Stop being Indispensable and Start being Effective.
In this episode of The Executive Hustle Podcast, Rebecca Richwine and Kirsten cover life, leadership, the unexpected and everything in between. Becki Richwine spent 20 years learning that over-functioning isn't leadership. As SVP of Operations at Merakey, she scaled children's services across six states and 800+ employees, but her biggest growth came when she stopped trying to control everything and started building teams she could trust. When her own teen son struggled to find mental health support, she channeled that pain into True Self Therapy, a virtual platform now serving teens and young adults across Pennsylvania. Her advice to leaders: delegate earlier, distribute pressure intentionally, embrace failure as fuel, and remember that being indispensable will only take you so far.
For the rest of her journey, advice, and impact tune in for the full conversation.
Rebecca’s BIO: Rebecca “Becki” Richwine is the Senior Vice President of Children & Family Services at Merakey, where she oversees program operations and leads clinical and business development. She joined Merakey in 2007 and has held multiple leadership roles, helping expand and improve services for children and families. Becki holds a BA in Psychology and a Master’s in Clinical Psychology with a focus on behavioral and social-emotional disorders, and has over 20 years of experience in human services.
For more info on Rebecca and Merakey:
AI Transcript, errors may occur.
Welcome to the Executive Hustle Podcast. Today's guest is Rebecca Becki Richwine, Senior Vice President of Operations at Merakey, and she is doing something powerful.
She is using her personal pain as a parent to drive professional innovation. But beyond that, her personal mission, she is scaling mental health operations across multiple states and has been doing so for over two decades.
When she watched her own teen struggle with mental health, she saw how hard it to find help. And she didn't just complain.
She built True Self Therapy. It's a masterclass in turning vulnerability into operational excellence. I'm excited to dive into that and much more.
It's my pleasure to welcome you today, my friend and colleague, Becki. Hello. Thank you.
@0:52 - Becki Richwine
I appreciate the invite to be here today. Awesome.
@0:56 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Well, we have so much to dive into. But first, tell me, did you think you would end up where you are today?
What is a little bit of a history lesson for you? Thank you. tell you. Actually, not at all.
@1:07 - Becki Richwine
I started off getting my bachelor's and master's degree in psychology and I really thought I would spend a lot of time working in the autism field or providing direct care clinical work.
And then over the years, I found myself taking on more and more operational roles and then higher level leadership roles, which now has turned into me being able to provide services and support employees across multiple states and multiple services.
@1:34 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Yeah. So many people and myself included spending a lot of time in nonprofit. It's more than a job, right?
It's more than a career.
@1:42 - Becki Richwine
Was there a moment like that for you? There's been several. And in particular, I think as I watched my own children grow up and being responsible for children's services, I had moments where you connect into what's going on at work and at home.
@2:00 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
And then also watching all of the other kids that grew up around my children.
@2:05 - Becki Richwine
now. welcome. And so there's moments when you realize that you're here not just to help yourself or a particular identified child or family, but you're really here just for the entire community and all the kids and the children that are growing up in those areas.
Yeah.
@2:20 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Well, that really speaks to what you've done most recently. Let's talk about true self-therapy. You've not been real secretive about that this project is very personal to you.
@2:30 - Becki Richwine
Tell us a little bit about that. Yeah, this probably in my decades of career has been the most personal project.
Over a year ago, I saw one of my own children suffer with mental health, anxiety and depression, much of it coming through the transition into college.
And then I also saw a lot of peers who were struggling through high school and into college, and it was difficult to get support.
Most times the services that Meraki provides are to a low economical status families or people. Who qualify for Medicaid services, but when you look for a commercial insurance therapist and even commercial insurance psychiatry, it's very difficult to find.
And so it meant something to me as we went through it. I want to make sure that there is therapy accessible for high school and college age kids who are dealing with transition and anxiety and depression and really all of those things that are coming along with them growing up and heading into adulthood.
@3:35 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Yeah. And so how did that change your personal experience? How did it influence you leading this project? Like, did it make you more cautious?
Did it make you more bold? What was the influence of the personal aspect on your leadership of this particular project?
@3:53 - Becki Richwine
I knew that there was a group or a population of individuals that needed additional support, additional services, another avenue.
Dr. Dr. And I think it became, one, much more personable, but it also made me much more bold that we were going to do something.
I was very fortunate to have the support from our CEO and other C-suite executives because unbeknownst to myself, we've had other executives whose teenagers and young adults have gone through something very similar.
And I've noticed that this population kind of sits in silence. They suffer. They think they have to figure it out on their own.
And even looking at some of the research, knowing that they're coming from high-performing families or executive parents who are immersed in their careers, it almost feels like they also have to perform.
And then not knowing where they're headed. So I became pretty bold, but if you know me, that's hard to believe that I became even more bold.
But it allowed me to really hone in on a focus on how do we get this done and how do we make sure.
That we create something that is user friendly as well.
@5:08 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
It's a full virtual platform.
@5:11 - Becki Richwine
We need to be able to meet the teens and young adults where they are in the space that works for them in their car, in their dorm room, in their bedroom, on their mobile devices.
It really is replacing traditional face-to-face therapy because as kids are entering into the workforce or into college, they may be moving away from where those services might be in their hometown and allowing them to stay connected with a licensed professional.
@5:41 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Yeah. Well, it sounds like a great program. It's off the ground. It's running now? It is off the ground.
@5:46 - Becki Richwine
It launched December 1st of 2025, accepting new referrals in Pennsylvania. And later here in 2026, we'll be expanding into the state of Louisiana and accepting clients in Louisiana as well.
And then we have plans to add different states as we continue to grow. In 2026, we've also started partnerships with local colleges and universities across Pennsylvania, particularly because many of us have kids in college and there was a need and a resource.
We also have been in contact with over 2,000 school districts, hospitals, primary care professionals, and other community members to let them know that this service is available, can scan a QR code and go in, we accept the major commercial insurance health plans, and then it all walks you through right online.
Hmm.
@6:44 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
That's a powerful program. That's going to reach a lot of kids. Hmm. You've got to be so proud of that and to think that it came from a personal experience and to make such a difference in such a big area for so many other families.
It did.
@6:59 - Becki Richwine
And, you know, I sent my youngest off to college this fall. And interestingly enough, we really buckled. down from July to December within the company to put this together and get it rolling out.
And when they came home for Christmas break, I said, hey, guys, have something I want to share with you.
And I said, I did this for you. I did this for you guys and your friends and and all of us around so that there's a resource.
You were my inspiration.
@7:27 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
And I think so many times we get lost in the work we do. And I'm fortunate enough that working for a nonprofit and in children's services, I get to see great accomplishments and progress.
@7:39 - Becki Richwine
But I didn't tell them what I was doing. I wanted to make a difference for them without them knowing initially.
@7:47 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
And it's taken off.
@7:49 - Becki Richwine
They share it on their own social media page. They've had friends that they've said, hey, if you're struggling, I think you should check this out.
And it made it a lot more personal.
@7:59 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
That's super powerful. They had to have been so proud of you.
@8:04 - Becki Richwine
They were. They were. I think the best part about that, though, too, is I was also, I've been with Meraki now for 18 years, and they've kind of grown up in the company.
Yeah. really showed them the investment that a company can have, not only in their employees, but in ideas and what could come if you find the right fit to have an idea, be innovative, come forward with a new idea.
And that restored in them, like, the ability for companies to support their employees and their families, but also knowing that they didn't just have a mom behind them.
They really had a really large organization behind them.
@8:47 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Yeah, that saw a need and stepped up to fill it in the community, but driven by a need for by their employees.
And that's, you know, I don't think you see that often enough. And you got to show that to your kids and inspire, they inspired you and then you got to inspire them through that story.
here we And, you know, so often our kids just see us go to work, right? They don't know what that work is.
And we try to avoid taking it home because that's often a negative connotation, right? And this is the exact opposite of a story in that regard.
It is. And I think you can share the sentiment with me that working in a nonprofit in this area, it's really hard at times to even separate that work.
@9:31 - Becki Richwine
I'm not just going into work for the day and crunching some numbers on an Excel spreadsheet. That's how much we do it.
@9:39 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Yeah, we do it.
@9:41 - Becki Richwine
But then you're coming home and it's weighing on the heart because you're caring for the lives of others. The decisions you make, the resources you have available, trying to put your best foot forward every day.
And you can't just always check it at the front door. Yeah.
@9:57 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
No, we've carried it home for good and for bad. And that's a challenging way to grow up. For kids, and I'm guessing you navigated that as best you could, and that bled into your leadership as a mom and as a leader, and I'm sure you led female leaders as well.
@10:19 - Becki Richwine
Yeah, I think some of the real constraints that I've lived with in my leadership growth was not even trying to figure out the own personal stuff along with the work stuff, but, you know, health, energy, unpredictability of just where you're going, but also being a young female leader, whose career very fortunately took off early on.
It forced me to really look, how do you build strong systems, and how do you delegate earlier, and how do you lead with more intention, and stop kind of looking at what value do you have, and it doesn't just come with constant availability, it's really what can you build.
I got early on really tired with decision fatigue and even lean on. I on teams that didn't understand the why they were working with me.
And so trying to really shift from an over-functioning to more effective leadership was definitely important. And then leveraging the fact that, you know, I am a woman, and I am a woman executive who's working and raising children at the same time.
@11:26 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Yeah. When did something like that come to a head? When did you have to sacrifice something in that? When you say, I am a, you know, a woman executive raising kids, but you're also carrying your work home.
I mean, that had to be in conflict with each other on more than one occasion. When did you have to make a really hard choice?
@11:47 - Becki Richwine
Yeah, I would say a lot of that started probably when you start to hit early teens with your kids, they become much more involved, whether it's in sports or theater or different after school activities, and then you're trying to show up.
But I can even remember, you know, sometimes missing muffins with mom because you had a board meeting and trying to manage those pieces.
It's been important to me, though, to make sure in the last 18 years that I've demonstrated for other women leaders, you can do both and you can do both successfully.
Leadership isn't about absorbing all of the pressure. It's about distributing it intentionally and making sure that you're accomplishing things both at home and at work.
I think that the other piece of it that really goes along with all of that is knowing your limits, making sure that you understand how you're showing up in both home and work and life.
@12:50 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Knowing your impact that you're having on others is very valuable because we're often not aware of the impact we're having or we're not having the impact we wanted to have.
Yeah. Has there been somebody? Along the way, that's really shown you some of these strategies, these mindsets. Did you fumble around and find them?
Like, what was something meaningful along your path that really, you said you found some of this stuff early, and that's not the case for everybody in leadership?
@13:25 - Becki Richwine
It is not. And there are a handful of ways to answer that question. I've actually found a couple people who have taught me who I don't want to be.
@13:36 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Because you kind of sit back and you're like, okay, that's not who I want to be.
@13:40 - Becki Richwine
That's not how I want to leave people feeling. There have been a handful of people. There's one woman, executive in my life in particular, who's a little bit older with two kids as well.
And I just remember watching her trying to navigate that. But really, what taught me a lot of this was being an executive and a very male dominant older and just little but And it's And You so that's
So I was either working with people whose kids were older than mine at the time, or didn't have kids, or men who had wives or partners at home raising their families, and one of the biggest mistakes I made early on was over-functioning, taking responsibility for things that weren't mine, because I was trying to prove myself, and even protecting people from discomfort, and not helping them grow.
And I think that some of that has to go with, you have to figure out who you are, one, as an individual, but two, what is it that you can bring to the team?
And so I think I was able to learn this early on, because I was a young leader, but that didn't come without some fights and some tribulations along the way.
@14:53 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Talk to me about that. What makes you say that? I honestly think my leadership changed when I stopped trying to be strong all the time and started to be more intentional.
Okay. That's the opposite of what you think you need to be, is the stronger and the louder person in that room.
@16:11 - Becki Richwine
That's absolutely spot on, Kirsten. I spent a lot of time being the louder, squeakier wheel, jumping up and down to get the attention because I wanted to be listened to.
There was even a funny story in my career early on that an older gentleman referenced me as kid all the time.
I'm 30 some years old at that point, just constant. was like, what do you think, kid? Or how about we ask the kid?
And, you know, it just was like, wait a minute, like, I'm not a kid. Okay, yes, I could be your child.
But it also sometimes isn't necessarily being the loudest. It's making sure, again, that you are delegating and managing the system and empowering people and then putting trust in to demonstrate what you're able to do.
@17:00 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Mm-hmm. What's the fear, do you think, at the bottom of all of this, that people... ... ... ... ...
@18:05 - Becki Richwine
But I think sometimes we're actually just trying to prove ourselves to ourselves. We got into our leadership positions for a reason.
Someone saw something. You've demonstrated something. Someone was your cheerleader along the way. And we're there sometimes putting the pressure on ourselves to prove ourselves, not to anyone but ourselves.
Right.
@18:28 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Most of this pressure is self-inflicted. Yeah, 100%. So if you went back 20 years to the Becky that's showing up for day one at, I don't know, what was it then?
Keystone NHS, whatever your first one was, right?
@18:42 - Becki Richwine
We all probably worked at the same places.
@18:45 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Yeah. What advice would you give that first day, Becky?
@18:50 - Becki Richwine
You know, I have grown so much over the last 20 years, but even so much more in the last two or three years that, you know, Becky now would probably tell 20 years ago, just buckle up.
@19:04 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Don't question it. Just buckle up.
@19:05 - Becki Richwine
Go up and do it. Because it's so hard. If you knew what you knew now, then you wouldn't even be where you were.
If anything, I think I would tell myself, take a couple deep breaths, take a step back, look at the bigger impact.
I really allowed my own anxiety to play into that for a long time and question myself and the decisions or the growth or where we're at.
And if I just had a little person sitting on my shoulder, it would be, it's okay. And I think the other thing, too, is make mistakes.
@19:47 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
It's okay to make mistakes.
@19:49 - Becki Richwine
Just don't make the same one over and over again and continue to grow through it.
@19:54 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Yeah. Failure is not final or fatal. It is not.
@19:58 - Becki Richwine
And I used to tell everyone, my biggest fear isn't death. It's failure.
@20:02 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Failure of what?
@20:03 - Becki Richwine
Right. Like, make mistakes. And I could never answer the failure of what? Not being good enough? Good enough for who?
And so really refraining what you're asking yourself is important because I don't know failure of what and I don't know who I'm afraid to not.
And if I could answer that, then we could worry about it. But at this point, I'd rather say, hey, you know what?
A lot of people had a lot of failure before they had a huge success. And that makes us some of the best individuals that we are, because it allows you to grow and change and learn.
Yeah.
@20:45 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Leaping from failure to failure with no less enthusiasm, I think, is the Winston Churchill quote, right? And then how do we continue to do that?
@20:56 - Becki Richwine
My biggest failures have been my greatest lessons. Mm-hmm.
@21:03 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Yeah. Success is a tough one. Yeah, sure. Because success is a terrible teacher. Is it luck? Or did I actually do something right?
How do you know? And if all you're used to success, then you don't really understand and can relate to people and all that they're going through either.
Yeah, which comes back to empathy and, you know, leading the in a nonprofit. I think empathy is so important with the clients that you serve and the people that you have as employees.
I'm sure empathy is right on the top of your list. It is very, very high.
@21:42 - Becki Richwine
Mm hmm.
@21:43 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Yeah. What are you still learning as a leader?
@21:49 - Becki Richwine
How you show up every day. You know, I, I, I am a very, can be a very over passionate person.
@22:01 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
And so my frustration level can rise at times that always the best, you.
@22:05 - Becki Richwine
It'd be easier if I could remind myself to take that breath that I was going to tell 20 years ago.
@22:11 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Wait, same advice is still relevant? It is. Oh, my God.
@22:16 - Becki Richwine
It's not to the same level, but you at times have so much passion to want to make change or see things move fast.
I'm a fast mover. I want it done now, if not now, yesterday, right? And to just take that moment to look around and celebrate the accomplishments, but also, you know, it's going to be all right.
And so for me, it's just the way you show up every day and trying to remind yourself that there's hard days, but there's still the next day.
Yeah.
@22:49 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
God willing, there is still the next day. Yeah. Yeah. You are leading. I've lost count of the number of programs that I've lost count of the number of states.
It's a little.
@23:04 - Becki Richwine
and me both. Yeah. Probably you too.
@23:06 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
So, you know, there's this fear for leaders when they are building companies and building programs and building services about growing, and, you know, getting disconnected from teams and employees when you've started small and quality and culture.
And I know you eat this stuff for breakfast, you love this operational stuff. And you have been your division is, you know, very successful inside of the mothership of American Kirsten terms of operational excellence culture.
Talk to me and talk to listeners about some of the things you've learned and have found successful in, you know, building high performing cultures, you know, operational excellence, quality control, those kinds of things that, that would really resonate, I think.
Yeah, absolutely.
@23:59 - Becki Richwine
Just to give you scope, too, you know, post-COVID, we have in our division right now a 800 plus employees and or across six different states, providing a variety of services, anywhere from community behavioral health services, education services, and then the commercial insurance, true self therapy that we started off talking about.
And we have not always been successful. There have been growing pains. There are times that you have to sit back and take a look of what we're trying to do in the community or the state that we're in and figure out what is operational.
The best thing to do. But there are two things that I really want to keep always at the forefront in front of the financials of that is number one is what impact are we making on the children and the family that we serve, the quality of service that we're providing, and then making sure that we have a way to make sustainable change.
Several years ago, we, as a company under my leadership, made the decision to. learned learned Thank Walk away from an $8 million book of business.
It was very difficult to run with the staffing patterns and the way that the job market was, and there was not much quality into what we were providing.
A lot of companies won't do something like that, but there's still a mission that we're driven by. And so that quality piece is extremely important to me, and then the culture in which those employees work in is important for me.
They're showing up day after day, serving some of the most vulnerable children and some of the most horrific stories that you'll hear and families that have been through trauma and tragedy.
And so making sure that we have a safe work environment and a culture where they feel like they're embraced and they're supported.
We spend time talking about mindset and how do we support each other and how do we make sure that even on the hardest days, you still have a comfort.
So level to know that you have somewhere to come back to and you have a team that's supporting you.
@26:10 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
We continue to see our turnover rates drop and continue to see in different pockets.
@26:17 - Becki Richwine
There's always areas that need improvement, increased employee engagement and different initiatives that employees are with us. One of our long term employees just celebrated 30 years, a board certified behavior analyst.
She's been with the company for 30 years. That's 12 years longer than me.
@26:39 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
And it's just great to sit back and look at the impact that they've had.
@26:45 - Becki Richwine
And I think it has really allowed us to continue to work on that culture piece of the environment we create for employees, but then to making sure that the end of the day, the clinical integrity is there for the work that we're providing as well.
@26:58 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Mm hmm. What are some of the operational mechanisms that you like top two to three? You make sure, like, these are the ones that, these are the sacred cows that we have that have to stay in place.
These are the mechanisms that support that, the high culture, the high engagement, they know they have the safe team to come back to.
These are the mechanisms that we employ as Mary Key Children's Services to get that. There's a handful of things, both on the clinical integrity side and then the culture piece.
@27:30 - Becki Richwine
And first and foremost, I'm really thankful that Mary Key decided to get accredited by a company called Presidium.
@27:37 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
We are one of the only nonprofit human service organizations that have full accreditation, and we've been through reaccreditation.
@27:44 - Becki Richwine
And Presidium comes in and looks at our policies, our procedures, and all of that to make sure that we're supervising and observing children and vulnerable adults in the best way possible to prevent neglect and abuse.
So that higher level of certification that isn't needed really helps us look at the clinical integrity of what we're doing.
So we're doing observation. So we're We're doing clinical case reviews. We're reviewing our incident management with an incident management team and always just looking for where we can be one step better.
We have local and regional performance quality improvement meetings. We use data to trend where we're at on satisfaction surveys to anywhere from goal attainment and all of those pieces.
Really working on using data to tell our story, the successes that people have seen as they've partnered and worked with Meraki.
As far as culture, you know, it kind of shifts from time to time. One of the things we've been focusing on in the last several months is really engagement with our newer workforces that are coming in.
We have implemented reach outs, touch bases with managers at times, particularly for programs that are not in a brick and mortar, but out in the community.
It can be really hard to run into your supervisor or your manager. So we're scheduling touch points. additional theера is available on.
We've started doing micro trainings online so that people have a way to kind of get a nugget of information versus an hour in the classroom.
Making sure that we are celebrating milestones, anniversaries, birthdays, doing shout outs. We just launched or not launched.
@29:25 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
We just put out our quarterly sunshine winners.
@29:29 - Becki Richwine
And that's really someone that stood up above and beyond that was making a difference in the quarter.
@29:33 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
And that's a company wide initiative.
@29:37 - Becki Richwine
And then making sure that we have different employee resource groups that are available for people to participate in. And then there's been a lot of additional cultural things that we've put in place for our employees, whether it's care.com or daily pay, different things that help them and their life outside of Meraki.
Right. So really supporting the whole person. We also do professional development and have training series and then. And. So.
also within Children's are making sure that we're working with each individual that's employed with us to kind of figure out, well, where do you want to go?
What areas do you want to learn in the majority of our executive leadership team and Children's also has a pretty robust supervision and mentoring timeframe that everyone that's a new leader and or in an executive position is getting one on one support every other week.
We have leadership insight where we'll work on doing 360 reviews and seeing where we can grow and continue to figure out where our next leaders are coming from and who's the next person to maybe even be on your podcast.
Right. Oh, very good.
@30:48 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Well, companies break in the middle. And so it sounds like those are a lot of programs that are supporting all those mid-level managers in terms of feedback loops and growth.
I think that is one of the most difficult positions to hold. One hundred percent. Right. They're taking it from the top and they're.
You're getting it from below and they're in the middle.
@31:08 - Becki Richwine
Yeah.
@31:08 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
It's the people you love to hate, yeah. It sounds like a lot of mechanisms from things that we've talked about around like debriefing and learning.
You've got a lot of debriefing mechanisms and learning mechanisms centered around data, whether it's those incident reports or the supervision reviews, things like that.
From a cultural standpoint, that seems invasive and it's got to be part of that culture that you've built in terms of how are we getting better?
What happened? Not a blame, but just to what happened. How do we do it differently?
@31:41 - Becki Richwine
How do we learn from this? How do we move forward? Yeah. There's definitely two things with all of that is, you know, a funny story for a moment.
There was a while back, we had an employee who's been here for a long time and she didn't always work in children's services.
And she used to joke around with me in regards to, I don't know what you guys are over there doing.
@32:01 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
She's like, everybody's drinking the Kool-Aid.
@32:03 - Becki Richwine
She had an opportunity about four years ago. And about twice a year, I now get a gift basket and is anything, everything that you could possibly think of Kool-Aid related.
@32:14 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
And I drink the Kool-Aid. She's like, I'm all in.
@32:18 - Becki Richwine
She's like, I love this culture. I love where you're at. And that is literally my yearly bi-annual reminder that like you might be on the outside, you might not understand it.
But once you come in, you understand. And that's the culture piece I want to just continue to have. Um, I also think what makes me a phenomenal leader isn't me.
It's the team around me. It's making sure that you mentioned earlier on as, as you grow, it makes it more and more difficult to know what's going on on the ground.
@32:49 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Yeah.
@32:50 - Becki Richwine
I don't know that we'll ever change that narrative for any company, but making sure that you have people that you entrust that can inform you of what is happening, but also making sure that it's the people around you that have knowledge as well.
@33:03 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Um, when you operate as a solo.
@33:05 - Becki Richwine
If you lose. Yeah.
@33:08 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
I think the growth and the barrier that people get stuck at is they can't make that next leap of leading through people and trusting I won't know everything.
I will get told what I need to get told. And it's my job to make clear what's important to me, what's important to the company, and trust the rest with the people that you've put in place.
@33:28 - Becki Richwine
So hard. One of the things early on was trust, right? I'm a recovering perfectionist that wanted to control it all.
@33:35 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Yes. And wouldn't it be better if we just got to do that?
@33:42 - Becki Richwine
Not going to be successful that way. No. You'll only grow so far.
@33:47 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Yeah.
@33:48 - Becki Richwine
At all.
@33:49 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Yeah.
@33:50 - Becki Richwine
But making sure that, you know, I definitely learned management by managing my energy and trust and building strong teams and delegating and being more intentional around.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
@34:11 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
The most successful leaders that I work with and know do the best at delegating and clear communication.
@34:19 - Becki Richwine
Well, and Kirsten, you and I've known each other for a while. Clear communication has not always been a strong suit of mine.
@34:25 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
But we're getting better. We're getting better. Much, much better. I expect people to understand what I'm thinking, right? I don't think that's too much to ask, quite frankly, as a leader, but I'm recovering from that as well.
But here's the thing.
@34:40 - Becki Richwine
Like, you know, you turn your advocacy into some type of strategic influence and you clearly define what you're expecting.
You take a moment to pause. You bring other people into the room.
@34:52 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
You allow them to be successful. Yeah.
@34:54 - Becki Richwine
And it doesn't always have to be the way you envisioned it. You can get from point A to point B.
@34:58 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Right there.
@34:59 - Becki Richwine
Right there.
@35:00 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
And that's the difference between a conversation and, you know, an edict. Like, a conversation is... And I may not see everything and I have to be open to the other person adding to and it changing the outcome changing.
Right. And that's the conversation piece. And that's a vulnerability piece. So, you know, me, you know, my big values here.
And certainly for the podcast, I talk a lot about vulnerability, curiosity, ownership. Which of those resonate for you? Maybe right now, which of those are big for you?
@35:34 - Becki Richwine
Honestly, I wouldn't think I would pick this. But right now, as you say that, curiosity really is a big one for me.
Where can I go next? What can I do next? Who can be the next person? Because I think the biggest thing I definitely learned was, you know, being indispensable is not the same as being effective.
So I want to figure out how to just keep, you know, understanding my limits and designing teams that can be successful and looking at what else can be done in the industry.
So
@37:05 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
And do that delegation, the more time you have for all of that possibility. Absolutely. And not to be afraid of change.
@37:13 - Becki Richwine
I think we get stuck too often in the present and even in the past of what has worked without.
lucky for me, I love change. Give me something new. Let's try something. And, you know, I'm excited to see what happens.
Yeah. Well, I'm excited about this conversation.
@37:35 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
We've had a really excellent, excellent conversation. We've gone so many different places. If you'll be curious with me for a minute, maybe a little vulnerable, I'm trying a new thing.
@37:45 - Becki Richwine
And I have a little rapid fire here and I didn't warn you about it. So just some fun questions here at the end.
Great.
@37:51 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Um, all right. On a scale of one to 10, how weird are you? It depends what area.
@38:01 - Becki Richwine
Probably a seven, maybe even an eight. depends.
@38:04 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Okay, fine.
@38:05 - Becki Richwine
Good enough.
@38:06 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
If you were a flavor of ice cream, what would you be?
@38:10 - Becki Richwine
Oh, that's a great one. I'm going to say cookies and cream. Cookies and cream.
@38:15 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
I like it. Okay. And the latest book that you've read or are reading?
@38:23 - Becki Richwine
That's a great, great question. I have not picked up a book in the last month or two. So this is the right question to put me on the spot to figure out which one should be next.
@38:34 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
I actually have a couple.
@38:35 - Becki Richwine
And I was just given a new one yesterday. I know. The Way of the Shepherd.
@38:38 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
The Way of the Shepherd.
@38:39 - Becki Richwine
So you know what? Let's make a commitment to that.
@38:42 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Okay.
@38:42 - Becki Richwine
A commitment that we'll have that read by the end of February. It wasn't that big.
@38:46 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
We can read that. Good. And what is a binge-worthy show for you?
@38:51 - Becki Richwine
Oh, geez. So typically the answer is not really anything but Stranger Things. I have been able to watch season one through five all in the last four months.
@39:03 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
So don't ruin it for me because I haven't finished.
@39:05 - Becki Richwine
I I haven't watched it.
@39:06 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
It was not my bag, baby. I never thought it was mine either.
@39:10 - Becki Richwine
Nothing have I ever I got my fill with X-Files.
@39:13 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
I'm good. Which is kind of like why I said maybe I'm a little weird, because I never would have thought I would have gotten into something like that.
Good you. Good for you. Here we are. Last one. What is your guilty pleasure that you're willing to share online?
@39:29 - Becki Richwine
Oh, probably coffee and iced tea. I drink way too much caffeine. Yeah. Okay, very good, very good.
@39:37 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
So, so many good things from today. I'm going to have so many little quotes from you, like, Indispensability does not equal effectiveness.
It doesn't, and I use those quotes to get me through each day. Yeah. You know, delegate earlier, intention, know what you want to build, don't absorb, distribute.
I could just go on and on and on. I love, though, from the company standpoint, what was your North Star, you know, what impact
What impact are we making? And how are we making a sustainable change? And you really use that as a litmus test for like, do we continue to do this work?
Or is there more important work, you know, with these two criteria somewhere else and having the courage to ask those questions.
And if the answer is no, you know, to say no, and to put your effort with your company somewhere else.
And that that's brave, that's brave leadership. So just really great to hear about your story to hear how you've turned a painful experience with your family into a program that's going to help thousands of kids.
It's just very inspiring. And how you shared it with them, that was really touching. So thank you for that.
If folks want to know more, especially about True Self or other cool programs that MaraKey is doing, how can they find out about that?
@40:56 - Becki Richwine
Absolutely. I appreciate the opportunity to be here and to speak with you. If you know me, I would not have said yes, two years ago.
@41:05 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Absolutely. I did wait two years to ask, but to learn more, please visit merike.org.
@41:11 - Becki Richwine
And also there will be a true self tag in the show notes so that you can also see that portal to be able to log on and see what resources available for your teen and or young adult.
Check me out on LinkedIn or even just reach out to me personally. I'd love to hear from you. And all of that stuff will be listed in the show notes.
So I appreciate your time. Look at you, overachiever, taking my last line.
@41:36 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
That's great. All of that will be in the show notes. Thank you so much, Becky, for being with me today and sharing your story and all of these wonderful experiences and lessons learned for leaders, because I know there's lots of people who needed to hear what you had to say today.
So thank you so much. Absolutely. Thanks for having me. Yeah. Great job.
