HOPE for the Best: Working Together to Empower Women with Mary Hagerty Ehrsam

This episode of the Power of the Ask podcast features economic equity strategist Mary Hagerty Ehrsam, president of partnerships at Operation HOPE, Inc., where she cultivated $300M in revenue streams and avenues for growth, scale, and sustainability.

For more than three decades, Mary has served as a leader in economic equity and financial dignity, working to drive $3.5B in private investment into underserved, low-wealth communities worldwide. She developed and launched the HOPE youth programs, expanded the HOPE Inside model nationwide, and led the global expansion in South Africa and the Middle East.

On the podcast, Mary shares how she came to Operation HOPE more than 25 years ago and how its mission to enact social justice through an economic equity lens was something that resounded with her. She has led the organization nationally to 274 cities, educating millions of individuals. But, Mary stresses, it's not just about the numbers and outputs, it's about the outcomes.

For Mary, teamwork makes the dream work. Her passion for economic equity, financial dignity, corporate social responsibility, and public-private partnerships is inspiring and a great listen.

About Mary Ehrsam:

Mary is President of Partnerships at Operation HOPE, Inc. in Atlanta. Prior to joining HOPE, Mary began her career in strategic economic development and poverty alleviation by launching the Los Angeles affiliate of Habitat for Humanity — growing the organization from a $35K budget to $3.2M, constructing 64 homes in partnership with recipient homeowners, and conducting the 1995 Jimmy Carter Work Project with 25 homes built in five days.

Mary expanded her focus to comprehensive economic equity with Operation HOPE in 1997. She developed and launched the HOPE youth programs, expanded the HOPE Inside model nationwide, and led the global expansion in South Africa and the Middle East. Working with the Global Dignity co-founders, Mary developed the “Course in Dignity” curriculum that has been delivered, in partnership with the World Economic Forum of Young Global Leaders, in 100 countries on four continents. She currently serves as the co-lead of the Financial Literacy for All (FL4A) initiative. In 1990, Mary earned a BA with honors in Economics from Gettysburg College, from whom she received the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2022.

Important Links:

Savvy Ladies
Lisa Zeiderman, Esq., CDFA, CFL - Forbes Business Council | LinkedIn
Precious L. Williams - Perfect Pitch Group | LinkedIn
Mary Ehrsam | LinkedIn

Chapters

• 0:00 Tell Us About Yourself
• 15:42 What Are You Most Proud Of
• 20:57 Why Financial Education Is Important
• 26:47 Taking Control of Your Future
• 32:40 What Programming Is Impactful?
• 38:01 Growing Demands

Transcript

Lisa Zeiderman (00:33.678)

Okay, so I'm ready for my, you had the questions in the perfect place, it was all good. So should I just start? Now they're much smaller, you move them. That's perfect. Okay, should I start, Erica?

Lisa Zeiderman  (00:55.618)

Okay, just so you know they're in a different place again. Okay.

Hey everyone, welcome to the Savvy Ladies Power of the Ask, the podcast that helps you get what you want financially and personally. And I'm going to kick it off to my co-host, Precious Williams.

Lisa Zeiderman  (02:18.606)

Hey everyone, welcome to the Savvy Ladies Power of the Ask, the podcast that helps you get what you want financially and personally. And now I'm gonna turn it over to my favorite co-host, Precious Williams.

Precious LaTonia Williams (02:36.806)

As you all know, we're back with the Power of the Ask podcast, and we always bring you such entertaining, such educational, and such top guests. Today's guest is Mary Hackenham-Earsom, who is an innovative leader and has worked with Operation HOPE, the nation's leading financial literacy nonprofit for over two decades. She has developed and executed the national launch of the HOPE youth programs, expanded the HOPE Inside model nationwide, and led the global expansion in South Africa

She's been instrumental in the growth of Operation Hope's offerings, working to drive annual revenue to 50 million dollars. So Queen Mary, we'd love for you to tell us more than I've already said so that our listeners are ready for you.

Mary Ehrsam (03:24.45)

Well, I'm so happy to be here. This is exciting and to share our shared vision, which is to empower women everywhere to take control of their financial future. I have had the blessing, as you shared, of working with Operation HOPE for 26 years. And when I started, we were about as big as my iPhone. And I've worked with a team that tirelessly drives our mission forward.

And really I'm extremely blessed that I, you know, working with a team and my first team was my family. And I grew up about an hour outside of New York. I had a lot of love and we had a challenge as a family, which I actually referred to more as a blessing with my second oldest sister was born with cerebral palsy.

And she, every day of her life, she pushed and strived to live a life of equity and a life with dignity and a life of independence. And from that very beginning, I sort of developed that sense that everyone, every woman on the planet deserves the ability to plan their future, to drive their future, to sustain their future.

And I, you know, through a series of mentors and opportunities and working first with Habitat for Humanity, I get to see hands-on and really at the forefront of change and being able to make change. My true blessing has been the people around me. After I finished with Habitat for Humanity, I met John Hope Bryant and his really extraordinary mission to enact social justice through an economic equity lens was something that resounded with me 100%. And then since, as you shared, we've taken our mission nationally to 274 cities, and we've educated millions of individuals. But it's not just about the numbers, it's not just about the outputs, it's about the outcomes. Like how are we truly changing?

Mary Ehrsam (05:33.898)

changing behaviors that can lead to a change of mindset that can lead to that sense of empowerment. And it's been fun. I mean along the journey and where we work right now with Operation Hope, it's driving the partnerships forward, working and collaborating with extraordinary leaders like yourselves and savvy ladies, and then also being part of the journey of those that we serve. And that is something that you know connects the dots. You have the CEOs from some of our partners that get it and they feel empowered through the opportunity to extend their resources to drive our mission forward. And then you have the blessing of working with someone who's actually become a friend, one of our Operation Hope inside clients who was a single mom, was in an abusive marriage for 20 years, had 11 children. She escaped and was living in a...

Winnebago with another family of 12 with her 11 children. She didn't have any skills because she wasn't allowed to work and then she through the grace of God became got a job and started working for Sinovus Bank. She made some mistakes financially though because she didn't have she didn't even know what she didn't know from the situation that she was in and she had filed bankruptcy. But she started to work with one of our coaches.

And she always said that the reprieve with their children, they'd go and they'd go to the library together and she'd keep on working to learn and establish credit and then increase her credit score. And then penny by penny save and then reduce the debt that she had. And in 2021, she had her first Christmas at a house that she owned. So.

And because she was such an extraordinary mommy, her kids all went to Penn and University of Georgia and Yale. And that's the kind of journey that I'm thrilled to be a part of. And I know you all share that passion as well. So thank you for having me on today.

Lisa Zeiderman  (07:41.614)

Thank you so much for being with us, Mary. I mean, you are one of the world's top doers who are committed to taking meaningful action to make the world a better place for all of us. And we really appreciate having you with us today.

Mary Ehrsam (07:56.566)

Thank you for having me.

Precious LaTonia Williams (07:56.682)

And well, I really like that you kicked off with a story of what you've been able to see in your journey. So your leadership and financial wellness endeavors are drivers in achieving sustainable development in the United States and globally.

Lisa Zeiderman (08:13.942)

Mary, you've been a member of the executive team and a legacy member of Operation Hope for over 26 years, correct?

Mary Ehrsam (08:22.274)

Correct.

Lisa Zeiderman (08:23.938)

Can you share with us? I you know you've shared some background, but can you share? Your your journey and some other changes some other positive changes that you have championed over the years I mean this was an incredible story that you just Provided for us, but I'm sure our listeners would love to hear about the positive changes that you have made over these years Can you let us know?

Mary Ehrsam (08:49.154)

No, absolutely. As I shared, it started with a clear understanding that change is possible. And that growing up in New York, and you know New York well, the wealth gap and the discrepancy and the really the. Injustice of people being able to drive their own destiny just because they were born in a certain zip code or into a certain circumstance. And that was the motivation. Right in school where I went to in Pennsylvania and I had a brilliant mentor, Dr. Derek Gondwe, who was from Malawi, Africa, and he, you know, as a studying economics, he worked to, we worked together to transform my mindset to instead of microeconomic terms, let's look at socioeconomic change that we can drive forward. We did a ton of research on the economics of homelessness. And when I graduated, I said, okay, what's, you know, what's one way to work to alleviate homelessness or help provide that safe place over a roof, you know, roof over that single mom's head so that she can

Be the best self that she can be and care for her kids and be the best employee. So I built homes with Habitat for Humanity in Los Angeles and started the office of Habitat. In throughout the Los Angeles, Greater LA County. We built 25 homes in a week with former president Carter and first lady Rosalynn Carter. And it's all helping people help themselves up the economic ladder. Every homeowner has to work. So what I loved on the job site there was, everybody was equal. You had, and you could build collaboration between leaders. So someone asked me one day, like, is that the Habitat homeowner? And I said, no, that's a senior vice president.

Mary Ehrsam (10:35.452)

of Union Bank of California, and everyone was on the same level and working towards one mission. So as I shared a minute ago, I then met John Hope Bryant, and at that point I was really ready to take my vision to scale and drive it forward, not just in the, you know, one city or one county or one state, but put a model together that would help to...

Towards financial equity, which would include affordable housing, help small businesses start, and drive generational wealth. So we're not just educating the parents, but we're also educating the kids. And so we drove our youth program across the country. And it was simple, where we had a model where volunteers could teach in the classrooms. And we had built something that was measurable and sustainable and to measure the impact. And then we, you know, it, succeeded so much that we were able to implement the vision in South Africa. We launched a partnership with the Desmond Tutu, with the Peace Corps. We expanded into six of the nine provinces. And then we got an invitation from a company in Saudi Arabia that asked us to design and launch the first curriculum for women in the country. And then in the United Arab Emirates, the foundation said we want to do this as well.

Lisa Zeiderman  (11:52.27)

Wow.

Mary Ehrsam (11:57.598)

Let's work with young people that are entitled, but they're in debt, and women that were across the Middle East working to build that unprecedented level of financial empowerment.

But we also realize that there's so much to do in the United States, and we hadn't expanded to as many rural communities or urban communities as we wanted to. So we've since expanded to 274 cities throughout the U.S. We have commitments for 320. We're going to open 50 HOPE offices just this year alone. We grew at one point between 2013 and 2020 at a rate of 553%. But we also simultaneously build scale. So through the digitization of our programs and products and you know, it all goes back to the faces of those that we empower and the stories behind. I mean, that's what really fuels our mission and certainly inspires me to keep going. So that's just a little taste of our journey.

Precious LaTonia Williams (13:01.234)

I just got to say, I want to take a pose for the coals because 26 years is a while. It's like a minute. And when we say a minute, we know what that means. That's a, that's a long time. And in that time being, you're a connector. You are a collaborator.

Mary Ehrsam (13:10.83)

Thank you.

Precious LaTonia Williams (13:19.23)

And there's so many issues out there. And what I really appreciate about you is you put facts, figures, and statistics with it because this is the power of the ask. And we want women to be financially empowered and to understand how numbers are able to bring people to the table. How are you able to use your secret sauce as a collaborator and a connector to be able to bring in so many different organizations across civic, public and private arenas? That's hard. Talk to us about that.

Mary Ehrsam (13:50.332)

Or, well, with growth and scale, you need a solid foundation to do that. And we'd always call it the three-legged stool. You have the private sector, the public sector, and the nonprofit sector all working together. And I always share that.

Just as I am so moved and I still get emotional when I meet some of those that have gone through our program like Sivan, who I was talking about earlier, our single mom. I also get very enthused and excited when I see a transformation of a of a CCE CEO's face who, you know, is interested in philanthropy, but after conversation realizes that it's not just a good idea and it's not just morally correct, but it makes good business sense.

So we have, you know, Savan at one point who was bankrupt, we transitioned her to a homeowner. And that loan came from one of our financial institution partners. And there were other nonprofits that helped her with our journey. So it's easy to do at the end of the day, because everybody is focused on the same mission. There is one mission.

And whether it's, and then, and you, you know, if you put the CEO and the, the homeowner that was part of their institution and that they helped educate through their contribution, that everybody gets it and they understand it. And then what I work to do is, you know, form strategic partnerships so that I can meet.

Corporations where they are, whether it's they're trying to volunteer in a classroom teaching kids to help with some of their regulatory requirements or they're doing their environmental, social and governance work and then the other nonprofits all together. So everybody shares that one vision and that one mission and it becomes quite easy and you can scale the relationships and subsequently scale the impact.

Precious LaTonia Williams (15:41.806)

Mm-mm.

Lisa Zeiderman  (15:42.03)

So I'm going to ask what I think is a very difficult question after listening to you and all the things that you have accomplished. Is there a program that you are most proud of and then why? And I don't know how I would ever make that choice given all that you have done, but I'm going to ask it anyway.

Precious LaTonia Williams (15:47.735)

Right. Thank you.

Mary Ehrsam (16:03.186)

Well, thank you. And all of it has been fun, I have to say. It's been a lot of hard work with not just myself and the team, but it's been very, very fun. And we always have learned from things that have worked and learned from things that haven't worked. So the program that I'm most proud of in the model that we've seen grow is called Hope Inside. And that is, you know, our traditional model for serving adults was called a Hope Center.

Precious LaTonia Williams (16:22.978)

Cool.

Mary Ehrsam (16:28.766)

and we built one Hope Center and all of our team members under one roof. We were renting a space on usually a strip mall and it was successful and you could come in and start a business or learn to reduce your debt, increase your savings sort of at one stop shop. Well, quite honestly, it was a failed business model. It was expensive. We couldn't scale it. No one was taking a subway over from Brooklyn to Harlem on a Tuesday night to talk about the debt. It just, it was difficult.

So we flipped the model upside down and launched Hope Inside, where instead of everyone being under one roof, we have Hope financial wellness coaches that are inside bank branches, inside urgent care facilities, inside churches, inside community-based organizations. Anywhere that those we're serving live, work, or congregate, we have our coaches. And these are the offices that I referred to before.

And there we're serving a lot of people every year, but it's not the outputs. It's the outcome. So for these, through this model, we're able to raise credit scores on average 41 points for everyone who goes through the program. We're able to decrease debt by $1,800 on average across the country and increase savings by $1,100. So you have.

Lisa Zeiderman (17:36.738)

Wow.

Mary Ehrsam (17:49.31)

The majority, 56% of Americans, are not prepared to have a $1,000 emergency. And we calculate through the Hope Inside model, how can we drive this impact forward to meet the growing demand? And then something we launched a couple of years ago, which I've seen take off and something that I think really resonates with most of the companies we work with, but really the most employees, is called Hope Inside the Workplace.

And that's where we partner with an organization or a corporation or even a municipality where they are interested in working to implement. They have a mental wellness program, which many do after COVID. They have a physical wellness program and physical health benefits, but they're now implementing a financial wellness program. Delta Airlines is a partner.

And we have Hope Financial Wellness Coaches inside JFK, LaGuardia, LAX, Atlanta, that work with employees throughout from pilots to flight attendants to below the wing, above the wing. But they were motivated because during the pandemic, when everyone was on the ground, they had to obviously make some shifts with hours and they paid out an extraordinary, surprisingly large amount of advances on paychecks and advances on 401Ks.

So they implemented a national program and with an employee incentive, a starter savings account. So if you went through Operation Oaks programs, you could, and one third of the total employee base last year went through the program. And they have 80,000 employees. They can commit it, they participated in 37,000 sessions and 33,000 individuals opened up retirement accounts with Fidelity who they utilize. To meet with Operation HOPE, you're that single parent again, you've got a 520 credit score, you don't know if the lights are going to be on when your kids get home from school, and you're stressed out at your job. You know, 84 percent of employers across the country are worried that their employees are not as engaged and productive as they can be because they're stressed about their finances. And

Mary Ehrsam (20:04.13)

So we alleviate that, we work hand in hand with it, and we establish trust, which is the most, one of the most important factors of the hope inside model. Without that we can't drive it forward. You know, our coaches are half social worker and half a banker, and they have to establish that trust to change patterns of behavior.

So it's all confidential. We don't share information on who went through the program, but we're able to tell the companies on an aggregate basis how much we've helped their employees save, reduce their debt, and increase their credit score. So that's one I'm happy about, and that's the one that continues to grow.

lisa zeiderman (20:45.11)

Amazing.

Precious LaTonia Williams (20:47.676)

I feel like I'm clutching my imaginary pearls. I'm for Clem right now. And I'm gonna tell you why.

Mary Ehrsam (20:51.391)

Hehehehehehe

Precious LaTonia Williams (20:57.654)

You see on the news, you hear from your friends that these are harsh, hard economic times. There's a lot going on where people are feeling so untethered, especially women, and they have children, families and all of that.

How do you address the need for financial education? Because what I've heard from you is, these, all these things were happening and we learned how to change and adapt at a time. You went from having these centers to going into places where people went on a daily basis and made yourself integral to helping people right where they are by doing the hope inside.

How do you get this out to more women and more families to make sure they understand that financial education is necessary and we've all had to adapt and pivot to make it really important?

Mary Ehrsam (21:48.31)

Yeah, well, it is always a combination of a grassroots effort on the ground, working through strategic alliance partners, churches, community organizations, different groups, to a full-blown marketing campaign and social that gets the word out. We work through, we know at this day and age that people...

Learn when, how, and where it makes most sense for them. So we make it as easy as possible for women, again, two jobs, four kids, a low credit score and a disabled frame of mind because she does not feel like she could save a penny for a retirement that she's just stressed out. So we focus on spreading the message.

And with everyone that we work with, we encourage them to tell their friends and tell their neighbors. And it does expand. I mean, the enthusiasm and the sense of hope. And that's why we're called Operation Hope and not Operation Financial Education, because it is about the aspiration. It's about meeting someone where they are and...

And having, I mean, our coaches, before they ever talk about a credit score or a compound interest or debt, how they can, you know, reduce their debt or set up a budget, they're trained to listen to someone who's in tears for 20 minutes because they can't even put the words together of how it is impacting their life. That's what we focus on all day. And we, you know, whether we're...

Precious LaTonia Williams (23:16.728)

Mm.

Mary Ehrsam (23:24.094)

on a podcast or whether we're having a conversation with someone one on one, it's reaching them where they are. You have to, it's psycho, money is psychological and it's emotional and you have to focus on that first in order then to bring in, you know what we know, there's top notch world class curriculum out there, but that's secondary. It's more of having a conversation about life that talks about money as opposed to having a curriculum session delivered about money.

Lisa Zeiderman (23:53.686)

Mary, you know, it's all about dignity, right? I mean, the women's dignity is so valuable. And I know you have something called the HOPE Financial Dignity Centers. Can you explain how this initiative came about and what is happening with it today? Are more women using this program today than when it first launched? Tell us about it.

Mary Ehrsam (24:20.29)

Sure, no absolutely. I think the root of it all is helping people live life, we call it instead of financial literacy or financial inclusion, we actually use the term financial dignity. So it's helping women live life with dignity as they define dignity. I'm not telling anyone what dignity is. It's in choices and access and information are three things that we do with women through the centers are educate, coach and connect.

Precious LaTonia Williams (24:32.814)

Yes.

Mary Ehrsam (24:50.11)

So the education is, again, both aspirational and it also is meeting women where they are with the tools and resources that they need. And then you have that one-on-one connection. How are you looking someone in the eye and saying, it's going to be okay, it's you and me together, we're going to do this. And then it's the connection. We partner with 50 banks that have...

Products and services, for affordable housing, for starting a small business, for establishing credit. All of, and we offer, we are, we learn about all products, so it's not a referral to a specific institution, but let's give you the offering of what you need. So it starts with that sense of dignity, and then we provide those tools and resources, and all following. You know, a theory of change, a theory of change patterns behavior. The centers, as you referenced, have transformed into these hope-filled locations. So we've scaled that financial dignity center model and brought it into communities and institutions. And again, with the places where. Those that we're serving, the women that we're working with, which again, in some of our Hope Inside locations, 90% of the clients we serve are women. Yeah, it has always been the majority of clients that we serve.

Precious LaTonia Williams (26:10.024)

OOF

Lisa Zeiderman (26:11.126)

That's unbelievable. That's just unbelievable.

Mary Ehrsam (26:16.734)

And those women are there, they are our ambassadors of hope as well. They go out and spread the word. So the dignity centers have, that model has scaled and it's more of the, you know, we do the education, the coaching and the connection at each locations nationwide.

Lisa Zeiderman  (26:34.958)

incredible.

Precious LaTonia Williams (26:35.062)

Well, I really like that you just let us know that 90% of the women who are coming into the centers. Can you name the top three reasons why they are coming in?

Mary Ehrsam (26:47.926)

Yeah, I think, I mean, including the two of you, just getting the word out about take control of your future and everything that Savvy Ladies projects of light is you can doing in that sense of belonging. So I think what we're doing both again on the ground and through the through social media and getting the message out, women are hearing about it. But the key is to transition that. This sounds good to.

Precious LaTonia Williams (27:14.494)

I'm walking through the door.

Mary Ehrsam (27:15.55)

Yeah, it's that, hmm, is this something? No, nope, that's not for me. I don't have time.

I'm too busy. We all have that with sometimes postponing those things in life. But once they will reach a coach, it's encouraging them to come and to stay. We'll have women's groups that come together. We used to call them the 700 Credit Club so that everyone would come together as if they were going to a Weight Watchers meeting and focus on increasing their credit scores.

Mary Ehrsam (27:51.296)

ways and the numbers have you know continued to increase but it is first you have to overcome that disabling frame of mind that going from that sense from I don't belong and this isn't for me to absolutely it's for you can do it but we're here with you each step of the way and whether a woman needs one coaching session or whether she needs three years of coaching sessions or even more there's no limit on what we can do.

And there's no, the word no doesn't exist, it's always how. And I think that's why women keep coming back to us.

Lisa Zeiderman (28:28.206)

So Mary, how can we, and when I say we, I mean the universal we, right? How do we all let women know that it's their superpower to become financially empowered?

Yeah, I mean, in a lot of ways. As I was saying a minute ago, just working to spread the word and putting it, as you said, Lisa, in those exact words. It is a power move to become financially empowered and you have the ability to have that power. And it's not saying it once, it's that resounding theme again and again and again. And that you can work hand in hand with other women, you can work hand in hand with men and mentors throughout life and that it is something that is attainable and doable. You know, word empowerment is, a word that we can connect directly to dignity. And again, it's that feeling that you can shift with women. And then the clear understanding of the intense challenges that women have, both on their own personal finances, but other challenges in the workplace and the times that we live in with complex situations, with raising children, with working not one, but two jobs. Like, how do you make that happen?

It's just understanding that this is something that you do this, you set your foundation and you can do anything you want. I mean, you can't even brush your teeth in the morning if you don't buy the toothbrush. Everything we do all day long is a financial transaction of some sort. So breaking it down into terms that women, especially those that are struggling, can understand and resonate with them and then encourage them to join.

Precious LaTonia Williams (30:16.91)

A lot of women I know right now probably fell lost and forgotten and doing the very best that they possibly can. We've heard about the dignity. We've heard about dignity. We've heard about your financial coaches that want to hear about them before they start bringing up all these terms that bring anxiety to a lot of us.

How do you get them to keep coming back? How do you establish trust that makes them want to come back?

Mary Ehrsam (30:49.034)

Yeah, it is, again, it is a you and I together. And we're not going to tell anyone if it's an employee at one of our Hope Inside the workplace facilities that someone a woman is afraid like, I'm not going to talk about this, I'm going to I don't want my boss to know that I'm struggling. Like, we're not telling anyone. It is something that is private, it is confidential.

We through our coaches, we have very specific protocols and policies to that women know that they can trust us period. Most of our coaches are women. So you'll have a female bond right there. And we have, you know, those coaches are not just trained in what they deliver and when and how, but they really are looked at the circumstances that women are facing. And we know that

A woman may join and she comes to three workshops and sits with the coach for five sessions over six months and then something happens. Life changes. Emergencies happen. Child rearing happens. Job change happens. So if she leaves for another six months and says, hey, I'm back, it's like, come on in. So there's, you know, we always say that every client is part of the Hope family.

And as long as that woman, as long as anyone that participates in our program is willing to roll up their sleeves and work with us, then they're welcome into the family. There are no handouts with the programs. It is something that is a partnership between our coaches and the clients. And that, I think, that sense of community keeps the women coming back, that sense of trust and belief. And that sense of this person's in my court and I'm going to stick with this.

Precious LaTonia Williams (32:37.935)

Mmm.

Lisa Zeiderman (32:40.342)

So Mary, you're successfully impacting, there's no question, people's lives. You're disrupting poverty, you're empowering people through financial education. There's no question that Savvy Lady shares in the belief that financial education is power. What programming have you found has the most impact on women in the United States? So is it raising their credit? Is it building their savings? Is it building wealth? What do you believe has had the most impact?

Mary Ehrsam (33:13.162)

Yeah, I think two things immediately come to mind. And one is homeownership. And we know that attaining homeownership and becoming a homeowner is a way to truly build generational wealth.

And you have that home where, you know, as Savan had 11 children and that 11 children, and I've met them all, they all sat around the living room at Christmas time with a safe roof over their head with a mom as strong a role model as can be. And, but they know that at some point in time that house is, you know, that is going to be worth a lot more than when she bought it. And that at some point in time, it's benefiting the entire family. So I think home ownership is our building opportunity for women. And to do that you have to investing in women with the three variables, helping them save and set up a budget, reduce their debt, and increase their credit score.

 And then the other is our small business empowerment program, where we will work with that mom who says, all right, I'm going to keep working these jobs because I have to, but I've got this idea. I've always had this idea. I've always wanted to start my own business. How do I do it? And we have, you mentioned the course that businesses can go through. The same coach has the same spirit. We always start with the credit and money management course because you will as you see you have to empower the business but the business owner behind the business especially when a lot of women need to bootstrap finance their business on their own credit card so as not to max out credit cards we do all of that work behind the scenes then we put a business plan in place we have that same type of community of a cohort of women that

Mary Ehrsam (35:03.624)

We have been doing small business empowerment since 1997, even just this past year. We launched an initiative called One Million Black Businesses, and we've had over 330,000 businesses go through the program since 2020, and a 10-year goal of a million by 2030. So those two programs, I think, have a sustainable impact on women.

Precious LaTonia Williams (35:27.79)

I, again, I feel like plot twist. So we've been having this conversation, you know, geared towards women and their families.

Mary Ehrsam (35:30.894)

I'm going to go to bed.

Precious LaTonia Williams (35:41.442)

For me, this is so very touching because I know that my mother was a single mother to three kids and it wasn't. The kind of services that are here today weren't there for a lot of women back in the day.

Precious LaTonia Williams (35:57.534)

Once they go through these programs, what is something that has surprised you that came out of nowhere? Maybe someone went to the Nth degree and beyond because of the training, because of the coaching, or there was just some extreme success story that you all did not see coming.

Mary Ehrsam (36:17.086)

Yeah. One, and again, focusing on women and families, but also the young men and the boys that have gone through our program, that are growing up in those households. In South Africa, we launched a partnership with the Peace Corps. And we were launching the partnership in a province that was really a five-hour drive from Johannesburg, very rural community. And we were exhausted when we went there and arrived. I'm like, all right, we're going to drive this forward. We had an MOU, you know, memorandum of understanding that we were signing. So I'm sitting back and thrilled to be there, excited, inspired and exhausted. And this gentleman stood up and his name was Happy John. For real. His name was Happy John. And he had written a letter that he gave to myself and John Bryant that said that you know, and I, I mean, the classroom where we taught didn't have enough, literally, and you hear about this, but it didn't have enough chairs. It didn't have, you know, there was no running water in the building, it was, and they sat there and they learned and they learned, you know, the basics of financial literacy, but also to start income generating activities. And I still have it. I mean, I read it all the time, the letter from him, and it just, it is...

Precious LaTonia Williams (37:20.843)

Yep.

Mary Ehrsam (37:41.19)

It was completely unexpected. I was no longer exhausted. I knew that what we were doing was having a global impact and that there was more to do and so much more to do. So that was a thrill. He made me smile.

Precious LaTonia Williams (37:55.286)

Way to go, Happy John.

Lisa Zeiderman(37:55.566)

amazing.

Mary Ehrsam (37:58.284)

I know.

Lisa Zeiderman(38:01.654)

So Mary, what growing demands are you seeing today? Have you seen a shift at all in the needs and the client audiences? Or are you not seeing a shift?

Mary Ehrsam (38:14.538)

No, I'm seeing a shift. We are. And collectively, I think all of us working together. COVID was difficult on so many in so many different ways. But for those that were working in low wage jobs and with a shift in hours and impacted by illness, they're still rebuilding their lives. And we're still working with so many families and small business owners that are working to get back on their feet. But then you see.

Still so many struggling from inflation in 2022 and really going into 2023, where there were 43% of a survey we recently did of Americans wanted to buy a home, but they stopped because it was unaffordable. So that wealth building opportunity came to a halt.

Precious LaTonia Williams (39:03.063)

Yep.

Mary Ehrsam (39:07.054)

And a lot of times it was because they had maxed out their credit cards trying to stay afloat with inflation or catching up from COVID. So we are in, you know, we're the...

You know, the good news is there are a lot of organizations like Operation Hope that are working really hard, as are the two of you, as is Savvy Ladies. But the tough news is that it's only increasing and there are different needs that people have. So, you know, as I mentioned with the Hope Inside the Workplace, you know, that was, you know, an extraordinary high amount of

Precious LaTonia Williams (39:30.902)

Yeah.

Mary Ehrsam (39:42.39)

payout that Delta had to make to employees because they just they were desperate. But of course Delta came around and really helped lay the pavement for that as some others have. So we're seeing a growing need for budgeting and credit and money management for reduction of credit cards. But but also you know individuals like I've described that are just at their wits end.

And they need that sense of inspiration. They need that sense of hope and really what we could bring to the table. And this is all over the place. It's not in just one specific region or one specific geography. We have offices from Atlanta to Seattle, New York to New Mexico. And you have similar themes, whether it's an extremely rural population or whether it's a highly condensed urban environment.

Precious LaTonia Williams (40:35.946)

Again, Verklempt, what is letting you know, what type of impact criteria lets you know that change is happening on the horizon for women and their families?

Mary Ehrsam (40:49.554)

I mean, honestly, this is what keeps me doing what I do. You know, it gets, after 26 years, it's personal. And I need to see that we are empirically validating the efficacy of what we do on a daily basis, both with, you know, qualitative data and the stories, and then also with the numbers and being able to use that data to plan forward and see what we need to do more of. So we have, we launched

Precious LaTonia Williams (41:05.994)

Right.

Mary Ehrsam (41:19.402)

When we slowed down, well, we didn't slow down programmatically, but we, everybody, you know, was sheltering in place during COVID and we, we were able to spend some funding that we would typically spend on, you know, putting physical locations, standing up physical locations, we invested in ourselves. We did our own financial literacy activities and we implemented what's called the HOPE Research and Impact Institute.

and they are, let's make it sound huge. It's a couple of really smart data scientists that eat data for breakfast, and they work to say, it's not the number of people we're serving, it's what are we doing and how are we driving change. So they have a sophisticated system where they can produce a dashboard.

Nationwide, for every city that we're in, for every partner that we have that shows those variables, what are the overall demographics, and then how have we moved the needle? How have we changed patterns of behavior? So we're able to look at that increase in credit score, decrease in debt, increase in savings. And then were they able to buy a home? Were they able to start a business? Did they access a credit card to establish credit and to build up their credit profile?

And then to look at the qualitative data. We always have, we have stories that come to us without even asking people who are so excited about what happened, really, really tough stories to listen to about what the struggles people faced. And then other types of surveys. We just did a survey of 3,500 of our participants both on the...

responding to the, of course, like any other company, you want to find out how we're doing and what we can do better, but it was also on their perception of what is happening in their world. So we've got some fantastic information and numbers of percentages so that we can then design our programs to meet that need. One as a reference earlier, 43% with not being able to, $1,000.

Mary Ehrsam (43:27.058)

episode, you know, an emergency came up that did not have the ability to cover that. So we're like, we got to, we got to work to push to increase a savings account to over a thousand just at a minimum to combat that. So that's the impact is everything. And honestly, the data is everything. It also drives our success of our, our partnerships that we can provide that impact analysis and the analytics to our, our corporate partners. It's really helps me do my job.

Lisa Zeiderman (43:57.202)

I think that's exactly right. And we find the same thing actually for savvy ladies. You've got to have the data. In terms of equity and financial inclusion, I know that those are your top priorities, or certainly some of your top priorities in helping the underserved. Is that resonating today in the communities across the United States? Do you see that happening and making a difference? And is there a city or suburban community story that you can share with us?

Mary Ehrsam (44:27.306)

Yeah, sure. I'm an optimist and I think you both are as well. And I have seen a shift. I mean, we've been doing we've all been doing this a long time. And I've you know, this is this is this is my life and focusing on economic equity. So it's I've seen a plus we've worked with a lot of corporate organizations that at one point were siloed and just said, this is, you know, when my company's driving forward, we've been able to bring them together and work together. We found that a lot of companies have incorporated a financial wellness program next to their health benefits and mental health benefits, which many implemented after COVID. I've seen, we're working with a number of different corporations to...

not only have a legislation to teach financial education in schools, but have a funded mandate, not just a, you know, something that someone has passed a bill. So really driving that forward and getting that to be funded. And people are excited about it, but there's still a lot of work to do to get to that place. I would say Atlanta is one of the cities and one of the communities where we moved our world headquarters from Los Angeles where we were founded to Atlanta. Ambassador Andrew Young is our global spokesman so that was one of the driving motives behind that. But we've also seen a great change in the city where

The city of Atlanta at the end of 2022, and Operation HOPE launched what's called the Child Savings Account Program. And the city of Atlanta is giving every kindergartener a starter savings account when they start school. So, and they put a lot of strength behind that. So it's maintained by the child and by their guardians. And that just builds up over time. And then Operation HOPE is doing the programming for the young children.

Mary Ehrsam (46:31.348)

for and then there's another wave that goes through middle school, another wave that goes through high school, and then we have another for young adults that are in college. So it's this generational push. And then we have a coach that serves teachers in Atlanta public schools, and then we have a coach that works with parents. So we've seen this, you know, this true uplift model embraced by the city of Atlanta, the corporate partners in Atlanta, and other nonprofits

program, as we call it the Child Savings Account program, is something that we're working to take across the country and that's impact that you can measure.

Precious LaTonia Williams (47:10.678)

Very much so, I graduated from college in an ATL, Atlanta, Georgia, so thank you, thank you, thank you. So here's a question that we ask all of our esteemed guests. Queen Mary, why is the power of the S so important to women, especially financially, and why is it so critical?

Mary Ehrsam (47:14.767)

Okay, nice.

Mary Ehrsam (47:29.73)

Yeah, it is. It is so critical because you need to ask to get what you what you deserve and what you need to move yourself forward. I mean, it's absolutely essential. And that's kind of an obvious one. When I talk about the ask with people and when I've worked with some of my mentees, you know, I look at the ask itself is powerful. But always look at not just the what you're asking, but also look at why.

Because if you truly understand what you want to, you know, I want to increase, I'm going to ask for a credit card so I can establish credit, but let's look at the long run. Is that because you want to establish, increase your credit score to buy a home? Like, let's look at the total. Brings more strength into your ask. It's a powerful motivator, that why. And then also to look at the when and the how.

So to make sure women are empowered to understand that, if they're asking for a raise, the conversation is about really sharing their, I'm the most valuable person that you have, how can I be more valuable to you? And bringing that strength and that passion and emotion into that ask. So it's everything, the ask is everything.

Precious LaTonia Williams (48:41.417)

Mmm.

Mary Ehrsam (48:50.678)

And empowering women to understand how they can use that ask to build their life and build their wealth and build their legacy is absolutely critical. And that will lead to true success for women across the country and really across the planet.

Precious LaTonia Williams (49:09.29)

Oh Queen Mary, we want to thank you for being another amazing guest on the Power of the Ad podcast, Power of Our Savvy Ladies. And to all of our savvy ladies, keep coming back monthly for a lot more amazing guests. We'll be here monthly dropping that true tea, that hot fire to get you financially empowered and to ask for what it is you want and you deserve. Thank you for coming back. Along with my co-host, Lisa, we're so happy to have you and please subscribe.

lisa zeiderman (49:37.518)

Thank you, Mary.

Mary Ehrsam (49:38.498)

Thank you, ladies. This has been fantastic.

Lisa Zeiderman  (49:41.151)

It really has.