Your Work Friends | Fresh Insights on the Now and Next of Work

Creating Meaningful Community in the Workplace w/ DeMario Bell

• Francesca Ranieri

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Ever felt like you’re on your own at work—even in a “great culture”?

That’s because culture isn’t the same as community.
One happens whether you shape it or not. The other takes intention, safety, and a shared purpose.

In this episode of Your Work Friends, we sit down with DeMario Bell—community strategist, speaker, and founder of Gatherful, who’s spent over a decade building communities across higher ed, startups, and global enterprise, including leading Culture Amp’s 100,000+ member HR community.

We talk about:

  • The difference between a workplace and a true community
  • Why family is inherited but community is chosen
  • How psychological safety is the real test of culture
  • Common mistakes leaders make when “building community”
  • The role of vulnerability, trust, and micro-moments in belonging
  • Why the future of work is “more human, more diverse, and more fluid”

If you’ve ever wondered how to build connection that lasts—without forcing fake “family” vibes—this conversation will make you rethink what healthy community really looks like at work.

More about DeMario: 

Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered professional advice. We are not responsible for any losses, damages, or liabilities that may arise from the use of this podcast. The views expressed in this podcast may not be those of the host or the management.

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SPEAKER_02:

People join a community for utility, but they stay for the unity.

SPEAKER_00:

Hello. Yeah. Hi. Hi. How's it going? Good. Good. Good. That's good. That's good. We had the pleasure of meeting with DiMario Bell today. DeMario spent over a decade building communities across higher ed startups, scale-ups, global enterprise. I had the pleasure of meeting DiMario when I went out on my own as an entrepreneur leaving corporate. I joined the Culture AMP community, which is awesome. And he was co-leading the Culture First community for them, which had over 100,000 plus global HR leaders in that group. When you think about that, what do you think about?

SPEAKER_01:

That's ginormous. I know they had live events, but it's also mostly virtual, right?

SPEAKER_00:

It's mostly virtual, asynchronous, like a mega Slack group. When you think about that number, you think, ah, how much community can I get out of here? He really led the way. He facilitated that. I felt like I was part of something. I still do. I'm going to invent next week part of that organization. So when I think of community builders, he is the expert in this space. He's also the founder of Gatherful, where he's helping to create communities that transform organizations through his strategy work and workshops and speaking. Super excited to share this conversation with our listeners. What do you think?

SPEAKER_01:

I think the real flux in life and certainly in work is having a very strong community or feeling like you're part of something, feeling that you're safe. And DiMario laid out how do you actually do that? What are the bits that need to be in place for that to really thrive?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. It's in the everyday things, day-to-day moments, little moments throughout the day, and focusing on the human. So with that, here's DiMario. All right. I'd love to jump into your journey. Something that I read on your website, and I loved it, was that you said, community building is in my DNA. Tell us more about that.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I appreciate the question. I love all things community. My grandmother would tell me, God rest her soul, she used to tell me that she noticed me being an introvert early on, where my siblings, she'll watch them play with the neighbors and notice me assess the crowd and then go and play. As a child, I often found myself in the role of organizing my friends together. So this is before we were Facebook and all the social media apps. You all know where all your friends were hanging out because you saw all the bikes in the front yard. So you knew that's where everyone was. That I was that person. Typically, all the bikes were at my house. The other piece, which is so important to my identity, Mel and Francesca, is I identify as a first-generation college graduate. And here in the United States, I often say that universities weren't designed for first generation students in mind. And so when I went to college, it was almost like taking my parents to college as well, because they didn't know what they didn't know. And they're wonderful people. They have wonderful lives. But I noticed for me it was both a blessing and a curse to have that badge of honor because I was also figuring out that road. And part of that I had to figure out my people because college really creates this distinction between haves and have-nots. Now, people will argue me that's not true, but if you've been to a four-year institution, you certainly see that dynamic play out, whether overtly or subliminally. So for me, the reason why I say community is in my DNA because I love all these people and I love gathering people together. I have a natural love for humanity and I love the power of people. Good things happen when the community comes together. And so as someone who spent my life building community, I've seen that to be true. So I get out of bed for it. I really do.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I love that. And also as a fellow first gen person, I hear you. It was hard. It was hard to do that. So I love that that's what fueled you. And finding that and creating that for others is really meaningful because it takes community to thrive for sure.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, that's right. It goes back to that old saying, it takes a village for sure. What's so beautiful about community is that we all want to feel a part of something bigger than ourselves. And we all want to feel less alone.

SPEAKER_00:

Were there any pivotal moments for you when you realized wow, there's real power here in professional settings with communities?

SPEAKER_02:

Another question, and let me just say how I fell into community professionally, actually. Yeah. I was actually working in ed tech. So I left higher education, and I tell people I left higher education because I just need to make a little bit more money, just a little bit. And I found my way in tech. I'm building community on the customer side. And I remember just going to my leadership at the time to ask, how are we connecting customers at scale? Because customers want to be connected to each other. And I found my way becoming their head of community over developing out a new program around community. And it was there when I noticed how do we connect people at scale? How do we move from one-to-one relationships to many relationships? My former company, Culture Imp, I led our HR community there. It was the same thing. It's great to have these one-off conversations with each other around best practices or feeling less alone. But the real opportunity that I saw was how do we democratize this and really think about this from the other end and making it many to many? So, what are the programs that we need to put in place where it doesn't always have to be top-down in terms of driving community? But how do we create the conditions for everyone to feel like they are empowered to create community themselves and that everyone knows that they are a part of creating community, whether they know it or not? So for me, that's when I start to see there's an opportunity here for organizations to really put structure around this and at the same time really empower your people to help co-create that experience.

SPEAKER_00:

Like in your mind, everyone is a community leader and should be, and think of themselves that way within an org.

unknown:

Yes.

SPEAKER_02:

I agree. Sounds right. I look are very similar. And community and culture happens whether you shape it or not. It just depends on are you getting the right type of community and the right type of culture. And so hopefully you'll be an active participant in that and you're shaping it.

SPEAKER_01:

One of the things I look at a lot is almost every organization says, oh, we have a great culture, or we're an amazing community.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And I'm curious as to how you distinguish whether or not someone has a community, as in they have employees working for them, yes, versus they truly have a community. What is the distinction for you? Or maybe said differently, how do you define a real community in a workplace?

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, I love that question. Thank you. I always tell people it just can't be 40 people in a room. It has to be the right 40 people. At its core, community is about shared purpose. It's about connection, it's about getting to this goalpost. This isn't an original thought, and I'm borrowing this from someone, but people join a community for utility, but they stay for the unity. So to get to your question, Francesca, when organizations say that we have a great community or we have a great culture, hey, that's subjective. Because of course every company is going to want to say that about themselves. What company is going to say, we have a really sucky culture here?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. You get paid. That's what they're doing. We're the most okay organization there is.

SPEAKER_02:

So how you're able to distinguish if a company truly they're living that talk in terms of community, I want to go back to psychological safety. And psychological safety is important in every community. Can I show up in the totality of who I am? When I think about the person who I am, now I want to opt into those parts that I flex or not, but can I show up in the totality of who I am without retribution? If I push back and you disagree, will there be any negative consequences to that? Do my colleagues feel empowered to choose how and where they work? So there are a number of factors, and this is gonna vary per organization, what community looks like and what it feels like, but everyone has to participate it in it. And I think at the core of it, there has to be that psychological safety there. And psychological safety is not manufactured, it's cultivated over time. And you're gonna get what you put into it. And so when companies say that we have psychological safety, my follow-up question becomes who feels psychologically safe here? And the same thing about community, when they say we have a community, who feels like they can participate in that community, and then who's not participating in that community? I often find myself trying to figure out who's not opting in and how do we get those folks bought in. And it's typically the people who are like us, black and brown folks, women, we're just historically in the workplaces, they weren't designed for us. So we have our microcommunities, but when we think about broader community, I wish I had like a perfect analogy. Let me say this: when I'm cooking something and I'm using butter or grease, I'll dip something in there first just to see if it's hot enough, just to test it, to see if it's okay to start cooking. I feel the same way about community. Like for me, it's like I want to test it to see if it's real. And if it's not real, or if it doesn't feel good to me, I'm gonna opt out just to protect myself and treat work as work. So that was a long answer to say that you can test it to see if psychological safety is really present in an organization. That's how you'll get to community.

SPEAKER_01:

First of all, I love the cooking analogy. I'm Italian, so that really works with me. Appreciate that. Here's a follow-up question on that. Should organizations design community with the assumption that everybody's going to join or that everybody needs to feel it. Or there's one big community, or does it need to be like microcommunities? Is it a big city? Is it a neighborhood? Is it a state? Is it a country? What are we doing here with the community structure?

SPEAKER_02:

It's a complicated one, but let me hit that from a couple of angles. Okay, do you often say that when building community, know who you're building community for? And I think the same thing with organizations. When you think about I want to build this amazing culture and this amazing community, then who are you building it for? If your employees are your stakeholders, then who is your employee? Do you know your employee enough to know the type of community that you are building for? Should community solve for all things? I don't think so. And some people might disagree with me on that because I'm not one of those people who say that the top is responsible for all things community and all things culture. We all have this shared responsibility. What leadership is responsible for is creating those conditions for folks to be able to create community. Let's just say that there's a big company and culturally at a mega level, the culture isn't the greatest, but you can find that in pockets, which I can find that within my team. And so I feel psychologically safe. I feel great about showing up every day because I know the people I daily interact with are creating this layer of vulnerability, honesty, trust, credibility, and psychological safety, regardless of what's happening at the macro level. I know that the people I interact with are making me feel safe because I can't control that what's happening there. I might influence it at the micro level. So I say it to say that organizations, they should have a culture that they want to feel inclusive and welcoming to everyone, but set those parameters and frameworks for managers, for individual contributors, and even the directors and VPs to be able to create a culture that is specific to the teams in which they're on. Because the thing about community and culture is that they're fluid, they're not fixed. And so, depending on who the people are, it will evolve, it will change. And so, Francesca, I will say that at a mega level, there needs to be parameters, but I don't know that everyone needs to feel like they're a part of this larger community if you can find it in pockets.

SPEAKER_01:

Which makes sense, right? Going back to your point around like shared purpose, a lot of times I'm gonna probably find that smaller, more local towards the context of the work, the context of the industry I'm working in. And if Jerry from accounting is a total asshole, then you know, okay, you know, we have different parameters, right? Okay, one of the like I have, I think we share this to Mario. Mel shares this as well. Speak for her because she's my work wife, is this idea of workplaces referring to each other as family, right? It just uh nails on the chatboard thing, Mabab. Do you share this opinion and why?

SPEAKER_02:

It's a great question, and it's a nuanced question at that. So I'm not one of those people who refer to my colleagues or work dynamic in terms of family. And I know people do it, and I hear the spirit of that, so I don't want to antagonize those who do it because I hear the spirit of it. The simple answer, Francesca, is that at work we are not a family. We might get close to it, might, but we are not a family because family is inherited and community is chosen. And so we're born or brought into a family, and we don't typically get to opt in or out of that. Whereas on a community, on the other hand, that's built through sheer choice. The other thing I would say is that family is permanent, whereas community is fluid. Family tends to be a fixed unit. The relationships might evolve, but the structure doesn't change too much. I'm gonna always be my mother's son. Like that dynamic will not ever change. Whereas with community, if we're part of a community and we don't vibe with it anymore, we go from being community members to now our relationship might look a little bit differently because we're not in that place that brought us together. And then the other thing I would say about that is that family is about identity, where community is about connection and purpose. And so I think when organizations refer to themselves as a family, they're trying to get to some of those characteristics that remind us of a family. And let me say this: when we think about community and culture, family is our first example of that. It's the first tribe. And so when companies compare themselves to or say that we're like a family or we are a family, they're one of us to feel like you belong here or that you'll find your people here. I would prefer we're a community because community is strong and rich in of itself. Family is messy. And listen, my family is not all roses. And there are times when I have to just put some folks on ice, but we always come back to each other lovingly. At work, we have a team called employer relations. If you do anything wrong at work, there are conditions around that. If you say the wrong thing to the wrong person and you say, oh, we're just like family, there's a thing called an ER report that could possibly be filed, if not worse. And so I also don't want to mislead people to believe that if you lean too much into that, that's not without some consequences. I see that to say, if I got into a disagreement with a family member, we can work that out. We can come back together and work depending on that power dynamic. That's not always the case. There are other things that shape that. So it's different, it's a community. And I think that we can lean on community being that powerful descriptor of saying that you belong here and you can find your people here without having to use family to mislabel that.

SPEAKER_01:

Beautifully said. Yeah. It's so true, too, because you can't choose your family. And I think everybody, and I don't care who you are, everyone has some nuts people in their family. I probably am the nuts person in my family. You can uh, you know, lay off Uncle What's his butt at Thanksgiving. You know what I'm saying? It's but you're not gonna hit him with an ER report. This is a choice versus inherited.

SPEAKER_00:

I love that distinguished. Thank you. Yeah. You might not hit them with the ER report. You might call the cops, though. Things are gonna have happen. Um just joking, we could cut that. Common mistakes companies make. What are some frequent missteps that you see organizations making when they're trying to build community? And how can they avoid it? Please stop doing this tomorrow. What would you advise?

SPEAKER_02:

Can I be honest with you? Absolutely. I'm gonna talk about it from my own lived experiences. I say this in just and in truth. Like, stop thinking because folks share the same racial ethnicities andor identities that we have this monolithic experience. And the same thing happens with gender with women. We are all coming to the space with different lived experiences. And so I see organizations often make this assumption and then they tokenize individuals who are part of a community to represent an entire voice. I would also say when you think about building community, it doesn't always have to be big. And so I think when companies are thinking about how do I build community, how do I build culture, it has to be this grand act. And I see that community is like a relationship, it's just a frequency of touch. And so you give me a Slack channel, you let me label that, I'm gonna throw my people in there. That's me building community. So I would say that organization, stop thinking that you have to attach a budget to it, although that would be nice. But some of the most powerful levers that you can activate is simply empowering your people. That's the second piece. That first piece was not everybody shares the same experience. The other thing that I would say stop doing, stop treating your employees like they're children, talk to them like they're adults. I've seen this time and time again, especially when the companies are underperforming or there's a performance evaluation that's happening, and then there becomes this, at least from my own experience, where I felt like you're talking to me like I don't understand or comprehend. And I get it, like when things are happening, internal comms are saying, don't say this, don't say that. But tell us the truth. Be real with us, because the decisions that an organization chooses to make or don't make, it impacts me. And I gotta go home and have that conversation with my family around what do we need to do based on what's happening here. And then the last thing that I would say that I would encourage organizations to stop doing is stop thinking that it's growth versus community. I often hear organizations say, once we get growth, then we can focus on community, then we can focus on culture. And I think that calculus is all wrong because if you invest in community, if you invest and invest in culture, you're gonna get productivity. Because me, if I feel like, oh, I get to jam out with Mel and Francesca every day, they're creating the conditions for me to come to work to be creative, try new things, test, iterate, and fail, and be able to be coached on how I can do that differently. I want to give 110% that next quarter. I want to give 150% that next quarter. But if you beat me to hell, telling me we got to close this gap by the end of the quarter, I'm burnt out. So by Q1, I'm not operating from 100%. I'm operating from 40 or 30%, and I'm emptying myself out, trying to give more and more. So organizations understand that if you invest in the culture and the community piece, people will innately give you that 110%. And your top performers, you'll notice that it's not about dangling the carrot, trying to keep them with a retention bonus, more pay, and well, all those things are great. But if I know I can come to work and be my best self and I have the resources that I need, those things are ancillary to what I really want, which is to come to work and feel empowered.

SPEAKER_00:

I was gonna ask a question about the role of vulnerability. What role do you think that plays in building that trust and community in the workplace and among teams?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, it's a part of the calculus. You can't have trust without vulnerability. Because I was talking to a friend of mine, and she asked me, she said, Why is it that every time we talk, she said, you ask me about me, and then when I ask about you, you don't share as much. And she said, relationship is about us both giving and us both being able to share. And I wasn't doing that because I was being off-putting. For me, it was just like me just being in my own way. So I say that to say that vulnerability is important because it is a key ingredient in trust. If you show me a little bit about you, I will show a little bit about me. And we established that in the beginning of the call when I shared that I'm a first-generation college graduate. Now, I don't mind saying that, but I also know other people don't like that part of their identity to be talked about. And so what that did was, um, Mel, it created this trust between you and I because now we know what that experience is like. And experience is what connects us together. Um, the same thing. Like we we were both from the same town. Francesca and I, we have a love for food. That's an experience in which we can build on, and then the vulnerable piece of that, we can talk about the good, the bad, the ugly in that. So you have to have vulnerability if you're gonna get to trust. But you also have to feel like you can be vulnerable and not have it weaponized against you as well.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I think that's such a huge key, right? Because that's a barrier. That's that psychological safety coming in to be like, yep, I can share myself here.

SPEAKER_01:

Let's say psychological safety exists or there is a level of trust, and I'm a leader in an organization, and I really do want to make sure I'm intentional about cultivating community and how should I start thinking through being intentional about building community on my team?

SPEAKER_02:

First, you have to model the behavior that you want to see. Yeah. Because then community is all about we're all moving in the same direction towards the same North Star. And so if you're a people manager and you're wanting to build community on your team, ask yourself, what does that look like? What would a successful community look like? What does it feel like? What does it taste like? What does it sound like? Explore with the census, and once you've laid that out, create a vision around that and then socialize that with your team. And again, we said this community is also a series of actions. And so you can create community through one-on-one discussions on a one-to-one level. At a team level, create space in your group meetings for folks to do an icebreaker. I would often do with my team, and I had managers do with me what's bringing you joy lately? That's building community. How was your weekend? And these are simple prompts that get people just feeling good. It takes you away from the work. And I love that one about joy because we don't often talk about joy. And joy is a key part of life. Like when I talk about joy, I just smile. I'm like, ooh, I just I'm starting to feel joyous. The other piece is get your teammates, if you can, out of the work dynamic. Do something like rock climbing. We did a high ropes course one time, and there were team building elements to that, but I loved it, y'all. In a virtual setting, we would do a stair peril cars, you know, where should we begin? You can have a facilitator come in and do like a Jeopardy or any type of game if you want to go down that route, but on a one-to-one level, it's you first have to model that behavior. What does that vision look like? And then socialize that with your team and also co-create that experience. So bring in your teammates to ask them what would get you to show up every day? What elements need to be present for you to feel safe? Here, like bring them into that. If you bring folks on that journey, they'll feel that piece of ownership and help you see those blind spots and help co-create that. But first, model that behavior and then bring people on that journey.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

I love that. I love that. And I'll say this really quickly. I know when we join organizations, we have company pride and we're so excited, and it's all the things. And one of the things I would encourage our listeners is to integrat your relationship with work and your expectations of what work is and what the workplace is really responsible for. Because I think that we've placed too much responsibility on work to be all things for us. And I think that sometimes it's okay for work just to be work. That's not a bad thing. If I choose for work not to be a community to me, that's okay because I have other wonderful communities at home. And when I come to work, it's not that I'm stoic, but I come to work to fulfill a mission. And we're all in pursuit of that mission, but I know that I'm getting my cup refilled in other places. And so I also want to let folks know that it's okay if you're not getting all that from your employer. And I think that we shouldn't look at that employer to be all of that. Like they always tell us, don't put your money all in one spot, don't put your hope in all in one spot. Redistribute that. And so I would encourage folks to interrogate what you're asking of your employer because I think employers now they've done that with us. They're not loyal to us. And like they used to be, but they expect that from us. So if you're gonna set the new standard, I want to follow along too.

SPEAKER_01:

So that is beyond such sage advice because over the last two or three years, especially, I have seen people who made work their main community, their main source of identity for the title, the company, the swag, the discount, whatever it is, the money, and then they get laid off, or then they retire in quotes outside of quotes. And then all of a sudden it's a bad scene. And I think it's genuinely because, to your very good point, they have not diversified their portfolio of communities. They've put all their eggs in the one basket. And is that to say you can't love your job and you can't love your blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Still, I would never say put all your money in Enron. Don't do it.

SPEAKER_02:

That's it for Jessica, like mic drop. Like, is is that is it's we got that from our ancestors, those who were before us who were very loyal to the workplace. It's a very American thing of us to be where work is a part of our identity. And I would also say the future of work is challenging that as well. And we're seeing that with generations coming that's entering the workplace. We have five, six generations in the workplace right now, and we're noticing that tension and that shift right now. I'll say this I was at a town hall last night. I live in the Bay Area, Oakland, the B in particular, and the mayor hosted a special town hall, and the police captain made a general comment around how millennials and Gen Zers are not loyal to their organizations anymore. And that ripped me wrong because is loyalty the right thing? Is that the right way to describe it? Or has folks like re-examined like what work means to them? Like work can still have its rightful and meaningful place. And if it just doesn't serve me anymore, there's no obligation for me to continue tilling that soil. Something my brother told me once. He said, De Mario, don't till the same soil if it's not gonna harvest anything for you. And so I would say the same thing about an employer on both hands. If you're tilling that soil and you're not getting what you need out of it, at some point you're gonna you're gonna have to either plant some new seeds or think about a new crop that you want to grow. Work has a place in our heart, but I don't know that we're thinking about it in terms of I am work. Work is just a mechanism for me to fulfill my purpose, but it's just a provision for me in this season.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And it's healthy. Yeah, it is a healthy way to look at it. I'm just thinking, why is the expectation we would be loyal to a workplace when workplace isn't loyal to you necessarily? I think that's an unnecessary expectation and also a real danger to self-worth if we're tying everything to just work. Because we're more than that. We're more than the work that we do. Looking forward to the change. Looking forward to things changing. Or winning the lottery so we can have generational wealth. Help others. One thing that we see in the headlines often is we can't bring people together if we're not in person. But I don't think that's true. Why? Because Mario, I watched you make that happen as part of the Culture AMP group because you made me feel part of a community in an asynchronous virtual environment. So it is possible because I've seen you work magic in those spaces. We see it in the headlines so much now about RTO and it's needed to have community and connection, but we know that's not true. What are your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, it's not true. My community can happen in 2D andor 3D. I think that what people are doing is conflating the two. Anytime that we convince something to fit our narrative, we're gonna do that. And so organizations are going to. Do that. Now, I love being able to go into the office, but I truly believe the way that we were prior to March 13th, 2020, is not the way that work is going to look going forward. And I think that organizations want to go back to that. We won't ever go back to that. Gen Z don't know what it's like to work in the office five days a week because they've never experienced it. Millennials, we will be the last generation, the latest generation, to experience a five-day work week or being in the office five days a week. So organizations, you can build community without being in the office, but they want to use that for their argument, and it's not true. You've seen me build community virtually. We're in community right now. This conversation is community in practice, but again, it's about control. Now, I do love the idea of bringing people together because there's just a different feel that you get when you're in person. And I think that trust building can happen faster in person as well, because you're able to pick up on certain things that might not translate virtually. So it's not binary as all. It's it's you can come into the workplace and jam out with your community in real time, and you can do that virtually. So I think it's all, but I think that we've created this unnecessary argument when the future of work is not going to be five days in the office. It's going to be folks choosing where they work.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Yeah. Well, we believe in that it's magical when it happens, but it can be magic virtually too. What excites you about the future of community building in the workplace?

SPEAKER_02:

I think it's going to be more human. I truly believe that. And we talk about that. But when we have these conversations, we start to have a ripple effect because then we empower folks who don't think about work or the future of work as more human to consider that. And I think about the archaic way of how we used to work or jam out, that is just dying away. So what I'm really excited about, and in all honesty, is that work is going to be more human. And what I mean by more human is also going to be more diverse at the same time. So no matter who you are, what you are, how you show up, your ability, your disability, how you learn, how you move, how you be, I truly believe all are going to be welcome. And I don't want to sound too optimistic, but I truly believe that work is going to be more human, where folks are going to. I think that if we do it well, people are going to want to come into the office, to be quite honest with you. So it won't be us having to force people. It's because we have the receipts to back up and people want to come. So I think that's what work is going to look like.

SPEAKER_00:

It's meant to just get to know you personally and your thoughts on work, but also just some other things. So are you up for it?

SPEAKER_02:

I'm up for it.

SPEAKER_00:

All right. It's 2030. What's work gonna look like?

SPEAKER_02:

Joyful and playful.

SPEAKER_00:

Ooh, I love that. No one has said that yet. So it's nice to hear. It's refreshing to hear that. So love it. What's one thing about corporate culture you'd like to just see die already?

SPEAKER_02:

Bro culture.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

Bro culture. Yeah, this culture where organizations tend to click up and exclude people intentionally. So we need to get rid of that. And that's in the spirit of, oh, we're like a family. And I know we'll get into that, but that bro culture. And we see that a lot in tech. We gotta get rid of that.

SPEAKER_00:

As women, 100% agree. So yeah. What is the greatest opportunity that most organizations are missing out on?

SPEAKER_02:

Leading with vulnerability. And I think that we look at vulnerability as something that we talk about outside of work. But vulnerability is what enables us to do our best work.

SPEAKER_00:

100%. I'd like to see people be a little more vulnerable. Just can we tap into our humanity just a smidge? Just a little?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, because I don't stop being human when I clock in and when I like life still life when I'm working.

SPEAKER_00:

100%. 100%. And the world's on fire. Can we all just make space for it? What music are you listening to right now? What's hyping you up? What do you love?

SPEAKER_02:

Listen, y'all, I am in this season where I am loving on myself. But so let me just share this really quickly. I know this is a rapid round. I'm listening to a song by Ruth B called Rare. And she's from Canada, and I got exposed to her while boarding a flight, a Delta flight. And so her genre is more like love songs. So I'm in my love season right now. Ooh, okay.

SPEAKER_00:

We'll check her out. We'll check her out. We're trying to create like a guest playlist because we'd love to hear what people are listening to. Check it out. Okay. What's what are you reading? It could be an audiobook, it could be, it doesn't have to be your physically reading. It could be a magazine article. What's what's got your attention these days? Oh is it good? I have it on my desk. Is it good?

SPEAKER_02:

This is what I just got it and I will be reading it all weekend because I am curious to know what happened in those 107 days.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, we need the tea on everything. My friend's gonna meet her to this weekend, I think, out in California. She's going to a book tour stop. So I'm like, I need to hear it all. What did she say?

SPEAKER_02:

I was saying this. You had tickets open in Miami, and I was going to buy a ticket. And I'm gonna be honest, I said to Mario, are you really gonna fly across the country? Because I'm in California for I'm not. So the book, I'm gonna read it. So, Mel, when you hear the T, please share it.

SPEAKER_00:

I'll send you an email. I'll send everybody an email. This is what was said live. You should not gonna travel either. Okay, who do you really admire? Could be personal, professional, all of that.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I love this question particularly, and there's so many people I can name, but let me tell you who's on my heart right now, and a person who I've never talked about because I typically keep my personal life separate.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

And it's a cliche, but I have to say it, and if you really knew me, you would know why this matters most. I would say my mother. And the reason why I say my mother is because I never talk about my mother professionally, and she's a wonderful woman, and we have two different lives. But when I think about the person that I am today, I attribute the man that I've become to her and God. I can't say anything else about my mother. I can say she raised me, and she was the one, she was my imprinter. She showed me what humanity looked like because I watched her take in people. We always had people staying with us. And so for me, I want to give a shout out to her because I don't know that I've done enough of that. And that's me being vulnerable. But I do want to give a shout out to my mother.

SPEAKER_00:

We want to shout out your mom too. She sounds lovely. What a nice person. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And that's yeah, for moms, dude. I'm sorry, but I love when people look at their parents or the people that brought them up, could be grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, whatever. But they do, they make such a huge impression on your life. And it's for better or for worse. Yeah, hopefully for better.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And therapy for the worst. That's what it's terrible for.

SPEAKER_00:

Therapy for everybody. We think everyone can benefit. Everybody needs therapy. Yes. Yeah. What's a piece of advice that you would want to give everyone, or you would want everyone to know?

SPEAKER_02:

So I think we're in an era where everyone wants to be a content creator. And this is no diss to content creators. But one of the things I will say that was actually passed down to me and Mel and Francesca, this came, I was reflecting on this last night. One of my high school teachers told me this. So my first career was actually in radio and television. But one of my high school teachers, who was one of our local news anchors, told me, he said to Mario, don't worry about being famous. Focus on being effective. Because if you're effective, people will remember you. And so that extends beyond content creators. But I will, I just want to say to my friends who are just who want to get into it for all the wrong reasons, fame is fleeting. And so I tell people, like, if you are effective, people will always remember the impact that you've had. So I want to remind people that go back to that why and that why should anger because if you're effective, people are just going to naturally gravitate towards you. So that's what I will offer to the world right now.

SPEAKER_00:

I think that sound advice because it's I have nieces and nephews that think, oh yeah, I could just blow up over on TikTok. But it's a wrong kind of road, I think. So yeah, it's also exhausting.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it also I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go work out Powell's books or something.

unknown:

Yeah, imagine it.

SPEAKER_00:

I just want to sell ice cream. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01:

Life, a meaningful life.

SPEAKER_02:

Listen, let me say this. I went back thinking about the first job I ever wanted, which was to be a bus driver. I'm like, how can I get to that in this next life?

SPEAKER_01:

No, especially because you're not that gig.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, yes, I agree. For the neighborhood. Hear some funny conversations, that's for sure. Like the gold you'd walk away from uh or walk away with every day. I think, I don't know, make you smile every day. Thank you so much for joining us today, friend. It's been a pleasure.

SPEAKER_02:

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00:

This episode was produced, edited in all things by us, myself, Mel Platt, and Friend Tessa Reneri. Our music is by Pink Zebra. And if you loved this conversation and you want to contribute your thoughts with us, please do. You can visit us at yourworkfriends.com. But you can also join us over on LinkedIn. We have the LinkedIn community page, and we have the TikToks and Instagram. So please join us in the socials. And if you like this and you benefited from this episode, and you think someone else can benefit from this episode, please rate and subscribe. We'd really appreciate it. That helps keep us going. Take care, Friday. Bye friends. Bye friends.

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Francesca Ranieri

Co-host
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Mel Plett

Co-host