June 25, 2024
Be More Curious and Less Furious w/ Stacy Blakeley
Stacy Blakeley is the CEO of The Policy Circle, a national organization that informs, equips, and connects women to be more impactful citizens. Founded in 2015 on the belief that the free market is the best means to unleash human potential, the organization has grown to include 15,000 members in all lower 48 states. The Policy Circle has built a proven model to boost civic literacy and equips its members to lead at the local, state, and national levels through solutions-oriented programming and approachable training. Stacy is a noted public speaker who engages audiences in constructive dialogue and inspires citizens to take action in their communities as positive change-makers. Throughout Stacy’s appearance on Next Steps Forward, she will discuss The Policy Circle’s advice to women to “be more curious and less furious” and it’s work to help women do just that, as well as why civil discourse and civic engagement is so crucial in today’s society, why The Policy Circle focuses its efforts on getting women involved in public policy and debate due to wealth transfer, women out-voting men and women only holding one-third of elected positions; and the two gaps in politics and policy that the organization is concerned about, which includes the confidence gap and the competence gap. For those audience members who are looking to become leaders in their communities and develop skills and qualities needed to do so, this is a conversation that you won’t want to miss!
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There are few things that make people successful.
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Taking a step forward to change their lives is one successful trait, but it takes some
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time to get there.
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How do you move forward to greet the success that awaits you?
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Welcome to Next Steps Forward with host Chris Meek.
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Each week, Chris brings on another guest who has successfully taken the next steps forward.
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Now here is Chris Meek.
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Hello, I'm Chris Meek and you've tuned in this week's episode of Next Steps Forward.
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As always, it's a pleasure to have you with us.
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Our special guest today is Stacey Blakely.
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Stacey brings 25 years of professional experience to her role as the CEO of the Policy Circle.
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Her career began at the Capitol in Washington, DC as a staffer for then House Majority Leader
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Dick Armey.
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She transitioned from planning events for political leaders and diplomats to corporate
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event marketing for such big names as Dean Foods, BMW, AT&T, and Exxon.
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In 2004, Stacey pursued her lifelong dream of becoming an attorney and graduated from
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Southern Methodist University's Dedmon School of Law.
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As a commercial litigator, her practice focused on federal class action, construction, and
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corporate disputes.
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In 2013, Stacey launched KSG, an event and consulting firm that serves international
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ministries, national nonprofits, and corporations.
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And as a nonprofit consultant, Stacey has helped numerous nonprofits raise millions
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of dollars.
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Stacey Blakely, welcome to Next Steps Forward.
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I'm delighted to be here, Chris.
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Thank you.
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Honored to have you.
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I know how busy your schedule is.
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We were just talking about your travel and so really appreciate you taking some time
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to sit with us today.
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So Stacey, I want to start with something that the Policy Circle emphasizes that is
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so important, but seems so rare in today's political and policy environments.
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You advise people to, quote, be more curious and less furious, end quote.
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Take us through the origins of that phrase and how the Policy Circle is working to help
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women be more curious and less furious.
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So I actually have to give credit where credit is due.
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Sylvia Legere, the co-founder and chairman of the board, came up with this phrase.
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And the origins of this, Chris, back in 21, 22, what we found was there was sort of this
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awakening, if you will.
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And, you know, we could even trace this to schools were closing and there were mask mandates
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and you saw folks showing up to school board meetings and being very vocal and maybe aggressive
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and they were furious.
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And so you were getting maybe not as productive of dialogue out of that.
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And then you've seen a steady stream of things to be angry about since then.
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I mean, you've seen folks showing up at meetings because they're upset about books or gender.
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And then you had the summer of the protests and race relations.
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And so we have really leaned into a philosophy that if you show up or you raise your voice
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to be heard, it should be done with an informed perspective, but looking to listen, ask good
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questions and then be solutions oriented as opposed to just angry.
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Simple mindset, right?
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That's a novel idea.
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I know.
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It's crazy, but that's an outlier in the world we're living in.
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The Policy Circle is a nonpartisan grassroots organization that provides a framework to
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boost civil discourse and civic engagement, as you just highlighted.
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A lot of people in public office and their supporters seem to enjoy name calling and
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criticizing their opponents.
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So why are civil discourse and civil engagement so crucial in today's society?
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It's vital.
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These are foundational principles if we want to live in a free and prosperous society and
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one that really cares about each individual flourishing.
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And civil discourse, I've heard this phrase that civility costs nothing and it buys everything.
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It's really about being collaborative and solutions oriented and showing respect for
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people even if you disagree.
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There's a quote that I found.
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This is kind of in that what everything I learned, I learned in kindergarten.
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It's really just about being nice and doing so in a way not that you are not principled,
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not that you don't have strong opinions, but tackling these conversations in a way that
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you're hoping to find a solution rather than just light the room on fire.
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And it's interesting.
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I was looking at some data from a polarization lab and the people that engaged in the most
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name calling in Congress, big shocker, they had the least amount of bills passed.
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Nobody wants to work with that person.
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They just get a lot of YouTube and they get a lot of clicks on social media and sadly
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that's how they fundraise is through that outrage machine.
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And the corollary to that is civic engagement is vital and it's really sometimes confused
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with just being political.
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And civic engagement is about caring about your community and your neighbors, looking
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for gaps and opportunities where you can step in, you can be helpful, you can identify solutions
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that are rooted in your value system.
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And so it can be everything from running for office, which we know some people should do
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and some should not, and it's getting involved with your neighborhood association.
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We've got women that get on the board of their public library and it can be as simple
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as just love your neighbor and it can be as advanced as you're going to run for office
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and impact public policy that in turn could make lives better, millions of lives better.
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You talked about members of Congress and the Senate having the bully bullpen and the blowhorn
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and not having any bills passed.
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Our show is nonpartisan.
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We talk politics at a very high level, but we've seen a few things from yesterday that
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have gone probably international now, but AOC visited a rally for congressional candidate
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Bowman in the South Bronx.
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And the number of explicatives he dropped during the rally were unbelievable.
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And is he doing that just to raise funds, to try and differentiate himself from the
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other candidate just because maybe that's just who he is?
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I guess that's an open-ended question because you don't exactly know the answer, but then
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that's the exact opposite of what we need right now.
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It just fuels fire of division and it's so unnecessary.
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And I think what makes me sad is we're not modeling disciplined emotional control for
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children and for young adults.
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And I mean, if you look at, I have daughters that are 21 and 22.
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They don't remember a time when there was a certain bar of behavior that we held our
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leaders to.
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They've never seen it.
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And this is a bipartisan trait.
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Nobody has cornered the market on bad behavior.
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You see it on every side, you know, both sides of the aisle.
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And what I think is so disappointing is there was a time when you could say to your kids,
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like these are people to look up to, to aspire to.
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Now we have to use it as like a cautionary tale.
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Don't do that.
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And then they ask, well, you know, how does that person achieve success or why are they
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in this leadership role?
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That's a really difficult question to answer.
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And I'd say the other thing is that we have a culture.
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We have the construct of social media.
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It rewards that behavior, period.
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They make more money.
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They get more eyeballs.
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And here's the deal.
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The most civil members of Congress you've never heard of.
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And that's the unfortunate thing.
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And it's because they're just doing the work and they're serving their constituents.
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And I would like to go back to a time when politics was boring.
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We all would.
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We all would.
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And we're just getting our work done.
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All right, back to the policy circle.
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Let's focus on the positive things here.
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Why does the policy circle focus its efforts on getting women involved in public policy
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and debate?
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So, you know, we chose, our founders did, to focus on women for a few reasons.
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First and foremost, women still only hold about a third of elected and appointed roles.
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That's really it.
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Across the board.
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It's pretty consistent.
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And so we want to see more women who care about freedom, who care about transparent
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accountable government, and who are solutions oriented to be sitting in those seats.
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So for us, it's not just women for the sake of women.
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It's women that really know what they're doing.
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They're informed and they're capable.
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And they really do appreciate the value of free markets and sort of entrepreneurial mindset.
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And I would say the other reason we focus on this is because women largely have been
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dictating the outcomes of elections since the 1980s.
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They outregister and outvote their male counterparts.
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And so there's a lot of influence that comes with that.
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And we want that to be where they're informed on a wide range of issues, not voting on just
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perhaps one issue.
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And lastly, which I've told you, I think this is fascinating and it's a very interesting
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phenomenon, is that we're about to see one of the greatest wealth transfers in history.
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And this will especially benefit women.
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And you're going to see some real changes based on that distribution of wealth.
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So let's take each of those points individually, and we'll start with the last one, the wealth
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transfer.
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What are the driving forces behind wealth transfer?
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Where do women fit in?
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And what part do public policy and women's influence play?
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So I think this wealth transfer is interesting.
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McKinsey did a study a few years ago, and I was reading Ellevest, did a really great
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article on this if folks want to check it out.
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But essentially women control about one third, so about $10 trillion that are sort of under
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a woman's management.
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They expect by the 2030s, which is not that far away, women will control two thirds.
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That's $30 trillion.
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And the factors driving this, I'm sorry, Chris, death and divorce.
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It's largely inheritance, and women live longer than men.
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I also saw an interesting fact that millennials have the highest percentage in history of
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single women.
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So as they inherit that wealth, they're going to have control of that.
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And so when you think about what wealth does, it gives people more influence, more opportunities
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to invest, to start business, to be philanthropic.
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And we really want women, when they have more influence or financial power, that to be informed
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influence.
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And that's super important.
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And so that's one of those reasons that we think the wealth transfer is really important.
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All right.
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Let's take the second reason the policy circle focuses on women.
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You mentioned before women outvote men.
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You want to ensure that women have the information and knowledge to connect the dots between
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the issues and outcomes they want for the candidate they vote for.
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Yeah, the connecting of the dots sometimes is a little frustrating because women will
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have certain policies that they care about, whether that's education or economic opportunity.
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It's a wide range.
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And a lot of times women all get lumped, right?
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They all care about X.
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And what we find is women care about a wide range of issues, but then they don't always
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look at the person they're electing to evaluate, oh, are we aligned on the policies that back
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up these priorities?
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And so we really want to sort of lay it all out for people and give them the facts so
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that they can land on a conclusion rooted in truth.
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There is still such thing as facts and truth, and then they can hold their elected officials
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accountable and whether or not they're making progress on the issues they care about.
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We often see a disconnect there.
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And the third reason, which was the first one you mentioned, women hold less than one
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third of elected offices.
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Why doesn't that number reflect the actual population split and what are the ramifications
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or consequences of women holding a disproportionately smaller percentage of elected and appointed
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offices?
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Well, we have to look at some of the practical barriers.
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I mean, I'll give you an example.
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In the state of Texas, there were five special sessions.
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So if you get paid almost nothing, you've got childcare responsibilities and you're
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having to manage your work and your public service.
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The system is not set up very well to help women that have multiple responsibilities
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from career and caregiving.
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So I just think there's some practical barriers there.
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I also think that by some, you know, this is rooted in some historical and some cultural
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issues, but there's still a confidence gap.
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It drives me a little crazy because I'll meet women who are really capable and they'll
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say, oh, I don't know anything about policy.
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And we'll say, well, OK, have you raised a family?
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Have you had kids in school?
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Have you, you know, helped run a business or gotten involved in any level?
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Right. I'm just living, being part of society.
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And then they start to realize when you unpack policy, it's really about people and they
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know a lot. And so we really want to help boost confidence.
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And part of that is just knowledge.
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There is these fundamental differences in men and women.
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And I don't like lumping people in these big generalizations, but there's a pretty common
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theme. Women want to read the book, listen to the podcast, get really equipped before
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they even raise their hand and ask a question.
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And I make a little joke that men sleep in a Holiday Inn and then they're experts on
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immigration, you know, that I slept in a Holiday Inn joke.
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But there is there's there's a fundamental thing where men will apply for jobs they're
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not qualified for because they're just taking a chance, taking a risk, putting themselves
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out there. A lot of women don't apply for those jobs because they think, oh, I don't
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check every box.
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And so for us, it's about having this community that tells women that you're capable
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and we're here to support you and make you even more capable so that they have that
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confidence to step into roles where they really could contribute.
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So that's really that first part.
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Second part, having women having a seat at the table.
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It's unique perspective.
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There are certain things that women will experience that men do not and vice versa.
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So it's important to have a really balanced perspective.
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So you're thinking about what are the practical realities for your community members?
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And since more than half of your community members are women, it's just good to have a
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voice. So we've just touched on, I'll call the three pillars, if you will, of the policy
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circle and getting women engaged civically.
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Maybe give us an overview of the policy circle and its mission.
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Sure. So the policy circle's mission is to inform and equip and connect women.
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So they can be more impactful citizens.
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And so we do this in a number of ways.
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But first and foremost, we really want an informed citizenry.
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And so that's men and women.
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We produce materials that are consumed by men and women all over the country.
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And then we also have specific programs that elevate the dialogue.
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And we have this really novel concept that if we give you all the facts and you're able to
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go to the source of those facts, you might actually be able to come to your own
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conclusion. We don't need to spoon feed that.
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You don't need a pundit to tell you what you believe.
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So with that information, the confidence grows.
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So we have built out a really unique leadership program.
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It's really accessible.
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It's called the Civic Leadership Engagement Roadmap.
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And I'm sure, you know, there's that thought of, oh, does the world really need another
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leadership program?
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Well, we developed this because we saw a gap in the market.
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It's virtual. It's 90 days.
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You have a cohort of women in every stage and phase of life from all over the country
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that you can learn from.
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And what you come out of this with is taking some of that civic knowledge and then
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learning how to turn that into civic action.
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So it's not just passive.
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You're not just watching videos.
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You have to learn and then you have to get out, meet elected officials, invite them to
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coffee. One of the things, Chris, that I think is interesting is, as women in the
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program, are they going to accept my invitation?
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I said, yes, because you're calling and you're friendly and you're helpful.
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You're not yelling at them.
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You want to sit down and have a good conversation.
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So they almost always say yes.
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So whether that's you can get with your mayor or your city council, you know, Texas,
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we've got county commissioners.
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And then we ask them to start attending some meetings so that they can evaluate who are
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the stakeholders.
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And not only in that process do the women in our organization start to learn who's
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making decisions, which I think we learned during COVID, you really need to know who's
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making decisions that impact your business or your community.
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But then they become known.
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Our participants become known.
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Oh, that's a thoughtful person.
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That's somebody that's really well informed and capable.
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And so when opportunities arise for a task force or a commission and they need citizen
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input, they're thinking, oh, I want to have that nice person that keeps showing up and
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offering to help. And so that is really our civic leadership engagement roadmap.
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There's more particulars I can tell you about.
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And then that connection piece is so important.
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I mean, we're wired for human connection.
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And so between our circle model where people gather and discuss a brief, there's such a
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connection point there.
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Chris, what we find often is people will gather friends or colleagues and then they end
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up learning something completely new about them.
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These can be people you've known forever.
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But the nature of the conversation is so rich.
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It's so interesting.
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And so that connection point, we carry that through in regional events.
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And then we have an annual summit where we feature top notch speakers and engage in
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conversations with women, really will gather from all over the country.
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And what's great about that is you meet somebody that cares about an issue that you care
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about. And then, oh, what are you doing that works so you don't have to reinvent the
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wheel? So that connection point really matters for us.
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So I know you view it from a top down, sort of a national level.
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And you talked about the summit.
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But are there state chapters, local chapters?
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Is it just the one national entity itself?
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So what's interesting about our model is we produce policy circle briefs and these are
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multimedia. We source these from a number of excellent partners and vetted sources.
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And then individually all over the country in 48 states, we have about 400 circles.
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And these circles gather in living rooms and boardrooms.
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We have a great group in Chicago that gathers in pubs.
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It's very flexible.
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And the circle leader can decide who to invite, which topic they want to cover.
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We have 75 briefs on a wide range of topics.
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And these are sort of those boots on the ground.
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They start identifying allies.
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They really start getting energized about a topic.
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And with each one of our briefs, we have a discussion guide.
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And so in that discussion guide, we really want people to focus on local engagement,
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their local government, what's being spent, what's being done.
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And I think that that local piece is really important, Chris, because right now you have
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all time low approval ratings of the legislative, executive and sadly now the judicial
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branch. But 67 percent of Americans in a recent Gallup poll said they still trust local.
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And so that is a place, while we provide these broad materials, we have these local
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groups. They take it and they run with it.
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People like to, to your point, local people they know, they go to church with, synagogue,
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pick a ball, whatever it may be.
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Yeah, you trust your neighbor far more than a very disconnected politician.
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And that other piece of local is going to have the most immediate impact.
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So if you get involved in something, that is where you could have a direct impact.
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I'll give you an example.
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One of our CLEAR grads is from Missouri and she did one of the exercises where she went
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and met with a local elected official city council.
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He said, oh, yeah, by the way, I see where you live.
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We're about to change all those roads to one way.
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And she's like, what are you talking about?
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That's going to decimate businesses.
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There's a senior living community.
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That's going to be terrible for their access.
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We said, well, MoDOT's having a hearing in a few weeks, their transportation authority.
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No one knew about it.
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She got all her neighbors involved.
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It was a relatively new neighborhood, so she really had to go work it and get to know people.
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She ended up with a significant presence of citizens at that hearing and testified.
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She'd never done that before.
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And they ended up defeating the measure.
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And the transportation official said, we've never seen this level of citizen engagement.
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So she didn't run for office and she didn't have big accolades, but had a huge impact
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on thousands of people in her community because she organized, she got rooted in the
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information, gave data points about why this was damaging, and then she really built
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coalitions. And so that's just a great example, local impact.
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Love that. My wife always says, if you don't vote, you can't complain.
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And to your point, if you don't get involved, same thing, you can't complain.
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Yeah. And the thing is, Sylvia always says you have to get a clue to have a clue.
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If you're not asking questions and you're not showing up, you're not going to know about
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things, period. I mean, local newspapers are sadly shuddering.
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Our source of local news is less and less.
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There are fewer organizations that are thriving at that local level.
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I mean, think about it. Growing up, you had the Rotary Club and historical societies and
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things like that that really helped build the fabric of the community have really
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suffered. And so I think when you sow into those organizations, you got a little ear to
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the ground, you hear what's going on, and then you can step in and hopefully advocate
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for positive solutions or stop things that you think are damaging.
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So what inspired the creation of the Policy Circle and how has it grown since its
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inception?
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So Sylvia that I mentioned, Sylvia Legere, she lives in Wilmette, just outside of
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Chicago. Angela Brawley and Kathy Hubbard are both in Indianapolis, and they were
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all attending some of these policy oriented events.
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And what they found is that the men were given seats with the little placard in front
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of them for these roundtables.
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And the women, even if they were writing the checks, got a seat on the wall.
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And then they noticed there weren't enough women on stage discussing policy and they
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weren't being given opportunities to really drill down on a wide range of issues.
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They wanted to talk about taxes and immigration and housing.
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And so they thought, gosh, there's got to be some other women who are interested in
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these issues. So it really started in three living rooms.
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They combined some good materials and said, let's have our conversation rooted in these
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good materials.
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And since then, what has emerged is really a movement and a hunger that we see amongst
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women. They want the facts.
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They want to make up their own mind.
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They want to discuss them, kind of practice building their talking points.
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Then they want to do something about it.
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So now we've grown to about 15,000 folks in our broader community.
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And then we have, as I mentioned before, 400 circles in 48 states.
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And what's been really exciting for us, too, Chris, is we've almost got a million views
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of our briefs. So that brief library I mentioned.
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And we have a very broad audience when it comes to those briefs.
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And so we're really influencing the conversation, giving people access to resources
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they're not going to get in their daily mail or TikTok.
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And we also are seeing the fruit of inspiring, equipping and really launching local
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leaders. A million views of the briefs, that's amazing.
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So what are some of the key topics covered in your Policy Circle briefs and how are these
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topics chosen? So we do surveying, but first and foremost, we want to find out
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what does our community care about, what's on their radar.
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We'll also often look at the legislative priorities, you know, things that we know are
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going to be hot topics.
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You can't help but look at the news cycle.
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And there's plenty of polling nationally about what are the issues that people care
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about. We also look at the Supreme Court.
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Those are typically going to be some bigger topics that we need to be ahead of so that
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people have some foundational knowledge.
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So when a decision comes out, they don't have to believe what the newspaper said.
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They know, oh, gosh, this is what the Constitution actually says.
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And so we utilize all those factors to really build out what I would say are three
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buckets of briefs.
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One is just civic knowledge.
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We have a civic literacy crisis in the United States.
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Seventy percent of Americans cannot pass a basic eighth grade civics quiz.
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I'm talking like, what are the three branches of government?
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And so if you don't have foundational knowledge about the role of government, how are
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you supposed to understand what your role is?
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And if you don't understand fundamental principles of the Constitution, you're going to
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be very quick to fall for people saying, oh, you're entitled to act.
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Well, you may not be.
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And so it's important to have that foundational knowledge.
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So we have some of our most popular briefs.
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What's the role of the U.S.
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Senate? How does the judiciary function?
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We're about to have a brief, a new brief this year, Understanding Cabinets and Agencies.
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Well, that matters because we're expecting a decision any day from the Supreme Court on
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what's called the Chevron Doctrine, which means that agencies have been given a
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tremendous amount of leeway to make new rules and regulations that often make business
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far more expensive.
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But some would argue they also provide protections, environmental protections or
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consumer. So there's been a real balancing act.
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But it has favored agencies create rules that may or may not have been intended by
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legislators. And if that is struck down, well, one, the ramifications will be huge.
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But if you don't understand agencies to begin with and then the big decision comes
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down, you're probably not going to understand what impact it has.
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So there's that balancing act.
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And then the other two categories of briefs, it's going to be like evergreen issues,
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housing, education, mental health.
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And then the third is that we will occasionally look at very pervasive in the news
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sort of issues that we feel like we can provide clarity.
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We are not a breaking news organization.
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And so we do that less often.
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But for instance, as Russia was preparing to invade Ukraine, we thought it would be
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helpful to give people sort of that historical background.
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We had the former ambassador to the Ukraine on the day before the invasion.
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And so thankfully, through our really remarkable network of women, we have access to
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policymakers, thought leaders, authors, filmmakers.
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So we are typically adding to these briefs virtual programs so you can hear directly
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from experts, practitioners.
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We love to feature nonprofits that are actually implementing solutions, business leaders
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that are at that intersection of public and private partnerships.
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And so it's really a holistic approach where you get a multimedia brief, you can watch a
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virtual program or listen to it while you're taking a walk.
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We want to just provide flexible, easy to understand resources.
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So as many people get informed as possible.
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Yeah, I'm thinking back to one of the first things you mentioned there about how
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there's a lack of civic education now.
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And I'm thinking back as a kid, Saturday morning cartoons, and there was Schoolhouse
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Rock. I'm just I was just going to I'm just a bill.
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I'm only a bill sitting here in Capitol Hill.
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Uh-huh. So I was six and I learned about that.
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And now there are people not learning anything.
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No. And, you know, you do see a bit of a resurgence.
458
00:28:22,800 --> 00:28:27,040
There are certain states now that are passing new laws so that you have a civics
459
00:28:27,040 --> 00:28:28,560
curriculum in high school.
460
00:28:29,280 --> 00:28:34,760
But that doesn't address that we have a very large population of adults, voting age
461
00:28:34,760 --> 00:28:38,600
adults that cannot name the president, vice president.
462
00:28:38,640 --> 00:28:44,640
It's pretty scary. And so we really feel like one of our jobs is to provide
463
00:28:44,640 --> 00:28:47,320
some of that that boost, if you will.
464
00:28:47,360 --> 00:28:50,920
I mean, I'm an I'm an attorney and I read these civics primers.
465
00:28:50,960 --> 00:28:55,760
I'm like, well, one, either I forgot this or I didn't appreciate how these things are
466
00:28:55,760 --> 00:28:57,880
connected. It's good for everybody.
467
00:28:58,720 --> 00:29:03,360
No question. Does the Policy Circle have a strategy to increase the number of women
468
00:29:03,360 --> 00:29:05,520
and elected and appointed public policy positions?
469
00:29:05,880 --> 00:29:08,200
And how does a nonpartisan group go about making that happen?
470
00:29:09,400 --> 00:29:15,560
So we do the clear program we have seen fruit of our civic leadership program, Chris,
471
00:29:15,560 --> 00:29:20,480
and that is women building confidence, running for school board and actually winning
472
00:29:20,480 --> 00:29:26,200
those seats. We have had women run at that city and council level and secured those
473
00:29:26,200 --> 00:29:29,440
elected, elected roles.
474
00:29:30,840 --> 00:29:36,240
The other piece of the puzzle for us as an organization is getting women appointed.
475
00:29:36,680 --> 00:29:41,520
And what I don't think many people appreciate is there are thousands of appointed
476
00:29:41,520 --> 00:29:46,640
roles. And these are the people that are really running government.
477
00:29:46,680 --> 00:29:52,160
They're executing on the policy agenda of perhaps the governor or legislators.
478
00:29:52,480 --> 00:29:56,000
But I mean, Texas, our legislature only meets every other year.
479
00:29:56,080 --> 00:29:58,520
Guess who's running the show in between?
480
00:29:59,280 --> 00:30:02,880
It's, you know, the staffs that are up there trying to get the work done.
481
00:30:02,880 --> 00:30:04,840
But it's largely these appointed roles.
482
00:30:04,840 --> 00:30:10,080
And so we want to make sure there's more women who are really capable, they're prepared
483
00:30:10,440 --> 00:30:13,560
and again, that they value entrepreneurial solutions.
484
00:30:13,560 --> 00:30:16,520
They want to cut through red tape so more people can thrive.
485
00:30:17,040 --> 00:30:19,440
And so that is really important.
486
00:30:19,440 --> 00:30:22,040
And we see that as a huge area for growth.
487
00:30:22,760 --> 00:30:25,440
All around the country, we're focusing this first year.
488
00:30:25,440 --> 00:30:29,640
We just launched this program because we already started seeing people get appointed.
489
00:30:29,640 --> 00:30:31,320
We're like, wait, light bulb moment.
490
00:30:31,680 --> 00:30:33,320
How can we expedite this?
491
00:30:33,320 --> 00:30:36,680
How can we build relationships with appointments directors to find out what do they need?
492
00:30:36,720 --> 00:30:37,880
How can we be helpful?
493
00:30:38,440 --> 00:30:44,760
And what we're finding is they need good quality folks that they can go to and have a
494
00:30:44,760 --> 00:30:46,760
pipeline for these appointed roles.
495
00:30:46,760 --> 00:30:48,760
So that's a real opportunity.
496
00:30:49,360 --> 00:30:54,520
Chris, we would like to look up and, you know, just a few years from now and have thousands
497
00:30:54,520 --> 00:30:59,880
of highly capable women sitting in these seats of influence in that appointed level.
498
00:31:00,200 --> 00:31:02,200
So that's a big focus area for us.
499
00:31:02,200 --> 00:31:07,040
And our program, because I'm a sucker for a good acronym, is the All State Appointments
500
00:31:07,040 --> 00:31:09,040
Project, ASAP.
501
00:31:09,880 --> 00:31:10,400
So we got it.
502
00:31:11,200 --> 00:31:12,120
Love the acronyms.
503
00:31:13,680 --> 00:31:17,560
Stacey, there are two gaps in politics and policy that the policy circle is concerned
504
00:31:17,560 --> 00:31:21,760
about. The first is the confidence gap and the second is the competence gap.
505
00:31:22,560 --> 00:31:26,120
Would you describe each of those gaps and their impacts and also share what the policy
506
00:31:26,120 --> 00:31:27,360
circle is doing to address them?
507
00:31:28,760 --> 00:31:32,560
Well, as I mentioned before, there are many women that just self-sideline themselves.
508
00:31:32,600 --> 00:31:35,200
They just immediately assume they're not qualified.
509
00:31:35,680 --> 00:31:39,600
I got to tell you, there's a woman in Texas that as part of CLEAR, she went to meet with
510
00:31:39,600 --> 00:31:42,640
an elected official and was a county commissioner.
511
00:31:42,640 --> 00:31:45,520
She says, you know, at some point or another, I thought maybe I would run for county
512
00:31:45,520 --> 00:31:47,840
commissioner. And then I thought, I'm not qualified.
513
00:31:47,840 --> 00:31:50,160
She goes, well, I just met with the county commissioner.
514
00:31:50,840 --> 00:31:52,240
I am more than qualified.
515
00:31:52,760 --> 00:31:56,040
And so part of it is just demystifying the process.
516
00:31:56,040 --> 00:32:00,120
One of the things we've been doing are these days at the Capitol, showing up at the
517
00:32:00,120 --> 00:32:02,840
Capitol, seeing how it functions, meeting with lawmakers.
518
00:32:02,840 --> 00:32:07,960
And what I think women realize is I actually have a great set of skills or I have
519
00:32:07,960 --> 00:32:09,760
experience that would be valuable.
520
00:32:10,160 --> 00:32:14,080
So part of it is just getting more familiar and comfortable with the process.
521
00:32:14,080 --> 00:32:16,160
And that really does build confidence.
522
00:32:16,400 --> 00:32:19,960
It's just knowledge. You know, we're always a little more fearful of the unknown.
523
00:32:20,320 --> 00:32:25,320
And as I mentioned before, women kind of take themselves out of the running before
524
00:32:25,320 --> 00:32:26,760
they've even taken a chance.
525
00:32:26,760 --> 00:32:30,800
So part of this is fostering a little bit more of a risk taking mentality amongst women,
526
00:32:31,600 --> 00:32:36,560
boosting their confidence and knowing that even if they run and they don't win first
527
00:32:36,560 --> 00:32:41,120
time around, wildly, wildly beneficial process.
528
00:32:41,280 --> 00:32:45,600
We've had so many women that I've talked to that run and they're like, well, I think I
529
00:32:45,600 --> 00:32:51,560
learned more about myself running and losing than I did when I eventually won or
530
00:32:51,560 --> 00:32:52,760
secured some seat.
531
00:32:53,040 --> 00:32:58,640
And so there's just tremendous value in sticking your neck out, taking a chance.
532
00:32:59,160 --> 00:33:00,640
It raises your profile.
533
00:33:00,640 --> 00:33:04,160
One of the things I've been doing is I've been talking to different groups about the
534
00:33:04,160 --> 00:33:06,680
business case for civic engagement.
535
00:33:07,400 --> 00:33:11,600
And what we try to encourage women to do is like, hey, not only stepping up to serve your
536
00:33:11,600 --> 00:33:16,160
community and doing your part, but it elevates your profile professionally.
537
00:33:16,960 --> 00:33:23,160
Now, I'm not saying this is a good pattern, but I did talk to a woman who runs because
538
00:33:23,160 --> 00:33:27,600
her party puts her face on billboards and she's a personal injury lawyer and she likes
539
00:33:27,600 --> 00:33:29,280
to have her face on billboards.
540
00:33:29,440 --> 00:33:34,920
I'm not saying that's a good plan, Chris, but it does elevate your profile as a leader
541
00:33:34,920 --> 00:33:38,280
and you meet people through the process you wouldn't meet otherwise.
542
00:33:38,800 --> 00:33:44,120
But at the end of the day, if you are not competent, capable and informed, you're not
543
00:33:44,120 --> 00:33:45,520
doing anybody any favors.
544
00:33:45,560 --> 00:33:47,000
You're going to harm yourself.
545
00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:48,200
You're going to harm your community.
546
00:33:48,200 --> 00:33:51,920
You're going to wreck your reputation and your social capital.
547
00:33:52,240 --> 00:33:55,400
You put it all out there and then you show up and you're not ready.
548
00:33:56,160 --> 00:34:01,400
One of the things that Kim Borchers runs, our CLEAR program, both of us are from the
549
00:34:01,400 --> 00:34:04,560
country. I grew up in a small town in Texas and she's in Kansas.
550
00:34:04,800 --> 00:34:07,800
And we always talk about, well, what happens if the dog catches the truck?
551
00:34:08,680 --> 00:34:13,200
Right. You get all excited, you run and then you end up in this position of influence and
552
00:34:13,200 --> 00:34:15,680
you're not ready. That's the last thing we want.
553
00:34:15,680 --> 00:34:18,800
And so we want highly competent, prepared women.
554
00:34:19,160 --> 00:34:24,040
And unfortunately, I think we see a lot of folks that get the seat and then they have no
555
00:34:24,040 --> 00:34:29,720
idea what they're doing. We were blessed to have Kim on a few months ago, and so I
556
00:34:29,720 --> 00:34:33,400
appreciate you raising her because she is, as most people are in the policy circle, just an
557
00:34:33,400 --> 00:34:36,080
absolute rock star and just love her leadership and her vision.
558
00:34:36,080 --> 00:34:38,080
And so I appreciate you raising her name there.
559
00:34:38,960 --> 00:34:42,800
Part of being curious, not furious, means having informed influence.
560
00:34:43,600 --> 00:34:47,360
What's the difference between speaking up or having influence in a policy venue and
561
00:34:47,360 --> 00:34:48,720
having informed influence?
562
00:34:50,280 --> 00:34:55,520
Well, I think unfortunately, and this is even happening in like civics curriculum, people
563
00:34:55,520 --> 00:34:59,600
confuse that civic engagement with activism.
564
00:35:00,560 --> 00:35:05,520
And I think often the activism and, you know, it's one issue, it's my way or the highway.
565
00:35:05,520 --> 00:35:07,800
You see the protest on college campuses.
566
00:35:07,800 --> 00:35:11,000
That is not constructive civic engagement.
567
00:35:11,320 --> 00:35:12,480
It's disruptive.
568
00:35:12,480 --> 00:35:16,280
It's divisive. And, you know, they didn't even know what their demands were, right?
569
00:35:16,280 --> 00:35:18,760
Like they're just not accomplishing anything.
570
00:35:19,120 --> 00:35:27,280
And so I think for us, it's really getting a sense of what are the issues and unpacking
571
00:35:27,280 --> 00:35:29,800
those issues because, you know, you say, oh, I care about housing.
572
00:35:29,800 --> 00:35:31,880
Well, do you care about affordable housing?
573
00:35:31,880 --> 00:35:34,200
Do you understand what's going on in the homeless situation?
574
00:35:34,520 --> 00:35:40,320
How important is job creation to having, you know, more folks, more demand?
575
00:35:40,320 --> 00:35:42,120
Right. You look at a place like Texas.
576
00:35:42,120 --> 00:35:46,080
We've got a huge demand for housing and a real challenge there.
577
00:35:46,080 --> 00:35:52,200
So it's unpacking these issues so that you really are informed because none of this
578
00:35:52,200 --> 00:35:53,320
happens in a vacuum.
579
00:35:53,720 --> 00:35:57,880
And we are not big fans of that like bumper sticker solution.
580
00:35:58,000 --> 00:36:03,480
You need to unpack the issues and get informed and understand how all these things work
581
00:36:03,480 --> 00:36:05,640
together. It's going to make you so much more effective.
582
00:36:07,280 --> 00:36:09,120
So we've been talking about the policy circle.
583
00:36:09,800 --> 00:36:11,120
Let's talk about your career a little bit.
584
00:36:12,040 --> 00:36:14,920
So we mentioned you spent some time on Capitol Hill working for the then U.S.
585
00:36:14,920 --> 00:36:18,560
House majority leader, but then you went after your lifelong dream of going to law
586
00:36:18,560 --> 00:36:23,200
school. What made you want to go to law school and what were your grand ambitions there?
587
00:36:24,280 --> 00:36:30,120
Well, I have to tell you, Chris, I grew up in a small town and I was the first in my
588
00:36:30,120 --> 00:36:34,880
family to go to college, which on both sides, which my dad was convinced it was like a
589
00:36:34,880 --> 00:36:39,000
scam to get money for four years out of him, which may have been a little bit true.
590
00:36:39,240 --> 00:36:42,160
But it was I was so always growing up.
591
00:36:42,160 --> 00:36:45,520
I just had this this hunger for knowledge.
592
00:36:45,520 --> 00:36:47,920
I loved being a student.
593
00:36:48,240 --> 00:36:52,800
And so somewhere on the debate team and maybe I watched L.A.
594
00:36:52,800 --> 00:36:56,600
Law or something as a kid, I don't know, I didn't have any attorneys around me, but I
595
00:36:56,600 --> 00:37:00,440
have this funny little drawing I did in first grade.
596
00:37:00,440 --> 00:37:01,400
And I don't know if you remember these.
597
00:37:01,400 --> 00:37:02,600
They would do the silhouette.
598
00:37:02,600 --> 00:37:07,360
Remember, it'd be like a piece of, you know, transparent paper on the black construction
599
00:37:07,360 --> 00:37:08,960
paper that fades over time.
600
00:37:09,360 --> 00:37:12,640
And I had in there I wanted to be a model or a lawyer.
601
00:37:13,000 --> 00:37:19,160
The modeling gig did not work out, but I did pursue my lifelong dream of being an
602
00:37:19,160 --> 00:37:23,400
attorney. And, you know, there is something so.
603
00:37:24,360 --> 00:37:31,160
Empowering about getting the knowledge that that you're hungry for and boy, if you
604
00:37:31,160 --> 00:37:34,840
want knowledge, go to law school, it's like, you know, drinking from a fire hydrant.
605
00:37:34,840 --> 00:37:41,400
And I loved how we would unpack a case and understand the people in the situation.
606
00:37:41,680 --> 00:37:46,080
And even when I was practicing law, my favorite part was, you know, you meet with the
607
00:37:46,080 --> 00:37:50,960
client and you dig in that preliminary piece of understanding what are the issues?
608
00:37:50,960 --> 00:37:52,160
How did we get here?
609
00:37:52,480 --> 00:37:54,600
But unfortunately, I was in commercial litigation.
610
00:37:54,600 --> 00:37:57,800
And let's just say you're not getting people at their happiest or best.
611
00:37:58,880 --> 00:38:05,640
And the business of law, like law firms, it doesn't reward efficiency.
612
00:38:05,640 --> 00:38:10,240
It's like who can build the most hours, who can be there first and leave the latest.
613
00:38:10,600 --> 00:38:14,640
And I really struggled with that structure.
614
00:38:14,680 --> 00:38:19,360
I also had both my daughters while I was in law school because I was an older student.
615
00:38:19,720 --> 00:38:24,240
I did a little little career on Capitol Hill and event marketing is in my 20s.
616
00:38:24,680 --> 00:38:30,520
And it's really hard to have two babies and leave when they're still asleep and to get
617
00:38:30,520 --> 00:38:32,280
home when they've already gone to bed.
618
00:38:32,760 --> 00:38:36,760
And so I look for more flexible pathways in practicing law.
619
00:38:37,160 --> 00:38:40,560
And ultimately, I decided that I need to take the knowledge.
620
00:38:40,880 --> 00:38:42,560
You know, you really learn how to read people.
621
00:38:42,560 --> 00:38:45,720
You become a great writer, really persuasive.
622
00:38:46,120 --> 00:38:50,200
You're very detail oriented, much to my team's probably they're probably annoyed with
623
00:38:50,200 --> 00:38:52,880
that. But you can take those skills anywhere.
624
00:38:53,160 --> 00:38:59,160
And I started doing some work in 2000, gosh, 10, trying to bring the Olympics to Dallas.
625
00:39:00,400 --> 00:39:01,800
That clearly did not work out.
626
00:39:02,760 --> 00:39:05,960
But in that process, you have to have like a legacy piece.
627
00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:11,760
And so we I got to know the nonprofits in the Dallas community.
628
00:39:11,800 --> 00:39:15,120
And I just fell in love with the work, the people they were serving.
629
00:39:15,120 --> 00:39:20,320
And so I started a consulting group that really tried to help them elevate their game,
630
00:39:20,400 --> 00:39:26,680
better fundraising, better constituent communications, better community engagement and
631
00:39:26,680 --> 00:39:29,920
then better events. Because I don't know about you, but I would love nonprofits.
632
00:39:29,920 --> 00:39:33,160
But I literally wanted to pay so I didn't have to go to their event.
633
00:39:33,520 --> 00:39:38,920
And so my my hope was is you could turn those into storytelling opportunities, something
634
00:39:38,920 --> 00:39:42,560
that carries over quite well into the work I do at the Policy Circle now.
635
00:39:43,320 --> 00:39:47,920
But yeah, I heard somebody say the other day, my path has not been a straight line, but I
636
00:39:47,920 --> 00:39:49,440
just keep moving forward.
637
00:39:49,440 --> 00:39:50,760
I know you appreciate that.
638
00:39:51,200 --> 00:39:56,080
No question. So you've been involved in public policy on the public and the private
639
00:39:56,080 --> 00:39:57,440
sector sides and key roles.
640
00:39:58,200 --> 00:40:01,360
What advice would you give to women who are interested in pursuing a career in public
641
00:40:01,360 --> 00:40:08,200
policy? So my daughter's actually 21 and just has recently caught the policy bug.
642
00:40:08,480 --> 00:40:14,640
And really what I tell her is get as many experiences under your belt as possible.
643
00:40:14,960 --> 00:40:19,120
So through the Policy Circle, she met the mayor of Fort Worth, the remarkable Maddie
644
00:40:19,120 --> 00:40:21,680
Parker, and she went to work for her as an intern.
645
00:40:21,920 --> 00:40:23,400
I was like, just go work for free.
646
00:40:23,880 --> 00:40:29,320
And then she went last summer and was an intern on the Hill, which that's not an easy
647
00:40:29,320 --> 00:40:32,640
job and it can be challenging.
648
00:40:32,680 --> 00:40:38,120
But you get a real sense of how that political machine and the legislative process
649
00:40:38,120 --> 00:40:41,960
works. And now she's in Texas getting a sense of what's going on here.
650
00:40:41,960 --> 00:40:43,960
And so my advice would be the same.
651
00:40:44,360 --> 00:40:47,040
Sample different levels of government.
652
00:40:47,560 --> 00:40:50,120
Look at government affairs on the corporate side.
653
00:40:50,160 --> 00:40:52,840
Look at serving volunteer for a campaign.
654
00:40:53,440 --> 00:40:54,600
I just did this for the first time.
655
00:40:54,640 --> 00:40:55,720
Real eye opener.
656
00:40:56,720 --> 00:41:01,640
And I think getting those experiences to you meet the most amazing people.
657
00:41:02,200 --> 00:41:07,160
And I will say as jacked up as the process feels, there are so many high quality,
658
00:41:07,160 --> 00:41:13,160
remarkable, devoted, principled people that work on these teams and the staff.
659
00:41:13,520 --> 00:41:16,960
And some of those legislators and folks you meet are really inspiring.
660
00:41:17,320 --> 00:41:20,920
And so getting access to people and experiences, that's your best bet.
661
00:41:20,960 --> 00:41:24,280
Then you can decide, hey, this really resonates and where I want to be.
662
00:41:24,760 --> 00:41:27,520
You don't just show up in D.C. thinking, oh yeah, this is going to be it.
663
00:41:27,600 --> 00:41:29,120
You've got to take some other steps.
664
00:41:29,880 --> 00:41:33,200
It's also a great way, I think, just to start building your personal professional
665
00:41:33,200 --> 00:41:36,800
network because everyone, I'm sorry, most people not stay in that.
666
00:41:36,800 --> 00:41:40,960
They'll go off and do, to your point, government affairs or finance or whatever it
667
00:41:40,960 --> 00:41:44,440
may be. And you never know who you're going to meet 10, 15, 20 years down the road.
668
00:41:44,440 --> 00:41:48,080
Like, oh my God, we were on the Hill together in 2015, whatever it was.
669
00:41:48,480 --> 00:41:52,360
I just had that. I went to an event in D.C., somebody I hadn't seen in 30 years.
670
00:41:52,360 --> 00:41:54,760
And he was chief of staff when I was in Dick Garmley's office.
671
00:41:54,760 --> 00:41:59,440
And so you never lose those connections and those experiences.
672
00:41:59,720 --> 00:42:01,000
It's just so valuable.
673
00:42:02,160 --> 00:42:06,960
Yeah, no question. So Stacey, we never want to rely on generalizations, but you
674
00:42:06,960 --> 00:42:09,400
think men and women approach public policy differently?
675
00:42:09,800 --> 00:42:11,280
And if so, how do they tend to be different?
676
00:42:12,600 --> 00:42:14,880
You know, we don't like generalizations either.
677
00:42:14,920 --> 00:42:20,280
And I would say, you know, good sound analysis of public policy.
678
00:42:21,240 --> 00:42:26,120
I don't think there's a gender lens for evaluating how do you define success?
679
00:42:26,120 --> 00:42:27,280
How do you measure it?
680
00:42:27,640 --> 00:42:30,520
You know, what's good policy and looking at the consequences?
681
00:42:30,520 --> 00:42:34,160
I think so much policy operates in these vacuums and they don't think about the
682
00:42:34,160 --> 00:42:35,600
unintended consequences.
683
00:42:36,080 --> 00:42:39,520
And so I think men and women both need to be really thoughtful.
684
00:42:39,800 --> 00:42:44,320
Think about the impact on actual citizens and their businesses and their families.
685
00:42:44,600 --> 00:42:49,280
I would say the value that women bring to this conversation are personal experiences,
686
00:42:49,280 --> 00:42:53,640
raising family, making sure their kids are educated and healthy.
687
00:42:53,880 --> 00:42:55,920
And it's good to have that voice at the table.
688
00:42:55,920 --> 00:43:00,280
I mean, America doesn't do a great job when it comes to maternity leave or
689
00:43:00,480 --> 00:43:02,640
understanding caregiving obligations.
690
00:43:02,840 --> 00:43:05,120
And I'm not saying the government can solve that problem.
691
00:43:05,120 --> 00:43:09,960
But if you're at these tables discussing how do we build better frameworks, you
692
00:43:09,960 --> 00:43:13,080
really should have everybody sitting at the table is going to be impacted by that.
693
00:43:13,240 --> 00:43:15,440
So we think there's a lot of value in just perspective.
694
00:43:16,240 --> 00:43:18,160
You know, you just remind me of something.
695
00:43:18,160 --> 00:43:20,960
Talk about America not doing a good job with maternity leave.
696
00:43:21,560 --> 00:43:25,760
When my wife and I had our first daughter, she had to save her two weeks of vacation.
697
00:43:25,760 --> 00:43:28,360
So she had a collective eight weeks off.
698
00:43:29,280 --> 00:43:33,360
Eight weeks, like you're barely getting any sleep after eight weeks, let alone
699
00:43:33,360 --> 00:43:34,560
knowing anything else.
700
00:43:34,560 --> 00:43:36,600
So, yeah, absolutely agree with you on that one.
701
00:43:37,760 --> 00:43:40,520
There's an old saying that we're all entitled to our own opinions, but we're
702
00:43:40,520 --> 00:43:41,960
not entitled to our own set of facts.
703
00:43:42,880 --> 00:43:45,640
Do you think that part of the reason we're so divided today is because many people
704
00:43:45,640 --> 00:43:49,200
on the left and right tend to get their news only from sources that amplify the
705
00:43:49,200 --> 00:43:50,400
opinions they already have?
706
00:43:51,480 --> 00:43:52,360
One hundred percent.
707
00:43:52,880 --> 00:43:54,280
The echo chamber is dangerous.
708
00:43:54,280 --> 00:43:54,920
We've seen it.
709
00:43:55,040 --> 00:43:56,040
It's playing out.
710
00:43:56,120 --> 00:44:01,480
And we've seen how that continues to foster mistrust and division and that
711
00:44:01,480 --> 00:44:03,120
increased polarization.
712
00:44:03,560 --> 00:44:06,200
And you have to be diligent.
713
00:44:06,200 --> 00:44:10,760
And one of the things I ask as I speak all around the country is how many of you, in
714
00:44:10,760 --> 00:44:14,760
order to understand an issue, consult two sources and the hands go up?
715
00:44:15,200 --> 00:44:16,560
How many of you consult three?
716
00:44:16,640 --> 00:44:17,640
They keep going up.
717
00:44:17,640 --> 00:44:23,040
And so one of the things the policy circle does for people is we give you a brief on
718
00:44:23,040 --> 00:44:29,280
a topic with hundreds of sources and you can click on every assertion of fact and
719
00:44:29,280 --> 00:44:30,560
go straight to the source data.
720
00:44:30,560 --> 00:44:33,600
You want to spend hours going through government data, more power to you.
721
00:44:33,840 --> 00:44:38,680
Do you want to have just a solid collection of facts and an overview, the
722
00:44:38,680 --> 00:44:40,200
numbers and why it matters?
723
00:44:40,560 --> 00:44:43,560
That is really what we provide.
724
00:44:43,560 --> 00:44:47,480
And I'll tell you, as I talk, we just have done conversations recently on
725
00:44:47,480 --> 00:44:52,160
immigration. That is a tough topic to get good, reliable information on.
726
00:44:52,400 --> 00:44:59,120
And so we present a wide range on legal migration to what is asylum, how to work
727
00:44:59,120 --> 00:45:04,600
permits play into good business practices, seasonal workers, you know, really
728
00:45:04,600 --> 00:45:07,720
necessary. But this isn't just a one size fits all.
729
00:45:08,080 --> 00:45:12,760
And what we often hear is either controversial opinions because that drives more
730
00:45:12,760 --> 00:45:19,640
eyeballs or very narrow, like this is the only way that we can look at an issue.
731
00:45:19,720 --> 00:45:21,320
Very seldom is that true.
732
00:45:21,840 --> 00:45:25,680
And so we really encourage people to be discerning about their sources.
733
00:45:26,400 --> 00:45:32,480
Understand that you have we have a great source we like to rely on called all all
734
00:45:32,480 --> 00:45:33,760
sides media.
735
00:45:34,080 --> 00:45:38,440
And another is a great search engine called Free Spoke, because it'll tell you like
736
00:45:38,440 --> 00:45:40,240
this is coming from the left and the right.
737
00:45:40,240 --> 00:45:41,920
And it's like pretty transparent.
738
00:45:42,240 --> 00:45:46,280
So I'd say being good consumers of the news and then hopefully they want to be part of
739
00:45:46,280 --> 00:45:50,200
our community and get access to the resources we provide, because that gives you a
740
00:45:50,200 --> 00:45:53,360
shortcut to having all the sources put together for you already.
741
00:45:54,640 --> 00:45:58,440
So we talked about the million views of your policy briefs earlier in the show.
742
00:45:59,040 --> 00:46:00,720
Which briefs seem to be the most popular?
743
00:46:00,880 --> 00:46:02,120
And do you know who's reading those briefs?
744
00:46:02,440 --> 00:46:05,560
Conservatives, liberals, moderates in between?
745
00:46:06,640 --> 00:46:08,680
We do have some analytics on this.
746
00:46:08,680 --> 00:46:13,320
So like we had 20 million web impressions last year, Chris, largely driven by people
747
00:46:13,320 --> 00:46:14,880
searching and landing on the briefs.
748
00:46:15,240 --> 00:46:19,840
And what was interesting to us is 40 percent of those were 18 to 26.
749
00:46:20,320 --> 00:46:21,320
I kind of love that.
750
00:46:21,640 --> 00:46:22,760
That's exciting to us.
751
00:46:22,760 --> 00:46:27,760
Now, they just may be in a college course and they're digging around and need a good
752
00:46:27,760 --> 00:46:29,200
reliable source. That's fine.
753
00:46:29,240 --> 00:46:32,280
Come to us. We've got good facts and we're happy to provide those.
754
00:46:33,040 --> 00:46:39,680
We also have about 40 percent, 60 percent women, 40 percent men, 60 percent women
755
00:46:39,680 --> 00:46:41,680
reading our briefs. So that's a good balance.
756
00:46:41,680 --> 00:46:43,200
We want to educate all those folks.
757
00:46:43,480 --> 00:46:47,440
Now, Google Analytics is not going to tell us political affiliation.
758
00:46:48,240 --> 00:46:53,160
But as we survey our community, we're learning more and more about that.
759
00:46:53,160 --> 00:46:57,480
That's part of what we're building, a new platform so we can understand that.
760
00:46:57,720 --> 00:47:02,200
But I think more important to us is that they're just getting access to good
761
00:47:02,360 --> 00:47:05,360
information. The briefs that are popular, China.
762
00:47:05,360 --> 00:47:07,440
We have a remarkable brief on China.
763
00:47:07,440 --> 00:47:12,920
And then we did a terrific interview, like a virtual program with Congressman Mike
764
00:47:12,920 --> 00:47:15,960
Gallagher, who's head of the Select Committee on the CCP.
765
00:47:16,200 --> 00:47:17,280
And then we also had Dr.
766
00:47:17,280 --> 00:47:19,440
Jackie Deal at the Vandenberg Coalition.
767
00:47:19,440 --> 00:47:22,080
So China is a big one for us.
768
00:47:22,320 --> 00:47:26,040
We've seen a lot of traffic. We have a Middle East brief and we also have a brief
769
00:47:26,040 --> 00:47:31,040
we released right around the time of our United States withdrawal from Afghanistan
770
00:47:31,360 --> 00:47:32,880
on rogue regimes.
771
00:47:32,880 --> 00:47:35,160
And the refugee crisis is another brief.
772
00:47:35,560 --> 00:47:37,840
You know, now that we're seeing that, those are very popular.
773
00:47:37,840 --> 00:47:40,840
But those civics briefs, what is the role of the U.S.
774
00:47:40,840 --> 00:47:42,520
Senate, is always in our top three.
775
00:47:42,760 --> 00:47:48,960
People need to know the basics and we are happy to be a place where they can go and
776
00:47:48,960 --> 00:47:53,680
get that information. So now for the moment we've all been waiting for, how does
777
00:47:53,680 --> 00:47:56,960
someone sign up to participate in the Policy Circle and what's expected of them when
778
00:47:56,960 --> 00:47:59,880
they do? Everyone's on the edge of their seats.
779
00:47:59,880 --> 00:48:04,800
They just want to know. So the Policy Circle has an interesting, flexible framework.
780
00:48:04,800 --> 00:48:06,760
We like to kind of meet people where they are.
781
00:48:07,040 --> 00:48:14,280
So the first thing that someone can do is they can join as a member, like ten dollars
782
00:48:14,280 --> 00:48:16,200
a month or one hundred dollars a year.
783
00:48:16,200 --> 00:48:19,000
And that gives you access to the whole brief library.
784
00:48:19,360 --> 00:48:25,360
We also have special invitations to, you know, meet our speakers, engage in our virtual
785
00:48:25,360 --> 00:48:28,920
programs. And then when we do regional events, you're on our list.
786
00:48:28,920 --> 00:48:33,200
We'll reach out and see if you want to engage and attend either a day at the Capitol in
787
00:48:33,200 --> 00:48:36,280
your in your state capital or a partner event.
788
00:48:36,600 --> 00:48:39,360
We are not a think tank, Chris.
789
00:48:39,360 --> 00:48:41,000
We aggregate, we curate.
790
00:48:41,000 --> 00:48:45,440
We have great partners, respected, smart, capable groups.
791
00:48:45,680 --> 00:48:48,680
So we like to connect our members with those state based groups.
792
00:48:48,680 --> 00:48:57,160
So this is just a way to get plugged into an ecosystem of fact oriented, solutions
793
00:48:57,160 --> 00:49:00,160
focused groups that are in our ecosystem.
794
00:49:00,160 --> 00:49:04,080
The other thing people can do is they can sign up for our Civic Leadership Engagement
795
00:49:04,080 --> 00:49:05,800
Program, CLEAR, that I mentioned.
796
00:49:06,160 --> 00:49:08,720
We have another class starting on September 1st.
797
00:49:08,720 --> 00:49:10,600
There are still some slots available.
798
00:49:11,000 --> 00:49:12,600
This is a three month commitment.
799
00:49:12,640 --> 00:49:15,680
It's not expensive. We have scholarships available, too.
800
00:49:16,080 --> 00:49:21,560
It is a great way to get to know fabulous women all over the country who care about their
801
00:49:21,560 --> 00:49:22,720
communities and country.
802
00:49:22,960 --> 00:49:25,560
But it also really starts to boost your skill set.
803
00:49:26,080 --> 00:49:29,400
And I say the other way is join us for one of our events.
804
00:49:29,400 --> 00:49:31,240
You can follow us on social media.
805
00:49:31,240 --> 00:49:33,080
You can subscribe to our newsletter.
806
00:49:33,200 --> 00:49:35,440
Real easy way to subscribe is on LinkedIn.
807
00:49:35,720 --> 00:49:40,400
And then you can find out if we're coming to your area or when our next summit rolls
808
00:49:40,400 --> 00:49:42,080
around in 2025.
809
00:49:42,320 --> 00:49:44,600
You can join virtually or in person.
810
00:49:44,840 --> 00:49:48,360
But we provide a really flexible way that you can engage.
811
00:49:49,000 --> 00:49:53,360
Again, virtual events are happening really all the time with us.
812
00:49:53,360 --> 00:49:57,000
And you can either watch it live or you can go to our YouTube channel.
813
00:49:57,200 --> 00:50:06,560
And there is a fantastic collection of briefs or video programs that are rooted in our
814
00:50:06,560 --> 00:50:12,280
briefs that really give people an opportunity to understand the issues and hear directly
815
00:50:12,280 --> 00:50:14,480
from the folks that are impacting public policy.
816
00:50:15,280 --> 00:50:18,480
Stacey Blakely, Run of Time, thank you so much for being with us today.
817
00:50:18,480 --> 00:50:19,960
Really appreciate your time and your insight.
818
00:50:20,800 --> 00:50:26,400
I am delighted to be here and I really appreciate your partnership, Chris, and look
819
00:50:26,400 --> 00:50:29,320
forward to having more conversations with you in the future.
820
00:50:29,400 --> 00:50:30,600
Likewise, appreciate that.
821
00:50:30,960 --> 00:50:32,280
I'm Chris Meek, Run of Time.
822
00:50:32,320 --> 00:50:33,160
We'll see you next week.
823
00:50:33,360 --> 00:50:34,520
Same time, same place.
824
00:50:34,520 --> 00:50:37,760
Until then, stay safe and keep taking your next steps forward.
825
00:50:37,760 --> 00:50:45,360
Thanks for tuning in to Next Steps Forward.
826
00:50:45,480 --> 00:50:49,840
Be sure to join Chris Meek for another great show next Tuesday at 10 a.m.
827
00:50:49,840 --> 00:50:51,640
Pacific Time and 1 p.m.
828
00:50:51,640 --> 00:50:55,160
Eastern Time on The Voice America Empowerment Channel.
829
00:50:55,440 --> 00:50:58,640
This week, make things happen in your life.
830
00:51:07,760 --> 00:51:08,760
I'm Chris Meek, Run of Time.
831
00:51:08,760 --> 00:51:09,760
Be sure to join Chris Meek for another great show next Tuesday at 10 a.m.
832
00:51:09,760 --> 00:51:10,760
Pacific Time and 1 p.m.
833
00:51:10,760 --> 00:51:11,760
Eastern Time on The Voice America Empowerment Channel.
834
00:51:11,760 --> 00:51:12,760
This week, make things happen in your life.
835
00:51:12,760 --> 00:51:13,760
Make things happen in your life.
836
00:51:13,760 --> 00:51:14,760
I'm Chris Meek, Run of Time.
837
00:51:14,760 --> 00:51:15,760
Be sure to join Chris Meek for another great show next Tuesday at 10 a.m.
838
00:51:15,760 --> 00:51:16,760
Pacific Time and 1 p.m.
839
00:51:16,760 --> 00:51:17,760
Eastern Time on The Voice America Empowerment Channel.
840
00:51:17,760 --> 00:51:18,760
This week, make things happen in your life.
841
00:51:18,760 --> 00:51:19,760
I'm Chris Meek, Run of Time.
842
00:51:19,760 --> 00:51:20,760
Be sure to join Chris Meek for another great show next Tuesday at 10 a.m.
843
00:51:20,760 --> 00:51:21,760
Pacific Time on The Voice America Empowerment Channel.
844
00:51:21,760 --> 00:51:22,760
This week, make things happen in your life.
845
00:51:22,760 --> 00:51:23,760
I'm Chris Meek, Run of Time.
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,240
There are few things that make people successful.
2
00:00:08,240 --> 00:00:13,280
Taking a step forward to change their lives is one successful trait, but it takes some
3
00:00:13,280 --> 00:00:14,840
time to get there.
4
00:00:14,840 --> 00:00:18,680
How do you move forward to greet the success that awaits you?
5
00:00:18,680 --> 00:00:22,640
Welcome to Next Steps Forward with host Chris Meek.
6
00:00:22,640 --> 00:00:30,200
Each week, Chris brings on another guest who has successfully taken the next steps forward.
7
00:00:30,200 --> 00:00:32,640
Now here is Chris Meek.
8
00:00:32,640 --> 00:00:37,980
Hello, I'm Chris Meek and you've tuned in this week's episode of Next Steps Forward.
9
00:00:37,980 --> 00:00:40,060
As always, it's a pleasure to have you with us.
10
00:00:40,060 --> 00:00:42,920
Our special guest today is Stacey Blakely.
11
00:00:42,920 --> 00:00:48,220
Stacey brings 25 years of professional experience to her role as the CEO of the Policy Circle.
12
00:00:48,220 --> 00:00:51,960
Her career began at the Capitol in Washington, DC as a staffer for then House Majority Leader
13
00:00:52,080 --> 00:00:53,420
Dick Armey.
14
00:00:53,420 --> 00:00:56,420
She transitioned from planning events for political leaders and diplomats to corporate
15
00:00:56,420 --> 00:01:01,820
event marketing for such big names as Dean Foods, BMW, AT&T, and Exxon.
16
00:01:01,820 --> 00:01:06,580
In 2004, Stacey pursued her lifelong dream of becoming an attorney and graduated from
17
00:01:06,580 --> 00:01:10,060
Southern Methodist University's Dedmon School of Law.
18
00:01:10,060 --> 00:01:14,460
As a commercial litigator, her practice focused on federal class action, construction, and
19
00:01:14,460 --> 00:01:15,460
corporate disputes.
20
00:01:15,460 --> 00:01:20,700
In 2013, Stacey launched KSG, an event and consulting firm that serves international
21
00:01:20,700 --> 00:01:24,200
ministries, national nonprofits, and corporations.
22
00:01:24,200 --> 00:01:28,000
And as a nonprofit consultant, Stacey has helped numerous nonprofits raise millions
23
00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:29,400
of dollars.
24
00:01:29,400 --> 00:01:32,120
Stacey Blakely, welcome to Next Steps Forward.
25
00:01:32,120 --> 00:01:33,640
I'm delighted to be here, Chris.
26
00:01:33,640 --> 00:01:34,640
Thank you.
27
00:01:34,640 --> 00:01:35,640
Honored to have you.
28
00:01:35,640 --> 00:01:36,640
I know how busy your schedule is.
29
00:01:36,640 --> 00:01:39,040
We were just talking about your travel and so really appreciate you taking some time
30
00:01:39,040 --> 00:01:40,920
to sit with us today.
31
00:01:40,920 --> 00:01:44,480
So Stacey, I want to start with something that the Policy Circle emphasizes that is
32
00:01:44,480 --> 00:01:49,200
so important, but seems so rare in today's political and policy environments.
33
00:01:49,200 --> 00:01:53,900
You advise people to, quote, be more curious and less furious, end quote.
34
00:01:53,900 --> 00:01:56,940
Take us through the origins of that phrase and how the Policy Circle is working to help
35
00:01:56,940 --> 00:02:00,340
women be more curious and less furious.
36
00:02:00,340 --> 00:02:02,900
So I actually have to give credit where credit is due.
37
00:02:02,900 --> 00:02:07,820
Sylvia Legere, the co-founder and chairman of the board, came up with this phrase.
38
00:02:07,820 --> 00:02:15,540
And the origins of this, Chris, back in 21, 22, what we found was there was sort of this
39
00:02:15,540 --> 00:02:17,660
awakening, if you will.
40
00:02:17,720 --> 00:02:22,880
And, you know, we could even trace this to schools were closing and there were mask mandates
41
00:02:22,880 --> 00:02:30,520
and you saw folks showing up to school board meetings and being very vocal and maybe aggressive
42
00:02:30,520 --> 00:02:31,840
and they were furious.
43
00:02:31,840 --> 00:02:37,800
And so you were getting maybe not as productive of dialogue out of that.
44
00:02:37,800 --> 00:02:40,920
And then you've seen a steady stream of things to be angry about since then.
45
00:02:40,920 --> 00:02:46,360
I mean, you've seen folks showing up at meetings because they're upset about books or gender.
46
00:02:46,360 --> 00:02:51,580
And then you had the summer of the protests and race relations.
47
00:02:51,580 --> 00:02:59,060
And so we have really leaned into a philosophy that if you show up or you raise your voice
48
00:02:59,060 --> 00:03:08,140
to be heard, it should be done with an informed perspective, but looking to listen, ask good
49
00:03:08,140 --> 00:03:14,740
questions and then be solutions oriented as opposed to just angry.
50
00:03:14,740 --> 00:03:15,740
Simple mindset, right?
51
00:03:16,120 --> 00:03:17,120
That's a novel idea.
52
00:03:17,120 --> 00:03:18,120
I know.
53
00:03:18,120 --> 00:03:22,820
It's crazy, but that's an outlier in the world we're living in.
54
00:03:22,820 --> 00:03:26,800
The Policy Circle is a nonpartisan grassroots organization that provides a framework to
55
00:03:26,800 --> 00:03:30,200
boost civil discourse and civic engagement, as you just highlighted.
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00:03:30,200 --> 00:03:33,740
A lot of people in public office and their supporters seem to enjoy name calling and
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00:03:33,740 --> 00:03:35,600
criticizing their opponents.
58
00:03:35,600 --> 00:03:40,480
So why are civil discourse and civil engagement so crucial in today's society?
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00:03:40,480 --> 00:03:41,560
It's vital.
60
00:03:41,560 --> 00:03:48,460
These are foundational principles if we want to live in a free and prosperous society and
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00:03:48,460 --> 00:03:52,700
one that really cares about each individual flourishing.
62
00:03:52,700 --> 00:04:01,540
And civil discourse, I've heard this phrase that civility costs nothing and it buys everything.
63
00:04:01,540 --> 00:04:06,980
It's really about being collaborative and solutions oriented and showing respect for
64
00:04:06,980 --> 00:04:09,780
people even if you disagree.
65
00:04:10,780 --> 00:04:12,880
There's a quote that I found.
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00:04:12,880 --> 00:04:17,080
This is kind of in that what everything I learned, I learned in kindergarten.
67
00:04:17,080 --> 00:04:21,960
It's really just about being nice and doing so in a way not that you are not principled,
68
00:04:21,960 --> 00:04:27,920
not that you don't have strong opinions, but tackling these conversations in a way that
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00:04:27,920 --> 00:04:32,040
you're hoping to find a solution rather than just light the room on fire.
70
00:04:32,040 --> 00:04:33,040
And it's interesting.
71
00:04:33,040 --> 00:04:38,240
I was looking at some data from a polarization lab and the people that engaged in the most
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00:04:38,240 --> 00:04:44,480
name calling in Congress, big shocker, they had the least amount of bills passed.
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00:04:44,480 --> 00:04:46,180
Nobody wants to work with that person.
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00:04:46,180 --> 00:04:52,080
They just get a lot of YouTube and they get a lot of clicks on social media and sadly
75
00:04:52,080 --> 00:04:55,980
that's how they fundraise is through that outrage machine.
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And the corollary to that is civic engagement is vital and it's really sometimes confused
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with just being political.
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And civic engagement is about caring about your community and your neighbors, looking
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for gaps and opportunities where you can step in, you can be helpful, you can identify solutions
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that are rooted in your value system.
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And so it can be everything from running for office, which we know some people should do
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and some should not, and it's getting involved with your neighborhood association.
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We've got women that get on the board of their public library and it can be as simple
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as just love your neighbor and it can be as advanced as you're going to run for office
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and impact public policy that in turn could make lives better, millions of lives better.
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You talked about members of Congress and the Senate having the bully bullpen and the blowhorn
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and not having any bills passed.
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Our show is nonpartisan.
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We talk politics at a very high level, but we've seen a few things from yesterday that
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have gone probably international now, but AOC visited a rally for congressional candidate
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Bowman in the South Bronx.
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And the number of explicatives he dropped during the rally were unbelievable.
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And is he doing that just to raise funds, to try and differentiate himself from the
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other candidate just because maybe that's just who he is?
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I guess that's an open-ended question because you don't exactly know the answer, but then
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that's the exact opposite of what we need right now.
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It just fuels fire of division and it's so unnecessary.
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And I think what makes me sad is we're not modeling disciplined emotional control for
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children and for young adults.
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And I mean, if you look at, I have daughters that are 21 and 22.
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They don't remember a time when there was a certain bar of behavior that we held our
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leaders to.
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They've never seen it.
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And this is a bipartisan trait.
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Nobody has cornered the market on bad behavior.
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You see it on every side, you know, both sides of the aisle.
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And what I think is so disappointing is there was a time when you could say to your kids,
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like these are people to look up to, to aspire to.
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Now we have to use it as like a cautionary tale.
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Don't do that.
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And then they ask, well, you know, how does that person achieve success or why are they
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in this leadership role?
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That's a really difficult question to answer.
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And I'd say the other thing is that we have a culture.
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We have the construct of social media.
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It rewards that behavior, period.
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They make more money.
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They get more eyeballs.
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And here's the deal.
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The most civil members of Congress you've never heard of.
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And that's the unfortunate thing.
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And it's because they're just doing the work and they're serving their constituents.
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And I would like to go back to a time when politics was boring.
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We all would.
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We all would.
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And we're just getting our work done.
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All right, back to the policy circle.
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Let's focus on the positive things here.
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Why does the policy circle focus its efforts on getting women involved in public policy
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and debate?
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So, you know, we chose, our founders did, to focus on women for a few reasons.
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First and foremost, women still only hold about a third of elected and appointed roles.
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That's really it.
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Across the board.
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It's pretty consistent.
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And so we want to see more women who care about freedom, who care about transparent
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accountable government, and who are solutions oriented to be sitting in those seats.
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So for us, it's not just women for the sake of women.
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It's women that really know what they're doing.
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They're informed and they're capable.
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And they really do appreciate the value of free markets and sort of entrepreneurial mindset.
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And I would say the other reason we focus on this is because women largely have been
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dictating the outcomes of elections since the 1980s.
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They outregister and outvote their male counterparts.
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And so there's a lot of influence that comes with that.
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And we want that to be where they're informed on a wide range of issues, not voting on just
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perhaps one issue.
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And lastly, which I've told you, I think this is fascinating and it's a very interesting
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phenomenon, is that we're about to see one of the greatest wealth transfers in history.
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And this will especially benefit women.
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And you're going to see some real changes based on that distribution of wealth.
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So let's take each of those points individually, and we'll start with the last one, the wealth
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transfer.
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What are the driving forces behind wealth transfer?
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Where do women fit in?
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And what part do public policy and women's influence play?
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So I think this wealth transfer is interesting.
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McKinsey did a study a few years ago, and I was reading Ellevest, did a really great
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article on this if folks want to check it out.
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But essentially women control about one third, so about $10 trillion that are sort of under
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a woman's management.
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They expect by the 2030s, which is not that far away, women will control two thirds.
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That's $30 trillion.
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And the factors driving this, I'm sorry, Chris, death and divorce.
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It's largely inheritance, and women live longer than men.
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I also saw an interesting fact that millennials have the highest percentage in history of
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single women.
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So as they inherit that wealth, they're going to have control of that.
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And so when you think about what wealth does, it gives people more influence, more opportunities
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to invest, to start business, to be philanthropic.
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And we really want women, when they have more influence or financial power, that to be informed
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influence.
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And that's super important.
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And so that's one of those reasons that we think the wealth transfer is really important.
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All right.
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Let's take the second reason the policy circle focuses on women.
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You mentioned before women outvote men.
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You want to ensure that women have the information and knowledge to connect the dots between
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the issues and outcomes they want for the candidate they vote for.
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Yeah, the connecting of the dots sometimes is a little frustrating because women will
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have certain policies that they care about, whether that's education or economic opportunity.
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It's a wide range.
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And a lot of times women all get lumped, right?
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They all care about X.
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And what we find is women care about a wide range of issues, but then they don't always
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look at the person they're electing to evaluate, oh, are we aligned on the policies that back
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up these priorities?
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And so we really want to sort of lay it all out for people and give them the facts so
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that they can land on a conclusion rooted in truth.
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There is still such thing as facts and truth, and then they can hold their elected officials
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accountable and whether or not they're making progress on the issues they care about.
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We often see a disconnect there.
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And the third reason, which was the first one you mentioned, women hold less than one
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third of elected offices.
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Why doesn't that number reflect the actual population split and what are the ramifications
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or consequences of women holding a disproportionately smaller percentage of elected and appointed
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offices?
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Well, we have to look at some of the practical barriers.
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I mean, I'll give you an example.
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In the state of Texas, there were five special sessions.
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So if you get paid almost nothing, you've got childcare responsibilities and you're
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having to manage your work and your public service.
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The system is not set up very well to help women that have multiple responsibilities
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from career and caregiving.
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So I just think there's some practical barriers there.
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I also think that by some, you know, this is rooted in some historical and some cultural
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issues, but there's still a confidence gap.
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It drives me a little crazy because I'll meet women who are really capable and they'll
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say, oh, I don't know anything about policy.
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And we'll say, well, OK, have you raised a family?
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Have you had kids in school?
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Have you, you know, helped run a business or gotten involved in any level?
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Right. I'm just living, being part of society.
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And then they start to realize when you unpack policy, it's really about people and they
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know a lot. And so we really want to help boost confidence.
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And part of that is just knowledge.
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There is these fundamental differences in men and women.
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And I don't like lumping people in these big generalizations, but there's a pretty common
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theme. Women want to read the book, listen to the podcast, get really equipped before
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they even raise their hand and ask a question.
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And I make a little joke that men sleep in a Holiday Inn and then they're experts on
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immigration, you know, that I slept in a Holiday Inn joke.
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But there is there's there's a fundamental thing where men will apply for jobs they're
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not qualified for because they're just taking a chance, taking a risk, putting themselves
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out there. A lot of women don't apply for those jobs because they think, oh, I don't
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check every box.
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And so for us, it's about having this community that tells women that you're capable
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and we're here to support you and make you even more capable so that they have that
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confidence to step into roles where they really could contribute.
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So that's really that first part.
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Second part, having women having a seat at the table.
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It's unique perspective.
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There are certain things that women will experience that men do not and vice versa.
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So it's important to have a really balanced perspective.
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So you're thinking about what are the practical realities for your community members?
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And since more than half of your community members are women, it's just good to have a
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voice. So we've just touched on, I'll call the three pillars, if you will, of the policy
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circle and getting women engaged civically.
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Maybe give us an overview of the policy circle and its mission.
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Sure. So the policy circle's mission is to inform and equip and connect women.
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So they can be more impactful citizens.
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And so we do this in a number of ways.
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But first and foremost, we really want an informed citizenry.
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And so that's men and women.
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We produce materials that are consumed by men and women all over the country.
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And then we also have specific programs that elevate the dialogue.
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And we have this really novel concept that if we give you all the facts and you're able to
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go to the source of those facts, you might actually be able to come to your own
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conclusion. We don't need to spoon feed that.
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You don't need a pundit to tell you what you believe.
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So with that information, the confidence grows.
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So we have built out a really unique leadership program.
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It's really accessible.
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It's called the Civic Leadership Engagement Roadmap.
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And I'm sure, you know, there's that thought of, oh, does the world really need another
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leadership program?
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Well, we developed this because we saw a gap in the market.
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It's virtual. It's 90 days.
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You have a cohort of women in every stage and phase of life from all over the country
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that you can learn from.
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And what you come out of this with is taking some of that civic knowledge and then
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learning how to turn that into civic action.
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So it's not just passive.
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You're not just watching videos.
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You have to learn and then you have to get out, meet elected officials, invite them to
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coffee. One of the things, Chris, that I think is interesting is, as women in the
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program, are they going to accept my invitation?
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I said, yes, because you're calling and you're friendly and you're helpful.
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You're not yelling at them.
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You want to sit down and have a good conversation.
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So they almost always say yes.
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So whether that's you can get with your mayor or your city council, you know, Texas,
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we've got county commissioners.
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And then we ask them to start attending some meetings so that they can evaluate who are
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the stakeholders.
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And not only in that process do the women in our organization start to learn who's
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making decisions, which I think we learned during COVID, you really need to know who's
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making decisions that impact your business or your community.
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But then they become known.
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Our participants become known.
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Oh, that's a thoughtful person.
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That's somebody that's really well informed and capable.
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And so when opportunities arise for a task force or a commission and they need citizen
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input, they're thinking, oh, I want to have that nice person that keeps showing up and
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offering to help. And so that is really our civic leadership engagement roadmap.
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There's more particulars I can tell you about.
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And then that connection piece is so important.
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I mean, we're wired for human connection.
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And so between our circle model where people gather and discuss a brief, there's such a
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connection point there.
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Chris, what we find often is people will gather friends or colleagues and then they end
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up learning something completely new about them.
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These can be people you've known forever.
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But the nature of the conversation is so rich.
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It's so interesting.
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And so that connection point, we carry that through in regional events.
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And then we have an annual summit where we feature top notch speakers and engage in
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conversations with women, really will gather from all over the country.
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And what's great about that is you meet somebody that cares about an issue that you care
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about. And then, oh, what are you doing that works so you don't have to reinvent the
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wheel? So that connection point really matters for us.
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So I know you view it from a top down, sort of a national level.
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And you talked about the summit.
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But are there state chapters, local chapters?
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Is it just the one national entity itself?
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So what's interesting about our model is we produce policy circle briefs and these are
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multimedia. We source these from a number of excellent partners and vetted sources.
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And then individually all over the country in 48 states, we have about 400 circles.
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And these circles gather in living rooms and boardrooms.
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We have a great group in Chicago that gathers in pubs.
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It's very flexible.
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And the circle leader can decide who to invite, which topic they want to cover.
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We have 75 briefs on a wide range of topics.
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And these are sort of those boots on the ground.
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They start identifying allies.
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They really start getting energized about a topic.
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And with each one of our briefs, we have a discussion guide.
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And so in that discussion guide, we really want people to focus on local engagement,
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their local government, what's being spent, what's being done.
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And I think that that local piece is really important, Chris, because right now you have
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all time low approval ratings of the legislative, executive and sadly now the judicial
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branch. But 67 percent of Americans in a recent Gallup poll said they still trust local.
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And so that is a place, while we provide these broad materials, we have these local
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groups. They take it and they run with it.
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People like to, to your point, local people they know, they go to church with, synagogue,
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pick a ball, whatever it may be.
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Yeah, you trust your neighbor far more than a very disconnected politician.
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And that other piece of local is going to have the most immediate impact.
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So if you get involved in something, that is where you could have a direct impact.
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I'll give you an example.
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One of our CLEAR grads is from Missouri and she did one of the exercises where she went
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and met with a local elected official city council.
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He said, oh, yeah, by the way, I see where you live.
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We're about to change all those roads to one way.
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And she's like, what are you talking about?
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That's going to decimate businesses.
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There's a senior living community.
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That's going to be terrible for their access.
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We said, well, MoDOT's having a hearing in a few weeks, their transportation authority.
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No one knew about it.
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She got all her neighbors involved.
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It was a relatively new neighborhood, so she really had to go work it and get to know people.
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She ended up with a significant presence of citizens at that hearing and testified.
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She'd never done that before.
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And they ended up defeating the measure.
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And the transportation official said, we've never seen this level of citizen engagement.
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So she didn't run for office and she didn't have big accolades, but had a huge impact
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on thousands of people in her community because she organized, she got rooted in the
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information, gave data points about why this was damaging, and then she really built
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coalitions. And so that's just a great example, local impact.
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Love that. My wife always says, if you don't vote, you can't complain.
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And to your point, if you don't get involved, same thing, you can't complain.
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Yeah. And the thing is, Sylvia always says you have to get a clue to have a clue.
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If you're not asking questions and you're not showing up, you're not going to know about
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things, period. I mean, local newspapers are sadly shuddering.
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Our source of local news is less and less.
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There are fewer organizations that are thriving at that local level.
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I mean, think about it. Growing up, you had the Rotary Club and historical societies and
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things like that that really helped build the fabric of the community have really
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suffered. And so I think when you sow into those organizations, you got a little ear to
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the ground, you hear what's going on, and then you can step in and hopefully advocate
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for positive solutions or stop things that you think are damaging.
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So what inspired the creation of the Policy Circle and how has it grown since its
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inception?
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So Sylvia that I mentioned, Sylvia Legere, she lives in Wilmette, just outside of
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Chicago. Angela Brawley and Kathy Hubbard are both in Indianapolis, and they were
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all attending some of these policy oriented events.
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And what they found is that the men were given seats with the little placard in front
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of them for these roundtables.
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And the women, even if they were writing the checks, got a seat on the wall.
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And then they noticed there weren't enough women on stage discussing policy and they
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weren't being given opportunities to really drill down on a wide range of issues.
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They wanted to talk about taxes and immigration and housing.
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And so they thought, gosh, there's got to be some other women who are interested in
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these issues. So it really started in three living rooms.
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They combined some good materials and said, let's have our conversation rooted in these
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good materials.
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And since then, what has emerged is really a movement and a hunger that we see amongst
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women. They want the facts.
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They want to make up their own mind.
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They want to discuss them, kind of practice building their talking points.
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Then they want to do something about it.
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So now we've grown to about 15,000 folks in our broader community.
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And then we have, as I mentioned before, 400 circles in 48 states.
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And what's been really exciting for us, too, Chris, is we've almost got a million views
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of our briefs. So that brief library I mentioned.
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And we have a very broad audience when it comes to those briefs.
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00:23:50,640 --> 00:23:55,480
And so we're really influencing the conversation, giving people access to resources
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they're not going to get in their daily mail or TikTok.
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And we also are seeing the fruit of inspiring, equipping and really launching local
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00:24:05,240 --> 00:24:09,640
leaders. A million views of the briefs, that's amazing.
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00:24:10,760 --> 00:24:14,760
So what are some of the key topics covered in your Policy Circle briefs and how are these
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00:24:14,760 --> 00:24:20,320
topics chosen? So we do surveying, but first and foremost, we want to find out
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what does our community care about, what's on their radar.
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00:24:24,920 --> 00:24:29,480
We'll also often look at the legislative priorities, you know, things that we know are
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00:24:29,480 --> 00:24:31,160
going to be hot topics.
397
00:24:31,720 --> 00:24:33,520
You can't help but look at the news cycle.
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00:24:33,960 --> 00:24:37,920
And there's plenty of polling nationally about what are the issues that people care
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00:24:37,920 --> 00:24:40,440
about. We also look at the Supreme Court.
400
00:24:40,800 --> 00:24:45,760
Those are typically going to be some bigger topics that we need to be ahead of so that
401
00:24:46,200 --> 00:24:48,880
people have some foundational knowledge.
402
00:24:49,440 --> 00:24:52,840
So when a decision comes out, they don't have to believe what the newspaper said.
403
00:24:53,040 --> 00:24:57,400
They know, oh, gosh, this is what the Constitution actually says.
404
00:24:57,960 --> 00:25:03,160
And so we utilize all those factors to really build out what I would say are three
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00:25:03,160 --> 00:25:04,720
buckets of briefs.
406
00:25:05,360 --> 00:25:07,880
One is just civic knowledge.
407
00:25:08,360 --> 00:25:11,560
We have a civic literacy crisis in the United States.
408
00:25:11,640 --> 00:25:17,000
Seventy percent of Americans cannot pass a basic eighth grade civics quiz.
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00:25:17,400 --> 00:25:20,040
I'm talking like, what are the three branches of government?
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00:25:20,320 --> 00:25:25,640
And so if you don't have foundational knowledge about the role of government, how are
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00:25:25,640 --> 00:25:27,480
you supposed to understand what your role is?
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00:25:27,760 --> 00:25:31,920
And if you don't understand fundamental principles of the Constitution, you're going to
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00:25:31,920 --> 00:25:35,680
be very quick to fall for people saying, oh, you're entitled to act.
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00:25:35,680 --> 00:25:36,720
Well, you may not be.
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00:25:37,520 --> 00:25:39,960
And so it's important to have that foundational knowledge.
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00:25:39,960 --> 00:25:42,480
So we have some of our most popular briefs.
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00:25:42,520 --> 00:25:43,800
What's the role of the U.S.
418
00:25:43,800 --> 00:25:46,960
Senate? How does the judiciary function?
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00:25:47,640 --> 00:25:53,560
We're about to have a brief, a new brief this year, Understanding Cabinets and Agencies.
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00:25:53,920 --> 00:25:58,560
Well, that matters because we're expecting a decision any day from the Supreme Court on
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00:25:58,560 --> 00:26:03,680
what's called the Chevron Doctrine, which means that agencies have been given a
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00:26:03,680 --> 00:26:08,840
tremendous amount of leeway to make new rules and regulations that often make business
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far more expensive.
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00:26:10,440 --> 00:26:14,240
But some would argue they also provide protections, environmental protections or
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00:26:14,240 --> 00:26:16,960
consumer. So there's been a real balancing act.
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00:26:17,000 --> 00:26:21,920
But it has favored agencies create rules that may or may not have been intended by
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00:26:21,920 --> 00:26:27,240
legislators. And if that is struck down, well, one, the ramifications will be huge.
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00:26:27,440 --> 00:26:31,480
But if you don't understand agencies to begin with and then the big decision comes
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00:26:31,480 --> 00:26:34,800
down, you're probably not going to understand what impact it has.
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00:26:34,800 --> 00:26:36,200
So there's that balancing act.
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00:26:36,640 --> 00:26:40,880
And then the other two categories of briefs, it's going to be like evergreen issues,
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00:26:40,880 --> 00:26:43,000
housing, education, mental health.
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00:26:43,520 --> 00:26:49,920
And then the third is that we will occasionally look at very pervasive in the news
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00:26:49,920 --> 00:26:53,640
sort of issues that we feel like we can provide clarity.
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00:26:53,840 --> 00:26:56,040
We are not a breaking news organization.
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00:26:56,040 --> 00:26:59,000
And so we do that less often.
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00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:04,600
But for instance, as Russia was preparing to invade Ukraine, we thought it would be
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00:27:04,600 --> 00:27:07,640
helpful to give people sort of that historical background.
439
00:27:07,880 --> 00:27:13,240
We had the former ambassador to the Ukraine on the day before the invasion.
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00:27:13,760 --> 00:27:18,960
And so thankfully, through our really remarkable network of women, we have access to
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00:27:18,960 --> 00:27:22,800
policymakers, thought leaders, authors, filmmakers.
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00:27:23,120 --> 00:27:30,200
So we are typically adding to these briefs virtual programs so you can hear directly
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00:27:30,200 --> 00:27:33,000
from experts, practitioners.
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00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:38,160
We love to feature nonprofits that are actually implementing solutions, business leaders
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00:27:38,160 --> 00:27:40,960
that are at that intersection of public and private partnerships.
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00:27:40,960 --> 00:27:45,880
And so it's really a holistic approach where you get a multimedia brief, you can watch a
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00:27:45,880 --> 00:27:48,520
virtual program or listen to it while you're taking a walk.
448
00:27:48,760 --> 00:27:53,160
We want to just provide flexible, easy to understand resources.
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00:27:53,160 --> 00:27:55,440
So as many people get informed as possible.
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00:27:56,440 --> 00:27:59,840
Yeah, I'm thinking back to one of the first things you mentioned there about how
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00:27:59,840 --> 00:28:01,920
there's a lack of civic education now.
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00:28:02,600 --> 00:28:06,640
And I'm thinking back as a kid, Saturday morning cartoons, and there was Schoolhouse
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00:28:06,640 --> 00:28:10,080
Rock. I'm just I was just going to I'm just a bill.
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I'm only a bill sitting here in Capitol Hill.
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00:28:12,120 --> 00:28:14,200
Uh-huh. So I was six and I learned about that.
456
00:28:14,640 --> 00:28:17,160
And now there are people not learning anything.
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00:28:18,160 --> 00:28:22,800
No. And, you know, you do see a bit of a resurgence.
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00:28:22,800 --> 00:28:27,040
There are certain states now that are passing new laws so that you have a civics
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00:28:27,040 --> 00:28:28,560
curriculum in high school.
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00:28:29,280 --> 00:28:34,760
But that doesn't address that we have a very large population of adults, voting age
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00:28:34,760 --> 00:28:38,600
adults that cannot name the president, vice president.
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00:28:38,640 --> 00:28:44,640
It's pretty scary. And so we really feel like one of our jobs is to provide
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some of that that boost, if you will.
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00:28:47,360 --> 00:28:50,920
I mean, I'm an I'm an attorney and I read these civics primers.
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I'm like, well, one, either I forgot this or I didn't appreciate how these things are
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connected. It's good for everybody.
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00:28:58,720 --> 00:29:03,360
No question. Does the Policy Circle have a strategy to increase the number of women
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00:29:03,360 --> 00:29:05,520
and elected and appointed public policy positions?
469
00:29:05,880 --> 00:29:08,200
And how does a nonpartisan group go about making that happen?
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00:29:09,400 --> 00:29:15,560
So we do the clear program we have seen fruit of our civic leadership program, Chris,
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00:29:15,560 --> 00:29:20,480
and that is women building confidence, running for school board and actually winning
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00:29:20,480 --> 00:29:26,200
those seats. We have had women run at that city and council level and secured those
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00:29:26,200 --> 00:29:29,440
elected, elected roles.
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The other piece of the puzzle for us as an organization is getting women appointed.
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00:29:36,680 --> 00:29:41,520
And what I don't think many people appreciate is there are thousands of appointed
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00:29:41,520 --> 00:29:46,640
roles. And these are the people that are really running government.
477
00:29:46,680 --> 00:29:52,160
They're executing on the policy agenda of perhaps the governor or legislators.
478
00:29:52,480 --> 00:29:56,000
But I mean, Texas, our legislature only meets every other year.
479
00:29:56,080 --> 00:29:58,520
Guess who's running the show in between?
480
00:29:59,280 --> 00:30:02,880
It's, you know, the staffs that are up there trying to get the work done.
481
00:30:02,880 --> 00:30:04,840
But it's largely these appointed roles.
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00:30:04,840 --> 00:30:10,080
And so we want to make sure there's more women who are really capable, they're prepared
483
00:30:10,440 --> 00:30:13,560
and again, that they value entrepreneurial solutions.
484
00:30:13,560 --> 00:30:16,520
They want to cut through red tape so more people can thrive.
485
00:30:17,040 --> 00:30:19,440
And so that is really important.
486
00:30:19,440 --> 00:30:22,040
And we see that as a huge area for growth.
487
00:30:22,760 --> 00:30:25,440
All around the country, we're focusing this first year.
488
00:30:25,440 --> 00:30:29,640
We just launched this program because we already started seeing people get appointed.
489
00:30:29,640 --> 00:30:31,320
We're like, wait, light bulb moment.
490
00:30:31,680 --> 00:30:33,320
How can we expedite this?
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00:30:33,320 --> 00:30:36,680
How can we build relationships with appointments directors to find out what do they need?
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00:30:36,720 --> 00:30:37,880
How can we be helpful?
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00:30:38,440 --> 00:30:44,760
And what we're finding is they need good quality folks that they can go to and have a
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00:30:44,760 --> 00:30:46,760
pipeline for these appointed roles.
495
00:30:46,760 --> 00:30:48,760
So that's a real opportunity.
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00:30:49,360 --> 00:30:54,520
Chris, we would like to look up and, you know, just a few years from now and have thousands
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00:30:54,520 --> 00:30:59,880
of highly capable women sitting in these seats of influence in that appointed level.
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00:31:00,200 --> 00:31:02,200
So that's a big focus area for us.
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00:31:02,200 --> 00:31:07,040
And our program, because I'm a sucker for a good acronym, is the All State Appointments
500
00:31:07,040 --> 00:31:09,040
Project, ASAP.
501
00:31:09,880 --> 00:31:10,400
So we got it.
502
00:31:11,200 --> 00:31:12,120
Love the acronyms.
503
00:31:13,680 --> 00:31:17,560
Stacey, there are two gaps in politics and policy that the policy circle is concerned
504
00:31:17,560 --> 00:31:21,760
about. The first is the confidence gap and the second is the competence gap.
505
00:31:22,560 --> 00:31:26,120
Would you describe each of those gaps and their impacts and also share what the policy
506
00:31:26,120 --> 00:31:27,360
circle is doing to address them?
507
00:31:28,760 --> 00:31:32,560
Well, as I mentioned before, there are many women that just self-sideline themselves.
508
00:31:32,600 --> 00:31:35,200
They just immediately assume they're not qualified.
509
00:31:35,680 --> 00:31:39,600
I got to tell you, there's a woman in Texas that as part of CLEAR, she went to meet with
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00:31:39,600 --> 00:31:42,640
an elected official and was a county commissioner.
511
00:31:42,640 --> 00:31:45,520
She says, you know, at some point or another, I thought maybe I would run for county
512
00:31:45,520 --> 00:31:47,840
commissioner. And then I thought, I'm not qualified.
513
00:31:47,840 --> 00:31:50,160
She goes, well, I just met with the county commissioner.
514
00:31:50,840 --> 00:31:52,240
I am more than qualified.
515
00:31:52,760 --> 00:31:56,040
And so part of it is just demystifying the process.
516
00:31:56,040 --> 00:32:00,120
One of the things we've been doing are these days at the Capitol, showing up at the
517
00:32:00,120 --> 00:32:02,840
Capitol, seeing how it functions, meeting with lawmakers.
518
00:32:02,840 --> 00:32:07,960
And what I think women realize is I actually have a great set of skills or I have
519
00:32:07,960 --> 00:32:09,760
experience that would be valuable.
520
00:32:10,160 --> 00:32:14,080
So part of it is just getting more familiar and comfortable with the process.
521
00:32:14,080 --> 00:32:16,160
And that really does build confidence.
522
00:32:16,400 --> 00:32:19,960
It's just knowledge. You know, we're always a little more fearful of the unknown.
523
00:32:20,320 --> 00:32:25,320
And as I mentioned before, women kind of take themselves out of the running before
524
00:32:25,320 --> 00:32:26,760
they've even taken a chance.
525
00:32:26,760 --> 00:32:30,800
So part of this is fostering a little bit more of a risk taking mentality amongst women,
526
00:32:31,600 --> 00:32:36,560
boosting their confidence and knowing that even if they run and they don't win first
527
00:32:36,560 --> 00:32:41,120
time around, wildly, wildly beneficial process.
528
00:32:41,280 --> 00:32:45,600
We've had so many women that I've talked to that run and they're like, well, I think I
529
00:32:45,600 --> 00:32:51,560
learned more about myself running and losing than I did when I eventually won or
530
00:32:51,560 --> 00:32:52,760
secured some seat.
531
00:32:53,040 --> 00:32:58,640
And so there's just tremendous value in sticking your neck out, taking a chance.
532
00:32:59,160 --> 00:33:00,640
It raises your profile.
533
00:33:00,640 --> 00:33:04,160
One of the things I've been doing is I've been talking to different groups about the
534
00:33:04,160 --> 00:33:06,680
business case for civic engagement.
535
00:33:07,400 --> 00:33:11,600
And what we try to encourage women to do is like, hey, not only stepping up to serve your
536
00:33:11,600 --> 00:33:16,160
community and doing your part, but it elevates your profile professionally.
537
00:33:16,960 --> 00:33:23,160
Now, I'm not saying this is a good pattern, but I did talk to a woman who runs because
538
00:33:23,160 --> 00:33:27,600
her party puts her face on billboards and she's a personal injury lawyer and she likes
539
00:33:27,600 --> 00:33:29,280
to have her face on billboards.
540
00:33:29,440 --> 00:33:34,920
I'm not saying that's a good plan, Chris, but it does elevate your profile as a leader
541
00:33:34,920 --> 00:33:38,280
and you meet people through the process you wouldn't meet otherwise.
542
00:33:38,800 --> 00:33:44,120
But at the end of the day, if you are not competent, capable and informed, you're not
543
00:33:44,120 --> 00:33:45,520
doing anybody any favors.
544
00:33:45,560 --> 00:33:47,000
You're going to harm yourself.
545
00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:48,200
You're going to harm your community.
546
00:33:48,200 --> 00:33:51,920
You're going to wreck your reputation and your social capital.
547
00:33:52,240 --> 00:33:55,400
You put it all out there and then you show up and you're not ready.
548
00:33:56,160 --> 00:34:01,400
One of the things that Kim Borchers runs, our CLEAR program, both of us are from the
549
00:34:01,400 --> 00:34:04,560
country. I grew up in a small town in Texas and she's in Kansas.
550
00:34:04,800 --> 00:34:07,800
And we always talk about, well, what happens if the dog catches the truck?
551
00:34:08,680 --> 00:34:13,200
Right. You get all excited, you run and then you end up in this position of influence and
552
00:34:13,200 --> 00:34:15,680
you're not ready. That's the last thing we want.
553
00:34:15,680 --> 00:34:18,800
And so we want highly competent, prepared women.
554
00:34:19,160 --> 00:34:24,040
And unfortunately, I think we see a lot of folks that get the seat and then they have no
555
00:34:24,040 --> 00:34:29,720
idea what they're doing. We were blessed to have Kim on a few months ago, and so I
556
00:34:29,720 --> 00:34:33,400
appreciate you raising her because she is, as most people are in the policy circle, just an
557
00:34:33,400 --> 00:34:36,080
absolute rock star and just love her leadership and her vision.
558
00:34:36,080 --> 00:34:38,080
And so I appreciate you raising her name there.
559
00:34:38,960 --> 00:34:42,800
Part of being curious, not furious, means having informed influence.
560
00:34:43,600 --> 00:34:47,360
What's the difference between speaking up or having influence in a policy venue and
561
00:34:47,360 --> 00:34:48,720
having informed influence?
562
00:34:50,280 --> 00:34:55,520
Well, I think unfortunately, and this is even happening in like civics curriculum, people
563
00:34:55,520 --> 00:34:59,600
confuse that civic engagement with activism.
564
00:35:00,560 --> 00:35:05,520
And I think often the activism and, you know, it's one issue, it's my way or the highway.
565
00:35:05,520 --> 00:35:07,800
You see the protest on college campuses.
566
00:35:07,800 --> 00:35:11,000
That is not constructive civic engagement.
567
00:35:11,320 --> 00:35:12,480
It's disruptive.
568
00:35:12,480 --> 00:35:16,280
It's divisive. And, you know, they didn't even know what their demands were, right?
569
00:35:16,280 --> 00:35:18,760
Like they're just not accomplishing anything.
570
00:35:19,120 --> 00:35:27,280
And so I think for us, it's really getting a sense of what are the issues and unpacking
571
00:35:27,280 --> 00:35:29,800
those issues because, you know, you say, oh, I care about housing.
572
00:35:29,800 --> 00:35:31,880
Well, do you care about affordable housing?
573
00:35:31,880 --> 00:35:34,200
Do you understand what's going on in the homeless situation?
574
00:35:34,520 --> 00:35:40,320
How important is job creation to having, you know, more folks, more demand?
575
00:35:40,320 --> 00:35:42,120
Right. You look at a place like Texas.
576
00:35:42,120 --> 00:35:46,080
We've got a huge demand for housing and a real challenge there.
577
00:35:46,080 --> 00:35:52,200
So it's unpacking these issues so that you really are informed because none of this
578
00:35:52,200 --> 00:35:53,320
happens in a vacuum.
579
00:35:53,720 --> 00:35:57,880
And we are not big fans of that like bumper sticker solution.
580
00:35:58,000 --> 00:36:03,480
You need to unpack the issues and get informed and understand how all these things work
581
00:36:03,480 --> 00:36:05,640
together. It's going to make you so much more effective.
582
00:36:07,280 --> 00:36:09,120
So we've been talking about the policy circle.
583
00:36:09,800 --> 00:36:11,120
Let's talk about your career a little bit.
584
00:36:12,040 --> 00:36:14,920
So we mentioned you spent some time on Capitol Hill working for the then U.S.
585
00:36:14,920 --> 00:36:18,560
House majority leader, but then you went after your lifelong dream of going to law
586
00:36:18,560 --> 00:36:23,200
school. What made you want to go to law school and what were your grand ambitions there?
587
00:36:24,280 --> 00:36:30,120
Well, I have to tell you, Chris, I grew up in a small town and I was the first in my
588
00:36:30,120 --> 00:36:34,880
family to go to college, which on both sides, which my dad was convinced it was like a
589
00:36:34,880 --> 00:36:39,000
scam to get money for four years out of him, which may have been a little bit true.
590
00:36:39,240 --> 00:36:42,160
But it was I was so always growing up.
591
00:36:42,160 --> 00:36:45,520
I just had this this hunger for knowledge.
592
00:36:45,520 --> 00:36:47,920
I loved being a student.
593
00:36:48,240 --> 00:36:52,800
And so somewhere on the debate team and maybe I watched L.A.
594
00:36:52,800 --> 00:36:56,600
Law or something as a kid, I don't know, I didn't have any attorneys around me, but I
595
00:36:56,600 --> 00:37:00,440
have this funny little drawing I did in first grade.
596
00:37:00,440 --> 00:37:01,400
And I don't know if you remember these.
597
00:37:01,400 --> 00:37:02,600
They would do the silhouette.
598
00:37:02,600 --> 00:37:07,360
Remember, it'd be like a piece of, you know, transparent paper on the black construction
599
00:37:07,360 --> 00:37:08,960
paper that fades over time.
600
00:37:09,360 --> 00:37:12,640
And I had in there I wanted to be a model or a lawyer.
601
00:37:13,000 --> 00:37:19,160
The modeling gig did not work out, but I did pursue my lifelong dream of being an
602
00:37:19,160 --> 00:37:23,400
attorney. And, you know, there is something so.
603
00:37:24,360 --> 00:37:31,160
Empowering about getting the knowledge that that you're hungry for and boy, if you
604
00:37:31,160 --> 00:37:34,840
want knowledge, go to law school, it's like, you know, drinking from a fire hydrant.
605
00:37:34,840 --> 00:37:41,400
And I loved how we would unpack a case and understand the people in the situation.
606
00:37:41,680 --> 00:37:46,080
And even when I was practicing law, my favorite part was, you know, you meet with the
607
00:37:46,080 --> 00:37:50,960
client and you dig in that preliminary piece of understanding what are the issues?
608
00:37:50,960 --> 00:37:52,160
How did we get here?
609
00:37:52,480 --> 00:37:54,600
But unfortunately, I was in commercial litigation.
610
00:37:54,600 --> 00:37:57,800
And let's just say you're not getting people at their happiest or best.
611
00:37:58,880 --> 00:38:05,640
And the business of law, like law firms, it doesn't reward efficiency.
612
00:38:05,640 --> 00:38:10,240
It's like who can build the most hours, who can be there first and leave the latest.
613
00:38:10,600 --> 00:38:14,640
And I really struggled with that structure.
614
00:38:14,680 --> 00:38:19,360
I also had both my daughters while I was in law school because I was an older student.
615
00:38:19,720 --> 00:38:24,240
I did a little little career on Capitol Hill and event marketing is in my 20s.
616
00:38:24,680 --> 00:38:30,520
And it's really hard to have two babies and leave when they're still asleep and to get
617
00:38:30,520 --> 00:38:32,280
home when they've already gone to bed.
618
00:38:32,760 --> 00:38:36,760
And so I look for more flexible pathways in practicing law.
619
00:38:37,160 --> 00:38:40,560
And ultimately, I decided that I need to take the knowledge.
620
00:38:40,880 --> 00:38:42,560
You know, you really learn how to read people.
621
00:38:42,560 --> 00:38:45,720
You become a great writer, really persuasive.
622
00:38:46,120 --> 00:38:50,200
You're very detail oriented, much to my team's probably they're probably annoyed with
623
00:38:50,200 --> 00:38:52,880
that. But you can take those skills anywhere.
624
00:38:53,160 --> 00:38:59,160
And I started doing some work in 2000, gosh, 10, trying to bring the Olympics to Dallas.
625
00:39:00,400 --> 00:39:01,800
That clearly did not work out.
626
00:39:02,760 --> 00:39:05,960
But in that process, you have to have like a legacy piece.
627
00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:11,760
And so we I got to know the nonprofits in the Dallas community.
628
00:39:11,800 --> 00:39:15,120
And I just fell in love with the work, the people they were serving.
629
00:39:15,120 --> 00:39:20,320
And so I started a consulting group that really tried to help them elevate their game,
630
00:39:20,400 --> 00:39:26,680
better fundraising, better constituent communications, better community engagement and
631
00:39:26,680 --> 00:39:29,920
then better events. Because I don't know about you, but I would love nonprofits.
632
00:39:29,920 --> 00:39:33,160
But I literally wanted to pay so I didn't have to go to their event.
633
00:39:33,520 --> 00:39:38,920
And so my my hope was is you could turn those into storytelling opportunities, something
634
00:39:38,920 --> 00:39:42,560
that carries over quite well into the work I do at the Policy Circle now.
635
00:39:43,320 --> 00:39:47,920
But yeah, I heard somebody say the other day, my path has not been a straight line, but I
636
00:39:47,920 --> 00:39:49,440
just keep moving forward.
637
00:39:49,440 --> 00:39:50,760
I know you appreciate that.
638
00:39:51,200 --> 00:39:56,080
No question. So you've been involved in public policy on the public and the private
639
00:39:56,080 --> 00:39:57,440
sector sides and key roles.
640
00:39:58,200 --> 00:40:01,360
What advice would you give to women who are interested in pursuing a career in public
641
00:40:01,360 --> 00:40:08,200
policy? So my daughter's actually 21 and just has recently caught the policy bug.
642
00:40:08,480 --> 00:40:14,640
And really what I tell her is get as many experiences under your belt as possible.
643
00:40:14,960 --> 00:40:19,120
So through the Policy Circle, she met the mayor of Fort Worth, the remarkable Maddie
644
00:40:19,120 --> 00:40:21,680
Parker, and she went to work for her as an intern.
645
00:40:21,920 --> 00:40:23,400
I was like, just go work for free.
646
00:40:23,880 --> 00:40:29,320
And then she went last summer and was an intern on the Hill, which that's not an easy
647
00:40:29,320 --> 00:40:32,640
job and it can be challenging.
648
00:40:32,680 --> 00:40:38,120
But you get a real sense of how that political machine and the legislative process
649
00:40:38,120 --> 00:40:41,960
works. And now she's in Texas getting a sense of what's going on here.
650
00:40:41,960 --> 00:40:43,960
And so my advice would be the same.
651
00:40:44,360 --> 00:40:47,040
Sample different levels of government.
652
00:40:47,560 --> 00:40:50,120
Look at government affairs on the corporate side.
653
00:40:50,160 --> 00:40:52,840
Look at serving volunteer for a campaign.
654
00:40:53,440 --> 00:40:54,600
I just did this for the first time.
655
00:40:54,640 --> 00:40:55,720
Real eye opener.
656
00:40:56,720 --> 00:41:01,640
And I think getting those experiences to you meet the most amazing people.
657
00:41:02,200 --> 00:41:07,160
And I will say as jacked up as the process feels, there are so many high quality,
658
00:41:07,160 --> 00:41:13,160
remarkable, devoted, principled people that work on these teams and the staff.
659
00:41:13,520 --> 00:41:16,960
And some of those legislators and folks you meet are really inspiring.
660
00:41:17,320 --> 00:41:20,920
And so getting access to people and experiences, that's your best bet.
661
00:41:20,960 --> 00:41:24,280
Then you can decide, hey, this really resonates and where I want to be.
662
00:41:24,760 --> 00:41:27,520
You don't just show up in D.C. thinking, oh yeah, this is going to be it.
663
00:41:27,600 --> 00:41:29,120
You've got to take some other steps.
664
00:41:29,880 --> 00:41:33,200
It's also a great way, I think, just to start building your personal professional
665
00:41:33,200 --> 00:41:36,800
network because everyone, I'm sorry, most people not stay in that.
666
00:41:36,800 --> 00:41:40,960
They'll go off and do, to your point, government affairs or finance or whatever it
667
00:41:40,960 --> 00:41:44,440
may be. And you never know who you're going to meet 10, 15, 20 years down the road.
668
00:41:44,440 --> 00:41:48,080
Like, oh my God, we were on the Hill together in 2015, whatever it was.
669
00:41:48,480 --> 00:41:52,360
I just had that. I went to an event in D.C., somebody I hadn't seen in 30 years.
670
00:41:52,360 --> 00:41:54,760
And he was chief of staff when I was in Dick Garmley's office.
671
00:41:54,760 --> 00:41:59,440
And so you never lose those connections and those experiences.
672
00:41:59,720 --> 00:42:01,000
It's just so valuable.
673
00:42:02,160 --> 00:42:06,960
Yeah, no question. So Stacey, we never want to rely on generalizations, but you
674
00:42:06,960 --> 00:42:09,400
think men and women approach public policy differently?
675
00:42:09,800 --> 00:42:11,280
And if so, how do they tend to be different?
676
00:42:12,600 --> 00:42:14,880
You know, we don't like generalizations either.
677
00:42:14,920 --> 00:42:20,280
And I would say, you know, good sound analysis of public policy.
678
00:42:21,240 --> 00:42:26,120
I don't think there's a gender lens for evaluating how do you define success?
679
00:42:26,120 --> 00:42:27,280
How do you measure it?
680
00:42:27,640 --> 00:42:30,520
You know, what's good policy and looking at the consequences?
681
00:42:30,520 --> 00:42:34,160
I think so much policy operates in these vacuums and they don't think about the
682
00:42:34,160 --> 00:42:35,600
unintended consequences.
683
00:42:36,080 --> 00:42:39,520
And so I think men and women both need to be really thoughtful.
684
00:42:39,800 --> 00:42:44,320
Think about the impact on actual citizens and their businesses and their families.
685
00:42:44,600 --> 00:42:49,280
I would say the value that women bring to this conversation are personal experiences,
686
00:42:49,280 --> 00:42:53,640
raising family, making sure their kids are educated and healthy.
687
00:42:53,880 --> 00:42:55,920
And it's good to have that voice at the table.
688
00:42:55,920 --> 00:43:00,280
I mean, America doesn't do a great job when it comes to maternity leave or
689
00:43:00,480 --> 00:43:02,640
understanding caregiving obligations.
690
00:43:02,840 --> 00:43:05,120
And I'm not saying the government can solve that problem.
691
00:43:05,120 --> 00:43:09,960
But if you're at these tables discussing how do we build better frameworks, you
692
00:43:09,960 --> 00:43:13,080
really should have everybody sitting at the table is going to be impacted by that.
693
00:43:13,240 --> 00:43:15,440
So we think there's a lot of value in just perspective.
694
00:43:16,240 --> 00:43:18,160
You know, you just remind me of something.
695
00:43:18,160 --> 00:43:20,960
Talk about America not doing a good job with maternity leave.
696
00:43:21,560 --> 00:43:25,760
When my wife and I had our first daughter, she had to save her two weeks of vacation.
697
00:43:25,760 --> 00:43:28,360
So she had a collective eight weeks off.
698
00:43:29,280 --> 00:43:33,360
Eight weeks, like you're barely getting any sleep after eight weeks, let alone
699
00:43:33,360 --> 00:43:34,560
knowing anything else.
700
00:43:34,560 --> 00:43:36,600
So, yeah, absolutely agree with you on that one.
701
00:43:37,760 --> 00:43:40,520
There's an old saying that we're all entitled to our own opinions, but we're
702
00:43:40,520 --> 00:43:41,960
not entitled to our own set of facts.
703
00:43:42,880 --> 00:43:45,640
Do you think that part of the reason we're so divided today is because many people
704
00:43:45,640 --> 00:43:49,200
on the left and right tend to get their news only from sources that amplify the
705
00:43:49,200 --> 00:43:50,400
opinions they already have?
706
00:43:51,480 --> 00:43:52,360
One hundred percent.
707
00:43:52,880 --> 00:43:54,280
The echo chamber is dangerous.
708
00:43:54,280 --> 00:43:54,920
We've seen it.
709
00:43:55,040 --> 00:43:56,040
It's playing out.
710
00:43:56,120 --> 00:44:01,480
And we've seen how that continues to foster mistrust and division and that
711
00:44:01,480 --> 00:44:03,120
increased polarization.
712
00:44:03,560 --> 00:44:06,200
And you have to be diligent.
713
00:44:06,200 --> 00:44:10,760
And one of the things I ask as I speak all around the country is how many of you, in
714
00:44:10,760 --> 00:44:14,760
order to understand an issue, consult two sources and the hands go up?
715
00:44:15,200 --> 00:44:16,560
How many of you consult three?
716
00:44:16,640 --> 00:44:17,640
They keep going up.
717
00:44:17,640 --> 00:44:23,040
And so one of the things the policy circle does for people is we give you a brief on
718
00:44:23,040 --> 00:44:29,280
a topic with hundreds of sources and you can click on every assertion of fact and
719
00:44:29,280 --> 00:44:30,560
go straight to the source data.
720
00:44:30,560 --> 00:44:33,600
You want to spend hours going through government data, more power to you.
721
00:44:33,840 --> 00:44:38,680
Do you want to have just a solid collection of facts and an overview, the
722
00:44:38,680 --> 00:44:40,200
numbers and why it matters?
723
00:44:40,560 --> 00:44:43,560
That is really what we provide.
724
00:44:43,560 --> 00:44:47,480
And I'll tell you, as I talk, we just have done conversations recently on
725
00:44:47,480 --> 00:44:52,160
immigration. That is a tough topic to get good, reliable information on.
726
00:44:52,400 --> 00:44:59,120
And so we present a wide range on legal migration to what is asylum, how to work
727
00:44:59,120 --> 00:45:04,600
permits play into good business practices, seasonal workers, you know, really
728
00:45:04,600 --> 00:45:07,720
necessary. But this isn't just a one size fits all.
729
00:45:08,080 --> 00:45:12,760
And what we often hear is either controversial opinions because that drives more
730
00:45:12,760 --> 00:45:19,640
eyeballs or very narrow, like this is the only way that we can look at an issue.
731
00:45:19,720 --> 00:45:21,320
Very seldom is that true.
732
00:45:21,840 --> 00:45:25,680
And so we really encourage people to be discerning about their sources.
733
00:45:26,400 --> 00:45:32,480
Understand that you have we have a great source we like to rely on called all all
734
00:45:32,480 --> 00:45:33,760
sides media.
735
00:45:34,080 --> 00:45:38,440
And another is a great search engine called Free Spoke, because it'll tell you like
736
00:45:38,440 --> 00:45:40,240
this is coming from the left and the right.
737
00:45:40,240 --> 00:45:41,920
And it's like pretty transparent.
738
00:45:42,240 --> 00:45:46,280
So I'd say being good consumers of the news and then hopefully they want to be part of
739
00:45:46,280 --> 00:45:50,200
our community and get access to the resources we provide, because that gives you a
740
00:45:50,200 --> 00:45:53,360
shortcut to having all the sources put together for you already.
741
00:45:54,640 --> 00:45:58,440
So we talked about the million views of your policy briefs earlier in the show.
742
00:45:59,040 --> 00:46:00,720
Which briefs seem to be the most popular?
743
00:46:00,880 --> 00:46:02,120
And do you know who's reading those briefs?
744
00:46:02,440 --> 00:46:05,560
Conservatives, liberals, moderates in between?
745
00:46:06,640 --> 00:46:08,680
We do have some analytics on this.
746
00:46:08,680 --> 00:46:13,320
So like we had 20 million web impressions last year, Chris, largely driven by people
747
00:46:13,320 --> 00:46:14,880
searching and landing on the briefs.
748
00:46:15,240 --> 00:46:19,840
And what was interesting to us is 40 percent of those were 18 to 26.
749
00:46:20,320 --> 00:46:21,320
I kind of love that.
750
00:46:21,640 --> 00:46:22,760
That's exciting to us.
751
00:46:22,760 --> 00:46:27,760
Now, they just may be in a college course and they're digging around and need a good
752
00:46:27,760 --> 00:46:29,200
reliable source. That's fine.
753
00:46:29,240 --> 00:46:32,280
Come to us. We've got good facts and we're happy to provide those.
754
00:46:33,040 --> 00:46:39,680
We also have about 40 percent, 60 percent women, 40 percent men, 60 percent women
755
00:46:39,680 --> 00:46:41,680
reading our briefs. So that's a good balance.
756
00:46:41,680 --> 00:46:43,200
We want to educate all those folks.
757
00:46:43,480 --> 00:46:47,440
Now, Google Analytics is not going to tell us political affiliation.
758
00:46:48,240 --> 00:46:53,160
But as we survey our community, we're learning more and more about that.
759
00:46:53,160 --> 00:46:57,480
That's part of what we're building, a new platform so we can understand that.
760
00:46:57,720 --> 00:47:02,200
But I think more important to us is that they're just getting access to good
761
00:47:02,360 --> 00:47:05,360
information. The briefs that are popular, China.
762
00:47:05,360 --> 00:47:07,440
We have a remarkable brief on China.
763
00:47:07,440 --> 00:47:12,920
And then we did a terrific interview, like a virtual program with Congressman Mike
764
00:47:12,920 --> 00:47:15,960
Gallagher, who's head of the Select Committee on the CCP.
765
00:47:16,200 --> 00:47:17,280
And then we also had Dr.
766
00:47:17,280 --> 00:47:19,440
Jackie Deal at the Vandenberg Coalition.
767
00:47:19,440 --> 00:47:22,080
So China is a big one for us.
768
00:47:22,320 --> 00:47:26,040
We've seen a lot of traffic. We have a Middle East brief and we also have a brief
769
00:47:26,040 --> 00:47:31,040
we released right around the time of our United States withdrawal from Afghanistan
770
00:47:31,360 --> 00:47:32,880
on rogue regimes.
771
00:47:32,880 --> 00:47:35,160
And the refugee crisis is another brief.
772
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You know, now that we're seeing that, those are very popular.
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But those civics briefs, what is the role of the U.S.
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Senate, is always in our top three.
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People need to know the basics and we are happy to be a place where they can go and
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00:47:48,960 --> 00:47:53,680
get that information. So now for the moment we've all been waiting for, how does
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00:47:53,680 --> 00:47:56,960
someone sign up to participate in the Policy Circle and what's expected of them when
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00:47:56,960 --> 00:47:59,880
they do? Everyone's on the edge of their seats.
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00:47:59,880 --> 00:48:04,800
They just want to know. So the Policy Circle has an interesting, flexible framework.
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00:48:04,800 --> 00:48:06,760
We like to kind of meet people where they are.
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00:48:07,040 --> 00:48:14,280
So the first thing that someone can do is they can join as a member, like ten dollars
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00:48:14,280 --> 00:48:16,200
a month or one hundred dollars a year.
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00:48:16,200 --> 00:48:19,000
And that gives you access to the whole brief library.
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00:48:19,360 --> 00:48:25,360
We also have special invitations to, you know, meet our speakers, engage in our virtual
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00:48:25,360 --> 00:48:28,920
programs. And then when we do regional events, you're on our list.
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We'll reach out and see if you want to engage and attend either a day at the Capitol in
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00:48:33,200 --> 00:48:36,280
your in your state capital or a partner event.
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We are not a think tank, Chris.
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We aggregate, we curate.
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We have great partners, respected, smart, capable groups.
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So we like to connect our members with those state based groups.
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So this is just a way to get plugged into an ecosystem of fact oriented, solutions
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focused groups that are in our ecosystem.
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00:49:00,160 --> 00:49:04,080
The other thing people can do is they can sign up for our Civic Leadership Engagement
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00:49:04,080 --> 00:49:05,800
Program, CLEAR, that I mentioned.
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We have another class starting on September 1st.
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00:49:08,720 --> 00:49:10,600
There are still some slots available.
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00:49:11,000 --> 00:49:12,600
This is a three month commitment.
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It's not expensive. We have scholarships available, too.
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00:49:16,080 --> 00:49:21,560
It is a great way to get to know fabulous women all over the country who care about their
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communities and country.
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00:49:22,960 --> 00:49:25,560
But it also really starts to boost your skill set.
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00:49:26,080 --> 00:49:29,400
And I say the other way is join us for one of our events.
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00:49:29,400 --> 00:49:31,240
You can follow us on social media.
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00:49:31,240 --> 00:49:33,080
You can subscribe to our newsletter.
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00:49:33,200 --> 00:49:35,440
Real easy way to subscribe is on LinkedIn.
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00:49:35,720 --> 00:49:40,400
And then you can find out if we're coming to your area or when our next summit rolls
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00:49:40,400 --> 00:49:42,080
around in 2025.
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00:49:42,320 --> 00:49:44,600
You can join virtually or in person.
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00:49:44,840 --> 00:49:48,360
But we provide a really flexible way that you can engage.
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00:49:49,000 --> 00:49:53,360
Again, virtual events are happening really all the time with us.
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00:49:53,360 --> 00:49:57,000
And you can either watch it live or you can go to our YouTube channel.
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00:49:57,200 --> 00:50:06,560
And there is a fantastic collection of briefs or video programs that are rooted in our
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00:50:06,560 --> 00:50:12,280
briefs that really give people an opportunity to understand the issues and hear directly
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00:50:12,280 --> 00:50:14,480
from the folks that are impacting public policy.
816
00:50:15,280 --> 00:50:18,480
Stacey Blakely, Run of Time, thank you so much for being with us today.
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00:50:18,480 --> 00:50:19,960
Really appreciate your time and your insight.
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00:50:20,800 --> 00:50:26,400
I am delighted to be here and I really appreciate your partnership, Chris, and look
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00:50:26,400 --> 00:50:29,320
forward to having more conversations with you in the future.
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00:50:29,400 --> 00:50:30,600
Likewise, appreciate that.
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00:50:30,960 --> 00:50:32,280
I'm Chris Meek, Run of Time.
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00:50:32,320 --> 00:50:33,160
We'll see you next week.
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00:50:33,360 --> 00:50:34,520
Same time, same place.
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00:50:34,520 --> 00:50:37,760
Until then, stay safe and keep taking your next steps forward.
825
00:50:37,760 --> 00:50:45,360
Thanks for tuning in to Next Steps Forward.
826
00:50:45,480 --> 00:50:49,840
Be sure to join Chris Meek for another great show next Tuesday at 10 a.m.
827
00:50:49,840 --> 00:50:51,640
Pacific Time and 1 p.m.
828
00:50:51,640 --> 00:50:55,160
Eastern Time on The Voice America Empowerment Channel.
829
00:50:55,440 --> 00:50:58,640
This week, make things happen in your life.
830
00:51:07,760 --> 00:51:08,760
I'm Chris Meek, Run of Time.
831
00:51:08,760 --> 00:51:09,760
Be sure to join Chris Meek for another great show next Tuesday at 10 a.m.
832
00:51:09,760 --> 00:51:10,760
Pacific Time and 1 p.m.
833
00:51:10,760 --> 00:51:11,760
Eastern Time on The Voice America Empowerment Channel.
834
00:51:11,760 --> 00:51:12,760
This week, make things happen in your life.
835
00:51:12,760 --> 00:51:13,760
Make things happen in your life.
836
00:51:13,760 --> 00:51:14,760
I'm Chris Meek, Run of Time.
837
00:51:14,760 --> 00:51:15,760
Be sure to join Chris Meek for another great show next Tuesday at 10 a.m.
838
00:51:15,760 --> 00:51:16,760
Pacific Time and 1 p.m.
839
00:51:16,760 --> 00:51:17,760
Eastern Time on The Voice America Empowerment Channel.
840
00:51:17,760 --> 00:51:18,760
This week, make things happen in your life.
841
00:51:18,760 --> 00:51:19,760
I'm Chris Meek, Run of Time.
842
00:51:19,760 --> 00:51:20,760
Be sure to join Chris Meek for another great show next Tuesday at 10 a.m.
843
00:51:20,760 --> 00:51:21,760
Pacific Time on The Voice America Empowerment Channel.
844
00:51:21,760 --> 00:51:22,760
This week, make things happen in your life.
845
00:51:22,760 --> 00:51:23,760
I'm Chris Meek, Run of Time.