Women in Leadership: How to Get Noticed for What You Do

If you've ever wondered how women actually get onto nonprofit boards, into civic appointments, and into the rooms where decisions are made — this episode is your answer.

This week I'm celebrating two things: Well Lived Society just hit 50,000 downloads, and I walked out of my MPA awards dinner with two awards I wasn't expecting — including the First Year MPA Student Award and recognition for completing 100+ hours of community service in my first year of graduate school.

And I want to teach you the framework behind how it happened, because it's the same framework that's opened every significant door in my civic leadership career.

It's three moves: Serve. Document. Self-Nominate. And by the end of this episode, you'll know exactly how to apply it, whether you're pursuing a nonprofit board seat, a civic appointment, or just trying to build real influence in your community.

We talk about what serving before you feel ready actually looks like in real life — including me driving to Savannah on a Thursday night to lug tables around a dark parking lot for Junior League. We talk about why documenting your volunteer hours is the most underrated move in women's leadership development. And we talk about self-nomination, why women don't do it, why that has to change, and how it's the same skill that gets you the board seat, the appointment, and the fellowship.

Speaking of which, I'm giving away one full seat in the June 2026 Civic & Board Fellowship. Completely free. Apply by May 7th at lemonprice.co. Winner announced May 11th right here on the podcast.

This one's for the woman who's been doing the work and just needs someone to show her the door.

Download the journal I mentioned in the episodes here. 

Enjoy the episode, everyone!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, hello. Welcome back to the Well Live Society. I have so much to celebrate this week. So it's really going to be a celebration this week. And I'm actually going to teach you a framework that has to do with the celebration. So if you're new here, I'm Lemon Price. I run the Well Live Society and I really focus on helping women in leadership development so that they can go and impact their community. It's not just so you can say you've developed as a leader, but I want you to actually go out and make an impact, serve on the board of a nonprofit, get involved with your community, like really build some legacy and leave a lasting impact. So let's get into the things I want to celebrate this week and what it actually means for you because it's been a really busy, it's been a very busy week. So Friday, and I'm literally recording this on Saturday. Friday was such a busy day for me. So Friday, I got a notification from Buzz Sprout where I host this podcast that we had hit over 50,000 downloads, which is incredible to me. That's 50,000 women who are working on, and of course there's going to be overlap, but that's 50,000 women who are listening and learning and going out and impact their communities. Like that's a huge deal. It's 50,000 women who want to be the difference in their community, and that incredible. That to me is just absolutely incredible to see, to experience. I'm very humbled by it that so many people want to go out and make a difference. So I just want to thank you for you. Like you're showing up, you're doing the work, you're learning, you're coming. Like this is what you want to do. And I'm just so grateful for it. The second thing that I want to celebrate is last night we had our MPA award center. So that's Masters of Public Administration. And I, you know, of course I went to the dinner. My husband, I'm very involved in school, shocker. Very involved in school. And so we wanted to go to dinner. To this dinner, it was faculty, it's community members, like it, it's a really good event. So they also do awards at this dinner. Not that I was anticipating any, but it was so funny because two people who were sitting at my table, when it got to award time, they're like, you better get ready to go walk up there. And I was like, uh, you're so funny. No, what actually happened is I did get to last night. First, I was recognized for having over a hundred plus hours of community service, which is amazing. Amazing to do that while I'm in graduate school is amazing. I've done some really incredible things lately. I got to present to the League of Women Voters of Georgia, working on some really cool research projects. Like it's just, it's been really good. So I'm very, I'm very, very grateful for that alone. But then also, I was nominated for the first year MPA student award, which is faculty nominated and decided. And so the criteria for that is high. You know, you have to have at least a 3.5 GPA, you have to be involved in class, you have to show up prepared, you have to do all the things, right? You have to be an outstanding first year student. And I was, which was very grateful. My name now lives on a plaque inside of our main conference room now, forever. There's a photo of it on my Instagram if you want to go see. They put my name on the plaque, which was really cool. So I did not expect it necessarily. And that's really like what actually I want to talk about is this sort of framework I think of how this happened. So the framework is to serve, document, and then nominate. I'm excited to talk about this because I'm also stay, stay to the end because I'm gonna tell you what all the celebration means for you at the end, giving something really amazing away. So you're gonna want to stay to listen. So let's talk about like serving, documenting, and nominating, right? So we have to be in service before you strategize. And Peggy Maris last night, who was like our honorary inductee into Pi Alpha Alpha, which is an honor society for our, and you you only get it when you're graduating because you have to maintain like a very high-level GPA and up until graduation to be inducted. And so Peggy Maris was our honorary one. She used to be the president of ICMA, all kinds of things. So anyway, so she was talking about just the fact that we are MPA students means that we're in public administration. Like you're already here to serve. You you've already decided to be of service to other people just by making that decision. And I know that most people listening to this, you're not MPA students, which is fine, or even have an MPA, and that's fine. But the fact that you want to volunteer somewhere, you have this desire to serve, like that's the best place to start. And so, like a lot of women, and we tend to do this, right? We'll wait till we feel ready or we feel qualified before we volunteer for anything significant. And I think that's backwards. I think what we need to do, and I have a journal on this, I'm gonna link it in the show notes. It's called the Future You Journal. And I really talk about it's for another podcast I had, but it aligns. Like you look at where you are right now, you look at the person that you want to be, and then you fill in the gaps of like, what are the skills that future me has that I don't currently have? What's a mindset that they have? What, you know, what are they doing that I'm not currently doing that I need to start building to become that person? And I think this is something you should do like yearly. That's why it's a digital journal. So you could go through this every single year because hopefully the person you are in 12 months is not the person you are today. I do believe that if you're not growing, you're dying. So therefore, like we need to do this on a regular basis. So I want you to know that you need to stretch yourself. Okay, you you have to be of service before you feel ready. Rooms don't magically open up, you know, when you're ready. They open up because you showed up. Just because you showed up, they open up. And so I I don't think you need like a certain title to serve, right? You need a yes and availability on your calendar. I think that's all you need. I that truly that I think that's all you need. I just had this experience last week. Last week. I we were doing an event for junior league with the garden club of Savannah, and the person over like the cookbook committee, so for a fundraising project, was actually going away. It was like an impromptu trip. She was going away. And she's like, I need somebody who can help like set up this event. And I live the furthest away out of everybody, but I was like, Yeah, of course I'll help. Like it's fine. So I drove to meet her in Savannah. I went to Savannah earlier than everybody else. And that's not to like brag, but like, of course I'm gonna show up and help and serve and do everything that you like, of course, right? Like, I want the event to go smooth, so of course I'm gonna show up. Well, guess what? So, in in my chapter of the junior league, we do it's like points for service that you do. And so everybody got one point for doing the event, which is normal, but I got two points because I showed up and served. And so I actually met all of my I've been above and beyond of the requirements I need for the chapter for the year because I'm a distance member, so I'm not required to. I live like an hour from Savannah, like 45 minutes to an hour, depending on traffic. And so everybody who lives in Savannah proper obviously has more requirements than I do. And yet I have fulfilled the same amount of requirements that everybody who is local, like in the actual like city limits, is required to do. And that's all you have to do for leadership, right? Like I wasn't, I'm not the head of the cookbook committee. This wasn't my responsibility, but I had availability, so I said yes, and they showed up. Right. And so it's these like unglamorous smells like I'm meeting her in a dark parking lot on like a Thursday night after I had an MPA event that I had to go to, where I met with the chief of police. And so it wasn't, it wasn't sexy, it wasn't cute. I'm like sitting here lugging tables around Savannah, but that's the kind of stuff that gets credentials, right? Nobody gets a board seat because of necessarily your highlight reel. You get it because you showed up when it wasn't sexy, when there was nothing in it for you, when you were literally here just to serve the mission. That's it. And so part of what I want you to do is to find an organization you already believe in and just show up, right? Like, I want you to find a strategic networking opportunity. I literally just want you to show up. Go to an open meeting, go have a conversation. There's an organization I'd really like to be a part of. Guess what? You have to live in the county for 10 years, and I've only lived in county for seven. But guess what? Because of some networking, people are like, hey, we could maybe like have a conversation about this. I didn't wait for something. It was because I was involved in other things that these same people happen to be involved in, and now we're having an open dialogue. So the next thing I want you to do is to really document. Okay. I want you to document as you go, and I don't think we talk about this enough, and it is something I want you to do. I want you to write down every single time the organization, the date, the hours, and what you did. I want you to write those things down, and not because you're building a resume. We're not, you're not building resume. I mean, you can put it on LinkedIn, like you should probably put it on LinkedIn and celebrate and you know, be excited. But it's because when the moment comes to put your name forward, you're not gonna have to scramble. You have receipts. Okay, you have receipts. So for the community service that I did, it was a self-nominating form. Like they asked us, like, what community service have you done? Guess what? I had to back it up. I had to back it up with organizations, powers, leadership roles. Like, I had the stuff I needed because I've been documenting what I do, the amount of time it takes me to work on things. Like, I serve on the board for the state's public affairs committee for junior league, as well as my own role in the chapter. Like, I'm a busy gal for the junior league of Georgia. And so I had a list. I had a list. I knew what I did, right? And so a lot of people, they don't even bother to fill out the form because you can't remember what you've done. And if you're doing enough service, you probably won't remember everything you've done. And that's okay. That's okay, but I want you to document it so you have proof. And here's the other thing your nonprofit experience can translate into jobs, right? Your volunteer stuff that you're doing, like I love hosting. I love, I say this all the time. Like, I love hosting, and it's one of my favorite things to do. And so, guess what? When I stepped down from being PR chair for other reasons, they were like, why don't you take over as being the logistics chair? And guess what? I've loved it, I love event planning. It's one of my favorite things to do. And now I'm meeting people that I wouldn't normally meet because I'm having these conversations with venues in Savannah and I have a whole team, and it's great. But guess what? Now I have event planning skills. Besides hosting very elaborate, like Thanksgiving, like holiday parties. Now I have legitimate, like I can look back and say, I have put together multiple events. I have helped organize community food drives, I've helped do these things. And so that could translate to a future job. Like, I'm gonna put that on my resume that I have event planning experience because I do now. So use it. So, what I want you to do today, right? So you found an organization you care about. I want you to start a running document today. So, like, or like a Google sheet. Start a Google sheet and like be like, you know, organization name, date you served, how many hours you served, and what you did for those hours, and just start a running log. I'm literally starting one again mid-May because that's when the semester is over. And so I'll start one mid-May because I'm also taking classes in May for next year, because you know, I'm gonna assume I'm gonna get over a hundred hours in for the league. Like I have training in Columbus, Georgia this year. I have to go to. I go to the Capitol every year. Like, I assume I'm gonna get more than a hundred hours of community service in, but still I want a running list of things I'm doing, what I'm working on, areas I'm serving. Like, I want that all in there. And so I want you to start a document tracking everything you're doing so it can translate into future things. Okay. And then lastly, I want you to be okay with talking about your achievements. I want you to self-nominate without apology. So that community award was self-nominated. Like I had to fill out a form that said, here's what I did, here's who I worked for, here's the hours I put in, here's the impact of it. And a lot of people won't do that, especially women. Especially women. It feels braggy to say that. It feels weird to say, like, oh, I, oh, I did all of these things, right? Like it feels weird sometimes to do that. And we do it not because we're not qualified, but because we talk ourselves out of it. Here's what I'm gonna tell you the people who get a board seat, the women who get the appointments they want, the awards, they put their own name in. They're not waiting to be discovered. That's what happened with the State Public Affairs Committee, right? We were, I was up at the Capitol, we were talking about there was a couple of board vacancies, and I was like, I have a lot of nonprofit experience in legislation. I was the regional director for the Borgan project like a decade ago. I I have experience doing this, and then guess what? Oh, hey, do you want to be you want to be on the board? Sure, I would love to in a role that fits me because I didn't mind talking about my experience. And self-nomination is not bragging, it is stewardship of the things you've built. If you start this list of things that you've done and you look at it, you're like, dang, like I've really have done a lot, I've accomplished a lot. The same skill that gets you to fill out the form is the skill that's gonna get you to email the chair of a board to apply to the fellowship and say yes when someone asks, do you know anyone who'd be good for this? Because this is also important. Like you have to, you have to also build this network of people that are volunteering and serving just like you. And they're gonna do the same for you. When somebody says, Oh, do you know anybody who'd be a good fit for this? You want them talking about you. That's what happened with this MPA ward. That's what happened with the new board seat that I'm taking on for the college. People were talking about me in the room because I had set an expectation. I have built a reputation for myself. If you have not dug into reputation building, go back a couple of episodes and listen to me talk about reputation building. And so I really want you to get comfortable with your achievements. I really want you to get comfortable with your achievements. And so, as a reminder, you're gonna serve, you're gonna document, you're gonna self-nominate. That's it. That's how I get into some of the rooms I've been in. And it's those same three moves that are gonna get you there too. And the award I got last night proves it. So here's what I wanna, here's where we're gonna go back to celebration land. Okay, because I'm really excited. I knew I wanted to celebrate after I saw the 50,000 downloads, but then after the MPA award last night, I was like, okay, we're definitely celebrating. Here's what I'm giving. I'm like really excited. So if you've been listening, then you know that we are doing the Civic and Board Fellowship in June. So June 1st, we're gonna start. And I am I'm really excited about it because I want women who learn how to strategize, who are ready to make an impact on their community. I want you guys to show up in your community. I want you to end up on the boards. I want you to be in the room where decisions are happening, and you're talking about strategic planning and decision making and what organizations you're supporting. And I want you to be there. And so that's the whole purpose of the Civic and Board Fellowship. It is six weeks long. We are meeting live, like an hour and a half every single week. You guys will have homework and you will leave with the confidence that you need to land a board seat as well as a plan for how you're gonna do it. You're gonna be like, okay, this is what we're gonna do. This is the roadmap for me. And it'll be personalized. Like, I'm literally, we're gonna sit down personally and figure out what your personal roadmap looks like for this. And so that's literally what the Civic and Board Fellowship is built to teach. And I want every woman who feels ready, right? You know, you've been you've been doing the work or you've been logging some hours, you show up in your community. I want you to say yes. And so here's what I'm actually gonna do. I am going to open up, really excited about it. One full seat for the June 2026 Civic and Board Fellowship. I'm gonna open it up for free. So one person is getting it completely for free. Really excited. So I'm gonna give everybody like a week. I'm gonna give you a week. So I will probably make the I'm gonna make the announcement actually on the podcast. So what's to I'm recording this on April 25th. So let's see, you're going to listen to this ideally on April 27th. I'm going to decide the winner and announce it May 11th on this podcast. So you have, I'm gonna give you a deadline until May 7th because I have finals that week. So I'm not gonna record until at least Friday so I can get through finals. So you have until May 7th. So from April 27th to May 7th, apply for the fellowship. It's in the show, like it's in the episode description. You can also go to lemonprice.co and it's right on the homepage. You can apply, and I'm literally just going to look at applications and give one person a full seat. So I'm very excited about being able to do that and just celebrate. And I hope you're excited too, because that is the goal. The goal is for you to to join this. So really fast, like I have to always like whenever time you do a giveaway, you have to like tell people about it, right? So open a women 18 plus you know, one entry per person. I need them by, like I said, the seventh, the eighth, something like the seventh, right? I will draw a winner and I will announce it on the podcast. So you're gonna have to listen to the podcast. I will email them after this podcast airs, but I really do want you to listen to the podcast to see if it, you know, see if it's for you. So what happens if you don't win? Okay, you applied and that still matters. And so the fellowship is still open for enrollment. And so with your application already in, like we can have a conversation about it. I'll send you details about, you know, next steps, enrollment details, all those kind of fun things. Because submitting does mean that you raise your hand, and I don't wanna, I don't wanna overlook that, right? This is what you want to do. So I want you to be a part of it. Just apply. It's literally a Google form, like it's not anything super serious, but I do want to know, and it's not, I just want to be clear. The application is not to like turn you away. Right. I'm I'm not like, oh, I don't want, you know, women who want to be engaged in. That's not what I'm saying. What I want is I'm gonna offer two cohorts of this session. And so I'm looking to see like what you're interested in, what you're passionate about, what your background is, so we can figure out which groups we groupings like make the most sense. And I am keeping it small, I'm keeping it small, like 10 to 12 people per cohort, so that you're getting attention that you need. We are really able to ask questions, we can dive deeper into kind of what you're doing. So just know that that is kind of how that is structured and built for you. So I am excited. Just know, like again, you have two weeks basically to apply. I hope you do apply. If you have questions, send me a message on Instagram or LinkedIn. If you're a LinkedIn girly, like please go connect with me on LinkedIn. It's also in the show notes. Like, let's go connect, let's be friends over on LinkedIn. And yeah, I'm excited. I'm so grateful for those awards. Like, I'm so grateful for just what it means. Like it feels very validating to be recognized for the effort that I've put in. And you just never know, right? Is it enough? I think we struggle with all we all struggle with that. Like, was it enough? Did I do enough? And we're always second-guessing ourselves. And so to have the full faculty, you know, put their support behind me really meant a lot. And, you know, even the, you know, the like the I got what do you want to call it? Like the chair of the of our program. He like was talking to my husband last night. He's like, you know, we're just so grateful to have her. Like she's really contributed a lot. And it just was nice to hear, you know, it was just nice to hear. And I want the same for you. So apply if you haven't already, go in and apply. I am so excited to offer this to someone. And you'll have lifetime access, by the way. Like you'll have lifetime access, which is really exciting. So go and enjoy that. I will see you all next week. I can't wait to read your applications. Like I said, they're in the description, or go to lemonprice.co and you can go and snag them there. But I will see you next week. Bye, friends.