Redefining Success in 2025

Speaker A: Foreign.

Speaker B: Welcome to the social impact level of podcast. This is where we blur the lines between business, nonprofit and impact. I'm your host Wendy V. And in season three we're redefining success for social entrepreneurs looking to grow their revenue. If you have reality changing ideas, this is the place for you. Let's jump right into today's episode.

Speaker A: Welcome to the final episode of the social impact level up podcast, season three, redefining Success. I'm your host Wendy B. And we are going to do a little recap of all the things we learned thinking about how to redefine success on this podcast this season. I'm so excited to be here and to have gotten through this milestone. I know not a lot of podcasts, um, continue to go and grow over the years and we have been going for three seasons now, so it's been a few years and we're going to take a brief hiatus until the summer of 2025. So if you are a subscriber or you haven't subscribed yet, just make sure you hit the subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify or Apple podcasts wherever you consume art and listen to our show. And we would love to have you come back for the next season. So before I hop in and start talking about the topic, I just wanted to give you a little update on what's been going on in my business and my world as we continue to grow, continue to do more exciting things. I'm um, always out in the community, volunteering, connecting with people, serving the non profits and small businesses around me and then also continuing to serve in other communities as well. So growing my social impact level of collective, having people join from all over the country. It's really been an amazing year over the last um, year that we've been doing this season, season three, the growth and the changes that have happened including launching our Elevate her worth um events and being able to connect with women owned businesses, building community at different events like my paddleboard networking in the summer which is coming up again in June. There's just been so many opportunities to broaden what the group of people who think of themselves as social impact people are social entrepreneurs. Just to be able to broaden people's perspectives on what that means and to have a lot of amazing friends going along on this ride with me. So thank you to all of my guests, thank you to everyone who has been here listening and who's you over on our socials and our various platforms including our LinkedIn newsletter and on Instagram. So that being said Just wanted to give you a quick update and then let's hop right into, um, what are we talking about today? So this episode is all about what have we learned over the course of this, this whole season? When we're talking about redefining success with every person, everybody's had a different journey. There are so many people right now redefining success based on their jobs or based on their personal lives. And it's important for us to think about, you know, what really matters. And what I've heard people say over and over again is it's all about understanding yourself and being able to know what drives you, what are your values. And success isn't linear and it doesn't necessarily mean money all the time. It can for some people and it can sometimes for all of us. But success also has some internal factors of, um, feeling in alignment with your purpose, feeling like you have the, um, the joy that you want and that you are able to use your energy in the way that you want to. For people who don't know, I am a Reiki practitioner, which means that I practice energy healing and I do bring this into my coaching as well as my personal life. And one of the things I absolutely believe is that all of us are made about it by energy. Right? We're all different atoms floating around together and there's energy in between the people that we connect with and us. And we have to figure out how to utilize that for the best good. Right? So in some ways redefining success as a collective or as a community starts with us. It starts inward and our very, ah, small locus of control circle of ourselves. And it feels like, um, you know, a lot of people are coming to a space of wanting to live authentically, wanting to be of service, but also to be of service to self. And I think that that's a space for us to be in.

Speaker B: Want to amplify your impact today? Join my community, the social impact level of collective, where social entrepreneurs just like you meet monthly to inspire world changing ideas. You'll get access to my top courses and resources, speakers and exclusive community events. Hop in right now@wendy velose.com backslash collective.

Speaker A: So let's talk a little bit more about that today. And to feel like if this is you or if this is calling you, I hope that something here resonates with you. I hope that you find value in what we're sharing and that you make sure you come back from our conversations next season. The first place I want to start with is how do we redefine success for ourselves when we're facing a challenge. I don't often talk about, like, the complete story of how this business got started, but I think in an episode recently, I mentioned that I started this business after losing my job in public health in 2021, after working the pandemic, after leaving my federal job for a bunch of different reasons. And as we see now, more and more people are looking at career transitions. It's important for us to think about these challenges as stepping stones to the next chapter. You know, what is next? How can you continue to grow and glow and do all the amazing things, but, um, not feel like the challenges are insurmountable or that you can't get past them because they're just so big? I can tell you, when I started this business, I had not only lost my job, I also had moved apartments. I had ended a relationship and also lost my grandmother and had to do hospice care for her for a month. This was a very trying time in my life. I called it the crumbling. That was like everything just around me started crumbling. And in that crumbling, I found just this moment to understand, like, you can be a phoenix. You can completely rise from the ashes and feel like what you are going to bring out in the next chapter is more in alignment with your true purpose and will bring more joy. And that's exactly what I did. And I want to encourage everybody who's listening to this episode to think about yourself as that Phoenix. And when you have to redefine success after the crumbling happens, you want to do it in a way that's really going to bring you the most that you can get out of life. And I can tell you, four years later, almost four years later, after the crumbling happened and I started this business, I'm just in a completely different place. I'm a completely different person. I make my choices based on what's going to bring me joy or unhappiness or not. And it's so freeing to be able to make choices like that. Now. It doesn't mean that I don't have stressors and bills and all the other things that normal people, normal adults have. Of course I do. But I also see these. These times when things happen that feel like such big challenges and obstacles that you can't get past them. I also understand that sometimes I have to work my way around them. Sometimes I have to go over or through them, but whatever way, I just have to get to the other side. And once I'm on the other side, then I can really see there might Be more solutions. I might have resources. There's a. Of different things. But if I choose, and this is again, if you also choose to stay in that space of negativity, of, uh, obstacles and challenges, then what happens is society doesn't benefit from you. Right? And so make. Let me dig into that a little bit deeper. Each of us are shaping the communities around us. Each of us have a role, each of us have specialties, Each of us have gifts. And when we come together in our highest form and our ability to perform our purpose, when we get together, new things happen. And things that we wouldn't have had birthed into the world or things that we wouldn't have had happen, they just stay stuck and stagnant in those challenges and obstacles. So you have to move yourself out of that space so that all of us, the rest of us, everyone in the collective, can also move to the new space. And if we're all doing this work in as individuals, then when we come together as a community, we're able to see how this has a ripple effect. Right? So people living to their fullest potential and their fullest self, and then you meet them and other people and other people. And finally we find that we can do some amazing things with these people who have really been working hard to make life what they want it. And I think it's really interesting. I'm finally starting to see groups of people like this and happenstance. You know, a lot of times people just sort of gravitate towards the same space or the same conversation, and being able to check in with people and say, you know, how. How are you doing on your mental health journey? And are you taking care of yourself? And what, what is your wellness routine and what resources do you like for that particular thing? I think having those kinds of conversations now becomes possible because people are doing the work on themselves. So if you've not joined us in this self, uh, self work, whatever way you want to do it, this is a great space to be in where you're really trying to, uh, you know, figure out your own. Figure out your own things in context of how can I. How can I also contribute to the greater good? So a lot of social entrepreneurs I know have those kinds of questions going on in their heads. And when you come into these community spaces, it's also nice to be able to have conversations with people who are thinking about these same things and to be able to take the shortcuts that they recommend. So, you know, embracing the challenges, feeling like we're all together, you know, we're all navigating our own separate obstacles, but we're all in together. And it might not always be a smooth ride. Right? Our journey is not meant to be a smooth ride. And I can definitely tell you my journey has not been a smooth ride. But I understand that when I'm at my fullest self and I'm able to show up not only for my business, but also for those who I serve, then we get a lot more done than if I just want to be holed up in my house, not doing anything, petting the dog. Um, so all of these lessons that we've learned from the people on this podcast this season, it shows us how the power of the collective again, coming together with all these different stories of people who are elevating, being able to shape our community, the social impact level of collective as a group of people who are redefining success for themselves. And we are definitely making an impact in helping inspire other people able to thrive. So I hope that you are here in it with us in this, uh, in this collective, and that you're down for this journey. And it's really something that, um, you know, sometimes I think, wow, is this even possible? Like, is it even possible that I created a business that helps nonprofits and small businesses to help other people and fix things in our society? And how, uh, how do I even know I'm back to the same problem I had in the government? How do I even know if my. What my actions were and what my impact truly was? So I also am right here in this with you to need to figure this out. Right? We need to be here together, figuring out how we can measure and talk about our success and share it with other people to inspire more people to hop on board with us. And as we're doing this, uh, this work to redefine ourselves and redefine our communities, there's a lot to be done to inspire others in our community and other communities to do this work, too. I know that there's a lot of societal pressures right now, especially if you're listening to this episode when it's first released in 2025, there's a lot of uncertainty going on. Um, there's a lot of political and economic instability, and there are a lot of places that just don't generally feel safe anymore. And one of the things that we can do, especially as those people who are on this journey to better themselves and heal and all of this stuff, one of the things that we can do is hold space for others, allow others to come on the journey with us to be in um, in the moment, to be able to discover conversations and new things that um, you know, maybe will expose people to different perspectives and help us to move forward as a society. We shouldn't be measuring our success by wealth or status or, um, you know, what kinds of directives we can make everybody follow. We really need to be thinking about, um, successes. Has seen our local businesses thrive, having effective social networks that are able to get us the things that we need to have joy and to thrive. Um, community really is about getting people together to push back when we need to push back and to say this is what we really want and truly represent the needs of our communities and our needs. Empowering collective action is super important. Making sure that as we go through this journey as individuals, we also feel like we have outlets to come together and to be more powerful as we move together. And this might bring back some thoughts of, you know, well, communities and people have always had to be resilient, uh, in times of trials and tribulations. And that's true. I think that's where we're at right now. Having to extremely exercise our resilience and that might feel tiresome, that might feel burdensome. Having to always be resilient and show up resilient because the systems around us are not changing and continue to fail us. That's annoying. I'm just going to say it flat out it's annoying. But if we come together and collaborate, if we're able to move forward and as a community, if we're able to keep pushing our agenda of what is important and what matters, particularly in the social impact space, then, you know, all of us can see at least a little bit better of an outcome than if we did nothing. So I definitely want to encourage you to continue to build collaborations, continue to create safe and brave spaces, continue to show up, um, at different conversations and represent the diverse perspectives that we have, continue to think about sustainable solutions and long term systems that are going to get us to the places that we want to be, not only as individual businesses and nonprofits or individual founders, but also as a society. Right. How can we come up with communal, sustainable solutions and these things? It will help contribute to economic stability, well being, health. All of those things that we want and feel like right now are in jeopardy. And it's going to take us coming together at the communal and local level in order to make up for the lack of investment that's coming from the federal level and maybe from the states as well. As a result, all of These things are things that we need to be thinking about in addition to our to do list for the day. And I know that can seem overwhelming. That might feel like, Wendy, you're asking me for way too much. What are you talking about right now? I get it, I get it, get it. Thinking about the collective well being is. It can be difficult, right? And it can be difficult when you feel like the collective does not match with your values or your ideals or the collective is not really listening to certain perspectives right now. And I just want you to really think about that. Community success and your success are tied together and they're based off of, you know, having supports, having relationships, being able to create opportunities for everyone and making sure that we can all thrive. Right? Whether we're a small business who's just starting out or, ah, we're a worker who doesn't have experience in this field and had to make, uh, a transition. All of us have things to offer. All of us have specialties and experiences and all of us deserve joy and deserve to thrive as we're doing those things. And if anybody tells you different, please just ignore them. Because honestly, what I've learned over these last four years is that there are times when I don't feel joy. And it doesn't mean I don't deserve to feel joy. There are times when I don't feel like I'm thriving, but it doesn't mean that I'm not thriving. It means that I, uh, probably am needing to do more work in certain areas and I'm focusing on those challenges and obstacles that we talked about earlier rather than really looking for resources and solutions to help me move forward. So I want to encourage you to go with me on this journey. Right. We're going to continue to look for the resources that we need, um, particularly around, you know, this next season. One of the goals for the next season of this podcast is to have a sponsor. So looking forward to that. Also to remain a place that we can uplift voices that are maybe not being uplifted in other platforms or voices that don't have a giant following, but this platform can serve as a way to support them and their journey. Um, so we'll continue to grow together as a community here on this podcast. I encourage you to make sure you're part of that. And as season four comes, we'll have a whole new theme. We'll talk about all new things with all new people. Maybe we'll have bring back a couple of favorites that I've noticed. People really enjoyed their talks and we'll look for more amazing voices to uplift. So this has been just a quick recap episode again of our social impact level. A podcast theme for this year, redefining success and shifting the narrative in 2025 from this feeling of isolated, um, helplessness over to thinking more about how we can create opportunities for collective empowerment and growth. As we move forward and shift the narrative, it's not just about our individual success, but it's also about collective flourishing, making sure that each of us has the opportunities that we need and our communities have the opportunities that they need as well. I know things might seem uncertain right now. Things might seem difficult, people might be making difficult decisions, or you might just feel like you have a lot going on. That is par for the course. I think we're all sort of feeling that. But if we can reframe success as thriving together rather than just getting by or just having the minimum, what would that look like? And what does it need to look like for you and for me? And how can we come together for all of us to feel like we're able to thrive and grow? So that's been this, uh, this episode. I hope that you took some value away from the things that I mentioned. I'm very excited to see you. Season four, along with, like I said, all new content and really thankful to our team, our podcast editors, podcast Abundance, Virginia and her team, as well as our designer, Charlene Houghton. Um, her amazing graphics and all the things that she offers to Wendy Velos Enterprises. Absolutely love her. So thank you for being here, listeners and subscribers and I hope that, ah, we can connect on socials. Find me Wendy Veloz on any of the platforms and I'll be excited to hear that you found us to the podcast. And if you're interested in working to grow your business or nonprofit in a more sustainable way, please reach out. I would be happy to coach you through that process as well. All right everybody, this is the end of the season. We will see you next time. Come back for another episode later on in the summer of 2025.

Speaker B: Thanks for joining us for today's episode. I hope you enjoyed the conversation and

Speaker A: we look forward to having you come back.

Speaker B: If you're curious about something we shared, make sure you check in the show notes below. And do you want the secret to make your nonprofit or business more sustainable and more profitable? Hop into my Learn Grow Thrive University where I give you exclusive access to resources, mini courses and templates for free. All you need to do is sign up@wendybelows.com university see you next episode.

Speaker A: Sam M.