Belong

Kevin Micalizzi: [00:00:00] I'm Kevin, and I'd like to welcome you to Belong. Belong will bring you conversations that look at belonging and its impact on business, community, and life. Friends and family are probably nodding their heads saying, makes sense, Kev. If you don't know me, you're probably asking why.

When it comes to work and life, I'm here for the people. I love helping bring people together. It took me far longer than it should have to see how all the chapters of my life were leading up to this. It actually took a friend bopping me on the head to remind me I'd lost my focus. So looking back in college, I was drawn to a degree that let me study communications, specifically interpersonal communication.

In my early career, I landed on the technical side, And pretty quickly realized that I wasn't wired to spend my day [00:01:00] just me and the computer without interaction with people. So I moved into management. It was a fun challenge, but still not enough.. So I moved into marketing, served in many different roles and realized the things that I enjoyed the most All had to do with a better understanding customers and engaging with them. And then recently I had the opportunity to take some time off. Looking back, I could have spent that time traveling, catching up on my reading list, or even binge watching shows.

Instead, I spent even more of my time bringing people together in my local community and for some non profits. So what I've come to realize is: Belonging is essential, in all areas of life, whether you're an organization trying to connect better with customers and prospects, whether you're neighbors just coming [00:02:00] together to try and make your community safer and better, or a random group of people who've come together around a shared interest or a shared identity, people want to belong to something. So in the coming weeks, we'll explore belonging, how it's cultivated, the impact it has on business, community, and life.

You'll get a chance to meet some of the incredible people I've had the pleasure of working with, and some whose work I've just been following for a really long time. We'll dig into what's working for them, the challenges they've faced, and the innovative ways they've approached their work. So thank you for coming on this journey with me.

Together, let's find new perspectives we can apply to increase that feeling of belonging in our own lives. Thank you.