Alter Everything

A podcast about data science and analytics culture.
Episode Guide

Interested in a specific topic or guest? Check out the guide for a list of all our episodes!

VIEW NOW
MaddieJ
Alteryx Alumni (Retired)

This week, we're joined by world traveler and marketing strategist, Mindy Grantham, as she reflects on her time spent in Guatemala and comments on how climate change is affecting coffee farmers.

 

 

Panelists

 

Mindy Grantham - Linkedin, Twitter

Maddie Johannsen - @MaddieJ, LinkedIn,Twitter


Topics

 

 


Community Picks

 

 


Transcript

 

Episode Transcription

MADDIE: 00:00 

[music] Welcome to Alter Everything, a podcast about data science and analytics culture. I'm your host, Maddie Johannsen, and today, my guest is Mindy Grantham. Mindy is a world traveler and marketing guru, and in this episode, she reflects on her time spent in Guatemala and comments on how climate change is affecting coffee farms. Let's get started. Hi, Mindy. Welcome to Alter Everything. Thank you so much for being here. 

MINDY: 00:49 

Thanks for having me. 

MADDIE: 00:50 

Absolutely. So to get started, can you go ahead and introduce yourself to our audience? 

MINDY: 00:57 

Yes. My name is Mindy Grantham. I'm a marketing strategist with over 25 years of experience in different industries, but the common thread through all of the different positions that I've had is I've always utilized data in order to make more informed decisions. 

MADDIE: 01:16 

We talked about that a little bit. I met you in person back in May when I was in Broomfield, Colorado, doing a Women of Analytics game night event, and we got to talking, and you have such a different and interesting story. Do you want to tell us a little bit about that? 

MINDY: 01:39 

Yes. Absolutely. At the end of 2012, I found myself unemployed due to layoffs, and a friend who had been laid off previously gave me some advice where he said, "Financially, you're okay for a while, and you're going to be going through all the emotions that everybody goes through when they're laid off, but the best thing that you can probably do for yourself right now is take some time." And the year before, I had volunteered in Ecuador for a week, had loved the experience, and so I decided that I was going to look for somewhere where I was going to be able to volunteer for a period of time. And so I had these criteria that I was looking for. It needed to be a country where I'd never been, somewhere warmer than Minnesota in winter [laughter], which isn't difficult to find, and somewhere where I was going to be able to learn Spanish. And so I chose Guatemala. 

MINDY: 02:51 

So I went down to help teach English at a school, but the teachers would put me on the spot. So we were supposed to be teaching the kids English, right, but then the teacher would say, "Well, the children will respond in English, but I want you to ask the question in Spanish," and I was like, "Ah, what [laughter]?" So I didn't enjoy that aspect [laughter] of the volunteer work in Ecuador. So when I signed up to volunteer in Guatemala, I was supposed to pick coffee, which I thought would be fantastic because I'd be able to stand on the side of a volcano, put my earbuds in, crank up the music, stand in the sunshine, and just pick coffee without a care in the world. 

MINDY: 03:52 

What's funny though is that that was what I was looking forward to, and I never ended up doing that because prior to leaving for Guatemala, the non-profit organization had seen that I had marketing experience, and so they sent me an email and they said, "We would prefer that you work in the office to help us with our marketing, although if you really, really, really want to pick coffee, you can do that as well." So I decided to go into the office and help them with their marketing. 

MINDY: 04:24 

At the time, the organization was called As Green As It Gets, and it was a volunteer-only organization up until that point. And so they had just hired a new executive director, and one of the lead donors had said that they weren't going to continue to donate to the organization unless they started bringing in employees so that there was some consistency. And so when I got there, the only marketing that they had were some brochures. So if groups came down and they said, "Do you know what? You really need a brochure describing what it is that you do," so that organization would do the brochure, or somebody would come down and say, "You really need to advertise in town to get tourists out here for the coffee tours," and so then they would create that. The website was all over the board. And so there was no consistency whatsoever. 

MINDY: 05:18 

So actually, in the two weeks that I was there, and they had given me a bunch of different options with things to work on, and I said, "Well, but where's your marketing strategy? Where's your style guide? Where are all of these other foundational elements?" and they said, "What?" And so that was what I did in the first two weeks that I was there. And then I was supposed to go travel for two weeks, which I did, but it was during those two weeks of travel that they called me back and they said, "Can you stay for another three months in order to help execute on these things that you've kind of laid out for us?" 

MADDIE: 05:55 

Wow. 

MINDY: 05:55 

So yeah. And it was still winter in Minnesota, and I didn't hesitate at all [laughter]. "Yes, yes, yes, yes." 

MADDIE: 06:05 

It takes a lot of bravery to extend your stay like that. I mean, three months in the grand scheme of things doesn't seem like a lot of time, but it also-- I mean, for me, I feel like a two-week commitment plus two weeks of travel at the end of that is doable, but being asked to stay for another three months sounds-- to me, I would probably have to give that a ton of thought, but it sounds like for you, you were so open to the adventure, which is awesome, and I wonder was there something about the people that you were working with that immediately made you drawn to that and very open to staying? 

MINDY: 06:53 

Yes. So it ended up being like-- I stayed three years with that organization and then stayed another three years with a different organization. 

MADDIE: 07:03 

Wow. 

MINDY: 07:03 

One month turned into six years quickly. But Guatemala is amazing. The farmers. So the first organization that I worked with, I ended up doing a full rebrand for them. Thankfully, I was working with an agency in Los Angeles prior to being laid off, and so they did some pro bono work for me-- 

MADDIE: 07:30 

Amazing. 

MINDY: 07:31 

--where we were able to rename the organization. It's called De la Gente, which is 'from the people,' and we did a new package, new website, all the social media. I mean, it was an amazing experience. And these farmers, they're up at 4:00 in the morning. Some of their fields are a good hour's walk straight up a volcano, and it's hard work. It's hard work year-round for them, and they do all of this with a smile on their face. And they're so warm and welcoming. And it was a very humbling experience. 

MINDY: 08:17 

And some of these farmers had these discussions with us, and they were like, "At any point in time, you can go home to the US, right? You can go back and this will just be another experience for you, but the work that you're doing, this is our livelihood. These are our lives. This is how we support our families." And getting to know them was-- it's difficult to put into words because you go into these homes where-- when the organization started, a lot of these homes didn't have bathrooms or they didn't have running water. They didn't have sort of normal walls. They might be made with cornstalks. They're a little bit different than what we think of as cornstalks. They would have dirt floors. They might not have electricity. 

MINDY: 09:21 

And so being able to work with these farmers in order to improve their living conditions or in order to make sure that their children are educated because most of the people that I worked with, a lot of the men would have third- to fifth-grade educations, and a lot of the women might have first-grade educations. Most of them couldn't read or write. So, yeah, it's life-changing. Absolutely life-changing. More people should have this experience. 

MADDIE: 09:51 

What was it like to come back to the US after that experience? Because that was kind of recent, wasn't it, when you came back? 

MINDY: 10:00 

Yes. I've only been back since February-- 

MADDIE: 10:03 

Wow. 

MINDY: 10:03 

--here in the US. Yeah [laughter]. It's weird to feel like a stranger in your own country, especially because things as simple as how you pay for something has changed drastically because-- so over the last six years, I would be in the US maybe a week or two weeks out of every year, but otherwise, I was in Guatemala, and so I went to pay for something at a store with a credit card, and I went to hand the credit card to the cashier, and she looked appalled that I would hand her [laughter] the credit card. And she kind of looked down at the machine on the counter, right, and I was like, "Oh, okay. So I swipe it," and her comment is, "It's a chip, ma'am [laughter]." And at this point, I'm beet red, and I'm like, "I'm sorry--" 

MADDIE: 11:03 

Oh, no. 

MINDY: 11:04 

"--I see that there's a chip here, but I don't know what I'm supposed to do [laughter]." The fact that I don't have an accent. The fact that-- I mean, I'm from the US, right? I look like I'm from the US, but then I have to go into these long explanations of, "I've been living in another country for six years. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I'm so sorry [laughter]." But otherwise, yeah, it's been a strange transition back into the US. The first couple of months were just very odd to me, and a lot of it, too, is-- 

MINDY: 11:39 

If I go into a mall, the consumerism is shocking, and that can be one of the hardest things because life in Guatemala was simple, and you learn exactly what you can live without. And so I'm at this sort of this personal conundrum now, though, because consumerism feels addictive, right? And so at times, I can go out to the mall and be like, "Oh, I can't believe that all of this is available or that all these people are here. They probably don't need these things," and then I'll see something and I'm like, "Ooh, I need that." I'm like, "No, no, no [laughter]." 

MADDIE: 12:21 

I did want to ask about some of the environmental issues that you saw in Guatemala because I know-- I mean, you're very connected to these farmers and their well-being, and so I imagine that living so close with them, working with them every day and really diving into that culture, you're very in tune with some of the risks that they face, that we hear about on the news, and we see articles about it all the time, but I would imagine that you probably have a different perspective on the environmental impact that these farmers are facing. 

MINDY: 13:10 

Yes. Climate change, I mean, became more than just something where I would read an article about it, right? It became front and center. And I remember growing up, my grandpa was a farmer, and so he was always talking about weather, but I didn't really think about it, right? And then now, all of a sudden, when I'm with these farmers and they're talking about-- so what is called roya in Spanish or coffee rust has been a thing forever really, but because of climate change, it is now spreading to regions where it hadn't traditionally been, and it's spreading to altitudes where it'd never been. 

MINDY: 14:06 

And so these smallholder coffee farmers, right - I mean, we're talking about really small farms - some of these farmers would have maybe an acre worth of coffee, and that's what they use to support their families. And so when they started seeing coffee rust, which is an airborne disease that kills the plants, they were devastated, right? Some of these farmers were losing their entire crops because of this, and they didn't know what to do about it because again, most of them are not well-educated; they don't have a lot of money; they don't have resources; the government isn't coming out there to help them with their one acre of coffee, right? 

MINDY: 14:51 

But what many of us don't realize is that coffee can take three to five years in order to start producing, and so if this farmer loses his whole crop and he has to replant, not only does he have to tear all of that out and then replant - so he has the expense of the new plants - but he's not going to have a full production for five years. So all of these catastrophes are devastating to families and to communities. And so coffee rust was just one of the things that they were faced with. There's also the coffee borer. 

MINDY: 15:27 

But with the climate change, they're seeing the plants flowering at different times. The rainy seasons are different. So in Guatemala, they have six months of dry season, and then they have six months of rain, or at least that's what it's supposed to be, but the rains have become very strange, and so they might not start on time. They might have a drought when there's supposed to be rainy season. And so the climate is drastically different now. And some studies say that by 2050, climate change will reduce the global area that's suitable for production of coffee by as much as 50%. So-- 

MADDIE: 16:17 

Wow. 

MINDY: 16:17 

--for whoever is a coffee lover like myself, climate change [laughter] is real, and we need to start doing something about it. 

MADDIE: 16:27 

Wow. Yeah, and I wonder if-- as you were saying, they're very aware of what's normal and what's not and how the rain seasons-- it's very noticeable when they don't start on time and those kinds of differences. I'm wondering about any sort of analytics practices that these organizations use and, if not these organizations specifically, what analytics practices do you think are important when trying to make sure that practices for farmers are sustainable for coffee and crops in general around the world? 

MINDY: 17:20 

There are some organizations out there now that are looking at how best to apply fertilizers, when to do that, or how best to water the plants, right, but, I mean, a lot of these farmers that I worked with, there's no way for them to irrigate, right? Yes, we could definitely talk to them about the land fertility. They do some really basic stuff right now, which are called The Three Sisters, and so in order to make sure that the land remains fertile, they will intercrop, and so there's a lot of room in order to help these farmers. 

MINDY: 18:17 

The biggest issue, though, is going to be how to get to them and how to train them because, again, they're not on the internet. They're not going to be able to read studies. They're not going to be able to understand any of the data let alone what to do with that data. So everything is going to have to be broken down into, "Here's what you do. Here's how you utilize it," in order to make sure that they're able to actually utilize any of the data available. I think in general, education needs to be an area of focus in Guatemala because one of the-- 

MINDY: 19:02 

When you talk about sustainability and coffee, not only are you talking about it from an environmental standpoint, but you're also talking about it just in terms of whether or not that farmer chooses to continue to farm coffee. I looked at what the C market price is right now. Coffee is a commodity and traded on the stock exchange, and so price for one pound of green coffee right now is going at about $1. $1 for green coffee doesn't even begin to cover the costs associated for the farmer to grow that coffee. Therefore, a lot of farmers are actually choosing not to continue to plant coffee, but rather, taking out their coffee and planting other crops instead, which they can actually make money on. 

MINDY: 19:56 

And so when you talk about future generations, a lot of those-- if the farmers are able to send their children to school, a lot of them are choosing different careers, and so that is also going to be one of the major impacts in the coffee industry, is that whether or not we will have generations choosing to do something other than coffee farming. 

MADDIE: 20:22 

Interesting. We've read these articles about exactly what you're saying, that there are species of coffee that are disappearing and that it's not sustainable for the farmers and their well-beings and how they're making a living, but I wonder if there's some sort of timeline for when that would really be a wakeup call because I think that there are so many people that are coffee fanatics, and something that is a part of your daily routine being affected by the price of your cup of coffee going up like crazy or just realizing that there is no more coffee or there's a shortage on coffee, I would imagine that that would be a wakeup call for people. 

MINDY: 21:08 

Yes, exactly, right? I think that a lot of consumers don't realize the extent of the problem and that it's not just environmental causes, right? It's also when we're looking for cheap coffee, right? A lot of people want organic only these days, and that's one of the things, as I come back into the US, and as I go into especially Costco and I see organic on every product, and a lot of the smallholder coffee farmers can't afford the certification. So they might be organic in every way possible, but they're not going to pay for that certification, and so I think that we need to be, in terms of coffee, thinking about it in different ways. And so don't necessarily just look for organic, but look for direct-trade coffees as well. 

MINDY: 22:13 

So that was one of the things that De la Gente did. So rather than going through middlemen to market the coffee, we went straight to roasters here in the US, and then the roasters are able to pay more per pound of coffee. And so where I said, right now, on the market, one pound of green coffee is going for $1, whereas we were able to go to roasters and, on average, we would get $3.50 for that same pound of green coffee, which is huge to the farmers. So if you look for direct-trade coffees, which I also think is better than Fairtrade because, again, Fairtrade is also certification and can be difficult for farmers. 

MINDY: 22:58 

We should also look for coffee shops that support farmers. Use reusable mugs. Don't use straws. And one of the things that I think is really difficult for me to see environmentally are the K-cups or anything like that with the Keurigs and other machines similar to that which use the pods which go directly into landfills. And so if you like the convenience of a machine like the Keurig, get the reusable things that you're able to put your own coffee into. There's actually articles about the inventor of the Keurig machine where he says that he wishes that he either would have not invented it or thought about it from the environmental standpoint. He just didn't realize how it would take off, but, yeah, it's amazing that an inventor would say that. 

MADDIE: 23:56 

Yeah. Yeah, that's huge. Yeah, all very good points. And I love that you talked about the Fairtrade issue too because, I mean, I feel it's becoming-- I don't want to call it trendy, but I think it is in some ways. I think there is a movement of being more conscious of our buying habits, and are we buying-- are we shopping sustainably, but I think that that's a really important call-out, that those things cost money to the makers, and some people can't always afford it, which maybe their products get passed over because they're not certified. And same thing for organic too. So that's a really good call-out. 

MINDY: 24:46 

Yep. And I do believe Fairtrade is better than not Fairtrade, right, but I believe direct-trade or anything where roasters are going directly to the farmers and paying them a fair amount of money for the work that they've put into it I think is even better. When I was working with De la Gente, a reporter from the New York Times had come down to do a story-- 

MADDIE: 25:14 

Oh, wow. 

MINDY: 25:14 

--and we were walking with a farmer up to a plot of his land, and she and I were just chitchatting, and during that conversation, I had said, "If it were up to me to farm coffee, we would all be drinking water because it's so much hard work." And so she's like, "Oh, let me record that," and I'm like, "No, no, no, no. A, I don't want to sound lazy [laughter], and B, this is all about the farmer, not me," right? But an amazing amount of work goes into the coffee farming, and we need to be able to pay those farmers for their work. 

MADDIE: 25:56 

I want to ask you, too, about moving to Guatemala in the first place and your decision to want to do that. Was there a catalyst that made you say, "Okay, I want to do this"? 

MINDY: 26:16 

Yes. When I was 35 and supposedly healthy, I found a lump in my breast, which drove me to go in to get a mammogram. And through lots and lots of tests, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. And I'm sure at any age when you're told you have cancer, that your life changes, but at 35 when you feel like you have everything kind of in front of you, it changes you. And I've never wanted cancer to define me, but it has affected me, and it really makes you think about what's important in life and what you really want to do and then to go after that. 

MINDY: 27:22 

And so I had always wanted to live outside of the US because I love adventure and I love immersing myself in different cultures and meeting new people, and I had always hoped that it would be with a large company that would send me abroad. And I had this very-- I don't know if it was a realistic picture of what it would look like to be an expat, but when this opportunity came up in Guatemala, it was surprising, but when I thought about it and I'm like, "Okay, this isn't what you had thought it would be, but why would you say no to this opportunity? It's everything that you wanted," and probably more, right, because it got me out of my comfort zone. 

MINDY: 28:18 

When I thought about it with a large company, most likely they're going to put you up in a nice apartment, and you'd still have some sort of stipend for living and so probably wouldn't have seen any change in my lifestyle. But going to Guatemala, it was a harsh reality in terms of what I had available to me and what life was now like, and it was probably the best thing that could've happened to me. And so, yes, it was the cancer that has made me rethink what I need in my life and what I want to do with my life. 

MADDIE: 29:03 

Yeah. Thank you for sharing that because I feel like it's obviously very personal, but, as you said, it is part of your story and it's affected you, but I think it's very inspiring to hear how you flipped that experience into driving something that you've always wanted. I can't think of a more enriching life experience than the one that you told us about, being abroad. And I wonder, too, as a survivor, if you have any thoughts on data and analytics in healthcare and how for survivors if there is something that is driving that research for breast cancer or for illnesses in general and maybe what we can do to improve the data that's available. 

MINDY: 30:02 

There is so much now going on within the healthcare field, right, and within cancer, when we think about the US system and how expensive care is, right? And so we're trying to get smarter about how cancers are treated to the point where they're actually looking at what is the molecular makeup of tumors so that care can be individualized. And while at first blush, you're like, "But wait. If it's individualized, that seems like it would drive costs up," but because you can actually know more about each of the tumors, you're able to get the therapy and the treatment right more often than not versus just, "Here's this chemotherapy that's going to kill everything and anything." And so we are getting better at understanding how to treat cancers. 

MINDY: 31:21 

As a part of-- or since I am a breast cancer survivor, there was this opportunity to participate in a study called the Sister Study. And they encourage sisters to participate as well, and so me and my sister participate in this. And it is a part of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. And there are more than 50,000 women who participate in it in the US as well as Puerto Rico, and they are putting out some great research based off of data. And so one of theirs-- and sometimes, it can seem-- I don't want to say odd, right, but one of their recent articles, based off of the data, is day-to-day regularity in breakfast consumption and whether or not that's associated with obesity because weight and being obese or overweight can increase your chances of getting a cancer or a recurrence. 

MINDY: 32:42 

And so they do these things where it, to me, might seem a little strange at first, but then it's like, "But wait. This has an impact on our daily habits, right?" because what they saw in this particular study is that if somebody ate breakfast every day of the week or if they chose not to eat breakfast every day of the week, that they had less of a chance of being obese versus somebody who eats breakfast every once in a while. And you start looking at your daily habits, right, and you're like, "Okay, so I'm either going to eat breakfast every day or I'm never going to eat breakfast." 

MINDY: 33:30 

But then they also look at whether or not severe acne increases the risk of breast cancer because of that hormonal imbalance and whether or not that affects it and whether or not that helps identify women at a higher risk. So they're doing amazing stuff with data and determining who's at higher risk, the things that we can be doing differently, and how to treat the cancers differently. 

MADDIE: 34:04 

Wow. Yeah, that's really great to hear. And I love that you and your sister participate. It sounds like it's such a-- that would be such a amazing experience to have somebody to go through that with or be able to be at your side, and for her to be able to share some insight too because, I mean, it sounds like that was set up with such purpose, that this might run in the family or-- I'm not totally sure. I mean, you obviously know more about it than I do, but I'm also-- breast cancer runs on my dad's side of the family too, and so it's definitely something that me and my sister think about and we keep in mind, although - I mean, correct me if I'm wrong - I think that if it's on my paternal side, it's less likely? I'm not totally sure, but I think that it's something that we should all be cognisant of. 

MINDY: 35:09 

We should all definitely be cognisant of. The one thing, though, that surprised me when I was going through it was that the breast cancer markers that they have found only answer 10% of breast cancer cases, and so that leaves the rest of us, the 90%, like, "Well, why did I get it?" right? And so the best course of action is to do our breast self-checks monthly, and then once you hit 40, start getting mammograms, but also to talk about this, right? And so if it can happen to me, it can happen to anybody, and that's how I kind of feel about it. And so sharing my story, I hope that more women look into this and talk about it and are healthy, right? 

MADDIE: 36:18 

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely because, I mean, when I met you in person, I had no idea because you seemed like a very healthy person, so, I mean, yeah, like you said, I feel like you never know, so, yeah, that's very much a great reminder to make sure that we're all taking preventative measures and doing the self-checks and going to get the mammograms and all of those things. With healthcare in the US-- I know that we have some listeners around the world, but with healthcare in the US, I believe that they recommend getting mammograms - actually, I'm not sure - when you're 40 or 50, or? 

MINDY: 36:58 

It has changed, and I'm not quite sure since I've been out of the US for six years, but they're also now suggesting to do them less frequently rather than yearly because some of the research indicates that the radiation from the mammograms might actually be causing more harm than good. 

MADDIE: 37:24 

Oh, wow. 

MINDY: 37:25 

But as a person who-- so the initial lump that I found actually ended up being a cyst, but it was that cyst that was very different from all of my other monthly checks that drove me in to get my mammogram, and it was the mammogram that found the micro calcifications that I would've never been able to feel because micro calcifications can be about the size of salt grains. So you-- 

MADDIE: 37:53 

Oh, wow. 

MINDY: 37:55 

--you're never going to feel those. So it is the mammogram that found those in my breast and found the cancer, and so I am a major proponent for mammograms. I definitely am, so yeah. 

MADDIE: 38:12 

Well, I wonder then, do you know how quickly something like that would escalate, having the calcifications? 

MINDY: 38:21 

Well, okay. So micro calcifications can be-- they're actually quite natural and normal in all breasts, but it's when they start clustering that that can indicate cancerous activity. And so it was this cluster of my micro calcifications that I had to then go in for an enlarged view of that particular section of my breast so that they were able to see if there was any concern, which then drove it to go in for the biopsy and all these other tests. And so micro calcifications are normal within breasts. It's just the clustering that's not. But, yeah, most women wouldn't-- you'd never be able to feel it, right, but there are other things that you can feel for and should be feeling for on a monthly basis. 

MADDIE: 39:15 

Got it. Got it. Very, very good to know. Yeah. And, again, thank you so much for sharing that. 

MINDY: 39:22 

Yes, my pleasure [laughter]. 

MADDIE: 39:25 

Well, I feel like I could talk to you all day long, but, Mindy, what's on your mind this week for community picks? 

MINDY: 39:32 

What is on my mind is Greta Thunberg, if you know her [laughter]. 

MADDIE: 39:39 

I love her. 

MINDY: 39:41 

She is amazing. How is it that this little 16-year-old is-- when I think about what I was talking about at 16 compared to what she is doing, it's amazing. And so she's out there talking about the climate, right, and is an activist for doing something about climate change. 

MADDIE: 40:06 

And that famous quote of hers when she said, "I want you to act as if the house is on fire because it is," is just so poignant, and her delivery is just chilling because she's so good at communicating, and, like you said, she's 16. I can't wait to see where she goes and where she takes it because she already is such a rock star, and I feel like she's going to be definitely in the history books, one of the biggest voices for climate change. 

MINDY: 40:40 

I agree. I mean, how at-- she boils it down too, right, and talks about how is it that this isn't the biggest thing that we're trying to solve today; how can we continue to ignore climate change? And just with her background as well, right? She's autistic, and so she talks about how she doesn't feel the need to talk until she has something to say, and so oftentimes, she chooses not to speak, but I'm glad that she has chosen to be out in front of this on a global scale. I mean, what an amazing, amazing person. 

MADDIE: 41:33 

Absolutely. Yeah, that's a really good community pick [laughter]. Thank you for sharing that. My community pick this week is the Human Rights Campaign. They have an amazing website, hrc.org, where they have just a bunch of resources and studies about corporate culture and equality in the US, but one of the best things I think on here are resources for the LGBTQ community, and they share a list of help centers and hotlines that you can call if you need to talk to somebody, but also just ways to get involved and support and be an ally. So if you've never heard of the Human Rights Campaign, definitely recommend checking it out. 

MINDY: 42:26 

That's a fantastic one. I had actually worked with the Colorado AIDS Project back in the early '90s-- 

MADDIE: 42:36 

Oh, cool. 

MINDY: 42:37 

--before the cocktail therapy and things like that. And so I was a buddy, and I was paired up with somebody that had full-blown AIDS and went through the whole process with him during that timeframe. It was an amazing experience. 

MADDIE: 42:52 

Wow. I mean, I think we all probably know somebody who is affected by that crisis, and it's still definitely an issue. So I love that. It's very encouraging and inspiring to hear that you are very involved in not only the environmental concerns, but also just the human element. I can tell that you very much care about people. Like I said, I could talk to you all day about this [laughter]. 

MINDY: 43:26 

Well, thank you. Yeah. And then I worked in New York City for a period of time, and I worked with the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center, which is for the LGBTQ community, and they're doing fantastic work. 

MADDIE: 43:43 

Amazing. 

MINDY: 43:43 

Yeah. So lots of great organizations out there helping the community, and it's definitely still needed even though we've made a lot of progress. 

MADDIE: 43:52 

Absolutely. Absolutely. Great, well, Mindy, thank you so much for joining me. This has been such a enlightening episode, and thank you so much for sharing all of your incredible stories. [music] 

MINDY: 44:08 

Thank you for having me. 

MADDIE: 44:19 

Thanks for tuning in to Alter Everything. To share your thoughts and ideas for future episodes, join us at community.alteryx.com/podcast or reach us on Twitter using the hashtag, #altereverythingpodcast. Have a unique story to tell? Send us an email at podcast@alteryx.com. Catch you next time. 


This episode of Alter Everything was produced by Maddie Johannsen (@MaddieJ).