#27 - “Get Off the Sidelines”: Orlando Bowen on Forgiveness and Leadership
Today’s guest is Orlando Bowen
He’s tackling this: how do you respond to injustice and betrayal without becoming the very thing that hurt you? Orlando’s answer is to turn trauma into service through forgiveness, community, and courageous leadership.
In today’s conversation Orlando Bowen explores how a promising CFL career, a life of community service, and a single night of police brutality collided — and how he chose forgiveness instead of bitterness. He walks Dr. Wells through the assault, the false charges, and the six-year legal battle, and then the turn: seeing that the real purpose was to stand in the gap for the people who wouldn’t have had a voice. Orlando explains how that experience birthed his youth-leadership work and his “get off the sidelines” message for corporations. The result is a raw, hopeful conversation about justice, healing, and showing up for others.
You will learn how to keep moving when the system is against you; how to build a tight circle that talks possibility, not pity; how forgiveness is a performance skill — it frees energy for the work ahead; how he turned his story into One Voice One Team, the youth-leadership charity that now empowers thousands of young people every year; and how leaders can create workplaces where every person’s contribution is honoured.
You will discover that pain isn’t the end of the story — it can be the assignment. When you decide “this happened, so now I help,” you stop being a victim and start being a catalyst.
Most people get stuck in resentment after a wrong, and resentment burns the energy you need to lead, parent, or build. Orlando shows a path to process the hurt, forgive, and return to service so you don’t lose years to bitterness.
Key take aways:
Hurt people hurt people — break the cycle.
Forgiveness is strength, not surrender.
Build a small, honest support circle.
Control what you can; serve where you are.
Stand alone first; others will follow.
“We don’t have to be defined by what happened to us — we can use it to help somebody else.”
Today’s Expert Guest - Orlando Bowen
Orlando Bowen is a former CFL linebacker whose career was cut short after he was brutally assaulted and falsely charged by two undercover police officers. He publicly forgave his attackers and turned that experience into a mission to inspire resilience, allyship, and courageous leadership. He is the founder and executive director of One Voice One Team, a youth-leadership charity that equips thousands of young people to lead and serve.
Orlando doesn’t just preach inclusion — he embodies it: a pro athlete who left corporate comfort to serve, survived injustice, forgave in public, and then built programs that help youth and companies become “powerful allies.” His message — get off the sidelines — turns audiences from spectators into participants and links personal healing to community impact.
Follow Orlando Bowen on Instagram & Linked In.
Check out his website.
This podcast contains advice and information relating to health and wellness. It should be used to supplement rather than replace the advice of your doctor or another trained health professional. If you know or suspect that you have a health problem, seek your physician’s advice before embarking on any medical program or treatment. All efforts have been made to assure the accuracy of the information contained in this podcast / interview / article as of the date of publication. The author and publisher disclaim liability for any medical or other outcomes that may occur as a result of applying the methods suggested in this material.
