In this brief "6 Questions in 7 Minutes" interview, Professor Pete Alexander talks with Professor Rosalyn Khan, a community college instructor, three‑time TED speaker, and author of three books that all address stress and kindness. Khan introduces her titles—A Message for Tomorrow's Leaders, Dogs and Roses, and Random Acts of Kindness Are Changing the World—and explains how each aims to help students and adults cope with anxiety. She shares a classroom practice of encouraging students to give their own TED talks, noting the confidence boost it provides. When asked what chapter business leaders should read in a hypothetical book of answers, Khan highlights the pandemic’s impact on employee burnout, relocation, and remote learning, urging leaders to retain staff through genuine kindness. She illustrates this with personal anecdotes: an unexpected Amazon gift card that lifted her spirits, a friend sending a gratitude book after a broken leg, and a Las Vegas hotel owner who kept wages paid during COVID‑19. Khan stresses that small, thoughtful gestures—quick thank‑you texts, community food programs, on‑campus financial aid—can reshape corporate culture. The conversation closes with a story about her first job selling peanuts and souvenirs at San Diego’s Jack Murphy Stadium, where she learned the importance of relationship‑focused service and bilingual communication. Finally, Khan provides her contact information (website, social media, and Amazon author page) for listeners who want to learn more.
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This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast, where business leaders share their insights. It is 6 questions in 7 minutes because successful business leaders are busy and rarely have more time to spare. So let's get to it. Question number 1: In a few sentences, please tell me who you are and what you do.
Hi, thank you so much, Pete Alexander. My name is Professor as well. I'm Professor Rosalyn Khan. I teach in the college classrooms at Los Angeles City College. I'm a teacher, but more than that, I'm a TED speaker. I've spoken on the TED stage 3 times, and I'm an author, and I've written 3 books. The most recent is called A Message for Tomorrow's Leaders, about helping today's kids in the classroom and how they can overcome that stress. The next is Dogs and Roses: How to Reduce Stress and Anxiety in Today's Troubled Times. And last is Random Acts of Kindness Are Changing the World. Each and every one of them deals with stress. And in our world today, the number one thing we need to overcome is how to beat that stress.
Well, Rosalynn, it is an absolute pleasure to have you on the show. And those three books were very pertinent for today's— what's going on. Definitely. Question number 2, what is something that makes you smile and/or laugh about working in your industry?
Well, one of the interesting things is people hear that you've given a TED Talk and everybody thinks that they have a TED Talk in their heart and in their way and in their path, and they're looking for something special. And so I begin each one of my speech classes that I teach at the college telling my students, "You ever seen a TED Talk? If you'd like, you can do it too." My students have gone on to do that, and getting the emails and getting the messages and helping the people I've helped on the TED stage is just heartwarming to believe they could. They asked a question in the faculty orientation that they do every semester, "What's your why? Why do you teach?" No one raised their hand. I raised mine. I said, "My name is Rosalyn.
I've been a TED speaker on the TED stage, and the reason I teach is I want to encourage and motivate my students that they too can do that as well." And it's so great too that, you know, coming to that speech class that you can show that you've been on, you know, the TED stage and and stuff, that's instant credibility as well. I know if I was in the class, I would think that. Question number 3: I have a fictitious book with all the answers for business. What chapter would you think most companies should read?
Well, we're in a pandemic that is international around the world. Many people are moving houses and homes. Many people are not going to be going to the same place. Children are going to be facing hardships like they've never seen before by this mandated at-home learning. And if you could tell business leaders what they could do to help retain those employees who are getting burned out, moved out, depressed, why they want to continue showing up online to go to work. Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I think that that's a really important chapter. Thank you for sharing that. Question number 4, other than the generic work harder, have a great attitude, and care for customers, what advice or insight would you give to other business leaders?
Well, the number one thing I think is that kindness counts. I'll give you an example that you haven't heard before. The other day I received an email and it said from the president of the college that you've won a $20 gift certificate to Amazon. And little did she know that it wasn't the best day of my life. It's a pretty bad one. When I got that, I said, oh my God, this can't be. This is really reality? And it's when we're kind to other people, they remember. I had, you know, broken a leg, and a guy that I knew and I'd met and been on a few conversations sent me this beautiful book about gratitude. A friend of mine had broken her foot over a dog that tripped over in the backyard, and it's just reaching out to say, "Can I help you in any way?" And if we could just learn how to treat others with kindness in our world today, It would be absolutely amazing.
I couldn't agree with you more. And, you know, one of the things that I found that helps for me is, is in the morning, I make it a regular activity to make sure to send, you know, one, one, take one minute to send a text or an email to somebody just saying, hey, hot, just thinking of you, or, you know, thank you for this, doing something for me. And it is such a wonderful feeling for me to be able to send it because I don't set an expectation of hearing something back. Most of the time I will, but it's— it just, it feels good. And I'm sure that the person who receives it, it's just like you said earlier, that you were having a bad day and, and, and you get this, this, this Amazon card and it just, it was, it, it was a perfect timing for you.
Yep. It's just those small little things, if we can be kinder to one another. There was a gentleman who owned a hotel in Las Vegas who decided when the pandemic hit that he was gonna pay everybody's wages, they didn't have to go without wages. There's a program here in Los Angeles that feeds families food. The college I work at is providing showers, providing finances, anything that you need to keep in school they want to do to make it easier for people. And I just think if more companies would do that, it would change the hearts and minds, and not just for this time, but for the future.
Mm-hmm. I couldn't agree more. Question number 5: What other business leader like yourself would you like to acknowledge and invite to be on my podcast?
Well, there's a gentleman whose name is Andrew Heller. He wrote a book called A Gift of Life. It's been in many film festivals, won a number of awards, and it's just a heartwarming story of when he was down and out and going through some really rough times. His friend said, you know, there's one thing that you could do to help yourself out, and it's get that book out, get that play out. And it's just a wonderful, beautiful, beautiful story that, that will change people's hearts, that, that fits in our society and what our society is going about today. From the last administration to the current administration, how we can bring the world together.
Well, it sounds like a person I definitely would like to look forward to interviewing. So thank you for that referral. And our final question, question number 6, please tell me about your first job.
Well, believe it or not, one of my first jobs, I worked at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium. And I used to be one of the people who went up and down the stairs and said, "Peanuts, get your peanuts here." And I also upgraded to a job in the souvenir booth, and I had my own little business in a box and learned the important part of human relations. When I was a youngster, I learned Spanish. We were really close to Mexico, and I'd say, ¿Cómo estás? ¿Cómo le puedo ayudarle? ¿Qué necesitas hoy? Hi, how are you? What can I do to help you? And they said the key to life is relationships. You know, it didn't matter how much you made, but it gave me the sense of what it was like to run my own business and how you have to take care of people because people is the heartblood of what makes the world go round.
Absolutely. And what a great lesson that was. Well, Rosalyn, thank you so much for being on the show. How can people find you?
Well, that's a great question. It's really easy. My name is Rosalyn Khan. It's R-O-S-A-L-Y-N. Last name is K-A-H-N. And I am— have a web page, which is RosalindKhan.com. You can find me on Facebook. I have a Twitter, not so active, can't do everything in life, but have a lot of activity on Instagram. And you can look at Rosalind Khan, see some of the interviews of people that I've done and lives I've touched in my wonderful enjoyment of photography. And yeah, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and my web pages is good places to catch me. And hey, make sure that you go to Amazon. Look for Rosalind Kahn and you can see all those great books.
Perfect. This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast. Thanks for listening.
