Wise Millennial

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Susie Sofranko, Director of Individual Giving at the "International Center of Photography" Museum in New York City, sits down to discuss her journey from the arts into development, her experiences at the Guggenheim and the Frick Museums, the role instagram plays in traditional photography (and generational divide), the impact young patrons have, the bureaucracy of choosing exhibitions, diversity, and gender roles/professionalism being taken seriously as a woman in the development world.

**COVID-19 UPDATE**
This was recorded prior to the epidemic in the U.S. While the museum is currently closed, they have incredible online/virtual programming and classes still occurring. You can learn more here: https://www.icp.org/news/engage-with-icp-from-anywhere

LEARN MORE ABOUT ICP: https://www.icp.org/
INSTA: @icp

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS:

• First off, tell us a little more about the ICP community and your role?
• Why are you doing this? You’re a New York City girl. You were an art history major at the Macaulay honors college at CUNY. You then got a masters of art at Hunter college. Did you want to be in academia? Or become an artist? How do you end up in development?
• Want to ask you about a few different topics:
• -the photography community. How are photographers viewed differently or similar from other types of artists?
• Are there any stereotypes or generational differences you see? Let’s say tomorrow i wake and decide i want to be a photographer. What scrutiny am i going to potentially face?
• -millennials and Instagram. What’s with the obsessiveness with documenting every part of your life? There’s a popular hashtag picsoritdidnthappen. And using filters to show an altered landscape of the world. Is this helping us as a society or hurting us?
• -further on the Instagram question, what’s the reception or what are you hearing from the professional photography community?
• -impact and young people.  How can Millennials make an impact to a museum, especially considering that the donation amounts are relatively small compared to some of your older donors or board members? How do we move the needle? What role do young patrons really play?
• -Development. You are a millennial. You are great at organizing millennials. But Millennials sometimes get categorized as being flaky, Or non committal. 1) is this true? 2) from a development perspective since you’re trying to build relationships, how do you overcome this? What strategies have you found to be most effective?
• -cultural sensitivity and bureaucracy. When is it appropriate for you to get involved in these conversations, especially as it pertains to potential donors and museum members, in terms of what they want to see and what will draw crowds?
• -diversity. How do you be sensitive and carefully bring people together from all different types of backgrounds? And do you find it personally difficult at all to be so inclusive?
• Let’s talk about you for sec: What are some personal fears or struggles you have had to overcome on your journey? Is it difficult being a young woman in non-profit work and being taken seriously in business?
• What is something you wish someone had told you 5 years ago, or you had told yourself, that you had to learn on your own? But would have made life so much easier had you known.
• How can we learn more about you and get connected to the ICP? What are the range of possibilities for involvement?

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  Vivienne Yang, Founder of "VillageOne" Coworking, sits down to discuss her journey as a foreign successful TV reporter & news anchor to building a boutique coworking space different from WeWork, The Assemblage, etc., why we seem to meet so many people but only make a few friends, the difference between "creative", vs. "artist", technology, VR (virtual reality) and the future of coworking, and the power of embracing uncertainty, fear of loss and failure, and dealing with her own challenges of imposter syndrome.

LEARN MORE ABOUT VILLAGEONE: https://villageone.nyc/
VILLAGEONE ART: https://villageoneart.com/
INSTA: @villagonespace

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS:

• Nothing more millennial in terms of community than coworking. How would you describe village one and the community you’re building?
• Why do you think people like it? What’s the secret sauce or magical thing that is working?
• Why? Of all the things you could be doing why this? Wework already existed, was it a specific market opportunity you saw needed to be filled? Now you have the assemblage and other competitors. Was it love of bringing people together? What is your motivation?
• Different topics..
• Culture. You had previously started a wellness company in china called China forest food and were an news anchor on Phoenix satellite tv. Were there any cultural challenges dealing with New Yorkers that maybe you didn’t anticipate or expect? Would it be any different if you were running village one in Beijing vs nyc? How would it be different?
• Branding. You are very careful to use the word creative minds as oppose to artists for example. Anyone in theory can be creative. Why? Are there any stereotypes or misperceptions of the creative community that you feel should be challenged?
• Millennials. You meet with and work with all kinds of people of all ages. How are millennials different from other clients you have in both good and bad ways? What are millennials demands as clients?
• Brick and morter. I used you own a restaurant. In a digital age when we talk about scalability, Operating real estate is hard. What do you see as some of the barriers to growth or unique challenges you deal with in growing a physical business?
• About you.
• A theme you talk about is Uncertainty is not your enemy.  Elaborate more
• What’s been your own biggest personal struggle or fear that you’ve had to overcome in building out this community?
• What is something you wish someone had told you 5 years ago, or you had told yourself, that you had to learn on your own? But would have made life so much easier had you known.
• Who is the right person for this community and how can they get involved?

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  Michelle Gauthier, CEO/Founder of "Mulberry & Vine Restaurants", sits down to discuss her journey from New Orleans to owning multiple retail businesses, an insider’s take on the true “fairytale” of owning a restaurant, understanding food composting, ghost kitchens vs. fast casuals (and what that means?), kiosks replacing humans, the politics surrounding food, her own personal struggles and the #1 lesson she learned regarding hiring a consultant (for any industry!)

LEARN MORE ABOUT MICHELLE: https://www.mulberryandvine.com/who-we-are/
INSTA: @mulberryandvine

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS:

• You’ve always been in retail. You owned a clothing store in new Orleans and a furniture store here in the city. How the hell did you end up opening a restaurant? Why do you keep torturing yourself?
• Clean community. Are there any stereotypes of people who eat clean? Why do they exist? How did we end up here?
• What about eco friendly utensils? Are there other millennial or societal pressures? Everything comes at a cost. Where do we stop?
• Why did you choose this type of cuisine. Could have done Mexican or Italian etc. if you think back to when you had the original idea, what was the market opportunity saw? 
• I think almost everyone i know at some point in their life has romanticized about opening their own restaurant. I fell into that seduction. Itll be cute, you’ll have a place you can invite all your friends. Everyone will be together and happy. Is this fairy tale accurate?
• Why do restaurants fail so quickly? What advice would you give a Millennial thinking of opening a restaurant?
• Topics:
• Restaurants are a very hot topic in media and society. A lot of changes are happening
• Fast casual space and the future of restaurants. What is fast casual concept? Why are there so many? Sweetgreen, tender greens, little beet, dig inn. Is casual dining dead in major cities?
• Technology and people. What is a ghost kitchen? Not to be confused with millennial ghosting on text. Will kiosks replace people?
• Politics and food. Regulating beverage sizes, calorie counts, trans fats. tipping laws. Good intentioned but, Why is food so politicized? and are you ok with government telling you what to do?
• Can they be helpful at all? What about controlling crazy real estate rent prices? Does that make them the good guy? If you had a magic wand, what policy changes would you make. Mayor Gauthier?
• Let’s talk about you:
• What are some Challenges or struggles you have had to overcome? What fears do you have?
• How do you exit the restaurant industry?
• What is something you wish someone had told you 5 years ago, or you had told yourself, that you had to learn on your own? But would have made life so much easier had you known.
• How can people learn more about you and get involved with your community?

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 Eddie Carrington Jr, Leading Instructor of "Equinox", sits down to discuss his journey as a former national spokesperson for Bally Total Fitness, how to build healthy habits to achieve your goals, the role that social media plays, technology in fitness, the power of holding ourselves accountable, and his own insecurities to maintain fitness.
**QUARANTINE UPDATE**: With Equinox temporary closed due to COVID-19, they just launched their new streaming service, called "Variis". Check it out here: Variis by Equinox

LEARN MORE ABOUT EDDIE: https://www.equinox.com/groupfitness/instructor/eddie-carrington
INSTA:@erc143
FREE ONLINE WORKOUT CLASSES: http://instagram.com/variis

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS:

• Interesting background. You had worked in education helping companies find talent. You were also a national spokesman for bally total fitness. Why are you doing this? What motivates you? At what point did you say to yourself, you know what i want to dedicate my life to fitness?
• How would you describe the equinox fitness community in NYC?
• Are there any stereotypes or misperceptions that you hear about the fitness or equinox community which would like to challenge?
• Why do you think they exist? Where do they come from?
• Topics
• Social media, Instagram and role it plays in health. A lot of things i hear from millennials is we struggle comparing ourselves to others? Or just feeling content with who i am. This concept of body acceptance and healthy self image. What role does social media play in educating people about health without making them feel shitty?
• So many people struggle with routine. Is it laziness? People are crunched for time? Not wanting it enough? What can they do? Why is it so tough?
• Diet. Food. Keto. Low carb. So many studies and contradictory information on the internet. What has worked for you? Any gamechanging tips?
• Technology. Where do you see fitness evolving to? We have so much data now and tech. Different ways of working out. Mirror, fitbit, streaming apps. Blood analysis. Peoples bodies respond differently. Should we be paying attention to this or ignoring it? Is it really helping or hurting?
• About you
• Challenges or struggles. Pressure to be physically fit as an instructor. insecurity that your Identity wrapped in your brand?
• What is something you wish someone had told you 5 years ago, or you had told yourself, that you had to learn on your own? But would have made life so much easier had you known.
• How can people learn more about you and get involved with the community you’re building?

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 Darcy O'Brien, CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) of "Simon Quick Advisors", sits down to discuss her journey starting as a receptionist, how to deal with "job-hopping" resumes, "FOMO", how to capture the upswing in the markets, her "3 bucket system" for millennial spending, how to build networks, and the #1 most important step you need to know in communicating with others!
LEARN MORE ABOUT SIMON QUICK: https://simonquickadvisors.com/
INSTA:@simonquickadvisors
Check out these awesome resources Darcy mentions!
Book: The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous & Broke by Suze Orman
Tips: iwillteachyoutoberich.com/ by Ramit Sethi
Online Tools: Wealthfront.com // Learnvest.com // Betterment.com

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS:

• So first off, explain a little on what you do and how you got into this role
• Why are you doing this? What motivates you? 
• What is your advice or thoughts to millennials on how to create a community culture among the people you work with, across different age groups?
• What do i do? I’m a millennial, i have some savings and don’t know what to do with it. But don’t meet any of the minimum thresholds. Its like a chicken or the egg problem.
• How have you, Darcy Obrien, successfully managed your finances living in NYC? What best tips or practices could you share with your millennial peers that have worked for you? For example do you have any personal spending rules you live by?
• Not to get political, Why is the perception that older generations have money and millennials don’t? Is that accurate? Have they just been simply working longer or care more about savings as they get older? Did previous generations struggle as much as we do when they were younger? Whats really going on here?
• Whats the most frequent financial mistake that you see millennials/younger generations making?
• What's the best way to build your network?
• Technology. What we call Fintech, or financial technology for those who may not know. There are a lot of apps out there, mint. Acorns, trigger. Etc. what are your personal thoughts on these? Do you use any of them? Who are they catering to?
• Talk about you personally. My question is: How do you balance being a millennial and wanting to have fun and not taking life too seriously with the seriousness that your job entails, when many clients treat money literally as life vs death? And how do you not get caught up in that?
• How did you discover your passion? A lot of millennials tell me, Peter im struggling to figure out what my passion is
• What is something you wish someone had told you 5 years ago, or you had told yourself, that you had to learn on your own? But would have made life so much easier had you known.
• How can we learn more about you and stay connected to you?

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 Lauren Bille, Co-Founder of "allbodies", sits down to discuss her modern health education platform, the exploitation of power, the injustices that women (and men!) share, the importance of fighting assumptions, and explains what the heck a "doula" is (P.S. I was way off).
LEARN MORE ABOUT ALLBODIES: https://www.allbodies.com
INSTA: @allbodieshealth
Check out their new online classes! https://allbodies.com/digital-classes/

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS:

• Lauren I have so many questions for you but first just explain what allbodies is.
• Why is this important to you. Of all the things in the world, why are you doing this? And what is a Doula?
• Was it hard or easy to come to that realization and own your truth? How can others find their truth?
• TOPICS:
• Millennials. What are the unique cultural challenges that millennials face in terms of talking about, discussing and learning about the reproductive system? As opposed to older generations
• What are some stereotypes or misperceptions you get from people that you would like to open peoples minds about or offer an alternate viewpoint?
• What percentage of allbodies is politically focused vs educational?
• Policy change. Ideal policy change? What does that look like if you had a magic wand?
• Millennials sometimes feel i can’t make change. All these big lobbying groups. What role can they play?
• Men. Historical context midwives were not allowed to be educated. European doctors that organized, wrote the literature, made the rules. Hence a large part why we are where we are today. Even in today’s culture, male dominated society of raising capital, VCs, investment firms, scalability, roi, kpi, metrics to hit based on boundaries of narrow thinking.
• Question is want to be very careful in my language here: if men have been part of the problem historically. And deservedly so. I’m a man and i agree. How do we include them in the conversation moving forward? Without feeling ostracized and what role can they play?
• Challenges of not having a Business degree? Is it necessary to be taken seriously? Or just understand the lingo? Or both? Do you wish you had done something differently knowing what you know now to save you stress?
• Lack of resources. Money? People who are listening who want to build their own community? Advice you would give based on what your have learned.
• What’s been your own biggest personal struggle or fear that you’ve had to overcome in building out this community?
• What is something you wish someone had told you 5 years ago, or you had told yourself, that you had to learn on your own? But would have made life so much easier had you known.
• Who is the right person for this community and how can they get involved. Whats the range? From the least to most

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 Anna Morgenstern, Founder of "Dating Rehab", sits down to discuss the challenges of modern dating (and how she can help!), her #1 rule about when to sleep with someone, her own struggles in considering herself an "expert", and finally reveals the truth as to why you may or may not end up dying alone.
LEARN MORE ABOUT DATING REHAB: http://www.annamorgenstern.com
INSTA: @AnnaMorgenstern

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS:

• Tell us a little about dating rehab and the community you’re building?
• So you went to cal state Fresno, grew up in California. Did you dream of being a dating coach matchmaker? How did you get into this? What motivates you? Do you love connecting people? Did you just realize you’re good at it and should make money doing it?
• So many questions i want to ask, dating is complex. So let’s start broad.
• Why is dating so difficult in today’s world? Was it always difficult? What aspects of Millennial culture have changed the dating game?
• What are the biggest problems you see with dating? Why is it so hard yo meet people?
• Thoughts on apps vs IRL? How do we meet people?
• Life is all about timing. Some people just got out of a relationship and aren’t emotionally available or looking for love again. If you’re the other party that likes them, what do you do?
• How do we deal with grandma and our mom who is asking us when are we going to finally settle down? Can we ask them to stop asking?
• Pacing. I am not great at this, I’m getting better. But have been accused of coming off too intense sometimes or too strong. I’m very passionate about what i do. How do you express passion without scaring people off?
• Power dynamics. Texting first, waiting a certain period to text. This push pull thing.
• A difficult part of millennial dating is that we are now likely seeing multiple people at once. I’m not sure this was as common with previous generations for it to be so accepted. How do we overcome this concept that there might be somebody else better out there?
• At what point do we say fuck it, i am who i am and my person will be naturally attracted to me? Ignore all these rules because we can overthink things and get in our own head too 
• Talk about you.....Are you single? What insecurities do you have when it comes to dating?
• What challenges or fears have you had to face on your journey as an entrepreneur?
• What is something you wish someone had told you 5 years ago, or you had told yourself, that you had to learn on your own? But would have made life so much easier had you known.
• How can people learn more about you and get involved with the community you’re building?

JOIN US IRL: www.instagram.com/wisemillennial
 Daniel Saynt, founder of the Sex-positive and Cannabis private club NS-FW.com, sits down to discuss shame, his journey from a Jehovah's Witness to running a sex movement, and why it's so damn difficult to be loved and find love.

DISCLAIMER: You may have strong opinions. Great! I encourage you to keep an open mind.
www.instagram.com/wearethensfw

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS:

• What is nsfw?
• Of all the things you could be doing, why this? What is the source of your motivation?
• What is the common glue or bond that holds your community together? What are the unique elements of nsfw that brings people together? Do people just want to have sex? Is it more than that?
• What are the stereotypes you hear about your community that you would like to challenge?
• Your brand is millennial focused. Older people like having sex too. Is there a generational difference? Thinking Traditional values, religion, marriage, polygamy. Feel threatened?
• Your phone rang. Mom called she found out. I don’t want to put words in your mouth. Did you feel guilty, shame? If so, Why? What was the rule in your head you were breaking?
• Indiefashion, socialyte, nylon. Did you view nsfw as a lifestyle brand from the beginning? Was that the opportunity you saw? Or you just like going to sex parties or throwing them in your apartment and thought i could do this better? Then the lifestyle, sex education, and agency part came after to legitimize it?
• What is the biggest barrier to growth? Shame? Fear? If i ask people a question. Do you like to have sex? Yes. People are sexual creatures. Do you like to party? Yes. People like parties. Why not combine the two? But then something mental kicks in and stops people from going.
• Sex positive culture and strong opinions. Highly sensitive and strongly opinionated community. I don’t want to sound naive or insensitive (or even the fact that i have to say that as a disclaimer in fear of saying something that might offend). Why do other sex positive communities get so upset or feel threatened by what you’re doing? You have said they use safety as a reason to meddle into your affairs. Is it jealousy? Is it that they’re so ideologically passionate and focused they just can’t find the right balance of running it as a business vs a passion project? Why are people so strongly opinionated?
• Are there people out there who secretly want to watch you fail? Why? What’s their motivation? Does that further motivate you? To prove them wrong?
• About you..What’s been your own biggest personal struggle or fear that you’ve had to overcome in building out this community?
• Love, family. Whats the plan?
• What is something you wish someone had told you 5 years ago, or you had told yourself, that you had to learn on your own? But would have made life so much easier had you known.
• Who is the right person for this community and how can they get involved. Whats the range? From the least to most

Adreanna Limbach, lead instructor of MNDFL meditation studios in NYC, and author of "Tea and Cake With Demons", sits down to share meaningful conversation and insight about her meditation community, and her own journey.

**Are you in an awesome community? Leave us a review and share it for others to get involved!**

Interview questions:

First off, Tell everyone about the mindful community and your own meditation/coaching community you’ve built, as well as your book!

How did you get into this work? Why are you doing this? What motivates you? You were living in NYC, wanted to do costume design at parsons. Did you just wake up one day and say I want to learn about Buddhism and help people instead? Tell us about your path

Misperceptions about meditation. I hear a lot from people that I can’t meditate because i can’t clear my mind. I tried it once, but i couldn’t stop thinking, so I’m just not good at meditation. What are your thoughts or advice, especially given the busy lives millennials live.

Technology. Headspace, calm. You’ve talked about this question of what’s next? People use apps but don’t know where to go or progress. People need context in applying these methods to their daily lives. Does technology have a role to play? Would you recommend skip the apps and go straight to your class?

Millennial culture and meditation. I talk to millennials a lot about different struggles they’re having and a consistent theme I come across is feeling content. Millennials struggle with feeling content, or enough. Imposter syndrome is a common term that’s expressed. In your book called Tea and Cake With Demons (which I highly recommend by the way) you discuss a lot about insufficiency and self worth. What can you share with us to tackle this problem?

Another topic I want to ask you about is communication. In my opinion, we have a communication problem in our generation and society. We generally suck at it. We don’t know how to give and receive information that is ideologically different than our own without getting angry or upset. We struggle with conflict management, especially in the world of politics. How can we solve this problem?

You talk a lot about ego. You ask a powerful question, who would you be without your reputation? Or if you lost everything? Goes back to this concept of self worth and not being held hostage by other people’s perceptions. I feel like in this social media Instagram world we live in, we’re constantly comparing ourselves. Especially in a city like New York where you have this potent mix of finance, money, power. How do we break this behavioral pattern and validate our lives or just love ourselves?

What are some challenges or struggles you’ve had in your spiritual journey? Are the experts allowed to have problems?

What insecurities do you have? Do you ever feel pressure that you have to always embody the ideals you preach? For example, I have a lot of coaches who are friends, and they feel “how can I coach people and give advice on the same issues I’m dealing with”?

What is something you wish someone had told you 5 years ago, or you had told yourself, that you had to learn on your own? But would have made life so much easier had you known.

How can people learn more about you and get involved with the community you’re building?

www.adreannalimbach.com
@adreannalimbach
Sign up for her new course by February 24th!

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