Scaling

the way I would describe the way my business works is, yeah I'm an artist and a scientist. I guess the flow of my business is that the talent I have as an artist and what I produce as an artist with my science knowledge drives my sales and then my sales allow me to do more science engagement if that makes sense. So, if you're looking at that. Where what I create makes sales and the sales give me more allowance with science engagement, the problem is that the bigger you get with something like this, the less important the science engagement would become. Because when you get to more business minded people it'd be really hard for them to rationalize spending money on the science engagement if that's not necessarily the driving force of sales, but that's something I'm going to experiment more with in the future.

this experience made me want to ... I've been thinking about the deficit model and saviorism and wanting to come back and be able to tell the story and how we tell the story, because Sarah said about this lets us do the work. And is that about doing the work that's funding? Coming back to get more money, to do something like this. So we can come back and claim credit and show the pictures and whatever, what does that mean? And all this has made me realize that I want to do, this is going to sound weird, but I want to do less better. I don't want to feel I have to cover quite as much ground. I want to go build more meaningful relationships, be a better partner and do less better.

I think scaling is a good thing, and I think it's totally possible, but I don't think individual things should scale to infinite numbers of people. Right? I think when we think of scaling and in the context of this type of engagement work, I sometimes think it's scaling to the point where here's the basic infrastructure or blueprint of what I did in my community. Take this and tailor it to your community. And keep it tiny, always keep it tiny. And I think that's, for me, how scaling would be most effective in this work.

what if we said Saturday was so successful that we want to know next fall, go to a fall festival, similar fall festivals around the country and have volunteers come in and bring science to the community. So I think that the biggest takeaway for me is that every time there has to be sort of these parallel strategies. So it is sort of logistics of like, let's get science out there, let's get the volunteers out there, let's get the material out there. But, I a big question for me was how much of the success of Saturday was just based off of setting up that table and the volunteers and the science, and how much was based off of the relationship between Richard and then the community and the relationship and strength of the community itself? That is not necessarily going to be the experience in any place that you go into. So equally, if not more when I think about hierarchy of need again, I think below as the foundation of even coming in with science, it's really that piece of just what sort of just training around cultural competency and around entering communities are folks getting what sort of tips and tactics are there around relationship building? How does outreach look like to become a part of an event? How does relationship building with event organizers look like? Those pieces seem extraordinarily important, it was the reason when me and Jeanne were standing on the line of then 70 somewhat people outside and tried to sneak through the door, and we're very abruptly stopped by Dottie Green, and then we just gave Richard's name and she was like, "Go ahead, go in" with a huge smile. That can look very different, that could look like, I'm with Jim and no one knows who Jim is. So those pieces are really important, and so that's just something I really think about because I think oftentimes, when we think about taking something good and scaling it, we miss something, and that's why the scaling doesn't happen in the right way. So I would hate to see sort of strategy around science outreach take off, without clear strategy around sort of cultural competency and Jamie said, cultural humility and really this piece around building relationships and entering places as "outsider" in the right way.

think a little bit more about what's already happening and what are the ways that we can amplify what's already happening instead into what's already happening, as opposed to thinking more about, "How can we help you meet the next goal?" But rather thinking on a longer timescale, how can we help you do what you're doing next month, as a way to develop the partnership and the trust, and an understanding how you operate on a day-to-day basis or how you are readier during your public events or your family science nights or whatever to integrate there before moving to the next piece which is not necessarily the way that I had... It's certainly the way we... I come to understand how people are doing their work, but I don't necessarily try immediately to think about how to support them in the immediate future, but rather how to help them move to the next phase. And I think part of what I'm pulling away from this conversation that's really, really useful is how can I help you do the next thing that you already have on your calendar? And how can I make that easier for you as we develop this relationship? Before we try to turn that into something that's much bigger