Adam Torres and Abby Goldberg discuss achievement.
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Show Notes:
What does it take to achieve in business? In this episode, Adam Torres and Abby Goldberg, Founder and CEO of Variant Strategies, explore Abby’s journey and Variant Strategies.
About Variant Strategies
Variant Strategies is a media and advocacy firm that partners with organizations, philanthropies, businesses and causes to achieve social justice and human rights impact through innovative storytelling, films and media campaigns. We leverage our background as frontline advocates, non-profit entrepreneurs and leaders, and filmmakers to tell powerful stories that create real impact. We listen to, learn from, and incorporate the perspective of the people and communities our partners serve to ensure meaningful results, not just headlines. We are Variant Strategies, not Variant Media, because we bring our strategic thinking and approach to all of our videos and campaigns.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to missionmatters. com and click on Be Our Guest to apply. All right, so today’s guest is Abby Goldberg, and she’s founder and CEO over at Variant Strategies.
Abby, welcome to the show. Hi, thank you so much. All right, Abby. So love today’s topic. So achieving the impossible. So a great topic. There’s a lot of business owners, entrepreneurs, and executives that listen to this. So we got a lot of dreamers, a lot of executors, a lot of people that are out there working.
So good stuff. You’re in good company. And I guess just to get us kicked off here. I mean, I see the titles founder and CEO. Have you always been an entrepreneur? Like how’d you get into entrepreneurship? I have actually always. been an entrepreneur. I started off in the nonprofit space. But I have either worked as an I’ve started three nonprofits and nonprofit and and done consulting for larger organization.
Oh, that’s awesome. And like, so as an entrepreneur, I don’t know about about you, but I always think about the, the ups and downs and kind of everything in between that comes with being an entrepreneur. I know when I first got started, if I knew what I was signing up for, I don’t know, Abby, if I would do it a second time.
Don’t tell Chirag. I know you know Chirag, the other co founder here, but like, I like to, I like to try to work in like what I call a Pay it forward question for, especially for some of our younger entrepreneurs that are just getting started and maybe aren’t, aren’t quite as far along. If you could like give some advice to the, to the next group or crop of entrepreneurs coming out based off your experience, what kind of things would you tell them?
Yeah. That’s a great question. I was really lucky. I had. for that. Well, I was always had an entrepreneurial attitude and I famously said in my first job that no, is the beginning of the conversation about fundraising, it was better than not getting a response at all. I’m going to take that one away for a second, though, Abby.
Wait, no, is the beginning of the conversation. I love it. Continue. Please. That’s a great tip. I’m taking that one. Yeah, I, you know, I got really lucky and my first boss was a wonderful mentor, a real genius. She taught me that you know, she believed in me. She didn’t really care where I came from or what my pedigree was.
She cared about good ideas. And I learned that I can learn anything, which is an incredibly empowering takeaway. And she told me that with hard work, conviction and strategic thinking, nothing is impossible. And I live by those words, man. So would you say that mentorship or be either being mentored even mentoring others like that’s played a role in your, in your story?
Enormous. So important. I, to this day you know, really cultivate. My mentors and advisors I don’t have to have an advisory board, but I do at my company because it’s a great way to keep my advisors close. I’ve always taken it very seriously. It’s a gift. It’s been a real gift in my life and something that I take very seriously in passing on.
Thank you. Yeah, that’s amazing. And those are great tips. And by the way, I thought this was a tip for the beginner entrepreneurs and I’m the one getting everything there. So thank you. So that the tips you’re giving are relevant to not only beginners, but to people that have, let’s just say, been in the game a little bit.
Oh, man. So thank, thank you for that advice. And I’m going to take that myself as well. So I’m curious about this concept of just even maybe even achieving the impossible. Like what does that mean to you to achieve the impossible in business or otherwise? Like what does that mean in your life?
That’s a really good question. I guess it’s not accepting that something can’t be done. I am actually the first organization that I helped to start was it was a human rights organization, but it. It was, it’s everybody’s human right to live in a world with gender equality. Hmm. And I’m kind of returning to that in my life and taking on gender equality, which, you know, in a, I can talk more about it in a slicing off a small piece of the pie, but, Mm-Hmm.
Some might say it’s impossible, somebody has to try and, I’ve seen through my work and through others work. I’ve seen impossible things be achieved and You know it’s a challenging road I’m going to give an example of an impossible story that has to do with Haiti, but a lot of people just, you know, Haiti is a really difficult place without, You know, it’s, just such a tough place and people ask, well, why should I invest my money in making Haiti better?
Isn’t it just throwing money into you know whatever they say. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I understand. You know, , I can’t, and this is a personal thing just give up on the country. Hmm. Hmm. There has to be hope, and somebody’s gotta try, and there are people doing that work. What do you think keeps you strong and keeps you going here?
Because these are, like, when you’re facing these odds, or when you’re , let’s just say, climbing uphill, right? You’re fighting this battle, so to speak. Like, what keeps you strong? Hmm.
Hope. You know, I won’t get into it, but part of this story is, you know, facing my own challenges and overcoming my own challenges. Fighting for justice about things that are real in my life. How do you get through it? There’s only one option and that is having hope and doing it.
I think that’s well said. And I think that like, if I kind of sum up some of the things you brought on, like, obviously having the mentors, having the advisory board, having the, the strength and like, not, I guess not to put words in your mouth, but to think about like not accepting the status quo.
Right. Like just because it’s that way doesn’t mean it has to be that way. Is that what you’re, I want to make sure I’m saying that right. Yeah. Yes. You said that really well. So what’s your next conquest? Like, what are you working on right now? Oh, well, should I give the example of the impossible case?
Oh yeah. Do it. Do it. Yeah. Give it, give it to me. No, give it to me. Yep. Yep. I didn’t mean to go ahead. So, yeah I’ve worked on many, many cases. We focus on framing strategies on like real tangible change. So changing laws, reallocating millions of dollars. You know, it’s not just raising awareness, but it’s like really tangible change.
And I was working in Haiti shortly after the earthquake in 2010. I spent a couple years working with women there. And then I guess it was in 2012. I started working with a colleague who had received funding to support a legal case that he and a Haitian lawyer were suing the United Nations for bringing cholera to Haiti.
And they were asking for a formal acknowledgement and apology reforming peacekeeper protocol, and reparations and everybody, at the, I actually did some consulting at DUN, and at the time, at I was doing some consulting, nobody thought that you could win a case against the U. N. Certainly not to, you know, poorly resourced lawyers.
As part of the campaign I, it was one of my first videos I went to
Kind of follow the case that like the legal arguments that the lawyers were making you know, you saw the victims and the law, you saw the proximity of the. Part of the story is that and there were two things that happened. Peacekeepers were not adequately tested before arriving in Haiti. And they were from cholera endemic countries and then they didn’t manage waste well, and you can see the UN base right over Haiti’s main.
River. You know, hearing directly from the people who were affected talking, you know, we interviewed a doctor who talked about his experience. It was it was a really compelling case. And actually, the New York Times picked it up because of the video. The video was used in presentations with missions and legislators and then with the general public and especially media and there was a huge two page story about The UN being responsible for cholera in Haiti, and basically enough pressure from the court of public opinion that six years later, the UN did the UN.
The Secretary General said, acknowledged that the UN had brought Colorado to Haiti, apologized. They did change peacekeeper protocols worldwide and called on member states to pay reparations.
That is achieving the impossible.
My mind is blown by this story. When you’re like going uphill and you’re going through that, like as you’re going through this battle, like what’s going through your mind, like what’s going through your mind? There’s just gotta be so many emotions over the time period and otherwise, cause you’re seeing it, right?
Like what’s going through your mind? Yeah. Just what an injustice it is and like hoping I can, in my, whatever way I can, hoping that I can help. And I think those victories are what makes it possible. You know, you asked before what keeps you strong, and it’s like, you don’t win everyone, but having those victories and seeing justice really happen.
I’m a believer that justice can be done and also in the power of media to really advance what’s possible. So the media side of things, I mean, when I think about variant strategies in your, background, definitely human rights advocate filmmaker, you’re a storyteller.
I mean, a lot, a lot of different titles we can put, right? I don’t want to put one particular title or put you in any area. How would you describe your work? Like, as a storyteller or otherwise, like, how would you describe it? So, I am first and foremost a strategist and advocate. My work started at the organization that I described earlier.
And you know, I started as an administrative assistant. And quickly became director of development and communication. So I started storytelling really early running global campaigns and even just, I would go to funding meetings. And the my boss, they would ask what we’re trying to achieve and my boss would answer implement 1325s.
And then I’d have to come up with a story about like, what that means, why it matters. So storytelling has always been a really important part of The advocacy work that I do but I’m as much. a strategist, if not more, a strategist in thinking about how, actually I’m going to step back. I learned filmmaking because I helped build an organization that used video as an advocacy tool and that’s how I became a documentary filmmaker.
I learned technology and built the first mobile based response system for gender based violence in Haiti because technology, it was clear to me that technology was a really powerful tool for achieving human rights. So, those are the tools that I have. And I think that toolbox will continue to grow.
It’s figuring out how to use those tools effectively and who to be working with and where. You know, doing the power mapping and figuring out where the levers of change are that that’s really what. I do, first and foremost I’m an award winning filmmaker. I have a background in photojournalism, and I am really good at filmmaking.
But It’s a tool that I’ve, an incredibly powerful tool that I’ve picked up and now use in that fight for justice. It’s amazing. Abby, what, what do you got coming up or what, what are you working on right now? Like, what’s your next your next project or conquest? How do we want to word that? What do you got, what are you working on now?
Or what do you have coming up next? Thanks for asking. I have, I think, my most ambitious Ooh, I like that. I like when you even just lead in with that, Abby. The most ambitious. Go ahead. I’m listening. I’m smiling ear to ear. What do you got? Change of the world, girl. What sucks? So I’m, I’ve worked on all kinds of human rights issues over the past decade, but I really am finding myself drawn to focusing on gender equality.
Just thinking about what if the world’s leadership and decision makers and funders were half women, what would be possible if there was gender equality. So much has been achieved with discrimination. I can’t even imagine. You know, and communities thrive when women thrive. They’re more peaceful, well taken care of, healthy and, and gender equality is a big challenge. Nobody wants to give up power. For me, I think at the heart of it is the question of reproduction.
So many women are held back or excuses are made for why there aren’t more women in politics because they have to stay home and have, you know take care of a family first before they can enter, which is not true. Mm-Hmm. I am working on developing a business certification for businesses and institutions and non-profits that are reproductive and family friendly.
, it’ll be bigger than that. It will involve a lot of media campaigns and services and platforms. I’m calling it reproductive, but the kind of the business is the. Certifications, and there will be opportunities for education and trying to get business to lead the change. Everyone wants the best talent women want to work in places where they’re respected where there are good benefits.
That’s my next mission. Man, I love it. Abby, you are out here getting, getting things done. You’re taking on big projects. I think that’s super interesting. and I love that story you mentioned about like achieving the impossible. I mean, it’s very tangible and it’s just amazing to see what, what you’ve been a part of.
That being said, Abby, if somebody’s listening to this or watching this, and if they want to follow up and continue to follow your, journey, support your projects and what you’re working on, I mean, how, how do people do that? How do they connect? Yeah one thing I just want to say briefly is that all of the successes are thanks to great partnerships.
No one can do this stuff alone, which.
It’s something I should have said earlier when I was talking to young entrepreneurs. I haven’t done anything alone. The best way to follow up on our work is to go to our website, which is www dot. V A R I A N T S T R A T E G I E S dot com. Variantstrategies. com. You can also find us on Instagram.
We have a very small, but hopefully growing LinkedIn presence and my email is available on my website, so anybody can reach me. Perfect. And just for everyone, for the audience and everybody that’s tuning in, just so you know, we will definitely put the links to the website and all that good stuff in the show notes.
So you can just click on it and head right on over. And speaking of the audience. If this is your first time with Mission Matters and you haven’t done it yet, hit that subscribe button or that follow button, depending on where you’re at, because this is a daily show. Each and every day, we’re bringing you new content, new ideas, new stories, and hopefully new inspiration to help you along the way in your journey as well.
So again, hit that subscribe or that follow button. And Abby, again, appreciate you making some time for us to come on the show and and learning more about variant strategies and all your work. So again, thank you for coming on. Thank you so much.