Episode 44: Open to Learning

Oct 31

Written By Rachael Wade

An interview with Rachel Garcia

Rachel shares her in-process story of being open to learning & unlearning

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The Seeds

Name: Rachel Garcia

Where do you call home: Dallas, Texas

Relationship Status: Single

Season of Work: Director, Talent Development and Host, Disrupt the Defaults podcast

Hobbies: Yoga, Writing, Reading

Jesus Journey: My grandparents took me to church with them as a preschooler. After constantly asking my mom why she never came with us, she finally decided to come back to the church and raised me going to church on a weekly basis.

The Branches

Rachel, you’re 33 years old and grew up in Arkansas. What has the journey been like to get to know YOU?

Whew! A commitment. I’ve been a curious person and always loved learning. I hated traditional school environments, so becoming an adult and learning in new environments has been a beautiful experience!

I remember taking a class in college on aging and death. We were required to volunteer at a nursing home and we read lots of studies done with people on health and end- of-life care. I learned that at the end of life, people usually regret not spending enough time with people they love and not following their dreams so I committed to prioritize both. Honoring that commitment has required me to dig into who I am by attending retreats, spending time reflecting and journaling, and being honest about the good and bad qualities I have.

We met at a place called Camp Well in the mountains of Colorado a few years back. What pointed you to Camp Well? What other tools have helped discover/unpack/repack your personhood, values, and worth?

I stumbled across Camp Well via social media and read a story on their blog written by the photographer at the time - Melissa Zaldivar. She said it was a special place because they always left a seat for her at the table and as a photographer, it is a rare experience to be included as a participant in the event you’re photographing. After reading that story I knew it was a place I wanted to be.

In my early twenties two books/essays - Life Entrepreneur and How Will You Measure Your Worth were huge in shaping who I am today. A community called We Are Full has played a huge role in giving me space to explore who I am and what I’m called to do. I’ve attended retreats with them domestically and internationally. Therapy is amazing and so is mentorship! I also think leaning into my friendships has been incredibly helpful. Having honest, deep conversations with people you love leaves so much room to learn about yourself and others. And it is great to hear yourself reflected to you through the eyes of those closest.

Learning often requires help not just from the various tools and modalities, but others. Who has made an impact on your faith, career, and personal life?

So many people! My grandpa was the person who first modeled strong faith for me and he has always been my biggest fan. My very first mentor was a woman from my hometown whom my mom asked to mentor me - Ebony Wyatt. She taught me so much about living a life of service, growing professionally, balancing thriving friendships, and having a healthy personal life. Since then I’ve met so many others who have been kind and generous enough to share with me. Over the last few years, I’ve been meeting with women leaders in different industries to learn how they balance fun, healthy personal lives with leadership roles in their careers. When I want to learn something I Google or reach out and ask someone for help. If I only depended on myself I wouldn’t get far because my own experience is so limited compared to learning from a variety of people.

What encouragement would you offer to those who struggle to ask for help?

On my vision board this year I have an image (from Luvvie’s IG) that says “Let my helpers find me. Let me be able to receive their help.” This has been a journey for me and I am still learning. One thing that helped me was taking a step back to view help from a holistic perspective. If I don’t allow people to help me, what kind of people am I surrounding myself with? People who care about and love you will never be comfortable only taking from you and never giving anything back in return. Blocking help is blocking healthy relationships. Changing my perspective helped me see that being a great giver AND receiver would be crucial to leading the life I want and having the healthy friendships and relationships I desire.

When I wanted to start my podcast, Disrupt the Defaults, I called a friend who had a podcast before. I’d been stuck Googling how-to videos and articles for months. I needed to have a conversation with a real person and after 30 minutes I had exactly what I needed to move forward on my dream. Asking for help saves so much time and energy and allows you to deepen relationships with those you love! It’s a win-win.

Rachel, you are a Beloved Daughter of the Most High King. Do you believe that? What does walking in that truth look like?

I do feel deeply loved by God. Part of my work on values and self-worth has been holding firm to the truth of WHO created me and HOW I was created. Once you know and believe the truth about your creation it makes it harder to be unkind to yourself in words or actions.

Here at Olive Us, we practice “recounting to remember God’s goodness & faithfulness. ” How do you do this in your personal life? How do you help yourself remember you’re a Beloved Daughter of the Most High King?

My grandpa always said, “Always remember who you are and whose you are.” As a 30-something woman, I’m finally starting to feel the truth of that statement. It allows me to fully own my yeses and my nos! It helps me make decisions.

Your values are a framework for decision-making in every area of your life. When I’m stuck I go back to my values and reflect on my past. Reminding yourself of God’s faithfulness and seeing where your values intersect is a powerful tool. I write these things down in a journal so I don’t forget.

As a talent development specialist, how do you help others unpack their passions, giftings, purpose, and strength?

We were all created with such beauty and care - it would be sad to not own that and fully lean into the truth of who we are. A tool I like to use professionally is the strength assessment by Gallup. It gives you your top 5 strengths and is a great starting point for having language around what you’re good at.

When people are overwhelmed or unsure of something it is usually helpful to take things up a level to get a new perspective. My job is to help others see the bigger picture of who they are and what their goals are and start to connect the dots.

Without sharing names, can you think of a time when you’ve helped someone at work see their value & worth and they went on to flourish?

At one job I worked with a new manager who was having issues connecting with their team. We met weekly for a few months and seeing their confidence in their leadership ability grow was such a joy to watch!

I’m a firm believer that people often have the answers they seek. I’m not here to fix problems for people or give them all the answers - my job is to ask questions, reflect on what I hear back to them, and help them connect the dots of the situation.

That’s why I love the work I do so much! You get to walk alongside people on their journey which is my favorite way to help others.

As a mixed-race Black and Japanese woman, I spent so many years assimilating and hiding behind the dominant culture. Can you relate in any way to this sentiment or struggle as a Black Woman?

I grew up in the South in the 90s so it was a “white is right mentality.” I experienced and witnessed racism and I didn’t have the tools to unpack and explore what that meant until much later in life. Going away to college was one of the best decisions I ever made! I was exposed to so many different people, cultures, beliefs, etc.

As an adult, I learned that there’s so much history I wasn’t taught in school. Exposing kids to the full truth of history is so important. As I’ve researched on my own it’s made me even prouder to own my identity. There’s so much beauty and joy to own and I’m thankful to be who I am now more than ever.

Why is a posture open to continued learning and unlearning important for ‘olive us?’

Growth is a key tool in unlocking passion, purpose, and strength. This means discomfort is a necessary tool if you want to walk in the fullness of who you are.

Most of the learning we will do as adults is unlearning. As kids, we are raised to have certain beliefs and values and as an adult, it is our job to examine if what we were taught aligns with who we are. Once you get curious you’ll learn to let go of some things and pick some new learnings up along the way.

We all have such limited perspectives based on our small view of the world, but there are billions of people alive today. Go learn from them!! Once you start piecing together hundreds or even thousands of experiences and perspectives you start to get a clearer picture of who you are as well. We need each other.

Learning and unlearning (personally, professionally, spiritually, physically, etc) is good and hard. Talk to the Olive Us sister who is learning new things about herself and her faith and feels anxious, tired, or disillusioned.

It is so HARD some days. I’m still learning to embrace the discomfort that comes with challenging thoughts and beliefs that you’ve held dear. One thing that helped me was reading/learning about the path taken by people I look up to or admire. We often focus on the outcome of stories, but the beauty is in the path it takes to get there. The “How I Built This” podcast shares stories of entrepreneurs who built successful businesses. During a hard month that’s the only thing I listened to in my car the entire month. It gave me so many examples of people making it through the impossible.

I’ve adopted a “one more time” mentality. If I’m overwhelmed I may not be able to have the strength for a full week, but I promise myself to get up and try one more time. It forces you to be present and worry about today (or even just this minute or hour). If I keep getting up one more time eventually it becomes many more times and I realize I can make it through.

Leaning into learning with others and being open with them about how you feel is incredibly healing. This requires vulnerability by putting yourself out there. Having people you can trust to fully see you and support you is important. If you don’t have those people pray for them, seek them out, and try new things. For example, stay and talk to the person you always see in your yoga class, attend that networking event you saw posted on Instagram, or volunteer for a cause you’re committed to - the possibilities are endless.

We all need people in our life we can give an honest answer to when they ask “How are you doing?”

Olive Us was created for women to share their in-process stories and be reminded they’re connected through Christ and not alone. Why is this important?

Life is beautiful and messy and hard. That’s all too much for any of us to manage on our own.

We all want to feel seen and accepted. Sometimes all it takes is hearing someone else share their story to know you are not alone. I’ve benefited from the courage of so many women before me who shared their stories. Our stories are all connected in one way or another. Seeing and embracing those connections is what makes life beautiful.