How This Nonprofit Changed The Lives of 3.6 Million Girls

[0:00]  there were actually people who thought I was crazy I ran into a woman about a year ago I had been she'd been part of my community when this all is happening and she said I was telling her now we're over 3 million women and girls reached in 145 countries and she said wow can you repeat can you repeat those statistics one time how many people how many countries over 3.6 million 145 countries on six continents wow that's incredible thank you and her comment was we thought you were crazy we didn't believe it could be outside of that one place we didn't and I just kept inviting people find out ask the people that you know that are in different parts of the world and word kept coming back we have't here this issues Happening Here people just aren't

[0:48]  talking about it and and people did I did hit places where people didn't want to talk about periods let's be honest it's one of the things that people would rather talk about anything else and and so how do you break the stigma and the shame and let people see honestly this is something we can change in our lifetimes who taught us to be ashamed of our basic biology that connects every single one of us so creating opportunities for people to join if they could if it would call to them I think that's one of the things that you can't buy into as a Founder not every you yes there have been moments of imposture syndrome but my drive to create the change was bigger than any

[1:52]  fear all right guys welcome back to a brand new episode of the heart and hustle podcast now today we're going to have an amazing con or conversation about impact about change about meeting needs we're going to talk about curiosity we're going to talk about showing up as our best self and leaning into our strengths I've got the founder today here of days for girls International Celeste welcome to the show so happy to be with you oh my gosh today's going to be an amazing conversation we need to kind of give everybody an understanding of who this amazing person is who sits across this digital table with me why you do the work that you do but I want to hear a little bit about your or story if we could go back to you at a young age was making gigantic Global impact something that you were prioritizing at at an early age or what was your early

[2:40]  motivation like as a kid okay so let's be honest I don't think any part of me thought Global was in the future I was focused on survival and however I had this amazing experience which I have to be honest most of my life I did not consider amazing I I considered it an awful moment that I played over and over again but it turned out they had important seeds of growth for me so here's what happened I was 5 years old about that age and I was walking along a pathway our family was without a home at that time and I saw a woman walk up and she threw a half eaten Apple into the dumpster near where we were standing and I watched The Arc of it hit into the

[3:29]  dumpster and I I was thinking could it could I get in there and still be able to get back out and retrieve that Apple because this is going to sound like hyperbole but it had been a while since I'd had fresh food and so I was pondering that and I got that feeling on the back of your neck that someone's looking you up and down and sure enough she was and she said where are your shoes girl and I remember what I replied because I did replay it over and over again in my mind and I said I'm toughening my feet now in that moment something completely unexpected happened it was like a mirror turned around and suddenly I could see what she saw when she looked at me I could see that to her I I looked small

[4:17]  and dirty and Barefoot and hungry and and all these things and inside of me weld this feeling I am not from here I am not what you see but before I could even say anything she had already turned and walked away but what happened with that moment was this awareness that when people label us or our conditions threaten to be what we Define ourselves by or others Define Us by that that is not the truth and this feeling that we are way more than our circumstances so this came over me as a young person and it had to grow with time that understand and I'm not saying I never questioned myself but it was this awareness that communities and people are not defined

[5:08]  by the circumstance they're in that's temporary and so I really have yearned for a long time to help reverse cycles of poverty and to help us Focus not on the tough things but on what we want the outcome to be and I really feel that that awful moment that I played again and again and considered this woman was Corella DeVille I don't know if you ever saw that movie oh yeah that actually was like one of the greatest gift I ever got because who gets to be in essence ask the question who are you and are you your circumstances at such a young age that's amazing and it honestly was only a few years ago that I finally realized that truth the gravity of what you just said

[5:58]  is an experience that so many people have been through right but we often don't get to tell that story you know often when I see leaders who have had the impact that you've had we often think that they come from a place where their story has been unchallenging they've had an idea they've been able to have Global impact but you're rooted in adversity and your ability to overcome challenges and think larger than yourself and your circumstances which in itself might when we went through it might have seemed like a curse but really turned into a blessing is kind of what I'm hearing you say for sure and we don't see it when we're in the middle of it right not at all so early in our career um I do want to talk about the amazing work that you guys do at you know days for girls International but what was kind of like our early professional career like in the rest of

[6:44]  our journey so we talk about when we're five right and we came to the realization a couple years ago that we are not our circumstances what were some of the things that you were passionate about as you were coming up and growing up so at a very young age I started Roofing houses for real get babysitting went for roofing and then sheet metal these things paid way better and then went I wanted to focus on electrical engineering I love science and math um and then my life did a you know 360 Whirlwind trauma point and I dropped out of college and as someone who focused on being a woman of academic skill this just like you know it's easy to fall back into all

[7:32]  the early identity uh traps right and and yet I'm really happy to say that I married the love of my life and we built our own future and got to be entrepreneurial and have young children and have a awesome family and that became uh my choice of how I was living my life and I thought that this would be what the fullness of a beautiful purpose was right I didn't see I was 46 years old when I just finished a second master's degree I later went on to get one in creative writing literature a second in global sustainable development and I had founded a writer's conference as in writing uh with a pen and it had become very successful I thought that

[8:22]  that was you know I'm the luckiest person in the world I get to have a family and balance that with something i' love to do writing and helping creative people step up and and have opportunity I was like this is it every morning I am the luckiest person I get to create things and then one day it blew up as in nothing I could do could fix it contention was happening and and the reputation I have for helping things come together just dissolved I it was just so strange and I was upset about this door closing here's the truth if that door had not closed I wouldn't have been in the place position and opportunity to be able to say yes to being invited to Kenya which is the next stage of my my life story where days for

[9:12]  girls began I would not have been able to say yes but again this was a really ugly painful why is this happening to me moment that turned out to be one of the most important shifts of my entire life this is a really important conversation to kind of double click on here you know often when we come across adversity in life we often ask why me right instead of why is this happening for me and that perspective is something that I think we can only gain when we've come on the other side or come out the other side of hardship was that something that you've always been able to lean into or has this been kind of a recent Revelation as well now I see it again and again I wish I could say that I've got this for the rest of my life there are no

[10:00]  promises but I can tell you I know this for sure when something horribly difficult is happening there are incredible Miracles ahead it's just the way it's been throughout my whole life and if you look at history if you look at it's really for me one of the secrets has been an attitude of gratitude to look at life with a sense of what can I find here that's working what can I look forward to what can I I learn here and recognize that any failure is as we all know not failure it's a lesson a strength a tool a resource if we recognize it and lean into it that way what we focus on comes into focus it affects our

[10:49]  perspective if we can go to gratitude the faster we can do that the quicker we can recognize the next opportunity that comes our way so that's what I'm good at I'm good at even my license plate on my car is g r a t a2d i knew I was going to love you okay so this is a this is an important topic because you know I very personally have gotten a lot of flack in my life for being positive and Optimist and Optimist I've even been told that I am toxically positive but one of the things that I've recognized my exact reaction was in times of hardship we have a choice to make now we can either lean in the uncertainty the doubt the fear or we can choose to say what am I going to do now

[11:38]  and look at the optimistic side so I've been messing around with a framework called practical optimism life comes at us a million miles an hour sometimes but we always have the power to choose and look at the situation on the bright side and I've been trying to hammer this home for people who say you can't always be optimistic you can't always be positive I disagree I think that there's a place to be positive optimistic but it gives me the power to make decisions on how I'm going to navigate my life absolutely and here's the difference I think I think if you can feel your feelings because I'm with you if you can feel your feelings acknowledge them get curious about them go H you know literally that even that breathing out breath of is neurologically a real help but if you

[12:28]  can get serous and go this one hit hard I am completely I am in grief this feels horrible and shift to okay what am I going to get from this what am I going to learn from this how am I going to choose to experience even this and that's where the power is to choose okay I can be miserable here's the threat you clearly understand our amydala is really good that part of our brain that helps us stay safe that first responder part of our brain it's really good at setting up clear flashing alarming safety lights like don't go this way stay in the normal Lane when there's trauma scary things hard things going on if you allow

[13:16]  yourself to stay in that state of fight or flight to to let that be your no new normal we're back to what you focus on comes into Focus you're going to get more of that it's going to be harder and you're going to be in fight or flight instead of create instead of heal instead of Prosper forward instead of learn instead of on purpose so your way to choose we get to choose that's the bottom line it's not that you're being blind right it's not that you're being ignorant it's not that you're saying everybody just smiled it's not that at all it's like feel your feelings and choose you get to choose and the default is going to be fear is going to be I

[14:04]  can't think straight it's going to be all about the things you don't want in your life the boundaries and not the purposeful hope we're talking about like an underlying authority to make our lives what we choose to be and this is a beautiful part of this conversation um I haven't started to get like a little emotional there when you were talking I felt like often in the world that we live in today we seen the optimization towards negativity because it gathers our attention it draws Us in but when we talk about being an optimist and being positive there aren't a lot of people who are truly yelling from the rooftops and talking about this choice that we can make like we're talking about here today and that's why I love having people like you on the podcast because more people need to hear this perspective because it's so healthy but also puts you in a position of power at

[14:51]  the same time absolutely it's so powerful absolutely if you want it it comes back to to that thing not to be redundant but to be redundant what we focus on comes into Focus so why would you want to stay in a place of trauma and defensiveness you don't want more of that in a culturally right now that's kind of the place we're leaning it's so important for all of us to recognize we get to choose so now we're on a trip to Kenya and a new I would say a small key is going to open up a big door for us so let's talk about this experience a little bit sure so I had been invited by a friend to help with the school she has in Kenya it's incredible school they

[15:38]  were just building it and I got to bring my sustainable Community lens to it which is always about the people owning the project about what they have and how they want to best unfold right and then fast forward I'm introduced to an orphanage and was afraid to even go but I believe in saying yes I was afraid my heart would be broken I started helping them with the Sustainable Solutions in my Arsenal and helping them Thrive things like a rocket stove that would save them from spending $200 a day on firewood to cook their food which they had to cook um for 400 just over 400 kids to being able to use a rocket stove and now they spent $11 a day burning sawdust to cook the same food and now

[16:28]  could use the money for whatever else they needed so things like that and then post-election violence in 2008 happened half a million people were displaced in a very peaceful country and now this orphanage swelled to 1,400 reported kids now I say reported because if you saw it bunk beds were end to end and side to side how could you possibly fit more kids but they had over 1,400 kids they were saying and and so we sent all the support we could and then it was 3 and 1/2 weeks before we would return to help with the school and I got a call that they were completely out of food and they had been for 2 days now you know that for me I know what it's like as a child to go without food

[17:17]  and so this hit me so hard and I was tell me what to do I'll do anything I just need some inspiration for how to help the kids because I'm out of options I sent everything we have and and I don't know what to do so I went to bed still pleading I wake up at 2:30 in the morning with it going through my head have you asked what the girls are doing for feminine hygiene I literally gasped I never thought to ask this question I ran to the computer to email and ask I got an very unexpected immediate answer they we didn't have smartphones everywhere back then and all they said was nothing they wait in their rooms it turned out they were sitting on pieces of cardboard for

[18:07]  days no access to the classroom no access to leave to take care of themselves just sitting on cardboard for days I knew we needed to do something and we were able to raise funds for food and pads but I knew what happens next month and so we created a washable solution they to count on month after month we get there we got eight huge green duffel bags full of washable hygiene kits and now we teach them that without periods there would be no people so don't be ashamed instead let's be healthy and safe so they get their kits and the cheers are echoing off the roof they are hugging their kits they are dancing with their kits that amazing

[18:56]  volunteers made and then the girls come to the door the first 10 girls and I have a photo of this moment not realizing this was about to change my life they say thank you so much because before you came we had to let them use us if we wanted to leave the room and go to class and I was hoping they did not mean what I feared they meant and it turned out they were being exploited in exchange for a single disposable pad and that was the moment days for girls was born it's almost like this came to you in a vision right from a higher source to ask a different type of question in how we can serve so from sending that

[19:46]  email to getting the automatic response to showing up with the green duffel bags what is the process like of creating a washable feminine product and how long does it take for you to be able to take action like that and provide so much value first of all you have to know that ironically I sketched out the design on the on the trunk of our car on a napkin sketching it for okay this is what I think we should do because I couldn't find any patterns at the time and I couldn't find anybody teaching what periods are I couldn't find that I could use at the time there I so I innovated it and here's the important thing to know it was a terrible design and I could say that cuz I designed it they were white and who wants to hang some stained menstrual product in their

[20:35]  front yard nobody ever and but I didn't think of colorful that they they were they were made with money layers so it would be difficult to rinse and wash them it would take a long time for them to dry I didn't think of that but what I did know is that when you are creating a solution and presenting it you need to listen you need to listen for feedback and respond to to it so today it's been through more than 30 iterations this process it won two US patents for its genius and it works around the world it's Innovative it's washes with little water it dries quickly it overcomes stigma barriers and and all sorts of barriers because we listened and paid attention to their feedback now you

[21:22]  could call that over 30 failures but to me because even the first the girls were able to go to school they were able to use their days as they would like they were able to have the strength and confidence of the education you can see that the wins or the losses or you can go look at how much we've learned let's keep doing better and I refer to this as tenacious flexibility tenacious flexibility this mindset of recognizing where we start is not we're going to finish is something that more people need to lean into did you ever have any type of I don't want to say this in a negative way any type of impostor syndrome or any type of self-doubt when you're sketching out that first example of what you're going

[22:08]  to create on the hood of your car and then actually producing it did you have any doubters in your life who were like I don't know who you think you are trying to create a product like this like this seems so far outside the scope of what anybody thinks is possible so how did you create the mindset to lean into this like wholly and fully one um there were actually people who thought I was crazy I ran into a woman about a year ago I had been she'd been part of my community when this all is happening and she said I was telling her now we're over 3 million women and girls reached in 145 countries and she said wow can you repeat can you repeat those statistics one time how many people how many countries over 3.6 million in 145 countries on six continents wow that's incredible thank you and her comment was

[22:58]  we thought you were crazy we didn't believe it could be outside of that one place we didn't and I just kept inviting people find out ask the people that you know that are in different parts of the world and word kept coming back we have it here this issue's happening here people just aren't talking about it and and people did I did hit places where people didn't want to talk about periods let's be honest it's one of the things that people would rather talk about anything else and and so do you break the stigma and the shame and let people see honestly this is something we can change in our lifetimes who taught us to be ashamed of our basic biology that connects every single one of us so creating opportunities for people to join if they could if it would called to

[23:47]  them I think that's one of the things that you can't buy into as a Founder not every you yes there have been moments of impostor syndrome but my drive to create the change was bigger than any fear there was this shity that this is something we can change that was bigger than even my disbeliefs or others I just knew if I don't know how I can find the people that do and I can invite them and here's the Trap I didn't fall for if someone says no if someone laughs if someone says you're crazy then you get to say actually I love that you care about music I love that you care more about pets I love that whatever it is

[24:35]  they are enthusiastic about and next like don't even lose a shred of energy just like the woman with the Apple you can buy in to that up and down look or you can say I know who I am next I'm just looking for the people that want to join in and and don't waste any on energy on those who question those those who think it's crazy the pop singer Mike pner has an amazing Ted talk about five keys of happiness or something similar to that and he has a comment in it is that is not all good not all great ideas are good no sorry not all crazy ideas are good but all good ideas are

[25:25]  crazy so if you start getting getting that I don't know about this I don't know if I can do this lean in go ahead be a little crazy how else can you do this can I add one other thing that helped me not fall for imposter syndrome okay here's what it was I invited people to look ahead to Future forecast it's 10 years from now and we have already reached every girl everywhere period how do we do it and they kind of blinked and said what I said see these big white sticky posters I want us to fill them with the things we did to succeed it's 10 years from now and we already reached our goals who did we talk to how did we do it what kind of feelings did we have

[26:13]  what kind of connections did we make what kind of ways did we interact the with in the communities we're serving how did we do this and then shift and then you reverse engineer and just take the next best best step how did you come up with that framework that is not a natural mindset or framework that we put ourselves in often when we think about these big ideas that we have we often see think that they're so far on the horizon that we fail to reverse engineer the process which makes it tangible for the human mind to say if we can get here then we can get there which is really challenging so how did you come up with that I don't know that I recall that here's what I okay just stay with me a minut minute I don't think time is what

[27:00]  we think it is I think time is this beautiful construct of our experience in this amazing earth Journey right if that's true if you happen to be someone that could go with me on this we could talk about my whole but do you know physic physics does not even the laws of physics does not necessarily agree that time is even a thing that some communities places time some PE communities it's people that are time and and in our culture we're very linear with time right and that can have great things for meeting together and doing things together and here's the truth if time is not linear then might we have already accomplish the things we're setting out to accomplish might there

[27:48]  just might just might might it be that some people you meet and you feel like gee I feel like we've met each other before might it be that maybe we' walked far as the journey or seen it and now regardless if you believe that or can even go there and stretch there what if you decided yeah I already did this I already accomplished this thing that my whole heart sings as possible whatever that is small big in your personal life in your community life what if we already did it then I'm just walking there I'm just taking the next best step what will be my next step and what will be my purposes in my life because it's all about the choices you make it's all

[28:37]  about what you're going to focus on so what if you already did it man there's a there's so much grounded truth in this you know I've been thinking a lot recently specifically um about the biggest regret that I think I will have when I am 75 80 years old is going back and thinking of and wondering why I didn't enjoy the journey more you know often we put so much stress on ourselves so many stories of self-doubt if we're going to actually get there but guess what we've gotten there every single time and it's the story it's the energy that we put into our thoughts that makes the joy makes the ride enjoyable in itself and you know my father has always had a saying

[29:25]  in my life he said you know this too shall pass and it's an interesting perspective to think about if you believe in fate if you believe in everything that we're talking about here today shouldn't you put your energy into the things of actually helping these dreams these Visions come true because what if they're already meant to be and we don't have control over the decisions that we make but we're going to end up exactly where we're supposed to be it's a beautiful thought it almost kind of makes me emotional honestly right and why not so personally um in our life right now um we've gone through a lot of things as everyone has everyone you meet is going through a lot right um my husband was hit by an inebriated driver his car was hit and it just total the car right and he's been paying a lot of

[30:14]  physical prices for that ever since and I you know we could be in Devastation mode pretty easily right and what does that help us what does that help us how much better is it to use your energy to focus on what we do have to focus on the fact that we have amazing health insurance to focus on Amazing vehicular it was a hit and run and we have so many amazing blessings in our life so we get to choose what do we want and so in this case you know it's not poana back to that's a movie that's all about oh I'm just going to be happy no matter what but it's not it's not just that it's recognizing that we don't

[31:02]  have control so the only thing I have control of is how I will choose and and we're choosing loving time together the fact that we adore each other and we're just so fortunate to have each other and we have right now we have right now we have the choices we can make right now that sorry that is powerful to be able to do that I could be lost in grief I could be losing these days because we're choosing right now because we're choosing to focus in a way that allows us more time together I have many gifts how we focus means so much and you can choose to go I

[31:51]  I've lost control or you can choose to go what if this is perfect what if we'll be more healthy because we choose more healthy for the rest of our days what if what if this is perfect then let's make today as much like we want it to be as we possibly can that's not superstitious that's not positive mindset alone that's a choice that's a choice when we cast a vision so large other people can find themselves being successful in the vision that we cast right it's the number one of a founder and a CEO have you had any trouble we've talked about it a little bit but getting other people to buy into this big vision of impact that you've been casting since the first

[32:38]  time that you went to Kenya how has that been for you oh for sure I have had people that that um came on to donate and then said oh no we just we just decided together that our group can't donate the 10,000 you because we don't want our first contribution as a group to be about periods we've already hit glass ceilings and we're not going to do it after all after they had committed it and and also having people say you know you can't do this thing I'd love to give you an example we were we had done a special project in Nepal where there's a practice called chapati where for some people they're isolated in a shed during their period not able to be with others at risk of explo exposure and attacked by animals and and so like really

[33:27]  amazing in team members that live in Nepal and are part of the community are changing that they've reached more than 20,000 people now to free them from the sheds and have them have options and talk to community members to shift the stigma and as we were starting that we partnered with someone else we got a funder and they were able on in one day with like 40 team members to reach 5,000 girls and 5,000 Boys in one day with days for girls and so we were coming up on our 10th anniversary and I said you know what if we reached a 100,000 people in one day I mean we have Global teams so what if we used everyone and and

[34:14]  planned and strategically prepared that we could do that in one day imagine how others will see that it's possible for them too what if we did that and everyone freaked out and then came the invitation to talk about it and consider it and we decided we could do it in 28 days which is the average length of a menstrual cycle let's do it in 28 days now it felt more doable but still people are like this is ridiculous 100,000 how are we going to do this this gave us opportunities to consider different kind of motivations for bringing team members in instead of just paying for days for girls kits we have Enterprises that work in the community what if they made it US Special that their local leaders if we you get half

[35:03]  off if you participate during these 28 days would you like to prepare to be part of it inviting all sorts of community and stakeholders to buy in and join with us so that it wasn't just we're going to reach that many people but it became win-win cascading growth throughout communities around the world we didn't hit a 100,000 we exceeded that number but at first people were like Celeste don't do this to us she's doing it again um and Truth two things one be willing to hold a vision to make it a conversation and if you get pushed back you know pay attention and build something together because people support what they create not what you

[35:52]  put on to them but what they create so if you hold a vision and you're able to to bring people in and cocreate now you've got a movement it is so inspirational just to hear the impact that you've had pushing the boundaries breaking beliefs and making people think bigger about what they can accomplish is a burden that few people can handle and it's so cool to hear that you've pushed so many people to do so much powerful amazing work I want to know a little bit about the process of building out your team because there's a saying we can go fast alone or we can go far together and it seems like at one point in time you had to say I need to go far so that means I need to surround myself with other executors and team members who can help me execute on this Vision what was that process like that's been

[36:40]  interesting because we built a team that has like 70,000 volunteers around the globe right so so lots of volunteers came in and they honestly worked harder than you could ask anyone to work in fact I found myself more often saying please you know back off don't work during these hours please please you know give yourself some family time some Wellness time and and we managed those volunteers by offering playbooks so here's what this position could look like and then make it in a living Playbook so that they could add to it what they were doing and how they were doing what they were doing so they could pass it on if they decided to to leave the position so these living playbooks

[37:28]  allowed us to have volunteers hold it there did come a day was like we're going to have to pay employees now this was like SE six seven years in and um at this point it was we need to do that so we can keep scaling we hired amazing unicorns that were able to do so many things here's the bad thing about this they again pushed themselves so hard we were all demand ing so much of ourselves because we have such passion for what we do there came a day when I recognized that we needed Specialists to really scale in a way that would continue to meet the demand and that was an interesting process to have the ability to manage all the volunteers the

[38:17]  ability to manage all the legal um needs around the globe to make sure we're registered we're complying with all the kinds of different uh Imports and other things that we needed to fly with and so it really has been inviting people to come and use their strengths here's where the challenge was for me I at first got to wear all the hats so I could make the decisions quickly we could just you know respond and and I love the challenge of that when you pass on hats you're more and more specialized and when you're good at some of the things you passed along being able to stay in a place of allowing every everybody to play to their strings and stay in their zone of Genius is really really important and so when we became

[39:05]  so specialized that my role was now one of uh vision and fundraising primarily not programs as much that was a really tricky day this was a hard place to be and here's a mistake that I made I found myself wanting everyone to feel all of the strength and Leadership they needed so I started backing up feeling like in order for them to succeed in their role I have to back up but I didn't do it in a way that here this is yours this is yours well I did do that what I exceeded that mandate with was I started quieting my voice trying to make myself if you will smaller so they could feel bigger in the

[39:52]  room never shrink yourself so that someone else will feel bigger because it backfires on every in every way it possibly can it's very important as a leader that you continue to invite people that you let people take the pieces as you grow in scale and maintain your own presence in the room leadership is about inviting others into the circle letting people play into their strengths it does not demand for us to step out of the circle it does not demand of us to to shrink our influence there it just demands of us this balance to see witness and hold everyone in the room

[40:43]  which is just as being in fat a bigger Challenge and far more successful if you could break that down into an equation right let's say 100% was Celeste saying I've got the vision right 50% was Celeste time saying hey now you're going to take this responsibility but it sounds like you almost went to like a 955 rule so where's the equational split if you will kind of what you've recognized in your own practice of this great leadership right wow I don't know that I have the formula it's probably 8020 it seems like everything is um yeah it's probably 8020 I did I exceeded it I hope this makes sense I I think again were looking at Focus I shifted my focus during that

[41:32]  small season from celebrating the possibilities of the team and the possibilities for our next to and and our present and that balance to focused on how to make them all feel comfortable in the room in a way that didn't include myself in the room does that make sense so I think it was more about that um I took myself out of the equation in ways I had never done that were not authentic for myself so I think again that it's back to focus and and that I had to come back to that place of how do you let everyone play to their strengths and hold that and not back yourself out of the room and that was a

[42:22]  really good lesson we almost have to go back to the example you gave earlier about rever verse engineering the 10year vision right working years in the future as the Visionary but also giving everyone the establish path on how they're going to get there and saying your objective is to catch up with me a couple years out making sure that we're all Marching In The Same Direction without relinquishing complete power because then we start to wander that's what kind of makes sense to me oh so right exactly wow so let's talk a little bit about um the process of casting the vision now we talk about relinquishing power in an 8020 split right to be able to make sure that our team members are working properly how do we continue to cast The Vision with so many complexities especially on a global

[43:09]  scale of you know being able to be intentional about what's important to different cultures across the country or across the country Across the Nation across the globe how do you keep that vision and that kind of cap or umbrella on the vision of where you guys are going that's been so important because we are really culturally sensitive right so inviting everyone to be part of making our long-term plans inviting everyone to look at new programs and new and and give their feedback even processes like deciding if soap in our kits would come wrapped in paper or unwrapped because sometimes when they all open them there will be paper stwn about right and didn't it was no longer able to be a snap decision but a a

[43:56]  decision and invitation all over the world right so that has been important at this point I have actually made the shift to let a woman that I or to get the gift of a woman that I worked with for five years uh Tiffany Larson to be the global CEO and I've focused on a a new book that came out that has two awards that it's been nominated for what's the name of that book oh the power of days and it's right back here and it tells really the founding story and and the things that I learned that were gold nuggets along the way that taught me the mindset and framework that you're seeing and to be able to be speaking out there and sharing with others how really days for girls is proof that together we can do miraculous

[44:45]  things and that anything we want to change in our world is a matter of reverse engineering is a matter of bringing our best to with hope and with vision we can do anything if you can make menstrual Equity a regular conversation all over the world then we can fix anything it's like the New York New York of development issues if you could go back in time and talk to Celeste when she is just realizing that there's an opportunity for her to tackle a huge problem like feminine hygiene What would be the advice you would give to her in that moment where she's saying I'm going to go all in on this new opportunity to have such a big impact I would say get legal earlier I I didn't see that as important I

[45:35]  considered that branding wasn't important because it was just about reaching those we were serving with menstrual care products right it wasn't wasn't about that so I would say take care of that now it is a priority because of branding because people can find you because because you don't have to do it after the fact right so that would be one thing that's just practical other than that I have to admit that I feel like the journey has been miraculous remarkable the people that I met along the way the way everybody joined in the way everyone has been um just all in to help change this has been remarkable so I think I would say go celest

[46:21]  go just keep on staying on that Vision you know I think it's really interesting to think about how much much power we actually have I think if you've accomplished great things you've also recognized at the same time that you are so much more powerful than even you think you can be and with the global impact like you've created thinking about that 5-year-old girl who had that tough moment thinking about that apple to where you're at now it's an amazing journey and I want to say thank you so much for sharing it with us here on the podcast Celeste you know it's been wonderful thank you for this conversation one of the Traditions that we have here on the podcast um is having our previous guest asked a blind question to you now this is an amazing CEO and leader out of Georgia who does a ton of work in you know youth advocacy and helping foster children and things

[47:09]  like that her question was how do you ensure that your organization remains adaptable and res um and responsive to the communities that you serve oh such a good question so this is hugely important we do that by making sure that as soon as we can we pass the Reign to local leaders from the beginning local leaders participated in the education in the process of feedback so that we would hear how are things working so that we could respond if you don't engage those that you're serving at a core level within your mission and programs then you're going to miss the mark you're not going to learn that you need to adapt your project or your product and that has been key and that's the way to not make

[47:57]  it a secondary monitoring evaluation but a primary part of your activity and actions because here's the truth Kenan I could not seow 3.7 million days for girls kids I could not do all the advocacy that's happened so it's really not me it's the power of we it's what happens when we decide to trust each other invite each other into the room and say let's go that's what makes the difference if you want true change you don't come in alone you invite everybody in to join you well Celeste that's the end of the podcast once again you are an icon thank you for joining us we really appreciate it