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Pull up a seat at our table, where badass women from all walks of life—fashion, beauty, design, music, philanthropy, art, and more—come together to share honest stories, serve truths, and dig into the realities of modern womanhood.
Johanna Almstea...: Hi, everyone. I am doing my menu planning and I'm really feeling the summer vibes tonight. So I think I'm going to do... To start, I'm just going to do a really simple crudité. I know I do crudité a lot, guys, but this is just going to be these beautiful radishes that I saw at the farmer's market with some really, really good salty butter and some sugar snap peas and a couple just little peppers with kind of a green goddess dip, dressing dip. Simple, simple with some cheeses and some good bread, and some good little crunchy crackers. And then for dinner, I'm going to go big a little bit because I'm feeling the grill. I'm feeling surf and turf on the grill. So I'm going to do some lobsters, and I'm going to do some steaks. And I'm going to do a bunch of veggies. I'm going to do some eggplants, some zucchini, some portobello mushrooms. Do those on the grill with olive oil, salt, pepper.
And then I'm also going to do some corn on the cob with a lot of butter and a lot of salt. So we're going to have the lobster, we're going to have the corn on the cob, we're going to have the steak, we're going to have the veggies. And maybe in the veggies I'll grill up some of the sweet potatoes, and those would be nice too, so we have a little starchiness. To start with our cheese and our crudité. I'm going to serve a white burgundy, a chilled white burgundy, which is going to be delish. And then for dinner, I'm going to bust out some red. I think I want to do maybe a pinot noir, a slightly chilled red pinot noir. I think that's nice because it kind of lighter for the lobster, but still full enough with the steaks. For music, ooh, you know what I started listening to again is some Death Cab for Cutie and some Radiohead. I'm going to kick it back, kick it back old school, and I'm going to get the vibes going. It's going to be fun.
My next guest is beautiful and thoughtful and smart, and cares deeply about humanity and the world, and is an all around really, really special person, so I'm super excited for you guys to get to know her. So let's dig in.
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Eat My Words. I'm really happy today. I'm happy doing this podcast every day, but today's special because this is someone I've known for a really long time. My guest today is a friend and former colleague of more than 15 years. And in those 15 years that I've known her, she has reinvented herself from a senior fashion executive for companies like Neiman Marcus and Kate Spade into an expert in the world of social impact and purpose-driven enterprise. She took her actual passion, her passion for sustainability and women's empowerment, and turned it into an entirely new career, which I'm so excited to talk to her about today. She is the founder of The Knew Purpose, a conscious leadership company with the vision to advance sustainability and innovation in business. She is a dynamic force at designing, developing, and implementing social and environmental focused impact programs while also, and this is the important part, creating new revenue channels and profitability for companies.
So we will talk about this. Sometimes you can't only do good. Sometimes you have to make money too. She has been recognized as a catalyst in business transformation for her ability to intertwine purpose, business, and social and environmental impact. She has been awarded the most influential woman by CEO Connection in 2015. As the senior vice president of social impact at Kate Spade & Company, she almost single-handedly developed, implemented, and led a new profitable commercial channel within the company's value chain and built an entirely women-focused international social enterprise supplier model in Rwanda. It's a lot of big words. We're going to get into it, guys. The innovative model was awarded best economic empowerment program from the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation in 2015 and was then studied and endorsed by Georgetown University in 2017. I personally got to watch in awe as she pushed and built and convinced and inspired an entire company to align with her purpose and her mission.
She is also an ICF certified coach and inspirational facilitator, and she continues to take her experiences to the next level by empowering other leaders, businesses, universities, nonprofits, and social entrepreneurs. She actually does work every day to make the world a better place. She's also an avid outdoors woman, a wise teacher, a devoted daughter, and a calm and steady friend. I am so very grateful that she's taking the time out of her world-saving days to sit down with me today. Fun fact, she's the reason that I got to spend time in some magical and sometimes harrowing places, like Afghanistan and Rwanda. Sydney Price, welcome to Eat My Words.
Sydney Price: Thank you so much. I love being here.
Johanna Almstea...: I love having you here. This is fun.
Sydney Price: It is so fun.
Johanna Almstea...: We've gone to some crazy places around the world, and it's really nice to just see you on my computer screen.
Sydney Price: Yes, it is nice.
Johanna Almstea...: So I gave a little bit of your professional background, and we're obviously going to get into that, but I always like to start off the conversation with the question of, where did your journey begin? Where would you say that your journey began?
Sydney Price: I think the family I was born into.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah.
Sydney Price: My dad was a Navy pilot, so we moved a lot. I think I had moved 13 times before I had gone to college.
Johanna Almstea...: Oh my goodness.
Sydney Price: Yes. And so this idea... Of course, I didn't know any different because you do what you do, but I think this idea of me always having to go to a new environment, always having to adjust into a new situation, and being the outsider and trying to feel included and to feel safe. So from there, I went to college in San Diego, took a psychology degree. And I quickly learned, after two very intense internships, that I love the knowledge, but I have all my friends issues coming in, and I don't need the world's issues coming in as well. And so when I graduated from college, I had no idea what I wanted to do, but I was doing the side hustle of fashion, growing up to make extra money. And I had traveled to Europe for about three months. And I came back, and I needed a job. So I walked into Neiman Marcus for the first time, and I walked out 18 years later.
Johanna Almstea...: No way. I don't think I knew that.
Sydney Price: Yes. I had never walked into the store before.
Johanna Almstea...: Oh my God.
Sydney Price: I know.
Johanna Almstea...: That's so cool. So did you start working on the retail floor, or did you start-
Sydney Price: I did.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah.
Sydney Price: I was an assistant manager making $17,000 a year, and all of my graduate friends and my family are like, what are you doing? You just went to college, and now you're an assistant manager. But I quickly became a manager, and then I got accepted into their executive training program in Dallas, and it sent me on this trajectory. But I guess just one step back, when I went to Europe and traveled to 12 countries before I got my job in that little intermission, I realized that that was a huge passion of mine and that I wanted to see the world, but I also knew I didn't have the financial means. So I leaned into fashion and particularly merchandising because I knew I needed to work for a company that was going to pay for me to do this thing that was very important to me. So that was an important piece of my journey.
Johanna Almstea...: And did travel become a big part of your job at Neiman Marcus?
Sydney Price: A huge part of my job, obviously not when you start. You're faxing when faxing was round.
Johanna Almstea...: Oh, the faxes.
Sydney Price: Oh, yeah. You do all the stuff that no one wants to do anymore, but that's what you do. But through my career at Neiman Marcus, I had traveled to over 50 countries, and that's kind of what woke me up to the world around me and how privileged we are, and how fashion could actually make a difference in the world.
Johanna Almstea...: Amazing. So wait, I want to ask a question now because I think it's important. When you were growing up and traveling all these places, did you have a picture in your head of what you wanted to be when you grew up or what success would look like? Do you even have a picture there?
Sydney Price: I honestly... It was more of the sense of belonging and connection because I was uprooted so much. And so yes, maybe as a kid, and I used to just visualize and dream maybe being famous, but I didn't know famous what. Maybe it was a singer. Maybe it was... But it wasn't that defined. It was more of the sense of belonging and connection. Even though I belonged and connected to my family, to the outside world, it was an ongoing uprooting, which is very disruptive to the nervous system.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah. And it's interesting that once you found Neiman Marcus, you didn't leave for 18 years.
Sydney Price: Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: You were like, finally, I'm staying somewhere.
Sydney Price: Exactly. Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: Wow. Okay, so then you finally did leave Neiman Marcus, and you came to Kate Spade. And I remember-
Sydney Price: Yes.
Johanna Almstea...: ... the first day you came. You were so glamorous. You were wearing this gorgeous cashmere sweater set and your hair was all blown out, and you just looked so gorgeous and Neiman Marcus-like. And so I'm going to fast forward a little bit during that time because I want to get to the really important stuff, but I want to talk about where you began to sort of shift your career from glamorous fashion executive staying in the fashion industry, but then sort of shifting to this social enterprise and social impact work. So I want to give a little bit of background. Did you come in as the head merchant, or you came in as a buyer?
Sydney Price: I came in... I don't even know what the title was. Basically, my job was to buy for all the stores. So, yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: So you were the internal buyer?
Sydney Price: Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: And so at that time, the brand had already started a partnership with Women for Women International, which-
Sydney Price: Exactly.
Johanna Almstea...: ... for people who don't know, Women for Women International is an amazing organization that works at the critical intersection of women and conflict. So basically where women are living in a conflict zone, they end up being marginalized. And Women for Women comes in, and they provide skills, and knowledge, and resources, and training with the idea that if the women are doing better in a community, particularly a conflict zone, the whole community will do better. It's been proven time and time again. So that's Women for Women's entire mission. And so they do that through a combination of direct aid, rights education. In some places, women didn't even know they had rights, that they were working, job skills training, small business development, I think loans, all kinds of things.
So our company had already... I think before either of us were there, I believe it was when Kate and Andy were working there, they had a partnership with Women for Women, but a very small one. They were doing knitted mittens. If any of you in the audience owns Taxi Mittens from Kate Spade, they might've been made in Bosnia. They were holiday mittens that we'd make, and they were woven by women in war-torn Bosnia at the time, correct? Do I have that right?
Sydney Price: Yes. Yes.
Johanna Almstea...: Okay. So that was already existing when we both got there. And then you and I, and one of our other colleagues, got really excited about it, I think, and we started talking about the idea of making this a bigger partnership. We worked with Zainab Salbi, who was the founder of Women for Women, and talk about a force to be reckoned with. Really extraordinary woman with an extraordinary story. I hope she'll come on the podcast someday. And so the program in Bosnia had done pretty well, I think, and we started to expand it, right? Is that how it went.
Sydney Price: Yeah. So just two steps back. And that is a great introduction. When I was introduced to the CEO of Kate Spade, Craig Levitt, when I was going through the interviewing process with him and Deborah Lloyd, I actually brought a suitcase in because prior to that, I had started the side hustle called Mindful Deeds, going into developing countries, looking at their handicraft skills, wanting to up-level their raw materials, their quality, and give them access to the global market. Because outside of farming, which is the number one employer of the world, the second employer of the world is handicrafts. So when I actually interviewed with Craig and Deborah, I actually showed them all these things and said, I would love to be whatever, the chief merchant, head of direct to consumer, but I want to work with... Can we make this part of the company?
And what Craig told me at the time is our P&L is very small, our brand is very big. And because Kate Andy had just left, we have just formed this relationship with Women for Women International. So I will let you be this 1% of your job. And so that's kind of how that happened.
Johanna Almstea...: I don't think I realized that you came in with that mission already.
Sydney Price: Yes.
Johanna Almstea...: I thought you sort of learned about it and made the shift once you were already there.
Sydney Price: No, that was part of that. And then literally a week after I started, that's when you and a few people went to Bosnia. You were on that trip, right?
Johanna Almstea...: No, I didn't go to Bosnia. No.
Sydney Price: Okay. So it was then-
Johanna Almstea...: Kyle and a few other people went to Bosnia.
Sydney Price: Okay.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah.
Sydney Price: So literally a week after they said, normally you could go, but you've been here a week. And then they went. And then what happened was, from the work that we were doing in Bosnia, the State Department came to us, Melanne Verveer, who was the first women ambassador for women's rights globally under Hillary Clinton, and they invited us to the State Department. It was Craig, Deborah, and myself. And we sat around all these officials. And we're in our Cape Spade sparkly gear, and they're in their government gear, and they're like, we would like you to go into Afghanistan and help us. And that's how that started.
Johanna Almstea...: I was trying to remember, because I remembered that Afghanistan was on the list of places and that we had felt pretty... We were proud of the work we had done in Bosnia, and then we were really excited about working in Afghanistan, but I didn't remember that the State Department had gotten involved right then.
Sydney Price: Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: Okay.
Sydney Price: And why Afghanistan, it'd been in war for many, many years. They are the third largest of cashmere production in the world. But because of all the war, there was no value chain, and it was getting illegally distributed outside of their borders. And so what the State Department, and they wanted Kate Spade to do is go in there and reestablish all the steps of cashmere production there. We brought in... And we worked with USAID, so we brought in a de-hairing machine. And then, of course, with Women for Women, we taught them how to literally take this cashmere, puffy stuff and spin it into yarn because you couldn't even buy yarn in Afghanistan. And then we taught them how to embroider different cold weather accessories.
Johanna Almstea...: So I want to go back to the part about the State Department too, which I think is really interesting, because I was remembering this yesterday as I was preparing for this, is what was new to me because, again, we were fashion people. We didn't know what the heck we were getting ourselves into. And we'll talk more about that actual first trip. But what I thought was so interesting is that basically, we were then connected with the Department of the Defense, the U.S. Military Department of Defense. And in their mind, they saw this economic empowerment of the women and the communities there as a war tactic. That's why it fell under the Department of Defense. So basically this idea was that if we could empower people in Afghanistan, they would be less likely to fall under the influence of the Taliban.
Because part of what makes people so susceptible to organizations like that are that they don't have the resources they need. They don't have the education they need, they don't have the money, they don't have the food, they can't put a roof over their head, and organizations like that will come in and promise them the world, often at a very, very great price. So I always think it would be so funny when I would tell the story, and I'm sure you've had this experience, people were like, oh, you work at Kate Spade and you wear sparkly dresses. And I'm like, yeah, I'm going to Afghanistan with the Department of Defense. And they were like, wait, what? And so I think it's a really interesting connection to make, that commerce and that production, and having a healthy supply chain, is actually a military operation in this case, right?
Sydney Price: A hundred percent. And it's what makes a country rich, and that's why exports are so important. And for the United States to support Afghanistan and want them to be economically viable is absolutely accurate. There is a nuance there that... It's not the same now, but while we were there, Afghanistan had the largest U.S. embassy in the world.
Johanna Almstea...: Really? I don't think I knew that.
Sydney Price: Yes. Yes. But the crazy thing is because it was still viewed as a war zone or semi-conflict zone, no one could leave.
Johanna Almstea...: Right.
Sydney Price: So the section of the Department of Defense team, it was almost like a SWAT team because their whole job was economic empowerment and exactly what you said. So it was a subdivision of that. You and I, stayed in a safe house.
Johanna Almstea...: Yes.
Sydney Price: We got picked up in an armored car and had to walk a half a mile to the car because you can't even get close to the airport before we went and visited these women out in this community that they had to go the day before, an hour before so they could get in and they could get out, and because no one in the embassy was allowed to leave. So what was so odd is we, as total outsiders, had more freedom than anyone there, which is kind of insane.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah, it's really crazy. I wanted to talk about that experience because you had had at least a little bit of exposure, because of your upbringing, to military and stuff. Myself and the other people who were on the trip did not. So as you said, we got picked up at the airport by armored vehicles. We had a driver and a shooter. We had somebody who entire job was to protect us. They took us to-
Sydney Price: All civilian though, and it looked like a beat up car, but the car was probably worth a million dollars.
Johanna Almstea...: Yes. Yeah. These were all contractors, right? So they weren't technically part of the military. And then we get to our safe house, which they called the villa, which I always think was very funny. And I'll never forget, we got there and they were like, here's your rooms. They showed us each of our rooms, and then they said, we're going to meet at 0700 hours or whatever for a security briefing. And when we walked into the house that we were saying, it looks like a normal house or whatever, and then they said, we're going to meet downstairs. And they took us downstairs into the basement.
And when we walked in, it was like a movie. It was like security screens everywhere. They had cameras up all through Kabul, and there were all these maps laid out of all of our roots. As you said, they would go on recon. Before we went anywhere. They would go and drive the routes and make sure they were safe enough, and how quickly we would need to get in and out. And they had our routes timed down to the minute and how long we were allowed to stay in places. Do you remember that?
Sydney Price: Oh, yeah, especially the market. They didn't like us going into the market.
Johanna Almstea...: They did not like us going to Chicken Street. And I still have one of the maps because it's this huge beautiful big military map. And in the corner, it says the Kate Spade mission, which I thought was awesome, so I kept that. But yeah, it was real deal, and it was... I had traveled to a lot of places and I had been in some pretty hard places. That was definitely, I think, the hardest that we had ever been. And the impetus for this trip was basically we'd had such a successful time in Bosnia and had produced these products, and in return, had helped a lot of women, we think, through that process.
And we kept trying to get this program off the ground in Afghanistan, and it was so hard. And I remember sitting in Kyle's office one day, and we were sort of bemoaning the frustrations and just like, why can't we do this? And I remember walking down the hall with her and looking at her and being like, I think we just have to go. And she was like, what? And I was like, I think we have to go to Afghanistan. And I was like, we have to understand why we're having such a hard time. We need to understand what the infrastructure or lack thereof is. And she was like, okay. And then we started conversations with you and with our CEO. And miraculously... I still can't believe that our parent company let us go, but we did.
Sydney Price: We were still under the radar.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah. Yeah.
Sydney Price: That was-
Johanna Almstea...: We were still under the radar.
Sydney Price: Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: And I think because we were traveling with the support of the Department of Defense, they felt good about it, but it is... In hindsight, it's kind of crazy that they let us do that.
Sydney Price: Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: But we got to be on the ground. We got to see what the lack of infrastructure was and why we were having such a hard time, why no one was returning our emails, right? We got to see that there was barely any roads and that people were, in many cases, malnourished, and that women had no freedoms, and they couldn't leave the house without a male family member. So, I don't know. I'm sure for you, it was. But for me, it was one of those moments of just like, holy moly, we are really in it here.
Sydney Price: Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: We had bitten off a lot to try to help it.
Sydney Price: We did, and we achieved our goal. I think the thing that is just heartbreaking, and I don't want to get into it because I'll get highly emotional, but all of the work so many of us did from so many different organizations has been unwound.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah.
Sydney Price: And with the Taliban coming back in there. And so I know we have to talk about a lot of other things, but whoever's listening, I guess I'm just going to say those women need us more than ever, and they can't leave their homes without a male family member. Their two-year-old son has more human rights than they do. And --
Johanna Almstea...: And they're not allowed to be educated.
Sydney Price: They're not allowed to go to school. They're not allowed to have a job. They're not allowed to do anything. They're required to be [inaudible 00:22:37].
Johanna Almstea...: They're not allowed to read books.
Sydney Price: Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah.
Sydney Price: So anyway, but it's also an opportunity for us all. There's so many... And maybe between the two of us, when you post this, we can put some links up there if someone is-
Johanna Almstea...: For sure.
Sydney Price: ... interested, that we can lead them in the right way. But it is not a time for us to retreat. It's a time for us to really support these women.
Johanna Almstea...: The human cost is very real there.
Sydney Price: Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: And it's the women and the children who are suffering the most.
Sydney Price: Yeah. Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: So yes, I could talk about Afghanistan for probably 17 episodes, but we did achieve what we wanted to achieve, and there's still a lot more work to be done. So we will also put in the show notes here, links to organizations that are still doing the work there and ways that people can get involved if they want to.
So from there, you went on to build out a huge and incredible and very impressive program in Rwanda. Rwanda was one of my favorite places to go. I just loved going there and meeting the people there. Can you talk about that project and talk about... It ended up... It went on even after I left, so I think it's-
Sydney Price: And it's still thriving, which is great.
Johanna Almstea...: And it's still thriving, right?
Sydney Price: Yeah. Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: So can you tell our listeners a little bit about how that began and your work there?
Sydney Price: Absolutely. So I started at Kate Spade in 2009, and we had an exclusive relationship with Women for Women at the time. And by 2011... Because I was learning international development on the job, between my full-time, 80-hour a week job, and this 1% of my job was becoming 99.9% of what I wanted to focus on versus my real job.
Johanna Almstea...: And that was your doing. You wanted to focus more on it.
Sydney Price: Exactly.
Johanna Almstea...: Yes. Yes.
Sydney Price: So my side hustle for a couple of months was putting this business plan together for our CEO, basically saying, we now have enough money in the bank that, can we create our own thing? Because what I had learned over those few years working with Women for Women, which was so incredible... And I can't stress enough, learning on the job is the most critical thing any of us can do and be very humble, but what we learned is there's beautiful nonprofits. This was a beautiful nonprofit. But when you're a nonprofit versus a profitable company, you have different goals and aspirations. So one of our things was we had no transparency. So at the end of the day, how much were they really paying the women?
Also, quality is critical. You don't want to just do good. What we learned also is the product's got to fill a real void. To say this saves lives, the consumer doesn't care. So quality was always a challenge because we weren't there on the ground doing it. Also, it wasn't profitable for us. It was the side project at Cade Spade versus being fully integrated into our supply chain. So by the time these three or four years... Women for Women actually wanted to leave us because they wanted to be more like a Susan B. Komen, and they wanted hundreds of supporters versus this exclusive relationship.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah. I think we should explain the exclusive part of it. So basically, what we had done with them was that we would be the exclusive fashion and retail partner to them, and they would be the exclusive NGO or charity organization that we would work with, which was very important and was really good for a time. I think it helped everyone, but to your point, that sort of cuts off their nose to spite their face, because our whole point is to help them. And so it becomes tricky when we're like, oh, we have an exclusive relationship, but then say The Gap or some other retail brand wants to come in and support them, then we have to say, no, that's not fair. That stinks. So we eventually realized that the relationship was great for what it was for that little bit of time, but that that was sort of harming their mission. And to your point, you felt very strongly that taking it out of the nonprofit space was very important, and integrating it into actual supply chain of a profitable organization was important for the longevity and sustainability of the mission, right?
Sydney Price: Absolutely.
Johanna Almstea...: Did I say that properly?
Sydney Price: Yes. You said that beautifully. We have different missions than the nonprofit. Ultimately, one of their missions is the program was only for 12 months for their women because their shift was from crisis stability. But our mission is that we continue to support, and build, and grow, and nurture. And so at the end of the day, it was a mutually beneficial split. And this business plan I presented to our CEO basically said how we could be profitable and build this out in Rwanda. And why Rwanda? We had been working there. They had gone through the genocide, and over a million people fled the country. Over 800,000 were killed within 100 days, basically with machetes. And the country was in desperate need. We also had started working with the government in Rwanda as well, and they were very pro-business. They also realized that they didn't want handouts all the time.
They wanted companies coming in there and educating and lifting, but then ultimately leaving. And so what we did at Kate Spade is we created a for-profit social enterprise, not only within Kate Spade, but we built one on the ground in Rwanda. And how that worked was that we treated them like a regular supplier. But of course, at this time, we went to a village called Masoro, and we put a volunteer, come work, build your own company. And mostly only women showed up because it was a cultural thing. But we picked this little village because they had the most beautiful handicraft and hand embroidery. And so what was so beautiful about this is that it wasn't about me. It wasn't about them. It was about all of us. So because it was a for-profit for them, we literally employed people within the village to make bricks that they would get paid for, build buildings for themselves. We brought in all of our suppliers from Asia, and they made it their corporate social responsibility.
So all the experts in handbag manufacturing, they then taught the women how to make handbags. And even DHL, they made it part of their CSR program because DHL wasn't on this rocky dirt road to pick up products. So it was a very human-centered designed program. Before we even started working in this area, we engaged all of the leaders within the community and saying, what do you want? And they said, we need jobs. The average income in Rwanda is $760 a year, and there's so much unemployment. And so we created a program that everyone benefited; Kate Spade because it was financially beneficial. We engaged the entire organization so that we had fundraisers, and we did these social impact programs. Obviously, the artisans were benefiting because they had a job for the first time. The consumer was benefiting because they were getting handmade product. So it was a very multi-layer, multi-beneficial thing, but it was co-created, and it was beautiful. And the reason why it's successful still is because it was designed collectively. I was the impetus, but like you and our CEO, and Kyle and so many of us, our hearts were in it.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah. I think that's something that is such a big lesson. And as I was prepping for today, I kept going back through all the materials, and I was just remembering how deeply passionate and committed we were, and that our leadership was deeply passionate and committed.
Sydney Price: Yes. Yes.
Johanna Almstea...: I think about it now. I'm like, I can't believe they let us do that.
Sydney Price: No.
Johanna Almstea...: And they really did. We had their support, and I really attribute that to, number one, your tenacity and your passion, but also their-
Sydney Price: Openness.
Johanna Almstea...: ... shared passion and openness to it.
Sydney Price: Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: And so I guess I should explain to the listeners just a little bit. It sounds very simple, but the model was basically we would find out what amazing handiwork crafts the community would be good at. Our design team would design product based around that particular skill, and then we would pass along designs to the people in Masoro and Rwanda. They would then produce the product, and then it would be sent back to us to sell in Kate Spade stores around the world. That's like the very simple 101 of it all. But in the process, you built factories there, you built spaces there, you employed several people, and then turned it into a partnership with all of our other suppliers. So it was much more complicated and layered than that. But I want people to understand that the end result was basically that consumers around the world, if they walked into a Kate Spade store, could buy product that was made by these artisans in these specific countries. But in this case, we're talking about Rwanda. So that's sort of the model. And now it's still going, right?
Sydney Price: Yeah. Yeah. And one of the reasons why it worked is that one of the disconnects of working through a nonprofit versus bringing in-house is we wanted to be the heartbeat of our organization. And to your point, we were able to engage you. We were able to engage the design team. We were able to engage the logistics team. We were able to engage the import-export team. So even though it was only 1% of their job, all of a sudden, the company felt more authentic. Actually, other than just producing stuff, we're actually making... So that also was very, very sweet.
A second thing I want to just note to the audience is we also were learning on the job. And what I mean by that is you did a great job of setting us up for Good Morning America, and we had barely even trained the artisans. And so we started off with friendship bracelets and scarves and kind of really trying to tap into their traditional embroidery. And we launched and everything was fine. But for it to truly be long-term sustainable for us and for them, we had to focus on one product. So it took us a couple years to go from a lot to a little and focus on one core competency. And we wouldn't have learned that unless we did that firsthand, that we couldn't be all things to all people.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah. I feel like we definitely were building the spaceship as we were flying it, for sure.
Sydney Price: Exactly.
Johanna Almstea...: You had had some experience before you came, but most of us had no experience with NGOs, no experience with artisans, and so it was definitely... Man, it was a passion project. And we made a lot of mistakes too, which was fine. It ended up being okay. We made some mistakes, and it was hard, but I think in the end, we proved that it can be profitable, which I think is huge when you're talking about social enterprise for profit companies. And I think that was a big shift for us internally, was... In the beginning, it was like... This is sort of what they call cause marketing. And you want to be doing something good, you want the tax write-off, you want all those things, but you're not really integrating it into your whole identity as a company, as a for-profit company. And I think the switch that you really flipped was making sure that it did become part of the identity. And I think that was pretty remarkable. And then Georgetown studied it and said it was.
Sydney Price: Yeah. Exactly. And I guess from more of a personal perspective that I want to share with you and the others is this was as difficult as building a business in another country. It was incredibly difficult to build it in a multi-billion dollar organization because we were like a cruise ship. And so everyone was already overworked, and this was additional work. And then psychologically and emotionally, for me to... Being the CEO's right-hand man and helping run the company to having two people on a team was also... A lot of deep reflection on my part is, do I continue to climb the traditional ladder of what looks good from the outside, or would I rather be happy?
So it took a lot of internal navigating for me to choose happiness and purpose over what looked good on paper. And I just wanted to bring that out because it changed my life forever to continue to be true to myself. And I just think it's so important that we do that and not just go with what the traditional thing is and what the easier thing is, or what might be viewed as the most financially beneficial. Because at the end of the day, if you're doing something you love, you automatically will be financially abundant because it just works that way.
Johanna Almstea...: Right. And I think it was, for you, a big shift of what success looked like, right?
Sydney Price: Exactly.
Johanna Almstea...: Right.
Sydney Price: Exactly.
Johanna Almstea...: So do you ever think about if you hadn't done that, if you had just stuck with being... Which, listen, the fashion industry is great.
Sydney Price: Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: And it's fun, and we worked with-
Sydney Price: Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: ... amazing creative people, and it's challenging, and you get to see the world, and all those other things. It's not like you're stuck in a prison.
Sydney Price: Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: But have you ever thought about that? What would your life be like now if you hadn't chosen passion?
Sydney Price: Yeah. I think honestly, I would've left the industry because my head and my heart weren't connecting anymore.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah.
Sydney Price: I had achieved everything I thought I was going to achieve, and I had another half of my career to work. And so this is how I've been able to stay in an industry that I love and I believe in, and just make it look and feel a little different.
Johanna Almstea...: So let's talk about that now because you're no longer employed by that company. And so what do your days look like now? You have The Knew Purpose, which is your company.
Sydney Price: Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: How does that play out in your daily life now? Because I know it's very different than when we were working at 2 Park Avenue.
Sydney Price: Yes. It has its good days and it's bad days. It's good days is that it's mine and that you have a sense of freedom and amazing creativity. And what we do is we work with companies like Kate Spade, generally, usually smaller and more nimble companies, and in countries that need it generally. And it's so, so rewarding. But there's areas like PR and marketing and all these things that don't come natural to me. I'm a builder, and I want to build things and fix things. And what I have learned from you and from our other colleagues around PR and marketing is that's only half of it. You could have the most beautiful, innovative product model, but if people don't understand it, if they don't connect to it... So that's the hard part for me, is that's not where I want to spend my time, but it needs to be done.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah, it is hard.
Sydney Price: It's so critical.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah. It's like if a tree falls in the forest and there's no one there to hear it, right, did it really make a sound? It's like if you are doing this amazing work and no one knows about it and no one knows the value of it-
Sydney Price: Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: I think partially, that's the connection, is the knowledge of it is one thing, but understanding the value of it to a company's bottom line or to the ultimate consumer or whatever, wherever that value lies, that's a huge part of... was a huge part of my career, it still is, of how to communicate that value to people and how it works.
Sydney Price: Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: So now you help other companies develop their own social enterprise arms of their company?
Sydney Price: You know what? It's really what they want. I do it twofold. So within the company, I have developed this model called Soulmap, and there are nine steps. And the first nine steps is basically conscious human. And I work with individuals, a lot of CEOs, and it's a nine step coaching process, but they're doing most of the work, of what is your purpose? Are you living your values? What is your vision for yourself, thinking about your health, your integrity? And ultimately after these nine sessions, for them to awake to themselves, and also to... What do they want to be born at the end of the nine sessions? Is it a business? Is it anything that you feel like you're living alignment into who you are?
And then the next sphere outside of that is conscious company. If you have a company, are you integrating all those tenants within a supply chain, within a company that support treating people in the planet with integrity. Sustainability, people just naturally shift to... They think it's the environment, but it's not. It's three pillars. It's social, it's environment, but it's also economic. If it's not economically viable, then it's not sustainable.
Johanna Almstea...: Right. I imagine this must be sort of a crazy crossroads for CEOs who are either founders of companies or have taken over the CEO role of a big profit company, and they do all this work on their Soulmap and figure out like, oh God, I'm totally misaligned with... I'm making a zillion dollars at this company and it's amazingly profitable, but then it's like killing my soul, right?
Sydney Price: Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: That must be really intense.
Sydney Price: Thankfully, that's not happening. First of all, for whoever wants to work with me has to be introspective enough.
Johanna Almstea...: Pre-ready for consciousness.
Sydney Price: Exactly.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah.
Sydney Price: And that they're already doing the work. So thankfully, that's not it. It's really just for them to have more purpose and joy in their life and to do work they love and be in the world in a different way.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah. So of all the work that you've done, what's an achievement that you're the most proud of, your own achievement?
Sydney Price: I think it's where I am now. It's really working with... Younger in my career, I wanted to be the big person. I wanted to be the one in charge and running everything. And now, it's really about lifting and helping others to awake to themselves. And I feel so good about that because it's so rewarding to have that interaction and to see what's getting born in the world because of that. So yes, I can name all these things that I feel good, that I've accomplished, but this feels really good where I am right now, because it's almost like I'm in the invisible voice. Does that make sense?
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah. Totally. As someone who is a PR person, you're often the invisible voice.
Sydney Price: Yes.
Johanna Almstea...: So I get it. You're like the Wizard of Oz behind the curtain, making people make good decisions, do good things in the world. Well, that makes me very, very happy to hear, that your current life is your greatest achievement.
Sydney Price: Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: That's amazing. What is something that you once believed about yourself that you've since outgrown?
Sydney Price: That I am not safe.
Johanna Almstea...: So now, you're safe.
Sydney Price: And that's taken me a long time to get to, because being uprooted as a child and never having that foundation, and then being the main breadwinner of my life, and in needing to make sure that I saved enough money and made sure I was physically and mentally safe. And now, I am in my life and I feel safe, which also gives me the sense of freedom, which is such a blessing.
Johanna Almstea...: That's huge.
Sydney Price: Yeah,
Johanna Almstea...: That's huge. That's come up. Being the breadwinner of your life, whether you're in partnership or not, I've had a couple of people who are in partnership and other people who are not in partnership, but are also the breadwinners of their lives, can lead to a lot of unsteadiness, so it's wonderful to hear that you are feeling good and safe in your own boots.
Sydney Price: Yeah, because you can't rest-
Johanna Almstea...: Right. It's hard
Sydney Price: ... until you get to that place.
Johanna Almstea...: Right. Right. And then when you can rest is the freedom to dream.
Sydney Price: Yeah. Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah.
Sydney Price: Exactly. First, you collapse, and then you build yourself back up.
Johanna Almstea...: This comes up a lot, and I feel like I want to hear what you say to this, is, do you dream anymore? What are you dreaming about lately?
Sydney Price: Oh, I'm dreaming a lot. I'm dreaming about this last third part of my life, and how I can be super intentional, and how I can make this last third chapter of my life the best. And so that's exactly what's going on for me.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah. That's huge.
Sydney Price: Yeah. Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: Is there anything that you've said no to in your life that you wish that you had said yes to?
Sydney Price: There's probably a lot of things that would've made my life easier and I wouldn't have suffered or been in pain. But at the end of the day, it's who I am. Have I always made the smartest decisions? No. I can mention hundreds of those.
Johanna Almstea...: So can we all.
Sydney Price: Yeah. But I think it's who we are, and we do until we don't anymore. And so I think I'm doing less harm to myself and making better decisions, but I almost had to make the bad decisions to realize there's a more gentle way.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah. Do you have any advice that you would've given yourself 20 years ago or 30 years ago?
Sydney Price: Yeah. Well, I would've gotten into meditation way earlier. It has saved to my life.
Johanna Almstea...: What kind of meditation do you do?
Sydney Price: You know what? Everyone always asks that. It's literally just spending 11 minutes. I think 11 is a good number.
Johanna Almstea...: Good number. Okay, 11. 11 minutes, everyone.
Sydney Price: Just freaking close your eyes. Everyone thinks there's this technique, but what it does is it change... I just focus on my breath. And when you're not focusing on breathing in and out and you start thinking about cooking or what I have to do, or I didn't call this person back, you just bring then your thoughts back to your breath. And you do that a few thousand times in 11 minutes, and you realize that we should not listen to our thoughts. Our thoughts are not real. And the more and more you meditate, you slow that down. And it's crazy that they don't teach this in elementary school because our brain is a muscle, and we believe our thoughts. And I forget what the statistic is, but it's millions of thoughts, and they're the same thoughts every single day, and most of them are nothing.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah. Yeah. So true.
Sydney Price: So that's a big one.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah. And do you sit in a specific place, or do you have a cushion, or do you sit in the chair? Do you have anything like that or [inaudible 00:46:52]?
Sydney Price: Have a cushion, and I use it sometimes. Today, I didn't. I just sat in a chair. So I think the more you make it work for yourself. Even if you do five minutes a day, it's like the one nice thing you do for yourself.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah. And you do 11 minutes one time a day?
Sydney Price: Uh-huh.
Johanna Almstea...: That's amazing.
Sydney Price: Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: When you're not saving the world, what's your idea of a perfect day off? What do you do?
Sydney Price: Just be in nature. I love, love, love the mountains. I love running creeks. I love seeing a deer or even a bear, a brown bear, a black bear, and not a grizzly bear, but just nature. Just being in nature, it makes me so happy.
Johanna Almstea...: Okay. So now, we're at the point where we're going to do the lightning round of silly questions. I love talking to you. I could talk to you for 17 more hours, but we probably shouldn't do that for everyone's sake. These are very, very simple. Do not overthink it. I know how thoughtful you are. This is not homework. You just tell me what comes to your mind. Favorite comfort food?
Sydney Price: French fries, potatoes.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah. What is something you are really good at?
Sydney Price: I'm good at manifesting. I love vision boards, and I can put something on a board and think about it and make it come true.
Johanna Almstea...: I love that. I'm a pretty good manifester too. I actually, the other day, started a little vision board about something on my Pinterest board, and I was like, it just doesn't have the same effect for me. I need to cut it out, and I need to paste it on something physically.
Sydney Price: Yeah. And something I'm doing, and you can do it free on Canva, and I recommend it to everyone, you can make a mind movie and-
Johanna Almstea...: What?
Sydney Price: Yes. Yes. And-
Johanna Almstea...: Wait, tell us more. What is this?
Sydney Price: Oh my God, it is amazing. All right, so go on to Unsplash, because that's where you can get a million beautiful photos. So let's say if you want to manifest a new job or a new partner, whatever.
Johanna Almstea...: Okay.
Sydney Price: And find 25 photos that represent it. Then go on Canva, and there's a drop down, and it says video.
Johanna Almstea...: Okay.
Sydney Price: And then all you do literally is drop those photos into it. Then you can put tag lines on it that says whatever you want. And then they have also free music. So every morning, I just made this mind movie, and I watch it. And it's so awesome.
Johanna Almstea...: Oh my God. Did you make this up? Did you make up the idea of a mind movie?
Sydney Price: No.
Johanna Almstea...: Okay.
Sydney Price: They've been around for a long time.
Johanna Almstea...: Okay.
Sydney Price: But let me tell you, this is freaking awesome, and everyone should do it.
Johanna Almstea...: Okay.
Sydney Price: Yes.
Johanna Almstea...: So you go to Unsplash to get images that have-
Sydney Price: Or anywhere. They could even be your own images, but... Because you want it to be around a minute and a half, this video.
Johanna Almstea...: Okay.
Sydney Price: So 25 inspiring photos of what bring to life your dream.
Johanna Almstea...: Okay. So whatever you want your dream life to be, you find the pictures.
Sydney Price: Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: Then you go to Canva, and then you find the video tab drop-down.
Sydney Price: Yeah. Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: And then you load all the pictures in, and then you can add captions and music, and all kinds of things.
Sydney Price: Exactly. Exactly.
Johanna Almstea...: And then you just watch this.
Sydney Price: Yes.
Johanna Almstea...: And it's you training your mind to get the things you want.
Sydney Price: Yes. And you can put it in a loop. Exactly.
Johanna Almstea...: Oh my god, I love this.
Sydney Price: Yes.
Johanna Almstea...: This is like vision board-
Sydney Price: It is.
Johanna Almstea...: ... on crack. I like it.
Sydney Price: Yeah. Yes.
Johanna Almstea...: Okay. This is a major tip, everybody. I have so many things I want to put on mine now. I want my kids to do it too. Oh my God, that'd be so fun. Okay. What is something you are really bad at?
Sydney Price: Probably networking.
Johanna Almstea...: Really?
Sydney Price: Yeah. I love people, and when I'm there, I'm there, but I'm not the person in the room running around, getting everyone's card. I find it so exhausting, and I find it such a skill. And I guess I was going to say to your audience, whoever's younger, it's one of the greatest skills you should have. And not do it in a transactional way, but keep up with them and talk to them, and not just when you need something. So I wish I was a much better networker when I was younger, and even when I had a big job. Because once you leave a job that has a title, you're not useful to anyone anymore.
Johanna Almstea...: Right. So true. Yes. I think so too. I think about when I was younger, I was so afraid of reaching out to people.
Sydney Price: Right.
Johanna Almstea...: And I think it's... I had to do it for my job, obviously, but I do agree that I think... Don't be afraid to just reach out and say, hey, I read this article and thought of you.
Sydney Price: Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: Just send people stuff. They want to hear from you. That's such a good-
Sydney Price: Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: ... a good tip. Okay. What's your favorite word?
Sydney Price: I don't know if it's my favorite word, but I use the word integrate a lot.
Johanna Almstea...: Integrate.
Sydney Price: Yes.
Johanna Almstea...: Oh, I like that. You're living a fully integrated life-
Sydney Price: Exactly.
Johanna Almstea...: ... right now.
Sydney Price: Yes. Yes.
Johanna Almstea...: Yes. Yes. I like it. It's very you too. I like this. Okay. What is your least favorite word?
Sydney Price: Oh my God. Oh. Whatever.
Johanna Almstea...: Whatever.
Sydney Price: And I used it a lot as a kid, and it's basically someone just saying someone to fuck off essentially. I used it a lot to my parents, and I can't believe I wasn't punished severely, but it's such a disrespectful word. And when I hear it, especially from the younger generation, it just triggers me.
Johanna Almstea...: Okay.
Sydney Price: It just shows a lot of disrespect.
Johanna Almstea...: Okay. I like that. I definitely... I feel as though I probably use it too often in relationships, perhaps somebody that I live with, and I too am on the receiving end of it-
Sydney Price: All right, so no judgment.
Johanna Almstea...: ... from the younger generation.
Sydney Price: No judgment for you.
Johanna Almstea...: But I'm going to take note of that. And I'm going to remember that, and I'm going to do better. See, everybody. We're just doing better day by day. Okay. What's your least favorite food, like no way, not eating it?
Sydney Price: I think I didn't grow up with a lot of money. We grew up with a lot of love, but not a lot of money, so a lot of things came out of cans. So our vegetables came out of cans and-
Johanna Almstea...: And they were sort of gray.
Sydney Price: Yeah. Gray green beans out of a can is a no-go for me.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah, that's tough.
Sydney Price: And it's weird. I went from green beans in a can to my mom being a gourmet cook.
Johanna Almstea...: Really?
Sydney Price: Of course, I didn't pick that up, but as a child, I still have PTSD over canned green beans.
Johanna Almstea...: Canned green beans.
Sydney Price: Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: That's tough. Yeah. I feel like my mom and my grandmother... My grandmother definitely served green beans that were out of a can. That was what you did.
Sydney Price: Yeah. And there's definitely, and I don't know what holiday, that people take string green beans out of a cannon, and then put this thick mushroom sauce over it.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah. It's green bean casserole with-
Sydney Price: Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: ... fried onions on that.
Sydney Price: So that's probably a strong no-go for me as well.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah. No. No. No, thank you. I think that's a Thanksgiving thing.
Sydney Price: Okay. Yeah, it's probably Thanksgiving.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah. Yeah. Green bean casserole-
Sydney Price: Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: ... with those canned fried onions on top.
Sydney Price: Yeah. Exactly.
Johanna Almstea...: No, thank you. Mm-mm. Nope. Okay. Best piece of advice you've ever received?
Sydney Price: Oh, I've received so much great advice. I think a big wake-up call was for me going from an assistant buyer to a buyer. And I had a boss named Jonathan Joselove, and he believed in me when he probably shouldn't have. He saw the spark, but not necessarily everything I could have been. But I remember us being in Hong Kong, and it was my first buying, and I started doing all the product development for Neiman Marcus. And my colleague Tom was there who had impeccable taste. He ran one division, and I ran another. And I kept on leaning up and asking my boss and Tom, what do you think? What do you think? And my boss didn't say anything at the time, but when we got back to Dallas, he says, don't you ever do that again. I hired you for a reason and you need to make the decisions yourself. And basically, what he was training me to do is to procure taste and to believe in myself. So it was very good. It was very hard to hear, but it was also very helpful.
Johanna Almstea...: And to trust your gut.
Sydney Price: And to trust my gut.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah, your intuition and your sense.
Sydney Price: And not need authority from outside of myself.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah, you don't need approval.
Sydney Price: Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: That's a good one.
Sydney Price: Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: I try to instill that in my kids, which is very hard sometimes their gut is telling them to do something I don't want them to do.
Sydney Price: They have adolescent genes or pre-adolescent genes.
Johanna Almstea...: I'm like, I'm not sure your gut is right there.
Sydney Price: Chemistry could be off there.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah. But I do think about that, and I think about times when I've made bad decisions. Most of the time, my gut told me to do the opposite, and I went against my gut, right? So I do think that the idea that taste can be cultivated is one big lesson from that, but also that your intuition and your gut can be cultivated, I think, is huge.
Sydney Price: Yeah. Absolutely.
Johanna Almstea...: If your personality were a flavor, what would it be?
Sydney Price: Well, one of my favorite flavors is kettle corn. So I would be kettle corn. I should take stock-
Johanna Almstea...: I love that.
Sydney Price: ... for Trader Joe's because they have the best kettle corn. And -
Johanna Almstea...: Oh.
Sydney Price: Oh, yeah. I only get one bag a month because it literally is like I can eat a whole huge bag within one sitting. And of course, then I feel sick, but it's sweet, it's salty, it's crunchy. Then you get the little hard kernels. So it's kind of unexpected and multi-layered.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah, multi-layered. Yeah. I was just going to say textured. I like it. You would be kettle corn. You're so cute like kettle corn. Okay, last supper. You know that you are leaving this earth in this body tomorrow. Don't worry. It's not sad. You're excited, actually. You're ready for the next chapter. You've graduated, as my guest said to me about something else. She said, just think of it as graduation. Okay, so no drama. What are you eating tonight on your last supper, other than kettle corn?
Sydney Price: Hot steaming bread.
Johanna Almstea...: Okay. Hot steaming bread. Yep.
Sydney Price: Salted butter. Obviously some cheeses, a good red wine. For protein, I love a good rib eye. And last, throw on some good sauteed vegetables or something.
Johanna Almstea...: Okay. Are you eating any potatoes with your rib eye?
Sydney Price: No.
Johanna Almstea...: Are you eating-
Sydney Price: No, it's going to be the pot bread.
Johanna Almstea...: Just the bread, bread and butter.
Sydney Price: And the butter and the cheese.
Johanna Almstea...: And the cheese. Yeah.
Sydney Price: I could actually just live with that and the wine. But if I needed a protein, I'd throw the rib eye in.
Johanna Almstea...: You don't need a protein, really, because you're dying tomorrow, so it's fine. You can do whatever you want. You could have kettle corn and-
Sydney Price: Oh my god.
Johanna Almstea...: ... beer if you want.
Sydney Price: I love it. Break all the rules.
Johanna Almstea...: Break all the rules. And you're drinking red wine with this?
Sydney Price: Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: Okay. Like a Cabernet or-
Sydney Price: Yeah, a Caymus, something rich, full.
Johanna Almstea...: Okay. I like it.
Sydney Price: Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: Have you had a moment in your life when you've had to eat your words, you've had to be like, oh, I shouldn't have said that?
Sydney Price: Oh, I think I've done that a million times, probably to you too. Yeah, for sure. I remember when I was in charge of doing all the buying for our stores and we had a creative director who was your boss, and she would go in and show... Right before we were to go to market, there would be the ta-da and every beautiful piece that she had designed, but there was always this racket that she loved the most, and it was generally very impractical and not sellable. And unfortunately, part of my job was to analyze numbers all the time and to know what things would sell. And so I think at that time, I probably wasn't as supportive to her and her vision to get things in the magazines, and me only understanding my perspective. And that's happened more than once. So understanding the full scope of, okay, we may never sell any of that, but we need to talk about how cool we are, and --
Johanna Almstea...: It has a value somewhere else. Okay.
Sydney Price: But it has a value. Yeah. And I wasn't mature enough, for sure.
Johanna Almstea...: You're not the only merchant who's... I've had that conversation for decades now. Don't worry. You're not alone.
Sydney Price: It's a hard one though, because you're in a company and you have different objectives. Your review is literally on different things.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah. Yeah. And hopefully if it's a good company, those objectives do align somewhere-
Sydney Price: Yes. Exactly.
Johanna Almstea...: ... and follow a bigger North Star, which we were lucky most of the time, that that did there, but I've definitely been in places where there's no North Star either, and you're just all riding your own horse in your own race.
Sydney Price: Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah. Okay. If you could eat only one food for the rest of your life, what would it be? Don't worry about nutritional value. It'll keep you alive.
Sydney Price: All right. I love guac and chips. I think I could do that. Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: All day, every day.
Sydney Price: Yeah. There's nothing wrong with that.
Johanna Almstea...: I would need a margarita involved though too.
Sydney Price: Yeah. Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: Because part of the guac and chips for me is also the margarita.
Sydney Price: And now that I've been going to Mexico so much, I'm very much into what kind of alcohol goes in there as well.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah.
Sydney Price: They're very precise.
Johanna Almstea...: Are you doing mezcal and doing [inaudible 01:00:14]. Yeah.
Sydney Price: Mescal. So I always switch it out for mezcal versus the tequila now.
Johanna Almstea...: See, I can't do mezcal.
Sydney Price: The smoky flavor. I know.
Johanna Almstea...: I don't like the smoky.
Sydney Price: You either like smoky or you don't.
Johanna Almstea...: I don't like scotches.
Sydney Price: Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: I don't like mezcal. I wish I did. They seem cool. I'm just not that cool.
Sydney Price: Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: Okay. Where's your happy place?
Sydney Price: On my bicycle, I have bought electric bike, but I can go in the mountains with it.
Johanna Almstea...: Oh, wow.
Sydney Price: And it is so fun. And you have no idea how fun this bike is. I feel like a five-year-old. Yeah. Anytime I'm in a bad or sad mood, I get on my bike, and it leaves my head, and it's awesome.
Johanna Almstea...: That was what I was going to ask. One of the questions is, what is your go-to coping mechanism on a bad day?
Sydney Price: Yeah, it's-
Johanna Almstea...: Getting on your bike?
Sydney Price: Yeah, and be in nature.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah.
Sydney Price: Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: What do you wear when you feel like you need to take on the world? Big meeting,-
Sydney Price: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: ... big presentation, what do you wear?
Sydney Price: The outfits change, but the shoes don't. High heels. I always feel-
Johanna Almstea...: Even in Colorado?
Sydney Price: No, because I'm not going to those type of meetings here. Everyone's in baseball hats and very open footwear. No, but a high heel makes me feel so smart and so beautiful. I don't know why. Maybe because I'm five five and it makes me taller. I think the height definitely helps. It makes me feel smarter.
Johanna Almstea...: It makes me have better posture.
Sydney Price: It's grows brain cells.
Johanna Almstea...: Right. I was going to say. I think it does make you carry yourself differently too. We all carry ourselves differently when we're wearing heels.
Sydney Price: 100%.
Johanna Almstea...: And it makes us smarter. I like that. Hotter and smarter.
Sydney Price: Hotter. Exactly.
Johanna Almstea...: Like we could get any hotter and smarter.
Sydney Price: Right.
Johanna Almstea...: Geez Louise. Okay. A dream dinner party guest list. You can have as many people as you want.
Sydney Price: Oh, geez.
Johanna Almstea...: Dead or alive, dream dinner party guest list?
Sydney Price: I'm going to say safe eight. I think-
Johanna Almstea...: Aww.
Sydney Price: Yeah. A group of beautiful eight women that we know each other, and we support each other through thick and thin, and we accept each other.
Johanna Almstea...: Huge.
Sydney Price: Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: That is huge.
Sydney Price: Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: Aww. That's going to make me cry. Okay. Lastly, what is one thing for sure right now, today, here in this moment?
Sydney Price: That I'm so privileged, and that I'm lucky to be here in the United States at this time, and yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: Yeah. That's pretty huge.
Sydney Price: Yeah.
Johanna Almstea...: Please tell people where they can find you. Is there a website that they can find you?
Sydney Price: Yeah. It's called The Knew Purpose with a K. It's a double entendre, so Knew, K-N-E-W, of what you used to be, what you knew, and how you can bring it into the N-E-W.
Johanna Almstea...: Yes. So it's theknewpurpose.com.
Sydney Price: Com.
Johanna Almstea...: ... or.org?
Sydney Price: Yeah, .com.
Johanna Almstea...: .Com. Okay. Well, I thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I'm so happy to have spent this time with you. I know your story's going to inspire so many people, and I'm very, very grateful that you took the time to hang out with me today.
Sydney Price: Absolutely. Thank you for having me.
Johanna Almstea...: Wow, that was amazing. I could talk to her for so many hours about her work in the world and how she's actually making the world a better place. So I'm so glad that you guys tuned in for this episode today. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. If you haven't done so already, please share this with your friends. Share it with people who are looking to find their purpose if they haven't yet. Share it with people who want to change the world. That's what we're trying to do little by little. And you guys are changing my world by tuning in every day. Not every day, but whenever you tune in. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.And please follow us on Instagram and TikTok. We are @eatmywordspodcast, and we'll catch you on the next one. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
This Eat My Words podcast has been created and directed by me, Johanna Almstead. Our producer is Sophy Drouin, our audio editor is Isabel Robertson, and our brand manager is Mila Boujnah. Thank you.