Latest / ChangeMakers with Katie Goar / Episode 122: Ashley Northcutt, President & CEO, Women’s Affordable Housing Network

Transcript

Episode 122: Ashley Northcutt, President & CEO, Women’s Affordable Housing Network · ChangeMakers with Katie Goar

0:05
Speaker 1: This is change Makers with Katie Gore finding the right
0:09
Speaker 1: solutions for the affordable housing community.
0:13
Speaker 2: Today's change maker is Ashley Northcut, the President and CEO
0:17
Speaker 2: of the National Women's Affordable Housing Network, where she leads
0:21
Speaker 2: efforts to support and elevate women in the affordable housing
0:24
Speaker 2: industry through education, advocacy, and professional development. A former tax
0:31
Speaker 2: partner with over fifteen years of experience in real estate
0:35
Speaker 2: and housing finance, Ashley made the leap from public accounting
0:39
Speaker 2: to focus on driving meaningful change in the affordable housing industry. Ashley,
0:45
Speaker 2: Welcome to the show.
0:47
Speaker 3: Thanks Katie, thank you so much for having us in one.
0:50
Speaker 3: We're excited to spend some more time with you.
0:52
Speaker 2: It is a pleasure to have you here. And the
0:55
Speaker 2: timing of this is absolutely perfect. And I want to
0:58
Speaker 2: get to this initiative that you're doing. It is really
1:01
Speaker 2: picking up steam. But I don't want to lead with
1:05
Speaker 2: the absolute most exciting thing that I think that you're doing.
1:10
Speaker 2: But there's so many other things, so I want to
1:13
Speaker 2: try to figure out how to transition into this. First,
1:17
Speaker 2: for people who don't know about the Women's Affordable Housing Network,
1:22
Speaker 2: let's start real basic, and why don't you just describe that.
1:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would say the Women's Affordable Housing Network is
1:31
Speaker 3: it's hard to explain because it's one of a kind,
1:35
Speaker 3: but I do think it's a place where people feel comfortable.
1:40
Speaker 3: I think it's a place where people are surrounded by realness,
1:45
Speaker 3: where you can show up and be yourself and you're
1:47
Speaker 3: celebrated because we all have the common mission of helping
1:51
Speaker 3: solve the affordable housing crisis. So when you have that
1:54
Speaker 3: key line that attaches you, you're able to show up
1:59
Speaker 3: focused on that, and you know, sometimes some of those
2:02
Speaker 3: facades you wear fade away because you have that focus.
2:06
Speaker 3: I think it's a very problem solving driven environment, so
2:09
Speaker 3: we bring a lot of thought to the table about
2:12
Speaker 3: challenges and what's happening, and then that is followed by
2:15
Speaker 3: a lot of problem solving by bringing people from all
2:18
Speaker 3: across the industry together.
2:20
Speaker 2: I sometimes describe it to people as being a master's
2:24
Speaker 2: class and affordable housing because we have such a wide
2:28
Speaker 2: variety of people in this industry and they're at different
2:33
Speaker 2: points in their continuum. But what your organization is doing
2:37
Speaker 2: is you're hosting the master's class.
2:39
Speaker 3: Yes right.
2:40
Speaker 2: You're letting people come in dial in where they are
2:44
Speaker 2: to learn what they need.
2:46
Speaker 3: I like the summary of it. It is a master's class.
2:48
Speaker 3: It's bringing people across the industry and whatever continuum. There
2:52
Speaker 3: are so opening college campus chapters to invite people in earlier,
2:56
Speaker 3: not having membership dues, so that everyone's invited to networking.
3:00
Speaker 3: You know, because Quadell graciously sponsors five sponsors, five scholarships
3:06
Speaker 3: at WANs summit, that allows five people that otherwise might
3:10
Speaker 3: not be able to go go And we all know
3:13
Speaker 3: WAN is creating that room that some of us were
3:15
Speaker 3: left out before. So whether that was a golf course
3:18
Speaker 3: or a meeting that you weren't in, and you pick
3:20
Speaker 3: up little things about the industry or deals or people's names, right,
3:25
Speaker 3: and so bringing all of that together across any age.
3:28
Speaker 3: We even Katie have they call themselves Vintage, but we
3:31
Speaker 3: have our Vintage members coming out of retirement to be
3:34
Speaker 3: part of WAN, which is I mean, it's just amazing
3:36
Speaker 3: to connect women all across anyone that's ever touched the
3:39
Speaker 3: industry together.
3:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I think of when I first started
3:43
Speaker 2: in the industry, did a lot of things wrong, learned
3:46
Speaker 2: a lot of things the wrong way, which there is
3:50
Speaker 2: value to learn lessons the hard way. But we could
3:55
Speaker 2: go much farther faster if we had that right on boarding,
4:00
Speaker 2: if we didn't have to learn everything the hard way.
4:03
Speaker 2: So I like what you guys are doing. I like
4:07
Speaker 2: the platform because you're allowing us to get to the
4:10
Speaker 2: mission faster to help affordable house aid go farther. Tell
4:15
Speaker 2: me more about this college campus because we've seen a
4:18
Speaker 2: lot of statistics about people coming into the industry and
4:23
Speaker 2: how hard it is to get people in the door
4:27
Speaker 2: in this career.
4:28
Speaker 3: So describe what you're doing on campuses. Sure, So we're
4:32
Speaker 3: opening the college campuses in National is hosting virtual programming,
4:35
Speaker 3: so we have a syllabus everything from hey, listen to
4:39
Speaker 3: Katie Gore's podcast about this because this is a great
4:42
Speaker 3: thing for you to hear about, to teaching professional development,
4:46
Speaker 3: technical training, and encouraging networking. So they're doing in person
4:50
Speaker 3: events at campus. A lot of those entail inviting our
4:54
Speaker 3: local chapter with local professionals in and hosting a panel
4:57
Speaker 3: about what do you do in affordable housing? Right? Most
5:00
Speaker 3: of there's a job for everyone in affordable housing, right,
5:02
Speaker 3: Katie like, oh yeah, anyone considering any career, we have
5:06
Speaker 3: it for you in affordable housing. And you can marry
5:08
Speaker 3: your mission to your work, So we kind of explained
5:12
Speaker 3: what does this look like, start making introductions. We get
5:15
Speaker 3: introduced to a lot of college students that are like,
5:17
Speaker 3: I just got my master's in public policy and I'm
5:20
Speaker 3: looking for a job and I don't know where to
5:21
Speaker 3: start things like that. So then working the power of
5:24
Speaker 3: the network, like here's a rock star in your area
5:27
Speaker 3: who has a job, and it works out nine times
5:30
Speaker 3: out of ten MM.
5:32
Speaker 2: I used to teach at a university and I loved
5:35
Speaker 2: hearing what people wanted to do with their degree. But
5:39
Speaker 2: the labor market has changed. I mean what you have
5:43
Speaker 2: the degree for. There's sometimes the ramp, there's like a disconnect,
5:47
Speaker 2: and do you find in our TikTok generation it is
5:53
Speaker 2: harder to access that talent or what are you seeing
5:58
Speaker 2: on the campuses now?
6:00
Speaker 3: Yeah? I do think whether it's because they're virtual a
6:05
Speaker 3: lot of times now, so there's not the same connection.
6:07
Speaker 3: I don't know when you went through school, but at
6:10
Speaker 3: my college, we had a recruiting platform that came to
6:14
Speaker 3: our college and that's how and that was in accounting, right,
6:17
Speaker 3: So we're trying to kind of develop that in the
6:19
Speaker 3: affordable housing industry because I do think there's a disconnect.
6:22
Speaker 3: Everyone's getting great degrees, but people aren't out on campuses
6:25
Speaker 3: as much, and when they are, maybe the student's not
6:27
Speaker 3: on campus because there's so much virtual learning now. It's
6:31
Speaker 3: kind of like we've heard even in the workplace. You know,
6:33
Speaker 3: when we first started, you had an HR stopping by
6:35
Speaker 3: your desk, you had leaders in your office stopping by,
6:38
Speaker 3: just casual conversation, but you were picking up and that's
6:41
Speaker 3: missing when we have more virtual work from home. So
6:45
Speaker 3: I do think you're right. I think connecting the dots.
6:48
Speaker 3: We're actually building out a platform right now to help
6:50
Speaker 3: a lot with job placement and matchmaking, because that's one
6:53
Speaker 3: thing we do a really good job at. We have
6:57
Speaker 3: ears on the ground everywhere. We know who's hiring, we
7:00
Speaker 3: know who's looking for a job, and so starting to
7:02
Speaker 3: build that out because it goes back to similar for colleges.
7:06
Speaker 3: How do you connect the dots? The pools there and
7:08
Speaker 3: the jobs are there, but how do we introduce them? Mm?
7:12
Speaker 2: So, how did you first get started with your career
7:16
Speaker 2: in affordable housing or what was your journey like when
7:19
Speaker 2: you were coming in?
7:20
Speaker 3: Thank goodness, I came to affordable housing, so I had
7:23
Speaker 3: I didn't even know what affordable housing was I was
7:25
Speaker 3: an accountant, right so, I was at pricewaterhouse Coopers. But
7:29
Speaker 3: here's a big plug for keeping in touch with everyone.
7:31
Speaker 3: Anyone that's ever met me or Katie, you're very similar.
7:34
Speaker 3: I know how to talk right to people. I make connections.
7:37
Speaker 3: I keep up with those people. I'm the one that
7:39
Speaker 3: will send a random text like I just saw this
7:41
Speaker 3: and thought of you. I haven't talked to you in
7:43
Speaker 3: five years. Like that does not stop me. So kept
7:46
Speaker 3: in touch with the recruiters. And Debbie Dancy with con
7:49
Speaker 3: Residic at the time in Charlotte, reached out and said,
7:51
Speaker 3: are you overworked and underpaid? I tell her what wows
7:55
Speaker 3: always yes? So, and I was looking for a change.
7:59
Speaker 3: I didn't even know if I wanted to do accounting.
8:01
Speaker 3: Went into Conesnik and the industry changed my life. I
8:06
Speaker 3: still to this day don't know how I stayed in
8:08
Speaker 3: public accounting for eighteen years, but knowing the work I
8:11
Speaker 3: was doing, the projects I was learning about, and honestly, Katie,
8:14
Speaker 3: the people like my clients that I met, the people
8:16
Speaker 3: I got to work with, they are driven to solve
8:19
Speaker 3: this crisis right, and so I couldn't imagine my life
8:24
Speaker 3: anywhere else after that, except I am very happy it
8:26
Speaker 3: no longer includes daily accounting.
8:29
Speaker 2: You know, some people talk about stumbling into this industry.
8:33
Speaker 2: A lot of people just you know, I know several
8:37
Speaker 2: people who were just like I just needed a job,
8:40
Speaker 2: and they just were like, I'll take anything.
8:42
Speaker 3: I was one of them.
8:43
Speaker 2: I was like graduating with my masters, and I said,
8:46
Speaker 2: I have no idea what I'm doing.
8:48
Speaker 3: I just need.
8:49
Speaker 2: A job, and yeah, and I would like, just get
8:52
Speaker 2: me in, you know, And had I looked at the
8:55
Speaker 2: job description, I would have been like, yeah, I don't
8:57
Speaker 2: know any of this exactly. But today the market's just
9:02
Speaker 2: a little different and labor is different, and people graduating
9:06
Speaker 2: it's a little different. And what we offer is that
9:10
Speaker 2: mission attachment, which is so beautiful because it's beyond just
9:15
Speaker 2: interpreting a spreadsheet. It's beyond just marketing a product, like
9:20
Speaker 2: there is true mission value. And I think a lot
9:24
Speaker 2: of people graduating they say that, they say they want
9:28
Speaker 2: to belong to something, do something, So you know, you've
9:32
Speaker 2: got this great, great way to connect people with something
9:36
Speaker 2: bigger than themselves. Do you hear that resonating with people
9:40
Speaker 2: as they're looking like, what are they saying?
9:43
Speaker 3: Absolutely? Also, affordable housing is one of those industries. First
9:46
Speaker 3: of all, every day you're going to learn something, right, like,
9:48
Speaker 3: none of us know it all. I still hear about someone,
9:51
Speaker 3: I'm like, what, I've never done that. Honestly, I've never
9:53
Speaker 3: been to a ribbon cutting because I did accounting, so
9:55
Speaker 3: I know it's a it's all my goals this year.
9:58
Speaker 3: But oh, I'm writing this down. I'm we got down
10:00
Speaker 3: and yes, because you know, depending on what job you're doing,
10:07
Speaker 3: you're you're doing other things. I've done property tours, I've
10:10
Speaker 3: gone out to many client offices and I sat at
10:12
Speaker 3: my desk and did my work great and saw many planes.
10:16
Speaker 3: But I think marrying mission to work is key. I
10:19
Speaker 3: think knowing it's a challenge. People coming out of school
10:22
Speaker 3: are easily what is the word? The attention span is
10:26
Speaker 3: very different. They want to jump, they want to learn
10:29
Speaker 3: something new, they want to be busy, they want to
10:31
Speaker 3: find value. Right. Also, I think something really cool in
10:34
Speaker 3: affordable housing is no one looks down on I did this.
10:39
Speaker 3: I want to try this. I want to learn about that.
10:41
Speaker 3: So I want to do asset management. I want to
10:43
Speaker 3: roll over to property management. I want to do some analysis.
10:47
Speaker 3: Then I want to I'm gonna go work for a syndicator, right, So,
10:50
Speaker 3: and then you have the full picture of affordable housing
10:53
Speaker 3: and no one looks down on that, like that's an
10:54
Speaker 3: okay thing to say. We're changing jobs and affordable housing. Yeah.
10:58
Speaker 2: So we've talked a lot about people coming in, but
11:02
Speaker 2: a lot also of your strength is the membership who
11:05
Speaker 2: you have in your roster, and it's from everything finance
11:11
Speaker 2: development operations speak to your membership and the value of
11:16
Speaker 2: being connected, even as thirty years in the industry.
11:21
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, So five minutes before we started filming today,
11:25
Speaker 3: I was on a panel. I was not part of it.
11:28
Speaker 3: I was watching one of on Aprio was doing a
11:31
Speaker 3: making sense of the financial statements. I have so many
11:34
Speaker 3: texts that are like I never learned this before. So
11:38
Speaker 3: what really just rang true to me was as an accountant,
11:42
Speaker 3: you go through certain types of training. As a different developer,
11:45
Speaker 3: you're learning certain things, right, you're learning all the modeling
11:47
Speaker 3: and everything. If we're not talking to each other and
11:50
Speaker 3: sharing that knowledge, the same problems that have existed for
11:53
Speaker 3: the last thirty years are going to continue, or they're
11:55
Speaker 3: going to be longer than they need to. So one
11:57
Speaker 3: of the coolest things at wan is we're autonomous. We
12:01
Speaker 3: have everyone from high level government professionals to brand new
12:06
Speaker 3: nonprofit starting their company, to the largest developers in affordable housing,
12:10
Speaker 3: to banks. And that's just an example, right, there's so
12:14
Speaker 3: many everybody that touches affordable housing. And the goal is
12:17
Speaker 3: the more conversation we have. And I will tell you
12:20
Speaker 3: women have a power of communicating. We have a power
12:23
Speaker 3: of collaboration. When we get together and start talking, things
12:27
Speaker 3: start happening. And so that's been one of the most
12:30
Speaker 3: fun things. But having everyone in the room at the
12:33
Speaker 3: same time from we have a panel at summit and
12:36
Speaker 3: it's going to be phenomenal to watch. But the property managers,
12:40
Speaker 3: for instance, are saying, bring us in when you start
12:42
Speaker 3: planning the deal. Why we can stop a lot of
12:44
Speaker 3: things that are having so even closings that close.
12:47
Speaker 2: Wow, let's talk about summit because we mentioned it briefly
12:54
Speaker 2: in the beginning, but this is a signature moment. But
12:57
Speaker 2: you know, obviously it's more than just that week. But
13:01
Speaker 2: I do want to give you a chance to describe
13:04
Speaker 2: it because it's coming up here and I want to
13:06
Speaker 2: make sure that we are maximizing what's happening.
13:09
Speaker 3: So tell us more about the summit. All right, Katie, Well,
13:12
Speaker 3: thank you for this opportunity, and I have to thank
13:14
Speaker 3: Quadell again. You all are coming out to teach a training,
13:17
Speaker 3: you provided five scholarships. You're hosting the people that won
13:21
Speaker 3: the scholarships for dinner. That is a key piece though,
13:24
Speaker 3: because a lot of people that are coming maybe their
13:26
Speaker 3: first conference. It may be the first time they're speaking
13:30
Speaker 3: or being a moderator. Because one thing we do is
13:32
Speaker 3: we shine the spotlight on women. So we don't care
13:35
Speaker 3: what your title is, if you're a hard work or
13:36
Speaker 3: trying to change, if you're doing great things, we're putting
13:39
Speaker 3: the spotlight on you, and so we're here to support
13:41
Speaker 3: you in success for that. So how summit starts. The
13:44
Speaker 3: first one ever was last year and we sold out
13:46
Speaker 3: at three hundred and fifty people. So the need is there.
13:48
Speaker 3: We have the people that want to come and continue
13:51
Speaker 3: to do this every year, which is exciting. One of
13:53
Speaker 3: the best parts is when we reach out for speakers,
13:56
Speaker 3: nine times out of ten, right off the bat it's yes,
13:58
Speaker 3: I will absolutely be there. I'm changing my schedule for
14:00
Speaker 3: this right or I cannot do it this year. Can
14:02
Speaker 3: I come next year? Please? And so it's just very
14:05
Speaker 3: exciting to feel that energy. So we start off Sunday.
14:09
Speaker 3: We did a lot of polls. We always get a
14:11
Speaker 3: lot of input from the whole industry. A lot of
14:15
Speaker 3: women want to wake up on Monday with nothing to do, right,
14:17
Speaker 3: They want to wake up in a hotel room alone,
14:19
Speaker 3: with nothing to do and sleep till they eight o'clock.
14:21
Speaker 2: Right.
14:22
Speaker 3: So we start on Sunday and that's an optional day.
14:24
Speaker 3: It's a separate ticket sales to make it accessible to
14:26
Speaker 3: as many people as possible. It's wellness, community service, and networking.
14:32
Speaker 3: We end that night we have small group dinner so
14:35
Speaker 3: anyone that wants company for dinner doesn't feel like they're
14:37
Speaker 3: left out. And then we round out the night. This
14:39
Speaker 3: time it's with drink and dessert pairing, so that'll be fun.
14:43
Speaker 3: And then we wake up Monday and there's options to do. Now.
14:46
Speaker 3: The reason we did this. We start half day Monday,
14:49
Speaker 3: so anyone that doesn't want to leave on the weekend
14:50
Speaker 3: can fly in that morning and you don't have to pay.
14:52
Speaker 3: You have to be there Sunday, right, So we have
14:55
Speaker 3: three types of training that morning. We have hotma, we
14:59
Speaker 3: have housing choice voucher, and we have Novogradics one oh
15:03
Speaker 3: one level. If somebody doesn't need or feel like they
15:07
Speaker 3: want training. At this point, we have the option to
15:09
Speaker 3: go to Red Rocks and we're doing yoga out there
15:11
Speaker 3: and touring that beautiful property if you haven't been. That's
15:15
Speaker 3: close to selling out. And then we're also doing a
15:17
Speaker 3: property tour at the same time that's also sold out
15:19
Speaker 3: because we were only able to bring so many people
15:21
Speaker 3: but the Rose Mercy Housing Project. So all that's happening
15:24
Speaker 3: Monday morning, tons of networking. Then we kick off at
15:27
Speaker 3: eleven thirty. We have a huge announcement to make that
15:30
Speaker 3: we can't wait. We're sharing our first ever annual report,
15:34
Speaker 3: which is counting out on the thirty six chapters across
15:38
Speaker 3: the country and what they're doing, and it brings me
15:40
Speaker 3: chills even to say it, because I've seen it and
15:42
Speaker 3: it's amazing. And then it's like a regular conference, except not.
15:46
Speaker 3: Everyone keeps telling me we've never seen the breadth of
15:49
Speaker 3: detail that you guys are covering, and that's because we
15:51
Speaker 3: get a lot of feedback from members, from leaders in
15:54
Speaker 3: the industry to figure out what are the hot topics
15:56
Speaker 3: that are not being taught every single place, or what
15:59
Speaker 3: twist can we bring And we've asked most of our
16:02
Speaker 3: panelists first to talk about how is the current administration
16:06
Speaker 3: impacting your role and also leaving everyone with a takeaway
16:12
Speaker 3: what's something we can do? And then we will round
16:15
Speaker 3: that out with a brunch celebration of awards. We have
16:18
Speaker 3: a new award this year honoring Lori Little for a
16:20
Speaker 3: lifetime achievement a gust and we will name our wonderful
16:24
Speaker 3: woman an Ally of the year. Excellent.
16:27
Speaker 2: And this is such a moment for solution making, networking,
16:31
Speaker 2: all of this, but you do it more than just
16:34
Speaker 2: at this summit. You're doing it all year long. So
16:38
Speaker 2: you have a great platform to convey message on LinkedIn.
16:42
Speaker 2: You're doing so much more engagement. I really am impressed
16:46
Speaker 2: with how you're getting stakeholders and policy makers together. What
16:53
Speaker 2: are the realities? Like you said that there's going to
16:55
Speaker 2: be a form by which people can talk about, you know,
16:58
Speaker 2: what is the current trend, what's the needed how is
17:02
Speaker 2: the impact happening. Can you give us a glimpse on
17:05
Speaker 2: how you're engaging stakeholders and policy makers and what that's
17:09
Speaker 2: looking like.
17:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we have a lot of open communications. We
17:17
Speaker 3: like I said, I'll continue to say. We do a
17:19
Speaker 3: lot of polls and got a lot of feedback from
17:20
Speaker 3: our sponsors the needs that they have. We work closely
17:24
Speaker 3: with industry leaders in DC who you all know well,
17:27
Speaker 3: Emily Cottic, Jennifer Schwartz, Sarah Brundage, so we're kind of
17:31
Speaker 3: keeping a polse. We also work really closely with nonprofit
17:35
Speaker 3: leaders around the country. So we hosted our first ever retreat,
17:38
Speaker 3: and the idea there is how do we bring all
17:41
Speaker 3: these great ideas and initiatives to life without duplicating right, right,
17:45
Speaker 3: without creating different branches of the same thing, because that
17:49
Speaker 3: dilutes the message and we're all getting across the same message, right,
17:53
Speaker 3: But when you do it as one voice, it's more
17:56
Speaker 3: powerful than hearing little bits of it everywhere. So working
17:59
Speaker 3: together with other nonprofit leaders, like I said, national leaders
18:03
Speaker 3: across the country, and then we're actually working on sharing
18:06
Speaker 3: administrative costs right now, which is huge because if we
18:10
Speaker 3: could all cut down on that and support each other's initiatives,
18:13
Speaker 3: we can get their needs out. And then there's plenty
18:16
Speaker 3: of needs, right, so no one's gonna run out of
18:18
Speaker 3: anything they need to do for their mission.
18:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you had a magic wand what would no
18:24
Speaker 2: pun intended there? But if you had a magic wand
18:30
Speaker 2: is there a specific initiative or policy that you would
18:34
Speaker 2: like to see put forward change?
18:38
Speaker 3: What do you think? Always I go to changing the story?
18:46
Speaker 3: So who lives in affordable housing? Why do we need
18:49
Speaker 3: affordable housing? That is my magic Wand if you could
18:52
Speaker 3: just tell the stories of the families, and if we
18:56
Speaker 3: could almost I say this a lot. I feel like
18:58
Speaker 3: maybe we should all have to go on a mission
18:59
Speaker 3: tree when we're younger to understand how lucky we are
19:02
Speaker 3: in the United States of America. But the same even
19:04
Speaker 3: in the United States of America, have you ever been
19:08
Speaker 3: homeless or lived in affordable housewords or not known if
19:11
Speaker 3: you weren't going to have a house, And until you
19:13
Speaker 3: walk those shoes, you might not be able to identify right.
19:17
Speaker 3: And so I think changing that sort of hearing the
19:19
Speaker 3: stories of the people and how a home changes a life,
19:22
Speaker 3: It changes multiple lives for generations.
19:27
Speaker 2: Sunny Shaw she talks about when she was growing up
19:31
Speaker 2: what it was like to see the notice that the
19:36
Speaker 2: utilities were getting cut off. And she's a former podcast
19:40
Speaker 2: guest of mine, and people don't realize what happens because
19:46
Speaker 2: then it starts the trickle of housing insecurity and where
19:51
Speaker 2: that surfaces in your daily life as a child, and
19:55
Speaker 2: then what you're doing as an adult, and that lack
20:00
Speaker 2: of security, that lack of safety has a lot of ramifications.
20:06
Speaker 2: You're hitting on something that we need to remember. Who
20:12
Speaker 2: not just why do you need it?
20:15
Speaker 3: Okay? So who?
20:17
Speaker 2: And then when stability comes into the.
20:20
Speaker 3: Life, now what now? What are you?
20:23
Speaker 2: Are you able to do and achieve and go to
20:27
Speaker 2: the same school and you know there are so many
20:32
Speaker 2: other things that can now Okay, I have an address,
20:36
Speaker 2: I can get my prescriptions. Like there's just like when
20:40
Speaker 2: you can stabilize that moment in a person's life. That
20:46
Speaker 2: launch pad looks different. And I think that we you know,
20:50
Speaker 2: we talk about like criteria, and we talk about all
20:54
Speaker 2: of these other things which are important, okay, but if
20:57
Speaker 2: you don't have that launch pad and you don't have
20:59
Speaker 2: that foundation, how can you get to these other things?
21:03
Speaker 2: And I want to hear more about what you what
21:08
Speaker 2: you think that understanding who needs it? Not why they
21:14
Speaker 2: need it, okay, but who needs it and what they're
21:16
Speaker 2: able to accomplish. How does one then translate that into
21:22
Speaker 2: what you're doing?
21:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, So Katie, you brought up a story in my
21:26
Speaker 3: memory that I have to share. So there's two. So
21:28
Speaker 3: I've heard some of your story. I have yet to
21:30
Speaker 3: listen to your podcasts. I'm like, I have to go
21:32
Speaker 3: listen to your TED talks, is what it is. So
21:34
Speaker 3: I'm going to do that. It's just been busy this year.
21:36
Speaker 3: Right now, Okay, I you're you're speaking to it.
21:40
Speaker 2: It's like, you know what the TED talk was about?
21:42
Speaker 3: Because do you know what it means? Yes, I just
21:45
Speaker 3: haven't gotten the chance to listen to the full thing.
21:47
Speaker 2: Oh it had sit and grab some popcorns.
21:49
Speaker 3: So it's going to be interesting. Yes, And my life
21:53
Speaker 3: was very different from that. I have a very stable
21:56
Speaker 3: upbringing with a very secure family, things like that. So
22:00
Speaker 3: when my eyes were open, I'll tell too brief. I
22:03
Speaker 3: was at Praise Waterhouse Coopers and they hosted a poverty simulation.
22:07
Speaker 3: I would do anything to have that all the time
22:11
Speaker 3: for everyone to experience, because I just remember giving these
22:15
Speaker 3: cards and my husband went to jail like we had money,
22:17
Speaker 3: and then our money went away, and then I got
22:19
Speaker 3: a card that my husband it was a jail. So
22:20
Speaker 3: then we lost all his work, his money, and I
22:23
Speaker 3: had children on these cards. This was not in real
22:25
Speaker 3: life yet, and every every day was like something brand new.
22:29
Speaker 3: And one thing that really struck me was the day
22:33
Speaker 3: I got my paycheck. Then I had to pay to
22:36
Speaker 3: get on a bus with my kids to go cash
22:39
Speaker 3: my paycheck. Ashley North cuts paycheck at Praise Waterhouse Coopers
22:44
Speaker 3: and Cone Resident directly deposited into my account. Think about
22:48
Speaker 3: the chaos, Think about the added last minute expense, Think
22:52
Speaker 3: about the lack of time like talk, not having time
22:55
Speaker 3: to even breathe when you're running, running, running, running, right.
22:59
Speaker 3: The other thing was I did a lot with junior
23:00
Speaker 3: Achievement in Charlotte, and I went into the class one
23:04
Speaker 3: day and I asked everyone, what are you guys dressing
23:05
Speaker 3: up for for Halloween? And this little boy broke down
23:08
Speaker 3: in tears and he said, I can't go trick or
23:12
Speaker 3: treat it. I'm not allowed to. And also we can't
23:14
Speaker 3: afford costumes. Thankfully, my Price Waterhouse Cooper's team at the time,
23:18
Speaker 3: we bought costumes for the entire class. But that was
23:20
Speaker 3: an AHA moment of how different that is. So when
23:24
Speaker 3: you ask what is wan doing to bring the stability?
23:26
Speaker 3: What are we doing bringing awareness to this, bringing the
23:30
Speaker 3: change makers speaking to your podcast together so that we
23:34
Speaker 3: can start to tell this story a different way. We
23:36
Speaker 3: can more and more people are aware of who is
23:39
Speaker 3: living in this And then when it is stable housing,
23:41
Speaker 3: how does that change when you then have fresh food
23:44
Speaker 3: and access to a refrigerator where it can be in
23:46
Speaker 3: a hot shower. And think about the difference of someone
23:50
Speaker 3: like me who grew up I never had to worry
23:52
Speaker 3: about like basic necessities, right, and life is already sometimes challenging.
23:57
Speaker 3: How do you add that and then expect someone to
24:00
Speaker 3: show of a school paying attention or show to work
24:02
Speaker 3: doing their best job. Right?
24:05
Speaker 2: And when I worked in at a housing authority, we
24:09
Speaker 2: had a lot of statistics that showed that the majority
24:13
Speaker 2: were single mothers with two kids. You were breaking the
24:18
Speaker 2: idea of you know, right, I and a single mother
24:23
Speaker 2: with two kids still with a job, struggling to pay rent. Yes,
24:29
Speaker 2: and the implications of the lost potential of that mother
24:35
Speaker 2: and the lost potential of her kids if she is
24:38
Speaker 2: constantly having to struggle with where to live, how to
24:42
Speaker 2: pay there are no extras, right, And so you know,
24:47
Speaker 2: we think as a society it doesn't matter why she's
24:50
Speaker 2: a single mom. It doesn't matter why she you know,
24:54
Speaker 2: is working the two jobs she's having to work, but
24:59
Speaker 2: look at the loss potension of what she can do
25:02
Speaker 2: and what her kids can.
25:03
Speaker 3: Do if they were stable. Right. Well, we talk about
25:07
Speaker 3: mental health so much, and like with all heavy workloads
25:10
Speaker 3: in a mission driven industry, and everyone says, okay, well,
25:13
Speaker 3: make sure you take care of yourself, make sure you
25:15
Speaker 3: take a walk, make sure you read a book, make
25:17
Speaker 3: sure you listen to your podcast. But some people don't
25:20
Speaker 3: have the time. They don't have the time because life
25:22
Speaker 3: is chaos, just keeping a house or.
25:24
Speaker 2: Finding house, right, And when you're in constant survival, you're
25:28
Speaker 2: not thinking about, oh, let me try to thrive, right, No.
25:31
Speaker 3: There's no thriving. They're surviving right right, right.
25:34
Speaker 2: So let's talk about some women that inspire you because
25:38
Speaker 2: you have access to hear all the good stories, all
25:41
Speaker 2: the great people. Who are some women that are inspiring
25:47
Speaker 2: you right now? What paths? What lessons are you learning
25:52
Speaker 2: in this role and with what one is doing?
25:55
Speaker 3: I always have to say my mom. My mom's a
25:58
Speaker 3: very strong woman. She taught me early on to stand
26:01
Speaker 3: up for myself. You know, even one time my babysat
26:04
Speaker 3: a bunch of neighbors brought their kids over. They paid
26:06
Speaker 3: me as if I was babysitting one family. I was
26:09
Speaker 3: embarrassed at the times she put a note in every
26:10
Speaker 3: one of their mailboxes that they owed more money. So
26:13
Speaker 3: little things like that, but she doesn't take anything from anybody.
26:17
Speaker 3: Tiara Harris at a Lagrange, Georgia is something that I
26:21
Speaker 3: have to speak about. She has comes from a challenging background,
26:27
Speaker 3: has been supporting herself since she was seventeen years old
26:30
Speaker 3: and had to learn how to use both government programs
26:35
Speaker 3: and finding jobs and making connections to thrive. She's changing
26:39
Speaker 3: the entire landscape of Lagrange, Georgia right now through her
26:43
Speaker 3: nonprofit called Communities of Tomorrow, where she's transforming her neighborhood
26:48
Speaker 3: where she grew up by building luxury affordable is what
26:52
Speaker 3: she calls it. So it might be smaller, but the
26:56
Speaker 3: houses are unbelievable and her drive and passion. When I
27:00
Speaker 3: met her, she came up to me and took a
27:02
Speaker 3: picture and then she sent it to me on LinkedIn
27:04
Speaker 3: and immediate I was like, sounds pretty cool, right, and
27:07
Speaker 3: so we've been in We are good friends now for
27:09
Speaker 3: like five years. But she has a way of connecting.
27:12
Speaker 3: She knows she what is how do I say this?
27:18
Speaker 3: She her drive and passion. She's gonna stop at no
27:23
Speaker 3: nothing to make this accomplished. And and so they're building
27:27
Speaker 3: a project in her old neighborhood that is going to
27:30
Speaker 3: be all out like Pont City Market in Atlanta, which
27:32
Speaker 3: has stores. Then they have a pick a ball court now.
27:35
Speaker 3: And this is a place where people didn't even walk
27:38
Speaker 3: before even a year and a half ago when I
27:40
Speaker 3: went to tour it when it was just coming alive.
27:42
Speaker 3: And now it's like a thriving area. So she is
27:45
Speaker 3: probably my biggest inspiration right now. Awesome. You know, it
27:48
Speaker 3: reminds me. I just watched the movie.
27:51
Speaker 2: I think it's like Take Me to the Moon or something,
27:53
Speaker 2: and it's with Scarlett Johansson. Okay, and she was a marketing.
27:57
Speaker 3: Person that.
27:59
Speaker 2: Got hired I think, I'm not sure if it's real
28:02
Speaker 2: or not actually, but right well or later, but she
28:08
Speaker 2: was a marketing person ended up for NASA when they
28:10
Speaker 2: were taking the person trying to get to the moon.
28:13
Speaker 2: But then you learn why she was so good at
28:16
Speaker 2: marketing was because of her personal life when she was
28:20
Speaker 2: growing up, what her mom made her do, et cetera,
28:22
Speaker 2: et cetera. But many of us have lived through these challenges,
28:27
Speaker 2: and I find it fascinating to hear to say, Okay,
28:31
Speaker 2: this was really bad at this point in my life,
28:34
Speaker 2: and yet now I'm using it as my superpower. Yeah,
28:38
Speaker 2: and I'm using it for good to advance other things.
28:42
Speaker 2: So you've got a great, great network of women who
28:46
Speaker 2: were doing exactly that.
28:48
Speaker 3: Yo. Yeah, for sure. And I like to tell them.
28:50
Speaker 3: Everyone's got fire in their belly in this industry, but
28:52
Speaker 3: certain people at the temperature is hotter, right, they're not
28:56
Speaker 3: gonna not do what they're doing. They will figure out away.
28:59
Speaker 2: Right, talk to me about the podcast that you do,
29:04
Speaker 2: and specifically I want to hear about this one of
29:08
Speaker 2: my favorites.
29:09
Speaker 3: I'm Asking for a Friend. That is genius what you
29:13
Speaker 3: guys are doing.
29:14
Speaker 2: So it's I just give us that overview of the
29:17
Speaker 2: podcast and then specifically touch on that for me.
29:20
Speaker 3: Sure. So the one cast is just highlighting women making
29:25
Speaker 3: huge impacts in the industry, and so people were referred
29:29
Speaker 3: to us, We meet people, we find people. It is.
29:33
Speaker 3: It's a very upliving lifting thing to listen to the
29:37
Speaker 3: new series that you're talking about Asking for a Friend.
29:40
Speaker 3: I have to give full credit to million Angie. I
29:42
Speaker 3: think Angie dreamed this up and Millie named it so
29:46
Speaker 3: okay team, But that actually spawned from something I was
29:49
Speaker 3: talking about earlier that somebody said to us. It was
29:52
Speaker 3: actually Kit and Krautz at scenario that because we don't
29:56
Speaker 3: get those little touches in the office, if we're working
29:58
Speaker 3: from home more, or because we change jobs, it's not
30:01
Speaker 3: like you go work somewhere for twenty years anymore. Right,
30:03
Speaker 3: So I might not be lucky enough like I had
30:06
Speaker 3: Debbie Dancy in my life. You might not be lucky
30:10
Speaker 3: enough to have that person you know, guiding you through
30:12
Speaker 3: your career, helping you with difficult choices. So also we've
30:16
Speaker 3: learned because some of that I think is virtual, but
30:20
Speaker 3: sometimes people don't trust HR at their own company because
30:25
Speaker 3: they don't know who's side they're on, or you know,
30:28
Speaker 3: sometimes there's a gray area. So this is a way
30:32
Speaker 3: to ask any question you want. We keep it totally anonymous,
30:35
Speaker 3: and we have a team. It depends six to ten
30:38
Speaker 3: HR professionals that answer those questions. And if the question
30:41
Speaker 3: goes outside of just HR, we go and look for
30:44
Speaker 3: other industry experts and just it's totally anonymous, we send
30:47
Speaker 3: them the question they provide feedback and then Million Energy
30:50
Speaker 3: get on and talk through what the advice was. So
30:52
Speaker 3: it's really cool.
30:54
Speaker 2: I have never seen this done in a network forum
30:58
Speaker 2: like this nationwide. I mean, you are hitting nationwide issues.
31:05
Speaker 2: This is very very innovative. It's such a great tool.
31:09
Speaker 2: I think of it something like, you know, the pioneering
31:14
Speaker 2: moment for us right now. It's like, oh, why wasn't
31:18
Speaker 2: this done?
31:19
Speaker 3: All the tools were in place.
31:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, why wasn't this done? Right?
31:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, hey, leave it to women getting together talking and
31:26
Speaker 3: you're going to get something to be done. Right here
31:29
Speaker 3: we go.
31:29
Speaker 2: Yes, Also, she speaks what are you doing in that world?
31:35
Speaker 3: That's really cool. So we just noticed every time it's
31:37
Speaker 3: getting a lot better. But at a lot of conferences,
31:40
Speaker 3: if you have a technical expert, especially it's a male.
31:43
Speaker 3: If you look at a panel makeup, it's often disproportionately male.
31:48
Speaker 3: So we decided to help the whole industry or anybody
31:51
Speaker 3: else that wants to speaker on affordable housing, to create
31:54
Speaker 3: a directory where you can go and you can pick
31:57
Speaker 3: female speakers from across the country and their expertise is
32:01
Speaker 3: on there. If they can pay for travel is on there.
32:03
Speaker 3: The areas they cover is on there. We get a
32:06
Speaker 3: lot of outreach from industry conferences and more people that do,
32:09
Speaker 3: like real estate conferences, asking for suggestions on women's speakers.
32:13
Speaker 3: And so that is just us putting the light to
32:16
Speaker 3: the world that here's who we're shining the light on
32:18
Speaker 3: in that and anyone can sign up for that. So
32:20
Speaker 3: anyone that feels ready to be a speaker, go on
32:23
Speaker 3: there and sign up and you'll be there and people
32:25
Speaker 3: will be in touch to try and have you speak
32:27
Speaker 3: on that topic.
32:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I would add I just wrote about this
32:31
Speaker 2: on LinkedIn a couple of days ago. I was on
32:34
Speaker 2: the Yardy speaking panel, and instead of just talking about like, oh,
32:39
Speaker 2: we talked about you know hot, we talked about you know,
32:42
Speaker 2: all the technical.
32:43
Speaker 3: I called them out off of met soups. That's a
32:46
Speaker 3: good one.
32:47
Speaker 2: I actually wrote about the fact that I have not
32:52
Speaker 2: been comfortable in front of the microphone and you know,
32:57
Speaker 2: so you don't need to have it all together to
33:01
Speaker 2: be able to get into the she speaks. You don't
33:03
Speaker 2: have it all together to say I've spoke, you know,
33:06
Speaker 2: like I've been at fifteen conference as you know, da
33:09
Speaker 2: da da da da. Right, Like there is a prompting
33:13
Speaker 2: of just do it. There's some pips and some tools
33:17
Speaker 2: that can make you better prepared. But there, you know,
33:22
Speaker 2: I was saying, like, don't wait until you think you're ready.
33:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's similar to Wan too, when you say go
33:29
Speaker 3: do it. We're here to support you. So I can't
33:31
Speaker 3: tell you how many people reach out and say, I'm
33:34
Speaker 3: on a panel for the first time, can we talk?
33:36
Speaker 3: It might not just be to me. Somebody at one
33:38
Speaker 3: we just had a moderator do that. We helped develop
33:41
Speaker 3: agendas from mine. We'll do whatever we can to support
33:44
Speaker 3: you to shine when you get it there. And you know, Katie,
33:46
Speaker 3: it goes back to the overall one concept of more
33:50
Speaker 3: perspectives are better, Right. So we've all heard some of
33:54
Speaker 3: the same speakers for years, and so when you hear
33:56
Speaker 3: a fresh speaker, like someone that you haven't heard before
33:59
Speaker 3: and their new ideas, it's invigorating and it's refreshing. And
34:03
Speaker 3: so we want more people to come forward and speak
34:05
Speaker 3: and we're all just human. Yeah, you can't mess up
34:09
Speaker 3: that bad. You guys are you're smart? Yeah?
34:11
Speaker 2: Do you know before I took the stage on the
34:14
Speaker 2: TED stage in New York City, I was like, what
34:18
Speaker 2: in the world have I gotten myself into.
34:21
Speaker 3: What am I doing?
34:22
Speaker 2: You mean zero experience. It's not like I've done a
34:26
Speaker 2: ted X talk, you know, like zero experience here, okay,
34:30
Speaker 2: But you learn something about yourself, you learn something about
34:34
Speaker 2: the message that you want to convey, and you know
34:39
Speaker 2: there is a piece that you're resonating with the audience
34:43
Speaker 2: because you have something to say about your story. And
34:47
Speaker 2: I had people come up afterward in that audience and
34:52
Speaker 2: say I'm gonna.
34:53
Speaker 3: Look at affordable housing differently now.
34:57
Speaker 2: And it's like, thank you.
34:58
Speaker 3: That was worth the sweat.
35:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, how all my nerves? Yes, well, I'm so glad
35:03
Speaker 2: you did that because I was gonna say, that's the impact.
35:06
Speaker 3: You've heard about. But think about all the people that
35:08
Speaker 3: are hearing this for the first time. We're in the
35:10
Speaker 3: fort housing industry, so we know there's a lot of
35:12
Speaker 3: people that don't know a whole lot about this industry.
35:15
Speaker 3: And like the impact you just had in all the
35:18
Speaker 3: ripples for who knows how long.
35:20
Speaker 2: Right, And that's why I encourage this She Speaks series,
35:23
Speaker 2: because you know, you've got you've got to get somebody
35:27
Speaker 2: in there to tell their story. You've got to get
35:29
Speaker 2: in somebody in there who is like I've never done
35:32
Speaker 2: this before, but I have a story I think needs told,
35:36
Speaker 2: or I have a skill set that I can share,
35:39
Speaker 2: or I have a solution that I want to help
35:41
Speaker 2: and bring to the table. So I mean, you guys
35:44
Speaker 2: are doing great with us just and.
35:46
Speaker 3: All the applause. I mean you bring a lot of
35:49
Speaker 3: great ideas together from all across And again it goes
35:51
Speaker 3: back to the variety of ideas, the variety of careers involved,
35:54
Speaker 3: the variety of experiences people have had. But no, thank
35:57
Speaker 3: you so much, and we we really like she speaks
36:00
Speaker 3: as well.
36:02
Speaker 2: Talk to me about your vision for the next what
36:06
Speaker 2: you know?
36:06
Speaker 3: What do you vision planned?
36:08
Speaker 2: Are you in a three year, five year, ten year
36:10
Speaker 2: What do you if there was an unlimited checkbook, if
36:17
Speaker 2: there was an unlimited obstacle free zone, what does your
36:21
Speaker 2: vision look like?
36:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, so the one vision. Yeah, we're three, five and
36:26
Speaker 3: ten years at this point. Because we have so many
36:28
Speaker 3: great ideas, we have to keep Okay, we've already committed
36:30
Speaker 3: for twenty twenty seven. We're Yeah. I think one of
36:35
Speaker 3: the one, the number one priorities would be to continue
36:38
Speaker 3: the education of college students and people that are not
36:42
Speaker 3: in college. It so taking this to high school, taking
36:44
Speaker 3: it to residence in affordable housing communities so that we
36:48
Speaker 3: can explain to them to the jobs that are out
36:51
Speaker 3: there for them as well and how to get training
36:53
Speaker 3: for that and help with that to bring them into
36:55
Speaker 3: their career a developers to do a fund for developers
37:02
Speaker 3: to help with pre dove costs because what we continue
37:05
Speaker 3: to hear from women, they don't have the balance to
37:07
Speaker 3: do the deals. Okay, how do we do so you
37:09
Speaker 3: say a limited checkbook, We would love some checks. We
37:12
Speaker 3: have some great developers that we want to have to
37:14
Speaker 3: help support, build more communities around the country, continuing technical training.
37:19
Speaker 3: So we're doing a lot in this space right now
37:21
Speaker 3: and we're going to continue because I think what we've
37:26
Speaker 3: realized is when it is predominantly women on a caller
37:29
Speaker 3: in a room, people are more comfortable asking questions and
37:33
Speaker 3: so the chats with the questions in a technical will
37:36
Speaker 3: blow up and sometimes they start with like this might
37:40
Speaker 3: be dumb or this is a basic question. You don't
37:42
Speaker 3: even have to start with that, Like we are here
37:44
Speaker 3: to support you learning whatever you need about affordable housing. Yeah,
37:48
Speaker 3: So continuing to build that out and then of course
37:50
Speaker 3: the job placement aspect, we think there's a whole lot
37:53
Speaker 3: of value in that for the industry, both bringing in
37:55
Speaker 3: brand new talent, even people in retirement that want to
37:58
Speaker 3: do part time consulting our advisory that those are gold nuggets.
38:02
Speaker 3: So just connecting all the dots, but those would be
38:05
Speaker 3: the longest term goals we have right now. Okay, okay, excellent.
38:09
Speaker 2: I remember you had me on a technical training for
38:13
Speaker 2: a one series and I do remember the chat. It
38:16
Speaker 2: was like hundreds of people asking questions and I was
38:21
Speaker 2: shocked about the amount of engagement. And so that signals
38:25
Speaker 2: to you, Hey, we need to open up more doors.
38:28
Speaker 3: That's right. Technical training, Yeah, that's right, and not everybody.
38:32
Speaker 2: You know, the conference is great, but now we all
38:36
Speaker 2: can get into that technical training in a different forum
38:39
Speaker 2: when people can dial in and do.
38:41
Speaker 3: All of these things, so it's more accessible. Exactly.
38:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, Ashley, have I missed anything? What would you
38:49
Speaker 2: like though? Send lead us out here on give us
38:53
Speaker 2: a great moment here to kind of wrap up.
38:58
Speaker 3: Katie, thank you so much for inviting us. I know
39:00
Speaker 3: you have a lot going on on your play all
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Speaker 3: the time. You guys are out there doing great things
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Speaker 3: at quotelse, so we appreciate the invite and highlighting summit.
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Speaker 3: I would say what I always go back to say yes,
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Speaker 3: So all these trainings that are out there for you,
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Speaker 3: all these conferences that you're able to attend, getting invited
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Speaker 3: to a podcast, getting invited to speak, or putting your
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Speaker 3: name on the She Speaks directory, just say yes.
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Speaker 2: You don't know who you're going to meet exactly. All right, Well,
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Speaker 2: I feel inspired, So I thank you for your time.
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Speaker 2: You are doing a great job. And I encourage our
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Speaker 2: listeners to explore their state chapters. I encourage them to
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Speaker 2: follow you guys on LinkedIn and get engaged, attend a
39:43
Speaker 2: training or an event.
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Speaker 3: Right, that's exactly right. Thanks. Hey, they're always fun too.
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Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, we're so creative too. Like it really
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Speaker 2: does speak to something and side you because it's blending
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Speaker 2: that creativity with that technical advancement.
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Speaker 3: So thank you for your leadership, Ashley. Thank you Katie
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Speaker 3: so much. Have a great day.
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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Change Makers with Katie Gore. To
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Speaker 1: find out more about Katie, go to quadel dot com.
40:11
Speaker 1: That's qu A d e l dot com. This has
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Speaker 1: been a production of Forbes Books Radio