Goldie Hawn

Actress; Founder and CEO, MindUP (The Goldie Hawn Foundation)

Our children are going to inherit this world and aren’t prepared. And if we don't prepare them, we're not preparing the greatest resource we have.

Summary

In this episode of Leadership Matters, Alan is joined by Goldie Hawn, the esteemed actress, dancer, and producer who serves as the founder and CEO of MindUp, the Goldie Hawn Foundation. Though she is now a world-renowned, Academy Award-winning actress, Goldie’s path towards fame was hardly planned out. Alan and Goldie dive into the Academy Award-winning actress’s fascinating career and her complex journey to Hollywood.

Over the years, Goldie has been especially forthright in publicly discussing her own therapeutic journey and the heavy weight of stardom. In 2003, she created her foundation to join this personal focus with her passion for children and education. In the twenty years since its launch, MindUp has provided innovative classroom experiences to over six million children around the world. As an actress, Goldie has brought laughter and smiles to countless families. And as a nonprofit leader, she is actively working to create healthier minds for a healthier world.

Guest Bio

Goldie Hawn is an Academy Award winning actress, producer, director, best-selling author and true children’s advocate. She created The Hawn Foundation, a public charity with a mission to equip children with the social and emotional skills they need to lead smarter, healthier, happier and ultimately more productive lives.

Alarmed by increases in school violence, youth depression and suicide, and the persistent failure of the education system to help children cope with increasingly stressful lives, Hawn started her Foundation in 2003, applying cutting edge scientific research to create education programs that support the social and emotional development of children. Working with leading neuroscientists, educators, psychologists and researchers, the Foundation developed MindUP ™ an evidence-based curriculum and teaching model for grades K-12 that provide tools to help children self-regulate and understand their own emotions, moods and behaviors; reduce stress and anxiety; sharpen concentration; increase empathy; and improve academic performance.

MindUP ™ is the signature program of The Hawn Foundation which is serving over six million children in the US, Canada, UK, Finland, Ireland, Venezuela, Uganda, Portugal, Serbia, Jordan, Hong Kong, Australia, and New Zealand. The skills and mindfulness practices that are being taught have helped children improve learning and academic performance and learn valuable social and emotional skills that build personal resilience for a lifetime.

Hawn authored two best-selling books, a memoir “A Lotus Grows in the Mud”, in 2005 and in 2011, “10 Mindful Minutes”, offering guidance on raising healthy, joyful and resilient children. In 2015, Hawn released “10 Mindful Minutes: A Journal”, a practical application to her last book, offering prompts and exercises to enhance the reader’s daily life through mindfulness practice.

Goldie has lived with her partner Kurt Russell for over 30 years and has four grown children, Oliver and Kate Hudson, Wyatt Russell and stepson Boston Russell. They have also been blessed with six grandchildren. Hawn believes “children light the path to joy” and dedicated much of her life’s work to creating innovative solutions to help children thrive.

Clips from this Episode

• Goldie Hawn describes the scientific research that went into her MindUp program for children

• Goldie Hawn explains why she entered a depressive state when she first became an actress

• Goldie Hawn speaks about the importance of her family life, and the "boomerang effect" of joy in raising a good family

• Goldie Hawn on the importance of mental health awareness for kids, and why technology can be a danger

• Goldie Hawn explains why being of service and helping children is her "greatest joy"

Episode Transcription

Alan Fleischmann 

You're listening to Leadership Matters on Sirius XM. I'm your host. I'm here with my good friend, Goldie Hawn. Our guest today is an incredible leader who has spent her career leveraging her public platform to do good. Having made her name as one of Hollywood's most iconic stars. Goldie Hawn also has become an established activist and global leader at the intersection of mental health and education. Though most know her as an Academy Award winning actress with a decades long career, Goldie Hawn is so much more. She'd been a dancer, singer, producer, and, for the past decades, she has run a leading global nonprofit dedicated to creating healthier minds for a healthier world. Mind Up, the Goldie Hawn Foundation, now serves over 6 million children in more than a dozen countries with their innovative classroom programming. While Goldie can look back at a star studded and incredibly prolific career in both Hollywood and public service, she has no intention of slowing down anytime soon. It's an honor to have her as our guest today to discuss her leadership and considerable accomplishments. Goldie, welcome to Leadership Matters.

Goldie Hawn

Thank you. Thank you so much, Alan. It's so great to be here with you.

Alan Fleischmann  

I am thrilled. I will say, people see you as a role model in so many areas. The way you conduct your life, family–you've kind of let it all be out there for us to admire, celebrate, and emulate when given the opportunity. And you do that with so many things. I'm talking to you from Washington, DC, which is very close to your hometown. You were born here in DC, your father was a musician. Your mother ran several businesses, including a dance school. Did you always know that you wanted to get into the entertainment industry?

Goldie Hawn 

I kind of did. Yeah, because I was a dancer. So I started dancing at the age of three. And my mother, she supported and actually ran this dancing school for her good friend, Roberta Farrow. And I was three years old when I started dancing. So for me, it's just in my blood. And the idea that I was going to do anything else–I wasn't looking to do anything else. I figured I’d be a dancer. And that's what I was. And when I was little, I loved to dance. And on top of it, it was a great way of learning my spatial relations to my bodym to understanding how to move, to walk into a room opened up. Like my mother used to say, “open your shoulders walk into a room like you belong there.” So it was a great passion of mine. But I have to tell you this funny story. My sister–I was 14–we ate dinner at the same time. Okay, six o'clock, every night mom came home, she made dinner, and we sat around the table. And one day, my sister said, “um, you know, what's Goldie going to do when she grows up?” Because I was not an A-student. Okay, I was I was an average student. And so my mother said, “What do you mean? What's she gonna do? She can't even type.” And my mother said, “She's gonna dance! That's what she'll do. She'll dance.” And my father said, “Laura, that's not what you're she's going to do. She's going to act first, sing second, and dance third.” And my mother said, “Excuse me, oh, you’re full of it. She's going to do this.” And here I am at the table, right? Where all I could think of was, “oh, maybe I should learn to type.”

Alan Fleischmann 

But they were fighting over which order of things and the magnitude in which you would do them and you actually did them all. Except for learning to type, probably.

Goldie Hawn

Well, the good news, I learned to type! That was the best thing my sister did. So I could write a book and I could do all kinds of other stuff typing so it works out really well. Anyway, so yeah: I always thought that I would perform on Broadway. That's what I wanted to do. 

Alan Fleischmann 

You quote your mother a lot. When you're talking to those of us who have the privilege and the joy of being with you, your mom was a big influence on your life.

Goldie Hawn 

Yeah, they both were, actually, but they were very different people. And my mother was Jewish and extremely, you know, she just sort of did the thing: “put your tuchus on the table. Just say the truth. We can deal with the truth, we can deal with the lies, just lay it out and say it like it is.” And that was my mom. She was a very strong, very beautiful, very authentic person. My father was whimsical. He was a musician. He was an amazing person. He was very brave. He went out into the world he hawked his violin on the way to the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. And he hawked it because he wanted to make some money and he had to get a saxophone. And he taught himself to play the saxophone. And he got the job, which means he was bus and trucking now down through El Paso and all this stuff and ended up in New York. And in the big scene there, which was amazing. And then he went down to Washington during the war. And he worked there. And my mother decided to go to Washington from Pittsburgh. And then she met him in a club. And that's what happened. So you look at what how did your parents get together? I mean, they really were like, Chuck and cheese. I mean, Daddy was from Arkansas. He was, he was creating and inventing things and writing scripts. So he was a creative person. Right. And my mother was the one that ran the business, she did this thing. She did whatever. Oh, and we had so many laughs. Anyway, they were very different. So I was able to have a different relationship with my father, and particularly in the industry itself. So that's the difference between the two of them, she gave me my business seykhl. And my father gave me the desire to go out and chomp at the world.

Alan Fleischmann

That's amazing. And then how many siblings?

Goldie Hawn 

Just one. She's a little almost eight years older than me.

Alan Fleischmann

And was she interested in any of the worlds that you got involved in at all?

Goldie Hawn 

No, she wasn’t. She was a better student than me. And you know, she didn't do that. She wasn't interested. She was just very social. She liked to be social. I wasn't very social. I had really, one good girlfriend and one good boyfriend, and I was a new neighborhood girl. And I got to seventh grade, and I made another girlfriend. I’m like that, you know, I'm not a big group person.

Alan Fleischmann

You go deep in the relationships you have, one by one.

Goldie Hawn

I really I did. And I do. 

Alan Fleischmann 

That's amazing. From what I understand and what you just said, you had initially set out be a dancer. And then your trajectory changed to acting. Was the Broadway acting? Was it theater only, like you just said? Or was it like, “I want to go into film.” And when did that change?

Goldie Hawn

Well, that's a that's a big, long answer. I didn't decide to do anything. The only thing that I decided to do, is I wanted to be a dancer. I was in high school, or maybe I was out of high school–18, I think–and I went to an audition in Washington. And it was for Guber, Ford & Gross. And it was in shows. Okay, and I got the job. And I'm going “Oh, my God.” Then I went to New York every now and then to dance with Phil Black, who was a dance teacher. And I would go back and forth. And he asked me if I wanted to be up to be in the World's Fair. And I would do Can-Can, and I was doing Go-Go, and all this stuff on a stage at the Texas pavilion, right? So that's why I went to New York, I had a job, right? It's like, “Oh, my God, I can't believe it.” And then I left home. I never lived at home again. I never thought that would happen to me. I thought it would go home and be with my mom and dad and live in Washington, you know, to have babies. I mean, I had a big idea of what life is going to be for me. I was going to open a dancing school. I always had a backup, you know, but I really wanted to dance on Broadway. So when I went to New York, that's a whole story. Lots happened to me in that first month. I got to New York and lept off on 10th Avenue in Hell's Kitchen in 1965. And I went up to where I was supposed to be staying with people who we're going to be dancing in the show–something I forgot–but they were not friends of mine, but acquaintances. They had left town, so I had no place to live. I had no place to stay in New York. So I went to my dance teacher with my suitcase and my schlepping. And I walked to 5 50th Street and Broadway where we went. And I went up to the studio. And I said, you know, “Phil, I don't have a place to stay. The people left.” He said, “Oh, yeah, you know, they went for the summer, something like that.” He was like, “Okay, well, stay at my place. And you know, we'll figure it out.” So I did I stayed with him for one day. And then there was like, a moment, right where I'm thinking about it: it was not a good moment. So I said, “Okay, this isn't gonna work. So we need to find a place–I need to find a place.” So I found a place, it was a one bedroom, roach infested, right in Needle Park, I didn't know the neighborhood. I didn't know anything. And when I got this apartment, it was one bed and a kitchenette and a bathroom. And if I would go to the bathroom, I'd have to make sure that I keep the lights on because there were too many roaches in there. You know, coming from a dead end street in Maryland, and going into this world, it was a lot of adjustment. And I was 19 at that time.

Alan Fleischmann 

And you were all on your own?

Goldie Hawn 

Yes, I was all by myself. And you know, so anyway, I started the gig at the World's Fair. So I would take the El out and I learned how to do all that stuff. But I was actually accosted many times like while on the subway. I mean, I remember one time I said, “Oh, I'm not going to go on the subway right now.” And sure enough, this wave of people pushed me into the subway. And guys were grabbing me and all this, it was horrible. So, you know, I finally got to where I was going. And then the other time that I was crossing the street–and this is all in May, going into the show–is that another guy came up to me and said, “you looked like just a created character on TV, you look just like Tinder Leif Erickson.” He said, “No, I'm not trying to put the makeup on you or anything. Look I have a watch, see, and my watches are from Tuesday Weld, I love you Tuesday.” And she was a star at that time. And I went, “Oh, okay.” So I started believing him, he was young. And then he said, “Let me get you in the car. I'll take you where you're going. And I'll give you something to do. Meeting this guy. You got to meet Al Capp, you got to do it.” So okay, so now I get in the car. And he drops me off. And he's a really kind of a nice guy. He said, “so Mr. Capp is gonna adore you” And I ended up going to see Mr. Capp, several weeks later. And he gave me a script and I was reading, but without going into details on it. You know, it would take me to turn on its head. I mean, it's the same thing, right? So I got through all that meshugas . And then he said, “Oh, you don't want this and you'll never make yourself anything in this world. You'll never make it. I've had them all. And all this stuff.” And I say, “Well Mr. Capp, maybe I will go back and marry a Jewish dentist. But I have to go to work now. And I'm late and I was late to the World's Fair. So now I get on the El. And I go to the my thing at the World’s Fair at the Texas pavilion, I get there and was so shaken. You know, it was really terrible. And the show was very hard to do. And so I got up there and there we did a Can-Can thing, whatever. And a guy that I was dating at the time,he was living in my neighborhood and he was a bartender. So after this was all over, I told him what happened. He said, “Look, let me take you out. We'll go out afterwards.” I said okay, so I get in the El with him. And then we meet a friend under the 59th Street Bridge and place called the Ande, and it was a bar, right. And so there we are. And I had a glass of a scotch and rocks, I think–I don't know who I thought I was then, I can't drink it now–but I got a scotch and rocks like that and then met his friend, and then Spiro. And so this friend we got in his car to go home was about 2:30 in the morning now. It was a bad day for me. Anyway, he starts speeding, like really hard in the Oldsmobile with no buckled seats. So now he's going so fast. And now he's on a West Side Highway and a cab pushed across the road at 40 to 50 miles an hour. We hit a light pole and got into a horrible accident where I was knocked out. I saw this cab pushing us off the road, I squished underneath the dashboard. I said “look out” and that that was it. Then I remember them pulling me out and pick cutting my clothes and bringing me out. And I don't know whether I left my body or what, but they said “Is she dead? Please?” You know, whatever. They pulled me out. I don't remember anything after that. Then waking up at Roosevelt Hospital. And now, I don't have my mommy, I don't have anybody. I’m 19, I'm in New York for one month only. And they send me home. I had this kind of terrible concussion. And I had one nick on my knee. I swear to God, there was an angel there over us. There's no question. No question! The car was December it was just destroyed. So now I go home. They put me in a cab. I don't remember going up my stairs, getting in my lot with my 18 Police locks. And again in my bed and of course I go to sleep which is the worst thing. And now I'm alone. I get a phone call. This guy who met me: “you really screwed things up, didn't you? You really did and I told you to be nice to Mr. Capp. I said you have to blah blah blah.” And I said “just please go back to Tuesday Weld and leave me alone.” I hung up the phone and for some reason– God put it in my brain–I remember his phone number. I think I heard it once. So I called him up, I said, you're the only person I have here. I'm really not well, I was in a very bad automobile accident, he comes running back crying, saying “I'm just a pen for Al Capp. I'm so sorry, you're such a nice person.” He made sure I went back to the hospital to see if I got everything I needed. And then my mom came, and for two weeks, I was dizzy. Let’s put it this way: she left the store with her high heels or straight skirt and her purse. Nothing else she got on that immediately on the Trailways bus. So that was the beginning of my professional life

Alan Fleischmann  

In New York.

Goldie Hawn 

In New York. And that's where you say, “Did I want something?” No, I just wanted to dance. And you know, and it leads you to many places. And that was one. And so you know, stories go on. But that was a big entry into a world of having to, to make chicken salad out of chicken shit. How do we survive? How do we, I mean, we don't survive, oftentimes in institutions, we survive on the street. And that just hit me on the face.

Alan Fleischmann  

It's a great example of nothing comes easy. In fact, the opposite. All these rude awakenings one after another all hitting you once. I mean, it wasn't “okay, I'm going to try something. I'll be home in a month.” You didn't have that. These luxuries were not given to you.

Goldie Hawn 

No, that's interesting. I didn't really think about it, because I just assumed I would go home. Yeah, but it but what happened was, is that after that, of course, you know, I started investing, you know, after that, and mom was there, and I went for like, shots, you know, to give somebody. And I auditioned for some shows. And then I got a show that came right down on a clear day. And my mother said, “Listen, you got to talk to Herb Ross.” So now, he used to fly around the thing, and he was a dancer. Well Herb Ross actually turned into a director, right? Well, I couldn't go up to him. She says tell Herbie that you're no Laura Han, that you're Laura Holmes daughter. And I went bombing, I can't do that. I just can't, he’s either going to take me without knowing me for what I can do. Or he's not. I just don't want to pull any strings. So I didn't do that. And then after he said, Okay, number 10. Whatever I was, thank you very much. I was done. I then went over to him. And I said, I just want you to know that I'm Laura Han’s daughter, and I'm just so happy to meet you. And that was it. Years later, I hired him to do Protocol. And he directed that, for me. 

Alan Fleischmann

That's pretty amazing. That's great. 

Goldie Hawn

So from one step to the other was a learning experience. And then I went to Puerto Rico and I danced and you know, we're talking about leadership. As we talk about leadership, I look back on things. What was, I was still like 19, almost maybe 20. And now I'm dancing at the Condado Beach Hotel. And it's called Hello Diosa. It was so fun. They're having a blast. I mean, it was amazing. And now the girls are going, “okay, they want to up us for another two months.” But we weren't getting enough money. So the girls said to me, “Look, the singers are getting a bunch more money then we are, and we're working our asses off.” And so they said, “Goldie, can you ask her, Diosa, if we could get a raise.” Now why are they looking at me to do that? Anyway, so okay, I said, I'll do it. So I went up to Diosa and I said, “Listen, you know, we're working really hard. And it seems we're going to be uptown for another few months. We'd love to have a raise.” And she looked at me said [in accent], “You are ugly! You're ugly! You're ugly girl! I don't even want you.” And I thought “Oh my god, I'm getting abused! Why was I picked to be the leader?” So anyway, point being I left there. And then I got a call in New York to go to California to dance. And that's when I bought, I think I had $250, I bought a poodle for $200. And then I had $50 left and my mommy and daddy got me a ticket. So I flew to LA with my dog. I had never been anywhere but a little place on the East Coast, right. And now I'm flying over the United States of America, you know in the 707 Whatever. And I'm looking out there and I'm like, “oh my god, this is so beautiful. I'm so free.” I was unencumbered. I was growing up. I looked out the window, and I was seeing all the flat of America. And then we went over the mountains, and I'm seeing things I've never seen before. And then I got into the desert. And I looked at the desert. And I wrote in my diary–I was so overwhelmed,I can't explain it, it's like God's happiness–and I looked out over this drain, sun was going down. I started writing about the existence of God, meaning that we, as humans, can never replicate this beauty. Yes, we can do an interpretation. But in the real world, this is the most beautiful place. We are so grateful. I was so moved, that I wrote this in my diary. And I landed there, met somebody I didn't know, took me someplace I didn't know. And then I went into a rehearsal. I got an apartment in Anaheim which was across from Disneyland, which I thought was Hollywood, by the way. And I met a girl, and she's still one of my dearest, dearest friends. And she's the first friend I made in California. And I went and I danced right there in theater with Frankie Avalon and did Al Joey. And then Kiss Me Kate. And then Kiss Me Kate came, and I went; “oh, I didn't get that job, I'm going to go home and come back. And someone said, when you come back, you have to meet this guy. His name was Gus Trikonis.” And he's so handsome. And he's a great dancer.” And so I tell them. “Oh, good. I look forward to meeting him.” And sure enough, I met him. I went back and I said, “Oh, I'm so happy to meet you.” And he said, “I'm hapon to meet you too.” I say, “Hey, when is your birthday?” November 21. I said, “that's so funny, that’s my birthday.” Oh, so anyway, long story short, a few years later, he’s my first husband. It's who I married. But after that, with that show, I went back and ended with a girlfriend from it. I took another audition and that was in Las Vegas. And I danced at the DI and I danced from, I guess 8:30 to about 5:30 in the morning. And I did five shows. And it was I have to admit it was horrible, right? I mean, I didn't like it. The only thing I liked was my 5:30 ride home in my ‘59 Chevy Convertable. And I drove home and there was nothing there. It was all desert. And I saw the sun come up every morning and it was beyond beautiful. I turned 21 there. And my mother sent me a card. And she said Goldie, Happy birthday, darling. You are 21 and now. Then, I had come of age. It was very interesting, very beautiful.

Alan Fleischmann

That’s great.

Goldie Hawn

And I drove back home back to LA. And I call my dad, and I say, “Daddy, maybe I should just go out with the guys here that who are going to clubs and stuff. And I could dance and we could do an act together.” And he said, “Honey, the umbilical cord has stretched 3000 miles. You're still young, and that's the life I had. And you don't want that life.” He said, “so I want you to go back to LA and do your thing, because you're young.” So I say okay. So I drove back to LA and on my first audition I got I was so excited because it was my first audition and  it was Nick Castle. He was one of the big choreographers. I was one of the babies of the group, but it was Tennessee Ernie Ford, Andy Griffith and Don Knotts and I danced and sang so I got double money. I was just so happy. And I remember my shoes all had holes in them and stuff because I didn't have any money to buy shoes. And Tennessee Ernie Ford took a collection to basically get me new shoes from everybody. And it was a very sweet thing. So I'm doing the audition there at NBC. And a guy comes up to me and he says, with 12 other by the way, beautiful girls. And he said “do you have an agent?” And I said, “No, I don't really I don't have an agent.” He said, “Well, I'd like you to come see me at William Morris. We'll make a date.” They said they’ll make a date for Wednesday. Blah blah blah–I'm looking at this guy, and he was young, I'm thinking, “You know what, I'm not going to deal with this, again,” I've had enough of these, they've cost me too much time. And I'm not going to do this. I totally forgot about it. So he got my name, I guess from the show, and my phone number information. And his assistant calls in to my apartment. “Uh, Ms. Hawn. We're waiting for you at William Morris.” And I went, “Oh, my God. I'm so sorry. I'll be right there.” So I jumped in my car–it had a white fender. I don't know why I lost my other car. But anyway, it wasn't a Chevy. Every time I made a right hand turn, the left hand door would open. So I had to turn with my right hand and hold the door shut my left. Anyway, so I get to William Morris. I walk in and there are all of these agents sitting there. And this guy is this young agent. And he said, “Well, I really believe in her and I don't know why–she's got something and there's something.” And they're all looking at me cockeyed. They ask what I do and I said, “Well, I'm a dancer, and whatever. And that's what I do.” And next thing I know, they said, “Okay, you could sign her.” And the next thing I know I walk out of there, signed at William Morris, which is like the biggest agency ever. And I just left like the chorus. And I'm like, wait, but wait a minute. That wasn't necessarily the direction I was looking for. Because I was just excited because Nick Castle was going to use me in all of his shows. So you want to talk about plans? You know, right hand turns left hand turns in life? What do we do about it? Actually, I'll be honest with you. I went up to an audition right away. I wasn't right for the for the girl. I was too young. But I went up and I met Carl Reiner. It was a big production of Desi Lou. And I went in there and I brought a tea pot and I brought my all stuff that was just so amateur. But I I did the audition. And so I got home and they said, “Well, this is great.” He called me said you got the job. And I said, “What? Why?” He said “well, because you they wrote a part in for you.” And now my brain is doing this thing, which is, “oh my god, I left my dancing career.” All of a sudden, I wasn't going to work with Nick Castle. I was in a TV show?It sounds like I should be really excited–the long and the short of it is I went into a emotional downswing.

Alan Fleischmann

You realized you're closing one door while you are opening another–it was closing a door that was your dream.

Goldie Hawn

That's right. Exactly. But also, what I love is being in the chorus. You know, I love being with other people, the music–I love the whole thing. Anyway, so now I went into the psychologist because I was starting to get panic attacks. And I didn't know why. I didn't know what was wrong with me. And then I would be nervous and would want to stay home and I felt depressed. And this is all while that show was going on, Good Morning World. And I have to fake everything. I can't believe what I was going through. I just saw little pieces of it the other day when I was a child. But I mean, I know I stood up for it, right? It's called Grit. And I guess I got it from my dancing and knowing that I could lift my leg higher, and it was shaking, and it was sweating. I mean, that was my life. So I would lie down in my little dressing room. They had these dressing rooms inside the soundstage. And then it was time to go on I pull up my bootstraps, go up, learn my lines, and act. Then I would go home and I'd sit in around blue chair all fuzzy and make tea. I mean, I was in a very hard time for me. Of course, I was seeing a doctor, I looked forward to seeing him and I wanted to be get better. And eventually I did but it took time. And again, not leaving because it was too hard or, or not, you know, wanting to go through it. It was Freudian analysis, oddly enough, which had some really great benefits. But there were times when I would come in like real happy, you know–I come in feeling, “I feel pretty good today”. And he would say, “Okay, now, what I'd like you to do is lie down and free associate.” And that was interesting, because it felt like a punishment. But what happened was that every time I would lie down and free associate, all the peeling the onion of the psyche, all the subconscious, all of those things started to emerge. And I started remembering things that I had long forgotten. And the beautiful part is that I was still so young, and I was able to access some of these things, I had a beautiful childhood. And I found out that you know, Mommy worked and Daddy worked, and I'd come home. And sometimes I felt lonely. There are a lot of things that you don't always remember. Because you don't want to or because you know, you resisted or you bury it or whatever. But I really went to work on me. And I found a lot of windows that I didn't open. And when I did, I realized that there wasn't so bad, whatever I might have been forgotten. And I learned to live in a way. I had a way of looking at people because at that point, I was known and laughing was a big thing. And I got to laughing and for three shows they didn't know what to do with me. And then of course, they discovered the fact that I was I mixed up my cue cards and started laughing. So now I got on laughing and it's a bit of you know, she explodes, right? And, you know, I was happy because I was working through what people thought of me. Whether they love me or didn't love me, thought I was stupid. bubblehead, not smart, giggly girl, whatever they would say about me, good or bad. I was learning to disassociate from that and just witness it and not own it. The good and the bad. I love you, it was beautiful and made people happy. That made me happy. People that were angry, that would criticize me or whatever, I looked at that and thought “Why are they so angry,” but I never took it to heart. And a lot of it is because I was able to be much more, I guess, objective about my surroundings, about the world around me.

Alan Fleischmann  

You really discovered what you really thought would be important. Right? You kind of read, reshaped and reframe what you thought would be important.

Goldie Hawn 

I did, really. And it was also for protection, because you're very vulnerable there. So how do you sustain happiness? How do you sustain feeling normal? I mean, I did say to Daddy, once, we were having coffee. This is well on to probably Private Benjamin time. But I remember saying to him, “Daddy, I just want to be normal.” I had two kids. And I was separated. And so it was hard for me. But I said I just want to live a normal life. And he looked at me. He said “Go, you're not normal.” And I thought, well, maybe I'm not normal. Maybe I'm not, Daddy, I just don't want the white picket fence. But I just want a life for my children, and you know, I don't want to be that. I don't want to be looked at as that. I don't want to experience that. I want to be who I am all the time.

Alan Fleischmann  

The authentic you?

Goldie Hawn 

Yeah. And so I was very grateful for my relationship with Gus. Because that was the rise to my success, and that whole way of other men in your life and that kind of thing. I was extremely devoted to being a good housekeeper. You know, I shopped every day at Vons. I made dinner, I didn't have movie star stuff, right? Or, maybe not movie star stuff, but just spoiled stuff. And believe me, all movie stars are not spoiled, okay. But I just wanted to, you know, live in my home and all of that. And because of that relationship, I didn't have any, any what is it? Akeletons in my closet or whatever? Yeah, so I was very grounded. Yeah. Very proud. It was a great, great beginning.

Alan Fleischmann 

You're listening to Leadership Matters on Sirius XM. I'm your host, Alan Fleischmann. I'm here with the extraordinary actress, pioneer producer, celebrity activist, thought leader and truly one of the great doers in the world, Goldie Hawn. And we're talking about her journey. You know, everyone thinks of you as this extraordinary actress and obviously you were an executive producer at a time frankly, when women were not executive producers. I mean, you've done everything from produce, act, write, and break those glass ceilings one by one on so many levels as a woman. You didn't stop there. I mean, when I think of you I've had the pleasure of seeing you with your family as well. You know, family is everything to you and the way you talk about your mom and dad and the way you talk about your kids and the family life that you've created with Kurt, it is inspirational. But one of your greatest gifts to all of us is really what you've done outside of this world where you have created such an amazing legacy. It's MindUp and the Goldie Hawn Foundation. I don't want to dive in there just yet, but I want us to make sure we spend enough time on that, because that's a huge part of your life. And it is actually where you're just helping millions and millions of young people. Did that come from you looking back? And meditation came into your life and you realized you have the tools to deal with some of the traumatic periods that you went through as a young person. And then did that become even more? Was there even more clarity for you when you became a mom, where you realized, “I need to do something that can kind of help young people.” Because I think if you as so many things.

Goldie Hawn

I don't think of myself as any one thing. That's the good news.

Alan Fleischmann  

You talk about being normal–thank God you're not normal. Your dad was right, because you've managed to entertain. bring joy, bring laughter, bring meaning to so many people's lives–all of our lives–you broken every barrier that one could imagine through courage and, frankly, that authenticity we were talking about. And then you've created this legacy that just has helped so many people. I mean, it's really amazing, Goldie. There is no one that does what you do.

Goldie Hawn 

Aw, Alan thank you–that’s so sweet, so dear. Well, okay, so I think, you know, talking about breaking barriers, or that kind of thing, a lot of it has to do, I think with your upbringing. And a lot of it has to do with who you are. I believe, even when I made my movies, I believe that the movies that I produced had to be about something. They weren't just to be funny, whether it was Private Benjamin or whether it was Protocol, or whatever movies that I produced–which are quite a few–that mattered to me. I almost felt–I know, this sounds crazy–but those of us who can make people feel or laugh or whatever–now, we get a good paycheck if we’re lucky–but the greatest part of it is being of service. To be of service, to take people out of their doldrums, to give them something to forget things for a while and to feel joy and laughter. So what drives one? When I was in Washington, I taught dancing to children. And I went around to all the different playgrounds and rec centers and I would teach them. And I could never express the relationship I had with children. There was no greater joy in the world that I felt. And that was embedded in me for some reason. So when we asked about why we shift or pivot, or what sort of seamlessly moves into the next stage, right, what happened for my MindUp situation was that, first of all, I knew what it was like to be afraid of the cold war, I was very frightened as a little girl, I knew I was going to die. Before I kissed a boy, I was very worried I wouldn't have a family and I thought we were all gonna die. Okay, I went through my trauma with that and though I wasn’t too understanding, my mother was quite helpful. But I still had trauma. When 9/11 happened, there was a seismic shift in our culture in the world, and I just felt in my bones that this world is going to change forever. I believed this, and what I really focused on were the children. Now I was doing a documentary on happiness at that time. And I was in the middle of researching all of it. Keeping in mind that meditation, understanding the brain, getting more real agency, I guess you could say over my own curiosity, and getting that and also positive psychology. I studied all of it. Offline, nobody knows that. But this is what I did and what fascinated me was human nature, and experiences of emotion, like hate and things that were very, very destructive. So with that, I took that happiness documentary, and I flipped it on its head, because all the things that actually lead to causes for happiness are also things that lead for causes for health, and mental health and physical health. So I put together a program and the program was all the things that I had known that can actually scientifically change the brain.

Alan Fleischmann 

That's the thing what I love about MindUp which people don’t realize: you put an enormous amount of resources, your own personal resources, I remember, into the scientific based research that led to MindUp.

Goldie Hawn

You're right, because there can't be anything without it. Today, if you don't research, whatever it is you need in order to get into the public's psyche, you have to have research. And that's what I did. So between the neuroscientist part of it–learn parts of your brain–the other part of it is doing brain breaks. We don't call it meditation. It's not a mindfulness organization, we're very brain based. We're very science based. And so we have three times a day of brain break. These kids love it. They do brain breathing, listen to sounds so that children can focus on the sound they listened to, when they turn over they, they hold it for three minutes. They're amazing. And these are kindergarten through eighth grade. And I did it for that age group, because that's where the brain is developing the greatest. So we really want to set that goal. And then we have positive psychology, we have mindful of our senses, and it's all wrapped in your curriculum. But what happened when we did the research, it was so dramatic. I mean, that after 12, or I think it was 15 weeks, with the control group, our children were more able to manage their cortisol levels, which is a stress hormone. That's never been done. Okay, back then. Nobody did that. I went, “I am loving this, if we can help them manage their stress, we will also help them manage their physical health.” Then we also had Dr. Joe Diamond, do whole research on the brain. So they did it on cognitive. Well, it turned out that these children were more able to answer questions faster, they were much more able to focus for longer periods of time and better on their classwork. That was amazing. Then we learned that the aggression went down on the playground, like 30%. 30%! They weren't pushing or bullying each other. And we never mentioned the word bullying. The other thing is that we had empathy. We were building empathy as well, but we don't talk about empathy. We give them experiences that actually build empathy. So now in the classroom, we do perspective taking, and that's part of our other fourth pillar. So perspective taking gives them an ability to take themselves and put themselves in someone else's shoes. And that's the whole idea. So the act of doing it with gratitude, journals, acts of happiness? That sounds lightweight. It's not! What happens is that we start firing neurons differently. And that's what we want when dopamine is submitted. That's what we want when serotonin uptake happens. And now we're doing an epigenetic study. So now MindUp is involved in an epigenetic study. I'm getting the chills, because I can't tell you how happy I am. It's not the white paper yet. We're still doing the study. But the nascent studies have shown that our children are able to methylate their genes that are connected to their brain. And not that would make it look like they've had taken Zoloft, or taken some pill. So we can get that right–I’m almost getting to tears, I think–if there's a way that this could really be, where our children don't always have to be medicated. That would be great. So we're working on that now. Okay, I am now also working on a study that we're putting together for autism. So there, that's something we’ve been working on for the University of Pennsylvania. So it goes on and on. And now, we have been working on MindUp for20 years, Alan. Can you believe it? 20 years, and I'm still inspired and excited by it. I'm still knowing that there's so much more to do, so many more places to be, you know, we just basically got, I don't know 30 schools in Romania, and we're all over the world. And now in Romania, we're going to be able to work with some of the children that come in from the Ukraine. And and so this is this is I don't think I've done anything in my life. I mean, I've been able to sustain this kind of energy over movies, but it lasts a short time. This has lasted 20 years. And it’s getting better and better. Now we're online, we have an online digital learning platform. We've actually brought in some amazing experts to help the parents and teachers and families, really, on how to work together. It's all about brain, it's all about neuroscientists. We have breath experts! Breathing itself can change your brain, breathing and breath does amazing things to change your brain. And also we have an a cardiologist on there. And he said I would love to offer my product. He has got a whole breathing expert series because the heart and the mind and the brain are the most deeply connected of all the organs. It is so interesting and exciting. All the new things that we're learning that actually will help everyone, the child, the parents, the teachers. So I spoke the other day for the Federation of Teachers in New York. And now want to partner with us. And that's for the USA, not just for New York, because these teachers were so inspired by the fact that they don't have to leave the force. There may be a way that they can gain control over their classroom and themselves. So I'm just so excited where Mind Up is going, and where we've been and what we've learned and all of it.

Alan Fleischmann

When you think about it, you know, when you were talking earlier about yourself, the authenticity of an essence of discovering and then owning your own voice, you're giving the empowerment to one child at a time, to not only have the confidence to use the tools that you're giving them, so they can they can have that control that self control, rewire their own brains, if you will. But they also they also have the the, the understanding that through the process, they can actually hear their own voice, and then hopefully, you know, build that. And I think that's that's an amazing thing. We all want to have our voices heard.

Goldie Hawn

Yeah, we do.

Alan Fleischmann  

But the thing is, it gets muddled.

Goldie Hawn 

While you get frenzied, you know, it's called the brain frenzy, and then you can't do anything. What happens is that, when we're frightened, when we're angry, when we're fearful, those are hijacking emotions. So they will hijack your higher thinking. And they do it every time. And that's a survival route as well for us. So we don't want to look at the amygdala and the limbic system and say, you know, bad, bad, bad dog, we really want to be able to understand it, because it's there to save us to, you know, all that primitive stuff. And that reptilian stuff that we've gotten, our brain still has use, and we need it. But now it's happened with our stress and anxiety and fear, and just all of it. And the technology, may I say it's very dangerous for these children. 51%, since 2019, our girls have had an uptick in suicide. And it's hard to even say. So we have to do something. Our children are going to inherit this world and aren’t prepared. And if we don't prepare them, we're not preparing the greatest resource we have. And that's what I'm looking at as a way of looking long after I'm gone. We have to be able to continue moving toward keeping your mind on this, your heart on this. And if we don't do that, if we don't put a mental health program in every school in America, and I mean, that goes through their day, not something they do once a week, not something that they do after school, not something that where there's a doctor put into the school–good for them, what are they going to do? They're going to attend to a problem. And that's it. They're not going to have preventative programs, they're going to be their band-aid. So what we need to do is to do prevention.

Alan Fleischmann  

Infusing that into the day is a brilliant point. How the curriculums fall into this model, rather than the model fit into the curriculum. It is the ideal of how we can make it work for the whole day.

Goldie Hawn 

Yeah, it's great. It's so great. I mean, we have MindUp schools now in the UK and everywhere. I mean, they've been doing it for 15 years. And it's really make a huge difference. I call it MindUp, yes, I want to be humble about it. There's programs out there that aren’t MindUp–we've got to create more programs, and there's some good ones. My whole world is really about where we are going as a not as a nation, because the children around the world are facing this, too. So we're not special.

Alan Fleischmann  

We’ve learned something from the pandemic, and then even now with what's happening in with Ukraine: the concerns and anxieties and fear about health, and geopolitical and social developments–it's all global, it has no borders.

Goldie Hawn 

It has no borders. Exactly. So no, looking at Bill Gates, you know, is when we talk a little bit about building a business or having complete fidelity to what you're doing. I will say my journey, building this particular business was very hard, very hard. And I don't have you know, a studio basically funding my movies. I don't have that. I have to figure out how I'm going to fund this thing. And, you know, I've been left with $30,000 in the bank hiring the wrong people who’ve spent money left, right and center. And  I thought they were doing the right thing. So there you go. So I have no money, you know, I put more money into my program, but I also would do the speaking things or do something and put money back into my program, right, in order to survive. And at one point, I had this $30,000, and I just kept the program going, I just paid the teachers, I was a leader, I paid the trainers, right? So, you know, having to raise money for something like this, particularly when people aren't even seeing what children are headed for. Was I had my time. Absolutely. It's fine to be ahead of your time. But you know, you're ahead of your time, people don't know what you're doing. They don’t get it, and they're not invested really? Or even, what do you call it able to look at the landscape enough to know there's a problem, right? Yes, our children were a mess back then. And uptick of suicide was happening then. So looking back 20 years ago, it was the third leading cause of death for 10 to 15 year olds, and looking at this and going, “how could my children–my baby, my 10 year old–what could ever happen in his or her life that they could want to take their life?” A child should have a childhood, as much as we can do. And I think about this with everybody in the world, right? When all our refugees and all this stuff. And I think about what happened in the Holocaust, I hate to say this during this time. But I’ve seen the images, I've been to Yad Vashem, I've seen all of it. But you know, they took their children. And they played the violin, and they sang songs and the way they wanted their children to be happy. All people want their children to be happy. But there's a way now that we have to look at what are the causes of happiness? And how are we going to help our children see that? That's what we do. And you know, one happy face creates another one. 

Alan Fleischmann

The greatest contagion is a smile!

Goldie Hawn

It is! It really is. I have a pillow. It's an old pillow, but I got it in a junk shop or whatever. It's the greatest thing. And it was an Indian proverb. And it says the smile you give is the one you get back. And you know, I've got it sitting in my living room. It's just something important that honey, I don't know what's more important, I swear to God, that and taking care of our elders.

Alan Fleischmann  

Yeah, we need to be respectful to the fact that we have got to take care of those who've served before. And do you find that your children and your grandchildren now embrace my MindUp as well? I know that they've been part of supporting it, too.

Goldie Hawn 

Oh, they do it. Oh, no, my children have shown their children.

Alan Fleischmann

That's pretty cool.

Goldie Hawn 

So you put one pebble in the water. And I think everybody remembering the importance of leadership should know this. So if you are the pebble, the leader, and now you toss yourself into the water: imagine those ripples create a heart. Because leadership and a great leader can't lead without heart.

Alan Fleischmann 

Yeah. It's amazing. How much of your life is acting, how much of your life is family, and how much is MindUp? Or is it all of it? It's all the above?

Goldie Hawn 

More family, I think. The good news is that my son just moved right near us, with the new baby, with Buddy. And he's lives about a 10 minute walk from my daughter, who basically lives in the house that I raised her in. And also my Wyatt. So he moved right next to the house that Katie's in that he grew up in too. And then I'm about six blocks up. And Oliver is a five minute ride down to Sunset Boulevard.

Alan Fleischmann

How often do you all get together?

Goldie Hawn 

Just about every day.

Alan Fleischmann 

That's amazing. That's an amazing role model when you consider with all the noise in life and all the noise you all can have in each other's distinguished careers because each one of you, you create your kids family life, but each one of your kids have their own distinguished careers, but somehow they find the peace, that place to come back to where they can just be themselves, that authentic voice again.

Goldie Hawn 

Right, exactly. And all who they are. They're just all over. They're grounded. They're kind. They're really, really amazing. Parents are full of love. And you know, my son and his wife who I adore wanted to get closer to us because they want Buddy to be close to his grandparents. So it goes like that, you know? What is it, what goes around comes around or what? There is a boomerang effect to to raising a good family.

Alan Fleischmann

And also you don’t have the challenge, and I'm sure that you appreciate this even more during COVID, that you don't have the challenge of having people so far away, your loved ones and all. First I want everyone who's listening today to join up with MindUp. So what what do they need to do if they wanted to get involved today with MindUp?

Goldie Hawn 

Oh, thank you. Well you can go to MindUp.org. And you will see, it's also actually rebranded to MindUp For Life. Because now it's surely for adults. So we have basically programs for adults, we've got programs for everyone. But anyway, it's called MindUp.org. Go there, you'll find it, and you'll see who we are. And also anyone that you know, that wants to take the program, you can learn the program, and sign up for that and become part of our family. And in that way, you can start looking at all these amazing videos we have of these people as well. So if you want to learn about it, you can go to parents, you'll see it's a thing for parents, it's for children, it's for schools, it's for teachers, it's for families, it's pretty great. So MindUp.org.

Alan Fleischmann

Getting involved with my that organization would be amazing. And if you want to have me get involved in helping you if you're listening out, don't hesitate to contact LeadershipMattersShow.com and we will make sure that you get that introduction. But it is something that needs to spread far and wide. It already has spread far and wide. It just needs to spread more when I think about what's happening in the world right now. And how I just started reflecting on what you went through and realized, “okay, I'm not just going to take this is a part of my past,” where I remember when you talk about the nuclear shelters and all the fear that you that you went through. You just turned it into an activist moment where you said, “Okay, let's now take the science and let's give the tools to others.” And that's huge, Goldie, that's huge. Because we could think about all the tragedies and difficulties and wallow away and say, “Okay, we're going to accept it.” Or we can almost not accept it and say what are we doing actually change the path for all the young people coming forward. And that's what you've done with MindUp, it's really amazing. 

Goldie Hawn

Thank you, thank you so much.

Alan Fleischmann

Well, we loved to have you on the show. You're listening to Leadership Matters on Sirius XM. I'm your host, Alan Fleischmann. We've had the great joy and pleasure of having Goldie Hawn in here. I will say that I hope you'll do more movies. I love seeing you out there. You do bring such joy and laughter, but even just the way you just run your life: we're all imperfect creatures, but somehow you've taken the imperfections of humanity and you've made it perfect and I just love whatever you do because it does inspire.

Goldie Hawn

Thank you, honey. It’s that 10% that I give back to my mom. And I'll continue doing it forever. Until I go over the rainbow.