Beyond Business: Rotary Leadership, Global Service, and Women’s Community Initiatives

Welcome to WIRED: Stories of Impactful Women, the podcast spotlighting bold, brilliant women who are shaping the future of commercial real estate, business leadership, and beyond. Hosted by Kimberly Downs and Heather Luce, WIRED dives deep into honest, empowering conversations that go way beyond buildings.

In every episode, Kimberly and Heather sit down with entrepreneurs, innovators, and changemakers to share unfiltered stories, hard-won insights, and the real-world tools behind their success. Whether you’re building a business, advancing your career, or carving your own path, you’ll find connection, mentorship, and inspiration here.

In this episode, our hosts welcome Jodi Sundaram, a leader making a difference in business and through service as a Rotary district governor. They discuss the evolution and impact of the Rotary organization, community projects, leadership development for young women, and the importance of giving both locally and globally. Plus, discover how you can get involved, give back, and connect with a network of women lifting each other higher.

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Transcript

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Welcome to Wired Stories of Impactful Women podcast, where we spotlight bold, brilliant women shaping the future of commercial real estate, business leadership, and beyond. I'm Kimberly Downs. And I'm Heather Luce. We're the voices behind Wired. That's women in real estate development and your hosts for honest, empowering conversations that go way beyond buildings. Every other Wednesday, we sit down with women of influence, entrepreneurs, innovators, and change makers to share their stories, insights, and the unfiltered truth behind their success. So whether you're building a business, growing in your career, or carving your own path, you'll find connection, mentorship, and real world tools right here. This is Wired Stories of Impactful Women podcast. Today we have Jodi Sundaram with us. And Jodi and I have known each other for 10 years. Probably 11 years, something like that. Well, when did you move to Kansas City? 13 years ago, so probably 11 years. Yeah. Yeah. So we were in BNI together. We had both just joined bni, and so we were networking and now we've been friends. I always tell people we're a perfect example of you meet on one level and then we network. And now we have expanded to lots of other levels. Yeah, we had very similar upbringings. We both spent a lot of time going to church when we were kids. So we had that initial, like, oh, yeah, you know, kind of connection, but it just kind of grew from there. And now we travel together and we do all kinds of fun things together. That's right. One of the things that you are now super involved in and one of the reasons that Heather and I wanted to have you on this podcast is you are very involved in Rotary. So if you can give us a little bit about your growth in Rotary, how you got started and what. What that looks like for you now and the position that you hold. See, I joined in 2017. I actually didn't even know what Rotary was. When I first was invited to a meeting, I was at another networking meeting. And the gentleman, he was like, hey, you want to come to the networking meeting? Well, serve. You know, we give you a free lunch and you can meet some business people. And I was really new to my business and to Kansas City, so I was like, sure, why not? I like to meet new people. I just jumped in pretty much feet first. And within like, two years, I was the president of the club. Then I was an assistant governor for two years. And then they, a couple of the past district governors called me and said, hey, we really think you should step into the district governor line, which I had never even considered because it's, it's like a five year commitment. Right now I'm visiting all of our 52 clubs in the districts and getting to really know everything that goes on with Rotary, not just in my community, but in all the other communities in central and northern Missouri. So it's really fun to see what even the small rural clubs are doing In their own communities. It probably how differently they function. Yeah, yeah, yes, very different. Just real quick, can you share for people who maybe aren't familiar with Rotary Club, just kind of like the history of it and the mission of it, I would say. Well, we're an international service organization. Paul Harris started it in 1905 and he kind of started it as a BNI. Like he got together with a bunch of business people in Chicago. That's where headquarters is, Evanston, Illinois. And he had a banker and an attorney and, you know, probably a mortgage person and a real estate person. And they started meeting weekly at lunchtime and then they would rotate kind of where Rotary kind of got part of its name, but they would go from one business to another and kind of take turns. That's how it started. But now there's 1.2 million members, 35,000 Rotary clubs all over the world. In other parts of the world, it's growing like crazy. Like in Asia and some of the European countries. The USA has seen a decline like every service organization has. But we're trying to combat that and get more innovative in things that we're doing and how we have meetings and when we have meetings and just how those things look. Because it started out as, like I said, a bni. You had to go to every meeting, every week they took attendance, you know, all the things that just annoy the crap out of you. And yeah, I'm sure you've had to pivot. Like the whole organization has had to pivot to be relevant in modern times. Right, exactly. Especially when you're looking at a diverse member group where so many people. We're in this age of entrepreneurialism, right, where people are working all the time. They have, they're always on and they have to, you know, prioritize things that come up in their small business. So, yeah, it's just being a little bit more flexible with things like attendance and whatnot. You mentioned a four way test. Can you tell us what the four way test? Yeah, the four way test is, is it the truth? Second, is, is it fair to. To all concerned? Third, will it build goodwill and better friendships? And fourth, will it be beneficial to all concerned? So you're looking at the bigger picture and not just is it good for you, how does it affect everyone else that you're working with? That's a great, those are really great like guiding questions as you're trying to evaluate do we support this or you know, move forward with something, making a decision. And for me personally, we started in one type of networking event and now we've blossomed into now ten years later. I recently joined the NKC Rotary Club and then brought you to an event last night. So you can kind of see what it's about. And the thing is, is that you know, you get to a point where you realize in your business that you know, it comes back sevenfold. And so when you're looking at being to go to networking and be like we're here to build relationships and do those four things and make sure that it betters the community, it betters people around you, it betters. And now being a part of something with Rotary that I'm super excited to even introduce to other people that I know is the whole global idea which we'll get into because that it just helps you focus on something that's not yourself. So I think in doing that, you know, people want to work with you. So no matter what you're entrepreneuring and looking into and the business that you're growing, when people see that you're giving back to other people and you're not self focused, it does come back. And so I think that's the exciting thing that I have found and watched her in Rotary is just seeing how it works with community and everybody else. You're not going, I mean you're introducing and people want to know what you do and what your passions are. But you're ultimately coming together for that hour every other week to say how can we affect our community? What can we do for them? And you know, in the bigger picture, what can we do for in for other people in the world? So you're giving back a little bit everywhere. So that's what I've loved about it. And just the growth in how we network now versus how we networked. I'd like to say pre Covid, you know, because I think it really did make a huge change. People made a huge mindset change at that point. Yeah, I agree. It's building community with like minded people. Right. I think it's a great organization. I've always known about it. I've been part of nonprofits where most of the board are rotarian and just heard about it from different places. Really quickly, I kind of want to talk about. You mentioned the NKC Rotary group. It's a newer club or it's being revamped. It was. Yeah, it has been chartered for a really long time. But they got to the point where there was only like two members left in that club and they were going to uncharter. And we said, well, we don't. As a district, we can make a decision to let that go or not. And we said, there's just way too much business in North Kansas City to. Yeah, let that die on the vine. Especially when so many new businesses are popping up and it's growing so quickly. Right. Can you tell us a little bit? I mean, you. You talked about different positions that you've held. Can you explain a little bit about what you do as. Is it district governor? Governor? And then also we've talked about the district itself. Is that just Missouri? Is it Missouri, Kansas and Illinois? Like, what, what. What is the map that you cover in that area? So there's three districts in Missouri. Most districts have around 50, 52 clubs in it. We have 52. And my job is one. The year that your district governor is to go visit all your clubs and, you know, let them see your face and talk to you and find out what they're doing in their communities. But it's also overseeing what's going on in the district. So, so many emails. But you're also running your foundation dinner for that year, which is our biggest annual fundraiser. So that's coming up in November, November 7th. And then we have a district conference that we hold in April. And so that'll be coming up. We have, you know, a board meeting every month and the district governor oversees the board meeting. I have assistant governors, 12 assistant governors that are underneath me. So once a month I'm checking to see what they're doing and if they're getting their clubs to do their enter their goals and the things that we expect from clubs as a district and as Rotary International. So it's kind of just overseeing that whole process. So, yeah, I know for us at North Kansas City, we even. We have some members that are involved in North Kansas City Hospital. So I've learned things like, oh, they have a garden or they have these things that I feel like with Rotary, depending on, you know, the members and the people that are in there, there's always something that people can find that they're passionate about, whether it's, like I said, like a garden or cleaning up somebody's yard or helping, you know, some people build A home, different things like that. So locally, what are some of the things that have, that you've seen done here in the last year or two or since you've been involved? So a lot of clubs, the easiest thing for them to do is to get involved with like their parks and rec department and a lot of them will help them build out different areas in the park. We did Ruth Moore Gardens in Liberty, so we developed actually community gardens. I think there's 12 of them there now. And so those are for anybody in the community. You can rent a garden or there's a bunch that are also just available for anybody to come and take stuff from. But we did that, we did a dog park. Several communities have done bigger pavilions and different things that they've established within their communities. So a lot of them try to focus around that. But there's a lot of like feed Northland kids. We work with them a lot. And tomorrow I'm going to deliver food to homes tomorrow. So we do a lot of that. Lee Summit is very involved in Feed Lee's Summit. So they do a lot of activities with getting food to people that are food insecure. So you're going to see a lot of different things. Meals on Wheels, a lot of them get involved with Meals on Wheels because there's not enough people to take care of bringing meals to the elderly and just really anything that's needed in the Community that.... is a lot of it tied to your members are tied to these organizations already or do you guys seek out certain ones or how. What's the process? I mean, we have a lot of nonprofits that come to us that want us. That want. Yeah, that seek us out and they'll come and they'll, you know, give us information about what they do. And then whether we decide to support that or not financially or service wise, you know, kind of depends on what the club members are passionate about. And the four way test. Probably, yes. And the four way test, are they. Are they passing the test? Right. So everybody. And like I said, every club is different and we don't mandate them to do this or that. I mean it's their own club and they figure out what they want to do and what's important to their community. Yeah, it's important because anytime you're talking about volunteer work or like giving people's time, you got to have some sort of connection, some sort of passion to really feel connected to it and commit to it. Because, you know, volunteer roles, you know, we all work full time jobs anyway. So I like that there's not like this overarching. These are the only kinds of organizations that we work with. It's open ended and you know, it again just brings in the diversity of the members and the people associated with it. Yeah, I would say education is also really important to most of the clubs. So a lot of them do youth scholarships. I know our biggest fundraiser that we do in Liberty is for scholarships and we give out $20,000 in scholarships every year. Yeah, not everybody does that. And ours are generally larger. We have a matching one with William Jewell, that's 5,000 and it's for the four years that you go to school, so you get that every year. Same with our $2,500 scholarships. It's not just one and done, which is pretty typical. Ours is for the duration of your school, so. Awesome. Yeah. Isn't there also a leadership camp that Rotary puts on for kids in high school? Yes, Rotary Leadership Academy is. There's two sessions every summer. It's in Warrensburg. Yeah. So they go there on a Sunday night and they go home Wednesday afternoon, late afternoon. But they bring these kids in that are usually it's sophomore through senior year, before their senior year and they just get these 100 kids. I've been a counselor there two different summers and for the three days and I come home exhausted because it's crazy and you sleep in a dorm and it's not very enjoyable, but it is very personally rewarding to see these kids. Yeah. What they learn in those three days and they come in and they, if they know somebody there, they're not going to be like, they're not going to be in their same dorm room. They're going to put in a complete stranger. So they have to learn how to kind of stretch their comfort level. They put them through personality tests so they learn how to deal with somebody else that's not the same personality as them and how they can work together and how they can collaborate. And at the end of it, they have to put the team. There's usually about a team of 10 and they have to put together a service project that follows the four way test. And it's amazing to see what these kids come up with. I mean they have PowerPoints and Excel documents that show like, you know, expenses and what they're gonna do and how they're gonna pay for it and who's gonna help them. Super innovative ideas. And it's really the first time I went, I just went and judged like their projects. Yeah, the projects at the end of the camp. And I Was like, wow, this is incredible. I want to be more part of this. So then I went back and was a counselor the next year. And what good skills, too. Professional and life skills that they're getting while they're in this scenario, you know, in the situation. Yeah. And normally it's like a $600 cost to go to it, but a lot of, like, we sponsor two people, two kids to go. Actually, this year we sent three kids because we felt like it was important for the third one to go as well. But a lot of clubs will sponsor a couple kids, so there's no cost to them to go. It seems like a great experience. That's something that, you know, those situations that you go through as you're coming up, like, really kind of help guide your path a little bit more than. I think a lot of kids just get thrown into the, okay, you're in college, you graduated, now you go to college, Pick something, focus on it. And that's just not how our brains work anymore. And what's really fun is you see these kids that come in that are their parents probably signed them up. They may not have even known they were going until the day before. And all of a sudden, they drop them off at this camp with a bunch of strangers. But by the time they leave there, these kids are best friends. And it's people that they're going to be friends with probably for the rest of their lives. Yeah. It's a shared experience. Right. That's very unique. And it's the whole state of Missouri that we all go to the same camp. And our camp is actually pretty. Pretty famous. We actually presented at the Rotary International Convention in Germany a few years ago because they liked our. What our format was and everything that we were doing in Missouri. And so they were trying to spread that information to more groups around the country. Yeah, that's fun. So that's one thing that I have always liked about Rotary and felt connected to it is the global reach that you guys do have. You said it was an international serving company. So I always appreciate giving locally. I'm huge on. I mean, my company name is Kc local homes. Like, we love everything local, but there's also, as I've traveled and I've seen other parts of the world, there's a greater need. Right. Everybody needs help everywhere. And so I'm part of an organization called Home for a Home. And I actually, you guys are very generously letting me come and present to the new NKC Rotary Group, which I'm excited about. The concept is every time you sell a house, you get a commission from selling a house. You can take a portion of that and put it towards funding building a home for a family in need out of Guatemala. I just love the fact that they give locally and they give globally and see the importance of that, both sides of that giving. I was just wondering if you could talk a little bit more about kind of maybe the mentality of the importance of that and just your personal opinion on, you know, giving. Well, I mean, we are very fortunate in the U.S. i think we have a lot of things that other people don't have access to, and the need is much greater, I think, in other countries. When you look at Africa and India and, you know, whether it's Guatemala or the Dominican Republic, we just feel like there's a pull for us to just do more because we have more. And I think that's really important. And not everybody feels that way, but I think a lot of people feel like that global impact is huge. So just our club alone, we've done a project in Nicaragua that's like Community health Days. And everybody comes together this one day out of the year and comes to one location and they can get their eyes checked and they can get dental work done and they can have a physical and they can everything. Yeah. And it's a huge. It's like a$290,000 global grant, and all we do is sponsor it as a club. There's no financial investment because all the money comes through Rotary International, which is money that we've donated over time. But they. Yeah, it's money there that it's just available for people that need it. So we've done the Philippines, we've done a project with the Philippines. We've done one with Kosovo. We've had some really great connections with partners and people from. You meet district governors. So I go to this before, the year before, your district governor, you go to a, like an alliance meeting in Florida and you spend almost a week there, but you're with the district governors from all over the world or the incoming district governors. So I think there was 560 of us there last November. And you get to meet all these people and they all want to connect with the district governors from the United States because they know that they have funding that they can get. And so after you get back, they're all emailing you and saying, hey, we have this project. Remember me? I told you about what we do. So we, you know, I know Zambia, we've done a lot of stuff in Africa. So there's just so much, so much need out there, and everybody just feels like we need to give back. We have so much here in the US that we're fortunate to feel that way. That's the one thing I love about Kansas City, is there's so many nonprofits doing such good work in our city. And it's just cool to see it on both a global and local scale, I think. Yeah. So. And you have your annual shoe drive. So tell us a little bit about your shoe drive, because I know after people hear this podcast, not only are they going to want to come visit a Rotary club so they can let us know, but they're also going to want to know how they can give back. So I know this is a huge drive and I know that they set big goals and it looks like you guys tend to exceed them every year. So tell us a little bit about that shoe drive coming up. Yeah, so Larry Lunsford, who I think he was the district governor in like 2001. He started shoes for Orphan Souls. And it's. We're partnered with Buckner International, which is down in Dallas, Texas, but they distribute shoes to different countries. It could be Guatemala, could be the Dominican, wherever the need is most at the time, but every year it changes. So he started this 24 years ago. This will be our 25th year that we're celebrating in April. We have collected 450,000 pairs of shoes, about$350,000, and then a bunch of socks and shoelaces. So our goal this year for Larry's 25th anniversary is 25,000 pairs of shoes. In addition, we're also looking to partner with either Buckner or some other corporate sponsor that is going to donate 25,000 so we can hit that half a million mark this year. That's incredible. Think about how many, you know, kids and families you affect with that. That's awesome. And they've. People have had the opportunity. A few people I know have had the opportunity to actually go when they distribute the shoes. And it's kind of like a healthcare thing where everybody meets in one place and they have different things going on with education and other things, but they actually get to like wash the kids feet, help them pick out the shoes, put their little socks on and their shoes. And apparently it's like overwhelming experience because these are, these are kids that have never owned a pair of shoes before. Especially a new pair of shoes. Yeah, yeah. And that's what we focus on. And we don't, we don't collect used shoes. It's all new shoes. Because a lot of these kids that they've never had a new pair of shoes before, ever, and they can't go to school. Yeah, you can't go to school if you don't have shoes. Chances are they're walking to school, too. So it's just. There's disease. There's. There's just so many problems with the fact that they don't have shoes on their feet. Yeah. That's why I find myself going on these trips for these nonprofits that are international, just because it gives me this perspective. I come home and I just. I can't even, like, think about, oh, my service is not working as quickly as I want it, My WI fi is down, or, you know, whatever it is. And it's just like, I can't even think about that stuff because I'm like, that's crazy. Like, don't be crazy. Let's be real. There are people who, you know, we are incredibly privileged, blessed people. And we are very. You know, the only difference is we're born here. We are lucky enough to be born in the place we were born here and not there. And so, I don't know. I think it's awesome. And I love that. That's. Hearing half a million. That's just crazy. Half a million people are being blessed by that drive that you do every year. So that's awesome. How do we support that? How do we get involved or connect? We look. I mean, any Rotary Club in our district, from Kansas City to Lee's Summit to Independence to Kirksville, pretty much anywhere, we're all collecting shoes right now. Our club, I think, at last count, was at 971 pairs. But we just. We look for specials. We go into Walmart. Actually, one of our ladies in our club has a relationship with the Walmart, where as soon as they're gonna clearance their shoes, she calls her, just snag them up, and she comes and picks them all up, and they give them to her for $5 apiece, which is a really good price because they've gotten more expensive as the years have gone by. We used to buy them for $2 and $3, and if you can get them for five. Now, Target, we watch their sales, like, their Red Circle sales. We hit up, like, four of them in one day. Like, four people, and we just collected them. So buying new shoes and getting them to any of us, or even if you want to make a donation, we are working to put together a QR code or a Venmo account where if people just want to Donate money. We'll have a committee of shoe shoppers that will go out and buy the shoes because that's the shoes number is our big focus this year. So. Yeah, yeah. Also say if anybody, any Wired members or anybody listening wants to make a donation, we will get you in contact. You guys can always email us@wiredpodkc@gmail.com and we'll connect you with the Rotary group. With Jodi directly or if they want to make comments on the podcast when we post that and, and things like that, we'll get in touch with them. Yeah, just reach out. Absolutely. Or if you want to know where your local Rotary club is that you can visit them. Yeah, that was gonna be my next question. If somebody is interested in coming to a meeting or a happy hour, what's the best way? Is there a set schedule or what's the best way to do that? I would say reach out on your podcast and we can connect them with somebody that's in their market, in their community. Some people join clubs that are where they work, some people join clubs where they live. Rotary has a club locator, so you can find a Rotary club anywhere. And that's the other great thing about Rotary. When I travel, we didn't do it in Portugal, but I've been to clubs in Malaysia, San Diego, Arizona. So when you travel you, you're welcome to go to any club. I know you have an event coming up. So just real quickly if you can tell us a little bit about that event and can businesses purchase tables to that event? Do you have to be a Rotarian to go to the event? And what is the fundraiser for? Okay, so every year we have what we call a foundation dinner and we're raising money for our annual fund. That money the year that your district governor nominee. So three years before all the money that's collected at that, when it goes to Rotary International, three years later, 50% of that funding comes back to your community to use as district grants. So we do matching grants with our clubs at $2500 a piece. So they would raise $2500 and then we would give them$2500 so they could do a project that's $5000, whatever that might be. But this money goes into that Rotary International fund and it's our biggest fundraiser of the year. So it's at the Madrid Theater, which is fun, oldest theater in Kansas City. It's a roaring 20s. I'm super excited about that. Sounds like you're kind of theme. We have a six piece band that'll be playing all the jazz music from the twenties, from the roaring twenties. And there'll be a silent auction. There's only a couple of live auction items this year because we're trying to limit that. We have three golden tickets available. One is a trip to Florida for a week, plus airfare for four people. And I think it's a three bedroom condo in Destin. We have a really pretty ring that's on that as well. And then we also have a men's watch that's on there that is worth like $2,500 or something crazy. But the tickets are $100 a piece. Your chances are good because we only sell so many tickets. We're also doing our purse raffle that Kim is helping me with. And it's a Louis Vuitton. It's really pretty. It's like a burgundy purse. So we're doing that. It's beautiful. It is beautiful. And the most it would cost you to get into that raffle is $99 because we do poker chips 1 to 99 and whatever poker chip you draw, that's the cost of that of your entry. So a lot of our listeners are entrepreneurs. They own their own businesses. Their own businesses. Businesses and companies and locations. And so can they buy a table for their company? Like, what are some ways that some of our entrepreneurs can support that? Absolutely. I believe we still have some tables available. Last I looked, we were. Our goal was 325 people. And I think the Madrid holds like 350. And I think we're up to like 275 as far as tickets sold, tables sold. But anybody can reserve a table. There's a $2500 sponsor table. There's a 1500$. There's different levels that you can sponsor. Gets you a different number of tickets to get in and different advantages like wine on your table or whatever that might be. So there anybody can go. You don't have to be rotarian. Absolutely. You don't have to. Is there a way for people to bid on the silent auction without having a table and being there? The event's not until the 7th, so the week before the Monday before the event, the auction site will go live. And it's just a mobile bidding platform. So you don't have to be there to bid on silent auction items. You don't have to be there to win the golden ticket. So you can bid on those as well. And everything can be purchased through this cas. I think it's cas, that's the auction platform. So everything can be purchased through that. Well, I hope it's a raging success. It'll be fun and I love keep doing all the good work you and the whole organization does. Appreciate your role in it and your commitment to it, because five years is a long time for a commitment for that kind of position. I'm on the downslide now. I bet it's amazing and rewarding and connects you with some incredible people in the world. So keep it up and thank you very much for your time. Thank you for letting me share. Thanks for listening to the Wired Stories of Impactful Women podcast. We hope you left today with something useful, something you can act on, share, or carry forward. Subscribe to the show so you don't miss out on what's next. If this conversation matters to you, chances are it will matter to someone else. And be sure to check out our upcoming Wired events. And if you have a member who you think should be featured on the podcast, or if you have interest yourself, reach out, we'd love to have you as a guest. We'll catch you soon right here on Wired.