I So Appreciate You!

And That's a Wrap!

In the season 3 finale of I So Appreciate You!, Melanie and Nadege reflect on how this season was all about badass women. Each guest was, to quote Nadege, a rockstar. To come full circle, we celebrate another badass woman: our very own Nadege Souvenir, who in this episode shares the news of her departure from the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation as she prepares to take on her new role as CEO of the San Antonio Area Foundation.
A bittersweet episode, Melanie and Nadege talk not only about the guests they welcomed in this season but also Nadege’s time as a co-host. Join us in celebrating Nadege and wishing her the very best of luck with her new adventure in San Antonio, Texas! And be sure to stay tuned for I So Appreciate You! updates.

The Value of Authenticity

Sheletta Brundidge has done it all - she’s a mom, an autism advocate, a community activist, an award-winning broadcaster, a best-selling author and a business owner. She’s always wanted to be someone who shifts atmospheres, and when she walks into a room, it’s clear that is exactly what’s about to happen. Sheletta lives authentically and unapologetically, but has she always been this way? And how does she do it? 
Co-hosts Melanie and Nadege dig into how Sheletta taught herself to be confident and what advice she has for others who are trying to live authentically (spoiler: stop caring!). Sheletta shares her story of working in radio and being pressured to present herself differently. When she decided to stop pretending and start showing up as her full self, opportunities and success followed her. Sheletta calls herself a missionary, determined to help others find and share their true selves – but she also knows that in the process of showing up authentically, she is constantly evolving. 
Sheletta’s confidence and commitment to showing up authentically came from a place of exhaustion. After working in radio and being told by several consultants how to talk, act, and look, Sheletta decided that enough was enough – she was going to start showing up as her whole, authentic self and that people could take it or leave it. This message is what she shares with the world, whether it’s in a university class she’s teaching or with the many people she helps in what she calls her mission work.  
“I like to say I’m a missionary. Everything I do is mission work, whether it’s the autism children’s books, or the podcasts, or the activism, or the speaking, or the radio. Whatever it is, it’s all mission work, I’m on assignment: to help people.”  
Sheletta can share these important life lessons because she’s done and seen it all. In addition to being a renaissance woman, Sheletta is a mother of four children, three of whom have autism spectrum disorder. After finding success in treatment for her children, Sheletta set out to do what she does best - share her knowledge, experiences and wisdom with other parents going through the same thing. In her process of documenting and sharing her life with her family, Sheletta has helped countless people who are going through the often isolating, confusing and overwhelming experience of raising children with autism. 
Despite the confidence and vivacity she exudes, Sheletta knows she doesn’t have all the answers and feels she has yet to arrive. But it’s that exact authenticity that has gotten her so far and is what she wants to drive home with people. When asked what advice she’d give to others struggling to show up as their whole selves, Sheletta simply says “just do it.” 
“Stop overthinking it, just be real! People are coming for your story – the more people that know about your story, the better. We always wait for someone to tell our story or celebrate us – why are you waiting for someone else to tell your story?” 
 
Links:  
Sheletta and her son Andrew, promoting his book on Morning in America
Sheletta’s website
 
Follow Sheletta:
Instagram
Facebook 
 

Building Connections in Rural Communities

In Season 3 Episode 7 of I So Appreciate You!, co-hosts Nadege Souvenir and Melanie Hoffert discuss with Bethany Lacktorin, executive and artistic director of Little Theatre Auditorium, the opportunities and challenges of running an arts organization in rural Minnesota. Bethany Lacktorin grew up in New London, MN, and her first experience with theater was at the Little Theatre Auditorium. Her career took her in many directions; professional audio engineer, sound designer, performance artist, media producer, musician, and community organizer. She returned to New London, after living in Minneapolis for a decade, when her mother became sick with cancer. After both her parents passed, Bethany questioned why she continued to stay in New London. In the end, it was her connection to the land and to her adopted mother’s family history in New London that solidified her reasons to stay. And unlike in the saturated markets of bigger cities, Bethany found that she could carve out her own space and bolster the art scene in rural Minnesota. She had so much she wanted to express, with years of experience and skills she wanted to use; when the theater opportunity opened to her, it became obvious that she was in the right place at the right time.
But not everyone in New London has felt the same sense of kismet as Bethany. Over the last few years, Bethany has been very intentional in shifting the narrative, opening the space to people of all ethnicities, backgrounds, and the LGBTQ+ community, and adapting the programming to create opportunities for these communities. Little Theatre Auditorium serves as a place where one can get on stage and represent their whole true self without fear of ridicule, harm, or ostracization. And this shift in ethos has empowered some people to show up as their true selves…and some to voice their discomfort.
“Progress can’t be made without discomfort.”
Bethany shares with Melanie and Nadege the experiences – positive and negative - she’s had as a result of some of the programming she’s put on. But Bethany isn’t deterred. She’s interested in the bigger picture, and offering opportunities, activities, and experiences that allow people to learn something new and a chance to connect with their neighbors in a way they haven’t before. To Bethany, isolation is a mind killer and is all too common in rural settings – that’s why she views the theater and the programming they put on as an act of community building and why she’s focusing her efforts on bolstering the arts community in her beloved hometown.
Links:
Little Theatre Auditorium Website
Star Tribune article: 'The Pride of Minnesota: Communities that beat the bigots'

Liminal Space: Balancing Your Succession Plan

In Season 3 Episode 6 of I So Appreciate You!, co-hosts Nadege Souvenir and Melanie Hoffert explore why succession planning is so important and what individuals and organizations can do to make leadership transitions successful for everyone involved. Guests Carmen Giménez and Ruby Oluoch are two seasoned nonprofit leaders who share their experiences with leadership transitions. They discuss the role board members play in educating and connecting new leaders and why it takes considerable time to build trust between leaders, board members and staff in order to ensure successful transitions. Having a communicative, established and knowledgeable board can help fill those gaps in times of transition. Another step organizations can take to ensure smooth transitions is general planning around succession.
“Succession is an occasion for an organization to do some inward thinking about who they are and what they want. An organization isn’t built around a person, but it is shaped by that person. There’s a lot of adapting that happens, so it’s preparing the organization at a micro level and anticipating the changes that need to happen.”
Carmen and Ruby also discuss what individuals stepping into new leadership roles can do to support board and staff members during transitional times and to ease some of their own onboarding. They chat about the importance of protecting your vision and imagination when transitioning into new roles, especially if working in a place of deficit within organizations. Carmen and Ruby talk with Nadege and Melanie about the joys of discovery and learning in a new role, as well as the freedom of allowing yourself to be wrong or to not know everything when becoming a new leader. Rounding out the conversation, they share what emerging research is saying about leadership transitions, particularly with BIPOC leadership, and what can be done to support narrative change in organizations.
 
Links  
Bell Hooks' Marginality as a site of resistance 
Robert Sterling Clark Foundation “Brilliant Transformations: Toward Full Flourishing in BIPOC Leadership Transitions” 
 
Follow Ruby here: 
Gems Newsletter Sign Up 
Ruby's LinkedIn 
Washington Area Women’s Foundation “Thrive As They Lead” Report 
 
Follow Carmen here: 
Carmen's Website 
Graywolf Press 
Graywolf Press Instagram 

Designing the Fabric of Community

In Season 3 Episode 5 of I So Appreciate You!, co-hosts Nadege Souvenir and Melanie Hoffert talk to Rammy Mohamed, the designer and founder of Ramadhan Designs who is making waves in the Twin Cities fashion industry and beyond. 
From a young age, Rammy Mohammed showed a predilection for art and to this day, she credits fine art for much of what inspires her designs. Despite always having a clear eye for design, she wasn’t on the path to becoming a fashion designer when she went to school. Out of a sense of practicality, Rammy pursued a degree in business, yet found herself coming back to fashion in her early professional years, going to fashion school so she could learn how to make clothing and eventually have her own boutique. For Rammy, fashion is everywhere, and thus hard to avoid. She sees creativity behind everything, even in the functionality of seemingly unfashionable things, like a surgeon’s gown. She sees fashion and function as inseparable. 
“Art and fashion are as important as the doctor. If the doctor is doing the surgery, he’s most likely wearing a gown that’s made by someone like myself. It came from our industry. You need creatives, you need innovation.” 
But functionality is only one facet of Rammy’s intricate designs. She seamlessly blends her own cultural background into the very fabric of her clothes, bridging her East African heritage with her Midwestern community. As a Muslim woman of Oromo descent, Rammy acknowledges that the culture lends itself to modest designs, but she doesn’t see that as limited just to Muslim community members as people from all cultures may gravitate towards modesty. Rammy’s clothes are accessible to a broad range of people and are at the intersection of fashion where for some their imagination would never let them go before. In her eyes, she’s bringing cultural perspective to high-end fashion and doing it all in Saint Paul, Minnesota, her home that she credits for helping get her business off the ground. 
In this episode, co-hosts Nadege Souvenir and Melanie Hoffert talk to Rammy about what inspires her—from the artists she follows to her cultural background that is woven through every piece she makes. They discuss her connections to Saint Paul, how she got her storefront in the downtown skyway, and how she’s not only helping to revitalize downtown but also her big plans to make Saint Paul the next epicenter of fashion. Rammy also advises on how to make fashion less intimidating and shares what exciting new projects she has up her sleeve.  
Links  
Website 
Ferrari Sheppard – Artist’s Instagram 
Marcel Duchamp “Fountain” 1917/1964 
MIA 
Facing Race Awards 2023 
 
Follow Rammy on:  
Instagram 

For Community, By Community

In Season 3 Episode 4 of I So Appreciate You!, co-hosts Nadege Souvenir and Melanie Hoffert talk to Andrea Yoch, Co-Founder and Chair of Minnesota Aurora FC, the first women-led and community-owned women’s soccer team in this country. 
Andrea Yoch spent her entire career in sports mostly working for men. Although she received support from men throughout her career, she was no stranger to the limitations, lack of opportunities, and inequity the industry has historically been known for. When she started the Aurora soccer team with a small group of fellow sports lovers, she knew that she wanted to give women, people of color and other underrepresented groups more opportunities than she had. She and her co-founders believed that creating an inclusive, diverse and safe space not just for players but for the fans and spectators had to be a top priority.   
“Part of what’s unique about this team, besides being community-owned, is that we founded it based on our values first. Soccer is absolutely a really important product, but it is not the whole thing. What’s really important for us is to have a space where everybody not only feels welcome but is actually welcome.” 
From day one, the Aurora soccer team has valued inclusivity above all else. None of it would have been possible without the over 3,000 community-owners from 48 states and 8 countries who rallied together and raised money to create this innovative team. Within 6 months, they raised a million dollars, sold all of their shares, and started a team that is for the community, by the community. This group of community-owners have a say in what the team does, too – they even voted on the team’s name.  
Knowing that everyday people have spent their hard-earned money and entrusted this group with it to create a team means a lot to Andrea. This aspect of accountability to their shareholders is one of the perks of being community-owned.  
“It’s sports – you’re going to win and lose on the field. If we’re winning off the field, if we are doing the things we promised our community we are going to do, then we’ve won. That’s for community, by community. This is for all of us. It’s not just for this little group that founded the team – it’s for everybody. The more everybody feels that they’re a part of that, the more successful we will continue to be.” 
Andrea also shares with Nadege and Melanie the importance of having an honest conversation about strengths and weaknesses when starting something new, what all the team is doing to further connect to the community and gives an update on how Aurora is doing after two successful seasons. 
Links  
Minnesota Aurora FC
Follow Andrea on:  
Instagram  
X  
LinkedIn

Why Allyship Isn’t Enough

In Season 3 Episode 3 of I So Appreciate You!, co-hosts Nadege Souvenir and Melanie Hoffert talk to Seena Hodges, Founder and CEO of The Woke Coach, about why it’s not enough to be an ally and how we go from being allies to being accomplices. 
Seena Hodges is in the business of discomfort, and she wants people to get comfortable with it. Her company, The Woke Coach, works with businesses ranging from small nonprofits to Fortune 500 companies, all of which share a desire to make their workplaces more equitable and just spaces. Seena knows that fear is the one thing that stops us from growing and she’s not afraid to work with people on tapping into their fears, biases and discomfort.  
When working with clients, Seena asks them two things:  
1) What is something that they care about implicitly? 
2) What is something that angers them more than anything? 
From there, Seena says that you can find what spurs you to action. She implores her clients, and people in general, to do the work – a critical step for going beyond allyship.  
“The moment that you’re exposed to something that you haven’t been exposed to before, it is your inherent responsibility to research that – to continue to develop your awareness around that thing or construct or reality for specific people. That’s the responsibility I think people have when it comes from trying to move from ally to accomplice.”
Seena also shares her insights on current DEI workforce trends, whether these efforts are working, and why now is the time to continue investing in DEI work. She offers wisdom and words of advice to all people, not just leaders in the workforce, on how to grow and become true accomplices to our fellow humans
Links 
The Woke Coach 
Follow Seena on: 
Facebook 
Instagram 
LinkedIn

Investing in Diversity

On this episode of I So Appreciate You!, co-hosts Nadege Souvenir and Melanie Hoffert discuss mission-based investing and the values of a diverse team in the investments industry with Chief Investment Officer for the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation, Shannon O’Leary.
In her role, Shannon and her staff help steward the Foundation’s $1.7 billion in assets, ensuring that those dollars aren’t invested and/or supporting any issues or causes that may detour our grantmaking work. Shannon is one of few women spearheading an investment team in a predominantly white male-dominated industry.
As a result of this lack of diversity, Shannon has made it her mission to meet with managers in the industry and advocate for change.
“One of the most dangerous things in this industry that leads to problems and leads to additional risk is the lack of diversity on these teams leading to group think,” she says. 
In addition to her work advocating for change in the investments space, Shannon also pens a bi-weekly newsletter to share her experiences working in a male-dominated industry and sharing advice for readers wanting to create change themselves.
 
Links
Our Investment Approach
Follow Shannon on LinkedIn
Say It Out Loud LinkedIn newsletter

Cultivating New Food Entrepreneurs

In the first episode of Season 3 of I So Appreciate You!, co-hosts Nadege Souvenir and Melanie Hoffert chat with Allison Hohn, executive director of Naturally Minnesota, about what it takes to establish a thriving and equitable ecosystem for food-based entrepreneurs in our state.
Naturally Minnesota is an initiative to support and accelerate Minnesota's ecosystem for food and agriculture entrepreneurship and innovation. Through her work, Allison provides venues for new food and agriculture business owners to connect with like-minded people, find support for their ventures, and learn how to access resources like investment capital.
When establishing a product for distribution, Allison says food entrepreneurs must keep the following things in mind.
“Your product has to taste good, you have to have a good brand and you have to have a point of differentiation.” 
Allison also shares her insights on creating greater access and equitable opportunities for entrepreneurs in the food and agriculture space, what she hopes is here to stay after the pandemic shook up the industry, and how someone can take their product from idea to shelf.
Links
Naturally Minnesota

Season 3 Trailer

I So Appreciate You! is back for its third season starting September 19! Listen along as co-hosts Nadege Souvenir and Melanie Hoffert continue their sometimes raw, sometimes funny and always uniquely insightful discussions with some of today’s changemakers from a variety of industries.