The Giving Garden® Loyalty Program

The Giving Garden® Podcast Episode 3

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Full transcript of Episode 3

Martina Halloran: Welcome to The Giving Garden podcast, where we explore how small acts of giving can blossom into lasting change. I'm your host, Martina Halloran, founder of The Giving Garden and CEO of Dr. Hauschka Skin Care USA. In each episode, we highlight the power of giving, whether it's time, kindness, or resources, and how these acts can transform both lives in whole communities. Join me as we explore the ripple effect of giving and its lasting impact. Today's episode is a special one.

In celebration of International Women's Day, this year's theme is accelerating action for equity, a call to push forward, break barriers, and build a future where opportunity is open to all. And who better to join us than a trailblazer who embodies these very ideals, Demi Knight Clark. Demi's journey is nothing short of inspiring. She's a welder, Yale alum, athlete, and a nonprofit leader with a career that weaves through construction, education, and advocacy, all driven by one mission, empowering women and young girls to thrive in spaces where they've often been told they don't belong. As the founder of She Built This City, Demi has worked tirelessly to open doors for women in the skilled trades and beyond, challenging norms and creating pathways to equity in male dominated industries.

Today, we'll explore her story, the sparks that ignited her passion, the obstacles she's faced, and the action she's taking to build a more equitable future for the next generation. Settle in and join us as we celebrate the strength, resilience, and the power of women like Demi, because together, we are building more than just communities. We are building change. Welcome, Demi Knight Clark, to The Giving Garden podcast.

Demi Knight Clark: Thank you so much. Wow. I want to, send that bio to my kids.

Martina Halloran: It's its a pleasure to be able to to share that with our listeners and our audience. And first and foremost, I wanna thank you. I wanna thank you for your time. You're super busy. It's wonderful to see you, and I I follow you on Instagram so I can see all of your adventures around the globe.

So I wanna jump right into it because your journey has been so amazing. And I wanna make sure that we have enough time to share all the incredible things that you're doing and hopefully inspire some people to take action right along with us.

Demi Knight Clark: Sure. Let's do it.

Martina Halloran: Your journey spans, wow, construction, athletics, education, nonprofit leadership. What has really sparked your passion for breaking barriers in male dominated industries?

Demi Knight Clark: I think it's having a grandmother who was one of the first female Rosies back in World War two and one of the first female marines. And growing up with her during title nine, I'm 48 years old, so I'm self identifying. I'm a feral gen x-er female. You know, most of the sports teams I played on up until high school had guys, and it was actually amazing. They're very supportive, t ball teams and whatever in the eighties.

But I had between the combination of my grandmother and then also an army ranger dad who literally just threw me into the work shop with my brother building Pinewood Derby cars. I don't wanna say we were genderless because that's dangerous to say just like saying colorless. Right? But I never knew there was, like, a a guys and girls or a female thing because I had very strong role models in my life, especially female, my grandmother. I mean, just the moxie around her living Yeah.

Was just amazing to have that energy. And I didn't really realize that until I got into the career field. So I hearken it back to that really to say, I was instilled with this innate confidence, and now all these studies are out here that girls lose their confidence at 14. Right? Something along those lines.

And then that's when they stop playing sports. They stop getting really inquisitive about STEM potentially or in those intimidating spaces where you need the extra confidence to go. So I go back to that. And that's what when I had two daughters who are now 18 and 20, that was the first thing I thought of was, like, no matter what, I've gotta innately give them confidence. And then whatever the the world throws at them to tear down that confidence, it won't do it.

Martina Halloran: When I think about when I met you a year ago and you shared the story of your grandmother, that was it's incredible. And to think about how impactful, like, those critical years are, that that zero to 14 for young women is so powerful. And and I reflect on you know, I'm the youngest of five girls. My dad raised five girls. No mystery in my name.

Martina, I'm named after my dad, Martin. No boys. My dad coached baseball, and I played baseball. And there was that tipping point where then you were forced to play softball.

Demi Knight Clark: Girls

Martina Halloran: were not allowed or there wasn't a league, and then all of the sports became unmixed, if you will. When you think about that, it's that quiet noise that is pushing you in a direction and telling you what you can and cannot do. I think for some people, they may not recognize how subtle it is when you have these powerful people in your life, like a dad who's just putting you giving you the experiences and exposing you, an influential grandmother who was so powerful and really ahead of her time in many ways, then all of a sudden you go into the real world, if you will, not the world that has surrounded us and loved us and nurtured us. And I think for a lot of young people, it is jarring and it's shocking because where do you go from there, and who do you connect with, and how do you have conversations about belonging or activating or being in action as a young woman? And I think that's from a societal perspective that there's this gap.

And we expect young women at 14 to then take a leap into this very male dominated arena that they don't necessarily have footing or they're not really prepared for. But I think about some of the things that you're doing, especially with She Built This City and creating space for women in areas where women are not often represented or reflected. I'd love for you to share a little bit more about what She Built This City is all about and what it was born out of for you.

Demi Knight Clark: Sure. And huge qualification. I did roll off the board a few years ago, but that was to get out of founder's disease and get out of the way. I am one, lived experience, and I also realized that I am, a a lived experience that identifies as white. Does that represent everyone that we could be serving?

It was really important to me to say I'm a good speaker. I am good with people. So it's easy in these new start ups and especially in nonprofit land, which I had really zero experience walking into to make it about a founder. And so I had heard all these stories, and I said, that's not gonna be me. I need an exit strategy just like everyone else so that this can be a self sustaining mission based organization that lives way beyond me.

So I'm super proud of where they are now and what they're doing super independently, support everything that they're doing. But to to answer your question, why did I start it, Was I had been kicking it around starting in 2015 being only one of seven out of 7,000 at the world's largest home builder, Doctor Horton, that was a woman in a high leadership. I had gotten up to, regional vice president. And the the kind of famous funny story goes, because we did laugh about it. I had amazing male mentors there, some of the best teachers of leadership skills, and everything that I'm able to do today, that I have transferable skills to everything I'm doing.

But I was sitting in employee review and it was, Hey, where do you want to go? And the regional president was asking me and I said, you know, I'm, you know what I'm going to say? Well, I want to take the next job up. I want your job. And it, that was the joke was, well, you, you know, you either have to wait for one of us to pass away or probably twenty years because it was a very solid job.

They were four in the country, and they weren't going anywhere. And so it was that's why we laughed. It was just a statement of fact. In a good company where there were stable jobs, it just the ceiling was reached. I decided to say, well, I had been on the job.

I had raised my kids. I was seen, so see it be it was very important. And now we're really into that era, and I'm glad about that. But everybody else was going to business school, and I just was like, I need to be in the job. You know, I need to be showing myself in these roles that no other women are in.

I'm gonna go when I'm gonna take on the pinnacle. So I went to Yale, met a lot of amazing men, surprisingly, in my cohorts, my classes at the school of management that were consistently challenging me. They were from all over the world, Lot of diversity of thought, a lot of different girl dads and also, bosses, male bosses who were, well, here's how we look at it, you know, in Morocco. Here's how we look at it in other places. And it was just so eye opening.

It was just what I needed. And so by the end of that, they all were like, you keep talking about doing this nonprofit. Stop talking about it and do it. So I needed that that impetus. I did my pitch deck for them, and that was some of my first donors.

And then we received a grant from Lowe's, which was amazing, and we started. So she moved up to city started out of me saying, I just want power tools in girl's hands. Like, the end. Like, the exposure had stopped. And then also trade programs and and really two silos, which is where I work with today is workforce development, which is the butts in the seat silo of just getting these jobs filled.

And then the second is the exposure of CITB at that 12 to 16 year old, really gender agnostic, as you're talking in opportunities in manufacturing, but especially girls when there's only three to 10% in manufacturing trades, is how do you expose them? You know, how do you get a welding torch in their hand? How do you get a power tool in their hand? And that's all kids. So that's the camps that I do now is reimagine Rosie's, which I'm super excited to talk about.

Our beta camp is grant funded, in California for the summer, so I cannot wait to start the first one and then grow that. We have a, it's basically a STEM maker camp that we will teach them welding and we'll teach them hand skills. And then we want to teach them the future proofing of the craft trades to say, let's go take a field trip to NASA and learn laser welding. So it gives these gen Z kids, hey. Here's the hand skills you need and to be exposed to something, and now here's where you can go with it.

And it could take you to the moon.

Martina Halloran: That's incredible and exciting. And I think you said something really important that that really hit me was see it, be it. People have formulated that idea in different ways in my growth and and building my career. As a Mexican American woman in a leadership role, it's hard to see it, be it. It's even harder when you think about the diversity of women.

But as you grow into leadership roles, then there's even less diversity amongst the female population or female identifying a population. And I think it's so incredibly important because then it becomes reality for other people, especially for young girls. If they they really have that moment where they have that spark and it says, I can do that. I can create space. I can be in that space.

I can own that space. I can flourish in that space Versus that tentative thinking that I think often happens with young women, that it's kind of a half a step forward and it's six back because I'm not really sure if it's for me or or can I succeed or can I do well there? But I think critically, when you see women doing things that you read about or you dream about or you aspire to be, then all of a sudden it becomes tangible. And I think that is what I love about the work that you're doing, is that you're creating space for a real tangible dream, and that dream equals reality for young women. It's one of the most powerful things from my perspective about the work you're doing because it is so experiential and it's tangible and that somebody can walk away from one of your programs really having a new career path or a new idea about where they see themselves.

In the reimagined Rosie's initiative, this ibs super exciting. How many attendees will you have in California at the onset of the program? Sure.

Demi Knight Clark: Well, I have to thank Fabricator and Manufacturers Association because they have what's called Sparkforce, which is their foundation, and they give grants across the country to different organizations. Five zero one c three or just people with ideas who say, hey. I would love to do exactly what you just talked about, an experiential camp for 12 to 16 year olds to expose them to some part of manufacturing. Dana Brown, I gotta shout her out. She was like, submit it.

I wanna see it. I just wanna see it. You know? I can't make any promises, but let's see it. And we've worked together, and we were awarded the, it's it's the partial grant, so it's an introductory grant for 40 kids.

We're doing three cohorts with Alessandro High School and the Hemet School District. So it's really middle schoolers and into 15 16 year olds with separating out the 12 to 13, the the 14 to 15, and then the 16 year olds to be more of the mentors and really try out this STEM Makers camp of in a place where these kids, many cases, don't even see a freeway. And that's an ironic thing to say for Californians if you live there. Everything is freeways. They don't necessarily get the opportunities to go to NASA that's right down the road with Edwards Air Force Base and see a cobot or a robot or from Lincoln Electric that we can bring in or laser welding from, the handheld laser institute and all of these things that are going to be in their lifetime of career opportunities.

In manufacturing, it's just amazing. I see that more than any other industry. And I usually go to bleeding edge spaces of industry to say, what's the opportunity here, just like a startup, just like a tech company, you can go without college degrees straight into automation and straight into these jobs that people have gone to multiple levels of education to get, and now they're backdooring into. So an 18 year old can have these trajectories that are four to six years, and they're in the future of this industry, and they can be consulting on it by age 30. So when I saw that, I said, how are we not getting torches and hands for these kids?

So after working with Hemet before with some amazing folks during a Lincoln Electric visit about two years ago, I did a women at work initiative with Dovetail Workwear. When I went in, I I it's an amazing welding school, and I was prepared to see what I normally see, which is, yeah, out of maybe 20 students in the booths, maybe one or two girls. It was half and half. I mean, it was literally my dream of 50/50. And you could tell when I walked into the space, the space was just amazed.

It felt like I was in a startup. It was extremely collaborative. Again, I don't wanna make it about gender, but the guys were supporting the girls. The girls were supporting the guys. They were supporting each other.

When you had seven to eight women in a classroom that had voices and that were taking up space, it was a nonissue. It was an organically led thing. You didn't even have to talk about gender or seeing, you know, Sally in the corner, because I was always Sally in the corner. My motto was cleaner, faster, stronger, better. And I think most women that were the trailblazers, usual were at the beginning like us.

Right? The only ones in the room, we had to be perfect. We had to be have that pressure of cleaner, faster, stronger, better. I finally walked into a space that wasn't bad. It was just I came into school.

I came into school to do my work today, and I didn't have to worry about anything else. No toxic masculinity, no pressures of saying, like, my world has to be better than everyone else's, and then the potential burnout of that. And I just knew at that moment, I was like, something isn't gonna come of this because this is what we need to film, you know, show when you can have these collaborative spaces like that. And from that moment on, I made the decision that I really I I am always applauding women only spaces if we need safe spaces to do that. But for my coursework and for the programs that I provide, it needs to be however we can make it.

It's got to be everybody together because they're they're gonna go do that out in the world.

Martina Halloran: You're creating access, which is really that major step on the journey to get to the next place and access to a career. And the other important thing I think you said, which a lot of people don't embrace it at the level that I wish people would, is that you can step into an incredible career path without a college education. That's access. Often, people that are unrepresented in fields or in higher education or in the c suite, wherever you wanna see people being successful, it's often people who don't start in a space in life where they have financial access. Because I do think there are so much opportunity in trades, and I think that the idea that college is the only path is unfortunate because I think that people can really become the other aspect of of the work we do in The Giving Garden is self reliance.

Ultimately, I wanna see young people step into self reliance. I wanna see people who are working to build a life forward become self reliant and having work skills. That is creating self reliance, and that is what creates healthy, successful communities. And I think that is one of the beauties of all the work that you're doing is that you are creating conversation around opportunities that somebody might not have thought was possible for themselves.

Demi Knight Clark: The access is also so parallel to narrative. And that's something I've learned in the last couple of years is somebody said to me one time, like, well, I think the hallmark to you is you just keep putting these topics in places where it's never talked about before. I was one of the first people to do a TEDx about welding. No. I was the first.

And then I took it to TEDWomen, and then we did the first discovery session at TEDWomen for a sold out crowd of women who had never picked up a torch before. They're all corporate ladies. Right? And it started the discussion of, like, well, when I go back to Iowa, this was in Atlanta that year. What do I do with this?

I say you go to your maker space and you take your kids if you have them, or you take your nephews and nieces. If you don't have kids and don't want kids, whatever it is, or you just go and learn something. What does this empower you to do? What's the call to action? I think that's really what started me on the access point of saying, oof, our onboard ramps are terrible in manufacturing.

We just talk about, like, oh, we have so many jobs. We don't know what to do. And then the second piece of that is the narratives to me, I I'm just gonna take it to this industry, are also really antiquated. So I was just hearing the same old conundrums and bellyaching about, like, well, we have x y z amount of jobs that we can't fill, and, like, kids don't like it these days. They wanna use their phones.

And I'm sitting there going into these shops and saying, you have automation. You have robotics. Why are we not saying welding is STEM? Why have we taken that out of the lexicon? Because it used to be at CTE school.

It's literally construction technology and engineering. How how on earth or I went to vocational tech when I was in middle school and high school and then talked out of it to go to college, which I wish, you know, I was supposed to go on that pathway. But if I had had the choices today, would I still do that? Probably not. So in '99, when I graduated from high from college, that's when the .com boom happened.

That's when we really turned into Google and Amazon and all of the programming and that style of STEM, and not to do a disservice to the, medical and true engineering and really science, you know, research based part of STEM. But the technology piece of it in manufacturing, it just erased, and it became this divide of blue collar and white collar. So now I'm on this huge narrative shift with my camp and then also the workforce development programs. And the speaking that I do is to say, hashtag welding is STEM. Let's put it back into the app.

You know, the list is just put power tools that are STEM. Really, welding isn't easy. Like, that is absolute STEM. It is science, technology, engineering, and math all rolled up into one in metallurgy. We use it every day.

So how do I put torches in hands with an easy lift of after school STEM programs or make stem camps as partnerships. So that it's not this heavy lift of saying, we can just go across the country and build all these CTE schools in agrocentric cultures and states that's already existing. So it's using what you have, but then in these more dense urban areas and bigger cities, most of the time, that's not the case. So what's the lift is to say, this is STEM. Put it back into STEM and be okay with that, which is so interesting because there are two opposing schools of thoughts of old school.

I get the kind of old school welders who are like, this isn't STEM. But they're looking at it saying, hey. STEM kind of took the more high brow route back

Martina Halloran: to Exactly. That whole white collar STEM.

Demi Knight Clark: And we don't wanna be associated with it. And so I have to kind of, like, go back and say, no. No. No. No.

No. This is gonna help this next generation because you're looking for this recruiting pipeline. I'm not saying kowtow to that. I'm saying put yourself back in the space. So oddly enough, what came what started as kind of a women's movement for me has turned into saying, I feel like I'm just kind of grabbing the entire industry and saying, saying, we're gonna take you back in the step whether you're there or not.

And I'm I'm not single handedly doing this, but that's constantly what I talk about right now. Because that will get you that next generation to put it into things they know how to talk about. But then also, it's its the lift that is possible rather than this, like, overwhelming look of saying, how do you bring, you know, manufacturing back to a 12 year old? You put it in after school STEM programs.

Martina Halloran: Exactly. Creating on ramps. People often go, it's too big. It's so it they they come to such a huge place, overwhelming place, instead of saying, what is possible? You know, what does an on ramp look like?

What does an entry point into this look like? And build from there. You know, Rome wasn't built overnight, as they say. And I think what happens is when we are really looking at these bigger issues, challenges, problems, however you wanna frame it, people often say it's too big for me, so I'm gonna let somebody else do it. And I think one of the things that really hits me is that your willingness to give.

And you are giving of yourself, you're giving of your experiences, you're giving of your ideas, and your blue sky moments. You're really helping create that foundation of access and on ramps that eventually are gonna lead to a generation of people with more opportunities. Because I think that's really what it's what it's about is creating these opportunities for people that can really see these tangible futures.

Demi Knight Clark: It goes back to, like, my grandmother was one of 15,000,000 American women who were able to leave her house with the lunch pail, have the overalls on. And, I mean, we don't need another war. So I'm certainly not advocating that. But access wise, it wasn't even it was second nature to go and do that. And so, again, circumstances were very different.

But, yes, like, that is if my grandmother was still here today and she saw the state of affairs, I I consistently wonder what would she think. So that's what drives me to put it, especially welding into conversations that kids get so creative and explorative and insightful when they get to do things with their hands. And so I see it every day. The cape just comes out of them, when they get to pick up a torch or an electrode and say, like, okay. Let's create something.

Like, they're fearless, absolutely fearless as a generation. So there's that. And then there's also just the piece of saying in a cultural zeitgeist, you have to keep putting place put it where they are. Mhmm.

Martina Halloran: So Meet them where they are. We say that all the time.

Demi Knight Clark: Yeah. Meet them where they are and put it where they are. So that's why right now, I get the the other the question from, and I love this question from men in c suites and male leadership who are saying, I've gotta diversify just for the health and well-being of my recruiting pipeline in manufacturing and trades? How do I do this? What am I doing wrong?

I'm not trying to not hire women, or am I a more diverse workforce? And I say, well, where are you going? You know, let's just unpack that. No harm. No foul.

But then, also, how are we not going where women are? If you can't see the explosion of things like women's sports, how are you not supporting women's sports at the high school level or, you know, going to games with families and showing you as a man supporting this? You're watching it. We know you're watching it. I've seen the stats, and or sponsoring.

You know? Like, there's there's the Pittsburgh Riveters, which is literally Rosie. I'm a welding ambassador for them. I can't wait for that women's team to come about, this this spring. And I'm like, how are the manufacturing, you know, folks just not jumping all over this?

You should be a % supporting it even if you're in Portland, Oregon. But there's plenty of onboard ramps there because women are watching. We're women are watching the NFL. We just saw that too. So it's just saying, okay.

Take a look at what you're doing and be okay to not have all the right answers and also to be okay to peel back the onion of what you're doing and saying, like, maybe this isn't working if that's the outcome we're looking for. And really try something new and go into where these kids are watching in Hollywood, where they're watching their movies, where they're getting their content, how they're consuming, and then really make some good decisions. And I promise you, the women are out there. You don't have to go just find these unicorns on the street. The secondary piece of that is I had I had a great business owner ask me this, just earlier this week.

It's saying, like, you know, I I can convince them to come in, but, like, now now what? So what? Now what? And it's like, well, the secondary piece is creating a hospitable environment. You know?

And they

Martina Halloran: Exactly. That's you know, that that was at the forefront. People often ask me about our culture at Dr. Hauschka. We have such a culture of care. We invite people in, I think, in such a way that is it's it's more of a community of like minded people going in the same direction.

You have to create space, and you have to create a culture that is genuine and authentic, and it's transparent. And you don't know all the answers, and it's okay not to know all the answers. We want to empower women. We want to empower young girls. We want to create on ramps for people to become self reliant in society.

The theme for International Women's Day twenty twenty five is accelerate action. From your perspective, what are the most urgent actions needed to really achieve gender equality in industries, not just construction, but sports, leadership across the full boat?

Demi Knight Clark: Yeah. I think it's a combination of two things. To me, just in the immediate, you know, last four weeks of life, women need to feel safe to be able to speak up still. That's huge. I'm I'm already seeing voices being like, should I water my message down?

Should I just be part of status quo right now? What should I do? And to me, I had to make the conscious choice on behalf of what I'm representing this year is to not be militant about it, to have the joy and to have the peace and say the, you know, inner peace, inner calm every day, but say, I'm doubling down on this. Like, this matters more than ever on behalf of my grandmother and her generation, on behalf of my generation and what we've worked for, and then also on behalf of my daughters and whoever's to come. So having a space where women can keep speaking up, keep convening, have that community, have that access is incredibly important.

So wherever you sit in that, make that happen. Whether you're a man, woman, you know, however you identify, wherever you are in the leadership chain, be a part of that. And then I think the other thing is I'm in a space, you know, in manufacturing where, you know, if it's 97% males and 3% women in welding, I have to go and help the 97% who are in positions of leadership or in positions where their sphere of influence is going to make the change happen. It can't be the 3%. We're exhausting ourselves trying to be that with women's orgs and all the things.

Well, where are the people that truly hold the the keys to the kingdom here? Because if I can't get through to them to say, like, well, why should I change? And it really comes down to just being good business. It changes all of the you know, when you can come with the datasets that say, just like women's sports is right now, again, saying, like, this is making money. This is raising billions of dollars for corporations and products that are selling because women are getting behind them, sustainability, all the things in your world, right, Saying this is why it's good for business.

And it also is just happens to be good for the collective goodwill to say, see, this isn't so scary. I don't know why we still have to make it not scary to see this diverse set of leaders in some of these companies. I have to be able to step into shoes of fear of other people. Right? And say, like, what is actionable change if I can have a dialogue with them to say, like, let's unpack some of that fear.

But then also, what what would this change be? Because that was someone when I first started to see what the city way back when I was in an accelerator program for a grant, a great coach, a grant coach asked me that. He was like, well, what's what does that mean? Like, what is who cares if it's fifty fifty of the trades? And I was like, you know what?

That's a great I do. I was offended at the time. I was like, what? Because it should it's the right thing to do. Like, why wouldn't you do this?

But then I said, you know what? It's the right question to ask because you should be able to answer that to say, like, it's good for business. It's good for our recruiting robust pipeline. It's good for the future. It's good for ideas in the room.

And so I had to be prepared with those answers rather than saying, like, it's the right thing to do. And so I think we're in an era just to end with that in 2025 of we need to be keep telling each other, yes, we might know it's the right thing to do. But if we are the marginalized populations, we really have to prove that this is the right thing to do from all the right datasets of business.

Martina Halloran: People often know me for saying, I don't wanna be right. I wanna win. And winning means so many different things. And it's not the first to the finish line. It's not the biggest result.

It's not the best result. And winning in this moment in many ways is building community and having a community that can really support you, other people, other women, however they are coming to the table. So I often think about how am I delivering the message? What does somebody need to really hear to affect change? And I think that is really critical in terms of acceleration, women finding their voice.

And I know that there's so many women out there that are standing up and they're given professions, but I often think it's exhausting. And at some point, that voice can wane a little bit because she's tired.

Demi Knight Clark: Now it can feel like you're really at risk. Am I putting my job at risk? Am I putting my reputation at risk? Could I get blowback from this? I mean, I I get it.

But no woman ever ever was trying to be a first. She didn't set out say, I wanna be a first this. And, like, why are we still obsessed with the first because that's a representation of the exhausting thing that it took to get there. I love the goat mentality where it's like, no. She's just the goat.

She might have been the first, but now, like, we need to, like, not celebrate that part because I don't think she, in whatever that thing is, wants to celebrate that part. She just wants to celebrate the fact that she's here and now she's gonna keep going. So the Venus Williams and Serena's Serena Williams of the world, the Simone Biles of the world. I'm using athletic examples. There's astronauts, you know, women in so many different fields that they were the first and now people are still saying that narrative.

Again, back to the narrative. When it should be like, no. She's a goat. We talk about men as goats. So, like, I just that's what I keep saying.

I'm like, yep. This woman is a goat. She's a goat of her thing. It just changes the mindset of how you see that rather than like, oh, great. We have another first.

Martina Halloran: Well, I love the athletic references because you and I are both athletes. I hung up my athletic shoes long ago in college, but you're part of this very interesting group that I'm so excited about. It's called Join Osprey. It's a collective of female entrepreneurs, athletes, creators. I mean, really, you guys are really on the forefront, I think, of what's to come in terms of community.

But how does this community foster meaningful collaboration and growth for women in these fields? Like, what what are you guys doing today?

Demi Knight Clark: Right now, it's amazing. It's a year two startup. So it's in scale phase. There's about a hundred plus or minus athletes in all respective sports. So runs the gambit of the most decorated human, not even female versus male in racquetball, Olympians.

We've got Paralympians. We have across every sport and college athletes. So there's a college program that's big sistered with the women who are pro athletes or retired athletes. And then women in sports broadcasting or in the leagues in the management offices. And it's such a eclectic mix that who knew all the challenges that, again, athletes face the same things that all of us face as as women in industry being the only ones or, like, we just saw the stats of no woman was in the top 100 salary makers or money makers again.

So the pay equity is there, but then also the pressure that's on them and community. And so when I was introduced to this community and it was more of, oh my goodness, I was an athlete. I'm still an athlete. I'm six star marathoner. I'm Ironman.

I'm also doing all kinds of weird climbs. I'm constantly pushing the envelope of just adrenalineizing, and that's just me in weird DNA. But being around these women, and we just had a day in the life, with doctor Jen Welter, which is around the Super Bowl, and it's for women to kind of experience. Hey. Let's go deep dive into the stats and understand how to play this game, so that you're a better better follower, but then also do you wanna get involved in flag or even tackle and and introduce that to the world?

Hanging out with these athletes, they had the same challenges that we do. They have the same self confidence issues. They have the same things of saying, hey. I don't wanna be a speaker or be a coach. I wanna go start a company.

I wanna go into an industry. People think of me as an athlete. They don't understand that part of me, and I can't transition into this next era of myself. And I was like, I've never felt that about an athlete. I think you just won an Olympic gold medal.

The world is your oyster. Move on. When that's really maybe three percent of Olympic athletes. And if they got a medal, which is even more of a pinnacle. Right?

It's just the earners are not there. So I saw this huge opportunity of saying, here we are in Deltas where we've got industry saying, where are women? I I can't seem to find these crazy unicorns. And then you've got all these women in sports saying, I wanna transition or be supported. We need funding.

It's like, okay. We need to merge these two. It's another blue ocean of taking the things that I do. STEM is a huge topic. We're working on something I really can't talk about yet, but I'm so excited to take some college women athletes to a, space location to where we can talk about a women in STEM day and put welding in the middle of it.

So it's just putting all these things together. So Osprey is amazing, and it's such a community, and it is giving access. So I think those are the two hallmarks of the community right now. It's doing in person events, speaker sessions. We're working with JED Foundation and Maybelline coming up about potentially doing something with Brave Talks, which is mental health.

Want you all involved in that. So it's just taking on these topics that they're asking for that we might be assuming they don't wanna talk about. So it's such a cool community.

Martina Halloran: One of the things that Osprey aims to challenge, which I I love, is the traditional idea of who gets to be an icon. I think that, unto itself, is really powerful. See it, be it kind of idea. And from your experience, what qualities define a modern day female icon to you? And how can we elevate more women into these roles, the role of icon?

Demi Knight Clark: Oh, that that's such a deep question. I would say from my lens right now because I, have a freshman daughter at the University of South Carolina, and I just got to see Asia Wilson retire her jersey. Goat. Absolute goat. Obviously, if you don't know women's basketball, she is 1000%.

She's also a time woman of the year. I just saw that cover this morning. Couldn't be a more I don't know her personally, but just from what I've seen in for the the jersey retirement, and then she is an icon here. She has a a monument outside. The the story that goes is her grandmother was not allowed because of, segregation to even set foot on USC's property.

Now here we are three generations later. She has a huge statue in front of a coliseum on behalf of her. So it's it's a pretty amazing feat. Just in that alone, you could write books about. She's been herself this whole time.

She hasn't I'm sure she's felt the self confidence. I certainly don't wanna project her feelings, but it seems like she is someone who is so confident in herself, and she is so confident in saying no or yes to things. That to me is the the epitome right now of what girls should be looking at and saying icon. Or someone like a Serena Williams saying, like, I can be a a venture capitalist. I can go back and be Super Bowl halftime if I want to and kind of, like, dig up some skeletons.

I can be a mother. I can you know, all those things that you tore me down for years, and I'm just gonna keep going. Like, that's an icon. And I think what, hopefully, all of these women are trying to do is so the next generation just doesn't have to deal with it. I and that's all of our wish.

Right? So an icon to me is just being absolutely setting your boundaries and say I'm gonna go. I really don't care what you're gonna say, do about me. I I'm being me.

Martina Halloran: Living life on your own terms.

Demi Knight Clark: Yeah. 100%.

Martina Halloran: As we wrap up, how can our audience learn about the great work you do? Where can we find you? And find more information and to either help or become part of your movement?

Demi Knight Clark: Yeah. Two places. So, you can always find me on LinkedIn. I love to have dialogues there. I get really unique dialogues.

Demi Knight Clark on LinkedIn. My website is demiknightclark.com. So you can find out about reimagined roses there, speaking opportunities. And then for Osprey, where I'm helping with the partnerships and really just we're jumping on board. Just like Dr. Hauschka has supported us, they can always go to joinosprey.com.

If you're an athlete, certainly sign up, or a woman that's in the business and, partners. We are always looking for partners to do really great programming and engaged programming, nonprofits, as well as for profit companies. So, join the movement and just join the community. That that's what I'll say. It's, like, find your community.

Martina Halloran: Find your community. I love that. So as we celebrate International Women's Day, what is one message you wanna leave with our listeners about how they can individually contribute to accelerating action for gender equality?

Demi Knight Clark: I think it starts with us. Right now, where we are in the world and having some things that could make us very afraid depending on where you're waking up in the morning and how you're waking up on any given day is I I keep seeing this joy. And it's funny. My aunt has said that her whole life to me, my whole life is like you've always gotta find your joy. And to me, that equals, I don't care what you have to say to yourself, like one big glow up.

That's the Gen Z generation of

Martina Halloran: I love that. Get get up. Follow you on Instagram. So I saw Yeah.

Demi Knight Clark: Like, what did well, the other day, I had to do it because I was just in this pit of despair of, like, all the stuff coming at you of things that you're like, are we really making a difference here? Can I just throw up my hands and say, like, forget it? I wanna go back under the covers. We're done. Take today off.

And then it's just I think that's the giving. Right? That's the heart of this is to say, we feel better when we give I don't care if it's as simple as a compliment to somebody you're passing in a grocery store. Just start there. Give yourself a compliment first.

Like, what did you do today that you're proud of? You woke up. It could be that you ate a good breakfast. I don't care what it is. Start with that, and then go put that out onto the world to somebody else, and then give something.

I don't care if it's a donation. It's just a compliment or give blood, you know, all those things, whatever that does to make you feel like, you know what? We're all human, and we have to be good humans first. And then all this other stuff is just added on top of that.

Martina Halloran: That is a great way to end. I cannot thank you enough. I cannot wait to see what's next. So hopefully, we have another conversation. And, Demi, thank you so much.

Have a wonderful International Women's Day, and we hope to talk to you soon.

Demi Knight Clark: All the same. Thanks so much for adding.

Martina Halloran: Thank you for listening to The Giving Garden Podcast. I hope you're leaving inspired because even the smallest act can spark positive change. If you've enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to like, subscribe, and share. The Giving Garden podcast is produced by Edwin Batista and edited by Steven West. A special thanks to Helen Polisi for her guidance and generosity.

The Giving Garden Podcast is brought to you by Dr. Hauschka Skin Care USA, pioneers in natural skin care for over fifty years and home to The Giving Garden loyalty program. Visit drhauschka.com to learn more.