October 27, 2025 • 14 mins
What does it take to lead with purpose, grace, and energy — for decades — without burning out?
Episode Overview:
In this inspiring conversation, host Wendy Wollner sits down with Dr. Marsha Gordon, President and CEO of The Business Council of Westchester. A trailblazing leader who transformed a struggling local chamber into one of the most influential business organizations in New York State, Marsha reflects on her decades of leadership, the power of humility and gratitude, and how she continues to lead with joy, curiosity, and connection. From surviving tough early years to winning the prestigious Corning Award for Excellence, Marsha shares wisdom that every leader — especially those feeling stretched thin — needs to hear.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I'm not burned out. I will say, and
I think it's okay to say this, that
sometimes I feel overwhelmed
Yeah. You know, because there's a lot on
the plate, and we all feel overwhelmed, and
that's okay.
Well, Marsha, this is such a treat to
get to to talk to such a treat.
(00:20):
So, you know,
you have been a guiding force in my
life. And for the listeners, you should know
that,
you know, this has been decades of admiration
and love and friendship. But today, I'm incredibly
honored because Marsha's gonna share
her story and join our conversation.
So we've created, this is your job now,
(00:41):
and we've invited key leaders. You're in good
company. We recently interviewed one of the creative
directors from Fast Company. We were lucky enough
to have Obama's speechwriter, and now we I
know. Yep. I've heard. I've heard the podcast.
So it was a huge honor when you
asked me, Wendy. Really, really. And it's mutual
admiration, friendship, and love. So There you go.
(01:01):
But today, it's the Marcia Show.
And today, we're inviting you to talk about
this is your job now and how leadership
has changed. And we really do try to
get a little gritty here. So the first
question is, as the president of the Business
Council of Westchester, and for those of you
who are familiar with it, you might know
it today as this huge, vibrant organization where
(01:23):
everybody joins, but not so true when you
started it. Right.
Right. And I wanna know how you created
this driving force to create something that quite
frankly no one thought could be done. So
when I came, there wasn't
time to do strategic planning to really think
about what we were doing.
(01:44):
We we couldn't make payroll.
We needed to bring in to bring in
dollars. And fortunately,
we had
on our board and in our membership at
that time,
wonderful people
who wanted to see things work. Some people
resented
the new way of doing things and
didn't think that that was the way to
(02:05):
go. But I've been doing this kind of
work before. I've been doing organizational development, running
business organizations.
I knew how to bring people together. I
knew how to bring dollars in.
Simple things. Like, I remember saying to the
person
who was the assistant then, we have to
get a newsletter together. And do you know
that in the next second,
(02:26):
somebody who had just started a franchise
in White Plains of a local print shop
walked through the door,
and and there there there it was.
But it was really
people
who came along for the ride
and got excited
(02:46):
about
building something new,
and were willing to work hard. At the
beginning, we did membership
by doing telemarketing
campaigns.
And Jim O'Toole and his son went to
Circuit City and bought telephones
and installed them. We've come a long way
from there. Believe me. But that's how it
(03:08):
began.
And, you know, what's interesting is listening to
you, I always try to tell people what's
the takeaway from Marsha's answer. Right? What goes
in our tool bag? It's a very humble
answer. Right? Everything you said was we did,
we did, shout out to other people. So
it sounds to me that one of your
key successes is being a very humble leader.
I hope so. I hope so.
(03:30):
I am proud of what of what's been
accomplished at this organization. I'm a proud proud
of people around me. I'm a proud proud
of what I've accomplished in my life, but
it cannot be about you. In my line
of work, and I think in all line
of work, is really to bring people around
you
and
figure out what's the best part of each
(03:50):
one of them
and,
and, and make it not about you because
you don't know everything.
To go to each one of those people
who have expertise
and then they're going to be motivating and
encouraging.
And then you do a lot of thank
yous. You do a lot of recognition. Wow.
Okay. A lot of thank yous. So that
humility and gratitude going in this neutral bullet
(04:14):
now. I guess so. Yes. Yes. Yeah. But
for a minute, I'm gonna ask you to
not be humble. Okay? Okay. I can do
that too. Thank you. So you recently won
a huge award that we are all very
proud of. Can you talk a little bit
about the journey, a little bit about the
award, and
why you think they picked you?
(04:35):
So that was the one phone call that
I got in my life. I was literally
speechless.
And Heather Mulligan, who's a CEO of the
Business Council of New York State said, I
don't think I've ever heard you speechless before.
But I really was because I have I
have been to that annual meeting, which I'm
privileged to go to each year at the
Sagamore. I've been on the board of the
(04:56):
business council of New York State for a
very long time. I love that organization,
and I've seen unbelievable people get that award.
And every time I would hear
about
senior leaders in major corporations in IBM and
Corning and
Con Edison and in government and organizations,
(05:17):
I would just sit and think, these people
are just
unbelievable. So never in a million years did
I think I would be one of those
people. So the award is the Corning Award
for Excellence. It's given by the Business Council
of New York State in partnership with Corning
Corporation,
which is an an amazing, you know, an
amazing corporation that
(05:38):
makes all the glass of iPhones. Who knew
that? I did receive a beautiful handcrafted bowl,
which I treasure. It really
epitomizes people who who work on behalf of
business and a positive business climate in New
York State.
And to be chosen for that award was
very humbling. I will tell you it was
a very emotional experience because it really kind
(06:01):
of was, the capstone
to my
to my career, you know, and I was
really, really proud to be a recipient of
that statewide
recognition. We were so proud of you. Thank
you, Wendy. Thank you. So I think one
of the things that people need the most
help with is that there's a lot of
unpleasant treat today in business. It's very messy.
(06:22):
It can be very dirty. Mhmm. And it
can be ugly. Right? Conflict. And I have
watched you navigate
some of the most difficult situations.
So I could describe it with grace, but
that doesn't really help people.
Give people a real recipe of what to
do when the real blank hits the fan,
when there's real mess in their organization. What
(06:43):
are some best practices for a leader? A
leader should?
A leader should pause.
A leader should not react quickly. You shouldn't
go, go
immediately down a rabbit hole. What I am
good at is I know who to go
to
to be honest with situations.
So there's some vulnerability
(07:04):
there. I don't know that I necessarily believe
that things are ugly and unpleasant in business
any more than they ever were.
But but that's life. Right? There are times
when when you run into
difficult situations that need to get fixed.
And you don't always wanna admit that you
screwed up or that something happened in your
organization that was a mistake. I totally believe
(07:27):
in,
bringing bringing
trusted people around and utilizing
their expertise as as my
advisors,
as my
professional friends. I feel like your personal friends
aren't always gonna be to be the best
people.
And and then and then determine what resources
(07:48):
that you need
to,
to try to fix the situation.
And some and maybe accept that some are
unfixable.
And then how you how you are going
to move ahead
with what you're doing and stay
stay on path
to what your organization is about, and then
(08:10):
it doesn't seem so bad because you're not
alone in this. Right.
And and that is so true for those
of you who've ever seen Marcia.
She's very focused.
Nobody talks when Marcia talks in the room.
Right?
Well, I I know I do know how
to quiet a room. It's one of my
my hidden talent.
So for sake of time, I'm gonna share
(08:33):
that and I I know I've told you
this before privately, but I wanna share with
our our listeners that because it's it's so
on brand. And what I'm so excited about
is for you to share the story
about the many roles that you play,
not just as the president and business counselor,
but can you share us the many a
day a quick view of a day in
(08:54):
the life
of the president of the business council?
Well, you know, I actually did,
for nine one four Inc magazine. I did
a day a day in the life. That's
right.
You know, hopefully, starts out with a walk
or some exercise in the morning. K. But,
not not every day. You know, this morning,
I was planning to get up and go
(09:14):
for a walk, and I said, you know,
I think I just need to lay in
bed a little bit longer. And that's that's,
that's okay too. You know, we all wear
many, many roles.
I've never been kind of a a domesticated
person,
so I can't say that I I do,
you know, the the cooking and the this
and that.
But, you know, I I I have a
(09:35):
home. I have a, you know, a a
husband. I have, you know,
a daughter, you know, and and my family
is very important. And then, of course, in
the past number of years, I've been
so, so fortunate
to have two grandchildren. And they're they're very
much, very much a part of my life.
And I have a wonderful set of friends
(09:55):
for whom I care
very deeply.
And
sometimes some of them are going through some
issues in their life, or some of them
are celebrating some joyous occasions.
And I really, really try to
stay connected to that and stay on top
of it in a in a very sincere
way. I work a lot,
(10:16):
and my work I I know you won't
like this, Wendy, because, you know, you're all
about work life balance, but everything kind of
blends for me. I love it. It blends.
You know? And I'm on my I'm on
my iPhone way too much, sending messages or
sharing articles or,
you know, sending a heart to someone who's
going through a hard time.
But,
(10:37):
but I really do care about
the the people that I'm with. And most
of the people
that that are in my life as as
friends and colleagues and people I know are
somehow
connected to my work. Not everybody. I do
have outside friends.
But I will say everything is connected, and
it's very important
(10:59):
to me to have time
to enjoy things, to do things. And I
get yelled at all of the time by
people who say,
Marcia, you do too much. You're overscheduled.
And I am.
I am.
But I'm not someone that just enjoys sitting
around and doing nothing.
I I get
(11:20):
I get excited about,
you know, not a night at the theater
or,
you know, or a movie
or a Mets game. A new member that
joined. A new member that joined, meeting somebody.
So that's very much very much a part
of very much a part of my life.
So I love New York. I love Westchester.
(11:42):
A lot of what I do, I talked
about this when I accepted my award, you
know, that in the past month, I had
been to the beach on Long Island and
two Broadway shows and a Mets game and
Lake George. And so so,
you know, I I try to take advantage
of what's happening in the community and the
beauty of the community. That's all it all
(12:03):
comes together. You know what I I love?
And in closing, I just first wanna thank
you. You never Thank you so much. You
never use your job as an excuse, which
is something I really admire. In the decades
I've known you, I've never heard you once
say, I'm too busy at work to remember
a birthday. Or, I and I admire that.
But I think the real takeaway from today
(12:24):
is what everybody's so afraid of is leaders
are burnt out, and you're not.
No. You got another twenty years. Well, I
don't know. You know? But you are truly
not burnt out. I'm not burnt out. I
will say, and I think it's okay to
say this, that sometimes I feel overwhelmed. Yeah.
You know, because there's a lot on the
plate, and we all feel overwhelmed, and that's
(12:46):
okay. Yeah. That's okay. Burnt out. Not burnt
out. Definitely not burnt out. And so I
wanna shout out to the fact that you
can have done a job for a very
long time.
Yes. Thank you. Up and say, I got
more to do. I have more to do.
There is so much, and I have such
a great a team of great people. Again,
(13:07):
humility.
There you go. Humility. No. But also also
great great members like Balancing Life's Issues and
others that that really care care about community,
care about helping each other,
care about keeping our economy moving forward,
and,
and doing it on a very, very personal
(13:28):
and human level. So
I'm very, very I'm a very lucky leader,
and we were lucky to spend some time
with you.
Thank you, Wendy. Thank you.
(13:49):
Thanks for listening to This Is Your Job
Now, produced by me, Kai. If this episode
made you think or made you feel, we
hope it also made you realize you don't
have to figure this out all alone. Leadership
today is about presence, not perfection. To learn
more, follow Wendy Wohner on LinkedIn, subscribe to
Balancing Life's Issues on YouTube, or stream the
podcast wherever you listen. Because if you're leading
people, this is your job now. Anything else
(14:11):
to add, Miles?
I'm not burned out. I will say, and
I think it's okay to say this, that
sometimes I feel overwhelmed
Yeah. You know, because there's a lot on
the plate, and we all feel overwhelmed, and
that's okay.
Well, Marsha, this is such a treat to
get to to talk to such a treat.
(00:20):
So, you know,
you have been a guiding force in my
life. And for the listeners, you should know
that,
you know, this has been decades of admiration
and love and friendship. But today, I'm incredibly
honored because Marsha's gonna share
her story and join our conversation.
So we've created, this is your job now,
(00:41):
and we've invited key leaders. You're in good
company. We recently interviewed one of the creative
directors from Fast Company. We were lucky enough
to have Obama's speechwriter, and now we I
know. Yep. I've heard. I've heard the podcast.
So it was a huge honor when you
asked me, Wendy. Really, really. And it's mutual
admiration, friendship, and love. So There you go.
(01:01):
But today, it's the Marcia Show.
And today, we're inviting you to talk about
this is your job now and how leadership
has changed. And we really do try to
get a little gritty here. So the first
question is, as the president of the Business
Council of Westchester, and for those of you
who are familiar with it, you might know
it today as this huge, vibrant organization where
(01:23):
everybody joins, but not so true when you
started it. Right.
Right. And I wanna know how you created
this driving force to create something that quite
frankly no one thought could be done. So
when I came, there wasn't
time to do strategic planning to really think
about what we were doing.
(01:44):
We we couldn't make payroll.
We needed to bring in to bring in
dollars. And fortunately,
we had
on our board and in our membership at
that time,
wonderful people
who wanted to see things work. Some people
resented
the new way of doing things and
didn't think that that was the way to
(02:05):
go. But I've been doing this kind of
work before. I've been doing organizational development, running
business organizations.
I knew how to bring people together. I
knew how to bring dollars in.
Simple things. Like, I remember saying to the
person
who was the assistant then, we have to
get a newsletter together. And do you know
that in the next second,
(02:26):
somebody who had just started a franchise
in White Plains of a local print shop
walked through the door,
and and there there there it was.
But it was really
people
who came along for the ride
and got excited
(02:46):
about
building something new,
and were willing to work hard. At the
beginning, we did membership
by doing telemarketing
campaigns.
And Jim O'Toole and his son went to
Circuit City and bought telephones
and installed them. We've come a long way
from there. Believe me. But that's how it
(03:08):
began.
And, you know, what's interesting is listening to
you, I always try to tell people what's
the takeaway from Marsha's answer. Right? What goes
in our tool bag? It's a very humble
answer. Right? Everything you said was we did,
we did, shout out to other people. So
it sounds to me that one of your
key successes is being a very humble leader.
I hope so. I hope so.
(03:30):
I am proud of what of what's been
accomplished at this organization. I'm a proud proud
of people around me. I'm a proud proud
of what I've accomplished in my life, but
it cannot be about you. In my line
of work, and I think in all line
of work, is really to bring people around
you
and
figure out what's the best part of each
(03:50):
one of them
and,
and, and make it not about you because
you don't know everything.
To go to each one of those people
who have expertise
and then they're going to be motivating and
encouraging.
And then you do a lot of thank
yous. You do a lot of recognition. Wow.
Okay. A lot of thank yous. So that
humility and gratitude going in this neutral bullet
(04:14):
now. I guess so. Yes. Yes. Yeah. But
for a minute, I'm gonna ask you to
not be humble. Okay? Okay. I can do
that too. Thank you. So you recently won
a huge award that we are all very
proud of. Can you talk a little bit
about the journey, a little bit about the
award, and
why you think they picked you?
(04:35):
So that was the one phone call that
I got in my life. I was literally
speechless.
And Heather Mulligan, who's a CEO of the
Business Council of New York State said, I
don't think I've ever heard you speechless before.
But I really was because I have I
have been to that annual meeting, which I'm
privileged to go to each year at the
Sagamore. I've been on the board of the
(04:56):
business council of New York State for a
very long time. I love that organization,
and I've seen unbelievable people get that award.
And every time I would hear
about
senior leaders in major corporations in IBM and
Corning and
Con Edison and in government and organizations,
(05:17):
I would just sit and think, these people
are just
unbelievable. So never in a million years did
I think I would be one of those
people. So the award is the Corning Award
for Excellence. It's given by the Business Council
of New York State in partnership with Corning
Corporation,
which is an an amazing, you know, an
amazing corporation that
(05:38):
makes all the glass of iPhones. Who knew
that? I did receive a beautiful handcrafted bowl,
which I treasure. It really
epitomizes people who who work on behalf of
business and a positive business climate in New
York State.
And to be chosen for that award was
very humbling. I will tell you it was
a very emotional experience because it really kind
(06:01):
of was, the capstone
to my
to my career, you know, and I was
really, really proud to be a recipient of
that statewide
recognition. We were so proud of you. Thank
you, Wendy. Thank you. So I think one
of the things that people need the most
help with is that there's a lot of
unpleasant treat today in business. It's very messy.
(06:22):
It can be very dirty. Mhmm. And it
can be ugly. Right? Conflict. And I have
watched you navigate
some of the most difficult situations.
So I could describe it with grace, but
that doesn't really help people.
Give people a real recipe of what to
do when the real blank hits the fan,
when there's real mess in their organization. What
(06:43):
are some best practices for a leader? A
leader should?
A leader should pause.
A leader should not react quickly. You shouldn't
go, go
immediately down a rabbit hole. What I am
good at is I know who to go
to
to be honest with situations.
So there's some vulnerability
(07:04):
there. I don't know that I necessarily believe
that things are ugly and unpleasant in business
any more than they ever were.
But but that's life. Right? There are times
when when you run into
difficult situations that need to get fixed.
And you don't always wanna admit that you
screwed up or that something happened in your
organization that was a mistake. I totally believe
(07:27):
in,
bringing bringing
trusted people around and utilizing
their expertise as as my
advisors,
as my
professional friends. I feel like your personal friends
aren't always gonna be to be the best
people.
And and then and then determine what resources
(07:48):
that you need
to,
to try to fix the situation.
And some and maybe accept that some are
unfixable.
And then how you how you are going
to move ahead
with what you're doing and stay
stay on path
to what your organization is about, and then
(08:10):
it doesn't seem so bad because you're not
alone in this. Right.
And and that is so true for those
of you who've ever seen Marcia.
She's very focused.
Nobody talks when Marcia talks in the room.
Right?
Well, I I know I do know how
to quiet a room. It's one of my
my hidden talent.
So for sake of time, I'm gonna share
(08:33):
that and I I know I've told you
this before privately, but I wanna share with
our our listeners that because it's it's so
on brand. And what I'm so excited about
is for you to share the story
about the many roles that you play,
not just as the president and business counselor,
but can you share us the many a
day a quick view of a day in
(08:54):
the life
of the president of the business council?
Well, you know, I actually did,
for nine one four Inc magazine. I did
a day a day in the life. That's
right.
You know, hopefully, starts out with a walk
or some exercise in the morning. K. But,
not not every day. You know, this morning,
I was planning to get up and go
(09:14):
for a walk, and I said, you know,
I think I just need to lay in
bed a little bit longer. And that's that's,
that's okay too. You know, we all wear
many, many roles.
I've never been kind of a a domesticated
person,
so I can't say that I I do,
you know, the the cooking and the this
and that.
But, you know, I I I have a
(09:35):
home. I have a, you know, a a
husband. I have, you know,
a daughter, you know, and and my family
is very important. And then, of course, in
the past number of years, I've been
so, so fortunate
to have two grandchildren. And they're they're very
much, very much a part of my life.
And I have a wonderful set of friends
(09:55):
for whom I care
very deeply.
And
sometimes some of them are going through some
issues in their life, or some of them
are celebrating some joyous occasions.
And I really, really try to
stay connected to that and stay on top
of it in a in a very sincere
way. I work a lot,
(10:16):
and my work I I know you won't
like this, Wendy, because, you know, you're all
about work life balance, but everything kind of
blends for me. I love it. It blends.
You know? And I'm on my I'm on
my iPhone way too much, sending messages or
sharing articles or,
you know, sending a heart to someone who's
going through a hard time.
But,
(10:37):
but I really do care about
the the people that I'm with. And most
of the people
that that are in my life as as
friends and colleagues and people I know are
somehow
connected to my work. Not everybody. I do
have outside friends.
But I will say everything is connected, and
it's very important
(10:59):
to me to have time
to enjoy things, to do things. And I
get yelled at all of the time by
people who say,
Marcia, you do too much. You're overscheduled.
And I am.
I am.
But I'm not someone that just enjoys sitting
around and doing nothing.
I I get
(11:20):
I get excited about,
you know, not a night at the theater
or,
you know, or a movie
or a Mets game. A new member that
joined. A new member that joined, meeting somebody.
So that's very much very much a part
of very much a part of my life.
So I love New York. I love Westchester.
(11:42):
A lot of what I do, I talked
about this when I accepted my award, you
know, that in the past month, I had
been to the beach on Long Island and
two Broadway shows and a Mets game and
Lake George. And so so,
you know, I I try to take advantage
of what's happening in the community and the
beauty of the community. That's all it all
(12:03):
comes together. You know what I I love?
And in closing, I just first wanna thank
you. You never Thank you so much. You
never use your job as an excuse, which
is something I really admire. In the decades
I've known you, I've never heard you once
say, I'm too busy at work to remember
a birthday. Or, I and I admire that.
But I think the real takeaway from today
(12:24):
is what everybody's so afraid of is leaders
are burnt out, and you're not.
No. You got another twenty years. Well, I
don't know. You know? But you are truly
not burnt out. I'm not burnt out. I
will say, and I think it's okay to
say this, that sometimes I feel overwhelmed. Yeah.
You know, because there's a lot on the
plate, and we all feel overwhelmed, and that's
(12:46):
okay. Yeah. That's okay. Burnt out. Not burnt
out. Definitely not burnt out. And so I
wanna shout out to the fact that you
can have done a job for a very
long time.
Yes. Thank you. Up and say, I got
more to do. I have more to do.
There is so much, and I have such
a great a team of great people. Again,
(13:07):
humility.
There you go. Humility. No. But also also
great great members like Balancing Life's Issues and
others that that really care care about community,
care about helping each other,
care about keeping our economy moving forward,
and,
and doing it on a very, very personal
(13:28):
and human level. So
I'm very, very I'm a very lucky leader,
and we were lucky to spend some time
with you.
Thank you, Wendy. Thank you.
(13:49):
Thanks for listening to This Is Your Job
Now, produced by me, Kai. If this episode
made you think or made you feel, we
hope it also made you realize you don't
have to figure this out all alone. Leadership
today is about presence, not perfection. To learn
more, follow Wendy Wohner on LinkedIn, subscribe to
Balancing Life's Issues on YouTube, or stream the
podcast wherever you listen. Because if you're leading
people, this is your job now. Anything else
(14:11):
to add, Miles?
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