Empathy Drives Equity with Maria Colacurcio

Maria Colacurcio
You actually have to care about your people and their lives. And if you do that and they know it. Then you can walk that line between toughness and expecting excellence and still having compassion and empathy.

Priscilla Brenenstuhl
Welcome to Voices of Athena, a podcast highlighting the personal side of the successful women that make up the Athena Alliance, a learning community for executive women. I’m your host, Priscilla Brenenstuhl. Today we have the honor of speaking with workplace equity champion and CEO, Maria Colacurcio, who seems to have integrated the concept of equity into every aspect of her life.
Tell me someone or something that inspires you?

Maria Colacurcio
Yeah, of course, I’d be happy to and again, thanks for having me today. So somebody that inspires me. I talked about this a little bit in an interview I gave a few months ago, but I think it’s relevant today. There’s a woman named Tamra Smith. And she currently leads a program called women living a richer life at Brighton Jones. So looking at financial solutions for women and how they can create and CO create wealth for their future. And he’s really dedicated her life to figuring this out. Before that. She was the CEO for the Tyra Banks corporation. So just this incredibly seasoned executive and a person who also has done a lot in her personal life. So when her sister passed away unexpectedly she took on raising her nephew and has been you know, she’s received several awards that have really acknowledged both this sense of motherhood because she truly is a mother like no other and took on her nephew and really raised him but also how she’s balanced that beautifully with living a very purpose driven life in her career. And so I watch her and she leads with such grace. She has really figured out the balance of compassion and toughness, which I think is really difficult for executives to manage. You have to show people with tenderness and love that you care about them and have empathy but you also have to display that toughness that efficiency that that particular characteristic that mediocrity will not be accepted. That’s how you succeed. And in watching her lead and having the benefit of having her as an advisor, she sits on our advisory board at Syndio, I’ve just I’ve learned a tremendous amount about leadership and what our lives would look like from a fullness perspective and the personal aspect. And how that really plays into whether we succeed on the career front.

Priscilla Brenenstuhl
Wow. Here this really just passionately, sincere, the richness that can come into our lives, from our mentors. And she I’m grateful she’s to introduce us to you

Maria Colacurcio
That’s why it’s appropriate for this conversation, I mean, when I was raising my series A and we were a complete unknown quantity. There were a few people who made room for me in their schedule to hear a pitch to give me feedback, and she was one of them. And I think it’s really important that as leaders we remember and we don’t forget, especially as we encounter success, whether that’s in business or personal life or or whatever. You have to remember the folks that were their doors open when you were completely unknown when you had no success when you had no track record. And she’s just one of those people just completely willing to open doors without expecting anything in return.

Priscilla Brenenstuhl
This is reciprocated respect that is built. When you have made it or made it, you know, further along and then you you remember that the journey it’s really humbling to remember the journey and the people that got you there but also to remember what it feels like so that when you’re ready to use the newfound power, or whatever you have, that it comes from this place of remember this, you know struggles and what it’s like for most people and I love that I love the fact that mediocrity will not be tolerated. like just that idea wanting and expecting the best, you know, not wanting to outshine someone else but wanting yeah

Maria Colacurcio
and and I think that’s something that’s really difficult to balance. Because how do you eradicate mediocrity and expect excellence while also having compassion and empathy? And if you walk that fine line between the two, I think the difference and the way that you do it is something I’ve learned by watching Tamra, which is you actually have to care about people. You actually have to care about your people and their lives. And if you do that and they know it. Then you can walk that line between toughness and expecting excellence and still having compassion and empathy. But if you don’t really care about them and you’re trying to pretend into the tenderness and empathy and you just over index on the toughness and eradication of mediocrity, it’s not going to work. You have to have both.

Priscilla Brenenstuhl
I love that. And I think there’s a balance, perhaps Forbes just released an article saying that empathy is important. Having that first especially in the business world. To to have, you know, it’s not a skill that is easily taught. I think the understanding of it, and acknowledgement of it is what’s causing such a shift in the business paradigm right now. It can cause our leadership to be more creative when they feel valued and appreciated, and things come together, and that’s really a shift It’s pretty novel, and it’s really what I’m most excited about when businesses, great women and these are qualities that you happen to be rather good as women. And so let’s elevating those instead of trying to stifle those, which is something that we were called to do.

Maria Colacurcio
it’s it’s really interesting, especially if you think about you know, so I have seven kids and my own Yeah, seven children. I do wild

Priscilla Brenenstuhl
Wow, okay. Wow. I mean, am I gonna throw you off of if we stop to talk about you having 7 children because we can come back to that?

Maria Colacurcio
No, actually, I’ll weave it in. So last night, we I have a thing and my thing is we all sit down for dinner together and my point to my kids is I want a moment like when they gripe about it which happens. I want a moment where we’re all looking at each other in the eye. And so it’s a no devices at the table. We all sit around the table and for those 20 minutes, it’s not long. We’re all looking at each other in the eye and we’re having conversation and that’s been something I’ve pushed since they were tiny and so now they’re used to it. So we have the tabletop little cards, you know, and it’s so ingrained that now the kids are like, it’s my international question, they pull a question. And this conversation is so timely because last night the question was, if you could require a characteristic in all humans, what would it be? And my 14 year old immediately said empathy. And I said, That’s fascinating. I don’t even know that I had a real understanding of the word at your age. She’s a freshman in high school. And then they got into this really great debate the 12 year old the 14 year old, and my husband and their stepdad. And they were talking about empathy versus kindness versus respect. And so the two kids were saying empathy, putting yourself in someone else’s shoes, shared experience, living their experience to be able to understand and one of the other kids was like, Yeah, but then you’re not going to be tough. You’re going to always be feeling each other’s you know, personal experiences, and we’re never gonna get anywhere. I think you should be kind, but not necessarily always empathetic. So then the third perspective was, well, what maybe that’s just respect like, is what we’re really asking for here. Respect, like we all treat each other with respect and dignity. Is that the balance? I don’t know the answer, but I sure found it to be a fascinating conversation amongst you know, 11,12,13,14-year-olds.

Priscilla Brenenstuhl
Holy cow, that’s so rich like I can I come over for dinner. Great conversation to have, and also this idea of, I think it’s really important, you can be empathetic with someone in their circumstance, but in a way that it’s not, and that it goes back to what you said about respect. It’s like, I’m empathetic, not in a way where I pity you but where I try to have an understanding of where you’re coming from. I love that you’re doing that with your children. And I just but I also need to go back for a second seven children. How old is your youngest?

Maria Colacurcio
So I had five kids in three and a half, four years, so 14, 13 year old twins, 12 and 11. Then I got divorced and fast forward in time I met my now husband and he didn’t have any kids zone. And I said, Well, if you want kids, I’m probably not your girl. I haven’t done already and and then, you know, I gotta say he came in that was fine. He grew up with a stepdad and a dad close to both of them. The whole very close blended family think it’s stuffed down was actually in his dad’s wedding. That’s how close they kind of all are. And he said, I grew up with a stepdad and he’s like my real dad. And I will take these kids in and love them as though they’re my own. And I think part of that was just watching that blended family come together and how he sort of wrapped us on this cocoon of love and so in a moment of weakness of the weakness, and I don’t regret it, you never regret it. I was like, let’s just have one. Let’s have one. And then we ended up having two they’re the little Caboose kids or two little girls ages three and a half and the smallest one just turned one in January. So it rounds out and I gotta say it’s, it’s chaos. It’s messy, but it’s so beautiful. And it’s so cool to watch. The big kids care for the little ones and to as a parent, see the economies of scale and like how they really do help out and take shared responsibility. And I don’t know it all just really works. It works and it sort of the blended nature of having both sets are what has pulled us together, I think and made us really cohesive. So

Priscilla Brenenstuhl
that’s really amazing and beautiful. And just for me, it’s like mind-blowing. I have a nine month old right now and I have a six year old and yes, of course it’s I love them and it’s the best but like the thought of my children outnumbering me is this more than I can handle at this point like I am so I’ll be honest, I’m overwhelmed by them, they overwhelm me and they like you know all the boundary proceeding and it pushes back on my triggers and all the self work and self love and self healing that I have to do on top of wanting to show up the best for them on top of you know, working and being a career professional. It’s like I just I often I’m like it’s a wonder to me that anyone has children because I’m like, especially without like these communities you don’t have like the tribal communities or I don’t even close to my parents or my husband’s parents. And so I’ve just, I’ve just really I’m in awe of you and that you made it work. And then you’re managing this in and a really successful career and that’s close to being a superhero as you get

Maria Colacurcio
I think what, what people who are from people who are from big families totally get it. And people that aren’t have a hard time understanding that it actually gets so much easier with especially as the older kids get older because there’s a sense of shared responsibility and resilience that is just intrinsic to a big family. You know that your role in that family is not just for yourself, you know that your role is for yourself and you have shared responsibilities for the family for the linkage, and it’s just part of what’s embedded into how you think about going about your business. And so I think what that does is it kind of puts a bit of a kibosh on drama that’s just there and doesn’t need to be there because you know, that really nobody has time for your drama, unnecessary. And so people just I think it I think it breeds you know, do I wish I had more one on one time with all my kids? Of course I do. And I really try to carve out like small chunks of time, whether it’s like a 15 minute walk or, you know, these are sort of some of the things we do a quick bike ride, making sure that I’m accessible at the times of day where I know they’re open to chatting. Do I wish I had more of that? Yes. But what I also know is that they just, they have a resilience that I don’t think you see all the time because they know there’s just not time for a bunch of extraneous stuff. And a lot of companies they’ve got to figure it out on their own, or they’ve got to figure out it out with each other. And I think COVID really taught us that when we were all cooped up together and you know, it was sort of like hey, can you help him with Spanish and hey, can you jump in and help her with that writing assignment? It really wasn’t like a collective community that was just within our own home

Priscilla Brenenstuhl
Well, I aspire to such things I still, everyone’s helped me get to here and honestly I I’m, we’re a family of six for children. And I loved it. And I idea of family, quarterly ordering, but sometimes I and my husband’s family and you know we get carried away and knowledge of this sometimes in moments of passion and love for each other and talking about having another one but to be after I’m further away from nine months of having Well, thank you for letting me digress and get swept away with this idea of having 7 children.

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Priscilla Brenenstuhl
What song are you singing at karaoke?

Maria Colacurcio
Oh my gosh. So I am a massive Brand New Carlisle fan. So I’m from Seattle. She grew up here in various places. And I think if you haven’t if you haven’t read her book, please read it. It’s called Broken horses and the audiobook is the best thing ever because she sings they’ll just be this random pause in the middle of a chapter and all of a sudden you’ll hit her guitar and she’ll start singing. And I think one of the best songs for me is called the joke and that’s the one that I find myself singing out loud a lot and it’s, I would say, if, if I were to summarize it in one sentence, it’s about being yourself no matter what. So if I think about some of the lines, you know, it’s kind of like the joke’s on them in the end, and it’s about all the people that kick dirt in your face and they underestimate you and the joke is really on them. In the end. It’s about redemption and pursuing your path. She’s amazing. And I think on the other side is I really admire her because she’s got sort of this idea about pushing underrepresented women in country music. So she talks a lot about how women tell Half The Story of the human race. And when that’s not represented in the art than half our story is not getting pulled. And she’s done a ton around really pushing this in terms of, of the messaging and getting it out there. So I think just in general, I really admire her as a human I admire her as an artist and, and I just love the song because it’s kind of like your traditional redemption song. And honestly, when I went into this and took the job as CEO Syndio There were a lot of people that thought I would fail and there were a lot of people that were very vocal about this idea that I would fail. I’d never done it before. I hadn’t been a CEO. Yes, I had co founded Smartsheet, but I was riding on the coattails of others. And, you know, I think when you when you’re able to overcome that and you feel a sense of redemption, there’s just songs that light you up in terms of that fire of, you know, I’ve got this I can do that. So my song would be the joke by Brandy Carlisle.

Priscilla Brenenstuhl
Because anytime you use that you have your own doubt, right. So to do to overcome those and then have other people it’s like well, yes. And so it’s like the greatest redemption probably in some ways is within yourself to like, like, even your own self doubt. When you do, you kind of push through would have an eye I’m also on brandy Carlisle fan and being that you just talked about children. I will say this. I am a mother. That like might be my favorite song ever written for from a mother to a child. It makes me cry everytime

Maria Colacurcio
she’s I mean, she’s just incredible

Priscilla Brenenstuhl
Yeah, I agree.
What is your biggest fear?

Maria Colacurcio
I think every parent’s biggest fear is having a child you know, leaving the world before them. I think that will always be like my most intrinsic guts year. That that I don’t think. I don’t think so. There’s this concept of unconditional love. And I had this conversation with my husband. Before we had Gracie who’s our our three year old. And I was explaining to him and this was actually part of what went into me saying let’s have our own. Let’s have a child that’s your biological child because the look on his face was sort of this lack of understanding about what it meant. I said, I think the only form of true unconditional love is the love that a parent has to their child. They could do anything to you. And you might not like them. You might set boundaries, you might, you know, be tough on them, but you will never stop loving them and I think it’s very different with a partner. There are definitely things a partner can do to you that will make you stop loving them. And even with your own parents. I mean, you always have love for your parents, but it’s just it’s different. And we had this big debate that I will always remember and he’s kind of like I disagree. I think you have unconditional love for parents. I think if you have a partner you can have a conditional love there and you know I certainly have unconditional love for your kids. And then when he had Gracie, our three year old, he said I finally understand what you mean. There’s just this deep unconditional love that you have for a child that it’s very difficult to replicate and I think you can replicate it like he has said to me since I feel unconditional love for your kids. I feel like they’re my own now. And I think that adoption is another great example of that, where you do cultivate that unconditional love but it’s still the parent child relationship. It doesn’t have to be biological. And so I think you know, any parent’s greatest fear regardless of how that parent came to be to be someone like Tamar like she certainly has unconditional love for her nephew because she’s raised or adoption or surrogacy or any of those things, but that parent child relationship in all of its form. I think losing that is every parent’s greatest fear

Priscilla Brenenstuhl
Definitely mine. that and leaving them before they’re ready, like, you know, having a young child grow up without without knowing. Like, you know, what it feels like to be loved by someone no matter what. Even if you don’t understand it until you have your own children to pour my love into my love and support. And I don’t know I was just hearing me say the words at first I was like, chocked up, just my own sensitivities to it. So that definitely resonates very strongly. And I just said about me the more I really felt like I didn’t even understand how to love my partner, my partner until after I had a child, because it just taught me this totally different way of loving and showing up for somebody that I had never experienced before. I was always kind of I think before that there was like this scales that I have this kind of scaling system or this points system I don’t know how to I feel like that’s the best way to describe it. And the only way I have in my mind right now, not the best. And then when I just saw how capable my child was like immediate forgiveness, and loving. It inspired me like what if I do that? What if I could do that forgiveness does not take everything so personal and respect and honor this person on their own journey as opposed to how it affects me all times. I feel like I was reading before I had a child and was so enamored and brought conversations in our lives because how we grew up around God, the Son of God wouldn’t really Catholic and but these ideas around it that he would go to hell or be banished or be and I’m like, it’s so interesting because if I compare that type of love, to the love I have for my child I know that that’s not true. There’s literally nothing you can do. Like there’s literally nothing my son could do that I would banish them for. So that the experience of having children in my life really shifted and even what I perceived as love.

Maria Colacurcio
And what I think is really cool is to watch that you can cultivate that with a parent child relationship. So like I said, I have dear friends who have adopted and they’ve cultivated that over time. You know, in my situation. I’ve watched my husband cultivate that sense of unconditional love for kids that are not his biological children, but in every other sense of the word are and what an amazing capacity we have as humans for love that we can we can do that and I think it’s I think it’s pretty, pretty cool. On the on the business side, I think, I think my biggest fear professionally and for our company, is that we get caught up in the bureaucracy of being a company and that we play into some of the old ways that business works. Because it’s habitual for us. So an example you know, all the best ideas have to come from leadership and we push these down to the team for execution. That’s not how we are today. I think we’re really good at listening to our people and finding some of the best ideas within our own people we had a something called free thing Friday last week. So our current answer and I’m not saying it’s the answer, but it’s our answer today. Our people know that we are constantly checking and adjusting on this. But our current answer to the hybrid workforce is we put someone completely in charge her role is to be a remote employee engagement manager. So her whole job is to figure out how do we maintain these deep connections amongst our people, even though we’re remote. So one of her first ideas was to create this once a month thing called free thing Friday. The idea is clear calendar of all superfluous. Zoom calls. And we have third, we have folks in 32 states. So in every state where there’s a couple of folks, she booked an office space for the full day. So the idea has come into the office, meet in person with the other team members that are in your locale. And then in the middle of the day we had an all hands one hour call with prompts and the prompts were around innovating and product ideas and how do we actually garner from our people and we put them into breakouts and it was pretty remarkable to see because the innovation that you can foster when you actually take the time to listen and to collaborate and to put promises in front of your people. I think there was 200 and there was two of them. The ideas generated in that one through those breakout so we’re all really relevant valid product ideas. And so now the challenge for leadership is to make sure that we respect each one of those ideas and follow them through to see if it has potential to make it on the roadmap. And my biggest fear is that we stop things like we just get caught up in business and we stop thinking about how do we intentionally drive innovation from our people? And how do we how do we make sure that we don’t become a bureaucracy where everything sort of has guard guardrails and gates and just becomes so process oriented that you lose that spark? I think that’s, that’s my fear.

Priscilla Brenenstuhl
I think though, even just the even just your awareness right now, like we’ll keep that from happening, I mean, it takes awareness right, and it’s like what you said before where it’s like, kind of where we started this leadership and this humbleness, that having mentors to show you how it’s done and how you can, how you can, you know, keep keep your finger on the pulse no matter how far away you get from the sense of the central hub or from being able to communicate with everyone and we can really be creative and clever about ways to run business with we have the right intentions. That awareness and humility as you grow and as we progress. I’m just excited to hear you say that from a position of leadership. I think that that’s really it’s a powerful, it’s a powerful foresight to have

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Priscilla Brenenstuhl
what is the most daring thing you’ve ever done?

Maria Colacurcio
Oh, my gosh, having my seventh kid probably. I think also just taking to him the job as CEO. I mean, I had never been a CEO. I had co founded Smartsheet. I was sort of I rode sidesaddle as the head of marketing, so I had seen it all done. I had been in many startups and witnessed it from the front row. But I never taken on the position of CEO and I really had, I mean, I had just had Gracie, I was offered the job I will never forget the one of the board members called me and offered me the job. And I was literally breastfeeding my child and I put the phone on speaker My husband was sitting across in the living room on the couch. And I put it on mute when he first called me and he said to me, you’re gonna get this job offer right now. Like how cool you’re like breastfeeding our daughter you’re about to get a job offer to be a CEO of a startup tech company. But in in retrospect, like I had no business taking the job, and I really reflect on that a lot because the two guys that hired me on the board were two white men. Very, very esteemed businessman, one was on the private equity side and one works way up. I mean, what an incredible story he used to sell boats and then he became an investment banker. Now he’s 83 years old and very successful. And so when you think about that word accomplished, think about the men that are in the ring with us fighting for women of color to have equal access to opportunity, equal access to pay. These two really fit the bill on that because here they are looking at a woman who’s never been a CEO before that they think she has what it takes, and then they took a big chance on me. They took a big chance on me and that’s again, kind of back to don’t forget the folks that take a chance on you when you have sort of no business being in a position that you’re in. I just I don’t forget that. And I look at people like that as real accomplices in this fight for what we’re trying to do the fight for workplace equity to fight to embed workplace equity as a true tenant of great leadership and having it close to the scenes like if the workplace is a quilt, you want workplace equity really close to those themes. It should give credit in the fabric of what every company is doing. And they believed in that and they act it out. From those beliefs. And I think that’s it, it was something that was daring on both sides on my side and on their side.

Priscilla Brenenstuhl
Yeah, what a risk it is to take and I love that. All of that so inspiring. It’s like if you want to shift things and take things up there’s risk involved, it’s intrinsic. It has to be woven in, the ability to take a risk and follow your beliefs in order to change long-standing structures especially when they are no longer working.

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Priscilla Brenenstuhl
Maria Colacurcio has owned the title of CEO for just under four years now at Syndio, a SaaS startup helping companies around the world create an equitable workplace for all employees, regardless of gender, race, or ethnicity. She is passionate about workplace equity—where everyone is valued for who they are and their contributions.
If you weren’t CEO right now, if you weren’t doing this work, what would you be doing what? What other profession out there kind of speak to you?

Maria Colacurcio
I mean, there’s that old cliche term, like what would you be doing? Anyway, if you woke up in the morning and didn’t have your job? What would you go out and do and because I’d be doing this. I think I would be doing it in some other form or fashion but when I wake up in the morning and I’m reading the newspaper, you know, I naturally gravitate toward articles around ESG. And what are we thinking about in terms of the “s” and our human capital and how are we treating our people and what’s the trend looking like in terms of the individualization of the employee, you know, you’ve got the kids now are basically looking at their career trajectory, and they’re like, I’m not gonna go work in some stuffy office for 60 grand, I’m gonna create my own business by, you know, illustrating avatars and selling them on the Roblox community. I mean, there’s so many different ways that they think about work and it’s just a topic that I devour. And I think it’s fascinating and it’s, it’s really all about who has the power in the war for talent. You know, somebody I think it was Mary Barra, GM said the war for talent is over talent has won. So now there’s that shift of, you know, what are employers going to do? How are they going to show their people that they’re valued and how are they going to get their people to come to work with whether virtually or not and I think if I wasn’t doing this, I’d be doing something in this realm because I just I find it so interesting and fascinating the shift that’s taking place where it’s, you know, workplaces are now they’ve always been composed of individuals, but now the individuals are really driving the decisions and really demanding the sense of, you know, you need to be worthy of my labor. So show me that you’re worthy.

Priscilla Brenenstuhl
Yes. This is such an exciting is such an exciting time. I love that answer. And I hate that we have so little time left for this last question.

Please, will you tell me about a life or life defining moments?

Maria Colacurcio
I think I have several of them. But one of the ones I talked about a lot is you know, I grew up in an Italian American family so my dad was the youngest of nine. My grandparents came over from Italy, and I was the I’m a first gen college grad along with my siblings. And I think a defining moment for me as a kid was hearing my dad talk about the value of an education. And it sounds really silly now. But as a kid, and now thinking back and reflecting on it in retrospect, education was so important to him. And I remember saying things like you’re not going to get a car and friends are gonna get a car but it’s because I want to have an education and that is the most important thing to me. And again, I think it just made me understand clearly from a young age that your experience drives your priorities.
And so if you can understand someone’s experience and where they come from, it will help you understand what they prioritize and why. And so that sense of education being just the linchpin to a successful future. That was my dad’s experience, and that’s what he wanted for his children. And I think that really shaped the direction of my life and how I thought about education, how I thought about progress, how I thought about prioritization, how I thought about money and sticks with me even now, I mean, one of my favorite books is Chuck Klosterman. But what if we’re wrong and the book talks about things, how you can flip things upside down and look at them from a different perspective. And it goes back in history, and it sort of shows how particular leaders were so certain about a direction and then ended up being completely wrong. And so I think just in my dad doing that, and having that perspective, it’s kept me I don’t know, I’m just having this open mind about making sure you understand someone’s experiences and you’re able to dissect that and turn it upside down, turn it inside out, turn it backwards and forwards.

Priscilla Brenenstuhl
Empathize.

Maria Colacurcio
Yeah, empathize.

Priscilla Brenenstuhl
besides, comes back to what you said. It’s like this deep underneath you not this like superficial understanding and saying that okay, these are your priorities, but they come from somewhere, like your beliefs and your values. They, they they’re interwoven into, into who you are, who you become the choices you’ve made, the areas where you’ve pushed yourself, areas where you’ve settled. Areas where you you feel competent. areas in which you’re afraid. You can learn so much about somebody and usually I’m always fascinated by the Joker like you know when you these whether it’s a book or play or whatever about reading it’s kind of hear more from the villain side.

Maria Colacurcio
Yeah, wicked.

Priscilla Brenenstuhl
Yeah, wicked. Thank you. Yes, yes, exactly. Just that kind of thing. And you get to turn it around and I know and I love as ego-crushing as it can be, I love being proven wrong, some because it really keeps me on my toes and it keeps me like my brain open when I get so fixed and so certain and it also allows me the opportunity to know that I can, I can change if I want to like in that I can grow and learn and change my opinions and change my ideas and change my worldview and that, in fact, it’s probably a reflection of me truly living and being open to experience if I am changing my worldviews in my head. And it’s okay that I didn’t have it right before and, and then then it’s okay that other people don’t have it right. And if we listen long enough, we could probably get to where there’s a discrepancy and where it comes from in our based on our experiences. So that’s, that’s beautiful. And I’m going to be thinking about, I’m going to be thinking about that statement, your experience shapes your priorities, it’s so true. Maria you are so well-spoken. You express yourself so eloquently. This conversation has been so rich. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your candor. And thank you for your passion. I’m really excited about the work that you are doing and I’m excited to be a part of it in whatever small way here at Athena.

Maria Colacurcio
Well, thank you so much for having me. I really enjoyed it.

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Priscilla Brenenstuhl
Thank you for listening. It is such a gift that you have chosen to share your time with me. I invite you to come back next time where Strategic Leadership Transformation Advisor and Best-selling author, Marcia Daszko, tells us how finding purpose took her from a shy audience member to center-stage in both her personal and professional life.
If you’re a member and you’d like to be featured on an episode of Voices of Athena, please reach out to me at [email protected].
Your story matters.

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Priscilla Brenenstuhl
good. I really hope that those tips helped. Helps Your son is just a horrible, horrible feeling. And I hope that

Unknown Speaker 19:37
thank you he popped his head in so I’m gonna go see, you must be away. Well, all right. Enjoy your day. Thanks again for the conversation. Of course. Thank you Take care you Evening. Welcome You right

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