- Good evening and welcome to the
Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum.
My name is Wesley Whitaker,
and I'm one of your Ath fellows this year.
Tonight we're going to be hearing
our speaker Holly Mitchell,
who represents the 30th Senate District in California.
And this is part of the Behind the Veil:
Women, Race, Leadership and Social Change in the Non-Profit
speaker series.
Beyond the Veil explores leadership models and perspectives
by harnessing the power of first person narrative
in storytelling by non-profit CEOs and public servants
on the front lines of social change.
And to be inspired by that,
I want to start with a little narrative.
With limited communication
and little help from the outside world,
the Mayors of Puerto Rico
became the highest form of authority
for many residents in the days after Hurricane Maria
pummeled the Caribbean two months ago.
In the capital of San Juan, Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz
worked nonstop on the ground walking the capital streets
and handing out care packages containing
food, water, and supplies.
But the following weeks proved that these acts
were just the start of her leadership ability.
She drew the ire of President Trump
after voicing her frustrations with the administration
for recovery efforts that were in her opinion,
too little, too late.
Since then she has been one of the most vocal advocates
of recovery efforts, raising visibility about
the still critical situation facing thousands of residents
without access to clean food and water and electricity.
Data published today by the
Center for Investigative Journalism
indicate that actual death toll is estimated to be
closer to 1,000 which is over 20 times the reported number.
Cruz was also the first to criticize
the 300 million dollar no-bid contract
to fix the power grid that was awarded to White Fish Energy,
a Montana Company with deep ties to the Trump administration
and only two employees on the day of the hurricane.
The contract has since been revoked
and a more transparent bidding process is under way.
The dire circumstances gave Cruz little time to think
requiring her to immediately jump into action
to help her citizens.
Stepping far outside of her comfort zone
and bravely leading the charge to receive federal support
that is adequate for the recovery.
What are the special skills that enable
some leaders like Cruz to adapt so quickly
to new circumstances and to continue to work
towards ambitious goals?
One answer lies in their intuition,
the ability to understand and act immediately
without the need for constant deliberation.
Our speaker tonight will draw on her own
distinguished record of public service
here in California and discuss how intuition
can be cultivated and make a critical piece
of any leader's tool kit.
First elected to the California Legislature in 2010,
Senator Holly Mitchell represents
nearly one million residents in the 30th Senate District,
which ranges from Century City to South Los Angeles.
A third generation Native Angeleno, Senator Mitchell
is Chair of the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee
and sits on the Senate Committees
of Health, Public Safety,
and Labor and industrial Relations, among others.
She also founded and chairs
the Senate Select Committee on Women and Inequality.
Mitchell previously headed California's largest
child and family development organization, Crystal Stairs,
and worked for the Western Center for Law and Poverty.
Frequently cited for her leadership and advocacy
on behalf of children, families,
the elderly, and the disabled Mitchell was named
the 2017 Lois Deberry Scholar by Women in Government,
Women in Government Leadership,
and this year received the first
Willy L Brown Jr Advocacy Award
from the California Black Lawyers Association.
Her advocacy on behalf of the expansion
of mental health services has earned her
the Legislature of the Year Award
for the National Alliance on Mental Illness California.
As always I must remind you that video and audio recording
is strictly prohibited, please silence and put away
your mobile devices at this time.
And please join me in welcoming
Senator Holly Mitchell to the Athenaeum.
(applause)
- Let me start by saying that from my perspective,
Wesley nailed that, thank you.
And you nailed it from my perspective
for a variety of reasons, first of all
I was in a leadership development program
for the entire last year with Mayor Cruz.
So you didn't know that.
(laughing)
In my intro it talks about I was the Lois Deberry Scholar,
the Women in Government Leadership program.
That's the program we were in together.
About 30 elected women from across the country
from lieutenant governors, to mayors,
to state senators, to county commissioners.
And Women in Government is a program of governing magazine,
which is sort of our industry rag
for people in local government.
And they convene us four times a year,
and it's an amazing learning opportunity
for women in government to come together
and support each other,
and so to have had that experience with her for a year,
so to know her personally, and to see her lead
on this national platform that she didn't anticipate,
nor would she have wanted to have to
step into that kind of role, has been phenomenal for me.
And so you nailed it, Wesley, you nailed it.
Good evening.
I want to thank
all of you for coming tonight,
I understand that I am standing
in between you and your studies for your finals
and those of you who are coming to the end
of your undergrad academic experience,
you have theses and things to do.
And so I appreciate you carving out the time
to fellowship with one another
and come hear a State Senator who represents a district
that you probably don't live in.
And so I thank you for that,
and I hope that we will have an opportunity
to engage and have meaningful conversation
that you will find valuable.
I had the opportunity to spend a little time today
on your very beautiful campus
and talk to some students before dinner.
Had the opportunity to engage with a number of students
here at the table and quite frankly
you all rudely reminded me that I am now
further away in my life from where you are
than when I was when I was born.
And I know you're like why is she measuring her life
that way, I know it sounds very odd,
I'm keenly aware of how strange it is.
But my seasoned audience members here
are all nodding because when you get old
that's what you start to do, I remember when!
But talking to you all I thought,
it has now been longer since I've been out of college
than before I got there and so, have mercy on me.
I'm getting old and I'm having to
figure out what that really means.
I also want to thank my good friend Latania Slack,
who helped facilitate my invitation to be with you today.
She's the kind of friend who says
hey I'd like you to come speak.
And by the way I don't want you to talk about
your normal routine stuff.
You know you're a politician, you have stump speeches,
I've heard em, that's not what I want you to talk about.
So she's the kind of friend that requires
that you go deep into yourself,
into your quiet space, give thought,
tap into a couple of resource materials,
to really try to come up with your own concept
about intuition and whether or not it should be a part
of your leadership tool kit.
So I want to thank her for making me work hard
and continue to activate those brain cells
to make sure that I'm ready to lead.
Particularly during these times
I am thankful for the opportunity
to really begin to and continue to
think about the required paradigm shift for leadership.
Whatever your perspective of what's happening
at the national level,
whatever your perspective of what's happening
in my California State Legislature right now
with a member of the Lower House resigning yesterday,
I think we can all agree that a paradigm shift
in how we traditionally define leadership
is critically necessary for us all to continue and survive.
So let's talk about intuition.
Intuition, I saw one of those visual tests on Facebook,
at least I wasn't playing Candy Crush,
and it was the kind of test where the first animal you see
is supposed to reflect your leadership style,
you've probably seen them.
The person who posted it talked about
she saw the butterfly and went into great detail
about what it means to see the butterfly first.
So that was a spoiler alert, and so the comments
were so wonderful and empowering I was convinced
oh I'm gonna click on this and I will see the butterfly.
I was gonna will that to happen.
Well I clicked on the image.
And I see something that looks like a grasshopper,
I'm like what the hell, I'm supposed to see the butterfly!
(laughing)
And here's the description.
A praying mantis is a master of the senses and patience.
It can keep still for hours, waiting for its prey,
and acts without warning to hunt.
If the praying mantis was the first creature you saw,
then you have really strong instincts.
Your inner voice guides you
and you're clearly in touch with your primal self.
You go by your gut more often than not,
you get what you want.
You are the master of your domain and just like the mantis
there's a fighting spirit driving you from within.
Sounds like Holly Mitchell to me.
And not to mention the praying mantis
also has my very long legs.
So I thought that was very insightful
in terms of what I saw in this Facebook game,
but to really focus on the power of one's gut
and the power of your intuition,
and for me to really I think,
think about for the first time consciously,
how it has lead me to make the kind of decisions I've made
professionally throughout my career,
but also how it informs the kind of leader I am,
both at the California State Senate
and leader of my team, the staff that I lead as an employer.
So what is intuition really?
I think sometimes it's your memory saying
hey we've been here before, this worked, this didn't,
and you might want to consider this
as you take your next action.
I think it's also potentially
a manifestation of a combination of life experiences.
Actions you've seen others take,
whatever the experience may be,
I think it helps inform your intuition
and can help guide you if you pay attention to it.
And I think fundamentally it's your ability
to trust yourself.
To have the confidence to follow your own instinct.
And so in preparing for today's conversation,
I was forced to step back and think about
how following my gut,
my praying mantis skill set apparently.
Has helped guide and nurture and direct decisions I've made
both leading up to my decision to run for office
and decisions I make every day
as a city member of the Legislature.
City member of the Legislature of the fifth largest economy
in the world, so my job is not chopped liver, right?
I'm a Virgo.
(laughing)
And whether or not you believe in the power
of the sun's pull and the retrograde or not,
we all read horoscopes and find some characteristic
that reminds us of ourselves,
our partners, or our loved ones.
When I read them, I'm painfully reminded that yes,
I am indeed a Virgo.
Why?
I am a perfectionist, I am demanding of others,
I worry myself into a knot, and I make lists.
I have the power to talk myself,
supported by my lists, out of any possible decision.
A move, a new job, parenthood, running for public office,
I've got the pro and cons lists at home to prove it.
But what the process I go through has revealed to me
is that when I come out on the other side,
I will have worked through all the fear,
apprehension, whatever stops us from taking an action,
from taking that next step.
I've worked it through to the surface
and so whenever I come out on the other side
having made a decision, I'm clear that it is my true self,
my gut, my intuition, my instinct,
that's really guiding me and telling me what I should do.
Case in point,
running for public office in your late 40s.
I serve with a number of colleagues,
we have a whole Millennial Caucus now in the Legislature,
there are so many people in their early 30s, late 20s,
who are running for State Legislature,
so they've created their own caucus, the Millennial Caucus.
That wasn't me.
I'd had a full career leading a nonprofit organization,
working for the legislature,
I lobbied for the Western Center for Law and Poverty.
And one day got made enough to decide to run.
And so the process by which you step away from your life
mid-career, to make this decision sent me to what?
My lists.
My pro and con lists.
How do I run for office, live in two cities,
as a single adoptive parent?
Am I going to take a 50% pay cut to run for office
and hold an office where there is no pension provided?
Does that make sense?
For a single, working class woman?
Who's mid-career, to carve out 14 years in her life
where she's not gonna contribute
or have an employer contribute to a pension system?
I am clear that running for office
is what I was supposed to do.
So following my intuition, following my gut
ultimately got me there.
And I have to say that I've been so fortunate
that there have been any number of experiences I've had,
once serving in the Legislature
that making the decision to run, following my intuition,
it's been validated that it's the right thing to do.
Sitting in a budget subcommittee
on Health and Human Services,
and having a mother and her seven-year-old son
come up and testify about how the proposed cut
we were considering making was gonna impact their life.
And to have a seven-year-old step up to the mic
and participate in public comment,
how many of you have done that?
And say things like,
it's not fair that my mother has to sleep on the floor
because she gives my brothers and I the bed.
It's not fair that she goes to school by day
and then works all night to try to make a living
to support my brothers and I.
Those are amazing, life-altering experiences I've had
because I followed my intuition.
But I'm also clear that I was supposed to be there
to receive that young man's testimony
and be in a position of power to make decision
that will hopefully positively impact his life.
And so working through the fear and the apprehension,
having the confidence to follow that instinct,
that little voice, to really step out there on faith,
some may refer to it as.
To put aside all those barriers I mentioned to you
about why one would not want to mid-career
make such a drastic move.
To be in the public domain,
to have to go through a campaign,
to do all you have to do that makes
running for public office a real pain in the ass!
But again, following my gut, then having those experiences
let me know that I made the right decision
and I'm there for a reason.
My wish for all of you, as you leave these hallowed halls
and move out into the workplace
is that you get those clues and those signals
that you indeed made the right decision.
You won't always get em, and you're not gonna get em
for every job, or your initial,
since research now says that you'll have three or four
careers in the course of your lifetime,
you may not experience it every time.
But I gotta tell you, to be able to get to a point
where you trust yourself enough
to lead in a way that goes against the grain
and to find yourself in a position where you know
that you're supposed to be there
is truly an awesome experience.
This past Sunday, I was watching the Sunday Morning Show
and Stella McCarty was on, telling her story.
McCarty as in the daughter of Sir Paul McCarty.
McCarthy.
McCartney.
(laughing)
This Sunday I was watching the morning show.
(laughing)
And Stella McCartney was on.
You get it.
I've seen her handbags, I didn't know her story,
I think I read someplace that she was indeed
Sir Paul's daughter, but I just didn't know her story.
Fascinating segment.
She talked about the fact that initially
she used a different last name when she entered
the fashion industry cus you know
she didn't want the baggage of being Sir Paul's daughter.
I get that.
But she credited her naivete which allowed her to quote,
"simply follow her own intuition."
she tells the story.
She talks about
her naivete allowing her to block out the noise and fear.
Fear of failure, fear of being a very young leader
of one of the leading fashion houses in Paris.
Being able to block out the noise of all of the haters
that came after her, Karl Lagerfeld,
any number, who said she's only there
cus she's Sir Paul's daughter,
she doesn't have the aptitude to be a designer,
et cetera, et cetera.
She said the naivete allowed her to break out the noise,
allowed her to ignore and
ignore the fear of failure,
and allowed her to really forge her own path.
It allowed her to find her own voice.
As a result she's now one of the cutting edge,
leading stylists in the industry.
She talked about the fact that the fashion industry
is one of the leading polluters in the world
and that no one had paid attention to that
before she got there,
she has never designed using leather or fur,
and she's working with new technology companies
to come up with new manmade fibers.
Manmade silk.
And so following her intuition,
not letting anyone tell her, how are you gonna design
and be a top designer and not use natural leather and fur?
Following that intuition created a whole new segment
of an international sector that wouldn't have happened
if she hadn't listened to her own voice
and blocked out the fear.
Following her intuition allowed a raw talent to emerge
of limiting external influences.
Anybody here see the movie Sully?
I remember the experience, for those of you who didn't,
you know it's Captain Sullenberger who landed the plane,
on the river, upside down, saved the day,
not one loss on the flight, no passengers,
the entire crew, everybody made it out.
I remember seeing the amazing images on the news.
Reading about it, but it wasn't until the movie
that I fully appreciate the fully story behind it.
The challenges he had with the
National Transportation and Safety Board, NTSB,
who questioned the decision he made.
While we were all you know amazed by the heroics,
NTSB said, we think that you took
an inappropriate, unnecessary risk.
And so they ran a number of simulations
to figure out would it have been a better option
for him to try to land the plane in New Jersey,
Newark, a variety of simulations.
And every simulation came back
saying that he made a mistake.
He continued to push,
continued to defend the decision he made,
it wasn't enough that he saved everybody.
The question was, was it the right thing to do,
and should he actually be sanctioned?
And the turning point came when he asked
a very different question.
The computer simulations were following
the log book by the time.
But it didn't factor in things like fear,
human instinct,
time delay when he realized what was going on,
and the human decision making process
when he had to acknowledge,
there is no example in our training
to help me navigate the best way to do this.
He tapped into his gut, his life experience,
his intuition to come up with a new solution
for a problem that had never been thought of
or used as a training example.
That lead me to a deeper understanding that
in this modern age of technology,
that there will be professions and jobs
and leadership responsibilities
that computers and programs and apps
will never be able to hit the mark on.
It's about you in this room.
Growing, learning, finding your own leadership path,
your own leadership theory and voice,
and fundamentally it's my hope,
tapping into your own,
whatever you are most comfortable calling it,
your human spirit, your intuition, your gut.
The voices in your head.
Whatever speaks to you to help guide you in making decisions
that helps guide you every day.
That helps you make decisions about what's right or wrong
for you, for your family, for your community.
The Sully example I thought was just phenomenal
in terms of acknowledging the human experience
and the power of following your own voice
in making critical decisions.
I started by saying there's a lot going on
in our State Capital, and for me,
a public servant who takes her job very seriously,
who believes in public service, it's really painful to see
my house divided, to be perfectly frank.
And I live by a number of kind of theories or beliefs but
I recently ran across a quote by Jack Kennedy.
And it is, the best politician is the man or woman
who doesn't think too much about the political consequences
of his or her actions every day.
Some could argue some of my colleagues
weren't thinking about the consequences of their actions.
But I think that can resonate with all of you every day.
That if you can tap into your core,
what excites you, what motivates you,
what wakes you up in the morning
before your alarm clock rings,
and figure out how to develop that into
a leadership opportunity professionally for you.
And not worry about how you're perceived,
whether you're gonna manufacture clothes
with leather and fur like others.
Whether or not you're gonna elevate above and beyond
the fear and what everyone else is doing
to follow your own passion and desire,
that's my wish for you at this stage in your life.
Cus I think that will help create a community
that really benefits all of us,
where you have the freedom to innovate
and come up with solutions like how to land plane
in circumstances that no one ever thought about.
Those are the opportunities that lie before you
and we all are counting on you to get it right,
so follow your gut.
That's all I got.
(laughing)
(applause)
I was told that the program runs 45 minutes,
that you have the experience of people
talking for 45 minutes and I said
there is no subject matter on the Earth
that anyone should talk about for 45 minutes.
(laughing)
Not one.
My goal is always to inspire, to motivate,
and I think at minute 44 you would lose anything
that I would've said that you woulda found
the least bit motivational.
So I know that we have the opportunity to have Q&A
and I look forward to engaging with you in a dialogue.
- [Isabel] Thank you so much Senator Mitchell.
If you have question, please raise your hand
and either Wesley or I will come and hand you the mic.
- [Woman] Hi, thank you so much.
How would you recommend
beginning to listen to your own intuition?
- You know there's no one way.
Because I think it presents to everybody differently.
I talked to you about my process,
and when I make my lists and talk myself out of
whatever decision I'm going to make,
it's going through that process for me
that lets me really tap into
what is really driving me.
When I decided to run for office,
I put together, some people call it their Kitchen Cabinet,
I don't spend a lot of time in the kitchen
so I called it my Shoe Closet.
(laughing)
And my Shoe Closet was my group of advisors
and I laid out all these scenarios
in terms of how it would impact my personal life,
but what my goals and aspirations were.
And the Shoe Closet came back
and recommended that I not run.
I said hmm.
Couple of things happened,
I'd gone to a couple budget hearings,
I said I need to revisit this and think about it again.
I called EMILY's List.
EMILY's List is an organization that helps fund
women running for office.
EMILY stands for Early Money Is Like Yeast,
and so the theory is you invest in candidates early
to help them rise like bread rises.
I called EMILY's List, I said look,
I need a model, I'm a single adoptive parent
mid-career of a school-aged child.
I live in LA the capital is 400 miles away
I'll have to live in both cities.
Can you point me the direction of a woman
who has kind of a similar kind of scenario?
Cus I just need to talk through my list
with someone who's done it.
EMILY's List said yeah, no.
(laughing)
There is no one nationally who kind of fits your profile.
That was Strike Two.
And then a budget Sub-Committee took an action on child care
where they were eliminating subsidized child care
for 13-year-olds across the state of California.
And I thought, I would have sooner left my son
home alone at four versus 13, that's ridiculous!
(laughing)
And I got mad.
And it occurred to me that systems,
the term limits initiative, the no pension
were set up to prevent someone like me
from running.
I had the skill set,
I had the work history,
I knew these programs inside and out,
I had run the largest
child development agency in the country,
the action they were taking runs counterintuitive
to what we know is best in the world of child development.
And so if not me, then who?
And so it was those series of no's,
me asking the questions, getting the answers,
that for me allowed me to really get to the core
of my truth, which is you gotta run.
You gotta run.
Because of my life experiences,
because of my professional background,
if not me, then who?
And so it will happen a variety of different ways.
I think for me it's the saying no to myself,
asking the questions, pulling the onion layers back,
that helps me to reveal what my true gut is telling me,
to be true.
And I have to say, and you should ask people in your life,
has your gut ever really steered you wrong?
Now sometimes I like to think I'm smarter than the gut,
and come up with all my reasons for either yes or no,
but I gotta say my gut and my intuition
and what I know to be true,
has never steered me wrong.
- [Woman] Hi!
Thank you so much for your talk today.
I was wondering how you recognized this intuition
that you speak of and how you distinguish it
from other feelings that may be motivators
when you're making the decision, such as fear,
or maybe desire, or anger,
how you recognize intuition separately from these things?
- That's a very good question!
And I think the Stella McCartney example
is a great one that we should all be so lucky to have.
Where really just her naivete about the industry
allowed her to ignore all the naysayers
and just do what she thought made sense and worked.
I think that's one strategy.
And I don't know that I can give you
the answer about how you distinguish,
I think it's different for everyone.
I think you have to be true and honest to yourself.
Again, as I make my lists put all the reasons
why I shouldn't do things,
for me and making the list,
talking it through with people,
helps me shed the things that are just fear based.
That are based on what others have said
about why I shouldn't do something.
You know hateration is real,
and going through the process for me allows me
to understand that that's what it really is,
and to get to a point, which is probably where I started
when I made the list anyway.
You know I made the list, my pro/con list
about running for office.
So I knew that's what I wanted to consider doing.
It was the fear and all of that
that helped me pile onto this list
all the the reasons why I didn't,
but through that process helps me distinguish
and get to my core.
I think it's different for everyone.
I think it probably changes over the course of your life,
because again as I said earlier,
I believe intuition is informed by a variety of things.
Some of it is life experience,
some of it is witnessing decisions, actions of others,
all of that I think informs
what we identify is right for us at that moment in time.
And it will change over the course of your life.
Was running for office what my intuition told me to do
at 20, or 25, or 30?
No.
Because for me, I hadn't had the life experiences
to help me become the kind of policy maker I am today.
So it will change over the course of time,
your gut'll tell you no at one point,
circumstances will change, and the green light will come on.
And it's really up to you to be conscious,
to have a level of self confidence
that you are looking out for your own best interests.
And make the decision.
I know it's easier said than done,
but I think it's an exercise that we can all engage in
to really figure out how we can be the unique leaders
that we are.
Breaking the mold of what a leader may look like,
or be like, or how old they are.
But becoming leaders in our own right.
She's coming behind you.
There you go.
- [Woman] A wonderful talk.
But I'm wondering whether your intuition
has come into conflict with party politics?
(chuckles)
And how have you determined which way to go?
- Really good question, we were having a conversation
at the table and I talked about
really the benefit for me of running for office
at the stage in life I did and my mother coined a term
that my girlfriends and I adopted
and it's called being a GAW.
A Grown Ass Woman.
(laughing)
And so my GAW
really is my rudder.
I'm clear what I've sacrificed,
what I gave up to run for office.
I'm clear about why I ran,
and I'm clear about wanting to be
the kind of boss, employer, elected official
that I would want to work for or have represent me.
I'm very fortunate that I represent a district,
the 30th District,
in Los Angeles County.
That based on town halls, Coffees with the Senator,
op-eds, polls,
I'm really deeply in sync with.
It's the community in which I was born and raised,
I'm a third generation Angeleno.
And so my constituents, I reflect the needs and wants
of the vast majority of my constituents.
I wanted my mother to grow old in a Los Angeles
that would be nurturing and caring for,
I wanted to raise my son in a Los Angeles
with great public schools, parks,
clean open air, with his little asthmatic self.
And I wanted to be in a Los Angeles
that I would continue to be proud of.
And so my GAW-ness, and those goals and aspirations
really have helped inform my rudder
and helped me make the decisions every day
that I think are in the best interest
of not only my constituents, but California as a whole.
There have been times when it ran afoul to leadership,
not my party so much but certainly leadership.
The year before I was appointed Budget Chair
I was the lone dissenting vote
on the Senate floor of a budget.
I had been a Budget Sub-Committee Chair,
Sub-Committee Three, Health and Human Services.
The area that for the last decade and a half
has experienced the greatest cuts,
even more so than public education.
And we had begun to rebuild and reinvest in Californians
because our economy was recovering.
And we had worked very hard in shaping this budget,
which included some investments that in the final analysis,
the final deal, were cut.
And I could not in good conscious vote on a budget
in a year where the resources were available
that didn't include investments in critical,
life-sustaining and saving,
Health and Human Services programs.
And so I didn't.
There was concerns with my staff that I'd be ostracized.
And I made the decision that I wasn't gonna allow myself
to be ostracized either.
Sometimes you just make a decision
and that becomes your reality and that's the way
you carry and comport yourself, and I did.
Had direct conversations with my leadership
as to why I couldn't vote on the budget,
and how I think things could have been done differently,
took responsibility for a sense of
disappointment in my actions and I kept moving.
And I think there was some concern that I was then
indeed be ostracized and not have the opportunity
to move into leadership and yeah later
I was appointed Chair of the entire Budget Committee.
Second woman since statehood, first African American.
So for me that's an example of following your gut.
Because when you follow your gut,
you're comfortable with the decision you've made
and you're willing to take whatever come, be that may.
And I think standing in my truth and explaining it
and not shying away from why I made the decision I made
created an opportunity for my leader to understand
what kind of team player I am,
and how allowing me to leave the budget conversation
would be in the best interests of
the Dem Caucus in the Senate,
and in effect the best interests of California as a whole.
As a result last year I lead the state
through the process of a $183,000,000,000 budget,
I chaired not only the Senate Budget Committee,
but I chaired the conference committee
that closed the final deal that the governor signed.
It was a decision I made that I have not regretted once.
- [Woman] Hi.
Thank you so much for your time and for your talk.
Throughout your whole talk, you've been characterizing
like the gut instinct and intuition
as something that you feel you should do
with like whatever decision that you're gonna make.
So like I've grown up being taught
that your intuition or like your gut instinct
is sort of associated or like clouded with
your emotional impulses.
So like when I make a decision,
my mom always tells me like,
don't just follow your gut, like you gotta think it through.
So it always ends up being a decision between
what I think I want and what I think I need,
which like I associate with my hear or my gut
versus what I think, like my brain, I guess.
So I was just wondering what are your thoughts on that,
like how do you like make sure that your gut instinct
is rational or like it's actually
not just because you want something so that's why you think,
oh that's what my gut's telling me.
- These are really smart students!
And they're asking me really hard questions!
And I wish I just had a definitive answer for all of em.
It would make their lives so much easier, but I don't.
(laughing)
And you've heard me talk about, give these examples
of the process I went through.
Unlike 45, I didn't wake up and say,
I'm gonna be President of the United States!
And jump out there. (laughing)
I didn't do that.
I talked to you about a process I went through,
you heard me convene my council,
lay out a series of facts, they came up with a decision
that I sat with for a minute.
You heard me talk about I reached out to EMILY's List,
another fact finding mission.
They came back with a resolution,
I sat with it for a minute.
Then I had an experience that was a game changer,
that a group of people were gonna make a decision
that I fundamentally knew would harm children.
And so it wasn't me following the instinct
or my intuition initially.
I went through a series of processes
to help me unpack,
is it what I want?
Is it because I think having
a Senator title will make me cool?
Is it, you know?
I unpacked I think all those external issues
to get down to what I believe is my true calling.
This wasn't a selfish act.
You heard me say 50% pay cut right?
No pension.
Travel back and forth and yet you know,
it's nothing like waking up on Monday morning
thinking I'll put this on and reach for the black shoes
and realize they're in the other house.
Nothing like that in the world!
And so it's not an easy existence, quite frankly.
And so I don't think ego for me at least,
trumped what I found to be my true calling.
And so there's no easy answer.
And of course you're supposed to listen to your mother,
being a mother, you're supposed to listen
to everything she tells you.
(laughing)
However, you have to figure out what resonates with you
and only you can answer that question truly for yourself.
Am I doing this because I want to?
Or am I doing this because it's my gut tell me
it's the place I'm supposed to be?
It's the leadership station I'm supposed to take.
Only you can unpack that and figure that out.
And you'll have to figure it out,
I hope you don't become a list maker like me
because it's painful.
But you'll have to figure out what your process is
to allow you to peel those onion layers back
and figure it out.
But let me say this.
We need you do that work.
Because we need you to make decisions
and ascend into leadership in sectors and fields and work
that feeds you so you do good work for the rest of us.
Some of my colleagues who have made questionable decisions
or been forced to leave office didn't make decisions
in the best interests of the people who elected them, right?
We have a joke in my office we have superhero capes
that hang on a coat rack and we joke around say
use your super powers for good!
And so we really need you
to tap into the amazing experience you have here
and this stellar institution.
Take that knowledge, go out into the world,
and figure out your space and place in it,
and do good work and be leaders.
So from my perspective, this is one element of the tool kit
that you will have to assemble,
first here as students and then as you enter the work world
that will help guide you and help you make
the best decisions for yourself and for others.
Only you can figure that out.
- [Woman] Thank you for your talk.
I'm just curious as to if you had any aspirations
to I guess climb the political ladder
any time soon or in the near future?
- Did you laugh? (laughing)
That's what happens when you have your friends
of 25 years in the room!
So, I'm...
As my teenager says, Google it, Mom.
If you were to Google my name,
you would see a number of things
that have been in the press lately.
The leader of the Senate is called the pro tem
the President pro tempore.
It's a leadership position,
and you are elected to that position
from the members of the Senate.
You've heard of the Speaker of the House,
President of the Senate at the Federal level,
it's the pro tem, so you will see my name in articles
as being rumored as a leading contender for pro tem.
My gut and intuition said to me that's not for me.
Others have said, external influence,
you'd be great, you're a strong leader,
you're a GAW, and that's what the institution needs!
And I get that.
But I've also understand that what drives me
and what I want to accomplish
and the role I play in the Senate as a whole,
not too many other people can do that.
And it's more important for the communities that I fight for
that I'm there being, their advocate, fighting every day,
versus stepping into the role of the leader of the House
who assumes very different responsibilities
in terms of moving a full agenda,
keeping everybody happy in the caucus, et cetera, et cetera.
Right?
So I'm following my gut, my intuition that says
my goal when I ran for office was to chair a budget.
Because the experience that motivated me to run for office
was a budget action, that's what got me there.
And so I want to use my super powers for good
in the realm of the budget.
That opportunity is available.
It's a bright, shiny thing.
I would be the first woman in the history of the state
to be the pro tem, that's attractive!
But when I tap, go back into why am I here?
What direction is my rudder leading me?
It doesn't take me there.
I don't know.
I term out in 2022,
we live in a term limited environment in California.
I fall under the old rules,
where you can serve a maximum of 14 years,
the new rules are a maximum of 12 years
so I will term out in 2022, and I don't know.
There are opportunities that I'll consider
but I am really enjoying what I'm doing right now.
I think this is an incredible time in our nation's history
and our state's history to be at the helm,
to make sure that investments are being made
in our core infrastructure, in early care and education,
K-12, higher ed,
all those things.
And so I'm enjoying it,
and I've got my eye on the prize, and my hand on the plow,
focused on that work in front of me.
- [Wesley] I actually had a question, step in here.
I liked your story about listening to the testimony
of the seven-year-old. - Yeah.
- [Wesley] And how moving that was for you.
And I'm sure you're used to all different kinds of people
coming to talk to you each with their own
angles and motivations and you know objectives.
So what role does intuition play, or your gut feeling play,
in figuring out who else's heart is also in the right place
and who's just trying to get something from you?
- Wesley is gonna be President of the World!
(laughing)
Wesley's a smart brother!
That's a very good point.
And you know I'm human, I don't know that it's always
kind of on point.
You know a group or person could walk in
and you know I'm human they could rub you the wrong way,
say the wrong thing, whatever.
And I have to try to let my own humanness
and my own biases, implicit or explicit,
not shadow how I receive information.
I think that there are issues that just innately
I am more sympathetic towards.
But I take my job very seriously,
particularly as Budget Chair,
and understanding that I have a lot of learning to do.
The pace, as you know,
having spent the summer in Sacramento,
the pace at which we move and the amount of information
that comes at us is overwhelming.
We hear 4,000 bills a year.
Right, my sentiments exactly!
Maybe two dozen of the 4,000 you will read about
because they're controversial, they're bonds,
they require 2/3, maybe two dozen in a good year.
Nonetheless 4,000 come across one's desk.
Add to that my Budget responsibilities.
You can imagine how much paper, how much ink,
how many hearings go into a $183,000,000,000 budget.
There are four sub-committees that have dozens of meetings,
they fold into the full Budget Committee.
We hear all the issues, and vote on a budget bill,
what we call Budget Juniors and there may be
four or five Budget Junior bills,
and then trailer bills up the kazoo.
The budget document itself appropriates the funds,
the trailer bills stipulate the programs and how it's spent.
So it's dual process.
And so I am clear that I can't know
everything about everything.
And so taking the meetings from key stakeholders,
constituents, others who have an expertise that I don't,
is really important to help inform my process
about whether I go up, down, or lay off an issue completely.
And I think, and I tell people all the time,
because before I ran for office I did public policy work,
and would train people in how to be an advocate.
And my point always was don't be mad if the member
isn't there, you're meeting with staff.
Cus there's only so many hours in the day.
And understand that on this particular issue
you know more than me so don't be offended
that I don't know exactly what you're talking about.
People will come up to me in the market and say,
how about that AB-320?
Really? (chuckles)
4,000 bills a year and I had to get comfortable saying
I have no idea what AB-320 is,
can ya tell me a little about it?
And so I tell people, don't be offended if we don't know
exactly what you're talking about.
It's your opportunity to educate me
and perhaps inform the decision I'll make
on behalf of the state.
- [Woman] Thank you so much, this has been so enlightening!
I, as a fellow GAW,
I definitely have had my experience
where my intuition has gone totally awry.
Have you had that kind of experience,
and if you have, how have you navigated it,
and transformed it or done?
- Well tell me what you mean by having done awry?
Cus I don't know that I've
experienced that. - Well so I feel I've had,
I feel like I've thought
that my gut was telling me one thing,
following that line and then having it,
and having the regret and not having the sort of
the owning that this was an experience
and you know something to learn from.
- So what you said is different than
what I heard you said initially.
- Okay. - You said that
you thought your gut was telling one thing.
And I think my point is we have to learn
and discipline ourselves and practice
how to really tap into what our gut is really saying.
I think it goes back to the young lady's question over here
where her mom was like don't just jump, think it through.
And how to we decipher and how to we get to what
our gut is truly telling us?
And I think that probably varies for everybody.
I think it takes practice,
and I think it really takes confidence
and a willingness to listen to your inner self
and your inner voice.
I think that there are those who argue that perhaps
you know women leaders are better at it than me.
I don't necessarily know if that's true.
I think it's one's willingness to listen and own it,
is the real critical factor.
So I don't know that it went awry,
as opposed to you hearing the true inner message.
As opposed to
getting caught up in the distractions
that happen in our everyday lives.
Going back to Stella, based on her naivete,
she wasn't distracted, which allowed her
to create this kind of cutting edge, new industry.
So that probably takes a certain kind of discipline
to figure out how to separate all of that
and I don't have the specific answer,
other than I know it is worth our effort to try
because it will not steer us wrong.
That I fundamentally believe.
As Oprah says, that I know to be true,
however she says it, what I know for sure!
That I know for sure.
- [Woman] Hi thank you for your talk.
I wanted to ask about the process of
kind of learning, developing, and trusting your intuition.
As a college student, like personally like my views
and the way I view the world has changed dramatically
since one, two, even three years ago.
- Right. - And so I'm wondering
at what point do you really begin to trust it
or like in your opinion and how do you know
when you've reached that point?
- Right, I don't think it's an end point.
I think it evolves throughout the course of your life.
You're absolutely right, you're at this stage in your life
other than probably your first year of life,
this is the time both maturity, hormones,
being away from the direct influence of your parents,
in settings like this where your attitudes
and belief systems will grow and expand the most.
This is your time to have that life experience.
And so this is the time where you also can tap into
how you define your rudder.
What is my rudder, what do I fundamentally believe
is right and wrong?
And what fundamentally motivates me?
What kind of mark do I want to leave on the world?
And it will evolve and change.
What I believe to be true for myself at 25
changed when I became a parent.
At 35.
I'm a late bloomer!
Has changed again as he has grown
and is less dependent on me and more independent,
that gives me a freedom to once again figure out
what mark am I gonna leave on the planet?
And so it's not a point in time where I'm a GAW, I got it.
No more learning for me, this is my intuition,
this is my gut, I'm done.
We're not so lucky.
It will evolve as you move into other
rich learning experiences and environments
and it will continue to change and it's up to us
to continue to top into it and figure out
how I've learned, how I'm factoring this new information,
these new life experiences, that help inform my intuition
and help guide me to these new
kind of decisions about my life.
There is no end point, when you hit it and you're done.
It will evolve as you evolve, and mature and grow.
- [Isabel] I actually have a question for you Senator.
- Yes ma'am!
- [Isabel] Thank you so much for speaking with us tonight.
You said that you wanted to inspire,
and for me you did the job, so thank you very much.
I wanted to ask you, you've been speaking a lot about
your intuition in terms of moving forward
with your own personal life.
And I wanted to ask you,
I don't know if it's on the flip side,
but I wanted to ask you about compromise.
As a parent, as somebody with constituents under you,
as somebody who has to work with tons of colleagues
with different opinions, different backgrounds.
At what point you know, so two people's intuitions
could leave them to completely different places
but that doesn't make any of there intuitions
less valid than the other. - Very good point.
- [Isabel] So I was wondering,
if you know where that balance is,
or at what point do you come to the table
and be like let's negotiate.
Yeah, just your thoughts on that, thank you.
- Another tough question, woo!
I'm confronted with that everyday,
as all of you will be, that's not unique to elected leaders.
Every day in class, in your work life, your living situation
you'll be confronted with another gut
that may running counter to yours.
So I think this is a skill that all of us have to hone.
And I'm confronted with it.
And I think kind of very, on a very simplistic level,
I need to be able to look myself in the mirror
every day and be okay with the image that's looking back.
That's where my own kind of core character
and rudder comes in.
I can't, much like the budget vote.
And you going to be willing to pay the sacrifice,
make the sacrifice if there is one,
with the decision.
I'm not gonna pay the penalty or live through the sacrifice
on a decision that I didn't want to make in the first place.
You know what I mean?
I'm willing to pay the piper,
if it is an alignment of who I am and my core character.
One quick example.
25 years ago there was a policy put in place,
there was a ballot initiative had failed,
the voters voted it down.
And it was in a cover of dark, Big Five budget deal.
And it was based on a classist, sexist theory,
racist theory, around welfare.
And that women would have more children
for the sole purpose of increasing their welfare check.
It was part of the national Republican
kind of platform and it passed in California.
And so there was a 25 year period
that if you were on welfare and you had another baby,
your cash grant wouldn't expand.
That policy is one of the major drivers
that have lead California to have the highest
child poverty rate in the nation.
California.
And so I got elected, worked with a number
of children's advocates, family advocates,
and they said the maximum family grant has got to go.
15 other states, because research as now shown us
20 years later, that the average family size
of the general population is 2.5 kids,
the average family size of families on welfare is 2.5 kids
and it hadn't changed.
This notion that welfare recipients had 15 and 20 children
was a fraud.
So their hypothesis was wrong.
15 states have now realized the damage it caused
and reversed the policy.
I thought, stakeholders thought,
California needs to do the same.
And my argument was, I have never met a woman
and don't believe she's been born yet
who would have a baby for an additional $120 a month.
(laughing)
She doesn't exist.
And I told the Governor that.
And I told my colleagues in the Legislature that.
Every year, for four years.
So in year three, folks came to me and said,
okay we know maximum family grant,
we know the woman hasn't been born yet who'll have a baby,
we know, we've heard it.
Tell you what we'll do.
Let's eliminate perspectively.
So children born today won't fall under
the maximum family grant.
I said well in LA County alone,
that will mean I will have abandoned about 30,000 kids
who were born under the maximum family grant policy.
I don't think I can do that.
Okay Holly so that means you're willing
to let this policy to stay in the books for another year,
or I don't know another 10,000 kids could be born under it?
Yes.
Cus I'm gonna come back next year,
and I'm gonna try again, to eliminate it,
and grandfather in the children
who have been subjected to it since birth.
Tough call.
Made the decision, and a year later we got it through.
So are there times I blink and compromise?
Yes.
What's actually more difficult for me
than those kinds of negotiations, is incrementalism.
Well you know you're asking for such a big sweeping change,
let's just do this part this year and this part,
that is my biggest struggle.
Incrementalism makes me crazy.
But those are things we face.
And ultimately you gotta keep your eye on the end goal.
My end goal was to reduce child poverty in California.
I was clear that was the end goal.
And I didn't think it was appropriate
that we would set an arbitrary date
that this policy was okay for this group
and not okay for this group.
It varies, it depends on the factors,
it depends on who you're working with and negotiating with,
and the nature of your relationship with them.
And at the end of the day you make the best decision you can
based on the facts that you have before you.
- [Wesley] Unfortunately that's all the time
we have this evening, please join me in one more time
thanking Senator Mitchell.
- And thank all of you! (applause)
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