Shola Richards on Practicing Kindness in an Unkind World
Show notes
In this episode, Tommy sits down with Shola Richards, known as The Kindness Extremist and Brother Teresa, to talk about what kindness actually looks like when life gets hard. Shola shares his story of moving from bullying, burnout, and a near tragic moment on an LA freeway to building a global mission around freakishly practical kindness. The conversation gets into the real difference between niceness and kindness, how to handle the toxic people in your life, and why the hardest person to be kind to is usually yourself.
What You'll Hear in This Episode:
- Why kindness takes more courage than most people realize
- Shola's story of being highly sensitive, bullied, and burned out, and the moment that redirected his life
- The clear difference between being nice and being kind
- Six warning signs of a truly toxic person versus someone just having a bad day
- The Just Like Me practice for staying open when you would normally judge
- Why forgiveness is an act of kindness toward yourself, not the person who hurt you
- A simple courtroom framework for cross-examining your own negative self-talk
- Box breathing, knowing your triggers, and other tools for staying responsive instead of reactive
Timestamps:
(0:00) Intro
(4:01) Shola's Story
(8:28) Making kindness freakishly practical
(14:05) Why kindness takes real courage
(16:30) Niceness vs kindness
(19:00) Six warning signs of a toxic person
(26:23) Are we part of the flood
(29:18) The 'Just Like Me' practice
(33:24) What forgiveness really means
(42:25) Boundaries as a backdoor kindness
(45:47) Turning kindness toward yourself
(49:29) The courtroom of the mind
(55:47) Where to find Shola
Resources / Next Steps:
- Shola's website, thesholarichards.com
- The Kindness Extremist Podcast
- Shola on Substack and LinkedIn
- Civil Unity by Shola Richards
- Go Together Global