October 26, 2025 • 31 mins
TrulySignificant.com presents Gladys DeClouet shares the complexity of race, gender and personal loss. This is the story of unwavering core values and inspiring others to greatness. Her book- A Layered Life- Breaking Barriers as a Trailblazing Black Woman in Corporate America.
Gladys earned her way up the corporate ladder at British Petroleum, Burger King and Jack in the Box.
Listen to the stunning story of Gladys' grandmother and her advice for life.
Hear Gladys' poignant story of "grace under fire."
Be inspired by Gladys with "whatever hardship comes up, you will get to other side."
Buy the book- A Layered Life today and be lifted up, strengthened and encouraged to reach the highest heights.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/success-made-to-last-legends--4302039/support.
Gladys earned her way up the corporate ladder at British Petroleum, Burger King and Jack in the Box.
Listen to the stunning story of Gladys' grandmother and her advice for life.
Hear Gladys' poignant story of "grace under fire."
Be inspired by Gladys with "whatever hardship comes up, you will get to other side."
Buy the book- A Layered Life today and be lifted up, strengthened and encouraged to reach the highest heights.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/success-made-to-last-legends--4302039/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
And welcome back to Truly Significant dot Com.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I'm Rick Tokeny.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
We have a very special guest on this afternoon show.
It's Gladys de Kluet. She's written a book called A
Layered Life, breaking barriers as a trailblazing Black woman in
corporate America. And as we were doing research on Gladys,
we found out that she has many degrees from university,
but one includes a mechanical engineer and she had a
(00:40):
brilliant career with companies like British Petroleum, Burger.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
King, Jack in the Box.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
But what is I think the most courageous and brave
part is the Gladys actually his writing a book about
herself and wants to share that story with all of you.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
So Gladys, welcome to our shovel.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Thank you, Thank you for having me, of course appreciated.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Tell us about your book.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Well, Alric Life is really an inspirational story of resilience, courage, leadership.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
And faith.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
It recounts my professional and my personal journey from being
born in the nineteen fifties in the desegregated South before
women's rights movement, and also from I call it an environment.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
Where resources were scarce.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
And being able to go on and become the first
female engineer and offshore oil and gas expiration and production.
And then it follows my journey, you know, as a
black female pioneer in corporate America, as I climbed in
the leadership in the oil and restaurant industries and running
(01:57):
multi billion dollar businesses. But I think what adds to
the value of this book is that it's really an
extraordinary journey through the complexities of race, gender, ambition, and
personal loss. But however, it's not a story that's marked
(02:18):
just by the.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
Hardships, though they're definitely.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
In the book, but it's also about joy and self
belief and an unwavering commitment to help others succeed, and ultimately,
I think for anyone who reads the book that it's
going to challenge them to reflect.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Upon their own lives and their own values and their
impact on the world around them.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
So I would say that's a little quick summary of
what the book is about.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Beautiful. I wonder.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
As we march into these questions about how you felt
the first day that you put that pen to paper
or that you're striking the keyboard, what were the very
first words that God was kind of feeding you about
(03:13):
how you're supposed to tell your own story.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Connected to the title itself A layered life. Just thinking
about the fact that you know, my life and other lives,
and which I think will resonate to other people and
be helpful to people, is that, you know, life comes
in layers, and in my life it was a mixture
(03:38):
of you know, the the good and the bad, you know,
the struggle and the success and the joys that I
experienced in it. And you know, and how do I
relate that to you know, to other people, and you know, yeah,
(04:06):
and just really I guess I had a layer theme
in my mind because you know, I think about how
it not only comes in layers, but each layer gets
laid upon that previous layer, and you know, and then
every element makes its mark along our journey, and so
how we receive and how we live each layer is
(04:30):
really affected by our experiences in all those previous layers.
And as I go through my book and I tell
my story, I think because of each layer that I lived,
I walked away with lasting impacts, you know, things that
(04:50):
I learned or I took from those and either decided
they were things that would you know that I use
to try and build upon to be more like that,
or you know, and progress in those manners, or they
were things that I've learned that taught me that these
(05:13):
are things, Wait, I don't want to.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Be, well, how I don't want to treat people. These
are the.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Things that I am going to try to do differently
to help other people. Well, yeah, that to answer your quest,
and that's what comes to my mind right now.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Thank you for that.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
We learned so much from that raw kind of question.
And I appreciate the fact that you mentioned one of
our favorite words here, which is other, because most of
the leaders that we interview always speak about serving others.
That seems to be a common thing. So we appreciate
that when the ink flowed onto those first pages, were
(05:54):
you writing for the world to read or for your
own soul to heal?
Speaker 4 (05:59):
This?
Speaker 3 (05:59):
This is sort of a an evolution. It was really
truly an evolution. I think when I started, I started
out thinking that I was going to write a book
purely from a business and career perspective, because I felt
there was at so much I had to share and
(06:19):
could benefit, particularly young leaders and professionals and career people.
And so that that was in my mind when I
when I first started, and I quickly realized that was
just impossible, sort of impossible to do. And I didn't
feel that it was resonating or it would resonate the
(06:43):
way I wanted it to, or benefit people in the
way I wanted it to until I finally got out
of my got out of my comfort zone, which was
to open up about the personal side of my life
as well. And you know, so I a's a lot
(07:04):
of self affliction, even consultation. I finally decided that I
needed to get out that comfort zone and ultimately write
and talk about the complexities and the inseparability of my
personal and professional life. And that's the evolution of a
(07:24):
book called A Layered Life, you know, breaking barriers as
a trailblazing black woman in course America.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
I don't want to give away the book because I
want people to buy it and read it and reread
it and share it. But you've lived through lots of
seasons of change, and in those variety of seasons in
that layered life, you've responded with grace under pressure. Give
us a little bit of a snippet story of you
(07:56):
when grace prevailed when you were under pressure for.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
A situation where, you know, being the only female I
was traveling with.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
You know, all men. I was going to training, further
engineering training, and we had to do a lot of that,
you know, out in the oil industry, so it's going
to train a lot.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
I'm staying on our training ranch because they had my
company owned this big ranch in Oklahoma and they would
send us off there to train. So I'm staying there
and I'm the only female on the ranch. And the guys,
as usual, they like to do a lot of horse play,
a lot of teasing, harassing me and things like that,
(08:42):
which I got used to. But you know, drinking got out.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
Of hand again one night and the guy.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Decided he wanted to take it further than that, and
you know, and obviously he attempted something he shouldn't have attempted.
But it was an extremely serious It wasn't the usual
out of line. It was you know, someone actually was
trying to enter my room. And so in that particular situation,
you know, I did some quick thinking.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
Like I said, what I told you, I did some
quick thinking, and I had a friend who also came
to my rescue.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
And it was a verdict or he was not successful
and what his goal was. But naturally that that became
something that I had.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
To report up. It wasn't one of these cases when a.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Lot of times, you know, you got to let the
small stuff slide because you can't just fight every single battle.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
But this was one of those I got to pass
this thing up to chain, and so I did.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
And instead of my boss handling it, not my boss,
he was the big boss. Instead of the big boss
handling as he should and taking, you know, a kind
of ability for he essentially brought me in, this young engineer,
(10:03):
you know, and I bet you then I.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
Was maybe twenty two, maybe twenty three at most.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
And he brought me in his office, sat me down,
and then brought the perpetrator in the office with us.
Had me sit across from him and the perpetrator, and
he turns to me, no, and he lets the guy
go on and on to make his appeal to me
about how he needs to feed his family and his
(10:32):
children and this and that, and he can't afford to
lose his job and blah blah blah, and have mercy
on him and blah blah blah. And then the boss
asked me, well, what do you want me to do
with the guy, you know, and you want me to
fire him or you want me to keep a type thing.
And you know, and as I would say, strong and
(10:54):
smart person as I was, that was a situation with
a power play that was so odd of whatever that
as a young girl, I just said, you know, I
guess it's okay.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
You know, he's apologized.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
I guess it's okay.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
And so he just and.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
So he blew it off. Let the guy go back
and work, and we and like you know, for life
to go on. And of course that's life didn't go on.
The guy went back to work, and he drafted everyone
about every what he did, what he tried to do
to me, what else he's going to do next to me,
and and all these sorts of things. And so then
(11:31):
to me, that was a situation because your work grace
threw me. And you say, well, I showed grace, but
I said, I guess I in that situation I did.
I showed grace to this guy who didn't deserve it.
And but yeah, who didn't deserve it. And of course
what I got in return was him throwing it in
my face and everybody else's face about how he got
(11:53):
away with it, and next time he's really going to
succeed heat blah blah blah.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
But more importantly from this situation too, But what.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
I learned and took forward with me in a positive
manner was that the way that the visual manager handled
that was an absolute case of abdication of his responsibilities
as a boss, not protecting and looking out for his
employee and standing up for not you know, just just
(12:28):
left me in the cole as I said, and abnegated.
And so to me, my lesson from that was I
would never be.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
A leader like that. That I was going to be
a leader who.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Actually, you know, held people accountable for their behaviors, and
that I would always protect and stand up for my
people and ensure safe environment for my people, and that
regardless of whatever the responsibilities were, you know, as a leader,
(13:00):
I was not going to abdicate them. I would live
up to my responsibilities. So that's what I took away
from the situation, as opposed to, you know, just feeling
like it was one of those things that was just horrible,
negative and nothing came from it. But I think something
(13:22):
did come from it in the fact that it did
influence and shape the type of leader I became later
in life.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Thank you for your courage and sharing that thank you.
When you write a book about yourself and your journey,
there's lots of people that you can think. And in
this last book that we wrote, Gladys, I decided to
thank everybody that I ever missed in life, because in
(13:54):
case it was the last book, at least they.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Would be acknowledged.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Who do you believe deserves a lot of credit for
shaping you that you've acknowledged in the book and maybe
even mentioned some people that you might have missed.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Well.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
I know in the book I do talk a lot
about my grandmother and my mother in terms of.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
In the church, in terms of shaping sort of the
foundation of the person.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
That I am and you know still still am today.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
And and I talk a lot throughout my book and
throughout leadership and everything about being a person of integrity
and that you know, I think that being fundamental to
being a good person, a good leader, a good friend,
(14:57):
a good anything that you know you need to being
honest and have a strong moral compass.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
Is the key to earning, earning and maintaining.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Other people's respect, which is what you need no matter
what you're trying to do in life. And then I
think that that lesson there along with the lesson from
you know, Sunday School class of you know, treat people
the way you want to be treated, and those two
(15:33):
things in combination, as.
Speaker 4 (15:35):
Simple as they are, we're kind of at the core.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Of the life that I lived personally and professionally, and
I think, you know, they have been there to give
me that strength, that foundation, that ability to persevere and resilience,
(16:00):
you know, along with just that simple that faith as
well as that that that.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
Faith in in.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
God and the faith that there is something you know,
life is intended to be good, and I just need
to hang in there, work hard, persevere and understand that
you know, whatever hardships come up, you will get through them.
And you know, if you just keep pushing forward in
(16:27):
a positive way, you're going to get through them, and
you're going to get to that other side and you're
going to get to where you need to go. And
you know, I was able to maintain that attitude, you know,
throughout the various adversities and challenges and and just kind
of hang on, hang on to my faith.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Amen to that.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
We're talking with author Gladys decluet her book is a
layered life breaking barriers as a troublazing black woman in
corporate America. And Gladys, as we cut to commercial, tell
our listeners where they can purchase the book.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
It can be purchased at any any retail site where
books are sold, even if it's not in their store.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
They can order it.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
You can get it straight from Amazon, you know, Barns
and Nobles Books or any of those places online. And also,
though you can get a link to every single place,
you can buy it by going to my website. I
have a website called just www dot Gladysdytluet dot com.
(17:39):
And on my website there's more information about me and
other stuff, but one of the first things you see
are the links to the various retailers and where you
can buy the book.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Fantastic.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
We will be right back with Gladys after this quick
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Speaker 1 (19:42):
And we're back with Gladys to Clue It, author of
a layered life breaking barriers as a trailblazing Black woman
in corporate America. I'm gonna ask you a little bit
more fun questions on this side. Okay, let's start with.
If there was a sound or a music or song
(20:03):
to a layered life and someone opens up the book,
what's that song that's going to be playing?
Speaker 4 (20:12):
Wow? Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
And you know I love music too, but I've never
thought about that with this. Let's see, you know, I'm
trying to come to Whitney Easton made it a big
hit and was first done by.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
George. What's the song I'm trying to say? No, no, no,
the children, the.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
Children are our future. Keeps them well and let them
lead the way. Oh yes, the Greatest Love of All, greatest, greatest, beautiful.
Matter of fact, at my book launch before we did
the toast at the end of the program, right before
the toast, I had them playing the Greatest Love of All?
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Yeap? Did you sing along with it?
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Oh? God, no, I am the worst meaner in the world. Yeah,
I did not get that talent. I had a sibling
who was a leasinger in a band, and my son
can sing, but I cannot carry a tune in the book.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Oh that's funny. Well that's all right.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
What a great song that really that really brings up
a kind of opens things up to understand you even better.
If your mom, your grandmother rather would have written something
on the back. Comments on the back if she were alive.
What would you want her to have said about a
(21:42):
layered live and her wonderful granddaughter?
Speaker 3 (21:47):
Oh, what she would say? What I wanted her to
say about the book? And me, yes, I know it
(22:07):
came to my mind that I'm like, I don't really
remant to give away the book or not.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
But when I was very young, my grandmother said something
to me that was very heartbreaking to me at the time.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
And you'd have to understand what a black woman of
her age had gone through and what she was going
through in life, and she said it to me. But
I think, you know, seeing me live my life and
then now reading this book or whatever, my grandmother would
(22:44):
probably have written on the back of that book that.
Speaker 4 (22:48):
You know, I love you, I'm so proud of you,
and I'm glad you didn't listen to me and stay
black and die.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Beautiful. And what would your son say on the book?
Speaker 4 (23:09):
Oh, my son, that's a mama's baby.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
He would probably, of course grown man, but I'm just
a moma' day. I think my son would just probably
say that, yeah, mom, so proud of you.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
I love you, and I'm glad you shared your story.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Oh isn't that great? That that would be wonderful. Well,
here's both of your grandmother and your son into everybody
that reads the book. I think that they're going to
be enlightened by it. When you were writing it and
you've got you probably wrote your table of contents and
(23:54):
trying to outline it, and if you if you think
back on the whole experience, now, how did being an
engineer and an executive at an oil company in these
restaurants actually influence how you wrote that book and the
(24:15):
style of it and the personality that came out.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
I think I had one goal in my million or
big goal in mind, and that was to not write.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
A traditional autobiography or particularly a business person autobiography or whatever.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
I wanted to write a book to kind.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
Of grab a person's interest, keep them interested, even give
it a slight mystery to its to it, you know,
so you can kind of say, ooh, I want to
see what happens next, and just to keep them engaged
into reading it so that they actually get through and
read it. And because I really believe that there there
(25:06):
was definitely value in it and a lot for people you.
Speaker 4 (25:10):
Know to learn. Kind of how I phrase it is,
you know, I had.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
A lifetime of lessons learned that I wanted to share,
you know, Yeah, of course it's great.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Yeah, that's that's perfect.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
That's what That's sort of where we were coming out
of it, too, was it was.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
It was chapters of your life.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
It was life lessons along the road, all very meaningful.
It's the kind of book that you when you buy it, folks,
you're going to want to reread it again. And so
I think it's that it's that much of a joy.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
Actually had someone tell me that already. It was so
funny and they said, yeah, you know, this is kind
of booth.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
I'm going to reread this several times. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
And it's because you don't see everything, you don't read everything.
It's got that much texture to it. So you and
I were both raised in the church. I don't know
what denomination, but it doesn't matter. I'd love to get
your general comment on what is right with the church today?
Speaker 4 (26:22):
What is right with the church today?
Speaker 3 (26:24):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (26:24):
What's right about having a deep faith that guides you
and put salt and light into your life.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
It's kind of the core or the essence of life.
I mean of of who we are as a person.
You know, It's like, no matter what goes on in
this world and amongst us and how we treat each other,
at the end of the day, we are still all
children of God.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
And just.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
Knowing that, knowing your identity as a child of God is.
Speaker 4 (27:04):
You know, so important and and so as.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
Long as the church, you know, I mean, and the
church today is still.
Speaker 4 (27:13):
Really focused on.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
It's focused on God and the love of God and
his love for us, our love for him. I mean,
what can be wrong with that? That's I mean, that's.
Speaker 4 (27:25):
What's right with it.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
Amen, That's exactly right.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
I've gotten to the point, gladys where someone says, tell
me about yourself, and I go, well, I am a
child of God, and secondly, I'm previously important person in
corporate America.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
Yes, yes, I like that.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
So anyway, Hey, you are a joyful person and I
am so glad that you joined us, and I want
to congratulate you on the writing of your story, and
I want to tell you why you're actually on our
show today. Okay, okay, After doing over four thousand shows,
(28:13):
we get so many requests to be on here, but
occasionally somebody like you breaks through with a work of
significance like this book that you've written, and I so
appreciate your team sending it to me so we could
read it. The reason you're on is because we think
you have moved from success to significance and your book
(28:38):
is a gift of significance to us.
Speaker 4 (28:43):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Yes, you want to have the final word to our
listening audience as if it's the graduating class of twenty
twenty five.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Yes, yes, I would say. The key things that I
would hope a person takes away from my book is
you know one two live and win with integrity. That
(29:23):
I'm sure they will take away that I am a
person with a deep belief in the power of inclusivity
and making everybody feel valued and appreciated and don't get
marred down in negativity. Use your stepping stone, I mean
your challenges and your obstacles as stepping stones to growth
(29:46):
and purpose and legacy. And lastly, that being a black
female pioneer in corporate America was actually much bigger than
my individuals sys it opened the doors for the many
others who would fall on behind, you know, and it
(30:07):
raised the floor for them to go even further and
achieve you know, higher successes than myself.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Amen, you're so inspiring. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Her book is A Layered Life, and please go out
and buy it. Thank you, folks for joining us today.
We hope that you enjoyed the very inspirational Gladys to
Kluet by her book A Layered Life. As always, we
close the show with a thought for you that we
wish you much success on your way to significance.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Have a great week.
And welcome back to Truly Significant dot Com.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I'm Rick Tokeny.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
We have a very special guest on this afternoon show.
It's Gladys de Kluet. She's written a book called A
Layered Life, breaking barriers as a trailblazing Black woman in
corporate America. And as we were doing research on Gladys,
we found out that she has many degrees from university,
but one includes a mechanical engineer and she had a
(00:40):
brilliant career with companies like British Petroleum, Burger.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
King, Jack in the Box.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
But what is I think the most courageous and brave
part is the Gladys actually his writing a book about
herself and wants to share that story with all of you.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
So Gladys, welcome to our shovel.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Thank you, Thank you for having me, of course appreciated.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Tell us about your book.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Well, Alric Life is really an inspirational story of resilience, courage, leadership.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
And faith.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
It recounts my professional and my personal journey from being
born in the nineteen fifties in the desegregated South before
women's rights movement, and also from I call it an environment.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
Where resources were scarce.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
And being able to go on and become the first
female engineer and offshore oil and gas expiration and production.
And then it follows my journey, you know, as a
black female pioneer in corporate America, as I climbed in
the leadership in the oil and restaurant industries and running
(01:57):
multi billion dollar businesses. But I think what adds to
the value of this book is that it's really an
extraordinary journey through the complexities of race, gender, ambition, and
personal loss. But however, it's not a story that's marked
(02:18):
just by the.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
Hardships, though they're definitely.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
In the book, but it's also about joy and self
belief and an unwavering commitment to help others succeed, and ultimately,
I think for anyone who reads the book that it's
going to challenge them to reflect.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Upon their own lives and their own values and their
impact on the world around them.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
So I would say that's a little quick summary of
what the book is about.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Beautiful. I wonder.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
As we march into these questions about how you felt
the first day that you put that pen to paper
or that you're striking the keyboard, what were the very
first words that God was kind of feeding you about
(03:13):
how you're supposed to tell your own story.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Connected to the title itself A layered life. Just thinking
about the fact that you know, my life and other lives,
and which I think will resonate to other people and
be helpful to people, is that, you know, life comes
in layers, and in my life it was a mixture
(03:38):
of you know, the the good and the bad, you know,
the struggle and the success and the joys that I
experienced in it. And you know, and how do I
relate that to you know, to other people, and you know, yeah,
(04:06):
and just really I guess I had a layer theme
in my mind because you know, I think about how
it not only comes in layers, but each layer gets
laid upon that previous layer, and you know, and then
every element makes its mark along our journey, and so
how we receive and how we live each layer is
(04:30):
really affected by our experiences in all those previous layers.
And as I go through my book and I tell
my story, I think because of each layer that I lived,
I walked away with lasting impacts, you know, things that
(04:50):
I learned or I took from those and either decided
they were things that would you know that I use
to try and build upon to be more like that,
or you know, and progress in those manners, or they
were things that I've learned that taught me that these
(05:13):
are things, Wait, I don't want to.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Be, well, how I don't want to treat people. These
are the.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Things that I am going to try to do differently
to help other people. Well, yeah, that to answer your quest,
and that's what comes to my mind right now.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Thank you for that.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
We learned so much from that raw kind of question.
And I appreciate the fact that you mentioned one of
our favorite words here, which is other, because most of
the leaders that we interview always speak about serving others.
That seems to be a common thing. So we appreciate
that when the ink flowed onto those first pages, were
(05:54):
you writing for the world to read or for your
own soul to heal?
Speaker 4 (05:59):
This?
Speaker 3 (05:59):
This is sort of a an evolution. It was really
truly an evolution. I think when I started, I started
out thinking that I was going to write a book
purely from a business and career perspective, because I felt
there was at so much I had to share and
(06:19):
could benefit, particularly young leaders and professionals and career people.
And so that that was in my mind when I
when I first started, and I quickly realized that was
just impossible, sort of impossible to do. And I didn't
feel that it was resonating or it would resonate the
(06:43):
way I wanted it to, or benefit people in the
way I wanted it to until I finally got out
of my got out of my comfort zone, which was
to open up about the personal side of my life
as well. And you know, so I a's a lot
(07:04):
of self affliction, even consultation. I finally decided that I
needed to get out that comfort zone and ultimately write
and talk about the complexities and the inseparability of my
personal and professional life. And that's the evolution of a
(07:24):
book called A Layered Life, you know, breaking barriers as
a trailblazing black woman in course America.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
I don't want to give away the book because I
want people to buy it and read it and reread
it and share it. But you've lived through lots of
seasons of change, and in those variety of seasons in
that layered life, you've responded with grace under pressure. Give
us a little bit of a snippet story of you
(07:56):
when grace prevailed when you were under pressure for.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
A situation where, you know, being the only female I
was traveling with.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
You know, all men. I was going to training, further
engineering training, and we had to do a lot of that,
you know, out in the oil industry, so it's going
to train a lot.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
I'm staying on our training ranch because they had my
company owned this big ranch in Oklahoma and they would
send us off there to train. So I'm staying there
and I'm the only female on the ranch. And the guys,
as usual, they like to do a lot of horse play,
a lot of teasing, harassing me and things like that,
(08:42):
which I got used to. But you know, drinking got out.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
Of hand again one night and the guy.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Decided he wanted to take it further than that, and
you know, and obviously he attempted something he shouldn't have attempted.
But it was an extremely serious It wasn't the usual
out of line. It was you know, someone actually was
trying to enter my room. And so in that particular situation,
you know, I did some quick thinking.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
Like I said, what I told you, I did some
quick thinking, and I had a friend who also came
to my rescue.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
And it was a verdict or he was not successful
and what his goal was. But naturally that that became
something that I had.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
To report up. It wasn't one of these cases when a.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Lot of times, you know, you got to let the
small stuff slide because you can't just fight every single battle.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
But this was one of those I got to pass
this thing up to chain, and so I did.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
And instead of my boss handling it, not my boss,
he was the big boss. Instead of the big boss
handling as he should and taking, you know, a kind
of ability for he essentially brought me in, this young engineer,
(10:03):
you know, and I bet you then I.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
Was maybe twenty two, maybe twenty three at most.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
And he brought me in his office, sat me down,
and then brought the perpetrator in the office with us.
Had me sit across from him and the perpetrator, and
he turns to me, no, and he lets the guy
go on and on to make his appeal to me
about how he needs to feed his family and his
(10:32):
children and this and that, and he can't afford to
lose his job and blah blah blah, and have mercy
on him and blah blah blah. And then the boss
asked me, well, what do you want me to do
with the guy, you know, and you want me to
fire him or you want me to keep a type thing.
And you know, and as I would say, strong and
(10:54):
smart person as I was, that was a situation with
a power play that was so odd of whatever that
as a young girl, I just said, you know, I
guess it's okay.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
You know, he's apologized.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
I guess it's okay.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
And so he just and.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
So he blew it off. Let the guy go back
and work, and we and like you know, for life
to go on. And of course that's life didn't go on.
The guy went back to work, and he drafted everyone
about every what he did, what he tried to do
to me, what else he's going to do next to me,
and and all these sorts of things. And so then
(11:31):
to me, that was a situation because your work grace
threw me. And you say, well, I showed grace, but
I said, I guess I in that situation I did.
I showed grace to this guy who didn't deserve it.
And but yeah, who didn't deserve it. And of course
what I got in return was him throwing it in
my face and everybody else's face about how he got
(11:53):
away with it, and next time he's really going to
succeed heat blah blah blah.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
But more importantly from this situation too, But what.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
I learned and took forward with me in a positive
manner was that the way that the visual manager handled
that was an absolute case of abdication of his responsibilities
as a boss, not protecting and looking out for his
employee and standing up for not you know, just just
(12:28):
left me in the cole as I said, and abnegated.
And so to me, my lesson from that was I
would never be.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
A leader like that. That I was going to be
a leader who.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Actually, you know, held people accountable for their behaviors, and
that I would always protect and stand up for my
people and ensure safe environment for my people, and that
regardless of whatever the responsibilities were, you know, as a leader,
(13:00):
I was not going to abdicate them. I would live
up to my responsibilities. So that's what I took away
from the situation, as opposed to, you know, just feeling
like it was one of those things that was just horrible,
negative and nothing came from it. But I think something
(13:22):
did come from it in the fact that it did
influence and shape the type of leader I became later
in life.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Thank you for your courage and sharing that thank you.
When you write a book about yourself and your journey,
there's lots of people that you can think. And in
this last book that we wrote, Gladys, I decided to
thank everybody that I ever missed in life, because in
(13:54):
case it was the last book, at least they.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Would be acknowledged.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Who do you believe deserves a lot of credit for
shaping you that you've acknowledged in the book and maybe
even mentioned some people that you might have missed.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Well.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
I know in the book I do talk a lot
about my grandmother and my mother in terms of.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
In the church, in terms of shaping sort of the
foundation of the person.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
That I am and you know still still am today.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
And and I talk a lot throughout my book and
throughout leadership and everything about being a person of integrity
and that you know, I think that being fundamental to
being a good person, a good leader, a good friend,
(14:57):
a good anything that you know you need to being
honest and have a strong moral compass.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
Is the key to earning, earning and maintaining.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Other people's respect, which is what you need no matter
what you're trying to do in life. And then I
think that that lesson there along with the lesson from
you know, Sunday School class of you know, treat people
the way you want to be treated, and those two
(15:33):
things in combination, as.
Speaker 4 (15:35):
Simple as they are, we're kind of at the core.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Of the life that I lived personally and professionally, and
I think, you know, they have been there to give
me that strength, that foundation, that ability to persevere and resilience,
(16:00):
you know, along with just that simple that faith as
well as that that that.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
Faith in in.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
God and the faith that there is something you know,
life is intended to be good, and I just need
to hang in there, work hard, persevere and understand that
you know, whatever hardships come up, you will get through them.
And you know, if you just keep pushing forward in
(16:27):
a positive way, you're going to get through them, and
you're going to get to that other side and you're
going to get to where you need to go. And
you know, I was able to maintain that attitude, you know,
throughout the various adversities and challenges and and just kind
of hang on, hang on to my faith.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Amen to that.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
We're talking with author Gladys decluet her book is a
layered life breaking barriers as a troublazing black woman in
corporate America. And Gladys, as we cut to commercial, tell
our listeners where they can purchase the book.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
It can be purchased at any any retail site where
books are sold, even if it's not in their store.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
They can order it.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
You can get it straight from Amazon, you know, Barns
and Nobles Books or any of those places online. And also,
though you can get a link to every single place,
you can buy it by going to my website. I
have a website called just www dot Gladysdytluet dot com.
(17:39):
And on my website there's more information about me and
other stuff, but one of the first things you see
are the links to the various retailers and where you
can buy the book.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Fantastic.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
We will be right back with Gladys after this quick
commercial message.
Speaker 5 (18:01):
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(18:25):
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Visit truly significant dot com and celebrate the most truly
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Speaker 1 (19:42):
And we're back with Gladys to Clue It, author of
a layered life breaking barriers as a trailblazing Black woman
in corporate America. I'm gonna ask you a little bit
more fun questions on this side. Okay, let's start with.
If there was a sound or a music or song
(20:03):
to a layered life and someone opens up the book,
what's that song that's going to be playing?
Speaker 4 (20:12):
Wow? Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
And you know I love music too, but I've never
thought about that with this. Let's see, you know, I'm
trying to come to Whitney Easton made it a big
hit and was first done by.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
George. What's the song I'm trying to say? No, no, no,
the children, the.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
Children are our future. Keeps them well and let them
lead the way. Oh yes, the Greatest Love of All, greatest, greatest, beautiful.
Matter of fact, at my book launch before we did
the toast at the end of the program, right before
the toast, I had them playing the Greatest Love of All?
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Yeap? Did you sing along with it?
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Oh? God, no, I am the worst meaner in the world. Yeah,
I did not get that talent. I had a sibling
who was a leasinger in a band, and my son
can sing, but I cannot carry a tune in the book.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Oh that's funny. Well that's all right.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
What a great song that really that really brings up
a kind of opens things up to understand you even better.
If your mom, your grandmother rather would have written something
on the back. Comments on the back if she were alive.
What would you want her to have said about a
(21:42):
layered live and her wonderful granddaughter?
Speaker 3 (21:47):
Oh, what she would say? What I wanted her to
say about the book? And me, yes, I know it
(22:07):
came to my mind that I'm like, I don't really
remant to give away the book or not.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
But when I was very young, my grandmother said something
to me that was very heartbreaking to me at the time.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
And you'd have to understand what a black woman of
her age had gone through and what she was going
through in life, and she said it to me. But
I think, you know, seeing me live my life and
then now reading this book or whatever, my grandmother would
(22:44):
probably have written on the back of that book that.
Speaker 4 (22:48):
You know, I love you, I'm so proud of you,
and I'm glad you didn't listen to me and stay
black and die.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Beautiful. And what would your son say on the book?
Speaker 4 (23:09):
Oh, my son, that's a mama's baby.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
He would probably, of course grown man, but I'm just
a moma' day. I think my son would just probably
say that, yeah, mom, so proud of you.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
I love you, and I'm glad you shared your story.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Oh isn't that great? That that would be wonderful. Well,
here's both of your grandmother and your son into everybody
that reads the book. I think that they're going to
be enlightened by it. When you were writing it and
you've got you probably wrote your table of contents and
(23:54):
trying to outline it, and if you if you think
back on the whole experience, now, how did being an
engineer and an executive at an oil company in these
restaurants actually influence how you wrote that book and the
(24:15):
style of it and the personality that came out.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
I think I had one goal in my million or
big goal in mind, and that was to not write.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
A traditional autobiography or particularly a business person autobiography or whatever.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
I wanted to write a book to kind.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
Of grab a person's interest, keep them interested, even give
it a slight mystery to its to it, you know,
so you can kind of say, ooh, I want to
see what happens next, and just to keep them engaged
into reading it so that they actually get through and
read it. And because I really believe that there there
(25:06):
was definitely value in it and a lot for people you.
Speaker 4 (25:10):
Know to learn. Kind of how I phrase it is,
you know, I had.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
A lifetime of lessons learned that I wanted to share,
you know, Yeah, of course it's great.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Yeah, that's that's perfect.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
That's what That's sort of where we were coming out
of it, too, was it was.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
It was chapters of your life.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
It was life lessons along the road, all very meaningful.
It's the kind of book that you when you buy it, folks,
you're going to want to reread it again. And so
I think it's that it's that much of a joy.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
Actually had someone tell me that already. It was so
funny and they said, yeah, you know, this is kind
of booth.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
I'm going to reread this several times. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
And it's because you don't see everything, you don't read everything.
It's got that much texture to it. So you and
I were both raised in the church. I don't know
what denomination, but it doesn't matter. I'd love to get
your general comment on what is right with the church today?
Speaker 4 (26:22):
What is right with the church today?
Speaker 3 (26:24):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (26:24):
What's right about having a deep faith that guides you
and put salt and light into your life.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
It's kind of the core or the essence of life.
I mean of of who we are as a person.
You know, It's like, no matter what goes on in
this world and amongst us and how we treat each other,
at the end of the day, we are still all
children of God.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
And just.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
Knowing that, knowing your identity as a child of God is.
Speaker 4 (27:04):
You know, so important and and so as.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
Long as the church, you know, I mean, and the
church today is still.
Speaker 4 (27:13):
Really focused on.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
It's focused on God and the love of God and
his love for us, our love for him. I mean,
what can be wrong with that? That's I mean, that's.
Speaker 4 (27:25):
What's right with it.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
Amen, That's exactly right.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
I've gotten to the point, gladys where someone says, tell
me about yourself, and I go, well, I am a
child of God, and secondly, I'm previously important person in
corporate America.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
Yes, yes, I like that.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
So anyway, Hey, you are a joyful person and I
am so glad that you joined us, and I want
to congratulate you on the writing of your story, and
I want to tell you why you're actually on our
show today. Okay, okay, After doing over four thousand shows,
(28:13):
we get so many requests to be on here, but
occasionally somebody like you breaks through with a work of
significance like this book that you've written, and I so
appreciate your team sending it to me so we could
read it. The reason you're on is because we think
you have moved from success to significance and your book
(28:38):
is a gift of significance to us.
Speaker 4 (28:43):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Yes, you want to have the final word to our
listening audience as if it's the graduating class of twenty
twenty five.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Yes, yes, I would say. The key things that I
would hope a person takes away from my book is
you know one two live and win with integrity. That
(29:23):
I'm sure they will take away that I am a
person with a deep belief in the power of inclusivity
and making everybody feel valued and appreciated and don't get
marred down in negativity. Use your stepping stone, I mean
your challenges and your obstacles as stepping stones to growth
(29:46):
and purpose and legacy. And lastly, that being a black
female pioneer in corporate America was actually much bigger than
my individuals sys it opened the doors for the many
others who would fall on behind, you know, and it
(30:07):
raised the floor for them to go even further and
achieve you know, higher successes than myself.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Amen, you're so inspiring. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Her book is A Layered Life, and please go out
and buy it. Thank you, folks for joining us today.
We hope that you enjoyed the very inspirational Gladys to
Kluet by her book A Layered Life. As always, we
close the show with a thought for you that we
wish you much success on your way to significance.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Have a great week.
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