3rd Act - Clay Boykin- In Search of the New Compassionate Male

Clay Boykin- In Search of the New Compassionate Male

03/02/21 • 28 min

3rd Act

Life Skills Coach with a compassionate and counterintuitive approach to working with people and organizations.

Author - Circles of Men: A Counter-Intuitive Approach to Creating Men's Groups

Founder - Men's Fellowship: Circles of Men Project

As a life skills coach and business leader, Clay Boykin has developed a compassionate and counterintuitive approach to helping people and organizations find their purpose, direction, and path in the world.

Clay's life purpose is to help make the world a better place by helping raise compassion consciousness among men.

He is the author of, Circles of Men: A Counter-Intuitive Approach to Creating Men's Groups and has dedicated his next twenty years to make the world a better place by cultivating compassion consciousness among men. He Founded the Circles of Men Project in 2012 which has grown to a worldwide network. Clay facilitates repeats and workshops and has led them in both the U.S. and Kenya.

Clay hosts both men and women on his podcast: In Search of the New Compassionate Male, which he launched early in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 crisis.

Clay is a former United States Marine Corps officer and in 2007, after 38 years in the corporate world, a mystical experience sent Clay on a journey through his own dark night of the soul, later emerging to find his calling.

Clay shares his story of finding peace during the midst of a heart attack in the fall of 2007. He then found himself laid off and experienced his dark night of the soul for the next two years. He metaphorically reached the top but found himself wondering what it was all for and what to do next.

"The new compassionate male is emerging as a new archetype." - Clay

What is the new compassionate male? Clay is on the search for the answer. The whole world is currently going through massive change and there is a lot of time for reflection within. It is something you can feel even if you can't articulate it. He shares of tremendous stories of people who are also joining him in the search.

Watch the video called the My Mandala of Life we spoke about on this episode.

Find out more about Clay on his website and check out his podcast, In Search of the New Compassionate Male

Life Skills Coach with a compassionate and counterintuitive approach to working with people and organizations.

Author - Circles of Men: A Counter-Intuitive Approach to Creating Men's Groups

Founder - Men's Fellowship: Circles of Men Project

Clay's life purpose is to help make the world a better place by helping raise compassion consciousness among men.

Clay hosts both men and women on his podcast: In Search of the New Compassionate Male, which he launched early in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 crisis.

"The new compassionate male is emerging as a new archetype." - Clay

Watch the video called the My Mandala of Life we spoke about on this episode.

Find out more about Clay on his website and check out his podcast, In Search of the New Compassionate Male

Previous Episode

Kimber Bishop-Yanke and the Book Buddy Program

Kimber is also the chair of the Oakland County task force on poverty and homelessness and uses her skills to collaborate with many political and charitable organizations to help her community in a myriad of ways.

Roger made a challenge to donate

Kimber shares personal stories from volunteers who are delivering to families. She also shared some amazing stories from their Christmas time efforts where they provided clothes, furniture, food, and even boots to families in need. They ran into logistical challenges due to language barriers, under-resourced families who may not have had telephone or internet access. But the volunteers rose to the challenge and they were able to help 175 families!

They currently have plans to do the same for Easter 2021. Families will be sponsored with Easter baskets and Easter meals.

Kimber shares a story of a man who was living in a trailer with no electricity, heat, or food, and when an angel in the organization found out they stepped up to pay $1800 in back rent so he wouldn't get evicted. He now has furniture and slept in a bed for the first time since last May. He also said that he, for the first time, is feeling hopeful. He is in awe that the volunteers, who are strangers to him, have shown so much kindness.

Rogers asks Kimber about her role as the chair of the Oakland County task force on poverty and homeless. Kimber says she ended on the council on accident. She was trying to help a homeless woman get help and found it so frustrating that she reached out to her public officials. Her goal with the task force is to help everyday people learn what the barriers are for people who are in poverty.

In Oakland County, they have 2,400 children who are considered homeless in one of the wealthiest counties in Michigan. The root of the issue is that they don't have affordable housing in Oakland County or many areas in the United States.

Kimber is developing a book buddy program. Since the pandemic hit and schools and summer camps shut down, it was eating away at her knowing that there were so many students who didn't have access to education. Each child will get six books, hot chocolate, and pajamas to encourage nighttime reading. They are setting up two book buddies for each child over Google Meet. Once they complete the first six books they will receive six more.

Kimber believes that there are about 5,000 kids in the Pontiac schools that could use this program! They are in need of volunteers.

You can donate here.

Next Episode

Todd Lipa of CARES in Farmington Hills

Todd has been instrumental in starting CARES and seeing it through the early years of development with a kind heart and a knowledge of what the community needs. Todd's history as the director of Farmington Hills, youth, and family services for many years placed him in the perfect role to see firsthand that many families in the community needed food security, along with other personal services. I was excited to visit the campus of hope recently and see the current operations and visit with Todd and Elaine and hear about their plans and dreams.

We are excited to introduce Todd and CARES to the 3rd Act community in this episode.

Todd's experience launching a youth program that didn't necessarily have the communities support at the time, but gained support after many success stories posed him to be an excellent leader to continue the food pantry and launch the food market in an area where some didn't want to be associated with people needing assistance.

If you're interested in joining CARES as a volunteer the best way is to go online to http://caresfh.org or call Todd directly at 248 231-8490

Their vision for the future is to become a true campus of Hope in their area. Including services to help people deal with service issues, a free clinic, two gardens, a baseball field, a community center, and a gym.

There is something special about the campus, when people visit it they start to understand the impact that it has made in the lives of people in the community. Todd is happy to give tours and hopes to get more corporations and nonprofits to partner with CARES in donating. They are even open to giving naming rights as they expand their reach.

Though the pandemic has taken a lot from us this past year, looking on the positive side it has helped many people return to some core values such as kindness. Kindness doesn't cost you anything but it makes a huge impact in the lives of others.

We talk about the 3rd Act podcast and what it represents for people who are searching for significance in their lives, maybe they've been successful in their careers and now looking for what to do next. An organization like CARES could be a fantastic place to invest your time and energy.