Episode Description
Purpose holds a unique meaning for each individual, and discovering it requires time for self-reflection and evaluating life alignment.
In this episode, Christine Webb and Casey Grisez share how they found purpose in unexpected places, leading them to Empowered Ventures.
Host Chris Fredericks, CEO of Empowered Ventures, sits down with Christine and Casey to explore their unique paths to EV and the purpose-driven work they bring to the company.
Together, they discuss what it means to find meaning in your career, the challenges of balancing personal purpose with professional growth, and how EV aligns with their shared values.
Tune in for an inspiring episode that celebrates the impact of employee ownership and the diverse perspectives that drive Empowered Ventures forward.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- Finding Purpose in Career Shifts: Christine and Casey discuss how their varied career paths—from social work and community activism to finance and family—have shaped their dedication to meaningful work and aligned with the mission of Empowered Ventures.
- Employee Ownership as a Force for Good: Casey shares his experience in business valuation and how employee ownership models, like the one at Empowered Ventures, create opportunities for employees to share in the company’s success.
- Creating Impact through Strategic Problem-Solving: Christine highlights her knack for navigating complex systems, sharing how her problem-solving skills drive her work in supporting Empowered Ventures’ mission and helping employee owners thrive.
- The Power of Reflection and Career Reassessment: Christine and Casey emphasize the importance of taking time to reflect on what matters most in life, allowing them to pursue work that aligns with their personal values and family goals.
Jump into the conversation:
(00:00) Introduction to Christine Webb and Casey Grisez
(00:43) Christine’s early aspirations and career shift from social work to community impact
(02:06) Casey’s journey from finance to employee ownership and his career influences
(04:34) Christine discusses the emotional challenges and rewards of social work
(06:15) Casey reflects on family, taking a career pause, and his perspective on meaningful work
(09:02) Discovering the impact of employee ownership and what drew them to Empowered Ventures
(12:18) Christine’s problem-solving approach and passion for system-level change
(14:46) Casey on combining storytelling with finance to drive purpose-driven work
(18:03) Advice from Christine and Casey for finding purpose and balance in your career
How to Listen or Watch
Listen below or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Watch below or @Empowered_Ventures on YouTube.
Read the full transcript below the media links.
Episode Transcript
Chris Fredericks: Really excited about this. So you both have joined Empowered Ventures fairly recently and been hard at work for the last few months, kind of settling in. And from my perspective, it’s going just fantastically. So, so excited. You’re. You’re part of the team now, and we’ve been envisioning this kind of conversation and a little bit of an introduction for both of you to the rest of the team. But also there’s some, maybe some shared kind of perspectives, I think that about career and some things that’ll be fun to dig into.
Chris Fredericks: So to kickstart though, I thought it’d be fun to ask you each and maybe we’ll start with you, Christine. What was that thing that like, oh, this is what I’m going to be when I grow up.
Christine Webb: Oh, my goodness. I think a veterinarian, first and foremost.
Chris Fredericks: Nice. So were you really into animals as a kid?
Christine Webb: Yes, I was super into animals. Yeah. Was one of those kiddos that just couldn’t get enough of like, pretending to be like, vet with my stuffed animals and things like that. But then shortly after that, I think I got really involved in like movements or whatever, as funny as that sounds. So our church was really involved in a lot of community stuff. So then I wanted to be some kind of an activist shortly after that.
Chris Fredericks: Oh, okay. So it kind of shifted your attention away from the veterinary idea.
Christine Webb: Yes.
Chris Fredericks: Well, cool. That’s super interesting. Maybe we’ll get back into that as well. But Casey, how about you? What did you want to be when you grew up?
Casey Grisez: About equally as altruistic as being an activist. Either a professional athlete, the most altruistic among us, either professional I think baseball was my first love. And then golf. So either pro baseball player, pro golfer, or with Top Gun being the greatest movie of all time, at one point wanted to be a fighter pilot.
Chris Fredericks: Yeah, very realistic dream for all kids always.
Casey Grisez: Yeah. Really picked out the high-percentage play.
Chris Fredericks: Love it, love it. Maybe also would be fun to start with a quick intro. So Christine, why don’t you just share a little bit more about yourself? Where are you from? What have you done at this point in your life? Some quick highlights.
Christine Webb: So yeah, so I was born and raised south Central Indiana, so Columbus and Franklin and Greenwood. And then around middle school my family moved to Lafayette, Indiana. So that was where I went to middle school and high school and then I played golf at Franklin College. And then I eventually transferred down to IU where I got a degree in social work. But yeah, but my first major was world lit, so I went from world lit to social work. So again, kind of those funny transitions in life. And then I was in the social work field for probably about five or six years and did what any good bleeding heart does and ran myself ragged. And so then I just kind of tried on a lot of different things from there and ended up with a certificate in massage and got really into holistic health and wellness and another certificate in holistic nutrition and things like that and did that for quite a while and had my daughter and then got really excited about the idea of rethinking childcare. So I piloted a program there. And most of my life I’ve worked for myself or been a contract worker and then have invented a lot of things from nothing. It’s given me a really interesting skill set overall.
Chris Fredericks: That’s a such a fascinating background. And in social work, your first five to six years out of college, what was your focus area?
Christine Webb: So I started with individuals with developmental disabilities and then my capstone in college was working with individuals with HIV and kind of in that the housing sect of all of that stable housing addressing those Maslow’s Hierarchies so that people could live their best and fullest lives. And then my most notable social workpiece was probably getting to be a case manager and running a men’s halfway house for men who were recovering from addiction. So that was a really awesome experience and a very wild experience. There was a lot that went along with that.
Chris Fredericks: Yeah. Some pretty altruistic kind of orientations in your career right from the beginning. Is that kind of how you feel like you’ve always been that altruistic mindset?
Christine Webb: Yeah, yeah, I think so. I think that when I see things that need improvement or just a desire to help, I think that’s just kind of been me from day one and I’ve. That’s looked a lot of different ways through the years.
Chris Fredericks: And do you have a sense of where that comes from?
Christine Webb: I don’t. My mom has this really silly. Not a silly story, but I guess it’s one of those childhood stories that she, you know, embarrassingly tells and at inopportune moments where she said she walked into my room once and I was playing with my, you know, stuffed animals. And she’s like, what are you doing? And I was like, oh, well, you know, my stuffed animals, they have special needs, so I’m making accommodations for them. And I, like, built a wheelchair for one of my tenants, teddy bears, and pretend, you know, had tied a blindfold around another stuffed animal and was trying to help them around. So.
Chris Fredericks: That’s so adorable. So sweet.
Christine Webb: Yeah. I think I literally was just kind of born with that helping spirit.
Chris Fredericks: Wow, that’s so cool. Well, let’s get Casey into the conversation again. Casey, so what about you? Give us a little bit of background, kind of where you grew up and what you’ve done, you know, in your life to this point.
Casey Grisez: You got to stop letting Christine go first because my- Sure. Her, her career choices make mine look bad. Yeah. So I born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. So unfortunately a long suffering Cleveland sports fan ended up down in Columbus at Ohio State. So I started in engineering, quickly decided I’m not an engineer. The math got way too hard. So got an economics degree and have been in Columbus ever since, other than a couple years that I worked in New York City, which was an amazing experience. So my career path has been a little indirect, we’ll say, I think the through line. So it’s basically kind of a diversified, for the most part, diversified finance background. So started in with a, you know, big bank, a couple hundred thousand employees doing, you know, private banking sort of work, and a quick detour in corporate relations at my alma mater, Ohio State, where that was kind of a relationship manager sort of role.
Chris Fredericks: Corporate relations, what does that mean?
Casey Grisez: Yeah, so that’s effectively serving as a liaison between companies and university. So it’s technically a fundraising role, but it’s very much kind of strategic and analytical. And for a given company it’s like, okay, do you want. Is giving a gift? Does that make the most sense for trying to recruit the top student? Or, you know, just get general awareness for a product or service you’re offering, something like that, or working like a sponsored research project. So is there something you as a business are thinking about that we could get a few engineers for a lot less money than you as a business doing it, potentially buying technology. Right. So it’s kind of all the things university offers and any of the things that a company may need. It’s trying to connect those two pieces. So I did the work a little bit when I was in college and just enjoyed it. And so got the opportunity to go back and from a, you know, again, relationship management type of perspective, it was invaluable experience, but kind of felt the itch to get back at that point into finance and was pursuing the CFA that chartered financial analyst certification and learned about these things called private companies. You know, always knew they existed, but that was kind of the first exposure to what private business is, what they can do, how they are. They really are such a huge part of our economy and a huge part of employment base. So I end up getting into business valuation, which is long story short, trying to find stock prices for privately held companies. So you have the stock market for public companies that tell you what their stocks are worth. Privately held companies, for various reasons, whether it’s legal or regulatory, or if a business owner is looking at selling and just wants to know what their business may be worth, or in my case, and this is where things overlap here with EV is we did a lot of ESOP valuations, so really got kind of the first exposure to what ESOPs are, what employee ownership is, and went from there and kind of got a little bit more of the private banking, wealth management, investment banking, a little bit more traditional finance stuff. But I always had this employee ownership thing in the back of my head and I think that was. It kind of ties into what we’re going to talk about here. But it was a first exposure to business being a force for good. And I think kind of the role that business can play in kind of some of the broader things in society. And if for better and for worse. And I think in a lot of cases with employee ownership, it’s for better. And that’s what brought me here to EV.
Chris Fredericks: That’s great. So then that is kind of how we know each other. Right. So one of your engagements was TVF back in the day, which when TVF was the core esop for that led to EV. Yeah.
Casey Grisez: And you kept up a relationship with me. So I don’t, I don’t know what that says about us, but. But here we are.
Chris Fredericks: Yeah. So it’s been. Yeah, that was a while a long time ago. And it’s fun that it ended up leading to this, but you’re self-deprecating. I think people have gotten that by now. A lot of what you. How you’ve described your career totally makes sense. But what I know about you is similar to Christine in that you, you do have a sense of. Kind of a desire to feel a sense of meaning in, in the work you do. And even maybe something you left out is a. One of the most important jobs you’ve ever had is the last couple years. Right. So what have you been doing the last couple years?
Casey Grisez: So just to touch on the self-deprecation, I should have mentioned I have four older brothers. So as the youngest of five boys, self-deprecation is how you get through the day. Yeah. So the last full-time job I had before ev, we have twin five-year-old boys, Fitz and Lou. So it was around. This is about a year before they’re going to start preschool. You know, there was a potential relocation for one of the jobs and life was just a little hairy. Wasn’t the husband I wanted to be, wasn’t the dad I wanted to be. It knew the boys were about a year away from starting preschool and so yeah, we took them out of daycare and I spent about a year about full time and then they started preschool which was half day. So I kind of kept up that schedule where I was. Yeah, I call it my saddadical around my house. I refer to myself as the Cinderfella. So, you know. But again, it was just kind of this confluence of big questions I was asking myself in life, big questions asking myself in my career. And I think being able to take that time away, you know, there’s no better way to get perspective on all things than being around kids. They have a way of either bringing you down when you’re flying a little too high or bringing you up when you’re down in the dump. So incredible perspective and just an incredible experience. And yeah, talk about meaning in Careers, meaning, and work. There’s nothing more meaningful than that.
Chris Fredericks: That’s awesome. I love that so much. And it’s not without risk. I mean, you were in a very traditional career and you chose to really kind of take a break from that. Not that you entirely stopped working, but was that a hard decision to make?
Casey Grisez: That’s a good question. It was. I forget, was it. Was it Mark Twain that talked about going broke? It happens gradually and then suddenly or something. I’m butchering the quote, but it was one of those. I had been thinking about stepping away and so my mom was a stay at home mom. And you know, I had an incredible experience because of it. And there was just something about that quality time. Once you have twins, for us at least for anyone who has twins, and then has more kids, good for you. When we kind of decided like, okay, this, we’re good now. So I knew it was going to kind of be my one chance at doing that. So kind of always thought about it and then just again with what was going on kind of personally and professionally at the time, it was like, this is the right thing to do. There was a little more uncertainty kind of leading up to it, but once kind of that moment hit, it was like, I’m 100% in on this. And I think having good relationships and a good network, I was confident, maybe misplaced, but I was confident that if I needed to get back into the workforce quickly, I felt pretty confident I could do it. Just a shout out to my wife who runs our local community foundation. That was part of stepping away too, was giving her the time and the space to build that and to focus on that. And that’s gone really well. And so, yeah, so things have worked out, fortunately.
Chris Fredericks: Yeah, that’s great. So, Christine, coming back to you, I was thinking about how all the different things you mentioned, you know, social work, and then going into the other things you ended up doing after that, they all do have this kind of. Keep thinking about that altruistic word or, you know, really a sense of meaning and purpose, the impact potential of all those jobs and things you’ve chosen to do previously. Even the way you described, especially the social work years, which there’s a stereotype, I think, for social work careers that can be very challenging for the social worker. I think there’s a burden, I think to some degree that social workers bear that can be above and beyond other careers from what I’ve gathered. But just in general, how have you thought about your own desire to have an impact through your work? But Also the impact it’s having on you, you know, the enjoyment ultimately matters too. And I wonder how you’ve thought or how you. When you think back of all your steps, like, how have you thought about that balance or even whether balance is even possible in a career like that?
Christine Webb: Yeah, no, that’s the. That’s like a million-dollar question, right?
Chris Fredericks: Yeah, I thought I’d give you an easy, a low or an easy question.
Christine Webb: Yeah, no, ironically, in our little co-working building here, there’s a psychiatrist. And, you know, I told him what I was doing for Empower Adventures and that I had been in social work. And he goes, oh. He’s like, well, there’s two types of people in social work. The ones that go straight to heaven and then the ones that find something else to do. And I was like, yeah, I guess that’s true, isn’t it? But, you know, for me, I think for me, I can’t do much things without value and meaning, you know, And I’ve. I’ve explored all the different personality tests and had my moments where I’ve really looked at that introspectively. And there’s definitely a balance, I think, between placating to my own ego and, you know, and wanting to help and bordering on wanting to save and things like that. And. But also just what was actually woven underneath that, which I didn’t explore as much in high school and college, was that I. So I’m really good at logistics. I’m really good at looking at a problem from lots of different angles. And it doesn’t necessarily matter what the problem is or if it’s social work or if it’s the inaccessibility to, you know, affordable child care and alternatives to that. Or even looking at like, holistic health, you know, and that giant umbrella of a term. Yeah, there’s actually a. I think my brain just really likes looking at everything and then coming up with a plan and kind of that execution. The other thing that had kind of come to mind was one of the most frustrating things I would say with the social workpiece was that you realize the importance of the institutions. Right. And the funding sources. And it was never the individuals in their quote, unquote, you know, problems that wore me out. It was the systems that I would bump up against that you understood why a person was in a certain predicament or that you looked at these people and they were trying as hard as they absolutely could, and they were literally in systems that would not allow them to succeed, would not allow them to have mind, body, Spirit balance.
Chris Fredericks: Super interesting. Casey, just what are your thoughts here in that how does that, what comes to mind when you heard all that?
Casey Grisez: I think the biggest thing that comes to mind is just how unfortunate it is that there are on one hand people that need help, on the other hand people that want to help and that there are things in the way preventing that from happening. I think as the richest, most technologically advanced nation in the history of the world, we should be able to connect. As much as I like to live in the world of is not should, but we should be able to connect those two a lot better than we do. And I just, I’m grateful. I mean I, other than Christine, know a lot of social workers and people who do that kind of work. And it’s, I mean it is, it’s selfless work. Christine mentioned the word ego. I don’t think ego’s involved at all. I think it’s people who again see that they’re not doing it for the pay, that’s for damn sure. So there are people who see an opportunity, who see a need and are willing to step up and sacrifice. They’re willing to sacrifice financially, they’re willing to sacrifice their own mental health for what they see and do day in and day out. And it’s the real not, not all heroes wear capes kind of thing. And that’s, it’s absolutely true in this case.
Chris Fredericks: I love that. What came to mind for me and Christine, I’m curious what you think about this. There’s kind of like almost three levels of meaning in what you said, what I heard, which was interesting. Like when it comes to career, maybe the impact of the actual work. So you know, the social workers impact on the people that they’re serving ultimately then there’s the, what you are doing, the actual chore, the job itself, maybe being good at what you actually do on a day to day basis actually matters too. Because I can imagine someone who might go after a career based on the impact but like do they pick the right task within that career that they are going to feel fulfilled doing over and over and over and over again. And then the third part, which you referred to as the institution is that some broader sense of like, well, who do you have to work with to do this career? The micro team. You’re part of the broader kind of funding mechanism.
Chris Fredericks: So all three of those maybe makes me wonder if all three of those need to be in a good place to ultimately feel like, you know, you’re in a, maybe a sustainable career that can have impact I’m curious if all that kind of resonates for you.
Christine Webb: Oh, yeah, no, like I said, like the deep levels of introspection, you know, because when I did step away from social work, it felt like a very interesting loss, you know, because again, I. I saw myself as this person, you know, this helper, this person. But the actual day-to-day and doing more along the lines of being in those one-on-one positions with people, I’m just a sensitive human being, you know. And so it was very hard to compartmentalize a lot of that. But the success I did have, again, in housing, and most of it was housing, more or less that whole career in different shapes and fashions. But I was really good at the logistics. I was really good at being like, okay, this is who we follow up with, you know, all right, we’ve got these four different entities. They all need to be communicated with. What is the best way to get us all on the same page? How do we correspond? How do we document everything that’s happening? So it’s. Yeah, I started to, again, I think just feel what that actual groove was and what that actually meant to me makes sense.
Chris Fredericks: And a lot of times just getting things done involves figuring out all these complicated systems and logistics that most people just don’t have the experience or the time to figure out. So it makes sense that a lot of the job and being effective in the job could come down to your ability to kind of navigate that. Is that what you’re getting at there?
Christine Webb: Absolutely, yeah. That’s a huge piece of it that it’s. That again, I didn’t necessarily see coming, but that’s a big piece of it.
Chris Fredericks: So what ended up leading you ultimately to joining EV? Like, I know, maybe cutting to the end of the story to some degree, but like, why are you here now and what do you. What drew you to ev?
Christine Webb: Oh, man. I remember when the post was shared with me and I was on the EV website and I actually watched a podcast with you, Chris, and I was like, oh my gosh. I was like, these are the good guys. And I just love this idea of, again, I have. My experiences are like much more community-level, community-based, grassroots based. But again, what I feel has the most impact is these higher levels of institutions that actually have the bandwidth, the manpower, the finances to really support and lift in the sustainability there. So I think I was just ready for another change. I love a good challenge. I was definitely, now that I have a child, you know, again, priorities shift, right? So I was definitely looking for some more Stability there as well. But yeah, I was really again, drawn to this idea of, oh, wow, I think I could really be useful in this area, this arena.
Chris Fredericks: That’s great. First few months, how are you feeling?
Christine Webb: I love it. I love it so much. I love how dynamic it is. I could go into so much about the role, but honestly, the people. The EV team is amazing. Our operating companies are filled with some of the coolest individuals I’ve ever met. People from all different parts of the United States, different backgrounds. It’s been amazing just to get to know everyone. And in my role, I’ve kind of gotten to assist in these different ways and make some really cool relationships and connections.
Chris Fredericks: So that’s great. Casey, how about you? How did you end up coming to EV?
Casey Grisez: It’s a good question. So, yeah, having known you since. Was that 2016, 2017, somewhere around there, I think we first met. You know, when you do business valuations for a living, you meet a lot of different management teams. I think I did something, I mean, had to have been 50 valuations. I probably did 200, 250 valuations, maybe 100, 120 different companies, something like that. A few of those were repeats. You see a lot of management teams that I just remember meeting with you and Tad and just being impressed by the business itself. TVF was just a great business. And then your ability to be on top of things and getting information when we needed it and being responsive and knowing the business and knowing what was going on, answering the questions, I was just impressed. And so I think we connected on LinkedIn at that point and just I stayed in touch with you. And then in 2020 when you launched Empower Ventures, ESOps single company. ESOps can have their downsides and the ESOP Holdco model solves those. And I just remember kind of reading through some of the early stuff on the website or maybe you posted on LinkedIn wherever I read it, just being really impressed by, oh, this is, this is a really cool model. And so we stayed in touch and I got to know a few of the other people on the team over time and yeah, then you hit a point where you needed somebody with my really strange skill set with something approaching skill with both Excel and writing. So here we are. I think one of those. It was right place, right time, all of that. And I think we got fortunate. I got fortunate especially that things have worked out totally.
Chris Fredericks: So for those that don’t know, your role is kind of half that finance back function that you have so much work experience with. But the other half is a little bit of a new thing for you. I mean, it’s something you’ve been working in and doing in a few different ways, but not in like a this is my full-time job kind of way, which is marketing and communications and storytelling. So have you always thought of yourself as a storyteller or a communicator, despite, you know, this engineer finance career path?
Casey Grisez: Yeah, no, I think I always view, and maybe this is having worked in valuation where the work product is 80 to 120-page Word document or PDF, but 120-page report that tells the story of the business. And part of the storytelling is the numbers. So it’s revenue up or down, profit up or down. And so I think I’ve always viewed numbers as being part of a story. And it’s, you know, numbers are there and they are, you know, two plus two equals four, but there’s a story behind those. So I think that’s kind of. I don’t know if I knew I viewed it that way, but I did. And I guess just more broadly on writing and communicating. So being the cool kid that I was, I don’t know about other states, but in Ohio we had this thing called power of the pen when I was a kid, maybe seventh and eighth grade, maybe sixth grade somewhere around there. And these were writing competitions. So you would go on a Saturday and go to an auditorium in a school somewhere and with a couple hundred other kids I think from the district and you know, they would give you a writing prompt and you’d write it and they would grade it. And I loved that, that piece me when I kind of discovered I had this more math and engineering and that sort of side of the brain was effective as well. I kind of lost a little bit of the storytelling and kind of writing and creativity side of the brain. And it’s just been. Yeah. Over time and I think taking a couple years off from work helped me rediscover that. Just having that the time and space to kind of think about, okay, what brings me a little bit of joy and how can I best express myself? And for me it’s through words and it’s through writing. So yeah, it’s. I view the role with EV as combining. Both are storytelling and it’s just, are you. Am I storytelling in numbers in an Excel spreadsheet or am I storytelling in, you know, in an actual story, you know, basically a Word document?
Chris Fredericks: That’s awesome. And that now it’s time for our official sponsor of today’s episode, which is Casey’s Notes dot com. That’s where Casey’s writings are. It’s not truly the official sponsor, but just in case anybody’s curious, check out Casey’s notes. Seriously, check out caseysnotes.com which is where Casey’s done some personal writing and sharing and it’s really, honestly, it’s awesome. I love its insights from your life and things you think about. And it was a little bit of what got me convinced without knowing, you know, like, oh, this guy does have a. Not just a finance brain, he does have this other side to himself. So I would definitely encourage anyone to check it out.
Chris Fredericks: So last question for both of you. If you had to give advice to anybody, you know, within Empowered Ventures or outside of Empowered Ventures, just anyone that is feeling like unclear or unsure about that sense of having that sense of impact or purpose in their work, what would you suggest to them in terms of next steps or just a mindset or just anything that could help them to find a way forward with that question?
Casey Grisez: The biggest thing is to give yourself some grace if you’re not necessarily connecting with that purpose. And that’s having spent a good chunk of my career in businesses. You know, I think about wealth management, for example, where doing that job well and communicating with people for the money that they have spent their careers accumulating. And whether it’s they want to put kids through college or they want to retire a little bit early to spend more time with grandkids, kind of whatever. I mean, there’s some serious purpose potentially for wealth managers. I think same thing with investment bankers, right? These are blood, sweat and tears that these owners have put in their businesses for 20, 30, 40, 50 years and you’re helping them in these. You know, when these people sell a business, it’s up there with getting married, having kids is the most important days of their lives. I don’t think most people would view wealth managers or investment bankers as necessarily purpose-driven. So I think, you know, you don’t necessarily need to view your role as this is my purpose. Right. I mean, there are a lot of people who, it’s, they, they do a job to put food on the table, put a roof over their heads, clothes on their backs and their kids backs. And I think that that’s okay. Part of what we’re doing is, I think with EV, I think this is the power of employee ownership, is you don’t necessarily need to be the super advocate for employee ownership. You don’t need to be super connected to the purpose of your business. You still deserve ownership, and I think there’s still that fundamental relationship between business, between employer and employee that I think employee ownership puts in place whether or not you feel like you’re jumping out of bed every Monday morning to go do your job. I think that’s the ideal. And I would encourage everyone, if there is kind of that inkling not everyone is in a fortunate place as I am, to have taken two years off to think about all this stuff. But, you know, if there are roles in the business or roles in other EV businesses or something, you know, if there’s something you can do to feel like you’re getting closer to your purpose, go for it. But if you’re not and it’s a job, that’s okay. And I think that’s the beauty of employee ownership, is there’s no favor. You as an employee, you as the person doing the work that moves this organization forward, deserve a piece of it. I don’t know if that answers the question or not, but that’s what came to mind.
Chris Fredericks: That’s great. Christine, what comes to mind for you?
Christine Webb: Oh, man. Yeah. No. Casey and I accidentally had this conversation yesterday. It’s such a point of privilege and immense gratitude that I sit here getting to say I feel like I get to live out my life’s purpose at EV and I. I really feel in alignment, you know, with all the different pieces and parts of myself and. And the sustainability that is that Evie has brought to my life. But again, that’s such a point of privilege. And so I think my thing is that purpose means something different to everyone. And so if there’s something in your life that you feel is out of that alignment or you feel that something is missing, you know, you might not have the money for the crazy job coach, you know, or to invest in something crazy on Instagram to change everything, but just take some time and sit with yourself. I know I did a lot of that before making the. The big jump out of the airplane to switch things up and come to EV was just sit and ask yourself, what is that purpose? Even, you know, what brings meaning to your life? Because that’s going to look so different to everyone. But I do think that it is a great question that makes doing hard things a little easier.
Chris Fredericks: I love that. Yeah. If I were to add or even just answer the question myself a little bit, what is coming to mind after listening to you both is definitely what you just said, Christine. Just giving yourself the grace that Casey’s talking about and giving yourself time to understand yourself, to not feel like you have to figure it out right away and start with just little things like what do you enjoy? What gives you a sense of enjoyment in life? And. And then maybe, you know, not being afraid to talk to people about it, like just talking with your manager or, you know, your peers, like, down the road, like, I’d be interested in being able to do more work that I feel even more invested in, you know, and not being afraid to just venture the conversation. But all at the same time. I love your point, Casey, that there’s an inherent purpose or meaning in just doing good work and being rewarded for it. So, yeah, there’s a lot of angles to this. Ultimately, I guess your point, Christine, is everyone has to kind of think it through them for themselves, like what gives them the best sense of purpose that they can have for themselves. They need. It’s about self-understanding, ultimately, is what I’m hearing.
Casey Grisez: Yeah. And that. That understanding may not be what your parents or your teachers or your professors or, you know, other people in your life have told you should matter to you. So I think that’s about. Yeah, to your point. Finding what matters specifically to you and trying to kind of tune out the other voices.
Chris Fredericks: And that can be a lot of things. It can be your kids. It can be other things in life that you just really want to spend time doing. And there’s no right, right or wrong answer to this question. Ultimately. Yeah.
Christine Webb: Chris, I have to know. What did you want to be when you grew up? You can’t escape the question.
Chris Fredericks: Yeah, unfortunately, I have a similar answer to Casey’s, which is professional basketball player. That’s what I was supposed to be. I’m so glad that didn’t work out, honestly.
Christine Webb: What team were you going to play for?
Chris Fredericks: Oh, well, probably I should say Pacers, but I would have wanted to play for the Bulls, probably. So. You know, Michael Jordan. It was that era. Well, this has been a ton of fun. I want to thank you both for coming on Empowered Owners, and I’m sure maybe there’ll be more chances in the future for you to come back on. So thank you both for coming on Empowered Owners.
I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Christine and Casey. Empowered Owners is a podcast by and for the employee-owners of Empowered Ventures. Special thanks to share your genius for producing. You can find show notes and transcripts on our website at empowered.ventures. Full video episodes are on YouTube @Empowered_Ventures. If you have a question for us about EV, our companies or employee ownership, contact us at [email protected]. You can also text or leave a voicemail at 317-643-2383. Thanks for tuning in.
