Adam Torres and Dr. Nancy O’Reilly discuss the Power Up Conference.
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Show Notes:
Listen to coverage of the 2024 Power Up Conference: Together We Lead in Washington, DC. In this episode, Adam Torres interviews Dr. Nancy O’Reilly, Founder of Women Connect4Good and Host of Smart Amazing Conversations, explore the Power Up Conference.
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About Dr. Nancy O’Reilly
International philanthropist, skilled horsewoman, and trailblazer for women’s empowerment, Nancy D. O’Reilly, PsyD, believes women who support each other in abundance and joy are the key to equality. A successful author and educator, she recently completed a new book, In This Together: How Successful Women Support Each Other in Business and Life (Adams Media/Simon & Schuster, January 2019).
Dr. Nancy founded Women Connect4Good, Inc., a social-profit [501(c)3] foundation that has provided support for many national and international charities. Her podcasts feature interviews with smart, amazing women, and her timely articles appear on popular national blogs. She previously authored Leading Women: 20 Influential Women Share Their Secrets to Leadership, Business, and Life and two other books. Dr. Nancy occasionally speaks to selected groups on women empowerment, self-confidence and the importance of women supporting other women.
Having earned numerous awards, Dr. Nancy was honored with other women, including Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, at the 2018 Canales Project in Washington DC. She serves on various boards of directors, and chairs the board for Take the Lead, Inc. whose mission is to prepare, develop, inspire and propel women to leadership parity across all sectors by 2025. She is a major supporter of the innovative program 50 Women Can Change the World––currently operating in media and entertainment, healthcare and finance––and the international work of Convoy of Hope.
A licensed psychologist, she has long served on the governor-appointed Missouri Committee of Psychologists. She previously acted as the director of a large employee assistance program and as a nationally certified crisis team leader in New York City after the 9/11 attacks. She invites all people of good will to join her in reaching out to support women in the pursuit of equality, safety and success.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to missionmatters. com and click on be our guest to apply. All right. So today is a very special episode. I’m here for the 2024 Power Up Conference in Washington, DC.
And my guest is a return guest, a published author with Mission Matters and a published author many times over actually, Dr. Nancy O’Reilly, Welcome back to the show. Well, thank you. Good to see you again. Okay. First off, having you on the show is good for business because you’re well, I’m glad to hear that last interview.
We’ve been good for my business too, by the way. Thank you. The last interview that we did together at the equestrian center has over 30, 000 views now, and it’s our second highest rated video on the channel. Fantastic. What’s the first one? Dave Meltzer, I think he still has the ticket. I’ll have to see that one, but everybody loves animals.
Horses, dogs, like I said, you should have everybody hold a puppy. Yes, that’s what’s next. I’m not above that. Well, I’m happy to be back. So 2024, we’re at the power up conference, Washington DC. I think just to get us kicked off because you, you got such a relationship with it, with this conference, where did it start for you with the conference?
Well, I have I’ve been a part of this for 10 years. I was at the very first I was there at the, when they rolled out, take the lead, and this was the university of Arizona, Gloria felt and Gloria was there. And I was sitting in the audience. And listening to these women, what they were going to do as far as women’s leadership.
Yeah. I got goosebumps. And so I said to myself, I’ve got to meet Gloria Feltz. I’ve got to meet these women. And so from then, because I had been out there beating on my drum about women’s leadership and partnerships, and I wasn’t getting anywhere. So I finally found, found a group that I thought I could really connect with.
And so I did, and I became the chair of the board for several years. I’m, I’m still on the board, but take the lead. It’s Is an amazing organization. And this is the 10th anniversary. Amazing. 10 years ago. We’ve made a lot of progress, but I think this is going to be even a better year with everything going on, as you know.
What do you think are some of the reasons that this has been so successful and can last 10 years? Like what, what’s some of the magic there? Because women have not typically supported each other. And that’s the goal of Women Connect for Good. Women supporting women. It’s very simple. And it’s asking for help, getting help.
When they go through the leadership training through Take the Lead, something amazing happens. They finally feel like they’ve got a network of women who actually do support them and amazing things happen. I’ve had people walk out of the conferences or different educational venues and go, I’ve never felt this way ever, because I really feel like I’ve connected with women in a way that I never thought was possible.
So, It’s a great thing, like I said, I got, I had goose bumps and I think a lot of women when they get the, when they learn about Take the Lead and this 10th anniversary, there’ll be so many homecomings this weekend, people will be hugging, but that’s what’s happened. We’ve created this network of amazing women who are doing things out there.
Changing the world for good. And so fun fact for the audience. The first time I met Dr. Nancy in person was last year at the conference. Now I didn’t attend the conference, but I knew you were just leaving it and I ran in there. I was like, let’s get a picture. Let’s meet in person. You’re so close. I think it was at UCLA last year.
Let’s meet real quick. Talked for a couple minutes and then we got to know each other better. And now I can’t believe that you got me in DC. Well, I’m going to get you everywhere we go now. And this is my first time in Washington, D. C. Are you kidding? I’m not kidding. When I flew in, I was like, I was a little starstruck by the skyline because it all seemed so real.
I’ve never, I’ve never been here. Yeah. So I’m like, wow, the airplanes just like, you could see everything. It was just like, it’s beautiful. The Washington Monument is one of the first things you see. Yeah. I actually grew up here. Oh. So this is, for me, it’s like coming home. Wow. I went to Thomas Jefferson High School, which is just right across the river, and, you know, we would come down to Georgetown and D.
C. all the time. It’s a beautiful city. And the history, oh my gosh. Yeah. Well, I hope you’re going to be a tourist while you’re here, because you do need to see some things. I’m coming back. I didn’t know, so I didn’t book enough time, but I didn’t know? I didn’t know. No, I didn’t know. I didn’t know. I didn’t know.
Oh my. I don’t, I just, you know, go. Yeah. My daughters and I were some of the first the last people to walk up the Washington Monument since several, several years ago, they’ve closed it. So you have to, you can only get up to the top with an elevator. So that’s kind of historical on my part, but this is something my girls and I did.
walking, climbing the Washington Monument stairs. Amazing. So thinking about the conference a little bit further, what can one of the things I like to do in these and these type of interviews when I’m at a conference, especially one like this is I want other corporate leaders to get involved. I want them to support.
And there’s, there’s many that are here already. For those that are at home or watching this or, or like the executives that are thinking, where do I fit in this? Because that’s how you actually found it. I didn’t know that exact story. So you found your tribe there. There’s many others that can as well.
What kind of things would you say specifically to a corporation? Well, a corporation, if you’ll go and look at the statistics the fortune 500 companies. Major companies, when there are women in top leadership positions and on boards as well, companies are more successful. So having good leaders who are also trained to be good leaders and collaborators and partners.
I mean, what are women good at? Communication, problem solving, bringing people together. And asking for help. I mean, these are keys. I mean, in corporations, the ones that are successful now, there’s more of a personal, a more transparent way of doing business. People are working together. It’s not us and them.
It’s us. Your customers begin in your corporation. Five people can tell five other people how good or bad you are. Five people in your own company can go out and tell people, this is not the place to work. You want five people in your own corporation going out and going, this is a fantastic culture, you can grow in here, there’s people that will support you.
It’s a, it’s a win win. So we have another thing that we’re both celebrating this week. So I got, got to bring that up. We have our book launch together. Come on a year, a solid year, putting this together, which Melissa, Hillary, the whole team, Oh my gosh. How do you feel when you, when you first read the book the first time, what was your feeling?
I know all these people very well. They were chosen specifically because of what, who they are and what they do. It was a very good feeling and, you know, as different as their stories are, because everyone has a story. You have a story, I have a story. But as different as our stories are, it gets to the same point, the same passion, the same purpose to change the world for good.
Each one of those authors are doing things in this world to make this a better place for everyone. We’re all in it together. Yeah. I’ll tell you when, when I read the book for the first time, it was a Saturday and I didn’t know what I was exactly in for. I was doing the final edit by the way, all the other things like that.
And I, so I have to, I always do a final read through just to make sure everything’s where I like it. Hillary’s on point anyway, but I do a final read through. And when I did. I mean, we’ve published over 400 authors and everybody has very unique special stories. But this one hit hard. Like this was, I was emotional through the first three chapters.
Like I don’t normally, we do a lot of business books. We do a lot of, but I teared up like multiple times just, and that doesn’t normally happen in this, in one of our books. Cause there are all these big books. business focus, but this was, it’s a special project. Like the authors brought their, like true.
They brought, they put their hearts into it. You can feel it. I wasn’t expecting, I called Hillary and I’m like, Hillary, you didn’t tell me, you didn’t tell me not to read this on a Saturday afternoon. I thought I was going to the beach after this. I’m not feeling in a beach, I’m not feeling in a beach mindset right now.
I’m feeling in a motivated, get things done, change the world mindset. I was inspired. But that’s why it’s so important because our stories, Tell others who we are. And then that’s how we connect. Everything that we, we’re all, we’re all more alike than we are different. But each one of those those authors had their own trials and tribulations to become who they are.
No one gets anywhere on an easy ride. Have you, people that get, get anywhere on an easy ride, they don’t really understand, do they? But those of us that have had trials and tribulations, but we made them into opportunities. And every one of these women. These authors made their lives make a difference, and they’re still doing that today.
It’s amazing, it’s inspiring, and one of my favorite things about this is I know others are going to be inspired from this. I hope so. Like, I know that. Especially if we did a whole, or doing the second part of the interview session. series, we’ll be bringing all the authors back on and celebrating the launch and just building this community and really injecting into all the other amazing communities that are already there.
Like the conference we’re at right now, which Gloria was so nice to allow us to come and present the book to the audience, I mean, it’s just, when you talk about women helping women and people collaborating, like it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s good, it’s good stuff, it’s good stuff. And we need more of that good stuff, don’t we?
Amazing. I think this 2024, we’re going to have some good stuff. But again, these are friends. Yeah. This is a community building friends and relationships and a network that will last as long as all of us are around, but we’ll be passing the torch to younger women and girls. So lifting, lifting women, lifting girls is what it’s all about.
Wonderful. The last thing is Women Connect for Good. For those that don’t know it, I can’t let you off the line, last question for those that don’t know it or haven’t seen our previous work together, maybe just talk a little bit about the organization. Okay, well I’ve been talking about it the whole time.
Women Connect for Good is strictly, I mean the mission is simple, women supporting women. Long ago I was talking to a woman, let’s call her Mary, and I was asking Mary, how can I help you? She had a book. And I said, what can I do to help you and promote your book? And it became very, very quiet. And I thought maybe, maybe the phone, the call had dropped.
And she said, you mean you want to help me? And it was almost in such a almost a shy way. And I said, that’s exactly what I want to do. And that’s exactly what we’ve been doing since 20. Twelve is helping women to find their pur that they’ve already finding their purpose and making their dreams come true when they do that It helps us all but that connection that community continues to grow but it’s also men and again We have to bring everybody into it boys and girls, but we’re all about lifting as we rise That’s a great way to end it.
Lifting as we rise. I know you have a lot to do. The conference is going. You got some VIP events, concerts, things to do. Thank you so much for your time today. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you.
