How Small Acts of Kindness Become a Leadership Movement

Most leaders say they want to make an impact.

Far fewer build something that actually does.

That is what struck me in my conversation with entrepreneur Braxton Kilgo. What began as a simple belief—that one small act of kindness can change a life—grew into a movement, a business, a school tour, and a platform designed to multiply human connection. His story is a powerful reminder that enlightened leadership does not always start with a grand strategy. Often, it starts with a deeply personal conviction and the courage to act on it.

Purpose Rarely Starts as a Perfect Plan

Braxton’s journey did not begin in a boardroom. It began in a small Texas town of roughly 200 people, where he grew up surrounded by farm life, oil fields, and a narrow set of expected paths. After an injury ended his hopes of pursuing sports, he found himself at a crossroads. He dropped out of college, returned home, and did the work he already knew he did not want for his life. Then he went back, started a clothing company called Vision, and began building something of his own.

That part of the story matters because many leaders assume purpose arrives fully formed. In reality, purpose is often revealed through detours. What looks like a setback may actually be the beginning of clarity.

The Most Powerful Leadership Ideas Are Often Simple

What emerged for Braxton was not just another product. It was a message: I believe in you.

At first, that message took a tangible form through bracelets intended to be given away. But what made the idea powerful was not the object itself. It was the invitation behind it. The bracelet was never really the point. The point was what happened between people when one human being chose to affirm another. As those moments multiplied, so did the stories—from brightening someone’s day to rekindling relationships to, in some cases, interrupting someone’s decision to take their own life. That is when Braxton realized he was not simply selling something. He was creating a vehicle for connection.

Too often, we think scale comes from complexity. We assume big impact requires a more elaborate strategy, more layers, more polish. But some of the most powerful leadership ideas are profoundly simple. They work because they tap into something deeply human.

In Braxton’s case, the message was simple enough to spread and meaningful enough to endure. Within months of launching, he had sold bracelets in every state in the U.S. and in multiple countries—all while operating from his high school bedroom with a laptop, a label printer, and a box of bracelets. That is the power of a clear mission paired with authentic belief. People can feel when your work is real. They can also feel when it is performative.

Why Discernment Matters as Much as Vision

We are living in a time when employees, customers, and stakeholders are more skeptical of empty messaging than ever. They do not want another polished mission statement disconnected from lived behavior. They want evidence. They want to know whether your values are real when they cost something.

Braxton faced that test when larger organizations expressed interest in taking over the business. On paper, some of those opportunities likely looked attractive. But he sensed that the deals would require him to compromise the original vision. So he did something many leaders struggle to do: he paused growth in order to protect integrity. He decided to learn how to become a better businessperson before scaling, rather than handing over the mission to people who did not share it.

That is enlightened leadership.

Not growth at any cost. Not visibility for its own sake. Not mistaking excitement for alignment.

Real leadership requires discernment.

Braxton put it plainly: when you are trying to do something good, not everyone who wants access to it has the right intentions. That is a lesson many senior leaders learn the hard way. Your openness, optimism, and belief in possibility are strengths—but without boundaries, those strengths can become liabilities. The more meaningful your mission, the more carefully you must guard it.

Service Creates Trust, and Trust Scales Impact

At one point in our conversation, Braxton said that when you show up to serve, not sell, everything changes. That does not mean business results do not matter. They do. It means the energy is different. When your work is rooted in genuine service, people experience that. Trust builds faster. Loyalty goes deeper. The business becomes more magnetic because it is anchored in meaning, not manipulation.

What impressed me most is how intentionally he thought about multiplication. The company now includes bracelets, a mobile app that lets users track the journey and impact of each bracelet, school tours, and business partnerships that align the movement with other organizations’ missions. In other words, he is not trying to solve every social problem alone. He is creating a platform that helps more people participate in solving them together.

That is a profound leadership model.

The best leaders are not always asking, “How do I do more myself?” They are asking, “How do I create the conditions for others to carry this forward?”

That shift—from individual heroics to shared ownership—is where lasting impact lives.

What Leaders Can Take Away

So what does this mean for you as a leader?

It means your greatest contribution may not be a dramatic initiative. It may be a simple, repeated act that reinforces belief, dignity, and connection. It may be a message you embody so consistently that others want to build around it. It may be the discipline to protect your mission from opportunities that look good but pull you off course.

Transformational leadership starts with self-awareness, but it does not end there. It becomes real when your internal conviction shapes external action in a way others can feel.

That is the invitation in Braxton’s story.

Start with what you truly believe. Build from what is human. Protect what matters. And remember: your greatest strength can also be your biggest blind spot. Generosity without discernment can dilute a mission. Vision without structure can stall it. But purpose, paired with discipline, becomes a force multiplier.

Small acts matter.

Not because they are small, but because they start ripples you may never fully see.

And for leaders willing to align service, strategy, and mission, those ripples can become a movement.

Episode Transcript

Susan Drumm: Many people dream about wanting to change the world, to do something big, to make an impact, but sadly, most people never get past thinking about it. But my guest today turned a simple act of kindness into a movement, and what started as one small gesture became a powerful reminder that real impact often begins in the most human way possible.

I’m Susan Drumm, and this is The Enlightened Executive, where your personal evolution sparks your leadership revolution. Each week, we spotlight cutting-edge strategies to help executives and entrepreneurs grow in leadership and in life.

Today, my guest is Braxton Kilgo, who is fully immersed in his quest to change our world for the better. Braxton is an entrepreneur and the founder of I Believe in You, a movement designed to inspire small acts of kindness that create global impact. Braxton has built a powerful ecosystem that connects businesses, communities, and causes through an innovative bracelet and a mobile app.

Each bracelet carries a story, encouraging users to pass it on and follow its journey of impact, fostering authentic connections and unforgettable moments. With over a decade of experience in business consulting through his company Digicast, Braxton has served more than a thousand clients from startups to corporations and over a hundred personal brands, including collaborations with world-class artists, athletes, and celebrities.

Well, welcome, Braxton. I’m excited to have you on the show.

Braxton Kilgo: I am so excited to be here. Thank you for having me, Susan.

Susan Drumm: Well, you have a very interesting story, so let’s begin there. Tell us about the journey of Braxton — where you’ve come from, and what your mission is today.

Braxton Kilgo: Yeah, well, one of the cool things is where I came from is actually where I happen to be today. It’s a small town called May, Texas. It’s the geographical center point of Texas, and there’s only about 200 people that live here — so there’s definitely more cows than people.

Yeah, so I grew up here. Wonderful place, my favorite place in the world. Everything moves a little slower here, but when I was growing up, it was kind of like you either work on a farm, in a factory, in the oil field, or you make it to the NFL or some sort of sport.

I’d done enough farming and knew enough family in the oil field to know that I wanted to do something different. So sports was my very first aspiration, and that was phenomenal — I learned so many things — but I ended up getting injured and wasn’t able to continue down that path.

So I dropped out of college, came back, did some farming, went into the oil field, and reminded myself that’s not what I wanted to do. So I went back to college, and while I was there I started a clothing company called Vision. It was going really good. I stuck it out a little bit longer, but since I was paying for both things, I finally decided I was going to drop out again and go all in on my business.

It was really amazing, and I learned a lot from that first business. But what’s really cool is that business is actually what sparked what I’m doing today. Vision was very mission-driven — the clothes and stuff were really awesome, don’t get me wrong, but it really grew because of the message behind it. It was all about helping people define their own version of success: whatever it is you love, go get it. You don’t have to just check the boxes — these aren’t the only options available to you. If you can dream it, you can do it. That was our message all the time.

Because of that, I started getting asked to speak in middle schools and high schools and at graduations. That’s really what sparked what I’m doing today. I had this middle school ask me to show up and give a speech, and I was ready to rock and roll just like the rest of them — I still wasn’t any good at it, but I was ready and prepared.

But I had this principal call me about 24 hours before I was supposed to be at the school, and she said, “Hey Braxton, we’re so excited that you’re coming tomorrow, but I want to let you know what some of these kids are going through — not only at school, but at home — just so you really know who you’re speaking to.” So I said, “Yes, ma’am.” And then she just spent 10 minutes with the most heartbreaking information possible.

I went through some things growing up, but this was heavy. The things they were dealing with at school were pretty typical of what you’d expect, but especially because I was still a teenager myself, when she started sharing this stuff, I had the perspective of, “I’m going to show up and motivate them — hard work pays off, dream big.” And then after she told me all of these stories, I was like, these kids might need something else.

They might need a little bit of that, and a little bit of, you know, being hyped up, but I was like, man, I think I wrote the wrong speech. She was telling me about all these things these kids are going through, and I’m thinking, some of them are wondering what’s the next big dream, and some of them are just trying to have a stable environment and know that people care about them.

So I frantically rewrote a new speech. Because I had a little label printer for my clothing company, I printed these little stickers that said, “I believe in you.” I showed up, had the staff hand out the stickers to all the kids — there were like 1,200 kids — and I gave the speech. But at the end, they all had those stickers, and I told them, “Hey, look, the stickers that I gave you are not yours. Trade it to the person next to you if you want, give it to somebody in the hallway, your favorite teacher, or go home and give it to your mom, your dad, your brother, your cousin, your neighbor, or the mailman. I don’t care. But take that message that I gave you today and find somebody to go give it to.”

And I left. Honestly, nobody asked me anything too crazy. People were clapping. I was debating whether I should really do this anymore — I didn’t feel like I was qualified, and I wanted to make sure I was really serving these kids.

A few days later, the principal calls me back and says, “Brax, these kids ran with these stickers. They’re being nice to each other in the hallways, making new friends, nice to our staff.” She said dozens and dozens of parents had called, telling stories of these kids bringing home these stickers and wanting to have a conversation, or asking if they could give it to this person.

I got off the phone with her — I told her, well, thank you for telling me, I really appreciate that. And to be honest, I was like, really? With these ugly little stickers? But it was really cool. I got off the phone and thought, man, I should do that at all schools, for all kids. And the more I thought about it, I realized most of those stories were from adults. I thought, okay, people need people. It only takes 5 seconds and four words to change somebody’s day — maybe change their life.

That’s when I decided it wasn’t just going to be on an ugly little sticker, that it needed to be on something cool, something that made sense to share. That’s where I had the idea for these bracelets. And it all came from a bunch of kids.

Susan Drumm: So, you’re an entrepreneur at heart — you said you dropped out of school and created this clothing company. Tell us a little bit about the success of that. How big did it get? What kind of impact did you make there? And then we’ll talk about the second iteration, around the bracelets.

Braxton Kilgo: Yeah. So what was really cool about the clothing company is I was really figuring it out. I grew up somewhere where everybody kind of wore starched jeans, real country, and growing up I was always trying to cut my sleeves and write on stuff and dye it. So I always kind of had a thing for fashion.

Whenever I launched the clothing company, I definitely got the side-eye from people where I grew up — like, “He dropped out and he’s doing t-shirts? Okay, well, good luck.” I didn’t really know what I was doing, but I was enjoying designing and sending it out to friends. Before I knew it, there were people with lots of followers who really fell in love with it, and I started traveling to different fitness expos, because I wasn’t playing football anymore.

When I got out, I didn’t know what to do, so I was doing bodybuilding, powerlifting, CrossFit — I was doing all of it. So naturally it kind of started in the athleisure, fitness space. I realized there were fitness events and things people do, and I thought, well, people love this — if I can just get it in front of them. Funny enough, I couldn’t afford a booth or anything in the beginning, so I would just fill my gym bag full of t-shirts and sell them to people standing in line.

Susan Drumm: Amazing.

Braxton Kilgo: A cool full-circle moment is that now we’re doing a partnership with Mr. Olympia and Muscle & Fitness, and I got to tell the CEO of that company the other day — who we’re now partnering with — that I used to sell t-shirts illegally out of a gym bag.

So it was really awesome — we had a lot of good success. I figured out how to utilize affiliates pretty early on, and then I started getting into these expos and traveling to those when I could afford a booth. When we were in person, we sold out every time.

In the apartment I lived in, people just throw stuff away all the time, and I found this old tabletop that someone had thrown away. It was this big table, and I had this girl paint the mission and vision of Vision on it, and it would sit at the front of our booth. Everybody who walked by would stop and read it, and it was so awesome.

Susan Drumm: Wait, wait — share that vision. What was the vision and mission of the company?

Braxton Kilgo: I can’t remember it word for word — I still have it out here in the barn — but it was basically about, ironically enough, humans believing in other humans, being nice, being kind, and being willing to take the risk and chase your dream, because what else really is there? It was kind of this really raw “we believe in you” — whatever that thing is that lights you up, we want to encourage you to find a way to make it happen.

Susan Drumm: Yeah. Well, that’s sort of the story of your life, isn’t it? It’s your beliefs, your values, out there in the world. And one of the reasons I wanted to have you on the show is that it’s just a great example of such a mission-driven company, and how the mission is really driving the success that you’ve had.

I mean, how else do you explain some of the success you’ve had with just selling t-shirts in line? I also love the grit, and just putting yourself in the right places at the right time and believing in what you have to offer. None of these things got in your way — some people would say, “Oh, you have to have a booth to do that,” or, “You’re doing a t-shirt company? Really?” But you didn’t let any of that stop you.

So I’m curious — why do you think that is for you? What’s that thing that you have that maybe other entrepreneurs, who try to start companies, falter on?

Braxton Kilgo: I think it’s a few things. I certainly had people who believed in me. I think in the beginning, I probably took more motivation from the people that didn’t. A little bit of it at first was kind of a chip on the shoulder — it was the people who were close to me who didn’t believe in me, even some of my family, and that gave me the chip on my shoulder. So I think some of it was proving people wrong.

Susan Drumm: Yeah.

Braxton Kilgo: But also, I really just believed in what I was doing. Everything that I was putting on a t-shirt, a bracelet, or an Instagram post really was just who I am and what I believed in. So the products were truly aligned, and I really, really believed in what I was selling. I put a lot of time into the product, the design, the message — all of it.

But then there was also the feedback I was getting. It’d be one thing to just sell a bunch of people on something, but whether it was the t-shirts or the bracelets, every single time somebody came back to me with a story of how it impacted them, or somebody they gave it to, or that they wear it every day and it reminds them — one of our shirts said “just a kid with a vision,” and people really gravitated toward that one, because that’s all that was, what I called myself.

Susan Drumm: Mhm.

Braxton Kilgo: Other people identified with that. I think for me, the thing that still to this day drives me the most is that I wholeheartedly believe in what we’re selling. When you show up to serve, not sell — now, if what I’m selling serves you, then let’s do it — but when you really show up to serve and you believe in what you’re doing, it’s hard to let off the gas when people are reminding you every single day that it makes a difference to them.

Susan Drumm: Yeah, and that’s the reward for you — knowing that the things you’re creating are actually impacting people emotionally. Let’s talk about the bracelets a little bit more, and what kind of success and impact you’ve had there. I’d love to hear some stories.

Braxton Kilgo: Yeah, so what’s interesting — to pick up where I left off earlier — I decided to turn them into bracelets, not these ugly little stickers, and I wanted them to be cool. Then the vision just kept getting bigger and bigger, until I decided it needed to be its own company. At first I just thought maybe this would just be a bracelet that we had inside Vision.

Susan Drumm: Yeah.

Braxton Kilgo: Yeah. That’s how it started. But the more I sat on the idea and started to put it together, I realized this was going to be its own thing. So I decided to launch it as its own company, I Believe in You, and I was 19 — still pretty young.

Susan Drumm: Amazing.

Braxton Kilgo: I was figuring it out — it was so cool. I kind of just did the same model as Vision: took a bunch of the people who already supported that, leveraged that community, and we threw up a website. Within four or five months, we sold to every state in the US, and to 16 different countries. What’s funny is I was living in my high school bedroom with a laptop, a label printer, and a box of bracelets, and people thought it was this massive global company.

But that was just because all the people getting these bracelets and sharing them, and all the content they were giving us — the impact wasn’t even really being made by us. We were just supplying the vehicle, the tangible piece. It was really incredible — we sold bracelets all over the world. It was growing really quickly and it was super fun. I got to be on ABC, NBC, NFL Network. I always thought that would be for hitting people, but it was for kindness.

Susan Drumm: A different mission, right?

Braxton Kilgo: Yeah, like God had a plan — I just didn’t know what it was. It was really incredible. But as that was scaling — if you can imagine the stories I got from the middle school kids, now imagine that from every state, multiple countries, all ages, all walks of life. The stories we were getting were all ages, all kinds of people — everything from brightening somebody’s day, to rekindling a relationship with a stranger, to people starting their own business, all the way to people not taking their own life because somebody gave them a piece of plastic.

It was kind of a repeat of the moment with the students and the weight of the stories that principal told me — it was really heavy, but it unlocked for me a real understanding of how powerful these small acts of kindness are. It was all these little micro-moments, almost like a pebble in the water.

Susan Drumm: Right. Yeah, because the idea is you don’t buy this necessarily for yourself — you buy it to give away.

Braxton Kilgo: Right — to give it away. Yeah, you wear it with the intention to give it away to somebody else. You wear it until you’re inspired to give it away, whether it’s a stranger or somebody you know.

As these stories started coming in from all over the world, ranging from the bottom to the top of every situation, that’s when I decided — man, there’s got to be a way to show everybody else how powerful this is. I always believed, be a good person, be kind, giving gives back, but you never really have a whole bunch of evidence for it. You buy the thing for the person behind you, and you just hope that people pass it on.

When I was seeing this, I now had evidence. I wanted to show people, “Hey, look at this.” And that’s where I had the idea for the mobile app.

Again, mind you, I don’t know another entrepreneur at this point in my life. I announced to everybody, “I’m going to build this mobile app, it’s going to measure impact.” Little did I know that was way out of my price range, and there was a lot I didn’t know.

Because it was getting big from all the different media channels and TV shows, I started having big organizations reach out wanting to purchase it. I drove my little F-150 farm truck, in my boots and jeans and white T-shirt, to some corporate meetings. Every one of them I walked out of, it just didn’t feel right — they all wanted majority ownership, and they wanted to change the name, Vision.

So ultimately, I announced to everybody: “Hey, look, the truth is, I need to go learn how to be a business person, and I’m not willing to change the vision. So I’m going to put this on pause. I’m going to learn how to be a business person, go meet all the right people, get all the resources, and bring this back with the exact vision I told you it would be.”

So, fast-forward through that — I had a really awesome launch, came up with the concept, we were really excited, I turned down the offers, and then I went and figured out how to build businesses and learn. I started a couple other companies, and over the last 9 or 10 years, the one that really stuck — the one I actually funded I Believe in You with — was a digital marketing and production agency, where we worked with everybody from personal brands and startups all the way to corporations.

Obviously we didn’t start there, but we learned along the way, and that’s how I funded IBIY. I was able to leave that company a little over a year ago, and now I do I Believe in You full-time.

Susan Drumm: Great. So what is the company today — the I Believe in You company? Are you still producing bracelets? Did you move into the app space? What does that look like?

Braxton Kilgo: Yes. We have a mobile app now, and it’s awesome. We’re about to launch our e-commerce store, where we sell the bracelets and every bracelet goes back to support a different cause or nonprofit. We’re about to launch e-com, and then we have the school tour, because that’s where it started.

To date, we’ve spoken at a little over a thousand schools — it’s called the Culture Shift Tour, I Believe in You. So we still serve the schools, we’re about to launch the e-com, and then we have a B2B side of the business, which is actually what I’ve been operating off of for the last year. That’s where we’re creating fully co-branded bracelets and packaging — basically creating our exact movement for other organizations and aligning it with their mission, their message, their audience.

Susan Drumm: So each one of these cases — the common theme is that ability to be so mission-driven and have really crystal-clear messaging. It’s a very simple statement, but you built a company and a movement behind a very simple belief. It’s not just a statement — it’s the passion and belief you have behind it that you can clearly see is gravitating all of the followers and all of the business that’s coming to you.

It’s really fascinating to hear how you built your company. Looking back — and I also believe our mistakes are sometimes our biggest teacher — what mistakes have you made along the way, and what did they teach you?

Braxton Kilgo: I think honestly one of the biggest things I’ve learned is that when you try to do something really good, sometimes people don’t want that to win. I’ve had some moments through building this where people saw the vision, especially in the beginning — companies that wanted to come in, and they loved it, but it was kind of like, “Good idea, kid, we’ll take it from here.” They wanted majority, they wanted to take everything over.

I’ve had a few big organizations that we’ve been in talks with who want to sell you the moon and the stars. And it’s hard, because we believe in everybody — we’re about kindness and positivity, and we believe everybody is good. But the truth is, not everybody has the best intentions in mind for you and your business.

I think I’ve had to learn that as much as we believe in other people and what we’re doing, the mission, the business, our core partners, our people, our community — that’s what’s most important. So we have to be really protective and selective about who we allow into this mission, which is real, and wasn’t just made because mental health is trending, or kindness is trending, or because of a bunch of middle school kids. It’s because it’s fully who I am, not off some trend.

So I think it’s just making sure to be a little more diligent. In the beginning, if somebody had a cool idea and thought it was amazing and wanted to bring their followers and their events, I would just get excited and trust people. Whereas now I’ve got a little bit more of a filter and some hoops that people have to go through.

Susan Drumm: More discernment about who’s actually going to support the vision and mission you’ve outlined, and who is just using it for, let’s say, profit.

Braxton Kilgo: Yeah.

Susan Drumm: But there’s a belief that you can have both, right? And you’re a walking example of that. So you built that discernment over time. Where do you want it to be in the future? What’s your vision — you are a visionary — where does it go from here?

Braxton Kilgo: Yeah, so it’s a few things. What we’re focused on at the moment — we have three pillars: B2B, D2C, and our school tour. The school tour is absolutely incredible. When I haven’t done one in a while, it kind of feels like, this is good, but whatever. And then I go to one and I’m like, “Oh my god, this is why we do this.”

So the big-rock goals for the next phase: right now we’re bringing on more speakers for the tour, because we have more schools than we can go to ourselves. We’re trying to get a corporate sponsor so we can go to more schools that can’t afford it, and tour around the country serving nonstop. That’s the goal with the tour — touring around the country every year, regardless of any school’s financials. We just get to show up and serve.

On the B2B side, I want to partner with the biggest companies in the world, and the smallest. The vision there — going back to what our mission for the company is — is that we want to change the world. We want to lower these statistics of disconnection, depression, lack of resources. There’s a long list of problems in the world.

We debated: what are we going to do, start 85 branches of the company — one for mental health, one for addiction, one for helping build schools? That’s where we decided, no — what we need to do is find people who have dedicated their lives to solving those problems, who believe in what we’re doing and we believe in what they’re doing, and we just become a multiplier for what they’re doing.

With the B2B side — and this lines up with the D2C side too — we’re building an army of kindness. We’re installing this very simple, tangible vehicle into these interactions and aligning it with their missions. On the B2B side, it’s really — I want concerts thrown at me, I want your favorite athlete making a touchdown and handing the bracelet to a kid in the stands. I want to get all of these big organizations with good missions involved.

On the D2C side, it’s the same thing — we just want to provide this vehicle, this mission, this very simple template for your life, to encourage people to go be nice once a day, once a week, whatever, and encourage as many people to do that as possible. And if we can collectively — between the tour, the organizations, and all the individual “wave makers” — have this whole giant army moving in the same direction, working together and supporting each other’s causes, I think that’s how we can actually change the world. Because when a problem pops up, we have an army to put toward it.

Susan Drumm: This is so much bigger even than that message, from what I hear. I love that you’re partnering with other organizations that are aligned with your mission and finding a way to serve through them, because that’s your multiplier effect. Really creative process.

Is there a certain way you encourage people to think about who they’re going to give the bracelet to, or how they’re going to pay it forward and show kindness? It seems simple, but I wonder — having focused on this so closely — are there certain things you notice that work, and things that maybe don’t?

Braxton Kilgo: Yeah, so everybody’s a little bit different. Let’s remove the technology for a minute — all of our bracelets say “I believe in you,” and I know what these things did when there was no technology. So even without the mobile app, the people who get into it and use it, wonderful — but the truth is, whether you don’t say a word and just leave this on the table for your server or the person checking you out, or you say one sentence and give it to them, there are kind of levels to it.

You can leave it, you could say something simple, you could have a 20-minute deep conversation, or it might be three hours and you’re crying. Everybody tells me this now — when you have this on, it almost wires something in the back of your mind. The truth is, we could all go tell people all day, “Hey, man, I believe in you, I believe in you” — we could do that, and I think that’s awesome, do it. But this is almost a reminder — for one, to believe in yourself. It’s a good self-reminder.

But when you have it on your wrist and you look down, you start looking at every situation differently — whether you’re getting gas, you see a homeless person, you’re talking with a friend, you’re on a Zoom call, wherever you are, you start to look at the world a little bit differently. You’re naturally going to look for an opportunity to give it away.

For some people, that radar is more like mine — almost every person I come into contact with, I find a reason. But for others, that’s why we say, “wear it until you’re inspired to give it away.” As long as you have it on and you know what it’s for, there’ll be a moment where even the person who doesn’t like to interact, or is a little more introverted, will recognize the moment and find some way to give it to someone.

Susan Drumm: That’s beautiful. How does the mobile app tie into the bracelet?

Braxton Kilgo: Yeah, I’ll do it as an example. Let’s say we were in person today having a conversation, and I decide I want to give you my bracelet. I take it off my wrist and hand it to you. All you have to do is touch your phone to the patch on the bracelet. Every single bracelet has a unique ID code written to it, so no other bracelet is like any other one.

So whenever you touch that bracelet to your phone, when you got it from me, it’s going to pull up either a picture or a video that I made for you, with a caption — a message to you. When you tap it for the first time, you’ll be able to see that message from me, and then it’ll give you the opportunity to leave a message for the next person, whether that’s a stranger or somebody you know.

But what’s really cool is you’ll be able to see every single person who had it before you, all of the stories. You can see every city and country it’s ever been to — the entire lifeline of it before it got onto your wrist. And then when you give it away, you get to watch where it goes around the world.

Let’s say you had 10 bracelets, gave them all away, and forgot about it. You come back a few months later, check your profile, and it’ll show you a feed of your impact — you can scroll through and see it on the globe. It’ll show you that you have 10 bracelets that have been to 17 cities and three countries and impacted 35 people. It actually measures all of it for you.

Susan Drumm: That is such an important point — oh my god, that’s amazing — because it’s not just a one-time thing that you throw away. You’re never going to throw this away. It has a history, it has a meaning.

Braxton Kilgo: Yeah, and then who you decide to give it to also has a special meaning, too.

Susan Drumm: So, I just love —

Braxton Kilgo: It doesn’t end, you know? Like, even if you give it away, you’re still a part of it. And then we also have the social feed, too — kind of like any other feed, but ours is just a live feed of all the people around the world just being nice to each other. So it kind of has a social aspect, too.

Susan Drumm: Yeah, wonderful. Well, you’re such a wonderful example of enlightened leadership, Braxton. I started this show to highlight leaders like you, so thank you for being on the show. Let people know where they can learn more about this work, or find the bracelets, so we can pass it on.

Braxton Kilgo: Yeah, that would be amazing. Well, Susan, I appreciate all the kind words, and just spending some time with me today out here on the farm — I know we had a little bit of Wi-Fi issues for a minute. To find us, it’s just ibelieveinyou.io. That’s our website, and that’s all of our social media handles — ibelieveinyou.io.

Susan Drumm: All right, excellent. Well, thank you, and thanks for sharing your story, and for also including middle school kids as part of your journey — because I think starting young, and letting people know the impact they can have on others’ lives, gives their life purpose and meaning. By connecting to your own purpose and meaning, you’re giving others the ability to find theirs.

Braxton Kilgo: Thank you so much.

Susan Drumm: If you like this episode, you’re not going to want to miss my interview with Laura Gassner Otting, who tells us that for some, success triggers self-doubt, pressure, and imposter syndrome, and she teaches leaders how to turn this uncertainty into personal growth. Let’s lead the way.

Hope you enjoyed today’s episode, and I’d like to point you to the next important step. Hit the subscribe button and the bell to get notified when we release new content. I’ll see you on the next episode of The Enlightened Executive.