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Further Forward
Honest conversations on the art of becoming.
Through solo reflections and conversations with soulful, sharp, and courageous guests, Ashley creates room for the stories that don’t always get told—the pivots, the struggles, the magic, and the mess. Part spiritual, part practical, always human—Further Forward is a space for women invested in their becoming, who know growth is both messy and worth embracing.
Further Forward
The Leadership Myth That’s Holding Us Back with Maya Grevatt
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What if the way we’ve been taught to lead is actually what’s holding us back?
In this episode, I sit down with Maya Grevatt- Director of Operations at Artists for Humanity and Chief of Staff at Tomorrow’s Women Today, to talk about leadership, identity, and the quiet beliefs that shape how we move through the world.
We unpack the hidden cost of hyper-competence, and why generosity, not ego, might be the most powerful leadership skill we have.
This is a conversation about success- but not the version most of us were taught to chase.
What we explore:
- Why “doing it all on your own” is a myth—and what it costs us
- The downside of hyper-competence (and how it quietly pushes people away)
- Rethinking imposter syndrome: is it you, or is it the room?
- What generous leadership actually looks like in practice
- Identity, perception, and navigating spaces that weren’t built for you
- Why mentorship matters (and why proximity often matters more than hierarchy)
- Burnout from the things you love (and how to reframe it)
- Decision-making: how to move forward without waiting for certainty
Maya T. Grevatt is the Director of Operations at Artists for Humanity, a nonprofit that employs and mentors young artists, and Chief of Staff at Tomorrow’s Women Today, a cross-industry leadership community for women.
Her work focuses on building more equitable leadership pipelines—centering mentorship, access, and a more generous, human approach to leadership.
Further Forward: Honest Conversations on the Art of Becoming, is hosted by Ashley Mitchell.
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Maya Gravat, welcome to the Further Forward Podcast. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited that you're here because we had this awesome experience at a women in business conference. And we've kind of loosely kept in touch, but you are such a badass, and you're, I don't want to use the word girl boss because a lot of people like really it's triggering for a lot of people, but you're exciting to watch. And so I'm just so glad that you're here to share some of your wisdom, your gems, maybe your failures, whatever, all the things with us today.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm I'm really excited. And um I don't say girl boss because we don't say boy boss, do we? Amen. Let's go. Um, but I remember um this this uh women's uh business trope conference. I was MCing and you were on a panel, and I um stepped back, watched you speak, saw your outfit, heard what you had to say, and I was like, oh, we're gonna be friends.
SPEAKER_01So much. That literally makes my whole week because I'm always in sweatpants and just like ranting. So thank you for putting me in the light. Okay, so separate from resume, job title, who are you and how are you?
SPEAKER_00Who am I? I am I'm a Vermonter. Um, I was born and grew up in Vermont. I've been in Boston ever since. And my really my whole life, my whole career, personal investment, professional investment has focused on people and focused on leadership. So my kind of driving um belief is in people and investing in kind of a more nuanced, generous um style of leadership. And specifically one that allows women and professionals of color to advance into executive level decision-making roles sooner and more consistently. And that sounds like a purely professional track, but that truly is really my role across the board.
SPEAKER_01Um no, I feel you. I think when when it's in you to create access, it's a part of you, it's a part of who you are. Um how are you doing? Like, how are you for real? Don't give me like a fine or a good. I'm does can I say well?
SPEAKER_00I'm I'm I am I am doing well. I'm really busy. I'm I'm really busy and I'm always been really busy. Um, but I'm feeling the busyness over the last year in a in a different way. And you know, I do a lot of kind of mental gymnastics to remind myself why I'm so busy, and that all of my commitments, all of um the events that I'm at, all of the people that I'm meeting with, they're all choices. And I wouldn't go back and change them. And I'm not willing to let them go. Uh, and that kind of helps me, you know, uh redefine the resentment that you sometimes feel when you feel like time is not your own.
SPEAKER_01Thank you for being real about that. See, I knew there was an answer other than well, because that has been actually one of the things, especially in 2025, that I was reckoning with myself of like, I've gotten better at, I'm not an expert, but I've gotten better at saying no to the things that don't align. But when the things that do align are plentiful, yeah, it's it's much harder to shove those things sort of off of your plate or reschedule those things because they are meaningful and because it's stuff that you actually want to be doing. But no one necessarily talks about burnout from the things that you love. So that you don't feel it in the same way as burnout. Yeah, you don't fulfill you. Yeah, but it's real. You can still be depleted from from, you know, being in alignment, actually. Right. Um, yeah, exactly. Yeah. So tell me then, quick pivot to your wellness, just because that's what you named. How do you stay grounded? How do you stay whole? How do you stay healthy? Do you have any practices that you lean into health and wellness-wise? I spend a lot of time in the gym. Okay.
SPEAKER_00Is she a lifter or I'm a lifter and I grew up as a competitive runner and um I am a morning gym person. So I don't take classes. And I love the gym. And it's I go at the same time every day. So it's also social in some ways. Same gym, same time. You see the same faces, uh, and it's you know 6 a.m. So you don't talk, you just do the nod. And it I love it. And I like being there. And I um I like to know that if nothing else goes my way that day, that that is done. That's so important.
SPEAKER_01What events did you do as a competitive runner? Because I grew up running track. So I also did track.
SPEAKER_00I did cross country and track, so long distance, and then in track, I did um the four by four. Okay, 300 hurdles, which is actually the most painful race, and I pull vaulted.
SPEAKER_01Wow, okay. She's multi-talented. I was not a really good, I tried to triple jump for a hot minute. I tried to high jump for a hot minute, but that just wasn't. I'm more of a middle distance runner. 800, 1200 mile, 400 when my coach wanted to torture me. But it does give you such a good foundation of capacity, endurance. I wrote about this recently, like just seeing what you're made of and pushing yourself, which I'm sure comes into play for you when you're inhabiting these badass leadership roles.
SPEAKER_00I think about that a lot, actually. I grew up doing gymnastics before competitively running. There's a little overlap. But I often think about with, you know, how I know myself now, how I know my body now, how I, you know, what I know about training and um mental fortitude, both of those sports are so psychological. And I wonder if I could go back, you know, if I could go back or if I was doing it competitively now, like what would be different? Um, how would the how would my thinking about it change and how would that impact my, you know, competitive edge?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I mean, I'm just gonna throw this out there. You could technically go back to being a competitive athlete if you really wanted to.
SPEAKER_00See, with what time? Is that gonna be one of the large stones that fills the jar, or is that gonna be the sand? That's that's true.
SPEAKER_01That's true. That would be the issue, but okay, we'll put that on the back burner. So you are the director of operations at Artists for Humanity. For people who don't know what that organization is, could you give us a little bit about what the organization does, but also kind of what you do, how your help steering the ship as well?
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. So, Artists for Humanity is a 501c3 nonprofit. We're based in South Boston, and the organization has been around for over 35 years. It was founded because it is and was, continues to be so challenging for young people to find paid employment. Young people, I'm talking about high schoolers, so after school employment, much less employment that cares about their personal and professional development and their well-being and their creativity. So, this organization is a youth employment mentorship and arts organization. We have eight different visual arts studios: coding, animation, photography, videography, painting, graphic design. And our teen artists are paid an hourly wage. They work shoulder to shoulder with mentorship and mentors that they have deep relationships with. Those mentors are professional artists themselves. And we produce great client-commissioned work. So our clients are Fidelity, State Street, um, City of Boston, City of Arlington. Um, they're making sculptures that are on the greenway. It's um it's an amazing model. It is a very innovative revenue-generating model that I think you know, more mission-driven nonprofits need to be considering. And it's um it drives both systemic change as well as immediate impact on both the arts community in Boston and New York, because we are in both cities now, as well as the teens that we employ.
SPEAKER_01That's really incredible for you personally. Like, what have you noticed when these teenagers are asked to, or instead of being asked to volunteer their creativity, they're being paid for it. Like, do you do you ever see a shift over a period of time where these young people are kind of coming into their own, or maybe, you know, they're walking a little bit taller, they're feeling a little more confident in who they are as artists and as people? Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00But I also think young people are not being asked to volunteer their creativity. They're actually being discouraged from investing any kind of resource in developing their creativity and practicing it. Um, specifically, you know, the youth population that we work with, ages 14 to 18, is focused on the Boston Public School. Um and we are focused on Boston proper, at least in this city. And our um New York location is in Brooklyn, and we serve over 90% individuals from households that are low income to extremely low income. And some of our teen artists are incredibly talented, either born creatives or emerging creatives. And some of them are in schools with, you know, dilapidated art programs that have just been stripped down. And they have this incredible uh expressive creativity inside them that we want to create a platform for. Whether or not they end up pursuing a career in a creative space, this is a really important piece of personal and professional development, um, as well as efficacy and confidence building. So I think that uh that messaging that creativity is not, it's not a um a non-lucrative path by definition, is important. Uh, that they have that young people have something really, really invaluable to bring to the table. Not just any table, but table, a table with um cross-industry leaders, adults, um, sophisticated professionals that are looking to them to say, well, what's your recommendation on the color scheme for our new logo? That's pretty, that's pretty life-changing. I mean, I can't imagine that experience of credibility and integrity in my own ideas at that age.
SPEAKER_01Right. Has anything shifted within you getting to watch just what happens in these rooms? I know for me, every time I'm with kiddos in a room, there's always something that I'm taking away. Sometimes it's just watching empathy and action, learning how to be a better friend, learning how to be in control of my emotions, right? Like kids in some ways are or can be just so the best of us as humans, you know? And and I'm wondering for you, uh, does watching them bring out more of the best in you and in what ways?
SPEAKER_00It's it's a privilege to work around young people. This is my first uh professional position where I have had the chance to be in an environment where there are young minds, young people around. Yeah. Uh it's loud. Girl inever. Yes. It's loud and um, and it's busy and it's messy, and um it's really special. I think the the piece that has been, I don't know if it's really changed me, but it's reinforced some of my kind of core beliefs. It's tested and reinforced them, and that's around mentorship. And um, like I like I spoke about at the top, part of my, you know, lifelong drive is about leadership pipelines, leadership pathways through mentorship. So the way that I'm seeing mentorship play out across the different organizations that I'm working with um kind of comes together into this strong case for peer mentorship, for traditional mentorship, and for um like-minded mentorship. So mentorship from someone who has a shared life experience that um, you know, really resonates with both people and is a mutually beneficial exchange. And that's what I see a lot in Artists for Humanity is um young people being treated as peers, as colleagues, rather than a teacher-student relationship. Um you know, young people um building a relationship with someone who is not necessarily 25 steps ahead of them, but is five steps ahead of them, which can be again um a relationship that becomes much deeper and advice that becomes much more applicable and relevant. And that has been really amazing to to kind of study in in my role at this organization.
SPEAKER_01Wow, thank you. I I can't help but immediately think, you know, just kind of putting your words together and, you know, who you are and what you stand for and what you're seeing. I have to ask, you know, in your in your ideal sense, what kind of world are you building?
SPEAKER_00I am, I am building a world where we're thinking about leadership differently and thinking about it with more nuance and authenticity and generosity at its core. And there's a lot of work that I do with organizations that are centered on leadership development, um, Artists for Humanity being one of them, tomorrow's and today being another. And what they have in common is this emerging lens that is focused on the unique experience of the individual professional rather than this very common, unspoken, white or masculine lens that most of traditional leadership development or professional development has. And the problem is that it's unspoken and um largely overlooked, but it can present a disservice to women and professionals of color who are rising in their careers and experiencing a very unique set of opportunities and challenges and experiences as they climb the ladder, whatever that ladder means and looks like for them.
SPEAKER_01How has your own identity sort of steered you in this way? I mean, well, maybe I'll go back when you were a little girl, elementary school, middle school, maybe high school. Who did you want to be? What was the original dream?
SPEAKER_00I was just thinking about this the other day. So, so like I said, I grew up in Vermont. Yes. Very white state. I don't need to tell anybody that. Yes. Um, and I am mixed race, and my family's white. And I I think in Vermont at times, I was white passing, and I have always kind of grappled with um being perceived how people see what they want to see. And and I never quite know what that is until they say something subcoded that tells me what they see and want to see. Yeah. Um, but I think as I moved out of my, you know, central household that I grew up in in that nuclear family, moved into college where people don't know what your family looks like, um, I started to to to become a lot more aware of um the slight differences and experiences that I was having. And um and realizing that, you know, while I might be able to kind of flip between different experiences and different perspectives um in other people's eyes, that is not the case for most people. And um there's something I think really privileged and special about being able to pass that gives you um a really unique ability to, I think, build a bridge. And and that really is, I think, the the the role and driving force in my career that I'd like to commit my my my time and my talent and my treasure to.
SPEAKER_01I don't think that gets talked about enough, quite frankly. And I don't pass. I'm so I, you know, sometimes people don't know if I'm like African American or if I'm like Dominican or something, but like there's no mistaking, right, that I am a brown girl. And I think where I get to build a bridge is that I didn't grow up in an all-white community. I grew up in a really mixed community, but I did a lot of activities where I was the only or one of very few, and you know, different programs at school and things like that, that just like the the track that I was on led me to be in rooms with more white people than people who look like me. And it obviously has shaped a lot of a lot of who I am and how I move through the world. And I do think that, you know, it can it definitely has its downsides when you're like everyone's only black friend. And to be a person who uh people can trust, to be a person that people can talk to without feeling shame or embarrassment, right? People didn't choose to be white anymore than I chose to be black. So sometimes I do also see true value in being able to be in community with anyone and everyone. And and like here we are, we find ourselves in this world where we're so fractured and people don't know how to speak across difference. And I think that, you know, what you have, what I have, other people like us, it's a real advantage in this time to be able to pull people together and be able to help people remember that we're much more similar than we are different, right? And that our differences are actually an asset. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00Then there's also some, there's a layer of um guilt and shame too in having in in feeling for me like my race is an advantage. Um and I'm I'm sure many people can relate to that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I know that they can. I'm sure that it has its, you know, twists and turns. It's it's something that has to be navigated. And I'm sure, you know, you're you're cultivating lots of nuance as you move through life, as you move through your leadership roles. It just is, right? Like, so tell me, were you always someone who wanted to be a leader? Where did all of this sort of originate from?
SPEAKER_00What was this more like this is what I was thinking about when you first asked your question. When I think about, you know, what was my vision for myself when I was much younger? I was tall. Like, why did I think I was gonna be tall? I'm I'm five-one. I was in my mind, I'm tall, I'm an executive, I'm white, much whiter than I ever will be. Like, it's just kind of bizarre. And all of those things, except being tall and white, it's like someone from a someone from a rom-com was in my head and I was like, that's who I'm gonna be. And the other day I was, I'm like walking down the street, and I'm like, beyond the weird parts of that vision, I'm here. You're here.
SPEAKER_02You're her.
SPEAKER_00I'm her, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Wow. I do feel that way. Hold on. Were your parents executives? Did they model for you what I need to know more?
SPEAKER_00Uh, my parents were both professional dancers. Um, I grew up in a creative family. Oh my god, mind blown. Okay. They are the perfect example of life does not stop. Your own. Growth, your own evolution does not stop when you turn 40 and have kids. They both have had second and third careers that are um, to me, more intriguing and more passion-driven than some people will ever have. And I feel really, really lucky to have seen that because I know that I'll have a second, a third iteration of who I am and what work means to me and what my circle and network looks like because of the paths that they each have taken.
SPEAKER_01That is such a rich model for possibility. You're right. A lot of parents don't have that second, third, beyond act. How incredible for you to get to see that. What do they think about your life and career choice? And, you know, did they have different goals for you? Or are they just kind of they trust you completely to make your choices?
SPEAKER_00I am, I am one of the fortunate ones that they trust me completely. My sister and I are um our own captains, and we are a very mission-driven family. Um, my my mom started in ESL and teaching English and refugee resettlement, moved into um massage, therapeutic massage therapy and cranial sacral work. She started her own business, which is booming in her 60s. Uh, and my and my dad is in energy efficiency work and does expert witness testimony against utility companies that should and can be doing more. So we're we're a mission-driven family. My sister is uh um in forestry in California, and we each have a different tact that we've taken towards driving social change. And my tact is through leaders and through people. And I do have um I'm very impact-driven, and there are so many different lenses to the way that social impact can happen, and they all need to be working simultaneously. Yes. But for me, you know, operations efficiency-minded, the quickest way, I believe, to drive the social change that many of us want to see in the world is through leadership and having uh more diverse, more reflective, um, more generous-minded leaders in the right roles. And to me, that means more women and more professionals of color, more industry diversity and uh better equipped leaders.
SPEAKER_01The word generous, every time you use that, it sticks out at me because it's not a word often associated with being a leader. Uh a lot of places, especially in corporate environments, they're looking for you to be the opposite, or we're told that that being the opposite is kind of the way to go. As a leader, how could you be more generous? How could you sort of be more future forward, more people-centered? In your opinion, what should people be looking to cultivate?
SPEAKER_00It's I think it's a different answer for everyone. Okay. One of the first pieces that comes to mind is just having leaders have a humility and a pay it forward mindset. Um, one of the, I think more and more talked about leadership qualities is humility and vulnerability. And I think that is, you know, well-founded. I'm glad that we're having, I'm glad that we're having those conversations. I'm glad that it's an increasingly valued leadership trait. I think it's really important. Um, but I also think there is still a lot of a lot of misplaced respect for um people who tell a story where they did it all on their own and they started from nothing. And um it's it just rubs me the wrong way every time I hear it. I think it drives people to feel like the advantages, the privileges, the connections that they have are actually cheating. And that they have to rewrite their story to disregard all of that, or they won't have done it on their own, or they won't have earned it in the right way. And we can't, you know, we all know at the end of the day that you don't do anything on your own. And to rewrite your story in a way that discredits the power of network and community and friendship and luck. I I have a problem with that. So I think that's the other thing that I would really like to see in how leaders talk about their stories and talk about their paths. Um, little less emphasis on the the ego of doing it on your own and building it from nothing, and a little more emphasis on how obsessed we all are with our friends and how obsessed we all are with our networks and our cabinet of advisors and you know the things that um that didn't go right.
SPEAKER_01There's a lot in that because I mean, just as a that idea of doing things on your own, if you just you just take that one piece, it's so loaded, right? People like on on wherever you wherever your identity sits, right? And for different reasons, people want to feel in control over things that are sometimes far outside of their control. People want to feel powerful when a lot of life is perhaps not feeling powerful. People want to feel sometimes like they're uh above others. Maybe they're smarter, maybe they work harder, whatever it is. It's it's a story that definitely needs to be rewritten, you know?
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. Absolutely. And this this also brings me to this idea of the limiting belief. And I think that this is not my own, and and this is not um, I know that I'm not alone in this, but this idea of hypercompetence, I think, drives the I that you know, this storyline that people perpetuate when they tell their success story. And this is definitely something that I have struggled with and kind of grappled with as I've as I've kind of come through my 20s and early 30s. And this idea of of hypercompetence having no downside as long as you can handle the ramifications. And we all know that, you know, hypercompetence can result in resentment and isolation and burnout and exhaustion. But I I have realized um really in the last year and a half year that I had this unconscious belief that if you can be intentional and invested in handling those downsides through therapy, through wellness, through intentionality, um, through toughness, through sheer grit, that it actually doesn't have a downside and that hypercompetence is just a superpower. And I have considered myself someone who can handle those things. And over the last year, I think because of the um the relationship that I'm in right now, the relationships that I'm seeing with my family, how they're evolving in the relationships that I I'm having professionally, I am thinking about competence in really a different way. And really appreciating that hyper competence is um a whole nother kind of wall. Uh leaves people out and it pushes people away and it shuts down openness, which are all things that I really value and are a hardcore to my identity. So um that's something that I'm I'm thinking about a lot right now.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. And even right, I don't know that you could be generous in the true sense of the word if you're engaging in being hypercompetent, right? Like they come at odds with one another. Exactly. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And even, you know, in my relationship now, I've I've always said I, you know, I'm looking for a true partnership. And I don't know that I ever left enough room for someone to lead when I needed them to.
SPEAKER_01Girl. That is self-awareness, like capital S, capital A. Is that hard? Not with the person I'm with now.
SPEAKER_00And not with the person I am now. But it's it's proven over and over again how much value is added when I hand over the reins when I want to or when I don't want to, but when I can trust somebody else to take them and pick them up. So much value added for every party involved.
SPEAKER_01This is also why I think mentorship is so important, sponsorship is so important in the leadership space, because you you sometimes need that other person to say, hey, you can put your armor down. And I know that that folks don't always feel safe at work for a plethora plethora of reasons, but the paradigm will never shift unless we start to put the armor down and start to, you know, engage in humility and vulnerability, like you were saying. And there's there's so much, I think, in the personal that mirrors a professional, you know, our behaviors are in some ways our behaviors, who we are is who we are.
SPEAKER_00And it it it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. No one else can do it, and no one else can do it because you don't let anybody else do it. And um, yeah, that's not that's not the the reality that I want to be in. Yeah, same.
SPEAKER_01So then what is your definition of success? How do you feel successful?
SPEAKER_00How do you know you're on track? I think for the last handful of years, every time I have a birthday, I'm good with it. It's fine. Not afraid. I'm not afraid. I'm exactly where I want to be. I'm doing the things that I want to be doing. There's a lot of room for growth. There's a lot of room for improvement. I have a lot of priorities and goals that um I'm still working on. Another year older, great. I feel like I I have my priorities in the right sequence and I'm doing the things that I need to be doing and want to be doing to pursue them. So that is something that tells me a lot because there was a handful of birthdays, you know, when I was a lot younger or when I was in my early 20s, where, you know, you're crying a lot the week before and you're like, I don't know why I'm so sad this week, but it's because your birthday's coming up. And um, I don't feel that way anymore every year. I don't, I haven't felt like that in, you know, seven or eight years. It's pretty powerful.
SPEAKER_01It's pretty powerful to also l be looking at your life as the gift that is a part of your success. I'm sure there are other things that signal success success for you. But the fact that you led with that is a really cool and interesting choice. So have you ever felt imposter syndrome when you started getting into leadership roles? Did that ever even cross your mind that you didn't belong or that there was something that you didn't have? Well, I have two answers for this.
SPEAKER_00One is not an answer. Um one of the, I mean, my my immediate thought, I really, I really dislike the idea of imposter syndrome. I really like, um, I really dislike a lot of the conversations that especially professional women's groups are having around imposter syndrome. There's a difference between uh feeling nervous, apprehensive, like you're being challenged, like you need to be brave or professionally courageous. There's a difference between that and an environment making you feel like you don't belong. And if it's the latter, it's not a syndrome, it's a cultural problem. And we shouldn't be internalizing it and reinforcing the internalization by talking about it like it's a problem of the individual, and we need to get over it on our own. It's a problem of the room that you're in. And there are other people in the room that need to be working on this. And there's a leadership team at the top of that room that needs to be changing it. And that's what I hear a lot when people talk about imposter syndrome is I feel like I don't have something to offer. People are speaking over me. My idea, you know, I laid it out on the table and it got ignored until someone else said it. That's not a syndrome. Um, so that's my that's my knee-jerk reaction. Um, but if it's the former, feeling like you, you know, it takes a lot of professional courage to do something, or um, you're not sure if you have, you know, what it takes or or what something to offer. Um, of course I felt like that. Everybody feels that way. I think um I have, probably through gymnastics, a pretty strong ability to shut off parts of my brain and move forward in moments where I feel like I need to be brave. And that's helped me. Um you gotta use what you got. Right. Do what needs to be done.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And sometimes that's, you know, the mantra is do the next right thing. And and sometimes it's um, you know, just just shutting off the um any kind of self-doubt and saying, I'll I'll deal with this later. And then you like, you know, I'll I'll I'll figure it out after we see how it goes. Yeah. You never have to.
SPEAKER_01I don't know if this was your life when you were running, but sometimes you just go puke in a trash can and get your ass back on the track. And that's usually the end of it. Yeah. You know what's what's hard is I think like going back to this idea of limiting beliefs, right? And and uh the stories that we that we were given, I'm gonna say, because I don't think any human, especially watching my son, you know, at four years old, I don't think that any human comes into the world thinking that they can't do anything or thinking that they're less than. And so I think that we inherit these stories and then they become a part of us. And then we start to get nervous of can I do this? Am I ahead of my skis? Do I have the right skills? I would be interested to hear your take. But for me, what's been helpful is kind of trying to reverse engineer of, okay, if I feel like I'm a bit ahead of my skis, what do I need in order to feel more comfortable? One of my mentors in the yoga space, she's she says, How am I doing what do I need? And I always come back to that. How am I doing what do I need? And it makes it very concrete for me instead of just living inside of my anxiety and only thinking about what could go wrong.
SPEAKER_00I I think there's there's uh kind of a one-liner that I really believe in. I'm a very decisive person. And I don't know, um, I think it was developed. I don't think I was born with it, but it has served me well as a leader. I think it absolutely has its blind spots and its downfalls. And that's why I like to work closely with people who are more deliberative to balance that out. But um the line is there's not always a right decision. You make a decision and you make it the right one. I'm letting that land.
SPEAKER_01You make a decision and make it the right one.
SPEAKER_00There's a lot of um, I think, you know, pressure for any anyone, but I think especially on women leaders and women professionals to make every decision the right one because there's a lot riding on it, both individually and collectively.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And that decision paralysis or analysis paralysis that happens really ends up costing um credibility sometimes. And to be able to make a decision and make it the right one through your strategic planning, your execution, your follow-through, your delegation is invaluable. And tell me about tomorrow's women today. Tomorrow's Women Today is a nonprofit organization. We are a member-focused community of women leaders, women professionals across all industries. We're a community of over 400 women in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. I've been a member for seven years. And I joined uh at the beginning of my career because I came out of grad school and I'm someone who loves to learn. I loved school. And I realized, oh no, no one is gonna be driving my learning for me. Like no one is putting together a curriculum for me. I'm gonna have to do it. And I started looking into different professional networks and professional development opportunities. I was building a very robust professional network in the nonprofit space. And I wanted to make sure that it was diversified across industry and across geography. And I stumbled across tomorrow's women today and joined as a member. And I am someone who, when you find yourself in a special place or a special circle or a special connection, you just double down. So I became more and more involved as a member. I started um working on the events team, running a few um race and our community segments. And then I ended up serving on the leadership team as our director of recruitment for a handful of years before I stepped into my current role as our inaugural chief of staff. So I work very closely with our founder to drive our strategy, our expansion into Rhode Island, our partnerships with both corporate and nonprofit uh organizations that have aligned missions. And we're a member-focused, membership-driven organization. So we are fully committed from top to bottom to advancing women and advancing together. So it is that idea of paying it forward, lifting those around you up, lifting those behind you up, and opening doors at every turn and at every opportunity.
SPEAKER_01Someone's listening to this and thinking, oh my goodness, that is exactly what I've been looking for. What's the vetting process?
SPEAKER_00So we are one of the only tiered organizations in this space. So we have an early leaders tier, an emerging leaders tier, and an executive tier. And the design of this structure serves to have our programming and content be tailored to be relevant and reactive to exactly what people at that career stage are experiencing, the challenges, the opportunities, the uh life changes. Um, so we have these three tiers. Early is for people in their first five years in the workforce. Emerging is um for people who have been identified as quickly rising leaders and are in their, you know, fifth to 20th year in their professional trajectory. And executives are at the C-suite. They're at the highest ranks of their industry or organization, and they are really thinking about their legacy as a leader. Uh, they're thinking about how to pay it forward to rising professionals behind them. They're thinking about how to succession plan for their own organizations. They're thinking about how to surround themselves with other leaders that are at their level of sophistication so that they can have that trusted sounding board that fights that it's lonely at the top mentality that we should not have to contend with if we don't have to. And um the organization is programming based. So we have um events and workshops from professional development, um, leadership development, public speaking, strategic planning to personal development, um, home buying, financial literacy, um, family planning, um, contending with infertility and the experience of infertility, going through menopause in the workplace. Very well-rounded. We have a wellness, um, a wellness series, and we have um a number of social events that are really about um networking and building connection that goes far beyond um the leadership development skills that we might be seeking out. And that is our summer golf program, our squash lessons, um, and our you know, annual um winter social. So our events span the full realm of what goes into being a well-rounded, authentic woman leader in any industry. Uh, community engagement, political leadership. And it is open to anyone who is ambitious and um invested in themselves and their career, curious and committed to pouring into a community that will pour back in them.
SPEAKER_01It sounds pretty incredible and incredibly thoughtful. How long has the org been around?
SPEAKER_00So, Lauren Kampare, our founder and president. Started the organization in 2009 really as an effort to build this emerging leader network that she saw missing, especially in the greater Boston and Massachusetts professional environment and ecosystem. And it has just grown so far beyond that. And it's an honor to be part of building this cross-generational, cross-industry model that I think is really changing what professional networks can look like and can mean and can feel like for women who are used to attending, you know, a one-off networking event. And you show up and everyone, you know, is either looking for a job or has had too much white wine to drink, and you don't really know what you're walking into, and you have your guard off, and it's you're kind of, you know, burned out at the end, and you just go home, and any kind of inspiration or momentum that you got from that one night is limited because it was just that one night. And this is sustained professional and personal development along with that community connection that evolves with you as you grow through the trajectory of your career.
SPEAKER_01Was there anything that you wanted to talk about or any wisdom that you wanted to impart?
SPEAKER_00You know, I think um, I think for people who are curious, growth-minded, figure out your figure out your circle, figure out your uh professional community, your friendship circle, someone uh or or a group of people who really bring that out in you. Tomorrow's Women Today has been really pivotal, um, probably the most pivotal engagement in my personal and professional life. And I joined thinking, you know, this is probably a this is a professional development venture. It'll probably stay within that lane of my life. And what I really didn't anticipate, but have found at every single step over the last seven years is how critical it was for me to have women and friends around me who share the professional drive that I have. And I had a, you know, I have and have had a great friend circle that smart, hardworking, committed to their jobs. Um, but when the clock hits five, laptops snap shut and they don't want to talk about work. And I love to be around people who are interested and interesting and full of business ideas, and we want to figure out how to partner. And that's what I found in this group. And it has changed my my life socially and professionally and personally.
SPEAKER_01Wow. That's pretty, that's pretty powerful. Thank you for sharing it with us. And we will make sure to uh link the website and any relevant information so that if someone is listening to you and they're just completely lit up and they're in Massachusetts or Rhode Island, Greater Boston, and Rhode Island that they know how to reach out. Um always ask every guest to share one piece of advice or mantra or quote or something that has stuck with you that you can give as a parting gift. I have two.
SPEAKER_00Is that permittable? Yes. Let's go. My first is nothing is unfigure outable. And there are things that I, like all of us, don't know how to do, don't want to do, haven't done. Set up a TV. Set up, you know, I but I know I can figure it out if I was motivated enough. I just someone else can do it. Yes. Nothing's that different. Yes. If if I have to do something, I can figure it out. 100%. I agree. That took me a while to realize. And and the more evidence that I built up, I was like, okay, this is a reality that I need to pay attention to. And I think it's true for all of us. The other is um a Bell Hooks quote. Um, a a poet, writer, activist, um, humor must be part of the revolution. Yes. I think being being silly, making jokes, um, bringing light into what we're working on, how we're connecting, what we're talking about is really important for me. And when I am, you know, at my most burned out or lowest, that's what I see go first. And that's a signal for me that I I need to bring some silliness back because it is who I am. And it is, it is a critical ingredient in moving the society forward in the direction that we want to see it go.
SPEAKER_01Both of those, thank you. I will hold them with me. Um, Maya, thank you for coming on this podcast. It's been such a pleasure. It's so nice to see you, Ashley. It's so nice to see you too. I'm just so glad you said yes and that you trusted uh that, you know, this could be a space for you to be who you are and share all of your gifts and your and your brilliance. And I love that you are a decisive person. I love that you are a fellow strong woman. So thank you.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, thank you. It's an honor to be here. I also thank you for creating this space. It's it's really special. I just listened to uh the episode where you talked about almost not starting it. And I'm glad you did. Thank you.
SPEAKER_01I appreciate that. I am too. All right, everybody, we will make sure that you have all of the information that you need to get in touch with Maya, uh, check out tomorrow's women today, um, and whatever else you might need to continue moving further forward. So thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time.