Stop Shoulding All Over Yourself
We all deserve a life of joy and fulfillment, but for many of us that joy feels elusive. We've checked off all the boxes and done all the the things that the blueprint of life says should make us happy, and yet - no joy. Turns out, being happy isn't about following society's blueprint, but about creating our own blueprint for what we want out of our lives and taking action to make that happen. For us to embrace that opportunity, we first have to let go of other people prescriptions for our life choices, and build trust in our own inner compasses. That journey was hard and long for me, but it doesn't have to be. Join me as we explore and build an exciting future based on what YOU want, and how YOU feel inside, unlock a life of joy and fulfillment, and release yourself of the guilt of not enough.
Stop Shoulding All Over Yourself
Harnessing the Power of Local Networks: The Inspiring Journey of Jen Maseda and She's Local
Ever wondered how to transform a setback into a force for change? Our latest conversation with Jen Maseda, the woman behind She's Local, is proof that passion can fuel reinvention. She's Local is all about creating hyperlocal experiences, fostering connections between women in the same communities through affordable and relevant conferences. Jen opens up about her own journey, turning job loss into an opportunity to create this empowering platform.
During our conversation, we discuss the first hyper-local conference, Metro West, and Jen shares her commitment to curate experiences that empower women. We delve into the shift in energy when attendees transform from mere spectators to ardent supporters of the speakers, emphasizing the potential impact of such setups. We also explore the challenges and rewards of organizing such events and the power of resilience in this journey.
The episode rounds off with an enlightening discourse on brand control, networking, and mission-driven risk-taking. We reflect on the challenges of maintaining control while scaling a brand, the perks of local networking, and the audacity required to be a purpose-driven risk-taker. We even touch on how anger can serve as a potent motivator and the struggles of maintaining control as a business scales up. So tune into this power-packed episode, and get ready to be inspired as we explore the entrepreneurial journey through the lens of this inspiring community creator, Jen Maseda.
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🎵 Thank you to Karacter for allowing me to use Telepathy (2005) in my intro.
This is one of my favorite albums of all time.
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Hello.
Speaker 2:Vanessa, thanks for having me. I'm so excited to have you here, and the reason why is because you run an organization that is very it is like one of the most brilliant organizations I have ever ever sort of seen. In that you really seem to have cracked the code about how to create like local relationships for people. So I actually just would love to, if you just start by explaining a little bit about what she's local is and where it started.
Speaker 1:Sure, so she's local is the organization that powers local conferences and experiences for women in a way that is affordable, relevant and relatable, and I think that's the nut that you're talking about. Is that affordability piece. You know there are a lot of opportunities Well, I would say a lot. It's been growing over the last eight years that we've been in existence, where there are more opportunities for women to come together. Unfortunately, not everyone can afford those opportunities, and that's really the space and the place where we show up and make sure that women have this opportunity that can fit into their budget. So you know, we keep it at $52 to attend a full day conference, but it is.
Speaker 1:It is our joy to be able to do so much more than just a full day conference. So you know the connections that women make last over the course of the year, and then women come together once again to celebrate each other and learn from each other. We started with one conference in the Metro West community, in which I live in Massachusetts, and we have expanded now to eight different communities across the United States, six of which are in Massachusetts, making sure that we create these chapters in a place where women can access them, not just by affordability but also by location, really bringing those women together within each of those communities to create something that's kind of magical. You know, we keep building these chapters and people keep coming, which I'm so grateful for.
Speaker 2:It's true, it's true. So I attended my first one, so my first one last year, and I like, literally within two seconds, I'm like, oh my God. So we had like, we had the speaker, so we had our opening speaker was that was Nancy Metoff, who was amazing loved her.
Speaker 2:And then immediately went and bought her book and I've actually given away like every copy I have, so I actually think I've done like six copies. I need to buy like a seventh one now. And then I hired a coach from Maria Melagros. She was the second keynote speaker and I hired her Like I messaged her and was like hey, I really want to work with you, awesome. And the thing about it was like that we were. I was able to just do something like immediately and be like yeah, exactly, it's just because they should like right down the street, right. So I'm curious like was that? Did that factor into your hyperlocalness as you were figuring this out?
Speaker 1:Yes, so the uniqueness of the chapters that we create and the experiences that we create is that women are right in your own community. You know, we started with Metro West. In our first year we had 450 people that attended. We knew we'd really touched on something special. We then did it a second year. We sold out at 650 people, with 100 on a wait list, and they were coming from all over New England. But the model is such that it's critical that women who live in that community are highlighted and connected in order to be friends, referral sources, mentors, coaches. As you say, the model works because each local community stays in that local community, highlighting the women that are living similar lives.
Speaker 2:That is like. So I have to ask because you know, having been in marketing in so many years, the thing that everybody always goes with is we got to get bigger, we got to go bigger, we got to go national, we got to go bigger. And I figured out after a while that meashing down is where it's at. But I had to stub my toe a lot. I'm curious to know did you start out with it being this hyper focused or did like? And then I guess two questions is do you get people being like, oh my God, you should go bigger? And how do you respond to that? Because you must get some of that.
Speaker 1:All the time. Yeah, you should have a different price point. You could really charge more because it's so high quality. Yes, we get all of that all the time. But the secret sauce is well, let me back up and say that you know I had been let go in 2016 from a job that I thought I was going to retire in.
Speaker 1:It was a real kick in the gut for me and I didn't know where I was going to go from there. What I did know was I was never going to work for a man again, number one and two, that I was always going to be doing something that really fueled my soul in working for women, in service of women and girls and families. So, with that knowledge, I was given a ticket to a very large conference within Boston and it was 11,000 people. For somebody who shy is overwhelming for me. Maybe I saw five people that I knew.
Speaker 1:Over the course of the day, I was worried about getting home to my family. I would not have afforded that large price point for myself, so I was very fortunate that somebody gave it to me. But as I looked around, I wondered people in my same position having just lost a job, not knowing where the journey was going to take me, how I was going to support my family. Where were those people and what were the opportunities that they needed? Because maybe they needed those opportunities most of all out of all of us. And so I sat in a breakout room. I saw somebody from the community in which I live and I thought why don't I drive all this way, potentially having spent $35 parking Well, definitely spent that but potentially having spent this very large ticket that other people just would not afford for themselves. And I thought where are the local platforms for women to highlight, within their own local community, the amazing women that I knew already existed in that community? Being from the community of Metro West, I've met so many women who are not clamoring to stand on stages but yet have these incredible stories of resilience and survival that we need to hear from.
Speaker 1:And so that's how Metro West started, and it's been a real challenge for folks to understand that making this local, small personal connection I mean small. 300, 350 is not really that small, but considering that we went all the way up to 650, which we'll never do again it is the conversations that you can have on that personal level, the phone calls that you can make to the women who are already in your community, that'll have coffee with you, that will support you through whatever your journey is. That's a secret sauce and although we need the larger, inspiring, globally recognized, to see what's ahead and what's possible for ourselves. Yeah, you know I get goosebumps when I hear from Oprah and you know I just globally recognize well Oprah. Obviously everybody gets goosebumps. You know there are so many of the same people we're seeing on this large stage. There are thousands of women in the local community who are getting it done that we can really learn from.
Speaker 2:You know, I really I love that. What you said about, like the local community, because you mentioned when we were. So I'm on the board, full disclosure, everyone. I'm on the board for the South Shore Conference for Women and one of the things that Jen gave me all the list of things to say on the podcast no, she didn't, she didn't, I'm totally kidding. I'm totally kidding, no, but I'm on the board.
Speaker 2:And one of the things that was very interesting for me, as we were talking about speakers and things like that, is that you were really adamant about and like clear on your vision about making sure that we were giving every, that everyone had an opportunity to speak and that we weren't simply grabbing the same faces over and over again, which is again another departure from typical conferences where you see the same people sort of speaking. They'll come back year after year after year. And I'm curious, have you like? One of the things that that I've heard people say in some of these organizations is that there's no, we can't find new people or we're not able to find new speakers, but you've clearly managed to do that over the course of the last several years. So I am curious, how does? Is the word getting out for speakers based off of the members that are currently there? Do you have a really great marketing system Like, how do you feel like this engine goes to get those people who typically would not submit? It's?
Speaker 1:all word of mouth and it has to maintain. It has to be that way, this grassroots effort of connecting with other women. You know I've had conversations, even in Metro West. I continue to have conversations with women that have never heard of us, that have never heard of she's. That's eight years within Metro West and people still five years in the South Shore. You know, going into three years in Central Mass and Pioneer Valley, people still have not heard about us. Whether they're transient and they're moving into the, you know they just moved to a new community or they've been established for 20 years within that community and still are just learning about us. It is the experiences that people share because they've attended and they know the energy and the space is something that everyone should participate in. Or they are committed to supporting other women. And you know you mentioned the board and that you're part of a board, you are a part of an organization that is in service of other women and that is very unique.
Speaker 1:I feel as though some of the other and I don't want to compare ourselves every all of these networking opportunities and conferences. They're all necessary for the entire, the entire survival and advancement of women within a local community. We are just one aspect of that. I get that. I strongly believe that we're an opportunity, an affordable opportunity for another opportunity for women to come together. But what is really critical is that we know we're in service to others rather than in service to ourselves or a machine that is trying to, that is trying to get money from women, and that's not our point. And it's a very strong distinction between us and those that are trying to survive on the backs of women's success. That is not us and that's what makes us different.
Speaker 2:I was actually just talking to somebody about that, about people who succeed on the backs of other people, and I went on a whole. I went on a whole thing on that one. I'm curious, though, because, like you, have a vision, right, your vision and already in this conversation, you highlighted some key things that typically go against the grain. That, and I would argue that it's a very like one of my one of the earlier podcasts. We had a mattressence oh God, I'm not going to say the word right a mattressence coach, and she works with mothers and really and lactating mothers, and really is all about like community and women's community and how we evolved over the last several millennia to have a more masculine approach to business and things like that, whereas women tend to be more community focused in terms of how we grow, which I thought was like super interesting, but the world tends to be very male centered in many ways, and so I'm actually really curious.
Speaker 2:The podcast is called Stop Shitting All Over Yourself. So while you're doing this, you've got your vision, you're trying to and you believe in this. This is early on in the day. What were some of the things that people said to you that made you feel like I know this is a good thing, but these people are making me doubt myself.
Speaker 1:Man, that happens all the time I've got eight years Even now, oh my.
Speaker 2:God, I'm going to cry, I'm so angry. Yes, sorry, tell me more.
Speaker 1:No, but it's it. Here's the thing that I knew I wanted to do when I left my previous position that I had been at for such a long time. I knew I didn't want to care about what anybody said. So when we started Metro West, there was a large organization that said hey, we need to have lunch, I really need to talk to you. So the president of this organization.
Speaker 1:I went and I sat down with him and he said you know, jen, you didn't ask for permission to create this conference. And I said red face, because I you know me, vanessa, when I, when I feel as though I'm embarrassed, I'm ashamed, but I'm also angry as hell. Red faced, I said there's never a time that I will ask for permission for creating something that will change people's lives. And and this tells me more about who you are than who I am who my, what my brand is, what my vision is, what my mission is I'm not derailed from that mission because I just don't give a shit. Other people are trying to create out of it, you know, and there, and still to to this day, there are people that want to create something that is to their benefit. And I get it.
Speaker 1:We, you know we're teaching women hey, ask for, ask for what you you're worth. And we don't pay anybody for stepping on our stage other than the, the, the background publicity that we work really hard to give to everybody that is donating their time. We don't pay our keynotes. We don't pay our panelists. You really have to be in service to women to be a part of of our events and our mission. And, and to this day, we'll still have people who, who don't believe in that and they just are not a part of it. And that's okay, because there are thousands of women who do want to be a part of it.
Speaker 1:And you know, sometimes it gets a little hairy when we're trying to find keynotes, and keynotes have to be experienced in engaging 300, 400 women. So typically you know they get compensated for for that role. That's their business. So, granted, that is, that is what they do. And I think what, what, what? People who, um, people who typically get paid but then are coming in and donating. What they love about it is that you're not walking into a room where people don't care what you have to say that you're just a hired gun, you're a hired hand and you're just there to share something because the organization or the business just wants to check off a box.
Speaker 1:let's say You're really in a room of 300 women who can't wait to celebrate you. They have either paid $52 to attend, which is a lot out of a woman's budget, and in some cases they're given a ticket and they're thrilled to be there. So everybody shows up and everybody celebrates you and that's your new following. You've got 300 new best friends, as opposed to people who are like, yeah, that made sense, maybe I'll buy the book, maybe I won't. Now you have a fan club, and that's the difference between the energy in the room for us and for other opportunities out there.
Speaker 2:I love that Now you have a fan club. You know it's like and it's true, because I'll tell you people. I was on the panel last year and people recognize me in town now and you know and like and it's and over time, because my next phase of life is going to be speaking more, speaking right, and so it's like all right, I'm going to get to know people because I want to be hyper local, and that's one of the reasons why last year I ostensibly went to the South Shore Conference, but what ended up happening was, I think I think I was like crazy stocked Jen and was like you, not not you Jen, the other Jen to be like. You actually introduced me to Jen. I'm like where's Jen? Where's Jen? I want to be a part of this. That's awesome. I'm curious, though, because I got to say you're like, so organized. So I just have to tell anyone who's listening she's so organized. I don't know if it's like you're only organized Like. That's not true.
Speaker 1:Well, you up there, I'm glad it appears that way.
Speaker 2:So I'm actually curious. So one of the things that I respect a lot about how the organization is run is that you have a consistent pattern that you rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. And I noticed that earlier on and I had some like I was like, oh, I'll suggest this, I'll suggest that. And then, as I started to watch you do it, I realized that the reason why you can do it this way is because there's very little variation in terms of the structure within each individual space, even though the people might be different in the topics. And so I'm, and the reason why I'm bringing this up is because I think you've made something very duplicatable right. And so, as this has grown, how involved, like, how involved are you as it starts to grow? Like, do you have people who help you out? Like in, like kind of help run the other ones? Like, do you sleep?
Speaker 1:That's two different questions. So I don't sleep. I think I'm going into perimenopause and that and I'm up, I'll read and that'll put me to sleep, or I'll just sit there thinking about what I should be doing for the next day. So I don't. I'm hoping that that will last forever, but I'm okay with it because I got a lot of. I got a lot of shit to do.
Speaker 1:But you know, in working in corporate environments, in working in nonprofit environments, for as long as I have, I know that once you step out and release the most important aspects of your business, the business then loses sight of its mission and it gets a little, it gets diluted. So, do I have help you, the rest of the board in the South Shore? I've got, you know, between 15 and 20 women in each of the different chapters where we're serving local women. I work with volunteers and I love doing that. Do I need help?
Speaker 1:We've gotten to almost a tipping point now with a chapter that you helped us develop, With a wonderful team out in Kansas City, Missouri, Kansas City, Kansas. We're so excited about a Midwest chapter. You know there will be a time where I will need to hire folks who are as committed as I am. You know, how do you that's what I'm learning now how do you let go and how do you ensure that somebody believes as strongly as you do and as committed as you do to the work that you have given your life to? Yeah, I'm at it. I'm at that precipant precipance, you know.
Speaker 2:I think you're not alone. A lot of my listeners are small business owners or have gone off on their own to do something, and we run upon that same thing where you get to a point where, in order for you to scale up, you need to have more people to do it. But if you do that, then you really run the risk of your brand now being out of your control. Like, how do you navigate that space? Yeah, wow, I wish I had some words for wisdom, words of wisdom for you on that one.
Speaker 2:But I think you know, I think for me, what I ended up doing was I actually ended up like I went.
Speaker 2:I ended up going to a completely different direction and retreating in and now doing the podcast and doing the other things that I do, because I realized that what I was trying to do was very different and so I was like all right, you know what I'm going to do my podcast, I'm going to do my TV show, I'm going to do that kind of thing and then leverage the conference and my networking and all of those things to get that exposure for the message.
Speaker 2:Because, exactly what you said, you run into that problem, I think, that with you, especially because it's already growing. Now anyone who's listening who is interested in this you're going to need to reach out to Jen Maseda and learn about it, or you can reach out to me and I'll tell you how much I love it and then you can talk to Jen. So I'm curious for you because you have done a lot of networking, because I imagine that when you went to that conference many years ago, you're meeting, that you see a couple people and now you're starting to network and build your relationships. One of the things that my listeners all struggle with and you mentioned you were shy is they're technically typically introverts, maybe neurodivergent, but definitely I'm nervous, I'm anxious, I'm scared. How do you feel? Building a local network helps to create more of security around those feelings so that you feel more confident going out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was going to say I really dislike networking, but I understand the need for it and it's much easier when I know the impact of the work that I do, that I can talk about it and engage other women in it. I would say that getting involved in she's Local and I tell each of our board this, whether they are extroverts or introverts the role of the board is to advocate and serve women within their local community and encourage them to be panelists, to be keynotes, to get engaged in a way that will benefit them. And taking the card of she's Local, which is just the mission of each one of these different local conferences, for instance, the South Shore Conference, taking that out of your back pocket as something that can open a conversation and be of value to something else. So we all men have it a little bit different, where they can get together and maybe I'm being a generalist here but they can get together and they can talk about sports.
Speaker 1:You can literally walk up to any man at any table or any bar or any sporting event or anything and say whether they watch sports or not because I have a thank God a man who's not interested in watching sports but you can walk up and say, hey, how about those red socks? Or how about right and right there they have an immediate commonality. Well, with she's Local. You see a woman. You can walk up to her and say, hey, have you ever heard of the South Shore Conference for Women or the Metro West Conference for Women? Because I wonder if you have a story to share and that gives you the opportunity for immediate commonality. And then that sort of bridges the next phase of your conversation, where you're then talking about the rest of your lives that you're passionate about and important, so having something that you believe in so strongly that you you know I haven't met a woman that I have said that to that says, oh no, that's not for me.
Speaker 2:It's true.
Speaker 1:It's always. It's always for you. Every one of us has a journey to share that we can all learn from. Every life has value, and when somebody answers your life, you are going to learn something from them, and that's our mission.
Speaker 2:I love that. No wonder I love this conference so much and if you're actually so right. So I went to Provincetown and a lot of us in P-town I'm like, you know, every place I went into I was like, oh, are you coming to the South Shore Conference, woman? And you know, some said yes, some said no, and the ones that said no, some of them had even heard about it. And so I was basically like, here, let's talk. And I was able.
Speaker 2:I made so many friends up and down the main street, just up and down the street, because it was like and it was all because of the South Shore Conference for Women that I just used as a connection. Yeah, and you know, I think that's actually interesting, right, because let's say, for example, I was still in marketing, right, and I go and I'm like a marketing coach or whatever, and I go into this store and I start talking to them and now I'm trying to like build that relationship with them because eventually one day I want to pitch to them. Right, let's just say there's no non-weird way to do that, right? Yeah, there's literally no non-weird way to do that.
Speaker 2:But, like you know, and one of the things my therapist and I talk about a lot is that that's also very transactional. And then I'm going in there and saying I want something from you, and now I'm talking. So that's weird just because it's not about the human, it's about what I can get from you, and what I feel like this has done is it kind of almost adds like a runway to any conversation where you start with the conference and then you'll see them at the conference or you'll build these relationships and maybe six to eight months down the line you get business or whatever. Yeah, but it's not transactional.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, absolutely, you hit it. You hit the nail on the head, absolutely. It's more of a how can I be in service to you, which I think really disorients people because there's so many. Well, you know, truly, people are oh my gosh, this is amazing. You're really trying to do something that's helpful for me in the long run, helping the audience that will be attending, because they'll hear that story, yeah, but essentially it is. We've created it as a gift of an opportunity to, because being in service gives you more in the long run than not doing so and having that transactional relationship, yeah.
Speaker 2:So, with all the things that you do right, because you do a lot and you're busy as hell how do you take care of yourself, like, how do you make sure you have time for yourself? Do you make time to take care of yourself? Or and no, this isn't me mothering you, I'm just actually curious, I know. So tell me more, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, I have forgiven myself not being great at a lot of things, Whether it's being on time to pick up my kids after school or at their activities, or whether it's, you know, showing up to date night in a way that I'm really present and not distracted. I'm okay with some weeks not taking as great care of myself and I think that's really the balance, because I don't balance life well, but I balance the forgiveness of missing things or missing opportunities well, which for me is is the best way that that I can work, because I'm pretty hard on myself. You know, for just me, I go three times a week to Zumba. I love to dance, so I do a virtual class. So I just go down to my basement, I jump online, do the virtual class. It kicks my butt, you know.
Speaker 1:I dance it out and then I move on with the rest of my day so that I schedule in every Monday, wednesday and Thursday to get that done. That's critical. I can feel it in my body, you know, when I don't do that, I can feel it in my mental state. The rest of it, I just have to be present for my family as my number one priority and then, you know, being present for the women that I serve is second to that and I'm not moving as fast as some chapters maybe would want or some locations maybe would want. But moving slowly and purposefully and rechecking whether you know whether my family is okay or whether I'm okay is just. It's just part of throwing things around and hoping that it'll balance themselves sometimes.
Speaker 2:I love what you said about going slowly, because I think that like that's another really very unhealthy message that we get a lot, you know, just in anyone who's running anything. It doesn't matter what you're doing, do it fast, do it quick, hurry up Hustle. It's like it's exhausting. I'm really curious about this, because breaking myself of that addiction was very, very hard to like constantly be doing. Did you have you always been measured or did you have to, like you know, did you just have a aha moment where you became, started to deliberately be more intentional?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would say multiple things probably happened to say that I needed to stop comparing myself to others. I actually don't go on social media as much as I probably should for my business because I get into that cycle of oh man, she just did a talk out in, you know, timbuktu and why aren't I?
Speaker 1:doing more of those kinds of things. Or you know she just traveled with her family to Spain. Why aren't I doing more of those things? I mean, it's like you know it's constant and it's fast and the quantity of it is really overwhelming, the amount of things people are showing you that they're doing. You know you don't know that the backstory, but essentially it looks like everything in their life is going so fantastic and you begin to say or at least I do that you know, why aren't I doing more? Why aren't I showing up more? Why aren't I doing more for my family? Or, you know, for my business?
Speaker 1:And it gets you nowhere, you know. It gets you in a place where then you can't do anything for them because you're so distraught over not being great that it begins to distract you from who you really should be and the time that you really should be spending and the time that you can't do and a lot to the things that are important to you. I think you know COVID really, the experience of COVID and having to shut things down again for a shy person, only having to get on Zoom, was a dream Me too.
Speaker 2:I was like man COVID was the best for me. I didn't have to leave the house.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, truly you know. And during COVID my dad was sick, was up here in Boston, could not visit him within the hospital setting. So there's a lot of tragedies to COVID. But it definitely reflected to me what it was that I really wanted to do, what I was going to accept in my days and what I was no longer going to accept and just not accept in the days that followed. Because you never know, life is short and I think age presents itself with a I just don't give a shit attitude. I'm hoping that I just crossed into 51 now and, man, I'm hoping that when I get into my 60s I'll be even more like oh, just go by your business, couldn't care less, I'll stop shaving.
Speaker 2:I already did. I hit 40 something and I was like, yep, I'm done. So I'm 47. I stopped shaving my life. The only time I actually show my legs are when they start to poke and I'm like, okay, this is really uncomfortable. But my wife's like, hey, that's pokey, I'm like I don't care.
Speaker 1:And it's great.
Speaker 2:I can't 50,. I'm like I'm going to care even less when I'm 50, and I'm like, oh my god, how little am I going to care when I'm 60?. I feel like I understand my grandmother so much more now I'm just like now I know you just didn't care. You're just like I don't give a shit.
Speaker 2:Does that matter? I think that what I'm finding is that we're getting younger and younger as we start to care less and less right. So I'm 40 something and I'm finding that there's 30 year olds who are starting to be like you know what I'm just going to. I appreciate the ephemerality of life. I wish that I had had that. I had the carefree-ness at that age, but I was also an idiot. So I feel like I wish I had some of my wisdom.
Speaker 1:Yes, I know, I totally agree, but I feel like you asked me about what he. How do you get this no care, mission, focused, really really driven attitude? And sometimes it's just you don't know any better, I really don't. I try to keep this attitude of I'm just going along, I've made lots of mistakes and I say dumb things that I don't mean and that you can never get back, and I hurt people's feelings, not on purpose, but just because I can't filter it fast enough from here to here. I really feel like having that sense of I'm not sure. I'm just going to try it and if it works, yeah, so be it. Somebody can tell me that I shouldn't be doing it, but why not just do it and take your time to do it and have that childlike approach of let's just see, because maybe it'll work?
Speaker 2:Maybe it'll be great. I love that childlike right. I feel like I was talking to someone the other day and I was saying I feel like my childlike imagination was just burnt out of me in my childhood and I feel like it's coming back now, just like you're saying. It's like oh yeah, no, let's just do it and see what happens. You're not super risk averse and I think that that's were you always risk tolerant. I think I grew into risk averse. I'm wondering as you got older, you got more like we only live once. Let's take a risk.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm not to the point where I would like to be, especially in business, taking risks on collaborations. I'm always, I always want to hold the work that we do here, because if I let pieces of it go, is that going to ruin it in some way or is somebody going to take something from us that we can't get back. So in that respect I don't think that I am so carefree. But I've always had this childlike sense of joy, even through some, some really tough, terrible choices that I made in my life. I still always felt like everything was eventually gonna be okay, and it might just be because I've got ADHD and I just can't remember what happened.
Speaker 1:If someone cheats you, when you just don't remember, you're like, oh yeah, okay, I know, but you know I will say for your audience, I want to be very clear that I'm extremely lucky to be able to have that. Who gives a fuck attitude? I know how lucky I am. You know I do this as volunteer work, so you know I've worked hard in my life to save money and support our family. I'm now working hard to prove a worth without that financial gain, and I'm very fortunate that I'm able to do that and to give so much to an organization that I believe so strongly in. Not everyone can do that and I get that and I want to be super clear that that you know people need to be focused on survival and and supporting their families, but try to remember that a mission focused job and a mission focused priority feeds your soul and I strongly believe that money follows that.
Speaker 2:I strongly believe that Dude you look like so freaking aligned, because that is when I? The reason why I shut down my business was because I realized I didn't want to charge people for that particular skill set anymore and I wanted to make my money doing my research, administration stuff, which is great and totally fine, and then and speaking. So those are the two ways I wanted to do it, but my mission I don't want to have anything, for the exact reason that you mentioned is that the work that I'm doing in this space is from the heart. It is a gift that was given to me from wherever and I want to pass it on in that way. And going back to what you were saying earlier, I'm gonna bring this back to Captain Assel with the asking for permission, where you know, when we were younger, we felt, maybe, like we had to ask for permission, and now it's like I think when you're mission driven, you can afford and mission driven and like, going back to what you're saying, it's an enormous privilege to have the opportunities to be able to take those risks, because some people cannot.
Speaker 2:Yes, I think that the importance is that the people with privilege in that way are able to say this is what I'm doing with this to like act, to say you know what you can do things with it. It's not always a bad thing. Like you have it, let's figure out how to share it with more people, rather than I have it. Let's just you know, hold on to it. So like you've got to create something so incredible because you never asked for permission. You know why do I have to ask you for permission? But I think there is this prevailing belief that to do something bold, if you were of a certain archetype, you need permission. So I actually just curious to know who is it? Just out of curiosity, who were you supposed to get permission from to do that? Like, who was the authority figure that you had in mind?
Speaker 1:Well, who didn't he think he was, you know? You know, I mean not in a like who do you think you are kind of way, but who? Because if I were a man who had created this opportunity for other men, do you think someone would have invited them to lunch and said you didn't ask me permission for starting your business? That would never happen. Oh, my god, no, what would happen to a man? And you know what.
Speaker 1:What is something that really moves me is anger. I am constantly fueled and motivated by by saying that's not right, this is an injustice and I'm gonna do something about it. You know, I was let go at the age of 45, which puts you at a, you know, at a protected level within Massachusetts of being let go from an organization. But that didn't protect me. And and then I started thinking, you know, I had spent so many hours of the week of my life focused on this particular organization. And and what? What did it get me?
Speaker 1:Well, it lost me a network of support because I was working all the time. I didn't have, you know, the luxury of building outside support. It was really all connected to to that position. It lost me time with my family, my kids as babies, growing up into toddlers, and you know, walking, and it lost me time in seeing all of that happen. It lost me the strength of a relationship.
Speaker 1:You know building a relationship with my husband and making sure that we made it through those those years of toddler hood and, and you know, beginning our lives together. You know it. It lost me so much that I then created she's Local but, you know it it got me so flippin mad that I was like I'm gonna make sure that there is an opportunity for other women to learn and to be transparent about their journeys, so that we all don't fall into that same trap, get taken advantage of and and don't know what resources and opportunities are available. Let's create something so that nobody needs to be in that position where they are told that they need to ask for permission because it's a new day, we no longer ask for it, we just go for it.
Speaker 2:Dude, fucking mic drop. We're ending with that. That's just. That is where we're at. That is like so freaking good. I'm gonna like pull it out and put it all over LinkedIn. That is so good. Okay, chills, fyi. Okay so. Jen, before we wrap up, I wanted to you know. I know that there's any people listening. We're like, oh my god, how do I start? If she's local, where do I find she's local? Tell, tell, tell our listeners where do they find you and how do they get in touch? Yeah, go to our website, wwwshe'slocalorg.
Speaker 1:Find us on LinkedIn, instagram, facebook. Shoot us a message. You're not. You're not sending a message to, to a robot or to somebody outside of our organization. You are literally sending a message to me. Let me know if you're excited about taking us to another part of the United States or the world. We are ready to go and ready to serve.
Speaker 2:Oh rock on, guys, look it up. It's the most. It's the greatest thing I ever did. I'm so excited. Thank you so much, jen, for your time today, thank you, thank you, thanks for having me.
