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Leading with Authenticity: Megan Fuciarelli on Trust, Disability Inclusion, and Workplace Culture
1 Playsin 19 hours
What does authentic leadership actually look like, and why does it matter more than ever for disability inclusion at work?
In this episode of Changing Minds & Changing Lives, host Julie Sowash is joined by Megan Fuciarelli, Founder & Chief Empowerment Officer of US2 Consulting, to unpack one of the biggest workplace challenges in 2026: the growing gap between what employers say and what employees experience.
Drawing on recent disability employment data and real-world examples—from federal accommodation policy rollbacks to employer lawsuits and shifting DEI commitments—this conversation explores why trust is breaking down in the workplace and what leaders can do to rebuild it.
Show Notes:
Key Takeaways
- Why only a small percentage of disabled professionals trust employer commitment
- How DEI rollbacks and “quiet retreats” impact psychological safety
- What authentic leadership really looks like in practice
- How to have difficult conversations about disability, identity, and inclusion
- Why curiosity is the key to better leadership
- The role of accountability, data tracking, and transparency in rebuilding trust
This episode is a must-listen for HR leaders, recruiters, executives, and anyone committed to building more inclusive, equitable workplaces.
Resources & Links
- Learn more about US2 Consulting: https://www.us2consulting.com
- Connect with Megan Fuciarelli on LinkedIn
- Explore more episodes: https://www.changingmindsandlives.org/
About the Guest
Megan Fuciarelli is the Founder and Chief Empowerment Officer of US2 Consulting, a former school superintendent-turned-leadership consultant, and the creator of the “Authenticity Amplifier” framework. She works with organizations to build trust through ethical, values-driven leadership, focusing on authenticity, inclusive leadership, difficult conversations, and workplace culture. Megan also brings lived experience as a professional with a disability, which informs her perspective and approach to creating more inclusive and empowering workplaces.
About the Host
Julie Sowash is a strategic advisor, disability inclusion leader, and co‑founder of Disability Solutions. She is the CEO of Catch 22 Group and is the Job Board Doctor.
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Transcript
Introduction and Overview
00:00:06
Speaker
All right, welcome back to Changing Minds and Changing Lives. I am, as always, your humble host, Julie Sowash, co-founder and strategic advisor for the Disability Solutions team. We have a really exciting show here today, guest that I've been waiting to talk to and so excited that Ashley was able to get booked for us. Before we bring her in, I want to just kind of go over three stories that crossed my desk this week that I think set us up nicely for the conversation that we're going to have with Megan today. So the first is that kind of when you look at these stories, they all seem like they belong on different places in the shelf. um One's a federal agency. One's a private sector lawsuit. One is one of the big giant Wall Street banks getting credit for what I would call the bare minimum.
00:00:56
Speaker
um put them side by side and they're telling us something about where disability employment actually stands in 2026.
Remote Work Accommodations for Disabled Employees
00:01:05
Speaker
So let's start with the CDC.
00:01:08
Speaker
Last year, the Department of Homeland Security or HHS rolled out an accommodation policy that lined up neatly with this administration's return to office mandate, which I think a lot of us heard about a lot um in early 2025. And it made it harder for disabled federal employees to use telework or remote work as a reasonable accommodation. So what's the result?
00:01:34
Speaker
a backlog of 9,000 accommodation requests, hundreds of EEO complaints at the CDC alone, which is a part of HHS, alleging disability ah discrimination. And there's an estimate that cleaning up the mess just at the CDC could cost over $200 million dollars at minimum.
00:01:58
Speaker
Last week, the CDC quietly walked that policy back. And what we know is the policy didn't fail because of bad luck. It failed because it was designed to push people out.
00:02:09
Speaker
And the legal exposure caught up with HHS, and CDC, and the administration faster than the political winds did. So then move on to story number two.
00:02:21
Speaker
yeah On April 23rd, FedEx Express settled with the EEOC for $280,000, so a fairly minimal charge for them. But they were charged with demanding its dispatchers come back to a downtown Manhattan office.
00:02:40
Speaker
And those same dispatchers had been working in those jobs remotely for three years. and then saying, this is no longer a reasonable accommodation. You have to come back into the office.
00:02:53
Speaker
And at least one of those individuals was effectively forced into retirement.
Goldman Sachs' Accommodation Policies
00:02:57
Speaker
So similar script as HHS, different uniform, playbook turned out the same. And then last but not least, we have Goldman Sachs. And you guys know that I am the last person who's going to hand a ah participation trophy out, especially to a giant bank.
00:03:14
Speaker
But Goldman did something this week that almost nobody actually does. They published in what I feel like is plain language exactly how a candidate with a disability requests an accommodation in their hiring process.
00:03:30
Speaker
And they tied those accommodations to understanding how it relates to compensation, promotion, and benefits, not just
Trust Issues in Disability Employment
00:03:38
Speaker
getting hired. So we really had them tie it through the entire process. um And
00:03:46
Speaker
That's fairly stunning. um If you've heard me talk ever, you know that one of the biggest fails I see in in corporate America is having an accommodation process that actually works, is thoughtful, and works the way that it says it works. um And, you know, this is is a a massive employer who's now admitting you know that the application process itself is where most disabled candidates disappear, where we go into the black hole.
00:04:16
Speaker
And so like how does this tie all together? So I know I've mentioned it to you guys in the last episode, but the Disability Solutions Disability at Work report came out earlier this week or earlier this month. um And the data from the other side tells a similar story.
00:04:34
Speaker
Only 10% of disabled professionals believe employers are genuinely committed to hiring people with disabilities. Almost 75% do not believe employers genuinely understand disability-related needs at work.
Ethical Leadership with Megan Huffington
00:04:50
Speaker
And let's be honest, in the current political climate, only 13% they say they feel fully safe disclosing a disability to their employer.
00:05:01
Speaker
So you have a workforce that doesn't trust the people writing the policies, and you have policies that keep proving them right. The gap between what an organization says and what employees actually experience is the story. And I think that is what we're going to talk about today.
00:05:17
Speaker
My guest is Megan Huffington. Fucciarelli. She is the founder and chief empowerment officer of Us Squared Consulting, where she works with leaders on ethical leadership, authenticity, and the everyday behaviors that decide whether trust gets built or broken.
00:05:37
Speaker
Her core idea is one that I have really enjoyed thinking about this week. Authenticity is not a personality trait. It is a leadership practice. Megan, welcome to Changing Minds, Changing Lives.
00:05:49
Speaker
Thank you so much for having me, Julie. I'm excited for the conversation. yeah thank you. So before we get started, tell us a little bit about you. Tell us a little bit about Us Squared and how you got into this line of work.
Authenticity in Leadership
00:06:02
Speaker
Oh, my goodness. That could take the whole time, but I'll try to make it short, Julie. So really, um I have coined the term authenticity amplifier. And what I mean by that is it's not about helping people be authentic because we can't teach people how to be themselves. What we do is we help businesses be able to receive the authenticity they say they want.
00:06:23
Speaker
Right. how I got into this work is I'm actually a retired school superintendent. And as a school superintendent going through the education system myself, I realized that there were pockets of children, pockets of families who were consistently being left out of the conversation.
00:06:40
Speaker
And when I had the opportunity to retire and start the next chapter of my life, as so many educators do, I said, what actually is my passion? What will bring me true happiness and, in my mind, a different level of success? Because on paper and according to society, I was successful, but I wanted to feel that internally. And I decided to start Us Squared. Initially, it started as my own thing. I was going to be an independent contractor, kind of working for myself. I had no intention of having a company, of having employees.
00:07:16
Speaker
One year later, I had seven employees. And at the height of our company, we had 43 employees. globally, serving clients globally. And it's just been an amazing ride. And what was so interesting about speaking with you today and really looking through this is I also have a disability. And I remember some of my own kind of interactions with that. And disclosing that disability was more difficult than actually working through whatever things I needed to in order to be able to succeed with my disability. It was always that trust factor of disclosure. um
00:07:51
Speaker
But I decided to do this work because it was my passion. And that's what really got me here. Now, that's amazing. I mean, A, congratulations. I know you're about to celebrate 10 years yeah um in business, which is no short feat in and of itself. But going through what we've been through for now the last decade and a half and to run this type of business um successfully is is something to really Pat yourself on the back for. um But I also really appreciate what you said about this is where your passion is. I think that is so much about, you know, what I did at Disability Solutions. um What I do now with Catch-22
00:08:36
Speaker
Making things right gives me energy. um It gives me purpose. And i am never more satisfied than when I'm doing this work. So thank you and congratulations. um You know, and and, you know, you've built your career around the idea that authenticity is a leadership practice. and We just went through some of those stats about how employees are not feeling that, you know,
00:09:04
Speaker
employers understand them or that they're actually committed to the things that they've been saying they're committed to.
DEI Conversations in Changing Climates
00:09:11
Speaker
um So from your seat, tell me, what does authentic leadership look like in practice?
00:09:18
Speaker
And what are some examples you can give of where employers are maybe getting it wrong? Yeah, absolutely. So authentic leadership, what we really phrase that in is the idea of having courage, having acceptance, having respect and having empathy. So those four traits together make authentic leadership. And when we talk about courage, it's about being willing to have those tough conversations. It's about being willing to lean into something when you're uncomfortable and being willing to hear the other perspective. And sometimes conversations, especially for those of people who have privilege or power, maybe neurotypical or people without disabilities, struggle to talk about the other side because we've been accustomed as a society to not talk about it. But really, by ignoring it, we're minimizing and invalidating the conversations that need to happen. So that first aspect of authentic leadership is being willing to lean in to those difficult conversations. And as I was looking through the report, I was looking at, okay, how does this really play out in the data that you were able to collect in the report that you mentioned? And one thing I heard about is when people say,
00:10:33
Speaker
I'm just not going to talk about it. When employers say, I'm going to retreat from DEI language, I'm just not going to talk about it. Employees don't see that as a neutral. They see that as they're running away from that protection. Right. I'm no longer going to be protected. If we're not talking about it, I'm not going to be protected anymore. There's that loss of trust.
00:10:51
Speaker
Yes. And then when we move into the second aspect of authentic leadership, it's about acceptance. And it's about acknowledging that we all have different abilities. I don't like to use the term disability. It's different abilities. Because I truly believe that everyone has different abilities, regardless of whether you have a quote unquote disability or not. Right.
00:11:13
Speaker
And I think as leaders to be authentic, we have to be able to look within and say, am I being authentic? And do I acknowledge my own abilities? And then respect is critical as well. Oh, yes. And you mentioned in one answer so many of the topics that I want to cover with you. So I'm trying to decide where do we go next. Oh, goodness. I have a really bad habit of doing that. I'm so sorry. Oh, no. You set the stage quickly. No, you set the stage perfect. And I'm like, where can I move these questions around? But something that you just mentioned caught my eye or caught my ear. And it's not a way that I've said it before. And you will hear me say it now and I'll credit you. But you're talking about, know, organizations stepping back from DEI, some quietly, some pretty loudly. Yeah.
00:12:03
Speaker
Because they the the political climate has changed. Absolutely. um And I will always say this political climate, just like the weather, will not last forever. So those of us who now have been...
00:12:19
Speaker
deceived, harmed, you know, um ah had our trust broken, won't forget that. um And I think what you said was so nicely of of stepping back quietly is not the same as just stepping back. It is in an underrepresented community's perspective, causing harm or losing protection.
Encouraging Open Dialogue in Leadership
00:12:42
Speaker
It's creating fear. And so, yeah,
00:12:45
Speaker
and and so you know when What can leaders do now? Or how do we think about this from a leadership perspective? and it There's nothing an average CHRO can do or ah ah a chief town officer can do if a CEO has decided to move away from dei How can we move that into leadership as daily practice, um you know, especially when all those and external pressures and just everyday life pressures are are pushing us as leaders in the other direction?
00:13:19
Speaker
Yeah, I think the number one piece to acknowledge is that authenticity and authentic leadership becomes so much harder when it feels politically conditional, right? If you're in an organization, and over the last 10 years, just in the time I've had my company, we've seen the pendulum go from one swing to the other. And extremism and that political kind of power that ties behaviors to businesses causes an even higher level of distrust within an organization. So as leaders and what we work with leaders to do is say, what are your core values? Don't worry about the language. Don't worry about how you say it.
00:14:00
Speaker
What are your core values? What do you believe? That's why we use the phrase of everyone deserves to be seen, heard, welcomed and valued. We don't necessarily use the acronym of JEDI anymore.
00:14:12
Speaker
What we do instead is say, you deserve to be seen. That's diversity. You deserve to be heard. That's inclusion. You deserve to be welcomed. That's equity. And you deserve to be included and valued. That's justice.
00:14:27
Speaker
But when we can use words that are not triggering as an organization and stay true to our values, then we can build that trust with our employees and our employees know and our clients and everyone we serve. They know what we stand for and they're more willing to trust us.
00:14:46
Speaker
Because not everyone is going to agree with everything we think. So I've never encouraged businesses try to be everything for everyone because then, we've all heard it before, you will be nothing to anyone.
00:14:57
Speaker
Right? Yeah. So you have to stand true in who you are. Whatever those beliefs are, don't allow those beliefs to be changed because of outside, especially political influence.
00:15:08
Speaker
Yeah. And i I mean, I think that's so beautifully said. when you know When we first moved into this second administration and the rollback of, um you know, affirmative action from an executive order perspective, we got at the OFCCP and we really moved away in a lot of ways to protections from the EEOC. We had conversations with a lot of employers who were like, you know, what do we do now? What do we do now? We can't talk about it anymore. And
00:15:40
Speaker
At Disability Solutions, are our motto has always been, you know, nose to the ground, doing the work. And this is the time where it's not sexy and you don't get all the kudos and the nice free PR and the happy feelings. But everyday leadership really is showing that we live these values, whether it's politically advantageous or it's a good PR practice. and And I think that's where a lot of trust has been broken because in a, you know, kind of a post George Floyd world where it became sexy to be inclusive, um a lot of companies and we've seen them and we can name them all. I won't do that now because I do it regularly, um walked away and you knew that they weren't really committed. But we know that there are a lot of leaders in those organizations and everyday frontline managers who are actually. um committed to that work. and I think that's just ah a beautiful um a beautiful way to say it. The next thing that you mentioned, which is ah another one of my kind of favorite topics, is
00:16:53
Speaker
How hard it is to talk and have difficult conversations without shutting people down. And think there's kind of two ways that we could look at this. And and if you'll bear with me, let's let's go down both paths together. um The first one is
00:17:12
Speaker
As someone who does believe in diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice um as as a core value to myself, um i it took me a long time to recognize that the way that I was engaging people who didn't have those same commitments to myself was I don't want to say out of touch, but it was not going to move the needle um at all.
00:17:40
Speaker
And so I would love for you to kind of talk to us in kind of in this first section. You know, how do you... How do leaders, how do you as a human um kind of create space for those conversations without just shutting people down and allowing them to feel and express ideas that we may not agree with?
00:18:03
Speaker
um ah We as as adults should be able to have together and and work through regardless of kind of how those conversations end. Yeah, absolutely. i love this question. So we have seven core principles and they're really our guiding post within us squared. And the very first one is that guilt and politeness are the glue that hold prejudice and stigma in place.
00:18:28
Speaker
Right. And what we mean by that is that if you feel guilt or shame or you try to blame people, you're just perpetuating the problem that exists in our country and in our world. If you are so polite that you're unwilling to have those difficult conversations, we used to refer to it as political correctness, right, or being politically correct.
00:18:48
Speaker
That's been out the window for a couple of years now. But the idea still remains. People say, I don't want to talk about anything that might make someone upset. Well, here's the truth. Everything is going to make someone upset.
Challenges in Discussing Disabilities at Work
00:18:58
Speaker
So if we come at the conversation with curiosity, rather than trying to prove our point right or try to prove the other person wrong, if we genuinely come in with, I want to understand each other, then that's the first step. The next thing I tell people all the time is, I believe that everyone, regardless of their background, believes in a component of Jedi. Okay.
00:19:21
Speaker
Everyone does. They might not say that it's a component of Jedi. They might not understand what it is, but it's about level setting. What is the definition of our work?
00:19:33
Speaker
Because what's happened is, especially in our society right now, people have an interpretation of what it means because of mass media. Yep. They don't actually hear what is the bottom underlying cause of why this was created in the first place. We started doing this work.
00:19:52
Speaker
We've been doing it for years. Really, the the rise of the popularity of it was after Rodney King and after the beating of Rodney King. And before that, there were people doing this work.
00:20:03
Speaker
Mm-hmm. But it became popularized and it became even more main mainstream after the murder of George Floyd. Right. It takes an extreme event to cause conversation. and honestly, that conversation needs to happen. So what I will do if I know I'm going into a conversation with someone who might not be on the same page as me, I know that we all have access to the same book.
00:20:28
Speaker
I just need to help them get to my page or I need to go to whatever page they're on to see what they're coming from. So what I will do is we have a couple different, we actually have 15 different identities. I won't go into all of them, but those 15 identities allow me to figure out which identity i can dive deeper into to help them see what I see.
00:20:51
Speaker
So for example, if I'm talking to a cis white hetero man, right? So straight, able-bodied, heterosexual man, I might come to him and say, and maybe he's married to a woman, I might say, oh wow, yeah, your wife, you you have such a beautiful, loving relationship. Can you believe that in our lifetime, your wife would not have been able to have a credit card?
00:21:19
Speaker
Can you believe that if your wife wanted to buy a house Even just 50 years ago, she wouldn't have been able to without a male cosigner. Wow.
00:21:30
Speaker
So I'll bring it into an identity that I know is a little bit less controversial to make the conversation comfortable and say, you know, that's some of the work I do is to make sure that those problems and those situations and those barriers that people had some this many years ago within our lifetime,
00:21:48
Speaker
Don't continue to perpetuate problems for our future. Or if they have a daughter, right? Or if they, I will bring it into something that relates to them, that feels more safe, so that we can dive into the difficult conversations, because our fifth core principle is that growth occurs in discomfort.
00:22:05
Speaker
Mm-hmm. And we know that if you're uncomfortable about something, not unsafe, because there is a difference, but if you're uncomfortable about something, it's probably because you're on the brink of something amazing.
00:22:19
Speaker
So we really just encourage that. Oh, that's great. I mean, and and it is such a
00:22:27
Speaker
is a more comfortable approach than just being told you're wrong. um and And I can look back through a couple of years of of where I could have done much more, um but much more with a little bit more calmness. And I think a lot of us are coming out on the other side of that now, trying to figure out how do we not soften our values or our expectations, but that we do a better job of meeting people where they are. um And I think that kind of takes me to to something kind of the other side of that, that difficult conversations question is, you know, something you
00:23:09
Speaker
I've known for years um is that a lot of times talking ah but about disability at work is very difficult. um And it is difficult because of of three things. um One is if we're taught not to talk about uncomfortable things, to avoid things that cause us to discomfort. So if we don't know how to engage a person who is blind, who is deaf, who has a mental illness, we are more likely to avoid them than to engage them.
00:23:38
Speaker
The second is that we have been taught that people with disabilities are charity, that they're charitable, that our approach to them should be philanthropic, meaning that they are other than us. They are lesser. That we should have sympathy rather than empathy. Yep. And as a person who lives with disabilities, right, even we have different types of those same biases within our own community. um And then the third is is that we've always leaders.
00:24:11
Speaker
um Once you get into a management position, you go into all of those trainings, all those classes that tell you you, know, you can't discriminate, you can't do this, you can't do that. And all of a sudden, as a leader, you're terrified of mucking it up.
00:24:25
Speaker
So you're either scared of getting yourself in trouble, getting your company in trouble, hurting someone who you don't intend to hurt, and just in general being completely unaware of how to have conversations. um And, you know, that's one thing that we've just seen and I've seen hundreds of times and had hundreds of conversations of people who just don't know how to have difficult conversations about disability. And, you know, from a a leadership perspective, and and I would even say from maybe a new leader perspective or a lower level leader perspective, how do you help those leaders become more comfortable in a conversation that they have been taught by everything in their corporate environment to be uncomfortable with?
00:25:19
Speaker
Yeah. So the first step is, and it's really where the name of my company originates. So Us Squared is Understand Self, Unite Society. So it's about understanding who you are and what you bring to the table before you try to understand anyone else and before we ultimately unite society.
00:25:36
Speaker
So the number one piece for any leader, specifically newer leaders who have that fear, because I think many people in society, whether they're leaders or not, have that fear of saying the wrong thing, right? We don't want to offend. I believe that most people have best intentions based on their lived experiences, right?
00:25:55
Speaker
We don't know what could hurt someone if we don't have the conversation about it, right? So that's important to just note. And I think the first piece with that is to understand what biases you may have, right? To be able to do that self-reflection to say, okay, this is what I think. When I hear about ADHD, this is what I think.
00:26:18
Speaker
When I hear about neurodiversity, this is what I think. What are your first thoughts? Taking away the shame and the guilt around whatever you think, because we have been socialized to have those beliefs. Our first thoughts in our brains are embedded by the age of 12.
00:26:36
Speaker
And as far as I know, most leaders, especially in corporate America, are over the age of 12, which means those are already there. They're cemented. Right. So as adults, what we can do is take a deep dive into that psyche to say, what do I believe to be true?
00:26:51
Speaker
And how can I learn more information to either confirm or deny what I believe to be true? Right. And it starts with those conversations. But the number one thing within all of that is when you go into a conversation, don't go in to prove yourself right or to prove the other person wrong. Go in with curiosity.
Data Tracking and Accountability
00:27:10
Speaker
So I give a sentence frame of, you know, you're brand new. Maybe they hired someone new. I have this with everyone, not just someone who might have already disclosed they have a disability, but having the conversation with everyone of how can I help you be the most successful?
00:27:24
Speaker
Because I truly believe that accommodations are not meant just for those who have a documented disability. Accommodations are meant for everyone to be successful regardless of what they need in order to do that as long as it is something that is able to be provided within reason. Yeah.
00:27:42
Speaker
yeah And i I often say we we provide accommodations every day for people um because we understand and understand or share their lived experience. For example, I was a single old mom for a period of time. if I had single moms on my team. I knew what they needed.
00:27:58
Speaker
If they said, hey, I need to start 15 minutes late or, hey, I need to take an afternoon for XYZ, whenever that was possible, that was an easy yes for me because I had that shared experience. And as we have more people with disabilities move into leadership roles, it becomes easier for them to provide those same types of accommodations. um But it's merely because we've been uncomfortable um in not knowing how to ask those questions or how to say without creating risk um that, you know, I want to help. And I think a lot of times, you know, i have to go back to our community and say, I've met thousands of leaders in this work.
00:28:39
Speaker
And I would say 90 plus percent all want to do it well and they all want to do it right. They show up because they want to do it. They're gonna they're going to fail and and we've got to let them fail and start again and hold them accountable when you know accountability is is appropriate. um you know And ah as we kind of wrap up, um it's been a just a great conversation. it's it It's allowed me to think about things with different wording that I haven't before and I really, really appreciate that.
00:29:11
Speaker
Part of kind of the the last part of the disability at work survey this year that really surprised me was even with everything going on, all of the fear, the skepticism, the broken trust, 57% of our respondents believe that federal contractors, so that's 400,000 plus establishments in the U.S. s alone, should continue to track their disability data.
00:29:38
Speaker
Because why? We know now that that tracking creates accountability. Without data, we don't know. And people are genuinely asking that employers are not walking not to walk away.
00:29:52
Speaker
They're asking for them to continue to provide accountability. themselves and our government and our community um that the receipts that they're doing the
Hope for Future Inclusivity
00:30:03
Speaker
work. um And so, you know, last question, what what gives you hope right now?
00:30:09
Speaker
And what needs to change for organizations to start to rebuild trust with the people who work for them? So I love this question because it's about what gives me hope and what I look forward to. And I have a young son. And when we talked at the very beginning of why do we do this work? And i had my son late in life and I'm a single mother. um My son will be 16 this summer and he is proud of the work I do. He is a black man in America. He's a multiracial child, but no one sees that when they see him. They see a black man in America. And there's a lot of fear around that. And there's a lot of concern around that.
00:30:53
Speaker
um And i am hopeful that he will continue to learn how to have conversations and that the organizations that hire him in the future will continue to do this work. And as I was reading through the report and looking through how there is a desire, hey, keep tracking me. I want this accountability. Accountability is critical. I also saw, I mean, as high as I think it was, me look at my notes right here.
00:31:22
Speaker
71 percent, right? Almost three quarters of the people who responded said that they are afraid of discrimination. And at the same time, they simply want to be seen. Right. and So they're asking for their data to be tracked because they want to be seen. They want to be heard. They want to be included in the conversation. and I'm hopeful that we'll continue to do that. And what I really appreciate, even though the last few years, especially the last 18 months, have been extremely difficult here in the U.S. and globally,
00:31:51
Speaker
What I am excited about is that there are companies who are staying true with this work. They might change their language, right? And the companies who have stepped away are the companies who were never committed in the first place. And I am someone who I would rather know where you stand than have you put on a fake face.
00:32:13
Speaker
So if you want to back away from this, that's okay. I know that you're not a company that I want to support. I'm okay with that. I have quite a few companies that I will not support.
00:32:25
Speaker
I don't tell anyone else not to support them. That is up to them. I personally don't support them because they've made their values very clear. And I have other companies who I will pay 50 to 60% more because they are standing true on what their values are. We are a values-driven economy more than anything else we have ever been.
00:32:46
Speaker
People are making decisions based on what their values are and how much they align with who they are as people. And I think as a society, we have to talk about where we have gone wrong so that we can make sure we don't repeat those mistakes. And right now, the conversations that we're having, as difficult as they are, We need to continue having them because I do truly believe that we will get through this. And I hope that the pendulum does not swing all the way to the other side because that's what we've seen in our recent history is the pendulum going far right to far left to far right. We need to be more in the center. We need to move away from the extremism on either side. Yeah. Amen to
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:33:25
Speaker
that. So Megan, if our listeners want to engage with you, have these conversations, have you in their organization, how do they get a hold of you? What's the best way to find you?
00:33:36
Speaker
Yeah. So we are on most of the social media channels, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram. and They can also go to our website. It's just us2consulting.com. And our handle on all of social media us2consulting. So we would love to be in touch with anyone would like to reach out.
00:33:55
Speaker
Amazing, amazing. Thank you so much for taking the time today. This is a fantastic conversation. And I know it's one that our listeners will very much enjoy and get a lot out of. um You guys, another episode in the in the tank. um Are there guests that you want me to bring on? Who are they? Send them our way. Get a hold of Ashley. Get a hold of myself. Submit a contact form at Disability Solutions. We're always looking for new guests, new voices in our community, because there's so much power here to be heard that's impossible for me to know it all by myself. So have an amazing um May, and thanks for joining the podcast.