Last updated on 1 May 2020
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interesting humans podcast: episode three
If there is one thing I know about Lori Brauer, it’s her enormous heart. You can feel it the moment you meet. For the past 15 years Lori has been engaged in work with non-profits, raising funds and attention for less than fortunate people and worthy causes.
The other thing about Lori is that she is self-effacing. Her sense of humility comes out during our conversation as you’ll hear, always giving credit to others and drawing it away from her. We also talk about Lori’s entrepreneurial ethic of figuring things out even when she doesn’t know a thing and is not afraid to dive in to make things happen for others. One of the tools in her quiver is story-telling, and we talk about how this essential entrepreneurial skill comes to play.
Currently committed to a non-profit startup, the OMPT Foundation, whose goal is to provide the basis for even the most disadvantaged kids “to have a success story.” OMPT Foundation is currently working with schools in the Ferndale, MI school system with basics: food, hats, gloves, socks, underwear. Lori’s bent as an entrepreneur has helped the Foundation grow from just one to four schools in less than a year.
We spend the beginning of the episode talking about this current work helping these kids and her history in non-profits, which include stints with the Michigan Council of Women in Technology and The Epilepsy Foundation of Michigan. Lori expresses her passion that even the smallest contribution helps.
Lori’s entre into the non-profit world was a natural extension of her running. A tragic family event while training for the Detroit Free Press Marathon led her to raising money for Multiple Sclerosis Society and running the marathon with the name of her sister-in-law written on the insoles of her shoes while calling on her spirit to help Lori through the long 26.2 miles. Ten years later, in prepping for a celebration for her 50th birthday, Lori decided she wanted to skydive. There was another family loss, this time her Dad was stricken with cancer. In true fashion, Lori decided again that “it can’t just be about me.” While mourning the loss of “my biggest fan”, Lori raised money for both the American Cancer Society and the MS Foundation. And she did the jump: https://youtu.be/wxxwyJWaOkc. if you watch the video, you might even see Lori’s husband Rick, whom I’m told wasn’t as excited as Lori about jumping out of an airplane.
Lori’s passion for running comes back around when we turn to her work designing and making jewelry. As far as artists go, Lori is very kinesthetic. That’s why she says she was attracted to designing and making jewelry. I met Lori on the marathon expo circuit when she was selling running and other sport-themed jewelry she made at her workshop at home.
We then turn to her sense of what motivates creatives and how to overcome blocks and her sense of what creatives do.
Running comes up as a theme again when she met her husband Rick through a local running store and their mutual passion for running. In fact, Rick and Lori started the US runs of Parkrun, which began in the UK as a free, weekly timed 5k run. Since the very first Parkrun in Livonia’s Bicentennial Park in 2012, it has grown to 41 different Parkruns in the US.
Lori continues to put her heart first in all her work.
“It can’t be just about me,” she says. And indeed it isn’t.
Hope you enjoy my conversation with Lori Brauer.
Fact check! I misspoke about the FactBook statistics on children in Michigan. I stated that over 400,000 children are homeless in Michigan, but I should have stated that these are children living in poverty. Thank you!