[00:00:00] Speaker A: This is your host, Dee Wells of why not you? And in this episode, listen, we about to dive into a candid conversation with Carolyn Weisinger. And she is a mayor pro tem with the city of El Cerrito. Now, this was one of those impromptu interviews at Mayor Lyndon Breed's fundraiser in San Francisco. But I just love how. How Carolyn was open and available to share her experiences as a public relations officer for the Department of Police Accountability and her three term presidency of San Francisco's pride as she shares insights into the challenges and triumphs of being an elected official, the importance of representation in government and the impact of diversity and political leadership, challenging the traditional trajectory of political careers and thinking outside the box in terms of influencing political power and making an impact. So tune in as she inspires and encourages individuals from all walks of life to consider running for an office and making a meaningful difference in their communities. Why not you?
[00:01:07] Speaker B: Welcome to another episode of why not you with your host, Derek Wells, where we talk with leaders and entrepreneurs who are doing what they love to do. They'll share insights into overcoming adversity, the systems they use, along with the power of personal growth, faith and much more. Our goal is to empower you with personal growth, faith and a plan for ultimate success. Now here's Derek with another life changing story.
[00:01:36] Speaker C: Yo, so why don't you. We are back again from the mayor's fundraiser, and we are just getting it in tonight. How you doing?
[00:01:44] Speaker D: I'm doing good. Yeah. I'm not.
Don't mention to me public.
I'm just. I'm just acting up for the public so they can see that I'm a human being.
[00:02:00] Speaker C: That's right.
So how you liking this fundraiser so far?
[00:02:05] Speaker D: I've been to a few of the mayor's fundraisers since she opened her committee. I think this is really one of the best. Anytime she's in a room with people who she knows that truly loves her and want to support her and wants to hear not just about her vision, because they know her vision. They know what she's done. They know she has plans for the future, they just want to know what they can do to best support her. And anytime she's in that type of venue, she is being herself. It's always fun.
[00:02:33] Speaker C: It's always fun.
[00:02:34] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:02:34] Speaker C: And she's definitely having fun tonight.
[00:02:36] Speaker D: She's definitely having fun. I'm mad I'm missing do this interview, y'all.
[00:02:44] Speaker C: So can you explain to everybody, like, what your role is? Like, what is that you actually do for a living?
[00:02:48] Speaker D: So I do a number of things.
I am the mayor pro tem of the city of El Cerrito, California, which is across the bridge. I also work here in San Francisco as the public relations officer for the Department of Police Accountability. A lot of people, probably in the public, formally knew me as the three terminal president of San Francisco Pride, which some people might not think is a lot, but, I mean, it takes over all of San Francisco for a whole week. So are you serious? Big job.
[00:03:18] Speaker C: For a whole week?
[00:03:19] Speaker D: For a whole week. Just about.
I mean, the celebration itself is only two days, but, I mean, somebody got to put all them floats and stuff together, so that's what we do.
[00:03:31] Speaker C: So when it comes to doing something like that, I know you definitely need some. Some. Some creative people, people with, like, a strong sense of urgency and good work ethic. How do you actually identify those types of people?
[00:03:44] Speaker D: Well, you know, it's different depending on the type of space that you are in. A space like San Francisco pride, it is a community elected position, but it's literally appointed by the community. It's literally elected by the community. So, you know, you get a lot of different people in different years.
[00:04:04] Speaker C: You get.
[00:04:04] Speaker D: Sometimes you get more business minded folks. Sometimes you get people who are strictly community activists. And you have to find a way to bring all of those personalities. There's 13 elected members of our board, so you have to figure out a way to bring all those elect those personalities together to really run this organization. And also remembering, a lot of people don't know until they get into that seat, we don't run the celebration. So, you know, a lot of activists come in like, I'm like, you know, you're gonna just, like an elected position. You're gonna dictate policy. And I think that for me, as a person who wasn't an elected official, when I came to pride, I learned a lot from mayor breed, actually, from the, you know, working. Having to work with her and other elected officials in city hall, what it meant to simply dictate policy that was going to run that particular event for a whole weekend.
[00:04:58] Speaker C: Goodness gracious.
[00:04:59] Speaker D: Yeah, I'm sure she's sick of me telling that story, but it's true.
[00:05:05] Speaker C: I know, like, we got. We just have, like, so many issues going on just within the city, the state of California.
You got supporters, but then you got those people who are just hating also. And I know it's a lot of.
[00:05:18] Speaker D: You know, I think that. And I'm. I wouldn't say that I'm not the best person, but I've learned, you know, I'm elected in Contra Costa county, which is a lot different than the city and county of San Francisco. I mean, y'all rough out here. Y'all rough on. Y'all elected me. You have to really learn a lot about how to deal with people, how to marry, dealing with people, and also dealing with policy. And I think that really, the people that are people are. Who are haters, right, who don't always understand what needs. What needs to be. What needs to be done to get things done, which I think a lot of folks who are not in the belly of the beast, unfortunately, don't understand. I think that, you know, being black women, elected officials, there's so many people coming at all of us. You know, not just. Not just Mary Marie, but, you know, we just went through the primary. A lot of black women were on the ballot and just seeing the ways that people have come up at them for various reasons, just to keep black women out of elected position. So I think that it's really. It's really about us learning how to use our God given talents for dealing with issues. We've all come. Mayor was, you know, was raised in the projects. I was raised in the projects of Richmond, California. A lot of folks were. A lot of black women were raised in different adverse positions. So how do we take that ability to deal with those adverse positions and put that in a position where we can, you know, affect the policy that is really going to change those positions? It's hard because people who've never lived in those positions don't understand what it is that you're doing.
[00:06:54] Speaker C: Yeah, man. And so just dealing with all that kind of stuff and having to deal with not only the naysayers, I mean, it could be like, close friends and family, too, that really don't understand or get, you know, what it is that you're doing? How are you able to maintain like that.
That sanity type of mind just appears.
[00:07:14] Speaker D: To be, you know, it is very, very hard, even, you know, I did a fundraiser a couple of months ago with Corey Bush, who's a congressman. I forgot what state Cory Bush is. The congressman ran, but she started out as an activist, and she talks a bit about the way that you had to make that turn from being just a straight activist into an actual policymaker, which is. It's the hardest thing to do. So when you're dealing with your family and friends, they don't see you as a legislator. They don't. They don't understand about policy. They see the things that you may have talked about previously as an activist, and there's a person on the street that we need to. What are we going to do about kids who are, you know, fighting in school?
[00:07:55] Speaker C: Right.
[00:07:55] Speaker D: What are we going to do about kids who are shooting each other on the street? What are we going to do about people who don't have food to eat and thinking about what, what they see is the common sense approaches.
[00:08:06] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:08:06] Speaker D: And it really is about surrounding yourself with the people who understand. They might not know what you're doing, but they understand your heart and why you're doing it. And that is, I mean, so I saw a video on Instagram. Your circle just gets smaller and smaller.
It doesn't get any bigger.
[00:08:26] Speaker C: And so, like, one of the questions that I had opportunity to talk with Maryland was, you know, are you familiar with that term, the foxhole?
[00:08:35] Speaker D: So it's kind of familiar with it.
[00:08:37] Speaker C: Okay. So it's one of those terms used in battle. Right. So they got to dig the foxhole, and then the people in the foxhole, they pretty much got to be, like, on that. They have to have, like, that same mentality, that intensity, because your life depends on it. Right.
[00:08:51] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:08:51] Speaker C: And so how are you able to, like, choose people to be in your foxhole?
[00:08:57] Speaker D: You know, I will say that on top of just Mary Marie and I have a lot of women in my circle who have gone through this in very public fashion. So I have, you know, I'm blessed to have Mary, you know, state controller Malia Cohen. These are the women who I. And not just look to, just from far off, who I have the opportunity to talk to.
I don't really know the answer to that because, really, for me, in my world, especially as a small town local elected official, it really takes a lot of trial and error.
I don't get the opportunity. The grand public gestures that people make when they publicly throw you under the bus, I don't necessarily get that. But it's really about having a great deal of discernment for us, because when you're a small town elected, everyone is trying to really be your friend and figure out what, what, what lane you're going up.
[00:09:57] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:09:57] Speaker D: What is your direction? And then for me, who is elected in one county and who works and plays for all types of purposes in this large county of San Francisco, it's, it's a lot of work every day.
[00:10:12] Speaker C: Every day.
[00:10:13] Speaker D: Every single day.
Every single day.
[00:10:17] Speaker C: So when it comes to, like, personal development, what are some of the things you do to invest in yourself?
[00:10:22] Speaker D: Some of the things that I do to invest in myself. I think I heard someone say one time, if you are the smartest person in a room, if you are the most powerful person in the room, you're in the wrong room. So I try to put myself in positions with folks who have done more than me, who are doing things. I don't want to say grander. I don't want to put it like that, but who are doing things on a grander scale, who I can actually look at what they're doing and say, okay, this is what I need to be doing. Even to your previous question.
Excuse me? You know, about how you deal with certain things. We're in a place in time where a lot of, whether you're small town, large town, that are getting. Having a lot of protests, there's a lot of people coming up against you. For me, looking at things that the mayor breeds have gone through in the world, I know that what I'm going through is either not too much or something I can at least get through, right? So for me, as far as personal development is really about watching them, listening to them, what they've been through, and now sometimes, because none of them have been small town life, it's a whole different ballgame. But at least listening to them when they're saying, this is what you should do, this is how I handle certain things. For me, as far as personal development, that's a huge thing in my life right now, man.
[00:11:39] Speaker C: That's one of the things in my life also. I mean, I just think about, in order for me, just to kind of keep a sane mind, sometimes I have to. Whether it's through meditation, whether it's through reading scripture. I got to do something.
[00:11:51] Speaker D: You know what I recently did when I was younger, I was a huge wrestling fan. Round about college that fell off. My friend got me back into wrestling.
[00:12:02] Speaker C: Are you serious?
[00:12:03] Speaker D: And that's my new. I mean, reality tv used to be my thing, and it still is. But wrestling is my new thing. If you can see somebody else get thrown through a table, the great distress.
I'm just telling truth. It's true. And I prefer aew. I love WWE, but I prefer Aew. Cause that's where all the old wrestlers are.
[00:12:24] Speaker C: You said the old wrestler.
[00:12:26] Speaker D: So I wanna see these new people. Where is the, you know, Christian? Where is he at? The rock isn't back in WWE, but only because he's a board member now.
[00:12:36] Speaker C: You're right. He said you're a board member. That's right.
That boy done moved up and acting and changed the game.
Yeah, that's all right. This is. All this stuff is impromptu.
[00:12:59] Speaker D: I'm respectful, I'm an elected official. I'm respectable, I'm a choke, because I'm getting overcome.
[00:13:07] Speaker C: Okay, so what do you think next for Mayor London?
[00:13:11] Speaker D: That's hilarious. I don't know if I should answer that on camera. I will say that, and I'm not going to say what position, but I said to her, I think you are the next.
And she laughed at me. Did she? One.
[00:13:23] Speaker C: So it might be one of those laughs where she might be thinking, you know what? I thought about that.
[00:13:30] Speaker D: It might have been. But she might. She thinks I'm the funniest person in the world. So it could have been her laughing. I mean, I think that even for me, whether it's me, whether it's Mary Marie, I think that we are in a place now where so many different people who are not the norm for positions that run for them. You know, I don't know if I should say this on camera, but I'm a saint.
[00:13:52] Speaker C: Go ahead.
[00:13:53] Speaker D: And that way you become a prophetic thing if it happens later. You know, I've thought about, you know, you look at somebody like a people judge, you know, white, gay man, mayor of some little small town in wherever, Illinois, Indiana, where he's from, decides to run for president. I knew he wasn't gonna be nobody president, but look at how his life levels up just by having the audacity to run. So I have said to myself at.
[00:14:19] Speaker C: Times, there you go.
[00:14:23] Speaker D: As a black lesbian woman who is deeply entrenched in one of the most famous cities in the world, who has people all across this nation, why shouldn't I at least try to refuse? It's from nobody. Indiana can do the work, and it might be the same for the mayor. I think that we are in a space and time where you got to think outside of just the straight trajectory that we normally like. Okay, your supervisor. Okay. Then you the mayor. Then you run up for assembly, then you run for stay Senate. And then you. You don't have to stick to any of those things. Even if the next. The next move is not elected office. If you look at some of the women who were mayor at the time that Mayor breed got elected, you look at Mayor Keisha lands Bottoms, who simply elected not to rerun for reelection and just took a position in the Biden Harris administration. No shame today, because there are different ways to change the way that you impact political power in the US.
[00:15:25] Speaker C: It is.
And one thing is I noticed is that I think sometimes people might have like, a vision or they might have a sense of what is it they might want to do, and then they actually start doing it. And then they figure out, you know, what, I wasn't built for that. So now I just need to pivot and then do something else that's more aligned.
[00:15:44] Speaker D: Just do it because, you know, it makes it build your name recognition. I know people in another county that I'm not gonna say is not, it's not Contra Costa, is not San Francisco, but who have run from multiple offices and their name becomes so large in that place that they eventually win. Sometimes you run into office to build your platform, build your position, build your name recognition. There's so many different, again, ways to impact political, you know, situations in our nation.
[00:16:16] Speaker C: Yeah.
So what's next for you?
[00:16:20] Speaker D: Don't know, people I don't know.
[00:16:27] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:16:28] Speaker D: Because I think, you know, I know I look very young. I'm 45. I just turned 45.
So I'm really figuring out, you know, what is the next step. You know, I was in a room one day with a friend and they said, well, have you ever thought of just, you know, going to work for the Obama Foundation? I was like, I mean, there's just so many different things. I can move to DC and work in somebody's dent office. I don't think, you sure did, huh. And I figured it out.
[00:16:56] Speaker C: Wow.
I like that.
[00:17:00] Speaker D: I mean, I think it's nice to be, I didn't realize until recently, again, I live in contrast county, but I didn't realize until recently how the county, when I was little, was simply run by white men. And I didn't think, I never thought about it until I looked back. People would say, remember? And then I would think about going to school. And you see the pictures on the wall, all white men. We're not, fortunately, we're not in that anymore. But again, I'm on so many different levels. When you look at even the house spending bill that was just passed, they had in the spending bill to get rid of Dei positions, most of those are black women.
[00:17:40] Speaker C: Right.
Since the podcast is really designed to share inspiring words, give people who have those dreams, ideas, for whatever reason, they're just not moving, they're not taking any kind of action on them. They're allowing, whether it's fear, their environment, distractions to kind of dictate what is they. Do you just hear like an inspiring word?
[00:18:05] Speaker D: Yeah, I think that the most inspiring word is going to initially feel like it's not inspiring. It's going to be that it is hard.
Running for office is hard. It can sometimes be moralizing thing that you will ever do because on top of everything else, you have people saying x, y and z about you. And as a candidate, don't say nothing unless you strategically go a plan to say something.
But it is what we need to do in order to change our community. So I encourage anyone, whether you're black, Brown, LGBTQ, CIs, Trans, we need you to run for office.
We need you to push through that boundary and through that heartache, because it will be hard. I did not win my first election. Yeah, push through that and still run and win.
[00:19:01] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:19:02] Speaker D: Because that's the only way that we are going to get to gender parity, racial justice parity, you know, whatever. It is the only way that we are going to have a government where the elected officials accurately reflect the amount of people in our community that if you run and push through the hell, but it's worth it.
[00:19:26] Speaker C: It is.
Y'all heard it first. Y'all.
[00:19:35] Speaker D: Sorry, counsel, if you were watching it. It gets on my nerves, but I'm there.
[00:19:40] Speaker C: That's all.
That's good.
Very popular.
[00:19:50] Speaker A: Thanks for tuning into this episode of why not you? Huge shout out. Huge shout out to Miss Carolyn Weissinger. I just have a quick question, because she talked about a lot, real quick looking back, and she talked about dealing with naysayers and maintaining one sanity while holding, just holding an elected position, especially when faced with opposition, not only from the foes, but what about friends and family?
And so when you think about whatever it is that you're going for, you're striving for, working on accomplishing, how do you overcome those challenges when the naysayers, when it's not from the people from the outside, but friends and family, doubt you. And so that's one of the things I definitely liked about her story, was that not only did she just share personal challenges, but she just took the time out of her schedule, networking while at this fundraiser to inspire encouragement. Everybody, all walks of life, just to think about running for office position or just doing something that's meaningful in your community, especially from the marginalized communities. Despite the hardships and just. Just governance, her story and words express the urgency to push through challenges in pursuit of meaningful change. The question I have is, why not you? This is D. Wells, your host. I'm out. And remember, we cannot become what we need if we remain where we are. God bless.
[00:21:27] Speaker B: Thank you for listening to this episode of why not you? Remember, have faith and believe in yourself. God does also subscribe to our channel and go to our website for more free content and life changing
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