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You Can't Afford Me
Making the leap from employment to entrepreneurship can be a scary time. The biggest fear people have is the unknown. Here on the “You Can’t Afford Me Podast” we speak with hustlers and innovators on how to make the most of your journey. If you have questions we have answers.
You Can't Afford Me
Swim Coach To CEO
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You probably think you know the YMCA. A pool. A gym. A place you went as a kid. Then Jody Alexander, President and CEO of the YMCA of Greater Richmond, sits down with us and reveals the much bigger truth: the Y is a community engine that mixes public health, youth development, and real economic mobility work under one roof. We get into her own climb from a first job as a swim coach to leading an organization with 18 locations, a 100-acre camp, and reach across the Greater Richmond region.
We talk about nonprofit careers in a way that’s honest and practical. Running a YMCA means managing diverse revenue streams, building teams, and staying accountable, while still doing “big heart” work. Jody explains why Richmond’s nonprofit community stands out for collaboration, and why the Y keeps creating solutions when the community’s needs shift, from affordable after-school care to workforce development for young people. Along the way, she drops surprising YMCA history, including the fact that basketball and volleyball were invented at the YMCA.
We break down the YMCA of Greater Richmond’s three impact areas: drowning prevention, enriching learning in out-of-school time, and advancing whole health across spirit, mind, and body. That includes everything from swim safety and parent education to food distributions, blood pressure monitoring, and social needs navigation for families facing eviction, shutoffs, or transportation gaps. Jody also shares leadership lessons on mentorship, balancing family life, and what COVID closures taught her about future-proofing a “third space” built on bringing people together.
If you want to volunteer, explore YMCA programs, or look into YMCA jobs in Richmond, this conversation gives you a clear starting point. Subscribe for more real stories behind real organizations, share this with someone who still thinks the Y is “just a gym,” and leave a review if it changed how you see community support. What part of the YMCA’s impact surprised you most?
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No-Fluff Welcome And Guest Setup
SPEAKER_00Welcome to the You Can't Afford Me Podcast, where we skipped the fluff and dive straight into the drive. Real entrepreneur, real struggle, and the unfiltered journey behind the deck. Let's get into it.
SPEAKER_01Hey guys, thanks for joining us on another episode of the You Can't Afford Me Podcast. Now, this one you guys are going to want to be locked in for. We're all familiar with the YMCA. We all know the YMCA and the massive brand that they are. But how many of you know everything that goes on at the YMCA? My guess is maybe 5% of the people listening to this. So we got the big cheese today. We brought in the big guns. All right. We have Jody from the YMCA here with us today. How are you doing today?
SPEAKER_02I am doing fantastic, and that is quite a setup. So I'm pretty excited to get into this.
Jody’s Path From The Pool
SPEAKER_01Oh, we're going to get into it. But first, give everybody a quick rundown of who you are and your role with the organization.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, uh Jody Alexander, president and CEO of the YMCA, and basically that just means I get to work with the community and go with the work with the staff to deliver impact across the community. So beautiful.
SPEAKER_01You can tell she's got some PR training. She's done this for the little bit. So get first before we we're gonna dive into a lot of stuff with the YMCA and your role there, but first let's get to know you. What did you do before this?
SPEAKER_03This is all I've done. So, and we'll probably talk about it, but the YMCA is often people's um first job, and it was for me. So my basic why story is um I grew up uh my parents were 16 and 17 when they had me in a little small town in Mansfield, Ohio, center of Ohio. And my parents will say they had absolutely no idea what they were doing, but one of the things that they did do was they put a support system around them, which included me getting to go to my YMCA. And so I learned to swim at the Y, which led me to be on my swim team, you know, through elementary, middle, high school years, and did all the things YMCA. I could ride my bike to the Y, my local YMCA. I'm first generation college. My dad was supposed to be the first person to go to college in the fall that I was born. So fast forward, uh, that that got to be me. I needed a job while I was in college, and I went to the YMCA. I'm so old though, I went to the student union, pulled the ticket that had the phone number that they're hiring a swim team coach. And so that was my first job as a swim team coach, and I think I've done everything that there is with the the the YMCA up to moving to Richmond just a couple of years ago is my first CEO job.
SPEAKER_01Nice. And I'm just gonna say this right now so the algorithm picks it up when we title this. But I'm sure the title of this episode is gonna be swim instructor to CEO. That is a phenomenal piece there. Um so you went to college. Where'd you go to college at?
SPEAKER_03Uh University of Toledo. Oh, nice Rockets.
SPEAKER_01There we go.
SPEAKER_03I'm I'm a real big Buckeye fan, though, and so I'm a little heartbroken today over the first round of the tournament. But that was a Go VCU, so we'll we'll do that.
SPEAKER_01That was a tough one. That was an event right when that game was happening. Uh you gotta be a Browns fan and uh and a Cleveland. Okay.
SPEAKER_03My husband grew up in Cincinnati. Okay. So a Bengals fan.
SPEAKER_01I can't be too mad at that. I'm a Pittsburgh Steelers fan. Browns are a little worse. I can tolerate Cincinnati. Oh boy.
SPEAKER_03Okay, I don't know. This might like be timeout here, but it's okay. It's all good. It's all good. As long as you're not a Michigan fan, we're good.
SPEAKER_01No, nothing on the Michigan side. So you went to college. What were you majoring in in college?
SPEAKER_03Um, I was an education major. Always thought I was going to be a teacher. I had amazing YMCA people around me that were like, you should work for the Y. You should work for the Y professionally. I'm like, I don't even know what that what that means. But I got a lot of exposure. I did the I did swim team, uh, lifeguard swim lessons, and because I was an education major, I started to do before and after school child care. So I would open up a child care site, then I'd go to class all day, then I would go do the after school again, then I'd go to swim team practice and kind of started to learn all kinds of things about the Y. But my first job was aquatic director opening up a brand new pool in a tiny little town on the western edge of Ohio. And that was my first professional position. Yeah, it was hard. It was really hard.
SPEAKER_01So, what all right, from from the high school years to getting your first big girl job with the Y, what was it about the Y that you said this is a great place to work?
SPEAKER_03Uh, first of all, it's fun. It's actually fun, and I got to use a lot of my teaching kinds of things. Like, I think I'm a wired coach. I think I'm a wired, you know, like look at people, figure out what makes them tick, which is what coaches have to do, and kind of treat everybody individually, to put all that together to make for impact somehow. So I think I got to blend those early days of coaching, all of that I learned of being coached on different teams in in high school and growing up, and turn that into well, how do you apply that to building a team to teach swim lessons? How do you, you know, put that together with the kids that you're impacting on the swim team? So I think that it was fun and I got to see the joy and the impact. Um, it also probably comes down to relationships. I had a lot of really amazing people that kind of poured into me and taught me different things. So love it. And it's still fun. Yeah. And it's still fun. Otherwise, I don't think I'd be here this many years.
SPEAKER_01Yep. So total, how many years has it been?
SPEAKER_0337.
SPEAKER_01That's amazing.
SPEAKER_0337. 37. Up up and down eastern. Uh the Y has 840-ish different um Y's across the country, different associations. So Greater Richmond is one of those, and we cover a lot of uh territory if you want to call it. Seven different municipality areas. Um, so I've been uh uh in Ohio, um the uh Toledo Association. I went down to Orlando, Florida, went to Charlotte, North Carolina, I went back to Orlando, and then most recently here in Richmond, which I love.
SPEAKER_01I was gonna say, out of all the places you've lived, I love it here.
SPEAKER_03I absolutely love it here. I think it's an amazing blend of a lot of opportunity, a lot of I've never lived in a capital city. So being in a capital city has really amazing things, but it's been very easy to get to know people. Um it is a big town, small town feel to it. And it's very much a network. Yeah, it is, it is, it's just been I people remind me that I'm not, you know, like it'll take a little bit of time before you can say you're from Richmond. Yeah. But that's okay. That's okay. Um but I absolutely I love it here.
SPEAKER_01I think people let me say I'm from Richmond after probably about 10 years.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's exactly what I hear. So I think you've uh you know added to the benchmarking.
SPEAKER_01Yep, there you go. So from that, uh, your first big girl job with the YMCA, talk about the next step in your progression there.
Learning Every Part Of The Y
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so with the Y, we do a lot of things. And so when you say you know the YMCA, but do you know the YCA? Most people know the YMCA for their experience in the things that they do. So um what's cool about this path is is a lot of self-directed and interest-directed. So I'm a curious person and I'm a learner. And so I did aquatics and which was all the things, swim lessons and swim teams, and lifeguards and lifeguard training and all of that. But my early part of my career, I did um water walking classes, so that was kind of part of aquatics, right? And I was water walking, water walking, so it's an exercise class, but in the water.
SPEAKER_01Like you play like you're Jesus Christ. Not on the water, in the water, right? In the water, right?
SPEAKER_03And so mobility and working with older people and doing that. And I discovered like I kind of like the fitness side of things.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So I went and learned the fitness side of things. So now I became an aquatic and a wellness director. Nice. And with that, I could add then I learned how to do some of those things actually on the land as well. I could not even find the beat of the music, I don't think, when I first got started. Like there's a thing called a downbeat, and your feet, you're rhythm-wise, right? You're supposed to move with it. I don't even think I knew what that was, but I stuck, I stuck with it, and people helped me through it. And my career probably close to 15 years as a wellness director. Um, then I became a sport director, and then I added on membership, and then it was total operations, uh, multi-site locations and operations and um um you know, strategy, learning how to make things better, learn how to make teams better. So just kind of all of it, all of it adding on. And anytime I had a like, ooh, I want to learn how to do that, people came beside me informally to help support that. And then the Y also has a really great training program, so a lot of formal learning, certifications, things like that.
Nonprofit Work As A Real Career
SPEAKER_01So it sounds like, first off, this sounds like an amazing company to work for. Like an amazing organization. Yeah, me thinking, do I need to have somebody run my office and I'll put an application with you before you leave? Uh I'd be a horrible employee at this point. Once you're an entrepreneur for a certain amount of time, you're almost unemployable. Um it sounds like, number one, that there are a lot of opportunities, but two, the fact that so many people are willing to pour into it. So that this leads me into something we were talking about off-camera real quick. Is that so many people, I was just sharing the story with you of a friend, I think that should go into the nonprofit space. She's looking for a new job. And her first response is, uh, well, I'm not gonna make any money in the nonprofit world. Talk to us about not just specifically with YMCA, but in general, like I need people to know that there are opportunities where you can earn a decent living working in a nonprofit space.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, I was saying my degree is education, but I apply business all day long. It is running, running this organization is running a very big business.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And it is a lot of revenue streams, it's a lot of count accountability. Um, we have 18 locations across our footprint. We have a hundred-acre camp, um, and we're serving a lot of people. So this year alone will be 300,000 people. True. With that, is a lot of diverse revenue streams. So um I I think people think nonprofit, big heart, absolutely. Yeah, but there's a lot of skill that has to come with it. And so, therefore, nonprofits, you know, you you can you can do the big heart thing, but also make a career out of it. And there's a lot of nonprofits that you can do that with.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. Richmond for sure is one. Let me ask you that. Out of all the communities you've lived in, I've always felt like this community is so nonprofit-centered and focused.
SPEAKER_03Like, yeah, it really, it really is. And um, the nonprofits here are also very cooperative, collaborative. I don't know if I've necessarily found that, you know, holistically in other places. Um, there are so many big meetings where all like, what are you doing? How are you doing it? And how do we not duplicate, but how do we complement each other and partner and do those things? And that that's a really interesting spirit here. And it makes it fun because we're all thinking about not competing with some of the philanthropic dollars or the volunteerism, but let's do this so we can all go a little bit deeper in the lanes that we've created, but do it synergistically and together. And funders, funders like that. Funders like you to maximize that, you know, opportunity. So it's it's a great nonprofit spirit here.
Surprising YMCA Origins And Inventions
SPEAKER_01Yeah, the collaborative effort here for sure. I've had a lot of people come to me and say, you know, I'm thinking of starting this business or this nonprofit. Like, give me your thoughts on this. And I've had so many people over the years come to me and have a nonprofit idea, and I'm like, number one, like I feel like there's an organization already doing like why recreate the way we don't need 20 nonprofits that are all trying to achieve the exact same thing. Like, there's some collaborative efforts that can take place there. Um, let's talk about the things that people don't know about the YMCA. So, my you talk about knowing the YMCA from your experience. My experience, uh, my parents were not particularly fond of jumping in the water. So we didn't take a lot of beach trips and pool days like when I was growing up. Um, I don't think I've ever seen my dad in a pool before. My mom, I think I had seen a couple times, so they weren't big enough swimming, but they thought it was important that I need to know how to swim. Um, and where did they take me to get my lessons? The local YMCA. So for me, that is my experience with the YMCA. I grew up there learning how to swim. During the summers, I'd go there after I learn and just have a good time. What are some of the unknown services that really don't get highlighted?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so I'm gonna go all the way back to some of our origin stories because these are the things I don't think people realize. And I'm gonna talk right now because we are day number two of March Madness. Did you know that basketball was invented at the YMCA? Oh, oh. Yes, it was. Clip van. Yeah, right, right. Basketball was invented. Uh Dr. James Nay Smith out of uh the YMCA, right? That came out, that came from the YMCA. Volleyball was invented at the YMCA. Wow. Father's Day came out of the YMCA. Racquetball came out of the YMCA.
SPEAKER_01Wait, did you say Father's Day came out?
SPEAKER_03Father's Day. All right. Yeah, it it it it's just, you know, we started uh again with family relationships and our origin story, our basic story is we we were actually founded in London, England in 1844. And it was during the Industrial Revolution where um people were f uh, especially young men, were flocking to the cities and uh for work. And there wasn't a whole lot of wholesome activity. So a group got together, almost forming like a club, and they did some Bible study, they did recreation, which is where things like bodybuilding came out and calisthenics came out of the you know, the YMCA. And so with that recreation mindset, it was how do we not go to I think back then, right, they called them brothels and things like that, but that we had more relationship-building, like-minded young men that would come um together. Came to the Y uh to the United States in 1853 and just constantly continued to, you know, invent. I love what you're talking about being an entrepreneur, right? Well, I like to think our organization is among the most entrepreneurial. Yeah, we're celebrating 175 years this year in the United States. Richmond, I should say, is celebrating 170 years. So we're one of the first YMCAs in the nation. But every time the community is looking for something, the why steps in some of those gaps with creativity, with development of something. And so, same thing as we were talking about, you know, Father's Day just bringing fathers and sons together to celebrate what that relationship, you know, looks like. Ooh, we're getting a history level. Right, right. I know, I know, I know. I can't help it. Remember, I told you old lady. I'm told you only old lady with a Y No, I never would have known that.
SPEAKER_01That's awesome.
The Y’s Three Impact Priorities
SPEAKER_03Think about when in the 80s when moms went back to work and you heard all of the things like latchkey kids. The Y is the largest after school um provider in the entire country. We save serve serve more kids after school than any other organization, and it's because again, we created quality quality and affordable after school care when all the moms went back um to work. So it's constantly looking for those spaces where we assess community needs and how do you bring people together in order, you know, to do that. So I guess you're asking me like some of the things and so currently, right? So currently, what no, no, my I decided to give the history lesson, right? So um RYMCA is focused on a very North Star of supporting the community and supporting the region's efforts in economic mobility.
SPEAKER_00Lovely.
SPEAKER_03Like we're constantly thinking about how is it that we make people thrive, help reach their highest potential, and how do we make communities thrive. So um that framework of lifting people and economic mobility. So we have three impact areas, and it is um drowning prevention. So, you know, we're never gonna shy away from what you know about the YMCA. Yeah, people need to learn how to swim. It's for safety reasons, but it's honestly for a lifetime of enjoyment, right? It is the beaches, it is the pools, it's getting to go to the river and feel safe with your family.
SPEAKER_01So I love my jet skis in the summer.
SPEAKER_03Right? Exactly, exactly, exactly. So even in Richmond, Virginia, and Virginia as a whole, the number one cause of accidental death for children under four, four and under is drowning. And so we use our network to not only provide lessons, but to provide provide parent education related to that. Because it's not backyard pool drownings for children, it's actually bathtub drownings. And so we don't have swim lessons, you know, for that, but we could use our network to provide that awareness and that education, right? So drowning prevention is one impact area. Second impact area is enriching learning in the out-of-school time space. So schools are the pipeline, right, for education, but what happens after school where you surround young people with caring adults, yeah, where they get to have peer-to-peer, you know, uh uh call it conflict resolution, but it's more like relationship building and um experience curiosity. Yep, curiosity. And so that could be sports, that is sports, that is after school programming, that is bringing um uh teens together for leadership experiences, uh, and it's also workforce development. We are the largest employer of 16 to 24 year olds in the country and here in our own community.
SPEAKER_01Wow, I have no idea. Yeah. Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_03Like I said, it's people's first jobs, and it's also also people's kind of winding down jobs as well, so that's a whole nother thing. And the last impact area is advancing whole health. So thinking again of people as whole people. Yeah. So you've got, you know, you're gonna go into YMC, and of course you're gonna see wellness and fitness, and you're gonna see machines and weights and group exercise classes. Those are by ways of bringing people together to experience community and to get healthy. Um, we're never gonna say we're in the mental health business, but we're definitely in the mental well-being business. And a lot of that is um, you know, things you may not know that many of our sites do food distributions weekly and monthly. So we step in spaces of food insecurity. Um we do, we just say, oh, this is such a cool partnership. We're working with the American Heart Association. All of our YMCAs are getting blood pressure monitoring cuffs. And we've got a program where we're teaching people to know your numbers, so from a prevention perspective. And we had uh HCA Foundation help to bring that to life with funding. So we use our buildings as catalysts to bring people together on top of providing the experiences and the fun programming.
What YMCA Stands For Today
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. Man, you are blowing my mind right now. I had no like I knew there was gonna be stuff I learned in this interview that I didn't know about uh the YMCA, but uh yeah, this is more than I expected. One thing I want to highlight too, can you tell people what YMCA stands for? Because I want to make sure people understand where this organization comes from.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah. So it's it's interesting because we've gone through periods of logo and meaning uh changes. And right now, and you're gonna see on my logo, right, it's the why. Yeah, right. And so, but in that why logo, you see kind of a triangle, and that triangle is really our again origin triangle of we support people in spirit, mind, and body. So when we talk about advancing whole health, we're also talking about the whole person, the whole body, which means spirit, mind, and body, right? And so we are um a values-based organization based off of Christian heritage and Christian principles, and through those programs and services is how we support people. And um, we also, I think in our overall mission statement, the most important words are for all. So we are really like thinking about constantly how are we serving um, and it sounds really weird, but literally cradle to grave. Yeah, all people, all persons, um, anybody. And we're really proud of the programs that we have that um help support people even financially. Because of course there's a cost to doing some of the experiences that we have. Yeah, and we would never turn anybody away if that becomes a barrier to cost. So um we've got sliding fees scales and we have lots of free opportunities and programs. So it it it it it means and it's meant a lot over the course of the years. Logos have changed, yeah. You know, um originally we were Young Men's Christian Association. That's what YMCA stands for, if you're gonna like spell it out. But as you can see, like we're we've become and evolved to be to include to be so much more inclusive with everybody.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, love that.
SPEAKER_03Whew.
SPEAKER_01I know, right?
SPEAKER_03I know I'm talking I talk a lot, right? So much I want to share.
SPEAKER_01No, this is perfect. Like, this this is a fantastic interview because to expose people to everything that this organization offers, and I think that kind of leads into one of my next questions, the demographics that you guys uh provide services for and work with. Is it, and I don't know, I'm not asking this from a point of like I know the answer and I just want you to say this is it low income families, is it high net worth families, is it middle class? Because I think a lot of people, the connotation with anything nonprofit involved, people think it's just for low income housing individuals.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I I truly want to say, right, it is for all. And the beauty of Of the YMCA is you know, just think about this. How many organizations uh at scale bring people together? Right? So I was mentioning we have different, you know, buildings, that's great, and they're hubs of communities, but you can show up at 5 a.m. and you're gonna see a complete mixture of people, probably a lot of type A people that are trying to get a workout in, you know, before they go. That's what I think. Right, right, yeah, right. And then you sh then you you show up between 9 and 11, and you're gonna see young, young, you know, moms or dads bringing their children in after they dropped other kids off at school. You're gonna see maybe retired people, people or people that have more flexible schedules because they're working from home and they want to get out of the house and actually, you know, build relationships. So yeah, you know, we we have we have a focus in our impact areas of um, you know, uh delivering all those programs and services. We want people to think of us first. It doesn't matter what income bracket you are are in or what you know ethnicity or race or culture. We want you to think of us first for solving those needs. But I would say we also have a really high intentionality of thinking about people that are furthest from thriving and thinking about that crisis to thriving continuum. So that's why I mentioned that we do food distribution, or we have a really impactful program that we do with the city of Richmond called Help One RVA. And you can literally call um, you can make a phone call or you can go to our website. And if you're about to be evicted, or you're looking for housing, or if your um lights are about to be shut off, or you don't know where to find food, or you need transportation because you just landed your first job, we have staff, social needs navigators that help you get you connected to those resources to stabilize your situation, to then help you move to where, yeah, I can take my family and go have fun in the gymnasium with playing basketball, right? So there's a there's there's a whole lot of things that that we're doing in that overall continuum. So it's all people.
Family Life While Building A Career
SPEAKER_01I love that. And the fact that you've you've spoken about community so much and and the relationships that are built uh under the roof of the the Y. Um, I love that it's mixing different cultures, different economic statuses because a lot of times, like I realize now that I'm getting a seat to some bigger tables than I used to years ago. It's not for lack of knowledge or desire or ambition, it was just I just didn't have the right connections. And then once you get some of those connections, a lot of things can open up to you. Um on that note, too, I'm gonna take it back to a personal note. Um I think not just for females, but I think in particular, I think it's very important. Like it does my body good knowing like my daughter's gonna see this interview one day, she's five now, but she's gonna see this interview one day and see, oh, that lady was running the company? Oh, well, if somebody that looks like me can do that, then um yeah, that that means there are opportunities for me as well, too. Talk about the balance. And I don't know if you have kids, like you tell them you're married. Um, but talk about the balance and scaling your career because to be involved with an organization this long, you had to be laser focused on your career. So how did you balance the family life and the career?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, um, what a what a great what a great question. Um it was hard, right? So, first off, everything that we do, we work when people play. Yeah. Right. And so when you're balancing a a family. But how cool to be a part of a family organization where your family can also participate. So, right, so I might be working, but my kids are in their swim lesson or they're, you know, part of their soccer team and you know, and doing doing those kinds of things. So that part has been amazing. Not gonna say there weren't a whole lot of times that I was like, I can't do this, boo-hoo. This is like, you know, this is really hard. So kudos to all of the moms and the dads that are trying to write to make it work. A couple things I intentionally did. Um, I and I just was telling somebody about this yesterday. I found a female leader, um, a couple of female leaders that were always about a decade ahead of me in their career. And it didn't really matter necessarily what position they were in, I wasn't doing that, but I wanted to see how they navigated. So when I had elementary school kids, they had kids that were in middle school and high school. Oh, that's right. Right? And so I'm just kind of like, okay, how did you do it? How do you do this? What were your tips? And, you know, and all of those things. I also have a little bit of a non, our family is so my I have a 29-year-old and a 27-year-old daughter-in-law, so they've been married um uh six years now, and I have a 25-year-old. So my kids are kind of fully, fully launched now and you know, doing doing those things. Um, but um uh I you know, as so I had people like kind of, you know, help me figure out how to, you know, how to help raise those kids. And I remember an executive director that my child, I'm teaching a group exercise class, and my child's in our child development center while I'm there, brought them to work with me, and she's in there holding them for me. So, like when you go back to the culture of the why and thinking about how it is that you know that that we support each other, those are things that have been really important. But my family also made an early decision that, and this kind of blows people away a lot as well, is our life got really crazy, especially as I got into multi-site like management and all of that, and we're open a hundred hours per week and you know, kind of retail, like if you think about it. Um, we decided life was too crazy, and my husband actually became a stay-at-home dad. And so when we made that, and that was hard, you could we dropped down to one income. Yeah, we you know, but we so believe in this organization and what that opportunity was, and that just led him to kind of be entrepreneurial and he renovates homes now. So, like, but he did that while trying to help with the you know with the kids. So I've had some interesting stories where um, you know, I became a member of a a civic club, I won't even name which one, a civic club, and in the civic club, you as new members you'd wear these big badges so that everybody knew that you were new.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03We had a Christmas party. And so we had a Christmas party, and I was 30 days into this. We go to the Christmas party. Now rem I'm gonna remind you, I've got the big badge on.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And I was only one of nine women in the entire 140-person civic club. Jeez. Mm-hmm. And every single person would walk up to my husband, shake his hand, and say, Oh, are you new to the club? And he's like, actually, no. I'm like, you want to talk to my wife, and she's the executive director of, you know, whatever. And I was like, Oh, okay. So, you know, he's a a a champion, right? And um an ally for this type of leadership, and you know, he'll certainly say he's the biggest cheerleader in fan club, even when I didn't believe in myself. So a little not, you know, a little non-traditional, but um, you know, surrounding myself with female leaders, also had a support system and telling people me people, you know, telling me that I can do it when I didn't think I could do it.
SPEAKER_01That's awesome. Like to have that dynamic relate. I mean, it reminds me of me and my wife in terms of like she's a stay-at-home mom. Um, she really didn't give me a choice. I had always dreamed that my wife would be a stay-at-home mom, and I prayed that I would marry a woman that wanted that long. Um, and I think it was after five, six months of our daughter being in daycare, and you know, you're getting the pictures throughout the day, and she's like, she texted me while she was at work, she's like, I'm not gonna watch our daughter grow up through her cell phone. Uh, you got four weeks, and I'm I'm leaving this place, so figure it out.
SPEAKER_03Yep, figure it out.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, and it was a plan originally, but like we hadn't actually put pen to paper, and I was like, holy crap, like this is real. And everything ended up working out. Like, you figure those pieces out, but I think it's so important for because our daughter, I think by the time she got to preschool, my wife was adamant about her being able to like spell her name and like what's our address, and you know, who do you call? What's our actual name, not just mom and dad? Like, if you go missing, like you need to know how to identify us. And she was miles ahead of some of the kids. So I'm like, the education doesn't happen in the school, it's happening at home first.
SPEAKER_03Exactly right. That's that that trajectory, and you know, and I think that that you know, I know we're talking about the personal side, but I'm gonna draw draw it right back to the organization because that is so um that personally, those are the things that really fuel me in trying to lead this organization because we all know the cost of childcare. Yeah, and it's astronomical. So for so many people, it doesn't even make sense. So how on earth, like we both probably feel super fortunate, right? That we have two parents at home. I had, you know, me and my husband got to jointly raise these kids, and that was hard. Yeah. I mean, oh my goodness, it was so it was it was so hard. Sometimes I just think back, how on earth did we do this?
SPEAKER_01We're gonna talk off camera because this this five and four-year-old age is it it's right, it it is something.
SPEAKER_03And so I can't imagine if you're a single parent trying to do it. Or if you want to, you know, not have a parent um working, right? To you know, to do that. So we are super committed to bringing affordable child care to people. That is part of economic mobility, yeah. That is part of supporting families, and it is it's it's just it's it's just not there. And so those are some of you know some of those efforts. So if you are a parent that wants to maybe get an advanced degree or get some uh a certification that gives you a um better shot at wages, then you've got to be able to have childcare that you can rely on and you know be safe. So I kind of blend a lot of my own personal experiences and thinking about that and how I also try to lead the organization and think about how to how do how do we support our our our people and our community.
Women’s Leadership And Changing Boards
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's awesome. Let's talk about because you mentioned in that in that civic group you were one of nine women out of 170 some thousand or seventy seventy some hundred. Um what has it been like navigating this space and and reaching this high in your career as a woman? And I can I'm not a woman, so I can't say it, but I feel like there's a lot of correlations between females and minorities in this country in terms of like the struggle and and where we've been able to get. And I know for me, like when I was coming up in my career, I you wouldn't know about looking at me right now. I wouldn't go to the grocery store unless I was wearing a three-p suit. I was very young, I had ambition, but I didn't. I told you I learned everything from YouTube University. I ended up dropping out of school at the junior level because they weren't teaching me what I want to know about entrepreneurship. Um I wear a three-p-suit everywhere because I was like, I have to present a certain way. Number one, I'm young, and number two, I'm a minority. So there's some doors where people are just automatically gonna shut just based off of how I look. So for me, it was like, well, the one thing I can change is how I present myself to the world. So I'm gonna make sure I'm um what what black people call casket sh casket fresh, casket sharp. Um so for you, what was that like? Because now I feel like in just the last couple of years, I've really started to get at some of those other tables and and offers being extended to me that weren't before. What were some of the struggles that you had to deal with as a female in this industry?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and I love this because it's National Women's History Month. Oh, yeah. So I love it that you're, you know, talking about, you know, talking about that. So uh let me start, you know, from where we're we we we currently are. There are um, you know, when people think about the YMCA and they think of women in the YMCA, they automatically, and I tell you, it's happened to me here even, they're like, oh, do you work in child care?
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Like they naturally think that we're working in those caregiver spaces, and those are important roles. I'm gonna say that, but they're not the only roles.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_03Um Richmond's pretty cool because I'm actually in our 170-year history, I'm actually the second woman CEO. So I actually followed um a woman CEO in um, I mentioned I was in Orlando, Florida. Um, I was the first COO, um woman CEO CEO. So we're we're working to carve our spaces, we're working, you know, to do that. But I mentioned I was 37 years in the YMCA. So I can guarantee you most men that are sitting in CEO roles in the YMCA and probably lots of different companies, they did not take 37 years to do it, right? So part of that was probably me, you know, like, oh, I'm not good enough, I can't do it. I look at that skill set, and you know, and women do that all the time. Like, I gotta be 100% ready. Am I really ready? Do I know how to, you know, to you know, to step into that? And I know my male counter counterparts don't do that. They're like, I'm ready to go. It's like, let's go, you know. So um sometimes we get in our, you know, our own way. Um, I am super intentional of you know, reaching that hand back and carving the way for others as well. Like I said, I had people in my life that did that, and many of them encouraged me a decade or more ago. Yeah, why aren't you doing this? Why aren't you doing this? And um, I'm so glad that I did. Um, and I'm gonna make sure that I continue to set the table and look for others to, you know, to help do that. So there's a couple things that have to happen with that. Part of um nonprofits, even their boards need to start to look different because the boards hire the executive staff or the senior level staff. And if you look at a lot of nonprofits, you may not have a lot of women at the table, right? And so that's there's just a lot of boards that are your typical hundred-year-old looking, you know, board. So I'm really proud of our YMCA for um not only here locally, but um, you know, across the country that are starting to change that so that they're looking for a different, you know, different skill set. And then um I'm a huge proponent, proponent of find your people in your workspace and creating those, you know, those networks. So we have um a national employee resource group um, you know, system, and then we brought that very, very locally. So we have a women's resource uh leadership network, we have an African American, we have an LGBTQ, we have a um uh disabilities community ERG, right? So we want people to be able to um bring their whole person and all of their experiences to work. So we're gonna train you functionally, we're gonna do a really good job, but we also want you to find your people and to find that empathy and find this community um in that. So I think there's a lot of formal, informal, and ways of getting those networks um uh together as well.
Grit, Bias, And Hidden Struggles
SPEAKER_01No, that that's amazing to hear, and people quite don't understand, like um I'll use myself as an example, and I don't know if I've ever told more than five people in the world this story I'm about to share. Um but there was a lot of people will look at the product of me now where I'm at today, and they're just like, oh man, he's got it together, he's got this media firm, da da da. And they don't think that I've dealt with certain things. So I think up to this point I've owned or co-founded nine different companies. Wow. And the vast majority of those, I had a white business partner. And a lot of people think, first off, a lot of my friends are white, but um a lot of people didn't understand why I did that strategically is because I knew that there were certain doors that were gonna automatically be shut in my face. But I at least had this guy standing next to me, then it's like, okay, we'll c we'll creak the door open for you. But that prompted me to think of this story. Really the only time I can think that I've faced racism like blatantly in my face. So as I told you, like, I started my career in the mental health space like in my early 20s. I was like 22 years old or something like that, maybe. Which that's normally an uh older guy's game, so I had to wear the suits. And I'll never forget, it was at this point, um, something happened with my car. I had the cash to go get another car, so I was looking at some used dealerships. Somebody recommended this one place, I went and drove it over. Uh, for the time being, since my car was broken down, my aunt actually loaned me her Cadillac. Now, back then, riding in the Cadillac, I was like, you can tell me nothing. I fell on top of the world, I had my suit on, like I felt like I was looking good. Roll up to this one car dealership, uh, started looking around a lot, and I'm like, hey, you know, I'm looking for something in this price point, da-da-da-da-da. Umer of the shop looks dead at me and says, Oh, we ain't got nothing like that around here. I was like, hmm. Yeah, like he just kept it that simple. That problem. Well, you don't have anything like in that price? No, we don't we don't sell anything in that price ring. Okay, appreciate it. And I start to walk back to my car, and I look over and I see a sticker on one of the vehicles right in the price point that uh that I was asking for. And as I touched the handle of the car door to get back in, I was like, no, that ain't right. Uh, I'm gonna go back and say something to this guy. And I walk over to the guy and I'm like, um, hey man, like, you know, I'm not sure if I rubbed you the wrong way or something like that, but like, I felt like I was very professional to you. I'm asking about doing business with you, and now I see that you do have vehicles on the lot. Is there an issue that you have with me? And he just looks at me and says, get off my property right now. Um I came home, I came back to my parents and I told my dad that story. This guy didn't know that my dad was the president at the time with the local NAACP. Uh, so my dad was able to tick some dogs on him, and uh, and some reviews probably went out, and I think some things ended up happening with that young man's business. But that's literally one of the only times. But I share that story to share it to say this is that you don't know the struggle that a lot of people have to go to to get to the spots in which they're at. Um, whether it's racism, whether it's sexism, whether it's some of these other things that you mentioned in terms of the programs that you guys have. Um, it's not easy for a lot of people to get where they're at. So, like, especially when I see a female woman in a high position of power, I'm like, she's I I don't have to say two words to her. I'm like, she's got my highest level of respect because I know it takes a lot to get in that seat that you're sitting in.
SPEAKER_03You know, that's an awesome responsibility too. So there's the one thing that I and um you know, someone along the way told me this. Um, you know, be really careful because your title will walk in the door before you do. And so I have an awesome responsibility with that title, right? And um, you know, that would potentially be the pinnacle of a career, right? When you say that's the top the the top of the top. And um, I don't take that lightly in remembering the struggles and remembering what you know my parents went through at 16 and 17 years old and who surrounded them and what that meant to be first gen college. You know, I applied for college, I never even visited the college because we didn't have a transportation to get there. You know, like I mean, it was just hard to get there, um, you know, and f and and figure figure those things out. My mom has a um, she dropped out of school after her sophomore year, and she has a um I for the longest time I said she got her GED at 28, and I recently said something to her about how I shared that, and she looked at me and she said, I have a high school diploma. And there's a difference because she had to go back to night school to actually take the coursework to get the high school diploma. And um, she went on to be uh a nurse and she retired um from a hospital system as a critical care nurse, actually. My dad delivered bread overnight, he pumped gas during the day, and eventually um he he eventually got into General Motors as a tool and dye maker. So I I look at the struggles and I constantly think of um our team, we have about 2,500 team members at work here in the Richmond area, and I know there's more to their story. There's always more to their story. So, how is it that we create a space that's comfortable enough for them to share if they want to share, but put so many of those supports around them so that you know they've got that opportunity. So when I say like people thriving and economic mobility and you know, all of those things, I'm not just talking about it's for the community. I'm talking about how are we doing it for our team members. How are we paying a wage that you know like people can support their families on? How are we providing health insurance and different benefits that they could stay with the why for a really long time if they, you know, if they choose. So um one of my favorite words and phrases and meanings, right, is grit. And I think um my parents demonstrated it, which just gave me a better path. You know, my kids probably didn't have to the you know, same viewpoint of even me and my husband as I, you know, did of my parents just because of circumstances and um, you know, situations, but um grit and you know, and allowing for that space.
COVID Closures And Reinventing Community
SPEAKER_01Love that. Uh I hate to cut this conversation short, but or not cut it short, but just cut it at all, because I feel like there's so much more I could ask you. Um the last thing I'm gonna ask you is 99% of the people I bring on this podcast are entrepreneurs. Here in your journey, even though you're in a corporate position, uh what you've done, you can't do without entrepreneurial determination, like however that route is. Um, so I want to ask you what is the toughest moment that you faced during your Journey up um and how are you able to overcome that?
SPEAKER_03Um the toughest journey was um so today is the 20th, so it was six years ago yesterday. COVID was in full scale, and we're an organization that brings people together and we had to close our doors. And I so for you know, the first part of that is we had to close our doors to the community. So I just described all of those things like for so many people, we're like their third space. For senior citizens and older adults that live on their own, that so that interaction during their water walking class, the only other human beings that they see is when they go to the YMCA. Right? For some people it was getting food for, you know, so um and then and I was in Orlando, Florida at that time, and and I gotta look uh we had 1900 employees that day. I had to tell the 1900 employees that we had to furlough them. I have I I like you can't dream of that kind of stuff when you're in an organization like this that's endured so many different things. Um in Orlando or in Florida, we were closed about eight weeks before we were allowed to reopen. We uh were a state that reopened a little bit sooner, and it was so tough like getting back because people were scared and just even getting um, you know, we didn't know all the things, you know, then and so um when I when I think back, I'm like, how do we constantly future proof ourselves from that? Again, when you're an organization that relies on bringing people together. So we pivoted a ton. I hate that word because we all use that word so much during my grade, during that way. We had to all use that, but you know, we went back to things like calling our seniors and making sure that, you know, are you okay? And sometimes those phone calls would be really, really, you know, long. We went to videoing um and creating online communities and let's just check in and let's, you know, and and those kinds of things. So again, I'm gonna go back and I I love I I I I feel that it's a little bit of a compliment on like I love that you have so many entrepreneurs in your entrepreneurial spirit. And although I do work for a big organization, I personally feel like I got to be get to be a little bit entrepreneurial. And I think our YMCA sits in this, you know, in the you know, in those spaces. So um that by far is the the the toughest thing, and I hope we never have to do that. Do I think we're better equipped? Do I think some really cool innovations of meeting people where they are came out of that? I a million person. Do I think we have created other experiences? We've learned through it, we learned, you know, m even more how people struggle through things. Um I think we're standing in spaces of helping, you know, we got a whole post-COVID youth world that is something different than we've ever seen in youth development. You know, kids that are now in high school or just getting to post-high school, we're in middle school, that's where you that's where you find your people. That's where you go herd mentality, and they weren't allowed to do that. Yeah, that has profound development issues. So we're constantly thinking about how to how is you know, how is that, how do, how do we how do we help?
SPEAKER_01That's awesome. That's awesome.
unknownWhew.
How To Volunteer Or Get Hired
SPEAKER_01All right. If people want to get involved, if they want to look into the careers that are available at the YMCA, if they want to volunteer, how can they get in touch?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, um, you know, we have a very robust website that actually has all of those career activities, you know, as well as volunteerism. Uh levels of engagement is something we're also focusing on. So volunteerism is how we tick in you know the YMCA. Um so YMCA Richmond.org is our website, and that's the easiest way to get connected with us. Certainly show up in a location. Like you mentioned, we've got locations in all of our Greater Richmond um area, and we're there to meet and greet and um you know, show you how to get involved.
SPEAKER_01Beautiful. Love it. Appreciate you being on the show today.
SPEAKER_03Thank you so much for the invitation. This was super fun.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. Appreciate it. We'll see you guys on the next episode.