“When you show up, as your whole self and you’re like I’m here to give and I’m here to ask. Both kind of in circular motion with each other, there are magical things that can happen.” —Hannah Cree, SheEO Venture in Residence
In this episode
You ask a question and we answer it! Join us for this bite-sized series, each episode answers a ‘Behind The Scenes’ question in no more than 10 to 20 mins!
Question:
“What does it mean to be Radically Generous, and On Your Own Terms?”
Radical Generosity is the operating system at SheEO, from Activators to Ventures, we are here to be radically generous with ourselves first then in community with each other, and always on our own terms. Listen in on the impromptu conversation about Radical Generosity + On Your Own Terms with founder Vicki Saunders + Hannah, SheEO Venture in Residence in this mini-podcast.
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Podcast Transcript:
The podcast is being transcribed by Otter.ai. (there may be errors, run-on sentences and misspellings).
Hannah Cree 0:02
Welcome to the SheEO Behind the Scenes podcast. Today, we are exploring a topic that keeps on coming up in our community: “What does it really mean to be radically generous and on your own terms?” Vicki Saunders, founder of SheEO and myself, Hannah Cree, SheEO Venture in Residence, had an impromptu conversation about it, and we recorded it. So let’s jump in.
Vicki Saunders 0:25
On the brand promise—or the brand platform, from Ally, radical generosity fuels a new operating system. Right, that line, like get that line embodied in all of us. It’s not just in how we operate our businesses, this is how we operate ourselves. Radical generosity fuels, everything that we do, this new operating system. And what that means is, from an “on your own terms” perspective, when we say you can show up at SheEO on your own terms, and people go, oh, but I really should be helping mor. I need to do more, but I’m too busy. This is where we go, are you practicing radical generosity on yourself? Are you giving yourself a break in the middle of your crazy life and saying it’s okay? That I’m not showing up on every call, or any calls. It’s okay that I did nothing this year except for Activate, because my world went upside down. That is—practice radical generosity on yourself. And that is on your own terms here. It’s not just, oh, I gave money. And that’s radical generosity. Or I gave my time, and that’s radical generosity. There’s multiple different instances of this. And each person is different. And you have to practice it inside and outside. That’s how I think about it.
Hannah Cree 1:46
Yeah, I love that piece. Because I think so many people go into the, well, radical generosity must just be that we’re gifting $1100. And it’s like, for myself as a Venture. Being on the Venture calls that we were doing, when COVID hit, I remember one of the Ventures showing up saying, you know, I haven’t been to all these calls, and like, I’m just, everything is crazy. And I’m so sorry. And I’m so—and, and then I took a deep breath. And I was like, that’s totally okay, you get to show up here on your own terms. And there was like, this collective breath that happened, like all of us were just like, and so as entrepreneurs to be told, like, that’s okay. We don’t, we don’t need—and it takes away all the apologies and takes all of that. It’s like, we’re here when you need us. And, and, and maybe in this craziness, you should be asking for help. Because it sounds like you know, things are crazy. But radical generosity is also for me, my experience has been just to be able to accept people at where they’re at right there right now. Which then translates into acceptance for yourself at where you’re at and what you’re doing. And so, and not having to have to change everything. So it’s not just this, oh, we gifted radic—$1100. I love that you said it’s in the operating system, because as a team, like the behind the scenes team of SheEO, what does that look like every day? As we’re, you know, in campaign, you know, in three countries looking for Ventures looking for Activators, things are crazy right now.
Vicki Saunders 3:30
Yeah. Yeah. And I and I just really think that this is, we are so conditioned, for, more, more, more, do, do, do. And one of them, but that’s in a world of scarcity, like there’s not enough people to help and therefore I have to help and oh, my God. And so the really unique thing, again, about our model is that we are designed with abundance. So there are 500 women, or hundreds and now thousands of women in each country who are there if you can’t be. Right, and so it’s not like, oh, my God, I’m an Activator, therefore, I have to show up, because like, what’s going to happen, the sky’s gonna fall if I don’t. Actually it doesn’t, and you still matter. But you don’t have to show up all the time. And that, again, is a design principle built into one of our, it’s one of our values and practices that we have a lot, so don’t worry about it, if you can’t show up right now. So there, there’s a lot to unravel. And I think, you know, in the early days, radical generosity was very tied. It was like, welcome to you know, it’s a radically generous contribution of $1100. And we said, it’s 700,000 times. So now it’s like in everyone’s DNA, that radical generosity equals money. And that’s not the core. We’re learning that right. That was part of our scarcity mindset. When we started thinking, oh my god, without the money, this thing dies. There’s just so much else going on too. So it’s yes, and. Plus sign. You know, it’s the plus sign for all of these pieces. So I think that’s how, that’s how I come at it from “on your own terms”, and then, you know, one of the things that kind of comes up for me is on your own terms doesn’t just mean like, I show up and go, “Hey, introduce me to some funders, would you Vick?” That’s not on your own terms either. That’s, that is on your own terms, but it’s not on my own terms, and we’re in a relationship. And so don’t call me five minutes before you need something and say, Hey, I need this. We have to build relationships together. So there’s some nuance to all these words, right? It doesn’t just mean you’ve show up and take. The give and take this. And the reciprocity that is deeply baked into the concept of radical generosity has to be kind of unwoven in you to recognize that this really only shows up if you’re deeply connected in.
Hannah Cree 5:42
Yeah, I really, and I want to flip that piece, because we always talk about, you know, on your own terms, and everyone’s busy and show up when you can, but it’s like, you want to show up in this community. Because when you’re so busy, and everything is so crazy, the support is actually here. And so being radically generous to yourself is to, you know, book, maybe that one hour or a 15 minute chat with another person and be in relationship with them. Because you’re being radically generous to yourself, of growing yourself, or growing relationships or being in community and, and it just it, it does take time to build it.
Vicki Saunders 6:23
Yep, it does. Absolutely.
Hannah Cree 6:24
But on the flip side, when you show up, as your whole self and you’re like I’m here to give and I’m here to ask, like that both kind of in circular motion with each other. There are magical things that can happen. But because you’ve done that work.
Vicki Saunders 6:42
Totally, we had to create a hashtag for it because we’re like this thing. What is this thing? Oh, it’s magic. Oh, yeah, right. SheEO Magic.
Hannah Cree 6:50
Thank you for listening to behind the scenes podcast. Let us know your thoughts about what it means to be radically generous to yourself and others. If you have a question or topic about SheEO, please send us a voice note to [email protected]. Until next time.
