S1, E24: Ethical Entrepreneurship: Connecting Artisans to Global Markets

Rebecca: [00:00:00] I got asked so many times in my first months and years of like, where’s your business plan? Where are your financials? And only years later, someone said Men start businesses. Literally women have a circular way of doing business and they connect with people and they build relationships and organically

Rebecca: The business grows. It was so like validating, like, yes, that’s what I did.

Georgi: Did you know the average person will work 90,000 hours in their lifetime? What if you could use those hours to find fulfillment and become a disruptor for good? Welcome to the Work That’s Worth It. Podcast. I’m Georgi Enthoven, and I’m here to demonstrate that an ambitious, meaningful, and rewarding career is not just a dream, it’s achievable.

Georgi: Each episode we’ll dive into conversations with global change makers. Who crack the code on combining income and impact. If you’ve ever felt like you were torn between a paycheck and your purpose, or maybe you simply yearn for more purpose, you’re going to be exposed to the ambitious humans who have done it themselves ready to make your [00:01:00] work worth it.

Georgi: Let’s get started.

Georgi: Today we’re speaking with Rebecca Van Bergen, a remarkable entrepreneur who found her path to meaningful work right from the start. Art. After graduating with her Master’s in social work, Rebecca made a bold decision that would shape the next two decades of her life. Founding Nest, a not-for-profit that has revolutionized how artisans connect to global markets.

Georgi: What’s fascinating about Rebecca’s story is how she exemplifies what I call a rewarded disruptor. Someone who’s found that sweet spot where their work is both personally fulfilling and creates significant positive impact in the world. Through Nest, Rebecca has built partnerships with major brands, including Target, Patagonia, and Williams-Sonoma, helping artisans reach markets they could never access alone.

Georgi: Her innovative approach has earned her recognition as a PBS change maker, [00:02:00] CNN, young person who rocks World Economic Forum, young global leader, and Ashoka Fellow, among many other accolades in the 90,000 hours we spend working throughout our career. Rebecca shows us what’s possible when we create enterprises that authentically reflect who we are rather than trying to fit ourselves into an existing structure.

Georgi: Hi, Rebecca. Thank you so much for being on the work that’s worth it. Podcast. Thanks so much for

Rebecca: having me. I’m excited to be here.

Georgi: Yeah, I am excited to have somebody from St. Louis. I think you’re my first person I’ve talked to from there, and I wanted to jump in. I don’t know too much about your story, but I do know that you were a social work graduate, and I would love to jump into where you started and the pivot that happened when you graduated.

Rebecca: Thanks. Yeah, I did. I studied social work. I got my master’s degree in social work actually here in St. Louis at Washington University and, and I studied social [00:03:00] work. I thought I was gonna be a direct practice implementer of social work in some sort of setting, but with the year that I graduated, Mohammad Eunice won the Nobel Peace Prize for microfinance.

Rebecca: And I remember in these, this was 20 nest turns 20 next year, which is mind blowing to me. Nest is your business, right? Yes. Nest is my business. So 20 years ago we were at the very early stages of social business and so the idea of microfinance was, was a new one. And at the time, organizations around the world started exploding in interest around kind of that concept.

Rebecca: And I remember thinking that as a social worker, a woman starting a business here. Debt is debt. And so without kind of more holistic business support to really grow and develop it would be really challenging. And so I create, the school that I graduated from actually had a business plan competition.

Rebecca: That was a combination of the social work school and the business school kind of coming together. And on a total whim, the week of graduation, I applied and won and they gave me seed capital to start. So total career pivot. [00:04:00] Had I known, I would’ve taken very different classes when I was in school. So there was a lot of learning on the go, but it was.

Rebecca: Was a really exciting moment. Etsy was actually founded the same year, so a lot of things were happening around kind of my interest areas of craft and small business right at the right at the same time, which kind of gave me some fuel.

Georgi: Yeah, what a wonderful story. It’s like I had a previous podcaster who talked about pulling these threads and his advice was in life, you know, if there’s a thread, go pull it.

Georgi: You never know where it goes. But it sounds like on a whim you decided to pull the thread and it changed the course of your career. Absolutely, and I love, I love that podcaster.

Rebecca: That’s a great analogy for it.

Georgi: Yeah. And for Nest, why don’t you tell us about that and what is the concept behind the business that you started?

Rebecca: Sure. And just like kind of coming back to that very early initial idea, which was that for a woman, debt is one avenue to a business. But what I was really interested in was how to help women create successful businesses where maybe debt was a [00:05:00] piece of it, but a lot more of it was around. Creating the supportive environment, whether that’s training, whether that’s market access or whatever a woman needs to help start a business.

Rebecca: And really recognizing that craft has been a pillar of women’s employment globally for, you know, centuries. That was the sector I was really interested in. And so our mission to today is very similar to the mission that it was 20 years ago, which was how do we help women? Start and run craft enterprises in a sustainable way, and it’s changed a lot over 20 years, but it’s nice to look back and know that that kind of original kernel of our mission is actually still true today as it was then.

Georgi: Yeah. And now you talked about this global perspective of helping women, your business. Does it have a global footprint or is it something local?

Rebecca: It’s both global and local. We kind of, the cornerstone of our work is what we call our artisan guild, where any artisan enterprise, whether you’re a maker in Detroit making pottery in your garage, or whether you’re cooperative of basket weavers and Senegal can [00:06:00] join this global community of artisan enterprises.

Rebecca: And we run a e-learning platform specifically for craft enterprises that any member can join and then we they can apply for and participate in more in depth. Programs from financing initiatives to business accelerators. But part of the goal was to really build and connect and interconnect this global community of people still practicing craft.

Rebecca: And so we have a footprint within our global guild in 123 countries, and then we’re in every state in the us. But it also just speaks to the fact of how. Craft literally exists everywhere and in every corner of our world and in every community. It is really fundamental to culture.

Georgi: Yeah. And then is part of your business connecting these crafters with outlets, major brands in the US to sell to?

Rebecca: Yeah, so we partner with, we sort of sit at the intersection of the creative economy, so the artisans and makers, and then brands and retailers who sell them. And so we consult with brands and retailers to make and [00:07:00] develop programs that support our artisans. And so we’re not, we don’t buy and sell goods.

Rebecca: But we help connect companies to the makers to, to buy and sell. Yeah. Can you give us some examples? Sure. And we often do it through creative programs. So together with the company, Etsy, we run a program called Uplift Makers, which was around identifying cultural communities in the United States that maybe lacked the connection to e-commerce and helped kind of.

Rebecca: Bridge that digital divide and help communities get online and sell their goods. So we have several programs. We have a native and indigenous cohort helping native makers and artists sell on Etsy. We worked in a rural community in Alabama called G’S Bend, which are is a community of black quilters who weren’t selling online.

Rebecca: And so we helped. Onboard them and now they have their own shopfronts. We work in the kind of Gullah Geechee corridor, so descendants of slaves in on the kind of South Carolina to Georgia kind of corridor where they make incredible baskets. And so we find these incredible pockets of [00:08:00] talent and help connect them with e-commerce and Etsy, in addition to kind of being an e-commerce platform, supports with professional photography, and we run a.

Rebecca: Series of online courses for all of the participants and in-person workshops and really help make sure that that e-commerce is successful together. The uplift makers communities have earned into their own pockets over a million dollars of direct sales from participation in that program. So it’s really exciting to see to us, like that’s the like critical unlock if we can bring income into the hands of a maker.

Rebecca: So that’s kind of one example. We have many others where we kind of partner with companies with, we work with Target, and. Patagonia and William Sonoma and a whole bunch of other retailers where we have a seal of ethical handcraft. So for globally produced artisanally made items, they’re often made in homes, not in a factory.

Rebecca: You can imagine that, that a woman is, you know, making baskets in her home. She’s not going into a regulated, audited factory. And so our organization. Quote unquote audits, [00:09:00] but we do in a way that’s respectful ’cause it’s in a home. And so we wrote a set of standards and helped companies make sure that when they’re sourcing from our artisanal partners, that they make sure that the FA pay is fair, that there’s no child labor and a host of other kind of really important elements so that companies as large as.

Rebecca: Those can successfully and ethically source from artisanal producers. So the, the partnerships range wildly, but all center around helping make commerce ethical for artisans and makers with the integration of kind of global brands and retailers.

Georgi: Yeah. And what does this give you personally to be able to be involved in this work?

Georgi: Like what is the reward for you?

Rebecca: There’s so many. I, I mean, I started Nest when I was in my twen early twenties. So, and now 20 years later, looking back on it is just, the journey has been, uh, I mean it’s like a cheesy thing to say, but the journey has been like part of the reward, right? Like being able to build something is, is in and of itself, [00:10:00] um, a reward.

Rebecca: So that’s huge to me. I think obviously I earn an income here, but also being able to. Be such an integral part of, like, we don’t have many competitors. Like we kind of sit and support this global community in a, in a pretty unique way. And so to be able to sit and see a major brand supporting a very rural maker in the US or a global artisan community that wouldn’t have access to that.

Rebecca: So there’s like so many intrinsic pieces to it that help kind of fuel and inspire. I also think we’re living in. Kind of a chaotic time, like from global pandemics to a lot of political changes. And so, and there’s a lot of kind of anxiety and also discord, I would say. And I think we feel really lucky that we’re operating in a space that’s really focused on beauty and, and creativity and positivity and, and like really crosses all those divides like.

Rebecca: Craft is to us a, a huge unifier. It exists everywhere and it’s, I’d say most people, if you think about it, are connected [00:11:00] in your own family generationally to makers. Your mother might have been a sewer, your grandmother might have been a knitter, your grandfather maybe was a cobbler, but like it’s in everyone’s family legacy in some way.

Rebecca: The connection to making things with your hands.

Georgi: Yeah. And did you have

Rebecca: a connection to making? My grandmother was a sewer in her grandmother and her mother before. So my great-great-grandmother and great-grandmother were quilters in rural North Carolina. And then like some of that sewing passed down to me.

Rebecca: So it was definitely a huge piece of our, of my motivation.

Georgi: Part of your upbringing, just understanding the process and how to make things and find beauty and, and pleasure in creating beauty. Exactly. I. Yeah. What have been some of the challenges?

Rebecca: There’s a lot of challenges. I mean, I, you know, I think part of it was being young, so I like jumped headfirst into something new.

Rebecca: But I think one of the other challenges, like more specifically, is that I think that craft has often been seen as like kind of quote unquote women’s work, [00:12:00] and it has been very historically kind of marginalized. Even when you start looking at. There’s like a huge push towards small business and made in America, and, but that tends to focus on like major manufacturing, food and beverage tech craft.

Rebecca: Like when you say craft in some circles people are like, you know, they think it’s like niche and not scalable. And, and so like we’ve, we’ve fought a perception issue for a long time. And then if similarly, if you go into kind of like art circles, craft is like seen as like the kind of like. Stepchild of of art in many ways.

Rebecca: That again, it’s like this kind of. Thing women, women do. It’s not seen as like an investible strategy for income generation or for livelihood development. And so I think we’ve, we’ve spent a lot of time trying to fight that perception in the ways we raise money and bring kind of city government on board with some of our programs and really trying to make sure that.

Rebecca: People realize that this is a major driver of income for women globally and in the us and that it has a lot of [00:13:00] really important benefits, like women can work from home and practice craft, which in many countries around the world is, is really, really important, um, in terms of gender violence and um, stereotypes.

Rebecca: And gender discrimination in, in our own country. You know, we see a lot of things you wouldn’t necessarily think of, like people with disabilities who practice craft because it is something that they can do and can do from home. And, and so the kind of unique, the unique elements of craft that really make it an important sector and really try to kind of overcome some of those cliches and, and bring people to investing in this.

Georgi: I love what you just shared because obviously the word inclusivity comes to it. It does give people options that may not have more traditional options of getting into an office. And, and then the other aspect that I was thinking about is how. So many businesses run by women are kept small and using the word enterprise.

Georgi: I’m wondering if that was part of your [00:14:00] strategy and the idea is how do you get women to be able to think bigger and whoever the crafters are, men or women, but particularly women, I think are often kept in these small businesses and like you had mentioned, are crafty, like nice to have but not essential.

Rebecca: Yeah, absolutely. And I think like part of that is like breaking into like what are the barriers? You know, women in the craft sector have a harder time raising money, and so they’re not getting access to bank loans or investors or like other things that would drive scale. So are they staying small because they want to, which is completely fine.

Rebecca: Or because there are like structural barriers that are preventing their growth. And so, um, really trying to like take a, a really firm look at some of that and bring makers into the conversation about like, what do they need to scale? Do they want to scale? What does that look like? Feels really important.

Rebecca: But there are so many of those barriers that yeah, feel a little systemic that, that we’re trying to tackle one at a time.

Georgi: Yeah. What kind of skills do you have or strengths or [00:15:00] perspectives that allow you to do this really well?

Rebecca: I, it’s so hard to answer about yourself, but I think, um, yeah, I mean, I, I was trained as a social worker and so I think like really fundamental to nest work or sort of two things.

Rebecca: One, I would say active listening is something that’s really important to us, that we’re never developing programs. On our own that like the, you know, before we do any program in any country, with any community in any city, we’re listening. First we’re talking to makers and we’re finding out from them what the barriers are to growth and where they would wanna see supports exist that they can’t currently find.

Rebecca: And so everything is deeply rooted in maker artists voice at our organization. And that feels. Kind of fundamental and something that I like really, really believe in. So that’s one I would say. And then the other is I am very excited about iteration. So making sure that we’re never static. That’s the counterweight to active listening.

Rebecca: Like if you’re gonna actively listen, you have to be willing to change based on what you hear. [00:16:00] And so that is a skill that I think I try to cultivate in our team because it can be scary. ’cause you don’t wanna feel like. The program you ran didn’t work. But it’s okay to say that there were elements of it that didn’t work and adapt and iterate the next time you do it.

Rebecca: And otherwise we’re not hearing what people are saying. And so just making sure that things always feel like an evolution at the organization. That we feel excited when things shift and change because that means we’re responding to the community and stakeholders that, that we ultimately answer to.

Georgi: Yeah, I was hoping you could share a little bit about the community you surround yourself by and what you get out of the kind of people that you work with.

Rebecca: That’s a great question. I think, you know, one of the things I’ve tried to do since, since I founded Nest was to hire people really different from me. So to make sure that they kind of compliment some of the places where I’m weaker. And so I’m, I am a social entrepreneur I guess, and so can tend to be like a little in the.

Rebecca: Clouds in some ways are a little visionary. And so really I have like [00:17:00] built a team around me of people who are really great implementers and can kind of help take some of those visions and bring them to reality. And so really like to surround myself with a team of people that kind of bring different assets to the table.

Rebecca: So collectively we can kind of operate as a perfected hole, but not feel like we each have to carry that weight on our own. And so that is something that I feel really strongly about. And then I think. You know, also we work, we work in the creative sector. I’m not a maker, actually. I have that in my family legacy, but I’m not.

Rebecca: And so continuing to build a community of creatives around me to make sure that that stays kind of at the heart of what we do. And then I feel really lucky that we work with so many awesome brands, retailers, philanthropists, who bring a different perspective and kind of keep us on our toes. Because we’re constantly needing to kind of respond to market pressures and kind of think things through a commercial lens in addition to just the kind of doing good that the social worker and me is always excited about.

Georgi: Yeah. And the partnerships with this doing good aspect, how does, are [00:18:00] you convincing them that it’s worth their while or are they looking for it as part of their value system and brand identity, or is it a mix? Maybe you can share a little bit about the perspective of trying to get these products in a broader network or get seen to a broader audience.

Rebecca: It’s a little bit of both. Like there’s definitely, you know, some convincing we try to do, but there’s also a healthy dose of them realizing that, you know, this is the consumer trend, that there’s interest here, that people are, I’m kind of detouring, but I’ll come back to it. But one of the things I’m often asked is around kind of technology and the death of craft and like whether I think with automation and AI and all these things, whether craft will exist.

Rebecca: And I think that what we’ve seen is that like. We can’t only live in that world. And so the more that becomes a part of our daily operations, the more people crave handcraft because it’s like the, you know, it’s the counterweight to it. And so weirdly, the like demand for handcraft has just been steadily growing over the last decade.

Rebecca: And so I think most companies kind of realize that and embrace [00:19:00] it, and how, as a major. Major multinational company you support. Artisanal small batch manufacturing is, is a dance. Like it’s hard to figure that out. And so that’s where we get really excited. So I think most companies know that that’s something they should be doing.

Rebecca: And then what it looks like is where the like fun part comes in terms of working together to like concept and bring something to market.

Georgi: I love that you brought up the cultural aspect of returning to craft and there is so much in the press and I talk to young people all the time that feel maybe robbed of their childhood or overwhelmed with the use of technology even in the classroom and the desire to disconnect.

Georgi: And I have been seeing a lot of, in the book world. A lot of young people returning to bookstores and wanting to spend their Friday night listening to a lecture or something, maybe with a glass of wine, but having community, connecting with people, learning versus something else, especially staying at home on their devices.[00:20:00]

Georgi: And I also based in Silicon Valley, and I also hear a lot that the Silicon Valley. Leaders are all telling their kids to pivot from STEM and go into creative fields and where AI is probably less likely to touch career. So, you know, you found yourself in an interesting place where people need the antidote to the technology and feel inspired, but also it may be where growth happens is in the creative field.

Rebecca: Totally. I like sort of think we might end up in like this really bizarre kind of world where there’s like two extremes and like nothing in the middle, but it, it does feel like that sometimes where like it, you know, I think there’s been such a resurgence in not just shopping handcraft in small, but doing it, especially during covid, I, the number of people who started baking and knitting and taking embroidery classes and mending and like all these.

Rebecca: Things are on the rise. ’cause I do think [00:21:00] people, they need that, they need the, the counterweight to, to being on a screen.

Georgi: Yeah. And I have a question about starting a business. Coming from a social degree coming out of grad school is did you have enough business experience or what has that been like of understanding how she’s shaking her head of understanding how to operate a business and run a small business?

Rebecca: Yeah, no, I did it once I decided to do it, I was like sort of kicking myself. ’cause in. College or graduate school, I could have taken those classes for sure. No. So I learned almost everything on the go. But then in hindsight, I think textbook learning and doing are pretty different anyway. And so even if I learned the skills, doing it is is a different thing.

Rebecca: And so I think there was something exciting about learning it. While doing it, but it did mean I had to do a lot of extra reading. And this is where kind of mentorship and community come in, right? Like, uh, those are skills that exist and people have them. And so learning how to ask for help and tap people to support was a [00:22:00] huge piece of my early days.

Rebecca: Yeah. Did you have mentors that helped you get started? I’ve had so many over the years. You asked about my strengths earlier and I was sort of struggling with that question, but I think one of my strengths is that I am absolutely not fearful of asking for help. So I kind of pull people all the time and it, you know, one of the things I feel really.

Rebecca: Happy about looking back on 20 years is how many people were involved in my first year that are still involved today. And to me that’s like a testament to like, you know, them coming along on this journey with me.

Georgi: Yeah. And I, I don’t know if you find this, but when you are doing good in the world, it’s gotta gravitate towards it and people want to be involved in what you’re doing.

Rebecca: Absolutely. And I think, you know, there was something about being kind of young and idealistic that like pulled people even more than, and so, and then again now I feel like there’s just, it’s like in the, it’s in the air that we need this kind of work happening. So it’s an exciting time to pull more people in.

Georgi: And Rebecca, do you have role models? Yes. Beyond the [00:23:00] mentors? Sure. But like Sure. People that you really look up to who have been able to shape how you think. Maybe people you know, or even people you read about.

Rebecca: Yeah, I mean obviously Mohammad Unes was one of my original role models. And then I think more practically or or more kind of to today, I feel really lucky that the CEO of Etsy is on our advisory board.

Rebecca: And then several kind of senior leaders have been deeply involved with NAS and what they’ve done to transition. Average consumers to believe in craft and know how to access it and kind of bring craft to scale. You know, some of those barriers I was talking about in terms of seeing it as like kind of nation non-scalable.

Rebecca: Etsy really helped shift that narrative in, in the most profound way. And so they’ve been a huge ally of ours, but definitely a mentor and and organization and people that I. I turned to their CEO’s named Josh Silverman, but there’s so many I, you know, we’ve been really lucky that we’ve worked with so many incredible leaders in the field that have really kind of shaped our, our, my thinking and, and the way I lead.

Georgi: Yeah. And talk about [00:24:00] leadership, the people that work for you or involved with your company. How has it been to be responsible for people’s lives and livelihoods and making sure that there’s enough business to cover the needs of the people that are working for you and their growth plans? How, how has being the leader and a manager been part of your journey?

Rebecca: It’s been the hardest part of the journey, certainly, because it’s not a responsibility you ever wanna take lightly. It is people’s life and their, you know, their families. And when you’re, you know, the last several years from Covid on really, it’s been one kind of major change for our whole globe after another.

Rebecca: And so, you know, thinking through. During Covid, we went fully remote as an organization, so we’re, we’re no longer, we closed our physical offices. We used to have physical offices in New York City, and then we let people move everywhere. In some ways, that’s been wonderful, providing more flexibility for lots of our team.

Rebecca: And, you know, we support home-based craft workers all over the world. We wanted to make sure the [00:25:00] women on and men on our team have those same opportunities, but it does mean that you don’t have the in-person connection. And that’s been a real challenge for us to learn to adapt to the benefits of remote culture, but in a way that.

Rebecca: Sustains kind of inspiration and connection at the same time. And I think, you know, the, we’ve never really recovered, like things just feel tumultuous. And so I think when you’re leading an organization and people are coming to work every day with some level of stress that’s completely unrelated to their job, how are you helping them manage that?

Rebecca: How do you create a culture that. That acknowledges that stress, but also is productive and, and moving forward. I think, um, managing a team is definitely one of the, one of the hardest aspects of the job. For sure.

Georgi: Yeah, and just like probably you mentioned listening to the communities that you work in, also listening to your employees and understanding what’s happening in their lives that may impact how they’re working.

Rebecca: I’ve gotten in many fights with our board over the years ’cause I’m extremely conservative in everything we do in terms of [00:26:00] financial decision making. I never wanna take a risk and that always comes up like when, you know, when payroll, like making payroll to me is like a non-negotiable. Like there were never gonna, I wanna have an operating reserve, like all these things.

Rebecca: And to me that’s always at the heart of it is how to, how to make sure that we never are in a position where we can’t continue to sustain the team that we’re building.

Georgi: Yeah. I love that you talked about these in quote conflicts with your board, and I wonder if you can share a little bit about any skills or anything you’ve had to overcome in being able to address challenges or roadblocks that are in the way.

Georgi: Because often I find some of the kindest, nicest people who are drawn to really doing good in the world have a hard time with conflict. But it’s such an important part of being able to realize your dream and also create an effective business. So I would love to understand a little bit about that for you.

Rebecca: Yeah, no, I think like imposter syndrome is sort of real, and so like, I think there was an element for me that took [00:27:00] time to build up enough confidence that I felt like I, I had solid, like a solid argument that was grounded in, in the business and successiveness, like when I was. Still felt like I was learning to write our business plan.

Rebecca: I didn’t have the self-confidence to go into a negotiation or a conversation with a partner or a board successfully. And so like there was, it took a lot of, you know, we’re turning 20. So it’s taken me 20 years to feel like I have the confidence and the success behind me to go into those conversations with a little.

Rebecca: With those stronger legs to stand on. But a huge piece of that was just kind of overcoming the people in your head that are like pulling you down. But so I think a huge piece of it is confidence and, and really looking at imposter syndrome and looking at our own team and making sure that everyone on our team, regardless of where they sit at the organization, regardless of what kind of experience they’ve had, feel like they have avenues to bring voice to the organization.

Rebecca: Like how can I take those learnings for myself and make sure that I’m building a pathway for others feels important.

Georgi: We’re all learning. In, in my [00:28:00] book, I, um, talk about imposter syndrome and I had a wonderful coach who helped me reframe it as pioneer syndrome. She said most often it’s actually pioneer syndrome, which means you’re doing something new and it hasn’t been done before.

Georgi: So it feels scary, but it’s not that you are not capable, it’s just the journey feels scary. Yes, that’s, and when she said that, that opened up so much because it definitely. Brought to light that it’s okay to feel it. It’s not a weakness,

Rebecca: it’s an adventure. Totally. When I was like in my early days, somebody told me it’s pioneering.

Rebecca: Even just in the way that, you know, we have these mindsets that like things were done a certain way. And so the pioneering is even just sometimes like the way women approach business, it seems pioneering because we’ve been told for so long that the way men run business is the right way. So, you know, like I was, I got asked so many times in my first months and years of like, where’s your business plan?

Rebecca: Where are your financials? And only years later, someone said men [00:29:00] start businesses. Literally women have a circular way of doing business and they connect with people and they build relationships, and organically the business grows. It was so like. Validating, like, yes, that’s what I did and I did grow this business and it worked, but it didn’t follow like what the textbook for starting a business looks like.

Rebecca: And so just kind of continuing to be and build a community where you validate that different ways of doing things are okay and doesn’t, you know, mean it’s successful or not different. Yeah. And feeling

Georgi: confident. Yeah, exactly. Whether it’s your artisans or you at the top level of a company, but feeling confident enough to, to trust how you are doing it is the right way.

Georgi: How can people find your products and

Rebecca: your artisans? Our website is build aest.org and on Instagram we’re at Build AEs and we profile everything. We’re very lucky that we work with beautiful product and beautiful creative people, so there’s no shortage of of content to be shared. And we [00:30:00] also feature all of the retailers.

Rebecca: That sell our goods. We do kind of sales ourselves sometimes. And then the other kind of plug I’ll just make is that we run a volunteering program where people can volunteer their times to support one of the makers in our guild and makers are often kind of solo or small businesses where they’re wearing many hats.

Rebecca: And so all kinds of skills are needed from like web design to sales strategy to logistics. To hr, you know, they, they’re doing everything. And so we link professionals who can do kind of finite projects with our, with a maker or artisan in our, in our community to help them kind of,

Georgi: yeah. What a wonderful opportunity.

Georgi: And this just definitely sort of brings back the full circle of saying you’re building a, a circle, a community of broader perspective. It’s not linear, but this is a wonderful example of if you had gone to raise money, I’m sure they wouldn’t be thinking about who are the volunteers you could bring in, but the way that you have done it is.

Georgi: About, it’s deeper than just a financial statement. It’s about bringing people together, crafting, having [00:31:00] creativity at any level. Exactly. Like the connection. Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for sharing your story, and I am excited to go and check out some of the products, and it was just lovely to hear your perspective.

Rebecca: Thank you so much for having me. It was a pleasure.

Georgi: Let’s recap two important takeaways from this episode. First. Building with purpose creates staying power 20 years later. NE’s mission remains fundamentally the same as when Rebecca started helping women run sustainable craft enterprises. This clarity of purpose has provided continuity throughout the organization’s growth and evolution.

Georgi: Also she leads with listening. Rebecca attributes much of nests success to active listening, developing programs based on what makers themselves identify as barriers and needs rather than imposing solutions. This approach ensures their work remains relevant and effective. After listening to this episode, [00:32:00] if you’re thinking, wow, I want a purposeful career, I’ve got you covered.

Georgi: Chapter four of my book focuses on building your contribution, IE, your personal mission, and that’s a wrap for today’s episode of work That’s worth it. Remember, every conversation we share is designed to empower you to build a career that’s truly worth your time and and energy. There are future disruptors out there just like you, who would appreciate the conversations in this podcast.

Georgi: Please support me by spreading the word and sharing this episode with a friend or two, or visit my [email protected]. That’s spelled G-E-O-R-G-I-E-N-T-H-O-V-E-N.com. Until next time, ask yourself, what problems am I solving and are they worth my valuable time? Your intentional choices today can lead to exponential impact tomorrow.

Georgi: Thanks for listening.