Common Good for the Common Wealth: More Than Business: Building Community Through Gratitude and Purpose

What happens when entrepreneurship meets purpose, and gratitude becomes the foundation for everything?

In this episode of Common Good for the Commonwealth, Nancy Grayson sits down with Rachel DesRochers, founder and CEO of The Gratitude Collective, creator of Power to Pursue, and a true community builder, to talk about what it means to lead with heart.

From building six companies to creating spaces where women feel seen, heard, and loved, Rachel shares her journey as a serial entrepreneur, the power of “low-tech tech” (real human connection), and why gathering people around a table can be just as transformational as gathering them in a room of 900.

“If my legacy is making people feel loved, then that’s my legacy.”

This episode is a reminder that community is built in the small moments, and that sometimes the most powerful thing we can do is simply create space for one another.

Listen now. 

#CommonGoodForTheCommonwealth #NorthernKentucky #TheGratitudeCollective #PowerToPursue #WomenWhoLead #Entrepreneurship 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Welcome to Common Good for the Commonwealth, where we feature Northern Kentucky's uncommon advocates who work every day to make our community more vibrant. I'm your host, Nancy Grayson, president and CEO of Horizon Community Foundation of Northern Kentucky. And I'm absolutely thrilled to welcome Rachel DeBroitcher. CEO, founder, and friend of the Gratitude Collective. Welcome so much to the pod. Nancy, you did this. It's amazing. You've been inspiring. You've done so much with your own podcast. I want to know about that at all. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, but for those who are joining us today, I really want them to get to know about you. Tell me your story, kind of how you got to where you are. What gave you that spark to go down this entrepreneurial path that you've been on?

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Well, oh my gosh, that's I love that question. I've been a serial entrepreneur for 16 years now. I started my first company in 2010. My parents were very entrepreneurial, so I think I grew up in an entrepreneurial family. Um, and I've built six companies so far. Incredible. I have four that are up and running and operating, and I've said for a lot of years I build infused women, so uh it's not a bad thing. It's not a bad thing, right? Yeah, we eat well. Yes, so and it's cool. I think this region's incredible, and I'm very lucky to be here building at it.

SPEAKER_00 1:43

You and I were at a recent event where you were on a panel that I had the fortune to moderate, and I talked a lot about just being a female entrepreneur, and um also a quote that I love from um dear friend and a community leader, Jean Schwart, who says, you can have it all, but maybe not all at the same time. So speak to me about your pathway with these many different companies, but as a female entrepreneur, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

You know, I hear people say to me all the time, Nancy, like, I don't know how you do it all. And like the first thing I can say to them is like I don't. Um, I don't. In no shape of my world am I responsible for everything. I'm responsible for a lot of things. But in that, what I've learned, especially over the last few years, is I have the same hundred percent as everybody else. Some days it was 100% I crush it as a mom, and some days I crush it as a business owner, and some days I crush it as a community leader. Some days maybe I might be able to crush it all evenly. But I think part of that is it helps me see one, I can worry about stuff that I can't change, or I can do my work. I got a hundred, I got a hundred percent, I gotta cut that pie up, you know. I I'm cutting that pie up for everything. My companies, my projects, my ideas, my bombing, my personal life. And being a lady is the coolest part of it all. Like um it's my greatest asset. It's a superpower. I and I think it's you know, I come back to this. It's the it's the the tending of it. Or I tell people all the time if I could hire anybody, I would hire mothers. I don't know a better bunch that can jumble. They run the world. They run the world. And so the being a female part of it has just been from the well, if I can do it, you could definitely do it. Because like I don't know that I'm I'm not special. I'm just a girl about town who has an idea and wants to see the world through this lens instead of that lens.

SPEAKER_00 3:53

Well, I think you're such a rock star. I know you're being humble right now, but it's true, you've you've built this empire of sports, um, speaking about women, one of which is this power to pursue I'm going to call it an experience. Yeah, it's more than an event. Um, the few times I've been, it has just floored me in terms of the speakers, the energy in the room. What where do you see this path going? I know it's explaining to us.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

We just brought an expansion director on board. That's so big deal. Um, what's Nancy? Again, this is how much of an entrepreneur we've we've expanded into some cities, and we've seen cities that haven't worked yet. So we're again like it's the willingness to try. Like, I want to throw spaghetti at the walls. And so Brittany has built something really great in Lawrenceburg and has been running it for three years, and we just brought her on to help us see outside of the city. And so in 2026, we have a goal for Austin, Boston, Chicago, and Nashville. Amazing. And that sounds like a country song. In my spare time. Oh, you're coming on that one with me. I know you sing, so we have to take care of that part. Um, I think that man, building something like this here in the Midwest, I think what it's done is given permission to a lot of women that we don't have to do things separately, that we are better together. Yes. And I think it's given a real ripple in that space, and the space that I collectively talk about from the angle of like, there's one seat at the table, right? Like, that's an archaic thought that I think we probably heard. I don't know that the 20-year-olds hear that the way that we did. Yes. But I still think that we have a lot of women who believe it. And I think that when I've with Power to Pursue, I've always seen it as a women's empowerment movement whose mission is to create a safe space for women to be seniored and loved it. Every woman I know needs more of that. And it doesn't matter if you're a CEO or if you're a founder or if you're a stay-home mom. What matters is collectively we're change agents. We're change agents in our homes and in our communities and in our backyards and in these rooms that we're in right now. Every woman, mother, mother, janitor, CEO, you know, student, retiree. And the more that we can come together to remind us the power and importance of togetherness, again, like the world's on fire, build together, make it magical. We have every we have access to everything we could ever imagine here. And so to know that something that just started here in this region, in this Midwest, and this Cincinnati, northern Kentucky, and can go to the women in Boston and remind them too that they're good enough and they're smart enough and that they need every person in their corner. Like we need each other, you know, and it's like that's if that's my job, I got the coolest job.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

It is the best job. Although I love my job too. You think that job? I know. We do have some good kids around us. But the similarity, I think, is that I also helped, I was tasked by my board to build something from the ground up, which is, by the way, terrifying when you've not done something that is just to lean in, it's and that phrase is loaded, I know, but to take that first step forward and to say, I may not do it perfectly, but I'm going to do it to the best of my ability. And building a community foundation, building this movement of giving or a movement of gratitude.

SPEAKER_01 7:39

It's authentic community building. And that's how it's like when it's authentic, it it works.

SPEAKER_00 7:46

It does. But I think that's the benefit of looking at that site, that's too. I also think we have a lot more resources now, and I think through Blue North and we have this beautiful, beautiful studio that we're working in at Spark House, where we're located now, for this podcast. And uh our partnership with Blue North, with the Northern Kentucky Entrepreneur Finance show we'll have Dave Knock on at some point. But you've had a strong ship, and it's huge. It's huge here. So we'll talk to you about.

SPEAKER_01 8:17

These are those guys that you know, I've I've had a lot of people will tell you what you do is cool. But it's another thing to come in and say, what you're doing is cool, and I can help open a door. Yes. What you're doing is cool, and I see it, and I can champion you. What you're doing is cool, and you need to be at this table. And I think that's I have a lot of respect for Dave because Dave's one of those people. I I would put you in that category. There's people that say it, and then there's people that do it. And the doers are really important. And we are a community of doers. We are a community of doers, and and I think that's you know, I I am grateful for what Dave saw in me. It's the people like you guys who've seen it because I'm too busy being in it. Um, that I I don't that's not my job sometimes. And sometimes I need you guys to hit me over the head with a cast iron skill to be like, no, girl, you you are, you got it. Like you know what you're doing, you know? Because I just I love what I get to do. I love the impact, I love the rooms I get to build, and I love the people I get to work with, like truly every day.

SPEAKER_00 9:29

Well, it's evident when people meet you in person, yeah. Social media, one of my favorite things, and I'm a foodie too, um, is you post a lot about cooking. We both have this joy of it. It's a love language. What have you cooked recently? I've been getting into grain salads a lot lately. It's spring. People really want more vegetables. I think my husband and my daughter who's still at home currently would love more meat and potatoes, but I I really want something fresh right now, and grains seem to be kind of Have you gotten on the bean salad trip? I haven't, yes. Okay, I haven't, and I need to because I like beans. Yes. The blue zone diet is a big deal, and I think it's something I try to lean in on where folks who've lived uh up to a hundred years, there's seven zones, blue zones in the the world that have these kind of common traits, and the the diet actually is very much a critical piece of that. So what I've been seeing you, I mean you're I love and your cooking has changed too.

SPEAKER_01 10:28

It has, and I'm in a season where I'm I feel cooking is a love language for me. It is um I often will guilt myself into like I don't have something that helps me relax, but cooking is that. Yes, I might not knit or do crafty things, but like being in the kitchen and I, Nancy, I love I love a dinner party. Oh, I love a dinner party table. But I love just three or four friends over in a slow cook Saturday. Like I love to orchestrate a menu and I love to go to the store and I love to make part of it in rest and then make another part of it in rest. Like I want it to be an all-day meditation for me. So unrealistic to do that all the time. Yes, but I love, love, and I that's my my mom. I mean, I have just such core memories of watching her in the kitchen and moving around the space, even my dad, like food is a pillar in my family. Um yeah, feeding people is just so this year, 2026, last year I wanted to do it. I wanted to host a Sunday supper where I just no frills, I don't care if my house is clean, but I just need space to cook. I canceled every single one of them because by the time it got there, I was exhausted. Oh, right. So this year there's not, and you're like, oh, Sunday off, I could just land up. No one even no one even knows I'm coming to this thing. So but this year I've done it. I've done two, and I've just invited like 12 people, which might sound like a lot. And for me, I'm like, well, that's it's a party. It's a party, but it's not a lot, it's not, it doesn't feel stressful. I can make a few things, and we all just want that. Like it has been so restorative to me just to like, and I even think for me, showing my kids, I have teenagers, it's like, no, we can just get together once a month with some of our family and have dinner. I love that. I'm doing a big potato bar, you know. Like it's not this big, but like it's just the art and act of the gathering for me.

SPEAKER_00 12:36

And I think the pandemic, as hard as it was, reminded us of some of those simple things. And I know because we were deprived of other experiences, that I think we really kind of got back to the nuts and bolts of what it means to be grateful to have maybe a small community for those of us who were able to have a smaller pod to stay with. Um, yeah, and I'm glad we're on the other side of it. Thank goodness I'm a social person, so I thrive on being out in the community with others, but um, having that intentional time where it's it's not a high level of expectation, and you can be authentic and genuine. I love that idea of a Sunday supper. You know, something that I've seen and I've always loved when my husband was at the Harvard Umstitute of Politics, he would have directors' dinners where they would have a feature speaker come in, invite students, even our girls who would have their hair bows. Yes, you'd get to hear from world leaders in a very intimate setting about something that was more like a salon that was going on. And I think our community needs more of these types of like very intimate ways that we can plug in um and and learn. And I hope this podcast is one piece of that. But yeah, how do we become more connected as a community?

SPEAKER_01 13:52

Yeah, because there's so many smokes, right? Like when you're in it, you're in the middle of this wheel right now, and so you do have all of those offshoots that you can connect and bring people in, and it's important. And well, I think growing power to pursue where I'm building something that is gonna have 900 people at wow is so cool. And I also have such a deep gratitude and respect for 10 people now, and the art of like community in that.

SPEAKER_00 14:23

What's do you see a difference between a small 10 person, or do you put the same care? I know you work so hard at the same people.

SPEAKER_01 14:33

Depth of energy for me, I tell people a lot. For me, my job and power to pursue, like, truly, if I really set an intention, is that I just want every person to feel love. That walks through that door that day. So I like that. That's really what I'm holding. And so it same at dinner, I want people to feel love. Like, if that's a legacy, then that's my legacy, right? That was the greatest way I think, even to honor my mom.

SPEAKER_00 14:58

And so, yeah, I do think it is the same intentionality, like and the gratitude piece of it, which I want to subscribe on. That that's everything to the fabric of everything that you do. Um you've lost your mother. I know you honor her. You've talked a lot about grief, um, and being grateful even for the grief. Talk to me about how this gratitude piece has been limited for you, how it's moved you forward.

SPEAKER_01 15:26

Uh in 16 years of entrepreneurship, I completely can say that I don't think I would still be an entrepreneur if I didn't be on the side. Because I think entrepreneurship will break you, it'll take everything. If you have a limited belief, babes, entrepreneurship will tell you what it is. Uh so gratitude, really, for me, if I just simplify it, it's just a con, it's a daily reminder that there's light. Like, so why why not create a moment every day for a reminder that there's light in the world? And light could be these conversations, it could be somebody that held the door open, it's you know, somebody that helped get an email out, or somebody that bought your coffee, it's your teenagers, right? Like they acknowledged you. I mean, it's like we could go wrong. So like but it's just been a baseline, it's this idea that we can see the world in two ways, that we never have enough, or that we have more than enough, and I just believe that we have more than enough, and um, and that's not to say that that hasn't come without great suffering and great loss and great sacrifice. It's come it all of that has exponentially grown my gratitude. It has not taken or diminished it at all. It's actually said, You thought you had something to be grateful for before, girl? You don't even understand how that I can get it. Just hold on. Yes, you lost your mom, and yes, you got divorced, and such a powerful word.

SPEAKER_00 17:04

Oh, like I love Andover or all day. Yes, yeah, so it's that's my husband knows that too.

SPEAKER_01 17:10

It's I I want my team to know it. I want our community to know it. Like life's always gonna life.

SPEAKER_00 17:17

We talk a lot about nurturing the next generation of philanthropists, which is a bit of a loaded term for us and in a community. I know we're trying to flip that so that um everyone sees themselves as a philanthropist. It's not just the people who can write larger checks right. Thank goodness for those generous souls, and we're we're grateful for their work that they do in the community, paying it forward. I think there's an opportunity with just this next generation. I do think gratitude is a big piece of it too, though, for them to understand that that these small acts of kindness. I think so.

SPEAKER_01 17:52

I think they're gonna change it in a way. Well, I think that a lot of what I'm finding, or maybe what I'm seeing, is like if it's not working, they just move on. They don't get their feeling, like they're not being beholden to keep up a broken system. It's like, well, that didn't work. Let's just the nimbleness there of that is really, really interesting and cool to watch. I agree with you on the gratitude. I think they understand. I we talk about it a lot in meetings that I'm having or projects that we're building, Nancy, is like low tech. And it and I say that in the the way my brain means is like we need all of this technology to make this thing happen. Yes. But what you're going for is not this highly technical thing, you're going for a heartfelt connection conversation. So, like the low-tech tech is a is happening, right? Like it's the connection, it's that heart, and it's so important. But they can amplify it quicker than ever before because the technology and that we need to list sit down and listen to them.

SPEAKER_00 19:02

Right. And the the genie is out of the bottle with technology. Yeah. The snail mails, yes, yes, like the handwritten letter, yeah. Uh tangible, I think, and not just out in the ether in the internet.

SPEAKER_01 19:22

Every project I'm working on right now has the the thing I think about low-tech tech is it's high lift. That's why people I grew up in grassroots marketing. I learned how to market booths on the ground milde, right? Yes. Um, it's political work. It is political. That's political's grassroots marketing, right? Yes. And I think it's gonna make a resurgence, but I don't think people are gonna understand how much lift it is. You know, it's a lot of lift to put on community gatherings, it's a lot of lift to put on festivals that bring people here, but we have to have that stuff because we need those connection points.

SPEAKER_00 20:03

You're you're pivoting a little, I'm sorry. Gratitude. Like you're you're not with what you're saying, but the gratitude collective itself is expanding what they're doing, and this this conversation actually ties really nicely into you're going to be supporting others in that kind of low-tech tech. Yeah. Talk to us a little bit more about that.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

I've been building stuff for so long. Again, entrepreneurism is really just about seeing a solution and being crazy enough to think you can we can help somebody else. Somebody else might see your solution too. So, right now, of course, with the incubator kitchen collective, it's incredible, it's our nonprofit, um, Sherry's commercial kitchen space, but there's power to pursue, beautiful. There's a Rachel Bucket, I'm doing lots of fun speaking and consulting work. But what I for years now, I mean, three and five years in of really spending, I would say a bulk of my time dedicated into listening. I spend a lot of my time in coffees and conversations with leaders like you to a brand new startup, to somebody who has an idea that they want, but they're not sure where to do it. And I think, Nancy, after three or five years of listening, incredible referral, I have an incredible community, but seeing things stop or not having somebody the right somebody to refer something else to, and so I kind of am looking at this idea of the gratitude collective as like I'm a dream believer. I am a if you got a dream, this girl will see it to the moon with you and back. Like I love a dreamer is then a dream. And I think that the gratitude collective is my vehicle for helping other people with their dreams, and so we've looked at We spent a lot of 2025 doing strategic work around what we do really well. What's maloney? You know, like again, we waste a lot of time of our time just worrying about things that you don't need to worry about. Um, and so we've kind of built this agency of what I'm calling like my group of Avengers. You know, I what if I have an incredible group of people who believe in heart-centered work that we can you can come and say, I have this idea, and we can go, great, here's your team of Avengers that's gonna help you build the dream. And so podcast production. Yes. We're very fortunate. So thank you so much. It's odd, like when Nancy was like, We're gonna hire you, and I was like, that's a great. I literally was like, Nancy Grayson's gonna hire me. You guys like I felt like I got blessed by the Pope. Like, no, no, no. Again, we all hold each other in such high regards here, and we really respect the people building because we know if you're a builder, you know what that person's giving up in order to build, period. Um, and then we have social media and content creation website. We have a project manager, she's so good that I I gave her a project, she gave it back to me in an Excel spreadsheet, and I said, Oh hell, I can't build it. It's feeling like that's too much. Like she's that thorough. Um, we have some cons in PR. We put I don't want to, we have such incredible people in that space in that region. So I'm looking at some of that work from a smaller entrepreneur, somebody that needs help writing a press release, a single press release, some copy um writing. Phase two, I think we will build out a speaker bureau here for the region and start to like help us build up beginner, intermediate, and expert level speaking, especially with the work of us leaving the region. Um, so retreat coordination, event production, podcast productions, um, social media, website, a little a jill of all trades, but like it's just the world right now, you know? And if you've got something and you need something to hold your hand, like let us do that. Because I'm just too sure, Nancy, like right now. And this came out of my financial person going, Are you sure that you've dreamed the biggest dream you can dream? And I'm like, I think so, Sarah. Like, look at sit down. I mean it up, but like anything and everything is possible, and today, now more than ever, I believe it. And so I just want to make sure that anyone else I meet can will know and feel that too.

SPEAKER_00 24:35

That's it. And it is a gift, it's a gift to the community, the work that you're doing. Thank you. So honored to call you a friend. And as as we wrap, there's something special that's happening, I think, in the region overall, but in particular, I would argue northern Kentucky. What about Northern Kentucky gives you hope for the future? What do you think is on the horizon, pun intended? I yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:59

You know, as someone who says I have two businesses in Ohio and two in Kentucky because that's the equal opportunist I am. Kentucky has been a consistent place for me to start. And I think that's really important because it's allowed me to have legs to stand on and feet to start to run with. And I really think that we try to ensure there's space here. You know, and not that we don't have that in Cincinnati. Oh, absolutely. It's just different. You know, and so I think we do that really well here. Um it it is, it's neat, it's a neat region to be part of. I absolutely agree.

SPEAKER_00 25:43

So lucky you're part of it. Oh, they know thank you for your work. Thank you for joining us today, and until next time, this is Common Good for the Commonwealth.