Listen to the interview here!
Elizabeth Beebe
Toni Reece: Hi there. This is Toni Reece. Welcome to the Get Inspired! Project, brought to you by Berks County Living magazine. Today I am with Elizabeth Beebe. Elizabeth, welcome to the Get Inspired! Project.
Elizabeth Beebe: Thank you very much. It’s a pleasure. Thank you for having me.
Toni: Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Elizabeth: I’m 33 years old. I work for Berks County Living as an advertising sales executive selling ads. I’m first and foremost a mother to my son, Owen, who is 4, and my daughter, Claire, who is 2. I love to read. I love to shop when I have time, which is not very often. My main thing is my family and my job.
Toni: Fantastic. Let’s go to the very first question of the Project. What does inspiration mean to you?
Elizabeth: Inspiration to me is when a person, through their words or through their actions, makes me want to be a better person.
Toni: Okay. Can you give me an example of something like that?
Elizabeth: Sure. Working in Berks County in what I do, I do meet a lot of people. I think it’s more people’s actions. I think one of the things today – and I don’t want to sound mean – but I think people aren’t as polite as they used to be, and I think simple acts of kindness are what really get to me. Just somebody holding a door open or somebody saying, “Thank you.” I try to instill that in my children as well.
For example, I work in the GoggleWorks building, so I’m seeing a lot of people. It’s a pretty big building in and out. You see the same people day after day. They notice if you’re not there. One of the people said to me, “I haven’t seen you. Is everything okay? Are you all right? Are the children okay?” Just simple things like that where I say, “I really appreciate you asking me these questions and caring about me.” It’s a little bit different than what most people think of inspiration, but for me, it inspires me to step back and think, “Are people seeing me as a nice person? Are people understanding that I care about them, too?” I think it’s little things like that.
Toni: So it’s not a grand, sweeping gesture.
Elizabeth: No, not at all.
Toni: You’re looking for the little acts of kindness.
Elizabeth: Yes.
Toni: Actually, it’s almost a reflection back to you that people are paying attention to you?
Elizabeth: Thank you, yes.
Toni: It really is. How do you put your definition of inspiration into practice here in Berks County?
Elizabeth: I’m very conscious when I’m meeting people to make sure I am being aware of them and letting my kindness show through and listening. With meeting so many different people and being in sales, I tend to think I’m pretty outgoing. I like to talk to people, and I want to make sure I listen to them, so the next time I talk to them if there was something we talked about before, I can bring that up and say, “How is so-and-so doing?” or, “Whatever happened with that job interview?” or things like that.
I try to practice what I preach, so to speak. I just want to be sure that I’m always coming across as kind and caring, and not just, “This is just my job and I’m doing this, but I do actually want to help you, and I do actually care about you and your business.”
Toni: Do you find that people are surprised by that, when someone’s speaking to you that you’re actually listening to them and reflecting back to them what they’re saying? Do you find people surprised?
Elizabeth: Sometimes. More often than not I don’t, which is very encouraging. I take action from that. Some people step back from that – some people think it might be too personal. If I feel that’s the case, I will step back and not delve too deeply into their personal lives and make it more business, but for the most part, I think people appreciate when you ask them, “How’s your family?” so it makes it less cut and dry and it’s more of an open conversation.
Toni: Who in Berks County inspires you?
Elizabeth: I’m going to have to say my coworkers. I work with a great bunch of people, and they’re all different, but at the same time, we’re all the same as well in the point that everyone is very fun, everyone is very kind, and everyone brings something different to the table, and I like that. I like the fact that I enjoy coming to work. I enjoy working with the people that I work with, because that’s not the case with everybody. Some people hate their jobs. Some people hate their coworkers. I’m lucky enough to love both, so each and every person I work with is an inspiration to me in a different way.
Toni: You started the interview by saying what inspiration means to you is kindness, and then who inspires you with your coworkers. One of the ways you’ve described them is that they are kind. Can you give an example of your office environment or what happens there that inspires you?
Elizabeth: Sure. I will give you one example. We have a monthly meeting, and we always start off that monthly meeting with naming a personal and professional accomplishment since we’ve last met. The personal accomplishments are always so much fun, because we all know each other, so when we explain our personal accomplishment, each and every person says, “Oh, that’s great. I remember you talking about that last time,” or, “What happened with this?” That’s always a fun thing.
Toni: It sounds as though the camaraderie of it and the caring is the word that’s coming out for me, that there’s a great sense of caring within your team.
Elizabeth: Exactly, yes. We’re a family.
Toni: And it’s that caring, isn't it, that inspires you, as well as the kindness?
Elizabeth: Absolutely.
Toni: What do you want your legacy to be?
Elizabeth: I’ll be a little cliché here, but I do want to say that I want my legacy to be my children. The way that they act as they grow up, I want people to think, “Wow, they were raised very well.” Already my son and daughter both say “please” and “thank you.” To me, I think that’s very important, and one of the greatest compliments to me is when someone says, “Your son is very polite and he has a good heart.”
Anyone who has children can understand that the way you raise them is very important, and it’s a reflection of yourself, so as they get older for people to see the way they act and to say, “They’re a kind, caring person, and that reflects upon their parents; they’ve been raised well.” That, to me, will be terrific.
Toni: I’m so fortunate that I am able to do this Project through Berks County Living magazine, because so many people have different takes on that word “inspiration” and what inspires them, and the way that you’ve described kindness and caring has come full circle, not only in what it means to you to be inspired by that, but also how you’re instilling that as a legacy you want to leave with your children. That’s pretty cool. Thank you for sharing that.
Elizabeth: Thank you for having me. This was great. I really appreciate it.
Toni: You’re welcome.
Elizabeth Beebe
