Our guest this week is Mark Redmond. Mark is the Executive Director of Spectrum Youth and Family Services in Vermont and author of Called: a memoir. He is a leader in the nonprofit world who has used conscious leadership and his roots in business to help serve others. Mark has worked with homeless youth for over 40 years and has helped create and sustain an environment that welcomes and serves troubled teens and their families with love, compassion, and understanding. He talks with me about pivoting from the business world to a non-profit and a few of the more serious and challenging moments he’s had over the years and he shares inspiring stories from his recent memoir. Mark also talks about moving past depression, how dreams have helped him make big life decisions, and how we can all learn to treat others with more consideration, acceptance, and understanding.
In this episode, you will learn about:
- What Spectrum Youth and Family Services does, and their important role in the community for children and young adults of all economic levels.
- Times Mark faced challenges as a leader, and how he picked himself up and helped move his organizations forward.
- Great leaders show up in their full potential wherever they are and aren’t attached to a personal outcome or specific need.
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Timestamps:
[2:08] Mark talks about his first job in the nonprofit world, and a traumatic incident where an innocent team member of his was tragically shot and killed by an off-duty police officer over a parking dispute. The reaction of his staff to his handling of the incident is what really showed him that being a leader, and being seen as a leader, means being out there with your people, especially during the difficult times.
[6:46] To Mark, a leader is present and upfront, and not hiding when a controversy hits. Especially in the current climate, leaders have to make big decisions and take a stand on societal issues.
[7:50] Mark was a business major in college and got a great job on Madison Ave, but felt something was missing. He started volunteering at a shelter and knew that his authentic path was to serve homeless and at-risk youth.
[13:47] Pay attention to your dreams, you can gather strong insight from them.
[18:50] Spectrum helps at-risk teenagers from everything including drug and alcohol addiction, victims of sex trafficking, mental distress, runaways, etc. Whether it’s shelter or learning the skills to have and keep a job, they try to set them up for long-term success.
[21:57] Mark discusses the lessons he’s learned along the way about needing to make tough cuts. He’s had to lay off staff, knowing that it was painful in the short term but better in the long run for the organization as a whole. He also changed the culture to include more trust within the business community and spent nights on ride-alongs with the police so both parties could better understand what the other one did.
[29:31] Spectrum serves the at-risk youths as a family, and they send their mental health counselors for training in EMDR and other therapeutic modalities.
[33:50] Writing, painting, and exercise can be three tools that help with depression, along with other necessary and professionally diagnosed and administered treatments.
[36:47] At Spectrum, Mark makes sure his staff have ample mental health time, and they are on the honor system for sick days.
[40:41] Mark wrote an article about philanthropy that got picked up by Forbes magazine, which led him to try to contact Warren and Doris Buffet for a donation to Spectrum. He took a chance, and why not? The worst thing that can happen is that people ignore you or say no, and then you can ask again. His perseverance ended up netting a large donation to his organization.
[47:38] You can both be laser-focused in business and also not attached to a specific outcome. This is not passivity, and you actually end up taking more action when it’s a want and not a need.
[49:44] No matter what you are doing, put your whole heart in it.
[53:58] As a leader that needs to speak out on social issues, join with others; you don’t have to be a lone hero.
