Your humanity isn’t up for debate. So as friends and family members are falling away from your life, triggered by a heated social media interaction or a toxic holiday gathering, what can you do?

That’s been the question for a while now in the age of political divide. So today, we’re talking to Clif Doyal, because lessons from his impressive life experience can apply to how we handle the discomfort, the sadness, the anger, and the grief that comes with the territory.

Our guest today, Clif Doyal, is a music industry veteran here in Nashville, TN with over 50 year's experience. He does publicity for and manages recording and performance artists with his companies, CDA Publicity & Marketing and the Clif Doyal Agency. He also represents fashion brands in his new boutique agency, ClifX Fashions.

Clif is uniquely qualified to share his experiences on the topic because his curiosity and love for music has taken him through seemingly contradictory experiences where he’s relied on shared humanity and common ground to connect. 

We’re talking performing at Nixon’s inauguration as a young teenager while Viet Nam war protests were raging beside him; joining a racially diverse band in the late 70s and playing in rock n roll clubs where the racial tension was palpable; tour-managing artists at Trump’s welcome party in 2017; and then marching in the women’s march during the same trip.

We dive into the foundation his parents built that set him up to have these types of experiences, why he’d want to interact with people on both political “sides,” how his life is enriched from the experiences, but also what he does to deal with the social fall out. Through it all, he doesn’t compromise his ethics.

Aside from Clif’s engaging storytelling, if you take away anything from this episode, let it be these points:  

-A strong understanding of shared humanity helps you be a compassionate and kind person.

-You’re not alone in these experiences of relationships changing or dissipating over a disagreement about human rights.

-Misinformation, toxic politics, and cancel culture do exist and impact our relationships through social media and news outlets.

-Music is a unifier. You can use it as such in your life.

-Common ground is the basis for relating to other humans.

-That’s how we start to heal the divide.

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Want the world to change? Let’s go back to basics so you can have a strong foundation for being part of the change. To do this, download my free ebook, What It Means to Be Human. Visit humanamplified.com/episodes/098 to claim your copy now. 

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