Between the Interviews - Why does any of this matter?

Using one of my favorite analogies about choosing which bin to put your trash in might seem like you just have two choices in front of you - trash vs. recycling bin - but perhaps the world is less black & white and really you have many more options than just the two right in front of you. Further, maybe the truly the option with the most value to you in the long run is the one that takes a couple more moments to consider and a little more time and energy on the front end. 

What have I read: Atomic Habits by James Clear where he presents many examples of how the compound interest of just striving for 1% better regularly has an exponentially positive impact (and also what can happen when you don’t). Sometimes a decision about something seemingly small can have much larger impacts than they appear on the surface. 

I'm not telling you what to do, but here's where I'm putting my dollar: directly to the creator! Specifically, tipping the live music at the bar/restaurant, buying artwork from the artist at the market, following Andrew Hickey’s A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs on Patreon

Early and bonus shows as well as curated discussions and merch are available on Patreon.

Instagram | BioSite (with links to listen & more)

Transcript

Hey folks, this is the Between the Interviews show, where I'll provide some context, background reflections and recommendations associated with the Capitalism for Good philosophy. While the interviews are obviously focused on highlighting businesses and their leaders through talking about their experiences and philosophies, the Between the Interviews shows will be mostly me connecting the dots, providing some additional insight, spotlighting the things that I'm listening to, reading and watching in order to learn more, as well as some of the why behind where I am choosing to put my dollar. These Between the Interviews shows will be sprinkled in Between the Interviews, and will be posted on the main feed, but will also be posted weekly on the Patreon in video form. So if that's your jam, head there, there's a link in the description. Hey folks, thanks so much for coming back to the Between the Interviews episode of Capitalism for Good podcast, where today, I guess just to be super, probably deceivingly simple about this, I'm going to talk about why does any of this matter.

To me, I'm the kind of person who's always searching for like a greater meaning or the, you know, story behind the story. I would, not like I could ever sit through a movie or anything, but if I did, I would want to listen to like the director's cut of it. I guess I do listen to podcasts and I do watch TV because, you know, they're shorter and easier for my brain to digest. And so I like really loved listening to the Office Ladies with Pam and Angela, talking about like their experience kind of behind the making of The Office. And so I guess if you put that in terms of the Between the Interviews here of Capitalism for Good, like that's kind of, I guess what that is. It sounds so weird to compare myself to them. Although Jenna Fisher is from Missouri, St. Louis, Missouri, Kansas City, Missouri girl over here. Well, depending on what time of my life that I am claiming at that time. But anyway, so in the fashion of the kind of behind the scenes between the interviews of this, I'll take a quick second to just kind of recap where we've been, how we got here to all of this. And, you know, for those of you that have listened to all of them, thank you so much. I hope that this won't be super boring. I'll make it pretty quick. But for anyone who has not dabbled at all, and this is where you're starting, this is what you missed. So episode one, high level intro of my business experience in my career history and kind of generally who I am as a person and all of that kind of stuff. Then I did an interview with Shannon Masterson as the first business leader to be highlighted within the Capitalism for Good project. And there we talked about the importance of who you surround yourself with and being intentional about that when you can. But we also talked about what it's like to speak up and ask for help in certain situations or if you have identified a gap or a need trying to identify someone else and to speak up and ask for help in those types of situations. You know, do you have someone involved already that you can just tag in there?

And then I took a detour into these Between the Interviews. And, you know, I just, I will say this again, it's so great to hear from those business leaders, kind of straight from their experiences and their viewpoints, their lessons learned. And while we may or may not be in their field or maybe involved in the consumer side of their field, or maybe we aren't now, but we might later, I still think that there's take aways and through lines that we can find through the themes of all of those types of things. I also think that it's valuable to take a beat to reflect and to ingest and digest the information that we just received to try to understand a little bit of just how is that applicable to each of us. And there are things that we can take away from each of these experiences. And sometimes a part of that is to leave something behind to be like, that wasn't for me, not super applicable, or I disagree.

And I think that's totally fine and normal and kind of just the experience of like being humans in general. So, the Between the Interviews show is intended to be done in that same way. While I have some really strong viewpoints and ideas about kind of the way things should be, the way things should run, and those are all based on my experiences and my history, I never want anyone else to just like blindly follow everything that I'm laying out or everything that one of these other business leaders is laying out without running it through that filter of their own lived experiences. I would rather that we all just think about and consider the impact in the context of the choices that we make on a daily basis as a result of our viewpoints. And that perhaps some of these other business leaders that we'll talk to and we'll hear from in the future, that that's just another, just one more book on the bookshelf, just one more tool in the toolbox, just one more piece of information that you can take or leave or apply it however it does or does not apply to your life at that given time. So in these Between the Interviews episodes, sometimes at one point I'm really, really gonna regret naming it that because I stumble over those words every single time and I am also a little paranoid that that's gonna like fall through the cracks in editing and stuff and people are gonna be like, what are you talking about? Have you lost your mind? How long and short is that is? Sure have.

Anyway, in some of these Between the Interviews episodes, I've talked about some of my experiences in the career field and why I am so passionate about being intentional when we're considering how we make our money. I also have used an example around the choices of how we spend our money and how that may have an impact on other aspects of life, whether that is directly or deliberate or indirectly and maybe unintentional. I also used politics in some of those examples in government, but again, because that is my jam.

It's also on display in a big way, so while it might be a turnoff or something that makes people's stomach turn, or it might be like so much, we're getting so much of that information already, it is big right now. So I did kind of use that lens because it's something that I thought would be relatable. Doesn't turn people off in a way. Sometimes, yeah, totally. And I get that. But again, just kind of going back to that's the context that I view the world, and I'm not really someone to shy away from having those kinds of conversations. And just hope that those types of conversations and those topics are discussed in a respectful and understanding and fact-based way, where it's important to view many, many different perspectives of how those things impact literally all of our lives. If you've listened to all of the Between the Interviews episodes to date, you've also heard me continue to use examples of how money intersects with government and the rights of women, and how they make and spend their money. Again, gonna pull that back to my viewpoint.

I am a woman in the business world making and spending my own money. I, you know, that's an aspect of it. Additionally, I've taken a similar approach to the intersection of nonprofits, community-focused for-profits, and what I've dubbed traditional businesses, specifically about the misconceptions that people may have about all of that and how those different buckets of businesses may not in reality be all of that different. Specifically, one of my points was if we're paying for overhead costs in traditional goods and services that we're purchasing, why would it make sense to refuse to do that in other aspects of our lives? That's not to say that we should all just not think about those things and blindly spend money on all of those things. I do think it's important to be thoughtful and intentional and understand what is going into that and also from the business side, it's ethically and morally responsible of us to make sure that we're doing that in inefficient way whether that is short-term efficiency, long-term efficiency, all of those things.

Again, Easter eggs, we will talk about more of those things. Again, that's my jam here. So again, why does any of this matter?

From my perspective, especially when the people that I surround myself with, I don't know about you, but the people that I surround myself with are largely stretched way too thin. Straight, way too thin when it comes to money, feeling stretched thin when it comes to time, feeling really stretched thin when it comes to just like bandwidth. I mean, again, that's a whole other thing. I don't know that I could even like wrap my brain around how we could really dig into talking about just bandwidth in general and information. You know, I think it's really important to like get more information, hence why I'm here yapping in this microphone. But it, you know, folks are emotionally tired, they're worn out, their bandwidth seems limited because we've got such an influx in what is seemingly an infinite amount of information. And, you know, here I go making an argument for the fact that it's important that we bring in more information. And, you know, I think when you put that into the context of people who are stretched thin, specifically in time and money that we're talking about here, like it seems kind of outrageous to even think about talking to someone who is already, like, feeling like they're at their limit and be like, hey, hang with me here. I have some thoughts about how if we can just take a step back, whenever it makes sense for you, whenever the context or the situation arises, find even small ways to be intentional about the ways that we make and spend our money, that it may actually help free up time and money and energy and bandwidth and, you know, emotional load and all of these things in the long run.

Maybe even thinking of it as an investment in the future. So, taking a note from my girl Taylor, here is an Easter egg for a future episode. I've got this analogy that I've used for years for so many different types of context and foundations, and I think that it fits in so many different places, but I'm going to use it again here for this. You're throwing away something when you're done with it, and in the moment, you have two choices. You have a trash bag and a recycle bin. You can, one, be the person who either doesn't think about it at all and just immediately puts it in the trash bin, or you can be the person who says, you know, I have heard that if you put things in the recycling bin, then it doesn't really end up getting recycled and it doesn't matter at all. So why even try to do that? So you just immediately put it in the recycle bin. You could even be a version of that person who like talks a little trash on the person who ends up putting their stuff in the recycling bin.

On the other side, you could be the person to take that item and throw it in the recycling bin regardless, because you think that it's better to try, even if there's not 100% chance that that item will actually end up getting recycled in the end, or maybe there's even like a pretty small chance that that item might end up getting recycled in the end. Regardless, even that tiny chance for you, the decision, it is worth it for you and is more valuable for you to decide to put it into the recycling bin at that time. Or, maybe, here's an argument here. Maybe life's just a little bit less black and white than just, am I choosing the trash bin or am I choosing the recycle bin? And maybe we have so many other choices other than those two that are kind of front and center, the most visible, the most allowed decisions about that. And that it may potentially take some more time or some more effort or some more thought or some more whatever. But on the front end, it might take some more. But on the back end, it might increase your chances of that item actually truly getting recycled in the end. If you just consider, hey, are there any other options here?

Is there anything else that we can do, you know? And maybe you see that there is a way to increase that item actually truly getting recycled in the end. You could rinse it out or wipe it out or something before you put it in the trash bin. That's also going to use some water. You got to weigh some pros and cons. That also might take using a disposable napkin that's going to go in the trash to put the recycling thing. Like is the one thing worth the other? You can take it home or you can take it to a different location. I live down the street from a recycling center or recycling kind of, the recycle bins that are separated. I think that that is a better chance that that is going to get actually truly recycled. So on my way past it, I'm going to stop there. That could be an option that you have. You could just take the item home. Maybe it's something that you can re-use. It's like a glass jar or something that you can re-use later in your house. Or, hear me out here, you can go after a job at the recycling center and help try to improve their business processes and their outcomes. For some of you, I just immediately lost them because you're like, girl, that's an outrageous even like recommendation to offer. But consider that you're the person who's actually currently looking for another job, and you have a background in logistics or strategic planning or process efficiencies or something like that. Maybe actually that job that's going to take a lot more of your time and energy and all of those things is actually truly going to end up being the better choice in the long run that's going to like significantly raise the rate that that item actually gets recycled in the end. Or maybe it's not that item, but it's the future item that you're throwing away six months from now or something like that. My point is that that analogy, in the context of the foundation outlined in the previous episodes, is intended to help better understand the lens of the Capitalism for Good episodes, as well as what to expect in the Between the Interviews episodes.

So moving forward, what does this all mean? Why does any of this matter? I'm going to put this in context directly to these Between the Interviews episodes, that they will now be accessed moving forward by supporting through Patreon.

By going through Patreon for the weekly Between the Interviews episodes, it will allow the project to continue for free for the interview episodes, available to all people as they are ready to go. The direct support will also allow the project to remain without the potential added bias of advertisers. As I've just yammered along a long time for about, we've got my own potential bias, and then those interviews will have the natural bias of whoever else is participating in it. The last thing that I want to do is add in a bias of an advertiser. It also seemed just blatantly contradictory to the point of Capitalism for Good, if we're talking about intentionality of these types of things, the way that we make and use our money. I couldn't square that to also going after advertisers so that the project could continue that we're contributing to business, and then I felt like it was promoting all of those things anyway, in this decision, intentionally chosen that that is not the way that we will go after it. So, by following the Between the Interviews episodes on Patreon at patreon.com/capitalism for Good, you'll directly support the project ad free, get access to episodes exclusively through there. You'll get some stuff that will be out earlier than it might be on the main feed. Also some other added bonuses depending on their different levels available to you as well. There's a link in the show notes and a link in the bio if you follow on Instagram at Capitalism for Good Podcast as well. And this now brings me to my What Am I Reading? is, well, technically, a What Have I Read?

And it is the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. And it's all about how the small changes in decisions and habits that we make can build to have significant impact, so the compound interest of 1% better. And that mentality of, you do something small in the immediate, and one day you're gonna strive for 1% better, in the long run, really adds up. Great book. I have heard from folks who listen to it, I almost said book on tape, the audio book version of it, and that they have enjoyed that as well. For me, it's also a good theory and motivating factor, whenever I'm like, oh, I don't want to work out today, I don't want to eat healthier, I'm gonna choose the cheaper option, whatever, whatever, and maybe I just need to not spend money on that, whatever those decisions are, that like, okay, but how can you choose just like the 1% better option is a helpful reminder for me. So, highly recommend that. It's also not super long, it's an easy read, it's broken up into all these sections, uses a million different examples and analogies. Highly recommend.

And then, because obviously, I love a good through line here, my, I'm not trying to tell you what to do, but here is where I am putting my dollar, is directly to the creators whenever possible. And that is like tipping a musician that's playing live music at the restaurant or bar that you're going to, or buying the actual tangible book, or attending the workshop of your favorite author. It could be buying artwork of a local artist at a market. I especially love that one because this is again, an example of just like who I am as a human being. Then you have something that is less likely to have a million other people to have it. It's more unique and more of like an exclusive item. I also just like supporting a direct creator. It's kind of cool to me to look at the person who like drew the drawing or took the photo as I'm handing my $20 or whatever it is over for that. And oh, you're the one that made this. I love this. I can imagine as a creator that that is kind of fulfilling sometimes to hear folks say that. And then here's my not-so-subtle wink.

My next one is Subscribing to Podcasts strictly on Patreon. One of my favorites is Andrew Hickey. He is the host of A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs. And again, you want to talk about someone who's intentional about every detail, so well researched, even intentional down to the wording of the title of that podcast. He, in one of the early episodes, goes into why he chose A History vs. The History, and that like, this is A version, this isn't the end version. And yeah, I highly recommend him. If you are into music, and like the ins and outs of music, and like how we got here, he is really great. He's got a free version. That's out on like almost all major platforms. And then he has bonuses and extra things that you can access by subscribing to him. I have again kind of stolen from him that the model a little bit, and that he starts really small and attainable.

So I'm gonna steal from him again here. He's got this saying at the end of his shows that's all about how even if you just tell one other person about the podcast, spreading the word really makes a difference, even if it's just to one other person. So again, to steal that sentiment from him, and also James Clear, if you think this is up the alley of someone else, it'll mean the world to me.

If you just recommend it, send it to them, give them a little, hey, maybe you might like this. And then if the Capitalism for Good Project is up your alley, please consider supporting and following via Patreon. It will also mean the world to me.

So thank you. All right, that is enough. Let's go leave this place better than we found it.