Ep. 84: Faith, Relationships, and Care with Catherine Meloy- President and CEO of Goodwill Greater Washington

Catherine Meloy currently serves as the President and CEO of Goodwill Greater Washington and the Goodwill Excel Center Adult Charter High School. Catherine and her siblings had a strong family unit led by her father who served in the Marines, and their faith has been carried with Catherine throughout her life. Prior to Goodwill, Catherine has had careers in the broadcasting, non-profit, hospitality, and education sectors. Catherine has previously been named “Washingtonian of the Year” by Washington Magazine and has been highlighted as a Most Admired CEO by Smart CEO Magazine for her successful organizational turnaround of Goodwill of Greater Washington. On running the Goodwill of Greater Washington, Catherine notes that “We lead our Goodwill by God first, family second, and Goodwill third.”

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Show Notes

[2:36] And I will say that because of his career in the Marines, we would move every two to three years, but every two to three years instead of it being, "Oh, my gosh, we're moving again." It was, "Oh, my gosh, look at the next great adventure."
[3:47] Relationships are everything. Relationships to your husband, to your mother, to your father, to your sisters and brothers. And that allows you to have incredible relationships outside of the family.
[4:06] I think the closer you have strong relationships within, you can be a very strong friend outwardly because you learned how to be a strong family member inwardly.
[4:36] I heard one time that 90 percent of your personal happiness is based on who you choose for a partner.
[6:52] We had both been shown by our parents that God was first. Family was second. And our careers were third.
[7:50] Change is always been the thing that I thrive on.
[7:55] While this is a horrible crisis, the question really is, is what is the change that will happen afterwards and how can you be a part of that change?
[8:21] The only thing that stays constant is change. And so if you're not fearful of it and you can grasp it, it allows you not to have fear.
[10:01] And I believe that even more so now than ever, an education is going to beat the differentiation between people being able to be employed when unemployment is going to be so high, or sitting on the sidelines.
[10:37] Each student has a personal coach that makes sure that they get the class, that they are on top of their studies, that if they have issues with homelessness or child care or whatever, we walk beside them and not just walk beside them. We help them through every difficulty of their life that's possible. We've entrusted ourselves to them and they begin to trust us.
[12:06] The gift of COVID is that these students have learned how to use technology faster than they ever would have learned before. And so today our students are even better equipped for the world of tomorrow than they would have been if COVID never happened.
[14:55] And so that one shirt moving through the process truly affects someone else's life and brings them into a world where they have an opportunity to support their families and to have a living wage for themselves and thus for the rest of their families.
[17:41] If we could open tomorrow, we would be prepared to open tomorrow. So for the past month, what we have been doing is preparing the stores to be a safe environment. First of all, for our associates and secondly, for those valued customers who will be coming into the stores.
[18:23] We lead our Goodwill by God first, family second, and Goodwill third.
[20:03] The mind is a beautiful gift from God.
[23:02] And you had to be very mindful when you talk about something that we take naturally that people yearn for because they didn't have it.
[23:27] And so you also learn how to value what you had because of seeing what other people don't have. We always say the GEC students come to us to learn and we learn more from them than they ever could learn from us.
[24:49] I thirst for the knowledge of leadership.
[25:05] If you're a student of it, then it doesn't mean that you just study it. It means it becomes a part of you.
[25:13] Leadership to me, it's not a technique. It's a lifestyle.
[25:55] I think, through COVID, this is a time of listening leadership. There is such great fear going on right now that you can't say, "Well, this is why I feel", you really have to figure out how everyone else is feeling around you.
[27:59] I think it's a time when women in leadership will excel because of what's expected.
[28:46] And the statistics do say that as you get older, the more friends you have, the longer you'll live. That's a social relationship advantage for a longer life.
[29:35] Care is the sign of a relationship. If you don't have a relationship with somebody, you don't care about them and they don't care about you. But a relationship starts with, "Do you care about me? And do I care that you care about me?"
[29:50] What COVID is really, I think, going to show is that people are going to want to be seen more, they're going to want to be heard more, and they're going to want to be valued.
[30:54] Every single solitary leader across the globe is having to understand how do they pivot their organization from out of COVID into the future.
[31:34] It is a time of change that we have never experienced, but we're all experiencing it together.
[32:17] We always say if you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.
[33:41] If you really act justly and that's in everything that you do, in all the relationships and all the things that we've talked about. If you love mercy, if you love the outcome of great grace, and if you're humble, what a great life to live.
Thank you for joining us on Health Gig. We loved having you with us. We hope you'll tune in again next week. In the meantime, be sure to like and subscribe to this podcast, and follow us on healthgigpod.com.

“The only thing that stays constant is change. And so if you're not fearful of it and you can grasp it, it allows you not to have fear.” - Catherine Meloy
“I think the closer you have strong relationships within [the family], you can be a very strong friend outwardly because you learned how to be a strong family member inwardly.” - Catherine Meloy
“The gift of COVID is that these students have learned how to use technology faster than they ever would have learned before. And so today our students are even better equipped for the world of tomorrow than they would have been if COVID never happened.” - Catherine Meloy

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