00:00:00Discovering My Folkloric Path
00:10:56Journey to Professional Fulfillment
00:20:00Embracing a New Vocation in Italy
00:25:59Following a Fulfilling Career Transition
00:36:12Discovering Passion for Social Impact
درباره این اپیزود
My Focolare Path
What if you could align your professional journey with your deepest values and make a genuine impact on society? Loretta Rauschuber's story offers insights into this possibility. With a background in software engineering, Loretta embarked on a transformative journey that led her from the bustling tech scene of Rome to a leadership role in the Economy of Communion. Her logical mindset and passion for fostering community relationships have driven her to collaborate with over 800 businesses worldwide, each contributing to the integration of business with social responsibility. Loretta's narrative is one of career shifts, personal growth, and fulfillment, as she shares her involvement with the Focolare Movement and the decision to embrace a life of unity and service to others.
Throughout the episode, we explore Loretta's multifaceted career path, highlighting unexpected opportunities and the profound impact of aligning one's career with personal values. From her early days as a director of IT at a young age to her pivotal role at Osram Corporation and eventual commitment to the Focolare Movement, Loretta's journey is inspiring. She discusses the inner struggles and the clarity found through faith and reasoning, which led her to a life dedicated to community service. Her story emphasizes the importance of unity and the profound freedom that comes with committing to a collective purpose.
Listeners are encouraged to reflect on their potential beyond formal education and job titles, exploring passions that extend beyond their professions. Loretta's passion for illustrating art, inspired by a courageous young girl battling bone cancer, also adds depth to her story, showcasing how creativity and empathy can enrich both personal and professional endeavors. Her work with the Economy of Communion underscores a commitment to transforming businesses through communal and altruistic principles, offering a blueprint for those seeking personal fulfillment and broader societal impact. This episode is a rich tapestry of insights for anyone looking to align their career with their values and make a meaningful contribution.
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WEBVTT
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You know it was actually I guess it was my logical software engineer mind that was saying hey, wait a minute, this doesn't logically make sense.
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What are you doing?
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And I questioned it in the reverse and in that question I just said, oh, this really doesn't make sense, this is not.
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And so I said I'm leaving.
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And I really literally started packing my bags and was ready to leave and I couldn't put my foot out that door and that's.
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It was like that's when I said, oh, then this must really be a call.
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So it became very logically clear that this was my vocation.
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Yeah.
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Welcome back to my Perfect Path, the podcast where we talk to people with unique careers to uncover the lessons that shape their journeys.
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I'm your host, daniel Koo, and today's episode is called my Folkloric Path.
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The word folkloric comes from Italian meaning hearth or family, and it's the name of a global movement dedicated to building unity and fostering dialogue across communities, cultures and professions.
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It's also been a central influence in the life of today's guest, loretta Rauscherber.
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Loretta is an accountant and a leader in the Economy of Communion, a global initiative inspired by the principles of Folkloric that focuses on aligning business with social impact.
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Her story is remarkable, from growing up in a small Texas town to having a 17-year software engineering career in Rome and now balancing her work with a deep commitment to community and service.
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In this episode, loretta shares how she made bold decisions to follow her passions, navigate big career shifts and find meaning and happiness in her life.
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If you've ever wondered how to take risks, embrace change or align your career with your values, loretta's story will inspire you.
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Hope you enjoy the episode.
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Welcome to my Perfect Path.
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I'm thrilled to have you here Just to kick us off.
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What is your current role and what is kind of like the current state of your career?
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Right now, my day job I'm working as an accountant for an elementary school in Pacific Palisades, california, and one thing that I'm very passionate about is my work with an organization called the Economy of Communion.
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It's entrepreneur-based, but it's actually for everyone Everyone who's—we all somehow are associated with business, so it's how business can have a very close relationship with those who are vulnerable, and I just love that.
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And then also, one thing that I picked up during the pandemic was illustrating art.
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Yeah, illustrating books.
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So, yeah, it's something I really enjoy.
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So you recently published something, is that right?
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Yeah, I did.
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I was inspired by the story of a young girl in Italy she was 19 years old when she died of bone cancer and the way she lived her illness at the time of her death.
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It went viral on the Internet and it was very attractive and I said I want to illustrate her life.
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And there were so many very warm, sincere moments that were very meaningful in her life that there were no photos for.
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So I chose those and I said I want to illustrate that.
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I want to illustrate so people can see what that moment looked like.
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Yeah, Wow, that's beautiful.
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Tell us more about the Economy of Communion and tell us about the scale of that organization and how it operates.
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Like what kind of businesses do you connect with?
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Yeah, and a lot of them were interested in working with startups.
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Because the economy of communion, we say it starts with a gift, Like there's a gift or a mechanism of giving in business.
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That's one thing that we embrace, Like what is the gift going to be?
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And so we also practice it as an organization and we feel like with startups, there's so much we can help them with, like getting their branding done, their logos, helping them get into the market.
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So we work a lot with startups.
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But also the vast majority are medium and small entrepreneurs and there again it's people that are looking for meaning.
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They're looking for something beyond even social entrepreneurship.
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They're looking for those relationships, and so it's very people-oriented.
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Every decision you make, it's the person's at the center of the decision and it seems to be that missing piece, like that relationship.
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It's not just making a lot of money and then giving away some of it to the poor.
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Well, do you know that person?
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Do they come to your house?
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Are they your friend?
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One entrepreneur he only hires homeless men.
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That's his giving, his mechanism of giving.
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He only hires homeless men.
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That's his giving, his mechanism of giving.
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And the very first homeless man that he hired after 15 years of business, did hospice on his living room couch, Like this was his friend, this was his close friend, and so, entering into that messiness and I think that's something that's very attractive Like are we willing to be there by the person in that time of vulnerability?
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And yeah, so it's something that is very key to the economy of communion and what we practice.
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So you're kind of in charge of the entire organization, is that right?
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You could say that, yeah, I'm the president of the organization currently in the United States and Canada, and we are basically all over the world, so in Asia, in Africa it's big in Africa and South America big in South America and we're all connected too.
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It's like one family, it really is a sense of family, and there again, it's because it's all about relationships, so even relationships among us, and everything we decide, everything we do.
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It's like when I make that decision, am I basing it off of the people that are around me?
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Even like a competitor?
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My competitor is my friend.
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It's not you know.
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It's about how big is the organization right now.
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Like worldwide, I would say maybe 800 to 900 businesses that work, that actually embrace this, all the practices and, you know, the principles of the economy of community, about 800 maybe.
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Wow.
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It's hard to count because it's so fluctual and also with the pandemic things shifted so much so we're still trying to catch up with numbers, but yeah.
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How do you manage that with the day job that you have?
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I think it's driven by passion.
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Yeah, like passion, you find time.
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You find time to do what you really love.
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Yeah.
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Could you tell us a little bit about where you grew up and what kind of upbringing you had?
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I grew up in a very small town, a farm community in Central Texas, where agriculture we raised cotton and corn.
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Basically, both of my grandparents were farmers.
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They had big farms.
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So we grew up, yeah, with fruit and vegetables and farms and yeah, so in a very small town.
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So I never, ever thought I was going to leave my hometown.
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You grow up there, you get married there and you already know where you're going to be buried, and so I just yeah, that's small town mentality also, so that's kind of what I thought my life was going to be.
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Yeah, I think through this episode we're going to reveal how you kind of went to Europe, came back to the United States.
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It's really incredible how you were able to kind of break out of that mentality of staying at your hometown and go as far as you know Europe to have a software engineering career and coming back, going through all these transitions to become who you are right now.
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So I'm really excited to kind of dig into that.
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So right now you're an accountant at a elementary school.
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How did you kind of get there?
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What was the stage right before that?
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So right before my career as an accountant it was a career shift.
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You could say Most of my adult professional life I did software engineering.
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I was a software engineer at USC and before that in Rome I worked 17 years for an international headquarters as a software engineer and, kind of like, laid a foundation, put together the whole foundation for an IT shop.
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You would say, yeah.
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Did you have any sort of experience with accounting before?
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Was there any education or training?
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Yeah, so I have a degree in accounting and a degree in computer science, and so that's where a lot of my, even a lot of the software that I wrote was often financial software accounting software because I had that business background.
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also, how did you decide to transition into becoming an accountant?
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I feel like if you've already been in software so long, it would be very difficult to even imagine doing a career shift.
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Actually, I loved software engineering.
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You're also a software engineer and I think you might identify with this, especially like the very first years in my 20s.
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You create something from nothing.
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You're creating something from nothing, and so it's very powerful.
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Also, it's exponential because you're dealing with technology and so it creates like this passion and this drive, and if you're not careful you can get carried away with it, and I think that's a little bit of what I loved about software.
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I think one thing that a common denominator in everything in the different careers I've had, I was always very attracted to finding a way to help the person next to me, Like, for example, at USC I always did the financial.
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So in the payroll department they were struggling with something.
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I said let me help you figure out and let me help you do this quicker and better and with less effort, and let's solve the problem.
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You know, also in software engineering you have to be careful.
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If you're good at it, you reduce the workload, and if you can't figure that out, you can actually create more work for people with your software.
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And so you have to know that, and I think I was driven by I want to help them with their needs.
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Let's talk about where you started and the education background that you had to help them with their needs.
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Yeah, let's talk about you know where you started and kind of the education background that you had.
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So you mentioned that you have the two degrees.
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Where was that and when was that?
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So they're both associate degrees at a simple small community college in Waco, texas.
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Were those like two-year.
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They were two-year programs and I don't think I had a lot of self-esteem, like you know.
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I thought that's all I can do, and all my siblings went to universities and I didn't.
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And then, little by little, I started discovering my potential.
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And one thing that became very meaningful in that whole discovery was it's not so much the degree and the title that I had, but how I was able to fully use it to its full potential and go beyond even people perhaps that studied a lot more and were not able to hone so much out of it.
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You know like I felt, like I really used it to the fullest, yeah.
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Did you have this kind of thought when you were getting that degree, or was this kind of later?
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No, actually I was dating the person I felt I was going to live the rest of my life with.
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I was in love and my first degree I was very focused on getting it, but the second degree was I was basically just waiting for him to finish school.
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So I said, well, I'm at it, I'll get another degree.
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So the whole concept.
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Now, looking back on it, there is much more because I'm using it right now and I love what I'm doing as an accountant also, and so it was a gift.
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It was an extra gift that maybe the reasoning behind it was very simple you would say, but now I'm very happy that I had that and again I felt like I used it fully.
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So, right after you got those degrees, what was your first job?
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What did you do to kick off your career?
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The very first job I had actually was while I was still in school.
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I was still getting my degree and I worked.
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I wrote software for a turkey production plant.
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They produced turkey yeah.
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In Central Texas.
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It was a huge plant and I did I wrote software for them.
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How was working for them?
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Was it like a very luxurious job or was it kind of difficult because they had a lot of requirements Like what was your experience?
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I think I just really enjoyed software engineering and so, being that, the job itself was enjoyable, I think the context was secondary in that moment.
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I worked there maybe a year and then right away I got a job at an oil company in Texas, a small oil and propane company, and there I was already.
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I remember I was 19 years old and they asked me to be the director of IT, and I knew they wouldn't, just by discretion, they wouldn't ask my age, and so I just remember saying, oh please, that they don't ask my age until I turn 20.
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At least it sounds more than 19.
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So I already started working as a director of IT at 19.
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And for this company.
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I worked there for several years.
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When you were kind of working as a software engineer in Texas.
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What were your career dreams or goals?
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Software engineer in Texas.
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What were your career dreams or goals?
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Did you have like a big idea in mind, or were you just trying to get everything started and or you just enjoyed coding so you just wanted to keep doing that?
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Well, if you think about it, at 19, I was already a director of the IT department, so I it was kind of like it came to me.
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I didn't really look for it and I loved it.
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I loved, you know, also the management part of it.
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I loved the creativity, how, again, I could help people.
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I could do a lot with the position I was in and again I was driven by that idea of helping, reducing the workflow, making work a little less difficult for people.
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So I loved it.
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But I really didn't go out looking for it, it just came to me.
00:14:33.020 --> 00:14:33.942
Wow, that's interesting.
00:14:33.942 --> 00:14:40.722
I kind of resonate with you on the idea of you like coding so much that the context doesn't matter.
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If I talk to any one of my friends from college, everyone's like that.
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Maybe it's just a trait for engineering, where you really like working with those systems, making things more efficient, automating things so much so that it doesn't really matter what you're working on.
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Obviously, if it does something that you care about, it's amazing.
00:15:02.052 --> 00:15:07.902
But I think that's an interesting trait to have as an engineer, maybe even for software as well.
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So, after working as the IT director, what was your next step?
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Then I moved to New York and I got a job at Osram Corporation.
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It was a German company that produces light bulbs and it was very closely related to the engineering department.
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It was almost part of the engineering department, the way they had it set up and yeah, was there a reason why you moved to New York and got this new job?
00:15:36.686 --> 00:15:47.184
Yeah, I would say I would have very happily stayed in Texas and worked for the oil company that I was working for, but there was something inside of me that I guess you would even say a call.
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I got to know in those years when I actually first started working as the director of this company.
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I got to know the spirituality of unity, which is animated by the Focolare movement, and again, I wasn't looking for it, but it seemed to find me.
00:16:05.375 --> 00:16:12.678
But I really felt like, oh my gosh, this is something I want to give my life for, unity.
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And it just seemed like everywhere I looked that there's a need for unity.
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And this was a few years back.
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And I can see even now, even more so, like, if you look at our world today, our country, our cities, there's a need for unity.
00:16:30.457 --> 00:16:34.193
Yeah, so Could you tell us a little bit more about the Focolari movement?
00:16:34.193 --> 00:16:38.034
One of our previous guests, Clara, was also a part of it.
00:16:38.034 --> 00:16:41.075
I think it'd be good to kind of set up context for the listeners.
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The Folkloric movement began in 1943.
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It was during World War II, in Trent, italy.
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It was a small group of girls, 12, 13 girls and they were all ages 14 to 23, so very young, and they all had dreams for their life.
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That's the age you dream and you start saying this is what I want to be.
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And the war, their dreams crumbled, all of them, all of them.
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One wanted to get married and have a wonderful home.
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Another wanted to go to college.
00:17:14.271 --> 00:17:20.336
All the colleges were closed and in that process they said well, there's got to be something.
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There's got to be something that no bomb will destroy.
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And in their quest they realized it's God, like the only thing you know is God, that nothing can destroy.
00:17:32.217 --> 00:17:34.769
And very, almost you could say almost logically.
00:17:34.769 --> 00:17:38.978
But they were saying oh, so if that's it, then we want to give our lives for God.
00:17:38.978 --> 00:17:43.894
And that was the seed, like the beginning, of what became the Folkloric Movement.
00:17:44.055 --> 00:18:02.971
And I guess one of their first, like an episode, they would go to air raid shelters even 11 times a day, because the heavy bombing Trent was heavily bombed during World War II and they just happened to pick up a book and bring it with them, and it was the gospel and they opened it up.
00:18:02.971 --> 00:18:04.837
And there's that prayer.
00:18:04.837 --> 00:18:09.830
It's the very last prayer that Jesus prayed before he died and they also.
00:18:09.830 --> 00:18:11.275
They felt very attracted to it.
00:18:11.275 --> 00:18:16.796
They didn't even quite know why, but the prayer, basically, jesus is saying, father, he's praying to the Father.
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He says Father, that all may be one.
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And they felt that that's what they were born for.
00:18:22.612 --> 00:18:28.779
And little by little they said you know, we don't know how to do this, we don't know what unity is supposed to look like.
00:18:28.779 --> 00:18:35.990
So they asked Jesus.
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They said you know, use me, use me.
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And I think that was a little bit of what I felt that day in my own small measure.
00:18:40.182 --> 00:18:43.884
You know, use me for unity, yeah Wow.
00:18:43.884 --> 00:18:45.289
That day in my own small measure, you know, used me for unity, yeah Wow.
00:18:45.310 --> 00:18:51.849
I think that obviously was a very big part of your life and I think we'll see a little bit more as well how it impacts your life throughout your career, and you know kind of explain how you ended up at this place in LA as well.
00:18:51.849 --> 00:18:58.712
So Folkloric was a big part of the reason why you moved to New York and to work for this German company.
00:18:58.712 --> 00:19:06.287
Did you have a plan to maybe move to bigger and bigger companies or kind of what was your thoughts about career at that moment?
00:19:06.848 --> 00:19:18.017
Well, actually, while I was there in New York working for Osram Corporation we're talking about light bulbs and so two years in a row, I was there only three years.
00:19:18.017 --> 00:19:27.752
Two of those three years we actually had Oscar priorities Because the company as a company which means the whole team we were given an Oscar.
00:19:27.752 --> 00:19:33.480
We were awarded an Oscar for a light bulb that actually helped actors.
00:19:33.480 --> 00:19:45.435
It showed a light that looked very similar to sunlight, but it wasn't hot, so they weren't sweating as much, and so we got an award two years in a row for our light bulbs.
00:19:45.435 --> 00:19:51.237
And so we had these huge Oscar parties at work and here everybody gets to take a picture with the Oscar.
00:19:52.185 --> 00:19:52.990
Wow, that's amazing.
00:19:53.144 --> 00:20:00.656
Yeah, and it was just, and you really felt this sense of it took a team to make that light bulb, and you really felt this sense of it took a team to make that light bulb, you know.
00:20:00.656 --> 00:20:06.327
So there again, I wasn't really looking for something, and that again kind of showed up in my life.
00:20:06.327 --> 00:20:08.153
You know, it was beautiful, I enjoyed it.
00:20:08.153 --> 00:20:11.154
It wasn't the most important thing in my life, though, either.
00:20:11.154 --> 00:20:12.789
Yeah, definitely wasn't.
00:20:13.010 --> 00:20:18.497
Yeah, so tell us a little bit about what you were thinking in New York as far as next steps.
00:20:18.497 --> 00:20:23.875
You know you obviously wanted a family, but what kind of led you to Europe?
00:20:24.980 --> 00:20:32.015
One thing also maybe a parenthesis that's important to note is with the vocation I have in the Focolari.
00:20:32.015 --> 00:20:45.336
It completely aligns with continuing with a professional career, but the career was always there and it was very meaningful and very fulfilling and it was definitely a part of what I felt called to.
00:20:45.336 --> 00:20:57.051
However, there was this other part of me that I really felt a passion for, which was unity and the many expressions and the ways I could live that.
00:20:57.051 --> 00:21:02.008
So when I went to New York, I took like a giant step, like here I was.
00:21:02.008 --> 00:21:09.288
I was, you know, making plans to get married and now I said, let me try this, let me, I don't know.
00:21:09.288 --> 00:21:20.839
I just had like a doubt inside of me and it was like, well, what if you're really called to a life in community, you know, where you can witness unity 24-7?
00:21:20.839 --> 00:21:23.353
And it was just a tiny little question.
00:21:23.353 --> 00:21:25.349
And you know I was already making plans.
00:21:25.349 --> 00:21:27.076
Like here, you know, I've got my whole life planned.
00:21:27.076 --> 00:21:37.065
I'm going to have a bunch of kids, and because I grew up in a big family and I just it was so rich for me that I just said, you know, I would want that for my children.
00:21:37.065 --> 00:21:47.439
And so you know, I was already making all these plans and there was something inside of me that said well, that doubt, that doubt that you have inside of you, can you live with that for the rest of your life?
00:21:48.006 --> 00:21:52.297
So I left my boyfriend and I made it like a deal with God.
00:21:52.297 --> 00:21:54.247
I know we're not supposed to make deals with God.
00:21:54.247 --> 00:22:06.540
If marriage is the thing that you really want from me, I guess there, and even if you just listen to that question, it's like I realized God chooses us and then we can say yes or no.
00:22:06.540 --> 00:22:09.777
It's not like we pick and choose a vocation, right.
00:22:09.777 --> 00:22:23.251
And so there I said, if this is what you've chosen for me marriage then I know, if I give this up, you know, for you, you will, you know there'll be something even better down the road.
00:22:24.034 --> 00:22:29.737
And so with that I don't know that courage or, if you want to call it faith or whatever, I don't know what it was.
00:22:29.737 --> 00:22:34.152
But I said I need to just look into this, you know.
00:22:34.152 --> 00:22:41.664
And I had no clue what it was, and I ended up consecrating my life to God in the Focolare movement.
00:22:41.664 --> 00:22:48.939
It's a very small percentage of people in the Focolare who actually take that type of radical step.
00:22:48.939 --> 00:22:58.174
So New York was like that step of discernment, like I went there with a question, so what was the answer?
00:22:58.174 --> 00:23:03.813
And after about a year I realized this was, it was really a call, it was a vocation.
00:23:03.813 --> 00:23:10.693
And the next step, once I realized that this is a life I want to lead, this is the yes I want to say.
00:23:10.693 --> 00:23:20.738
The next step is actually to go to a small town outside of Florence, italy, for formation, and there's formation, education.
00:23:20.738 --> 00:23:23.872
So yeah, then I ended up moving to Florence.
00:23:23.971 --> 00:23:24.865
Yeah, oh wow.
00:23:24.865 --> 00:23:30.446
So I guess your kind of struggle or pivoting point in New York was very big in your life.
00:23:30.446 --> 00:23:32.115
I think that was a very big decision.
00:23:32.115 --> 00:23:34.925
What kind of decision criteria did you have?
00:23:34.925 --> 00:23:35.527
Like, did you?
00:23:35.527 --> 00:23:48.025
You know it must have been difficult to have this massive life change and trying to adjust to a new country you're already so far away from home, like what kind of pushed you over the edge and said do you want to commit to this?
00:23:49.715 --> 00:24:01.201
You know it was actually I guess it was my logical software engineer mind that was saying hey, wait a minute, this doesn't logically make sense.
00:24:01.201 --> 00:24:02.942
What are you doing?
00:24:02.942 --> 00:24:09.759
And I questioned it in the reverse and in that question I just said, oh, this really doesn't make sense, this is not.
00:24:09.759 --> 00:24:12.686
And so I said I'm leaving.
00:24:12.686 --> 00:24:20.759
And I really literally started packing my bags and was ready to leave and I couldn't put my foot out that door and that's.
00:24:20.759 --> 00:24:24.126
It was like that's when I said, oh, then this must really be a call.
00:24:24.126 --> 00:24:28.086
So it became very logically clear that this was my vocation.
00:24:28.086 --> 00:24:28.286
Yeah.
00:24:28.994 --> 00:24:32.085
So you go to Europe in Italy, was it?
00:24:32.355 --> 00:24:34.001
It was in Italy, in Florence, Italy.
00:24:34.335 --> 00:24:35.398
What were you doing there?
00:24:35.398 --> 00:24:37.204
I understand you went through some sort of program.
00:24:37.204 --> 00:24:40.525
Could you tell us what that program was for and what was the purpose?
00:24:45.795 --> 00:24:47.258
So it is formal formation to become a focal arena.
00:24:47.258 --> 00:25:00.815
That would be the vocation and we would study for half a day moral theology, sociology, the doctrine of the Catholic Church, and while I was there that's what we studied, and then half a day we would work.
00:25:00.815 --> 00:25:07.200
But the real formation, you could say, was living with women from all over the world.
00:25:07.200 --> 00:25:11.643
And in your daily life, what does unity look like?
00:25:11.643 --> 00:25:15.246
Are you willing to give up If the measure is ready?
00:25:15.246 --> 00:25:18.607
To give my life, am I willing to give up my culture?
00:25:18.607 --> 00:25:19.888
Am I willing to give up?
00:25:19.888 --> 00:25:24.352
And when you strip yourself of everything, you realize you're free.
00:25:24.352 --> 00:25:32.801
There's just this immense freedom from letting go of everything that and everything you are to be there for the other person.
00:25:32.801 --> 00:25:36.113
It's not an emptiness to be empty.
00:25:36.113 --> 00:25:41.713
It's an emptiness to fill yourself with the other person.
00:25:41.733 --> 00:25:41.815
Yeah.
00:25:41.815 --> 00:25:48.729
So it seems like it's kind of like a training ground to kind of become more of an integrated member of the Folkloric Movement.
00:25:48.934 --> 00:25:49.679
That's correct.
00:25:49.679 --> 00:25:55.288
Yeah, this is formal formation for those who live in community life in the Folkloric.
00:25:55.695 --> 00:25:59.506
I can see how Folkloric Movement has really integrated into your life.
00:25:59.506 --> 00:26:01.621
By this point, you said you worked as well.
00:26:01.621 --> 00:26:03.276
What was your job and career, your life?
00:26:03.276 --> 00:26:04.518
By this point, you said you worked as well.
00:26:04.597 --> 00:26:05.377
What was your job and career?
00:26:05.377 --> 00:26:13.526
So afternoon work hours I spent in a small art shop and I actually practiced my art.
00:26:13.526 --> 00:26:17.709
Yeah, I honed my skills in many ways.
00:26:17.829 --> 00:26:30.878
just different things painting, crafts, just anything to do with art yeah, designing designing designs for some of the other work, so I guess you took a break from software engineering for a little bit during that period.
00:26:30.878 --> 00:26:32.444
When did that come back for you?
00:26:33.468 --> 00:26:52.367
Then after that three-year period, I moved to Rome and I worked at the Focal Aries headquarters for 17 years as a software engineer and I was asked to actually from zero put together an IT shop and so also the server farm, the networking and yeah.
00:26:53.096 --> 00:26:57.098
Did you have any experience doing that in the past or was it kind of?
00:26:57.098 --> 00:26:59.826
You know, you were building your skills as you go.
00:27:00.777 --> 00:27:01.942
I had some experience.
00:27:01.942 --> 00:27:12.419
I had already worked at that point several years in the United States, and I think there was this kind of notion that if you're a software engineer then you can kind of do everything.
00:27:12.479 --> 00:27:13.119
That's very true.
00:27:13.982 --> 00:27:22.164
And it's not true, but that was the expectation, or that was what people thought, and so you ended up doing it and learning it.
00:27:22.164 --> 00:27:30.386
But and again, a little bit of what you said you know you also enjoy tech, and so I enjoyed it while I learned.
00:27:30.386 --> 00:27:30.626
Yeah.
00:27:31.056 --> 00:27:36.167
During those 17 years, did you ever think about going to a different job or a different kind of career?
00:27:36.875 --> 00:27:37.999
No, I didn't.
00:27:37.999 --> 00:27:39.924
I wasn't looking for something else.
00:27:41.198 --> 00:27:46.663
So previously you've worked at you know several different companies, but this one you stuck for 17 years.
00:27:46.663 --> 00:27:51.798
It's hard to believe that you had, you know, constant growth and engagement to keep you interested.
00:27:51.798 --> 00:27:57.622
Was there anything that changed in the middle or did you do a lot of different kind of types of software engineering?
00:27:58.103 --> 00:28:14.498
Actually, the anchor that kept me there, without even considering, was that Kara Lubick, who is the founder of the Folkloric Movement, actually lived in that same small town of Rokiti Papa, and she was a very charismatic woman.
00:28:14.498 --> 00:28:16.383
It was a very charismatic moment, you could say.
00:28:16.383 --> 00:28:37.226
She was also very simple, she had a wonderful sense of humor just a great person, and it was a moment, like you could say, an apex of what became the Folkloric Movement, and the creation of what became the Folkloric Movement happened to coincide with those 17 years, and I think that's kind of what I was drawn to.
00:28:37.226 --> 00:28:44.728
And then, yeah, I was also writing software at the international headquarters, but I wasn't really paying attention that 17 years went by.
00:28:45.476 --> 00:28:49.945
So after, I guess, the 17 years, you came back to the States.
00:28:50.646 --> 00:28:51.208
That's correct.
00:28:51.414 --> 00:28:57.347
What kind of gave you the push to come back to the States and how has that transitioned for you?
00:28:57.934 --> 00:29:02.423
In the Focolare because I'm a consecrated member and I'm not married.
00:29:02.423 --> 00:29:15.586
I'm much freer to say yes to other needs and again, I think I was driven by needs that were presented to me and there was a need for someone in Los Angeles.
00:29:15.586 --> 00:29:21.744
We have a women's house here in Los Angeles and I was asked would I move to Los Angeles?
00:29:21.744 --> 00:29:33.943
And I was very willing to move and so I also felt like maybe after 17 years all my family lived here in the States all those years and it would be nice to be a little closer to family.
00:29:34.875 --> 00:29:41.226
And when you came back, did you start working as a software engineer, or were you already an accountant by then?
00:29:41.625 --> 00:29:55.444
After about two months I got a job at USC and I worked there in the IT department as a software engineer and because of my background as an accountant, most of the software I wrote was financial software.
00:29:55.685 --> 00:29:59.201
Oh wow, I guess that kind of started your pivot into becoming an accountant.
00:29:59.634 --> 00:30:02.340
Yeah, you could say yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:30:02.634 --> 00:30:07.186
And then, after USC, you're transitioning into the role that you currently have as an accountant.
00:30:07.186 --> 00:30:09.221
How did you make that jump?
00:30:09.934 --> 00:30:23.943
I had been programming software my entire professional life and I had programmed accounting software, a lot of accounting software, but I never was the accountant.
00:30:23.943 --> 00:30:34.077
And I had that degree and there was a little bit of something inside of me that said I wonder if I could do that, you know.
00:30:34.077 --> 00:30:35.963
But I really, again, I really wasn't paying that much attention to that question.
00:30:35.963 --> 00:30:48.068
And an opportunity came up, also because of certain circumstances, where I was working and a job opening came up and I said and I remember asking the person who presented it to me, I said do you think you can do this?
00:30:48.068 --> 00:30:51.359
And she said well, you have a degree in accounting of course you can do it.
00:30:51.941 --> 00:30:56.116
And so I think there it was just like a leap into the unknown.
00:30:56.116 --> 00:30:57.419
I think every time it's a leap.
00:30:57.419 --> 00:30:59.843
When I moved to Europe, it was a leap into the unknown.
00:30:59.843 --> 00:31:02.748
When I moved to New York, it was a huge leap into the unknown.
00:31:02.748 --> 00:31:08.226
So yeah, and then here again, it was like this I wasn't sure, but I jumped.
00:31:08.575 --> 00:31:21.640
Yeah, I think it's super interesting that you know the degree you got way earlier in your career, ended up kind of helping you at this point and actually gave you the qualifications necessary to kind of move into this new career.
00:31:21.640 --> 00:31:30.776
I guess at the current state of your career you're spending a lot of time with Economy of Communion outside of your day job and all the career you had.
00:31:30.776 --> 00:31:39.602
Where do you find the motivation and what's the reason of putting so much time and effort into something else other than your day job?
00:31:40.063 --> 00:31:52.497
I guess you could say at this point in my life I've had successful careers not just career and very meaningful.
00:31:52.517 --> 00:31:52.856
And by meaningful.
00:31:52.876 --> 00:31:53.920
I mean, I really found pathways to help people.
00:31:53.920 --> 00:31:56.424
That was the driving force, you know, behind what I did.
00:31:56.424 --> 00:32:00.357
So now I feel like it's like almost a new chapter in my life.
00:32:00.357 --> 00:32:02.480
I've climbed the mountain of careers.
00:32:02.480 --> 00:32:05.885
I've done that well, I'm satisfied with what I did.
00:32:05.885 --> 00:32:16.438
But there's something inside of me that says, like this deep need to help people in need, like it's a different kind of mountain.
00:32:16.438 --> 00:32:25.090
Like, for example, a close friend of mine was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and she had open heart surgery recently and it accelerated her Alzheimer's.
00:32:25.090 --> 00:32:27.859
Like now she needs care all night long.
00:32:27.859 --> 00:32:36.464
So I go and just stay with her all night once a week, you know, and I'm able to keep my full-time job and do that and the EOC.
00:32:36.464 --> 00:32:40.077
But it's like that's important, that's like it's a need.
00:32:40.077 --> 00:32:48.530
I have to be there and get messy with the messiness of people's lives and get your hands dirty.
00:32:48.530 --> 00:32:50.540
It's a sacrifice.
00:32:50.540 --> 00:32:51.797
I don't know.
00:32:51.797 --> 00:32:54.865
I feel like that's the mountain I'd like to climb right now.
00:32:55.276 --> 00:33:00.407
I think it's really important for us to think about this as we're building out our careers.
00:33:00.407 --> 00:33:02.421
I think about this all the time.
00:33:02.421 --> 00:33:21.523
I'm working at a big tech company, you know, making changes to really big code bases, and that's all cool, but I do think about my impact to this world and you know how can I integrate helping others into my life other than you know thinking, oh, after I get rich I'll donate money.
00:33:21.523 --> 00:33:25.246
You know, I think that's too simple and we're losing out on opportunities.
00:33:25.246 --> 00:33:34.501
I guess, from your experience, what are the questions that you ask yourself to kind of motivate yourself to help others, to run it in parallel with your day job?
00:33:34.823 --> 00:33:35.786
That's a good question.
00:33:35.786 --> 00:33:44.826
I just said, you know, like I'd like to climb this mountain, but it's not some far-reaching goal.
00:33:44.826 --> 00:33:55.407
It kind of like translates into the present moment, Like how am I responding to what's in front of me right now?
00:33:55.407 --> 00:33:59.424
How am I responding to that irritating person that just walked by?
00:33:59.424 --> 00:34:04.487
And it's not so much what happens in the day, but how did I respond to it?
00:34:04.775 --> 00:34:18.465
For those who are kind of looking to you know do more in their career, not in terms of, you know, progressing their career, but like doing something meaningful outside of your day job, like what would be your advice and recommendation to kind of do that at the same time.
00:34:18.994 --> 00:34:22.255
I think that's why I'm so passionate about the economy of communion.
00:34:22.655 --> 00:34:26.782
Yeah, it's not my day job and it's about business.
00:34:26.782 --> 00:34:45.827
It's about working with businessmen, businesswomen, people who are engaged in business at every level, but the focus is the vulnerable and I think I didn't pay attention so much early on in my careers and then I started saying, well, what is that deepest, deepest desire in your heart?
00:34:45.827 --> 00:34:53.548
And it was there all along, like I had identified, you know, but I want to help people in need.
00:34:53.548 --> 00:34:55.639
But it was actually something much deeper.
00:34:55.639 --> 00:35:09.461
So I you know now I love my job as an accountant, but if I look deep inside, it's like I want to get my hands messy with the people and where they're struggling, you know.
00:35:09.461 --> 00:35:33.226
And when I identified that, then I would say try to find what that thing is inside of your heart and don't discount it just because it's in your heart, and listen to that and then find something that aligns with that and go for it and jump, yeah, jump, and it'll be dark and uncomfortable and feel kind of weird because it's something new, but then it'll respond to that.
00:35:33.315 --> 00:35:40.608
Do you feel like, for those who are struggling with their career in the first place, it would make sense to think about this at the same time?
00:35:40.608 --> 00:35:47.304
Or would you kind of recommend getting a hold of your career first and then thinking about these things, or maybe the other way?
00:35:47.795 --> 00:35:56.942
I think we're all looking for meaning meaning in our lives and I think it would be good to consider and try to align it from the beginning.
00:35:56.942 --> 00:35:58.284
Yeah, I think that would be.
00:35:58.284 --> 00:36:11.056
I think, deep down, where I work too, I work with a lot of people and you can see sometimes they're just not content with what they're doing and so they move on and you're just saying, well, find what you're content with.
00:36:11.056 --> 00:36:12.398
Yeah, that's important.
00:36:12.920 --> 00:36:27.422
I think today I learned a lot, and a few things I'm picking up is you know, find out what you're passionate about, not in terms of career or skills, or you know things you could do, but how you could help this world and who you can help.
00:36:28.344 --> 00:36:34.715
I think knowing that could actually set you on a path that you've never expected and onto careers that you've never expected you would ever do.
00:36:34.715 --> 00:36:36.260
I always do this too.
00:36:36.260 --> 00:36:46.307
I remember in high school I used to serve with doing service clubs and everything, but as I, you know, go into my career, I do that less and less.
00:36:46.307 --> 00:36:57.407
I want to change that, actually, and I'm inspired by you to kind of have something on the side where I'm doing something that's impactful to others and fulfilling the needs of others.
00:36:57.407 --> 00:37:04.257
Especially when you have, like, a career that's already set and you're comfortable with, I think there's enough time to help other people.
00:37:04.257 --> 00:37:05.780
So, thank you so much.
00:37:05.780 --> 00:37:06.862
I've learned so much today.
00:37:06.862 --> 00:37:12.081
I'm really excited to learn more about the economy of communion and how that's going to pan out.
00:37:12.081 --> 00:37:19.106
It's such an interesting movement, so I think I'm really excited to see how that's going to work out for these many businesses.
00:37:19.916 --> 00:37:20.458
Thank you.
00:37:20.458 --> 00:37:21.342
Thank you for having me.
00:37:21.775 --> 00:37:22.195
Awesome, thank you.
00:37:22.195 --> 00:37:22.394
Thank you.
00:37:22.394 --> 00:37:29.420
Thank you for having me awesome, thank you.
00:00:00.100 --> 00:00:11.606
You know it was actually I guess it was my logical software engineer mind that was saying hey, wait a minute, this doesn't logically make sense.
00:00:11.606 --> 00:00:13.330
What are you doing?
00:00:13.330 --> 00:00:20.132
And I questioned it in the reverse and in that question I just said, oh, this really doesn't make sense, this is not.
00:00:20.132 --> 00:00:23.062
And so I said I'm leaving.
00:00:23.062 --> 00:00:31.129
And I really literally started packing my bags and was ready to leave and I couldn't put my foot out that door and that's.
00:00:31.129 --> 00:00:34.533
It was like that's when I said, oh, then this must really be a call.
00:00:34.533 --> 00:00:38.417
So it became very logically clear that this was my vocation.
00:00:38.417 --> 00:00:38.656
Yeah.
00:00:43.659 --> 00:00:47.433
Welcome back to my Perfect Path, the podcast where we talk to people with unique careers to uncover the lessons that shape their journeys.
00:00:47.433 --> 00:00:50.582
I'm your host, daniel Koo, and today's episode is called my Folkloric Path.
00:00:50.582 --> 00:01:02.564
The word folkloric comes from Italian meaning hearth or family, and it's the name of a global movement dedicated to building unity and fostering dialogue across communities, cultures and professions.
00:01:02.564 --> 00:01:07.373
It's also been a central influence in the life of today's guest, loretta Rauscherber.
00:01:07.373 --> 00:01:17.212
Loretta is an accountant and a leader in the Economy of Communion, a global initiative inspired by the principles of Folkloric that focuses on aligning business with social impact.
00:01:17.212 --> 00:01:29.748
Her story is remarkable, from growing up in a small Texas town to having a 17-year software engineering career in Rome and now balancing her work with a deep commitment to community and service.
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In this episode, loretta shares how she made bold decisions to follow her passions, navigate big career shifts and find meaning and happiness in her life.
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If you've ever wondered how to take risks, embrace change or align your career with your values, loretta's story will inspire you.
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Hope you enjoy the episode.
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Welcome to my Perfect Path.
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I'm thrilled to have you here Just to kick us off.
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What is your current role and what is kind of like the current state of your career?
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Right now, my day job I'm working as an accountant for an elementary school in Pacific Palisades, california, and one thing that I'm very passionate about is my work with an organization called the Economy of Communion.
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It's entrepreneur-based, but it's actually for everyone Everyone who's—we all somehow are associated with business, so it's how business can have a very close relationship with those who are vulnerable, and I just love that.
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And then also, one thing that I picked up during the pandemic was illustrating art.
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Yeah, illustrating books.
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So, yeah, it's something I really enjoy.
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So you recently published something, is that right?
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Yeah, I did.
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I was inspired by the story of a young girl in Italy she was 19 years old when she died of bone cancer and the way she lived her illness at the time of her death.
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It went viral on the Internet and it was very attractive and I said I want to illustrate her life.
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And there were so many very warm, sincere moments that were very meaningful in her life that there were no photos for.
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So I chose those and I said I want to illustrate that.
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I want to illustrate so people can see what that moment looked like.
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Yeah, Wow, that's beautiful.
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Tell us more about the Economy of Communion and tell us about the scale of that organization and how it operates.
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Like what kind of businesses do you connect with?
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Yeah, and a lot of them were interested in working with startups.
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Because the economy of communion, we say it starts with a gift, Like there's a gift or a mechanism of giving in business.
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That's one thing that we embrace, Like what is the gift going to be?
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And so we also practice it as an organization and we feel like with startups, there's so much we can help them with, like getting their branding done, their logos, helping them get into the market.
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So we work a lot with startups.
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But also the vast majority are medium and small entrepreneurs and there again it's people that are looking for meaning.
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They're looking for something beyond even social entrepreneurship.
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They're looking for those relationships, and so it's very people-oriented.
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Every decision you make, it's the person's at the center of the decision and it seems to be that missing piece, like that relationship.
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It's not just making a lot of money and then giving away some of it to the poor.
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Well, do you know that person?
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Do they come to your house?
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Are they your friend?
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One entrepreneur he only hires homeless men.
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That's his giving, his mechanism of giving.
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He only hires homeless men.
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That's his giving, his mechanism of giving.
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And the very first homeless man that he hired after 15 years of business, did hospice on his living room couch, Like this was his friend, this was his close friend, and so, entering into that messiness and I think that's something that's very attractive Like are we willing to be there by the person in that time of vulnerability?
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And yeah, so it's something that is very key to the economy of communion and what we practice.
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So you're kind of in charge of the entire organization, is that right?
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You could say that, yeah, I'm the president of the organization currently in the United States and Canada, and we are basically all over the world, so in Asia, in Africa it's big in Africa and South America big in South America and we're all connected too.
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It's like one family, it really is a sense of family, and there again, it's because it's all about relationships, so even relationships among us, and everything we decide, everything we do.
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It's like when I make that decision, am I basing it off of the people that are around me?
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Even like a competitor?
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My competitor is my friend.
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It's not you know.
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It's about how big is the organization right now.
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Like worldwide, I would say maybe 800 to 900 businesses that work, that actually embrace this, all the practices and, you know, the principles of the economy of community, about 800 maybe.
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Wow.
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It's hard to count because it's so fluctual and also with the pandemic things shifted so much so we're still trying to catch up with numbers, but yeah.
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How do you manage that with the day job that you have?
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I think it's driven by passion.
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Yeah, like passion, you find time.
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You find time to do what you really love.
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Yeah.
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Could you tell us a little bit about where you grew up and what kind of upbringing you had?
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I grew up in a very small town, a farm community in Central Texas, where agriculture we raised cotton and corn.
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Basically, both of my grandparents were farmers.
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They had big farms.
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So we grew up, yeah, with fruit and vegetables and farms and yeah, so in a very small town.
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So I never, ever thought I was going to leave my hometown.
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You grow up there, you get married there and you already know where you're going to be buried, and so I just yeah, that's small town mentality also, so that's kind of what I thought my life was going to be.
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Yeah, I think through this episode we're going to reveal how you kind of went to Europe, came back to the United States.
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It's really incredible how you were able to kind of break out of that mentality of staying at your hometown and go as far as you know Europe to have a software engineering career and coming back, going through all these transitions to become who you are right now.
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So I'm really excited to kind of dig into that.
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So right now you're an accountant at a elementary school.
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How did you kind of get there?
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What was the stage right before that?
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So right before my career as an accountant it was a career shift.
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You could say Most of my adult professional life I did software engineering.
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I was a software engineer at USC and before that in Rome I worked 17 years for an international headquarters as a software engineer and, kind of like, laid a foundation, put together the whole foundation for an IT shop.
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You would say, yeah.
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Did you have any sort of experience with accounting before?
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Was there any education or training?
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Yeah, so I have a degree in accounting and a degree in computer science, and so that's where a lot of my, even a lot of the software that I wrote was often financial software accounting software because I had that business background.
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also, how did you decide to transition into becoming an accountant?
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I feel like if you've already been in software so long, it would be very difficult to even imagine doing a career shift.
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Actually, I loved software engineering.
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You're also a software engineer and I think you might identify with this, especially like the very first years in my 20s.
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You create something from nothing.
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You're creating something from nothing, and so it's very powerful.
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Also, it's exponential because you're dealing with technology and so it creates like this passion and this drive, and if you're not careful you can get carried away with it, and I think that's a little bit of what I loved about software.
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I think one thing that a common denominator in everything in the different careers I've had, I was always very attracted to finding a way to help the person next to me, Like, for example, at USC I always did the financial.
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So in the payroll department they were struggling with something.
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I said let me help you figure out and let me help you do this quicker and better and with less effort, and let's solve the problem.
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You know, also in software engineering you have to be careful.
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If you're good at it, you reduce the workload, and if you can't figure that out, you can actually create more work for people with your software.
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And so you have to know that, and I think I was driven by I want to help them with their needs.
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Let's talk about where you started and the education background that you had to help them with their needs.
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Yeah, let's talk about you know where you started and kind of the education background that you had.
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So you mentioned that you have the two degrees.
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Where was that and when was that?
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So they're both associate degrees at a simple small community college in Waco, texas.
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Were those like two-year.
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They were two-year programs and I don't think I had a lot of self-esteem, like you know.
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I thought that's all I can do, and all my siblings went to universities and I didn't.
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And then, little by little, I started discovering my potential.
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And one thing that became very meaningful in that whole discovery was it's not so much the degree and the title that I had, but how I was able to fully use it to its full potential and go beyond even people perhaps that studied a lot more and were not able to hone so much out of it.
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You know like I felt, like I really used it to the fullest, yeah.
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Did you have this kind of thought when you were getting that degree, or was this kind of later?
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No, actually I was dating the person I felt I was going to live the rest of my life with.
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I was in love and my first degree I was very focused on getting it, but the second degree was I was basically just waiting for him to finish school.
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So I said, well, I'm at it, I'll get another degree.
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So the whole concept.
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Now, looking back on it, there is much more because I'm using it right now and I love what I'm doing as an accountant also, and so it was a gift.
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It was an extra gift that maybe the reasoning behind it was very simple you would say, but now I'm very happy that I had that and again I felt like I used it fully.
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So, right after you got those degrees, what was your first job?
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What did you do to kick off your career?
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The very first job I had actually was while I was still in school.
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I was still getting my degree and I worked.
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I wrote software for a turkey production plant.
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They produced turkey yeah.
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In Central Texas.
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It was a huge plant and I did I wrote software for them.
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How was working for them?
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Was it like a very luxurious job or was it kind of difficult because they had a lot of requirements Like what was your experience?
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I think I just really enjoyed software engineering and so, being that, the job itself was enjoyable, I think the context was secondary in that moment.
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I worked there maybe a year and then right away I got a job at an oil company in Texas, a small oil and propane company, and there I was already.
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I remember I was 19 years old and they asked me to be the director of IT, and I knew they wouldn't, just by discretion, they wouldn't ask my age, and so I just remember saying, oh please, that they don't ask my age until I turn 20.
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At least it sounds more than 19.
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So I already started working as a director of IT at 19.
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And for this company.
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I worked there for several years.
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When you were kind of working as a software engineer in Texas.
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What were your career dreams or goals?
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Software engineer in Texas.
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What were your career dreams or goals?
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Did you have like a big idea in mind, or were you just trying to get everything started and or you just enjoyed coding so you just wanted to keep doing that?
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Well, if you think about it, at 19, I was already a director of the IT department, so I it was kind of like it came to me.
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I didn't really look for it and I loved it.
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I loved, you know, also the management part of it.
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I loved the creativity, how, again, I could help people.
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I could do a lot with the position I was in and again I was driven by that idea of helping, reducing the workflow, making work a little less difficult for people.
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So I loved it.
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But I really didn't go out looking for it, it just came to me.
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Wow, that's interesting.
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I kind of resonate with you on the idea of you like coding so much that the context doesn't matter.
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If I talk to any one of my friends from college, everyone's like that.
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Maybe it's just a trait for engineering, where you really like working with those systems, making things more efficient, automating things so much so that it doesn't really matter what you're working on.
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Obviously, if it does something that you care about, it's amazing.
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But I think that's an interesting trait to have as an engineer, maybe even for software as well.
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So, after working as the IT director, what was your next step?
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Then I moved to New York and I got a job at Osram Corporation.
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It was a German company that produces light bulbs and it was very closely related to the engineering department.
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It was almost part of the engineering department, the way they had it set up and yeah, was there a reason why you moved to New York and got this new job?
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Yeah, I would say I would have very happily stayed in Texas and worked for the oil company that I was working for, but there was something inside of me that I guess you would even say a call.
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I got to know in those years when I actually first started working as the director of this company.
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I got to know the spirituality of unity, which is animated by the Focolare movement, and again, I wasn't looking for it, but it seemed to find me.
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But I really felt like, oh my gosh, this is something I want to give my life for, unity.
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And it just seemed like everywhere I looked that there's a need for unity.
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And this was a few years back.
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And I can see even now, even more so, like, if you look at our world today, our country, our cities, there's a need for unity.
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Yeah, so Could you tell us a little bit more about the Focolari movement?
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One of our previous guests, Clara, was also a part of it.
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I think it'd be good to kind of set up context for the listeners.
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The Folkloric movement began in 1943.
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It was during World War II, in Trent, italy.
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It was a small group of girls, 12, 13 girls and they were all ages 14 to 23, so very young, and they all had dreams for their life.
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That's the age you dream and you start saying this is what I want to be.
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And the war, their dreams crumbled, all of them, all of them.
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One wanted to get married and have a wonderful home.
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Another wanted to go to college.
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All the colleges were closed and in that process they said well, there's got to be something.
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There's got to be something that no bomb will destroy.
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And in their quest they realized it's God, like the only thing you know is God, that nothing can destroy.
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And very, almost you could say almost logically.
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But they were saying oh, so if that's it, then we want to give our lives for God.
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And that was the seed, like the beginning, of what became the Folkloric Movement.
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And I guess one of their first, like an episode, they would go to air raid shelters even 11 times a day, because the heavy bombing Trent was heavily bombed during World War II and they just happened to pick up a book and bring it with them, and it was the gospel and they opened it up.
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And there's that prayer.
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It's the very last prayer that Jesus prayed before he died and they also.
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They felt very attracted to it.
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They didn't even quite know why, but the prayer, basically, jesus is saying, father, he's praying to the Father.
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He says Father, that all may be one.
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And they felt that that's what they were born for.
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And little by little they said you know, we don't know how to do this, we don't know what unity is supposed to look like.
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So they asked Jesus.
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They said you know, use me, use me.
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And I think that was a little bit of what I felt that day in my own small measure.
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You know, use me for unity, yeah Wow.
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That day in my own small measure, you know, used me for unity, yeah Wow.
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I think that obviously was a very big part of your life and I think we'll see a little bit more as well how it impacts your life throughout your career, and you know kind of explain how you ended up at this place in LA as well.
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So Folkloric was a big part of the reason why you moved to New York and to work for this German company.
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Did you have a plan to maybe move to bigger and bigger companies or kind of what was your thoughts about career at that moment?
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Well, actually, while I was there in New York working for Osram Corporation we're talking about light bulbs and so two years in a row, I was there only three years.
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Two of those three years we actually had Oscar priorities Because the company as a company which means the whole team we were given an Oscar.
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We were awarded an Oscar for a light bulb that actually helped actors.
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It showed a light that looked very similar to sunlight, but it wasn't hot, so they weren't sweating as much, and so we got an award two years in a row for our light bulbs.
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And so we had these huge Oscar parties at work and here everybody gets to take a picture with the Oscar.
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Wow, that's amazing.
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Yeah, and it was just, and you really felt this sense of it took a team to make that light bulb, and you really felt this sense of it took a team to make that light bulb, you know.
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So there again, I wasn't really looking for something, and that again kind of showed up in my life.
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You know, it was beautiful, I enjoyed it.
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It wasn't the most important thing in my life, though, either.
00:20:11.154 --> 00:20:12.789
Yeah, definitely wasn't.
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Yeah, so tell us a little bit about what you were thinking in New York as far as next steps.
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You know you obviously wanted a family, but what kind of led you to Europe?
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One thing also maybe a parenthesis that's important to note is with the vocation I have in the Focolari.
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It completely aligns with continuing with a professional career, but the career was always there and it was very meaningful and very fulfilling and it was definitely a part of what I felt called to.
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However, there was this other part of me that I really felt a passion for, which was unity and the many expressions and the ways I could live that.
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So when I went to New York, I took like a giant step, like here I was.
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I was, you know, making plans to get married and now I said, let me try this, let me, I don't know.
00:21:09.288 --> 00:21:20.839
I just had like a doubt inside of me and it was like, well, what if you're really called to a life in community, you know, where you can witness unity 24-7?
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And it was just a tiny little question.
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And you know I was already making plans.
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Like here, you know, I've got my whole life planned.
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I'm going to have a bunch of kids, and because I grew up in a big family and I just it was so rich for me that I just said, you know, I would want that for my children.
00:21:37.065 --> 00:21:47.439
And so you know, I was already making all these plans and there was something inside of me that said well, that doubt, that doubt that you have inside of you, can you live with that for the rest of your life?
00:21:48.006 --> 00:21:52.297
So I left my boyfriend and I made it like a deal with God.
00:21:52.297 --> 00:21:54.247
I know we're not supposed to make deals with God.
00:21:54.247 --> 00:22:06.540
If marriage is the thing that you really want from me, I guess there, and even if you just listen to that question, it's like I realized God chooses us and then we can say yes or no.
00:22:06.540 --> 00:22:09.777
It's not like we pick and choose a vocation, right.
00:22:09.777 --> 00:22:23.251
And so there I said, if this is what you've chosen for me marriage then I know, if I give this up, you know, for you, you will, you know there'll be something even better down the road.
00:22:24.034 --> 00:22:29.737
And so with that I don't know that courage or, if you want to call it faith or whatever, I don't know what it was.
00:22:29.737 --> 00:22:34.152
But I said I need to just look into this, you know.
00:22:34.152 --> 00:22:41.664
And I had no clue what it was, and I ended up consecrating my life to God in the Focolare movement.
00:22:41.664 --> 00:22:48.939
It's a very small percentage of people in the Focolare who actually take that type of radical step.
00:22:48.939 --> 00:22:58.174
So New York was like that step of discernment, like I went there with a question, so what was the answer?
00:22:58.174 --> 00:23:03.813
And after about a year I realized this was, it was really a call, it was a vocation.
00:23:03.813 --> 00:23:10.693
And the next step, once I realized that this is a life I want to lead, this is the yes I want to say.
00:23:10.693 --> 00:23:20.738
The next step is actually to go to a small town outside of Florence, italy, for formation, and there's formation, education.
00:23:20.738 --> 00:23:23.872
So yeah, then I ended up moving to Florence.
00:23:23.971 --> 00:23:24.865
Yeah, oh wow.
00:23:24.865 --> 00:23:30.446
So I guess your kind of struggle or pivoting point in New York was very big in your life.
00:23:30.446 --> 00:23:32.115
I think that was a very big decision.
00:23:32.115 --> 00:23:34.925
What kind of decision criteria did you have?
00:23:34.925 --> 00:23:35.527
Like, did you?
00:23:35.527 --> 00:23:48.025
You know it must have been difficult to have this massive life change and trying to adjust to a new country you're already so far away from home, like what kind of pushed you over the edge and said do you want to commit to this?
00:23:49.715 --> 00:24:01.201
You know it was actually I guess it was my logical software engineer mind that was saying hey, wait a minute, this doesn't logically make sense.
00:24:01.201 --> 00:24:02.942
What are you doing?
00:24:02.942 --> 00:24:09.759
And I questioned it in the reverse and in that question I just said, oh, this really doesn't make sense, this is not.
00:24:09.759 --> 00:24:12.686
And so I said I'm leaving.
00:24:12.686 --> 00:24:20.759
And I really literally started packing my bags and was ready to leave and I couldn't put my foot out that door and that's.
00:24:20.759 --> 00:24:24.126
It was like that's when I said, oh, then this must really be a call.
00:24:24.126 --> 00:24:28.086
So it became very logically clear that this was my vocation.
00:24:28.086 --> 00:24:28.286
Yeah.
00:24:28.994 --> 00:24:32.085
So you go to Europe in Italy, was it?
00:24:32.355 --> 00:24:34.001
It was in Italy, in Florence, Italy.
00:24:34.335 --> 00:24:35.398
What were you doing there?
00:24:35.398 --> 00:24:37.204
I understand you went through some sort of program.
00:24:37.204 --> 00:24:40.525
Could you tell us what that program was for and what was the purpose?
00:24:45.795 --> 00:24:47.258
So it is formal formation to become a focal arena.
00:24:47.258 --> 00:25:00.815
That would be the vocation and we would study for half a day moral theology, sociology, the doctrine of the Catholic Church, and while I was there that's what we studied, and then half a day we would work.
00:25:00.815 --> 00:25:07.200
But the real formation, you could say, was living with women from all over the world.
00:25:07.200 --> 00:25:11.643
And in your daily life, what does unity look like?
00:25:11.643 --> 00:25:15.246
Are you willing to give up If the measure is ready?
00:25:15.246 --> 00:25:18.607
To give my life, am I willing to give up my culture?
00:25:18.607 --> 00:25:19.888
Am I willing to give up?
00:25:19.888 --> 00:25:24.352
And when you strip yourself of everything, you realize you're free.
00:25:24.352 --> 00:25:32.801
There's just this immense freedom from letting go of everything that and everything you are to be there for the other person.
00:25:32.801 --> 00:25:36.113
It's not an emptiness to be empty.
00:25:36.113 --> 00:25:41.713
It's an emptiness to fill yourself with the other person.
00:25:41.733 --> 00:25:41.815
Yeah.
00:25:41.815 --> 00:25:48.729
So it seems like it's kind of like a training ground to kind of become more of an integrated member of the Folkloric Movement.
00:25:48.934 --> 00:25:49.679
That's correct.
00:25:49.679 --> 00:25:55.288
Yeah, this is formal formation for those who live in community life in the Folkloric.
00:25:55.695 --> 00:25:59.506
I can see how Folkloric Movement has really integrated into your life.
00:25:59.506 --> 00:26:01.621
By this point, you said you worked as well.
00:26:01.621 --> 00:26:03.276
What was your job and career, your life?
00:26:03.276 --> 00:26:04.518
By this point, you said you worked as well.
00:26:04.597 --> 00:26:05.377
What was your job and career?
00:26:05.377 --> 00:26:13.526
So afternoon work hours I spent in a small art shop and I actually practiced my art.
00:26:13.526 --> 00:26:17.709
Yeah, I honed my skills in many ways.
00:26:17.829 --> 00:26:30.878
just different things painting, crafts, just anything to do with art yeah, designing designing designs for some of the other work, so I guess you took a break from software engineering for a little bit during that period.
00:26:30.878 --> 00:26:32.444
When did that come back for you?
00:26:33.468 --> 00:26:52.367
Then after that three-year period, I moved to Rome and I worked at the Focal Aries headquarters for 17 years as a software engineer and I was asked to actually from zero put together an IT shop and so also the server farm, the networking and yeah.
00:26:53.096 --> 00:26:57.098
Did you have any experience doing that in the past or was it kind of?
00:26:57.098 --> 00:26:59.826
You know, you were building your skills as you go.
00:27:00.777 --> 00:27:01.942
I had some experience.
00:27:01.942 --> 00:27:12.419
I had already worked at that point several years in the United States, and I think there was this kind of notion that if you're a software engineer then you can kind of do everything.
00:27:12.479 --> 00:27:13.119
That's very true.
00:27:13.982 --> 00:27:22.164
And it's not true, but that was the expectation, or that was what people thought, and so you ended up doing it and learning it.
00:27:22.164 --> 00:27:30.386
But and again, a little bit of what you said you know you also enjoy tech, and so I enjoyed it while I learned.
00:27:30.386 --> 00:27:30.626
Yeah.
00:27:31.056 --> 00:27:36.167
During those 17 years, did you ever think about going to a different job or a different kind of career?
00:27:36.875 --> 00:27:37.999
No, I didn't.
00:27:37.999 --> 00:27:39.924
I wasn't looking for something else.
00:27:41.198 --> 00:27:46.663
So previously you've worked at you know several different companies, but this one you stuck for 17 years.
00:27:46.663 --> 00:27:51.798
It's hard to believe that you had, you know, constant growth and engagement to keep you interested.
00:27:51.798 --> 00:27:57.622
Was there anything that changed in the middle or did you do a lot of different kind of types of software engineering?
00:27:58.103 --> 00:28:14.498
Actually, the anchor that kept me there, without even considering, was that Kara Lubick, who is the founder of the Folkloric Movement, actually lived in that same small town of Rokiti Papa, and she was a very charismatic woman.
00:28:14.498 --> 00:28:16.383
It was a very charismatic moment, you could say.
00:28:16.383 --> 00:28:37.226
She was also very simple, she had a wonderful sense of humor just a great person, and it was a moment, like you could say, an apex of what became the Folkloric Movement, and the creation of what became the Folkloric Movement happened to coincide with those 17 years, and I think that's kind of what I was drawn to.
00:28:37.226 --> 00:28:44.728
And then, yeah, I was also writing software at the international headquarters, but I wasn't really paying attention that 17 years went by.
00:28:45.476 --> 00:28:49.945
So after, I guess, the 17 years, you came back to the States.
00:28:50.646 --> 00:28:51.208
That's correct.
00:28:51.414 --> 00:28:57.347
What kind of gave you the push to come back to the States and how has that transitioned for you?
00:28:57.934 --> 00:29:02.423
In the Focolare because I'm a consecrated member and I'm not married.
00:29:02.423 --> 00:29:15.586
I'm much freer to say yes to other needs and again, I think I was driven by needs that were presented to me and there was a need for someone in Los Angeles.
00:29:15.586 --> 00:29:21.744
We have a women's house here in Los Angeles and I was asked would I move to Los Angeles?
00:29:21.744 --> 00:29:33.943
And I was very willing to move and so I also felt like maybe after 17 years all my family lived here in the States all those years and it would be nice to be a little closer to family.
00:29:34.875 --> 00:29:41.226
And when you came back, did you start working as a software engineer, or were you already an accountant by then?
00:29:41.625 --> 00:29:55.444
After about two months I got a job at USC and I worked there in the IT department as a software engineer and because of my background as an accountant, most of the software I wrote was financial software.
00:29:55.685 --> 00:29:59.201
Oh wow, I guess that kind of started your pivot into becoming an accountant.
00:29:59.634 --> 00:30:02.340
Yeah, you could say yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:30:02.634 --> 00:30:07.186
And then, after USC, you're transitioning into the role that you currently have as an accountant.
00:30:07.186 --> 00:30:09.221
How did you make that jump?
00:30:09.934 --> 00:30:23.943
I had been programming software my entire professional life and I had programmed accounting software, a lot of accounting software, but I never was the accountant.
00:30:23.943 --> 00:30:34.077
And I had that degree and there was a little bit of something inside of me that said I wonder if I could do that, you know.
00:30:34.077 --> 00:30:35.963
But I really, again, I really wasn't paying that much attention to that question.
00:30:35.963 --> 00:30:48.068
And an opportunity came up, also because of certain circumstances, where I was working and a job opening came up and I said and I remember asking the person who presented it to me, I said do you think you can do this?
00:30:48.068 --> 00:30:51.359
And she said well, you have a degree in accounting of course you can do it.
00:30:51.941 --> 00:30:56.116
And so I think there it was just like a leap into the unknown.
00:30:56.116 --> 00:30:57.419
I think every time it's a leap.
00:30:57.419 --> 00:30:59.843
When I moved to Europe, it was a leap into the unknown.
00:30:59.843 --> 00:31:02.748
When I moved to New York, it was a huge leap into the unknown.
00:31:02.748 --> 00:31:08.226
So yeah, and then here again, it was like this I wasn't sure, but I jumped.
00:31:08.575 --> 00:31:21.640
Yeah, I think it's super interesting that you know the degree you got way earlier in your career, ended up kind of helping you at this point and actually gave you the qualifications necessary to kind of move into this new career.
00:31:21.640 --> 00:31:30.776
I guess at the current state of your career you're spending a lot of time with Economy of Communion outside of your day job and all the career you had.
00:31:30.776 --> 00:31:39.602
Where do you find the motivation and what's the reason of putting so much time and effort into something else other than your day job?
00:31:40.063 --> 00:31:52.497
I guess you could say at this point in my life I've had successful careers not just career and very meaningful.
00:31:52.517 --> 00:31:52.856
And by meaningful.
00:31:52.876 --> 00:31:53.920
I mean, I really found pathways to help people.
00:31:53.920 --> 00:31:56.424
That was the driving force, you know, behind what I did.
00:31:56.424 --> 00:32:00.357
So now I feel like it's like almost a new chapter in my life.
00:32:00.357 --> 00:32:02.480
I've climbed the mountain of careers.
00:32:02.480 --> 00:32:05.885
I've done that well, I'm satisfied with what I did.
00:32:05.885 --> 00:32:16.438
But there's something inside of me that says, like this deep need to help people in need, like it's a different kind of mountain.
00:32:16.438 --> 00:32:25.090
Like, for example, a close friend of mine was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and she had open heart surgery recently and it accelerated her Alzheimer's.
00:32:25.090 --> 00:32:27.859
Like now she needs care all night long.
00:32:27.859 --> 00:32:36.464
So I go and just stay with her all night once a week, you know, and I'm able to keep my full-time job and do that and the EOC.
00:32:36.464 --> 00:32:40.077
But it's like that's important, that's like it's a need.
00:32:40.077 --> 00:32:48.530
I have to be there and get messy with the messiness of people's lives and get your hands dirty.
00:32:48.530 --> 00:32:50.540
It's a sacrifice.
00:32:50.540 --> 00:32:51.797
I don't know.
00:32:51.797 --> 00:32:54.865
I feel like that's the mountain I'd like to climb right now.
00:32:55.276 --> 00:33:00.407
I think it's really important for us to think about this as we're building out our careers.
00:33:00.407 --> 00:33:02.421
I think about this all the time.
00:33:02.421 --> 00:33:21.523
I'm working at a big tech company, you know, making changes to really big code bases, and that's all cool, but I do think about my impact to this world and you know how can I integrate helping others into my life other than you know thinking, oh, after I get rich I'll donate money.
00:33:21.523 --> 00:33:25.246
You know, I think that's too simple and we're losing out on opportunities.
00:33:25.246 --> 00:33:34.501
I guess, from your experience, what are the questions that you ask yourself to kind of motivate yourself to help others, to run it in parallel with your day job?
00:33:34.823 --> 00:33:35.786
That's a good question.
00:33:35.786 --> 00:33:44.826
I just said, you know, like I'd like to climb this mountain, but it's not some far-reaching goal.
00:33:44.826 --> 00:33:55.407
It kind of like translates into the present moment, Like how am I responding to what's in front of me right now?
00:33:55.407 --> 00:33:59.424
How am I responding to that irritating person that just walked by?
00:33:59.424 --> 00:34:04.487
And it's not so much what happens in the day, but how did I respond to it?
00:34:04.775 --> 00:34:18.465
For those who are kind of looking to you know do more in their career, not in terms of, you know, progressing their career, but like doing something meaningful outside of your day job, like what would be your advice and recommendation to kind of do that at the same time.
00:34:18.994 --> 00:34:22.255
I think that's why I'm so passionate about the economy of communion.
00:34:22.655 --> 00:34:26.782
Yeah, it's not my day job and it's about business.
00:34:26.782 --> 00:34:45.827
It's about working with businessmen, businesswomen, people who are engaged in business at every level, but the focus is the vulnerable and I think I didn't pay attention so much early on in my careers and then I started saying, well, what is that deepest, deepest desire in your heart?
00:34:45.827 --> 00:34:53.548
And it was there all along, like I had identified, you know, but I want to help people in need.
00:34:53.548 --> 00:34:55.639
But it was actually something much deeper.
00:34:55.639 --> 00:35:09.461
So I you know now I love my job as an accountant, but if I look deep inside, it's like I want to get my hands messy with the people and where they're struggling, you know.
00:35:09.461 --> 00:35:33.226
And when I identified that, then I would say try to find what that thing is inside of your heart and don't discount it just because it's in your heart, and listen to that and then find something that aligns with that and go for it and jump, yeah, jump, and it'll be dark and uncomfortable and feel kind of weird because it's something new, but then it'll respond to that.
00:35:33.315 --> 00:35:40.608
Do you feel like, for those who are struggling with their career in the first place, it would make sense to think about this at the same time?
00:35:40.608 --> 00:35:47.304
Or would you kind of recommend getting a hold of your career first and then thinking about these things, or maybe the other way?
00:35:47.795 --> 00:35:56.942
I think we're all looking for meaning meaning in our lives and I think it would be good to consider and try to align it from the beginning.
00:35:56.942 --> 00:35:58.284
Yeah, I think that would be.
00:35:58.284 --> 00:36:11.056
I think, deep down, where I work too, I work with a lot of people and you can see sometimes they're just not content with what they're doing and so they move on and you're just saying, well, find what you're content with.
00:36:11.056 --> 00:36:12.398
Yeah, that's important.
00:36:12.920 --> 00:36:27.422
I think today I learned a lot, and a few things I'm picking up is you know, find out what you're passionate about, not in terms of career or skills, or you know things you could do, but how you could help this world and who you can help.
00:36:28.344 --> 00:36:34.715
I think knowing that could actually set you on a path that you've never expected and onto careers that you've never expected you would ever do.
00:36:34.715 --> 00:36:36.260
I always do this too.
00:36:36.260 --> 00:36:46.307
I remember in high school I used to serve with doing service clubs and everything, but as I, you know, go into my career, I do that less and less.
00:36:46.307 --> 00:36:57.407
I want to change that, actually, and I'm inspired by you to kind of have something on the side where I'm doing something that's impactful to others and fulfilling the needs of others.
00:36:57.407 --> 00:37:04.257
Especially when you have, like, a career that's already set and you're comfortable with, I think there's enough time to help other people.
00:37:04.257 --> 00:37:05.780
So, thank you so much.
00:37:05.780 --> 00:37:06.862
I've learned so much today.
00:37:06.862 --> 00:37:12.081
I'm really excited to learn more about the economy of communion and how that's going to pan out.
00:37:12.081 --> 00:37:19.106
It's such an interesting movement, so I think I'm really excited to see how that's going to work out for these many businesses.
00:37:19.916 --> 00:37:20.458
Thank you.
00:37:20.458 --> 00:37:21.342
Thank you for having me.
00:37:21.775 --> 00:37:22.195
Awesome, thank you.
00:37:22.195 --> 00:37:22.394
Thank you.
00:37:22.394 --> 00:37:29.420
Thank you for having me awesome, thank you.
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