Nadege Souvenir:

Welcome everyone to I So Appreciate You, a raw, funny, and uniquely insightful podcast about the issues and opportunities we all face as values-based leaders and humans. I'm Nadege.

Melanie Hoffert:

And I'm Melanie. We're colleagues at the St. Paul & Minnesota Foundation, and we're friends. When we get together, our conversations can go anywhere, especially when bringing a friend or two along for the ride.

Nadege Souvenir:

So we're inviting you to join us and some incredible guests as we explore the challenges and triumphs of people shaking up our community for the better. Welcome to the season three wrap episode.

Melanie Hoffert:

Wow.

Nadege Souvenir:

How are we here already?

Melanie Hoffert:

It went fast and it really was long at the same time.

Nadege Souvenir:

Honestly, I was reflecting back and I was like, "Wait, that was the season." But it was great.

Melanie Hoffert:

We had a great season.

Nadege Souvenir:

We had a fantastic season.

Melanie Hoffert:

I'm excited to just hear some of your highlights, but before we do that, our team here in studio with us whipped up three quick questions for us to answer.

Nadege Souvenir:

Should I be terrified? You don't know because you haven't seen them yet.

Melanie Hoffert:

I have them in front of me on little pieces of paper.

Nadege Souvenir:

Okay, listeners, we have no idea what's going to happen here. Actually, this is kind of poetic because we did this on your very first episode.

Melanie Hoffert:

Yes, yes we did. So here it goes. Okay, I'm going to flip the first one over. Try out a new movie or show, movie/show, or stick with a reliable classic you've seen before.

Nadege Souvenir:

Oh man. Considering that I've watched Gossip Girls about 70 billion million times, I think I got to go stick with the classic because that's like Gossip Girls and The Good Place. Yeah, I've got some fallbacks that I go to every time.

Melanie Hoffert:

Oh, this is a hard one. And I knew that about you. Because I think, yeah, with the repeat shows in the background sort of thing. But I am going to say, because I only have three movies that I return to in my entire life, I have the favorites, they are Edward Scissorhands, don't ask me why, Carol, of course the lesbian love story, I've got to see that every winter with the snow.

Nadege Souvenir:

I have not seen that yet.

Melanie Hoffert:

Hold on.

Nadege Souvenir:

But it's on my list. That's the crazy thing. It's on my list and it's just one of those movies that I'm like, "Okay, what movies do we want to watch?" And inevitably, I want to watch something stupid because it's been a stressful week, and that's not the movie I want to watch.

Melanie Hoffert:

No, that's a moving movie.

Nadege Souvenir:

I know. All right, I will put it back to the top of my list.

Melanie Hoffert:

All right. And then I watch Home for the Holidays every Christmas or holiday season. So I usually try out a new movie/show. I go to find something new. Okay, our next question. I

Nadege Souvenir:

I feel like that was a deep sigh. Oh no.

Melanie Hoffert:

Well, Beyonce or Taylor Swift.

Nadege Souvenir:

Oh.

Melanie Hoffert:

Your face.

Nadege Souvenir:

Okay, listeners, please don't crucify me. I like Beyonce, I don't love Beyonce. Although I will say that I'm kind of digging her country era, which previous albums, whatever. And also there are some songs like Love On Top, you play that and I will stop what I'm doing. So this is easy that I would pick Beyonce, but not in a fanatical way.

Melanie Hoffert:

Yeah, great. This one is hard for me because I've opened myself up to Taylor Swift in the last couple of years trying to understand because my wife loves Taylor Swift. I didn't get it, and I'm like, "Oh," her last couple of albums were a little bit more folky and I can understand the creativity, because I'm a Beyonce fan. So I've been kind of embracing Taylor lately. I'm like, "Okay." So I'll give her a point for this question.

Nadege Souvenir:

Okay, perfect.

Melanie Hoffert:

All right, our last one, spring flowers or fall foliage?

Nadege Souvenir:

Fall.

Melanie Hoffert:

Fall. We're aligned.

Nadege Souvenir:

I don't even have to think about this one.

Melanie Hoffert:

We are aligned.

Nadege Souvenir:

This is so easy. Fall colors, favorite thing in the world.

Melanie Hoffert:

Yeah.

Nadege Souvenir:

So good.

Melanie Hoffert:

Just the change in season, the crispiness. Yeah. Love it. Well, that's good. Goodness. Well, where should we go before we go to the plot twist of this season, which has to do with you, but I'm just going to put that aside for now.

Nadege Souvenir:

Can we just talk about this season was not intentionally, but somehow we got to the end of it and it was our badass women season.

Melanie Hoffert:

It absolutely was.

Nadege Souvenir:

A hundred percent. We just had these rock stars in all sorts of different genres and whatever. But man, I want to be all of them when I grow up.

Melanie Hoffert:

I agree with you and I'm glad you said that because that will hit our theme later when we talk about you, badass woman, badass leader. But yes, the thing that was really cool too is like you said, we had soccer, we looked at food, we talked about autism and family structures, and just all of the many things that these women brought into our conversation and into our lives, very inspiring. It was great. What else you got for this season?

Nadege Souvenir:

We talked to these women who are all so very different, but I feel like I left each and every episode with some profound nugget that I could apply to myself, even if what they did, entrepreneurial food businesses, I don't do that. I eat food, I love food, that's great. But yet still, it got me thinking about how to show up differently in leadership and how we work with the community or whatever. Rammy and how she talked about St. Paul.

Melanie Hoffert:

Oh my gosh, Rami, yes.

Nadege Souvenir:

I feel like I should name-check all of these women because they're fantastic. So Allison, Shannon, Seena, Andrea, Rammy, Carmen, Ruby, Bethany, Sheletta. Oh my God.

Melanie Hoffert:

Yes.

Nadege Souvenir:

Seriously. Just learning after learning after learning. And if I had my consolidated show notes with me, which I probably should have had since this is a wrap episode, so sorry about that, I would have a moment or a quote from each and every one of them.

Melanie Hoffert:

You know what you're leading me to think?

Nadege Souvenir:

What?

Melanie Hoffert:

You were so moved by these women who inspired you, I have them to blame for what I want to talk about.

Nadege Souvenir:

Oh my goodness, Mel. That's not very nice.

Melanie Hoffert:

No, I know. But I think they've inspired all of us to think about the world differently, opportunities differently, the ways that we want to lead, and the next thing. So Nadege, if we could, because this is not just a season three wrap, this is a Nadege at the foundation wrap.

Nadege Souvenir:

So this is like in the TV show and they go, "And that's a wrap on so-and-so." That's what we have to do at the end of this episode.

Melanie Hoffert:

Oh God, that makes me sick. Nadege, you are moving to Texas and you're going to be the CEO of the San Antonio Area Foundation.

Nadege Souvenir:

Indeed, I am.

Melanie Hoffert:

There's so much courage that it must have taken for you to go through all of the many things that you had to think through in order to make this move. And I'm wondering if you would entertain just a few words about that.

Nadege Souvenir:

Oh my goodness.

Melanie Hoffert:

And then I'm going to do some reflecting on it because as your friend and your co-host and your colleague, I have my own observations.

Nadege Souvenir:

So are you going to ask me questions or do I just have to say things?

Melanie Hoffert:

Yeah? Well, I would say, where was the point where you're like, "You know what," and I don't need to get into the details of, "Oh, on interview number two," but in your soul maybe you knew, "No, I am a CEO. I'm moving on and I'm going to lead this organization."

Nadege Souvenir:

Oh, that's deep.

Melanie Hoffert:

And maybe it has nothing to even do with this job or that job, but just in you as a badass female leader.

Nadege Souvenir:

Well, honestly, if I'm being super honest, it goes way before this search. So I've been at the foundation almost eight and a half years now, I think that's the math or if we do it right, and have had a number of really cool opportunities to step into leadership at this foundation. Some I sort of grabbed when there was a void that needed to be filled. Some were sort of intentional changes of roles. And then some came because of a freaking pandemic. And 2020 was chaos central. Everything went wrong. Here we are in the Twin Cities, George Floyd is murdered, we're all sort of trapped in a pandemic. And when I think about that year, I had to lead in ways that I didn't know how to lead. If you had asked me the year before, "What would you do?" I would have had no idea because it wasn't something that I was prepared to do.

And so in that year, I did a ton of stuff that was different and stretched my leadership muscles. And I think I can articulate now what I couldn't articulate then is that in that year, I knew I was ready. That was the year I became ready for the next thing, and that was the year that it was... I've said it this way kind of only a matter of time before I did the next thing. And I wasn't out here in these streets like, "Hey, y'all give me a job."

Melanie Hoffert:

No, of course.

Nadege Souvenir:

Because listen, this place is great. If I had left in 2020, we wouldn't be podcast cohosts, all of that fun stuff. But it was one of those things where it was like, "If the right moment shows up at the right time and the facts align, then I'm ready." And so here we are.

Melanie Hoffert:

Well, I appreciate you sharing that because I do think in ways it goes back to the things that we've talked about with other people this season. You know a point when you're ready to do something big, great different, and you've taken that and you've moved forward. Oh, Nadege, there's so much loss for so many of us that. I just have to say that and reflect on even coming to this recording, I was thinking, "Is it open toe shoe season or not? Nadege would tell me."

Nadege Souvenir:

For those who can't see me, I'm wearing a sweater on a gorgeous day in the Twin cities like a noob, I don't know, whatever. But I just really wanted to wear this sweater today.

Melanie Hoffert:

Well, that's what I'm getting at. You have influenced my life in so many ways. That's a fun one, just fashion. But all the things that you've also recommended are remarkable tablets. I'm wearing an aura ring right now.

Nadege Souvenir:

Melanie, am I your influencer?

Melanie Hoffert:

I think you are my personal influencer. But Nadege, on a more personal note, I'm in this seat because you invited me in, and I think I could spend an hour talking about your leadership style and the way that you've been able to rise, I think, to the occasion as you did in 2020, and now you're continuing to rise. But you are the type of person that invites people in and I just want to thank you for that. I'm going to summarize it in that little nugget because like I said, I could go on and on. But oh my, it's going to be hard to not have you, especially on our little podcast.

Nadege Souvenir:

I know, I know. But you know what? Here's the reality, and I think I said something like this when Pa Hua transitioned from the foundation, it'll go on in a new and a different way and it'll be its own greatness and its own awesomeness. And now we have sort of two trains of awesome sort of headed In different directions.

Melanie Hoffert:

I like that.

Nadege Souvenir:

But with a lot of shared values, goals, love, all of that fun stuff.

Melanie Hoffert:

Yeah, I agree. You know what I think is also hysterical? We left the last season with you going on a "rest retreat." You were going to go somewhere and do nothing, and now you are actually-

Nadege Souvenir:

Going to go do the most?

Melanie Hoffert:

Do the most. You're doing the opposite of nothing, which is everything. Moving your life, starting a job, going to a new city, all the things. And so how are you feeling?

Nadege Souvenir:

Real talk? It's a little bit like a mile a minute. Super real talk, I think I do this kind of nonsense to myself all the time. Joshua, please forgive me. I hope that we're done with this. But we got married in eight weeks.

Melanie Hoffert:

What? I didn't know that.

Nadege Souvenir:

Yeah. We were sitting at a bar and I was like, "We should..." We had been engaged forever, like a three-year engagement. It was the longest engagement, or whatever it was. And just decided we were ready, looked on a calendar, found the best available date of August 1st, and then literally started texting family and friends and said, "Hold the date," and set invitations the next day. And so I think that in some ways, what I'm doing is insane, but also if I had six months to do it, it would still be insane. If I had a year to do it, it would still be insane. And so now it's just like I'm going to deal with all the insanity all at once and then be on the other side.

Melanie Hoffert:

And then you'll rest in a couple of years.

Nadege Souvenir:

Or in October.

Melanie Hoffert:

Yes. What's happening then?

Nadege Souvenir:

Joshua and I are going on this fantastic trip to Italy with these really good friends.

Melanie Hoffert:

Emily and I might just be there then too.

Nadege Souvenir:

Wow, what a coincidence.

Melanie Hoffert:

We could have a bonus episode-

Nadege Souvenir:

From Tuscany?

Melanie Hoffert:

From Tuscany. Team?

Nadege Souvenir:

From the hot air balloon in Tuscany?

Melanie Hoffert:

Oh, I need to break this to you.

Nadege Souvenir:

I haven't sold you on the hot air balloon.

Melanie Hoffert:

Nope.

Nadege Souvenir:

Okay, listeners, if you can help me out in the next couple of months when you run into Mel or you see her or send the foundation notes, tell her to get on the hot air balloon.

Melanie Hoffert:

Oh my goodness.

Nadege Souvenir:

Hot air balloon, hot air balloon.

Melanie Hoffert:

All right, well, I don't have to be sad right today because I have that in my future. But for our listeners, too, I would say Nadege is moving on to other things, but we're going to figure out our next season and it's going to be great and beautiful and big and who knows, but we'll be back to talk about that when it's the right time.

Nadege Souvenir:

Listeners, this has been a fantastic ride. Three seasons of this wonderful podcast, two co-hosts, and just one memory that I will never forget. And so I want to say to Melanie, I want to say to the team, and I want to say to all of you, I so appreciate you. Thank you for listening to I So Appreciate You. You can find us on Facebook at I So Appreciate You Podcast and on Instagram @soappreciateyou.

Melanie Hoffert:

We'd also appreciate you taking a moment to write us a review. And if you like our show, be sure to follow I So Appreciate You on Apple Podcast, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you're listening to us right now.

Nadege Souvenir:

Have a question or topic suggestion? Email us at podcast@spmcf.org. Thank you for listening to I so Appreciate You.