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The CSU Spur of the Moment Podcast tackles the issues of food, water, health, and sustainability by talking with people making a difference in these fields and exploring the unique pathways that have led them to their current roles. Hosted by the Colorado State University System's new Spur campus in Denver, this podcast builds on its mission of addressing global challenges through research collaboration, experiential education, and a shared vision of inspiring the next generation.
Laura Weinberg: I think sometimes when you're doing something new like running for office or you sometimes want to look to the experts and say, "Well, they know how to get it done. They've been successful or this is what it takes." And they're not always right. You don't have to take that advice if it doesn't feel right for you.
Jocelyn Hittle: Welcome to Spur of the Moment, the podcast of Colorado State University's Spur Campus in Denver, Colorado.
Laura Weinberg: So I ran for office the first time and that quickly turned into a, "Oh my gosh, this is not what I thought it was. How do we make it better?" And that has been sort of what I've worked on since is how do we make it better?
Jocelyn Hittle: On this podcast, we talk with experts in food, water, health, sustainability, and leadership, and learn about their current work and their career journeys. I'm Jocelyn Hittle, Associate Vice President of the CSU Spur campus. Today, I'm joined by Laura Weinberg, the mayor of the city of Golden, Colorado. Laura has a varied background that includes IT, business strategy, and she has worked for large financial institutions and had her own consulting company. With this varied background, I know our conversation today will cover a lot of territory, and I'm looking forward to learning more about her career path, her inspirations, and her day-to-day. Welcome, Mayor Weinberg.
Laura Weinberg: Thank you so much. It's great to be here with you.
Jocelyn Hittle: So let's talk first about your work now. You are the mayor of Golden, Colorado, a town that is west of Denver, where we're sitting right now. Let's talk a little about what that's actually like. What's a day or a week in the life for you?
Laura Weinberg: I think one of the great things about being mayor is every day is absolutely different than the day before, both in terms of the work and who you are working with, and it makes it always changing and always interesting. So a good part of my week is outreach and communication. So whether that's people who've emailed and reach out or community meetings, I will often go to meet with different groups or residents in a neighborhood to talk about their issues and what's going on in the city. I often have a lot of meetings. There's always every week, not just city council meetings, which are sort of the requirement of the job, but as mayor, I am part of a variety of different organizations and boards and committees representing Golden, and the region and in the state and some even national. And so, good part of the time is joining those meetings and talking to folks and learning about how other cities are tackling issues and sharing what we're doing in our city. So a varied day every day.
Jocelyn Hittle: Great. It doesn't surprise me that it is varied. And also that there are a lot of meetings because as mayor, you're collaborating a lot to tackle some of the issues that the city has. What are some of the things you're working on right now, some of the challenges that you're hoping to make progress against for the city?
Laura Weinberg: Yes. The one that I've probably worked on the most throughout my time in service and certainly probably every city in the state and it's housing. Housing is a challenge because who can live in your community is what makes your community a community. More so than what the buildings look like, it's the people inside the buildings. And so housing is the topic that I work on a lot and I work on it through many different groups. We have a Jefferson County, so Golden is part of Jefferson County. Jefferson County Housing Steering Committee. We've been working the last couple years, not just across government jurisdictions, but also with developers and nonprofits and others working in solving some of the housing challenges. So a lot of the biggest topic conversations seem to be around the entire housing spectrum.
Jocelyn Hittle: Okay. That makes sense. So housing is a big issue in a lot of cities. It is difficult in many places that people want to live to be able to afford the housing that's there. So that is certainly something that I know a lot of mayors and city governments are grappling with. What are some of the things that make you hopeful about that work?
Laura Weinberg: I am very hopeful. Like I said, I've been working on it for quite a long time and Golden as a city has been working on a long time. I think some of what makes me hopeful is now everyone else is also working on it. And considering it's not just us working on it alone separate from, say, our county. We are surrounded by neighborhoods that are in Jefferson County that are not within the city. So knowing that we can partner and collaborate beyond our borders makes me very hopeful. The other thing is that it is a problem without a single solution. And so the more time we spend on it, the more people who come to the table to work on it, not just government, but private industry, the better ideas we're going to have on how to make actual progress. If we just leave it to city governments to come up with all the solutions, it's going to take a really long time to get everything implemented. But if we bring everyone to the table, I'm hopeful we'll start making real progress.
Jocelyn Hittle: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. It's a complicated problem. So the solution is going to be complicated as well and involve a lot of partners. So maybe let's take a step back. Tell us a little bit about the city of Golden in general. What is the city like? Where is it? What are some of its features? What are you most proud of?
Laura Weinberg: Golden is very close to Denver. We're just about 20 miles west of Denver, but we're not considered a suburb. We have a long history. Before Colorado was a state, we had a city of Golden. So we're a historic city. We're also an economic center. We have as many jobs in the city as we do residents who live there at night. So a good portion of people come to the city to work every day and then they commute home somewhere else to live. We are the home to Colorado School of Mines. So we have a large institutional presence and students who attend the university and are part of Golden for their time as School of Mines students. And we increasingly have a large visitor population of millions of visitors who come to enjoy Golden for many reasons. Maybe it's School of Mines, maybe it's Coors Brewery, and more recently, a lot of outdoor recreation because we are in a beautiful space with both mountains surrounding us.
We're in a valley with the Clear Creek River and water activity running through it. So wonderful place to visit for folks from out of the area.
Jocelyn Hittle: And can you tell us a little also about how it has changed maybe in the last 10 to 15 years?
Laura Weinberg: It's changed quite a bit, both in terms of growth. All of the large institutions like Colorado School of Mines have grown in size, so that has an impact. If you double your student population, that has an impact. But really the biggest has probably been tourism. We used to be a city where the only tourists who came were people who were doing the Coors Brewery Tour, and hundreds of thousands of them came each year for the brewery tour. It's a wonderful tour, and that used to be the major part of tourism. And in the last 10 years, outdoor recreation and people just really wanting to enjoy the mountains without actually having to drive from Denver all the way to the mountains, has brought more people to Golden, which has been phenomenal for our businesses that cater to service and retail and restaurants. It's also been really impactful for people who live in this city.
So over the last 10, 15 years, we've been a thriving community. Our businesses are doing great, but it's required some shifts in thinking and where we are spending our efforts to make sure that the residents who live there have what they need for the quality of life that they deserve.
Jocelyn Hittle: And what are some of those things that they need? Can you give us an example of what you mean by that?
Laura Weinberg: Sure. We spend a lot more time now managing parking. If you live somewhere and you can't find parking near your home because it's full of visitors, it's problematic. Things like increased trash collection in public spaces and in parks, maintenance type activities, the things that can continue to make for clean, quiet neighborhoods while having active, vibrant public spaces.
Jocelyn Hittle: Great. Okay. That's really helpful and it helps us to sort of understand how complex managing a city is. And I think people might think about being mayor as you wave a wand or you just boss people around and tell them what to do and it gets done and you can fix all the problems. And so that means that a lot of people come to you with their complaints. What's it really like? What is the role of a mayor versus all of the other pieces and parts of city government? And maybe break that down a little bit for us so people have a better understanding of the roles.
Laura Weinberg: It's interesting because mayor has a very different meaning in different cities. The role of mayor is very different in Golden than it is in Denver. For a city of our size and pretty typical in Colorado, the mayor does not run the operations of the city. The city manager runs the operation. So all of the departments, whether it's public works or police or fire, they report through the city manager for the day-to-day operations. As mayor, we head the city council, and that means running the meetings, working with the rest of council. I have a vote on council. Not all mayors have a vote, but I do have a vote. What I think mayor is primarily is making sure that council operations are running effectively, whether that's the public meetings or the setting of priorities and strategic planning. It's also being your city's cheerleader. I go to a lot of events where I welcome people to the city or I participate so that the people hosting the event understand how welcome they are into Golden and how important they are.
So sometimes you're a cheerleader for the city, and often you're the easiest person for someone to reach if they have a problem or a question. And so that's where a number of the emails and phone calls come from. And I don't have all the answers, but I do know how to get to the people who have the answers. And so that's a big part of it as well.
Jocelyn Hittle: Fair enough. So there are a lot of folks who are tackling different components of all the issues that people bring to you. Part of your role as mayor is knowing who those folks are and how you can connect the dots and hopefully make some progress on the things that people are asking you to do. You mentioned that a lot of your role is related to city council. Can you tell us a little bit more about your particular city council in Golden and what the role of council is versus mayor and how you all get things done together?
Laura Weinberg: Sure. I was on city council. I did a term and a half before I ran for mayor. And some of what I've done as mayor is in response to some of the frustrations I felt as a city councilor and the fact that the systems we had in place to get work done weren't as efficient or effective as I had hoped. So we have a great city council. There's six city council members. They each represent a ward or a district and then myself. So we're a board of seven. And we work together, everything out in public and public meetings, but we also do significant planning together. And some of that is say the annual strategic plan where we as a board of seven come up with, here are the priorities for council for the city for the year and making sure that we stick to those priorities for the year, that we fund them, that we're working together to make sure that the team has the resources they need to get the things done is a big part of what council works on.
There's the legislative piece. Some of those priorities might be to pass new laws, new code, and many of those things come to council referred to us by some of our boards and commissions, which are volunteer boards of Golden residents who will review the topics first and consider and make a recommendation to council for our vote. All of our city council members represent the city on outside boards and work really hard to be informed on all of the issues so that when we do get to a council meeting, we're prepared and ready to vote. Those are the meetings where we actually take the final vote.
Jocelyn Hittle: So you're describing the work that you and city council do. Are these full-time jobs for you and Golden?
Laura Weinberg: I always say I work a full-time job, but it's really not. Most city council positions, unless you're in the largest city, and most mayor positions are considered part-time. You're not a full-time employee. That comes with full-time salary. We don't have staff that works for us. So often I get people who will say, "Well, can your team look at this? " Or, "Can I work through someone to schedule something?" And I said, "The team is me. I don't have an office at City Hall." We are considered part-time, but the work is really varied and it takes quite a bit of time. I think that that's sort of a misconception of either folks think that you're being compensated for a full-time job, but unless someone on council is retired and has their retirement benefits, most everyone else is working.
Jocelyn Hittle: I think that might be something that surprises folks, right? You think of mayor as a full-time job, but it sounds like for you, at least it isn't. Do you work outside of your role as mayor?
Laura Weinberg: I do. Before I became mayor, I realized I needed something with great flexibility because you have meetings that start at 7:00 in the morning and meetings that go till 10:00 at night and all times of the day in between. And so not wanting to split my time with full-time work for someone else that required me to have to say no to a lot of things as mayor, I have had a lot of flexible jobs. One of the things that's been really interesting, but was very saving, particularly as I started as mayor in 2020 with COVID, is I am a fitness instructor and coach. And so that job in particular allows me to get out of my brain and the reading all of the packets of information and all of the detailed problems into a very physical space where I can coach people, get folks in the community and meet with them in a very different way.
So that is one of the things that I do that I really enjoy.
Jocelyn Hittle: That is a part of your career trajectory I did not know about. So it must feel a little bit different for the folks that you're training when the mayor tells you to do pushups, you do pushups, right?
Laura Weinberg: I often find if there's new people in a class or they'll look at me and then at the end of class, they'll come over and say, "Are you the mayor?" Because they're not really sure, but they think I look familiar. So it's kind of fun.
Jocelyn Hittle: That's a nice way to have a multifaceted relationship with your constituents. And also, you get a little workout in while you're working, which is a good way to multitask.
Laura Weinberg: A great way.
Jocelyn Hittle: Yeah. So can you tell me a little bit about ... I mean, you were on city council before you were mayor, so you were probably better informed than many might be about what the role is like. Can you tell me a little bit about something that has been exactly the way you expected and something that's been really surprising?
Laura Weinberg: Yeah. Having served on city council, I did know quite a bit, which is very helpful because the mayor role is different enough from council, but what didn't change at all was how I thought I needed to work, to run meetings and to represent council. That very much fell in line. I started as mayor in January 2020. So my first two years were fast and furious with a whole lot of extra things that previous mayors never had to worry about or work on, including very close relationships with public health officials and a lot, a lot of meetings about public health. We had to learn how to run virtual meetings and solicit public engagement without meeting in person. Prior to that, we had always held community meetings in public space together. So there were a lot of things that were COVID related that changed, but probably the one thing that wasn't COVID related was how much work is expected outside of the city.
As a city councilor, most of my meetings, most of my time were with constituents, groups, businesses within the city. Most of my time as mayor are with groups and organizations that are more regional or outside of the city. And I don't think I really expected how much time I would spend doing that.
Jocelyn Hittle: That's interesting. So it's really about connecting the city to the larger region and the state, while others are really managing. You mentioned the city manager does a lot of the operational work. So it does seem like an interesting split of duties. And has that been enjoyable for you, that more external work?
Laura Weinberg: It's been really enjoyable. And some of it, I bring on myself because I say yes to a lot of things, but I think Golden is a really good story in terms of who we are in the state. We can fit in with some of the Metro Denver, more suburban communities, because we have a lot of commuters in and out of Golden. We can fit in with some of the more tourist-based economies in our state. And so I think that our voice was missing at a lot of the conversations when Golden was so focused just within its borders, and that meant things happened to us rather than being at the table and saying, "Well, here's how that will affect my city," or, "Here's how we're doing things," and being able to provide that in the broader conversation because none of the issues we work on in a city are unique to the city.
Other cities are working on the same things, and I learn a lot from talking to mayors and councils and city managers from other cities, and they learn from me as well about different ways that we do things. And that's really beneficial for making progress in whatever goals or initiatives you're trying to get through is to get those better ideas.
Jocelyn Hittle: I love that. I love stealing ideas from other people who are smarter than me about something, and that's almost everyone, right? I mean, we all have our areas of expertise and things we know less about. So I fully appreciate the benefit of having a great network of folks who can help you figure things out. Let's talk a little bit about your ... We know you don't exactly have a typical workday, but there are some typical tasks for you, I'm guessing. Are there some that you are surprised that you really enjoy and some that you're like, "Ugh, this again?"
Laura Weinberg: I became mayor thinking I needed to do some kind of regular outreach to constituents and previous mayors did newsletters. They would write, and I tried that and I said, "I do not like writing. I love to read. I do not want to write." It takes me forever to think of a topic and to write it down, which I do for the print magazine that the city puts out in emails. I do a letter in that, but I didn't want to start doing regular constituent kind of subscribe to my email. So I stopped doing that because I just didn't enjoy it. And I had never done video. I didn't think I'd like it, but I do a weekly video live stream that I've come to really enjoy. I've never thought I'd want to do anything like that. I had no aspirations to be a journalist in my life ever, but it is something that I do enjoy and ...
Jocelyn Hittle: That's great. I love a surprise when it comes to ... And truly, you've reinvented how to do that engagement piece in a way that's better suited to you, which is very sensible and something I think we all can think about as you think about how it has always been done and whether or not that's a good fit for you or if you have the opportunity to change it. So what are some of the biggest challenges that you face? Or I guess maybe another way of thinking about that is what are some of the misconceptions people have about your job and what some of those challenges are that might surprise people?
Laura Weinberg: I think for probably every, at least local elected official, the biggest challenge is sharing very complicated, complex topics, whether it's water rights or infrastructure projects or policy that we have to adopt to conform to something that the state has passed. They're not simple black and white topics. And even for projects that are multi-year projects, it's really hard to communicate and get people to pay attention and to learn about the issue. And so that's probably the hardest thing. You can have community meetings, you can talk about it, you can livestream about it, you can do email, print, all of the things for years. And then it comes down to a final vote at city council to authorize it and people say, "I didn't know anything about it. You didn't communicate. Communication is terrible. I didn't know anything about it." And that is a perpetual problem in all my years now that we've added more communication channels, more opportunities, we've even extended projects to give more time for people to participate and still there's always people at that very last meeting where you're finally going to vote who said, "I didn't know anything about this." And I don't have any answers to it, but we keep working on it.
Jocelyn Hittle: I totally appreciate that. Obviously the Spur campus, we've been open for a while, but we were in planning and design and construction for a long time. And even now we've been open for a while. I still meet folks who don't know much about us. And we try many, many different channels to try to educate people about what's here and what's available and that we are open to the public and we want people to be coming and doing career exploration and coming to meetings and conferences here. And still, it's so hard because people's day-to-days are so busy and so different to find that message that resonates with people. But if you figure it out, you let me know and we'll also let all the rest of folks in local government know and you'll be up for the Nobel Prize maybe.
So talk a little bit about when you do come up against a challenge, maybe it's that one, maybe it's something else. Do you have folks that you call? Do you have sort of a team of advisors, either internal to the city or external?
Laura Weinberg: Yes. It's interesting. It really depends on the topic, but I think because I became mayor during COVID in 2020, the people in the community, previous mayors or other sort of experts on how to get things done in Golden weren't the best resources for me. And I quickly turned to other mayors and built up mayor networks of people that I really rely on. "How's your city doing it? Did you come across this problem?" Not just in COVID, but continuing now. We share situations, we get feedback, we get suggestions, and other mayors who are doing the same work in different places are really a wonderful resource for helping through challenges or just coming up with ideas. "Have you thought about doing it this way or did you talk to your city attorney about it?" Things that I was like, "Oh wait, yeah, I could do that." So other mayors certainly, and then I work really closely with our city manager.
Many of the things that residents are concerned about or businesses are concerned about end up being a little bit more operational for the city. And so working with a city manager about how can we better inform or learn about the problem involves bringing in the city team.
Jocelyn Hittle: Who's your favorite mayor?
Laura Weinberg: I don't know if I can share that. I have so many. I really do have so many and I think we're very lucky here. We have in the Denver Metro area, the Metro Mayor's Caucus. It's the 38 mayors of the 38 cities in Denver and the surrounding areas. We meet regularly. I was the chair of the Metro Mayor's Caucus last year and you really get a chance to get to know in a meaningful way many of the mayors nearby.
Jocelyn Hittle: Okay. I couldn't get her to say who her favorite mayor is. Who's your least ... I'm just kidding. Spoken like a true elected official, of course you're never going to name your favorite, but I do love that you mentioned the Metro Mayor's Caucus because I do think it is one of the things that's really special about this region, that it's such a collaborative place and that mayors really come together to tackle regional challenges together, which is, I don't think very common across the country.
Laura Weinberg: Yes. I think we were one of the first and it has continued going strong for decades now.
Jocelyn Hittle: Yeah. I think one of the hallmarks of Colorado. We're a collaborative place in general. Okay. So we're going to talk a little bit now about your career journey, but before we do that, I have a spur of the moment question for you, which is, what is your favorite pair of shoes and why?
Laura Weinberg: I wish I had a favorite pair of shoes. Here's why I don't have one. I have had on both feet corrective surgery in the last nine months. So I have not been able to wear any shoes and I'm very excited to maybe go buy some new shoes that are going to fit and feel amazing.
Jocelyn Hittle: I wish for that for you too.
Laura Weinberg: Thank you.
Jocelyn Hittle: And I'm just going to guess that maybe your future favorite pair of shoes will be ones that are comfortable if you have been dealing with a medical situation.
Laura Weinberg: It's all going to be Comfortable shoes from here on out.
Jocelyn Hittle: That's right. Okay. So let's talk a little bit about how you got where you are. One of the things that we do here at the Spur campus is to introduce young people to careers and career paths, and they have a chance in some cases to see those people doing their jobs here, but we also want to have conversations with a lot of people in a lot of different careers to help people understand how you might get there. So can you give us the broad brush strokes of how you ended up where you are today as mayor of Golden?
Laura Weinberg: Sure. It's never where I've ever imagined I would be. I have always been someone who didn't have a plan, a career path or plan. I enjoyed a lot of things, went to college and had no idea what I wanted to study and tried a lot of different areas of interest until they said, "You have to pick something or you won't be able to graduate." And so I picked two different concentrations and still had no idea what I was going to do with them and just was really following what was of interest and ended up the first thing I did was on the business side. I was interested in consulting and interested in banking and got offered a position. It was a year long management training all through banking, learn all the aspects of banking. And it was in Chicago. And I said, "I've never lived in Chicago. Great, I'll go do that."
And quickly realized both that banking wasn't for me and eventually realized Chicago wasn't for me, but they offered me a brand new position in systems. So in the IT department, they created a new systems analyst, project manager position, and they said, "Would you be interested in this? " And I said, "Yes." And that was sort of the opportunity for me saying, "I'm really not thrilled with the banking side of things, and I really enjoyed the system side." And so I found something that I liked and had no idea that it was even a thing until I started doing it. That translated into quite a few years of systems work.
Jocelyn Hittle: Can you say more about what systems work means in this context?
Laura Weinberg: So to me, it means a lot of things, both the technology systems, so platforms, software, technology that is used. It also means systems change how to improve the way that work gets done, and that might be using technology as tools. It might also just be the processes that are in place, and it might be the talent, the people who are doing the work, and looking at really the results that you want and the entire system in place to get there.
Jocelyn Hittle: Okay. So it's about weaving together all these different components that help a company or organization actually get the work done that they're tasked with.
Laura Weinberg: Yes.
Jocelyn Hittle: And so it's complicated. I'm maybe getting a theme here in the things that are of interest to you. So you were working in systems work, and then what was the transition to your next chapter?
Laura Weinberg: So I was in systems for a lot of ... I moved to Colorado, worked for a software company that sold software to financial service companies, and we were acquired by a financial service company. So I was quickly back in financial services, and I got really tired of the mergers and acquisitions. It was an unending stream of it for about 10 years, wonderful, ended up working for great organizations, And at one point working from here in Denver, I was working for American Express in New York City, a lot of changes, but then I was done with the mergers and acquisitions and changes and was on my own for a little bit doing just consulting kind of project work for other types of companies and thinking about what's next. What do I want to do next? I at the time had been volunteering for a city board, one of those volunteer boards and commissions.
And the council person for my ward wasn't running again, reached out to me and said, "Hey, have you ever thought of running?" And I immediately said no, but then we talked about it and I thought that I could bring something of value to the city that I absolutely love and want to contribute to. I had been doing it as a volunteer. And so I ran for office the first time and that quickly turned into a, "Oh my gosh, this is not what I thought it was. How do we make it better?" And that has been sort of what I've worked on since is how do we make it better?
Jocelyn Hittle: And that's a great sort of unifying principle for, it sounds like for your career path. How do I make this system better, this process better?
Laura Weinberg: Yes. That is foundational. The older you get, the more you realize what are the things that drive you and what are the things that you are interested in doing? And for me, the systems change piece has clearly been a theme through my career.
Jocelyn Hittle: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. So it sounds like some experiences were influential and kind of pointing you in this direction of this through line of improving systems. Were there any people, teachers, bosses, mentors that were particularly influential?
Laura Weinberg: I think probably the most for my career was that first in the bank, right out of college, I lasted like three months in banking before I moved into IT and I was reporting to the CIO. It was brand new position. I'm brand new out of college and he gave me guidance. "Here are some projects, some things we're trying to accomplish." He knew I had no IT background, but he gave me the space to learn, gave me the support I needed when I didn't know something, but gave me the space to figure things out and say, "Here's what I think we should do." And actually listen to someone right out of college to say, "Okay, that sounds good. And what if we did it this way?" And that model is, I think what I have taken with me the rest of my career and I've built amazing teams of people who get a lot done, really high performing, get-stuff-done type of teams.
And it's with that model of maybe you don't know how to do it right now, but let's give you the space to figure it out, be a resource when you're not sure and get excited about what you're trying to deliver.
Jocelyn Hittle: Great. That sounds like great advice and a nice foundational philosophy for how to build a team, which is in many ways more important or just as important as the actual work you are doing day to day to accomplish a task is building the team that helps do all the other pieces, right?
Laura Weinberg: I think so. City council in particular, we're all individually elected. We're not truly a team where you don't have experts in different things, but there's a lot of work that needs to be done. So some of what I have changed or done is I make greater use of council subcommittees to counselors who are interested in a topic or experience can work closely together with staff to research and consider options and alternatives and then pitch it and present it to the full council rather than waiting for someone to do the work and then bring it to us. So it's really been helpful in our decision making and ability to move forward, but it also allows counselors to really get creative and work with folks and figure out alternatives.
Jocelyn Hittle: That's great. So you mentioned this model that you had from your first boss right out of college around how maybe to lead a staff person. And that is one way of being influenced by someone who's maybe more experienced in the field. Have you also gotten specific advice and has that advice ever been bad? And how did you know and what did you do?
Laura Weinberg: I think for me, and I just had this conversation this morning, I had never run for an office. I had never worked on a campaign. I knew nothing about it. And not so much my first campaign for council that's different than running for mayor. The mayor, you're at large for the whole city, but I received some advice on my approach and how to be a real politician, that you needed to dial for dollars and do fundraising all the time and that you needed a political platform on your issues. And I said, "Well, I'm running to improve how council works and be more efficient and effective and so we can make better decisions." And they said, "That is absolutely not going to work. That is terrible. You need to do it this way. This is how you run a political campaign and win." And I didn't take that advice and they were not happy with me because they thought by not taking the advice I would lose.
And I said, "That doesn't feel authentic to who I am. I don't care about the fundraising and I really don't want to have a political platform. I want to consider every topic and every issue and learn about it and make sure to consider all of the options before saying, }This is exactly how I think we should do it." And I won anyways. So I think sometimes when you're doing something new like running for office, you sometimes want to look to the experts and say, "Well, they know how to get it done. They've been successful or this is what it takes." And they're not always right. You don't have to take that advice if it doesn't feel right for you.
Jocelyn Hittle: Well, and it feels particularly relevant if you're coming in to try to make things better and change things that you're not necessarily going to do it the way that the quote, unquote previous experts in that recommend. If it's about change, then yeah, a platform that's about change makes a lot of sense to me.
Laura Weinberg: Yeah. It made sense to me too, which is why I did it.
Jocelyn Hittle: And look at you now. And not only did you win your city council election, but also now have been mayor for how long now?
Laura Weinberg: So I'm in my second term. I've run for mayor twice.
Jocelyn Hittle: And are you termed out after this?
Laura Weinberg: Yes.
Jocelyn Hittle: And what will that next chapter look like then for you?
Laura Weinberg: That it's really exciting for me because I'm again at that position of I don't know. I don't know what's next. I know I have an end date of this work that I'm doing so I can give it my all and figure out what's left to accomplish and have that something new is going to be on the horizon. And hopefully I can use this experience as mayor, previous experience, but just my desire to really work to help improve organizations and the way things get done.
Jocelyn Hittle: Maybe full-time fitness instructor and trainer, maybe not.
Laura Weinberg: Likely not.
Jocelyn Hittle: Likely not.
Laura Weinberg: Likely not.
Jocelyn Hittle: Fair enough. Fair enough. Are there things about having these sort of two pretty different, well, maybe not that different, but somewhat different jobs. Where do they intersect? What things do you take from one into the other?
Laura Weinberg: I've always, my whole life had a variety of things I've done and so I like having different things that I'm involved in. What's been really nice and kind of why I started with the fitness coaching is I needed more physical in my life. There's only so much sitting and staring at computer screens and sitting in meetings and talking and the physical side, I think of being in a gym with people who are there to be healthy and to get stronger, it really balanced the other work that I've been doing. And I think that's where the benefit has been. Less crossover and more balance to say, I'm not just living in this political world or this policy world, but I'm also living in this very different space that I'm in all the time, meeting different people with different concerns and things that they want to talk about and that balance has been very, very helpful over the years.
Jocelyn Hittle: I can imagine, yes. Sitting is bad for us, right? We hear this a lot. Those of us in particular, it hits home for those of us who I think are sitting all day in our jobs. So I fully appreciate the need for balance. So it seems to me like I can envision ... Sometimes I think about a day in the life and I think about a movie montage. Like here is me at work and here is me working out and here is me at home. And I don't know. So when you think about, like if your day in the life were going to be a movie montage, what kind of a movie would it be? What genre?
Laura Weinberg: Oh, good question. I don't know that I have a genre. I'm picturing this montage. My days end up with a lot of clothing changes. Honestly, every morning I have to look at the schedule and say, "What am I doing? Am I teaching a class? Do I need to bring things to change into? And then from class, am I going to an event that I need to speak at? And what does that ..." It is a very strange day in the life, I guess. It's not your typical movie where you get ready for work, you go to work all day and then you get off of work and then you do your other things. It's back and forth all day long. I don't know. I feel like it's probably a boring movie.
Jocelyn Hittle: No, definitely not. I'm picturing you opening a door in a different outfit for all of these different phases as you go.
Laura Weinberg: That's how I feel.
Jocelyn Hittle: Yeah. For all of the different tasks and hats that you have to wear, I don't know what genre that is. I don't either. It's a rom-com, maybe. I don't know.
Laura Weinberg: Maybe a rom-com.
Jocelyn Hittle: Yeah, about a girl on the go.
Laura Weinberg: A girl on the go.
Jocelyn Hittle: So we've talked a little bit about advice, like that you've gotten some bad advice that you didn't listen to, fortunately, you've gotten some good advice. If you were going to give your former self advice, like yourself at 15, what would you tell yourself and what would you say to yourself at 25?
Laura Weinberg: At 15, I think that there's a concern if you don't know what you want to do with your life. And I would tell myself, "Don't worry about it." Just be curious and interested in whatever comes your way and find the things that you enjoy. Don't worry about having a set, "Oh, I'm going to do this and become this professional or this career, or this is going to be my life for the next decades," because there's so many opportunities and opportunities to change if you change your mind.
Jocelyn Hittle: Yeah. And I think it's interesting that you think at 15 we start to feel stressed about that. Okay. So then at 25, it's even worse maybe if you still don't know.
Laura Weinberg: 25 is a little different to me. At 15, I think there's a lot of pressure in high school and so it's more like be curious of what's out there in the world, what are the opportunities and kind of be brave a little bit at that age. It's hard to put yourself out there and ask people, "Well, what is this? Or how do I do that? " Or, "If I want to get involved," it's really hard to put yourself out there. At 25, once you've been through school, you might be a little bit more aware of what's out there in the world. You might know yourself a little better and your ability to interact with people and ask questions. What I would say at 25 to myself or anyone is start figuring out who you are. What are the things that, whatever job you're doing, whatever the thing is, what do you like about what you're doing in that job and what do you not like?
For me, like I said before, I love to read. I learned early on. I do not like to write. Well, that's helpful knowledge as you're trying to figure out the next step in a career or what you want to be doing. Start figuring out who you are and that I think really helps you figure out what those next steps are that you might enjoy doing.
Jocelyn Hittle: Yeah. And I guess I agree with everything that you just said around exploration and putting yourself out there and trying to have experiences, particularly in high school, I think we all ... Well, I don't know, I shouldn't speak for everyone, but for myself, I felt like I was very busy. I had my schoolwork, which I took very seriously, and I had my extracurriculars, and there wasn't a lot of room for exploration of other things in that really busy schedule. More of that came, I think, when I was in college and I was able to sort of structure my day a little bit differently, but it's hard to do that intentionally when you've never done it before. So I hear you on the thoughts for high schoolers trying to explore as much as possible and then continue to do that in college. And when you said when you're 25, you should spend some time knowing what you like.
It's also what you're like, what are you like as an employee, as a person? I don't know that I ever would be really that good in a really hierarchical, rigid structure. That might sound surprising. I work for a university and people think that that's the way it is, but there's a ton of creativity. There's a ton of ... Obviously we built something new here, so it was all about asking people who are smarter than me about things and being creative. So I think it's really important to sort of know what you like and also what you are like.
Laura Weinberg: Exactly. I think 25 is a good time to start reflecting on yourself in a way that you don't at 15 and that you'll probably continue to do for the rest of your life, but it is where maybe you're a little bit more settled in who you are at that age. I think at 15, our high school students are so busy and so focused. And so some of that, that is within the space that you're in. So if it's a sport, an activity, something that's taking up your time, it's still being present in it and saying, "This is what I'm doing, but what are the other people around me doing?" Being a little bit curious about the other things that are happening. Maybe it's a teammate, maybe it's a coach, maybe it's something else that's going around in the thing you're doing and just being a little bit open to saying, recognizing that there are other roles, there are other ways to approach the same thing.
If you're on a team, everybody has a position, but how does that person approach their thing? And we're so, at that age, so focused on self. We're not as curious about what else is around us.
Jocelyn Hittle: Yep. And that's natural, but also doesn't mean we don't work on it. Yeah. So really appreciate your time today. We're going to wrap up now, but I do have one last spur of the moment question for you. Are you on any social media? Are you on Instagram or TikTok or any of those things? Even as a lurker, not as a poster.
Laura Weinberg: I probably get information from social media way more than I put information out there.
Jocelyn Hittle: Yeah, that's fair. I post never, but I have a very well curated Instagram feed and it's curated to only feed me things that are uplifting and fun. What is in your feed that is like guaranteed to lift your mood?
Laura Weinberg: Well, lately I've been getting a lot from the university parents group because as I'm getting ready to send a child off to college and joined their group and they're moving in soon, it's a whole lot of that about moving into campus. But because of the fitness side of things, I have amazing tips, hints, videos of people who are just amazing at both explaining their workouts or why they're doing something or just giving me great ideas for something. I'm like, "Well, I haven't thought about using resistance in that way or doing things." So I'm always learning from some of the trainers, frankly, that I follow. And it makes me feel really like I've learned something new that I can apply in my next class. It's great.
Jocelyn Hittle: That's great. That is the best case scenario with social media, right? That you're learning things from others or in my case that you are watching a blooper reel. I don't really learn much from my feed. I'm honest. It's mostly stuff that makes me laugh.
Laura Weinberg: Okay. I get a lot of fitness videos and recipes.
Jocelyn Hittle: Okay. Yeah, that tracks. That tracks. Well, Mayor Weinberg, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. And if any of our listeners are interested in more information, I'm assuming they can find you on the city's website.
Laura Weinberg: Absolutely. And thank you for having me. This has been great.
Jocelyn Hittle: Yeah. Thank you for being here. The CSU Spur of the Moment podcast is produced by Kevin Samuelson, and our theme music is by Ketza. Please visit the show notes for links mentioned in this episode.