Daniela Saltzman is the founder and CEO of Saltzman & Co., a communications advisory firm that enables companies to generate value from sustainable products and services. Clients include a global media company, investment firms, and early stage businesses. She is also the author of a new children’s book titled Your Mom’s a Person Too! — a fun, funny and heartwarming story for children to deepen their appreciation for moms. Hilarious illustrations by Andy Catling bring the book to life with relatable and silly characters.

John Shegerian: Get the latest Impact Podcast right into your inbox each week. Subscribe by entering your email address at impactpodcast.com to make sure you never miss an interview. This edition of The Impact Podcast is brought to you by ERI. ERI has a mission to protect people, the planet, and your privacy, and is the largest fully integrated IT and electronics asset disposition provider and cybersecurity-focused hardware destruction company in the United States and maybe even the world. For more information on how ERI can help your business properly dispose of outdated electronic hardware devices, please visit eridirect.com. This episode of the Impact Podcast is brought to you by Closed Loop Partners. Closed Loop Partners is a leading circular economy investor in the United States with an extensive network of Fortune 500 corporate investors, family offices, institutional investors, industry experts, and impact partners. Closed Loops platform spans the arc of capital, from venture capital to private equity bridging gaps and fostering synergies to scale the circular economy. To find Closed Loop Partners, please go to www.closedlooppartners.com.

John: Welcome to another edition of The Impact Podcast. I’m John Shegerian, and I’m so honored to have with us today Daniela Saltzman. Welcome to the Impact Podcast, Daniela.

Daniela Saltzman: Thank you so much, John. I really am so happy to be here with you.

John: Well, Daniela, before we get into, we’re going to be talking about your new book today. My mom’s a person too, which my wife and I just read last night. We share with our granddaughter as well. I would love you to share a little bit about your backstory, where’d you grow up, and how you get on this wonderful and important journey that you’re on?

Daniela: Sure thing. So despite the fact that I now live in New York, I am originally from Boston. I still hold a Boston cell phone number that’s important to me, want that to be known. I was really fortunate. I went to Brown University, and the reason why that’s meaningful, not just because it’s a great school, it’s a school that provides students with a lot of flexibility to explore different kinds of topics as undergraduates. As a result, I was able to do a little bit of research that I think most undergrads aren’t afforded the opportunity, but at Brown, because it has this unique and special culture around exploration at that phase in your academic life, I started a class with a professor there by the name of Barrett Hazel team called Social Entrepreneurship. It was an opportunity for us to really think about, how can we blend what we’re seeing in the business world with a lot of the not-for-profit mission-driven organizations, but taking a really hard line approach as a business executive around the bottom line and thinking about how can we marry the two. That’s where I first had this idea around, this is something I want to pursue at the graduate school level and beyond as a professional. So to do that, I said, I better dig in a little bit more, and I wrote my thesis on… again, at the time, we had different words for this stuff. It was corporate social responsibility on Wall Street, trying to figure out who’s doing what, who’s doing it best, or who’s doing it at all. It became really clear to me at that time that it was, of course, nascent field with a lot of opportunity for growth. So, after spending some time on Wall Street, after graduating from Brown, I went to HBS. While I was in grad school, Generation Investment Management was looking for someone who, as it turned out, had the skill sets and interests that I offered, and I was offered an opportunity to become an intern there in London in 2010. That really changed my trajectory in terms of joining what was the premier impact and sustainable finance firm at the time.

John: Why do you think you were attracted so much to this whole concept of social entrepreneurship? If you don’t mind me asking, what did Mom and Dad do? What kind of [inaudible] were you brought up in?

Daniela: I like to say that my interest in this came as a perfect 50/50 blend for my parents. My father is a physician, and my mother was a banker. So I took the principles of my father’s line of work of healing, or as we say in Judaism to [inaudible] to make the world a better place. My mom’s passion around finance and capital markets, and really tried to find a way to do both at the same time. That’s what brought me to this.

John: That is so wonderful. You went to Brown, you got inspired, further inspired to follow this path. You go through HBS, another one of the greatest institutions, educational institutions on this planet. Now you’re in London 2010. So that inconvenient truth halo had worn off a little bit by then in terms of, not the halo around Vice President Gore, but just that push for sustainability vis-a-vis 2005 to 2007, the crash happened in 2008. So now we’re back to a new baseline. Where was the interest then in terms of the sustainability revolution and the shift from the linear to circular economy back in 2010?

Daniela: Well, I think there was always a group that got it, and I think that group, a large part of it, is outside of the us. So being based in London and having investors obviously from all over the world really did expose me to that view that, the stakeholder versus shareholder model of capitalism and why there is this different interest from different parts of the world in this particular space of sustainable finance. But where things were at the time was, the job at hand proving the business case. Yes, it’s great to believe in climate change and the need to act on this, but we can’t have it sit anymore as just a public policy issue or just a not-for-profit issue or an academic one for scientists to sort out the numbers, and then we will see what we need to do. This is a business issue. It’s material to supply chains, it’s material to returns. It’s a fiduciary duty, actually. We believe that. The question is, how do you get the markets to believe that? As a result, if you’re going to do that, how do you get markets to become more long-term oriented? Because that’s one of the big keys here. So, thinking about how do we engage the group of investors who are open-minded to this? Because, as I said, there’s some who get it and some who actually would never.

John: That’s right.

Daniela: So you have to say, well, where’s the more moderate or reasonable middle, and how do we do our job well to explain to them why this matters and why it’s the inevitable path forward.

John: Was being in London, in retrospect, an advantage because the US was slower adopting all the, what I call, the sustainability revolution. Whereas Europe was way ahead of us, including the smaller countries in Asia such as South Korea and Japan. There was a size of geographic issue that I always feel that forced them a generation ago to think more sustainably, therefore it led to more sustainable investing. So, being in London, was that a distinct advantage right out of HBS for you?

Daniela: Absolutely, and for that reason, which is the conversations with European investors, Australian investors, we’re much more around what’s the latest innovation? What are you guys doing? What does the future look like? As opposed to starting a few steps back, which is what’s this about? Does it sit in a particular mandate around, we’re going to agree, we get lower returns here. Of course, that’s not at all what this was. The conversation would just start a few steps back. So being in London, I think, does propel you forward to have, I think, a further look down the road as to where this needs to be.

John: They knew and you knew where you sat, that this was a long-term generational trend. This wasn’t just some quick fad that was going to come and go.

Daniela: Correct.

John: Got it.

Daniela: You could call it ESG, you could call it impact investing. There’s a lot of debate and discourse around which words work best. I think that’s not that interesting. I think, actually doing it is the interesting part.

John: Absolutely, the politicizing and the weaponizing of the alphabet soup of acronyms is just absolutely at this point a farce. The bottom line is, this stuff works, and it works for good reason. Talk about the years you were there and how did it go, and what did you learn? What great lessons did you come away from that great experience over there with David Blood and the vice president in Gore’s organization?

Daniela: I was really lucky because I joined when there were 30 people at the firm, and it was an open floor. The morning meeting was all the different investment teams together in the same room at the same time. I think part of it is having gone to business school understanding or learning, I should say, what it takes to get a business up and running, especially when you’re running against the grain and trying to convince people of, “Hey, we can do this differently and we can do it better. It was an extraordinary experience. Seeing the growth of the firm from, like I said, 30 people to well over 100, and the enthusiasm that people bring when they’re joining a culture that really merges personal values with what you’re doing every day. So it’s more than just showing up for a job, it’s doing something that we all have a vested interest in. I think that as a motivator creates a completely different environment than saying, well, we all need to work and find our way in the world, but doing something with people who are really passionate, many of whom have completely dedicated their life to it, is very inspiring.

John: That’s wonderful. So, how many years were you there?

Daniela: I was there for seven years.

John: Then you went on, and what happened?

Daniela: So, moved to New York towards the end of my generation tenure. We had an office here. Generation had an office in New York at the time. Then when the office here closed, it worked for me as well, having just gotten married and expecting my first child to start doing independent consulting out of New York along similar veins as to what I was doing at generation, advocating for sustainable finance and thinking about… especially at that time, I wanted to focus on female founders and entrepreneurs and help them on their journey, which was really fun to have a little bit of a different angle for what I was focusing on. Then we welcomed our second child the night of the lockdowns, March 12th, 2020, which was challenging, of course, for everyone, especially New Yorkers, but definitely in the maternity ward.

John: Right. Oh, my gosh.

Daniela: That was a crazy time.

John: But you already had started Saltzman, the company prior to it.

Daniela: I had already started it, and I think for women of, especially my generation who are trying to, in this brave new world of post-COVID, whether it’s hybrid working or thinking about different forms of virtual work or in-person work, really trying to find something that worked for me and worked for us as a family and not letting go of what I was really passionate about and what I wanted to focus on. So starting my own consultancy allowed me to do that at choosing clients, taking on really interesting projects, which of course is a huge luxury to have that option. But it worked really well, and I’ve been lucky to do it.

John: That’s great. So you’ve really continued just as an entrepreneur, the work you were started at generation with a little twist of female entrepreneurs where you can represent them and you’ve continued that great work that you’d started back in 2010.

Daniela: Exactly, right.

John: That’s called Saltzman & Company?

Daniela: Yes.

John: We’ll give a link on our show notes to your consulting firm if anyone wants to reach out and hire you. So then, what was the aha moment for… after your second child was born on the eve of COVID in March of 2020? When did you have your third?

Daniela: So it was actually Labor Day Weekend 2023. So, another great timing, but as it turns out, you don’t choose these things. But that was actually calmer, much more peaceful experience despite being a weekend, but it was okay.

John: So, three children, your own business, of course, you are a wife, and it’s a high-wire juggling act at all times.

Daniela: Every day.

John: So then, where was your inspiration, and how did it come to you to say, I want to write a book, and of course, this is the book. Your mom is a person, too. This is just a wonderful book for anybody out there that’s juggling a lot, which is most moms out there. This is just a great book. So, where did you have, and when did you have the aha moment?

Daniela: Well, it won’t surprise you, perhaps that I got the idea before having the third baby. It just took a long time to get the book done and out the door. But it started with drop-off for one of my older ones. I’d bring him to school, and on the sidewalk, they wouldn’t let you because of COVID, you had to do it outside. The sidewalk, for whatever reason, had this circle on it, and he would point to the circle, and I would drop him off. He was about three years old at the time and said, “Stay right there while I’m in school. Don’t move.” It became this running joke where he was like, I expected to be there and I’d have to elbow my way to the circle, I pick up and make sure I was in that spot, because I promised him. Right. I turned to him one day, I said, “Actually, I’m a person, so when you’re in school, I go do something too. I actually didn’t stand here the whole time.”

John: That’s great.

Daniela: He’s like what are you talking about? What? I was like, yeah, moms have lives and some go to the office and some work from home, and some are busy doing things for themselves or for their children and family, seeing friends. It became this conversation where I would turn to him and be like, I’m a person too. It’s a line that I’d tell my girlfriends about it and they would fall over laughing, say, I say the same thing, and I’m not sure my kid is getting it. So that was the genesis for coming up with a story that I knew first and foremost, I want it to be funny because I wanted it to be a moment of laughter between parents and kids, and something that felt deeply honest and helpful because we’re all short on time, but we all know reading is important, if not the most important thing for helping our kids get along and their early years of education. I wanted something that moms and even dads could pick up and look forward to reading with their kids and laugh together, and enjoy it.

John: It holds true. My wife and I read it with my oldest grandchild last night. She’s four and a half, and she just loved it. She just thought it was the best. She really related to it. What do you want children to learn from this story? What’s the best takeaway that you could hope for the children that are out there that enjoy this book with their parents or grandparents?

Daniela: Because I’m still steeped in these early years of raising kids, I have a lot of exposure to the books, both the classics from my childhood and the new books that are out there. I found that a lot of the books that are about creating awareness for the people in your community or in your family are about, for example, bringing home a new baby or your first day of school, or the first time you go to the dentist, but there’s nothing that really highlights anything but your mom, who she is, what is her life like outside of just the interactions you have with her. So what I wanted kids to get out of the story is just to start that initial awareness of your mother’s humanity. Same thing, moms get hungry, or sometimes if you’re really cold, we’re probably cold too. It’s certainly not to burden children with a responsibility of things beyond their years, but it’s to create that initial kernel of empathy, of a broader understanding of the people around you, and that you’re part of a network and you have to think about the people in that network too.

John: How about parents? What’s your greatest hope for parents to take away as they share this with their children?

Daniela: The feedback I’ve gotten from people who’ve read the book, especially, of course, moms, is that they feel seen and that they feel like you’re putting words to something that sometimes feels intuitive. Like, yeah, of course, you’re a person, but how do you bring that into the conversation as part of a family that when you’re creating those connections with your kids? So, putting a name to it. I think it was sort of something that I had experience with in the work at Generation of saying, okay, well, we believe this to be true, but how do we explain it to those who don’t get it yet or don’t even know about it…

John: That’s right.

Daniela: … and bring it back to bare bones? How do we explain something that we know to be true, we know is super important, but the uninitiated remain?

John: How’s the response been since you released the book recently?

Daniela: It’s amazing. It’s amazing to hear people turn to you and say thank you for something that obviously was close to my heart. I wrote because I wanted to and because it was a creative outlet that I thought was really fun. But to then know that you impacted someone who’s having maybe a challenging moment with their kid, and they turn to them and say, listen, I hear what you’re saying, but I’m a person too. Knowing that you’re part of a really meaningful interaction between a parent and a child, that really, really moved me. But as I said earlier, also knowing that you can make people laugh, I think that’s a gift to be able to give someone that they can sit and have like a chuckle with their kid.

John: Brown, HBS, Generation, then your own entrepreneur now with your own company. When you were doing it, did you have fun during the process and the journey of it? Or did you feel it was risky? Or was it, I just want to push myself to do something I haven’t done before, and whatever the cards fall, they may.

Daniela: It felt totally risky and out of reach. It is not my personality, but I have the good fortune of being married to a serial entrepreneur who really hyped me up, not just in building up my confidence, but also reminding me that it’s okay. You just try and you do it, and then you figure it out as you go.

John: Why not you?

Daniela: Totally. That was just not something that I brought to my own perspective. I think having a partner who not just believes in you, but also says, it’s okay. Just go try and go do it. I don’t think it would’ve happened otherwise. So I really credit Ron.

John: Of course, your husband is the great Ron Gonen, an over 20-year friend of mine. I think that’s what’s part of Ron’s greatness, because that’s why he’s so nurturing to all the entrepreneurs that he also backs at his company, the Closed Loop Fund, because he is that person that gives you the confidence to go do things that you not necessarily thought you could do.

Daniela: Absolutely.

John: Just a super person.

Daniela: Thankfully, he’s there to… he’s my hype man.

John: That’s good.

Daniela: He’s helped me the whole way through.

John: With good reason. But I get it. We all need that person, and we need that person in our lives. So now let’s make a big announcement here. I want to know, don’t worry, no one else is going to hear, do you have the bug now? Are you going to do more books after this?

Daniela: Absolutely. I called the illustrator up because I think a lot of the magic in this book is in the illustrations.

John: Yeah. Andy, Andy Catling is…

Daniela: Andy Catling.

John: What a great job he did. What a great job.

Daniela: He’s an amazing talent. I feel so fortunate that he was willing to take on this project. I’m already pestering him for the next one. He obviously has a really long queue of projects, but I think he really brought the book to life and I’m hoping…

John: He did. Did a great job.

Daniela … it becomes a series. We have a lot of ideas in the pipeline, and we’re ready to roll.

John: I love it. We’re going to have you back on to talk about your next…

Daniela: Oh, my gosh.

John: Let’s just say that we’re going to launch it here next year.

Daniela: Amazing.

John: When you write a book, we’re going to launch the book here. That’s what we’re going to do.

Daniela: Amazing.

John: Talk a little bit about, obviously, all times are interesting ii you think about it. But 2025, to me, is a… I just got back, in fact, from a trip, a business trip to South Korea, Japan, and Hong Kong. What I’m finding fascinating. I’ve been going to China since 1993, but since only about 2005 to South Korea and to Japan. What I found fascinating more than ever is the woman entrepreneurship and women in the workforce are literally on a hockey stick going straight up over there, but to the demise of the birth rates, especially in South Korea and Japan and in some of my meals and meetings with these young, very talented women, it was fascinating. It was almost a zero-sum game in terms of their career, more important than children or even being married at this point. Talk a little bit about, we’re different here, of course, in the West. Things have evolved. We’re a little bit further evolved at this point in terms of the women’s movement. Talk a little bit about that old adage of work-life balance. How do you do it? Where are we with other appropriate work-life balance now in terms of entrepreneurship? Look at you, entrepreneur, wife, mom. You’re doing it all. Plus, you got to take care of yourself as well. How do you do it, and what is the right mix? Is there such thing as the right formula?

Daniela: Well, I really wanted this book, although it’s a lighthearted and children’s book to contribute to a broader conversation around motherhood and women in the workplace in the difficult times or challenging times that I think so many women face around the world. My answer to that is my experience, of course, which is an end of one, but having a really supportive partner makes it possible. I think that’s the first thing of being with someone who wants that for you too, is I think, critical. But I think from a societal perspective, one of the things that I have tried to highlight in conversations about the book is this notion, it’s a term that really hasn’t gotten any press at all, called matrescence. So similar to adolescence. You think about the term matrescence, like maternity and adolescent, matrescence, and it’s about this seismic shift that happens for women when you enter motherhood, that happens on a physical level, a hormonal level, a psychological level, and a social. All of a sudden, you have this huge responsibility. I think it’s so interesting. It’s a term that was first coined in the 1970s. It is currently in the Cambridge dictionary, but it is not in Merriam-Webster, and I think that’s really telling. I wish this was something that people marked as a stage in women’s life trajectory, of, oh, she’s in this phase of life. How can we help accommodate women who are in this phase of life in the workplace? How do we not make it a zero-sum game of career and motherhood? Obviously, that’s a very complicated conversation, unfortunately, in this country, around paternal leave and the cost of childcare and these things really are and can be crushing. But my hope is that we can have more honest and productive conversations, perhaps, at least even at the household level of, how do we support women to be able to maintain that balance. Balance doesn’t mean perfection 50/50 in all facets, or both facets if you’re thinking about time with your kids and time at work. But it means being able to move forward on the things that you’re prioritizing in your life.

John: It’s really interesting. My daughter is 38 now. She has two young ones. She wants to have two more. You have three. How do you believe parenting has changed since you were a young child compared to now? How do you have to ever change with the externalities that exist as they are not as we want to be the best parent you could be in the times that we live? You were, I assume, a digital native, but your children are truly digital natives now. With AI and robotics coming, now we’re going to go through another major shift like we did back in 1998 when Google was founded. This whole new 27 years later, that’s about to happen all over again. How do you best prepare your children to be, as you said earlier, empathetic, kind, good people, but also be prepared for the realities that are going to be hitting them as they become teenagers and then young adults?

Daniela: One of the things that I think about a lot, even though the kids are young, is the fact that, I remember during my childhood, when you’d watch the news, it would be at 10 o’clock, say 10 o’clock, do you know where your kids are?

John: Right. That was in New York City. That was on the East Coast. I remember that very well.

Daniela: Exactly. It meant, oh, my kids are home. They’re safe. Being home now does not mean they’re safe.

John: Great point.

Daniela: Because it’s all in your phone. That’s what we think about and talk about a lot, which is, as they get bigger, just because they’re home doesn’t mean they’re safe. So, how do you create those parameters of safety once you open up this digital world to kids? Now, while they’re still young, the bigger issue is making sure you’re not consumed by your digital world in their presence and being a present parent, putting the phone away, having designated times where you know you’re not going to get interrupted or they don’t see you huddled over your phone. It’s a part of our life. It’s not something that we can just eradicate, but being really intentional about the time we spend with kids, because we don’t have a landline. We don’t even have a landline. So we know our phones are our lifeline.

John: That’s right.

Daniela: We still need to find a way to put it down, and it’s certainly the presence of little kids.

John: Yeah. What do you see with parents of your generation in terms of, I didn’t have this challenge, I didn’t have to worry about, am I giving my daughter or son a cell phone? We didn’t have those options back then, or an iPad, but I saw that my daughter allowed my granddaughter the use of an iPad on a recent trip they took. She just thought she fire was just invented and the wheel was just invented. She just thought it was amazing. How you integrate that into their lives so it helps them educationally speaking and technologically speaking, but it also doesn’t, like you said, overwhelm them with all the negativity that could come from technological connections.

Daniela: I actually think back a lot to my time at Brown and the opportunity Brown afforded me as a place that really values creative thinking. What I want for these kids in their academic journey is to really become creative thinkers. So, how do you use technology to help that? When I think back on the money that we spent in high school to buy a TI 83 calculator and then literally never use it again, I want to invest in technology that is actually amplifying their academic journey and the things that they learn. With little kids, again, the iPad can be a great tool, and I think of it as a tool. It’s not an everyday thing, of course, but it’s a tool in a toolbox. I think there is a lot of great content. So you can curate that for your kids. I have three kids, they’re all really different, and their needs are different. So I think it’s important that we not judge parents who know their kids and know what’s going to work for them on a trip, or what’s going to work for them if they’re anxious for a doctor’s appointment and they want to watch something and trying not to judge parents because kids are different and the way they behave outside the home and inside the home, you may not even know what’s going on. So really trying to give moms, again, that grace and empathy of, you know what? I’m going to assume she’s doing what’s best for her kid.

John: Yeah. None of this is one size fits all. That’s well said. Go back to your other life as a woman entrepreneur now working with female founders, how underserved are we still with female founders in the United States and way beyond?

Daniela: I think women are inherently long-term thinkers and well-positioned to solve… stick to this ESG or climate space for a moment. The problems that we see, because like I said, inherently you’re thinking about your future if you choose to have children, what the generational shift looks like, and what you’re leading the next generation. I think the complexity of being a woman who’s trying to manage, having a family, starting a family, or raising young children, and either starting a company or working within an entrepreneurial division in a larger company is still really, really challenging. It’s surprising to me. My mom was one of the first women in her JP Morgan analyst investment banker class in the ’80s. A time when she wasn’t allowed to wear pants to the office. She wore skirt or dress every day. Yeah, in some respects, of course, there’s been a huge shift. But the structural components around really making the day-to-day work, there’s a lot that remains to be seen. My hope is, we continue to make progress and that women, I think importantly, don’t bear all the burden for advocating for these changes. I think having men, having partners who they bear the consequence for this as well, but being vocal advocates too, because it is about a family dynamic and not just one person, is, I think, one of the big keys to making this successful.

John: If we’re tracking shifts and using your life as a common thread. Your mom was breaking glass ceilings when she worked at JP Morgan. How about when you showed up day one in London in 2010, how much representation back then did women have at the table 15 years ago?

Daniela: Well, I think Generation is a special place because it’s always been very intentional. Because of the space that it’s in, because of the background of the co-founders. It came at it from a point of view of, yes, we’re hiring the best talent, but also we know what we’re looking for in terms of leadership and culture. So generation was built in a way that was very intentional.

John: I’ll flip that on its head, though. When you were meeting with sustainability entrepreneurs or want-to-be entrepreneurs, how many were women and how many were men back in those days?

Daniela: Yeah. No, absolutely. It was disproportionate.

John: Disproportionate.

Daniela: Interestingly, I remember one of those men asking me, trying to gauge where I was in this organization or what I was bringing to the table. I think really trying to figure out how old I was.

John: Oh, got you.

Daniela: So he turns to me and says, “Well, do you have a family?” I remember thinking to myself, I was probably 26 or 27 at the time, I was not married, didn’t have children. I thought to myself, well, yeah, I have a family. That’s a goofy question.

John: I’m here. I have a mom and a dad.

Daniela: I remember thinking, how is that relevant to this conversation? It also struck me as something that a woman probably wouldn’t say or ask. I think there’s been a lot of shifts in that regard in terms of having more women in these positions of entrepreneurship and leadership is, of course, really helpful. Not just from the idea generation perspective, but just the broader landscape of what the work life looks like.

John: Daniela, you put a lot into this book. Obviously, you put a lot into being a great and wonderful mom. What lessons have you gotten back? What have you learned? What greater perspective has being a mom and a parent given to you?

Daniela: So many.

John: What’s some of your favorite?

Daniela: Definitely patience. Definitely, because I thought I was a patient person, and then you find yourself saying something 100 times, and you’re like, am I that patient? Can I keep doing this? I think referencing the early part of the conversation of really recognizing that when you see someone parenting in public, you really just don’t know what the situation is, and not to roll your eyes, and maybe even ask if you could help because…

John: Right. Great point.

Daniela: … maybe they want space and that’s fine too, but maybe there is something you can do and learn. I think the lesson that I have learned is, kids really can… they’re all different and their needs are all different. Trying to bring patience and understanding, not just for the child, but for the parent who’s in the hot seat, I think would make things easier all around. Because if you’re at a restaurant, if you’re traveling, you’re in a crowded subway, and your kid is like having a moment, a huge part of your mind instinctively goes to like, oh my God, what’s going on? This is really uncomfortable and painful. You’re just focusing on your kid and learning to block out that noise, and it’s been a big lesson for me of saying, I’m just here for them, and my job is to keep them safe and manage the situation, and that’s the best you can do.

John: Talk a little bit about your perfect client. What gets you out of bed in terms of your professional life? Who are you excited the most about when they walk through your door and ask for your help at Saltzman & Company now?

Daniela: Because I had the luxury of working alongside real visionaries who believe sustainability and impact is valuable at its core, I always like working with people who also already know that to be true. Rather than spending time saying, oh, we’re thinking about starting this initiative, and do you think that’d valuable? I really feel inspired by someone coming at it and saying, this is critical, and I just want to find a way to do it better. Especially female entrepreneurs. That’s obviously where my heart is, but anyone who’s really looking to say, I know that this matters. This is not only the future of finance or this aspect of business, and I just want to find a way to get the message out more broadly and more effectively.

John: At Saltzman & Co, is it more advisory services when it comes to finance or to visibility or to some combination thereof?

Daniela: Really, my focus is on thought leadership and communications, strategic communications. So thinking about how can you take the message of what you’re doing and refine it, amplify it, find a way to capture new audiences. So, whether that’s through writing op-eds, speeches, conference prep, materials, presentations, website content, anything that’s about trying to explain why does this matter towards the broader conversation around impact and how can we be most effective in getting that message out.

John: In 2010, you started in the London office at Generation. So let’s just call that… what was that? Was that the top of the first inning of the sustainability revolution in the United States and in the Western world? Well, you’re just on the way to the ballpark. Was it the bottom of the second? What would you term 2010 when you started? Now you can look back and have some retrospective history on that.

Daniela: I think probably the first inning is the right analysis, but I don’t think we’re moving at the right pace necessarily to say we’re on track to finish the game.

John: Well, I’m going to ask you. If we were the first ending back in 2,000, where are we today, Daniela?

Daniela: This is the longest stretch of the new stretch, I think you could imagine, and it’s not a relaxing one.

John: Where are we, do you think we’re now on the bomber of the third. Obviously, it’s undeniable that sustainability is here to stay, the generational shift from the linear economy, the circular economy’s here to stay, but is the velocity picking up around the world? Is it stalling a little bit? Where are we? We know we’re not on the top of the ninth. Are we in the third? Are we now in the third inning?

Daniela: I am dismayed by the progress as of late. So I think most of our colleagues in this space would probably agree. It’s not that the case has become less compelling. If anything, it’s more compelling. It’s that the velocity, the rate of change is not keeping up with where we need to be. So yeah, I think we’re still on this inevitable path, but the inevitability and the urgency aren’t reaching the boiling point enough to compel people to act.

John: Interesting.

Daniela: We’re in a difficult political climate, I think, to make that case. It’s a shame because truly every dollar counts, every minute counts to trying to reduce and keep our global warming to below that two-degree increase. It’s frustrating because you’re handing over a world that is not the one we were given, certainly, and as stewards of capital and stewards of the environment, we need to do better. So it’s a frustrating time, but it’s not a reason to throw in the towel by any means. As Vice President Gore always says, and I love this saying, is hope is a renewable resource. I think he’s totally right. I choose to continue to believe that.

John: You gave a lot of credit to your education at Brown, obviously, to mom and dad, and the inspiration that you were, and the great makeup you were of both of their careers and career paths. Talk a little bit about Brown HBS. You gave four big credits here. Brown, really inspiring you. HBS, your great work at Generation, and as a first opportunity, which is really an amazing first opportunity. Then, picking the right spouse. When you’re advising now the next generation behind you that are being told you don’t need college, you might not need this, you might do it this way, do it that way. Where do you fall out now in terms of giving them advice to be the next group of impact leaders that are coming up behind you?

Daniela: I think the first thing is to be brave. It’s okay to be a little uncomfortable, especially during those early years of your career. That’s the time to really go do it when you have that flexibility and resiliency and the bounce back of what you can choose next and pivoting. So definitely be brave. I would say be confident of what seems important to you. Don’t let someone talk you out of it, because certainly when I was in college and writing this thesis, 2005, 2006, people thought like, what are you talking about? What is this about? Social impact and finance, it didn’t really resonate with most people, and I liked it. I thought it was important, and I’m glad I stuck with it. It proved to be the right thing to do. But I think to be brave, to be confident, and one of the things when people are like, oh, be confident, it’s like, okay, what do you mean be confident? It’s an easy thing to say, but for me, being confident means I’m confident in my ability to work hard and to learn, and that is what gives me confidence. It’s not a false bravado where, yeah, you hear a lot at HBS. Okay, if you stand up straight and make sure your shoulders are down, you will project confidence. Especially, I think a lot of women relate to this, that’s not necessarily enough. So, how do you actually walk into something with confidence? For me, that’s knowing that I’ll work hard and knowing that I know how to learn, and those two things help me to have confidence in my choices.

John: Thank God you had the confidence to write this wonderful book, “Your Mom’s a Person Too.” You could buy this book on Amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, and other great bookstores in your area. This is just a great book, and we’re going to share it with our friends and family. We want to be the first ones to announce your next book, Daniela, when you have your next book come out.

Daniela: Thank you so much. That’s really kind.

John: We’re going to put in the show notes for Saltzman & Company and any other ways you want people to be able to contact you again, Daniela Saltzman, the CEO and founder of Saltzman & Company, and the author of Your Mom’s A person Too. Daniela, thank you for not only spending with us an hour today on the Impact Podcast, but more importantly, actually, thank you for all the great work you do to make the world a better place. You have literally walked the walk your entire life and your entire career. For that, I’m so super grateful.

Daniela: Thank you so much for the kind words and for the chance to join you today. I really appreciate it.

John: This edition of The Impact Podcast is brought to you by Engage. Engage is a digital booking platform revolutionizing the talent booking industry. With thousands of athletes, celebrities, entrepreneurs, and business leaders, Engage is the go-to spot for booking talent, for speeches, custom experiences, live streams, and much more. For more information on Engage or to book talent today, visit letsengage.com. This edition of The Impact Podcast is brought to you by ERI. ERI has a mission to protect people, the planet, and your privacy, and is the largest fully integrated IT and electronics asset disposition provider and cybersecurity-focused hardware destruction company in the United States and maybe even the world. For more information on how ERI can help your business properly dispose of outdated electronic hardware devices, please visit eridirect.com.

My book, Your Mom’s A Person Too!, is available on Amazon now.