But it's not like a one aunt builds that entire colony, you know what I mean? Like, Yeah, it's every single one working together, more.
Better, more and better, more, a little better, more and more.
Welcome to More Better, a podcast where we stop pretending to have it all together and embrace the journey of becoming a little more better every day.
That's most of a Mara And that's Stephanie Beatrice. Yeah, here we are. We're just really doing it.
You guys, thanks for tuning in once again to the Shenanigans.
Here.
What are you doing this week? That's more better? Uh, let's see.
I'm trying to be okay with uh my snacking habits. I may or may not have had an entire king sized Twigs bar last night, very late, and I'm okay with it. It just was something that I needed to do for myself.
I love that. Yeah, it was good. I like Twigs. Hey man, They're a delight. I also did a late night snack last week. It was a bag of ship. You were gonna say I did a late night slut.
I was like, tell me.
More, No, it's a late night snack and you know what, and sure it was. And I dragged my husband into it too. He had half the snack. Now this does sound like innuendo, but yeah it does. He was like that was fun. I was like it was fun, wasn't it? Sometimes it was late night snacks are fun? Really, I'm talking about food, Yeah, sure, more better.
Anyway.
Anyway, we're talking about something really important today with someone awesome who we both adore and look up to. I would say for myself, we're talking about finding causes you care about and civic duty, which to me, I've I think I've always kind of gravitated towards like I don't know, causes are just like speaking up, but like it's also kind of sometimes you get like, well, how can I be effective at this?
And how can I do this more?
And like just doing it online doesn't feel like enough and you know what I mean. And so it's always been this sort of ever evolving kind of relationship that I think I've gotten better at.
As I get older, but I still think I could be.
Even better at.
And then you know, and civic duty that one, I mean, you know, like voting has always been a big deal for me. I voted for the first time after September eleventh, and just always felt really because that happened to be the year that I turned eighteen, and so I just I've always felt really strongly about that, and I, you know, would.
Say to.
People that I knew that, you know, decided to sit out a vote or something.
I would just be like, well, then you can't complain. If you're not going to participate, then you can't complain. Ah.
I literally just put my hands on my hips to do that. Yeah, what does it mean to you, Steph?
Was it?
What's your been in your journey with it? You know, that's such a good question.
I think I think a lot about this because the first time I heard about like, uh, when I was in Sunday School. When I was a kid, we we read like a Sunday School book that was like the Parable of the Good Samaritan. And if you don't know what that is, it's the story that Jesus tells somebody that's talking to him.
He's like, what does that mean?
Love your neighbor as yourself, right, And the story is that there's a man that's walking down the road and he gets robbed and all these different people pass by him and nobody does anything, Like a priest passes by, like multiple people pass by, and then there's like a person that stops who's I think the Samaritan is like a different religion, and he stops and he helps the
person that's robbed. And I remember that making like a really big impression in my mind as a little kid, I was like, Oh, other people love other people as yourself.
Okay, So that means I need to.
That means like, if I care about myself, then then part of caring about myself is like caring about other people because we're all doing this, sharing this world together. We're all part of this community. But I have trouble with it because I don't know how it extends to you.
Know, as a woman.
As a woman, it's not always safe for me to necessarily, you know, for example, like get out of my car and help a person that has a flat tire. Right, it might not be safe for me to do that, Ted Bundy, you know what I mean? Like, so how do I do that? How do I do that in a personal way on a personal lefts? And like how do I how do I feel like a good person
that's doing stuff for other people in our world? How can I do that on a day to day basis, and like I don't always know the answer to that, and I'm trying to get better at that all the time. Some of that does include civic duty, like voting, like that's a really big deal because it helps make the world better for people, and other things are on a small or more granular level, like you know, and I don't exactly know what those things are for me all
the time. I think a lot of people are sort of like stuck because they don't know what to do, like I said, particularly women, because we don't want as it.
Can be really overwhelming, like there's so there's so much going on, and yeah, and how.
Are you already busy? Your life is busy, Like how do you carve out time for that? And so I think that we have the perfect guest today to talk about it today with us is Elsa Collins. She is a basically a professional doer. She's a mom, a humanitarian, and she's a founder of Atistas and this is about humanity and we'll tell you a little bit more about those organizations as we get into it.
But welcome Elsa.
Hi, Elsa, Hello, Hello, Hi, how are you.
We're so happy to have you here, excited to be here.
Yeah, and I'm so excited to have you here. And I know you're super busy, and I really appreciate you making the time. But like, I feel like you're the perfect person to talk about this because I feel like you do so much. And also like you're a mom and your three kids. You have older kids and they're like in sports and big schedules, and like you're all over and like.
You get it done. You are a professional doer. It's amazing.
Give us a little bit of like background, how you kind of first started, Like how you knew this space was like where you wanted to like, you know, focus a lot of your energy and time into.
You know, I would say that my journey to kind of the space I'm in honestly started when I was young. My mom was always someone who was taking us to volunteer. We were exposed to volunteerism, like at a really early age, and so it's part of my DNA, I think. And then I think that when I started having kids, it kind of was reborn within me. You know. I've always been someone who's wanted to be in community, building community
sort of like an unofficial organizer. I think I've been an organizer since I was like twelve, like organize my friends, organize things. And now it's like so it's come into fruition as a full blown adult. But when I started having kids, it really clarified for me at least, like what is my purpose in this world? What is my purpose and my responsibility to others in my community. But it came from from having kids and feeling like I needed to really get focused on how I was going
to make this world kind of a better place. I think, you know, twenty sixteen was a really hard year for so many people, and for me it was really the catalyst for thinking about this as actually as a profession and saying, you know what I'm going to I'm going to start a consulting company where we really focus on issues that matter and think about how people are using their voice and using their platform, because you know, it was a time where I didn't know where what was
going to happen in this country, what was going to happen with my kids, as you said, like I'm raising three kids or multi racial, multi lingual, and at a time where that may not have been you know, looked at as a good thing. You know, it's like a double whammy. They're they're half Mexican and half black, and I thought, okay, I need to be as much of an advocate for them and for their existence as a whole.
And that kind of was really what motivated me to look at this as something that I would do, you know, as a career.
That was really cool.
Yeah, but I would go back. Let me go back to what you said at the beginning, Steffanie, because I want to say it before I forget it, which is sometimes you're like, I don't know what my role is in this space, and honestly that the first and easiest role is as a mother, and it's how we're raising our kids, and how we're exposing our kids to sort of obviously in an age appropriate way, but things that
matter and things that are important. And when we look at what is the biggest predictor of what makes a voter a voter, it's if their parents voted. So it starts from like us, and so I want to say that, you know, we may someone may listen to this and finish the whole versation being like, oh my god, there
was so many things. I don't know what it's like. Honestly, even if you're an auntie, you're like someone who's in the village of somebody else, or your a parent village of somebody else, or you're a parent yourself, Like you are having a very important role in creating like the next generation of change makers, upstanders, people who are going to say things, people who are going to like know what to do and know how to act. And so everybody who listens to this can start right there.
Yeah, that's huge. It's huge, and it's part of like.
That that responsibility or that I don't know, gift. It really feels like a gift to be able to vote for who you want to be in power, making laws, making choices, making changes. Not everybody gets that gift, right, And like, my parents lived in the United States for a long time before they were allowed to have that gift because they weren't US citizens. And when I became a US citizen, it was like, Okay, this is huge because I could see how much it meant to my
parents to be able to vote. You know, it was a huge, huge, huge thing the first time that they got to do it, and subsequently it's been huge for me every time since, you know, because I could see that it meant so much to them to be able to take part in something that was the vote for their representatives in the United States. And sometimes I think people can feel like they're voiceless or what they want isn't accessible, But on a really, really on a reachable level,
it really is, like on it is reachable. You can enact change in your community simply by taking the time to just a little time to get to know the candidates in your community, get to know them on a state level, get to know them on a on a on the United States level, and voting.
Yeah, and that too, Like I've I've tried to be much better at, you know, educating myself about out local candidates too, because I feel like that is really what affects like your day to day life. And it wasn't something I thought about as much as a young person. It's just always focused on like the bigger elections.
You know.
And but now I think, as you said, Elsa, like since I've become a parent, I'm more focused on and it just you know, it doesn't take long. It's just like sitting down, making a little time to just like get online and just like learn about who the local candidates are and like what they stand for, what their platform is, like read the blurb, read the thing you know, and and then it makes you know when you get that, you get to that booth and you got.
All those names, so much lessons. Yeah, we're so lucky to say that.
We're so Also, yeah, the Internet and yeah, can you give us like like I mean, for me, it's usually like you know, I'm I'm I look for Oftentimes there's websites that will break it down for you, like what candidates believe in the stuff that your values and your vision for your community aligns with, and then you can sort of see where they stand on different things, and from there you can vote as opposed to like having to sit down and sort of read a giant you know.
I mean, you know we're all very very busy. We're not I'm I am. I'm barely getting through my US Weekly every week. You know, I'm not trying to get through like a treatise of what everyone thinks about every single thing.
So I mean, I would say two things to that. I would say, first of all.
Stop reading US Weekly.
No, I would say, there are so many people who spend not even one tenth of the fraction of the time that we just talked about, we just walk in and are just like boooo, now great. The reason why I mentioned that is because I don't want people to feel like if you're not getting a PhD and poly side, that you are not allowed in that in that voting booth, you know what I mean. So like, yeah, very easy. I love ballot Pedia, like it kind of breaks it
down for you. You can look and it'll tell you put in your address and it tells you, Okay, this is what's going to be on the ballot. And even I mean I have voting like get togethers, Like even I will get together with our ballots and we'll go back and forth where we'll be like, yeah, prop whatever, and we'll be like yeah, yeah, it's yes, right, and
then we'll read it. We'll be like, well, it's actually no, and then you realize it's written to literally confuse the f out of you, and you're like why and it sounds like and then these people support it and these people are against it, and you're just like, oh my gosh. So I would say it's always a good idea to look at. You're always going to have a friend who's like way more into politics. Than you. I like looking
at their sample ballot. Now I'm not going to take that and literally just go betam, but some people do, and then I'll sort of look and I look at like ballot PD, I'll look at a couple different sources. Some of the you know, whatever party affiliation you are, they will usually put out sort of like a recommended you know, voter's guide. So I'm pulling from like three or four sources to kind of come to a compilation.
But I would say in every election, there's obviously going to be more important issues or seemingly more important issues are on the ballot. You know, obviously coming up in this election, we have women's reproductive health is on the ballot in a couple of states. Obviously it's it's a
presidential election that's coming up, which is big. But as Melissa mentioned, there's going to be smaller amendments that are on the ballot, propositions, things that are happening literally in the county that you live in that can greatly affect
your life. Your public schools, you know, how money gets distributed, how we improve you know, our highways or freeways or so, there's a lot of things that are happening at a local level that I think, to your guys's point, may affect your everyday life more than kind of what's up here. But I think, you know, knowing that you can pull from different sources. You don't have to feel like the smartest person in the world to go in and do it.
But knowing kind of where you sit and sort of your general belief system, I think is a good thing to have with you and that's really all you need. Honestly, that's so good though.
That's I never feel like the smartest person in the world when I go anywhere, so that's great. Just feel normal going into the voting with I love it.
Sometimes I get nervous.
Do you guys ever get nervous when you go in there. I'm like, oh, yeah, as my fingers on the pulse of everything right.
Now, yeah, right at that moment.
But I guess it kind of is.
I mean, maybe that's why I get nervous, because it is a very cool, big deal that we get to do that.
Well. It's interesting because Mexico just had their election and you know, they and this was the first time that people abroad could vote so at all the consulates, at all the Mexican consulates. There was like hours long lines for people who were trying to vote. I think people in Paris were waiting up to like six hours. In La the line was about three hours. But two things that really made me sort of reflect on it was a we hold our elections on a I say wee
because I'm a dual citizen. But we hold our elections on a Sunday, where it's easy for people to go vote. It's not that easy here in the United States. You know, the elections on a Tuesday. We don't know how late the you know the boot's going to be open. So you know. Part of why it's really important to vote is because sometimes there are people who try to make it harder for people to vote. Working people, people who have multiple jobs, they don't necessarily know where their election is.
Can they vote outside of their district? You know, how easy are we making it so? So that's one of the things that I really appreciated about the election yesterday was it was on a Sunday. People know how important
it is. I mean, they waited in that line, and we want to make sure that in our election coming up in November, that the same thing has happened, that people really take advantage of what is such a privilege to do in this democratic society, and to not have anybody make them feel like they're not worth it, They're not worthy and they don't deserve the access, and that they they were able to do it in a safe in a safe way.
Yeah, it's so important. We didn't talk about how we all met. Oh yeah, I don't remember.
I do.
I don't remember either. I just feel like else has always been around.
Of course Elson knows, Elson knows how we met.
Yeah, okay, so let's go. So in twenty twenty, we and I say we, me and eight other Latinas started bold Adistas, which is a nonpartisan community that focuses on Latina civic engagement. Now in its origin, in our minds, this was going to be like in person, we were going to be hitting the road from the beginning. But obviously, you know, difficult year COVID happens. So we've got to pivot.
We've got to make this community digital first, and so we organized a zoom call with a lot of our sort of like Latina friends, and I was sort of the as I said, I've been an organizer, like basically from the womb. So I organize this call, get all these Latinas being like, Hey, this is why we need to show up. We need to use our voices, we need to use our platforms, and we kind of motivated all of y'all and thank y'all for coming on to get involved and get engaged. And then basically out of
there the friendship of a lifetime flourished. And you guys, and now I'm just like, do you want to do this? Do you want to help me here? And you guys are so lovely. You've both come to the border with me, You've both done stuff around elections. So that's kind of
how how it happened. But I think that the important thing to know is even though all the things that we do are serious and important, that getting engaged and being involved is fun and it's great to be around other people who want to be in community and want to be doing things. And I think that's one of the things that I would love to see like more of just in general, as people really reconnecting with each other. You can be doing good and having a great time.
You can be hanging out with your friends and going to vote. Like I said, even I have like voting parties, like so we I I think that's one of the things that I would love for people to walk away from, is like you don't have to do this alone. You know, you don't have to be like the lone person out there trying to make a difference. There are so many people out there who are every day trying to organize and just looking for people to get involved.
That is such a great point.
I also want to ask you everybody's busy, right, and like we all like we work full time, we have kids, how do you choose your causes?
Like sometimes it just feels like there's so.
Much, you know, like I care, good question, you know, like I care about women's health, and I care about social justice, and I care about the environment, and I care about you know, and it's and but like it's impossible to like give time and attention to all those things. So like how do you go about choosing causes? Like how do you decide what to give your time and energy to?
Does that make sense?
Yeah?
That makes so much sense, I think. I mean I would just go back to why is present in your life? You know, what are things that either you have gone through, family members have been through, what are things that are that are speaking to you as as a human being that feel easy to get behind or like a natural connection because as you said, you know, of course we all care about everything, right, we want this planet to
be better. We care about climate change, we care about the oceans, we care about you know, asylum seekers, we care about people who are food and secure. Like, we care about all of these things, and so I think, but sometimes when you look at the landscape, once we've listed out every single thing there is to care about, you're like, well, I've frozen myself into paralysis and I
can do nothing because how can we even start? Like holy moly, Yeah, I'm like, the good news is no one is expecting you to do it, all right, We're only and I see we in terms of people who are like in this work, we want things that feel either like there's an easy entry point and and it makes sense because it's convenient because the community service opportunity is on the day you're free, Like, it can be that, but it can also be you know, something like, for example,
what this is about humanity. You know, I'm from the border. I grew up on the border. This is an issue that I feel very connected to and so it's easy for me to show up, and it's easy for the organization to provide opportunities to others who may or may not have any connection to the border or any connection to asylum seekers or refugees. But guess what, you know, we have like a pride of us coming up and
that's around you know, LGBTQ asylum seekers. So if someone is really passionate about the LGBTQ community, there's an entry point there, you know. Or a lot of the asylum seekers that we're seeing coming through have had to come because of climate change and because of the lessening of opportunities that they have in their own home country, And so if you care about climate like, there's an entry point for you. So I think there's there's a lot
of ways to find connection to causes. But for someone who maybe like you've never really gotten behind anything, or you've never had the time, or you're just sort of starting out in this, maybe you just had kids and you're like, I want to be finding a way to be more engaged with the kids. I always say, you know, look around your local community to like what is happening. And that's why like local journalism is so important because this is where we read about stuff that's happening, you know,
in our neighborhood. We learn about what kinds of decisions are being made about, you know, schools and parks and access to different services and things like that. So I think, not feeling like we all have to be superheroes and attack, you know, tackle everything, but just starting with something that's like really you know, feels close to your heart, I think is great.
Yeah, that's such a good tip, Like just start small.
Better.
How do you elsa avoid like just getting burnt out to burn out?
So I always know in the morning, I'm going to get my workout in, I'm going to do that, I'm going to have my coffee like I'm going to do my routine. That really sets me up, sets me up for success. So even when I do a trip to the border, like I'm getting my work out in, I get my things because that way I can be a more effective giver. That's the first thing. So I try to unsubscribe to mom guilt and do the things that make me truly happy, and that way I can be
a better, you know, better service to others. Second thing is I stopped trying to make sure everything I was doing was at one hundred percent because it was just impossible. So I feel like I'm kind of doing everything around like forty percent, but it feels good enough, and nobody seems to be really clocking that it's that. It's that, but but I think.
That's I remember you saying, like, yeah, I just wanted to I wanted to make sure that I showed up to like an event. You were like, I wanted to make sure I showed up. I can only stay for this amount of time, but I wanted to make sure I showed up and say a hi to the organizers and say I appreciate being here and I appreciate this is happening. And then you bounced, and I was like, that's genius, because I don't have to stay for the whole thing
if I can't hack it. Sometimes I cannot hack showing up, but like sometimes I can just hack showing up, like I could shack up and.
Say thank you and yeah, just show up, show up.
That's actually one of my that is one of my life hacks, like just show up.
Yeah, And sometimes we don't show up at all because we think we have to like give the whole thing give the one hundred percent and like that is such brilliant permission to just like no, it's the showing up.
That's important, and that goes really far. That goes really far, especially in the like organizing space, you know, with grassroots organizations, with you know, nonprofits, with charities. It's like, you know, we don't we don't want to disqualify ourselves before we even gave a little. And I think we do do that a lot. We're like, well it said seven to ten, so I can't you know, yeah, right, And these organizations would love even just like a little just one half
of half an hour, half a day, you know. And they I think they've they've really tried to when you look at like, for example, people who canvas right, canvas is when you go and you knock on doors for either like an issue or a candidate or whatnot. They've got it down to like, hey, just give us like a shift. It's just an hour, knock on twenty doors, call or text twenty numbers. You know. There's so many and that's the other like not everything has to be
in person. There are so many things that have moved to the internets, as I like to call it, because of the world we like today where you can be you know, vote Writers is a great org where you can call or text people to let them know what ID they need in whatever state they live in to be equipped to show up and vote and so and that can happen digitally. You can be logging on from
your computer. And so I think that there is there are so many opportunities that don't actually require your physical presence. That's also a version of showing up. And so I think that like mom guilt is not just for moms. Maybe we have like human guilt. And so I think people sometimes feel like, well, if it isn't good enough, you know, maybe I'm not the right person to do this, or I can't really get involved, but like you're the
only person judging it. So like cut yourself in black and just show up a little bit, and you can be making a difference in so many ways.
That's really cool.
Yeah, it's not like I mean to use a terrible metaphor similarly, don't know, but it's not like a one ant builds that entire colony, you know what I mean, Like, yeah, it's every single one working together to build all those tunnels, to build that huge. You know, I'm thinking about the fire ant pile in my front yard right now. That's what's Oh God, gotta get.
Rid of them scary.
I love I love that you talked about online activism because I do think a lot of people want to do things and it feels like that isn't Like you said, it's an easy entry point, especially for young people that like, for the youth that spend a lot of their time online. Do you feel like in general online activism works. I would say that you you do, right.
I do. I think that there's well, I mean, think about young people. Where are young people finding young people? And honestly, it's online, you know. I think that, Like I look at them and I think, guess what, people like you guys. You're amazing because you can amplify a certain type of situation and help more people find things out.
But when you look at actual influence, the person who's on that group chat of seventeen people who's like their friend groups, not alpha, but just the person who makes suggestions or is encouraging or whatever. That's the person. So I'm hoping that person sees you and thinks, Okay, I'm going to influence my circle of friends that we're all going to go both this year. Like that individual person, this individual person listening right now has all the power.
More better.
Oh, Elsa, We're so glad you were here with us. Wait.
I came away from this realizing that I have a lot of power of my group chats.
Yes, that's such a big one. Why did you take away?
My takeaway is, oh my god, unsubscribed for mom Guild is going to be my new catchphrase in general in life, especially with this topic and also just the like showing up at whatever percent, it doesn't have to be one hundred percent that those two are really who hit me right where I needed it.
Do you feel more better? Stuff?
Yeah? I feel I feel more better. I started this by talking about how can I get Samaritan? And I realize, like I can do stuff without getting out of the getting out of the car, you know, I can. I mean sometimes I do need to get out of the car. That's the other thing, like sometimes I can get out of the car and help. But being able to know that I'm not failing. I'm just doing it in different ways.
I'm doing it in the ways that I can with my limited time and access to you know, an open schedule, completely open schedule where I can do this every day. It's like and also I kind of learned that, like, ah, maybe I want to do like more stuff around I mean I used to do a lot of like, uh stuff around dog.
Adoption, particularly like a year.
I remember it's really close to my heart and like that that's something that I could incorporate in this Yeah, back to it's it doesn't have anything to do with like voting or anything, but it's Oh, but it's to my heart that I care about. Mel Do you feel a little more better?
I feel way more better. And I feel like I'm doing I feel like you're amped up right now.
I am.
My energy went up through this conversation.
And I'm doing a fun event with Elsa this Saturday in Arizona for abortion rights and women reproductive health. And I am very excited now also because I get to spend the day with Elsa.
It's gonna be We're gonna have a great time. And I think again, look look around your community. Don't be afraid to like be the one to make a suggestion to your group, chat, your group of friends. Yeah, you're gonna feel more better if you if you show up even a little bit.
Yeah, classy, classy, way to drop the title of the pod right there at the end.
First of all, just spending this time with you has been, has been, has made me feel more better. Whenever I'm with you, guys, I feel more better And I hope that's how everybody feels when they hear your podcast.
Oh, thanks for soon us too, Thanks for stopping by, Thanks for coming on the pod, Thanks for being here everyone.
We love you all. We love you pod people.
Okay, bye bye bye Better Dude, you have something you'd like to be more better at that you want us to talk about in a future episode.
Can you relate to our struggles or have you tried one of our tips and tricks?
Shoot us your thoughts and ideas. Morebetter pod at gmail dot com.
And include a voice note if you want to be featured on the pod. Ooh, More Better with Stephanie Melissa is a production from Wvsound and iHeartMedia's Mikultura podcast network, hosted by Me, Stephanie Viatriz and Melissa Fumero.
More Better is produced.
By Isis Madrid, Leo Clem and Sophie Spencer Zebos. Our executive producers are Wilmer Valderrama and Leo Clem at wvsound. This episode was edited by Isis Madrid and engineered by Sean Tracy and features original music by Madison Davenport and Heylo boy Our.
Cover art is by vincent Remy's and photography by David Avalos. For more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever.
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