Hi everyone. Hi. I need this water so desperately. I have the worst sore throat. So I'm sorry.

I'm really excited to be here. I've actually never been in this space, so the space is beautiful. But I'm mostly excited because I've been a really big fan of Care.com for a very long time. I've included the company in several of my segments on GMA as an ideal way to make extra money, if you're looking to be a care provider. Or to use it as a resource to find exceptional care. So I was very excited when Sheila invited me to be here with you.

And I'm especially excited given the timing. I have spent the last several months, four months to be exact, talking to literally hundreds of women. And came away with a pretty, what I would say is surprising, at least very surprising to me, discovery. And I want to share that discovery with you here today. And tell you, kind of, how it came to be and what I think it means. And, kind of, put it out there for all of us to think about and to discuss. And so before I, kind of, dive into that, let me give you a really quick background about me, as it relates to this particular issue. My very first jobs were working in network news. I worked at ABC News and NBC News. I worked for super stars, Barbara Walters, Maria Shriver, Jane Pauley, Tim Russert. And I loved what I did. I got to promote this incredible talent. I felt like I was on top of the world working for a network news division. And loved, simply loved, going to work every day.

So you could imagine my surprise when one day I was summoned to the office of the newly appointed president of the news division at NBC. And he leaned back in his big leather chair. And he told me that any time somebody new comes into a position, they like to put their mark on things. They like to establish their own protocols. They like to put their own people in place. And I remember, distinctly, interrupting him, saying, "Are you firing me?" And he said, "You have 30 minutes to leave the building." And I panicked. I panicked because I didn't see it coming. I realized quickly that I needed to go into spin mode for myself, like I was accustomed to doing for the people that I worked for. And so I thought quickly on my feet and said, "Listen, if you don't want to trust the people internally and externally-- both of which groups I think would tell you that I'm a really strong asset to the news division. Give me three things, five things, whatever it is that I need to do to prove myself directly to you. And establish whatever time frame you feel most comfortable, whether it's three days, three weeks, three months. You name it. I'm prepared to do what it takes to prove myself and my abilities directly to you." And he was completely unphased. And he looked down at his watch. And he said, "Now, you have 25 minutes to leave the building."

So I realized in that moment that I was not going to get to keep my job. And as I stood up to walk out of his office, desperately trying not to burst into tears, his parting words to me were, "Tory, it's a big world out there. I suggest you go explore it." And I didn't want to explore anything, except the comfort of my cubicle, which now was no longer an option. So I chose, instead, the only alternative, which was the comfort of my apartment on West 60 Street, in my pajamas with my pints, plural, of Haagen-Dazs. And that's what I explored. And I explored that for several months, until I ran out of money. Funny, right, how that happens. Like, there's nothing coming in. It's all going out and so quickly evaporates. And so I had to snap out of it. I had to figure out what I was going to do next. And the easiest thing for me was to, simply,
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go get another job in public relations and communications, which is what I wound up doing for the next several years. But I noticed every single day in my subsequent two positions that-- and one was I spent three years at Nickelodeon, a kids' cable network. Then, I worked at a small lifestyle magazine for 20somethings. And through both of those experiences, what I noticed just about every single day was that I had the pain from the permanent scar of a pink slip. And it wasn't going away. And no matter how much my bosses liked me, no matter how significant my raises were. No matter how well done the particular job was, I still had that permanent scar from a pink slip.

And so I knew that the only way-- or I thought the only way that I could really cure that for myself was to start my own business, to be able to sign my own paycheck, to be able to insulate myself from ever being fired again. And so in 1999, I decided to do just that. I quit the PR job that I had. And I started Women For Hire. And our company now, for the last 12 years, has produced career fairs throughout the country. Where we help connect women, either, at the launching stage or the advancing stages of their careers to work for these large organizations. And I realize there's a little bit of irony there that I am helping women do just that for the organizations that I fled myself. And fortunately, we've had a very good track record at doing that. And have had incredible successes. And it drives me every single day to do the work that I do.

But two years ago, I started hearing more and more from women. Women who attend my events, women who watch me on Good Morning America, women who I talk to in social media, come to me to say, "I got my last pink slip. Help me start a business." Or "I think I'm really ready to make a switch. Help me start a business." And so I started a new company called Spark and Hustle. Where we produce events and services to help current and aspiring small business owners to start and grow their businesses. And in the last four months, since February, I've had seven events throughout the country; Los Angeles, Tulsa, Chicago, Boston, Dallas. I'm missing some. New York, Orlando. And at each of those events, there are a couple of hundred people who attend. So I've seen 1500 faces come through our doors. They're threeday events. So I get to know people pretty well. And here is what has astounded me the most. Among those 1500 women who have attended our events in the last few months, 40 percent of those people are, either, currently employed and are looking to get out to make the switch from employment to entrepreneurship. Or they're people who have recently done that within the last year, voluntarily. Meaning they didn't move to start a small business because they got a pink slip, because they saw layoffs looming. It was completely voluntarily.

And it's those women who I tend to focus on so much to figure out why. Why is it? What exactly has caused you to make that switch? And I want to introduce you to three of those women, who I think are pretty representative of the women who I've been meeting. And, really, it's just to, kind of, put some faces to the stories that are pretty typical across the board. I should say that 80 percent of about what has amounted to about 600 women, about 80 percent were very happy at work. The other 20 percent, lots of misery, lots of drama, that's why they decided to make the move. But the 80 percent is where that focus is.

So the first person-- I'm so happy that worked. I've never done Power Point ever before. So this is like a big day for me, okay. So the first person-- it's the little things; right-- Mel King. So she's this incredible woman who has spent six and a half years as an employee benefits manager at a company in aviation industry. And for the last three years, she has asked her managers to help her move to a different department. She's had a very clear vision about her career path. So it's been three years of asking. Two years ago, her direct boss lost her job because of budget cuts. And Mel was asked to take over, absorb those responsibilities. That they were not going to be replacing that position. They were eliminating that position. And she did so. She took over those responsibilities, took them over with ease. And assumed that by doing so, ultimately, she'd be rewarded for that. So she continued to remind the new bosses at be, or the different bosses now, that she still wanted to move to a different department. She still wanted to do something else. And what she was told over and over is "You're too valuable right here. We need you right here. You're so good at what you do right here. Stay right here." Two weeks ago, she gave her notice. She's leaving. She's leaving to start a candy company, of all things. It's a business that she started on the side, about six, eight months ago, when she started to see that, gosh, nothing's going to change here. It's becoming clear to me that these people who adore me aren't going to help me get to where I want to go. I'm going to have to do it on my own. And to her, doing it on her own was going out and starting this business.

The next person, Emily Bennington. So Emily, until a couple of months ago, spent the last two and a half years as a marketing and development director at a top ten accounting firm. And about six months into her job, she became fascinated with the on boarding process. And she had a whole slew of ideas about how to help new hires become rock stars within the organization. And so she'd present all of these ideas. And the HR department loved all of her ideas. And despite Emily raising her hand, over and over again to help implement those ideas, they hired external people to come in and execute her specific ideas. So she, once again, saw despite raising her hands, over and over for almost two years, it wasn't going to happen for her there. So just recently, about a month and a half or so ago, she resigned. And she's now starting her own business. Where she's going to provide those same on boarding programs that she recommended to her company, to any company who will hire her. And she's doing really well so far.

Last person, Shameeka Ayers. Shameeka spent three and a half years as a training specialist for Oracle products. And constantly exceeded expectations, except, she said, her own. And she would go to her direct bosses and constantly ask to move into a creative services department. And each time she was told, "Our customers love you. Why would you want to do anything else? Our clients love you. You get the highest rankings. You know, you're so valued in this particular position, we can't possibly move you." So about a year ago, she, too, resigned to start a lifestyle brand for bargain hunters, something very different from what she was doing.

So what happened? What happened? Why did all three of these women decide to leave? First, I think it's important to note what's not at the root of their resignations. Because in each case, even though I heard their stories very much the way that I just told them to you, I had very clear assumptions about what I thought would be at the root of them deciding, "Okay. I'm going." And so I was surprised when I

discovered that, with very, very few exceptions, it was not about a desire to pursue a passion. And one could make that argument, assuming that with the exception of Emily, they all went and did something dramatically different than what they were asking to do internally. In all of their cases, their number one goal was not to leave their employer, but to find a different position within their organizations. These are women who love their organizations, who could tell you every reason why they love their organizations, why they wanted to be part of the continued growth of those organizations. But because somebody couldn't make it happen, they realized that they had to go do it themselves.

So it's not about just pursuing this, you know, passion of the heart. It wasn't about lack of appreciation. All of them said that they had great reviews, great recognition, great compensation. So money was not the issue, either. There's that other 20 percent of those 600 women, where money, lack of appreciation, miserable bosses, sort of all that kind of stuff. But the 80 percent that I really focused on, money was not a deciding factor. They all said, "You know what? I'm fairly compensated. And, in fact, I'll probably take a significant financial hit to go start this own company." So it's not about the comfort of the finances. And interestingly, in most cases, it wasn't about flexibility, balance, any of those issues, either. Two of these women have children, small children. The other one cares for and is solely responsible for her elderly and very frail mother. And so they have extraordinary needs and responsibilities and obligations outside of the office. And all said that just like their peers at my events that no problem handling that flexibility. In fact, again, they thought that it would be even more difficult once they left and decided to go do something on their own to have more control over their time. Given that they'd be investing just about all their time working on building their new business.

So I think what's at work of why they decided to do this is something that I think is harder to define, harder to pinpoint. And that's where I really tried to, kind of, hone in on. To figure out what is it? What could it possibly be? There was a Harvard Business Review study that was released a little over a year ago, I think, now. About where they asked 600 or so managers and employees to rank what drives employee motivation. So what do you think a top answer would be about what drives employee motivation? Money, okay. A sense of contributing. Challenges. Autonomy. Recognition. A lot of people just said "recognition." Yeah? Just shout it out. You don't have to whisper it.

Audience Member: <inaudible>

Tory Johnson: Recognition. Yeah, okay. So interestingly, on the employer side when managers were asked, you know, "What do you think drives motivation of your employees, of your direct reports?" The number one answer-- there were five choices to rank. The number one driver ranked on the managers' side was recognition. Number five on that list, the last on that list, on the employer side, the manager side, was support for progress. On the employee side, when employees were able to rank the same five things, number one for them was support for progress. So that's a really big disconnect; right? It's a really big-- sorry?

Audience Member: <inaudible>

Tory Johnson: Support for progress. So it means a variety of things, depending on who is asking it, who's answering it. To the people who I've spoken to, to the people who responded and posted a ton of comments and who were part of this particular survey or study-- it was a survey within a study. Support for progress is making me feel like I am going somewhere, that my career is progressing, that I am moving in the right direction for my career. And so that's defined very differently for each person. So the interesting element of that-- and I learned about this study, actually, from some of these women who were at my event. Among this 40 percent, who I was trying to figure out why is it that they're making this dramatic jump from employment to entrepreneurship, a few of them cited this. And so it got me really curious to, kind of, dig deeper with them around that particular issue.

So one of the most interesting things that came out of that discussion was this idea around true value. So if you truly value me as an employee, if you truly value me as a contributor to this organization, you would then assume that you would provide the support necessary to advance my career. To progress my career in the direction that I want it to go in. And what I wound up seeing over and over again, from different people in different cities-- this was as true in New York as it was in Tulsa, Oklahoma-- was women saying that, "Gee, if I'm truly valued and my employer shows me that value by substantive raises, by lots of compliments, lots of recognition, ample pats on the back for sure. If they truly value me, which they're clearly telling me that they're valuing me, what, then, is the definition of true value? Because to me, as I'm looking at this, I'm seeing true value"-- and this is them talking, not me talking. "I am thinking true value is that if you really, really valued me, you would then be willing to work with me to develop my career path in the direction that I want it to go in. So true value isn't constantly telling me no. We really need you in this particular place. Nope. Our clients really love you here." And these aren't isolated incidents. These aren't just these three women. These are the three that I'm showing you because I can't show you hundreds of women. But over and over, it was that same pattern. "How do I define that true value? And is my definition of true value very different from my employer's definition of true value?" And when I asked them, "Would your managers think that they value you?" "Absolutely they think that. They would definitely say that they value me. There's no doubt about it." And so then, there's a disconnect between how are we defining what that true value is.

So I asked each of them, you know, "What would it take for the company to have kept you? What could've happened for the company to have kept you?" And I think two pretty specific thoughts emerged from that. The first was this idea that managers should be able to answer the question, "Do you know the desired career path of your direct reports? Do you have some sense of where your people want to go? What is it that they want to do? Is it every manager's responsibility to make that happen?" No. I definitely wouldn't say so. But should the manager, especially of what's considered a valued employee, a long-standing employee, have some sense of "I know where this person wants to go. And we can have a really candid conversation over whether or not that's going to be possible within this organization. And what the time frame might be." So non-answers are worse than a direct answer of "I'm going to help you make it happen." Or "You know what? I just don't see that happening here." Or "Here's what would have to

happen in order for that to happen." But being able to have that really candid conversation and know that you're going to get some concrete answers and results.

The other is many of the women-- in fact, most of the women said that they had access to mentors. I don't know if you've talked about this, at all, today. I haven't been here for the whole program, unfortunately. But almost all said that they had access to mentors. Which they defined as, you know, someone they could go to, to bounce ideas off of, to get advice from, to seek opinions, and all sorts of things. But a mentor, as we know, is not necessarily the same as a champion. Somebody who can raise his or her hand and say, "We've got this person who really wants to do something. We've got this person who's really capable of doing something else. We should give her a shot. She's been amazing in this role. Let's help her get to where she really wants to go." And has the political clout to raise his or her hand to say that and then, to help make it happen. And so anything that organizations can do to help, I think, not just women-- my focus is on women-- but women and men. I think men tend to be better at it than women to identify these champions. These internal champions who will raise their hand, who will have the ability and the willingness to help somebody get where they want to go. Ultimately, help somebody from leaving, or can prevent somebody from leaving.

And so access to those champions, I think, was one of the big things that so many people cited. When I think about that I think a lot of times-- I have 14-year old twins. And my son, Jake, tells me these fun jokes all the time. And one of my favorites is "Three birds were sitting on a ledge. And one bird decided to fly away. So how many birds were left?" And I say, like, oh so quickly, like, "Duh, two birds." He very proudly corrects me and says, "No. Three birds. Because one only decided to fly away, but didn't actually do it." And I think that for a lot of us, you know, there are great policies in place. There's great decisions that go around. There's great intentions. And yet, at the end of the day, for many, many people in the work place, it's really about the actions. So, you know, we can have all the greatest policies. We can have all the greatest intentions. But if the actions aren't there to support that, if the actions aren't there to impact me and what I want and what I need for my career, then, I think we risk seeing more and more people, kind of, fleeing the coop. We see more and more people, kind of, leaving for other organizations or going off and doing something different.

And so I'm hoping that I'm going to be able to, kind of, dig more into this. I hope that it's an area that will pique some interest among some of you. And you'll consider exploring it. I haven't seen anything done really formally about this group of people. I've become really fascinated by them. And I'm going to continue to work with them, to monitor them, to see if they're making the right choices. To see if some wind up, you know, going back to employment or if this really is the entrepreneurial path for them. And I'll continue to figure out what their companies could've done and what companies are doing to keep them, to listen to them. And if there's anything that you think that I can do to help you and your organizations, I hope that you'll email me or call me or talk to me today. I'm very accessible, very interested and always available. So I thank you. Thanks for listening to these women's stories and countless others like them. And I hope you enjoy the rest of your time here today. Thanks.