Navigating DEI Messaging By Leading With Empowerment With Ashley T. Brundage

Kim Clark: 00:00:03

We are here with Ashley. Ashley. This is actually

Kim Clark: 00:00:08

part two to our conversation. So I really encourage people. If

Kim Clark: 00:00:12

you haven't listened to part one, please do listen to part

Kim Clark: 00:00:15

one, because she kind of left us with a cliffhanger there. And

Kim Clark: 00:00:18

then it's made me say, I want more. And so here we are, I'm

Kim Clark: 00:00:24

picking it up again, Ashley, just refresh everyone's memory,

Kim Clark: 00:00:28

like, give us a little bit of an introduction to you. And we'll

Kim Clark: 00:00:31

we're gonna pick up where we left off.

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:00:33

Yeah, I mean, I'm the empowerment lady.

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:00:37

And I researched empowerment for eight years, I asked 1000s of

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:00:42

people would empowerment meant to them. And I overcame

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:00:46

harassment, discrimination and homelessness, because I decided

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:00:49

to empower all 10 of my top 10 differences that I have as a

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:00:54

human, including my gender, including my educational

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:00:58

background, having dropped out of high school, including my

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:01:02

social economic class have been hopeless. And choosing to

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:01:07

empower all of my differences is what led me to get hired as a

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:01:11

part time associate and then become the National Vice

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:01:15

President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and less than four

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:01:20

years for the fifth largest bank in the United States. PNC Bank.

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:01:25

Ah,

Kim Clark: 00:01:25

Impressive, impressive. Now, you dropped in

Kim Clark: 00:01:29

there this kind of time in your life where you said that you

Kim Clark: 00:01:32

were homeless? Can you share with us a little bit about what

Kim Clark: 00:01:35

that situation was? And what that experience was like?

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:01:39

Yeah, um, it was kind of interesting in the

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:01:44

fact that most of the time when people are homeless, you're

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:01:48

navigating you, I guess, is the thing that most people think

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:01:52

about. But really, it was four mouths to feed, and, and then

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:01:58

also shielding that from my kids were like, I was talking to my

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:02:03

youngest, because he came in to watch me present at American

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:02:08

Airlines last year. And he said, I didn't even know we won't be

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:02:13

home. It's like, well, that I did my job. I shielded it from

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:02:19

you. And yeah, I mean, we would go to the dentist can store and

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:02:26

the soup kitchen and events where we knew that we're going

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:02:29

to be food in the church events that we're giving out food and,

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:02:33

and trying to defray costs. And then we were really fortunate in

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:02:37

the fact that we were living in a house, a whole entire

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:02:40

community that was decimated from people losing their house.

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:02:44

So we were squatting illegally as long as we could. And when we

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:02:49

knew that somebody was coming, when we went out that night, or

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:02:52

we went somewhere else. And then we came back. So yeah, I mean,

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:02:58

we were really purposeful to try to, like high a high in that for

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:03:03

my kids, to where they weren't necessarily exposed to that.

Kim Clark: 00:03:08

And what did that do for you, as far as moving

Kim Clark: 00:03:13

towards becoming VP of PNC? I think

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:03:18

it taught me to be super. Yeah, it taught me

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:03:20

to be super resourceful, especially in the DIY space,

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:03:25

where most like 80%, the DI people that are out there are

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:03:30

doing VI is one person. And we can't be all things to all

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:03:34

people. And then a lot of the other percentage of people have

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:03:38

either little budget or very little budget. So I can tell you

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:03:42

that it taught me to be resourceful as heck, and trying

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:03:48

to find the ability to pay for things and, and be able to make

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:03:53

things work financially. Because at the end of the day, you had

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:03:58

your only get out of what you can get out of something.

Kim Clark: 00:04:03

And also, it helps give people a picture of like,

Kim Clark: 00:04:07

you know, some of us are just a paycheck away. You know, we're

Kim Clark: 00:04:10

so on the fringe of it all. And that's something that diversity,

Kim Clark: 00:04:14

equity inclusion within the workplace is trying to solve for

Kim Clark: 00:04:16

it's one of the many things that it's trying to solve for is to

Kim Clark: 00:04:20

get people in stronger financial position, so they don't have to

Kim Clark: 00:04:24

go through that experience.

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:04:26

Yeah, I mean, I think it's the

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:04:27

difference in and how people receive equity, and how they

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:04:31

measure it themselves. You know, a lot of my program, right and

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:04:36

so on. And I missed this in the introduction, but I run my own

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:04:39

leadership company. And we measure how empowered people are

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:04:43

one of the questions we asked is how empowered you are for your

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:04:46

social economic class. And are you empowered or disempowered?

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:04:50

Where do you fit on a zero to 100 scale of your social

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:04:54

economic class and power? Am I asking people that ultimately

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:04:59

what we're doing As we're getting at the end of the day,

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:05:02

how they feel about their pay equity.

Kim Clark: 00:05:08

And you have the experience of feeling

Kim Clark: 00:05:10

disempowered at one point, and then now in an empowerment place

Kim Clark: 00:05:15

where you're running your own company, it's really an

Kim Clark: 00:05:17

incredible arc in the Apple Store. Thank you. So where we

Kim Clark: 00:05:23

left off with, which was the cliffhanger that you left me

Kim Clark: 00:05:26

hanging with is that you had mentioned that coke doesn't sell

Kim Clark: 00:05:29

the same taste around the world that there's a nuance, and I

Kim Clark: 00:05:35

need to be learning about this from a dei messaging standpoint.

Kim Clark: 00:05:39

So tell me more about that. What that looks like for you in

Kim Clark: 00:05:42

practice.

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:05:44

So coke doesn't all so Coca Cola, right?

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:05:48

Like, literally doesn't sell coke the same way, anywhere in

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:05:53

the world may not only mark it differently, and communicated

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:05:57

differently, but even taste differently depending upon where

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:06:00

you go in the world. I know that I spend a lot of time in Asia

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:06:04

and coke tastes differently. In Asia, it's marketed different.

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:06:09

The bottles cans different and then if you right I know a lot

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:06:15

of people, probably us driven focus for di you know, and that

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:06:22

terminology, a lot of people like I think you could buy

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:06:27

Mexican Coke, right? Like literally comes in a glass

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:06:31

bottle. It tastes completely different than the coke that you

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:06:34

would buy in the United States in grocery store. The Coke you

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:06:38

get at McDonald's taste differently than the coke you

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:06:41

get at Burger King. That's because the way that McDonald's

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:06:44

invests in refrigeration units for the lines of the of the

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:06:48

syrup that goes into the Coke, so,

Kim Clark: 00:06:51

okay, detention like that. That's amazing. Okay.

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:06:55

I went to McDonald's University. So I

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:06:58

know. It's very different. So you, you have this right. So why

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:07:06

is it that a brand like Coca Cola is so globally recognized,

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:07:12

right? And people across the world understand and know and

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:07:15

relate that product? Why is it that they can get this concept

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:07:19

of globalization and marketing and product development, and yet

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:07:25

here and in relation to diversity, equity inclusion, we

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:07:29

don't get it. That's the thing that's so frustrating to me,

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:07:33

because we think that we can just say, diversity, equity and

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:07:38

inclusion and reach everybody, we are sorely mistaken. Thinking

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:07:44

about it from a Coca Cola lens, in marketing, and even making it

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:07:49

taste differently, right. Now, maybe the taste part might be

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:07:53

different, right? That would be for us that learned behavior or

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:07:57

the knowledge that skate that's what you gained from that, that

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:08:01

delivery of the products, right? The product is diversity, equity

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:08:07

and inclusion, how are you going to market that to make it

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:08:11

palatable for everybody, when we are all so different? This is

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:08:18

literally why my company is called empowering differences.

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:08:24

Because empowerment is important to every single person on the

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:08:28

planet. And it's a tell you know, then they just don't

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:08:31

really understand what empowerment is. And then

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:08:35

everybody on the planet has the differences that that we

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:08:39

measure. So there's no two people are inherently alike

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:08:44

either. So from a standpoint of marketing, diversity, equity

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:08:49

inclusion, you have the opportunity to think about this

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:08:52

differently. And so that means you need to look at it or the

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:08:56

way in which your branding and marketing communicating it and

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:08:59

thinking completely different.

Kim Clark: 00:09:04

Great point, it really is a great point and to

Kim Clark: 00:09:07

be thinking of it as as with the level of investment because

Kim Clark: 00:09:12

we're that the research is done. The measurement is there, the

Kim Clark: 00:09:16

ROI is calculated and forecasted. D is no different.

Kim Clark: 00:09:21

We just have to do it.

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:09:23

So I have a really great story on this topic

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:09:26

of all right. So I'm sure that some of your listeners have

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:09:30

heard of this before. But have you ever had it to where you

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:09:35

stripped away information from hiring someone? The identifying

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:09:40

information, right? You don't put their name. So if it says

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:09:48

whatever their name is, right, if it's a name that someone

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:09:51

can't pronounce in America, there's a good chance that that

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:09:55

person could face some unconscious bias Right? Right.

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:10:00

We agree on that. Okay, so if you remove the name, and then

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:10:03

you remove where they went to school, right, because sometimes

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:10:06

that could also identify who this person is, right? If they

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:10:10

went to a historically black college and university or you

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:10:13

name it, any other identifying type of school that would

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:10:17

identify what community they're from. So we strip away the

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:10:21

school name, we strip away the name, and, and then, you know,

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:10:26

we we have then then their resume is revealed. Right? This

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:10:31

is a practice that people have been trying to work on

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:10:34

developing more. Well, what about doing that for diversity,

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:10:39

equity inclusion programming. I know personally, for me, I

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:10:47

removed i got i We do an event, right? We do an event for

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:10:51

history and heritage month. This is this is what ends up

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:10:54

happening, right? They, a company says, Hey, let's do

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:10:58

Pride Month. And let's bring in a speaker for Pride Month. You

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:11:04

know, we're gonna celebrate Pride. With Ashley T Brundage,

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:11:09

we're gonna celebrate Pride and empower. And don't get me wrong.

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:11:13

I'm really glad that we're doing that because it helps fund my

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:11:17

business venture to grow my company and, and feel the

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:11:21

empowerment assessment tool that I've been building version to.

Kim Clark: 00:11:25

More people. Yes, exactly.

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:11:28

Right. But at the end of the day, I mean,

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:11:32

pride is every day of LGBTQ people are operating every day.

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:11:37

And and we we know all that. So you know, we have this thing

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:11:42

where we build a communication flyer Ashley's coming to x x x o

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:11:47

company, and and there I am, I'm showing them. And so here's the

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:11:50

flyer, you know, it's power, your pride, its pride month,

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:11:54

we're going to put a rainbow on the flyer, my photo is going to

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:11:57

be there, it's going to talk about, you know, maybe some of

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:12:01

my credentials. And, and, and then there's going to be the

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:12:05

Employee Resource Group logo, right, this communication

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:12:08

platform is going to have all of this information right? date,

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:12:13

the time, the WHO THE where the when the why all of that is

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:12:16

going to be on the flyer. But at the end of the day, right, how

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:12:22

is someone who is not plugged into the LGBT network going to

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:12:26

want to come to this? Are we communicating this message to

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:12:33

all people in the organization? Is it landing forever?

Kim Clark: 00:12:40

Or it's making it super easy to opt out?

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:12:44

Right, right. I mean, literally laying

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:12:46

the foundation for an opt out, right? Because I want to be

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:12:51

there that I'm not going to I don't want to listen to the to

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:12:55

try to engender a person, random transgender person you're

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:12:58

bringing in to talk to talk to the organization. This is why

Kim Clark: 00:13:02

I always for me, it's for them, you know, kind of

Kim Clark: 00:13:05

thing. Yeah.

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:13:06

This is why I always try to tell

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:13:08

organizations at the end of the day, you have an opportunity to

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:13:11

bring in someone like me, not in that context, think about the

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:13:16

communication of what you could do, you actually could create a

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:13:20

flyer that would say, our monthly lessons in leadership or

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:13:25

our monthly leadership dialogue session, because leadership is

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:13:29

the word that transcends all differences in organizations.

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:13:38

This is why I rebranded my company, for me being the DNI,

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:13:42

speaker. To me being the leadership and empowerment

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:13:46

expert, I wanted to be in that space, because I felt that

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:13:50

that's where I can can do more systemic impact. And people who

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:13:56

show up to talk, you know, people who are going to show up

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:13:59

to attend a pride event where I'm speaking at, think about who

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:14:04

that audience is going to be. It's going to be the

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:14:08

marginalized community. So the pride group is going to be

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:14:11

there, right? The allies of the of the private group are going

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:14:15

to be there the executive to say hello and goodbye. And then

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:14:19

that's about going to be 97 98% of the people that are there.

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:14:23

You're going to get a maybe a two or 3% clip of people who are

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:14:27

there for like five different reasons. And most of the time,

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:14:30

the reasons that they're there are pretty disingenuous. They're

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:14:33

there because somebody told them they mandatorily had to be

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:14:36

there. Somebody brought them as a guest. They're there

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:14:40

specifically for the food or the trinket that they're gonna get.

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:14:45

They're there because they came by accident. And then my

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:14:49

favorite there they are because they want to meet the executive

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:14:54

and show the executive that their name was on the Zoom

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:14:56

meeting. And they're getting FaceTime and they're going Isn't

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:15:00

that credit to say they're checking the box to say that

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:15:02

they were there, that's not gonna be an event that really

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:15:07

does deep systemic change. This is why it's so important to

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:15:12

communicate your event and a framework that's going to reach

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:15:17

everybody. And sometimes that means that you might have to

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:15:21

make two flyers for this event, and market it differently, just

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:15:27

the same way that coat markets this differently. So instead of

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:15:32

the flyer that has my picture, maybe you make another flyer

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:15:35

that says, join us for our leadership, monthly leadership

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:15:38

discussion, where and you put the president chairman and

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:15:43

executive officers picture on the flyer, because most of the

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:15:46

time, that's going to be a white straight male guy. have his

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:15:51

picture beyond the flyer and have it be join the because

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:15:55

that's the person that's going to give the opening remarks if

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:15:57

you're not misrepresenting the event. And have that be the

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:16:02

person on the fly? Yeah, and then you can add other stuff and

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:16:06

strip away the identifying information about who I am, and

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:16:10

the ERG logos, strip all that stuff away. Make two flyers. All

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:16:17

right.

Kim Clark: 00:16:18

It's really, you know, and I've had several

Kim Clark: 00:16:20

calls, as of late for all the pride talks that I'm I'm doing

Kim Clark: 00:16:24

in June as well. And it's, you know, one client was like, we

Kim Clark: 00:16:28

just started a month and a half ago with our pride group. You

Kim Clark: 00:16:32

know, what you because I was asking them, What are your

Kim Clark: 00:16:34

communication objectives for this, you know, session, etc.

Kim Clark: 00:16:38

And one of the things I said was, they said, what, what do

Kim Clark: 00:16:41

you what do you think we should be doing and nice when you as a

Kim Clark: 00:16:44

startup kind of employee resource group? And I said,

Kim Clark: 00:16:47

Well, it starts with what problem while you're solving,

Kim Clark: 00:16:49

why did you start the group, if it's to bring the community

Kim Clark: 00:16:52

together, because there's nowhere else to go, and they

Kim Clark: 00:16:54

need a safe haven, you need a support group, because it's

Kim Clark: 00:16:57

frickin scary out there, if you're LGBTQ plus right now, and

Kim Clark: 00:17:00

we're gonna get to talking about Florida, because that's where

Kim Clark: 00:17:02

you're based. And, you know, so it's like, okay, that has its

Kim Clark: 00:17:07

own purpose. And there's a way that I would approach that

Kim Clark: 00:17:10

session, do we want actually to make the workplace more safe? If

Kim Clark: 00:17:15

so, then I'm going to be talking to the allies. And I'm going to

Kim Clark: 00:17:19

be talking about what our experience is like. And if you

Kim Clark: 00:17:21

want me to help recruit, because you're a brand new employee

Kim Clark: 00:17:25

resource group, I can do that as well recruit, as far as inviting

Kim Clark: 00:17:30

people to participate in the employee resource group to learn

Kim Clark: 00:17:33

more, get involved, get engaged, you know, to the issues that are

Kim Clark: 00:17:37

facing this, this population. So they're different to your point,

Kim Clark: 00:17:42

those those are different purposes and different problems

Kim Clark: 00:17:45

that we're solving for that require targeted messaging with

Kim Clark: 00:17:51

with unique calls to action. Now, you had mentioned in our

Kim Clark: 00:17:55

last conversation that when you were at PNC, you had a DI

Kim Clark: 00:18:00

communications person that was basically part of your team are

Kim Clark: 00:18:03

assigned to you as this VP, your role as VP of diversity, equity

Kim Clark: 00:18:09

and inclusion. So I would assume that these are the kinds of

Kim Clark: 00:18:12

conversations with with the marketing of the events, etc,

Kim Clark: 00:18:16

that you had these kinds of conversations with his

Kim Clark: 00:18:19

diversity, equity inclusion communications person. So can

Kim Clark: 00:18:22

you talk a little bit more about what that partnership that

Kim Clark: 00:18:24

relationship was like? And what you really needed from that

Kim Clark: 00:18:28

person in order to further your efforts and tell the story

Kim Clark: 00:18:32

around the EI at PNC?

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:18:34

Yeah. So the our comms person on the team is

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:18:39

the one that would produce the annual report, or at least our

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:18:44

portion towards the annual report at the time, they would

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:18:49

manage the website, because we had an internal website. And

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:18:53

then we also have an external website. The bulk of what they

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:18:58

would do, though, a lot of times was managing our relationship

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:19:03

with corporate communications. Okay, because Corporate

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:19:07

Communications had someone just had someone designated for HR.

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:19:14

And their HR person, in essence is the one that was managing all

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:19:18

of HR comms, well, when 2020 happened, let's just say that

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:19:25

our our comms became comms for the entire company. And, and

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:19:32

obviously, that coincided both with COVID, but also the murder

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:19:38

of George Floyd, being Centerpoint amongst things that

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:19:42

were discussed on the internet for the company. So what this

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:19:47

role really was designed to kind of manage the website comms

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:19:51

communications, printing, materials, that kind of stuff.

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:19:56

Then it became more about being In the middle point between the

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:20:02

corporate communications person and the team, but what I saw was

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:20:07

that I needed to have more of a direct connection with the

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:20:10

corporate communications person, because it, there was a, you

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:20:15

know, the more people you have in between. And then on

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:20:19

communication, when you're trying to literally paint the

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:20:22

communication for someone, that becomes a little bit harder. And

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:20:26

so I found it to be a little bit of mail in some ways that made

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:20:30

the job harder. Having that dedicated person that was the

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:20:33

new person between the two conversations. So at times, I

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:20:38

started having side dialogue sessions with HR comms person.

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:20:45

And then this even got more complicated when we left HR. And

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:20:52

we became not a part of HR anymore. And we went into our

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:20:56

own business units. And then we got our own business unit comms

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:20:59

person for corporate responsibility, which was a

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:21:04

collection of three different business units in the company.

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:21:08

So that then changed the germs communication message

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:21:12

drastically as well set and, and required a lot of changes around

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:21:17

because now, you know, it was like, it's always about

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:21:20

community. It's about competing for, for real estate on the

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:21:26

internet. That's honestly, what not 90% of the conversation was

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:21:31

about trying to get your information on the internet for

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:21:35

the company. Because that is profit is real estate that's

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:21:40

incredibly valued by all the lines of business. And it's

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:21:44

about trying to kind of juggle all the balls and the hats for

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:21:47

the communication and sense things that people need to think

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:21:50

about are happening. It's like an argument. who winds up on the

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:21:53

internet, and it's good, but it's real.

Kim Clark: 00:21:56

Yeah, yeah, that was my world when I was running

Kim Clark: 00:21:59

internal communications for when I was in house. Yes. Yes, it was

Kim Clark: 00:22:04

a constant negotiation.

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:22:05

Dei, people don't know that or see that

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:22:08

side.

Kim Clark: 00:22:08

Yeah. Which I can understand. Yeah. Um, you know,

Kim Clark: 00:22:14

with. We're recording this the day after Ron DeSantis,

Kim Clark: 00:22:20

announced his presidential run. And so in preparation for the

Kim Clark: 00:22:28

next cycle of presidential elections that are going to be

Kim Clark: 00:22:32

starting next year, but the campaigns have already started.

Kim Clark: 00:22:36

We have. For those who can't see right now, Ashley is doing

Kim Clark: 00:22:41

breathing techniques. And that's essentially where I want to go

Kim Clark: 00:22:46

with this next question is, we as di communicators have got to

Kim Clark: 00:22:51

get our planning ahead, around civic responsibility, what is

Kim Clark: 00:22:58

our messaging going to be? What is that conversation that we

Kim Clark: 00:23:02

need to have with our leaders, of course, I would love to see

Kim Clark: 00:23:04

everybody use the depth model from our book, The conscious

Kim Clark: 00:23:07

communicator as that guiding framework, but applying your

Kim Clark: 00:23:12

employee empowering differences as well. There's differences

Kim Clark: 00:23:16

with politics and ideologies that are playing out within

Kim Clark: 00:23:20

workspaces right now. And so how is the AI communicators? Do we

Kim Clark: 00:23:25

get ahead of this? In preparing our workspaces, and leading the

Kim Clark: 00:23:31

narrative rather than constantly being on the knee jerk back end?

Kim Clark: 00:23:35

Side of of triage and collateral damage that we're trying to

Kim Clark: 00:23:40

control? Like we've done in the past?

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:23:43

Oh, gosh. Yeah, well, I mean, I think

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:23:50

breathing exercises are important in this space,

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:23:54

whenever you're thinking about politics, because the think that

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:23:57

it doesn't exist in the workplace is BS. I remember

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:24:03

being the DI person and November of 2016, and everyone was

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:24:07

thinking we were finally going to break that friggin glass

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:24:09

ceiling, and a woman was going to be the president. And

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:24:13

instead, we got a reality shot star move. You know, there was

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:24:19

that. And all of that happened and people were shocked people

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:24:23

were surprised. And I mean, in some people were having some

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:24:30

people were upset and this goes back to like, so my model is on

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:24:34

measuring how our disempowered people are but it's also about

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:24:38

understanding that authority and power are connected to people is

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:24:43

actual true empowerment. And the people sighs simple. You know

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:24:50

who you are. There are a billion of you on the planet. We got

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:24:54

that we can argue that. The power side also can't be our

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:25:00

Dude, because the power items are all the tangible business

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:25:03

metric items that you have, you have your report, right? You

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:25:09

have your ship, shareholder return on investment, and you

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:25:12

have, how much time how much money is paid out, right? All

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:25:16

that stuff is never argued. They're factual data that's

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:25:19

audited financials. Okay, got power, we got people.

Unknown: 00:25:25

The authority, on the other hand is where everyone

Unknown: 00:25:28

would emotionally lives in this

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:25:30

space. I've asked 1000s of people about

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:25:34

their authority. And I can tell you, I've gotten 1000s of

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:25:39

answers, and they're always all different. But the only thing

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:25:43

that they all have in common is that they're very hard to

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:25:46

measure and very hard to judge. And people in this space, always

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:25:51

change every single second that something happens to them, their

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:25:55

authority level changes. When the Supreme Court of the United

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:25:58

States of America makes a decision, it either increases

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:26:02

someone's authority or lower someone authority, no one

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:26:06

actually really ever stays the same. Same reason why trying to

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:26:09

acquire work life balance is a wasted effort for organizations.

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:26:14

If you are trying to acquire work life balance in this space,

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:26:18

literally through what you how you want to have emotional time

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:26:22

for what you do, but you want to have time, that you're also

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:26:25

wasting your time. Because the teeter totter moves, you move

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:26:29

something from one side, then it goes like that goes like that,

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:26:33

we put something else on it. So that's literally the same case

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:26:37

in relation to how our authority goes, the election is going to

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:26:41

happen. People are going to get elected, that's going to happen,

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:26:45

you will already know this is going to happen. And when it

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:26:48

happens, it's up to you to be ready to enact whatever the plan

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:26:54

is regardless. And it needs to make sure that you value all

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:26:59

people's emotions, because they exist, there's going to be

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:27:03

people who love one potential candidate and people who hate

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:27:06

that same candidate. And knowing that that's going to happen,

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:27:09

it's going to affect your employees. So if you think

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:27:12

pullet political differences don't count in the workplace,

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:27:15

you're sorely mistaken, you need to have a plan associated to

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:27:20

farming out how people feel about this. And be understanding

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:27:25

that they are going to be on one end of the spectrum to the

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:27:28

other. And you do that by measuring how empowered people

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:27:32

are. That's the secret. If you measure how empowered people

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:27:36

are, you're able to know exactly what how they're being impacted.

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:27:40

And then you'll know what actions you should provide for

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:27:43

them to do.

Kim Clark: 00:27:46

Thank you for that. I think so many people, they don't

Kim Clark: 00:27:50

have a plan, they they put together like everyone has this

Kim Clark: 00:27:53

the you know, civic duty, or we're going to give you the day

Kim Clark: 00:27:56

off, and we're signing this pledge that it's going to be you

Kim Clark: 00:27:59

know, employee holiday. But that doesn't that's not equitable for

Kim Clark: 00:28:02

everybody, of course, and it but it stops there. And then they

Kim Clark: 00:28:05

get surprised like it after the 2016 election, for example,

Kim Clark: 00:28:09

where I was working in house, we had reports of some areas of the

Kim Clark: 00:28:13

business where people were walking in with the red Magga

Kim Clark: 00:28:15

hats and fights would ensue. And, and I felt like we needed

Kim Clark: 00:28:21

to be ahead of this, we needed to foster some sort of an

Kim Clark: 00:28:26

environment around intentionally designing our culture to allow

Kim Clark: 00:28:30

these differences and to be within the values of the

Kim Clark: 00:28:34

company. And so I really appreciate you giving this like

Kim Clark: 00:28:37

clear plan. So everyone, like get Ashley's book empowering

Kim Clark: 00:28:41

differences and start the work. This is the time to start

Kim Clark: 00:28:44

planning for something that is going to that is going to

Kim Clark: 00:28:48

further divide if we don't plan ahead to heal that sense of

Kim Clark: 00:28:52

separation between now and then it will will create more, more

Kim Clark: 00:28:57

damage that we would have to control more collateral damage

Kim Clark: 00:29:01

of our employees, harming our employees. Not just a physical

Kim Clark: 00:29:06

way but also in an in a in a vocal and emotional way. And so

Kim Clark: 00:29:11

getting ahead of that and setting the tone for what your

Kim Clark: 00:29:14

culture stands for and what you're about and taking Ashley's

Kim Clark: 00:29:18

advice. Now Ashley, you are born and raised in Florida. You're

Kim Clark: 00:29:23

close to what's going on in Florida. And so I would love to

Kim Clark: 00:29:29

hear what I'm and I'm outside of Florida. I'm in California and I

Kim Clark: 00:29:35

would like to know like what can we do if we're what's going on

Kim Clark: 00:29:38

in Florida? First of all, you can kind of give us the inside

Kim Clark: 00:29:41

scoop. And then what can we do if we are in Florida or if some

Kim Clark: 00:29:47

of our in our listeners outside of Florida? What can we do to

Kim Clark: 00:29:51

help to help?

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:29:53

Well, I think it stems from back

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:29:55

remembering that empowerment is a political nature.

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:29:58

Understanding that empowerment is a political in nature,

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:30:00

everybody wants it, everybody will accept empowerment. And if

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:30:06

you leave with empowerment, then you can overcome any difference

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:30:10

that people have even political differences. There's a reason

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:30:13

that in the span of six months, last year, I consulted for the

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:30:17

Joe Biden White House, and I won an award from the governor of

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:30:20

Florida. It's because I work to make empowerment a political. So

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:30:26

you can do that chapter, right, in my book is the political

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:30:29

dives into political differences and provide chatbots. Okay,

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:30:35

yeah, chapter eight in my book talks about political

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:30:37

differences, because it's important, it's important to

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:30:40

know that if you're empowering people, that's a political as

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:30:43

not as not as not part of politics at all. So if you're

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:30:47

thinking about what you can do to help people who might be

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:30:51

marginalized, because I think that that's maybe what you're

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:30:54

getting at. And if you're being marginalized, potentially,

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:30:59

you're part of a social identity group. That's happening,

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:31:02

whatever you do, don't move. Because that's literally what

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:31:06

they want you to do. They're literally trying to force you to

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:31:10

do for population migration. Someone is creating a bill to,

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:31:16

to an S to enact scare tactics, okay. But most of the people who

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:31:21

would be affected from from a bill like that will probably

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:31:24

live in a city that already has an ordinance that protects you,

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:31:28

or they have someone that's saying that they're gonna stand

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:31:31

up for you. But you can do that as well. If you're an ally, and

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:31:36

you're listening, and you're thinking, What can I do to help

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:31:38

people, you know, stand up and write, write the Congress person

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:31:41

and write your Senator, write as many people as you can write the

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:31:46

ones that aren't yours, because the more messages they get

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:31:49

surrounding these topics in these bills, the more they'll

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:31:52

realize that maybe they should have a dialogue about it, and

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:31:55

learn because I could literally break down every single one of

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:32:00

the main myths that exist about transgender non binary and

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:32:04

gender non conforming people pretty easily. Potentially, if

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:32:08

somebody wanted me to, if they just gave me five minutes to

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:32:11

talk to talk about it can tell them that if it goes back to

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:32:15

being about the right of, of we, the people, we the people, okay,

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:32:22

that doesn't say we the people that only certain people, it's

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:32:26

We the People, as in everybody, and it's individualistic rights,

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:32:30

that is what built our nation, having the ability to have

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:32:34

freedom from oppression, having the ability to have freedom of

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:32:37

the ability to make decisions, and have not government

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:32:41

interference upon how you live your life, where you go, like

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:32:45

how you use the restroom, and what sports you play. All of

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:32:49

those things are about political things that can drive people to

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:32:52

have interference. It's not about that. It's about freedom

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:32:56

of being the people. That's what it is, we all will agree on

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:33:01

that. It's We the People Like literally, that's an easy

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:33:03

construct that works across all political majors, sometimes just

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:33:08

the nature of the fact that maybe somebody who might have a

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:33:11

political difference in you might not understand your point

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:33:14

of view. So it's about communication of the point of

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:33:17

view, I think that we have to do a better job of painting that

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:33:19

narrative and communicating

Kim Clark: 00:33:22

1,000% You know, that earlier this week, I did a an in

Kim Clark: 00:33:27

person presentation in front of a fraction of the defense

Kim Clark: 00:33:32

industry, Department of Defense. And I, you know, they opened up

Kim Clark: 00:33:37

the entire conferences, day long conference doing the Pledge of

Kim Clark: 00:33:41

Allegiance. And so I basically when I started my presentation,

Kim Clark: 00:33:47

I said what are the last five words of the Pledge of

Kim Clark: 00:33:49

Allegiance, liberty and justice for all? And I said, Do you mean

Kim Clark: 00:33:53

that because that's the promise of America, you know, and you

Kim Clark: 00:33:56

were talking about the way that people and it's like so liberty

Kim Clark: 00:34:00

and justice for all. It has to play out through and through

Kim Clark: 00:34:04

that's what we say. So that's what we must do and as

Kim Clark: 00:34:08

communicators we understand this but we're also really wrestling

Kim Clark: 00:34:11

with that say do gap which we're seeing because when the time

Kim Clark: 00:34:16

that we're recording this target is getting targeted for the

Kim Clark: 00:34:20

backlash of pulling back pride merchandise, etc Bud Light

Kim Clark: 00:34:25

backing up. Miller Lite leaning in you know, there's there's all

Kim Clark: 00:34:30

kinds of different, you know, shifts and changes going on

Kim Clark: 00:34:32

right now. But we're really struggling with like we stand in

Kim Clark: 00:34:36

solidarity with the LGBTQ plus community, and yet we're not

Kim Clark: 00:34:43

able to withstand pressure and backlash within our stores, etc.

Kim Clark: 00:34:48

So that was my newsletter topic today. Actually, we say that we

Kim Clark: 00:34:51

can stand but we're not able to withstand. I'm going to wrap up

Kim Clark: 00:34:56

our conversation here, Ashley with what your guide and advice

Kim Clark: 00:35:00

would be for folks on ensuring that pride is not performative.

Kim Clark: 00:35:07

And if you don't mind speaking specifically, on ways that we

Kim Clark: 00:35:11

can provide protections, and messaging for protections around

Kim Clark: 00:35:15

transgender rights and rights to exist, etc.

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:35:18

Yeah, I mean, I think the thing I was

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:35:20

just mentioning is probably the biggest thing that you can use

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:35:24

research to break down some of the Eastern myths that exist.

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:35:28

The biggest thing here is that there are laws that already

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:35:31

exist on the books in every single municipality in the

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:35:36

United States alone, that already protect people from

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:35:41

common decency and indecency and America any other thing in

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:35:46

relation to that, like, if somebody's going to expose

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:35:50

themselves, then that's going to be illegal. I mean, we don't

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:35:56

need an additional bill or piece of legislation that's going to

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:36:01

protect people further from that, because that's already

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:36:03

illegal. And I think that a lot of people don't even realize

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:36:08

that some of these things doesn't make that they don't

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:36:11

make a lot of sense. And it goes back to like parents right to

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:36:15

choose. Parents should have the opportunity to choose what they

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:36:18

do and how they raise their children. government shouldn't

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:36:21

have any interference over that. I think that that's a big thing.

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:36:24

Also, like, you know, if I wanted to take my kids to drag

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:36:28

queen story hour, that's should be my choice. As a parent, if I

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:36:32

want to take my kids drag things drag me story up. Of course, if

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:36:36

I show up and the drag queen is dressed, lewd and lascivious,

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:36:39

then that's illegal already, regardless of whether there's an

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:36:42

ordinance and and then if I choose to take my kids to

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:36:47

Hooters, and taking them to Hooters, where the waitresses or

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:36:51

waiters, waitstaff is, is sexualized in nature, then so be

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:36:57

it. And then I've chosen to take my two boys to stratify them. So

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:37:05

I've done that. And I have done that. And I'm taking them to the

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:37:10

Pride Parade also, and expose them to the pride parade. And

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:37:15

then it's their choice. It's their choice to meet people who

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:37:18

are different, because we are all people. This goes back to

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:37:22

this thing, we have to make sure that we help people understand

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:37:27

that what's going on here is wrong. There's already there's

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:37:31

already bills and laws on the books that protect people from

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:37:36

every potential wrong thing that happens, in fact, we should

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:37:39

probably focus a little bit more on the clergy officials and

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:37:45

legislative people who've been arrested are lewd and lascivious

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:37:48

acts, which is a heck of a lot more than transgender people

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:37:52

who've been arrested.

Kim Clark: 00:37:55

Thank you, thank you. It's incredibly important. You

Kim Clark: 00:37:59

know, one of the things that I always share with clients are

Kim Clark: 00:38:01

these three C's. It's a very basic formula of, of cultural

Kim Clark: 00:38:06

moments. And and that is first celebrate, yes, thank you for

Kim Clark: 00:38:10

the visibility, appreciate it. But you can't stop there. But

Kim Clark: 00:38:13

that's where companies they want to have the goodwill, they want

Kim Clark: 00:38:16

to, you know, store up the goodwill score some points, and

Kim Clark: 00:38:19

they stop at celebrate, they don't go to the part of the

Kim Clark: 00:38:22

crisis, or the community of why we have pride in the first

Kim Clark: 00:38:25

place. And what is impacting the community that we're

Kim Clark: 00:38:28

celebrating, right here right now. So there are people who are

Kim Clark: 00:38:33

afraid of going out to pride parades because of their own

Kim Clark: 00:38:36

safety, and where we are right now. So while we want to

Kim Clark: 00:38:41

celebrate can we celebrate, you know, safely? So talking about

Kim Clark: 00:38:46

that crisis, kind of a situation and there's so many there's what

Kim Clark: 00:38:49

550 bills, anti LGBTQ plus bills across the country right now.

Kim Clark: 00:38:55

And then the last is the consistency don't only talk

Kim Clark: 00:38:59

about LGBTQ plus folks just in June, or if you're in the UK in

Kim Clark: 00:39:03

October, right. And I you know, there's various places that that

Kim Clark: 00:39:08

that celebrate at different times, but companies tend to in

Kim Clark: 00:39:11

the US focus on on June. And so this this idea of like, yes,

Kim Clark: 00:39:16

there's the celebration, but there's these other things.

Kim Clark: 00:39:19

That's where you make that shift from being performative to

Kim Clark: 00:39:22

meaningful and having impact and really not just standing as the

Kim Clark: 00:39:27

target CEO said for the LGBTQ plus community, but you're

Kim Clark: 00:39:31

withstanding any kind of pressure to not stand with the

Kim Clark: 00:39:35

LGBTQ plus and so you gotta you have to put your put your

Kim Clark: 00:39:39

actions where your mouth is, and we as communicators can really

Kim Clark: 00:39:43

drive that conversation because visibility drives

Kim Clark: 00:39:45

accountability. Any final thoughts Ashley, and then where

Kim Clark: 00:39:49

can people find you and find your book?

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:39:53

Yeah, just I mean, thank thank you for having

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:39:56

me. It's been so good dialogue as they're so important to

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:39:59

helping people realize the actual impacts of their work and

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:40:03

how to communicate it. I think that's really important. I mean,

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:40:06

the communication always really matters. I mean, that's what

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:40:09

makes the difference so much. And I call it inspire. And my

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:40:13

framework is how we address communication by inspiring

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:40:18

people. And because obviously, comms is not necessarily always

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:40:25

a sexy word. So that's why we call it inspire in my framework.

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:40:31

So that's how we drive inspiration. Empowerment for

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:40:34

people is through inspire as an empowering action. That's one of

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:40:38

the 10 actions in my framework. But yeah, you can connect with

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:40:42

me at Ashley T Brundage, a sh, le YTBRU, en da, GE, you can

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:40:50

find me pretty easily when you Google my name, you'll see I

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:40:53

have like the first 30 pages of Google.

Kim Clark: 00:40:57

I saw that Yes.

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:41:00

Every single one is me. And then you can

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:41:03

connect with my book empowering differences, my leadership

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:41:07

course empowering differences, my workbook empowering

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:41:10

differences, and empowering differences.com. That's your one

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:41:15

stop shop for all things empowerment, and where we can

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:41:19

all leverage all of our differences to impact change.

Kim Clark: 00:41:23

And that's where people can do a self assessment

Kim Clark: 00:41:25

for free. Is that right?

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:41:27

Yes, they can download the self assessment

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:41:29

tied to step one and empowerment journey. If they want to engage

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:41:34

with the digital empowerment assessment to get their

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:41:37

personalized empowerment report. That's actually part of my

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:41:40

career. They have to be involved in the curriculum for that. But

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:41:44

for the first, the first step is, yeah, they just click the

Ashley T. Brundage: 00:41:47

Self Assessment tab.

Kim Clark: 00:41:50

Sweet. Excellent, Ashley. Thank you. It's not

Kim Clark: 00:41:53

going to be our last time together. I know it, we're going

Kim Clark: 00:41:56

to continue to grow and help as many people as we can to get

Kim Clark: 00:41:59

them through probably the most recent history, the most

Kim Clark: 00:42:05

turbulent times at least of my generation being Gen X. So thank

Kim Clark: 00:42:09

you for what you're doing in Florida. We want you and

Kim Clark: 00:42:12

everybody within the community safe, and we're going to do all

Kim Clark: 00:42:17

that we can to make sure that that happens. Thank you for your