Adam Torres and Melissa Miller Young discuss Women Connect4Good.
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Show Notes:
Women Connect4Good, Inc., is a 501(c)3 with a single mission: women (and men) supporting women, without exclusion. In this episode, Adam Torres interviews Melissa Miller Young, Team Leader at Women Connect4Good, Inc. Explore Women Connect4Good along with Melissa’s upcoming book.
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About Melissa Miller Young
Melissa works to keep the issues pertinent to Women Connect4Good at the forefront and loves helping women find the tools they need to support one another and lead empowered lives. She enjoys coordinating with and contributing to the efforts of the Women Connect4Good team and finds the opportunity to connect with thought leaders in the field and share their messages a dream come true. A journalist turned marketing and communications professional, Melissa has spent over 25 years in the field, working in organizational, corporate, and freelance settings.
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’ve been waiting on this episode for, I don’t know, a year, a year and a half now.
I have Melissa. Miller Young on the line and she’s team leader over at Women Connect for Good and soon to be an upcoming, or she is an upcoming author in our soon to be release book that we’ll be doing in conjunction with Dr. Nancy O’Reilly and Women Connect for Good. So, hey, Melissa. First off, I just wanna say welcome to the show.
I finally got you here, . Yes. Thank you, Adam. Hello. All right. So we, we have so much to talk about today. Of course, I’m going to get in, we’re going to get into women connect for good. I, we’re going to talk about the upcoming book just a little bit for everybody that’s watching. And the reason is because we’ll do a deep dive the next time.
Cause we’re definitely going to get Melissa back on the show when the book is actually out and live. But for now we will start this episode the way that we start them all with what we like to call our mission matters minute. So, Melissa, we admission matters. We amplify stories for entrepreneurs, executives and experts.
That’s our mission. Melissa, what mission matters to you? Ultimately, I would say it would be the mission of women’s equality. What I’m doing right now in the scope of my work with Women Connect for Good is, you know, the foundation is committed to increasing women’s empowerment and achieving gender equality.
Operating with a single mission, women supporting women. Women and men supporting women, and that is without exclusion. And I feel so fortunate that my personal mission aligns with my professional work. And yeah, it’s it’s good to have you here. And I think what, what I want, where I want to start this interview, cause I don’t know the story.
How did you and Dr. Nancy meet? Like where, where’d all this begin? Like for you. Well, it was 2014 I was brought on just to do some freelance work for the foundation and it was a referral, you know, network, network, network, and it was a referral and I applied for the, the, the gig and I got it. And that was 2014.
And then over time, you know, different projects, different events. I got to know Dr. Nancy better. And when the team leader announced her retirement in 2018, I put in for the job. And so I was growing in my position and then I was able to step into this one. It’s amazing. And what was the, like, if you, I want, I want to stick in the early days a little bit longer.
Cause I know, you know, I know all the great things that are happening now. And we’re going to talk about that, of course, like lots of updates, but I want to stay in the early days a little bit longer, like as you were, you know, as you were just starting to get. You know, used to and just start to understand whether it was women connect for good, like what, what stuck out to you, like, if we can stay in the early days, like what stuck out to where you’re like, you know what, this is going to be a significant part of my life.
This isn’t just another gig or a job or something else. Like what stuck out? Really everything. I mean, the message, the mission, I, my background is in journalism. And so I always wanted to get the stories that mattered, you know, and that kind of reminded me of why I did it. And this, everything that we did felt like it mattered, everything that we did felt like it had a potential impact.
And, you know, prior to this, when it was, you know, before this gig, which just turned into a dream job If I got the story that mattered, I was like, okay, this is why I did this. And it was kind of a reminder. But. With Women Connect For Good, every story, every project moved us forward just a little bit, moved the needle just a little bit more, and I feel like the needle just started moving further and faster over these last few years, and that’s what’s been so rewarding about it, is that every, every project mattered, every project You know, kind of pulled those heartstrings and resonated with me personally at a very deep level.
And so, you know, some people wake up and go to work and I get to do this.
Yeah. And I, and one of the things that, you know, I, I find very interesting about organizations just in general is that, you know, when you meet the, when you meet the, the the figurehead. So in this case, Dr. Nancy, and when you meet the person that’s the face of it, of course, you know, they many times can have magnetism in a certain thing.
There’s a reason why they are who they are and where they’re at. That’s a given, but you know, normally when you kind of go behind the scenes in an organization, that’s when you can see that. See, really see what’s going on and you’re, and what was so interesting to me in the beginning, it kind of what drew me in the magnetism was of course, Dr.
Nancy’s amazing, but it was also your excitement, like your excitement. And I was like, I mean, I remember we’d have these random like Friday, Friday afternoon, or it’d be whatever, and you’d just be so happy and so excited. And you’ve been giving me, you’d be giving me updates about just what’s going on or what’s going on in Washington.
Jim, what’s going on here? What’s going on there? And we, I’d fi I’d look at the clock and, you know, it said 30 minutes, 40 minutes past, and we’re just catching up on, like, and we’re excited about all the, all the change in the movement. What keeps you motivated? Like what keeps you so excited? What keeps you so engaged?
Like what’s the, so. I mean, I think that the, the issues surrounding women’s equality are, are becoming increasingly urgent and our work is becoming increasingly important. And so that desire to make a difference is really what, what drives me and to be able to work with this incredible team that we’ve built and to work with Dr.
Nancy and our organizational partners and friends. I mean, that’s what keeps me motivated. I wake up and I think to, you know, I, I, I come to the office and I think, how is this my life? I mean, I, I love, love, love what we’re doing and I feel that it’s important. And so that’s, that’s what keeps me going. And it’s, and it’s a decade of work already now that you’ve been, you’ve been obviously you know, laying brick by brick, this stuff doesn’t happen overnight, but maybe, maybe just talk about some of the current events and some of the current things that are happening, whether it’s with the ERA coalition or otherwise.
But let’s let’s bring the audience to kind of just up to speed to what’s going up presently in some of our conversations. All right. Great. Well, last year was a big year for women connect for good, and we were in DC several times. The second. time I was there, well the first time we were there it was for the National Women’s History Museum.
They had their big launch of their first physical exhibit. Dr. Nancy serves on their board and believes very strongly in the fact that our stories need to be, women’s stories are often omitted from history books and so it’s, it’s a passion and a, and You know, an important project for her well, for all of us.
And then we were there for Tiffany Schlain with Dendrofeminology. And that was a big event at the National Mall. And that was exciting. And we met a lot of really incredible people there that we’ve been able to connect with further. And Have on, you know, Nancy’s podcast and, and just really get to know their work and start amplifying their messaging too.
And then as part of that, we met as a Kia Thomas with the ERA coalition. So then we were back in December to March on the hundredth anniversary of the ERA, because it’s hard to believe that it’s been a hundred years. Still it’s not ratified into the constitution. So that was a big year. And then of course, we’ve got a book project with you with mission matters, and we’ve got another book that we’ve been working on that will also be released in the summer.
So we’ve, we’ve got a lot of balls in the air. And it’s been, and it’s been something else to for one thing, I’ve been educated much more on the topic as I’ve been covering this and working with the Oregon, with women connect for good you know, over the last year, year and a half. And and I’ve, I’ve had the privilege of, you know, bringing Zakiya on the show and also Tiffany who you mentioned and Gloria and the, I mean, just all these amazing leaders and.
figures that have been all working towards this goal of women equality. And one of the recent events that that you invited me to and Dr Nancy was to the state of the women in California. And when I think about that content and that information and getting that out, like about equality and about pay and about the difference in the cost of being a woman in the United States, just the physical costs.
From a man’s perspective, like I just didn’t know, I mean, I knew some things and you hear it, but to see the numbers and the physical numbers and to see the trade offs that have been made it’s shocking. And to see like how much work there still is to be done. Maybe can you, can you comment a little bit on just that, on that whole concept of closing the, you know, closing the gap in pay and why that’s so important and all these things, because I think it’s, it’s relevant.
I don’t think, I don’t, I really don’t think most people know about it. Like they really don’t. They just think it’s a, and I’ll give you, let me give you a quick context for that. We had some comments on our YouTube videos when I did, when I, I, I, I know a video I did and, and somebody was talking about just some comments that made no sense at all about, about the, the, they weren’t data driven, not behind stats or otherwise, but that, that’s what led to this question.
Cause I’m like, I don’t think people know. So maybe, can you talk a little bit about that? Just closing the gap in terms. Yeah. I mean, closing the gap would do tremendous. I don’t have facts and figures in front of me on this, but just from memory, I, it was early. It was in March, I believe that women nationwide had to work to eat, to earn equal to what a man earned in 2023.
Yeah. So that was for white women, for black women. We’re not even there yet. They’re still working. To earn what a white man earned in 2023 and women tend to spend differently. They tend to give differently. They tend to bolster the economy more. They give to their families, they give to their communities, they, you know, spend money locally.
And there’s, there’s a lot of benefit to that. And so closing the pay gap, not only would lift up women, girls, families, you know, because there’s a lot of women led households. It would, it would have tremendous impact just on us all. And I think that, you know, people think, Oh, this is a women’s issue.
This is a women’s issue, but men are invested in this too. I mean, a lot of men depend on the income of their wives. They want their daughters to do well. They were raised by women, you know, many of them raised by single women. And so closing the pay gap doesn’t just benefit women. It benefits us all. Yeah.
So I have a funny story from Melissa. So we were I did this interview let’s call it a month ago or so. And it was this gentleman who has a company and they, they it’s a micro finance company. So they’re doing, let’s say 100 loans or, you know, 1, 000 loans. And this is international. So in many different markets, and he’s going through his model and he’s talking about like how the loans are made and they have some something ridiculous.
Like, don’t call me. It’s maybe like 2 percent default rate or nothing like that. Something like that. Like, very, very minimal for banking. And he’s and he’s asking, and I asked him, so what’s the success? Like, what’s behind the model and all these other things? And in this case, it was they they lent to women like the vast majority of The loans were made to women in their communities.
And there’s a little bit more to the model, but that was like the far, far majority. I’m talking like over 90 percent of the loans went to women in these different areas. And he was talking about how, you know, they, they reinvested the money and they used it to, to build up the community and all these other things.
And I’m like, and I’m like, so wait a minute. So what’s wrong with some of these other back, I’m going to have to stop. Send you that episode. Actually, it was hilarious. So what, so what are we doing here on all these other, other ways that we’re running the economy here and otherwise you’re telling me the secret is give more fun, more women.
Is that what I’m hearing? And he’s like, yeah, now, now that you say it, yes. Well, and there was something that came out with the status of women and girls in California report, I think. And I had seen something else about that too. Venture capital. Yeah. Women led. Startups are getting 1. 9 percent of the funding 1.
9, but their return on investment is much higher. You know, the return on dollars. So 1. 9 percent is crazy. I mean, I would like to think that as a woman, I could run a company as well as a man. So, Let’s let’s jump around a little bit here. I want to talk a little bit about the ERA coalition, maybe go a little bit deeper as well because when I had Zakiya on the show recently one of her major concerns or thoughts and why more people, it’s just that people don’t know.
Like people actually don’t know what’s going on and that that this is that it’s not taking place to the Equal Rights Amendment. It’s not law that like they don’t know. So maybe let let let’s help us. The Kia’s mission here as well and all of our mission and maybe talk a little bit about it. I think I read that 80 percent of the American population think that it’s already been passed.
They think that state laws will protect, you know, equal rights. I think that we’ve already seen here recently that that is not the case. I don’t know. All the ins and outs well enough to speak about it with any authority, but I do know that it is not fully ratified and has not been amended to the constitution and that’s what we need to do, because it will prevent discrimination for anyone based on sex.
And so. It would just, it would just solidify so many things. It’s such a foundational piece to what we’re trying to do for women’s equality and what we’re trying to do, I mean, for everyone. I think that every American should have equal rights. Every person should have equal rights. It doesn’t, It’s so foreign to me that it’s not a thing that it’s just one of those things where I say, I can’t even, I can’t even believe it.
And I, I think that as people become more educated about it, and we’ve been working with the ERA coalition and we have some blog posts that we put together. We have some planned. I mean, we’re doing what we can to do that. Educate people about it, but it’s, I think that they’re just a few representatives away from being able to, there’s so much DC minutiae at play there that I don’t understand because I’m not, yeah, it’s a big, it’s a big year year.
Yeah, it’s a big year and I want to, I want to jump around a little bit here too. Cause so speaking of interviews and otherwise so women connect for good. Dr. Nancy has a podcast. We have to talk about that. We have to bring that up. Like that’s a, that’s a big deal. Tell us a little bit about the show.
Cause I definitely want my audience to go check it out. Okay. It’s smart, amazing conversations with Dr. Nancy. She loves, loves, loves to the podcast and she’s got some great guests. We’ve got some great guests lined up, but it’s a way she feels that our stories connect us. And this is a really great way to learn the stories of other leaders and just other men and women and find out how we can all work together to move equality forward and to just do some of the things.
But this is just a great way to get to know someone. And a lot of times if she’ll connect with someone, she’ll say, let’s connect further, let’s have them on the podcast. And that’s how a lot of relationships with women connect for good start. And so it’s great. I mean, we love to meet new people and to to get them on the show and.
It’s it’s become to me when I look from the, you know, outside looking in and now I feel like I know a lot more. So I’m a little bit on the inside, but it’s really become a community. I see, like, I can see it like between the events, everything else, the podcast, like everything else that I see, because I can see from pictures as well.
Or you should go somewhere like when I went to the state of the woman conference and then the key is there. Gloria is there like everybody’s there. And I’m like, Oh my gosh, these are all like, so it’s fun to see this whole community develop around this movement. Yeah. It’s wonderful. I mean, it’s wonderful.
And, and she’ll joke around about how she was the only one banging on the drum for such a long time, you know, just kind of yelling into the void. But now we have so many fantastic, you know, organizational partners and friends. And just really with that, I think comes some great momentum. So I’m going to keep it high level on this question intentionally, Melissa, but we, we got a book that we’re, that we’re coming out with together and you’re a, definitely a big part of that and, and all the hard work you’ve put and assembling, bringing the authors together as well as Dr.
Nancy and and doing the legwork as well. And you’re of course, an author. We’re going to keep it high level here. High level. We’re not going to do too many spoilers. What are some of the things that you hope to present or write in the upcoming book? I hope that everyone can find a story that they identify with.
I mean, we have put together a group of just incredible women leaders, but the fact is all of these women leaders are women. Like we all have the same struggles. We all have families that we’re concerned about issues that we’re concerned about things that we want to move forward. And I hope that every person that reads it finds a story that says, I can identify with that or I can get behind that.
I also think that it’s a great way for readers to learn about not just women connect for good and what we do, but what these incredible contributors do as well. I mean, my heroes are involved in this project, some big, mighty heroes, and it’s exciting to me to know that my community will pick up the book and read it.
And learn about their stories. Yeah. It’s, it’s amazing. And it’s one of those projects that as it, as it started to unfold and started to come together, like, and I’m reading those things, we’re not, we’re not, we’re still in the editing process. But as I start, as they start to come across my desk and I’m reading them and I’m just reading like one after another, I’m like, wow.
Wow. Wow. Like, it’s amazing to see it build. It’s, it’s a lot of fun. It’s amazing. It’s so exciting. And I think it’s the, the perfect group. Yeah. And you know, the perfect group of everybody’s is it’s so complimentary what this person is doing and what that person is doing. They’re working towards the same goal.
And, and it’s just, like I said, these are my heroes and it’s. I’m so excited to see it come together. I know everyone jokes around that I’m easily excitable, but I’m really excited about it. No, this is something big. Like this could, this could not happen without, without women connect for good and all the work that everybody’s put into this.
So it is exciting. Well, Melissa, I have to say it has been, you know, so much fun having you on the show. If somebody is listening to this or watching this and they want to learn more about women connect for good. for good and to connect with, you know, Dr. Nancy’s podcast, like the whole thing, like how do people follow?
Go to Dr. Nancy O’Reilly dot com sign up for the newsletter. That’s a great way to stay in the know. We also have a, you can go to lift women up. com lift women up. com is our lift women up campaign. It’s one of the things that we do every year. Basically, what it is, is you sign up for, you know, to be part of the campaign.
You get an email every Monday morning. There’s no cost. It’s a great resource. And all it is, is a thing to make you be a good human, like do something nice for yourself, do something to support another woman in the workplace, do something to support another woman in the community, quick, easy action items.
And we love it. And we’ve had great over the years. It just keeps growing and growing. So it’s, it’s a lot of fun, but those two ways, best ways to learn about us. If you have questions, feel free to reach out. I’m, I’m the receiver of the website emails. And so people will get me first and I’ll see what I can do to help.
That’s amazing. Well, thank you again. And to everybody that’s watching, if this is your first time with mission matters or listening to an episode, we’re all about bringing on mission based individuals to share, you know, their mission, why, why they do what they do, like what makes them tick and wake up in the morning and want to go out into the world and make a difference.
If that sounds interesting or fun or exciting to you, we welcome you hit that subscribe button. This is a daily show each and every day. We have new episodes for you and we don’t want you to miss a thing. Melissa. Thank you so much and looking forward to having you back on the show when the book’s out and live.
Okay. I appreciate everything. Thank you, Adam.
