Superpowers for Good: Empowering Changemakers for Social Impact via Regulated Investment Crowdfunding from the SuperCrowd.

Devin: What do you see as your superpower?

Mo: A superpower would be just doing your best to help people in need.

“My older brother suffered in a car accident in Morocco back in 2001,” explains University of Utah neuroscientist Mohammed “Mo” Sbai. “During the process of taking care of him between 2001 and 2007, when he passed away, I got to see firsthand the intricacies and the details and the hard work and the pain associated with the rehabilitation of people with severe neurological deficit.”

“The other important thing that this made me discover is the tragic lack of those services in Morocco,” he says. That realization inspired him to launch a US-based nonprofit to operate a neurorehabilitation center in Marrakech, Morocco.

The Moulay Ali Institute for Rehabilitation (MAIR) now serves about 50 patients per day, having helped almost 400 people recover from traumatic brain injuries and strokes.

The facility is inadequate for local demand, and the waitlist of patients is growing. To meet the demand, Mo is leading efforts to raise $1.8 million to construct a larger facility owned directly by MAIR. The expanded facility would not only be adequate for local needs but would also serve as a model for replication throughout Africa.

Throughout Mo’s career, he’s deployed his simple superpower, doing his best to serve people in need.

AI Summary

1. The Zahra Charity was founded by neuroscientist Mohammed Sbai in honor of his brother, who passed away after a car accident.

2. The charity provides neurorehabilitation services in Morocco, where there is a lack of adequate services for neurological recovery.

3. The clinic has treated close to 400 patients since 2015, but there is an increasing waiting list due to space limitations.

4. The clinic treats approximately 65% of children with cerebral palsy and other conditions caused by birthing complications.

5. The long-term goal of the charity is to build a medical campus for neuro-rehabilitation that will house specialized medical units.

6. The charity emphasizes the importance of persistence and consistency in pursuing charitable work.

7. The clinic began as a small project in 2010 and has since grown to treat more patients per year.

8. The charity’s fundraising efforts aim to expand the facility and gain more resources for neurological recovery.

9. People can learn more about the charity’s work and contribute to its fundraising efforts.

10. The charity’s work is focused on providing much-needed neurorehabilitation services in Morocco.

How to Develop Doing Your Best to Serve Those in Need As a Superpower

Mo’s impact on people needing neurorehabilitation in Morocco is almost impossible to measure. He’s changing lives in dramatic ways, enabling people thought to be beyond hope in a place with no such resources to have happy, more productive lives.

Mo offers tips for developing the superpower of doing your best to serve those in need:

* Just believe in what you are trying to do.

* You just have to go for it.

* It’s good to have an idea that is beneficial, that is humanitarian.

* It’s also good to have a good start—if you are lucky to have a good start and make a first impact.

* The most important is to be persistent because if you have a good impact and it doesn’t end well, then all of those efforts are in vain. But if you are persistent, even if you start very small, those initial efforts and accomplishments will only grow with time. You become kind of infectious, and then more and more positive energy [flows] into the process.

By following Mo’s example and advice, you can make doing your best for people in need a superpower that enables you to do more good in the world.

Guest-Provided Profile

Mohammed (Mo) Sbai (he/him):

Doctor/ Founder and CEO, The Zahra Charity

About The Zahra Charity: US nonprofit dedicated to creating access to neurorehabilitation in Morocco, North Africa

Website: www.mair-rehab.com and zahracharity.org

Biographical Information: Dr. Mohammed Sbai (aka Mo) lived in Utah since 2000, when he took a faculty position at the University of Utah School of Medicine. He was trained as a clinical neuroscientist at the University of Paris (France), The Roche Institute for Molecular Biology and New Jersey Medical School. He is now part of the faculty at the U College of Health, department of physical therapy, and his work focuses on brain plasticity and its applications for neurorehabilitation. This includes collaborations with the private sector developing therapeutic solutions for stroke, brain and spinal cord injuries and Alzheimer’s disease. In 2007 Mo lost his older brother (Moulay Ali), who, seven years prior, suffered a severe traumatic brain injury while driving in Morocco. The process of helping his brother recover allowed Mo to discover the tragic lack of neuro-rehabilitative services in that country. In 2009, Mo founded a Salt Lake City-based nonprofit (Zahra Charity), and thanks to the great support from the U and several other institutions, The Moulay Ali Institute for Rehabilitation (MAIR) opened its doors to patients on September 1st, 2015. MAIR is now a thriving outpatient clinic where patients from all over Morocco are admitted for neurorehabilitative care. This success necessitates expansion of the MAIR clinic in order to accommodate the growing number of patients seeking therapy. The fundraising efforts for this ambitious expansion project are ongoing. The project also involves establishing the first neurorehabilitation curriculum in the country.

Devin: What do you see as your superpower?

Andrew: It's a little bit of a shoot first, ask questions later kind of thing.

“There are all these communities around the US that feel like they don't have economic development options, feel like there's resource scarcity, are lacking these things, or losing these stores both in urban areas and rural areas,” says Andrew Connor, founder and director of The Center for Community Ownership.

His observation about the need motivated Andrew to take action in support of local investing, including crowdfunding. “I started the Center for Community Ownership because a lot of communities don't know that this is an option. They lose a grocery store, and they don't know that they have any option other than to go try to find some chain store to come to town or wait for the dollar store to come to town or something like that.”

“Part of what we do is try to spread awareness and do education about the fact that community ownership is a viable option,” he says.

AI Summary

* Andrew Connor founded the Center for Community Ownership to support local investment and entrepreneurism.

* The center educates communities about community ownership models and provides technical support.

* Andrew also founded the Local Investing Action network (LIA) to support local businesses raising capital.

* Andrew founded Crowdfund Montana, a platform for investment crowdfunding in Montana.

* Andrew highlights the challenges rural communities face in raising capital.

* Crowdfund Montana has helped companies like Pink Bench Distilling achieve success in rural Montana.

* Andrew founded CCO and LIA.

* He stresses the importance of taking action to make tangible change in community development.

* Andrew emphasizes the importance of creating a network of like-minded individuals to achieve shared goals.

* Listeners are encouraged to visit the CCO and LIAN websites for more information.

How to Develop A Bias to Act As a Superpower

Throughout his career, Andrew has developed a bias to act as a superpower. Recognizing that a “shoot first, ask questions later,” attitude can be a weakness as well as a strength, he highlights some of his accomplishments as evidence of the benefits.

Andrew recently launched the Local Investing Action network, LIA, to help community leaders around the country form local investing groups.

Andrew is excited about the progress of the LIA network. The group is focused on community investment and has already made connections and laid the foundation for concrete projects. Although the group is set to last for a year, Andrew feels that it may continue beyond that.

The projects that the group is working on include community investment funds, local investment groups, education and cultural change resources, and specific community investment projects. Andrew feels that even if only a fraction of these projects are successful, it will be a worthwhile venture. He believes that the success of the LIA group came from a willingness to try something new and the power of collaboration.

Andrew, who acts largely as a coach in the LIA network, offers a tip for developing your bias to act.

“We fail to appreciate the costs we incur by not taking action,” he says. It is easier sometimes to imagine the costs of acting, but harder to see the costs of the status quo.

“Sometimes you can measure those [costs] in really specific ways in terms of opportunity costs or money lost or things that didn't happen,” he says. You can add those up. More importantly, the emotional toll of being in that plateaued or stagnated place sometimes could be greater than sort of ripping the band-aid off—trying it and failing.”

You can increase your bias to act by following Andrew’s advice and example, potentially making it a superpower that enables you to do more good in the world.

Mona DeFrawi, CEO and founder of Radivision, a streaming channel for investors and entrepreneurs, especially those engaging in crowdfunding, has launched a newsletter. We’re sharing the first issue with you below and invite you to consider subscribing.

“HACE, or The Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement, is an organization that I am honored to lead,” says Patricia Mota. “Headquartered in Chicago, national in scope, its mission since 1982 has been to positively impact workplaces by cultivating the pipeline of Latino talent and providing the community the insight, the access and the support to be successful in their careers.”

Since taking the reins eight years ago, HACE has grown more than tenfold in annual revenue, reaching five times as many people.

AI Summary

* Patricia Mota is the President and CEO of The Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement (HACE).

* HACE cultivates the pipeline of Latino talent and provides insight, access, and support for them to be successful in their careers.

* HACE’s programs include leadership development, coaching, mentoring, and networking events.

* The organization has a reach of nearly 100,000 individuals and nearly 200 corporate partners across the United States and 13 countries.

* Under Mota’s leadership, HACE grew revenue by over 10x and the people reached by over 5x in just eight years.

* One of HACE’s core pillars is its pipeline and leadership development programs.

* Mota believes that true impact and transformation do not happen unless through an intentional model that builds a community of trust, self-awareness, and honing an authentic self in roles.

* Patricia discussed the importance of self-awareness in leadership development, the power of networking and building strategic relationships, and launching programs even if they are not perfect.

* Mota highlights the importance of embracing diversity and building inclusive spaces.

* Individuals and companies can join HACE through their website or events.

HACE has “three core pillars,” Patricia says.

“One is through talent acquisition. So programs, services, events where we’re actively connecting job seekers to career opportunities to our employer partners, to talents, anywhere from interns to senior level talent across all business functions across various areas,” she says.

“Secondly, which has been over the last decade, our fastest growing is our pipeline and leadership development programs. These are cohort initiatives that start as young as the high school level all the way to the senior level, where we work with a group of individuals, 15 to 25 or so at a time, various cohorts at a time, going through individual coaching, leadership assessments, culturally relevant content. But what I’m most proud of, it’s enabled us to create a strong, multi-generational support network across the nation where we have executives, senior leaders and subject matter experts coming back and giving back through our programs and those in their careers doing the same not only for professionals but for our students,” Patricia says

“The third and final area, which is just as important, is what we consider thought leadership. These are opportunities that we bring organizations, employers together to share best practices, to network with one another and to shine a light on those that are doing great work that help fulfill our mission,” she says.

“We have a reach of nearly 100,000 individuals that we serve across the country, nearly 200 corporate partners. These are some of the bigger employers that we work with to support our mission and have graduates from our programs from the US and now 13 countries since we went virtual in 2020,” she says.

Patricia began her work at HACE, leading a program called Mujeres de HACE, a Latina leadership program. When she took over, it operated as a series of workshops taught in Chicago. Today, the program has over 3,200 alums from 135 cities in the US. She credits the program with helping women “not only increase their pay, increase promotions, but get into leadership roles.”

“I kind of fell into the fundraising, but because I was so passionate about the impact and the work, I was bringing in additional partners and funders,” she says. Not surprisingly, her leaders encouraged her to focus on that.

When her predecessor left in 2014, she was tapped as an interim head. Some in her circle encouraged her to put her own name forward as a permanent replacement. She did and was chosen.

“Since April 2015, eight years I have been serving as president and CEO of the organization,” she says, adding when prodded, “At that point in time, we were under 20,000 members, individuals that we had served. Now we’re 100,000. At the time, we were at just under a $400,000 operating budget. Now we’re at the 5 million mark.”

She has a remarkable superpower:  the ability to build and scale solutions.

How to Develop the Ability to Build and Scale Solutions As a Superpower

Patricia scaled HACE’s women’s leadership program by leveraging her network and relationships. In college, she discovered a sort of sorority of Latina professionals who provided mentorship and networking. She used their connections to expand the program to new markets. Patricia continues to build her network and recently joined the Economic Club of Chicago and Chief, a women’s executive club. Her strategy involves cultivating a few core relationships that help her achieve her mission.

In addition to networking to develop the ability to build and scale solutions, she suggests remembering it’s “okay if it’s not 100 percent perfect and launching anyway.”

She adds, “Another part of the skill set is having enough confidence in seeing the bigger picture that it may not be a success the first time around, but you need to get it started.”

By following Patricia’s example and advice, you can develop the ability to build and scale solutions into a superpower that enables you to do more good in the world.

Guest-Provided Profile

Patricia Mota (she/her):

President/CEO, The Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement - HACE

About The Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement - HACE: The Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement (HACE) is a national nonprofit dedicated to the employment, development, and advancement of current and aspiring Latino professionals. Since 1982, HACE has served as a resource for Latinos in the workplace and is a subject matter expert for corporations seeking to access diverse talent. Through professional development, resources, and networks, and by facilitating access to meaningful career opportunities, HACE helps Latinos succeed in every phase of their career. HACE works with employers to remain competitive in an increasingly dynamic economy by helping them attract, develop and retain Latino and diverse professionals. 

Website: haceonline.org

Twitter Handle: @Hace_Online

Company Facebook Page: fb.com/HispanicAllianceforCareerEnhancement

Biographical Information: Patricia is an innovative trailblazer, advocate for access & equity, startup entrepreneur, author, connector, public speaker, and compassionate leader with a particular strength that exemplifies the mission of the Hispanic Alliance of Career Enhancement (HACE); to positively impact the workforce by cultivating the pipeline of Latinx/a/os talent and providing insight, access and support to their careers. Patricia serves as the President & CEO for HACE, leading strategy, fundraising & development, leadership programs, and expanding organizational reach on a national and international scale.Patricia is also a co-founder of SHENIX™, a Fintech tool to close the wealth gap that impacts Latinas. Patricia’s story of transition is one that is representative of many of the stories of those positively impacted by programs and opportunities through HACE. Patricia is a proud Mexican-American Latina, daughter of immigrants, and first-generation college graduate and professional. She is a fitness enthusiast, health and lifestyle aficionado.Patricia has a strong history of serving in capacities that garner access to education, meaningful jobs, and advancement, also reflected by her service on various boards and accolades, serving on the Associated Colleges of Illinois, Indiana University’s O’Neil School of Public Affairs Distinguished Alumni Council, Chicag…

Devin: What do you see as your superpower?

Christine: I would say it’s courage.

Dr. Christine Lum Lung, CEO of Origin Healthcare, says up to 5 million people in the United States who are currently in the hospital could be treated at home more effectively and affordably.

“We deploy the expert medical team, the equipment and the technology to patients in their homes so they can actually get all of the care they would receive in the hospital,” she says. “But now it’s in an environment that clearly is much more comfortable.”

AI Summary

* Dr. Christine Lum Lung is the founder and CEO of Origin Healthcare, which provides in-home medical care.

* Origin Healthcare uses a hybrid model of care that combines in-person visits with remote patient monitoring and telehealth.

* This model is 40% safer, 30-40% more affordable, and results in better outcomes.

* Providing care in a familiar and comfortable environment can prevent adverse events and complications that occur in hospitals.

* Patients often experience better outcomes and are at lower risk of hospital-acquired infections when cared for at home.

* Technology like telehealth and remote patient monitoring can make this model of care more efficient.

* The cost savings come from avoiding the high fixed costs of a hospital building and from lower utilization of testing and fewer readmissions.

* Christine believes her superpower is courage.

* She encourages listeners to explore Origin Healthcare and to connect with her on LinkedIn.

Christine says, “As a physician when I would round in the morning, patients would say, ‘I got terrible sleep last night. Somebody next door was yelling. My IV kept beeping.’”

“I would inevitably only be able to say, ‘I know the hospital is a place where you need the best sleep because you’re sick, but unfortunately, you get the worst.’”

Not only is sound sleep difficult, but the sorts of hospital-acquired infections patients contract in a facility are rare at home. Furthermore, data shows there are fewer falls at home.

As a result, outcomes are typically better when treated at home for things that can be treated there—about 30 percent of hospitalizations or about 150 diagnoses can be.

By leveraging technology to provide hybrid care with visiting nurses and technology, patients receive more attention at a lower cost. The patients are fitted with a watch that monitors vital signs every fifteen minutes. Paired with a tablet that connects to doctors and nurses for addressing questions, patients are never entirely alone.

One misperception lay people have is that patients receive 24-hour care while hospitalized. That isn’t the case. “In a 12-hour shift, a nurse is only physically assessing the patient for 34 minutes,” Christine says.

Christine shared the story of the startup’s launch:

We launched we officially opened as a company in 2021 in the middle of a pandemic. So there are a lot of things that went into that, a lot of good things and bad things. We were able to treat our first patient in the spring of ‘21. We're in the northern Colorado area where I worked as a hospital physician. We've actually treated over 1,100 patients in the two-plus years that we've been up and operational.

Throughout her career, Christine has developed and deployed courage as a superpower to achieve success.

How to Develop Courage As a Superpower

Christine describes her courage: “I see something, I believe in it. The path forward may not seem obvious, but I’m going to go charge down that path.”

“Stepping into the venture space,” she continues. “There are fewer females here. And so having the courage to say, ‘I believe in what I’m doing; I know that this is the right thing,’ even when other people may try to get you to doubt it. You just have that sense of conviction that keeps moving you forward.”

Christine offers a prescription for developing courage:

* See what needs to be better and believe that you are the person to make it better.

* Surround yourself with people who elevate you.

* Recognize the power of naivete; you may not know the entire journey, but you can see and take the first step.

* Accept that your efforts may fail.

“I don’t want to have any regrets,” Christine says. So, I think that’s what drives my courage: I don’t want to leave anything on the table.”

By following Christine’s example and counsel, you can develop greater courage, allowing it to become your superpower and enabling you to do even more good in the world.

Guest-Provided Profile

Christine Lum Lung (she/her):

CEO/Co-Founder, Origin Healthcare 

About Origin Healthcare: Origin Healthcare is a tech-enabled company partnering with clinicians, employers, payers, and hospitals to enable patients to now receive hospital-level care at home. We increase access to care, improve outcomes, and lower healthcare costs through an innovative model that establishes the next generation of healthcare delivery. 

Website: www.originhc.com

Linkedin: linkedin.com/company/origin-healthcare

Biographical Information: Christine Lum Lung, MD, MBA, is a physician entrepreneur committed to improving the health of patients and the future of healthcare. Christine received her BA from Stanford University and her MBA from the Yale School of Management. She earned her Doctor of Medicine from the University of Colorado and completed her Internal Medicine Residency at the University of California, San Diego, where she also served as Chief Resident. Christine is a board-certified physician specializing in hospital medicine and has been practicing for over twenty years. She was the solo founder and CEO of a successful, independent hospital medicine company that she ran for sixteen years. She was a 2021 Poets & Quants “Best and Brightest EMBA” and an inaugural Rock Health Summit Fellow.

Christine is currently the CEO/Co-Founder of Origin Healthcare. Origin is a tech-enabled company powering the next generation of healthcare by partnering with organizations to enable patients to receive hospital-level care at home. Origin’s value-based approach improves access and outcomes while lowering the cost of care by thousands of dollars compared to a facility-based admission. Origin Healthcare was the winner of the 2022 Colorado Prime Health Innovation Challenge, receiving a grant to improve health equity, access, quality, and cost for underserved communities. 

Devin: What is your superpower?

Ben: I'm basically the most humble person you've ever met. (Laughs.)

Saving the Great Salt Lake will require “a 30 to 50 percent reduction in our water use in the watershed,” says Dr. Ben Abbott, professor of ecology at Brigham Young University, one of the foremost authorities on the shrinking Great Salt Lake.

This isn’t just a local problem. Not significantly tied to climate change, salt lakes around the globe (about 120 of them) are drying up for the same reason: humans are using the water before it gets to the salt lakes.

AI Summary

1. The Great Salt Lake is a keystone ecosystem.

2. The lake has experienced a significant decline in water levels over the last hundred years.

3. The cause of the decline is mainly due to human water use for agriculture, outdoor vegetation, and mining minerals.

4. Climate change plays a small role in the decline; water consumption accounts for 80 to 90 percent of it.

5. There needs to be a 30 to 50 percent reduction in water use in the watershed to address the problem.

6. Agricultural optimization, urban water use reduction, and targeted fallowing are potential solutions.

7. Alfalfa is a major contributor to water depletion.

8. Farmers must be compensated for reducing water use to remain economically viable.

9. A high percentage, perhaps 95 percent, of indoor water use ends up in the lake.

10. Ben Abbott’s work is focused on understanding and protecting freshwater ecosystems.

Great Salt Lake is a vital part of the ecosystem in Northern Utah. It is the largest of the salt lakes in North America. Losing the lake could create an ecological catastrophe.

Ben explains the problem in simple terms: “Great Salt Lake naturally fluctuates. It goes up and down because there’s no outlet to the ocean. But what we’ve seen over the last hundred years is a very steep decline, a decrease in the water level. This is driven overwhelmingly by one thing, extractive human water use.”

“The breakdown is approximately 80-10-10. So, 80 percent agriculture, 10 percent mineral extraction from the lake, 10 percent municipal water use the urban areas,” he says, summarizing the use of water that once flowed into the lake.

In urban settings, Ben acknowledges that about 95 percent of indoor water uses end up in the lake. After going down the drain, the water is cleaned and flows eventually to where it belongs. The water on urban lawns, however, doesn’t end up in the lake.

In agriculture, “alfalfa is the predominant crop that is using water in the watershed,” Ben says. He suggests paying farmers to fallow their fields for part of the year.

Utah received record-setting snow this past winter; Great Salt Lake has risen several feet. Ben worries this could be a problem. “We can’t get distracted this amazing snow year. It’s the biggest snow year on record. It’s a real gift. It gives us more—maybe a few months more or a year more time to implement these solutions. It doesn’t solve the long-term deficit.”

Interestingly, Ben notes that humans have lived around what is now Great Salt Lake, for about 20,000 years, since long before it was formed by the receding Lake Bonneville. “It was only in the mid-1900s when we had these big federally subsidized dam projects and canal and pipeline projects that we started to overuse, and we created this artificial surplus of water that nobody locally was paying for,” Ben says.

Ben has one overriding concern. “We haven’t come to grips with how serious an issue this is and with how hard the solution is going to be.”

“The lake responds to how much water flows into it; it doesn’t respond to the number of bills that were passed, the number of podcasts that were done on the lake or even the amount of money we spend on it,” he says.

Ben’s superpower is humility. He’s learned to focus on the lakes he cares so much about, not on getting credit for saving them.

How to Develop Humility As a Superpower

Ben has learned to remember some critical context for his work. “It isn’t about us, and it’s not whether our report was taken seriously or if we got credit for the change that was made. It’s focusing on solving the problem.”

That brand of humility is empowering, he says. “When you try to decenter the ego, it becomes a lot easier to take setbacks and criticisms or personal attacks.”

He shared an example to make the point:

I got personally sued for $3 million for the education and research work that we were doing. That was really destabilizing to have my livelihood threatened. But again, I felt really supported thinking about, “Hey, this is really about the lake. This is, of course, disruptive to me and my family for a short period of time. But it may be a step toward permanent protection and better management of the lake.”

Ben offers advice for developing humility by focusing on finding hope and progress.

If you're carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders, and it's just grinding you down, guess what? That's not helping the world, and that's not helping you personally, right? Because you're not going to be in a place that you can have the energy and desire and passion to engage.

So being open to unexpected relationships and conversations, being able to see the beauty in everything around us—there is so much beauty. There are so many reasons to be hopeful about the future and to really work for it.

Hope comes from action, I believe when I sit at home and look at these numbers for the 2,000 to 8,000 premature deaths due to air pollution just here in Utah—that's ten times as many people as die in all car accidents—that can be crushing.

When instead, we're thinking about, “Hey, who can I talk with? Hey, there's this Clean Air caucus in the legislature that's working on this issue. They really care about this issue—bipartisan,” that's where the hope comes in. You start to believe that we can make a difference. And it does.

By focusing on action and progress, hope develops and strengthens your ability to decenter yourself.

As you move forward, follow Ben’s example and advice to develop greater humility, so you can make it a strength that could become a superpower, enabling you to do more good in the world.

Guest-Provided Profile

Ben Abbott (he/him):

Professor of Ecology, The Abbott Lab of Ecosystem Ecology at Brigham Young University

About The Abbott Lab of Ecosystem Ecology at Brigham Young University: We are a research and outreach lab composed of postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, and undergraduates. Since 2017, we have worked on solving some of the most pressing environmental issues regionally and globally, including air pollution, climate change, renewable energy, wildfire, and the conservation of Utah Lake and Great Salt Lake.

Website: benabbott.byu.edu

Twitter Handle: @abbottecology

Other URL: gsl.byu.edu

Biographical Information: Ben Abbott was born in Nashville, Tennessee, and grew up in Orem, Utah. He got interested in science and nature from watching TV and mountain biking in the foothills of Mount Timpanogos. Near the end of his senior year at Orem High, he slipped on a pamphlet for the Quinney Scholarship at Utah State University and applied to the Watershed and Earth Systems Science program. During his B.S., he worked as an undergraduate researcher in northern Alaska, investigating how fish influence nutrient cycles in Arctic lakes. That led to his Ph.D. at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where he studied permafrost climate feedbacks using interdisciplinary techniques to quantify how Arctic and Boreal ecosystems respond to climate change. After finishing his Ph.D. in 2014, he worked as a Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow at the French National Science Foundation (CNRS). While in western France, he studied the effects of agriculture and urbanization on aquatic and marine ecosystems.Ben is currently an assistant professor in the Environmental Science & Sustainability program at BYU. He works with a large team of creative and passionate students and postdoctoral researchers to understand and encourage sustainability and r…

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Devin: What is your superpower?

Adrienne: One of my superpowers is being able to have difficult conversations with people, being able to talk about issues and appreciate people’s discomfort and help them see them from a different vantage point so I can reach them. Unfortunately, our society is set up with a lot of issues in a taboo arena that [make] people automatically feel uncomfortable. Being able to disarm them and connect with them such that they are ready to grow and that they feel that they can confront and tackle these issues that come across their plate—it’s really rewarding. So I would say that that’s my superpower.

Adrienne Lawrence, author and consultant for Jennifer Lawrence Consulting, works to empower companies and thought leaders to adopt workplace diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and helps them avoid trending on social media.

“I specialize in keeping people from trending on Twitter because they stepped in it,” she says, adding a key for success in this area: “Be humble and recognize that, ‘hey, I’m not going to have all the answers and I am going to step in it.’”

AI Summary

1. Adrienne Lawrence is a VP and consultant at Jennifer Brown Consulting.

2. She helps workplaces become more inclusive, and individuals become more inclusive within their work. 

3. She works in anti-racism to help organizations understand diversity’s uniqueness and value.

4. One of the fundamental principles for creating a more inclusive workplace is being humble and hungry for information.

5. She is the author of Staying in the Game: The Playbook for Beating Workplace Sexual Harassment. 

6. Her book offers guidance on navigating workplace sexual harassment. 

7. Sexual harassment in the workplace is not just a women’s issue; men can also be impacted.

8. She offers tools and strategies for individuals to navigate and combat workplace harassment.

9. Lawrence emphasizes the importance of having difficult conversations to break down barriers and improve communication. 

10. She provides information on her consulting firm, Jennifer Brown Consulting, and how individuals can learn more about her and her work.

Adrienne says we should all be aware that “There may have been things that occurred historically that our parents’ generation, grandparents or even hundreds of years before had created that situation. And the legacy lives on today. I’m not responsible for that, but I am responsible for this relationship.”

Given the essential nature of interpersonal relationships in the workplace, she says that understanding “you’re not going to have all the answers, you’re not going to see the landmines—but that’s okay. When you step in it, there is an opportunity there to mend that relationship, to grow and to exercise greater self-awareness.”

Too often, she says, people think of diversity too simply as being exclusively about race. She sees DEI as a broad umbrella covering a range of “isms,” including sexism, homophobia and transphobia. She sees sobriety status, religion and neurotype as also needing representation. “It’s all of the little things about each one of us that makes us unique.”

She sees The Walking Dead as a model for valuing diversity. Every member of the core cast had a unique skill that, combined with the others, allowed the group to fend off the zombies successfully.

Earlier in her career, Adrienne took an on-air position with ESPN. After surviving sexual harassment there, she wrote Staying in the Game: The Playbook for Beating Workplace Sexual Harassment. “The book is the first of its kind guide, largely for employees to help people understand and navigate this form of bullying,” she says.

Adrienne uses her superpower, her ability to have difficult conversations with people, to help her in her work.

How to Develop the Ability to Have Difficult Conversations As a Superpower

“One of the things I do is executive coaching and mediation,” Adrienne says. “Sometimes you might have people who are great at what they do, but when they come together, they clash, which is often the case when you have type A personalities, people who are go-getters.”

She offers guidance for resolving conflicts and having difficult conversations.

To ease conflict, it’s essential to remove yourself from the equation. Centering yourself and worrying about how others perceive you can hinder progress. Instead, focus on the goal and recognize that other people’s responses are not necessarily about you. By de-centering yourself, you can approach the situation with more power and effectiveness. Ask yourself, “What is my focus here?” and consider different dynamics to reach your goal. This mindset will allow you to do your best work.

By following Adrienne’s example and advice, you can develop the ability to have difficult conversations that enable you to resolve conflicts and grow as a human being, enabling you to do more good in the world.

Guest-Provided Profile

Adrienne Lawrence (she/her):

Vice President, Jennifer Brown Consulting

About Jennifer Brown Consulting: Workplace Inclusion

Website: www.jenniferbrownconsulting.com

Twitter Handle: @jbcinclusion

Company Facebook Page:

Other URL: www.adriennejlawrence.com

Biographical Information: As an impactful workplace equity educator and devoted inclusion advocate, Adrienne Lawrence does more than just talk. The former big law litigator-turned-VP and Consultant for JBC is passionate about reaching professionals through informative, thought-provoking conversation. In addition to delivering memorable keynote speeches, Adrienne crafts effective and forward-thinking diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and strategic plans that serve her clients’ needs in the now and equip them to succeed well into the future. Leveraging her range of knowledge, she also thoughtfully coaches executives, conducts informative workplace assessments and offers a DEI experience that is truly unmatched. Adrienne has had the honor of working with an array of organizations—from NASA to Toyota to the American Red Cross. After becoming the first on-air personality to sue ESPN for gender discrimination, Adrienne wrote a first-of-its-kind business book in 2020 titled Staying in the Game: The Playbook for Beating Workplace Sexual Harassment, which won several awards and was heralded as a must-read for every woman in the workplace (Penguin Random House, 2020). When not speaking on workplace inclusion, Adrienne shares her insight as an award-winning legal analyst and commentator. Her voice has been heard on platforms like NPR, and her words featured in outlets like Harvard Business Review and The Washington Post, among others.Adrienne holds an M.A. from the University of Southern California, a J.D. from The George Washington University Law School, an M.A. from CUNY-John Jay College, and a B.S. from Cal State Sacramento.

Twitter Handle: @adriennelaw

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/lawrencead

Instagram Handle: @adriennelawrence

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Devin: What do you see as your superpower?

Paul: I'm not sure I have a superpower, but I think if I if I have a superpower, it's I love to learn. Throughout my career—I tell people who think about getting a PhD, “What's the best thing about the career is you can change careers without changing jobs.” I have looked at, over the course of my career, how businesses earn long-term profits, why some are sustainable over time—in terms of pure profitability. I've looked at poverty. I've looked at strategic risk. Now I'm looking at sustainability. These are all different careers, and I get to do it without ever changing jobs. But the key is you got to keep learning.

One of the things I did about 15 or 16 years ago was set a goal to read 30 books that year because I'd ordered a bunch of books. As a professor, I'm like an addict. Amazon is like my best friend. So I thought, I'm going to read 30 books because I have this shelf full of books that I never read. I did it, and I learned a ton. What I've done over the last 15 years is probably averaged 20 to 30 books a year about all sorts of different things.

So, on my way home from Minneapolis on Sunday, I read Daniel Yergin's new book, The New Map, which is all about energy driving the world in the 21st century. And then I read David Baldacci's book, one of his novels. I'm also reading a book right now about the future of money and what is digital currency going to be.

So, I read promiscuously. I don't draw lines about what I'll read and what I won't read, but I read a lot, and that gives you a different perspective on the world. So, I think my superpower would be I know how to learn, and I love it, and I love to learn new things and try new things.

BYU Professor Paul Godfrey was a guest on the show last to talk about his book More than Money: Five Forms of Capital to Create Wealth and Eliminate Poverty. Eliminating poverty is one of my favorite topics and a goal I share with many of you; I think we can see the end of poverty in my lifetime.

So, when Paul reached out to share his new book, Clean: Lessons from Ecolab’s Century of Positive Impact, covering one of my other favorite topics, I was excited to have him back on the show.

AI Summary

* Paul Godfrey, the 2022 outstanding faculty member at BYU's Business School and author of Clean: Lessons from Ecolab’s Century of Positive Impact, was interviewed on the Superpowers for Good show.

* Godfrey's book explores Ecolab's proven principles of sustainability and how other organizations can adopt them.

* The key principles are respect and integration.

* Godfrey sees his superpower as loving to learn and reading 20-30 books a year on various topics.

* In the interview, he discusses his book and the importance of a love of learning in personal and professional growth.

* He offers insights on how to develop a passion for learning, including admitting a lack of knowledge, being willing to go deep, and engaging with experts.

* The interview concludes with information on how to purchase the book and connect with Godfrey.

Guest-Provided Profile

Paul C. Godfrey (he/him)

William and Roceil Low Professor of Business Strategy, Godfrey & Associates

About Godfrey & Associates: Godfrey & Associates is a strategy consulting practice that helps individuals and organizations thrive in an uncertain and challenging world. 

About BYU: Brigham Young University is a privately-owned major University that provides a full range of educational and development opportunities for students.

Biographical Information: Paul C. Godfrey, the William and Roceil Low Professor of Business Strategy at the BYU Marriott School of Business, received the school’s Outstanding Faculty Member award in 2022. His research has appeared in a number of premiere outlets, including Nature Biotechnology, and the Academy of Management Review. He has authored two textbooks, one about Strategy and one on Ethics in Business, and has written three other books. His 2020 book Strategic Risk Management: New tools for competitive advantage in an uncertain world helps executives and leaders understand, monitor, and manage the risks and opportunities central for strategic success. His latest book is Clean: Lessons from Ecolab’s Century of Positive Impact, which shows leaders the pathway to contributing to a more sustainable world.Paul received his MBA and PhD degrees from the University of Washington and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Utah. Paul and his wife, Robin, live in Salt Lake City, where they enjoy cooking, hiking, reading, and spending time with their five children and one grandchild.

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/paulcgodfrey

I’m not a financial advisor; nothing I write in Superpowers for Good should be considered investment advice. You should seek appropriate counsel before making investment decisions.

Devin: What do you see as your superpower?

Ben: I think a real superpower when you're creating as an entrepreneur is being able to look at things, recombine them and create something new. We oftentimes think of something new coming out of ex-nihilo, like out of nowhere, born out of the mind of Elon Musk or Steve Jobs. But I don't think that's actually true. I think you're usually better off being kind of a scavenger and taking the existing things that are around, like the JOBS Act and a bond marketplace and loans, and reconstituting them, refashioning them to create a new species of, in our case, a financial product that has new traits and has new capacities to do new things that it wasn't capable of before. So I'd say the ability to kind of recombine things and think creatively was helpful for me and my co-founders.

Ben Lozano grew up working at his father's boutique financial accounting firm in Southern California, specializing in growth planning for small and medium-sized businesses. He helped many first and second-generation Hispanic Americans grow their businesses by providing accounting services and assisting in bank loan applications. That experience stayed with him.

After earning a Ph.D. at UC Santa Cruz, coincidentally defending his dissertation as Bear Stearns failed, marking the beginning of the Great Recession. He stayed in academia for several years, focusing on fintech.

AI Summary

1. SMBX offers debt financing to small and medium businesses.

2. SMBX connects businesses that would typically take out bank loans with people in their community who want to invest in them by lending money.

3. SMBX's rates generally sit between 7-10% and are competitive.

4. SMBX's mission is to enable people to decide, for themselves, what kind of world they want to create with their unused money and earn profits.

5. Anyone can invest in a business for as little as $10 on SMBX's platform.

6. SMBX's co-founder Ben says they initially targeted businesses with a fanbase or high believability factor to create a diversified portfolio of small business bonds.

7. Ben's superpowers are being stubborn and creating something new by recombining things.

8. To become a successful entrepreneur, rely on what you know and take input from outside the field.

9. SMBX allows people to invest directly in small businesses through bond offerings.

10. Ben is available on LinkedIn and through email for discussions.

Ben will speak at SuperCrowd23, which begins tomorrow. He’ll join a panel discussion with twelve, yes, twelve crowdfunding CEOs! Superpowers for Good readers are entitled to a 50 percent discount. Register today!

Watching the investment crowdfunding market closely as it began to unfold following the passage of the JOBS Act in 2012, he began to conceive a plan to create something novel in the space: small business bonds.

It sounds easy and obvious now, but it took two years to convince regulators that what he and his co-founders envisioned would be legal under Regulation Crowdfunding.

SMBX opened for business just weeks before the pandemic began. Challenges notwithstanding, the business is proving a real success.

“We have had a lot of businesses who have refinanced out of existing borrowing relationships that they've had, and factoring has certainly been some of them,” Ben says. “I'd say credit cards have been a big one. But the overwhelming majority of businesses listing bonds on our marketplace would otherwise be taking out term bank loans.”

The difference isn’t so much a big financial arbitrage or better borrowing rates so much as the benefit that comes from having your community, including your customers, provide the financing. It strengthens the relationship.

By way of example, Ben shared the story of a San Francisco-based wine shop that sells hoagies. Needing to raise capital for a second location, they issued a $250,000 bond on SMBX at 9.5% in recent weeks. It was substantially oversubscribed.

Tampon Tribe, which will pitch at SuperCrowd23 this week, is raising $250,000 on SMBX, too. Owned by two women, Tampon Tribe is producing organic feminine hygiene products that are healthier for their customers.

The SMBX business model is working well. Many investors are now returning to reinvest because of the economics. Ben calls them “return-focused investors.” He sees another group forming; he calls them “ethicists.”

There is a certain type of business that stands for a certain type of product that we would not list on our marketplace. But you see businesses like Tampon Tribe that do stand for what we believe in, for healthy living, for high-quality products that add value to people's lives, that make them healthier, that are sustainable, that do good for the folks who are using the products. I would call those people ethicists, that type of investor investing in a world that they want to support with their unused money.

In addition to being “stubborn”—let’s call it tenacious—Ben has developed a unique ability to create recombinant products and ideas, drawing on ideas from disparate fields.

How to Develop Recombinant Creation As a Superpower

Ben, with help from his co-founders, saw three disconnected ideas and combined them to create something new.

In one corner of this triangle, they saw the JOBS Act created a new market for publicly selling securities in private companies. In the second corner, they saw a well-developed bond market for big companies. In a third, they saw conventional small business lending.

By seeing the intersection of these three components, they created the recombinant small business bond marketplace.

Ben offers two insights for developing this ability.

“Rely on what you know, and then you want to take in some other input that is from outside that field,” he says. “Some of the greatest innovations in music that have been made from bringing something that really didn't belong within that musical genre into it. And boom, a new style of music was born.”

So, he suggests “filling 20 or 30 percent of your brain inputs from things that don’t belong in the field you’re trying to operate in.”

By following Ben’s example and his advice, you can make recombinant creation a superpower that enables you to do more good in the world.

Guest-Provided Profile

Benjamin Lozano (he/him):

Co-Founder and CEO, SMBX

About SMBX: SMBX is a financial marketplace that connects qualified small business owners with investors in their community and throughout the country. By issuing a Small Business Bond™, businesses can borrow money from investors at competitive rates, raising the funds needed to expand their business while increasing customer loyalty. The SMBX marketplace was inspired by the belief that there was a better way for small businesses to access the financing they need to succeed.

Website: www.thesmbx.com

Twitter Handle: @thesmbx

Company Facebook Page: fb.com/thesmbx

Instagram Handle: instagram.com/thesmbx/

Biographical Information: Benjamin Lozano is the Co-Founder and CEO of SMBX--the world's first Small Business Bond marketplace that links qualified small businesses with investors in their communities. He was a professor of finance at UC Santa Cruz and San Francisco State from 2009 to 2020. He built a fintech research program at UC Santa Cruz shortly after the 2008 financial crisis. He is the former Chief Product Officer for Robin Hood Minor Asset Management. He co-founded SMBX in February 2020.

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/benjamin-james-lozano-4789336a/

Devin: What do you see as your superpower?

Steve: I’m a connector, but my superpower is, one of my associates said to me, “You’re not quite a connector.” 

I said, “What?” He said, “You’re a weaver.”

Weaver? I thought he called me weasel. He said, “No, you’re a weaver. Because what you do is beyond a connector role. You connect people, and you get things done.”

Stephen Shaff, founder and CEO of Community-Vision Solutions, is building a company to revitalize communities from the inside. “Our goal is to initiate, facilitate and agitate for the common good,” he says.

“I'm a for-profit developer with a nonprofit mission,” Steve says. “Social enterprise with an equal mission for financial and social returns can happen.” The 35 years he’s spent in the space testify to his conviction that this is true.

AI Summary:

1. Community Vision Solutions is a startup founded by CEO Stephen Share to build scalable economic equality solutions.

2. They are a social consultancy providing collaborative services for community-based organizations.

3. Steve's vision for the company is to initiate, facilitate, and agitate for the common good.

4. He believes that social enterprise is a better way to rebuild communities and that it could be scaled to compete against the status quo.

5. Steve's superpower is his ability to bring people together and create change.

6. Steve, founder of Community Vision Solutions, discusses his superpower of weaving organizations together to make great things happen.

7. Steve emphasizes the importance of working to one's strengths and passions to achieve success and purpose.

8. Community-Vision Solutions aspires to be an employee-owned shop to ensure everyone is invested and receives a piece of the mission.

9. Steve, founder of Community Vision Solutions, talks about how the company combines business and community development.

10. The company is currently building its social media presence and launching a crowdfunding campaign in the coming months.

Steve provided an example of the work he has done and hopes to do with Community-Vision Solutions:

The typical arts organization that gets that phone call from the landlord saying, “Guess what? Thank you for improving our community. Now we're going to be putting the property up on the market.”

Well, instead of that arts organization bemoaning the fact that they've got to pack up and move from the community they helped create, we work with them to find solutions.

Can we put together a coalition or a network of investors and developers or other community stakeholders so that that nonprofit that may not have any money or resources or capacity to do this—can we create a joint venture that would preserve that property, buy the property, and then develop that in a way that benefits the community?

This is an example of the sort of thing Steve has done in the past and is working to repeat.

Crowdfunding has emerged as a relatively new tool that can benefit smaller-scale projects and small businesses, particularly in Black communities. Steve sees how these businesses can take advantage of the significant growth in waste management and recycling industries.

By collaborating with wrap-around partners, they can establish a blueprint for setting up a computer or appliance warehouse, remanufacturing organization, and more. Crowdfunding can provide the necessary capital to set up these businesses, which can create local jobs and provide housing for community residents.

Throughout Steve’s career, he’s developed the ability to weave people and projects together to catalyze positive change; he sees weaving as his superpower.

How to Develop Weaving As a Superpower

“Weavers get stuff done, and they have a certain impatience to get even more done,” Steve says.

Steve recounts his successful efforts to revitalize a drug-ridden neighborhood over several years. Despite being a white outsider, he was able to gain the trust and respect of community members by treating them with dignity and working collaboratively. Steve emphasizes the importance of communication and mutual respect in any community-building project.

Through his work, Steve demonstrated that outsiders can play a positive role in community development by listening to and collaborating with local leaders. He rejects the idea of "helping" others, instead emphasizing the importance of working together as equals. Steve acknowledges that his status as an outsider initially led to skepticism, but he was able to overcome this through persistence and a commitment to building relationships.

Overall, Steve's story illustrates the transformative power of community-based approaches to problem-solving. By prioritizing communication, respect, and collaboration, he made a real difference in the lives of those he worked with. His example is a valuable reminder that positive change is possible, even in challenging circumstances.

Steve has some simple advice for becoming a weaver: “Make sure everyone works to their strengths and their desire.” By optimizing roles and passions, the people you work with can accomplish significant change.

You can make weaving a strength that becomes a superpower by following Steve’s example and advice. You can do even more good in the world.

SuperCrowd23

Steve will speak at SuperCrowd23. He’ll be moderating a panel discussion entitled, “Social Entrepreneurship on the Front Lines of Community Revitalization.” Get inspired by the remarkable stories of social entrepreneurs leading the charge in community revitalization.

Superpowers for Good readers are eligible for half-price tickets. Get yours now!

Guest-Provided Profile

Stephen (Steve) Shaff (he/him)

Founder, CEO, Community-Vision Solutions, Benefit LLC

About Community-Vision Solutions, Benefit LLC:

Website: www.c-vsolutions.com

Biographical Information: Stephen Shaff is a social entrepreneur who merges expertise as a housing and community developer, political activist and social-solutions strategist to build scalable economic equality solutions.His community organizing and leadership contributed to the founding, funding, advising and/or serving on several nonprofit Boards of Directors serving anti-poverty, arts, youth, environmental and other community-change organizations. His real estate development activities helped create affordable homeownership opportunities to over 400 hundred residents within several underserved Washington, DC communities. Simultaneously to his entrepreneurial and community efforts, Shaff has served as a political activist and strategist that spans efforts from inner-city Washington, DC, to a national base of advocates and networks. In response to the pandemic and its aftermath, Shaff co-founded Community Vision Solutions, Benefit LLC - a social enterprise consultancy, advocate and community investor. Its signature initiative is the Community Alliance Project - an effort to create greater economic equality and community wealth through close partnerships with local stakeholders.

Linkedin: 

Personal: linkedin.com/in/stephen-shaff-2757354/      

Company: linkedin.com/company/communityvisionsolutions/

Devin: What do you see as your superpower?

Tawana: I genuinely care about people at their core.

The 10K Project CEO, Tawana Rivers, is passionate about investing in the Black community. She sees it as a driver of wealth creation for both the investors and the entrepreneurs.

The 10K Project is an association of investors actively working to back Black founders. Not only does this help to address the challenges these entrepreneurs face, but it does so in a way that creates value for the investors, too.

AI Summary

* Tawana Rivers, CEO of the Ten-K Project, supports black founders via investment crowdfunding.

* The Ten-K Project teaches alternative ways to build wealth and invest in startups.

* Tawana highlights the need for community support for black founders who often struggle to receive funding.

* Accreditation rules that limit equal opportunities need to be reconsidered.

* Tawana’s superpower is her 30-year experience in HR.

* She hopes to inspire others to adopt the ability to care about people genuinely, even with their flaws.

* Tawana emphasizes the importance of caring for others and being of service to them.

* When one leads with a servant leadership mindset, it makes them think of others organically.

* Our society needs to start caring about each other more to avoid devastating incidents such as shootings.

* The Ten-K Project’s website and social media platforms have more information about their work in supporting black founders.

“We are a thriving community of entrepreneurs and investors,” Tawana says of The 10K Project. “We’re teaching the community how to build wealth, and we do it in really creative ways.”

“We’re looking at alternative investments,” she says. “There are enough people out there teaching people how to do traditional investments, but there are a lot of ways to make money in this amazing country that we live in.”

“We’re also big equity crowdfunding supporters,” Tawana says, highlighting one of her favorite alternative investments. “We believe in what the law is allowing everyday investors the opportunity to do, and so we’re teaching the community about that in hopes that we are able to make a difference with founders who are looking to seek capital.”

“We focus on the black founder because there are so many challenges with the Black founder getting the funding that they need to get these projects off the ground and to the next phase of success,” she says.

Tawana responded with an appropriate and soft scold when I expressed frustration at the lack of improvement in the data around venture capital funding for diverse founders. “If you’re frustrated by the reality, imagine how the Black founders feel.”

“They really need the community to rally around them, to lift them up, to love on them a little bit, to let them know they’re not forgotten,” she says.

Tawana doesn’t see this as a one-way street or charity. “It also gives the investor the opportunity, a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a project that could end up being very, very successful.”

Because she works to bring investors and entrepreneurs together, she sees herself as a “money matchmaker.”

SuperCrowd23

Tawana will speak at SuperCrowd23, joining a panel discussion on investing like a professional. Andrew Savikas of Yieldtalk will moderate the panel. Dan Devlin of Doriot, Eric Cox of Netcapital and author Karen Rands will complete the roster.

“I want people to walk away from the event in its entirety, understanding investment crowdfunding and understanding that at all levels and from all demographics, founders need our support,” Tawana says. “Again, there’s something in it for us as investors, right? It’s not a one-sided deal. I love that about investment crowdfunding as well. It gives everyone an opportunity to grow, develop, to build.”

Superpowers for Good readers can still get 50 off on tickets to the two-day virtual conference on May 10-11. Register now!

In all her work, Tawana leverages her superpower. She cares about people.

How to Develop Caring About People As a Superpower

“I love people, and I understand the needs of people,” Tawana says. “Many of them come to us in broken states or without motivation. Some of them are overly confident, and you need to tame that a little bit because it’s not realistic. But I genuinely understand and care about people.”

She shared a powerful example of how caring for an individual made a big difference in a person’s life:

I had to fire someone one time. It was time. Like we all knew it was time, right? I brought her into my office. Her name is Barbara. I said, '“Miss Barbara, we need to talk.”

She said, “Okay.” She took a deep breath.

I said, “We've talked to you about this. We've had several conversations. It's just not working out. Don't think this is a good fit for you.

she looked at me and she started crying and she said, “Thank you so much.” She said, “I hate this job, but I never would have left on my own. So, thank you so much. I realize I need to be doing something else. I keep taking jobs like this, like in customer service. I keep taking these customer service jobs, even though they're not good for me, and I don't like them at all. Thank you so much.”

We hugged at the end of that conversation and we sat there for probably another hour and a half talking about what kind of job she should apply for. We then talked about the strengths and the things that she did well and ended up helping her rewrite her resume to highlight those strengths. I was a reference when she went to get another job that was not in customer service.

Each day, she chats with me. We will touch we will reach out to each other on social media, and we keep in touch. She's thriving. She's found something that she loves to do.

That is one of those things that started with a very difficult conversation that many before me had really been afraid to have because those difficult conversations are not easy.

I think that moment was pivotal in her life because she is living her best life now

“This is an acquired superpower,” Tawana said when I asked her to share some tips for learning to care about people, implying that we can all learn to do it better.

“Humans tend to be a little self-absorbed,” she began. Step one, she says, is to accept that we should care. “It’s looking at the fact that we should be of service to others.”

Tawana sees it as a leadership skill. “When we think of ourselves in a servant leadership manner, it makes us organically think of others. And if you lead with that, then you can’t go wrong.”

She offers two additional tips:

* Stop and talk to people to get to know them a little better.

* When you ask people how they’re doing in their day, really mean it.

By following Tawana’s example and advice, you can make caring about others a skill you can develop into a superpower enabling you to do more good in the world.

Guest-Provided Profile

Tawana Rivers (she/her):

CEO, The 10K Project, Inc.

About The 10K Project, Inc.: The 10K Project is a thriving community of wealth builders comprised of entrepreneurs and investors. We educate the community on various alternative investment strategies to assist them in finding their passion. We are particularly fond of investment crowdfunding as a way for both parties to come together to build wealth.

Website: The10kproject.com

Facebook Group: fb.com/groups/black10kgroup

Twitter Handle: @black10Kproject

Instagram Handle: @black10kproject.com

Biographical Information: Tawana Rivers is an entrepreneur, serial investor and 30-year HR professional. She is the CEO of The 10K Project, a thriving community of Wealth Builders. We focus on raising capital for Black Founders, educating Black investors and curating deal flow. She is the President of Blockchain Investor Group International and the Founder of OEO Holdings, a micro private equity firm that focuses on buying profitable cash-flowing businesses. She plans to spend this next phase of her life building wealth for people that have not only been underrepresented but also for those who‘ve been unseen.

Other URL: Roadtocrowdf…