Coming Together to Create Change featuring Seleyn DeYarus, Regenerative Rising

Transcript:

Intro 0:05

Welcome to the Gooder Podcast where we talk with powerhouse women in CPG about their journeys to success. This episode is sponsored by Retail Voodoo. A brand development firm guiding mission driven consumer brands to attract new and passionate consumer base crush their categories through growth and innovation and magnify their social and environmental impact. If your brand is in need of brand positioning, package design or marketing activation, we are here to help. You can find more information at www.retail-voodoo.com.

Diana Fryc 0:43

Hello, Diana Fryc here with the Gooder Podcast where I get to talk with a powerhouse women in the food, beverage, and wellness categories about their journeys to success and their insights on the industry. Thank you all for joining us today. Really quick. This episode is brought to you by Retail Voodoo. Retail Voodoo is a brand development firm. Our clients include Starbucks kind, PepsiCo, highkey, and many other market leaders. We provide strategic branded design services for leading brands in the food wellness and beverage categories. If your goal is to increase market share, drive growth, or disrupt the marketplace with new and innovative ideas, give us a call and let’s talk you can find out more about me which or Retail Voodoo either is good at www.retail-voodoo.com Now before introducing today’s guests, I want to give a big huge thank you to miss Karen Frame CEO of Makeena a rewards program app providing benefit perks and rewards to better for you consumers distributors and retailers. Get real time data about your customers and channels from a simple easy to use app. And for more information about Karen or Makeena check them both out at www.makeena.com That’s makeena.com. Now today I’m excited to introduce Seleyn DeYarus Founder and Executive Director of Regenerative Rising, she is recognized for helping to galvanize the global regenerative movement by convening thought leaders from business, civic, academia and agricultural networks for shared solutions to extract extractive models. Woof my mouth is hurting today in the food, fashion and beauty industries, Seleyn designs programs to accelerate achieving broader commitments to social and environmental justice, climate action and building a regenerative economy and system. Well, hello, Seleyn. How are you?

Seleyn DeYarus 2:49

I’m wonderful. Thank you so much for having me. Such a treat.

Diana Fryc 2:53

Thank you. Are you in Denver? You’re in Colorado somewhere right?

Seleyn DeYarus 2:56

I am in Colorado, I’m based in Boulder County in Longmont

Diana Fryc 3:00

different than Denver, differently different offense to the boulders, or the Denver’s or all of them like they weren’t cultures, right?

Seleyn DeYarus 3:11

Well, yes. I mean, Colorado has a lot of different pockets of reality.

Diana Fryc 3:18

Well, I, I always like it when the the owners of brand owners tell us about their brand. Now you don’t you have a brand? Yes. But we’re talking about a different kind of organization. And so I would love it if you could tell us a little bit more about Regenerative Rising. What is it? What is the group about and why does it exist?

Seleyn DeYarus 3:43

I’d love to thank you, well Regenerative Rising as a 501 C three nonprofit organization. And so we are in service, to really elevating the understanding of what a holistic frame in how we approach business. What that acts like looks like and behaves like in in the living world. So it’s a living systems worldview, which means instead of a mechanistic frame, which has dominated human thinking for quite some time, this is sort of reawakening to the fact that there is no separation. All life is interconnected and interdependent, and we can’t really continue to operate in that mechanistic frame and hope to save ourselves from our current trajectory.

Diana Fryc 4:32

Yeah. So I mean very much for you know, for, for my brain, when I think of regenerative agriculture, and we just apply it conceptually to the economy. That’s really what we’re building here, right?

Seleyn DeYarus 4:46

Well, you know, regenerative agriculture is bringing a place sourced approach to agriculture. And what I mean by place sourced is that it’s not a list. It is really assessing the specific place you are, and what practices could you utilize that will improve the health and really serve the fullest expression of that place. So, you know, no till versus cover cropping versus moving animals through the landscape. There are a lot of different ways to look at this. But a truly regenerative approach is placed sourced. Okay, that’s fundamental.

Diana Fryc 5:29

Okay. Okay. Well, so the question is, how did you get here? Why, why, why did you create this and give us a little bit of a backstory?

Seleyn DeYarus 5:39

Well, you know, I started convening back in 2010. And I live, as we mentioned, in Colorado, and Boulder has become this incredible draw for young upstarts in the natural products industry. So back in 2010, I started hosting events where I brought in thought leaders from companies that had already really baked into the DNA of their business, more ecological considerations, sourcing more mindfully, leading their business more carefully taking care of their employees. So I really wanted to offer the sort of representation of the possible to entrepreneurs to sort of go, you don’t have to wait to be fully down the road, you can start to integrate these types of approaches to how you do business from the onset. So that’s how everything started. And then in 2016, I had a company that was hosting that enterprise, I sold that business and spun, the nonprofit spun it off into a nonprofit. And in 2016, at Expo West, I was very sensitive to the fact that this new kid on the block regenerative ag was kind of all over the show, and there was a lot of reactivity to this thing. And it wasn’t happy reaction, it was concerned. And yeah, you know, it was troubling to see the different. Just, I don’t know what this is, you know, what, this is what, you know, it don’t make sense given that the leadership has spent 30 years building the foundation of an organic industry. And it’s still a small percentage overall, despite that, it’s grown so substantially. So that inspired the idea of doing a summit. And so 2017, I launched the regenerative Earth Summit, and brought the leadership together. And it was kind of a mind blow, because the who’s who of the industry are starlets were there. And they really had an opportunity to work through some of the fears and concerns. And it actually was a turning point, because from that point onward, the conversations had a different tenor to them. And so in 2018, I brought the food and fashion industries together, they’ve never been in a conference together before. And my intent was we’re in either industry space, accessing agricultural inputs, supply is the dance here, if we can change how production is happening on the ground, we can change the conversation around our climate crisis, we can sequester carbon, we can restore carbon cycles. So that was kind of like, let’s try this. So I’ll, you know, see what happens. And it’s been powerful because a lot of incredible partnerships have arisen through this work. And I am very humbled by the fact that some people literally will attribute those beginning conversations to being the summit’s.

Diana Fryc 8:50

That’s wonderful. I know. Just like with organics, or all of these movements, when we’re looking at what’s happening in manufacturing, in the food side, I find that fascinating. Maybe you could talk for just a second about why food and fashion like that I mean, to me doesn’t go together but I know that there you told me that that that there was a natural overlap or connection there. Can you talk about that for just a moment?

Seleyn DeYarus 9:20

Sure. Well, let’s just back up and say the three biggest impacts to the planet on a on a level of degradation and pollution are how we power ourselves oil and gas. How we clothe ourselves fashion, how we feed ourselves agriculture, okay. So food and fashion both source from agricultural inputs, you have flax mix, linen, cotton mix, cotton, you have leathers that are in the fashion industry. And then you have an overlay with obviously the food system is all derived mostly from agricultural inputs. So a regenerative approach to agriculture Nature has to also leave the monoculture paradigm behind. Yeah. So this, this opens up the possibility for companion planting garbanzos and cotton together in a field, it just changes what’s possible. And it’s also raising the bar of, you know, experimentation and exploration. So if you can have these large industries start to collaborate and cooperate around these types of plot experiments, for example, that’s sort of the why, for me as to why why it’s important that they be talking and I will just share, you know, like, there are some very significant alliances coming together in the between these two industry players that are making an impact in a really positive way. So this has stewarded a different frame and the industries on their own are also very much diving deeper into this consideration of know, how do we utilize our own supply demand needs to help foster transition on the ground? For our producers?

Diana Fryc 11:13

Yeah, it’s very interesting. I, you know, I told you before that I, I’ve gone back to school to get my MBA and our program is so similar to the foundational elements that from leadership are focused on looking at the environment and social justice as part of our founding part of our stewardship as leaders, and learning about some of the efforts that like Unilever is doing PepsiCo is doing like, really big companies are making strides. But they’re such giant organizations that we, we don’t necessarily have visibility on those. They’re not necessarily tooting their own horn, but it seems like even yesterday there, well, Walmart announced an investment in what is that? Vertical farming in a vertical farming Oregon, like everybody is going, how are we going to do this? Because there’s a net benefit to the business and the brand, but consumers are really are pushing for that. And so I’m curious, you know, for you, because all of these movements start so much smaller. And you said, you know, we’re talking about 2010 and 2016. And at the time, you know, Walmart, Walmart and PepsiCo aren’t into those trends quite yet. They’re watching but it’s really kind of the smaller to small midsize organizations that are really pushing forward and, and wanting to start to make some movement. How has that changed in the last four years? Right? You said 2016 was the first summit? I guess it’s 2022. Now, how’s that last six years?

Seleyn DeYarus 12:55

Well, 2016 was not the first summit, the first one was 2017. But to your point, you know, I think there’s a lot of concurrent forces flowing in the, in the, in our society, you have the Black Lives Matter movement, which has pushed the conversation forward around how much the system is not fair. And just. And so companies are having to lean into that. And as they’re leaning into that, they can’t help but bump up against the ecological inequities that come hand in hand with those social inequities. You know, we’ve heard of redlining, we know that a lot of communities of color are placed downwind from the bad production sites, while the white neighborhoods have more trees and are set in a safer distance from that stuff. So they were talking about really long standing patterns that we’re trying to bring light to and then Disrupt. Yeah, and I like to say to people, it’s really important to recognize there is no separation between any of these issues. Right. I think at the end of the day, all of it is interwoven, how we care for each other, how we care for the land and the water. All of these things are ultimately part of a larger pattern. Are we willing to disrupt ourselves? Are we willing to disrupt long standing ideas of what caught what is success? What’s an appropriate cost? What’s what’s the return on investment that’s necessary, you know, is quarterly reporting really going to attend to the new thinking we need to have about longer term investments, a more patient approach to capital to allow things time to really just stay and start to generate the value proposition that we No, they can. Nature is an amazing ally. Right? Living systems are extraordinarily robust. And they’re vulnerable as well. But they respond really beautifully when we start to treat them better. So, so two people. So all of this is interwoven, in my my humble opinion.

Diana Fryc 15:21

Sure, for sure. You know, as the brands are coming to you, because at the end of the day, brands exist to make money, right? That’s right, exist when they’re coming when you’re when, when they’re coming to you now. And they’re thinking about possible implications to their business, whether it be capex expenditures or repositioning of a brand or I’m not even sure just taking care of their humans. What are the what are the common concerns that you’re hearing being brought up at this time?

Seleyn DeYarus 15:59

Well, I think what most companies are trying to navigate is does policy support, what they’re doing, they’d like to see policy support what we’re doing. Yeah, a lot of businesses would like to see that. Yeah, no, it’s like we could utilize our tax system in a different way, we can incentivize patterns of investment by corporations that actually help us meet our goals for addressing climate, for example, we could use similar types of strategies to address rural development, because obviously, a lot of agricultural activity naturally is happening in our rural rural communities. I just did a podcast with the administrator of the Farm Service agencies that do shadow and in our conversation, you know, we started with the fact that 96% of farm families derive income off farm, and of that 72%, it’s more than half their income that’s coming from all farm. What other business do you know that the primary source of your income is not the primary activity that you’re doing as a business person, it’s very distorted, they get 14% or less of every food dollar. So the system in agriculture has so many challenges. And a lot of the financial system of farming has locked farmers into patterns that are really difficult to extricate from, unless we start to redesign the way money is held and distributed. When people get money, how long they have before they have to start paying that back. That it’s it’s large. It’s not undoable. In fact, I I like to bring partnerships together. So I’m actually working on making an introduction between a large company and the USDA to be having a conversation about public private partnership. It’s like why aren’t you guys doing that other parts of the government do public private partnerships? Let’s do it in ag?

Diana Fryc 18:10

Well, to be fair, you know, kind of rebuilding a lot of the political infrastructures that were kind of dismantled. The previous administration, I think there’s still a little catching up to do there. But it’s also government is so stinking slow, you know? Yeah. But there

Seleyn DeYarus 18:32

are a lot of incredible people in government actually free. And there’s a lot of well intended individuals. And you’re right, you know, the politics of government can often interfere in the capacity to really stay on a course and see it through. But the, you know, the agricultural problem is far older than any recent administration. And, you know, there’s a lot of, you know, really bad practices in agriculture that have been, you know, both discriminatory and not serving the health of our landscapes.

Diana Fryc 19:10

Yeah, yeah. Might even argue that, you know, it’s the post world war two industrial revolution that was supposed to save the world that’s actually actually kind of pulling it apart a little bit, but you have a really smart people working on it. Hopefully we can get there faster. You know, on that front, I want to just turn to for a moment about leadership and your leadership philosophy a little bit because I think this is really important component to driving of movement like this. You and I talked about this concept of feminine leadership. A lot of people have heard of this. Some people might know it. Well. I really feel like it’s not a great label because there’s an automatic reaction to feminine leadership. But I think there’s some power to us kind of level setting on what that means. How does it work with traditional male leadership? So from your perspective, let’s talk about what is feminine leadership? And how is it working within the efforts that you’re doing right now?

Seleyn DeYarus 20:17

Well, interestingly, you know, feminine leadership, I agree, it’s just going to create reaction that I would pause it, we’ve been in a patriarchal system for over 2000 years. Yeah. And the feminine voice has been suppressed and distorted during that time period, I do not think it would be authentic to say we even know what healthy feminine leadership looks like. Oftentimes, we women who get into the corporate scenario, we emulate masculine behaviors, to get a seat at the table to try to assert ourselves, I have talked to so many women who have the experience of putting forward ideas, they’re ignored. And then a male puts forward the same idea. And it’s, you know, the applause goes around. So I think women have been struggling for a very long time to figure out, you know, a, it took us a long time to even have standing. Let’s not forget the era, the Equal Rights Amendment hasn’t even been passed in this country. So women aren’t legally afforded equal rights to males. The right to vote is a relatively new Sanctuaire. And in actual true time, so I think it takes a little bit of stepping back and sort of looking at the arc of time and going, you know, women as leaders is a new phenomena. And it’s not universal is not planetary, is limited to certain segments of, you know, certain parts of the world. Some places have maintained matriarchal systems. But even there, there’s a distortion at play. So when I talk about feminine leadership, I’m also it’s an invitation to other women to sort of go What does this mean for us to bring our full self in, because I think it’s authentic to say we have multiple ways of knowing. And I think women tend to be associated with intuitive thinking or sense, sensing. And there’s power in the design of us as human creatures. And one of the attributes of that is to have that kind of intuitive hit about something, to listen to it to nourish, that it strengthens that muscle, if you will, and it becomes a stronger chord of how we sense and appreciate the larger complexity around us. And I think women are, we’re sort of designed with a higher aptitude for that type of listening. And I also think we as women have not necessarily been sort of put inside of the cultural may lieu that encourages us to be really strong allies to each other. Yeah. And that’s another piece for me in this sort of advocating for feminine leadership, as I want to see us as women become deeply caring about each other’s well being to be comfortable with elevating other women and not to be sort of, in some sense of, if you elevate her, it’s gonna reduce opportunity for you. And I think there’s a scarcity inside of the feminine lens that I don’t think pollutes the male system in the same way. Well, and

Diana Fryc 23:49

I mean, in my opinion, and to further that a little bit more, I think, what I have seen is there are some women that have a masculine like, naturally, they are a masculine style of leader and I have met many men that have very strong feminine leadership qualities. That’s why I say I don’t really care for the title too much. But they they exist, because it helps us right. Because there I have seen, especially in the last I want to say. I mean, I’ve seen it through my career. And as I see the younger millennials, taking on more leadership responsibilities, I feel like I see a bit more equity, I feel like women can have some more masculine components and not feel and not be considered domineering. And men can have more are having more feminine leadership qualities and not considered weaker or less of a leader. So I feel like that the generationally, we’re starting to see the shifts and a little bit more comfort along the lines of the leadership styles. And what I guess what I’m saying is, I don’t want people get hung up on the fact that if you’re a woman, you have a feminine leadership style because that’s not exclusive. No,

Seleyn DeYarus 25:05

I agree. I don’t think that’s I don’t I talk more about regenerative leadership than I do feminine leadership. Yeah. And regenerative is really my my game. And in speaking about the feminine, it’s really honoring the fact that we have a long standing inequity. Culturally, societally, that hasn’t gone away, there are plenty of misogynist energies in our society, and you know, gender fluid, all of these things are wonderful. And that it’s not really about the feminine versus masculine. For me, it’s much more about are we allowed to bring our whole self? Are we allowed to be expressive in a way that is maybe not the same? As has been the normative way of decision making? For example, you know, can we bring an intuitive insight and have that be treated with respect? Yeah. So it’s also for me, you know, a regenerative paradigm is holistic. And it allows for the the presentation, and the essence of each individual to be honored and welcomed. And that, to me is the ultimate goal. How do we create an environment where a tree is treated with respect as a living presence, it has its own intelligence. If you lean into looking at the research that’s coming out about trees as an example, there is a lot going on that we have just not been privy to. Our native American brothers and sisters have had the idea of relative they’re a tree as their relative, forever, they’ve never lost the appreciation and the respect for other living presences. We have in the culture writ large, and I think it would be safe to say that has fueled behaviors that have operated without any care for consequence or impact. Yeah,

Diana Fryc 27:11

Agreed. Agreed. I like that use call it regenerative. I’ll probably call it dynamic, I think are intuitive, I think intuitive is really good. I think those are all muscles that have to be learned. You know, a lot of leadership programs still in force, or still train leaders to have a little bit more of that will call traditional leadership philosophies and mentalities. And so it will require a continual education. That’s where organizations like yours will, you know, that’s where Regenerative Rising can help organizations and people who are not going back to school, but they want to learn right, this is their opportunity.

Seleyn DeYarus 27:56

Yeah, I would just intuitive and regenerative are not co equal as terms. Regenerative is a very ancient idea, and is held with a lot of different principles. Also, in it, you know, intuitive is a capability that we carry sure, for sure. And regenerative is like a set of principles that can help guide how we show up and how we perceive and then how we act.

Diana Fryc 28:25

Mm hmm. Thank you for that distinction. Mm hmm. So, now, as we’re moving forward, and we’re and we’re looking back at the path of Regenerative Rising to date, I don’t know that you could find a single moment in time or a single item. But is there something that you are most proud of that you when you look back and go yeah, that moment, or that concept, or that relationship was pivotal in the, in this path that I’m on right now? Or that we’re on right now?

Seleyn DeYarus 28:57

That’s a great question. A lot of things jumped to mind. You know, there’s something it’s a little bit more personal than professional. Okay. But it’s, it’s really powerful in terms of my own journey. And that’s, I just have stepped back into the work my working world after breast cancer. Oh, and what has been so extraordinary and what I guess I’m most proud of is how my community and my team rose to the occasion and have carried the work forward ever generative rising with such incredible impeccability and didn’t miss a step while I stepped back. So it was like members of my advisory board, Elizabeth Candelario, a dear long standing friend in the industry, Nancy Coulter Parker, who stepped in to my request for help, because there was no way and I didn’t want To just completely unravel and trade case within rhythm and my team Tay Lotte, and they just, they stepped in so beautifully and stewarded, you know, for online summits to my friend Daniella barrel howl, who’s the CEO of Savory Institute lead to, I just had named them women on the land and women in the wardrobe, who were leading regenerative practices in the fashion world and on in branching. And she just took it and ran with it. So it was a very beautiful reflection of this community, of the quality of care that was coming toward the work that I’ve been stewarding all these years. And to me personally, just to like, take that off my hands and give me the space to attend to my own healing journey, which I’m happy to say, has been a very positive and healthy outcome for me. And the organization I feel is even more dynamic as a result of that process. Hmm.

Diana Fryc 31:13

Well, I am sorry, for that journey for that diagnosis. And I’m happy to hear that you are, you’re back and strong. I know that that’s not that it’s a checkbox, and it’s done and done. This will be something you’ll have to carry with you for quite some time. But how wonderful that you have this support system in place?

Seleyn DeYarus 31:37

Yes, it was. Yes, absolutely. You know, cancer is an interesting visitor. And I think the frame of how we embrace that that encounter is so significant to the experience that’s possible. I’m now helping other women who are getting this diagnosis. And, you know, I personally think it’s an opportunity for profound growth as an individual to really examine your life to think about patterns. You know, I’m a person that’s had an very healthy lifestyle for over 30 years. So when people heard of my diagnosis, it kind of freaked them out, because, oh my god, he eats like that, and she’s still gonna get cancer. Oh, no. So I think the the humbling part of all of this is like, we cannot know. But if that does show up in your life, to move towards love, which is the, the path I chose was a love relationship. You know, hey, cancer, in service to host me. And in your love for life as a cell, I’m asking you to self destruct. Because that’s in service to life. And that’s what your ultimate programming is, you’re just broken. And I invited other people to share that approach with me. And you know, it’s like, Please don’t bring fear towards my body or my my existence. Bring love. Bring care.

Diana Fryc 33:06

Yeah. My gosh, that’s so huge. i

Seleyn DeYarus 33:15

It’s huge, right. It’s, it’s huge. And you know, what’s beautiful, is that, in sharing, which is part of why I like to speak about it, I hope to offer that as an alternative to the tendency to go into fear. And literally in a console with a doctor, we’re like, halfway into the meeting with him. And he goes, Okay, I said, Stop. Who are you? I’ve, we’ve usually gone through have a box of Kleenex when we’re having this conversation. And it’s like, You’re laughing. You’re, you’re asking really good questions. You’re telling jokes. He’s like, I’m like, and I’ve just shared a little bit about my frame. Like, this is how I’m choosing to step into this journey. I don’t know. And the other thing I will say is like, when you get a cancer diagnosis, you’re suddenly thrown into a universe you’ve thought nothing about, right? And so there is this extraordinarily long stretch of unknown and to be in relationship to unknown can either put us into an extraordinary level of anxiousness and fear, or we can come to the moment present moment and go. Alright, I don’t know. diddly right though. I’m going to just take this literally one step at a time. Yeah, I’m not gonna jump ahead of myself. And that’s what I practiced and my husband and I did this you know, really together as a team, but because there was so much i didn’t know i just made friends with not knowing as opposed to having that become something that you know, like not on my nerves. Yeah, cuz I couldn’t know what I didn’t know. And to just make friends with that was a huge, huge gift to myself.

Diana Fryc 35:07

That’s really awesome. Thank you for sharing that. Yeah. So as you’re looking forward into what I hope 22 and 23, we’ll start to see some some things.

Seleyn DeYarus 35:25

Some, some ability to like venture out from our cocoons,

Diana Fryc 35:30

like at what year will we start going? Hopefully, this is the year things. In any case, so what’s next? What’s next for you? What’s next for Regenerative rising?

Seleyn DeYarus 35:42

Well, I appreciate that question. Um, well, you know, we will continue to bring our skills of convening to the fore forward with online production, we have a women leading regeneration summit planned for April, we have the plans to do a regenerative Earth Summit in the late fall. And we’re considering depending on the what’s happening in the outer reality, maybe doing a smaller in person gathering, which would be very specific to purpose, and would probably be by invitation, and then we would still do an online program and share some of what’s generated in that in person gathering, if that’s makes sense. I mean, I’m also very protective of myself. So that’s part of the boundary condition. And then there’s, we’re embracing storytelling in a really exciting way with, we haven’t quite decided if it’s going to be more of like a docu series, or a full length documentary film. But we started doing some filming in Virginia with that solanke, with farms, and in Baltimore, at the BlackField Institute, we really want to elevate the stories of black and indigenous leadership, who are attending to food sovereignty issues, you are generating new opportunities for the youth and their communities to have a path forward for, you know, like in Detroit, at the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, they are in the process of building a co op, which is also going to have an industrial kitchen, and you’ll be able to have Chef training, and maybe some vertical integration with entrepreneurs. So we want to tell those types of stories as a way to address long standing and equity. So there’s the remembrance aspect. But there’s also how is this creating healing and connection for us, culturally, to be a witness to what’s possible, and also emulate these these things that are going on in these communities?

Diana Fryc 37:54

So interesting. This Detroit initiative sounds a lot like the work that Natalie is doing in Chicago at the hatchery slightly different POV. Are you familiar with that? The work that I’m not, I’ll make sure to connect you to not exactly like, the end goal is the same. But the the, what you’re pressing against are slightly different. But I think well worth connecting for sure. Wow. So I am really enjoying our time together. I have a few questions that are now that I like to ask everybody before we end our time together. And you’ve already talked a little bit about, you’ve already talked, I was asking everybody for like I call it a happy hour, Happy Hour tidbit or some sort of fact about the industry or what you’re working on, or philosophy that people can share over drink with their friends. Do you have anything that you’d like to share about the work that you’re doing right now?

Seleyn DeYarus 39:02

Well, I would just say, I think a good news message is to sort of acknowledge that the idea of separation is not really true. And the good news is that we really are connected, and we really need each other. And so the beauty is let’s let’s really nourish that understanding. Let’s activate that in our own lives. We walk outside, if we have a yard or we’re stewarding a small part of Mother Earth, then let’s really take care of that. Let’s make that an abundant place for life to happen. And if we all start doing that, in our own points of engagement, we become the change we seek. That’s the most beautiful truth I know is that it always starts here. And we put it out into the spaces that we have touch that we touch, we start to see a whole response come back to us. That’s kind of awesome.

Diana Fryc 39:57

I love that. Thank you Are there any women, other women leaders or rising stars out there that you would like to elevate or simply admire for the work you’re doing right now? Ooh, wow.

Seleyn DeYarus 40:09

There are quite a few. Um, I want to yes, I’d love to honor a dear dear friend, I mentioned her a little earlier, Elizabeth Candelario, who is now with an organization called Mad Agriculture founded by a dear friend of mine, two dear friends, Philip, and his wife, Nicole, who have put together a program that’s working directly with farmers. And what Elizabeth is doing with a gentleman named Alex, they’re, they’re helping build the market connection for farmers. And so directly linking. This is mostly in grain regenerative grain production, creating connections directly to the brands who are looking to meet their own objectives for offering products to the market that come from regeneratively sourced products. So Elizabeth Candelario, just is she’s just tenacious as heck. And I appreciate her efforts. And the other person I’d like to acknowledge is a 24 year old, she’s on my team. Her name is Tay Lotte, and she is just such an inspiration to me. And I am incredibly grateful to her clarity, of purpose. And her sense of, you know, she’s 24, and her understanding of this interconnected reality is so deeply rooted, and she’s reflective of many in her peer group who are seeing this and really wanting to attend to the possibilities that it offers for healing a lot of challenges in our society. Mm hmm.

Diana Fryc 41:57

Wow, amazing. Thank you. I look forward to checking them out. I always do that after each episode. And then lastly, what what brands or trends are you seeing in this kind of CPG world could be fashion or food because, you know, you said that? Or energy? Right? You know, I guess what, what are you watching and why? Well,

Seleyn DeYarus 42:24

that’s another great question. Um, I’m really inspired by an initiative going on with Applegate and timberland. Applegate is a food company timberland is in the fashion space. They are collaborating around, you know, really cultivating a clear guideline for what regenerative is as a production strategy on the land. Timberland has come out with a fully regenerative shoe line. It’s regenerative leather, and they’re getting support from Terra Genesis, which is an organization that does incredible work. And then they’re also sourcing from ranches that are, you know, Audubon certified. So they’re creating habitat for birds and migratory birds and their land to markets certified, which is a verification, I should not say certified. They’re verified by land market, which is a verification initiative under the Savory Institute, which is a global organization, bringing all sorts the holistic approach to land management on on ranches around the world, that restore grasslands, which is one of our biggest opportunities to sequester carbon is in grasslands. So then, you know, Applegate just launched the first fully regenerative hotdog. Wow, how cool is that? I mean, it’s all sourced from regenerative beef. And I just, I think these folks who are bringing their their, their just the level of integrity, I just can’t over emphasize because they’re really paying attention to the Foundation, which is the sourcing and supporting the agricultural actors. Yes. And then buying from those agricultural producers. And then not just small but large, big, audacious vision for creating impact throughout their entire supply, web and then their entire product line. So I just there and there are I consider if we had more time, I could just name more, but I’ll, I’ll stop there. But I think there’s a lot for us to feel very hopeful about and it’s both relationally between people and then how we’re relating to the living landscapes in which we are apart. And I mean, what’s beautiful is, as I said, before, each one of us, we are actors in our own play, and we can choose To be creating the world we desire with our own small steps, we take where we are. And that adds up in the aggregate to be something really big and really beautiful.

Diana Fryc 45:12

Right? Well, I always like to say that, you know, my podcast is a drop, but my drop has ripples. And those ripples go far and they interact with other ripples. And pretty soon those ripples become bigger and bigger. And at some point, there’s a net net change. I like the Applegate thing I think for me is so exciting to hear because Apple gates relationship of course with Hormel, which that’s a big deal, like success that Applegate trickles up. It does or downwards, or however you want to look at it. And Hormel is in ginormous organization that they watch if they’re following the success. And they’re, of course, by default, participating. Just think of the impact that that work is going to have. That’s really fantastic.

Seleyn DeYarus 46:05

Yeah, I’ll just shout out Gina Asoudegan, at Apple gate. Who’s that avatar inside of that became us. And she’s really, you know, she’s ringing the bell. And she’s being listened to? So again, you know, it’s, there’s a lot to feel hopeful about. We could, there’s a lot of challenges, but I think it’s much more exciting to focus on the positive. Yeah,

Diana Fryc 46:31

that’s my theme for this year. Celebration, focus and celebration are my two words for this year. So that fits right in there. I love it.

Seleyn DeYarus 46:39

fantastic. Well, I love that you’re doing that because, you know, we all have an energetic effect, you know, get let’s look at a little bit of quantum physics. And so that that means it matters, it matters, your set point in your day matters in my set point, we have an effect, that trip ripples to your point out beyond us. So even if we’re sitting in the quiet of our own home, if we’re generating good energy as opposed to like, it makes a difference. Like what do you want to feed feed, but you want to see B? What do you want to see? And it all starts to work copacetic Lee

Diana Fryc 47:17

like it as well. Thank you. Well, we have been talking with Seleyn DeYarus Founder and Executive Director of Regenerative Rising Seleyn. Where can people learn more about you and what you were doing?

Seleyn DeYarus 47:31

Well, thank you for that question. We can be found at regenerativerising.org. I’m on LinkedIn. We’re on Instagram, and Facebook and Twitter. And so And LinkedIn, the organization and we also have a podcast Regenerative Rising podcasts. So we’re also on Spotify and Apple, we just meant the one I mentioned earlier with the administrator. Do you know that’s being released today. So let’s all play let’s let’s, let’s spread the Good News. And thank you again for inviting me. And thank you, for the recommendation. I’m very appreciative.

Diana Fryc 48:14

Thank you. Thank you for your time today and the work that you’re doing. I’m excited to have spent this time with you and I look forward to connecting in human time at some point and

Seleyn DeYarus 48:26

I would look forward to that as well. Thank you, Diana.

Diana Fryc 48:28

I think all of you for listening to the GooderPodcast today. Have a great rest of your day and we’ll catch you next time.

Outro 48:41

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