A Womans Voice is their Vote with Kyle Young on Shedding the Bitch Radio

Hi everyone, and welcome to Shading the Bitch Radio. And yes, I am Bernadette Boas, back from my bitch tour. You've been following me all around the country, back and forth, back and forth. Just a couple of updates. Went to the California Women's Conference. Thank you very much, Michelle, and everyone out there for a fabulous, fabulous conference. A shout out to you and all the ladies that were there throughout the country. Thank you very much for coming by and taking the pledge with me. At sheddingthebitch.com. As well, I then jumped down to Florida to the Women's Prosperity Network Unconference. So thank you Nancy, Trish, and Susan, the three sisters of Women's Prosperity Network. And then I finished up this past weekend back out in California to the Secret Knock with Greg Reid and the whole gang of Les Brown and TJ Fox and a whole number of of other friends and family members. So thank you everybody for kind of following along with me and helping me recover as well from that 3-week tour. But I want to jump into our conversation today because this topic is not only important, but we have to, as women, we have to change the dynamic of this, of of this conversation, which is about women getting their vote out. And joining me today, I'm very excited to find a real mover and shaker, and you know how I love those type of people, Kyle Young. Now, I was impressed because Kyle headed up one of the most popular and successful marketing and advertising agencies here in Atlanta, competing with the big guys, and she did it for many years. And decided that, you know what, my family needs me and I want to be with them, and therefore I'm gonna go off and try to help women and businesses to really just move to the next level based on her great number of years of experiences and expertise. And she started multitaskingwoman.com. Now you have to do multi-tasking dot com— I'm sorry, multitaskingwoman.com. And you'll find her picture right there and you'll see Kyle Young. And it's all about helping women and their businesses to really go to the next level and deal with everything that we have to deal with.

Well, all too often we are overwhelmed. You know, there are too many questions, there are too many ideas, there are too many calls on our time. It's not about how to multitask more, it's just about how to make small changes in your life and really take a higher level view to know what's really important, what's not important, and then act on that.

Yeah, and I'll tell you what, we can all use that, can't we? Because I was telling her, many of you come to me all the time saying, I just have too much to do, and how, you know, how can I get more done in the same 24 hours that we all seem to have, and yet I, you know, I can't seem to get it done. That is what Kyle would help you with. But more importantly, she then took a passion or maybe a frustration.

I would say definitely a frustration, even kind of an anger really.

Oh, angst! I love that word. People always say to me, "Why do you use the word angst all the time?" I think it's bold and strong. But she took the frustration of women getting out and voting, or maybe they're not. So we're gonna talk about that today, and I really want you to pay special attention. But I also, before we even get started, I want you to go to nevertobusytovote.com .com, go to Never Too Busy to Vote on Facebook, she's Multitasking on Twitter, and just follow her everywhere and join the movement that is not— you're never too busy to vote. And make sure, ladies, that we get the vote out. So what was the angst? What caused the angst?

Well, my frustration and my anger really, Bernadette Boas, was when I found out that in 2010, 46% of women voted. Only 46%.

Ladies, ladies, ladies.

Now, only 45% of men voted, so we did slightly better than men, but not really.

That's just absolutely disgusting. No offense.

Well, that was my word. That was my word. It was unacceptable to me. So I figured, you know, I'm just one woman, but I can at least start going out and talking to all the women I know. Like you, I have a network around the country. To reach out to them to say, "Look, let's go vote." One of the important things about this effort, which is totally grassroots, is that we have all agreed to be nonpartisan in our approach. Because while every one of us who volunteers for this, 'cause it is totally— believe me, there's no money involved, there's no PAC money behind it, there's no secret agenda. It's just a group of women like us who have said, "Okay, we're sick and tired of this. More women should be out voting. We should be politically active and involved." And so while we all have very strong— most of us— political opinions of our own, we're setting those aside to say that if we can get more and more women, more and more people out to vote, then the people that are elected will reflect the will of the country, not the will of 4 46% of the country.

Correct. Absolutely. And so we're not here to talk politics. We're not here to talk Republican, Democrat. So if that's what you're interested in when we've been promoting this episode, stay on because we do need to convince you to get out there and vote. But then close your ears to the fact that you wanted to talk about that, and we're not going to. What we want to talk about is why are women not getting out and voting? We spent How many centuries fighting for the right to vote, and yet 46% are voting. There's a gap of 54%. So the 54% of you who aren't voting, let me ask you something. I love your brand name and, well, your movement name. Let's make sure it's much bigger than a brand. Never Too Busy to Vote. What's the number one excuse you get around women not voting?

Well, actually, the census. When they did the recent census, U.S. census, they asked 'Why did you not go vote?' And the number one answer for women was, 'Too busy. Just too busy.' Now, why are we too busy? We know. We have kids, we have husbands, we have jobs, we have other commitments, we are traveling. Any and all of these things in combination— excuse me— we are busy.

You do that while I'll fill in the— I'll fill in. Because what I want to make sure of is, do you know if the census actually followed up with the next question, which would be, okay, why are you too busy?

No, you know, that's a good one. I have to go back and look at the data again to see.

Well, because—

Because if it gave child— whether it gave childcare or my employer wouldn't let me off, which of course is illegal because your employer has to let you go vote.

Right.

But even some of my own friends, who I consider to be very astute and involved and active women, particularly if it's not a presidential election, I'll say, "Oh, well, did you go vote on Tuesday?" "Oh, you know, I meant to. I totally forgot about it," or, "I got out of a meeting too late," or, you know, there are all kinds of reasons not to go vote. No no no!

You're being nice at Shading The Bitch— you know I tend to be on the tough love train. It's not a reason; it's purely an excuse. And I will say that because I mentioned to you earlier, I really didn't have a high regard for voting or not even regard. I just didn't see a lot of meaning or purpose for me behind it until 2008 when I did become a small business owner, an entrepreneur. I left corporate, the security and the comfort, but at the same time the schedule and the travel and all the excuses. And then in 2008, with a lot of those excuses no longer and the importance of voting that much more for me, I said, "Nope, there's absolutely no reason." Call it a reason, whatever, it's an excuse. That not to get out and vote.

Well, a friend of mine says, "When you say, 'Oh, I'm just too busy,' it means it's not a priority." It's not important enough to vote. It's not a priority. It's not important enough. And you talked about, you know, it hasn't been that long since we had the vote. I mean, if you really look at it, it was only in 1920 that we got the vote as women in the United States of America, the most— arguably the most progressive country in the world. Right. Prior to that time and through the suffragette movement, what people don't realize is there were governors and senators who were actually trying to have women committed to insane asylums for the rest of their lives, simply, for no other reason, simply because they thought that women should have the right to vote.

Oh my gosh. Okay, so women, we've spent many, many, many, many, many, many, many lifetimes, okay, struggling to get our option to vote. Our freedom, our right to vote. So what is it going to take for you to go block it out on your calendar right now and discuss it with your employer, make arrangements with daycare? What would my situation be? Purely that I have the right, you know, I have pure flexibility over my schedule being that I'm an entrepreneur.

Well, you travel a lot.

I do travel, and maybe I'll look at whether or not I have to travel that particular day, or what are the other options?

Well, you can vote early.

I can vote early.

In fact, a lot of states states have already opened early voting. So if you've already made your mind up who you want to vote for, don't wait. Go. Avoid the lines. Vote early. Right.

Is there mail-in still?

Vote ab— you can get an absentee ballot. Melissa Grossman, a good friend of mine who actually lives in Spain, still an American citizen, she— there is an expat group in Europe and they're already voting. You know, they've gotten— they've got the process. They're voting. Just because they live in Europe, they're not giving up their right to vote. Right.

And you have to admit, there was a huge presence of women, and there is a huge presence of women, our policies, our needs, our requirements, in this year's election.

Well, and we are the majority of people in this country.

Right.

But we don't— we are not represented like a majority. Right. If you look at the numbers of how many women senators and congresspeople, and even in state legislatures, we've made progress. We've made a lot of progress. Right. But we're still very, very underrepresented by our own gender— Right, right.

—in political office. And I could go into a long discussion with you around why I think that is, too. Because I don't necessarily think— we talk a lot about it here. That it's the boys' club, that it's the, you know, the whole political arena. It's also women not stepping up. And granted, not stepping up to a political office is one thing. Not stepping up for the vote— Yes. —is a whole other thing. Yes. So do me a favor. If you're listening to this live or in our rebroadcast, video or audio, remember, go to nevertobusytovote.com. Www.nevertobusytovote.com, Never Too Busy to Vote on Facebook, and Multitasking on Twitter. And just follow what Kyle and this movement is doing. I'm going to definitely be participating. Oh, can we discuss this? Oh, sure. Sure. Want to tell a little bit about this? For those of you who are listening only. Yes.

This is, um, they're, Kristen Lee, who is a very talented graphic designer, as I said, all the women involved in this effort are volunteer, and she is a fabulous graphic graphic designer, she took, made us a version of the traditional British, you know, keep calm and carry on, keep calm and vote. We have it in multiple colors and sizes on the website. You can download it, you can print it out, you can post it on your bulletin board at the office, you can put it on your refrigerator to remind you. We are this week introducing different Facebook header banner images. That you can make your banner on your own personal Facebook page. And if you would do that for the next 28 days, because we're only 4 weeks from today is Election Day, that would be great. The best way women can help is to come on, like the Facebook page, and share it out with their networks. I did that earlier.

Yep, I did that earlier.

Spread the word, because we have had some amazing people. You'd be surprised at some of of the women who have responded just from the Facebook page.

And these banners, do they also incorporate the women's statement? The women, like, or are they generic?

No, they're generic. They're more of the keep calm and vote, keep calm. But we are welcoming women to submit banners if they want.

I think I'm going to work on one of those because as much as I think it's important for all of us to get out and vote, I really want to support the idea of moving this 46% up. Absolutely. And help get the women out there voting. So, yes, so I'll help you with that.

We have a YouTube channel as well. Ah, okay. So I've already encouraged you to go ahead and make your, you know, why I'm never too busy to vote, or why you should never be too busy to vote, and upload that.

Are you doing any type of contest or any kind of campaign around it?

That's a good idea, maybe we should. Maybe we should give—

I can donate something if you want to give something away.

The next 28 days, see how creative we can get. We're really reaching out, primarily to women because we know if women go vote, the people around them will usually go vote. Because women drive activity.

I have an idea. I'm going to throw you right there. She has— if you're watching this on video, you're going to be able to see this. But she has these great bags. And this is my little gift bag. Isn't that lovely? And multitasking woman. And there's a way that you might be able to incorporate that into your videos. Yes.

You're going to love that. Thank you.

Woo! I got to multitask. I got to commit right here. That's great. Yeah, I'll even be willing to, you know, well, we could talk about me even donating this to the cause because I am so glad that we have this opportunity today to help educate everyone because you hit a chord with me when Kelly, Kelly reached out to me, Kelly Green, little shout out for Insider Branding Secrets, and she's helping with our Take the Pledge campaign, and I found this to be right aligned with that type of movement that we really need to get women to have a voice. I, you know, I spend a lot of time, as I'm sure you do, listening to women, I'll have to say it, complain or just feel sorry for themselves as to why they don't have what they have in their life. And yet many of us, and fortunately there's a lot of women out there very blessed as well and who are appreciative of that. However, it hit a chord to me saying, wow, that's a way to have our voice.

Well, I think a lot of times we, because we have so much going on in our lives, we think, how am I going to make a difference? You know, I'm just one woman, how am I going to make a difference? I can't do anything really big. But it's all about little things, because little things add up. If one woman tells 3 or 4 of her friends, and they tell 3 or 4 of their friends, then we've leveraged, and all of a sudden we're reaching all over the country. Right. A friend of mine, I said, gosh, you know, I don't, we're trying to reach all 50 states. And particularly in these last 28 days. I said, I don't know anybody in Alaska. I know people in Hawaii. That's what she said too. I'm like, oh wow, so 5 people have said, oh, I know somebody in Alaska.

Oh, I do. So what we could do is we could band together. All right, ladies, are you all listening? We could band together, put out on our Facebook pages, share your page, and then put, who do you know in blah, blah, blah, blah, forward this to them specifically, link back to us. So we can see that they shared along. That would be great. And just, and let's like, I also find that if you give them a specific call to action and be specific about it, that if you're looking for, you know, women in these certain states that are underrepresented, although I'm sure every state has that issue, but then we can spread the message.

Well, I think that's great, and you give a shout out, you know, we'll get everybody going to your particular state. Yeah, absolutely. Because it's interesting, because I know I personally have made political contributions to campaigns of women whose agendas I really believe in, in other states where I don't live, but yet I want to support their efforts. Sure. So it is, I think Tip O'Neill famously said once, all politics is local. It all starts. And who you vote for, who's going to be on your school board or your county commissioner, your mayor, is every bit as important as who you're going to vote for for president. All the rhetoric that's out there right now is about the presidential race, but all elections are important because it's the only— we have the gift. You know, a few years ago when women in Afghanistan were trying to vote and women in other places in the country and People are literally still being killed around the world for trying to exercise their right to vote.

Yeah, yeah, that's—

and we have it, and we waste it. Right. Okay, so here's something I want to float out to you. Did it strike you as interesting or funny, as in ironic funny, certainly not laughing funny, that the entire nation got in an uproar because we had substitute referees for the NFL, or that people stood in line, literally camping out for days for their new iPhone 5, but yet they don't want to stand in line 20 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour. In most places, it's not even that long, right?

Especially if you go vote early, right? I, I—

what, something is inherently upside down in our country if we're not taking that right to vote seriously.

Well, and I want to check if this caller wants to state a question, or maybe they're just listening in off their phone, and then we're going to come back because I do have something I want to ask you. Hi, this is Bernadette and Kyle. Do you have a question? Okay, hello? All right, then just continue to hang out and we'll continue on. Thank you very much for joining us. I have a question. There is, um, being that you have, is it your son or son?

Son. I have a teenage son.

Teenage son. And do you know if his your parent friends, other parent friends, especially with their daughters, are they instilling in them this, this freedom and right to vote and to really stand up for themselves? And is the schools contributing to that in our, in our youths? Because that's where the change is going to happen.

Well, in my son's case, of course, being the mother of a son, I have more friends with sons than daughters. I will tell you this, he's 16 and a half, he'll be 17 in February. He is absolutely incensed that he cannot vote. And I keep telling him, you don't— even if you can't vote, you can still be politically active. You can volunteer if you have a candidate that you want to get behind, you know, you can become politically active. I think though, this idea that girls maybe aren't as aware, you know, I think back to when I was a teenager, and that was a long time ago, but I think it was very important to me when I was able to go vote the first time. A friend of mine just had one of those big birthdays, and so I took her out to dinner. She and her teenage daughter who's the same age as my son. I've known her since she was born. And we began talking about— this was prior to both of the conventions— and her mom said, "Now we're going to be watching some of that," and her reaction was typical teenage girl, right? "Oh, Mom, why do I want to watch that boring stuff on television?" And we began to explain some of the women's issues that were in play at that particular point in time.. It was when some controversial remarks were made about rape and so on. And she was like, you're kidding. This is the daughter. Mom, that's just not right. You're kidding. I can't believe somebody would say that. And we're like, well, this is why you need to remain aware of what's going on in the news, of what's being said, and to understand that you can have a voice in this. Right, right. So she left the dinner, I think, the birthday dinner, determined to go back to her high school and— Ban those girls together. And the point we keep trying to make is rarely, I don't know about you, but I rarely feel that in a political conversation of opposing views, am I really going to change what the other person thinks. I'm probably not going to change their position. There was the other night after the debates, somebody posted on Facebook or Twitter, 'Oh, now that I've seen the debates, I've totally changed my mind about who I'm going to vote for.' Said no one ever. It doesn't usually happen that way. Maybe a few people will make their mind up, but the fact of the matter is that the conversation can still be centered around being politically active.

Right. And just standing up for what you believe in and what is important to you. And that's what the key point is. Republican, Democrat, we don't care. We just want you to stand up, and especially as women, and really put your voice out there. Now, do you have some fun facts, and where can someone get their hands on them?

Okay, we do have some kind of frequently asked questions. If you go to the site, there is a section called Spread the Word. There's also a section for media. This is a little bit of a who, what, when, where, why fact sheet. I think that, as Bernadette has already said, the main thing we want you to know is that we are nonpartisan, totally nonprofit, all volunteer, just women reaching out to women, which is just what you're doing with your whole Shedding the Bitch movement. I know it includes men as well, but we really want people to begin that conversation. If you don't want to say 'Who are you voting for?' Which personally I never ask anyone because I feel that's a privacy thing. Even my parents growing up would not necessarily confess to each other who they voted for because frequently they voted for opposite people. They cancelled each other's votes out, but, you know, but we want people to reach out. When you're having coffee, you know, meet somebody at Starbucks, stand in line at the grocery store, 'Are you planning to vote? Please go vote.' A friend of mine, I ran into a friend of mine recently at a local festival here, and she's very active for an opposing political party. And she's, 'Oh, well, let me give you this information.' And I said, 'You know what, Nancy?' I said, 'Thank you so much for being politically active. I'm not going to take that information because right now I'm focusing on just getting people out to vote.' to vote. So, I had a request from a New York Times reporter who was writing an article who said, you know, how are people handling this issue in the workplace? That can be, you know, if you're posting, you know, you're putting up a bumper sticker or you're posting things on your Facebook page and, you know, kind of, it's not that people shouldn't take a political position, but how do you take one in a way that is still, positive and kind of moving things forward. And for me and for all of the women who are involved in Never Too Busy to Vote, it is simply focused on getting out. Right. Absolutely.

And exercising that right to vote. Absolutely. NeverTooBusyToVote.com, that's where this document is. Yes. That they can pull down. It is. And then Never Too Busy to Vote, the Facebook page, we want to make sure you're going there. And then you can always collaborate with Kyle @multitasking on Twitter. All kinds of ways to do that. And I just wanna make sure, what, okay, let's remove the excuses of never too busy. So we talked about, let's highlight 'em again, what their options are.

Well, if you are registered to vote, you should know that by now, on our site, there is a link on the homepage, on every page actually, to vote411.org. Which is a site that is operated— it's a voter information site, nonpartisan. It's offered by the League of Women Voters, which is also another nonpartisan organization. You can go in, you can plug your state, you can pick your state, and it will give you all the information you need based on your zip code of what your state's deadline for voter registration is. As we've said, many of the states, the deadline is today. Day, not all. It will tell you what the requirements are, because in the last 2 years, since the last voting, national voting in 2010, 11 states have changed their voter identification requirements. Yes. So don't be caught short by showing up and not having the right documentation. And the other thing is not knowing where to vote, could be that you lose your vote. That was my problem. You know, depending on— you need to know when the polls open, when the polls close, and just double-check. I voted at the same library for 30 years, right? But I could show up tomorrow, and if the lines have been changed of my voting district and I'm there at the last minute and it's 5 miles away, I might not get to vote. So check it now while you have plenty, plenty, plenty of time.

Well, we're 30 days out, so even as far as having conversations with your employer, making daycare arrangements, making pet care arrangements— like I would, I would, although most likely I'm taking him with me. You know, whatever the case might be, there really is no excuse to be too busy to vote. So, Kyle, I want to thank you so much.

Oh, I've loved it. It's been great.

I want to thank you so much. And we're going to be putting— actually, she's going to stick around because we're going to do a couple little videos afterwards that we can put out on Facebook and YouTube and whatnot. She does have a YouTube channel, she mentioned, Never Too Busy to Vote. So just Google it, Facebook it, you'll find it. I found it very easily earlier. And we're going to see what we can do to get the women out to vote. This particular election year. And then come back here next week, Tuesday, every Tuesday at noon Eastern time for another episode of Shedding the Bitch Radio. And then at the same time, I have some great events coming up and some great webinars that you can be participating in. So go to sheddingthebitch.com and look under events or programs. We have a lot of activity starting up for the end of the year and then obviously going into next year. But for everybody at Shitting the Bitch, and thank you very much, and Kyle, thank you for joining us today, and we will check right back with you next Tuesday at noon Eastern time.