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00:00:06.956And the whole time, my whole body was like, oh, my God, I want to teach entrepreneurship.
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00:00:10.996First of all, I'd never taken a business class ever in my entire life.
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00:00:15.416I hadn't been in front. I hadn't been in a classroom since 1996.
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00:00:20.657And then two weeks later, I meet Nina and she tells and she asks me if I want to do this.
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00:00:24.016So so I just had all these green flags that were like, you should do this.
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00:00:26.757And I just I love it so much.
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00:00:29.797Hi, guys. Welcome to.
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00:00:37.502I think so. I think so.
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00:00:38.582Because then we can yell.
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00:00:39.521We can yell.
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00:00:47.462I feel like I have a fake loud voice. Because if I actually screamed right now, I would be super loud.
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00:01:27.057Julie teaches with me in social innovation and entrepreneurship, and she brings a wealth of experience from her amazing career journey, from an assistant manager at Starbucks in Chicago while she was still in high school, through founding an amazing global company to transitioning into mentoring and many, many other things.
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00:01:53.838She has been an impact focused entrepreneur since day one but what you'll learn from her story is she might not have known that from the beginning so let's jump in and hear from julie meyer So welcome. Thanks so much for joining us. It would be really great if you could kick off by introducing yourself.
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00:02:01.599And let's just acknowledge that this is really weird because we see each other and have these conversations all the time because we work together.
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00:02:10.579So I think it's really fun to acknowledge that it's a bit awkward all of a sudden having the cameras on or the recording on, but I'm sure we're relaxing and get into it a little bit.
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00:02:16.718100%. 100%. It is an absolute pleasure to be here with you, Nikki.
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00:02:20.959And I tell you this all the time, how grateful I am that you appeared in my life.
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00:02:27.998It has been such a treat to learn from you and to work with you and to experience this new part of my career with you.
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00:02:32.038And when you said you were doing a podcast, I was like, that's so cool.
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00:02:37.258I can't wait to hear more. And I hope one day she asks me to be a guest. And here I am.
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00:02:38.438You're a guest, nine.
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00:02:42.058I manifested it. Lucky nine. Woo-hoo. Amazing.
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00:02:45.859So it is a thrill. It is a thrill. I'm very excited for this conversation.
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00:02:47.378I'm very excited for this podcast that you started.
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00:02:52.419Awesome. All right. And do you remember how we met?
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00:02:58.778I know you said you're excited that I'm in your life and ditto, but do you remember how we met? Because I actually don't.
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00:03:09.278I think I came, I think I was sitting outside your office because I didn't have an office. So we sit in, we work at Northeastern University in the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Department.
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00:03:13.998And there's a multiple of offices with doors and all that.
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00:03:20.459And then the lowly adjuncts at that time had kind of a shared space outside of the office.
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00:03:24.218And I wasn't there that much. That was fine. And I think your door was open.
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00:03:26.079And I think I just peeked my head in and said hi.
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00:03:47.719And you turned around and then you were like, so cool and australian and just like full of energy and we just started chatting and i think we started immediately annoying all of our colleagues yeah i think they were like oh no oh no these two laugh they are happy we.
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00:03:58.960Have fun in the Office they're having fun they're joking and this might not be a good thing but but i think we i think a lot of them have come around on enjoying our infectious energy and laughter.
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00:04:04.180I would agree with that. I honestly feel like there's a lot more energy around the office now.
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00:04:08.979We led the charge with that, which is really amazing. Okay.
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00:04:10.960You're welcome, Northeastern University.
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00:04:13.400Entrepreneurship and innovation.
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00:04:14.780Exactly, exactly.
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00:04:28.220Oh my gosh, so funny. So I guess the origins of this podcast for me was around having a better understanding of career journeys, particularly in this social impact space.
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00:04:35.939Because often I found like my experience was that social innovation, social enterprise didn't exist as a thing.
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00:04:43.500When I was graduating, you were either in the not-for-profit or the for-profit world. There wasn't really a mix of both.
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00:04:56.750And so I think slowly at some point, probably in my late 20s, the social innovation entrepreneurship impact space became like a fourth space and no one was educated in it.
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00:05:02.211Everyone just kind of like went, oh, this seems to be the thing that I'm already trying to work out for myself.
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00:05:05.690And so we all kind of like jumped in.
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00:05:18.711And now we have like we're both professors in social innovation and entrepreneurship and there's a whole like industry and students come and study specifically to do this.
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00:05:23.670But the pathway isn't as clear as, hey, you want to be a lawyer?
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00:05:27.831Here's the 10 steps that you take to be a partner in a law firm one day or whatever.
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00:05:43.011It's really unclear because it is very open. So I wanted to create this podcast as a way of showing different journeys and how they go in the ebbs and flows and how you really have to cobble it together and trust the process.
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00:05:43.831Yes.
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00:05:57.050So can you tell me a little bit about like what you studied at university and then how you got from university to kind of being in the impact space and maybe where in that process you actually realize you were in the impact space?
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00:06:01.550That is the best part of the question because it was very, very far into the journey.
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00:06:10.810I'm a little bit older than you are, not that old, but a little bit older than you are. So for me, it was even later that impact became kind of a word or a thing.
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00:06:15.391But just starting off in my background, I actually was an international relations major.
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00:06:20.531And I think I found I was not a good student.
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00:06:27.047I was actually a terrible student. I actually was a horrible, no good, bad student.
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00:06:31.007And I think it was actually because I didn't really love school.
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00:06:35.226I loved to work. I started working when I was in eighth grade.
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00:06:38.846I had eight jobs by the time I graduated from high school.
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00:06:44.206And the most impactful for me was actually I started working at Starbucks in 1991 in high school.
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00:06:50.687I'd worked at a different coffee shop, and they opened the 26th Starbucks in the country in the first in Chicago.
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00:06:54.047And I loved it so much, I became an assistant manager.
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00:06:55.166At a high school?
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00:07:06.726Yes. I would ride my bike in Chicago, winters like this, to the store at 530 in the morning, open it, drink, you know, eight tons of coffee, go to high school, come back and close the store. And I had keys to the store.
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00:07:17.966And my senior year of high school, they flew every assistant manager and manager to Seattle to meet Howard Schultz when they opened the 100th store, and we all got $100.
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00:07:38.127And it really changed my life. So at that moment, as, you know, a 17-year-old who didn't love school but kind of knew, like, work was really, like, my spot, to see this amazing businessman, obviously he's not, I mean, he's basically an entrepreneur and basically, you know, a social impact person.
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00:07:43.384Business person talk about the meaning of what Starbucks was at that time.
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00:07:44.684And they opened the hundredth store.
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00:07:55.124Imagine totally changed the game for me. And I actually really took school a lot more seriously and figured, you know, this is probably my best ticket.
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00:07:59.363And I graduated working initially in public relations.
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00:08:07.283That was actually my first career at a big global PR agency, Ogilvy Public Relations in Chicago, which is where I'm from.
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00:08:17.043And when I got there, you know, as a new grad, and they were like, well, we could put you on the Quaker account, or we could put you on Oracle, Quaker Oats or Oracle.
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00:08:23.944And luckily, I ended up on Quaker. And I found this whole career of nutrition communication.
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00:08:27.644So basically communicating about the health benefits of food.
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00:08:35.683I had always, you know, been tracking nutrition and food and health and all that as well, but I also was really interested in business.
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00:08:43.183So this was the first time that there was a food-specific health claim on a tube of oatmeal saying that oats will lower cholesterol. That was my first project.
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00:08:48.144So I worked with all these global researchers. I worked with, you know, folks at the FDA.
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00:08:52.303I didn't, you know, our group was working with them to talk about the health benefits of oatmeal.
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00:08:58.764And then we did these really fun consumer activations, getting people to eat oatmeal every day for 30 days or their cholesterol. And I was like hooked.
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00:09:30.601But Nikki, The one thing I hated was, working for somebody else because both my parents are professional services business owners and I am an only child and they're only children and I just came from a very hard-working family of business owners so the fact that I had a boss that would tell me what to do and I had to go to the same place five days in a row Nikki I went Monday Tuesday and they were like you have to come back on Wednesday I was like I was literally just here for two days I don't understand and then two more days after that, five in a row.
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00:09:33.961So at 24, I was like, you know what? This isn't for me. Peace out.
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00:09:35.822I'm going to go start my own consulting practice.
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00:09:40.961Did I just mention I was 24 years old? Okay. Like what I thought I was consulting on?
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00:09:45.461I don't even know, but it didn't matter. I was like, I'm out of here.
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00:09:58.142So I took my nutrition, my two years of nutrition communications at the PR agency and started my own little consultancy. And I was consulting for different PR agencies and food companies. I went back to school to become a dietician so I could be really specialized.
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00:10:02.142So I think the impact of health and food.
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00:10:08.272And business was the first time, you know, that was like what that was.
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00:10:14.552But I had absolutely no clue that there was a word for it, that there was a purpose for what I was doing.
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00:10:23.731So I don't, you know, I can go on forever. But basically, I ended up taking that concept. I lived in China. So I started a business there called Eat Well Shanghai.
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00:10:34.292And I worked with Chinese companies that were looking to sell healthier food to foreigners living in China. and ended up working with international companies looking to connect with the Chinese market.
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00:10:48.371And I saw this global need. So I started a company from there called Eat Well Global, which is a specialized consulting firm that works in nutrition and sustainability strategy and communications for the biggest food companies on the planet.
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00:10:54.172So everybody from PepsiCo to Unilever to McDonald's to the American Egg Board, etc.
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00:11:04.351And our work is really focused on helping those organizations create a sustainable nutrition strategy and implement and communicate that strategy.
00:11:04.611 -->
00:11:11.912So we helped companies like PepsiCo transform their portfolio for reduced fat, reduced sugar, reduced sodium.
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00:11:22.892We helped organizations develop nutrients to add to their products, to make some of their products more nutritious, more affordable, etc. And we provided that strategy.
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00:11:29.072Wow, so good. So you were a social entrepreneur and impact entrepreneur before you even knew what that was.
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00:11:46.880I literally had no idea. And the main part of my story around this I really have to share is that, Not only did I not know, I don't know if I would if you if you said here are five things that are important that you need to think about as a business owner, impact would have not even probably been on that top five.
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00:11:54.240But I had a business partner who I met and we started working together and integrated to the business.
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00:11:58.701Erin Kappelhoff, who would be an amazing guest for your podcast based in Amsterdam.
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00:12:07.341And she is like totally focused on this and she really helped me see the benefit of.
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00:13:02.693Having that impact focus as part of our business or actually not even just the benefit but really like seeing that our work was impact work i just don't think i saw it and she was our champion in 2017 to say we have to become a certified b corp this new thing has emerged like here's what we have to do and i was like this is ridiculous it's gonna take so much time it's gonna take so much money i don't understand she'd have to keep selling me over and over again so erin shout out to you because you were you were you were very like adamant and I could be tough to negotiate with she's smiling right now and you created the impact yes she really did she's amazing and she runs the company now and she yeah so we became a b corp and we were able to talk about that and then I got to know a little bit more about it and you know I think that's it's it's hard I tell my students at the beginning. I teach global social enterprise.
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00:13:09.693I tell my students at the very beginning of the class, this is not easy and this isn't for everybody. And that's OK.
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00:13:16.094You know, I think to say like all businesses can make an impact and all businesses should make an impact and you should always be thinking of impact.
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00:13:27.453You know, I don't know if that is for everybody, but I think when you are able to balance the business and the impact, wow, that is like next level.
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00:13:35.793And it's just been so cool to see this, to your point, become a discipline, become something students come to learn about, be something that there's academic research on.
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00:13:39.453There's huge communities around it. So I think that's really exciting.
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00:13:46.908I love that your journey into this space was almost from the opposite for me.
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00:14:06.528I kind of came into this space from the not-for-profit sector and was a little bit disgruntled with the mismanagement of the ridiculous amounts of money that this very large not-for-profit had because of its status and how long it has existed and all the people that knew about it and knew it did good work.
00:14:06.528 -->
00:14:14.687But we were doing the same thing we were doing when the organization was founded 109 years ago. Without questioning...
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00:14:43.110Whether that was still relevant and so when I little 23 year old manager of the youth department came in and went well like why are we still doing this it was almost sacrilege and so I kind of came into this like impact space or the business and doing good with business space from almost that other side yeah I wanted to do good with my career and then realize that there was a need to put business principles behind it.
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00:14:46.071And it's almost like you got pulled in.
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00:14:51.390Yes, I wanted to make money first. I just wanted to make a big business that my dad was going to be proud of me for.
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00:14:55.331Right. Yeah, and then it was like, oh, okay. Well, I don't know.
00:14:55.431 -->
00:14:59.130Let's try it. To your point. I think we need everybody in the space.
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00:15:06.591100%. Yeah. I think that's what's really cool about it. And I talked to my students a little bit about the need to be middleware.
00:15:06.910 -->
00:15:14.410So that is a very technology term. And I have to shout out my former boss, Wes, from Fractera for that one.
00:15:14.730 -->
00:15:24.110He always used to tell me like there was a season, I think it was in the 80s or 90s, where middleware, which was like technology that helped other technologies talk to each other, became really popular.
00:15:24.510 -->
00:15:27.211And then everybody decided that they wanted to build their own.
00:15:27.211 -->
00:15:29.811And so there was no middleware. And then it was coming back or whatever.
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00:15:32.951Anyway, he used to nerd out and talk to me about that all the time.
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00:15:48.370But then there was this one day that I was like, wow, social innovators really need to be middleware. They really need to be able to talk the language of business and language of not-for-profit, language of government and the language of impact and almost like pull everybody together and help them talk to each other.
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00:16:02.466And so I feel like it would have been really funny if we'd had a conversation 15 years ago because we probably would have been like not understanding each other because I was a little not-for-profit girl trying to top the social entrepreneurship game.
00:16:02.605 -->
00:16:04.525And you were like, hey, let's just make money.
00:16:04.666 -->
00:16:07.725And yeah, if we make an impact, great. But now here we are.
00:16:07.865 -->
00:16:09.326And now here we are. Exactly.
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00:16:15.645The social innovation and entrepreneurship department of a business school.
00:16:16.645 -->
00:16:23.525You know what? The one thing is that you never know where you're going to end up. It is always not what you expect.
00:16:23.826 -->
00:16:31.586But the other thought made me think quite a bit about, I think, a lot of the conversations Erin and I had over time. I can be much more black and white.
00:16:31.826 -->
00:16:35.285And Erin was much more comfortable with the gray, is much more comfortable with the gray.
00:16:35.285 -->
00:16:48.826And so I know for me, a challenge in social innovation and social entrepreneurship and social enterprise is being much more comfortable in the gray, being less like, nope, it's like this or like this.
00:16:48.926 -->
00:16:52.306And that's something that I feel like I've really evolved to over time.
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00:17:00.666And that's a little bit what I'm saying. I mean, you know, there's my students at the end of class, I can't tell you how many times I'm like, well, net net, it's complicated.
00:17:00.846 -->
00:17:05.346You know, like they do current event presentations, all of them.
00:17:05.445 -->
00:17:09.385So they talk about all different kinds of things. I mean, we've had such interesting presentation.
00:17:09.586 -->
00:17:16.605There's so much going on in the space. And, you know, the questions often at the end are like, is this a good thing or a bad thing? Is this marketing or is this actually making an impact?
00:17:16.905 -->
00:17:19.405Is this, you know, and it's like both things.
00:17:19.999 -->
00:17:26.118Both. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. This is good. And it is also bad.
00:17:26.919 -->
00:17:28.519At the same time.
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00:17:35.659Yeah. Paradox. Yeah. So I think I think being comfortable that that's been a good growth opportunity for me as well.
00:17:36.078 -->
00:17:49.618Yeah, that's that's so great. So how did you get from Eat Well Global to running into me at Eastern University as an adjunct professor of innovation?
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00:18:00.858Well, just like I said, Nikki, there is a moment, and it's so hard to teach young people this, to teach our students this.
00:18:01.439 -->
00:18:05.979There is your idea of your path, and there is the universe's idea of your path.
00:18:06.578 -->
00:18:10.358And there have been things that have happened to me in the last two years that I cannot explain.
00:18:10.618 -->
00:18:17.358And I don't mean like, you know, super metaphysical, like, you know, things appearing out of nowhere, like, you know, aliens coming down.
00:18:17.519 -->
00:18:22.558But there has been so many flags on my path that led me to doing this.
00:18:22.558 -->
00:18:26.699So while I was running Eat Well Global around 2021.
00:18:27.439 -->
00:18:43.499I actually had been doing it for quite some time and I realized that I probably have a deep entrepreneurial spirit that maybe wasn't beneficial to a consulting firm that is very specialized and niche and really on its way.
00:18:43.499 -->
00:18:59.174So I come up with a lot of ideas and I think there was a point where I needed a place to, manifest those ideas that wasn't within this company, because it didn't really need that. So I started another business.
00:18:59.355 -->
00:19:09.414I met Jimmy Edgerton, who is the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Director at the Tufts Friedman School, which is the nutrition graduate school at Tufts University just down the road.
00:19:09.755 -->
00:19:15.795And we realized we both really loved mentoring. That was like a topic that we both really cared about. It was the pandemic.
00:19:15.974 -->
00:19:24.154We were at home and we started a podcast called Augmentors, which actually was a number one mentoring podcast on the HubSpot Podcast Network.
00:19:25.115 -->
00:19:33.055Shout out HubSpot. And that was a really fun way to just start like getting just back to my entrepreneurial roots. And I realized how much I enjoyed it.
00:19:33.474 -->
00:19:45.515With Augmentors, along with our podcast, we also did consulting for institutions around creating really customized, beautiful, tailored strategic mentoring programs to help people get from point A to point B.
00:19:45.615 -->
00:19:50.015And higher education was our customer category. So that's where we were seeing a lot of traction.
00:19:50.194 -->
00:19:53.954We did big projects with quite a few universities in 2023, 2022, 2023.
00:19:54.555 -->
00:20:01.414And I happened to be at a meeting where Samina, who is our department chair, was also there.
00:20:01.575 -->
00:20:06.154This was actually, I'm on the advisory board of a nonprofit called Hunger to Health Collaboratory.
00:20:06.275 -->
00:20:10.414Samina happened to come because her mentor happened to be the person who was a strategic planner.
00:20:10.734 -->
00:20:17.494I happened to be sitting near her. And I thought Northeastern would be a great client for Augmenter.
00:20:17.595 -->
00:20:22.375So I thought, well, I got to impress this woman because I am going to go sell her and that's going to be our next big university.
00:20:22.654 -->
00:20:26.595So I schmoozed her. I took her to coffee and I was trying to sell.
00:20:26.674 -->
00:20:32.795I spent the whole time talking about mentoring. And you could tell she was like, I don't really want to talk about this with you. And she kept trying to change the subject, talk about other things.
00:20:33.075 -->
00:20:36.575But, you know, I'm a salesperson, as you know, so I'm like focused on that.
00:20:36.875 -->
00:20:44.474And at the end of the conversation, she said, you know, I don't really want whatever it is that you're selling. in a very nice way because she's like the nicest person.
00:20:44.734 -->
00:20:52.194And then she said, but have you ever thought of teaching? You'd be a really great professor and we're looking for somebody in social innovation.
00:20:52.295 -->
00:20:53.214So she's so deep.
00:20:53.936 -->
00:20:58.477She sold me. And I walked out of that meeting going, oh, my God.
00:20:58.576 -->
00:21:00.217And you know what is the craziest thing, Nikki?
00:21:00.436 -->
00:21:08.916Two weeks prior, I had a entrepreneurship professor from Princeton on our podcast who had a whole massive career in media.
00:21:09.176 -->
00:21:11.916This amazing woman telling us about what she was doing at Princeton.
00:21:12.096 -->
00:21:18.936And the whole time, my whole body was like, oh, my God, I want to teach entrepreneurship.
00:21:19.517 -->
00:21:22.977First of all, I've never taken a business class ever in my entire life.
00:21:22.977 -->
00:21:27.356I hadn't been in front—I hadn't been in a classroom since 1996—.
00:21:28.730 -->
00:21:32.651And then two weeks later, I meet Samina and she tells and she asked me if I want to do this.
00:21:32.730 -->
00:21:36.010So so I just had all these green flags that were like, you should do this.
00:21:36.070 -->
00:21:38.730And I just I love it so much.
00:21:38.971 -->
00:21:47.270My first semester, I just had the best group of students and I am still close with so many of them.
00:21:47.431 -->
00:21:53.030And I hope some of them listen to this podcast because I they know how much they meant to me.
00:21:53.250 -->
00:22:02.030I love it so much. So and then with Augmentors, you know, we ended up, you know, a lot of higher ed was kind of cutting back on what they were spending money on.
00:22:02.171 -->
00:22:05.810And I realized I really also love go to market strategy and sales coaching.
00:22:05.810 -->
00:22:08.711That's kind of my, you know, I've always been really in business development.
00:22:08.871 -->
00:22:23.290So along with teaching at Northeastern, I'm also I started a company called Connection 151 that does go to market strategy and sales coaching for B2B businesses, professional services businesses, you know, different AI tools, etc.
00:22:23.290 -->
00:22:27.570So I get to like support my students and I get to support my clients, which is like a really nice mix.
00:22:27.750 -->
00:22:31.990And you have a professional services consulting firm now.
00:22:32.290 -->
00:22:34.270Yes, exactly. Exactly.
00:22:34.631 -->
00:22:35.611Full circle moment.
00:22:36.090 -->
00:22:40.230Exactly. I am now a professional services business person. Yes.
00:22:40.290 -->
00:22:43.111Which I guess I always I always have been in one way or another.
00:22:43.250 -->
00:22:46.330I think I just love giving people advice and I can't believe I can get paid to do it.
00:22:46.471 -->
00:22:47.151So good.
00:22:47.371 -->
00:22:47.590Yeah.
00:22:47.871 -->
00:22:51.530And I think you said that you hadn't ever been in a business class.
00:22:51.530 -->
00:22:58.010But why I think Northeastern is so perfect, you learn business experientially, right?
00:22:58.171 -->
00:23:01.810And that's what we're all about. So I think it was the perfect fit.
00:23:02.010 -->
00:23:07.330And I have to say, like, I'm getting goosebumps. Like, I just think the students are amazing.
00:23:07.631 -->
00:23:10.770They are so serious. Yeah.
00:23:11.861 -->
00:23:21.340In the best possible way, like they really are motivated and they really like they take what they're doing really seriously.
00:23:21.721 -->
00:23:26.320And I think that is just like I'm super inspired by them all the time.
00:23:26.580 -->
00:23:29.901Again, feel like I just landed in the exact right spot for me.
00:23:30.480 -->
00:23:32.340Yeah, that's so great. I love that.
00:23:32.952 -->
00:23:47.252Being where you are now, being a professor, which me being a professor, like, never dreamed that this would be a thing until I was working on a professional, in a professional role at a university in Australia.
00:23:47.532 -->
00:23:50.573And I met a 90-year-old economics professor.
00:23:51.032 -->
00:23:58.873And he was just high on life, loving what he did. I'm pretty sure he probably had a TA grading his assignments at that point.
00:23:59.893 -->
00:24:07.833Shout out TAs we don't have. I was like, being a professor is my retirement plan. Like, and this is little 20, probably 26 year old.
00:24:08.813 -->
00:24:11.853Being a professor, that sounds, that looks like a great retirement plan.
00:24:12.272 -->
00:24:15.432And I just got there a little early. I was just debated.
00:24:15.712 -->
00:24:22.153But it was just never anything that I dreamed of, whereas it kind of seems like the same for you. But it's like the best.
00:24:22.553 -->
00:24:25.813Well, and I love, you say this all the time. You're like, this is the best job in the world.
00:24:25.972 -->
00:24:28.413And there's quite a few people in our department who say that.
00:24:28.532 -->
00:24:30.292Like, this is the best job in the world.
00:24:30.292 -->
00:24:44.292And I have to be honest, just I know I can like get really choked up, but I've gotten such like sweet notes recently, like not even just sweet, but really like, hey, I'm thinking about things differently because of what you taught me in my class.
00:24:44.292 -->
00:24:46.333And we have a lot in our courses.
00:24:46.353 -->
00:24:50.913We have a lot of, I'm sure finance is like the number one concentration in our business school.
00:24:51.093 -->
00:25:06.613So we have kids that are like, you know, consulting, banking, finance, and getting them to think differently about impact and whether or not they decide to go on to be social entrepreneurs or work in the impact investment space.
00:25:06.613 -->
00:25:11.813The fact that they have this foundation is going to change how they interact within their business.
00:25:12.073 -->
00:25:16.593So whether they're like, hey, when they're the CEO, they're like, we need to have a social impact.
00:25:16.913 -->
00:25:24.032You know, we need to have like corporate social innovation or, you know, I think it just plants seeds that we don't have any idea how they're going to end up.
00:25:24.133 -->
00:25:26.593Of course, that's impact. But when you talk about purpose...
00:25:27.128 -->
00:25:30.749It's hard to it's hard to be like, this isn't purposeful.
00:25:31.749 -->
00:25:33.749Yeah. Oh, yeah, absolutely.
00:25:33.929 -->
00:25:48.689It's hard to question what you're doing every day. You know, like it is very it's very direct to be able to see the impact I think that you're making, which is which is great because sometimes you can toil away in a business forever and it's hard to see what the direct impact is for that. Yeah.
00:25:49.048 -->
00:25:51.689No, we definitely see our impact good or bad.
00:25:51.949 -->
00:25:52.568Yes. Yes.
00:25:53.628 -->
00:26:23.388Because they tell us if it's bad. which is great yes exactly exactly yeah no i love that and i i totally agree with you i'm like if you want to go out like one of my students were just saying in class today like he's going to be a banker yeah but he's like how cool is it going to be to get to change the system from the inside and i love that as well because i'm like i think about it like we've got this little stealth army going out into the world that are passionate about doing good with their skills and And slowly the tables will turn.
00:26:24.469 -->
00:26:29.388And we have our students are doers. Like there is no joke that there is no doubt they will be doing.
00:26:29.669 -->
00:26:35.669Yeah. They will absolutely be doing. And to your point, if they can be doing something and we don't even know what that's going to look like.
00:26:35.808 -->
00:26:38.048And to your point, it could be small or it could be really huge.
00:26:38.449 -->
00:26:38.648Yeah.
00:26:38.989 -->
00:26:39.568We don't know.
00:26:40.660 -->
00:26:45.000It's going to be huge as they all add their little bit. Yeah.
00:26:45.180 -->
00:26:46.960Yeah. Which is really exciting. Yeah.
00:26:47.220 -->
00:26:51.640Yeah. I love hearing, like, I'm five years in now, almost five years in.
00:26:51.880 -->
00:27:01.019So speaking to some of the students that I had way at the beginning, like, it's really cool to, like, see where they are five years into their career and what they're doing and where they're pivoting and all of that sort of stuff.
00:27:01.160 -->
00:27:08.119So I love that. I'll be getting a few of them on the podcast soon. Yay! That will be great. Yeah. The alumni network.
00:27:08.359 -->
00:27:18.880Yes, it's so good. Okay, so, you know, we all have those moments where we're younger, where maybe hindsight would offer us a little bit of perspective.
00:27:19.519 -->
00:27:27.140So I've been thinking specifically about that, like early 20s, bumbling out of university, trying to work out where you are in the world.
00:27:27.579 -->
00:27:35.039If you could like tell that version of yourself something or some advice or whatever, what would you say to her?
00:27:35.039 -->
00:27:41.799You know, I never would have guessed that I was going to be a success.
00:27:42.579 -->
00:27:47.619I really never would have guessed that I was going to have a lot of success. I think I.
00:27:47.880 -->
00:27:55.099You were an assistant manager at a small box at 17 and you thought you went to be a success. I'm sorry, but that's amazing.
00:27:55.099 -->
00:28:05.339I really like, yeah, I just kind of, I think because, again, I did like so poorly in school. I think that I really, you know, and I had like tried athletics.
00:28:05.740 -->
00:28:12.500I'm super tall. Like, I should have been an athlete, you know, but I was like, I didn't really, it didn't really click right away.
00:28:12.980 -->
00:28:16.940You know, I just felt like a, not a loser, but like, not a winner.
00:28:17.980 -->
00:28:24.220Let's just say. Just in the pack. Yeah, but like kind of towards the bottom.
00:28:24.500 -->
00:28:31.160And so I think I would, I wished I had thought more highly of myself earlier on.
00:28:32.315 -->
00:28:34.714Although at the same time, I've always been a bit of an underdog.
00:28:34.934 -->
00:28:40.994You know, I'm always kind of trying to prove to prove to my earlier self that I can do it.
00:28:41.154 -->
00:28:44.755So I think, you know, your story always evolves the way it does.
00:28:44.954 -->
00:28:48.974But I would tell her like, oh, my God, you've got this.
00:28:49.174 -->
00:28:54.474Like, you have got this and you need to think better of yourself.
00:28:55.035 -->
00:29:34.674Yeah um and it took a while I would say for me you know once I was Really able to dig into work I think it helped me a lot I think being in school wasn't the best thing for me so it's very very very very ironic that now I'm teaching at a university I did fine in college I did fine in college and I ended up graduating from Tufts so so like you know I kind of pulled it together towards the end there but yeah you know I don't want you to worry but I you know And I wish I was taking classes on entrepreneurship or social enterprise, or I wish I was able to use maybe what some of my skills were that were different than, you know, being able to take multiple choice tests or, you know, sit quietly for hours at a time.
00:29:35.035 -->
00:29:45.255Yeah. But I mean, the great thing about school and maybe not being so great at school is that you're probably making school better for people like us.
00:29:45.394 -->
00:29:45.535Yes.
00:29:45.974 -->
00:29:48.835As a professor, you know, like...
00:29:49.490 -->
00:29:59.671Honestly, with everything, like with social media, with AI and all of that sort of stuff, I find like attention span isn't what it used to be for all of us. Yeah.
00:29:59.891 -->
00:30:05.530You know, and I know sometimes everyone kind of pins out on the next generation and I'm like, have you looked in the mirror lately?
00:30:05.770 -->
00:30:10.931Like, I think we're all kind of bought into this stuff at this point and it's impacting all of us.
00:30:11.191 -->
00:30:11.330Yeah.
00:30:11.330 -->
00:30:20.590And I think it needs to be done differently and it needs to be done for somebody that maybe can't sit there and read a 20-page article and be like, hmm, I'm pondering philosophy.
00:30:21.151 -->
00:30:21.590Yeah.
00:30:22.191 -->
00:30:44.122So I think you having that experience that you have, but being clearly very successful at this thing that we teach, you can kind of make it better for the ones that are going through that might be a little bit more like you and not be just fully book smarts because that's not That doesn't translate to success in entrepreneurship specifically, right? Yes.
00:30:44.461 -->
00:30:51.281No. Being able to take multiple choice tests is not a predictive of how you're going to succeed as an entrepreneur.
00:30:52.501 -->
00:30:54.602Either it's writing a really great essay.
00:30:55.882 -->
00:30:59.902Exactly. Exactly. Because nobody's going to read it. Well, and I love how you say that.
00:31:00.021 -->
00:31:05.821Thank you for that. Because for me and for my students, you know, I am so like I want to know who you are.
00:31:06.201 -->
00:31:14.122And I want you to know who you are. I start off a lot of my classes, as you know, with a writing exercise with a pen and a piece of paper and a prompt.
00:31:14.301 -->
00:31:19.481And I give them 15 minutes to just write about what do they think of this topic?
00:31:19.642 -->
00:31:20.781Like, what do they think of something?
00:31:21.142 -->
00:31:31.741And connect to really kind of encourage them to get to know themselves better and get to really know what do they care about. So their projects are really focused on like, what is it that they really care about?
00:31:31.902 -->
00:31:36.362How do they work together to bring this on this enterprise into life?
00:31:36.521 -->
00:31:40.721So I really want them to, you know, and I have daughters that are 20.
00:31:41.182 -->
00:31:44.862My younger daughter is about to be 21. I can't believe it. Shots all around.
00:31:45.301 -->
00:31:53.942And my older daughter is 23. And I think I've been very focused with them on really just, you know, understanding who they are and what do they need and what is important to them?
00:31:54.281 -->
00:31:59.781What do they care about? What can they live with and what can they not live with? And then how do they present that to the world?
00:32:00.162 -->
00:32:11.469My students also all have to do presentations and they all, you know, like, Get up there and say, you know, who are you? Who are you presenting to this class of people and who are you as a person?
00:32:11.749 -->
00:32:18.709And I think helping them really develop that at this point is going to be probably the most beneficial to them.
00:32:19.729 -->
00:32:26.108They've all been great. You know, to get into Northeastern is like, forget it. You have to the hurdles. So I know they're good at test taking.
00:32:26.348 -->
00:32:29.469I know they're good at, you know, memorizing and regurgitating.
00:32:29.689 -->
00:32:34.548But do they know who they are? and how can, you know, you help them tap into that?
00:32:34.909 -->
00:32:45.269Yeah. One of the phrases that my students probably and probably everybody else I know as well, hear me say quite a bit is, how you show up in the world is more important than what you do.
00:32:45.489 -->
00:32:48.669And if you don't know who you are, how do you know how you're showing up?
00:32:49.989 -->
00:32:51.148Yeah, I love it.
00:32:51.288 -->
00:32:52.469I love that too.
00:32:52.669 -->
00:32:54.808I love that our students get both of our crazies.
00:32:55.209 -->
00:32:55.269Yeah.
00:32:56.413 -->
00:33:02.114Well, I'm so excited now that I can just give them this podcast at the beginning of the semester and be like, please listen to this.
00:33:02.354 -->
00:33:03.394Because we're awesome.
00:33:03.794 -->
00:33:08.834Yes, please listen to this. This is my expectations of you. And this is the philosophy that you're coming in with.
00:33:09.153 -->
00:33:22.173Yeah. But I think, yeah, no, I think that that is, you know, you also I know it's so cheesy, but, you know, people want to do business with people that they like and they want to do business with people whose values align with theirs.
00:33:22.173 -->
00:33:35.094I think when I immediately met you, you know, not only are you brilliant and not only are you a fantastic professor, but you're just a lot of fun and you bring good energy and you bring interesting ideas and you always have something new that you're doing and we go do fun stuff together.
00:33:35.094 -->
00:33:47.334And, like, you know, I think that helping foster that sense of for their students to be somebody who's doing something that you care about so that you are able to bring that great energy.
00:33:47.614 -->
00:33:55.773You're able to be somebody, you know, an investor is like, oh, my God, this kid is so amped up about this clean water initiative in this country.
00:33:55.773 -->
00:33:58.034I can't believe it. Like, fine.
00:33:58.334 -->
00:33:58.814Let's give him a go.
00:33:58.993 -->
00:34:03.913Fine. Like, just here's the money. Go do it. I'm in. You know?
00:34:03.913 -->
00:34:06.473Versus somebody who is...
00:34:06.964 -->
00:34:14.864You know, kind of not bought in and or, you know, drowning in facts, but like, you know, again, tapping into like, what is their authentic self?
00:34:15.005 -->
00:34:22.985And I think, you know, we cannot possibly do a podcast of any kind without talking about AI at some point, but not, you know, who are you?
00:34:23.844 -->
00:34:31.804Use AI all you want. That's great. But like, who are you? And who is the person that is showing up in the world?
00:34:32.025 -->
00:34:43.864So, yeah, I think that's really, really important. And I appreciate that our university values that our university values like you know these kids as individuals and what kind of contribution they're going to make.
00:34:43.864 -->
00:35:31.724Yeah totally i think i love that also the university is really focused on like utilizing ai for its capability but also realizing that you as a human do work differently now or you as a human are the one that has the human value yeah um and yeah i found myself just this semester specifically I use AI a lot in class doing activities or to ideate and things like that but I find myself a lot saying to the students well what does your brain think yeah right because we get to the point where we get to the end of what AI's capability is and it's not right yet so it's like okay what does your brain think you've got three different AI versions, somewhere in there is the right answer.
00:35:31.985 -->
00:35:37.485Like, let's put it, let's now use our brains to put it together, the best bits of all of this. Yeah.
00:35:37.744 -->
00:35:40.965And things like that, because I'm like, that's what you're going to have to do now.
00:35:41.385 -->
00:35:48.164I also really appreciate how our university has just, you know, been like, this is what's happening.
00:35:48.485 -->
00:35:55.885This is how we're going to, this is how we're going to do both, you know? And I think, I think schools have kind of gone in a variety of different directions.
00:35:56.144 -->
00:36:05.657But Northeastern is, you know, always a bit ahead of the curve. And I, I, I hope that I am striking the balance, just as it sounds like you are, also hoping to strike the balance by having handwritten exercises.
00:36:05.657 -->
00:36:09.137They have to take a handwritten quiz, which, by the way, is very hard to grade.
00:36:09.456 -->
00:36:13.496I just want to say 40 handwritten quizzes and my handwriting is terrible.
00:36:13.757 -->
00:36:14.597Do they know how to write?
00:36:14.597 -->
00:36:18.016They actually do. And their handwriting, like 90 percent of them is better than mine.
00:36:18.197 -->
00:36:24.277So I'm like writing notes on the side and they must be like, what is she even saying? Is she like a 17 year old? Like what is happening?
00:36:24.757 -->
00:36:39.117So but I want them to, you know, be able to study and be able to form essays and all that as well. And I can say yesterday we had a sort of a cultural competency project where we took a social enterprise that was about literacy.
00:36:39.516 -->
00:36:50.317And I had everybody break into groups. We were remote yesterday with the snowstorm and said break into groups and, you know, come up with a different country, a different population, a different area.
00:36:50.717 -->
00:37:02.436And how is this project different? And because of AI in, you know, 20 minute breakouts, they could come back and be like, well, actually, Nicaragua literacy looks a little bit different. Or you might want to be thinking about it this way.
00:37:02.577 -->
00:37:10.097Or in Panama, it's actually like super humid. So you may not want to be sending books because that might not really work. Or maybe there's other ways you want to do it.
00:37:10.197 -->
00:37:15.496Or, you know, if you're in Brazil in like a tiny space, don't send a book every month.
00:37:15.637 -->
00:37:22.717Like there's no room for that. So they are able to like access this information so fast and then come back and present it. Now, is this the most accurate?
00:37:22.996 -->
00:37:29.936No, they had 20 minutes to do it. But otherwise, I don't know how else, you know, they'd even be able to do that that fast and bring it back.
00:37:30.097 -->
00:37:32.117So there's a huge power to it as well.
00:37:32.297 -->
00:37:58.876And I think it's you need both. yeah you need to be able to get up and present without any notes tell me what you think and you need to be able very quickly access information they're creating these global social enterprises we don't have time to go to india and sit with people and understand if children are their children with dyslexia need x y and z we don't know so we're creating ai stakeholders and we're interviewing them and we're generating you know these businesses so it gives them a chance to like.
00:37:59.322 -->
00:38:05.583Have access and be able to generate big ideas and have access to the information that they need.
00:38:05.862 -->
00:38:10.422To be able to do this in a semester long, if we had four years, we could come up with something totally different.
00:38:10.663 -->
00:38:13.922But it's kind of fun. Yeah, I love it. It's really fun.
00:38:14.382 -->
00:38:22.802And I love, this is something that I've just realized just now, because we are the social innovation and entrepreneurship concept.
00:38:22.882 -->
00:38:25.143Here we are. This is the whole crew. This is the crew.
00:38:25.503 -->
00:38:32.222And so students over the course of their concentration have to take three classes between the two of us.
00:38:32.342 -->
00:38:32.563Yes.
00:38:32.983 -->
00:38:44.682And we're sending out students into the world, like social innovators in the world that know how to use AI and scale their impact, making a positive impact in the world with AI.
00:38:44.862 -->
00:38:52.163I think that's really cool. And that's something that I've never thought of before. But we're doing that together. Yay! Make it an impact.
00:38:52.503 -->
00:38:55.842Yes, I love it. okay so my final question Yes uh for.
00:38:55.842 -->
00:39:09.443You is where what does the future look like you know journeys career journeys like we started we are where we are now and with all the lessons like where are we going with this Where oh you and i or me where.
00:39:09.443 -->
00:39:41.182Do where are you going with this what's what's next what's exciting what's happening right now anything oh My gosh everything is exciting everything is exciting the universe has plans for me that I can't even like get my head around I mean so I think what has changed for me is I said this on this other podcast but I was like I'm a recovering hustler right I hustled my entire career hustled non-stop and I have come to realize that.
00:39:41.831 -->
00:39:48.291At this age, great things come to me and I don't have to necessarily hustle for them. The right things come along.
00:39:48.451 -->
00:40:00.811And if I continue to just take the next right actions, then the right things, the right clients, you know, I don't have to, like, hustle all the time, which has been an incredible, what can I say?
00:40:00.931 -->
00:40:07.471It's been a big transformation for me. And I think so for me, there is an element of whatever's next next.
00:40:07.670 -->
00:40:10.630Obviously, as you know, I'd love to, you know, be full time at the university.
00:40:10.630 -->
00:40:14.490We'll wait and see when the opportunity comes up, when it's right, it'll be right.
00:40:14.710 -->
00:40:24.971But I and and I really love the consulting work I'm doing. I feel really grateful to get to support business owners on their scaling their business.
00:40:25.251 -->
00:40:34.851And I've loved being in Boston. There are so many interesting people doing interesting things, especially in the social innovation space. People are so smart.
00:40:35.351 -->
00:40:39.471Like, I mean, a pickleball, they're like, oh, you know, I'm a Ph.D.
00:40:39.570 -->
00:40:40.550With whatever and I'm doing that.
00:40:40.670 -->
00:40:50.231It's like, could anybody be doing something lame? No, you all are literally the most brilliant people on a pickleball court ever in like the history of the world.
00:40:50.391 -->
00:40:53.331So I feel like I am right where I'm supposed to be.
00:40:53.431 -->
00:41:00.791And I feel like just continuing to have a good focus and a good energy and and just trusting.
00:41:01.530 -->
00:41:07.090If I show up and I, you know, take care of what I need to take care of, everything that's supposed to happen is just what's going to happen.
00:41:07.451 -->
00:41:14.550So, and that comes with being 51, you know. I don't think I would have had any belief in that when I was, you know, 35.
00:41:15.210 -->
00:41:17.710But, yeah, that's kind of what I see.
00:41:18.398 -->
00:41:50.398Move forward so good and i think maybe it probably wouldn't have been true at 35 yes like because i don't feel like that would have been true it's not like you're earning your stripes at that point yes but you still the the hustle the hustle that you did then is probably paying off now whereas if you didn't hustle then the momentum of the hustle would run out already yes Yes i think that i think i maybe hustled a little too hard for a little bit there but yes overall totally totally Totally agree. Totally agree. That was the time.
00:41:50.719 -->
00:42:05.458Yeah, that was the time for it. That was the time for it. And to your point, like, I think it's so exciting to think about working in, you know, in a university with as long as I continue to grow and evolve myself, I want to continue to grow and evolve with the students.
00:42:05.458 -->
00:42:11.518But the most important thing is that I'm able to continue to provide them what they need, not just what I want to do.
00:42:12.179 -->
00:42:15.338So I love, you know, learning new things and evolving.
00:42:15.579 -->
00:42:20.318So I think as long as I continue to be excited about that, I think I'd love to keep doing it as long as I can.
00:42:21.418 -->
00:42:23.318All right. Well, thank you so much.
00:42:23.398 -->
00:42:25.978Thank you so much again. Thank you.
00:42:26.239 -->
00:42:36.778I'm pretty sure this is probably going to be part one. I'm just going to throw it out there. I'm sure Julie will be back. we Can do we can do a panel with some of our students.
00:42:36.778 -->
00:42:46.278We could that would be really fun i was also thinking we could do you me and laura donna oh that Would be hilarious i think laura donna is her own episode.
00:42:46.278 -->
00:42:59.659You should we're definitely doing that okay it'd be really funny to have us all around the table and just turn the mic on but thank you so much thank You i can't wait to hear it and share it with my students and go huskies.
00:42:59.659 -->
00:43:40.293Yes go huskies and let's go get some food yes food i hope you really enjoyed my conversation with julie meyer and that you were inspired by her story One of the themes that I am hearing across all these interviews and a theme that has been present in my own story as I've shared a little bit more in these podcasts is that a lot of us wish that we were a little bit more gracious and kind to ourselves and had a little bit more confidence in ourselves at the beginning of our story after university when we were trying to work things out.
00:43:40.293 -->
00:44:16.492I think that if we had the confidence or just the assurance in ourselves that we have now then We would have been more comfortable maybe asking for help or maybe admitting that we didn't know everything we were doing or maybe even just felt more comfortable in our own skin so I hope that you as you look at yourself and your career and the journey that you're about to embark on if you were just about to graduate, and just take a breath and believe that you've got this.
00:44:17.532 -->
00:44:28.172And I hope that all of our stories have inspired you a little bit more to step out and see what the world has to offer you and what you have to offer the world.
00:44:28.733 -->
00:44:29.972Thanks so much for listening.
