[MUSIC PLAYING]

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: Hello and welcome to Free Speech with CR. I'm Molly Blakemore. And I'm joined by my co-host, Dr. Keith Flamer, president of College of the Redwoods. Hi, Keith. How are you doing?

KEITH FLAMER: Hey, Molly. It's good to be back with you again.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: Me too.

KEITH FLAMER: And I'm really excited for our guest today, SK Lee. Welcome.

SK LEE: Thank you so much. Good to be here.

KEITH FLAMER: We know a little bit about you. You were just in a professional development opportunity with Molly. And I met you several-- a few months ago, not several, a few months ago. And I know a little bit about you. So talk to us about some of your background.

But the follow-up question-- I wanted to give you lots of time to think about it-- is talk to us about how you got to where you are because there's such a-- I bet it's a beautiful story about how you came to Humboldt, how you became SK Lee.

SK LEE: That's a good question. I mean, where do we start?

KEITH FLAMER: Anywhere you wish.

SK LEE: Well, I mean, I was born in Taipei, actually. So I was born in Taiwan. My parents were born in mainland China. Communist revolution went. They were not part of the nationalist movement. They went to Taiwan.

So we immigrated to the United States when I was-- no, sorry. We immigrated to Costa Rica when I was two. So--

KEITH FLAMER: Costa Rica.

SK LEE: --I actually spent the big chunk of my early childhood in Central America, from age two to about eight.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: Wow.

SK LEE: And then we immigrated again from Central America to Northern California, this tiny little town, Ukiah, in Mendocino County.

KEITH FLAMER: We know it well.

SK LEE: Yes. Similar to Humboldt. And I grew up from the age of eight there, not speaking English. So I was put in ESL classes with all my friends from--

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: But speaking Spanish.

SK LEE: Speaking Spanish and Chinese at home. It's very confusing.

[LAUGHTER]

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: And now you're probably really good at languages.

[LAUGHTER]

SK LEE: Very good at adapting.

KEITH FLAMER: Adapting. And so now what brought you to Humboldt?

SK LEE: Well, my older brother is 10 years older than I. And when we all immigrated, he went to community college at Mendo and from there transferred to HSU. And so he landed here, stayed, had a family. My nephew was born here and grew up here.

And we would come and visit him during the holidays, go to the Arcata Farmers' Market and go to Café Brio. And it was just such a lovely place in our family history and pattern. And then when my mom got sick, she moved up here so he could help take care of her. And during the pandemic, they both needed more help. And so I moved up as well and then ended up staying.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: It's very interesting. Similar to my experience. My brother moved here to teach at College of the Redwoods. Then we moved my dad up. And then towards the end of his life, I came up to help. And that's how I am here also, so.

SK LEE: Yeah, family migration.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: Nice to have an anchor.

KEITH FLAMER: So what do you think of Humboldt?

SK LEE: I love it.

KEITH FLAMER: Tell me why you love it.

SK LEE: I love it, but it took me a little while to fall in love, I must admit. And I think it was because I didn't quite know how to crack it open or how to make the most of it. You have to find the nooks and crannies of things. And the first few years that I was here, I didn't know how to do that or who to talk to to get information or connect with people.

And it's just been in the last one or two years, mostly this last year where I've been really connecting with the community and organizations and learning that I feel very connected, but I also feel a strong sense of belonging that I did not feel when I first got here.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: And how did you crack that in the last year, do you think?

SK LEE: I mean, honestly, I think it was getting out of my own way and putting myself in the driver's seat, enrolling in programs, getting myself involved with StartUp Humboldt, even though I didn't know anybody. I just walked in.

And then all of those conversations led to others. And that just naturally grew. And so now, I have these wonderful friendships and these-- I go to the climbing gym twice a week with my middle-aged girlfriends who are all climbers. And yeah, I'm very happy.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: Great. That's great. Good to hear. We always like it when people come and get their roots into the community and want to stay because that's a problem we've discussed with many of the community leaders, too, about how to get people to stay here.

SK LEE: I can see how that's hard without a little bit of structure.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: And you came here from? Most recently, where were you living?

SK LEE: Mostly based in the Bay Area the last 20 years, but off and on between the East Coast and Asia and different parts of Europe at times for work. But primarily, my Bay Area roots were in East Oakland.

KEITH FLAMER: Doing what? Talk to us a little bit about some of your background.

SK LEE: Oh, gosh. My professional journey?

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: Mm-hmm.

KEITH FLAMER: So let's start there.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: So if we were looking at your resume--

KEITH FLAMER: What would we see?

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: --which we've seen before, what would we see? But also, what would we not see that you would like to talk about--

SK LEE: I mean--

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: --about your professional journey and how you got to where you are today?

SK LEE: So I recently did a presentation. It was the final presentation for the Leadership Redwood Coast program. And my theme was, what is the resume and the antiresume?

So a lot of people will see me and assume a lot of things because of the things that I've achieved professionally or attained. But they will have no idea what it took to get there, that I was an immigrant twice over, that I went to 12 different schools by the time I was in sixth grade, that my mom was a single mother of three, that she didn't speak any English and neither did I.

And so all of these things help to paint the picture of what it took to get to those accolades. And I think at this point in my career in life, that something that's really important to me is to see the whole picture, see people for the distance they've traveled versus the places in which they've arrived.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: But professionally?

SK LEE: Yes. So in undergrad, I went to Mills College. I studied law. I had my heart set on becoming an immigrant rights lawyer. And then I talked to a bunch of lawyers, and they were all unhappy.

[LAUGHTER]

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: That's been my experience as well.

SK LEE: And so I interviewed with a bunch of companies that came onto campus. I took the job that offered me the most amount of salary I'd ever seen in my entire life. And it was with a management consulting firm called Accenture at the time, Andersen Consulting. And I got put on strategy projects that were helping health insurance companies do mergers and acquisitions.

KEITH FLAMER: Oh, interesting.

SK LEE: Yes so I was 21.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: Very similar to immigrant, rights?

SK LEE: Oh, totally. Oh, god. No, no, no. That was 2 and 1/2 years. And my soul was dying from the inside, basically. I got to pay off all my student loans and help my little brother with his college fund, but that was the price because I was 21, sitting there, looking at the diagrams of workflows for these insurance companies, processing and approvals. And my job was to eliminate.

KEITH FLAMER: People.

SK LEE: Eliminate people, eliminate jobs, and increase bottom line. Just very cutthroat. And it didn't reconcile with my idealistic brain, even though I was very practically minded as an immigrant. I've got to save money.

So both of those tensions were always there. And in my early 20s, it came to a head. And I said, look, I just can't do this, no matter how practical it is to make a good salary.

I ended up meeting a bunch of folks who had been former consultants, and they had moved to an organization called the KIPP Foundation, where they were starting charter schools. And this was the early days of KIPP. They had maybe 10 schools or so. I got hired on to the business team. And my job was to figure out how to do all the stuff that was very unsexy.

So figure out real estate contracts, procurement, buy enough chairs.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: Logistics.

SK LEE: All that stuff, getting the school doors open at scale because at that time, they just got a big chunk of funding. I think it was from the Gap family and the Waltons, to go from 10 schools now to 50. So how do we do that? And replace a lot of the functions that the Department of Ed were supposed to do on that front.

So it was a really interesting operational puzzle to figure out how to do that. So yeah, that was my first foray into business skills, but for this--

KEITH FLAMER: [INAUDIBLE]

SK LEE: --meaningful vision. And that's [INAUDIBLE]

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: So you were creating rather than destroying at that point, right?

SK LEE: Yes! Yeah.

KEITH FLAMER: Wow, that's negative. But yeah, good question.

[LAUGHTER]

SK LEE: And I felt like lawyers were just fighting.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: The creation part is very positive.

KEITH FLAMER: Very positive, yes.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: True.

KEITH FLAMER: You felt like what, I'm sorry?

SK LEE: It felt like entrepreneurs got to create and lawyers were people who were like fighting over things. And I think creating was far more attractive.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: And cutting jobs. And yeah.

KEITH FLAMER: Oh, that's hard. That is very difficult. How your mind works-- so I have a little bit-- much better picture of what you want to do and how your mind works and where your purpose is.

So coming to Humboldt, with all your experiences outside Humboldt, what was your feeling? What did you see here? And where do you see the opportunities that Humboldt can grasp on that we just haven't been able to see ourselves? Because again, you're coming from the outside saying, wow, there's so much variety, so much potential. Where does that potential lie in your mind?

SK LEE: Gosh, that's such a good question. And it's something I've been thinking a lot about. I mean, I spent about a dozen years as an operator in education startups. So thinking about the future of learning, what those models of education look like, tech-enabled versions of that, how do you scale it, interesting pedagogy and content startups, then--

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: And this is at all levels of education? Or was it K-12, or was it--

SK LEE: All levels.

KEITH FLAMER: Really?

SK LEE: So my second startup was Montessori preschools.

KEITH FLAMER: Interesting.

SK LEE: Tech enabled on the back end. But I've invested-- when I moved into the investing side of things, invested in higher ed, in workforce development and future of work stuff, all kinds of education products. And so that investing world gave me exposure across a wider breadth of problem sets and solutions and innovations.

And so when I came to Humboldt, it was 2021, as the peak of the craziness of the pandemic was slowly waning. And the first few years I was here was just trying to settle in and-- it's too quiet here.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: It was very quiet after the pandemic.

KEITH FLAMER: It was.

SK LEE: Adjusting.

KEITH FLAMER: It sure was.

SK LEE: But in the last year and a half or so, doing a deeper dive, I'm intrigued by a couple of different areas. One, by what it means to be tech enabled and innovative in a rural economy to what does health care and aging look like in a place like this, especially with my mom in mind as she's aging here and I'm her caretaker, and general economic development. Like, how does an ecosystem like this that feels a little bit remote grow and flourish in the age of AI?

And that's super interesting to me, those connection points. They seem separate silos. But in my mind, they're very interconnected.

KEITH FLAMER: I think they are too.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: And how do you see them working together?

SK LEE: Well, I was inspired by my conversation with Dr. Flamer, that economic development begets better health care outcomes, begets better K-12 outcomes. And it's a wonderful circle of flywheel that has to be nourished all at the same time. And I wish that for Humboldt deeply, in a selfish way because this is where I want to live.

KEITH FLAMER: It's your home.

SK LEE: Yes, of course. But I would love to see it as a model for other small communities like this, of which there are many.

KEITH FLAMER: So it sounds as though one of the problems that you see in Humboldt-- one of the opportunities-- I'll be more positive. One of the opportunities that you see here in Humboldt is that we can grow the economy, that we can press reset, when forests went away, when timber went away, marijuana went down. And fishing is still here, but not as vibrant as it used to be.

So there is an opportunity to strengthen the economic development of the area. Where does that-- where do you see that happening?

SK LEE: Oh, that's--

KEITH FLAMER: And what should we focus on?

SK LEE: From what I have read so far about the kind of cycles of economic boom and bust in Humboldt over the, let's say, last-- I don't know-- century or so, there has been a reliance on a monolithic economic pillar. And by definition, our world today is one that has to be very diversified.

So Humboldt needs to think about a portfolio versus a single investment in terms of how we flourish, in my opinion. And that means investing in multisectors, investing in skilled workers across the board. Having, by definition, a lot of variety across different industries and different sizes of businesses is crucial to the sustainability of that over a long period of time.

Otherwise, we fall into the trap of relying on a single source of income, a single almost like patronage style of economy that I think is dangerous for people who often already get left behind.

KEITH FLAMER: SK, so what does a skilled worker look like in your mind?

SK LEE: Ooh.

KEITH FLAMER: Because if we're going to focus on skilled workers, what does that mean? And as we talk about skilled workers, not just today, but skilled workers for tomorrow, what are we--

SK LEE: What are we looking for?

KEITH FLAMER: What are you looking for?

SK LEE: In my opinion, the people who will excel and thrive in the future have a T shape.

KEITH FLAMER: Talk to us about that. What does that mean?

SK LEE: T shape. So T shape means that there is broad horizontal skill sets and then there's vertical skill sets. So you make a little T shape. And broad horizontal skill sets like communication, storytelling, interpersonal dynamics, negotiation, discernment, judgment, the pieces that are needed to manage a tool like AI.

And then you've got vertical expertise. How do you apply those skills in a specific problem set? And I think that every person-- I said this to a bunch of Cal Poly kids. You have to figure out what your spikes are.

KEITH FLAMER: What does that mean, spikes?

SK LEE: So I feel like everyone should have a couple of spikes, areas of mastery, areas of expertise, areas of passion, and that together your spikes combined make you irreplaceable and unique. So you love finance, great, but what kind of finance in aquatics? And you also speak Spanish. So we're going to-- so that makes you really interesting and unique. You're always going to be that guy who does this.

And for me, that was international education economics for a long time. And then my spikes diversified. And I became the go-to person for that. And that helped me build my platform.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: So what kind of things can we as a college, who have many general ed requirements that do teach these horizontal, I would say, skill set do to encourage that kind of an education and that kind of a forward thinking about maybe a new frontier of workforce and work opportunities?

SK LEE: I think learning the horizontal skills in the context of applying them to vertical problems is the best way to go. So you're always crossing your T's, basically, in fact.

KEITH FLAMER: Oh, very nice.

SK LEE: I didn't mean to do that.

KEITH FLAMER: Very nicely said. OK, I got it.

[LAUGHTER]

SK LEE: Basically. You learn these general education skills, but then you have to cement them by application. And these AI skills, how do you do that to increase profit at a construction firm project by 20%? How do you use these speaking skills in this context by giving a speech for rotary, but also for your family Thanksgiving dinner?

To transfer those general skill sets in very real ways, I think, is the best way that most people learn, but I think is how you develop the Ts.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: And also discovering what it is that you are really individually passionate about.

SK LEE: Practice.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: Practice and an opportunity to explore, probably. But it sounds like a more holistic cross-disciplinary approach to learning these horizontal skills would be helpful.

SK LEE: I think the other piece that I felt like I was missing when I was that age was the sense of bravery.

KEITH FLAMER: Oh, interesting.

SK LEE: There's the learning of skills and the application of skills to industries. And then you have to say yes and put yourself in the room and speak up and ask questions and feel like you're OK and take care of yourself, have confidence, be able to even just be comfortable enough to listen and absorb information.

I mean, that kind of self-management, I think, is missing in a lot of people. That's why I have a thriving coaching practice because that hasn't been-- it's a missing skill set, too, that I think is really important, especially as we have more and more automation.

KEITH FLAMER: I was thinking that, as you were speaking, I can understand the T when you're looking at young people going into the workforce. And I'm wondering if we could extrapolate that to employers looking for workers. So how would I as an employer, and I'm interviewing someone, get the right person for my position?

SK LEE: That's such a good question. I mean, the overarching way that people get matched to jobs now has always been riddled with bias and problems. It's always been highly imperfect. And we knew that, going into it.

So applied a resume. Use your social-- use your network to get there. It doesn't really work for a lot of folks.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: And especially now when there's so much AI activity happening in the applications and jobs hiring--

KEITH FLAMER: Oh, my gosh--

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: --and applying.

KEITH FLAMER: --you don't even know who's writing it.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: People are looking for work and they're-- or looking for people and they're getting like 5,000 resumes a day. How can you even look through those?

SK LEE: You can't. Yeah. I think that-- I have seen some of my startups doing interesting things, pretty creative, where you create mini journeys for applicants to go through where you interview each other and you spend like a two-week period working on a discrete project together. And it's hands on. They pay a small stipend, but you get to see each other in action and in person.

In the interview process, I always have a video and a couple of very simple logic problems that I like to hear. And even if the answers are AI written, I want them to jump through the hoops.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: So you're saying you always have them do a video, or you--

SK LEE: Yes.

KEITH FLAMER: Oh, I see.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: When you're hiring someone, you have them do a video.

SK LEE: Yes. A video interview because I want to see how they speak, and I want to see how they answer questions or hold themselves. And then I always do a couple of different calls. And then we do a work period. Let's try this out for 90 days and then we figure it out. Higher, higher, slow. Fire fast. [LAUGHS]

KEITH FLAMER: But carefully. But yeah.

SK LEE: But with a lot of compassion--

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: Got a lot of--

KEITH FLAMER: Compassion.

SK LEE: --and dignity.

KEITH FLAMER: Of course. Of course.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: So if you were a young person right now, looking for their first job in this very competitive and difficult to break through all the noise kind of environment, what would you recommend? What would you-- what would your advice be for how to get seen and noticed in this kind of an environment?

SK LEE: Yeah, I would say that there's a couple of things. One, you've got to think about yourself and your experiences as a portfolio of work, not just a line items of accomplishments. So when you're talking about a line item on your resume, you're speaking of it as from beginning to end. What is the actual piece of product that you contributed to? What is the portfolio work? And be ready to demonstrate that.

It's never too late to build a-- and never too early to start building a network. And I think being people powered is really crucial. Even if you're 17, 18 in high school, the ability to build relationships, reach out to people, have a conversation, introduce yourself, and then follow up and send notes and thank yous and continue to follow up with people and keep them on your list in your book, that skill set is not ever going away, I think, even in the age of AI and even more critical.

I don't know that it's enough to say I have good grades. You've got to be able to say, I can talk to people and tell them a story. So I don't know. Those are practical things that if I were going back to my 18-year-old self, I would say, go do those things.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: Are there any tricks for if you're 25, you haven't done that, but you really want to get heard in all the noise-- or are there any things that--

SK LEE: I mean, I love it when I see scrappy people who are young people who are figuring things out and just go and do it. Go build stuff. Build a portfolio. Go and start a blog. Write about it. Share what you've done. Go and reach out to friends and create a little club. Go and start something.

I mean, when I look at startups and I'm investing, I'm looking at founders who've done any kind of entrepreneurial activity. Because I'm looking for a pattern of behavior, of being able to stick through something from beginning to the end, even if it fails, because that's the kind of founder I want to put my money into. They're going to have the perseverance to continue when things are really, really tough.

So I'm looking for those traits and the behavior patterns that led to that, that they've had many reps doing it. So it's kind of like a hyperscaler builder profile that I love to see, particularly for investments, but for anyone that I want to work with.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: So you want to hire people who may not have lived a charmed life and who have failed and got back up and tried again.

SK LEE: Yes.

KEITH FLAMER: Is that what you're saying to us?

SK LEE: Yes. It's interesting, it's very contrary to what maybe traditional Silicon Valley investments think, which is like, how much revenue did your last company make? How many users did your app have? But for me, the winners that make a top 1% founder are people that have traveled that distance. But that distance can be measured in really different ways.

And it could be that you started 10 feet behind the starting line, and yet you're still here. That's impressive to me.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: It's like the antiresume coming back.

KEITH FLAMER: The antiresume. Yeah, perfect.

SK LEE: We have to measure both.

KEITH FLAMER: Perfect, yeah. That's what I said.

SK LEE: And then you have so much more data.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: So the stick-to-it-ness, the keeping with things--

KEITH FLAMER: Stick-to-it-ness.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: --and not giving up. And yeah.

SK LEE: But it also means far more inclusive. The invisible work that's done at home by women is counted as time management, as scheduling, as productivity, as being able to manage teams. The work that you do as an immigrant kid for your family's restaurant, that is reps in entrepreneurship that I-- that means your muscles are already far more developed.

So I love that.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: It's similar to our credit for prior learning that's coming through the Chancellor's Office, too, where students can prove that they've done some level of the work that we're trying to teach them in--

SK LEE: Oh, love that.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: --jobs.

SK LEE: That's awesome.

KEITH FLAMER: You just said something that made me think some more. So I'm going to ask you two questions. Let's talk about you as a woman working in Silicon Valley. How was that?

SK LEE: [LAUGHS] It was not easy.

KEITH FLAMER: Talk to us about that.

SK LEE: So I finished grad school. And then I took a 9:00 to 5:00 job as a career coach at Stanford Business School. And my day job was working with these students and helping them navigate their careers and options. But I was stuck now in the middle of Silicon Valley, 2013. I just sold my first company. And I was surrounded by all of this that was happening with startups and venture capital, and I was starting to absorb it.

I felt like a total outsider because at that time-- this was pre-MeToo. This is in the days of before Uber got caught for being a heinously gross place to work. And all kinds of other scandals.

There was terrible sexism. The number of women in venture capital at the time was about 6%. Sadly, it's about the same number now.

KEITH FLAMER: Still that low.

SK LEE: In the single digits of women who make decisions on private capital investments. Women of color, fractions of a percentage. So billions and billions of dollars of wealth, trillions of dollars of wealth made from all those Silicon Valley companies that we all use day-to-day, that's concentrated.

And if you imagine the next opportunity set of the venture capital that's coming, the folks who invested in Anthropic's, in the next generation of AI infrastructure that's happening now that will come to fruition in a decade, maybe shorter timelines, the biggest alphas come to those who invest earlier, the biggest returns.

KEITH FLAMER: Biggest returns.

SK LEE: Because you come in at the highest risk. And so it doesn't come when you get-- when they're publicly offered in the stock market.

KEITH FLAMER: They're gone.

SK LEE: Most of the gains have been realized, although you make a lot more there too. So this is where incredible wealth is made, like people who early invested in PayPal, all through--

KEITH FLAMER: Oh.

SK LEE: --social networks.

KEITH FLAMER: And Zoom.

SK LEE: And Zooms and Metas and Instagrams and all of those. So only 6% goes to women. And we know that the research says, when there's a female investor, it's more likely to go to a female founder than 2% of female founders get the capital.

KEITH FLAMER: Wow.

SK LEE: So that means that--

KEITH FLAMER: That makes sense. I understand.

SK LEE: The whole chain continues to be missing a whole ton of talent and opportunity. That distance traveled is not being measured in private capital.

KEITH FLAMER: So what advice would you get-- would you give a young woman, just graduating college, wants to do whatever job it is that is predominantly male? What advice would you give this person to survive and thrive in an environment that they may need some resilience to have?

SK LEE: I would be honest and say that you have to work harder, that your work has to be impeccable almost all of the time and, in fact, almost all the time better. You have to work harder than your male peers, and you have to be better than your male peers. Just flat out, you can't be mediocre and you can't suck. Or you're out.

If you're good, it's not good enough. You have to be great. And you have to be better. That is the truth.

KEITH FLAMER: I understand. I've heard that for years. I get it.

SK LEE: I'm sure. You get it.

KEITH FLAMER: I get it very well. Very well.

SK LEE: And find your male allies.

KEITH FLAMER: Talk to us what do you mean? And how do you do that?

SK LEE: I think you can't survive without it. I had some really amazing mentors throughout my career that I could tell saw my value and my work and my thinking and let me know that and reaffirmed or called it out when I was not sure. And so they got to see my potential a little bit before I did, and that helped me.

KEITH FLAMER: So do you mentor people now?

SK LEE: Oh, my gosh.

KEITH FLAMER: I guess that's a big yes. Is that right?

SK LEE: Yeah, I mean, a big part of how I spend my time today, about 60% of my time is focused on coaching founders and female executives. Female founders, female executives, female CEOs, female women in finance and private equity in very male-dominated industries, and females in tech for that specific reason-- because I wish I had this when I was going through it.

KEITH FLAMER: Oh, gotcha.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: So you're saying that when you were there in 2013 before MeToo, before a lot of things changed, it was 6%. Now, it hasn't changed much at all. So what will move? I mean, what will move--

SK LEE: What will move the needle?

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: --the needle? And I mean, I was just absorbing what you were saying about how only 2% of women who have great ideas are going to find funding because there's just not enough women funding them because men generally won't fund them. They'll fund their bros or whatever.

KEITH FLAMER: Their bros--

SK LEE: The bros.

KEITH FLAMER: --which is true. The bros.

SK LEE: Exactly.

KEITH FLAMER: I know. That's true.

SK LEE: I mean, that's just--

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: How do--

SK LEE: --as you said, It's just a terrible waste of talent. And how can we-- what can we do?

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: How can you change that?

SK LEE: I think that even though the overall numbers are not fantastic in seismically changing that, there are lots of changes on the edges. So there's a lot more microfunds, meaning funds sub couple million bucks.

The folks who are writing small checks, there's a lot more female angel investors who are putting their own money on the line, women who are getting more and more comfortable with saying, I can also take this kind of financial risk versus just put it into a savings account or let my husband or father take care of the money.

And women are taking that control-- with the trillion dollars that are moving, the wealth transfer that's happening right now, more and more women are going to be managing more and more wealth. And so they have to now, by definition, figure out how to do that.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: The wealth transfer that's happening generationally because of--

SK LEE: Because of the population changes--

KEITH FLAMER: Gotcha.

SK LEE: --women living longer. So there's a lot of things that are changing that help make it more possible for women and more underrepresented founders get capital to get off the ground. There's more grants and accelerators and things like that than ever before. And I think that helps get the kickstart that maybe you previously had just your dad write the check.

KEITH FLAMER: Oh, I see, yeah.

SK LEE: So there's optionality. But once you get there, we now need more support systems to get them through the next stage. You get in the market. You have sold something, but you've got to go from one employee to 10. That stage now needs more structure.

So there are things that are happening along the way. And there are women who are exiting and having big outcomes, and that makes a big difference.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: And so what about trying to get more women to feel comfortable about investing in these businesses? Because I mean, I think that's a big part of it is it's like we just have a knowledge gap and women don't have the opportunities or the knowledge they need to find these startups and invest in them and what money they do have or feel comfortable doing that.

So is that a part of it as well? And is that something that you do also is try to help connect startups with people who have money, who might be interested in it?

SK LEE: Yes. Oh, my gosh. I mean, I joined my first female angel investor network about five years ago. And it was a group of women in San Francisco, mostly operators who were working in tech, product people and marketing people.

And we weren't investing big checks. We were writing $1,000 checks, $5,000 checks, tiny. But it was experimentation and learning. And we would pool our money together. And that would be a meaningful 50,000 for a female founder starting some cool company.

And that happened over and over and over again until we got to a point where we had some really big wins and the women who led that group raised their own fund. And now, they're on fund number 2 and they have allocation in some of the really cool companies that are out there, doing awesome stuff, cutting edge of AI.

So for women not going solo, finding a group, doing it together, and collectively learning, that's, I think, the best way to go. Knowing that you can start really small and still make a difference and that putting your money in a pension or a market-- by the way, 50% of CalPERS is invested in private equity and VC. So you're already in it.

KEITH FLAMER: That's true. That's right.

SK LEE: But you're paying a lot of fees to do that. And can you have a little bit more control? When you do make your own decisions, you get to do in a values-aligned way. I invest in these companies that have the founders that I love and the products I want to see in the world. And that's very satisfying.

KEITH FLAMER: SK, outside of the work that you've done in angel investing and business, I think one of the best decisions I've made in the last three weeks was to link you with two of my CR staff--

SK LEE: Oh.

KEITH FLAMER: --with Amber and crystal. I think having you three together as thought partners, I'm just so excited for the college moving forward and for the region. I think that all three of you are just going to do wonderful things.

SK LEE: Oh, that means a lot, coming from you.

KEITH FLAMER: Well, it's exciting.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: Well, what can you talk about what they might be doing? Because--

KEITH FLAMER: Oh, SK, please--

SK LEE: Please tell me. I don't know.

KEITH FLAMER: Well, OK. So--

SK LEE: What is your vision?

KEITH FLAMER: Well, knowing I have five months and a few days left in my job, and there are a couple things that I know that you can help us with and we can-- with your guidance, we're going to just do phenomenally, one, focus on the blue economy, whatever that means for Humboldt County, but also health care.

And those are the two of the three things that you touched on. And the third thing is workforce development. So the three things that you mentioned that we need to work on, I put you with two people who are going to work in collaboration with you.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: And that would be our Vice President of Instruction, Crystal Morris and Amber Cavanaugh, who runs the adult and community ad. So I imagine you're going to be working with them to develop maybe classes or--

KEITH FLAMER: Or even deeper than that.

SK LEE: I mean, I'm open. I'm super excited. Amber is a rock star. And I can see--

KEITH FLAMER: She most certainly is. Yeah, she is.

SK LEE: I can see how much she cares about community college and about College of the Redwoods specifically. And Mendocino Community College is how my family survived in this country. It means a lot to me that that's accessible. So I'm in, whatever you all need. [LAUGHS]

KEITH FLAMER: Well, actually, just you saying yes was a godsend for us.

SK LEE: Oh.

KEITH FLAMER: So I'm going to switch gears a little. You have brought up the fact of your immigrant background a couple times. Now, I would understand if you don't want to answer this question, but I want to ask it anyway.

SK LEE: I see.

KEITH FLAMER: Well, I don't know if it's-- yeah, actually, because Molly and I talk about this, oh, several times a day about what's going on in the country today.

SK LEE: Oh, wow.

KEITH FLAMER: So talk to us, if you want, about what do you see and what are the answers? Because of your family's background in China and then in Taiwan and then here. And you speak two languages or three now, I suppose.

SK LEE: 2 and 1/2.

KEITH FLAMER: Or even more. 2 and 1/2 languages. I'm not sure which is the half, but OK. And you see so much strife going on, so much distrust, and so much anger. Two questions. How do you survive at Humboldt? And a second question is, what do you think the answers are? How do we get through this as a country--

SK LEE: Gosh.

KEITH FLAMER: --as a county, as a society?

SK LEE: I wish I had easy answers. What I do know for myself is that over the years, I've had to learn how to take really good care of myself in order to survive professionally the way that I needed to and perform in the way that I needed to while still feeling internally so much imposter syndrome and sheer fright that I wasn't going to make it or pay the bills or pay my employees.

So a lot of internal feeding and strengthening is the thing that's helped me to just stay grounded. Having good friends who understand that, that close community. And even in Humboldt, the women that I started to gravitate towards is my girlfriend-- my friend group are also women who happen to be from different cultures and know what that's been like, that journey.

So I think you need spaces like that where there's a lot of sameness so that you can be armed for when you're in spaces that you're not, basically. For myself--

KEITH FLAMER: Of course.

SK LEE: --that's what it feels like. I think that there is a lot that we can do for young people and education that helps to create structures using technology even that forces the interpersonal dynamics in a way that maybe it's not now. So--

KEITH FLAMER: You just said something that is something I haven't thought about is using technology to bring people together versus using technology to keep people separate.

SK LEE: I think the go-to is that AI or a technology creates a limitless opportunities for individualization, but I think it can also create containers for human collaboration. So the tools that I love to see are ones where it's, how do you really foster cohort learning? How do you foster project-based learning in a way that is international?

We've got teams of kids in Taiwan and Europe working together. And it's forcing those kinds of--

KEITH FLAMER: Connections.

SK LEE: Connections, challenges in a way that you couldn't without technology, I think. Is there--

KEITH FLAMER: I see where you went.

SK LEE: Use it in a different way. I mean, it's a tool. And we can bend it to our needs. We don't have to bend to it.

KEITH FLAMER: I don't think we talk that much about how technology can bring people together.

SK LEE: It can, if the folks who have the discernment and the power to implement show us how that can be done.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: Yeah, I think that in the beginning, there was this idea like, oh, it's like the telephone and now chat and now Facebook and all the ways you can keep connected, that's going to be such a-- it's going to bring us all closer together. But then we've now, over the years, definitely soured on that idea and seen how it puts people into silos and into camps and tribalism and can be bad for your psyche and all of that.

And so yeah, it's nice to hear and think about ways that it can actually start bringing us back together if we use it in the right ways and use it-- I mean, I think it's-- well, take intention. And that's what-- it's random now. People use it on their own. They find their own ways into different things.

But this is more about a conscientious pathway into connectedness that it might be something that institutions of higher ed should think about and other institutions.

KEITH FLAMER: I've been thinking about it. And now, I'll let you think about it.

[LAUGHTER]

SK LEE: I love that. I mean, there's so many creative ways that you could think about that that would be beautiful. I also think that the earlier we start telling children about voting and civic opportunity, the better so that we understand that voting and political systems are part of our responsibility is super important, that we don't leave that to a percentage of the population. That's dangerous.

So all kinds of other things that are very important.

KEITH FLAMER: Thank you.

SK LEE: Thank you.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: So what do you think communities like Humboldt-- because we hear about a lot of the push and the pull. So a lot of young people are pushed out of Humboldt County for job opportunities.

But being remote and having all of these opportunities to connect with people everywhere means that we could bring opportunities here and actually have a pull kind of mechanism where people might want to come here and kids might want to stay if they have more of these opportunities.

So what can we do as a community, do you think, to bring more people like yourself here and younger people and people who are interested in tech and interested in AI and interested in these emerging markets? What can we do?

SK LEE: I think that is such a good question. I mean, the structured programs, like Leadership Redwood Coast, are really helpful for being able to have specific organized times where you're meeting people and you're understanding how different parts of the community work and having exposure, a breadth of exposure.

The tech meetups that are starting to happen-- I think there's been one. And there's going to be a second-- that's really great because people like to gather. And the work that Humboldt made is doing with--

KEITH FLAMER: Oh, yeah, good example.

SK LEE: Friday night markets and fun activities and really great restaurants and bars, that's really amazing. I think that it's got to work both ways too. There's got to be the economic development that sustains great companies and keeps them there, that we can fill those business needs at every level-- talent, infrastructure, policy incentives, investment, support, but then at the personal level, that there is adequate access and warm welcomes and connections to people and community where a sense of belonging is really necessary.

I was missing those the first few years that I was living here and then pushed my way into getting them. And now, I feel like if I could have started with that, wow, what a difference that would have made. And if I can give that to other people, that will make a huge difference in the way that they kick start here and then start giving back.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: And then people will hear about it and be hiring and want to come here. And yeah, so.

KEITH FLAMER: So now, I want to draw on your education consultancy.

SK LEE: Ooh, OK.

KEITH FLAMER: Go back several years and come forward a little bit. What do you think community colleges-- I'll be more direct. What do you think CR should do as we move forward? What role can CR play in the economic development of the county? And how can CR make things better for everyone?

SK LEE: That's such a good question.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: We already do.

KEITH FLAMER: Well--

[LAUGHTER]

I said, better, not--

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: What can we do better?

KEITH FLAMER: Good point. Better.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: To embrace new opportunities.

KEITH FLAMER: Oh, thanks. Bye. I got it.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: Good job, Molly.

KEITH FLAMER: Good job, Molly.

[LAUGHTER]

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: Mic dropped.

SK LEE: I think that there is incredible opportunity to connect what CR does with innovation and business more directly. I don't know-- I'm sure there are many ways that that happens now, but with innovation hubs so that those hubs, like StartUp Humboldt, could start incubating the companies, bring that talent in directly from the university, inculcate them with the business skills, the startup mindset they need to take that talent and energy and actually make something of it across different industries.

I think that there's a ton of opportunity around community development, leadership skills, training, technical skills that I think it would be amazing to have as a community. That's part of the thing that would make me excited is I can take all these classes and my mom can take them as well and my nephews can take them as well.