Kristine Frost grew up in Pontiac, Michigan, in the years when General Motors was pulling out and the families left behind built their own support systems out of mac and cheese, popsicles, and each other. She watched her grandmother, Vienna, run a government-subsidized community while her own health was failing, showing up for refugees and immigrants day after day. That is where Kristine's philanthropy started, and you can trace a straight line from it to the morning she saw a Facebook post at 4 a.m. and decided to donate a kidney to a stranger.
In this conversation, Kristine walks us through the whole arc. A trained labor and employment attorney who never wanted a law firm, she started on the floor of a stamping plant outside Detroit and rose to become the only woman in the C-suite of a male-dominated industry. Ten months ago she stepped out of that seat, founded Shattered Glass Advisory, and started answering the question so many in our community are living right now: who am I when the title is gone?
We talk about heart-centered leadership, leading up, the non-negotiable morning ritual that anchors her, and the piece of advice most people in transition don't want to hear at first: enjoy it. Kristine is a connector to her core, and this is a conversation you'll want to sit with.
🎧 Kristine is writing a book about the emotions of transition. She's coming back for the launch.
Chapters
00:01 — Welcome & meet Kristine Frost
00:38 — Growing up a Midwesterner (and why she's really a Detroiter)
03:32 — Pontiac, Flint & GM: community built close to poverty
05:40 — Vienna: the grandmother who shaped her philanthropy
07:43 — The kidney donation story begins
10:02 — Directed vs. non-directed donation & the highly sensitized program
12:22 — Finding a match: 20 vials of blood and anonymous matchmaking
14:14 — Meeting John: December 18, 2019
17:20 — From attorney to the stamping plant floor
18:58 — What a stamping plant actually is
20:01 — Real life on the floor: leading humans, not machines
22:42 — Leading up: giving executives the yes/no
25:04 — The best leader is the best ambassador of people
25:35 — Founding Shattered Glass Advisory
28:52 — "Who am I now?" Leading yourself through transition
31:03 — The formula: non-negotiables & starting the day happy
34:15 — Wanderlust, family time & what her daughter noticed
36:05 — Live, laugh, love and D.W.Y.S.Y.W.D.E.
38:21 — Where to find Kristine & closing
Links & Resources
Connect with Kristine Frost
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