Today we’d like to introduce you to Martha Williams
Martha, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Like so many of us, I was feeling there was something really wrong. It was about 2017 and the switch to digital communication and information overload was starting to take a toll. I went through a couple of friend breakups over text, which was unheard of for me, and after the 2016 election I started defriending certain folks on social media. And at the same time, being a filmmaker, I made a 4-episode web series about the toxic landscape of online dating – a world where distraction, lack of presence, lack of listening and a consumerist mindset reigned. I usually made work as an artist (film, writing, dance) in response to personal or cultural dissonance.
But this time, I felt like my art just didn’t matter in the context of the crisis we were (or I) was facing in our American world. First, we were drowning in media. Did I really need to contribute to the deluge? And second, we were melting down online, devolving into name-calling, cutting people out and off and as a whole, Americans were more isolated and lonely than ever. We were in a deeply disconnected time.
This is when I made the decision to focus my energies on something that could truly make a difference. I just didn’t know what that would be until the pandemic hit. That’s when my partner, John Scilipote, and I decided to host an online dinner party. It was awful at first. People were coming and going and generally not really present. But then we put some structure to it and everything changed. Who knew the simple act of how you gather could shift something so deeply? That, along with our unique presence and way of holding the space, allowed for this powerful project to emerge.
From there we developed BreakBread World, a process designed to reweave our common humanity, one conversation at a time. The process invites people to infuse a little ritual into gathering with people they have a future with – their friends, family, communities, workplaces – where they get an opportunity to spiral around one prompt (question) for an hour. Here’s an example of a prompt: What does freedom feel like? Tell us a story (or a moment) when you discovered you were free or when you discovered that you were not free.
After hosting hundreds of BreakBreads, we consider ourselves “Conversation Activists”, working with the power of conversation to create ripple effects for a better world. We’ve developed a couple of other offerings: a conversation practice, called Embodied Conversation, custom conversation design services and facilitation for organizations and communities and something we call Conversation Labs.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
There are many places we’ve struggled. In fact, that’s what being an entrepreneur is – struggling and then adjusting. And it’s these struggles that have led to a reorganization of our offerings. We are right in the beginning of that reorganization.
First, we’ve been belaboring over the hard sell to corporations and conferences. We’ve had some success (see photos) but it’s been slow – which in some ways is expected. This is partially due to the newness of our ideas along with the challenges of scaling. BreakBread as we’ve been doing it, always has a trained facilitator at the head of a 6 person table. That’s not cheap when you have say…a hundred people across 16 or 17 tables. The slowness of getting it into the hands of many has left us feeling dimmed. So we decided to pull away from selling to creating a BreakBread World Card Deck / Game that we can easily get into people’s hands.
This brings us to a second struggle, people usually can’t sense the power of the BreakBread process until they’ve attended, but getting people to BreakBread has a high barrier to entry partially because it is time consuming and costly. The BreakBread Card Deck / Game will give people an opportunity to lead the journey themselves with people in their communities or workplaces without pulling us into it. Sure, they don’t get us, but some folks will want us to come in for a BreakBread set up and introduction or a Conversation Keeper training or an Embodied Conversation Coaching and Training. Or it could lead to custom conversation experience design. That said, we hope that when people experience the process, they will sell for us! In fact, it’s already happening. We’ve held many Deck / Game focus groups as we finalize the game and a common response is, this would be great at work!
That said, why it’s great or what’s happening that leaves people feeling so good isn’t always obvious. We’ve struggled with having the bandwidth to clearly share the reasons behind our processes and what social ills we believe it heals. In our recent reorganization, we are now focused on writing a book and doing more interviews, like the one here with Canvas Rebel. Stay tuned.
These struggles have been part of the creative process of building the business. What’s exciting is that we’ve landed on a couple of organizing factors that make me feel really good about our direction. It’s akin to when I was making choreography and film. At some point in the process, something would emerge that gripped me so much that I could finally see that something powerful was coming of it. This is a really exciting place to be.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m a lot of things, I’ve done a lot of things and I don’t love fitting in boxes. Could this be because I’m taller than average?
I’ll start by saying the first conversation guideline for BreakBread “Show up more as you “be” and less as what you “do.” So as you can imagine, I don’t love spouting out my resume but you are welcome to check that out on my LinkedIn. But if I were to share about my resume, I’ll share that professionally, I have come really full circle. In my twenties, I had a deep interest in culture (B.A. Anthropology) and systems thinking and now, later in life, I’m coming back to culture and systems thinking after many years making film and dance. As a young professional, I was a sustainability activist and a life coach and facilitator. Then I moved into choreography and then film where I really could feel my creative drive and gained confidence to take chances and “make magic”. Much of my professional career has been steered by a sense of vision, mixed with the desire to help heal a world that, for me, never felt as balanced and as sane as it could be. My strategic mind has always been asking, is this really it? What is really going on in the world around me?
Alongside my professional life, I’ve had many teachers along the way, and the institutional ones, George Washington University and California Institute of the Arts, were mostly lessons in the status quo. But then there were the radical transformational institutions/teachers: Regina Thomashauer, Kasia Urbaniak, The Coaches Training Institute, Landmark Education, Social Venture Network, and countless books. These were teachers who looked at life, just like me, who said, is this it? Isn’t there more? Does the status quo really work? Then there were the teachers who helped develop my character my mother, who taught me about love; an old boyfriend who taught me about hard work; a dance teacher who taught me about spirit; a collaborator who taught me about power; a lover who taught me about receiving; a best friend who taught me about grace; my grandfather who taught me about play; and of course, the trees who taught me about knowing (not the knowledge type of knowing).
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
Since we are at the beginning of our reorganization:
– Get on the list to pre-order the BreakBread Card Deck / Game by signing up for our newsletter (reach out on the BreakBread.World website).
– Let us know if you want us as a guest on your podcast.
– Reach out about working with us in any of the following capacities for your business or organization: BreakBread Intro and Support, custom conversation experience design, Embodied Conversation coaching and training for your staff (reach out on the Culture Shift Agency website)
– We are starting to put feelers out for a freelance Marketing Director, let us know if you know anyone!
– Here’s our email info@cultureshiftagency.com or connect@breakbread.world
Pricing:
- BreakBread Card Deck / Game – $35
- BreakBread Organization Intro & Training – $8,000
- Consulting – $250 / hour
- Embodied Conversation Coaching – $250 / session
- Embodied Conversation Group Coaching – $95 / per person, per session
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.breakbread.world/ & https://www.cultureshiftagency.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/breakbread_world/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9jh7oBhXvmaXnqzDwMHtog
Image Credits
Liz Rubin
Taku Nishimae
Cannon Hersy
Sarah Baley