Latest / Get Real with Jim Weiss / Shelley Zalis, Founder and CEO of The Female Quotient

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Shelley Zalis, Founder and CEO of The Female Quotient · Get Real with Jim Weiss

0:00
Speaker 1: Hi you Hey, Kate, we got we got another We
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Speaker 1: got another doozy for the audience, right. You know, it's
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Speaker 1: going to be exciting today to talk to one of
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Speaker 1: my emerging besties. You know, Shelley's Alice. She's a role
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Speaker 1: model for the ages. Uh yeah, I've been working with
0:15
Speaker 1: her for a few years. Actually, we all have here
0:19
Speaker 1: in and around the Real Chemistry family. We got to
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Speaker 1: know her first at south By Southwest, where Shelley has
0:26
Speaker 1: been a staple. But she's at really all the meetings
0:29
Speaker 1: with the female quotient. She has a long entrepreneurial history
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Speaker 1: in tech and data and entertainment. A woman way ahead
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Speaker 1: of her time, but with the times in every way,
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Speaker 1: You're going to just enjoy her. She's funny, engaging, real,
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Speaker 1: and I think has, probably without really knowing it at
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Speaker 1: the outset, created one of the most powerful community of
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Speaker 1: people all over the world that is making an impact
1:00
Speaker 1: and helping to create change that's real, that's lasting, that
1:05
Speaker 1: isn't trendy or politically correct or incorrect. It just is
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Speaker 1: obviously representing the half the population, the better half, and
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Speaker 1: many people.
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Speaker 2: View she's chief troublemaker, as she calls herself. I just
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Speaker 2: loved everything about her, and I think they've almost seven
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Speaker 2: million followers and people who are part of the Female
1:25
Speaker 2: Quotient community, and that's only grown since COVID. It was
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Speaker 2: the like zoom culture that really started this for her
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Speaker 2: as she articulated, which is like testament to her.
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Speaker 1: So is super inclusive of audiences and people at these
1:41
Speaker 1: meetings around the world from Davos, the can you Know
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Speaker 1: Now the wmbhaved just as happening. So again, she's engaging
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Speaker 1: with probably some of the most interesting communities that value
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Speaker 1: and leverage women who are so important to the economy,
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Speaker 1: to our health, with so many aspects of life. And
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Speaker 1: I think you know doesn't come at it with a
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Speaker 1: chip on her shoulder. She really just is and does
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Speaker 1: she makes it all look so easy and simple. Anyway,
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Speaker 1: enjoy this conversation with Shelley and I'm sure you'll become
2:18
Speaker 1: as big a fan as I am of her once
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Speaker 1: you listen in. Thanks for doing this.
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Speaker 2: With me, by the way, are you kidding? I told
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Speaker 2: you when I met you you're one of my favorite people.
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Speaker 1: You too.
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Speaker 2: I just love how chill you are and how you
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Speaker 2: have that like understated low key power and you use
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Speaker 2: it for good and for change, and you're just a
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Speaker 2: really damn good guy.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, well thanks, I'll take that and double down on it.
2:45
Speaker 1: Keep going. So, hey, Shelley, thanks for being on this show.
2:50
Speaker 1: You're an incredible trail blazer or chief trouble maker as
2:54
Speaker 1: you call yourself. Why do you do what you do?
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Speaker 1: What's the driver? What's your why?
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Speaker 2: It was definitely not intentional, although now it is intentional
3:03
Speaker 2: by design, but it was an accident. And I say,
3:06
Speaker 2: away from a moment to a movement, and I think,
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Speaker 2: now it's really a whole new energy force or a momentum.
3:12
Speaker 2: But I just wanted to get back with generosity what
3:14
Speaker 2: I wish I had my entire career, which was girlfriends
3:18
Speaker 2: in business, women supporting women, because I really didn't have that.
3:22
Speaker 2: I'm sixty three years old and in my day and age,
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Speaker 2: it was such a scarcity of jobs at the top
3:27
Speaker 2: that women would dig their heels into one another, push
3:30
Speaker 2: someone down to get ahead, and why, Like, that's just
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Speaker 2: dumb and not okay. And so after I sold my
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Speaker 2: company the last time, I decided it was time to
3:41
Speaker 2: create this safe space for women to connect with other
3:44
Speaker 2: women and support each other. And once I had over
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Speaker 2: six and a half million women supporting one another. I
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Speaker 2: then evolved to bringing conscious leaders together and create this
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Speaker 2: powerful space to collaborate and create change, and not just
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Speaker 2: for women, but for everyone in the workplace.
4:01
Speaker 1: But who inspires you in this field or otherwise?
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Speaker 2: You inspire me. You inspire me every day, and we
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Speaker 2: can't wait to do amazing things, especially for women's health.
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Speaker 2: You're going to host a mannl which is our male panels.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm excited. I see how all these dots are connecting. Right,
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Speaker 1: there's a lot of very inspiring people. Anyone in that
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Speaker 1: world where you were getting pushed down? Did you ever
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Speaker 1: run across somebody that surprised you in the Hollywood scene?
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Speaker 2: I have zigd and zagged, so I am not a
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Speaker 2: classic textbookcase in any regard. And you mentioned my Chief
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Speaker 2: Troublemaker title, which I gave myself. I gave myself permission
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Speaker 2: to break the rules that made no sense and create
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Speaker 2: the new ones. I was the only female CEO Top
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Speaker 2: twenty five my entire career. I played in a man's world.
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Speaker 2: It didn't affect me because I found my voice and
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Speaker 2: my passion, and you know, I was unstoppable to myself.
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Speaker 2: I wouldn't take no for an answer and would always
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Speaker 2: find a solution, even though everyone told me, I'm not
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Speaker 2: the right one, I'm not qualified, I'm not capable, it's
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Speaker 2: not the right time. I'm going to fail. But I
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Speaker 2: believed so much in what I was doing. I had
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Speaker 2: to believe in me first to be able to be
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Speaker 2: where I am today, and so a lot of the
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Speaker 2: people supporting me through my career. When I pioneered online research,
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Speaker 2: which was over oh my god, two so twenty six
5:25
Speaker 2: years ago. You know, a long long time ago, I
5:28
Speaker 2: had amazing men that were my bosses. I mean there
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Speaker 2: were no female bosses. I had men, men, men, men,
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Speaker 2: men that would teach me things along the way, and
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Speaker 2: whether they were supportive or not, I learned so many
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Speaker 2: valuable lessons from each and every one of them in
5:46
Speaker 2: very different aspects. And then when I started the Girls Lounge,
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Speaker 2: which now is the FQ Lounge, when I was still
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Speaker 2: at IPSOS, I sold my company to IPSOS. So many
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Speaker 2: women at the time would say, but we're not girls.
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Speaker 2: Were women, and we don't like the name girls Lounge,
6:02
Speaker 2: And I said, have you ever heard of men objectiving
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Speaker 2: boys in the boys club? Like why are we giving
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Speaker 2: ourselves these double standards or preconceived notions. And I said,
6:12
Speaker 2: have you ever heard of girlfriends? And go girl? And
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Speaker 2: girls girl? And why are we hiding the fact that
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Speaker 2: we like hair and makeup? And so I put it
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Speaker 2: in the front of the room and I just owned it,
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Speaker 2: and I said, a lady's room is like a bathroom.
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Speaker 2: A women's lounge sounds really boring. A girl's lounge like,
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Speaker 2: it's okay to have a little fun doing what you're
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Speaker 2: doing and doing it your way, not doing it the
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Speaker 2: status quo way, and following in the footsteps the shoes
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Speaker 2: ahead of you, which were all men. Be a woman
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Speaker 2: and bring your best qualities to the table, the saw skills,
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Speaker 2: which I call the critical essential skills of leadership, like
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Speaker 2: why are we hiding our empathy and our compassion and
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Speaker 2: our passion? Those aren't weak, Those are strong and good
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Speaker 2: for every leader, not just female, but the feminine. Plenty
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Speaker 2: of men have the feminine, and plenty of women have
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Speaker 2: the masculine. We need all of that to make the
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Speaker 2: world go around.
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Speaker 1: So when did you realize this was unable white space?
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Speaker 2: That's a good question. Well, I didn't build it to
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Speaker 2: make money or to be in a business. It was
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Speaker 2: a give back with something I wish I always had,
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Speaker 2: which was a space at big industry conferences where I
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Speaker 2: wasn't invited to parties, I didn't know anybody. I don't
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Speaker 2: like golf. I'm not going to just hang in the bar,
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Speaker 2: and I'm not going to just burst into a circle
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Speaker 2: of all the guys sitting around talking because they were
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Speaker 2: all men. There was long lines in the men's room,
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Speaker 2: but zero in the ladies room. And so I just
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Speaker 2: did it for me. It was necessity for me, and
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Speaker 2: all of a sudden, I'm the power CEO. I sold
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Speaker 2: my company for a lot of money to IPSOS. I
7:55
Speaker 2: wanted to go to CS because I was a technology
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Speaker 2: enabled researcher and at the time, this was over eleven
8:02
Speaker 2: years ago, CS was one hundred and fifty thousand plus
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Speaker 2: plus people. Less than three percent were women that had badges,
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Speaker 2: and I wanted to go. But I didn't want to
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Speaker 2: walk the floor alone and be alone again. And so
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Speaker 2: I invited five girlfriends and I said, would you walk
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Speaker 2: the floor with me at CS? And I said, if
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Speaker 2: you know other women, invite your girlfriends. Twenty four hours later,
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Speaker 2: fifty women showed up to walk the floor of CS.
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Speaker 2: That's when I coined the phrase power the pack. Collectively,
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Speaker 2: we have impact because it was this.
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Speaker 1: Whosh.
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Speaker 2: I get shivers still thinking back to that moment. It
8:38
Speaker 2: was this shiver moment where not only did every single
8:43
Speaker 2: guy's head turn. When you're one, you're invisible. When you
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Speaker 2: were fifty year pack, you're hard to ignore. Here we
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Speaker 2: were all of us walking the floor and it was
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Speaker 2: this network of power women. And then the second thing
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Speaker 2: that happened was rounded by people leaders. How are people
9:04
Speaker 2: just like me with our the purse? I mean, we
9:06
Speaker 2: were badass women with big budgets and we started doing
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Speaker 2: deals together and we started talking about work life balance
9:14
Speaker 2: and imposter syndrome and periods and menopause and babies and
9:18
Speaker 2: when do you ever talk about that? And then we
9:21
Speaker 2: all moved. After that walk, we went to my hotel
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Speaker 2: room which was at four Seasons No Casino, and I
9:28
Speaker 2: had a king sized bedroom and we were all in
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Speaker 2: my room like this and women were doing deal. I
9:34
Speaker 2: had a walking closet. Women were showing their technology in
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Speaker 2: the closet and in the bedroom and in the whatever
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Speaker 2: we had. And by day two, fifty turned to one
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Speaker 2: hundred and one hundred turn to three fifty, and by
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Speaker 2: day three we had the penthouse suite at the Four
9:48
Speaker 2: Seasons and I called my hairdresser. I live in LA
9:50
Speaker 2: and I said, drive my car, come on down, listen
9:53
Speaker 2: to hair and makeup too, and have fun and do
9:56
Speaker 2: business while we're doing our nails and while we're doing
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Speaker 2: our hair during makeup. I did not intentionally design it.
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Speaker 2: It happened. But once I realized I could connect women
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Speaker 2: in tech, I thought, what about women in marketing, what
10:09
Speaker 2: about women in media, what about women in research? And
10:11
Speaker 2: so I started creating these pop up spaces so that
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Speaker 2: there'd be continuity of connection, and these women that were
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Speaker 2: cmos would all keep seeing each other at the conferences
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Speaker 2: they go to. And then I got invited to the
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Speaker 2: World's Economic for them, and I had only done maybe
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Speaker 2: four lounges by then, and my invitation to Davos was
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Speaker 2: we want you to come, but you might not feel welcome,
10:35
Speaker 2: like you can't make this shit up. You can't make
10:39
Speaker 2: this shit up. My head said, don't go. Who wants
10:43
Speaker 2: to go to that nasty invitation? My heart said, I
10:45
Speaker 2: must boom boom boom. And I remember going to one
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Speaker 2: of the big financial institutions to the women's network of
10:54
Speaker 2: this company. I said, so, would you sponsored me? I
10:56
Speaker 2: need two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to put up
10:59
Speaker 2: the girls on shingle and have a hole in the wall.
11:02
Speaker 2: I had the last space. It's a shitty space. And
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Speaker 2: I said, you know, would she sponsor me? And they
11:08
Speaker 2: said we would. It's a great idea, but you have
11:10
Speaker 2: to change the name. We don't like girls sound. I said,
11:12
Speaker 2: I'm not changing the name. It's the girl sound. The
11:16
Speaker 2: opposite of boys girl. The opposite of club is lounge.
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Speaker 2: If there's a boys club, now this girl sound, and
11:20
Speaker 2: we are showing up in Davos as the Girls Sound.
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Speaker 2: And so they didn't fund me. And I called the
11:26
Speaker 2: COO of Bloomberg, Jackie Kelly. I love you, Jackie Kelly,
11:30
Speaker 2: And I said, Jackie, I was invited to Davos. I
11:34
Speaker 2: don't want to go by myself. I'm scared. Will you
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Speaker 2: go with me? And I'll fund it and we're gonna
11:41
Speaker 2: have the best programming and we can invite our own
11:44
Speaker 2: people because I don't know if anyone's going to show up.
11:46
Speaker 2: And if no one else shows up, that's fine. We're
11:48
Speaker 2: gonna have the best time, and she said, of course,
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Speaker 2: I'm gonna go with you, and she came with me
11:53
Speaker 2: and we invited fifty other women. How are the pack
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Speaker 2: It's how you go from a moment to a movement
11:57
Speaker 2: like that. You don't wait and watch, you make it happen.
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Speaker 2: Inspurse it. I don't think that's a word, but you
12:04
Speaker 2: insperse it like you push the energy in. You make
12:07
Speaker 2: it successful in spurs. It's a good new word. We
12:10
Speaker 2: had a slumber party and I took all these villas,
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Speaker 2: ten villas, and all of our women came unbadged. And
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Speaker 2: that's how we started creating the unbadged space at all
12:21
Speaker 2: the biggest conferences in the world, because they're not going
12:24
Speaker 2: to have a million dollar white badge. And I called
12:26
Speaker 2: it the Girl's Lounge, the place for the seventeen percent.
12:30
Speaker 2: And I hung the shingle right outside my little hole
12:34
Speaker 2: in the wall, but we had big windows, and those
12:37
Speaker 2: windows I put messages that were great messages. When purpose
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Speaker 2: be's passion, you're unstoppable. I called it the place for
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Speaker 2: the seventeen percent because less than seventeen percent of wef
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Speaker 2: members are women with badges. And I hung a big
12:51
Speaker 2: chandelier in the window lit and at night it turned
12:55
Speaker 2: the place pink, and by day we had the best programming.
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Speaker 2: People poked their head in, they came, but didn't matter.
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Speaker 2: I filled the house with my fifty that I brought,
13:05
Speaker 2: so we never looked empty. We looked full. And year
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Speaker 2: two Jamie Diamond, he said, Wow, you have balls. This
13:13
Speaker 2: is the best thing that's ever happened to wef from
13:17
Speaker 2: now on you could count on me as your keynote
13:20
Speaker 2: speaker and as your partner. And he has lived up
13:24
Speaker 2: to everything he promised. He comes every year.
13:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was just there I saw him. Man, that
13:30
Speaker 1: was awesome. Was that the milestone moment when you knew
13:33
Speaker 1: this could be a company?
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Speaker 2: I knew that this was a legacy for me and
13:38
Speaker 2: I had left Ipsos, you know, I committed five years
13:40
Speaker 2: after I sold and I had launched. It was called
13:44
Speaker 2: the Ipsos Girls Sound while I was there, but a
13:46
Speaker 2: lot of men would say, well, if there's gonna be
13:48
Speaker 2: a girl sound, we need a man cave. Like really anyways,
13:51
Speaker 2: So I decided at my five year anniversary it was
13:55
Speaker 2: time for me to go and follow my heart, which
13:58
Speaker 2: I talked a lot about my heartbeat moment. It was
14:00
Speaker 2: one of my heartbeat moments that regardless I've done market
14:04
Speaker 2: research for forty something years, it was time to really
14:09
Speaker 2: work with C suite leaders on rewriting rules in the
14:11
Speaker 2: workplace so everyone could try always.
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Speaker 1: I can relate to that. We love a little drama.
14:16
Speaker 2: Don't we life be bored without a little drama? Baby?
14:19
Speaker 1: Come back to Davas and the Equality Lounge. We heard
14:23
Speaker 1: why you started it and how it's taken off. What
14:25
Speaker 1: are some of the pros and cons of that experience.
14:28
Speaker 1: I mean, you obviously have a big footprint there, but
14:31
Speaker 1: I experienced it with you this year. It was very
14:33
Speaker 1: funky what went down.
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Speaker 2: Being the first is hard because you know I always
14:38
Speaker 2: say you gotta be the first, of second and the third.
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Speaker 2: The first is the innovator, but you're going to have
14:43
Speaker 2: to try things that have never been done and get
14:46
Speaker 2: people to buy into something that is not in their
14:49
Speaker 2: frame of reference. People say you have to fail to succeed.
14:53
Speaker 2: I say, how much risk are you willing to take?
14:55
Speaker 2: And so you have to take the risk. The second
14:58
Speaker 2: is the copycat. People come in and copy what you've done,
15:03
Speaker 2: but they don't really know what's under the hood, right,
15:06
Speaker 2: And the third is the sweeper. The ecosystem's built established
15:11
Speaker 2: authenticity and credibility and all of that. And so they
15:14
Speaker 2: ride in with the money and they can beat you
15:17
Speaker 2: at your own game. So the third always wins. I
15:20
Speaker 2: swore to myself, I need to be the first, the second,
15:22
Speaker 2: and the third. So I've always set myself up to
15:25
Speaker 2: do all of those things. And for me, it's that
15:28
Speaker 2: power of collaboration. It's bringing our partners. You're not a sponsor,
15:32
Speaker 2: you're my partner, where we'll pick up the garbage and
15:34
Speaker 2: we pick up the mic and you do what it takes.
15:37
Speaker 2: We're all in this together, and it's this house of
15:41
Speaker 2: all of us. It's not mine, it's not yours, it's
15:44
Speaker 2: ours collectively, and if we share the values and the mission,
15:48
Speaker 2: we're going to win, because we're going to win together
15:51
Speaker 2: creating the change. And there's two types of people. Those
15:55
Speaker 2: that see what they see that is quo. They follow
15:58
Speaker 2: the leader, no drama in that that's predictable, and that
16:03
Speaker 2: there are those that see what's possible, and that's us.
16:07
Speaker 2: And that world of possibility is a lot more fun,
16:11
Speaker 2: a lot less risky, and a lot more actionable and
16:16
Speaker 2: forward thinking when we go together. And so Davos is
16:21
Speaker 2: one of those moments where it is the only conference.
16:25
Speaker 2: We are doing sixty to seventy events experiences a year,
16:29
Speaker 2: it's the only one that we are not an official
16:31
Speaker 2: partner of. We created the unbadged space at Davos. There
16:35
Speaker 2: was no one else on the promenade except for us
16:38
Speaker 2: that's a non WEF member. Now there's plenty until last
16:42
Speaker 2: year and we trend top five And what happened was
16:48
Speaker 2: it created such a reverberation I believe at the World
16:52
Speaker 2: Economic Forum because we're more packed than anyone else. We
16:56
Speaker 2: have great content, we have great and it's all their partners,
16:59
Speaker 2: but these unplugged conversations. So last year was a tough
17:03
Speaker 2: year because they decided, which is not their decision to make,
17:10
Speaker 2: that they were going to not allow any unbadged space
17:15
Speaker 2: to be on the promenade in the city of Davos. Okay,
17:19
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, that is unconscionable. And can I become a
17:23
Speaker 2: WEEF member? Yes, you could buy a membership package. Well
17:28
Speaker 2: you couldn't until now. But a because they've got a
17:31
Speaker 2: lot of issues still on their hand. FQ is not
17:33
Speaker 2: going to be a partner of WEEF that is being
17:36
Speaker 2: sued for sexual assault, sexual harassment, sexual discrimination. But we
17:40
Speaker 2: could be a great quality partner because they.
17:42
Speaker 1: Need us, you can help them.
17:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it made it quite difficult even though we
17:47
Speaker 2: went into space. I lost my space of ten years
17:50
Speaker 2: because of this new law, and so we took a
17:53
Speaker 2: new one, like you can't stop with us. And the
17:56
Speaker 2: more you try, the bigger we're going to get, the
17:57
Speaker 2: lotter we're going to get, the stronger we're going to get,
18:00
Speaker 2: and we're going to find a way, of which we did.
18:02
Speaker 2: We went into a private space. But you know what,
18:05
Speaker 2: I'm okay with that because it's what I told you
18:07
Speaker 2: at the beginning. There's always a solution. There's always a way,
18:12
Speaker 2: you just have to find it. Anything is possible if
18:16
Speaker 2: you want it.
18:18
Speaker 1: Well, can's coming up? You know what are you excited
18:20
Speaker 1: about there?
18:21
Speaker 2: Dance and movement, Like I want to have stretch in
18:24
Speaker 2: our lodges. Know one things about stretch, people do yoga, whatever,
18:27
Speaker 2: But just the proactive health, not reactive or preventative. Let's
18:34
Speaker 2: be proactive and not wait or think that it's only
18:38
Speaker 2: to prevent a problem. It's to proactively instill this healthy vibrancy.
18:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's to optimize these years in terms of longevity
18:49
Speaker 1: and health span and all that. But I think that's
18:52
Speaker 1: a real focus now. It's not prevention because I think prevention.
18:57
Speaker 1: People don't even get excited about right of.
19:00
Speaker 2: Health like it's a new term. Like I just said,
19:02
Speaker 2: I don't know if it's a term or not. But
19:03
Speaker 2: I like proactive health, be healthy, proactively at every age.
19:07
Speaker 2: It's not when you pass sixty. I mean, you know,
19:10
Speaker 2: sixty three, I have to be proactively healthy. I don't
19:13
Speaker 2: want to think about responsive health. That means I'm thinking
19:17
Speaker 2: the worst. I want to every day be healthy. It
19:20
Speaker 2: should be just part of my mainstream. Just like diversity
19:23
Speaker 2: inclusion should be part of the fabric of a company.
19:26
Speaker 2: Proactive health and wellness should be a part of your
19:29
Speaker 2: every day. How do we create that in the fabric
19:32
Speaker 2: of our DNA because we think we have to wait
19:34
Speaker 2: until something wrong, something happens, Well.
19:37
Speaker 1: We're in it. Yeah, We're in a reactive world for
19:40
Speaker 1: the most part. So tell me. Let's ask some business questions.
19:43
Speaker 1: You know you got six million women, is that right
19:46
Speaker 1: involved now?
19:47
Speaker 2: Or we're close to seven million.
19:48
Speaker 1: Okay, across thirty industries one hundred plus countries. How are
19:53
Speaker 1: you using these connections or drive revenue and growth, what's
19:56
Speaker 1: the three year plan.
19:57
Speaker 2: Interestingly enough, I had no idea that I should be
20:01
Speaker 2: doing anything with it until one day I get a
20:04
Speaker 2: phone call from one of our partners. They said, can
20:08
Speaker 2: you create content with us and push it to your
20:12
Speaker 2: community because it's a unique media buy for us. We
20:16
Speaker 2: don't have anything like that, And all of a sudden,
20:18
Speaker 2: I realized, that's interesting. If Q has the largest global
20:22
Speaker 2: community of women in business and no one else has that,
20:26
Speaker 2: and it's across digital channels, it's organic and I will
20:30
Speaker 2: never use those individual connections. But in mass that's purchase power.
20:38
Speaker 2: We know that over eighty five percent of purchase decisions
20:41
Speaker 2: are made by women. Ninety five percent of automotive decisions
20:45
Speaker 2: are made by women, by the way, which I found OHO,
20:47
Speaker 2: that's incredible. Yeah, and if you want to talk about
20:51
Speaker 2: women's health, you need to have a community of women
20:53
Speaker 2: in health because they're also business women across every category.
20:57
Speaker 2: That's pretty fascinating. So we woke up one day and
21:00
Speaker 2: COVID was what helped us build this community because we
21:03
Speaker 2: used to just have our lounges at conferences, which we
21:07
Speaker 2: democratized that system by being in unbapped spaces. But during COVID,
21:12
Speaker 2: we didn't have physical spaces anymore, so we started on Zoom.
21:15
Speaker 2: Before Zoom, I think even knew that they had power,
21:18
Speaker 2: we were learning how to use it, and we started
21:20
Speaker 2: hosting virtual dinner parties with women in every country. And
21:23
Speaker 2: then when COVID was over and we went back to
21:25
Speaker 2: physical spaces, we couldn't cut out our community, so we
21:28
Speaker 2: started broadcasting out from our lounges to make sure that
21:31
Speaker 2: everyone that was part of our circle that might not
21:34
Speaker 2: be at the conference had access to this information. And
21:37
Speaker 2: so we found ourselves in the experience business, which was
21:41
Speaker 2: great bringing people physically together, which is where credibility and
21:46
Speaker 2: trust and all that. And then the second thing that
21:49
Speaker 2: happened was we found out we were in the media
21:50
Speaker 2: space and we became a media brand and that our
21:54
Speaker 2: content was resonating, and so we create custom content and
21:57
Speaker 2: we push across our channels, or we just pushed content
22:00
Speaker 2: to promote the things that we think are really important
22:03
Speaker 2: for everyone to hear, brought to you by our partners
22:05
Speaker 2: in our channels. And then the third thing that has
22:08
Speaker 2: evolved very naturally is our transformation business, which we're about
22:12
Speaker 2: to launch in a significant way, which is strategy connections
22:18
Speaker 2: where we can connect all of our amazing women around
22:21
Speaker 2: the globe to our brand partners and create this real,
22:25
Speaker 2: more formalized networking and business deals. I mean, we connect
22:29
Speaker 2: everyone for jobs and board seats and we're not headhunters,
22:32
Speaker 2: but we know our community and the same thing with
22:36
Speaker 2: female founders and women owned businesses, connecting them to our
22:40
Speaker 2: partners in ways that has never happened before. And now
22:44
Speaker 2: when you look at tariffs and trade and so many
22:47
Speaker 2: of the supply chain that people were depending on before
22:50
Speaker 2: can't use anymore. Listen, one percent of supply chain goes
22:53
Speaker 2: to women owned businesses. I see this as ding ding
22:56
Speaker 2: ding opportunity. Here's all these women owed businesses you have
23:00
Speaker 2: not seen see them, hire them, give them business, and
23:05
Speaker 2: I'll match make all day long for you.
23:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's amazing. Let's talk to my listeners. There are
23:11
Speaker 1: a lot of marketers, communicators, the people that you probably
23:14
Speaker 1: want to get to understand it. Let's talk highlights and
23:18
Speaker 1: greatest hits. Can you name a partnership or a celebrity
23:22
Speaker 1: or a venue that took things into the stratosphere changed
23:25
Speaker 1: the game? What do you think partners should know? What's succeeded,
23:30
Speaker 1: and you obviously mentioned the Jamie Dimond stuff with JP Morgan,
23:33
Speaker 1: but there's plenty of things that you've done. What are
23:36
Speaker 1: some of the highlights.
23:37
Speaker 2: We pride ourselves on the power of our partnerships and
23:42
Speaker 2: how we all are coming together to create this change,
23:45
Speaker 2: So that to me is a highlight. To know we
23:48
Speaker 2: went from trying to convince people of why this mattered
23:52
Speaker 2: and it was not easy, trust me no, to now
23:56
Speaker 2: having over two hundred remarkable fortune five hundred partners is amazing.
24:02
Speaker 2: I did a campaign a little while ago that said,
24:05
Speaker 2: why should it take, according to the world's economic from
24:07
Speaker 2: one hundred and thirty four years to close the gender gap.
24:10
Speaker 2: When we sent men to the moon in ten we
24:12
Speaker 2: created the Internet in twenty five years, and we created
24:16
Speaker 2: a vaccine for a daily disease in one year. We
24:19
Speaker 2: have the data, We know what is happening, and it
24:22
Speaker 2: is not about a quota. It is about business transformation
24:27
Speaker 2: and future proofing your business for growth and innovation, and
24:31
Speaker 2: even when you look at health for women, we know currently.
24:35
Speaker 2: I wrote an article with a woman named Sharon Kadar
24:37
Speaker 2: and with McKenzie on this thing that she pointed out
24:41
Speaker 2: to me which is mice don't menstream ice don't men's streight,
24:47
Speaker 2: and yet we are using lab rats in everything we
24:50
Speaker 2: do for scientific discovery and innovation and research and all
24:54
Speaker 2: of that. Now. I don't know if there's any implication,
24:58
Speaker 2: but it's kind I kind of a stop in a
25:01
Speaker 2: moment headline of are we really taking that extra X
25:05
Speaker 2: chromosome into account with everything we do, especially when we
25:11
Speaker 2: see and what we've seen of all the misdiagnosis in
25:15
Speaker 2: chronic pain and heart health and all those things that
25:18
Speaker 2: are now coming full circle to say, not that it
25:21
Speaker 2: was bad or wrong, even though women weren't in clinical
25:24
Speaker 2: trials until what nineteen ninety three or something like that,
25:28
Speaker 2: but we need to accelerate and make sure that we
25:31
Speaker 2: have that extra X chromosome involved in everything we're thinking
25:35
Speaker 2: about and talking about. If we truly want to diagnose
25:38
Speaker 2: women properly. Everything about us is different.
25:40
Speaker 1: That's what we got a partner on. That's the opportunity,
25:44
Speaker 1: and we got to pick up the other half of
25:47
Speaker 1: the population of insanity. Right. We know that it's business imperative.
25:51
Speaker 1: I like coming back to that point so as it
25:54
Speaker 1: relates to what female quertion stands for, what would you
25:58
Speaker 1: like to see more men doing at all network as
26:01
Speaker 1: young men coming up in the world.
26:03
Speaker 2: Okay, well, first of all caregiving. If we have shared
26:07
Speaker 2: responsible at home, we can also have shared contribution in
26:10
Speaker 2: the workplace. So I think it starts like that, because
26:14
Speaker 2: still the primary caregiver is the woman. Fine, but I
26:16
Speaker 2: also we refer to, oh, we need male allies, and
26:20
Speaker 2: I'm like, no, we don't need male allies. We need
26:22
Speaker 2: conscious leadership allies. I don't care if you're a man
26:25
Speaker 2: or you a woman, because this isn't a women's problem.
26:28
Speaker 2: Gender equality is not a female issue. It's a social
26:30
Speaker 2: and economic issue. And so we have to stop making
26:34
Speaker 2: this male or female. It is about transformation of workplace culture.
26:40
Speaker 2: And if we write the rules forward to work for
26:44
Speaker 2: the lowest common denominator or would I say the collective minority,
26:48
Speaker 2: it will work for the current majority. We just haven't
26:51
Speaker 2: rewritten the rules since the beginning of time. And it's
26:55
Speaker 2: not that hard. People think, oh, we have to wait
26:57
Speaker 2: and watch again for times to create the change. No,
27:01
Speaker 2: make the change. What's so complicated? Look at what happened
27:04
Speaker 2: in COVID, and no one talks about this. All of
27:07
Speaker 2: a sudden COVID. Yet no one expected that, and within
27:10
Speaker 2: ten seconds we had to readjust how we work, how
27:14
Speaker 2: leadership functions, how we're now on technology. Couldn't have made
27:18
Speaker 2: that up, We couldn't have written that script. The script
27:22
Speaker 2: was written because necessity. Again, necessity is the mother of invention.
27:27
Speaker 2: And I like how I say mother of invention is
27:30
Speaker 2: so true. And it's the same thing when you know
27:34
Speaker 2: that the rules of the workplace aren't equalized so that
27:39
Speaker 2: everyone has the opportunity to equally thrive. Fix it. Anything
27:44
Speaker 2: is possible. Fix it. It's not that it was bad.
27:47
Speaker 2: Don't point a finger and put people on the defense.
27:50
Speaker 2: It's just for written a new amazing window. Moment a
27:54
Speaker 2: door closes, the window opens. I like this new window
27:56
Speaker 2: for visibility. Use that moment to create the change that
28:00
Speaker 2: we need to see so everyone can thrive, and that
28:04
Speaker 2: the minority is not the exception, but they become the
28:08
Speaker 2: new norm. And when you create workplace for the exceptions,
28:13
Speaker 2: the collective exceptions, it will become the new norm and
28:17
Speaker 2: no one will feel left out or oh well me,
28:21
Speaker 2: I need to no. Make that for everybody and for
28:25
Speaker 2: the collective majority. It'll be easy. Ooh the coast. But
28:30
Speaker 2: the primary caregiver will not feel like I have to
28:33
Speaker 2: opt out during my messy middle moments. Work life, balance,
28:37
Speaker 2: there's such a thing as balance. Make it life stage, accommodation.
28:41
Speaker 2: Boom boom boom, come up with new shit.
28:43
Speaker 1: Well that's women are often asked, and then I rarely asked,
28:46
Speaker 1: how do you do it all? What would you like
28:48
Speaker 1: to replace that question with?
28:50
Speaker 2: I would like to normalize the conversation where we're not
28:54
Speaker 2: talking about menopause as a women's issu shoe and periods
29:02
Speaker 2: as a women's issue, and having babies as a women's issue.
29:07
Speaker 2: To me, this is what makes all of us value
29:11
Speaker 2: add by bringing our best talent to the table, and
29:15
Speaker 2: we need all of us. So if I'm going to
29:17
Speaker 2: ask women how do you do it all? I'm going
29:19
Speaker 2: to ask men how do you do it all? Until
29:20
Speaker 2: that conversation gets normalized and they start doing it all
29:25
Speaker 2: and we all as leaders start doing it all. Or
29:28
Speaker 2: I'm not going to by the way, I like what
29:30
Speaker 2: you're wearing, like why do we ask just women? You're
29:33
Speaker 2: a stylish guy, like why are women ask who are
29:37
Speaker 2: you wearing? Or the fact that we get our hair
29:40
Speaker 2: and makeup done is weak? No, it's confidence. It's that
29:45
Speaker 2: inner confidence. And by the way, men have imposter syndrome too.
29:48
Speaker 2: They just tend to ignore that voice in general, and
29:51
Speaker 2: women let that voice get louder. We all have to
29:53
Speaker 2: shut that bitch up in our head and go forward.
29:55
Speaker 2: Boom own it.
29:58
Speaker 1: You've done so many great things. What is the accomplishment
30:01
Speaker 1: you're most proud of?
30:02
Speaker 2: My grandchildren? My children as amazing parents. Love that. And
30:09
Speaker 2: it ties back though to workplace culture. Because I never
30:13
Speaker 2: took maternity leave or parental leave or whatever, we didn't
30:17
Speaker 2: have that. It was a taboo topic, and so I
30:21
Speaker 2: want to ensure that there is no taboo topic. We
30:23
Speaker 2: can talk about everything comfortably, safely, confidently together so that
30:29
Speaker 2: this next generation coming up can have a successful life,
30:34
Speaker 2: which includes the five dimensions family, career, community, friends. And
30:41
Speaker 2: the one we always forget about is the one that
30:43
Speaker 2: you are driving such change in Jim is ourselves ensuring
30:48
Speaker 2: that we also take care of ourselves because we neglect ourselves,
30:51
Speaker 2: especially as women. We put oxygen on everyone else, but
30:54
Speaker 2: not on ourselves.
30:56
Speaker 1: Put it on you first. That's the only way you're
30:58
Speaker 1: going to get that long job that you were talking about.
31:01
Speaker 1: You got to be here for the long haul. All right,
31:03
Speaker 1: two fun questions I asked everybody. I mean, you've been everywhere,
31:06
Speaker 1: so this is really hard. What is your dream vacation?
31:09
Speaker 2: Ooh, dream vacation. Well, I chase total solar eclipses with
31:15
Speaker 2: my family, so we travel the globe chasing eclipses.
31:19
Speaker 1: Total solar eclipses awesome.
31:21
Speaker 2: My husband's bucket list was Antarctica, so we did that.
31:25
Speaker 2: Not this past Thanksgiving, but the Thanksgiving for should be
31:28
Speaker 2: on everyone's bucket list. We are going to go to
31:30
Speaker 2: Iceland for the next total solar eclipse. My boys have
31:34
Speaker 2: been there, but as a family, we haven't, so I
31:36
Speaker 2: think it'll be Iceland for the eclipse, which will be amazing.
31:40
Speaker 2: I also love justifaication with my family. That's a dream vacation.
31:44
Speaker 2: Sitting on a beach so that my kids, my grandchildren,
31:47
Speaker 2: it's three grandchildren. Everyone can find what they want to do.
31:51
Speaker 2: I love water, so I like taking a boat out
31:54
Speaker 2: on the water. And people think I have to always
31:56
Speaker 2: be busy. I'm really good at doing nothing.
31:58
Speaker 1: I'm sending you to a desert. What album are you
32:01
Speaker 1: going to take?
32:02
Speaker 2: Oh, well, it'll either be Elton John, Billy Joel or
32:10
Speaker 2: just classic rock. Something with classic rock.
32:14
Speaker 1: I think there's must be something with the two of them.
32:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, we find I love the oldies and the goodies.
32:20
Speaker 2: Those are the best for me and that just makes
32:22
Speaker 2: me smile and happy.
32:24
Speaker 1: All right. Thanks Shell, Hey everyone, thanks for joining me
32:28
Speaker 1: on the Get Real podcast. You know, I hope you
32:31
Speaker 1: feel a little healthier hanging out with me. You know
32:34
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a lot of fun passing this along
32:37
Speaker 1: the others. Please subscribe below, Please share. I'm excited not
32:41
Speaker 1: just to talk about healthcare, but a lot of other
32:44
Speaker 1: fun topics. It's about making healthy talk about healthcare. It
32:49
Speaker 1: is not a lecture. This is supposed to be fun.
32:52
Speaker 1: And look forward to spending more time with you in
32:54
Speaker 1: the future.