We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful J. Dwayne Garnett. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with J. Dwayne below.
J. Dwayne, appreciate you joining us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard
Values are something that we all have. They shape the way we see ourselves, others, and the decisions that we make. So, imagine the impact of hidden values, these are the things we treasure or deem sacred unknowingly. To this point, we must champion being intentionally aware. This alone will cause us to examine our values and the way they cultivate our realities. In layman’s terms, redirecting our propensity to give into stereotyping, prejudgment, restrictive ideologies, limiting beliefs, and assumptive thinking.
We are Love Is A Parable, an education non-profit, dedicated to the vision of bringing people together, through Love. Our value-based approach is comprised of our reflective thinking technique and Sacred Box Theory Methodology.
For clarity, the sacred box has been an authentic core concept that has evolved over the years, raising levels of consciousness about self-perceptions. Upon a deepened synthesis of the concept of “self,” the Self-Congruity Theory (Sirgy, 2018) was aligned as a contiguous theoretical mesh to broaden the sacred box. “Self-congruity theory defines the psychological process and outcome in which consumers compare their perception of a brand personality or brand-user image with their own actual, ideal, social and/or ideal social self-concepts” (ResearchGate ).
Our sacred box concept intersects with an adaptation of Sirgy’s theory to offer a deepened perspective of the concept of self as a basis of the things that we value as sacred, affecting more than our purchasing choices but the means by which we govern and view our lives and interconnections.
Our workshops, trainings, and courses, we focus on intrinsic motivation and the individualized needs of our participants to assist them in functioning more effectively and well with others. Our goal is to aid in helping individuals and organizations thrive while maintaining perpetual and healthy growth.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
J. Dwayne Garnett is a Reflective Thinking Facilitator, Speaker, and Love Advocate from Augusta, GA, now, living in the Raleigh-Durham area. He has nearly 20 years of experience in Higher Education and over a decade of senior-level management experience. He is committed to motivating and mentoring corporate entities and individuals of all ages to obtain and sustain effective life management skills, conflict resolution, and organizational management.
A continuation of this desire led to the creation of Altar and Dwelling Place Inc., a nonprofit that he founded to promote character, social, and leadership development, and the home of “Love Is A Parable.” With a vision of bringing people together, Love Is A Parable is designed to provide value-based education, incite reflective storytelling, and promote personal acceptance. Additionally, attempting to help individuals obtain personal fulfillment and establish meaningful relationships while encouraging others to perpetuate unity, love, and kindness.
Simply put, having an approach where everyone brings something to the table while focusing on the things that connect us, and not separate us. Lastly, J is the proud father of two beautiful girls.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
The biggest lesson that I had to unlearn is failure later in life is tough. I ignorantly assumed that my success in Higher Education would carry over into the nonprofit sector with Love Is A Parable. The initial setbacks have been an attack on my little ego.
Though I’ve learned a lot and I’m appreciative of the connections I’ve formed. It would have been nice to know that transferable skills don’t necessarily equate to transferable success. Not meeting goals in later in life seems to make arthritis ache a little more and the gray hair shines a little brighter.
Being unsure of stability on every front is more unnerving now than in those other decades I lived through.
The moral of the story is, adaptability is essential, and knowing that you’ll never outgrow being a student.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
After being in business for several years, we quickly learned that the term “nonprofit” has a tendency to mean different things to many different people. Because of this, organizations like ours tend to encounter perceptual barriers that manifest into damaging stumbling blocks in the advancement of our organizational mission and vision. Early on, we were bombarded with the age-old question of “why are you guys a nonprofit?” Some would even go as far as to state that there is no money in nonprofits while overlooking the successes of United Way, The YMCA, Goodwill, and several others. Having a nonprofit simply means that “no part of the organization’s net earnings can inure to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual.” However, nonprofits can and need financial resources to ensure their mission and vision are fulfilled.
As with many of our fellow nonprofits, we desire to impact positive change, more specifically, through love-focused and value-based education. Though content is readily available, many struggle with seeing past their perceptions of nonprofits to conceptualize the work and importance of Love Is A Parable. This lead to the revamping of our organization’s mission and vision.
Vision: Bringing people together, through love.
Mission: To provide value-based education, incite reflective storytelling, and to promote personal acceptance.
Contact Info:
- Website: loveisaparable.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/loveisaparable/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/loveisaparable/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/loveisaparable/?viewAsMember=true
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/LoveIsAParable
- Youtube: http://youtube.com/c/LoveIsAParable
- Other: Leaves us a review at: http://g.page/loveisaparable/review