The Curious Middle

Happy 4th of July! In honor of the holiday, we are speaking with Erin Loos Cutraro, the founder of She Should Run. Erin founded She Should in 2008, a bi-partisan organization dedicated to increasing the number of women running for political office. if you just decided to run or are just exploring, through an incubator, research, events and campaigns, She Should Run offers community support and many other resources. We learned so much from this show, and hope you will enjoy it and be inspired to run for an office or encourage someone you know to run for one of the 500,000 elected offices across the US. As you ll hear on this show, when women run for office, they actually win at the same rate as men!

Lucienne Ide started her career as a physicist working for a mobile company and then for a venture capital firm. When Lucienne kept receiving requests to help large corporations manage the cost of diabetes, she came up with the idea for Rimidi, a digital health start up focused on diabetes management. We discuss the alarming diabetes epidemic in America (research indicates half of Americans have diabetes or prediabetes!) We talk about the the need for more women to pursue career paths in digital health: although 80% of healthcare dollars are controlled by women, women are not represented in health IT as much as other healthcare fields within nursing and medicine. There is a tremendous opportunity to be a part of the growth in the digital health field in areas such as design, user experience, marketing, research, technology and more.

How do you define success? It's a question Courtney Martin asked herself and others while writing her book, The New Better Off: Reinventing the American Dream, which attempts to help all of us think about redefining our measures of success. She encourages us to "reject the tired narratives about success" because our motives and lives will change when we shift our focus, instead, to community.

"The New Better Off most succinctly is realizing that our quality of life is more determined by the quality of our relationships than by our own individual achievements as we've historically thought about it," Courtney says. "It's more about meaning, relationships, community and fulfillment – as opposed to status and stuff."

The book asks questions many of us have asked ourselves, and it challenges what many of us have come to accept as the status quo. One of our favorite lines in Courtney's book is: "I don't want to get a good job, a house with a white picket fence, 2.5 kids and then just go to sleep." Host Polina Selyutin speaks with Courtney about this desire for meaning, purpose and community in our lives and a fear of where the traditional path can lead us in episode 46 of I Want Her Job: The Podcast.

Other topics of discussion include how the traditional 9-to-5 job structure created in the '50's for those without caretaking responsibilities simply doesn't work in the world we live in today. (For example, by the year 2020 it's estimated that half the workforce will be freelance, she cites.)

We also discuss her decision to put community first by living in a co-housing community in Oakland, Calif., where individuals practice radical hospitality by dining together weekly, sharing homeownership activities and helping one another. And if you aren't the co-housing type, Courtney shares ideas on how similar principals of community housing can be easily integrated into our lives – from hikes with family and friends to group dinners. After all, Courtney says, the relationships in our lives are the things that make us the happiest.

It’s often said there are two roads – a well-beaten path and one less traveled that provides obstacles that teach you as you go. While many get to choose which path they take, Hope Alcocer’s was decided for her. A rocky path, her life has thrown her many curveballs to endure – from a terrifying head injury, struggle with PTSD and two heart-shattering breakups – to highs including a self-started and internationally lauded magazine, KHLOE, and now a new book based on her life, Where Hope Lies.

In episode 45 of I Want Her Job: The Podcast, Host Polina Selyutin talks with Hope about dealing, ironically, with hopelessness, to founding a women’s magazine, creating her own boutique marketing agency and turning her painful life experiences into a just-released novel. We also discuss her Armenian culture and how her family has remained her source of strength and wisdom. And if you like what you hear, be sure to check out our online interview with Hope here.

We’re excited for you to see (and hear!) that Hope is a woman who is living up to her name by handling the surprises life sends her with courage, grace, and of course, hope. 

Deb Nelson has a job at RSF Social Finance that is all about helping people align their values with their money, all while helping fund entrepreneurs for social impact businesses. As vice president of client and company engagement, Deb also works on strategic partnerships and client engagement. On top of that, she’s also the lead on a new initiative for the company – the Women’s Capital Collaborative.

Pioneered with an impact investor who wanted to do more to support women entrepreneurs, the Collaborative aims to do more to support women entrepreneurs – a group routinely overlooked and underfunded. In fact, Deb points out, women entrepreneurs received only 3% of venture capital funding from 2011 to 2013. Why is this? Unconscious bias, says the Harvard Business Review. Even when a presentation is given identical word-for-word by men and women, males are 60% more likely to get funded. This Collaborative is in place to do something about that.

“Our goal is to create an economy of generosity and connectedness,” Deb says.

And she’s at the right organization to make that kind of impact. Since 1984, RSF Social Finance has provided social impact loans, grants and investments. It focuses on creating direct, personal and transparent financial relationships for those who fund social enterprises, as well as those who leverage the funding to create long-term social and ecological benefits via organizations in food and agriculture, education and the arts, ecological stewardship and other related fields. It also provides “holistic integrated capital” – from financial capital, loans, loan guarantees and investments, to technical assistance grants, and human and social capital. “We know it takes all kinds of capital to help an entrepreneur thrive and grow their organizations,” she says.

In episode 38 of I Want Her Job: The Podcast, Host Polina Selyutin asks Deb about the story of her career path, the international travel that gave her the confidence to take on future challenges and the importance of intentionally creating “outsider experiences” for yourself.

As a book lover since childhood, Cherilyn Parsons longed to be a part of the literary community. So, she risked her security, job stability and comfort for her dream of starting a world-class book festival in Berkeley, California.

Although there had been a book festival in her home region, the San Francisco Bay Area, more than a decade prior, there wasn't one when Cherilyn decided to take a chance and begin her efforts. And even though she had no prior experience in event planning or the literary world, she did have one very important skill on her resume – fundraising.

"I had no experience in event planning," she says. "I did not know the literary world. I had no money to start with. But I thought, hey, let's do the book festival."

And so, with a background in nonprofit fundraising, most recently at the Center for Investigative Reporting – Cherilyn thought she could apply her experience to help launch a large-scale book fest. And although it wasn't easy, she made it happen. Now in its third year, the 2-day Bay Area Book Festival draws more than 50,000 attendees and 300 authors for events and panels spanning 9 city blocks in Berkeley.

In episode 43 of I Want Her Job: The Podcast, Host Polina Selyutin discusses with Cheryl how she took her idea to launch, the ups and downs along her path and the personal sacrifices she made to make her dream come true. Read (and listen) on to learn why book festivals are such powerful forums for connecting authors and book lovers, as well as what it takes to create, fund and manage large-scale public events.

• Setting The Scene: Cherilyn's love of books began in her childhood. "I always devoured books," she says, " … I always wanted to be a part of the book world."
• Making The Leap: "I had no experience in event planning," she says. "I did not know the literary world. I had no money to start with. But I thought, hey, let's do the book festival."
• Starting From Scratch: While Cherilyn did have a wealth of experience in fundraising for established nonprofits from prior roles, when it came to raising money for a brand new gig, it was "a completely different ball game." Often asked, "Who else is funding you?" nobody wanted to step up to the plate to be first in line for an event with no track record. "It was really, really difficult and humbling," she says. "I was used to doing this and raising funds."
• The Power Of Partnerships: Cherilyn aimed her focus on building partnerships for her first year of her journey. She worked tirelessly to network to gain buy-in from potential partners. To her, a partnership – even without a financial tie – was just as important as funds for the credibility it would help establish for the festival. "I had to build the partnerships in order to have the credibility that showed other people were involved – and believed – in the festival before others would believe in it financially," she says.
• The First Wins: Through her work, Cherilyn found launch partners in UC Berkeley and the San Francisco Chronicle. "Credibility is essential," she says. "Everyone looks at who else is involved to know if they should get involved."
• It Just Takes One: After getting one donor, Cherilyn then leveraged that support to pitch many more donors.
• Facing Fear: When Cherilyn quit her job to pursue her dream of launching a book festival in the Bay Area, she knew her personal credibility – and her future – was on the line. "I made it up as I went along," she says. "I mean, honestly, there were nights when I was crying on the floor of my little home office, because someone had said 'no' to funding and people didn't trust me."
• The Power Of Books: Cherilyn feels books are a solitary, sacred and intimate space. At festivals, book lovers and authors have the opportunity to get out of the solitary and join together in discussion. "It's a very deep communion – a book – between the reader and the writer," Cherilyn says. " … There is something really magic about the private experience of reading, and then the public experience of coming together to share this." She says she loves how festivals contain, "All these people loving books together."
• Becoming A Leader: Cherilyn's goal is for the Bay Area Book Festival to become one of the leading book festivals in the world. Because the Bay Area is so innovative and progressive, she wants the book festival to reflect the spirit and innovation of the region. Additionally, she wants it to maintain a strong international focus, saying that it's important to hear voices from around the world.
• Did You Know: An impressive 70% of book buyers in the United States are women.

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Eugenia Cheng has built a "portfolio career" combining her passions for math, piano and education. Eugenia has a PHD in Pure Mathematics and is a Scientist in Residence at School of the Art Institute in Chicago. As part of her portfolio career, Eugenia also performs as a concert pianist and is a published author of two books about math. Eugenia also works to develop math training materials and curriculum, she does research in math within higher dimensional category theory, and she writes about math for media publications. Eugenia has built her career by finding ways to use her talents and work to help others. Eugenia suggests we build our careers by finding what we are really good at and then finding how to use our talents in the best possible way to contribute to society.

Eugenia has a talent for showing how math relates to our world, and in describing the beautiful and mysterious intersections of math, science and art. We talk with Eugenia on how she got on her path and how playing the piano was her refuge when she was frustrated with the confinements of her school years. Eugenia offers suggestions for encouraging kids to enjoy math ( there is some great advice for those of us who have math phobias), we talk about Eugenia's latest book, beyond infinity, and Eugenia's thoughts on how math, science and art are spiritually related. Eugenia stepped away from a conventional tenured academic path to create a career where she could user her strengths and interests. Eugenia's thoughtful and analytical approach to creating a career that allowed her to contribute more to society, applies to those of us trying to find work where we can also use more of our strengths. We think you will love this conversation abut how to combine different interests, including Eugenia's thoughts on the concept of infinity, how "drunk cooking" and math are similar and how you can stretch the possibilities within your career.

Marta Bralic is VP of Business Development at Flatiron, a digital health company selected by the The World Economic Forum as one of the 30 most promising Technology Pioneers of 2016.  At I Want Her Job, we get excited by technology for social impact and flatiron’s technology is fighting cancer in such an exciting and transformative way. Flatiron’s cloud based software is bringing together cancer centers and hospitals to allow more sharing of cancer data with a goal of accelerating the ability to identify opportunities for cancer treatment and research. “The magic happens at Flatiron when you have an oncologist or nurse sitting side by side with an engineer and they are looking at a screen or at a whiteboard and they are trying to figure out how to solve a clinical problem or a data problem actually using some of the modern software applications that are used in other industries but haven’t so far been applied in a place like oncology” says Marta. For those of you motivated by working on health related problems and using technology to fight cancer, we think you will love learning about Flatiron and career opportunities in digital health.

Times are a-changing, and with it, comes new efforts to keep our planet healthy, which we are major supporters of at I Want Her Job. Today’s interview is with someone hustling to change the future of clean energy, Dawn Lippert. As the co-founder of Elemental Excelerator (formerly Energy Excelerator), a startup accelerator program based in Hawaii, Dawn and her team helps budding businesses change the world, one community at a time.

As co-founder of the organization, Dawn talks to I Want Her Job: The Podcast Host Polina Selyutin about the iteration she went through to refine and design the model Elemental Excelerator uses to fund and support startups. With many startups having different needs and time frames to scale, Dawn says, the nonprofit helped develop a model that works by partnering with corporations to test products and services, as well as non-competing companies that can support and complement one another.

Dawn also discusses her initial inspiration for the nonprofit, largely driven by the realization that the change the world needs to see, needed to be accelerated. “As I was working on these issues in Washington, D.C. on the policy side, it became really clear to me that the speed at which we needed to find solutions was astonishing,” she says. “Entrepreneurship to me is that tool … It’s our theory of change that by empowering entrepreneurs who are building quickly scalable business models that can really address these challenges at scale. That’s how we’re really going to change the world.”

As of press time, Elemental Excelerator has awarded $20 million to 53 portfolio companies (up to $1 million per company), co-funding 28 demonstration projects across areas affecting infrastructure, the environment and quality of life (including energy, water, agriculture and transportation systems). The nonprofit was created in collaboration with Emmerson Collective, an investment and philanthropic platform.

Hayley is General Manager for Media and Product Development at NewCo, a VC-backed startup that highlights innovative business practices around the globe through media and events. NewCo is an online publisher launched entirely on Medium. NewCo shares stories from companies who are trying to change the world and have missions beyond the bottom line. Hayley has worked in media for over 20 years, including roles for Wired.com and the New York Times.

Topics Discussed:

How NewCo started a their platform on Medium and the benefits of having a a plug and play platform agnostic publishing strategy.

Working as Director of Product for Wired: Hayley’s role being one of the first Product Managers for Wired.com.  Hayley led two years of site improvements that translated to a record high number of pageviews in 2015 (breaking 1 Billion pageviews) for the 20 year old Wired.com.

Hayley’s favorite resources for staying in the know for her career.

Up and coming interesting career paths: Hayley's thought on interesting new roles and career paths. 

Hayley’s suggestions for the top skills Product Managers should have: Hint, they are not technical.