Social Impact Leaders — Interview w/ Meghan Heather Lape of Conscious Impact Financial Planning
Meghan Lape (formerly known as Meghan Lefevre and Meghan Singh) became a social advocate as a young adult, coming to a crossroads when her privileged upbringing was put at odds by her mixed-race background. Her conviction became further impassioned when she stepped into acceptance of her queer identity and found that the consensual behavior that she participated in made her a felon in over 70 countries.
Though Meghan strives for equality in many factors of everyday life, the one aspect that she has found the most compelling is equality in financial opportunity. For the last 12 years she has made it her mission to bring financial literacy and education to those who are let down by the current system. By doing so, she hopes that these individuals will be able to advocate for their own social change instead of having to solely focus on their survival day in and day out. Meghan knows that she cannot change the world alone, but by doing her part she can empower others to join in their own advocacy.
Social Impact — What meaning do you personally associate with this term?
To me, social impact means doing more than just for yourself or those who closely share your DNA. Social Impact is about improving the well-being of a community outside your family and working to continue that positive change though it may not benefit you personally.
Social Responsibility — What is your best practice to integrate it into your daily life?
Social responsibility is not just an act, it is an attitude. It is a way of thinking and being that recognizes that no individual can thrive outside of society, and because of that we must recognize that each of us is a contributor in many small ways. So the first step in starting to become accountable and integrating it into your daily life is simply to start talking about it. Start by telling your friends and family that social responsibility is something you care about. Start asking the companies you buy from how their practices exemplify or ignore social responsibility. Start examining your own practices to see if you are upholding your ideals in your own life. By starting these conversations, you will undo the worst offender of social responsibility — apathy.
Purchasing Power — What is it all about, and why is it real power?
Everyone has heard the saying money is power. But it would be more accurate to say money is means. The means to create choices and alternate solutions. The means to influence decisions through incentives and supplies. The means to make change or to make sure nothing changes. It is opportunity, capacity, and freedom. And as money is means, purchasing power is the mechanism. It is voting with our dollar and the application of influence on what we wish to continue to see in the world. Without it, we are not even a consideration in the economics of our community.
Conscious Living — Why is it important to live our life consciously? And how do our actions influence and affect each other, and therefore connect us?
No one wants to reach the end of their life and be disappointed by the movie that flashes before their eyes. Living consciously gives individuals the opportunity to reflect on whether they are creating the masterpiece they envisioned their movie to be. The butterfly effect is a great example of how we may affect things outside of our grasp, though sometimes we have difficulty measuring it and cannot always follow each action linearly. However, we would be remiss to think that we have zero affect the world or have zero say in the global economy. Macroeconomics cannot exist without microeconomics. So we have to trust that our smaller actions do translate into bigger actions, even if we cannot always see the difference.
Conscious Consumerism — Why, now more than ever, it is important to reflect on our buying habits, and research the brands we are consuming?
As much as we would like to think that companies are honest with us and all known information is accurate, the fact is that this is not usually the case. Being mindful of our own practices as well as the business practices of the companies we financially support is the best way to prevent falling down the slippery slope of overconsumption and reckless waste. We don’t know how long our planet can sustain our current economic system, but unless we find a way to make all of our inputs renewable, it is destined to fail eventually. Conscious Consumerism is the only way to move forward if we want to have a planet left to save.
The Future — What is your personal outlook on the future?
I am a “hope for the best but prepare for the worst” kind of person. We are all victims of entropy, all we can do is slow down the process. In my own observations, I can see why Gen Z is hesitant to bring new life into this world. I don’t know what kind of suffering the new generation may have to endure if we keep on our current trajectory as a species.
Change — What do you personally think needs to change — from a consumer perspective and within the corporate world?
We need to stop kicking the can down the road and thinking that because we are not in a state of emergency that these issues are not our problem. It is easy to procrastinate when the problem is so big or when we feel that there is so little we can contribute. Sustainability should be our biggest priority, not sales or productivity or any rate of return. This is our life, our survival, and our future on this planet. The current attitude that assumes humans will just adapt is not acknowledging how many people will die in the process.
THANK YOU!
Connect with Meghan Lape on LinkedIn.
Demee Koch about the MEDIUM interview series on Social Impact:
Hello! I am a serial entrepreneur practising conscious entrepreneurship. This is an interview series about social responsibility and the best practices in incorporating it into our daily lives.
Every day, we make an impact consciously and subconsciously. It is implemented through our actions.
A great example of this is the practice of our Purchasing Power where we can actually direct our impact by consciously deciding which brands and companies we nourish.
I interview change advocates about best practices for incorporating social consciousness into our daily lives, and practices in the business world that need to change for the benefit of social responsibility.
With this interview, we invite the reader to reflect their every day actions. We all have an impact, and if we are consciously aware of that, we can be empowered to start the change for a better future.
Thank you for being the change. I’m looking forward to learn from each one of you. Reach out to me via LinkedIn.
Demee ❤︎
