Business Innovators Radio - Dr. Robin L. McNair – Leadership – Mark Stephen Pooler – Dr. Rhonda M Wood

Episode Date: March 27, 2025

Dr. Robin L. McNair is a breast cancer survivor, social justice advocate, and educator of 33 years whose service and work to her community encompasses social justice, restorative justice in education, and peacemaking circles with the ultimate aim of creating communities of peace, particularly for minorities and the marginalized. A resident of Prince George’s County, Maryland, she has been featured in NEA Today, MSEA Actionline, and TESOL for her work in creating restorative spaces for children and adults. Other contributions include TEDx Gaithersburg, contribution to books such as Creating Classrooms of Peace in English Language Teaching, Baldness with Boldness: Unmasking Alopecia, and Beyond the Bottom Line: Entrepreneurial Strategies for Lasting Social Change. A restorative educator, Dr. McNair is the founder of CenterPEACE, a restorative coaching and consulting business. Dr. McNair is a recent recipient of the Honor of Distinction Award for Humanities from TIUA School of Business. @iamdrrobin Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/dr-robin-l-mcnair-leadership-mark-stephen-pooler-dr-rhonda-m-wood

Welcome to Business Innovators Radio, featuring industry influencers and trendsetters, sharing proven strategies to help you build a better life right now. Welcome to Brilliant Business TV, conversations with leading experts in business. I am your host, Mark Stephen Pula, with my wonderful co-host today, Dr. Rhonda M. Wood. We have a wonderful guest on the show today, Dr. Robin. about leadership. I love the topic of leadership. Do you, Rhonda? Absolutely, 100%. I love talking about leadership. It's pretty much, you know, very common in the world, no matter if it's personal leadership, organizational leadership, community leadership, leadership is very important. Self-leadership as well. We have to be able to lead ourselves first. We are streaming live on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube. We're also on the E-360.

TV network. We're also on USA Global Radio and Television Network. We're also on business innovators radio network and we're also on MSP NewsGlobal.com. Let's bring in our incredible guest, Dr. Robin M. Dr. Dr. Robin L. McNair. And today we will be calling you Dr. Robin because I don't want to get my tongue twisted there, Dr. Robin. Welcome to brilliant. TV. Good afternoon, Mark, and thank you so much for just allowing me to share this space with you today. And thank you as well, Dr. Rhonda, for allowing me to share the space with you. We're really, really looking forward to a conversation with you today. Dr. Robin, let's get started with the show over to you, Rhonda. Yes, so Robin, we're really excited to have you on the show

today and I just wanted to start off for, you know, the many viewers that we have and for anyone who may not be too familiar. I was wondering if we could start by having you share just a little bit about yourself and what it is that you do. Thank you for that question. Yes, I am Dr. Robin, L. McNair, and I know that L and that M can get a little tricky, but I am a 33-year educator. And the work that I do, it centers around relationships. It is restorative coaching, restorative justice in schools. And basically what that means is I support schools, I support educators, and how to build community and provide safe spaces and communities of care for their young people, whether

their young people are pre-4 years old or whether their young people are 18-plus years old. but it's really about how to build those amazing relationships with those other people's children that we have been indebted to care for. Wow. Just my hat's off to you, Dr. Robin, because I tell you, I volunteered one day at my daughter's school one time. And I said, you know what? Educating other people's children is just not in my list of gifts that I can do well. but I really appreciate the work that you do. I appreciate your leadership in the schools,

beginning to restore justice in a way that is not too negative or that has a negative impact on our children. So I just really appreciate your leadership and wanted to ask you first, what type of leader would you say that you are? What style of leadership do you have? So I consider myself to be a transformational leader. And under the umbrella of transformational, I am also a relational leader.

And I'm also a visionary. And I say I'm a transformational leader because I do believe that things are always shifting and changing in the world, in the different systems that we navigate. And if we do not continue to keep up with the change, then we're not going to see progress. We're not going to see advancement. So I am really encouraged when I go into schools and show them a different way to be, you know, to continue to lift up our generations. And I say visionary because, you know, I can look down the road and I can see the light at the tunnel of what could be, right?

And that allows me to continue to hold on to the vision. It allows me to continue to inspire others to grab hold of the vision and then to, you know, follow the steps to obtain that vision. And of course, I'm relational because I just love people. And I believe that we thrive in relationships. We thrive in community. And that is my ultimate goal is creating communities of care, communities of safety and communities of belonging. Oh, so important. I love that, Dr. Robin. Yes, very powerful having those visions, creating community. and great relationships are so, so important as well. So I like all the parts of the things that you put together.

It's like the leadership, the relationships, the community, the vision, and it all goes together so well as well. So I like that. Share some of the successes that you've had, Robin. Some of the successes. Wow. So the first success I would like to share is there was a school that was opening up and they contacted me to contract my services with them. So I spent a full year just helping that new school to create the foundation of relationships amongst the adults.

So all the work that I did was around restorative coaching to allow the adults to build trust with one another and to understand that, Each adult in this building has a gift that they're bringing to allow this school to thrive. And as a result of that contract, I was able to continue to come back and to build on what they learned from the very beginning. And that school is still successful today. Now, of course, that is our grade school. But another success that I've had with my business is being able to bring restorative justice to a college campus. and just working with faculty, working with HR, and how to understand that each department do not work separately, they work together in order to create a thriving, you know, campus

where young people, well, our young adult people, where our young adults can feel like, you know, even though I go home every day, I still feel like I belong to this college community. And it starts with the adults, whether we're in grade pre-K or whether we are in our post-secondary, which is, you know, our college campuses. Beautiful. So rewarding, Dr. Robin, to create those results and know you've been a big part of it. Ronda, over to you. Yeah, absolutely. So I definitely appreciate hearing about your successes in what you do. and I can't help but wonder what have been some of the challenges? Because I'm sure, along with things going great, there's the possibilities of some things not going always as planned or as we had hoped, especially when we're talking about the field of education and trying to, you know,

resolved any conflicts in that area. Yes. So from my understanding, this is not a two-hour long show. I'm just going to give you a couple of the challenges today. So the first challenge, specifically when you're a leader and you are starting to navigate your business and get yourself out there, you have to learn what contracts to say no to. Because there was a time where once the success happened at one of the schools, their sister schools started reaching out. So I had four schools that I was trying to navigate. while continuing to support my school system in which I work full time. So learning how to say no is a challenge for me because, you know, I want everyone to be in good relationship, but I had to say no.

The other challenge was learning to enjoy the journey of building my business. I want to do all the things right now, but understanding that I have to take the first step. and once my foot is solid in that first step, then it's time to take the next step. And then I take the next step. And that's a smooth walk because if I'm trying to skip steps, you know what happens when you go too fast and you skip a step, right? And there are going to be times where you do skip a step and you fall. But understanding that when you get back up, you look back and say, hmm, so what caused me to skip this step right here? So a lot of self-reflection. So my two challenges, you know, being able to, you know, not say yes to everything.

And then been able to just enjoy the present moment in the process of building my business. Thank you for those responses. Those were very real and authentic. I mean, I can definitely see how, you know, learning to say no when your heart is really wanting to say yes can definitely be a challenge. I think that's something that we may all struggle with for sure. Definitely. Where do you want to go from here, Dr. Robby? And that's what I would like to know. Well, of course, you know, Mark, you said that, you know, I'm a 33-year educator. I repeated it.

I'm a 33-year educator. And every time I hear that I think about retirement. So from here, I want to move into restorative consulting. a restorative coaching where I'm helping individuals to find harmony within. Moving my business up a notch where I'll start doing some online platforming just to allow people to start to do inner work where they can learn how to have that harmony within to navigate their relationships. And I want to do it on a global scale.

and that is what I'm creating right now. I also want to ensure that there will be opportunities for me to have master classes as we're moving forward. So definitely from here I'm looking at how to expand my business at the retirement to include more one-on-one coaching, master classes, and of course, creating an academy for those people to just find their peace and harmony within to move throughout this world. I love that. That's a great place to be going, Dr. Robbing. And having harmony within, you do have to do that inner work and having someone to guide you through that. I know from personal experience, how important inner workies. So I love your goals and where you're going with all of it. And what a great way to retirement to do all of those amazing things as well, Dr. Robin. Over to you, Dr. Rhonda. Yes. I love it. I love that you have a plan in place for retirement. You know, people think about retirement and some of them struggle with the fact that they're not doing anything. But the fact that you have an extension of work that is already so meaningful and so impactful in the community and in the world.

So that leads me to my question. In addition to what you're doing and sort of what your future goals, I would like to ask you a little bit about. So how do you actually want to lead? what mark do you want to leave in the world? Like when you think about your legacy, you know, what do you want to remain about Dr. Robin L. McNair once you are,

you are no longer here physically. When you think about your legacy, what would you like to be the mark that you leave in the world that is able to, you know, carry on when you far outlive your body? That is a very deep question. You know how we like them deep questions. That's what a real inner work comes in, answering deep decisions.

Absolutely, absolutely. You know, I believe that we must be in better relationship with one another. However, with some of the demands and the expectations of society, we tend to be on this level of performance. and we are not aligning our actions with what our hearts are truly telling us to do, basically what we've been on this earth to do, right? So the legacy that I want to live is for people to understand that it is okay for them to live from an authentic life. With the harmony within Academy, I believe that that is going to allow people to start

to do some very deep soul searching. really understand what they are authentically put on this earth to do and step into their greatness to do it. And I believe that with transforming or helping someone to be empowered to transform themselves to be in that space, that's one person. Then that one person will move to another person. That's two people. And as we continue this legacy of Harmony Within Academy after I'm long gone,

I think we're going to reach the masses. And just really quickly, I want to share that there is a student that I was able to impact when he was in the ninth grade. And he now is carrying the work of restorative justice even in his classroom. So those are the pieces that I want to leave when I'm gone, you know, that restorative within, that harmony within where people are continuing to strive to be in good relationships with others. So we can heal this world. I love it. You know, you tell him that story about your student. You're a student from the ninth grade who is now doing restorative justice work himself.

I know that must make you feel amazing. Yeah, I'm restored, Mom. Yeah, I know. And also to know that you really are making a difference, that people can see your work making an impact. And that's what it's all about. Yes. So, Robin.

And I was also going to say, Dr. Robin, Go ahead. Go ahead. Oh, no, go ahead. Go ahead. Please. No, please, you first. Well, I was also going to say, you know, Robin has such an just an amazing story. You know, when you think about someone who has gone through something like, you know, breast cancer and having survived that, you know, we have a tendency to kind of, you know, be into ourselves, you know. But, you know, not only has Robin done, you know, her own inner work and, you know, her own. healing both physically, you know, mentally, emotionally, but able to use, you know, that use this positivity and this energy and the things that she's learned and being peaceful, conflict resolution and, you know, her leadership skills to be able to make an impact with the young people and then to see the young people, then to go on and make an impact with others, as well. well. I mean, just an amazing story. Just, you know, her background and her story. Just amazing. Yes,

absolutely. Global work too. Not just locally, but global work. Yes. And I was going to say, Robin, you're talking about leaving this legacy when you're gone, but I think you've already created that legacy while you're here as well, which is totally incredible. Now, people can connect with you, Dr. Robin, at you can email Dr. Robin at R-L-M-S-R-M-S. N-A-R-32 at g-mail.com. That's R-L-M-C-N-A-I-R-32 at Gmail.com. Dr. Robin, who should connect with you? Who do you want to reach out to you?

Where can they find you and who's the best person to get in touch with you? Right. So my audience is mainly educators. educators have to be poured into in order to pour into other people's children. So that's my main audience. But as I'm, you know, moving forward, I'm looking at all generations, you know, from baby boomers to, you know, Gen Xers, you know, to our beautiful millennials and our wonderful Gen Zs that are coming up now. But I am looking to just speak with any woman, any male, any person. non-binary who has a desire to just start to look at how they can pull the within without.

Beautiful. They can also contact me at I am Dr. Robin on Instagram, and they can contact me at Centerpiece, Restore, underscore restorative as well. Okay, just give your Instagram handle once more for our audience there. Okay, it is at I am Dr. Robin. I like that. At I am Dr. Robin. That's an easy one for people to remember.

Dr. Rhonda, what another incredible guest you have brought to the show today. I thoroughly enjoyed having a conversation with you, Dr. Robin. Thank you so, so much for coming on. sharing so much value, so much wisdom. Thank you. You're so welcome and thank you once again, both to you, Mark, and Dr. Rhonda. Thank you so much for being our guest today. It's been an amazing interview. It's been incredible. Thank you, everyone for joining us for brilliance. Business Thanks for listening to Business Innovators Radio.

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