Girls Who Do Stuff

Brigid shares about her recent wedding and the COVID parade waiting for them after their small wedding in their church's lobby! She was born and raised in Raleigh. She was working in clinical research and volunteered with Help One Now before eventually being recruited.

Help One Now empowers families in developing countries through high-capacity local leaders with proven solutions to end extreme poverty.

Our vision is to empower 100,000 families to end extreme poverty in their lives by 2030.

Help One Now works in

• Belize
• Dominican Republic
• Ethiopia
• Haiti
• Malawi
• Peru
• Uganda
• Zimbabwe

They serve in some of the poorest communities in the world, where people live on less than $2 US per day. In these communities, empowering families through education and entrepreneurship has proven to be the most effective course for long-term change, creating a hand up to build a better future for themselves.

We briefly talk about the impact of the assassination of the president of Haiti. They are responding in an emergency effort to provide for those impacted. Haiti Emergency Relief 2021

Every $1 provides 1 meal and every $500 provides food, shelter, and safety for a family.

• Haiti’s President, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated in the early morning of July 7th.
• The assassination was an “acute on chronic” event, meaning it has taken an ongoing problem and made it exponentially worse.
• Haiti is still under a state of siege. International news is focusing only on the ongoing investigation into the assassination, rather than the escalation of suffering and danger to vulnerable communities because of the instability and rise of gang violence. 
• Haiti relies heavily on its imported goods to meet the daily needs of its people. There has already been a fuel and food shortage, and all indicators show that this will only continue to grow due to gang control of the streets and ports.
• There are over 20,000 families who have been displaced and completely lost everything due to gang violence. The immediate priority for these families will be food, shelter, and safety to get through this time. 
• The leaders we partner with, and their teams are utilizing connections through local pastors and partners in these communities to ensure they can reach families and deliver aid to them. They are working to create an intake system for families to quickly and accurately assess their specific needs.
• The leaders we partner with on the ground are responding in a way that only they can. They are acting immediately to ensure the health and protection of vulnerable families in their communities.

Brigid shares the story of how she started working at Help One Now. She initially was reluctant and was making traction in her career, but she eventually accepted the job, then declined the job...

Brigid shares some of the businesses that they have launched to help people provide for themselves and earn an average of 400% increase in their household income.

He went to UNC-Chapel Hill for his undergrad and did an internship with the Charlotte Hornets in their marketing department. He then fell in love with economic development and worked in downtown Durham for 12 years revitalizing downtown.

He then decided to try his hand at modeling. He posted every day to his Instagram and the things that got the most likes were him in a three-piece suit. So he gained thousands of followers and signed some deals as an influencer. Matthew shares that this is a tough industry to make it as a social media influencer. Landing deals have been difficult but he has seen some real success.

We talk about the life of a social media influencer. Matthew believes it is more about content creation than just being sponsored for work you're already doing.

Matthew talks about the work that he and his team were able to do in Durham to change the perception of the city. It was a rewarding time to see the changes made in the community and that's why he took the job in Gardner which is growing exponentially.

We talk about the Smoffice (The world's smallest office) and the efforts Matthew and his team made to help get the word out on the work they were doing in Durham. Tech Crunch and Fast Company picked up the story and it went viral. They were nominated for the most original chamber project in the world and won!

We talk about the power of community. What it means to Matthew and how it leads to real growth.

"We're building Garner for the next 50-75 years. That's what we are doing right now. Garner is one of the only communities that is a little farther behind most of the other cities in the triangle and we can build what we want." -Matthew

"Life is short. Just do things." -Matthew

 You can follow Matthew on Instagram, LinkedIn, and his Facebook Page

In this episode, the guest is Katie Brinkley from a boutique digital marketing agency based just outside Denver in Littleton, Colorado. In today’s saturated digital world, she takes a creative approach to make your brand stand out – and get results.

Katie talks about where her favorite place to buy clothes is from a local apparel store, Ohana.

Katie gives a background about her and what her background is and the things that she has done. Her expertise in social media and history as a post-game reporter for the Broncos, the Rockies, and Nuggets. She moved into marketing during the time Sirus XM came out and started to change the radio industry.

Many people feel like they are not the type of people to think to take a picture of something that is happening in their life to post on social media, but there are rising numbers of experts to help those people.

Katie talks about how the different types of services provided by social media managers, some teach people how to use social media, and others just run their social media for them. She works with a lot of realtors to help teach them to maximize their social media.

Katie talks about how she was able to get her dream job out of college and the reason that she eventually quit that job.

Sarah talks about the importance of networking and Katie adds that it is important to never say goodbye to people and to always leave the conversation open.

Katie talks about how it makes sense that she has her own business because from a young age she was always driven to work and started some of her own businesses when she was young.

Brinkley talks about how she really struggles with comparing herself to others and where they are on their social media journeys and tips she has learned to overcome that mentality.

Katie talks about how she doesn't know if this will be her job forever because when she had her first dream job she thought that was it and now she thinks that the job she has now is her dream job. But life changes and it goes through seasons.

Katie gives 3 quick tips that you listeners can use to help push your social media to the next level.

Katie's socials are:
Instagram: iamkatiebrinkley
LinkedIn: Katie brinkley
Website: Nextstepsocialcommunications.com

Drawing on her 17-year tenure as an award-winning journalist with publications such as "USA Today," "The Philadelphia Inquirer," "San Francisco Chronicle," and "The Virginian-Pilot," among many others, her greatest passion is working with executives, attorneys, consultants, coaches, and business owners to craft their story into a book they can be proud of.

She also considered herself a digital nomad and recorded her episode from the country of Suriname in South America. We talk about her adventures in travel.

We talk about her career's beginning in journalism and the state of journalism today. We talk about bias in media and how people today can write something and publish it as journalism on social media, but it wasn't vetted or fact-checked by anyone.

Stephanie shares tips and tricks for successful authors on how to get the word out after the book is written. One tip: stay away from print on demand!

We also discuss our shared pet peeve of people calling themselves coaches who can help you grow your business to six figures who have never had a six-figure business or have only achieved a six-figure business by coaching people on how to have a six-figure business. Since the pandemic, there has been a large influx in coaches, and we discuss the lack of regulation, accreditation, or certifications for business coaches.

Stephanie helps people write about what they are passionate about and speak difficult truths. One truth she has been sharing more often lately is being open about speaking out against racism. She experienced white privilege for the first time in a foreign country. Although she is not white, she was assumed to be white and treated differently than her travel companions because of her American passport.

If you're interested in finding out about this stuff, you can find her on Instagram. You can check out my free book, three things you must know before writing your book, on her website. Get their attention now.  She is all over Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and she is active clubhouse.

Although from different cities, they met on a Facebook group over the shared experience of thinking people were doing their marketing wrong. They quickly formed a friendship and started working together.

Good things can happen from sliding into people's DM's. They started working by helping each other in their businesses before they started working together and building projects together.

Once they launched their podcast, System to Thrive, it has been more intentional and gradual as they start to build their dream team.

We discuss the importance of understanding the way your partner likes to get work done and giving them the things they need to do their best work.

We realize how we don't talk enough about non-spousal adult relationships and friendships, partnerships, and working with "work husbands and work wives." 

When you work closely with someone you are going to learn things you love about them and things you don't love so much... It educates you on the art of compromise. It's not about who wins but creating the best work together.

Trust is not one of those things where you have a moment where it's just "there." Trust is something you know when it's not "there."

It's important to normalize misunderstandings and break in trust even in business relationships. We are human and humans have emotions. The important thing to do is realize you can reach back out and repair those misunderstands and breaks in trust and foster a stronger relationship with deeper trust. Not just write off someone professionally at the first sign of disagreement or conflict.

Connect with Jennie and Alyson
You can listen to their podcast
Jennie Wright's Website
Alyson Lex's Website