Community is confidence to make change
Imagine a young, hip, artsy, badass Italian fempreneur and gender equity trailblazer on a mission to fulfill her life’s purpose, while helping every woman in her path, and dare I say country? Paolina Consiglieri, lives in Milan. She is kind, smart, authentic, and extraordinarily relatable, but I’m not the only one who feels that way. Turns out, she relates to a lot of people, like thousands.
Paolina founded an Italian nonprofit, "Non È Tutto Rosa.” According to Paolina, being a woman is not all “pink,” or as we would say, roses, hence the name of her company.
Non È Tutto Rosa is a wildly successful organization born out of what Paolina calls a “positive crisis.” Paolina said, “My dream was to work in fashion. My focus was fashion. I worked with emerging designers. The thing that made me change my mind and forget about fashion, was a personal difficulty in my life. In 2020, I started thinking, what was I actually doing for society? I thought yeah I like fashion, and it’s cool but what am I doing for my community and society and my answer was nothing. I thought I have to become more conscious about myself.”
Paolina started to ask her 20-something self some very basic questions:
“What person do you want to be?”
“What are your values in your life?”
“What are the values you’d like to share with others?”
The answers revealed that a more purpose-driven life was just around the corner. “I was always focused on what was around me, but not what I wanted. When I realized it was my thing to help others, I said to myself, why aren’t you doing anything for others? So, I started my project,” she said.
“Starting,” for Paolina, meant producing a podcast called Non È Tutto Rosa. During recording sessions, Paolina opened up about what it felt like as a young, Italian woman to choose a profession that didn’t fulfill her purpose, and how scary it was to become honest with herself to make the right choices that could hopefully lead to the creation of a happy and fulfilling life. She didn’t expect what came next.
Paolina’s podcast went viral. “After the first month, I started hearing back from audience members and I realized they needed something more. They needed actual help in their lives. I thought that is the moment to create an association that would help them. I didn’t know how I was going to do it, but I knew I had to start it,” said Paolina.
With 65 out of 100 points, Italy ranks 14th in the EU on the Gender Equality Index. Its score is 3.6 points below the EU’s score, according to the European Institute for Gender Equity.
Knowing she wanted to strengthen the mindsets of Italian women from every part of the country, Paolina generated a professional network of friends and colleagues. She and these colleagues hit the road in an RV to host events in every region of Italy. At these events, every traveling professional can offer support in their field of expertise; health and wellness, entrepreneurship, etc. Hundreds of women attend these events.
“They were all feeling lost in their lives,” said Paolina. She further explained that many of them graduated college and most had an education but…
They didn’t know how to get started in their professional career.
They enrolled in college with a major but realized too late that they actually hated it.
They wanted to change their lives, but they had already dedicated their life to something completely different.
They didn’t know where to start or find the courage to trust themselves.
In general, “There was a lack of self-confidence and a lack of not knowing where to start professionally. Maybe they need a support on both sides. Mentally and professionally, said Paolina.”
Personally, I’ve experienced this same “positive crisis” when I wanted to leave the broadcast news business in 2017. I can attest that “It was not all pink.” -Anna
Listening and helping
“For instance 20 women come to an event, they have never met each other, but they share everything about their lives in front of strangers and they feel confident about this. I was always curious about this. We should be more confident with our friends than strangers. But to be confident with strangers is a sign to me that we are made for this. We are made to stick with each other, to listen to each other, to help each other,” said Paolina.
This reveal is in alignment with research about women as primal “gatherers.” This is what women do and one of the many things we do well. We get together, we are vulnerable. We share. We strategize. We solve problems. We listen and help one another.
Guess what, according to researchers, this is a reason women live four to seven years longer than men. Hmm… maybe there really is something to this community concept after all. Pardon my sarcasm.
Vulnerability
“When I saw all these girls coming to the event, at the beginning they were anxious and afraid. They didn’t know what to say and what to do. At the end, when each one of them told their story or shared their issues, they had this big smile and also the energy they had was completely different,” said Paolina.
As mentioned here, emotional barriers and taboos are considered a primary communication challenge in the workplace. As a reminder, 70% of a company’s mistakes are created by miscommunications. As Americans, we view emotional sharing as taboo and in most cases weak. I’m not advising that we start hosting group therapy sessions at work, but how willing are you to be vulnerable and open up about a challenge you’re experiencing? How willing are you to listen?
The power to persevere
“You kind of become unstoppable. You find an energy you never had. Maybe you forgot you had. The others give you something you have to discover in yourself. When you discover this energy, you become a better person, first for yourself, then for the others. Many girls, all the girls who participated in the event, more or less everyone, started a big change in their life,” said Paolina.
At Non È Tutto Rosa Paolina continues to inspire change and generate equity through scheduled events and curated programming for the thousands of woman striving for purpose and direction.
As this series comes to a close, salute to big change. Salute to living a purpose-driven life and to all women searching for answers. Salute to strength and closing the gender gap. Thank you Paolina for the inspiration, the innovation and the love.
If you’re interested in Paolina’s journey, read more about a documentary produced while Paolina and her team were on the road, here.
As the AMC Quest for Community Newsletter series wraps up, I want to thank those of you who wrote to me and embraced these eccentric and proven ways of creating stronger American company cultures.
Hear from other members of the AMC Quest for Community series featuring Mario Di Girolamo, Fabiola Fasulo, Cristiana Panicco, Don Mario Cafiero, and Anna Scarpato & Ermelinda Esposito.
Together, let’s start a profound movement for international company cultures. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Our AMC 3 C's Mindful Communication Model™, Consciousness, Communication, Community, is an innovative, research-based model that changes the professional development playing field. At AMC we're normalizing consciousness in professional society and encouraging mindfulness so that we can implement effective communication practices that foster longevity in business communities over time.
As always, I wish you CommUNITY.
Mindfully Speaking,
Anna Michele Bulszewicz
Founder, Anna Michele Communications