Tuesdays: 5:00pm - 6:00pm (EST)
EPISODE SUMMARY:
In the impact space, there is often pressure to work for free or support every cause. You can easily find yourself having to make tough decisions about which projects to take on. Our guest, Rebekah Miel of Miel Creative, will share practical tips pulling from years of experience about how she has managed these experiences, lessons she has learned the hard way, what she learned about how to avoid the overwhelm, and how to make decisions that still align with your values.
“In my younger years, I aspired to changing the world. Then reality kicked in, and I settled for 500 square feet.” - Betty Soskin, 102 year old, retired park ranger
In their career, Rebekah Miel has had the good fortune of being able to travel around the globe to hear the stories of frontline community members impacted by everything from climate change to natural disasters to harmful industry. As an empath and an impact-focused entrepreneur, it can be overwhelming. There are too many directions to go in. While it is a noble pursuit to want to change the world, it’s important to recognize that making an impact often starts with small, intentional acts close to home.
Rebekah notes: "The question I find myself asking over and over is: how can I create change in my industry while staying true to my values? It’s not about the size of the impact I make, but the depth and authenticity of it. A common mistake I see is the belief that impact has to be massive to be meaningful. This often leads to burnout or a sense of inadequacy when the reality doesn’t meet the ideal. What I want people to understand is that focusing on smaller, manageable projects can often lead to more sustainable and genuine impact. True change is a collective effort, and sometimes the best thing we can do is inspire and empower others to take action alongside us. Other times the best thing is simply show up and listen."
Rebekah Miel is that lone pair of headlights driving in the opposite direction during a hurricane evacuation. You’ll no longer find her sweating through a Tyvek suit in the lower 9th or eating curry in a refugee camp in Unawatuna, but that doesn’t mean she is any less risk-averse. These days she’s balancing the death-defying feat of raising pre-teen twins with the act of listening hard for how to be a good citizen in her adopted hometown of Durham, NC. Her current job title is Creative Director of her own creative shop, Miel Creative where she helps make beautiful sense out of a complex world for B corps, non-profits, and other purpose driven organizations.
https://mielcreative.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebekahmiel/
:#BCorp #BeTheChange #BeautifulSense #TheHardSkills #OrganizationalImpact
Tune in for this empowering conversation at TalkRadio.nyc
00:00:31.980 --> 00:00:43.960 Mira Brancu: Welcome welcome to the hard skills show where we discuss how to develop the nuanced hard skills meaning the most challenging soft skills needed to make a real impact through your leadership.
00:00:44.090 --> 00:00:48.530 Mira Brancu: Now, this episode is for all those impact driven leaders.
00:00:48.570 --> 00:00:50.490 Mira Brancu: We answer the question.
00:00:50.550 --> 00:00:57.380 Mira Brancu: how can I create change in my industry while staying true to my values and without burning out.
00:00:57.550 --> 00:01:04.959 Mira Brancu: That's key, because we have a lot of burning needs and desires to change the world. I know I do.
00:01:05.400 --> 00:01:12.019 Mira Brancu: Rebecca Meal here is with with me, and I know she does, and I I'm just so excited to talk with her
00:01:12.130 --> 00:01:22.109 Mira Brancu: about how to do this in a way that doesn't burn us out. When we have so many different ways of wanting to impact the world, so
00:01:22.190 --> 00:01:31.070 Mira Brancu: welcome to our season, 5, where we will be focusing on making a greater impact. So this is perfect for this season. I'm your host, Dr. Mira Bronk, who.
00:01:31.300 --> 00:01:49.330 Mira Brancu: I'm a leadership, consulting and coaching psychologist, founder of tower, scope, leadership, academy and associate professor, a psychology today, columnist, author of Millennials, guide to workplace politics and had my own leadership career before transitioning to helping teams and high achieving women navigate their leadership complexities.
00:01:49.530 --> 00:01:52.609 Mira Brancu: Now, Rebecca Meal, let me introduce her.
00:01:52.810 --> 00:02:00.510 Mira Brancu: She is that lone pair of headlights driving in the opposite direction during a hurricane evacuation.
00:02:00.995 --> 00:02:20.139 Mira Brancu: I have known her for probably about 6 years, and that is absolutely the best description I can imagine for her. She has a also fascinating background that you will hear more about today. But her current job title is creative director
00:02:20.230 --> 00:02:36.759 Mira Brancu: of her own creative shop meal, creative where she helps make beautiful sense out of a complex world for B core, nonprofits and other purpose driven organizations, while also balancing the death, defying feat of raising pre teen twins
00:02:36.850 --> 00:02:47.549 Mira Brancu: and listening hard for how to be a good citizen in her adopted home. Time. Hometown of Durham, North Carolina, close to where I live. So welcome to the show. Rebecca.
00:02:47.950 --> 00:02:51.620 Rebekah Miel: Thank you so much. Thanks so much for having me. I'm really excited for this conversation.
00:02:51.620 --> 00:02:56.209 Mira Brancu: Me, too. Me too. Well. You had. You have had a
00:02:56.320 --> 00:02:57.810 Mira Brancu: fascinating
00:02:57.900 --> 00:02:58.930 Mira Brancu: life
00:02:59.040 --> 00:03:15.449 Mira Brancu: story of so many different kinds of experiences and jobs. You know you described to me sweating through a tevek suit in the lower 9th you described eating curry in a refugee camp, and I want unawatuna sorry.
00:03:15.450 --> 00:03:16.809 Rebekah Miel: What's your name? Yeah, you got it.
00:03:17.070 --> 00:03:25.480 Mira Brancu: Or even being a musician, co-running, a diy music space, I mean, like these are fascinating experiences.
00:03:25.870 --> 00:03:27.510 Mira Brancu: And so I would love
00:03:27.530 --> 00:03:29.394 Mira Brancu: for us to just
00:03:29.890 --> 00:03:37.759 Mira Brancu: Talk a little bit more about those experiences. What? What sort of led you to those experiences? What is the thread
00:03:37.870 --> 00:03:48.640 Mira Brancu: through these experiences, especially when we talk about being kind of an impact driven person who sort of leans into those kinds of experiences.
00:03:49.090 --> 00:03:56.270 Rebekah Miel: That's a great question. Yeah. I found myself in a lot of surprising places throughout. My, you know both
00:03:56.620 --> 00:04:14.739 Rebekah Miel: what I do for in my career, but also in my personal life as well. Fundraising and you know, going to Sri Lanka after the tsunami in 2,005, and all of all all those different places. But for me, I think there's a couple of different things. One is impact means staying true to my values
00:04:14.860 --> 00:04:19.340 Rebekah Miel: and whatever work I'm doing, finding where my.
00:04:19.980 --> 00:04:41.599 Rebekah Miel: the work I'm doing in the space and the people I'm communicating with like, how am I staying? True to my values in those spaces, and one of those is because I'm such a visual person is being witness to things that are happening. Which is why, I've ended up in, you know, the Lower 9, th after Katrina, and all sorts of different places. I recently was in Eastern North Carolina and North Hamp, Hampton to see the
00:04:41.820 --> 00:04:48.729 Rebekah Miel: devastation there done by the pellet industry in their forests. So it's witness, and also
00:04:49.580 --> 00:05:16.140 Rebekah Miel: Making sure that I'm listening, I would say, even though I'm a designer, I'm a visual person. At least 50% of my job is listening, because then I hear where these things are relating to my values. And I can connect to people in ways that feel authentic and true rather than coming in with a decision about what I need to do to make impact in this space, I need to step back and listen and witness for a little bit and then move into that space.
00:05:16.450 --> 00:05:17.849 Mira Brancu: Hmm and
00:05:19.420 --> 00:05:22.170 Mira Brancu: a couple of things I'm picking up from that one is
00:05:22.330 --> 00:05:26.090 Mira Brancu: so. You are a creative designer.
00:05:26.180 --> 00:05:27.330 Mira Brancu: and
00:05:27.450 --> 00:05:29.839 Mira Brancu: to me that means you can
00:05:30.140 --> 00:05:32.529 Mira Brancu: have any job or any role.
00:05:32.680 --> 00:05:35.580 Mira Brancu: and still lean into
00:05:35.720 --> 00:05:36.276 Mira Brancu: those
00:05:37.970 --> 00:05:42.980 Mira Brancu: experiences of putting values 1st and
00:05:43.476 --> 00:05:49.020 Mira Brancu: thinking about how you can sort of make an impact make a difference.
00:05:49.160 --> 00:05:51.970 Mira Brancu: regardless of kind of what you do
00:05:52.260 --> 00:06:06.959 Mira Brancu: and part of you know your experience with how you do this. It sounds like is listening and bearing witness like as a visual person. So I'd love to hear more about how did you come to that? How did you come to? Sort of
00:06:07.130 --> 00:06:09.159 Mira Brancu: this makes me feel
00:06:09.340 --> 00:06:13.529 Mira Brancu: like I can make an impact, or I feel connected to this. If I can just
00:06:13.780 --> 00:06:15.809 Mira Brancu: listen and bear witness.
00:06:16.480 --> 00:06:22.770 Rebekah Miel: So the piece you said about making sense out of a complex world. I think it was realizing that
00:06:22.830 --> 00:06:50.629 Rebekah Miel: it sometimes I'm in places that are uncomfortable, or, you know, require some version of you know a balance between my how comfortable I am versus where we're at. So being able to be in those spaces. And then taking that information typically visually and being able to translate it. So that making sense of, I think I realized that that is sort of a space where there's, you know, there's so much
00:06:51.490 --> 00:07:04.290 Rebekah Miel: conflict and disagreement, and being able to find that space in between where maybe both sides of of any conversation can talk to each other. That is a place where I think there's a lot of impact, and it just takes
00:07:04.763 --> 00:07:14.460 Rebekah Miel: time and patience. And like, I said, listening and showing up to be able to make that translation. So for me, that looks like design. But sometimes it also just looks like
00:07:14.570 --> 00:07:17.850 Rebekah Miel: holding a community conversation or holding space too.
00:07:18.320 --> 00:07:35.411 Mira Brancu: Yeah, I really resonate with that. What's interesting is that I feel like I do that in my profession into a totally different profession than yours, you know, which is, you know, clinical psychologist by training, organizational psychologist leadership development coach, that kind of thing. And I just
00:07:35.960 --> 00:07:41.689 Mira Brancu: actually closed out a conversation with 2 people who had a massive, painful
00:07:42.222 --> 00:07:51.517 Mira Brancu: you know, falling out, and it was, you know, from one person's perspective, racial tension, from the other perspective. It was
00:07:52.160 --> 00:07:53.440 Mira Brancu: more about
00:07:54.060 --> 00:07:57.009 Mira Brancu: feeling you know, pushed
00:07:57.130 --> 00:08:04.170 Mira Brancu: to engage in a way that was was felt judgmental and they both
00:08:04.210 --> 00:08:13.019 Mira Brancu: for a long time as I met with them, had their positions, their perspectives, but it felt like there was something that they were not necessarily
00:08:13.140 --> 00:08:16.089 Mira Brancu: speaking to or seeing, and
00:08:16.540 --> 00:08:33.219 Mira Brancu: we kept talking about the lens, you know, like the lens through which we see is not visible to somebody else. You have to sort of make it visible in some way. And that's the complexity that I come at. And you know, it came to finally this amazing point
00:08:33.590 --> 00:08:49.850 Mira Brancu: where they were really just very emotional, and finally, feeling connected that all doesn't always happen. But it's an amazing experience to bear witness to that when it comes to that, and but it takes a lot of work and effort to
00:08:51.025 --> 00:08:53.200 Mira Brancu: kind of deconstruct
00:08:53.240 --> 00:08:54.640 Mira Brancu: the language
00:08:54.710 --> 00:09:05.490 Mira Brancu: and go back to just the the humanity behind all the language. We sort of like pile on top in order to make sense of the world. I'm just kind of wondering how
00:09:06.210 --> 00:09:10.999 Mira Brancu: that occurs for you as a creative in your design process.
00:09:11.510 --> 00:09:34.340 Rebekah Miel: Yeah. So I mean, I think that's 1 of the challenges is, 2 people are nobody's wrong. They're having different conversations. And it's how you communicate that which is also going back to listening like, how are you saying this, that I can relay this information to you? What is that gap in the middle, and sometimes it is things that are in, in design or in like the
00:09:34.570 --> 00:09:39.667 Rebekah Miel: strategy work that we do. That isn't obvious. Like, we're often talking about
00:09:41.250 --> 00:10:02.950 Rebekah Miel: climate impact, climate change sort of these larger scale sort of controversial issues. And our approach is just sometimes it's a scavenger hunt, just like, go outside, go pay attention to one tree in your yard like, find these little steps that get sort of moved, not necessarily in the middle, but a different understanding of.
00:10:02.950 --> 00:10:21.769 Rebekah Miel: you know. Go and talk to a community that's being impacted by this or hear from that community in a different way. So I think that lens, yeah, of really sort of adjusting what the language is, knowing that in both cases those people are taking risks to be able to have a new perspective and
00:10:22.150 --> 00:10:41.429 Rebekah Miel: being patient and taking time to make sure that the way we're presenting design isn't shaming people. It isn't making people feel bad about their choices, but finding ways that people can participate, or listen, or engage, or be right where they are, and just sort of understand a little bit more, too.
00:10:41.430 --> 00:10:47.991 Mira Brancu: Yeah, can you give us an example? So like, you know, as a creative director in your current role? Right?
00:10:49.324 --> 00:10:54.840 Mira Brancu: what kind of projects do you take on as an impact driven company and
00:10:55.317 --> 00:10:59.890 Mira Brancu: if you could like, walk me through an example of
00:10:59.900 --> 00:11:02.694 Mira Brancu: what it takes to go from
00:11:03.350 --> 00:11:05.079 Mira Brancu: what people come to you with
00:11:05.200 --> 00:11:12.239 Mira Brancu: and where you land, and how that connects also to the sort of like impact driven focus of your company.
00:11:12.240 --> 00:11:28.406 Rebekah Miel: Impact of it. Okay, so as an example, I have a client who does work in regenerative ag in the food space. And they. Sometimes people come to me with, I need a logo or XYZ thing, and it's sort of taking a step back looking at
00:11:28.770 --> 00:11:33.440 Rebekah Miel: what? What did they? What do they really need? Is it a logo? Is it a
00:11:33.680 --> 00:11:57.339 Rebekah Miel: new messaging? What? How are they connecting with their community? The next step is working with their stakeholders. So we often do stakeholder interviews. So we're not just listening to the client. But we're listening to the folks that are impacted by their work as well, and asking them like, What do you hear about this? What impact does this organization have? Where do you think they could? You know.
00:11:57.340 --> 00:12:10.490 Rebekah Miel: Add to things where, like, what benefits do they bring? Where do they need to pull back? We compile all of that together, and then from that we decide what the pieces, and it sometimes looks very different from what the client came to us originally, and sometimes it's
00:12:10.490 --> 00:12:13.649 Rebekah Miel: pretty similar. But the
00:12:13.950 --> 00:12:19.530 Rebekah Miel: the impact piece of that is making sure that we're not only
00:12:21.230 --> 00:12:37.469 Rebekah Miel: that same thing I said before, like I'm not showing up in a space where I have a preconceived notion about what the client needs. They're not. They don't have a preconceived notion. But we're listening to the work that is being done in the community and finding the place that we can make more impact. And this isn't necessarily just like
00:12:37.780 --> 00:12:56.379 Rebekah Miel: social or environmental impact. It's also we're often working with small businesses. So I'm not gonna sell somebody, something that they don't need. So how can I make an impact for them so they can be a more sustainable business like, what piece do they actually need? And what peace will keep them being able to continue to do the work that they're doing too.
00:12:56.600 --> 00:12:59.020 Mira Brancu: That's so interesting. It's I feel like it's
00:12:59.200 --> 00:13:28.079 Mira Brancu: a lot more than what you would imagine for a creative creative design company that there's like market research involved. There's like marketing and communication involved. I'm hearing there's the branding piece. But the branding piece is driven by a lot of like listening and stakeholder engagement. And then there's just like you hoping to help the company be sustainable and grow, but in a way that also matches your values and their values. Is that right?
00:13:28.370 --> 00:13:33.420 Rebekah Miel: Yeah. And I think that's a challenge. I mean, you know, we talk about being a creative studio. But really.
00:13:33.560 --> 00:13:46.100 Rebekah Miel: our goal is to create impact. So like you said, I could have chosen any, I could have done impact in any job. So this is my skill set. But also, how can we continue to make those ripples expand further, too.
00:13:46.270 --> 00:13:52.570 Mira Brancu: Yeah, absolutely. We're reaching an ad break when we come back. I'd like to hear like
00:13:52.760 --> 00:14:16.440 Mira Brancu: your thoughts on. Can any company be set up to be impact driven. And if so, what does that mean? What does that even mean to set yourself up that way? So you're listening to the hard skills with me, Dr. Mirabranku and our guest today, Rebecca Meal, we air on Tuesdays at 5 Pm. Eastern time. You can find us on Linkedin or Youtube at talk radio, Nyc, and we'll be right back in just a moment.
00:16:30.030 --> 00:16:35.019 Mira Brancu: Welcome back to the heart skills with me, Mira Broku and our guest today, Rebecca Meal.
00:16:35.810 --> 00:16:44.509 Mira Brancu: Before the ad break we were starting to talk about like whether any company can be impact driven. The way that you started describing what you do. I thought
00:16:45.390 --> 00:16:53.089 Mira Brancu: that seems like a lot of companies could really lean into that as well. What are? What are your thoughts on that.
00:16:53.770 --> 00:16:59.130 Rebekah Miel: That's a great question. I think it's really about making a decision. So you know.
00:16:59.220 --> 00:17:05.239 Rebekah Miel: running a business, we talk about cogs a lot. So the cost of goods. I think that you you need to. If
00:17:05.380 --> 00:17:14.090 Rebekah Miel: if you want to be an impact driven business impact has to be one of your cods. It has to be one of the levers in your business, much like any other, you know.
00:17:14.240 --> 00:17:24.539 Rebekah Miel: revenue or vendor that you work with. It has to play into the bottom line of your business in order for it to be sustainable and resilient. So
00:17:24.579 --> 00:17:49.800 Rebekah Miel: sometimes that's difficult for a mid size business. I think you can stay small and be really clear about what your impact and values are, or sometimes in larger businesses, there can be like companies have whole impact departments, Esg departments, things like that. So I think some of the principles can be applied to the work that you do, especially if we're talking about stakeholder work like stakeholder driven work like I was talking about. But I think
00:17:50.300 --> 00:18:05.259 Rebekah Miel: it, it needs to be right sized for the business, and it also needs to be really clear, like, you need to make a decision very clearly about what impact you want to have. You can't make all of the impact everywhere you have to make a decision about this is the one
00:18:05.610 --> 00:18:15.159 Rebekah Miel: space I want to choose to make impact. And this is why it works for our company and our values, and be very clear about that, both externally and internally, too.
00:18:16.070 --> 00:18:21.120 Mira Brancu: Really interesting. I have a million questions. Okay, the 1st is.
00:18:21.565 --> 00:18:35.000 Mira Brancu: why is it I? I am hearing what you're saying about like, it might be easier for bigger companies who have an entire department focused on impact. Right? And I can also hear
00:18:35.040 --> 00:18:50.080 Mira Brancu: how a smaller company could be more agile to lean into some of these things. What makes it challenging for a mid size company and actually like, what? What's your definition of mid size. And what makes it challenging for that kind of company.
00:18:50.650 --> 00:18:58.410 Rebekah Miel: Okay, good question. What's mid size? I would say from my the world, and that I work in, I would say, mid size is probably like
00:18:58.460 --> 00:19:00.090 Rebekah Miel: somewhere between, like.
00:19:00.400 --> 00:19:01.310 Rebekah Miel: I don't know
00:19:01.780 --> 00:19:08.570 Rebekah Miel: 5 to 15 million in revenue, like around 15 to 20 people. So in that space where
00:19:09.010 --> 00:19:10.610 Rebekah Miel: the you know.
00:19:10.770 --> 00:19:27.480 Rebekah Miel: especially, we're talking about service based businesses where profit margins are at a specific point where everybody has to be working to do their essential, what their job that they are hired for. Sometimes, because this some of this work takes time, it just has to be accounted into like
00:19:27.610 --> 00:19:29.309 Rebekah Miel: the work of
00:19:29.490 --> 00:19:34.779 Rebekah Miel: those employees. That's sometimes easier, I think, to absorb in a bigger company and a little bit
00:19:35.040 --> 00:19:50.439 Rebekah Miel: like you said, easier to pivot and be agile in a smaller company and in the middle, I think it's a little bit difficult, because you just have to track it very closely and again make decisions about what impact is as well. If it's something that comes naturally to the work that you do, then I think
00:19:50.690 --> 00:19:56.219 Rebekah Miel: that's just an easy thing. But if it is something that has to be added into, or
00:19:57.890 --> 00:20:06.759 Rebekah Miel: you know, sort of thought about as a cog, as like a piece, a function of the job. Then it's a little bit more difficult that said, I also feel like it is really
00:20:07.220 --> 00:20:10.879 Rebekah Miel: it's really important for businesses to consider how
00:20:12.250 --> 00:20:13.270 Rebekah Miel: impact
00:20:13.760 --> 00:20:22.690 Rebekah Miel: affects their bottom line and their community as a whole. I don't think it's really an optional thing, but I think it is more challenging for mid sized businesses.
00:20:24.070 --> 00:20:25.510 Mira Brancu: and so.
00:20:25.700 --> 00:20:26.520 Mira Brancu: if
00:20:28.270 --> 00:20:33.320 Mira Brancu: actually, let me, let me take this a different direction. Let me, let me ask about your own journey, 1st
00:20:35.220 --> 00:20:37.430 Mira Brancu: as your company
00:20:37.710 --> 00:20:43.729 Mira Brancu: grew morphed, changed over time, you know, developmentally and your own perspective.
00:20:44.100 --> 00:20:45.470 Mira Brancu: What did you
00:20:45.720 --> 00:20:52.959 Mira Brancu: learn about what you had to do and think about when it came to how you focused on impact with your company.
00:20:53.940 --> 00:21:00.609 Rebekah Miel: That's a great question. There's a lot of different ways that we've had to negotiate impact. So one is,
00:21:01.020 --> 00:21:11.289 Rebekah Miel: it, the space we're in. We get asked for a lot of free work or pro bono work, which, you know, we work with a lot of nonprofits and movements. So deciding when.
00:21:11.780 --> 00:21:19.263 Rebekah Miel: what? What percentage of that do we want to do? Are we able to do and say sustainable? And then also,
00:21:19.900 --> 00:21:21.719 Rebekah Miel: what work is
00:21:22.890 --> 00:21:26.200 Rebekah Miel: considered impact work. And also, how?
00:21:26.880 --> 00:21:38.673 Rebekah Miel: How does everybody fit into that like? Where do personal values and business values align? And how does that make a decision about clients? So it has meant a lot of different things for
00:21:39.540 --> 00:21:45.229 Rebekah Miel: me running my business over the last almost 20 years, deciding
00:21:45.450 --> 00:21:49.640 Rebekah Miel: what configuration, what works, what creates most impact. So like
00:21:49.710 --> 00:22:12.056 Rebekah Miel: I, some of the work that I love doing is when it is a small business like right now, we're working with a farmer in Louisiana who's trying to build a Csa. And for her, what's really important is she needs like a business card and a brochure like things that are really simple, and just get the word out about her farm that she's building. But
00:22:12.910 --> 00:22:20.100 Rebekah Miel: And that creates like a real tangible impact in her life and in her community. But that's not something that is always
00:22:20.570 --> 00:22:22.870 Rebekah Miel: scalable and
00:22:23.320 --> 00:22:30.549 Rebekah Miel: like sometimes where the true impact is for us or for me, is not always like a scalable. We can't.
00:22:30.680 --> 00:22:38.120 Rebekah Miel: you know, 10 times a business card and make that a ongoing I don't know profitable thing as well, so.
00:22:38.400 --> 00:22:40.199 Mira Brancu: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
00:22:40.200 --> 00:22:40.820 Rebekah Miel: Yeah.
00:22:40.820 --> 00:22:46.070 Mira Brancu: You also mentioned? The the personal versus company values.
00:22:46.070 --> 00:22:46.420 Rebekah Miel: Yeah.
00:22:46.420 --> 00:22:52.070 Mira Brancu: And so have you been in the situation? Or have you seen other situations where?
00:22:52.556 --> 00:23:05.750 Mira Brancu: You, as the owner and CEO of your company have your vision. And then you've got employees who like really want you to go in a direction with impact like, why don't we also do this.
00:23:05.770 --> 00:23:13.849 Mira Brancu: you know. Why aren't we also in this space? Have have you experienced that tension? And if so, how did you sort of navigate that?
00:23:13.900 --> 00:23:18.599 Mira Brancu: Or have you seen others trying to navigate that space? And what do they do?
00:23:18.980 --> 00:23:24.939 Rebekah Miel: Yeah, it's definitely something that we've experienced internally. We, you know.
00:23:25.310 --> 00:23:47.070 Rebekah Miel: at 1 point we had done a really simple like values card sort, and it was illuminating to me that the I can't always have my personal. It is not a 1 to one overlap my personal values and my business values because it is really 2 different spheres. I bring my values to work, but there are times when I have to make decisions for the company rather than for me.
00:23:47.912 --> 00:23:50.230 Rebekah Miel: And I think
00:23:50.910 --> 00:23:53.440 Rebekah Miel: there's sometimes a tension of
00:23:54.590 --> 00:24:09.290 Rebekah Miel: you know we should move in this direction. We should work with a particular client, or also, what if we just did this thing to bring in more revenue and having to actually say, like, reiterate again that this is the values that we
00:24:09.470 --> 00:24:31.349 Rebekah Miel: and we also everybody did a card sort. So we agreed on a set of values. And like, these are the values that we're coming back to, but it definitely causes a lot of a lot of tension. But it was enlightening to me to see those 2 things sort of be a little bit in conflict where I always thought like I am my business and I live my values through my business. But I also see other organizations
00:24:31.700 --> 00:24:44.760 Rebekah Miel: definitely get pulled in different directions, and sometimes it even causes a lot of conflict in the organization where especially if there's more than one founder or like a funder, and.
00:24:44.760 --> 00:24:45.580 Mira Brancu: And.
00:24:45.580 --> 00:24:54.379 Rebekah Miel: Sort of break apart like this is the direction that we want to go in versus. This is the direction the funder wants us to go in, which can be really difficult for
00:24:54.840 --> 00:24:56.539 Rebekah Miel: nonprofits in particular.
00:24:56.700 --> 00:25:00.620 Mira Brancu: Absolutely. Yeah. I had a client once that
00:25:00.800 --> 00:25:03.540 Mira Brancu: really struggled with whether to seek
00:25:03.580 --> 00:25:05.660 Mira Brancu: venture capital funding
00:25:05.780 --> 00:25:10.860 Mira Brancu: because of the fact that her company was very focused on
00:25:11.240 --> 00:25:19.950 Mira Brancu: very specific diversity, equity, and inclusion values that she did not want to compromise, and she was worried that if she took on
00:25:20.365 --> 00:25:31.259 Mira Brancu: external funding. What could that mean in terms of various pressures that she didn't want to deal with, you know? And face. And that is a really just
00:25:31.370 --> 00:25:36.659 Mira Brancu: the way that you describe your own process, and how she described hers, and and things like that are just.
00:25:37.010 --> 00:25:38.709 Mira Brancu: I think, help
00:25:38.940 --> 00:25:42.029 Mira Brancu: you make more intentional decisions.
00:25:42.566 --> 00:25:47.363 Mira Brancu: you know, if you didn't do that values cop car sort. If she didn't think through that piece.
00:25:48.120 --> 00:25:55.190 Mira Brancu: you might be led by a lot of shiny objects, a lot of exciting things, a lot of
00:25:56.410 --> 00:26:08.620 Mira Brancu: in a lot of different directions, but it what it might pull you away from the core values that you initially set out to do. And every time you visit having this making this decision
00:26:08.630 --> 00:26:12.580 Mira Brancu: and revisit your original values, I think it helps
00:26:12.640 --> 00:26:17.230 Mira Brancu: you sort of recommit or more intentionally
00:26:17.560 --> 00:26:19.219 Mira Brancu: design focus.
00:26:19.250 --> 00:26:22.377 Mira Brancu: make decisions instead of
00:26:23.440 --> 00:26:28.230 Mira Brancu: you know, not visiting these conversations, not visiting the values
00:26:28.570 --> 00:26:33.533 Mira Brancu: and then finding yourself in a situation. Where like, how? How did I? We even end up in this situation right.
00:26:33.960 --> 00:27:01.359 Rebekah Miel: Yeah, yeah, I think in this space, too, there's so much pressure to scale and scale is fast. Like, if you know, we don't always work with starters, but in connected to startup culture of scale, and, you know, bringing more revenue like grow, grow. And I think sometimes it doesn't leave that time to listen or check in on values. And yet you can end up in a place where, how did we get here or not being able to track
00:27:01.640 --> 00:27:04.300 Rebekah Miel: where that impact is, how it is impacting
00:27:05.870 --> 00:27:13.100 Rebekah Miel: me as a creator. Also, my employees like, what does that look like in the whole ecosystem of what we do, too.
00:27:13.430 --> 00:27:14.870 Mira Brancu: Yeah, I.
00:27:15.030 --> 00:27:32.289 Mira Brancu: So I'm gonna ask you a very hard question. Now, maybe you have the answer. I hope you have the answer. Actually, we're we're reaching an ad rate. So I'm gonna ask the question. And then when we come back from the ad rate, see? I'll I'll buy you some time. So it
00:27:32.460 --> 00:27:33.150 Mira Brancu: if
00:27:34.660 --> 00:27:35.980 Mira Brancu: if I
00:27:36.200 --> 00:27:41.619 Mira Brancu: am, you know, a a small moving into mid-sized business, for example.
00:27:41.950 --> 00:27:43.669 Mira Brancu: And I have
00:27:43.780 --> 00:27:46.190 Mira Brancu: lots of ways. I want to impact the world.
00:27:46.400 --> 00:27:47.335 Mira Brancu: And
00:27:48.720 --> 00:27:52.319 Mira Brancu: you know, I I want to feel like I'm making a difference.
00:27:52.840 --> 00:27:53.790 Mira Brancu: how.
00:27:54.320 --> 00:27:56.980 Mira Brancu: But I I don't want to sort of like just be
00:27:57.890 --> 00:28:01.039 Mira Brancu: led. I want to be a sustainable company.
00:28:01.930 --> 00:28:15.499 Mira Brancu: I want to be a successful company. I want to bring in income, and I want to make a difference, and I don't want to compromise my values, and I don't want to be overwhelmed, and scaling seems to be the option
00:28:16.200 --> 00:28:18.490 Mira Brancu: that is being offered to me.
00:28:19.160 --> 00:28:21.080 Mira Brancu: What do I do with all of that?
00:28:21.340 --> 00:28:27.980 Mira Brancu: How do I navigate? And maybe you face this, I suspect, based on what you've been saying. You've been sort of
00:28:28.388 --> 00:28:40.559 Mira Brancu: you've experienced the the struggle between these. So I'm curious, like how you made these decisions or how you've seen other impact organizations that you work with have made those decisions.
00:28:40.960 --> 00:28:43.549 Mira Brancu: So I'll just leave that for there
00:28:43.560 --> 00:28:57.180 Mira Brancu: you're listening to the heart skills with me. Dr. Mira Branco and our guest, Rebecca Meal. We air on Tuesdays at 5 Pm. Eastern. You can find us on Linkedin or Youtube at Talkradio, Nyc. And we'll be right back in just a moment.
00:30:58.400 --> 00:31:07.010 Mira Brancu: Welcome back to the hard skills with me. Dr. Mira Branco and our guest today, Rebecca Meal. Rebecca, works in the creative space, but
00:31:07.080 --> 00:31:16.780 Mira Brancu: she works with a lot of impact businesses, social impact businesses. And she herself. Her business is also a social impact business. So the
00:31:17.325 --> 00:31:20.700 Mira Brancu: I feel like the greatest challenge. The greatest tension
00:31:21.150 --> 00:31:22.310 Mira Brancu: is
00:31:22.990 --> 00:31:24.670 Mira Brancu: wanting to make a difference.
00:31:25.100 --> 00:31:27.140 Mira Brancu: wanting to make a big impact.
00:31:28.450 --> 00:31:31.239 Mira Brancu: wanting my company to be successful.
00:31:31.580 --> 00:31:33.319 Mira Brancu: wanting it to grow
00:31:33.780 --> 00:31:36.879 Mira Brancu: and getting messages about, you know, scaling
00:31:37.684 --> 00:31:48.040 Mira Brancu: and wondering like the compromises the trade offs what so? And and I suspect a lot of companies in this space face the same thing. How do I? How do I manage the.
00:31:48.130 --> 00:32:01.179 Mira Brancu: the, the big desires, the big goals to make impact in lots of spaces, while also managing the overwhelm, while also mentioning the pressures that we put on ourselves to have a successful company. That's sustainable.
00:32:01.220 --> 00:32:05.889 Mira Brancu: You probably don't have the answer to this, but you probably have thought a lot about this.
00:32:06.010 --> 00:32:08.120 Mira Brancu: and might have a process
00:32:08.290 --> 00:32:09.230 Mira Brancu: that
00:32:09.810 --> 00:32:19.820 Mira Brancu: you might have thought helpful for other companies to think through. So I'm curious like, have you faced those questions? If so, what have you come to? How did you come to those conclusions?
00:32:20.210 --> 00:32:37.389 Rebekah Miel: Yeah, I have definitely faced these questions. I mean, this is an ongoing process in the studio. I also see my clients face this a lot, and I think if I did have the answer, I would be a bajillionaire to be like.
00:32:37.430 --> 00:32:44.049 Rebekah Miel: It's, you know, it's all of that work life balance. It is the same equation of what is the
00:32:44.320 --> 00:32:46.410 Rebekah Miel: not true balance. But what is enough?
00:32:46.742 --> 00:32:52.460 Rebekah Miel: Is one of the things I ask myself, like what is enough? What does enough look like? What can I?
00:32:53.120 --> 00:32:57.190 Rebekah Miel: How can I continue to create impact and find enough? So
00:32:57.810 --> 00:33:01.779 Rebekah Miel: as an example, I have a client who made a decision where
00:33:02.300 --> 00:33:25.269 Rebekah Miel: the work they decided to move into took away a lot of their revenue, and it really took, looking very clearly about like, how can sustainability? How can the business say sustainable? To move into a place that is more aligned with values and losing a lot of revenue, while while also being mindful that it's a business that has to keep running. I don't.
00:33:26.010 --> 00:33:45.320 Rebekah Miel: I don't. And I also think that there's never really like one answer. This isn't. This is like being a leader or a manager, or anything where it's always evolving. It's always something you have to learn like we tried this, this didn't fit. And being okay with both wins and failures in the process of
00:33:45.470 --> 00:33:47.979 Rebekah Miel: you know where you have impact.
00:33:48.280 --> 00:33:58.749 Rebekah Miel: how is this really profitable for your business? And then also thinking about ways where you can balance those 2 like, where are you willing to
00:33:59.430 --> 00:34:00.410 Rebekah Miel: find
00:34:00.600 --> 00:34:04.009 Rebekah Miel: some part of the business that is maybe not fully.
00:34:05.370 --> 00:34:32.689 Rebekah Miel: isn't fully dependent on impact. Or I mean, because sometimes that space can be fickle. So it isn't fully dependent on that work that is sort of like the ongoing bread and butter. And then from that place, how can you amplify your work or have more impact in other spaces. So it's an ongoing thing. It's something I've been thinking about recently. I recently read Betty read. So, Skin. I think I'm saying her name right. She was a park ranger.
00:34:32.980 --> 00:34:36.040 Rebekah Miel: think, until she was over a hundred. She's like the oldest. Yeah.
00:34:36.699 --> 00:34:53.779 Rebekah Miel: Park Ranger and a friend of mine forwarded me a quote recently, where she said, in my younger years I aspire to changing the world, and then reality kicked in, and I settled for 500 square feet. So the thing I've been asking myself recently is like, what is my 500 square feet. I actually.
00:34:53.929 --> 00:34:55.049 Rebekah Miel: I think it's
00:34:55.709 --> 00:35:06.979 Rebekah Miel: foolish to think that I can, you know, change the whole world. But what is what is in that 500 square feet that keeps us sustainable. And I mean, I face
00:35:06.999 --> 00:35:15.489 Rebekah Miel: cyclically, face out, face burnout all the time like. Where do I re calibrate to be able to be sure that I am
00:35:15.499 --> 00:35:21.079 Rebekah Miel: taking care of myself, the business and my community while making impact. And it really.
00:35:21.449 --> 00:35:27.429 Rebekah Miel: it's an ongoing process of asking those questions like, yeah, what is my 500 square feet.
00:35:28.520 --> 00:35:31.201 Mira Brancu: I really like that, and it resonates a lot.
00:35:31.750 --> 00:35:33.300 Mira Brancu: I often
00:35:34.770 --> 00:35:36.390 Mira Brancu: think about
00:35:37.130 --> 00:35:42.630 Mira Brancu: in in my words my sphere of influence, like within my sphere of influence.
00:35:43.470 --> 00:35:45.779 Mira Brancu: What? What can I do?
00:35:46.080 --> 00:35:47.370 Mira Brancu: And
00:35:49.460 --> 00:35:51.599 Mira Brancu: because of the fact that
00:35:51.860 --> 00:36:00.589 Mira Brancu: I know there's a ripple effect that happens outside of my sphere of influence, right? The the people that I affect around me have other people they affect.
00:36:00.840 --> 00:36:04.899 Mira Brancu: That's the ripple effect. And that makes that that brings me comfort.
00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:07.050 Mira Brancu: you know, to to think about.
00:36:07.190 --> 00:36:11.579 Mira Brancu: I only need to impact the folks around me that like care about
00:36:12.090 --> 00:36:23.439 Mira Brancu: the things that I talk about, that's all. And then and then beyond that they can be empowered to do their thing right through their their own ways, and
00:36:24.380 --> 00:36:27.180 Mira Brancu: that that can serve
00:36:27.699 --> 00:36:31.650 Mira Brancu: you know, a massive influence I was just reading, actually about, like
00:36:31.800 --> 00:36:33.209 Mira Brancu: one of the
00:36:34.650 --> 00:36:39.699 Mira Brancu: oldest people to have recently passed away. This this woman who
00:36:40.544 --> 00:36:55.929 Mira Brancu: it was. She was an enslaved woman. She had 12 children, those 12 children. Then, you know. It led to like a hundred 25 grandchildren and 250 great grandchildren, right? And I think, wow!
00:36:56.020 --> 00:37:01.329 Mira Brancu: The impact that she didn't realize she had on the world just through her one family.
00:37:01.670 --> 00:37:05.510 Mira Brancu: right is just like mind blowing to me.
00:37:05.810 --> 00:37:12.540 Mira Brancu: and so that that that is a a sphere of influence, our own family members and the people that they touch
00:37:12.720 --> 00:37:15.160 Mira Brancu: and so my
00:37:16.770 --> 00:37:20.610 Mira Brancu: The other thing that that I'm resonating with is.
00:37:21.470 --> 00:37:27.869 Mira Brancu: it sounds like you do a lot of introspection like you're you're always sort of like thinking, what does this mean for me?
00:37:28.120 --> 00:37:34.480 Mira Brancu: And do I need to recalibrate? And you're also able to catch yourself when you're like teetering on burnout.
00:37:34.670 --> 00:37:38.889 Mira Brancu: And so I'm curious like, what? What have you learned about yourself
00:37:39.450 --> 00:37:43.430 Mira Brancu: about when you're kind of overdoing it with your
00:37:44.590 --> 00:37:49.200 Mira Brancu: big, audacious goals of impact. How do? How do you sort of
00:37:49.450 --> 00:37:51.439 Mira Brancu: identify when that's happening
00:37:51.500 --> 00:37:53.380 Mira Brancu: and recalibrate?
00:37:53.400 --> 00:37:55.070 Mira Brancu: What can other people learn from that.
00:37:55.520 --> 00:37:57.520 Rebekah Miel: That's a great question. I
00:37:58.080 --> 00:38:11.749 Rebekah Miel: So I went through a leadership training last year. I think maybe the year before time is weird, but I think one of the exercises that I did that was really hard for me, because I do feel like I pay attention and am trying to be mindful of.
00:38:12.080 --> 00:38:32.500 Rebekah Miel: you know, when I'm making that balance was working on a polarities exercise so like when I go too far out. What are the behaviors that are showing up to to be able to catch those behaviors beforehand. But then, seeing like sometimes, I'm actually way further down that like polarity than I actually should be, and I don't
00:38:32.500 --> 00:38:54.709 Rebekah Miel: like I feel like it's a thing I should blow up on a poster and put like in my office that like when you're doing this, and then when you get to like, not sleeping and like only sleeping a few hours a night, because you just have to get one more thing done, and then it becomes this like waterfall cause once you I I think when I get into burnout I sometimes can't see it. I'm like, no, we're just doing the thing, and
00:38:54.720 --> 00:38:55.920 Rebekah Miel: it can
00:38:56.140 --> 00:39:03.099 Rebekah Miel: sometimes, like, you know, your body tells you when you're burned out, and you're just done, or the work is.
00:39:03.570 --> 00:39:14.410 Rebekah Miel: the work is impacted by that. So I think, being able to have mapped out those polarities and seeing like these are sort of my tipping points. That are not
00:39:14.460 --> 00:39:16.040 Rebekah Miel: the end
00:39:16.330 --> 00:39:19.749 Rebekah Miel: points. It's really helpful to see the patterns
00:39:19.830 --> 00:39:28.788 Rebekah Miel: of when I'm getting burnout, but it's it is. It's also another thing like the same thing with impact. It's always a work in progress. It is
00:39:29.650 --> 00:39:39.510 Rebekah Miel: regenerative. It's checking to see, like am I in the right balance? Yes or no, and that is also, you know, it takes time and work to do that too.
00:39:39.510 --> 00:40:00.050 Mira Brancu: Yeah, absolutely. And for those of you who are are listening. I don't. I can't recall. If I've talked about this I might have very briefly. But you can think about burnout like you think about mental health like you think about anything else on a continuum of the stress distress, impairment, continuum
00:40:00.050 --> 00:40:16.479 Mira Brancu: stress is normal. We have it all the time. And to a certain extent, if you have the right amount of stress or anxiety you actually perform at your highest levels too little stress, not enough performance, too much stress. And it starts dipping into distress.
00:40:16.560 --> 00:40:17.490 Mira Brancu: So
00:40:17.560 --> 00:40:31.679 Mira Brancu: once you're in distress, that's a good time to look inwardly like Rebecca mentioned. And because it's when you actually feel pain, you actually feel sadness. Anger
00:40:32.546 --> 00:40:36.480 Mira Brancu: physical exhaustion, lack of sleep.
00:40:36.851 --> 00:40:45.879 Mira Brancu: Overwhelm all of the sort of like uncomfortable or painful feelings. And it's your body saying you're not paying attention. You're going too far. Please
00:40:46.130 --> 00:40:48.919 Mira Brancu: pay attention to us. We need you right now.
00:40:49.020 --> 00:41:06.220 Mira Brancu: and that's probably when Rebecca was like I need to recalibrate. Let me slow down and think about what I need to adjust, and my dials if you don't pay attention to your body screaming at you when it's in distress, when you actually can feel the pain. Then you move into impairment.
00:41:07.200 --> 00:41:22.779 Mira Brancu: and impairment is when you don't see it anymore, because it's gone too far and everybody else sees it in you because you're snapping at people. You're angry at people you're not showing up for work. You're calling in sick. Your body is like
00:41:23.542 --> 00:41:44.199 Mira Brancu: more tired than usual. And everybody's like, what's up with you. And you're like, what do you mean? Because you're not seeing it in yourself anymore? And at that point it's harder to work your way backwards or get help. So it is knowing yourself well enough to pay attention to those distress signals.
00:41:44.677 --> 00:41:49.379 Mira Brancu: So that you can know what your body needs to recalibrate.
00:41:49.900 --> 00:41:55.059 Mira Brancu: So now, my next question for you, Rebecca, based on that, is
00:41:55.497 --> 00:42:09.000 Mira Brancu: when you recalibrate, and you have to sort of like, slow down or step off the gas pedal, or even remove something that is, you're passionate about that you really really wanted to do.
00:42:09.350 --> 00:42:10.890 Mira Brancu: Do you ever feel
00:42:11.983 --> 00:42:14.849 Mira Brancu: guilty, or frustrated, or regret?
00:42:14.910 --> 00:42:17.600 Mira Brancu: And if so, what do you do with that stuff?
00:42:18.750 --> 00:42:21.467 Rebekah Miel: That's a great question, too. I
00:42:23.180 --> 00:42:24.620 Rebekah Miel: I used to.
00:42:25.010 --> 00:42:27.219 Rebekah Miel: but I have seen
00:42:28.130 --> 00:42:46.659 Rebekah Miel: that in order for me to do impact, I have to step off. I have to step back. Otherwise it's gonna create harm. Like to feel like I needed to show up in all the places for everybody, all the time, or like. I really don't like it when people are mad at me or disappointed in me. So I just need to just keep going and keep doing this thing.
00:42:47.100 --> 00:42:48.879 Rebekah Miel: and it's actually
00:42:49.130 --> 00:42:52.030 Rebekah Miel: when I've stepped off, it has. It's been
00:42:52.380 --> 00:42:58.600 Rebekah Miel: somebody else has filled that space or we found a solution. It hasn't. Nothing has stopped. So
00:42:58.710 --> 00:43:02.719 Rebekah Miel: I used to feel guilty about it, and I now
00:43:03.290 --> 00:43:04.650 Rebekah Miel: feel
00:43:06.930 --> 00:43:08.090 Rebekah Miel: like it is.
00:43:08.680 --> 00:43:20.229 Rebekah Miel: if if I'm coming from a place of making a decision that this is needs to be corrected for whatever reason. And if I'm thinking about like how to create long term sustainability, then I have to frame it as like
00:43:20.300 --> 00:43:24.390 Rebekah Miel: not a failure, but a decision in
00:43:26.640 --> 00:43:29.739 Rebekah Miel: probably like the word resilience. That's 1 of my least favorite words.
00:43:29.740 --> 00:43:30.080 Mira Brancu: Men.
00:43:30.080 --> 00:43:32.313 Rebekah Miel: It is a choice to
00:43:33.640 --> 00:43:51.660 Rebekah Miel: continue to be, to be resilient, and to find, to, to sort of take ownership over like I'm not the right person for this right now. I can't. I can't do all of this. I can't solve everything. I need a break. I need to take care of myself in order to keep taking care of others. So
00:43:51.990 --> 00:43:57.100 Rebekah Miel: I used to feel really guilty about it. I don't anymore. It has taken a really long time to be okay with that, because.
00:43:57.100 --> 00:43:57.610 Mira Brancu: Yeah.
00:43:57.610 --> 00:44:02.250 Rebekah Miel: You know, I wanna I wanna help everybody who
00:44:02.550 --> 00:44:06.434 Rebekah Miel: asks us to. And it's just not possible.
00:44:07.790 --> 00:44:09.640 Rebekah Miel: it's not sustainable.
00:44:09.790 --> 00:44:19.079 Rebekah Miel: It's not a good when you were talking about the ripples, too. It's not a good example to just keep burning out. And for you know.
00:44:19.170 --> 00:44:23.250 Rebekah Miel: my kids, my family, my community. I have to be able to be like.
00:44:23.540 --> 00:44:28.289 Rebekah Miel: I have reached a point. Maybe even I was wrong. And I now have to
00:44:28.710 --> 00:44:30.940 Rebekah Miel: step back and
00:44:31.080 --> 00:44:33.269 Rebekah Miel: be okay, with that decision, too.
00:44:33.270 --> 00:44:34.210 Mira Brancu: Hmm!
00:44:34.860 --> 00:44:47.200 Mira Brancu: I have some thoughts about that. I love where we're going with this, but we're reaching an ad break. So we're going to take this quick ad break. You're listening to the hard skills with me, Dr. Mirabranku and our guest, Rebecca Meal, and we'll be right back in just a moment.
00:46:52.550 --> 00:46:58.350 Mira Brancu: Welcome back to the hard skills with me, Dr. Mira Branco and our guest today, Rebecca Meal.
00:46:58.880 --> 00:47:05.889 Mira Brancu: Rebecca, where we left off. I'm just loving where this conversation is going, because where we left off is just
00:47:06.480 --> 00:47:08.550 Mira Brancu: us talking about
00:47:08.840 --> 00:47:10.540 Mira Brancu: working through
00:47:11.040 --> 00:47:14.280 Mira Brancu: when we have to, you know. Take a step off
00:47:14.450 --> 00:47:17.790 Mira Brancu: the gas pedal. Let go of some things.
00:47:18.556 --> 00:47:25.960 Mira Brancu: even backtrack and be okay, not feeling guilty, not regretting the decision.
00:47:26.523 --> 00:47:31.889 Mira Brancu: And how hard that can be for so many of us to just accept
00:47:31.930 --> 00:47:34.980 Mira Brancu: ourselves or accept the situation
00:47:35.000 --> 00:47:40.389 Mira Brancu: and know that is not necessarily a bad thing or not not feel guilty about it right?
00:47:40.867 --> 00:47:45.920 Mira Brancu: And it takes a while to get to that point, because so many people depend on us
00:47:46.090 --> 00:47:50.250 Mira Brancu: in our personal lives as well as in our professional lives, and
00:47:50.530 --> 00:47:52.059 Mira Brancu: they might be disappointed.
00:47:52.440 --> 00:48:01.530 Mira Brancu: And that's hard to deal with when they're disappointed. And you've tried so hard to think about their feelings and their needs, and be there for other people.
00:48:01.590 --> 00:48:04.160 Mira Brancu: especially as somebody who is
00:48:04.530 --> 00:48:07.619 Mira Brancu: driven by making a difference, making a social impact.
00:48:07.650 --> 00:48:19.200 Mira Brancu: You know. We we don't want our decisions to negatively impact people. Obviously right? But it. It just makes me think a lot about how there's the company.
00:48:19.470 --> 00:48:20.520 Mira Brancu: And it's
00:48:20.820 --> 00:48:22.449 Mira Brancu: sort of cause.
00:48:22.880 --> 00:48:34.840 Mira Brancu: Whatever that cause is right, it might be something that's just like really important to us. And that, we added later, after the company was built it could be. The company was literally built on that
00:48:34.890 --> 00:48:36.619 Mira Brancu: one premise and focus.
00:48:36.800 --> 00:48:38.749 Mira Brancu: But then there's like the
00:48:40.450 --> 00:48:41.920 Mira Brancu: people who lead
00:48:42.200 --> 00:48:45.669 Mira Brancu: that company. The owners of the company, the leaders of the company.
00:48:46.130 --> 00:48:49.040 Mira Brancu: And when you were talking I was thinking
00:48:49.080 --> 00:48:50.740 Mira Brancu: a lot of what I think
00:48:50.980 --> 00:48:52.690 Mira Brancu: about is
00:48:53.816 --> 00:48:55.189 Mira Brancu: how I'm
00:48:55.860 --> 00:48:57.619 Mira Brancu: showing up in the world
00:48:58.040 --> 00:49:01.170 Mira Brancu: as the owner of a company, a public figure.
00:49:01.390 --> 00:49:09.104 Mira Brancu: whether I like it or not, you know I am still a public figure, and people still look at me and like evaluate what I'm doing. Right?
00:49:10.180 --> 00:49:11.240 Mira Brancu: I'm
00:49:11.420 --> 00:49:20.610 Mira Brancu: you know, and and it's the same like impact on my family. I'm not a public figure there, but they still look to me and see what I do and make decisions about that.
00:49:20.720 --> 00:49:24.049 Mira Brancu: And we don't talk a lot about
00:49:24.350 --> 00:49:30.800 Mira Brancu: how I mean, I do. But personal development is leadership, development, leadership, development is personal development. There's there's
00:49:31.040 --> 00:49:31.710 Mira Brancu: the
00:49:31.940 --> 00:49:39.199 Mira Brancu: part of the company that is you and how you show up in the world and what that means. So I'm just curious, like your thoughts on
00:49:40.160 --> 00:49:46.090 Mira Brancu: the maybe the positive impact that you make when you make hard decisions, like letting go
00:49:46.310 --> 00:49:47.750 Mira Brancu: or accepting
00:49:47.830 --> 00:49:48.910 Mira Brancu: or
00:49:48.950 --> 00:49:51.470 Mira Brancu: being okay with not doing everything
00:49:51.580 --> 00:49:53.619 Mira Brancu: like what messages
00:49:53.870 --> 00:49:55.060 Mira Brancu: might be
00:49:55.150 --> 00:49:59.450 Mira Brancu: unexpected. That might be positively changing the world. When you make those decisions.
00:50:00.720 --> 00:50:10.549 Rebekah Miel: Yeah, I so I think in 2,017, ish I I did a school lunch debt pay down in Durham, where
00:50:10.580 --> 00:50:13.407 Rebekah Miel: I won't describe all school lunch debt, but I was
00:50:13.950 --> 00:50:15.220 Rebekah Miel: trying to
00:50:15.730 --> 00:50:33.860 Rebekah Miel: pay down the county school lunch debt, which meant it was a lot of money. I think it was at that point like $120,000 at the beginning of the year, and I was pushing really hard to meet that gap so that kids could have access to lunch again and weren't restricted from extracurricular activities. And I
00:50:34.140 --> 00:50:54.130 Rebekah Miel: that was 1 point where I tipped the scale so far into being like this is, it was really important to me. It was important to me, for a very specific reason. I needed to be able to reach this goal by the holidays. And then I realized that I had just had gone past that point. Would you say in burnout when you go to was the final step.
00:50:54.130 --> 00:50:55.110 Mira Brancu: Impairment.
00:50:55.240 --> 00:51:00.529 Rebekah Miel: Impairment. I was like snappy at everybody I was like so focused on this goal.
00:51:00.570 --> 00:51:07.710 Rebekah Miel: And then that is one time when I felt like, oh, if if I set back, I feel like a total failure. So
00:51:07.930 --> 00:51:11.960 Rebekah Miel: I was just really transparent and took accountability and
00:51:12.320 --> 00:51:16.309 Rebekah Miel: communicated about it, and said, you know, in order, for.
00:51:17.230 --> 00:51:22.790 Rebekah Miel: like I'm not stepping back because this is not important to me. I'm like we might not reach the school. But
00:51:23.070 --> 00:51:30.493 Rebekah Miel: we look at all this impact that we've made to this point, and the ripples that it will have like before we start doing that
00:51:30.980 --> 00:51:42.340 Rebekah Miel: Before we started talking about this. I didn't hear about lunch, Dad, as much, and I was able to just be more vocal about what, how, what that was, how that was impacting students. So being able to
00:51:43.590 --> 00:51:46.209 Rebekah Miel: take that step back and
00:51:47.590 --> 00:51:49.319 Rebekah Miel: be clear.
00:51:49.540 --> 00:52:06.782 Rebekah Miel: I got more feedback from being like, Hey, this is hard. And I'm taking a step back, I mean not more feedback, more like reassurance, and people saying like, Thank you so much for sharing that than being like, oh, I pushed really hard, and I reached the goal. But talking about all that messy middle stuff where it's like
00:52:07.140 --> 00:52:18.937 Rebekah Miel: I tried really hard to do this thing, and it didn't work, and I think when I am clear about both of those things like this is all the hard work that goes into it. And then this is
00:52:19.730 --> 00:52:25.538 Rebekah Miel: Would it have like? How I get to a point where I need? No, I need to step back. I think that is actually
00:52:26.880 --> 00:52:35.620 Rebekah Miel: sometimes more valuable than reaching the goal, because, you know, especially in the age of social media, we see all of the shiny things, and
00:52:36.230 --> 00:52:40.630 Rebekah Miel: I think, being accountable and transparent, and like
00:52:41.060 --> 00:52:46.069 Rebekah Miel: authentic about all the pieces that go into it like I can just say, you know, I've won this
00:52:46.360 --> 00:52:55.249 Rebekah Miel: recognition from B core, or whatever. But also being like this is why it was hard to get there. And these are like the actual steps. I think, that is in service of like
00:52:56.480 --> 00:53:05.130 Rebekah Miel: anybody in the impact space. All of us doing this work, all of us who want to make a difference like being able to continue to do this work because we're not doing it alone.
00:53:05.790 --> 00:53:06.400 Mira Brancu: Yeah.
00:53:07.170 --> 00:53:10.370 Mira Brancu: I'm really, yeah. I'm I'm letting it
00:53:10.860 --> 00:53:12.779 Mira Brancu: just soak in
00:53:14.870 --> 00:53:15.890 Mira Brancu: that
00:53:17.930 --> 00:53:18.850 Mira Brancu: it's
00:53:19.950 --> 00:53:23.600 Mira Brancu: don't let the metric of the impact
00:53:23.690 --> 00:53:30.716 Mira Brancu: be the enemy of the impact. Because right like you're turning, then you're then you're just
00:53:31.180 --> 00:53:35.160 Mira Brancu: turning it into another productivity thing instead of like evaluating
00:53:35.180 --> 00:53:36.429 Mira Brancu: what was the
00:53:36.510 --> 00:53:39.959 Mira Brancu: initial focus and goal. And let's not take it away.
00:53:40.090 --> 00:53:41.510 Mira Brancu: Take away from that
00:53:42.300 --> 00:53:55.689 Mira Brancu: the other thing that I'm pulling out of this. And you you shared this quote with me that I'm I'm connecting to what you just said that I'd love to unpack a little bit. It's not about the size of the impact I make.
00:53:55.960 --> 00:53:57.140 Mira Brancu: but the depth
00:53:57.380 --> 00:53:58.929 Mira Brancu: and authenticity
00:53:59.120 --> 00:54:00.010 Mira Brancu: of it.
00:54:00.540 --> 00:54:02.829 Mira Brancu: Say more about that. Let's close out on that one.
00:54:03.030 --> 00:54:23.436 Rebekah Miel: Okay, that's a good one to close out on. I. So yeah, I I think so we go back to school lunch, dad, or any of the other fundraising things that we did. It's not. Did I raise a million or 2 million, or like whatever the huge number is, I'm not reaching a metric because those metrics can always move. But it is
00:54:24.180 --> 00:54:26.450 Rebekah Miel: Do I know that?
00:54:28.540 --> 00:54:38.362 Rebekah Miel: My neighbor, who was impacted by a explosion in downtown Durham. Do I know that they have rent for the next month? Do I know that
00:54:39.420 --> 00:54:44.506 Rebekah Miel: groceries are covered? Do I know that we're finding a way to
00:54:46.700 --> 00:54:53.860 Rebekah Miel: to create impact in our own community through whatever work that we're doing. Is that actually
00:54:54.690 --> 00:55:04.180 Rebekah Miel: true to where we set out? Like, if we bring it full circle to the beginning, like, is it true to my? Is is it my being authentic to my values in the work that I do, instead of
00:55:05.110 --> 00:55:24.189 Rebekah Miel: this other idea of scaling. I think what you said about those ripples like that's thinking about scaling in a different way, like you don't have to be responsible as yourself, as one person or one business for all of the scale or all of the impact. But where you are and what you do, and what your like unique skills are, how are you
00:55:24.230 --> 00:55:29.190 Rebekah Miel: authentically showing up, listening and creating impact in your 500 square feet?
00:55:30.150 --> 00:55:31.680 Mira Brancu: Beautiful, beautiful.
00:55:31.800 --> 00:55:46.720 Mira Brancu: Now, everybody. If you want to find out more about Rebecca Meal, you can go to meal creative, MIEL creative.com. If you're watching right now on the recording or live.
00:55:46.790 --> 00:55:59.439 Mira Brancu: This is her beautifully designed, of course, website. You can see that, or you can check it out later. So everyone, what did you take away from today?
00:55:59.610 --> 00:56:03.290 Mira Brancu: And more importantly, what is one small change
00:56:03.450 --> 00:56:14.539 Mira Brancu: you can implement this week based on what you learned from Rebecca. Share it with us on Linkedin at Mirabranku, or talk radio Nyc. Or find Rebecca Meal online as well.
00:56:14.590 --> 00:56:26.940 Mira Brancu: So we could cheer you on. We're also on Facebook and Instagram, Twitter, twitch, apple spot, apple, spotify Amazon podcasts all over the place, help us increase our visibility, reach and impact by leaving a review.
00:56:27.260 --> 00:56:39.080 Mira Brancu: The stuff we talk about on this show is part of our research based strategic leadership, pathway, roadmap. And we also teach it in our telescope leadership, Leadership Academy and other socially conscious
00:56:39.110 --> 00:56:46.050 Mira Brancu: programming for leaders in disrupted learning and innovation industries. You can go to Gotowerscope Com to learn more.
00:56:46.400 --> 00:56:49.120 Mira Brancu: Thank you to Talkradio, dot Nyc. For hosting.
00:56:49.140 --> 00:56:52.410 Mira Brancu: I'm Dr. Mirabranku, your host of the Hard Skills show.
00:56:52.440 --> 00:56:55.770 Mira Brancu: Thank you. Rebecca, really appreciate that you joined us today.
00:56:56.160 --> 00:57:02.419 Rebekah Miel: Yeah, thank you so much. I, yeah, I appreciate this conversation, and also having the time and space to think about this, too.
00:57:02.590 --> 00:57:10.640 Mira Brancu: Absolutely. It was a great, deep conversation. Hopefully. You all got something out of it. Have a great rest of your day wherever you're tuning in from bye. Everybody.
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