MANkind Summit 2.0 Recap
MANkind Summit was a historic three-day virtual event focused on elevating mental health and wellness with the power of kindness, connection, and community. In this short solo-episode, Kindness Influencer and podcast host, Marly Q, highlights the importance of mental health and wellness with a quick recap of the Summit. If you want to feel inspired and refreshed with new perspectives and practical tools to calm your mind, find clarity, and take action towards your goals then listen to this episode and consider joining our Kind QREW+ online community for on-going support. Marly Q believes that Quality Relationships Elevate Wellness (QREW) and having a kind support system helping you prioritize self-care and well-being is the secret to living a more happy, successful and fulfilled life. Tune in and listen for a special invitation at the end!
Join our Kind QREW community – Click here
Join our Kind QREW+ Paid Membership – Click here
“I believe Quality Relationships Elevate Wellness and everyone deserves to have a QREW.” ~ Marly Q
Listen to this Episode and Discover…
- Gain valuable insights and reflections on the second annual MANkind Summit, a unique virtual event that focused on elevating mental health and wellness with the power of kindness, connection and community.
- Be inspired by Marly Q’s personal story of resilience and her commitment to spreading kindness and building a strong, supportive community.
- Gain motivation to make time for self-care and discover how simple it can be to prioritize your own mental health and wellness.
- Learn practical strategies and tools to cultivate calmness, find clarity, and make progress towards your goals, empowering you to create a more fulfilling life.
- Receive a personal invitation to join our Kind QREW+ community, where you’ll receive ongoing support, access to exclusive resources, and the opportunity to participate in future events and workshops.
About Marly Q:
Kindness Influencer, Leadership Trainer, and Community-Builder on a mission to create a kinder world for over two decades. Through her podcast, she invites listeners to make “Time to Be Kind” each week to receive a spark of kindness, connection and community.
Connect with Marly Q:
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/MarlyQ
Instagram: https://instagram.com/MarlyQ
Facebook: https://facebook.com/theMarlyQ
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@MarlyQ
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarlyQ
TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@theMarlyQ
Join our Kind QREW Free Private Facebook Group: https://facebook.com/groups/kindqrew
Join our Kind QREW+ Paid Membership: https://marlyq.com/kind-qrew
Programs & Courses: https://marlyq.com/programs
Marly Q Speaking, Training & Retreats: https://sparkcsr.com
Listen to Marly Q TEDx Talk “Kindness is your Superpower”: https://bit.ly/MarlyQTEDxTalk
EP 34: Don’t Quit on You with Marly Q
EP 32: Let’s Start with Why (and How) with Marly Q
EP 30: Season 2, Kind Welcome with Marly Q
EP 0: Season 1, Welcome PARKer with Marly Q
TRANSCRIPTION:
00:00 Marly Q
Can one event change your life? Yes, yes it can. And I know this because I’ve been creating and being a part of life changing events for well over two decades. And I just hosted our second annual MANkind Summit, a historic three day virtual event to elevate mental health and wellness. In this episode, I quickly recap what this one of a kind event experience was like. And for all of those who did not attend the MANkind Summit this year, Stay tuned to the end.
00:40 Marly Q
Hello and thank you for making Time to Be Kind with Marly Q. It’s just you and I here today. How cool is that? It’s been a while since I do a solo episode, but today I was inspired because we just hosted our second annual MANkind Summit. And I have so much to still digest and reflect on that experience. But I wanted to kind of go off of momentum and record this quick recap. For those of you that attended, you know the transformation, the inspiration, the elevation that we all experienced together throughout the course of the three days. Whether you were with us all three days of the summit, or you only attended one day, or maybe just one session, or maybe you just were able to pop in and out in the middle of your busy day, I hope and I trust that you were able to receive from the event experience what was there for you to receive. Hopefully a spark of kindness, connection, and community.
01:32 Marly Q
That was my intention. That’s who I believe I am. And my purpose here on this earth is to simply be the spark of kindness, of real meaningful connection and to build community. That’s what Time to Be Kind with Marly Q podcast is all about. And the event, the MANkind Summit, was really the embodiment of making Time to Be Kind to yourself. And I really want to recognize and honor and appreciate the people that registered for this event and that attended I recognize that it was a difficult ask and that it was a challenge to show up for three days, to make time, to be kind to yourself, to elevate your mental health and wellness, to share that maybe with family, with friends, or with your team of coworkers.
02:16 Marly Q
I know I challenged you and I really want to again acknowledge and recognize those of you that took me up on that challenge, especially wanting to thank our sponsors, our presenting sponsor Spark CSR, which is my company of professional development training, leadership workshops and retreats. This was basically my showcase of what it is that I can do on a virtual scale and also in person as a speaker, as a facilitator, as a leadership trainer, right?
02:41 Marly Q
So my company was a presenting sponsor, Spark CSR. You can check it out at sparkcsr.com. And we had Miami-Dade County District 13 as a presenting sponsor as well. We applied for a grant and for the second year in a row, we were supported so that we can produce this event for practically free for the community. Thank you to Senator Rene Garcia, who we had on our podcast just a few episodes ago. And we’ll make sure to link it on this show notes so that you can hear from him. Why he decided to say “Yes, MAN” to this event and support us for two years in a row. One of our first sponsors to sign up was Voices for Children, which we just recently interviewed Kadie Black, the CEO of Voices for Children. We want to thank Fortune Lenders, Rise Up Bookkeeping, Lulee B. Inc., The Well Biz as well, Synergate Coaching. Little Chef Big Food and STARS Global Preparatory School, which is a school here in South Florida, which I have been serving as a chairwoman of the board for the past two years. And the reason that I’m a part of that board and the school and also interviewed Dr. Egle Nunez San Cristobal on Time to Be Kind with Marly Q a few episodes ago is because they infuse their curriculum and their everyday school with kindness. There is actually a kindness curriculum, there is service learning that happens in the classroom. And for me, that’s really key is that we are teaching kindness and influencing kindness in our youth, not just our youth, in us, in ourselves as well.
04:10 Marly Q
And the MANkind summit was all about directing some of that self-love and kindness that we constantly give in service of others. Hey, I’m talking to you, PARKer, to you, the people that Perform Acts of Random Kindness, right? The people that are constantly helping this event was to help the helpers. And we spent three days working through an experience. Day one was get calm. It was all about how do we calm our mind? How do we befriend stress, right? One of the mindset shifts that we started the event with, the first 15 minutes of the event, we had done a guided meditation and we shift our relationship and our mindset with stress, where we realized that stress is not the enemy, right? Lack of awareness to stress is the enemy. And when we began to practice Mental Awareness Now, or MAN, is the acronym for Mental Awareness Now. When we begin to practice that as a mindfulness skill, it allows us to experience more calm in our life, despite the chaos, confusion, or otherwise happening on the outside, right?
05:07 Marly Q
So day one was all about tapping into that calm. How do we do that with practical tools, with practical skills, right? And I gave everybody on day one, the one daily habit that has the power to change your life that has a power to change the way you feel when you wake up and go to bed. I call it my BEST way to stress less. BEST is the acronym for that self-care strategy that I got to teach, I got to share. I’ve been sharing it since 2020 to well, I mean, thousands of people by now and dozens of workshops in person and virtual. And I can tell you with certainty, not just by teaching it to others and being able to witness and hear transformation from people that actually apply this BEST way to stress less strategy. But for me personally in my life, doing my BEST and being committed to always do my BEST has really gotten me through some difficult and challenging times, especially some mental ruts that I found myself in when I was quarantined and pregnant with a toddler in my house and trying to transition into becoming a mom of two and figuring out how to rebuild my business after losing it from COVID, et cetera. I was in a bit of a rut and the only thing that I had available to me was my Mental Awareness Now and practicing my mindfulness skills to keep me from a rut and allow me to pivot really fast into creating Time to Be Kind with Marly Q Podcast, creating online courses, creating our community, our kind crew, and creating awesome virtual events like the MANkind Summit. That was day one, was get calm. And I shared a bit of that story as to how getting calm helped me shift over into getting clear.
06:42 Marly Q
So day two was all about get clear. Once we are able to get some calm and achieve some calm in our mind, then we can get really clear as to what’s really important to us. Right? Have you ever been guilty of feeling like a hot mess or you just feel like a mess? Right? You were scattered and distracted in a lot of different directions. Day two at the MANkind summit was for you, to help you. Kind of reset your mind. We started with an amazing session, a mindset research session. I wanna thank Sheena Eizmendiz from The Wellbiz for leading that session for us and teaching us some real practical mindfulness skills that we can use to reset our mind, achieve more calm and more clarity so that we can get moving and feeling better. So that was, I didn’t mention our featured speakers for day one, I wanna thank. Dr. Eva Ritvo, founder of Bekindr Global Initiative and a psychiatrist in Miami Beach Florida for well over 30 years. She’s been a multi-guest of Time to Be Kind with Marly Q, including episode one and three and 30 something a couple of weeks ago. And we just love Dr. Eva Ritvo and she helped to amplify the story of a woman that we both feel really embodies growing as a result of trauma and someone that her mental health has helped her really build a beautiful life where she enjoys quality relationships and experiences, despite her physical disabilities. So Kerry Gruson, the co-founder of Thumbs Up International, was a part, not just as a featured speaker at our event where we helped to amplify her voice, but she attended all three days. And really, just by her presence and her wisdom and the words that she was able to express really changed lives at the MANkind Summit, changed our perception of what’s possible and what we can actually see in one another way past our physical limitations.
08:28 Marly Q
We also got to focus on our goals and on day three, get moving in that direction. So again, day one was get calm. Day two was get clear. And day three was get moving. And I taught you my smartest planning framework to achieving any goal. We were able to leave with an actual roadmap and some action steps as to how you’re going to get moving and make progress on the goal that you decided was most important to you. It was so amazing to actually have that be a real valuable use of time for people. How many events have you been to where you get a lot of information, information overload, but then you leave and you’re like kind of overwhelmed or unsure as to what am I going to do with all this information that I just received? I know I’m not the only one. I and the MANkind summit experience was not like that at all. There was zero overwhelm on the information. And if anything there was overwhelm on the joy of being able to experience and receive each other’s kindness. It was a beautiful display of kindness, connection and community. And again, I just want to say thank you to our speakers and our sponsors for making this event possible. And more than that, to the attendees, to every single person that attended this event that engaged, that was active with our dashboard and won MAN points. Yes, my friends, we actually had a competition called the MAN points challenge and we gave points for attending the event, for engaging, for speaking up, for submitting forms on the dashboard, for visiting our speakers and our sponsors. And it was just so fun to reward people to interact and to engage.
09:58 Marly Q
If that doesn’t show you that this was a completely amazing and unique one-of-a-kind experience, I don’t know what will, right? This was not a Zoom meeting. This was not slideshows and presentations or speakers just speaking at you. This was really a co-creation of community and really in my opinion, showcasing the change that we all wish to see in this world. We created, we co-created an environment and a space in an event where people came and felt safe to be themselves, to express their voice.
10:27 Marly Q
We even had Adrianna Foster on day two and day three sing Acapella using her voice loudly to inspire all of us with a smile and with a message that it’s all about you. You are responsible for elevating your mental health and wellness on a daily basis. And this event was my effort from my heart to open my heart and my arms to the community to invite you to elevate your mental health and wellness together.
10:52 Marly Q
We all need this MAN. We all need this MAN. None of us is, you know, has reached the summit of mental health and wellness enlightenment. Mental health and wellness is a daily practice. And in a world where we are so busy and pulled in so many different directions and there’s so much fear and uncertainty and unknowns, us being able to strengthen our mental fortitude. For us to be able to strengthen our mental health, to be able to stand still and strong in the face of adversity, for us to be able to pivot quickly when there’s changes, for us to be able to be focused and present and productive at work, at home and out in the world. It’s really up to us. It’s all about you making Time to Be Kind to you and prioritizing your mental health and wellness. The MANkind Summit was the opportunity to do that. And again, I just want to thank recognize, acknowledge, celebrate, applaud all the beautiful people that took me up on this invitation and made Time to Be Kind to elevate your Mental Awareness Now. If you missed it, you’re listening and you’re like, what, what was this event about? Where was I? Why didn’t I go? Or you didn’t go because it was three days and you’re like, I don’t have time for three days, right? We actually had a whole session about moving from time management to time ownership so that you can find out that you actually got time.
12:04 Marly Q
I got Time to Be Kind to me. I got Time to Be Kind to others, right? Kindness doesn’t take any time. If anything, it gives you time and energy to actually experience your life in a more enriched way and to actually connect with other people and build quality relationships that elevate wellness. Because at the end of the day, if you are surrounded by quality relationships that will elevate your wellness and get you through absolutely anything that you might be going through. You don’t have to get through anything in life alone. And what I believe we all need is a QREW, not just any QREW, a Kind QREW. Allow me to be your kind guide.
12:38 Marly Q
So if you’ve been tuning into Time to Be Kind with Marly Q every week since we launched this season two. Then you know, we’ve been promoting, we’ve been inviting you to join our kind crew. It’s our free private Facebook group page. And it’s grown to well over 350 people by now, which is amazing. And it only grows by you joining and inviting other kind leaders and kind people to join our movement to spread kindness worldwide. And at the MANkind summit, I got to share an invitation to join our kind QREW plus, which is our paid membership, where every single month we meet, have a scheduled self-care date, you and I and our QREW, we meet to practice self-care. We practice doing our best way to stress less with a guided meditation so that we can actually pause, reflect on the month, share some wins, share some losses or share what I need.
13:32 Marly Q
Every month you get to actually pause and reflect so that you can see your own growth, so that you can be supported by community and actually make meaningful relationships, meaningful connections. QREW is an acronym for Quality Relationships Elevate Wellness. I believe that quality relationships elevate wellness and it is up to you, me and we to connect ourselves with each other. And that’s really the purpose here of Time to Be Kind with Marly Q and the MANkind Summit is to build community, real meaningful community. And at the MANkind Summit, I was just in tears with joyful overwhelm of the meaningful connections that were made in that room day one, day two, and day three. I want to thank our, our Kind QREW members that joined us. So if you’re listening, I want to give a shout out to our new Kind QREW members, Barbie Garcia, Denise Jomarron, Amy Burgess, Aileen Martinez and some founding members who are coming back, Michelle Soebi-Smith, Kat Haber, Dr. Betsy Guerra, Brian Lemerman, Luly B. and Carolina Williams. Thank you for joining our Kind QREW Plus. Thank you for committing to making Time to Be Kind to you on a monthly basis. And together we can hold ourselves kindly accountable to our self-care goals.
OUTRO
If this message resonated with you, then go on over to MarlyQ.com, click the join Kind QREW Plus button and join us MAN. Each and every month we make Time to Be Kind and practice self care. I offer a quarterly planning workshop for my kind crew members that costs $297, but it’s free for you to attend. You get access to my online course, to my guided meditation. You get access to the MANkind summit itself for free next year. And you also get access to the replay videos from this year’s MANkind summit and last year. So it’s an absolute no brainer. Join my Kind QREW Plus by visiting this episode’s show notes. The link will be right there for you to join. All right, MarlyQ.com forward slash this episode number will get you straight there. Thank you for making this Time to Be Kind with me today and hearing my little recap and fast forward of the MANkind Summit. There’s gonna be so much more coming your way as soon as we’re able to get these videos and bring this content down to share with all of you. Thank you for making this Time to Be Kind with Marly Q. I’ll see you next time.
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