Leading from Loss with Dr. Angelia Griffin
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:30:04]
Yeah, I know what you were just saying there, it resonates. That’s. You are growing through this process. I like that. I remember it when we were prepared for this. You sent me your bio and you had this recipe for success. What was G.R.O.W., which did your goals recognize? New realities, identifying your options and winning. So I love that that that little acronym there. But then you’ve got to. Recognize that you having your doctoral degree is not the end of learning, but is sort of the beginning of some. When I was, I went to graduate school at University of Chicago. And originally, way, way back when I was studying astronomy and astrophysics. It’s a long story, but the teacher, the professor that I was teaching for, he was teaching the science class that all the freshmen simply weren’t might take any more science. And he told me we were walking back to the department one day. And he said that it was an undergraduates professor’s job to teach undergraduate students so that they graduate knowing that they know everything. And he said it’s a graduate professors job to teach graduate students so that they can graduate, realized that they know nothing. And I thought it was really cool. And obviously, you know a lot more. When you actually outworld degree, but you realize that it’s just it’s your ticket to learn now not to stop learning. And that’s valuable.
Dr. Angelia Griffin [00:31:38]
Yeah. My grandmother used to say, when you stop learning, you stop living. Yeah. She didn’t even have. Elementary, I guess you could say it’s high school or middle school education. She just had a lot of wisdom. Right. What I take from that is I’m so thankful to have a doctoral degree. Right. If it has positioned me strategically to meet people like yourself. At the same token, what’s unique about meeting people like yourself as being wise enough to know we can help each other? Right. And that, to me, is the caveat of having this extra, you know, title in front of my name when people want to say, I want to work with you. Maybe we can help each other. I’m not above myself and thinking, oh, no, I have a doctor degree. I don’t have time. That, to me, is the essence of having a doctoral degree. Yes. Terminal Degrees says basically I’m disciplined. But when someone like yourself says, hey, let’s have a sit down or let’s have lunch, let’s talk about how we can collaborate to help somebody else. That, to me, everything.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:32:44]
Absolutely. 100 percent I agree. There’s so many things that you’ve been doing. I want to touch on a couple of them before we run out of time here. Those of you who are on YouTube, you can see how entrepreneurial Dr. Griffin is because she’s got like information about dissertation done in her background. She’s got all her stuff in her background. And I wanted to have you quickly tell us a little bit about your you’re not your nonprofit, what you get you’re doing there, and also your radio show, because that actually debating what talk talking about just a minute ago, I think about empowering people. And so you you riff on that. You tell us.
Dr. Angelia Griffin [00:33:18]
OK Sure. I’m excited to tell you about that. And I started my nonprofit. First of all, I’d tell my students all the time when I have an opportunity to teach a nonprofit agency management. Well, typically don’t start a nonprofit unless they’ve gone through some type of pain or passion. Right. And so for me, my passion has always been to help people. But I only had one son. Unfortunately, that son was murdered while away at college as he attempted to stop two women off campus. I cited that I could be a victim the rest of my life or I can leverage that and be victorious. And so I decided that I would start an organization called IGMA, which stands for I Give Myself Away, which is what my son did. He gave himself away. He was trying basically to help people in need. And he did that. And so to not have his life be in vain, I decided to start the nonprofit. The song I give myself away inspired me every time I would listen to it. So that’s the reason. Ten years later this year, we have IGMA we have done an amazing set of initiatives, really that was reached about a I guess you could say, because of bullying. That was our premise. We started out with the stage play. We did the stage play. We invited a lot of people, brought a lot of awareness to that initiative. Then we started bridging out giving scholarships to young people that may not have had the opportunity to go off to school without some type of stipend. That said, all of that in the initiative of even having a we have a an endowment scholarship at the school where my son went because he went to maybe making one on one. So we decided to help single parents. We give scholarships at Alabama State as well. And all of that is because we want to continue to be the difference that we want other people to see. Which brings me to if you want to go to our Web site, it’s IGMAinc.org. If you run out there today and it’s not up, we are transitioning because we just learned we can get a lesser cost if we move to another. Sites are all right. Administrative person is working on that. Hopefully it’ll be up by the end of tomorrow. But if not, just bear with this. Long story short, the Web site is IGMAinc.org. You can reach me at seven seven zero four two two four zero four eight if you just need to talk to me about how we got started, what where we’re at today as I’ve leveraged my doctoral degree, my understanding of profit with that of nonprofit and hadn’t been recently invited to host our own radio talk show. And the reason I’m excited about it is because it gives me great pleasure to talk to people all about what matters to them. The title of the show is called All That Matters. We air online. The radio, the name of the radio station is Artistic Throttle, Artistic-Throttle.com. We have a one hour slot every Thursday night and as you can hear on my voice, I’m a static because I’m going to get a chance to do what I do best and that’s be nosy. Ask what matters to them and why and how can you take what you do and help somebody else. So to that end, I’m excited. I’m here all because of a tragedy that I decided I’m not going to let that take me out. I’m going to take everything I’ve learned and I’m going to help somebody else. So all that matters matters to me.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:36:35]
Dr. Griffin, obviously, I’ve got to say, it’s heartbreaking to hear how this all started, but it almost doesn’t matter to say that now because obviously you conquered and overcame and use that. It created a wonderful memorial to your son and also something to help blacks in the world, and that’s that’s the reason why, honestly, that’s the reason why I have I started dissertation. That is because I’ve heard stories from doctoral students who are struggling with their dissertations. They have dreams and things they want to do. People who going to get that world really generally make the world a better place somehow. And the fact that you’ve done that is just so amazing. Yes. I’m so glad that we got to share your story.
Dr. Angelia Griffin [00:37:23]
Me, too. I mean, I just have to say, I cannot do this by myself. I have a group of young women who have been supportive of me. We’re a very small organization, but we have a huge presence in the community and we’ve been able to help those people. And even in this environment, I have people calling me that. I can’t wait to send them your way because being a BD is not an end all you just need. Right. People look up, as the kids say at the high school, you’ve got to get hooked up with the right combination of people and. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not pushing away from any college. I love the colleges that I teach at. But, some students have just been in the program too long, and it’s time for them to do something different. If you keep doing the same thing and expect a different outcome, that’s insanity to get past that. And so for those of you that are listening, you hear it straight from my lips to your ears. Consider this rotation definitely done, because this gentleman, Dr. Strickland, has a passion that I believe I had to adapt to. There’s not enough money that a school could pay me to hear a student say thank you in more ways than one win win on a program forever and a day. Sometimes you just need a little assistance and dissertation done. Sounds like the best recipe if I had to put my name on it. I’m going to say give him a call. Find out what you don’t know. Who knows? It might be which to know. Right.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:38:49]
Well, I thank you for that, Dr. Griffin. That’s amazing. Listen, what I will tell students is make sure that you have the village that Dr. Griffin spoke about, whether that someone like me, whether that’s me, whether it’s other folks that you might know who have gone through this dissertation process before, folks who are going through it now. Just make sure that this behavior of getting your dissertation done is normalized for you so that you’re doing the things that you need to do if you don’t know what you need to do. Reach out, OK, reach out. Find somebody. The investment in yourself to get your dissertation done and get it done quickly is well worth whatever you might have to investigate. So that’s I don’t want that to be self-serving. I think that that’s just the best way to get through any challenge in life is to find someone to help you through it. But however think is the best way for you to do that. Please make sure that you’re investing yourself to get it done. Dr. Griffin, we’re going to make sure this is in the show notes for people so they can get it. But we definitely have. You mentioned it was for your nonprofit IGMAinc.org. Is that right now right?
Dr. Angelia Griffin [00:39:53]
IGMAinc.org. Not a problem.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:39:56]
So IGMAinc.org. They can catch your radio show on artistic-throttle.com. And is that it’s each week. Is that right?
Dr. Angelia Griffin [00:40:06]
Yes. Every Thursday at 7 o’clock p.m. sharp.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:40:11]
So as the week is winding down, a little bit of extra energy to get you through your Friday for Dr. Griffin, who you can tell right now is going to be excited and enthusiastic every time he’s off with her. Dr. Griffin, thank you so much for joining us. I had a wonderful time here. Once again, I just want to mention briefly, not that Dr. Griffin has done it for me, but this episode was brought to you by Dissertation Done. You can reach out to us if you are a doctoral student, either getting ready, start your dissertation stuck in the middle of it. Reach out to us go to DissertationDone.com/done. If you are living your unconventional life right now and you want to get your message out to the world. Consider reaching out to me at DissertationDone.com/book to join our Expand Your Authority book authoring and publishing program in a period of just a few months, we’ll get you from an idea to a published book, both paperback and e-book on Amazon, and you’ll have the rights to distribute that, how you might want to all over the world. So it’s a great way to get your message out there if you’re living your life right now. This has been An Unconventional Life Podcast. I’m Dr. Russell Strickland. Dr. Angelia, Dr. Angelia Griffin has been my guest here today. I want to thank you once again. Dr. Griffin.
Dr. Angelia Griffin [00:41:23]
Thank you. I’m going to call you about my book, too.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:41:27]
Well, Will. Let’s do it. Meanwhile, go out and live your unconventional life. Have a great day.
Outro [00:41:39]
This has been An Unconventional Life. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed today’s episode, subscribe now to keep getting inspirational stories of unconventional lives as soon as they’re released. Until then, go out and live your best unconventional life.
