Unapologetically Ourselves

Carletta, Crystal and Julie chat and wrap up this season. Listen in as they chat about current events, personal updates and much more. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unapologetically.ourselves/?hl=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/unapologetically.ourselves.5

Meet Megan Ezeadi!  She is a leader at a high-growth startup — building their first UX team.  She is also pursuing her Master's in Public Administration, raising a bi-racial daughter, contributing to her husband's campaign,  and running the family's real-estate business.   Listen in on how she talks about being intentional with her life and how it has helped her meet her personal and professional goals.  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unapologetically.ourselves/?hl=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/unapologetically.ourselves.5

Meet Viveca, a Registered RN who is a breast cancer survivor. She shares her journey from diagnosis to treatment to life as a breast cancer survivor. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unapologetically.ourselves/?hl=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/unapologetically.ourselves.5

Meet Bessy!  She is the CEO of the Latina Group which is a group that elevates Latinas through mainstream media, marketing, and community. She is an entrepreneur, community leader, photographer and podcaster.  Bessy is also the founder of the Austin Latina Bloggers, which is a community that supports local Latina women through culture and connections. They are a unified sisterhood of business owners, entrepreneurs, mothers, career doers, and dreamers.  They believe that through community they can all reach their goals.  She is a Latina mom, veterans wife and a fur mom! 

Jen Buck has been a Professional Speaker for 24 years and focuses on advocating, activating, and amplifying high-performing women. She presents keynotes and trainings around the world, and has an online training academy for women called The HERstory Collaborative. She is a Bestselling Author, has written 5 books, has a podcast, webcast, and TV show which is seen in 50 countries worldwide that focuses on trailblazing women who are changing their corner of the world. 

Carletta, Crystal and Julie are back with Season 3!  Listen in as they recap the break and share what they've been up to. They also have a new set of End of Segment questions that lend some very vulnerable responses!  Enjoy!Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unapologetically.ourselves/?hl=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/unapologetically.ourselves.5

Kristin Watkins is a documentary family photographer in Atlanta, GA.  Her goal is to photograph families as they are in their natural habitat and to capture the little snippets of everyday life that makes each family unique. She offers day-in-the-life photo sessions that are completely unposed and unscripted.  Through this experience, she herself has learned valuable lessons about parenting and how that looks different for each family.  She is the parent of four kids, two of whom are Black and one who is non-binary.  She is an avid reader, believes the West Wing was the best TV show ever, and lives for Cadbury Egg season every year.  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unapologetically.ourselves/?hl=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/unapologetically.ourselves.5

Irene Garza is a Mexican American Woman born in Burley, Idaho. She moved to Yuma, Arizona in 1999. She is a wife, mother, daughter, sister, and an advocate. For over thirty years, she has worked in both the health and early childhood fields, and has volunteered on many local community and state boards and councils. In the years 2008 through 2020, Irene served as Vice Chair on the First Things First Regional Council. From 2009 to 2011, she served on the Western Arizona Council of Governments Head Start Parent Board. Since 2016, she currently serves on the Yuma County Early Childhood Collaborative Leadership Team. Irene has been married to her husband, Jorge, for 23 years. Together they have two amazing teenage boys, Jorge Jr. and Rudy Frez. Irene considers herself a full time mom with many part time responsibilities. In her local community, she is an advocate for parents who have children with special needs. Irene believes that every child deserves the opportunity to live long, happy, healthy lives.Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unapologetically.ourselves/?hl=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/unapologetically.ourselves.5

Meet our guest Sheree Haggan! Sheree is a powerful speaker and activist who specializes in cultural innovation for small-town communities and businesses. She currently works as a Diversity Program Manager for Google. She co-founded the Blog Dear Kind Person and is continuously building content to support people in their journey of allyship.A lesbian woman of color and diversity expert, she is the anomaly for a rural upbringing. Sheree has the ability to empathize with people at all stages of their journey towards inclusion. Coupling personal experience with years of expertise, she is able to relate to and strategically combat systemic bias and oppression. She provides people with the tools they need to broaden their lens of understanding and build businesses where people of all backgrounds can succeed and know that they belong.

For the past decade, Chelsea has worked with individuals, companies, non-profits, and leadership teams offering streamlined strategies to help them achieve their goals. She quickly realized that the strength of organizations directly correlated to the fulfillment of its individuals—individuals who each needed unique attention according to their unique personality type. With a Bachelor’s in Organizational Leadership, an Associate's in Sociology, and her certification as an enneagram coach through the "Your Enneagram Coach" intensive, Chelsea wields an impressive set of skills in deciphering the many factors that  make up an enneagram type. In this deconstruction, she is able to identify both the roadblocks and the bridges of each unique personality and offer concrete, doable solutions to overcoming those obstacles and capitalizing on strengths.

Meet Emely! She is a fashion and skincare influencer extraordinaire that helps bring visibility to the plus size and queer communities. Through her blogs and social media posts, she motivates others by sharing her struggles with diversity, promotes plus size and queer inclusivity, and empowers women. When she is not creating content for her business, she spends time with her wife of five years and her adorable husky Bruno. "It is extremely important to me to help others realize that we can love ourselves as we are right now.” Emely Turnish Follow EmelyInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/luxandpups/Website: http://www.luxandpups.com/

Being Black While Living In America: Past, Present & Future Part 2, highlights a critical conversation between Carletta’s husband, Phil Miller and accomplished soloist, songwriter and public policy expert G.P. Jackson. The two of them discuss the importance of equity and social justice and why it matters. We find out how the intersection of G.P.’s public policy background, his awareness to eradicate disparity be a change agent birthed this message that resided within him to bring you his song, Letter To A Nation. Letter to A Nation is a powerful, thought-provoking and hopeful message addressing how COVID-19, violence, and social injustice have impacted the Black communities in America and is a starting point to begin healing.Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unapologetically.ourselves/?hl=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/unapologetically.ourselves.5

This week's Unapologetically Ourselves Black History Month Episode is focusing on conversations with Black Men. Being Black While Living In America: Past, Present & Future highlights a critical conversation between Carletta’s husband, Phil Miller and Grocery Industry Icon, Jonathan Mayes. Jonathan is the Senior Vice President, Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer for the Albertson-Safeway Companies and is a nationally-known speaker on diversity, equity and inclusion. He earned his Juris Doctorate degree from Willamette University College of Law and is a Certified Diversity Executive. Mr. Mayes has held a number of senior leadership positions in Government Relations, Public Affairs, Sustainability & Philanthropy. Jonathan most recently has been recognized as one of America's Top 100 Diversity Offices (2021 Awardee) by the National Diversity & Inclusion Leadership Council. Now while all of these professional accolades are wonderful, Jonathan really is more of a cultural curator of sorts; He plays the piano, guitar, bass, violin, drums and is a marvelous vocalist. He is an accomplished endurance athlete who has competed in Ironman triathlons, ultramarathons and over 80 marathons. Both Jonathan (2012) and Phil (2020) served as Board Chairman for the California Grocers Association and are going to take you on a journey through their personal and professional experiences of Being Black While Living In America. These two men are influential story tellers and we promise you will enjoy and learn from this conversation. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unapologetically.ourselves/?hl=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/unapologetically.ourselves.5

Join Carletta along with Natalie, Terri, and Tracey as they discuss being a minority in the workplace and how white people can become allies in the workplace!Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unapologetically.ourselves/?hl=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/unapologetically.ourselves.5

Join Carletta and a few of her girlfriends, Natalie, Terri and Tracey discuss the intentionality of parenting children of color as it pertains to education, community and society. They let you in on their conversation about topics that are often discussed privately amongst Black parents. While we are not the voice of EVERY Black parent, these are concerns that many of us have. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unapologetically.ourselves/?hl=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/unapologetically.ourselves.5

Join us as personal trainer Brittany Dawn provides her prospective on nutrition trends, the stronghold that scales can have on us and what to look for in a trainer. Brittany also shares with us why she loves what she does, helping women grow stronger!You can follow Brittany Dawn on Instagram: https://instagram.com/brittanydawnfit?igshid=1vb5p2nx5bqj0Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unapologetically.ourselves/?hl=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/unapologetically.ourselves.5

Join us as Dr. Dode Washington, OBGYN discuss topics such as birth control, embarrassing our teens, menopause and everything in between. Dr. Washington shares her “why” she chose to become an ONGYN and why she enjoys this field of medicine. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unapologetically.ourselves/?hl=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/unapologetically.ourselves.5

Listen in as Lori Ramos tells the empowering story of how she flipped the adversity of California's Covid lockdown & created her own business, Lori's Picnics. She now brings a sense of normalcy, beauty, and joy to her customers by providing them a beautiful set up to celebrate special moments in the safety of their own backyard, park, or beach. You can find Lori's Picnics on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lorispicnics/?hl=enInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/unapologetically.ourselves/?hl=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/unapologetically.ourselves.5

Carletta, Julie, and Crystal reflect on the first season of Unapologetically Ourselves! They highlight ah-ha moments as well as thought-provoking topics from their guests. It's a wrap! Follow us on Social MediaInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/unapologetically.ourselves/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/unapologetically.ourselves.5Julie's book recommendations:White Fragility by Robin DiangeloHow to Be An Antiracist by Ibram X KendiCaste by Isabel Wilkerson

Gina is back!! In this episode, we sit down virtually with counselor Gina Beyer again to discuss mental health, racial injustice, equality and so much more! During these times, we are finding ways to connect with each other again. Gina helps give tips on understanding people with different views than ours and confirms we don't have to "have it all together" we just need to continue being that light in a dark place. Link to the article Gina referenced:https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/11/americas-two-souls/617062/?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share

These past 4 years have been rough on all of us! There's a sense of relief, but so much work to be done. Listen in as Carletta, Crystal and Julie discuss the 2020 election, the drama that it held, and hopes of what is to come.

Our very own Julie had vertical sleeve gastrectomy weight loss bariatric surgery on 9/14/2020. Listen in on this episode to hear how she decided to have this surgery and how her insurance authorized and covered her surgery. Julie shares her experience with pre-surgery, the surgery itself, and recovery. If you struggle with a food addiction, this may be an option for you!Follow Julie's story on Instagram:@jujubees.vsg

Meet Vickie! Carletta's Mom opens up and shares her journey about her breast cancer diagnosis and how she fought for her life!

In this episode, you will listen to Crystal talk about her late mother Dora, and how she was a big influence in not only Crystal's life but also the lives of others who crossed her path. Though Dora's life was not easy, she chose to see the good in each day. She poured into people who needed to be uplifted and listened to those who just needed to talk. She changed the world, one person at a time. Her legacy continues with this episode.

Meet Tracey, a woman who operates strategically and intentionally to ensure no one would determine her path but her! Embodying the strength of women's influences and ensuring she continues to uplift other women, she embraces......I win, you win, WE WIN!!!

Meet Vanessa, she is the daughter of an immigrant mother. Vanessa was determined to pass down her mother's story and the stories of other immigrant children to ensure their stories never die. She launched her podcast Hija de tu Madre Podcast earlier this year and now has the platform for daughters of immigrant mothers to share their mother's story of how they made the difficult journey to the United States. Join us as Vanessa shares her story. Hija de tu Madre PodcastListen on Spotify, Apple Podcast, and Amazon PodcastFollow on: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hijadetumadrepodcast/?hl=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/Hija-de-tu-Madre-Podcast-100575041755435Twitter: https://twitter.com/HDTMpodcast

Meet the husbands of the Unapologetically Ourselves Podcast who support strong women! Chris (Crystal), Phil (Carletta), and Kyle (Julie) share their side of how they met their wives, what influences they had growing up that helped shape how they view women and what they admire most about their wives.

Please join us for this episode as we chat with our friend Mandy on how she chose to create her own path to seek enlightenment and embraced a life that felt true to her. She tells us her story about how she made the difficult decision to leave her family's faith and how that choice affected her family. Mandy also chats about her passion for empowering women and fighting for equality for all.

In this episode, we introduce our friend Jenny! She a veteran history educator, mother of a teenager, wife of 23 years, breast cancer survivor, and avid world traveler. Jenny talks about her personal experiences as a teacher and opens up about her journey that led to informal education in infertility, adoption, and breast cancer.

Our guest Gary discusses his experience as a police officer and how he used his influence to support the communities he served in. He also discusses how he supports strong women.

Ruby Garza is a world traveler, speaker, and caregiver. As a child of migrant field workers traveling from state to state, Ruby dreamed of a life that seemed far out of her reach. With the love and support from her family, Ruby graduated from the University of Arizona and now has a career she loves and travels to far expanses of the earth to places she used to read about as a child. Ruby is now living a life with no limits, she is living her life unapologetically!

In this episode Crystal, Carletta and Julie sit down with counselor, consultant, and Guidley content strategist Gina Beyer to discuss mental well-being during COVID. We also have discussions on racism and what she wants other white people to know.

Crystal, Carletta, and Julie open up individually on this episode to provide insight on how they became to live unapologetically!

Join Carletta, Julie, and Crystal as they give you a sneak peak of why they created a podcast and what's to come.