How to Win More Than We Lose

Dr. Glenn Toby, Philanthropist & Entrepreneur, Glenn Toby Enterprises

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Dr. Glenn Toby is the founder and CEO of Glenn Toby Enterprises (GTE). Glenn Toby Enterprises is a leading international holding corporation that controls companies in the world of real estate, asset management, and technology as well as a multi-tiered entertainment and athlete management company. 

Glenn’s career spans 30 years from 80s music industry pioneer to leader in the Entertainment & Sports Management world. HE Represented managed or advised,  include LL Cool J, Olympian Samyr Laine, Lance Reddick, Asante Samuel, Antonio Freeman, Josh Evans, World Champion Boxer O'Neil "Supernova"​ Bell, actor Jason Weaver, and other big names in entertainment, sports & business. 

His heart leans in as a steadfast philanthropist, Dr. Toby is the founder of the Book Bank Foundation Inc, a literacy organization and Board Member of the Peter Tosh Foundation.

  • Dr. Toby's history
  • How Dr. Toby entered the hip hop world and managing LL Cool J
  • Why Dr.Toby founded Book Bank Foundation
  • The "secret" to finding balance
  • How to be a leader people want to follow
  • Building resilience and testing yourself
  • How do we "win" more than we "lose" (hint: we never really win)
  • How do we compartmentalize that we need to win as a team and lead as an individual
  • Who does Dr. Toby want in his sphere of his influence
  • The power of open conversations in a safe space
  • The importance of consciousness in work
  • What is Dr.Toby's favorite part of his current work

Connect with The Real Tom Finn

[Tom Finn]    00:00:02    Welcome to the Talent Empowerment podcast, where we help you find power in your purpose. I'm your host, Tom Finn. And I sit down with leaders at the forefront of a professional revolution, alongside CEOs, entrepreneurs, athletes, and industry icons. We'll learn how to find your life's purpose to accelerate your own transformation together. We'll crack the code on modern work-life integration. Let's transform our world, build personal agility, and move from a culture of isolation to community. This is Talent Empowerment. 

Today's episode of the Talent Empowerment podcast is brought to you by LeggUP’s Talent Insurance, an inclusive people development platform designed to help leaders empower their organizations through one-on-one professional coaching. LeggUP’s Talent Insurance upskill and reskill your modern workforce, and ensures the retention of your people. Head over to leggu.com to request a Talent Insurance demo. 

Welcome to the Talent Empowerment podcast, where we share the stories of great leaders. So you can lift up your organizations, your teams, and certainly your community. I am your host, Tom Finn, and on the show today, we have a philanthropist. He's an entrepreneur, he's an author. He's an advisor. And dare I say, he's a damn fine gentleman. His name is Dr. Glenn Toby. Dr. Toby. Welcome to the show, my friend.  

[Dr. Glenn Toby]    00:01:26    So good to be here. Thank you for having me.  

[Tom Finn]    00:01:28    Well, if you don't know Dr. Toby, let me introduce you to him. You're gonna get to know him really well today. Dr. Glenn Toby is the founder and CEO of Glenn Toby enterprises. Now that is a leading international holding corporation, that controls companies in the world of real estate and asset management technology. He has a multi-tiered entertainment background has an athlete management company. Now he's been doing this for 30 years. It started in the eighties in the music industry as a pioneer, and a leader in the entertainment and sports management world. He has represented, managed, and advised our friends like Ladies Love Cool James, for those of you that don't know that's LL Cool, Jay Olympian, Samir Lane, Lance Reddick, Asante, Samuel Antonio Freeman, Josh Evans, and even world championship boxer O'Neil supernova bell actor, Jason Weaver, all sorts of other big names, but let me be clear. His heart leans in as a steadfast philanthropist. Dr. Toby is the founder of the Book Bank Foundation, a literary organization. He's a board member of the Peter Tosh Foundation. I am so thrilled to have you on the show. We have so much to discuss what an impressive background and empire tell us where did it all begin?  

[Dr. Glenn Toby]    00:02:42    Thank you. It began, I was born in Brooklyn, raised in Queens, experienced youth homelessness from the age of eight to about the seventh grade, uh, amazing family. My grandmother, and my mother pretty much raised me, and my brother Rand by my side. And, um, it was a playground to work hard, right? So didn't lose my imagination or my passion for life as a child. You know, I came out untouched, uh, but with many different types of experiences, um, that I would learn from, you know, Randall and I were in the library a lot. We'd go to the museum a lot. When my mother was working, her leadership was amazing. Um, she lost her job, mental illness because of, um, us being homeless for so long dementia sets in, she refused to compromise ourself and, uh, that's how we ended up becoming homeless. And from that journey, uh, with relatives and support systems through government and people who were passionate and had a heart, um, for people that are in the struggle or trying to move forward, uh, we were able to end up in Queens. I went to junior high school, 1 0 9, and then on to Benjamin Cardoza high school and got into the music business and applied myself as a young entrepreneur and that hip hop world. And it was a pathway to great things.  

[Tom Finn]    00:04:06    So I know everybody's gonna ask this question and if I was listening, I'd wanna know. So you start out, you're in the music business. What's your first interaction with one of my all-time favorites LL Cool Jay,  

[Dr. Glenn Toby]    00:04:19    Funny enough, I used to MC, my name was MC sweetie G or Mr. Sweetie G. I was one of the first rappers, one of the pioneers in Queens and LL Cool J and Run DMC, uh, positive kid. These guys were younger than me, so they used to sneak into my shows or somehow get in. And they knew me as a rapper. One of the pioneers, Tom takes it, uh, Brian Laur and, uh, Charles Fisher, who were my friends growing up in the neighborhood. They were managing cool. J I joined the team and I had the honor of, uh, being on cool J's management team, doing things for him, discovering talent, as I would initially do for many more years to come, you know, positive K uh, David, Ben are several different rappers and R and B as well. So it was a nice path.  

[Tom Finn]    00:05:07    So, so did you prefer to be on stage or do you like to be on the side of the stage, which, one fits your personality better?  

[Dr. Glenn Toby]    00:05:14    I like 'em both, you know, after a while when the new young guns come in the game and talent changes and emerge. If, if you don't have the passion and the energy and you're not able to endure what it takes, um, it's not a good place to be. I think I had a disdain for business because I saw it as the opposing will, that is coming to take every artist's royalties and be restrictive. And I said, let me study the game. Cause I was an avid reader, my brother and I were very AOUS. We were kind of forward thinkers and I wasn't willing to give up my music publishing. I was offered a deal from sugar hill records and some of the independent labels that were taken advantage of artists. And I didn't wanna be taken advantage of. I pushed back. I pushed the bully back and, uh, I started emerging in business and it developed into entertainment and sports to real estate technology and other things. But I'm always an artist at heart.  

[Tom Finn]    00:06:11    Well, I think  

[Dr. Glenn Toby]    00:06:12    My heart, I love the creative, but I'm I'm boots on the ground with the business.  

[Tom Finn]    00:06:16    Well, I, I love the way he said that. And for those listening out there, what you heard him say is I took to the books and I started to learn what the game was and I tried to figure out how to make it better and how to improve. And that's what all talent empowerment is about, right? Is it empowering yourself first to empower others, uh, to support those in the community? Um, so do you feel fulfilled? Do you feel like the path has been the right journey, for you personally?  

[Dr. Glenn Toby]    00:06:43    Yeah, I feel it gave me so many different tools. You know, youth homelessness gave me the ability to speak to poverty and hopefully get people through poverty. I think the entertainment space gave me access to ungodly amounts of wealth. Um, people with extreme personalities that are bizarre to people who are the pillar of truth and honesty, like defining those pieces where parts of my, in my, uh, toolbox to be able to serve others. I feel like I'm able to speak to people through the book bank foundation or charity, because I've been, I've worn these many hats and had these many different experiences and I can recognize and identify where my strong suit is. And I can under understand where I might not have enough resources, uh, or experience to be able to serve. That's why we build an amazing team who can answer every call, hear every voice and have light for their site or have vision for what's not there.  

[Tom Finn]    00:07:38    Yeah. Beautifully said, uh, and you brought it up. So let's dive right in book, bank foundation, help us understand, uh, the, cause the background, how you got into that.  

[Dr. Glenn Toby]    00:07:47    Yeah. So, um, I, I sat back after my career in sports and I looked back at how much money I had made people that I met the traveling, the exposure, uh, connectivity and being rewarded with, um, not just monetary success, but societal, right. Um, people embracing you that you would never imagine would embrace you. And, you know, being on teams of people smarter and stronger than me, and then being accepting and learning how to work within a team. So I said it was books, you know, education was so strong, such a strong part of my personal development and was one of my greatest tools. Um, I said to myself, well, books, you've got the books are the source learning and you got the spiritual bank, the emotional bank, a financial bank, a memory bank. Uh, you have the bank where the water is in it.  

[Dr. Glenn Toby]    00:08:38    So the bank is so important. You put the book with the bank, the education with the money and the wisdom, these tools come together. It changes commerce. It changes community and it changes the calling of mankind. Um, if the bank is dealt with humility, austerity, intelligence, uh, numbers that don't lie can tell the truth to people that, uh, don't have access to the money. So us creatives in entertainment, space, sports space, even people who have a creative heart who are open to creation and innovation can take money and power and solutions to change the world. You bridge those two together in the name of charity or in the name of, uh, altruism, money, commerce, and people that are driving the world can have compassion for the loss alone in the forgotten they can live together.  

[Tom Finn]    00:09:23    Well, I love the way you said that, uh, combining all of these different areas in our heart and our soul and the way that we think and the way that we enter our communities in our lives. I think I think's so critically important. And when we think about that, it's a, it's a wonderful backdrop to understand who you are as a person, as a man. How did, how did you really decide to move forward, um, with the book bank foundation and, uh, what was the impetus to start it? I know you're, you're very centered and you're very thoughtful, but what did you wanna accomplish with this?  

[Dr. Glenn Toby]    00:09:54    So it was a self, it was a, it was a prophecy. So I was doing really well. Uh, with Alonzo shaves, we had a firm, you know, infinite sports technologies represented hundreds of athletes in our career. Um, and I said, the best way to heal oneself is to kind of go back to where you are, make an assessment, see where made a mistake, what are my weak points? What are my strong points? Am I healed? And I went right back into the throes of homelessness. So I went to the Bowery mission and met one of my mentors, Mr. James McLin, um, who was running the Bowery mission in New York city. It's the oldest adult men's, uh, shelter in the, in the country, um, early as a child, my brother, my mother, and I went to those front doors. They couldn't accept us cuz it was a mother and children.  

[Dr. Glenn Toby]    00:10:40    Somehow I come back, I start giving away shoes, clothing, um, talking to people in the NFL, talking to my friends or in the music industry and bringing resources to the shelter, continued to grow to something where I did something called shelter from the streets. We took three buses and we would drive around the city, Mercedes buses with celebrities and, and people that were advocates, ministers, police officers, criminals, drug dealers, who were, had a passion for life, but said, Hey, I wanna give back. I'm trying to change my life. And we would go right to the projects. We'd go right to the homeless shelters. We'd go right to parks. And uh, we'd go in the tunnels and on the street and deliver brand new clothing, food, blankets, toys to them. And we just kept doing it. It became, I infectious, it grew, it developed its own following. And it was a way for people who wanted to touch to be healed and to heal the lost, the loneliness forgot that was called shelter from the streets, continued to emerge in this community, offering that we have, we ask each person to come with a heart to help, uh, with a mind to help, to heal and be helped. Openness. Yeah. Openness to changing the problem.  

[Tom Finn]    00:11:47    Well, I mean, beautifully said, and for those of you listening, I mean, you can just hear the passion, uh, in, uh, in Glen's voice and, and you can hear that he loves and supports his community at a very, very deep level. The question I have is, is it hard to balance all of this because we're all busy? We all got these phones that go off all the time. You're connected to so many different people in different industries, uh, that are high-powered individuals. How do you find the time to do your philanthropic work as well as stay connected to everybody?  

[Dr. Glenn Toby]    00:12:18    Well, you know, it's having a great team. A lot of times you can see a prize fighter or you'll see an artist and people think that they're not really part of a team. You see Serena, she's having a great time. There is a team, much of the team generally invisible on the outside, but a successful person who's leading their campaign. Who's victorious? That team is always visible behind the scenes. So there's a collective of the most amazing human beings that I've met over decades, who are bringing resources, power, presence, and purpose to what I do. Uh, more specifically David Branch, who's the chief executive officer at book bank foundation. He's also an entrepreneur. He's run many of my companies as well as his own. And there's a team of people who have been in prayer or who have been in private, whether it's funding or offering ideas. This is why I've had this success. I'm just standing in the shadows of greater people.  

[Tom Finn]    00:13:09    Well, I love the way he said that and every great leader has a great team behind him. Uh, and sounds like you are no different, but what makes you different as a leader is that people wanna follow you, that's really important that folks wanna work with you. They get behind you, they believe in you. How do you pull that off?  

[Dr. Glenn Toby]    00:13:26    I think it's showing up and being present. I think, um, vulnerability is truth. Um, vulnerability can be evidence, something needs to be fixed or something was fixed or in the process of it. So I think my openness to continue to be in the community, my openness, to share and be willing to, you know, take criticisms and how we can redefine and improve things is what has allowed us to have, uh, the success that we've had. So it's my willingness, my openness to learn. I'm showing up every day, no filters, no curtains, nothing up my sleeve, just willing to work and we're working hard.

  

[Tom Finn]    00:14:01    Yeah. I love that. It really comes down to authenticity is what I heard. Be authentic. Be yourself, be true, be good to people along the way. And good things will happen. That's really what, uh, empowering others is all about. Uh, and it sounds like that's, that's in your heart and your soul, uh, as well. But yeah, it didn't, it didn't always go this way. Right? I mean, have you, have you stubbed your toe along the way or has it all been, you know, rainbows and, and butterflies,  

[Dr. Glenn Toby]    00:14:26    It's been tough. I mean, you have to be resilient and you have to recognize the era. I think self-assessment is the key to winning. You know, I think someone that's victorious or a champion is someone that sustained loss losses or knows how to lose, um, without disrupting everyone else in the process. So if you're a crazy guy, if you're a chef in the kitchen and you're going nuts and you're ranting and people can't work with you, if you're a great quarterback and you think you're doing it all on your own, that pulling guard can drop off. And when you're on your back, you realize that it is a team effort. So I think vulnerability, transparency, and, uh, patience is how it is. People have to be patient in their learning, right? And your ability to learn and to develop into scale. And we have to be patient with the people that we're developing and that we're leading. And we have to make sacrifices. I mean, if you're really trying to change the game or if you're really trying to, uh, bring something to the table, if you're not just a taker.  

[Tom Finn]    00:15:23    Hmm. What do you do when you run into those takers? Can you recognize them pretty quickly at this point?  

[Dr. Glenn Toby]    00:15:29    I recognize him. And so I, I look at it as a form of attrition. There's always gonna be some loss, just like in a good business. You, you factor in losses, you factor in, if you have a retail store, you know, there's gonna be profit loss, there's gonna be pill Fri and theft. So you have to factor that into, uh, your constitution, as a person that there's always gonna be that one person that's gonna disrupt everything you're doing. That's in denial or, um, puts you on trial when you are completely innocent. And when you are completely on your purpose, so you have to factor it in. And that is a litmus test or a measure of success. How much can you take? How strong can you go? You need to change the tires or the tires get changed. That pit stop is right there and it moves really fast. But guess what? The pit stop is almost moving as fast in, in relationship to the car. That's racing in relationship to the intuitiveness of the driver. Everything's moving at speed, but there's a calculation. And there is a resonance that goes with the intuitiveness of the person, what we've learned, what we haven't learned. So it's all the process when that machine's running, right? You win the races when it isn't you lose  

[Tom Finn]    00:16:36    Well, well said. And so how do we win more than we lose? I mean, is it just, is it the right team? It's the right mindset. It's the right heart. Are these the things that we should be thinking about as we try to, as we try to head down the right path,  

[Dr. Glenn Toby]    00:16:51    That's wow. That's one of the best questions I've heard. So we never really win. We never really win. What we do is overcome these obstacles. If you are the only person that's winning, if you're walking away in your business, if you're walking away in your mission and you have more than everyone else, and everybody else isn't winning, it's not a true win. A victory is sustained. These are victories. When everyone has benefited, even the losers they talk about, Hey, I was in that great game. I lost to this great champion. So we have to think about sportsmanship. And we have to think about collective mindset and community, or you just have a bunch of people who are competing against each other with, with no common respect. There's no character, there's no stewardship. There's no benefit to even the person that's watching. And those are the trends that can change the world. That's why we have disparity. This is why we have wars. It's why we have disconnected. Everybody's trying to win in the spirit of oneness and not in the spirit of the team. Victory means there is something that has been achieved. The championship is merited for the moment, which means losses have to be factored in. We have to accept losing. We have to effect effectively, make a change, and know that no, one's truly a loser. They just didn't win.  

[Tom Finn]    00:18:03    So this is really complex for people. Uh, because what you're saying is you don't win as an individual. You win as a group. Victory is served to a group of people. However, when I go on social media, I don't see a group of people. I see a face, uh, as an individual being promoted. Now, whether that person is promoting themselves or promoting their business, or what have you, it's usually one, it's not that team that gets the love and the support and maybe the praise. So how do we, how do we compartmentalize this? I've gotta win as a team, but I've gotta lead as an individual  

[Dr. Glenn Toby]    00:18:37    Thomas, one of the best questions of the years. So the reality is somebody in the background's getting everything they want need is, they're gonna be gone. We're, we're living in a microwave society. So when you see this one person, it's gonna resonate that there's a great team around them. It's gonna resonate that there's something else going on. They're gonna bring resources and solutions. They're gonna bring products. They're gonna bring experiences, events, and it's everybody, but you do it, whether it's the guy that has the lights, whether it's the wardrobe, guys, security, whether it's, uh, the person that's writing the film or the book, or who's ever doing analytics or doing the accounting, everything's really a team. So we're looking at personal issues. When, you know, when we see this excellence in this one, one person that we're not wondering, who's his lawyer, who's his accountant. Who's his therapist? Where does this person live? How do they diet? Do you know what I mean? Like I, is it all gravitas? Is it all a complete take? Cause if it's a complete take, at some point, it gets tired. The world's getting tired. People are asking for healing, people, things are being revealed and people are a lot smarter and faster than they've ever been.  

[Tom Finn]    00:19:42    That's a hundred percent. Right. And, and I wonder, as you're thinking about the world, the collective meaning of how to support people, how to lead the right way. Do you have a message for that 20-ish-year-old young man, young lady, uh, that's sitting there saying, how do I find my place in all of this noise?  

[Dr. Glenn Toby]    00:20:04    Well, I think it shows up for who you are and who you are not. If you discover that something's missing seek to find it. If you think you have more than you do, whether it's skills, whether it's experience, whether it's a mission, evaluate it and see if you need to work in that space. And to the youngest people that we hear that would, are listening to us right now, Tom, I would say to them, bring more than you take to every experience in your life. When I walk into a room, somebody knows I was there. Whether they want me to leave the room, whether they want me to come back, they're gonna know why I'm there. And there's gonna be a measure. Make every breath count, bring more than you take. Be willing to work for less, because less is always more. If you have everything that somebody else needs.  

[Tom Finn]    00:20:47    Yeah. Well said, great Sage advice. So when you think about walking into a room, who do you want to hang out with? If you could pick a couple of people right now, have a private conversation. Maybe, maybe sip on something cold together, get to know a couple of people. Who's not in your sphere of influence that you would love to just have a chat with?  

[Dr. Glenn Toby]    00:21:10    If I could have a chat, I'd talk to communist leaders and tell them to relax and listen to what I have to say, to tell them that there's a, it takes a bridge to get over the water. It takes a tunnel to get through the water. So the disconnect like we have Fox news, we got CNN, we have this, we have the, just everybody sits in the middle and peace and relax. And guess what? We're gonna eat the food that you want to eat. We're gonna listen to your stories. We're gonna listen to why you say everything is great. And I might be the anomaly or the people that are around me or the system that I'd like you to look at with an open heart or open mind with no takeaways. So we can make things better. You'll enjoy your world a lot better if I can enjoy mine because we are connected more than we're not.  

[Dr. Glenn Toby]    00:21:50    That's what people don't get. If we were to take all the water in the world and somebody took all the food in the world and someone had all the peace and someone had disruption, where would we be? We'd be disconnected. And, could we be crazy enough to not think in this time that we don't need one another collectively on a human level? It looks like it is every day, we're painting over. We're painting over the black and the white and the gray, not the black and the white as it is black or white, not the gray where it's undefined, but the colors of the world, the purpose of the world's getting colored over.  

[Tom Finn]    00:22:19    And your feeling is if you were to sit down with everybody and explain this, maybe we could take a couple of steps forward  

[Dr. Glenn Toby]    00:22:26    Or you know what, or learn a little bit. We might discover some of the flaws within ourselves. Like we're always looking to take something away, right? Maybe I go to the meeting and I say, wow, you know, Glen, you need to work on these things. This is not making sense. I mean, if you put world leaders together in a collective space and everybody's putting up, you know, the FIEs, like we're the richest, we're the strongest. My people are happy and somebody's sitting in the audience. Their face might be like, doesn't say, oh, the food isn't so great here. Or the freedom. Isn't so great here. Or there's too much freedom here. It's collective consciousness. We are all consciously linked, right? The disparities are because when the consciousness doesn't meet the resolve of humanity, the grace, um, being able to have patience for other people that cause for collective consciousness, there's not enough consciousness in the constitution of people and in our resolute spirit.  

[Tom Finn]    00:23:16    Do you feel like that comes down to having an open mind? Because for me, when I meet people, I tend to find that you got one of two directions. We're going, you're either closed-minded. You've got that wall up. I can't get through to you no matter what I say, it's not gonna fly. And, and then I meet others that, that says, let's have a conversation. Let's learn from each other. You know, let's, let's sit down and break bread. Let's uh, let's spend some time together understanding where we came from and who we are. Uh, that's the way I see the world. Am I, am I looking at this wrong?  

[Dr. Glenn Toby]    00:23:49    You're looking at it. Right. And I think that's where we are. I mean, I think if we sat down and I, I'm not a political guy, but with North Korea and we talked about agriculture and we talked about food deserts, that's a conversation he couldn't have in the public. If there was a safe space to talk about it, we talked about irrigation. We talked about how we're growing, um, food and vegetables and water. And even cannabis has grown inside. Are there some formulas that really speak to humanity? I mean, if there's a deficit in reality and causality, it will drive somebody to hear it. Even if it's in the echoes of their consciousness. If there's no consciousness, if there's someone who says that what you're talking about doesn't exist, then nothing can change. So I don't have to say it to you. I can just show you that mine is working really well.  

[Dr. Glenn Toby]    00:24:39    And I have efficacy or a purpose, or I have results that you pray for. I'll silently have that available for you. I might ask for you in return for that, just for sake, a piece of respect or decency, I might say to you to give me X amount of dollars, I might ask you to give me a technology process that you have a learning process that you have. So my whole thesis has been lately and my them is collective consciousness is the only way to save the universe. It's the only way to be more effective. If you're a business person, you business leaders, you government leaders, you community leaders. If you're not speaking to the core of your supporters, if you're not speaking to the core of your purpose, you're not gonna move at the, at the scale you want. There's no such thing as 10 X it's overplayed, and it's gonna come back like a company it's not really running effectively as well.  

[Tom Finn]    00:25:28    Okay? So if I'm listening to this, I'm going, man, this is, this is deep I'm, I'm trying to follow it. I'm trying to keep up, right? Help us go through collective consciousness. Let's really break down what that looks like for people and how we can exhibit those behaviors. Mm-hmm <affirmative>  

[Dr. Glenn Toby]    00:25:46    Collective consciousness is knowing that you're driving this business and you're pushing your staff, or you're, you're pushing your employees at a breakpoint level so that you're able to make the money that you need to make. But you know, some people quit. There's a new thing they talk about in business. People show up a little bit late. They respond to you late. They do just what they need to do. They come back a second before lunch, instead of coming back. So you have to be conscious that everybody's not happy in this business. You have to be conscious that this vendor that you're working with or who's ever holding the invoice is not paying it ahead of time or on time. Consciousness is so important. So if you become conscious in your work, you may become more conscious in your personal and your private. If the private and the personal are fine, and the business is fine, you're gonna have a happier person that is more readily available to listen, to change, or make a personal change, which affects the world. Because again, we're back to, we are consciously connected or unconsciously connected. If it's just a ma matter of resolute issues where the only connectivity we have is war or competition or money or beating each other, or, and what, what is that? There's no continuity in that in order to get the change, it's gotta be embraced by everybody to some degree.  

[Tom Finn]    00:27:03    Yeah. I love the way you said that. Unconscious or conscious my friends, we are connected. So if you're not paying attention and you don't think we're connected, you're probably on the unconscious side. Uh, if you're conscious, but you're not quite there yet. How do we sort of open up those bright minds? Where do we send them? Uh, Glen, do we, do we send them to a website? Do we send them reading material? Do we ask them to think about some questions?  

[Dr. Glenn Toby]    00:27:32    I would send many of them to the book bank institute.com, which is an amazing program. Dan Vega and myself. We got together. We have the book bank Institute powered by the blue university. It is an openness for people that are world leaders who want business lessons and are doing redact, thinking to people that don't know where they want to go. They want to get extra education. This education is one that's well-rounded. It's personal development, it's business, it's enhancements on skills that you have. And don't secondly, get involved with the charity, have a cause, and have something bigger than yourself. You know, I'd say a book bank Institute. And of course, the book bank foundation, which is a not-for-profit, we've been around 26 years. That's bbf.org. Let's talk about raising consciousness within, you know, it doesn't mean you have to be hands-on currently. What we're doing. We're serving about 2000 people a week, 600 families. We're going on three tons of food for two and a half years. Uh, we're getting it by community organizing. We don't have an office. We don't have, uh, a car or salaries. It's just everybody coming in and we've been going for 26 years and we are bringing education and solutions for people in food, education, mental health awareness, and humanity. It starts there first.  

[Tom Finn]    00:28:49    And that's very well said. I want to know what your favorite part of being involved is. This is what is your favorite human part, your favorite memory, your favorite person that you get to lock arms with and, and work together, help us understand the richness of the organization.  

[Dr. Glenn Toby]    00:29:05    Wow. The richness is foremost immediately are the mothers and the children that we impact. We've had the grace of delivering kids who are compromised economically, their first toy. Their first book really put in their hand, newborns to children that are one to five in, um, preschool age to older people who have given us a message at the age of 70 or 80, that are homeless, that are in a, in, in, in social straits or economic straits. That gives us a good word, a good word, a good, a good word for the globe for God, for the essence of humanity. Hey, thank you for coming today. Do you know this? And people talking, we've watched people transformed who are in different cultures or communities that believe that you know, the help out or handout is for the weak they've been lied to. And they've been tied to the premise that when you're helping somebody else, you're keeping them weak. But you know, it hits them. Oftentimes when it's their mother, when it's their child, it could be drug abuse. It could be an elderly person that doesn't have the proper, um, medical program. They don't have health coverage and it kind of softens the heart when they see that if somebody's not responding and there's not again, collective consciousness and clearing out these issues coming up with modalities and solutions everybody's affected somewhere, we are all one to three mortgage or rent payments from homelessness.  

[Tom Finn]    00:30:29    Yeah. That's a great way to put it. Uh, we're all close to the line, uh, Americans, uh, across and across the globe. We run close to our financial line. It's, it's proven, uh, in the economic results around the world. And, and you're right. We're not that far away, uh, from stepping over that line. Uh, most of us, uh, which is a, which is a wonderful point. Yeah. Uh, I, I, I love the way you said that.

[Dr. Glenn Toby]    00:30:52   That’s true. I mean, you know, 40% of New Yorkers and New York state or New York City more so the five boroughs, 40% of their net income goes to housing. So if you look at, uh, Asia and some of the other countries, their savings rates are so high, it is amazing. Americans can barely save $400 per paycheck. On average, 70% of Americans are upside down with consumer debt or lack of access, or they don't have time. Cuz it compromises the core family. It compromises all of the nuclear family's needs. This is why there's such a disparity in the family because the economic calling for just sustenance and basics is eroding. I mean, when I say this like this, it sounds like I'm running for office, but these are just metrics and facts that people need to think about.  

[Tom Finn]    00:31:37    Well, it's a great point. When are you running for office? <laugh>  

[Dr. Glenn Toby]    00:31:41    I'm running outta this office, Tom, when I'm done <laugh> about it.  

[Tom Finn]    00:31:46    Well, I look, you've got the right heart, you've got the right motivation. You've built this on your own, uh, with wonderful teammates along the way that you've supported and you're giving back in your community. Uh, these are the type of folks that should be running for office, uh, that are wonderful negotiators and bring people to the table to find peace harmony, uh, compromise, uh, across, uh, our local communities and, and across the world. So, you know, you got my vote, uh, whenever you decide to run. Uh, and I imagine you'd have, uh, millions of other votes, uh, standing there waiting in line to support you as well. Uh, we've, we've crushed a lot today. We have talked, uh, about so much and I said at the top of the show that today we had a philanthropist, an entrepreneur, an author, an advisor, and, uh, and an absolute gentleman, uh, on the show. And you have not disappointed, sir. I am so grateful for having you on the show, but I've, I've gotta ask this, this final question. Um, people are gonna listen to this. They're gonna wanna get ahold of you. Um, they're gonna, they're gonna need more, uh, of Dr. Glenn Toby. I can tell you that. How do they find you?  

[Dr. Glenn Toby]    00:32:56    Um, my website is Dr. Glen Toby. That's two NS, D R G L E N N T O B y.com. My Instagram, my LinkedIn, and my Facebook are all just my name. Uh, Glen Toby, G L E N. NT O B Y. Uh, the book bank foundation is just that the bookbankfoundation.org or the bvf.org. And uh, yeah, 5 1 6 3 4 5 0 2 8 4. Is the office. Feel free to call.  

[Tom Finn]    00:33:23    Oh, I love that. Uh, now there are no excuses. Uh, you can get a hold of him. You can find him, uh, it looks and feels like you have everything buttoned up. Is there anything missing in your life?  

[Dr. Glenn Toby]    00:33:35    Yeah, what's missing is, um, more collaboration what's MIS missing is more partnership what's missing is, uh, identifying pathways to bring more of us together. I mean, let's say this, Tom, you talk about this a lot. You don't give yourself enough credit for it, but I wanna just speak. And this is why I'm on this podcast. You talk about talent empowerment. I, I just wanted to say before I talk about what's missing is what's hitting. What's hitting is talent empowerment. Finding that person that you hire, that you resonate with, that you know, is gonna leave you one day. Hopefully, they leave you to become a CEO or are more successful in business. And you do partnerships with 'em or they become, you become a part of their success, talent, empowerment, people who have more wisdom than you or talent in some areas that you get outta your own way to let them get in. So I just wanted to speak to that. That's why I'm on this podcast today, Tom, your, your theory, your thesis, you lighting on that has been one of the most important parts of my ingredient of success, such as the David branches, the Albus, uh, just all the other professionals in my life, my attorneys, doctors, lawyers, all the people that are on my team that make it drive it's their talent. And it's me being able to implore and to support their ability for me to not empower them, but to them to remain empowered.  

[Tom Finn]    00:34:55    Yeah, well, well said that is the thesis that I am ringing the bell on day in and day out. We've gotta lift up other people support 'em and you mentioned something that we don't really talk about, you do it, knowing that they will leave. That's an important moment in time that you really understand that when they leave, it was always going to happen. And if you did it right, and you built 'em up and you supported 'em along the way they should.  

[Dr. Glenn Toby]    00:35:22    Yeah. You become a part of their narrative. Like there are certain successes that I've had in music, film, sports, entertainment, and just business in general, a person can't tell their own story without telling me as a part of it or they'll stop and ask about it. So it's kind of leading from behind. Uh, I always say, um, the, be the smallest component, be the seed, not the tree.  

[Tom Finn]    00:35:43    Yeah. Well said, uh, be the seed, not the tree. Is there anything else missing in your garden?  

[Dr. Glenn Toby]    00:35:49    Well, um, everything's missing everything that I've done, right? I wanna do better. Everything that I missed and didn't do, was right. I'm praying to do better. So just showing up for life every day, um, connecting with great people like you and, um, you know, looking forward to the next episode <laugh>  

[Tom Finn]    00:36:06    Well, we are looking forward to hearing your story, uh, in the next couple of years, unfold at greater depth, with greater meaning. Uh, and we hope that everybody has consciousness around it. I can't thank you enough. Uh, from the bottom of my heart, for being on the show, uh, love what you're doing, love the energy you bring every day, uh, and the team environment that you're, you're creating, uh, for your local team and for communities around the world. So thank you from the bottom of my heart for being on the show with us.  

[Dr. Glenn Toby]    00:36:32    Thank you. You know what? I'm a supporter. I'm always tuned in brother. I appreciate it. Thank you for having me.  

[Tom Finn]    00:36:37    Appreciate you. And thank you for joining the talent empowerment podcast. I hope this conversation lifted you up so you can lift up your teams, your organizations find that consciousness, my friends let's get back to people and culture together. We'll see you next time. Thanks, everybody.  

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