Latest / Legacy Living with Dr. Gloria Burgess / A Life of Significance | Episode #346
Transcript
- 0:21Hello, and welcome to today's show, Legacy Living, Make Your Life Count.
- 0:28I'm your host, Doctor Gloria Gloria Burgess, international leadership expert and trusted
- 0:37adviser. Welcome to Legacy Living, Make Your Life Count. I'm so delighted
- 0:46that you join me today. I have a very special guest with us today.
- 0:51Her name is Mary Bess Johnson. I hope you will be inspired by
- 0:56our conversation. Mary Bess is joining us today from her home in beautiful upstate
- 1:03South Carolina, where she lives with her husband, Chris. Mary Bess is
- 1:10an amazing person and most importantly, she is an inspiring woman of God.
- 1:18I can't wait for her to share her remarkable journey and story with you.
- 1:23In her own words, Mary Bess is on a journey, a journey of
- 1:30self growth. In two thousand and sixteen, she gave up retirement to join
- 1:38the John Maxwell team. At that time, her singular thought was all about
- 1:42helping others grow and fulfilling God's purpose for her own life. Now, Mary
- 1:49Bess has been helping individuals and organizations improve for decades, and she is passionate
- 1:57about encouraging and helping new team members on the John Maxwell team. There,
- 2:04she serves as a peer teaching partner and team leader on the President's Advisory Council.
- 2:12She says, this is the perfect way to live out my heart's desire
- 2:16to serve others. Mary Best not only enjoys serving on the John Maxwell team,
- 2:23she also enjoys being an entrepreneur, serving her clients, serving as a
- 2:29community volunteer, and offering humorous wisdom to her grandchildren, all seven of them.
- 2:37Today's topic is living a life of significance. Now that's a topic that
- 2:44is near and dear to my heart and I can't think of a better person,
- 2:50a better leader, a better human being to address this topic than Mary
- 2:54Bess. I met Mary Best several years ago when I was attending the International
- 3:01Maxwell Certification Conference in Orlando, Florida. When I met Mary Bess, I
- 3:07just knew there was something very special about her. And when I had an
- 3:13opportunity to have a conversation with her, she spoke so passionately about her life,
- 3:20about her purpose. I mean, she was just glowing. So I
- 3:24can't wait to host this incredible, amazing and lovely human being, my friend,
- 3:31colleague and mentor, Mary Bess Johnson. Now, before I bring her
- 3:37on. I just want to take a moment to connect the dots between today's
- 3:42topic on living a life of significance and legacy living. Now, there are
- 3:47many ways that living a life of significance connects to legacy living, which you
- 3:53will hear more about later. For now, just let me say that legacy
- 3:58living is a way of being, a way of living and moving through the
- 4:02world so that we make the conscious choice to be the difference we want to
- 4:09see in the world. We make that conscious choice right here and right now,
- 4:15not in some distant future way out there. Right We make that conscious
- 4:20choice day in and day out, three sixty five, twenty four seven.
- 4:27Now, I'll say more about that later. Now, let me introduce you
- 4:32to my friend and colleague and mentor, Mary Bess. Hello, Mary Bess,
- 4:41I want to welcome you to my show and thank you so much for
- 4:45agreeing to be a guest. Could you just please say your name and where
- 4:48you're from for us. Yes, my name is Mary Bess Johnson and I
- 4:56live in Pendleton, South Carolina. It's an upstate Carolina all right, excellent,
- 5:02Thank you and Mary best. I know that you have just a lot
- 5:06to share with us today, but I want to begin by asking you what
- 5:11does it mean to live in God's will for your life? For me,
- 5:19it means that that I want to see God's will for every move that I
- 5:29make and everything that I do, and knowing that I am just living to
- 5:36be the person that He intended me to be for one thing and to always
- 5:44us. It's not approval that I see, No, no, it's not.
- 5:49It's just just just to be just to walk with the Lord and to
- 5:56be in his will. And because his will is perfect and it's timing is
- 6:02perfect, and as long as I am staying in that place, then it
- 6:12keeps the stress out and the strife and and everything that that can you know,
- 6:18come from that that place of indecision or not knowing. There's so I
- 6:26find so much peace in knowing the Lord and having a personal relationship with Jesus.
- 6:31There's first of all, there's so much peace in that. And then
- 6:38because I want to live in God's will and being God's will, then it's
- 6:43just it's kind of like simple. I think sometimes we complicate it, but
- 6:47for me sometimes it's just like a simple thing. It's just like, hey,
- 6:51maybe you love the Lord, he loves you. Just walk with him.
- 6:58Yeah, yeah, and Mary Best. It is simple. It's very
- 7:01simple because we're strong Christians, were very firm in our faith, and you
- 7:08know, sometimes people who are new to the faith, they really don't have
- 7:12a clue about what we're talking about. So can you just say a little
- 7:16bit more about what God's perfect timing is and being the person that God intended
- 7:21you to be? You know, don't worry. I really appreciate that that
- 7:28you mentioned that, because I can remember many years ago if you had said
- 7:33those same words to me, I didn't wouldn't have a clue as to what
- 7:36you meant, not really, So until I really had started this personal relationship
- 7:44with Jesus, not just knowing about God, not just going to church,
- 7:51not all of that routine like I grew up doing, but when it really
- 7:59got down to that real relationship and I realized that that God was just such
- 8:05a such a friend to me and that he had my best interests. Of
- 8:09course, you know, I was. I'm I'm created in his image.
- 8:16And even that's hard for some folks to understand, especially those who who maybe
- 8:22are new believers, and they're saying, how in the world can I be
- 8:26created in God's image? Well, you know what, because scripture tells us
- 8:31that, and that's how that's that's another part of the simplicity of it.
- 8:39But but for me, when when I have that love relationship that I feel
- 8:48with the Lord, I I just want it's like, well, let's see,
- 8:56I know, it's like parent child relationship. Maybe when the the child
- 9:05and wants to please the parent. No, the child loves the parent.
- 9:13The child doesn't even have to think about whether they please the parent or not.
- 9:18I don't have to think about whether I please God or not. I
- 9:22love him, He loves me, and so staying close to him, I'm
- 9:31just so comfortable in knowing that, and then in staying in his will.
- 9:37Typically for me, if I'm getting out of God's will, oh I know
- 9:41it. I mean I'm going to start feeling really uncomfortable. And you know
- 9:48that's just that that Holy Spirit in me speaking to me. Yes. So
- 9:52you know, when you're in God's will, because you're walking in joy,
- 9:56you're walking in peace, and when you get out of it, out of
- 9:58his well, you get something inside of you, yeah, beside you.
- 10:05However that shows up for you, the Holy Spirit talking to you. Yeah,
- 10:09Yeah, very uncomfortable. It's just that it's that intuitive, that conviction
- 10:16that that I just no now that has developed over the years too. I
- 10:24mean that was not an instant thing with me, but I think just staying
- 10:31staying in God's word and even you know, music, um, any kind
- 10:37of praise, any kind of Christian music, um, from the old hymns
- 10:41that I've been singing all my life to contemporary Christian music. It's all.
- 10:48It all has saturated me through the years with God's word and the goodness and
- 10:58his girl Amen hallelujah. You know, I often think about where would we
- 11:07be without the Lord, and where will we be without his grace and mercy,
- 11:11And so knowing that you are walking with the Lord and listening and you
- 11:16know that He's ordering your steps is so significant. And we have been in
- 11:22the same organization, the John Maxwell Team, for a number of years.
- 11:26That's how we met. And I'm wondering, Mary Best, if you could
- 11:31just share a little bit about what living a life of significance means to you.
- 11:37Well, first of all, I've got to tell the listening audience that
- 11:41Gloria was my table host when I attended my very first John Maxwell Team International
- 11:48Certification event, and that was in August of twenty sixteen, and so I
- 11:54met her that day and just absolutely loved her from from day one. But
- 12:01the really wonderful thing that has been such a lesson to me is that we
- 12:07were doing our five minute table talk, and my five minutes went over.
- 12:15And so when the buzzer goes off, those of you are listening. When
- 12:18the buzzer goes off, you stopped talking. Okay, So I stopped talking.
- 12:26And when everybody around the table finished with their their table talk, the
- 12:31first thing Gloria said to me was, now, Mary, Bess, would
- 12:37you like to finish and tell us that last little piece of your story.
- 12:43Oh that meant so much to me, so very much, And that's just
- 12:52been that's a huge lesson to me, and listening and knowing that even with
- 13:03a time frame like that, at a time constraint, that we still have
- 13:09important things that we want to say, and for some of us, it
- 13:13just takes us longer to saying, oh, my goodness, but living a
- 13:18life of significance, oh yes, hey, I have as long as I
- 13:24can remember, my whole life, just wanted to just feel like I was
- 13:28making a difference and changing the world, and this and that and I kind
- 13:31of used to think of it in such broader terms until I joined the John
- 13:37Maxwell team in twenty sixteen. I came out of retirement. I had had
- 13:41a long, successful Mary Kay Cosmetics career and I had been retired for a
- 13:48number of years and started feeling that nudge. And what the nudge was was
- 13:54God saying, all right, all right, when I'm not done with you
- 13:58yet, you know, it doesn't matter tired. I've got more I want
- 14:03you to do. And you know, Gloria, that's that is humbling for
- 14:07me to say that. That is not an ego or an eye thing like
- 14:13oh, I've got so much I could no, no, no, no
- 14:16no. That is a very humbling thing to know that you have been used
- 14:20in some way or another in the past, that God has used you to
- 14:26influence others. And so when you know that there's still room for that,
- 14:31oh my goodness just stirred within me and I just knew something was like,
- 14:37oh, I got to get back out there. So that's when I joined
- 14:39the team. And for me, living a life of significance is not about
- 14:48me. Although I am on the disc personality disc I'm an eye personality and
- 14:56a d SO. But it's not about me, it's about the other person.
- 15:03And everywhere I go, I just want to add value to other people.
- 15:09I just want to smile, I want to cut a joke. I
- 15:13want to do something that makes that person feel better, makes that person feel
- 15:18important. And it's not that I have to do big, huge things at
- 15:26all. But I know that, I know that, I know that one
- 15:31little ripple can just create an ocean of wave and change, and that if
- 15:43just one person is influenced by something that I have said or help them with,
- 15:50oh that's that's a that's a wonderful. So it's it's just living living
- 15:58life to its fullest. It doesn't matter my age. Does it matter that
- 16:06you know I'm oldest dirt, I'm not. Really, no, you are
- 16:11not, But you know it, really that does not matter m all all
- 16:18ages. Children can live a life of significance. Children can have a positive
- 16:26influence. Yes, yes, I really believe that too, Mary Best.
- 16:32And I know that you have added so much value to me personally and so
- 16:37much value to the people in your community. And I'm sure folks that I'm
- 16:41not even aware of. And so I wonder if you could tell us a
- 16:45little bit about your own journey with your self growth, maybe with the John
- 16:51Maxwell team or beyond, and talk a little bit about your career journey as
- 16:55well. Yeah, the the self growth really and intentional self growth started gosh,
- 17:07you know, in the seventies eighties, and I guess well, really
- 17:12probably more into the eighties when I read Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective
- 17:19People. That was one of the first things that really got got me going
- 17:25on self growth and thinking into other areas like that. I tell you,
- 17:33I've always kind of been been a deep thinker. I remember even as a
- 17:37as a teenager, you know, really just getting to thinking about all sorts
- 17:42of things that some people didn't have a clue with what I was talking about,
- 17:47but I could really get into some some some thoughts. And I still
- 17:52I still am very much a deep thinker. I'm also very curious. So
- 17:57when when I was in my Mary Kay career is when John Maxwell first came
- 18:04in alone. He was doing leadership training for us with Mary Kay when he
- 18:11was still at his church in San Diego, when he was still pastoring there
- 18:18back in the nineties, and I became very interested in everything he said.
- 18:26I joined the tape of the month club and you know what, I've got
- 18:29a block it load of cassette tapes and but just really really really loved him
- 18:37and I used his leadership lessons every month at my sale I've had a sales
- 18:45meeting every single week for the Mary Kay Consultants, and once a month we
- 18:49had leadership night, and so I would have a leadership lesson. And mind
- 18:55you now this is back in the late nineties and two thousand and I would
- 19:04present that leadership lesson and the and the my team would would participate in it.
- 19:11And then, um, the actual John Maxwell team was started ten years
- 19:17ago in twenty eleven. So back in the day when I was following John,
- 19:23I didn't you know, there was no such thing as being certified.
- 19:29But I remember thinking it's so funny. You know, here I am in
- 19:33South Carolina. He's on the West coast in San Diego. And I can
- 19:40distinctly remember him thinking, oh, I would love to work with John Maxwell,
- 19:45wow or for him or you know. Then I said, but Mary
- 19:51best, you know he's on the West coast. Did you live in South
- 19:53Carolina? And you're you're not you know, you're not twenty five and just
- 19:59charting off on a new job. So um, but that scene was planted
- 20:04Gloria. Absolutely. And so then the years went by, and in twenty
- 20:11sixteen I looked more into joining the team and so that's that's when I decided
- 20:18to become certified and absolutely have just adored it. Well, it seems like
- 20:23you have been around a lot longer than four years, five years, four
- 20:27and a half years, whatever that is, yeah, five and may yeah,
- 20:33yeah, I mean it seems like you are just one of the founding
- 20:36people and you know, no really yeah, yeah, you you add such
- 20:41value, like I said, not only to me, but to so many
- 20:42other people on the team. Mary Bess, you are just a giver.
- 20:48Well, thank you, and you know it. It's funny when you say
- 20:52that because it really hadn't thought about it. But it could be that because
- 21:00John Maxwell and his teachings and books, readings, everything have been such a
- 21:06big part of my life that when I transitioned into the being a team member,
- 21:12that I just brought a lot of that with me. I mean because
- 21:18really, even when you think about I've talked to Mark Cole about it before,
- 21:22and you know, he's been with John for twenty years something and he
- 21:27remembers those days that he and John would go to the Mary Kay training,
- 21:33so he was going with him then, so he remembers all of that.
- 21:36And I don't know, maybe if that didn't, I just felt so at
- 21:41home, so very much at home. Yeah. Yeah, well, you
- 21:49know, I remember when I joined. I'm one of the founding partners,
- 21:53as you know, and it just felt like I found my people like mind
- 22:00at people but totally different than than me. And I brought a lot of
- 22:04things along from my early exposure to John Maxwell as well. So maybe that's
- 22:11it. I don't know, Yeah, but I but I so appreciate you
- 22:15saying that, Um, you know, I'll I'll always be one who will,
- 22:22you know, raise my hand and say, you know, send me,
- 22:23I'll go, I'll do or whatever. I'd love to help. But
- 22:29I always want my humility. I want to be humble about it. Always
- 22:33that I have the confidence to raise my hand and say send me, I'll
- 22:37go. I'll try. Um, And I do want to, but I
- 22:41do want to do it in a humble way. So I certainly wouldn't want
- 22:45to be you know, I wouldn't want it to be perceived as, oh,
- 22:49you know, you just busting in and trying to be part of the
- 22:53No, I just I just feel at home. Well, thank you for
- 22:56saying that, though, Oh, yes, you're You're so welcome. So
- 23:00Mary best. I know that sometimes many people start the year with a particular
- 23:04word that influences them, that guides them, that grounds them in whatever way.
- 23:11And I'm wondering, do you have a word for your year? Oh,
- 23:15I'm so glad you asked. Actually, I chose this word for twenty
- 23:22twenty, and it was towards the end of twenty nineteen that I was thinking
- 23:30on it. And I think I was on a call with Mark Cole one
- 23:33day actually, and he was talking about it too. So I I really,
- 23:38for the last two or three years, I've had this sense of urgency
- 23:45about wanting to really really want to live a life of significance and to just
- 23:51do whatever I could. I'm sure that age has something to do with it,
- 23:56for Heaven's sake, you know, but never the less, I've had
- 24:00that sense of urgency. So I was. I was sitting there the day
- 24:04thinking through it that that day and I wrote down the word now. And
- 24:14you know, commonly, like with with Nike or whoever it is, you
- 24:18know, do it now, but it wasn't quite that for me, and
- 24:22I kept looking at it. I had written it out in OW and I
- 24:26looked at it and I went, oh, my goodness, not over with,
- 24:33m mercy. Yeah, and I I felt this confirmation and this peace
- 24:48of that is exactly what I had been feeling. It's not over with,
- 24:59and I it had. That word has motivated me. So so it's my
- 25:04word for this year or two as well from twenty one. So what it
- 25:10really means to me is exactly what it says. Here here we go back
- 25:14to simplicity. I just love to see things simply and to not complicate things.
- 25:21And so now to make that means not over with, it's it's not
- 25:25over with. That's basically right it. And so you say what's not over
- 25:32with? Well, the fact that I want to live a life of significance
- 25:38that's not over with, or whatever I'm wanting to achieve, it's not over
- 25:47with. So really I can apply that to anything. Um it gives It
- 25:52gives me a sense of like another moment, another chance, and it could
- 25:59be literally that I you know, I die to night and so but even
- 26:06still I want to live up until I take my last breath with that feeling
- 26:10of it's not over wreath, and it's you know, it's it's not a
- 26:17driven thing at all. It's not like I strive for this. It's just
- 26:26it's just how I feel. But um, I had not quite been able
- 26:30to put my my finger on what all what all I've been chewing on for
- 26:36the last two or three years. But but you know, the Lord just
- 26:41gave me that word. And then when I when I looked not over with,
- 26:44I went, that is exactly That's exactly how I feel. So I
- 26:48just believe that we all, um can have that attitude, whether we choose
- 26:53to or not. It defol yes. And so you you talked about significance,
- 27:03you talked about the urgency to live your life, and you also talked
- 27:07about humility. And I'm wondering, so not over with to me says that
- 27:12God has his hand on you, that he has more for you. And
- 27:18in my way of thinking, you know, it's not your business to know
- 27:22what that is. You know, just just pay attention and walk and walk.
- 27:29Yes, you'll you'll keep ordering yourself, that's right. I often think
- 27:33of it with your your John, your sweet husband, as a as a
- 27:40maestro conductor. I just every time I think about God ordering my steps,
- 27:45I see him well, even sometimes in the black tooks, orchestrating our steps.
- 27:55Yes, oh my, I'll never think of God the same way,
- 28:00and I know it. Can you imagine? Oh gosh, but I do,
- 28:07I really do. I couldn't tell you how many times I thought,
- 28:11you know, when I think about God orchestrating our steps and when I think
- 28:14about your John. So um, I really do believe that. And of
- 28:18course, as as the years go by, I can look back now and
- 28:23see, oh my goodness, how things unfolded. You know, it's turned
- 28:27into this, and then this happened, and this happened, and that.
- 28:33An encouragement from me on that to listeners would be just to trust. And
- 28:41like Gloria just said, take that one foot in front of the other and
- 28:47keep stepping forward. As you step forward, when you take enough steps,
- 28:53you're going to be able to look back and see how things are unfolding.
- 29:00Absolutely, And I know when I'm in the middle of something it sometimes doesn't
- 29:04make sense, but when I look back, it looks like a straight line.
- 29:07Oh yeah, exactly, yes, exactly. So Mary Best, can
- 29:12you talk to us a little bit about you know, I just know just
- 29:15a teeming little bit of the kinds of things that you're doing in your community
- 29:21and how you're helping women, and can you just talk to us a little
- 29:25bit about that as well? As I see you as a very I'm going
- 29:29to say creative and generative person, if you could talk to us a little
- 29:34bit about your creativity, your interests, and again how that's flowing out of
- 29:38you and into the community as well. Oh my goodness. Well, I've
- 29:42always been very, as I said earlier, very curious. I love to
- 29:48learn new things. I love to try new things. I am pretty much
- 29:53a risk taker with something. So you know, when I was sixty nine
- 29:59years I did a tandem jump skydive and I loved it and that was so
- 30:06and I wouldn't I yeah, I would not mind doing it again at all.
- 30:11But so I'm interested in things like that. I am very creative.
- 30:15I'm creative as far as stitching and anything like that, or I'm resourceful.
- 30:22I can think of odd ways to fix something maybe you know, to make
- 30:30it do or whatever. And as far as in the community here, well,
- 30:36no one thing that I did that's interesting to me that I haven't involved
- 30:41in the past. I am not right here in this community. We've moved
- 30:45here four years ago. But for a number of years where I lived before,
- 30:49I was involved in a quilt program at our church, prayers for squares
- 30:56for squares for pray. I can't remember which way, but we we would
- 31:00make quilts and uh just lap quilts and give those two folks who were really
- 31:07going through a hard time and um so that program was was very meaningful to
- 31:14me. And because I did know how to sew and stitch and all that,
- 31:18I could do that kind of thing. But even when I when I
- 31:22don't know, I'll take a stab at it to learn. You know,
- 31:26I'm always one to say, hey, I don't know, but I'll find
- 31:30out, or I don't know how to do that, but I'll figure it
- 31:33out. Anybody taking a tandem jump at sixty nine saying you think I know
- 31:42it and at the truth, to me, that just seemed like, you
- 31:45know, okay, well everybody does that, but I guess not really,
- 31:52Oh my goodness. So I'm always just I'll look for ways of doing something
- 32:00really in a fun way to do. I love to laugh and I love
- 32:05to have fun as far as what I'm doing here in the community with women.
- 32:10For one thing is I'm involved with a really beautiful nonprofit organization here who
- 32:21offers a hand up and not a hand out. And so their clients who
- 32:28come to them have the opportunity to take classes at their center, which are
- 32:34all volunteers. So they can take classes in money management, anger management,
- 32:42diet, nutrition, parenting, basic skills, real anything, just anything.
- 32:51And when they take the course the class and show up and do it,
- 32:57they can earn dream dollars. And then they can take those dream dollars and
- 33:01they go to one of the resale stores you know, it would be like
- 33:07habitats resale, that sort of situation, and they can purchase goods because most
- 33:15of these people are very very low income. And also one thing that was
- 33:21really so much fun at Christmas, they have this huge Santa Shop program.
- 33:25So all year long, businesses all of the area donate Christmas skips, brand
- 33:31new toys and things for the Santa Shop. It's really a very large of
- 33:38my life stuff. And so the people can go shop in the center shop
- 33:45when they earn the dream dollars, they got to earn them, yeah,
- 33:51not cool. And then what they do is they provide them ways to earn.
- 33:57So I've been doing classes zoom classes with them now since about October and
- 34:07we still have one going right now. But I love to do that,
- 34:10and you know, it's just it's volunteer, absolutely volunteer. And I do
- 34:15have a financial relationship with them too, because I've done a lot of their
- 34:20leadership training and within their staff. It's a pretty large organization, but that
- 34:28that's how I serve here. I've I'm involved in our church, love that
- 34:34and in the community here. I'm a board member of the Pendleton Historical Society
- 34:40Foundation. It's been around a lot of history here where I live. And
- 34:46I'm excited about to get involved with a program at Columson University which is right
- 34:53here that Professor Thomas, Ronda Thomas has started a number her of years back,
- 35:00slowly but surely she's making headway on it. And it's called the name
- 35:06of the program is called my name. She has learned when she came to
- 35:14Clemson to be a professor that many back in the late eighteen hundreds, most
- 35:21of the people who built Clemson University were African Americans who were the children of
- 35:28slaves or they were in prison and they were allowed to help build and so
- 35:35many many of them have been when they died, they were buried here and
- 35:42she has been discovering their grave sites. So she absolutely has a full blown
- 35:50program going now. It actually is hiring someone to head it up. And
- 35:57I am tapped to volunteer in the program. So that's something else that's really
- 36:05near and dear to my heart right here in the back door. Yes.
- 36:08And then my husband, Oh my goodness, oh I love, Oh my
- 36:14goodness, my husband. Yeah. And we have seven grandchildren, with three
- 36:17daughters and seven grandchildren. Mercy, Well, you know you, I want
- 36:22to be like you when I grew up. I mean you are so involved
- 36:29and so engaged, and you find places you know, not only that's a
- 36:34right fit for you, I mean God places you there, but you also
- 36:37find a way to pour just to pour blessings into into so many people.
- 36:45And you know, the people that we impact, like right in front of
- 36:47us, they're gonna share and they're gonna share and they're gonna share it and
- 36:52it just keeps on rippling out. So I mean, your your footprint,
- 36:55your fingerprint, your impress is just remarkable, very best. You know,
- 37:01glory one time men and many years ago I heard in a message one day.
- 37:09The person said something like, I don't want I don't want to stand
- 37:15before God when I die. I don't want to stand before God and hear
- 37:21the words, oh, welcome home, my child, good and faithful servant.
- 37:29Oh, but I had so much more I wanted you to do.
- 37:35Yeah, and you know that's almost kind of like negative motivation, but but
- 37:40not really, not really, because that hit home with me. Yeah,
- 37:49I do have We do have responsibility on this earth. Yes, we do,
- 37:57not only responsibility for ourselves and our families, but to serve others.
- 38:05Yes. So I have a question for you. I know you've talked a
- 38:09lot about the work that you have done on your intentional growth and your career
- 38:14with Mary Kay. Were you ever a teacher in your life beyond like teaching
- 38:19your kids, which is a huge responsibility. Yeah. I mean, that's
- 38:23interesting that you asked me that. It's and that's really strange because yesterday I
- 38:32was thinking something made me think about I remember years ago when people would say
- 38:39to me, now, are you a school teacher? And I would say
- 38:45no, because I was in the corporate I was working in the corporate world.
- 38:47I'm doing Mary Kay in nineteen ninety one. I mean, yeah,
- 38:53I was. I was doing that and had been in that area for many,
- 38:58many years and really just joined mary Kay did and relieved some stress on
- 39:07my job and just have some fun and make a little extra money. Hey,
- 39:10that was fun. And so that was back in nineteen ninety one,
- 39:15and I quit my job a year and a half later to pursue mary Kay
- 39:19full time. So it did turn into a full time career for me.
- 39:22But that's funny that you ask about teaching. I don't know what it is,
- 39:28but but I do like I do like to teach. I mean,
- 39:32yeah, I mean, and that's that's one of the things I like about
- 39:37training in leadership. Yeah, is the teaching part of it, Well,
- 39:44you're very good at it. And uh so maybe maybe the trick is not
- 39:47thinking about yourself as a teacher. Yeah, I know, I know that's
- 39:53weird. I love teachers. I think they have the most wonderful job on
- 39:59the at it and we don't give them nearly enough credit and respect. So
- 40:05I just think the world of teachers very best. We are just about at
- 40:08the end of our conversation this day, which is a shame because I would
- 40:13love to just keep listening to you and learning from you. Is there anything
- 40:16that you wished I would have asked you that I haven't asked you. M
- 40:22not that I can think of right now, not at all. As far
- 40:28as things that are coming up. My plate is full with family and my
- 40:35business and my volunteer time and then global youth initiatives. And you know your
- 40:44listeners might not, but you know that I absolutely love your book. Pass
- 40:51it on. And that's another thing. You know that that book means so
- 40:57much to me. There's there's just it just strikes my heart. It just
- 41:06hits my heart. And I think because I grew up in the South in
- 41:10that era, and I knew then when I was a little girl, I
- 41:16knew it was wrong, but I didn't know why, but I just knew
- 41:22it was wrong. When I'm in the department store when the water fountains were
- 41:30in two different places, I just didn't get it, and I just knew
- 41:36in my heart that that it was it was, it was wrong. And
- 41:40so your book has just it's meant so much to me. I'll tell you
- 41:45what glory. It's given me an opportunity to express what I just expressed to
- 41:50you two. Someone that I don't know to be able to share the book
- 41:59with them, read the story to them, and then to be able to
- 42:05to just share of that how much it means to me and had hoardant I
- 42:10think it is, so I think, yeah, that's that's one thing before
- 42:19we haven't talked about. But and I know that's about you and your bullet,
- 42:22but still it's it's our story. Yeah, it is our story.
- 42:28It is Mary Best. I'm really glad you brought it up. I did
- 42:30not want to bring it up because this is about you, and you know,
- 42:35I also just want to thank you because you have been such a powerful
- 42:39ambassador for this book and and you know, not only about the book.
- 42:45It's really about I'm hoping, you know, somebody listening will hear that it's
- 42:51our story. Is it is not my story? It is our story,
- 42:55right, And some time we keep saying this, but sometime, you know,
- 43:02and maybe this podcast is a vehicle for it. I don't know,
- 43:06we could talk about it, but I would love to just have a deeper
- 43:08conversation with you about the our story piece of it. It is our story,
- 43:14yes, and this is a story that our nation and I'm going to
- 43:16say the world is involved in right now, right now in a way that
- 43:22we really have not been together in this conversation before. You know what I
- 43:27mean, And it's so important. So thanks for all that you do and
- 43:31all that you are, and thank you again for bringing it up. Aprecire.
- 43:35Oh yeah, I'm glad that I did bring it up. It's interesting
- 43:39that I don't know that I've articulated it that way before, even in my
- 43:45mind just then, by the what I said about our story. But I'm
- 43:52just telling you, Gloria, I can just I'm five years old, and
- 43:55I'm in the department store, you know, in Anderson, southdo Rolina,
- 44:00and I'm looking up at that the two war fountains, one that says white
- 44:05and one that says colored, and I'm going, no, what, No,
- 44:10my neighbor. I play with my neighbor. Yes, she's a beautiful
- 44:15little brown skinned girl. I lived out in the country. And so it
- 44:21is our story. Yeah it is. Yeah, yeah, all right,
- 44:29my friend. Well, thank you again. Thank you if you are and
- 44:32do, and thank you for just pouring life and you know, giving life
- 44:37giving words. You know, they're like oxygen for people and we need we
- 44:42need that oxygen. I'm so I'm so grateful, and I'm so humbled to
- 44:46have been invited to just chat with you. Of course, you and I
- 44:51could talk till the cows came in. I know we could m so uplifting,
- 45:01so inspiring, so many pearls of wisdom. I feel so blessed to
- 45:08know Mary Bess Johnson. Clearly, she is a leader's leader. She makes
- 45:15a difference in her own life and in the lives of so many others,
- 45:19in her own family and throughout the world, in her work as a leader,
- 45:24as a certified John Maxwell coach, as a grandmother, and as a
- 45:29community servant. To learn more about Mary best and her work, you can
- 45:35go to her website and that's www dot Mary Bess Johnson dot com. Www
- 45:44dot Mary Bess M A R Y B E. S. S. Johnson
- 45:50j O h N S O N dot com. Now, if you are
- 45:55just joining us, I'm doctor Gloria and this is Legacy living. Make your
- 46:02life count. We just heard from my very special guest, Mary Bess Johnson,
- 46:08entrepreneur, j MT coach and inspiring community servant. If you want to
- 46:17make your life count, if you want to be the change, be the
- 46:21difference in your own life and in the lives of others. Be sure to
- 46:27listen to this episode again and again, and hey, be sure to tell
- 46:31somebody. You can find me right here on iTunes, Alexa, SoundCloud,
- 46:38Amazon Music, iHeart tune in, Amazon, Audible, Spreaker, dot Com,
- 46:44Talk Network Radio, and so many other places. I just love it.
- 46:49The list just keeps growing. Be sure to tune in again next week.
- 46:53Before I close today, I just want to give a shout out to
- 46:58all the men, women and children, all the young people around the world,
- 47:04because you know what, we are the ones, Yes, we are.
- 47:08We are the ones we have been waiting for. Now what do I
- 47:13mean by that, Well, what I mean is don't wait. Don't wait
- 47:19for somebody else to step up and make things happen, because guess what,
- 47:22they might not step up. In fact, they might not even know you're
- 47:27there waiting for them to do something for you. But you can be the
- 47:31one. In fact, can I just tell you something, You are the
- 47:37one. You are the one who can make a difference in your own life
- 47:42so that you make a difference in the lives of others. Now, remember,
- 47:50how you live is how you lead. How you live is how you
- 47:53do everything. Now, if you happen to miss any part of this week
- 48:00episode or last week's, you can simply download the recording and listen to it
- 48:05at your convenience. You can even listen to it on the go. Check
- 48:09us out at www dot Talk network Radio dot com. Forward Slash Hosts,
- 48:20Forward Slash Legacy Living. Now that's a mouthful, I'm going to say it
- 48:24again. Www Dot Talk network Radio dot com. Forward Slash Hosts, Forward
- 48:35Slash Legacy Living. You can learn more about my work and Legacy Living.
- 48:40Make your life count by visiting the Gloria Burgess website. And as I've mentioned
- 48:45before, if you love to be inspired, you can actually subscribe to my
- 48:51inspirations right on my website. Just scroll down a little bit look on the
- 48:55right sidebar until you see the place to add add your email address to subscribe
- 49:01to my weekly inspirations. It's that simple. Each week you get a lovely
- 49:07photograph and a short quotation that inspires you. Or you can find me on
- 49:13LinkedIn or on Facebook and on Facebook you can find me right here Facebook dot
- 49:19com. Forward Slash Doctor Gloria Burgess, PhD. Okay d R for doctor
- 49:28Doctor Gloria Burgess, PhD. You can also find me on the ted x
- 49:32site and listen to one of my ted talks. Just type in my name
- 49:37to find me there. Pretty simple. Right before I close today, thank
- 49:44you for tuning in for allowing me to share a bit about my journey with
- 49:49what legacy living is all about, not just living and learning, but living
- 49:53and learning and serving so that you make a difference in your own life and
- 50:00in the lives of others. It's about being on purpose every single day.
- 50:06Three sixty five twenty four seven. Legacy living is a powerful way to make
- 50:14your life count. Thank you. Thank you again for joining me for today's
- 50:20show. I'm your host, doctor Gloria Gloria Burgess, and this is Legacy
- 50:28Living. Make your life count. Please join me again next time for another
- 50:35episode of Legacy Living. Make your life count now. Remember don't just count
- 50:44the days in your life. Make the days in your life count. That's
- 50:50what legacy living is all about. Have a fantastic day and remember now,
- 50:55make the days in your life count. God bless you. That's our show
- 51:15today. I'm your host, doctor Gloria Gloria Burgess. I hope you'll join
- 51:22me again next time. Until then, don't just count the days in your
- 51:27life. Make the days in your life count. That's what legacy living is
- 51:34all about. Here's to you have a fantastic day and be sure to make
- 51:38it a Yes kind of day. Remember to celebrate the music of your life.
- 51:47Make the days in your life count