RPP+ Free Sample: Hanging Out with Maiden Frank and David Pasqualone | Turning Good Intentions Into a Global Impact | E108
David Pasqualone: Hello friends. I'm David Pasqualone. And today on Hanging Out with David Pasqualone Friends, we have a great guest. Our friend Maiden is here with us today. Maiden, how are you?
Maiden Frank: I'm great. I'm good. Happy New Year.
David Pasqualone: Happy New Year to you too. So, Maiden, you and I got to know each other through, I believe, our friend Tim at The Publishing Company, and you have been working hard and releasing a new book.
Talk to us about your book that just came out.
Maiden Frank: Well, it's called Provocatures, Not Philanthropists. I'm gonna turning good intentions into global impact. So it's been released last year and I've been promoting it ever since and talking to my friends about it. And yeah, this is my first commercial book documenting all of my [00:01:00] lessons learned, my experiences, my gut wrenching record of, of the You know, my decade of work in international development, working in the global South, particularly in, in communities in the global South.
So I'm very happy to share this with the rest of the world and hopefully there'll be something that they can get out of it.
David Pasqualone: Yeah. And let's do that. I always ask that same question for all our interviews. Listeners might've binged, listened to every one of our episodes of the last four years, or this might be their first exposure to our show.
If they listened to your episode, what can you guarantee they're going to learn by the time this is over?
Maiden Frank: Well, I guarantee that one day we'll get something like they'll get an inspiration and insight as to how they can make global impact as an ordinary citizen, like you and me, engineers, doctors, beekeepers, carpenters, any anyone from, you know, from different walks of life can become can really invoke change and promote change in communities in the global South where there is [00:02:00] lack, there is a lack, there is a lack of There is hopelessness, there is despair, there is apathy, and a lot of things are, are missing in their lives, and yet they can, they can, with our help, bring that change in their communities, transform their communities to, to, to something really better for the, for this generation and for the next generation to come.
So, inspiration, insight, and an aha moment, at least.
David Pasqualone: Good. Well, I'm looking forward to it. So let's start off with a title. Provocateurs. I'm an American. I don't, I'm not familiar with that word. I know it comes from probably the base provocative, but talk about the word The title and the word.
Maiden Frank: When I was writing the book, I thought about that, you know especially when I come from and in my profession as a development worker in, from the Global South, I come, came from the Philippines.
So I've been in Canada for for more than a decade now. So I'm coming from that [00:03:00] background. And in my work, there's a lot of people, good people, good, good intention, people trying to make a difference in the Global South. And yet they fail from it. Time and time again, whether it's a, it's a philanthropic person, a billionaire, a large institution like the UN or World Bank or IMF or a business trying to make a change, they fail time and time again because they haven't really seen what happened in the past.
They haven't really captured the lessons learned of others who have done it before that they're following. And three, they haven't really. Contextualize the kind of help that should be should be delivered to these kinds of people. So my book is really about bringing all these lessons learned together, whether it's a large corporation, a large institution, or a person, just a, just a, you know, a person, an individual trying to make a difference.
I have compiled that in order for us ordinary people who [00:04:00] wanted to make a change, get better at doing it, be successful in trying to make a difference in the lives of people and communities. So that's the premise of the book. And Provocateur is something that I thought would be great because Adjunct provocateur is very negative, but provocateur, you know, as a provocator, is, can be transformed into a positive connotation.
Meaning, you know, you're trying to work with people to transform systems, institutions, and and the power dynamics in order that change can really happen from the deepest level, not just from the superficial level, like, you know, building a dam, building a school, building a clinic. It's easy. But what is transformative for me is really the cultural change with people, that they understand that they have the power, they themselves have it, that they can have hope, that they can have, you know they can be inspired to move forward, despite and in spite of, you know, lack of support from people around them, that they're [00:05:00] supposed to be helping them.
So, in essence, provocation is really the proselytizing. Transformative power that comes from the people themselves, and that is that we as provocateurs can make that happen. So that's the premise of the word provocateur.
David Pasqualone: Very nice, very nice. And then, when you go in this book, you're talking about provoking people to good.
And, how can someone who's an employee, Or someone who's in a CEO, it seems to most people that, well, yeah, of course a CEO can turn the tiller of the ship and, and change the direction. But how can I, as a, as a mid level manager, make a difference? How can I, as an employee, make a difference? Talk about how your book addresses that.
Maiden Frank: Yes, so this is about people like you and me who doesn't have a billion of dollars or a million of followers. It's just doing our job day to day, you know doing having a [00:06:00] profession or some of us having you know, a business. And this really talks about People like us who doesn't have the means, but I have the, but have the five piece.
The five pieces is the framework of my book. You have the purpose, you have the passion, you have the, the provision, you have practice, and you have the right paradigm. You can be a global impact leader. It doesn't have to have, you know, like in the works of Bono or George Clooney or, you know, Matt Di or, or whatever you, you, you wanna, you know, call them as the celebrity humanitarians.
Right? So there is a trend now about Pseudo humanitarianism. It's a trend that's growing because people like, you know, the fans of Angelina Jolie, Angelina Jolie, trying to be like her, will copy her, go to Africa, do some photo shoots and say, Hey, I'm doing, I'm a humanitarian now. That's a, that's been a growing trend, and we'd like to reverse that, because that's not what humanitarianism is all about, and in the context of a [00:07:00] growing globalization and hyper globalization that's affecting us negatively, we need to understand that we, individuals, can make a difference, and our footprint out there can have a huge negative impact if we're not careful, if our paradigms are not correct.
So, five pieces of the purpose. Fashion provision, practice, and paradigm. If you don't have the right purpose of going in there and if you don't have the right paradigm, you, your, your footprint will be on the negative side and you will be doing a lot of superficial things that you think are good on the, in terms of the publicity or or in the public eye, but in essence, you're just rebuilding a dam, building a school, building a clinic, and leaving them, and then what happens?
The dam would break, the school will not be sufficient, and there'll be chaos, there'll be, there'll be conflicts within the leadership, and so on and so forth. So we'll just [00:08:00] be adding into the mess, and this has been documented many, many, many times. A you know, what can an individual do? If you have the five Ps, you can start wherever you are.
And it doesn't have, it doesn't have to have, you know, it doesn't have to have a lot of dollars in the first place. Like it's not coming from, doesn't even have to come from your own pocket. Like, if you wanna really build something or work with, with the communities in the south, you can start with what's your what?
Who do you know? You can start with, you know, if, if your, if your organization is working like, for example, corporate social responsibility, you want to be, you want that to be an effective corporate social responsibility, not just a charity, because charity is dead. Charity without really going to the deeper systematic issues of communities.
It's totally worthless. Here and there, a couple of pictures and what? Nothing has changed. Eventually, people will get so so tired of [00:09:00] this that it's just using it as a sort of a whitewashing, right, for corporations and businesses. So if you're a middle manager of just an employee, Ask what is it, what is the company's stand for this, for environmental protection, for trafficking, for women in, women in color, just being, just being rooted in humanity and understanding that we all have a role to play in making sure that our spheres of influence.
will be good. And later on that we're passing that legacy, whether because of our faith, because of our tradition, because of our you know, just our embedded humanity within us that we care for that, for these kinds of issues. And that we hold them dear. So global impact for me is being local, starting local, understanding where you are, the dynamics and context of the issues that surround you, and not just doing this, you know whitewashing thing that [00:10:00] a lot of people do, and especially businesses, because it's good for the eyes.
It's good for consumer perception. Right? So, I have, I have an example in my book about this a mom, a stay at home mom who've done a remarkable job promoting women's rights and women's health from all over the world. And he has built a community, like all these moms traveling to different parts of the world talking about reporting.
These are individuals. Reporting about, you know, what's going on with immunization, with children's health, with vaccines and all of that. And, you know putting that in a, in a platform where it can be a sounding board for other organizations to, to look at and to see. So stay home, mom, you know, Leading a movement of moms that are reporting about women's health and children's health is amazing and has done that for years without any compensation whatsoever because that's [00:11:00] That's her passion.
That's her belief that, you know, I'm a mom. I don't want this moms to die because of childbirth and because of lack of support and lack of resources from these develop developing countries, we need to act together as moms. So it's like, like moms unite kind of a movement, but it work and just highlighting that stay at home person can do lots of things.
David Pasqualone: Yeah, no, and it all starts, like you said, you have five Ps, the vision. And when you were talking, you reminded me of a story I haven't heard. I probably haven't heard this in 20 years and I'm going to butcher it, but did you ever hear the story of the gentleman who was fishing each day in his country and then outsiders came in and they were like, wait, you know, you, why are you only catching two fish a day?
Did you ever hear that story?
Maiden Frank: Yeah.
David Pasqualone: Yeah. So, you know, so for our listeners, it's just like basically an outsider comes in and he's ridiculing and criticizing a man [00:12:00] who every day he goes out and he catches two fishes and he's happy and he has a good life, but the paradigm of the man who's visiting, he's like, Oh, well, you got to work harder.
You got to catch more. You got to save up. You got to build a team. You have to build a company. You have to go international. And the guy's like, why would I do that? He's like, so you can be rich. And he's like, well, that'll take me like 20, 30 years. And the guy's like, yeah, but you'll retire rich. And he's like, well, then what do I do when I'm rich?
It's like, then you retire and go fishing all day. And the guy's like, that's what I'm doing now. That's what I'm doing now. Why would I go through this whole thing? And to fulfill your dream, to fulfill your paradigm. And honestly, you're warped, you know, like a lot of people, they have this drive to be rich for nothing.
Money's a tool. And that's all it is. It's like, we need to figure out what God wants for us and follow that vision, that passion. Well,
Maiden Frank: God said he, he promised to give us bread to eat, right? Our daily bread. [00:13:00] Our daily bread is, is sufficient. It's sufficient enough, right? And we want more, right? That's it.
That's the context of it. If you really see, think about the daily bread, that's our day to day daily bread. And we are okay. That's It's, it fills us physically, emotionally, mentally, physically, intellectually. That's our daily bread. And we want more. And that's where all these problems come from because we want to accumulate, right?
For the sake of accumulation. And that's why we have a world like this.
David Pasqualone: Yeah, no, I couldn't agree more. I mean, Some people, our past will be wealthy. Some people, the past will be struggling, but God will provide our daily bread, will provide our needs. And it's not because he loves one more than the other.
It's just one's a kidney and one's a liver. There's different roles for everybody, but we're all in the body of Christ. So that's great. So now people go to Amazon, they [00:14:00] purchase your book or your website, wherever the best place is, and they're reading it. As they're going through your book, what is the process and journey you take them on to show them that, hey, you can do this too?
Maiden Frank: That's right. So I have the five Ps. That's the Global Impact Leadership Framework. If you have the five Ps, then you can start thinking about How will I do it? Practically. There's a lot of books on development that talks about aid and, you know, but this is practical. This is like ground truth realities.
When you hit the ground, what do you do? You are bombarded with many information, many fallacies, many myths, many perceptions, many expectations, which you cannot perform because you're one person, right? You're one person doing this. You have your, you know, set of group and community that loves you and, you know, supports you in this work, but eventually you're all alone.
And they would say, Oh, your [00:15:00] dream is a pipe dream. It's like a pie in the sky. It's in the book, actually, I quote myself. It's a pie in the sky. You don't build a hospital in this nowhere, you know, area. It's only the UN can do that. Or, you know, or the, the African, you know, union or whatever, like a conglomeration of states and nations with lots of resources and budget.
You can't do that. And that woman just. built a hospital, a women's hospital, and maternity, with a great maternity ward for, for, for a pregnant women in that area. Dreams can happen. Dreams can happen. So they go through the book, they have, I have these 10 principles. So these are, 10 principles to me are 10 lessons learned.
So number one, number two, three, four, five, ten. And each of them have this theme. It's thematic. So the first one would be do better than do no harm. They would say, you know, the Hippocratic Oath. Do no harm. That's the first thing. Do no harm on the [00:16:00] patient. But please, Don't just settle on doing no harm.
You have to do better. You have to do better, whether you're using technology or whatever, or using context, using relationship, using accountability, whatever that is, you know, already science based paradigm. Use it. Use it. For the greater good, for greater benefit of people they're trying to reach. Don't just settle for, oh, I have, you know, I have I didn't do this, I didn't do that.
I have avoided this negative, you know, all these pitfalls and traps of, you know, trying to look good or looking like you're, you're too white and you're, you must be rich or, you know, that sort of paradigm there. But then what did I do? What did I leave them behind? Will they still be, So thriving in that context of the work that I did with them, or they have, you know squandered it, squandered the opportunity.
They have missed it. What did I, what did I contribute right in the end? So, did I, did I [00:17:00] actually made it better or did I make, make it worst?
David Pasqualone: Yeah, and that
Maiden Frank: is. In the end, I brought it up by saying that a person would say, still, I, I don't know what to do. Right. You've read the book after the 10 chapter, he would still say, well, it was good for you.
You've been there, you live there all their life. You know, I, I'm not that good as you are, or not connected. Don't have millions, don't have good friends in the high places. How can I do that? So I wrap it up in a way that if you lack this, if you lack passion, you know, if you lack purpose, if you lack provision, if you lack practice, you're a person, you know, you don't have the record yet, there's something, you know, that you can, you know, small ways, small steps.
And then if you lack the paradigm, read more, you know, talk to people who've done it, talk to people who are experienced. And they may teach you many things that you, you're, you don't [00:18:00] really, you know, think about yet, but when you go on the ground and you will see, oh, Aiden is right, this is not, this is complex.
This is a lot of, you know you need to do a lot of, of, of, of thinking to make sure that you're, you're. You're really putting the effort where you should be, and you need to be able to think about many things and factors that affect how you are perceived, how your message is delivered, and how you can really transform change, transform people with them, not for them, but with them.
David Pasqualone: Yeah, if you do it for them, it'll just go right back to where it was and often worse, correct?
Maiden Frank: Yes, yes. It's documented there too many times, so yeah.
David Pasqualone: Yeah, teach a man to fish and he'll fish for a life, but give him a fish and he eats for a day. And that's, that's worse when people start becoming dependent and they become what's the word?
I'm trying to think of the clean word, but basically they become like they're entitled, they're [00:19:00] entitled, they become entitled. Terrible, terrible mentality. So Maiden, someone goes and picks up your book, they're reading it, they're inspired or they're frustrated. Either way, they got questions for you.
What's the best way to reach you?
Maiden Frank: Well, the best way to reach me is once you've read the book, you have more questions. I would, I would assume that you have more questions than answers because I didn't provide a lot of answers there. I have provoked you in a good way. And you can reach me through my website.
It's all my address, my LinkedIn, my social media handles are all there. And yeah, that, that would be the best way to reach me is yeah. To the web, my website, and I have all the information about my services and what I do aside from my authoring that book.
David Pasqualone: Okay, excellent. Well, before we wrap up today's hanging out session, is there anything else you want to share with our audience or anything else that you think, you know, a message is on your heart to help us focus in the new year [00:20:00] to be even stronger and more focused on God and the people of the world?
Maiden Frank: Yeah, for me, like this year, it's been the past several years you know, surviving through the, through the pandemic has been hard for a lot of people, especially for communities in the Global South and, and also in communities, in our communities in North America that are continue to struggle and we need to make sure that they, we bring them up, we bring them up as we, as we Go up, you know, striving for our dreams, striving for best potential.
It's time to Think about our next goals. Think about our the biggest dreams that we can dream again. Not, not not settling for for mediocre, not settling for, Oh, this is what I can do now, but thriving, thriving for the next best thing that God has put in your heart. And just be willing to bring up people with you as you go up.
It's amazing how [00:21:00] much. Love we can share, even though we are struggling ourselves. And I find that it's really good to bring people up as you move up, as you strengthen yourself, as you bring hope to yourself, you bring hope to other people. Whether it's through laughter, just simple things, simple joys in life can make a difference in another person, or just sharing a meal.
During the, this Christmas season and we went to my aunt's. For vacation, we stay there for a couple of days and I cook them my my favorite meals. This is not my favorite meal. It's my husband's favorite meal, which is chicken lemon chicken. I cook them a meal that I thought would, you know, would bless them.
And they were so appreciative of the fact that I cook for them and they love the dish and they love the meal. And that's sort of like, that's my way of saying Sharing what I have, you know, what I have, you know, and just sharing joy, sharing peace, sharing God's love to other people. And it doesn't have to be this massive amount of, you know, [00:22:00] impact.
You can start here and be happy with it and God will prosper that. In due time.
David Pasqualone: All right, Maiden. It's been great hanging out with you today, ladies and gentlemen, check out Maiden's book. There's a link in the show notes. So whether you're listening on your favorite podcast player, Spotify, Apple, Google, whatever it is, you can check out the notes and go there.
If you're watching this on Rumble or YouTube or on our website, again, just check out the show notes and you can click right in please like us, subscribe us, share us with your friends and get Maiden's book. Read it, apply it. If you have any questions, reach out to her. And then, yeah, hold that up one more time, Maiden.
Say something so the camera switches to you.
Maiden Frank: There you go. Here's the, here's the cover.
David Pasqualone: Provocateurs, Not Philanthropists.
Maiden Frank: Training with intention.
David Pasqualone: That's it. That's it. And ladies and gentlemen, thank you for being here today. We love you. [00:23:00] And we hope you only have a life that thrives with joy and peace for the Lord and for yourselves and to help others.
And like Maiden ruined this book, the whole purpose is to not live a life that's wasted or selfish, but to give back to the world, just a piece of what God's given us. So Maiden, thank you for being here today.
Maiden Frank: so much. You have a wonderful day and have a great 2024.
David Pasqualone: Yes, you too. And ladies and gentlemen, we love you.
We'll see you in the next episode.
