Be bold and take risks. This has been what defines Elsbeth Hurry's mindset as her life path has taken her from working with two Fortune 500 companies, to working in ski security in Vail, owning a wine bar, founding a charity for Ethiopian children, and launching a tech startup. Elsbeth is also a mom of 2, and has had a less than traditional journey to becoming a mother. In this episode of The Nine Oh Six, hear from Elsbeth as she shares her mindset behind how she took leaps of faith in her career journey, and also to learn a different take on how to actually attain that proverbial ‘work-life balance’.

TRANSCRIPT:

[0:00]
Elsbeth: It's more of deciding what the what is versus the how. Sometimes we get so consumed with exactly how you're supposed to do something. Or, hey, if you want this, these are the steps you take. But there's no set path to anything, is what I've found. One of my favorite, favorite quotes is act boldly and unseen forces will come to your aid, and I've found that to be incredibly true. But first, you have to be bold.

[0:26]
Meha: Welcome to The Nine Oh Six. I'm Meha Chiraya.

[0:30]
Archita: I am Archita Fritz.

[0:33]
Meha: We are your hosts for The Nine Oh Six - a podcast where we elevate the stories of extraordinary women in our community.

[0:42]
Meha: Be bold and take risks. This has been what defines Elsbeth's mindset, as her journey has taken her from working with two Fortune 500 companies to being a raft guide, working in ski patrol in Vail, owning a wine bar, founding a charity and most recently, launching a tech startup. Elsbeth is also a mom of two, and has had a less than traditional journey to becoming a mother. In this episode of The Nine Oh Six, Archita interviews Elsbeth to understand her mindset as she took leaps of faith in her career journey, and also to learn a different take on how to actually attain that proverbial work/life balance.

[1:25]
Archita: So Elsbeth you wear a lot of different hats. You're an owner of a tech startup, a founder of a charity, a mom, coach, a wife, if you were to choose one that you would give up all the other hats for, which one would it be? And why?

[1:44]
Elsbeth: In this stage of my life I mean, the non-negotiable would be my family and my kids. If I had to pick that would be it. I've had so many amazing experiences. For me, there's still so much to learn with my kids and my family because it's probably the area of my life. I'm least skilled at, still learning.

[2:03]
Elsbeth: You know, you had kids later in your life per the quote unquote timetable that women are on, are presented with, was that scary for you when you chose to kind of go down the path to be a mum, to start a family?

[2:16]
Elsbeth: I think in my path to getting to the family wasn't easy. And I think when I finally realized it was a higher priority than I had made it and I moved back to the States, I went through probably more ups and downs or struggles and failures. I mean, when I, when I really decided to have kids, I had just moved to Michigan. And I was dating somebody who already had kids, and had a vasectomy and didn't want kids. And so I had to step back and figure out kind of separate from him. Is this something that I really, really want? And if so, am I willing to do it on my own, which is a scary thought because a lot of people are more than happy to, but they want the stereotypical two people really dedicated to making it work because it's a difficult thing to raise a family.

[3:07]
Elsbeth: So I decided to do that and then just to make it worse. I lived in Western Michigan. And I didn't have any fertility issues. But I didn't have a second that was helping me get pregnant, let's say. So I ended up using donor sperm and had to find there was only one doctor, one doctor in Western Michigan, that would do inseminations for single women and gay women. Every other place I went to said, I couldn't do it because I wasn't married. And I was like, This is insane. It's like, What do you mean? It was just the area I lived in at the time, I guess was maybe a bit conservative, versus what I was used to. So I went, this doctor was very nice, but, you know, I'd gone through seven, maybe seven or eight cycles. It didn't work out. Well, it was not well done from what I could tell really painful. And this you know, it's just nonstop, you raise your hopes up, you raised hopes down hormonal swings all of that. So I think it wasn't until I sat down and really thought about, well, what is it that you want? And what I really wanted was a child, I didn't care if I had the child. I didn't care if I carried the child. I mean, that sounds nice. But what I really wanted was a child. And then I realize it's like, Why are you putting yourself through this, adoption is an awesome option?

[4:31]
Elsbeth: I think once I made that decision, then the fear dissipated, because I felt like I was defective, too, because I wasn't getting pregnant. I mean, you put all this pressure on yourself and all this stress. And so as soon as I decided that, adoption was great, and I figured out where I wanted to adopt from, and I chose Ethiopia, then it was really simple. I mean, from the time I decided to the time I had my little boy was probably 10 months including all the paperwork, all the, you know, social worker case studies, things that needed to be done and, and everything else. And so by the time that happens, I was so set on it. And so like into the idea that fear was kind of gone and all the stress was gone. And so at that point, I lived in Michigan by the time he came home to the States, and there was no pressure and my husband, John, in that timeframe, his attitudes had changed. He really wanted kids again, he really wanted to be a part of it. He really wanted us to be a family and which is awesome, right.

[5:37]
Elsbeth: So when Besu came back to the States, I remember we went to the San Francisco courthouse, and he was our only witness. And that's where we got married. And then when I was on maternity with him, we were in the Bay. We were in San Francisco, little different than Western Michigan. So John's like, Well, you know, if you want to try one more time, it's totally up to you. No pressure, but Stanford is probably a little different than where you were. And so sure enough, I go to Stanford in the first try and I'm pregnant with Riley, while I was on maternity, with Besu. So my daughter was born then, you know, I was 41. Honestly, the fear was all the questioning of should I do this? Or should I do that? Or am I being responsible with this? Or is this selfish or all of that stuff, but once I made the decision, all of that went away, and then it then it became really easy.

[6:28]
Archita: Such a beautiful, brave, courageous journey, Elsbeth, and I did not know that Besu was the only witness - that is a memory for a lifetime, and special, special way to bring a child into your life.

[6:43]
Elsbeth: It was very sweet. I started the nonprofit that I have, Pushing Pencils fairly selfishly because I want connections to Ethiopia for my son.

[6:53]
Archita: Now, I love this because I vividly remember a conversation we had no I think it was about four months after you stepped away from your most recent corporate stint, and it was a cold winter evening in Amsterdam. And I gave you a random call and you were so full of energy, because you had just shared that you received a tax ID for your charitable organization. Tell me why this is so important and special?

[7:16]
Elsbeth: Yeah, well, as I mentioned, my son is Ethiopian. And so I wanted to find a way because I'm not Ethiopian. I wanted to find a way to make sure that there were things in our lives that that he could connect more directly with. And Pushing Pencils is still a work in progress. But when we were over there to adopt him, there's two trips that you take when you're adopting a child from over there. And actually, right now, I don't think you can, but at the time, you could adopt from Ethiopia. And in the trips over there, one of the things that we noticed was that kids never came around and begged for money or food or anything like that, but they were all very interested to see If we had any pens or pencils, and so I'd asked one of the people that were with why that was, and he said that their pencils are really low quality. And a lot of times they don't have any way to do their homework, and that they were really inspired to do their homework. And I was like, wow, this is, this is an alternate reality. Doing a little bit of research I found that you can get everything donated us through tax exemption. And then it only costs $50 to ship a box that would supply a school with pens and pencils for a year. So it's really an easy thing. This one's moving along. And there's a few schools that we've been able to supply to and it'll grow with the help of a bunch of high schoolers right now. So all of it feels good to me at the moment.

[8:41]
Archita: You know, not only that you have an opportunity to really give your son a chance to connect back to his roots, per se, but you also shared recently that he's working on the logo.

[8:54]
Elsbeth: Yeah, he's very excited.

[8:56]
Archita: During the time our paths overlapped in the corporate world. I always noticed that women leaders early in their careers, like myself found an immediate mentor in you. Because you were a champion for a lot of other women in the workplace. Did you have somebody who was? Or is that for you?

[9:14]
Elsbeth: In undergrad, I went to engineering school. And by being one at the time of a handful of women, in most of my classes, we just naturally banded together to kind of help each other through the program. The guys were great, too. That's not not the issue. But I think we're always looking for ways to help other women out. But there's some extra things that we have to deal with. And I think that naturally gravitates me towards women, too. I really like to see women succeed.

[9:42]
Elsbeth: When I interviewed for companies, I found a company where I was interviewed by eight people in one day and five of them were women directors, and I found it inspiring and that's why I went to that company versus you know, there's so many other companies where I probably would have been one of the only females there, and I'm inspired by other women and, and kind of passionate about helping them reach their goals. Again, not to say I don't enjoy developing men. I do. And I've had great male mentors. But for me, the ones that really stand out are more the women in my life.

[10:15]
Archita: You said that you believe women face unique challenges in the workplace and in the world in general. What is your advice for women facing those challenges? And what are some of the challenges you think women face?

[10:27]
Elsbeth: I think there's a bunch of obvious ones, and some are overplayed. And it depends on the area. And there's certainly some stereotypes aren't true everywhere. But there's still there's certainly still old boy networks in certain areas. There's certainly some sexist bosses or some, some men just don't really value women's opinions as much. And it might not even be conscious. You know, there are some career tracks that assume families don't exist. Or that if they do, it's, you know, it might not affect men quite as much as it affects the women. So there's a bunch of these unconscious biases that they're still in the workplace. And I think it's undeniable.

[11:05]
Elsbeth: The thing that I've noticed the most is that, especially for successful and talented women, I think a lot of them, figure out these obstacles early and figure out how to cater their behavior to be successful in spite of that environment, right. So there are plenty of successful women. But the thing that I've noticed is that it's not uncommon for these talented and successful women to try to leverage the things that were successful earlier in their career, and then not to be successful later in their career. So the things that kind of help you out early in your career to get over the biases can kind of get in your way, later on. So let's say if you're if you're young, female, new in an environment and you kind of intentionally support, intentionally, play second fiddle to somebody else who's in your hierarchy, who may be a man, you know, they do not support as well this person's really willing to go get it. They're a hard worker, they're willing to do whatever it takes. But later on, when that happens, there's just this impression that you're not, you're not worthy to be at the table, you don't have the presence, you don't have some of these other things.

[12:14]
Elsbeth: There's a lot of these things that almost really positive at one point really negative and another for strong women in particular, people do what made them successful, it's hard to make those changes if they've seen results from it. A lot of times that can lead to people feeling stuck or burned out. Women can get around it. It starts clearly with knowing exactly how you define success instead of what everybody else is telling you. It should be at any given moment in your life because it's going to change and then becoming aware, more self aware of what's hindering you. In those situations, which is really hard to do alone, because none of us see what we're doing fully, right. It's a lot easier to see from the outside. So creating a strong support system can help you kind of get to whatever whatever level you're looking for provided you have those skills. Those are the things that really help you get around those biases. Because I mean, in the same breath, well, I think they're there, I think it's a cop out to say you can't get where you want to go, because of them. I mean, there may be that one company where that's true. And you might have to work a little bit harder. But more than likely you can get there if you figure out the right path and the right way to approach it.

[13:23]
Archita: You had an expat assignment at a very young age that was out over in Asia. What were some of the biases you face there? And how did that shape your future leadership journey as you moved back repatriating back into the US?

[13:37]
Elsbeth: I always wanted an expat assignment because I grew up and my family had had expat assignments when I was younger, it was always just a goal. Getting the expat assignment was the first hurdle I suppose I noticed early on that I needed to have a pretty wide portfolio of skills because if you want to be a general manager in other countries need to have a pretty wide basket.

[13:58]
Elsbeth: The other thing I noticed was that networking completely matters, you're in one division. And the person making the decision on those roles is nowhere near you and won't interact with you, you'll never get that job. I was in engineering and I moved to, there was an opening in Indianapolis where our corporate headquarters was in human resources. And I was like, okay, not exactly what I was looking for, but I jumped at it because I knew I'd be walking the halls with all the people that would make the decisions for the International assignments, like all the key leaders in the organization. So I got there, and the offer did come in. I got a call from a previous boss, who had taken a role in Hong Kong as an ops director. And he was moving to Australia to be a different expat assignment - General Manager in Australia. And in the conversation, it was the least inspiring conversation ever, and I love this guy, but he's like, Well, you know, I'm going to be honest, we offered it to Craig. He said, No, we went through a list of a bunch of other people but you always say you want this role. So we thought, hey, let's give her a shot. And wow, it was one of those. And he's like, and you have to leave in a week. And we have to know right away. And I was like, okay, yes, I'll take it. And I'll leave in a week.

[15:14]
Elsbeth: So once you get over the ego impact of that kind of statement, but the fact is, he validated for me that I got it, in part because I was so clear that I wanted it. And I was really not hiding how much I wanted it, right. And in the end, it was an amazing job. It covered 15 countries in Asia, the level of diversity really helped me. Living and working in other cultures is hugely valuable to your learning, and learning how to adapt and each of those situations is hugely valued. Understanding and accepting diverse approaches, it always makes teams and organizations stronger. And I think it made me stronger as a leader, being more aware of those things.

[15:53]
Archita: So Elsbeth, you were at the top of your success ladder and you've had a couple of different shifts. Tell me more about what these shifts were that helped you make some critical life decisions.

[16:04]
Elsbeth: I loved Asia, I loved everything about it. But my goal at the time was all my goals at the time were related to my career, every one of them. And so I mean, I, I still had pretty good health, my relationships were were good with my friends and all those places. But it was all about career. And I think I'd been over there just about six years. And near the end of that time. I was supposed to come back to the to the States to be home for Christmas with family and friends. And right before I left, I ended up getting dengue fever. And looking back, I mean, I got dengue fever. Yes, there was a mosquito involved, I'm sure but it was because I was completely rundown and that was self-inflicted because I I traveled probably 27 days a month. And it wasn't that my company was forcing me to it was more my own drive for achievement, I don't know, it was it was self-inflicted in part. But when I got dengue and in the hospital for, I don't know, two and a half weeks, I think and I can honestly say I don't remember all of it. I think I was in and out and mostly hallucinating. But one thing I do know that kind of shifted and made me come back to the States was that at the end of that period, being in a hospital and coming back out of it and realizing kind of what I just gone through was eye-opening.

[17:34]
Elsbeth: Sometimes you need a huge impact moment to make you think about changes in your life. And so for me, what it did was it kind of opened my eyes to you love your job, and everything else but you've not sacrificed everything else but you've put everything else on hold. And I realized that I still did want the chance to have kids I still did want the chance that maybe have a deeper loving relationship with another person. All those things that I thought of earlier in life that I kind of just put aside because I was so busy accelerating my career. My company was really cool about it. I had engaged discussions with them and I said, Look, you know, I'm pretty burned out and pretty stuck. I know I love this company. But I want to take, say, 10 months, unpaid to go take a beat as I moved back to the States and then we were able to figure out what role I could sort of thing. So I took this mental health break, and I went to Vail where I had a condo and in Colorado, and I was a raft guide and I did skiing security and it was a really healthy outdoorsy kind of time in my life to to regroup and just kind of refresh a little bit.

[18:45]
Elsbeth: Coincidentally, right after I left, the company was acquired by another large med tech company. So the new med tech company I committed to working with for a year and in Denver, but after that, I took another break and I decided before I figured out the next steps, I'll start a wine bar restaurant, and then a whole host of different things happened. But on the personal side, gotten engaged to somebody, I think I was trying to control how I was going to have a deep relationship in some ways, so I just automatically made it happen. And in the end, I ended up breaking off that engagement. And so my comfort place was to then go back to corporate and I found another great company in Michigan, and that's where I met you. For me, that was a big transition period where I was trying to still figure out exactly what I needed in the balance in my life, that sort of thing. And I probably didn't figure some of that out until Michigan and even ongoing after that took me a while to figure out exactly what that balance had to look like for myself.

[19:47]
Archita: You walked me through the journey through, it's really unraveling - yes you have had significant shifts that made you step back and think but you took that opportunity to reflect, think and then pursue the next part of your journey knowing all of this is going to work towards like a bigger picture that will help heal you or help you pursue like the next part of your chapters in your life. Have you had any sacrifices you've had to make along the way as you pursued this extremely successful corporate career?

[20:22]
Elsbeth: My vision and goals that I had, from the very beginning were purely focused on my career. I never really set goals or really had clarity on exactly what I wanted for other aspects of my life. So things like relationships and things like that. I just kind of took them as they came. And I didn't feel that I'd made sacrifices by doing what I did until later. And then I wouldn't say it was a sacrifice, especially towards the end of my time in Asia, and after having dengue I would say, I think I longed for more. For me that more was at the time was kids and in a relationship. So I certainly put myself in a position where it might be harder to get those things. So while it wasn't sacrifices, if you have a clear picture like today, I have a very clear picture of exactly what I want, kind of in all the quadrants of my life. I feel like my vision is far more balanced. And I don't have all of them yet, but I'm striving towards each of them. It's not one all by itself without consideration to the other. That's probably why there could have been some perceived sacrifices, but it was, it was by design, because I had designed that vision and I was achieving it. So I think that's probably the difference. I don't know if it's really, it was more that I didn't really specify or think through what it is that I wanted for the complete package versus just my career.

[21:48]
Archita: So how did you get to the point when you identified that you needed to define in whatever that balance might look like in the quadrants outside of your professional life?

[22:01]
Elsbeth: Mm hmm. I mean, that was probably one of the tougher journeys. And I don't think I actually got fully through that. Until the past two years. I actually went through a really regimented process, kind of a process that I was able to use to really think through, you know, what is it that I really want, and what things are really less than ideal in my career or vocation. If I were to say, three years from now, I totally love what I'm doing, what aspects would be there, and I did the same thing for my relationships. I did the same thing for my health, I did the same thing for kind of my time and money freedom, kind of looked at all these different aspects.

[22:43]
Elsbeth: And then all of a sudden, as you start to do this, you start to see how some of these can fit together. It's like, well, I want these things in my career, but I want to make sure I have enough flexibility to actually see my kids when they when they're heading off to school and so it kind of made a more balanced picture over time. I think it's going to be ever evolving. But I've definitely considered everything all those different pieces of what I need to really love what I'm doing to achieve having it all, or whatever you might call it at different stages in my life. What that is and what that looks like changes.

[23:16]
Elsbeth: The biggest change for me that I noticed was having kids. And I this might be true for quite a few women, especially if you're really successful and you are really driven in your career, having kids throws you on your backside, because the approach that I took to be successful was incredibly hardworking, very dedicated, very driven, very high achieving. And when you have kids, it's like it. There's only so much of you that you can put out you only have so many hours in a day. And you can't seem to you always feel guilty about one or the other. At least that was my experience. Oh, I feel like I could have done a little bit more work or Oh, I'm bringing the leftovers home to my kids or and it's because I wasn't looking at them kind of in unity.

[23:59]
Elsbeth: It's like What would it look like? What would it feel like if I have that perfect balance and then when you create this visual, and what's really interesting is that when I created this vision, and I actually convinced myself I'm already living it, then things start to come your way that kind of help you with that help you with that vision. It's kind of strange. It's like you, you know, you want something that could still give you x y&z but it only takes a portion of your time, and you can still make the money that you need and things like that. I mean, that's where that tech startup came from. Because it was satisfying a lot of the things that I needed in order to do some of the other things that I wanted. And it was it was interesting, and it's not something that I think I'll do forever, but it really helped me to have the balance that I needed and the time for my kids and some of those other things. Same thing with the coaching. You know, it's something that's really enabled me to feel full. I'm getting something out of it. It's inspiring to me, but it's also incredibly flexible with my time. And those are things right now that are really critical to me because of the ages, my kids are at the moment. It'll change in five years, I guarantee.

[25:08]
Archita: You know, being a coach yourself, you have a coach as well that you can lean on to kind of help you keep on track, but also prioritizing this time of self-reflection, is as important as -

[25:20]
Elsbeth: You shouldn't take time and money into the equation when you're trying to come up with the ultimate dream. So you have to assume you have all the time in the world and you have all the money in the world. Like let's pretend that tomorrow, somebody on the street handed you half a million dollars and said, Hey, I'm going to give this to you. But only if you follow your dreams and you do exactly you live the life you would exactly love to live starting tomorrow. What would it look like? And again, it's not going to be tomorrow, but what would that look like? And it doesn't have to be grandiose it might be, but it could be really simple, right? Again, there's no right answer to this.

[25:51]
Elsbeth: And if you do that then you might be able to create things that get you there, you might be able to start to do some things on the side, like that move you and give you a little piece of it. Because once you know what your dream is, you just do enough. Do what you can with what you have available to you right now to start moving towards it. That's I've only got 10 bucks in 10 minutes to spend, what would that 10 bucks in 10 minutes look like to move you one step closer.

[26:24]
Elsbeth: The problem with money and time is that they are conditioned based. It takes the creativity and the imagination out of it. And those two things are the things that can enable the best clarity of a true dream, right? You really have to imagine something before it could ever become real, at least right. So when somebody decided they were going to make an airplane, they imagined that people could fly. But nobody, you know, if they talked to people, they would say that's insane. You can't do it. That's a condition. That's like time and money. So just try it. A little bit weird and a little bit out there. But try to take this two things out. And listen to kind of the longings and discontent in each of your quadrants of your life to get to a dream, and don't worry about the how, or the logistics of it, or that's not the point of the process, right? That's later and you can get to an how later, but you need that cool like, I love my life I'm doing this. Even writing it in present tense can help, which sounds crazy, but I'm so happy and grateful now that my you know, now that I blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and pretend that you say this. And today, even though it's not really here, because there's something about that vibrational energy, you present tense, you start to believe it and start to live in that energy a little bit, and then you sit next to somebody on a plane that gives you the perfect opportunity to make it a reality regardless of money. It's faith.

[27:58]
Archita: It's a huge leap of faith.

[28:00]
Elsbeth: Yeah, it's a leap of faith. But it doesn't mean you're acting on it fully yet. It just means that you're creating it and making it tangible for yourself.

[28:10]
Archita: As you reflect back now, what advice would you give your 25 or 30 year old self?

[28:18]
Elsbeth: Oh, that's a good one. Enjoy the moment. enjoy what you're experiencing. Don't worry so much about exactly how you're going to get to that next level or that next step, but just just enjoy it. Because there's so many things that I think about then that I was doing that were and I did enjoy it, but I don't think I appreciated it for what it was. And even now, like today, it's like little things. Just being grateful, I think is so important along the way, because there's so much that that we get into daily life that you might not even see because you're so busy, consumed or anxious about something that just doesn't doesn't matter as much. So that's probably the advice I'd give. It really takes practice and self awareness to notice what you're noticing in the moment.

[29:05]
Archita: I mean, how do you get to that place like to be willing to make that leap?

[29:10]
Elsbeth: Yeah, I mean, it's it's a difficult process to kind of recognize and accept the fear for what it is. Keep going back to it. But I mean, if you really get to a point where you've got a super strong vision, this life that you would just love to be living, and whatever that is for you, it becomes a little bit easier to take some of those risks because you believe it's possible and you believe you can get there and you make small steps and it doesn't throw in the towel and what you have today, it might not I mean, for some people it might be going up that the next ladder and the job that they already love or some it might be getting more money or some it might be finding their purpose, or it's different for each person, and that's beautiful.

[29:52]
Elsbeth: Everybody's different. But I think the hardest part is committing to even spending the time to go through and think through what it is that you really want. And I found listening to, like in each quadrant of my life listening to my, I guess I would call it my longings and my discontent and each of those, and writing them out and figuring out what I could do that would alleviate, or bring those about, or a possibility is kind of what helped me. But it's a tough process. It's a very long arduous self-discovery process, I would say, if there's a way to find a support system, because it's really hard. And that support system can come in many different flavors, but it's really hard to keep that focus and really go through that sort of discovery without somebody there to support you and believe in you and, you know, help you through that process. Whether it's a friend or a coach, because it's too easy to like put it off. Making changes is difficult.

[30:59]
Archita: Yeah, it is. It's difficult, it's it's fearful. It's scary. It's uncomfortable. Who's in your support system? What does your support system consist of today?

[31:09]
Elsbeth: I have a coach, and I love it. And I met that person through through some of the programs I did to become a coach myself. So I'm probably luckier than some in that way. But it keeps me organized, it keeps me on track. I've also follow some, you know, I try to make sure that I, I pencil in these things, these types of things, and these types of times as important as any other meeting to do periodically. Because I think it's really easy to derail. And for me the vision that I think about, I mean, I look at it all the time. I read it all the time. It's always there and it kind of shapes the decisions I make. So there's 10 things on my list and it's and none of them are supportive of getting me there, then maybe my list is wrong. My priorities could be wrong.

[32:02]
Elsbeth: And I think those sorts of things helped me get used to going to the gym at 430. And, and then having better health makes you feel more energized anyway. I mean, it's all kind of interconnected. And ultimately the goal for, for me with the stuff that I do is helping people in their professional careers. But again, if the rest isn't balanced, you're not going to get where you want to go, because those other things are too important to listen to.

[32:27]
Archita: So you spoke about success a lot Elsbeth and how you take bold risks towards defining what success looks for you. How do you define success for yourself?

[32:39]
Elsbeth: Good one. For me, success is really enjoying all the aspects of my of my life, and knowing that my kids are doing the same. And I want to instill a sense of curiosity and adventure my kids as well. And I want them to be able to shoot for whatever they want.

[33:00]
Elsbeth: You know, I feel like I grew up in a situation where conditions dictated a lot of what I thought I should do. And it led me down a path that I loved. And that I think I was pretty good at. I'm not disappointed with that. But I want them to open their minds a little bit more to their imagination and get a little more creative. So success for me is really just loving this journey and feeling like I'm helping others and I'm making a difference and making sure that my kids can shoot for whatever they want.

[33:32]
Archita: So you have both your family success and your success, intertwined together, it kind of ties into what you defined earlier about how you set your goals in all quadrants of your life. So it kind of comes full circle, which is great. What do you love about yourself?

[33:48]
Elsbeth: Hmm, well, I think I love that I'm, that I'm eclectic and diverse.

[34:06]
Meha: Learn more about our podcast. Check us out at thenineohsix.com. The Nine Oh Six is produced by Meha and Archita. Subscribe to us on your favorite podcast platform to tune in and hear the stories that will elevate and inspire you.