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Speaking Up & Showing Up in Chaotic Times – With Melissa Dalton Bradford
Episode 317 • 19th January 2026 • The Time Is Now • Amel Derragui
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Amel Derragui:

The time is now episode 317.

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Melissa Dalton Bradford: The time is now to learn all you can to educate others

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to move in solidarity and mobilize.

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

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

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I am your host, Amel Derragui.

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

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

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But this podcast isn't just about marketing.

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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.

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

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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

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and democracy are being challenged?

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

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

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worldwide, know that you're not alone.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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decades advocating for human dignity.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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grateful I am to have you here.

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

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Melissa Dalton Bradford: Thank you, Amel.

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

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Me too.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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we're grieving our freedoms now.

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

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you got so visible in the past year.

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

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

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does everything come together for you?

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

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doing, what you're doing today?

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Melissa Dalton Bradford: Well, I think that it is the blessing of, of geography.

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

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moved to funk foot Germany.

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

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professional move for my husband.

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It was very good for one of our children.

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We end up in Frankfurt in 2014.

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And you know what I thought ah meant?

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

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

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

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write this book, and within.

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Months.

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

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

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

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

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

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loss in the middle of one of these moves.

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I knew something about that.

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

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

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

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'cause I never have experienced war persecution.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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That juncture, right?

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

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

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

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I just knew it instantly.

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

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

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that and deep, deep relationships.

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And then COVID hit.

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

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

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Frankfort, and I immediately jumped in.

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

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doing that up until last week.

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Up until last week, so several classes a week.

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That's how it happens, I think.

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

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

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

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and my life experience would be.

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You see what I'm saying?

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I

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

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you before you came to Frankfort.

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You found the platform for you.

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

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feel that they needed to take action.

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And you did.

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Melissa Dalton Bradford: I think, I think you're right.

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I, I, I should add to that then.

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Yeah.

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I, I do believe you're right.

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

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aid and, and public service.

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I saw it around me all of the time.

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

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

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

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

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nine to five inflexible career.

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

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

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exactly what I have been able to do.

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

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that there are things that people.

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

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conversation.

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

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

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but we are gonna dive into that.

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

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

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

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and to have taken action.

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You also have expertise, right?

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

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

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

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Melissa Dalton Bradford: Thank you.

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I'm a gist is what they call it.

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

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

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

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Wouldn't that be great?

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I'll be able to speak and write.

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

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

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I research a lot.

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

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

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

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It's a weird hybrid of my strengths.

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Very introverted and very extroverted.

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So I've taught language on the university level.

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

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In between raising four children in multiple cultures, and

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I always kept that active.

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

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in whatever landscape you might find yourself, recognize what your

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training and your expertise is.

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

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I was just writing small academic articles along the way.

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I had contact with important publishers.

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I did that.

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

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

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I said yes.

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I, I thought I, I can do this.

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And stepped out on the stage and started speaking.

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

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

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

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pre-World War II German literature.

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

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

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

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in my life, that's all behind me.

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We'll just lock that up.

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

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

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

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the literature that I analyzed and Rose wrote papers about.

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That's exactly what you're teaching.

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On Instagram.

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We've been friends for many years now.

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

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do because it's so full of meaning.

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

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Yeah, something like that.

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A thousand something.

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I remember.

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

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this was gonna explode and it did.

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You're over 200,000.

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

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

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to a need that many people are feeling.

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

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

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democracy and how to respond to it.

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

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

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Melissa Dalton Bradford: When I started, which was February, I stayed

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

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

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

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

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from outside of its borders.

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And then a couple of things happened that just.

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

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

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background, my teaching, my.

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

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Like I said, since the beginning of the war.

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

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

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

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

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And there was really good light.

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

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Why should anyone listen to somebody who has a background

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in German studies right now?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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and a voice of trust, I would add.

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I think that might be the most important thing.

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

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develop trust with people that have never.

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Met you in person is a delicate thing.

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

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are the right person to have here.

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

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

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all biased no matter who wanted or not.

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

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I actually trusted.

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

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

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our democracy being in danger.

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

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topic of the genocide and Gaza.

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That was extrAmely paralyzing.

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

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

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Making sure that we do speak up.

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

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are not sure we, we are equipped.

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Right?

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And third, you did mention something.

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Maybe that's a good place to start.

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

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

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

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

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

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and solopreneurs who have a voice?

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Melissa Dalton Bradford: Yes.

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

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We all have trusted relationships.

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We all have colleagues, family members, neighbors.

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

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that's where everyone can start.

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So everyone can start by educating people within their closest

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circle, their closest sphere.

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

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to inform ourselves correctly.

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

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two or three voices I suggest.

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

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

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key voices that I always refer to.

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

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them in the, the show notes.

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Show notes, yeah.

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Um, one of them is, is Timothy Snyder.

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

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

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Mm-hmm.

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

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

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Another key voice is Anne Applebaum.

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Very brilliant author.

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

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Everyone should be reading that.

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

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but I would say start with those.

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Start with those two Timothy Snyder and Anne Applebaum.

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Inform yourself and then just start having conversations.

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Ask questions.

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Why?

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What are you most nervous about Uncle?

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Alfred, you know what?

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

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

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what democracy used to look like?

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And let's have a conversation about it.

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

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

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looks exactly like this point in.

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

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history or the or German history.

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

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

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

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then we speak in the larger circles.

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Then we have gained confidence in ourselves.

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

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delicate and they're polarizing.

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And they hit very often on the nerve of identity.

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You know, who am I as an American?

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

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And you.

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

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calling a democracy defense pod.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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We need to mobilize.

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We need to mobilize.

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And that could be showing up at the demonstration.

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It could also be showing up to protect the vulnerable.

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Might they be at risk for being deported?

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

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That's mobilizing, that's acting.

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

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

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

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That's sort of very practical.

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The real life space action.

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It does a number of things.

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

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

Amel Derragui:

But that's what.

Amel Derragui:

The enemies of democracy want.

Amel Derragui:

They want us to despair.

Amel Derragui:

It is a strategy.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

It's a strategy.

Amel Derragui:

We are supposed to despair.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

I'm an unplug.

Amel Derragui:

I'm not gonna listen to anyone.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

There's no truth anywhere.

Amel Derragui:

Don't believe it for a moment.

Amel Derragui:

There is truth.

Amel Derragui:

There is viable action.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

vacuum of soar, of, of isolation.

Amel Derragui:

Solidarity, solidarity will help us.

Amel Derragui:

To, uh, not feel alone.

Amel Derragui:

It gives us energy.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

Okay?

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

in a corner that hey, we're numerous.

Amel Derragui:

We're numerous.

Amel Derragui:

We're not backing down.

Amel Derragui:

We're linking arms.

Amel Derragui:

We are a force to be reckoned with.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

There is an app.

Amel Derragui:

It's called the Five Calls App.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

You are paying their salaries.

Amel Derragui:

They work for you.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

So use the Five Calls app.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

Defense pods, use that.

Amel Derragui:

First,

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

Start in your own circle.

Amel Derragui:

Demo, create your own pod.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

I love how effective it's right.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

Action is the medicine to feeling despair.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

much, because we can't keep up.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

So how would you respond to those people?

Amel Derragui:

Melissa Dalton Bradford: Hmm.

Amel Derragui:

With empathy?

Amel Derragui:

Uh, my first response would be, no kidding.

Amel Derragui:

I get it.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

I myself am healthy and hail.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

Of course, of course.

Amel Derragui:

It's how you feel.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

That is precisely what the enemies of democracy want you to

Amel Derragui:

feel, just to quietly say that.

Amel Derragui:

And so are there small steps that we can take?

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

It trickles down.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

We know that that's not true.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

lenses so that we can see clearly.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

lose our trust in the people around us.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

entering a phase that is really.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

afraid of your neighbor.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

to call the authorities on you.

Amel Derragui:

That is, that is authoritarianism.

Amel Derragui:

Yeah.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

who feel that way, not blame them.

Amel Derragui:

They have been, they have been infected with fear.

Amel Derragui:

Intentionally infected with fear.

Amel Derragui:

And fear is the most driving emotion.

Amel Derragui:

And authoritarians know that they want us to be afraid.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

Just look at this one thing.

Amel Derragui:

Look at this one true thing.

Amel Derragui:

Look at this one heartening move.

Amel Derragui:

Look at this one bit of of fact.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

So sort.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

Cat videos because that is a form of medication.

Amel Derragui:

It's a form of escapism, right?

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

They can

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

They can watch you do your thing.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

I would summarize in one word.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

point that you wanna do something.

Amel Derragui:

Mm-hmm.

Amel Derragui:

So how would you handle that?

Amel Derragui:

Melissa Dalton Bradford: Well, I feel, feel emotional when you say that.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

try and stay really rational.

Amel Derragui:

This is a time of extreme loneliness.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

side of social media, right?

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

we're not getting enough of those.

Amel Derragui:

And so we need those face-to-face.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

I feel so isolated.

Amel Derragui:

I feel so isolated.

Amel Derragui:

At least I have this place.

Amel Derragui:

So the loneliness again, is another tactic.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

history that polarizes people.

Amel Derragui:

Let's talk about polarization for a moment, because

Amel Derragui:

polarization is the strategy.

Amel Derragui:

One of the first steps that an authoritarian will take is

Amel Derragui:

to demonize the opposition.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

neighborhoods, work, colleagues, families.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

I'm not saying anything new.

Amel Derragui:

Anyone listening to me is saying.

Amel Derragui:

Mm-hmm.

Amel Derragui:

Mm-hmm.

Amel Derragui:

That's what's happening.

Amel Derragui:

People are split down the middle.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

How would you recommend to take action from there?

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

It's not even about demonizing feeling demonized.

Amel Derragui:

It's sharing.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

Mm-hmm.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

bore people at dinners and tables.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

stories and what I cared about.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

deal with that situation?

Amel Derragui:

Melanie Dalton Bradford: Okay.

Amel Derragui:

Okay.

Amel Derragui:

A lot of thoughts on that.

Amel Derragui:

A lot of thoughts on that.

Amel Derragui:

Let me try and organize them.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

Mm-hmm.

Amel Derragui:

Melissa Dalton Bradford: Leadership always carries with it the burden of loneliness.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

leaders, the great political leaders.

Amel Derragui:

My goodness.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

are people of tremendous loneliness because they felt the passion that

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

You know, to follow with them.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

very beginning of our time together.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

which is democracy and freedom.

Amel Derragui:

We are carrying the burden of grief.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

bereaved mother, I've been the woman.

Amel Derragui:

I've been the woman at the dinner party.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

that I needed to talk about.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

is happening to our freedoms.

Amel Derragui:

And not everybody wants to hear that.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

listening ear to hear your story.

Amel Derragui:

Remember that leadership leadership is going to be lonely.

Amel Derragui:

It's going to be lonely.

Amel Derragui:

That's why you need to find your pod.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

Amen.

Amel Derragui:

And I need to talk with you regularly.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

will remind me, you're not insane.

Amel Derragui:

You're not crazy.

Amel Derragui:

I'm with you in this and that.

Amel Derragui:

We are experiencing grief.

Amel Derragui:

We're gonna move through this.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

I never, I knew that there was a connection between

Amel Derragui:

our first episodes and this one.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

the five stages of grief.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

those phases before we can take action.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

time having that urgency of action.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

knowing that there's not much time.

Amel Derragui:

Melissa Dalton Bradford: Yeah.

Amel Derragui:

There is a stage.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

you must take action if you stay.

Amel Derragui:

I've written about this actually.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

If you stay there too long, you shrink.

Amel Derragui:

Mm-hmm.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

long, long, long time, right?

Amel Derragui:

'cause you can curl down on yourself.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

loneliness, all of those things.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

That's what we all want.

Amel Derragui:

We want to be useful in this world.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

is waiting for you out there.

Amel Derragui:

Loving, receptive.

Amel Derragui:

Listeners are waiting for you to move.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

I didn't.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

really big following like this.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

And that alone is proof for me.

Amel Derragui:

That love is waiting out there.

Amel Derragui:

The need to connect is waiting.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

Out into that place.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

Waiting for you to do that.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

hurting our income and our revenue?

Amel Derragui:

I wonder if you asked, you saw this question?

Amel Derragui:

Melissa Dalton Bradford: Yes.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

time because people are afraid.

Amel Derragui:

Mm-hmm.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

I could rattle off right now.

Amel Derragui:

People are afraid of offending their clients, of offending

Amel Derragui:

their followers, of being.

Amel Derragui:

Stocks or canceled.

Amel Derragui:

There are people whose livelihoods hang in the balance.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

really do care about everyone, don't we?

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

and I've been so inspired by her.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

You see what I mean?

Amel Derragui:

So you can still include that in your conversations.

Amel Derragui:

You can still make it.

Amel Derragui:

You can make it.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

A little bit better.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

You're investing

Amel Derragui:

in it now.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

professionalize now your activism?

Amel Derragui:

Melissa Dalton Bradford: I know, and it's, and it's very new for me because

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

I've done up to this point has been.

Amel Derragui:

Has been volunteer.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

philanthropic workup to this point.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

Which you need.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

And so you need to monetize something.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

to even subscribe to my substack?

Amel Derragui:

You know, people are willing to do that.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

helps other people take you seriously.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

We're all in.

Amel Derragui:

This is not some sort of hobby.

Amel Derragui:

This is my mission.

Amel Derragui:

This is my mission, and this is my work.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

it's a commitment to myself.

Amel Derragui:

We're all in on this.

Amel Derragui:

And, and that's actually tremendously empowering.

Amel Derragui:

It's tremendously empowering.

Amel Derragui:

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

Amel Derragui:

Deep gratitude for them.

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Yeah.

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Oh my God.

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

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

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Are you also on TikTok?

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I only follow you on Instagram.

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That's the next

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Melissa Dalton Bradford: step.

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

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Where I'm Upper Works longer works.

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And then we're moving to TikTok.

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We're moving to YouTube.

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

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and then eventually a podcast.

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I do think that we should follow you very closely.

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A lot of things are gonna happen.

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

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

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

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you're going through would be wonderful.

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I would love to.

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I would love to.

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

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Okay.

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'cause I realize we did not say that clearly.

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

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to speak up and use their voices?

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Melissa Dalton Bradford: Because you are a small business owner

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and because you have a small, um.

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

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community, a smaller community.

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You know your clients, you know your customers.

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

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People trust you on a level.

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

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

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

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

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

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Isn't that true?

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Right?

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Mm-hmm.

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

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It also means that you can have a different kind of

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connection with your community.

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

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can't speak to his people.

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They try.

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They try.

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Mm-hmm.

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Melanie Dalton Bradford: Very different for someone who is,

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has a tighter, a tighter reach.

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

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You trust.

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

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That is, that is power.

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

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

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

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Okay.

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That's it.

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That's it.

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Jennifer, thank you so, so much.

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Melissa.

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I cannot, I don't wanna.

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

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with the word responsibility.

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

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

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But now I'm so happy to be surrounded.

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People like you, to feel that we can start.

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Speaking up louder now to take action.

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

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that it is a responsibility.

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

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

Amel Derragui:

Melissa, could you please let us know?

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

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Let us know where we can find you?

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Melissa Dalton Bradford: So you could find me on substack under

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my name, Melissa Dalton Bradford.

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You can find me on Instagram under mdb.

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Those are my initials, global Mom.

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

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

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up a, a newsletter in my website.

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I'll let those all come.

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

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So much impact.

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

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

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the time is now biz slash three 17.

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

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the sentence, the time is now.

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Two,

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Melissa Dalton Bradford: the time is now.

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Two.

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Educate yourself and others and mobilize.

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Thank you so much

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my dear listeners, I cannot wait to continue this journey

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

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take action and make a difference.

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

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challenges into great opportunities

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