How to Manage Team Wellness in High-Stress Jobs

[0:00]  even when we think about trafficking uh traffickers use isolation often as a way to um keep someone in in a trafficking situation and we also know that um healing happens best in community and so it's also like hey how can we go against what trafficking is isolation and um provide a community support for my staff here at restore recognizing hey like this is we're in it together so no one's alone doing this journey and so celebrating the wins together but also helping support and I feel like that in itself when we think about you know the objective of growing a business like restore NYC it's not to make an impact this year but it's to keep this fight going as long as we possibly can so you guys have time for your incremental wins to build momentum into impacting the community but that's a really tough

[0:48]  mindset to kind of tap into today especially when it seems like there are so many problems and so many opportunities for us to help how do you kind of stay grounded in since you started doing this work in 2009 how have you been able to keep a mindset that continues to push you forward is it all the small winds or what does that look like yeah that's a good question a lot of trial and error a lot of like not doing it right and feeling burned out or tired all right guys welcome back to a brand new episode of of the heart and hustle podcast today I'm sitting across this digital table with Beck Sullivan now Beck is an amazing leader from

[1:37]  restore NYC and in today's conversation we're going to be talking about vulnerabilities that we see in our society specifically when it comes to human trafficking sex trafficking we're going to talk about the macro problem that maybe a lot of people aren't really aware of we're going to talk about Beck's early experience and kind of coming face Toof face with this experience when she was in college we're going to talk about leadership Innovation curiosity and the fight against trafficking we're also going to talk about the role of technology in spreading awareness in this conversation Beck welcome to the show yeah thank you so much Kenan for having me I'm really excited to come on and share a little bit about my journey and the work that we do you know Beck I think it's really important for us to kind of level I would say level set the audience expectation about what today's conversation is going to be about so if somebody just clicked on this episode what do you really hoping that they

[2:24]  learn about our time together yeah I I will hopefully it's raising some type of awareness um I think that to recognize that human trafficking is an issue that is happening everywhere in our cities and our communities and hopefully not be too overwhelmed because I know the issue sometimes you hear human trafficking you're like what but hopefully it'll be something where they can feel encouraged and inspired to be a part of the problem I mean the solution not the problem I mean I completely agree I think you know a great place for us to be able to start is let's dive a little bit into your origin story and kind of the shocking experience of you understanding that this is a problem that's happening in our communities here in the United States MH yeah so I first became aware of human trafficking in the early 2000s when I was in college I was at like some like seminar conference thing and there was a speaker who was a part of a nonprofit doing anti-trafficking work

[3:11]  overseas and he was like did you know that x amount of people are in trafficking today um and these and I remember just being like wait what slavery like that's happening and um how did I not know um at the time it was like focused over there it was like oh it's happening over there it's not happening in the United States which is ironic given the history of our country but I just remember being like shocked of like how am I like living my dayto day and not realizing that so many people don't have autonomy over their bodies over what they do over where they go what and anything and it just really rocked my world it just kind of like Shake shaked me up and it tugged at my heart and um it was just something that I couldn't shake off so then I decided to just um I'm someone who's like I'm I'm an active person I'm a doer and so I just educated myself more and learned

[3:57]  and just got involved in various non at that time when it came to realizing the problem right that's happening here and it's very easy for us to think that you know these things only happen in another part of the world Africa Asia because we hear about these things but often we don't see them in our society so when you really kind of had that aha moment what was your mindset like was it is it happening in my community how have I not noticed these things do you remember kind of like your framework and how you kind of tried to tackle this problem with this new realization yeah it was very much so it's happening over there so when I first found about human trafficking I had this AA moment but it was kind of it wasn't close to me so I didn't feel like it was connected or it and the feeling of it happening it's it's easy to other too and it's not

[4:44]  close to home um to not feel it as deeply but it wasn't until probably like almost five six years later as I continued in the trafficking space that I was like oh wait a minute it's actually happening here and it's happening in our communities and that was whole another like mindblowing experience um although it wasn't like a one one time that I like realized it but it was like as I was learning what the commercial sex industry look like what exploitation is how labor exploitation and labor trafficking happens in the United States I was like wait this is this is trafficking happening in our neighborhoods um and in our back door like just all around and um I think that's when it kind of like was like oh I'm also a part of this community and in some ways how am I also maybe contributing to the ability to allow it to happen kind of Thrive and really the

[5:31]  United States too within um the reporting and the trafficking and persons act they didn't acknowledge it was happening in the United States until 2008 and so again it's just it's also like where you get your information from right like who how are you learning about this and the access to information to know that it is happening um in our neighborhoods and in our communities what was one of the first experiences where you had where you kind of came across this like nose to nose if you will in your community do you remember that time when you were like okay we've been talking about this we've been reading about this but like here's my first lived experiencing coming across this problem yeah I mean there's two like experiences that come to mind the first is like in where I grew up in Pennsylvania um there is this area known for prostitution and so I remember like I've seen like the remnants of that and and I remember like one driving by that

[6:20]  kind of that section and then being like Oh wait some of these people actually maybe being exploited and or being trafficked they're not here by choice but they don't have choice to be here and that in like just being that I remember just being really influential being like often like I thought oh that's that what they're doing they're choosing to do which that some people may get to that point but we know about the commercial sex industry 70 to 80% is exploitative and so um being like okay that definitely would be happening here and then I remember um my I had lived in San Diego and worked with survivors there but it wasn't really my community because it wasn't where I was grew up but I moved back to Pennsylvania yeah I remember um the one of the first experiences working with law enforcement they had uh identified a woman who was this being trafficed out of a hotel and

[7:09]  they had called the organization that I was with and I went to the hotel and it was one of those things too where she looked like me she was like from my background like very similar and seeing her in the situation at a hotel that I've driven by so many times that really was also um really kind of rocked my world too it's like hiding in plain sight right which is honestly kind of the scariest Factor about this is you think we live in this bubble here in the United States where these things aren't happening around us but then when you see how close to home they're actually happening it definitely has a heavier weight to it you mentioned something as we were just kind of chatting there which is the difference between choice and exploitation because a lot of the people who are tuning in to you know this episode or just hearing about this macro problem for the first time might have a bias in saying well they're

[7:57]  obviously choosing to do the these type of things so how can we kind of reverse that mindset and talk about some of the explo the I would say the vulnerabilities or your ability to get exploited into this type of work how does that happen right and um that's just a great point about the vulnerabilities that are exploited and that restore we often say traffickers don't exploit people they exploit vulnerabilities um and they recognize people that are vulnerable or in places where they can be more easily manipulated because of the intersectionality of different vulnerabilities that they I mean I think when we talk about choice you you always have to have two viable options and so like asking yourselves do those people have viable options for stability um and what we do know about um trafficking survivors that if we talk about human trafficking we have to talk

[8:44]  about the reason why people are trafficked in the first place and not even just personal micro vulnerabilities but macro systems and oppressive systems that are in place in the United States that may have people become vulnerable to being trafficked I mean at restore 90% of the people that we serve are people of color um and talking about this the lack of access and resources that they have and the discrimination and racism that stems into this as well as we also know that for youth that are um trafficking child trafficking survivors 70% come from the foster care system so again talking about that vulnerability of having a sense of belonging or having their needs that or having a community of support around them and those are just some of the vulnerabilities that we see I was having a conversation um with another leader the other day and we were talking about

[9:31]  the idea of principles now one of the biggest problems that we see in community- based organizations is the people who are a part of an organization will often speak principles to the people that they are serving and a good example of what we're talking about is you know 70% of the children that are coming are coming from Foster Care Systems 90% of the people at restore NYC are people of color now when you come into an environment and you try and say well I mean there are other opportunities for you to do things you don't have to be you know exploited or these vulnerabilities shouldn't exist do you think there's a disconnect between people who maybe come from an established middleclass lifestyle that don't understand some of the real world challenges that come along with living in some of these environments an

[10:18]  unstable home coming out of foster care being a person of color we have systemic issues that completely discriminate against you do you think there's a disconnect in trying to meet people where they are often to understand the context of how something like human trafficking is even possible from their upbringing yeah absolutely I mean I think there's a mix of just not being able to understand uh in the sense of the the nuances and the what the challenges and the barriers that people actually do face um as well as again the yeah the ability to just be if you're not exposed to it how would you know you know and so a lot of it is just education and even like immigration 60 or actually 70% of the people we serve in our core services are immigrants and so even talking about that we think about Labor trafficking or trafficking

[11:05]  and how traffickers can Target um like their lack of maybe having work authorization or access to benefits and so someone who is not has not moved to another country and has not tried to navigate the systems and understanding your rights in another country let alone if it's not even in your native language might have a harder time being like well could they just go to the cops you know because maybe they in the United States trust law enforcement in a different way um and maybe they and we know our rights um living in this country versus people coming over that are told by the traffickers if you go to law enforcement they're going to arrest you they're Deport you then like all of those lies that are wrapped into it so I think a lot of it also just comes from lack of like experience but also knowledge and education because all of us can educate ourselves um to understand more about how systems of repression are still existing in today and how what it's like

[11:53]  for someone to navigate that do you ever worry about and this is kind of like on a macro issue that's on the front of my mind right now do you ever worry that you know fighting against such a huge problem that impacts so many people is extra difficult because we are constantly people who are privileged enough to give energy and extra resources towards a problem like this are often distracted by things like their phone social media the things that keep us head down in environments like we're walking through our community and maybe we don't even see the vulnerable people who are being taken advantage of in a local hotel like we talked about in San Diego yeah I think and also just in ated with knowledge and other issues there's so many issues where we can people are buying for our support um and so I think that is also being we're able also this is privilege right if if you come from a

[12:40]  place of privilege and there's so many different ways and forms of that but if you're not a trafficking Survivor there's an amount of privilege that you have so you can turn that off you don't have to engage in the conversation because it might not be impacting you or if you don't have IMM media impact and I I think that's true with any issue today uh is the ability for those that have privilege to not have to engage or to tap out if they get too tired or if it's too emotionally hard for them to like work through um and then I do think yes we're distracted easily distracted because also the journey we at restore we provide after care services for survivors and so we're with them for the Long Haul of getting them back to the place where they want to be within or to a new place of Independence and that's a long journey we're talking on average 2 years that a Survivor is working with us and so even just that like not just for people to be bought in to being like hey

[13:28]  this this is a slow and steady race that we're running and that not being able to see possibly instant results um on even and also just prevention and ending trafficking as well as the restoration of a Survivor when it comes to you know you being a leader of restore and RC how do you keep your team motivated to continue to keep fighting this problem when we don't have those instant gratification winds that we're so used to in other areas of Our Lives yeah I mean this work is hard I used to I've been in professionally in the trafficking space 2009 and I started with direct service like I was on call every other week at one point and so I know that the work is hard the emotional toll working on the front lines um of trafficking is hard and so first and foremost it's ensuring their health the health of the team the emotional

[14:16]  physical well-being um and so a as a leader I this is a passion of mine ensuring that we're a trauma-informed organization and so like policy things like we have unlimited health time we call it health time not sick days because it can just be to promote health and also if it's a mental health you had a really stressful situation with a client you can take the afternoon off so looking at it from a policy perspective and then also I think um in general just how do we create create inspiration and motivation for our teams and uh especially in the trafficking space when there's you know so many um like big barriers and challenges that are faced we don't want to minimize that and so and at the same time we can hold that with um celebrating the wins celebrating the small and big things and so um we have like a ring the bell we have a bell

[15:03]  in our office that when something happens we ring it so we all can engage that collectiveness I think is really key um so providing support for them recognizing that um the small things are big wins and then bringing making it Collective um even when we think about trafficking uh traffickers use isolation often as a way to um keep someone in in a trafficking situ ation and we also know that um healing happens best in community and so it's also like hey how can we go against what trafficking is isolation and um provide a community support for my staff here at restore recognizing hey like this is we're in it together so no one's alone doing this journey and so celebrating the wins together but also helping support and I feel like that in itself when we think

[15:50]  about you know the objective of growing a business like restore NYC it's not to make an impact this year but it's to keep this fight going as long as we possibly can so you guys have time for your incremental wins to build momentum into impacting the community but that's a really tough mindset to kind of tap into today especially when it seems like there are so many problems and so many opportunities for us to help how do you kind of stay grounded in since you started doing this work in 2009 how have you been able to keep a mindset that continues to push you forward is it all the small wins or what does that look like yeah that's a good question a lot of trial and error a lot of like not doing it right and feeling burned out or tired we talk about it often too I talk about it is like it's not if you experience secondary Trauma from this workup or no it's like it's a spectrum

[16:37]  and not saying it's so binary and it's when and so just normalizing that there will be moments where you do feel overwhelmed or you do think it's too much or you're ready to stop or you need a break which is okay I think that normalization is helpful but for me I've learned a lot of it's around boundaries just setting really good boundaries um like it's not that we're saying it's a work life don't believe in that like complete split I believe more in an holistic integrative model but knowing um for each for me what that looks like and so like meditation is huge for me yoga staying active taking care of myself um and PRI prioritizing that I think has been key over the years um for me and and um it is something again that as we talk about any type of helping profession the importance of like we can only provide a level of care that

[17:25]  reflects the level of Health that we're at and so just being really honest and having space to prioritize that I think is key do you ever think about that as kind of like the dark side of the mission I've brought this up in any or in multiple other podcasts with different leaders who are HIIT in the helping professions because it feels like if I don't show up and make a difference today nobody's going to have help but that element of establishing really good fundamental boundaries for yourself is kind of going back to my earlier point of that long-term sustainability and I think that that would be very challenging especially when you know know you have team members who come on to the team and they're super excited to make a difference and they want to dive straight in being able to reel them back and say Hey listen I know that we want to try and tackle the world here but if we're going to make the impact that we are trying to we have to be sustainable through this that's

[18:12]  got to be a tough balance yeah I think so much of that as a leader you have to model it and so I think the pace that I set as a leader or what I show my team as my Pace I think is really key to that as well to allow things to not get done this work is never done but you have to finish some at the end of the day you need to finish at a point and so I think just like modeling that and recognizing holding its attention versus you know like where this is the Nuance of the work and it is the dark side I've never called it the dark side but it really is and and naming that like there is an element of that where this work is hard and it will and it does impact you and so that's how like how can we help minimize that and um recognize it and then also it's so individual I've supervised so many staff for the years and I had one staff in supervision she'd cry every time and

[19:00]  she'd be like I promise I'm okay like I can do this work and I'm like no absolutely tears aren't bad and the day you stop crying is the day I'm going to get concerned about your health you know and so recognizing that everyone has different ways to process it and just to create space in an inclusive that's another like creating a nonprofit that a team that then there's so much inclusivity of what that looks like and not and allowing space for people to show up how they do to do what how they need to handle the ability to work in this field we're talking about the concept of flexibility here you know one of the things that I've really appreciated is great leaders that have a solid Vision on where we are going but they are flexible on the path in which we kind of get there have you found yourself having to adjust the path or the course in order to be able to obstain or would say

[19:47]  you know sustain the path of what you guys were going towards like we're going to do these things but this isn't working my team's not able to establish boundaries we have to change up the way in which we're approaching this problem how have you kind of thought about that element of flexibility and experimentation yeah I think that's key in this field um always way to be Innovative and flexible in our approach not only in how we manage the organization and help support staff but also in the actual Services we're providing to survivors but I think from like a staffing leadership perspective I think that's just really key I mean one example that comes to mind is we used to have uh we have an on call 247 team and it used to be staff that worked as counselor Advocates um and so we they were on call one month out of like three months out of the year but we realized

[20:34]  that that like over time like that the ability to not turn off your like work at the end of the day and have to be on call was like it was increasing burnout within staff and staff were just saying like this is not helpful and so I know this is a small way or like a more very clear way but we decided to contract the on call team and have the on call team be separate from full-time staff so and that's listening to the staff and on my background being um in the trauma field and working in clinical space like that so much of I think I've learned that through working with survivors because I don't they're the experts of their lives they know what they need and we have to be so flexible and what we might say hey like we work with the Survivor and this is the plan like she wants to get a job and this and this and that but then couple months in she has um pH health

[21:22]  issues or things need to change and just always been flexible it's kind of been kind of baked into my work and how I've like seen the work and so I think I've just translated that into leadership and the mission is constantly changing right depending on you know the culture of the environment our political sphere how people are talking about certain things I think is really important to recognize we have to be flexible as leaders in order to keep our team moving and be agile enough to continue to fulfill on the mission um one of one of the things that I wanted to bring up was have you ever had to reestablish expectations for the work that your team does I was reading an amazing book by this guy named Kevin Kelly and he said you know the greatest leaders often find themselves at a Crossroads where you have to lead by

[22:10]  letting others know what you expect of them which may exceed what they expect of themselves give someone a reputation that they can live up to what do you kind of think about that yeah I I think I think that's very powerful again kind of that modeling idea of like setting that the expectation of what this looks like um and also though as you said that one of my favorite leadership quotes recently is leadership is just disappointing people at the rate they can handle um and so that one's really good yeah and so I think there's just like this element too that um how do we show Berne Brown does a ton of work around vulnerability too as leaders and what does that look like because I think it's so important for leaders to set um vision and this is where we're going but like we said it has to be flexible and Innovative and we're human and there's this element that um we might make

[22:58]  mistakes and fail and I think that's another big part of my leadership of like ensuring that we have space where hey it's okay to fail like if we we are all about um piloting um and then reiterating and just trying it like if we you know and so but to have that you have to have space to fail and to make mistakes and be like it this didn't work but I mean there's also again it's that what holding that while also here's the expectation of what what we want to achieve and not to like diminish on the quality or the mission um so I think it's definitely a dance um and if anyone knows how to arrive at that let me know because I'm not sure anyone ever really does I mean and this is why I love having these conversations because we get an opportunity to dive into the mindset of a leader like you who's navigating these fluid changing dynamics of the mission that you guys are trying

[23:46]  to fulfill on one of the things that I've been trying to you know get my team to buy into a little bit recently is the difference between decisions and experiments and you mentioned it kind of in the idea of a pilot when we are in high stakes you know Realms of business and community service like human trafficking prevention and education we often think that a decision that we make holds heavy weight and can lead to bad Stakes if we get it wrong but when we position it as an experiment we're more willing to try things to try and get the outcome that we're looking for and if it doesn't happen hey we ran the pilot we did the experiment we're going to learn from that and move on how are you kind of thinking about that difference of decisions and experimentation in your leadership style is that something you've always been kind of intuitive for or have you kind of had to develop that

[24:34]  as you spent so much time in this space definitely something I had to develop um because it's I think it goes a little bit against my the I'm a risk taker and also it's hard in this field because sometimes some of the risks that we're taking would have impact on people's lives right if we're talking about a new service or how we're going to disperse allocations and resource allocation and funding um and so there is sometimes on a level of um responsibility of just feeling the weight of the decisions and so I think um I think there's like that when I think about um this idea of being able to experiment and at the same time like we have to as we know that the Field's evolving um and so a lot of this too are like before I as I came to restore too this idea of we call it pilot launch and reiterate like this like entrepreneur

[25:22]  Spirit of like how can we in what areas do we have the ability to take risk that is going to have minimal impact if it fails um and then just doing our best to see but so much of that too in the space is getting feedback Survivor voice and Survivor feedback so everything we do it's not just like my idea I'm not a survivor of human trafficking and so I'm not going to I don't have that a level of I do not have a huge level of P Insight or knowing their needs and so I think that also when we think about experimenting you have to have the right factors or the ingredients you would say in the room to be able to do that well and so I think that's another important part of like if you're going to experiment what do what key element ingredients do you need to have in the room I think one of that would be we've always had Survivor voice inform our our different decision- making points

[26:10]  and experiments which I think is also very helpful because then you're like oh this is a risk that they're saying that we should take yeah I mean using you know your customer feedback if you will to inform the decisions that you make is so fundamental and that kind of gets me into the area this is an interesting topic I've been talking to you know CEOs and leaders Founders presidents of nonprofits and one of the things we talk about is how do we quantify the impact of what we're trying to do in our nonprofit because there's a perception in the world about nonprofits of being people who are just you know these people have amazing hearts and they want to work for free and the things that they're doing is they're showing up for other people all day but this is a fundamental service for the community so how do you balance the element of being a nonprofit with also trying to make great impact on the people who you serve every day because it seems like those

[26:58]  could be tough to balance at times yeah it it can and I think first and foremost though that we should have impact and ability to prove what we do actually works using quantitative measures as well as qualitative measures and I think that's the qualitative measures gets a little gray right because um in that sense of like what we think is not impactful could be impactful to our customers or clients or survivors that we're working with but I absolutely think the field is going that way um in the the nonprofit space in general not only the nonprofits but funders and supporters and younger Generations they come up to want to support these causes if they're not directly doing the work they want to see impact um and so I think really for CEOs and leaders of nonprofits like if you're not developing your impact and having a framework for which way you can actually measure the work like at restore we do we have we we

[27:45]  call it the freedom index where we're measuring housing jobs um as well as our mental well-being and using very specific metrics so that we can say hey last year we saw that for survivors that got jobs after working in our economic empowerment Pro program there was a 203% increase in their earnings per year um and we're able to yeah like to have these numbers to show like we what we're doing is actually making an impact and this is in these areas um and I think that's key and and it's to ensure that what we're doing is working not the goals of the survivors we're not trying to like measure are they doing well no like are we if we're saying we're helping with housing are 90% of our survivors living safe in affordable apartments yes or no you know and so I I think that having impact is is key um because you're right there are so many

[28:33]  people that want to do good and intent is a beautiful thing but it doesn't always translate to impact and we have to be responsible for both I want to talk a little bit you know we talk about the younger generation now I think about me being somebody who was younger I had different types of motivations that it seems like today's generations do and when it comes to the work that you guys are doing at restore think about your role as being somebody who is not only a face of the organization but can also articulate the vision of what you guys are doing to attract the next generation of great leaders and great people who are going to have a huge impact in the communities that they serve how are you thinking about motivating the next generation of Highly impactful people who want to be a part of an amazing mission to be able to

[29:21]  attract them in the the landscape where there's so many other attractive things to be doing like Instagram and we joked around last time in our conversation about being an influencer how do you kind of think about you know your role in inspiring this next Generation yeah I think a lot of it is um creating space for them to tap into what motivates and inspires them right and so create like being able to articulate and communicate like you had mentioned our mission and our vision and why this matters and people opt into that right um I think especially with human trafficking I mean a lot of people it does impact and they want to get involved but I think it's on on some level it's attracting people that just have this is their a area that they're very passionate about um as well as also creating space for them to have their ideas and um to be flexible even within a workspace I mean there's so

[30:08]  many jokes about the different Generations in the workplace especially after covid but there is so much truth to that and like how can we also create space I I get this if they want to come in they they have incredible ideas and they have a whole different way of thinking about things because they've been raised differently and have had access to technology all their lives in different ways um and using that and so instead of being scared or like getting stuck in our old ways inviting and creating spaces for them to bring that Innovation even if it seems like I'm like I don't know about this so this is definitely not something I would do um but I think that's they want Buy in um and I think that that's like buy into not just like the work but like the actual organization and change within the organization and so I think um something of been thinking about how do we create space for that why do you think this next Generation behind us gen

[30:55]  Z gen Alpha is so bought into the mission and the buyin and the impact that they're trying to make in their Community yeah that's a really great question um I wonder if some of it has to do with just access to knowledge and uh other communities with social media we're now so connected globally and so we can literally know the best restaurants in this city all the way in across the world or like know what's going on and so I think um I think being exposed kind of goes back to what we were saying earlier if you're exposed to things you um are more likely probably to want to get involved um and see how it impacts the community and they can see that I mean because it really does like everything we do has a ripple effect and impacts other people outside of ourselves and that was kind of where I was hoping we were going to take it I

[31:41]  just see so much excitement from younger generations to make a bigger impact in the communities that they serve now I'm going to kind of go out a little bit of a tangent here but in 2022 the surgent General of the United States came onto a national broadcast and said the biggest threat to our society is not a another viral pandemic but an epidemic of isolation and loneliness now I see how isolated and lonely everybody seems to be in their daily lives and I'm wondering if we are more tapped into being a part of an amazing organization with a great Mission because we're looking for that sense of connection to something greater that maybe we're not getting in our personal lives but amazing organizations like restore and leaders like YC have the ability to fill some of those gaps that were deep down yearning for what do you think about

[32:29]  that yeah yeah that's an interesting thought too of how even though we're so connected we're also seeing depression and increase and loneliness especially in youth I mean September is actually uh Suicide Prevention month and that we are having like an epidemic of suicide with youth and we're seeing a lot of poor mental health that we connecting to the social media and connection and so yeah it could be a way that they are fighting against that by getting feeling getting involved in something outside of themselves um and I think I mean again we clinically I mean again we know healing happens best in community and when you feel it's a spirituality we're talking about now too right being connected to something greater than ourselves and I think that's key to humans like we all are Spiritual Beings

[33:16]  and so I think that's just innate in us and maybe this is one way that they're maybe more sensitive to it um and I think we also have done a better job as a society being able to create space to a ow for these types of conversations and these deeper desires or yearnings or being able to name we don't have to keep up a front of like they're just very raw I feel as well and open they don't filter um at least not their words maybe they use filters their pictures but not on how they present and I think that that is a beautiful thing as well but maybe that also creates more space um for like a collective like getting a behind an issue you know we have a huge prevailance of the use of social media across all generations today I want to talk a little bit about the role of technology in you know the

[34:03]  anti-trafficking efforts but before we get to that let's talk about how how social media might be used to you know indoctrinate people with ideas I hear the term grooming happens a lot on social media and different platforms like that so what should we be looking out for for people who are tuning in to be like okay I need to be aware of what's happening on these social platforms with a little bit of a curious eye so I can recognize you know threat or types of behaviors that maybe I should report or just be more aware of what does that look like yeah absolutely I mean traffickers use technology all the time and are kind of a step ahead you know in the use of technology for bad and but we definitely see uh social media as a recruiting platform for Youth and Young adults um it's on a so many different types of applications but uh

[34:53]  there's it's it can we've seen that time and time again where a trafficker is closing someone else or just connects in a chat um and without I think that as if you have if you're a parent I think there's so many resources to educate yourself on how you can help create safe Sky binds around the use of social media to ensure that's not happening um and traffickers also use technology and social platforms to recruit for labor trafficking too as well like oh here's a job there's a job available for job postings um with technology you just never know really who's behind the post or social media I should say and so um traffickers use technology in that way I think we have to be really we have to hone a skill set right of being critical thinkers because I've heard so many stories about job postings or you know like simple ads are put out and things

[35:42]  like that and these things happen right in front of us but we don't understand the motivation behind these things um we've been talking a lot today a little bit about sex trafficking we want to talk a little bit about Labor trafficking because this is something that I feel like people should be really aware of and I was exposed to this in my life life through the simple stories that my parents would tell and until I started talking to leaders like you I didn't realize that they were talking about Labor trafficking now my family is from Eastern Washington in a place called Yakama which is like an agricultural Mecca apples cherries everything comes from there and my parents used to tell me stories about like yeah you know we'd have these kids who would come up from Mexico they would be in our school during the year and then the second half of the Year they'd be gone because their families would leave and go back down to Mexico but what I'd find is they would tell stories about how these families would live in

[36:29]  these tin huts on the Orchards then they would live there and the kids would come to school and their families work in the Orchards I never truly understand the element of Labor trafficking so can you paint the picture of what labor trafficking is maybe beyond my story y so labor trafficking is the use of force fraud Orion for um some type of financial gain and so labor trafficking can look like a lot of different things like the story you told agricultural um working on farms uh fruit picking and it's um with that they often are working crazy hours they're not able to come and go I mean they're they're out of sometimes psychological cion a fear again of being if they're immigrants being like arrested or fear of deportation um and and they don't have access to other resources um and so this

[37:18]  um so labor trafficking look like that but it also it depends on where you live in the sense of the different industries that you might see I live in New York City and we don't have agriculture here um in that way but labor trafficking here looks like domestic servitude or cleaning services um the restaurant industry Hospitality um where they're forced to work long hours they're not getting paid they don't sometimes have communication to other people another really big industry of Labor and sex trafficking is elicit massage Industries and parlors um and so for every Starbucks in New York City there's two elicit massage Industries here um and so that yeah it's mind-blowing when you think about it I mean it's it literally is hidden in plain sight um but they often sometimes are sleeping in the same place that they're working as well um there's no protection I mean uh that like there they're experiencing

[38:06]  violence from customers um and they're again forced to to perform massage Andor sex ads if this is such a big obvious problem then why does this stuff continue to happen from your unique advantage and kind of where you sit in New York City two to one for every Starbucks so what's going on and why are we not seeing more news and you know people talking about this big problem because it seems like it should be a lot more obvious yeah there's a lot of different variables one is just the demand like we haven't talked about Demand yet but there's a reason why labor and sex trafficking exists because there's a demand for it and so there's that's one angle you could look at it as like the demand for sex or the demand for cheap labor um that's a whole L thing but I think also just it's it's

[38:54]  really a complex issue to tackle I mean if you think from a legal effective in law enforcement we used to actually work with law enforcement here to go into these lit massage Industries and offers not arrest the individuals there but Provide support but we actually found that um it it wasn't successful people weren't coming for because of multiple reasons fear we um we had people that spoke their languages from the same country to go in and and but there's it's you need L our legal system is set up and our Criminal Justice System um it's really hard it's really hard to um to address this because you often need a Survivor testimony as well if you're going to press charges or like what are you going to do are you going to arrest the person but then not have any evidence or have a Survivor or someone be able to testify and so it's complicated and complex and also like in

[39:43]  some ways um if you know again if we want to take legal action having law enforcement go into any industry of sex trafficking can actually be traumatic for the survivors especially if they're not ready to get health orth they don't really fully understand the situ situation and so um we just it's it's it is kind of those things like what do we do you know and I know um so we've also worked with local DA's offices to go at it from like a building inspection way there's so many different ways you can tackle it so maybe not getting them on labor sex trafficking but are they to code like in New York you need a license to practice massage and so like is that that's like what are other ways we can go to dis disrupt kind of what's going on but it just takes resources as well and I know that you know this kind of goes back back to my point of like there are so many societal elements that are

[40:30]  coming to create opportunity for this you mentioned demand we talk about lack in being able to do disciplinary action we talk about the way the judicial system is set up and maybe this is exactly why these industries continue to flourish is because we don't have the appropriate way to respond to it but we have organizations like you guys that are willing to take the slow path to make an incremental change because there's so many things that are involved in Breaking the beliefs or putting yourself on the same level as somebody who's you know in the human trafficking space because of the opportunities that creates them for them that maybe other people aren't privy to and so it sounds like there's a this is a long fight and I think you guys are doing an amazing job and showing up every single day um my question is is why did you come on to a podcast like this because one of the

[41:17]  things that I really enjoy is leaders who are willing to get vulnerable they're willing to get transparent they're willing to tell this story and so do you look at media as a way to be able to amplify the work that you guys do yeah absolutely um it's a great way to bring people in it really is going to it takes a whole Community to to address trafficking and it really takes cross sectors to end trafficking and so how can we engage in a way that gets connects with people that I wouldn't normally have access to um and because it is a slow and hard fight I think it's also so important to remember that like we can't lose sight of the one right and so like even if we see this like systemic issue where there's two elicit Mis every Starbucks that seems overwhelming but bringing it back to like yeah and also we just worked with a Survivor who got out of trafficking and is now in a safe house and now her life

[42:05]  will forever be changed and different you know like again focusing on the winds that we do see and not minimizing one life um so keeping that balance but I I think these are these podcasts are great ways to to talk about the work that we do to bring awareness um and I yeah I really grateful that you you've allowed us to have this space there's a a story that somebody shared with me on the podcast a long time ago but somebody brought it up yesterday they said have you ever heard the story about the dad and the son as they're walking down the shore and the son starts throwing in all of these starfish into the ocean and his dad asked him the question dad or son why are you throwing the starfish in you're never going to be able to throw all of them back into the ocean and the son looks at his dad and says Dad I might not be able to throw all of them back in but the one that I did throw back into the ocean it meant the world

[42:53]  to that single starfish and that's kind of the phrase where I think we need to really ground ourselves in when it comes to impact is we might not be able to impact everybody but the simple thing about impacting one person's life matters more than you could ever understand and that's where I kind of love you know the grounded reality of what you guys do is you're showing up for that one person who needs help today and that is enough to fulfill on the mission because you guys are having a huge impact yeah thank you so much so how are we thinking as we kind of you know start Landing the plane here how you thinking about technology how you thinking about things like AI as an example to help you know increase access to good information I know you guys have a 247 you know crisis line if you will that people can call but how are we using technology that's in everybody's hands to be able to spread awareness education the

[43:41]  mission opportunities for people to raise their hand yes we are we're currently exploring what it would look like to integrate AI in like a chat bot into like a 247 access where someone could be connected either to a counselor and or resources so they could just come on and be like hey I need this and kind of just connect them Point them to the right direction we've also used technology in the past um to help do kind of like Outreach and get connected there's a platform that scrubs websites that sell sexs for all of the demographic information as far as the contact information and we could send out a Max text to them saying like hey if you're in the life or if you need help we're here um as a way to kind of just get connected to them um to as I mentioned traffickers are using technology and so like how do we also use technology for our benefit um and so like as a way to be visible because 30%

[44:30]  of the referrals that we get are from Google they just like Google and they like we pop up and so again like survivors are just like us they're using technology to get the help and resources that they need and so how can we also be present in those spaces as well I just think it's so important that we look at technology um with the lens of curiosity and we can't say that we're going to put our all of our eggs in one basket but we need to have multiple ways for people to reach out to to an organization and I feel like you guys are doing an amazing job at just increasing all those channels of accessibility and access um you know as we kind of we close here today I want to ask you the question what is the vision that you're casting for the next two years what is the impact that you guys are looking to make what are some of the things you're prioritizing what's on the front of your

[45:16]  mind yeah um so our vision is to end trafficking um and we're not going to get that in two years but taking some steps to that is really ensuring that Survivor have everything that they need to really experience true Freedom um in all elements and so wanting to continue to provide empowerment um for survivors um because also not only as a way to help them Reach Independence but to reduce the vulnerabilities for them to be ret trffic that's also a way to end trafficking is to ensure that people aren't then have the same vulnerabilities to be able to be retracked and we want to step into like dismantling systems of Oppression space and advocacy there's so much more we can be doing um to to bring awareness about the issue and advocate for policies that need to change to help support and end

[46:03]  trafficking um and reallocation of resources and so survivors that are still in trafficking there's no barrier for them to get out um and then to be able to live a life with their flourishing well I just want to say for everybody who's been tuning in and watching this episode Beck you are the definition of heart and hustle you know the fight that you guys are fighting every single day the small incremental wins build through time and I just want to say thank you for everybody who's tuning in and watching today for learning about your story and the amazing work you guys are doing at restore NYC as we um finalize our episode here today one of our Traditions is we have our previous guest ask you a blind question and so their question was when um you take the emotional hits of what you're doing all the time and you might feel overwhelmed and down how do

[46:51]  you get back to a place of emotional regulation so you can show up consistently for your team that's a great question um I love that question I've ever asked that high in emotional intelligence and understands the importance of good emotional health um I've really been into silent meditation recently uh and so literally just like the clearing of the mind um and so typically I'll just set like a timer like throughout I do it every morning and then throughout the day I'll do it less time but setting a timer for the length of time 10 minutes 15 minutes and just allowing myself to be present present with myself and also present with with God and just not thinking anything not holding space but just being um in silence um and that has been really really helpful to in the moment too because things come up and so it's also like oh wow that is actually in my

[47:38]  mind I didn't realize it okay I'm gonna acknowledge that come to that later but just try to hold that space um and that's been really really helpful well Beck I just want to say once again for everybody who's tuning in and watching this has been an absolutely amazing episode of the heart and hustle podcast and you are the definition of that intersection between heart and hustle and it's incredibly obvious how can people find more information about restore NYC yeah and thank you so much too for having me and for those that are listening um and it doesn't stop now continue to educate yourself you can learn more about restore on our website restore nyc.org we have resources there more to learn about our organization um and our social medias is also restore NYC well there we go guys thanks again for tuning in that's a wrap