Who inspires me to start Humanist Learning Systems?

I sometimes joke that I fell into my business backwards – screaming – NOOOO!!!!   But I’m glad I did.


I have an online learning company – do personal and professional training in humanistic management and behavior based approaches to things like harassment.  I also do groups and just got my first government contract. In the past few months, I’ve spoken to groups in India and been invited to speak at several conferences.

Who inspires me? This is going to seem odd – but Eleanor Roosevelt. Specifically her book – You Learn by Living. Her philosophy is humanistic and her book covers a wide array of topics, family, business, relationships. All business is relationships. And you do have to balance family and work.

Her approach, to be genuinely interested in the people you are working with and meeting, I love. It helps me get through everything.  And it also helps to remind myself that what I want to do can be done and I don’t have to sacrifice my values or my essential nature to do it.  Very inspiring.

I decided to start my business because I have knowledge to share that people need to know. Young people are committing suicide! If you know how to get unwanted behavior – like bullying to stop – then you have a moral obligation to share that. The challenge is – you can’t share it if you can’t feed and house yourself. I finally figured out how to a) make money while b) making sure that my content is free to parents and kids.  That was my big aha moment!  I want to teach parents what they need to know to help their kids. Where are the parents? In the workplace, being subjected to sexual harassment training that doesn’t really tell them anything useful.  If I can use that training to teach them how to actually stop bullying and harassment, I’m not only improving the workplace, I’m helping parents learn what they need to teach their kids! 

I resisted this for a bit though, as my passion is the promotion of philosophic humanism. But a member of the humanist community told me that teaching people how to stop bullying was the teaching of humanism.  Humanists use science and compassion to change the world and that is what I was doing. That was and is my approach to stopping bullies. That is when I came to terms with what my customers were asking for. 

But what really pushed me over the edge was a female friend. A woman I met in a women’s entrepreneur networking group. Terri Kelly ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/terrikelly/). She suggested I reach out to HR professionals to teach them about the science based approach to stopping bullying and harassment in the workplace. It was that little seed that helped me come up with a business plan that I REALLY like implementing and feel good about implementing.

Has it been a tough road? Yes. Businesses always seem to grow slower than you want them to and need them to. I bootstrapped myself. And during the middle of startup, my husband lost his job. I considered giving up on the business and getting a “real” job, but my husband wouldn’t let me. He told me that what I was doing was too important to stop.  If he hadn’t believed not only in me, but in the changes I hope to create in the world – I would have given up. 

Being on a mission to use business to change the world helps get through the tough times. My work isn’t simply a job and it’s not simply a way to make money.  I really am on a mission to create positive social change through humanistic science based education.  It is the mission that keeps me going when the going gets tough. It’s the mission that led my husband and family to support me to the point they won’t let me quit when I think about quitting.

Is what I teach really that important? Take a course and find out for yourself: https://humanistlearning.com/

1 comment:

  1. I love the thought of humanistic science based education. It's definitely something I aspire to share with others. Thank you for writing this and sharing your experiences and thoughts with others.

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