Finding Fertile Ground: Stories of Grit, Resilience, and Fertile Ground Marie Gettel-Gilmartin

Dr. Ronnie Taylor was born to extremely young parents who divorced after a few years of marriage. His mom converted to Mormonism and moved the family to Salt Lake City to start a new life. Unfortunately, the missionary who converted and recruited her failed to tell the church Ronnie’s family was Black. They weren’t exactly welcomed with open arms.
His mom worked and went to college full time, and eventually she remarried. Growing up in Utah as a Black Mormon was tough. Ronnie moved out when he was 17 and tried to build a life for himself, but he kept getting targeted by police. 
“In my life to date, I've been pulled over by the police about 55 times and I've been beaten by the police five times. Also been arrested over a dozen times.”
Ronnie cashed two checks for $300. He didn't have the money in his bank account, but he thought he could just pay the money back and it would be okay. He didn't think the penalty would be that severe…but it was two felonies with zero to five years jail time. He was sentenced to three years, probation, 178 hours of community service, and 6 months house arrest. He also had to pay the restitution and a fine. 
Soon he found himself falling into a never-ending series of bad situations that kept getting worse, and he was only 20 years old. 
“And if you can't get a job or vote or all these other myriad of consequences that come from a conviction, then you're largely excluded from society as a whole. Being in that situation was much harder because it meant years of job insecurity and financial insecurity…And if you can't make money, you just can't participate in life in many ways.”
The only solution he could find was to move out of state and lie on his job applications. While living in Rhode Island, Ronnie met his wife Kerala and they moved to Washington DC. 
“She says I romanticized living in DC, but I remember really enjoying it partially because it's a mostly Black city. We used to call it Chocolate City. It was the first time in my life where I lived in an environment where I was just not special. I was just a normal, everyday person who got to walk around and not have to deal with a lot of the things that I have to deal with. There was also the reverse where, being in a predominantly Black environment that people think I act too white. I don't fit in anywhere." 
He went into paramedic school and tried to get his record cleaned up. Eventually he had to pay a lawyer to get his record expunged. 
Ronnie realized he didn’t want to be a paramedic his whole life so he went to George Washington University and graduated summa cum laude while also working full-time. 
Ronnie’s doctorate program brought the family to Portland, OR. He earned his doctorate in occupational therapy and now he’s on track to become certified as a hand therapist.
Listen to the podcast to hear about growing up as a Black Mormon, how he turned his life around, and what life is like today.
Please drop me a line at marie@fertilegroundcommunications.com or on social media to let us know what you thought about this episode.
I help professional services firms avoid BORING and boost employee engagement, productivity, and readership. I translate technical, complex, and lackluster language into accessible, dynamic, story-driven text. Get known in your industry through outstanding thought leadership content. Walk your talk through outstanding, effective communications with your employees and clients.
As a podcaster for justice, I stand with my sisters from the Women of Color Podcasters Community. We are podcasters united to condemn the tragic murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and many others at the hands of police.

Dr. Melissa Jenkins Mangili is a neuropsychologist and medical school faculty member who has reinvented herself as a fashion and fitness model. 
Her life began with grit and resilience. She and her three siblings were was raised in poverty in rural Maine by a single quadriplegic mother. 
 “The nice thing about being from a small town is that everybody knows each other…and rallied to help us. (My mother) couldn't drive at first. She had to relearn how to drive and get an adapted car. Eventually we were able to build a wheelchair-accessible home…and she was able to drive independently…as we got older, we were able to help more.”
Melissa had her first job at age 9, with a paper route. By age 12 she was working 50 hours a week babysitting during the summer. She worked at McDonald’s in high school and as a second job during college summers. 
In spite of the hardships, she had a happy childhood. 
“…the experience made us closer and happier in a lot of ways, because even though things were tough, we were in it together. We all had a common mission of taking care of our mom and taking care of each other and doing everything that we could to contribute to that common mission…we became very close and we learned how to be very self-sufficient. We're all very successful as adults.”
Thanks to her intelligence and hard work, she graduated second in her college class. That’s just the start of her educational journey. She camped across the country to California for graduate school because she heard education was more financially accessible there. Then she worked her way through UCSD.
Fast forward to her academic career and private practice as a neuropsychologist. Until recently, Melissa taught at Brown University medical school. During the “great pause” of COVID, she took a sharp left turn and become a fashion and fitness model. 
“I think it is radical to step in front of a camera and do it as yourself, not with artificial enhancements or extreme workout regimens or any of that kind of perfectionism, but just to step in front of the camera or out on a runway and model, as a not-25-year-old model and be visible and represent our generation.”
She loves advocating for more diverse representation in modeling. 
Melissa is also enjoying the freedom from not having to fit into the conservative norms of academia. She’s embracing her reinvention as a model!
Melissa is currently featured in Model Billboard magazine and has been on the runway in Rhode Island, New England, and New York fashion weeks. To see her portfolio or hire her for modeling, check out her Instagram page.
Please drop me a line at marie@fertilegroundcommunications.com or on social media to let us know what you thought about this episode.
I help professional services firms avoid BORING and boost employee engagement, productivity, and readership. I translate technical, complex, and lackluster language into accessible, dynamic, story-driven text. Get known in your industry through outstanding thought leadership content. Walk your talk through outstanding, effective communications with your employees and clients.
As a podcaster for justice, I stand with my sisters from the Women of Color Podcasters Community. We are podcasters united to condemn the tragic murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and many others at the hands of police. 
 Fertile Ground Communications LLC is a certified women-owned business enterprise, disadvantaged business enterprise, and emerging small business.

Vernita L. Bowe is a survivor. As a smaller-than-average child, she experienced bullying in school. When she grew up she married the wrong man and wasn’t able to get out of that marriage for 24 years, three kids later.
Parenting has been about huge loves and losses for Vernita. Her middle son landed in prison, and four years ago her oldest son Byron died in a car accident.
“You really don't wanna bury your children. But what I've learned is all of the promises are gone…all of the things that you and he were gonna do together…and all of the things that he wanted to do with his life. All gone…and let me tell you something. People say that you should get over a loss and I just wanna say this for the listening audience: You never get over a loss. You learn how to live beyond it. But you never really get over it.”
After Byron died, the griefs kept coming. Byron’s godfather and Vernita’s mentor died, and then her mother…next she and her father contracted COVID at the same time and ended up in the hospital, both on ventilators. Unfortunately, Vernita’s dad passed away while she was still on the ventilator.
In spite of the great griefs she has suffered…or because of them…Vernita has embraced life and is living it to its fullest! She recently got a passport and took her very first airplane flight! That’s just the beginning of the living and traveling she has planned for herself.
Please drop me a line at marie@fertilegroundcommunications.com or on social media to let us know what you thought about this episode.
I help professional services firms avoid BORING and boost employee engagement, productivity, and readership. I translate technical, complex, and lackluster language into accessible, dynamic, story-driven text. Get known in your industry through outstanding thought leadership content. Walk your talk through outstanding, effective communications with your employees and clients.
As a podcaster for justice, I stand with my sisters from the Women of Color Podcasters Community. We are podcasters united to condemn the tragic murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and many others at the hands of police. 
Fertile Ground Communications LLC is a certified women-owned business enterprise, disadvantaged business enterprise, and emerging small business.

Happy Pride! What better month to launch this fun episode and celebrate a wonderful queer story.
Growing up in Germany, when Nicole moved to the U.S. as a teen she never felt like she fit in. Then she joined the military during Desert Storm, and she ended up playing Taps for 600 funerals of her colleagues. That nearly broke her. She married a man before coming out as gay, and her dad and sisters rejected her.
Around the same time of that rejection, her beloved mom—the only family member who truly embraced Nicole for who she was--suddenly died at the age of 51. 
When COVID hit, Nicole and her wife took a wild cross-country trip in an RV. They experienced discrimination and many, many vehicle troubles. (Who knew buying a brand-new RV would turn out to be such a headache?!?) 
Then when they returned to Southern California, she landed a job reporting to a toxic boss who had a history of discriminating against queer people. She’s now in a much happier place, working at Toast, where she feels completely affirmed and embraced.
Nicole more grit and resilience than I even expected before I interviewed her! I loved listening to her colorful, varied stories of her life so far. If you want ideas on where to travel in the U.S., I highly recommend Nicole’s Instagram page, @chocoandchaitourtheus.
Please drop me a line at marie@fertilegroundcommunications.com or on social media to let us know what you thought about this episode.
I help professional services firms avoid BORING and boost employee engagement, productivity, and readership. I translate technical, complex, and lackluster language into accessible, dynamic, story-driven text. Get known in your industry through outstanding thought leadership content. Walk your talk through outstanding, effective communications with your employees and clients.
As a podcaster for justice, I stand with my sisters from the Women of Color Podcasters Community. We are podcasters united to condemn the tragic murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and many others at the hands of police. 
Fertile Ground Communications LLC is a certified women-owned business enterprise, disadvantaged business enterprise, and emerging small business.

This week on the Finding Fertile Ground podcast, I interview Cheryl Parks, sales and mindset coach. Cheryl works with my business coach, Liz J. Simpson, and has provided me invaluable advice and confidence boosts as I reboot my business. 
Cheryl and I immediately connected, and I was especially lucky to meet her in person in early March, since the Big Money Movement coaching program happens all on Zoom and social media. It was a delight to delve into her background and discover how many ways our lives overlap and connect.
I was surprised to discover that Cheryl has not always been a confident, outgoing, and self-assured businesswoman. At one point she was so shy she wouldn’t ring the bell to get off a city bus.
“I became so shy. People they'd say, oh, I know you from, and I would say, no, you don't know me. I know you don't know me. You probably know my cousin. You probably know my sister. There were so many times Marie. I was just shrinking and shrinking and shrinking. I literally stayed in my room.” 
After a successful corporate sales career, Cheryl now has a growing sales and mindset coaching and consulting practice. She trains leaders and founders to sell in their own unique voice without being salesy or scripted.
Before she turned 30, she found herself as a shy single mom of two. She realized her shyness was going to derail all of her dreams, goals, and plans for life. 
She created a plan and took intentional action steps to march herself out of debilitating shyness and into a successful corporate sales career, which lasted for over 25 years and $25M in sales. 
“There's still a shy part of me…but for the most part I'm in control of the shy girl and say, ‘okay, you gotta be quiet for a minute because I have some things I have to handle.’ So the great part is just being in control of that and not having the shy girl overwhelm everything else.” 
Cheryl’s greatest passion is helping people who don't feel they have a voice discover their unique style and voice. Every day it amazes her that she stands out front: visible and proud to be her!
Please drop me a line at marie@fertilegroundcommunications.com or on social media to let us know what you thought about this episode.
I help professional services firms avoid BORING and boost employee engagement, productivity, and readership. I translate technical, complex, and lackluster language into accessible, dynamic, story-driven text. Get known in your industry through outstanding thought leadership content. Walk your talk through outstanding, effective communications with your employees and clients.
As a podcaster for justice, I stand with my sisters from the Women of Color Podcasters Community. We are podcasters united to condemn the tragic murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and many others at the hands of police. 
Fertile Ground Communications LLC is a certified women-owned business enterprise, disadvantaged business enterprise, and emerging small business.

Michele Heyward is a civil engineer who built the U.S. power grid. Now she's a tech startup founder building the future of work at PositiveHire. 
Michele grew up in rural South Carolina in a three-bedroom house full of kids. She had four siblings. She describes herself as the weird kid, really good at math.
Encouraged to pursue science and engineering, she went to engineering camp 30 years ago at 13 years old.
“But what really got me sold on engineering was when I was 12, a Category Five hurricane hit South Carolina and my mom's younger sister and her family live near Charleston where the hurricane hit...They had a newer brick home that was destroyed during the hurricane while they were in it. I couldn't understand: how could a home that new be destroyed by something called a hurricane? And that's how I literally got interested in civil engineering and decided to major in it.”
She learned about people who had designed an indestructible egg-shaped home on the coast, and she thought,
“How do you build a home or structure like that? It really started me into the path of civil engineering.” 
After working in the corporate world for many years, Michele got tired of being “the only.”
“Something that is really common, unfortunately, is the ‘only’ experience for a lot of Black, Latinx, and indigenous women in STEM. What I mean is you're the only one, you're the only Black woman. You're the only Latina engineer on your team, group, department, company. For years out in construction, I was the only Black woman engineer. I was only Black woman, period…so many other women quit.”
Michele stayed at her her previous environmental engineering firm for 12 years.
“I told myself somebody else is going to come who doesn't have the wherewithal to do what you've done this amount of time by yourself being the only.”
Then she received a message from God that said, “you're not supposed to be here.”
“I cried. I'd been through so much being the only, but it was time for me to go and build out something else…now it's time to go execute. It was time for me to go put in the work.”
Michele founded a company, PositiveHire, that connects Black, Latinx, and Indigenous women who are experienced scientists, engineers, and technology professionals to management roles.
“As a Black woman engineer I've seen companies complain they can't find diverse talent, when their real issue is retaining Black, Latinx, and Indigenous talent in STEM. The issue isn't a pipeline problem but the lack of responsibility that management teams have in creating workplaces which will retain and attract Black, Latinx, and Indigenous talent.”
Michele and I had a fruitful discussion about what it’s like working in spaces run by white men and how important it is to change the culture of a company before focusing on recruiting people of color. We also talked about how to write inclusive job descriptions and postings that bring in diverse candidates.
Please drop me a line at marie@fertilegroundcommunications.com to let us know what you thought about this episode.
I help professional services firms avoid BORING and boost employee engagement, productivity, and readership. I translate technical, complex, and lackluster language into accessible, dynamic, story-driven text. Get known in your industry through outstanding thought leadership content. Walk your talk through outstanding, effective communications with your employees and clients. 
Fertile Ground Communications LLC is a certified women-owned business enterprise, disadvantaged business enterprise, and emerging small business.