Episode 132: LaUra Schmidt Regenpreneur Story - Managing Grief and Burnout as a Regenpreneur

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Being an entrepreneur is tough, and being an impact entrepreneur working to create a regenerative business can feel like an uphill battle. In episode 132, LaUra Schmidt joins us to shed light on the importance of taking care of ourselves, our Zone 0, as we work to create positive change. She especially talks through the aspect of eco-grief, how to work through that feeling, and protecting ourselves from burnout (a common plague among entrepreneurs). 

Show Notes: 

1. 1:48 Start and jump right into LaUra’s day
   1. Recent book launch
   2. Been really busy and excited for a period of rest after that book launch
2. 3:25 What get’s you excited to do the work you do?
   1. It brings me alive to help other through grief so that others can step into their best self
   2. We do this through the Good Grief Network
3. 6:31 Share with us how you got involved in this work and where it all started?
   1. Had a lot of personal tumult growing up and my programming was not helping me as to sustain myself let alone helping me to lend to my community.
   2. Needed and wanted a community for myself to work through my grief and become a healthier more loving me.
4. 12:11 How does the Good Grief Community work for other trying to work through their own grief?
   1. Some groups have been physical spaces
   2. During lockdown we moved to online spaces
   3. These sharing spaces help us to feel connected and issolation seems to melt away as people find relations between our challenges
   4. 19:56 edit out LaUra’s sound challenges
5. 17:37 Share the journey you’ve had creating the Good Grief community.
   1. We’ve made every mistake along the way and just learn to self-correct along the way
   2. It started out with just my wife, Aimee Lewis Reau and I and only after 5 year in did we have another colleague come in to help us grow our capacity, Sarah JS.
   3. Even still we are a small team, but getting grants and getting the recognition really started picking up with Sarah
   4. It seems like there has been a lot of back and forth between trying to make a living and provide services to those in need.
6. 23:40 What are some of the challenges you’ve had along the way to make this community happen.
   1. It’s hard to be open and vulnerable about the challenges we’ve had along the way
   2. Many sacrifices have been made for us to provide services and
      1. Going without pay
      2. Going without health insurance
      3. Having to rely on o
   3. Really having to rely on and have faith in the work that we are doing knowing that there is need while trying to find sustainable models for the organization
   4. We’ve really struggled to find that balance, but through the help of allies and friends we make happen.
7. 33:33 How have you found ways to enrich your own life while also deeply serving others?
   1. Much of what we built was done during COVID
   2. There was so much struggle and grief around us that we we’re there helping other but neglecting our own joy and health to an extent where we hit our own burnout
   3. We had to step back and give ourselves ways to bring joy into our lives while holding space for others.
   4. We always have to find ways to come back into balance and find others that can help and support us to do that
8. 38:46 How do you work through the burnout and fatigue
   1. Many of us our working at some form of low level or chronic burnout
   2. I have to constantly work through that as I am someone that struggles with depression and burnout but at a high funtioning level
   3. What helps is being able to better understand myself better through Somatic Healing
9. 42:06 Tell us more about Somatic Healing
   1. Stacey Hanes has a great definition and understand
      1. It is the merriment of understanding myself wholistically
   2. Stacey Hanes book The Politics of Trauma has really been influential to LaUra and helped her through these moments of burnout and fatigue
10. 47:09 What do you hope others will take from the story you’ve shared today?
    1. Work to find space to help you find balance between work, rest, and play
    2. Have people that support you
    3. Commitment to finding joy along the way and in what you do
11. 53:09 How can we utilize the resources Good Grief Network has built to help us in our own journey as regenerative entrepreneurs?
    1. Allow yourself to live through the grief and honor yourself to feel your feeling
    2. Do this in community
    3. Find some strategies to build resiliency in your life
12. 56:35 How can we reach out, get your book, and get involved?
    1. Book: How to live in a chaotic climate
       1. Find it just about anywhere but we have a bookshop on our website
    2. 10 step program you can involve yourself in
    3. Free resource for those that can’t make afford the 10 step program

Guest Bio: LaUra Schmidt

LaUra Schmidt is the founder of the Good Grief Network and the brain behind the “10-Steps to Resilience & Empowerment in a Chaotic Climate” program and the FLOW Facilitation Training modality. She is a lifelong student, curator, and practitioner of personal and collective resilience strategies. LaUra holds a BS in Environmental Studies, Biology, and Religious Studies and an MS is in Environmental Humanities. LaUra has earned certificates in “Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy” and “Climate Psychology.”

LaUra is the author of the new book: How to Live in a Chaotic Climate: 10 Steps to Reconnect with Ourselves, Our Communities, and Our Planet.