Founded On Purpose

Kt McBratney: [00:00:00] Welcome to Founded on Purpose. I'm your host, Kt McBratney. Each episode, we welcome a founder, investor, or ecosystem builder to answer the same set of questions. And as you know, by now, all those eight questions lead to is some wonderfully different, and I would say squiggly conversations in the best way possible.

And today's episode is for everyone out there with a nonlinear career path. You've ever felt like you don't neatly fit into boxes, especially in your career or professional life, You absolutely need to know Milly Tamati. She's the founder of Generalist World, a company and community leading the charge in the future of work powered by generalists, helping them build squiggly careers that are meaningful and they love.

She also knows the superpowers that come with being a generalist personally. Before her 30th birthday, she co owned a hostel in Thailand, co founded a wine tour in Australia, was [00:01:00] a top tour guide through Europe, uh, and founded an illustration agency in the UK. Milly, welcome to the show, my friend.

Milly Tamati: I am so happy to be here. Thank you for having me.

Kt McBratney: Well, as, as one generalist who has certainly had my fair share of trying to see where I fit in or explaining and navigating my value and my story. You know, I'm a huge fan of everything you and your incredible team are doing. And I'm so excited to dive into this conversation with you, especially in anticipation and build up to what is holiday.

I never knew existed and need international generalists day, which is tomorrow. How excited are you?

Milly Tamati: I think it's fair to say I'm about 15 out of 10 excited, a little bit nervous. There is, you know, a thousand people coming together in 30 different cities. So it's, it's been a lot of [00:02:00] logistics, um, but mostly excited.

Kt McBratney: And we should also note to speak to the powers of founders who don't pattern match everything else. You are also joining us not from the traditional tech hubs that we expect from growing, flourishing tech companies. Tell us a bit about where you're, where you're joining us from, your beloved home that you share about often.

Milly Tamati: Yeah. So I live on an island, off an island, off an island in the very north of Scotland. It's called the Isle of Raasay. And we have a grand total population of, I believe it's 191 right now. Uh, that gives you a bit of an idea of how tapped in we are with the community. We know literally how many people are here.

Um, it's about 13 miles long, three miles wide. So it's a really, really tiny little remote place. And yeah, I live in a house that was built over 200 years ago. It's heated entirely by wood stoves. And every day I wake up and I [00:03:00] balance my Wi Fi dongle in the windowsill and I build Generalist World.

Kt McBratney: We love to see it.

And, and also there will absolutely be links in the show notes. Milly does a great job of building in public and sharing what it's like to not just build from a place she loves, but be a part of that community. So please, please follow along, especially if you care about your local ecosystem, if it's similar or wildly different to our Milly's building.

Okay, we're going to dive into the eight questions because I could talk to you about anything and everything for eight hours and I don't know if everybody else would be as excited about that because we would go into so many, actually that would be its own, that's an entire season. It's a thing. With Milly and Kt going in the weeds.

Milly Tamati: I love it. That would be fun.

Kt McBratney: All right, well, because we need more to do. We need more projects.

Um, okay, let's just start from the start. Question one. In one word, what's your purpose? [00:04:00]

Milly Tamati: My purpose is, my word for my purpose is spark, and the reason it's spark is because when I look back at the threads, all the things that tie everything together, all the things that give me the most energy, where I've had the most impact, I realize that I'm often like the flint of like a fire, so I'm like the opposing idea, or I'm the energy in the room that's like, really?

Is that the best we've got? Like, really? The, yeah. It might, it's a spark that might take things in a different conversation or a different direction. And I think generalist world is a brilliant example because I am not generalist world, like the 50, 000 generalist leaders in our network. They are generalist world that I'm simply the spark.

I'm the ember that got it going. And I have a really great example from the little island where this kind of really came into, into play. Um, a couple of months ago, maybe six months ago, We have a church that is [00:05:00] no longer in use. Um, it's kind of going to disrepair a little bit and I've kind of had my eye on it being like, oh, like what are we gonna do?

Access to buildings is really, really essential on our island. We have a, a massive housing problem. So I've been kind of eyeing it up, being like, you know, what's a better, better way we could use this? And we were at a community board meeting and I thought, you know what? This is gonna go down like a lead balloon, but I'm just gonna take my shot here and suggest.

That maybe we think about turning the community, the, the, the church into a community store, into a shop, into a cafe, into something that is actually being used. Um, but because there is like really deep roots of, um, of religion on the island, it did go down like a dead balloon. People were absolutely outraged.

They absolutely hated it. There was like, I was taking the minutes at the time and I was like, everyone hates it. Um, but. It was the spark and the next day I went, [00:06:00] I was walking around and a few people came up to me and they were like, actually not a bad idea. It's actually quite an interesting idea. Like maybe we should follow along.

And a couple of weeks later, I was like, right, we just need to mobilize this. So we have a Facebook page, which is the only reason I still use Facebook. We like have this Facebook group. And I was like, right, everyone, I'm calling a community meeting. I think that we should, we should as a community acquire the church.

And I was expecting maybe like 10 or 15 people to show up to this meeting. A third of the island showed up to this meeting in support. The hall was packed and I chaired this meeting saying, Hey, I think that we, um, I know it's, it's left field. It's not that traditional, but I think that this is a really great opportunity for the community to step up and take ownership.

And because of that meeting, that was a flint that was a spark. And now we're in talks with the real estate agent to buy the church. Um,

Kt McBratney: yes. Here for that. [00:07:00] It's funny. I'm thinking about the church this morning because you had posted it and I was like, I wonder what happened maybe, you know before we stop before Or after we start recording, I can ask about it and get an update.

So that's incredible. It's happening.

Milly Tamati: Yes.

Kt McBratney: Congrats.

Milly Tamati: It's happening.

Kt McBratney: And it's happening with community.

Milly Tamati: Yeah. So there is a, um, an enormous, uh, I guess, spirit of community ownership, particularly in Scotland, more than I've ever seen anywhere. So like we currently own the hall that I'm recording this from.

That's community owned. And we own Raasay House, which is an outdoor center and a hotel. We own the wall garden. We own the current community store, which is too small and we need to upgrade it, hence the church. So there's a real, um, spirit of community ownership, uh, and a real spirit of being like, all right, let's all just get together and figure out how we can hold ownership and keep control and keep like community benefit in this really, really small, honestly, really [00:08:00] fragile community.

Kt McBratney: Mm hmm. Mm hmm. And that idea of spark, you know, as I think about it and, and through that example, specifically, there's a theme that's come up in this podcast with, with guests from wildly different professions, industries, geographies, lived experiences, that it isn't about having the right answer or a black and white definition of success or failure or being the one person that knows it all.

And this idea of spark, I think is such a powerful encapsulation of that is you, you To be a change maker, right? This is founded on purpose. All of us want to have a, a positive, meaningful impact on people in the world around us through the businesses we're building and supporting. It's this idea that we alone don't have to know it all or do it all ourselves.

We can be that Flint. We can be the Tinder. We can be the accelerant to really, we [00:09:00] all have a different place that we can play in kindling that. That positive warmth of change. Would you agree? Do you think that that's part of being a generalist and part of being a change maker is, is being brave enough to strike the flint?

Milly Tamati: I think yes. And I think it's also about being a part of a team. Like, I know there's a big kind of solopreneur, um, movement happening and like, fair enough for some people that is fantastic. It totally works for them. My sweet spot on what I've realized is like, I am so much better when I am part of a tight knit lean, really smart, really motivated, really passionate team.

Because if it's just the flint. And there's no follow on, there's no one to operate. There's no one to get in the nitty gritty details. Then like actually nothing moves, the needle doesn't move. So for me, it's about being part of a bigger system and that system is being a part of a really great team.

Kt McBratney: The next question follows up on that pretty beautifully.[00:10:00]

You already shared one recent success, but what's your most recent win?

Milly Tamati: This is going to be a bit of a weird answer, but like when,

Kt McBratney: you know, those are my favorite.

Milly Tamati: Yeah. Okay. So let, let's get into it. So the, when I think about, when I asked myself, what's my most recent win, it almost doesn't quite land right. Or it sits funny in my chest. And I think the reason being, I just feel like my life is a freaking win and it's not because I'm like the most successful or I've got like the most cash in the bank, whatever the like winning, I don't know, criteria might be.

It's because I came from a really rough upbringing in New Zealand and I got out and I escaped and I broke these like generational patterns and then I've carved this path, which isn't a traditional path. It's totally weird and nonlinear and squiggly and doesn't make sense on a CV. Every day I literally get to wake up over my laptop.

I get to live on the island. I [00:11:00] get to build this incredible business. I get to work with people that I love. They are like my besties. They are so cool. I adore our team and I get to explore my curiosities, I'm safe, I am well nourished, I am, I grow my own food and I've got a really great diet and I just think like, it's almost, when I think of that question, I'm like, everything.

I'm just so fortunate. I'm so fortunate to have landed on my feet and to be in this place in my life where things just really feel like in flow. So like, Without sounding like a total cheese ball, I'm in the space where I'm like, life is a win. Every day that I got to break away and not have to go milk cows on the farm in New Zealand, that's a win.

Um, but if I wasn't cheating, and if I had to really answer your question, I would have to say, particularly from a work perspective, Uh, we had like, it was, it was literally an inside joke that came up in the [00:12:00] community. Someone in Toronto was like, hey, I'm going to host a local meetup. We have local meetups all the time and someone else, I think it might've been in like New York, was like, yeah, I'll host, I'll host a local meetup too.

And it was literally like a little comment that was, oh, maybe we should all host meetups and maybe this should be like, how many cities could it be? And again, that was the spark that we were like, well, actually, like, why not? What if we did, what if, what if we all hosted meetups on September 18th? How many people could we get involved?

How exciting could that be? And then someone, again, the joke continued. We were like, oh, it could be International Generalist Day. And again, we were like, heck yeah, heck yeah. Let's name it. Let's claim it. And now, yeah, over a thousand people are coming together in over 30 different cities. And so just the logistics of that going from a bit of a joke.

Little inside joke in the community to an actual [00:13:00] living, breathing thing. Um, in the world, I think that has probably been our biggest win recently. It's so cool.

Kt McBratney: And I've, I got to witness it from afar, seeing it, um, bubbling up as a, if we were to do this, yeah, would you be interested? Or, or if, if we post one in Atlanta, would anybody come?

And I was like, yes. Tell me when, tell me where. The answer is yes. And so I am a proud one of those a thousand people and, and who knows, maybe by the time this airs, there'll be even more. And it's, it feels, it feels powerful. I can tell you as somebody who absolutely fits the profile of a generalist and generalist world, um, and feels really powerful to see generalists come together and not just feel good and pat each other on the back.

Like that's also great. Like, I love, we love to support each other. But this, [00:14:00] this constellation of events across the world coming together quickly and effectively it literally demonstrates the power of generalists. And it's, you know, it's, it's the kind of thing that it looks easy. It looks like your team just quickly pulled it off and under the hood is incredibly complex and.

I would wager that, you know, a team that didn't have a good set of generalists wouldn't have been able to pull it off.

Milly Tamati: Mm-Hmm. . Mm-Hmm. . And I think it's important to note that it's not just our team, right? This is like a true community led initiative where it started with 2, 3, 4, and yeah. Then 30 people are like, yep, I've got this.

I mean, I think in London there's over 200 people, like either on the wait list or RSVP. Like it is out, it's outta control. In some places, like that is completely out of control in the best way possible. So yeah, it's been amazing to see. And it, [00:15:00] again, it starts here and it's the ripple effect, right? The ripple effect of having community and having people believe in something, um, and be a part of something that's bigger than themselves.

Kt McBratney: So like, there are so many threads we could pull on there and I want to weave them together in the next question that I think is, is something a lot of people have felt, but maybe. Not articulated or been able to articulate. What do you feel is the biggest missed opportunity in your field?

Milly Tamati: It's so easy.

It's so easy and it's so obvious it is putting people into boxes is the biggest missed opportunity, HR recruitment, putting people into boxes and overlooking talent. And by that, I mean, The number of people that I speak to who are phenomenal, phenomenal. They can do these jobs with their eyes closed, hand behind their back, like absolutely unbelievable.

They're proven they've done it before. We have exited founders, people who have [00:16:00] sold their company for millions, can't get a job because they don't pattern match the exact cookie cutter approach, the exact cookie cutter thing a recruiter is looking for. Even though they would not just fit into that box, they would blow the box up.

They would, they would 10X the box. There would be no box left because the impact would be too big. And the talent drain on this, just like, it's like a leaky bucket. It gives me an actual headache. And the, like, I think the short sightedness of the whole system, um, not serving people who just like, don't fit in a box.

They don't want to fit in a box. Um, and. When these people get into a company, when you let them, when you create roles and you create systems and you create environments that they can do their best work and they can flex across domains, across roles, that is the kind of hire. That's the 10 X higher there [00:17:00] that they're not just, um, they're not just there to do a job.

They're not just there to take tasks off their Asana. They are there to actually make a measurable multiplied impact. And it just seems like the. Both a, a massive systemic failure and a massive opportunity.

Kt McBratney: I so agree. I mean, when I had left my company, um, that I founded and we grew and we built and we raised and all of that, and I had almost two decades of experience, right?

And because it didn't pattern match as I was exploring my next opportunities, I absolutely felt that. And it was not new. It was just heightened because I had spent the past 10 years in early stage startups where the answer is like, What have you done? What can you do is truly well, in what context, like which piece of it would you like me to talk about?

Because I have so much and yet when I was putting out my resume and my CV and applying, it was going into the void, right? Because I don't fit, [00:18:00] I don't fit in the box and the systems are engineered and optimized and supported by tech and process and people to focus on the box. And, you know, I, I said it before, but I don't think I ever would have.

Worked in the venture capital space, but in the opportunities that I'm at, and that, you know, brings me here today where this is literally my job is my joy, where I get to talk to folks like you and work with founders. And, you know, I'm grateful for the team at Renew that. knew they were looking for outside the box.

And I'm also very aware that that is absolutely an exception and not the rule. Um, and I'm with you because I, I know, and as generalists always do, and I know your 50, 000 strong community can attest and prove we have the receipts. We can show the impact we make. We can show the 10 X. It's just, the systems aren't even allowing us to get into the door.

And [00:19:00] we need more, we need more pattern breakers in every industry.

Milly Tamati: And I will, I will argue that, you know, um, the, the systems don't work for us right now, like, yes, up until right now, the systems have glorified and spotlighted this very linear, very specialized path where people fit into boxes, but. The big, big turning point, which is why I'm seeing so much more conversation around like generalists and, um, multi potentialites and all the different words for it, but essentially a generalist, um, is because now we all have a specialist at our fingertips, like with Claude, ChatGPT, they are getting smarter, faster and cheaper by the minute, literally by the minute.

Like there has never been more easy. More easily access, um, to knowledge. And so when you have knowledge at your fingertips, endless knowledge at your fingertips, you need smart people who know how to leverage that knowledge, who know [00:20:00] how to pull the levers, who know how to connect and bring people together.

Um, all the skills, all of these generalist skills, and I'm not actually advocating for like, everyone should be a generalist, but I think everyone can learn from these generalist tendencies and from the, this generalist approach to work and to life.

Kt McBratney: I totally agree. It's, it's, we need, we need all different types and generalists have just been overlooked in certain areas.

And I love that you brought up, in addition to AI and smart people using it, it's also community. And so this, this pattern and this emergence and, and normalization of community as a, as a strength, as a business advantage, as a strategy. Is again, speaking to another generalist tendency. We if we don't know, we know how to find out.

We know how to figure it out and we know if it's better for us to learn and do it ourselves or to use a tool or bring in someone who is specialized in that and that's just incredible. Um, you know, I could go on and on and on about all [00:21:00] the things I agree with you on and I want to hear about every single success you have and I'd love to hear and share with our audience.

A bit of vulnerability, if we may, when was the last time you were wrong?

Milly Tamati: I, I'm one of those people that don't have any shame or care about being like, whoops, made a mistake there. Like didn't do that one. Right. Could have done that one better. I probably say it to my team on a weekly basis. Like, Oh yeah, that one's on me.

Could have done that better. What's the lesson here? So I, I'm all for getting it wrong. Cause if you're getting it wrong, it means that you're trying and you're changing and you're pushing the growth and. So first thing, no shame, no shame at all in getting it wrong. Uh, I think my most recent example of just being like, hot dang, we'll do that differently next time.

We actually touched on it just before the call is around cashflow. So I'm kind of at [00:22:00] the stage of business where we actually have, we're scaling. We're actually doing the thing. People love the product. Like we're actually scaling. And with that comes a whole different set of challenges, including Like, honestly, guessing how much money you're gonna have for a certain period of time and then being like, okay, people got bills to pay, they got mortgages, they got kids to pay.

Like I have to pay my team. And this is my first time getting to this place where we have money coming in and the team is growing. I got the cashflow wrong, just like miscalculated. Um, and there basically wasn't enough cash. And what I had to do was what I think no, at least I've never heard founders talk about it, but I think it must happen all the time.

You just got to like, I had to max out my personal accounts, max out my savings, like pull from all accounts. All avenues to [00:23:00] keep the lights on. And that is a terrifying place to be. And it's, it's like, it's not that we've run out of money. It's we've run out of money until next week. It's this really annoying, like it is literally the cashflow problem.

Um, so that has been my big, uh, learning. And in fact, we, yeah, we will probably most likely be having quite a boost in revenue at the end of the month. And one of the things I'm going to invest in there is actual help with the financial stuff. Cause this is like, it's like playing on a new playground. You don't actually know what you're doing.

You're trying to figure out if you swing, are you going to get over to the slide? Like you're going to make it there. Um, so figuring out finances has been a little bit like swimming in the dark. It's, it's a different, it's a different game once you start scaling. And if you don't have someone on like above you who has done this before and can give you this guidance.

It's like, it's a really scary thing. So that's [00:24:00] where I'm at.

Kt McBratney: Thank you for sharing that. I think a lot of founders and entrepreneurs, whether or not you're doing a, uh, a, a scalable tech company or not need to hear that and it needs to get normalized more and also saying that like, it's okay to ask for help when you're doing something new that you've never done before that is mission critical.

Um, because a lot of us founders, uh, and I still consider myself a founder. We're building a firm here. It's not the same kind of company, but it's different. Right. Every time you succeed, you're opening up to your point. You're opening up a new set of challenges because you're doing something new for the first time and surrounding yourself with people who have been there or have been close to that spot that can ask those smart questions that can be that spark and say, What if you thought about it like this, or here, this doesn't have to be so hard for you, or let me double check.

Milly Tamati: I mean, it's not sexy, right? It's not sexy to be like, wow, I didn't sleep for five hours last night. I was tossing and turning being like, where am I gonna [00:25:00] get this money to pay this invoice? Where am I gonna get this cash to keep the lights on? Where am I, how am I going to pay my team on Monday? Like, I don't know.

That's not a sexy thing to say. People want to be like, oh yeah, you've raised like six mil congrats. They don't want to be there in the sleepless nights when you're the one trying to sticky tape together enough funds to keep the thing going. Um, and I wish I heard this more like I, maybe I'm just not listening to the right podcast or something, but I very rarely hear people honestly say, Oh, like that was a close call.

That was a bit of a gap. I really had to like stretch to fill. Um, and I think, yeah, it's kind of doing a disservice to the, the pressure that comes with being a founder.

Kt McBratney: And in putting my investor hat on, what I hear in that story is you knew it was a cashflow, not a financial model or a business model or revenue issue.

It was a cashflow issue. And I also hear how you approached solving that problem and what you learned to do differently to avoid that problem again. Right. And [00:26:00] I think that there's this, there's this myth or this. I don't know, I think it is part of the narrative around being what a successful founder is and how they behave and the stories they tell, but this idea that you have to have known it all to be a quote unquote successful or backable founder.

And quite honestly, like there are going to be challenges every founder faces, especially with scale and venture scale growth. The adage is that, you know, early stage investors invest in founders, which is true. They invest in the opportunity. We invest in the opportunity and the founder. We want founders who can talk to us about the hard challenges and think critically and nimbly about them and reach out for help.

Like that, that is, I don't think, I think that this idea that you have to do it all on your own is. is damaging not just a lot of people's confidence, mental [00:27:00] health, sleep, um, but it also damages their business.

Milly Tamati: Yeah, completely. And you know the, the tricky thing with that is that, um, Again, it's quite difficult to find the spaces and the people that you can trust.

Um, the people who actually know it from the inside, you can't quite talk to your team about it because that's not their problem. It's not their problem that you're stressed about money. Like, so, and you, you can talk to your partner a little bit, but having, I have maybe two or three founders who I know that I can call anytime, day or night, they will pick up the phone, they will listen, they will understand, and they Even if they don't have advice, they will just be like, that sounds, that sounds hard.

Like, and sometimes that's all you need to hear.

Kt McBratney: Let's flip it on to, since we're talking about strongly held beliefs, I'm curious. This is question five. So we're past the halfway mark and I'm, time is flying. I want more. What's a hill you would [00:28:00] die on? And I bet you have a few, but like, what is something that you were like, I, and it can be silly.

It could be serious, your choice, but what is one conviction that you were like, I would fight for this. I will debate anyone, I could give an unplanned TED talk because I believe this in the core of my being.

Milly Tamati: I think it's about, um, what it means to have a beautiful business and how that fits into having a beautiful life.

I think when I, when I first started building companies, everyone I came across, all of my role models, looked the same, talked the same, had the same views. It was like, It was like replicas, and I didn't have any representation of someone who, for example, might be living on a little island, might not want to run themselves into the ground for the sake of keeping this business going, who to like, I don't want to work 100 hours a week.

Sorry. And I, I will, I will and have said this [00:29:00] explicitly to my team, like, this is a business that I want to be beautiful. I want it to be a beautiful life, not just for me, but for all of our team. I want us to make a shitload of money and I want us to have a life where we take time off, where we, um, enjoy opening the laptop each morning where, you know, if your daughter's got something on, you're not going to check your Google calendar.

You're just, you're going to make sure that you're there for your family. And the hill that I would die on is that there is this real narrative And I know I'm preaching to the choir here about, um, the hustle, the grind, you know, um, all of those things. And my take is that we live in a phenomenal time where, thank you, internet, you don't have to live in Silicon Valley to build a business that's really meaningful, that makes real impact.

Um, and I think the key to this is. At every step of the way, and I actually remind myself to do this maybe every 90 days, it's just [00:30:00] getting a bit of perspective because you can really get into the weeds. Um, but getting a bit of perspective, looking at the big picture and being like, how is this a beautiful business and how is this contributing to a more beautiful life?

Um, and they don't have to mean, um, slaving away and, uh, you know, affecting your relationships and Um, affecting your health, they don't have to equal that. I think, I think it's very possible to do it without, but you have to be intentional.

Kt McBratney: Hard agree. I mean, it's, it's, it's the philosophy that everything we're building at Renew is about.

And even before I knew that they were looking to, to grow the team, I, it resonated with me. And it, because that's what I've been personally on a mission to do the whole time. So like, yes, you're preaching to the choir and also we need to keep saying it and repeating the chorus louder and louder. The framing of a beautiful business and a beautiful life is something that I'm going to sit with because I think that's such a powerful statement and the idea that yes, you [00:31:00] can do it and make a shitload of money and be able to do that.

But it all starts with intention. I mean, that's so rooted in why, why I use the word purpose so much around the work that we're doing, because. It doesn't have to be a quote unquote, pure impact business. Like there are so many ways to build a beautiful business and a beautiful life that contribute good in the world that again, don't have to fit into predefined boxes and it starts with intention.

Oh, I love, I love, I love, I love. So we know you're on the island. We know you're living a balanced life. You are building a beautiful life and enjoying it. I actually saw, um, on my quick pop in on social media today, NPR had a quick video about The five benefits of play, which I don't think a lot of people realize play is an absolutely vital, necessary thing, not just for human development into adulthood, but literally all of our lives.

I'm curious, Milly, how do you play?

Milly Tamati: This [00:32:00] is such an important question. I wish that more people just ask this question in their daily lives to bring it top to mind. Such a great question. Um, when I think about it, I think of two things. I think there is, um, a constant throughout my life. So those constants for me are probably movement and cooking.

So I'm that like, I'm that person who is walking 10, 000 steps a day, rain, hail, shine, mostly rain, hail, and snow in Scotland, let's be honest, a little bit of occasional sunshine. Um, and I'm so lucky, right? I live on this walker's paradise where I walk out my door and I'm like, Which of the 50 trails will I go on today?

And will I spot a sea eagle or will I see an owl? Like just the absolute walker's dream. And I usually go without any tech. It's just me. That's my time to think it's my time to process. It's my time to percolate on those ideas and almost without fail, if I'm stuck on something inside, if I just go for [00:33:00] a walk, it's the most simple way to untangle the thought.

Kt McBratney: Um, which is, it's, it's like, it seems obvious and also we are so overly connected that for some people, the idea of literally leaving your phone at home and going on a walk is impossible. It's almost like, it's such an, like self imposed barrier. Um, I love it. I do the same thing. I will do a screen free walk and even if it's for 10 minutes, right?

I'm walking around. And I live in a city. But it, there's still tons of trees, there are beautiful birds, there are flowers. I noticed a black and white cicada. Don't know if that's a real thing. Love! Don't know how that happened, but yeah. And then at the same time, this liminal space, things are, dots are connecting that we need to.

Okay. I love it. I'm with you. I also, now I'm like, I need to come to Scotland and go on a walk.

Milly Tamati: Yes. Come to Scotland. We can do a walk together.

Kt McBratney: Okay. Walking and cooking. I love.

Milly Tamati: [00:34:00] Yeah. So cooking, um, is a funny one because on our island, we don't have Uber Eats or Deliveroo. We don't have anything. We, we have a hotel, which has a pub, which is open in the summer, which you can go to get, get like a burger.

But apart from that, we are cooking from scratch all day, every day. Like all of our meals are, are cooked from scratch. And I think there's a real, um, beauty in that because when you're cooking every single meal, you have to get a little bit creative, uh, so that you're not just like, all right, the same thing again and again.

And it's really changed for me in the past year. We've been growing our own veg as well. And there's just something so cool about having a seed and then planting it. And then the seed grows. Honestly, I will never not be amazed at that process. I'm like, I don't understand. That's a broccoli? That was a seed?

Like, it will never not amaze me. And one thing I've really gotten into [00:35:00] recently, and anyone's listening and they want to talk about it, this is my recent complete obsession. Fermentation. So like, making, um, basically preserving, I've really gotten into like gut health. Whole nother thing. And just like the importance of like your gut on your mental health, on your brain, on all aspects of your life and how fermenting food used to be a part.

It used to be actually a survival skill. If you didn't know how to preserve food, you would just die. Like you wouldn't last through the winter. And it's a skill, it's this art that's been lost. And Katie, you should see my kitchen. It is getting completely out of control with just jars of things that I'm growing.

And then I'm like, I reckon I could ferment that and my husband comes home and he's like, Oh my gosh, we're going to need a bigger fridge. But to me, that feels like play. It's this process of being like, Hmm, I don't know how that's going to turn out. And I don't really care. It [00:36:00] doesn't matter if it's the best sauerkraut on the planet.

The point is the process. Of learning, experimenting, tasting, obviously, um, the ferments that end up coming out at the end of the day. So I would say like cooking is definitely a really, really big part of how I express myself.

Kt McBratney: Love that. It's also a way to demonstrate love or, or relieve stress. And it's the same thing, like very similarly, like even though I'm in Atlanta, we could, we could have. We could have groceries delivered. We could have so many different cuisines delivered and you know, budget aside, I want to cook dinner on a weekday because it is a way that I can disconnect. I can be creative. I can make something like when you, when you have a recipe in mind and you're like, I thought we had that ingredient and we absolutely don't.

And it's a fun way to like, again, to play and it doesn't have to be the best dish ever. I mean, it's ideal if it's [00:37:00] edible. But to be like, Oh, what if I do this? What if I do that? And yeah, there's a physicality to it as well. And I love how you with the fermentation, which we went through a whole homemade kombucha stage here.

So with you on that, uh, but like this idea that it's something that is very old and you can learn a lot from years and centuries and different traditions around that. Also, we live in this technological world in which we can have access to that information and then add our little twist or experiment a little bit differently.

So it's very much doing something that is so part of human history and survival, and also in a world where we have access to, how did they do it in Korea? Mm-Hmm. Versus how did they pickle things in Norway? Yeah. And what do I wanna play with? Um, is, is so fun. I love it. Now I will be asking for a photo of your, of, of your [00:38:00] fermentation jars and, and get an update on that because that's, you'll regret it.

That's so fascinating.

Milly Tamati: You'll regret it, but I will, I will send you the photos, photos, plural. Um, and then

Kt McBratney: I I love a rabbit hole

Milly Tamati: I want to make one more point because when I was thinking about this question, I was like, okay, that's kind of my constant, like, every day, every week, I'm moving and I'm cooking.

That's like a non negotiable. But I was like, Oh, it's really interesting when I zoom out a little bit and look at my month and how much, depending on my cycle, the way I play really changes as well. And how I will go through these troughs or peaks and troughs of like massive creativity where I'm like, I got to just play guitar tonight, or I got to go write this, I got to go write this poetry or have a very on again, off again relationship with painting.

Um, Um, but that's not a constant. That's very much depending on where I am during the month. Um, but that can be a huge outlet. Um, it's, for me, creativity and play are [00:39:00] very, very interlinked.

Kt McBratney: Definitely agree. And I also go through seasons or cycles and, and, and, uh, where I just have to do it. I have to, um, make art, right.

Um, there's some of it behind me. Um, and then there'll be a few weeks where I'm like, no, I need to just, I need to just cook and go for a walk and, and, and be with their, it's, it's fascinating. And now I'm going to take a look and zoom out. And I'm, I'm curious, um, from, from the listeners and the audience, I'm, I want, I'm curious to hear how that resonates with other people, if that maps to what they're observing and or is a great invitation for us to observe and reflect on our own patterns.

Milly Tamati: Totally.

Kt McBratney: Thinking of observations and sharing with others. Question seven. Because I know you probably get a lot of this, how do you know what advice to take and what advice to let go of, [00:40:00] especially as like a first time founder at this stage at this type of company?

Milly Tamati: Yeah. I think a lot of this, um, this idea of death by committee and you have to be really careful of that just at any time, but particularly when you're building like a community based business, um, people care so deeply and there's always going to be lots of opinions and lots of advice.

Um, I guess when I think about this question, a story pops into mind, which was earlier this year, we had our first acquisition offer came out of the blue inbound, wasn't prepared, wasn't expecting it. It was totally new territory. I wasn't even on my radar to, to consider an acquisition. And so you'd think that my strategy would be to go and speak to as many exited founders as possible.

Maybe a lawyer, maybe an accountant. And whilst that was on the path and that was on the cards to do, one of the very, very first people I spoke to was my mother in law, my mom in law, [00:41:00] my husband's mom. And she knows next to nothing about business. I don't even think she'd ever heard the word acquisition in this context.

I had absolutely no idea, but she has the strongest moral code of anyone I know. And she has 30 years of life experience. And she's just a really wonderful listener. And so she was one of the first people I went to, to talk about, would I even consider this is some, is this something that feels right, all the considerations.

And, um, to answer your question, when I'm seeking advice, I kind of group it into two, potentially three, you could say, um, types of people. The first is someone who is two steps ahead of me, who has just sold their business, who, who knows it inside out, who knows the process, who knows what to watch out for.

I will go and speak to them and I will trust their advice. Um, if they are proven and if they have done that before, if they've walked the walk. But the second [00:42:00] group of people I would go to is someone that has just a really different lens. Someone that has like diverse experience. They might see something that group one doesn't see, that the normal status quo wouldn't consider.

And I think that's a really, really valuable opinion to have. And the last one is like, Myself, and this comes back to the really, really long walks. But I find that often the answer that I'm looking for is actually just sitting like quite deep in my belly. And I just need to go on a long, quiet walk and I need to listen.

I need to let it untangle. And when, because it's an interesting question, because like, it's the whole too many cooks in a kitchen. There is no shortage of advice in the world. Everyone will give you the two cents. And at the end of the day, it comes down to that feeling in your belly and having the self assurance and the self confidence to like, actually trust that you already have the [00:43:00] answer.

You already know the answer. You can listen in, you can take the advice, often with a pinch of salt, um, but really the answer's already inside. That's what I've learned.

Kt McBratney: So true. That, that hard agree. I'm gonna, I love that grouping into those three categories as well, right? Decider is you. Now you are clearly someone who radiates that they love their life and their work.

For our final question, what's the hardest part of your job and what is like the best part of what you do?

Milly Tamati: So I am the chaotic visionary founder. I have, I'm sparking the ideas, I've got the energy, I'm bringing all the strategy, but As soon as it comes to these nitty gritty, like teeny tiny, if it's even like operational or details or like processes, [00:44:00] it's just painful for me.

It's like, it, it just is not how my brain operates. And so my very first hire was Ece. Who has that brain. She came in, she runs community and operations. She is the detail. When I'm going on my rant of like, Whoa, this, this, this, this, she brings me down to earth and she's like, okay, but what are the steps?

And let's write them down. And she's very process driven. Um, I would be completely lost without that side. Um, so I would say the hardest part of my job is getting through the, the, maybe does everyone say this? I don't know. Like getting through like the annoying, like admin, accounting, like all the things that just feel like a bit of a bummer.

Um, and then the flip side, the best part of my job without a shadow of a doubt is the people I get to work with. Like I've mentioned it before, they're like my besties. They are just a really amazing crew. And [00:45:00] yeah, getting to like over my laptop every day, we, we met up for the first time in March and I did have a moment of like, are we going to like each other in real life?

Like, I dunno, we, we're pretty good friends on the internet, but like, we're all going to stay in an Airbnb together. Is this going to be weird? And it wasn't, it wasn't, it was like being with like your sisters. It was like so much fun. Um, and I think the, the thing I keep coming back to of like, huh, why, why does that work?

Is we are deeply values aligned, deeply. So even if the mission, even if like the product of Generalist World changes, even if there's like operational changes, it doesn't matter because our values so deeply aligned and yeah, they're the best.

Kt McBratney: That's the dream. That's the dream. All right. Tell folks, I know that like people are lighting up, feeling seen, feeling reflected, feeling inspired.

Where can folks keep up with you [00:46:00] and generalist world? Go ahead and let us know where we can stay in the loop.

Milly Tamati: So the first thing, if you are not sure if you're a generalist, but you're like, maybe I am, maybe I'm not. We have brought in an organizational psychologist from Miro and he's developed a quiz, which tells you which archetype of generalist you are.

So if you're feeling a little bit lost, if you're hearing generalist for the first time, which lots of people probably are. You can go and take this quiz, www. generalistquiz. com, and that is a really great starting ground, I think, for people to have a little bit of language and a bit of, um, a stepping stone to kind of go deeper.

Kt McBratney: And I, I took the quiz. It's super fun and easy. Like it's not, it's not like one of those, yeah, it's not like a 16 page psychological evaluation, but also it's very illuminating. I learned that I am a system thinker. And translator, primarily, with some other splashes in there. So, take the quiz, jump into maybe our [00:47:00] LinkedIn's or wherever you do your social, let us know what you are, because now I want to know what everybody is.

Milly Tamati: Great idea. Do it. Definitely tag me, which leads me to, I am most active on LinkedIn. Milly Tamati, I think I'm the only one, so pretty easy to find. Um, our URL is generalist. world and you can find everything there from resources to our podcast, um, to everything. So yeah, come and check us out. If you think you're a generalist, definitely reach out, um, on LinkedIn and let me know you found, you found me through this conversation.

Kt McBratney: Thank you so much, my friend. This is, you know, I'm such a fan of not just what you're building and who you're building for, but how you're building it. So thank you for sharing your purpose with us. Uh, your spark with us and, um, I just can't wait to see what's next. So I will talk to you on the other side of International Generalist Day and we'll see what 2025 has in store.

Milly Tamati: Can't wait. Thank you so much. This was so fun.