Going Viral, Consistency and Rejection to Redirection with Kristy Drutman

Welcome back to Environmental Professionals Radio, Connecting the Environmental Professionals Community Through Conversation, with your hosts Laura Thorne and Nic Frederick! 

On today’s episode, we talk with Kristy Drutman, Founder and Co-CEO of Green Jobs Board about Going Viral, Consistency and Rejection to Redirection to get to Your Career.   Read her full bio below.

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Showtimes: 
1:32 - Condensing info through Social Media
8:06 - Interview with Kristy Starts
15:38 - Brown Girl Green 
23:30 - Career Path with all the twists & turns
36:10 - #Field Notes with Kristy 

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This podcast is produced by the National Association of Environmental Professions (NAEP). Check out all the NAEP has to offer at NAEP.org.

Connect with Kristy Drutman at https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristy-drutman/

Guest Bio: 
Kristy Drutman, otherwise known as “Browngirl Green” is a speaker, consultant, media producer, and environmental educator passionate about working at the intersections between media, diversity, and environmentalism. As an entrepreneur and climate communications expert, Kristy has educated hundreds of thousands of people across the globe about modern-day environmental issues through speeches and media content as well as facilitates workshops centered around environmental media and storytelling in cities across the United States. She has been invited to the White House multiple times as an on-ground reporter, was featured in Teen Vogue, NY Times, Refinery 29 among many other publications, is a Grist 50 under 50 recipient and a Create and Cultivate Top 100 creator. 

Kristy is also the Co-Founder of the Green Jobs Board, a climate tech start-up bridging the equity and inclusion gap within the green economy through conversations, resources, and pathways to bring more diverse talent into the environmental field.

Music Credits
Intro: Givin Me Eyes by Grace Mesa
Outro: Never Ending Soul Groove by Mattijs Muller

Transcript

Hello and welcome to EPR with your favorite environmental enthusiasts, Nic and Laura. On today's episode, I talk about the evolution of environmental outreach. We interview Kristy Drutman about going viral, consistency, and rejection to redirection. And finally, for no reason whatsoever, here are some fun facts about snowy owls. Their feet are covered in feathers for insulation. They have up to a 5 ft wingspan, and last but not least, the long daylight of Arctic summer makes snowy owls diurnal, so they hunt during the day. Completely different from other owls. How about that?

Hit that music!

NAEP just completed another round of essential and advanced NEPA workshops. Our next event is scheduled in person for November 13th, 14th in Denver, Colorado. These training art workshops are designed for emerging and experienced environmental professionals engaged in the preparation of Environmental assessments and environmental impact statements to fulfill the federal lead agency responsibilities pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act. These courses are designed to help you understand the requirements and how to fulfill the spirit and legislative intent of NEPA. That's absolutely essential in a time like this where agency policies are being updated rapidly. Please check that out at www.NAEP.org. 

Let's get to our segment. 

You go off this whole influencer, the power of like social media and networking and outreach and audiences. I was gonna say, remember when she was talking about, what was that thing she said? It was like snippet, it was snip, trim and whim on a whim? Oh yeah, no, it was, but it did all rhyme. It rhymes with whim. It was like slim, trim. I think it was slim rim. Anyways, I do think there's a tangent there about, well, kind of what you were saying before I interrupted you, Casey was um sorry about that, was like, how you were asking about how condensing information like that is a skill, but I also think it's a necessity in today's attention span, especially for the younger generations. So, golly, yeah. I mean, honestly, I think everybody's kind of like that attention span. Yeah, and like a lot of what we do on a like project level is impossible for people when there's so many different things going on. It kind of reminds me like the NEPA process in some ways still uses newspapers, right? They still publish documents that are going to be released to the public. In newspapers, and there was a big shift in how people actually get their news, where people get their news, but that doesn't mean the industry really caught up to that, and sometimes that still happens, and so we're still publishing in papers and sometimes it makes sense when you're in large cities, but when you're in smaller communities that don't do that or have their own private publications, sometimes you do. That kind of thing, but how you do it in terms of getting a hold of more people is really hard and that is changing a lot and a lot of us are learning about how to put together snippets of, like, you know, 1 to 2 minute things like to promote what we're trying to inform the public about. So it really does depend on like clients, but that is true and it was really neat to talk today about that with our guest, but the idea of taking a story or taking a project and talking about it for 60 seconds and like, you know, we've already talked for 2 minutes and I haven't said anything. 

Like that's the craziest part about how this works, and that's it's really challenging and it's kind of like I always, you know, go back to like how you write a joke, right? Like how you write a good joke. The fewer words you use, the better, and most of the time, like, that's really confusing to people, but like you don't want to lose people's attention, and the way you do that is if you're repeating the same thing. So if you're saying the same words over and over and over again, people will tune out. They were just kind of like, oh, you said that already, my brain will delete that is important. It's a quirky thing, but I promise you, if you write a joke and you use the same word in it twice even, people will not listen. So it's a strange things when you're posting things on socials, when you're posting things about your projects on the internet, you don't want there to be something that is repeated because it will tune people out. Being very clear and specific about what you're trying to say and do. If it's a public meeting and you're trying to say when it is, you know, put that at the end, but make it be the last thing. People want to know, and that's the most important piece of information. If that's the last thing, they'll listen to all of it, waiting for that to go. But again, people's attention span isn't great. The 1st 5 seconds is the most important, and there's so many, we've all seen this on socials where someone's like, hey, You got a second for me? or something like that, right? It's, it's a break in how it normally comes across, and because of that, your eyes go right to where that is and That doesn't mean you stay there, right? Because sometimes you'll look, is this an ad? 

Yeah, goodbye, not gonna pay attention to that. Is this something from someone I know and trust so that I can keep watching it, or what, right? But like that's, those are the kinds of like small things that make up a pretty important part of like that small package, like when you're putting things out for 60 seconds and Speaking clearly, confidently always helps. Those are like, they seem basic, but sometimes people won't do that. So, I don't know, but really you should be telling me more about this than me tell you, cause I don't know, I'm, I'm, that's still a new thing for like what we do for work, like our job. In general, doesn't really require a lot of that. So it's something that we've looked into, but that's not something that comes up every day for me. So I don't know. I mean, like, I think it's kind of fun to hear other people talk about it because I think it's fascinating. It is the way we communicate now and it's, it's a much different way than when I first started, where it was like, we have to make sure the fax machine number is correct because people will fax us their comments and You know, I don't even know if there are people like, if I say fax machine, if that even means anything to people under a certain age, and it's just completely outdated. There is nothing about it that makes any sense because it just doesn't exist anymore. So, you know, things like that will change and how we approach people and how we engage with them changes too. So that's kind of the joy of communicating and, you know, it's fun to see. How journalism has changed and you know, sometimes that's great and sometimes it's not, but it has changed and the way that we get information has changed. And so it's gonna be the same for every industry. It's not specific to any one thing. So environmental projects and programs are changing that way too, and I know I've seen that before. 

There are projects that will have social media pages, right? That's new and it's cool, but it's new and that's the way that we connect. So I don't know if that helps anyone at all, but that is kind of how I see it, and that's the way with the future. That's where things are going more online, shorter clips, shorter snippets. It's stuff that we as a show are going to be working on in the future as well. So you'll see us do that. And that's pretty cool. So we'll teach ourselves. To follow our own advice, right? So look for that and uh yeah, more to come. But let's get to our interview. 

Hello and welcome back to EPR. 

Today we have Kristy Drutman with us. Kristy is the founder and Co-CEO of the Green Jobs Board. Kristy, it's great to have you on the show. Thanks everyone. So happy to be here. Well, let's start with Green Jobs board. What inspired you to start it? What's the inspiration behind it, and what is it? Really, tell us more about it. Yeah, yeah. So green jobs board really came out of my own journey as an environmental professional who, you know, I studied at UC Berkeley. I was really passionate about environmental issues and really wanted to take action and build a career centered around these topics, but literally couldn't find great resources or networks to really make that possible. You know, I, I remember scanning so many different types of job platforms. And organizations, but then still feeling really unclear on like, how exactly I wanted to build the career I wanted, which at the time was building a career in the intersections of climate and media. And for me, it was really a journey of self-discovery, where I was like, I'm gonna just build my own tools and my own table in many senses of the word, because I couldn't figure out how I was gonna find my place in the movement. And so in that process, I was able to build a very successful media platform called Brown Girl Green, which is also part of the origin story of Green Jobs Board because that is where Green Jobs Board was born, basically. So on Brown Girl Green, which is my media platform on social media, I started a series online called Green Jobs Board, because I thought back to my journey and my experiences. Of struggling to figure out how to build a career in this space and realized, why don't I just use content and storytelling as a way to make it easier for people to figure out what I couldn't figure out. And that's basically how Green Osborne started. 

It started as a weekly series on my Instagram page that went viral. Thousands and thousands of people were sharing it and looking at it. And then organizations. Taking notice. And they were like, Oh, can we like post on this? And I was like, I, I guess so. Like, I don't, I was mostly doing all the research myself. So then people are making it easier for me because then they were starting to submit opportunities. And then all of a sudden, I remember 3 months into me doing this series on social media, someone is like, Hey, I got a job through your Instagram post. And I was like, Wait, what? Like, I knew that people were gonna find opportunities, but I didn't really like put two and two together. That would actually lead to like something really tangible or scalable in that way. And yeah, organizations just started wanting in mass to utilize the ways in which I was doing active recruitment and reaching people in, um, you know, a targeted community and advertising fashion to be able to. Educate them about these opportunities. And a lot of organizations found that to be a different and new way and method for recruitment and getting people into their roles. And so that's basically like how it started. It was like a very big, like avalanche of just like demand and excitement from both job seekers as well as employers to realize, like, yeah, there's a lot of passionate people, and sure there's a lot of incredible organizations, but In order to get people to want to be in this industry, in this space and to figure out how to keep them long term, you have to connect the dots. And that's exactly why I created Green Jobs Board originally as a series, but I realized later on, like, no, we should actually build this into like something bigger, a bigger organization because people wanted more. People are like, Can you do more? Can you host events? Can you give me career advice? And I was like, OK. Uh. I was like, I guess you should probably do something a little bit more. So that's how it is. Um, so that's basically how it started. 

I was, you know, started the first post ever was summer 2021. And now, you know, 3.5 years later, we're a full-fledged company, have hosted events at all major, you know, climate week events, have worked with really incredible companies, organizations with recruiting diverse talent and so grateful for the growth in the community we've been able to build with it. Right, and gosh, uh, a lot of questions for you after that, but like, OK, how long did it take before something went viral? How much were you grinding that out or did you even, is it just like you woke up one day and you're like, oh, I guess this is the new thing. Oh no, it was completely unexpected. Like I said, you know, I'm a content creator and educator online, so like, I do lots of different types of series, and this was just one of them. I was like, oh, this is just like a nice thing to have. I did not realize like that's something that I honestly viewed as so basic at the time. I was like, oh, whatever. People were going like wild over it. Like people were like, Oh my gosh, like, are you gonna do this as like a full scale down series? Like, what is that organization? Who is that? And I thought that that was so cool because it made me realize there's a huge need. There's a huge gap, because I was like, you know, there's a lot of job platforms out there, things that exist. But like, I think what was different was like, I came specifically from the Understanding and journey as someone who's been in the field professionally for many years that I specifically know what kind of jobs or opportunities people would want to look for. I know what kind of pathways, relatively speaking, that even looks like that's not really written down in any sense of the word. And I think I, I was able to take that expertise and translate it in a way that really got people excited. So what was your environmental Interest, like why green jobs for in general, like why the environment? Where did that come from? 

You know, it really started off with, I don't even know, like, lots of different ways to answer this question, but I would say the biggest thing for me was that I really cared about environmental justice. I came at this work originally through a human rights lens. I was actually learning a lot about human trafficking. And I remember end of high school, going into college, I learned that like there was Connections between human trafficking and climate change. And I know that's always the typical story you might hear from people, but I was like, my story was like human rights. I came at it thinking about like, you know, if I wanted to help people and make a difference, I think the best way to do that in many ways was through the air they breathe, the water they drink, the food that they eat, right? And so. I came at it much from more of that lens than maybe like a conservation lens of sorts. And I think that that led me to then learning about how climate change was impacting frontline communities. And that included the Philippines. My family's from the Philippines, and Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines when I was in undergrad at UC Berkeley. And so I think that made again. And it solidified my mind that climate change is not just an environmental issue, it's a human rights issue. It's a reproductive rights issue. It's a women's rights issue, so on and so forth. So I think for me, it kind of solidified like, this feels like the most important work that I could be doing in this lifetime, and that that's where I want to place my focus. Yeah, no, that's a great story, and we love hearing the different ways people get to where they are and Yeah, it's fascinating and fabulous. I love that. So Brown Girl Green, you have a podcast media series there. How has that shaped your thought process? Did that get you to, I mean, it got you to Green Jobs board, but how is that still like shaping the way you are doing things today? Yeah, so you know, Brown Girl Green exists as, you know, a multimedia platform. I do blogs, I do videos. I do content. And I think the ways in which I've been engaging Brown Girl Green now in this next chapter has been stepping into talking about, yeah, being a founder now of a climate tech company. 

And I think that's been so cool to like. People who have been following me for how many years now, I think it's been cool to like show that journey. And I remember like I have my OG followers who like now see what I'm doing when I like had no following. And I'm and I'm being like, it's crazy to see the evolution of it all. And I think I'm grateful that like. Yeah, I was able to be able to build my career as an environmental communications expert through my platform. And I think that's going to continue to exist. I think I'm going to continue reporting on these issues and educating people. But I think now with green jobs where there's an incredible element where I get to also share about like my journey as a founder, my journey as like someone who's now like, OK, I like wanted to build a platform. Because I didn't see people who look like me, and I want a voice. Now it's like, now I'm building even something beyond that. Now I'm building other new things to exist, right? And that goes along with my ethos and my mission of, of Brown Girl Green is that I want to keep lowering barriers of accessibility, especially for people of color in this industry, for people who have been marginalized, left on the sidelines in this. Industry for people who, yeah, can't see themselves today in climate, but could tomorrow if we're able to communicate and do the right storytelling in the right places, there is still opportunities, economic opportunities, better livelihoods, clean environments that they can have access to by being able to be in this field. And I feel deeply passionate about continuing to move that mission forward. Yeah, that's very, that's great and it's like a nice segue to talking about reporting and how you have been a reporter, how you go after stories. That's obviously climate has climate change has been a big focus in, you know, we've seen it talked about in many different ways across all media, so like for you. How do you go about starting a story? How do you say this is the thing I'm gonna find, this is how I'm gonna do it, and this is how I'm gonna push that story out because even that has changed a ton in the last few years. So, so what is your process for doing that? So true. So, you know, there's a few different methods. I'm luckily now a part of multiple creator news networks where like, we're actually getting like daily briefings to actually learn about like what's going on and how we could be reporting on it, like different options. So I'm luckily a part of some like amazing resource networks that give me briefings and tool kits to tell me like what's what, because I don't always know like what identify or to how to pull quick stats. So like, there's definitely a rule that Organizations have been playing and are now learning to play more of to support creators like myself, to educate people in a more timely manner in that way. I would say outside of that, I don't use X anymore, but I use the IG threads and I use Blue Sky. Um, and yeah, I kind of like get my daily digest. I see what's happening. Like, you know, even last night, there was so many breaking news headlines of the closure of Alligator Alcatraz and You know, I'm planning on making a video on that because I, that was a hot topic the past couple of weeks. 

And now to see that there's been a victory of the closure and, you know, when, especially for indigenous peoples and all of these things. I'm like, perfect. OK. Yeah, I'm gonna pull some art. I'm gonna pull some articles. I'm gonna find some headlines. I'm gonna just like make a quick video to let people know, like, this is what's happening. This is why it's exciting. So that's like an example. Like, I make sure to cite my sources, um, but typically. It's literally like gathering a few headlines, piecing together, you know, 1 minute, 2 minute max scripts, and editing it together and posting on social. And then I think outside of that, I think it's also been like interviews. I'm planning on doing more like that. Like I have my own podcast, Brown Girl Green, but I've also done like Instagram Live interviews with like, you know, representatives in government, other people based on the issue area that I want to cover. Like, for example, with the LA wildfires, I was interviewing interesting scientists and experts around them. and things like that. And so I've done a good effort to like try to not just feature my voice, but also feature voices from other experts as well, because I think that also keeps people, people up to date. And it actually makes my job easier because I was like, OK, that's their expertise. I can put that, put them in the hot seat of sorts, um, to educate people about a topic. And I'm just there to like, curate that, right? And, and have it reach more people than maybe if they were gonna just keep it in a policy brief. Right. Oh my gosh, yeah, when you get started, yeah. Oh my gosh, I have one last question before I have to turn this back over to Laura. 

You said you do something in 1 to 2 minute increments, your story. How on earth do you do that when there's a big story? Like, it seems so hard to like whittle something down to just that core element. Like, is it just comes second nature to you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a skill. I mean, I'm not gonna lie to you. It's not the easiest thing to do. It's taken many years of like trial. An error. And sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't, depending on the topic, the algorithm, all these things. But, um, yeah, I was gonna say like, I try my best to figure out how to make every second count. So I think about like the hook. I think about the key articles, the visuals. Like I said, if there's like a key spokesperson, I make sure to include like maybe a sound bite from them. So I think about like, from the beginning to the end, how I'm making sure that All of those sound bites are gonna make sure that like it ties into the bigger narrative and the bigger story, and that people will, you know, be able to like find that information compelling. And so, yeah, sometimes I'll take an article, I'll pull out some key stats, I'll pull out some key headlines. I'll figure out what kind of images from that article or that piece is probably gonna stand out to people, and then I whittle away the rest. 

So I'm kind of like, I guess you could say it's like kind of like a skim. A skim, a trim, and then a, a filter through of like a scrapbook of, of things is how I would describe the process. Um, and then we, exactly. And then we experiment, right? And then we see once we post, what actually gets people's attention. Like there's been some videos where like, I worked really hard on it. no views. And then I'll do a video where I just have like text on my face talking about the same topic, viral, blows up and then you're just like, why? Yeah, exactly. So, but it, it's not for not or whatever. It's not for waste or anything like that. Like every Everything's useful. Like I say, yeah, it's dated. It's a portfolio. So I always tell people, like, if you want to be a creator, or want to educate people, like, don't get so caught up in the views. Do not get caught up in virality. I think it's about building a legacy. It's about building consistency. I think that's how you get your stuff seen. Yeah, totally. It's all really great work that you're doing and you mentioned sort of like the path that led you here in pieces, and I think probably most of the people that we interview on the podcast, they have not really experienced their career as the way they thought they would when they started college, when they exited, and then beyond. So tell us a little bit about your career path in a more linear fashion and at what Points did it change from where you had thought it was going to something different? Oh, yeah. No, I love telling this story because I built my own career in many ways, because I couldn't find a job that made a good fit in sense in the climate space. Hence part of why I, you know, build green jobs board. So yeah, my journey. So back to this. So I went to UC Berkeley, I studied environmental policy, city planning. You know, it was top of my class, all these things. And I, yeah, I wanted to build a career at first as an environmental lawyer, so I was gonna go to law school. 

Then realized after talking to some people, like that wasn't the only way I could make an impact and a change. And I was like, I don't really want to go to law school. So like. I was like, if I, if I don't have to, maybe not. And then I, and I remember it's a huge commitment. And major props to all my environmental lawyers out there. You are doing the Lord's work in 10s and a half, especially in today's world. Anyways, so I, that was my original trajectory. I was like, environmental law, environmental law. And then I was like, I don't really think that fits. And then I did an incredible internship. HUD, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development in Washington DC during an environmental justice Research Fellowship. Learned that government, not really for me either, but loved the people, thought it was great. And that's the point of an internship, right? Like, you see what you like and you don't like. And then, yeah, I was like, OK, law's off the table. I don't think government is, is on the table anymore. But that summer, I remember that's when I started and this is my Sophomore year of college, I was like, what if I got into like journalism or media? And um, I basically was like, yeah, maybe journalism and media could be an interesting pathway for me. And basically, during that time, I, um, decided I was going to just figure it out. And so I remember I was attending all these seminars and exploring environmental journalism and was like, what are their jobs in this? And then they're Like, there's not jobs in this. And, um, I was like, OK, great. And so then, yeah, I remember then that's why I, I decided to double major in urban planning, get into city planning. So I was like, OK, I'm gonna become a transportation planner. I was like, I honestly have all this media stuff and my whole career ends up imploding, that will be the direction I go in for future reference, cause I love urban planning and I love city planning. 

But I was like, yeah. I'm going to be a city planner then. So then the plan was that. Then it was like city planning, kind of media journalism stuff was on the back burner because it was like, there's no jobs in that city planning. Then, yeah, towards the end of college, I was like, but I really want this media thing. And I was like, I really want that. Like, all this stuff is great, but I really want that. And I remember talking to my college career counselor and I was like, I want, I want a full time job doing climate media. And she's like, that's not a job. Like, sorry, like, I don't want to tell you that doesn't exist. And so I was like, No, I'm gonna make it exist. Like, I remember I was like, I'm gonna make it happen. And so I remember during that time, like, yeah, end of college, I was starting to sign up for all these like environmental communications internships and digital fellowships. And I was starting to like dip my toes into the world of what's called digital organizing. So learning, you know, how could I learn to support organizations to use digital tools. From like social media and newsletters and email marketing to actually mobilize people to take action on climate. And so that started to be my entry point into the only jobs that at the time were available to get into some semblance of like, digital media times climate. And that's exactly what I did. And so the first job that I, I worked out of college was at an environmental nonprofit, and that was My first job. 

During that time, my senior year of college, into graduation and getting that job, I started Brown Girl Green. So I started in my last semester of college, actually as a project for school in my architecture class. And it was a podcast episode and the goal was just to talk about something around queer folks and nature. And so I did a project on in Oakland in the Bay Area talking about nature walks where bipar queer folks in Oakland would do nature walks. And that was my first episode and we did a Brown Girl Green. I bought my first microphone and my sister's friend at the time was like an audio engineer. So like, I knew nothing. I knew nothing. About what we're doing here today. I was like, I'm gonna just teach myself how to podcast because people were like, you have a great voice. Like, you should just podcast. Like that could be a good way to explore this media thing. So that's how I started. It started as a school project. And then, yeah, into that environmental nonprofit, I started doing more episodes. I started filming stuff. Like I would work that nonprofit 9 to 5, and then in the evenings was building this show. Um. And yeah, a year and a half into working at that nonprofit, Brown Girl Green was starting to pop off through the podcast and Basically, you know, I got a lot of nos, I got a lot of rejections in the beginning. People didn't take me seriously, but I was like, again, I was like, I'm gonna figure it out. Let's keep going. And then, yeah, basically, a year and a half into that, that nonprofit job, they ended up having a financial crisis, ended up laying me and tons of other people off. And this is pre-pandemic. And yeah, and I was laid off out of my first job out of college, and I was like, but I remember I had incredible mentors and they're like, maybe you should just try to do Brown Girl Green, and I was like, I have no money. I was like. I can't do it, but I remembered I had built so much at that point of Brown Girl Green that people are like, I think this is gonna take off. Like, who knows? And my professor at UC Berkeley. 

I told him I was like, I got laid off. And he's like, Why don't you come teach with me? And I was like, What do you mean? And he invited me to teach and be an assistant lecturer with him at the High School of Business at UC Berkeley, teach a course on social media and social change, because everything I had built at that point. Perfect. And so then I got to teach at UC Berkeley for 2 years. During that time, I was starting to build a bit of a consultancy, consulting, solar and energy companies on how to do storytelling, because at that point, I built some sort of knowledge base around that at the time. And then yeah, Brown Girl Green, you know, going into the pandemic, Brown Girl Green exploded. It went viral, got discovered by the right people. And yeah, 2020 and 2021, I was able to quit. All jobs all together and then I was able to build that and make that my own business. So ever since then, I've pretty much have worked for myself, built Brown Girl Green, and then now building green jobs board. And yeah, that's been basically my career trajectory. And there's a lot of other things that I'm leaving out, but that's a save for time. But yeah. Yeah. Well, that's awesome. So now you You've done that, and you have the job board, and you have people asking you questions, and so what, what advice are you finding yourself giving to people the most about their careers? That like, I think especially in climate, it's not going to be a linear one. I think the industry itself is trying to make it better so it can be a more linear one for people, but that's going to require a lot of work. On the employer side of things, because the way that, you know, the climate and environmental field exists today, like, it's really not like the most accessible, and I think it's really difficult for people to even know like what can my degree get me into if I'm in a certain job that's like non-climate, how can I even think to transition or enter the space?

If I'm in a current role, what does that even look like in the future? Like, there's a lot of question marks for a lot of people. And so I always tell people like, it's confusing for a reason. It's not all on you. So I wouldn't view yourself as like a failure or something if it's really hard to find a job in this space. It's something that the industry at large needs to work on, especially if we want to bring more people in. And I would say for people in this space, like I think like there needs to be more translation and the ability to support job seekers who want to be in this space, but just don't know how their skill set can apply to an industry or getting their foot in the door, and I think we need to like break down those barriers. So I would tell someone who's starting out like Don't be so hard on yourself. It is challenging, but I would say that like there's so many people in this industry that want to help, and I think we just need to connect the dots better for people. Yeah, that makes total sense. And speaking of which, you have a new program that is helping people do that? Yes, we have a new program that's going to be helping people do that. And that's our tool that we are currently in the process of building called Pathways, and Pathways is going to be a platform where you're going to be able to actually make a user profile, be able to more easily discover jobs in a particular sector, as well as resources and guides in that sector from Like wildlife conservation to marine conservation to sustainable fashion, to green sports. We're really trying to expand the definition of what a green job means because I think that's the biggest question people have asked me over the years. What is a green job? 

Like, what defines that? And, you know, it's a little vague. It's a little ambiguous if I'm being honest with you. So we really want to build the literature and the resources and the infrastructure to make that more tangible for people. And so Pathways is good. Be a manifestation of that where you'll be able to sign up and, you know, employers will also be able to find folks more easily in the talent pool that fit a certain sector. And so yeah, we're really excited. So stay tuned for that. It'll be rolled out soon enough in the coming months as we continue to, you know, apply for grants and crowd fund and all of these things to get it over the finish line. So that's one piece of it. And then the other piece is our events. We have a lot of upcoming events happening. We are hosting our Green Jobs Pavilion event coming up at Climate Week in New York City, but we plan to bring that to LA to San Francisco, and to some other cities, and the concept of Green Jobs Pavilion is basically to take all the principles we learned from building an online community through Green Jobs Board over the past years and to have an actual in-person activation space where people can actually meet industry leaders, recruiters, other experts in the. Field and actually get career advice, support for their resumes, LinkedIn profiles, learn about how to get their foot in the door in different sectors, find a mentor and things like that. And so we're super excited as our 3rd year, hosting the Green Jobs Pavilion. And we plan to expand that both in in-person events as well as virtually online. 

So that way we can spread the word and get more climate job seekers to feel supported. Yeah, that's great. So in the past, what does that look like at Climate Week? Yeah, so this year and last year, we've hosted the pavilion at the Nest climate campus, which is at the Javits Center in Manhattan in New York City. Our event this year, September 23rd to the 25th, and it's basically a 3-day summit. So, you know, what it looked like last year is like, yeah, we would have our traditional like. You want to get into an energy career, conservation career. Here is a sector specific session. But we also did things like career coaching, like, you know, how to make yourself a standout candidate on your resume or cover letter. We also did zine making where you could envision what do you want your future green job to look like and how can your skill set apply to that. We also did like Salary negotiation and navigating power dynamics in the workplace. We also did an incredible session on women and climate leadership. And so I would say that we like to do a good mix where it's like, you get to learn about different sectors, but then also you're gonna do hands on workshops where you're gonna get to like meet and get to connect with these recruiters or hiring, you know, decision makers directly. That's awesome. Well, I hope you have a ton of fun this year. We're going to move on to a segment called #t Field Notes. This is a part of our show where we talk to our guests about memorable moments in the field doing the work. And if you have those listeners, please send your funny, scary, awkward field stories with us so we can read them on a future episode at info@environmentalprofessionalsradio.com. And so Kristy, you already told us you got laid off from your first environmental field job. Do you want to expand on that, or do you have another story to share? Yeah, I mean, I was just gonna say like that job and getting laid off, I think was. 

A very important moment in my life. And I think like, I want to share this to all the folks out there that may have been laid off or experiencing that right now, because I think that that story is the most relevant, especially with what's happening right now. Yeah, when I got laid off, I remember being Devastated because it came out of nowhere. It was definitely not something I expected, but it honestly was one of the best things that ever could have happened to me because it made me really sit down and think about like, what is it that I like actually really want? And I realized for a long time I was kind of using it as a bit of a way and an excuse to hold me back from what I really wanted to go for. And so once I didn't have that anymore. It's like, it's funny how life can put you in the right circumstances to push you in the direction you need to go towards. And for me, I think I started off being very devastated, very despondent to then being like, OK, let me tap into my existing resources, my existing networks. And it ended up having really good results. So whether that be having a conversation with a trusted mentor or advisor or someone in your network. Who really believes in you, to also like sitting down and reflecting and revising your resume and thinking about your skill sets and how you want to build on that. I think those exercises help rebuild your confidence after getting laid off. And I think it actually positions you as an even stronger candidate because employers want to see resiliency. They want to see someone who's able to be adaptable. And I think the ability to show like, hey, I got Laid off by, hey, I was working on these types of these different types of projects. I was working on XYZ thing while applying to jobs to like position myself in the right place. From what I've heard from employers as well as myself in hiring, like, I admire that. 

I think that that like, shows something really powerful. And so I would say that like, yes, for all of you listening who maybe just got laid off or, you know, are still in the job search, weeks or months later, like. Don't give up hope. I think that there's so many incredible people that want to help you out. And I think it's important to list out who those people are, because I think just sending out your resume and your application to the wind isn't always the most effective strategy. I think it's better to like, figure out if you can at least to leverage some of your relationships, to at least get an informational interview, to connect with people. I think that that can really, really make a difference. Yeah, absolutely. I've coached a bunch of people who've been laid off and they, they tend to wear it like the scarlet letter, you know, it eats at their confidence and afraid to tell people like it's some sort of shameful thing. When it's just a thing, it happens. And so that's great advice that, you know, this also maybe it's just the universe saying, hey, time for a new direction. Yeah, no, exactly. Well, we're getting close to our time here, so what we want to talk to you about some of your hobbies, you travel a lot and you've been to a lot of countries, so what are some of the highlights? Any favorite trip or favorite location? Yeah, I mean, I had an incredible time going to Spain this past summer for my birthday. Um, I went on a solo trip there and I got to stay at an incredible eco-living house in Casel Deals in outside of Barcelona. I highly recommend them. And they just launched their eco entrepreneur co-living space that's focused on health, wellness, being climate forward and really supporting entrepreneurs that want to thrive. And so highly recommend if anyone is ever interested in staying there, checking it out, please feel free to hit me up or check them out, Eco Living. They definitely want to bring in some really incredible advocates to stay there. And so yeah, that was an incredible experience. I got to like stay in an eco-oriented, you know, living situation. I was like getting to thrift and shop vintage and do slow. Fashion stuff, which I love. And then I got to go to nature, I got to go to the beach, got to go to the forest. 

It was amazing. So, you know, I love travel, especially sustainable travel, because I like to teach people that like, there's ways that we can go explore that is responsible and really is taking in the culture, being respectful of the lands that we occupy and educating ourselves and the people around us from the things we learned from being there. That's awesome. That sounds like a great spot. And um I'll have to look it up. We are running out of time. Is there anything else that you'd like to talk about before we let you go? No, I mean, I think the last thing is, you know, we are a small but mighty startup. And I think for, you know, any organizations out there that want to get access to an incredible, like curated community of talent that's diverse and really deeply cares about these issues, I definitely would love to speak with you and connect with you because I think we are definitely. trying to reach more geographic regions. I think we have definitely like been a lot on the coast, but we want to really emphasize and support people in the South and the Midwest. I think those are especially regions where we should be talking about a just transition and getting people to learn about climate jobs. So if you're an organization or a business in those regions or those spaces, I would love to talk to you and chat. And I guess my final plug is For people to visit green jobsboard.us. If you have any job postings or want to consider us as a potential recruitment partner, you can also follow us at green jobs board on social media and my personal Instagram is at browngirlgreen. Thanks so much. Awesome. Thank you, Kristy. It's been a lot of fun and good luck with your new programs and we are going to be following along. Thank you guys. That's our show. Thank you, Kristy, for joining us today. Please be sure to check us out each and every Friday. Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review. See, everybody.