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Hello Reader,

After a two-month hiatus from this newsletter, I'm returning with - hopefully - novel ideas and renewed energy for the rest of the year.

One attitude that I'm embracing this time around is to slow down.

In the past, returning from vacation meant getting up to speed as quickly as possible. Trying to make up for lost time. I've thrown myself against that mental wall many times.

The result?

I exhausted myself at record speed because I stepped back onto the hamster wheel.

This time, I'm doing things differently:

My calendar is pretty open.

I'm prioritizing consistent work blocks toward long-term projects and I schedule other types of work around those blocks. In moderation.

I slow down in the gym: Lighter weights than pre-vacation. Focusing on good form and deliberate movement. Accepting that taking 6+ weeks off means I need to rebuild before I can move forward.

I'm starting a new work project (see "On my desk" below) and instead of drinking from the firehose, I prioritize meeting and getting to know the new team and constituents so we can build a relationship before trying to co-create anything.

This pace feels aligned with how I want to show up for myself, my family and my community. There's still an echo in the back of my mind that yells I should be working faster and harder. But my 39-year-old wisdom is taking over, reminding me that slow is smooth and smooth is fast — a credo well-known in the CrossFit world and my mantra for the remainder of the year.

Here's what I have for you (unfortunately, Kit doesn't support in-mail anchor links, so you'll have to scroll):

1. Ecosystem Essentials: From social capital to financial capital 💰
2. From the Show: Season 7 is a wrap!
3. On my Desk: I'm joining ESHIP Alliance
4. Bookish: An extensive summer reading list (English and German)
5. Shen-Anika-ns: The summer I interviewed my parents 🎙
6. A quick poll for you

Ecosystem Essentials: From social capital to financial capital

In May, I invited the inimitable Julie Heath to join me for a webinar with a group of innovation ecosystem storytellers. Julie is a genius network builder (we discussed her Know-how via Know-who approach in Season 4) and a brilliant storyteller (we devoted a double episode to it in Season 6).

She is one of the rare ecosystem experts I've had on the show twice.

In our most recent conversation, Julie shared how she makes the case for supporting entrepreneurship by highlighting the significant contribution of startups to Indiana's economy and by aligning funders' missions with the right local startup story.

I worked with Julie to capture these lessons in a new Ecosystem Essential in which Julie shares what she does, how she does it, how it works, and how you can apply these lessons in your ecosystem:

Bookish

What I read this summer:

• Atmosphere, Taylor Jenkins Reed. An intense and beautiful read telling the (fictional, I believe) story of the first women in the NASA Space Program. Highly recommend.
• ​Sandwich, Catherine Newman. I didn't like it as much as We all want impossible things but an intimate coming-of-motherhood read nonetheless. Could probably use a trigger warning for child loss.
• ​Are You Awake?, Sarah Crossan. A sombre and very English fiction read. Not available in the US yet.
• ​The Ministry of Time, Kaliane Bradley. This is a sci-fi book set in current-day London about time travel. Sounded promising at first but I've been struggling to finish it. I feel like it's moving slowly but the premise is cool.
• ​Luegen, die wir uns erzaehlen, Anne Freytag. Hands down the best book I read all summer (year?). Raw, relatable, realistic. Loved it.
• ​Die Hummerfrauen, Beatrix Gerstberger. This was hyped as THE beach read in Europe this summer. It mostly held up though I wished the author had given us some closure at the end.
• ​Die Ueberlebenden, Alex Schulman. A sombre, yet deeply intimate portrait of a Swedish family, also with an unexpected twist at the end. If you like Peter Hoeg, this is for you.
• ​25 Letzte Sommer, Stephan Schaefer. I see what the author is trying to do, relaying some big lessons about life but it was a little heavy-handed. Luckily, under 200 pages.
• ​Drei Sommer lang Paris, Patricia Holland Moritz. An East German emigrates to Paris just before the Berlin Wall falls. Lots of literary references and an unusual read.

From the show

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And that's a wrap on season 7, folks! If you want to catch up on the latest episodes, head over to the show and subscribe.

From my desk

I'm excited to join the ESHIP Alliance as a core team member to help advance our field of ecosystem building in the US. Before this role, I sat down with fellow ecosystem builder Tiffany Henry to talk about my views on the practice of ecosystem building and how it ties back to my East German roots.

I have many ideas for how to help build the field and tell the stories of the Unsung Heroes of this work:

Shen-Anika-ns

In issue #104, I mentioned that I wanted to interview my parents about their lives. I was curious about their childhoods, about their careers and families and relationships.

One night during our beach vacation, I whipped out my travel recording equipment and got started. And I had no idea where this would lead.

We swapped stories and memories that we each still carried with us (and that the other had no recollection of).

We followed up.

We took our time.

In the end, we spent four nights in deep conversations about who they are and how they became who they are now, what role work and family play in their lives, what their hopes are for my sister and me, and what they wanted us to know.

While the recordings themselves are a gift (I have 5+ hours of material), this format gave us the unique gift of reliving some of our fondest memories and learning things about the other that we otherwise would have never known.

If you want to have these conversations with YOUR parents, and I hope that you do, here's a bilingual conversation guide based on the one that I used:

Checking in: What are you here for?

If none of these apply to you or you have more than one favorite (the poll function only allows for one response), please hit "reply" and share with me what you most or least enjoy about this newsletter! I'm always trying to create better content for you so you don't have to go out there looking!

I'll be back in your inbox in two weeks with insights into the Philadelphia entrepreneurship ecosystem!

In camaraderie,

Anika

P.S. If you enjoy reading Impact Curator and want to support it, reply and say hi! Let me know what you're working on, dreaming about or ask me any burning questions you have. I'm right here, staring at my inbox and hitting refresh in hopes of hearing from you!