Politics - Walking The Talk with Terri Reid
Overview of this Episode
In this episode of the Trust Your Voice podcast, host Sylvie Légère sat down with Terri Reid, one of Michigan’s most experienced political operatives, President of the Michigan Freedom Fund, and Co-founder of League of Our Own to know what volunteering in a campaign looks like.
In this conversation, Sylvie and Terri discuss:
Why volunteer?
How to volunteer for a campaign
Type of volunteer activities that awaits you
Considerations you need for volunteering
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Read the Full Episode Transcript
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
campaign, volunteer, people, candidate, door, vote, events, campaign manager, skills, sylvie, voters, friends, support, fundraising events, podcast, politics, running, policy, part, working
SPEAKERS
Sylvie Legere, Terri Reid
Sylvie Legere 00:11
Have you ever felt challenged with making life changing decisions or leading in the public square or simply aligning your thoughts with your actions? Well, then you're in the right place. Welcome to trust your voice podcast. My name is Sylvie Legere. And as a civically engaged entrepreneur, and mom, I understand the challenges of advocating for yourself and others. While attempting to balance your personal and professional demands. I had to develop a personal system have success in every area of my life. And now, I want to help you build your unique system and truly trust your voice, even and especially when it shakes. By the end of each episode, you'll be energized to spark your creative leadership make purposeful connection, and confidently prioritize the matters that bring you the most joy. So let's start the show. Welcome to trust your voice podcast. The elections are upon us at the time of this podcast. So I thought that it would be great to make this week's pitstop, about volunteering on a campaign or walking the talk. So wait, don't press pause, don't forward, I promise. This will spark your interest. trusting our voice means getting involved taking a stance, and it involves supporting those who represent the values that we care about. So my guest today is Terri Reid, she has spent her life working on all types of campaigns. She has a passion for politics. So I'm very excited to have her join us. We will structure the conversation today in two parts. What are the areas of political campaigning and what is it like to volunteer for a campaign? So Terri, welcome to the show. Let's start with why are you so passionate and excited about campaigning?
Terri Reid 01:55
Thanks for having me. Sylvie, I view democracy as the hardest form of government there is because it requires so much participation on the behalf of the electorate. And so I have lived my entire career with one motto and it might sound a little disrespectful when I say it, but it's not meant to be. It's souped up or shut up. If you are not willing to engage in the political process, then you really don't have the right to sit on the sidelines and complain about the government you've got because you didn't get involved. I also believe that it's important for me to make a difference every day and working in campaigns, I can change the way the world works. I can change the way the government works, I can eliminate a policy I don't like or support one and then initiate one that I do. That is why I feel it's so important. And I am so gung ho about working on campaigns.
Sylvie Legere 02:50
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for reminding us that this because we forget that it's so polarizing and dividing, and it's so negative sometimes. So it's good to be reminded of the positive of why it matters, because those are people who represent us and govern our communities. I'd like to add that working on a campaign is part of building your network. As I've stated, you know, in my book, entrusting your voice you need to trust that you can build a strong network and working in politics, volunteering, and campaign is expanding your ecosystem of relationships. I just was in one of my episode, a friend Didi bass was a public relations specialist and her her mother told her that wherever she is, wherever she is, she needs to know a politician or reporter, a hairdresser, a pastor, and I added, you also need to know a plumber. So I feel like campaigning is your chance to not only to meet one candidate who is stepping in the arena, but also perhaps your chance to meet many other politicians. And those are the people who are running the institutions that as I said, Governor communities also it's stepping into a new experience and might open new doors launch your life in new directions. A friend in Indiana, ran a campaign for one of her friends got involved and developed a real expertise in grassroots politics. And she was invited even to run a program for a state senator, and she was invited to share her views on a TV show about political polarization today, so you never know where it will take you. So let's start by unpacking first, what is a campaign Terry? There's many areas where campaigns, we think hire consultants to do their job or their close friends or they really lean on volunteers. So can you like lay out for us? How would you unpack what's a campaign?
Terri Reid 04:52
So a campaign consists of a lot of moving parts, and there's usually a campaign manager who keeps all those parts moving in the same direction. In a lot of times, campaigns hire consultants to do things like television advertising, or the mailings that show up in your mailbox. And they hire people to help them fundraise and, and that kind of stuff. But the one thing people don't understand about campaigns is there's never enough money to hire all of the things done that you need to get done. There's always way more tasks to complete than people to do it and money to spend on it, which is where volunteers come in. Volunteers can do literally almost anything in a campaign. They are an intricate part, every campaign I've ever run, I have relied on the strength of my volunteer corps to win the election. And the times that I haven't won is when I didn't have really great volunteers to help me.
Sylvie Legere 05:48
So I think we need to think when we unpack campaign like to just add, you know, there's there's a campaign manager develops a campaign strategy, right? Which voters to reach, what do they care about in their location? What are the key milestones in the campaign? There's also the platform of a candidate, right, like the campaign platform, what the candidate stands for? How is your she is going to make her case the voters? And then there's a campaign management, as you refer to like managing the day to day? Where is the candidate going to be each day to reach the most voters? And then there's a communications and the PR like to be in the media, social media, etc? Well, how would you categorize the areas where candidates need the most volunteers? Can you tell us like, where are the areas where most the bulk of volunteers operate,
Terri Reid 06:43
big tasks that require lots of people are things like door to door, or phone banks, most local elected officials go door to door to canvass voters and to work to persuade voters to vote for them, they cannot cover the number of doors that are in their district by themselves. So they recruit volunteers to come and help them. That is the single biggest need on most campaigns as volunteers to go door to door and to work the phone banks, you know, those annoying phone calls, you get like, Have you voted yet? Or can my candidate count on your support, those are most often done by volunteers in the campaign headquarters or on their cell phone, getting people to turn out. But there's other things you can do like help in the office or to help with fundraising events, or if they're having a big campaign event where you can help with the organization, the registration check in all of those kinds of things. We rely so heavily on volunteers and campaigns. And it's terrible to say, but it's often the same people, you get them in and you're always trying to recruit new people. And you're always asking them to bring their friends to come and help with these things. Because it's such a critical role in a campaign.
Sylvie Legere 07:58
Yeah. And I think like so you mentioned fundraising is a big part. So in a way, you can help to host a fundraising event to help make calls trying to get fundraising for candidates. Do you see like people volunteer on the social media area? Because I think one thing that you could do, and that's considered volunteering also is resharing some of the posts from the candidates spreading the message to your network, that's a form of volunteering as well, wouldn't it?
Terri Reid 08:27
Absolutely, it is. And it was an oversight on my part, not to say that the world of social media where a candidate can have basically his or her own platform to spread their message, it is vital and imperative to have your followers share your information. Because, as you know, tell two friends tell two friends that the network that everyone now brings to the table is so different than when I started in politics where you had a Rolodex, or where you had your, you know, your most common contacts kind of thing. So that part of campaigning is critical as well.
Sylvie Legere 09:07
And then you mentioned events. And I think like there's different types of events, right. There's fundraising events, where the candidates is asking the guests who are coming to meet her meet him to make a contribution to the campaign to fund the campaign. And and then there's meet and greets, where you're just there to meet the candidates. Or it could be just a big rally kind of big public events, right, a fair, a parade where all of the candidates are there even going to the market on market day. There's all of these events. And those are all areas that people can volunteer by just showing up like you mentioned with logistics, but also hosting some of these meet and greets. Or just being one of the supporters that interact with the other participants to get more volunteers to comment campaign for the candidate is that right or to gauge where People are at in terms of voting for the candidates when you say,
Terri Reid 10:03
I would say those are all excellent examples of things that you can do. A candidate that's in a parade with just himself looks like he doesn't have any supporters. But a candidate that walks down the parade route with 20. People passing out candy or carrying signs, rallying the troops, looks like a well organized supported campaign. And politics. A lot of it is optics, right? So you want to look like a part of a successful campaign. And volunteers make that happen.
Sylvie Legere 10:32
The other piece, anything you touch on that is getting out the vote when voting starts. So you could be involved in helping people who want to do absentee voting, making sure they do it kind of like getting all of the people that said they would vote for a candidate out to vote and making sure they're they actually voted and supported. That's that's a huge effort in itself. Right.
Terri Reid 10:55
as it's known in our business, GOTV get out the vote is essential, because you spend all of this time persuading voters that your candidate is the right answer. And then if you don't take all of those people, you persuaded and turn them out on election day, here, it doesn't matter your candidate is not going to win. So there is a whole process by which you follow up with them and engage them to turn them out to vote and make sure that they voted single most critical part of the campaign is the last like six weeks as voting starts to getting their vote out.
Sylvie Legere 11:33
Hi, Sylvia, here, I want to invite you to visit the policy circle where you will find valuable resources and virtual events to expand your knowledge of public policy and equipped to become backfills visits. And coming up this October is the policy circles summit on thriving communities, visit the policy circle.org to sign up for free to participate in this unique conference at the intersection of leadership and policy. Now let's get back to the episode. You mentioned that door to door campaigning and sharing signs and phone banks is really the bulk of the volunteering that happens because that means that you are multiplying the candidates present. So you're becoming a little bit of an ambassador of the candidate to the voter to explain their platform and to represent who they are. So tell us a little bit like door to door like and those are like intimidating roles. And and I've done it before, what advice do you have in terms of a manager expectations a little bit, and also the mindset that you need to have when you engage us that type of volunteering.
Terri Reid 12:44
It's a challenge, I'm not going to kid you. But you have to go into it with the idea that most people aren't paying as close attention to the campaign and to the candidates as you are. And your job is really to just help them understand where your candidate is, you're not pushing them or you know, pushing them to vote for your candidate, you're not going to you know, wrestle them to the ground, so to speak, it's really just an opportunity to discuss why your candidate is the better one for the job. And so if you go in with that mindset, it really is not as intimidating. I just look at it as a way to have a conversation with my neighbor, maybe and talk about my candidate and put their best foot forward. You know, everybody has a horror story about going door to door being chased by a dog or you know, fill in the blank a door slammed in their face. And sure I've had every single one of those things happen. But I love going door to door because it allows me to get a sense on the ground, how my candidate is doing. Have people seen his advertisements or her advertisements? Did they get our mail? What do they think about where we stand on the issues? It's just a really grounding opportunity to bring Intel back to the campaign. And it is critical.
Sylvie Legere 14:06
What is your opening line? you ring the doorbell? And then what do you say?
Terri Reid 14:11
I'm just here today to talk about fill in the blank, whatever my candidates name is who's running for whatever office they're running for. And I hope you'll take a second to consider them as you go to vote in November or August if it's the primary. Do you have any questions about where they stand? I am not super aggressive in my approach on the door because I think people are especially post COVID very concerned about strangers walking up to their door. I think even pre COVID is a little strange, but I just take a very neutral approach to my introduction.
Sylvie Legere 14:51
And door to door is done primarily in the evening after work right during the week. And then on the weekend kind of throughout the day. Right so do you cook ask people when their own, if you are asked to do door to door on a Wednesday afternoon, then maybe you're like, Okay, there's something off in this campaign management.
Terri Reid 15:08
It's a campaign that's not really paying attention. Although I will say people working from home might change the calculus a little bit, when is the best time to go maybe around lunchtime make sense now that more people are working from home, you know, as we adjust to this post COVID. atmosphere.
Sylvie Legere 15:28
So let's switch gears a little not switch gear. But to continue on this topic, right, we've kind of outline the areas where people can volunteer, it could be fundraising, it could be social media, working your phone, bank, door to door events, either hosting or participating, organizing, and then getting out the vote. You've seen a lot of people who volunteer, how do people pick the areas to volunteer in, or they just assign a role or you feel like some rules fit better personalities.
Terri Reid 16:00
So as a campaign manager, when I'm assessing volunteers, I sort of tried to assess their skill, like, are they super personable? Do they have really good detail orientation, when it comes to helping me keep track of how many people are out going door to door, I try to assess and see where they fit best based on their set of skills. Sometimes people volunteer specifically for something they want to come to the rally and they're willing to, or they want to come see if you have like a big name fundraiser coming in, they want to see the, you know, former president or former congressman or whatever. And so they'll volunteer the event so they can get in and hear the person that's coming to speak. And so I kind of look at all of their motivations for why they're volunteering, and how they best fit into my overall plan of getting all the work done that I have to get done.
Sylvie Legere 16:56
So what would be a really good way to start volunteer on a campaign if someone who's like brand new is a professional, you know, business persons, okay, I'm going to do it. What would you recommend is like the first good campaigning job to dip your toe into into this,
Terri Reid 17:12
I always think going to the campaign, calling the campaign office and going in to help write whatever they might need done that day is a really good way to get your feet wet, right, you'll meet the campaign manager, you'll see other people that are in there. And you'll learn a little bit more about the kinds of things that particular campaign is engaged in, it's a great way to kind of jump in, and then door to door phone banks. Those are the two things we need the most. So we're always grateful when we get people who want to help us with those. So I gues
Sylvie Legere 17:45
the best way for people to volunteer on a campaign is to call the campaign office or send an email, go to the campaign website, or also, I guess there's direct messaging, or there's always, I think, on the campaign website, there's always volunteer, there's a button, there's something that says, come volunteer, right. And if there isn't, that might be a problem, because they're always looking for volunteers.
Terri Reid 18:08
Exactly. So contact the campaign directly. I am always a big fan of the phone call just because I think it gets more attention these days than emails because you get a bajillion emails every day, at least I do. And so the direct contact with the campaign, or you're at an event where you meet the candidate, every candidate I know carries either a volunteer card or a QR code that lets you sign up to volunteer on the campaign. And again, if they're not doing that, they need to up their game a little bit. And so that's the easiest way to get involved in what I know about volunteering is once I have gotten you in the door, my ultimate goal is to keep you coming back and keep you volunteering, and generally increase your participation in the whole political process.
Sylvie Legere 18:54
So if you make a phone call there to a campaign or send an email, how do you do you? What do you think is the best way to introduce yourself so that you could also because this is part of and again, this is part of expanding your network, this is stepping into a new experience. And it's also part of selling or presenting the value that you can add to a campaign each of us come with tremendous talent and skill set that we can contribute. So how do you advise people to present themselves to a campaign so that they are, you know, delivering the most they're doing the best that they can?
Terri Reid 19:28
Well, I always encourage people to look at what you do in real life. And can you apply skills you've learned in that real life job to the campaign? So you build websites for living? If I did that I would call the campaign and offer to up their website game, or if like, I do fundraising, so I'm always volunteering to help campaigns organize their fundraising plan, because I do that. And I have a skill in that regard. People who are marketers or communication profession generals, they watch an interview, they might have some tips on how to make it more concise or that kind of thing. So look at the skills that you have, and how you can apply them. Because politics is not different from any other business, you have to be able to do all of those things in the political arena. So use your skills to help the campaign if you're passionate about the candidate. And also,
Sylvie Legere 20:25
I think you have to also be realistic, right? Because there's already a team perhaps of people helping, you know, as a, you said, a website, there might already be somebody doing the website. So you have to be also generous with people and say, this is volunteer run organization. And maybe my skills initially cannot be used to its full extent. So I need to be willing, you kind of need to say, am I willing to roll up the sleeves and kind of walk in the parade, due to door to door? Or do I want to be a lawyer for a campaign, I think you need to be really clear in terms of what you stand, but it's good to share, I have all of these capabilities, if they can be of use at a higher level, perhaps, but I am willing to be boots on the ground and make calls and go to door to door. I think also you have to be too you have to carve out the time, right? You need to decide, alright, I'm going to volunteer on a campaign. And I am going to be doing this Saturday mornings between these times, because I know this is when I'm free and allow me to do that. I think you need to look at your calendar and decide when am I going to do this and be consistent and committed and showing up? Otherwise, you become known as someone who is unreliable, and you don't want to have that reputation.
Terri Reid 21:39
Right? Nothing makes me happier than getting a call from a volunteer who says I have five hours on Saturday, what can I do? How can I participate? Because I know that they have a certain amount of time. And I know that they're willing to do whatever I need them to do that is a gift from heaven in a campaign for a campaign manager.
Sylvie Legere 21:58
Terri, thank you so much for sharing your experience and spark a little bit of interest in perhaps volunteering for a campaign in this upcoming election. Leave us with maybe one word of advice that would be good to have in terms of having the right attitude. When volunteering for a political campaign.
Terri Reid 22:21
Get in the game. If you want to have a good representative at whatever level, get in the game and help make it happen.
Sylvie Legere 22:30
And have a sense of humor. And also look at it as this is a way for you to expand your network of relationships, get to know politicians who are influencing or governing our communities, and then perhaps discover a new skills that you didn't know that you had. And this is it's kind of an act of love of your community, volunteering for a campaign and the candidates and the people who are stepping into the arena. So thank you so much, Terry, for joining us today. And hope everyone enjoyed this podcast. Thank you.
Terri Reid 23:05
Thanks, Sylvie.
Sylvie Legere 23:08
Thank you for joining me Sylvie Legere on my trust your voice podcast. I hope that this episode brought you a new way to think about your voice, how to trust yourself and how to use your voice for good in your life and in your community. If you liked this podcast, be sure to leave us a review in Apple podcasts. And subscribe to the show in your favorite podcast player again