Hi everyone,

In this episode of the Well Aware Podcast - This Sustainable Life, I bring you Jessica Godinez, Conservation Program Manager of the Hispanic Access Foundation. 

The Hispanic Access Foundation connects Latinos and others with partners and opportunities to improve lives and create an equitable society. One day, every Latino in America will enjoy good physical health in a healthy, natural environment, high quality education, economic success, and civic engagement in their community with some of improving the future of America.

Between July 16th through to July 24th of this year, there was a nationwide celebration to support getting the Latino community outdoors and participate activities to protect our natural resources thusly named Latino Conservation Week. During this time, Latino communities, organizations, families, and individuals all participated in a variety of activities, both virtual and in person.

Whether it's hikes, parks, cleanups, online expectations, round table discussions, Q and A, scavenger hunts, Film screens, everything. There was over 150 events that were being celebrated nationwide as I understand correctly. Our guest Jessica had a very particular quote to share about Latino Conservation Week:

"Latino communities are passionate about the outdoors and hold a strong belief that they have moral obligation to be good stewards. Latino Conservation Week helps break down barriers for Latino communities to access public lands and waters encourages new opportunities for engagement inspires next generation of environmental stewards."

Jessica is a first generation Mexican American who is drawn to support immigrant communities in navigating the systems of a new country while striving for social equity. Her family currently lives near Richmond, Virginia, where her love for nature continued to grow as the gardens around her family home did. Prior to joining Hispanic access, Jessica had nourished love of the outdoors through a job at REI, an American retail outdoor creation services organization and at the same time, she was also working towards social equity by partnering with local nonprofits, serving the needs of immigrants.

On this podcast episode, Jessica and I talk about the hurdles of accessing nature for Latinos. We talk about the leadership and logistics needs surrounding this problem. Finally, Jessica commits to her efforts with gardening at home, so that in the future she may share her techniques with her local community.

Enjoy the show!

Welcome to the Well Aware podcast! This particular episode is meant to be a primer to my 2nd season of podcasting. This season, I've partnered alongside the This Sustainable Life community, or TSL. The goal of this podcast is to share my awareness around sustainability, and to inspire others to explore what sustainability and the environment means to them personally. From that, I, along with the rest of the TSL community, hope to support others on their journey towards living more sustainably.

With that, Well Aware and its prime focus around better management by awareness goes hand in hand, and so I'm honored to be able to connect these two worlds. And so, to that end, I'm delighted to take you on this journey with me. Below is this episode's transcript if you prefer to read. If you're pressed for time, here's a brief summary:

As always, thank you for reading.

Sincerely,

Conrad Ruiz

Hey everyone, Conrad Ruiz here, and welcome to another episode, and in particular a fresh new season, to the Well Aware Podcast. Last season, which was effectively abandoned midway, was a mix of conversations with various relationships across my world, along with an attempt at one point to focus on a theme around executive assistance.

Well... I frankly lost my mojo for the whole of podcasting, and if I’ll say so painfully, I pivoted my efforts elsewhere as I struggled to create a foothold with where I was going with Well Aware.

With that, I’m excited to reignite my podcasting under a different tune. For this season, I’m committed to hosting under the family of podcasts known as the This Sustainable Life community. The TSL community was created by Joshua Spodek, a long time friend and mentor of mine. Josh talks a lot about leadership as it relates to the environment, and through our conversations, I’ve come to answer the call for awareness around being an entrepreneur AND someone who cares about the environment.

To that end, I’m really excited to dive into this season as over time I’ll be sharing about my experiences with running my business while also running my life, and how in the past, I would treat the former with more priority, at the cost of living towards values which were not only related to “saving the planet” kind of environmental sustainability, but more importantly the kind of environmental sustainability that is my life, my environment!

In this first episode to start the season, I talk with my mentor Josh in follow up to our last meeting, where I asked Josh about what the environment means to him. As you’ll soon find out, he’s done this several times, and in fact, this particular session was supposed to just be training for me, to learn what Josh calls the Spodek Method. In line with that, Josh had a really profound experience with his call to action from our last meeting, and that’s mainly what this episode is about. I’ve broken it into parts for time’s sake! On that note, let’s dive into the episode...

Hey everyone,

Welcome to another episode of the Well Aware Podcast. In this episode, we're going to be talking about executive assistance. This is part of a series on executive assistance which includes a host of episodes all guested with people who currently provide executive assistance, or have done so in the past.

With that, I hope you enjoy the episode.

Hello Well Aware listeners,

Welcome to another episode of the Well Aware Podcast. In this episode, we're going to be talking about awareness from a focus on racial diversity in the workforce in the field of neurosurgery with one of the first-ever authors on the subject, Jalen Alexander.

Jalen is a good friend of mine from my short time in New York City. When we last reconnected, he shared with me this work of his and others, and it became clear to me that this was something I wanted to help share and make you aware about.

One thing I want to invite you keep in mind while listening to this episode:

Think about the broader implications of going from unaware to aware of something that speaks to your values and missions in life. In this episode, even Jalen admits surprise to his own assumptions about where he thought the data was going to be with respect to this research, and where the reality stood. To me, this is the first step in so many great calls to action. This is what takes us from aware to well aware, and subsequently well on our way.

With that, I hope you enjoy the episode. Let's dive in.

Hello Well Aware listeners! For this 2nd episode, I've invited Emily Morgan who is the CEO of Delegate Solutions, a company dedicated to improve the lives and wellbeing of all, through the power of delegation. With her company, Emily has been able to guide many entrepreneurs out of their never-ending time towards tasks for their business, so that ultimately they may finally breathe and spend time where it really matters. 

Throughout this episode, we don't necessarily go into all the things you can delegate, no instead we really talk about the greater dynamic of time as it unfolds for those who delegate, and really what it means to delegate for your loved ones. 

I hope you enjoy this episode. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out at https://www.wellaware.me

To learn more about Emily and her company Delegate solutions, please feel free to go to https://www.delegatesolutions.com

In this first episode of the Well Aware Podcast, nonprofit founder and fellow podcaster Oleg Lougheed invites me to have a chat about a very strange question:

What does it really mean to wait?

During our 53 minute talk, Oleg and I uncover the expectation, reality, and experience behind waiting, and just what it means in today's world of near absolute immediacy. In brief, it seems like we just cannot wait for things anymore.

Is that the problem?

In one sense, we certainly miss out on a certain kind of value that comes with waiting well. Find out what we uncovered in our questions around waiting in friendship, business, personal growth, and even dishwashing.

As always, we'll be looking forward to your feedback and thoughts, so join in the discussion by sharing with us!

Enjoy.

Hello everyone,

This trailer is meant to give you all a very brief overview of what the Well Aware podcast is about, and what you can expect in dedicating your time to listening in each week. My name is Conrad Ruiz, and I'll be your host. 

A little about me - I'm the owner of Well Aware Inc., a time management consulting and coaching company that's focused on helping those we serve maximize their time in life. We do this by helping our clients optimize how they invest their 24 hours each and every day through the best available knowledge and tools that are meant to guide more positive, and smarter behavior. 

This 00:01:50 trailer was recorded on January 1st, 2021, at 07:30PM EST, so happy new year! 

I look forward to bringing you some wonderful guests, and some amazing insights for you to takeaway each and every week.

Until then, be well, stay safe, and have a beautiful time.

- C