[applause] ■m our c3 national organization. Vote run isur c4. This is just an image of our program. Boat run lead action and what do we do . Why am i here . Trained prodemocracy, antiracist and feminist women and nonbinary folks to address the longstanding underrepresentation of women in state legislatures. We are working up and down the ballot with state legislatures where our focus is. That is where the action is. That is where the are made. We are also Training Campaign staff. Where is hey olivia. Our Campaign Staff that went through our Campaign Staffing prmm. It is going to create a holistic approach in a Ripple Effect of how we change the complete cycle of the politicalandspe. It is not enough to only train women and nonbinary folks as. We also have to train Campaign Staff. A woman of color who is r for the first timeo shade but her Campaign Manager is still an old straight white man o dont know nothing about what is going on on the ground. Talk to me. Yeah. No that does not work. But no shade i want you lk at all the contestant seeds. Racing in georgia and the cycle were uncontested. That means we are letting people hold their seats. We are notet them be held accountable. We will run against you. We will unseat you and we put people in the seats that will actually work to make a difference. At the current rate that we are going it will take the of georgia 28 years to reach gender parity. I will not wait almost three decades to see representation in my state. That is why we are doing the work that we are doing and that is also why w not stop anytime soon. So, hey, there is me at the capital. Ise she her pronouns. My hometown is hershey, pennsylvania. The sweetest place on earth. That is a real thing. I am very biased when it comes to chocolate. Campaign strategy. My are live music. O travel especially solo travel. Ago. Got back from japan a few black female novelists. Toni morrison, audrey lord, all of the greats. This is state representative rula roman. I believe she was the elected at 29. She is the first palestinian American Woman in this georgia statelatu. Also the first had job wearing legislature. Georgia s most importantly, she is a proud need alumni. We are going to talk about today, we have a l get there and you will want to take notes. Weil about how we go from training to action with practical steps on how we feel the confidence cap. How we go from agitation to reaction being matted not doing anything about it. Why . Lets use our energy for good. I know some of you in this room, politics may not be first career option. That is okay. A difference in Different Industries and sectors. Then we will have some reflection time and we will do an interactive. All my introverts in the room, bear with me. It will n that bad, i promise. Filling the confidence cap. I will pretend i k how to multitask. Bear with me. Didou all know thao fingerprints are the same. Are an identical twin youeet, have different fingerprints. That just tells us that no one else can be you. Deep. Right . No one else can be you. It is real. Again, pretending i canitk. So, step write this down, take a picture of it. You are. You are more than enough. Youve always been enough. Will be enough. To be something and understand what you do all this hard work. Read that for me . Imposter syndrome is a life and i dont know if crystal is group the crystalght said something a few weeks ago and she said if you are having r syndrome be the best imposter lets be honest none of us know what we are doing. None of us. We are all trying to figure this thing out as we go read some practical steps to combat imposter syndrome, gather evidence of your accomplint a folder, keep a sublabel in your gma or your google ducks wherever you keep things. When you get an email from a boss or colleague and hey this was great. Thank you forward ever you did to save us t keep that email and make a mental note of the complements that you get not necessarily about your parents but about the work that you have done. Define your success metrics. Self included have an all or nothing approach to success and especially in Campaign Management and movements where we have to break those things down into small goals because otherwise well go and panic culture we trying to overcome that so break down your success metrics and instead of sayingneor the quarter say we need 5000 this week. Start small. Alsoalke to trusted friends and mentors. Its so easy to get in your head and be an isolation bubble where we dont feel like we we aredoio do. Someookhat of my Sorority Sisters and some of my focus friends. When i say im having a day and i will get voice memos back to say stop playing you are that girl, hello . Beyonce number one on the renaissance track. Imhat girl, im that guy. I am, them hello and then accept us have heard that failure is not an option. Yes it is, it absolutely is and its because when you fail thats an opportunity to learn how to do something its an opportunity to learn how to do Something Different and its an opportunity for you to re you cannot do this work by yourself but you have to community and when you failed its a reminder to say what did i not do this time around . Who did i not reach out to . That i asked for help . Did iegat control im one of them im raising my hand. Id like to be in control very type a. We are goingn together how to deal with that. Next we are going to go agitation to action so agitation is a very powerful catalyst for change but you have to channel that energy to be productive. Liked earlier it doesnt make sense to be mad and not do anything about it. To go from agitation to action we are going to talk about some very specific practical steps first of all advocacy is act we are doing something about it. First we are going to connect, engage with likeminded people and share your values and your passions. You also want to do somethingabe passionate about. Social media is a powerful tool to find individuals. We are all o tok and i call it twitter i know what x means. And instagram and threads and all the things. Think about the people you talked to on a regular basis. Have you everkhem about what you are passionate about your family or cousins your fri. Have you ever had a conversation about whats happening in the wo youll can do about it. You also want to learn. Educate yourself on the nuances of the Political Landscape and some of the Historical Context about the things that you are passionate about. What does this issue mean for women, for children, for men for oes it look like wexler policies have already been tried, where have we failed in the past and what can we do different and most importantly with learning pleaset information for crop from credible sources. The shade room is not a creble resource, okay . Im not going to tell you what broadcast networks and what news channels to watch butt sure you are doing your Due Diligence and you are getting yourmati and your education from credible news sources. Going to mobilize. You need tor cnge at the appropriate level so example if you are concerned about potholes and your community please dont calth governors office. He doesnt care. He cant do anything about the potholes. Hoosier city councilmember . If you cant get in touch with your city ci hoosier mayor . Make sure youre advocating at theiateevel. A lot of us are activists and im a grassroots activists. Wed like to lace of our sneakers and hit the ground with their bullhorn. My bullhorn is in the trunk. It stays in my trunk and im always ready but hittinghe streets is not step one. Step one did you ride a letter, did you send an email . Did you request a meeting . Es burn it all down and make sure its the right building first. Make sure theres somebody in it. We have to think strategically about these things and flywe a. There is no reason to do this work alone. We cannot do this work alone and you dont have to reinvent the wheel. Think about all of the coalitions and the faces that already est and are doing the work that you also want to do. Reach out and make connections. Say hey i saw that you all are doing this great work and im also interested. Raise your hand and say do you there are power in numbers and joining the existing movement coan excellentay how are going about change. Considering a career change. This is the b all of us are not going to run r ofce. All of us are not going to manage a campaign and thats okay. Consider what your unique skills are, consider whatr abilities are and how you can be the most useful to movement. I, a communications and digital a trainer. , maybe i canel maybe i can wright a nonprofit organization, grant applications. It doesnt necessarilyt have tor office. Advocacy, grassroots advocacy, mobilizingou community. Im still considering law school. M to figure out whos going to pay for it. The Student Loans that i have right now are a i have nothing to do with that. Its above me. That being a paralegal, being a secretary there are different tt industries. Media and communication, education andesearch. We all know his campaign search and oppositionopposition consulting but you also can educate on a grassroots level. It he to be complicated is my point. And then the bogeyman corporate affairs. There are good spaces and departments and corporate relations andrs that help you connect with communities. My first big girl job when i moved to atlanta, ike the building right down the street on the 37th floor and i edlpun probe on a Community Service and large law firm. My job really powerful wealthy attorneys with nonprofits who are doing excellent work on the ground, making sure they are getting their probe on her out probe on all hours. Are bringing and is going into the community will where they need it. One ofs written d to one of the things thats important to think about when we are running thes corporate programs is even for those of you who work in nonprofi and other spaces where you get back to the community what does the if you are going to do a backtoschool drive and you are filling bookbags with School Supplies that the parents are yi neecrayons and pencils. My babies are hungry, we need te we want a photo op and we want to look good in our newsletter because we be about 500 bookbags or do we want to make a difference and make sure these babies are fed when they go to school, make t sneakers dont have holes in them. So w are moving. Does anybody have any quick questions for me to the reflection and interactive exercise . I have a question overe. Can i have a microphone please and thank you. Thank you ace. Give it up for aids. Hes beenind e scenes making us do what we do. I know and understand how vital having y s mentors are and so how would you go about acquiring a mentor . In sca are people who dont necessarily have the time or the capacity to be able to take on a mentorship and you know there are people who have friends for decades and they just have outgrown them and have moved forward into different space with dre that kind of dynamic. Thats an excellentuestion for the greatest mentorship relationships that i have had in my personal and professional life has not been from intentionally seeking out a mentorships. I didnt send an email and im not saying this is wrong but i did not send an email and say hey i would love to learn more about you and what you do, will you mentor may . Iea out and said i really interested in the work that you are doing and how can i hel so offering yourself as not t somebody whos going to be as sons of sponge that make yourself available to get your hands dirty with that person. My campaigns strategists leadership mentor, i reached out to her and i said hey if you that are coming upof these call me. I will knock on doors and ill make calls and volunteer withuri ppens. Be in the room where it thats how i got to be in the room to see what shes dnd build a relationship with her. You can also send an email and just say hey my name is ashlee and im in the interest in the work you are doing and id love to treat you to copy one day and to see where it goes. Believe it ork introvert. Im very uncomfortable right now for doing hard things. Shout out to me by putting yourself there is going to be really important. Thank you. I saw a question over here. My question is actually the its okay to fail. I have learned maybe in our jobs its okay to fail and i know in life its also okay to fail and this is probably like a therapy sess thats okay, thats okay. Bring it on. One of the things that i struggle with most is like yes it may be okay to fail but if i fail im failing at something so big that it sets me back maybe a year or two years in my life plan or can have dire consequences on me and my future. Thats what i struggle with when fa. Comes to saying its okay to i want to ask have you encountered that inr life and also the people that you have in how have you overcome that . Thats an excellent question. I love t s much. I too had a life plan. I still have a life plan. I just nixed the timeline of ttle bit because theres no such thing as being too old to start over no such thing as being too old or too seasoned to try new things. Its okay to fail but thinking, i turned 30 on april 1 shout my. By 30 i wasing be married. I may have a couple of kids running around and my law degree. O that but i had all of these plans and all of these things that i had to accomplish certain time and i was stressingel out. My anxiety was through the roof. Trying to manage all of the things to get don hard. Shout out to lexapro but one of the main things i tell people tt answer question but its okay. How old was when she got her first on error job quite she was 35 or 36. Ava duvernay one of myavorite film directors didnt pick up a camera until she was in her mid30s. Yes there is an overwhelming our heads that say if i dont do this or i this right what consequences that have for my family . What consequences thate fo the movement that im trying to do and i think my point is we cannot carry all of that weight on our own and on our shoulders. I hope that little bit. Heres a hug from the stage and then i have time for one more question right behind. Hi my question is d you discern whether when you have difficulty in an organization thats not honoring the values liey put forward to the pub and fight for or two leave the organization because i feel very disillusioned. Now its not the organization itself but its my particular affiliate so im having a hard time whether i shouldta fight because i truly care about the people who work there because they are very sweet and they really give a or do i say i can do this and im going to . Today off too big of a question . That might have been too good of a question, friend. Also a shoutout to your shirt, planned parenthood southeast but e them. What nonstarters like what values can you say i am here to do this work because of this and im not going to jeopardize that. Im not going to change that for anyone and if thats not what we are doing there isnt a place for me here. Thats also okay. Movement work as we all know it aint about the money because we all can be getting paid more. But its about the value system that you hold personally. Iveons ere i love the organization and i love opie stand for externally and they even made love my work with but at the end of the day are we doing it for grant money and not doing what we are doing for the community and the people we serve because its shl mindset anversion and say from my example earlier if we are supposed to be feeding thecs show up with bookbags in grants for highschoolers like this is a personal parents i had. They need 500dollare we doing . Its like listen to that internal guide system whether religious affiliation or whether its your own subconscious. Listeno that and sometimes its worth just having a ith e people who are above you. I have learned that being afraid of saying what i mean in asking for what i need and questioning strategic plans on an organizational level it means in the first place but somebody have to be holding each other accountable and that includes your president , founder and ceo and that includes the people sit on the board. Ask all thest you dont get significant answers and sufficient answers sometimes ittepack and say maybe this is on parole for me. I hope that helps a little bit but listen to that voice that you have because its there and i know shes telling you like girl you need to stay and you need to fight for this or if every day you get up to■ go to work and you were like hereego r to get it donec no motivation sometimes thats also terna trigger like this is draining me. Its not bringing me joy and need to find where i can make a difference. Hey friend. Can i do the reflection . Si quietly and talk amongstll to yourselves if youd like to but values are and whatflect on your Passion Projects are and what youre getting neat superpower is that you can use for change. So i will give an example. My passion project is electing women of color up and down the ballot. The unique superpower that i have to get that done this strategy making it all makes sense. So take a couple of minutes and just really think about what your Passion Projects are what your tues op ve where you draw the line. And then the superpowers and potential career changes that make. Im going to be quiet for a couple of minutes. But come onk,om on back but come on back. If you can hear my voice clap once. If you can hear my voice clap twice. K and we are back. I hope that was helpful for all to kind of reflect on what your unique lane is. Some of us are martin and some of us are coretta. Its okay. The poll that because the other person is at the front of the room the person whose ac figure and then there are those of us who were like corrina and that quiet strength in the background the strategy to logical thinking and making it l makes sense. My friend from venezuela over here im going to pick on you because you had a q you dont have to but if you want to share what your reflectiwa your question. Go ahead. [inaudible] i connected a lot with the reflection and your answer. Oftentimes [speaking ssh because oftentimes is human rightivts who are oftentimes in positions where we make decisions but we dont connect with vulnerable people. I know everyone here does,es. But our mission is to teach people who aotm right now. [speaking spanish] in my experience that lived ecuador for five years. And there are i thought i learned what was needed to help venezuelan immigrants who were fleeing from one dictatorship, walking through fourries going throu and they would get to the city. My organization and my friend dennis weyland ecuadorians and [saking spanish]ited states. We believe the best way to ood. Them was with a coke and obviously you have tt right. A lot of immigrants see ecuador as a launching point to f south. But i understoha earlier. srself in the shoes of other folks. Its kind of what used to stepping outside of our comforte but its very eas to see here we are on the sta age here we are sitting down for the question is are we really doing matt . [applause] what did i do . It was a thing. Dont do this. I left everything i had in ecuador. Four years of hard work as a innocent immigrant and we are doing something we are helping these immigrants in the correct way. Tn immigrant as well. Thk to venezuela and i walked with immigrants. The lg i had on me eating from trash cans just like they do , sleeping out in the streets and it took me three months toe g from san antonio to venezuela to lima peru. Crossing through venezuela columbia ecuador and i could haon my house there are but i have to do what you are trying to teach us he literally putting myself in the shoes of others and the concept outside of my comfort zone and thats were interested that we were doing everything wrong. I got back finally and other cities in columbia. To tell them immigrants they need all of these things and many more things. The immigrants, the person the asian perso a person the underprivilegedn might stay out of fear of not knong or out of shame because you are trying to give me food and clothing and who am i to us for more and the message i want to leave here i please listen to her. [applause] thank thank you friend. Was the best t any of us could have heard. We are the ones we have been waiting for payday know you have cliche but we have to takew that to hearta and do our work. We have to get uncomfortable. We have two roll up our sleeves and get. Her passion project is combating the food desert are you in the dirtlanting or are you just talking about its . If your passion project is reproductive justice and Abortion Access because abortion is not a word, if thats your passion project argue just talking about it or are you signing up to take young women to clinics and make sure that they arent heckled. Are you doing the work so thank you so much friend for sharing