Meet Anne Richardson, the dynamic personality behind the B Corp certified Richardson Media Group, and dive into her inspiring journey of podcasting. We love how she's leveraged her media planning and buying SEO agency to create a platform for meaningful conversations. In this episode, we get personal about our shared love for podcasting, and how our values have influenced our business choices. We chat about the joy we've found in collaborating with the B Corp community and the exciting work we've been doing with the UNH B Impact Clinic and the B Corp Leadership Development Conference.
Anne's podcast, BSuite has a unique story behind its name, and the narrative continues to evolve with each episode. It all began with her love for media kits, her fascination with oral traditions, and now her podcast is a testament to how these early experiences have shaped her career. We also shed light on a uniquely inspiring guest of hers - a man from New York City who paints bee murals as a metaphor for self-sustaining life.
We also get real about intergenerational conversations in the workplace. She has been part of a small lunch group that bridges a ten-year age gap, and the richness of these discussions has been profound for her. Anne touches upon the podcast episode where she had this group of women on her podcast. We'll also touch upon the upcoming panel with NHBSR, where we'll emphasize the importance of not stereotyping individuals based on their age, gender, or identity. Our mini-podcast series on empowering women has brought fresh perspectives to the table, and we discuss how to strike a delicate balance between offering advice and sounding preachy. So join us as we embark on this engaging podcast journey, where we promise enlightening insights, hearty laughs, and thought-provoking conversations.
New Hampshire Businesses for Social Responsibility (NHBSR)
Richardson Media Group
BSuite Podcast
Meet Anne Richardson, the dynamic personality behind the B Corp certified Richardson Media Group, and dive into her inspiring journey of podcasting. We love how she's leveraged her media planning and buying SEO agency to create a platform for meaningful conversations. In this episode, we get personal about our shared love for podcasting, and how our values have influenced our business choices. We chat about the joy we've found in collaborating with the B Corp community and the exciting work we've been doing with the UNH B Impact Clinic and the B Corp Leadership Development Conference.
Anne's podcast, BSuite has a unique story behind its name, and the narrative continues to evolve with each episode. It all began with her love for media kits, her fascination with oral traditions, and now her podcast is a testament to how these early experiences have shaped her career. We also shed light on a uniquely inspiring guest of hers - a man from New York City who paints bee murals as a metaphor for self-sustaining life.
We also get real about intergenerational conversations in the workplace. She has been part of a small lunch group that bridges a ten-year age gap, and the richness of these discussions has been profound for her. Anne touches upon the podcast episode where she had this group of women on her podcast. We'll also touch upon the upcoming panel with NHBSR, where we'll emphasize the importance of not stereotyping individuals based on their age, gender, or identity. Our mini-podcast series on empowering women has brought fresh perspectives to the table, and we discuss how to strike a delicate balance between offering advice and sounding preachy. So join us as we embark on this engaging podcast journey, where we promise enlightening insights, hearty laughs, and thought-provoking conversations.
New Hampshire Businesses for Social Responsibility (NHBSR)
Richardson Media Group
BSuite Podcast
Welcome to Curious Co-workers, a responsibly different talk show exploring the challenges that arise when our interests conflict with our values. This Curious Co-workers episode is a little different than normal. Ben and I wanted to both be in conversation with our good friend, ann Richardson, so we decided to have her on an episode of Curious Co-workers with us. Ann is the owner of Richardson Media Group, a certified B Corp media planning and buying SEO agency. She is the host of the B Suite podcast. She is a mother, a friend and a fierce leader in our B Corp community here in New Hampshire. She is passionate about everything she does and it shows. In this episode we dive into our involvement in the B Impact Clinic at UNH, our volunteer efforts planning the B Corp Leadership Development Conference together in 2021, and our passions for hosting podcasts. It's a fun, light-hearted conversation between friends. We hope you enjoy it.
Speaker 3:Ann, we're super excited to have you on the show To kick us off. I'd be so curious to hear about the B Suite podcast, but also what got you into this work and the B Corp movement.
Speaker 2:Thanks, ben. I'm really happy to be here. I love that question because it's so multifaceted. I think there were lots and lots of reasons why I made the decision as a business owner to want to earn B Corp certification. Some of it was personal, some of it was professional, and I think I landed somewhere in the middle with a blend, because I think that's also how I run my business, which is to be having my business reflect my personal values. That was the starting point.
Speaker 2:I was logistically a member of New Hampshire Businesses for Social Responsibility, nhbsr, and I was at a seminar a few years ago when Fiona Wilson, who runs the Sustainability Institute at UNH, was speaking about the B Impact Clinic kind of early on. I think it was an early stage effort to get people in the community to learn more about it. When I heard her talking about it I instantly knew that it was for me. I thought this is meeting me on all kinds of levels. I was eager to get back into a classroom. Having been a teacher earlier in my career, I just wanted that experience of being back in a college classroom. I also felt like it was a challenge that would be well suited to me as a person as also for our business. I wanted to move our business in a values-driven direction. That's where it all started a long time ago, at this point.
Speaker 1:I think it's worth noting as well that the three of us I mean we're recording this on a Wednesday morning, but the three of us last night we're all at UNH as well. I think the three of us have come so far in our relationship with all the volunteer work that we have been doing. So exciting for me to be joining both of you as business advisors in the UNH B Impact Clinic this semester. I feel like the three of us are going to see each other so much.
Speaker 1:I'm so excited that we're hopping onto this podcast and we're catching up talking personal, talking work, but then also talking about this passion that we all have for podcasting and bringing to light. Why do we do it? Maybe that's the next question is why are we all here? Why are we all driving forward this passion project of podcasting? And I'll say for me, I think podcasting gives everybody just this easy entry into listening for free to any topic that they ever want to hear about. And I mean for Ben and I, with Curious CoverGirls, we're always just rambling, so apparently people want to listen to us ramble. But I just really enjoy having a platform where I can speak my truth and I can have friends like you all join me in talking about maybe hard topics that other people also want to talk about and learn.
Speaker 2:That was really well said. Yeah, we were together last night, although in the ongoing time stamping of podcasting no one's going to know it was actually last night or what night that was. But the idea of spending more time with both of you and with others in the B Corp community has been one of those add on wonderful benefits for me as a B Corporation. It's hard to know when you're on the outside of a group or a community what it's going to feel like to be on the inside, and that has been one of the big you know big, huge assets that I feel that nobody can quite describe to you until you're in it to know. And I think just in the New England and New Hampshire community New Hampshire and Maine that is for me it's been extra rewarding because I feel like these relationships have just gotten deeper as we share this journey and we may not be in the same room together all the time, but we're certainly finding lots of ways to connect and collaborate.
Speaker 3:So I'm so curious we'll get you into like media specifically.
Speaker 2:It's my first career. So I went to college in Maine. I went to Bowdoin College and I have a liberal arts degree French and government because they did not give out business degrees or anything like that. I thought I was going to go into politics, still thinking about it. But, yeah, you decide to run. You let me know, right, we'll talk about that another time. No, so I was basically out. I just graduated and I was without a compass.
Speaker 2:My parents were amazing role models professionally for me. My mom had gone back to graduate school to get her PhD at age 40. And my dad was a college professor. So I had seen a lot of academic stuff in my house, but it wasn't really where I wanted to go. So a friend of mine was moving to Portland Maine and she's like you want to move up there. This is this whole whatever you're doing down in Cambridge isn't going so great, so want to move up to Portland Maine. So I did. It was the best move I ever made and I joined an ad agency up there that's no longer in business. It was David Swardlich's agency. He's still a good friend.
Speaker 2:Swardlich marketing group is what it evolved into eventually, and I was a receptionist there which back in those days, that was my option right out of college, even with a pretty good degree. And I remember I was given the opportunity to move off the front desk and my boss said what department in the agency do you want to jump into, now that you're not going to be the receptionist anymore? And it was a full service agency. So I had, as you know, I had account service creative. I could have gone anywhere and I wanted to be in the media department.
Speaker 2:To this day have loved it. And so, at basically age 23, I was working as the media coordinator for Vicki Air, who is still up in Maine still buying media. She was my mentor, she taught me everything I know and I worked there for a while four years and then I moved down to Boston, worked at the agents through some different agencies around the Boston area, and then the rest is history. Then there were the kids and the family and all of the rest and the education career, but I had been in media from the get-go. It was my first love and it remains my first love.
Speaker 3:That's amazing when you had that option of like anywhere in the agency. What was it about media that you were like media?
Speaker 2:Personality type. I love the start and finish of a media project, so it's very clean to me. I know that campaigns last a long time and there's a lot of changes that happen and testing that goes on, but for me the implementation part the organizing the paperwork, the implementation and the seeing a campaign go live for me was very satisfying from a project standpoint and that really made a difference to me. I also remember and this is kind of might seem a little silly, but I don't really think it changed me as a person my first.
Speaker 2:I remember one of the first tasks that Vicki asked me to do was to get on the phone and ask media vendors to send media kits, because back in those days the media kits were the thing. They were the beautiful printed, gorgeous four color media kits, and so I had to like a list of 100 vendors. I had to call cold call and I had never made a cold call before. So I remember being terrified. And then, you know, easing into the list and by the time I got to a hundred I Can talk to anybody, I can make any kind of phone call. Nothing scares me anymore and I give her credit for that. I think she knew that I needed to have, you know, that experience of being scared for a little while and figuring it out, and she did that for me. So that was the media department, at Swords like marketing group that I started out in. That was pivotal.
Speaker 3:Hmm, love that amazing. Thank you so much for sharing that man. Yeah, I'm so, I'm so curious and like what, what sparked the like podcast bug for you?
Speaker 2:Well, I think you might know a little bit about me at this point. I definitely like to talk and I don't mind talking in front of large groups of people, because I was a teacher. I think that's part of it. I also just have a lot to say. I have a lot of opinions right, wrong or indifferent and I Was looking for a platform for myself that I could start having a different kind of mode of expression.
Speaker 2:Then what I was already doing, which was writing a lot of blog posts and trying to speak at different Conferences and seminars, that was a little more cumbersome. The blogging was great but, as you know, writing and Editing, and writing some more and editing some more, can be more laborious. So for me, the podcast is very freeing. As you said before, it's sort of just an open forum and whatever happens happens and I felt like it was a really good fit for me as an individual. The work that goes into it is another thing we can talk about. I'm sure we will be talking about, but just just from a starting point, it felt like a form of expression that would be a good fit for me.
Speaker 3:That's so cool. I think that's what I love about podcasting and audio too is it's like there's all like as a society, like we're just so steeped in oral traditions. You know that I feel like maybe we've gotten away from a little bit and podcast feels almost like a coming home, to kind of sinking back into that like oral tradition of Sharing stories and being in community with each other. So I love that. I think that's so cool.
Speaker 2:We talked about voice in our industry, in our marketing industry. Right, voice is a term. It's used all the time, but it's not necessarily your audio voice that they're talking about when they use that term. So I thought let's be literal about it, let's actually hear Anne's voice and then you know, whatever you might think the voice of my company is or what have you, it's gonna actually be literally right here.
Speaker 1:So you know less, less, less questions and Speaking of your voice, and can you give us a little bit more insight into the, the meaning of the name be sweet for your podcast and maybe, if somebody was to, if somebody wanted to tune into a new podcast, which hopefully they do. We highly recommend the be sweet. What would they, what would they be looking to learn when they listen to your podcast?
Speaker 2:That's a great question because it has evolved over time. In the beginning we launched in February of 2020. So right at the month prior to the Pandemic shut down. So we were in a studio at that moment and then had to Obviously go home and figure out how to do the podcast remotely after that, so launched quite a while ago I think.
Speaker 2:When I started I was looking to talk about being a female entrepreneur. I was taught I was interested in talking to other entrepreneurs, so that was the be for business and I had thought of the name be sweet, because I love bees in general just the pollinator animal and I. I wanted to sort of have a nod to the meaning behind that for me, which is another whole story. I do talk about that in an Episode of the be sweet. I talk about the origin story, which is very personal and it's a story that had a lot of Pain and loss, but it ended up becoming something that I'm very proud of.
Speaker 2:So there was the be for bees, there was the be for business, and then it wasn't until January of 22 that we earned our B Corp certification. So I ended up including benefit in the be lexicon at that point, but I couldn't officially Use it until we earned B Corp certification. So it was business. And then, of course, business and bees actually had guests. In the beginning that were just be people. I mean people that we were talking about, bees.
Speaker 3:Like beekeepers, like actual beekeepers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I actually I have an episode that's pretty crazy Was a one of my favorite guests. I Don't want to skip ahead too much, but one of my favorite guests was a man from New York City who changed his career to paint bee murals All around the world and his goal is to paint 50,000 bees in mural format and he takes commissions and he does this on the sides of buildings and businesses and schools and he's educating children about bees through his murals and I'm not kidding he. He just is infatuated with bees and it became his life work. What a cool conversation that was back in season one.
Speaker 3:Oh cool.
Speaker 2:But I mean there's just lots, of, lots of connections. When you start talking about bees for some reason the metaphoric pollinator, it's a self-sustaining kind of of insect and then looking at bees in other ways too, kind of cool.
Speaker 3:That's so cool. That's so cool. I'm so curious. So kind of like building on that, I'm so curious. Do you share with us Maybe sounds like we named one there, but maybe two more different guests that you've had on the show and why you know why it was so memorable and why they meant so much to you?
Speaker 2:There's a lot to choose from, but I I have a couple that come to mind Last season, so season three. I I'm really lucky to be part of a small lunch group. We meet Monthly around Portsmouth. We call ourselves the most boring name, ladies who lunch, but we actually have been changing it to things like Desperate lifeline. You know we have all kinds of names for our lunch meetings depending on how we're all doing.
Speaker 2:But um, so the lifeline group or the ladies who lunch are two other small business owners in the Portsmouth area, noel Gratton and more Mariah Morgan, good friends of mine, and we meet and talk about life running businesses, the marketing industry, raising kids and the cool part of us as a small group is that we're each ten years apart in age, so it kind of is a representative mix of women of different stages of life and I'm proud to be the elder States woman in the group but at the same time I feel like we have so much in common. It really has helped me bridge that generational gap. So I had them on the podcast last season and it was like sitting at lunch with the three of us, but with a camera and a microphone. It was crazy and we got into lots of stuff, so that was definitely a favorite and I hope that we can do that again.
Speaker 3:That is so fun. I'm so curious too, because I feel like I have recently found myself in more like intergenerational spaces and have found it to be such a gift. I'd love to hear a little bit more about just that experience and what it's meant to you and and what some of your big takeaways have been.
Speaker 2:I Am happy to talk about that. I'm gonna be actually Facilitating a panel with NHBSR in October on that exact subject and we're having panel members. I believe, brittany, you have agreed to be one of our panel members, but my point is that we have to keep talking about the multi-generational Workplace and how it's changing how we do work. Most of the people I work with are well younger than me, in their 20s or 30s, and it does force me to understand their priorities, where they're at in their lives, things that are important to them that might be different than when I'm at in my life. What's important to me today, but I think what is the most rewarding for me is the bridging of that kind of Possible gap, which isn't necessary.
Speaker 2:There shouldn't be a generation gap, as they used to say way back. I think we should just come together and I think that's been really meaningful. So talking about it helps me figure out some of the challenges inherent in it, and I also am really. I Believe strongly that we shouldn't stereotype anyone, no matter what their you know visual identity is, or age identity is, or Gender identity, as I think we should allow people to be unique and different, and that's what makes everything so interesting. So I Hope people will hear that too In this conversation, because I don't want people to classify me just because I'm my own age. I want people to offer me lots of opportunities still, even though I'm later in my career. So those are just some of my observations there.
Speaker 3:Love that and we'll definitely have to put that event in the show notes for sure. I'm now very excited about that, thank you, me too, me too.
Speaker 1:That's making me a little bit think about the mini series that I did, empowered Women Empowering Women and that series, for me, was so much fun because I was able to talk to women from different generations but also different stages of their careers, and to hear them giving advice and how they support future leaders, women leaders. It's a little bit making me think like I didn't. When I was planning that mini series, I did not think about the fact that I should maybe have a speaker from different generations, but I think it just naturally worked out that way. And it's interesting that now that I'm thinking back through all those episodes, I'm like wow, like yeah, nippur was my age in Nippur and I totally like we talked. I mean, we are best friends, but we talked as if we were best friends, like to each other. And then some of the other women that I had on the podcast I'm specifically thinking of Nextop, the two women from Nextop that were on the show. They were older in their career, more established, started the company out quite some time ago. I don't remember right off the top of my head right now, but they weren't talking down to me, but they were talking as if they had all this experience and they were offering me insights.
Speaker 1:And it's interesting to think about how different generations communicate differently with other generations too. Nippur was offering me insights but as like a friend, like hey, I'm along the ride with you and I'm not trying to pick on the Nextop women at all. They are awesome and they're doing so much work, but talking with them it was more of like let me help guide you. So it's interesting to hear, just maybe, how that intergenerational conversation happens, naturally too. I don't know that's making me. I'm excited to be on this panel, I'm excited to see what comes up. I always preach like I want to be prepared, but I also think podcasting is so fun because it's like you never know where a conversation is going. You don't always know what you're going to say, and to hear you talk about intergenerational conversations it's making me just think back to that women's series podcast.
Speaker 2:I think the delicate balance that you might be referring to is not wanting the older person to be preachy or somehow assume that you need to know or want to know what their experiences had been in the past. I think that's where I'm trying. I try to be really sensitive to that. I don't walk around wanting to tell stories of when I was 25 and my first job out of college. Like that to me is not what people want to hear, but they might be interested, if the subject comes up, about what it felt like to be a pregnant mom a pregnant, soon to be mom in the workplace in those days.
Speaker 2:What it felt like to have insurance concerns, because your pregnancy was considered a preexisting condition which no one above the age of 45 probably even thinks ever did happen. But it did so to go into parenthood, like I did, with no insurance. Imagine what that felt like, right, and you're trying to be ready for this new kid to come along and you don't have your bills paid at the hospital for the delivery. So that's something I can have that in a little time capsule and I can offer it here because I'm not ashamed to talk about that story, but I also don't force that on someone, because it's not necessarily relevant to today's world in the sense that there's legislation to protect us from that. However, I think it's important to understand all of the little chapters that we all went through, so I try not to force it, but I will have it ready if it's relevant to what the younger person wants to talk about.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, I have to say, just in my limited experience in just the last couple of years of being in a lot of intergenerational spaces, I feel like I just show up and I'm just a sponge. I feel like I learned so much and it gives me so much hope for our future to share spaces with people that have literally changed the landscape of the world that we're living in now. Mm-hmm, and so I'm 38 and I so I'm kind of like a little bit in between there, because, you know, when I'm especially in intergenerational spaces and there's like younger folks that are, like you know, in their early 20s, I think sometimes they look at me that way, Like this guy's talking about, like you know, crazy war stories from campaigns and whatever, but I don't know, but that stuff is so, it's so powerful because it's I don't know we stand on the shoulder of giants, shoulders of giants, you know, and it's humbling.
Speaker 2:Agreed, and I obviously would like to suggest that I learn just as much from younger generations that I'm around a lot as I hope they can learn from me. So I don't think it's a one-way street at all. I really do. My eyes are opened, my brain is ready. I'm hoping that I want them to feel like I'm listening to them and receiving what they have to offer too, because what's the point? What a waste if we can't learn from each other, right? So I think it's really important to understand that reciprocity to the relationship, despite the fact that you know we might be a couple of decades apart in age. It shouldn't really matter, we should just all be learning together.
Speaker 3:Absolutely Love that. I'm curious what was kind of some of the most unexpected stories that maybe you heard or that have stuck with you over time.
Speaker 2:Well, I had my first guest was a client at the time and he's a great guy. I'm still in touch with him and he runs a home technology smart home technology and so you know he's on, he's easy access, he's my client. I'm like, will you be on my podcast? And he didn't have anything to do with bees and he didn't have anything to do with anything but entrepreneurism, which was important at the time. And he said to me you're not going to get a handle on this podcast thing until you've recorded at least 99 episodes. And I remember just being like I just felt like I was going to melt away. I was like nine episodes. Now I know you all just had your hundredth episode, which is amazing Congratulations. I mean you might agree with me, though it did take a while to get the hang of it. I mean I don't know if it'll be 99, but I'm at 40 and I'm like still learning how to do this thing.
Speaker 3:I mean I feel like we're still very, you know, I don't know that. I mean my hope is that we're always learning and improving. Right, like I don't. Like if you were like Ben, do you feel like you got it? I'd be like I mean still like forever learning, you know. Yeah, I mean I feel like you learn a lot as you go and so you know, certainly, you know I've learned a long way. But also like, yeah, there's definitely always room for I don't know that I'll ever feel like I got it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. I think that keeping us on our toes like that is probably a good thing.
Speaker 1:Well, and I would say, the second that you think that you understand podcasting is the second that, like, you don't understand podcasting because you know it's like sure, maybe we understand the software that we're using better after 99 times, but the whole point of recording new episodes is that you're having new conversations, and if you know what the conversation is going to be and how it's going to end, then what's the point of having the conversation. So I would almost argue, yeah, 99 episodes, 1,000, I mean whatever, podcasting is always going to be a surprise.
Speaker 2:I totally agree with that. It's also like nothing like it. So you come, I feel like I come off of recording an episode and I'm kind of a little bit lifted off the ground for a bit. It's for me, it's a really exhilarating feeling because there's a sense of danger to it. I like to not over prepare, because I like to be in the moment and so I have that experience. I don't know if it's ever happened to you or your guest is speaking answering the question that you just asked them and you realize you actually don't know what you're going to say next for about a split second. All the time. I love it, it's like every time.
Speaker 3:Every time Like run and rush.
Speaker 2:You're like I'm actually not sure what I'm going to say. I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to say and I get a little adrenaline rush out of that and then I'm on, I'm just ready to go. It's great.
Speaker 3:I've even told guests like bear with me a second while I get my bearings. You just kind of rocked my world there, I know yeah.
Speaker 1:That's exactly what I was going to say. I was going to like people listening to the podcast. Don't know how much editing goes in, but there are times where I'm like deep breath, pause. Oh my gosh. Whatever you just said was so mind blowing, breathtaking, and I actually I remember very vividly I was recording with Debbie from the Coconut Traveler and anybody who talks to me about podcasting knows that she is one of my favorite guests of all times. She was just so sweet and so endearing and I remember jumping on to like the prep session with her and she was like this is going to be my first podcast ever. I don't know what to do and I was like you're doing great already. And she was just so open and honest and I think she's still listening. So maybe she'll hear this and she'll write to me. But I just feel like I grew such a special bond with her.
Speaker 1:She said some amazing things, especially about her responsible tourism fee, where she charges the tourist. She's a travel agency. She charges tourists that come to Hawaii for their impact on the land, which it's like why are more people not doing that? Like it's so mind blowingly obvious that at the same time I was like blown away that she was doing it and I remember saying to her and I think I kept it in the original podcast, but I remember saying to her you just blew my mind, I just got goosebumps. I was like what you just said is amazing and I was like I just need a second to absorb it. Let it sink in before I keep talking to you, because it was just so, it was like an aha moment but at the same time like a no-duh moment and so I guess, ann, that a little bit goes into my next question for you and it's like I hear you, like sometimes I get off the podcast and I'm just like that was an out of body experience. It was an amazing podcast.
Speaker 1:But I will say there have been some guests where I grow this really special bond with them, where it's like, yeah, it's a conversation, sometimes people don't know what they're going to say, but they open up so much and they share these really deep personal stories and I connect with them and I see them in a different light. And I will say I just had Winnie Malumba on from Florida for good and I knew Winnie because we've both been B Local Leaders for quite some time. I saw her at Champions Retreat last year. So I always was like, oh, I know Winnie.
Speaker 1:But then, having her on the podcast, I'm like I now know Winnie, like I feel like I understand her in a way that I didn't before and I grew this really special bond with her and I can't wait to see her next month or this month Wow, it's September when Ben and I go down to build Southeast and she's going to be there in person. But I guess my question to you, ann sorry, very long winded is what's that special bond like for you? Do you have that with any of your guests?
Speaker 2:Well, I hope so. On my side, I feel like I do. Hope it's reciprocated. A couple of examples come to mind.
Speaker 2:Soon after finishing the BMPAC clinic at UNH, I decided I wanted to have my students on the podcast. They were really excited. It was something they weren't expecting me to ask of them and I think what made that really special was while we were working together towards Richardson Media Group certification. It was more of a business-type of relationship. I mean, I obviously was trying to offer them insights into running a business, if that was what their future was going to be holding. But not everybody in the group there that year was going to start their own company. They were just interested in learning more about what a sustainable business was all about.
Speaker 2:And I felt like we didn't actually have a ton of time through the construct of the BMPAC clinic to get to know each other as well. And it was the podcast episode, the talk, the conversation, the safe space that didn't have to do with me asking them a big question, that they needed to go research or have me go get documents from someplace or what have you, and I felt like I got to know them all on a different level, which for me was a really great way to cap off that experience and I feel like I'm still cheering them on. I were connected mostly on LinkedIn, but just seeing where they go in their lives and knowing that I might have had a very small part to sort of boost them along feels great. So there's that as an example. I love that, yeah.
Speaker 1:Ben, do you have any special bonds that you want to share?
Speaker 3:Oh Well, ok, so I feel like the obvious one and it was so funny because you asked me this on a recent Curious Co-workers and I can't believe I didn't think of this but I think the obvious one is you, brittany. You were the first guest on the show and here we are.
Speaker 1:Yeah here we are.
Speaker 3:I mean, I think so. I feel like it's an interesting question because I definitely have folks that I feel connected to them. I don't know if they feel connected to me, but I definitely feel like, wow, there's somebody that I really want to spend more time with and hang out with. If they feel the same way about me, I have no idea, but yeah, I mean Rebecca Goodstein. We've had her on a couple of times. She's amazing, and Lacey Chisholm from Fit for Dance in New York just was so open and just very moving and sharing her story. Yeah, I don't know, I feel like there are a bunch of folks that I feel like I connected to, but I don't know how they yeah, I've had a couple of guests that also own agencies all different sizes, shapes, forms.
Speaker 2:I interviewed Phil Haid, who's in Canada. He's a huge pillar in the B Corp community, as you probably know. Chris Gavish, out in Denver, colorado, is running a marketing agency not too dissimilar from the ones that we are also running, and I thought that those relationships have also sustained. They're not best friend relationships, but what's cool about it? I'd bring Tim Frick in too, because he's going to be a guest this season. But the people that I can just run ideas by or I feel I don't have to be like, oh I'm so sorry I haven't written to you in six months or whatever I can just go and send them a quick note and they're always going to be there. They'll always give me their perspective opinion.
Speaker 2:Should I do this, should I not do this? What does it look like to be doing this over here? What did you do in this scenario? I'm having trouble with something. Can you help me? I feel like those relationships have been built through the podcast in ways I don't think I would have had access to those people in the community before the podcast. So they're not, like I said, they're not my best friends. We're not getting together for drinks on Thursday, but they're people that I feel like I have direct access to and they're very happy to do that, and I feel the same way about them.
Speaker 3:I feel like that's speaks so much to the B Corp movement, because I definitely feel like there are people that just by sharing the connection of being certified B Corps that have just opened the door, and whether it's being willing to be on the podcast or answering a quick question, it's like you know, if they're certified B Corp, you know that your heart's in the same place and I've just found it to be such an open and like a sharing community. I'm excited for you to have Tim on your show. He's amazing, like just such a great human.
Speaker 2:I agree. There's so much to talk about related to the information he's been sharing with me and the progress that we're making here towards becoming more sustainable thanks to his advice and mentorship, so I can't say enough, but let's leave it for the episode.
Speaker 3:Yeah, fair, good teaser.
Speaker 1:Great teaser, yeah. So, ann, I am actually really curious because something that you do on the B Suite, that Ben and I don't do on Response Week Different is this idea of seasons, and I know that you're about to start recording for your fourth season and you're very excited for that, and I am too. I mean, like you said, you have some really great guests coming on that I'm excited to listen to. But can you maybe just talk about the idea of, like, what sparked the idea for you to do seasons on your podcast? Where does that come from for you?
Speaker 2:I needed to take a break at a certain point and give myself a hiatus, and so, in order to feel like I wasn't just dropping the ball and not doing it because I'm one of those type A, I'm always working with people If I chunked it up into seasons, it felt like I was allowed to take a break. I don't know if that makes any sense, but it was an even thing, like okay, we just did 10. Let's just stop there for a little while and we'll take a break. That's how we did it. It really was to give me a break.
Speaker 3:That was actually how it was a little bit before your time, brit, but that was actually the first year or two of the we did like seasons. For the same reason, I was like I gotta get, because I tried to do like a weekly show and like that is such a lift, like that is, that is yeah, not for the faint of heart.
Speaker 1:I'm laughing because it's like Ben, there was a responsibly different before, brittany, like weird. But then also I'm like, oh my gosh, thinking about doing a podcast, a weekly podcast, no way, I mean. I would like to think that a little bit of why Ben and I are able to do responsibly different as often as we do, with as many different shows as we do, is because there are two of us. We are co-hosts in this.
Speaker 1:I know, ann, you have an amazing team behind you and supporting you alongside you, but I also really, really respect that you acknowledge that like you need to take a break and you know yourself so well, which is like one of the reasons that I absolutely love coming to you and asking for advice, because I think sometimes you and I do have very similar personalities and hearing that you did in our doing seasons because you needed that break for your personality. I'm like congratulations on like acknowledging that in yourself, because I know that about myself, but I have not been able to acknowledge it enough to be like yo, ben, let's take some, let's take a step back and take some time off. I'm just like schedule everything. Everything has to be scheduled.
Speaker 2:It's not. It doesn't come easily, but it was a good decision between one and two. It was a really good decision between two and three and it's been a good decision between three and four. Sometimes the hiatus takes a little bit more time than others. It's not been. You know, there's no sort of set amount of time, but yeah, that's, that was the reason and it's been a good decision. Thanks for acknowledging that.
Speaker 1:Yeah so then, looking forward to season four, tease some of your guests for us. What should our listeners be excited about hearing on season four?
Speaker 2:Wow, I feel like, in some ways, the you know not to say that the guest list from prior seasons haven't been stellar, but we have I'll call it a star studded lineup for season four. I can say that right. Yeah, I love that. Yeah, I'm sure entertainment weekly is going to be calling me next. I'm sure they're going to want to know more about me.
Speaker 1:Definitely, because they're listening to the response to the different curious cover groups episode.
Speaker 2:It's a guarantee we're going to be talking a lot this season to sustainable leaders, which is a specific term that I'll use that I think I touched upon in other seasons and we'd certainly had representatives from from that space. But moving into season four, I would say dominant characteristic of everyone who's going to be on the podcast is that they are, in some way, shape or form, a sustainable leader, whether it's through environmental awareness, sustainability through digital media, carbon footprint and how to run a business with a lower carbon footprint, or DEI training initiatives, measurement metrics. There is somebody across the board related to sustainability that we're going to be talking to in season four and that's been a heavier lift for me because I feel like I'm the student in this case. I'm feeling like, well, let's come on the podcast so I can ask you all these questions and I can get smarter about this. I personally don't feel like I have all the answers, so I'm hoping my guests understand that they're the experts coming on to share with me their knowledge and expertise, because I think it's going to be great.
Speaker 2:Last season we talked to Sonya Kowal, but she was talking about ESG investing way over my head.
Speaker 2:I'm not an investment banker, but the way she was able to share that information I think was incredible. It made me recognize how we can make make a change in all kinds of areas in our life, and so that was one of the inspirations for season four to be just just fill it up with sustainable leaders and just let them help us understand these important issues, because if we're not talking about it, then we're not doing anything about it. That came up last night at the BMPAC clinic, where we were talking about doing the deed versus just talking about it, sort of walking the walk, and I think that's where the B-suite's moving is to say, let's talk to people who are the experts in these fields and how they're approaching the need for all of us to care more about the planet, each other, our community and the people that work with us. So I think that's where we're moving. We've always been going in that direction, but I think we're really getting it this season.
Speaker 3:Love that. That's so exciting. I can't wait to check it out.
Speaker 2:Thank you, I hope you will.
Speaker 1:Well, and before we completely wrap up this conversation, is there anything else that you would like to share with our listeners about yourself, richardson Media Group or the B-suite?
Speaker 2:I think it would be great to just potentially direct listeners over to our website, richardsonmediagroupcom, and that's where it all lives, all the information. So I don't need to say it out loud necessarily, but the story behind becoming a B-Corp is on the website. The whole archive of all existing B-suite episodes are on the website. The blog that I started writing before I even started this company I called it Women's Spaces, after a Room of One Zone by Virginia Woolf, and I was seeking at that time some space in my life to just have some self-expression. This is before I started the company and then I ended up having. I published all of those blog posts on my blog for the company. So I think that there's the journeys there on the website and I would encourage people to go there and reach out if they want to know something else. That isn't there, but I think that's a place to start. This is fun. Thanks so much, both of you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thank you. Thank you so much for your time and sharing your experiences and wisdom with us. We appreciate it.
Speaker 1:What a pleasure to have Anne on the podcast. She is such an amazing person and she's always willing to share what she knows with others, and all of you are listeners. Thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of Curious Co -workers. This one was a little different. Ben and I knew that we wanted to have Anne on the show, but we weren't sure what the episode would look like until we were done, and it was perfect to talk to Anne and to get to know her more. Next Curious Co-workers will be back to normal, with Ben and I talking about our time at the B Corp Leadership Development Conference down in the Southeast. We cannot wait to attend. If you're listening to this episode right after it airs and you also are attending, let us know. We'd love to meet you there. Until next time, be responsibly different.