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96. The Power of Your Story- with Catherine Porth
84 Plays3 years ago
Catherine Porth is the Founder of Let Her Speak where she curates women-empowered events, conducts female-focused research, and develops leadership-growth education. She founded Let Her Speak originally with one purpose - to share the stories of women who often get overlooked and forgotten. Her mission is to bring more visibility and support to all women in business. She believes that through community, research, and education - more women will rise to leadership positions.
Catherine has over 12 years of experience in service, business development, training, and insights research. She has worked in a broad range of industries including financial services, workplace design, and technology start-ups. For every role Catherine has had, one thing that remains consistent is that she takes on an "owner's heart" with every business she works for or with. She believes her wide range of experience and passion for the entrepreneurial community has made her uniquely effective in working with entrepreneurs who have to wear all the hats as they build their businesses.
Catherine holds a bachelor's degree in marketing and entrepreneurship from the University of South Carolina Darla Moore School of Business and a Master's in Business Administration from the University of Tennessee Haslam College of Business.
Born and raised in Iowa, she has called Knoxville, TN home for the last 4.5 years with her husband, dog, and rabbit.
Contact information for Let Her Speak:
Website: www.letherspeakus.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/letherspeakus
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/letherspeakus/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/let-her-speak/ | https://www.linkedin.com/in/catherine-porth/
Email: LetHerSpeakus@gmail.com
Contact Kendra Rinaldi to be a guest or for coaching:
https://www.griefgratitudeandthegrayinbetween.com/
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Transcript
Networking Events: Superficial or Meaningful?
00:00:01
Speaker
the way that most even women-centric networking events or ways that we offer platforms for women to connect and come together felt very fake or empty feeling that, you know, we passed around business cards, but honestly,
00:00:20
Speaker
The best way to connect with someone and to partner with them and to grow a business or grow a career is to really get behind and down through the surface of what that woman does and really get behind who is she and why is she driven to do what she does. What is it about her story? What are the little fibers that we can all connect to each other through and it doesn't matter what industry we're in, what position we're on.
00:00:46
Speaker
where we're at in our careers, there's something that can all bind us together, that we can find to help each other out.
Podcast Exploration of Grief and Connection
00:00:57
Speaker
Hello, and welcome to Grief, Gratitude, and the Gray in Between podcast.
00:01:05
Speaker
This podcast is about exploring the grief that occurs at different times in our lives in which we have had major changes and transitions that literally shake us to the core and make us experience grief.
00:01:21
Speaker
I created this podcast for people to feel a little less hopeless and alone in their own grief process as they hear the stories of others who have had similar journeys. I'm Kendra Rinaldi, your host. Now, let's dive right in to today's episode.
Katherine Porth's Mission with Let Her Speak
00:01:43
Speaker
Katherine Porth is joining us today in this conversation. She is the founder of Let Her Speak, which is an organization in which the sole purpose is to share the stories of women who often get overlooked and forgotten. Her mission is to bring more visibility and support to all women in business
00:02:06
Speaker
And that is actually how we connected was through one of my other guests, Meg Nocero. Author Meg Nocero connected us and said, you guys have to meet. So we've already chatted once before, and I am so excited for you all to get to meet her and get to know what it is she does. And I'm also excited to learn more of how it is she ended up doing what she does. So welcome, Catherine.
00:02:35
Speaker
Thank you so much, Kendra. I'm happy to have you here. I'm happy to be here.
From Iowa to Knoxville: Katherine's Journey
00:02:40
Speaker
So let's chat a little bit about you. Where are you located? Let's let the speakers get to know you. So where are you located? So I am in Knoxville, Tennessee. And then that's where your headquarters of your company are? Yes. Yep. We are headquartered downtown with our fiscal sponsor, who's the Knoxville Entrepreneur Center.
00:03:03
Speaker
Okay, so we'll dive into more into what all this is and all the different services your organization offers. But I'm still going to dig in more about you. So where were you raised? Where were you born and raised?
00:03:18
Speaker
I am originally from Iowa. I grew up in Southeast Iowa on the Mississippi River. So my entire family is Midwest family, hence the accent. I went to school though at the University of South Carolina. I wanted to get away from the Midwest and see what the rest of the world was like. So when I went to school down there, I actually fell in love with the Southeast and with
00:03:41
Speaker
Um, the Appalachian area. Um, so it, I guess it was just, uh, serendipitous, but also probably, uh, premeditated that I would end up back in the same area. Did you go after you went to school in South Carolina? Did you go back then home and then after that, then came to Knoxville? Yeah. Yeah. So I graduated at the height of the recession and, uh, the recession was not kind to the Southeast. There really weren't any jobs.
00:04:09
Speaker
Um, maybe Charlotte and Atlanta. That was about it. So I went back home to Iowa, uh, bought a house and, um, set up there for about seven years. Uh, and seven years was enough to, to be back home. And I really wanted to get back out to, um, you know, areas that I really loved and it.
00:04:28
Speaker
So happened that I met someone who was living in Knoxville and I told him I am more than happy to move down to you rather than you moving up to me. So about four and a half almost five years ago I moved to Knoxville.
00:04:44
Speaker
That's wonderful. And then you've been together then since. And then you're recently married. We're married now. You're recently married. Yeah. And it's new, new, right? Yeah. Fairly new. Yeah. We got married two years ago. We just celebrated our anniversary a few weeks ago.
00:05:04
Speaker
And as we're recording this, because when people listen to this, because we're recording this in October, so October 2021. So when people hear this, it will be like, what? If they know you, they'll be like, no. They'll be hearing this further down the line.
00:05:20
Speaker
Yeah, true. Are you wrong with her anniversary? Yeah. I always say things like that because I do happen to have several guests that then the episodes are released afterwards, so I don't want the listeners to be confused sometimes with the timeliness of things. First of all, what did you study and then what did you work in to then end up doing what you do right now?
Rediscovery of Entrepreneurship Passion
00:05:47
Speaker
I am one of those very rare people that pretty much knew what she, for the most part, I knew what I wanted to do by the time I was probably about 14. It varied very, very slightly. So I went into school wanting to study marketing and I was going to do international business, but then actually fell into doing entrepreneurship as my second major.
00:06:10
Speaker
which worked out for exactly what I needed to be studying at that time. So did marketing and entrepreneurship, went into the business world, worked in Fortune 500. I did sales service, sales training, business development strategy, basically things that I was trained to do in college. My internships were all related to sales and marketing and things. And then when I was looking at moving to Knoxville,
00:06:39
Speaker
The company I was working for, which was a major furniture manufacturer, they had an opportunity for me to go into one of their dealers. Commercial furniture operates just like the way cars operate, where it's not usually sold directly to the public, it's sold through a dealer channel.
00:07:00
Speaker
So I was working for one of those dealers down here in Knoxville was my first job out of corporate America working for a small business and I discovered the Entrepreneur Center about a month after moving to Tennessee and reconnected with my love of entrepreneurship because I had worked with entrepreneurs in college and
00:07:23
Speaker
I worked with small businesses and entrepreneurs in my last corporate job, the job that I left to go to this dealership. I was working with small businesses, mom and pop shops all over the country, and just remembered how much I loved doing that and never knew that there was a potential career path for me to just do that, that I didn't have to
00:07:46
Speaker
I become an entrepreneur in order necessarily to help entrepreneurs and it said I could be come an extension of their team and help them through what it takes to start a business to grow a business to expand a business and go beyond so I decided to go back to school and get my
Birth of Let Her Speak: A Breakthrough
00:08:05
Speaker
MBA.
00:08:05
Speaker
after connecting with KEC so I went back to school and it was while I was gearing up to go back to school that I took my first extended time off from working because I knew I was going to be going back anyway so I might as well take a little bit of a break for myself that the whole idea for Let Her Speak just came to me out of nowhere.
00:08:28
Speaker
Well, sometimes it's not added no more. You just happen to be listening to your soul and the inspiration just like grasped on. But the KEC, that's Knoxville Career Center. No, Knoxville Entrepreneur Center? Yes, Knoxville Entrepreneur Center.
00:08:46
Speaker
Okay, so then here it is. You get this divine inspiration. You tapped into this as you were maybe washing dishes or washing your hair. Usually it's in the shower that these things come up.
00:09:02
Speaker
That's very true in the, in the car, in the shower, usually, or when my ideas happen. It's so, and it's usually when you can't write them, right? For me, sometimes it's in the sink, like the, you know, water running, I'm washing the dishes or yeah. In the shower or like you're driving in there, you're like, how do I write this down? That just came down. And then sometimes you come out, it's kind of like, um,
00:09:24
Speaker
in the dream world, right? You get out of bed and then you're like, what did I dream? Sometimes I come out of the shower like, I know exactly what we're going to do. It's like, do I remember the moment I stepped out of the shower or not? So I'm so glad you remembered when you had your inspiration. So let her speak as born then. What year did the idea then come up?
00:09:46
Speaker
Yeah, the idea was 2017. So about May or June of 2017, I sat down with the executive director and at the time the COO of KEC with this idea. I was a mentor for them. I was working with a woman entrepreneurship group that had started at KEC. So they knew me at this point. And I said, I have this idea. This is where it came from. This is where I see it going.
00:10:16
Speaker
What do you guys think? Would you be interested in, if I put it together and build it, would you help me promote it and help me find sponsors to get it off the ground and see if it could actually work? And they were 100% on board. If you're willing to build it, we will offer whatever resources we can to see it through. So because I'm a data person, I really want to talk to people before I
00:10:42
Speaker
go off and create something because I don't always trust that I definitely don't know everything and nor do I trust or think that I know everything. So I interviewed women throughout this summer that I had off before going back to school, put together exactly what I think it should be. I had come up with a name I think right before school started. I was at lunch one day reading news articles and this phrase let her speak popped out at me and I was like,
00:11:12
Speaker
Oh, well, I think that needs to be what it's going to be called. So, um, it, it just, I, it was never anything that I ever thought I would do in my life. Um, I, but when you obviously hindsight being 2020, when you look back and see all the different pieces, it's like, Oh, well, of course this is exactly where I was supposed to be and what I was supposed to be doing.
00:11:33
Speaker
That is so true that we sometimes think that what we're doing presently has nothing to do with our purpose, but yet it has been our purpose all along. Sometimes, like you said, you look back and you're like, oh, these were all building blocks to this. Yes. Right? It's like all these little pieces of the puzzle suddenly come together. So tell us about Let Her Speak, then. So the name comes up. What is then the purpose of Let Her Speak?
Fostering Genuine Storytelling Connections
00:12:03
Speaker
So the purpose has really grown and evolved since 2017. The original intent was there were several different reasons that it came about. I had been a newcomer to a city.
00:12:18
Speaker
and didn't really know anybody except for my husband and I started going to a lot of networking events and things like that. Coming through corporate America, I had to go to vendor shows and conferences and all types of things that
00:12:35
Speaker
Um, if you're a person who's more on the introverted side of the scale, which I, even though I'm a salesperson, I'm much more introverted, which I always argued was what made me a very good salesperson is I love to listen. I don't need to talk. Um, and the, uh, the way that most even women's centric networking events or ways that we offer platforms for women to connect and come together felt very
00:13:05
Speaker
fake or empty feeling that we pass around business cards. But honestly, the best way to connect with someone and to partner with them and to grow a business or grow a career is to really get behind and down through the surface of what that woman does and really get behind who is she and why.
00:13:26
Speaker
is she driven to do what she does? What is it about her story? What are the little fibers that we can all connect to each other through? And it doesn't matter what industry we're in, what position we're on, where we're at in our careers, there's something that can all bind us together that we can find to help each other out. So that was the original part of it because I came out of corporate America with, I had,
00:13:52
Speaker
had in my early career days some issues with workplace bullying and predominantly it was women in the workplace that were bullies to other women. Unfortunately, that can still be true to the stay of this scarcity mindset that there's only so many women that can make it to the top and it's very restricted to, you know, you get like one, maybe two seats at that table.
00:14:16
Speaker
I think it's improving, but it's still on its way. It's still a long way to go. When I got to my last job before I left corporate fully was a very different workplace. It was a place that women were incredibly supportive of each other in the sales team.
00:14:38
Speaker
They were a huge reason why I was able to walk away from a very bad relationship. And one of those women that helped me was actually the woman who introduced me to my now husband. And it was because of that, I realized relationships between women
00:14:56
Speaker
is so profound and can make such a huge difference and I didn't appreciate it until my late 20s when finally it smacked me in the face of like, no, you need a good support system of women around you, women that look out for each other, women that support each other that will celebrate if you win, we all win type of mentality.
00:15:17
Speaker
And you didn't really see that too often in too many groups outside and especially in entrepreneurship because you're so isolated and alone most of the time you don't have a team to really go to or to work with. So that was the original idea but I really wanted it to be about story and not so much about this is who I am, this is my title, this is what I do, but really this is who I am. And these are things that I've struggled with that has really
00:15:45
Speaker
created the human that you see in front of you. And the other frustration was when I went to large women-centric conferences, but this is true of pretty much any conference you go to, that there was this division and looking up at this pedestal mentality that the women on stage were above the women in the audience, even though maybe not
00:16:12
Speaker
the women on stage might not necessarily think that, but the visual of feeling like they're up there and I'm down here in the dark. And when really you look to the left and right of you and every woman that's surrounding you has a profound story to share. Every woman has something to offer to that conversation. And a lot of us, when you go to big conferences like that, never get an opportunity to speak or to say anything or to impart our own wisdom to each other.
00:16:39
Speaker
it's sit and listen to these women on the stage. And I did not want that to, I wanted to stop from that happening. So the event was intentionally curated that every woman had an opportunity to speak. We had one woman who was a storyteller, but her story was really meant just to lead to more conversations for the other women. There are no microphones, there is no stage. Every woman is on equal footing, equal platform.
00:17:07
Speaker
And we really take the time after every woman's story for each to dive in deeper to the topic that she brings up, whether it's mental health and wellness or the cross-generational gap or mining that gap of, now I'm older and I'm in my later stage in my career, what does that mean for a woman because society doesn't value me anymore?
00:17:32
Speaker
bullying or imposter syndrome, whatever that is, we sit with that topic and we discuss with each other and we connect to the fibers that we can connect with and learn from the others that have had different experiences than we could ever possibly have because of our social status or the color of our skin or where we grew up.
00:17:50
Speaker
And so we pay tribute to that woman's story by being able to connect it to our own stories. And every woman has an opportunity if she wants to share with the group to do that. We keep it small intentionally because you get above studies usually show around
00:18:07
Speaker
50 or more people in a room. It's much more difficult for people who are more introverted to feel comfortable standing up and speaking. So we always keep it to, it's never gonna be a thousand person event. It's always gonna be a small curated event that every woman can have an opportunity to say something.
00:18:24
Speaker
That is just so amazing.
Impact of Storytelling in Entrepreneurship
00:18:26
Speaker
Everything you're saying is just so incredible because it is the whole purpose I have of the podcast is because stories do matter and stories also show relatability, right? You were talking about that part of seeing somebody on a podium and not even relating. Like you just hear maybe what it is they've done, but you sometimes don't know how it is they got there or their struggles or things like that, that then you don't know how you can even
00:18:53
Speaker
you know, relate, right? So by the story and the vulnerability too of everyone sharing is that you connect. And though your paths may be different, you know that in those struggles is that you
00:19:11
Speaker
have come to grow as to who it is that you are, right? And those struggles and, you know, obstacles that have come the way, you know, in their way to become these entrepreneurs, somebody that's starting out can be like, oh, okay, so what I'm experiencing right now
00:19:29
Speaker
as an entrepreneur is normal. These are normal hurdles. This person's been doing it for longer. They had these hurdles, and this is where they're now. So it inspires others too. I love it. Now, what are some of these stories
00:19:45
Speaker
I don't know if you're able to share some stories without, of course, revealing the privacy of the people. Some of these stories that, for you, when you've listened to them, have been like, oh my gosh, I am so grateful that I grabbed a piece of paper and launched. She let her speak when it came to me. What are some of those stories that, for you, have been heartwarming?
00:20:15
Speaker
you
00:20:16
Speaker
There's been a lot. What's one I know it's not. One that you can relate to, or one that you can relate to, or that tugs at your strings. I think some of the most profound ones have been, one of the things that I always push for, for Let Her Speak, is that we are a platform that it doesn't matter if you've never done public speaking in your life. This is a place that you can come and feel safe, and you don't have to be polished.
00:20:45
Speaker
you just need to be you. And it's an opportunity for you to share a story that has been in your heart and on your mind for a very long time, but you've never been able to find a place to share it. Because that's another point of frustration sometimes with events is that you feel like when you give a story that there has to be a moral or there has to be tactical advice attached to it.
00:21:08
Speaker
step-by-step instructions of things to do, when really the power of a story is the resonation that it has with another person and what each individual can take from that. So there's been quite a few times where the Let Her Speak event or whether it's virtual or in person was the very first time a woman has shared her particular story.
00:21:33
Speaker
One woman that's a very good friend of mine now who had battled mental health thoughts of suicide. She came very, very close to ending her own life a number of years ago. She had never told that story to anybody. And then I opened up, let her speak and asked for speakers. And she had been a woman that was instrumental in helping me put together the idea for it. So I was like, absolutely, you can be one of the speakers.
00:22:03
Speaker
And it was the first time she had ever told that story and everybody in that room was crying. Whether we had personally had those feelings or not, we understood exactly how she was feeling and we got it. I had a woman who spoke, who's another friend that last year that is originally from Venezuela and had never spoken publicly in an all English talk.
00:22:29
Speaker
And it was the very first time she had ever spoken all in English. And it was just so amazing these ideas that she brought together of her own story and to bring it together in a language that was not her first language. And so there's a ton of favorites, but those are two that stick out to me. That's it.
00:22:54
Speaker
Now, what I'm listening here, what I'm hearing is that this is not only a platform to connect women with other women and entrepreneurs, but also a platform of building capacities, like this capacity of being able to speak in a space that is non-judgmental and so forth, right? So you're developing this capacity of even public speaking in these kind of environments, too.
00:23:19
Speaker
Yeah, and that's something that I truly feel is a huge part of being a leader, no matter how you define what a leader is in your home, in your community, in your business, at your company. But the ability to communicate and to be vulnerable and be open and be authentic is a powerful thing to be able to wield as a leader.
00:23:46
Speaker
And so that's something that I didn't realize until I got a few years in to let her speak that that was actually a big power of the platform is that a lot of these women, they may became not really knowing what to expect or not really knowing what they were going to be doing, you know, in six months.
00:24:04
Speaker
And they came here and they realized the power of their own story and how that could play a role in whatever, you know, whatever leader position they took within themselves. They finally saw themselves as somebody who was worthy and willing to be a leader.
00:24:23
Speaker
This is so valuable. It just, yeah, because that skill of leadership when especially if you have a staff, if you're an entrepreneur and then you have a staff, maybe, you know, then you need that leadership capacity to be able to lead others.
00:24:38
Speaker
And, but again, that relatability to within this environment of let her speak also then allows this entrepreneur to have that relatability with their own staff and so forth to write like again like and connecting at a deeper level with their own.
00:24:57
Speaker
their own staff. So it's so many different levels. And I'm assuming it goes even deeper, then allows connectivity in the home. It allows connectivity. It's just amazing. It's like one thing leading to another and another, and you're kind of cracking open. It's like a life coaching kind of event, like a personal growth and a development event just to be able to share your story.
00:25:21
Speaker
Yeah, and one thing that I find that's been more validating that this model and this idea that I have actually has, because we're very data driven, even though it's very much a personal professional growth type of thing.
00:25:38
Speaker
There's a lot of data that I use to drive it all. And I'm about to ask you data in terms of even like things of how it's even improved their businesses and all that kind of stuff, but go ahead. Yeah, but because of the pandemic, the need and the requirement for these softer skills of openness, vulnerability, empathy, connection,
00:26:03
Speaker
and collaboration, all of these soft skills that for years and years and years, for the most part, has not been validated or valued in a leader.
Pandemic's Influence on Leadership and Connection
00:26:14
Speaker
Usually they're called feminine leadership skills versus masculine, which we all have both. It's more of the spectrum of things.
00:26:22
Speaker
but that those more feminine, leaning types of leadership skills have been instrumental in whether a leader has been successful or not in navigating their business, their home, or their workplace through the pandemic.
00:26:38
Speaker
Um, and so that is exactly where, when, when those studies started coming out, I realized, okay, we have something here because it is in the darkness and in these types of times that the power of what, um, the women are showing in the letter speak community are really capable of doing and what they're able to change.
00:27:01
Speaker
So, so good. Now within that, let's dive, like before we go into, I want to know some of the stories of the improvements or things that women have maybe shared of how this connection with others has improved their business. Let's, since you talked about the pandemic, let's talk about how did you guys pivot during this time? Because I'm assuming when you started 2015, you would meet, sorry, 17, you would meet in person. So now you shifted to then meeting online and
00:27:29
Speaker
Tell us about that shift and that pivot during this time. Yeah, everything had to be virtual. I really was so adamant from 2017 until early 2020 that the connection from human to human happens face to face.
00:27:49
Speaker
I still believe that, but when you're thrown into the depths of a pandemic, our behaviors changed quite a bit. Because humans are easy to adapt, we became adaptable to the fact that we started being able to connect virtually with people. It wasn't something that was so common, so I feel like that was a muscle that we started using a lot more.
00:28:13
Speaker
So in March of 2020 was supposed to be our Let Her Speak Women Summit. And the week that the world closed down, well, the US world closed down was the week of the summit. So I had to postpone it, regather what I needed to do. File by fire right away. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And it took me only maybe a week or two
00:28:42
Speaker
And I had an idea of, I'm going to do a pen pal program. And I had 25 women that were all connected, well, technically 26, I need an even number, that were all connected to each other. Some lived, not everybody was in Tennessee, some were in Florida, some were in Virginia, some were in New York, they were all over the place.
00:29:03
Speaker
And I connected each of these women that they had prompts by different topics that they wrote back and forth to. We had our own stationery that I designed. So I got that out right away for a way for women to connect. And I loved the personal touch of the written word. I'm always a fan of, people send me postcards because they know that I love getting postcards and we feature them on our platform on social media.
00:29:31
Speaker
So I always encourage the written word over an email if it's something that you really want to personally connect with somebody on. So we did that. We started the She Speaks Spotlight series on our social media platforms. I got a lot more active on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn because of that.
00:29:50
Speaker
We started sharing stories every Friday, and we still do share a story about a woman every Friday. In June, we did, or sorry, May of 2020, we did our very first virtual event. It was based off of a research study I had conducted early in 2020 before the pandemic, which was the state of mind for women in business.
00:30:10
Speaker
And a barrier that we discovered was a top of mind barrier was my own negative self-perception. So we did a workshop slash speaker event about the imposter syndrome. And the five archetypes, we had a mind map workbook that I developed with a couple of friends of mine. We had an artist do renderings of every archetype for us. And so it was a really, really cool event with a lot of different women's talents involved in it.
00:30:40
Speaker
And then by October, things still weren't looking good. So we did the virtual Let Her Speak summit, but we made it a little, everything that I do, it always has to be a little different and a little special. It's not going to be like anything else.
00:30:55
Speaker
And we put together these boxes where every woman who shared a story at the summit contributed a gift. And we footed the bill for the gift, but she had to tell us what it was. And so we bought these gifts and
00:31:11
Speaker
packaged them into the box where you couldn't see what they were. And after every woman's story, all of us virtually together opened up this gift. And she explained to us what this had to do with her story as a memento and a physical, tangible connection that every woman shared in that moment.
00:31:29
Speaker
So that's something that I think we'll continue to do even when going back to in person, we'll continue to do that. And then the She Speaks series, I converted that into not only a feature on Fridays on social media, but now we do video podcasts and it's going to get converted into a normal podcast. We had a sponsor raise their hand saying they want to get behind it.
00:31:53
Speaker
And we'll continue to do more workshops and out of the pandemic also came this vision of expanding into more educational cohort programming to really help existing leaders as well as women who are aspiring leaders to see what type of role they want to take and what does that leadership look like and us helping them build a strong foundation that they can build that off of.
00:32:22
Speaker
My goodness, like talk about like completely like, you know, the, I talk about grief, gratitude and the gray in between, right? It's like all these things of like the obstacles and then, whoop, something, you know, you grow from it. And that's exactly what you did during this last, you know, year and a half. It's like something happened. You had to shift your event, you know, to make it something else and you shifted. And that creativity of all these different things would have not been born had it
00:32:50
Speaker
been that you were going to be in person. You know what I mean? That part of the gift and that opening, you just ran with it. All these little detours just were ways of infusing more creativity and it's beautiful. Everything that you did, the pen pal program. I'm like, man, I want to start that. That's so cool.
00:33:14
Speaker
That is so cool. And you probably would have not done that had it not been because of the pandemic, at least maybe not at this time. So many beautiful things came from not being able to meet in person, all these different ideas. Do you still do these, even though now you're meeting in person, do you still have then the pen pal program or other things like that that you still carried over?
Innovative Projects and Future Plans for Let Her Speak
00:33:39
Speaker
So the plan is when we're working on our website right now, and once the website is established, more than likely, we'll probably bring back the pen pal program and work with a woman stationary maker to put fortunately, Knoxville is the maker city. So we have a lot of extremely, extremely talented artists and makers in our community.
00:34:01
Speaker
So yeah, the plan is to work with them. We started doing a lot more projects, too. So we have like the Words of Women project that is ongoing every Monday. We ask for women to write out a quote from a woman, a quote that they love, whether it's their mom, their aunt, or a famous historical figure.
00:34:24
Speaker
And during Women's History Month, because we couldn't do the Women's Summit like we normally would in March, we had a celebration of our history, our voices. And so I think we'll continue to do more things like that, that women across the country can still have this platform, still contribute their story. However, they are able to express themselves, whether through written word, visual art, spoken word, song, whatever.
00:34:54
Speaker
And then we'll continue to do these other little things of ways for women to feel like they can tangibly touch. We still do postcards. So we had the June of this year event, which was virtual, was a workshop on seeing the superhero in you. And the group of women who attended that, we collectively created eight women superheroes, this league.
00:35:22
Speaker
that we're now working on doing the illustrations for, putting stories together. I know some women who are illustrators and some who are writers, and so we might expand that into something bigger. But all of them also got postcards to use. So I actively, like I'm always giving people postcards or ways to write letters, whether they want to send them to us or send them to somebody else. That is always going to be a part of Let Her Speak, is writing down and sending a thought to somebody.
00:35:50
Speaker
That's so nice, I like that. Okay, I have a couple of questions that I just don't want to forget. Okay, so with the She Speaks program, that part, the social media and then now YouTube podcast, tell us a little bit more about that and then how people can participate in that.
00:36:09
Speaker
And then I don't want to forget my other questions either. So I'm going to say them just so that you can kind of go. The other part is that I also want to ask you is the part of the results that these women are seeing in their business. So which one would you like to
00:36:26
Speaker
Uh, go from, um, we can do the, she speaks the she speaks series first. Yeah. So, um, yeah, the, she speaks spotlight is, um, if you, we predominantly share it on Instagram. So if you go on our Instagram and our link tree in our profile,
00:36:44
Speaker
There's a button there to submit your story for the She Speaks spotlight. We don't really deny anybody unless it's clearly spam or something like that. But yeah, we feature a woman every Friday. We feature her in the order in which we've received it. And it doesn't have to necessarily be that you have a business. We've had women that are in corporate America, but they do writing.
00:37:14
Speaker
to some degree, or they have a love of getting a cause out there that they're behind, a philanthropy cause or something like that, that they submit for. But it's meant for anybody with a vision and a voice deserves to be seen, heard, and valued is really the basis for the She Speaks spotlight. So that's on our Instagram. It's always open.
00:37:41
Speaker
deserve to be seen, heard, and valued. And I like that even as a motto, even within ourselves, to remembering that we do all deserve to be seen, heard, and valued, and that our stories matter. So I like that that's the focus of that spotlight. Yeah. So then they submit it, and then every Friday, it's on the Instagram. And then what about with interviews or things like that that you do for the podcast? How does that work?
00:38:09
Speaker
Yep. So we do the interviews on a, on a seasonal basis. So I, um, wrapped up doing interviews in, um, mid 2020. Cause we, we had a huge backlog for the season. Um, so we'll start doing interviews again in early, um, 2022, oops, 2021 we're in 2021 goodness.
00:38:31
Speaker
Yeah, mid-2021 we ended, early 2022 is when we'll start back up again. And so any woman that we haven't asked to be a guest yet, essentially I go down, every woman that we featured in the She Speaks spotlight, I go back and then ask her if she wants to be interviewed for, and then whoever signs up for that, that's really, we really try not to be,
00:38:59
Speaker
There's no ego behind what we're doing. It's literally any woman who wants to speak up and has the gumption to speak up, here's a platform for you to tell your story. We don't care what level of success you have had or whether that's highs or lows, wherever you're at, this is a place that you can share that.
00:39:19
Speaker
But we do go in order of how people submit. So like the earlier you submit, the earlier then that you usually get asked to be interviewed. And it's always at least a two-parter thing. So you get featured on the She Speaks Spotlight post on Fridays, then a few months later or so, then your interview would get published because we try to be a little repetitive with women that have come to our community.
00:39:45
Speaker
You see one person in one time on a post on Instagram and you're liable to forget. We're forgetful beings. That's just the nature of how our brains work. It's like a commercial. You end up having to see something more than once to then be like, oh yes, I'm going to buy this brand of deodorant or whatever it is.
00:40:06
Speaker
Yeah. So we try to get women featured several times on our platform over the course of a period of time, just so that people maybe recognize her. And at that point, then they're like, oh, right. This person was really cool. I want to connect with her.
00:40:23
Speaker
That's wonderful. Okay, now let's go to the second. I always like say it because with my brain it's easy for me to then want to ask you then questions about this subject and then I forget my original. That's why I said the other one too because I still wanted to ask about that. So since you're data driven in this process,
00:40:43
Speaker
What kind of data have you seen or that the ladies have given you feedback on how their own businesses have shifted because of experiencing this connectivity with other women? How have their businesses been transformed?
00:41:01
Speaker
There's been some amazing transformations that I was not expecting to come out of this. So going back to our very first event that we ever had in 2018, there was women that were there, one in particular that stands out. She didn't even know she or had decided to go until the day of was when she decided that she was going to go to this event.
00:41:29
Speaker
She was working a nine to five, unhappy, had often thought about, you know, maybe I do want to start my own thing, but I don't know what that looks like or what it should be. And after going to that event, it was after she left that space that she decided, I'm going to really go and do this because there are women here that I know I can go to and they will support me in this. I have this system of support.
00:41:57
Speaker
So she left. She started a business that was focused on health and fitness and wellness. And she's changed and pivoted her business. And she now has this actually incredibly successful virtual assistant business that really came out of the really
00:42:19
Speaker
blew up during the pandemic. But it was, she often has said to me, it was because of that one time I walked into that door and I went to your event and all of a sudden I realized that there was opportunity and that there were people here that I could talk to about this.
00:42:38
Speaker
And there's a lot of other women that have at the end of our summits, you have to write a postcard back to yourself of these are the steps that I'm going to take because of this event, because that that's another thing that sometimes happens as you go to these events, you feel great, you feel inspired, you walk out the door, you forget all everything and you go back to your life and no change really happens.
00:42:59
Speaker
And change is very difficult. It takes a lot of deliberation, a lot of consistency, and a constant remembrance of every single day doing something different. So we send these postcards back to these women, and one woman that came in 2019
00:43:16
Speaker
who had been running a side business of making toffee. And it's incredible toffee, by the way. Now I want some. It's town's toffee. She ships everywhere. So if anybody's interested in her toffee. Oh, thank you. A little coffee. Yeah, Sarah's awesome. She was working full time and doing this toffee business on the side. And she had written down that one of her goals walking out of those stores was that she was going to open up her own store.
00:43:44
Speaker
And last year, she opened up her own store. And she left her full-time job. She does her toffee full-time. She has a great little place to make the toffee. And then it also has a cute little storefront to where she sells other items besides her toffee. But so she has that postcard up still in her office reminding her that just a few years ago, this was just a pipe dream. And now it's become something real.
00:44:13
Speaker
Oh, love these stories. Love it. Thank you so much for sharing those. Now, how are people now, before we start wrapping up, how are people now meeting then in the Let Her Speak platform? Is it only in Knoxville or
00:44:28
Speaker
Or are you still holding some of these then in other areas? Do you have like different locations that may be other I don't know what I would call them like franchises. I don't know what other no, what are they called? What would it be called?
00:44:43
Speaker
What is it called in this kind of, not franchise, but kind of like local satellite offices and things like that. Yeah, or other spaces, other cities in which these are held as well in person. Not in person, not right now. We don't have the, we're still a small nonprofit, so we don't have the funding yet to really be able to expand outside of Knoxville for in person. Yet. Yet. Yet.
00:45:10
Speaker
We, I have had quite a few people come to me wanting to do let her speak in or have said that there's a big opportunity in their cities. And I totally understand there are, I know that there's opportunity there. Funding does need to happen though for some of the, it does cost money to do these types of things.
00:45:30
Speaker
So the virtual event is a way to at least bridge that for right now, that when we do virtual events, it allows women from all over the country to be able to come together. We try to do it at times usually where it's not too early on the West Coast, but not too late on the East Coast. We try to at least balance that as much as we can.
00:45:51
Speaker
But there are definitely cities that I have in the expansion plan. As soon as we work up to some more grant funding, sponsorships, things like that, that we'll be able to go into different cities, with the main goal being actually that we focus more on secondary and tertiary cities.
00:46:10
Speaker
Being someone who grew up in a small town and a state that most people forget is even a state. Most people don't usually get Ohio, Iowa, and Idaho all confused, even though we're three very different states. That's me. That's me. Remember, I get those three confused, but it has to do with how they're written. It's the words themselves that get me all confused, Ohio.
00:46:35
Speaker
in Iowa. But being someone who comes from an area that is often forgotten about, and living in a city that I think people forget about, even though it's a pretty mighty city. Obviously, it's my town, so I think that.
00:46:55
Speaker
I really want to go into cities that that there are a huge amount of women there and there's a huge need there and and the The vision and the desire to do something is very prevalent But there's no platform and there's no vessel for that to really happen And so that's really my focus is not the New York's the Chicago's the LA's but but more of these you know these other cities that have women that matter just as much as as everybody else and
00:47:25
Speaker
that don't really have the same opportunities. That's beautiful. Now, let me ask you. So that's one of your postcard kind of things of one of your goals is kind of expanding it at some point. What is something else that's in your postcard there of where else will this go? I mean, I would love your vision. Yeah.
00:47:49
Speaker
Yeah, I would love the, as we're working on this website, the vision for the website has gotten much bigger than I originally, you know, at first it was like, oh, well, we have a website, but, you know, let's make it a little nicer. Let's have a designer come in and do it. And it's become something that's more of a content machine of
00:48:12
Speaker
women, no matter where they're from or who they are, can have an opportunity to have their work showcased and have their voices showcased. And it doesn't have to be finely tuned stories. So even if you feel like personally you're not the best writer, the vision is that we would have a team of volunteer copy editors and people that have an expertise in writing.
00:48:38
Speaker
to read over women's works and to work with them one-on-one to really help their story come out. Because I also personally don't think that that should be a barrier that is up for people to be able to get out there and to be heard and to be seen. That there's things, skill sets that can be developed in order for that to happen. So let's work with these people to help out any way that we can in that realm.
00:49:06
Speaker
And then the other part is to eventually develop a fund too. So as women are going through this cohort program and we are giving them opportunities that will have events that they can come speak at and we invite the entire community, whatever
00:49:24
Speaker
the city is that these cohorts are going on at, but that there's also opportunities for funding for whatever that next step is that she's trying to achieve. So if a woman feels like she needs to go back and get more schooling to truly do what she wants to do,
00:49:42
Speaker
we can either help fund with that schooling or we can help by funding for her to be able to afford to have childcare for her kids while she's going to school, which I know is a huge barrier is childcare, or it could be a little bit of funding that she needs to buy a piece of equipment because that could really help her out, whether it's technology or literally equipment to make her thing.
00:50:08
Speaker
But the funding isn't necessarily you have to have a business idea. But I have this vision for my life of what I think I could do to make the greatest impact while I'm here. But I have a lack of funding. Money is an issue. And to eradicate that being the barrier. Because if you're willing to go out and do it, I would hate that.
00:50:34
Speaker
having needing just minimum funding being the reason why you can't go out and do it.
00:50:42
Speaker
It's kind of like a mini shark tank, like the show shark tank that they invest, but this is like really just like helping out in order to have that, like a land, not a landing board, but a jumping board, you know, for these women to be able to launch their businesses or springboard. Thank you.
00:51:04
Speaker
Thank you, a launch board, yeah, a springboard for these women to be able to launch their life forward. So thank you for sharing that. Now, the ways in which people can get a hold of you, and I know I'll put that in the show notes, all the websites, but Catherine, it's been
00:51:24
Speaker
such a joy to be able to hear all these stories, your story of how you developed, you know, let her speak and also that she speaks spotlight. And I cannot wait to hear all the other things that will come from this. So what are the ways in which people can get in touch with you?
00:51:44
Speaker
Yeah, so we are active on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. At Let Her Speak US is our handle. On Instagram, it's Let Her Speak on Facebook and Let Her Speak on LinkedIn. Our website is letherspeakus.com.
00:52:04
Speaker
Um, so you can go on there. There's contact form on there that goes directly into my inbox and I respond to every message that I get. Um, obviously unless it's spam, but I respond to everything or they could send you a postcard or they can send me a postcard.
00:52:20
Speaker
Yeah, if you want to send me a letter, you can send it to let her speak care of Catherine Porth, and it's 17 Market Square, suite 101 in Knoxville, Tennessee, 37902.
00:52:39
Speaker
And I read every single piece that I get and I usually take a picture and I share it, especially if you put your social media handle or just a way that I can at least show you like, hey, we're sharing your thing for you. So make sure that you say who it's from.
00:52:58
Speaker
That's wonderful. That is so cute. Now that you're talking about postcards, I was watching a show on Magnolia Network, I think it was. This restaurant called The Lost Kitchen, I think it's called. The show is called The Lost Kitchen, and I think the restaurant's called that way, and it's in Maine, I think.
00:53:17
Speaker
and they only take reservations via postcards. You have to send a postcard together, because it's only open for a certain amount of time in the year, and it's only like 40 seats, and so your postcard will determine if you get a seat at the table. So I love that you also are... Yeah, look into it.
00:53:43
Speaker
Because it's somebody else that's using that thing of postcards as the way of reservation. So I thought that was so cool. Going back to the old ways, but bringing again that connectivity. And people share their stories. They're like, this is why I want to get a table. I'm going to be proposing to my girlfriend. So they're sharing their story in that postcard and connecting to the ones that are going to serve them at the restaurant. So I thought it was really cool when I saw that episode. I'm like, that's cool.
00:54:10
Speaker
So anyway, so thank you once again for sharing your story again. And for those that are in Knoxville, please make sure to connect there so you can actually be in person.
00:54:26
Speaker
Even if you're not, if you're in a town, though, that you're like, this needs to be here. I have my short list of places that we can expand to. So I love to hear, though, where all there's a need. Perfect. Perfect. Thank you once again, Catherine. Thank you so much, Kendra. It's been great. Thank you.
00:54:53
Speaker
Thank you again so much for choosing to listen today. I hope that you can take away a few nuggets from today's episode that can bring you comfort in your times of grief. If so, it would mean so much to me if you would rate and comment on this episode. And if you feel inspired in some way to share it with someone who may need to hear this, please do so.
00:55:22
Speaker
Also, if you or someone you know has a story of grief and gratitude that should be shared so that others can be inspired as well, please reach out to me. And thanks once again for tuning into Grief Gratitude and the Gray in Between podcast. Have a beautiful day.