Hi, everybody, and welcome to the Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight podcast where we hear from influential leaders and their game changing insights.

Today we have an amazing guest, Gretchen.

And I should have asked you how to pronounce your last name.

Villages?

Village?

Oz.

Villegas.

Oh, Viegas.

Oh, my God, I totally got that wrong.

Sorry.

So Gretchen Villegas, she is the founder and CEO of Nexus.

And let me just tell you a little about how awesome she is.

So she is a global executive with a passion for transformation, disrupting poverty and empowering vulnerable populations.

She began her amazing career as a Peace Corps volunteer where she experienced firsthand the challenges of living in poverty without access to basic resources or education.

And this experience sparked her desire to work with global development organizations, partnering with local communities to identify innovative and creative programming that can break generational cycles of poverty.

And let me tell you, those are all some key amazing things that also help with leadership.

So, Gretchen, welcome to the Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight podcast.

Well, thank you very much for the invitation.

You're welcome.

So, Gretchen, your experience, obviously being in the Peace Corps, that I can't even imagine, like the impact, huge.

So explain a little bit about what was this?

What defining moment did you have?

Whether it was in the Peace Corps that created your journey of leadership and how you actually look at transforming leaders.

Yeah, that's a great question.

And truth be told, that is exactly when it started, when I was in the Peace Corps.

So finished my bachelor's degree and saying, what am I going to do?

And I had loved traveling and doing semesters abroad.

So I said, okay, let's go figure out, like, what is it like to actually live abroad?

And so going into the Peace Corps, I was based in Suriname, South America.

So that small little country right above Brazil, the Guyana, right in the middle.

I lived with an African tribe along the Amazon.

Yeah.

So no running water, no electricity.

You get in a dugout tree log to actually go up.

There's no road into the village.

So it's a dugout tree log with a motor on it to actually get to the village.

And what I wanted to go and understand was how do people live?

How do they live?

Are they happy?

Is this what they want?

And I was really on this journey of saying, okay, how do I help these people?

Because, you know, we always hear about, okay, yeah, we can bring you electricity, we can bring you water, we can bring you schools and churches and whatnot.

And the defining.

You want it?

Exactly.

The defining moment for me was when the leadership came together and said, yeah, these are the things that we need.

But we want to do them ourselves.

We just need someone to help us access the additional knowledge and resources that we need to get the work done.

Because there was a sense of pride and a sense of kind of that nationalism with, this is my village.

I take care of my village and my children.

And so it was that point where I said, okay, global development is not about coming in with the answers.

It is about working with and alongside those within the community to identify what are their challenges they'd like to work on and then what resources can I bring to the table?

And so that has guided my entire career.

My entire career has been now really understanding that you start with the questions and the listening.

You do not come in with the answers.

And the approach.

Okay.

That is so profound and so important.

No, it's.

And that is like in anything too.

It's whether you're even.

I'm thinking about.

From a sales perspective, too.

Never know that you're going to walk into something to ask questions and find out what their needs are before you tell them.

You don't want to tell them what they need.

They need to tell you what they need.

Absolutely.

And it's amazing how much knowledge there is.

And I love what you said about it could even be in sales.

The truth is that in the clientele.

Okay.

Or in the community you're trying to support, the solutions are actually there.

The key is no one has actually either brought them out to surface them and have a discussion about them, or they know them already.

They're just not.

They don't have that bridge, that really.

That bridge to resources, or they don't know something actually exists.

And so being that bridge, I think, is what's the key.

At least in my leadership journey, it was always being the bridge for someone to figure out how to get something done.

And I love that.

And what you also just said, just staying on that too, is the pride that they had because they know that they didn't want to be told.

It wasn't.

It's not.

Oh, let me throw all this stuff at you.

Because when they take it in and they know what they want and they're part of the process and they're saying to you, yes, this is what I need.

This is what I need help with, then that leader of that community is going to be able to communicate what's happening with the tribe or the people that are there so that they all buy into it and are excited about it and they're feeling part of it.

Absolutely.

Because it really is coming from within.

And it's truly serving a need.

We talk about buy in, right?

So when someone really has buy in to changing themselves or changing a system or believes in an organization, it's the same idea.

It's that leadership.

Buy in and allowing that to surface, allowing ourselves to take that leadership role of behind, slightly behind the scenes to let others rise up.

And then we know when we step out.

And something really important with global development is you want to step out and know that everything that you have contributed will continue without you.

And that's the key.

So there's a couple of things question that I want to ask is what do you think that does for the morale of the people either way?

Yeah, absolutely.

What I saw in my Peace Corps village was empowerment.

What I saw was, oh, we can put together the plans for a school because our school is falling apart and we can actually package the budget and everything.

And there are donors like the Netherlands Mission that is willing to help us.

Wow, that's amazing.

Okay.

They're going to take that thinking and then apply it to other areas.

And so that's exactly what the village in Suriname did was they said, okay, the women are walking hours and hours for water, for clean water, and of course those buckets on top of the heads and whatnot.

So women can't really take leadership roles because they're always working.

They're trying to keep their families safe by drinking clean water.

Village came together after the school and said, okay, we need to draw up the plan.

Why do we want to do this?

What problem is this solving?

And then we have to put a budget to it.

And not only that, we have to say what we as a community are going to contribute.

And it wasn't that they wanted handouts at all.

No, they just wanted.

They needed.

Right.

The pieces that they didn't have.

So can you imagine, you can't bring up, you don't have piping in the middle of the Amazon.

So they needed piping.

Right.

And different construction materials.

But it was about.

It was just about listening, packaging and then that empowerment that community had.

To this day, I'm positive it's still there.

And when you take that from the Amazon to global, how do you see that impact in a global.

Either a global company community.

I was very blessed and fortunate that I was able to put all of that learning to the task right away.

So I made a decision that I wanted to work abroad and started out with Land O Lakes International Development.

So Land o'lakes the big butter company, multi billion dollar company, actually had an arm of international development at the time, and they would utilize their expertise and their revenue to do projects.

And then they would leverage money from the US Government to scale those projects, mainly around smallholder farmers and communities in Latin America, in Africa and Asia, and really work more with the dairy because Land O Lakes is the butter company, right?

And so they want to transfer that.

And I.

My next 12 years after peace Corps was with Land O Lakes in Latin America and Southern Africa.

And I used every single day what I learned in the Peace Corps to basically go into countries, set up offices.

I was like the CEO there, right?

So you had to set everything up.

You had to register, you had to find lawyers to set up all your registration documents, whatnot.

You had funding from different sources.

You had to find other funding to build a project plan that had enough budget to actually reach scale.

And the truth was, I was the only expat.

I was the only person from the United States.

And so it was all right.

Every country is different.

I need to surround myself by local people who understand the local context.

And so I was a learner in every single country I went to.

And the staff taught me, and they taught me because I gave them the respect of being my teacher, and they allowed me to be their teacher when they needed it for the US Government compliance, the project management work and whatnot.

And I take that with me today.

And it has truly, I believe it's why I was successful.

If I had started out in a company in the United States or a large nonprofit, I wouldn't have learned.

I wouldn't have learned that.

I wouldn't have learned that to really be able to provide and perform for clients, you really need to understand their context and where they're coming from.

And you need to be the learner before you can be the leader.

That's.

I like that learner before leader because it's so.

It's so true in so many ways.

Like, I think about the, like, people today, and I think we can't emphasize that enough, that a leader and a company needs to learn also about their people.

Right.

They need to know about their people.

They need to know about what drives them so that they can bring out the best in them and that we can.

We all have something to teach, and we all have something to learn.

Absolutely.

And it will never stop.

Right.

It is continual.

And building that skill set in whatever you're doing will be.

Will serve you well.

And I think if people reflect, if every single person reflects in their industry about what they've been able to do and how they've done it.

They will find times when they were the learner and when they were the leader.

Even if you have people who say, oh, I am, I haven't even reached middle management.

You know what?

A leader is not defined by your title.

A leader is absolutely defined by how you are able to build up and inspire people and groups to get things done.

And yeah, I would definitely say everyone should reflect to say, when was I learner and when was I a leader and what did that feel like?

Because that can be replicated in anything at any point in our career.

That's so true.

Okay, so listeners, you've got to understand like that is such a game changing insight.

To be obviously to be reflective and to be look at what you're learning and what you like, what you've done to lead.

It goes back and forth.

It's always, yes, you lead, learn, lead, but reflect on it.

So absolutely.

And this is like a, like to me, no matter what time of the year it is, it's something I always share.

Every 90 days you've got to be taking, like making sure that you set your calendar to do it as an act.

It's, it is not about just getting the work done and a checklist.

That's not what it is.

The question is, what's your passion?

Why are you doing what you're doing?

Okay, if it is just a checklist, you're not probably not in the right place and you need to dig deep.

I was always in the right place because I was always in the place of seeking social impact.

How do I help people?

Bring together the resources, thought leaders, decision makers to help those who are more vulnerable than the rest of us.

How do we do that?

There is no black and white.

You just have to, you have to open every door you can and walk through it.

And so in order to do that, you have to say, okay, this is my passion, this is my go to.

Mine is social impact.

I will never veer away from social impact.

Whether I'm working with a corporation, a social enterprise or a large ngo, a local community, it all has to do with social impact.

And so if there is a way to social impact and I can use my skills and what I've learned to get there, I'll do it.

Yeah, no, that's.

And I think that is a couple things that you said that I just want to reiterate for people because I think it's so important, which is the part where you're talking about passion.

If you are not, if you're just checking those Boxes.

Yeah.

Recognize that.

And if you're a person of leadership or in the that role and that within somebody, take the time to investigate and get to know what that person's desires and passions are.

They might not be in the right spot on your team and they might be right for somebody else.

Somebody else's team or there's.

This is the perfect thing to find, to help them find what their passions are.

I love that.

I love that.

Yes.

I think early in my career people did that for me.

It's just that it happened early, very early on, and they helped me figure out what my passion was and I stuck to it.

So.

Yeah, I love that, Jacqueline.

I mean, taking the time to really help somebody figure out where they should be is probably one of the biggest gifts you can give.

Yeah.

But I would say to.

That is such again, a game changing insight as a leader.

If you're listening, get to know the people around you that you're the charge of people that you're leading in your charge and get to know yourself and go up and down because it's.

That's where again, to me, my passion is if we can have lots of people who are happy at their work and.

And with great leadership, so what an impact we'll have on the.

You can't go wrong.

Happy people who are happy produce more and they don't get fatigued.

And they show up every day with a smile and a willingness to go above and beyond what's on that checklist.

And that's when magic happens.

That's when things really get done.

That's when companies grow.

That's when nonprofits figure out different innovative ways to be efficient or bring in more revenue.

And it's when people realize that they have strengths on their team that they didn't even know about.

And because you get to see things come out in people.

And one thing that I think what you just said is so important.

They see the strengths that come out and to add to that, it might not be your strength.

And that's perfect.

We need to bring out the best in other people and be able to know that you have one strength.

I have another strength.

But when we put together and we work together, that's collaboration and we can work.

That's where the team environment comes.

So it's having a great mix and knowing that.

Yeah, yeah, I love that.

And that is so true.

Even in a multicultural international context.

Definitely don't think us and them, everybody.

It doesn't matter what language you're speaking or what country you're in.

Even in the United States, we have many people from different backgrounds, but that, that, that technical kind of strengths, bringing them together in those puzzle pieces.

You're absolutely right.

And, and I think as a leader, pausing to reflect and giving people opportunities so you can see it makes the big difference.

Something I always say to my team is, I, I can't hire.

I don't want to hire myself.

Why would I hire myself?

I have one of me already.

What I need is, is one of all of you.

Because I don't know how to do all of these other things, you know, and people will say throughout my career, many times they've said, I didn't think you'd hire that person, or I didn't think you'd promote that person because you just don't seem to see eye to eye with them.

And I said, it's really not about that.

That person actually pushes the boundaries with me in an area I'm not comfortable in.

That's actually what we need.

Right?

That's awesome.

Yes.

And I think there's a lot of leaders and hiring managers that stay in the comfort zone.

And I think that stunts, at least I see a lot of this stunting the social impact growth in nonprofits and corporates because they want to keep someone who feels comfortable, who speaks their language.

And a lot of what we do at Nexus too, is to say, look, you have identified where your weakness or your gap area is.

Why aren't you moving forward with your own suggestions to fill that gap?

And the bottom line is just fear of being uncomfortable.

So to grow, and this is everywhere, and this is so true, but to grow, you have to be uncomfortable.

And that's just one example in terms of leadership as well.

No.

Oh, my God.

I think what you just said, it's, again, it's so powerful.

It's true.

We have to be uncomfortable and we.

It's.

It's surrounding yourself with people who have different skill sets than you do, because you can't.

We can be great at everything, which is really key.

So, you know, so knowing, you know, and being a great leader, a lot of times people will ask and people has have a defining moment also where there was something that happened, whether it was a resistance or something that maybe did not go as well as they had planned.

Some people, I don't like using the word failure, but was there a point that you were like, God, that didn't really work the way I wanted.

And I want to trans.

I need to transform or change something in my leadership.

Yeah, absolutely.

And that One I think the biggest kind of turning point for me was more recent.

It was probably in the last five to six years.

It was when I was working with a large Nonprofit, but over 120 plus million dollars a year, about 1500 employees.

And revenue wise everything was fine.

But they had a new CEO come in and the new CEO said just being a charity model is not good enough.

We need to make sure that people can actually grow a business, they can grow their livelihood and the income with whatever seed funding and resources we give.

And it just so happens the CEO came from private sector.

So he really shook up this big NGO and said we can't just bring in unrestricted revenue.

So this is revenue that doesn't have any requirements on it, right?

So you get that 120 million every year, you parse it out to 30 countries and everybody spends what they can on whatever they think is most important.

And he said we have to create some systemic change.

So one programming needs to change.

We need to look at our programs in a way that they're more impactful and there's actually a strategy to make sure when we remove ourselves it can work.

And we also need to look at leveraging our resources to bring in others and other partnerships.

And he basically, I was brought in to work with that executive team and create those changes.

Of course in my mind I'm like, oh yeah, that's easy.

A, B, C and D.

Okay, here's the catch.

People had worked there for over 30 years.

This was the model that had so much success.

And this is a NGO that's well known in the world and has been very successful.

And so there was so much resistance internal of why do we have to change what we're doing?

I learned at that point.

So I tried to say, okay, I'll just, here's the model, here's this, here's that.

I did do a good job with my team of going out, talking to the field teams, listening to them, bringing everything together.

So I did that well.

But what I didn't do well, and I would say I initially failed at, was trying to get buy in at the headquarter leadership level.

I couldn't and so I had to take a step back.

And I was fortunate that there were enough people who wanted to see change that they were willing to tell me, look, you got to use influence.

You got to use influence and you have to build trust.

And the only way to do that, Gretchen, is time and patience and meeting after meeting and explanation and listening.

And if you don't do that you won't be able to leave a legacy here.

You won't be able to create these changes no matter how good they are.

And so I had to pivot.

We had to pivot the entire strategy.

The strategy then became one year strategy to a five year strategy.

We look at our timelines.

If you really want to transform the industry or an organization, you have got to plan out the time it's actually going to take to get there.

And you have to be dedicated to all those conversations and all the resistance and working through every single piece of it because otherwise you won't create transformation.

Transformation is impossible unless you build that in.

And I definitely learned that for sure because what I had done before didn't work.

But the influencing, which was hard for me was really hard because I'm very much A, B, C, D.

Okay, I've done all these steps.

We can get on here.

This was messy.

Transformation is messy because people are different.

And you've got this organization that is so ingrained in what they do and it's not as easy as going in and okay, let everybody go and we'll hire new people because you lose the essence of what they do.

So, yeah, I'd say it was influence.

And it was, you can't create transformation unless you're willing to do the really hard work and give it the time that it needs.

Yeah.

So a couple questions.

I.

Yeah, so great learning.

So question one is when you say transformation.

When?

Sorry, when?

Yeah, influence.

When you're saying influence, describe that to me.

Okay.

I did not have any authority over anyone in the organization.

I was like a floating change management unit that no one really knew was the change management unit.

Okay.

I was the only one who had been brought in from international global development with any restricted resources and projects to manage, was the only one who understood US Government contracting, large foundation contracting.

And so I was able to understand the field very quickly and very well and had connection there right away, even though I was sitting in the United States.

But I hadn't had that experience of being in an organization of 30 plus years and trying to explain and educate that there are different ways to do things and there's different approaches.

That is what I meant that you've got to take.

So influence is you reach out, you have a conversation, you let them think about it.

You go and you have a conversation with a whole group of people, right?

Then you do an exercise to bring everybody in so they can understand, okay, why might we want to change our model?

How might it be more efficient?

Why do we want Data around our model so you can make decisions.

Oh, but why do we need that?

Just give me the money, I'll take care of it.

I always have in the past.

So these are those types of conversations.

And it wasn't about.

It was not about, you're going to do this.

It wasn't the CEO saying, okay, Gretchen's going to do X, Y and Z, or his senior leadership staff underneath.

That wasn't going to work.

You had to influence or have conversations until they were ready to make that change.

So there was.

It was educating.

It was a twofold thing.

Getting them to get to know you get to know them, getting that part in and then educating them.

So it's not just, okay, we're going to change everything to blue today.

It's giving them the reasons and the statistics as to why it needs to change, which is great.

And then it doesn't have a black and white project plan.

It's not okay.

I created this strategic plan.

Here's the five year plan.

Oh, no.

Okay.

We're just going to get the next month done and we're going to see where we land.

Then we're going to reorganize and go to the next three months and then we're going to reorganize and.

Because we know.

I never knew what was coming at me, right?

I never knew.

That's.

So I have this philosophy.

I talk about mma, right?

We're always measure, monitoring and adjusting, and it's like a 90 day sprint.

Like measure, monitor and adjust.

Okay, Measure, monitor and adjust.

Exactly.

It's measure, monitor and adjust.

I would say that is exactly what we were doing.

And had we not.

And this organization's in a great place right now.

Great place.

Has an internal process and system to bring in restricted money, has grown substantially in revenue, has a great model, has a great name, and it's sustainable.

I am not there.

My team has been dissolved.

So we were needed for that five year sort of transformation and we had to leave all of that internalization there so that they can continue with it.

And they did.

Which to me was a huge win in the end.

A huge failure in the beginning, but a huge win in the end because I did the pivot right.

But if I wouldn't have listened and just gotten mad, I just would have walked out.

I wouldn't have ever had that win.

And it really was a win.

And it was a new skill set I was learning, right?

Because I had always been in charge.

Like, I really was in charge.

Even though I was working with the communities and with my staff, I still had the last word.

In this case, I didn't.

And I never would have the last word.

And that's.

It's such an.

It's such an insight because you have to figure out where.

It's like really finding out where other people are.

And in order to create the change and it goes back to.

They have to understand the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Forget to.

For them to adopt it and say, okay, you know what?

Gretchen's right.

The CEO is right.

We need.

We.

We may have been doing things this way for 30 years, but guess what?

We might be able to do things a little bit better and create more of an impact.

Yep.

Than we already have.

Which is.

And then creating it so that you're duplicatable.

So does that.

You can.

You can then go and have a greater.

You and your team can go to another place to have that same amazing impact, which is awesome.

Right.

So it's what I call internalization.

They have to internalize all of the thinking and the processes so that they continue to make it happen and to grow.

And I've seen that from the sidelines, and it's great to see, you know.

Yeah.

It's got to be like.

It's empowering to the organization, for sure.

Stressful for me at times.

But.

But reflecting on it, I wouldn't have had it any other way because it's definitely made me now able to, I think, enter as a consulting management company now looking for social impact, helping organizations raise revenue and their impact at the same time.

It's given me that, okay, here are many different.

Different opportunities and the way the world really works without people feeling that you're preaching to them.

Right.

Or that you're telling them what to do.

And so what I didn't know at the time was I really needed that learning.

Back to the learning.

I needed that learning before I could lead my own organization.

I love that.

Great.

I'm grateful for it.

Yeah.

So question where.

You know, when you're thinking about leadership now, what is one area that you would say that you would want to be working on?

In terms of bettering myself.

Yeah.

For your.

For yourself or even for your company.

Like, where do you see what needs to be worked on?

Because I write what needs to be learned.

I am currently on a major learning curve in terms of marketing my own business.

And I have an absolute new belief that marketing professionals really do magic.

They're just amazing.

I never understood it before.

I always had marketers working with me, and they'd Be able to take information and process it and get it on social media or whatnot.

And now I've realized that having clear messaging and knowing how to get to your audience, it is not easy.

Yeah.

So I am now finding myself, in all honesty, I am reaching out to lots of people to say, teach me, tell me what you did.

So a lot of my days right now are trying to learn about that and also getting just like a content audit of my information to say, what does this mean to you?

What does this say to you?

And I've never had to do that before.

I would say that leadership journey of from being inside an organization to now being an entrepreneur, it's so different.

Different leading through some of these things.

Right.

And you just, you have to take on so many things you didn't know you had somebody do for you for so long.

Right.

So you're a learner again.

And then once I learn, then I can do it.

And then you got to learn some more.

Exactly.

I would say probably the most successful people in the world have been lifelong learners and reflectors, I would say, because they've made those pivots that MMA you talked about.

So you learn, you reflect on it, and then you make pivots.

And I, yeah, I don't think I've met anyone yet who's been really successful who has really focused in on that.

Yeah, that's true.

So, Gretchen, I love this conversation and, and having you on this on the podcast, where can people find you and connect with you and learn more about you, your business, which it just amazing what you are doing.

Thank you.

Thank you for, for this conversation as well.

It was great.

So you can find me at www.nexusstrategypartners.com or@gretchenville.net.

so I have both a personal website and the business website.

I'm on LinkedIn.

If you are looking for social impact and not quite sure how to move forward, reach out.

Let's just have a conversation.

And if you're interested in talking about leadership like Jacqueline and I were today, very open as well.

Anything we do requires learning and leadership.

This is, I would say, Jacqueline, what you work on is the core.

It's the core of how we can create social impact.

Right.

How we can create a difference in the world.

So thank you.

Oh, you're welcome.

And thank you so much for being guest.

And this is the Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight podcast where we do have amazing influential leaders like Bretchen.

Come on and share their great insights.

If you have a leadership story and you would like to share it, please reach out, go to LeaptoYourSuccess.com and click on Podcast and apply to be a guest.

And also just make sure you hit subscribe because we want you to subscribe and make sure that you are aware of every episode that comes out.

So thank you so much and thank you Gretchen for being a guest.

Thank you.