0:02

Welcome to the Purpose and Profit Club

0:04

podcast for nonprofit leaders , mission-driven

0:07

creatives and social entrepreneurs . Get

0:09

ready to stop dreaming and start doing

0:12

. Here ideas become action

0:14

. We prioritize purpose and profit

0:16

. You ready , let's go ? Welcome

0:20

, josh Penny . You're the director of

0:23

Social Impact at Hinge to the podcast

0:25

. I'm so excited to have you on . We

0:27

kind of go way back . We go back in

0:30

your MailChimp days when you were in

0:32

corporate citizenship and I feel like when

0:34

you joined Hinge , I was so

0:36

excited because number one . I was like , oh

0:38

, hinge is so cool , I was so excited

0:40

that this role existed . So

0:42

I'm excited to dig into what you've been

0:44

working on and invite you to the podcast

0:47

.

0:48

Christina , it's so good to be here . Thank

0:50

you for having me . I've been following

0:52

along with the podcast for

0:54

the last couple of years and excited to

0:57

finally get to talk to you .

1:00

So let's talk a little bit first

1:02

about what your work , what your

1:04

role is like at Hinge . So tell me , because

1:06

Hinge is a dating app and I

1:08

feel like I only know dating apps

1:10

through my friends and they're super fun when

1:13

you're like you know the person

1:15

kind of going oh , that person looks kind of cool

1:17

. So tell us about your role at Hinge , because Hinge is

1:19

a dating app . So for those of you who you

1:21

know are partnered up and may not know that , tell

1:23

us about you know why this role exists and

1:26

your work .

1:27

Yeah , so Hinge , we call ourselves

1:29

the dating app designed to be deleted

1:31

, and we're all about

1:34

helping people find those intentional

1:37

connections , and that's

1:39

sort of like our lane in

1:43

the dating space . When

1:45

I joined Hinge

1:48

, there was an opportunity to

1:50

figure out what social impact could

1:52

mean for a dating app , and I

1:54

was so excited about that it was . I

1:57

never thought about doing social impact work

1:59

at a dating app , but when

2:02

I started to talk to the team and

2:04

really got to know Hinge though

2:08

the act of forming relationships

2:10

, forging connections , the

2:13

impact that that has on our mental health

2:15

, on our well-being , our physical

2:17

health it just all started to click . And

2:19

so my job

2:22

as director of social impact at Hinge is all

2:24

about how do we live

2:26

that purpose outside of our app . How

2:28

do we sort of help

2:30

people forge connections out in the world

2:33

in person and whatnot ?

2:36

I love that and that's kind of a bold

2:38

move for a dating app to be like wait , how

2:40

do we get people in real life off the app

2:42

? Right , I love that as your tagline

2:44

and , as you were speaking , one of the things I

2:46

was thinking about was , like , if you've heard of the blue

2:48

zones , the blue zones are like areas across

2:51

the world where people live the longest and

2:53

they kind of can't figure out , like it's not this one

2:55

diet , like it's not the Mediterranean

2:57

diet , it's not this or that , though

2:59

the Mediterranean is one of the spots

3:01

that has a blue zone and a lot of times

3:04

what they see is it hinges on community

3:06

, it hinges on friendship and

3:08

, like in person , connections . Those

3:10

are the people who have those community

3:12

friendships , those relationships

3:15

that they live to 100 like that . So

3:17

, anyway , very cool , we're going to dig into

3:20

what prompted this conversation

3:22

. So you posted on LinkedIn about One

3:24

More Hour and I was like you have to come on the podcast

3:27

. Everybody needs to know about this , so tell

3:29

us about One More Hour what

3:32

it is , who it's for , all that's good stuff .

3:34

Sure . So One More Hour is hinges

3:36

platform for encouraging

3:38

in person connection amongst

3:41

, specifically , gen

3:43

Z . Back in May of 2023

3:46

, the Surgeon General released a landmark

3:48

advisory on the loneliness epidemic in this

3:51

country . One of the things that

3:53

struck us the most is the

3:55

decline in time

3:57

that we're spending in person with others

4:00

, and so if you are a young adult

4:02

in 2003 , you

4:04

got 1000 more hours

4:07

every year of in person connection

4:10

time than you do if you're a young

4:12

adult today , and when you

4:14

think that's like mind blowing , and when you think

4:16

about everything

4:18

that could happen in 1000 hours

4:21

and how that might add to value to your

4:23

life , it's a real deficit

4:25

of modern life . So One

4:30

More Hour is all about that . It's a collection

4:32

of campaigns and partnerships programs

4:35

that are intended to help

4:37

people add in more

4:40

time , more in person time , to their routines , and

4:43

so the first thing that we're doing is

4:45

this $1 million grant initiative .

4:48

And tell us about that . So what is the Grand

4:50

Initiative ?

4:51

So the Grand Initiative

4:53

is all about finding clubs

4:56

and social groups in Atlanta

4:58

, in New York and Los Angeles

5:00

. This connection is

5:02

hyper-local and so we wanted

5:05

to like find three cities that

5:07

Hinge had meaningful

5:09

connections to . But also you know that

5:12

community level is where connection

5:14

happens , and so it's

5:16

all about finding the book clubs

5:19

, the running groups , the

5:21

surf groups I don't

5:23

know if there's surf groups in Atlanta , but

5:26

there might be an Atlanta , you

5:28

know and people who are

5:30

building in-person connection

5:32

time on a regular basis . It's recurring

5:35

, and so we're really looking for

5:37

clubs . And you

5:39

know we were really inspired by , as

5:41

we were doing research for this , this

5:45

notion that people used

5:47

to join a lot more clubs . It used

5:49

to be a bigger part of people's lives . You

5:52

may have heard of Bowling Alone , the

5:55

Bob Putnam book that's pretty famous

5:57

about this dynamic , and

6:01

we wanted to sort of bring that back and we thought it

6:03

was a really useful tool for

6:05

Gen Z .

6:07

That's so cool . Okay , yes , I think people

6:09

did used to join a lot more clubs and

6:11

I think now maybe the misstep is

6:13

people are finding their community

6:15

online and thinking that's enough , like box

6:18

checked right and skipping

6:20

the part of the in-person piece

6:23

and I was digging into that Sergeant

6:25

General's advisory and we'll link to it in the show

6:27

notes and one of the pieces I think that

6:29

was a little more drilled down . For me it was like that is a

6:31

lot Was that social engagement with friends

6:33

has decreased 20 hours per month

6:35

. Like if you think about that , that's

6:37

20 hours per month is a part-time job

6:40

. Like only it's the good

6:42

part , it's communicating and

6:44

hanging out with your friend , being in that book

6:46

club , that run club , something like that . The

6:48

other one that I really the two other two notes

6:50

I wrote down was that isolation is up

6:53

, which I think will come to no shock to anyone

6:55

, because I think we really really saw that as like

6:57

almost an effect of 2020

6:59

. Is that like really kind of that isolation

7:01

? And then the other piece for me that I

7:03

kind of went yeah , I think that's true is

7:05

that family engagement is down . So

7:08

for those folks , whether it's your

7:10

family in your home or your extended family

7:12

, just that sort of like Sunday dinner or

7:14

like whatever version of that , is down

7:17

and it's like , yeah , it is . And I'm

7:19

curious , josh , what you think because , as

7:21

you've kind of spearheaded this program development

7:23

, like what do you think what's the why

7:25

behind that ? Like , what do you think is the why

7:27

behind the decline in

7:29

all of this ?

7:31

Yeah , well , our social networks

7:33

are shrinking . You know

7:35

, you brought it up part of the reason why

7:37

people are spending less

7:39

time is because there's

7:41

all these reports about people having fewer friends

7:44

, there's reports

7:46

about people being more estranged from family

7:48

, right , and so our social networks

7:50

, our in-person social networks and lives are

7:52

getting smaller . I

7:55

think , like you could look at the way

7:57

that cities are set up , you

7:59

could look at the decline in third spaces

8:01

. You know

8:03

we used to live in a country where people would

8:05

go a happy hour after work , like

8:08

religiously or church attendance

8:10

.

8:11

That's good yeah .

8:13

And so those facets of

8:15

life have changed . And

8:17

then also there's like technology , right , and

8:20

the internet is

8:23

an amazing resource and allows

8:25

us to do lots of things , but

8:27

there are some ways where it

8:29

might be displacing time that

8:34

we could be spending with others in person

8:36

, especially around our leisure time

8:38

, and we sort of use

8:40

our leisure time instead to

8:42

consume content

8:45

, to scroll on TikTok all

8:47

of which could be fun and could feel good in

8:49

the moment , but we know

8:51

that that in-person time is really healthy

8:53

. It's good not just for our mental health

8:55

, but our physical health too .

8:57

I went to like a what

8:59

was it ? Where did I go to ? I went to a female founder's

9:02

dinner . That's what it was , and it was

9:04

big . It was last year . And I walk into this room

9:06

I'm like , oh my god , there's like 200

9:08

women here . Like I wasn't ready . Do

9:11

you know what I mean ? And I

9:13

felt this immediate learning curve , even

9:15

though I've been in these dinners . I've been in these rooms before

9:17

. But it was like everybody had the QR code

9:19

instead of a business card , like I don't

9:21

. And it was like this sort of like oh

9:23

gosh , do I belong here ? Oh gosh

9:25

, is this for me ? And then at the end of

9:27

the night it's like this is it's

9:30

been so nice to be around these women

9:32

, to sit at a table and just

9:34

talk and just like do you know what

9:36

I mean ? Just connect and laugh and just misstep

9:38

and all of the things . And then have somebody go here's

9:41

how you get a QR code for your LinkedIn , christina

9:43

. Like here's how you do it . And

9:45

at the end I joined it

9:47

was a membership and I joined and

9:49

they said we've got all of these online

9:52

events throughout the year and then we do four in-person

9:54

things in 2024

9:57

. And I was like sign me up . I

9:59

don't know that I'm going to go to the online ones , but I

10:01

know that this is a muscle

10:03

not only that I want to work out , but

10:05

that is worth doing , it's

10:07

worth doing . It was like I kind of forgot for

10:09

a second , so I just want to offer that . I

10:12

think it happens to all of us , even

10:14

if it's like , oh yeah , you kind of convince yourself

10:16

like online's enough , or I already am

10:19

connected with that person because I'm friends with

10:21

them on whatever app . No , no , no , no , no . It's

10:23

not the same , it's not the same .

10:25

Well , what I love about what you just said is

10:27

you found a group that offered a

10:29

very easy structure to plug into

10:32

, and that's

10:34

so important . And

10:36

when we talk about the lack of third spaces

10:38

or the decline in church

10:40

attendance or Kewani's Club , there

10:43

are just fewer and fewer

10:45

of those structures . And so

10:47

finding something that's easy to plug into which

10:50

is why we've been focused on clubs

10:52

and social groups and organizations built

10:55

around an activity it

10:57

makes it so much easier . It makes it so much easier

10:59

.

10:59

One other life-old moment in this and I want

11:01

to offer this because it's a little bit different . But I think

11:03

this proves what your kind of

11:06

theory which is . My friend Christie

11:08

started this book club and the book club

11:10

is based on this principle and

11:12

it was you can read the book or

11:14

watch the movie , or neither . Come

11:17

once a month to hang

11:19

out and we're going to talk about it and I was like can

11:21

I join ? And it was the first time that I've

11:23

ever said this book club is for me . She

11:26

figured out what the book slash movie was

11:28

going to be for the next 12 months . She

11:30

made it very easy and I don't have to feel

11:32

bad if I watch part

11:34

of the series , read part of the book

11:36

. It was just this like it took

11:38

the friction out and so I talk a lot about

11:40

friction in my business and marketing , but that's a friction

11:43

point of right . Again , do I belong

11:45

here ? Is this for me ? I don't know if I'm going

11:47

to be able to do it . She's like just come , come .

11:49

I'm like oh , that's all . That's fine , absolutely

11:51

.

11:52

Yeah .

11:55

There is . I mean , I'm in the world of dating

11:57

, where dating is like high friction

11:59

right , when we bring all of these expectations

12:02

, all these wants , these desires and

12:06

with friends it

12:08

should be a little easier than that , right

12:10

. And what

12:13

we don't want to do is suggest

12:15

that just

12:19

joining a club is going to solve

12:21

everything that you get there and

12:23

then no more loneliness

12:25

. But it allows

12:27

those relationships to happen organically

12:29

, it allows you to meet people , but

12:32

it also sort of like because

12:35

you have a book or a

12:37

movie , it anchors right , it

12:39

anchors it yeah .

12:40

Yeah . So Priya Parker talks

12:42

about this in the art of gathering , like when people

12:45

gather they need a shared

12:47

purpose , right , and when you give them that

12:49

, that informs that connection

12:51

. Versus , if you've ever we've all been

12:53

to the dinner party where it just feels like the hodgepodge

12:56

and no one really knows anyone

12:58

but no one's really facilitating and saying

13:00

, hey , this is Josh right , and there's

13:03

no flow to it . Priya talks about that

13:05

when you have just , even if it's just like I

13:07

think January's is the Joy Luck Club , it's like boom

13:09

, I've heard of it , I remember that movie

13:11

. Read the book , don't . That's

13:13

the anchor , right , that's the piece and

13:15

it sort of informs that connection . So

13:18

, that being said , I want to talk about

13:20

who should apply for

13:23

this grant , like who's the ideal

13:25

? It could be a nonprofit

13:27

, it doesn't have to be , so let's dig into that .

13:29

Yeah , so we're

13:31

based in these three cities , as I mentioned

13:33

Atlanta , new York , la

13:35

, and

13:39

the other really important thing that we're looking

13:41

for is a focus

13:43

on Gen Z , and

13:45

the way we're thinking about that is

13:47

a plurality of the members

13:49

of the people involved need to be Gen

13:51

Z . This is when we talk

13:53

about who is most impacted by the loneliness

13:56

epidemic . 18

13:58

to 26-year-olds are high

14:00

on that list and they're actually , I

14:02

mean , for a long time when we talked

14:04

about loneliness , they only focused

14:07

on aging populations , and so there hasn't been a

14:09

lot of initiatives and things specifically

14:11

for this group , and that's why we're focused there

14:13

. We're looking for smaller

14:15

organizations , so people

14:18

, orgs with a budget under $500,000

14:21

. And

14:23

we're looking for groups

14:26

that have some sort of programming where it's

14:28

a regularly recurring structure

14:30

, so not one-off events

14:33

or a big festival , which are

14:35

important , but we're looking for probably

14:38

the smaller getting

14:40

30 people together to go on a hike every

14:43

week . That sort of thing is

14:46

spot on . And

14:49

then we recognize that when

14:51

you want to focus on smaller groups

14:53

and grassroots groups , that 501c3

14:57

status isn't necessarily the

14:59

best marker for that

15:01

, and so we're open to groups who may have

15:03

501c3 status , who might

15:05

have 501c7 , might have

15:07

a fiscal sponsorship might

15:10

be in the process of securing that , or

15:13

on a case-by-case basis . We're happy

15:15

to look at other instances . I

15:19

think , like when we think about what this , maybe

15:22

who this might not be for

15:24

, I think the only thing I would add is we're

15:28

looking at there

15:33

are lots of like sort of commercial

15:35

social clubs

15:38

, right , like the Soho house

15:40

. This is not for the Soho . Yes , yes , yes , yes . So

15:42

, yes , yes the great point .

15:44

Yeah , and there are a few that came to mind

15:47

here in Atlanta that I'm like oh , I'm glad they're here , but

15:49

this is not that . This is not that . Yeah

15:51

no , I think we love Soho house , but

15:54

that's right , okay

15:56

. I think

15:58

it's interesting too that the focus on Gen Z

16:00

and needed right

16:03

. So if you even go

16:05

back again to just 2020 , I

16:07

mean , those were the kids who graduated

16:10

high school with nothing like literally

16:13

there was no send off right that first

16:15

year of college . Maybe they

16:18

went to online , they took up . Many

16:20

of them are doing the gap year , many of them are

16:22

not . It's like the isolation

16:24

kind of piece really stacks

16:26

up and so that

16:29

piece it helps that my nephews

16:31

and nieces are older . So I'm like I see it

16:33

. I'm like they got one earbud in at

16:35

the table the minute they

16:37

hit that kind of teenage year . I'm like

16:39

, get that earbud out . Like there's

16:42

this online piece that's really , really

16:44

built out and the in-person social aspect

16:47

, I think , is a huge opportunity

16:49

for us to help kind

16:51

of not curate , but

16:54

help invite them to right , absolutely

16:57

so . Okay , I

16:59

wanna talk a little bit about the introverts

17:02

, because when

17:04

I think about like I think

17:06

about just online social media , all of it

17:08

I have these two opinions that I hold

17:10

true and that are very , very opposing

17:13

. It's like the most wonderful thing . Like

17:15

I have an aunt that

17:17

I've never met in real life that I get to connect

17:19

with on Facebook . It's amazing . Thank

17:21

you , 23andme right . Like

17:23

found with my long lost aunt . Like that's

17:26

awesome . My family that's overseas

17:28

in Greece get to hang out with that . It's so good . And

17:31

it also can be

17:33

doom scrolling , rabbit hole , trolling

17:36

, all of the things and I think , the other pieces

17:38

somewhere in the middle that

17:40

isn't as binary . It can feel

17:43

like I'm consuming

17:45

content and so that's how I'm

17:47

connected , which is sort of the misstep

17:49

. Right Is just like I feel like

17:51

I caught up with my friend , but I didn't

17:54

really cause , I actually didn't interact with her , I just

17:56

saw her content right . But there

17:58

are a lot of introverts in the world who

18:00

may say the thought of showing

18:02

up to your book club , christina , sounds just

18:04

very nerve wracking , right . The

18:07

thought of showing up to your run club or like

18:09

whatever it is . You

18:11

know I'm 20 and that sounds awful

18:13

. What do we say to them ?

18:15

Sure , I mean a like their

18:17

experience is totally valid , right , yes

18:20

, yes , and what

18:22

? There's lots of ways into

18:24

building in person connection time that

18:27

don't require you to

18:30

join a group or to do something like that

18:33

might feel deeply uncomfortable

18:35

. You know this is the first sort of of

18:38

initiative that we're starting with , but

18:40

you know it could be for

18:43

someone who is an introvert that

18:46

they do have one or two friends

18:48

who , like , maybe they do

18:50

want to just sit and read together

18:52

and not speak to each other . But that's

18:55

good , that's enough . That builds connection

18:57

, that like starts to activate

19:00

the things in our brains right

19:02

, that's good for our mental health that feel protective

19:04

. And

19:06

I think sometimes

19:09

we think about

19:11

either like

19:13

the quantity of connection or

19:15

like the number of people that we're talking

19:17

to , or like how many people are available

19:19

, and versus

19:22

the quality . And the quality

19:24

is what's important and you

19:26

know I would just encourage people . You

19:30

know it's sort of like exercise , it's

19:32

sort of like healthy eating , it's like how

19:35

can you fit this into your life

19:37

in a way that makes the most

19:39

sense for you ?

19:41

Yeah , I think that's right

19:43

in line with how I think about it , and I mean think about this

19:45

concept of how we can kind of let things

19:47

atrophy , right , and

19:50

one of the things that I think I've

19:52

seen is it's

19:54

very easy as an adult to let friendships

19:56

atrophy . Or making new friends

19:58

, like that skill set , that muscle

20:01

of like how do I make friends again Of

20:03

you know , I did that in college and I just

20:05

kept those people right . What is it like to

20:07

make it right , those new connections

20:09

, and I think that , yeah , I'm

20:11

dating same thing . It's like you can think that

20:13

you're that it's really hard

20:15

to go out on a date or whatever the kind

20:18

of the pieces , or

20:20

you're not a natural at it or you're not

20:22

good at it . But I think the mistake in

20:24

all of that is that like often it's just under

20:26

practiced and it's just like that first

20:28

step . One of the things you said that

20:31

I think is really helpful is like , yeah , if you're

20:33

an introvert , then walking into the room of

20:35

200 people who are dressed in

20:37

like business suits which is basically what

20:40

I did yeah , that's gonna feel

20:42

uncomfortable and you know , no one right

20:44

Like gonna feel maybe you don't sign up for

20:46

that one and it's like instead I'm

20:48

thinking about my Tuesday night ceramics class

20:51

, right ? Ooh , that's way

20:53

more comfortable . Half the people have headphones

20:55

, on the other half I love to talk and

20:57

I get to decide where to sit . I

20:59

get to decide if I wanna do my own thing

21:01

. I get to decide if I wanna see

21:04

what , ask questions and write notes

21:06

and ask the teacher for a fourth time about

21:08

that glaze , cause I can't seem to remember it . Like

21:10

those pieces make it , that would be

21:12

much more comfortable with me and I'm also

21:15

doing something tactile , I'm working with my hands

21:17

and for many people who maybe are

21:19

a little more introverted or nervous or experiential

21:22

, that piece could work really well for

21:24

them , like in real life , yeah .

21:27

Absolutely . It's what

21:30

we hope people do is see

21:32

the connection that their social

21:34

health has to their overall health yeah

21:37

and then make the best choices for

21:40

them yeah .

21:41

You know , one

22:07

of the things that I think is this meme that's gone around

22:09

for years is like Jomo

22:12

, like the joy of missing out . Have

22:14

you heard that saying before ? Yeah , okay

22:16

, I think that Jomo exists

22:18

. Yes , it exists . We've all had

22:20

the person cancel and you're like , thank God , they

22:22

canceled , they get stay home and watch Netflix . That's

22:26

true . And when that person doesn't cancel

22:28

and I do go to the thing , there's times

22:30

I don't want to go to my serenity class to see nights how

22:33

many times I drive home . And I'm so

22:35

glad I had that conversation , I'm so

22:37

glad that I was just in the room , I'm so glad

22:39

that I took the step

22:42

to like , maybe make a new friend , maybe

22:44

make a new connection . That's , I think , the like

22:46

, the root of the magic of

22:48

this program . So let's talk a

22:50

little bit about , like , dreaming

22:52

on outcomes . What do you , what would

22:55

you love to see as an outcome of

22:57

this , this kind of first cohort

23:00

launch grant cycle , which

23:02

I know applications are live now . What

23:04

do we hope comes from it ?

23:06

Yeah , applications are live now through the 30th

23:08

of January and

23:11

you know these are grants that are they're all the same

23:13

size 25K . We

23:16

want to see people have ideas about

23:18

how they would invest in their own group and

23:20

what they think would bring more people in

23:22

, foster more connection . And

23:25

, ultimately , when we work

23:28

with do somethingorg or

23:30

if you're familiar with them last year to

23:33

help dream this up , and one

23:35

of the , and so they're experts

23:37

on Gen Z , you know

23:39

, like a youth run organization

23:41

, and we did lots of interviews

23:43

with Gen Z , and

23:46

one of the things that became very clear is like , how

23:48

do I just find out about what's out

23:50

there ? You know , what

23:52

are their clubs ? I didn't

23:55

know right when

23:57

are they ? How do I find someone to go with ? Are

24:00

they free , are they low cost ? And so

24:02

part of just what we want to do is

24:04

we want to , like , find dozens of these

24:06

groups and these cities and just elevate

24:08

them , put shine the spotlight

24:10

on what they're doing , show

24:13

how cool it can be to be a part

24:15

of it , lower the sort

24:17

of social anxiety of joining , and

24:19

so that's one big outcome and

24:21

then I hope , like bigger picture , people

24:24

, especially other

24:27

funders , other people in the social impacts

24:29

space start to see that

24:31

if

24:33

we should have like joy and

24:35

fun as part of our strategies when

24:39

creating impact , and that

24:41

this is like a really easy way

24:43

to do it and

24:46

it's something that we should keep in mind

24:48

when we think about

24:50

working with a generator Gen

24:52

Z , who's inundated with doom

24:56

stories about climate change

24:58

and you know , they came

25:00

of age during a pandemic and there

25:03

has to be hope . There has to be reasons

25:05

to be optimistic . That's be fun

25:07

. There has to be reasons to join in and

25:09

like once we unlock that

25:11

, I think we'll see more

25:14

people coming into the social impact space

25:16

wanting to experiment and

25:19

tackle some of these larger

25:21

, really serious issues

25:24

in the world .

25:25

Okay , one of the things you said I'm like this is

25:27

so good is , I think , many

25:30

organizations that are

25:32

in my world . They are writing

25:34

stories , sharing

25:36

stories from the space of like the bad

25:38

news , right , the bad news right . And

25:41

they are like , but , christina , like that's

25:43

the truth , right , you know , this is , this

25:46

is the reality of the people we

25:48

serve , the people we're trying to help , but we forget

25:50

that , like it's almost

25:52

like we're guilt , guilting people

25:54

into taking action , and that is

25:57

like not a great feeling

25:59

to donate . That's not a great feeling for me

26:01

to join , sign up , donate

26:03

, take action from . If I'm like this dire

26:05

thing , right versus

26:07

what you're talking about , is like making room for the fun

26:09

, making room for the joy and having

26:12

a little bit more harmony in that story

26:14

you tell .

26:15

And I just want you to expand on that a little

26:17

bit more , expand a little more on

26:20

the plus side

26:22

, the other side of it , yeah

26:24

, you know , I

26:26

I've been working in social impact a long time , both

26:29

on the nonprofit side and then on

26:31

the corporate side , and we

26:33

are sort of trained to start with the

26:35

problem and to do a deep

26:38

analysis of the problem . Yeah , and I think

26:40

like we should still start there . But

26:42

when we think about comms and like and

26:44

how we bring people in , we

26:47

don't have to , we

26:50

don't . We can sort of ease them into this like

26:52

larger analysis and like under

26:55

the things that we understand of

26:59

the complexities of a problem

27:01

, the scale of a problem , right

27:04

, instead , there's ways to

27:06

bring in humor , which

27:09

I would . I would love to see more

27:11

. I mean more nonprofits and social

27:13

impact . Folks should hire , like comedians

27:15

on staff or or something , or comedy

27:18

writers , like

27:20

that would be , you know , and it's not to make

27:22

light of the very serious issues

27:24

that are out there , but it's rather

27:26

like how can I meet people where

27:29

they are in a way that doesn't like

27:31

trigger them , like the anxiety

27:33

alarm bell in our heads which

27:36

, if you , for a

27:38

lot of what we're seeing for Genzi , we've seen the rise

27:40

of this term climate anxiety , right

27:42

, it causes people to freeze

27:44

and it actually promotes in

27:46

action rather than action , and that's

27:48

the opposite of what we want to be doing .

27:50

Oh , you're in my brain . So I have this email marketing

27:52

course and it's all about like storytelling . And

27:55

I want to say it's like module two . Their homework

27:57

assignment for it is go watch 15

28:00

minutes of stand up and the

28:02

point is is a couple of things . The point

28:04

is to just like who ? Okay , not everything

28:06

is disaster relief and just walk

28:08

away . The other pieces , like stand

28:11

up , are so great at

28:13

getting you hooked into a story right

28:15

out of the gate , get you smiling , and sometimes

28:17

they are talking about serious things . Sometimes

28:19

they are talking about you

28:22

know , not , not slipping on the banana peel

28:24

like it's not always the lightest thing

28:26

, and so that's that's so funny that

28:28

you said that , and it is a

28:30

good reminder because the other sector

28:32

can lean on what I would call like . It's

28:34

like stop the bleeding level of storytelling

28:37

where it's a hurry , stop the waiting put a band-aid on

28:39

it clonk the leak right versus

28:41

painting the picture of possibility

28:44

, painting the picture a little bit more forward

28:46

, which is probably why , when you shared

28:48

this on LinkedIn , I was like yes , yes

28:51

, yes , so yes

28:53

, okay . One question that popped

28:55

up as we were going into it so we have applications

28:57

open and then how long is

29:00

the grant cycle for this ? So

29:02

how long does this program run ? And then will

29:04

there be I know we're going to get people who are

29:06

like I'm not in Atlanta , I'm

29:08

not in LA , what about me ? So

29:11

, so I'm gonna ask you to paint the picture going

29:13

forward .

29:14

Yes , you know this is a

29:16

, this is a pilot , this is a new initiative and

29:19

so we're excited to see how this first year

29:21

goes right . This , this first cycle

29:23

, is through the end of the year . In

29:26

addition to like , after people

29:28

are awarded the grants

29:30

, we're working with the foundation for social connection

29:33

, which is like the

29:35

foremost expert on on

29:38

social connection in the country , and

29:41

we've helped a lot with the writing of the Surgeon General's

29:43

advisory . They're they're creating

29:45

materials . We're

29:48

going to be doing some convenings with these groups

29:50

about how to like make those connections

29:52

in your group even better , stronger , tactical

29:56

, very tactical level things

29:58

. And then you know , we will , we'll

30:00

assess them and we'll see how it goes . We'll see what

30:02

we can do in the back we get , see what we learn

30:05

and think about what to

30:07

do next . But this , this

30:09

commitment that hinge has to

30:11

one more hour

30:14

, to connection

30:16

, to tackling loneliness , is a

30:19

multi year commitment and and so

30:21

you know , expect

30:23

more from us in the space .

30:26

So excited . Anything else before

30:28

we wrap up with the final question

30:30

, anything else you'd like people to know ?

30:34

Um , I think if you are

30:36

trying to figure out if this is for you , apply

30:41

it's we . Just , we purposefully

30:43

designed this application to

30:46

take less than an hour . We felt like

30:48

we couldn't say one more hour . Thank

30:51

you for that application . So

30:54

there's like there's like some demographic

30:57

questions , like maybe

30:59

three one sentence questions

31:01

and then three

31:04

like short answer questions , right and

31:06

so . And then we

31:08

encourage people to share materials that

31:11

they already have made and

31:13

just like upload it , even if it's for

31:15

another funder , another thing that you applied

31:18

for , drop it in like

31:20

you don't have to change anything , you don't have

31:22

to get us . You know we love it

31:24

. You know so , just like

31:26

, if you feel like this is is for

31:28

you , like this could be for you

31:30

, maybe apply , we want

31:32

our thinking . You know , every time you

31:35

design a project like this , you

31:37

have people in mind that this

31:39

could work for . But what I'm most excited

31:41

about is just to seeing who throws a hat in

31:44

the ring and like , who expands our thinking

31:46

about who is helping Gen Z

31:48

foster more in person . What

31:50

did that look like ? And

31:53

I'm just , I'm just so excited to meet the

31:55

folks who are doing this work .

31:57

So what I'm hearing is if you don't have a grant

31:59

writer on staff , if you've never written a grant

32:01

before maybe for smaller organizations

32:03

go , go , go . Please don't let that be

32:05

any sort of barrier to applying

32:08

. Yeah , okay , cool , amazing

32:10

. So the last question that we ask

32:12

every guest on the podcast is what

32:15

is one thought you'd like to share that you like

32:17

to think on purpose ? So this could be like an affirmation

32:20

, a mantra , just like a quote that you love

32:22

. Would you share that with us ?

32:25

Yeah , I , you know . I think

32:27

that sometimes

32:30

we we've been talking a little

32:33

bit about this with the humor , friend , on

32:36

social impact we are working on such

32:38

big , complicated , messy

32:41

challenges and

32:44

sometimes , if we

32:46

, the other thing that we can do to help bring

32:48

people along is like break it down

32:50

to the smallest first step and

32:53

and so , and

32:56

that's okay , that's a great place for , like

32:58

, the majority of people to start , and

33:01

that's what we're trying to do here

33:03

is we hope that by people

33:05

seeing these clubs , these groups , that like

33:07

, maybe they'll say , oh , I , you

33:09

know , I'm not , maybe I'm not ready to start my own

33:11

surf club in

33:14

Atlanta , but

33:17

maybe I am ready

33:19

to start a skate group

33:21

where we just go to the like and we just meet

33:23

on every week at

33:25

this time , right , and so help

33:28

people find the smallest first step

33:30

.

33:32

That's so good . Thank you for sharing that . I think that

33:34

it's very easy for things to be so

33:36

daunting in our world that it's impossible

33:38

to make any traction , but it's like what's that 1%

33:41

, what's that next best step

33:43

? So thank you for sharing that . Thank you for being on

33:45

the podcast . We will link the application

33:47

to the notes and everything that we talked about

33:49

, and we hope that everyone

33:51

either applies , tells a friend

33:54

about this , because everybody knows somebody who

33:56

is probably the right fit

33:58

for this . So make sure you're sharing it

34:00

. And applications close at the end of January

34:03

, correct ?

34:03

January 30 . Yep Awesome .

34:06

Thanks so much .

34:07

Thank you so much , christina , this is great .

34:10

You know how they say you should enjoy the

34:12

journey , not just the destination . Have

34:14

you ever wondered how do I crack the code to

34:16

do that ? I can help you do that . I

34:19

can help you not only achieve

34:21

your biggest , most daring goals , but

34:23

the journey to get there . No more overwhelm

34:26

, no more self doubt . I want to invite

34:28

you to book a call with me . Go to

34:30

splendid atlcom

34:32

forward slash book .