572. Let’s talk about our mental health. ImpactUp: PAUSE - Jon McCoy and Becky Endicott

Ready to hit pause ⏸️ on the grind? This #ImpactUp, we’re gathering on World Mental Health Day to dive into powerful conversations by day and take them to local meetups worldwide by evening🌍 Listen in as Jon + Becky share what’s coming up on October 10th and why you don’t want to miss it. It’s time to build cultures of well-being from the inside out. Grab your (free!) spot now at weareforgood.com/impactup.

💡 Learn

• The importance of pause and mental health in our sector
• Findings from We Are For Good’s Mental Health Survey
• Overview of the Impact Up gathering on October 10t

Episode Highlights

• An invitation to pause on October 10th (0:45) 
• Mental Health Survey findings (5:00)
• Call to action + Personal reflections (7:20) 
• What to expect at ImpactUp (12:35)
• Jon’s One Good Thing: We want you to embrace the pause. You are worthy of intentional reflection. You're worthy of community connection. (15:30)

For more information + episode details visit: weareforgood.com/episode/572.

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Chapters

• 0:53 Impact Uprising
• 9:12 Wellness Gathering for Impact Professionals
• 16:49 Embracing the Power of Pause

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:53

Hey, I'm John.

Speaker 2: 0:54

And I'm Becky.

Speaker 1: 0:55

And this is the we Are For Good podcast.

Speaker 2: 0:58

Nonprofits are faced with more challenges to accomplish their missions and the growing pressure to do more, raise more and be more for the causes that improve our world.

Speaker 1: 1:07

We're here to learn with you from some of the best in the industry, bringing the most innovative ideas, inspirational stories, all to create an impact uprising.

Speaker 2: 1:16

So welcome to the good community. We're nonprofit professionals, philanthropists, world changers and rabid fans who are striving to bring a little more goodness into the world.

Speaker 1: 1:26

So let's get started, becky, what's happening?

Speaker 2: 1:30

I'll tell you what. You know how people sort of have us affiliated with a lot of energy, a lot of enthusiasm. Well, today we're going to pull it back just a little bit. We are going to pull it back because today we're encouraging you to rest, to sit in the pause.

Speaker 1: 1:49

Yeah, I mean, what a transition and it's coming from an authentic place that we needed this pause also.

Speaker 1: 1:55

And so I hope you know, as we kind of talk about this unfolding of Impact Up, that's happening, that's happening really soon in our community, we also just want to say hey, this is coming from a place that we needed this space to heal and to process and to take care of ourselves too.

Speaker 1: 2:09

So I mean, if you've hung around the podcast very long, you hear us say that the greatest movements we believe the greatest movements start from within and what that's meant some different things to us over our careers, because we saw the power of how employee giving revolutionized the healthcare foundation. Because we started from within, we started one-to-one among employees. We also believe it starts from within, at the core of inside of us, which is why we really need to focus on our wellbeing and the care that we have. So, to create this impact uprising, how do we start from within? And, of course, we have to look within, as we are rounding out with an impact up on October 10th and, becky, you got to tell us all about it, about what we're focusing on for this impact up.

Speaker 2: 2:48

Yeah, if you, if you are new to we, are For Good. We gather quarterly and this is a time for you. This is a time for the sector to come together. We're going to orient around one theme and we're going to go headfirst diving straight into that theme. We're going to unpack the purpose, we're going to unpack how we walk through it. We're going to unpack how to reorient our mindsets. We're going to talk about how do we build the dang thing. And this time, on World Mental Health Day, october 10th, 1010, I know that is blessing your designer heart, john, that that is so symmetrical.

Speaker 2: 3:24

And we're gathering at this Second Impact Up Summit with a theme of pause. It is a day for you, it is a day for social impact leaders to find the power in the pause and we're going to be talking about our mental health together. We'll be gathering virtually by day online and we hope you'll join us there. And please know this is not a talking head summit. This is a global conversation where we are convening people on stage. I'm using my air quotes on stage, but also your voice within the chat is powering the movement of these conversations.

Speaker 2: 4:02

And as we sort of cull all of that by day, we're going to be taking it down by night into your communities with local meetups. We're going to take this conversation of how do we encircle and nest our mental health into the heartbeat of our work. How do we talk about finding pause in not just the professional work but in our personal lives as well? And when those two can come together, the congruity, the balance, the recovery and the rest we can find is going to fuel us to the next, bigger and better thing. This gathering is for you. We hope you'll join us. We hope you'll prioritize your rest.

Speaker 1: 4:43

Yes, and so I mean, without further ado, we have to drop the link because we'd love for you to register to join us. It's at weareforgoodcom. Slash impact up. We'll share that a few times throughout the course of the conversation. But I mean, look, this is how we show up in community together, we support each other, we lean in, we get to spend time in real life and virtually together, and the only way this is possible is because we found some value aligned partners. Looking at you, give butter. Attain partners virtuous. I donate cadenza to write love on our arms, the teaching well thoughtful human race for good and nonprofit hive. I'm having a really hard time not emoting on each of these partners.

Speaker 2: 5:21

Literally like. Everything that each of these people bring to the sector, to humanity, is such a gift.

Speaker 1: 5:27

Yeah, and for today we're going to leave it short, but I mean, hang around our community because you're going to see the way that they're playing in and bringing not only just like their partnership, but like how it fuels this movement today, and it's really exciting to see all the ways that everyone's plugging in.

Speaker 2: 5:41

Yeah, I just so much gratitude to the partners who would step up and support you. They are here for you. They are here to give you that pause and we're so grateful for it. But, john, I feel like this has been a year coming, because last October, we released an inaugural mental health survey for the impact sector. And we released it because we couldn't find any stats about how the sector was actually doing, how you individual who are pouring into impact work, how are you managing your stress? How are you managing burnout and overwhelm? What kind of resources do you have? And so we put together this extremely rudimentary, dare I say, hashtag basic survey Totally.

Speaker 2: 6:25

But something really magical happened when we sent this out, because it had a qualitative component and it had a quantitative component, and we have not distilled that data down yet. We're doing it first right here on the podcast today. But here's what I want you all to know that over half of the respondents to the survey, which was I want to make sure I talk about the pool, because I think the pool that we're talking about is helpful in context it was just shy of 200 individuals took this survey and over half of them reported that their workload is either somewhat unmanageable or very unmanageable. That is not surprising to me, but the rising stress level hit 80% of participants, who said that they were experiencing increased stress over the past year, primarily due to staff shortages, organizational changes and personal pressures, and 53% of people are not utilizing any mental health services. They are often citing cost and time constraints as barriers.

Speaker 2: 7:30

John, those stats hit me square in the face. We have really tried at we Are For Good to put our flag firmly in the ground, that we need to be having greater conversations around the mental health, around the people of this sector, and I don't. When you saw that, john, like were you as shocked as I was?

Speaker 1: 7:49

I mean it feels like a gut punch, but it's one that I saw coming at the same time you know, because it's uh, we're in community here, right, and so we have conversations all the time, and it doesn't surprise me because the sector is hurting and this is a huge driver of that and it points to a lot of the problems that we have to solve for you know.

Speaker 1: 8:08

And so I want to lift some of the qualitative insights just to give context for what the survey captured, because I love that you centered story in this B, because I think it would have been easy just to like everybody wants the little cute charts of percentages, but opening up a qualitative boxes, we've had people share their personal stories and we're talking all over the map of anxiety, depression, burnout, and so many are feeling the weight of what it what it looks like to hold both professional and personal challenges in that tension and that balance.

Speaker 1: 8:37

But we also ask about the organizational dynamics and things like staff turnover and leadership transitions were frequently highlighted, which probably is not a surprise to you. But you should just know like this data did do something. It put a fire in our belly that we don't want to just be complicit to knowing this, but like how can we be part of the change and not just talk, but like help, build resources so we can get active together, and I think that's some call to actions that have come out of it that have been really helpful right.

Speaker 2: 9:04

Yeah, and I want to talk about the calls to action, but I want to highlight one thing that struck me the most when I looked at this survey data. If you've listened to my nervous breakdown story, I shared it on the podcast.

Speaker 1: 9:18

I remember I just looked it up. Yesterday I shared it on the podcast, episode 175. I just looked it up yesterday.

Speaker 2: 9:21

I can't believe you know the number. Oh, I feel so seen. Thank you, friend. And I felt so seen then too, because you were supportive to me then. You've been supportive all along the journey. But I talk frequently when I share that story about I didn't know what was happening to me. I had no idea because I didn't know anybody in the sector who had experienced the physical and the mental and emotional burnout manifest in our bodies. And when I read those stories that were nestled in to this survey, I realized hundreds of us are not aware that the others are experiencing the same thing. So I just want to say to you all we got to talk about this, we got to lift our stories out. I want you to feel safe that you can talk about what you're struggling with inside your mind, inside your body and soul. But there's hope.

Speaker 1: 10:13

So what is kind of the next step for this? The survey is now open and so we want we're going to be actively collecting data because we want to be a continued voice of this for you and for our sector, so we can do better. But you're also going to see this built around the content we share, not only at impact up but as how we show up in the podcast and how we kind of book things throughout our community. So please keep sharing authentically, please don't hold back, please know you're not alone, and just really grateful for those of you that have poured in so much.

Speaker 2: 10:41

Thank you so much, john. I feel like, as we're having this conversation, I want to confess something that's making me feel a little bit like my imposter's coming out, but it is that I am not good at pausing, you know this.

Speaker 1: 10:56

You know this about me. No, I mean, we're both not good at pausing.

Speaker 2: 10:58

Let's be honest, and I think any of us who've worked, maybe, in a capitalistic society, if you've worked at a nonprofit where you've done the role of four or five people, you are used to the grind, we get used to the grind and we do not bake in that pause very well. And we're trying this left-handed move of re-imagining the way that we do work, re-imagining the way that we create pause and balance for ourselves, and we hope you find it within this gathering.

Speaker 1: 11:31

Yeah, I mean, it was very much core to how we designed the day and just like the overall experience with impact up. So I want you to hang with me for a second, because you know we started we are for good because we saw that professional development was broken in a lot of ways in our sector, that it was inaccessible or it was costly to get to and it was like just a lot of like talking heads. You know, that maybe seem relatable to you know the challenges that we're facing, and so this kind of like re-imagining what it looks like at Impact Up and this is why we want you there is that we're nurturing both your heart and your mind here. We don't think that they're two separate things. We think we're one human being that we want to serve, and so the day is going to feel and look a little bit different than your typical hotel conference, right, but it's like we don't want to just talk about mental health. We're also going to filter in practices throughout the day and talk about sustainable practices and talk to organizations that have wrestled through or maybe they're in the middle, the messy middle of like trying to implement and what it looks like in real time. But it's not just talking heads, it's also connecting you virtually. We've got space during the day that you can connect virtually with people all over the world that are tuning in, but then at night, you know, you can either chime in virtually through the local meetup or you can attend a local meetup or host one in your own community where you can continue the conversation.

Speaker 1: 12:48

So the whole idea is not just talking, but actually like growing and learning and breathing together, which is really all about, I think, a better, healthier way to wellness. You know, and we have friends that are talking throughout the day we're going to spotlight some of these sessions, but like the movement, to like collective care and not just self-care. But how do we take care of the whole? How do we take care of our entire teams? This is not the future, this is the now that we really could reverse a lot of these trends if we build in systems and think like this and really have these kind of tougher conversations. So I hope you'll join us for the pause. This is professional development, don't miss it. So I mean B. Do you want to talk a little bit about the day? I mean the day. Can we talk about this day? Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2: 13:28

This day is going to be so epic and we want to break it down for you because we want you to really bucket your time of where you're going to hang out on this day and really encourage you to come with your full self. Maybe bring your teammates and really lean into this, because we have got six hours worth of programming for you and come for what you can. But we've also built this intentional program for you to block the time out for the things that really, really resonate with you. We have an amazing keynote with the incomparable Lindsay Fuller. She's the executive director over at the Teaching Well, who is playing a very vital role in this gathering because they're already the healers. They're already the people who are walking into schools healing teachers and educators. Guess what? They're applying all of this knowledge into the impact sector.

Speaker 2: 14:19

We've got panels around embracing the pause within ourselves and how to find that balance between your wellness and your work. We've got another panel discussion about diving into the organizations who have actually implemented and prioritized wellness within their organizations. We want to know how they've done it. We want to get their playbooks. We've got One Good Thing Talks with Mallory Erickson and Kishana Palmer, who are dear friends of. We Are For Good in this community. They're going to bring some mic drop talks that you don't want to miss, and then we've got a workshop Y'all.

Speaker 2: 14:52

If you come for nothing, please come for this workshop with Dorothy Chang, who is an incredible human being, because you're going to be designing for wellbeing.

Speaker 2: 15:03

It's a co-design workshop where all of our participants are going to complete a live design challenge. We're going to explore how to create workplace systems, practices and processes that are going to incentivize and nurture cultures of healing and wellness within your organization. If you feel like that is something that your organization needs, please come take notes in that one. Be an active participant, because we want collective thought around how to build and co-build missions that not only thrive on the balance sheet but thrive culturally too. So just know it's going to be a day of amazing conversations, but, most importantly, it's going to be a time to gather, reflect, rest and pause, and throughout this session these sessions we're going to intentionally create space so you can network one-to-one with other like-minded friends. You're going to be able to talk about what's really plaguing you, your organization, and guess what? These stories are going to be the connective tissue that bring us all together and help us work toward healing.

Speaker 1: 16:05

And friends. If this feels like a lot, I'm telling you it's going to be in the uplift of we are for good, I mean this is a safe place to come. It's going to be fun, it's going to be engaging and truly. Becky said this, but if you can come for just a part of it, please do, because we really want to get these stories in front of you. So we got to round out with the one good thing. I mean, hopefully you've registered, so go to weareforgoodcom, slash, impact up It'll be linked in the show notes.

Speaker 1: 16:29

We want to see your face, so definitely come. But we got to leave you with a. One good thing, and I'll just cut to the chase Friend, we want you to embrace the pause. You are worthy of intentional reflection. You're worthy of community connection. I didn't mean for that to rhyme, but I love that it does.

Speaker 1: 16:49

But you know our team, we didn't really share this at the top, but our team has done a lot of pausing this fall and it has been really good and really healthy for us, because we both can tend to be in grind mode and there's always more and more and more that we can do.

Speaker 1: 17:05

And the most powerful thing we can do really is pause and take stock. It allows you a moment to sit in gratitude for what's in front of you and to be present to that moment, but also to realize, like, what you're maybe missing because you're moving so fast. And I know that was a huge moment of realignment for us. It gave us moments to reconnect personally in ways that you know we had just been moving too fast, to slow down and really check on each other and to dial into, like, what do we want for our own lives? Because our lives are bigger than we are for good and it's bigger than the organization. You know we are for good and it's bigger than the organization. We are not just our jobs, we are whole humans. So the pause is so important and I hope that you'll embrace the pause, whether you do that with us, which we want you to on October 10th, but if you find a time outside of that, we're pulling for you as well.

Speaker 2: 17:50

Yeah, these impact up gatherings. They're a place for you. It's a place to share, gather, get curious and get activated. We really hope we see you there. Your voice is so important and we want to hear from you and your organization. This summit is free the day of, so join us, live, but know that we're also going to have the recordings available for purchase for you so you can have access to the workshops, the conversations, resources and more. But hey, if you're a we are for good member, they are free to you. So head over to. We are for goodcom backslash impact up register. Add the sessions you don't want to miss on your calendar and, heck, invite a friend to join you today, because we want to link arms and get more comfortable with rest, get more comfortable in the pause. We really hope to see you there, friends.

Speaker 1: 18:37

Yeah, so glad you're here.