Continuing the Movement for DEI Through Value-Based Efforts | Carla Haskins

In this episode of The Social Impact Podcast, we sit down with therapist, writer, and DEI advocate Carla Haskins to discuss the evolving landscape of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and how to keep pushing forward despite challenges. Carla shares insights from her time at Rice University’s School of Architecture, her journey in mental health counseling, and the intersection of social change and resilience.

We explore the importance of radical consistency in living our values, the power of community building, and why now is the time to mobilize for justice, not retreat. Carla also offers practical advice on navigating difficult spaces, avoiding burnout, and staying committed to equity work—no matter the obstacles.

Tune in for a thought-provoking conversation on breaking barriers, building bridges, and owning your brilliance in every space.

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Transcript

Hi. Welcome to the Social Impact Podcast. Today we're joined by Carla Hoskins, a therapist, writer, and DEI advocate dedicated to healing, resilience, and purpose. We'll discuss the impact of current DEI policy changes and how to continue the work of equity and inclusion in a meaningful way. Let's dive in.

The Social Impact: All right. We are here with Carla Haskins. Carla, how many years have I known you?

Carla Haskins: Oh, you guys, I

The Social Impact: 25, 30,

Carla Haskins: somewhere that ballpark for sure.

The Social Impact: which is wild because we are 30. So I don't know how that happened, but 30 forever. Yeah, but I will say that I've always admired you. And from day one, . You've always been someone I've looked up to and had your words in high esteem. And so I'm really thankful that you'd [00:01:00] spend a few minutes talking with us about diversity, equity, and inclusion and any other insights that you have.

It's, it's a wild world. And our social change minds You know, kind of grapple between the frustration and the, how do we make this better? Right? So I think that's probably going to be a lot of our conversation today of calling some stuff out, but then also, okay, how do we keep going even when we're exhausted?

Maybe.

Carla Haskins: absolutely. I think that's important. Thank you for having me. I know that we are. Personal friends, but I have also followed your journey and your work and you know I'll just publicly say how much I respect you and the work that you're doing at the social impact. I think that it is important work. Particularly for women for us to stay engaged in the fight in whatever ways and spheres of influence that we have. So I'm honored to partner with you and I'm honored to talk about it. Thank you

The Social Impact: Thank you. Very kind of you to say. Well, let's start with kind of like the [00:02:00] now and then we'll backtrack. So will you share a little bit what you're up to right now in your career and kind of like your, your top of mind mission? Yes, it

Carla Haskins: year run at Rice University School of Architecture here in Houston. It is a well respected program and I fell into an opportunity there, starting as assistant to the dean for strategic initiatives, which E. I. was 1 of his, kind of initiatives coming in as a new dean that he really wanted to embed diversity, equity and inclusion into this culture of the school, everything from faculty to students and staff. And so with my background, he asked if I would. You know, 1st, take a contract position and within 6 [00:03:00] months that turned into a permanent role.

So I had never worked in academia besides, you know, being a student. So it was incredibly and beautifully challenging and wonderful.

an education of another kind, and I loved it. I loved every minute of it. I love the students. I loved the discipline of architecture, incredibly interesting, I had no idea about the intersections of the built environment architecture and, you know, how it shapes.

Cities and the history of architecture and honestly, the influence of architecture in communities and particularly communities, marginalized communities and communities of color. throw a stat out here. That is really interesting. are less than 600 licensed. African American female architects in the United States.

The Social Impact: Interesting. . , , .

Carla Haskins: other thing that I'm finishing is my master's in science and clinical mental health counseling to be a therapist, lifelong dream,. So just [00:04:00] kind of fulfilling, pivoting to towards that direction, which has been something that I have been working on since I left. Another huge part of my background and story, which was working in nonprofit in a local church based in

The Social Impact: Okay. So We're going to bring up the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the

Carla Haskins: they

The Social Impact: Okay, so So, okay. [00:05:00] So, okay.

Carla Haskins: time that we were no longer aligned with

The Social Impact: Very good. I don't think.

Carla Haskins: It's just who I am. So I'm, I'm excited. 

The Social Impact: Yeah, I mean, so incredible. There's a common thread that throughout your journey that you stand up for for justice and and you're an advocate in everything you do, and there's so many points that you made that I kind of want to, like, rabbit trail off of, like, I have questions about this and this. So maybe we can start with your time at Rice or just in the education space, you know, I had a time [00:06:00] at Pepperdine University and still work with them and one of the most impacted industries right now with diversity, equity, inclusion is education, right?

And and higher ed and who is going to be. Of scholarships and all the things. I mean, just off the top of your head, what's your first reaction? Or I should say response and and what do you kind of like advise those of us that stand for equity that are in that space?

Carla Haskins: yeah, it's interesting what's happening. I, you know, rice was a unique environment as well, because it is a private institution, people are misinformed and that they think, you know, it's a private school, so they don't have to deal with, you know, federal uh, and regulations. That's actually not true when the university receives federal funding. And so I also live in Texas, which is a [00:07:00] huge change from basically, like to say Houston raised me, but you know, the West Coast made me, I spent

know, of my adult years on the West Coast, which, which is a very different political climate. And

The Social Impact: right.

Carla Haskins: To Texas, you know, it presents a lot of issues with people, even recruiting top talent, you know, people who, you know, whether the media is correct or not, it influences and shapes people what they think about, you know, moving to a red state like Texas. Houston is actually and you can fact check me here, but I believe it is. Most of our city in the United States, so it's rich, very, very rich culturally. university is a very space, given, you know how elite of an institution that it is, it has achieved some levels of diversity. They have their 1st Haitian American, black person of African descent [00:08:00] as the university's president, Reginald Roche, who is doing an amazing job,

The Social Impact: Okay. I'm going to take a short break.

Carla Haskins: I think of what is going to

The Social Impact: Okay. Yeah. [00:09:00] Yeah.

Carla Haskins: into. Our brilliance and our innovation for how we are going to continue this work. I think it challenges us, right. not take the easy road out and say, Oh, let's just, you know, kind of grab this funding.

The Social Impact: Right. Right. Right.

Carla Haskins: are we going to just, I'm just going to tell you right now I'm going to do it anyway. I think we have to be, I think we have to

The Social Impact: Silence.

Carla Haskins: We can lean into the negative narratives. We can say mean things on social media, which is, I feel easy things to do [00:10:00] pull our sleeves up.

We can do some community building in ways that we haven't before. We can, , , go the harder road, but it definitely. I would say still leads to reward.

The Social Impact: right. Well, there's one thing that I've observed with you know, communities of color is resilience, right? Like , people of color are not new to opposition and having to pivot and, you know, be creative and all the things and it's unfortunate that this is another moment. However. It's not an unfamiliar moment.

And so for those of us that are advocates with the community, we can't just get discouraged. It's like, how do we join you? How do we step up? How do we get creative? And also how do we do better? You know, I'm thinking I work with a lot of organizations that are creating equity programs and it's like. I know the statistics aren't even equitable [00:11:00] among the equity programs, right?

So it's an opportunity to make sure that every people group are also getting the same kind of access. Like, what are your thoughts behind maybe some improvements or, like, in this time where we have to kind of rewrite these programs or rewrite how we're forward facing, like, what are some ways that we can do better as, like, social change agents?

Carla Haskins: Yeah. That's a great question. makes me think about net building, right? So many times and, you know, obviously I identify as a, as a black woman. The generation, I would say before is so encouraged us, you know, get your education, get a good job, get those top jobs. Right? And a lot of the conversation has been around those opportunities, which are fantastic for individuals.

You make an individual. you know, my 4 and no more. Let me get a great house. Let me live in a great neighborhood. Let's make sure my kids go to good

The Social Impact: [00:12:00] Okay. Okay. Okay.

Carla Haskins: black female, VP candidate in Kamala Harris, which was amazing.

The Social Impact: Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Huh. Huh.

Carla Haskins: Latino communities that, you know, kind of voted against their own personal interest in my opinion. [00:13:00] But now what we're not going to sit around and say, we told you so. Okay. no, you guys are learning the hard lessons that the black community has learned for years. Okay. Now, can we partner together? How can we do this? How can black women and Latino women, which many times those communities. intersect. If you know anything about the African diaspora, 

The Social Impact: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.

Carla Haskins: really don't [00:14:00] have time to be negative about it. It is what it is, but made a very point, which is. resilience is proven, and I think it's time for us recognize that, you know, we're here. We're not going anywhere, not going where we built this. so how do we, we engage to move forward? And, and build some momentum, crossing aisles, crossing neighborhoods, crossing the street, crossing genre, just crossing, breaking all the rules. It's time to break all the rules.

The Social Impact: Yeah, and I love that. And I'm just thinking, like, well, how does that start? And it probably already has started, right? But is it consortiums? Is it you know, top leaders from different communities having summits? Like, what, what are the action items to, like, get, get it going? You know?

Carla Haskins: Yeah, I think this dependence on leaders to me, to be

The Social Impact: Right 

Carla Haskins: outdated. [00:15:00] We,

The Social Impact: right,

Carla Haskins: we is the leaders,

The Social Impact: right, right. Yeah.

Carla Haskins: in again, in our spheres of influence. How can we each move the needle forward? how can we be intentional about building our networks and getting to know people that maybe we haven't worked for before? We should all be leading this movement. Our leaders are tired, probably, you know, they're burnt out because You know, the burden of, you know, the burden of leadership, people looking to them, what are we going to do now? What, what, what am I going to do? I think that we need to look inward, you know, no different than, you know, pastors of local churches, you know, everybody's looking to them for what to do.

It's like, no, . , they're just as human as we are. We all have the ability to move the needle. And so I think you will look different for different people. It depends on your placement right in society. What's in your hand? What do you have to work with? can you [00:16:00] mobilize? How can you make a difference? Start in our neighborhoods, know,

The Social Impact: Right.

Carla Haskins: in our communities. Starting our workplaces and whatever, you know, boundaries that there might be. But I think this dependence on someone telling us what to do or a few leaders

The Social Impact: Mm hmm.

Carla Haskins: is outdated.

The Social Impact: Right. There's no time to wait.

Carla Haskins: We don't have time for that.

The Social Impact: No. No time to wait. Just see what, what your talents are.

Carla Haskins: No, we don't. We do not have time to organize it. people also don't realize about what's happening in terms of policy is that all this stuff was done before inauguration day. They have these plans in place to

The Social Impact: Right. . .

Carla Haskins: Roll it out, right?

The Social Impact: Mm hmm.

Carla Haskins: happening on a whim. All this stuff is has been strategic and intentional.

And I think if we were educated also about our history, they're taking. of plans from the playbook of the civil rights movement, you know, everything from overturning Roe v. Wade to a [00:17:00] lot of the, you know, policy initiatives that we're seeing happen right now. They're basically overturning the work of the civil rights movement and using the legal system to do so. And it can be very, very discouraging, but

The Social Impact: Right.

Carla Haskins: I'll be honest with you. to the point of uprising, I'm ready.

I would rather

die on my feet than live on my knees.

The Social Impact: right.

Carla Haskins: happening.

The Social Impact: . And it's that like fight that righteous fight that people kind of just have to get inside them that keeps keeps it going. And I think another part is, at least I see this in social change and policy is I'm kind of like anti whiplash because, you know, there's always these moments of.

Like shock, and then, and then it kind of creates this domino effect of then people go into this frenzy and make frantic decisions and pull out of different things and stop conversations and avoid. And, you know, [00:18:00] it kind of creates this like frantic behavior and it's the movements that have been created.

Yeah. Yeah. Consistent. I mean, the, the DEI initiative started in 1960, right? And it's, and then it picked up steam in the eighties. And then obviously after all the horrific loss through 2000, 2020 and all of that really got recognition, but it was a, it's been a long time coming and it's not going to just all of a sudden disappear unless everyone gets this like frantic mentality.

So what would you say about staying tried and true to campaigns and like being focused, I guess, and trying not to, as hard as it is, react to all the kind of like noise.

Carla Haskins: Yeah. I, a quick little video on my Instagram. right from the response that I feel like a lot of us probably, [00:19:00] know, had and have. And had to have a conversation with myself about, okay, Carla, does this change who you are? No. Does this change? Why are you giving this the power and energy that you're giving it?

Because had to challenge my thinking of who actually I was giving that power to, if that

The Social Impact: Mm hmm. Yeah. Mm hmm. Mm

Carla Haskins: had a, you know, a come to Jesus moment, if you will, which is, okay, what does this really mean for me?

The Social Impact: hmm.

Carla Haskins: And, I had to determine, okay, I don't have to say the words diversity, equity and inclusion to live that way

The Social Impact: Right.

Carla Haskins: to make financial decisions that way,

The Social Impact: Mm hmm. [00:20:00] Mm hmm. Yeah.

Carla Haskins: can call it whatever you want to call it, but the I'm about is values, right? So, instead of responding to decisions that someone else have made and and getting afraid that it's going to. Change anything. definitely was a of wait a minute. These are still my values

The Social Impact: Mm-hmm

Carla Haskins: still believe in, that all men and women are created in the image of God and

The Social Impact: Mm-hmm

Carla Haskins: worthy of my and that inherent value that God gave them, that

The Social Impact: Mm-hmm . Right?

Carla Haskins: That's not going to change for me. It also made me survey. How can I, as a therapist.

The Social Impact: Mm-hmm

Carla Haskins: Be a part of the solution.

Advocacy and activism is a huge part of how I want to show up in this world. And that's

you to [00:21:00] choose to show up. I don't have to call it DEI. I don't care. Call it 

 It's value driven living

The Social Impact: Mm-hmm

Carla Haskins: commit to and how we spend our money, how we spend our time again, who are we building

The Social Impact: Mm-hmm

Carla Haskins: with?

Are they truly aligned with us? 

We see what's happening even with, you know, some retailers like Target and

Juxtapose Costco, right? Costco said, no, 

this is who we are. Do 

want to do, but this is who we are. Others have made different decisions. And so, okay, can make those decisions.

Carla Haskins: And now everyone gets to live with the consequences of their choices.

The Social Impact: Mm-hmm

Carla Haskins: And I don't want to say that as an oversimplification, right, of of the problems. But I really do believe that if we say, this is how I'm going to raise my kids. This is how I'm going to live with my neighbors. This is how I'm going to try to affect my community.

This is how I'm going to [00:22:00] engage with law enforcement. is how I'm going to spend my dollars. I really do believe that those things move the needle.

The Social Impact: Yeah, absolutely.

Carla Haskins: Radical consistency to living our values. I

The Social Impact: is good. Radical consistency to living our values. I mean, that's, that's it. Put that on a plaque. I mean, that's it. , .

Carla Haskins: It's the

of, , living our values in every single day. Every single

The Social Impact: Yeah.

Carla Haskins: the little things. It really, really is. It's not

The Social Impact: Yeah.

Carla Haskins: scooping, you know laws and all those things. And I know that people are truly affected, right? You have communities who are afraid, to go outside because they don't want to get raided by ICE.

You know, like those things are real, right? And so I think that level of activism requires a [00:23:00] different, a different kind of strategy.

The Social Impact: Agree.

Carla Haskins: A different kind of community building a different kind of community and interference right at the

The Social Impact: Yeah.

Carla Haskins: level, most people do not have power to change policy. We have influence in our homes, we raise our kids, who we choose to marry. I'm not going to marry somebody and raise another generation of racist.

The Social Impact: Right.

Carla Haskins: let's just keep it a buck. Okay,

The Social Impact: Right. Right. Right. Right.

Carla Haskins: I no longer align with their values. Okay, what's my 18 month plan to get out of here? Because this is not who I am. associate with this, right? So there's, there is the individual level, there's the community level. And of course, then there's the national level. And I know we've talked a lot about voting and getting people out a whole another [00:24:00] right conversation, right?

The Social Impact: Right.

Carla Haskins: In these two year terms, get some of these folks out of here, but all is not lost.

I think if I want to say to people, yes, it can be discouraging, but do not lose hope, we still have a fight.

The Social Impact: Right.

Carla Haskins: And we just have to choose which, you know, how we're going to show up in that fight.

The Social Impact: Yep. Yep. At whatever level, if you work in social impact, if you're, you know what you're doing in your homes at every level that you have influence, right. And I do want to encourage, like, I agree with you. I don't want people to lose hope because in my work, we just were able to get, I, I have a initiative I'm working on with an incredible organization and we were able to get a, a big name partner during these times.

Carla Haskins: Right, right.

The Social Impact: and so there are those Costco's, we can still go get our pizzas friends. You know, but there are these businesses that are aligning. There are people that are standing up. So it's not. [00:25:00] It's not all lost. It's, it's just finding those right values. I want to go back to something else that you mentioned in your intro about how few black architects, and especially, did you say women of color?

And okay And so I'm curious because a lot of what I'm hearing is in industries where you don't see a lot of people of color, it starts at like the recruitment level, right? Or like people being able to see themselves. I think that is such a huge part of. Community and having that influence too, is having people from every industry represented and I'm thinking I've been in these meetings recently here in Pasadena and learning so much about the racial history here at Pasadena, which is tragic.

Pasadena was the last city west of the Mississippi to desegregate. And they were federally mandated to do so. And it wasn't until 1971. And so we're still feeling [00:26:00] the impact today because those are, you know, grandparents, parents that were impacted here. And we have a corridor here called the 710 that has initially I forget what date, but initially it completely displaced the black community tour out.

An entire section and displace them. And obviously we're still feeling the impact of that. So now that architects are going to have to, they just finally decided we are not doing anything with the 710 corridor. It's given back to the city of Pasadena. They're going to fill it in and recreate. Communities.

And so having Black architects be able to come in and represent and have a voice of like what goes there and how to build the communities for the community is so important. But if it's hard to find people of color that are in those industries, then that's obviously challenging and kind of a missed moment.

So I guess my question is, What's your thought on kind of those like first steps to recruit [00:27:00] people of color into all industries and like, what's the best way to do that? And what's the pipeline that you create so that they, there is representation when you're having these big conversations about like building a whole city.

Does that make sense?

Carla Haskins: Oh, yeah, that's a tough question for me. I'll be

The Social Impact: Yeah,

Carla Haskins: the position has moved. Honestly, just based on my own experience. I don't think people understand how, you know. Recruiting recruiting people, marginalized communities, because we'll

The Social Impact: yeah. Right,

Carla Haskins: pretty much. I feel like architecture, again, the intersections, which I spoke to earlier, because it's not just the buildings or the developer, . It is construction companies, right? It

The Social Impact: right.

Carla Haskins: The landowners, the cities and who owns these lands, which is

The Social Impact: Yeah,

Carla Haskins: a [00:28:00] good old boy network

The Social Impact: yep, yep. Yeah,

Carla Haskins: know, it, it, it happens. But of course, someone that has a DEI background in, in especially, in HR. Recruiting people into these companies and into these cultures. they might only one or the 1st 1. that is not fun. It's not easy. And so from a mental health perspective, I'm looking at, is it really going to be beneficial? Are they going to be able to make enough in inroads and change? Or should they just be happy to say, oh, I got a job. Back to my earlier point and I get to work on this project, I think that's going to be okay for a lot of people, but I also am cautionary around [00:29:00] marginalized people being in these environments because they are quite toxic at times unintentionally.

So, so most times, just because the culture you want what it is, right? But those faces are not safe a lot.

It's not. And so you the one way to think about it is, you know, black people having their own firms or marginalized communities having their own firms and bidding for the jobs, maybe as well as being a part of, you know, larger firms like, you

The Social Impact: Yeah, interesting. Yeah.

Carla Haskins: need to start making because historically [00:30:00] black people, marginalized people go into these companies and, you know, we're treated often like you're just, you just need to be happy to be here. Don't say no, don't start no waves.

Don't try to come over here trying to be an activist. You just be happy that you're here. And that's a very real thing. The power though, to have agency about how you use your gifts and your talents, I believe a frontier for marginalized people. From that mentality of I want a job and a fortune 500 company with a great retirement and a great pay.

So I can buy a house going from, I would say that kind of, Basic, basic human expectation of, you know, let me get a job to my husband and I were talking about this. You know, people, we talk about black excellence a lot. I know you've maybe seen that tag or heard that. Okay. Black excellence being I'm going to show [00:31:00] up.

I'm going to be excellent in everything that I do for the benefit or profit of this.

The Social Impact: Mm-hmm

Carla Haskins: I'm in my era of black brilliance. you that right now.

The Social Impact: All right.

Carla Haskins: I own myself. I own my gift. I own my talent. I own my time.

The Social Impact: Mm-hmm

Carla Haskins: So for me, this is my personal form of activism. I want to call my own shots.

The Social Impact: Mm-hmm . 

Carla Haskins: I'm off the market in terms of you using my brilliance to get you to the next level and

to do all of that. It's a wrap.

The Social Impact: Yeah.

Carla Haskins: Call that what you want. But I think both are options. I think it just depends on, you know, who you are again and and what values are driving you and how you show up in the marketplace. But I've been there and done that

The Social Impact: Right.

Carla Haskins: now I just. I think a huge part of the movement is people choosing to go from black excellence to black brilliance and just [00:32:00] money for yourself and

The Social Impact: Yeah.

Carla Haskins: the sense of agency for me for specifically black people because of our history in this country

The Social Impact: Mm-hmm

Carla Haskins: chattel of this history of chattel slavery. I'm incredibly passionate about owning myself. And for me, that that's an option as we move forward so that we are not dependent on D. E. I. how can we make in this world? That is not dependent on getting these jobs and being recruited by these firms. who just want to workhorse you in a lot of instances. I don't think that it is a bad option if you want to get in, learn some things and get out. But ultimately I think we've seen that the level of appreciation for what we bring to the work environment and the work culture. It's not respected to the level that I think it needs [00:33:00] to be. I

The Social Impact: Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. I mean, what do you think? Like, what's your prediction? How many generations will it take?

Carla Haskins: know. I don't know. You're giving me

The Social Impact: I mean, there's like the hopeful answer, right? Obviously these like, yeah,

Carla Haskins: I don't know. I don't know, Bri. I, I don't know. Again, I think that this is an opportunity and I think it depends on how we respond, how far we will go. I think we have to keep trying to move the ball down the field. I think that we have to keep having cross cultural conversations that would hope inspire people to action.

I fact that you are doing the work that you're doing as a white woman is huge. You've devoted your life to have a social impact. And I think that it's going to take more 

in a very powerful way. You're putting your money, your time, your talent and your energies into this work. And I, [00:34:00] again, this is, this is a part of your work is aligning with your values. It's how you're raising your kids. It's obviously how you and your husband are aligned in terms of you and your house.

And I think it's these kinds of and conversations and problem solving. I think it's going to take that.

The Social Impact: Yeah, it definitely is going to take all of us for sure. You know, not just one community. I mean, one of the reasons we moved to Pasadena was so that we could raise our kids in a diverse neighborhood. 

I just have this mentality of like, whatever topic we're talking about with social change, , we need everybody. Like this is too big. It's too big to do it alone. Right.

Carla Haskins: We have to. And I think if this last political cycle taught us anything, it's how easy it is to divide us.

The Social Impact: Yeah. Yeah.

Carla Haskins: power of media and who are we listening to? And,

The Social Impact: Yeah.

Carla Haskins: where are we getting our information? Yeah.

The Social Impact: [00:35:00] noise, the noise, kind of a funny thing. I'm sure you've seen it. It's funny, not funny, which is like story of our world right now. Funny, not funny, like ironic. Like, is this real? Where's the, where's the, like, what is that? Like a wormhole from Spider Man? Are we in an alternate universe? Like, let's all just work together to find the hole to get out of here.

Carla Haskins: Oh my 

The Social Impact: have you seen the bumper stickers where people are putting them on their Teslas? It says, I bought this before Elon went wild or whatever.

Carla Haskins: no, no, we're good for them because

The Social Impact: I know. Oh

Carla Haskins: Lord.

The Social Impact: my gosh. Oh my gosh.

Carla Haskins: and I'm like, oh, God, I

The Social Impact: Yeah. So, but that being said, we're going to wrap up cause you're right. There's like so many different, I'm just gonna, we could do like a whole year on this or more. A whole decade.

Carla Haskins: helpful. Thank you

The Social Impact: So helpful. So I mean, I mean, you have so much wisdom. We have a few like rapid [00:36:00] fire questions that we ask everyone.

Are you ready for these? I mean, they're not, they're not hard.

Carla Haskins: I'm ready.

The Social Impact: rapid fire. The first one is what is your, I said, they're not hard. And then it's like a huge question now that I'm reading it. Okay. So purpose is a big word, so I'll just leave that out. But what's your like motivation for change? What, what keeps you going?

Carla Haskins: my faith.

The Social Impact: Yeah.

Carla Haskins: Yeah, I believe in human. I believe in humanity. I believe in human beings. I believe that there's something when it's tapped on the inside of us that we have the ability to be really powerful during our time here on earth. to leave a mark and to, you know, really just be the change that we want to see in the words of, you know, our president, Barack Obama.

But I really do believe in I believe in humanity.

The Social Impact: [00:37:00] Yeah. Yeah. That's good. What's your well being tips? Therapist Carla Askins. How do you stay healthy?

Carla Haskins: I need a lot of alone time. So I need at least. An hour or two, to be honest, in the mornings, you know, just with my own thoughts, you know, people call it different things. Meditation, prayer, reading, sitting in silence is a practice for me. I love to sit in silence. I also like to walk an hour a day.

I would, you know, I try to do it every day, but I probably get probably three or four times a week. I need an, I need an hour walk just in nature. And I am addicted to good sleep.

I do. I have a whole sleep ritual, ma'am.

The Social Impact: Good for you. Okay, we'll talk offline about that.

Carla Haskins: Okay.[00:38:00] 

The Social Impact: okay, then the last one is how can I meaning. You know, myself, the audience make an impact. Like we're talking about big things and I think we address this a little bit, but if you just want to reiterate, like how can every individual, whether it's their career or just in their community, make a difference.

Carla Haskins: I think make a decision, make a decision to make a difference.

The Social Impact: Yeah. That's good. I love that.

Carla Haskins: just make a decision and do it.

The Social Impact: Make a decision. Good one

. Make a decision

and stick to it for the love.

Carla Haskins: know. I know. It's a lie. It's distracting. I think to stay on course, but I

The Social Impact: Yes.

Carla Haskins: a decision that aligns with our values and just, just do it.

The Social Impact: Just do it, man. Okay. I love it. Carla is such good stuff. I'm so thankful for you. What a great conversation. And I know a lot of people. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Carla Haskins: I love that [00:39:00] we're alive at the same time and that we are part of the same fight. It is, it's a truly

The Social Impact: Yeah. For sure. We're in this together.

Carla Haskins: We are.

The Social Impact: All right. Thank you so much.

Carla Haskins: for having me.

The Social Impact: Thank you.

Carla Haskins: Right.

Okay. Thank you for taking the time to listen to the Social Impact Podcast. Make sure you hit subscribe to catch all the episodes where we'll be talking about social change and making a difference in the world. We also have a brand new initiative called the Dean, a report for all of us that have survived the Eaton Fire, please check out the social impact.co/the Dena report.

We'll see you next time.