Rally Point 80

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Rally pointers fue in. Good Morning, America. It is your host,
Amanda Macchiato maccanu. I'm here in the studio today with
a slight skeleton crew. Got Paul Poleshi here with us.
Good morning, and as always the man behind the magic,
Zane the Brain. Good morning. So today's a good day.

(00:22):
We're going to jump right into the show. Today we
have a special show for you. It's a full episode
featuring Melissa Washington. She is the founder and CEO of
Women Veterans Alliance and she does an incredible amount of
work in the veteran community, but specifically for women. So
good morning, Melissa, thank you for being on the show.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Good morning, and thank you for dedicating the whole segment
to me.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
I appreciate it absolutely. When I read your bio because
I have a woman Veteran calendar and we've had Amanda
Salcedo on the show before to talk about the woman
Veteran calendar, I saw your bio because you're listed for
the month of September twenty twenty five. So for those
of you that don't have your calendar yet, you can
get it because you'll see Melissa in September. But you

(01:06):
just there was so much information about what you do
and what you contribute and what you bring that I
was like, there's no way that I could only do
a segment, Like, we have to make this a full show.
I think there's just so much to discuss and so
much that we want our listeners to know about, and
so much information to share. Yeah, so we just figured
why not, We'll do a full measure. So tell us

(01:28):
about your service in the military. You're a Navy veteran, yes,
tell us when you served, where you served, all that
good stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
A proud Navy veteran. I joined in nineteen ninety one.
I was eighteen and I turned nineteen in a school
and I was a storekeeper. But now they're called logistics specialist.
So my first duty station was on board the USS Scrapple.
It was a rescue salvage ship at a little creek, Virginia,

(01:56):
and I did a.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
I'm from Virginia beach, so I have to put a
program for that.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
Yeah, man, right there, right there, Yeah, yeah, I thought
we did, you know there. I did a six month
med cruise. One of the things too. For me, I'm
from California. You can get a little cold in Virginia, Yes,
and I wanted to get back to California. One for
the weather, but also when I was in a school,
I had met a marine who ended up being stationed

(02:22):
back in California, and I'll share more about that story.
So I also wanted to get closer to where he was.
So I was able to do what we called back
then is called a swap. And I don't know if
they still do those, but so we have to remember
how long ago this was. There was no Google, there
was no email, there was no cell phone. So with

(02:43):
a swap, you have to find a person that is
equal rank, equal time left, and also a woman because
of the way they had the bill itself.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
Wow, Yeah, that's really specific.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
But let me tell you, if you're determined, you will
make it happen.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
I did. I made it happen. I found I found her,
was able to swap, and then I went on board
the US Scadia at thirty second Street in San Diego,
and that Katia was Nation just deconna destroyer tender and
not long after I got on board, we went on
a six month Westpac with that. So it was you know,
it was a really great opportunity for my time in

(03:18):
to go on a med cruise and a Westpac there.
So during that time, I was nineteen ninety three and
we were heavy in Somalia, so I always remember spending
Christmas anchored off the coast of Somalia as we were
supporting all the operations then. And so came back in
ninety four and at the time President Clinton was doing

(03:41):
downsizing of the military, and I raised my hand, I said,
I'd like to like to I'd like to get out.
And there's this, you know, this marine who i'd met,
and we want to get married, and he's going to
be a lifer, and I don't want to be dual
service him. You know, both of us deploy and I saw,
you know how difficult that can be for a peace
people that I saw do that. So I was There

(04:03):
was some resistance, but I was able to finally walk
my chit all the way up again. I don't know
if they do they probably everything's pro electronic now, but
this is actual duplicate piece of paper that had to
get many signatures to go all the way up the
chain for me to get out. So I did. So
I walked off the ship and the next month we

(04:23):
got married and the next month he deployed. So that
is my compact, my time and service, plus my transition.
That's how my transition worked.

Speaker 3 (04:32):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
And speaking of transition, did you feel like you were
well equipped or prepared via the programs that the Navy
offered to transition or did you feel kind of like
it was sort of like, Okay, we signed your chit
here you go by Yeah in some.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
Ways, but you know, when you're you know, you're twenty
something years old. I mean, I was just focused on
I wanted to get out. The one thing I always
remember is then saying, we'll go and make sure your
file unemployment at the EDD if you're not going to
get a job. That was like the big thing that
they promoted. But fortunately for me, again this was back
in the day when you actually looked at jobs in
the newspaper and faxter resume. I was able to leave

(05:11):
get out on a Friday, and I was able to
start my first job on a Monday.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
That's awesome.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
So it worked out fortunately for me that way. And
then considering you know, I was planning also planning a wedding,
and then knowing that he was going to get ready
to deploy, and and I always must share my first
job also my transitional You know, we talk about like, oh,
these different skills that you have, and I talk about

(05:40):
you know, leadership, teamwork, adaptability, et cetera, et cetera. But
my first job was at a floor cleaning company. I
was office manager And the only reason that I got
the job was because I knew how to operate a
floor busser because of the Navy.

Speaker 1 (05:54):
You can take for that, correct learned how to do
that in basic training, right.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
Stirrup and waxident. Yeah, so seriously, I mean that I cannot.
I mean that's one of the things. So actually I
knew how to do that, and I was able to
operate those that that equipment and I understood. Granted they
did a lot, you know, better than having to get
the steel wooly and you know, get the corners and
all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1 (06:21):
But yes, well cool. So so you actually had a
relatively smooth transition, even though probably it didn't come with
all of the resources like people get today, but you
were still able to make a smooth transition into civilian life.
And then you went on to have a successful career
in corporate recruiting.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
Yes, I did, which was which was great because I
had I worked for a staff and company, so you know,
my husband, you know, he deployed the first six months.
So after, you know, I worked at a four clean
company and looked into sales, and then I got into recruiting,
which was good at the time because it was during

(07:01):
the whole dot com boom and everybody's recruiting. Ended up
starting my own business with the business partner of mine
and recruiting. But with that recruiting, you can do it
from anywhere. You can't have to actually be in office
because we were finding people and they were interviewing at
those companies, and my husband, like you know, we had

(07:22):
a PCs, so we had to move. So I had
a career that was portable that I can just take
with me and move. So we're able to do that.
And I worked in recruiting and then came into human
resources and so yeah, twelve years of human resource and recruiting.
And my last company that I worked at was at
Oracle before I got laid off there got it.

Speaker 1 (07:45):
And so being you got laid off during the Great Recession,
is that right around probably.

Speaker 2 (07:50):
Nine yep, two thousand and nine.

Speaker 1 (07:52):
Yeah, and so that was kind of the springboard to
where you are today? Is that right?

Speaker 2 (08:01):
You know, when you're in the moment, you don't think
of those things at the time, right, Is that after
you look back and like, oh, okay, that's what all
that was. But the thing with me was I just
had relocated. So we lived in southern California in different places.
Comism was stationed at Mirman and we went to recruited
doing Los Angeles and he got back to Miramar and

(08:22):
so we were pretty much all in southern California. But
the opportunity that I had before got laid off brought
me to northern California in the Sacramento area, so we
you know, transitioned up, moved. He was still getting ready
to retire from the military, so he stayed down there,
which I'm sure many military families can relate, where the spouses,

(08:43):
whether they're in barracks, are sleeping on someone's couch, running
an apartment. But so he did that. You know, we
we bought a house, you know, started my new job.
Everything was flowing and working because you know, you're really
trying to get to know, you know, the people the area.

(09:04):
So I was working and I have my daughter and
thankful my mom was with us at the time, and
she was three when we moved up there. And then
I got laid off because it just I mean everything,
I mean everybody was just being laid off because of
the economy. So one of the things was a lot
of it was relatable too, is like when you transition

(09:25):
out of the military, you don't really know anybody, you
don't know your community, and that was something very relatable
with that is I didn't know because I was working
all the time, I didn't have a chance to meet
other people or I mean, yeah, I knew where the
grocery store was, you know, those kinds of things that
really didn't have a network, so I just had nothing.

(09:48):
And then also during that time too, I went through
a grieving process again after you know, reflecting back, and
a lot of times people think, oh, when you grieve,
somebody has to die, but it was not. It was
a grieving process of losing your identity. And again a
lot of that too is relatable to the military, because
you're so when you put that uniform on and you

(10:10):
put your rank on, that's who you are, and now
you don't have that. So for me, there's loss of
my identity as well. It's like, Okay, I'm no longer
this person. Who am I Yeah, I.

Speaker 1 (10:20):
Was gonna say, I think too. It's like when you
have a career, it's kind of like the process of
going through letting go of that, however that circumstance might
come about. Absolutely there's a grieving process to go through
because that career is kind of that's all you know.
And for a lot of people that go in the military,

(10:41):
if they go in at a young age and then
they retire, that's all they know. And then you know,
for you having transitioned out, you had your military career,
but then you built this wonderful career and recruiting. Absolutely
like the grieving process. I'm glad you touched on that
because I don't think enough people talk about out that.

(11:01):
But I did notice that myself when I decided I
was retiring from the Air Force, I absolutely went through
the five stages of grieving. And that was advice that
I kind of tried to give to all my friends
that transition after me was just really like be patient
with yourself, feel those feelings, you know, let yourself reflect
on things. Don't get stuck, but you know, take the

(11:24):
time to kind of let the process work itself through.

Speaker 2 (11:27):
So it does, and you have to And it's said identity,
right because every time when you introduce yourself, people always
introduce themselves as their job title. Right, So now it's like, Okay,
now I don't have a job, how do I introduce myself? Unemployed?
I mean, and that's just had such a negative connotation
because then people think, Okay, what's the matter with you?
Because you can't find a job. Granted we're in a

(11:49):
different time now, it's you know, twenty ten. You know
a lot of people are looking for work, So how
do you how do you identify yourself? And then how
do you and that you know, that just the whole
thing of building my brand, being my authentic self and
you know, and really figuring out, okay, this is who
I am and how do I want to present myself

(12:10):
and what do I want to do? And I mean
at that time, I mean, starting women Veterans Lines was
still down the road. That wasn't even that wasn't even there.
I still had to take some other what I call
my different stepping stones to get to where I started
women Veterans clients. So I still had to go go
through some other things before I got to that point.

Speaker 1 (12:30):
So with Melissa Washington Incorporated, I mean that focused on
like LinkedIn and business consulting, So it sounds like you
were helping people find ways to make themselves marketable. Like
you you were a recruiter and you tried to help
people see this is what recruiters look for when they're
hiring people, when they're, you know, seeking someone to fill

(12:50):
a position. Is am I right about that? I'm just
I'm kind of guessing based of what I've read of you.
But but that sounds like, I mean, what of wonderful
niche to be able to be on the opposite side
of that and be able to help people know like
this is what a recruiter's going to look for, or
when you write this this way, this is what they see.

(13:12):
I think that's very valuable. I have a son who's
in the process of trying to get into the career world,
and that's the kind of advice that I'm always telling
him to look for, is like, go find out, like
what do people actually want to see? What are their
perceptions of certain things on a resume or professional appearance
or whatever, And make sure that you're doing everything you
can to set yourself apart.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
Absolutely, And what's interesting is so when I started that,
so I got involved with creating a job seekers group
that ended up because again so many professionals are looking
for work, so have these job seekers groups. And we
had different chapters. And it's interesting because a lot of this,
it's the same stuff I do now is just this
is like my wheelhouse of what I love to do.

(13:55):
But one of the things, so will being a recruiter.
We use LinkedIn. Granted this is twenty ten and I
got on LinkedIn in two thousand and four, so it
was early adopter, but I started so I started holding
LinkedIn workshops at my dining room table. That's where everything started.
Granted I was still I was still looking for work,
but I mean there was like nothing out there, so
that was my way of giving back. But still I

(14:18):
was still working. I was still honing my craft and
doing things. I just wasn't getting paid for it. So
I would start doing these classes at my room table
and helping everyone with their profiles. And it continued. So
then when the economy finally started to pick up, then
I was able to okay, well now this is kind
of turned into its actually kind of it did turn

(14:40):
into a business where now I'm I was able to
start charging individuals but also as well as companies for
me to come out and do coaching or consulting or
even hiring me to come speak at a conference or
an event. Right, I was That's what I was building towards.
But all the twenty ten I was like, I had
like zero income and it really sucked in some ways.

(15:02):
Part of that is because my husband finally, you got
a transition on the military, came home and then took
like almost a forty percent pay cut to get a
job with the government. So it's like, here I am
no income, He's coming up taking a pay cut. You know,
we had we bought this house. So it was just
but there's a lot of other things when at the

(15:23):
time too, with me still struggling to find a you know,
a job, a paying job. But all that changed in
twenty eleven where I finally was able to get an
opportunity that paid pretty well.

Speaker 1 (15:40):
Very nice. And what was that opportunity like.

Speaker 2 (15:43):
So one of the things, so I'll tell you how
I got the opportunity because it's a I like to
share this story so on LinkedIn occasionally I'm sure they
probably still do. They would give businesses because there they
were really turning in two thousand to build up the
company page piece of LinkedIn. So they gave me this

(16:07):
credit ad credit said, Okay, advertise your business. So I did.
I advertised a LinkedIn workshop that I was doing in
Sacramento area, and just so happens, the director of sales
effectiveness for LinkedIn lived not too far from me and
saw the ad and so we, you know, got together
for coffee and I shared with him what I was doing,

(16:28):
and we just stay We just stayed connected, and I
went on my continue my merry way of doing my
LinkedIn June of twenty eleven. He not reached out to
him because you know, and I know, sometimes it's hard
to take the time to build relationships with people. And
granted there's others that we do really well at building
relationships with and some that may only be halfway. But

(16:49):
I really like to build relationships people, not for it
to be transactional. So you know, i'd reached out to
him to mate and he said, well, good thing. He
reached out, he said, because we're higher and LinkedIn at
the time in twenty eleven was growing so fast it
was just bringing people on, like bringing contractors on because
they needed to feel because they were just growing, growing.

(17:11):
So he said, hey, would you mention this opportunity. And
it wasn't like oh yeah, let me think about it,
was like heck, yeah, So it wasn't a job that
if you saw my resume I would have been qualified for.
So that week it pretty much started. They never posted
the job with that, so it again it's like who
you know is true? So started there he said, okay,

(17:35):
this is just you know, for a few months, just
to get us going. So that turned into several years
with LinkedIn. They never asked for the resume because if
they did, I would have had to add some stuff.

Speaker 1 (17:49):
You definitely would have had to tailor it a little.

Speaker 2 (17:52):
Right, just a little. But they needed people, and I know,
and I you know what he saw as far as
the I mean grant, he needed to fill the position.
So did that. And I live in Sacramento and the course,
you know, LinkedIn is in you know, Silicon Valley area,
so they pay a lot better. So I was able
to get I got hourly rate of what they would

(18:15):
pay in Silicon Valley, still be able to live in Sacramento,
which was awesome. And then I traveled, I mean my
first ninety days worked with them on events. So I
got into the event side of things, doing global sales
kickoffs with LinkedIn, glooming global training. So end up traveling
to different countries with LinkedIn, helping them with their events

(18:36):
as well as their sales kickoffs. Still on the temporary
contractor side, because you know, if I if they wanted
me to be hired there, world had to move there
like that just wasn't for me. So yeah, so that
was I we talk about a fantastic opportunity. And I
always share with people too, is you know, if something's
temporary contract, you never know what that might turn into.

(19:01):
So you know, just people should take those opportunities if
they're given.

Speaker 1 (19:04):
That absolutely just you never it sounds like from your standpoint,
you never know. You know, something that was only supposed
to be a couple months ended up being several years.
So sometimes taking that chance is worth.

Speaker 2 (19:17):
It, absolutely absolutely So as yeah, I had a really
good time. I mean he's and in twenty fourteen, I
wrote a book called Get Back to Work, and the
longest chapter is about LinkedIn and also to in the book,
I do acknowledge Nate who I mean, he gave me
that opportunity. I mean he didn't realize it at the time.
How life changing that was for me. And building those

(19:42):
skills in doing events and conferences, which again another stepping
stone to what I do today. Of having that experience
and getting involved in that industry.

Speaker 3 (19:52):
Very cool.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
So then how did that turn to you know, you
went into twenty fifteen and that's when you founded Women's
Veterans Alliance. How did that come about following your success
with LinkedIn?

Speaker 2 (20:06):
Yeah, so with with me doing the LinkedIn classes. I
live close to Bill Air Force Base near Sacramento, and
I got involved early on when I was doing the
classes of doing training for transitioning service members and their
families or spouses, which I still do today. So I've

(20:29):
been doing that pretty much since what twenty ten, twenty eleven.

Speaker 1 (20:33):
That's awesome.

Speaker 2 (20:33):
Where I go up where I go up pretty much
every quarter donate my time because the way I teach
is different than if you were to take a tap
LinkedIn class. So being able to do that, I was
still connected to the military and also got connected to
you know, different veteran organizations communities out there. But one

(20:57):
of the things that I saw that was missing was
how do we you know, connecting with women veterans in
more of a professional type setting which I was used to,
and not really the traditional legacy groups where you're going
to like a really a formal meeting or you're I mean,
of course, there's also other reasons why women may not

(21:19):
want to join certain veteran groups, which I've experienced myself,
good and bad. So I said, no, I'm just going
to do my own. I've done it before as far
as getting people together. So January twenty fifteen, got about
twenty women together at local Elteredo's and Sacramento. And I

(21:40):
only knew a couple of the ladies. Other people referred
by someone who said, hey, you should come to this,
and it was officer enlisted. We had all different branches.
And so if you just imagine being at this restaurant
with this you know, big long table, and you've got
all these women laughing and crying, and you know, we
could have really shut that restaurant down because of that connectivity. Right,

(22:02):
So you're all these women are starting to talk because
we know, I mean, even the men. Right, there's certain
things right that just you just get, right, you can
band for the other branches. It's okay. Granted, maybe some
of our terminology might be different, but there's still that
it's still just that's that thread that's woven. It's all

(22:25):
about and it's important just and always get goosebumps every
time I talk about this. It's having that that that
connectivity for these women, and they wanted it. They wanted this.
So that day, it was a third Thursday, we all
agreed we'd meet the third Thursday of every month. So
I said, no problem, I'll get us, you know, find

(22:47):
us a spot. And they said, we just wanted to
be for only women veterans, which also included an active
duty Garden reserve.

Speaker 1 (22:56):
That because we have a group here south West Florida
woman veterans and they meet the second Tuesday of every month,
which for the same reason, just you know, to sit
together to bond to commissary. So it's interesting. It's so
nice to know that, like, you know, obviously we knew
we weren't the first people to do that, but it's

(23:18):
comforting to know that, like there are other groups out
there like us that you know, kind of that's why
we're there, is just to bond.

Speaker 2 (23:26):
Absolutely and that's what we need. It's you need that
connectivity piece, but also too, you need the consistency because
I get asked, okay, why was this successful? Right, it's consistency.
So if you're meeting the third Thursday, even if two
people come, you're being consistent. But also too, especially well,
especially with women, if we can break bread, there's got
to be food and drinks. Weight doesn't have to be alcohol,

(23:48):
but there has to be that. Right, it's fellowship, right
if you can break that bread with others as you're eating.
So eventually it ended up being where we were donated
a conference space. Know what was cool about that? Okay,
we're not at the restaurants, and if you came to
the restaurant, you didn't have to buy your own meal.
You can just come for that and we'd have different speakers.

(24:08):
But once we got the conference space, then it turned
into potluck every Thursday, every well there once a month Thursday,
so it'd be taco bar or you know, just be
all these we alway do one. It was close to
Thanksgiving with the following week, so everybody brought you know
in one lady even roasted a whole turkey and brought
it in and people need it, right, but you have that, yeah,

(24:28):
which was really cool. So that was you know, the
first year was very strong. But when I started this,
I thought this was just going to be a hobby,
just like, hey, you know, I can find a place
for us and find a find a speaker. But then
it's like, because we were not women that are insuliance.
When I first started it was it was it was

(24:48):
a meetup group, networking group, and then then it turned
into Okay, I gotta we gotta get a name, all right,
Now I gotta at a Facebook page, and I gotta
add a website. You know, just all the think when
you're starting a business, right, You've got to do all
these things, and that's what it turned into.

Speaker 1 (25:06):
Very cool. So so then Women Veterans Alliance is a
global organization that's dedicated to empowering women veterans and so
that is what was born out of the meeting on
the third Thursday of every month.

Speaker 2 (25:19):
Yep. Absolutely, so you do that.

Speaker 1 (25:23):
Through having the meeting having speakers. Are there other elements
to Women Veterans Alliance?

Speaker 3 (25:30):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (25:30):
Absolutely? Since since then, we just celebrated our tenth anniversary.

Speaker 1 (25:34):
That's awesome, congratulations, thank.

Speaker 2 (25:36):
You and a lot of it's just building building on that. Right,
So as you start talking to other women, you see, okay,
well are there other needs or always I don't like
to I mean, yes, gaps right, but it's like, okay,
what can we do when if there's gaps with that?

(25:58):
But the biggest thing, you know, women want there was
that community and what does that community look like? Networking?
Does it look you know, women looking for jobs. We
have women that are in business, going back to school.
I mean, there's so many different things that women need,
getting connected to their benefits, letting them know that they're veterans.
I mean, there are so many women. I mean I

(26:19):
stopped counting that I would would be referred to me
because they didn't consider themselves veterans. So someone saying, oh
you should call Melissa. Like one woman she had reached
out to me. She was in she's the active duty
and then reserves, and the realature said to contact me

(26:39):
because he was trying to let her know that she
could qualify for the VA homown where she didn't have
to do a down payment. She was like, no, I'm
not a veteran. I mean very adamant. So after our conversation,
now she you know, now, talk about life changing for her.
She was able to buy a home no money down right,
those those kinds of things, right, and people don't really understand.

(27:03):
It's like it's if you just if you're able just
to check that box. Yes, I'm I served right, how
life changing that could be for people, and especially for women.
And you know, I still encounter that every now and
then as far as the whole veteran identity or not
even yeah, I'm a veteran, but they don't think that

(27:24):
they can qualify for certain earned benefits that we have.
So that's why also too, those groups are important and
you probably might have experienced this seniors as well, right
where it's like you get women that come in and
right and then once talking to the other and then
they're like, oh, okay.

Speaker 1 (27:41):
There's a lot of info sharing as far as benefits events.
Even we live in an area that's pretty I guess
veteran dents, I would say there's a lot of us here,
and so there are a lot of events for veterans
or you know, a lot of events that veterans might
be interest did in attending or knowing about. So yeah,

(28:04):
it's a great source of info sharing and passing along
information absolutely everything from benefits to events to even just
stuff coming up that maybe is legislation that might affect
us or you know, anything like that that's happening at
a local level, so that people can be aware, so
that we can, you know, try to preserve our benefits

(28:28):
in our way of life as veterans.

Speaker 2 (28:30):
You know, absolutely absolutely, and it works. I mean that's like,
if we can just have more of that going on
in our communities, I feel we can. It can benefit
women so much, absolutely, because I mean, you know, if
you can, if you can help her, you're helping her family.

(28:50):
I mean, bottom line, right.

Speaker 1 (28:52):
The metric is staggering for women veterans, and I don't
want to misquote it, but for women veterans who aren't
even getting care through the VA healthcare system, it's it's horrible.
If I'm not mistaken, it's like in the six figure
range of women who are not using their VA healthcare benefits,
let alone like you said, all the other ones like
your home loan or anything like that. So I agree,

(29:16):
it's important to get that word out and make sure
they know. And so it's good to know that that's
what you're doing through Women Veterans Alliance. But then you
also established Women Veterans Giving, which is a nonprofit that
supports veteran owned businesses, and you've awarded over twenty five
thousand dollars to date.

Speaker 2 (29:35):
Yes we have.

Speaker 1 (29:36):
That is awesome. Tell us how that? How did that
come about?

Speaker 2 (29:41):
So I started Women Veterans Give being for a couple
of reasons. One is how can we help women veteran
get experience on a board? Right, So if you have
a nonprofit, you need a board yep. In a lot
of times, if you want to get on other nonprofit boards,
sometimes you may have to have experience. So one it's
also to not just a resume builder for women, but

(30:02):
also to help give them that experience. And then also
me being a small business owner, I see it myself
as far as there are not a lot of grants
for specifically for women when it comes to businesses. And
also I didn't want to have women I mean, granted,
you may have to get a loan or and I

(30:24):
know again that what that's like. I mean I had
I refinanced my house. I mean I did all kinds
of things to continue to do what I do. But
it's like, if we can just help and use some
cash into a woman veterans business to help her, but
not just give her money, but also how can we
to give her which we do with our finalists. They
get an assessment and then they get coaching. So it's

(30:46):
really how you know, helped strengthen her business with that.
So that's why I started giving. And I say, okay,
we're going to do a you know, a yearly small
business award for that, and then you know, we'll put
together the application and women can apply. The committee that
did all that then they decided they would name the
award after me, So I had no I didn't know

(31:07):
until after they said it, which I you know, because
and what they told me, they said, if it wasn't
for you, we wouldn't be here. And so I just felt,
you know, very honored for them to name the award
after me. So usually when I say it, I don't
say the full thing. I just said a small business
award for that. So yeah, it's very very grassroots, nonprofit.
We don't have any big corporate sponsors or those so

(31:29):
it's just you know, finding ways we can get money
to be able to infuse that cash back into our
women's better in businesses, and we've had some great success
stories from one of our women, she was able to
hire someone because of that. We've had a woman go
from an online business to a brick and mortar. I mean,
there's a lot of really good success stories. But what's
even better about this is then we created a committee

(31:51):
after we had a few of the ladies that received awards,
is they're on the committee, so all of the previous
winners they have opportunity to be on the committee that
we've used the application and then scores the applications able
to give back.

Speaker 3 (32:03):
Do they apply for this award or do you go
out and seek them? How does that process take place?

Speaker 2 (32:09):
Yes, they can apply for the award for this year
for the application and they can go to Women Veteransgiving
dot org for that complete the application, and then we'll
have it again next year. We were doing a yearly award,
then we thought we'd go to a quarterly last year
that financually just didn't work out. We weren't able to
raise enough money to be able to fund the awards.
So yes, they can apply. We also too. It's really

(32:31):
great is the chair will also work with the women
too as far as letting them know how they can
improve their application as well, because what they find. I
don't review the applications. That's what the committee does. Is
what they've told me is they'll have like a stellar application,
but their business you know, may not be as well
as the application, and vice versa. They got like a

(32:51):
stellar application, but then the business. So it's like, how
do we help women strengthen both of those And that's
what we want to do to not just the three finalists,
but also to the applicants as well and help them
so that way when they reapply next year, they'll be
even stronger.

Speaker 3 (33:05):
So do you have a set amount that your award
or is that variable?

Speaker 2 (33:09):
It's variable, but it's up to five thousand dollars. The
last one we did was twenty five hundred. So it
just depends upon as far as the funding that we're
able to find, and we have to get creative with
the funding. I know, several years ago, I think it
was during COVID, I did a whole garage sale and
all kinds of stuff just to get funds to help
fund the award. That's how passionate I am about it.

Speaker 1 (33:30):
Oh wow, So yeah, you said earlier that you don't
really have like a major corporate sponsor for the nonprofit.
But so you do fundraisers throughout the year or do
you have like an ongoing way for people to contribute
if they'd like to give to Women Veterans Giving or.

Speaker 2 (33:47):
Absolutely, yeah, we have. You know, if individuals want to donate,
they can do it one time, they can do a monthly.
I'm also doing a lot of larger companies have a match.
So we do have a handful of donors that donate
a certain amount and the employers match that, which helps us.
But again it's a very small amount for that.

Speaker 1 (34:05):
You know.

Speaker 2 (34:05):
We also apply for grants. Funny, I'm applying for grants
to help fund that grant instead of trying to find
those as well. And then we also put together an
women veteran entrepreneurship training program last year that we developed
and it's just sitting there and I just can't wait
till we can get a funder to fund this entrepreneurship
program because it just has it's got grit and it's

(34:27):
just not a one time go through this program, we'll
see you later. It's just it's really getting women involved
and really helping them in their business. So that's how
people can give.

Speaker 1 (34:36):
Do they go to your website? Do you have a
donate button on it?

Speaker 2 (34:39):
Or absolutely absolutely? They can go to Women Veterans Giving,
or they could come to Women Veterans Alliance and they
can click on donate however amounts, or they can do
a fundraiser. People have done birthday fundraisers on Facebook.

Speaker 1 (34:52):
Nice and so to be clear that the websites are
www dot Women wom e N Veterans Alliance dot co.
And then there's www dot Women Veterans w O m
e N Women Veterans Giving dot org. Is that correct?

Speaker 2 (35:09):
Absolutely? Correct?

Speaker 1 (35:10):
Perfect? And there are place ways to donate through those websites,
whether it's a one time or a monthly or if
you're out there in your corporate sponsor that wants to
sponsor the entrepreneurship course, they can go through those paths
as well to get more information on that. Is that correct?

Speaker 2 (35:28):
Yep? That's correct?

Speaker 1 (35:30):
Awesome? Okay, great? And then so, like I said, this
is why I wanted to have a whole episode with
you because on top of all of that, you also
have a magazine. Yes, so how how did that come about? Like?
What what all is in this magazine? And how can people,
you know, get a copy or maybe view it online.

Speaker 2 (35:54):
So seam years ago, I was thinking of a way
we can get women veterans featured in magazines for them
to be able to tell their stories. But also too,
how can we get those resources out there, those lists
of whether it's the VET centers or the SBA or
you know, the VA hospitals. How can we create this

(36:16):
publication that checks all those boxes with that. So it
was myself and my co publishers us too, and I
talked to her and Christine's like, yeah, let's go for it,
And I said, okay, well the cover. To me, the
cover was the most important because if the cover sitting
on a table in a waiting room or something like

(36:37):
what are women you know, what are people going to
pick it up and look at it. So one thing
we first decided was it was going to be a
state publication. So He's course started with California, since I'm
in California and had a lot of knew a lot
of resources, and it was able to you know, get
into advertisers to help us fund the publication. But we said, okay,
if it's California, then let's do an outlawe I know,

(37:00):
the state of California and ask women who live here
were stationed here from here to submit their photos. So
the cover of Women' Veterans of California, you'll see they're
all photos of women veterans, whether in uniform or out
of uniform, because that was important. So it's a beautiful

(37:20):
publication that we put together. It's in print and digital,
and it went to all those Corsetts subscribed. It went
to all the VA hospitals, the USOS family Resource centers
for that publication. It's a really nice one. It's not
some people are going to throw out because of the
harder cover that we put on. The on the cover

(37:42):
and the back. So we did California and they're like, okay,
well let's venture out. That was twenty twenty two. Let's
venture out to another state. So we had some support
from Texas. So we started to put together Texas same thing.
It was the same type of way out, but all
the articles, again we're from everything was specific to Texas.

(38:02):
We didn't get as much advertising as we were hoping for,
but we we did put out the publication again print
and digital, and then I decided, okay, before we go further,
we need to make sure we have advertising dollars, because
there is a cost to do the layout. I mean,
it's a very beautiful publication. It's with that, so it's like, okay,

(38:27):
there's there's costs. I mean, Christina, you know, she's the
one that does the layout. I mean, I gather all
the inform it and it's just then to print it
and then to mail it. I mean I talk about
learning the whole process of mailing services and the postage
and all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1 (38:41):
You thought you had it all figured out as a form.

Speaker 2 (38:45):
I was like, yeah, nope, I figured out.

Speaker 1 (38:49):
Like that's kind of funny how that kind of came
around full circle.

Speaker 2 (38:52):
Huh yes, yes, but but these are things we learn
and then understanding Okay, if I if I mail it
from and one of the things that I always so
if anyone gets into this or any kind of mailing business,
so it's like if I have a if I have
the mailhouse out of California shipping to Texas, it's going
to be a little bit more. It's like, Okay, I

(39:13):
should have this is a lesson learned. I should have
found a mailhouse in Texas because most of the publications
are going to Texas. It would have saved me on
the postage.

Speaker 1 (39:23):
Got it. So I'm seeing I'm looking on your website
right now for Women Veteransmagazine dot com, and I see
that you have additions for Pennsylvania, California, and Texas. So
you know, we have listeners that listen from all over
the country if they're thinking, and we're in Florida obviously,
So what has to happen for somebody to try to

(39:45):
help bring about a Florida edition or you know, maybe
a Washington state addition. I mean, if it's not one
of these three, how does that process work to bring
about a Women Veterans magazine for another state?

Speaker 2 (40:02):
Absolutely? So what I did with Pennsylvania, they're they're great. Example,
Pennsylvania had reached out to me, they said, okay, we
want to do this. So I said, okay, you have
to have at least five thousand dollars of advertising already ready,
because you know your state. I don't know those local connections.
So the state of Pennsylvania, they said, okay, we have

(40:27):
these are some advertisers had because once I once we
have that, we know other advertisers are going to come in.
Once we've got that one and we can't depend upon
other advertisers who were national that may advertise in the
other publications, because that sometimes it doesn't work out. So
we had that established and that ended up being our

(40:49):
large that's over one hundred pages that publication. And it
was large. Well, it's largely in part because they had
people that were invested into this, not just not financially,
but just they wanted this publication. I mean we had
we had all eras representing there. They had women from

(41:11):
the different like retirement homes feature, you know their women.
I mean it's just O there's two publications like what
sixty four or so pages. Again, this was over one
hundred pages. And I found a mail house in Pennsylvania,
so that helped save me cost because they distributed it
and then of course all the different location and they

(41:33):
last year last year for June twelfth, the Women Veterans
Recognition Day, they presented it at their state function I
think give hid Matcoky. They also presented to the governor
as well the publication because they saw it as this
is a legacy publication. Right. This is because so like
the ladies in the retirement homes, they got a copy,
but then their children their grandchildren brought brought copies of

(41:55):
Absolute So is it kind of a really different mindset
that with them, which it should be an all And
I really learned a lot from working with them, and
they saw the value with the publication. So if any state,
if anyone's interested, you know, I've had all kinds of
other states they were interested, But they have to also,

(42:17):
they've got to do a lot of the work because
it's your state.

Speaker 1 (42:19):
Absolutely, So we've got and advertising is probably the part
that some people get hung up on. But are there
other requirements or parameters that have to be met for
that state to get a magazine?

Speaker 2 (42:32):
No, that's that's the biggest piece because I've got everything
else covered. I mean, that's you know, and they can
look at state grants if there's some kind of other
grant and maybe they wanted to put a publication together resource,
let us do it instead of paying these other big guys.
Absolutely together, here you've got a service disabled woman, better

(42:53):
known business that you can have put a quality product
out for you that's gonna last, you know, it's gonna
last forever. The digital pieces there and you know, and
the and the print publication.

Speaker 1 (43:02):
Well yeah, and it's it's veterans taking care of veterans.
I mean to use your organization or your group to help.
You know, women veterans across the country put together a
magazine for their state. That just makes sense. I would
agree with that one hundred percent. So wow, So how
do you have time for anything else? Because you're such

(43:23):
a busy lady between Women Veterans Alliance, Women Veterans giving
Women Veterans Magazine. I mean, it's incredible, Like I applaud
you for for what you do. It's just wow, what
an adventure. You must have a pretty incredible team under you.

Speaker 2 (43:40):
I am an army of one and a half. I
have a virtual admin who doesn't even work. I'm not
able to compensate her full time. Got it each week? Again,
being very transparent because a lot of people think, oh,
I have got this office and I have all these people.

Speaker 1 (43:55):
No, yeah, you and a few others like you have
the lady that helps you with your layout of your magazine, right.

Speaker 2 (44:02):
Yes, yes, when we have that. But I do have.
But it's it's working, you know, smartly, but also to
being intentional with what I do. And I just think, okay,
if I'm able to find a really good revenue, consistent source.
I mean, I just think of how much I can
do with that, how much I can just be out there.

(44:23):
I mean, I feel we do a great job of
getting out there, but you need money to be able
to do things right with that. And but one of
the things is collaborating.

Speaker 1 (44:41):
You do got a bit of that, I was going
to say, because you also bring in the women that
have received your grants in the past and you bring
them on to help you go through, you know, your
current pool of applicants to figure out who's going to
be the next auwardy of your grant, which is great.
I mean, you're you definitely. I know you say you're
an army of one and a half. But what I
hear is that in a way, it takes a village,

(45:04):
you know, and yes it's to you as the constant
for sure, but you definitely you leverage your resources, and
you definitely have amazing people that come alongside you to
help you make these things successful.

Speaker 2 (45:18):
Oh absolutely. And it's you know, ways we can leverage
that and collaborate with that, because what I find too
is a lot of other veteran organizations sometimes may not
want to collaborate or work together. Unfortunately, Yes, and it does.
And I know those I come across them, and I
just I'm just going to keep on moving on with that.

(45:39):
But one of the things four years ago I created
Women Veterans Engage. It's and we just had our last
one May thirty first, and it's a very unique conference.
So with me the way, I think, it's like, how
can I ensure that women are seeing, women are heard right,
that visibility, that connectivity piece. That's what Woman Veterans Alliance

(46:01):
is all about. With that, but also too, how can
we help highlight a lot of these organizations throughout the
country that are doing great things in their community because
I feel a lot of times we get so siloed
we think, Okay, we're the only ones doing this here
or there's no other resources. I'm like, eh, there are
a lot of good resources out there, you just don't know.

Speaker 1 (46:23):
And that's the hard part is a lot of them
go kind of unused or overlooked or underutilized however you
want to say it.

Speaker 2 (46:30):
Absolutely and there's some really good organizations or just little ones.
I mean they're not the big you know, right want
to warrior project, the ones that are like a householding,
but there's some really powerhouse organizations that are small, they're
doing mighty good things. So it's like, how can we
highlight those organizations, but how can we reach women that
are in other areas that may not want to fly

(46:52):
to a conference, they you know, rather be in their
local err or maybe they just want to join us online.
And I had thought of this concept before even COVID up.
So we started Women Veterans Engage in this opportunity for
women to engage nationally. So what it is I'll give
this example of this last one. We had the fourth
one that we had, we had over nineteen locations. So

(47:15):
what it is each location, So Florida we had Florida
we had so you're in Florida. We had Orlando and
Tampa to different organizations there that said we want to
be a partner a host location. And so what each
in personal location does is they have their own programming
and then they bring the national piece in. So what

(47:37):
the national piece is is we have an app that
all the women in all the locations can connect with
and then on the national broadcast they all see the
same speaker and each location is able to introduce themselves there.
So each location has their own they do their own things.
Some some had an event Friday night. You know, we

(47:58):
start at nine o'clock, the sift twelve o'clock Eastern, so
like you know, of course specific zone. You know we're
having breakfast East coasts. You know, they may have breakfast,
they may have lunch, they may have you know, have
a workshop. Some of them did like massages. So there's
all these different things that are happening in each location.
But then they're able to connect with other women wherever

(48:19):
they are. So this is historic, this is epic. I mean,
this is like we had over a thousand attendees on
one day. Nice, So where has that ever been done?
It hasn't even last year. We had five hundred and
twenty four last year.

Speaker 1 (48:34):
Wow, So we've practically.

Speaker 2 (48:37):
Yes. And then with the so you have these locations,
you have you know, they have exhibitors, they have sponsors,
and there's so much value in that. And all these
women in all these locations got to learn about all
these other organizations that are across the US. Now with that,
you don't have to be a woman's at an organization
to participate. I mean we had individuals, we had colleges,

(49:00):
we had small businesses. We had one group out of Chicago.
They formed this organization. They're three different veteran groups businesses
and they're called three Vets. Is a charm. They were,
you know, a host location. So we there is just
so powerful. I mean, just what happened at all these
different locations and that's the way we should be operating,

(49:23):
not just because I created it, but there's just so
much value and depth in doing this. And we'll again
next year, so May thirtieth. If anyone's interested being a
host location partner, definitely reach out to me because we
want to. We just want to continue to growth and impact.

Speaker 1 (49:43):
What's a good way to do that? If people want
to be a host location and they're listening right now,
what's the best way for them to reach you?

Speaker 2 (49:50):
Melissa at Women Veterans Alliance dot com. Or you can
just come to our website and there's a contact desk
button and you can message us through there. And if
you want to learn more about Women Veterans Engage, you
can go to Women Veterans Engage dot com. And this
year we have so we have a keynote speaker. This year.
Our keynote speaker was amazing and I must share because

(50:11):
she was she was on fire and a lot of
people don't know this, but her name's Joyce Abbot and
if anybody watches TV, you know Abbot Elementary. They're an
Emmy Award winning TV show it and Joyce Abbott is
the namesake. She's an Army combat vet and her student,

(50:31):
who is also the writer and main actress on Abbot,
was her student, and she named the TV series after
her teacher, and she wrote a book about leadership. She's
now a retired teacher. But it was just it was
amazing because in all these locations got to ask Miss

(50:52):
Abbot questions about that. So it's just it's very impactful.
So now I have to think of how can I
do better next year because I really set the bar
really high this year.

Speaker 1 (51:04):
Awesome. Well, we're definitely looking forward to hearing how that goes.
We want to have you back on the show in
the future to discuss all of that. But we're just
so thankful for you coming on the show today. For
those listening, Like she said, women wom E N Veteransalliance
dot com is how you can engage with Melissa Washington

(51:26):
and all the wonderful worthy causes that she supports through
her reach and impact. So thank you so much for
what you're doing for women veterans and for the veteran
community and those who support us, allowing them to kind
of have a part in this as well. And just
thank you for being on the show. Melissa. We really
appreciate you.

Speaker 2 (51:46):
No, thank you, Amanda, I appreciate it. I just want
to give one last plug. So I am the military
friendly California Veteran of the Year this year. Congratulations running,
Thank you. I'm also in the running for nationals. I
would love anyone else's vote to receive National Veteran of
the Year.

Speaker 1 (52:01):
And how can people vote and they can go.

Speaker 2 (52:03):
To see you Just go to our Women's Burns Alliance
website and you'll see they'll be on the top bar
where they can click on to vote. Awesome, I'm here.

Speaker 3 (52:12):
I'm sure you've got some votes today.

Speaker 2 (52:14):
I think so. Why I greatly appreciate that.

Speaker 1 (52:19):
Well, thank you so much, and with that that's our
show for today. We appreciate all of you listening, whether
you're listening via one hundred point nine FMWCCF or on
the iHeartRadio app. And with that, rally pointers fall Out
join us for the Veteran Relief fundraising event at amvet's
Post three twelve on seven zero five zero Chancellor Boulevard

(52:41):
in Northport, Florida, on July fifth, starting at noon. There
will be food, fun, DJ's fifty to fifty raffle, live music,
all coming to you. Open to the public. Meals are
twenty dollars. Reservations are requested. Come on out and help
fundraise for veterans at amvet's three twelve on July fifth,

(53:02):
starting at twelve noon