Ep. 36: Heather Fleming of Change Labs

In 2014, Heather Fleming, Jessica Stago, and Natasha Hale launched a one-day event on the Navajo reservation to help the community learn about entrepreneurship. With the hope that at least five people would show up, the team was shocked to see more than 80 people attend their first event. Of course, they knew they were on to something. One of their funders encouraged them to transition from a one-day event to a full-scale organization that would help create a space for Native entrepreneurs and community members to access the infrastructure, expertise, and support they need to build small businesses, and thus, Change Labs was born. On this episode, Fleming walks us through how she moved from a one-day event to a full organization, how she’s navigated feeling like an outsider, and why business is so critical to sparking social change.