Women I Want You to Know by Andrea L. Johnston™

How a Political Strategist Funds the Women Nobody Else Will

• Andrea L. Johnston • Season 1 • Episode 11

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What happens to the policies that shape women's lives when the rooms making them are 73% men?

In this episode of Women I Want You to Know by Andrea L. Johnston™ Podcast, Andrea sits down with Jordan Zaslow, Founder and Executive Director of Her Bold Move, the fastest-growing support organization for women running for office across the country. Jordan started this work in 2020 with a volunteer coalition that produced more than 75 pro bono campaign ads for women candidates in red states. What she heard from those women became the foundation for a different kind of organization. One built around the front-end gap in the candidate pipeline. One that supports women in the races no one else is paying attention to.

Jordan and Andrea trace the through line that Her Bold Move's research has confirmed: the states with the fewest women in government have the most dangerous policies for women. They talk about why a single woman in a room of men cannot move the needle the way a critical mass of women can, why local offices produce change faster than Congress and why building infrastructure for the women already running matters more than chasing the highest-profile races.

This conversation goes well beyond politics. Jordan shares how she runs a fast-growing organization while raising young kids, why she has stopped trying to manage the chaos and started leaning into it and why the algorithm feeding women fear is one of the opposition's most effective tools. Her closing call to action is one every female founder and executive should hear: notice when women are missing from a room. Ask why. Then do something about it.

This episode is for the woman who wants more than one seat at the table, who feels paralyzed by the news cycle and who is ready to channel that energy into something the algorithm cannot take from her.


In this episode, you'll hear:

  • Why the states with the fewest women in government have the most dangerous policies for women
  • How Her Bold Move was built from hundreds of hours of postmortems with women who ran for office
  • Why the front end of the candidate pipeline is the most underfunded part of the system
  • How one woman in a room full of men cannot move the needle the way a critical mass of women can
  • Why local officals produce tangible change faster than anything happening in Washington
  • How a network of past candidates becomes infrastructure for the women running next
  • Why image-based digital abuse is a blind spot for male legislators and why women see it first
  • How 60 women Democrats in West Virginia are reshaping a state legislature that is 11% women today
  • What lived experience teaches us about which policies actually get prioritized
  • Why doom scrolling is the opposition's most effective tool against women
  • Why asking "why aren't there more women here?" is leadership, not complaint


Episode Resources



Timestamps
(0:00) Welcome and intro to Jordan Zaslow

(0:12) Opening remarks and the mission's urgency

(1:52) Defining the Her Bold Move mission

(3:12) From pandemic ads to political advocacy

(6:54) Candidate networks and digital community infrastructure

(8:26) Empowering the next generation through fellowships

(10:13) Why building the local candidate bench matters

(12:14) Research on critical mass in governance

(15:31) Addressing digital abuse and legislative blind spots

(17:44) Women leading policy on their own bodies

(18:47) Trailblazing at the Harvard WECode conference

(22:10) Reshaping West Virginia with sixty women leaders

(23:50) Tennessee political shifts and the Aftyn Behn story

(25:31) Navigating motherhood by leaning into the chaos

(26:40) Actionable ways to fund local female candidates

(28:40) Questioning the absence of women in leadership

(29:22) Combating doom scrolling to protect mental health

(30:41) Final thoughts and host call to action 


SPEAKER_01

One woman in a room full of men can't make the kind of difference that more women in that room can make. So the more women that are in there, the more the policy starts to reflect what women need.

SPEAKER_00

This is women I want you to know. That is Jordan Zaslow. She is the founder of Her Bold Move, the fastest growing support organization for women running for office across the United States. Jordan Zaslow is doing something that most people talk about and very few actually build. She's not waiting for the political landscape to shift. She is in the unglamorous, underfunded, undernoticed work of changing who is in the room. One race, one candidate, one community at a time. One woman in a room full of men cannot move the needle the way a critical mass of women can. We have heard versions of this truth in recent conversations on this show in the context of funding, healthcare, who gets to build and who gets the resources to scale. Jordan gives us the research to back it up and the real-world proof that it's possible to change the numbers once someone decides that is the work worth doing. The rooms that need more women are not only in Washington. They are in your industry. They are in your investor meetings. They are in the companies making decisions about products and policies that affect women's health, women's wealth, and women's futures. The question Jordan is asking of every legislature is the same question I am asking of every woman listening to this show. Why aren't there more women here? And what are you going to do about it? I am so happy not only to introduce you to our audience, but to also share her bold move with our audience for those who are not familiar with the organization. So maybe we can start off with a little bit about her bold move and what the focus of the organization is and how it came to be.

SPEAKER_01

So Her Bold Move is the fastest growing support organization for women running for offices across the country. We wanted to start our work in abortion ban states. We thought that that was especially critical, especially at the time that we founded this organization. But when we were looking at the numbers and the legislatures in which, in the states that had abortion bans, we started to understand a pattern. And that was that the states that had the fewest number of women in government were the states that had the most dangerous policy about women. So we sort of shifted not very far, but we shifted just a little bit into supporting women who were running for the legislatures with male supermajorities. So the rooms where decisions about women's bodies are being made by mostly men, by male majorities.

SPEAKER_00

And they exist not only in government, but in the private sector and in business as well. And that's one of the things that is so important to me with Women, I want you to know, is to really advocate for women in all areas of life. Because if women aren't leading, if they aren't in these rooms where government decisions are being made and policy decisions are being made, then yes, no one is representing for our needs and our priorities. So I think what you're doing is super important. So tell us a little bit about how her bold move really came to be and the work you and a small team of people were doing.

SPEAKER_01

I did not have very much to do with politics. I followed politics. I had opinions about politics, but I didn't really have any involvement. I didn't really know anyone in the political world. I worked in the entertainment and advertising industries. I was a producer and a director of advertisements. But then when production shut down in 2020 because of COVID, everyone I knew was just sort of sitting at home wondering what to do with all of their ambition and time. And it was, of course, such an important election year that year. So a lot of people wanted to get involved in any way that they could. And it was also, if you remember, back then it was sort of like coming off of the heels of Brett Kavanaugh hearings and of everything else that Trump was saying about women. We had to grab her by the, you know what, to contend with. So it was a time where women were fed up and wanted to see more women in their government that looked like them, that represented their interests. And so we decided we're going to use this era of time where so many people don't have to go into work every day. And we're going to make a volunteer coalition. So we're going to work with only women candidates and we're going to make some pro bono campaign ads for them. And hopefully that will help them get elected. But that year, we met all of these women and we heard their stories and we understood what the dynamics of their race, of each of their races. They were mostly running in red states. And they were dealing with this, like this, this unparalleled sexism and misogyny and these different kinds of obstacles that only exist for women candidates that just simply aren't there for men candidates. There's a lot of amazing organization organizations that exist to support women who have the ambition to run for office. So training organizations and recruitment organizations, there are fabulous organizations at the very, very beginning of a woman's journey into politics. But then once they launch their campaign, especially if they're in one of those like lower priority races, maybe in red states, maybe in blue states where people have decided that there's just too great of a male incumbent Democrat or something, you know, those candidates are just not getting support. And the numbers as they stand right now are that men make up 73% of our government. Wow. That number will never change if we're not supporting women who are running for office in the in the races that aren't the highest profile races. So we said, all right, if we see what we've seen, we've met the women that we've met, we understand the need for sure. These women need more support. They need a different kind of support. And now we've kind of understood where we fit into this. We should stay here and work on this and try to solve these problems that we've seen and provide support so that women who consider running for office or women who graduate from these great programs at the front end can say, okay, there's gonna be support for me if I decide to make this leap and run for office. We launched in 2021, the year after, you know, the 2020 COVID craze, and we started building and we just started doing this work. We had hundreds of hours over the course of the last five years of post-mortems with campaign teams and women who would run for office. We interviewed them about their experiences, we interviewed them about what types of support they they uniquely would need as a woman running for office, especially in their corners of the country. And we built programs designed for women candidates who are running in those situations. And so we we built our programs and designed our programs based on hundreds of hours of postmortems with the women who understand what it's like to run for office as a woman.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, that's incredible because you're getting that firsthand intel and insight into what's needed, what's missing. And because you're sort of building this from the ground up, you can really design everything around those gaps and those needs. So, what are some of the signature programs you would say for her bold move as it relates to filling those gaps and those needs that you learned about?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So one way that we've most recently helped our candidates is we see we have this incredible network now that we've built of hundreds of women who have run for office. Some of them have won, some of them haven't won. Some of them are running now for the second or third time. And so they have this wisdom of their experiences of running. They've they've dealt with the vendors who are charging more because, you know, they're a first-time candidate, or they've dealt with, you know, the misogyny of a voter when they're going to their door and saying, I'm running for office, and they're saying, like, well, what about your kids? You know, things like that. So like these questions and these issues that only women who have run for office before can understand. So now we have this network and we're building this network in various different ways. We're building a listserv so candidates can talk to each other on email, a Slack channel so they can Slack with each other. So these women are talking to each other from all across the country now and comparing stories and helping each other all the way through. And hopefully the past candidates can really support the current candidates and help them win.

SPEAKER_00

So that mentoring and that network is really important because I think, you know, we often talk about how important community is. And so this is really creating a community of women who are mission-aligned and what they're trying to achieve and the impact they're trying to have from a public policy and government perspective. So I know how valuable community is in my world. So I can only imagine that it is even more valuable in such a male-dominated world like politics. Yeah. Are there other specific programs or initiatives that you feel like really move the needle for these candidates?

SPEAKER_01

One thing that we can offer every time, and we can with confidence we can tell our candidates like we can offer you volunteers. We have the volunteers, they're ready to go. They're at universities all across America. They're mostly women, and they are charged up and they want to do something with the way that they've been feeling. Um, and the perfect way for them to express themselves and to channel that energy is by volunteering for women running for office. So we have a fellowship program that helps our fellows plug into active campaigns in any way that they want. Um, there's always so many needs on these campaigns. And now we have just launched a partnership with the College of Democrats of America Women's Caucus. So we're going to have roughly 50,000 women from campuses across the country plugging in on the ground. Um, so we're gonna just deploy them any chance we get in every corner of America, and it's gonna be a really exciting election year with them. I love that. That's fantastic.

SPEAKER_00

Congratulations. Um, and I just love how, you know, having a daughter who is in that sort of end of college age, how motivated and inspired and like active they are. They just they want to get involved. They really are passionate about their rights and about the need to use their political voice. It's pretty inspiring. So I love that these college campuses are such an important kind of ground zero for future political activism.

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely. It really is. I think that they've seen adults fail them. And so they are taking matters into their own hands and they should be. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_00

That's awesome, though, right? That's, you know, that gives me hope for the future for sure. Yeah. Absolutely. You mentioned that um some of these are not the highest profile races. And I want to talk about that for a minute because this is something I've learned a lot from you in our past conversations, but this idea of building the bench of candidates for the future. So when you think about some of these local or county level or state level elections that then become a pipeline for candidates who will ultimately run for Congress, for Senate, for other roles, like how important is that? And talk a little bit about what you've seen in terms of that arc for some of these women in politics.

SPEAKER_01

A lot of our candidates right now who are running for statewide office have made the transition all the way up to the offices that they're running for right now. Um, a lot of them were state senators, and before that, they were on their city councils, or before that, they were on, you know, county commissioner roles, things like that. Um, so it's incredible. I mean, it's it's incredible. And also, by the way, those roles lower down on the ballot are important. And when you add them all up, they're serving America. And they're and the impacts of those roles and what they do for their communities are felt much faster than everything happening in Congress, in the US Congress. Like things that are happening in DC, as we can see, like every other day there's a shutdown. It's it's not really a fast moving environment over there. Um, they're making laws and making policies that affect all Americans' lives. But the women who we're working with lower down on the ballot in the different corners of this country, especially in the places where women don't have the kind of representation that they need, those women, even if we can get a few in there, they can make a huge difference that can be felt the minute that they step foot into their offices.

SPEAKER_00

Amazing. Like, and I think that's really important for all of us to remember as we're going into the midterms, like it matters at the most local level who's on the ballot all the way up. And sometimes it's so easy to get caught up, especially in a year like this one, where there's so many, all the House seats are up for re-election and so many Senate seats, I think it's like 33, right, that are up for re-election or open. So yeah, it's it's important to remember that every level in the political spectrum counts. So what are some other things that you think about with regard to female representation and why it's so important and maybe even why it's super important in this moment in time?

SPEAKER_01

There was research done by the Wilson Center that found that even if that when there's one woman in office and people love to do the whatabouts, like they love to people love to email me about Nancy Mace and about all sorts of women who are not doing the right thing by women, right? And they love to email me those one-off names. And the truth is, this research shows that when there's more women, more women in those rooms, that's when you start to feel the impacts of the by the legislation. So one woman in a room full of men can't make the kind of difference that more women in that room can make. So the more women that are in there, the more the policy starts to reflect what women need. And we actually have our own research too that we're conducting right now, where we are looking at the policies that have to do with women from the past two decades over the course of all 50 states. And we're checking how many women were in the state legislatures when those policies were passed. And we're sort of like looking at it like as a tracker of how that legislation was impacted by the number of women who were or weren't in the government at the time. So we're seeing, of course, I mean, our hypothesis was if there's more women in these legislatures, there's going to be more legislation that improves women's lives, improves women's lives in every category, not just reproductive health care. And we see that it's true. That's not and it crosses party lines. There are room, there are legislations, or there are legislatures, it's always a tough one. There are legislatures that had more women back in, you know, two decades ago, back when our government was running a little bit differently, where there's there's examples of different kinds of healthcare, menopause, cancer research, legislation like that that affects women's lives that is not reproductive health care, that Republican women by num by the numbers were championing. Um, so you can see that it's really it's a power, it's a power in numbers thing for women. And I don't think people talk about that enough.

SPEAKER_00

No, and I think that's an excellent point because I think you see it in boardrooms and you see it in leadership teams. Knowing that you have other women who have your back, you know, it allows you to, I think, be even more vocal and to feel more confident and challenging, maybe the status quo or the more than 50% that sits around the table. So that totally makes sense to me. And it's hard because sometimes I think we hold women to this incredibly high bar when there may only be one of them versus numerous men. Um, but yet somehow we expect them to be Wonder Woman and like, you know, make all this stuff happen. So I can appreciate where the power in numbers is a real thing. You know, obviously reproductive freedom is super important and our rights to decide what happens to our bodies when, very important. It's kind of like a baseline for women. But then a lot of women also tend to focus on other aspects of healthcare. You mentioned cancer research, for example, but also welfare of children, also food insecurity. I think those are some of the things you've shared before that are policies that tend to get prioritized when more women are in office. Are those some of the things? And what else would you say are kind of key issues that tend to get more attention when there's, you know, a majority of women at the table?

SPEAKER_01

There's one policy in particular that my friend Susanna Gibson is championing right now, and she's having a lot of success with it, which is about digital image-based harm, where we are seeing time and again how AI is harming women. You know, people are making fake images of people and distributing them around their high schools and things like that. And that impacts more than 90%. I want to say it's more than 99% women. Um, so there's legislation like that that men just, it doesn't, it's not their fault. They could be the best allies, they could have the best intentions, and they just have a blind spot to things that impact women in different kinds of ways than they anticipated. So I think that the AI issue is a good one to note because the people involved in designing these AI systems are majority men. Um, and it's going to be leading our world in the coming years. So I think that that's a good one where men might have a blind spot and women just don't have the same blind spot when it comes to protecting women.

SPEAKER_00

You raise two good issues there, right? One is lived experience, because sometimes you can only advocate for something when you have lived that experience yourself. And so women are more often the subject of whether it's digital harm or violence or domestic abuse or anything else. So of course, women are going to prioritize something that they have more direct experience with. And again, it's not from any ill will on the part of men. It's just the reality that their lived experience is different. Um, and I think you brought up a second really important point, which is, and and I try to say this all the time: like, feminism isn't about hating men. It's not about wishing ill to men, it's about raising women up. It's about elevating women and ensuring that their needs are equally met. And I think it's super important to remind people that none of this is about man hating, none of this is about wishing harm to the other gender. It's truly about what we can do to put more power in the hands of women so that our needs and our safety are better advocated for and protected. Like I still feel like for some reason everyone wants to paint this negative picture around feminism that it just doesn't deserve.

SPEAKER_01

After Roe versus Wade was overturned in 2022, we changed our tagline at Herbal Move to men shouldn't be making laws about women's bodies. And I think that that's just perfect. That's the point. It's just they just shouldn't be making laws about women's bodies. They don't understand women's bodies to the same extent that women understand their own bodies. You don't see women making laws about men's bodies without men weighing in in the most meaningful way that they possibly can. It's just good sense. It's just gonna make the most sense and it's gonna keep the most people in America safe. That's it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. No, I think that's very well said and a really good point. And I love the fact that you guys made that your tagline. When you look across the current political landscape, I feel like so many people in my life are disheartened. They are concerned about the future of women's rights, everything from basic things like voting to um financial independence. What are you seeing and what gives you hope?

SPEAKER_01

A couple weeks ago, I went to Harvard. They had a special program called We Code. And it was a chance for me to meet women from actually across the country. They go to colleges across the country, the women who are involved in this conference. And I sat with the women who were there, they're freshmen to senior, they were all ages there, and they were telling me about their experiences in very tough circumstances as women coders. They're in rooms where they're often the only women. They really are the only woman in some of these. They're in groups where they're the only women, they're doing group projects where they're the only woman. And they're having to defend their ideas, which is very personal and can be a really emotional experience to have to defend not just yourself, but your ideas that you worked hard on, that you thought a lot about. And so they were kind of commiserating with each other, like, yeah, I'm in, you know, this part of the country and I'm the only woman in on this group project, and it's hard because the men aren't listening to my ideas, and I'm the only woman, and I don't have any allies in these circumstances. And so the conversation shifted to kind of like, so why? Why are they staying there? You know, why are they in these very uncomfortable situations at their universities? And we realize the answer became really clear, which is that if they're not there, if they're not gonna stay there and be the trailblazers that they know they have to be, that's it. They're not going to be replaced by women. They're going to be replaced by more men in these rooms. And they all decided that it was worth it. You know, they're all there having these tough experiences day after day and making the decision every single day to stay there because they know that if they can withstand that discomfort and they can keep going, they're the trailblazers. They're going to bring more women into the rooms who will come in after them.

SPEAKER_00

That's awesome. I love hearing that. And I think coding is such a space where you tend to associate it with a very masculine energy. So good for those women to keep showing up. And it's funny because I hear that same thing when I've interviewed women in venture capital, women in banking, finance, like other areas where they're like, I can't leave because if I leave, there's not a woman to replace me right now, or they won't prioritize replacing me with a woman. And so I'm thankful to these women for continuing to fight and continuing to show up. Because hopefully, with bringing more along with them, being the tide that raises all boats, things will actually change. It's just taking an awfully long time.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, it hasn't been that long since women could open their own credit cards or their own bank account. 1974. I know. When you think about that, it it can be disheartening to think that that was the case in in this past. Century. But it's also really empowering to think women made a big enough stink and they fought hard enough. They changed things to the point where we don't even think about it. We can take it for granted. We can take for granted that we can open our own credit cards. That's amazing. And people had to fight. Women had to fight for those rights. And we'll just keep fighting.

SPEAKER_00

Well, when you look around the country, you obviously are following a number of different races, you know, at all levels from an election cycle perspective. What are some of the races and some of the candidates that you're most closely watching or excited about?

SPEAKER_01

Well, I don't think your audience is gonna know a lot of the ones, but I hope they'll get to know the ones that I'm about to tell you about because they're fabulous and they're phenomenal. Um, and they're making the most enormous differences in their community. So Kayla Young is one. She is already in her state legislature. She, I want to say she's had four terms or three terms already. She's she's been in office for for a while. And we interviewed her to endorse her for her upcoming reelection campaign. She's in West Virginia. West Virginia is 11% women, and only two of those women are Democrats.

unknown

Wow.

SPEAKER_01

So we met with Kayla Young and she said, Don't worry about me. I don't need the support. You know, if you're working on doing phone banks or text banks or helping people, like I'm going to win my reelection, don't worry. And I have 60 women from across my state who are ready to run and they're going to be launching their campaign, or they already have launched their campaign. 60 women. At first I thought she said 60 candidates. And I said, 60 Democrats, that's great. And she said 60 women Democrats. Amazing. In West Virginia, yes. And she's a very powerful voice in West Virginia politics. So if she is championing these women, many of them are going to win their races. And they're going to they're going to meaningfully change the composure of their state legislature. And things are hard for women in West Virginia. So in West Virginia, that's one of the bottom states. First of all, it is the bottom state for women's representation. And that's why we wanted to focus on West Virginia this year, because we want to change that. Um, it's the bottom state for women's representation in government. And then of course, as a result of that metric, it's also the bottom for policy about women. It's a dangerous state to be a woman. So she has these 60 women from all across her state, and that's what she's spending this elections like working on is getting them elected.

SPEAKER_00

That's very inspiring and gives me a tremendous amount of hope. And I've been, you know, keeping an eye on Tennessee for obvious reasons. Um, and that's another state where I feel like tough times for women, but some really amazing, highly active candidates there and incumbents, who, you know, if supported with the right people around them, I think I guess I always remain hopeful that change is possible.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Tennessee is a great one. We saw we supported Afton Bain, who really made a big splash in her special election in 2025, where she won the primary, which nobody expected her to win. She has actually, she was threatened in her primary to drop out by the male Democrats who were running in her primary with her. And then she won. And then she almost she made a really big impression on the Republican Party in Tennessee because she came way closer than anyone had imagined that she could go.

SPEAKER_00

So I think that's like another example, you know, that just because it's a red state or just because it's a male-dominated state doesn't mean there isn't potential. And I think, especially right now, where so many Americans feel like issues that mean a lot to them and that impact them and their family are not getting the focus and attention that they deserve or that perhaps they expected. Um, now is a time to really rethink, you know, who we're electing into office and do they represent the needs of the voting public? Because I think that is really what voting is all about. It's using your voice to ensure that the things that matter to you in your community are the things that are getting the focus. And so you want the right advocates around the table who are going to champion those causes. What do you think about advice for our listeners about motherhood and juggling the demands of a rapidly growing and scaling organization like Herbold Move? What are some lessons learned or some pearls of wisdom that you might have?

SPEAKER_01

I'm very lucky. I have so much help. I have so much support. Um, I have an incredibly supportive husband who who's incredible and thank God for him. Um, I have an incredible nanny. I have so many people who who are helping me do this. Some days I'm with the kids more, and some days I'm with work more. And either way, I'm, you know, leaving something behind. But I think that my advice is probably just like leaning into the chaos, letting it be a chaotic time, being okay with that.

SPEAKER_00

I love that. And I hope everyone takes that note that you have to lean into the chaos. It's gonna be messy, and it's all gonna be okay. It all somehow works out.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it works out. And and it's women are really hard on themselves. And it's just a shame. And and we have, you know, we also have to do our hair, which is just like that's the thing I resent the most. Like, like my husband doesn't have to do his hair. He goes to work. We have a lot on our plate, and we just have to. I think leaning into the chaos is the only way.

SPEAKER_00

It's the only way. What advice would you also give women who want to find a way to get involved, who understand the stakes, who think, you know, politics isn't for me, but I want to support, I want to get involved. What are some things, practical things that women listening to this podcast can do to get involved and support organizations like Herbold Move and candidates?

SPEAKER_01

Well, if you want to get involved with Herbold Move, Herboldmove.org is a great place to start. You can sign up to volunteer with us, you can apply for our fellowship program, um, you can email our info email and ask, you know, how you can get involved if you want to get involved in a more um long-term way. We can always use more support. Of course, donating, I have to plug that. But for women who want to get involved right now in this election cycle in general, there are constantly elections happening all over the country that you can get involved with. And that might just be a matter of supporting a woman who's running for some office in your town who isn't getting very much attention locally and shedding a light on her and just saying, like, hey, I noticed that not a lot of people are noticing you. And I want to show you that I notice you and I can help other people notice you too. Um, so maybe like hosting some events so that she can get to know the community better or something like that. Um, bringing her into the fold, bringing her into your world, supporting women on a small, small scale. If we all did that, it would make the biggest difference than anything of anything. That would make the biggest difference.

SPEAKER_00

Excellent. Well, I like that because I think there's something all of us can do, whether it's sharing content on social to help amplify someone into your network, hosting an event. One of the things that I also learned from you over last year was looking across state lines. How can you support candidates in other states where, you know, you believe in the opportunity they have to make a difference for women? Because ultimately it's the tide that raises all boats. So whether you give $5, $10, or can participate in events to raise awareness of their candidacy, um, I'm amazed at how many ways there really are to have an impact if you want to.

SPEAKER_01

If there's a room where there aren't a lot of women there, I encourage women to ask why and how can we change that. All over, not just in politics, all over the world, there are rooms where very important decisions are being made without enough women in the room. I don't see enough people talking about how few women are involved in AI. I think that needs to be a really major conversation right now. So I think just asking and being a part of the resistance to the patriarchy, of course. I love that.

SPEAKER_00

My daughter's gonna love that. Well, Jordan, thank you. This was awesome. I am so grateful to you for making time to share more about her bold move with our listeners, share more about your story and journey. Before we wrap up, is there anything else you want to add?

SPEAKER_01

I think that it's a really rough time because it's designed to be a rough time right now. Our algorithms are the ones delivering the news to us, and they are deciding what we see and what we don't see. Give yourself some grace and find the ways that the world isn't scary right now, because it's designed to look scary, and that's the point. And it's designed to scare you so that you don't even know. So you're like paralyzed and can't act and can't defend. Um, so I think that making sure that women, especially, because I can see the toll that the news is taking on women by far so much more than any men that I know. Um, we need to be preserving our mental health. We're going to need it. Um, and so letting ourselves get totally consumed with what we're seeing on social media is dangerous and it's not productive. As much as it feels productive to do scroll, it's not productive. It's productive to be out there in the world actually leading a charge for change. Letting our mental health slip away from us is not the answer.

SPEAKER_00

So I'm so glad that you said that.

SPEAKER_01

Well, again, thank you, Jordan.

SPEAKER_00

This was great. Such a pleasure. And I would encourage everyone to go check out herboldmove.org. Also follow them on Instagram, even though we just were naysaying on social media. I think you do have some great content there on Instagram. So I would encourage everybody to check that out. Thank you so much, Andrea. This is so great. Great to talk to you. If this conversation moved you, do something with that. Go to herboldmove.org and find out how to get involved. Volunteer, donate, show up for a woman running in a race nobody's paying attention to, host an event, make an introduction, amplify someone who does not yet have a platform. If you are building a company, a team, a board, or an investor pool, audit the room. Count the women. Then ask yourself, is that number really good enough? Because based on everything Jordan shared today, it probably isn't. You can find Jordan and Her Bold Move at herboldmove.org and on Instagram. Links are in the show notes. And if this episode resonated, share it with one woman in your network who needs to hear it. That's how this community grows, and that's how we change who is in the room. Thank you for being here. Thank you for listening, and thank you for being a woman who refuses to wait for permission to take up space. This is Women I Want You To Know. Until next time. Thank you for being here today and sharing in this inspiring story from Women I Want You to Know. Please leave a review and share this episode with another woman in your life. And please join the conversation and connect with us on LinkedIn and Instagram and keep fueling the future for female founders and leaders.