Choosing Love and Boldly Crossing the Lines That Divide Us
October 18, 2022 by Wendy B White
Welcome to our first podcast spotlighting Continuum's nonprofit Let's Choose Love . Let us know what you think.
I’m so pleased to be a guest on Business Leaders with Soul Podcast hosted by Lee Aldridge, a podcast showcasing change-makers and innovators of our time who are ushering in a new age of conscious business.
Listen in as I share how we founded Let’s Choose Love as one of the ways Continuum gives back, providing mini-grants around the country to people with great ideas for expressing love in their communities.
"I want to support people in breaking through their fear and to really think about what unique gifts they want to contribute to the world.”
Wendy White
See the full podcast transcript below. Follow along if you wish or reread later for your favorite quotes.
Transcript:
Wendy (00:00):
We want to capture stories of ordinary people, breaking through their own fear and, and knowing that they actually can do something and actually have an impact on the things that they care about, because we believe that it, hopefully it will inspire others to find what is their way to give back and then to do it.
Announcer (00:24):
Welcome to Business Leaders with Soul, the podcast showcasing the change makers and innovators of our times who are ushering in a new age of conscious business. They're authentic, they're original and their message connects with the people they're here to serve. Be inspired by these futurists and make the difference that you, too, came here to make. And now here's your host Lee Aldridge.
Lee (00:52):
Hi everybody. I'm Lee Aldridge with Soul Story Creative, where we don't tell you who to be. We show the world who you are. And today we have a great show for you. We have Wendy White with us, founder and CEO of Let's Choose Love. And she's going to share her thoughts on the future of conscious business and what that means to her.
Wendy White envisions a world where love rules, where people can boldly cross the lines that divide us and come together to innovate a new world—a new way of being that works for us all. That's why Wendy created Let's Choose Love [LCL], a movement dedicated to inspiring people to discover their own voice, their own gifts and their unique role in building this beautiful new world where love rules. Let's Choose Love is fresh, fun, and thoughtful. And it's making a big impact.
Wendy and her team believe everyone has a place and a role to fill through inspiring and supporting others in living their dreams. The entire community is lifted up and the world changes. Wendy also co-founded Continuum Consulting Services over 20 years ago. She continues to share as much passion, creativity and wealth of experience she has with Let's Choose Love that she has done with Continuum with fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and nonprofits through her unique experiential approach to organizational development. Now, when Wendy's not consulting, she keeps life in balance with her love for yoga, kayaking, biking, traveling music, volunteering, gardening, writing, entertaining, and enjoying her two adult children. Wendy, welcome. I am so happy to have you.
Wendy (03:09):
Thank you so much, Lee. I'm so excited to be here and have an opportunity to talk to all the people that come and listen to your podcast. So really glad to be here.
Lee (03:20):
Well, I just don't believe I've met anyone with your level of energy in creating and building. What you have built is amazing. Not only have you led Continuum to incredible success, training teams and fun outdoors on adventures, but you're making LCL into a movement so fast. Yeah. With all that you were doing, how did you even think you would create such a movement? Tell us, tell us how you conceived of LCL.
Wendy (03:56):
I don't know if I conceived of it, or if it conceived me <laugh> so, you know, it was during the pandemic, and there was just so much that was going on and people were feeling so disempowered, and everything around us was negative in the news. You know, I was finding people were just having a hard time getting off their couch and, I wanted to find a way to inspire people. I think that right now that there's more to do than there ever has been before.
There are more opportunities to be able to give back in the world to make a difference. And it almost doesn't matter. You know, we can be sitting around and be thinking about all these different things you can do, and then you feel like I'm not going to do anything because it's all too much.
I really started thinking about that and what would bring us together. What would inspire people? And it was actually during one of my meditations, [I'm big into meditating] And so I was there and then just what went into my deep meditation. I came out of it, and it's almost like the entire concept for Let's Choose Love just formed right there. And I was like, oh, I love that--and I'm going to make that happen-- that was probably where the blueprint came from.
Lee (05:14):
People, the minute they just don't put the time into meditation and I'm like, it's the easiest way. The entire concept came to you. I can't tell you how many times I've heard people say that. So, you had this idea, and what happened next? I know you started giving out mini grants that were designed to fund people's give-back dreams. When was that-- about a year ago? Can you share a little about this and why you thought that these mini grants were an important element of this movement Let's Choose Love?
Wendy (05:57):
Thank you so much for asking that. You know, when we started, it was more of a vehicle to be able to start writing and get my views out into the world and new ideas out into the world that I thought would inspire people. But then as, as I moved forward, I realized we needed action. The time was not to continue to talk. We need to do something that really puts more love out into the world. There are so many divides and what I looked at is what are the things that can unite us, and that if we could, with every interaction in every decision, regardless of your belief systems, regardless of where you come from, if we would choose love, it could be what actually brought us together.
So that was one place where I started. But then it was like, you know what? I want to fund people's give-back dreams. I want to encourage people to get off their couch and break through their fear, think about what their unique gifts, talents, and passion are, and what they want to contribute to the world. And so I thought, what are the things that stop people from doing it? I think one is that they need the inspiration. Often, it's money that’s a blocker.
And I found out that sometimes, even a little bit of money in the right hands of somebody who has an idea and has a passion, you can make great things happen. So, money was one thing. The other is sometimes, people just don't have the skills to sort of take a fuzzy idea, make it concrete enough to actually see how it can come together step by step, and actually be implemented to create the change you want to make.
And then, and then probably the third thing is somebody to believe in them, like somebody to listen to your idea and to say, you know what, that's amazing. I believe you can do that, and I want to help you do it. I'm going to give you money. And, and our grants, you know that's where we came up with it. Not only do we give money, but we actually assign a coach, you know, somebody who will help them to be able to kind of form their own brilliant ideas.
Lee (08:16):
I think, so, so many have an idea. It's a spark, you know; it is that inspiration, and we have so many wonderful people out there with that who are inspiring. You know, I hope I'm inspiring. but you know, faith without action-- ideas without action-- stay in the ethereal. They are not brought into form. So, you know, the money's one thing, but that skills thing, when you have a fuzzy idea and I have people coming to me that feel like they have to get clear on that fuzzy idea before they start with some action. And for me that would be developing a brand story and getting yourself clear. But when you have somebody that you can award a little bit of money, that thousand dollars and help them get clear on that fuzzy idea, that just isn't that regenerative, then it feels like it fuels itself. You know, just to take that little bit of money. Do you, do you have any stories about how this would work?
Wendy (09:34):
Oh, sure. You know, one of the things we find is, we don't put too many criteria on what we fund because we want it to be able to be really tied to people's passions. And what I love about that is our mini grants are all over the board. I mean, we have people saving horses from the slaughterhouse to somebody else doing the great Wautauga River cleanup, to another person we’re working with, with homeless shelters or with after school programs for children, you know, it goes across the gamut. We just really wanted to make it broad. And, what was a really kind of fun thing that happened a couple weeks ago is we funded this woman who wanted to be able to, her name was Melissa, wanted to do an after school kind of program during the summer. So, it wasn't after school, but it was to do a financial literacy program. And she worked with a lot of kids that were in the underserved communities that may not have a lot of information on things like: how do you how do you even open up a bank account? How do you even make money? How do you manage money? Like they, they just didn't have a lot of financial literacy. And so, she wanted to put the program together. Well, Melissa had applied for several grants. This was just one of them. But when she got it, she was so excited that Let's Choose Love, you know, said that your idea is worth it and we are going to fund it, that she actually then went back to her mayor and her city council in her town.
(11:10):
And she said, you know, listen, this organization out in Asheville, North Carolina, is funding my idea and you haven't given me any money. And so, then all of a sudden, they started giving her some money to fund some of her other programs. So, it's been so exciting to see how once that spark is lit and the fuel is sort of added to the fire, it just gives them the confidence to be able to go out and ask for more money, ask for donations, go out and knock on doors. Things that they might not have done even a couple of weeks ago.
Lee (11:49):
That's right. Now, their idea is validated. You know, that is huge. We, you know, imposter syndrome is real. Who am I? Who am I to come up with a brilliant idea? You know, and the benchmarks that we erroneously give ourselves of, you know, the, the big names, it's not right. There are many, many, many, many, so many thousands, hundreds of thousands of people doing good things. And that's, that's what I love about what you're doing is you are illuminating each of us who has a unique story that's worth sharing and, unique passions that we're here to do. I love how you say that, that we each have a role. So now, she's not only got her after school financial literacy program, who knows what it could grow into.? We'll have to have you back and see what happens with Miss Melissa.
Wendy (12:51):
She's quite a dynamo, but all of our grantees are like that, you know? And, and it's just, they all come, they come with ideas. There was this one group of, of med students out in Portland, Oregon--that was one of our earlier grants. They had been doing a kind of telehealth with a group of immigrants that had come and were sort of sequestered in Portland because this was really during the lockdown of the pandemic. And they were doing kind of like social sexual health, you know, over the phone for teenagers. And when they were allowed to finally come out of the building, they wanted to do something that really welcomed them to the US. So took their money, and these four med students used the money to create a community garden with the kids. They bought soil and they bought, they bought the seeds, and then they actually bought paint, and they did this whole mural. And then they went and bought tickets to be able to take them to one of the baseball games. You know, that was such a unique idea.
Lee(14:02):
I wouldn't have thought of that. You think of a community garden and tickets to a baseball game. I love it. That community garden's there forever. Now, if people keep go tending it, it's always going to be there.
Wendy (14:16):
It's really neat. There's, there's another, another woman in Raleigh, North Carolina, and she's actually visually impaired and has very little mobility, but she has a scooter. And so what her mini-grant is, is called Allie's cart. And so she knows she's in this kind of suburb and neighborhood where she takes her electric card around the neighborhood. But, she used the money to be able to purchase art supplies and books and little games and activities. And so she goes around and when she sees children on the side of the road in the neighborhood, she just goes over and says, ‘Hey, would you, you wanna try this art project? Hey, would you, would you like me to read you this book?’ She's almost like the ice cream man now, right?
Where people come out when they see you has so many good, positive kinds of things to it, because one, the self-esteem for her, who's used to kind of being supported and given to. It gives people who are sometimes curious about people who have different disabilities--she actually goes around with another gentleman who's in a wheelchair, paralyzed from the neck down--so the two of them together go in their cart and their wheelchair all around the neighborhood. The kids come and then they not only do the craft projects, but they'll talk to them. They'll answer their questions about what it's like to be in a wheelchair, what it's like to be visually impaired. And, they they're just able to be themselves, to contribute but break down some of the barriers that separate us, especially with able bodies and non-able bodies. And it pulls a whole community together.
Lee(15:59):
Yes, it does. And it starts with the kids.
They are making a huge impact on every single one of those children. It's changing their perspective. That's not what you had thought when you issued and awarded that mini grant. So when you award these, are you just like so curious to see what else is going to unfold that you didn't expect?
Wendy(16:29):
Oh, always it's so exciting. And, that’s the other part of it, the only criteria we have is that you have to let us tell your story because the other part of the grant is that we want to attract people--capture stories of ordinary people breaking through their own fear and knowing that they actually can do something and have an impact on the things they care about. We want to capture those stories. We want to amplify those stories through social media and other outlets because we believe that it, hopefully, will inspire others to find their way to give back and then to do it.
Lee (17:11):
Yeah. I could see other people wanting to start something like Let's Choose Love. It just feels like it's not such a big, complicated model. I mean, I'm sure there's a lot that goes into running it, but still, it's born of inspiration and brought through real action that people would want to contribute to. I would love to contribute, just to see who's going to do what with that award, you know, is so intriguing. So, there's a lot of opportunity.
Wendy (17:53):
There is a lot of opportunity. I'm so glad that you brought up the contribution because, you know, when we started, I wanted to see where it would go. Sometimes, people have an idea and they, they structure it, and they put a plan together to make it happen. I didn't want to do that with this.
Lee (18:10):
That's what, what this was about--this was originally an inspirational blog, you know, to get people to be happier and choose love. Right.
Wendy (18:21):
I wanted to see where it would naturally grow and then go ahead and put structure and form to support where it was naturally growing.
So as of last Friday, we started a 501 C-3. We've officially put in all of our information and we're waiting for that. We have a bank account; we have our very first board meeting tonight to look at not only what we're doing, but where we're heading. And then, it's going to be open for other people to support and to be able to provide grants and donate.
So, we're pretty excited about that. Right now, our funding comes primarily through Continuum, our consulting firm that Lisa Marie Main and I started. Five percent of everything that comes in goes to our give-back fund. That's how we've been funding all of the grants to date. But my vision is like, instead of being just Continuum Let's Choose Love grants; maybe it'll be the Edward Jones grant or whatever group wants to donate. We could put their name to it, and it could be such a great way for them to contribute to the community, have all of that Goodwill and also serve more and more people.
Lee (19:35):
I've found, too, in my business, and what's so wonderful about my business is I get to learn about many different sectors and channels of revenue and raising money. And one of the things with donating is, and, I don't know, nonprofits have to run, they have their own marketing budget, they have their own operations and their own HR stuff. But, what's interesting is that people want to know how their money's being used, which is fair. Just so you don't insist that it has to be used a certain way. I mean, if we're going to use it on the back end to run the nonprofit, but what is going happen? I think with Let's Choose Love, because you're based in stories, in storytelling for the purpose of inspiration and activation, I think it's prime for people wanting to be a part of it because I get to see if when I donate and, Wendy, who was awarded, you know, and, oh, I love that—I can't wait to see what they do. It's the stories, it's the storytelling, I think.
Wendy (21:04):
I agree with you. It's a personal connection to what you're giving to. That's why when we capture the story, if you are the one that donated, you actually also get that story that you could share on your social media. And so, then, it just continues to amplify good work by good people. I think it's a lot easier to get people to donate if they know that it's going to a particular person. And that's what I think is the magic about the grants. There's such a direct connection between your dollars and the impact you're making.
Lee (21:38):
Right. Right. I could even see me, you know, donating my time and resources to help somebody develop their brand story, you know, their power positioning in the marketplace. And to, to get that attention.
Wendy (21:54):
I might sign you up to be one of our coaches because sometimes, you know, some of the people's dreams are to be able to get a nonprofit up and going, and we might fund a particular project, but what their real needs are, is having you communicate. And they're just starting the website and say you would be a perfect coach because we try to pair people that have background and a passion. And so it's not just your peer coaching, because you're also mentoring, consulting, sharing information, making connections so much easier to do that when you're doing it in something that you already have a lot of experience with.
Lee (22:31):
Well, I just don't see anything wrong at all with this model. I just love it. And I, I just feel, I would love to be a coach, by the way. I'd be happy to help you guys out and volunteer in that capacity because I just can't stop talking about brand story and brand strategy. I love it. So, we're going to have you back and see where these stories lead, where we're at that time. As we wrap up, is there anything else you'd like to add, Wendy, another fun story that you might have about somebody?
Wendy(23:07):
There's so many fun ones and they're just all so unique. There's this one gentleman that we're we're funding, and he's actually a former vet. He's been in four different rounds of Afghanistan, and his heart is to be able to give to the warriors coming back, but not to the warriors as much to the people that are their families, to be able to help them understand how you can talk with them and how you can connect, how you can listen to the stories because he's concerned about the mental health issues and the suicides and people are coming back with.
Lee (23:46):
Oh it's horrible for that. But, people have known about the veteran suicide rate. I've been working with somebody for years on that. She's got ‘Canines with a Cause’ and pairs vets with a dog to help them through. But, oh my goodness, empowering the families so that they can then help that. That's beautiful. Wow. You must just put your head on the pillow at night with a big grin.
Wendy (24:19):
I love it because they get so excited. I'm getting texts on and off all day long about where they are and what they're doing and what happened, or they send me their latest social media post. And it's just amazing, you know.
Lee (24:33):
You're putting all of that on Let's Choose Love. So, for our listeners, if you go to Let's Choose Love.com and that's where you are going to be.
Wendy (24:44):
Lee (24:46):
Be sure to get that redirect. And she has so many ways that you can participate from putting in a favorite story or a favorite song to donating your time, donating to a mini grant or even applying for one. Maybe some of you out there have this little idea., And if you hang around me very much, you will know that I tell you to capture that idea as fast as it comes in. And then, as Wendy says, when you have that spark, meditate on it--who knows what is going to unfold and what you will be given from that. it's beautiful. Let’s see, did I cover everything? Our listeners can get in touch with you through your website. You have a newsletter to sign up for.
Wendy (25:55):
We do, and we really encourage you to share the story. So right now, you know, even just following us, following us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and if you see a story you like, share it. I've been sharing things that make a nice story to read while you're having your morning cup of coffee. You know, people need good news, and to see a lot of good people out there because we're hearing a lot from the people that have these loud voices that are trying to get us in all different directions and are not always positive. I think one of the things we can do is to share positive stories of good people doing good things,
Lee (26:32):
That is truth. I think that's a beautiful way to close this out, and I encourage everybody to choose love and get in with Wendy and her movement. And let's make the change in this world that we know is already taking place. Let's keep going. Thank you, Wendy.
Wendy (26:55):
Thank you so so much for inviting me to be a part of your podcast. I so appreciate it.
Lee(27:01):
Thank you. And thank you for the incredible work you're doing in the world. We just love it. Thank you.