All You Need is One Yes with Shelley Zalis

How do you take an idea and create a movement that's a mission-led organization? That's what we're going to talk about today. Welcome to Women Leaders on the Move, a Her C-Suite radio podcast. I'm your host, Natalie Benamu, and every week I get to learn right alongside you as we talk with amazing guests.

I'm also the founder of Her C-Suite. We are a portfolio career network focused on women in the second half of our careers, landing board roles, expanding into businesses, and driving the AI conversation. I would love it if you'd visit us at HerseySuite.com.

Today's guest is known as the chief troublemaker. Shelley Zalas is the CEO and founder of the Female Quotient. She is a trailblazing CEO, entrepreneur, three-time movement maker, and global advocate for women in the workplace. We are going to talk all about how she started at the CES show because that is a special place in my heart.

That's how I started my very first podcast, Rock Your Trade Show, with three episodes all about CES. We also talk about leading from a place of not balance, but harmony. And we have a special visitor who visits us in this show, and I know you'll hear a little bit from him as well. So let's get started with this conversation now.

Shelley, I'm so excited to welcome you to Women Leaders on the Move today. Thanks for being on the show. I love that. I love the title.

I love the word move. You know, it's all about movement. It's all about action. And you're leading the way.

So thank you for all that you're doing. Well, thank you. And I'm so excited to ask you the question that's been on my mind since you first started, because my first podcast was Rock Your Trade Show. And Karen Chupka was my first guest.

And it was two years after you started your walk at CES. So I want to know what has changed. Because you go every year and you do this amazing experience on the show floor. What is that like for you?

It's incredible. And I still get the same whoosh feeling, you know, 11 years later. You know, when we started the walking tour, we were 50. Now, I mean, I think they've accepted over 350 of us now walking the floor.

And it's the most amazing experience because I said, when I first walked the floor, two remarkable things happened. One, every single guy's head turned around, like, where the heck did you come from? And it was this whoosh moment because going from invisible to very visible, you can't miss 50 women walking the floor and now 350. And when Karen was there, she'd say, well, do you want me to clear the hall for you?

I said, no, the power is having all these guys look at us like, you know, in mass. And it's complicated because 350, they've never done that. They only allow groups of 10. So when we're 350, you know, it's how do we get everyone in the headphones?

But it's not about big screen, little screen. It's about just this impact to say, here we are. And, you know, it's incredible. So I still get that whoosh feeling.

And I say on the tour, look at the screens, look at the content. You know, we're going to tell you things, contextualize tech in ways you haven't contextualized. But more importantly, watch the heads turn as we walk the floor. And every year, that is the most interesting highlight.

And the second thing that happened, and it still happens today, was I'm surrounded by people just like me, which was my dream come true, which was to have girlfriends in business. We talk about imposter syndrome, work-life balance. How do you do it all? How do you talk about AI today?

Because we reframe things with new narrative that is incredible. And more business is done. We're power of the purse. We all have a lot of money.

We power women And now we doing business with one another And it just so invigorating and refreshing I haven seen the 350 walk the floor You got to come this year Come January 2027. I think I will. I need to. You've created this movement that's amazing.

And it's really grown pretty rapidly over the course of the time since you started. What were some of the things that you've discovered along the way? just like your walk on the CES floor? What have been some of the things you've learned?

You know, so we're probably doing upwards of 80 events a year now. And, you know, I woke up one day and realized we have over eight and a half million women in our community across 100 countries and 30 industries. And that was a pretty remarkable moment because you use the word movement. We went from a moment to a movement, but now it's a momentum.

You know, that snowball is going. Train has left the station, no putting baby back in the corner. You know, it's this momentum that is so positive and progressive and proactive and so good. And that's because we're all in it together and not just women, which has been the greatest evolution.

It's about conscious leaders. I started, you know, the first five years was about the girls lounge and getting women to support women and bringing our feminine to the table with no apology. Sorry, not sorry. Here we are in our full glory.

Second five years, I think, was very much about collective leadership. You know, I don't care if you're a man or a woman. If you're in a position of power, use that power. And that's when we evolved from Girls Lounge to Equality Lounge.

And then, you know, that was really an important moment. And now it really is FQ Lounge. It's just it's about the power of collaboration. And all of our partners coming together to help create these amazing spaces that are designed by women for everyone.

And men, women, we're all there together. And it's about collective action. And I think that that's been really amazingly important. And then, of course, being in the media business now, you know, we are the largest global community of women in business.

Our amplification B2B is enormous, as well as the content that we're creating. We're creating so much original content now. It's fun and it's exciting and it's impacting a lot of change. So it's very exciting.

It is impacting so much change. And the experience is different. You go to all these countries. And also, you do repeat, like South by Southwest.

And it's a different experience. How are you and your team coming up with those experiences? As an event producer, that was my life before, and I still do events. I'm curious.

I want to know all the things. Take us behind the scenes for a second. And how are you doing this? Because it's amazing.

You know, our gold is our women. It is our pack. It is our community that makes every lounge amazing. You know, so it really, it really is our pack, I have to say.

And that's, no one has that. That's something you can't buy. It's about consistency. It's about the authenticity.

And it's about each and every one of us. It's not my lounge. It's not yours. It's ours.

And everyone that's in that space knows it belongs to all of us. When you ask me how we do it with experiences, my daughter runs all of our experiences. And she has a whole team. Like our team is amazing.

We live and breathe who we are and what we do. Hi. Hey, come here. This is Dylan.

What's your name? Dylan. Dylan. So cute.

And I've seen pictures of him and I love it. You know, now my kids are big, you know, so and I have three grandchildren and a fourth on the way. And my husband is a colorectal surgeon during the week, Monday through Friday, my family is everyone is busy. You know, when they're in school, my kiddies are in school, and my big kids are all working.

Friday nights, we all are together for dinner. So I don't miss weekends unless, you know, I have to like can or whatever, but he's coming to camp. That's why I built the kids camp Dylan are you coming to camp Are we going to go play in the water at the beach Yeah So he coming And my daughter who runs all of our experiences is coming with her husband and Dylan And so I built a kids camp to say why should people feel guilty leaving their kids So great. I love it.

So looking at all the things that you're doing, what is one thing that you're really excited about? I'm excited about so many things. I mean, you know, women's sports, we're now so deep in women's sports. but seeing the transformation of impacting change in F1 has been pretty remarkable.

We'll be doing the same with women's health, going deep in that. We'll be doing the same in AI, just getting women completely comfortable and ahead of the curve, not as AI as a tool, but as applying AI to find them more time to do the things that they're interested and passionate about doing. So I'm excited about that. One of the things that I really love that you're focusing on also, which we do too, is women over 50.

What are you seeing today that is transformational for women in, I'm just going to say my age demographic, but there's a lot of listeners today that are tuning into this that are in that age demographic. You know, age is a mindset, but age represents experience. And, you know, the younger generation at their age, they've got a lot of experience in tech and growing up with AI now as part of their narrative. And I think women over the age of 50, we have lived experience that is priceless and invaluable and gives us the power to give access to others to come up to gain that experience capital because experience capital makes a big difference.

You know, I think all of these things really drive change and we all, it's not top down, bottom up or all around or that this age is more qualified. We need every generation in the workplace to be participating, to learn from each other. The younger kids are teaching me tech and I don't I don't really want to learn everything. I have them to do it.

So it's it's dividing and conquering for growth. And so I think it's that realization. And I'm obsessed with LinkedIn because it's our thought leadership where I just put it all out there. And we talk about every topic.

And if you talk about it, it's not taboo anymore. I know we've been talking a lot about the work that you're doing for the female quotient, but you also sit on boards. And I'm wondering what you're seeing with the boards that you're sitting on in terms of transformation and how are things evolving for women leaders? You know, I think that boards need to take more accountability and responsibility for decisions sometimes in companies.

And we need to change out boards sometimes when there's people there for a long time, but it's time to modernize even boards, just like we're modernizing corporations and modernizing the rules of the workplace. So I think that there's room for growth and change on boards too, because if you want to see more access for the best leaders in the workplace, the boards need to be accountable for that too. But we're having the conversations. And, you know, once you have a conversation, it really, we do need boards with intentional action.

You know, it's to me, it's about intentionality and not status quo. It's boards of possibility versus boards of status quo is what I'd like to see more of. Now, I know you're traveling a lot and you've got a heavy schedule and we've talked about balance. What advice do you give to women that are kind of trying to balance all the things that we've been talking about?

Because there's different phases, you know, in people's careers and it can be really demanding. There's no such thing as balance. So throw that word out of your vocabulary. You have one life with five dimensions.

So it's all about integration and life stage accommodation. So you have your career, your family, your community, your girlfriends, and the one that we forget about is ourselves. It just incredibly important that they not equal slices of the pie At different life stages you might have to rejigger and reprioritize and let something go and expand on other things And I think if you think about life that way, that it's a life that you need to integrate the different dimensions. I used to combine exercise and my girlfriends or have breakfast with my girlfriends to have that time.

My family always came first, my kids' events that were the priorities. So that was non-negotiable and non-movable. And so anyone that was ever in my company and worked with me knew that those were non-moveable moments and they had to work around them. Like, anything is possible if you want it.

We need to encourage leaders, go spend the time. Don't miss the moments that matter and enjoy them. And you'll be a better employee and employer. I love that.

Through all the experiences that you're creating around the 80 experiences, what are some of the things that you're seeing after the event? Like, you know, people come and they have this amazing interaction with you and with the guests and the people that are speaking. But afterwards, what are some things that you're seeing that it doesn't have to be this monumental change either? Small changes equal big change, right?

I think everyone in the community pays it forward. And you now see all these other groups forming and operating in a different with a different operating system. I always say it's not the women. We're not broken.

Stop fixing the women. Fix the system. The system needs to be fixed. but with collective action, we can.

And it's step change. And we have the biggest brands, partners in the world. They see that it is doable just because it hasn't been done before. It doesn't mean we can't be the pattern maker.

And then when we all start doing it, it becomes a new trend. And then that new trend becomes new operating system and new way of working. And it's not that complicated. Women are the biggest source right now for companies and starting.

what would you tell an entrepreneur listening to feel encouraged that you know think about what you can do because what you've created is so inspirational this positive like you said the stages that you you created what would you tell her there's always a yes people are gonna tell you're not the right one it's not the right time you're gonna fail you know how do you know they've never done it don't listen to others listen to yourself believe in yourself all you need is one yes, you're going to get lots of no's, but there's always a solution.

You just have to find it. Dig deep within. And if you believe your dreams can come true too, granted by you. Shelly, I am so grateful for this opportunity to talk with you, to sit down and hear your perspective.

I know your schedule is busy and full and to have this chance. I just really appreciate it. Thank you so much. Oh gosh, of course you keep doing what you're doing.

And we need you doing all these things. So thank you. And I can't wait to see you in Chicago. Thank you so much for sitting down with us today.

I appreciate all of you from around the world. And because we reach women everywhere in the world, check out the female quotient. I talked with Shelly before we started and she's traveling all over the world. The FQ lounge is everywhere that you can imagine.

and I bet she's coming to a place near you. Be sure to check it out and visit one of her FQ experiences. I know I can't wait for when she's here in Chicago in July. I appreciate all of you listening, but also sharing this content.

It's how we expand and create our own movement like Shelley's. And if you have a moment, I would be so appreciative if you rate and review the show. It's how others find us. Finally, I want to give a shout out to two people that have intersected with my life and with Shelly's.

First, Jackie Joy, who introduced me to have this conversation today, and Holly Corbett. I appreciate both of you, and I want our audience to remember, keep shining your light bright. The world needs you.