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Mary Mitchell: Every Badge Tells a Bold Story · The Bold Lounge

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bold Lounge podcast.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: My name is Leigh Burgess and I will be your host.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: If you're anything like me, you love hearing inspiring stories of people who have gone on bold journeys and made a positive impact in the world.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: This podcast is all about those kinds of stories.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Every week, we'll hear from someone who has taken a leap or embarked on an extraordinary journey.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: In addition to hearing their stories, we'll also learn about their bold growth mindset that they use to make things happen.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Whether they face challenges or doubts along the way, they persisted and ultimately achieved their goals.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: These impactful stories will leave you feeling motivated and inspired to pursue your own bold journey.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: I believe everyone has a bold story waiting to be freed.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Tune in and get ready to be inspired.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bold Lounge.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Today I have Mary Mitchell.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: She is the CEO of Girl Scouts Arizona Cactus Pine Council.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: She helps lead the organization's work on diversity, equity, inclusion and racial justice, and holds expertise in community building, engagement, collaborative practices and team oriented design.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Mary is a 2017 Virginia G Piper Charitable Trust Fellow, a board member of International Women's Forum Arizona, a member of the Arizona Community Foundation African American Women's Giving and Empowerment Circle and a 2020 recipient of the YWCA Tribute to Leadership Award In 2024,.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: She received the Arizona Diversity Council's Women of the Year Award, and Mary has been named one of the most influential women in Arizona by Arizona Big Media In 2025,.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Just the beginning of this year, she received the Women in American History Award from the Daughters of the American Revolution.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: So lots of awards and accolades, many layers to it too, like just in the sense of all the things that you're involved in.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: So I'm excited to meet you and get to know you and welcome you to the Bold Lounge.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: Thank you, it's my pleasure to be here.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: All right, so we're going to jump in with.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: What is your definition of bold Mary?
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: What does it look like in your world?
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: I've really been thinking about this since that question came forward.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: So here's my definition Bold, to me, is doing that which is hard and having enough fortitude to follow one's own leadership wisdom and to trust oneself in making the most courageous decision in service to that which is most needed, that serves the greatest good.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Okay, I love the layers of this.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Like you, this is layered, all right, all right.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: So you said some really incredible words there.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: So, being bold isn't easy.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: Use the word hard and I think that's something that people realize when they start making their bold moves is like oh, this has I have a little fear here, or this is a little scary, or I'm not sure I like this feeling of being out of my comfort zone.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: So it's not easy.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: You have to have fortitude.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: So that fortitude that I'm going to do it anyway, I'm going to keep moving forward into this unknown space.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Potentially will it work, or will it not work, because bold isn't usually guaranteed either.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: You said trust oneself.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: So believing in yourself, realizing that you can figure it out, which is such an important one, right, and I'll end with courageous, because I could break down, like all of your words, but I think courageous and in service to others.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: So I think just the way that you even went about defining it in this multifaceted, 360 degree way probably really describes you, I'm guessing, and what we're going to learn about you and your world.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: So, when you think about you living aligned to that definition, what's a moment in your life that comes up for you when you hear that.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: Gosh, yeah.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: So this morning I was reflecting on this and I have two really quick pieces.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: One I remember being about five years old and what most people don't know about me is I used to stutter.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: I mean, I was a kid, I had the worst stutter and the only way I could get around that stutter was to it didn't show up when I would sing, but I can remember this morning I had this piece sort of come into my forefront of my mind about a really bold moment.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: Being about five years old, my uncle was a pastor in a church and we had to have those and this time of year really brings this forward Easter speeches and I was in panic about how am I going to move myself through this Easter speech in front of this.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: You know congregation and this is the pastor's niece and it's my grandmother's there, and you know everybody's there A lot of pressure A lot of pressure and really just one line, just one line Just all the things that come into your mind when you stutter.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: All of those things and figuring out how to move past that, just to be still, Just all the things that come into your mind when you stutter yeah, yeah, All of those things and figuring out how to move past that, just to be still.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: And I didn't realize that's what was happening, but my grandmother used to sing this song Peace Be Still.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: And that was in my, I think, living inside of me.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: So I just got still and I moved myself as a five-year-old little girl through that Easter speech and it happened year over year and I got braver and braver.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: And then I fast forward many years.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: And what part of this layering is I worked for?
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: I was an officer for the sheriff's department and I had gotten a call.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: Everybody for my shift had gotten a call.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: Riots had broken out.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: I was a detention officer for the county sheriff's department.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: I was in my late 20s and decided that I wanted to go to law school and I thought, well, after talking to my mentor and several other women in my life, that's a great way to go in and see I don't know what I was thinking a great way to go and see what happens.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I thought about that like for my career, like I was going to be the CEO of a hospital, so I was like I want to be a nurse, so it's kind of that, but a little bit more hardcore.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: I would say, mary, yeah, it was an interesting move and it was bold and brave.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: I'd never tried anything like that, but I wanted to learn so much and so I I went in and when those riots broke out, I'd been working there about a year.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: I generally felt fairly safe, I mean, in the sense of that kind of work, I've been trained well.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: But when the riots broke out, I remember sitting in my vehicle thinking can I get out and go into that which I could see happening on the outside?
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: I remember thinking, okay, like this is the work, and they need you and so you need to be brave.
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: And I just started to move into action.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: I remember putting on the air tank which I had been trained to do never thought I would need it standing at the slider, waiting for that security control to open the slider and to go into the midst of chaos which in itself, I can remember my heart beating, thinking, oh, I hope I come out of this.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: And then just moving into action, just getting still enough to understand that here's the next step and the next step, and it was fine.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: I, you know I moved through that, although it was scary.
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: I was certainly fearful about that which I did not know, but it was in the service of others, certainly fearful about that which I did not know, but it was in the service of others.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: In the service of others.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: It really was, and so that really has been.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: I think my story is to figure out what is in service to my own space and who.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: I am Holding ego out in the periphery while at the same time then thinking about okay, my orientation is toward how to be in service to others.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: I grew up in that fashion.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: I understood that.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: I grew up in a small community.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: Everyone was always helping everyone to do that which was needed and to live their lives in the best way possible.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: So this idea of being in service to others feels good to me.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: It feels right.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: It feels like this word or I wouldn't do that which is righteous, and so I love that.
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: On the furthest arc of justice, I want to at least be fair fair to those that exist around me, fair to my community, fair to whatever I touch.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: But on the furthest arc of the justice, I want to be just.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: I want to do that which is in service to others and then, in that way, I do that which is in service to me.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: So when you think about when you're being bold, and certainly in your late twenties, when you were just describing that scene, did people think you were crazy.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: Like did people say, why are you doing this?
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: Why don't you leave this?
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Especially afterward, like I'm sure your friends and family were a little nervous or, you know, concerned.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: Very nervous.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: So like when we're being bold, we're not always understood.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: And I feel like when you're not understood, how did you?
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: operate in that space.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there certainly was this call to action around.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: What are you thinking?
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's time for you to leave.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: You know it's.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: Have you not learned what you need to learn already?
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: But what happened for me is that I think I got bolder because of that moment.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I got bolder.
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: I thought, okay, I mean, I have that which is inside of me to do things that are hard.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: So I got bolstered in terms of understanding what fear feels like and being able to move through fear.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, in my book I write about every bold step that you take, and it doesn't need to be a big one, it doesn't need to be a bold jump, a bold step, and it can be tiny, but each one then leads to higher confidence, which leads to greater agency in your life, and so and it's a circle like, and the train has left the station.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: It is hard to bring it back, that's right, you know.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: So when you think about your work early on in your 20s, how did you come to the place where you're now leading a large group of women and men who are really supporting the mission of the Girl Scouts in Arizona and beyond?
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: So, like, walk me through from where you were there I want to be a lawyer to.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: I'm a leader, you know, among leaders in the sense of the work that I do, of the work that I do, yeah, gosh.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: So that's interesting.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: It's an interesting story.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: I ended up leaving the sheriff's department, not because of that bold step, but I think my leaving was equally as bold.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: It had to do with I started to manifest in my system like my body started to react to the stress of that job, Not about the boldness of doing hard things there, but about my ethics were starting to get challenged.
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: And so it started manifesting itself in my body through physical pain.
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: And so I had some exploratory surgery and the surgeon said to me Mary, you're fine.
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: We're not able to find anything that's wrong with you.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: We're not sure physically where this is coming from.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: However, what do you do?
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: And he said I know it's an odd conversation to be having with someone, but can you tell me what's the work that you do?
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: And I told him and why I did it.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: And he said well, I don't know what you believe, but when one is not in one's true space, your body will physically tell you and manifest itself, and you must listen to that.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: So make the best decision for yourself.
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: So I left because my body was, it was my ethics, it was running up against this idea of this thing around fairness and justice.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's usually where I get in trouble too, like within an organization, like if it's the drink, the Kool-Aid line and the ethics and moral ethical and moral line and they're rubbing together.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: I'm always going to choose ethics and morals over the Kool-Aid, and that's usually where you know I flame out.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: Yes, that's right, I can't.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: I can't do it.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: I can't do it, so it'll be all right.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: And so, having enough faith to step outside of that, and I left without a job.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: I remember telling my ex-husband that you know I'm leaving, I've decided to go.
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: I was about to become sergeant, I was starting to move through the steps of leadership, but it just I could not live with myself, so I left.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: I had four small kids and I was thinking I don't know how I'm going to do this, but I have enough faith and belief that if I let go, there's that self-belief again and just be still Right, you know and it will show up Right self-belief again and just be still right, you know, and it will show up Right.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: And so I left, I went back to school and I was sitting.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: I took a part-time job as a student at Arizona State University.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: I was sitting down at the ASU downtown center and I got a call and I listened, you know, to the person on the other end.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: The voice sounded very familiar and they said is this Mary Mitchell?
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: And I said it is.
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: And I said who is this?
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: And she said you know, mary, this is Maria and Gail.
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: And I'd worked with them at the Children's Action Alliance several years before that, before I made a decision to go to the Sheriff's Department and they found me somehow and they said we are over at Girl Scouts.
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: And I said Girl Scouts?
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: And they said yes, we're over at Girl Scouts.
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: What do you know about Girl Scouts?
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: And I said the usual line you know cookies, camping, that whole thing.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: And I said it's interesting.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: And I said, well, what is the reason for the call?
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: And they said, well, we'd like to know if you'd like to come and work with us.
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: You know, and I thought Mary Mitchell, girl Scouts, just left the Sheriff's Department, thinking about becoming an attorney.
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: But I trust these people.
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: So I mean, you know, I didn't necessarily want a full time job at that time, but I was intrigued by them being there because I knew them, and so I went and took the interview and two weeks later I was sitting at Girl Scouts Arizona Cactus Planting Council, first day being September 1st of 1998.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: So I stepped into not knowing that I would spend the next now 26 years in Girl Scouting.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you said yes.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: I said yes, yes to the unknown right, and again, it's really encapsulated in your definition.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: It's not easy.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: You're going to have some fortitude on unsure what this is all about, but I like these people, I like what they're doing and the mission.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: It seems aligned and I can learn.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: I believe in myself.
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: That's right, that's right and I can help build.
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: I thought mission was.
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: I was intrigued by that.
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: Is it something I wanted for myself and I knew it Like to help build girls of courage, confidence and character.
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: An amazing mission, right, Right.
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: And I went in not knowing what I would meet.
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: But I recall, as I talked through this, I mean Girl Scouting was in the jails.
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: I mean they were there providing program for women and their daughters and Girl Scouts would come through the sliders once a month and they'd have Girl Scout meetings with, with moms, who were some who would soon be released, some who would be sentenced and sent off to spend many years, you know, in prison, and that that was.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: It was interesting to connect the dots around that.
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: I thought I'd leave.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: I thought, okay, I'll come there, I'll work with them for a while and I'll leave.
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: And I just never left.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: You never left.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, 26 years later, here we are, and so, in the sense of being still, which I do think of the Bible verse be still and therefore know that I am.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: And so, like, I actually have a huge painting that my husband and daughter created for me that just says be still in cursive.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: And so I'm not good at being still, I'll be honest.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: But there is a lot of I'm going to use the word power because that's come to my mind right away when I said it in just not moving.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: So, like you, let the world happen and didn't try to make something happen, or, as I've maybe in my career, like chased certain things, or I want to.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: You know this role, that role, and you also had this foundation of, like I would say, a really sturdy self-belief.
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: Where did your self-belief come from?
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: Was that something that you grew up with or is that something that you really honed over?
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: You know your experiences and doing things, like we said, you know about, like you know taking the step, confidence, agency and continuing.
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: I think it was nurtured in me as a young person, but I did lose track of it at certain points in my life.
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: Then it shifted to the idea that, because it was familiar, that I would then seek it.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: And so I started to seek.
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: How do I build this idea of a knowing myself and believing in the wisdom that I carry?
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: I think we all carry wisdom and I think in my belief system, I think we come in with it.
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: So then, how does one nourish it and pull it forward when you need it?
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: And so I just started spending a lot of time trying to ask myself questions about what did I believe?
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: What are my values?
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: What do I feel when those values are tested?
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: And then, how do I build resilience around that?
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: And so it's taken a lot, and I've been through a lot of changes and shifts in my life, and so what I've done is just understood that, okay, fear, I can feel fear, I can feel anxiety, but I do have a way of knowing myself, and part of that is I too have trouble being fully still, but I've practiced what stillness feels like.
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: I've practiced meditation, I've practiced prayer and understanding resilience.
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: I've began to understand how I feel in my body, because I've been through experiences of not being well when I was off center in that, and so I've just learned and practiced and honed my belief system enough to understand what that means for me.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: So sometimes the best thing we can do is do nothing and not be.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: I don't mean nothing like be lazy or not take initiative.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: What I mean is just be still in the sense of like, okay, I've been working really hard on something, I've been trying to do something.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: The sense of like, okay, I've been working really hard on something, I've been trying to do something, and sometimes we think, oh, I need this is me, it's not working, so I need to try harder, I need to do it again.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: It's kind of like going back and back and back and at some point, like you get the message of like maybe I shouldn't, you know, maybe it takes me five times, but I think I finally, as I get older, in my early fifties, like I think I'm getting a little bit sooner, quicker on the uptake, I think in that sense.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: So, when you think about the Girl Scouts and what their mission is and you said courage, confidence and character and helping them understand how to build that, how to cultivate it, how to nurture it and how to support them, what are some of the things that you've learned about the Girl Scouts that you didn't know before but really the whole world should know?
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: Like, are there certain things that you've learned in your 26 years there, which I'm sure there are, that you know are things that we wouldn't even realize or wouldn't even realize could be done or accomplished?
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: Well, here's what I'll say.
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: First of all, girl Scouts is about teaching girls leadership, like how to be leaders of one's own life, how to be leaders in their community and how to get a sense of oneself.
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: How does one connect with oneself?
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: Go out in the world and then test those skills, test their knowledge, have different experiences and then come back in and spend a bit of time resetting around what is it that I learned?
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: And then to go back out again, kind of like a Mobius right, and that was interesting.
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: That's been interesting to watch over the 26 years.
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: The other thing in terms of Girl Scouting is that I've really watched Girl Scouting sort of do this thing about moving at the speed of girl, meaning that being in lockstep with what girls need and or what girls are asking for, and to really partner with girls in the sense of understanding.
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: In today's world and whatever time frame that is in today's world, because it's different right, right From when we were at their age.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: And yeah, not that we're super old or anything, but I mean I mentioned this in the green room that I was a Brownie and a Girl Scout, and I was a Brownie probably longer than I was a Girl Scout, because in high school and it gets in middle school, it gets crazy was I was in a lot of sports etc.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: So, but I remember my brownies as I mean, I still have memories of that, you know.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: So, in the sense of of that, I think I was in it from second through fifth grade, but it's very different than when I was in second grade, obviously.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: So I love that.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: It's like moving at the speed of girl, so meeting them where they are and what they need and listening to what their goals and challenges may be at this point.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: What does that look like in 2025?
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: Like, what's the speed of girl look like?
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: So like we understand too, obviously, one of the things that you know we talked a little bit about my history and things I'm doing now.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: Really, I want women and young girls to see the power of possibility when they believe in themselves and the framework really believe is the big B right, and then ownership, learning and designing your life the way that you can and want to.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: So tell me a little bit about what is the current state of girl when it comes to Girl Scouts.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: Well, I think girls are wanting to try new things.
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: They want access to new possibilities and want to know what's out there for them.
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: And the really interesting thing we design around what girls need, like letting girls lead us and letting them, versus us feeling like we have all of the knowledge and the skills.
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: We know a lot as an organization and we understand how to do that work and we've been doing it now for you know, since 1912 when Julia Lowe first founded Girl Scouts.
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: So we know a lot about what girls need.
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: But the world has shifted quite a bit and we understand that.
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: Yes, it's wonderful to be led and mentored by adults with lots of wisdom, but it is my belief and I think this is part of why I've been there so long and how I was nurtured as a young person is that you know, wisdom lives at both ends.
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: You know that I used to be.
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: You know the elders in my life used to say that what happens is that those that are younger come in like they come in with wisdom and we often don't listen to that, but they are closest to in my belief system, they're closest to God.
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: They've come in with lots of wisdom and we can be listening to that.
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: And then on the further end is, as we mature, we certainly gain a lot of knowledge and wisdom, and that's wonderful too.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: We're also closer to God on that.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: And we're also closer to God.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: On that, we don't want to say that part.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: We don't want to say it.
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: But it's happening.
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: We want to believe it or not.
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: So, anyway, this idea that that young people have wisdom and they know what they need, particularly as they start to get, to get older and start to move further out into life and so how do we listen in and listen well, so that we can be in partnership with them to design what they need in order to be successful in the world.
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: And so that's really, I think, how Girl Scouts is showing up in this space and, given you know, you talked about like you started your work in 2020, like you started to design and around.
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: So think about the 2020, what was happening?
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: We're coming through COVID and what we found is that what girls needed more than ever is a place of belonging, and Girl Scouts is entrenched in this idea of creating spaces for girls to belong, to create community right, and that thread has moved itself through since 1912 and into today, 2025, as we sit here today.
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: They need spaces to be able to be in community with each other, to see themselves reflected back in that space and to test and try new ideas, new experiences, and to do that in a way that feels safe, so that, even if they don't achieve all that they think that they could, it's okay and that sense of community and belonging gives them enough strength to say, okay, it may not have gone the way I thought it was this time or I might've in their words, maybe failed.
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: I hear that sometimes Girl Scouts is a safety net to be able to say it's okay and you can go back in again and try it again, and the success is in trying something new or moving through something that you care about, designing something for community and service that you really care about, and leaving that behind as a part of achieving your gold award, which is the highest award in Girl Scouting.
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: What is the impact from those you know 13 years in Girl Scouting for some girls who arrive at that point?
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: What is it I'm leaving behind as my own personal legacy as a young person that is impactful to my community?
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that Cause.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: I think you just described the Bold Leaders Collective membership that I have for women who are, you know, ages 35 to 55.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: We want a sense of belonging, we want a space where we can try things and fail and succeed.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: Life is messy, so like we want to be seen as 360 degree individuals, not just by my title or my experience or where I went to school, or if I'm a mom or not a mom, et cetera.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: So sense of belonging is, like you said, something that I think we we have our entire life that we seek that and we seek a space for that.
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: So I think, as you were saying, I was like, well, that's really what we want, even as older women, you know.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: So I think, in the sense of what you're doing is really laying the foundation for that in the Girl Scouts, and I think sometimes we don't listen to the wisdom of younger individuals.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: Respect I have now is, you know, 100x of like things that she knows I don't, things that she can do that I can't, which, again, like, as a mom I'm biased.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: I was already, you know, she's number one, but I think, in that sense of just seeing that and also seeing her come into her own value and be able to stand in it with her mom slash?
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: Co-founder.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: You know so.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: Like that is also, I think, something that girl scouts does.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: Isfounder.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: You know so.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: Like that is also, I think, something that Girl Scouts does.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: Is it felt, you know, as a Brownie, like it just felt like even empowering and kind of moving through that and like I can do this and I never even thought about doing that.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: Or collaboration, because life is a group project and the sooner we figured that out, the better we're going to be.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: You know, and I know, sometimes we hated those group projects in high school because there's always someone that wasn't pulling their weight.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: But I think that's the world too.
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: Indeed, it is Indeed, it is, yeah, exactly.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: So what are some of the things that we have to look forward to, or some of the things you're doing, maybe specifically in Arizona, or anything that you can share, like to highlight, so that we can understand how we can support and and be behind or understand what's next?
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: Well, we are currently focused on thinking about how do we have girls really understand sort of what's on the forefront for their careers Anything from technology to careers that they may not have thought about and being in partnership with organizations that where women are less seen and or women are leading the forefront.
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: So we're seeking partnerships in that way.
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: So technology, financial fields, the arts, sports, you name it we are listening in to girls, what they're asking for and trying to figure that out.
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: We're also creating spaces for women who may or may have not been Girl Scouts to come together and really help to not only understand and see each other, but help to fund those kinds of experiences and activities for girls.
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: And so I'd say what we're hoping most for is that we will find partners who also understand the power of girls and women in the world and want to partner with us in creating either experiences we already have that we've designed based on listening to girls and based on partnerships that are opening up those experiences where girls have never touched the space that they think might be possible for them, and no matter what area, it may be that people come with those kinds of ideas so we can listen in.
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: We just want to create the space for girls to get what they deserve and what they need, and so the way to help and support us is to be in conversation and dialogue with us, reach out and explore what it really does mean in terms of our mission and help us to support and fund those activities so that Girl Scouting remains in perpetuity for the next hundred years, for girls to be able to build their own resilience, their own courage and their competence and skillsets, and so that's what we're looking for, and we're wanting to be in connection with community so that we expand what we're already offering.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: And there's Girl Scouts in every state.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: Is that accurate?
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: Well, at this point, 110 councils across the United States.
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: Girl Scouting is powerful.
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: It offers everything a girl could imagine that she could do.
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: She can earn a badge or a patch that walks them through the steps to learning that particular skill set all the way from.
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: It could be, I don't know as a brownie, what did you try?
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: Maybe you went out and you tried to spend some time in the out of doors learning about like behind me, about nature you might learn a badge about, not just about nature, but maybe there are bugs in nature that are beneficial, and maybe at one point it might pique your curiosity around.
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: Being a scientist, you know, you might move through those kinds of experiences, and so we really do want to offer an opportunity for girls to at any stage begin to have a felt sense of self and what they might care about or what they have a curiosity or a passion for, and it really is a place of exploration.
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: So across the country we are all doing pretty amazing things, trying to make sure that girls who eventually turn into women like us have had a chance to explore and to be bold and to live in their full self, and I think that's the power of Girl Scouting.
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: I hear the story all the time.
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: Millions of women have moved through Girl Scouting, if we think about it Women who are living in Congress, to governors, to leading corporations you name it astronauts.
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: They have touched the space of Girl Scouting and it has made them better for it, for having had that experience.
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's probably kind of one of those things like when you are like at a dinner or something or kind of like oh, I definitely was a Brownie or I was a Girl Scout for two years or whatever it was like there's a, there's a commonality and a connection to in that it's probably like the original sorority in a way.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: Like for me, like that's, I wasn't in a sorority in college but that's probably brownies and Girl Scouts was my sorority in that sense, and it is a way where you can be.
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: I love how you described it earlier like a safe space to try things and fail and be supported and be guided to.
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: At the same time, it isn't like oh, just cheering, but it's also challenging you to do something new outside your comfort zone which is bold all around in that way.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: So, as we're thinking, obviously there's lots of things I have lots of ideas of like connections and ways that certainly the listeners of my community could support.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: But reach out.
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: It sounds like reach out to your local council, connect and let them know you're around, let them know what you do and let them know how you could potentially help, whether it's in service or in supporting it from you know a financial place or otherwise, like there's so many ways that we can give back and it's not always a dollar bill.
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: And if you were a Girl Scout, just tell the story.
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: Tell the story of the impact to others who may not have had that experience.
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: I was not a young girl as a Girl Scout, but I certainly have been a Girl Scout in my adult life.
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: So if you've touched girl scouting in any way, whether it's a volunteer or had a girl experience, tell the story of the power of that experience so that other girls who don't know about girl scouting can understand what the opportunities are that exist for them.
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: Even that is an incredible thing to do on behalf of girls is just to tell your own personal story.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because it's so important.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: Like, everyone has a story that should be shared.
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: Because I think when we, when we share our story which I know isn't easy, it's very vulnerable, it can be, but you choose, you know how, how you go about that, but I think sharing your story helps people be seen and helps them go oh, I'm like her.
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: Or it helps them go I'm not alone.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: Or wow, I can do that too.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: Like those are the three things that I think that I've learned about, even just sharing my story and you sharing your story here with us today.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: So there's so much power in that, and so reach out to your local council and please do connect.
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much, mary, for being on the Bold Lounge and sharing your story, and I look forward to seeing all the incredible work that you're doing and the impact that it has.
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: Thank you for having me this morning.
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: It's been quite the pleasure and to learn more about bold and I'm hoping to engage in bold myself.
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: I've been watching the pretty wonderful work that you're doing and thank you for doing that on behalf of women.
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: We need it and so thank you.
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm so excited and she said yes.
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: Like I reached out to Mary and she didn't know who the heck I was, I was like you've got a story, I know I would love to share it.
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: So thank you so much again.
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: It's been my pleasure.
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to the Bold Lounge podcast.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: Through the continuum of bold stories vulnerability to taking a leap you will meet more extraordinary people making a positive impact for others through their unique and important story.
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: By highlighting these stories, we hope to inspire others and share the journey of those with a bold mindset.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: We hope you've enjoyed this podcast and look forward to sharing the next bold journey with you.