Marketing Yourself, Career Changes, and the Entrepreneurial Mindset with Renee Murphy

Welcome back to Environmental Professionals Radio, Connecting the Environmental Professionals Community Through Conversation, with your hosts Laura Thorne and Nic Frederick!

On today’s episode, we talk with Renee Murphy, Sales Director and Environmental Scientist for Intrinsyx Environmental about Marketing Yourself, Career Changes, and the Entrepreneurial Mindset.   Read her full bio below.

Help us continue to create great content! If you’d like to sponsor a future episode hit the support podcast button or visit www.environmentalprofessionalsradio.com/sponsor-form 

Showtimes: 
2:46 Nic & Laura discuss yoga benefits
8:51 Interview starts
9:05 Career Changes
18:50 Marketing yourself
28:40 Entrepreneurial mindset
42:09 Field Notes

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This podcast is produced by the National Association of Environmental Professions (NAEP). Check out all the NAEP has to offer at NAEP.org.

Connect with Renee Murphy at https://www.linkedin.com/in/reneepmurphy/

Guest Bio:

Formerly a business owner in the fashion industry, Renee made a conscious decision to redirect her career towards advocating for positive environmental change. Following her passion for sustainable gardening, Renee earned a master’s degree in plant science/agriculture from Cal Poly Pomona and combined that with a bachelor’s in entrepreneur business from the University of Southern California, setting off to work in the native nursery and restoration business.  As sales director of a prominent San Diego native plant nursery, Renee observed the need for native plant education to her community. She began presenting and teaching courses independently, through community nurseries and with the California Native Plant Society. In addition, she began an ongoing restoration research with and indigenous tribal land establishing native trees on exposed playa at the Salton Sea.

Renee’s journey took a captivating turn when her research was noticed by an environmentally focused biotech company in the Bay Area. Her dedication to making a larger impact cleaning up contaminated sites using nature-based solutions and sustainable practices within the remediation industry as an environmental scientist. Renee has served as a project manager on sites implementing innovative nature-based sustainable solutions for contaminated, fire and salt impacted sites, utilizing cutting-edge endophyte-assisted phytotechnology.

In her current role as Sales Director of Intrinsyx Environmental, Renee’s journey bridges her diverse background with the mission of building an innovative biotech phytoremediation company using nature to heal our environment. Renee has delivered impactful presentations to esteemed audiences, including NASA Ames Green Team, Sustainable Silicon Valley, Alaska Forum for the Environment, National Brownfields Training Conference, and an international keynote at NICOLA.org 2022 Resiliency, Nature & Climate Solutions in South Africa.

Renee continues to teach propagation and native plant workshops online and throughout the state of California inspiring people to change their environment starting in their own backyard.  Join Renee on her mission to inspire people to change their environment for the better

Transcript

Laura  
Hello and welcome to EPR with your favorite unbreakable nerds Nick and Laura. On today's episode, Nick and I discussed the benefits of yoga. We talked to Renee Murphy about marketing yourself career changes in the entrepreneurial mindset. And finally, here's some fun facts about potatoes. They were the first food ever grown in space, the largest one ever weighed as much as a small dog and in the 1800s people traded potatoes for gold, like the last wild.

Nic  
You're gonna save up I'm gonna go to the store right now. Could you imagine Yeah. Potatoes how much gold is this worth?

Speaker 1  
The Pennsylvania Association of environmental professionals is offering their next webinar on achieving a sustainable future to get the future of district energy for achieving carbon reduction goals on Tuesday, March 12 at 12 noon Eastern time, register today@www.hp.org.

Laura  
Also EPR will be hosting its second ama asked me anything on March 27. Save the date for 6pm we will be making announcements pretty soon online. So stay tuned. This will be focused on academia and student advice. So if you are in school or no students in school, please get ready to share it. All right, it is now time for the 32nd Funny sponsors bought with Nick. Are you ready? No, not

Nic  
even but let's just we'll see what happens.

Laura  
It's better if you're not ready, so go to God. Yeah.

Nic  
Okay. Laura, you know you we all like orange juice. Right? We all love it. But like, how do we take it to the next level? Right? And the best way I can think of to do that is just in the space first and then drinking. That's right space. Introducing space juice. You can take any juicy one orange, apple pineapple, whatever it is. We're sending into space and then bringing it right to you. trillion dollars. Absolutely. But don't worry, it'll be worth it because they know it's in space and that changes the flavor. Make it pure and better for all space Jews. Install resumes.

Laura  
My favorite for that one? Is the actual link space to Yeah.

All right, well, if you would like to have your company spotlight here instead of next funniness, please go to environmental professionals radio.com and submit sponsor form.

Nic  
I totally agree.

Laura  
Let's get to our segment. Yeah.

Nic  
Ever done yoga? Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah. You know, no big deal. Like, you know, Minister yoga or anything, but yeah, it's actually something that it's funny. I ended up doing it when I were like, whenever I like my mind is very active, right. And it's like, hard for me to get to sleep. It's very weird to describe this, but I learned how to do yoga in college, from a guy who just lived in Blacksburg, Virginia and didn't go to school or anything. You It's where I first got exposed to Indian food and and to that same place. And both changed my life in ways in different ways. But like, ever eating Indian food for the first time being like, Wait, food can taste like this, and it just genuinely blew my mind. But he also ran like a small yoga clinic as well and taught me you know, some basic stretches. But I still do like now like years later, whenever I'm like wide awake and it's like you know two or three in the morning I'm like, Okay, if I do this routine, I will be asleep every single time without fail. It works. Well, I mean, it's all basic stuff. And you know, like most of it's pretty standard, like, Cobra or whatever the names are. I don't know the names of any of these executives. You know, I've done I think it's funny like a of the warrior poses. They're hilarious to me like a love warrior. Three is like, like, ah so yeah, but that's kind of my experience with it. I've never really done some classes and I haven't really gotten into that. But for me personally, like it's helpful when I'm, my brain won't stop. And that's that's kind of how I use it. So what about you?

Laura  
Oh, I've been doing yoga for a long time. My first entry into it was a long time ago when there were a lot of classes and things you can go to. My grandmother had passed away and I was basically like, Chair caregiving, but I was coming over my grandpa's new apartment and like doing the laundry and stuff like that, but his laundry was in a room at the bottom of this condo association. And there were just books there. So I picked up this book from the 70s. The pictures were black and white. And it was this woman in a leotard and it was like, post number one whatever. And I took it home and I started doing it. I don't know what for what reason I did but I think I was like 18 years old or something. Oh, funny. And yeah, and then over the years I've taken tons of classes. You know, a good instructor makes all the difference. It keeps you go to a class and instructor. I've had instructors that made me nervous constructors that just like talk too much with the right tone and the rate, you know, pace and all that was great. And then I really hadn't done a lot of classes and things recently but or for a long time. But recently like my my sister in law invited me to want to Florida and in a few years I had back problems and then I would try to fix it with yoga and I think any kind of activity made it worse. And then I just stopped doing everything and it got better. So now I'm like okay, let me go back to exercising and doing but I went to this class and like, there was a lot of, quote unquote air quotes hip work, and oh my god, I felt so good. I'm like, This is what I need. Like I need the hip work. So I've been trying to focus on that a lot lately. And now every time I come down to the keys and stay with Tiffany to Wong has been on the show before we go to this aerial yoga class and the instructor is amazing. Her house is on the water or the beach behind her house and like and then where I say in Hawaii, our Airbnb host is an aerial instructor to so like there's two different so I've been leveling up and moving aerial yoga. This morning. That's why I was asking. Yeah, because this isn't the first time like I've done it before and I wasn't strong enough, but since I've been exercising I was like, Yeah, I'm ready this time.

Nic  
It's funny because I always think like, you know, one of my friends is a yoga instructor. And she always jokes like, people think it's easy, or this simple and it's not working out. And she's like, just give me give me a session. I'll wear you out. It's like no matter what, no matter what your experience level is. Yeah, especially if you don't think it has any value. You know, and I think a lot of athletes have completely changed the way they they see it and I've seen that change over time for sure. You know, sometimes being strong isn't really the most important thing you need to be flexible. Because having you're having those joints move and move well is much more important to protect preventing injury than than just having a lot of muscles. They're both important. Yeah, I think that value has changed quite a bit.

Laura  
I had one instructor I loved her she would do like each class would focus on a different you know, your arms, your legs, but she did like when she did core we did this one class. She just wanted to try it because she went to like a thing and learned it and it was all just twist. Twist and then we move into my abs hurts. So that was next day. Like it was a crazy workout and all you were doing was sitting twisting Yeah. It was more it was crazy. was

Nic  
like it's funny, like, you know, there's a lot of things that people don't think about right, like so I've had like a foot issues. You know, for a long time I've had like it just my right foot just kind of has it just likes to hurt me. But whenever you have a foot problem it really like manifests in other things. You have your knees hurt or your hips hurt sometimes it's actually your complete analysis causing the issue. And so if you're walking differently, really but like your lower back, like almost all of your lower back problems are hips. So if you stretch your hips, you are going to help your lower back and it's one of those things that most people don't get into like yeah, why would I switch stretch my hips for my for my back? muscles connect right there. So you know even this

Laura  
morning I went I went jogging. Have you been I've even go came to jogging. My back was feeling a little tight, but after the Yoga I feel great. Yeah,

Nic  
yeah. And that's actually something that helped me because I've always had like a lower back issue. So every time just stretching out those hips helps immensely. So yeah, I'd say it's a really beneficial thing. It's really good. I'm glad I'm glad I look at both doing and how about that.

Laura  
All right, awesome. Well, let's get to our interview.

Nic  
All right, sounds good. Hello, welcome back to EPR today we have Renee Murphy, the sales director and environmental scientists for intrinsics environmental on the show. Welcome, Renee. Hi, how you doing? Bad man too bad. You have what I would call a very unique career path. And I want to talk about that a little bit because you started out in the fashion industry, and then made the conscious decision to redirect your career towards advocating for the environment. But can you talk to us a little bit about what you were doing and how you made that decision? Yeah,

Renee Murphy  
absolutely. You know, Nick, as a young girl, I always wanted to be in the fashion industry. I was making my clothes at a very young age and that was the only direction I saw for myself and my parents made me go to business school and get that so I went to USC Business School and it turns out they had an entrepreneur program there back before entrepreneur, business thing. And really back before heavy women involvement in much more business was a thing, but I was just you know, a starry eyed girl who wanted to build a business and that's what I did. And I did that for you know, a substantial amount of time. married, had two kids and you know, my kids were teenagers and I was living really what is the fashion dream I was going back and forth from California to New York every month, bridal Fashion Week. I mean, I was at the top of my career, I was making a really good income. And I actually started hiking and gotten to rock climbing a little bit. And what it started happening was that the more time I spent out in nature it was really the only place that I felt calm. Yeah, yes. And I think all the nature lovers out there know what I'm talking about. And before you know it, it just started eating at me and being in the metropolitan cities. Wasn't the dream anymore and staying up late at night and doing all the things you do when you're living that lifestyle just was no longer good for me. And the two lifestyles were conflicting so much and you know, I really always considered myself an environmentalist of sorts. I really always had a hard time with, you know, excessive consumerism and these sorts of ideas and they were conflicting all the time. I didn't like what we were selling really. I started my business before Instagram and before websites and all of that, so I got to grow with technology. And, you know, I'm very good on social media. I've always kept up with all of these technologies. But what I noticed that was quite a change in my customer base and brides really just wanting to spend every dollar they could to get that perfect Instagram image. And I really didn't feeling like I was selling the wrong thing and I am great at selling, selling the wrong thing and I really started getting feeling sick about it. Right. And I was really convincing someone to spend. So just to give you an idea of what we're looking at, you know, sewing $350 pair of earrings, you know, five, six times a day. That just kind of gives you a price point, you know, $2,000 bales and this is just a normal I convince people that this was normal, and this just didn't seem right. I would hear statements like oh, if the bride had a very big ring on her finger, oh, well, he's a keeper. Right? Planet do we judge a relationship in a marriage based on the size of the wedding ring that a woman has? But this was what I was living every day and it didn't feel right. I also, you know, had a daughter who was watching me very closely, and she was actually modeling within this industry as well. And I really started to see her deteriorate. As parents we easily want to say that our kids aren't watching us and our kids don't take direction from us. But I believe she was and I believe I was not teaching her the right values in a lot of ways. And I remember taking a picture of myself a selfie in the mirror, because that's what we do. And there was just I was miserable. Looking at my mirror and I was miserable. And I said if I come back to one more Fashion Week, I'm just gonna die, you know? And when I went back home, I made the decision that I wasn't going back. And I didn't and I walked away from my business and it was difficult for my friends to understand because you know, all my friends were like that. And then they had this fear. How can you walk away from something you built? And I guess in my head being that entrepreneur, I said, I could build anything. I'll just start with the tomorrow. Right? Right. Right. That's the big question is, what was I going to build next? Where would I gonna go? And I really just thought back like, What do I love? And I always love gardening. I wasn't great at it. And I love the idea of like growing my own food again, not good at it. So I jumped into horticulture classes at my local community college and I happened to be Saddleback Mission Viejo had a wonderful horticulture school taking urban farming and if anybody hasn't grown potatoes and with your own hands dug potatoes out under you know from the ground, it is the most amazing experience. Here I am a 40 year old woman in a class full of 20 year olds I must have seemed like a crazy person and honor because the joy that I got every day from what I was doing, I knew I was on the right track. And soon after that I was on a trip in Houston, Texas, and I always have this mantra that no matter where I go, I'm always going to do something touristy you know when I would travel for business, so I decided to go to NASA Houston and just take a tour. Cool. Yeah. And so the last exhibit talked about how scientists are trying to grow plants on Mars. But Martian soil is toxic, but plants have this amazing ability to be able to clean and uptake toxic metals and clean. And I don't know it hit me like a lightning bolt. And in my head, I said, That's it. I'm going to be a plant scientist. And that was the decision that I made when I came home from that trip. That this was what I was going to do. And I loved all the ideas about sustainability and circular economy, but really the trigger was that moment. So I came home convinced Cal Poly Pomona that I needed to get my Master's in plant science and you know, all the universities were telling me I couldn't do this because it didn't have an undergrad in science. And had the department chair over there. She was a woman turned out to be my mentor, who told me it could be done under jumping through many, many, many hoops. And I would be getting basically my undergrad education at the same time. While I was going to get my master's and I graduated with plant science masters. So it was a you know, crazy whirlwind of a story changing careers very late in life. But you know, if you put your mind to it and you want it bad enough, you'll do it do it.

Nic  
Oh my gosh. So you aren't good at selling. That's obviously a great example of it. It's a great example of it. I'll ask more about that later. But was any of that it doesn't sound like it. So I don't want to see was anything really scary? Were you afraid of like what next steps would be the workout

Renee Murphy  
or, you know, I was terrified. But I guess the universe kept coming back to me with positive feedback. You know, that's the thing is like that feedback loop. I think you have to forget like, you know, I think it's the unknown that we're afraid when you keep getting encouragement and things that just seem to fall out of the sky. Now, I want to say that but I don't think that that's true. I think where are you what your energy? That energy comes back to you? Yeah. And so I was 100% deep diving into putting my energy into one focused direction. So why was it a surprise when it was coming back to me?

Nic  
Yeah. So okay, well, when you're at the at school on here, going back after being away for a while, do you have any thoughts or tips on why you maybe do well or could do better?

Renee Murphy  
You know, I think everyone's scared to go back to school especially as a as an older person. But here's the thing. It meant so much more 20 year olds in my master's program, and they seemed and I don't mean this offensively, but they seem so clueless in action. And maybe they were just doing it because they were told that that was the path but I was back because I was determined to change my life. And every class, even though I was tired, and I was taking so many classes and I was working at a lab and really all of my hours were directed to all of this. I always had the energy every morning because I loved it. And I was passionate about it. And I'm not sure many people have that in their 20s but really going back to something because I really wanted it was a whole different ballgame for me. And with that too. You're able to use your education the fullest because as an adult, you understand relationships and you understand making connections and talking to your professors where when you're young, you're terrified of your professors. You don't want to do that they're there to help you and to provide direction for you where I took that all in 100% and I was doing research on the farm, and it was an it a community that is largely Hispanic, and it probably wasn't the most normal thing for a white girl in orange. County to be showing up on the field wanting to learn how to farm and drive tractors. You know, there was pushback on that. But after a few weeks of them realizing that I was just going to keep coming back and I was gonna be working on the farm like they were, you know, it was a completely different dynamic for me. And turned into a supportive dynamic. So even when you initially feel pushed back, you know, that can't be what stops you, you have to push. Right? So that people do know you're serious and people know you're there for a reason. And who can't get on board with that.

Nic  
Yeah. Okay, so we're here is that determination what makes you great at selling? Would you say there's other things as well that you kind of pull together to be good?

Renee Murphy  
You know, Nick, I am new in this industry. I cannot pretend to know everything. And I can't pretend to be an expert. In fact, when people call themselves an expert kind of cringe a little bit. I am enthusiastic, and I am not afraid to admit what I don't know. And I think my best ability to sell what I do for intrinsics is relating to people back to what they felt like before they started their career and the enthusiasm for the environment and I think people we can connect on that level. And I really lean into the fact that I am sometimes naive and sometimes not knowing the answers and that I knew I lean into that 100% Because everyone can relate to that. versus me pretending to be an expert where there's a lot of people in the room who know a lot more than me. And honestly, I have given a keynote speech where at the end, I said I need help. I asked for help. And I think if we can just be honest as humans, that's where we have that best ability. And again, I don't know if you call it selling and say we're trying to help each other for a cause is to help the environment. Right.

Nic  
Exactly. And it's funny you say that I think a lot of times there's two ways of looking at something right? There's a beginner's mind and experts mind if you comment, something with like, the pure curiosity, and you try to let your expert mind go, you can find a creative way to get to solve a problem sometimes where if you're so focused on this is the way things are done. Sometimes you'll miss that you can do it a different way. So yeah, I love to hear that.

Renee Murphy  
100%. And that is, I find I come across that quite a bit. And people are just really stuck in one way of thinking and if we all just like let all that go and just say let's just brainstorm. Let's just think about this. Could this work in different ways? If not, that's great, but let's just think about it. And isn't that what we all got? Yeah, I got into science fair in the first place. Yeah.

Nic  
That's totally right. And so, and it's kind of like the joy of it. You know, I think curiosity is a really important thing. And you know, when you meet people, right, it's the same kind of thing. If you're curious about people, they will start talking to you if you ask them questions, even when you have people who are sometimes they don't want you to recognize okay, maybe now's not the time. But if you're curious enough, people will respond to that. And it's really

Renee Murphy  
great. And you know, Nick, that's another thing that change from the fashion industry to the industry I'm in now. You know, people are so nice in this industry. It's not something I expected. I went from an industry where you could chase a client for years at a time and they would do everything they could to dodge you. The industry was very much about pretending that you're better than everybody else. I mean, that's the image we're creating. Right? Right. Right are better than you. And that is what you're aspiring to be. I can't tell you how unusual it would be where I would reach out to a government agency or a firm of any salt, you know, and I it might take some time for them to get back to me but they get back to me and say I'm sorry, I've been so crazy busy. But I want to talk to you shocked actually calling Britney back or responsive in a day or two like, wow, okay, okay, let's make some things happen. So that's been honestly one of the coolest things is just the vibe of people within this industry. It's different.

Nic  
Yeah, that's that's really cool. I'm glad to hear that truthfully, because I feel the same way. And it's a really cool industry. I think one of the things I really like about it is there's there's a sense of working together and there's still a competitiveness to it, you know, maybe it's not quite as but through and it does depend, I think to where you are sometimes in the country, but for the most part I totally agree with that. I think it's really great. There's lots of opportunities to meet people. The world is very small, as well. I mean, I can't tell you how many times people my favorite example of this is somebody left a company, right to join other companies like I'm out of here. I'm not dealing with this anymore. And then six months later, that company was bought by the company he left, right, it happens, it happens. But you know, that's the nature of the work that we do. Sometimes it's very, very close knit community. So when you're giving conferences, you're giving speeches, you're doing these kinds of things. As a keynote, for example, you're talking about that. When you first started to do that, right? You're talking about how you're not an expert, and you're asking for help, like what gave you the confidence to say, You know what, I can still bring value to this group. These people.

Renee Murphy  
I can't say anything gave me the confidence because I don't think you can be given confidence. I think every single day you have to test yourself with hard things and if that is the one thing I do every day, I don't care how much it scares me. I chose this job because it scared me. And I said that's the job because that's the one that scared me. I think you challenge yourself every single day whether that's like right now I want to wake up first thing every morning I take a 30 minute walk rain or shine outside with nature. Okay, then that challenge name with having a lovely rainy season here in California and you know, we don't do any weather. Then I had to go to Alaska. Weather I have a flight leaving at 6am which means that morning walk is at 4am It doesn't matter what the excuses but it's those types of things that you challenge yourself with every day when they don't need to be within your industry. You challenge yourself doing anything difficult and you become better at it the next time around because you're just like, well, I did this yesterday. So what's this? And so I think, you know, when I had the opportunity to keynote speak in another country, hadn't been with the company even a year yet. That was probably the most could have been the most terrifying thing for anybody, right? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm very scared to speak in public. And I guess it's really my ability to look at the audience and say, these are all kinds of people that care about the environment and want to help and if I can put it in that perspective, I have even said, I think one of my the hardest things for me is afraid that I might say a word that might be perceived badly in a different country with people with a different perspective. Yeah. Oh, again, I lean into that a little bit. You know, I'm just a girl from California who hasn't gone out much, you know, own world. And I apologize if I say something incorrectly, but just understand that you know, we have different words for things. And sometimes I'll ask, does this mean something to you like I use the word midlife crisis that translate here and you have people you know nodding their heads. So I just try to be really real. And sometimes it's making fun of me and again, my naivety on certain things. But that, Hey, I am here and I'm speaking to you maybe because I do have a really different perspective and that perspective is being really new. Not having world experience in this industry. And what my reflection is on what I'm getting back from everybody in the industry, like why are we still doing things the way we're doing it? These are the things that I was really upset about that I saw that the industry did things in this way. And then I back off and say, I may be naive. But this is just my, my perspective as a new person coming in. And I know that there's reasons for why we might do things this way. But let's talk about it. So that's what gives me the confidence. Now I will tell you, I want to back up a little bit when I told you about my daughter kind of going in the wrong direction when she was in high school and she had a really tough time and actually tested out her last year of high school and decided to go directly to junior college and actually moved up north to be with my sister, just to get a fresh start. And she decided she wanted a different life for herself. And again, it's unusual that the two kind of ran a little parallel. My husband refers it to her as rebranding, which I love. She read and she said this wasn't this isn't for me anymore, that I'm doing something different. And in May she will be graduating with a degree from her favorite university. She wanted to go to her old life in neuroscience. That is really cool. I mean, if you want want to talk doing a rebranding effort, my daughter who's training to run a marathon she ran two half marathons by herself. She couldn't find anyone to train with her. So she said it's hard and I'll do it myself. If that isn't like a reason to keep pushing out of myself out of my comfort zone, and to bring her with me to do that keynote talk where I swear I think she was more nervous than me. More of me embarrassing her. You know, really not knowing what to think of all of this. But then just seeing her be proud of me and for her knowing that there is nothing that can stop her that she's capable of doing anything. Maybe because she I role model role model that for her in a little way. Yeah.

Nic  
Is that I mean?

Laura  
Clearly that's happened.

Renee Murphy  
Yeah. And you know, I think as parents we we want to think that you know, they're not absorbing everything that we're they're picking everything up that we're putting down, whether they're doing it then or two years down the road, but they're watching us and what we do and how we live our lives is directly affecting them.

Laura  
For sure. So jumping back to your job you're selling plants, right? Well,

Renee Murphy  
I'm so a little stranger because I actually applied for NASA internship to grow plants in space, my last year of college and COVID happened and you know, what happened to everything. I graduated and I went to work as a sales director for native plant nursery, which was awesome, because at that time, I learned the importance of planting native and restoring biodiversity, especially in California being a hotspot for biodiversity and how we really need to be growing more sustainably and not buying plants from big box stores and actually buying from our native nurseries and we can change the environment just by changing what we plant in our backyards. So I was thrilled to go work for this native plant nursery. About seven months into that job. I had started some collaborative research with an indigenous tribe over in the Salton Sea, which if you're not familiar with it, it's an agricultural issue out there. That is the drought has caused this manmade lake to that was caused by a break in an aqua dot long story. It's very toxic. A lot of agricultural runoff and heavy metals all of this and I was working with an indigenous tribe to try and get trees that we were growing these native trees on a site there have exposed Playa so
_____________________
Renee Murphy  
In a break in an awkward, long story, it's very toxic. A lot of agricultural runoff, heavy metals, all of this, and I was working with an indigenous tribe to try and get trees that we were growing these native trees on a site there have exposed playa. So you might ask, Well why did I do this while I was growing the trees for them, but why did I get involved as a scientist trying to grow these trees and treating the trees with salt treatments and such? I don't know something told me to just do this. I was fascinated with the opportunity to try and make a difference out there and figure out how to get these trees established. And I was doing it just because my gut told me this is what I needed to be doing. And again, I told you I'm deeply involved in social media posted a picture of a plant that I was growing that was salt tolerant and used in restoration. Nobody would grow this plant if you weren't dealing with salt impacted soils, and I posted it on Facebook. And lo and behold, Dr. John Freeman, who had worked for NASA biological sciences, but had now founded intrinsics environmental saw the post and said why she growing that plant and it's only in our industry. So he reached out to me we started researching with his endophytes from his company, I incorporated that into my research. A few months later I was offered a job to move to the Bay Area and become an environmental scientist. So it was really, again, out of the blue was it I had put all of my energy into into that and that energy just returned the oddest of ways but it returned so I relocated to the Bay Area for what seemed like the scariest job and the biggest leap to go from marketing and sales to actually being an environmental scientist. But I think they got more than they bargained for and actually became the sales director there as well and head up most of the Business Development for intrinsics environmental so

Laura  
yeah, it worked out stories when it's just like here's a little thing and this is how you're connected and then

Renee Murphy  
100% So those of you who thinks it's a bad thing. It's a bad thing. If you make it a bad thing. You're in charge of your algorithm. You're in charge of it onto you. You're in charge of what you put out there so you can pick and choose what you put out into the world and I pick and choose to put out good things and how I go when I travel. I see different businesses doing certain things for their community and how people are corporates and corporations or landscaping with natives, you know, and the world isn't perfect, but I choose to highlight what's going right and the moves people are making to make a difference whether they be small or large. But again, we choose what we put on our social media and it's not going to be the newest handbag I just bought. Instead it's going to be look I got this tree to grow in a very salty environment. So we do have the opportunity to expand that effort if we want to.

Speaker 1  
That's awesome. Well that I follow so many people

Renee Murphy  
it's making you feel bad if it's feel insecure, if it's making you feel like you're not enough. Why did you choose to follow that? Yes, if you're afraid of what's that and this is the conversation I have with people I mentor in their 20s If you're afraid of what your friend in high school is thinking about what you're posting on LinkedIn, is that your friend or friends that because it is stopping you from living your best life and putting out there, what it is that you're doing that's important and for me, it has been a catalyst for change in my life. So anyone who says social media is bad. No, you're in control of that. You're in control. Yeah, it

Nic  
was it was funny. Like I feel like the older you get, the more you kind of understand like when you think oh my gosh, what does this person think about what I'm saying? And that person is saying, oh my gosh, I wonder what next thinking about what I'm saying? And you realize if you can just let that have that be a thing. You realize that everybody has a little bit anxiety about something and then you just you just let that go that changed my life. Truthfully, you know, I used to be a pretty shy kid. I wouldn't say I am not that now. And a lot of it's just because yeah, I'm gonna make a mistake. I'm gonna say something silly, but

Renee Murphy  
it's a learned behavior. You can change that shyness. You can change those feelings by practice on so that's another thing is I'm not always saying things right. And sometimes the words come out. They don't come out like a scientist would have said it. But you know, only been doing it every two years in March. So I don't have a lot of years under my belt speaking like a scientist, but I can think like a scientist and we can work together and use the skills I do have to move things forward. And I have to keep it it's so hard for me to look back at recordings, because I'll start judging myself. So I don't look at them. I just post them and don't obsess on them. Because everybody will look and obsess. And the worst part about it is being from the fashion industry. I'm looking at a whole lot more than that I'm looking at is my skin too wrinkly? All my meetings not that great. I couldn't have my angles better. I got it, who cares? Post it and move on with your life like

Unknown Speaker  
it was all of that but

Renee Murphy  
it's a terrible conflict. You know, and I just those are, I think the hardest parts to get over. But you have to just do it. You know? It just know that you will get better and improve and you'll look into lighting next week. You'll pull it put it on your calendar, but don't worry about it.

Nic  
It's like the joy of learning something new is always kind of nice, but people learn at different speeds too and people who will learn the best are the ones that are doing what you say. It's not just like, oh, you know, if I play guitar one day, once a month, I'll never learn it. But if I do just a little bit every day, something new a little bit every day. Eventually you'll get to a point where you're good 100%

Renee Murphy  
That is absolutely right right there. A little bit every day, 15 minutes every day, in six months time. What a difference, right? Yeah. And so things when I had moved into this industry before I took the job, I started looking listening to podcasts that had scientists on them. So I thought Kay like you have to go all in, right? Like, they dress like what do they sound? How do they talk? And I would listen to podcasts over and over just so I can start understanding how they talk and how they speak and kind of get myself used to that, you know, because it's a different world than coming from the plant nursery. You know, you speak very differently and as a business person, I speak very direct. And that's been a challenge as well. I think challenge is for people working around me who are used to an academia where you don't challenge the people above you, and you don't say like it is and I do those things for good or for bad. It's me and it's my background. And I'm just again, it's coming from a place coming from a place of love.

Unknown Speaker  
It's to get so relate to that.

Nic  
Yeah. Oh, that's so true.

Unknown Speaker  
We are entrepreneur twins.

Renee Murphy  
Right. That's been you know, that hasn't been the easiest for my colleagues, I think. And I think we've learned a lot from each other. I've learned to take a breath. And to think my, my engineer has been incredibly helpful for me, helping me sit down and look at structures of things in like, in my brain, how would this look? How should I go about doing this? And really trying to see the structure of it before I just jump because I think it's my instinct to just jump and go because times Time's a wasting. And he's taught me to sit back and think about things. And I think it's helped in my writing. I think it's helped in my idea processing. But then in turn, I've gotten him to stop taking so much time to think about things. When are we 90% there? Let's go. But we can go at 90% And so I've helped I think I've helped him you know, we've been beneficial to each other right?

Unknown Speaker  
Yeah, it takes all types you know even people around me saying oh, that's just I used to just the way she is.

Nic  
That's really so what does what does intrinsics environmental do and what do you do for them? So

Renee Murphy  
intrinsics environmental, we are a enhanced phytoremediation firm so we work within the remediation industry and we work on contaminated environments or hard to establish environments like forest fire online sites, this type of thing, and we pair the right species and microbial endophytes to degrade the contamination. So to break this down, we licensed technology from the University of Washington, and microbes are naturally found in nature. We're not genetically modifying anything. We're just using endophytes that were isolated from trees that could thrive on contaminated sites. So I could go to a contaminants site that says maybe an oil and gas contamination plant one of our poplar trees, inoculate that tree with our oil degrading endophyte and what it does is kind of creates a super tree. The tree is able to establish on a toxic site where in the past the tree would just die because it couldn't establish and it allows the tree to be able to break down oil and gas or whatever contamination we're dealing with within the rhizosphere at a much higher rate than it would normally on its own. So it's a really great way to use nature based solutions to clean up contamination. And it again, it's being degraded, not stacking up in the tree. So ultimately, we're leaving job sites with trees versus heavy machinery or infrastructure. And you know, for communities that are underserved. or marginalized communities that are typically more located in areas that are contaminated. They're left with trees and something beautiful, which we know how important it is for communities to have trees. We are scientifically able to prove that communities are healthier, less violent have less incidence of illness, the closer they are to trees. So as urban planners, as developers, we should be looking at planting more trees, but if you can imagine the implications of this that you can redevelop a site that is a brownfield that is contaminated. You can redevelop it install the trees. So it's been developed while it's been remediated the same time. So the technology's really cool, especially if you like plants and you like science.

Nic  
Gosh, that's awesome. So it's kind of like using the natural environment to clean up is super cool. And

Renee Murphy  
our very first sight was right in our backyard in the Bay Area at the Emmy WC fund and NASA in the EPA has been heavily involved in our work so it is regulator approved. And really what we're doing as a company is we have to get this technology out there and educate people that this there is this tool for your toolbox. It doesn't have to be the existing tools you have you can add another one to your toolbox and we can talk about how we can use these nature based solutions and ideally match them up with sites and just ultimately we're we are giving back to the earth right? By doing this request rate of a restorative approach.

Nic  
Yeah, so it's a remediation restoration. Made sometimes. Yeah, that's a really neat thing. It's really really cool to hear that that's working and working well. And yeah, thank you for sharing that. And

Laura  
let's move on. It's time for field notes. It's the show where we talk to our guests about memorable moments doing the work that they do. And we encourage listeners to share your stories using the hashtag build out so field notes so we can share them on a future episode. So you talked about you know, doing work in the indigenous areas and you've done planting with school and all these things. I know you've been in the field in different places. Have you had any interesting fun, especially learning new things out there?

Renee Murphy  
All of fieldwork is awesome. Okay, talk, okay, talk about being nervous to do something. So, you know, most of our job sites they're 100% male, it's very seldom you'll see another female on that site, and I will be a project manager and going to do the installation. And I knew I know the crew was going to be all male and I will have to tell you, my experience has been nothing but wonderful, and have a bad thing to say. But one one time I did come up on a field site where there was a very deep hole and one of the guys had dropped his sunglasses into the hole. And I swear we were about five seconds away from a couple of the guys thinking that they can hold the guy's ankles on glasses. And then the funniest thing on top of that I went to look down and my hard hat fell into the hole so it was just another inner engineer comes over and he looks at it. He grabs a stick grabs a piece of wire fashions a hook. It says everyone backup goes down there and pulls both items out with the hook in the stick in a different way. Yeah, you know we all send we need each other as a team. Yeah, exactly what to say but another time I showed up on Google campus to do an installation and they had opened up all the gates for me to bring my truck for all of the trees that we're going to be planting. No matter how many times we said we're bringing cuttings I've realized that cuttings isn't even clear to people who don't have a tree background. I say we're bringing sticks. Sometimes I use that word and realize how stupid that sounds because I should be using you know cuttings. What visually they were expecting me to be backing up a truck full of trees with the root balls in the box. Yeah, yeah. And they were cutting there were literally just sticks wrapped in flat and I think all under my arm, right? Like when are you going to bring the trees and I'm like the trees. And then like where are the trees?

Speaker 1  
That's fine. Yeah. All right. Last question, because we're run out of time. Where's your favorite place?

Renee Murphy  
You've traveled to? South Africa, hands down if you haven't had a chance to go to South Africa run don't walk it is one of the most magnificent places you'll ever travel to. Both with with the people at the food I love. One of the most beautiful places to see and this is coming from California where we have you know incredible places to visit national parks. And I want to go back every opportunity I have to go back there.

Nic  
Okay. And then okay, so I know we are we are close to time, but before we let you go, is there anything else you want to say that we haven't talked about? You

Renee Murphy  
know, I would love anybody who wants to connect with me. If they're within the remediation industry. I also do a lot of community education, outreach. teaching people about the importance of native plants and I also teach propagation courses to teach people how to make their own plants create their own plants. Again, inspiring people to just start in their backyard. You can get back to nature just by planting native and I teach you all about how to do that. I will be starting classes soon in March but if you want to follow me on on Instagram, or tick tock I am at mid life farm girl like farm girl and then Renee Murphy on LinkedIn you can reach out to me and there's links in the bio there that takes you to my speaking events and the classes that will still under startup in March. So yeah, please follow me reach out to me. I try to be very responsive. Yeah, and you know, any way I can help people, inspire people to help the environment. That's

Nic  
so great. Thank you so much, Renee for being here. It was really great.

Renee Murphy  
Thank you, Nick. Thank you, Laura.

Laura  
That's our show. Thank you, Renee, for joining us today. Please be sure to check us out each and every Friday. Don't forget to subscribe rate and review. i The everybody

Transcribed by https://otter.ai