Interview of Tonya Powers, Executive Director, Franklin County Industrial Building Authority

Thank you to this episode’s sponsor, Camp Amplify: www.CampAmplify.org.

Episode Summary:

In this episode of the InPowered Women Podcast features Tonya Powers, the Executive Director for the Franklin County Industrial Building Authority. They reflect on how they met through shared interests and Senator Frank Ginn. Tonya discusses her journey from the solar energy industry to economic development. She emphasizes the importance of mentors and relationships in her career, highlighting her role in bringing businesses to Franklin County. Tonya’s proactive approach, despite initial self-doubt, led her to success, showcasing the power of mindset in achieving goals. Tonya reflects on difficult times in her career, including facing opposition and panic attacks, yet finding strength and resilience. She discusses collaborative efforts in economic development, particularly in attracting businesses from other countries. The conversation shifts to workforce development, highlighting partnerships with educational institutions and the importance of mentorship. Finally, Tonya introduces a new project called “WOW” (Women of the Workforce), aimed at empowering women from diverse backgrounds by providing access to resources and opportunities.

Insights from this episode:

• Emphasis is placed on the need for follow-up after providing information or resources, ensuring that individuals leave with clear next steps and accountability mechanisms in place.
• Tonya highlights the significance of collaboration and mentorship in her career journey, underscoring how these relationships have been instrumental in her success.
• Resilience of proactive mindset is emphasized. Despite facing challenges such as opposition and panic attacks, Tonya demonstrates resilience and a proactive mindset, focusing on solutions and pushing forward in her endeavors.
• The importance of the role of education in empowering individuals, particularly women, by fostering partnerships with educational institutions and providing access to resources that facilitate personal and professional growth.
• Discussion surrounding a focus on economic development and workforce initiatives ensues: Tonya’s work centers around economic development and workforce initiatives, aiming to bring businesses to Franklin County and empower women through projects like “WOW” (Women of the Workforce).
• The importance of personal wellness and self-care is discussed, highlighting activities like running and spending time outdoors as crucial for maintaining mental well-being and productivity.

Quotes from the Show:

Resources Mentioned:

• WOW (Women of the Workforce)
• Camp Amplify
• The Department of Labor
• The University of North Georgia
• https://northgatech.edu/

Episode Transcript:

Sharon

Welcome to the Inpowered Women’s podcast, where we tell the stories of unstoppable female leaders who excel, uplift, and secure a clearer path for female leaders in the future. I’m your host, Sheron Lee. Hi, and welcome to the Ipowered Women podcast. I’m Sharon Lee with Pinnacle Strategic Advisors, and I am so thrilled to bring you today’s guest. But first, let’s dive into today’s sponsor. We are sponsored today by Camp Amplify. They gave me an ad read. You know what? I’m going off script because I have dearly loved getting to know this organization. Camp Amplify has been around, I I think six or seven years, they provide a children’s camp two weeks every year for underprivileged kids in the Georgia area. In fact, they’ve got one camp in Tennessee and one camp in Georgia. This year, one of their camps is right there in Franklin County here in Georgia. I was asked to attend their fundraising dinner recently. Being there and seeing all of these images of these happy, happy kids and just doing fun stuff at camp and hearing from some of the counselors, seeing how these kids are moving their lives. Then you know at the end of that week, they go back to some tough situations.

Sharon

These are kids from Boys and Girls Clubs and other types of organizations like that. I love what they’re doing. I love the ministry behind it, and I’m so thrilled that they are a part of this podcast and a part of some of the stuff that Pinnacle is doing. If you want to reach out to them, they’re campamplify.org. They are doing fantastic things. With that, I am going to turn this over to my guest today. Hi, Tonya. How are you?

Tonya

I’m good. Thank you for having me. I’m excited. I’m excited about the podcast. I’m excited about today.

Sharon

Tonya Powers is executive director for the Franklin County Industrial Building Authority. Oh, my gosh. We go back, what, 10 years? Maybe longer?

Tonya

I think a little bit longer than that, but yeah, about 10 years.

Sharon

It’s funny. We were talking recently about how we met and through Senator Frank Ginn. At the time, I was heavily involved in the solar energy industry, and I had asked him to speak on some panels. I became his solar resource when they were talking legislatively about things going on and that sort of thing. He had played in my foursome in my golf tournament for Georgia Solar for several years. And then he turned the tables and invited me to a golf tournament. And you and I met because we were in his foursome.

Tonya

I remember that golf tournament very well because it’s one that I originally was like, I don’t want to play. I haven’t played in probably a year. I do not want to play. And I think that was what pulled me back into playing golf. But I remember that golf tournament very well. And what a great introduction.

Sharon

Frank was in your role at Franklin County at that time, and now you are the executive director. So, let’s talk about the evolution of how you got where you’re going, where you are.

Tonya

When I first came into Franklin County, I’m originally from here. I had just moved back to the area. When I first came in, I was the executive director for the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce. The way that we’re set up here is our chamber director is also the assistant to economic developer. I was chamber director and then assistant to economic developer. At that time, he was also a senator, which means there are a couple of months out of the year that you may or may not be doing a lot more economic development than you normally would the entire year. He was great. I remember when he was introducing me to what economic development was and how it worked, I remember saying, Why would anybody want to do that? I need to do something that I’m interested in doing. The chamber world was just fun and economic development was way more work and just a lot. I was like, who would want to do that. And here we are doing that. Here we are. He did a great job at transitioning me. When I say a great job transitioning me, he basically took his foot and kicked me out of the nest.

Tonya

I’m very thankful for that because I never would have stepped into this role had it not been for such a forceful push. That’s what happened. And you can’t think of a greater mentor. I look We get a lot of the success that we have in Franklin County now. And it’s not something that I can say, Oh, look at me, look what I’ve done. I have to say, Look at who laid the your own work. Our success today is a lot of the work that he did. Ellen Allen, who did the work before him. It’s just this continual pattern of stepping stones of people who were great. Anyway, that’s how this role evolved for me and how I got here.

Sharon

Well, and it’s funny because you were talking about the fun stuff that you had done in your past. Well, let’s talk about you working in the golf industry. So you had golf and then chamber work. But I do think that what you did in the golf industry did lay some good groundwork for what you’re doing now. Tell us a little bit about that.

Tonya

When I left Georgia years and years ago, originally from here, and started working with a developer in Atlanta. I remember going to work one day and there was a lock on the door. There was literally a chain and a lock on the door. We were a pretty big developer. Everybody was like, What in the world has happened? Well, that day, if I learned anything right out of college, it was have your resume on the ready at all times. It was on the ready. I sent it out en mass. I sent it to Job Scouts. I sent it everywhere. And within seven days, got a call, and I moved to Florida. Quick. Started working with another developing company, which if you do anything in Florida, you’re playing golf. So I went to work for a homebuilder and developer. We worked in primarily homes on golf courses. That led me into the golf industry because all of our deals were down the golf. Any hole buying all of it, so was on the golf course. Right. So that got me into the actual golf industry, which transferred me back to Georgia and started working for a company called Canongate Golf at the time, which is no longer very It was a great company.

Tonya

They had the original just great courses down in South Atlanta. And as that company grew, owners of the company, Ken and Joe Guerra, who were still around and still involved in golf highly, they actually sold to a company called Club Corp. It was also Canongate for several years. And then when that transitioned to Club Corp, which was way more corporate, just national company, they dominated the golf industry. When that happened, we just grew by leaps and bounds. I was actually working in the golf industry. On the golf course one day when I had a job, she’s a job scout. And so she came to me and She said, Look, I hear you’re back in northeast Georgia. You’re back in Georgia. And I knew you in your professional career in Atlanta. And she was like, I want you to come work for us. And I said, Absolutely not. And out, which she came to me to work for Franklin County, I did not get for my resume. I was like, I’m not I love the roles. I love the golf industry. I want to say you. She came to me probably three or four times. And then I got an email one day and she said, You’ve not submitted me your resume, but I’m submitting it in your name.

Tonya

Oh, my gosh. So I said, Okay, I’ll go interview. I’ll just go interview. And I’m like, We’re going to interview for this company. It was in November 2014, and I was sick. I had bronchitis. I was just very sick. I was like, I’m going to get this interview sick. I don’t care. I don’t want the job. I’m like, I’m not going to do this. I walked in and there was a panel of people. Senator Ginn was one of them. Paris Little, who was the mayor of Carnival. There was a rep from St. Mary’s, from the hospital. There were just several community leaders sitting at the table, and I was like, I’m not prepared for this. I’m going to breathe on you guys. Everybody’s getting sick. I’m not prepared for this interview. But interviewed, it took me probably a month to say yes. I will tell you, it was the hardest yes, but the best one that I have made in my professional career. And it was a very good yes. I really enjoyed coming back and getting to work in the community that I grew up and went from living here. Now, with that typical hospital seat, it’s like, I’m moving, I’m getting out of here, to be able to come back and put my hands on what helps people stay here.

Tonya

It’s been a huge transition. It’s been a great one, and I never would have put myself in the seat. Nobody says, I’m going to grow up in economic development. That’s not something that people grow up wanting to. But when you’re in it and you begin to understand it, how it works and the benefits of it, it’s like, can I imagine doing anything else? It’s not a relationship.

Sharon

It is. Therefore, you’re perfectly suited for that. But let’s talk about that because you said people don’t just aspire when you’re little to go, okay, I want to do economic development when I grow up. Let’s talk about what that really entails. What all do you do as an economic development director?

Tonya

Talk to people, build relationships all day long. Do what you were birthed to do. People told me this, and then I began to say it as, Okay, this is not a bad thing. But they were like, You have the gift of running your mouth. How can I use that as my benefit? I’m like, No, no. You’re great with people and you enjoy people. You love people. You have a great way of connecting the dots and connecting people. When I realized and I started looking back over everything that I’ve done professionally, I say I’ve worked professionally since I was 15, but it’s been about creating relationships, putting people together and just connecting the dots with people. In this role here for Franklin County, I remember talking to a very good friend of mine who’s in this role down in South Georgia now. When I was getting into it, she looked at me and she said, Are you crazy? I said, I have no idea, which is probably why I’m doing it. But I love what I get to do. When I’m telling people, younger people, what I do, we’ve got Christmas presents under Christmas trees. What does that mean?

Tonya

Where’s the reason that your mom and daddy get a paycheck? You help bring companies, industries to this community so your family can work here, they can live here, they can play here, and they can buy you gifts. They buy themselves gifts, right? We provide and means for great paycheck We bring in great companies, great industries. A lot of the industries that we have in our community have been here for a very long time, so we pride ourselves on longevity. We don’t have a lot of turnover. We don’t have a lot of closures. We didn’t during COVID. Our companies, our industry sustained. We saw doors closing, layoffs happening, and we just had companies. Ours were just plowing through. We really do pride ourselves on being able to keep and retain what we have. There are states all over the United States that are constantly trying to recruit who we have. And they come to us and they say, Look, we can go anywhere, but we choose here. And so our It’s not even a tag line, but if I had one, it would be, Thank you for choosing to stay at Franklin. I tell my companies, Thank you for choosing Franklin County, because you could choose anywhere, giving them a great place to do business, creating a tax base that’s attractive for people to live here.

Tonya

Rural Georgia, a lot of communities don’t get to be able around and say, Look, we make it affordable to live in the community that you love to live in. That’s one of the things that we do. We create jobs and we help reduce the tax base, make it feasible for people to live in the community.

Sharon

A great example of that, when you were talking about the fact that people stay there. Therefore, you may not have a lot of available assets and that sort of thing. We were talking about a company, the president’s name is Russ, and they were looking to expand. From his side of things, he just assumed there was not going to be an expansion potential right there in Franklin County. So he had reached out to other communities to find a place for him to expand. And then I don’t remember how the story came together, how you two started talking again. So why don’t you tell this story instead of me telling this story?

Tonya

Russ Patterson, who works with ASAP, which is Alliance Supply and Piping. They are located in the city of Livonia, which is one of our five cities. They’ve been in the community for a very long time. And he actually called. I mean, if you’re an industry, you know who your ED is, right? Your economic developer is. That’s the person that really helps you connect the dots. When you are looking to expand. And so they reach out to me, he called me. He said, an ironic, a funny phone call, because when he called me, I thought, does he not know what he’s asking me? He said, We are looking to expand our location. We need more space. And he said, I’m calling other communities. I’m calling other states. And that was immediately, I just wanted to come up right there, but I’ll let him finish. And he said, We’re trying to find somewhere that can hold the expansion that we’re looking to do. And I said, Russ, yes, I can help you with that. And as a matter of fact, I can help you stay in Franklin County. Not only can I be staying in Franklin County, but I can help you build across the road from where you currently are on 20 acres that I own that’s already zoned industrial and has every utility you need on the site.

Tonya

So yes, I’m your person. Let me help you do that. He was looking and reaching out to other communities, other states even, trying to find the best place for development. And he knew he didn’t want to leave his current site but had to open a second site. And I was like, not only are you going to open a second site, not only am I going to help you, but I’m going to help you do it across the road so you can watch construction from your office window. Even though we work with people every single day in the community, people don’t know what you do. We think because we’re in it like, Oh, they know that because I know it. Well, no, they don’t. Sometimes it’s just given them a little bit of any feel that you’re in it. We automatically think that people know everything that we do because we do it every day and we know it well. So it was just expanding to him a little bit on like, Hey, not only do I have this opportunity for you, but I get to hold your hand when you’re doing it. That’s probably one of the greatest examples.

Tonya

And they know. They know exactly who to call, who to reach out to for help, but didn’t realize the level of help that would come with that.

Sharon

Well, the thing is, too, you are not alone. You do work very closely with the state of Georgia, other utilities, and other entities. So talk about how your reach expands like that.

Tonya

When I came to Franklin County in ’14, and I served in that chamber as assistant role until 18. In 2018, when I came into this role, one of the things that I did know, and I’ll go back to Senator Ginn for a second, he’s going to introduce you to everybody that he knows. And that’s a lot of people. And I remember thinking, I’ll never need to know this many people. And I’m all about people. In 2018, when he led this role and I came into this role full-time, I immediately said, I need every single contact that he’s given me. Every single person that he’s put me in front of, I need to reach out to them. And so leading into this, I knew right now what I didn’t know, and I knew that was a what. I felt immediately like you are not qualified because you don’t have 15 years of experience in economic development. But what I did realize I was qualified in is people. And the greatest asset that I had with that point is that I did not know a lot about the ins and outs of the utilities. I was not an engineer.

Tonya

All the things that made people great in this role. But I surrounded myself with a lot of great people that knew a lot of great things. What I was able to do was take everything that I didn’t have and pull the people in that did have it. When I first started this role, I hit the ground running with going out and putting my hand in the handshakes of other people that knew way more than I did. I went to every economic developer that I could get to. People consider other communities their competition. I’m like, No, they grow, I grow. I don’t look at them as really competition. I look at them as great resources. I would go to quit my competitors and I would say, Tell me what you know. Tell me how you’re doing it, because I don’t have time to reinvent or even build a wheel. I just need to know what you’re doing and how can I do that here? And so I just started getting to know my regional people. I reached out to the state and I said, Who are the best people? And I said, But I watched, and I said, Okay, who are the movers and shakers in this industry?

Tonya

Who are the people that know what they’re doing and have the greatest amount of contacts? Besides the one that just introduced me to everybody. I started getting to know my state reps, my legislators, people at economic development, the state, their project manager teams. I would take them to lunch, drive an hour and a half for a 20-minute conversation, drive back home. But I said, You know what? They’ll forget an email, and they might lose my business car. But if I can get in their face for 15 minutes, they’re not going to forget about it. I can promise you to do that. We might have a conversation. The first year or the first few years, just really making contact. My Relationships with People has been the greatest Bridge of Success year, I think.

Sharon

This is the empowered women podcast, and you most definitely fit the definition of that. But I do need to ask, while you were planting those seeds and clearly trying to get to know people, essentially saying, Hey, I’m new to this position. I’m new to this role. Were you ever made to feel lesser because you were female, or did that ever play any roles into that whole time of planting those seeds?

Tonya

Yeah, 100 %. On the surface, never. In my mindset, every single day.

Sharon

Okay. Great answer.

Tonya

Because even though I would wake up thinking, I have all this access to great people, I have all these great resources, nobody held me back in this role or any role that I’ve done professionally that was in a male-dominated industry. Every role I’ve ever worked in was like a male-dominated field ever. When I say male-dominated, I can almost say that term loosely now because I feel like that’s changing so rapidly. And I said, I’m thinking, I don’t want to get on this kick of like, Hey, women power. No, that’s not what I’m saying. What I am saying, though, is there are a lot of strong women who do very well in fields and in roles that have primarily been men previously. And although we are designed very differently than men, at the same time, I I think when you’re able to use that strength in a role like this, it’s a benefit because without it, I don’t think you do very well. But it was my mindset. It was my thoughts of what I couldn’t do. And I was constantly in my mind stacking myself up to people who had greater value or who got applauded more or were in bigger communities and having these great wins and these great successes.

Tonya

And I was always looking at them. This was happening daily for a long time. And then I would just shrink back. And then I’ll never forget one day I was sitting in my office. This was a game changer. I was Having a conversation with myself. And I remember thinking, nothing is changing, but my mind is. I’m just going to change my mind. It was like a staple moment for me because I decided then, I was like, you know what? I’m not in that community. I don’t have a lot of the successes that other people do, not even community-wise, but people-wise. I don’t have their stories, but I’m going to start creating one here. It was a change of mindset that was a game changer for me in the business because I had somebody say to me, Probably I’ve been doing this since 2018. And about two years ago, there was this really, really challenging time in our community. It was so challenging and really felt like I was getting a black eye every single day. She called me for lunch, and she said, I know you don’t know me that well. She said, But I just want to talk to you.

Tonya

She said, Because I’m really facing a challenging time in my career. And she said, How do you continue to walk with your head never shifting. How do you continue to do that? And I said, Well, I remember changing my mind a couple of years ago. And I remember saying that no matter what happens, no matter what my mindset is, no matter what I’m facing in the community, no matter what opposition I’m up against, I cannot let that impact how I see what I do and how I know that I know that I know what I’m good at. And it may not be a lot, but what I am good at, that’s what I’m going to use. Instead, the opposition that I faced was myself.

Sharon

And I think that that is the whole point of this podcast, because there are so many people that go about their day thinking, what they aspire to, but then they limit themselves in getting there. You see these powerful and smart and beautiful women seeing all these things that they’re accomplishing. And then that internal self says, Well, I could never do that. And the reality is, You can. You may not do it the same way. You may not be in the same industry. But the reality is whatever that is that you’re aspiring to, you just have to put that first foot forward and just do it. When you did, it’s like, Okay, well, let me think about what are my strengths. What are they? How can I maximize those? And you just get started. And the thing is, how Frank created that role is different in the way that you are doing it. You said before that we are different as females. We are very collaborative. It was so very natural for you to reach out to all of these people to start bridging those relationships. He’s very good about that. There’s no question. But he’s on an island of himself anyway.

Sharon

But still, that’s such a great message to get out there. Stop thinking about the negative and think about, Okay, well, what am I going to accomplish? And it’s today. What did I accomplish today? I did something more today than I did yesterday. Tomorrow is going to be even that much better.

Tonya

Yeah. There were long stretches of times where I was like, I don’t have any wins right now in my mind. But when I step back and I looked collaboratively at everything, the big picture, everything that was going on, I was like, it took that day and it took that day. And it’s like, yeah, damn, met them all together. Now we’ve got this great experience. It’s happened here. And now it’s just a matter of telling our story. It was been in the harder times. There was, like I said, that about two years ago, during that horrible period of opposition, when men, women, boys, girls, kids, sports were coming, made us respond. I mean, it was awful. It was absolutely awful to the point that I closed the door and my office went in. I was like, I have never had a panic attack, but I’m pretty sure that’s what’s going on right now. I cannot breathe. This is awful. And I think now on that, and I’m like, God, Would I ever do that? Yes, I would do that again. And I would do that again because I now know how to walk worthy even when my mind says you’re not.

Tonya

I know how to walk in strength. And I’m like, I have absolutely none. And it was built during my greatest opposition when I was literally suffering the most in every area. The spotlight built so much professionally for me that I’m like, I could not do my job today if I had not had that time of what I felt like was the death of my career.

Sharon

I feel like we’ve talked a little bit the collaborative efforts that you’ve made and some successes of people locally. But the reality is you’re working with people from outside of this area and outside of this country. They have found Franklin County, and they have seen that there are reasons why they would want to relocate there. So as you’re working with folks from outside of the area as well as outside of even the country, tell me your approach to that.

Tonya

Here’s a great example. In March of this year, I was part of the SEDC, which is the Southeast Economic Development Council. I was with their Korean Delegation, and we went, visited a week in Seoul, Korea. It was such a great experience. I fell in love with Seoul. I fell in love with Korea. I love the people. The food was amazing. However, we were at this trade show. It was like the big EV battery show, and I remember being in that room and this massive conference and it was like thousands and thousands of people. I was like, What a tiny ant. I am here, right? I’m being super white skinned and lots of Auburn hair and stood out like a sore thumb. But I remember thinking, I even had meetings with people who We were using Google Translate just to say, Hey. I’m like, How are they going to remember me? How can I make these connections here?

Sharon

I got to stop you there. So Google Translate can translate “Hey” into Korean?

Tonya

I downloaded it on my phone on this snazzy little beat-up iPhone that I have. I downloaded Google Translate on my iPhone. When we realized we didn’t have a translator in some of these meetings, I sent it out and I said, Speak. And then I would hit Translate, and it would tell me what they said. And then I would speak, and I would hit translate it to Korea, and it would tell them what I was saying. And so we went back and forth with an iPhone for probably two hours in one of the It was so good. And even thinking about that, I was like, how are they going to remember who I am? Several countries were represented at the show. They weren’t ready for business today, but they knew that I lived in the United States where they wanted to do business. Now I’m competing with the entire US. What great companies. So how am I going to make an impact? When there’s people all over the world that are a million times better, guess what? They didn’t need anybody a million times better. They needed one person that would sit down and Google Translate with them for two hours and tell them the benefits of doing business in the state of Georgia and the United States.

Tonya

And that’s how they remember who I was, sitting with them, taking time with them and saying, Hey, listen, you may not choose Georgia. You may not choose Franklin County. What if I can be your liaison, if I can help you bridge the gap to the greatest country in the entire world. Let me do that. And I still get emails from some of these people in Korean that are just, Thank you for taking time for me. Thank you for just sitting with me. Thank you for bringing coffee to our meeting, by the Tiny things that we think are not impactful and that just don’t make a difference. Make a huge difference, because I can tell you, if it’s important to you, it’s important to somebody else, somewhere else, even if it’s across the world. I don’t even know if that answered your question, but that was such a great example of working with people outside of the community. If you’re in the community, in this local community, you’re going to know who I am because we hold hands. I could walk into the busiest restaurant at 2:00 today. A lot of people don’t know who I am because it’s been in my face.

Tonya

But if I tell people, even though it’s all the director for Franklin County, they’re going to look at me and say, What does that mean? A lot of people, they don’t know what we do know. And it’s okay, they’re not supposed to. I mean, they can. We’d love to share. We want to share the story. And not that they don’t care, but it’s just not an impactful story. At least you’re in it, right? And you understand how beneficial being in the role is and what this brings to the community, right? And you’re in the community, Obviously, in an industry, we do a lot of work together. I know what sites I have available. I know what buildings I have available, which is to you, but they’re great. My role outside of here is to recruit industry to land in our community on a piece of property or in a building that fits what their needs are. One of the most powerful things that I have learned to say to somebody is, no, that actually doesn’t work for me. Coming into this, a lot of times I looked at this, every sales aspect, I’ve always looked at it like this, but even now more so in economic development, every community is your competitor.

Tonya

In a sense, right? Every county, every city in the state of Georgia you are competing against when it comes to projects. I’ve got to do everything I can do to land that. It’s not how I look at it today. I’ll look at it now as, I know that you’re coming to look at me to see if you like it here, but you’re coming to me, and I need to know if we like you here. I need to know if you’re the best fit for us. If we’re going to date here, we got to both like each other, especially if we need to marriage. Because if you are like me and I like you, it’s a single work. We got to figure out, do you bring to the table what we see as a benefit? This is what we’re interested in, too. And so we’re going to check mindset. So you change that mindset. Hey, this is not just a one-sided deal here. What you’re selling me, it may not work for me. And what I’m selling you may not work for you. So we got to figure out if we’re going to be in this for the long haul, does it work for both?

Sharon

I saw something firsthand where when you have worked with a company and you do see the benefit mutually that this is a fit, you do work with those local partners. You introduced me to Leslie with North Georgia Tech, and I know you all work collaboratively. And it was interesting listening to the conversation between the two of you. Obviously, I know workforce development is a part of that. Why don’t you talk a little bit about some of those efforts where people really do go that extra mile?

Tonya

They go the extra mile and then start building the mile after that. They’re truly part of the lifeline to what makes this work. We can bring in companies. We can help land jobs here. We don’t need workforce. We need a skilled workforce. We need people who are skilled in what the demand for the job is. Without that, we landed a great company with great jobs and nobody to work there. We have to have the partnerships that we have. North Georgia Tech is our primary partnership. They do a fantastic job in helping get our workers skilled in high school, like dual enrollment right out of high school. We even work with people who are incarcerated. There’s no walk of life that they do not help us or they don’t work with and help get trained so that we can hopefully find job placement for them. Our role is not job placement, but that’s a big piece of it. It’s in the wheelhouse of what we do. People like North Georgia Tech are just great partners. The way our development authority is made up is I have five members. I have four immediate bosses, and then there’s 23,875 people in the community.

Tonya

Every single one of them is my boss. I have a lot of people to answer to. But the ones who tell me which way to turn my head is a board of seven people, predominantly men. We have five cities, five municipalities. I have five mayors Then they got five members. And then I had two members that are appointed by the board of commissioners. And so they’re county representatives. I have a great board. This role would not work without the power of that board. On the days when I was like, I can’t do today, I thought about my board members. When I thought about, I cannot do this, I did not have people that stood behind me. Some people were like, Oh, my board members will stand behind me, beside me. No, they stood in front of me, beside of me and behind me. And they completely surrounded. I thought to myself, I don’t do this because I feel indebted to them or that I owe them anything. I do this because I’m grateful for the partnership that I have with them. My partnership with the cities is incredible. We can’t do what we do without utilities, without infrastructure.

Tonya

The majority of our infrastructure comes out of our cities. We have great partnerships with George Power, and other great suppliers throughout our utilities throughout the state that make our jobs work. More of our projects come in through them, and the majority of them come in through them. So state’s great. But a lot of our local resources are just what keeps this wheel spinning.

Sharon

Let me shift gears for just a second because I usually will talk about mentorship. You’ve talked a lot of ways about how others have mentored you at this point. But I know that you also do serve as a mentor in a number of different areas of your life. So talk about your approach to mentorship and what that means and how you go about it.

Tonya

I remember my first professional job. I was in college and had no idea what I wanted to do at this point. And it was this role with a magazine. It really changed everything. My boss at that time, Sylvia Walsh. I had conversations with her and she was like, You’re formed for this. You have to do this. You have to be in front of people. You have to work with people. You got to be in relationship business. The way that she mentored me, I remember one day I came in. I was like, I can’t do this. That year, we tripled her magazine, tripled her income. I’ll never forget that year. It was a game changer for the company, for us. I was like, How did we do this? But I remember right in the beginning of that, I was not doing well in the car. She said, Get out of my car. And I sat in her car and I was like, Where are we going? Sometimes we’d go for coffee for lunch. She said, Go sit in my car, we got coffee. I got in her car and she looked at me with the most forceful, dominating look.

Tonya

And she said to me, I don’t care if you don’t think you can make it. I really don’t care if you think you can or you can’t. She said, But I’m going to tell you you’re going to. And she said, If you come in here every single day and you fake it, you’re going to fake it until you make it, and you’re not going to quit until we’re done. But that’s when we changed everything because I went in her office wanting to quit. Took her saying, I see in you the ability not to, and that’s what I’m going to pull out of you. So that was 20 plus years ago. Ten years ago, when I moved back to Georgia, I had been back a little more than 10 years, but I moved in the community that I live in now, was in my local church that I absolutely love. Christ Fellowship is co-out. I love the church, love people. The pastor at the time came up to me and she said, We have this role that’s open and we want you to do it. And it’s leading our women’s ministry. And I was like, Oh, I don’t know anything about that.

Tonya

It was like, But you do because what you’re doing, you’re already doing it. It’s the title that changes. Exactly. Oh, that means anything because you’re already doing it, right? And I said, This is what I don’t want. I don’t want to become so engulfed in trying to make sure that I’m checking boxes that I forget how to do what I’m doing. The thing that I found in doing that and serving in that women’s ministry role, it wasn’t about trying to convince people a way of living or convince people of anything. It was about the ability to look at somebody who had absolutely no idea how they were going to feed their kids and finding the way to pull talent out of them, to pull the gold out of them. And that for me was like, if I could just do that for the rest of my life, I could just look at people and pull from them their greatness when they have no idea that it’s even in there. And a lot of times it’s buried. They have no idea that’s in there because somebody said something to them, they grab a thought And they forever thought, I can’t do that.

Tonya

I can never do that. But somewhere in there, there’s something that’s dead. It’s like, hey, that thing’s still got break to it. Let’s just bring it back to life. That’s what matters more than anything in the world. You cannot get a paycheck. I mean, you can’t tell me I want to do that. And that’s what led me into to a lot of the things that we’re trying to work on now and just trying to bring to life. How can we find people that don’t understand the value that they carry and the greatness inside of them and just rip it out of them? And put on a platter and say, Look what you’re doing. Look how great you are.

Sharon

You and I had lunch, I guess maybe a month ago, and you were telling me, Hey, I want to run an idea by you. So this totally segues into all of that because you had been driving in the car and this idea was formulating in your mind. And so let’s talk about this new little project that you’ve got going on.

Tonya

I’m excited about this one. Me too. WOW. That’s the acronym. So about a year ago, I’ve been thinking about how will we pull people into the workforce that don’t think they have a chance in the workforce? I’ve been thinking, I’m like, how do we reach every woman? Well, that’s a big goal. Well, good. Because that’s a big idea, right? We are going to do a little every year. So I’m like, how do we reach every female? How do we reach the college or the high school student? How do we reach the stay at home mom, not just the one that was during COVID, the one that’s always been a stay-at-home mom.. A little later on in life, how do I get a job? How do we reach her? What about a college student who may or may not have a later college debt, who has graduated, who hadn’t all together and has no idea what she wants to do now. How do we reach her? How do we reach the person that just got laid off? How do we reach the lady that’s about to come out of prison?

Tonya

How do we reach every female, every walk of life? Because no matter what walk they’re in, they’re in the same place. They don’t have a career. So how do we reach all that? I was in the car, so I think I said something like self. All these resources, but a lot of resources that you’ve been connected to your entire professional career, like your whole life. People don’t know what you know if you’re not telling them. I’m like, Well, I’m telling them every single day when I know, but they’re not listening. How do you get people being just connected with all these great resources? North Georgia Tech, partnerships with the state, across the state, outside of the state, partnerships in the community, and I share WorkSource Georgia, which is a great program for this. So lots of WorkSource opportunities I have just been laid here in front of me, and I have all these great resources. And I’m like, how do I reach all these women, all these females, and have all these resources? There’s got to be a place for that. And so I pulled my resources together, and I’m like, okay, the changes in the office, they have a year.

Tonya

I’m going to pull them. North Georgia Tech is a great friend, a great colleague. I’m going to pull them. Emmanuel University, it was a Emmanual college now. She was my go-to. Just love her. And others. And they are all going to be females, by the way. I pulled all of them, Director of Economic Development for North Georgia. Pulled all these people together. And I said, Listen, I have this idea. I want to reach every female that doesn’t have a job, and I’m going to pull talent from them. I want to help them figure out what it is they love, why they love doing, and how to go to work with it. Or simply, they just want a paycheck. I want to figure out how to help them do that. Got all these people to the table and I said, I don’t have a name for it. Terrible with acronyms. Not good of that said. I’m not an artsy creative mind. But I do have a lot that I can offer. So what can I do with that?

Tonya

We’ve titled this as WOW, and it’s Women of the Workforce. First, it was WIN, women in Work. Well, they’re not in the work. So you need to go back and forth. I think that’s a lot of other right names. But, Wow, which is Women of the Workforce. Our goal is to reach every one of those women. We have worked  collaboratively on this for a little while now. It brought the idea to them. I tried to get rid of the idea because I was like, Here’s what you’re doing. You’re creating more work for yourself. You’re just stopping a lot. Stop creating more work for yourself. And I’m like, That all these things are great. This is the thing that I’m the most passionate about, and that’s creating opportunity for people who don’t think they have opportunity. That is my point. Or who think they do, but have no idea how to access it.

Sharon

And a lot of these entities already have programs. I mean, that was one of the things that we were talking about. It’s not like you’re going to this entity saying, Hey, I need you to pull from other budgets so that we can create something. They already have them, but a lot of people don’t know about it. And so this is a way to get that word out and make it bigger because it’s not just what the program is at this one entity and the program at this one entity, it’s bringing them all together, pooling those resources, bringing the women together. If I remember right, you all are going to be doing something in the fall, right? You have our event. So talk about the event.

Tonya

We’re getting ready to launch this in the fall. It’s something that I’m daily spending on. How do we get this out? Right now, what we’re doing is working very creatively to figure out and to put together in place how we reach all these women, what that looks like, getting the word out. It’s brand new. We’ve not launched it. We’re launching it in the fall. And this is not a Franklin Hilling idea. This is not the North East Georgia idea, because I promise you what we’re experiencing here, it’s everywhere. I was in several meetings over the past six months, and the number one group of people right now who are out of the workforce not working is females. So when I heard that, I was in the room the very next day, I called all my resources and I said, Look, I’ve had this idea that’s been beating inside my chest for a long time now. What do you guys think about it? And I just heard this. They’re like, Let’s do it. Just been working with a group of women. Our resources in the community, we are working right now on designing and laying out that day in early fall.

Tonya

We’re going to be putting this together. Would love to have If you come and be a part of that day. I think it’ll be great. Just seeing the idea at work will be wonderful. We’ll be launching in the fall. Then once we get the program out and we have our first go through how this will work, I’ll touch on that very, very briefly, how that will work as well. All these resources in the room, whether it’s a resume writing, whether it’s a career, whatever it is that you’re looking for, we’ll have every resource in the room. What I do not want to do, I know this for a fact, is have a place of all these resources and people leave the way they came. Because if it was a meeting about a meeting, they’d come, they’re seeking what they want, and they leave leave with either have had an interview that day, they have a placement that day. It is like putting butts in seats. We want to put people on jobs because there’s lots of great resources that do very good at providing information. I don’t want to be an information place. That’s more work for me.

Tonya

That’s not what I want. What I want us to be able to accomplish, the goal is to have people leave that day with a wealth of information, not just resources and information, but the follow-up on that. Everything that is lacking in the entire world is follow-up. Leave with not all the connected dot of this is my next step on this date at this time I report here. And there’s a follow up that chases them. There’s that mentorship. There’s that level of accountability. It’s there. They don’t just get to leave a bunch of paperwork and phone numbers to call because if they were going to call them, they would have called them before they came to see me or they came to this group. So they leave with this accomplishment of, Oh, my gosh, this is happening for me.

Sharon

I knew a little bit about what you were trying to do in our last InPower Women’s Networking Group, which you had been a part of. You weren’t able to come in the last month, but I knew enough about it to say to this group, You all would be a perfect fit to be accountability partners and to help in some way. They were so receptive to that idea. I think that you’re going to get the buy-in that you got just by presenting this idea, because I think that everybody’s willing to help. It’s just, What do I need to do? And you don’t think about what resources that you have. But again, it’s a collective mind. It’s not just what you can bring to the table or what I can bring to the table. It’s how can we, as a group, help these people that need our help, and what’s my one piece of it? When you and I were talking about it, I’m like, I’m all in. What do you need to do? And then spread the word.

Tonya

This is not just an effort for our community, right? We don’t want to do something like, Oh, there’s a great ripple impact. We’ll make a big impact. The goal is to get a stamp of GED, which is a Georgia Economic Development Association that I work very closely with. And then SEDC, all these organizations that I’m a part of. We want people to stamp this. This is a great program. This is not just another idea. This is not just more work, but this is our proven results. You know what our proven results is? It’s not about just stats and It’s women that can say, look, or it’s females that can say, look, this is a program that I was part of. So it’s like, this is what I’m doing that I wasn’t able to do before. What we’re really doing. We’re looking in the face of people and saying, look, this is what you said that you enjoy doing, that you want to enjoy doing. I have a place for you. And I know you don’t think you can do that, but here’s how we can help you do that. Can we get a return from that?

Tonya

There’s no amount of monetary. It is truly helping people become. It’s connected. It’s creating relationships, putting people in front of people and helping people get to a level of, I had no idea that I could do that. It’s right. It’s changing a mindset.

Sharon

Once this train leaves the station, it will continue because that person that went through that and saw the benefits of it will want that next person to have that same experience and that same positivity and that same way of growing. It’s just a matter of pulling those ties together from the beginning. It’s just going to keep rolling. So I commend you. I think that it’s a fantastic idea, and I love how people have been so receptive to it.

Tonya

I’m ready to get this thing to get some momentum and just see the results of this. So I think it’s going to be really good. Not because it was my idea, not because it was anybody’s idea, but because it’s a need that needs to be met.

Sharon

Absolutely. There’s a demand out there. Okay, well, this is a good way to segue because I know that you are a bundle of energy. You got so many things on your plate and that thing. But what do you do when you just are looking for some downtime? How do you spend some time for fun? Total dead silence.

Tonya

I will say this. I love being outside. If I could be anywhere right now, it would be on the side of a mountain in a hot tub in a cabin with nothing, no cell phone service, red TV, one watch TV, none of that. But what I do several times throughout the week that I absolutely love is no earphones, no phone, turning the ability for my watch to ring off, only wearing it so I can track how far I go sometimes. But I love nothing more than hearing my feet hit the pavement. I say that because I can tell whenever it’s too much. I can tell the noise is too much. Not just the job, but the greatest job I’ve ever had in my entire life is raising kids. Most important thing world to me is my kids. And so even in that, they’ll look at me sometimes and they’ll say, You need to get out. You need to go outside. You need to go for a run. You need to go for a walk. I cannot tell you how much is downloaded into my heart, just into my spirit, into my mind, when I am out with nothing but me and like, pavement.

Tonya

I love jogging I love running. I don’t love it because I’m good. I’m terrible at it. I’m sure I look awful. My time is terrible. I’m not fast. I don’t win races. I don’t do any of that. Important to me is what gets downloaded and what gets to come out. I have had more conversations with self than anybody. And with the Lord, you’re in that time than I have. And it’s just my time of decompressing. And I know that doesn’t sound like, Oh, this is just fun. The first time I put on a pair of your shoes up, I’m going to go for jog. It was like, Who does this for fun? But it’s the mental release that I have then. I’m not on an agenda. I enjoy, I enjoy, I enjoy running. I really love it. And outside of that, I did get a mental health degree. And one of the things that I learned that was important to all of us, men, women, children, whoever it is, is Stealth Kinger. You’re never going to see me sad at the spa. You’re never going to see me sad getting massage. Never. And I used to feel guilty about it.

Tonya

And now I feel guilty if I’m not doing it because all the things that we think like, Oh, why should you feel selfish for this or guilty for this? I’m like, no, I’m not at the place where I’m like, Oh, I deserve that. But I am at the place where I’m like, You know what? Nobody is going to get to enjoy the best me unless I can be that. And I can be the best mom for my kids. I don’t need to be present in body. I need to be present in my mind. I can do that when I’ve had time to just take care of myself for a little bit. Again, you may never see me sad at stuff. That might be something that I enjoy doing it.

Sharon

Yes, absolutely. Well said. Well said. Well, I cannot tell you how much I’ve enjoyed this conversation. I have totally enjoyed our friendship over the years, but I’ve so respected what you do. And so I’m just so happy to be here and for you to really share your story. So thank you so much.

Tonya

Well, thank you for having me. We think about what we do in every aspect, and it’s like, what do we do? And sometimes it’s just having that conversation out loud. And you’re like, oh, I do love what I do..

Sharon

There you go. If somebody does have a question or wants to reach out to you, what’s the best way for them to reach you?

Tonya

Well, I guess it would be my cell phone, 706-988-0560. It is everywhere. It’s on the website. It’s on my LinkedIn. Linkedin is probably my most professional platform. There’s so many other social media outlets. But connection-wise, Tanya Power’s at LinkedIn is the greatest way for me to be contacted. Of course, all things Franklin County, you’re going to find myself a number on my website, our email addresses all over that. But LinkedIn is probably the best way because it’s an idiot-based contact. That’s the only thing that I’m going to learn in all that I turn my alerts on is my LinkedIn. So probably LinkedIn is the best place to do that.

Sharon

All right. That sounds good. Again, I can’t thank you enough for being here today. Great conversation. And hey, what do you say? Let’s go get outside.

Tonya

Let’s do it. Let’s do it. It was so much fun. Thank you so much, Sharon. Absolutely.

Sharon

Okay, thanks again, and we’ll talk to you soon. Thank you for listening to InPowered Women. If you like what you heard, please give us a five-star review and subscribe to the show wherever you listen to your podcast and share with those you think can benefit from this information. Please email all questions, suggestions, and compliments to sharon@pinnaclestrategicadvisors.net. The InPowered Women podcast is produced by the podcast laundry production company and executive produced by Sharon Lee.

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