Kristine Frost: Generosity, the C-Suite, and the Season After the Title

Kristine Frost grew up in Pontiac, Michigan, in the years when General Motors was pulling out and the families left behind built their own support systems out of mac and cheese, popsicles, and each other. She watched her grandmother, Vienna, run a government-subsidized community while her own health was failing, showing up for refugees and immigrants day after day. That is where Kristine's philanthropy started, and you can trace a straight line from it to the morning she saw a Facebook post at 4 a.m. and decided to donate a kidney to a stranger.

In this conversation, Kristine walks us through the whole arc. A trained labor and employment attorney who never wanted a law firm, she started on the floor of a stamping plant outside Detroit and rose to become the only woman in the C-suite of a male-dominated industry. Ten months ago she stepped out of that seat, founded Shattered Glass Advisory, and started answering the question so many in our community are living right now: who am I when the title is gone?

We talk about heart-centered leadership, leading up, the non-negotiable morning ritual that anchors her, and the piece of advice most people in transition don't want to hear at first: enjoy it. Kristine is a connector to her core, and this is a conversation you'll want to sit with.

🎧 Kristine is writing a book about the emotions of transition. She's coming back for the launch.

Chapters

00:01 — Welcome & meet Kristine Frost

00:38 — Growing up a Midwesterner (and why she's really a Detroiter)

03:32 — Pontiac, Flint & GM: community built close to poverty

05:40 — Vienna: the grandmother who shaped her philanthropy

07:43 — The kidney donation story begins

10:02 — Directed vs. non-directed donation & the highly sensitized program

12:22 — Finding a match: 20 vials of blood and anonymous matchmaking

14:14 — Meeting John: December 18, 2019

17:20 — From attorney to the stamping plant floor

18:58 — What a stamping plant actually is

20:01 — Real life on the floor: leading humans, not machines

22:42 — Leading up: giving executives the yes/no

25:04 — The best leader is the best ambassador of people

25:35 — Founding Shattered Glass Advisory

28:52 — "Who am I now?" Leading yourself through transition

31:03 — The formula: non-negotiables & starting the day happy

34:15 — Wanderlust, family time & what her daughter noticed

36:05 — Live, laugh, love and D.W.Y.S.Y.W.D.E.

38:21 — Where to find Kristine & closing

Links & Resources

Connect with Kristine Frost

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kfroesq/
• Shattered Glass Advisory: https://shatteredglassadvisory.com/

Mentioned in this episode

• Living kidney donation (directed vs. non-directed, the process Kristine describes) — Donate Life America: https://donatelife.net/donation/types/living-donation/
• Kidney donation facts & the national waiting list — Donate Life America: https://donatelife.net/donation/organs/kidney-donation/
• National Donate Life Registry (register your decision): https://registerme.org/