What We Do

“Women speaking up for themselves and for those around them is the greatest force we have to change the world.”

-Melinda Gates

Hello friends,

This week we have been busy making decisions, taking steps forward, and figuring out some of those nitty gritty details that you need to do when you are a start-up company. So I thought this would be a good opportunity to fill you in a little bit more about what exactly it is we are doing over here at Collective Rise Ventures.

At the heart of it, we are a Women's Empowerment Organization.

But I like to think of it more as a Women's Empowerment Lab.

For a long time now I've been asking myself questions. Wondering what would be possible if the limitations that are so often placed on women by our culture were taken away.

We all have many gifts. One of mine is seeing the potential in others, often even before they are able to see it in themselves.

And the untapped potential I see in women everywhere leaves a deep ache in my soul.

Hillary Clinton once said, "Women are the largest untapped reservoir of talent in the world." And I see this.. all around me, all the time.

So I've been left to wonder.. what would happen..

What would happen if women got together, in a space free from the societal chains that have been holding us back so that we could collectively become the people that we were meant to be..

The people we were meant to be before life got in the way, before our culture told us who we should be, before we were told that our job is to give ourselves away to serve others first, and only allow ourselves to live off the scraps that are left over (which we all understand are very few and far between). 

What happened if we invested in women..

..gave them the space to listen,

..gave them the time to create,

..gave them the resources to pursue..

..the whispers of their soul?

The odds have been stacked against us for a long time.

I often think of the way we talk about women at the end of their life to illustrate this point.

At a women's funeral, what is the highest compliment, the highest praise, that she can receive as people speak about her life? 

"She was the most selfless person."

"She never thought of herself, only others."

"She was incredible.. ALWAYS thinking of other people."

This has become the highest ideal for a women in our culture.. we have been trained in this since birth.. in the giving away of ourselves to others. It's not just our role but our moral obligation in our culture.

Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski, authors of the book, Burnout and badass empowerers of women, have even given a name to this prevalent phenomenon in our culture: Human Giver Syndrome.

"Human Giver Syndrome the contagious belief that you have a moral obligation to give every drop of your humanity in support of others, no matter the cost to you."

And this syndrome, it's running rampant in our culture. And has for a long time.

We have been trained to equate our goodness, our value, our worth with the amount of ourselves that we give away to others.

And I'm here to call BS on that.

These old fashioned belief systems create an immense amount of harm in our culture. Because it keeps us down.. keeps us in our place. We spend our lives so busy giving ourselves away to others, that we have lost ourselves. And that is a huge loss for us all.. because I believe the potentiality that is inside of these women is what we need to heal the world.

I won't get into the complex historical roots of this cultural system today but I do feel that now is the time to say..

We are over that shit. It's time to try another way.

I will leave you with a passage from Melinda Gates, Moment of Lift, that changed my life instantly. My purpose came crashing into focus the moment I first read it. Gates is a thought leader and revolutionary in the women's empowerment space and she has a complex understanding of how to call to lift up women is what's needed for us ALL to rise together.

"The engines are igniting; the earth is shaking; we are rising. More than at any time in the past, we have the knowledge and energy and moral insight to crack the patterns of history. We need the help of every advocate now. Women and men. No one should be left out. Everyone should be brought in. Our call is to lift women up—and when we come together in this cause, WE ARE THE LIFT."

Want to join me?

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Say love my friends,
Caitlin