The stories holding us back
Recorded at Climate Con 2021 on November 11, 2021
The stories holding us back
Cultural barriers are built by our stories—which means that what we tell ourselves and each other can either limit or expand the possibilities. This session will explore how stories drive culture, and then how culture shapes our behavior and what we consider “normal.” We’ll explore how myths and norms have changed before, and question which ones might be holding us back now.
A conversation with:
Brandon Schauer (Rare.org)
Bristol Baughan (Inner Astronauts)
Heidi Hackemer (Oatly)
Resources:
Bayo Akomolafe - Nigerian Philosopher
U.Lab - Leading Profound Innovation for a More Sustainable World
Full transcript
Merrill Feather: This panel will explore the role of stories and culture and how culture shapes behavior, because after all, what we consider normal is actually subject to change. And we're curious what norms might be holding us back today. To lead us in this conversation, I'm thrilled to welcome our moderator, Heidi Hackemer.
Heidi is executive creative director of the massively creative brand Oatly. And we're so grateful that she's here. I'm going to hand it over to you, Heidi, to kick things off.
Heidi Hackemer: Awesome. Hi everyone. I'm so excited to be here. Thank you for letting us kick off Day Three. Like I said before, my name's Heidi Hackemer. I'm the executive creative director of Oatly, not the sunglasses Oakley, but Oatly the milk drink. Sometimes I have to clarify that a little bit and I'm super psyched to be here with Bristol and Brandon.
I think we have a really great panel that we're going to be talking about today, which is what are the stories that hold us back? What are the things that we limit ourselves from these thought processes, these norms these ideas that seem to hold us back as we are trying to build a better future.
So I'd love to turn it over to both Bristol and Brandon. Just to get you guys ready, I'd love to hear about you, your background. And give us like the medium length version of it. Don't give us the two sentence. Don't give us the 10 minute, but give us kind of the medium of who you are, what your history is, and you know why you're excited to be here.
So Bristol, I'd love to start with you. If you don't mind kicking this off.
Bristol Baughan: Sure. Hi, lovely to meet you both. And thank you all for being here and this conversation that is near and dear to my heart. And my brief bio, is that I came in, I would say, into this body with a story with a very missionary mindset that was probably passed down unconsciously for generations, that it was my job to try and save and fix the world.
And so that has been the limiting belief, the limiting story that I've held onto from very young that has, that motivated me to do a lot of very awesome things like make movies and tell stories and create online content, when that was just beginning a thing people were doing. And it was also the story that really burned me out deeply around 29, where I didn't have enough fuel in the world to say, It was no matter what, there was always some suffering, there was always something, there was never enough impact. I was never enough.
So that led to spending the next 10 years really diving deep into what are the inner stories that I have been telling myself so that I could even discover what was fueling me that had run out. And that's how I know what I just said. And so I spent quite a few years inquiry learning about what it is the lens through which I see the world and I operate and connect and and feeling a deep disconnection really led me to start questioning those stories. So I could start to help tell myself and other kinds of stories. And get away from this kind of evangelical a bit I'm gonna push you and we'll you into making the world a safer place for me and other people that I love.
And so that's right now I'm currently on a ranch in rural Montana, learning about regenerative, agriculture, and community building with a hope and a vision to create a media lab for stories to come from regenerative ways of being.
Heidi Hackemer: That's amazing Bristol. That's a great story. We're going to dig into a lot of the aspects of what you just started.
So thank you for kicking it off so powerfully. I really appreciate that. Brandon let's hear about you let's hear your medium length, would love to hear about that.
Brandon Schauer: Yeah, I'll start off with where I am and then move back in time. I work with a non-profit known as rare, rare.org, and we help people in nature thrive.
We're in the conservation space, but in the conservation space, we're the leaders in behavior change and behavior science. Which is a bit like calling yourself the biggest fifth grader, because there's not that many people that would actually do that. But I found my way into this about a year and a half ago when I joined rare.
And really the story probably starts even a year before that, where I just felt the level of climate anxiety, the intense need to work in this space and felt like. I probably approach it as more, but imposter of no one actually needs someone with a background in design and technology and user experience to enter this space.
And it took a little bit of coaxing and bravery to go okay, there's a way I can talk about myself entering the space and I can find a space, a role even. It doesn't, say we're looking for someone like you with your title. The, that I can still present myself in a way that I can address the objectives of the role.
I can lead a team, trying to do these things and step into the space, even with a imposter mindset. And use that to my advantage, to tell a story of what I might do and what we can do as an organization. Yeah, that's my less than five minutes story.
Heidi Hackemer: That's awesome. Thank you so much, Brandon. I appreciate that. For the audience, just so y'all know we're going to be doing Q and A at the end of the session. So in about like 20 minutes or so, we're going to open it up to Q and A. So if you have any questions that you want us to address in Q and A, please put them in the chat. And we're keeping track of those.
And then I will shift to that at the very end of this session. So please put your questions in the chat because we would love to hear. My questions are going to be terrible. Your questions are going to be so much better. So please put your questions in the chat so we can get to those later on.
Okay. So let's go to the first terrible question that I'm going to ask you though, which is okay, so we're talking about stories and we're talking about the stories that hold us back and Bristol, you started to allude to this with some of the mindset that you grew up with, which by the way, very similar, grew up very in the evangelical mindset of let's go save the world so I can deeply relate to the story that you're telling there.
But what I would love to first hear about is both of you. So what, in your old own histories, like what stories were holding you back? And what is a story that changed the mindset for each of you that allowed you to move forward?
What broke the old story and either in just your own personal life in general, or in relation to the climate work that you all are doing, doesn't matter one or the other, but I'd love to hear about what was that first one that was like messing with you in a way that wasn't truly healthy.
And how did you flip into a new school? Brandon, I'm going to start with you because we started with Bristol last time. I'd love to hear this flip that happened in your life.
Brandon Schauer: Yeah. I think you could tell, like I was telling myself this story of I didn't have a role here. You need climate scientists, you need people who have engineering degrees to solve these kinds of problems.
You don't necessarily need someone with a design, a humanity kind of background to what they do. I can remember for six months, every Saturday, my daughter would take a nap and I would write down jobs. I thought I could do just imagine, cause I didn't see anything out there that looked like something I would do on the job boards or anything.
So I just kept on writing down, like things I could do in this space. Okay. I could teach a class. I could run a workshop. Someone in the space needs the kind of capabilities, the kind of approaches that I have, and that's what kept me going was that keeping on imagining what might be possible.
It would probably come less from a strong, evangelical idea of let's change the world and more from a super practical okay, let me find my spot, the thing I can do that has a measurable kind of impact. But this story moments of like little ideas of what I could do in the future is what kept me going to the point where I found like, oh, wait, here's a role that actually, the title doesn't match with what I do, but every little bullet point in here is something that I know how to do. I've done it before I've figured out how to do it, or I have a great strong start in terms of doing yet. And so I actually took the story though. I started off with. The climate world probably doesn't need me. And I use that as my story when I was introducing myself.
So I could just go ahead and get that imposter syndrome out of the way. Hey rare, you probably weren't looking for a designer, but let me tell you why you need one. And that's so helped me in terms of stepping into the space and feeling like I could be successful.
Heidi Hackemer: That's amazing. So what you're describing is a very incremental process.
It wasn't this, aha thing. And I think sometimes we, I've certainly felt trapped this in my own life where I'm like all of a sudden there's going to be an aha and it's all gonna make sense. And sometimes that prevents me from doing the incremental work to really make the change in my own life or in the world around me that needs to be made.
Was there ever an aha or was this a pure, was it a blend or was it a pure incremental?
Brandon Schauer: Yeah, I think there's like vicious. Keep on chipping away at it. Keep on chipping away at the closest thing that was an Aha for me was actually, I was like, okay I just got to stop my old job. I got to start a school or something.
I'm based in DC. There's going to be some climate people here. I can start running some workshops, something like that. So I started trying to understand who is in the market space, who could possibly, use or of attract to some trainings and I just happened to run into this role, that rare that hadn't been there before.
And I remember texting my wife and going, wow. If I believe what I say, I believe, I guess I've got to go full in for this role.
Heidi Hackemer: And it's so interesting. You're talking about the big grand story. I would love to just hear both of your perspectives on this. Sometimes I feel like.
The stories of the big grand gestures, like the Gretta's of the world or the Malala is of the world, make us feel like our smaller moves aren't as necessary. At least that's the way sometimes I feel about it. I'd be really curious about it when we talk about stories that hold us back. I'm wondering how do those big stories sometimes hold us back.
Bristol, do you have any point of view on that?
Bristol Baughan: Oh yeah. Oh yeah, though I think part of this shift from extractive to regenerative is this inner shift from this idea that I have to succeed on this level that is global and maximized and we have this definition of success that is making us sick, it's making the planet sick.
And so it's recognizing where inside of me that's operating in mind was definitely measuring impact as a means of measuring my worth. So of course, when I'm in that belief, when I'm in the story, that my worth comes from my work. And as a producer, it was, my work comes from my productivity. Like that the busy-ness disease that we all have in this current system, which we're all learning how to operate with how to come back into our bodies.
It's that was the piece that made me so deeply disconnected that it was like wait, what is happening? And inside of that are the biggest stories that keep us in this energy of disconnection that I'm separate somehow from nature, I'm separate somehow from God or whatever you believe is.
Energy or universe or whatever. And that experience of separation is where it becomes this hole that I have to continue to try and fill with things on my resume with, movies made impact measured. And so for me, like I think one of the things that kept me so away from climate work was that the stories that I was hearing were so deeply led with a No, don't do this. No, don't that we can't, we have to stop blah, blah. It was like this energy that just kept hammering this note that wasn't as much about what we were for what we wanted to create. And so the storytellers coming, the storytellers listening and Brandon's story and yours I'm sure. Is that the skills actually, the storytellers bring to help shift that dynamic where like Gretta has a role to play and God bless her, but like I definitely too old to be that anymore and finding what is an authentic expression?
For me is, has been a journey. So I'm working with a farmer here and yeah, I come in and same similar situation where it's I want to learn from you. I don't want to support you. And then when it comes in with like chicken little, like the world's on fire and we're all screwed, it's okay. So maybe if we just back this up a little bit, and then I'm like the San Francisco, like consultants coming in on the storytelling, but there she's happy to hear it.
Cause it's just become a default. I don't know if I answered that question
Do Doom Stories Work?
Heidi Hackemer: and actually you provided us a beautiful segue to my next question that I wanted to ask. Both of you is this idea of the doom story. I think all of us, we're all storytellers in our own, right. And we have seen doom stories work.
We've seen doom stories, put people into action for better or worse in this world. And so I'm just curious the perspective for both of you in a conference, that's all about, let's not dwell on the dune. Let's move forward with the optimism. I want to address the elephant in the room. Do doom stories work, are they necessary?
Is there a better alternative. I'm very curious to hear what most of you have to say about that. Bristol, can we start off with you on that one?
Bristol Baughan: Sure. So doom stories work for a very particular audience. So you're going to get the choir. You're going to get the people that can meet you in outrage. They can meet you in fear that can meet you in that energy and you can whip it up.
So it's got a purpose and it needs to be used very strategically. It is not consistent nor is it. So it's starting to just have, for me, it's about embodying the effort and the energy that we're trying to actually cultivate here, like starting right here. And so that energy, yes, it has a role. I am no longer trying to.
Tell people how to express things that they're passionate about. That might not from a marketing standpoint, be the greatest way to, to connect to people like I, their hats, there's a place for outrage. And what we know. With neuroscience and the way that the brain works and the way that people operate is that they want to, especially if they're leaving an entrenched belief set, that I need to protect my own.
I got to protect. I got to stay over here. There isn't enough. I'm in scarcity. If I'm going to come out from that belief, I have to know that that there is another community I'm able to do. One of the most important things in storytelling we're finding is that we have to tell stories that invite people include people that th that I can show up.
Cause this was just me, just spirituality. I was like, this is. You guys were all lazy. I don't have time for this. Oh, I'm gonna gaze at my neighbor. It's just no. And my soul was like, I'm like crying. I'm like, I be crying. I'm like just entering the gate. And if somebody turned around and said to me like, oh, you're not spiritual enough.
Or you need to, quit your job immediately. And if I was met with that, I would have been out. And what I was met with was love, patience and I got it. And you are judging me and that's not about me. That's about you. Like I got reflection. So that to me is where the doom story has a role, but it's where do you want to focus your effort, your energy, and how do we create more regenerative sustainable means of enrollment engagement.
What are Regenerative Stories?
Heidi Hackemer: So just one quick follow-up question for you for, so like when you say. Regenerative stories. How would you define regenerative stories? What is that to you?
Bristol Baughan: Ooh, I made a list. It's I think about the stories that had that still exist, right? The stories that have been told for thousands of years, the prophecies, the Hopi prophecy, the story of the Eagle and the condor.
There's like all of these indigenous stories that have lasted for a reason. Cause they, they are including multiple dimensions of reality. They're saying we can be here, but we can also be here simultaneously and we can evolve and we can change and we can go in circles and it's not this linear idea of transformation.
And that death is shape-shifting right. That we are shifting shape. Death is not an end. And the perception that we have come to know it. Like those are stories that start to open my heart opened my consciousness in a way where I'm like, I don't fully rationally, maybe Brock everything you're saying, but something about me is leaning in and that's what I trust.
And when I hear it again and again, I open a little bit more.
Heidi Hackemer: That's beautiful.
Bristol Baughan: Examples of that now.
Heidi Hackemer: That's wonderful. That's beautiful. Thank you. Brandon, I wanna just turn over to you this idea of the doom story. Where does it play a roll?
Doom stories create emotions
Brandon Schauer: I think it can. I think, again, it has to be carefully done. Doom stories can create emotions, like feeling depressed and not wanting to act done poorly.
Yeah. Done correctly. It can be motivational, even if it's a negative feeling like anger that still can create motivation to act then. And so I think we can't be completely scared of negative emotions as long as they are things that. Cause people to move towards action, but you have to show the solutions as well.
If you think about a story arc, it's not a lovely, wonderful day for the entire story, right? There's some challenge that appears some, something on the horizon that's going wrong and the hero has to fix it. And we have to see ourselves humanity as the heroes in the story. I think some of the dangers as well with the doom story is it can still feel.
Far off, even though we're experiencing, the worst weather and fires and everything. Now it can still feel like this thing that happens later. And so I think it's also effective to help people with the things that are happening near a term, the things that happened further off, we have what people call hyperbolic discounting.
It's it's so far away. It's not going to be important. So I, ain't going to worry about that later on. I'm just going to worry about, what to have for dinner or what my immediate problem is. And so if she can bring some of those things really closer in oh, you know what, next week your child may come home from school and ask you about climate change.
What answer do you have? What are you saying? You're doing, how are you giving them hope? That's something that's going to happen next week. And so I think those are the kinds of stories that bring it closer in and help us really relate in a personal way to the stories that will affect us.
Heidi Hackemer: So helpful. Thank you so much.
Brandon Schauer: Thank you.
Heidi Hackemer: Just a reminder to the people watching, please put your questions in the chat, because I'm going to ask Brandon and Bristol, just a few more questions, and then we're going to switch over to yours. So on that note, Brandon, I'd like to ask you a first question here.
How do we shift out of our comfortable norms using stories?
Heidi Hackemer: you just talked about norms. You talked about the things that we do day in day, and it feels like we are in a moment where. Change has to happen, right? Like we can't keep going along. And these same systems and these pain norms, but man, are they comfortable? And man, are they easy? So I would love to hear how do we shift? How do we shift from the things that are comfortable and normal and accepted and have that inertia to new norm?
And what is the role of stories in that?
Brandon Schauer: So I think the effective way to help shift norms, because I study things like how can we help people eat less meat? How can we help people change the way they travel and get around to things that have lower carbon emissions and. I think it's really easy to go oh no there's a few people who, take mass transit, but most people don't.
There are few people who are vegetarians, but most people eat meat. And those are the stories we tell ourselves. But if we can create a situation where there seems to be what we call a dynamic norm, like the norm is shifting that's when you go, oh, wait, I don't want to be left behind. My peer group, my reference group, they're starting to eat less meat.
They're starting to practice meatless Monday. They're starting to get around a different way. I need to change to I think the simple way is just calling it FOMO, right? That you don't want to be left behind by what's going on. And so in storytelling, if we can do that, if we can show the reference groups are changing.
Also, if we can show people who you relate to in stories of oh, I identify with that person. And they made a good decision for climates and here's what happened or they made a bad decision for climate. And here's what happened. The consequence was we can learn from those kinds of stories. It's not because I didn't experience it myself.
I don't learn through stories. We can learn through characters we identify with and decide to do the right things. So I think that kind of lesson storytelling as well as as well as the ability to shift people's sense of the norm is changing is what can bring us.
Heidi Hackemer: So just like a up question on that, Brandon.
So say like I wanted to influence my friend group to eat less meat. What were, what would be some tips for me in my own actions and storytelling that can start to create that dynamic change that you're talking about.
Brandon Schauer: I think you've got to make it safe because I've just had a conversation with someone yesterday who was like, I was afraid people are going to make fun of me.
I didn't want to be the weird one and that has nothing to do with how it tastes or whether it's filling or whether it's comforting as food. That was all about what's socially going on and social, we think about shifting people's behaviors and we think about giving them information or changing policy, but actually the social dynamic, as well as emotional appeal or crate levers for moving people along.
So for you, it'd be like, you know what. I'm going to throw a little party. I'm going to feature a bunch of food that doesn't include me and then maybe, or I'm going to make it fun along the way to just let people know, Hey, by the way we've been having this whole evening and enjoying all this great food and it was without meat.
This is important to me. For the following reasons, you may have other reasons as well, but I just want to ask, would you consider taking a little step? Would you consider a meatless Monday? Would you consider like lunch is the one meal you really control? Maybe you'd like to, skip meet more often there.
And I think that creates that safe space where it's fun. But it's also a shift of we collectively think it's okay when you created that social group.
Heidi Hackemer: That's really great advice. Thank you for that, Brandon. Thank you. Bristol, I want to switch over to you for a question about individual identity and the way that we view ourselves in these stories that we build up about who we are in the world.
What do we need to be aware of in the power of individual identities? And how, building off what we just talked about with Brandon, how we make these shifts and how we change the patterns. Like what is the, what are the blockers that I individually identity and where is the opportunity in individual identity?
Bristol Baughan: Wow. What an amazing question. Oh yeah.
Noticing that you have one and that you aren't, that. So I'll say it's like this. I think one of the biggest keys to this shift that we're in is having a spiritual, if that word doesn't freak you out, it's a contemplative or whatever word you can use, but helps you to identify more with yourself as a spiritual being, having a human experience.
And so you're walking with this identity and this identity is going to shift and change over time. So right now, a lot of us, especially during COVID or having to really go through identity deaths, multiple identity deaths, and that's happening as we go through a collective trauma, collective grief. And so who we think we are is what is here to be shaped shifted, and that can be terrifying to the identity itself.
So if I think I'm a film producer and then all of a sudden I'm burnt out and I can't be productive. My identity is dying. It is perceiving itself as worthless, useless, like everything. I just defined myself as I'm now not. And so how do we help each other? Because this is really what we're being asked to do is shift from this individual identity obsessed culture into who am I, as an open question that I'm in, I'm exploring in communities like what the Dalai Lama said that it's now no longer about the individual becoming enlightened.
This is about the community waking up together.
Heidi Hackemer: Oh
Bristol Baughan: Like the song guide. So it's like how we in? So for example, I would say I went through a number of deaths, identity deaths the last few years. It has been a hell of a few years. And so having to really especially exploring white supremacy. So once when, when this country was really forced in U.S. And it was probably people from elsewhere, but they've been witnessing us going through this identity, death there's perception of who we think we are, especially as white people with the history that we do.
And so having to sit with the screen. This is Bayo Akomolafe. Is a nigerian philosopher. I highly recommend his work. He talks about sitting with scream and that is where you start to actually have to feel the feelings. Of what does it feel like to be born at a time and with the history that we have and how do I feel the feelings that I feel without getting completely lost in the feeling of despair?
And so that, that journey is one that if you can become resilient, letting your identity be soft. And I know that's hard for those people who have to fight for justice for their identity. So this gets tricky depending on who we're talking about at what point in history, but for those of us that are privileged enough to have to look at okay, who do I think I am?
And how is that working for me? That's a question to ask yourself who am I? Who are the identities I am gripping? And how is that working for me? Is that serving me? Is it not serving me?
Heidi Hackemer: Brilliant. Thank you for that Bristol. I'm going to start looking at questions, but first I want to ask one follow-up question for you on this.
So you spoke about Akomolafe. I just really butchered that. I apologize. I tried to write it down when you said it. Are there any other practical resources or tools that you would recommend in this journey for us to find our own identity and have a relationship with it?
Bristol Baughan: Ah, yes, absolutely. Whew. The big direction, right? It's is the following those breadcrumbs. So what you said about Brandon's process earlier, but it was these, it was incremental and there might be some ahas mixed into the incremental shifts and opening to. I want to be in service to this. This is why you need me in service to this. So that's part of this process of following the breadcrumbs of what makes you come alive.
These little moments of electricity that I, sometimes I would feel my face. Now. I feel at my back, it's like these moments of connection where I'm watching something, reading something, listening to something and my energy. I could feel it crackling with this alive newness and all. Follow that's just a Greenlight saying, keep going, keep listening to that teacher, that philosopher that person and then find community when you can.
So there's all kinds of free resources. One excellent one that I am currently in the process of doing is U.lab , which is an MIT program through the presencing Institute. And so this is free. If you don't want it there's certificate, which is like 99 bucks. This is free. It will walk you through the process of exploring your identity.
And it is done masterfully.
Heidi Hackemer: Wow. Thank you.
Bristol Baughan: Lots of programs like that.
Heidi Hackemer: MIT, like showing up all those like engineers showing us how to do it. I love that. I love that. Okay. I'm going to flip over to the questions from the we've a really good one to start, but also other people that are watching. We need one more question.
So someone else put a question in there. Okay. But this one's great relating to doom stories and whether or not they work. I'm curious if you think comedy stories can work. This person has written a lot of sitcoms that are climate focused, but they feel like maybe that's a way maybe it can be misinterpreted as minimizing it and saying we're making fun of this.
So what is the role of comedy in climate storytelling?
Brandon Schauer: I'll shoot in the and you jump in Bristol. I think we can learn like the stories we tell don't have to be all climate heavy. It doesn't have to be a documentary. We can learn about things of how we might get around differently, how we might eat differently, how we might power our homes differently, how we might participate in society differently through any kind of drama comedy.
Competition show anything like that. It's just that we have to be able to identify with the characters or the topics. And we had to see that, like the comedy that can't be, we're going to make fun of the person who's, taking on behavior, taking on sustainable action, because that just feeds the idea like, oh, it's not okay.
But if we use comedy to To explore the space, to explore the consequences, to also shift the norms of what normal is that really effective. So totally, I think any genre of entertainment can be effective for helping people since in the know.
Heidi Hackemer: Yeah, that's great. That's great. Bristol, do you have any thoughts on comedy and how this can be used?
Bristol Baughan: Oh yeah. Bring it, bring, bringing it all the comedy we can get at, the comedian is a really sacred character in the archetypes of humankind. And so if you have that skill then, and then use it and just. It might, I guess it just depends on the kind of comedy, right? It's if darker comedy might be a little necessary at a moment like this, where it's like, it can't be in any way escapist, because if it's to escape us, then it's just like flat and you know what, actually, I totally strike that.
We need some escape. Fuck what I just said. And what those things do is that whatever's coming through you. So without trying to think about trying to get your audience, because I know branding people might totally hate that, but it's like when it comes to creative expression, like I just, what is trying to come through you?
Who is that con comic character? What is that story that's trying to come through? The more you can just surrender and show up for that thing, you won't know it's going to have any impact or not, and it's honestly, none of your business, your job is to show up and express. And let it show you who it reaches that makes it, yeah,
Brandon Schauer: I'd even say we need the comedy.
Like it's not, can you do it through comedy? It's we actually need it to normalize it. If we can't see it in all genres then it's not a normal important thing. So go for it.
Heidi Hackemer: And the only other thing I would add to it as in the same way that we have for decades had product placement in entertainment properties, like here's my diet Coke or here's my whatever, right?
Having just sustainability and climate awareness, not, maybe not even be the F the front narrative, but just be a normal part of those characters. Is hugely impactful on culture and people and normalizing that this is just how people live. So this just one other thing from the moderator to pop it there, hold on one second, we just got another one.
But with it being the panelists, talk about money stories and how those are holding us back and how they need to shift. That's a juicy one, in our capitalist society. I'd love to hear what you all think about stories, about wealth stories, about money, stories, about success and how these are holding us back.
And how many to shift those?
Brandon Schauer: Yeah. There's so many angles to it from like how our money influences what's going on of are we, is your 400k somehow attached to extractive industries? And so there's a story to watch your money steering. There's the story of who can actually engage in the things that matter.
So is it only highest socioeconomic status people who can influence the outcome of the future? Is there a bottom up groundswell that can happen as well? And I think we often see it reflected as, money talks when you house power and yes, it can, and we should hold those with it responsible to, for doing the right things with it.
But I think there's also certainly the power of feet of voting of all the other things that don't require money as a point of view.
Heidi Hackemer: That's great. First of all, any thoughts about money and how it plays story
Bristol Baughan: that could be its own panel. That's a deep one. Money and sex are the fastest way to start to identify the beliefs that we hold, the stories we're telling ourselves.
And a really quick little, a little exercise is imagine someone hands you a thousand dollars in cash. What do you immediately want to do with that money? Like you can't it's like, what is your immediate instinct? Somebody hands that to me.
And I want to give it to this nonprofit I'm working with. I want to put a little bit in the bank and, but this is a shift. So it used to be, just get it away from me. I can't like, like money is bad. Money is bad. And if I have a lot of it, then I'm guilty and I'm wrong. So this, I had to do a lot of work on money beliefs.
So I come from a line of Lutheran kind of waspy. Like you take just enough to get by that's honorable and good. Okay. So just notice it's like how when you are given money, what your automatic responses are, that's where your defaults are. That's where the condition beliefs around money can exist and to work on those beliefs.
Oh my God, those around sex and money I'm telling you will help to heal the scarcity stories that are making us all sick. Because this perception of money has nothing to do with money. If money is one of the tiny things that is impacted by these beliefs, and once you shift the beliefs, your relationship to money shifts, your relationship to sexuality can shift.
All of that can shift when you start to realize oh, literally it's just energy. What do I want?
Heidi Hackemer: That's great. Thank you. Thank you so much for that. What gives you hope?
And I'm going to ask Brandon, you're going to get the same question.
Bristol Baughan: Oh, wow. What gives me hope is, just listening to you too, in the beginning, I was getting teary-eyed and just this journey of I have nothing to give to, oh, I do have something to give and here's why you need it.
It's like this transformation gives me hope that I get to witness. I get to facilitate in people all the time and it's such an incredibly. Inspiring thing to watch people go from scarcity, rugged individualism, yada, yada to, oh, wait a second. Something's trying to emerge through me. Let me learn how to listen.
Let me learn how to show up for that thing. And then to see something emerge out of someone that is distinctly unique and beautiful, that's what gives me hope
Heidi Hackemer: Brandon how about you? What gives you hope?
Brandon Schauer: Every week, I get an email LinkedIn ping or whatever, from someone who wants to know how to do something once now, how to shift their career and wants to now how to start working in this, in a space where they feel like they're part of the solution and not just sitting on the sidelines and.
From feeling like that is now the new norm that I'm experiencing and hearing Jamie Alexander explained that every client, every job that will be a climate job or job candy right now, like those two forces coming together is what just makes me feel like yes, things are shifting and we just have to keep on shifting it at speed with acceleration.
So that more working on the future that we're going to build. Not the one, not the doom story that we can sometimes write first.
Heidi Hackemer: That's awesome. That's awesome. Okay. We only have one minute left. So just wants you to gift the audience with one last piece of wisdom, which is what would advice would you give to your, this audiences here hearing about how we overcome the stories that hold us back both individually and as a community and a society.
One quick piece of advice to, to close out this panel with Brandon we'd love to start with you.
Brandon Schauer: Yeah. We don't all have to be Grettas just try something new, try it on like a piece of clothing. Try a new action, try a new way of working. Try a new conversation. That might be uncomfortable. You can take it back.
It may not be right for you. Just try it on though. And that's the way you find your pathway forward incrementally
Heidi Hackemer: Wonderful. Thank you, Brandon and Bristol. What about you? What piece of advice would you give to the audience?
Bristol Baughan: Just learn how to be kind and compassionate with yourselves. It's like the more we can learn, how to do that, the more we can be that with each other in these volatile times and it's such a practice and the more authentic we can be with each other, the more vulnerable we can be, the more we can actually learn how to navigate this together.
And so that's yeah. Yeah. The softness is a gift.
Heidi Hackemer: That's beautiful, great, incremental and soft. That seems like a really lovely way to end this so for still Brandon, I just want to say thank you so much.
This was so nice. This was such a nice panel. I loved it. And I'm sure the audience I've seen the chat, just lighting up like crazy. So I know everyone watching got so much out of your wisdom and your perspective. So on behalf of everyone, thank you so much for doing this today.
Bristol Baughan: Thank you so much.
