Today, host Lorie Jones sits down with trailblazer Gayle Pottle, President of AdventHealth Rocky Mountain Foundation. Gayle shares her inspiring journey from marketing in Fortune 100 tech companies to making a profound impact in healthcare philanthropy.
Get ready to hear about her career-defining moments, such as attending Harvard Business School’s Women’s Leadership Forum and her life-changing move to Boston. Tune in for actionable advice on embracing lifelong learning, building a ‘personal board of directors,’ and harnessing your strengths to lead with confidence.
This episode is a must-listen for growth-oriented professional women eager to blaze their own trails.
Show Highlights:
- How biographies broaden perspectives and empower. [00:03:44]
- Gain insights on healthcare philanthropy to inform alternate career paths. [00:07:53]
- The power of meaningful lifelong educational pursuits. [00:13:28]
- Do you evaluate the career advice you receive? [00:16:51]
- Discover the “Three M’s” toolkit for career maintenance. [00:19:08]
- Lessons in dealing with job relocations with your spouse. [00:21:50]
- How to conquer fears and embrace life’s high dive. [00:25:54]
- Can the 33% gender pay gap in healthcare philanthropy be closed? [00:29:49]
- The importance of firing the inner critic as women. [00:33:38]
- Key assessment advice for early-career women. [00:38:08]
To connect with Gayle Pottle, visit https://www.linkedin.com/in/gaylepottle/.
If you enjoyed this episode, please go to Apple Podcasts and leave a review! For more information about Lorie Jones, go to http://fearless-females.com/.
00:01.22
Lorie Jones
Good morning. So today we're here with Gail Pottle. She's the president of admin Advent Health Rocky Mountain Foundation, where she does some fundraising, where she leads some fundraising teams um that do fundraising for hospitals. So I really appreciate you joining us today, Gail. I'm so excited to get to know you a little bit more and get to hear your story.
00:24.23
Gayle Pottle
Thank you, Lori. It's such a pleasure to be here. And I applaud you for the work that you're doing to amplify women's voices in this way. So thank you.
00:33.92
Lorie Jones
I think we could all use just a little bit more encouragement, cheerleading, recognizing that we are doing great things even by ourselves. We were just chatting recently or just before this started and mentioning that a lot of times women don't think they're as great as they really are. And it's nice to have a platform to let you show up and show how amazing you are. So thank you.
00:57.55
Gayle Pottle
Absolutely.
00:59.82
Lorie Jones
So, Gail, my very first question is always the same. I'm a reader. I love reading everything and anything. What is your favorite book?
01:07.94
Gayle Pottle
Well, Lori, I love this question and I'm so glad that you asked it because I'm an avid reader as well. And I don't know if you've ever taken Strengths Finder, but one of my strengths is context. And the reason that I love context is that it helps me understand where we've come from so that I can make decisions for where we're going. And so I love historic biographies. And that's really how I sort of self-taught myself about leadership and about women in leadership. So um I'm also a big believer in rereads. So currently I'm rereading a book that I've loved for a long time. It is ah an historic ah autobiography.
01:53.96
Gayle Pottle
about Katherine Graham called Personal History, about her journey as the owner and publisher of the Washington Post. But I think an all-time favorite is about the magazine, The New Yorker, and it's called About Town, written by Ben Yagoda, and it is the history of kind of how The New Yorker came to be and um all sorts of literary and historic contexts.
02:21.81
Gayle Pottle
And I have read that several times. I think if you find a good book, there's no reason you can't reread it. But my best book of the year that I recently finished is a book that I know many of us are reading, which is The Warmth of Other Suns by by Isabella Wilkerson. And um it's about the Great Migration. And what I found in that story is really a better understanding ah of women, of women of color who went through that journey. and um And it really impacts me as a leader to understand that context. Because listen, we all can see one another in each other's stories, which is another reason I like biographies. And it just really broadened my perspective. It's so well written. She's a fabulous author.
03:18.92
Gayle Pottle
A Pulitzer Prize winning.
03:20.80
Lorie Jones
I'll have to put that on my list. I love the idea of biographies. I really didn't, I've been um mostly in um nonfiction, self-help, kind of leadership, treaties and stuff like that.
03:32.94
Gayle Pottle
Yes.
03:33.91
Lorie Jones
And it just really never occurred to me, this is shocking, right? But it really never occurred to me that reading the biographies of these great leaders could give you some of those same, same inspiration.
03:44.95
Gayle Pottle
You know, it's really reassuring when you read biographies of presidents and world leaders and you see that you see their humanity, you see that they survived their mistakes, but we don't hear about failures ah for leaders like that. We only hear about the wins. And when you read their biography, again, it's really easy to find yourself in their story.
04:11.66
Lorie Jones
Oh, that's such a, that's insightful. Thank you. I love that idea. I'm going to put those on my list.
04:15.73
Gayle Pottle
yeah you that
04:16.62
Lorie Jones
Thanks for sharing.
04:17.00
Gayle Pottle
yeah
04:18.50
Lorie Jones
So tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you get started on your journey? What do you do now? Kind of what makes you you?
04:26.91
Gayle Pottle
So I thought I wanted to be a high school English teacher until I actually taught. And I was really bad. It is a really hard job. And I was living in Oklahoma, which is where I'm from. So I quickly pivoted to Plan B, which was to sell my car, pack a few boxes, and move to Boston. And I only knew one from there, but I knew that I needed to regroup. And it was really the beginning of where I saw in my heart that something was not right. But I was just trying to figure it out. So um as I grew my network of friends there, it was recommended to me that I might want to pursue marketing.
05:15.12
Gayle Pottle
So I took a marketing class at Harvard's Extension program and fell in love with it. I knew I had found my tribe. So I moved into a high rise in Back Bay. I had a wonderful job for a great firm. And um my part of my ah client territory was in both New York and DC. So i I really got to thrive in the Northeast until that began to change and came to an end. So I came back to Oklahoma.
05:44.14
Gayle Pottle
And, but I stayed in marketing and in sales and I ended up spending 10 years in fortune 100 tech and in sales and marketing booth. And that's really where I learned my business acumen that I apply today in nonprofit work. So after about 10 years, I had started a family by that point and we had relocated a bit.
06:10.80
Gayle Pottle
And I begin to become disillusioned with for-profit work. ah We didn't have ESG programs and DEI programs that we have today where you find a purpose-centered place for yourself in a corporation. So I transitioned to the world of nonprofit for that. I've been recruited into that just for my own volunteerism. where I ended up somehow some way chairing the fundraising gala or committee and realized that I had a passion for that and a talent. So um I made the leap and I transitioned into nonprofit work where I've been ah not quite 20 years in all sorts of roles from a Kenyan orphanage to where I am today um overseeing
07:04.34
Gayle Pottle
about 350 funds for Advent Health Foundations across five hospitals, two international programs and a hospice program. So we're a grant seeking foundation. We go out and raise funds from the community and then we reinvest those and into programs that benefit the community within within our facilities. And I believe that healthcare care philanthropy
07:34.69
Gayle Pottle
is really kind of the best of both worlds because I get to experience um in an institutional setting, which is a good fit for me, the rigor of science, and I get to display my business acumen and exercise that muscle, but I get to lean into that purpose ah-centered culture that I was looking for.
07:58.09
Lorie Jones
Mm hmm.
08:00.05
Gayle Pottle
You know, the the word philanthropy literally means love for humanity. And I think in healthcare philanthropy, that's what we get to do every day.
08:11.32
Lorie Jones
Oh, I love that. I love that framing of your job too. It's not just a job to you. You can tell that you've got a passion around it and that you, you really believe in making the world a better place and and and not just for yourself, but for others as well.
08:25.45
Lorie Jones
So that's, it's so funny though, that you, you packed up your car, like you you went through school to be an English teacher and then
08:33.84
Gayle Pottle
Well, here's what I say, though, because one of my passions really is mentoring and leading women. And even in the very talented team that I've hired, I get the pleasure and the joy of developing them. Well, what is team development if it's not teaching? And I do the same with board summits. We have a board summit um for our eight boards coming up on over 100 individuals.
09:01.46
Gayle Pottle
who I get to teach and so I'm still teaching even in working with physicians and with donors and telling donors what philanthropy is all about, educating them about the impactful programs that they are supporting and how it's changing lives. So I'm still teaching just in a different setting.
09:22.99
Lorie Jones
That's so cool. That is really interesting. I consider, I always thought that of myself as well. I thought I'm a teacher at heart because I love that idea of promoting and lifting women, as you say. And, and I love, I love it when they understand financial concepts that they've been told that, you know, somebody else does that, you don't do that. But they finally get that they understand and can, and can use these concepts in their life. And that's,
09:50.64
Lorie Jones
such satisfaction. So I said I was a teacher at heart, but it's interesting how you find that in the different careers that you go into, in the different places that you end up.
09:59.62
Gayle Pottle
You know, it that stays in our hearts, doesn't it? Even if we have an abrupt career change the way that I did early on, um it's I think especially in today's world of hybrid everything, um you know, it there really are opportunities to continue to nurture that because we bring our whole selves to work, don't we? um And we're not,
10:26.29
Gayle Pottle
we're not unidimensional individuals. So I think the greater opportunities that we as leaders can provide for others to thrive in that kind of setting um is is very important and it's part of our legacy as leaders and a way to pay it forward for what women did before us.
10:46.72
Lorie Jones
Yeah, I love that idea. like um Adjusting if you have someone that is interested in in a teaching aspect in their position, if you can find a way for them to do that, or if you have somebody that's interested in the market. I love that you're in marketing. I always say, I am not a marketer. I love that there are other people out there that love that.
11:09.49
Lorie Jones
like
11:09.59
Gayle Pottle
Well, we all have our skills and need to stay in our lane sometimes, don't we?
11:14.09
Lorie Jones
Yeah, that's not mine, but I love that there are other people that that is. Because I do the things that other people don't love, like finance, usually you get this look.
11:25.20
Gayle Pottle
Well, I need you in my life, so.
11:27.74
Lorie Jones
There we go, symbiotic.
11:28.47
Gayle Pottle
them
11:29.70
Lorie Jones
So, yeah, what's the best investment you've made in yourself? Is there something you can look back on and say, oh my gosh, I'm so glad I did that because it's just made all the difference to who I am.
11:37.67
Gayle Pottle
who Well, I say that my move to Boston was my best gift to myself. So that certainly was an investment. But it really is what I'm doing today, which is I'm in grad school at DU, getting a master's in organizational leadership with an emphasis in strategic change and innovation, about which I'm very passionate.
11:52.59
Lorie Jones
Oh.
12:02.89
Gayle Pottle
But that journey began a few years ago. um I'll graduate in June. But as I look back, um you know it really started in 2022. So I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to be a member of Harvard Business School's Women's Leadership Forum in 2022. And it just changed my life. It was beyond what I learned. It was who I learned that with. I was in a class of about 30 individuals from
12:36.93
Gayle Pottle
over 20 countries. And it was a one-week course, ah but I was with ambassadors and astronauts and authors, women from all sorts of backgrounds and from all over the world. And the commonality that we found is that we have the same struggles, we have the same dreams, we have the same victories, and we have the same failures.
13:04.46
Gayle Pottle
and Women often are so competitive with one another. I think it's just kind of the ecosystem that we live in. And the more that we can find those opportunities that galvanize our commonalities, the stronger we are together.
13:22.50
Gayle Pottle
So I knew when I came home that it was time for me to go back to grad school.
13:25.92
Lorie Jones
no
13:27.05
Gayle Pottle
And I was a little bit later in my career, but it's the perfect time because I made a promise to myself And that is that I would enjoy every single class and I've been able to do that.
13:40.96
Lorie Jones
I love that. I love that you're in graduate school. I'm so passionate about learning and I love that, you know, okay, I'm gonna give it away that you're not 20 years old anymore.
13:53.53
Lorie Jones
and
13:53.87
Gayle Pottle
Exactly. ah
13:55.49
Lorie Jones
Don't you feel like that gives you such a rich legacy to draw on when you're trying to um you know learn these concepts and and help um put those back into the world?
14:06.12
Lorie Jones
oh i
14:06.72
Gayle Pottle
And you know, I will tell you, Laura, you are so right um that if you practice that as saying, I want to do this, it's in my heart. And why do I care what other people think? I need to make this my own. and And we all have something like that in our lives that is just a seed of a dream that is in our heart. I'm first generation college educated.
14:34.08
Gayle Pottle
And you know i'm kind of I want to do this while my parents can see it. They um did not have the same opportunities that they gave me. My dad ah was a high school dropout. And he it's so gratifying for them to watch this journey as well. But you know I had to, especially early on, have a conversation with myself to say, just go for it. It's OK. You're doing this for you. You're not doing it for anyone else.
15:01.91
Lorie Jones
Yeah, I love that. I went back and got my master's when I was older as well. i'd I had raised my kids mostly and went back to get it. And it was the it it was so rewarding.
15:14.09
Lorie Jones
And I love that idea. Just do it. like If you've got this dream, it doesn't matter whether you don't look like the traditional college student who spent four years in college and two years in grad school.
15:17.72
Gayle Pottle
Yes.
15:22.46
Gayle Pottle
Exactly.
15:25.79
Lorie Jones
Like do it.
15:26.02
Gayle Pottle
Well said.
15:28.58
Lorie Jones
What about, did you ever get some really bad advice? Did anyone ever do something and did you, did you take it?
15:32.97
Gayle Pottle
but
15:36.85
Lorie Jones
Did you not take it? What'd you learn from it?
15:40.03
Gayle Pottle
So ah I was seeking a path to promotion. And I asked a gentleman who was a CEO who knew me well and was part of my organization at the time um what I should be doing. And um he himself had just received a promotion. And I thought maybe he knows something that I just don't know. And his advice to me was really bad advice. He said, you know, Gail, just keep doing what you're doing. And it was kind of like a pat on the head.
16:16.14
Gayle Pottle
and I didn't take the advice, partially because I'm a builder and an innovator, and I can't imagine anything worse than just stagnating. And so I ignored his advice. But I learned from that, that we have to be careful who we ask for advice from. And I think for women especially, and I've had male mentors, I have a male mentor now, um and female mentors,
16:44.80
Gayle Pottle
But we have to curate kind of that personal board of directors who know us and really understand what we're looking for and understand how we're wired. um Because I learned that that was on me. That was the wrong question for the wrong individual. So I didn't follow it.
17:04.16
Lorie Jones
That's really important advice to to kind of curate. um I've had some guests who were like, it's your gut feeling inside of you. It's what you really believe. You can't let other people.
17:15.75
Lorie Jones
it's There's a fine line between asking for advice and knowing that that advice is good for us in our situation.
17:19.29
Gayle Pottle
Yes.
17:24.47
Lorie Jones
and and And that's a really hard line to walk sometimes.
17:28.99
Gayle Pottle
It is a fine line. That's a great way to express that because asking for advice is a it's a mark of strength, I believe. But at the same time, we have to balance that when um the answer is also inside of us.
17:47.13
Gayle Pottle
It doesn't mean we that we stop asking for advice and input, but it is a balance. I'm really glad to hear you say that.
17:55.91
Lorie Jones
yeah What about, is there a situation in your life that you can look back on and go, oh my goodness gracious, if I knew then what I know now, I would have handled that totally differently.
18:10.63
Gayle Pottle
That is a great question. As I think back on my career, um I do have a regret when I was in tech. I wish I had stayed a little bit longer in a particular role um because I was in one of my all-time favorite jobs and I just didn't realize it at the time. So I was i had built and was running an innovation center and um we were being relocated um through my husband's job at the time. And it was before there was a paradigm that the pandemic gave us about the virtues of remote work. So I really regret that I didn't push harder to say, you know what, I could commute to this. I could adjust my schedule and I could create a new roadmap to really make this work. So I learned what I call the three M's from that experience.
19:09.82
Gayle Pottle
So one is to build margin into my work week and into my work life. Margin meaning time in my schedule for think time. At that time, I really hadn't, I didn't know how to do that. So I just reacted and and believed that um I needed to leave that that job. I stayed with the company, but I took a lesser job just to stay with the company. And I ended up leaving a year later because it was such a mess.
19:38.42
Gayle Pottle
ah a mismatch. If I had margin to sit back and contemplate what I wanted and reflect, I believe I would have made a different decision and I would have initiated a better conversation. The second is momentum. Paying attention to momentum What is it that I'm good at? That reflects to me what I love. Generally, when you're building momentum in something, it's because you have a skill, a talent, and that that needs to be nurtured and cultivated. Don't give up on it. Keep going. And I gave up on that a little bit too soon. And the last the last I call the magic. Don't leave before the magic happens. And in that role, I left a little bit before the magic happened.
20:27.69
Lorie Jones
It's so interesting that you say that. I've interviewed many women and they're always regretting that they didn't leave soon enough. And and you're probably the first person I've had articulate that well that you you regret that you left too soon.
20:43.88
Gayle Pottle
Some of that's probably personality. I call it decisive, others call it impulsive.
20:51.27
Lorie Jones
um Do you mind um going into just a little bit, like how did you and your husband coordinate the fact that when you've got two strong careers and one of you has to relocate, that's really hard and that's a that's something that a lot of women deal with.
21:10.15
Gayle Pottle
You know, there really wasn't a lot of language um around ah that the concept of sort of that inner household dialogue and negotiation. And so we really didn't have it. It was just kind of assumed that whoever had the higher salary, you would just follow that. And that was his at the time. And that was just that was kind of the end of it. But again, it was a different time.
21:40.36
Gayle Pottle
And work culture was a little bit different. And I'm so grateful today that we can think out of the box. And it challenges us to say, then where should we be 10 years from now? Where we look back and say, why did we think that was such a big deal? And say no to letting my team do XYZ because I didn't have a paradigm for it. So it you know it was really um the same with that dialogue. There just there wasn't much discussion about it.
22:09.45
Lorie Jones
Yeah, that's so it's so interesting. It's really interesting how things have changed how now there are a lot of options and they did and corporate America quite frankly doesn't want to lose that talent, you know when they've got that that person in the role that's doing a really great job, but life circumstances mean they need to to move like there is a lot of flexibility now around that and that's it's it's a real advantage It's really great that we have that now, but but ah interesting to be introspective and kind of look back at that and say, if I had had a little bit more blank space in my schedule to like think creatively, I bet I could have come up with a solution earlier.
22:51.39
Gayle Pottle
Yes. And I believe men naturally prioritize that and women, for women, it's against our grain. We need to be encouraged and give ourselves permission to do it.
23:05.01
Lorie Jones
Yeah, I definitely need to.
23:07.91
Gayle Pottle
It's hard.
23:08.87
Lorie Jones
a What if you could go back and talk to your young 20 year old self, 21, 22, just to the beginning of your journey. Is there any advice you'd give her, anything you'd have to say to her?
23:22.04
Gayle Pottle
The advice I would give to myself is chart your own course. And my father's been taught, is 87, and he's been talking to me about that recently and certainly during my journey um to grad school. But I wish I had told myself that at 20 years old, so much younger. And the reason is my mindset at that time was a little bit more of a fixed mindset than a growth mindset. So I was just there, I was trying to check boxes.
23:50.17
Gayle Pottle
With a little bit of a people pleaser in me, I was charting other people's courses that I believed were expectations for me rather than charting my own course. So that's what I would just tell my younger self. And so today, I try to create my own boxes so that I'm checking my boxes, not expectations that I feel that the world places on me.
24:15.78
Lorie Jones
I like that idea. I heard it phrased as life by design. Like design what you want to have happen and then work towards that.
24:21.87
Gayle Pottle
Yes.
24:24.26
Lorie Jones
Is there anything you would have done differently if you had had that design or charted your own course back at 20 years old?
24:32.70
Gayle Pottle
You know, I think that um I would have ah done so many things sooner. I think I would have gotten into health care philanthropy sooner. I think I would have um maybe traveled more. I would have given myself some freedoms to not um you know to let go of some perfectionism so that I could try some different things that that I just didn't feel that I had the timer budget for. I would have stepped away to have a little bit more perspective.
25:07.43
Lorie Jones
I like that idea because I do have some of those same things that compete for my attention in time where I'm like, um, I could try this, but what if it fails? What if it doesn't work out?
25:19.69
Lorie Jones
And, and getting past that to really try those things, I had someone tell me once that it doesn't matter.
25:22.87
Gayle Pottle
Yeah.
25:26.35
Lorie Jones
A lot of times that you don't regret the things you did wrong, you regret the things you didn't try.
25:34.93
Lorie Jones
Was anything scary when you started your career and does it still scare you or did you work through it?
25:43.09
Gayle Pottle
So you know, I'm not a person who has a lot of fears today. um I'm that person that if you just give me 50% of the information, I'm just going to run off the high dive and I'll figure it out on the way down before I hit the water. um But early in my career, I had a fear of failure, certainly, and and rejection. And of course, I still have those today. um But my fears today are more of boredom and stagnation.
26:16.45
Gayle Pottle
I want to make sure that I'm maximizing um you know all that there is to do and to achieve and um to leave as my legacy to my family and to and my community and those around me. So you know my fear was disappointing other people, um rejection, failure, and you know it's crippling to be to have so much perfectionism in that way.
26:45.05
Gayle Pottle
um So those are fears that I soon realize it's just part of being human, that I'm not special in my fears. And so the only differences as you grow through those, you realize that that the change, the difference is in here, that I can make a choice to um mitigate those a little bit.
27:07.50
Lorie Jones
So is that how you manage to get over them or is there a particular tactic you've used or anything that helped you? Because you're right. All of us have that. All of us do. Like, what if I'm not good enough? What if I fail at this? Like, how did you get past the, what if I'm not good enough? Maybe I won't try to the, I'm going to try it. Learn something.
27:29.56
Gayle Pottle
You know, I think that that that's tricky. It's a really good question, Lori, because um I don't think we ever get over it, but we we can practice. So it will constantly rear its head. But I do remind myself that the person that I'm talking with has exactly the same fears. My boss is acting out because he has the same fears. It's just part of being human. um But for me, for you know with fight or flight, I'm a fighter and I've gotten some really good coaching about taking two steps back ah when that that safety trigger is threatened and I breathe and I use phrases like,
28:18.36
Gayle Pottle
huh I need to really process that. Listen, I don't need to process it. I'm decisive. I've made up my mind already, but I'm buying myself time. It's that margin so that I'm bringing my heart rate down and I'm not freaking out and wanting to jump across the desk because it's really my fear of rejection, my fear of failure that's causing me to want to fight like that. So I have learned a few tricks um and it works.
28:47.23
Lorie Jones
I like that. I like that idea. Um, I recently gave a presentation at a conference and that was what my speech coach said. She's like, if you do, if you say something, cause that was my biggest fears, I would say something that came out wrong.
28:59.37
Lorie Jones
Right. And she's like, just take a deep breath and say, let me rephrase that and let go on. And just that, that sense that that few minutes to think and kind of step back and take a deep breath and really process.
29:13.60
Lorie Jones
Um, that's great. That's a great tactic.
29:15.51
Gayle Pottle
The observer on the other side of that, what you just described, Lori, is running on a different time frame as a receiver of that communication. It's a little bit slower. When we're speaking that, our neurons are firing so fast that We feel that that that five seconds of silence is so long and it's really not. That's why I'm saying it takes practice and you read the other person's face and you realize they think it's very fair that you need to take a breath and and it's very natural.
29:52.27
Lorie Jones
ah I love that. What about any unique challenges? Did you face any unique challenges because you were a woman and in your journey inland?
30:02.02
Gayle Pottle
Absolutely. the The biggest ongoing challenge, and it really um can get me down personally, is continued pay inequity. In healthcare philanthropy, in particular, just this week, our annual salary survey came out, and women continue to be paid 33% less than women than men, and in healthcare philanthropy,
30:32.71
Gayle Pottle
The sad thing about that is that women comprise 80% of our workforce. And in more senior roles, it can sometimes be even more pronounced. So i it's really hard to not get discouraged by that. And I think foundations like the Women's Foundation of Colorado, and I think our governor has done a really good job ah with some of this as well of you know providing some um some support to ah to really encourage transparency, and I think that that's helped women, but we still have a long way to go.
31:08.43
Lorie Jones
Yeah, we certainly do. And I'm really hoping that this next generation is going to champion that particular cause and get us through that pay inequity because it is a hard thing. is there is there i went When I give direction to my young people that I'm mentoring, I'm like, number one, make sure you ask for what you want.
31:30.20
Lorie Jones
Make sure you show up to your um reviews with, you know, what you have done and what you would like to see as far as compensation goes. Make sure that you're comparing apples to apples all the time and asking for it.
31:44.17
Lorie Jones
But is there things that you can see that that that women can go to those that that might stop that pay inequity?
31:50.81
Gayle Pottle
Mm-hmm. You know, that's exactly what um what I am coached with as well. One of the things that I learned at Harvard is the layered aspect so that this pay inequity accumulates over time. And it just hadn't occurred to me in quite this way. But truthfully, the best fix for that is to leave your job and get a raise in the next job, because those advancements are how women can quickly make up for that pay gap. And on you know it's just a little bit harder when you stay with an organization. And um so that's sometimes counterintuitive advice, but that really is the fastest way to um close that gap that for women has become cumulative because it starts early on.
32:46.15
Gayle Pottle
And then when we take time out from the workforce to have kids, which I did, and then we come back in seven years later, it is, you know, you've already set the ball in motion and you're working from behind and you can't just finish your career and catch up with that. But we're doing other things like getting on paid boards and working side gigs. And I applaud women who, um if they're in that period of their lives, you know, they're able to manage that because that's that's a way that women are closing that gap as well.
33:20.50
Lorie Jones
Yeah, i I think that also another idea is making the workplace friendlier to women as they have kids, you know, so, so that they don't have to take big breaks in the middle of their career and and take time off.
33:32.69
Gayle Pottle
Yes, agreed.
33:36.54
Lorie Jones
so and That's what we work at here. And it's a, it's a passionate subject for me because I'm um doing the financial advising for these women who are 33% less than where they they could be.
33:50.50
Lorie Jones
um And that, and it affects their retirement too. So it doesn't just stop affecting when they reach the end of their working life, but affects all the way through their whole life. So we're, I'm a big advocate.
34:01.29
Lorie Jones
We definitely need to fix that problem for sure.
34:03.04
Gayle Pottle
yeah Yes. Yes.
34:06.50
Lorie Jones
Gail, what is the thing that you are most proud of?
34:11.93
Gayle Pottle
I am most passionate about developing women and really helping women to silence that inner self-critic because I believe that women can naturally compete against one another, but um we compete against ourselves even more so.
34:32.12
Gayle Pottle
And so ah it being in healthcare philanthropy helps with that. A lot of this you know surrounds behavioral health challenges as well. And we can uplift one another in doing that, but we are not, ah there's no program that's out there that can help us in the way that we can help ourselves by giving ourselves permission to fire the inner critic.
34:59.67
Gayle Pottle
And to also realize it's not a weakness to ask for help. And I get calls all the time, Gail, can I meet with you? ah Can we meet for coffee? And I just don't always have time to respond to those. If someone says, Gail, I would love to meet and run something by you and get your advice. I will meet with that person.
35:23.04
Gayle Pottle
so There's a saying in philanthropy, if you want a gift, ask for advice. And if you want advice, ask for a gift. And it's a truism that that holds true in life. So don't be afraid to ask for help um and for advice. It is not a sign of weakness. It's truly a sign of strength.
35:44.27
Lorie Jones
I agree 100%. My daughter recently went to Costa Rica and she's teaching English kids in Costa Rica. And she was just having a really hard time with being away from home.
35:56.93
Lorie Jones
You know, they get sick that first couple of weeks and she's in a whole other land.
35:57.42
Gayle Pottle
Hmm. Hmm.
36:01.91
Lorie Jones
And so she was calling me and she was really upset. And I'm like, Samantha, I said, there are 10, 11 other girls there. Go tell them you're sad.
36:10.28
Gayle Pottle
Hmm.
36:10.61
Lorie Jones
I bet you one of them wants to give you a hug and help you through this because they're probably sad too. So think that that's what you're saying, like, reach out say hey I'm having a rough time or I could use some help or could you just tell me I'm doing good things today please.
36:30.47
Gayle Pottle
Well, i just ah there's a special relationship between women. ah and it's And I love working with um male colleagues and male leaders, but there's just really a special bond with women. And I do think that it gets easier um as we get a little bit older, because we're more self-confident. You've just had more practice. And you learn to let go of things that um You used to believe mattered, and that maybe matter a little bit less, so you just have a little bit more freedom. But, you know, getting back to Strings Finder, and maybe this would be, you know, just kind of a final um encouragement to to your podcast viewers, that one of the reasons I love Strings Finder is that once we learn about ourselves, what our strengths are,
37:26.31
Gayle Pottle
we can kind of let go of our weaknesses because it's the premise of the program that says, listen, you can try to fix your flaws your entire life and you will work yourself into the grave doing that. You are, you know, perfection is unachievable and you need to instead surround yourself with individuals who can plug the gap for your weaknesses. So focus on your strengths. You're going to maximize yourself.
37:54.84
Gayle Pottle
if you polish your strengths because that's your leverage, then your weaknesses surround yourself with other people and that takes some humility to say, you know what, Lori, I need you as a financial expert to step into this, I'll do your marketing plan.
38:10.88
Gayle Pottle
And we compliment each other and we can optimize our impact and and just maximize our work because we are focused on
38:13.59
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
38:23.55
Gayle Pottle
those things that we're already good at. It's a more efficient way to work and live. It is a healthier way to interact because we also view other women through their strengths and we allow them their platform for that and we don't need to be threatened by that because we're confident in our own strengths.
38:45.79
Lorie Jones
Oh, I love that there. I'm going to I'm going to tell them that's the quote I want on your podcast. We don't need to be threatened by them because we are confident in our own strength.
38:54.34
Gayle Pottle
Yes.
38:55.07
Lorie Jones
Love that.
38:57.87
Lorie Jones
Gail, is there any advice that you would give a young lady who's just starting down this path that you're so successful at to help them get where you're at today?
39:07.98
Gayle Pottle
Well, I believe that every young woman starting in her career should start with some sort of assessment. Because one what you'll discover is that we all have blind spots.
39:23.95
Gayle Pottle
at any age, at any stage of career, and that feedback is your friend. And doing that through an assessment, ah lot and even if it's you and you're not working with a coach, but whether it's Myers-Briggs or it's disc or a strengths finder that I've mentioned, um get really comfortable with that and read and gain insights as much as possible.
39:51.51
Gayle Pottle
Then the next piece of advice, and I did do this early on with the group of women friends early in my career, is build what I call a personal board of directors. And these are advisors who are a little further along in your career, and they're women whose advice and input and opinion you value. And it's what you can't get for yourself reading it in a book or from chat GPT or you know look are on Instagram and and they will know something that you don't know that that can give you advice like it's just like having this podcast in your hip pocket all the time. So a personal board of advisors would be next and they can be based all over the country. Maybe it's four or five women once a quarter you get together and you have questions and
40:47.95
Gayle Pottle
ah where you are wanting them to give input on a particular issue ah that you have. It's free and it's just a great practice to start early in your career. And the last benefit of that is that their objective, they don't have the same biases and the same ah political pushback that you may be experiencing in your company or your organization.
41:17.05
Gayle Pottle
And so they're going to be able to see that a little bit more objectively. And then the third one that I would give is to find your voice. Find your voice early, know what you believe, know what you're passionate about, cultivate your voice to know what your place in the world is because ah your gifts are needed by our planet. And the earlier that you can do that,
41:47.15
Gayle Pottle
um you're going to be just fine in your career.
41:51.24
Lorie Jones
I love that. that's um That's one thing that I've worked really hard on probably the last two or three years is finding my voice because a lot of times if you're not with your tribe, your voice can be too pushy or something along those lines. But if you find that place that you really fit,
42:11.13
Lorie Jones
um then your voice is heard. I love that idea. Those are some great bits of advice. Thank you so much for spending the time with us today and and really sharing your wisdom. I appreciate it. If I have listeners that want to get in touch with you and ask other questions, how do they do that?
42:30.33
Gayle Pottle
They can reach out to me on LinkedIn. That's probably the best way to find me. Gail Pottle, G-A-Y-L-E-P-O-T-T-L-E.
42:41.42
Lorie Jones
Perfect, that's great. Thank you again so much for your time. I appreciate it.
42:45.73
Gayle Pottle
Lori, thank you. I appreciate your leadership. You're making a big impact.