Amel Derragui: 00:00:05

The time is now episode 317.

Melissa Bradford: 00:00:09

The time is now to learn all you can to educate others

Melissa Bradford: 00:00:12

to move in solidarity and mobilize.

Amel Derragui: 00:00:16

Welcome to the Time is now the podcast for mission-driven

Amel Derragui: 00:00:20

solopreneurs ready to take action and go from invisible to in demand.

Amel Derragui: 00:00:26

I am your host, Amel Derragui.

Amel Derragui: 00:00:28

My mission is to help you cut through the noise, get crystal clear on

Amel Derragui: 00:00:32

your strategy, and position yourself as the go to expert in your field.

Amel Derragui: 00:00:37

But this podcast isn't just about marketing.

Amel Derragui: 00:00:40

It's also about building your resilience and staying ahead of the

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shift in our world so you can be the leader and change maker you truly are.

Amel Derragui: 00:00:50

This is your time to create more growth, alignment, and impact in your business.

Amel Derragui: 00:00:58

Today we're diving into a question so many of us are wrestling with.

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How do we show up and speak up when the world feels so chaotic when humanity

Amel Derragui: 00:01:11

and democracy are being challenged?

Amel Derragui: 00:01:13

If you've been feeling the weight of global crisis from the genocides that

Amel Derragui: 00:01:18

are happening, the erosion of democracy, the rise of violence and authoritarian

Amel Derragui: 00:01:23

worldwide, know that you're not alone.

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I have been there too if I'm not still there.

Amel Derragui: 00:01:29

The thing is that I'm a true believer that as global citizens, but also as leaders

Amel Derragui: 00:01:34

and solo entrepreneurs or entrepreneurs, we do have the responsibility to speak up.

Amel Derragui: 00:01:40

In the past couple years, it felt difficult to do so in full

Amel Derragui: 00:01:45

integrity for me and in a place of empowerment rather than anger.

Amel Derragui: 00:01:50

Our guest today, Melissa Dalton Bradford, played a crucial role in

Amel Derragui: 00:01:55

helping me find hope again, and I cannot wait to share her wisdom with you.

Amel Derragui: 00:02:01

Today in this conversation, we will explore how to resist misinformation,

Amel Derragui: 00:02:06

reclaim agency, and take small, powerful steps to defend democracy

Amel Derragui: 00:02:11

and humanity using our voices, but also our platforms and our audiences.

Amel Derragui: 00:02:18

Melissa Dalton Bradford is an author, speaker, a global citizen who has spent

Amel Derragui: 00:02:24

decades advocating for human dignity.

Amel Derragui: 00:02:27

She co-founded two NGOs to support refugees and amplify their stories.

Amel Derragui: 00:02:31

For instance, with initiative TSOS, which means their story is our story.

Amel Derragui: 00:02:38

In 2024, she began teaching online about the warning signs of Democratic decline.

Amel Derragui: 00:02:45

Growing a community of over 240,000 followers on Instagram, inspiring a global

Amel Derragui: 00:02:51

movement of moral courage that refuses to return to the authoritarian rule.

Amel Derragui: 00:02:58

So Melissa, I cannot tell you how happy and excited and

Amel Derragui: 00:03:02

grateful I am to have you here.

Amel Derragui: 00:03:03

Thank you for being here, and welcome to the time is Now.

Melissa Bradford: 00:03:07

Thank you, Amel.

Melissa Bradford: 00:03:07

I'm so glad that we can have this time together.

Amel Derragui: 00:03:10

Me too.

Amel Derragui: 00:03:11

And you know, it's interesting how Destiny works.

Amel Derragui: 00:03:13

You have been one of my first podcast guests at the time where I started

Amel Derragui: 00:03:18

10 years ago, and you had shared so much deepness into your story, and I

Amel Derragui: 00:03:22

will be sharing your past interviews in this show, notes of this episode.

Amel Derragui: 00:03:26

For the listeners who want to know more about you, we talked a lot about your role

Amel Derragui: 00:03:30

as a global mom going through grief and the books that you wrote about this topic.

Amel Derragui: 00:03:35

It's interesting that we are in way grieving again, somehow

Amel Derragui: 00:03:39

we're grieving our freedoms now.

Amel Derragui: 00:03:41

It is challenged and you have been speaking up and showing up before

Amel Derragui: 00:03:46

you got so visible in the past year.

Amel Derragui: 00:03:49

You have been engaged throughout your life and your story into humanitarian

Amel Derragui: 00:03:54

work, so I would love to know what got you to where you are today and how, how

Amel Derragui: 00:03:59

does everything come together for you?

Amel Derragui: 00:04:01

If you can give us a snapshot of what do you think you're

Amel Derragui: 00:04:04

doing, what you're doing today?

Melissa Bradford: 00:04:05

Well, I think that it is the blessing of, of geography.

Melissa Bradford: 00:04:10

We were living in Geneva and fate would have it that we

Melissa Bradford: 00:04:14

moved to funk foot Germany.

Melissa Bradford: 00:04:16

It wasn't a place that we had on our map, but it was the

Melissa Bradford: 00:04:19

professional move for my husband.

Melissa Bradford: 00:04:21

It was very good for one of our children.

Melissa Bradford: 00:04:23

We end up in Frankfurt in 2014.

Melissa Bradford: 00:04:26

And you know what I thought ah meant?

Melissa Bradford: 00:04:27

I thought, well, here's where I'm gonna write my historical fiction.

Melissa Bradford: 00:04:31

This is where I'm gonna finally write my novel.

Melissa Bradford: 00:04:33

So I laid out everything on my big writing desk, ready to

Melissa Bradford: 00:04:36

write this book, and within.

Melissa Bradford: 00:04:39

Months.

Melissa Bradford: 00:04:40

The entire crisis in the Middle East began and Frankfurt became a hub

Melissa Bradford: 00:04:44

receiving hundreds of thousands of refugees from Middle, middle East.

Melissa Bradford: 00:04:49

That immediately drew me in, and our episodes from before would probably help

Melissa Bradford: 00:04:55

people understand why I was somebody who understood moving a lot what that means,

Melissa Bradford: 00:05:01

even in the most privileged circumstances, our family had also experienced traumatic

Melissa Bradford: 00:05:05

loss in the middle of one of these moves.

Melissa Bradford: 00:05:08

I knew something about that.

Melissa Bradford: 00:05:10

But I have to add as a caveat that with all of those moves, we're now on

Melissa Bradford: 00:05:16

our 21st move over nine countries and our, our tragic cataclysmic loss, none

Melissa Bradford: 00:05:23

of that really touches even the hem of what these refugees are experiencing.

Melissa Bradford: 00:05:28

'cause I never have experienced war persecution.

Melissa Bradford: 00:05:32

Nobody accepting me for my faith, my, my ethnicity, whatever.

Melissa Bradford: 00:05:36

But I knew that my heart was going to be engaged with these people.

Melissa Bradford: 00:05:39

I knew it instantly, and I've taught language on the university level, and

Melissa Bradford: 00:05:44

I knew that language is the key to entering and stabilizing in any culture.

Melissa Bradford: 00:05:49

So I was at the train station when the first train started coming into Funk Fort

Melissa Bradford: 00:05:54

with the big sign that said, come in, do.

Melissa Bradford: 00:05:57

That juncture, right?

Melissa Bradford: 00:05:59

There was a major pivot in my life, and I learned lessons from my close

Melissa Bradford: 00:06:04

engagement with people who were fleeing war and, and persecution.

Melissa Bradford: 00:06:10

I, I understood what the rest of my life was gonna be about.

Melissa Bradford: 00:06:12

I just knew it instantly.

Melissa Bradford: 00:06:13

And that work, like you mentioned, turned into nonprofit work.

Melissa Bradford: 00:06:18

It turned into speaking tours, it turned into a book project, all of

Melissa Bradford: 00:06:22

that and deep, deep relationships.

Melissa Bradford: 00:06:25

And then COVID hit.

Melissa Bradford: 00:06:27

And within a short time, the war in Ukraine began, and if anybody's watching

Melissa Bradford: 00:06:33

that, you know that many of these people, again, hundreds of thousands landed in

Melissa Bradford: 00:06:40

Frankfort, and I immediately jumped in.

Melissa Bradford: 00:06:42

I was teaching halls full of Ukrainian refugees, and I've been

Melissa Bradford: 00:06:48

doing that up until last week.

Melissa Bradford: 00:06:50

Up until last week, so several classes a week.

Melissa Bradford: 00:06:54

That's how it happens, I think.

Melissa Bradford: 00:06:56

I think the universe has been kind to me, however we wanna describe

Melissa Bradford: 00:06:59

this, the universe has been kind in placing me in exactly the geography

Melissa Bradford: 00:07:05

where I needed to be so that I could understand what the value of my voice

Melissa Bradford: 00:07:11

and my life experience would be.

Melissa Bradford: 00:07:14

You see what I'm saying?

Melissa Bradford: 00:07:15

I

Amel Derragui: 00:07:15

do think that is geography, but I think this was in

Amel Derragui: 00:07:18

you before you came to Frankfort.

Amel Derragui: 00:07:20

You found the platform for you.

Amel Derragui: 00:07:21

There's many people who have the proximity that you have, but don't

Amel Derragui: 00:07:24

feel that they needed to take action.

Amel Derragui: 00:07:28

And you did.

Melissa Bradford: 00:07:29

I think, I think you're right.

Melissa Bradford: 00:07:30

I, I, I should add to that then.

Melissa Bradford: 00:07:33

Yeah.

Melissa Bradford: 00:07:33

I, I do believe you're right.

Melissa Bradford: 00:07:35

I shall add to that, that I grew up in a culture that values humanitarian

Melissa Bradford: 00:07:40

aid and, and public service.

Melissa Bradford: 00:07:42

I saw it around me all of the time.

Melissa Bradford: 00:07:44

Um, and, and so that was natural for me.

Melissa Bradford: 00:07:47

I think also, and it's fair to mention this, I am in a position in

Melissa Bradford: 00:07:52

my life where I can do what I'm doing.

Melissa Bradford: 00:07:54

If I had many small children at home, if I had a very demanding

Melissa Bradford: 00:07:59

nine to five inflexible career.

Melissa Bradford: 00:08:03

If I were ill, if I were living under really austere financial

Melissa Bradford: 00:08:08

constraints and that describes a lot of people, maybe I couldn't have done

Melissa Bradford: 00:08:12

exactly what I have been able to do.

Melissa Bradford: 00:08:15

So I understand the privilege and the latitude, but I still think

Melissa Bradford: 00:08:18

that there are things that people.

Melissa Bradford: 00:08:19

Can do small things and that's gonna be the topic I think of our

Amel Derragui: 00:08:22

conversation.

Amel Derragui: 00:08:23

That's the, that's the topic of our conversation.

Amel Derragui: 00:08:25

I do have a couple of questions for you, uh, that I don't wanna forget,

Amel Derragui: 00:08:29

but we are gonna dive into that.

Amel Derragui: 00:08:30

But before, I want people to understand why I brought you here.

Amel Derragui: 00:08:34

Why are you the person, why I'm asking to come speak about that.

Amel Derragui: 00:08:38

Not only you have your history that led you to be very sensitive

Amel Derragui: 00:08:41

and to have taken action.

Amel Derragui: 00:08:42

You also have expertise, right?

Amel Derragui: 00:08:44

So if you can tell us a little bit about your academic background and

Amel Derragui: 00:08:47

professional background that led you to have the expertise to be able

Amel Derragui: 00:08:50

to speak online and teach people about democracy and civil action.

Melissa Bradford: 00:08:55

Thank you.

Melissa Bradford: 00:08:56

I'm a gist is what they call it.

Melissa Bradford: 00:08:58

So I specialize in German history, literature, philosophy, studies, and

Melissa Bradford: 00:09:03

I studied that as an undergraduate degree with a minor in journalism.

Melissa Bradford: 00:09:07

Always thinking, oh, maybe I could work somehow with a UN one day.

Melissa Bradford: 00:09:10

Wouldn't that be great?

Melissa Bradford: 00:09:11

I'll be able to speak and write.

Melissa Bradford: 00:09:13

Then we ended up living internationally and I, and I knew that the one career

Melissa Bradford: 00:09:19

that was absolutely portable was writing, so I've written academically.

Melissa Bradford: 00:09:24

I research a lot.

Melissa Bradford: 00:09:25

That's where I'm very, very happy.

Melissa Bradford: 00:09:27

At the same time, I trained as a public speaker.

Melissa Bradford: 00:09:30

I have a theater background and grew up kind of on the stage.

Melissa Bradford: 00:09:34

It's a weird hybrid of my strengths.

Melissa Bradford: 00:09:36

Very introverted and very extroverted.

Melissa Bradford: 00:09:38

So I've taught language on the university level.

Melissa Bradford: 00:09:41

I've, I've written books, I've worked in those spaces.

Melissa Bradford: 00:09:46

In between raising four children in multiple cultures, and

Melissa Bradford: 00:09:51

I always kept that active.

Melissa Bradford: 00:09:52

Maybe this should give everyone out there a little bit of hope is that

Melissa Bradford: 00:09:57

in whatever landscape you might find yourself, recognize what your

Melissa Bradford: 00:10:00

training and your expertise is.

Melissa Bradford: 00:10:04

Then always keep them alive, even if it's just for a while.

Melissa Bradford: 00:10:09

I was just writing small academic articles along the way.

Melissa Bradford: 00:10:12

I had contact with important publishers.

Melissa Bradford: 00:10:14

I did that.

Melissa Bradford: 00:10:16

I started speaking and moved into that, that arena of, of speaking

Melissa Bradford: 00:10:21

thanks to entities, organizations that invited me, and I just said yes.

Melissa Bradford: 00:10:26

I said yes.

Melissa Bradford: 00:10:27

I, I thought I, I can do this.

Melissa Bradford: 00:10:29

And stepped out on the stage and started speaking.

Melissa Bradford: 00:10:31

So there's a background in public speaking, a background in

Melissa Bradford: 00:10:35

academic research, a background in language and history and history.

Melissa Bradford: 00:10:40

My graduate degree, it was in a deeper area of German studies, which is

Melissa Bradford: 00:10:44

pre-World War II German literature.

Melissa Bradford: 00:10:48

So I was steeped decades ago, steeped in, in understanding the fall.

Melissa Bradford: 00:10:55

All of the signs of the fall of a democracy, of a free culture and

Melissa Bradford: 00:10:58

the rise of authoritarianism, and I literally thought at one time

Melissa Bradford: 00:11:02

in my life, that's all behind me.

Melissa Bradford: 00:11:04

We'll just lock that up.

Melissa Bradford: 00:11:05

It was nice that I studied it and now it's come to full use

Melissa Bradford: 00:11:09

because I am watching step by step the signs of democratic erosion.

Melissa Bradford: 00:11:14

Exactly like I studied in my graduate degree, ex, exactly like all of

Melissa Bradford: 00:11:18

the literature that I analyzed and Rose wrote papers about.

Amel Derragui: 00:11:22

That's exactly what you're teaching.

Amel Derragui: 00:11:24

On Instagram.

Amel Derragui: 00:11:25

We've been friends for many years now.

Amel Derragui: 00:11:27

I've been following you for many years and I'm devouring everything you

Amel Derragui: 00:11:31

do because it's so full of meaning.

Amel Derragui: 00:11:34

But you had maybe a couple thousand followers, I think a year ago.

Amel Derragui: 00:11:37

Yeah, something like that.

Amel Derragui: 00:11:38

A thousand something.

Amel Derragui: 00:11:39

I remember.

Amel Derragui: 00:11:39

I don't know why I looked into it, but I had the instinct, but

Amel Derragui: 00:11:43

this was gonna explode and it did.

Amel Derragui: 00:11:45

You're over 200,000.

Amel Derragui: 00:11:48

Followers right now on Instagram, followers don't matter, but still, the

Amel Derragui: 00:11:51

engagement that's on your content is through the roof and it's responding

Amel Derragui: 00:11:56

to a need that many people are feeling.

Amel Derragui: 00:11:58

And that's, I think, how you transform all that experience you had into something

Amel Derragui: 00:12:01

meaningful today to help people navigate what's happening with the erosion

Amel Derragui: 00:12:05

democracy and how to respond to it.

Amel Derragui: 00:12:07

I wonder what has allowed you to step into that visibility and into

Amel Derragui: 00:12:12

taking your phone, using social media to share what you had to share.

Melissa Bradford: 00:12:18

When I started, which was February, I stayed

Melissa Bradford: 00:12:21

very, very calm and self-contained from the time of the US elections.

Melissa Bradford: 00:12:28

So that was November until a couple of weeks into the new administration.

Melissa Bradford: 00:12:33

Again, I'm a US citizen, but I've lived outside of my home country for 35 years.

Melissa Bradford: 00:12:37

So I've always been eyeing my home country's politics and culture

Melissa Bradford: 00:12:41

from outside of its borders.

Melissa Bradford: 00:12:43

And then a couple of things happened that just.

Melissa Bradford: 00:12:47

Pushed, I knew that I couldn't stay silent.

Melissa Bradford: 00:12:49

I recognized suddenly the, the confluence of my geography, my

Melissa Bradford: 00:12:56

background, my teaching, my.

Melissa Bradford: 00:12:59

My work, I had already been working with Ukrainian refugees.

Melissa Bradford: 00:13:02

Like I said, since the beginning of the war.

Melissa Bradford: 00:13:04

I was deeply steeped in that and I couldn't stay silent anymore.

Melissa Bradford: 00:13:08

So literally one day I sat down on my, on the carpet in my bedroom.

Melissa Bradford: 00:13:14

It's the only room in our entire home that has carpet, and I needed

Melissa Bradford: 00:13:19

to have that acoustic quality so it doesn't echo to be honest with you.

Melissa Bradford: 00:13:24

And there was really good light.

Melissa Bradford: 00:13:25

And I said, okay, I'm just gonna introduce myself.

Melissa Bradford: 00:13:27

Why should anyone listen to somebody who has a background

Melissa Bradford: 00:13:32

in German studies right now?

Melissa Bradford: 00:13:34

And I just started and I vowed to myself I was gonna do it every day.

Melissa Bradford: 00:13:38

That is important is that you do it every day and you keep on talking into the void.

Melissa Bradford: 00:13:45

Then I started getting responses and they were unilaterally grateful and desperate.

Melissa Bradford: 00:13:53

Wait, there's someone like you out there and you're talking about this.

Melissa Bradford: 00:13:56

Wait, you're going to educate us about it?

Melissa Bradford: 00:13:58

So you're right, Ima, the numbers say one thing.

Melissa Bradford: 00:14:03

It's the quality of the responses that say something very different.

Melissa Bradford: 00:14:06

And there are more people than most people would imagine that are desperate.

Melissa Bradford: 00:14:12

For a voice to lead, for a voice to clarify, for a voice, to educate, for

Melissa Bradford: 00:14:17

a voice, to encourage, for a voice to move and motivate and mobilize.

Melissa Bradford: 00:14:22

And these are the comments that in sifting through every single day

Melissa Bradford: 00:14:27

and a voice of trust, I would add.

Melissa Bradford: 00:14:29

I think that might be the most important thing.

Melissa Bradford: 00:14:31

Maybe that's the most important thing and, and that's a delicate thing to

Melissa Bradford: 00:14:36

develop trust with people that have never.

Melissa Bradford: 00:14:39

Met you in person is a delicate thing.

Amel Derragui: 00:14:42

That was my biggest issue, and this is why for me, you

Amel Derragui: 00:14:45

are the right person to have here.

Amel Derragui: 00:14:46

While I was trying, the past two years to speak up, to use my voice,

Amel Derragui: 00:14:52

the biggest thing was knowing that no matter what, as human beings, we are

Amel Derragui: 00:14:55

all biased no matter who wanted or not.

Amel Derragui: 00:14:58

And there are so many voices out there, but very few.

Amel Derragui: 00:15:01

I actually trusted.

Amel Derragui: 00:15:03

To be able to educate myself on making sure that I'm not speaking

Amel Derragui: 00:15:07

from a place of bias, rather a place of fear of our humanity and

Amel Derragui: 00:15:12

our democracy being in danger.

Amel Derragui: 00:15:14

Yes, and that was a fine line to do, especially in my case with the

Amel Derragui: 00:15:18

topic of the genocide and Gaza.

Amel Derragui: 00:15:20

That was extrAmely paralyzing.

Amel Derragui: 00:15:22

I would like to dive deeper into how this happened, but I wanna go back

Amel Derragui: 00:15:26

to something you said before because this whole episode is about one.

Amel Derragui: 00:15:31

Making sure that we do speak up.

Amel Derragui: 00:15:33

Second, how do we do it when we don't know where to start and we

Amel Derragui: 00:15:37

are not sure we, we are equipped.

Amel Derragui: 00:15:38

Right?

Amel Derragui: 00:15:39

And third, you did mention something.

Amel Derragui: 00:15:41

Maybe that's a good place to start.

Amel Derragui: 00:15:42

Not everybody has the resources, the time, the energy, and the mental

Amel Derragui: 00:15:47

bandwidth to actually become activists and to become agents of change.

Amel Derragui: 00:15:53

But you also sad, but we all can do something.

Amel Derragui: 00:15:55

So tell me more how you would encourage us to find our voice, but also what is

Amel Derragui: 00:16:01

the one thing we can do as civilians, as global citizens, but also as leaders

Amel Derragui: 00:16:07

and solopreneurs who have a voice?

Melissa Bradford: 00:16:09

Yes.

Melissa Bradford: 00:16:10

Let's go back to your word trust, which I think is key.

Melissa Bradford: 00:16:13

We all have trusted relationships.

Melissa Bradford: 00:16:15

We all have colleagues, family members, neighbors.

Melissa Bradford: 00:16:20

Friends from our childhood, whoever it might be, and I think

Melissa Bradford: 00:16:24

that's where everyone can start.

Melissa Bradford: 00:16:26

So everyone can start by educating people within their closest

Melissa Bradford: 00:16:31

circle, their closest sphere.

Melissa Bradford: 00:16:34

That requires a co course that we are educated ourselves, so we need

Melissa Bradford: 00:16:38

to inform ourselves correctly.

Melissa Bradford: 00:16:40

You don't need to study all of the platforms, but find

Melissa Bradford: 00:16:45

two or three voices I suggest.

Melissa Bradford: 00:16:48

Certain scholars that are experts in the field of the erosion of democracy,

Melissa Bradford: 00:16:54

they've been doing this for the entirety of their careers, their

Melissa Bradford: 00:16:58

key voices that I always refer to.

Melissa Bradford: 00:17:01

I could name them here if we want to, or we can keep, we put

Melissa Bradford: 00:17:03

them in the, the show notes.

Melissa Bradford: 00:17:05

Show notes, yeah.

Melissa Bradford: 00:17:06

Um, one of them is, is Timothy Snyder.

Melissa Bradford: 00:17:10

Timothy Snyder, a Yale professor, multilingual, uh, he's now moved.

Melissa Bradford: 00:17:14

To be a professor in Canada, if that says anything to anyone.

Melissa Bradford: 00:17:17

Mm-hmm.

Melissa Bradford: 00:17:18

His book on tyranny is a guidebook for the average person anywhere to understand the

Melissa Bradford: 00:17:25

steps that we have seen historically that walk us through the erosion of democracy.

Melissa Bradford: 00:17:32

Another key voice is Anne Applebaum.

Melissa Bradford: 00:17:36

Very brilliant author.

Melissa Bradford: 00:17:39

Her book, Twilight of Democracy, should be on everyone's bed stands.

Melissa Bradford: 00:17:44

Everyone should be reading that.

Melissa Bradford: 00:17:46

Um, I would just, I'm not going to overload because I could give 20,

Melissa Bradford: 00:17:50

but I would say start with those.

Melissa Bradford: 00:17:51

Start with those two Timothy Snyder and Anne Applebaum.

Melissa Bradford: 00:17:54

Inform yourself and then just start having conversations.

Melissa Bradford: 00:17:58

Ask questions.

Melissa Bradford: 00:18:00

Why?

Melissa Bradford: 00:18:01

What are you most nervous about Uncle?

Melissa Bradford: 00:18:04

Alfred, you know what?

Melissa Bradford: 00:18:05

What are the things that concern you or your work colleagues?

Melissa Bradford: 00:18:09

Are you noticing things that don't feel like they're quite

Melissa Bradford: 00:18:13

what democracy used to look like?

Melissa Bradford: 00:18:16

And let's have a conversation about it.

Melissa Bradford: 00:18:17

And then when you're equipped with that information, then you can reliably,

Melissa Bradford: 00:18:22

reliably respond and say, well, you know, this expert said this, and it

Melissa Bradford: 00:18:27

looks exactly like this point in.

Melissa Bradford: 00:18:29

Chile's history or Argentina's history or Hungary's history or Turkey's

Melissa Bradford: 00:18:33

history or the or German history.

Melissa Bradford: 00:18:36

And that's usually where I'm coming from, from is German history only

Melissa Bradford: 00:18:39

because that's my, that's my expertise.

Melissa Bradford: 00:18:42

So we start in our relationships of trust, we start close to our feet, and

Melissa Bradford: 00:18:47

then we speak in the larger circles.

Melissa Bradford: 00:18:50

Then we have gained confidence in ourselves.

Melissa Bradford: 00:18:53

We've refined our ability to talk about these topics that are

Melissa Bradford: 00:18:56

delicate and they're polarizing.

Melissa Bradford: 00:18:59

And they hit very often on the nerve of identity.

Melissa Bradford: 00:19:02

You know, who am I as an American?

Melissa Bradford: 00:19:04

Who am I as Algerian or as Palestinian, or whatever it might be.

Melissa Bradford: 00:19:11

And you.

Melissa Bradford: 00:19:13

What I'm suggesting to my followers is that you create what I'm

Melissa Bradford: 00:19:17

calling a democracy defense pod.

Melissa Bradford: 00:19:20

It sounds very cheerleader ish, but folks, we need to have tools in our pockets.

Melissa Bradford: 00:19:27

So I'm just gonna call it the DDP, the Democracy Defense Pod.

Melissa Bradford: 00:19:30

It can be five people, it can be 15 people, it can be 50 people.

Melissa Bradford: 00:19:35

But you meet whenever you can face to face and you talk.

Melissa Bradford: 00:19:39

You share the ideas of the wisest, most reliable voices in whatever field.

Melissa Bradford: 00:19:45

It's they're very reliable voices out there that have built their careers,

Melissa Bradford: 00:19:50

that have built their, uh, reputations on speaking deeply about these topics.

Melissa Bradford: 00:19:58

And from those democracy, democracy, defense pods, then you

Melissa Bradford: 00:20:01

identify what the most necessary action is that you need to take.

Melissa Bradford: 00:20:05

Because we need to get out of the comfort of our sofas and from behind

Melissa Bradford: 00:20:10

our screens where we talk and we analyze, which is highly valuable.

Melissa Bradford: 00:20:15

And we need to get on our feet and we need to move.

Melissa Bradford: 00:20:17

We need to mobilize.

Melissa Bradford: 00:20:19

We need to mobilize.

Melissa Bradford: 00:20:20

And that could be showing up at the demonstration.

Melissa Bradford: 00:20:23

It could also be showing up to protect the vulnerable.

Melissa Bradford: 00:20:26

Might they be at risk for being deported?

Melissa Bradford: 00:20:29

It could be standing shoulder to shoulder with anybody in a marginalized community.

Melissa Bradford: 00:20:34

That's mobilizing, that's acting.

Melissa Bradford: 00:20:36

I'm suggesting for my followers in the US to start right now in getting people

Melissa Bradford: 00:20:42

registered to vote for the midterms, getting people educated about how

Melissa Bradford: 00:20:47

to vote, organizing carpools to the polls, sitting in the polls themselves.

Melissa Bradford: 00:20:52

That's sort of very practical.

Melissa Bradford: 00:20:54

The real life space action.

Melissa Bradford: 00:20:57

It does a number of things.

Melissa Bradford: 00:21:00

Not only does it break down our despair because action is the antidote to despair.

Melissa Bradford: 00:21:07

We will despair if we only sit and think about these things.

Melissa Bradford: 00:21:12

But that's what.

Melissa Bradford: 00:21:14

The enemies of democracy want.

Melissa Bradford: 00:21:16

They want us to despair.

Melissa Bradford: 00:21:18

It is a strategy.

Melissa Bradford: 00:21:20

We have to understand that, that we're being played.

Melissa Bradford: 00:21:22

It's a strategy.

Melissa Bradford: 00:21:23

We are supposed to despair.

Melissa Bradford: 00:21:25

We're also supposed to say, ah, there's no truth anywhere.

Melissa Bradford: 00:21:29

I'm an unplug.

Melissa Bradford: 00:21:30

I'm not gonna listen to anyone.

Melissa Bradford: 00:21:31

That is also typical authoritarian strategy is to make us just p. Give up.

Melissa Bradford: 00:21:38

There's no truth anywhere.

Melissa Bradford: 00:21:39

Don't believe it for a moment.

Melissa Bradford: 00:21:41

There is truth.

Melissa Bradford: 00:21:43

There is viable action.

Melissa Bradford: 00:21:45

And when you're in a space with other people, you're taken out of that

Melissa Bradford: 00:21:49

vacuum of soar, of, of isolation.

Melissa Bradford: 00:21:52

Solidarity, solidarity will help us.

Melissa Bradford: 00:21:56

To, uh, not feel alone.

Melissa Bradford: 00:21:58

It gives us energy.

Melissa Bradford: 00:22:00

We also breed better ideas when we're working in our pods.

Melissa Bradford: 00:22:04

Okay?

Melissa Bradford: 00:22:05

It also sends a sign to those who think that we're despairing and we're crouching

Melissa Bradford: 00:22:10

in a corner that hey, we're numerous.

Melissa Bradford: 00:22:13

We're numerous.

Melissa Bradford: 00:22:14

We're not backing down.

Melissa Bradford: 00:22:15

We're linking arms.

Melissa Bradford: 00:22:16

We are a force to be reckoned with.

Melissa Bradford: 00:22:19

One more thing, this is the last very practical thing.

Melissa Bradford: 00:22:21

There is an app.

Melissa Bradford: 00:22:23

It's called the Five Calls App.

Melissa Bradford: 00:22:26

You can just put, you can just re just search it.

Melissa Bradford: 00:22:28

The Five Calls App and the Five Calls app gives you scripts.

Melissa Bradford: 00:22:35

If you happen to be in the us It gives you scripts for how you call your elected

Melissa Bradford: 00:22:40

representatives and you tell them exactly what you, what you elected them for.

Melissa Bradford: 00:22:46

You are paying their salaries.

Melissa Bradford: 00:22:48

They work for you.

Melissa Bradford: 00:22:50

And so in a constitutional democracy, you have that right and you have that

Melissa Bradford: 00:22:56

responsibility to remind your elected representatives what you expect from them.

Melissa Bradford: 00:23:00

So use the Five Calls app.

Melissa Bradford: 00:23:02

I would highly recommend that all of my DDPs, the Democracy

Melissa Bradford: 00:23:07

Defense pods, use that.

Melissa Bradford: 00:23:08

First,

Amel Derragui: 00:23:09

I'm just gonna summarize three important tips that you gave here.

Amel Derragui: 00:23:12

Start in your own circle.

Amel Derragui: 00:23:14

Demo, create your own pod.

Amel Derragui: 00:23:16

It can be about democracy or any other topic you care about.

Amel Derragui: 00:23:19

And then take action, mobilize, take action and mobilize.

Amel Derragui: 00:23:23

I love how effective it's right.

Amel Derragui: 00:23:25

The one thing that you said that I wanna highlight is that the

Amel Derragui: 00:23:29

enemy, what they want is for us to feel despaired and action.

Amel Derragui: 00:23:34

Action is the medicine to feeling despair.

Amel Derragui: 00:23:36

And this, the other thing I wanna highlight is when you talked

Amel Derragui: 00:23:39

about the people who simply then choose to unplug because it's too

Amel Derragui: 00:23:42

much, because we can't keep up.

Amel Derragui: 00:23:46

And I'd rather just, I feel, I, how many times I've heard this, I feel

Amel Derragui: 00:23:50

so depressed when I look at the news that I don't watch the news anymore.

Amel Derragui: 00:23:54

So how would you respond to those people?

Melissa Bradford: 00:23:56

Hmm.

Melissa Bradford: 00:23:57

With empathy?

Melissa Bradford: 00:23:59

Uh, my first response would be, no kidding.

Melissa Bradford: 00:24:02

I get it.

Melissa Bradford: 00:24:03

And again, I'm somebody who is not dealing with a chronically

Melissa Bradford: 00:24:07

ill parent or a chronically ill child or a chronically ill partner.

Melissa Bradford: 00:24:11

I myself am healthy and hail.

Melissa Bradford: 00:24:13

Um, we're sitting in a, in a stable place.

Melissa Bradford: 00:24:16

So I, I want to respond with empathy and say, I get it.

Melissa Bradford: 00:24:20

Of course, of course.

Melissa Bradford: 00:24:21

It's how you feel.

Melissa Bradford: 00:24:23

You're, you feel like millions of people do, and then just gently say.

Melissa Bradford: 00:24:28

That is precisely what the enemies of democracy want you to

Melissa Bradford: 00:24:31

feel, just to quietly say that.

Melissa Bradford: 00:24:33

And so are there small steps that we can take?

Melissa Bradford: 00:24:37

And it's because when trust is eroded on the highest level.

Melissa Bradford: 00:24:44

It trickles down.

Melissa Bradford: 00:24:45

And you, and, and this is also part of the strategy, not only do we stop trusting

Melissa Bradford: 00:24:49

any of any of our politicians, how often have we heard they're all crooks,

Melissa Bradford: 00:24:54

they're all, you know, rotten and corrupt to the core, that's actually not true.

Melissa Bradford: 00:24:59

We know that that's not true.

Melissa Bradford: 00:25:00

We know that they're not all equally corrupt, but because

Melissa Bradford: 00:25:05

it becomes so overwhelming and because the strategy has been too.

Melissa Bradford: 00:25:09

Throw so much dirt in our face that we can't even clean cleanse our

Melissa Bradford: 00:25:14

lenses so that we can see clearly.

Melissa Bradford: 00:25:17

We have to recognize that, that that's, that's one of the tactics that's being

Melissa Bradford: 00:25:21

used so that we give up, recognize that, recognize that the next step is for us to

Melissa Bradford: 00:25:27

lose our trust in the people around us.

Melissa Bradford: 00:25:29

And that's what's happening right now is that we are

Melissa Bradford: 00:25:32

entering a phase that is really.

Melissa Bradford: 00:25:36

Real, I'll just call it what it is.

Melissa Bradford: 00:25:37

It's what happens in authoritarian cultures is that you are

Melissa Bradford: 00:25:40

afraid of your neighbor.

Melissa Bradford: 00:25:42

Your neighbor's gonna turn your in, you, in your neighbor is going

Melissa Bradford: 00:25:45

to call the authorities on you.

Melissa Bradford: 00:25:48

That is, that is authoritarianism.

Melissa Bradford: 00:25:51

Yeah.

Melissa Bradford: 00:25:51

And, and so we, we need to create, then we need to create empathy with those

Melissa Bradford: 00:25:57

who feel that way, not blame them.

Melissa Bradford: 00:25:59

They have been, they have been infected with fear.

Melissa Bradford: 00:26:03

Intentionally infected with fear.

Melissa Bradford: 00:26:06

And fear is the most driving emotion.

Melissa Bradford: 00:26:10

And authoritarians know that they want us to be afraid.

Melissa Bradford: 00:26:13

So get close to the people who have given up and say, just follow me.

Melissa Bradford: 00:26:18

Just look at this one thing.

Melissa Bradford: 00:26:20

Look at this one true thing.

Melissa Bradford: 00:26:22

Look at this one heartening move.

Melissa Bradford: 00:26:24

Look at this one bit of of fact.

Melissa Bradford: 00:26:27

Feed in a way to bring people back to a sense of, number one, trusting

Melissa Bradford: 00:26:32

someone, even if it's just you, but then trusting maybe one or two other.

Melissa Bradford: 00:26:36

So sort.

Melissa Bradford: 00:26:38

That's why one of my main emphasis, emphasis going forward will be media

Melissa Bradford: 00:26:42

literacy because the media is being also hijacked to confuse us and, and that's

Melissa Bradford: 00:26:50

why people stop watching the media and they'll go to TikTok just to watch cute.

Melissa Bradford: 00:26:54

Cat videos because that is a form of medication.

Melissa Bradford: 00:26:58

It's a form of escapism, right?

Melissa Bradford: 00:27:01

So it, it's an, it starts with empathy with those who feel overwhelmed and

Melissa Bradford: 00:27:05

then making sure that you have a warm and trusted relationship with

Melissa Bradford: 00:27:08

them and sharing small bits that will encourage them to reenter the arena.

Melissa Bradford: 00:27:14

They can watch you, they can watch you do something.

Melissa Bradford: 00:27:18

They can

Amel Derragui: 00:27:18

watch you, oh, I'm taking this away.

Amel Derragui: 00:27:21

They can watch you do your thing.

Amel Derragui: 00:27:22

Which leads me to the second obstacle that I'd like to talk about, which

Amel Derragui: 00:27:26

I would summarize in one word.

Amel Derragui: 00:27:28

I've never understood this word until these past two years, which is loneliness

Amel Derragui: 00:27:36

when you feel like you are the only one who truly cares to the

Amel Derragui: 00:27:40

point that you wanna do something.

Amel Derragui: 00:27:43

Mm-hmm.

Amel Derragui: 00:27:43

So how would you handle that?

Melissa Bradford: 00:27:45

Well, I feel, feel emotional when you say that.

Melissa Bradford: 00:27:48

I start feeling emotions sort of rising up in me, so I'm gonna

Melissa Bradford: 00:27:51

try and stay really rational.

Melissa Bradford: 00:27:53

This is a time of extreme loneliness.

Melissa Bradford: 00:27:56

And I think that, um, one of the, well, that's the flip

Melissa Bradford: 00:28:01

side of social media, right?

Melissa Bradford: 00:28:03

We, we think that we're so connected and we live in these isolated silos that.

Melissa Bradford: 00:28:12

Don't give us what our, our souls really need and what our souls really need.

Melissa Bradford: 00:28:16

Our deep conversations face-to-face, this is the next best thing, just seeing

Melissa Bradford: 00:28:20

you on a screen and talking about these things for extended periods of time.

Melissa Bradford: 00:28:24

The human body and the human soul is not intended to live in sound bites.

Melissa Bradford: 00:28:31

Our whole mechanism is mechanism is made for long human stories and

Melissa Bradford: 00:28:37

we're not getting enough of those.

Melissa Bradford: 00:28:39

And so we need those face-to-face.

Melissa Bradford: 00:28:41

And I can't even tell you how many of my followers have written to me privately and

Melissa Bradford: 00:28:46

said, I'm, I'm on my last gasping breath.

Melissa Bradford: 00:28:49

I feel so isolated.

Melissa Bradford: 00:28:51

I feel so isolated.

Melissa Bradford: 00:28:52

At least I have this place.

Melissa Bradford: 00:28:55

So the loneliness again, is another tactic.

Melissa Bradford: 00:28:59

It comes from a strategy that is used anciently and in modern

Melissa Bradford: 00:29:04

history that polarizes people.

Melissa Bradford: 00:29:06

Let's talk about polarization for a moment, because

Melissa Bradford: 00:29:09

polarization is the strategy.

Melissa Bradford: 00:29:12

One of the first steps that an authoritarian will take is

Melissa Bradford: 00:29:15

to demonize the opposition.

Melissa Bradford: 00:29:17

Not just that this is healthy debate, but they are enemies of the state.

Melissa Bradford: 00:29:22

Anyone who is not in full and complete alignment with my whim of the day is an

Melissa Bradford: 00:29:29

enemy of the state, which immediately drives a, a, a wedge not only in society

Melissa Bradford: 00:29:35

between left or right, or one ethnicity or another, but it starts splitting

Melissa Bradford: 00:29:40

neighborhoods, work, colleagues, families.

Melissa Bradford: 00:29:43

I can't tell you how many family members are at odds with one another.

Melissa Bradford: 00:29:48

I'm not saying anything new.

Melissa Bradford: 00:29:49

Anyone listening to me is saying.

Melissa Bradford: 00:29:50

Mm-hmm.

Melissa Bradford: 00:29:51

Mm-hmm.

Melissa Bradford: 00:29:52

That's what's happening.

Melissa Bradford: 00:29:53

People are split down the middle.

Melissa Bradford: 00:29:54

When our core relationships are at risk, then we don't know where to turn.

Amel Derragui: 00:30:01

How would you recommend to take action from there?

Amel Derragui: 00:30:04

I mean, it's been a journey for me.

Amel Derragui: 00:30:05

I could speak for Brian for a long time, but I'm curious to see what

Amel Derragui: 00:30:08

would be your take to move from that place of feeling like I'm alone care.

Amel Derragui: 00:30:13

It's not even about demonizing feeling demonized.

Amel Derragui: 00:30:16

It's sharing.

Amel Derragui: 00:30:18

To wanna do something, but you feel like it's hard to bring people with you.

Amel Derragui: 00:30:23

Mm-hmm.

Amel Derragui: 00:30:24

Um, and that, honestly, sometimes I think people would think I was

Amel Derragui: 00:30:28

completely nuts for being so obsessed about what was going on, and I would

Amel Derragui: 00:30:32

bore people at dinners and tables.

Amel Derragui: 00:30:34

I could literally see that nobody wanted to hear anymore about my

Amel Derragui: 00:30:38

stories and what I cared about.

Amel Derragui: 00:30:40

So how would you, how would you have recommended to, to

Amel Derragui: 00:30:45

deal with that situation?

Melanie Bradford: 00:30:46

Okay.

Melanie Bradford: 00:30:47

Okay.

Melanie Bradford: 00:30:47

A lot of thoughts on that.

Melanie Bradford: 00:30:48

A lot of thoughts on that.

Melanie Bradford: 00:30:50

Let me try and organize them.

Melanie Bradford: 00:30:52

This isn't necessarily in ranking as as the most important, the

Melanie Bradford: 00:30:57

most salient to the least, but leadership is always lonely.

Amel Derragui: 00:31:01

Mm-hmm.

Melissa Bradford: 00:31:03

Leadership always carries with it the burden of loneliness.

Melissa Bradford: 00:31:06

You read any of the autobiographies of the great, you know, faith-driven

Melissa Bradford: 00:31:12

leaders, the great political leaders.

Melissa Bradford: 00:31:15

My goodness.

Melissa Bradford: 00:31:15

Winston Churchill from Winston Churchill to Abraham Lincoln to Gandhi to these

Melissa Bradford: 00:31:22

are people of tremendous loneliness because they felt the passion that

Melissa Bradford: 00:31:26

you feel, that I feel and couldn't quite get everyone to follow them.

Melissa Bradford: 00:31:31

You know, to follow with them.

Melissa Bradford: 00:31:33

Uh, another one is that when we feel grief, okay, we're going back to the

Melissa Bradford: 00:31:37

very beginning of our time together.

Melissa Bradford: 00:31:39

Let's go back to that tender nerve When we feel grief, because we are feeling grief.

Melissa Bradford: 00:31:45

We're feeling grief not only at watching the slaughter of innocence,

Melissa Bradford: 00:31:49

but also watching the erosion of something precious and, and luminous,

Melissa Bradford: 00:31:54

which is democracy and freedom.

Melissa Bradford: 00:31:56

We are carrying the burden of grief.

Melissa Bradford: 00:31:58

To just recognize that we are in some, some state of grief in and of

Melissa Bradford: 00:32:03

itself, allows us to feel that and say, because I'm telling you as a

Melissa Bradford: 00:32:07

bereaved mother, I've been the woman.

Melissa Bradford: 00:32:10

I've been the woman at the dinner party.

Melissa Bradford: 00:32:13

That everyone wanted to get away from, because that's the thing

Melissa Bradford: 00:32:17

that I needed to talk about.

Melissa Bradford: 00:32:19

And, and now I've folded, folded that sort of into this other kind of grief.

Melissa Bradford: 00:32:23

And everywhere I go, I wanna talk with people about what on earth

Melissa Bradford: 00:32:27

is happening to our freedoms.

Melissa Bradford: 00:32:28

And not everybody wants to hear that.

Melissa Bradford: 00:32:30

All you need to do is to find one listening ear, one

Melissa Bradford: 00:32:35

listening ear to hear your story.

Melissa Bradford: 00:32:38

Remember that leadership leadership is going to be lonely.

Melissa Bradford: 00:32:41

It's going to be lonely.

Melissa Bradford: 00:32:41

That's why you need to find your pod.

Melissa Bradford: 00:32:44

You need to find, I need to find people like you.

Melissa Bradford: 00:32:46

Amen.

Melissa Bradford: 00:32:47

And I need to talk with you regularly.

Melissa Bradford: 00:32:49

I don't need to have 250,000 even as long as I have those core people that

Melissa Bradford: 00:32:55

will remind me, you're not insane.

Melissa Bradford: 00:32:57

You're not crazy.

Melissa Bradford: 00:32:57

I'm with you in this and that.

Melissa Bradford: 00:32:59

We are experiencing grief.

Melissa Bradford: 00:33:02

We're gonna move through this.

Melissa Bradford: 00:33:04

We're going to bear it because we are strong.

Melissa Bradford: 00:33:06

We have been through lots of different layers of loss before, and when we

Melissa Bradford: 00:33:10

have our group, our safe group, then we have solidarity energy, we have

Melissa Bradford: 00:33:15

wind beneath our wings in a way, and, and we will make our way through this.

Amel Derragui: 00:33:20

I never, I knew that there was a connection between

Amel Derragui: 00:33:23

our first episodes and this one.

Amel Derragui: 00:33:25

Now it's becoming even clearer and I have an aha moment.

Amel Derragui: 00:33:28

We talked a lot about the five stages of, it's very typical,

Amel Derragui: 00:33:32

the five stages of grief.

Amel Derragui: 00:33:33

Everybody has heard about it, but now I can see how it's important to go through

Amel Derragui: 00:33:38

those phases before we can take action.

Amel Derragui: 00:33:39

So if I had to use my experience to share my take on this is the biggest

Amel Derragui: 00:33:45

challenge was to go through the grief, go through the healing, and the same

Amel Derragui: 00:33:49

time having that urgency of action.

Amel Derragui: 00:33:52

It's not, I don't know if you see what I'm talking about.

Amel Derragui: 00:33:55

I do like how to juggle, taking the time to heal while at the same time

Amel Derragui: 00:34:01

knowing that there's not much time.

Melissa Bradford: 00:34:03

Yeah.

Melissa Bradford: 00:34:03

There is a stage.

Melissa Bradford: 00:34:04

There is a stage also where of grief, it's not talked about a lot, but where

Melissa Bradford: 00:34:10

you must take action if you stay.

Melissa Bradford: 00:34:13

I've written about this actually.

Melissa Bradford: 00:34:14

If you stay curled up in the nautilus of grief, I call it the nautilus of grief.

Melissa Bradford: 00:34:20

If you stay there too long, you shrink.

Melissa Bradford: 00:34:22

Mm-hmm.

Melissa Bradford: 00:34:23

You come out, you might be walking bent over for a long,

Melissa Bradford: 00:34:26

long, long, long time, right?

Melissa Bradford: 00:34:28

'cause you can curl down on yourself.

Melissa Bradford: 00:34:30

So it's gonna be a different time for everyone.

Melissa Bradford: 00:34:31

But, um, we're all experiencing, anyone who's listening to this is here because

Melissa Bradford: 00:34:36

they're experiencing pain, they're experiencing loss, fear, isolation,

Melissa Bradford: 00:34:39

loneliness, all of those things.

Melissa Bradford: 00:34:42

We have to recognize when it's going to be unhealthy for us to not move.

Melissa Bradford: 00:34:49

That for me, um, in, in the literal grief of, of burying our child, it was.

Melissa Bradford: 00:34:58

A moment where I realized, and it was a flash of intuition, if I stay here

Melissa Bradford: 00:35:03

much longer, I will either never emerge or I will emerge a smaller person.

Melissa Bradford: 00:35:07

I want my sorrow and my life experience to be of benefit to other people.

Melissa Bradford: 00:35:13

That's what we all want.

Melissa Bradford: 00:35:15

We want to be useful in this world.

Melissa Bradford: 00:35:17

And so at that moment we step out, it's going to make us frightened.

Melissa Bradford: 00:35:21

Our palms will be trembling, our knees will be shaking.

Melissa Bradford: 00:35:25

We'll think that we're all alone, but I can promise you love

Melissa Bradford: 00:35:28

is waiting for you out there.

Melissa Bradford: 00:35:30

Loving, receptive.

Melissa Bradford: 00:35:32

Listeners are waiting for you to move.

Melissa Bradford: 00:35:36

I didn't think that, I didn't think it when I was sitting on

Melissa Bradford: 00:35:39

my base, my, my carpet in my bedroom, just recording reels.

Melissa Bradford: 00:35:43

I didn't.

Melissa Bradford: 00:35:44

Ever anticipate and frankly, it wasn't my goal to have a

Melissa Bradford: 00:35:48

really big following like this.

Melissa Bradford: 00:35:50

I wasn't charting the numbers and then it just took off.

Melissa Bradford: 00:35:53

And that alone is proof for me.

Melissa Bradford: 00:35:55

That love is waiting out there.

Melissa Bradford: 00:35:57

The need to connect is waiting.

Melissa Bradford: 00:35:59

So listeners, friends, everybody make that step, even if it's just baby steps.

Melissa Bradford: 00:36:06

Out into that place.

Melissa Bradford: 00:36:08

Raise your voice, build relationships of trust, help others mobilize.

Melissa Bradford: 00:36:13

It's the world is waiting for you to do that.

Melissa Bradford: 00:36:17

Waiting for you to do that.

Amel Derragui: 00:36:18

We don't have the time to dive deeper now onto it, but I do

Amel Derragui: 00:36:21

still want to talk a little bit about the fact of being so entrepreneurs,

Amel Derragui: 00:36:25

small business owners, which are the listeners of this podcast.

Amel Derragui: 00:36:28

We talked a lot about now how to deal with this different stages of

Amel Derragui: 00:36:32

wanting to take action from realizing we have to, to figuring out how to

Amel Derragui: 00:36:36

do it, but also how to deal with all those obstacles were discussed.

Amel Derragui: 00:36:41

I'm curious to see how do you see, what's your take about the responsibility

Amel Derragui: 00:36:45

that we have as solopreneurs to speak up and how can we do it to balance our

Amel Derragui: 00:36:51

voices, our platform visibility with actual the work that we have to do that

Amel Derragui: 00:36:55

hurting our income and our revenue?

Amel Derragui: 00:36:58

I wonder if you asked, you saw this question?

Melissa Bradford: 00:37:00

Yes.

Melissa Bradford: 00:37:00

Well, I'm, I'm fielding these sorts of questions all the

Melissa Bradford: 00:37:03

time because people are afraid.

Melissa Bradford: 00:37:04

Mm-hmm.

Melissa Bradford: 00:37:04

They're afraid of, and, and I have a number of stories that

Melissa Bradford: 00:37:08

I could rattle off right now.

Melissa Bradford: 00:37:09

People are afraid of offending their clients, of offending

Melissa Bradford: 00:37:14

their followers, of being.

Melissa Bradford: 00:37:17

Stocks or canceled.

Melissa Bradford: 00:37:19

There are people whose livelihoods hang in the balance.

Melissa Bradford: 00:37:23

I can name them right now if they speak about things politically.

Melissa Bradford: 00:37:28

Um, but there are ways to speak, let's say in code, in, in very humane terms

Melissa Bradford: 00:37:36

and not necessarily political terms, where you just say, we really, we

Melissa Bradford: 00:37:40

really do care about everyone, don't we?

Melissa Bradford: 00:37:43

And gosh, you know, my neighbor has a. Has a migrant or an immigrant background,

Melissa Bradford: 00:37:48

and I've been so inspired by her.

Melissa Bradford: 00:37:51

Those are code ways of supporting things that have been extrAmely politicized.

Melissa Bradford: 00:37:56

You see what I mean?

Melissa Bradford: 00:37:57

So you can still include that in your conversations.

Melissa Bradford: 00:38:01

You can still make it.

Melissa Bradford: 00:38:03

You can make it.

Melissa Bradford: 00:38:04

Clear, um, in a way that will appeal or at least speak to a broader audience.

Melissa Bradford: 00:38:11

The, the ne next step that I am taking, um, where it really does make it an

Melissa Bradford: 00:38:16

entrepreneurial effort is that I have now a digital marketing and a, and a branding

Melissa Bradford: 00:38:21

organization that's going to help me, just help me understand the landscape.

Melissa Bradford: 00:38:27

A little bit better.

Melissa Bradford: 00:38:28

And how to, how to build, how to build a brand.

Melissa Bradford: 00:38:30

You're investing

Amel Derragui: 00:38:31

in it now.

Amel Derragui: 00:38:32

And I wanna talk about this briefly because that's another thing at

Amel Derragui: 00:38:36

some point we need, just like when we talk about investing ourselves

Amel Derragui: 00:38:40

for our personal growth, you are now investing in this purpose.

Amel Derragui: 00:38:43

Do you wanna share a little bit about what was this journey like to

Amel Derragui: 00:38:46

professionalize now your activism?

Melissa Bradford: 00:38:48

I know, and it's, and it's very new for me because

Melissa Bradford: 00:38:51

I want to be clear, and this is not virtue signaling, everything that

Melissa Bradford: 00:38:54

I've done up to this point has been.

Melissa Bradford: 00:38:56

Has been volunteer.

Melissa Bradford: 00:38:57

All, all my trips around the world and speak, it's been volunteer, it's

Melissa Bradford: 00:39:02

been out of, it's been out of pocket.

Melissa Bradford: 00:39:05

Um, and I have felt that that has been the thing that I could offer is that I can

Melissa Bradford: 00:39:12

speak for some people who are voiceless and, and so it's been humanitarian

Melissa Bradford: 00:39:18

philanthropic workup to this point.

Melissa Bradford: 00:39:20

There comes a time where you're going to build a team and if you have a team.

Melissa Bradford: 00:39:26

Which you need.

Melissa Bradford: 00:39:26

When you have a significant online presence, then you can't

Melissa Bradford: 00:39:31

expect that everybody's going to work for nothing for you.

Melissa Bradford: 00:39:35

And so you need to monetize something.

Melissa Bradford: 00:39:36

And for me, actually, it's been a big ethical question.

Melissa Bradford: 00:39:39

You know, it's been an ethical question, can I require people

Melissa Bradford: 00:39:44

to even subscribe to my substack?

Melissa Bradford: 00:39:47

You know, people are willing to do that.

Melissa Bradford: 00:39:49

So it's a, it's, it's a big step.

Melissa Bradford: 00:39:51

But here's something I want to say also to anybody who might be making that same

Melissa Bradford: 00:39:54

move from, from humanitarian, volunt terrorism or Phil Philanthropy, to turning

Melissa Bradford: 00:40:00

it into a solopreneur, as you talked about it, or a business model, that that also

Melissa Bradford: 00:40:06

helps other people take you seriously.

Melissa Bradford: 00:40:10

And it also is another level of taking myself very seriously.

Melissa Bradford: 00:40:14

We're all in.

Melissa Bradford: 00:40:15

This is not some sort of hobby.

Melissa Bradford: 00:40:17

This is my mission.

Melissa Bradford: 00:40:19

This is my mission, and this is my work.

Melissa Bradford: 00:40:20

And so not only does that send a signal to, to others, but

Melissa Bradford: 00:40:24

it's a commitment to myself.

Melissa Bradford: 00:40:27

We're all in on this.

Melissa Bradford: 00:40:28

And, and that's actually tremendously empowering.

Melissa Bradford: 00:40:33

It's tremendously empowering.

Melissa Bradford: 00:40:35

Um, and I feel deep gratitude that I'm in a position where, where I can do that.

Melissa Bradford: 00:40:40

Deep gratitude for them.

Amel Derragui: 00:40:41

Yeah.

Amel Derragui: 00:40:41

Oh my God.

Amel Derragui: 00:40:42

Hope that all of you who are listening, just feel that energy that Melissa's

Amel Derragui: 00:40:46

sharing with us today and would highly recommend you to listen to her videos.

Amel Derragui: 00:40:51

Are you also on TikTok?

Amel Derragui: 00:40:52

I only follow you on Instagram.

Amel Derragui: 00:40:54

That's the next

Melissa Bradford: 00:40:54

step.

Melissa Bradford: 00:40:55

So I'm on Instagram and I'm on Substack.

Melissa Bradford: 00:40:58

Where I'm Upper Works longer works.

Melissa Bradford: 00:41:00

And then we're moving to TikTok.

Melissa Bradford: 00:41:02

We're moving to YouTube.

Melissa Bradford: 00:41:03

There's going to be a website, there's going to be a a weekly newsletter,

Melissa Bradford: 00:41:07

and then eventually a podcast.

Amel Derragui: 00:41:09

I do think that we should follow you very closely.

Amel Derragui: 00:41:11

A lot of things are gonna happen.

Amel Derragui: 00:41:12

I would love to have you again, so I hope you'll be fine and okay with

Amel Derragui: 00:41:15

coming back to share with us more about that because I think this is such an

Amel Derragui: 00:41:19

important work and if you can reflect back on your experience and the journey

Amel Derragui: 00:41:23

you're going through would be wonderful.

Amel Derragui: 00:41:25

I would love to.

Amel Derragui: 00:41:26

I would love to.

Amel Derragui: 00:41:27

I do have a last question, if we could make it short, although it's a big one.

Amel Derragui: 00:41:31

Okay.

Amel Derragui: 00:41:32

'cause I realize we did not say that clearly.

Amel Derragui: 00:41:34

Why do you think it is important for solopreneurs and small business owners

Amel Derragui: 00:41:39

to speak up and use their voices?

Melissa Bradford: 00:41:42

Because you are a small business owner

Melissa Bradford: 00:41:46

and because you have a small, um.

Melissa Bradford: 00:41:50

I don't want to say it's an audience, but you have a, a small

Melissa Bradford: 00:41:53

community, a smaller community.

Melissa Bradford: 00:41:56

You know your clients, you know your customers.

Melissa Bradford: 00:41:59

You know the people that you are speaking with because it's tidy and tight.

Melissa Bradford: 00:42:05

People trust you on a level.

Melissa Bradford: 00:42:07

We talk about people's trusting these huge global brands.

Melissa Bradford: 00:42:11

They trust Adidas and Nike and they trust Coca-Cola.

Melissa Bradford: 00:42:15

I guess, but it's a very different relationship.

Melissa Bradford: 00:42:19

When you are a solo printer, people actually have met you, they work with you,

Melissa Bradford: 00:42:23

and they, there's a higher likelihood that they're going to know you in real life.

Melissa Bradford: 00:42:29

Isn't that true?

Melissa Bradford: 00:42:30

Right?

Melissa Bradford: 00:42:30

Mm-hmm.

Melissa Bradford: 00:42:31

You have a smaller community, so the level of trust is much, much higher.

Melissa Bradford: 00:42:37

It also means that you can have a different kind of

Melissa Bradford: 00:42:40

connection with your community.

Melissa Bradford: 00:42:42

You can speak with them in a way that the CEO of a huge multinational

Melissa Bradford: 00:42:48

can't speak to his people.

Melissa Bradford: 00:42:49

They try.

Melissa Bradford: 00:42:50

They try.

Amel Derragui: 00:42:51

Mm-hmm.

Melanie Bradford: 00:42:52

Very different for someone who is,

Melanie Bradford: 00:42:55

has a tighter, a tighter reach.

Melanie Bradford: 00:42:58

So you already have that big issue of trust in your pocket.

Melanie Bradford: 00:43:03

You trust.

Melanie Bradford: 00:43:04

Your customers and your clients, your listeners, and they trust you.

Melanie Bradford: 00:43:10

That is, that is power.

Melanie Bradford: 00:43:12

And like you and I said before we even started recording, recording,

Melanie Bradford: 00:43:16

that is a responsibility and I think it's a sacred responsibility.

Melanie Bradford: 00:43:19

There's something sacred about that of, of, of building on people's trust.

Amel Derragui: 00:43:25

Okay.

Amel Derragui: 00:43:26

That's it.

Amel Derragui: 00:43:27

That's it.

Amel Derragui: 00:43:27

Jennifer, thank you so, so much.

Amel Derragui: 00:43:29

Melissa.

Amel Derragui: 00:43:29

I cannot, I don't wanna.

Amel Derragui: 00:43:31

Add more to that because I think that's a perfect way to end

Amel Derragui: 00:43:34

with the word responsibility.

Amel Derragui: 00:43:36

And that's what had made me pause the podcast for a bit because I felt I was

Amel Derragui: 00:43:41

responsible to say the right things and I did not have the right words.

Amel Derragui: 00:43:45

But now I'm so happy to be surrounded.

Amel Derragui: 00:43:47

People like you, to feel that we can start.

Amel Derragui: 00:43:51

Speaking up louder now to take action.

Amel Derragui: 00:43:53

I did take action in many ways as a civilian, but I do think

Amel Derragui: 00:43:56

that it is a responsibility.

Amel Derragui: 00:43:58

So thank you so much for helping me in my journey, inspiring me in my journey,

Amel Derragui: 00:44:02

and I really hope that every one of you who's listening, go check out.

Amel Derragui: 00:44:05

Melissa, could you please let us know?

Amel Derragui: 00:44:07

I'll put all the links on the show notes, but could you please us?

Amel Derragui: 00:44:09

Let us know where we can find you?

Melissa Bradford: 00:44:11

So you could find me on substack under

Melissa Bradford: 00:44:13

my name, Melissa Dalton Bradford.

Melissa Bradford: 00:44:15

You can find me on Instagram under mdb.

Melissa Bradford: 00:44:18

Those are my initials, global Mom.

Melissa Bradford: 00:44:21

You will find me soon and I'll just make sure that I get all of those links to you.

Melissa Bradford: 00:44:25

On TikTok, on YouTube, and, and I will be, uh, I'll be opening

Melissa Bradford: 00:44:30

up a, a newsletter in my website.

Melissa Bradford: 00:44:33

I'll let those all come.

Melissa Bradford: 00:44:34

That's all coming in the top of 2026, so very, very good.

Amel Derragui: 00:44:37

So much impact.

Amel Derragui: 00:44:39

So my dear listeners, if you wanna find all the resources that Melissa

Amel Derragui: 00:44:42

mentioned earlier as well, all her contacts, the best way is to go to

Amel Derragui: 00:44:46

the time is now biz slash three 17.

Amel Derragui: 00:44:52

Thank you so much Melissa, and to end, would you like to please complete

Amel Derragui: 00:44:55

the sentence, the time is now.

Amel Derragui: 00:44:57

Two,

Melissa Bradford: 00:44:58

the time is now.

Melissa Bradford: 00:45:00

Two.

Melissa Bradford: 00:45:01

Educate yourself and others and mobilize.

Melissa Bradford: 00:45:05

Thank you so much

Amel Derragui: 00:45:06

my dear listeners, I cannot wait to continue this journey

Amel Derragui: 00:45:10

with you, and I hope that together we can continue to speak up to

Amel Derragui: 00:45:13

take action and make a difference.

Amel Derragui: 00:45:15

Let's continue this journey together and stay tuned to turn all your

Amel Derragui: 00:45:19

challenges into great opportunities