 Hello, and welcome back from networking. Hi Monique. Hi Um, I had a chance to do the networking and I don't typically get to do that. It was really fun. I Saw someone else in the chat say that they love networking and hop in so that's already a good thing I think so you weren't the only one had fun. I Think one of the things that really struck me from my networking session is that I Heard things like this is helping me connect in different ways and I am trying to Think about how I take some of what I'm hearing today and moving it into my own work So just and then also I think another piece about the networking is you can start to chat people directly from there, too So I've been hearing from some folks that I haven't had a chance to catch up with in a little while So thank you everybody I'm really excited to move in to the second half of our program and Hear from another group of incredible women who are trailblazing in their own ways And so I think that it's uh, I'm excited to listen in on what they have to say Yeah, so we're gonna have a roundtable discussion with a few amazing women leaders We'll be joined shortly by Ali Burns CEO of a village capital Christine St. Ville founder of Social Scoop and Leticia piguero vice president of programs at the nation Cummings Foundation after that we'll pop back in for Q&A So keep these questions flowing in the chat being gauged When you hear something awesome, you know do a double click on it by posting it in the chat And then showing that showing it show you love as they say So I think there will be obviously many tweetable gems that will come out of this conversation with these amazing amazing woman leaders, so We'll shortly be joined by them and it'll be a conversation on navigating boss status with some bosses. Yeah So we'll see you all in a second. Bye Hi there I'm so excited about this and then we're waiting for Ali to hop on hopefully she can Just a second, but I guess we can get started with just sharing a little bit about who we are So thank you all for having us for allowing us to be here and share this space with you guys I'm super excited as I'm shared I'm Christine St. Ville. I'm the founder of the social scoop Which is a community for mompreneurs to help them leverage social media for their businesses My most important job is being a mom to my three kids 9 11 and 13 and a wife of almost 16 years We're also homeschool parents. So we can definitely talk quite a bit about this We've been doing it almost eight years now about eight years And so looking forward to this discussion and sharing this space with these awesome women. So leticia. I'll pick it over to you Thank you Christine. I am an awe of moms during this time and the fact that you've been doing it for eight years. I Yeah I am excited to be here. I'm leticia pigaro I'm the vice president of programs of the Nathan Cummings Foundation and I also do executive and professional coaching specifically for women of color and philanthropy I'm really excited to be part of this conversation and to think about and to think and talk about how all of these Issues race and gender play into leadership, especially on equal payday Ali. I'm gonna pass it on to you Hello, it's great to be here. Sorry. I was having a bit of a tech issue But I think we're we're good to go now And it's wonderful to be in the company of these other two amazing women. I'm Ali Burns. I lead village capital we invest in impact-driven companies and I've been in this role for Just a few years now, so it's been it's been an interesting journey And I know we're gonna touch on that and I also want to add my deep admiration for all moms at this time I only am a dog mom That is enough for the time being so Yeah, I'm really excited to have this discussion and yes, I'm happy equal payday Well, listen being a dog mom, I've had some friends that have puppies and it's it's it's quite a challenge as well sometimes Nothing wrong with that. So let's just hop right into it ladies You know one of the things that we wanted to discuss was around, you know, our challenges and You know our own journeys and so I know for me personally, you know When I think about just even in my job as a social media coach and you know helping other women tell their stories online You know and I think about the journey a lot of times, you know You hear that quote about Sometimes people look at you know your highlight reel and they think that there's you know You're you can't possibly be going through all of these other things or you're you know, you look good You look great, but they don't really see the behind the scenes They don't see the journey the frustrations that we have to go through, you know The things that we have to fight for so I want to definitely go get into sharing, you know our own journeys and You know if you ladies want to just chime in and just talk about, you know What has been your greatest challenge that you know, you can think of over the years of you know being a boss, right? And what is the way that or ways that you were able to overcome, you know, those challenges Ali you want to start sure I Always whenever I talk about this This question I always talk about the fact of my journey has certainly been not been linear And I'm sure that's many of our experiences that you you leave a College and you think you're gonna have this like specific trajectory And that's not the way that it works out. Certainly not the way that that mind did I actually spent the first decade of my career probably not really knowing where I wanted to go I was in corporate communications and And I had the same reckoning a lot of people do who are in impact investing or philanthropy We're in the social good space where I said what the heck am I doing? I really want to do something that I you know that I feel like is contributing to the good of the world and I was fortunate enough to have a really awesome boss. I was at AOL at the time during a very interesting Time in AOL's own journey who's who pulled me aside and said look I Feel like you need to go do something else to Boost your trajectory and to boost your career and do what you really want to do and I happen to know Someone who is in philanthropy who's looking for a communications director. Can I make an introduction? And rarely are we so lucky to have bosses like that And she certainly was someone who was looking out for me and my career and that really Changed the trajectory of my career. I joined sieve and gene case Co-founder and early executive at AOL and their family for lamprey But very quickly had a front-row seat to their work in impact investing they're the building of their traditional venture capital arm revolution and Had this really fascinating opportunity to discover what I was passionate about was this intersection of innovation early-stage entrepreneurship investing and Impact and found my way to village capital about five years ago Had I not again had I not had that boss that pulled me aside I would not have done that the other in the contemplating what my greatest challenge is. I think it was myself You know doubting myself when I came over to village capital. I took on the role as COO I'd never been a COO before I was in communications I knew how to lead teams, but I I needed some time to process the Applicability of the role that I had previously to this entirely new role running an organization. I kind of went through the same Testing of myself and my confidence in myself when I took on the when I was asked to take on the CEO role And I know that's something that that we all wrestle with the sort of self-confidence to To make a leap That men usually don't even spend a second thinking about so That's certainly the story of my journey Yeah, you said so much I don't know if you you had anything to chime on to that leticia as well You know and sharing your journey, but I think so many people can definitely relate to just not trusting yourself And I think you know as we get into the conversation It will you know show up in different ways, but definitely I can relate to that as well. So thank you for sharing that Yeah, I'll just say that um, you know I am first-generation and my family to go to college and in English actually was not my first language and so as I think about the journey of You know my journey both here and thinking about like is college for me This is something that I do that I should do Ali. I totally Resonate with the idea that I thought I was actually thought I was gonna go to college and become a teacher I have great respect for teachers and thought this is this is something that I should do that I want to do And fell into philanthropy by accident, you know, totally by accident this idea that There was someone there who saw or something in me and said have you thought that this is possible? I actually didn't even know what philanthropy was. So it wasn't just an amazing opportunity It was also discovering that there was this whole other world That I think really needed organizers and people that were coming from the Sectors that we were trying to impact to to lend their voice to it. So I you know really resonate with what you said I'd love to ask a question if I may Yeah, yeah, I actually started with the idea of equal payday And you know, I was reminded of that this morning I forgot that today is the day that we actually and I've wrote this down here that White women Have to work To earn the same that men did last year, right? So white women would have to work all the way till today to earn the same Generally speaking that that men earned last year for black women. It's August 13th for Latinas It's October 29th and for Native American and indigenous women. It's October 1st So we see right there the sort of built-in structural inequities that are that are Part of our system and I'm just really wondering from from you both how has race and gender played into the way that you See yourselves the way that you position yourselves and the way that your leadership shows up in your respective fields Yeah, that's a great question and I'll just share a little bit of my you know my background and how I got into you know My industry because it really is across industries that I see and so, you know for me It actually started like you like both of you ladies. I went to school for biology So most people are like, oh, did you go to communications marketing? No, none of that I Thought I was gonna go to chiropractor school then decided my senior year. That's not what I wanted to do And so I ended up actually, you know part of my journey a big part of my journey is when I left corporate Because it was you know, there was discrimination there I was just in a very just not a good environment And so, you know becoming a stay-at-home mom to three kids thunder three at the time was just definitely a self-discovery Moment for me And so part of my journey was being able to you know figure out who I was and what I wanted to do So I started a blog in 2012 And that's kind of that's really how I got started in social media and marketing and being able to you know Tell my story and help other women do the same and so, you know, one of the things that I've seen definitely I mean, I was just on clubhouse the other day and they were having this exact conversation, you know, because We'll see there was a lot of things that blew up last year because of the pandemic and you know People's and you know black wise matter and just people seeing even as an influencer You know, how many how much less they were getting paid as black influencers versus white counterparts and you know Some of them, you know really going to these brands is saying how are you going to change this? Right? And so I think that having more of these conversations Putting more of these, you know out there for people to to Have a discussion about like we're doing today is really important So, you know, we can really, you know figure out how we can move the needle forward, right? So how you know me, you know, I try to talk to other agency owners like hey, what are you doing? How are you finding your influencers? You know, I'm looking for you know, multicultural influencers for this client like who do you know, right? And then you know allowing other people to you know be able to give me their references But I think it's so important that we look beyond what we're comfortable with and what we know and find and find ways to be more inclusive Yeah, and I'd say maybe it's sort of speaking to the journey to on awareness around race and gender and pay on the gender side of my own journey I Had no idea about the that the pay gap even existed probably for the first decade of my career And I was in a pretty female dominated industry and marketing communication particularly communications and PR And I would again fortunate to have a lot of really awesome role models, but nobody ever talked about compensation So I had no idea until someone pulled me aside much later in my career and said Who was an advisor for us and said you need to ask for a lot more money? Like, you know, you you understand like there's a big gap if you compared yourself to other peers and particularly your male peers You should be aware of that and so that was part of like a slow awakening for me Recognizing that the gap existed but I was late to the party and I would give myself not a good grade on recognizing intersectionality and recognizing that the pay gap is different Along racial lines as well and that someone like me is responsible for bringing everybody along Like it's not enough to acknowledge equal payday for white women And we've got to acknowledge exactly what you just did Leticia and say like it's not right until we fixed it for all women We all need we need to bring everybody to the same line and that's something that that I'm doing a lot more of and trying to speak out a lot more about and Learn a lot more about as well Thank you for saying that Ali. I am like you. I had no idea how to negotiate Salaries and actually I'll say didn't feel that it was my right To to do it Until I met I'm the amazing Dr. Deborah Perez Who was at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation when I was a fellow and so I got into philanthropy like I said by chance I was a national urban fellow and she said to me come come come hang out with me for ten months Be a fellow and I remember being like in Princeton, New Jersey Like for ten months really And but I I I went and it and it changed my life But one of the things that she taught me was how to negotiate And I remember her telling me That the idea that the offer that they make is the offer you should accept is I Won't say the word here, right? It's and I was like Remember being like to Like what do you do? Do I push back? But what if they then they take it away, right? So I think you know, I really appreciate this conversation because I think one we don't get taught as Women and oftentimes our own Relationships with money right both as women and as people of color Ali I really appreciate you bringing in the word intersectionality, right like the way that these things intersect Feel insurmountable until someone teaches you The tricks and I always say in philanthropy in particular, which is, you know, particularly not a particularly diverse space That you know the things that men ask for and I have to like actually sit down and think about right Before I go in and oftentimes men are like Yeah, of course Of course, this is what I'm supposed to be getting the salary the amount. So For sure, you know, I think how do we then mentor right the the next generation to come to be Like I always like to say ballers right in these spaces. So Yeah, I I think I think it's so important for us to pass along those lessons to the women that Work for us one of the things I I have a lot of challenges with the nonprofit space But one of the things that is nice is that we have to be transparent about salaries We are we are forced to report on our compensation And so that requires us to be really intentional about communicating how salaries Operate in the organization and encouraging people to really understand that But but yeah, so I wanted to ask a question as well and and that is You know The last year we've been going through We're you know, we're just over a year In a global pandemic and there are signs of hope on the horizon certainly but There's also reminders every day My colleagues in Kenya for example are about to go back on on lockdown that this is still very much with us and I'm I'm just curious. We've seen a lot of reports and headlines about how The pandemic has impacted women disproportionately and curious how What you're seeing both for yourselves personally and professionally but also amongst the the women that you work with and the women in your life and And and how we are coping and how we recover Yeah, I think that's such an important, you know question and and this is you know important conversation because I think this last year has forced people I think to you know Leticia was saying early about being authentic like being more authentic With what you're going through and what you're doing like I've seen so many more people sharing their stories Which allows other people to share. You know what I'm really not okay And that's okay, and I think that that's really the first Piece is that mostly women were always forced to just do it Work through anything You know show up anyway, you know and just be the strong person And so I think this last year has you know for me personally Definitely allowed me to focus more on the things that are important You know being more intentional with personal relationships for sure You know for our kids it's been about finding ways because you know, I mean they're they're going through it too Right. They miss their friends. They you know, they miss activities that they're doing so finding more ways to be more creative More fun, you know more intentional with the time, you know, it has been we went back to playing You know board games right and uno and just stuff that was not, you know on tablet stuff That was going to allow us to connect, you know, we started implementing You know, we have these cards that have like right like speaking points, right? So that sparks conversations so that we can you know, keep it going and just open the communication And I found that that has been so critical especially now Because so many people are going through so much. I know that someone was sharing a stat with me recently about, you know The mental health Especially of children and even adults has gone way up, you know in the last year and so, you know Making sure that we're open with communication from me in terms of business and professionally It has definitely opened doors to really see and figure out how I can help, you know My community with being less stressed, right? So taking away less stress from what they're doing Which caused me to start a membership, right for my mom for doors. It's like, okay Let me help you right and then also it helps me because I'm not have, you know It's less work on this end, you know to be able to Pull everybody into a membership But I think that it's important to also be able to and I know we'll talk about collaboration But you know, I think that this last year has really opened doors to, you know Really communicate and focus on the things that matter And so for me it's been more like Eye-opening right to say like I'm tripping and I'm worried about all of these things over here And these are the things that are really important Yeah, I you know this year Has been about slow and deliberate movement literal movement um an intention And it showed up showing up for me personally And I was sharing with a group of folks yesterday. I I've I've been a big yoga practitioner for for years And then for some reasons stopped and this past year have really dedicated, you know five days a week At this I will do this Working on some hard poses that have not come through just yet knock on wood but this idea of of like Why did I stop? Because I was busy because I was working because we had dockets because we had to move money out the door Because I had to work late even when I got home after I walked the dog. I'm a dog mom too, Allie And this year has been to some extent about slow and deliberate intention Like Christine, you said right like intention with my relationships to check in up on people. How are you? How are you doing? And also in our team I manage a big team at Nathan Cummings like What were we not doing before? Um, what does it mean to create space for people to be tired for people to be off screen? The new culture of being on screen all the time. I mean, I find it particularly exhausting How do we normalize? That it's okay You know the other a couple weeks ago It was like if people want to be laying down while we have this meeting feel free right to do that Um, so that it doesn't you know, we know that people are probably not fully dressed only from the waist up So let's just admit it and you know, it's okay Right if you want to lay down for this meeting and I think little things like that Um have helped me show up more authentically but also Taking care of the people we have moms on our team um, little children Big kids, you know teenagers with very different needs and to say How how can I help you? Show up for your family first in this moment And I know you're going to get the work done, right? We're we're we're social justice philanthropy We saw our work as really important in this moment of racial uprising to get the money out We're going to do that but Like take a mental health day or to or be off the screen Like what's the slow and intentional work that we have to do? To to show up the way we want to which I think is really different than than lots of male leadership Not not all of them Uh, but for lots of folks it's like idea of Slowness of intention of steadiness. I think feels really important in this in this past year for me I agree. I would love to hear some of your coping mechanisms Ali as well. If you don't mind sharing Yeah, I love that uh slow and intentional. Um, I've definitely found that Um, I need to be more intentional about self-care. Um, not having a commute not having The types of boundaries that I think we take for granted or took for granted Uh pre-covid has been important. So, um, I have a My coach gave me this tool. Uh It's supposed to be a four square, but it's more like a six square of things that I have to do every day to make Sure that I'm taking care of myself. Um, so it's a mix of you know, meditate. It's staying hydrated meditating exercising Sleeping well those are it's crazy that I have to remind myself that those are things that I have to do every day But really being intentional about like these are non-negotiables. These are things that I'm going to do no matter what um, that's been uh, Super helpful for our team Also encouraging people, you know, I think about the shift of Everybody keep your cameras on in the all hands so we can all see each other In march of 2020 versus now it's like if you're speaking it'd be great if you can turn your camera on But it's totally cool if you're just a picture in a square and you need to do what you need to do To deal with the fact that we're all on video for six to eight hours a day It feels like so, um, certainly encouraging our team also to take advantage of we have a very flexible time off policy and um, trying to find mental health resources for folks people of different access to different types of resource Um, and I try to be really transparent about everything that I'm doing To take care of myself so that uh, I'm setting an example and leticia. I really appreciated your comment too about male leadership not always having Being rooted in empathy. Um, I think uh, which which I think has been to the advantage of women leaders and I We see that at a macro level in Geography in countries that are led by women. Um, but also I think we're going to see a lot of Research that shows that organizations, uh, who have Uh, I don't want to use the word thrived because I don't know that anybody has thrived but that have, uh, come through the pandemic Stronger probably have more diverse leadership teams. Um, than those that don't be my guess Thanks for sharing I appreciate you said a key word that I love using and that's non-negotiable And I think that we definitely have to be clear about what our Non-negotiables are because it's so easy for people to overstep those boundaries. Like you were saying Ali. So Super super important. So we'll switch gears a little bit. One of my favorite, uh, African Proverbs is we can go fast alone Or far together So I would love to talk a little bit more about collaboration and what we can do as women to support each other On our individual journeys as well as you know, as we help each other raise to boss status So let's see say I'll let you start and I'll come back around Sure. Yeah, I love that proverb. Um, so I think a lot about You know a colleague of mine, uh, tia oras peters. She runs the seventh generation Fund and one of the things that she says all the time is, you know, this work is not about me Right, it's it's about seven generations in the past and seven generations in the future and um And to me that sort of epitomizes the way that I think about collaboration, right? I think it's really easy especially in the west for us to get caught in like This work is about me. It needs to have my name on it. You know, it's it's very The the driving force of capitalism, right? And I think this notion of Are there ways that actually this work? Sure. It's about me in this moment because I'm talking, right? I'm here in the in the On the stage Um, but this work is also about all the women, right? This work is about I've been thinking a lot about grandmothers lately This work is about all the women in my life Including my grandmother who's still alive and is 95 Who did not have the privilege that I do today And so how do we engage and create the Causes and the conditions that allow Me to be in this position for now um And and and lead in that way, right understanding that the baton will be passed And if I don't share the resources and and I don't engage in sort of open conversation communication transparency um then Then the baton might not be passed, right to to the to the next generation So I do think, you know, there are tools that we use in house But I think this idea of collaborative leadership and I'll just name one more person who taught me a beautiful concept um Not so long ago Elizabeth yampierre who works in climate justice based out of brooklyn new york Talks a lot about leaderful moments, right? So we believe in leaderful moments so that When I am tired, I can step back And ali and christine can step in And when christine's tired, or maybe you just need a day off, right? You can step back and I can step in and then I can call ali and say ali I am exhausted or I want to go on vacation Um, can you step in and so this idea that's different than leadership? It's about how do we engage in leaderful? Um movements and that's part of what we've been really trying to do and what I've been trying to put forward at at ncf I love that leaderful, um I was going to talk about two. I think separate but related things um one is about decision-making. Um, and I think um this is uh Something that we are rethinking collectively as a society is like is the way that is the way that we define power and give people power to make decisions the right way um and Something we've been running at village capital for the last 10 years as an experiment and What happens if you actually change power dynamics in investment decision-making? We run a peer-selected investment decision-making process and It's probably not going to shock anybody to know that that has led to a far more diverse portfolio particularly when it comes to um women-led companies, but also um in terms of where the companies are located and who is leading them both on race and ethnicity as well and So that's a question that i'm starting to ask myself and like all other aspects of life too is like How do you change decision-making? We're asking ourselves that question internally Like do we need to have the same decision-making structure that every other organization? does and where I think that goes to with with women in collaboration One of our barriers to collaborating often is this perception that there are only a few seats at the table And so we can I think many times just subconsciously be trying to Not recognize that we're not fighting for a seat at the table that we need You know, this is something that a lot of other amazing women have said like we need to build a new table And I'm really thinking about how to do that more intentionally In my life And and find the tables where other amazing women are that I'd love to see that as well. So Those are just a few of the thoughts on my mind I love that and I'll just share quickly, you know, for me Collaboration is just part of my culture. It's just what I'm automatically always looking for ways to collaborate. So sometimes it might be with someone who has, you know, a Product or service that might complement what I do So, you know, I've collaborated with, you know, make someone who owns their own makeup line You know, I've collaborated with people who, you know, might offer Email services email marketing services. We just do social media, right? So what are who are some people that you, you know Have complimentary services or products to you that you guys can either create one product One joint product or you can become like affiliates or spokespeople for each other and push each other's audiences to each other The other thing that I wanted to share was just around You know offering similar products, right? So if you want to collaborate with people who offer similar products You can do that as well But, you know, maybe it's just there's some, you know, there might be a gap between what you Serve, you know, what you offer and what they offer and how can you kind of bring the gap maybe to create one product So, you know, even with, you know, something new that I'm launching. I look to your point You know, I love that what you said Leticia about leader full because I feel like that's like how it is Like I'm always trying to find hey, I'm working on a new project now And I'm like it's three of us and I'm like, okay, so you take the lead on that. I'll take this you take that I think the more that we can do that You know, just the more The more that we can see, you know, make progress in this, you know, arena of collaboration and allowing people to feel like It's it's for everyone when I win you win and vice versa Yeah, and that it's like a natural byproduct, right of of success in sort of the new world that we're that we're heading into A post pandemic, um, I know we're short on time But wanted to give us an opportunity to give, you know, some quick advice, um To folks listening, um from your perspectives Christina. I'll start with you Sure, so I'll make it quick. I think one of you know, the biggest thing that I'll always go back to I've co-wrote a book with my sister and the last chapter is called do it afraid And I'll always go back to that because I think with any Level of success with anything that you're starting. There's always going to be a level of fear There's always going to be a level of do I know enough at least spoke about that earlier and that's always the cam like Oh wait, I don't know, especially In my area where everyone's online everyone has a persona everyone seems to know more than they probably do right and you know In this space sometimes and so it makes you feel like you don't know enough and I think You know just doing it anyway Even if you don't feel like you have the answers because the only way to figure them out and find them out is to just get going I would echo that a hundred percent and add Some advice someone gave to me a gene case gave to me years ago, which is build your own personal board of directors Think about who you want to be in your life and help think strategically And this is a combination of your professional career and your personal life. Who do you admire? that would want to be part of Helping you think through strategies for your career in your life and that's been Incredible um to have my own Personal board of directors. So that's definitely advice I'd give anybody Yeah, I love the that in philanthropy. We often times call it the kitchen cabinet, right? Who's your kitchen cabinet of folks and also do they tell you the truth, right? So that's hard sometimes you're the boss people to tell you, you know, I always say when I first got into philanthropy I was like so popular. I dressed really well. My hair always looked good And I had fabulous shoes all the time and it and I got realized that actually that wasn't true That was what people were telling me. I don't know. Maybe my hair looked good all the time. Um, maybe um my my advice, um is is find Define your values And help them have them help ground you right Um christine, you you mentioned non-negotiables earlier, right? And sometimes it's really hard to know what your negotiable non-negotiables are If you're unclear about your personal mission vision and values It's easy, right to to sway um, so figure out what your values are and Let that ground you so you know when to walk away when to take a leap when to ask questions of your kitchen cabinet You know when to change your kitchen cabinet if they're telling you that you're You know that you're fabulous all the time When maybe you are not or when you are fabulous and you're thinking that you are not right so Um find to define your values and let that ground you All right I Well, I think we were going to go into q&a. Yeah, I mean I'm happy to ask another question Or tell another joke Popping in for q&a, um, I just have to say first of all that I um am so Moved by this conversation because there are so many truths that you have been speaking That um as I've been standing here listening I'm feeling the like roll off of me and I'm like little weights coming off of me as I hear you speak them And I think that that's just such Incredible modicine that we all likely need right now And so I am just deeply grateful to the three of you for joining today In bringing that to us. Um, so I'm I'm a little I'm moved and so I felt like I really wanted to say that Right now before we got started I I saw a great question that came in and I wanted to um Have us kind of pop into that one to get started But the question was um How Of course, you know now I've lost the question. Um, how do you foster connections with coworkers during the pandemic? And how do team meetings like how are you doing that through team meetings and in other ways? I can go really quickly. Um, so for us we do our team meetings, you know weekly And it's you know, we just do google hangout, but you know most majority of the time is cameras off Um, but you know some of the things that we've tried to do is really you know, I asked them, you know about their goals What are they working on outside of work that we have to do for the clients? Because I want to be able to help them reach some of their goals So just finding more about you know, how we can support each other, you know as a team And you know, there's so many and then when they start sharing it's so amazing To hear all of the things that they have going on and being able to support them in that So I think sometimes it's also about you know building that connection that personal connection You know to know like what else do you have going on are their challenges outside of work? You know that I can help support or someone on the team can help support So that's been you know great definitely over the last year to get to um do a little more of Yeah, and I'll add you know one we do um, we call them a program team check-in Um, Monday Monday mornings top of the day and and one of the things that's worked really well is we facilitate and we rotate facilitation And the opening question can be anything like how many plans do you have in your house? to um You know lately it's been you know, let's talk about anti-monopoly right and and the cases that are in the courts um, and so it's been a really wonderful way to Expand what people are engaging in we share we also share readings like this is what I'm reading Um, this is what I'm watching including um, you know, I always say I watch terrible sci-fi So, you know, it can be like intellectual stuff It could also be like, you know, I watched three episodes of dark matter this weekend don't recommend it But you know, it's terrible and delicious, right? so I think both like the seriousness of You know an article by the roosevelt institute and then like come join me. Let's do a watch party Um, uh for dark matter has been a really nice way to get people to be in community with each other of that I I'd only add a very practical thing that we've used for those who have slack As an internal tool is a plugin called donut And it actually randomly pairs you up or pairs two people three people up to have an informal coffee Or virtual coffee So you're getting to connect with people from other teams and across the organization and they give you like Warm-up questions in case you're Like I have no idea what to talk about other than work So it's a really great tool and then I personally try to have copies with we also Rotate facilitators for our all hands meetings and I try to have coffee in the half an hour With whoever the facilitator is just to keep connected with everybody in the org too Nice. Um, I Have another question that's been um kind of one of the things particularly that monique and I talk about a lot but thinking about um leadership and redefining structure and what leadership What does it even mean? You know, it's centralized. There's can be masculine energy, you know How are we leaning into empathy and and what is usually considered a feminine trait? That we can be pulling forward and really helping to encourage more of Yeah, you know, I really appreciate the question. I think Part of it for me has been that that it's such a binary, right? Like it's either like the masculine trait or the feminine trait and who wants to be associated with what And I think for for me, it's been, you know, how do I lead from a place that's about justice Um, how do I think about the people that are in front of me their families their histories? um How do I believe again that like this isn't about me? Um, and how how do I acknowledge the structures that get in the way? Um, and so I think without being able to acknowledge capitalism It doesn't make me an anti capitalist It just makes me someone who's willing to acknowledge the deficits in the system racism Patriarchy like without calling those into the room. We actually can't grapple with them um in a way of that is authentic. We we have very superficial conversations, right? We everybody's all into dei right now and that's good, but you know, I won't tell you my theory on it, but um This idea that we're going to have a conversation about diversity equity and inclusion without talking about structural racism And the harm that it's caused feels like an opportunity like um a missed opportunity so from my perspective, it would be how do we um lead from a place of justice a place of um equity a place of not centering My ego, but also bring into the room Like the things that we actually do have to talk about to be different kinds of leaders and organizations I just want to give that a big standing ovation. Uh I am actually dressed on the bottom. So I'm wearing jeans today. Um But um, but yeah, I mean, I think it's in the chat too and I mentioned this word before sort of leading with empathy And I do think that that historically, I don't think it has to be a feminine trait, but I think it's been historically associated as a a feminine trait And I think that that has leading with empathy has shown itself to be a really effective tool for people as they're going They've been going through this past year People are a lot more motivated I've seen um when they feel like You actually understand what I'm if you can't understand what I'm going through you at least understand that I'm going through something Um, and that has been incredibly important. Um, and then I I also think like redefining what leadership means and how decisions to making structures work to this this uh point of like questioning traditional structures. Um, and and Um directly addressing the harms that traditional structures have done Um for lots of people and so we're going through our own process of saying like how do we make not only make decision making more inclusive But how do we give more people ownership of decisions that make more sense for them to own versus somewhat, you know, four people who are in the sort of c-suite um And uh, how do we do that and also pay them? Appropriately for making those decisions as well So I will be delighted to report back on that process. Um, and it's a it's a long one But in six months, uh for anyone who's interested too. So I think it's going to be it's it's going to be fun and also challenging Yeah, you ladies said it all I loved and agree with with both of you And I'll just piggyback off of you ali and that for me over the last year Especially leadership has looked like delegation right and to your point You know being able to lean on people on my team who have expertise who know what they're doing and allowing them to take the reins And own, you know a project own, you know, whatever it is that we're doing and and allow them You know be able to trust that they're going to do it like, you know, they may not do it exactly like me But I trust, you know in working with them and seeing what they're capable of doing that they'll be able to do it So I think sometimes, you know being able to let go a little bit and like you said bringing people who have expertise Right who could be making better decisions decisions than you are but you're not allowing them the opportunity to do that Oh, thank you all. I I have one last rapid fire question Tweet length if you can make it But what is one thing leaders can do tomorrow to be better leaders? Who wants to go first? That's a good one. I'll just just thinking about, you know Building our relationship and communication with our in our family and our kids I think listen Right. So sometimes it's as simple as asking Your team, what do they need? What don't they have? How can they, you know? What are some things or resources that they don't have that would make their jobs easier? I think sometimes we fail to ask these questions As leaders and it could be something so simple that it's like, oh if I had known But sometimes they don't feel like they have the opportunity to actually share Tweet length is hard for like a Puerto Rican from the Bronx. So I'll I'll but I'm I'm gonna try Um ask yourself the question. Why am I doing this work? And then ground right and listen like actually ask the question and don't Intellectualize too much like listen to what you hear um Yeah, why am I doing this work and listen Those were both of mine. So I don't know if there's going to be tweet lengths, but if Everybody but particularly if you're in a position of privilege Call out your privilege and acknowledge it Yeah Thank you. I think that Is where we will end it for today But I don't know about anyone else. I could stay here and listen to this conversation forever There was so much that we were unpacking together in that You've been able to bring to us to think about and hopefully create More action. So um again deep gratitude and thanks for joining us today and taking the time out of your very busy boss schedules Thank you Having us. Thank you so much. This is amazing. Thank you