 The Library Foundation has taken some World War I posters that belong to the library on an international tour. So they're going to Germany, and he's going to Germany with them. So he's getting ready for all of that. So this evening, of course, oh, it says right on here, Fourth Annual. Had I only read my remarks, of course we're celebrating, as I've already mentioned, the Fourth Annual, Texas Women of Influence panel discussion. The national theme for Women's History Month this year was related to women in labor and business. And that's the theme of the panel discussion tonight, honoring trailblazing women in labor and business. And we have great guests here tonight. Thank you, first of all, all of you for being here tonight. We really appreciate it. And they're going to talk to you a little bit about their careers and the challenges they've faced, and I think also the opportunities and the great things that have happened to them. And I'm going to just mention to you who they are. The panelists are Veronica Esparza, president and CEO of Absolutely Delicious Catering. You can wave or tell people who you are, maybe you already did that. Welcome, thank you. Janet Groging, vice president of development at Texas Public Radio. Thank you. Jenna Solcero Herrera, president and CEO of the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation. And Tracy Watts, partner at the Mighty Group. And she's also, I guess I should mention, a board member on the Library Foundation. And our moderator tonight is Iris Dimmick. I think she's going to turn around and let you know where she is, managing editor of the Revard Report. We're really grateful for you all for the time to prepare and to be here this evening as well. And I also think we owe another little applause for Veronica because she provided the catering for the reception tonight. Following all the city's epic roles. I'd also like to thank Charlotte Ann Lucas and her team who are here from Nowcast. Not only because they're here and because of their continued support of library programming, but also because this program is being live streamed. So other people are watching it right now who aren't able to be here in the room with us. And then that stream will be available. So you can go to NowcastSA.com. And that was my confidence. NowcastSA.com. And you can see the stream later and also other programs and things of interest around San Antonio. So just be sure that's a way to know that that's a way you can share the program that you're at tonight. So I guess we should also say welcome to all those people who are watching the live stream because I know when I'm watching it I would like people to kind of acknowledge that I'm not there, but I'm watching too. So I'd also like at this moment to recognize our board member who's here tonight, Judy Cruz. Thank you, Judy, for joining us tonight. Before we get really started with the program, I just would like to really briefly introduce Iris Dimick, the moderator tonight. She became the first managing editor of the REVARD Report, which really has become, I think, a household name in San Antonio for local news coverage joining another, the array of news outlets that are available. She started working there in 2012. She was born and raised in Grand Junction, Colorado, and we're really glad she's here in San Antonio, but we're especially glad she's here with us tonight. And at this time, she's going to come up and actually begin the program. Thank you. Is this working? All right. All right. Well, this is my first panel. And, you know, I've been, and it's been, thank you so much for hosting this program. It's been great to be invited and to meet these women already briefly. I moved to San Antonio about five years ago, and I feel very lucky to have had a front row seat on the city's progress and growth. And I think all of these women up here have been part of that progress and growth, and so it's such a pleasure to be here. And so these, I think the theme of honoring trailblazing women in labor and business seems a little bit obscure, but I think as we listen to these stories from these women here today, well, that'll become more solidified. So Veronica Esparza came to the United States when she was 16. No experience cleaning houses, served food for a while, assistant lab tech. And 2011 purchased your own restaurant. And how did you pay for it? It was hard, which is incredible. And today are the CEOs like absolutely delicious feedering, which we are enjoying here tonight as well. And so I'm just kind of wondering if you might be able to, you can tell your story better than I can, but give us a little insight into how it was you came to the United States in the first place and what was the driving force behind starting your own business for you? I actually came, like as you mentioned, when I was 16 years old, I decided to come to the States really to look for opportunity. I was raised in a very small town close to Monterey, Mexico, which I realized at a young age, my family did not have the possibilities to provide me with a career. And I knew early on that was not going to happen if I stayed where we lived. And I decided to come to the States and the first opportunity a family member offered for me to come to this country. And I literally chose bank on knowing that I was going to come into whatever it took, rather if it was to clean houses, take care of kids. I was so young, I didn't have any other skill than to just work hard. And I started doing that and right around 20 years old, I started having ambition to be in my own, you know, to be an entrepreneur. I have always enjoyed leadership. And when I was cleaning, I started just kind of taking little jobs on the side besides home, starting to clean offices and things of the nature. And that really opened the door for me to think that really I could make a living doing anything. And I never really had feared doing anything in life. And I just thought of things that I could do within the resources that I had at the time. And I started my business when I was 28 years old. Well, and what was it that, I mean, you started your business with a credit card. I mean, how did you go from cleaning houses to be able to have that credit card to be like actually, what was the opportunity? You know, I suffered an accident at a very young age. I'm actually burnt a third degree ways down when I was 20 years old. And right at the time, you know, I suffered the consequences of not having medical insurance and all of that. And I also faced a situation where I knew what I did was physical. And I was handicapped for a while because of having 25% of my body had been burned. So that really got me into thinking of wanting to do something that didn't totally depend on my own physical work. And I just started thinking, what are the things that I love to do? I enjoy doing and have potential growing into something that I don't have to be the one to do a day in and day out or something. And if I was ever to be put in a situation like that again, and cooking has always been my passion. I grew up in a family where everything happened at the center of the day when I loved always, I was a servant at a very young age. You know, we used to go work for families when I was six, seven, eight years old. So that all that became very natural to me. And that's how I decided, but I didn't have the resources. I had my family didn't live here in the States and I have no money saved up, not much other than a small amount in a 401K. And you just, you know, you get those checks in the mail that it's a 0% for six months. And I never knew exactly what that meant to be quite frankly back then. And I saw that and I thought, you know, everybody uses credit cards to buy clothes and buy all of that. I was always fearful of using credit cards. And I thought, you know, I think I can try that and leave bed on that on me. What is the worst thing that can happen? I have to pay you back. And I went to the bank and took one of those checks and figured out what to do with it. And my very first business actually was a block away. This library brings a lot of memories to my life because my business was a block away in the corner of Maine and Quincy. And it was a little bitty space, probably a quarter of this room. And I bought it for $50,000, the actual business portion of it. And so I had a lot of challenges right at the beginning because not knowing all that it took and not really doing a lot of research. I went by just trusting people and asking just a few people. I didn't really research much. I went and somebody told me that that little place was for sale. I paid for it and then came to find out when I went to get my permit that the building had an inspection since like the 60s. So nothing passed. And at this point I was out of money and really other sorts of income. So I had saved my income for two years from my original job working at the lab thinking I'm going to give myself two years. If nothing happens, at least I got my little income coming in. I used to make $10 an hour or $9. I don't even remember. But I had saved my income for two years and that's the only money I had saved up. I was very blessed and this is why I always extend help to people because I think I got this far because of all the people in the process. And the gentleman that had the pharmacy saw that what I was going through. And he immediately came up to me and said, you know, I'm going to help you. And he actually in the pain for all the repairs to the building. It wasn't in his pharmacy. So that's how I actually began. I began with very little money, lots of obstacles, but amazing people behind me that I always feel that when you speak and rather if it's a lot of people, I think they're worried about speaking weaknesses or constraints. And I think I grew up, you know, on the opposite. You know, we were never embarrassed of saying we didn't have something or situation. And I realized that if you don't say, nobody can ever offer to help. And I was just grateful that it was that became just a little chain of many people in my life that when I share where I was in my career, what I was trying to do, there was always somebody willing to jump in to give me a hand with advice or a referral or things of that nature. Thank you so much. And I'm sorry, English is my second language. I've never taken English, so I don't mind. Your English is better than my Spanish, for sure. Yeah, which I'm working on, but that's for another time. Well, and Janet Grosjean began working in the radio business, and she has been working in the radio business since she was 18, from receptionist to the first female radio sales rep at WAI, is that right? I believe I was the first, yeah. I didn't see anybody else at the time. And so you now know her as kind of the face of the TPR's Development and Membership Program. I was wondering, Janet, you've seen the media industry change and grow over the years, and well, grow and maybe fluctuate might be a better word for that. How do you think women, or perception of women has changed over the years in the media and in the industry? Well, in the beginning. When the beginning? Please do tell us, sorry, to start us off kind of your background and where you come from. Getting into radio. Well, my father died when I was very young, and my mother had to raise two daughters with no skill, and she just had to figure out how to take care of two girls. So it was like, Janet, you're going to go to college, you have an aunt that's going to help you go to college. You will have some skills, so you will be able to take care of yourself later in life. So high school graduation, I don't know what I want to be when I grow up. I said, how about I go to San Antonio College and take all electives for like my first and second semester. It's $7 a semester hour. I just don't want to do more English and math and science and history when I don't have a carrot dangling. Like, what is it I want to be? And she said, well, that's kind of odd, but $7 a semester hour, I guess that's not horrible. So I had to pack all my classes into the morning, and I started with A, acting, accounting. I mean, I think there was an architecture course in there. So as I was signing up for these classes, one of them I needed was like 9 to 10, and it was full. So I went, okay, something else. And I grabbed the schedule, and I saw copywriting. Well, I'm 18 years old. The only copywriting I've ever heard of was R-I-G-H-T-I-N-G. I thought, well, maybe I'll be an attorney. Okay. So I take this copywriting class. Well, it's W-R-I-T-I-N-G. But I've never heard of that. I didn't really understand. So I was in this class all week long, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, writing copy. And I thought, well, they want us to write this so they'll realize what goes into it so we'll want to protect it. Okay, got it. That's why I'm in here. So somewhere around Friday, they referred to this block of words that I wrote as copy that I had been writing. And it dawned on me that I was not on track to be an attorney in any way, but that I was a really good copywriter. And that would put me on track for radio, television, film. So I ran back to the counselor's office and went, RTF, I want to be in radio. Put me on radio classes. And there it began. So San Antonio College, you start out at WSAC, which is a very small closet that allows you to speak to the student union building. And as soon as you learn how to turn all those knobs properly, you within advance to KSYM. And back then, it went all the way to Ashby. San Pedro? Ashby. All the way. Big time. So, you know, once I mastered that, then we got to be on the SAC show at KTSA and KTFM on Sunday nights from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Well, that was exciting. I did news as I was learning. So I remember doing a newscast at like 1.20 in the morning. As soon as I closed the microphone, I was so proud of myself. The listener line rang and I went, oh, a fan. It's a fan. Look at what Chris fans. So I picked up the phone. And I said, this is Janet. And his familiar voice said, honey, it's not indicted. It's indicted. Thank you, mother. The biggest fan. Humble beginnings of radio. So that's where it started. And I've been in radio ever since. Oh, wow. The end. Well, not the end. Not the end. It was still going on. Yeah. Well, in terms of how you've kind of seen the image of women or women in the workforce change as your career has gone. In the early days. Truly. I mean, this was 70s when a lot of the business professionals in this community were behaving badly. I mean, truly, it was, you know, they sent me to call them car dealers in the clubs because I was a girl and I was cute. I had a short skirt. I was like, hi, I'm in radio. You want to buy some spots? I mean, I loved it. And I was creative. And I would come up with interesting things. But they kind of sent me out to, yeah, go see what you can do out there in the world. And it was interesting. It's sort of like, you know, I can say something ugly about my former husband, but you better not. It's kind of like the guys at the station were like protective of me like a big brother. But they'd jack with me, but nobody else better. You mean one of those car dealers was ugly to you? Well, you know, I'll go take care of business. So it was sort of like being a little sister at that time. And, you know, Jane Fonda and Gloria Steinem came 20 years before and they didn't pave a road, but they certainly cleared a path that allowed me to walk down it. And my sense of humor probably helped me just get along because there was a lot of, if you were trying to be a really strong woman without a sense of humor and push too hard, you would meet an awful lot of resistance. And it was just a, it would have been a much harder life. But just to be smart and funny and engaging and creative and a good sport, it sort of, that and being, I'd say I have some talent, allowed me to move on down the road and be successful. But it was interesting. It was very interesting because you weren't necessarily taken seriously at first. But of course, when you're 20 years old and your skirts are to here and you're nice, I mean, how serious can they be about you? But however, in those early days, you didn't have to finish college then to be successful. As long as you had experiences and you were smart and you were on top of things and fearless, completely fearless, like I'm sure I can do it. I mean, why couldn't I? It's just sort of, there was an environment that allowed you to be fearless and go on down the road and be successful. Do you think that has changed that women that seem to push harder and to be harder or more serious without a sense of humor? I mean, do you think that still exists, that stigma still exists? Things have changed so much in that we've just made these huge leaps into you had to have a degree and then you got the degree and then what do you do with the degree and then you have tremendous amount of debt and then there's the pressure you must be terribly successful to pay back the huge debt. You have the freedom to just kind of find your way and learn about what you wanted to be and just try it on. You had to younger, I've got four daughters and out of those four, I mean, they're all terrific in their own way, every one of them. But they had that difficulty of trying to figure out I've got to make a choice, I've got to get the degree. Where's my permission to just try something on? And that has been what I've seen is the true difficulty in those young women that are late 20s, 30s. They didn't get a chance to play at a job, play at a career, try something on and see if it fit first. But when they made a commitment to go do something and go, okay, I've got a business degree from here, but so I really want to be in business. Now what? Yeah, it's just such a different world. Don't get me started on why I think we really should have all sorts of opportunities in schools for us to, if you want to be in shop, be in shop. If you want to learn a trade, learn a trade. Those things are so important to be able to take whatever your talent is and be able to try it on and have a skill besides a college degree. Not that I don't appreciate college degrees, but to be able to try something on first before you have to make that full tilt commitment. And I've really taken a lot of time. No, that's okay. Thank you, Janet. No. Well, and next up we have... Well, when I first met Jenna Saperohara, she was working at CPS Energy. She was kind of... Doyle Bennaby is the former CEO's right-hand woman that kind of helped build the new energy economy that we're kind of reaping the benefits of now. Though he's gone, that economy is in place and less CPS energy, it continues to thrive. And now, working as the CEO of the... I always forget that it's a long name. Sanctuary Economic Development Foundation. I'm wondering if you've seen any difference... The utility industry and really the economic development industry has been... It's really male-dominated. Do you feel... Do you see diversity in your workplaces, in your recent workplaces? So, first of all, thank you for that question and thank you for the nice comments about CPS Energy and what we were able to collectively accomplish there. I do, however, on this panel feel disadvantaged having come after Janet, who's extremely funny, and then after hearing your story, though, I mean, Ron, that was absolutely beautiful. And I think that without getting political at all, your dream and your story is a perfect example of what America was built on. And so, I would like to propose a round of applause for the woman here. Very inspiring and very humbling story. To respond to your discreet and direct question, though, Iris, I would say, you know, they're two very different industries. So, for the last 10 years of my life, I was at CPS Energy and, of course, any electric and gas company is going to be male-dominated. Has been for years, will be for several more years in the future. I believe the stat when I was there and it probably hasn't shifted much, but that it was 75% male as a workforce and that's including the office and field personnel so across the board. I do think, though, that growing up in an environment like that, molded me and shaped me into who I am today. The exception is diverse, and I think that I'm welcoming to the types of challenges that I inherited in this new role, but also that I dealt with previously. So, rising through the rank as a woman, but also a young woman in an electric and gas company, is quite the exception. Not at all the rule. But I welcomed it. I really did. Because you're in an environment like that, you're expected to sit against the wall. You're expected not to speak up. And for me, that was an invitation. And quite honestly, I benefited from having the most incredible mentors while I was at CPS Interdue Dual Benefit who was one of those mentors, who saw potential in me before I even saw it, who connected dots on what I could become before I even could and invited me to participate and challenged me to push back and knew what it took to get me engaged. And oftentimes, that was disagreeing with me quite honestly. And I would speak up and I would challenge the norm. And not every working environment is that accommodating, and I am very aware of that. But there at CPS Energy, I just had great leadership that welcomed it. And that was at every different level. I had the opportunity to try out different skill sets and different roles, just having been in a vertically integrated utility and company. I had a chance to work in communication. I had a chance to work in IT. I had a chance to work in HR. All of that was before I became Chief of Staff. And then after being Chief of Staff, I oversaw economic development, business planning and strategy. And then my most recent role was actually as Vice President of Public Affairs and Brand. So I had a chance to really try on all sorts of different roles and potential careers, not at all a linear trajectory or a linear path. And the role that I'm in today is very different than anything that I've done. But collectively, the economic development industry is so diverse and it's really, to be perfectly honest, it's industry-agnostic. And so the challenges for a woman in the role, I think, vary based off of any different project or project or company that we're out recruiting for or attempting to help grow. But at the end of the day, I think that being a woman in my role, not only in San Antonio, but a woman in economic development is unique. It's still unique. It will probably continue to be unique for the next several years. But I believe that, again, it's an advantage because we bring a different perspective. We offer so many different things. Diversity of thought, diversity of approach, the ability to be vulnerable at times, not to stereotype our counterparts, male, sorry about that. But we have the ability to approach situations very differently. And economic development is a team sport. You have to collaborate. In San Antonio, we have a very decentralized economic development delivery system. And so it's imperative that we collaborate. And I believe that being a woman in my role allows me to do that very effectively. Well, and you really weren't hired as a replacement for the former CEO, I think. You were hired at the EEF. You were kind of given a pretty big task of reorganizing, restructuring, launching new tools, and things that come up on the news all the time. And you touched on this a little bit, but how do you think those skills that you've obtained at CPSM through your life allow you to really change the conversation when it comes to economic development in San Antonio? I think you're absolutely right. I was hired with a mandate for change. And basically, I had been knighted to go forward with Conker to drive that change and to really develop a broader and diverse approach to economic development. So for some background and context, the Economic Development Foundation is a public-private entity. So we're primarily funded by the private industry in San Antonio, but we also receive investment from the city and the county. And we function as a master convener, so to speak, in bringing together several partners around the community to basically recruit companies to our local community for help existing companies expand. With that, we also oversee essay works as Shameless Love for attempting to track different career paths, internships, summer internships, we have job shadow days, et cetera. But nonetheless, this delivery system is incredibly diverse. So we've shifted away from previously focusing just on recruitment to now offering a broader suite of services to include retention and expansion and now workforce development. So it is a significant task. And I would answer your question with saying that every day I learn something different and I have learned that continuous learning is probably the most important characteristic that any leader or any professional can have any human being, for that matter. If you're not learning, in my humble opinion, I believe that you're digressing. The second that you feel content is the second you start to digress and stop improving, really. But that said, I have learned that the primary characteristic that I believe has led me to be successful in this role. And let's be honest, it's only been six months. Oh, keep the microphone there, I'm sorry. Oh, I'm glad I did that. So when you're a change agent, when you've been requested or you've been mandated to implement change, it's really change management 101. And if you've ever participated in change management courses or you've talked to any change management professionals, it's really scientific. Driving change is scientific. It's not emotional, it's not authoritative in any way. You really have to work with folks. You have to understand your stakeholders and you have to get their buy-in. Because my opinion, let's be honest, is absolutely irrelevant. It's the collective opinion of our community, the strategy, the wants and desires of our collective community that matters and that I am charged with implementing. And that's from the private sector side and it's also from the public sector side. It is a significant challenge, but the ability to influence, leveraging trust and credibility and honesty and integrity I think is what makes anybody successful in this role and what I have really leaned on here in the last six months. Thank you, Jenna, for that. Well, and Tracy Watts is a founding partner of the Mighty Group, which recently won an award for the Adds and Fees, sorry, the 2007 Small Fees of the Year from the Alamo City Black Chamber of Commerce. And recently received a Master of Communications Art from UIW just last year, and I did not know, speaking of what Jenna was saying about constantly learning, that's, and if you haven't heard of the Mighty Group, she's also associated with Dream Week, which is, if you haven't heard of it, it's just in more than a week. For sure, some incredible events that bring people from all over the city together. And I was wondering if you, because you have such a cult that your company and Dream Week has such a collaborative nature to it, what have you learned from other organizations or other people just about, I'm sorry, about taking the next level? You've co-founded an entire agency. You started this whole event from scratch. Where does that push for the next level come from for you? And where have you seen that? Well, first of all, thank you for just inviting me to be a part of this panel. I appreciate it. I think that that kind of drive or this kind of vision to keep pushing or seeing where things can lead comes from the fact that I actually grew up in a family of entrepreneurs. I'm originally from Illinois and my father owned a freight transportation company growing up and my mother actually owned an industrial supply company. So we were kind of immersed in entrepreneurship growing up and spent our days, you know, eating drugs. But, I mean, we really, you don't realize when you're younger that you're learning so much. You think you're being punished, but later that punishment comes in handy. So I think that that's really just from having that experience growing up is just kind of second nature. I have worked for other people in the past, but most of the time I'm just there saying, well, why aren't we doing it like this and why they know that we're going to have to come back and redo this in three months. Why aren't we doing this like this in the first place? So it's kind of a little bit frustrating or I have to bite my tongue a little bit because I've been able to be an experiencer. I've seen things kind of grow from nothing and, you know, and develop in that manner. So when I moved here in like 2000, my experience was actually in fashion. So my undergraduate degree was in fashion merchandising. I don't know if they call it that anymore, but it's basically like the business of fashion. I always had dreams of being a fashion designer, and I still do quietly. So one day, maybe, in my spare time, I'm going to design this wonderful line of clothing. But in the meantime, I'm doing all these other things. So I, you know, when I moved here, we knew no one. Like, we had one connection, but it wasn't a connection to really the business world. And we had family that was tied to my husband. And so I worked at Satsford Avenue because we moved from New York here. And so I looked left and right and said, okay, I have to go with Sats. You know, that's the only thing that's kind of the closest thing I can get to New York, basically. But I was, you know, in sales, and I just was miserable. But I was trying to keep my fashion dream alive here in San Antonio. And so it was difficult. And the thing that actually made me realize that I had to get back to my entrepreneurial roots, I guess, was when I had my daughter, I remember taking her and dropping her off. I had to take her to daycare. And she was only like six months old. And I was just sitting in the parking lot going, this is crazy. How am I going to do this? I had never, we had never spent one day apart, not one day, not one moment. And the thought of like walking in and like handing her over to a bunch of strangers, was so difficult for me. And I just sat there. I sat there and I was like, I have to do it. I have to go to work. What am I going to do? And so finally I, you know, I dropped her off and I just sat in the car and cried. And I was like, I'm never going to do this again. I'm never. Of course, you know, she's fine. She's wonderful. She's bright. She's intelligent. She's everything you can imagine. But that was very traumatic for me. And just trying to figure out that balance is so difficult for working mothers. There has to be something that, you know, a push or a drive to work on, you know, the amount of time that women get to stay home when they have a newborn child. I mean, it's a strong bond. You really don't want to go back to work, but you have to go back to work. And you're thinking, I don't even like these people that work. I really don't. And I'm leaving behind someone, the most precious gift that I love, like beyond words. And now I have to go look at, you know, Harry, Susie, Ralph, you're like, just get away from me, you know. So it's like, it's difficult. But so that's when my husband and I started our business. He was already designing. He's kind of the design force behind the Mighty Group, which is a full-service ad agency and PR. And so we started off really as a design house. But the main point is, you know, when I had my son, you know, three years later, I was able to work from home. So I worked with him for, I mean, I was there at least a year before I had to, you know, try to title him in somewhere and drop him off. And it could be part-time. It wasn't all day long that I was away from him. And I, you know, you can work from anywhere if you have that flexibility, you know. And so I was very thankful and grateful for that, just that I knew how to be an entrepreneur and to be able to set my own hours and that sort of thing. So that's kind of where it grew out of. And I, you know, like I said, my husband, he was the design half and I was kind of like all the other, operational and just everything. You know, over the years, of course, we, you know, our team grew and we were able to delegate and that sort of thing. And also over the years, we realized that, you know, anyone could design a brochure or postcard or, you know, menial types of things. But we realized that when we did projects that helped like uplift the community and tied back to the community, we got something out of it. It wasn't just like done with that job, on to the next. You know, we felt the reward of being able to impact the community. So then we started seeking jobs that were community-based campaigns. And even if it was, you know, we worked on the branding of East Point. You know, we worked on projects that helped shape and uplift the East side because we're located in St. Paul Square. And so we've seen the development that's taken place over the years finally. Finally, we're seeing some progress. But, you know, we've been in business for 14 years. It's just this past few years that we've seen, you know, that the downtown is finally stretching a little bit closer to, you know, where we work. But, yeah, I enjoy being an entrepreneur. If you kind of have your hands in every aspect of something, you can see the ties back to the community, back to other companies. You can see, oh, well, I met this person yesterday. You know, you begin to tie people together because you meet so many different people. I'm on several different boards and that allows me to gain knowledge that I wouldn't have if I just stay in my own little cocoon. You kind of start to master your own, you know, area. But if you don't reach out and learn from people outside of, you know, your company, you'll become stagnant. You won't really be aware of the different trends and things that are taking place. So I agree with, you know, you have to continue to gain knowledge. It might not necessarily mean going back to school, but you have to look around you and gather information so that you can use it to push yourself to the next level. So you can step out and go, oh, this event's taking place. I'm going to go and meet this person because they can maybe help me get to this person. I mean, it's just like a connecting game and it's fun. If you like people, it's enjoyable. I mean, they don't have to be your best friends, but it's all a learning experience. So you have to be open. You have to be open to talking to people that you normally wouldn't talk to. Again, you're not going home with them. You're just talking to them in a social setting. So you have to, you know, open up a bit and share your story. You'd be surprised. People want to hear your story. So I think that just being aware of the changes that are taking place through the mighty group and the connections that we made, that's the only way that we were able to create Dream Week. So Dream Week, that concept came from Shokare Nakaporia. So he's a very high level conceptual thinker. Then it was time to try to actually execute that and that was a different story. So it was like, you know, I was more on the execution team, like what we're going to have, how many events and how many weeks and what's going on here. So that's, you know, but because we had so many ties to the community already, people were like, how did you do this in one year? How did you get all these sponsors? How did you get, you know, half of these people are our friends. They're our clients, but at this point they're our friends because we've worked with them for the past 10 years and all we had to do was pick up the phone and say, hey, listen, here's the concept that Shokare came up with. Here's what we're trying to do. Are you guys in? Yeah, great. Sounds good. Okay, let's have lunch next week. Okay, great. Thanks, bye. Okay, next person. Hey, here's the concept we came up with you guys. So because we had already established those connections, if we didn't have those connections established already, we would still be trying to put Dream Week together. But it's a huge endeavor. It's leading up to the city of San Antonio's MLK march. And we encourage people and groups to embrace diversity, tolerance, and to actually go out into the community and create an atmosphere where we can have open dialogue about the difficult questions and concepts that people normally don't want to talk about. And rather than just go out and walk for one day and say, okay, I walked at the march and then everyone goes back home and sits down, we thought it would be better if we can, leading up to the march, we can actually bring people together, people that don't normally come together to push, you know, towards equality. So that's really where Dream Week kind of sprang from. Well, and you kind of answered my next question a little bit, but what kind of advice, I mean, I think I'm here a little, I think some people are here a little bit for some advice, like what would you say to any woman that's looking to start their own business, to change jobs, to go up the chain? What's kind of your main advice for somebody? Well, the first thing I would say is do your homework. You have to do your research. You can't just say, like me, I'm going to be a designer without going out and figure out what does it take? How do I get the fabric here, this, that? You know, there's a lot of research that has to go into starting your own business. So first you have to do your research, then you have to sit down and map out a plan, like on paper, not in your head. Because people, you know, that's a dream if it's in your head, but if it's on paper and you have goals, then it's something that can be accomplished. You can see it, it's tangible. So that has to be mapped out properly. If you have to get someone to help you, then get the help you need, because that's very important, your blueprint that you're going to use to create this wonderful business. After that, I would say, ignore the voices in your head that tell you don't do this. Ignore those voices, because you're going to hear those voices and they're going to say, are you crazy you're walking away from a job and you're, but if you project out and see yourself kind of in your mind's eye 10 years from now, will you be happy in that job that you're currently in? It's secure, it's safe, but if you have a dream that you're trying to map out and plan for your life, you have to be able to let go of security for that person down the road 10 years ago, thank you. It was hard in the beginning, but now I'm in a place that I'm happy with myself. You're going to struggle in the beginning. It's not easy, and I would say that's another thing. When you think it's over, it's not over. The suffering continues. So you have to hold on. Because a lot of times in whatever industry it is, it kind of boils down to who's the last man standing, honestly. So you go, oh, I remember that agency. They closed five years ago. Oh, they used to be partners and now they split up into this. Oh, I remember them. Oh, they moved out of town. And then you look around, you're like, hey, we're down to three people, and I'm still in the race. I have a chance here, honestly. So you just have to kind of be tenacious and hang in there. You might be getting beat up, but just hang in there. If that's your dream, you have to be able to kind of withstand anything, really, to accomplish that. So... When I'd like to open that question up to the rest of the panel, what kind of advice would you give to a woman looking to take their careers or their lives, really, to the next level? So I will be brief since we've got a full panel to respond, but I would say be comfortable being uncomfortable. That is the best advice that I was ever given. I will continue to remind myself of that daily. We, as human beings, we function at our best capacity when we're a little bit uncomfortable. If you're too comfortable, you're content, you're coasting, you're not functioning at your best. This isn't work, this is also in life. Just remind yourself to be uncomfortable. I thought that your advice was very sound for any professional woman, a man, anybody looking to go out on their own and venture out on their own. I would also add that in the spirit of embracing that uncomfortableness, so to speak, sometimes you don't know what you don't know and you don't realize your own potential. In addition to that, I would say the counter would be know that you can create your own opportunity and create that potential. So that sounds odd, but I'll give you a very real example. I'm in today. I never dreamed that I would be in this role. I had a great job at CPS Energy. I was doing wonderful things there. I had been in my role for about a year and a half. In fact, I was on the board of the entity that I'm now running. This job was not even a remote possibility in my mind. However, other folks saw potential, other folks connected. And I was approached with the opportunity to consider, I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would be offered the job, but I was. The first person that I called when I was offered the job and I was still contemplating whether or not I would actually go after it was the current CEO at CPS Energy, Paula Goldboyan. She is a great mentor of mine, but she's also a great friend of mine. We've worked together for many years. And it was funny because as I was explaining to her all of the reasons why this wouldn't work. Highly political. I usually like to function behind the scenes. I don't like to be out in front. I was explaining all of these things to her. And she stopped me. And by the way, this was about 10 o'clock at night one night. And she stopped me. She said, Jenna, Jenna, Jenna. She said, I'm really going to need you to stop telling me why this won't work. And I'm going to need you to tell me how you're going to make it work and how I can help you make it work. Because you of all people can do this job today. I know that. And so let's start to change your focus and let's have a real conversation. And she'd shut me up right then and there and really got me thinking about how I can be solutions oriented and figure it out. And the reality of it is any man that's put in that similar situation feels like they might be 30, 40% ready to take on a role like this would raise their hand. But women, we feel like we need to be 150% ready. We have to have all of the educational pedigree. We have to have all of the relevant experience. It's not real. So know that it's okay to be uncomfortable. Realize that other folks see potential and also know that you can create your own opportunity as well. Perfect. There are jobs and there are careers and there are times in your life when you need a job. You just need to work and you need to put food on the table and it may not be your ideal job but it's something that you're doing. You make the best of while you're learning more about yourself and you get yourself to the place that you want to be when you grow up. And I can honestly say I've never gotten a job I applied for and I've never applied for a job that I've gotten. It's always been. I've got an idea. You know what I could do for you? I could. For example I just moved back from Dallas and I'd heard that they were couldn't figure out what to do with the tram from Hemisphere. I went on an idea. They ought to put it around Central Park and North Star Mall. Then you wouldn't have to go through a rector. There was a time that North Star Mall and Central Park were both equivalent and both very nice. There was a time. And I thought they put that tram around that thing. Then you could just move from mall to mall. Now I realize they have separate owners but they could rename the malls North Park East and North Park West and they could conjoint their budgets for Christmas and Easter and etc. I need to go talk to this guy. So I called somebody and said do you know Morris Jaffe? I said well I know somebody knows Morris Jaffe. Can you get me an appointment with Morris Jaffe? Yes please get me one. I've got an idea. I want to put this thing together and then I want to be the marketing director for both malls. So I got this appointment with him and I sat down and I said hi there. I'm Janet I've got this great idea and you know I started rolling this whole thing out. I put the tram around both sides I just I thought I was brilliant. I thought this was absolutely he ought to just jump for it and sing her. And he looked at me and he said do you know why I built this mall? And I went something tells me that the obvious answer of to make money is not the answer. And he said I bought it to Prickle Bar Shop over there. That's why. Really? That's why. So it completely knocked the socks out of my whole presentation and then it went off to you know I had these planes with infrared bottoms and they find oil and I do this and I'm not the oil business so excuse me I've got to go now. I've got to come up with another idea and go not apply for another job. But what I would say is getting back on track from being off you have to determine are you motivated by a cause or a carrot? You know what makes you tick? What makes you be your best? You can't make me dance for a carrot but I will move a mountain with a spoon for a cause. Well it took me a while to realize that that's how I'm wired and so I was in commercial radio for 20 some odd years before I found public radio and all of a sudden that same thing I was doing but with that different bent that I was doing it for the cause of great radio and reliable journalism and wonderful stories and true storytelling at its best that what I did all day long was to make that be the best it could be. I put my head down and I did make I don't make a lot of money but you know it just doesn't matter because I sleep well and I'm pretty well adjusted for my age and it's just one of the most satisfying things I've ever thought about doing and I don't intend to really ever stop. I don't really want to die at my desk but I do want to make sure that I help keep public radio solid for as long as I can breathe. I think for me my biggest thing was that advice that I would like to give especially when you don't have a degree to back you up and you can go knock on the next door when things go wrong. It's really no that unnegotiable and your strengths and weaknesses and be more comfortable knowing your weaknesses than your strengths because your strengths show what you do and they're obvious and a lot of times I think we tend to go or dreams makes us look the other way when we know it's something that it's not to your capabilities in my situation I only went to eighth grade in Mexico which in reality I think now that I have a fourth grader and I can help her with homework I realized that it equals to probably fifth grade in the states because I grew up in a very small town where education was not really a priority and I think for me a lot of times especially when you always been a worker and never been coached through books and we were coached through physical work and learning a skill it's always been open for somebody to teach you and know that you always have to constantly be learning because you become your own coach you become your own coach through books through other people through watching other people make mistakes and have successes and a lot of times people tend to be you tend to look everything about what you're doing and you don't want to listen and I think that in my situation I would advise to be truthful to yourself and be willing to understand the non-negotiables upfront I knew for me my non-negotiables was never give up I'm not a quitter and no matter what I would go through I was never going to walk away defeated and through my career this is my 18th year in business and I'm in an industry where we're mainly just a temporary staff for most people nobody wakes up saying I'm going to be the best server ever the best dishwasher ever when I grow up we're just a stepping stone for many many people and you face so many things on a daily basis because there are a lot of times people bring a lot of baggage with them and you have to deal with that because you're constantly coaching people and making people believe this is not a good job this may be a temporary stage and you'll have to make it be the best that it can never be I'm always spent so much time telling people my story within my team not so much I think barely in the last couple of years I spent some time outside my business because it took this long to really be where I am today because of the not having a how do you call it an academic skill I had everything took time because I did everything at once and my other thing is be comfortable knowing which thing you have to do without I knew when I entered this career at 28 I knew I was not going to be that growing heels and smelling beautiful and going to all these social things I knew I was going to have to be doing all the basics of my business you know boxing tables loading trucks and loading trucks know exactly what you're getting yourself into so when it comes you don't feel you're at this advantage you feel it's all the steps you have to walk you have to get to where you want to and I think a lot of the time especially in my industry a lot of times there is a lot of perceived value when somebody sees an operation they just think it's easy and there is a lot of perceived value and I think before you willing to spend the little money you got or whatever you're borrowing really look at things with eyes of reality because a lot of times there is a lot of perception of reality thank you so much for that well and so I'd like to make sure we have time to answer any questions that the audience might have for these panelists tonight I can give you some time to think about it if there aren't any immediately I have a classic one that I think is well we've kind of already touched on it a lot the whole work life balance question comes up a lot in women's panel and I was speaking with a colleague the other day and she was like don't ask that question I'm like everybody ask that question but I think while it may have started to shift a little bit on to men get asked that question now as well I'm just wondering what's your work life balance have you seen that shift more towards your male counterparts at all in your daily work lives well I can I'll talk for myself in regards to life you're asking how we balance well I can tell you for me I didn't really have balance for quite a while because again we in that type of industry that I'm in you roll with the punches in many ways but one balance that I created from day one I was not I didn't have children when I started the business and I had my first child straight from the hospital to go for a thousand people that was my first rude awakening of life because before that I was in charge of my own life and then all of a sudden I realized wait a minute this is no longer gonna be like this what am I going to do and at that point I had no I hadn't even given thought I wasn't survival mode with my business and at the same time I had all this energy that I had that I wanted to take you know but I was going to make it a success and that was the first awakening to balance and I remember I left the hospital took my baby with me and I called and I thought oh my god what am I going to do after tomorrow and I had just been in business about five years I was still not making a lot of money and I remember my very first thought was investing whatever money I have to have somebody living with me that I could trust with my baby and that was the best investment that I made in my career because every since I had a living person that helped me with my children and I knew that being that I came from being a man in cleaning houses a lot of times people see a sitter for a child just as a person to provide a need right when you need it in reality they're raising your children when they spend more time with them than they do with you and for me that was such a big deal because I had been in the other end so that was the very first investment that I made in order to have balance and to be quite frankly have I not met that investment I don't think I would accomplish what I had today and until this day I made that a priority that my balance comes from home and at some point I never knew when I was going home I knew I had to come and I had to come to work but I never knew what I was going for so in the last two to three years I actually acquired a couple of businesses and I practice balance much more so in the last two years than I ever did before and I make sure that I'm balanced in a person that will be for work because I know I bring to work whatever I feel I'll have to admit that the four daughters one of them is from scratch and three I had the pleasure of enjoying because my husband brought these three great gals into my life so I was a single mom with a four-year-old when I was working for WAI and I was in a work for WAI a couple of times the one thing about radio before public radio was I had so many business cards I could probably paper my bathroom with all the business cards and all the radio stations I worked for because they changed format and they go Bruce Hathaway and I were doing mornings at K-Buck and they went we're changing format to all Spanish do you speak Spanish? No, you're gone by so I mean there was just a lot of motion in commercial radio and I chose to be in sales because it gave me a lot more flexibility I mean you can make sales calls during the day you can write proposals if I need to be home with a sick child you can be so when I had my small child I chose that and then I got into public radio early on and I found that it was a much softer more wonderful world because I remember I just started with a station and we had a pledge drive and they said, yeah I didn't realize you had done on air work before we need somebody to pitch tomorrow morning can you do that? I said, yeah but I come complete with a small child and a stuffed elephant and a mermaid outfit and if you don't mind we'll all be there in the morning about five so I put her down in my office and I ran in there and did my little pitch and went back and check on my daughter and back and forth and back and forth one day I went to check on her for one hour and she wasn't there you see anybody short walking by in a mermaid suit it's like, well I think she's down there by the K-PAK studio and I got to the studio about the time I saw my daughter sitting in Randy Anderson's lap opened the microphone and she said something like and if you don't call right now my mommy can't keep her job so I think we put her up for that but the point is they let me be a mom my daughter could come to work if I had a tough time and I was having a babysitting issue or I could go home with her as long as I took care of my business as long as I was productive as long as I did what my job was I was allowed to be that and that's why I've grown and been able to become for two years at Texas Public Radio kind of woven into the fabric over there but it was very good to me in those years that I was raising a daughter in this amazing environment with really smart people and really big words for her to enjoy I mean a real vocabulary as opposed to some of the other places that I've worked so it truly was I got to get my life work my personal balance because of the place that I worked and it was someplace that I was proud to bring a child and allow I mean again we don't have kids running around the office all the time I'm not trying to say that but it's an environment that our families do come first and we have an executive who realizes you only have one family and you take care of them that was incredibly helpful I think for all of us on the panel probably what I would say maybe approaching it from a business perspective or from folks that are employing people that need to define their work life balance I would say that each of us determines our own work life balance and for each different person that can be different so for me personally I have an incredibly supportive husband that allows me to put in outrageous amounts of hours into what I do I'm traveling around the world for what I do and it works that way it works for me what I would say for women is that we have to be our biggest advocate there might be folks that need to bring their children to work there might be folks that need to work from home there might be folks that want to be in the office 24-7 and I believe that the greatest lesson to be learned is when you're employing men and women to be flexible with work life balance you determine that for yourself and the last thing that anybody should do is judge work life balance I think that that is when we get into a little bit of a nasty back and forth so I'm glad you asked the question because I think it's very relevant and I do believe that it's different for every one of us in this room and different for everybody in general I think sometimes with the women's rights movement that propelled us into the workforce further into the workforce sometimes we brought additional burden on our shoulders because I think there are still the majority of women run the household as well I'm all for the women's movement let me just put that out there all for it but I feel like we still have work to do at this juncture we should be trying to push for better balance for women in the workplace like it's a job running the household is a job taking care of children is a job so you have those two jobs then you have a full time job whereas most of the males have their full time job and then they come home and say what's for dinner why aren't the kids in the shower yet and you're like well we just got the home from practice it's eight o'clock and we just got in the door and we were doing the homework in the car and we had hamburgers all this week so we decided we're going to try and eat something at home it's a lot you really really don't have enough hours in a day you literally don't and there are some times when you're like not sleeping because you're okay I have to do the laundry now or I have to work on you know heaven in school so I was like in grad school and running the business and running two children around and you know and it's a societal thing you know my husband helps where he can but it's still as your burden if the kids don't eat dinner you're not going to turn to your husband and go well I guess they're not eating tonight you know it's like they're hungry you're going to feed your children it's just like you're just going going going going going so the good part about it is when they're really young you think you're never going to make it out of that phase and you're just like cross-eyed like what have I done little people are running my life but you do make it out so there are phases there are phases that's the saving grace and that's what I would tell anyone that has small children you just come up and you just oh gosh I remember those days you know when you're lugging everything you know you're just trying to make it happen you have someone like my son I used to tell people he would do sit-ins so I'd say come on it's time to go you know we're at the grocery store he'd do a sit-in right in front of the candy the candy bar and wooden budge I'm like we have an appointment I have an appointment I have to make it to please get up please you know and he just wouldn't budge wouldn't budge you know and I refused to give in so we would just be standing there people coming up can I help you is there anything I can help you I'm like no my son and I are having to stand up here we'll be leaving soon I know we've been here standing here 10 minutes but we'll be leaving soon so I mean you just make your way the best way you can but I feel that somehow women have to do a better job of getting across the point that these are full-time jobs being you know a caretaker you're a caretaker and you have you know our ability to be able to switch hats is incredible because I'm sorry I'm not even going to apologize men could not do what we do when it comes to switching hats and oh noonie noonie new oh no I need that by tomorrow oh such you know you're now I'm a chef now I'm a nurse now you know I'm like wow this is incredible how many different careers I've done in one day I'm incredible this is crazy or I'm schizophrenic I don't know I'm losing it here so it's a lot I tell people you know I'm at the point now where I go easier on myself because I realize to be honest I because I've had my own business and you can assess different jobs and determine what would it take to do this what would it take to you know how many hours is this going to take and that sort of thing I realize that all the things that I have to do it's impossible it's actually impossible to accomplish them all and sometimes women go into it thinking that they have to accomplish all those things something is going to fall through the cracks the key is to determine what is that thing that you're going to let go by the wayside you cannot have the perfectly you know perfect home perfect children perfect business perfect you will you'll lose your mind you'll be drinking or on some type of you know prescription drugs or you know you will lose your mind so you should not strive for perfection in all of those areas because it's like 10 different jobs you have to acknowledge that it is you're doing the work of 10 people and then you know the people like this is too salty so you know that's when you pour your wine and sit down and just close your mouth and just you know let it wash over you so you can't be perfect in every arena and some women look like they're perfect in every arena but they're not they're very good at masking you know they're putting out a persona I'll tell anyone yeah no today things are raggedy but tomorrow is going to be better you know I you know I stopped with the you know I have to be on on on because it's not it's not healthy and it will it will take a toll on you in every area emotionally spiritually your health will break and then you you know and my thing is like and then where would the kids be without me if I break down what are you going to do so you you know you really do when people say you have to take care of yourself you have to take care of yourself first you know you have a lot of people relying on you and little people as well so it's important you know it's kind of like if you can't do it if you can't look at yourself and say hey I deserve better I deserve to treat myself better eat healthy and that sort of thing you should just look to your kids and go what if I wasn't here you know what if I was so run down that I couldn't even you know take care of them the way that I would like to so you you know you have to kind of choose your battles and and that's you know to me I've discovered over time how to get a better work-life balance my children are the most important things to me in the world because 10 20 years from now my employees aren't going to be calling me going hey yeah remember that time we got that project out the door they're not they're just not I mean we've had some great projects but they're not going to be calling me but my daughter is going to be calling me and saying mom this happened or that happened they're with me for life and I feel like if I if they if I can get them up good and you know on their feet that's really my main priority so I can sleep at night you know when I'm 70 I don't want to be tossing and turning I want to be able to rest at night knowing that my you know I did what I needed to do for my children to give them you know the foothold they needed to make something of themselves so that's my number one priority so if anything conflicts with that I don't have a problem saying I'm sorry I'm not going to be able to do that or I can do that tomorrow I'll put off other things as opposed to because in the beginning I would feel guilty I was putting my kids off oh mommy's busy I can't mommy's busy and then you look up and you know my daughter is like looking me and I'm like wow when did that happen so it's it really does go by so quickly it's like I remember when she was three going mom mom are you going to be on the computer all day and I say well I don't want to be on the computer I want to be playing with you but I have to finish my projects first and then we can play but it happens so quickly and I just know that that's my priority because they'll be with me for life so thank you so much Tracy well and in the interest of our work life balances and our mental health I think we might have time for one question from the audience how to avoid complacency good question for me I think I'm in an industry that has a lot of creativity and I think that always keeps me going I love reinventing or creating new things I don't think I'm actually complacent sometimes I may be tired but I don't think I ever experienced that there's never a dull moment at Texas Public Radio my job is not boring and so there's no room for complacency there's no room for boredom there's no room for anything other than realizing how important what we do is that I need to get out there and raise some more money because you never know when the political tide might turn and funding might be a little rugged I mean you just never know so you always have to be prepared and just keep on keeping on so there's just no in this particular job and this thing that I love you know complacency it's just exciting almost all the time so I would say that Janet mentioned earlier that you have to figure out what makes you tick kind of that fire in the belly what do you wake up every day for when you've pulled an all nighter when you've worked 20 different projects when you've been beat down all week what really drives you why do you wake up, slap yourself in the face and get to work every day I would say for me specifically I have different things that drive them for me it's my family and without going into too much detail I was born and raised in Elmendorf winter school in the southeast side of town had a great upbringing but my father always told me that in fact my sister and I that we would be better than him that we would do more than what he did and so without getting emotional every day I wake up proving that to my father, proving it to myself my industry in marketing is like always changing and also because it deals with creativity it's just like you're always thinking of new things but I would say if you find yourself in an environment where you feel you know like you're getting complacent I would say that you should try to take on something maybe even outside of work that stimulates you know an area that maybe you know you're not getting at work and that could possibly lead to something else so again you have to kind of use your connections and step outside of your kind of workspace to get some of what you need the other thing too that I always think about is in whatever situation I'm in I basically believe that it's preparing me for the next thing that I'm going to do so I might be just like oh this is the worst ever, I'm dying somebody saved me but then I'm like okay I must be something great is coming something great is coming down the pike because this is pretty bad and let me see what I can take from this so kind of start to guess what am I what can I take from this sometimes you're in a situation you can't leave but you want to leave so start to assess like what am I gaining from this like how would you sell yourself if you had the opportunity to leave how would you sell yourself and then also where are you lacking where are the areas that you need to shore up oh I really don't have that much experience in this maybe I can take on a project I can learn about that start to like figure out where the holes are so that when you do move on eventually or if you get promoted to something where you don't feel as complacent you're prepared so think of it like I'm preparing myself and it might be that you're just because you're just doing the same thing you have to step outside and try to take on a new responsibility and something that will just help you when you move on or when you move up yeah I mean I know I'm not a moderator but I think my initial reaction would have been well then you're probably not in the right place you should go somewhere else but that's incredibly good advice that maybe you're not ready to move or you don't have an opportunity really that you're wanting to jump to to find something outside of your workspace I think can be incredibly incredibly important just to add to that I would say sometimes if you're not ready and then you jump to something else you're just going to feel the same way you're in a different or new environment you're like why do I feel like this again because it's kind of like you haven't really looked inward and developed yourself to a point where you can then stretch to the next level sometimes you just have to hold even though you're it doesn't feel good but you just hold but then you try to work on yourself while you're in that situation so that when you do leave you have something to stand on PTSD military sexual trauma and addiction and I didn't come here to ask this question but after this last question I feel compelled to ask it I want to along with other veterans who are transitioning out of the military you know this is military you know city USA one of the constant questions that keep coming up is how do I get experience in an industry when all of the jobs say they need experience and this is coming from veterans throughout the world and so that just popped in my head wouldn't you ask them would that be something you all would consider in the future if there's a veteran that is interested in in terms of and in your industry they may have numerous skills I'm a professional nursing and I have numerous nursing skills just from the military and it's like one day I went from mental health to the operation then from the operation back to so I mean that's but they train us to so to go back to my question would you all be going to intern any veterans who are coming out of the military we have over 234,000 I believe that have gone to Iraq and Afghanistan come back and they're a little bit they're hurrying and a lot of them are single mothers the females are increasing and they're about to jump over the male population in the military believe it or not from the data so would you be willing to do that I'm just curious would you ask me to ask that so I would say the short answer is yes, yes and yes but first of all thank you for your service seriously from everybody up on the panel everybody that were live streaming thank you so much but I think that the issue of transition is significant specifically for some military city USA and it has become a priority I think that you know young women can help providing them access to internships and experience would help but often times it's about translating the experience that they have I found even at CPS Synergy when we were hiring they had such diverse experience you're mentioning some of yours and if we could find a way to just translate some of that experience and then also translate what we're looking for from the hiring managers perspective from the company's perspective I think we would be collectively more successful thankfully here in San Antonio we have companies like USA, CPS Synergy, FROSS and others that prioritize veteran hiring which I think is helpful but I think the short answer is yes and please send them my way through SA works the veteran population is one of the populations that we are attempting to tap into because we can up skill folks we can start K12 we can start to align folks around the industries that we're actively looking to recruit and grow but there's an existing need and for that existing need we need to actually look at the employable population today of which the veteran population is the significant majority there and I would say Diane Rehm started out as a volunteer at WAMU so volunteering in an organization that you care about is a smart place to start and there are internship programs of course it needs to be a good match with skill set and as you were saying Jenna there's a lot of things that translate from what they did in the military that might work in a particular setting radio is pretty specific except there's writing, there's accounting, there's marketing there's a lot that goes on in a radio station but there are internship programs for the right match of a skill set and they're paid internships my situation absolutely and our industry there is always a need, I myself started in my industry by volunteering I actually worked at the Omni hotel and went to store for my services as a volunteer because I didn't know nothing about the industry that I wanted to explore so I truly believe on that and you know just like Janice said it's about matching a person with the skill set a lot and our physical work so but we're always open for that I would tie into what Janet is saying with the volunteering we have a lot of opportunities with dream week where we need volunteers it's not year around but there is a concerted time frame where we do need a lot of volunteers so you can go and they can fill out information just go online dreamweek.work the mighty group is smaller so it's kind of hard because with interns you have to pay attention to them when you have a smaller business you do when you have a smaller business sometimes it feels like work because you kind of feel like your baby sitting in the intern well do they have anything to do I don't know they couldn't do what I gave them yesterday so it's hard when you say that we're an internship and it's a small company you're kind of thinking oh no I hope I'm not going to be babysitting anyone you know what I mean but with larger corporations I'm sure that those numbers could be more easily folded in but I agree with the volunteerism because again it just allows you access to meet other people so you might meet the person that you signed up but then if you're out in the community doing work you'll meet someone else that maybe they can fit you on their team you know that sort of thing so the more they can get out and either volunteer or intern but preferably volunteer to start just to take a look around and see what's out there and what's available even at the rebar report where you were a non-profit pretty small still so it's still like ooh don't I want the responsibility of an intern I don't know how much they would learn from just watching me yeah but you know we've published a number of freelance writers I mean there's a number of opportunities I think we're a lot bigger than just our staff we have a whole team of freelancers out there too well I believe one more we talked about all of your great commitment to your work and the energy that you put into your work and the energy that you put into your family what do you do for a son? what do you do for a baby or you know you're what is it? or not you know I really don't do anything else I mean I love to cook and I love to hang out with my husband and my kids and my dogs but I really love what I do and it's just you know I've been invited I've been very fortunate to be on the boards in things and I just go I'm far more valuable to the community if I put all of my energy focused on making doing everything I can to make Texas Public Radio as robust as possible because that helps every other non-profit so I'm boring I work I go to I go to our event I use it on panels I use it on panels I just I arrange flowers I mean just for the dinner table just for the dinner table no just for the dinner table I don't like just to have arrangements around the house when we come pick up for myself I think what I really enjoy now and for actually the last two years I've been officeing out of home I eliminated my office at my actual location so I have a lot of fun being at home because I'm able to truly cook now for my children and I so that's a lot of fun for me and for the last two years I cannot block five days for myself every fifth week I live for five days I take a small trip really anywhere I just every five weeks I make it a it's like I know I have those five days for myself I'm the worst way to children so I take those days that girls go away for myself and I travel for myself and it's been working out perfect for me actually I by having fun I feel more creative more rested and feel I had felt much better in my own business decisions when before I was so much in the business and not on the business because so many moving parts in our industry happen all day long we start so early in the morning and we finish so late so that's probably I'm really having a great time doing that right and I drink wine so much also not very fun I will say I do drink wine really love what I do but I would say that my outlet so to speak is dancing as funny as that sounds my husband I just love to dance he's a lot better than I am but oftentimes he makes me look better when we're dancing so that's really our past I would say spending time with my children and I love sports March Madness all of that I'm really into it so my son and I we enjoy watching games together and that sort of thing I also enjoy baking and this is like a little known fact I actually went through the culinary program at St. Phillips College now it's been like honestly I don't want to say but like 10 years ago when they first rolled out their pastry arts program and while I was working and everything else I did that program as well so I enjoy baking I love baking I just don't have time to bake but I do enjoy that also I want to mention one thing I'm currently working on a project at St. Phillips that's doing outreach to teens for unplanned pregnancy prevention so I think I get enjoyment out of just doing outreach and the interaction just between myself and the community and that sort of thing so I I'm finding that I'm drawing more and more to that and that I get fulfillment out of that so I enjoy those type of projects I love it when my friends move and I can help them unpack I love to put the sort things and put them on like okay this is where the coffee stations over here we'll put the coffee pal here they'll all be facing this direction I love to sort things I love to sort I would put you on the top of my list well so it's been such a pleasure to get to know all of you ladies I know we've sort of met randomly throughout but it's been really great to hear your stories and to hear how you've become the influential woman that you are today like do I give him a round of applause for all of them I have a question about kind of balancing kind of having that balance between like your marriage with your job your marriage with your husband and your homie kind of like I guess something that stands out for you like you said you're very passionate into your job you have fun enjoying so kind of how you something that or like a tip that helps between your marriage and your job and your marriage at home kind of something that comes to mind that you are always stationary okay here's the truth of the matter my husband and I live in a duplex he lives upstairs and I live down now it works beautifully he has he loves to he loves to fly planes with no engines he rides bicycles 120 miles a week he rides motorcycles real fast and I like you know terra firma I like a nice crossword puzzle you know I'm big in Sudoku you know unpacking things sorting and so we give each other plenty of room to go do those things that each of us want to go do by ourselves that have nothing to do with each other so that when we are together it's just a blast and you know when you were dating your fella how his place kind of smelled like him and your place kind of smelled like you and kind of went over there and like oh this is sexy well it's still that way because upstairs still smells like him downstairs still smells like me and he hosts me upstairs and I host him down and it's sort of like I've got my crappy furniture and he has his crappy furniture there's nobody to argue about whether I want to have you know red walls in my dining room so um space good healthy space anybody follow that fascinating human being I also think honesty is key right so I need my alone time I spend a lot of time at work spend a lot of time with hobbies what have you but at the end of the day we have to be honest with each other and I will tell him when I've had a really rough day and I'm not about to try and introvert by nature I'm not about to try and engage with you on a conversation just leave me alone to my wine let me be let me read let me process um but then there are times when when we need to be together and we're enjoying it uh thankfully he my husband has hobbies like hunting and fishing and so they require him to travel I travel for work so we have plenty of time apart we have plenty of time together but I think being honest about what we're looking for and the need for space is key clearly you all have been very honest too to have that that's goals right there that's a life story honey don't listen to any of this I think I'm with her being honest with uh when you one time alone you know I like that with my children and I'm in a relationship and I actually for two years and I think that was one of the things that I really make sure that when I enter in a new relationship that that person understood that I needed the space I I have a team of almost a hundred people that we manage the day out in our team and that understood the industry that I'm in and I needed my space alone at home and away from home so and I make sure he had a get away home as well yeah I think that's a good note to leave it up some questions are unanswered for sure thank you all so much again yes thank you so much thanks everyone for for your wisdom and your inspiration and I've been to the other events of this has been the most fun ones that we've had so we're going to have a hard time next year making it equally fun I'm going to just I think it would be wrong I mean I think we learned a lot and we had a we really enjoyed being with you if I didn't really say I'm here really because in some ways my first boss she had been the director of the public library in Enid, Oklahoma from 1955 until I started working for her in 1981 and she looked great every day which is why I try I don't I don't reach her level but really almost everyone who worked for her we all kind of thought small town small and really the people who work for her are just are literally all over the world and great jobs and I think that's something you know anyone can do is mentor and like like I think all of you mentioned like see the talent and people with you and that working for you then I also I couldn't think help but think earlier my grandmother my grandmother worked and my grandfather did it which I guess it's not that common and it certainly was not that common in the early 60s when I was a child so this is my grandmother's work like balance I bring home the check y'all do the work so that was her work like she did no work at home at all y'all I here benefited from my paycheck so step up so at any rate we have a little small gift for you all and at first though I think another round of applause thank you so much and the library is still open until nine o'clock and we do still have refreshments in the back and thanks again for