June 3, 2025 • 39 mins
In this episode of the Bold and Brilliant Podcast, host Tracie Root dives into a dynamic and meaningful conversation with sustainability-driven business leader Carolyn Pistone. As the founder of Clear Blue Commercial—a certified B Corp that integrates environmental consciousness into commercial real estate—Carolyn shares her journey from high-rise corporate life to running a mission-driven company that proves business can be a force for good. Carolyn opens up about the oil spill that changed her perspective forever, the bold choice to build a purpose-centered business, and her latest leap into authorship and speaking.
✨ What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
🔹 Why sustainability isn’t a side project—it can be a core business driver
🔹 How one oil spill became the catalyst for a purpose-driven career
🔹 The impact of aligning your values with your work
🔹 Real-life examples of environmental wins in commercial real estate
🔹 The importance of documenting and celebrating your current positive impact
🔹 Why your business can—and should—be used to create social change
🛠️ Actionable Tips from Carolyn Pistone:
- Start where you are: Look at how your existing business operations can align with your values
- Track your positive impact—what you’re doing right now might already be creating change
- Don’t wait for the perfect time: Take bold action even if you’re not “ready”
- Infuse your philanthropy into your work, not just around it
- Embrace joy as a compass for your next move
🎤 Memorable Quote:
"If we’re spending the bulk of our waking lives working, how can we use that work to bring the best we have to the world and make the most positive impact it can?" – Carolyn Pistone
🔥 Bold Moment of the Episode:
Carolyn’s bold decision to shift from running a successful, established business to stepping into her calling as an author and speaker, sharing her message of sustainability, impact, and joy with the world, ten years after founding Clear Blue Commercial. She didn't just build a company; she built a legacy of purpose.
📱 Connect with Carolyn Pistone:
Explore Carolyn’s work at Clear Blue Commercial and follow her journey in her new book Open for Joy: A Journey of Healing and Business Success. She’s also leading workshops like Saving the World by Playing Big in Your Small Business.
🚀 Join the Bold and Brilliant Podcast Community:
Are you ready to lead boldly, live brilliantly, and surround yourself with women who are doing the same? Connect with Tracie and other bold leaders at The Gather Community and let’s grow together.
🌟 Rate & Review:
If this episode inspired you to take bolder action, leave us a review! Your feedback helps us grow the Bold and Brilliant movement—and might just spark someone else’s next brave decision.
Thank you for supporting The Bold and Brilliant Podcast!
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xoxo
Your host,
Tracie Root
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tracie (01:37):
Carolyn, I'm so excited to welcome you to the Bold and
Brilliant podcast.
Thank you so much for beinghere.
Carolyn (01:45):
I am so honored to be a guest on the Bold and Brilliant
podcast.
Tracie (01:50):
Honored.
It's so funny when people sayhonored, especially people that
I know so well, like yourself,it's just honored.
We're gonna hang out and talkfor about a half an hour.
How's that sound?
Carolyn (02:00):
I will do my best to be as bold and brilliant as I can
be.
Tracie (02:04):
I, yeah, I think that you have that covered, my
darling.
Alright, Carolyn, one of thethings with the podcast that has
been going for just a few monthsis we're constantly meeting new
people, new listeners, and theremight be a few people out there
who don't know you yet.
Which is their loss, and I'm soexcited they're here to get to
(02:25):
meet you today.
So you know your name of thoseof you who are listening on the
like regular podcast thing,you're not seeing the video, but
here on the video you can see itsays Carolyn Pasti Clear Blue
Commercial Inc.
But Clear Blue Commercial is nota where you started, or B, even
necessarily where you're going.
Like it's where you are now.
(02:47):
We're all on this journey, sotell us about.
How you got to where you are,and maybe we'll start talking
about what's coming up nextafter that.
So give us the story, my friend.
Carolyn (02:58):
Thank you so much.
Clear blue commercial.
Let me start with clear bluecommercial.
Clear blue commercial.
I own it.
I founded it.
It's it's a seven figurebusiness and I don't say that
'cause I'm all.
I want you to know how rich Iam.
I'm only saying that becauseit's such a rare milestone for a
(03:19):
woman business owner to hit, andreally less than 2% of the women
owned businesses in this countryever hit that milestone.
We're just celebrating 11 yearsin business.
And we have been a seven figurebusiness for the last six years
of that.
And as I like to say if you loseenough jobs, you get a great
resume.
(03:40):
And mine is particularlyimpressive.
And I really, one of the thingswhen I founded Clear Blue
Commercial is I really wanted touse my business as a force for
good.
So in order to differentiateourselves and plant a flag in
the ground, we became, we gotcertified right away as a
woman-owned business.
(04:01):
As a certified green business,as a small business and a B
Corp.
And for those of you that don'tknow what a B Corp is, it's a
pretty,
Tracie (04:12):
a stringent list of requirements.
Carolyn (04:14):
Yeah.
Yeah.
That was the word.
I was stringent, was the word Iwas looking for.
We have to adhere.
In order to become certified asa B Corp, we have to adhere to a
higher set of environmental andsocial benefit than just return
to our shareholders.
Yeah.
It's about a whole lot more thanmoney.
Tracie (04:34):
So on that note, tell people, so I, it's always so
weird asking questions that Ialready know the answers to, but
people need to know.
So clear blue commercial, we'retalking about commercial real
estate, but Correct.
But you're talking aboutenvironmental requirements.
So tell people how those two aremeshed for your company and,
'cause that's, you're not justhelping people with their
(04:55):
buildings.
And helping people getbuildings.
You are helping people withtheir buildings, but not just in
the way that most people wouldassume at first.
So tell us a little bit moreabout your specialties.
Carolyn (05:08):
Well certainly we do large scale commercial property
management for big corporationsand government entities.
Property management of, and byitself is very, very mundane.
You collect rents, you leasevacancies.
You make sure that pay the billsand you and you maintain the
(05:32):
property.
Yeah.
And there are a lot of companiesthat do that, some better than
others.
But the, what I discovered veryearly on is.
First of all, if we go back toorigin story a little bit, I was
working for a huge fortune 500company.
(05:52):
Doing, doing this commercialreal estate, and I was working
in a high rise.
I had an office that overlookedthe Bay Bridge and looked in San
Francisco and looked out overthe bay and I used to love to
watch all of the differentvessels coming in and outta the
port of Oakland and the Port ofSan Francisco.
And one morning I was there andit was all fogged in.
(06:15):
And you may have heard aboutthis, but there was a large oil
tanker that actually hit the BayBridge.
And it was called the CostcoBusan.
And when the fog lifted, I sawthat this tanker was, had gotten
itself out of the shipping laneand was leaning over to the side
just spewing its contents.
(06:37):
Into the bay and it stayed therefor four days.
Tracie (06:42):
And it's content meaning fuel?
Carolyn (06:46):
Oil.
Oil.
It was an oil tanker.
It was an oil tanker.
Okay.
It was an oil tanker.
And it was just spewing all itsoil and a lot of oil comes into
the port of Oakland and the portof San Francisco because we have
Chevron right there by the bay.
And so there's a lot of oilrefining going on.
(07:07):
And still, I was seeing,literally hundreds of vessels a
day, still coming in and out anddragging that oil slick all over
the bay, up the delta out intothe Pacific Ocean, up and down
the coast.
And I, I was horrified and Iremember thinking that.
(07:28):
If I had dropped a bunch of oilat my front door, I would stop
everything.
I would stop everybody fromcoming in and out.
I'd block it off, I would cleanit up, and then I would go on
about my business.
And I realized there was nomechanism to do that in the San
Francisco Bay.
(07:48):
That golden Gate, not a realgate.
And it got, and it really got methinking about the fact that as
humans, we have placed ourselvesabove the plants and the animals
and the earth.
And we have but this wasevidence that what was happening
is we were placing commerceabove all else, including
(08:13):
humanity, including the safetyof our home.
And that's when I really lookedat starting.
I wanted to do business as aforce for good and for me.
Other people may disagree, but Ithink climate change is the
single biggest existentialthreat of our time.
(08:36):
And I wanted to throw myself atthat.
And that's a pretty bigfreaking.
Problem to look at as a singleindividual and which is why a
lot of people look at it andsay, oh, that's terrible.
And then they go on and dosomething else.
Yeah.
'cause it's so intimidating.
Tracie (08:53):
Most people would just say, I'm just one person, what
can I do?
Carolyn (08:58):
Mm-hmm.
But the fact is that I have abusiness now.
And with, and I'm looking atwithin that business, what is,
because we spend so much of ourlives in our work, whether we're
an employee or we have our ownbusiness or whatever that is, a
(09:18):
huge part of our life is aboutthis.
We shouldn't separate ourgoodness and our giving and our
philanthropy and all that shouldnot be separate from.
Our life's work.
So what I realized as I startedmanaging property and having it
grouped together is that one ofthe most important things you do
(09:38):
as a property manager, and I'msorry this is so boring, but
it's is you have a budget.
You developed that budget of howmuch do you think it's gonna
cost to maintain this property,and how much how much do you
think you can collect in rentsand blah, blah, blah.
You do this budget and you getit approved.
But then I started looking atthe budget and going, what are
(09:58):
ways that we could we're, thisis money that's gonna be spent
anyway, and I know that myclients.
Don't want me to spend this muchof, is there a way to save that
money and is there a way to dogood with this money?
So we have done things like turfconversions where we've taken
(10:20):
out lawns and sprinklers and putin, beautiful drought tolerant
plants and a drip system.
And within about a half mile ofwhere I'm sitting right now, our
company has saved over 30million gallons of water and
counting because as you makethese changes, you save more and
more every year.
(10:41):
So we save about, just with whatwe've done in the last 11 years.
We save about 3 million gallonsof water a year here.
We've done LED conversions whereyou take out the fluorescence
and you put in LEDs.
And first of all, it's ahealthier light.
Yep.
(11:01):
So people who complain aboutgetting migraines and all kinds
of things from the fluorescence,that doesn't happen with LEDs.
And even though LED bulbs aremore are more expensive than
fluorescent bulbs, a fluorescentbulb lasts three to five years.
Tracie (11:17):
Yep.
Carolyn (11:18):
An LED last 20.
Tracie (11:21):
Yeah, long term, even though it's a short term, which
is why like in phases typically,right.
You'll do a phase, it'll be aexpense or whatever.
And then long term, that thing'slasting probably for as long as
they're in that lease.
Carolyn (11:36):
Yes.
They don't all last 20 years,but most of them do.
Yeah.
So instead of changing athousand light bulbs a year,
you're changing 10.
Tracie (11:45):
Yeah, so it's also not only that they're more energy
efficient, that you replace themless often, but now you, not
that we wanted to removeemployees, but you, and you
employ fewer people at thatlevel.
The light bulb changers, whichaffects the bottom line.
We hope that mm-hmm.
Light bulb changers are findingother ways to serve the planet
(12:06):
as well.
Carolyn (12:09):
Well, and there, there are so many things that are
outside of our control in termsof expense.
Like we have no control overwhat the, whatever utility
charges us, right.
And our our energy costs can goup 40% in a year.
Yeah.
Which has happened quiterecently.
(12:30):
So we were able to at our bi atthe biggest property we have we
managed about a quarter millionsquare foot campus as a
subcontractor for the state ofCalifornia, we were able to put
a solar array.
On those buildings.
And between the solar array andthe LED conversion that we have
(12:51):
done in those buildings, therewas no out of pocket from our
client or the state or thelandlord.
We were able to and stay withinbudget and actually coming under
budget.
We have diverted 3.3 millionpounds of carbon from our
atmosphere.
On that one site alone.
(13:12):
And we've saved the we've savedabout a million dollars in
energy costs just in the lastcouple of years on this one
location.
So I like to say if you're ataxpayer in the state of
California, you are welcome.
Tracie (13:28):
I love, so this is so interesting to me because.
So I have a facilitiesbackground as well, which is why
I'm always interested in hearingthese stories.
But you're right, like maybe notall our listeners are as
enthralled with the buildingfactor that we're talking about
as much as you and I are.
But the idea.
But everyone lives in a climateand a lot of people obviously
(13:49):
who know you and me who aregonna be listening to this are
here in California and the ideaof.
Saving water.
Right.
We've grown up with drought,drought, drought.
Mm-hmm.
The idea of saving money andenergy output.
We've grown up with crazyutility costs because our
population is so always growingand it's always, the oil stuff
(14:12):
that you're talking about,right?
The refineries, the cost of gashere in California, like
everything's expensive and whatyou're doing is you're reducing
costs, but doing it in such away that.
Makes things better as opposedto doing things cheaply.
Right.
Carolyn (14:30):
Well, in one of the, one of the first buildings where
we did a we did an LEDconversion.
And we did a turf conversion andwe were able to by coordinating
with the local Air QualityManagement Board, they were
giving grants.
There was a bunch of differentthings going on.
(14:51):
We were able to put ev chargingstations in at this.
Building and because we had, andthe LED conversion that we did
reduced the draw so much thatthere was no additional draw
from these EV charging stations.
I.
And the thing about that is itadds value and it adds an
(15:14):
amenity to a building for alandlord that is so much more
meaningful than, putting in acafeteria or putting in a
waterfall or some kind of.
Or a, or a little gym or, allit's something that
differentiates the building.
Yeah.
It's also if you're in a bigindustrial park and all the
(15:36):
buildings are the same andyou're all competing for tenants
traction.
It, it, it attracts the tenants.
It also helps the tenantsattract and retain employees.
Yep.
Because if you're gonna work ina building that ha, if you had a
choice between working in abuilding that has a free gas
station and one that does not,right.
(15:57):
Which are you gonna choose?
Yep.
Charge.
And this per this particularbuilding was purchased by my
client.
And, for about just under$3million seven years later, he
was able to sell that samebuilding for just under$8
million.
Now, I'm not saying that I'm intotal control of changes in the
(16:22):
real estate market.
Yeah.
However, the.
Even if the improvements that wemade only accounted for 10% of
that increase in value, that'sstill so significant and we
saved him money while we did it.
Yep.
So I, it, it.
What I'm really happy about isthat because we've been in
(16:46):
existence now for 11 years, wehave been able to amass data
that show that really shows whatcan be done and what we can do.
So that.
We're more than just the lowestbidder as we go out, we're,
we're actually able to be a, ahuge value add for our clients
(17:10):
and for the planet.
Tracie (17:12):
Yeah, and even on that we were talking about, the
planet, we're talking about thelandlords, we're talking about
the tenants, the tenants,attracting employees, and even
on top of all that too, you'reinspiring people to see, oh, I
work in a building that has LEDlighting because it's more
efficient.
I work in a building who has asolar array so that our
(17:34):
electrical costs are down.
Who has a low water landscapesystem?
That's lovely.
You are inspiring thoseemployees now to even look at
their own situations, which issomething that I don't know if
you even think about, but it,it's happening, I'm sure, where
they're like, maybe I shouldtake out my lawn.
Maybe I should do this at myhouse and I can reduce my costs
(17:56):
and do something better.
And you trickle down all the waydown to the individual.
And I think that's totallyinteresting.
Carolyn (18:02):
We did, we did a huge turf conversion.
That, and, and it's a longstory, I won't go into it, but
it, we got, we had 150volunteers and blah, blah, blah.
Yeah.
And we did a video of the turfconversion and while why we were
doing it.
And the, there is.
A young woman who's on one ofthe videos who was talking about
(18:23):
how, how she was she was astudent in the green business
program at the local statecollege and how excited she was
to be part of this.
And.
She's just great and brilliantand, and looks great on film.
And we made this video and Ishow the video and I watch the
video all the time'cause it justmakes me so happy.
(18:44):
So years later I'm working witha nonprofit that we had
partnered with to do the all theturf conversions that we had
done.
And I go in and I'm meeting withthem and I'm sitting across the
table from their new programcoordinator and I'm like.
You look so familiar to me.
(19:05):
And she said, I was at the eventand I was like, oh, you were on
her video.
She goes, doing that event thatday is what made me wanna come
and work here and do this work.
Yeah.
And I'm like, she's and, andshe's doing amazing work.
And, and this nonprofit has doneamazing work all, all over, the
(19:26):
Bay Area and it's now expandingstatewide and,
Tracie (19:31):
okay, so I have say also, so what that, what that is
to me is the power of community,right?
Yes.
It's the trickle down of all theway down to the person who came
to volunteer for you and someoneelse who volunteered, didn't go
into that work, but told someoneabout it and that person did,
or, reaches all kinds of peoplethat you have no idea who you're
(19:51):
reaching and I.
What I wanna transition to thenext story because what's
happening is you are reachingpeople outside of your 11 years
in this, in this capacity, inthat same way right now, you're
(20:12):
out there.
Doing new things, reaching newpeople who are then telling
other people, and again, you're,it's degrees of separation
outside of the people that youactually are personally engaged
with who are going to have theeffect of the work and the words
that you're sharing.
So let's turn the corner to thisone bold decision that you wanna
(20:39):
share that is changingeverything.
For you, and I know that youhave, we all do, especially
those of us who are older.
We've got a million of themthroughout our lives.
You're making changes now thatare big.
Yes.
And so tell us about this boldtime of your life and the
decisions that you're making.
Carolyn (21:00):
Well, in May of 2024 I released my first solo book.
And it's called Open for Joy, ajourney of healing and business
success.
And I have started speaking andI'm speaking and it's been a
challenge for me.
(21:20):
One of the reasons I have my ownbusiness is because I'm
completely unmanageable.
And it is difficult for me tofit into somebody else's box.
But I had an epiphany lastweekend because I remembered
when I first started my company,when I first started Clear Blue
Commercial, I remember saying tomyself, I wanna do some, I, I
(21:44):
wanna run a company that hasimpact, that is a force for good
that that adds value in to, toour clients, in our community,
to our employees, et cetera.
And I wanna do this for 10years, and then I wanna go out
and talk about it and talk abouthow we did this.
(22:05):
And then I went on with my lifeand all of a sudden last
weekend, I realized, oh my God,I said that and now it's
happening.
Tracie (22:14):
Well, and was a year ago, which was the 10 year mark.
Not Yes, the 11 year mark.
So just subconsciously thatclock was in you that just kept
going and all of a sudden at 10years, you're like, it's time.
And forgetting about what youhad said to yourself, even
though Yes.
Right there.
Carolyn (22:34):
Well, and.
And really looking at what do Iwanna bring to the world?
And I realize I'm speaking toinspire.
I want everybody to, bring theirbest selves to their work, and I
want their life's work to bemeaningful to them and add
value.
(22:54):
I know for me, a huge motivatoris I wanna leave.
I wanna leave the world.
I want the world to be a betterplace because I was here.
Yeah.
And with that solar array, if,if, if I, if, if my feet don't
hit the floor tomorrow morning,I know, I know exactly what my
(23:14):
impact has been.
And not that all the impact isgood.
I'm not a saint.
And it's interesting to me as Igo out in the world and I talk
about sustainability and I talkabout good thing, everybody
wants to come up and confess tome all the ways in which they
are not perfect and they arenot.
And I'm like, I have an equallylong list.
(23:36):
What I'm trying to do is onbalance, am I.
Doing more a, am I providingmore benefit than damage?
Tracie (23:46):
Well, and I think we have to draw in and then let out
the things that we personallyare passionate about.
Like the oil slick in the baywas a really impactful moment
for you that you hold.
Whether you consciously think ofit or not, it's in you forever.
It's been a part of your passionfor continuing forward.
(24:09):
And of course you can see otherexamples, but it always comes
back, I would assume, evensubconsciously, to, and this all
began because I saw the oilslick in the bay, right?
Mm-hmm.
And so for some people, that'sa, there's a different story,
but there's the one thing thatthey know is their catalyst for
whatever else.
(24:30):
They're doing, whether it'sanimal rights or L-G-B-T-Q
rights or diversity and equityand inclusion rights and all of
the different things that wecan,
Carolyn (24:40):
social justice, climate justice,
Tracie (24:42):
all of the things.
So, we can, we can't be aspassionate about all of them.
Equally, we have to choose our,our lane, not our lane, like we
don't have to not be in otherlanes, but.
But if we're not going in adirection, we're scattered.
Carolyn (25:03):
Well, I think, I think too, one of the things that, you
know, and I've had some salestraining especially'cause I
guess I was selling real estateat one point, although not a
huge fan of, of selling as ourmost people.
But one of the things they talkabout is your sphere of
influence.
Especially if you're inresidential real estate and
(25:23):
you're selling condos and housesand stuff.
Oh, yeah.
They talk to a lot of moms.
Yeah.
And, go to all your kids'sporting events and pass out
your cards and lab, yep.
Which is great.
And, and it, and it's true.
So in looking at and what I sawis in first of all, commercial
real estate.
(25:44):
And I'm gonna tell you a littlesecret here.
I'm not particularly interestedin real estate.
I'm not, except that it's a hugedriver of the national and world
economy.
Yep.
And also commercial real estateis you get to be involved in
everybody else's businessbecause every business has to be
(26:07):
somewhere.
And needs, resources and, andthose kinds of things.
So, so you learn a lot about theinterconnectedness of all of us
all and how we can impact thatin a positive way.
But it's also a I learned that30%, 30% of the carbon emissions
(26:28):
in the world come from ourcommercial buildings.
Well, the opportunity there forpositive impact is huge.
And, yeah.
So for somebody who wants to dothat, and as I've embarked now
on my speaking consultingworkshop, writing career as I'm
(26:48):
trying to get out there, I, Ireally wanna encourage everybody
to do what they can with whatthey have from where they are
right now.
And there are ways to look atthat.
A lot.
It stops a lot of people intheir tracks.
One of the things that stoppedme in my tracks when I first
started writing and speakingabout this is there are a lot of
(27:10):
great experts on.
On speaking and, and on workshopping and that sort of thing.
And they were putting on me,well, you are the green person,
so you should do 10 tips towardsgreening your business, or 10
tips towards, summer for yourhouse, or this kind of thing.
And I'm like, that's, I'm notthat kind of subject matter
(27:33):
expert.
I could probably come up with 10tips, but it's not what I really
wanna put out there.
What I really wanna put outthere is.
We all, to our knowledge, weonly get this one life and
tomorrow is not guaranteed forany of us.
And I want people to startreally looking at what are they
(27:54):
doing with their work that couldhave a positive impact that
would increase their passion.
Yes.
Maybe you are, maybe you're anaccounting clerk.
You're doing accounts payableand accounts receivable, but
what does it mean and what can,and, and what can be done within
that within that budgeting andin within that money that would
(28:19):
improve the world in some way.
Tracie (28:21):
And you know what I love about what you said about
starting now is, if they're anaccounting clerk and they're 22
years old.
And are you gonna wait tillyou're 40 to decide what kind of
impact you wanna have?
Start now, like you said.
And so that's why I love your,the title for your book, open
for Joy.
(28:41):
It's like we're open, it's now.
Carolyn (28:45):
Mm-hmm.
Tracie (28:45):
Come in the door and let's have some joy, which
means.
Have joy about where you'regoing and why you're doing what
you're doing.
Even if all you're doing isbalancing some other somebody's
books.
Like you're doing that.
So that what you, I, when I wasin facilities and I had a
architect friend of mine, wewere doing a project and she's
(29:07):
I'm doing these office buildsand I'm not excited.
I'm not, and she would go anddo, trips to Africa and help
them build buildings in Africawhere she felt that the social
impact was much greater thanwhat she was doing in Silicon
Valley.
And I said to her in the moment,I said, look at all these people
(29:28):
here that you're affecting bycreating pleasant, efficient
office buildings to work intoday.
But, and ultimately she actuallyended up leaving and changing
her whole business and all ofthese things, but it always
stuck with me that she didn'tthink she was having an impact
today and she was.
Mm-hmm.
And I also felt the same way.
(29:48):
I was helping all of thesepeople navigate their changes in
their offices that they didn'twant.
But how can we make it a.
Look at the positives so thatthey believe that the reason
that this is happening is forthe good of the company, myself,
my family, et cetera.
(30:09):
And so if you can be open forjoy, it, it, it can, it's all
about being open and knowingthat wherever you are today, you
can start having an impact.
Carolyn (30:21):
One of the things that.
Really opened my eyes was whenwe first and we have to
recertify every.
For B Corp every three years.
When we were first certifying tobe a B Corp and we're a tiny
company, we had eight people inour company and we're in this
one little office together andin a small town in Northern
(30:43):
California, but I realized whenwe were going through that
process, a lot of what we weredoing was just documenting stuff
we were already doing anyway.
And and then once we haddocumented all this great stuff
we were already doing anyway, itmade it very, very easy for us
(31:05):
to first of all, us as a groupto have consensus on it.
Look at all the good we're doinganyway.
And it was also made it veryeasy to expand on that.
Because we're already doing itanyway.
And so that may even be the firfirst part.
People aren't reallyacknowledging the good that
they're doing in the world.
(31:27):
Businesses aren't reallyacknowledging the good that
they're doing in the world'causethey're so busy doing their jobs
and paying their bills andgetting their kids to wherever
they need to be.
All, all this kind of stuff.
But if you can stop and look andstart documenting, where am I
having positive impact and.
Where can I have more positiveimpact is, is the way to start
(31:49):
that.
I love that.
Tracie (31:50):
I love that.
And you know what, as you weretalking, I real, I, the, what
came into my mind was that's howthe conversations go when we're
at my retreats, right?
The idea of, I'm, we have to getoff the checklist and get off
the rat race wheel to stop andrecognize.
What do we even want?
(32:11):
What are we doing?
And so at the next retreat,we're gonna, we're gonna talk
about that.
We're gonna talk about whatimpact have you already had and
what impact do you want to have?
So I, I need to write that down.
It's recorded, so that's good.
There we go.
Yeah.
All right, my friend.
Well.
I know.
So let's talk about what's tocome for you, because as you
(32:33):
mentioned, you're, you've gotyour book, I know you're writing
more, you're speaking, you'reteaching, you're, you're doing
all of these things in order toget your passion out to a larger
audience of the planet.
What's next?
What do you wanna talk aboutthat you're looking forward to
(32:53):
in the near short term?
Mm-hmm.
And you don't have to talk aboutthe 10 year dream, but tell us
like the thing you're lookingforward to most right now.
Carolyn (33:02):
I am very excited about.
I am, I'm doing my, my veryfirst workshop.
That has distilled a lot of the,my writing and my speaking.
And it's coming up on Sunday,July the 13th from 10 30 to 1230
in San Francisco.
Tracie (33:21):
Well, and I was gonna say, this is a podcast, so
honestly, yeah, this willprobably be out before then, but
it's more of situation.
Right.
So, yes.
We could say you're doing it andif it's after July, then she did
it.
Carolyn (33:36):
But I, I'm assuming that this will not be the last
one.
Correct?
You did the first one, is what Imeant to say.
Yes.
The, and the workshop itself iscalled Saving the World by
Playing big in your SmallBusiness.
Hmm.
I love that title.
So I'm really looking at thepeople who are, just busy
(33:57):
running their businesses, likeall of us are.
That, are definitely very goodpeople.
I don't know a single businessowner that doesn't volunteer
somewhere that is not aphilanthropist in some way, that
is not in somehow doing good,but they're doing it on the side
or they think they're doing iton the side.
And as I said earlier, if we'respending the bulk of our waking
(34:20):
lives.
Working, how can we really usethat work to bring the best that
we have to the world and makethe most positive impact it can.
Yeah.
Tracie (34:34):
Awesome.
Yeah.
As you were going through thelist of all the things I was
thinking of the three boardsthat I'm on.
Yes.
Right.
And they're all on the side.
One of them is related to mybusiness, but the other two are
not.
They're full Phil philanthropic.
Both of them.
But I do that because I knowthat the work that I do in
(34:58):
offering my positive energy andmy enthusiasm and my experience
brings something to thoseboards.
And so it's is all tiedtogether.
But you're right, that idea ofthe work itself, how is it
having the impact that I knowI'm having in the boards, but.
So, yeah, I love it.
Carolyn (35:16):
I had somebody say and this was years ago when I was in
a huge organization and I had,of thousands of people and, and
I had I was in the entertainmentindustry and so I was running a
movie studio and these peoplewere making movies and I had 150
people under me.
And I was, i, I was sociallywith one of the managers that
(35:41):
worked for me and she wastalking about somebody that had
worked for her, that she, thatshe had recruited, who was now
moving on to something muchbigger and better in the
company.
And she was talking about how,well, I want credit for
everything he ever does.
'cause I'm the one who recruitedhim and I'm the one that, gave,
yeah.
Helped give him thatopportunity.
(36:02):
And I'm like.
I was biting a hole in my tongueat that point because what she
didn't realize is I felt thesame way about her and
everything shielded she wasgoing to do, but it, looking
back.
It was a very good way of heracknowledging the benefit that
(36:26):
her work provides.
It's like they say when youthrow the pebble in the pond and
the ripples go out.
Well, not only is there are you,if you wanna have more impact,
you either need a bigger rock oryou need a bigger pond.
Yeah.
Or more pebbles.
(36:47):
More pebbles or more peoplethrowing pebbles.
Yep.
So, so there's, that's what Imeant by pebbles more people.
Yeah.
And, and so that has reallygotten me thinking about.
Even though you think you'redoing what you're doing on the
side you have, you have a stakein everything I ever do and
anything I bring into the worldbecause of the work that I've
(37:10):
already done with you and yourworkshops and what I'm getting
out of the gather community andwhat I'm getting out of bold and
brilliant.
So it's all part of the samestuff.
Yep.
So that's part of the goodnessyou're bringing into the world.
Tracie (37:24):
Well, that we all are right?
Yes.
It's the communities that we'repart of.
It's the people that we workwith touch, relate to every day.
If we're bringing good things,then they're receiving good
things.
And therefore, we, we, we talkabout, you can't pour from an
empty cup.
Well, whatever is in the cup iswhat pours.
(37:45):
Yes.
So when we give good stuff.
We fill other people's cups upwith good stuff.
Then their cups pour out goodstuff and they give their good
stuff to other people's cups.
And it's, a trickle down,literally a trickle down.
Carolyn, I am so thrilled thatyou were able, like we could
talk for literally hours.
Oh yeah.
(38:06):
We've talked for days in a rowalready in the past, so I wish
that we could just stay here andkeep, but we both have things to
do, so we probably should getgoing and.
We'll have to just do anotherepisode maybe after your
workshop or later this year.
We'll, and we'll see, we'll do afollow up and see how
everything's going.
And I know that you're lookingfor stages for speaking, to
(38:30):
share your messages, all ofthose things.
So anyone out there listening tothis episode, we're all in this
together.
We're here to make the worldmore bold and more brilliant and
to share what we have and whatwe're passionate about with the
other people that we can reach,and then they'll reach more
people and so on and so on.
(38:51):
So let's just keep doing that.
And Karen, I would love that.
Yes.
And so thank you so much foryour time today for being here,
and we'll do it again soon.
Thanks for being on the Bold andBrilliant podcast.
Carolyn (39:06):
Thank you so much for being you and for all you do.
Tracie (39:10):
Thank you.
Carolyn, I'm so excited to welcome you to the Bold and
Brilliant podcast.
Thank you so much for beinghere.
Carolyn (01:45):
I am so honored to be a guest on the Bold and Brilliant
podcast.
Tracie (01:50):
Honored.
It's so funny when people sayhonored, especially people that
I know so well, like yourself,it's just honored.
We're gonna hang out and talkfor about a half an hour.
How's that sound?
Carolyn (02:00):
I will do my best to be as bold and brilliant as I can
be.
Tracie (02:04):
I, yeah, I think that you have that covered, my
darling.
Alright, Carolyn, one of thethings with the podcast that has
been going for just a few monthsis we're constantly meeting new
people, new listeners, and theremight be a few people out there
who don't know you yet.
Which is their loss, and I'm soexcited they're here to get to
(02:25):
meet you today.
So you know your name of thoseof you who are listening on the
like regular podcast thing,you're not seeing the video, but
here on the video you can see itsays Carolyn Pasti Clear Blue
Commercial Inc.
But Clear Blue Commercial is nota where you started, or B, even
necessarily where you're going.
Like it's where you are now.
(02:47):
We're all on this journey, sotell us about.
How you got to where you are,and maybe we'll start talking
about what's coming up nextafter that.
So give us the story, my friend.
Carolyn (02:58):
Thank you so much.
Clear blue commercial.
Let me start with clear bluecommercial.
Clear blue commercial.
I own it.
I founded it.
It's it's a seven figurebusiness and I don't say that
'cause I'm all.
I want you to know how rich Iam.
I'm only saying that becauseit's such a rare milestone for a
(03:19):
woman business owner to hit, andreally less than 2% of the women
owned businesses in this countryever hit that milestone.
We're just celebrating 11 yearsin business.
And we have been a seven figurebusiness for the last six years
of that.
And as I like to say if you loseenough jobs, you get a great
resume.
(03:40):
And mine is particularlyimpressive.
And I really, one of the thingswhen I founded Clear Blue
Commercial is I really wanted touse my business as a force for
good.
So in order to differentiateourselves and plant a flag in
the ground, we became, we gotcertified right away as a
woman-owned business.
(04:01):
As a certified green business,as a small business and a B
Corp.
And for those of you that don'tknow what a B Corp is, it's a
pretty,
Tracie (04:12):
a stringent list of requirements.
Carolyn (04:14):
Yeah.
Yeah.
That was the word.
I was stringent, was the word Iwas looking for.
We have to adhere.
In order to become certified asa B Corp, we have to adhere to a
higher set of environmental andsocial benefit than just return
to our shareholders.
Yeah.
It's about a whole lot more thanmoney.
Tracie (04:34):
So on that note, tell people, so I, it's always so
weird asking questions that Ialready know the answers to, but
people need to know.
So clear blue commercial, we'retalking about commercial real
estate, but Correct.
But you're talking aboutenvironmental requirements.
So tell people how those two aremeshed for your company and,
'cause that's, you're not justhelping people with their
(04:55):
buildings.
And helping people getbuildings.
You are helping people withtheir buildings, but not just in
the way that most people wouldassume at first.
So tell us a little bit moreabout your specialties.
Carolyn (05:08):
Well certainly we do large scale commercial property
management for big corporationsand government entities.
Property management of, and byitself is very, very mundane.
You collect rents, you leasevacancies.
You make sure that pay the billsand you and you maintain the
(05:32):
property.
Yeah.
And there are a lot of companiesthat do that, some better than
others.
But the, what I discovered veryearly on is.
First of all, if we go back toorigin story a little bit, I was
working for a huge fortune 500company.
(05:52):
Doing, doing this commercialreal estate, and I was working
in a high rise.
I had an office that overlookedthe Bay Bridge and looked in San
Francisco and looked out overthe bay and I used to love to
watch all of the differentvessels coming in and outta the
port of Oakland and the Port ofSan Francisco.
And one morning I was there andit was all fogged in.
(06:15):
And you may have heard aboutthis, but there was a large oil
tanker that actually hit the BayBridge.
And it was called the CostcoBusan.
And when the fog lifted, I sawthat this tanker was, had gotten
itself out of the shipping laneand was leaning over to the side
just spewing its contents.
(06:37):
Into the bay and it stayed therefor four days.
Tracie (06:42):
And it's content meaning fuel?
Carolyn (06:46):
Oil.
Oil.
It was an oil tanker.
It was an oil tanker.
Okay.
It was an oil tanker.
And it was just spewing all itsoil and a lot of oil comes into
the port of Oakland and the portof San Francisco because we have
Chevron right there by the bay.
And so there's a lot of oilrefining going on.
(07:07):
And still, I was seeing,literally hundreds of vessels a
day, still coming in and out anddragging that oil slick all over
the bay, up the delta out intothe Pacific Ocean, up and down
the coast.
And I, I was horrified and Iremember thinking that.
(07:28):
If I had dropped a bunch of oilat my front door, I would stop
everything.
I would stop everybody fromcoming in and out.
I'd block it off, I would cleanit up, and then I would go on
about my business.
And I realized there was nomechanism to do that in the San
Francisco Bay.
(07:48):
That golden Gate, not a realgate.
And it got, and it really got methinking about the fact that as
humans, we have placed ourselvesabove the plants and the animals
and the earth.
And we have but this wasevidence that what was happening
is we were placing commerceabove all else, including
(08:13):
humanity, including the safetyof our home.
And that's when I really lookedat starting.
I wanted to do business as aforce for good and for me.
Other people may disagree, but Ithink climate change is the
single biggest existentialthreat of our time.
(08:36):
And I wanted to throw myself atthat.
And that's a pretty bigfreaking.
Problem to look at as a singleindividual and which is why a
lot of people look at it andsay, oh, that's terrible.
And then they go on and dosomething else.
Yeah.
'cause it's so intimidating.
Tracie (08:53):
Most people would just say, I'm just one person, what
can I do?
Carolyn (08:58):
Mm-hmm.
But the fact is that I have abusiness now.
And with, and I'm looking atwithin that business, what is,
because we spend so much of ourlives in our work, whether we're
an employee or we have our ownbusiness or whatever that is, a
(09:18):
huge part of our life is aboutthis.
We shouldn't separate ourgoodness and our giving and our
philanthropy and all that shouldnot be separate from.
Our life's work.
So what I realized as I startedmanaging property and having it
grouped together is that one ofthe most important things you do
(09:38):
as a property manager, and I'msorry this is so boring, but
it's is you have a budget.
You developed that budget of howmuch do you think it's gonna
cost to maintain this property,and how much how much do you
think you can collect in rentsand blah, blah, blah.
You do this budget and you getit approved.
But then I started looking atthe budget and going, what are
(09:58):
ways that we could we're, thisis money that's gonna be spent
anyway, and I know that myclients.
Don't want me to spend this muchof, is there a way to save that
money and is there a way to dogood with this money?
So we have done things like turfconversions where we've taken
(10:20):
out lawns and sprinklers and putin, beautiful drought tolerant
plants and a drip system.
And within about a half mile ofwhere I'm sitting right now, our
company has saved over 30million gallons of water and
counting because as you makethese changes, you save more and
more every year.
(10:41):
So we save about, just with whatwe've done in the last 11 years.
We save about 3 million gallonsof water a year here.
We've done LED conversions whereyou take out the fluorescence
and you put in LEDs.
And first of all, it's ahealthier light.
Yep.
(11:01):
So people who complain aboutgetting migraines and all kinds
of things from the fluorescence,that doesn't happen with LEDs.
And even though LED bulbs aremore are more expensive than
fluorescent bulbs, a fluorescentbulb lasts three to five years.
Tracie (11:17):
Yep.
Carolyn (11:18):
An LED last 20.
Tracie (11:21):
Yeah, long term, even though it's a short term, which
is why like in phases typically,right.
You'll do a phase, it'll be aexpense or whatever.
And then long term, that thing'slasting probably for as long as
they're in that lease.
Carolyn (11:36):
Yes.
They don't all last 20 years,but most of them do.
Yeah.
So instead of changing athousand light bulbs a year,
you're changing 10.
Tracie (11:45):
Yeah, so it's also not only that they're more energy
efficient, that you replace themless often, but now you, not
that we wanted to removeemployees, but you, and you
employ fewer people at thatlevel.
The light bulb changers, whichaffects the bottom line.
We hope that mm-hmm.
Light bulb changers are findingother ways to serve the planet
(12:06):
as well.
Carolyn (12:09):
Well, and there, there are so many things that are
outside of our control in termsof expense.
Like we have no control overwhat the, whatever utility
charges us, right.
And our our energy costs can goup 40% in a year.
Yeah.
Which has happened quiterecently.
(12:30):
So we were able to at our bi atthe biggest property we have we
managed about a quarter millionsquare foot campus as a
subcontractor for the state ofCalifornia, we were able to put
a solar array.
On those buildings.
And between the solar array andthe LED conversion that we have
(12:51):
done in those buildings, therewas no out of pocket from our
client or the state or thelandlord.
We were able to and stay withinbudget and actually coming under
budget.
We have diverted 3.3 millionpounds of carbon from our
atmosphere.
On that one site alone.
(13:12):
And we've saved the we've savedabout a million dollars in
energy costs just in the lastcouple of years on this one
location.
So I like to say if you're ataxpayer in the state of
California, you are welcome.
Tracie (13:28):
I love, so this is so interesting to me because.
So I have a facilitiesbackground as well, which is why
I'm always interested in hearingthese stories.
But you're right, like maybe notall our listeners are as
enthralled with the buildingfactor that we're talking about
as much as you and I are.
But the idea.
But everyone lives in a climateand a lot of people obviously
(13:49):
who know you and me who aregonna be listening to this are
here in California and the ideaof.
Saving water.
Right.
We've grown up with drought,drought, drought.
Mm-hmm.
The idea of saving money andenergy output.
We've grown up with crazyutility costs because our
population is so always growingand it's always, the oil stuff
(14:12):
that you're talking about,right?
The refineries, the cost of gashere in California, like
everything's expensive and whatyou're doing is you're reducing
costs, but doing it in such away that.
Makes things better as opposedto doing things cheaply.
Right.
Carolyn (14:30):
Well, in one of the, one of the first buildings where
we did a we did an LEDconversion.
And we did a turf conversion andwe were able to by coordinating
with the local Air QualityManagement Board, they were
giving grants.
There was a bunch of differentthings going on.
(14:51):
We were able to put ev chargingstations in at this.
Building and because we had, andthe LED conversion that we did
reduced the draw so much thatthere was no additional draw
from these EV charging stations.
I.
And the thing about that is itadds value and it adds an
(15:14):
amenity to a building for alandlord that is so much more
meaningful than, putting in acafeteria or putting in a
waterfall or some kind of.
Or a, or a little gym or, allit's something that
differentiates the building.
Yeah.
It's also if you're in a bigindustrial park and all the
(15:36):
buildings are the same andyou're all competing for tenants
traction.
It, it, it attracts the tenants.
It also helps the tenantsattract and retain employees.
Yep.
Because if you're gonna work ina building that ha, if you had a
choice between working in abuilding that has a free gas
station and one that does not,right.
(15:57):
Which are you gonna choose?
Yep.
Charge.
And this per this particularbuilding was purchased by my
client.
And, for about just under$3million seven years later, he
was able to sell that samebuilding for just under$8
million.
Now, I'm not saying that I'm intotal control of changes in the
(16:22):
real estate market.
Yeah.
However, the.
Even if the improvements that wemade only accounted for 10% of
that increase in value, that'sstill so significant and we
saved him money while we did it.
Yep.
So I, it, it.
What I'm really happy about isthat because we've been in
(16:46):
existence now for 11 years, wehave been able to amass data
that show that really shows whatcan be done and what we can do.
So that.
We're more than just the lowestbidder as we go out, we're,
we're actually able to be a, ahuge value add for our clients
(17:10):
and for the planet.
Tracie (17:12):
Yeah, and even on that we were talking about, the
planet, we're talking about thelandlords, we're talking about
the tenants, the tenants,attracting employees, and even
on top of all that too, you'reinspiring people to see, oh, I
work in a building that has LEDlighting because it's more
efficient.
I work in a building who has asolar array so that our
(17:34):
electrical costs are down.
Who has a low water landscapesystem?
That's lovely.
You are inspiring thoseemployees now to even look at
their own situations, which issomething that I don't know if
you even think about, but it,it's happening, I'm sure, where
they're like, maybe I shouldtake out my lawn.
Maybe I should do this at myhouse and I can reduce my costs
(17:56):
and do something better.
And you trickle down all the waydown to the individual.
And I think that's totallyinteresting.
Carolyn (18:02):
We did, we did a huge turf conversion.
That, and, and it's a longstory, I won't go into it, but
it, we got, we had 150volunteers and blah, blah, blah.
Yeah.
And we did a video of the turfconversion and while why we were
doing it.
And the, there is.
A young woman who's on one ofthe videos who was talking about
(18:23):
how, how she was she was astudent in the green business
program at the local statecollege and how excited she was
to be part of this.
And.
She's just great and brilliantand, and looks great on film.
And we made this video and Ishow the video and I watch the
video all the time'cause it justmakes me so happy.
(18:44):
So years later I'm working witha nonprofit that we had
partnered with to do the all theturf conversions that we had
done.
And I go in and I'm meeting withthem and I'm sitting across the
table from their new programcoordinator and I'm like.
You look so familiar to me.
(19:05):
And she said, I was at the eventand I was like, oh, you were on
her video.
She goes, doing that event thatday is what made me wanna come
and work here and do this work.
Yeah.
And I'm like, she's and, andshe's doing amazing work.
And, and this nonprofit has doneamazing work all, all over, the
(19:26):
Bay Area and it's now expandingstatewide and,
Tracie (19:31):
okay, so I have say also, so what that, what that is
to me is the power of community,right?
Yes.
It's the trickle down of all theway down to the person who came
to volunteer for you and someoneelse who volunteered, didn't go
into that work, but told someoneabout it and that person did,
or, reaches all kinds of peoplethat you have no idea who you're
(19:51):
reaching and I.
What I wanna transition to thenext story because what's
happening is you are reachingpeople outside of your 11 years
in this, in this capacity, inthat same way right now, you're
(20:12):
out there.
Doing new things, reaching newpeople who are then telling
other people, and again, you're,it's degrees of separation
outside of the people that youactually are personally engaged
with who are going to have theeffect of the work and the words
that you're sharing.
So let's turn the corner to thisone bold decision that you wanna
(20:39):
share that is changingeverything.
For you, and I know that youhave, we all do, especially
those of us who are older.
We've got a million of themthroughout our lives.
You're making changes now thatare big.
Yes.
And so tell us about this boldtime of your life and the
decisions that you're making.
Carolyn (21:00):
Well, in May of 2024 I released my first solo book.
And it's called Open for Joy, ajourney of healing and business
success.
And I have started speaking andI'm speaking and it's been a
challenge for me.
(21:20):
One of the reasons I have my ownbusiness is because I'm
completely unmanageable.
And it is difficult for me tofit into somebody else's box.
But I had an epiphany lastweekend because I remembered
when I first started my company,when I first started Clear Blue
Commercial, I remember saying tomyself, I wanna do some, I, I
(21:44):
wanna run a company that hasimpact, that is a force for good
that that adds value in to, toour clients, in our community,
to our employees, et cetera.
And I wanna do this for 10years, and then I wanna go out
and talk about it and talk abouthow we did this.
(22:05):
And then I went on with my lifeand all of a sudden last
weekend, I realized, oh my God,I said that and now it's
happening.
Tracie (22:14):
Well, and was a year ago, which was the 10 year mark.
Not Yes, the 11 year mark.
So just subconsciously thatclock was in you that just kept
going and all of a sudden at 10years, you're like, it's time.
And forgetting about what youhad said to yourself, even
though Yes.
Right there.
Carolyn (22:34):
Well, and.
And really looking at what do Iwanna bring to the world?
And I realize I'm speaking toinspire.
I want everybody to, bring theirbest selves to their work, and I
want their life's work to bemeaningful to them and add
value.
(22:54):
I know for me, a huge motivatoris I wanna leave.
I wanna leave the world.
I want the world to be a betterplace because I was here.
Yeah.
And with that solar array, if,if, if I, if, if my feet don't
hit the floor tomorrow morning,I know, I know exactly what my
(23:14):
impact has been.
And not that all the impact isgood.
I'm not a saint.
And it's interesting to me as Igo out in the world and I talk
about sustainability and I talkabout good thing, everybody
wants to come up and confess tome all the ways in which they
are not perfect and they arenot.
And I'm like, I have an equallylong list.
(23:36):
What I'm trying to do is onbalance, am I.
Doing more a, am I providingmore benefit than damage?
Tracie (23:46):
Well, and I think we have to draw in and then let out
the things that we personallyare passionate about.
Like the oil slick in the baywas a really impactful moment
for you that you hold.
Whether you consciously think ofit or not, it's in you forever.
It's been a part of your passionfor continuing forward.
(24:09):
And of course you can see otherexamples, but it always comes
back, I would assume, evensubconsciously, to, and this all
began because I saw the oilslick in the bay, right?
Mm-hmm.
And so for some people, that'sa, there's a different story,
but there's the one thing thatthey know is their catalyst for
whatever else.
(24:30):
They're doing, whether it'sanimal rights or L-G-B-T-Q
rights or diversity and equityand inclusion rights and all of
the different things that wecan,
Carolyn (24:40):
social justice, climate justice,
Tracie (24:42):
all of the things.
So, we can, we can't be aspassionate about all of them.
Equally, we have to choose our,our lane, not our lane, like we
don't have to not be in otherlanes, but.
But if we're not going in adirection, we're scattered.
Carolyn (25:03):
Well, I think, I think too, one of the things that, you
know, and I've had some salestraining especially'cause I
guess I was selling real estateat one point, although not a
huge fan of, of selling as ourmost people.
But one of the things they talkabout is your sphere of
influence.
Especially if you're inresidential real estate and
(25:23):
you're selling condos and housesand stuff.
Oh, yeah.
They talk to a lot of moms.
Yeah.
And, go to all your kids'sporting events and pass out
your cards and lab, yep.
Which is great.
And, and it, and it's true.
So in looking at and what I sawis in first of all, commercial
real estate.
(25:44):
And I'm gonna tell you a littlesecret here.
I'm not particularly interestedin real estate.
I'm not, except that it's a hugedriver of the national and world
economy.
Yep.
And also commercial real estateis you get to be involved in
everybody else's businessbecause every business has to be
(26:07):
somewhere.
And needs, resources and, andthose kinds of things.
So, so you learn a lot about theinterconnectedness of all of us
all and how we can impact thatin a positive way.
But it's also a I learned that30%, 30% of the carbon emissions
(26:28):
in the world come from ourcommercial buildings.
Well, the opportunity there forpositive impact is huge.
And, yeah.
So for somebody who wants to dothat, and as I've embarked now
on my speaking consultingworkshop, writing career as I'm
(26:48):
trying to get out there, I, Ireally wanna encourage everybody
to do what they can with whatthey have from where they are
right now.
And there are ways to look atthat.
A lot.
It stops a lot of people intheir tracks.
One of the things that stoppedme in my tracks when I first
started writing and speakingabout this is there are a lot of
(27:10):
great experts on.
On speaking and, and on workshopping and that sort of thing.
And they were putting on me,well, you are the green person,
so you should do 10 tips towardsgreening your business, or 10
tips towards, summer for yourhouse, or this kind of thing.
And I'm like, that's, I'm notthat kind of subject matter
(27:33):
expert.
I could probably come up with 10tips, but it's not what I really
wanna put out there.
What I really wanna put outthere is.
We all, to our knowledge, weonly get this one life and
tomorrow is not guaranteed forany of us.
And I want people to startreally looking at what are they
(27:54):
doing with their work that couldhave a positive impact that
would increase their passion.
Yes.
Maybe you are, maybe you're anaccounting clerk.
You're doing accounts payableand accounts receivable, but
what does it mean and what can,and, and what can be done within
that within that budgeting andin within that money that would
(28:19):
improve the world in some way.
Tracie (28:21):
And you know what I love about what you said about
starting now is, if they're anaccounting clerk and they're 22
years old.
And are you gonna wait tillyou're 40 to decide what kind of
impact you wanna have?
Start now, like you said.
And so that's why I love your,the title for your book, open
for Joy.
(28:41):
It's like we're open, it's now.
Carolyn (28:45):
Mm-hmm.
Tracie (28:45):
Come in the door and let's have some joy, which
means.
Have joy about where you'regoing and why you're doing what
you're doing.
Even if all you're doing isbalancing some other somebody's
books.
Like you're doing that.
So that what you, I, when I wasin facilities and I had a
architect friend of mine, wewere doing a project and she's
(29:07):
I'm doing these office buildsand I'm not excited.
I'm not, and she would go anddo, trips to Africa and help
them build buildings in Africawhere she felt that the social
impact was much greater thanwhat she was doing in Silicon
Valley.
And I said to her in the moment,I said, look at all these people
(29:28):
here that you're affecting bycreating pleasant, efficient
office buildings to work intoday.
But, and ultimately she actuallyended up leaving and changing
her whole business and all ofthese things, but it always
stuck with me that she didn'tthink she was having an impact
today and she was.
Mm-hmm.
And I also felt the same way.
(29:48):
I was helping all of thesepeople navigate their changes in
their offices that they didn'twant.
But how can we make it a.
Look at the positives so thatthey believe that the reason
that this is happening is forthe good of the company, myself,
my family, et cetera.
(30:09):
And so if you can be open forjoy, it, it, it can, it's all
about being open and knowingthat wherever you are today, you
can start having an impact.
Carolyn (30:21):
One of the things that.
Really opened my eyes was whenwe first and we have to
recertify every.
For B Corp every three years.
When we were first certifying tobe a B Corp and we're a tiny
company, we had eight people inour company and we're in this
one little office together andin a small town in Northern
(30:43):
California, but I realized whenwe were going through that
process, a lot of what we weredoing was just documenting stuff
we were already doing anyway.
And and then once we haddocumented all this great stuff
we were already doing anyway, itmade it very, very easy for us
(31:05):
to first of all, us as a groupto have consensus on it.
Look at all the good we're doinganyway.
And it was also made it veryeasy to expand on that.
Because we're already doing itanyway.
And so that may even be the firfirst part.
People aren't reallyacknowledging the good that
they're doing in the world.
(31:27):
Businesses aren't reallyacknowledging the good that
they're doing in the world'causethey're so busy doing their jobs
and paying their bills andgetting their kids to wherever
they need to be.
All, all this kind of stuff.
But if you can stop and look andstart documenting, where am I
having positive impact and.
Where can I have more positiveimpact is, is the way to start
(31:49):
that.
I love that.
Tracie (31:50):
I love that.
And you know what, as you weretalking, I real, I, the, what
came into my mind was that's howthe conversations go when we're
at my retreats, right?
The idea of, I'm, we have to getoff the checklist and get off
the rat race wheel to stop andrecognize.
What do we even want?
(32:11):
What are we doing?
And so at the next retreat,we're gonna, we're gonna talk
about that.
We're gonna talk about whatimpact have you already had and
what impact do you want to have?
So I, I need to write that down.
It's recorded, so that's good.
There we go.
Yeah.
All right, my friend.
Well.
I know.
So let's talk about what's tocome for you, because as you
(32:33):
mentioned, you're, you've gotyour book, I know you're writing
more, you're speaking, you'reteaching, you're, you're doing
all of these things in order toget your passion out to a larger
audience of the planet.
What's next?
What do you wanna talk aboutthat you're looking forward to
(32:53):
in the near short term?
Mm-hmm.
And you don't have to talk aboutthe 10 year dream, but tell us
like the thing you're lookingforward to most right now.
Carolyn (33:02):
I am very excited about.
I am, I'm doing my, my veryfirst workshop.
That has distilled a lot of the,my writing and my speaking.
And it's coming up on Sunday,July the 13th from 10 30 to 1230
in San Francisco.
Tracie (33:21):
Well, and I was gonna say, this is a podcast, so
honestly, yeah, this willprobably be out before then, but
it's more of situation.
Right.
So, yes.
We could say you're doing it andif it's after July, then she did
it.
Carolyn (33:36):
But I, I'm assuming that this will not be the last
one.
Correct?
You did the first one, is what Imeant to say.
Yes.
The, and the workshop itself iscalled Saving the World by
Playing big in your SmallBusiness.
Hmm.
I love that title.
So I'm really looking at thepeople who are, just busy
(33:57):
running their businesses, likeall of us are.
That, are definitely very goodpeople.
I don't know a single businessowner that doesn't volunteer
somewhere that is not aphilanthropist in some way, that
is not in somehow doing good,but they're doing it on the side
or they think they're doing iton the side.
And as I said earlier, if we'respending the bulk of our waking
(34:20):
lives.
Working, how can we really usethat work to bring the best that
we have to the world and makethe most positive impact it can.
Yeah.
Tracie (34:34):
Awesome.
Yeah.
As you were going through thelist of all the things I was
thinking of the three boardsthat I'm on.
Yes.
Right.
And they're all on the side.
One of them is related to mybusiness, but the other two are
not.
They're full Phil philanthropic.
Both of them.
But I do that because I knowthat the work that I do in
(34:58):
offering my positive energy andmy enthusiasm and my experience
brings something to thoseboards.
And so it's is all tiedtogether.
But you're right, that idea ofthe work itself, how is it
having the impact that I knowI'm having in the boards, but.
So, yeah, I love it.
Carolyn (35:16):
I had somebody say and this was years ago when I was in
a huge organization and I had,of thousands of people and, and
I had I was in the entertainmentindustry and so I was running a
movie studio and these peoplewere making movies and I had 150
people under me.
And I was, i, I was sociallywith one of the managers that
(35:41):
worked for me and she wastalking about somebody that had
worked for her, that she, thatshe had recruited, who was now
moving on to something muchbigger and better in the
company.
And she was talking about how,well, I want credit for
everything he ever does.
'cause I'm the one who recruitedhim and I'm the one that, gave,
yeah.
Helped give him thatopportunity.
(36:02):
And I'm like.
I was biting a hole in my tongueat that point because what she
didn't realize is I felt thesame way about her and
everything shielded she wasgoing to do, but it, looking
back.
It was a very good way of heracknowledging the benefit that
(36:26):
her work provides.
It's like they say when youthrow the pebble in the pond and
the ripples go out.
Well, not only is there are you,if you wanna have more impact,
you either need a bigger rock oryou need a bigger pond.
Yeah.
Or more pebbles.
(36:47):
More pebbles or more peoplethrowing pebbles.
Yep.
So, so there's, that's what Imeant by pebbles more people.
Yeah.
And, and so that has reallygotten me thinking about.
Even though you think you'redoing what you're doing on the
side you have, you have a stakein everything I ever do and
anything I bring into the worldbecause of the work that I've
(37:10):
already done with you and yourworkshops and what I'm getting
out of the gather community andwhat I'm getting out of bold and
brilliant.
So it's all part of the samestuff.
Yep.
So that's part of the goodnessyou're bringing into the world.
Tracie (37:24):
Well, that we all are right?
Yes.
It's the communities that we'repart of.
It's the people that we workwith touch, relate to every day.
If we're bringing good things,then they're receiving good
things.
And therefore, we, we, we talkabout, you can't pour from an
empty cup.
Well, whatever is in the cup iswhat pours.
(37:45):
Yes.
So when we give good stuff.
We fill other people's cups upwith good stuff.
Then their cups pour out goodstuff and they give their good
stuff to other people's cups.
And it's, a trickle down,literally a trickle down.
Carolyn, I am so thrilled thatyou were able, like we could
talk for literally hours.
Oh yeah.
(38:06):
We've talked for days in a rowalready in the past, so I wish
that we could just stay here andkeep, but we both have things to
do, so we probably should getgoing and.
We'll have to just do anotherepisode maybe after your
workshop or later this year.
We'll, and we'll see, we'll do afollow up and see how
everything's going.
And I know that you're lookingfor stages for speaking, to
(38:30):
share your messages, all ofthose things.
So anyone out there listening tothis episode, we're all in this
together.
We're here to make the worldmore bold and more brilliant and
to share what we have and whatwe're passionate about with the
other people that we can reach,and then they'll reach more
people and so on and so on.
(38:51):
So let's just keep doing that.
And Karen, I would love that.
Yes.
And so thank you so much foryour time today for being here,
and we'll do it again soon.
Thanks for being on the Bold andBrilliant podcast.
Carolyn (39:06):
Thank you so much for being you and for all you do.
Tracie (39:10):
Thank you.
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