Meet a Member: Brooke Tully

Brooke is one of the newest additions to our BoP community, joining us at the start of February. She works in Conservation Marketing and runs webinars and workshops on her website with the initiative of creating conservation movements. What sets Brooke’s approach apart is that she helps conservationists design outreach and communication plans that motivate action & change. She has also been involved in several projects concerning wildlife conservation where she partners up with valuable organizations like the Wildlife Conservation Society and World Wildlife Fund to promote the adoption of conservation behaviors.

This is how purpose shaped her personal life and career path:

“About 8 years into my career working at ad agencies, I started to feel the nagging sensation in the back of my brain that my time & energy could be better spent working on issues that matter (rather than selling credit cards to people who don’t need them.) Yet, I did not know which issues were most important to me; i.e., what my purpose or passion really was.

I got connected to a vocational coach and discovered that wildlife conservation was a calling for me, and then spent 2 years figuring out what someone with an advertising background & business degree can do in the field of conservation.

Through volunteer work and informational interviews, I landed a job at a nonprofit organization focused on behavior change campaigns for conservation. I worked there for 9 years, applying my advertising and audience knowledge to help scientists and conservationists around the world communicate more effectively with their community-based audiences with the goal of inspiring sustainable behaviors.

My next purpose calling was to take my own show on the road and develop a more effective and efficient methodology for designing behavior change communication strategies. I do this now independently as both a consultant and a trainer for clients around the world and across the U.S.”

Here’s her advice about how to find purposeful and meaningful work:

“If you are not already clear about your passions, then spend time reflecting across your entire life: what were the moments when you felt inspired, empowered, driven, emotional? Are there themes to those topics that you can pinpoint across the span of time? Make a list of what those topics are (even if they sound silly) and explore which ones you can envision doing as volunteer, part-time, or full-time endeavors.

If you want to work with a nonprofit organization, then give yourself permission and space to try different ones and find one that works best with, and for, you. To keep it real, you may get frustrated and disappointed with a lot of them — as many are not well-run or managed — but there are great places out there where you’ll feel like your work is having an impact. It’s ok to hop around until you find the right fit.”

Learn more about Brooke here.