Episode #036 — Jessica Malachi on Sustainable Nonprofit Success

Melanie Branch: Hello and welcome to another episode of Trailblazers rising. I'm so excited for my guest today because she is one of my most fabulous graduates of the six month entrepreneurial glow up program. Jessica Malachi say hello and tell everybody who you are, what you do. I need every possible detail in five seconds.

Jessica Malachi: Oh, that's wow five seconds. So I am Jessica Malachi of JMM Consulting. And yes, I am a recent graduate of the program and so excited to talk about it. I am based in Alabama and Texas.

Um, being a military spouse, um, brings me back and forth across the country. And then my business brings me all around the rest of the country. So I'm happy to be sitting in Alabama during Mardi Gras week right now. So today is work. Tomorrow is party all the time.

Melanie Branch: that's exciting. Yes. When we work together, it was a very common question for me to say, where are you right now?

Jessica Malachi: That's true. And the answer was different. I think every time you asked.

Melanie Branch: Yes. Yeah. So that's really impressive to be able to, um, travel and keep your wits about you. Um, I actually had a realization yesterday between my sons and my business partner. So I am now officially, they're going to hate that I'm saying this to the world. I am now officially a mother to two sons that have fallen in love and had their first kiss. Each of my children are now in relationships with other people and that has happened. So, um, as I'm talking to my business partner last night, you know, we have some plans for the Neuro Spicy Academy and some other stuff happening. I told her that, and you know, she knows that that was as mushy and gushy as I get.

You know, I'm not a cryer or anything like that, but I said, it's so important to me to be here for the milestones. milestones. Because I was the parent that was here for most all of the milestones here and there my husband's in the military as well Um, and I kind of thought as I grew up that it wouldn't be as important But as I get older it becomes even more important to me to be here for it and to be included in it and all that So really knowing as entrepreneurs What the goals are and what is important to you because you know, better than anybody that we may think that we just want to make more money per month, but if you don't have time to enjoy that money or you don't have health to enjoy that money, or you don't have people to enjoy it with, why are we going forward after that?

Jessica Malachi: I completely agree, and I think that's been one of the, just the biggest benefits of making this choice. You know, my, my partner will be called on to go somewhere in the world at some point, and I knew that. And so I had a, a career that was, you know, and growing and really vigorous in some ways. And I probably traveled 60 percent of the time.

Uh, but I wasn't in charge of saying where I went and when, right. And so being able to choose a life that wherever he may go, I hopefully can go, depending on what's happening in the world. And just having the flexibility to be here. We're going to celebrate his promotion in the air force for him this week with family and friends.

And that wouldn't have been possible, uh, in my previous life, right? I was connected very much to kind of a, a hub, someone else's hub. And now I get to pick up my hub and take it where I need to do that work that I'm really invested in doing. So,

Melanie Branch: Yeah, it's always a pleasant surprise to me. Um, when I see women that are super powerful, super duper, just natural born leaders move from. Experience or a structure where they don't get to be the leader and they were fine with that. And then we step out into the business setting where they are the leader and they look back and I go, Oh, no, I wasn't happy with other people telling me what to do whatsoever.

I was just really good at lying to myself. So now that you're the one in charge, and I know when we, when I left you, when he graduated just a few months ago, weeks ago, you know, I don't understand time. Um, that, um, Visualizing and experiencing, um, what the future holds for you was one of the last assignments that I left you with because we know that our nervous system will choose an unfamiliar, um, or will choose a familiar hell over an unfamiliar heaven any day of the week.

So if you start making it familiar with the future. It's going to be a lot easier to take the actions that align with that, because your brain's like, oh, yeah, I know about that. We thought about this before. That was good. We liked we liked having this person doing this in our business and we liked having this sort of employee and that sort of thing.

So when it comes to you working with mission driven nonprofits and anybody who does good in the world. What would you say? From your past life as an employee led you to this path of, cause you know, I work with female founders. I don't, I don't work with people that are nonprofit. I do work with mission driven people, but the nonprofit world.

So what really got you into that? I know you have a background in education or, uh, colleges. I don't know what the correct term is. Yeah.

Jessica Malachi: question. So I'm, I actually am one of those people that I knew I was supposed to be a leader before I left and I was leading many things in many ways. And so, but that yearning, you know, even back to childhood, when I even told my mom at five years old, like, I don't need any parenting, I'm good.

Like I knew that leadership was, I wanted to lead the family and, and all the things. Right. And so that's just been. Part of my personality and not from a space of ego I don't think but mostly from a space of how can I be useful? And I really love work that is both tactical and people based right like making work work and so I think why I started this is really as I traveled around the country Um doing this work um, I kept finding that things that we were trying to implement into a community like let's say for example a Um a home visiting program for new parents, right?

Uh, or in my you know, even in a previous life I worked on nutrition and working with Um, and poverty and, you know, dealing with hunger, you know, we'd start something and people would be excited and it would be, uh, really something that could be a game changer for communities, but it couldn't last. Right.

And so as I kept going and doing work and helping people set up things, those things would just kind of wither because they didn't really know how to nourish them or hydrate them or prune the edges. Right. And so. I found and I started listening to my life, right? There was this, um, program that I did years ago, um, as part of a spiritual community that they had this course called listening to your life, right?

Where does your life keep speaking to you and you're not listening, right? And I thought about it in the space of vocation. And so what I saw and what I decided is that for me, it felt pretty obvious Especially businesses are, that are here for good, they have a content expertise piece, whether that is they need clean water or need to learn how to feed people or to support, you know, parents who've just had a child.

And we know that's a life changing experience, right? So they often have the subject matter expertise, but they've often never gone to business school. They don't really actually know how to run a business per se. Okay. And often have never taken a leadership course, right? And so with my background in public health, I don't know everything, but I know a lot about systems, right?

I know a lot about systems that are designed to move a community along a continuum, right? Hey, we're just thinking about a problem all the way to, we're ready to solve this shit, right? We're ready to do something about it. And so what I kept seeing is one of those things would always Or two or sometimes three of those things would be missing right content expertise Uh leadership experience and knowing how to run a business and so I found myself everywhere I went Even before I started my business fixing the business right either writing the best practices Uh, convening the folks because no one had been taking care of the culture, bringing people together, even for simple things like, Hey, let's bring soup in on Mondays and have conversation because this community is not well.

Right. And I kept finding myself doing that over and over again. And so as I'm faced with the pandemic, you know, I remember being in Chicago the day kind of the world went into state of emergency, Chicago got shut down. And I hopped back on a plane to North Carolina. And then my life all of a sudden very much changed going from being on the road 60 percent of the time to being kind of stuck in an office, trying to build a telehealth program with my colleagues, serve community that was already underserved via zoom and via, you know, all these really kind of novel things that we had to come up with, I felt myself really struggling with just the the lack of.

Of really feeling like I was making a difference. Everything felt like triage and my mental health and wellness were going down the drain from a pretty toxic work culture that I was in. And so I made the choice to do that thing that I've brought everywhere I go. I even do it at friend's house. Hey, you have a junk drawer.

Let me work on that. Let me make your junk drawer functional. Right? And so I feel like in some ways I've taken my business to this place of show me your junk drawers because they're actually weighing you down. Like, let's put it out on the table. Let's talk about what's going on. Let's assess what's happening internally and start kind of shaving off.

All of those frayed edges that are just a kind of a natural byproduct of work in the world. And often these mission driven and nonprofit businesses are really under resourced in so many ways. So you can hire me. I don't need to be your regular employee, nor do I want to be. I kind of think of my business now as an open marriage.

Like I get to go out in the world and engage with lots of different people, but I don't have to stay stuck there. I get to go do what I need to do. Um, and do that work for other people, but I can support them in really making it a more, um, healthy and functional place to work, both on the people side, but also on the process side.

I love putting together a project plan. I love talking with folks and figuring out, you know, where's communication missing? Where are you feeling undervalued or underappreciated? Where are you on the front line? And the folks that are higher up from you haven't been listening or actually can't see into your world.

How can we make your world known to leadership and show you that you are valued, appreciated, and that we are willing to make your working conditions better. And so that's how the business was born. Um, and I will say I was absolutely terrified. I had folks before I left my last job asking to work with me.

And I tried, but I was already, as you well know from coaching me, a workaholic at that point. And so then I'd try to layer stuff on top of it. And then I would race from one meeting to the next meeting to the next meeting to try to moonlight on something and would arrive panicked and thought this is never going to work.

So my partner, before we got married, really said, what are you doing? Like, you're a boss. Like, what is going on? I can't keep watching you circle the drain. Um, I keep seeing you speak your dreams and you don't do anything about it. Like it's time to get serious. And I'd never had that kind of support from a partner before.

And it really did give me a moment of pause. And so that's what I did. And I left terrified. And within three weeks of leaving my job, I had made four months of my salary. And I was like, Oh, okay. Right. Okay. And so yeah, it was that's how it was born and I I won't tell you the rest now because I'm sure you have other questions, but that was kind of the birth of JMM consulting.

Melanie Branch: Yeah. Your, um, when we work together. I was not expecting for one of the biggest breakthroughs and results and results to be getting you to work less because, um, you were working a lot, a lot, long hours at a time, sitting there in front of a computer, doing a lot of work and working for people, um, who You know, when we discount our services over and over and over again, it breeds resentment in all aspects of our life, because you're now going to be working with people who don't value you based on, you know, what you're worth because they're like, oh, well, do me a favor because we know each other and we do this and we do that.

And it's like, no, here's the thing. I'm going to run my business and I'm going to work with people who don't know me from my past life because they're not going to hold me to this different standard. And that's one of the biggest breakthroughs all of my clients get to is understanding, especially from like the perspective of posting on social media.

Why is it that when you start your business and you start posting about it? You have a lot of people watching every single one of your stories, and they're not liking a goddamn thing. And they know your life from your past, and they know all these things, but they ain't supporting it. They ain't liking it.

It's like, you will get more support from a stranger than you'll ever get from somebody who knows you.

Jessica Malachi: Right. Yeah, absolutely. I, I was surprised by that breakthrough too. I think I knew that that was something I probably wanted and needed to work less. Um, I was very resistant to the process, as you know, at the beginning. Like I did it, I signed up for it. But this time tracking thing that you had me do felt so tedious and also very confronting, right?

Like, let, Oh, I actually need to look at this thing. And, and it was also challenging because I had to pay attention. Not only did you ask me to chart, what am I doing, but how was I feeling during Who the fuck has time for feelings during the day? That's the space that I was in, right? Who has time to feel?

I'm busy hopping from this to this to this to this. And so I kept renegotiating the terms with you. Well, can I just do it this way? And can I do it this way? And you made it super flexible and you made it work for me. You know, and I stopped using, I love your tools, but I, you know, I'm often on the go and you know, I'm thinking while I'm Swiffering because that's my therapy, right?

I, and so I just carry something with me. And so I'd have notes. And so one of the biggest, really the biggest takeaways for me was you gave me the gift of a morning ritual, right? I haven't figured out all of my ritual others yet, right? I've tried, I'm working on the others, but I have this amazing time that no longer feels like I'm stealing time from myself.

I don't know why I thought like, as soon as I'm caffeinated, I should start working, right? I mean, now I'm in this space where I wake up and I, because I, you know, I wake up so dang early, I now have three hours to luxuriate and do the things that are refilling to me, right? Make sure I'm having my special cup of tea and hydration before I move into coffee, doing some sort of movement, yoga or walking.

You know, doing some just charting of what I want my day to look like and feel like, and then as we kept doing that work, I was like, yeah, I don't really want to work on Fridays, like, and you, you know, you kept sharing with me some of your, where your energy fluctuates through the week. And so I really did start to tune in and pay attention and know that each day really is different for me.

And that every week based on what's happening in life and my business will feel differently. And so, I've moved from this space of, Oh my gosh, I could start working at 6. 30am in my pajamas. And then not have time to shower all day because I've stayed working in my pajamas. To a place where I roll into work somewhere between 8 and 9am typically.

Having intentionally planned my day. Yay! Uh, and kind of just ready, ready for it. And then as we work toward the evening ritual, like a closeout, I'm not all the way through the evening time, but a closeout for my day, uh, one of my. Favorite tips that you gave me was around, you know, writing myself notes.

And so as I've been trying to work on this closeout routine for the day, I wrote myself a sticky and it says, don't walk away, girl. Cause I think in songs often. So there's that song. Don't walk away boy from back in the nineties. Right? So I wrote myself a note that said, don't walk away girl. And I would sing it in my head because you told me that your mantras often get sung in your head.

So I started singing in my head, don't walk away girl. And so I would have this closeout routine that left me feeling like I actually like folded my sheet of my day and made it tidy so that I could reopen it the next day. Um, and that's just been revolutionary. Still, there are still days when I like work to that end moment and I'm exhausted.

I'm like, nah, no, thank you. But it is, a practice I keep coming back to. And more and more of my Fridays are days of what I need to take care of in my life still, and some rest and some fun. And if I need to wrap up a couple of things work wise, I'm very intentional about settings. Setting a clear boundary for that.

So my whole Friday doesn't turn into well, I might as well work

Melanie Branch: I remember you came on to the call. It was the fourth or fifth call. You came on, and I said, what's up? And you said, I realize now, it was reluctant, but I take You were right in all forms very happily. So I realize now why tracking my time is important And I said do you you said I? Now, remember how smart I am and I went, why is that?

And you go, because I'm writing things down now and I don't just lose my thoughts to the ether. And I said, yeah, I know here we have been taught most of our lives. We've been programmed that like. If your memory sucks, then you have to get your memory to work better and you can't just do it. And it's like, no, we just accommodate it, right?

That's why we have notebooks. That's why we have a notepad in our phone. That's why we have all sorts of devices. Like since the beginning of time, man has been writing things down because we forget shit.

Jessica Malachi: Absolutely, yeah that one

Melanie Branch: here? So, you know, really understanding that more work can be done if we're allocating it during these productive times, right?

Like I always share with people. Between three and 5 PM on a weekday. My brain is not telling me that I need to work on stuff. My brain saying, you gotta go pick up a kid. You gotta go transition to something. You gotta go do this. You gotta go do that. So why would I schedule deep work between three and 5 PM?

No, I'm bouncing on my trampoline. I'm going for a walk. I'm checking in on my kids. I'm getting a snack. I'm cleaning the house up a little bit. Three to five is farting around time, right? But I know that I can get a lot of work done on my computer between the hours of nine and 11 and two hours worth of work that gets five hours worth of work done is much better to me than trying to fight my brain to do five hours worth of work in a time where my brain's like, this isn't what we're supposed to be doing right now.

Jessica Malachi: Absolutely, absolutely

Melanie Branch: it's the.

Jessica Malachi: The rhythms

Melanie Branch: The rhythm and the recognition of like, there's nothing wrong with the fact that this is what my brain and body want to do right now. There's nothing wrong with it. We're not going to change it. When we're naturally doing, when we're naturally eating lunch, that's probably when our body wants to eat lunch.

So why am I going to say, no, we're going to change the lunchtime? That doesn't make any sense.

Jessica Malachi: yes, it was really this paying attention and giving myself a The space to pay attention, but I did need some practical, like I needed some place to put that information in the beginning and to be able to review it and reflect with you was really helpful. Um, and I think the other big gift that I got from our work together was just this.

What you said to me and it still sticks with me and I think I'm thinking about it often right now because I'm working on my business again intentionally this year in this way. And you told me that, you know, making money doesn't change you. It just makes you more of who you are, right? Because I kept having this fear of.

Talking about, you know, as I was looking at my energy cycles, there were just some clients that no matter what I did, no matter when I did the work, they were a complete drain on my energy because of a number of reasons, right? Maybe I didn't teach them how to treat me from the beginning. Maybe I didn't hold boundaries.

Maybe they were just messier than I actually willing to support right now. Uh, and so, you know, I've been having this conversations about You know, working with these certain types of clients without really digging into what else are we values aligned really, you know, cause a lot of nonprofits are very values based on the outside, right?

And then you get inside and it is scary, right? And things are so dysfunctional that your, your head is spinning and you wonder, and just have so much empathy for the people inside the organization. But when you're not on that willingness to change. Spectrum, I started having to get rid of clients, right?

Um, and that you were telling me, well, that meant you're going to have to. Charge appropriately for the clients you do want to keep, because you're not just going to have this basket full of randoms to choose from, right? You're going to have to get really intentional. And so increasing your prices, feeling more valuable is not going to make you a jerk, right?

It's going to give you the energy to do more work in the world. And that is why I started my business to help. You know, help people who live and work inside these organizations that are doing so much good. You know, I remember I was doing that work and I would go home exhausted and then I wouldn't have time to volunteer and I not want to have a social life.

And I'd be like, so doing good work was actually making me not a great person because of the trade offs. And so I really had to do some shedding of some clients last year, which was scary. Um, And when we finally got toward the end of the year and I wasn't bouncing between meetings with those clients and then showing up with you and having my hair on fire, I was like, Oh, I can breathe.

I can start dreaming about what I want my dream team to look like. Um, and that was a fun way to close out our time together was to start building that team in my head. Where do where, what would it look like? Who would they be? What would it feel like? Where would we meet one day? If we did retreats, like you really had me start.

You know mapping out the details and that that was fun. Um, and I haven't built the team yet But you'll be proud I actually haven't shared this with you I did all of the work to hire my virtual assistant. I have everything ready I have and i've already found someone we'll see if they take if it works out, but I did everything to get All my confidentiality agreements and just all that stuff that you need them to do my job description All of it is ready.

I've already walked through that process with someone. We'll see if, you know, that's going to work out. But even if it's not that person, I'm ready to go and to start getting rid of those tasks that you encouraged me to batch, automate, or delegate. Um, and that's what I'm working on now. So I didn't even tell you that.

So surprise.

Melanie Branch: I love it. You know, that's one of the. The visualization of the desired future is the main tool that I use to keep myself out of the grumblies, right? So like, if I'm on a walk and I notice that my brain is going to the dark place of like, let me beat myself up over stupid decisions I made, or la la la, I go, NO!

The only thing that we're going to use, especially when thinking about the future is good shit, right? So really just walking and envisioning the future house and envisioning the vacations that you go on. Cause I share this story all the time with people in the summer of 2022, my husband and I, our kids, my father in law, my stepson and his girlfriend and his mother.

So my husband's son, my husband's sons. Girlfriend and my husband's son's mom. We were all in a beautiful cabin in northern Georgia in the mountains And it was a seven day beautiful vacation that I had worked very hard to be able to get us to go to with my business And I slept through the whole thing.

I don't have any pictures. We didn't go on any hikes All I remember is going to the fucking grocery store in the expensive town that we were in and spending gross spending double the price on the kind of food that I could have just been buying at my local grocery store and cooking in my local kitchen and sleeping in a big, gigantic king size bed.

There was a good bed. I'm not going to lie. The bed was delicious. Um, but I really, I didn't, we could have just been home for everything that I was doing. And when we went home from this vacation, I like realized it was like, My business numbers may be better than they've ever been before, but like this isn't sustainable and this was not.

Why I started my business. So from that moment forward, I had really focused on restructuring every element of my business to foster the kind of lifestyle that I want. Because I do like, I'm like you, I do like to wake up early, but I like to wake up early so I can fart around for a while and I can scrawl and I can eat and I can dilly dally and I can do all that even on the weekends.

If I sleep in till seven or God forbid, eight. Then I'm doing my normal routine and I look up and it's 12 and I'm like, no, it's supposed to be 9 o'clock right now. What's happening? I don't understand. So, you know, really figuring out what those deep seated values are, because I don't want to sleep in late on a Saturday or Sunday.

That's going to lose a lot of fun in my day. I want to go to bed early and I want to wake up early and I just want to have to like, change what I'm working on each day. But having that dependability really makes the difference between what I'm able to do and what I'm not able to do. Because if it's going to be back and forth, and there's no rhyme or reason, I don't know what you want me.

I don't know what I'm going to have time for, but I know if I wake up at five, I know what I have time for.

Jessica Malachi: Absolutely. Yeah. And it is, It is a gift, right? You know, before I was thinking of it as my body not cooperating because I'm just not a good sleeper. And now it's like my body wakes up at a time that gives me this, like, gem that most people don't want even, right? They, they, they do want to do these things, but their days are shifted such, you know, so much later, which works for them, right?

For me, if I'm up anyway. I've gotten rid of that story. Like I said, I should be working to how do I set myself up for good energy for today, for the things I have coming up. I'm even becoming more intentional about like, Hey, this is my travel schedule next week. So how about this week? I. Go get my pedicure Take a nap if I want to like do those things that are gonna give me a little bit of that energy Store that I need right as this introverted self who loves people but goes out into the world knowing I'm gonna be drawing on that energy Over the next week.

I'm able to bank it up a little bit more rather than every day It's like I go overdrawn in my account for myself Um, and that, I could never feel like I was getting out of that, right? And so I do really have this, um, joy around my mornings now and creating my day and my week to just set me up for whatever the work is that week.

And that's been a lot of fun, um, to figure that out and to put things in their right places, time wise.

Melanie Branch: Yeah. We did a lot of work too with upping your enjoyment levels throughout the day. Because when we first met, you had that mindset of like, Oh, I'll have fun when I make it. Oh, you know, I'll have fun when I have more time and there's no milestone. That's going to occur financially in your business.

That's going to flip a switch in your brain that says, now you can have a good time. You're making 50, 000 a month. Now you can fucking enjoy yourself because I hate to tell people this, but it's the fucking truth. Your problems don't go away. They just upgrade.

Jessica Malachi: Right. Absolutely. Yeah, it, you did. I think this idea, um, that we worked on, you know, kind of, you rely on these things that you, You know, without without support and without this coaching, you've been relying on these things that we know kind of our coping mechanisms and really helpful for folks with ADHD, right?

But you gave me more of this menu. And so some of the. Fun things I did was like taking myself out on a date, right? Like I need novelty, right? Um, and so I started looking at my patterns, like what, what do I rely on the most to get me through? But what, what else could I try? Right. And so, you know, you know that I'm super competitive, right?

So even just setting up competitive moments for myself, right? Like,

Melanie Branch: Yes,

Jessica Malachi: so like, can I get this thing done in 20 minutes? Right. It was just one way to try it. I. leaned more into like this idea of body doubling, right? And so having, like, just setting up this accountability partner stuff that they don't need to know what I'm doing.

I actually don't care what you're doing. Let's just sit here and get it done. I'm taking myself out of my space and into the world. Um, to do some different type of thinking, creative thinking. And then, you know, I over relied on haste a lot, which was the last one in that acronym, um, because I put so much on my calendar, yeah, that pinch method was like really mind blowing for me.

And so I was able to vary my approaches a whole lot and. Haste is really fun. There is this ability for like folks, you know, neurodivergent folks like me who are like, how fast can I fix this whole entire thing? Right. But it also has a cost, right? And so I've been really varying it, allowing myself to have some fun, doing more visualization in a fun way.

My mind. naturally is quite strategic, right? That's always what I find when I do my, you know, my strengths finder and my disc stuff. I'm, I'm a strategy person, but it didn't often approach strategy as a, how could we make this game more fun for everybody? Right. Thinking that way for my business, but also thinking that way for my clients.

And so that's been a big win for me too.

Melanie Branch: Yeah. Now you work with people. Okay. So I'll just say so that everybody knows the visualization I get in my brain. And I know I've told you about this in the past. Cause I use. television shows strategically to help me learn new concepts and grow as an entrepreneur. And Issa Rae's show that's on Atriomax called Insecure, she is, you know, it's a five seasons or six seasons, something like that.

And it really follows her through this story arc of working for a nonprofit that is. You know, the stereotypical run by a bunch of palm colored people that helps a bunch of Brown folks, how to do this, this, and this, and she's the only Brown folk that's in the actual, uh, company and trying to like, Hey guys, I know you mean well, but this is a little not gray and this little not great.

And then eventually she graduates into running her own, um, nonprofit company, right. For, so. I visualize that to some degree, because that's really the only foray into nonprofits and mission driven companies that I really understand other than churches. And I don't even want to know that. I don't care. So, when we think about.

These are people who mean well, but like you said earlier. They don't necessarily have the business acumen or whatever it is that they're missing. Um, and a lot of the times that could be. The messaging around what it is that we do and people not know it. Like there are some people in the world that don't know not to use the word tribe. I see this on social media. We were like, find your tribe. And I'm like, that's not the word. Stop it. What are you doing? So what would you say are some of the more common and egregious, it doesn't have to be, but you know what I mean? More common mistakes that occur in the nonprofit mission driven world that you help people solve.

Jessica Malachi: Absolutely. I love that question and I loved insecure as well. Um, it was, yeah, really, really good analogy there. Um, I think one of the mistakes that I see, the one that I see so often and that like just kind of punches me in my gut is this, we are doing to people rather than walking with people, right? So, you know, often work that even work that's really intended to do good for people is based on assumptions and bias and hunches and built on top of broken systems that are often full of classism, racism, misogyny, and all of that.

Right. And so often the communities that. Communities that have been underserved in so many ways have stuff that works. We just don't respect it. Right? So people often make community happen through Ways that we don't value on the surface, right? There's all of these ways that people get what they need, right?

Through churches and through small community groups and through making, you know, kind of family clusters, right? Like folks get things done, but we don't value and don't invest in those things. And so You know, rather than making prescriptions for people without actually doing an assessment, how we, how about we sit down and build trust, ask questions and get curious rather than saying, Oh, you're poor and black.

So that must mean you need this, this, this, and this, right? How about we really find out what, what is really already thriving here? What is already, what's the thing that's been keeping y'all alive and connected? First, and then where, what, how can we, you know, give people the resources to build their own solutions, right?

With support, um, valuing and celebrating the folks that are actually creating those solutions. And then adding where I can, um, just some technical stuff, right? Um, and And communication stuff. To me, it's also really important that work is made appropriately transparent so that everybody can see what's happening.

We're not walking people down a path that they can't see. Let's build that path together. It's kind of like the visualization thing that you're talking about. And I, it actually struck me while we were talking today. Like I often start my conversations with clients, like what would success look like? Tell me how folks inside your organization will feel in six months.

How will the communities that you serve feel and what will this look like in six months, in a year? And that's the place that we start, but it really starts with peeling away this savior syndrome, peeling away this bias that we have. Put it's, you know, it's kind of the jelly on every darn gross sandwich and really getting to the heart of what is happening here and recognizing that there is good, right?

And, and every space that is discounted as dirty, dysfunctional, poor, whatever you want to call it, right? There is magic happening there. And it is not my job to say, Oh, that's not the right kind of magic. Let me give you this. Um, 72 point plan. No, that's not how the work ever sticks because people don't want a 72 point plan.

They want to know what are the, what are the kind of the nourishment that's already really helping us to, to grow and where can we sometimes pluck something out, where can we correct the, the flow of information? And so that's been for me, really the, the space that I want to. enter with organizations. And that's both internally, that often happens inside teams, right?

That all of the things I've talked about inside an organization, inside teams, and then outside in community. And so it's been really, um, a commitment of mine to work with, you know, individuals, right? Providing that leadership, coaching, and support All the way up to, you know, and beyond that organization into the community and the systems that are connected, the systems that serve that community.

How do we really get them to talk and reflect in a way that is both data driven, but heart centered, um, and really focused on healing organizations and support of a healthy world. Um, and I, so I had a good friend that I worked with in my last. Job, who is such a talented writer. And so as we were both choosing to transition out of a toxic workplace, um, I asked her to work on my website.

And so she's, she just kind of got my brain dumped and, uh, I just said, here's, here's all this information. Can you create me some copy for my website? And when she came back to me with what, what she had, I was like, oh my gosh, because she kept, and she highlighted do good work. Wow. And I was like, Oh my gosh, that's brilliant.

And she's like, you said it every time we talked about this. So like, maybe, like, maybe that's your low, like your model. And that has become kind of the center of what I do. And it's, and it's kind of two pronged, right? So it's do good and work well, but it's do good work well, right? You're going out into the world to make change, but that change can be both efficient and effective.

Uh, and it can really, I'm learning. Right through our work fill me up to right and so that is really what it's been for the past gosh, it's gonna be coming up on three full years of entrepreneurship and It's been a learning journey, right? I have learned so much about Myself along the way. I feel like it is this Watching how I show up watching And part of the reason why I got your support, um, last year was watching my patterns of over functioning, masking ADHD symptoms, not telling people, just trying to rule the world at 3 a.

m. in secret, and not really knowing every, all the supports available to me, even through myself, right? How can I make this easier on myself? And so I am helping myself do good work well now, too. And that's been, it's been fun and confronting, right? When you realize, oh, this is that pattern that showed up when I was an employee, but now it's showing up and it's just me.

So maybe it's me, right? Maybe it's time for me to sit back and do some reflection.

Melanie Branch: Yeah. One of the sayings that really helps me and helps a lot of my clients is, it's not your fault but it is your problem to fix. Cause

Jessica Malachi: Yeah.

Melanie Branch: are really the result of our upbringing and our environment and our mindset and all those things. So the things that we can change are the things that move us forward.

The things that we can't change are the things that we've already experienced. Right. So really moving away from the blame game, right. That the restaurant that I worked at before I went full time with my business, um, we would have our, um, What's you have a general manager, our regional manager would come in and he had never been a server and never anything like that, but our GM had worked his way from server into general manager.

So like we all valued what he would say, but this regional manager would come in and he'd be like, Oh, okay. Well, we got to fix the way we do these catch ups. And I would just look at his ass every time I go, no, we got to fix the way these, these guests thinks that they can, they can abuse us. We got to fix the way that we run fucking food.

So people don't come in here worried about the fact that they're going to grab the wrong burger and they're going to get screamed at because they messed up somebody's table. Here's what the fucking problems are, buddy. If you want me to tell you where those are and where you want to get to work. But if you want to just make sure that I'm only putting two ounces of ketchup in this here ramekin, then we're going to have a problem.

You know, like, don't, don't tell me where the problems are. Ask me where the problems are.

Jessica Malachi: Absolutely. That is exactly what I'm saying. That is often the thing that is missing. And when people aren't heard, they will make themselves known in some way, either by exiting, uh, or spinning out and becoming, you know, non functional actually in that system or becoming very loud detractors. And sometimes that's even my invitation into the business.

The detractors have gone public And you wanted to ignore all of the things for so long, but now the detractors are public. And so now they're like, Oh shit, what do we do? And so that is often a space where I can enter and say, Hey, you haven't been listening. I need to talk to some folks. And I'm not talking about the folks that you've treated nicely.

I'm not talking about all the folks in leadership I'm talking about. I need to talk to people from every level. Um, to really hear what is going on. And then to create a way that those, that listening can happen after I leave. Right. Cause it's no help if someone just dumps it on me and then now I become, cause I carry it around with me cause I love the work that I do and I, you know, I really care about the people, but how do we create intentional listening inside of the system so people aren't.

Oh, the ketchup's again, right? And that's, it's always about the ketchups. It's never about the way that we interact with each other and with the people that we are serving. And that's really what I'm trying to squash so that when people do come home at the end of the day, they can continue to give back to themselves, their family, their friends, and their community.

In ways that are creative, right? You know, I work in public health and I work in food. Yeah Often my volunteering would show up at a food bank, but now i'm like, you know I can actually be Creative with the ways that I give back because it doesn't feel like my servant calling so much It feels like one of the ways I show up in the world But there are a lot of other ways that I can be in community and of service

Melanie Branch: Yeah. Oh my God. I'm so glad I had you on the pod. I knew it was going to be moving and fantastic, but I mean, it just, I knew it. You're right. We'll leave it at that. So all of the information about how people can find out more about you and work with you will be in the show notes, but just go ahead and tell people again, the website, all that sort of stuff.

And, um, I'm just, I'm so proud of your glow up.

Jessica Malachi: Thank you. Thank you. Yes, I want to say thank you for all the check ins, all the texts, all the calls, all the things that you did to help me get through our time together. Um, as you won't be surprised. One of the things that I will continue to work on this year is becoming on invisible inside of my business.

It's been very easy to work behind the scenes and stay hidden. So I'm not very findable yet. I'll tell you how, but hopefully by the time, you know, a year from now, it'll be much easier. So my website is do good work. Well. com. And you can also find me on LinkedIn. I'm still under my maiden name, Jessica McCoppin on LinkedIn.

Um, and that's how you can find me for now. Who knows what else may happen? You know, I, I think I share with you my secret vision of a podcast myself just because I love conversations. Um, and so I'm thinking about it in 2024, but for now people can find me on my website and there's a contact form there and connect with me on LinkedIn too.

Melanie Branch: Excellent. What a fantastic conversation to do good work well.

Jessica Malachi: Thank

Melanie Branch: love that. You know, my saying is your success is my number one goal.

Jessica Malachi: I loved reading that every time I would read your email because I was like, Oh, well, that feels good because sometimes my success wasn't my number one goal. It was the success of my clients. So it was such a good reminder that there was someone out there rooting for me, even when I was forgetting to root for myself.

So

Melanie Branch: Yeah, I'm always the one rooting. And here's the thing too. I continue once we are connected because of my superpowers as an energy healer, psychic intuitive mindset coach, your spirit guides or my spirit guides, whoever it is that's doing the messaging. I don't know. Uh, we'll reach out to me moving forward and say, you might want to check up on your friend.

You might want to check up on your friend. So moving forward, you will continue to get messages from me. It's like, what's going on. What's happening? And it's always, they usually don't wait until it's a crisis moment. Um, but like the other day I had to reach out to a client of mine that I worked with two years ago.

I said, so what's going on? Why are my spirit guides being so loud about you? And she goes, Oh, I keep tossing around the idea of quitting my job. And I was like, okay, that would be it. That would be it. So we're going to go full time with the business. You're quitting the job. Okay. That makes sense. Why they're there.

We're talking now. So. Um, you know, we will just continue to build the relationship as things go on because we're connected now. There's no getting away from me.

Jessica Malachi: I will. I like it. You're a good person to be connected to. And I just love your. your spicy energy that you bring to all the things. And honestly, had you not been like a purple and pink haired tattoo potty mouth coach, I would, I don't think, you know, I always need someone that is willing to show up in the world as themselves to remind me that that's my job too.

And so I just love the way that you do you and happy to stay connected and You know grateful for the check ins because yeah, sometimes, you know, I need a something crazy happens and it's time for just a Reminder and a pull back And I and I love all of that. So, thank you

Melanie Branch: Yay. All right, everybody So check the show notes to go follow my fantastic friend jessica here And as always take care of yourself and do your research and we'll talk again very soon Okay. Bye