Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to STEF.
Speaker 1: I've never told you protection of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: And today, y'all, we are so excited to have an
Speaker 2: amazing guest fellow podcaster, journalist, speaker, business leader, and a
Speaker 2: fierce advocate for strategic social impact and leader in ESG
Speaker 2: or environment social governance. And of course there are so
Speaker 2: many other titles and accolades we should be filing under
Speaker 2: her name, and of course guest appearance, but I think
Speaker 2: that would take the entirety of this episode. So I'm
Speaker 2: going to come back and we're going to welcome the
Speaker 2: amazing Joan Michaelson.
Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you, guys. I'm thrilled to be here. I
Speaker 3: love stuff. Mom never told you. I have to think
Speaker 3: about that for a while. Stuff. Yeah, there's a lot
Speaker 3: of stuff my mother never told me.
Speaker 2: For you, that's consensus I think in general. Can you
Speaker 2: introduce yourself to our listeners?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I can do that. First, I want to say
Speaker 3: Happy Gallantine's Day. Yeah, yeah, here we are. Yeah. I
Speaker 3: want to celebrate yeah absolutely really yeah, FABS. So I
Speaker 3: will introduce me, but first I want to really acknowledge
Speaker 3: you guys, because I love the range of stuff that
Speaker 3: you cover. You really the combination of the intersectionality part
Speaker 3: I mean, bringing pop culture and science and cool women
Speaker 3: and social activism and cuche bravo, my hat off. They
Speaker 3: can't see me, they can't see me applauding and bowing.
Speaker 3: But I am I am ran you, so first I
Speaker 3: want to I just want to really acknowledge that. I
Speaker 3: acknowledge you guys. And I've got so many reactions to
Speaker 3: some of the cool guests you've had that we could
Speaker 3: talk for like five hours, but I know we're not
Speaker 3: going to do that. Yeah, thanks for having me. I
Speaker 3: do a range of things. I do career consulting, I
Speaker 3: do ESG consulting. Thank you Samantha for defining it, and
Speaker 3: we're going to talk more about what that is exactly.
Speaker 3: It's basically the intersection of climate action and social justice
Speaker 3: and holding people accountable, you know, transparency, that kind of thing,
Speaker 3: and we can dive more into that. I spent many
Speaker 3: years in corporate America. I have a podcast called Electric
Speaker 3: Ladies Podcast, which sounds very akin to stuff Mom never
Speaker 3: told you. I have over four hundred episodes. I've interviewed
Speaker 3: extraordinary women changing the world in some way, that has
Speaker 3: to do. It's save me the planet. And I speak
Speaker 3: all over the place. I may have run into you
Speaker 3: wherever you're listening from, and I am just tickled pink
Speaker 3: to be here.
Speaker 2: Well, we are so excited to have you. And yes,
Speaker 2: I was telling you at the beginning before we got
Speaker 2: onto the to record that the reason we were able
Speaker 2: to find you was we were talking about glaciologists and
Speaker 2: kind of featuring some on our women around the World
Speaker 2: or feminists around the world, and your podcast came up
Speaker 2: and I was like, oh, yeah, we have to have
Speaker 2: her on. The things that she's doing is not something
Speaker 2: that we often talk about, which is incorporating climate justice
Speaker 2: into corporate worlds, which we are going to talk about
Speaker 2: in a bit, but like your podcast was right on
Speaker 2: like in our lane essentially, and we had to have
Speaker 2: you on. And you've done some amazing interviews first and foremost,
Speaker 2: because I guess that's that journalist's broadcast background that you
Speaker 2: have that I'm like, oh, we got step up our game,
Speaker 2: we got this, and we got this. But you have
Speaker 2: done some amazing, amazing works and obviously you've got like
Speaker 2: nominations and awards behind your name that that actually give
Speaker 2: you the credit that you absolutely deserve. So I'm done
Speaker 2: fan growing, I promise. So we are so excited to
Speaker 2: have you.
Speaker 3: Thank you. I'm coming from you guys. That means a ton. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I have to tell you, I really have been lucky
Speaker 3: to interview a lot of amazing women and I've got
Speaker 3: some that haven't aired yet that are coming up that
Speaker 3: you'll will blow you away too. And what I like
Speaker 3: most about these women is they're super successful. I mean,
Speaker 3: that's the Secretary of the Air Force, the Deputy Secretary
Speaker 3: of Transportation, the Chief Commercialization Officer of the Department of Energy,
Speaker 3: the Chief Sustainability Officer of General Motors, you know, blah
Speaker 3: blah blah. I can go on, and yet they're just
Speaker 3: they're cool, and they're people, and they're conversational and they
Speaker 3: give great career advice. I give career advice in every episode,
Speaker 3: and they can just go back and forth between the
Speaker 3: science or the technology and the business world and just
Speaker 3: life right, and they're just they're totally cool and comfortable
Speaker 3: women and they are all over the world. You know.
Speaker 3: It's interesting. I was listening to your episode about SIHA,
Speaker 3: which is just an unbelievable organization, and they I got
Speaker 3: familiar with. I think one of the women that you
Speaker 3: were talking about who was got an award from Hillary
Speaker 3: Clinton recently at the Georgetown and Center for Women, Peace
Speaker 3: and Security. I know Milan Bevervier who founded it. She's amazing.
Speaker 3: She's the For anybody who doesn't know, she's the first
Speaker 3: person to be the global Ambassador for Women and Girls
Speaker 3: in the State Department. And what that means is that
Speaker 3: position is making sure that we women and girls needs priorities,
Speaker 3: economic benefits, et cetera, healthcare get integrated into every single
Speaker 3: foreign policy decision. That's amazing across the world. I mean,
Speaker 3: that's like unbelievable, right, right, So touche for featuring women
Speaker 3: like that. I really appreciate it. And I've had some
Speaker 3: women from Africa on my show as well, doing extraordinary
Speaker 3: work which we can talk about.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, I mean thank you because it's so helpful
Speaker 1: if we're doing research, because we do. As you said,
Speaker 1: it's a great thing to be able to cover like
Speaker 1: pop culture and everything, but it means that we don't
Speaker 1: get to like dig in necessarily to one thing too deeply,
Speaker 1: Like we don't get to specialize in something necessarily like
Speaker 1: we like to highlight people, we think that they should
Speaker 1: get their flowers now. But it's great that there is
Speaker 1: another show that is like ours but gets to go
Speaker 1: more in.
Speaker 4: Depth on those things.
Speaker 1: So I just love that there's a space, there's a
Speaker 1: space for all of this, and it's great and it's
Speaker 1: all needed. So it's fantastic that we're having this this
Speaker 1: crossover right now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just want to add something to that, Annie,
Speaker 3: if I might, And that is the reason that I
Speaker 3: do what I do, is because energy and climate affects
Speaker 3: every single aspect of our lives. So I you know,
Speaker 3: you guys love food, you love travel, you love you know,
Speaker 3: artists and music and whatever, and all of that requires
Speaker 3: obviously a planet, but it requires energy, it requires water,
Speaker 3: it requires you know, food is the food supplies being
Speaker 3: transformed by climate change and by ag tech. You know,
Speaker 3: the the innovations that are coming out of this stuff
Speaker 3: are making our lives better, not just protecting us from
Speaker 3: climate change, that's the impetus, but they're really making our
Speaker 3: lives so much better, bringing us really cool stuff like
Speaker 3: electric vehicles, which is one of my favorite topics altogether.
Speaker 3: By the way, I just want to say one thing.
Speaker 3: We're on the heels of the Super Bowl. And what
Speaker 3: hasn't gotten a lot of coverage besides the fact, yes,
Speaker 3: I'm a total Taylor Swift fant steroids and I love
Speaker 3: that she's just so authentic and natural, is that Allegiance
Speaker 3: Stadium is actually a highly environmentally friendly stadium. It's run
Speaker 3: on a lot of renewable energy. They've done, They've taken
Speaker 3: a lot. I'm gonna I'm interviewing one of the people
Speaker 3: of this who spearheaded that effort, and they take they
Speaker 3: took a lot of efforts to make sure that, I mean,
Speaker 3: nobody talked about it right, but there they did a
Speaker 3: lot of work to make sure that that massive facility
Speaker 3: didn't actually make the planet worse in the process. So cool.
Speaker 2: I did not know that.
Speaker 4: Yes, Yes, that's so cool.
Speaker 1: And those are the amazing stories and interviews that we
Speaker 1: love and we love to hear, especially like women being
Speaker 1: involved in that. And because so often the story has
Speaker 1: been they don't get any credit or any any mention
Speaker 1: at all that they're doing this amazing work in this thing.
Speaker 1: So it's really important to showcase those kinds of things
Speaker 1: and to that end to be transparent for us. Until
Speaker 1: we were doing this research. I didn't know the term ESG.
Speaker 1: I didn't know what that meant. So do you mind
Speaker 1: breaking that down for us and maybe some of our
Speaker 1: listeners who also didn't know.
Speaker 3: No, it's my pleasure, and you know what you just
Speaker 3: said is the reason I started Electric Ladies podcast. It
Speaker 3: was originally called Green Connections Radio, by the way. But
Speaker 3: I got into the space when I was recruited by
Speaker 3: Chrysler to head up communications and co ed sales and
Speaker 3: marketing for their global electric motor cars, and I fell
Speaker 3: in love with the space. I mean, cool, smart people
Speaker 3: making the world a better place, developing cool products, saving
Speaker 3: the planet, making money, you know, and having jobs that
Speaker 3: were fascinating and all of that. But I kept noticing
Speaker 3: that the women who were in the space were not
Speaker 3: getting the microphone very often literally and figuratively, and that
Speaker 3: the and that there weren't enough women in the space.
Speaker 3: And so I would always use the influence that I
Speaker 3: had to try to get more women to get the
Speaker 3: microphone and to get more visibility and to get more
Speaker 3: decision making power whatever. And so when somebody came to
Speaker 3: me at a conference I spoke at and said, we'd
Speaker 3: like you to do a show on our network, and
Speaker 3: I've been advocating for women since I was k mee
Speaker 3: high to a grasshopper. I decided that I had to
Speaker 3: feature women because we have to raise I mean, I
Speaker 3: know all these amazingly talented women who don't get either,
Speaker 3: you know, they either they don't get the juice. They
Speaker 3: don't literally get a microphonb. I mean, they have all
Speaker 3: these mantles right, all male panels, or they interview, you know,
Speaker 3: the reporter goes for the guy who's the CEO or whatever,
Speaker 3: where it's the women who are doing the real work.
Speaker 3: Or there's women who are chairmen chair and they go
Speaker 3: by chairman a lot of the board and some my
Speaker 3: gang still ask them for coffee and it's like, hello,
Speaker 3: you know, can you respect these people? I mean, you know,
Speaker 3: so anyway, I have no feelings about this whatsoever you
Speaker 3: can tell. So I love ESG because it puts a
Speaker 3: name on what I've actually been doing, like my whole career,
Speaker 3: which is really cool. So it's about the core of
Speaker 3: what you guys talk about, which is intersectionality. It's it's
Speaker 3: the ultimate intersectionality. It's the e part is environment, which
Speaker 3: is the climate, the planet, water, energy, air, and it's
Speaker 3: also the workplace environment. I mean, COVID taught us nothing.
Speaker 3: It's like workplace matters, right, So it's the environment. It's buildings.
Speaker 3: Buildings are forty percent of greenhouse gas emissions. My episode
Speaker 3: this week is with the chief sustainability officer of a
Speaker 3: company that's handling that a lot. So environment e is
Speaker 3: environment and you can use that in the kite to
Speaker 3: be your home. It can be the planet right and
Speaker 3: natural resources. So the s is all the stakeholders. It's
Speaker 3: women's rights, it's voting rights, it's climate justice, it's social justice,
Speaker 3: it's whatever ethnicity or orientation you care to define yourself as.
Speaker 3: It's the rights of any stakeholder, including the planet. The
Speaker 3: community in the planet is our stakeholders. And then governance
Speaker 3: in a nutshell is really about accountability and transparency. So
Speaker 3: it's about the reporting you have to do to the government.
Speaker 3: It's regulators, of course, but it's also authenticity. It's like
Speaker 3: in today's world with all the media and people like
Speaker 3: you and me, you know, putting a microphone in people's
Speaker 3: faces all the time, and social media. Of course, you
Speaker 3: can't hide, you can't pretend, and so you have to
Speaker 3: be transparent it's huge move towards transparency. The SEC is
Speaker 3: coming out with new rules that are going to be
Speaker 3: mandatory requirement for companies to declare this stuff. And one
Speaker 3: other quick point I'll put on this is there's something
Speaker 3: called the Edelment Trust Barometer, which they do every year
Speaker 3: and they launch it at these big fancy conferences, and
Speaker 3: they've found for the last several years that business has
Speaker 3: the highest amount of trust in the economy government, not media,
Speaker 3: but business. And so there's a responsibility to be to
Speaker 3: handle the environment piece and the social justice piece and
Speaker 3: to be transparent and accountable and authentic. And that in
Speaker 3: a nutshell is what ESG is. And you can use ESG,
Speaker 3: you can you know, whatever nomenclature works for you, guys,
Speaker 3: I'll roll with it. So I don't want anybody to
Speaker 3: get their nickers in a twist over the over the nomenclature.
Speaker 3: And I just want to say one other thing. Two
Speaker 3: other things. One is no matter where you're based, it's
Speaker 3: where you guys are in Atlanta, I'm in d C.
Speaker 3: Wherever our listener is. You are affected by climate change.
Speaker 3: You may not feel it directly. I mean, your chances
Speaker 3: are you know, you're either dealing with a snowstorm, a rainstorm,
Speaker 3: a drought, wildfire or whatever, but also in the quality
Speaker 3: of the air you read, and the quality of the
Speaker 3: water you drink, you know, and the anything in your world.
Speaker 3: You are wherever you are in the world, literally you
Speaker 3: are affected by climate change, and there's also opportunities behind
Speaker 3: that too, which we can talk about. That's my soliloquy
Speaker 3: for the moment.
Speaker 2: No, I love it. So we were going to ask
Speaker 2: how ESG kind of could be outside of corporations, because
Speaker 2: I know your concentration when it comes to the podcast
Speaker 2: as specific to corporations. What does that look like for us? No, okay, well,
Speaker 2: you do feature a lot of philanthropy, nonprofits, all of.
Speaker 4: The different levels.
Speaker 2: I see you. You just such like an amazing job
Speaker 2: and what it feels like accountability for corporations, which oftentimes
Speaker 2: we don't see that, I think, and then to see
Speaker 2: that women are the ones who are doing it even
Speaker 2: more impressive, Like it's just one of the things. But
Speaker 2: how do we carry that as maybe we're not big leaders,
Speaker 2: maybe we're not the you know, the new up and
Speaker 2: head CEO of this and that. How do we put
Speaker 2: that into our own workplaces? Does that make sense.
Speaker 3: Totally, totally, totally, So we have power. Women make eighty
Speaker 3: five percent of the purchase decisions on the planet. Think
Speaker 3: about that, make or influence.
Speaker 4: It's true.
Speaker 3: So girlfriend, we got power. Okay, seriously we can. We
Speaker 3: have to vote. Hello, vote vote, vote, vote vote vote
Speaker 3: for people that care about the things that you care about.
Speaker 3: And if you're listening to this, chances are you're you've
Speaker 3: got a certain set of values, right, So vote your
Speaker 3: value and get your butt out to vote. People, please,
Speaker 3: especially this year is really important. I feature really the
Speaker 3: wide range of people doing stuff in climate space. I've had.
Speaker 3: I give you a couple of cool examples. I know
Speaker 3: you guys love pop culture. I interviewed this amazing woman
Speaker 3: in New York who has started started a company that
Speaker 3: reduces the carbon footprint of television and movie productions. Think
Speaker 3: about that. I mean, if you think about all the
Speaker 3: the you know, all the buildings they blow up, the cars,
Speaker 3: they blow up, the food, you know, stuff, the cater
Speaker 3: Have you ever been on a you know, on some
Speaker 3: of these sets. And Atlanta is hot for this right
Speaker 3: now too, and they and I know Tyler Perry in
Speaker 3: his Atlanta studio has done a lot to reduce their
Speaker 3: carbon footprint. So I mean that's amazing, right. And then
Speaker 3: I have singers who are doing it's called a climate cabaret,
Speaker 3: where they're doing an event and raise awareness and things
Speaker 3: like that, and people who are making art out of
Speaker 3: recycled materials. They're making documentaries about the topic or just
Speaker 3: regular stories about it, you know, movies about it. So
Speaker 3: it really is the full range. I mean, yes, I
Speaker 3: have a lot of corporates, I have a bunch of
Speaker 3: government people and nonprofits, and then you have people who
Speaker 3: them together, like I just interviewed a woman from Rockefeller
Speaker 3: Philanthropy Advisors. They help individuals and companies put their philanthropic
Speaker 3: dollars into saving the planet in a way that's constructive
Speaker 3: and that you know where the needs are anywhere in
Speaker 3: the world. And of course we talked a lot about
Speaker 3: helping women do this, and there's some amazing women we
Speaker 3: talked about Africa a minute ago, and Africa and in
Speaker 3: parts of the US that are doing work to help
Speaker 3: rural women gain an education while addressing the climate issues
Speaker 3: in their area. You know, I mean waterlow right, and
Speaker 3: environmental clean air, all kinds of environmental hazards and clean
Speaker 3: energy I mean, we still have these horrible stoves that
Speaker 3: are polluting women all over the world. So let me
Speaker 3: just put it this way. No matter what kind of
Speaker 3: work you do and where you do it, you can
Speaker 3: both do something that helps reduce the risk of climate change,
Speaker 3: reduce the carbon footprint or whatever, and you can also
Speaker 3: do something that helps create a solution. So let me
Speaker 3: give you an example. I have and some of my
Speaker 3: coaching clients come to me and they say, oh, I
Speaker 3: have to quit my job and change careers and go
Speaker 3: to work for a nonprofit because I won't help save
Speaker 3: the planet. I'm like, hold on a minute, ago, just
Speaker 3: hold your courses here. You don't have to quit because
Speaker 3: wherever you work now, you can start a green club.
Speaker 3: You can hold the company accountable for recycling and look
Speaker 3: at their carbon footprint. You can help with the corporate
Speaker 3: sustainability report. You can say, hey, I love my job.
Speaker 3: You know, is there some way I can do a
Speaker 3: project that helps facilitate reduce the ennery g of the building,
Speaker 3: or reaching people in another area, or working with the foundations.
Speaker 3: You can always find a way that whatever you do
Speaker 3: can help address the challenge and it makes your job
Speaker 3: more fulfilling. In the process too. And on top of that,
Speaker 3: there's this huge funding from the government that came about
Speaker 3: from the last Congress under Nancy Pelosi that allocates three
Speaker 3: trillion with the T dollars and tax benefits for these
Speaker 3: kinds of projects. So let me give you an example.
Speaker 3: If your house. If your house gets cold and you
Speaker 3: have leaky windows, you can now get money your tax
Speaker 3: credits to fix the windows in the door so that
Speaker 3: you lower your energy bill, you save leaking energy, and
Speaker 3: you warm up your house.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna need you to send me that information for
Speaker 2: my house.
Speaker 3: I'm yeah, you can buy it a vehicle, you can
Speaker 3: get charger. I get a charger in your house with
Speaker 3: this stuff. And if you have a business, you can
Speaker 3: do the same thing. If you've been complaining that your
Speaker 3: manufacturing your assembly line is messing up and you have
Speaker 3: to fix it too often, if you choose a replacement
Speaker 3: that reduces the carbon emissions of that manufacturing system or
Speaker 3: and or reduces the water it consumes, et cetera, you
Speaker 3: can get money for doing it or tax credits and
Speaker 3: reduce your cost for doing it. I mean, like, who
Speaker 3: would not want to do this?
Speaker 2: I'm telling you, I need you to send me all
Speaker 2: this information, I would be done absolutely, And Lily, I
Speaker 2: intribute a woman who does, Lauren Salz, who's CEO of
Speaker 2: a company called Sealed, who helps with the heat pumps thing.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's just I mean, I can give you
Speaker 3: eighty thousand resources. There's websites that the government put out
Speaker 3: a few wh just google resources for Infrastructure and Inflation
Speaker 3: Reduction Act and it'll come up. But this is what
Speaker 3: I'm saying, no matter what kind of business you have,
Speaker 3: no matter what kind of career you have, and all
Speaker 3: these businesses and all these nonprofits and all these facilities
Speaker 3: need everything. They need hr they need finance, they need technology,
Speaker 3: they need communications, they need management. So no matter what
Speaker 3: you do, what your skill set is, you can find
Speaker 3: a way to make money and make a difference and
Speaker 3: bleeping vote please and bleeping yes. I like that a lot.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: You kind of just reminded me kind of on a
Speaker 2: different subject of like a conversation I had with my
Speaker 2: dad recently because I used to be in social work
Speaker 2: and specifically in social justice with when it comes to
Speaker 2: child advocacy and working with teens. But like I wwient
Speaker 2: from that to this, which is podcasting and hosting, and
Speaker 2: of course I think it's important in any as an
Speaker 2: amazing job in making sure we get information out there
Speaker 2: and hopefully inspire people to think differently or you know,
Speaker 2: learn new things. But it feels so different that my father,
Speaker 2: who is conservative, was like, are you still making the
Speaker 2: difference though? But are you know, questioning whether or not?
Speaker 2: And I had to really think back. I was like, well,
Speaker 2: I think I think so in just like realizing just
Speaker 2: because I'm not doing the grunt work of what I
Speaker 2: think is service is not necessarily the same thing equating
Speaker 2: to uh, not helping, I guess is that you know?
Speaker 2: And I'm like, yeah, there's things that need to be done.
Speaker 2: These different specific fields have to be infiltrated for the
Speaker 2: lack of a better term, to make real change. Because
Speaker 2: the people who are already out there needing or doing
Speaker 2: that help, they know this. It's the people who haven't
Speaker 2: realized and can't see what can change and having people
Speaker 2: come in and having that conversation of how that kid
Speaker 2: could be different or differences can be made in those fields,
Speaker 2: and like having these conversations that you have with people
Speaker 2: in different fields, women in different fields, and how they
Speaker 2: bring it in is really inspirational.
Speaker 3: Oh thank you. I appreciate that. And I just want
Speaker 3: to tell your dad, Dad, if you're listening, Samantha is
Speaker 3: making more of a difference doing this because she's reaching
Speaker 3: more people. I mean, I love you know, the one
Speaker 3: kid at a time. I mean, that's one kid at
Speaker 3: a time. And what that's Yeoman's work? Man, I mean,
Speaker 3: I you know, power to you. It's just not seriously,
Speaker 3: and you're giving a voice to so many more people now,
Speaker 3: You're reaching so many more people now instead of just
Speaker 3: one at a time.
Speaker 2: John, I'm going to have you on speed dial just
Speaker 2: so that I can get that.
Speaker 3: I have friends like that. I'm feeling like crap, just
Speaker 3: text me and I'm there. But seriously, and this is
Speaker 3: why you know this is I just want to say this.
Speaker 3: Part of what I love about what you guys are
Speaker 3: doing is and I'm actually writing a book about this,
Speaker 3: but women bring a completely important point of view to
Speaker 3: this work and to anything we do. Women bring this
Speaker 3: combination of idealism to whatever task, whatever career, and whatever
Speaker 3: skill set and industry we're in, and we bring and
Speaker 3: it makes a huge difference. We're you know, we're in
Speaker 3: the age now where we need that framing in order
Speaker 3: to solve challenges that address this intersectionality of people and
Speaker 3: planet and capitalism is good. Making money is good. We
Speaker 3: all need it, we want abundance. It's not anti making money,
Speaker 3: it's doing all of it at once that none of
Speaker 3: them have to suffer in order to succeed. And so
Speaker 3: I would pose it that you're making a bigger difference
Speaker 3: Miss Samantha doing this work, or an equal difference in
Speaker 3: this work. So Dad, she's cool.
Speaker 4: Yes, just what I was going for.
Speaker 2: I mean to advertise this. I'll just gonna put this
Speaker 2: in a card, send it.
Speaker 3: Send me one, I'll send out, put it on Instagram,
Speaker 3: share it. I'll totally share it. Absolutely, you got it.
Speaker 1: Well, So we've been talking about, uh, your podcast and
Speaker 1: how amazing it is that how that's how we found
Speaker 1: you and through your work, you've done such a great
Speaker 1: job of highlighting women who are leaders, who are doing
Speaker 1: these amazing things, all these accomplishments that they're they're doing.
Speaker 1: So I know you've given us a couple of examples
Speaker 1: before we started recording and entering, but can you talk
Speaker 1: about some maybe instances of women who really stood out
Speaker 1: to you, who are pioneers who are leaders who have
Speaker 1: influenced you.
Speaker 3: Oh wow, Okay, how much time do you have? So
Speaker 3: there are I mean, frankly, and I'm not being coy,
Speaker 3: but really, every single one of my guests inspires me
Speaker 3: and somewhat intimidates me. I mean, and I interviewed doctor
Speaker 3: Vanessa Chan who I just adore. She's the Chief Commercialization
Speaker 3: Officer of the Department of Energy. She's the one who's
Speaker 3: helping dole out all this money right on the energy side.
Speaker 3: She's extraordinary, and she was at Mackenzie. She's been an entrepreneur. Okay,
Speaker 3: you guys love pop Bulcher. She actually sold products successfully
Speaker 3: on QVC and something that has nothing to do with
Speaker 3: energy whatsoever. I mean, this woman is like unbelievable. She's
Speaker 3: like mit the energy department in QBC, I mean, like really.
Speaker 4: In QVC.
Speaker 3: And she's a mom of two girls. I'm most like,
Speaker 3: good grief, Like, did you find more than twenty four
Speaker 3: hours in a day? What does just happened? So? And
Speaker 3: she's lovely, she's very you know, approachable and conversational and
Speaker 3: funny and dedicated. I mean, it's really really interesting. And
Speaker 3: then there's people like Rosemary Atieno who was in Kenya,
Speaker 3: who is helping her people. The women in Kenya solve
Speaker 3: everyday challenges in a way that also addresses climate change.
Speaker 3: Let me give you an example. So she told me
Speaker 3: a story. She has a group called Women Climate Centers
Speaker 3: International and another related group. And she told me the
Speaker 3: story of a woman coming to her and telling her
Speaker 3: that the village was having an epidemic of cholera. So
Speaker 3: Rosemary helped this woman, went to the village, checked everything out.
Speaker 3: Helped this woman get a whole new water system for
Speaker 3: their community. And she got money from different sources. You'd
Speaker 3: have to listen to it to find out exactly where.
Speaker 3: And help this community get clean water, get money from
Speaker 3: sources they didn't know, get the economic development that came
Speaker 3: with it, get the education on how to solve a problem,
Speaker 3: and resources for improving their education. The kids could be healthy.
Speaker 3: Everybody could be got healthy. They eradicated call around the community.
Speaker 3: They got the kids in education, so the kids had
Speaker 3: the could have the time now because and the women
Speaker 3: aren't having to go chase water, which and if you
Speaker 3: ever been to Africa, they chased water. I mean literally
Speaker 3: I have pictures I can't see, but I have a
Speaker 3: wall in my living room pictures from Africa and they
Speaker 3: literally carry the water, so they didn't have to do
Speaker 3: that anymore. And so it was like an unbelievable win
Speaker 3: win win, win win. And her motivation was addressing the
Speaker 3: climate challenge while helping this woman solve her immediate problem.
Speaker 3: I mean, how much more inspiring can you possibly get?
Speaker 3: So I feel privileged to have the opportunity to talk
Speaker 3: to these weathers, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's so many amazing people doing amazing work. And
Speaker 1: I find a lot of times when we do our
Speaker 1: episodes on feminists around the World are on another segment
Speaker 1: we have called Female First. It always ends with wanting
Speaker 1: to leave a better future. It almost always ends with
Speaker 1: somebody a woman and women being more impacted by whatever issue,
Speaker 1: who not only takes this initiative to listen to people
Speaker 1: in the community and fix the problem and work together
Speaker 1: with people to fix the problem, but also there's such
Speaker 1: a big like in their minds, I want this future
Speaker 1: even after I'm gone for other people, and that's just so.
Speaker 4: Amazing and inspirational.
Speaker 3: Totally. I want to give you one other quick story,
Speaker 3: and of course, I mean, you know, I've interviewed over
Speaker 3: four hundred women on my show. I mean, I don't
Speaker 3: match you guys with only twenty six hundred or something wild,
Speaker 3: But I'm at forty four hundred and something, so I'm
Speaker 3: pretty good. But one of the women I interviewed is
Speaker 3: the former Finance Minister of Ukraine who also went on
Speaker 3: to help Puerto Rico rebuild after Hurricane Maria. And in
Speaker 3: the course of our conversation, she said to me two things.
Speaker 3: One is, she said she felt like when the war
Speaker 3: broke out that you know what am I doing in
Speaker 3: Puerto Rico? I need to get back to Ukraine. And
Speaker 3: she said, then I realized that the work I'm doing
Speaker 3: where I am can help Ukraine rebuild, and that the
Speaker 3: voice that I have now and on the outside can
Speaker 3: help Ukraine get the resources that they need. So no
Speaker 3: matter where you sit right now, what kind of work
Speaker 3: you do, I don't care if you have a company
Speaker 3: that makes cups or shirts. There's a ton I cover
Speaker 3: on sustainable fashion, for example, you can find a way
Speaker 3: to do it in a way that reduces the carbon footprint.
Speaker 3: She also said to me that this concept these ESG
Speaker 3: reports can actually help reveal creepy money because they require disclosure.
Speaker 3: So that's the other thing is that you want to
Speaker 3: support these reporting mechanisms because they're going to help disclose
Speaker 3: information about some of these companies that you want to know.
Speaker 3: See the other place where we have power. Okay, we
Speaker 3: can spend our money with organizations and with companies that
Speaker 3: do what that share our values. If they don't support lgdpqright,
Speaker 3: if they don't support reproductive rights, they don't support democracy,
Speaker 3: or they're trying to thwart it in some way, or
Speaker 3: they don't support whatever. You don't you know, whatever you support,
Speaker 3: if they're against it, use your money to go put
Speaker 3: it with somebody else. You're right, right, I have no
Speaker 3: passion for this whatsoever. Well, I can go on.
Speaker 2: You're very passionate with your work, but also you are
Speaker 2: very skilled in your work in all of this, and
Speaker 2: it's such a route your your career is such a
Speaker 2: route that I would have never thought of again because
Speaker 2: my mind was, if I want to be a service,
Speaker 2: I have to be sad and poor, which is really
Speaker 2: sad mentality. But you've done such amazing work and your
Speaker 2: career path has been amazing. How did you get in
Speaker 2: your line of work?
Speaker 3: Oh, dear Samantha, I followed the breadcrumbs. My sweet friend. Well,
Speaker 3: in case you haven't figured it out, I'm a born
Speaker 3: and bred in New York City girl and my dad.
Speaker 3: I joke that I've been doing this since pre birth
Speaker 3: because my dad had an ad agency when I was
Speaker 3: a kid in New York City and I'm the youngest
Speaker 3: of four, and he would literally pull copy out of
Speaker 3: the typewriter, yes it was a typewriter, and say it
Speaker 3: handed to the closest warm body and say, read this
Speaker 3: out loud to me. So I'm convinced that the first
Speaker 3: thing I read out loud was probably my father's copy.
Speaker 3: So I've been and he was brilliant and creative and fascinating.
Speaker 3: And they were also political activists in a way. They
Speaker 3: used to have political fundraisers, including for women candidates. By
Speaker 3: the way they would have thought, we would talk about
Speaker 3: current events and those kinds of things, very very worldly
Speaker 3: orient and of course in New York City, you kind
Speaker 3: of can't get away from it, right, I mean, it's
Speaker 3: by nature, right. The other thing is I followed opportunity,
Speaker 3: so I started my career. I've gone back and forth
Speaker 3: between corporate communications and journalism, and I think one of
Speaker 3: the lessons for.
Speaker 2: Me is.
Speaker 3: Ask, ask, ask, ask, ask, ask. If there's an opportunity
Speaker 3: you're interested in, I don't care if you only fit
Speaker 3: fifty percent of the criteria. I don't care if you
Speaker 3: only fit. You know they want a PhD and you
Speaker 3: don't have one, Write them and tell them you're willing
Speaker 3: to get a PhD. Okay, in your cover letter or whatever,
Speaker 3: say go for what you want. I'll give you a
Speaker 3: great example. I have a coaching client who interviewed with
Speaker 3: job A, and they said, you're not appropriate for job A,
Speaker 3: but we want to interview you for job B. They
Speaker 3: wouldn't they wouldn't have known about her for job B
Speaker 3: if she didn't apply for job A. Right, So I
Speaker 3: saw it opportunities and I, I mean, I got my
Speaker 3: first job, or not my first, but one of my
Speaker 3: first jobs in journalism by reaching out to Diane Sawyer
Speaker 3: and saying I want to be you. What should I do?
Speaker 3: I mean, literally.
Speaker 2: Cold, that's amazing, she respond respond.
Speaker 3: She responded, I did some freelance work with her in
Speaker 3: New York. She's lovely, She's fascinating and totally authentic, really
Speaker 3: interesting woman, and so you have to just And then
Speaker 3: when I was I was at sixteen minutes and I
Speaker 3: was at sixty. And then I got another kind of
Speaker 3: corporate opportunity that was fascinating, which ended up putting me
Speaker 3: in the at the LA Believe it or not, La
Speaker 3: Mass Transit system, helping to expand that, and which gave
Speaker 3: me a whole other set of experience. And here I
Speaker 3: am back in a kind of you know, an intersection
Speaker 3: with transportation in the green economy. I mean, who knew, right?
Speaker 3: And then I go to work for crist I mean
Speaker 3: it's like you never know how these fit together until later,
Speaker 3: and you take pieces from each of it that you learn.
Speaker 3: You don't learn less. Whatever you learn in job A
Speaker 3: or in entrepreneurship B, or from what I call MANI
Speaker 3: mentoring moments where you just ask somebody to say, you know,
Speaker 3: I'm dealing with this. Can I get your advice on this?
Speaker 3: Then your you take that in and you never know
Speaker 3: what impact it's going to have on you. I mentioned
Speaker 3: before we were went on air about this fascinating woman
Speaker 3: that I interviewed, who's a She calls yourself a glaciologist,
Speaker 3: and I joked with her, I thought that was frozen
Speaker 3: dead people, but it's actually Glaciers, The Study of Glaciers.
Speaker 3: Twila Moon, doctor Twila Moon, what a great name. I
Speaker 3: love her, and she says something really interesting. I asked
Speaker 3: for career advice in every episode, and she said, reconsider
Speaker 3: your goals all the time, because you might have grown
Speaker 3: out of your goal. You might be able to do
Speaker 3: something else now that is more interesting and more ken
Speaker 3: and more aligned with who you are now and what
Speaker 3: you know now and who you know now. In other words,
Speaker 3: don't let oh. I always wanted to be an ex
Speaker 3: you know, I always wanted to be a doctor. I
Speaker 3: always wanted to be a lawyer. He's want to be
Speaker 3: a social worker. I always want to be an actress.
Speaker 3: I always wanted to be a whatever journalist. Hold you
Speaker 3: back from letting a job fall on your left. I
Speaker 3: mean my job at christ which got me into this
Speaker 3: economy was a complete and total believe in fluke. I
Speaker 3: mean literally, I was at a lunch meeting talking to people.
Speaker 3: I didn't know who I was talking to, I mean,
Speaker 3: what roles they were or whatever. We go around the
Speaker 3: table and I found out the guy I'm talking to
Speaker 3: is the president of the division. The next morning he
Speaker 3: calls me and says, are you happy and starts recruiting me.
Speaker 3: So you never know who you're talking to.
Speaker 2: I guess that's the benefits of being an extrovert right here.
Speaker 3: Well, you have to hate, okay, you have to be
Speaker 3: careful what you say. I mean, you can't. I mean, seriously,
Speaker 3: you can't. You can't bad mouth people too, of course, right,
Speaker 3: So I mean, I'm just going to say that because
Speaker 3: we're among friends, right, it's the Gallantine's Day Show. Yes,
Speaker 3: So I would just say the to answer, is there
Speaker 3: a long winded answer your question, Samantha, But I would
Speaker 3: say the short answer is seek opportunities, ask for opportunities,
Speaker 3: and be who you are, and embrace who you are
Speaker 3: and what you love to do, and be willing to learn.
Speaker 3: Curiosity is a key criteria right now. The chief diversity
Speaker 3: Officer of General Motors, Telba Magruder, who's magical. She's now
Speaker 3: back heading up manufacturing. She's been there for twenty nine
Speaker 3: years or something. She's extraordinary. She's also headed on the
Speaker 3: board of the Girl Scouts. By the way, she said,
Speaker 3: some of the key factors they look like it for
Speaker 3: in talent are adaptability and curiosity because people have to
Speaker 3: learn all the time. You're never staying static, So keep learning.
Speaker 3: I don't care how old you are. I don't care
Speaker 3: how young you are. I don't care where you live,
Speaker 3: what you do, what your skill set is. Forget about it,
Speaker 3: as they say in my hometown, and just be curious
Speaker 3: and keep learning.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know that fit isn't perfectly with your career path.
Speaker 2: It really does. I was like, okay, yeah, I see this.
Speaker 2: The theme of your career is in those statements in itself.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and making a difference. You know, I always wanted
Speaker 3: to use what I was doing to make a difference.
Speaker 3: And I'm you know, and I collect people. I mean,
Speaker 3: I've had you know, I have wonderful people in my
Speaker 3: world and it's really it's a privilege. And now I
Speaker 3: get to add you guys.
Speaker 2: That's one of my favorite parts of podcasting is getting
Speaker 2: new friends.
Speaker 4: That's truely, absolutely true, whether you want it or not.
Speaker 3: And I mean, I'll add to that. And I'm biased
Speaker 3: because I do it. But but you know, coaching or
Speaker 3: mastermind groups or outside information is really helpful. You need
Speaker 3: to have a support group. And I don't you know,
Speaker 3: it can be formal, can be informal, but you know,
Speaker 3: we're joking before that. You know, when you feel bad,
Speaker 3: you'll you'll ping me to get a cheer up. We
Speaker 3: need that, right, We need to support each other and
Speaker 3: you need to get You also need people who are
Speaker 3: going to tell you stuff that you might not want
Speaker 3: to hear. But art is helpful, you know, the proverbial
Speaker 3: spinach in your teeth or whatever.
Speaker 4: Right, exactly, Yeah, you know you're got to.
Speaker 3: I mean goes everything from dating to you know, food,
Speaker 3: you know, saying something stupid to your boss. I mean,
Speaker 3: you know, believe.
Speaker 4: Me, I've done it me too.
Speaker 1: So uh, you're you're speaking about kind of collecting these friends,
Speaker 1: interviewing these amazing women. Why do you think it's important
Speaker 1: for women to be part of leadership in this corporate world?
Speaker 3: Oh my, how much time do you have, miss any? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Because I think it's important for women to be part
Speaker 3: of leadership because we bring a different set of perspectives, experiences, values,
Speaker 3: and lenses to every challenge. And I'll give you a
Speaker 3: couple of examples. There's a classic business story of General
Speaker 3: Motors many years ago, launching the a car called Nova
Speaker 3: in Mexico Latin America. Well, Nova means doesn't go don't
Speaker 3: go in Spanish. Why would you launch a car it's
Speaker 3: called basically doesn't move in a country with the name.
Speaker 3: I mean, like it doesn't make any sense, right, So
Speaker 3: you need to have and all these companies want to
Speaker 3: sell products to women. I mean for years, CpG and
Speaker 3: super product companies didn't have women on their boards or
Speaker 3: and their measurement team. And it's like, dude, you don't
Speaker 3: understand your market and don't tell me you do. And
Speaker 3: if somebody says to you, are I know my market?
Speaker 3: I don't need research, run the other direction because you
Speaker 3: know data matters, right. So I think women bring values.
Speaker 3: We bring curiosity, We bring collaboration, We bring the ability
Speaker 3: to support each other. We we you know, don't punch
Speaker 3: me in the notes for saying this, men, but we
Speaker 3: teach you how to collaborate because the men are kind
Speaker 3: of conditioned to be solow you know, the hunting and
Speaker 3: the you know, the hunting and the gathering, and they
Speaker 3: don't need to be if they don't have to be alone,
Speaker 3: they can be supported and we can bring We bring
Speaker 3: a supportive collaborative environment. We want everybody's ideas. We bring
Speaker 3: a different kind of value screening. We look at the
Speaker 3: impact on other people. Women tend to naturally also be innovators,
Speaker 3: and again writing about this in this book I'm doing,
Speaker 3: but think about this for a second. Women have not
Speaker 3: had access to resources and power in traditional institutional structures. Okay,
Speaker 3: they didn't have. I mean there's still only eight percent
Speaker 3: or whatever it is today of women of CEOs or
Speaker 3: women of the fortune five hundred. I mean, give me
Speaker 3: a believe in break please. There's so few resources and
Speaker 3: so little authority in the hands of women that we
Speaker 3: have had to figure out how to get things done
Speaker 3: without the power and the resources. So we had to
Speaker 3: learn to renovate. We had to learn how to do
Speaker 3: influence management, how to influence people. We had to learn
Speaker 3: how to collaborate because we couldn't get anything done otherwise.
Speaker 3: So women are natural innovators and natural problem solvers in
Speaker 3: creative ways because we had to be. It's like a muscle.
Speaker 3: If you don't use it, you lose it. And this
Speaker 3: is a muscle that we've had to super strengthen just
Speaker 3: in order to get things done. And it's not like
Speaker 3: we set out to do it that way. It's not
Speaker 3: like weight training, you know. So that's a key reason
Speaker 3: why I think. I think it's a combination of values
Speaker 3: of innovativeness, collaboration, communication skills, and the fact that women
Speaker 3: make and influence eighty five percent of purchasing decisions, both
Speaker 3: in corporate and consumer today. That besides, we're fun and
Speaker 3: we're cool.
Speaker 2: Amen, We're just fun, cool, true story.
Speaker 3: Yeah, creative. So yeah, yeah, rock.
Speaker 1: We talked about this recently and I've seen a lot
Speaker 1: of headlines about it going back to the super Bowl
Speaker 1: about oh yeah, women who buy stuff, the stereotype that
Speaker 1: we buy too much.
Speaker 4: I don't understand.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, so that is that is a very interesting
Speaker 1: thing where they're suddenly companies are like, wait a minute,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, let's maybe we should re pivot. We should
Speaker 1: pivot our campaigns. So I know we've been talking about
Speaker 1: this throughout but as you as you said in your podcast,
Speaker 1: you have a bit where you give career advice in
Speaker 1: every episode. So for a lot of our listeners probably
Speaker 1: are not in some of them, I'm sure are and
Speaker 1: please write in listeners are but are not in the
Speaker 1: sustainability environmental sector. But and you've already given some tidbits,
Speaker 1: but do you have any advice on maybe ways that
Speaker 1: people can implement climate justice into their own jobs, their
Speaker 1: businesses maybe if they have them and or their lives.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely so. First of all, one of the things
Speaker 3: about the new funding that's also cool from the government
Speaker 3: is that there's this thing called Justice forty where forty
Speaker 3: percent of the benefits of the project have to go
Speaker 3: to disadvantaged communities. So climate justice is built into the
Speaker 3: structure of those deals, which is really cool, right, And
Speaker 3: it's also important because disadvantaged communities have gotten many ways
Speaker 3: the brunt of climate change because a lot of the
Speaker 3: cold plants are built, you know, the home, the lot
Speaker 3: of the quote low income housing and affordable housing is
Speaker 3: built near cold plants or power plants or whatever writer
Speaker 3: water treatment plants and stuff, and it's not as cool.
Speaker 3: So now they have to clean all that stuff up.
Speaker 3: But I would say, no matter what kind of job
Speaker 3: you have or work you do, or organization you work
Speaker 3: for or business you have, think about a get get
Speaker 3: a read out on your carbon footprint. It's not that
Speaker 3: hard to do. And you can, you know, listen to
Speaker 3: Electric Ladies podcast, get some resources or what can you know?
Speaker 3: Ping me in at John Michaelson on any of the
Speaker 3: bleeping platforms you visual you care about, but you can
Speaker 3: find you want to You're going to get a read
Speaker 3: out on your carbon footprint. You want to get a
Speaker 3: sense of where your energy is coming from, how are
Speaker 3: you heating your home, how are you heating your business,
Speaker 3: what's the air quality in your space? Because you also
Speaker 3: want it's a matter of taking care of your health
Speaker 3: and health of your employees if you're a business owner,
Speaker 3: or your team if you're manager, and then you want
Speaker 3: to look at where are the materials coming from that
Speaker 3: you use in your product. So that's why I do
Speaker 3: a lot on sustainable fashion. Yes, I love fashion, I
Speaker 3: love clothes, but the fashion industry has an enormous carbon footprint.
Speaker 3: I mean, don't get me started. Okay, to make an
Speaker 3: original pair of genes takes four thousand gallons of water.
Speaker 3: I mean they've cut it down a lot, but it's
Speaker 3: just it's appalling. And so there are a lot of
Speaker 3: companies and organizations that are doing a lot of work
Speaker 3: to reduce the carbon footprint of their clothing and manufacturing process.
Speaker 3: And there's some very cool innovators. I have many many
Speaker 3: people on my guests on my show about it for example,
Speaker 3: and so choose clothing that is made from sustainable fabrics,
Speaker 3: and I don't care if it's if you're looking at
Speaker 3: shoes or shirts or sweaters or whatever, decide deliberately whether
Speaker 3: that's going to matter to you. And a lot of
Speaker 3: them are pricing them much more reasonably now. And there
Speaker 3: are lines and there are whole companies that are doing
Speaker 3: this that so you can you can find the information.
Speaker 3: Look up sustainable fashion or you know, shoes made sustainably
Speaker 3: or what have you. I mean, everybody from Nike to
Speaker 3: H and M is in the is in this work.
Speaker 3: So look at how you're spending your own money, look
Speaker 3: at where Even if what you're doing is okay, let
Speaker 3: me give you another example. If you're in it, God
Speaker 3: knows we need your skill because the data is really critical.
Speaker 3: So if you're an employee, ask your boss what kind
Speaker 3: of data you can help the company collect that will
Speaker 3: help them understand their carbon footprint and their social footprint
Speaker 3: and address it and be responsible for it. Like what
Speaker 3: kind of reporting do they have to do? Do they
Speaker 3: have what they need? I'd like to use my skills
Speaker 3: to help solve that. And again you're asking, you're volunteering.
Speaker 3: You'll get cool projects. You never know what you'll end
Speaker 3: up working on and they might say no, but a
Speaker 3: you made the effort, it might come back later. I'm
Speaker 3: a woman on my show. This is a different context,
Speaker 3: but it's an example. She had two little kids, and
Speaker 3: as she was walking out from work for a big
Speaker 3: financial institution. She was walking out of her boss's office
Speaker 3: one day, she said, by the way, don't eliminate me
Speaker 3: for opportunities overseas because I have two kids, and she
Speaker 3: walked out, have a nice day. Two to three weeks later,
Speaker 3: he came to her and said, we'd like to offer
Speaker 3: you an opportunity at Hong Kong. You have to tell
Speaker 3: people what you want if you want to work on
Speaker 3: these projects. Get creative, Look at you know what your
Speaker 3: business is, Understand what the strategy of your business is,
Speaker 3: who they're marketing to, and say, hey, CEO, CFO, you
Speaker 3: know VP of YadA YadA. I see this that I
Speaker 3: can do X that I'm wondering, Can I are you're
Speaker 3: launching this project I just saw on the Slack channel?
Speaker 3: Can I how do I get involved in that that
Speaker 3: really resonates with me? Or can I start an ERG
Speaker 3: an employee resource group for women. I recently was on
Speaker 3: an employee resource group. A media company show just for
Speaker 3: internal employees that's targeted to their employee resource groups. They said, oh, well,
Speaker 3: we're going to share this one with the whole, with
Speaker 3: every group. And I'm like, cool, So you never know,
Speaker 3: you have to tell people they don't they're not bleeping
Speaker 3: mind readers people you know. And also a lot of it,
Speaker 3: Annie and Samantha, it comes from standing up for yourself.
Speaker 3: Having It's not even just confidence. It's like, do I
Speaker 3: want to do this or don't? I right, I mean,
Speaker 3: what's the worst that could happen? They say, no, right,
Speaker 3: I think you could handle that. You're in that space now.
Speaker 3: I mean seriously, if they said no, oh, you're still
Speaker 3: right where you are now, right, right, right, So just
Speaker 3: bleeping go for it. And if you need encouragement, you
Speaker 3: need ideas. I mean, I'm happy to talk to anybody
Speaker 3: listening who wants to, you know, come to me. I
Speaker 3: obviously do this kind of work and coaching. I have
Speaker 3: people come to me going everything from fresh out of
Speaker 3: college to I've been a foreign service officer for twenty years.
Speaker 3: I just came back to the States. I want to
Speaker 3: get into the space. What should I do? I mean,
Speaker 3: so it doesn't matter. And by the way, don't let
Speaker 3: your age, your gender, your location, you're any way you
Speaker 3: live your life get in the way of any of
Speaker 3: these opportunities. We need you. We need your voice, we
Speaker 3: need your energy, we need your intellect, we need your passion.
Speaker 2: You don't get so many like alerts people asking you things.
Speaker 2: It's okay, Colt, but you know, I love in your
Speaker 2: segments and you actually have like separate episodes in which
Speaker 2: you ask your guests. So we're going to ask you
Speaker 2: specifically for mid career women, in which you describe as
Speaker 2: people who've been in their career ten to fifteen years,
Speaker 2: how would you give them advice to make money but
Speaker 2: also make a difference.
Speaker 3: Well, I've shared many ways in our conversation today, right,
Speaker 3: but I want to say this, think about your goals
Speaker 3: based on who you are now. Don't think about, oh, well,
Speaker 3: you know, I pull out your goals from you know,
Speaker 3: last year or whatever, and oh I wanted to be
Speaker 3: VP of YadA YadA, or I wanted to to get
Speaker 3: my XYZ degree or whatever. Just think about look look
Speaker 3: at make a list first of all of what you've accomplished.
Speaker 3: We're sitting here in February. So think about last year,
Speaker 3: and I mean everything. I mean, like, you know, I
Speaker 3: made a list of how many podcasts episodes I've aired,
Speaker 3: how many people I interviewed, how many articles I wrote,
Speaker 3: how many clients I coached, how many projects YadA YadA, write?
Speaker 3: How many other articles? How many and like everything, It's
Speaker 3: like how many times did you go hiking? You know,
Speaker 3: how many friends did you help in X Y Z way?
Speaker 3: I mean it gets everything right. Did you get a
Speaker 3: new house, did you decide to move to another city,
Speaker 3: did you like whatever it is relationships, et cetera. And
Speaker 3: then look at what kind of work do you want
Speaker 3: to do? Now? How do you know we spend so
Speaker 3: much of our time in what we do for a living.
Speaker 3: You know, people say, well, why do you focus on
Speaker 3: what we do for a living, Because it's how dominates
Speaker 3: our lives people, And it's a reflection. It's our output,
Speaker 3: it's our it's our mark and the universe. And I
Speaker 3: don't care if it's paid or unpaid. It's our mark
Speaker 3: in the universe in so many ways. So think about,
Speaker 3: you know, how do you want to spend your time?
Speaker 3: What kind of difference do you want to make? Is
Speaker 3: it in working with kids like you were doing, Samantha.
Speaker 3: Is it in the climate, is it in both? You know,
Speaker 3: teaching can stem careers, so they can have a career
Speaker 3: to help save the planet. Right, So then look at
Speaker 3: the intersection of who you are. Absorb the kudos from
Speaker 3: what you've accomplished, right, read your resume, your bio if
Speaker 3: you get depressed, and where the market is now, and
Speaker 3: don't be afraid to go for something that looks a
Speaker 3: little sideways. So one way I describe it is we
Speaker 3: are each a puzzle, like a jigsaw puzzle. Right now,
Speaker 3: our jigsaw puzzle looks like being on this podcast, and
Speaker 3: we do the articles, we do the media stuff, we
Speaker 3: do the social work, we do the climate action, we
Speaker 3: do all these little things. Right so right now the
Speaker 3: puzzle looks like who we are today that we see
Speaker 3: in the mirror. Well, each of our puzzles is composed
Speaker 3: of the pieces of what we know, who we know,
Speaker 3: what we know, how to do, where we live, et cetera,
Speaker 3: et cetera, how we comport ourselves the experiences we've had,
Speaker 3: and you can rearrange those puzzle pieces and create a
Speaker 3: whole new picture. So when I went from journalism to
Speaker 3: electric vehicles. I created a whole new puzzle, right but
Speaker 3: it's still me. It's still the same skills. They're just rearranged,
Speaker 3: so you can rearrange them no matter what kind of
Speaker 3: work you're doing now, or where you're in school, or
Speaker 3: how you spend your time, and figure out what a
Speaker 3: good fit is for you. And to be honest with you,
Speaker 3: every aspect of our economy needs help right now, and
Speaker 3: every aspect of our economy needs women's help right now,
Speaker 3: because we have to bring our values and our perspectives
Speaker 3: and our curiosity and our collaboration to any of this work.
Speaker 3: So go for it and ask for help.
Speaker 2: I love that. Felt like I was just at a
Speaker 2: good Ted talk. Look an amazing Ted talk.
Speaker 4: Just now not gonna pulled in. I know, thank you.
Speaker 3: That's very I appreciate that.
Speaker 4: It is true.
Speaker 3: You're fabulous.
Speaker 1: I won't tell the story right now because I've told
Speaker 1: it a million times, but I basically got this job
Speaker 1: because I was just really enthusiastic.
Speaker 4: She tried.
Speaker 3: It's true, but enthusiasm is contagious too.
Speaker 1: If you feel like you can't do a thing because
Speaker 1: it's not in a certain lane. But so many of
Speaker 1: us have like a talent here and a talent here,
Speaker 1: and it doesn't have to be in a box. That
Speaker 1: can be I can apply it in this creative way
Speaker 1: that maybe I wasn't thinking of. So I think that's
Speaker 1: great advice. We like to ask this to a lot
Speaker 1: of our interviewees who have done so much stuff and
Speaker 1: are clearly like very busy. What do you do for yourself?
Speaker 1: How do you take time for yourself?
Speaker 3: Well, I love what I do, so to me, my
Speaker 3: work is integrated with who I am, and so I'm
Speaker 3: talking to you guys is for me too. I mean
Speaker 3: it's a blast. So all, I'm an exercise person, so
Speaker 3: I've been exercised, a big deal for me, and I
Speaker 3: walk a lot. I like hikes. I'm also a culture
Speaker 3: I mean I'm born a bread New York City girls,
Speaker 3: so I love culture. So museums are my happy place.
Speaker 3: I walk in and I'm just like close my eyes
Speaker 3: and breathe. They go and I inhale the creative energy.
Speaker 3: I mean literally, my friends think I'm nuts. So they
Speaker 3: see me do this and they go, what the hell
Speaker 3: are you doing? Yeah, it's just I love the magic
Speaker 3: of creativity. It's just like where the hell did that
Speaker 3: come from. Right. I am movies, some TV. I mean,
Speaker 3: I'm a journalist, so I watched a lot of news.
Speaker 3: I love reading. I love great writing. I just read
Speaker 3: a biography of Nora Efron that was fun, and then
Speaker 3: I did Yeah, and I, in fact, it's interesting because
Speaker 3: she tells a story in there. It was written by
Speaker 3: it's a biography, not an autobiography, and the woman tells
Speaker 3: a story about Dora Frond wrote a play about women
Speaker 3: and clothing, and I forget the name of it offhand,
Speaker 3: but anyway, it inspired me. So I did a story
Speaker 3: about women clothing and identity and how more women are
Speaker 3: choosing sustainable clothing now as part of their values and identity.
Speaker 3: It's really interesting. So, I mean, and I go out
Speaker 3: with friends and hang out with people, and I have
Speaker 3: a lot of great friends. Things like that, So movies, events.
Speaker 3: I'm going to the Kennedy Center this week, so that'll
Speaker 3: be fun. I'm very excited. I love that stuff. Yeah,
Speaker 3: So I do a lot of fun things, but my
Speaker 3: work is also fun.
Speaker 2: Soon it will include you coming to Atlanta and we
Speaker 2: hanging out and going out together, right, or we can
Speaker 2: come to New York, which we've been talking about anyway,
Speaker 2: so we could just do that. Well, you're right New York,
Speaker 2: but yes, we're talking about so we'll do it that way.
Speaker 2: We could all just go to New York to get together.
Speaker 3: It's a trip there that we could totally do that
Speaker 3: absolutely record. Yeah, either in Rockville or DC or New York.
Speaker 3: Who knows.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we gotta do it all that way. Yes, which
Speaker 2: is not so hot right now, very right now. And
Speaker 2: well before we wrap up, do you have anything else
Speaker 2: you would like to tell the listeners.
Speaker 3: I think I would like to tell your listeners. First
Speaker 3: of all, listen to Electric Ladies Podcast seriously. Let me
Speaker 3: know if you want any help or input on this,
Speaker 3: whether for your organization and for you, and you can
Speaker 3: find it on Electric Ladies podcast dot com. But I
Speaker 3: also want to say, have a different definition of risk.
Speaker 3: So I have lived in extreme hot and extreme cold.
Speaker 3: I've lived in eight states, I've been moved around for work,
Speaker 3: and have an adventurous spirit. I mean, if somebody had
Speaker 3: told me that I would be living in Las Vegas
Speaker 3: when I lived there, I would have looked at them
Speaker 3: like they had ten heads. If somebody had told me
Speaker 3: that I would be living in Fargo, North Dakota, which
Speaker 3: I did with Chrysler. I would look at them like
Speaker 3: they had just swallowed acid. So you know, you never know.
Speaker 3: But both opportunities changed my life dramatically in wonder full ways.
Speaker 3: I'm obviously not there anymore. I found my weather limits, ladies,
Speaker 3: I found my limits. I swung one hundred and eighty
Speaker 3: degrees in eighty months. So I found my mother limits.
Speaker 3: But you know, I learned something from it. And so
Speaker 3: don't be afraid of Oh I don't know what's going
Speaker 3: to happen, go for it, for Christ's sake, the adventure
Speaker 3: of it. The worst that happens is you're eady and
Speaker 3: you lead. Yeah, so think about risk differently. Think about
Speaker 3: how you'll feel if you don't do it, and you'll
Speaker 3: regret not having done it or not having gone to
Speaker 3: meet you know, the blind date or whatever. Right, So
Speaker 3: just just have a different definition of risk and take
Speaker 3: your career by the horns. Take charge of it. You
Speaker 3: are CEO of your life, right, and treat it that way.
Speaker 3: I love that. Other than that, I have no opinion
Speaker 3: on the matter.
Speaker 4: All Right, I'm gonna fall off about this date.
Speaker 1: But yes, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for taking the time. I love when we
Speaker 1: get to have these collaborations and crossovers because we found
Speaker 1: your research and your interviews and here we are and
Speaker 1: it's great.
Speaker 4: So thank you so much. We will be.
Speaker 1: Meeting up at some point at some times, yes, and
Speaker 1: if you ever want to come back, let.
Speaker 4: Us know you're welcome. Please come back.
Speaker 1: We would love to have another conversation. But in the meantime,
Speaker 1: where can our good listeners find you?
Speaker 3: Electric Ladies podcast dot com. Ladies is spelled out l
Speaker 3: d I yes, podcast dot com. My handle everywhere is
Speaker 3: at John Michaelson. I think my show we also have
Speaker 3: at Electric Ladies Podcast are at Electric Galas Pod. Speaking
Speaker 3: of Gallantine's Day, and uh, I'm on all the social media.
Speaker 3: I don't have to do as much on TikTok, thank
Speaker 3: you for sharing, but I'm you know, a lot on
Speaker 3: LinkedIn and I'll still call it Twitter, I can't help it.
Speaker 3: And Instagram whenever you'll find me. But I think LinkedIn
Speaker 3: and Twitter and my website you can find more information
Speaker 3: there that you ever want to know. You can follow
Speaker 3: my stories on Forbes. I've written hundreds of stories on
Speaker 3: this stuff on Forbes. I have a lot of career
Speaker 3: advice on Forbes, and I do career coaching and book
Speaker 3: coaching and ESG consulting and speaking and stuff. So if
Speaker 3: I can inspire your audience or you do reach out,
Speaker 3: I am always happy to connect.
Speaker 4: Certain Like my dad said, I'm.
Speaker 2: Telling you just a few that's fine.
Speaker 3: As you have a book like we like and get yes,
Speaker 3: and I'm working on a book hopefully to be out
Speaker 3: later this year. Okay, fingers crossed, we'll go.
Speaker 4: Let us know.
Speaker 3: Ye that's on your books.
Speaker 1: We want to celebrate yours because I remember how stressful
Speaker 1: it was.
Speaker 2: I'm going to support you in your quests and then
Speaker 2: come back on the show and we'll talk about it.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, yeah, Well it's perfectly aligned with what we've
Speaker 3: been talking about.
Speaker 4: I love it absolutely well.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for joining us listeners. If you
Speaker 1: would like to contact us, you can. Our email is
Speaker 1: Stephanie Momstuff at iHeartMedia dot com. You can find us
Speaker 1: on Twitter at mosta podcast, or on TikTok and Instagram
Speaker 1: at stuff. I never told you we have a teap
Speaker 1: epics store, and yes we do have a book you
Speaker 1: can get wherever you get your books. Thanks, as always
Speaker 1: to our super producer Christina or executive producer Maya and
Speaker 1: our contribute Joey, thank you and thanks to you for listening.
Speaker 1: Stefan Never Told You. Protection by Heart Radio. For more
Speaker 1: podcast in my Heart Radio, you can check out the
Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple podcast or whatever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows