Voices of Leadership: Insights and Inspirations from Women Leaders

Steins & Stories with Tracy Van Kalsbeek, Executive Director of KW Oktoberfest, Community Leader and Serial Volunteer

• Bespoke Projects • Season 1 • Episode 11

Share episode

On today's episode, we talk with Tracy Van Kalsbeek. Tracy is an accomplished Executive Director, a passionate volunteer, and a valued community builder. Her leadership journey is a treasure trove of inspiration and wisdom for aspiring leaders.

Tracy takes us through her remarkable career trajectory, from her formative cadet days to her influential tenure at Manulife, her time at the Uptown Waterloo Business Improvement Area, and finally, KW Oktoberfest. She shares her insights on career navigation, the importance of mentorship, and overcoming challenges with grit and adaptability.

Tracy gives us a glimpse into the dynamic evolution of Oktoberfest. Her enthusiasm is infectious as she details the festival's strategic pivot towards becoming Canada's quintessential Fall Festival. From celebrating age-old traditions to integrating fresh, inclusive activities like Kidtoberfest and Dogtoberfest, Tracy's vision is a kaleidoscope of innovation and heritage.

Don't wait until October to get involved. The Women of the Year nominations are open until March 31, 2024. The awards will be held on May 23, 2024!

Connect with Tracy

Tracy also mentioned Ginny Dybenko and Jane Klugman, who have been part of her personal and professional journey. Both Ginny and Jane have been guests on the podcast, and you can listen to their episodes here:

Luminary Leadership with Ginny Dybenko
Lessons In Leadership: Showing Up and Asking Questions with Jane Klugman

Other Resources
KW Oktoberfest
Women of the Year Awards and Nominations
Uptown Waterloo BIA
Junior Achievement
Cambridge Chamber of Commerce
Waterloo Region Community Foundation
The Royal Highland Fusiliers of Canada

What did you think of today's episode? We want to hear from you!

Thank you for listening today. Please take a moment to rate and subscribe to our podcast. When you do this, it helps to raise our podcast profile so more leaders can find us and be inspired by the stories our Voices of Leadership have to share.

Connect with us:
Voices of Leadership Website
Instagram
Bespoke Productions Hub

Tracy:

Just start somewhere. Find something that you'd like to learn about and go and learn about it. You do not need to have your whole life planned out for you. Like my career very eclectic had I had a great guidance counselor or something, they probably would have told me to go into public relations or marketing or something, because I've done well in those careers. I eventually got there through the different careers that I chose and jobs that I chose. So start somewhere and go from there. You don't need to have your whole life mapped out for yourself.

Amy:

Welcome to Voices of Leadership, the podcast that shines a spotlight on the remarkable women of the International Women's Forum who are reshaping industries, defying norms and being instigators of change. I'm your host, amy, and I'm inviting you on a journey through the minds of trailblazers. Each episode is a candid conversation with women leaders from across a variety of industries and sectors. Through these conversations, we aim to ignite a fire of inspiration within you, whether you're a budding leader, a seasoned executive or simply someone with a passion for growth.

Amy:

On today's episode, we talk with Tracy Van Kelsby. She is an accomplished executive director, a passionate volunteer and a valued community builder. Tracy served as the executive director of the Uptown Waterloo Business Improvement Area for more than five years and in July of 2023, she joined KW Oktoberfest as their new executive director. We will talk about all the traditions of Oktoberfest, as well as the new activities and ideas that have contributed to the growth and evolution of the festival. Additionally, we learn how Tracy's leadership journey began, with her cadet experience. We talk about her thoughts on mentorship and so much more. Hi Tracy.

Tracy:

Welcome to the podcast. Thanks, Amy. I'm so excited to be here. It's great to see you. You too.

Amy:

We know each other through IWF, which I always love to call out because otherwise I'm not sure that we would have crossed paths, which is fantastic. You were an integral part of the committee that put on Canada Connects in Waterloo last year, but I also learned that you are a relatively new member of IWF.

Tracy:

I am a new member. I only joined in December of 2022. It was people like Ginny and Mary, dalton and Jane who are so committed to IWF. I was really excited about it. When the opportunity came about for me to join, I was like, yeah, I'm going to do this because I just love what I keep hearing from them about how IWF is so life-changing for so many people and just the connection with other women, whether it's from here in our own community or around the world. That's the really, really cool part of it.

Amy:

You joined. You really joined, because you joined in December and you were right into helping Jane with Canada Connects. What was that experience like?

Tracy:

Yeah, I joined in December and January. I was already part of the planning committee for the Canada Connects. Oh my gosh, we had such a great crew that pulled together that event. It was so much fun to plan something where we were showcasing some really cool spots in Waterloo Region that make us unique. At the time, too, I was also the executive director of the Uptown Waterloo Business Improvement Area.

Tracy:

A lot of what we were doing was around in Uptown For me, it was even extra special because I could really showcase the cool things that I knew that were happening in our community at the time.

Amy:

It was a great event. I had a fabulous time.

Tracy:

Oh my gosh, it was so much fun Showcasing the things at the different spaces at the universities and Perimeter Institute and the Klan Glass where we did that wine and cheese, and then the great meals that we had at the Delta.

Amy:

We had that fun dance party at the end, oh my gosh.

Tracy:

So many of those women were great dancers who really showed me at my feet hurt that night for sure.

Amy:

I'm going to go back in time a little bit. In my research I discovered that you have a longstanding relationship with cadets and we're involved with them growing up. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Yeah, I joined.

Tracy:

C-Cadets when I was 12 years old. At the time I lived in Woodstock, but the cadet organization is all around helping young people and instilling leadership in them. I really do feel like cadets had made such an incredible impact in my life. That has carried through my lifetime and through my professional life too just the skills that I learned, and not just nautical and naval type skills, but the leadership skills. I focused on that when I was in cadets and then when I aged out I was the top cadet at my core In C-Cadets, that's the chief, and my rank was Chief Petty Officer. I aged out and then I then turned around and came back as an officer and I was a civilian instructor for a little bit and then I joined the ranks again and put on the uniform again.

Tracy:

It was a lot of fun and I was always usually the band officer, the drill officer. I was usually the training officer, so planning out all the training for the different ranks throughout the season and everything too. That came to an end after I had my daughters, who are now they just turned 26. I still was an officer for about a year and a half, two years, and it just got to be a little bit too much with them at home. You know what it's like, amy. You have twins too.

Amy:

Yeah, life stops for a little while. It does stop for a little while.

Tracy:

Yeah, yeah. So I put that on hold and in fact I've actually never gone back, which is one of those things that you know. I'm kind of sad about that. But I think we'll probably talk a little bit later about my volunteering and how I'm now involved with the Royal Highland Fusiliers, which kind of fills that gap for me, that void that I had from back then.

Amy:

I noticed that. So did you just join the Royal Highland Fusiliers? I know how to say that now, because I talked to Jane.

Tracy:

So, yeah, you're going to notice that probably throughout our conversation today.

Tracy:

There's a lot of things that Jane and I do together and no, she was a part of it before, I was, but I've been a part now with the Fusiliers probably about five years, I'm going to say.

Tracy:

I joined their council and then, most recently, in the last couple of years, I've been a little bit more involved and also, with their trust the council we're responsible for helping to promote the Fusiliers within the community and do some fundraising and that type of thing to create more awareness about the reservists and the soldiers and what you know, what they do here and all around the world. So that's been a real gift to be a part of that. I'm grateful for that and you know I got to meet a lot of cool people that I never would have met before and you know, a lot of the people on the council are past commanding officers and so, yeah, it's been a really, really neat experience and you know, to watch Jane in that too and see her flourish. And you know, as the honorary colonel, and I couldn't be proud of her and she's just doing an amazing job and I see how the soldiers relate to her. It's incredible Like she just she cares so much and they see that and they just really really gravitate toward her.

Amy:

Yeah, she's done such a great job there and it's such a big part of our community that maybe not a lot of people know about, so it's great to bring more awareness.

Tracy:

Yeah, I don't think a lot of people know that we have reservists here that do get deployed all around the world to fight in wars or to do peacekeeping missions.

Amy:

You mentioned your volunteer work. I heard you describe yourself as a serial volunteer. What do you mean by that?

Tracy:

Meaning that I volunteer a lot, maybe sometimes a little bit too much. I started volunteering, well, with cadets, you know. You that kind of instilled that piece in me too, because you would have to go out and do some different fundraising or be at different events. But it wasn't until I got older and then it got into my more professional roles. That and I think the biggest one probably where I really started to kick off the volunteering a lot, was when I was at Junior Achievement, and so we had a lot of people that wanted to volunteer. We had a lot of schools, more schools that wanted to have classes than we had volunteers. So one situation I was in was that we had a lot of Cambridge schools that were requesting for classes Junior Achievement classes and we didn't have a lot of Cambridge volunteers.

Tracy:

So we were asking people from Kitchener Waterloo to drive to Cambridge to go and do that, which we had great people that would do that, but it made sense for people in Cambridge to support the Cambridge school. So I took it upon myself to go and I got involved with the chamber there, the Cambridge chamber, and I got involved. Then I ended up chairing their volunteer member services committee. I forget what it was, you know, going to the business after five, business after hours, I think it's called in Cambridge, you know and getting to know people in Cambridge. And then so I recruited lots of great volunteers from Cambridge. But that really kind of opened up my eyes to the importance of volunteering, especially from a professional standpoint.

Tracy:

And then from there on I've sat on many committees and chaired many boards. Most recently I'm chairing the Explore Waterloo Region, so the Waterloo Region Tourism Marketing Corporation, so the marketing arm of the region for around tourism. I think we're going to talk about a few other things too, but you know I sit on the grants committee for the Ontario Trium Foundation, also the grants committee for the local Waterloo Region Community Foundation. I sit on some mentoring circles. I'm right now a coach for the Pitch Perfect for SBB. Yeah, there's more, but we'll stop there.

Amy:

I don't know how you fit it all in, but I know I don't either. Sometimes I'm like uh-oh, we appreciate that you're doing it. You mentioned the mentor for Waterloo Region Mentoring Circles. Can you tell us a little bit about that organization?

Tracy:

Yeah, I love it. This is my third or fourth time being a mentor and it really is about women helping women, and so the people that coordinated Aaron Delessandro and a few others they pulled together this really great program where they have guest speakers come in to talk about really interesting topics and then afterward then you connect with your, with a group Usually it's two mentors and probably you know five or six mentees, kind of a thing and then you talk about that speaker or whatever the topic was and connect, and what I really love, even more so than that, is connecting individually with those individuals to see how I can better connect them in the community based on where their thoughts are around their careers or what their interests are, and connecting them with, maybe, charities or nonprofits to sit on committees and boards, to help build up their resumes and that kind of thing too.

Tracy:

So it's been. It's really gratifying, I feel like on both sides. Not that I've been the mentee side with that organization, but I'm grateful that there are some pretty awesome people in my life that mentor me. It sounds like a great organization. Yeah, we got to get you involved.

Amy:

Damien Sure, I you know. I think that it's a great way to give back with some structure, because some people don't know how to do it.

Tracy:

And it's the women helping women, peace too right. And you know being in my role now at October Fest, again grateful that there have been so many women that I know in my life that I've reached out to say how can I help?

Amy:

So, on the other side, who were some of your mentors throughout your career and how did that affect how you are a leader today?

Tracy:

Yeah, so you know it starts again. You know back to that, those cadet days, and you know my commanding officers at that point and who, which were men. I don't think we ever had no, we never had a female commanding officer but also, like some of the cadet leaders that were, you know, a couple of years older than me, I started to see that there are these types of people that could help guide you or give you advice, and so I've learned a few different ways. So I'll talk about some mentors, but I'll talk about, you know, I've also worked for individuals in my past where they haven't been, you know, the best leader, but what I feel like I learned the most from those folks, because I learned what not to be like and I feel like that helped to mold who I am today too. But yeah, for me, mentors that I feel like I've gone out to choose them and I'm again grateful that they've allowed me to bug them and to, you know, ask advice.

Tracy:

You know I mentioned earlier, you know, jenny DeBanco and Mary Dalton for sure Jane is also another one. I have my good friend Lin Short, who's at the Community Foundation, who we, you know we connected way back in the day when I first started working there. I just love the fact that they have allowed me to be a part of their life and to pester them here and there about different things.

Amy:

Well, it's nice to have a group of people to reach out to when something happens and you need to bounce an idea off somebody. Yeah, absolutely so. You have had a varied career in both the private and nonprofit sectors. I heard you talk about how you set a goal for yourself to be an executive director of a nonprofit. I'd like to really know when did you set that goal and and how did you go about achieving it?

Tracy:

Yeah, so that would be in my days when I was working at the Community Foundation. I was hired. I was employee number five.

Tracy:

I was hired as the very first marketing and communications manager. For me that was a very different role that I had taken in the past, because before that was junior achievement and before that I went to school to work with people with disabilities. I worked within that industry for a while and I was a job developer and career developer. So that was a transition of I just did it backwards, but it's not just a way of my career. And so when I got to the Community Foundation, I'm in my 30s and thinking what's next for me, what do I want to do? And I think again I'm going to go back to the cadets thing. And it realized I was going to talk about it so much.

Tracy:

But I think that also instilled in me this need and push to go to that next level. What's the next level, what's the next rung? And so for me, what's next? And then I thought, well, I can see myself running a nonprofit or a charity. So I started to think more about that and what that would look like. And how would I start? Could I start with a small organization and work my way up from there?

Tracy:

And in thinking about all those things I felt at the time too that there was a gap that I had, and it was around that corporate social responsibility, but understanding things on the other side. So I'd never had ever worked for a large corporation or large company or for profit business before, and so thinking about that, timing is always everything. I had a colleague who had made the move over, who used to work at the City of Kitchener, made this move over to Manulife, and he reached out saying, hey, I'm looking for somebody to help me come and do public relations over here, and at the time it was for the Canadian Division of Manulife. But I did do the move, which I never thought.

Tracy:

I would have done had I not done the soul searching to figure out what I wanted to do next with my life. So I made the move within my first month and I'm sure a lot of people can relate to this with a big company. It changed right away where, instead of just doing Canadian division, I got involved with the corporate part of Manulife and then within my first year, I made the move from that public relations role to the sponsorship and philanthropy division, which was a really, really good fit with me. It was a really cool time to be a part of Manulife.

Tracy:

I was there for three just over three years and an opportunity came along to be an executive director, which was my goal, and I was at a community foundation which I had experienced with and it was the Stratford Perth Community Foundation. This was an organization that was transitioning from a governance perspective, from a more hands-on board, to a policy governance board, so I helped them do that transition, as well as getting my teeth sunk into being a new executive director and what that meant. All the administration that came along with that. You think you know it all and then you get there and you're like, oh my goodness, and for a small organization, you're, yes, the CEO, the COO, the CTO, the CEO, everything, the HR manager. So, yeah, it was a lot of learning but it was great. I really, really am grateful for the experience I had there.

Amy:

It must have been quite a change. I mean, you took a lot of skills from Manulife and took them there, but in Manulife you had a role and a job and probably some parameters, and you're not wrong. And you moved to a smaller organization and now you're just everything. So that must have been a bit of a change.

Tracy:

Yeah, and then also in a new community where I knew some people there but it wasn't like here in Waterloo Region where I'd built most of my career here and I do pride myself on being able to connect people. I know a lot of people and so the relationships that I've built are so important to me and my role within the community. So going there I had to kind of start fresh, which is fun and I like that kind of thing.

Tracy:

But it takes a little bit of time and I was a little bit worried that, oh, I don't have the same connections. But I was able to build them there and I really enjoyed my time there.

Amy:

And then after that did you come back and you were the executive director of the Waterloo BIA.

Tracy:

Yeah. So again, here's a time in my life where my husband and I were talking because the twins had moved out, we were the empty nesters and we had this big house in New Hamburg that we were living in and we started to talk about what does retirement look like for us? But we felt that we still had some time in our careers and probably wouldn't be retiring to Stratford, we'd probably stay in the KW area in Waterloo Region. So the opportunity came along at the Uptown Waterloo Business Improvement Area. My predecessor, patty Brooks, had been in the role for 20 years and was retiring and we were still in the process in Uptown of dealing with construction related to streetscaping and the end of the ION construction and we went from that bang into a pandemic. That was fun.

Amy:

Yeah, well, when I was reading the timeline, I did notice that the construction and of course COVID was a challenging time for all the small businesses, but I'd actually like to hear about some of the successes you had in that job.

Tracy:

Yeah. So for me, covid hits us. At the time, I created this really cool budget where we're going to do all these different events or beautification projects or whatever, and we had to make changes so that we could support businesses during a really challenging time for them. So what we ended up doing was taking budget that we were going to be putting, allotting to different events and initiatives and putting it into what we call the Come Back Up Fund, which businesses could apply up to $2,500. I think it was twice a year to help cover costs associated with things that changes that they had to make with to their business because of the pandemic. So could be things like PPE, but it could also be. You know what? We were never on Instagram before, and now we need to be on social media. So you know what? I need a better camera. I need a better phone so I can take photos of my product Patios set up like those kinds of things.

Tracy:

Yeah, yeah, like all that stuff Right, yeah, and I'm proud of it because people need to be sitting outside, you know that kind of thing. So I'm proud that we did that work, because I know it really did make a difference for the businesses and we also. What it did, too was, you know, we talked about the importance of place making and creating destination, and so COVID, for us, I feel, really pushed that forward even harder. The need for it and so, you know, people were not wanting to be indoors, but they were still okay about being outdoors, and so we did these really cool art walks where we had local artists come and paint the back doors of buildings and things like that, or artists that would paint really cool scenes on the fronts of buildings or fronts of businesses and things like that, and created some really cool things for uptown.

Tracy:

So you know, again, I'm proud of that work. We hired a very first place making manager, which was something that you know had. When I first got there, I wouldn't have thought about that, but somebody that's looking through that lens all the time. Those are some of the cool projects that stand out for me.

Amy:

Well, good for you.

Tracy:

That was a lot of hard work in a difficult time and you got uptown through it, so I think a lot of people appreciate that I just you know, I still I think about it to this day and I'm just you know there's so many businesses just really, you know, dug in and figured out and reimagined what their business plans were and, you know, came out stronger on the other side and, yeah, just was so grateful to be part of that process with them and to help support them.

Amy:

So let's talk Oktoberfest, which I'm excited to talk about. You are the first female executive director of the Kitchener-Warrlough Oktoberfest celebration. So congratulations, thank you.

Amy:

Oktoberfest has been an important part of the community for over 55 years, I think, if my math is correct, and it's steeped in history, but at the same time, it has evolved over the years to better suit the community. Today, considering the vast global changes we just talked about over the last five years, it seems like Oktoberfest is at another tipping point in its history. So what is your vision for the festival?

Tracy:

Yeah, so I joined in July of 2023. I felt, like you said, we're at a tipping point. Oktoberfest is reimagining itself after we're going into our 50, 60 year AMI. So your math was right and so that to me is exciting as well. So I felt that maybe I might be needed a little bit more over here with Oktoberfest right now and to help them do that reimagination. So I've got ideas. I'm so excited about where Oktoberfest is headed and can go. Our board approved a new strategic plan in 2023.

Amy:

I wouldn't be sitting here today.

Tracy:

Had they not. They've got great vision. I see the Canada's Fall Festival because it happens during harvest and homecoming it's all about. We have so many people in our community that this is an annual tradition to come out and celebrate our barbarian roots, and so how do we build that festival out to be like a South by Southwest and have something for everybody and celebrate the roots of our community?

Amy:

So what events that we have come to know are still part of Oktoberfest, and what new ones can we look forward to?

Tracy:

Yeah, so ones that would be traditional, I think, for the most part people visiting the different Fest Hall and Partners. So Nelkengkordia, alpine, yeah, hubertus House out there, and yeah, out near New Dundee and Schwabenclubs Sorry, I was trying to think of the last one there as well as some of the stuff that we do in downtown Kitchener, which we'll get to in a second and Bingamins they've been hosting a Fest Hall and out there too. So there's that, and you know, like, especially with the German clubs, that gives you that real authentic experience of Oktoberfest the food, the music, the dancing, all of those things. And then you know we've got the Oktoberfest Thanksgiving Day Parade, which has been going on for decades, you know, and gives our community a really great celebration to come and come together. There's been so many different events throughout the year and you know I mentioned a little bit earlier about reimagining Oktoberfest, so really taking the time to know what makes the most sense.

Tracy:

Gone are the days of the Miss Oktoberfest. We now have an ambassador program that is open to any young person. You know things like that. So there's been some changes there. We have our Women of the Year In fact, women of the Year is coming up in May and our nominations are open right now. If anybody knows any amazing women, there are 12 different categories that people can choose from, so that, if you can believe it, amy, that event's been around for 49 years. Next year will be our 50th anniversary, so that's pretty exciting.

Amy:

Wow, I didn't know. It's been around that long and you mentioned so. Women of the Year is in May, so are there other events that are throughout the year that people may not know about that you put on?

Tracy:

Yeah, so I would say the biggest one would be Women of the Year, and that was a decision that was made a couple of years ago. It used to happen before Oktoberfest and it got moved to May to help kind of start doing that where, like what you said, amy, we're doing things throughout the year. So we do go out, and there are a lot of different businesses or organizations that will say hey can you come and do a cake tapping?

Tracy:

You know it might be in June at a different event, but because I feel that Oktoberfest is such a strong part of that brand of Waterloo region. Of course we can do Oktoberfest whenever we want, and so you know, you see people that want to have the Oktoberfest themed initiative and so, yes, we end up doing things throughout the year. Uncle Hans goes out and visits people throughout the year. We have a new what we call our Wunderwagen and that can take Oktoberfest out to the masses wherever you want a neighborhood party or anything else and we have this wagon outfitted and we can put some entertainment on that and take that out as well. So, yeah, there's lots of different things that are kind of new that we're doing, but there's some of the same traditional stuff.

Tracy:

One thing I wanted to mention, if you don't mind, is what we've been doing in downtown Kitchener the last couple of years. So a lot of times and I know a lot of folks have gone out and come down for the official keg tapping and we generally do that at the Carlser Square, which is great. Last year we hosted everything at the newly renovated Gockel Block, so you know where that is and it's pedestrian only and then we took over the parking lot beside and we created this really cool experience where we had a big tent and we had a big stage and a big screen and we had local entertainment, bavarian entertainment. We had the roadhammers came this past year too, and things like that. We also did a Bavarian vendor market. We had Kidtoberfest happening, which is a newer initiative of ours over the last couple years, where this past year was at the museum and so kids could come to the museum. We had Bavarian activities to do, bavarian entertainment. We partnered with some third party groups to do other events, like Dogtoberfest was really popular this past year.

Tracy:

I talked about, and you'd asked about, what the vision is for Oktoberfest. It's growing the festival too, and so how are we going to grow the festival just ourselves? It's really about how is the community wanting to get engaged too? So I see us growing the festival through third party events like Techtoberfest, where something that community tech has been involved in over the last couple years and they're bringing folks in and doing some really cool stuff around tech.

Tracy:

There's Pridetoberfest, where the two-spirited LGBTQ plus community has come together, come to us and said, hey, we want to do something too. They've created Pridetoberfest. I'll tell you, it was probably one of the most funny events that I went to last year. They did a cool drag race or drag show and we did a cake tapping and then we did a dance party after. It was just yeah, it was a lot of fun. So I see us growing the festival through things like that as well and bringing different cultures and communities together and them having their own spin on what Oktoberfest is too. But always at the heart is celebrating those Bavarian roots.

Amy:

And do many of these other events take place in October around the traditional Oktoberfest time.

Tracy:

Yeah, and so that's also changed a little bit over the last number of years as well, where the traditional kind of 10 days is now kind of changed into a four weekend kind of initiative, where we start now kind of second last weekend in September into October kind of timeframe.

Amy:

And so you mentioned that obviously, oktoberfest has always been put on really by volunteers, so if people want to get involved after listening to all of the great things that are going on, how can they do that?

Tracy:

Yeah, absolutely. We could not do what we do without our volunteers. I've just been blown away and you know like I'm a long standing volunteer before I took over as executive director and I ran events for Oktoberfest too and I know the commitment that I had and the hours that I put in and I look at some of the folks that we have that lead our parade or do our downtown productions and things like that, and I am just completely blown away about how much time and energy and effort and talent that they put into Oktoberfest and we are very blessed and truly grateful for those individuals?

Tracy:

Yeah, we have upwards of about 350 volunteers that help us to put on the festival, and so those are ones that are coming back year after year sitting on committees. Those are also people that and just as important that come out and volunteer on the day of events so that our parade volunteers or the Will Coleman Plats volunteers, and so, yeah, every single one is so important and integral to the work that we do. We always can use more volunteers, and they can find out information on our website at actokoverfestca.

Amy:

Well, we'll be sure to put that in the show notes and people can go and check it out and participate in a variety of events that I didn't even know existed, so I'm excited to check some of those out this coming fall.

Tracy:

Yes, Well, we could use you. I know I already tried to help us with the Dom and Fest.

Amy:

That's right, I'm all in. I'm going to give it a try.

Tracy:

Yes, Love it.

Amy:

So you mentioned earlier, when you were talking about your work in Stratford, how you worked with some organizations where you've taken the board from more of an organizational board to a governance or, sorry so, where you've taken the board from more of an operational board to a governance board. That's not always an easy task, so I would like to hear a little bit about how you're able to do it and why it's so important to make that transition.

Tracy:

Yeah, you're right, it's not an easy task. I'm actually doing this for the third time on my career. You know, I started that first time with the Stratford Birth Community Foundation, and then, when I made the move over to the BIA, they were doing that transition too, and now with Oktoberfest, so, yeah, really, it's helping people, helping volunteer boards move from that grassroots, more involved in the day-to-day operations, to a policy governance board where they have one employee and it's me the CEO or executive director. What that really does, though and it's so great for organizations to do this when they can, and if they're big enough and they can do it is it frees up the mental space, mental capacity for the boards to think strategically about what's next for the organization, what's going to happen the next three, five, ten years, because that's so integral for an organization to continue to grow and evolve.

Tracy:

And so, for me, yeah, it's really I get in. It's really boring stuff, amy, and you're going to yawn. So you go in, you review the bylaw, you review the policies and you start to update those things. So then you have really good, a good platform to make decisions from, and then you work with the board on getting those approved and that kind of thing, and then that really, that truly takes on how you're governing your organization. Yeah, policy, policy, policy, that's what it is.

Amy:

But it's also and I'm curious how this worked with you it's also convincing the current board that's used to being involved day to day and trying to convince them that it's actually more important to think about, as you mentioned, what's next.

Tracy:

Yeah, I think I've been lucky in this case because each organization that I mentioned there that I helped them transition wanted to transition. They'd already made the decision to do that. They saw the benefits, I think, for the organization at the end of the day, but it's, you know, that takes a while. It takes time to do that work. In each case, I generally reached out to people. You know we talk about mentors and you know I mentioned female mentors, but I have male mentors too. Right now, as an example, our past president, tim Beckett, is working with me on this work that we're talking about with the policy review and everything, and he's super phenomenal with all of that, has lots of experience, he totally gets governance and policy work and so you know grateful to have him helping me along. I did the same thing at the other two organizations. I reached out to a few key people that I knew and said, hey, can you help me with this work?

Amy:

But I think making that kind of transition is a collective effort. You need someone to spearhead it, like yourself, but in order to make that happen, it could take forever if somebody did it on their own, I think.

Tracy:

But you can go deep, deep, deep with policy work. Yeah.

Amy:

But good for you for doing it, because it does professionalize an organization and it does help the organization flourish as well.

Tracy:

Yeah, you're very right.

Amy:

So you have been a leader, as we have well talked about, in many different situations. What is the biggest challenge you think facing female leaders today?

Tracy:

I think for women, it's really around overcoming that imposter syndrome. I do it to myself all the time. The other day I was talking to somebody oh, it was a co-op student that we have and she was telling me how, like when my first matter, I did an interview like this with her and halfway through it I'm texting one of my co-workers and we got to hire this person.

Amy:

I love her.

Tracy:

She's great, she's got lots of energy, good energy and so we offered her the role on the spot and she was like, oh, do you mind if I get back to you? And I'm like, yeah, sure, no problem. She texted me back within an hour and said I will absolutely take the role. And I learned from her later that she was like oh my gosh, why would they offer this to me? Why would I be so deserving of this? I like this organization, but it's that imposter syndrome. And there it starts, right there, as a young person starting out their career. If I can knock that crap away for somebody, I would love to be able to do that absolutely.

Tracy:

I think other challenges for us as women, specifically and you know this too with having kids, it's how do you find what works for you? You want to be a professional in your career and build your career, yet you want to be a great mom and you want to be a great partner. And how do you make all that work? And there's a lot of fumbling for me. I'm not going to lie, and it isn't always perfect. And did I piss people off? Yes, I did, and I haven't like being in the not-for-profit world. I think probably a lot of people would say around gender biases, but for me, because I've been in the not-for-profit, it's mostly been women leaders. So there's so many great women leaders in our community. I mean, I just lost one recently with Wendy Campbell, unfortunately, and she was a great mentor too.

Tracy:

I learned lots from her too, but for me there hasn't been a lot of that gender bias that maybe some people like maybe probably you in your career felt, I'm sure, all the time, amy, yeah.

Amy:

But it's nice to hear what you think the challenges are in your industry that maybe doesn't have quite the male dominance that maybe I experienced or some of the other women we've talked to on this podcast, because it is a prevalent theme. So to hear that sometimes we think, oh, if we eliminate that, everything will be fine, and we don't want things to be fine. But you've highlighted some challenges that still exist, regardless of the amount of gender bias that is there. So what advice do you have for the next generation of women leaders?

Tracy:

So I think about especially young women that are coming into their careers or even before. That like trying to figure out where to start. Just start somewhere. Find something that you like to learn about and go and learn about it. You do not need to have your whole life planned out for you and so start there. Like my career very eclectic, I, like I said earlier, I went to school to work with people with disabilities.

Tracy:

That's because I had a cousin who had autism and I didn't know what else to do. So I went to college to do that and had I had a great guidance counselor or something, they probably would have told me to go into public relations or marketing or something, because I know that I've done well in those careers. I eventually got there through the different careers that I chose and jobs that I chose. So start somewhere and go from there. You don't need to have your whole life mapped out for yourself. And that, I think, then takes us to the next step, which is my advice take some risks and you know, try things and you're going to fail, and that's okay.

Tracy:

And learn from the failure and get back up and start over and start. You know, learn more. So you know we learn so much from failure and people I find right now are just not right now but in general are scared to fail. So then they're scared to try. And I say try, try, try, because you know life is better when you take risks and learn. And you know, keep moving.

Amy:

So, and then?

Tracy:

I think my last piece of advice would be to ask for help, and I find this and I don't know if this is in every community, but I definitely know it's in our community that there's so many incredible people that are willing to help. You just have to ask. People love to be asked. You know their advice or feedback, or hey, could you help me with this thing? So don't be afraid to ask for help. There are lots of people out there that are willing to give it. Give you their time and talent and sometimes treasure.

Amy:

That's great advice, tracy, for everybody, thank you, and thank you so much for taking the time today. I know you're incredibly busy. Even though we don't feel like October is close, I feel like you probably feel it's right around the corner, so I appreciate you taking the time.

Tracy:

Thanks, Amy.

Amy:

Thank you for listening today. If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to rate and subscribe to our podcast. When you do this, it raises our podcast profile so more leaders can find us and be inspired by the stories our voices of leadership have to share. If you would like to connect with us, please visit the Voices of Leadership website. It can be found in our show notes. You, you, you, you, you, you.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Amy Schlueter

Host