 Welcome. I'm so glad all of you are here to join us for another episode of the nonprofit show. Today we have Liz Brailsford with us and Liz serves as the World Affairs Council of Dallas Fort Worth as their CEO and Liz has a phenomenal story. She's an amazing female leader and that's what she's here to talk to us about is advancing female leadership. And Liz before we dive into the conversation, we of course want to remind our viewers and our listeners that Julia Patrick, of course, created this amazing platform. Julia serves as the CEO of the American nonprofit Academy and is enjoying a much deserved time off so again, hopefully this will come up in female leadership that to give ourselves grace and to give us some time off is equally important to the great work that we do. I'm Jared ransom nonprofit nerd CEO of the Raven group and honored to serve alongside Julia day in and day out as the co host of the nonprofit show. And we are honored to have the continuous support investment and trust truly within our presenting sponsors so I'm going to give a verbal shout out for those of you listening on podcast. Thank you so very much to blue meringue American nonprofit Academy fundraising Academy with the National University nonprofit nerd, your part time controller staffing boutique and the nonprofit thought leader. If you haven't checked these companies out I encourage you to do so they're amazing their leadership is amazing, and they're here to pour into you and your mission. Hey I mentioned our podcast listeners so we are on podcast platform as well so you can queue up the nonprofit show wherever you stream your podcast, but you can also find our previous episodes including one with Liz because she is back again her second year, but you can find us on Roku YouTube Amazon fire TV as well as Mimeo. So Liz we just celebrated just over 600 episodes and to have you back thank you to have you back to talk about this is a phenomenal, but I do want to share again Liz serves as the President and CEO, the World Affairs Council of Dallas Fort Worth. Welcome my friend. Oh, thank you, Jared thank you so much and let me just say I really appreciate you and Julia thank you for hosting me congratulations on your 600th show. I did see that on LinkedIn recently and I think I commented on that. But I just, I really appreciate being with you. So thank you very much and it's a pleasure to be back a second time. That's right that's right that means that you didn't mess up the first time and we really wanted to hear more from you. Oh, it's stressful. I'm telling you stressful. Well tell us a little bit Liz about your role but moreover World Affairs Council, in particular your Dallas Fort Worth like tell me what this organization does and how it shows up in our community. Okay, so we are really you said you hit the nail on the head we're a community organization we're really part of a grassroots network around the United States, we're one World Affairs Council of 90 and 42 states so that's pretty exciting. And actually before was in Washington DC at our national umbrella organization which I can talk a little bit more about later, but I was co there and heard about this role and so came here a year and a half ago. The World Affairs Council of Dallas Fort Worth is a non partisan nonprofit that is focused solely really on engaging and educating North Texans on all things international affairs. So we don't specialize in a geographical location or an international topic we hit hit them all. So I saw that you have my website there on the previous slide and I appreciate that but it is DFW world.org we do a lot. We do a lot. Yeah, check it out and I love that you really you know bring up non partisan so you you touch on all topics and all great things and I really appreciate that. So today we're talking about advancing female leadership and I cannot think of a better person to come on and have this conversation with Liz. So first of all, let's dive in deep because you know you and I we don't really play in the shallow end we go deep into the deep end is like, if there's a high dive we're going to jump it. Why is female leadership important let's let's go there. Yeah, you know let me start with this really quickly because I was thinking before we were going to go on here that I was going to apologize for looking so tired. I'm visiting my mother right now and I had a really hard travel day and I didn't end up getting to my mom's last night until 215am. And I was thinking I should just go ahead and apologize for that and then I said no, no, I'm not going to apologize that's ridiculous and I think that's tied into who we are as women, and the constructs that we've created in our society and I think that ties into leadership. And so, yeah, this is this is this is this is all of me that you're getting right here and I'm not apologizing for that but I wanted to mention that that that was my natural inclination, and I think that women do that a lot. That's important and I can empathize with that as well. And I love that you bring that up because you know we are doing so much, and we also often say I'm sorry or provide this. Apologies. Yeah, yeah, yeah, good for you. Yeah. Well, as this. Yeah, okay, so I'll mention that later but you know I think that that women create stronger organizations and there's a study done that women in leadership tend to 30% outperform other companies. And I think that it's so important to have representation at the table. Right. So, for me, women leaders are such a role model and inspiration for me. And I think that when you leave out half the population we're 51% of the population and when you leave that out, you're leaving input behind and these policies that we're creating in our society at our businesses and government at our houses when you leave out the population in these decisions, those policies are impacting us and how can we not have those those those opinions and input in being in making those so it's incredibly important to have representation. You hear a lot of people in our world talk about that. And I think that's important across across the spectrum but you know I think again, I've got notes here so if you're seeing me look across the side here I'm, I'm checking on my notes. So I also think that women leaders tend to be more nurturing. And I think that women who are looking after employees well being, and they're more supported, there's less burnout. I think that you retain staff longer. And for me, I know as a leader, employee retention and employee engagement is really the bread and butter of my career it's the it's the most important thing to me I love my staff I love the employees I love my teammates. And so, all those things are important and I think that naturally just women tend to nurture. Yeah, better. And, you know, inclusivity, just in general. I know that you probably feel a lot of the same ways in these, these, these things that I'm saying. Well, and one of the things I'm curious about because I see this in myself is as a woman, I still am driven by my masculine energy. So the masculine and the feminine energy right and so I actually drive with my masculine energy so when you mention women are, you know, naturally more nurturing. I have to question myself. I get it, I get it, I get it. But that's something to think about and so for you to share you know why female leadership important is important and to share some of those stories and some of those you know impact statements is fantastic. Let's get even nerdier because you know I really like to talk nerdy. What is some more data behind female leadership you shared you know the 51% of the population you shared you know some others. Where else do we find some good solid stats in our data as it relates to female leadership. Yeah, before we go there Jared let me just add also. So throughout time we've traditionally had men as leaders. Okay, and so when we have men as leaders we are creating the idea of leadership lead leadership has been something that we've been building over time it evolves it's. It's not this hard thing, but it's typically through the ages, created by man. So when we think of leaders we are thinking of a male leader, and what what male lead leaders tend to be and how they behave and how they manage, how they transform and so when women started to creep into leadership positions which is wonderful and we have a long way to go there and it's going to take time but when women start to creep into these positions and they deviate from from behavior that that male leadership is. It's seen as less, literally, is that a word, we're going to use it you know what I mean. But, but yeah, and so let's say this for example women tend to use more exclamation points and smiley faces and things like that that may seem more feminine and, and things that women do and so when they do that when they use that in email let's say or other communications. It's less it's seen as less of a leader because that's not as typical of a male and I think that women tend to stuff that down and try to try to not do that. And as I've been pondering leadership throughout my career and female leadership particularly as I am a woman. I've really I've, I've, I want to embrace things like that more because I think we need to move the needle on on leadership and what it means to be a leader. And so I'm trying to embrace things like that now I'm not putting eight exclamation points in my, my grant proposal, but, but you know what I mean, you know what I mean. I'm in a place and I agree with that and I love that you pointed out like when we think of leaders we think of, you know, the avatar, I would agree is probably a male, a male leader and I'm curious because we're going to go into the data but I'm curious list from your global perspective. Right, like let's go globally here with your perspective. How are you seeing this female leader in other spaces and cultures right like how is this being perceived. What are their global communities. Well I gotta tell you, so the US, the United States is typically seen as pretty far advanced, pretty far advanced in terms of female leadership, but we're really behind in government and other women executives across the board and other countries and even countries that you may not think necessarily they've they've had women as leaders for some of them for a long time and so I think across the board around the globe, we have a ways to go. Yeah. But, but the US is doing all right but yeah, but we do have a long way to go. Yeah, there's still some work to be done. Right, well let's get into is there additional data you can share with us Liz you know behind that female leadership but I know we touched on this a little bit, but if there's more data behind this would love to hear it. Yeah, okay. So, I mentioned that women are 51% of the population, however we are far underrepresented in leadership positions across sectors and in the economy and in American society it's not just business and politics. I was reading about one study recently and that study said that there's two biggest challenges that women face that that keep women from leader leadership positions and it's that women are tied to higher standards, and that some businesses don't feel ready to have women in top executive positions and so that's a big challenge for us I think it's a mentality, you know, we can do the work. We can go through the motions of interviews and and and hiring and onboarding and all and all these other things that elevate and lift women, but it's the mentality that is so hard to change hearts and minds it's the last thing it's the last thing that's going to evolve and as we've seen, there's been 0% of women as presidents of the United States. In Congress there's 28% of women at large 24% of the US Senate 28% of the House of Representatives. We're talking about the private sector. So, this is actually a much higher number than I've been reading in years past and so it keeps creeping up but right now for Fortune 500 companies were 8.2% of women CEOs now that's that's private business though let's say 23% of executives are women 29 women hold 29% of senior management positions 37% of manager positions and of course that goes up as the, the, the level of women goes down. Another one a study found that women represent 5% of the top earners considered the as the 1% right, and we represent 54.3 of the workforce in December of last year, but we only hold hold 35% of leadership senior leadership positions. And we're not we're not even talking about equal pay. We're not even scratching that service a whole other can work. Yeah, no, yeah, that's another episode but these are some statistics that you know we I believe we need to be aware of and when we think of our leadership across the nation in particular, I'm going to show you guys how you can share with us some best practices for us to advocate for female leadership right like if we're seeing this opportunity, how might we advocate for female leadership, be it you know in a nonprofit space on the board level right the governing fiduciary agents of the organization as well as that C sweet middle management and really just all levels of leadership for an organization. How do we best advocate for that. Okay, well, well, that's, that's, that's a lot. And I think it starts as children but let me let me give you one other stat about nonprofits so a budget of nonprofit is a million dollars or less and let me just say this because I am in the nonprofit field. I'm incredibly grateful for being in my position but women make up less than 56% of CEOs but if you go 50 million or more in a budget, we're at just 22%. So, it's unfortunate, but but to get back to your question I think it can start as children and I think that is evolving. You know there's been commercials and advertising and we as even we as children and Jerry you and I come from the same hometown and I'm sure you were also told you can be anything you want. And I think that that we are told that but then reality sets in and so I think it's more of a reinforcement when we're young and that must continue. But I think when we get to, to, let's say young adult and adulthood, those opportunities need to be given more fairly more openly I think we need to continue to advocate for girls and young women and STEM, and there's a lot more boys and those those education avenues but educational avenues. When we get to women and careers I think mentorship and you're talking about advocating I think mentorship is really important. And so, perhaps we institute more mentorship programs for for women. I think that you need to speak out. I think that people and I actually read a study on this a couple of days ago actually about women advocating for other women. I think we need to speak out more and I think so many of us, including men may not feel it's as important as it actually is, and may not feel comfortable in doing that but I think anytime that we can speak up and speak out about women advancing, or opportunities I you know I said a little while ago that women are held to a higher standard and I actually think that's true. Not always, but often. And so I think that, yeah, mentorship speaking out, giving the opportunity, hiring women and so there there's the argument that I've heard in, in, in years past that well we would hire more women we'd have more women in leadership that pipeline is not there. There's there we don't have the options. And you know what I think it's true to an extent. I think some of it's a little bit of a. Okay, I'm on to you. But, but, but yeah, I mean I think we need to evolve the pipeline which means starting when we're children and in developing that. So, your organization, you have a youth program how how is that advancing leadership, you know globally can you talk to us about that program. Gosh, well I love that you said how are we advancing leadership globally I would love to take credit for that. For me, I always think like what we do here is impacting the globe, you know truly that that ripple effect and and so yes I do see it that you know you are impacting globalese but talk to us about the youth program that you offer just a little bit because I think that that shares a little bit of demonstration. Okay, okay. So one of the four pillars of our work is our education work and we call it the global young leaders program and essentially what we've done is gone gone on to high school campus campuses across the Texas area we're in about 70 private public homeschool charter and we have set up junior world affairs councils. It's really exciting and we are bringing global curriculum and global competency back to our high schools we're doing teacher curriculum training and things like that and so we're impacting around 8000 high school students every academic year around 1000 teachers we're working with. I love that and you know you, you said we're impacting the globe and I made a little bit of a joke about that and what is that saying about my female leadership. I don't know another conversation but to get back to the case and point. I do perhaps think that we are affecting the globe because we are are educating our youth on global competency and to me, that is bringing the world to north Texas bringing north Texas to the world and we are creating a more competitive community and workforce here and so a lot of the students that we're impacting obviously we are opening and exposing them to the to the world at large and so yes, they want to go into international affairs probably at a higher rate than if they not heard about us, and they do work for government they go into foreign service they go into corporate and they work all over the world so yeah, I will take that credit, not me, the team. Yeah, but we'll take that credit. I love that that you know the data behind this female leadership talking a little bit about you know how do we advocate provide that mentorship takes us so perfectly Liz into would you share with the amount of time we have here. I love this photo it's it's very powerful of you, but what is your female leadership journey what what does that look like for you. And, and I also love that you know today as we're as we're providing this opportunity. You are in your home, and that would be your childhood home that actually we grew up you know in the same community so what is your journey looked like for you. Okay, I want to say this point that I started to say in the very beginning and I probably should have inserted it there but you're talking about vernacular that that we use and we were in a staff meeting a couple of weeks ago and we were we go around round Robin to talk about her updates and what's going on and thorns and roses in our lives and things like that and one of the interns, we asked the interns what they're working on and one of the women, and these are high school and undergraduate for the most part. And she said, I've just been da da da da da da da and I and I had to interrupt her right away and say no no no no no no hold on a minute. You're not just doing anything you're you're contributing to our organization in major ways and we value the work that you're bringing to us and all your skill sets and talents and so I think women tend to use just and I have obliterated that from my, my, my communications because I'm not just checking in with you. I'm not diminishing what I'm doing I'm, I'm, I'm being confident and so yeah, that's one piece but let me just say also that I think that all of us are are all of us women are leaders every day at our at our desks in our homes and our communities and our places of worship in our businesses and in our offices and I think it's a really wonderful thing I think that we don't realize how much of a leader that we're being every day. I think about my mom, who raised us as a single mom my brother and I, and I think of her and say, wow, she was getting business done, being a leader and it's just, it's, we're all leaders every day, and, and think about that through the lens of a career. Be a leader at your desk take on more initiatives and think about your projects, think about learning more about your job you're being a leader every single day whether you realize it or not, and grow into that breathe into that let that imbue you to be the person that you're fully capable of being and I see it in the staff and my teammates, and I love seeing that but okay, so my leadership journey, you know, I've been told my whole life I'm a natural leader and Jared I think probably the same of you. Yeah, yep, yep, yep. And so when when we were when we were kids, I was always the one who got volunteered to go do the scary task right and asked the question, do the task or whatever it was, and I was always voted to be that person in my group of friends. My first real brush of leadership was I was captain captain of my high school soccer team. My senior year where you, you played soccer to. Yes, I was also captain. Yeah, yeah. I love it. I love it. I love it. Okay, so that was my first brush with it but, you know, I've often thought through the years. What does that mean that we're leaders that were natural leaders. What is leadership? Is leadership innate? Is it taught? Is it a combination? I feel that I still continue to ponder that because what is true leadership. But I will say that for my career and that my career has not been linear. A lot of women's careers are not linear for a variety of reasons. And I would agree that mine wasn't and I remember having this stress years ago about thinking, oh my gosh, am I going to be okay in my career? I don't know. Am I going to make it where I want to be? And it turns out that I'm doing all right. But I think that a lot of women face that angst and that anxiety because they're not linear. Anyway, I've worked hard in my career and I've worked even harder. I've volunteered a lot. I've busted my behind and I've overcommitted. I've been stressed out. I had chronic stress. But you know, we work really hard as women, as everybody, but we're talking about women here. But yeah, I worked really hard to get where I am. I've been in nonprofit, public and private sectors now and nonprofit obviously. Really happy where I am. But yeah, I'd say hard work. That is a great story. And I love that you brought up, you know, your mom's story, your childhood story, you know, really just weaving in that I do believe how we show up day in and day out, even being tired from a travel day, right? That is so powerful in how we show up as female leaders and what we model, we might not always wake up and say, okay, I'm going to model female leadership today. But what you shared in your childhood story for your brother and yourself to be raised by a single mom, I'm guarantee, you know, she didn't wake up every day and say, okay, I'm going to model female leadership, right? It just was. It is what we do. And I guarantee you Liz, there are so many individuals out there, looking up to all of us, right, our viewers, our listeners included, so that how we show up day in and day out and truly I believe as well in an authentic space, you know, share those, as you mentioned, roses share those thorn moments like that is a part of leadership, and I subscribed to that, you know, authentic leadership as well. So your journey is very familiar to me in so many ways and I'm sure to many of our viewers and listeners as they listen to you Liz, you know, as the president and CEO for the World Affairs Council of Dallas Fort Worth because it's so important the stats you shared with us are so important. I'm glad to hear that the US is making strides, you know, we're really in a good place. And there's still work to be done and to mentor and to advocate. I couldn't echo your statements further so thank you for all of this. Oh my gosh thank you very much and I just want to say I was actually just to go back to your authentic authenticity point. I was I had to fill out a leadership questionnaire recently for something that anyway, and I had to give three adjectives to describe my leadership and authenticity was one of them. I really believe that and but I want to thank you for this opportunity again Jared, really grateful for you and I just want to say as we're ending here that to all of the younger women that are may listen to this or who are listening to this. Keep going keep persisting I was, you know, scared at times and didn't know where I was headed and thought that I wasn't going to make it and just keep trying keep persisting you will get there you will get there and I admire you. And I am supporting you and I am encouraging you every step of the way, but just keep going, you'll do it. Yeah, yeah. Great advice. Absolutely love it. Please check out the World Affairs Council Dallas Fort Worth Liz and her team have amazing programs projects offerings that they provide the community and so you know I've learned a lot in fact the global business and reword was something that I learned. I can't believe it but it was, you know, it was, it's part of my life I just didn't know the term for it, and you put that term, you know, to, or brought it to reality for me so thank you. Thank you for that so much Liz, and thank you to Julia Patrick, a CEO of the American nonprofit that allows me to show up day in and day out and have amazing conversations like the one that we just had here with Liz and again to our presenting sponsors that allow us to show up for these authentic moments to have these authentic conversations unscripted I want to share because our corporate sponsors are presenting sponsors rather they trust us that much. So it's fantastic I want to say thank you so very much to Bloomerang American nonprofit Academy fundraising Academy with the National University nonprofit nerd, your part time controller staffing boutique and the nonprofit thought leader. Please check out these companies I always like to mention that in the beginning but I hope you really just focused in on today's guest Liz Brailsford as you joined us to share about advancing female leadership so thank you so very much, and to all of you that have joined us we like to remind you, and ourself and I'm going to remind you Liz, to please stay well, so you can do well. Thanks again, we'll see you all tomorrow.