.

It was more necessary to bring people into a place that was common to man of having a relationship that was precious and someone doing something that hurt. You immediately start trying to tell the story about why they would. You say, “You know their motives. You know why they are doing it and how fast something so treasured can start to be fractured because of that battle that we all go through.” The battle between listening to the voice of the enemy or the voice of truth.

In this relationship with these two women, through that hurt, one of them immediately goes to the place of hurt and the point of view of defensiveness and how fast that derails her maturity, her behavior, her faith, and what that does. To answer your question, I had to avoid explaining everything because you do not need to sometimes in stories. Stories are about, on a high level, connecting with other human beings from a macro level place of value in a common experience and letting people work that out through their own lens.

It was harder for me because I never expected to write something that was short and compact. I had to work to keep that true to what I knew would be most valuable because detailing every single emotion of these characters was not the same as letting people project their own life experiences into the scenario and gain the value that way. I hope that makes sense. That was hard because it was my intention through serving in the story to put everything in there but this was not that type of work.

It makes perfect sense because you are right about that especially when you read other novels. It is like, “They are going into detail like two pages over a pen in a chair.” It is like, “Maybe I should do that.” I was like, “Do not tell us about the pen. They wrote with a pen. You do not have to go to the shape of the pen. It is okay.”

It is the details of all the emotions that were running wild in one human, even though it affected multiple humans. Folks should pick up this magical book and share with some wonderful fellow super special awesome humans. Since you have been on this little podcast tour to promote the wonderful book and the work that you are doing, what is the question that you wish you would be asked more often?

You have asked it, “Why did you write a book?” The answer to that question is important to me because I believe it is important to humanity, which is to let the redeemed to the Lord tell their story. The things that I have seen in my line of work, what value in that, what has God worked out in me that could possibly be of service to someone else?

When you ask, “Why did you write it?” I wrote it because I want less fractured relationships. I want to see more unity, not because I need to see it but what I mean is in the world, every time there is a break, we all suffer for it. Every time someone decides to bond, understand another person, and honor what they need above themselves, we all grow.

I wrote it to share the things that I have seen and personally experienced that were painful that could possibly help others. I love that in other people too, the other books that I have read, the people you mentioned, Tami and yourself, were doing this because at least we all have a purpose to fulfill and I’m walking out my purpose.

Here is some more unity especially nowadays with all the nonsense going on on the planet. We need some more peanut butter and jelly as opposed to hot sauce and horseradish.

The other thing that I think is cool and I do not know if you can relate to this, is what I have noticed since studying love. I used to think there wasn’t a place in the workplace for love. I thought, “There is no place for love in the workplace. I’m constantly trying to make sure everybody keeps everything separate.” I no longer believe that. I know that everyone has their own opinions.

In looking at love and how important it is for people to feel their contribution is valued, they are valued, heard, and recognized. If you look up the word love in a general dictionary, it generally talks about a passion or an emotion. When you look at it from a biblical perspective and some other religions too, I’m going to talk about Christianity because that happens to be my faith.

Love is about a choice and decisions. Agape love is about serving and seeking to honor others above self. That is what is needed in teams and communities. The ultimate unifying force is to look at others, listen to them, hear them, seek to understand, and outdo yourself by showing honor to other people, even in the face of offense and opposition.

Believe me, when I talk about it, I have failed at it many times. When I haven’t failed at it, I have seen miracles on this Earth. I know that when it comes to love in the workplace, as a human resources executive, I have learned a lot. I would like to continue to appeal to people that may have in the past, especially now in the pandemic. In an environment where more people are open to talking about mental health and how do our emotions play into our successful contribution to the workplace. How do we maintain professionalism while we’re still understanding that we bring our whole selves to work and our families in the different aspects?

When you think about the power of love and feeling heard, recognized, and rewarded, and you think about G.L.U.E, God’s Love Unites Everyone, the unifying opportunity related to teams, people’s value and contribution to study. Whether you agree with it all or not, this is my truth and I believe it is other people’s truth. It is out of the intention to have unity instead of the breakage and the division.

The power always resides inside of you to fulfill your purpose.

When you do that, most people spend the majority of their time at their work, their labor, whatever that may be. In that amount of time, we want to create positive, nurturing, love-filled interactions where people are whole and healthy. Those are all factors in maximum contribution, productivity, engagement, and morale.

When people are talking about Great Resignations and shifts in the workplace, it does not matter what stage of the workforce complexion that we are talking about. If people do not feel you are listening, there is a connection between the employer and the purpose of the organization in what they do. They are going to leave.

It all flows from love in the workplace to, “Are we going to attract, retain, and have people stay at our company and with our team?” They are related topics and how you manage those relationships when they are under pressure, there is adversity and there are differences of opinions. That is when you want to apply something like G.L.U.E.

That is the beautiful thing about unity. I even remember part of the book. The thing is, it is foundational principles some we always need to be reminded of. It is like a coach always needing a coach. Even part of the story where the mom and the kids were reminding her of what she needed to do to forgive her friends and everything like that.

With unity, there are going to be some times where there are going to be some dips and disagreements. You have to come back together and work through that disagreement. You may not feel like going through that rocky terrain but no smooth road comes without some rocky terrain every now and then.

Thank you so much for reading it. It is a regular lesson that my husband and I are teaching to our children. Every time we “teach it,” you learn. When you try to teach, you are always like, “This is embarrassing.” I hope no one is watching me try to teach something because you realize how far from a teacher you are.

I always try to envision that when you are weak, God’s powers are made perfect in us. I have noticed that my children even tell me the fact that I know that you are far from saying, “You know how to do all these things.” It helps them to receive it even more from us when we are talking about it. I do not mean to offend anyone but we are all the same. We are children. When we get hurt and when things do not go the way that we would like them to go, a lot of times, people will react poorly and that destroys the unity in the environment.

It goes on all different degrees and in different levels of magnitude but that is when fractures occur. If no one decides to say something calming or something mature, it also stops to think about all the stories that you create in your mind. Stop, look at the other person and prioritize them. As much as all that may seem intellectually simple, you are like, “That is not profound, Amy Kelly.”

It is profound because what happens when no one stops is what we see in society now. It goes fast into places that you never imagined. People are so far apart, when it started out as this tiny little moment, where no one wanted to listen to the other person and put the other person above themself because they were offended or in pain.

We all feel that. That is not a judgment on anyone. It is a judgment on the human race but not in a judgmental way. It is going to happen to everyone. These simple things are things that we don’t sometimes talk enough about and in order to empower people to say, “I know exactly what to do when this happens. I’m going to pause, decide not to react, and think about five steps ahead. What do I want to see? Do I want to see strife in my home, workplace, division, and more strife overall or do I want to make a decision to support the other individual, no matter how seemingly off-kilter they might appear?”

Some people will say, “That is crazy. What if someone is wrong?” That will work itself out. You were talking about the Bible and in Matthew, Jesus has asked, “How many times do I forgive, seven times?” Jesus is like, “No. 7 times 77 times.” It is to keep forgiving. It is not because he is saying, “Forgive everyone, regardless of what they have done.” Even though that is the point, it is for the forgiver.

The person who is going to spend all their time worrying, thinking, and ruminating over, “Why did they do that to me? I’m mad and bitter. I have got all these things wrong.” That spreads to everyone around them. When it comes to G.L.U.E, it is for the forgiver and the forgiven and the difference between a chain of people doing one thing versus the other and what that looks like in our homes, workplaces, and society.

Things do work out eventually, even though it may feel like it takes forever from time to time.

I do not think that we always get to see it all in this life. My daughter read the story and tried to solve a disagreement by continually humbling herself. She was hurt like anybody can get hurt and the other party was also hurt. She came back and said, “It did not work.” I said, “We won’t always see things immediately but it is working inside you. You are making choices, the change, and the construct of your soul and spirit. Spiritually, it is doing something. The factor that we cannot at all control is time. We have got to wait on God’s perfect timing.”

In the process, there is a sweet release because as you forgive and think of things through the lens of the truth of scripture in God’s word, you won’t feel the same. It is “unexplainable sometimes,” but yet undeniable. The peace that we feel as we start to forgive and truly look at things differently by examining things through God’s word and what he is telling us.

It may not result in a picture-perfect harmonious relationship based on the world’s view. There is something being worked out in all of it. There are relationships that I have that I thought I have been applying G.L.U.E but I have not gotten the world’s outcome, but I have gotten spiritual outcomes. I still believe that ultimately there will be something. God is working on it, even when I’m not able to see it always.

It is like a magical computer. You do not look at the other motherboard every time you turn it on, depending on the computer. It is like, “Things are working behind the scenes. You just got to be okay with that.” Speaking of God, the love of God since you are a fellow Christian. I always love to invite fellow Christians to give the salvation testimony on this show because I’m all about that. How did you become a Christian, Amy?

My youngest sister had been praying for me for years. I did believe in God but I did not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. In 1999, some things happened in my life. I have a couple of different Bibles. I ran over some deer. I promise you, I’m going to come back around to my salvation story but I ran over two deers in the middle of the night, taking my son’s friend home.

If you look up love, it generally talks about a passion or an emotion. But from a biblical perspective, love is a choice and a decision.

What happened was we had to take the car into the shop because it was an unfortunate occurrence on all sides. While the car was there, I had left my Bible bag by accident. I have my Wednesday night Bible study bag with my journal, my Bible, and my devotional in the car. I have a couple of other Bibles. I opened up one of my backup Bibles and it reminded me of this salvation time because my Bible was given to me by this drug addict back in 1999.

I had been involved in a support group for a couple of different things that I was involved in at that time, relationship-wise and in the cycle of life. I found myself in this group of people that had certain types of problems. I had a different problem but nonetheless, we were all in the same room. When he gave me, he fell into the middle of the circle and said, “Here is my Bible and I want to give it to you.” He wrote in it. It is all misspelled and it is a crazy inscription but it said, “From the Lord Jesus to Amy on your new jorny.”

When I received that, that was when I accepted Christ. I knew that I was on a different path. From that time on, my mom passed away in the next year or two. A lot of things happened after that. That was the moment when I knew that I had a relationship instead of a ritual when it came to religion. That was in December of 1999.

First, I’m hearing that type of story where it is like, “We are all in the support group together.” Somebody out of nowhere, spiritual revelation, like, “Take this book. You are going to need it.” I’m like, “What about you? Don’t you want to keep your own copy?”

What was interesting about that was when I opened it up, it was almost several years to the day when it had been given to me. I would not have been in that Bible in a while. I had it and used it but I had been given a Bible as a gift from a pastor that my husband and I both highly regard. He had written in it and he had had my name stamped on that one. It had a bunch of new QR things too in it where I could QR it and these lessons would come up so I had been using that Bible. When I went back to this other Bible and opened it up, it was that day many years ago and it was interesting that was how that all went down.

There is a lot more to my salvation story than what I say now. I would be happy to share it with anyone who reaches out to me but there are other people involved and I do not want to divulge all the different people’s personal stories. It went from me going to church and thinking, that is how you earned your salvation, to understanding the truth, the power of grace, and the gift that we have through Jesus’ sacrifice. That was a change of course. It has been different ever since.

As you are saying, “That is not enough.” I was like, “We are going to get a watch your case story. Bring it on.”

I will give you some other elements. The stories are great. It is a good question. I’m sure you asked it for a reason because there is so much and everyone is rich. I was engaged to one person in 1999 and I was engaged to my now-husband. We got married that same year and have been married ever since. We have four children. It is amazing how it puts you on the right path and it is beautiful.

I guess that is going into a business book about relationships in the future.

It is a good laugh but it is also true that I mention it in G.L.U.E because I have seen it. In reality, everyone’s business needs to be professional but we all bring our whole person to our work. If you care about your work, I care about my work. You do bring who you are into that work. It is exciting. I remember in Erin Brockovich the movie. She is talking to her boss and someone says, “It is not personal. It is just business.” The character says a whole bunch of colorful words that I’m not going to use but she says, “I lead everyone I love to come here, wherever that place was, for this many hours and do everything I do to take care of them. This is personal to me and I do care about what I do.”

My point is work and personal is intermixed. We have to have some emotional intelligence and the ability to understand how to be productive in both environments in order to be a blessing wherever we go. As far as having this division, I do not believe that it is completely healthy to have total division. There is a level of appropriate management of your communication that is necessary but you are bringing your personal self to your home life and you bring some of your work home sometimes. Even though people say, “I do not want to do that.”

A lot of times, when we are dealing with personnel issues and strife in the workplace, it is because people are under stress in other areas of their lives. Acknowledging that is a good thing. Pretending that does not exist is perpetuating things that are not true. A lot of times, when things happen in the workplace, it is because people are under pressure in other areas.

You are right about that because the thing is, you could try to separate the two, the personal and professional but they are going to blend and bleed into each other regardless no matter how hard you try to separate the two. If you are going through something, it is always going to show up in your work in different ways.

If you have been around for a while, you are going to notice the change in your behavior. If something at work is making you mad, it is going to show up at work even if you try to do some deep breathing. There is going to be some waste. Speaking of the fabulous book since we have been talking about it and that has been the main conversation, I have been looking to ask this particular question. If the book G.L.U.E was a food item, what would it be and why?

It is a daily bread type book. I do not mean to say that it is a sustenance for everyone. I mean that for someone at the right time, my hope is that it is a daily bread item. Meaning, at the right time, when you need a prompt to be prepared in the near future or in the moment to respond differently to a broken relationship.

I talk about in the book that there is something I have seen a lot in business is where someone says, “You stole my idea. It was my idea to put a hole in the middle of a cake and call it a donut. How could you do that? It was my idea to take two pieces of bread and put ham in the middle. I penned the ham sandwich. That is my idea.”

I do not mean to make too light of it but there are a lot of situations where people disagree because they think they have stolen property in the form of ideas. Sometimes I know that is serious. The pencil has already been invented. If you invent a green pencil, it is not because you stole it from the person who had a purple pencil if that was the case.

When I think about the food item, it is a simple daily bread but it is the most important thing when it comes to, do not succumb to the bait to get upset over the things that are inevitable. You are going to disagree and have someone who thinks they have the same idea that you had or vice versa. What do you want? Do you want that to cause an earthquake, a fracture, and a separation? Or do you want to be able to say, “I’m happy for you?” Mean it, not a falsehood but say, “This is going to be okay whatever happens.”

If you really care about your work, then you have to bring who you are into that work.

I’m not talking about the intellectual property for the cure for cancer, which is something that should be patented. I’m talking about, a lot of times, people are having the same general thoughts. They disagree over things because they wanted something and did not get their way. It can happen to any of us. Instead of being able to say, “There are more important things than being angry, getting upset, and causing these big divisions. Let’s be able to handle it in a different fashion.”

Let’s prioritize peace, peace of mind, peace in the workplace, peace in our home life, peace in our community, and still be able to have the vibrant conversations that drive great ideas and be able to disagree. Be able to coexist, align, and support each other. These are not new thoughts. I know these are topics that have been discussed for hundreds of years.

It is more important than ever in the workplace to have people who can say, “I’m going to apply G.L.U.E. I’m going to bond and unite. I’m not going to call and email everyone I know to say how mad and offended I am and how much I’m going to do something about this and say, ‘I want to understand a little bit more because this is important to the other person too.’”

Some bread of heaven right there, folks. You are getting a whole loaf with this one. That is the best bread ever. That is baker-approved. It is glue and sticky. She is going to say, “Honey.”

I was thinking about Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. They’re too good but I was thinking, “I do not know how natural they are.” They may not be made of peanut butter but I do not care. They are still yummy but that is not the book.

If you leave the bread out for too long it becomes as hard as a brick. I do not want that.

Everything has its time. We talked about that. You’ve got to eat it on a daily basis and move on especially when you are talking about people wandering in the wilderness, thinking about manna. What I mean is it is meant to be a daily commitment to being glue versus succumbing to the voice that tells you to divide.

We got to have you back in the future. You are amazing. When that other book comes out, we got to have you back on the show. Since you mentioned time, we’re coming down to the magical question that every guest gets to receive and that is, if you are going to wake up tomorrow and you are 25 again but you are in 2022 with all of your knowledge and experience, what advice would you give to yourself?

I did give it in this book because I prioritize love more than getting upset by things. I would give that to myself and everybody else. It is easy to complicate the simple. That’s it.

Have that unconditional love in your life. Love your neighbor. Even if you want to do the introvert thing and be a good neighbor, stay over there. Have some good love for them. For those who want to keep in contact with you and all the stuff that you are doing to help out individuals and companies become their best selves ever, what is the best way for folks to do so?

Email me at AmyPKelly@AmyPKelly.com.

Shoot Amy an email and head up to a wonderful website, AmyPKelly.com. You might even share that story of how she went from one fiancé to another in two and a half months.

Thanks for highlighting that part of this story. Thanks for bringing that back to the forefront, to make sure. Two wonderful people were involved. It is three if you include me but that other person, they do not need to be drawn into this but you are right. That is a fact. My other book website that I’m going to talk about is GlueBondAndUnite.com. I think it would be good because I have heard some other fiancé stories and Lord willing, everyone turns out for the better in all of them. Jim Kelly, my spouse, we have been married for many years.

You can’t say a hot set like that and let me not forget about it. I was going to bring it back up.

I was like, “Thanks a lot.” I was being vulnerable with you. I have given you a lot of stuff. You are like, “There were four weeks when Amy was engaged to one man and she decided to turn it around.” It is okay. I know I’m not alone.

Sometimes, it is better with other people and it is good to make that decision at the right time. That way, everybody involved will go and meet the right people. Folks will be like, “How does she find him at two months? I can’t find a guy in two years.”

I did not know you were going to do a Netflix special on this whole thing like a standup. The most important thing is I think everyone involved is completely fine. That was in 1999. That was a long time ago. As my children say, “That was in the nineteens.” That is ancient history. No one even cares. The good news is I got the Bible out of it. I have that amazing experience to look back on. It was fun because someone was telling me something and they did not want to tell me. They whispered, they said, “I was engaged to someone else before I got married.” I said, “It does happen and you are going to be okay. Everybody is going to be okay.”

None of us get it right.

Lots of good people are involved.

That is all I got. We can have our lives better than we would be without them. Are there any parting words before we close up shop, Amy?

Thank you in all seriousness. We are having a great time and I have shared a lot of little factoids along the way. The truth is, thank you for you fulfilling your purpose. The Lord will fulfill your purpose for you and for everyone. My life verse is Jeremiah 33:3 and it says, “Lord, I cry out to you to show me the great and mighty things that I do not know.”

Even as I promote a book, honestly, I talk about other people’s books and all the amazing things that go along with it. The answer is to wait and to listen because none of us know. We do not know. We know the one who does know, and I encourage anyone not to rely on any of these books. I hope they are helpful, beneficial, enjoyable, and ultimately to do what it says in that scripture is cry out to the Lord because he is the one that has the answers, nobody else.

Thanks a bunch for tuning in and setting aside some of your time to reading this wonderful show. If you enjoyed what you heard, do me a solid, and share this with your network and someone that you care about that would get something out of it too. Be sure to subscribe to read more and even check out the backlog if you would like because there are hundreds of episodes to choose from and they keep getting better and not better.

Important Links

• Tami Matheny – Past Episode
• Amy P. Kelly
• The Energy Bus
• The Energy Bus Field Guide
• G.L.U.E
• The Man That Nobody Knows
• AmyPKelly@AmyPKelly.com
• https://SoundCloud.com/rukunetsu/heartbreaking-heartbeat-p4
• Ep. 356 – “The Relentless Pursuit of Greatness” with Thomas R. Williams (@MrTRWilliams) – Past Episode
• Ep. 366 – “Looking For A FULL RIDE?” with Renee Lopez (@Lookn4aFULLRIDE) – Past Episode
• Ep. 460 – “Dangerous Hope” with Mandy Anderson (@MandyBAnderson) – Past Episode
• Ep. 480 – “Applying Your God-given Passions to Everyday Life” with Marnie Swedberg (@MentorMarnie) – Past Episode
• Ep. 463 – “Crushed” with Linda Bjork (@Linda_Bjork_1) – Past Episode
• Ep. 471 – “How to Turn Suffering Into Something Good” with Darci Steiner (@DarciJSteiner) – Past Episode
• Ep. 229 – “Unbroken” with Tajci Cameron (@TajciCameron) – Past Episode
• Ep. 389 – “Unshakable, Undaunted, & Undefeated” with Elizabeth Meyers (@TheLizMeyers) – Past Episode
• Ep. 313.5 (Holiday Bonus) – “True North Business” with Bobby Albert (@BobbyAlbert) – Past Episode

About Amy P. Kelly

Her work combines her belief in people with a passion for achieving business results through human resources and development programs. Amy is an experienced HR and learning and development executive who builds award-winning employment brands, corporate universities, leadership development programs, and organizational well-being strategies. She is a certified high-performance consultant, master trainer, and executive coach who works with executives to develop exceptional talent and cultures that win in the marketspace while having fun achieving superior results.