Latest / We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits / 367. Good Humans of 2022: Meghana Gunturi

Transcript

367. Good Humans of 2022: Meghana Gunturi · We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits

• 0:01
  Becky Endicott: Welcome to Good humans week presented by good world. As your chief storyteller, I take the last week of the year to simply bring you three incredible stories of good humans in our midst. It's one on one. It's raw, and it's personal. And it's a conversation we hope will start a ripple within this community.
• 0:16
  Becky Endicott: This series explores their stories and dives into what motivates their courage Moxie and determination to be the change they want to see in the world. The answer, they love fighting for good. And if you love good, stick around for the break to hear how our presenting sponsor good world is helping nonprofits and companies level up their culture and impact by democratizing giving. Alright, let's get started. I have just got to tell you, today is a really special day because we are introducing you to a remarkable woman on the West Coast. And I want to give a little bit of context before I introduce our guests, because we had a pitch that came in to our inbox a couple of months ago.
• 1:01
  Becky Endicott: And this one was really, really special. And it was from a high school sophomore, who had started her own nonprofit. And not only is that extraordinary in and of itself, but she did it because she was moved by something that happened to her personally, she moved into the space to understand this problem, to be an advocate for this problem. And to amplify what she knew and had to build community around it. She did all this starting at 14 or 15 years old. She is an extraordinarily good human that we are so honored to meet. So let me introduce you to Meghana Gan Turi. She is from Southern California, and she is the CEO and founder of neuro diversity horizons. Meghana. Welcome to the We Are For Good podcast and good humans week. How are you?
• 1:55
  Meghana Gunturi: I'm doing great. How are you?
• 1:57
  Becky Endicott: Well, I am grinning from ear to ear. I kind of just want to start at the beginning. Like take us back.
• 2:04
  Becky Endicott: Where did you grow up? You know, as a child, talk about your childhood and how in the world you develop this Moxie, this entrepreneurial spirit, this gift for leadership and just this fearlessness, to try something different by starting your own nonprofit?
• 2:24
  Meghana Gunturi: Yeah, of course. So I grew up in North Carolina for about five or six years. And then I moved to California. So North Carolina was very, very different from California, which is what I mainly remember, it was very quiet. I lived on a street where there really weren't any kids.
• 2:50
  Meghana Gunturi: But I was an extremely, extremely free spirited kid, I was always extremely active, I would beg my parents to keep me at preschool so I could keep biking. Even if there was no one there. Like I was extremely hyper, I was extremely active.
• 3:06
  Meghana Gunturi: And my parents, obviously were happy with that. But it is a little overwhelming, because you don't know where that energy is gonna get channeled into when I got older. And so they really, you know, tried to put me in a bunch of activities, so that way, all that energy was used towards something good for my life. And so they worked really hard to keep me free spirited, and let me keep living the life that I wanted to live. And let me explore my passions. And they were really great in nurturing what I loved and not, you know, putting a box on what I felt was meant for me in my life. So once I moved to California, Southern California is is really great. I really started my neurodiversity work when I kind of got into my community a little bit more. And it all really started with my little cousin, who would have panic attacks when I would play violin. She wouldn't like certain noises that I would play on the violin. And it was really confusing to the entire family.
• 4:13
  Meghana Gunturi: But instead of, you know, figuring out what it could be, they kind of just shut it down.
• 4:21
  Meghana Gunturi: And it was really just treated in a really toxic way. This didn't really sit right with me just like what it could be because I too was a kid that was very different from other kids.
• 4:33
  Meghana Gunturi: And I wanted to see what was actually going on. And so I did a little bit of research and came across the idea of autism and the idea of neurodiversity.
• 4:41
  Meghana Gunturi: And I kind of encouraged the family to you know, look out for like a speech therapist or something just to check out what it could be. And she got the diagnosis for high functioning autism. And that really gave the fam Really a lot more insight into what it was. And from there on, just like without even me interfering, things got so much better and treating her panic attacks, they would try to give her like sensory toys, they would try to isolate her from an environment that made her upset.
• 5:14
  Meghana Gunturi: And it was just treated in a much more positive way. And it showed me like the value of just being educated and knowing what's going on just that education about neurodiversity gave her a completely different life. And she's still only five or six years old now. So she's still really young. But that definitely improved her life and gave her an opportunity to get the accommodations that she needed. And that's kind of what sparked my passion in neurodiversity, and, you know, increasing education and taking down the stigma against autism and not like letting people think that it's a deficiency or something to be seen as a negative in someone's life.
• 6:01
  Becky Endicott: I mean, I am so stunned by the story. And I mentioned in the intro that this was going to be a personal interview today, and that I wanted to share something personal that I hadn't shared on this podcast yet. And it was that, you know, even just a couple of weeks ago, we found out that my youngest daughter, was also neurodiverse, she was diagnosed with ADHD. And I have to tell you that we have a phrase at our house that we have said, since our girls are little, and it's that different is great. It's three words. And I just think about how you embody them. Mechana. I mean, you embrace different is great.
• 6:41
  Becky Endicott: And I want to thank you for listening to your gut. I want to thank you for advocating on behalf of something that triggered you to feel that something was not right. And I want you to explain to the audience like what is neurodiversity? Talk to us about this and talk about some of those stigmas that you have found are attached to this.
• 7:04
  Meghana Gunturi: So neurodiversity is the concept that not everyone thinks exactly the same. And that there are different ways of thinking there is different spectrums of thinking. And when it is largely different from what is common, we call it under a neurodiverse condition, which is more commonly known as ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia, there's a lot out there. But those are just labels, but they don't define anyone. They're just there to, you know, understand what is going on. But it really doesn't mean anything beyond that. And so when I found out about all this, and all this was happening, I decided to get more involved. And that's when I applied to the Stanford neurodiversity project, just to see what would happen and I was lucky enough to get accepted into that. And throughout the summer, right after my ninth grade, I studied all types of neurodiversity in the movement and got to meet a bunch of other neuro diverse high schoolers and panelists, and it was really great to see their experiences, but it was also somewhat saddening to hear about what they've been through. I heard about Siena cast Alon who was one of the speakers there. And she is currently a student there at Stanford. And she was an she is an advocate for neurodiversity. She's neurodiverse herself. And she shared an experience about like physical bullying that she experienced, just because she had traits that resembled autism. And she talked about how difficult that was for her growing up. And, I mean, luckily, she turned that into something really great. But for a lot of people, that isn't exactly what always happens.
• 8:50
  Meghana Gunturi: That kind of negative behavior turns into a lot of negative personal thoughts and can put someone in a really bad headspace. I myself experienced bullying, not exactly, neurodiversity, but more other reasons when I was younger, and so I definitely know what that can feel like. And so just that stigma that something like Autism means that you're dumb or something that like dyslexia means that you are really, really bad at English class, or something like this calcula where you're really bad at math classic, it doesn't have to be a label like that. It's more just a word to describe that something that should be really beautiful, which is the diversity in how we think and the human race itself.
• 10:12
  Becky Endicott: Oh, that was such a good description. And I see this playing out at our house too. You know, my, my daughter is eight and I'm pretty good at chess. I've always thought I was pretty good at chess, but she's been regularly beating me at chess since she was six because I can watch her sequence steps up to five moves ahead, but there's no way that she could sequence To pick up two or three things, and remember to do that, at the same time, and I just really appreciate what you're saying, because the field of neuro diversity is absolutely exploding right now in science and the way that we are not putting labels around it any longer. And the way that we're letting people express themselves is so beautiful. And I'm learning so much in this, I just think about you coming in as a Gen Z, part of Gen Z and advocating on behalf of this new generation that's coming in. And I want you to talk about neurodiversity horizons, because I know grown adults who have taken years to get their nonprofits up because it is extremely complicated. Talk to us about how in the world did you start this nonprofit, and then talk to us about why you started this.
• 11:27
  Meghana Gunturi: It started, not exactly as a nonprofit, but more of like a social media campaign.
• 11:31
  Meghana Gunturi: So after my Stanford neurodiversity project, I kind of called back the group members that I had worked with and asked if anyone would be interested in continuing the project pass a summer program, because I felt like there was a lot of potential there. So two people agreed to continue the project, because it is a lot of work, especially with school and stuff. But yeah, I two people and I, we continue to work together on our social media campaign. And so this is our Instagram, which is at stand for with the number four neurodiversity on Instagram. And we continuously post about educational topics in regards to neurodiversity. And it's really, really great to see the community reaction to it. And it also opened my eyes to how many more neurodiverse experiences there are out there. And as of right now, we're about 1700 followers. And we are getting like DMS and comments and collaboration requests. And it's really amazing to see how many more efforts there are. And so using that platform, I decided to continue advocating in a more organized fashion. And that's when I started my nonprofit. And it just started off as a passion. But from there, I still had a lot to learn, because it's definitely difficult to grow a nonprofit, so organically. So I kind of started off by reaching out to organizations that I resonated with. One was the Boys and Girls Club of Orange County, there was other neurodiversity organizations, there was magical bridge, there was a lot out there that I really resonated with. And I kind of reached out to them and just started asking for advice. And just like, What can I do to make the world a little bit better. And once I started to, you know, hosts a little bit of projects here and there, I started to post more on Instagram. That's when things started to take off a little bit more on a local level. And so I reached out to the Boys and Girls Club of Orange County and asked them if I could continue advocating with them in collaboration. And they were I was lucky enough to continue collaborating with them. And every Monday for eight weeks, I went to their facility in Irvine. And I taught the kids about anti bullying and acceptance of neurodiversity, and had them play games do like our activities. We did a bunch of stuff just to learn and cement the idea of neurodiversity to teach the youth from a young age that it isn't something that should be someone should be ashamed of whether any of those kids receive a diagnosis in the future. Or if they run into a colleague at work down the down the line. I want every child to know that it is fully normal.
• 14:36
  Meghana Gunturi: And so from there, I started doing staff training sessions.
• 14:40
  Meghana Gunturi: One was at Weigh makers Laguna Beach, where I was able to spread the concept to about 21 educators there and taught them about how to incorporate anti bullying campaigns at their youth shelter, and specifically in specifically to neurodiversity. And yeah, so we just continued collaborating, we collaborated with magical bridge, unicorn, Children's Foundation, NERC, neurodiversity network, and so many more. And then from there, chapters also started to grow. So we currently have 24 International chapters in nine different countries. Our social media has made 10,000 impressions. Our website has reached about 5000 impressions and what All of our chapters, our overall outreach is a little over 270,000. And from there, we started receiving applications for our board applications that we put up. And now we have a really tight knit and dedicated board of 20 plus people. We hosted our summer program with about 80 accepted members from all over the world, from like Singapore, from Dubai, from Malaysia. And from there, they also jumped started eight advocacy projects. And now we have eight divisions of our nonprofit doing things like one division is working on a children's book for neurodiversity. Another division is working on classroom integrated activities. And one division even presented their material to the Sartell.
• 16:23
  Meghana Gunturi: District in Minnesota at the staff and Education Board, one of their monthly meetings, which was really, really great. And that was just the division on their own. Like I wasn't even there for that. So it was really great to see the impact continue to spread
• 16:41
  Becky Endicott: Meghana I am so stinking proud of you. I cannot imagine how proud Your parents must be because do gooders, here's, here's what I want to make sure that you do not miss this started with an idea with an eyebrow cork of something is not right, and digging into it, and then socializing it. I love how casually you talk about going to Stanford to talk about this when you're 15. But it also started with community. And the community was only three people at the beginning, which I absolutely love, because to me, you toss that pebble into the hands of someone you just asked a question. You said, Who wants to raise their hand? And help me take this beyond this conversation? How do we start?
• 17:27
  Becky Endicott: Well, you know what we call a movement. And this is not about a nonprofit. This is not about a singular idea. This is about changing the hearts and minds not only of your community, but of global communities. And I want to like circle back and talk about what this has done in a very tight format. You are a high school, junior, you are president of four clubs. I don't know when you sleep, I don't know, when you do your homework, you have 22 International chapters. Right now you're hosting a two week intensive summer program. I know you guys have put kits together, you've been to the Stanford neurodiversity Summit, you have developed an app. I mean, I just think about if this is what you can do at 16, the world is your oyster, my friend, we're going to be watching you so closely and rooting for you. Because you really truly stood up to be the change that you wanted to see in the world. And I'm fascinated by it in this entrepreneurial spirit that you have. So talk to me about where that comes from, because I know you have a real passion for entrepreneurship and leadership. And I got to read this quote, because it just touched our hearts so much. And you said this in your pitch your podcast has inspired me. And I would love to show other teenagers and young entrepreneurs, that they can take your advice seriously. And I can show them my journey, my entrepreneurship, my highs and my extremely low lows. God bless you for being human and admitting those. And that perseverance is the key to a successful business. I love this free spirited concept. And I also am very curious about your board. And I wonder about the ages of your board. And do you have teenagers on your board?
• 19:22
  Becky Endicott: And I really hope that you do.
• 19:27
  Meghana Gunturi: Um, yeah, so our entire board is actually high schoolers. It's a fully youth led nonprofit. Our chapters range from a lot of different ages. It ranges from 16 to 45. So the chapters themselves are a lot of different ages, just to get that diversity of thought and experience. You know, getting mothers of autistic children or fathers of neurodiverse children or teachers, just getting them on board, through our chapters has been really helpful. But our direct Executive Board has actually fully high schoolers.
• 20:05
  Meghana Gunturi: So we do a lot of zoom meetings.
• 20:05
  Meghana Gunturi: We're working with our journalists right now to publish our first newspaper that we're planning to send out your wonder we're working on that right now.
• 20:20
  Meghana Gunturi: We're, I'm working with our vice presidents of operation and we're hosting our next woman and neurodiversity webinar. We got a lot of projects and it's fully youth lead. And it's really amazing because all the work is fully unpaid and just solely out of people wanting to help out a community, which is something I found to be more common than I expected, I kind of thought people are always in it for something for themselves, whether it be a resume line, or monetary benefit, I always thought that, you know, there couldn't, is very limited in people helping just because they want to help, but our board and doing interviews with, like figuring out who to accept on our board, all of that really taught me how much people actually want to help our community. And it really made me excited for where else's work is gonna go, because it's definitely going to be a lifelong passion that I'm going to do forever. And I hope to encourage that in like the next generation and continue the passion in our generation. So it's really great to see all the teamwork that happens.
• 21:38
  Jonathan McCoy: Hey, friends, there's a movement underfoot that's changing philanthropy as we know it. If your nonprofit needs an innovative appeal, or you work for a company that's leveling up its culture and impact. Look no further than good world's award winning CSR and fundraising platform,
• 21:51
  Becky Endicott: good world's leading all in one solution for workplace giving donation matching, volunteering, and charitable rewards is perfect for purpose driven organizations in every shape and size.
• 22:02
  Jonathan McCoy: And that's why we're partnering with good world to give the gift of giving back.
• 22:03
  Jonathan McCoy: Good world's gift cards are the most impactful gift for every occasion. A gift card lets you send donors employees, customers and friends dollars to donate to their favorite charitable cause.
• 22:13
  Jonathan McCoy: So come on, let's change the world together with gifts that make a difference.
• 22:18
  Becky Endicott: Visit GOOD WORLD now.com or send a gift card directly from the link in our show notes.
• 22:29
  Jonathan McCoy: Hey, friends, have you ever thought about starting a giving circle you know where you team up with others in your community to pull your dollars and time for causes that you care about? Our friends at philanthropy together are leading a movement to diversify and democratize philanthropy.
• 22:42
  Jonathan McCoy: And we are here for it. They start new giving circles and help existing giving circles throughout,
• 22:47
  Becky Endicott: we're excited to share about their launchpad for you program. This free training helps community leaders launch a giving circle, it only takes 90 minutes to jumpstart your idea.
• 22:57
  Becky Endicott: And philanthropy together provides coaching as needed until your launch,
• 23:01
  Jonathan McCoy: we believe that everyone can be a philanthropist. Together, let's create a world filled with passionate empowered people giving collectively and intentional.
• 23:09
  Becky Endicott: The first training of the new year is Wednesday, January 18. And you can sign up or learn more at philanthropy together.org. I mean, you just underscore everything that we are watching happen not just with Gen Z, but also with Gen alpha. And we're about to go into this segment where I'm going to just give you a couple of quick hits, because we just want to get to know you as a human. But I want to ask this last question about Gen Z.
• 23:35
  Becky Endicott: And I want to ask this question specifically through your the lens of your volunteers and your board members. Because as I'm sitting here, and I'm sure there's some people listening who had been a nonprofit for decades, and they know the playbook, they know how it's always been done. You all don't have a playbook. And I think that could be the greatest asset that you may have. And I wonder without seeing any of these walls and just running it the opportunities that are before you. How are you all connecting with your peers and community? I think this is something that every nonprofit should be listening to and leaning into.
• 24:18
  Becky Endicott: How can nonprofits flex and get into the spaces and activate this generation that is clearly so hardwired, they are so tech savvy they have grown up in in political and social unrest, environmental unrest in they are adamant changemakers and wanting to see the world change and being an active part of it. Talk to us about how you get those messages in there. And what's been the most, you know, whether it's a communication platform, like maybe it's social media, or tick tock? Or where are you finding them? And how are you connecting with them and getting them activated into your work?
• 24:59
  Meghana Gunturi: So for me, the main thing about having really no experience and I started and also working with others who also didn't really have much experience is that there are no rules that we know to play by there is absolutely no constraints. There is no outline to go off of so we kind of just figure out the next best step and run with it and see what's working best for us. And so with that we are able to venture into new forms of leadership that aren't previously known because they aren't really taught anywhere. So we kind of just keep going until we find something that works for us. And that ability to just keep trying and keep adventuring teaches us so much. For me, just making all the mistakes I made has given me so much personal success, which that person will accept success through the countless failures, translated into an exponential growth in success with myself and my nonprofit. And so just learning on my own and adventuring on my own without sticking to some type of rulebook gave us the ability to just, you know, skip a couple of steps. So, for example, about fundraising, we just kind of got started with, you know, sending messages to our parents, like WhatsApp groups and sending stuff on Facebook, downloading Facebook, and then adding it to random groups that we found, we kind of just jumped into that step, we didn't really start off with networking or anything, which would be the ideal step after some research I did. But we just kind of got started and saw what worked for us best. And that really accelerated our growth. Because we just, you know, kept running and running because there's nothing that we have to fear. There's like, we didn't learn anything to be worried about down the line, we didn't really learn about funds to worry about or grants to worry about or anything, we kind of just did some research and ask some friends and figured it out. But our main connection is really anything that can be on a phone, we use Slack, we use discord, we use Instagram, we use messaging. I also use WhatsApp for international numbers. I really just use anything that can send me a buzz on my phone, because that's the quickest way to contact someone is just if you can make their phone light up, they're most likely going to answer it, especially with this generation, we always have a lot of screen time and our phones always right next to us. So just anything that really gives you that quick communication. So our emails are limited to just long instructions and also documents.
• 27:49
  Meghana Gunturi: But other than that, we really only use some type of messaging platform on our phones.
• 27:57
  Becky Endicott: It's incredible.
• 27:57
  Becky Endicott: And it's an I commend you for it. Because if you're really going to have a global conversation, you really have to get into that digital space and raise your hand out there. If you're a nonprofit that has a discord community, I mean, this we're talking about the gaming community, right? I mean, you you're into gamification, and you we're not gonna go into this, but I want to pitch everybody and say if you love this conversation, you love the story I want you to go to real Wong's podcast, nonprofit lowdown real also interviewed Meghana. And they go deep into how to connect with Gen Z, that you talk about how you created this app through machine learning. And I just think that there are very unique ways and tools that you are leveraging to get in front of the right audience with the right message at the right time. You, my friend are super extraordinary.
• 28:51
  Becky Endicott: So let's get into it a couple of these quick hits, I will we just want to get to know the good human Meghana. I mean, talk to me about your ultimate dream, for your philanthropy, for this nonprofit and for any of this advocacy.
• 29:06
  Meghana Gunturi: Yeah, so my ultimate dream is to make an impact on the world that people can't forget, because it's everlasting. So what I want to do specifically to put that into perspective, would be right when the neurodiversity movement, which it only started in the 1990s, so it's still a relatively new movement. I want to be able to create a positive impact on a new movement. So that way, the future leaders of it, when it becomes a longtime movement, can you know reflect on what other people did in the past and so my goals are to you know, make school safer for neurodiverse kids, increase learning accommodations for neurodiverse kids, whether that be adding closed captions on a video for a dyslexic kid, or if it's just you know, adding sensory toys giving kids breaks if they need it in between long lectures, just giving those learning accommodations and not seeing it as something for an individual who isn't smart, but just a learning accommodation to continue the success of our planet in the diversity of our minds. Definitely helping neurodiverse children find their voice when they might not feel like they have a really loud voice in compared comparison to other neurotypical individuals in their society. And I'll letting neurodiverse people tell their own story instead of letting other people perpetuate a stigma, or a perception of the concept for them, you know, just letting even if they're nonverbal, even if they, you know, may have trouble with public speaking, just letting them tell their own stories, and letting people listen to it with our raw human perception.
• 30:54
  Meghana Gunturi: Instead of you know, having doctors talk about it as a diagnosis, or letting organizations like Autism Speaks perpetuated as something to be cured. Just letting those individuals talk about what they want in a society for themselves would be my ultimate dream.
• 31:13
  Becky Endicott: Oh, me too. I'm just Magnus laughing at me, but I'm just like, over here fist bumping like cheering or cineole hauling which you don't even know what that was because I was 30 years ago. Okay, so talk to me about your favorite charity other than your own?
• 31:27
  Meghana Gunturi: Oh, yeah. So there's a lot out there that I really like, even ones that aren't specific to neurodiversity. But on the topic of neurodiversity, my favorite would be best buddies International. Oh, I
• 31:42
  Becky Endicott: love us buddies.
• 31:43
  Meghana Gunturi: Yeah, there's one school club, our school as like a chapter of it. But if anyone doesn't know what it is, it's essentially an organization that is dedicated to creating a global volunteer movement to create opportunities, and friendships, and employment opportunities and leadership development for individuals who are neurodiverse, or special needs or have some type of disability. But yeah, I really love the work they do, and part of the best buddies club at my school. And I really, really enjoy how amazing the club is, and working with all the kids and students around me there.
• 32:26
  Becky Endicott: Okay, last one, talk to me about your favorite human quality.
• 32:30
  Meghana Gunturi: Yeah, so it's definitely kindness or teamwork.
• 32:35
  Meghana Gunturi: A lot of my advocacy in general has taught me the power of teamwork, which in turn comes with everyone's individual kindness. I couldn't have done any of my work without teachers, educators, the kids who I talked to during my education sessions, my board, and everyone who works with our nonprofit, the power of kindness, and teamwork has really created a big change in our community. And just seeing that in all the chapters, the people in France who work with our nonprofit, the people in England, who are England chapter is writing articles about the England education system in relation to neurodiversity. All that teamwork is really amazing.
• 33:22
  Meghana Gunturi: I really couldn't have done it without the educators helping me with curriculum, or the faculty Owners Helping to send mo use for collaboration, or students paying attention during our sessions and our board, working every week to put together webinars meeting with our eight divisions and so much more. But all that teamwork and kindness has really shown me all the power that that innate human quality has.
• 33:53
  Becky Endicott: If you know what an MOU is at 16, I can assure you, you will be soaring in this business later on, you know, something that I've been thinking about the whole time we've been visiting is like, what really is the thing that keeps this fire in your belly.
• 34:08
  Becky Endicott: And we and I want to thank you for talking a couple minutes ago about allowing those with a neuro divergent sort of mentality to to have their own voice. We talked so much on this podcast about the power in ethical storytelling and giving dignity to the person who is telling the story. Thank you for reminding us that some people don't even have the ability to be verbal, but that they still deserve to own a part of their story. And I'm wondering about this fire in your belly. And I'm wondering if there's a story of something that has happened since you have started this nonprofit, if there is a person or a family or a moment that has really centered you into thinking this is exactly why we exist.
• 34:57
  Meghana Gunturi: Yeah, so it's not a specific moment, but it's a combination of experiences that I've had over the course of my life. Like I mentioned earlier, experiencing bullying myself, was really difficult because you feel like you're very alone. Even though you might be physically in a room with 30 other kids you feel like you're the only person there you feel very isolated. And seeing other kids on my campus who are special needs and also experiencing bullying, but also real as in they have more disability, they don't have a voice against the bullies. And, for example, like a kid with a wheelchair, or a nonverbal autistic student getting bullied, I know exactly that they feel silent and unheard.
• 35:50
  Meghana Gunturi: And buried for something that should be beautiful, which is, you know, how we think differently and things like that. So, kind of that connection of my own experience, and then seeing other students who might be struggling more, really gave me the opportunity to continue the work that I do.
• 36:13
  Meghana Gunturi: And any I mean, obviously, everyone has their days where they don't have the motivation to keep working. But most likely, what I would do is just, you know, take one day off if I really need it, and then remember what I'm actually working for, and that this is a lifelong project. So it has to keep going every single day.
• 36:36
  Becky Endicott: Before we get into the one good thing because you know, we're wrapping up our podcasts when we get to the one good thing. I want to ask you a question on behalf of the nonprofit community. What do you think that nonprofit has to learn about your experience here? What could the nonprofit community learn because I'm listening to you for this last 40 minutes, and I'm listening to this beautiful story unfold. And I'm thinking, this is a story of someone who did something differently about about a mission that's about thinking differently and embracing our differences. What do you think nonprofit needs to do differently to embrace this new way of engagement, this new way of connection, this new way of storytelling? What can they learn from your story?
• 37:23
  Meghana Gunturi: Yeah, so nonprofits can definitely learn the power of just fearlessness.
• 37:29
  Meghana Gunturi: There's a lot of feeling that when something goes wrong with your nonprofit, that it's your problem, like you're the problem. And the reason why that nonprofit is not doing well. And so people will just not venture into a certain area like fundraising, fundraising is really difficult sometimes, especially with like GoFundMe links and stuff. It's all public how much you're raising. So sometimes, if you're not raising enough, it can feel really embarrassing. And so people just might not take the next step to just move fearlessly. And, you know, even if the fundraising doesn't work, just trying it and seeing what will happen. And figuring out if you know, what works best for your nonprofit, if it's grants, if it's crowdsource fundraising, or whatever it is. That fearlessness will teach individuals a lot more just, you know, pitching yourself to an organization you feel like you might not get a response from, or just working with individuals who, you know, might be more successful than you on a resume.
• 38:36
  Meghana Gunturi: But just being confident and fearless and trying everything that's out there will definitely skyrocket any nonprofit.
• 38:48
  Becky Endicott: Well, of course, it would I love that you just call this out? Because that is exactly our problem is we do not embrace innovation, we do not see failure as a positive because we don't look at it as learning and we don't look at it as failing forward. And I do think just the grit you've employed in the Moxie is aspirational. And there's a lot that anyone listening can take away from this. So we're wrapping up our conversation, which is making me sad, but I'm just want to know, at this point, Meghana What is your one good thing? What is something you would offer up to the community today that they could take away from this conversation?
• 39:23
  Meghana Gunturi: Yeah, so my one good thing is just one word, and it's perseverance. I feel like perseverance is the number one trait and secret to any type of success. For any individual running a nonprofit running a campaign or running a school club, or trying to lead a change in a community, any of that is driven by perseverance. Everyone has their moments of hardship and days where they feel like you know giving up or taking a long break. But that perseverance, whether it be a mental or environmental setback, perseverance through the thick and thin with yourself and others, will make you stronger than you realize. And whether you get what you want, or you don't even after this perserverance if you you know get rejected from something or accepted regardless of the outcome, that experience can make anyone stronger. And to me that personal success is far far, far more important than what's on a resume or an awards list. Because that person that personal success will eventually get you more opportunities in the long term. And although like one small like opportunity might not have worked out for you, the ability to grow past what you learned through failure or success, that perseverance to continue learning and continue fighting, every day you wake up is more difficult and more powerful than just working for some type of short term goal.
• 41:00
  Becky Endicott: I love it when I get inspired by someone that's 27 years younger than I am, you have got it figured it out already. I know you're going to continue to figure it out, tell people how they can connect with neurodiversity horizons, how they can connect with you. And then I want you to tell everybody that is in our community, because we are an activating community as you know, what your greatest need is and how they can help you fulfill that greatest need.
• 41:30
  Meghana Gunturi: Yeah, so the best way to contact me is through my nonprofit, of course, through the website, which is just neurodiversity, horizons.com, or our email, neurodiversity horizons@gmail.com. These are like the best contexts to get to me that are public, the greatest need for this type of campaign is just support and collaboration from other organizations, individuals or nonprofits. We receive collaboration from our chapters who aren't all necessarily associated with an organization.
• 42:09
  Meghana Gunturi: Some of them are just individual advocates on social media or not even on social media. But they're able to get involved through our nonprofit. And from there, we can meet with them monthly and you know, track what type of progress we can do together. One of them is now releasing a book about autism, in light of her son having autism. Another one is, it's a student based initiative in Singapore, which is writing written interviews for Neuro diverse candidates. And in Singapore, it's apparently common to have condominiums and they're hosting a huge card signing event in the in like the general lobby this Saturday. And so, yeah, so just that type of support and ability to work with other communities, and nonprofits and causes that you resonate with is really the ultimate need for any type of nonprofit.
• 43:15
  Becky Endicott: I am just so stinking proud of you. I have been sitting here this entire time thinking that I want to adopt you. And I just want you to keep going. Megan, I think your story is entirely aspirational. I think it underscores what we say about the potential and the power that is in Gen Z. And I believe that's upcoming with Gen alpha, this is such an important population, for philanthropy for social impact. If you are not engaging this population in some way, you need to get a strategy around that in 2023. Because if you want your messages to soar, if you want advocacy, awareness and activation to become hallmarks of your mission, this is the group that is passionate enough. And they are well equipped to do it. So I want to end this conversation by thanking you for coming on and sharing this beautiful story. I can't wait to have you on in five more years. And for us to come back and see where you've grown. And I just want to say to every single human being out there. If you have someone in your life who is quirky, and I love, quirky people, I will tell you this, we used to have a line and my old job where we would say Becky gets the quirky people, because those are the people that bring humanity to this world. They're the ones that open themselves up and express themselves so beautifully. And I want to dedicate this episode to my quirky differently wired jeulia Who is so incredible and is going to move mountains in this world and I dedicated to every one of you out there. If you are that individual who looks at life differently, like I do, like Meghana does. Thank you for embracing that continue to read about this topic, continue to lean in to it. And if you're not going to do anything, come at it with an open heart. Because this is a science that's evolving and growing and it's going to take unmatched compassion and curiosity to get it to where we need to go to make sure that everybody in this life is soaring and their greatest potential Thank you Meghana you keep going Rockstar we are behind you 100%
• 45:31
  Meghana Gunturi: Thank you so much. It was really really great. to share my story and also speak with you, and hopefully inspire some more entrepreneurs and community leaders,
• 45:42
  Becky Endicott: rooting for you, my friend.
• 45:43
  Meghana Gunturi: Thank you.
• 45:45
  Julie Confer: Hey, friends, thanks so much for being here.
• 45:47
  Julie Confer: Did you know we create a landing page for each podcast episode with helpful links, freebies and even shareable graphics? Be sure to check it out at the link in this episode's description. You probably hear it in our voices but we love connecting you with the most innovative people to help you achieve more for your mission than ever before. We'd love for you to join our good community. It's free and you can think of it as the after party to each podcast episode. You can sign up today at we are for good.com backslash Hello. One more thing If you loved what you heard today, would you mind leaving us a podcast rating and review? It means the world to us and your support helps more people find our community.
• 46:18
  Julie Confer: Thanks friends. I'm our producer Julie confer and our theme song is Sunray by Remy Borsboom