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Welcome to "Visionary Voices" the podcast where we dive into the minds of business owners, founders, executives, and everyone in between.
Each episode brings you face-to-face with the leading lights of industry and innovation.
Join us as we uncover the stories behind the success and the lessons learned along the way.
Whether you're climbing the corporate ladder or just starting your business journey, these are the conversations you need to hear - packed with visionary voices and insights.
Let's begin.
So Aaron, welcome to the visionary voices podcast.
Thank you so much for taking the time today.
Could you give us a top level view about what it is that you're working on right now and
your journey so far?
Absolutely.
Great to be here.
Thanks so much for having me.
uh I'm Erin Connell.
Sorry, I'm so nervous.
Can I start over?
uh This is so weird.
What's really freaking me out is that it's audio, like it's a podcast, but I'm also on
video and it's just totally throwing me.
um
no worries.
can, can, we can start again.
Great, thanks.
You're doing great if you are wondering.
Okay, okay
Thank
welcome to the Visionary Voices podcast.
Thank you so much for being here.
Could you give us a top level view about what it is that you're working on right now and
your journey so far?
Absolutely.
Thanks for having me.
Really excited to be here and to connect with your audience today.
My name is Erin Connell.
I serve as our Chief Strategy and Growth Officer at Cause Strategy Partners.
We are a technology-powered board placement and governance training provider.
Our work is focused on connecting employees, professionals from leading global companies
and connecting those folks with high-impact nonprofit organizations for board service.
The focus of my work is really trying to amplify possibilities.
We are looking to create purpose-driven pathways for folks in this time of uncertainty and
change in the world.
And it's been really exciting for me to have the opportunity to really double down on
those cross-sector partnerships.
Yeah, amazing, amazing.
I'd love to go back to the, I guess, the beginning of your journey here, right?
And so like, how did you get into the role?
What was the story there?
And why did you decide to get into the nonprofit side of things as well?
Like, what was the, what was the reasoning there?
Great question.
I can take you back quite a bit if you're interested, but I will promise I'll keep it
brief.
I have always been really interested in and really connected to the nonprofit sector.
I grew up in a family where we were volunteering on Thanksgiving and showing up at food
pantries and uh early memories of being in a stroller at uh rallies and protests.
it was always an environment of...
connecting with the community and giving back and understanding that that was an
expectation for me growing up.
I think that that just really laid a framework and a foundation for me to continue to
expect to show up that way in the world.
I have worn a lot of different hats and tried a number of different things.
I think something that's really been defining of my professional journey is finding those
moments where I realize, that is not what I want to do.
And that's been really, really clarifying and really helpful for me.
So after a number of pivots, um I focused in on wanting to support the nonprofit sector,
but really do that at scale.
I'm someone who has a really hard time saying no myself.
And when it comes to lots of different nonprofits doing really essential, powerful,
critical work in our communities, I have a difficult time picking just one.
So I knew that I couldn't sort of work in-house at a single organization.
I've been really fortunate to connect with cost strategy partners and was fortunate to do
that earlier on in my career and really be able to work at scale and even globally to
support nonprofits and charities and to drive resources to the not-for-profit sector.
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, I love the lesson there of, you know, going through these experiences and even
though it might have not been the best experience overall in terms of what was an
alignment to you, but it's really cool to understand then what you don't want to do as
well.
And I went through a similar thing in my very first corporate role straight after school,
where I was in this huge organization doing accountancy, which is crazy.
Now that I'm in marketing is a very, very different industry, but I learned, you know,
again, what it is that I don't want to do.
Right.
And so you can kind of pick those up along the way and figure out, you know,
what is in alignment with myself and yourself as well in terms of our career.
So I think it's a really cool learning point as well for people listening is you can take
lessons from anything, right?
The good and the bad, which is really good to know.
And then from the nonprofit side of things then, in terms of, I guess, the day to day of
what you work on then, like what does that look like?
Because I'm really interested to know what it is that you're working on every day.
Yeah, absolutely.
I have been really fortunate to wear lots of different hats at Cause Strategy Partners.
I first joined the organization when we were in startup mode.
We were about six months old when I first joined.
And it was a very different organization, right?
That was 10 years ago.
We're now 10 and a half years old.
And in that time, I have uh worn almost every hat within the organization.
Not every hat, but many of them.
um And it's been an incredible opportunity to grow alongside of the organization really
been really really privileged to experience that.
In my current role, I focus on strategy and growth.
So it's really thinking about, you know, what are we seeing right now in the social
sector, in the for-profit sector, in the non-for-profit sector?
We are connecting all of these sectors and thinking about how can we drive talent,
resources, and opportunity where they are needed.
across these sectors.
So really trying to focus on what am I seeing, what's going on, what are the greatest
needs, and how can we continue to innovate to meet the needs of our stakeholders.
We have a few different stakeholder groups that we focus on.
So we work with companies within those companies who are often working with corporate
social responsibility, HR, talent teams, and thinking about what are their greatest needs
right now.
Especially this year, there's been lots of change.
We're then working with nonprofits and charities and thinking about, a governance
perspective, what do they need to effectively lead, again, in a time of change in
particular?
And then we're working with individual professionals who have a variety of different
motivations and interests for why they want to serve on a board.
And they often don't have experience with board service.
Often, they don't even have experience in the nonprofit sector.
Right,
very different stakeholder groups, very different needs, who are all working in slightly
different environments and responding differently.
So lot of my job is really understanding what are those unique needs?
How are we ensuring that we're continuing to meet those, that we're continuing to
innovate, and to really think both short and long term about where are sort of we best
positioned um to provide the most support.
within this idea of creating purpose and really driving talent to opportunity.
Yeah, absolutely.
So, I mean, when it comes to building those strategies and things like that.
is that where you maybe speak, essentially speak to the end user, right?
Of what is that they're looking for?
And then take those insights and then you can obviously build whatever product or service
needed to fit that need.
Is that the way you go about building out those strategies?
I just talk to people all the time and I try to ask a lot of questions.
Um, and I appreciate, you know, you're showing up that way and you show up that way in
this podcast, which I think is such an amazing thing to create space, to, to hear folks,
to understand their stories, their needs, their interests.
You know, if we just create programs and services that we think are needed or that have
worked in the past, that stagnates at a certain point, right?
We need to be innovative, be creative.
Be responsive.
em I've won amazing growth.
One thing I've really grown into at Cost Strategy Partners is reminding myself that we
can't actually just keep doing it the way that it's worked.
em I love evaluations.
I love taking that data set and saying, great, this worked really well, so let's keep
doing that.
But that's just one part of the equation.
We also need to be looking at what's not working for folks.
And what's been really difficult?
What's a challenge?
What are we seeing in the environment and the world around us?
And how can we be responsive, be planful, em and really be creative?
That's one of our core values at Cost Strategy Partners.
Leaning into that is something that's, I think, essential for all of us and certainly
essential for us meeting the needs of our stakeholder groups.
Yeah, absolutely.
mean, it's one of those in, in business is so easy to come up with a bunch of ideas on
what we think the client needs or the company needs or things like that.
But it's, it's very rare that we get that right.
Like, you know, we have to be speaking to them.
And I like the idea of essentially a soundboard right where if you can have some type of
soundboard in place where you can routinely, you know, speak to, right.
And get these insights from the market directly.
And then that shapes obviously the products and where you're to go with it.
I mean, so many times because I'm more of a technical person, I love building products out
and systems and automation and whatever, but so many times I'll start building something
out and I'm like, actually, I don't think that the client needs this.
And then when I speak to them, they're like, yeah, we don't actually need that.
And so it's, one of those where you need to have these feedback loops, I think within any
type of process that you're, you're working on, especially on the growth side of things
like in the business growth as well.
And the marketing, you know, putting on the marketing hat is having those feedback loops
there.
So we can really stay in touch with the market.
iterate, as you said, on the products, messaging, on whatever we need to build out, but
making sure that's done in an accurate way and a systematic way, guess, as well.
Absolutely.
Yeah, I think that's great that it sounds like that's a practice you use as well.
And I think if we don't do that, we're just really working in a bubble, right?
We're working in a silo.
And at a certain point, the work is going to fizzle out because it's not going to be
meeting the needs of stakeholders of a market of a changing world.
And do we live in a changing world?
Yeah, I mean, this, this has been, been crazy for sure.
And it's, it's crazy that only a couple months left and it's the end of the year as well.
Like so much has happened.
Um, which is, which is crazy.
So, so with the, the nonprofit side of things, and what are some of the biggest challenges
that you're hearing from the nonprofit space right now and what's on the horizon there as
well?
Yeah.
I mean, I think like we're seeing, this is a time of change.
This is a time of uncertainty and a time of polarization.
I think in many sectors and many communities for many people, I think the nonprofit sector
is seeing and experiencing that as well.
think something that ah has been a real challenge in the nonprofit sector is a lot of
shifts.
in the last year in particular around funding and funding priorities within the sector,
but also other sectors funding priorities and sort of where monies are and are not being
driven into the not-for-profit and charity sector.
So that's a big, big challenge.
Funding is always a challenge in the nonprofit sector.
It's in the name, right?
That's how we define the sector, which is kind of a wild thing to think about.
We literally define the sector by the
the way it's structured in terms of the funding structures.
um So it's not news that this is a challenge.
I think this year the challenges have been much more significant, certainly than
anticipated, and more significant than in recent history, um which is saying a lot because
recent history includes a global pandemic.
So I think nonprofits are feeling that um it's been a challenge.
a real opportunity with our work, right?
Where we're again, really driving talent, resources, opportunity, and purpose-driven
professionals to support the nonprofit sector, to support charities at a time when they
really need it.
They need the skills, you know, they need the fundraising, they need the networks, but
they also just need that new energy.
It makes such a difference for nonprofits when they are recruiting.
I say this all the time in trainings, nonprofits will have a board meeting, know, okay,
our, you know, finance committee chair is stepping off the board, right?
Their term is up.
Does anyone know anyone who works in finance?
And it's like, that is not a great way to recruit.
We all know that, right?
If we were hiring for our team, we wouldn't hire that way.
You want to go out into the marketplace and find the best person who's going to bring
talent and provide opportunity and all this.
And that's just how we've done recruitment.
in the nonprofit sector for, you know, a hundred years.
And so we're really trying to change that narrative so that folks have new ideas, not just
the talent, the skills, you know, sometimes a brand name of a company and those things,
which are great, but also just a new, fresh perspective from someone who's not within that
organization's bubble.
It creates transformational change to have that new perspective in that leadership role on
a nonprofit board.
Yeah.
I mean, I guess it will create a bit of an echo chamber, right?
If you have people that are very similar, let's say all together, then naturally, yeah,
it's going to become an echo chamber.
And to your point, there's not going to be that innovation that's needed to drive things
forward and make that change and get things moving along.
Right.
And I think, I think that's a very interesting point as well is go looping back to the
soundboard side of things is making sure we have a diverse range of people that we are
listening to as well.
Because I think it's very easy.
Again, you can start listening to just one type of persona, one type of person.
And naturally again, right, you might take insights from them, but that doesn't
necessarily reflect everyone that we need to speak to as well.
So I think trying to eliminate that echo chamber as much as possible is what I'm hearing
in order to make that change that's necessary.
I don't think people can see how much I'm nodding at what you're saying, Akhil.
I could not agree more.
And that idea of an echo chamber is something that we have so much of in the world that we
live in right now.
And so really trying to disrupt that is a powerful thing and do it through service.
Disrupting echo chambers through service, I think is also incredibly transformational,
right?
We're providing folks not just with an experiential.
leadership and learning opportunity.
uh We're also connecting across sectors.
We're creating space for everyone, all sides of the equation, uh to learn from each other,
to grow, to be a part of different conversations.
And that kind of learning across sectors, building bridges across barriers, I think is
something that uh is profound that we don't have a lot of and that we could benefit from
having a lot more.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
I love to know in terms of the way nonprofits work, when it comes down to like board seats
and things like that, how does that work specifically?
So someone coming in and they're like, do you know what, I wanna start working with a
nonprofit in some type of way, or form.
Getting on the board of that, obviously you can create that change is I guess the path
that you can go down to do that.
But how does that actually work from a very simple level for someone not in the industry?
Like how would someone go about doing that and getting involved into those, into those
companies and yeah, creating that change.
just want to make sure I'm understanding what you're asking.
You're asking about how do we do the work that we do, or how can someone go about finding
a nonprofit board seat?
Yeah.
How can someone go, go about finding a nonprofit board seat and kind of aligning
themselves into it.
really tough to do.
It feels like a black box, which is part of the reason that we exist.
em Finding a board seat, again, typically happens through, uh you know, existing networks,
right?
It's tapping someone on the shoulder, excuse me, whether they're a colleague or someone
you know in the community, and that sort of recruitment strategy is incredibly limiting.
uh That's sort of from the nonprofit side, historically, how recruitment has happened em
to an individual.
You know, typically recruitment looks like someone trying to figure out how to be in touch
with a nonprofit and sort of having a difficult time because there's not a clear pathway,
right?
Like if you're looking for a job, you know, to go to certain websites, you know, to create
a resume, right?
There is a clear process to follow to find employment.
There's not a clear process that we're all aware of to follow to find a nonprofit board
seat and nonprofit board seats.
are such an incredible, incredible and critical piece of nonprofit leadership.
I think I said this to you previously Akil, it is terrifying to me.
I try to not think about this at night because it will keep me awake.
It is terrifying to me that we have an entire sector that is led by volunteers, right?
Boards are volunteers.
They are governing the nonprofits and over 85 % of nonprofit board members have never
received any training.
to do that job.
That's not great, right?
We would not tolerate that at work.
We don't set our systems up that way because that's setting us up to not succeed, which is
to say we historically have not set the nonprofit sector up to succeed when it comes to
what does effective leadership look like regarding board leadership.
So we are looking to really transform that, right?
We're looking to...
take talent and drive it into non-profit governance.
I'm trying to remember what you asked me.
I think I've gone a bit off-piste here.
No, no, no, that was great.
It is about getting in into like a board seat and how can you work your way into, uh, into
a nonprofit, right?
Because as you said, it's, uh, yeah, it's very difficult to get into them.
So I think you answered the question.
All good.
Um, okay, perfect.
So when it comes down to actually growing the business itself, obviously that's a mission
on it, on its own.
So what has worked for call strategy partners to grow to the point as today?
And I guess what's on the learnings that you can take from there that maybe we can apply
to other businesses as well.
Yeah, I'm probably going to sound like a broken record here because I'm just going to keep
using the word innovate.
I have been incredibly privileged to work with the team that we have at Cause Strategy
Partners, which is a team that is brilliant, is open to trying new things, and is also
always testing assumptions.
We have had the opportunity to also work really closely with partners who are
ready to do that shoulder to shoulder with us.
Our growth, our success has all been because we've been open to innovating.
We started out as a tiny organization, as all startups do.
We now are 10 and a half years in.
We are a global company.
We have worked with over 60 Fortune 500 companies.
We've helped to get
over 3,000 of their professionals elected to nonprofit boards.
em We have helped train over 30,000 board members to talk about the value of those folks
knowing how to do their jobs, em That's a huge impact.
em And we've worked with almost 2,000 nonprofits and charities globally to help them get
connected to talented board members and
engage in best practices when it comes to governance.
We have been able to scale, to establish those partnerships, to work in new creative ways
because we've been open to innovating, because we have not assumed that the way things are
is how they will continue to be, because we have assumed that um just because something
worked now is not, that's not how it's going to keep working.
And we've also had moments where folks have said,
I don't know that this is going to work or this seems high risk and we have leaned into
those opportunities as opposed to leaning away from them.
That's really hard to do.
um For someone like me, I'm very risk averse in my life, um in literally every aspect of
my life.
My life is deeply uninteresting, I feel, because I am so risk averse.
um And so to be part of decisions that were making us an organization.
especially within the first 10 years of an organization's life cycle, right?
The majority of startups do not hit the 10-year mark, right?
The vast majority of startup companies do not.
And so to be in those moments where we're really significant decisions about the future of
our work, the future of our company, which is also to say the future of the impact of this
work, right?
It's not just about, we going to be around?
It's, are we going to be able to have the impact we want to have?
Are we going to be able to...
make the kind of change and transformational work and really contribute to the world the
way that we think is meaningful.
To be part of those decisions and lean in and say, you know, we're not sure that this is
going to work or this feels really difficult and we're going to maintain and we're going
to continue and we're going to push and lean into that uncertainty and that difficulty is
a hard practice and it's something that's really led to our growth.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
It's, it's being able to take those risks, right.
Is, one of them.
But I think as well, because things are changing so quickly and I'd love to get your take
on AI and the future of it as well, because I think on the business growth side, right.
It's really made a huge impact for, for a lot of people.
seeing you right now, you know, when it comes down to like LinkedIn content, AI generated,
when it comes down to outbound, it's all AI generated, but it comes down to this and the
other, it's all becoming this AI generated machine essentially.
Right.
And so.
I think now is very interesting time as well is, you know, how, how far do you lean into
some of this new technology?
How much do you use things like AI within the businesses that we have?
Because ultimately all these businesses that they are people first, right?
It's relationship building, it's relationship first mentality.
Whereas when you start inserting AI into some of these processes and the way of doing
things, does it detract from that?
Does it build a stronger relationship?
Does it build a weaker one?
And I think right now the pivotal moment is, you know, how far do you lean into?
this type technology.
we made the mistake actually when AI started really popping off a couple of years ago.
We essentially reworked our whole system and trashed everything where it was just AI
generated pretty much everything.
And we were like, we can run this without any employees.
It's going to be great.
We can just get.
But what we found was ultimately you need to have some type of human touch point element,
even in these type of automated workflows where it can check the work.
can make sure it's building those relationships where it's needed.
not say don't use it, but you need to still include that human element.
At least that's my take on it uh at this point in time.
I mean, I'd love to get your take on it when it comes down to growing and scaling the
business and using these new technologies.
really appreciate your perspective Akhil and also your candor in sharing um a decision
that didn't go well.
I think it's really important to be honest and forthcoming about those moments because
that's how we learn from each other.
em It's a great question.
Someone smarter than me said in a webinar I was on recently that AI is like us all
starting to use email in the 90s.
And that for me really popped the bubble on this, right?
I think it's easy to think about AI as, know, it's this big thing, we have to integrate it
into everything, it's going to be all consuming, it's going to take all of our jobs.
There are risks involved with it, and that is true.
And it is a tool, right?
The sooner we adapt to this tool and figure out ways that it can help us work more
efficiently, the better we are um positioned to do our work effectively using this tool.
We of course need to figure out how to use it uh in ways that...
um
We have effective governance practices.
We have appropriate data management.
We're thinking about the ethical considerations.
All of that is really important to be intentional about.
uh And this is a tool.
At the end of the day, this maybe sounds silly, but this is how I like to talk about it to
really pop the bubble.
The robots are not taking over.
Humans are going to continue to be needed.
Relationships are at the core of our work at Cost Strategy Partners.
It's our first value.
It is how we do our work.
We are creating bridges.
We are connecting people.
And we only do that because we've built all of these thousands of relationships and
partnerships and all of that, right?
Computers can't do that.
They can send emails.
They can automate processes.
They can make incredible spreadsheets that I have no idea how people even set these.
up it is really amazing like what an asset and this is people first work and it always
will be.
Yeah, yeah.
No, I completely agree.
And it's, it's the one thing I'm really driving home to the clients that we're working
with now is, you know, we need to maintain this relationship aspect of the work that we
do.
Cause I think as well in in a sea of automation and AI and all these things is genuine
relationships shine through, right.
And that's how you can actually cut through the noise and actually essentially have that
competitive advantage.
Right.
And it's going to be interesting as well over the next few years, how much that actually
plays a role in, growth of a business as well.
Right.
The relationship aspect of it rather than.
completely outsourced to automation and AI as well.
So yeah, completely agree with the relationship point of view.
Yeah.
I just want to double down on this.
was just talking with my team about sort business development strategies and being
thoughtful about what that looks like going into 2026 and having the conversation.
You know, we get all of these emails.
It's unbelievable about, you know, here's how to automate this system.
Follow up.
I'll send you this toolkit, everything.
Right.
And I, I'm just deleting so many of these, right?
Because it's all of this content that's coming to me.
Whereas if
When I get an email that's, do you want to grab a coffee?
Do you have 20 minutes?
I'm going to be in town.
There is such a better chance that I'm going to follow up on that and say, yes, I would
love to do that because it's the personal touch.
It's the relationship piece.
Our work is built on that.
We are humans.
That's part of who we are as a species.
We are community-oriented animals.
That relationship piece is never going away.
Yeah, exactly.
And I think the other equation there is people hate being sold to, especially over an
email, a LinkedIn DM, whatever that's going to be as well.
Right.
And so in your, in your example, right.
It's leading with that value first, where it's just a human to human interaction.
It's a very normal thing rather than getting an email, trying to sell you straight away
where instantly you'll put up this wall naturally.
And you wouldn't want to reply to it.
And you'll just, as we said, right, we'll just delete them.
Um, like, again, we, we all get so many emails now, you know, pitching us this and the
other.
And it's quite frustrating.
I think a lot of people are getting frustrated by it with, with this type of outreach
that's going out now, especially with the instruction of AI and automation.
Obviously the volume is, is more, uh, know, crazy, let's say.
And so, yeah, to, to wrap it up is definitely relationship based selling or business
development, which shines through, um, which is obviously when it comes down to
podcasting, which is what we work on is all about how do we build relationships where we
offered like genuine value, have genuine connections and, and, you know, provide that,
yeah, just, just.
build that relationship, right?
And that's what our main goal is with what is that we do.
But I think for the future of business growth, it's going to be an interesting one on who
actually adopts that relationship first mentality or maintains it versus who changes it
completely.
And the other side of it as well is, we've worked with clients and we've also tested it
all ourselves where it's like there's AISDRs, AIBDRs, you know, all these different things
as well.
And pretty much all of them aren't getting any results from it.
where it's enough to create that ROI, which is quite interesting, you know, when it comes
down to it and quite large companies as well are making these changes because they think
they need to jump onto it now, but it is in its infancy, right?
As you, you as you said before, it's like email back in, you know, 2000s or before the
2000s, you know, when it started coming about.
And so, yeah, completely agree with your point there.
In terms of, I guess, your personal feelings on the future of AI in your industry, how do
you think that's going to shape the industry specifically as well?
Hmm.
Yeah.
It's a good question.
Again, I really see AI as a tool.
It can create opportunity.
It can build efficiencies.
It can streamline our work.
It can streamline our communications.
It can help facilitate connections.
It can design some things that look really cool.
It can design some things that look kind of weird.
Right?
There are lots of use cases.
And at the end of the day, all of those
are outputs, right?
But they aren't.
relationships.
That's not the work itself.
It is a tool for getting the work done.
em I think that there's definitely an opportunity in the nonprofit sector to really lean
in to em using AI tools increasingly.
know, especially that so many AI tools are free and accessible.
think that's a huge asset to the non-for-profit sector.
Seeing lots of nonprofits just jump in and try things, which I think is the way to do it.
Right?
um And so that practice, I think, is really great.
uh There's an opportunity to do a lot of learning there.
uh And then I think there's an opportunity, as always, to really think about sort of
cross-sector um co-learning uh work.
Our work at Cost Strategy Partners is all about creating uh those relationships, building
those bridges across the for-profit, non-for-profit sectors, and so really thinking about
how can AI support that.
How can AI even be part of the conversation?
And I think something that a lot of nonprofit boards are doing is also thinking about how
can they modify their practices, leverage their work, streamline their work through AI
tools.
It's a different kind of challenge because at the end of the day, a nonprofit board is a
group of volunteers who often have very busy lives and lots of other things going on,
right?
So there's not always the same sense of accountability in nonprofit governance to show up
to try new things, to um really keep the work moving.
uh And it's also essential, right?
Technically those are core responsibilities when it comes to governance.
uh And there's an opportunity, I think, to think about how can AI actually strengthen
governance practices, create opportunities for boards to communicate more effectively,
collaborate, uh hear from the community more, uh bring the community more into their work,
conversations and decisions and really democratizing.
what nonprofit board service looks like.
think AI can be a tool to really help uh nonprofits do all of that from a governance
perspective.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
I love, I love your take on that.
Right.
And I think a really key one is the efficiencies point of view, right.
Especially, I guess, in the landscape of funding is getting cut, things are getting really
tight overall is if we can create those efficiencies within, you know, the space and then
we should go and do that.
And hopefully that then creates that bandwidth of uh having that, that room to grow
essentially.
And so, yeah, I I love your point there.
Switching gears a little bit.
I'd love to talk about some of your personal development over, over the years.
Right.
And so.
Of course you've been working in the company for a while and you've kind of seen a lot of
things change within the company itself.
But I guess with your own development, I guess what's one of the biggest or pivotal
moments that you've had, you know, doing the work that you do and how did that change you
as a person, right?
And how did that change your aspect on that?
That's a great question.
I've been really fortunate to have a lot of different opportunities for growth.
One thing that really stands out to me as a period of growth in my life is before I, after
I graduated high school and before I went to college, I did a year of service with City
Year, which is a national and global organization that does amazing work in public schools
around the U.S.
and in a couple of places around the world.
I spent a year
working in schools in Washington DC.
And the biggest learning for me was um I don't know everything, which sounds silly, but as
a 17 year old is a very true lesson and a very important one.
And it's something I really try to hold on to as I uh have built my career, as I've gone
to graduate school, as I've built my network and really deepened my own competencies and
skills.
I still don't know everything and that's something I really try to hold on to.
I now have two very young children who are one and three who help keep me humble and
remind me that I really don't know everything.
em So that's been a great reality check the last couple of years, but that's that's a
really that was a moment of learning something I do try to keep with me every day in my
work with my team and my work with stakeholders and engaging externally and internally.
Thank
Yeah, I think it's such a great and powerful lesson, right?
Because ultimately it's, I think it's quite easy when you do start seeing success within
whatever it is that we're doing, it's easy to then become closed off onto those new ideas,
right?
And there's that new bit of knowledge.
And again, like I went through a period of this where, you know, business was flying and I
had those blinders on and not taking in that new information from other people who were
ahead of me in these areas.
And it's very easy done, it's easy to slip into that as well.
But ultimately, you know,
to our point at the start when we said about the soundboard and all these different, these
processes where that's all just to take in new information.
So not only do we need to obviously get the information, but we need to actually absorb
that and internalize it and use that to obviously create the change that we need to make,
is amazing.
So one of the final questions, and actually we've kind of touched on it little bit already
in the previous question, but if you can go back to your 18 year old self.
and only take three lessons with you, whether it's some philosophical knowledge, some
business knowledge, some general advice, what those three things be and why it'd be those
things.
It's a great question.
I wish we talked more about this actually in our everyday lives as adults.
So this is a good reminder to bring this actually back to my team.
I remind myself I don't know everything.
And the less I know, the more opportunities I have to learn, which is really exciting.
And that's something I try to lean into.
I also, I studied philosophy in college because I was desperately trying to find something
to not be employed.
Um, so I, um, can really nerd out on philosophies, uh, that are motivating to me.
But one thing that, I studied in, in the philosophy of stoicism that really stays with me
is the idea that reality is what it is.
Right?
Like that's a pill we just have to swallow.
m
and then work within that.
And that doesn't mean that we can't create transformational change, that we can't redefine
our reality, but my current reality is what it is and I have to respond to that.
That's something I really try to center.
um The third thing, and my team has heard me say this a lot because this is something that
is core to how I see myself and how I see the world.
Something I really believe is that I could have been born into any other situation in the
world and my privileges are many and they are exactly that.
are...
massive privileges that I feel obligate me to give back um because if I was in any other
situation em I would not necessarily have the privileges I do.
So that's something I really feel strongly about and that's provided quite a bit of
direction for how I spend my time um when it comes to work and not work.
Yeah, definitely.
Well, look, three amazing lessons there.
So thank you so much for joining us on today's episode.
Really enjoyed the conversation.
So many learning points and golden nuggets for everyone to take away.
So thank you so much for taking the time today.
Thank you, Akhil.
This was a great conversation.
I really appreciate your time.