Turn Your Creative Vision Into Lasting Change

What if every system you engage with is just a story someone told - and it's up to you to decide if you want to build a new one?

Join me as I sit down with Genevieve Anderson, a filmmaker and social entrepreneur whose work lives at the intersection of creativity and social impact. 

Genevieve has spent her career asking deeper questions about how we tell stories, who gets left out of the systems we build, and what it means to keep creating and caring over the long haul. 

Our conversation explores storytelling as an act of creation, how creativity shows up in unexpected forms, and what it takes to stay human and hopeful without burning yourself out.

You'll Learn:

⭐ Why storytelling is literally creation - not just something you do for children

⭐ How to synchronize head and heart in your work

⭐ The power of narrative change in shifting systems

⭐ What it means to build something that can grow beyond you

⭐ Why slowing down in January isn't weakness - it's wisdom

Key Insights:

Stories Create Systems: Every system we engage with - marriage, money, social services - is a story somebody told. If we only look at what's already there, we're not engaged in storytelling.

Head and Heart Synchronization: Working only from your head in "go, go, go" mode means you're not meeting the moment in your fullness. Real impact requires both.

From Actor to Activist: Genevieve's journey from theater arts to directing plays with people experiencing mental illness shows how creativity can be a tool for social change.

Social Enterprise as Solution: Private sector partnerships with social enterprises create win-win scenarios - corporations need impact, and social enterprises need scale.

Legacy as Kernel: Building a legacy means creating something that can continue to operate and grow without you—a kernel that feeds humanity in ways you might not even imagine.

Timestamps:

[00:00:00] - Introduction: Conversations that invite you to slow down

[00:01:00] - Welcoming in the new year with ease and grace

[00:03:00] - The shift from "go, go, go" to synchronizing head and heart

[00:05:00] - How Kristin and Genevieve met through LEAP Academy

[00:07:00] - Early career: From acting and theater to social impact

[00:08:00] - Working with people experiencing mental illness in LA

[00:47:00] - Why private sector needs social enterprise

[00:48:00] - Harnessing the power of storytelling for narrative change

[00:50:00] - Storytelling as creation—bringing new realities into being

[00:52:00] - Building a legacy: Creating systems that can grow beyond you

Resources and Links:

Find host Kristin Belden on LinkedIn or at Beldenstrategies.com

Sign up for Kristin's newsletter at Beldenstrategies.com/newsletter

Connect with Genevieve Anderson on LinkedIn

Find Genevieve's work at Genevieveanderson.com

Check out Wunz and MakeitworkLA

LEAP Academy (coaching program mentioned in episode)

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review! And if you're interested in more stories and tools for women leaders, sign up for my newsletter at Beldenstrategies.com/newsletter. 

Transcript

Speaker: [00:00:00] Some conversations invite you to slow down. Today's episode on kind of a Big Deal is one of those. I'm joined by Genevieve Anderson, a filmmaker and social entrepreneur whose work lives at the intersection of creativity and social impact. Genevieve has spent her career asking deeper question. About how we tell stories, who gets left out of the systems we build, and what it means to keep creating and caring over the long haul.

In our chat, we talk about storytelling as an act of creation, not performance. We explore how creativity shows up in unexpected forms, how systems shape people's lives, in ways we don't always see, and what it takes to stay human and hopeful without burning yourself out in the process. This is about intention care.

And building work and lives that stay true to who we are. I'm really excited for you to hear this one. Let's meet Genevieve.

​

Kristin: Hi Genevieve. Hi. It's so good to see [00:01:00] you. So good to see you too. Happy New Year. Same to you. I was actually just thinking, and this has me so excited. This is my very first recording of the new year, so. Yeah. I'm so thrilled that I get to chat with you on my very first chat of the year, so welcome, welcome.

Thank you. Yes. We were just talking about, um, your beautiful space that you're in for those that are listening and not watching. She has a gorgeous space with like lots of natural light. Coming in and I'm also in California where the sun is starting to shine again. And there's something that shifts for me internally when the light starts to come back.

So, uh, I'm feeling that today. Yeah. Yeah. Me as well. It's been raining a ton here, so everything is sort of washed and fresh and when the light comes out, it's always brighter and noticing that it feels, um. I dunno. It feels really cleansing and it feels really like a, a great sort of way to walk gently into the new year instead of plowing ahead [00:02:00] with the resolutions.

Genevieve Anderson: I'm really into this idea that January is, it's, it's a time still for reflection and hibernation and, and, you know, uh, introspection and not, you know, powering forth with change and, and resolutions and all of that, that, that part can come. But I, I feel the need to be a little bit slow right now. I am with you on that.

Kristin: It's such an interesting, I sit with this tension of like that and some energy and excitement about move, and so I'm like, how do I allow both to be true? I feel like I just saw something recently that was like, look around you look at nature, the winter is still wintering. This idea that we're supposed to just like come out of hibernation and be like, let's go is kind of wild.

So if you're not in that space. That's okay. We have to give ourselves permission to still gently ease into a year, especially after so many had, you know, 20, 25, like how many, how many dumpster [00:03:00] fires did we have to put out? So how do we wanna enter this year with intentionality? And the answer can be with ease and with grace and quiet.

And I think that that comes, I don't know if this is true for you, but I think as I get older. That feels more and more true and more and more acceptable, maybe is the word in my mind. I think before I would've just been like, no, you just gotta go. You gotta go, you gotta go. Like, yeah. Something has shifted for me, uh, over the years where that does not feel as true.

Genevieve Anderson: Well, maybe that's part of what we were talking about before we started where this thing about self-care. I'm really, which I, I even, I like, I curdle at the thought of like self care because I'm like, I'm busy, okay, I'll see it and I don't have time and I'm just, I'm go, go, go. But there's something shifting in me that I'm aware of that I actually am not meeting the moment the way I need to in that modality of just the one I know best.

Working outta my [00:04:00] head, working super hard. Just go, go, go, go, go. Um, something's missing, and I'm actually not in my fullness, and I'm being called to be in my heart more or to, to sort of synchronize both. In fact, a colleague of mine gave me a heart, um, HeartMath, like a HeartMath monitor, a cohesion monitor, put on your ear lobe to kind of make sure that you're breathing and your, your heart are, are in.

Kristin: Ooh. So I've just, I love that. Yes. So it's a shift for me too. It's not the way I generally go about things, but I really feel the need to slow down, um, enough so that I understand what's going on around me and can be a little bit more deliberate about the difference I'm making. I love that. I, we just went right into it.

I didn't even introduce you.

No. Which is perfect because it's a perfect. Actually segue into [00:05:00] my introduction of you, Genevieve and I met through a coaching program that I've mentioned, uh, here before it's LEAP Academy. For anybody that hasn't heard, I feel it's only fair that I mention the name because I say it so often. I should probably let folks know what it is, but I think it's really also a testament to the incredible people that.

Find themselves there. And so many people that land there, it's because they are wanting to build something different for themselves. They have a vision, but maybe need to find a way to it or are looking for clarity. And to have that community of people, um, for me anyways, was very life changing because it was.

To, to see that there are so many other folks that are seeking and that believe in something a little bit more, or in building something different for themselves. It was really, um. Motivating for me, I guess is a way of saying it, but Genevieve in particular is just one of those women that you're [00:06:00] immediately drawn to.

It's like, you know you're going to be before you even have a chat, just by the way, she shows up online by what she shares on platforms. But in meeting her within a few moments, it's just so incredible to be in her energy and she has such a clear heart to change the world. Um. Your heart to change. The world shows up in really everything that you do, even as you were just sharing with me before we jumped in and we'll get into it, but that your work is taking on a little bit of a different shape for the moment, but even with that, it's.

You still have a tie to impact and to the impact you wanna have on the world, which is so beautiful. She's creative and strategic, but more than that, she's super fun to chat with. And so I'm just really excited for everyone to get to hear from you today. Thank you, Kristen. Yes, absolutely. I'd love to maybe just rewind all the way back.

Take us back in the time machine and. The early days of your career, what were you [00:07:00] drawn to? Um, how did you start out? Like what got you excited when you were first jumping into the career waters, into the career waters? Um, it st it started with acting in theater, so, you know, undergrad, UCSB, sociology and theater arts.

Genevieve Anderson: We, I graduated with BFA and went, moved from college to LA to act and was acting in my early twenties and, um. You know, gaining some traction. Uh, I knew I didn't really fit because I was young and everyone, you know, the ingenue thing didn't work for me. I was volunteering at the Los Angeles Mental Health Association because really from really early on I was very drawn to like, why are there people on the street?

Like, what's the deal? You know? Mm-hmm. Why do people go crazy? What about society makes people. Decide they can't live in it and choose to live in a tent. So I was at 21 working with people who had really debilitating mental illnesses and, uh, and started directing plays with them and whatnot. So I, from the, from the [00:08:00] outset, I was like, not really cut out for the la cookie cutter ingenue.

I was doing a lot of those character studies from people from the LA Mental Health Association, and I would bring these characters in. People were always like, wow, like you're amazing. Like, what are you doing? And I'm like, I'm just showing, I'm reflecting what I find interesting in the world, you know? But I was always coached like, you're never gonna get jobs playing 65-year-old men with mental illnesses.

Like you, you, you need to start, you know, embracing what you are. And I never could do that. And that's always been for me. So. That's so interesting. But it's my first love for sure, and one that I really greatly miss. And so yeah, acting led to movement theater, uh, school in Mexico, GU Mexico, where I studied a really kind of in interesting form of corporeal theater with Siegfried Aguilar.

And I just learned so much about the body and about creating theater. 'cause [00:09:00] the standard way of doing things like plays where there's an actor and an actress, or. All of it was like there's more, there's something more interior and more interesting. The human body, in many ways, it's so dumb. We know, we understand it.

Language is dumb. This is why people like Charlie Chaplin are brilliant, because you know what I mean? They don't use words to convey the deeper meanings. So I've always been drawn to that. So movement theater led to, um, led to, anyway, there's too much to convey, but I'll just condense it led to a crazy thing that happened in Mexico where I almost died, led to me doing things with puppets Okay.

To convey that interior kind of thing. Mm-hmm. That get to. Working with people from the Mental health Association with wanting to do like language list theater expressions. So puppets, puppets led to an opportunity to make a film I'd never done. I knew filmmakers from film [00:10:00] school at UCSB and I made a film and that film, um, called Boxed about.

This experience that happened to me in Mexico where I was hunted by this crazy guy. It's a 12 minute film and it went to Berlin. It was the very first film festival it went to. I didn't even know what a film festival was and it won a jury award. So I was like, okay, there's gotta be something here with this form of expression, which was very raw and very like coming from a need, just a need to tell a story.

Kristin: Mm-hmm. Nothing. Uh, just something that's visually arresting and very honest to tell the most basic parts of a story. And so I pursued that and that's, I'm still, uh, 20 years later, the 25, longer than that, 25 years later, I've made five of those films and I have one that's in very long pre-production. But a short of it was made, it's called Too LA Solitude, and it's based on a European [00:11:00] novella and it stars Paul Giamatti.

Genevieve Anderson: He's the voice in it. And that been in long, again, in long development because all of us have lives and it's very, very hard to make a movie. That's my creative kind of background. This is, I mean, incredible because I also happen to know that you've done. Other incredible things in addition to what you just shared around your thoughts around workforce development and your thoughts around what it means to be in the social impact space.

Kristin: So it's incredible to hear the creative side of it as the kind of foundation and anchor around this need to tell a story. I think there's something so interesting there. I, I had so many questions that were popping up as you were sharing some of that. Can you share a little bit more? When you were talking about your really young years in LA and navigating what it meant to like have this desire to express yourself, you were so interested in acting, but there was something else that was calling you that felt deeper, and [00:12:00] you mentioned directing theater with folks that were navigating mental illnesses.

What did that. Look like. And what did you, did you have a vision when you set out to do that work, or did it kind of organically just start to, to create itself? You know what I was just drawn to? I have to know what's going on with people. That's like the sociologist in me, like here it, it informs my film work.

Genevieve Anderson: It informs everything like what's happening with humans? Why are we making these choices? Why do we leave so many people out? Like why? Why do people when they can't metabolize the structure that we've created called Society and Culture All Creation, right? All deliberately created for some people to succeed and for others not to succeed.

And then the ones that can't do it, we just kind of go, you, you overhear, you go over here. Yeah. Sucks to be you and best of luck. Sorry. That's social murder. Right? That's a very deliberate strategy in the part of the powers that be to make sure that we kind of weed out the week. [00:13:00] So that is, that's all been part of all of this, is this desire to understand why do we do that?

And also a sense that that's wrong. Like it's not okay at the end of our lives. The only thing that matters in my view is how we were to each other. That's, that's it. I really believe in the golden rule, not 'cause conceptually it makes sense. It just makes sense in my heart. And that's the one thing we've got so wrong.

It just societally across the board, we couldn't be getting it more wrong. Yeah. You know, in terms of where we put our priorities and how we're failing to make adjustments to make up for all of the damage that we've done. Yeah. All of this human collateral, we we're not keeping pace. We're not keeping pace with.

That damage and it's piling, literally piling up in the streets and we're not doing anything about it. So that urge was there in the very beginning. I couldn't explain it, but it was like, what's going on here and what do we do about it? That's [00:14:00] so interesting. I mean, it's, I'm curious if you have a perspective, just based on the amount of time you've spent in this work.

Kristin: Do people care? Less nowadays about this idea of human collateral, or do you think it is the same? It just has a different book cover now. Do you know what I mean? Have you seen over the course of these decades of being in these spaces like. Do people just not care about the damage that we're doing, or is it that we're more concerned for our own self-preservation?

It's correlative for sure. There's a correlative between the amount of damage and the more we kind of turn away because we don't know what to do about it. We know we're guilty. If you have consciousness at all, you know that you're. Your life and the things that you have, there's a correlator between what you have and what they don't have.

Genevieve Anderson: There's all these other things. One of the most important things I learned in, in studying mental illness and being with people is it's not one thing. It's not like society. Bad people go [00:15:00] crazy people. Million things that make people, that make people kind of lose connection with their own sort of wholeness, right?

Um, bunch of stuff. So it's not like it's one thing, but overall I feel like people in general don't care. They don't care. And the ones that do care don't know what to do. Mm-hmm. There's a bunch of people who are doing things and really amazing things, but I just feel like this whole notion of. That's like an elective.

It's an elective to care. Makes me like give back. Let's give back. Like, why don't we not just take so much to begin with and maybe build into our systems that corporations are gonna make less, they'll still make it them way more than they'll ever spend, but we're gonna build into their operational structures, taking care of the damage that they're creating.

By overproduction and by all, you [00:16:00] know, all, all of the things that happen and some of that is occurring. It's just not, it's not occurring fast enough and there's just a lot of pushback because it's somehow, I don't know, we are allergic. This notion that we put something before money is Yeah. It gives us hives.

Yeah. Or, or it's, this is the motor of capitalism. Right. Don't get me started, sorry. But you know, capitalism is doing what capitalism does. But we have as human beings need to make these adjustments. We have to make these adjustments, and we're not doing it. We're not doing it enough, you know? Yeah, I was just gonna say, it's fast enough, but it's also at scale, right?

Kristin: It needs to be happening quicker and it needs to be happening in a much bigger. Way. It's so interesting. You've touched on a couple of things that have reminded me about a conversation I had with another dear friend, Kate, a few conversations ago, and she's been in the social impact workforce development space for her entire career and she talks a lot about, number one, the need for were self-care.

And I know that's, we have to [00:17:00] think of a different way to talk about this because it's like no one wants to say that out loud. Even she was like, Ugh. But it is about how do we protect. The goodness. I think. Here's the way I would, this is, I'm talking this out in real time, but it's like how do we protect the goodness?

Inherent in ourselves as we are looking to protect others because I think we cannot be of best service and support if we are depleted. If we are operating with from a wic, it is, it's impossible. We cannot be the people we want to be and do the hard work we want to do. If we have. Burned ourselves out so thoroughly.

And so she talked a lot about how at a very young age she learned that and she had to set up very specific systems and structures in her life in order to continue. She knew she wanted to be in this work for the long term. And so, I mean, listening to her, I was like, man, I wish I would've learned those lessons at such a young age as well.

But she also talked a lot about the clip I shared of her actually was. When I was saying how it's, it's so [00:18:00] easy to logically tell yourself these things, like, I need to do X, Y, and Z. I know what the answers are. Yeah. I know how to take better care of myself, but it's so hard to do it. Yeah. And she's like, well, yeah, there's something about that.

She's like, and also capitalism. Like, hello, this, the structures and systems we've set up have not allowed us. Right. To, it can feel like such an, a crazy act of rebellion to go like, no, I need to take the space. I need to take care of myself and my family. Yeah. When that's just the very basics of life. And so to your point, if we're not doing that at scale, how does the needle ever move in a significant way?

Genevieve Anderson: Yeah. And can we shift it? And, and there's so many times when I'm like, oh, we're so fucked. Sorry. Here we don't. We don't care here enough. And to that end, the cynical Genevieve's like we deserve whatever we get, we deserve. We absolutely. I watched that movie, don't Look Up three times. 'cause I loved seeing when the meteors [00:19:00] just come, it's hurdling toward Earth.

And I'm like, thank God it's gonna be over, thank God. Like poof. In a new beginning. And they were all sitting around a table and they're holding hands and they're. Doing what humans do. So it's a beautiful glimpse of humans being beautiful, but it's all about to end. And it just filled me with such relief.

And I don't, I don't say that to be negative. I really don't. I just, I have deep concerns for us. Yeah. And about where we're demonstrating our priorities are. Yeah. Yeah. So the self care part comes in, and we were talking about this earlier, where the parts of me that are getting like rigid around, it's not changing fast enough.

I'm gonna die someday. I might not. I'm not gonna, I'll see whatever change I see. But I have to preserve the part that wants the change. You know? Because if the cynicism sets in, or if you become calcified and your ideas that human beings aren't worth saving or any of that stuff, and there's plenty of evidence that that is true, then you know, what's the point?

[00:20:00] What's the point? And I've stopped doing the thing that I am most, I don't know, skilled at doing, not just as Genevieve, but as a human, which is caring. Despite all of this, I'm still gonna care. Yeah. I'm still gonna care and I'm still gonna believe in us, but in order to do that, I have to, you know what I mean?

I have to tend to this other, otherwise I'm just like, ah, oh 100%. It's too easy to go down. I, because I was in the media and journalism space for so long, I had to seriously, at some point, turn off. All notifications on my phone. I stopped, I felt when I was in that industry that I needed to be constantly informed at the very second that something dropped.

Kristin: Like I needed to know. I needed to have an opinion, I needed to, you know, whatever. And it took me a long time to fully detox from that. But I can find myself still at times being drawn back into this like doom. Like I need to, if something tragic or terrible happens, it's almost like I need to saturate myself with [00:21:00] it for a minute because otherwise I will just continue to replay it or what, look for it, or read an article about it until the end of time.

And so it's almost like saturate me with it so that I can fully feel what I need to feel about whatever is happening. But it's really hard, I think sometimes to your point, to remain, to have some level of. I think there's a really interesting conversation happening right now, and I'm sure it's happening in other spaces too, but I hear Mel Robbins talk about this a lot because she gets some flack for her work around like mindset and how you show up in your day and blah, blah blah, and she's like, you know, this concept of toxic positivity and how we can't just all be happy Pollyanna all the time.

She's like, that's not the point at all. Like at all. She's like, I know the world's fucked up. I know our lives are hard. But what is the alternative toxic negativity that we're just constantly walking around in a state of just like absolute despair and sure that's an option and it, [00:22:00] and how do we then very intentionally try to almost rewire, she would not even say, almost, she would say literally rewire our brains so that we are entering into the day and into spaces not feeling like.

The world is going to end any moment I say it's, I love all of this and it really feels like this, these polarities that we're in, like we are very complex beings who are operating in a density that we haven't really op. We in this time haven't operated and things have gotten so dense. Right? Yeah. So I feel like what you're talking about is this practice of intentionally.

Genevieve Anderson: Being aware of how you feel, doing what you can to feel differently because your vibration, your feeling, um, timestamp really matters. Mm-hmm. It matters. And so the self care, this, this, I don't know, monitoring or whatever, understanding where things are coming from, understanding that you're under a lot of pressure, getting all of that.

And [00:23:00] knowing what to do so that you can actually elevate your own being in order to handle the moment in the best possible. Yeah, it's, it's a practice that I have never had to do in my life before. That's what makes it different. Yes. Different than just meditating. It's different than just feeling good.

It's like I have to do this all day long. Every day. Yes, every day. Multiple times the day. It is real and I would've never. I didn't have any practices around that. Yeah. Really ever. And I think it's an interesting thing to share with the generations that are younger. Like how can you be thinking about this before you reach the point of something dramatic has to happen to get you to, for me it was, you know, I had a dramatic job loss that totally blew my mind.

Kristin: And you know, it was much more dramatic than that, but. It shifted everything in me. There was a seismic foundational shift that [00:24:00] happened that then allowed, I think, for some of this conversation to happen internally around, wait a second, I'm not being intentional at all. I'm just running full steam ahead without thinking really about any of this.

And so what are those practices? And they don't have to be huge. They can be these like little tiny things that you do throughout the day that. Compound. That's what I find interesting. I tend to be the type of person that's like, if I can't do yoga for 90 minutes a day, then screw it. So this idea that it's like, no, you could just take two minutes to walk outside in the morning before you look at your phone is like kind of wild to me.

Right? Yeah. No, I That that, that's an important shift though. It really is. It's so important. Like take it where you can get it. Make it incremental. Yeah. And build a practice that meets the moment the old stuff doesn't work anymore. We really do have to redesign what, you know, what self-care means, what all of this, what a spiritual practice means, all of this stuff.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm curious if you, and please [00:25:00] do not share anything more than what you're comfortable with, but you mentioned having a pretty intense. Moment in Mexico that got you into a different form of art. Mm-hmm. And a different form of storytelling with puppeteering, which I wanna hear more about just in general.

'cause I'm so curious how one led to the other. But in facing such a pivotal moment in your life, outside of the work, is there anything you'd be willing to share about how that might have shifted something for you just in how you are as a leader or how you are? Um. In the world. I am always curious from people that have navigated or experienced something that is so extreme.

Clearly we come on the other side of it as a different person. Yeah. In some way, shape, or form. Can you speak to that a little bit or is that feel a little Well, I love that question and I don't think anyone's ever asked me that question and I feel like. The response that comes up is a feeling of the, at the end of the day, I was sure I was, [00:26:00] I was terrorized by a person in a very remote beach town in Mexico.

Genevieve Anderson: The movie is called Boxed and I, I literally had a little box with slats in it, and then you can see through it and for like six hours. And he was intense on killing me. He said he was gonna get in, I was sure he was gonna get in. He set the roof on a fire, like all these crazy, oh my God. Nobody was, I was screaming, nobody was coming.

I had a Swiss Army knife and I was preparing for how I was gonna kill him when he got in, or how I would wound him enough for me to run. And, and when you, when something like that happens and you're just in survival mode, you're not scared. Mm-hmm. You're just really just focused. I'm like, I'm not gonna be like a little.

Story on page, you know, 28 of section C of the LA Times young woman traveler found dead and remote. Like it's not happening. Not happening. And so what happened is that focus kind of turned into a resolve and I had to endure it for many hours. And then the light came up, the sun finally came up, and then he [00:27:00] went away and somebody came.

Uh, finally, right? I mean, it was just a creepy, creepy night. Oh, it was such a creepy night. I mean, I could spend the whole time talking about what a creepy night that was. And somebody finally came and I was just like, okay, I'm gonna go now. And I got my stuff. And I remember I didn't run out of there like wouldn't.

I sat on the beach and I was like, I am here. I am. Right? And I was, I dare you. I just, I just felt this kind of ferocious, like. And then I transformed it and then it, I didn't know about, I didn't know it was gonna become a film. I didn't know it was gonna go to Berlin, but I, I made it into something else.

And that showed me that, um, that you absolutely can turn terror right into transformation. You can turn something that's really horrible that you think you're not gonna survive, or you think, to my point and like, we're irre recoverable as humans. You, it's possible, right? With conviction and focus, you can transform it into [00:28:00] something that is mm-hmm.

Different, you know? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. I wonder if there's something inherent. This is so not at all the same, but in sharing some kind of like, I don't know, uh, what the word is, but it, when we went through what we went through at the company that imploded, it was very clear that there were some folks that were going to use it as a way.

Kristin: To better themselves or to find a way through it and pursue or fight or shift or whatever. And then there were folks that still years later hold such a level of anger or such a level of literally can't move past it. And life circumstances I think, dictate a lot of this. Wanna be really mindful of.

Acknowledging that not everybody is starting on the same, from the same, uh, starting line as it relates to what it means to navigate through some of these challenges. But I am, but you hear stories all the time of people who have faced extreme adversity or extreme life altering moments, and they then are [00:29:00] able to harness that power to your point, turn it into something, and then there's others who, it kills them essentially, like it, it makes it so they cannot move forward.

Yeah, I've always been curious about this. Is this something that is intrinsic or is it something that is learned? Is it both? Like, I, I don't know if I'm asking that question or if I'm just voicing that I'm interested in that question too. 'cause you think about like real survival stories and people just, you know, um, I think it's something in, I think it's something intrinsic.

Genevieve Anderson: I mean, if you think of, um, Viktor Frankl's Man Search for meaning like that Yes. About that. Really all about where, what the decisions you make in your mind about what's gonna happen. So I love that we're having this conversation because what I wanna add is that when I hear, you know, I read that book not too long ago and whenever I hear about people who've done extraordinary things I've been watching, um, oh my God, I can't think of his name.

It was Virgin Airlines. Oh, uh, [00:30:00] Richard Branson. Richard Branson. 'cause his wife just died and so I've been following him a lot. And, uh, anyway, we extraordinary people. You think they're like that all the time? I feel like. I don't think so. I don't think so. I think it's a decision you make over and over and over again.

I'm in a new place. I, all of the things that I've done, all of the hardship that I'm still facing over, the decisions I've made, and most are around not earning enough money. And realizing like, oh, I, I, I've gotta do that now. Like, that's really important. You know what I mean? Like, I just wanna save the world and make art.

But there's all these feelings of, can I do that? Can I transform this thing that feels like, like, oh, it's so hard. I don't know what to do, what I don't, I don't see what it's gonna be like. Was it gonna become something? I think you have to make that decision over and over and over, like, I'm gonna transform this, and, and you either do or you don't, but it's, yeah.

Kristin: Right. That I agree. Yeah, I agree. I, I do wonder if at some point you make that choice enough to where it's just, it is part [00:31:00] of who you are, right? Like you don't, it's not like in your head you're thinking, okay, I'm gonna choose to do X. It's like naturally the next step emerges because that is now who you have trained yourself to become in some ways.

And that is talk about the perfect, to me, parallel to. Creating art in general, it's, you have no idea what the hell is coming out. It's like, well, let's just hope it turns into something and you know, you just don't know. Um, but you are making a conscious choice to create. Um, yeah. Can you talk a little bit about how that then led to a brand new form of art making for you with the puppet work you were sharing that that moment.

And doing the movement theater and then having this, you know, tragic, horrible. And I'm so sorry. Sorry that happened to you. That is just Absolutely. It's terrifying. I know, but still horrible. How did puppets come into play and what did that look like? Um, pretty simple. A friend from, from high school actually took me to see a [00:32:00] show that he was doing at Sac State called A Thousand Cranes.

Genevieve Anderson: It was a boon Raku show, which is ancient Japanese form of, of puppetry. I didn't, all I knew of puppets was Muppets. Up until then. Yeah. Right. Which are amazing. But an inert puppet. An inert puppet, just lifeless puppet that's brought to life by three puppeteers who are very skilled. They attach their hands at different points.

They stand around the puppet and they make the puppet move. And I saw this play and I was like, oh my God, that's, it's the most amazing thing I've ever seen, ever, ever this inert thing that instead coming to life through this provisional. Life force kind of lended by these puppeteers, and I'm like, that's it.

I just, all of us, it was like lightning bolt, like, I wanna do that. That is the thing that human beings can't ever do. There's magic because there's such a, there's such a fine line between being alive and it not being alive. Mm. So. That was what was fascinating [00:33:00] to me, and it seemed to sort of, to be a divine rod for these divine energies, like something really truly holy and magical coming through this sock thing.

So I started making puppets. I started like fooling around with paper clay and, and, and literally stocky stuffing stockings and. Playing with them. And so I always started making puppets. Of course the first thing I made was like a set of circus freaks. Of course. 'cause as you would, it's freaks. And um, yeah.

And then Mexico happened. So that was when I was kind of going back and forth to Mexico, working with Okay. Maestro. And then I ended up in Mexico and then came back and a friend from college had said, I'm gonna do a film festival. His parents owned this big documentary filmmaking thing. He said, oh my friend, no one's making movies.

We're gonna make movies. I'm gonna hold my own film festival here. And so you guys can use all the equipment and everyone's gonna make a movie. And I was like, oh, I don't wanna make a movie. Okay. And anyway, so he's like, I'll [00:34:00] help you. And there was my friend, my friend Art, who had taken me to see a thousand Cranes.

I was like, I. He's like, you gotta make a story about what just happened to you in Mexico. Yeah. With puppets. Like, yeah, okay. But nothing with any intention. We were talking about the fear of showing our work to people. None of it was ev There was no like, I'm gonna make a movie. If there had been, I would've, it would've been different.

Would've brought my ego and, and, and all stuff to it. And conversely, I was just like, I just have to tell the story. But it did happen that when I was in Berlin and I saw, oh, this is a huge festival, like, oh my god, and there's all these, you know, I was in, there was only 10 films in the Panorama and I was in the second day and I saw the first day of films and I was like, I'm outta here.

Like I'm gonna go get my, and those was on a canister, 'cause it was a film festival. There's no no thumb, you monitor transfer to 16 millimeter. Had my, I was like, I'm gonna go get my film and I'm leaving. I'm not. There's no way I'm letting anybody watch my little. [00:35:00] There's no way. No way. Because alone, unlike theater, you see everything.

You see the imprint of the filmmaker's soul. You see everything about them, doesn't matter production value. You see their intentions. You see their ego. You see their arrogance. You see their vulnerability. And I was like, I'm not down for this. I'm just not. So somehow, somehow that didn't happen. Somehow. I don't remember if I talked myself out of it or I just couldn't get the film, or I don't remember, but I, I ended up saying, and, and it, you know, and it was very well received.

Kristin: So that has to be such a, I can imagine, I can only imagine that there's so many folks that are either hearing this and have such a curiosity of what it must feel like to be in this space. I mean, first of all. For those that have been to Berlin, it's one of the most magical cities on the planet. Talk about the coolest place that you could even also be like, have your debut talk about a place that is just absolutely teaming [00:36:00] with the energy of creativity.

The fact that they actually support their artists is one thing, right? So people are actually creating and living, making a living and you know, not trying to balance as you were sharing earlier, like what does it mean to create versus make a living and make a life and survive. And so you walk down the street at night and somebody just has their apartment door open and you walk in and they're hosting an art show with their like crappy drawings because they can, it's like, it just, it blew my mind and I loved every minute of it.

So did, to put yourself in the place of that kind of energy and people being excited, how did you feel when you were sitting there watching what you had created? Horrified and being a mis, absolutely horrified. Because the film before, and the Germans are awesome because they'll say whatever's on their mind and they love Oh yeah.

Genevieve Anderson: They love it. So they're not passive observers. They're engaged. They wanna know. And the film, the series right before ours, a woman made this beautiful black and white film and it was just kind [00:37:00] of like news footage and poetry and whatever, and someone asked a question that the, the translator had to translate into English.

And it was, this person wants to know why you felt. Compelled to make this movie when they believe your time would've been better spent sitting on the toilet, taking a shit shut up. Oh my God. That happened before my screening. And I was like, I can't. I can't, I can't. Honest. They're so honest and amazing.

Well, so. Yeah, and I, anyway, I got to go back there with my thir with my third film. I was in competition with my third film, my Short, and had a different, a little bit of a different experience. It was, you know, not as, it was wonderful. But that one, the first one was great because it was the first of everything and it was sort of, yeah, first thing about feeling like, here's, people love art so much that they will tell you exactly what they think and if they love it, they love it.

If they don't like it, they're gonna. They're gonna tell you why, [00:38:00] but it's all about the craft. You know, the, the yeah. Story, and you have to tell the truth. You can't, you know what I mean? They really, they were really after it seemed authenticity in whatever form it came in. That's incredible. I mean, what an experience, what a thing to have as like a notch in your story of a first.

Kristin: I think I, I've been thinking about that a lot lately too. Totally tan, random tangent, but just what it means to. Experience something for the first time and there's nothing like it after that. There's just not like it. It doesn't matter how great you get at something. It doesn't matter how much you still want to do it.

Nothing will compare to that first time that you get to do something or have an experience and like what a, what a cool, what a cool one to have. Yes. Uh, for your story. It's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Very, very grateful. Yeah. Can people watch this film stuff? Yeah, I think so. Yes. Yes. I know that it's on YouTube, but [00:39:00] genevieve anderson.com is my website.

Genevieve Anderson: It's got my film stuff and social enterprise, so. I'm pretty sure, I'm almost positive under films, there's a link that goes to YouTube. Again, it's YouTube's a terrible format. But yeah, I know. I've been trying to navigate that. Listen, I'm like, what is even happening here? I dunno. I get that like people go here to find things, but I'm having a hard time trying to even figure out to put things up here, so.

Kristin: Well, it's a whole thing. Yeah, it really is. Yeah. You just did the most perfect transition. On my behalf, which is you mentioned your social enterprise. Oh, okay. Yeah. Um, so let's get into it. Tell us a little bit about what you're up to in that space. Um, well I started it during the pandemic, or really, I started it in 2017.

Genevieve Anderson: Um, uh, I wanted to make something kind of like Tom's shoes, but with jumpsuits thinking that I could save the world with a jumpsuit or solve homelessness with a jumpsuit. Again, total naivete, like, let's do this now. Big, big thing. Very expensive. [00:40:00] And I had just made my first feature film when I was in debt.

It was bad, it was a bad choice, but, um, but I love what I created, so I created one's apparel and action one's, WUNZ, globe. The idea, it's the uniform is a, is a visual symbol of our, sort of our unity, but our intention, our collective intention as humans to solve this problem of homelessness. So parted with the Los Angeles mission.

Had a hundred jumpsuits made in downtown LA started to learn like, oh, how do you sell them? And how I really, I could whole class and all the things not to do when you're starting a social enterprise that has to deal with this consumer product. Anyway, Los Angeles Mission started volunteering there, started teaching in their, um, the career services department so I could understand better the people that I wanted to serve.

So teaching resume creation and job interview skills, all that kind of a thing. Then after a year and a half or so, I sold some jumpsuits, but I was like, this is really hard. Like this is gonna take a lot. A [00:41:00] lot. Yeah. But I was, again, building lots of relationships, getting mentors, getting more involved in like the L-A-E-D-C and sort of the, all of the development sort of organizations in Los Angeles around, you know, solving homelessness and sort of helping that demographic.

And then I realized that workforce development was probably the best way to go. Again, giving back. I got a lot of, uh, hygiene kits and I did a lot of drives and brought sort of resources that are all needed, but band-aids. Mm-hmm. So then I brought on my partner, Vanessa Watson, who is an incredible Australian social entrepreneur who helped form a very successful social enterprise called two Good.

Um, uh, T-W-O-G-O-O-D in Australia. And then she and I created Make It Work, make It Work la and then piloted. I wanted, you know, the idea is to teach women coming through recovery. So it's not women directly coming off the street, but they're coming through recovery through the Ann Douglas Center. [00:42:00] Uh, a skill, like something that they can use, just whether it's sewing or whether it's entrepreneurship or anything else that could be incubated in our program.

But we couldn't make jumpsuits because jumpsuits are complicated. So I thought story pillows, you know, we're gonna tell part. Of your story on these pillow faces. And then we're gonna, I'm gonna develop relationships with hotels in downtown LA and we're these, these pillows and other goods, like tote bags.

Simple things to make with upcycled fabric because there's so much of it. 'cause you've got skid row, you've got manufacturing industry like garment manufacturing, and you've got all of these really high end hotels. We need a circular economy using resources that are going into landfill. To make something useful.

Kristin: Yeah. Multi people who are the people who were like, oh God, skid Row, and like, oh God, how do we help? Let's bring the stories into the hotels. Let's bring the things that we've created, beautiful high-end [00:43:00] products that we've created into these spaces. And so I started that. We piloted the program with the LA Mission neighborhood, and I got Conrad Hotel on board was our first B2B partner.

Genevieve Anderson: But then, mm-hmm. We did an eight week workshop. We made a bunch of pillows, and then the LA mission kind of imploded, like, oh no, it imploded sadly. Yeah, it was a long three and a half years there. And man, who I got a, I got a very front row seat to how, how strained, um, how strained, burdened, and in need of reorganizing and revamping the nonprofit sector is and why.

They have not been effective and more effective in addressing the homeless crisis. So, wow, that's so much to pour into something. And I mean, these are the, our hearts on our sleeves, right? It's another creative output. And so to have something that you care so deeply about, not see its way to [00:44:00] the place you want to see it doesn't mean that it won't still at some, at some point, right?

Kristin: Um, yeah. Can you give, I don't know that everyone necessarily has the right. Maybe not the right, that's not the word I'm looking for. Um, maybe some folks have not been exposed to what social enterprise is, so can you give just like two sentences on the way you would define that work? Boy, I wish I had had that prepared.

I could read it and, sorry. That's okay. No, just like why you were even drawn to doing that. I think that's part of it, right? Like that is the work you are drawn to doing that kind of work because you want to have an impact. Yeah. The, well, the idea is social and business for good. So you're actually helping to motor.

Genevieve Anderson: A social impact. Cause with a business that generates revenue, right? Yeah. So, but the most, which is not the way we always think about it, right? I think most people kind of go into, well then you're a nonprofit. Well, no, you can be revenue generating and be a business for good. Right? This was actually the concept of that venture-backed company that imploded that I was talking [00:45:00] about.

Kristin: It was they were out to set to prove that you can be mission driven and you can have an incredible impact in the world. At scale. Yeah. While also bringing in revenue. It's an area that I think if we all had the right language around it, maybe we'd be more interested in finding ways to be involved in those spaces.

But it's not, I don't know that we talk about it all the time in ways that feels like it's accessible. Right, right. And how to, I started speaking this year, this last year, and did my best to try to start talking about it really just to talk like, what does it look like? And homeboy is my model because they're in downtown LA and they're like the, they're the sort of, you know, benchmark social enterprise because they're doing so much good.

Genevieve Anderson: They're doing so much good in their model is utilized by social enterprises throughout the world. They just figured out a way to do it. And interestingly. I mean, they generate $11 million a year, probably more Now, these are old numbers [00:46:00] from 10 social enterprises and most of their money comes from private sector, from the 5% comes from the government.

So they take very little money from the government. They just get lots and lots of donations and private sector. And the reason they work so well is they started working well, is when Thomas Vaso of Aramark Apparel came in 2011, I think, and turned the whole thing around. So he's operating a social enterprise with.

The acumen of A CEO of a major corporation, and he is like, here's how things can run. And he turned that whole thing around using their model. I'm kind of stepping in and saying like, here's what I've tried to do. Here's where I saw firsthand where the failings are of the system and where we really need to step in.

Private sector needs to step in because private sector also needs social enterprise because they have to offset all of the damage that they create environmentally and socially, and there's just so much that. That corporations are now finally being held accountable to a little bit more, not so much under this [00:47:00] administration, but but need to be in general.

So it's a perfect partnership. Get corporations partnered with social enterprises who are impact driven, but also can operate at scale. Can you know whatever they're doing, if it's a recycling or if it's a consumer product good or. If it's a social services, there's so many things that social enterprises can be, they're just putting social impact and making a difference at the forefront of the business.

Kristin: It's so interesting 'cause there's so many through lines that I've had, you know, kind of popcorning in my brain that I. I desperately want to get to, but we're not gonna have time for, so I say this, I think the majority of the women I speak to, like we need to have a round two because there's so much, we haven't even talked about what you're focused on now, specifically in the real estate investing space.

But how that also then ties to your idea around social impact, which I'm curious about, but I wanna make sure I don't lose the opportunity to ask you what. Do you think we harness the power of [00:48:00] storytelling enough? So much of what you have done in your art and in your work, like it is about storytelling, but it's not, I think sometimes we use that word and it's like storytelling.

Like, how do I tell the story of my life? It's like, no, you are being pulled from something that is deep within you. And I wonder what it looks like to have folks tap more it. It doesn't have to be that you can tell a story or write a book. It can be that it comes out of you in all of these different shapes and forms, but it still is representative of the thing that you're trying to do or the impact you're trying to have.

This is not a well-formed question, but I am curious, what do you think that there is a way for us to harness the power of that in some of the narrative change that we wanna see in our world that. Can help us to express more of the change that we're trying to create, or we become so formulaic in the way that we feel that we need to share a story or share our art, that [00:49:00] even that feels too far from, from where we're at today.

Genevieve Anderson: I feel, well, storytelling, I, I do think a reframe is important because it's not like that's something you do for children, right? Or something happens at, at a, you know, workshop in Oregon or, I don't know, it has kind of an airy fairy thing around it. But storytelling is literally creation, right? Yeah. And this, what we don't remember is that everything we see around us, everything you do, every system you engage with is a story that somebody told.

Yeah, it's a reality. Somebody created through a narrative. They said, this is how. We're gonna organize ourselves as a culture. This is how marriage is gonna go. And yeah, this is how money is gonna go. This is how social services are gonna go. They're all stories. Mm-hmm. And they're already done. So if we're only looking at what's already there, we're not engaged in storytelling.

'cause it's, it's finished. Think about storytelling as an act of creation. Bringing something into being, I want a new story around [00:50:00] how we engage with homelessness. Not even saying let's solve it. I want a new story around how people engage with it, you know? And I feel like, uh, yeah, I'm trying to build a way that that can take shape and create, create a, you know, an engine or to create revenue and participate in the system and all that.

But while doing so, or actively involved in yeah, narrative creation and storytelling. Because the old stories are nearly old. No, I love that. I love that. Yes. I love that you said 'cause the, the systems that we live in, it is the ways in which we live, right? It's, it's everything around us and I think that when we all learn that, we get to actively participate in that story.

Kristin: Yeah, something shifts a little bit. It doesn't have to be that it's the way we think about stories, if that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. That's beautiful. It can be engaging and, but we think we need to be invited. We're in a [00:51:00] constricted kind of time. Yeah, protecting that creative impulse and not feeling like those things are possible.

Genevieve Anderson: So we need to be reminded that they not only are possible, but they're desperately needed. Yeah. Yes. Um, on that note, and you have touched on this already over the course of our conversation, but it is the question that I end with every single woman, which is, um, this understanding that everything we're doing, the choices we make, what we're trying to build in the world, all lead.

Kristin: To some form of a legacy. And I think that we tend to, again, talk about language and the importance of it. Legacy can sometimes feel like this thing over here for when we die, but I like to think of it more as the active thing that we're participating in today. And so I like to ask every woman, what does building a legacy mean to you?

Genevieve Anderson: Wow. Um,

it really, I guess it, for me, it would mean bringing this idea of, [00:52:00] you know, make it work. Storytelling impact. Creating a new engine that actually can continue to operate without me, that provides value and change for disadvantage. I hate that word too. 'cause I feel like it's like a, like an affliction that happened to them instead of something that was created by a system.

Mm-hmm. To effect. But people were living on the margins to create a system that would have impact on those people that they can build on. So it's a kernel of something that can grow and expand into something that feeds. Humanity in a larger way, maybe even beyond what I think, but not because I created it, because I'm just bringing resources and attention around something that needs to happen.

Kristin: Mm-hmm. Yes. All of us make it happen. It's just that I can cultivate that seed enough for it to take on the form it needs. Yes. I love that. Yes, it's, it's incredible to hear your story. It's incredible to hear more about. What makes you, you, and it's no wonder I'm just immediately drawn to your energy. [00:53:00] You have so much incredible wisdom, so much incredible information to share, so I just really appreciate you taking some time to share it with other folks as well.

Genevieve Anderson: Thank you for having me here, Kristin, I, I just, you having me here, having this conversation is new. It's, it's nutritive like it's, I don't ever, ever talk about any of this because I'm busy and whatever, so it's taking the time out to actually talk about what. What feeds us, what fuels us, what we care about, what we're doing.

This is really productive work. So I thank you for creating a, a space for it. And I just, I love what you're doing and I'm just so grateful you invited me here. Thank you. Thank you, friend. Um, one of these days we're gonna get to meet in person. Apologies these days. So good to see you. See you soon. Bye.

​

Speaker 2: Thank you so much for listening and spending some of your time with me here. I hope our conversation sparked some new ideas for you. If you enjoyed the episode, please make sure to [00:54:00] hit subscribe so you don't miss what's next. And if you are ready for even more tools and stories, head on over to belden strategies.com/newsletter.

I share fresh insights, stories, and tools for women leaders every week. Until next time, keep building, keep evolving, and remember that you are kind of a big deal.