Business Innovators Radio - The Inspired Impact Podcast with Judy Carlson-Interview with Betty Heid, Executive Producer, “Great Colorado Women” Film Series

Episode Date: May 27, 2025

Elizabeth (Betty) Heid is the past chair of the Board of Directors of the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame, serving on the board for 6 years: 5 years as Chair, one year as past chair.While serving as Chair of the Board, she recognized a need to broadly tell the life stories of the women who were inducted into the Hall. She was inspired to design and create the “Great Colorado Women” film series. Serving as Executive Producer since implementation in 2016, she has produced 33 films to date. All as a volunteer.The film series focuses on historic and contemporary Colorado women and their little known, underreported achievements. This multi-season series honors the more than 200 trailblazing women who have been inducted into the Hall since its founding in 1985. These stories provide role models to remind women and girls that they too can aspire higher to reach their dreams and to educate men and boys about women’s accomplishments. The result of this series is the creation of a comprehensive historical archive of the rich legacy of great Colorado women and will be a major step toward women being appropriately represented in Colorado history.This series, now in its seventh season, is really an eye-opener to the accomplishments and the impacts Colorado women have had on our state, our country, and our world. The films produced each year air on Rocky Mountain PBS. These films have earned 4 Heartland EMMY awards, while receiving 15 Heartland EMMY nominations. One film also won the Los Angeles Film festival for “Inspiring Woman in a Film.” The films have been viewed worldwide, reaching an audience of well over one million viewers.Betty’s professional experience includes: owner, founder and CEO of two multi-million dollar businesses: a consulting agency and a job placement agency. Previously, she worked for several Fortune 500 companies where she was a senior executive responsible for customer service, project management, operations management, and quality assurance. She has managed staffs as large as 600 employees and had responsibility for over one billion dollars of annual revenue.Ms. Heid is a Colorado Native, who has lived in Colorado most of her life. She is a life-long volunteer focusing on education, women’s issues, and history. She has served as chair or a member of many boards and organizations across Colorado. She holds an under-graduate and a master’s degree from the University of Denver, both in Business Administration. She is also a certified mediator. Her hobbies include golf, bridge, travel, reading, and exercising.https://www.cogreatwomen.org/**********************************************************Judy is the CEO & Founder of the Judy Carlson Financial Group. She helps her clients design, build, and implement fully integrated and coordinated financial plans from today through life expectancy and legacy.She is an Independent Fiduciary and Comprehensive Financial Planner who specializes in Wealth Decumulation Strategies. Judy is a CPA, Investment Advisor Representative, Life and Health Insurance Licensed, and Long-Term Care Certified.Judy’s mission is to educate and empower her clients with an all-inclusive financial plan that encourages and motivates them to pursue their lifetime financial goals and dreams.Learn More: https://judycarlson.com/Investment Adviser Representative of and advisory services offered through Royal Fund Management, LLC, an SEC Registered Adviser.The Inspired Impact Podcasthttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/the-inspired-impact-podcast/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/the-inspired-impact-podcast-with-judy-carlson-interview-with-betty-heid-executive-producer-great-colorado-women-film-series

Welcome to the Inspired Impact Podcast, where dedicated female professionals share how they inspire impact every day. Authentic stories, passionate commitment, lives transformed. I'm your host, Judy Carlson. Welcome to today's episode of the Inspired Impact Podcast. I'm excited to introduce you to today's guest. she is making an indelible impression on Colorado history as the executive producer of the great Colorado women film series. Betty Hyde, welcome to the podcast. Thank you, Judy.

I'm really happy to be here with you. Now, I'm guessing there's a lot that leads up to you doing this because, what, have you done, 32 films to date? But there's a lot of life before that happens. So where do you want to start telling us about your journey? Well, let's start with how I got started down this path of doing filming. I had recently retired, and we can talk about that later if you want to, but I had recently retired, and I've never been one to not have something to do. So I was asked to join the board of the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame.

And when I, you know, I didn't know a whole lot about the organization, but after I checked them out, I thought, you know, they're about women, they're about Colorado, they're about education, they're about history, a lot of things that I really cared about. So I thought, well, that would be something interesting. And I had served on many boards, been chairs of boards, done a lot of volunteer work all my life. So it was something that really was familiar to me, but also something very interesting to me. So I came on the board and about a year, almost a year after I was asked to join the board, I was asked to take over as chair of the board. And at that point, I was a little hesitant, I guess, is the right word, because I'd been on the board for only a year and I saw it was a really important organization.

but the current chair was leaving for personal reasons, and so everybody thought I was the right person, and I guess as it turns out I was. But anyway, so I was chair of the board, and I got to know more about the programs and the things, the events that the board was putting on and sharing around the state. As I traveled around the state talking about the Hall of Fame,

I realized people didn't know about the women. They didn't know their stories. They didn't know their history. They didn't know the impact and the influence that they'd had on our state. And I thought there's got to be a way to get that word out there better. Many people were encouraging me to write a book. And I'm a book lover. I read a lot of books.

But I thought, you know, probably maybe a few hundred. If I wrote a book, maybe a few hundred copies. But not a whole lot more. Anyway, that was my thinking at the time. And so I thought, I'm just going to produce films. Wow. And actually, that's the way the thought came to me. Really?

I'm going to tell their story in film. And, of course, film and, you know, all that media is just what we all use today. So, but I had no, no idea on how to produce a film. I've been filmed on TV. and done a few of that little kind of stuff, but I had never been responsible for producing a film. So I thought, oh my gosh, now I've opened my mouth. I have to come through.

And so I did a lot of research. Part of my history was I've done a lot of business organization, business development. So as I was thinking about this, I thought, this is like any other job. I can figure out how to do this job. So I did a lot of research. I went out, talked to a number of people that were in the industry.

What does it take to produce a film? How do you go about it? And when I finally had a pretty good sense of what it would take for me to produce a film, then I issued an RFP of request for proposal. for film companies to submit a proposal to me so that way I could find the best film company and get started producing films. And so luckily,

I'm going to back up just to hear, one of the speeches that I was giving about the Hall of Fame at the University of Denver for the Women's Foundation of Colorado, there was a gentleman there filming. And I thought, oh, he's somebody I can talk to and find out. So anyway, I spent a lot of time with this gentleman.

And he taught me a lot about the filming process and what I needed to do. But anyways, it turns out after I issued the request for proposal, he did submit a proposal, and I'm very lucky that he came out the best. he had the most experience. He gave me the best price. He had all of his equipment. He had actually produced films that had been shown on TV before, so he had that experience. So I was real pleased to have him as my film producer, my editor. And so anyway, that's how we got started. So then I had to raise some money because, well, I do all of this as a volunteer. because it's my gift to women, it's my gift to the Hall of Fame,

it's my gift to Colorado, I do have to pay the film crew. So for every film that I produced, I do have to raise money. So we had to raise some money, and we did. And then we got started. And the first two films we worked on, one was on Dana Crawford. And many people may know about Dana Crawford because of Lerner Square. and her passion

about restoring old buildings and not just tearing old buildings down but repurposing them and so we did a story on her and then we did a story on Marion Downs who was the who when she was in her oh probably early 30s

went back to college her children that were now old enough she wanted to go back to college she went back to college and this was oh go go. goodness, I think in 1940s, somewhere in there. And it was when the men were coming back from World War II. And so there were these lines of men at D.U.

It happened to be the University of Denver in line. And the shortest line was for audiology. And so she got in the line for audiology. And ended up going to school about that. And to make a long story short, she ended up knowing, learning that if you test babies for hearing loss at birth and you treat them, you can reduce the amount of hearing loss babies will have for the rest of their life. And so that's what Marian Downs focused her life on.

and that's why babies, almost all babies in the United States, many, many babies around the world are tested for hearing at birth. It's because of Marion Downs. And so these are the kinds of stories that people don't know about. They don't know these women lived here in Colorado. They made a huge difference to our lives. And so it was those kinds of stories that really inspired. me to say, yes, we have to do these films. We have to get these stories out there. We have to let

people learn about these women from Colorado who have made such a huge difference. So how is it produced? What are you showing on the screen and is their narrative? So what it is, it's a life story film. So, and it's a half-hour film. Our films air, that was another thing. When I first started doing these films, I was just going to give them away to school, museums, libraries, but anybody who wanted to watch them, could watch them. But after we produced our first couple, I said, no, no, I'm going to get these on TV. And so I thought, Rocky Mountain PBS fits the best. When I looked at the channels we have here in Denver and throughout Colorado, Rocky Mountain PBS was the medium that I thought fit best with the mission of the Hall of Fame

and fit best with the kinds of stories we wanted to tell. So I knocked on their door and I always say they didn't say this to me, but I always say when I knocked on their door, they say, yeah, you and 50,000 other people have films you want to show. That's really not quite what they said. I get the message. Yes, but that's a message. But anyway, it took about a year of being persistent of going back again and again and saying,

have you seen my film? You know, I really think that your station is the right place for our films. So finally, I was getting a little frustrated and I scheduled a meeting and I went in and I said, you know, I really still believe our films are best on your station. but if you're not interested, I'm going somewhere else. But I really want to give you one last, another chance to say, so they did look at my films and they said, oh my gosh, yes, yes, we do want your films. Your films fit perfectly with the kinds of stories we tell.

So, you know, so I was real pleased about that. So our first films aired in 2018, and we've had seven years. since. We're in our seventh season today. But back to your question about what is the story about. It's a, like I said, it's a live story film. So we talk about where did these women come from? What was their family like? Kind of what led their path down the path that it went? And so we do talk about why they're somewhat famous, so speak or and even some of them were not real famous but they still made a huge impact but um so we tell that whole life story about where they came from where they started we talk about their family

life where they went to school and on and on and on up to where they are today or if they've already passed and um we do films on women who have passed we think the hall of fame Colorado women's All of Fame is the only organization that honors women who have passed. And so we do films on women who have passed also. But anyway, it's a life story film talking about their impact. You know, most people don't set out to say I'm going to go conquer whatever or do whatever. What happens in most women? and I think it's a little different for men, but for women,

something they see something, a door opens, an opportunity comes knocking, where they see a need or they see a hole somewhere that needs to be filled, something that needs to be taken care of. And so women then jump right in and do what needs to be done. But I think most women don't set out to do that. Right. A lot of it happens through a circumstance that may come into their lives, and then that becomes their passion, and they make a big difference because of that. That is correct, yes.

Wow. So you made the first two, you got onto the Rocky Mountain PBS, and how have you grown the program, the women, the films since the, the first two? So the women that we highlight in these films are women who are, have been inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame. Okay. Now, I know there's lots of other outstanding women out there, but what I'm focused on are the women who have been inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame. And as of right now, it's a little over 200 women.

Wow. Well, but it's not so much when he's not so much. think about how many millions of women have lived in Colorado, have impacted Colorado all these years from our very beginning days, you know, there's been a lot of women, millions. Right. So we've inducted a little over 200 women today, and those are the women's who stories I tell. I was laughing more because you've produced 32 films, so you've only got 168. Yes, it's more than lifetime work, and let me tell you that.

And we keep, you know, the Hall of Fame index more women every two years. And so, you know, it never, I can't seem to catch up with a number, but we're working on it. So is it you or a committee that decides of the 170 left, which ones you're going to do that year or the next year? No, it's a real simple reason how it gets selected. As I told you earlier, I have to pay the film group. And it's the women who's filmed I can raise money for. That's whose films get done. Oh.

And how do you know which ones you can raise money for? Well, it's kind of interesting. Sometimes the women are still alive. they express interest and we talk through it and we talk about maybe how I can go out and raise the money for them. Yeah. Because I do most of that also. I raise the money for these films.

And if the woman has passed, I look at what their history was and I go out and talk to people who might have some interest or who cared about that woman. Yeah. And so it, You know, I raise money all over the place. I always say it's the hardest part of producing films.

Now that I've gotten into it, I know how to produce a film. Right. Raising the money is really often the hardest part. But we all say that when you're having to raise money to do any kind of event. Raising money is the hardest part. Right. So do you have a coalition of people who want to see you continue producing them more and more and are there with funding?

or is it all individual from each of the different women's films? I have a couple of women who have been very supportive in the last few years and have been supporting a film for the last several years. So a couple of women have been doing that. But the rest are all. I go out and talk to people and raise money and, you know, through whatever means I can, I raise the money.

But I have to say, I'm going to say, you know, the price to produce a film, a television show is quite expensive if you're just on the open market. Because I donate my time and my film crew gives me a really, really, really great rate, we do it at a much less expensive than it would be if we were on, you know, just out producing a film. So it's not horribly expensive, but it's still, it's expensive.

And for many of the women in the Hall of Fame who don't come from money, you know, they don't have a way of doing it. Some women, a few women have funded their own. A few have had maybe

a business or some company or an organization or foundation or somebody that, they've worked with who's supported him. And so I get a lot of that where the women have been influential. They want to contribute to tell her story. So I get a lot of that. But, you know, it just comes from lots of different places.

So maybe someone from outside of the Denver metropolitan area and another part of the state, you may go visit the community and talk to the mayor or officials there and do they even know about the project a lot of times when you make appointments with them? A lot of people around the state know about the Hall of Fame, but again, it's still, you know, it's still kind of a hidden asset. Right. I was going to say it seems to be a hidden asset, but it's phenomenal.

It's a phenomenal hidden asset, these films. Yeah. The Hall of Fame works really hard. When I was chair of the board, we also, we worked hard, and the Hall still work. are getting out around the state and talking to people about the Hall of Fame for a number of reasons, not just for this film project, which is really, I think, of course, it's near and dear to my heart, but still, and we do want people to watch the films. But it's also because the public nominates the women to be inducted into the Hall of Fame,

and we do want women from around the state. So we make a pretty good effort trying to get out there. I'll be honest with you, it is hard. And most of the board lives in the Denver area or the front range area. But we've always had people from around the state on the board of directors. And so that's one way we try to get out. And we do have events in different cities around the state. So, you know, the word gets out, but again, it's a little harder, but yes, we were hard at that.

Yeah. So, like, how many are you doing in 2025? Do you know? Yes, we're planning to release six films this year. We released one at the end of March, and that was a story of Dorothy Harrell, who was a very well-known, impactful. in higher education. Okay. Then we're going to release in coming up in June, on June 19th,

we're going to release a film on Dottie Lamb. And most people in Colorado, no Dottie Lam. She was a past first lady and lots of other things that she's done. And then on June 26th, we're going to release a film on Joni Berkland. And Joni was perhaps, one of the best women athletes to ever come out of the state of Colorado.

So you'll learn about that when you watch her film. And then in August, this year is the 40th anniversary of the Hall of Fame. So we're producing a film on the 40 years of the Hall of Fame. And we'll release that one in August. And then in the September, October timeframe during for Hispanic Awareness Month, we're going to release a film on Lena Archiletta and on Lydia Peña. So those are the six will release this year. That's a big undertaking.

And then when do you plan? When do you plan 2026? I'm already doing that. I'm already raising the money for the films that we're going to release in 2026. I think I have four funded so far. So I'm working, raising money for some others. But, you know, we try to do about five or six a year, which is a pretty full load. And they're each about a half an hour.

One other thing that's wonderful about the Hall of Fame and about the films is that we are working with History Day, Colorado. And they work with the school districts around the state. and so they are utilizing stories of the women in the Hall of Fame in the curriculum for public schools. And maybe charter schools too, I'm not real sure. I'm not exactly sure how many schools and how white spread that is, but public schools in Colorado have access to the stories of the women through their curriculum, and they also have access to the films.

And so they also then can see the films that really learn about the woman. And then another great thing that the hall has done is it's worked with the Girl Scouts of Colorado. And the Girl Scouts has a badge or a patch, not a badge, but a patch because it's localized. They have a patch that they get earned about, it's a Colorado Women's Hall of Fame patch, and they learn about the women's Hall of Fame patch. And they learn about the women, and they can write a story about it in order to earn their, Pat, they have to do some research, write a story, present it to their true, that kind of thing. So they learn about the women in the whole thing. The Girl Scouts do that as part of their, you know, their curriculum, whatever they do.

Yeah. Your legacy is just going to live on for hundreds of years, Betty. You know, I really, yes, we, these films, we hope, will survive through whatever. the future holds and that these films will be available to the future so that with people in the future 50 years or now, 100 years from now, whatever our world is like at that time, we'll have these films to go back and they can see the kinds of things that women did. And not just the women of today, which is why the films are so important, is because we also do women from the past. So we did a film like on Chepeda, who was, you know, an Indian American woman.

And one of the indigenous women of Colorado. And we do stories on, you know, the suffragettes. And so we do stories on women. We did a story on Francis Weiss Bart Jacobs, who came here in the late 1800s, her and her husband, because of the gold rush. And that was at the time that people were coming here for the tuberculosis care. And so she came here and she saw that people were so poor that they were just living on the street begging. And so she would start, you know, going around and giving them, you know, a little bit of money here or giving them a little bit of food there, whatever. And then not only were they begging, then obviously they had the tuberculosis. and so they were not healthy,

and of course they weren't getting health care either. So Francis Weissbark-Jacobes in the, it's probably about the early 1900s about this time this happened. She started what was called Denver Charities because she was going around to, she was going around to the businesses in Denver saying, can you give to help?

And they said, we're tired of somebody walking on our door every five minutes. So she started Denver Charities. and that was the forerunner of United Way. And so her legacy holds to today. And of course, United Way is an international organization now. But Francis Weissbark-Jacob's started Denver charities in Denver, Colorado, and now it's grown into this United Way.

And then the fact that they were ill and not having good medical care, she went to some of her doctor friends, and they decided to start a hospital. And that was the beginning of National Jewish Hospital. Oh, wow. This one woman back in the early 1900s, late 1800s, early 1900s, her legacy will last forever with United Way and National Jewish Hospital. Again, that's a story that no one knows. That's right. Wow. Oh, my gosh, I have goosebumps all the way up and down. That's amazing. And you're learning them to life.

I always get goosebumps when I tell these stories. And I always get goosebumps when I tell Francis Whiteford-Jekos, you know. So when I first got involved with the Hall of Fame, there were all these women in the Hall of Fame. And I thought, how am I ever going to? People would ask me, well, who's in the Hall of Fame and, you know, who are these women? So I learned about, you know, six, eight, ten of them. And Francis, Vice for Jacobs is one of the stories that I learned that I could tell people about. And so I was so happy when I could finally do her story because it just meant so much to me. And I just think, what an phenomenal woman. Right. Yeah. Wow. So how long are you going to be able to keep doing these, Betty? I don't know. I started this, like I told you, when I retired from working. Right. And from a couple, I owned a couple of businesses and I retired. So I've been doing them now for, well, I started in 2014, had the ID in 2014.

So I'm now at 11 years into this. And of course, it took a couple years before we could even produce one film and took a couple years to do the first couple. So we were fairly slow getting started. And then, of course, then we had COVID. Oh, right. And that threw a monkey wrench in the works. And so we've done, by the end, of this year will have done 37.

Wow. Okay. 37. So, you know, I intend to keep doing them as long as I am capable, as long as, as, you know, I still get that goosebumps when I tell these stories. So I don't know how long that will be, but, you know, I am getting, I'm getting older, too, so I don't know. Hopefully a long time. And plus, staying involved in something as educational and detailed as you're in only keeps us young, right?

Absolutely. Everybody should find something that they're passionate about because it's not only good, it's good mentally and it's good physically for you to do something that you're really passionate about. Yeah. Wow, that's such great advice for people retiring who are. clueless about how am I going to spend my days. Such a great testimony. Love it. And anybody can do anything.

Yeah. Anything to do anything. If you, you know, I had no idea. I mean, filming was the furthest thing from anything I'd ever done my entire life. But I thought, you know what? I can do this. I just, now I probably couldn't do brain surgery. And I probably couldn't say.

to rock it up in space. But there are a lot of other things that we all can learn still yet. We're not too old to learn anything. And so I just encourage everybody if you're retired, if you're thinking about retired, or if your retirement's further out there yet, be thinking about what you can do to make our world a better place. And it doesn't take, you know, it's not a huge commitment to anything. You know, it's just committing to giving back to our world.

I love it. Yep, exactly. That's awesome. Wow. Well, thank you so much for sharing such a great story. And you're just, it's so inspiring to hear you talk about what you've taken on since you retired in the impact that you're making in Colorado today and for the years beyond. So this has been fabulous. If people want to learn more, what should they do, Betty? They can go to the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame website, which is c0 greatwomen.org. And they go to the film library, and all of the films are there. And they can, or they can, what else was I was going to say something. Sorry. Anyway, but all of the films are there.

Oh, they can learn more about the hall. the Hall of Fame on that website also. Sure. I just want to say one other thing about the films that we're really proud about. These films have aired in almost every country around the world. And you can tell where a film has been seen. So we know that nearly every country on every continent except Antarctica. We don't think it's Antarctica, has seen our films.

So we've had well over a million. viewers to see our films. And we've also, we've been nominated 15 times for Emmys, and we've won four Hartland Emmy Awards. So we're really proud of that. So I wanted to tell you that. Yeah, I'm glad you didn't leave that out. That's phenomenal. And do you still have that same gentleman that was filming at the Women's Conference at which you spoke? Yes, yes. Rick and I, Rick Higgins and I are still partners. I told him a few years ago, I said, Rick, when I talked to you to start with, and we signed that contract, I told you, this was not going to be one year and done. This was going to be a long-term thing.

And I said, are you in for the long haul? And he said he was. And so far, he's been right there, in for the long haul. So that's great. Wow. And that brings a lot of the consistency that people see in the films, which I think is so, important. Yes. That's great. Phew. Wow. Wow. I could just go on forever talking more about this, but thank you so much for

spending some time with us this afternoon. I'm so excited to get the word out, get it published, and look forward to our listeners learning more. Thank you so much. I've enjoyed it. Thanks so much for joining us for the Inspired Impact Podcast. To listen to past episodes, please visit theinspiredimpactpodcast.com.