Brian Crawford 0:00
Welcome to the Create Good podcast.

I’m Brian,

Dawn Crawford 0:04
and I’m Dawn.

Brian Crawford 0:05
And we’ve spent the last decade plus working with passionate communicators, activists and do gooders around the country. We also host a conference called Create Good, where we gather folks to share their work, and create a community for people trying to make the world a better place.

Dawn Crawford 0:23
The Create Good podcast is a conversation with changemakers and rabble rousers to find out what makes them tick, and how they create good, let’s get started.

Welcome to this great good podcast. Today we have Tamika Felder, on who is an amazing woman. She is a cervical cancer survivor, and all around super inspiring lady. So thanks for taking your time today to chat with me.

Tamika Felder 0:55
Thanks for having me. I’m always excited to talk to you. Great, thank

Dawn Crawford 0:59
you. So yeah, so tell us your current title and the name of your organization.

Tamika Felder 1:05
So my current title is Chief Visionary. The organization is Cervivor Inc.

Dawn Crawford 1:11
Great. And tell us a little bit about your organization’s

Tamika Felder 1:14
so Cervivor is, you know, recently we had a social media post, and what does Cervivor mean to you. And for me, it’s everything. It’s a beacon of hope it’s a hug on a dark day. But essentially, it is part support for people and their loved ones who are diagnosed with cervical cancer. But it’s also an advocacy organization for those who went to make their survivorship count on another level, because within cervical cancer, there’s so much work to be done because it is a cancer that cause we have the tools to not only detect cervical cancer, but to prevent it. So there’s a lot of work to be done to make sure that we eliminate cervical cancer for future generations.

Dawn Crawford 2:01
Absolutely. And I think what’s really cool about organization is it’s it’s a survivor’s group. So you do a lot of really great empowerment of survivors of this cancer and giving them opportunities to use their voice, right?

Unknown Speaker 2:16
Absolutely. You know, my background is in television production. And so I came out of the womb with the gift of gab, not everyone has that. So I help people to find their voice on whatever level they’re they want, and how often they want to use it. But as much as we give empowerment, we also let people know that it is okay to not be okay. It is okay to not be positive. You know, I remember in my own diagnosis that 25 When people were telling me it’s gonna be okay, don’t cry. And no, I think that’s a natural reaction. But it’s also something that no one who’s ever heard those words, you have cancer, and literally, the immediate thought you had even I’m the most positive person. But when I was diagnosed with cancer, it was just like, I going to die, right? Like how, you know, that’s, you think that and then, even if you think like, I’m gonna beat this, I’m gonna do everything that I want to do. Having a cancer diagnosis is not a fun thing. Like, I know people fake having cancer. But people who go through a cancer diagnosis, it’s really hard. There’s the one aspect of dealing with, you know, the cancer diagnosis except itself on the physical level. But there’s this whole emotional level that goes along with it. And when treatment and surgery is over, it’s not like that experience just is because I foolishly thought, like, I’m gonna pick up my life, right where it left off, and never think about this again, put it behind me–please. I would say foolish, and thinking that and I literally give people the real deal that, you know, cancer is hard in when you survive it. It’s not like it’s all rainbows and unicorns, you know? Are you thankful that you’re alive? But you’re like, Okay, now what? How do I put the pieces of my life back together?

Dawn Crawford 4:07
Absolutely. Absolutely. And you’re not… So this series is really about talking to people who have communications in their title, and you do not have communication in your title. But I think you’re such an inspiring communicator. I think you’re very amazingly talented at telling your organization story and inspiring other people. That’s why I wanted to have you on this podcast is because you’re so good at that at doing it. And I think it is from your perspective of having that media background, and just bringing that to the table and also your passion and your spunk and fabulousness. So,

Unknown Speaker 4:41
thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. In the core of it all, it’s what’s the story, right? Like what matters? What are you trying to tell? You know, there’s so many nonprofits now you look at breast cancer for yeah, there’s so many breast cancer organizations. That’s fine. There’s nothing wrong with that. But how do you shine a light on your cause? Right your brand? Because that’s the other thing a nonprofit is a cause it’s a brand. You have to think of it that way. So what’s your branding? What’s your message? What’s the story that you’re telling? Like, why should people care? What matters? When I first got into this cervical cancer space, I remember thinking the story is wrong, they’re telling the story wrong? Like, why aren’t people sharing their stories? And then, oh, now that I’m in the advocacy world, for HPV related cancer, I get why people aren’t sharing their story. Because it’s negative it there’s a stigma out there, all of this and not that you want to lie about anything. But you have to understand what is your organization communicating? I love when you intro it and you said, like you empower you know, yes, that’s what we want you to feel. And so what is the story? What’s the Cervivor story that we’re telling that you can be empowered, you can be inspired, you can feel alive, but we also, if you’re having a bad day, if you want to punch something, you know, you could do that, too. So yes, you see us positive, but I hope it’s not in that, you know, positive, toxic type. No, we will have it. And I want people to know that there are real people behind the organization.

Dawn Crawford 6:24
Yes. Yeah. I think you do a great job of that. A lot of patient advocacy, too. Yeah. As celebrities. And yeah, which is great, because they have a great platform, we have a wide reach and a loud voice. But I think that is also another great flavor to your organization, right? Is this idea of real people dealing with real stuff all the time? And yeah, just the reality of cervical cancer and how not everybody’s is lucky to survive, you know, and that there’s recurrence rates and things like that. So it’s yeah, it’s tough.

Unknown Speaker 6:55
When I’m diagnosed, it was before social media, internet was just coming in, you know, so long ago. And I remember thinking, there’s this organization that I went to for support, and it was just, the longer I stayed on their website, it made me feel so bad, it didn’t provide any hope. And I didn’t want lies. But I was just like, this is depressing even more. And the testimonials from the patients were all silhouettes.

Dawn Crawford 6:55
Oh, wow.

Tamika Felder 7:04
I don’t want to feel ashamed of this. And, you know, I didn’t know what at the time, but it was the beginning of how I wanted to show up in this space and how I wanted to communicate not only my story, but help other people visualize themselves and bring them in and tell their stories too

Dawn Crawford 7:44
Yes, absolutely. So how long have you been in the nonprofit space? How many years?

Is 2005? I’ve got a teenager on my hands. It’s crazy. Like, you. Yeah, so much has happened. So there’s part of you that feels like we’ve been super successful. I’ve done a lot of it by myself. Now I have I no longer a staff of one. You know, for years, we’ve had many consultants and different people come in, but now we actually have an employee. It’s so good. But I also you know, it’s most difficult on myself. I’m like, what more can we do? What realistically can we do? What can we do better? Right?

Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah. Okay. Well beyond your nonprofit work. So share your career with us in 90 seconds or less.

Unknown Speaker 8:37
90 seconds or less. All right, I am Tamika Felder, I am passionate about all things communications, whether it is the stories that patients tell, or the good that they do in the world by showing up who they are and sharing their stories to help others. And so I help people do that.

Dawn Crawford 8:56
Perfect. I love it. So why nonprofits why this space?

Unknown Speaker 9:00
I never saw myself working in nonprofit, honestly, before my cancer diagnosis. I always thought like I would be working in television forever. But I wanted to do something I wanted to be a part of making a difference in this space. In order to do that. The natural next step was to have a nonprofit, I would have partnered with other people. But what I saw happening in some other nonprofits is not that they weren’t doing anything wrong. They just weren’t doing it the way that I thought it shouldn’t be done. As a patient and looking in, I created what I wish I had. And even now when a patient finds us later in their diagnosis or in survivorship, they say, Oh, I wish I would have seen this when I was diagnosed and not that Oh, it’s good what you’re doing and I’m gonna go create my own which some people do. But a lot of people they come in they say wow, you can really tell that you had this cancer. You’ve experienced it because the organization is literally built for the patient. It’s not built for our grant, our sponsors or other people. And it’s important to have, you know, grants and sponsorships and all that other stuff. But at the end of the day, we are built to our core with the patient at heart.

Dawn Crawford 10:17
That’s fantastic. That’s great. So what’s your favorite thing about what you do?

Unknown Speaker 10:23
My favorite thing about what I do is knowing that I have changed someone’s life, literally knowing that if it is the end of their life, that I’m able, we’re able to inspire them to give them hope, and give their life meaning in a different way. And again, these are not things when I started this organization that I thought about, but these are the things that have transpired and happen over the time that people who come in unfortunately, they die, but knowing that this organization has changed their life and made it more meaningful.

Dawn Crawford 11:00
Yeah, it’s pretty incredible. Some magic one time, what’s one thing you wish you could change about your working life?

Tamika Felder 11:08
One thing I wish I could change. I wish that stigma of cervical cancer, and HPV related cancers weren’t there, it makes so much more difficult. It truly does.

Dawn Crawford 11:23
Which is such a fascinating problem from somebody who’s Yeah, worked in the HPV vaccination space for a long time. Now, it’s so confusing, right? So yes, it is a disease that is contracted through sexual intercourse. But like, that is what that’s what humans do. Like there’s it’s so bizarre, that it’s just our Puritan country. Like I just don’t get it. I just don’t I fundamentally don’t understand. Right, like,

Tamika Felder 11:48
it’s super frustrating. And, you know, I had my mammogram recently. Yes. And I was so of course, because I shared it on social media, you know, like, but but let me tell you, I got to that mammogram. They called, they emailed. They sent me a DM on Instagram like, and when I thought about it, I was like, wow, look at all of this. They’re there. Remind me get your mammogram like you’re past due. Come in. We they reached out to me, snail mail, text, emails, voicemail, like I said, Instagram, DMs, but that won’t happen. for cervical cancer, there was this Kaiser study that was done. And what they found was people don’t want to be reminded about their Pap test. They don’t want to be reminded to put their feet in the stirrups. Like why? Why? Yeah, not attached to it. And so we have to change the messaging, we have to change the way that doctors are talking about this. So people don’t feel ashamed to get a Pap test that they don’t have to feel ashamed to put their feet on the stirrups. They don’t feel like if they’re diagnosed with something that they’re going to be judged based on that. And you know, Why, oh, this is going on people are dying if you have to die of cervical cancer, and so that it’s super frustrating.

Dawn Crawford 13:11
Absolutely. And there’s new stats about health inequality, right with cervical cancer, that the survival outcomes have changed a lot the last two years.

Unknown Speaker 13:20
You know, we’re supposed to be going forward. Yeah. Numbers are supposed to be decreasing. But numbers are increasing and people of color, especially black and Latina women who are diagnosed with cervical cancer people who have a cervix that are diagnosed with cervical cancer, those numbers are higher than ever. And I am so lucky that I survived it. Right. But I but I also understand why those numbers are the way that they are. And I mean, if we really, really I don’t even know if we have enough time to peel back vocally? Yeah. We have to talk about slavery. Yeah. about health disparities. So talking about communicating, right, yeah, communicating that you have to talk about these, these hurtful things from the past, in order for us to talk about why there’s medical bias, why there’s, you know, mistrust of medical providers, you know, and understanding it, no one’s playing the blame game that your ancestors or whomever, you know, people had to stop taking it personal, and do the heavy lifting so that we all can move forward. There is no reason that people shouldn’t be dying of cervical cancer in this country. There’s no reason at all.

Dawn Crawford 14:45
Yeah, yeah. It’s so complicated. It’s a lot about representation, though, too. And I think that’s what your organization does. So well. It’s having so many different voices and so many different people from every slice of life, you know, and it’s…

Unknown Speaker 14:59
you wanna tell your Story will train you will train you, we need you this this nonprofit is run by a black woman. It’s like pulling to get more black women to share. But again, I understand why. Yeah. And I’m willing to do the work, right. And I will tell anyone if you want to diversity and representation within your organization, it’s not easy. And you have to be willing to do the work.

Dawn Crawford 15:29
Absolutely. So what are you looking forward to in the next year professionally?

Unknown Speaker 15:35
Adding more staff, you know, it is hard running a sole nonprofit. I mean, we’ve always been blessed with great board members, great volunteers. You know, a lot of times I one of our sponsors that we had for many years, I don’t remember what happened when we started COVID. And I was like, Well, you know, I’m used to working from wherever I am, in the house, or whatever. I said, so this isn’t a big deal for me. She was like, Oh, should you shut down your office? And like, I’ve never had an office? You know, an office building with rent a conversation. She was like, Well, how many are on your staff and I was like I’ll let you know. But it’s fine. So on one hand, I was like, Yes, I love that. You think that there’s this machine that is keeping this going? Right. But on the other hand, like I got to chill out like, Yeah, well, I’d theme for this year, when we kicked off January for cervical cancer awareness month was take care of you in 2022. And I literally had been all about that. And when I flip, I remind myself of that, because if COVID told us nothing else, we have to reset, relax and take care of ourselves. So I’m looking forward to having more people join our team, getting the funding there. Finding the right people, and letting them shine by like, I don’t want them to come in. And it’s like, what do you want to do? And how do you want to do it? I want to build a team where there were this force to be reckoned with, and we have ideas and even if we don’t agree, like we’re all putting our heart in it and see what’s next for the organization. Right? If I’m not here, right, God forbid that for whatever reason I’m not here, or maybe I’m not leading it in the same way. Who’s gonna take it forward? And what will that look like? You know,

Dawn Crawford 17:34
absolutely.

Tamika Felder 17:35
So legacy-building I guess that’s what I’m saying

Dawn Crawford 17:38
Yeah,yeah, that’s a good, yeah, it’s important. Yeah. Especially at the age of your organization, to Yeah, to start thinking about that next step. And how does it get to something that’s completely sustainable? So yeah, so you’ve achieved a lot, you’ve started your own nonprofit, you’re now going to grow your nonprofit. So what else do you need to achieve?

Tamika Felder 17:58
What else do I need to achieve?

Dawn Crawford 18:00
You get to hang out with presidents and stuff? Like, I feel like you’ve done a lot.

Unknown Speaker 18:04
You know, that that stuff is so cool. I’m not even gonna lie. Yeah. Being a part of the Congressional Record. I’m like, what does that mean? Again? It’s cool, right? I saw some good news is somebody they’re like, I’m in the Congressional Record it I was like, me too. But But honestly, I want to do more global stuff. I want to go to places, we have people who want to have survivors schools, you know, in Africa and different places, and really grow our global community because we have a rich, rich community from places that I’m always impressed. Like, there’s this person, I can’t remember where it was, it was something I’d never heard of. And I had to look up where it wasn’t it is somewhere in Europe. And I was just like, how cool is it? Yes, person 1. found best 2. you’re using the hashtag Cervivor. You know, like, how cool is that? And so I really want to make sure that 1. we have sustainability that can go because it’s hard for nonprofits and COVID was very hard, but how can we sustain ourselves and grow and move forward but but also continue? If not do it better what we’re already doing because I’m proud of this little organization that could Yeah, that I never saw it this way. I never saw me working for it. I never saw it just, it literally was this website, like I want people to find us. I want them to post their story. And the next thing I know we’re doing a walk we’re doing our version of Vagina Monologues, got an award winning YouTube channel and you know, all of that is really great. But at the end of the day, what are we doing to help people right, yeah, how can making a difference in their lives? Or as you all say, and I love how are we creating good? Yeah, absolutely. What did you have to add? Ask yourself, you know, because you could have a nonprofit, but why does it matter? In? What is it doing to create good in the world?

Dawn Crawford 20:10
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So what advice do you have somebody who’s maybe coming into nonprofit life or transitioning from the for profit world,

Unknown Speaker 20:20
you know, to really, you’ve got to love what you do. I also hate this thing. If you’re working for nonprofits, you know, you don’t make a lot of money, you’re working long hours. And it’s just basically you’re, you’re doing good work. But evenings rough, right? We have to change that culture, we have to change the culture of, you know, you expect for for profit, here are these things, let’s have these resources. And so our funders and the grantors, and people, if you you asked so much of nonprofit, but you also have to fuel into those nonprofits, you have to make it easier for them. I always laugh and say I can stretch $1. So when Morgan started working for the nonprofit, she was like before, you can stretch $1. But yeah, that’s good. But you shouldn’t always have to be worrying about that. Well, to be funded fully to execute the things that we need to do. And these aren’t things that we’re doing and make ourselves look better. These are things that we want to do to change people’s lives. I mean, yeah, you have a card program, where we send out an obscene number of cards, right? But it’s because we want people to know we see you, we saw which posted it, and we’re thinking of you, but that takes people doing it, right? It takes card, then there’s postage and the postage is constantly going up and things are moving slower. I just want to make sure that there’s a culture around nonprofit being just great work, but extremely hard. And that’s okay. But there’s a way to do it. And it not be done that way. Because there are funds out there. But they make it so hard for nonprofits or the same large nonprofit, getting all the glory getting all the funding. But then there’s smaller nonprofits who are doing amazing work, and they’re getting less funded. But even more is being asked to them. Yeah. I don’t know, if anybody relates to that reach out to me on social media. I feel like I’m not alone.

Dawn Crawford 22:28
I mean, it’s Yeah. And I think that’s, that’s been a reoccurring kind of theme through a lot of these conversations lately is, yeah, that we need to change this perception that nonprofit work is less profit work. Right? Yes. And yeah, but as I was thinking, What are you thinking through and giving your examples? Is that also, So nonprofits are are a lot of how kindness happens in the world. Right. And it’s a lot of it’s that structure for people to be kind to each other. But it is a structure in a in a vehicle for kindness. And I think we can all use more kindness. But it’s an interesting idea, right? That if nonprofits went away, or you know, because the smart people or have to go into for profit work, like what happens what happens to the good in the world?

Unknown Speaker 23:19
Exactly. And you want to be able to offer competitive packages. Yeah. to employers. So you can have someone was like, I really wanted to that, that. But I got to eat Yeah, I gotta pay my mortgage. Yeah, I provide transportation daycare from a kid that health care health insurance. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yes. So that’s the part. To me, that is really, really hard. And as we move into this next, you know, level of who we are as an organization, you know, people asked, like, why did you want to volunteer for the organization? For many years? I was just a volunteer. Yeah. You know, why did you do it? That’s why because we couldn’t afford to hire somebody. Yeah. And then when we could afford to hire someone, it’s like, oh, well, maybe I can bring them in part time. But it’s like, you know, it’s reached the self care. We’re talking about making sure that people weren’t just insured. But there are a lot of people who are insured, but they’re underinsured. Yeah. Offer a good package, so that someone who is pouring their blood sweat and tears into this work, that they’re duly compensated. I’m not talking about someone who was just like you’re paying an obscene amount of money, but someone who has the degree they have the experience, the heart, the grit, all of it, and paying them a living wage. Yeah, right.

Dawn Crawford 24:47
Absolutely. Great. So this next section of questions is about feedback. So it’s about feedback on your ideas and on your work and your writing and your program. Um, let’s not really necessarily about like, performance feedback and like HR stuff, but it’s really just about feedback on your ideas. So how do you personally process criticism or critique on your work?

Tamika Felder 25:12
Initially, I’m like, what? And I’m pissed I say some words that are really bad. And I like okay valid point. My advice is, if you’re the type of person to you need to feel all things, feel all the things Yeah, like I’m an artist as Erykah Badu would say, I’m an artist. So I’m sensitive about my ish, right? So putting his heart into it and try to make it meaningful. And then there are always going to be people who criticize, right, and you have to look at who’s the messenger, and What message are, what are they saying, right? And sometimes when you take a moment you breathe, and you’re like, oh, okay, I can see their point. Yeah, right there other people. They’re like, Oh, you’re just you just picking away at whatever. But criticism is really helpful if it comes in a helpful way. And if people are willing to talk, because, you know, I actually email someone yesterday, who said something, it was her bad. She just didn’t read our newsletter, right? At first, I was like, Oh, she might be on to something. Yeah. And you’re on to her and ask her. She was like, taken aback. She was like, Is this really you? Like? Yeah. I’m gonna say more about this. I want to know more about it. Right. Yeah. Anything more to say, and sometimes they don’t have anything more to say. But I also wanted to let her know like you gave some really valid point. But we just don’t have the woman power to do this. So we’re looking for volunteers. Yeah. Well, and she was another press. She was like, Oh, I didn’t realize that it was only a staff of two. It’s like, yeah, and we’re barely coming up for air as it is, you know, we get all these ideas and different things, and we want to do them all. But the reality is, you can’t and make the stuff that we already have look good. But So in short, criticism is great. If it comes from a valid place, and you want to help, and there’s something rational on it. But if you’re just, you know, and some of them, you just have to take with a grain of salt, right? But yeah, it can stay. In First, I’ll be the first to admit that. I’m like, not today Satan.

Dawn Crawford 27:29
Oh, that’s funny. So then what kind of what style of feedback does not work for you

Tamika Felder 27:33
being just mean and nasty, right? Like, we there’s so much nastiness in the world, and we’re coming off, like a toxic season as of late, right. I think the delivery matters. You’re. And I’m not saying I always get the delivery. Right, right. Yeah. No, you know, moving and we’re forgetful and short fuse. But if you’re going to tell someone that something that they put a lot of work into just ain’t working for you. I’m from the south, right. I’m from South Carolina. So put a little sugar on it, be a little nice about it you know, I’m not saying you have to like, I just think like, people can be so harsh with their words and words matter. You know, I grew up in a generation where it was like Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words don’t hurt. That’s such BS because words do hurt. Yeah, have hurt. So yes, Critique, criticize, but you’ll have to be unkind doing that.

Dawn Crawford 28:36
So this next section is kind of personal around burnout. So, yeah, we’ve lived through a lot in the last, you know, you’ve lived through cancer diagnosis, starting a nonprofit living through administrations, the presidency, you know, and then now the COVID. You know, how do you avoid burnout? How do you make sure that you’re there for your organization

Tamika Felder 28:55
number one way to avoid burnout is Bravo Real Housewives. That’s my number one, and I’m not ashamed. I am not ashamed at all. But, you know, for me, you got to get off social media as much as I love social media. And I mean, we now spend hours and entire work shift for a lot of people because social media, especially for nonprofit, you know, it’s the number one way to communicate with our community. Yeah. Facebook groups, Instagram newsletters, it’s all of it Pinterest, it’s the number one way that we do it. And obviously, you’re seeing stuff I mean, there are people in our community who I care for them, I care for what they’re they’re going through, but there’s a political post or some racism or whatever that you see, you’re just like, I really want to help that you making it real hard. Of course we still do. So before you DM me. You know, but it’s really hard. So burnout is real, we tell moderators take off, I had to tell someone recently turn the notifications off. Yeah. Because when you see it, and yes, it’s an extra step. And if forget to turn the notifications back on, it’s hard to miss thing. But, you know, I noticed in our community, our moderators, myself included, that we will answer and people on the community know that if they send you a message, three o’clock in the morning, you’re up to go tinkle, or whatever you’ll answer. And so for me, it really was turning the notifications off, right, be sure that I set up office hours, and it’s really hard, because in the cancer space, you want people to know that they’re not alone. And so it really was talking through and then I realized this when it wasn’t working fully. I wasn’t leading by example. And so then it became, I have to lead by example, I have to show that I can take time off, I have to show that I can put up boundaries and say if I’m on vacation, unless it’s an emergency, like, you guys can take care of it if you know you fail at it deal with the fallout when I got there, or whatever. But no, really, it was leading by example. And I wasn’t, I was working around the clock. And I wasn’t leading by example. And I hadn’t been taken care of myself. And it was showing up, not only in emotionally, how I felt, but also when I would go and have labs done and different things. Yeah. So like to lead by example. And if you need help, you know, making sure that you have accountability partners. You know what I realized? Like, it’s so great to have other nonprofit accountability partners and what has, like, it doesn’t have to be the same type of cause but in saying like, running a nonprofit is hard. Yeah. And having someone that you can rant with and laugh with and drink with. And you can say, Hey, I see you working really hard. Yeah. Make sure you take a little time for yourself.

Dawn Crawford 32:02
Absolutely. That’s great. So what makes you come back? Right? I mean, it’s, it’s your baby, you could put it off in the pasture, but what makes you come back to work every week.

Tamika Felder 32:13
It’s so meaningful. Yeah, it’s so hard. It makes me want to bang my head on the wall. It makes me want to throw my laptop in the fireplace while it’s burnin. But it’s fulfilling me in a way that I can’t even put in words ir really has. , I would not have been doing this. And doing it in the way that I do it for so long. If it didn’t fulfill me, it’s how I make my survivorship count.

Dawn Crawford 32:42
Okay, so we’re to the rapid fire section. So we encourage people to use just one word to these answers.

Word Count it’s so funny. I love it. I love it. I love it. Because everyone’s like, What do you mean? Just one word? I’m like, yeah, that’s, that’s, that’s the challenge part of it. Okay, so what’s your favorite word?

Tamika Felder 33:12
fiercely.

Dawn Crawford 33:16
Okay, what’s your least favorite word?

Tamika Felder 33:18
Not funded?

Dawn Crawford 33:20
Good one. What’s your personal cause? or nonprofit? Me? Obviously Cervivor. But do you have any other issues that you’re really passionate about?

Tamika Felder 33:28
That I’m supposed to say one word?

Dawn Crawford 33:30
Oh, yeah, it doesn’t matter. But that will be a phrase or sentence or paragraph.

Tamika Felder 33:34
I’m really passionate about fertility. I am also passionate about just people live in their authentic lives. Like, be who you are. Unless you’re a terrible human being, then don’t be a trash human being, but be who you are. We’ve lived so much of our lives for other people. Yeah. And it takes us too long to realize that life comes with an expiration date and we should only be living for us.

Dawn Crawford 34:03
Absolutely. And that’s fantastic. Is there a nonprofit cause it gets too much attention.

Tamika Felder 34:07
Absolutely.

Dawn Crawford 34:10
What is it?

Tamika Felder 34:11
I think we all know what it is and it shouldn’t get attention. Like come on, give us some space too

Dawn Crawford 34:20
Absolutely.

Tamika Felder 34:21
It’s all I’ll say.

Dawn Crawford 34:23
Like, what’s your favorite curse word?

Tamika Felder 34:27
It starts with f

Dawn Crawford 34:32
what profession other than your own? Would you like to attempt?

Tamika Felder 34:38
You know, I don’t think I could do this because I have this fear of animals. But there is a part of me that would just love to work with koalas for some reason. I love them. But I’m not an animal person. So if I could use something and not be afraid of it. Yeah. That

Dawn Crawford 34:59
oh my gosh, it’s specific have you? Have you seen call as of close? Have you like held them?

Tamika Felder 35:03
Yes. When I went to Australia, they just changed this law where you couldn’t hold them. And you can only do it in like Brisbane or something. You were in Sydney and it was like too far away. And yeah, of course, I honestly will probably be too scared, and it will claw me to death

Dawn Crawford 35:21
So funny. Yes, they are. They are really cute. And so what other nonprofit professional organization would you like to hear on this podcast?

Tamika Felder 35:33
Oh, that is a tough one. There are a lot of really, really, really, really good nonprofits aren’t really into the nonprofits are really good with like telling their stories. You know what it may have done? I don’t know. But what the ones who really get it, the videos that they they, they’re not just making it look good. But you know that they’re out there doing the good? Yeah, right. Those are the nonprofits who turn me on they rev my engine. I see them. And it’s like, anybody can make slick graphics. Right? Yeah. Like, what’s behind the graphic? What’s about how I’m video? You know, I’m all about them. Yeah. Great.

Dawn Crawford 36:15
Well, cool. That’s all my questions. But thank you so much for taking time today to talk to me. You’re one of the people that like I feel better that the world is in a better place because you are in it. And so thankful for you. I did. It’s incredible. And I think because we work with a lot of different health care issues, and I think what you’ve done for cervical cancer survivors is super special. And it’s really not replicated and a lot of other issue areas, right. And it’s just, it’s incredible what you’ve done. And I just I wish more people could learn from that. You know, be able to do that

Tamika Felder 36:53
I literally am just so happy that you asked me to be on. I love everything that you and Brian are doing. And this is so great. Keep doing it. It’s wonderful.

Dawn Crawford 37:05
Well, thank you so much. And thank you to everybody who’s listening. Have a great rest of your day.

Thank you for listening. If you want to get all the new episodes sent to you as we release them, subscribe on your favorite podcast app. And until then, keep creating good