Culture is the heart and soul of the organization featuring Kim "Kimfer" Flanery-Rye

Kerel  00:02

Welcome back to another episode of MRP, Minority Report Podcast. This is Kerel Cooper. I'm flying solo today. Erik can't join us today. He will be back for the next episode. We miss him as always and I'm looking forward to him joining us for the next one. But with that said, I've got a very exciting guest joining us today. Very excited about this conversation with Kimfer Flanery-Rye, Founder, Principal DEI and Culture Practitioner. Kimfer how're you doing?

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Kimfer Flanery-Rye  00:35

I'm good, Kerel. Thanks for inviting me.

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Kerel  00:38

Yeah, thanks for joining us today. How's your Q1 going for you so far?

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Kimfer Flanery-Rye  00:43

You know, it's been pretty interesting. Because I think since the last time we spoke, I bought a new business on top of what I currently do.

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Kerel  00:52

Wow. Okay. (laughs)

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Kimfer Flanery-Rye  00:54

(laughs) So it's been a kind of a hectic Q1, I have to say. Yeah, so I acquired a new company. In addition to what I do, right, I own a company called Inclusion Equals, however, I just purchased as of January 1, an organization called The F Bomb Breakfast Club.

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Kerel  01:14

Wow, congratulations. We will get into a little bit about that shortly. But let's start by giving our listeners a little background on yourself. Tell us where were you born? Where were you raised?

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Kimfer Flanery-Rye  01:29

Yeah, so I have a really interesting story. I mean, not to say many people don't have an interesting story. But I was actually born in South Korea. I was born there in a small farmer community, to be honest, I'm not even sure where, but took a little bit of a sad, I would say curve and ended up at an orphanage for at least a couple of years. But I had the really profound shift in my world by being adopted to a small rural farm community in Iowa. So what was interesting about that is like, for those of you, many of you hopefully have never experienced dealing with homelessness, or dealing with abandonment. Getting a little heavy here, Kerel, but you know, so I dealt with a lot of things, especially being in an orphanage. Right? So I'm thinking, "Yeah! I'm saved! I'm in the US!" And you know, doing all of that. Unfortunately, that was in the early 80s. And for anyone in your listening group that have been around a bit, early 80s, we ended up with a farm crisis. And so I was adopted into a small farm community. That meant farm aid, farm crisis, all the things that happened, so another round of loss. So yeah, so that was sort of my initial early, early experiences in my life, going through multiple, I would say, insecurities, right? Food insecurities, you name it, I experienced that. But I love the fact that being here, when I say here, I'm in the US, I did have more opportunities than I could have been an orphan in South Korea. And so now here I am. Been to college, I have my Bachelor of Fine Arts, my practice was in painting, mostly. I also have my MBA in business, been an executive, so my life has really changed a lot. And it's because of all the people that have surrounded me, because, you know, we never do it alone.

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Kerel  03:31

Yeah, that is true. We never do it alone. And that's kind of what I wanted to ask you about going back to your early years. I mean, that had to have been a very traumatic experience, you know, for you or any child, you know, experiencing some of the things that you went through. What kept you going, what got you through that? Were there again, people, influences in your life? Did you have a support structure around you?  Just trying to sort of understand a little bit more, Kim, how did you navigate those early years? And what kept you going?

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Kimfer Flanery-Rye  04:06

Yeah, I think you know, what's interesting is that as an adult now I can look back and go, oh, we learn a lot of superpowers. Trauma based superpowers, right? So one of the things like, I learned to read the room really early on very quickly. Part of it has to do with like, if you don't want to put yourself in those kind of scenarios, you just have to do that. I think that I've always had a positive outlook. I think that is maybe just innately me, you know, there's that whole like nurture nature thing. And I think there is something to be said about natural part of my, maybe like just my DNA. I've always been an optimist. I think just having that kind of mindset has helped me on a personal level. And as I went through all of these scenarios, especially in the younger years, there was always a bit of a spotlight. There's always someone that have made a difference along the way, even back in the orphanage. But definitely when I came to the US, even though our family went through the farm crisis, initially, my mom, my adopted mom, also, you know, for me, I just call her my mom, she had such a big heart. My whole family is adopted. So, I'm adopted, my sister is adopted, she's also Korean. She's Korean-American, biracial, she was adopted. I have a blond hair, blue eyed brother, who recently passed, unfortunately, was adopted. I have a dark haired dark guy, brother, who was also adopted. She was just really overflowing of love for family and she just couldn't have her own children. And so that was her way of just creating the family for herself, and also foster three brothers as well. So, you know, that had a huge impact knowing, I think also as an adoptee, that someone loved me enough, wanted me enough, to go through the process to bring me there. And then as we went through the farm crisis, my mother who hadn't worked for years, she was in her 50s, I'm the youngest and I'm in my 50s right now. (laughs) And so, she hadn't worked for a long time, because farming was really quite wealthy in the earlier years, but she was a nurse, she went back to work to take care of us. You know, had to get back on the food lines, things like that. And just knowing that there are people out there will do whatever they can to make you successful and make you better, I mean, that means a lot. I also had a really great friend when I was younger, where their family kind of absorbed me in during those hard times. So I got to spend a lot of time there, make sure I was fed well and have additional opportunities. I had a wonderful art teacher, Miss Squires, who still is such an impact to me, who really saw my artistry as something that was really important to me. And I think my artistry or being an artist really saved me in a lot of ways, right? There's that and then too, oddly, like boyfriends and girlfriends and people that were around, that just helped me along, to found family. Family that you surround yourself with. And it could be like, because I need to borrow $50 to put gas in the car and get some groceries, right, earlier on, to being able to now give back continuously. And so there are just so many people and some people that don't even know that they've impacted me. I try to share that they've impacted me, but not in this profound way. I don't think they can truly understand right? And talking about even mentors along the way, every time I have one, a friend now I used to say, you know, she's my mentor. And Annika would always be like, oh, no, we're peers. I'm like, yeah, but you also had a major impact. So again, we just don't do it alone. Even if you feel lonely. I think that's the really interesting thing. Because as a solopreneur in a lot of ways, although- or entrepreneur, I have a team - but you know, you can feel quite lonely in that scenario, but you are also surrounded by your community.

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Kerel  04:27

That is true. That is true. And how do you think the experience that you had growing up shaped who you are today? And does it also influence the work that you do on a day to day basis as well?

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Kimfer Flanery-Rye  08:37

Yeah, absolutely. For me, my lived experience has a tremendous amount as to why I do what I do. I think we hear that probably from a lot of DI practitioners actually, right, their lived experiences is what really drives them. I had a moment in my life where I went through a really massive transition. I was part of an executive team, I was a vice president and executive creative director for a digital marketing agency here in Seattle that eventually got acquired by Accenture. And I was getting my executive MBA and during that time, I went to a Jesuit School University, and they have a really strong teaching about what does it mean to be a servant leader? What does it mean to be an ethical leader in the global commons that you share with others? What does it mean to have deeply embedded social justice, right, into your leadership, and also understanding that the decisions you make can have, as a leader, massive economic goal, you know, like impact at a macro and micro level. And so during that time, I really went through a transformation and that's when I made the change, because I always had that inkling inside, right, but that time is when I was able to really shift and understand my three areas of very specific areas of service, because I was a bit of a bleeding heart. And I think that's part of, you know, the way that I grew up is that I'm like, oh, yeah, that organization, this organization, yes, I'm at a place where I can give back financially with my time, whatever. So I was just like doing it like that, and then realize that, okay, there are three areas that are very specifically hierarchically more important to me than some of the other areas and, you know, it's youth experiencing barriers. Well, hello, I was a youth experiencing barriers, you know, for the LGBTQIA community, oh, well, hello, I'm part of the LGBTQIA community, oftentimes, like, the bi-erasure is real, but I am part of the community. And then the third is in the arts. And so for me being able to get that specific about my service needs, and then wrap around, what does my servant leadership might look like in my business world really helped me to get, really get honed in. And so giving back is super important to me. It is a deep, deep value of mine because, again, it's hard to get through the world on your own. And for me, I had that opportunity given to me, and also my hard work as as well, obviously, but for me, it's like there are others out there that need that support, in many ways. So that's part of the reason why I have a really big philanthropy heart as well in the things that I do. I mentor as many women as possible. I work on a nonprofit board that supports youths and arts and youths especially facing barriers, because I know how important art was for me when I was going through all of that, but also knowing that someone who looks like me, and for those of you, I'm an Asian woman, Korea, from South Korea, and the idea of being othered, right being othered is is a real thing. Because there weren't a whole lot of people that looked like me where I grew up. And this idea that Asians in general, are considered foreigners in their own land, right? I don't know how often I've been asked, like, where are you from, you know, like that thing, even though I am an American citizen now, and I did happen to come from South Korea. But that is not the case for a lot of Asians that live here. And just that knowing and growing up in that otherness, was really important for me to figure out and how I can be of service to work in this DI space for people to feel belonged.

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Kerel  12:49

I want to ask you a little bit more about the DEI space because in many ways DEI is under attack right now. And one of the things that is listed in your bio on LinkedIn is you say you believe company's culture is the heart and soul of the organization. But with DEI under the attack that it is under right now, what is your approach to sort of making sure that organizations, if you will, have DEIs sort of embedded in their company culture, right, because it has to be, you know, embedded in the company culture if it's going to really be a part of the heart and soul of the organization? I think you get what I'm trying to say here.

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Kimfer Flanery-Rye  13:36

Yeah, yeah for sure. Well, here's the thing, is that those that don't want it, you can't tell them to want it. Right? That's becoming more and more apparent now, right?

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Kerel  13:50

But they also shouldn't tell those of us who do want it that we can't have it. 

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Kimfer Flanery-Rye  13:55

Absolutely, absolutely. So right now in the current political state of DEI, which shouldn't be politicized, but it has turned into a political issue. And what's been fascinating for me to watch because human nature and brain science behind it is just an area that I do study and it's just, again, very fascinating for me, is that the way that DEI went across the nation, across the world, as we know, was because of the line in the sand that was drawn after George Floyd's murder. I mean, we know this, this happened and then all the promises came, all the statements came, all of the whatever, right? And so then at that time, not only individuals but because of individuals pushing and also at the society level at that time, you got a lot of business peer pressure to sign up, to do and do a lot of performative-ness, to be honest, right? But for businesses that really were committed, they're like, oh, wow, like we've been talking about it or thinking about it, we just didn't know how to do it, we now really need to do it, right. So they were going in. And then we had a lot of followers that were very much looking at it from a game, you know, and I'm using that air quotes "game." And what's happening now that like the pendulum has swung so far - anytime pendulum in society swings one way, it's gonna swing back the other way. So what's happening now is that the organizations that were truly trying to make the change happen, are staying true to it. Like they're raising their hand saying, I don't care if we're, you know, like, our assets are being like, pulled down, or whatever it is, we think this is the right thing to do, and it's an important thing to do, and it has business impact and our people impact. What we're seeing now is that the people that were doing it in a performative way, or organizations that were doing it in a performative way, are using this moment as an excuse to pull back. So, we're seeing more and more of that, and I get this question often is like, well, shouldn't you be helping those people? Like people who already know, you know, like, find it important, they already have that, isn't it- shouldn't you be doing the hard work?

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Kerel  16:17

Those people don't want the help, though.

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Kimfer Flanery-Rye  16:19

Yes, I'm like, why am I going to butt against the wall, that's not going to make any impact, and not only waste my time and energy on those folks, when I could use my time and energy over here with people that's saying, like, help us, help us, we just don't know how to do it. So that has way more impact on the people that want it and the organizations that want it, because then they will have a reverberation effect around their community, right versus some parts are unmovable forces.

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Kerel  16:52

Right, right, right. Do you still have faith that DEI, this movement that really started a couple of years ago, will continue to drive change, not only within organizations that want change, but in society as a whole?

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Kimfer Flanery-Rye  17:08

I do. I do. I really do. Part of it could be my optimistic perspective. I think I told you, I'm a bit of an optimist. But also we've seen this over and over in society. I oftentimes look at sustainability but I think about it in the way that sustainability has moved into organizations. There was a lot of greenwashing that was happening for a long time, and there still is, but ultimately, it's required across now, right? It's become a standard, a structural systems practice. I think DI will get there as well.

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Kerel  17:44

Gotcha. Okay. Okay. I want to switch topics a little bit. Going back to the opener, tell us about The F bomb Breakfast Club.

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Kimfer Flanery-Rye  17:53

(laughs) Yeah! So, F Bomb Breakfast Club was originally founded by a woman named Megan McNally, one of also my mentors. She founded this company, this is in its eighth year, so she led it for seven years. She created it because she realized that again, as women, business owners, wanted a place where they can have peer groups to support each other to bring their businesses up. And it was a place to be safe, you know, swear like sailors and build badass businesses. And so they called it getting up at the ass crack of dawn here in Seattle at 7am, no matter what, every first Friday meeting. I was a member for six of the seven years, so maybe five and a half years of it and just the the energy of 100 women or more showing up in and, you know, it's dark out here on the wintertime, like literally, it's dark out at 7am and still getting together to support each other and make their businesses better. And when she was ready to transition and think about moving into the next phase, which she's working on what's called the F Bomb Angels, which we are a angel funding group for women, she was looking for someone who might take the lead and I raised my hand and said, Inclusion Equals might like to acquire that and because I think it aligns with our mission, so it's been a really exciting ride and only, you know, a few months into it. And we're in the moment of looking to see and looking to the community to see what the next evolution will look like. So trying to co-create and co-design with each other and yeah, it's a place for women, femmes and gentle them's, who are founders, who are entrepreneurs and business owners to come join and we really do, we just, we get busy and work on the hard things that makes us business owners.

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Kerel  19:52

Love it. Love it. Well, congrats again and a follow up question to that, when you are looking at a potential acquisition target or a target to invest in, what are some of the characteristics in the business or the company culture that you look for, that really catches your eye that, you know, says, okay, I'm going to make this decision to move forward here.

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Kimfer Flanery-Rye  20:16

Yeah, I would say, because this is my first company that I actually purchased. So you know, and so the rest I've started on my own and so I would say, this probably goes for across the board, who I work with, right, as clients, along with, you know, the company that I purchase, and then as an angel investor, who I invest in, there's a value alignment that has to happen, right? So value alignment for one, deep, deep understanding of the importance, not necessarily that you understand DI thoroughly, but the importance of DEI, number one, right? That spaces needs to be inclusive and create spaces of belonging, right. You can change the business, looking at systems and really integrating DI into the systems. And so that goes in all the ways that I look at. And when it comes to specifically in the investment side, I look at businesses that are going to have some kind of social impact. That's a really important thing for me. We're trying to do some kind of change, where it will impact the society in some way. And I was invited to speak at a University of Washington, at a class, it's a class on funding, like VC financial funding class, and I had told them I said, honestly, like, if someone said, "Hey, Kimfer, you want to invest in another Tinder or something like that?" I'd be like, no, it doesn't align for me. Like, I think people who use it and who meet their match that way or for you know, social outings or whatever you want to do, that's fine. But from a society level, what is it really adding? They're gamifying people, dehumanizing people, etc, etc, right? And it's not really doing a social, positive social impact in a way that's going to change. Right? So even if it's a moneymaker, I'm not going to say yes, because it doesn't align to my value thesis for investment.

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Kerel  20:19

Gotcha. Yeah, no, no, that makes a lot of sense. You know, I talk a lot about this in marketing these days, and that there's this sort of growing trend, which I think is very positive of, you know, the end consumer. They want to spend their money in places where, or with companies and brands that they see themselves in that brand, or that brand, you know, aligns with their values, their beliefs, so on and so forth. And I think what you're saying, is this sort of same approach from an investment perspective as well, too. It's not just about the bottom line from a financial perspective, it's about driving impact, and what aligns with who you are. So that's great. That's awesome.

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Kimfer Flanery-Rye  23:10

Yeah, yeah, I mean, it's purpose driven, right? Purpose driven. And, you know, for me, I think it's really important. I've been given and again, this might be a lot of adoptees could be, but I feel like I've been given a second chance at life, right? And because of that, I want to be really, be thoughtful in how I approach my life in general. And that also means trying to align the way that I live, what I do how I show up to be as much in alignment as possible. Obviously, we're not perfect at it. And there's no such thing as a perfect person, if there is, oh my gosh, why aren't we replicating that, but you know what I mean. It doesn't happen. And so, yeah, do I sometimes, like, do things that probably went against what I would normally do? I'm sure there's plenty of things in which I do, but I try to align my life and my business as aligned as possible to what value systems that I believe in and want to be true to as much as possible across the board.

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Kerel  24:24

Gotcha. Gotcha. Makes sense. Kimfer, if there is someone listening to this podcast right now, that was an orphan, recently maybe been adopted, kind of growing up with a, you know, similar childhood, if you will, that you have, what advice would you give to that person that might be listening right now?

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Kimfer Flanery-Rye  24:49

Whew, advice, that's a rough one. Not a rough one, the reason why I say rough, that feels really important, like big. It feels, like, big right? I'd say, I think the advice that I might have is, don't let your identity of being an adoptee hold you back. It can set you free to define who you want to be, how you want to model your life, and how to do things. Because I've heard a lot of people say. Because I didn't have this as a model, I didn't know how to do this or that. I'm like, well, I'm an pure example of things that weren't fully modeled for me, right? But I celebrated my 25th wedding anniversary last year. Like, I didn't experience that kind of stuff. Even my adopted family separated after the farm crisis, all of that stuff, right? I think just because you haven't experienced it or seen it, that doesn't mean you can't imagine a life for you, and have agency over how you want to create that life for you.

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Kerel  25:58

Okay, gotcha, gotcha. What's something you wish you were better at?

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Kimfer Flanery-Rye  26:02

Ah, so many things! So many things! I mean, from a lighthearted area, from like, I'm looking at my guitar over there. And I learned how to play when I was in my early 20s, right, and then quit for a long time, and then I got it as a mother's gift, because I was like, I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do it. And then it's still kind of sitting there. Too, you know, like taking better care of my health. Because I tend to like over exert, and sometimes too much giving and not enough for myself. Like, filling my cup is really important that I don't do as much and like always trying to offer to fill someone else's cup. So I definitely need to be better about that when it comes to that and my health. But I'm also so curious about so many things. Like, I'm just a curious person by nature. I want to dissect it all and just learn everything. It's hard to say like, you know one specific but, yeah.

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Kerel  26:58

Alright, I'm gonna check in with you every six months to see how the guitar playing is going. (laughs)

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Kimfer Flanery-Rye  27:05

Yeah, that's what I need is, really, someone to hold me accountable. I need that. (laughs)

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Kerel  27:10

(laughs) Alright, final question I have for you here. Another fun question. What's in your music rotation these days?

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Kimfer Flanery-Rye  27:20

Well, that's also interesting because my music tastes are really all over the place. But I do have to say right now, there are three things that comes to mind. One, I finally have my walkup song figured out. So, "Get Up and Get Out" by Warm Dirty. Oh my gosh, as soon as I heard that, I'm like that is it, that's my pump up song, my walk up song or whatever you call it. So before I have to go speak at a big stage or anything like that, I'm like, I have that blaring like on my way there or in the morning when I get up. And so I'm just like, pumped up. I'm also in love with I have to say Billie Eilish's "What Was I Made For?" And I think that just speaks to me really deeply. I think maybe it makes sense for people as they listen to the podcast as to maybe why but that song just really like, guts me every time. And the other is I just went back to South Korea last summer for the second time in my life with my sister for our 50th birthday. And we ended up getting matching tattoos. I know it sounds a little silly, but it was really important to us, like think about our heritage, but they were playing tons of Korean rap and I was like what is this? So I just Shazam'ed all the music and then I can't really tell you who all the artists are but I've been trying to get like rotation of it to see who I want to like, right. And so yeah, I guess a lot of Korean rap. (laughs)

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Kerel  28:53

There you go. (laughs) All good. All good. Well, Kimfer, thank you for joining us. I really appreciate you taking some time out of your day to have this, what I think is important conversation on the podcast. For anyone that's listening, if they want to reach out to you, continue the conversation, what's the best way for them to get in touch with you?

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Kimfer Flanery-Rye  29:13

Oh, all the ways. LinkedIn. Interesting enough if you actually put Kimfer - "Kimfer" - you'll find me because I think I'm the only Kimfer out there on the LinkedIn community. You can connect with me there in person. I'm also on Instagram @mykimisms. That's me personally. You can also find you know all my business stuff, like @inclusionequals and @fmbreakfastclub, those are probably the best ways to get a hold of me.

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Kerel  29:40

Awesome. Well, Kimfer, thank you again for joining us on the podcast. I know that everyone listening will enjoy the episode and take something away. And for those of you listening, thank you again for tuning in to another episode of Minority Report Podcast. You can find all episodes of Minority Report podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts on the various platforms out there. Thank you again Kimfer, take care.

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Kimfer Flanery-Rye  30:06

Thank you.

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