What does kindness look like when you learned it from the Welcome Wagon Lady?


There was a woman in Stephanie Duguid’s hometown who knew everybody’s name before they’d finished unpacking their boxes. They called her the Welcome Wagon Lady. She was also Stephanie’s mom.

Margie wrote notes. Hundreds of them. She remembered students twenty years after they left her classroom, and she kept showing up long after the welcome basket was delivered. Dr. Stephanie Duguid lost her unexpectedly on her third day as a teacher, and what carried her through was everything her mother had already given away. Fifty years later, those notes are still finding their way back.

In this episode:

  • What a Welcome Wagon Lady actually did in the 1970s, and how Margie turned strangers into friends in a matter of minutes
  • The student who held onto the family recipes for twenty years, and the cookbook that came out of returning them
  • A stack of postcards dated 1975, mailed back to Stephanie just a few months ago by a woman she’d never met
  • The weekend Margie came to visit with two suitcases, one for clothes and one for stationery, stamps, and her address book
  • Why social media is everybody’s A side, and how Margie got people to show her the B side
  • Flowers in the morning, a car accident that night, and the third day of teaching that changed everything
  • “What would Margie do?” and what to do when you can’t find a mentor
    Leading with kindness without letting accountability slip

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About Dr. Stephanie Duguid

Dr. Stephanie Duguid (yes, it’s pronounced “do good”) is a leadership culture strategist, keynote speaker, and founder of Do Good Leadership. She spent more than thirty years in K-12 and higher education as a teacher, athletic trainer, and administrator, and she now helps organizations build cultures where people feel seen, heard, and valued. She holds a Doctorate in Educational Leadership and is the bestselling author of Exponentially Elevate Your Leadership Impact.

Connect with Stephanie:

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