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Hello. Welcome to We're the Leaders. We're looking for a podcast from United Way of the Wine Country. Produced with tech support and direction from Brandt, Hoekenga and TIV Branding. We are here to share the voices of our neighbors, changemakers and everyday leaders who are building a region rooted in belonging, resilience and justice. And I'm Lisa Carreño, president and CEO of United Way of the Wine Country.

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And my co-host is Lori Lynn Hogan, a long time friend and, the owner of the Connection Company. Thanks for joining us. And let's get started.

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Hello, beloved community. Thanks for joining us. I wanted to start this first podcast with a little disclaimer. The audio we recorded for this episode sounds a bit like we're underwater, but we have new audio equipment and have remedied the situation. We hope you'll bear with us through this first podcast, because it feels important to set the context of why we're launching.

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We're the leaders we're looking for. Just know that future episodes will improve greatly. And thank you for sticking with us. Hi, Lisa. Hey. How you doing? It's a pretty good day in the neighborhood. I'm excited to be sitting here with you because there's been some developments in, how we want to continue moving our message forward for United Way, the wine country.

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So, before before the big reveal, although I have a feeling the name of this adventure will maybe reveal some of it. Will you, tell us what what got us to this place of wanting to, really amplify our voices in a different and, exciting way? Sure. Well, we are, without burying the lead, I'll just say we're launching a podcast, and the podcast is called We Are the Leaders.

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We're looking for. So here's one of those stories where community and connection and belonging building, you know, are already, like, helping to fortify you. I've been in an online meditation group with, with a Native American, the elder named Charlie Toledo for two years now. And it's an online zoom meditation. And Charlie leads us through, you know, guided mindfulness and breathing exercises and native stories, science and and all of that, and this little community of women who participate weekly, in this space, contribute to this space is often very rich with not only what Charlie contributes, but what those of us who are participating contribute in terms of resources.

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And a few months ago, one of the participants in the meditation shared an essay by, Doctor Clarissa Estes, who wrote Women Who Run into Wolves. And that essay, includes it includes this language. And I'm happy to share the link to the essay in the podcast, but this, this this is what really moved me after kind of creating the context for, for inviting us to recognize that we're the leaders we're seeking.

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She and I'm paraphrasing, since this, please do not spend your spirit drive by bewailing these difficult times. Do not lose hope. The fact is, we were made for these times. We have been learning, practicing, training for and just waiting to meet this exact plane of engagement. We are definitely the leaders. We have been waiting for, and we have been raised since childhood for precisely for this precise time, for you were built well for these times, despite your sense of doubt, your frustrations, or even feeling that you have lost the mark entirely.

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You are not without resources. You are not alone. So. Well, I can see how that's inspired her whole picture. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. And thank you. So close. That can go to space for writing it to begin with. Yeah. I she wrote it actually in 20, in 2001. Wow. And then she republished it in 2016.

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And now it's, it's, it's, it's circulating again out of necessity. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I feel a whole settling in my body. Just hearing that that we were made for this time. Yeah. It's encouraging and emboldening. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's what I hope. Yeah. Comes from this, from these conversations. And what led to this development in our community?

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Engagement and and movement building. It was actually kind of a constellation of things that have been evolving over quite some time. Importantly, United Way, the Wine Country relaunched our newsletter several months ago. And we also recently published, an op ed piece in the Press Democrat concerning, what we feared would be the adverse impacts of congressional approval of H.R. one.

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And now that it has been approved and, by Congress and signed by the president of the United States. What is unfolding in the aftermath of these, last, ten days or so, are a whole series of assessments, locally at the state level, at the federal level, of how the implementation of each one is going to affect our community.

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And along with that, that process, a lot of the community have reached out to the United Way to let us know one. They really appreciated the op ed piece because it really framed in an easily understood and accessible way just how important it was and is to pay attention to what's happening now and and helps people to understand how reductions in troop benefits and reductions in, Medicaid support and, the elimination of earned income tax credits, reduced eligibility for earned income tax credits, and a child tax credit will affect people in the community who are related to the people who are reaching out to, some of the people who are reaching out

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to us. You know, largely have been longtime United Way contributors, including the son of one of the United Way to one country's founders, who is, who is a well-known businessman. And past United Way leader. And it was our conversation that led to thinking we need to create an opportunity for all of us to understand that we're the leaders we're looking for.

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And that we are built for these times, even though we may be, quite uncertain about what's unfolding and very uncomfortable about how it's already affecting our community. We get the opportunity to show up however we can just by having the courage to do so. Being willing to take the risks and being vulnerable by standing in our truth.

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As people who believe in community and believe in belonging for ourselves and all others. Wow. Okay, so, a magical mixture of just the right ingredients came together in in right timing. Yeah. And from that comes this, podcast. So, what can listeners expect to, receive when they are joining and listening to the podcast?

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Well, what I hope they'll receive is the opportunity to see themselves, see what's inside of them, mirrored in the folks that we will highlight, whose work will highlight, in interviews and and panels, maybe, and, and, opportunities to see them at work. I hope that they will they will see and hear community voices that are new to them and that they will feel connected to and moved by.

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And that, will illuminate narratives that maybe they haven't heard before and help shift mindset. To open their, you know, whatever their worldview might be to parts of our community that have been invisible to them, that they drive by every day for months. But they are nonetheless connected to, as I've shared in, in other conversations that you and I have had, I believe in our essential oneness and connection to everything.

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And my hope is that everyone who joins joins the podcast and who engages with the podcast will be will begin to see and experience that truth and that from that, they'll experience more hope than despair. More, more of a sense of how they can harness their personal power, to invest in community and belonging building. And, and, and appreciate how all of us are a part of the safety net.

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And, and it's imperative that we come together, we can survive and build more resiliency as a community. When we build more connection. We have talked a lot about how conversations like this, where we're really exploring, in in depth and with vulnerability and with courage, some of the hard things that we're facing, how that's the way through. Yeah.

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And, so it's exciting to me to think about uplifting folks who want to engage in those conversations. And, have wisdom to share with us. So sounds like the podcast is one part community education. The cure. These resources available in our community. One part community engagement. Like get to know the people who are doing this work.

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And then one part, like, sit down and have a cup of coffee with a cool homie, and then. And then what unfolds from there is around connection and belonging and, and, you know, community building. Yeah. I, I use that word community a whole lot in there. And I think that's a thread that I'm hearing is, is a big part of all of what you're talking about.

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Right. So yeah, that's that's yummy. So, can a podcast create community. Yes it can. Here we are. Yeah it can I you know some of my favorite podcasts you know, or produced by by, by different folks. A couple I happen to know, my best friend from college has a podcast called Room at the Table.

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And I share, I share that Cicero's podcast with friends. When? What she's focusing on you know, really resonates, with me. And I think, gosh, I think it's going to resonate with, you know, these folks. I'll share it on LinkedIn. I'll share it on Facebook. I'll share it by text. And then we become this little learning pod together.

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Right. And, and then I have a couple of other friends. Whose podcast? The behaviorist I've shared with lots and lots and lots of people. They really focus on organizational development and mindfulness at the center of organizational development, leadership and management. And I love the way that Kettering Crosby, and, Sarah Cohen, Tonio have, have developed that platform for centering mindfulness and mindfulness related values.

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In in, in how we work and work together because we spend more time with our workplace peeps than we do at home with our families. You know so well, while Betsy's room at the table, podcast focuses a lot on, on on personal leadership development, especially for for folks who are, are are leading and, and maybe we're, we're all firsts in the world, right?

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There's nobody else like you or me. They're firsts in a lot of other ways. They're they're they're they're part of the LGBTQ plus community. They they also may be people of color. They may be people with access and functional needs. And who are leading. They're women who are leading in nontraditional fields. There are entrepreneurs who are doing things that have never been done before.

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Her podcast is really focused on fortifying, you know, the within, whereas the is is focused on fortifying the people in the organizations. I guess we're the leaders we're looking for might be complementary to them. I aspire for it to be complimentary for them. As inspiring leadership, you know, from from the community. At this, you know, at this ground and grassroots level where there's an abundant opportunity for us to step into the leadership void because there's so much that needed that's needed and so much of what's needed is for us to just liberate ourselves, to show up as our one true self who.

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I'm torn. I have to two directions to go. Maybe I can check on both. The fun direction is. My favorite podcast is The Moth. Yeah. Two stories told live in front of an audience. Who writes? It's courageous, it's raw, it's funny, it's horrifying. It's all. It's life. And you I get to what? Sorry. Microphone. I get to walk away with, little snapshots that I would never, in my daily travels, be able to understand or engage with or think about.

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So I deeply appreciate folks who are telling their stories, and it seems like there's a layer of that here, too, that we're making space for people to share their stories. Yeah. And that's that's, that's exciting to me. The idea that we get to see a little behind the scenes of people in our community, and what they're up to and, and how they're feeling and sort of, an honest format that feels really powerful and important as we're talking about coming together as a community and community care.

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So I appreciate in advance the leadership, the folks, sharing where that where they really are in the world and how they're, how they're really doing. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's really exciting. Really? Yeah. Okay. So that was that said, this site is.

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You know, talking about emergency preparedness. That's a that's that's almost, I want to say kind of a safe topic. Right. It's it's necessary. Sometimes we, you know, we don't want to think about it. There's trauma attached, especially here in Sonoma County, fires and floods and, you know, all the, all the, all the things that have happened in rapid succession here, and elsewhere in the world.

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Then there's this other stuff that's happening as a result of one of these genuine horrors that people are carrying and, and walking with, and that is not necessarily safe to talk about. And it's not safe to listen about either. Sometimes, like, it's hard to hear those stories. It's hard to hard to stay present. Especially I want to say with, folks like me who have white skin and privilege and other kinds of privilege, who can simply choose not to think about it, who are not impacted on a daily basis.

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And so how do we how do we engage us on a regular basis in these conversations? How do we how do we grow a listening base and and build the stamina? Right. Because it's a it's a muscle to stay present for this hard stuff, for the for the grief and for the genuine, you know, people feeling hunted and, unsafe, like genuinely unsafe in the world.

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Not just uncomfortable, but unsafe. Like, how do we make space for those conversations? Because I think that'll come up if we're talking to leaders in our community that those are going to come up. How do we bring folks into the conversation and and help them stay? Well, what I hope so. I'll just I'll just say one. What comes to mind first is that, I have shared previously that I'm such a, a fan of, gallery chorus work and the and the memoir she's created in Sage warrior.

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And, in a small way, I suppose creating this podcast and creating this space to have these conversations is how United Way is warrior, you know, because, we're harnessing the resources, including the connections and, and, and the history that we have in our organization, in our community, to connect people and companies and service providers and people with me and so on, to create the healing that's needed now.

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And, and so telling that warrior story, I think, is like, in a way, the evolving United Way, part of the uniting the, the evolving united world purpose. What we don't talk about typically, but I hope we will talk about in, in the conversations that we have is how we sage and the sage warrior, the sages, the sage work is, is the work that we do to restore ourselves and, and to nurture and support and grieve what's going on inside of us and all the different parts of who we are inside and our teams, as well as the communities that we touch.

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How do we sage and warrior symbiotically so that we can.

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You know, affect the ecosystem? At, at the root causes to interrupt what what is causing the struggle and pain and replace that with what's going to, promote healing, promote wellness, promote connection, build out, build joy. When we experience joy, then we really experience one of your favorite words, liberation and sovereignty and and. So my hope is that this will become a space where we can see Jim Warrior together and that that will become, a space that other people will want to be a part of because they're seeing modeled in our work, in conversations together, something that they can do that's easily accessible to them.

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Thank you. And, and then they can then share with their communities. While they're connecting, I hope you guys. Yeah. So there's two pieces of that that feel really potent to me. One is staying in a sage warrior balance does not require crawling across the desert on your knees. It doesn't require a huge heavy lift.

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It can be that simple to connect in with other people with how we're feeling. Acknowledging it and it can shift, and and that that leads into part two, which is sitting with the sage staging pieces and sitting with those big feelings allows them to shift. And then what follows is, is, is the outcome that we're desiring, that we often try to skip around, we try to skip around the grief and the the heaviness and the pain of acknowledging where we are to get to the joy and the resilience and the, you know, we ask ourselves, why am I not happy?

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Well, because we got all this stuff. Yeah, yeah. We're not sending yeah. So this creates that intention and indeed. And and you use the, the, the language of model like models. It like we get to model. Here's the hard stuff and here's the, here's the aftermath of hard stuff is it's easy and grace and connectivity and resilience.

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So that's pretty yummy Lisa I'm not going lie. And that's how I, the community like I feel like I listen to this. Let's hope the community likes it to hear. Can I just add a little context? You know, I I'm such a context. Is you, the context queen. Yeah, yeah. So I've in the last two months, I've been to two different United Ways meeting some, in which the, the ideas, that are, that are being shared now by the Institute for the future about the Bonnie context within which we now live.

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Bonnie standing for brittleness, anxiety, non-linearity, and incomprehensibility. Our friends. Yes. The Bonnie context. So, we'll put a link in, in this sharing that we do to a really fantastic, article that was written a few years ago. That summarizes the Bonnie context. But what's important to for folks to know is that, we live in a time now when we, I think it's fair to say, are experiencing like a, a, a daily onslaught of, of outrageousness and chaos and insult, confusion, disinformation, misinformation.

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And we're especially being, challenged to sustain belief in systems and institutions and, and people, that are, are brutal and breaking. And, you know, the.

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The brittleness of things that we have lived with had faith and could trust for generations as they break.

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They expand and intensify the uncertainty and the discomfort that we were already feeling yesterday and the day before that. And, so systems shatter and, and we're seeing, like, support systems shatter before our eyes. So that that's, that's the brittleness experience. From that we experience anxiety. Right? And there are so many things that are accelerating the anxiety that we feel, we feel like, you know, our social media feed maybe is or isn't enriching our lives.

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Right? We feel weak and weakened, by the daily onslaught of the breakdown in the things that we used to be able to trust, that were predictable, that we could be assured would be there when we needed them, like the safety net, that maybe invisible, but is there, and things don't make sense. You know, things are coming from out of nowhere, and, and and surprising us.

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There's a shock. And all in all of it, the non-linearity is disorienting. Right. And then lastly, there's so much it's hard not to use an expletive when I say there's so much, but there is so bleeping much going on, and that is difficult to wrap our minds around. That's what our context is. And we're going to be in this funny context for quite a while, right?

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And so what's been on my mind a lot for the last several weeks, the last couple of months since this framework was introduced to all of us in the United Way worldwide movement is. So what's the answer to, if, if, if this is, you know, the the darkness that is descending on us, you know what light can I and we, spark and shine and and inspire so that other individuals and organizations like ours, feel emboldened to spark and shine their light and inspire others.

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So, you know, the the answer to brittleness is, is, is to develop resilience, to become bendable and adaptable, to have the capacity to pivot by having plan B and C and D and D and F, the antidote to being anxious is to become still as Charlie Toledo often reminds us, to become mindful, to tap into our inner wise person voice, to help quiet our anxious self who I've become, begun to have conversations with them, and and and breathe and and and listen deeply to both of their voices.

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Anxiety has been protecting me from the things I fear and anxiety, as we saw in in the movie. And, and so out to, anxiety can become paralyzing. And, you know, in into that space joy, our inner wise person must, must come to, to balance, to bring balance and to give us access to hope. Again.

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The answer to non-linearity is to recognize that, yeah, things may not. Dots may not connect.

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But maybe that's okay for now. What needs to be. I trust that what needs to be revealed to us will be revealed to us just when it And to rest in just accepting that there are things going on that I don't know and don't understand and can't control. But this is the next right thing for me to do right now.

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And let me focus on doing this exquisitely and then I'll move on to the next right thing, or do that exquisitely, you know, I'll take care of what I need to do, so that I can stay my course and keep my face from.

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And then, regarding the incomprehensible, you know, again, to listen to that inner, wise person inside of ourselves and, and develop stronger muscles to trust, our intuition and to listen deeply to and trust our intuition. That's how we build the muscles and and build, the well of of inner resources that we need. So that we can be resilient personally and, and so that we can help build resiliency in our organizations and our families and our communities, in our neighborhoods.

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So I hope that taking that context into consideration as we begin to invite people to these conversations that, you know, will be contributing to our own and to others, connection these and that'll be good for me. Beautiful. Thank you for putting that context in. Is there anything else you want to tell us about what we can expect or receive or, enjoy about this podcast now?

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I mean, my invitation is, is is if you've gotten this far and listening to this conversation and, and want to join the conversation, please join us. If you want to be a part of the conversation, please let me know. You have my.

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Awesome. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you.

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So, folks, thanks for listening. We're grateful that you've joined us in community today and that you believe, just like we do, in the importance of building belonging, resilience and justice in this region, we know it will have ripple effects across, the state and across the country and around the world. So your presence is really meaningful and we're very grateful for it.

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If you'd like to get even more involved with the work that United Way, the wine Country is doing, please join us. Be sure to subscribe to this podcast and follow us on social media. You'll find us on Facebook, and you'll find us in LinkedIn, and you'll find us in next door. We're banned from Instagram. I'll leave that to you to figure out why that might have happened.

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Sign up for our newsletter at our website dot United Way Wine country.org and share our conversations with a friend. Feel free to have the same conversations that we're having here with your friends. The more of us having conversations like this, the more we will all appreciate that we are the leaders that we're looking for, and we're just looking for a place to get started.

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Thanks for starting here.