Speaker #0In most cases, transitioning into regenerative work is going to take an entrepreneurial mindset. It is going to mean shifting from a world of work that revolves around job descriptions and duties and regular paychecks to finding your unique niche and building a viable career or business around it. You can't sit around and wait for someone to tell you what you should do. in regenerative work. You have to find that path for yourself. Welcome to the Regenerative Work Life podcast. If you are ready to make the leap out of your corporate job and into purposeful regenerative work, this is the show for you. As you've probably discovered. transitioning into regenerative work is a lot more complicated than going on a job board and sending off your CV. This journey you are embarking on means taking risks, going against the grain, overcoming challenges, and writing your own script. It takes entrepreneurial muscle, powerful vision, and a willingness to change. Having a mentor by your side makes all the difference. I am your host, Alyssa Murphy. I have worked with hundreds of impact-focused businesses and individuals and I am here to help you. Let's take things one step at a time as I show you how to quit corporate, find your vision and successfully transition into regenerative work. Here we go. Here we are my friends, the first ever episode of the Regenerative Work Life podcast and I believe the first step on your journey to a successful regenerative career. For this inaugural episode it felt right to me to start with first principles. I know that a lot of you are equally intrigued and confused by the term regenerative. You may be more familiar with terms like green and sustainable and want to know how they compare to regenerative. And perhaps you want to get an overview of what the regenerative work landscape looks like. You'd like to know where the opportunities are, where you might fit in. I suspect that you may feel a strong pull to step out of work that isn't aligned with your values, that doesn't seem to be contributing to the kind of future you want to see. And perhaps you're wondering if regenerative is the answer. Tackling these questions in one episode does feel like a weighty undertaking. I find myself wondering, do I really know enough about regenerative to speak with authority? And I feel this pressure to get my points organised and ordered and explain things succinctly and correctly. Quite honestly, I feel a little nervous. studying with such a big topic and I find myself thinking, what if I've got this wrong? What if someone else knows better? And here's the thing, all of those worries represent an oppressive, corporatised standard of perfection and authority. To me, they come out of a worldview where only a few people get to hold the answers. and the rest of us are expected to assimilate and fit in. So what I want you to know above all else is that regenerative work starts from the heart. It starts from hopes and dreams and shared humanity. When it comes to regenerative work, when it comes to the regenerative movement as a whole, we are all welcome here and we all get to make a contribution. I'm not here to tell you what you should do. I'm not here to say this is the right path for you, this is exactly what it's going to look like. Do these steps. one two three make these decisions follow this role build this business I'm not here to do that I am here to help you untangle from the corporate model of work and I hope to guide you towards work that uplifts and supports both you and the planet. And because we are no longer in a corporate mindset, I will do so imperfectly. And as we go along, I will continue to learn and to adapt what I teach because that is what it is to be a part of nature. So with all that said let's take a look at first principles that will help you to untangle from a corporate mindset and prepare yourself for the process of transitioning into regenerative work. and if you can take these principles on board if you can really absorb them by which i don't mean that you need to understand them fully i don't mean that you need to be an expert or you need to be qualified in all of these different areas again that is a very corporate way of thinking when i say absorb these principles i mean sit with them Understand them in your body. Just become curious about them. See what they spark for you. Because when you can take these principles into yourself, and when you can really incorporate these principles in whatever actions you're taking to transform your career, whether you're... Right at the point of, you know, you're still in that corporate job, but it's really not feeling good to you anymore. And you want to understand where you might be able to go next, what kind of impact you might be able to have. These principles will really help you to answer those questions in a way that isn't influenced by a corporate way of work. And if you're a little bit further along, perhaps you've left a corporate role behind and you are starting to try to navigate, okay, where can my career go? Where can my skills and experience make a real impact? Where is my niche? If you're in that sort of part of the process, again, these are really important to understand because they're going to help to really give you confidence. that you're heading in the right direction. They're also going to help you to build resilience when it doesn't just unfold in this sort of linear, you know, this sort of perfect upward trajectory that we seem to expect of our careers. You know, when the path is winding, when there are ups and downs and two steps forwards and one step back, understanding these principles will, I think, help you to become really comfortable with that winding path that is transitioning into a regenerative career. And even if you're really further along and you're at the stage where perhaps you've already identified regenerative work that you want to do, perhaps you're even building a regenerative business, then I think that these principles will probably sound familiar to you, but that they're really important to come back to. because it's important that we acknowledge that we are doing regenerative work surrounded by a system that thinks very very differently. You know we are trying to forge new paths and the system is trying to pull us back. So coming back to first principles can be a really reaffirming and reinvigorating process. So I hope that as I go through these, they feel helpful to you. You might want to have a pen and paper with you if that's something that you find helpful. And there will also be a full transcript of this episode on my website at regenerativeworklife.com. If you go to the podcast tab, you'll find the episode and then you'll have a full transcript with all the details of these different principles. Okay, so here we go. Basic principles that will help you untangle from a corporate mindset and prepare yourself for the process of transitioning into regenerative work. Principle number one. Regenerative work is rooted in nature. This is my answer when friends and family ask about my business, about regenerative work life, and they really don't understand what regenerative means. My answer is that regenerative is about actively restoring nature. And that helps them to sort of get, you know, a sense of where we are in the kinds of work that I'm talking about. When I say that regenerative work is rooted in nature, there are two ways that we can apply that to our careers. So in many cases, that may mean that your work is directly contributing to the protection and restoration of nature. So one of the perhaps best understood areas of work is regenerative agriculture. So if you're looking at roles in that kind of area, you know, these are roles where you're really hands-on, you're, you know, hands in the soil, you're, you know, actively sort of engaged with nature, you're, you know, outdoors, a lot of the time you're sort of, you know, really hands-on with nature, and that's a very important part of regenerative work. There are also a lot of supporting and ancillary roles around those sort of hands-on jobs. And I think sometimes it can be a little bit off-putting when someone is drawn to this work but thinks, well, I don't have a background in farming or I'm not an expert in soil restoration. So what else is there? What other opportunities are there? But, you know, you've got to think about all of the... sort of peripheral roles that go around that. So if we're creating a regenerative farm, you know, we're going to need financing for those kind of projects, we're going to need to bring stakeholders together, there's going to need to be leadership, we're going to need to communicate, and all of these different kinds of activities that might be sort of much closer to the skill set. that you have. You know, there are software opportunities, engineering opportunities. It's not just about sort of hands in the soil, although understandably a lot of us are really drawn to that kind of work. But there are many, many other ways that we can contribute and there are all kinds of skills that are required to make those hands-on projects happen. But there is also an important element to this principle. when we talk about regenerative work being rooted in nature, which is simply about approaching our careers and approaching our work with a deep felt understanding that we ourselves are part of nature. Nature is not the non-human part of life. Nature is not something that you get to enjoy on a walk or at the weekend. We are nature. We cannot exist without nature. You know, water. Fantastic example. All life requires water. We require water. Most of us is water. We are nature. And if we can really internalise that understanding so that it's just a part of who we are and how we live our lives and how we do our work, then whatever work it is that you choose to do will, in my opinion, be regenerative. I don't think that you can embody that understanding that that you and the forest and the ocean and the birds and the insects are all one. I don't think if you really understand that and if you live that way, your work will contribute to and conserve nature, whatever it is that you do. Second principle, regenerative work is intersectional. So I help people build successful careers in nature, climate, and community. And... For me, those are kind of the three pillars of regenerative work. And any one career may be more focused in one area than the other two. But if we're looking at Trulio regenerative work, I think all three pillars work together. And this is a big difference when you look at sort of traditional sustainability jobs, for example, or green jobs. And, you know, I can speak with a little bit of authority in this area because I am coming at this work now from 13 years experience of working in the climate tech sector. So I had an agency, a communications agency that helped startups who were developing climate tech solutions to take them to market and to scale their business. And one of the things that since I've sort of stepped outside of that climate tech sector that I've really come to question and that I think is a really important question is how much we're taking into consideration not just sort of the tech for its own sake but who is benefiting from that technology who is it made for who will it serve and in the vast majority of cases it will serve people who are already comparatively wealthy It will serve people in Western nations. It will serve people. In fact, most of the time who it's going to serve is corporations. The vast majority of climate tech is used by corporations to allow them to do what they already do, albeit more efficiently. Now, I could go down a whole rabbit hole on this, and I almost certainly will in future episodes. But the point I want to make is... To put it simply, in 13 years of working in climate tech, I can count on one hand the amount of times that I had conversations about climate justice. That's intersectional thinking. So if you are looking at a role or an opportunity that talks about impact, that talks about sustainability, that talks about benefit to the planet, but isn't talking about community, or isn't talking about social impact, or if that impact is really very much focused on one section of society, then I think there's really an opportunity to ask where we could come at this from an intersectional lens. And this doesn't need to be that something that's kind of complicated or impenetrable. The simple way that I define it is, are we bringing together nature, climate and community. Are we willing to ask difficult questions? Are we willing to involve all stakeholders? And those stakeholders are not just human. Are we looking at the whole impact of what we do right along the supply chain, right into future generations? This is intersectional thinking and this is fundamental to regenerative work. We come to principle number three, which is definitely related. Regenerative work means system change. I think that this is one of the biggest shifts in understanding for people who are currently in corporate roles in particular, and that some people will struggle with this. I want to keep it really simple. Our systems are broken. If they weren't, we wouldn't need to regenerate. Our systems are broken, and if they weren't, we wouldn't need to regenerate. And we cannot regenerate using our existing systems because they are the problem. So as you look to regenerative work, be careful that you're not looking within the existing system because that is not where you will find it. And this shows up in all kinds of different ways when it comes to looking for new opportunities, considering career paths, finding our niche, building businesses. We're constantly confronted with pre-existing systems because that's the world that we operate in. And the simplest thing I think that you can do to start to shift this is just ask yourself, is what I'm looking at part of a new system or part of an old system? Or is what I'm looking at willing to change? Is there work going on here to self-examine and make change? It's a difficult question but you really have to examine whether you are looking to fit into the old system or whether you are willing to do the hard and uncomfortable work of becoming part of a new system because that is essential to regenerative work and when you get past the discomfort it's actually one of the most exciting aspects of it. that the work that you do, the job that you show up to, the business that you build can be part of building new systems that support all of us, right, that support all of those stakeholders that we talked about including nature. That is the incredible opportunity presented by regenerative work. Let's come on to principle four. which again relates quite closely to what we've just been talking about. You can imagine when we are talking about being part of changing the system, as principle four tells us, regenerative work is very rarely a job because a job, more often than not, is part of a pre-existing system. Okay, if we're gonna change the game, we need new types of jobs and very often We, you, need to be the person creating those new roles. Do you remember, I'm going to go on a little tangent here, careers guidance counsellors? I can remember when I was about 15 speaking to the careers guidance counsellor at school who really had no idea what she was doing. I think she had, you know, she taught something else and had been roped into doing careers for a few days. And it was this very strange process where you kind of talked about what you were interested and they looked at your grades and what you're good at and said, hey, why don't you think about doing X career? In my case, I don't think we really got that far in the conversation because I sat down and said, I want to be an actor. And they said, yeah, we know, off you go. Just shows you how much did I know. A story for another day. But if you're approaching your transition into regenerative work. Like you want to go to a careers guidance counsellor. I've got to tell you that that is not how regenerative works. If you do a job search with the word regenerative as one of your search terms, you're going to find limited results. Yes, they are out there and there are more and more of them, which is an extremely positive, exciting things. And there is legislation coming into place, we've just had it in Europe, that are going to create more and more jobs that are directly about restoring nature. But in most cases, transitioning into regenerative work is going to take an entrepreneurial mindset. It is going to mean shifting from a world of work that revolves around job descriptions and duties and regular paychecks to finding your unique niche and building a viable career or business around it. You can't sit around and wait for someone to tell you what you should do in regenerative work. You have to find that path for yourself. And that takes observation, and it takes curiosity, and it takes imagination, and it takes time. as you take your time and as you use your curiosity and as you observe and as you imagine, you will start to see where the possibilities arise. You will start to identify problems and get curious about whether you can come up with a solution. You will start to connect the dots between all the incredible things you've already done in your career, the skills that you have, the experience you have, the things that you're just innately good at, and you will start to piece those together and think, hold on a minute, what about this? Perhaps this is a contribution that I can make. Or you'll look at it and think why is no one doing this? Why has no one come up with a solution for this? And then you'll think I'm gonna do it. It's gonna come from you. And again for me this is one of the things about regenerative work that makes it just so exciting. You know you're not here to tick someone else's box, you're not here to fit into someone else's labels. You get to do that build your career out of who you are. You get to find the opportunities. You get to contribute in a completely unique way. And yes, that can be scary along the way, but you can do this. Finally, principle number five, regenerative work starts from the inside out. I'm talking about mindset here, and it is an overused term, I know, but the fact is that most of us Have our minds set in corporate constructs. And corporate constructs are strongly connected to both capitalism and colonialism. Don't overestimate, underestimate? Don't underestimate how deeply that can penetrate. If you have fears and apprehensions and worries about whether you can make this transition into regenerative work, about whether you'll belong, whether you've got what it takes, If you have the right skills and experience, how you're going to make money, whether it can be viable. A lot of those fears are rooted in that corporate mindset and that corporate conditioning that may, for many of you, have been a long, long period of your life. But you have the opportunity to shift the way you see the world. And you have almost certainly begun that shift, which is why you're listening to this podcast, right? So I just want you to know that it starts with you. You don't need to keep looking out there, you don't need to sort of map all the opportunities, you don't need to analyse it, you don't need necessarily to get loads more training and qualifications which is sort of naturally where we think that we need to start. Start with you, come back to who you are, to what you love, to where you find joy. Reconnect with the natural world around you. Start building community. Stop looking outside for the answers. Stop waiting for permission. Stop following a path that someone else has laid out for you. You know, that's what's got us into this mess. Regenerative work invites us to write our own scripts and weave them all together in a beautiful new story. And that... is what I am here to guide you towards. That is the purpose of this podcast and that is the journey that we are going to embark on together. So I'm going to quickly recap the five first principles of regenerative work that I shared with you today. Number one, regenerative work is rooted in nature. Number two, regenerative work is intersectional. Number three, regenerative work means system change. Number four, regenerative work is very rarely a job. Principle number five, regenerative work starts from the inside out. Now, there's been a lot of dense conceptual material here, and I promise you that I will go into each of these first principles in greater detail in future episodes, and I will help you understand how they really apply. to the work that you're doing right now and the work that you want to do in the future and how you make that transition. At the same time as helping you with these fundamental mindset shifts, it's really important to me that this podcast gives you actionable advice. Action is my focus. Principles are important but we don't want to get caught up in them, we want to get inspired by them instead. And I'm going to leave you as I often will, with some homework if you want to, if you feel like doing homework, if you want to take this on, if you want to really embody the material that we've been talking about here today. So we're going to focus on the first principle that I shared with you, regenerative work is rooted in nature. For the next week I invite you to take this quite literally. Whatever your work looks like right now, how can you root it more deeply into nature? I don't care if you bring plant pots into the office or bouquets of flowers to your meetings. I don't know whether you commit to a lunchtime nature walk or maybe you even go out and ask a favourite tree to help you tackle a thorny work problem. the weirder the better really. I want you to start making this strong connection between work and nature and just by doing that even if it feels a little bit odd, a little bit uncomfortable, you'll be well on your way to de-corporatizing your mindset. Because let's face it, corporations are doing the exact opposite. They are moving further and further away from nature but you, my friend, are going to move closer. Start today. and come back for the next episode as we move deeper into this journey and guide you towards successful regenerative career. I'll see you next time. And remember, nature needs each and every one of us.
