Podcasts about dei

Deena Pierott is also a Social Impact Entrepreneur and the Founder of the award winning and nationally recognized STEM+Arts program for youth of color called iUrban Teen which has chapters in four states, and most recently launched Black Women in STEM 2.0. Ms. Pierott is also a diversity strategist and international public speaker. She has served on several boards and commissions including a Gubernatorial appointment to the Commission on African American Affairs in the State of Washington. She has been featured on the following publications: Government Technology, Essence Magazine, Working Mother Magazine, Black Enterprise, Ebony Magazine, Deliver magazine, Portland Business Journal, Geekwire, Colors of Influence, Neurology Now, the Chicago Tribune and on NPR. “We are standing on the shoulders of our ancestors who are slaves. It's a responsibility in this life to walk through it with dignity, grace and integrity.” “Stand up for others and be fearless with it.” “Raise your hand, ask questions, be engaged, even if you know the answer to it. Don't be a wallflower.”  Deena Pierott https://www.linkedin.com/in/dpierott  iUrbanTeen https://iurbanteen.org/ Do Better: Spiritual Activism https://www.amazon.com/Do-Better-Spiritual-Activism-Supremacy/dp/1982151277  Follow Patti Dobrowolski - Instagram https://www.instagram.com/upyourcreativegenius/ Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/patti-dobrowolski-532368/ Up Your Creative Genius https://www.upyourcreativegenius.com/  Timestamp [3:56] Meeting Deena Pierott and fling into Diversity, Equity and Inclusion [7:23] Working with innovative ways to change policy [8:44] How being a gay person in Texas is similar to Deena's experience [10:21] You have to be yourself in corporate America [10:55] How Deena started iUrbanTeen [14:26] Growing iUrbanYouth, iUrbanUniversity and working with Microsoft [15:57] Why Black Women in STEM was created [17:19] Making change in the world where anything can be done [19:20] It's never too late. What's your next thing? [21:22] Who is an inspiration to Deena? [22:56] How to tap into your creative genius? What's your routine? [24:35] You got to have skin in the game [27:52] Trick is to get into motivation and keep in momentum [28:20] Workaholic, selfcare, and dealing with trauma [31:30] Hurdles of being a black women founder [34:30] Sometimes its easier to stand up for others [36:27] What is the book you are reading right now [39:40] Biggest tip for someone making a change   Patti Dobrowolski 0:03 Hello superstars. Welcome to the Up Your Creative Genius Podcast where you will gain insight and tips to stomp on the accelerator and blast off to transform your business and your life. I'm your host, Patti Dobrowolski. And if this is your first time tuning in, then strap in because this is serious rocket fuel. Each week I interview fellow creative geniuses to help you learn how easy it is to up your creative genius in any part of your life. Hey, everybody, it's Patti Dobrowolski. What's Up Your Creative Genius? Oh, my God. Today, I have just one of my favorite people in the universe. Deena Pierott. Now listen. So if you don't know who Deena Pierott is, I'm going to give you the lowdown on her and then she's going to tell us about herself. But first, I just want to say thank you to everyone who has been subscribing and listening to the podcast and writing reviews. You like drove us up in the charts! It's fantastic. I love it. And I'm so grateful I am because this podcast is all about making change: how you can make change happen. And I've invited all these changemakers who have decided to change the world for other people or for themselves or their business. And so Deena Pierott is a serious changemaker. I got to read you her bio. Okay, so she is a sought after diversity strategist, Talent Acquisition Professional and international keynote speaker, no doubt, she's created cutting edge DEI programs that yield results in impact. And you know, we need that. Okay. But here's what I want to say she served on a number of boards. She's really super amazing. And she started iUrbanTeen, which really helped to advance and allow for kids who didn't have access to computers to get them. And so I know you're going to talk a little bit about that. But before we go on, I want to say this, that she was honored to be acknowledged by President Barack Obama as a White House Champion of Change for technology inclusion, and by Ebony magazine on their Power 100 list. She is like been, in Essence Magazine, the top 50 black female founders. She's just amazing. I'm telling you, if I showed you this List of awards, you will be here forever. But my God, welcome to the show. Deena Pierott. You're amazing! Deena Pierott 2:41 Oh, wow. Thank you. I you know, when I hear that stuff, I'm going is that me? And now that you know, because a lot of times you're so busy working and creating and working and creating that you have to sometimes stop and look back at you know, I did this. Patti Dobrowolski 2:58 I know it. Deena Pierott 2:59 I did this. Oh, I'm ready to cuss I got it. Because Patti Dobrowolski 3:02 That's okay. i You should have seen somebody else I had was just F bomb every other word. Right? You're all right. Yeah. Here's the amazing. You are just incredible. And I met you because somebody decided that we should meet. We hooked up. We had lunch together with your granddaughter. Yeah. And we were both like, what are we doing in Portland? Wow, this place is so weird. And neither one of us live there anymore. So they're, you know, right. Deena Pierott 3:34 I know. There you have it. But I just think it was just an instant connection. I wonder how they might just like, Look, Patti Dobrowolski 3:41 I know, friends. I know. It is so good. And so I just been following. Honestly, I stalk you all the time to see what you're up to. And then I like, post "Deena Pierott, she's so amazing." So follow her and do stuff with her. Now tell us if you would in your own words, like tell us about you and how you got started doing what you're doing and you know, anything you want to share about it? Well, you know, Deena Pierott 4:03 it's I'm going to try to make it a shorter story because usually I tell this long story with Patti Dobrowolski 4:09 international keynote speaker that goes on. And Deena Pierott 4:13 I sometimes I think I'm a Baptist preacher. Patti Dobrowolski 4:17 Exactly. We love that. You know, Deena Pierott 4:19 I always like to say, what's the why, you know, What's your why and things that you do. And sometimes you end up in a space that you didn't think he would be in, you know, 1015 20 years ago. So I kind of fell into the Diversity Equity work back in the 90s when I moved up to Portland from Compton, California. Patti Dobrowolski 4:39 Alright, so there you go right now. Oh, now I'm from LA Oh, I know all about content. I know in the Portland is white, white. Deena Pierott 4:48 Girl. Let me tell you, it's the whitest white folks I've ever seen in my life. And I even started fading. I was not this color. But I guessed it But then I instantly saw this disconnect, I saw this inequity on how people of color, especially the black community was treated. Yeah, no, I was called the n-word. I don't know how many times and I'm going I've never been called that in California. Right. Not that it doesn't happen, but it didn't happen to me. Right. I also saw when working in the workplace, the inequities there as well. I also saw how my own people and other people of color kind of were a little complacent to things where they didn't know how or didn't feel like they needed to advocate for themselves. Patti Dobrowolski 5:36 Yeah. Would they just let it slide? Slide and just go, like, well, that's the way it is here. Deena Pierott 5:43 And see, that was not me. Oh, no, not me at all. And so I instantly started creating different forums and different initiatives at the City of Portland. And it was interesting, because I worked for a director at a bureau who was from the East Coast. And he wholeheartedly gave me the platform to do what I did right now. I felt that he truly trusted my decisions. Yes, he believed in diversity and equity. And it gave me the floor, let me run with it. And I ran like hell. So I was able to create, like, I created the city's infinity groups that they have employee resource groups, in partnership with the mayor's office, the commissioners and all that and made it really meaty. I created so many different initiatives. Oh, my gosh, I made sure that all of our interview panels were reversed. I ensured that all of our panels for contract reviews were diverse. And that was in the 90s Patti Dobrowolski 6:40 for for my cat popular. Wow, that's crazy. But I also Deena Pierott 6:43 advocated for myself, and that scared a lot of people, you know, because here's this woman of color, a black woman that is holding her own. And yeah, letting you get away with this. And so, but what made me sad, Patti was a lot of the employees from different bureaus would come to me, and they would go Deena, can you ask my boss, if I could do this? If I can go here? Patti Dobrowolski 7:05 Oh my God. I know that. Deena Pierott 7:09 You know, and it Patti Dobrowolski 7:10 makes me sad. Because that means that they don't feel empowered enough to go. They don't have the confidence to go maybe because somebody slapped him down. You know what exactly happened here? Yeah, fear of losing a job. Deena Pierott 7:23 Exactly. And so I will tell them, No, you can tell them. And this is what you say and how you say it. Yeah, I still wouldn't do it, I would still go to their directors and ask these questions. And so, but someone told me and I remember that this was in like the late 90s. One of my own folks from the black communities that Deena, you're too opinionated. You rock the boat too much. You have to make them comfortable, meaning I needed to make white people comfortable. And I'm like, I don't need to make anybody comfortable. Exactly. And I say hold on a second, what plantation? Did I just arrived on? Exactly right. And so but that kind of pushback from not only the white community, but my own community made me try harder. Right. And so that's, I was creating initiatives that were way ahead of their time, and people are just now catching on. Right. So that was my last. And that was my journey into the diversity, equity belonging inclusion arena. And so I still get asked from different companies to either Keynote or to lead their teams on edgy innovative ways to change policy. How do you look at this through an equity lens? Yeah. And how do you do it? Not me, not how I how do you do it? Right? Yeah, within those companies. So that was the DEI journey. Yeah. Now, let's go to iUrbanTeen. Patti Dobrowolski 8:44 Yeah, cuz I want to talk about them. I know. I love them. Well, the other thing is that, I mean, honestly, I'm a gay woman. So you can imagine my story isn't exactly the same. But it is about you. You have to come out every second. And then you know, I live in Texas now. So come on, people go meet my neighbors. And my neighbors were kind of like really skeptical about us. And then, you know, a young transgender kid came and left a card at our door and said, thank goodness, you have that sign in your front lawn? Because now I know that there's possibility for me. Deena Pierott 9:19 Oh, see, right. You never know. You never know who you're the role model for? Or what pathways you're helping to create someone how you're helping their voice be heard. You never know. But for you or just to think if you didn't speak up, if you didn't feel comfortable in your own skin. Think about the health issues, the mental health issues. Yes, I would be steaming inside. That's why I tell people say something. You feel that you just had a micro or macro aggression thrown your way. Say something. It may not be that instant. It may not be that same day. It may not be that week. That's some point. I need to come to Patti Say, Patti, you know what you mentioned to me what you said to me last week, blah, blah, blah. It really felt like a microaggression. That's how it felt for me. How can we bridge this? You know, how can we do this differently? You need to be comfortable enough to have that kind of conversation. don't own that shit. Okay? Patti Dobrowolski 10:18 Yeah, don't take it in. Don't, don't Deena Pierott 10:21 get in, Patti Dobrowolski 10:21 don't try to change yourself. This is me. Like I remember, I wanted to write a book called How to Be yourself in corporate America, because you have to be yourself have to be your own. You cannot. I mean, now, thankfully, some things are breaking open. But in big companies, it's still Deena Pierott 10:38 the same. I still say that's not the company for you if it's feel that way. And that's why I tell all of my folks and even our students in Ireland team. Yeah, one of the things we teach them is how do you best advocate for yourself? Patti Dobrowolski 10:50 I love that. So how did you start that? How did you start Ironman teen, Deena Pierott 10:55 you know, the story goes, I was commissioner here on Governor Greg gwass. Commission on African American Affairs back in 2006, to 2011. And at the time, all of our ethnic Commission's were talking about the opportunity gap issue, especially for male youth of color, you know, falling through the cracks, being marginalized, disenfranchised, not having a clear pathway. And I'm an entrepreneur, I'm not one to sit back and meetings and boards, and just talk something to death over and over overnight, Patti Dobrowolski 11:26 we got to get things going. We got to add some happen. You got to make some happen now. Deena Pierott 11:31 So I instantly started looking at my community is being how if our families knew about the Running Start program, which is an amazing program, which has been graduate high school with not only a diploma but with an associate's degree. The issue was a lot of our brown and black families weren't aware of it because the school counselors were telling them yeah, of course not. That's not and so we were making sure that happened. Then I was asked to participate on a chief information officer Council in Portland. And I told my friend Mark, who arranged these for these councils all across the country, but I'm not a CIO. He goes, I know that, but you're innovative and we need you. So I went okay. Works for me. And so I went to the very first meeting, Patti, and I was a little late getting to the party. And so I opened the door, and it's a roomful of white men. Yeah, so imagine me walking in there with an afro wig on. Alright, I had a big curly Afro wig. Yeah, leopard print jacket, lay Yes. And big hoop earrings. Patti Dobrowolski 12:34 I love it. Deena Pierott 12:35 I went, oh, i Whoa. Okay. So. So during that meeting, I was sitting there and I said to myself, Okay, so over here we have these youth who are being disenfranchised, marginalized. Yeah, clearly don't have a pathway for success. But in this room, is where the opportunities are. That's right. So how do I reach this divide? And during that lunch meeting, I thought up iUrbanTeen, and within six months, we launched with the help of some of those men in the room, who were still engaged with me after all of these years. Oh, that's fantastic. We launched iUrbanTeen in October 2011, exactly 10 years ago, the 13th year, and wow, that was incredible. And I knew from the first event that we had to keep going because I saw this magic happening, you know, during those sessions, because everything we do is fast paced, hands on. Kind of eclectic, cool, kind of funky. You know, all of that. But it grabs them. It grabs your attention. Patti Dobrowolski 13:38 Yeah, they'll switch a notch when they need you since we launched Deena Pierott 13:43 in that 2008. Yeah. 2011 We have since launched in Seattle, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston. We've also we're hoping to launch in New York and also in Miami, Florida, as well as several other cities in 2022 and 2023. Patti Dobrowolski 14:02 Does that mean you get to go to those cities and launch they see now that's right and went to Texas Come on. You should call me because now Deena Pierott 14:12 are you in Dallas or Houston or I'm in Fortworth? I'm close enough I could go to Dallas Yeah, Dallas Yeah, well you know we're gonna be working with the city of Dallas on expanding all right ramps there so we go I will definitely let you know. Patti Dobrowolski 14:26 Yes, for sure. I love it. Alright, so you set up i Urban Youth, right. And you really helped them to create some programs that gave them access they didn't have before tools and resources and do you do internships too? How did you set the all that up? Deena Pierott 14:44 We do you know, we started just kind of grassroots having these paid internship programs in Portland for high school students. Yeah, with partnership with Cigna and then there was a company I Otis that was there as well. And now because we've had so many youth over the years that have been with our program, now they're in college. So we had to launch I Urban University. Oh, yeah. That is for over 18 crowd. Yeah. And so now do they get mentorship and things like this? Yeah, we have mentors that work with them. Yeah, we have diverse instructors that work with them. And in all the thing that for this Ironman University, that's where we have our scholarships. We have our paid college internships there. And now we are launching a support engineer training program with Microsoft that launches early next. I love it. Oh, that's so we have women we have black women in this first cohort aged 19 to 46. Yeah, that will be trained by Microsoft and also go through the certification process where they can get jobs starting at 80 to 90,000 a year. Oh, after 120 hours worth of trade. i Patti Dobrowolski 15:57 Oh my god, that's so fantastic. Now is this black woman in STEM? Deena Pierott 16:02 That's separate. That's separate. That's I mean, Patti Dobrowolski 16:05 oh my god, that is so incredible. Alright, so now talk about your latest thing, black woman in STEM, Deena Pierott 16:12 STEM 2.0. And we call it 2.0. Because, you know, we change the M and stem to manufacturing. because math is interwoven in all the other elements as well, and sciences and technology and engineering. Math is already interwoven in that. So we wanted to add manufacturing, because yes, that's a segment that sometimes overlooked in the whole stem arena. Definitely. So a couple years ago, some of my colleagues and I wanted to create a platform or an association for women that are in those spaces that we can brainstorm, have training sessions for, conferences for and basic networking, and also sisterhood. Sister fellowship. That's right. And so that's what we did. And so this year, you know, we were supposed to have our conference last year, but because in Texas, but because of COVID Yeah. Hectic, nutso course. So this year, we are having the conference, and it's a hybrid, where we will have in person events and virtual sessions. I learned this this Friday and Saturday here in Bellevue, you know, which is a community. Patti Dobrowolski 17:19 Oh, that's fantastic. Okay, I love that. All right. So look at how many I just so for those of you that are listening, so here is somebody that saw a need way back in the 90s. And then just built that, you know, went to bat for everything that she believes in, and then started to build the infrastructure to help other people. And this is what we're talking about is when you want to make change in the world, like yours is about big change in the world so that it will impact you know, your grandkids, it will impact your neighbors, your community. So these are the things that you did, but you are such an innovator because you sat in that room of all those. This is me, I'm imagining that because that's me too. I walk I know rooms with all white men, and I'm thinking Oh, yeah. Okay, now we're gonna have fun. Now I'm going to be myself and you guys are gonna love me at the end or else right? Yeah. And part of it is that you have to use your woo strength, but you also have to in that moment, you have to really build a bridge between your state of consciousness and theirs. And that's what you are. You excel in that when you do that, how do you do that? What is it that you do that you tap into in yourself to hear what needs to be done? Deena Pierott 18:40 Well, you know, I just kind of sit back. I think I blame my mom for making me think and understand that I could do anything. Right. And I believed it. I fell for it. Yeah. And so I still believe I still know nothing. I believe I know that I can do anything well, and you have Patti Dobrowolski 18:59 such that there's no reason why you shouldn't believe but what if you're a young person coming up? Or even if you've been working in a corporation for a long time or working for somebody else in the city for a long time, and you feel like, oh, yeah, yeah, but it's too late. And I'm almost going to retire. Why would I want to rock the boat? What would you say to them? Deena Pierott 19:20 Oh, it's never too late. It's never too late. Like I just turned 63 You know, on October 6, and I'm are ready. I know. I'm already thinking about what's the next best thing? What's the next thing I could do? Right? I don't know how some of us fell into that trap of okay, well, now you're over 50 So it's time to slow down. Everything is downhill from there. I don't know who sent us that Patti Dobrowolski 19:45 Milan. Oh, no, that was really big. Yeah. Now, you know, I'm older than you. So that's fantastic. I'm like, Yeah, I'm a year older than you. And so we look good girl. We look. I'm just saying and part of it is that We want to make sure that we're evolving. This is what you're saying is, what's my next thing? So that I want to know, like, when you have a vision for yourself, what's interesting to you right now? What are you fascinated with? That you can tell us about? Deena Pierott 20:16 Well, you know, I think that for me, because I'm so people centered, I really want to do something if it is my own, like digital online magazine for women over 50, you know, women of color over 50, particularly, because that's an audience that's overlooked a lot of times, I'm kind of a, like a lifestyle brand type of thing that I want to do I want to get into podcasting, you know, like you. So that's what I feel that the next layer is for me. Yep, thing that's really cool and fun. I Urban Teen will always be at my heart. But you know, I'm building up the infrastructure now where I have now managing director for Portland and southwest Washington. Patti Dobrowolski 20:57 Well, I see you have your infrastructure in there and the people that can do it. And Deena Pierott 21:03 pretty soon it's when do I have all the gears in place where I can just kind of sit back? And just so funny, Patti Dobrowolski 21:10 because when I saw you in Portland, you talked about that, then. So what's true is you have multiple gears now, before you were just working one gear for a while Deena Pierott 21:21 working here, right? Patti Dobrowolski 21:22 Now you got four gears all going at the same time. So that's Yeah, I think will be really, really amazing to see. And you know, who is inspirational to you right now in the world who you look out and you see, and you think, Wow, that is cool. I like that. whatever they're doing, is there anybody that is a role model for you, either now or in the past that really has helped you, and helps you as you get going on ideas? Do you have like your little cadre of sisterhood that you talk to about things, do you? Deena Pierott 21:54 Well, you know, and that's interesting, because I think back on the person, that really was my inspiration, and I know, it may sound a little corny and all but it was my mother, you know, and she passed away suddenly, in 2010. I am such a rogue, that there really isn't anyone out there that I see that I want to learn from or any thing, it's sad to say, but it's sometimes when you are so much into your own. Patti Dobrowolski 22:27 Yep. It's I know, Deena Pierott 22:30 I have a lot, a lot, a lot of mentees or people women that want to consult with me on how do I do this? How do I do what you do? So but there's not a whole lot of others that I see that I can connect with, or brainstorm on. Because usually what I'm thinking about and what I'm envisioning, is so far out there that no one's been there yet. Patti Dobrowolski 22:56 Yeah, I love that. That's fantastic. And so you really what you're doing is you're tapping into your own creative genius, that flow. So you just unlock that. And so tell me, what's your daily routine that you go through? That helps you unlock your creative genius? What Deena Pierott 23:11 do you do? Well, you know, what I do is I just sit back in early morning hours when it's dead silent, and there's no noise, there's no nothing. I haven't even made coffee yet. I just sit in silence. And I just envision what I already have in place, how I can tweak it, how can I make it better? How can I do this? At the same time? How could I add in this creative edge into this? That's not been done before? You know, so I just kind of invid before I write down anything? Yeah, I first have a vision for it. Yeah. Then once the vision clicks, I'll start creating an outline for how I want to do this, then the next step is how am I going to implement this? You know, what's the impact on the students on the companies that I work for in the DEI space? Yeah. And sometimes when I'm even working with the companies like right now, I was working with a global tech company. And we did something totally different that they hadn't done before yet, right? Sometimes I'll work with them. Like, this is what I'm thinking, what how can we do this? So I'll get there. Like I tell companies, you've got to have some skin in the game, I can sit there and talk to you. I'm blue in the face around diversity and equity. But you've got to roll up your sleeves, and you got to help me make this happen. Patti Dobrowolski 24:31 That's right. Because it's not gonna happen without them. Yeah. Because otherwise you're just a consultant coming in. And same thing, if I'm drawing a picture of the vision and nobody's attached to it, then sure, nobody cares. Deena Pierott 24:44 And so if I give them the tools on how do they do this internally, where they don't even need me anymore, a lot of times you'll get diversity, people thinking or saying that they're diversity experts and consultants that intentionally want to keep that company so they can keep getting a Patti Dobrowolski 25:01 paycheck. Oh, no, that's so what is that doing? Deena Pierott 25:05 What is that mindset doing for this next level of students coming through? I haven't seen that might land at your workplace. Right? Yeah, exactly. What is that doing for my sons who are in the workforce now? Yes. What is that going to be doing for my granddaughters who had some yesterday and your workspace? I'd rather I'm this way. And that's why I don't think I'll ever be monetarily rich. I'd rather give them all the tools they can do right now. Yeah. And happen, attach it to action, create it, attach it to metrics, yep, with everything, letting them know where they need to pivot, so that they can be equitable and inclusive workspaces. Don't keep paying me for years and years to keep you sick. Yeah, Patti Dobrowolski 25:46 that's right. Well, and one of the things that I'm listening to is that so you let the ideas germinate about where you are, and you envision how you could make a better so this my friend, Dawn calls this spinning the universe, you're really spinning the universe. Now using your imagination, then you get a plan, you get it down on paper, so that you've got something so that you know, okay, this is what we're going to do. And even if it's with somebody else, you get some partnership in there, so that you can make it happen. So you're not the driver of the activity, because the thing that you can be the driver at the beginning, but you don't want to be the driver for That's right. I Deena Pierott 26:25 always say this is the hardest thing to do when you are someone like me and like you and that very creative space, is find people that share your rhythm. Yeah, right. Oh, that's right. Find people that share your rhythm. I spent so many years trying to consult with people who had no idea what I really wanted to do. Right, but I just knew that what they were saying didn't settle. Well. I'm like, yeah, yeah. And that's crazy. Oh, man. Thank you, man. Oh, thank you. So it took me a long time. And it's still really hard to try to find those people who share your rhythm, right? You're one of those people that share my rhythm. Yeah, we got to get things going girl stuff off the bat, right back and forth. In an hour sit in ideas, right? Patti Dobrowolski 27:11 That's right. But then we got to go do them. We got to get people to help us do them. Like somebody in the background putting together your peloton machine right now, is that right? So if you're listening and you hear like the sound this clanking so Dina warned me that they were going to put up her peloton now and so whoever's back there doing that, you know, keep going and just know that this is what happens in a creative space. You have got to get everything happening at the same time, because there's not enough time in the day. Deena Pierott 27:41 Yeah, the only thing Patti is I'm looking at them putting this peloton treadmill together now I'm going to have to use it. I'm like, Oh, yes, Patti Dobrowolski 27:52 you're gonna have to use well, and and you know, I would say bite off just a small piece of that, like, I just start on things like that. Well, what's true for me is that I know if I don't dive full in and set a goal, that seems like whoa, I wonder if I could do that, then I will really get motivated to do it. I may not do it the next week, but I will that initial week getting myself going. So it's the trick to keep yourself motivated. And that's how it is with change, too. Right? You see something that needs to be changed, you get super excited at the beginning. But how do you maintain your own motivation? How do you maintain it? I want to know how you maintain, Deena Pierott 28:31 you know, for me that and I gotta be honest, until they transparent, this whole self care thing sucks for me, because I don't know how to do it. I have such a workaholic. But I also learned about myself as I have to do this self care, I have to learn this piece as much energy that I'm putting into these ideas and these businesses. Yes, I have to put that in me. You know, I have been through a lot of trauma over the last 20 years. One of the coping mechanisms for trauma is to stay busy. Yes. So I stayed super busy, you know, and it wasn't until my husband that my son's father passed away of cancer in 2019 that I actually hit a wall. I hit a wall and I basically almost had a nervous breakdown. And I realized at that point, I said to myself, I'm a smart enough woman to know that I gotta walk through this trauma. Right? Yeah, trauma that I have been suppressing for over 20 years. And that was a constant it was a continued I just got busier just wrapped more up. Yeah. Then I thought about what I created under trauma. Right. The White House under trauma. I'm honored in the Lincoln Center in New York with Oprah Magic Johnson all of them because if I ever team under trauma, right, I've been all these things under trauma. And I think that's why if they all didn't really resonate with me, well, Patti Dobrowolski 29:53 they don't really sink in. You're like yeah, I did that. I know that because I was on Broadway things like this. You Her major accomplishments you just sort of brushed him off. Yeah. Don't let them soak in. Yeah, yeah. That's great. Thank you so much. And then on to the next thing, because if you slow down too much, yeah. And you have to actually feel what's going on inside of yourself. Exactly. And really takes the passing of somebody who is important to you, to wake you up. I think sometimes, for me, it did. It was when my mom died. That was when I woke up. I couldn't get out of bed. Honestly, I couldn't get out of bed. I was just like, I don't know, you know, what's the point? And then I had to deal with all the things that had happened in my life. Right? Yeah. Deena Pierott 30:37 Well, that's what I've been going through over the past couple of years, since his death is just sitting still and going through the things like, you know, the things that have happened over the years me being discriminated against in the workplace, and, and and all the pushback that I've had to deal with, and it has been a heavy lift. Yeah, me with all of my businesses here in the Pacific Northwest. Patti Dobrowolski 30:59 Oh, you know, got it got to be because if you're in LA, you'd have our alliances. Deena Pierott 31:06 Oh, yeah. Even if I was in New York, Boston, Chicago, Patti Dobrowolski 31:09 any of the big cities, Dallas to the Dallas, Deena Pierott 31:13 I just look at how well we're so embraced in Dallas and Houston. And you know, I just came back from Boston, that was in Boston in Portland, Maine. And it was a totally different vibe there. Yeah. You know, I loved it. So I feel that being a black female founder here in the Pacific Northwest, there's a lot of hurdles to go through. Yep. You know, a lot of hurdles. And it was a harder path to get here. However, I'm the total, optimistic, idealistic person, I feel that all of that struggle, all the traumas, things that I've gone through all of the hardships, helps make me the mosaic of who I am. Patti Dobrowolski 31:57 Oh, it is, and you are so beautiful. You're such a beautiful mosaic that that is what true. And what I love about what you said, is that, you know, the composite of view. And all of us really is all of the things that we've had to go through all the, you know, all the N word, in your case, all the bottles thrown at me out of somebody's car window in LA, you know, all that stuff. Those are the aggressions that happen. And what's true is you understand your essence in the universe for good. You know, you're a vehicle for good. And so you take all that and just say, This is who I am. This makes me empathetic, right? This is where my empathy comes from. And this is where my need for connection. And also, this is where my I don't know about you, but my fuel to make change in the world comes from and you're spot on. You are just so incredible. And I'm so grateful that our paths crossed, because, gosh, I mean, you've just been doing so many things. Since I saw you in Portland. You were like a little lifeline to me in that weird deli that we were eating with your cute little granddaughter. So much older now. Leila Berg. Yeah, she's Deena Pierott 33:19 nine years old. She will be 10 Pretty soon. And you know, crazy. I look at her and I see true leadership in Yeah, yeah. I was honored at Clark College a couple years ago as Iris award winner. Yeah, cool. When in the audience, my son, his wife, and the girls were the audience. And wow, when I was doing the acceptance piece, when I was accepting it, I looked over at my granddaughters, and I asked the audience, you know, can I have a moment I have a message I want to give my granddaughter Oh, my God. And they said yes. And so I asked my son, but Leila up on stage. And I said, because the other ones are way too little. And so I said, Leila, I said, I hope that one day you'll understand why your grandmother is being honored here tonight. And I also hope that you understand the pathway that I'm trying to create for you. I said, Leila, we are standing on the shoulders of our ancestors who were slaves. So it's a sponsibility in this life, to walk through it with dignity, grace, and integrity. Oh, you promise me you'll do that? And she shook her head. Yes. Oh, I blew her kiss. She blew me a kiss. The audience was crying. Oh, Patti Dobrowolski 34:30 I bet. Oh, my God. Deena Pierott 34:31 And I said, ladies and gentlemen, in 20 years, she'll be the one receiving this award. So let's give her a round of applause. Oh, I love that. Oh, it's speaking it into existence. Well, I just reader, I see such a leader in her and I see the empathy, the empathy in her there's a young boy in her classroom at school elementary school, who's autistic. And he says if the other kids fully handled Leila is the only one who's nice for him and stands up for him. Patti? I almost cried because I said, she's got it. Patti Dobrowolski 35:02 That's it. Got it. She got it. She got the gene and the kids got Deena Pierott 35:06 the gene she has a friend and the leadership, stand up for others. And be fearless with it, right? Patti Dobrowolski 35:14 Ah, love it, stand by others and be fearless. With it, that should be all of our call to action, you know, really stand up for others and be fearless with it. And so even if you can't stand up for yourself, be sure to stand up for other people, because it makes a huge, huge difference. It really Deena Pierott 35:32 is easier because sometimes they're more skeptical to stand up for themselves and advocate for themselves in the workplace. Yeah, but it's easier to advocate for someone else, you know, yeah, to see that lifeline for someone else as well, if you do it the right way. Patti Dobrowolski 35:47 Yeah. And I think we need it. I mean, I think that if you know, so many people have been a mentor or an a door opener for me, in my life. And I think for you, too, you know, we get little doors open, and then we open the door way wide. For other people. We're like, let's get okay. Now everyone knows. Deena Pierott 36:07 Let's go I want to do right. And the thing is, is that people need to like for me, I advocate for everybody. It doesn't care what color you are. What gender what anything. Yeah, I believe in fairness, I don't like to see an equity placed anywhere for anyone, you know. And so that's why I was fighting the good fight for Patti Dobrowolski 36:27 fair, do you Yeah, you're so amazing. You just hear I'm telling you, you're so amazing. Now what I want you to tell people what you're reading right now. So they know what they should be reading to? Deena Pierott 36:40 Well, right now I'm reading a book called do better. And it's all around advocating for others advocating for yourself, creating equity, where you are, I was just at the Harvard bookstore in Boston. And I saw it and I bought it. And so I just started reading it. Very good read. The other book that I just listened to on audio was cast about the cast. Oh, yes. Yeah, it's long. Listen, and you really sometimes you got to play it back. And I'll, but it's a very, very good, there is another book that I'm also kind of in between around equity in schools. So I'm always reading that kind of, Patti Dobrowolski 37:18 well, you got to you have to, and everybody should be reading that, you know, Yeah, gotta just change your mindset all the time. Keep up. That's the thing. The other piece about change is, you have to keep up, keep up with what's important for you, and try to push yourself into areas where you don't feel comfortable, so that you can walk into that room filled with white men, and you can get what you need from the audience there. Right. Oh, God. Deena Pierott 37:47 And you know, it's so funny. When I walked into that room that day, I kind of did the whole church thing on here I am so that they can pause the meeting. Yeah, I could walk straight through to the front room. And I tell some of the guys there. Can you move over? So I put a chair here, because there was chairs in the back of the room. But Patti Dobrowolski 38:05 oh, yeah, well, back. Okay. That's right, exactly. Deena Pierott 38:09 What up to the front. I had a move, but a chair there. And but what are the things that I tell women and people of color, when you're in those kinds of situations where you are one of none of other people is to be engaged? Don't be that wallflower. So as soon as it came time for questions, yes, I was the first one that raised my hand. And I asked a question that I already knew the answer to. But I did that. And I do that a lot of times in places that they can see I'm here, I'm engaged. I'm a part of this group. Patti Dobrowolski 38:38 That's right. That's right. I love it. So raise your hand, ask a question. Even if you know the answer to even if everybody knows you're in the room and make a play, make it happen. And I would say that's true, even if you're on Zoom. Because in zoom rooms, it's really important to show up. So you turn your camera on, you got to look your best. And you got your hand up and you got to put comments in the chat. That yeah, that's fantastic. I've been Deena Pierott 39:06 on something zoom things where it's a lot of people and these people are just sitting there like quiet. Are they Patti Dobrowolski 39:10 advocator Tommy, would you entertain me, please? Yeah, I need some entertainment. Yeah. Deena Pierott 39:15 And there's a way to have that engagement even on Zoom or whatever platform Yeah, data. So you know, in fact, we're having our stem a wean for the kids. We've had a couple of virtual stem conferences for the kids. That's fantastic. Fast paced, they're fun. They're this and yeah, they're they're engaging, you know, and also, I think we've pretty much mastered the engaging online presence, you know, stuff so Patti Dobrowolski 39:37 well, you were engaging before when I came in drew with your kids. I mean, that was really, that was fantastic. I love doing that. So thanks for asking me to do that. Oh, they loved it, too. It was super fun now. Okay. So give us one last tip before we let you go. What's your one tip about change that you would tell to people say to people, you know people who are wanting to make a change What do you recommend that they Deena Pierott 40:01 do? I would recommend that they learn how to embrace it. Change is inevitable. Yeah. So my biggest tip is to be comfortable with change. Be comfortable with the pivot, always be that Constant Learner. I mean, I truly embrace change, even if it's things that I have no control of. I try to understand it and all but even for myself, looking at what the peloton that's going to be changed for me because I admit, I've got to embrace look, I've got to embrace it. I'm going to look like Beyonce in about six months. Okay, that's right. But embrace you can you will like either, like kind of grandma. So. But yeah, so I can't imagine not looking forward to the future and change that happens. I think that when you are afraid of change, when you try to stop change, I think that's when you stop growing. Patti Dobrowolski 40:55 Yeah. And when you start, then you're going backwards, you know, they're Deena Pierott 40:58 going backwards, Patti Dobrowolski 41:00 you either go forwards, or you go backwards, or you go backwards, so you got to keep going. Deena Pierott 41:05 My tip is to embrace it to embrace change. Patti Dobrowolski 41:09 I love it. I love you. You're so fantastic. I love thank you so much for spending this time with us listeners, we're gonna put into the show notes how you can get a hold of Deena Pierott because you're gonna want to follow her on Instagram and Facebook, wherever all LinkedIn all the places that she is. So look in the show notes. And I just take this to heart what she said embrace change, we live in a time of flux. If we're not going to get to a new normal flux is our new normal. So get good at change. And I can't wait to see what you do. So if you liked what you heard, you know, be sure to write a review about it or send me a DM on Instagram because we'd love to have you back and loved that you tuned in today to listen to all about Deena Pierott. I love you Deena. Thanks for being here. All right for having me on. My pleasure. Thanks so much for listening today. Be sure to DM me on Instagram your feedback or takeaways from today's episode on Up Your Creative Genius. Then join me next week for more rocket fuel. Remember, you are the superstar of your universe and the world needs what you have to bring. So get busy. Get out and up your creative genius. And no matter where you are in the universe, here's some big love from yours truly Patti Dobrowolski and the Up Your Creative Genius Podcast. That's a wrap

Kristina Ashley Williams (she/her) is a leading voice in organizational cultures, futurist thinking, and inclusive design, known for her illuminating personality and experiential learning innovations. She currently serves as CEO of two dynamic ventures. Focused on the future of work, Unpacking is an online learning & certifications platform for diversity, equity, and inclusion. As the great-great niece of Jackie Robinson, her award-winning work is not just about passion; it is legacy. Williams has received notable recognition from the NAACP, Beyoncé's BEYGood Foundation, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Techstars, Verizon, TechCrunch, and more.     In this episode, Kristina and I discuss:

This holiday season, join Host Natasha Stevens as she sits down in a vulnerable, honest, powerful, and thought provoking fireside chats with none other than the CEO of Reed Development Group, Simon and Schuster Best Selling Author, Globally heralded Keynote Speaker, Philanthropist, Multi Award Winning Advocate, Elite Level Corporate Executive Diversity, Equality, Inclusion and Belonging Strategist who has one of the most inspirational and powerful voices on the lecture circuit, Kimberly S. Reed: Optimists Always Win: Moving From Defeat to Life's C Suite! All book proceeds are being donated to two cancer charities. Kimberly is a regular speaker and lecturer at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania's LEAD Program, Howard Universities' Leadership Programs and a top rated speaker at leading global professional conferences. With more than 20 years' of HR, talent acquisition and diversity, equality & inclusion experience, successfully turning around diversity practices by designing, building, leading and shaping high-performing cultures at global organizations with robust strategies and global employee development programs that have increased revenue growth and organizational brand eminence. With an award winning team across company cultures, brand design, and PR related work, the company has a clientele that has ranged from multibillion-dollar company CEOs and executives and fast growth entrepreneurs. Kimberly's entrepreneurial ventures, a senior partner at the Ascendant Group which specializes in executive branding and a founding member of the Forbes Agency Council for PR and Advertising. In December 2020, Kaleidoscope Diversity is the result of a unique strategic alliance between McConnell & Jones LLP and Reed Development Group, which was developed for companies who want to harness the power of an engaged, diverse workforce and diverse supply chain in today's hyper-competitive global marketplace in the capabilities of one solutions provider. They develop a tailored approach to innovative, high impact virtual training and strategic sourcing initiatives, allowing  clients to address internal and external issues that can hinder an organization's full potential with its workforce and suppliers. Kimberly has served on several professional and non-for-profit boards as a member, executive council member and chair. Kimberly is the Vice-Chair, Leadership Council of the American Cancer Society South Jersey/Philadelphia and a board member; Legacy of Hope provides emergency patient support to cancer patients in underserved diverse communities in the Philadelphia region. She is a Founding Advisory Committee Member of the University of Pennsylvania and DiverseForce Board Governance Training Program that provides leadership training for leaders of color who want to achieve greater effectiveness as organizational leaders while making a social impact as board members. She is also a member of The Links, Inc., one of the nation's oldest and largest volunteer service organizations of accomplished, dedicated African American Women who are active in their communities, and a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated with over 300, 000 members globally. Kimberly has been featured in numerous mass media outlets such as Essence, 6ABC, ShondaLand Digital, Huffington Post, Charisma Magazine, Fox News, Radio One, Journal of American Management Association and more for her leadership in DEI, Women's and Minority's Advocacy, Business, Entrepreneurship & Faith. She was one of the Top 28 Black Leaders in DEI, Color Magazine & Honoree, the 2021 Philly Power Women. Kimberly also received the prestigious 2020 Dr. MLK,Jr. Salute to Greatness Award & so much more! Find Kimberly Here: www.optimistsalwayswin.com (Also on Amazon and Audible) as well as www.thereeddevelopmentgroup.com

#078 - In this episode, Kay Fabella shares findings from her team's 2021 whitepaper on DEI and the future of work for multicultural teams in tech, which is now available for download. Kay also announces the launch of the digital home for Inclusion in Progress, LLC, at inclusioninprogress.com, a global consultancy which unites cross-cultural communication, remote work, and DEI strategies to help you retain the best people on your teams. Finally, Kay dives into how forward-thinking tech firms can stay ahead of the curve in recruitment and retention, as distributed work and our talent's identities continue to diversify in the next normal.   Links Ready to deepen DEI work at your organization? Get in touch today for your complimentary discovery call -or- email us at info@kayfabella.com. To download our 2021 Future of Work Culture whitepaper, click here. To check out posts on LinkedIn where we share key DEI statistics and industry best practices, click here. Check out Kay's Forbes feature on how she's helping clients with DEI and remote work here. To learn how to leave a review for the podcast, click here. Follow Kay https://www.linkedin.com/in/kayfabella Content Disclaimer The information contained above is provided for information purposes only. The contents of this article, video or audio are not intended to amount to advice and you should not rely on any of the contents of this article, video or audio. Professional advice should be obtained before taking or refraining from taking any action as a result of the contents of this article, video or audio. Kay Fabella disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on any of the contents of this article, video or audio. Disclaimer: Some of these links are for products and services offered by the podcast creator.

Mortadella, qual è la migliore? Lady Gaga e la coach di accento italiano per Gucci - Attori che non sanno fare gli accenti - "Imitatori di accenti". MARINO BARTOLETTI - Giornalista - Ricordo di Maradona e libro "Il ritorno degli Dei"

Despite improvements in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace, HR leaders can sometimes be those most in need of continued personal DEI work and growth. In this continuing discussion, diversity and inclusion consultant Joe Gerstandt outlines the value gained when individuals go beyond their personal comfort zones to build greater diversity in their relationship networks, and how it can impact their organizations. (Part 2 of 2.) Topics include: 2:57 - Life experiences impacting Joe's DEI journey 6:23 - Why HR needs to do its own DEI work 7:48 - Are HR leaders holding themselves accountable? 10:27 - The value of relationship networks 12:08 - Why personal discomfort can lead to more diverse relationships 15:12 - Employee resource groups bring visibility 17:23 - How might data and technology impact DEI in future workplaces? Resources: What does diversity, equity, and inclusion mean in the workplace? Learn more at: www.paychex.com/articles/human-resources/diversity-and-inclusion-in-the-workplace. Find more information on Joe, helpful resources, and his book “Social Gravity” at: http://joegerstandt.com. Have an idea for a topic or guest for the show? Submit your suggestions at: http://payx.me/thrivetopics. DISCLAIMER: The information presented in this podcast, and that is further provided by the presenter, should not be considered legal or accounting advice, and should not substitute for legal, accounting, or other professional advice in which the facts and circumstances may warrant. We encourage you to consult legal counsel as it pertains to your own unique situation(s) and/or with any specific legal questions you may have.

In this episode of Current, Anne Dougherty talks with ILLUME's People Champion, Yasmeen Chánes about what it means to be a values-driven workplace and ways that organizations are addressing employee wellness. From hybrid-working, to addressing DEI, to examining the after effects of the Great Resignation, this episode offers an in-depth look at how ILLUME lives its value of “Taking Good Care.”

In today's awesome episode I get to chat with Tristen Norman Head of Creative Insights at Getty Images. We talk about her life, and how she is always going to be the best at whatever she does. We talk about how she got to a creative spot even without a heavy art background. We define what insights are for a company. We talk about 8 different lenses of identity to help not stereotype in visuals. Tristen's amazing view on leaving a place better than she had found it has led to her helping out in DEI in all of her areas of work, even without having an official role in DEI. Tristen would like you to check out the podcast Women at Work. https://hbr.org/2018/01/podcast-women-at-work Check out the Open Source research done by Getty and Citi: https://custom.gettyimages.com/deitoolkit/p/1 Connect with her on LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tristennorman/ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-reset-podcast/support

"It's not knowledge, it's about the ability to think different and act differently." Our co-hosts dig into why + how organizational change work is not about bystander training or a one off seminar to get you ready for every possible scenario. They share five core areas where we have to build muscle in order to build capacity.

Zach sits down with Anthony Herrington, chief diversity officer at Providence Health & Services Oregon Region, to talk DEI, healthcare, and leadership. Want to know more about our LinkedIn Learning courses? Check them out! https://bit.ly/3k4havy You can connect with Anthony on LinkedIn and Twitter. https://bit.ly/3xi0eYM https://bit.ly/3CJUmZj Check out Living Corporate's merch! https://bit.ly/375rFbY Interested in supporting Living Corporate? Check out our Support page. https://bit.ly/3egO3Dk

In the wake of significant social and political incidents, the emergence of a world economy, a changing workforce, and the focuses on “inclusivity: many companies are taking steps to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) through corporate programs. Yet, progress in most sectors remains slow because many of them do not change systems. Many times, HR staff often leads programs that do not really understand what DEI is or measure it by numbers thinking that numbers alone will change systems. Other times, leaders initiate programs they believe are fashionable or legally correct, but they delegate them downward and remain unengaged. Leaders and organizations find it challenging to focus on DEI solutions, and there is no silver bullet, no single solution. Yet, pushing ourselves to think outside the box and draw on the best empirical evidence that exists helps. We also must focus on systems. Our guest in this episode talks about what we have to do to get DEI right.

In Episode 63, Meag-gan O'Reilly, CEO & Co-Founder of Inherent Value Psychology INC, joins Melinda in an illuminating conversation about the importance of embracing your anger and how it helps us foster empathy with one another. They also discuss how anger helps us build resilience by allowing us to recognize our own needs and boundaries and how Systems Centered Language can be the first step to dismantling oppression and marginalization.About Meag-ganDr. Meag-gan O'Reilly (she/her), is a staff Psychologist at Stanford University's Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) and Adjunct Faculty in the Stanford School of Medicine. While completing her Post-Doctoral Fellowship at CAPS, Dr. O'Reilly created the first satellite clinic for Black undergraduate and graduate students across the African Diaspora. She currently serves as a Program Coordinator for Outreach, Equity, and Inclusion. In this role, Dr. O'Reilly co-created the Outreach and Social Justice Seminar in 2016 with the goal of training the next generation of culturally conscious and justice-oriented clinicians.Outside of Stanford, Dr. O'Reilly is the Co-Founder and CEO of Inherent Value Psychology INC., her private practice that provides DEI consulting, workshops, trainings, and international speaking engagements. Dr. O'Reilly is a DEI consultant for companies including Google, LYRA Health, and The United Negro College Fund's STEM Scholar Program that supports Black college students nationwide to navigate underrepresentation and discrimination in STEM fields. She also serves as the lead clinician in a partnership with Google to provide therapeutic spaces called The Gathering Space for Black Google Employees in response to the murder of George Floyd and the chronic trauma, and grief, in the Black community. Her TEDx talk: Enough is Enough: The Power of Your Inherent Value, can be seen on YouTube and is a helpful reminder of unconditional self-worth and that our lives matter to the world.Find Leading With Empathy & Allyship useful? Subscribe to our podcast and like this episode!For more about Change Catalyst, and to join us for our monthly live event, visit https://ally.cc. There, you'll also find educational resources and highlights from this episode.Connect On SocialYouTube: youtube.com/c/changecatalystTwitter: twitter.com/changecatalystsFacebook: facebook.com/changecatalystsInstagram: instagram.com/techinclusionLinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/changecatalystsProduction TeamCreator & Host: Melinda Briana EplerProject Manager: Emilie MaasFinance & Operations: Renzo SantosMarketing Communications Coordinator: Christina Swindlehurst ChanCreative Director @ Podcast Rocket: Rob Scheerbarth[Image description: Leading With Empathy & Allyship promo with the Change Catalyst logo and photos of Meag-gan O'Reilly; a Black woman with curly black hair and yellow shirt; and host Melinda Briana Epler; a White woman with red hair, glasses, and orange shirt holding a white mug behind a laptop.]Support the show (http://patreon.com/changecatalysts)

T. Shá Duncan Smith has over 18 years of experience developing and implementing strategic plans and initiatives to promote diverse, equitable and inclusive cultures for students, faculty and staff. She has taught courses on leading during racial crises, accountability, and incentivization for advancing equity goals at the University of Southern California Race & Equity Center Equity Institutes, where she is also senior strategist for their Liberal Arts Colleges Racial Equity Leadership Alliance. She was previously director of diversity and inclusion at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, and before that was intercultural programs manager for the University of Michigan's Center for Global and Intercultural Study and coordinator of diversity initiatives and academic support for the University of Michigan's School of Public Health.After a long hiatus, the VOSC crew finally returns with an amazing guest, the new VP of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion here at SCU, T. Shá Duncan Smith. In this episode, we discuss how Shá's childhood influenced her career path, key lessons she's learned during her 12+ years at the University of Michigan, significant measures of success in the DEI space, the most fulfilling aspects of her career, the factors that led to her interest in SCU, and goals she would like to achieve at our university within the next 1-3 years. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week our guest is Stefanie Stauffer, farmers market manager at the year-round Ann Arbor, Michigan Farmers Market, where farmers and vendors have been bringing fresh produce, farm products, prepared foods and artisan items to their community for 102 years! In our conversation, Stefanie tells us about the history behind this long-lived local institution and what it's like operating a market that's run by the Parks Department. We also chat food access and longterm DEI initiatives in farmers market communities. This week's episode is made possible by support from Market Link.

On today's first episode of a four-part miniseries, Chuck Shelton of Greatheart Consulting speaks with Mita Mallick, a corporate change-maker and the current head of inclusion, equity, and impact at Carta. Mita is a top LinkedIn voice of 2020 and the proud co-host of the Brown Table Talk Podcast with Dee C. Marshall. In addition, she has led branding work with iconic products like AVEENO, AVON Color Cosmetics, Chapstick, and Dove. Mita and I have had the chance to do some great DEI work together, and today we are going to discuss the following: The corporate work culture and the need to create an inclusive environment Unconscious bias and how it affects people of color in the workplace Calls to actions for leaders to be true advocates not only at work, but also at home Deconstructing the biggest DEI challenges companies are facing Connect with Chuck Hall Shelton at GreatheartConsulting.com and https://www.linkedin.com/in/greatheartconsulting/   Join Mita Mallick and Dee C. Marshall at Brown Table Talk to listen to more stories and get practical advice on how women of color can go beyond just surviving and start thriving in their organizations. Inclusion Catalyst invites you to become our next guest host. Learn more here: http://inclusioncatalyst.com/join-us-as-a-guest-host/ Support Inclusion Catalyst by contributing to their Tip Jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/inclusion-catalyst This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

I'm excited to pull back the curtain this week and share with you the journey my company and I have been on in learning to prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the business. This is the type of work that literally lasts a lifetime, but if we can all progressively get better and be more open and accepting, this world would be a much better place for everyone! If you have a question for me that you'd like answered on a future episode, a great way to do that is to head over to Apple Podcasts and leave a rating and review with your question. I'm looking forward to doing more of these types of episodes on the podcast! If you're not already following us, @thethrivingstylist, what are you waiting for? This is where I share pro tips every single week, along with winning strategies, testimonials, and amazing breakthroughs from my audience. You're not going to want to miss out on this! Learn more at: https://thrivingstylist.com/podcast/206 

In this episode, you'll hear from Jan Abernathy, Chief Communications Officer at The Browning School, a K-12 boys' school in New York City. Formerly the director of marketing and communications at The Elisabeth Morrow School in Englewood, NJ, she has presented at conferences sponsored by the National Association of Independent Schools, the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, the New Jersey Association of Independent Schools, and the New York State Association of Independent Schools. At Browning, she is a member of the Health & Safety Team, responsible for managing COVID response, and co-chaired the school's successful search for its new director of equitable practice and social impact. At EMS, she also chaired the Equity and Justice Task Force, managed the school's participation in the NAIS' Assessment of Inclusivity and Multiculturalism Survey, and led the school's NJAIS reaccreditation.  She is president of New York City Independent Schools Communications Professionals, a professional association of over 100 members from schools throughout the tri-state area, and the co-founder of Black Advancement Networking Group, which works to gain further representation and greater professional growth of Black professionals in advancement roles in independent schools. Jan is chair of CASE-NAIS 2022, the most prominent international advancement conference in the independent school sector. A journalist by training, she has written for NAIS' Independent School Magazine on crisis communications (Winter 2019) and the "Black at" movement (Winter 2021).  She is a trustee of Grace Church School, a JK-12 school in New York City, and was on the board of Stevens Cooperative School in Hoboken, NJ, for 13 years, spending six years as chair. Her consulting firm, Jan Abernathy Strategic Communications, provides communications and DEI counsel for educational institutions and non-profits. 3:10 - What didn't work for Jan? Podcasting! 4:38 - "If you're going to bite off more than you can chew, make sure you've thought about the workflows." 6:20 - The importance of looking outside your market (and industry) to brainstorm ideas 9:30 - What diversity is and what it isn't 12:14 - Diversity is a nuanced discussion 13:19 - "You can't sleep on it" 14:10 - Navigating the challenge of communicating DEI work 15:15 - You may have to catch up before you can communicate 16:09 - Aspirations and pitfalls 16:35 - There is no elevator pitch for DEI work 17:57 - Partnering with your school's DEI practitioner 21:35 - When you see something, say something 23:15 - What your students understand about diversity 26:05 - What Niche data is saying about how parents value student and teacher diversity 27:25 - Your loudest families may not be representative of how your community feels about diversity work 29:17 - How Millennials and Gen Xers differ on diversity 30:55 - "Sometimes a question is just a question." 31:22 - What to do when a crisis hits 35:44 - The communications director as a calming presence during a crisis 37:45 - You can't be all business when something goes wrong 39:25 - Have a plan and empower your communications leaders to take action 40:15 - The right way to partner with a crisis communications firm 41:16 - Effective school communicators must know how to navigate a crisis 45:04 - Tips for school leaders who are new to DEI work 48:00 - "If you don't understand the discipline, it's that much harder to communicate about it." Show notes are available on the Enrollment Insights Blog at niche.bz/podcast. In the Enrollment Insights Podcast, you'll hear about novel solutions to problems, ways to make processes better for students, and the questions that spark internal reflection and end up changing entire processes.

Speaker and strategist Erin Weed does a takeover of the podcast and interviews Jennifer Brown on a variety of topics, including Jennifer's new book "Beyond Diversity," the importance of self-care, and the need for allyship. Jennifer also reveals what has shifted in her work over the years, the increasing awareness of various diversity dimensions at work, and shares her thoughts about the future of DEI work.  To learn more about Erin and her work visit:  https://www.erinweed.com

Dom Giordano, WPHT host and former teacher, has dedicated much of his daily show toward parents who are taking it into their own hands to push back against school boards that have a negative impact on their children. This has culminated in a weekly podcast on education, Readin', Writin', and Reason, which has allowed wonderful relationships to develop between Giordano, educators, and parents throughout the country who are speaking out against overbearing school boards. This week, Dom is first joined by Broad+Liberty reporter Todd Shepherd, to discuss a fantastic investigation into the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion program in the Bensalem school district. In his piece, Shepherd uncovered that the Bensalem Township School District paid a consulting firm over $100,000 to a consulting firm for an ‘Equity Review,' in effort to develop a plan alongside the districts new DEI committee. Todd takes us through what he discovered, and gives us a temperature of the town of Bensalem, explaining what has led to the decision to implement such a committee. Then, Pennsbury parents Simon Campbell and Tim Daly return to the podcast. Both join to reveal an injunction granted by a federal judge, which invalidates the Pennsbury school board from utilizing policy 903 to silence public comment. For a long time now on the Dom Giordano Program and Readin' Writin' and Reason, Dom has played clips of contentious debate between Campbell, Daly, and Pennsbury's solicitor, who has repeatedly silenced parents during the open comment portion of school board meetings. Tim Daly takes us into the behind-the-scenes of the school board meetings and conversations he's had with the solicitor, and tells why he decided pursue legal paths to push back against the repeated silencing by the school board. Then, Simon Campbell explains that Policy 903 was written from a template used all over the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, provided by the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, explaining that this legal decision could have effect for other overbearing school boards throughout the State.   Finally, Ramona Bessinger pops in for a quick chat, after making national headlines for speaking out about the ways that themes from Critical Race Theory are being snuck into public curricula, after seeing a radical shift play out as a public school teacher.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is our second episode in our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion theme.  During season 1 we focused specifically on gender equity in the Technology world, in this episode MJ and Tony talk to three amazing leaders about ways Technology leaders can disrupt the status queue.Suggest podcasts on DEI work- Leading Equity Center- Nice White Parents- Teaching Hard History- Speaking Out- Speaking of Racism- Be Antiracist - Cult of Pedagogy

Insurance Industry Can Lead on DEI Solutions   Do you recall the early days of the insurance industry's response with EPLI, D&O, and other emerging risks and coverages? Well, we are witnessing a vast new risk area with diversity and inclusion insurance. The industry can play a huge role as both an employer and risk taker. Moreover, there is a new standard (ISO 30415) that offers a measured way to assess and reduce risk and price coverage. The angles are everywhere; cyber risk, for example, increases rapidly with unhappy workers. Our guest James Felton Keith is at the very nexus of these developments, using his insurance expertise to make a difference. James joins Agency Nation radio with host Peter van Aartrijk to walk us through these developments and the strategic opportunity for agents, brokers and carriers in a new field, which goes well beyond the HR department!

Ivory N. Mathews is a dynamic leader and motivator, offering over 20 years' comprehensive expertise in rebranding organizations through transformational and thought-centered approaches to leadership. Ivory exemplifies a “mentor” leadership approach, providing thorough ongoing guidance, training, and feedback. She has been building capable, motivated, inspired, and highly productive teams with a razor-sharp focus on delivering high-impact results. These creative solutions consistently execute organizational goals and objectives on time and within budget. Ivory Mathews is the CEO of Columbia Housing and a dynamic leader and motivator, offering over 20 years' comprehensive expertise in rebranding organizations through transformational and thought-centered approaches to leadership. She was named one of the top 20 dynamic CEOs in 2021 by the CEO publication, a global business magazine that recognizes leaders across the industry in the United States and the United Kingdom. Listen in to learn the value of high-quality technology in organizations to maximize efficiency and encourage innovation. You will also learn about implicit biases at the workplace and how they can be extremely harmful in any organization.  Key Takeaways: How to diversify resources to bring in public-private partnerships to create more quality affordable housing The power of good communication and transparency as a leader in charge of public funds How to use technology to maximize efficiency, provide much better customer service, and encourage employee innovation Why every organization needs to have a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) focus Why you should never underestimate the value of a strong support system in your career journey Find your purpose and pursue it passionately Always believe in who you are and live authentically by what makes you happy https://TrailBlazersImpact.com

This podcast is part of a series on the Workology Podcast focusing on DEI and HR. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are not new ideas in the HR and corporate arenas, but in recent months the importance and significance of DEI in the workplace has gotten leaders throughout corporate America to think about what doing the […] The post Episode 329: DEI Series – How Did You Get Into DEI? appeared first on Workology.

Nic had a fascinating conversation with a nonprofit President & CEO about diversity, equity, and inclusion. Throughout their conversation they talked about indicators that show when nonprofits and philanthropies are serious and intentional about DEI. In fact, those lingering thoughts are what inspired this episode!Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is a critical component in building a robust infrastructure, especially one that both reflects and aims to support various communities throughout the world. And by having a diverse group of people on your team, equitable governance, and an inclusive framework, actualizing your organizational goals and making an impact becomes much more tangible. Have you tried incorporating DEI throughout your organizational infrastructure? If not, why?

In October 2021, OOD announced Cleveland Clinic as the 2021 Governor's Inclusive Employer Award winner for their commitment to individuals with disabilities in the workplace and being a leader of diversity and inclusion best practices in Ohio. Listen to episode 33 of the OOD Works Podcast as staff with Cleveland Clinic discuss their “disability-inclusive” culture.Guests from Cleveland Clinic include Diana Gueits, Interim Executive Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; Carmen Roman, HR Business Partner, serving as an Advisor while supporting the Digestive Disease and Surgery Institute and the Glickman Urology & Kidney Institute; and Tim Gibbons, Department Director of Patient Transportation in Operations. They are joined by Michael Hoag, OOD Business Relations Specialist for the Northeast Region of Ohio.Transcripts and MP3 files are available at ood.ohio.gov/podcast.Employers interested in partnering can visit the OOD Business Relations Team webpage to get started. Do you have a disability? Do you want a job? OOD can help! Visit OODWorks.com or call 800-282-4536 to get started. Find OOD on social media: @OhioOOD.

Dr. Anthony C. Hood serves as the Executive Vice President and the Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer for First Horizon Bank. In this role, he leads the development and execution of a firm-wide strategy for embedding DEI into the DNA of the organization. He previously served as the Director of Civic Innovation in the Office of the President at UAB as well as a tenured Associate Professor of Management in the Collat School of Business at UAB. Dr. Hood is a board member of a number of organizations, including the Kiwanis Club of Birmingham, Birmingham Education Foundation, Urban Impact, and the Housing Authority of the Birmingham District. In our conversation, Dr. Hood discusses the importance of using data as a powerful tool for driving better outcomes in DEI work. He shares that DEI within an organization must be integrated into the DNA, beyond just HR practices and policies, and in order to build and implement the best strategies data must be ground zero. We also discuss ways to approach DEI work when facing opposition. To connect with Dr. Anthony C. Hood, you can find him on social media or on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonychood Topics In This Episode Driving creativity and innovation within teams Ensuring involvement in DEI implementation at every level of an organization Systems to look at to apply a DEI lens Tracking data on qualitative aspects of an organization and of DEI work The importance of keeping data well-organized and understanding the “why” behind it Data alone doesn't drive results and momentum Creative allyship within your organization Other Conversations We've Enjoyed Use Your Privilege to Uplift Others Bringing the Human Back to Human Resources Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Valeria Valbuena, a general surgery resident at Michigan Medicine presents a lecture on measurement bias and the implications of racialized medicine as part of our DEI lecture series.

Dr. Rebecca Parsons is the Chief Technology Officer at Thoughtworks (TWKS), a global software consultancy. Dr. Parsons has deep technical expertise, including leading the creation of large-scale distributed applications and the integration of disparate systems. Separate from her passion for deep technology, she is a strong advocate for diversity and inclusion in the technology industry. Dr. Parsons is a frequent speaker at industry events including Collision Conference, Web Summit, YOW!, Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing and more. She is the co-author of several books: “Domain-Specific Languages,” “The ThoughtWorks Anthology,” and “Building Evolutionary Architectures.”We spoke to her live at Web Summit 2021 on whether or not the tech sector is approaching sustainability in the right way, DEI efforts within the sector, and how the tech sector can take responsibility for the unintended consequences of tech innovation.As always, we welcome your feedback. Please make sure to subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play - and make sure to follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn!

Welcome to Tulsa Talks presented by Tulsa Regional Chamber. I'm your host Tim Landes.Through my writings for TulsaPeople, I often get to share stories of people from all walks of life. For the past two years I wrote a monthly piece called I Am. I've shared the stories of Tulsans who are trans, blind, gay, Buddhist, and the list goes on. If you're a longtime listener to this podcast, you've heard a wide range of guests in conversation.I love how diverse our city is. Diverse people offer diverse ideas. We're not all supposed to share the same views or beliefs, but we should be able to live together successfully. That's what makes a community and makes it thrive. The reason I'm talking so much about diversity is because my guest on this episode is Jonathan Long, Tulsa Regional Chamber's new VP of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.As you'll hear Jonathan is passionate about his work and understands what we need to do to keep growing in a positive way and why DEI is so important for future success.  Jonathan talks about the easy steps every Tulsan can take whether as an individual or business owner to grow your circles with more diversity and inclusion. He also discusses why it's important that we all continue to do measurable actions that go beyond making pledges or commitments to be better to ensure we have an optimal community full of thriving diversity. Not all the talk is about DEI. We also talked about why the 40 under 40 honoree chose to leave Wichita to come to Tulsa and what he's found that he loves since moving here this summer. I had a great time getting to know Jonathan and look forward to checking in down the road to see how we're all doing. Following my conversation with him, hear a new single from Beau Jennings and The Tigers. More on that later.OK, let's get this going. This is Tulsa Talks with Jonathan Long. Beau Jennings and the Tigers  just released the EP “Feel the Sun.” They will celebrate it with a release party on Nov. 19 at Mercury Lounge. Speaking of the Merc, we twice highlight them in the November issue. It is among the best places to catch a show in Tulsa and they also have a new beer they partnered with Heirloom Rustic Ales to make.Beau has long been one of the staples of the Tulsa music scene, and if you catch him live you're guaranteed to have fun time. If you want to learn more about him visit his website at beaujennings.com and Facebook.com/beaujenningsok. And that's Beau spelled BEAU.And with that here is the EP title track, “Feel the Sun.” 

Stacey Gordon is the Founder, CEO, and Chief Diversity Strategist at Rework Work where she helps canging workplace culture with DEI. The post Stacey Gordon, MBA, The Power of Meeting People Where They Are (#211) first appeared on Mike Malatesta.

Welcome to Season 3 of The Ethical Rainmaker a podcast that explores the world of inequity in nonprofits and philanthropy including where we should step into our power or step out of the way! It is part of my desire and effort to bring zero cost information, case studies and inspiration, to everyone in the third sector, and especially those who know or are learning that we've been complicit in upholding some problematic practices, and maybe some dishonestly but want to do better on this journey. If you like what you are listening to and want to support this work, find us here on Patreon  or email us at hello@theethicalrainmaker.com to talk about sponsorship!In this episode, Michelle talks with Liz LeClair a fundraiser and vocal advocate for human rights gender equality and social justice. We love Liz , who hails from Halifax, Nova Scotia, and we're happy to have so many links/citations for you (and you can sign up for our mailing list here):You can follow Liz LeClair on these platforms:Twitter: @liz_hallettLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liz-leclair-cfre/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elizabeth.hallettInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/liz_leclair_hfx/Liz is a contributing editor to The Charity ReportLiz has been writing spicy articles and pushing for justice for years now tho...here are some greats that awaken our sector to some of the injustices we perpetuate:Liz LeClair: ‘This is the apology we deserve' (The Charity Report)One woman's frustrating, futile fight for justice after being sexually harassed. (CBC)Liz LeClair: We cannot walk away from so-called ‘culture wars' (Third Sector UK)Donors' Behavior Key to #MeToo in Fundraising (TinySpark podcast from NonProfit Quarterly)The National Day of Conversation #NDOC is a full-day of digital conversation focused on the issue of sexual harassment and assault of fundraisers in the charitable and nonprofit sector. Liz co-founded this effort in Fall 2019 Liz to highlight the issue of sexualized violence in fundraising.Liz is the chair of the AFP Women's Impact Initiative, sits on the board of CFRE International (which is a certification for fundraisers,) and she sits on the board of the African American Development Officers network, as a white woman!References and People: The Bysander Effect: is the theory that folx are less likely to offer help to a victim if there are other people around (someone else must be taking care of it.)Mallory Mitchell is Resource Mobilization Director at Black Visions and an overall badass currently based in Minneapolis, Minnesota (US.) Here is our InstaLiveHadiya Roderique - Black on Bay Street: the woman who inspired Liz to speak up through her plenary at AFP Toronto Congress in 2019.Ann Rosenfield was the lead for Congress that year.  She is an outspoken advocate and ally, and the editor of Hilborn News.Collecting Courage: A book written by Black Fundraisers in Canada, about the joy, love, pain and freedom in this work - archiving and building the narratives of Black folx in this sector. Published in 2020 and edited by Nneka Allen (guest on S2:E2), Camila Vital Nunes Pereira and Nicole Salmon)Gail Picco has written extensively around issues of equity, race, gender, and philanthropy, and worked closely with the authors of Collecting Courage to bring that book to reality.  I highly recommend following her.Shanaaz Gokool is the former CEO of Dying with Dignity Canada, the current CEO of Fast and Female, and an incredible human rights activist in Canada. Liz referenced her calling her “in” to talk about a more intersectional approach to the work she was doing around the National Day of Conversation.Liz wants you to know about The Charity Report and the great work of Gail Picco & team they can check out the website: https://www.thecharityreport.com/Fleur Larsen: A white woman facilitator of DEI convos of whom Liz (and Michelle) are both admirers! Fleur was featured in The Ethical Rainmaker's most popular episode White Women As Gatekeepers. Learn about her workshops.Tanya Rumble and Nicole McVan are the two people I spoke about who are doing some great work around a Philanthropy & Equity Community of Practice.  Check out their work. A Note from Liz about Sexual Harassment and Sexualized Violence in the Charitable Sector: We are still working on what the National Day of Conversation will look like in 2022.  We are looking at a more intersectional approach, but if you have Canadian listeners (or really anyone who is interested) this is still a good repository of information:https://www.dayofconversation.org/Drs. Erynn Beaton and Megan LePere-Schloop of Ohio State University, conducted research on the fundraising workplace climate and you can learn more here.Liz's Recommended Reading List (from Liz):I have been fortunate to have many people recommend books to further my understanding of trauma and healing.  I am so grateful to amazing women like Birgit Burton and Nneka Allen for sharing their wisdom with me on these subjects.  As I said, I have learned the most from the women of colour who are willing to call me in, and call me out, when they need to.Collecting Courage: Collecting Courage: Joy, Pain, Freedom, Love is a collection of stories documenting racism and survival by 14 accomplished Black fundraisers working in charities across North America.  With searing and intimate detail, they write about their experiences with anti-Black racism—about coping with being last hired, first fired, overlooked for promotion to outright hostility in toxic workplaces. Their testimony chips away at the idea of the inherent goodness of the charitable sector.My Grandmother's Hands: Resmaa Menakem:  a book about human bodies and how trauma affects us.  Menakem's focus is on racialized trauma and the pathways to healing our minds and our hearts.Bad Feminist:  Roxane Gay:  if you have not read this book yet please do yourself a favour and go buy it.  Roxane Gay is the voice of reason in a sea of insanity most days.Had it Coming:  What's Fair in the Age of #MeToo?:  Robyn Doolittle.  Robyn is a well known and respected journalist here in Canada, akin to Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey of the NY times.  She has done, and continues to do extensive research into sexual harassment, sexualized violence, and gender discrimination here in Canada.  I highly recommend checking out her work.The Skin We're In: A year of black resistance and power:  Desmond Cole - Desmond is an Black journalist who came into the spotlight when he started to write about his personal experiences with police carding, racial discrimination, and dismantling of systemic racism in Canada.  He's brilliant and everything he writes advances our knowledge of these issues.A book I am waiting for but cannot wait to read is… Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement by Tarana Burke.

On this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast, Tom Vander Ark is joined by Clifton Taulbert, an acclaimed author, speaker and entrepreneur. His life story, Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored became a critically acclaimed 1996 movie and one of his books was sent to Nelson Mandela as a gift for his release from prison in 1990.  His most recent book, The Invitation, was chosen by the Architect of the United States Capitol as part of the 50 the anniversary celebration of the signing of the 1964 Civil Rights Legislation. Taulbert has written fourteen books in total, produced a major motion picture, and served as a consultant on several documentaries, including the Emmy-award-winning Boomtown: An American Journey, which details the birth of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Dr. Wayne Dyer, the “Father of Motivation” once said, “In all misfortune there is fortune. With everything that has happened to you, you can either feel sorry for yourself or treat what has happened as a gift. Everything is either an opportunity to grow or an obstacle to keep you from growing. You get to choose.” Our guest, Dr. Emily Drabant Conley, shares how she chose to leverage her struggles growing up in the Midwest as a gay teenager in a conversative town to become the leader she is today. And, how her lived experiences led her to embrace her authentic self in life and in work. Dr. Emily Drabant Conley is the CEO of Federation Bio. Previously, Dr. Conley spent over a decade at 23andMe, where she helped scale the company from 30 employees into the world's leading platform for genetic-driven drug discovery. As Vice President of Business Development at 23andMe, she architected visionary partnerships across pharma and biotech. ​Dr. Conley currently serves on the boards of Federation Bio, TMRW, Medrio and formerly served on the boards of Lesbians Who Tech and the UCSF Alliance Health Project. In this episode, Dr. Conley shares how to move forward through fear, why it's important to believe in yourself as a leader and why you should always hire people smarter than you. Visit https://www.iambeyondbarriers.com where you will find show notes and links to all the resources in this episode, including the best way to get in touch with Dr. Conley. Highlights: [03:01] Dr. Conley's career journey [07:40] You can be anything you want to be [10:29] Moving forward through fear [12:59] Making the decision to leave academia [16:02] Get comfortable with learning on the job [18:53] Hire people smarter than you [22:52] Cultivating instrumental relationships [26:21] Learning from failure [29:44] How genetic testing created dialogue around DEI [32:55] How to get in touch with Dr. Conley [33:15] Final words of wisdom from Dr. Conley Quotes: “Leaders who hire people smarter than them will have a thriving group who can achieve great things.” – Dr. Emily Drabant Conley “You can learn from others just by watching them, how they run meetings, how they communicate.” – Dr. Emily Drabant Conley “Doing the work on yourself personally is essential to being a good leader.” - Dr. Emily Drabant Conley About Dr. Emily Drabant Conley: Dr. Emily Drabant Conley is Chief Executive Officer of Federation Bio. Previously, Dr. Conley spent over a decade at 23andMe, where she helped scale the company from 30 employees into the world's leading platform for genetic-driven drug discovery. As Vice President of Business Development at 23andMe, she architected visionary partnerships across pharma and biotech. ​Dr. Conley currently serves on the boards of Federation Bio, TMRW and Medrio and formerly served on the boards of Lesbians Who Tech and the UCSF Alliance Health Project. In 2019, Dr. Conley was named one of Business Insider's 30 Leaders Under 40 who are transforming U.S. healthcare and in 2020 she was honored by Google Ventures as one of the 25 women shaping the future of technology. Dr. Conley spent 10 years in academia conducting genetics research. She was a research fellow at the National Institutes of Health and is co-author on more than 35 academic publications. She received her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Stanford University School of Medicine, where she held fellowships from the National Science Foundation and Department of Defense. She graduated summa cum laude from Vanderbilt University with a B.A. Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-drabant-conley/ Website: https://www.federation.bio/

While many organizations craft bold statements of belief around diversity, equity, and inclusion, (DEI), a lack of clear terms and language can hamper understanding and measurable improvement, says inclusion consultant Joe Gerstandt. Further, business leaders may be unaware how critical their own exposure to others' experiences and personal reflection journeys can be to spur behavioral change within the workplace. Hear more insights in Part 1 of this discussion on building inclusive practices into your workforce culture. Topics include:  1:55 - Joe's journey to current DEI work 3:58 - What companies are getting right on DEI 4:55 - Critical need for common terms, language 6:46 - Behavior change, accountability is necessary   10:23 - Building inclusive behaviors into workplace culture 12:31 - Inclusion is not just an HR project 14:39 - Changing paradigms through personal journeys and ... 14:58 - exposure to others' stories and experiences. 15:52 - Inviting leaders to public commitments Resources: How can your company develop its diversity and inclusion program? Read our article at: www.paychex.com/articles/human-resources/build-inclusive-workplace-program. Find more information on Joe, helpful resources, and his book “Social Gravity” at: http://joegerstandt.com Suggest a topic or guest for a coming show. Submit your ideas at: http://payx.me/pulsetopics

In this episode, Pat and Matt discuss the new Marvel movie Eternals that was recently released. We give our overall thoughts and opinions and also discuss the bad reviews that the movie received. Were those reviews warranted?Follow us on Twitter! https://twitter.com/WDTGTPodcastFollow us on Twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/whatdothegaymersthinkLogo Credit: Jackie Vandewater | vandewater.studio | @jakquillime | twitch.tv/jackie_the_bananasCheck out our merch!! https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/88055567

Todd Shepherd, chief investigator for Broad+Liberty, joins the Dom Giordano Program to lead off the second hour, to discuss a fantastic investigation into the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion program in the Bensalem school district. In his piece, Shepherd uncovered that the Bensalem Township School District paid a consulting firm over $100,000 to a consulting firm for an ‘Equity Review,' in effort to develop a plan alongside the districts new DEI committee. Todd takes us through what he discovered, and gives us a temperature of the town of Bensalem, explaining what has led to the decision to implement such a committee. Then, famed attorney Alan Dershowitz rejoins the Dom Giordano Program to offer his thoughts on both the Kyle Rittenhouse trial, and the surrender of Steve Bannon for contempt of Congress charges. First, though, today's side topic on the show are trials and court cases that broke through into the realm of national discussion, so Dom asks Dershowitz to take listeners into the OJ Simpson trial, in which he served as part of ‘the Dream Team.' Then, Giordano and Dershowitz switch lanes to the Kyle Rittenhouse trial, with Dershowitz giving his takeaways and issues he has had from the trial. Dershowitz breaks down the horrible prosecution, and tells what he would have done serving on both sides in the trial. (Photo by Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Lynn Bynum and Lauren Turner dive into how HR can have a broader impact on students and future campus leaders when modeling inclusive behavior and prioritizing DEI work. Lynn also shares how CUPA-HR helped her make the transition from the corporate world to higher ed HR, and Lauren offers insights into how HR can become a recognized leader within the institution and help others become better leaders. 

The small firm community, those firms with 150 or fewer registered financial professionals, came together in October to discuss and engage on key areas of concern at the Small Firm Conference. On this episode, we're taking you behind the scenes of this year's event with an abridged look at the fireside chat with FINRA CEO Robert Cook and Executive Vice President Greg Ruppert, moderated by FINRA's head of Member Relations Kayte Toczylowski.Resources mentioned in this episode:Trusted Contact ResourcesRacial Justice Task Force2021 Report on FINRA's Examination and Risk Monitoring ProgramCybersecurity Resources

Enlightened by her father and encouraged by her mother, Christine Spadafor was raised with the belief that she could do anything.  Her affinity for sciences, her insatiable curiosity and degrees in both law and public health helped Christine create the building blocks that gave her tremendous flexibility to successfully pursue a number of different industries. Christine Spadafor is an experienced public and private company board director with deep expertise in risk management, regulatory compliance, DEI, and ESG. She has worked extensively as an advisor for fortune 500 C-Suite executives and as the CEO of the Spadafor Group, a management consulting firm.  Christine serves as an independent director on the board of highly regulated companies and also in the advisory boards of WBUR, one of the premier national radio stations in the US. She is also a commentator on the BBC World Service business matters Global Radio Broadcasting Podcast. She has broad experience leading international engagements, including the development of a worldwide strategy for a perfume company in France. Christine also served as a public health consultant to the UN in China. For nearly 10 years, she dedicated her extensive experience in financial operational, organization management to St. Jude's Ranch for children- a  nonprofit that serves abused, abandoned, and homeless children. Christine is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Harvard School of Public Health and was selected by the business section of the American Bar Association as one of the top 20 female attorneys with outstanding expertise for corporate board service. What You Will Hear in This Episode:  Christine's early interest in and exposure to science  From the bedside to  the boardroom Creating your own opportunities and taking calculated risks Championing gender diversity and equity in the workplace and in the boardrooms How the pandemic has provided the opportunity for workers to reflect on their jobs Not done yet! What Christine still wants to achieve. Working with the younger, ambitious generation Christine's Key takeaways from mistakes she made Quotes “When I was five years old, my father said to me, “little girl you can do anything and be anything when you grow up.” “Employees want to work for companies that are committed to sustainability and good environmental practices.” “Fewer women get promoted at the entry-level than men. It's ten men for every 7 women. It's even worse for women of color.” “Another question to ask if you're that young woman is, “is this a company culture that matches my values?” “To whom much is given, much is expected.” Mentioned: https://www.christinespadafor.com/  https://www.christinespadafor.com/st-judes-ranch  https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/women-in-the-workplace  https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinespadafor  https://bonniemarcusleadership.com/  Gendered Ageism Survey Results Forbes article 5 Tips to own the superpower of your age Not Done Yet! Not Done Yet! Amazon Bonniemarcusleadership.com The Politics of Promotion Fb @Bonnie.Marcus LinkedIn: @Bonniemarcus Twitter: @selfpromote IG: @self_promote_

So many companies are reworking their relationship with diversity, equity and inclusion actions this year, as they should. But for affinity groups within companies, like ERGs or BRGs, developed to support underrepresented groups - what is the best role for leadership to play? Should they be the driving force, or take a backseat role? Join host Christine Dela Rosa and debaters Dominique Ward and Shannon Winter, as they consider the best ways management can support these internal groups. In this episode, you'll hear from DEI consultant Frank Starling on the opportunities for accountability when leadership drives ERGs; and the Surdna Foundation's Mekaelia Davis shares why ERG members ultimately benefit more when they are in the driver's seat themselves. For the transcript and downloadable takeaways, visit https://www.atlassian.com/blog/podcast/work-check.

The Connected Yoga Teacher Podcast 246: Anger, Forgiveness & Self-Care with Jacoby Ballard   Description: Anger is a very human emotion that almost all of us experience, but society often encourages us to suppress it. Yet, dismissing, denying, or suppressing anger can cause it to spill out in the wrong way and unintentionally harm others. In this episode, Jacoby Ballard shares more about how anger, forgiveness, and self-care tie in together.   Jacoby Ballard is a social justice educator and yoga teacher with 20 year of experience. Since 2006, Jacoby has taught Queer and Trans Yoga, a space for queer folks to unfurl and cultivate resilience, and in 2008, they co-founded Third Root Community Health Center in Brooklyn to work at the nexus of healing and social justice. They lead workshops, retreats, teacher trainings, teach at conferences, and run a mentorship program specifically for yoga teachers, in addition to consulting in the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) space. Jacoby is also the author of a new book, A Queer Dharma: Yoga and Meditations for Liberation, released in 2021.   When we feel anger, we may think it is out of line with being ‘yogic'. Jacoby addresses this perception and explains how we can begin to understand and process the anger that we may feel. They share tips for calming the nervous system, strategies to integrate what's going on in the world into your own practice, and how our daily practice can help up show up in the work that we do. Jacoby also shares more about their new book and what they have learned from the experience of writing it.    This is a remarkable episode that will speak to anyone who is feeling tired, worn down, angry, struggling to forgive or to be forgiven, or feeling ready to take on new challenges and wanting to gather their energy.   Key Takeaways: [3:40] Shannon does a little check in with you. [6:42] Check out Jacoby's book and join the book launch party! [9:12] Shannon gives a shout out to Schedulicity. [11:09] Shannon introduces her guest for this episode - Jacoby Ballard. [13:31] What does Jacoby do and who do they do it for? [15:34] We may experience anger when looking at the injustices in the world, but this can feel like it's not in line with yoga. What are Jacoby's thoughts on that? [18:15] What are some healthy ways to discharge anger and calm the nervous system? [20:54] Society often encourages us to suppress anger and big emotions. How can we encourage healthy expression of this? [23:43] What are some things we can do when we feel like we can't receive someone's message because of their anger? [25:52] How does Jacoby integrate what's happening in the world into their own practice? [28:50] Jacoby talks about how their daily practice and routines really enables them to show up in the work they do. [31:07] What does Jacoby's self practice look like? [34:54] Jacoby reads an excerpt from their book. [37:12] Jacoby shares their experience of writing the book. [39:27] What are some other examples of anger coming up that we should care about? [39:27] What are some issues that Jacoby cares deeply about in the yoga world? [40:31] Jacoby and Shannon discuss the question of 200hr yoga teacher trainings. [42:42] As humans, we are going to feel harm and we are going to harm others. [45:43] Jacoby shares their experience of teaching about compassion in a prison. [50:59] Jacoby leaves us with a concluding message for yoga teachers. Links: Jacoby Ballard A Queer Dharma: by Jacoby Ballard A Queer Dharma, by Jacoby Ballard - North Atlantic Books (Use code 'connected' for 30% discount and free shipping) Resonance Membership Program with Jacoby Ballard Birthing Papa: A Yogi's Path to Parenthood Pelvic Health Professionals Guest Speakers Kelly McGonigal Schedulicity (Coupon Code: CYT2MONTHS) The Connected Yoga Teacher Facebook Group   Gratitude to our Sponsors, Schedulicity, and Pelvic Health Professionals (Coupon: Connected2021).   Quotes from this episode: "Anger is a very human emotion and if we dismiss it, or deny it, or oppress it then it's going to come out in all the wrong places and probably all over those that we care about most in our lives."   "If we don't look at the anger first, then we can't get to the heartbreak, the fear, or the exhaustion. And if we can't get there, then we can't heal, we can't get to the other side."   "Having the daily practices allows me to be grounded in myself, remember my commitment, remember my purpose, and then turn back towards whatever is calling my attention on a given day."   "I must create boundaries that protect me from internalizing harm while practicing compassion that allows me to remain sensitive to suffering around the world."   "Anger tells us, pay attention! Anger gives us the energy to do something, for something precious is being killed, injured, threatened, tarnished, taken, abused, polluted, appropriated or harmed."   "Working with feedback, inviting feedback and working with it really conscientiously is so important in so many yoga dharma spaces."  

Jennie Brooks, host of the Unstoppable Together podcast, chats with Vanessa Benally from the Booz Allen Indigenous Network. In this episode she talks about their recent name change, areas of focus and goals for the employee network, and the significance of a recent visit to an area Tribal community.

There's a misconception in the coaching world that “badass” equals punching down on other women coaches, publicly, with the intention of drawing business away from them and over to you. I think you'll find in this episode, and in our townhall presentation, that there is truly another way. Get the full show notes and more information here: https://shyatt.com/167

In episode 122 Erik and Kerel chat with Hélène Parker, Founder and Chief Programmatic Sensei at Helene Parker Consulting LLC. During our conversation, we talk about Hélène's identity, career journey, why she launched her own business, the importance of producing content for your business, thoughts on DEI, and why you should always bet on yourself. Follow Us: Newsletter: http://bitly.com/2QLEY8U Linkedin: http://bit.ly/2ZZUBxG Twitter: http://bit.ly/2Qp0SzK Instagram: http://bit.ly/2QLfEQc

For the past 23 years, the NeuroLeadership Institute has been teaching leaders from around the world about the power of cognitive science as applied to the workplace. They've helped businesses dramatically improve employee engagement, master the habits of inclusion, and turn troubled workplaces into top-performers at a speed, impact and scale offered nowhere else. At the heart of this transformative cultural leadership is the brain-based coaching practice first developed by David and Lisa Rock. Now offering enterprise and individual coaching solutions, the NeuroLeadership Institute continues to assist businesses in tackling their most challenging talent questions. How can you move the needle on DEI at your organization? What conversations do you need to be having about performance to keep your employees doing their best in the era of hybrid work? What are the best ways to facilitate individual and organizational growth in the workplace setting? In this episode, Patricio Ramal, the NeuroLeadership Institute's Director of Education—who led the practice to international award-winning status during the coronvirus pandemic—offers his thoughts on the latest innovations in brain-based coaching, and how to bring the best out of leaders and teams alike.

DOWNLOAD SOLCIETY APP NOW! Speaker 1 (00:00:03):Welcome to the Solarpreneur podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong and I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in a year and cracking the code on why sales reps fail. I teach you to avoid the mistakes I made and bringing the top solar dogs, the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro and closing more deals. What is a Solarpreneur you might ask a Solarpreneur is a new breed of solar pro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one.Speaker 2 (00:00:41):What's going on Solarpreneurs? We have another fantastic episode and we alive here in Las Vegas, Nevada here in, uh, a man of the hour, his mansion here, just hanging out. So we've got Mr. Jerry Fussell on the show, Jerry. Thanks for coming on with us today.Speaker 3 (00:00:57):Yeah. Thanks for driving up too. I appreciate it. It's how far from San Diego? It's like five hours. Five hours. Yeah. So thanks man, for coming up and hanging out. Glad to have you here at the house. And, uh, thanks for jumping on a podcast with me, man.Speaker 2 (00:01:09):Yeah. I love it. And know Jerry has been treating me to pop tarts and a sandwich. Isn't all, all the pizza I can handle here. So, Hey man,Speaker 3 (00:01:18):It's definitely a house that we house door knockers a lot because pizza and Pop-Tarts and sandwiches that'sSpeaker 2 (00:01:26):Okay. I had more, more food than the first door knocking the house I was in. That's true. All we had was eggs. Pretty much.Speaker 3 (00:01:32):We have a lot of those too. Okay.Speaker 2 (00:01:33):So they got it all, but I know it's been an awesome time here, so yeah, we'd been able to shoot some content and just kind of hang out here with Jerry and his guys. And, um, and the other big announcement we have before we kinda jump into things here is, um, Jerry, he, with his company Pi Syndicate, they are the first ever sponsors of the Solarpreneur podcasts. So, uh we're yeah, I'm happy about it. And we're going to let Jerry talk a little bit about that and then also is partnering on it, but, um, just like the summary of it, they are a, well, I guess you can say, well, it's just a summarized version. Do you want to tell our listeners what pipes in the syndicate is real quick?Speaker 3 (00:02:12):Yeah. Yeah. So Pi Syndicate is more of a supportive kind of mastermind. Um, we didn't start a truly make money. I already have some successful solar companies. My, one of my partners, Mikey, Lucas and Austin already have successful businesses. The reason why we started it is because we realized that about 85% of the guys in the industry that are top earners. So the guy's making, you know, over $150,000 a year, ended up leaving the industry and they have no money. They don't own any real estate. They don't have any money in savings. And about half of them owe money to the IRS. So when we talk about why we work, you know, it's a fun job going door to door, selling stuff. There's a ton of reasons why we all work, but when it comes down to it, if it didn't actually pay us any money, we would all stop.Speaker 3 (00:02:57):And that's eventually what happens is guys get burnt out because the money is not, not good enough to overcome the fact that they owe money on taxes or that they haven't really accumulated any wealth. And it's just, you know, just like you and I, we both probably hopped around to different houses. You know, door-knocking across the country, it's not indicative of saving money. It means that we go buy a BMW when we get enough money or we, we go out to fancy dinners or whatever, we're going to spend the money on. Or we buy our wife a $20,000 wedding ring when we propose because we're making money and guys, uh, leave the industry. Eventually majority of people end up not door knocking forever. Some of us love it. Some of us love it for five years and it's time to move on. And the sad thing for us is when they do move on, they put a lot of sweat and work into the job and they leave the industry with nothing to show for it.Speaker 3 (00:03:47):And these are guys making the top one, 2% of income earners in the entire country, and they're not having any money in savings and investments. And so that's, our mission is to change that we want to, within five years of working in the solar industry, have a plan for retirement in place where a guy can walk away from the door to door, industry, Copia, dentist, whatever he wants to do, and still have a substantial financial portfolio with investing and savings and emergency funds and all the things you need. Also a credit score, enough income to buy your first house. You know, all the things that companies don't really educate their, uh, door knockers on and their sales guys on is really the gap that we fill within the industry. We're kind of selective, but at the end of the day, we want to hang out with cool people that are knocking doors.Speaker 3 (00:04:32):It's just the coolest, single job to meet people that live differently, right. That wake up every day, excited to go to work. Cause if you don't, you quit within three months, probably. So if you're there a couple of years and you're a top earner, you're a guy want to hang out with and be around. And so that's what the mastermind is about is hanging out and being together. The reason I'm so excited to sponsor the podcast is because we feel like you're adding value. Whether it be a new guy that's 30 days in the industry, or maybe just thinking about going into solar, I've heard guys tell me that they've listened to your podcast to make a decision, even to accept a job in the solar industry, which is really cool. But then I would say your normal audience is one of two things, either kind of new to solar.Speaker 3 (00:05:16):And they're looking to see what podcasts are out there. And then the other one, which is strange is like the really seasoned guys like me that just want to hear good conversations with guys that are still in the field door knocking. Part of the reason why I respect you so much is because not only do you do a podcast, but you're still out door knocking virtually every day. So the content is fresh. It's, it's exactly what's going on to help you make money. And when you have guests on the conversations you have with them, um, definitely flow very well because you're doing the same job as them. So it's real life questions. It's real life answers about how to make more money, how to be more consistent in solar. And that's what we really preach is consistency and hard work. And that's the same thing.Speaker 3 (00:05:56):The podcast help brings people that listen to it. So we are super pumped to be a sponsor. And we look forward to being a sponsor for years to come and all the success in the world. We know you're going to hit 500 listeners, um, uh, 500,500,000 listeners. Uh, pretty soon as our goal has a sponsor. So we're going to be boosting some of the marketing and stuff to help you get there because literally everyone in solar right now, everyone in door to door needs to be listening to a mentor, tell them how to do their job better. And we feel like you're a great guy to do that for us.Speaker 2 (00:06:26):I love that. Appreciate that, Jerry. Absolutely man. And yeah, no, it goes without saying too, it's like you were saying so many guys just get out of this and reminds me of the NFL or something. We've all heard like guys in the NFL. I think I heard a stat that like, I don't know some crazy number of them are broke within a couple of years after they can't get out of the NFL. And I feel like door to door is very similar in that guy is making insane amounts of money knocking doors, but let's be honest. We're probably not all going to be doing this stower, you know, retirement age. No. So that's, what's so cool about what you're doing with Pi Syndicate is you're teaching guys how to really hang on to that money and turn that money into future investments in keep a hold of it. Because a lot of people that aren't, you know, super smart with itSpeaker 3 (00:07:08):And, you know, to be clear, um, I wasn't super smart with it either. I started out door to door when I was 19 selling, um, cable, internet door to door and it only paid $30 a sale or something like that. But you could go out and sell 10 of them a day. It's still really good money. And then I became a regional manager and started to make even better money. And, you know, a few hundred thousand dollars was flowing in and I was making all this money. And um, then 26 years old came around. I had my first child and, uh, talking with my wife, I decided to go out and get a real job. I had been in door-to-door for about six years was killing it, making hundreds of thousands dollars a year. I had literally had about a million dollar net worth. And I thought I was doing awesome.Speaker 3 (00:07:51):Right? And then I decided, well, I really want to do something. So I got a job at a children's home. I was working on a college degree and within a year I was completely broke. Um, just completely devastatingly broke, you know, eating ramen noodles again, I'm like, dude, I have a professional college level job. And now me and my wife, uh, are back to eating beans and rice. And we're like, is this what real life is supposed to be? But this is what everyone tells you to go. Do you know what I mean? But what happened is I was living a lifestyle based on being a door to door guy and not everyone stays at door to door guy forever. And so that transition for me was extremely difficult when I realized that I, I thought I want to do something out of it. I thought I wanted a real job, um, that everyone talks about.Speaker 3 (00:08:35):And I'm so glad that I found my way back. And so the first time I engaged with a publisher to write a book, I thought, for sure, my book's title was going to be millionaire by 25 and broke by 26. Um, to really explain why to manage your money better, how to take care of your money. Cause it was a hard life lesson, but it's almost identical to the majority of guys in the door to door industry. And we're not talking about the guy that makes it 30 days and quits. We're talking about guys that are making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, selling solar pest control roofing. Um, they're not going to last forever. They always think that they want to go do something else. And at, at that point, I don't know of a single another occupation without like being a brain surgeon that you can go and make 300 K a year.Speaker 3 (00:09:20):Like it's just not going to happen. Maybe over 30 years of building it up, even being on wall street, building up, being with a trading company or something like that, you can get there, you know, over years of dedication and working hard with your clients, maybe insurance, you know, there's some things that you can build up this business and make hundreds of thousands dollars, but there's nothing I can think of that you can leave door to door, knowing nothing about anything besides sales and make 300 K year. So there's always going to be this turmoil in your life where you decide to get out of sales. And for me it was, you know, I didn't want to work after five o'clock. I wanted to go home at five, o'clock have dinner with my family. I thought that was the American dream, you know, to have, uh, a normal job.Speaker 3 (00:10:00):I'd get off, go home, eat dinner, have a dog, walk the dog. And uh, I learned very quickly over about a year eating beans that, uh, the American dream wasn't so fun. And I decided to go back to work. But I, at the same time realized there's guys that are not going to decide to go back to work. There's going to be guys that are super happy to make 50 to a hundred thousand dollars a year, but their lifestyle is going to have to change. And just like the NFL players, it was hard for me to adapt my lifestyle to the lower income. So when my wife wanted to go out for anniversary, we still spent $250 on dinner. You know, we still bought, you know, $200 shoes instead of $50 shoes. Like all the things that we had trained ourselves to budget for were all incorrect.Speaker 3 (00:10:43):And we had never had to live on a budget being 21 years old and making 200 grand a year. You don't really have to budget. You just spend your money on whatever you want. And then you're like, oh man, I ran out of money. I need to go knock more doors. And you just can't keep the money coming in. Um, it's not a very smart way longterm to live. So my goal is to get with people that are 18, 19 25, really, you could be 35 and this is the first time you're in door to door. And you're like, this is a lot of money. Those are the guys that we want to help. And they're the same audience that you're trying to help too. So I think there's a lot of alignment there just helping guys get to that next level. So we're excited to help them for that.Speaker 2 (00:11:19):I love that. And yeah, we've had a couple of finance guys and things like that. Come on. But yeah, this is kind of the first, um, you're the first people I've seen really put together kind of mastermind style and help people at this level, which is awesome. So that's why,Speaker 3 (00:11:34):You know, yeah. And the whole thing, the whole thing about Pi Syndicate is it's sharing a lot of the resources for my company, but, you know, we made last year was 151 million. And so the revenue is very large, but then that means I spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on legal, on CPAs and advisors. You know, I spent $400,000 last year on mastermind groups. Um, you guys don't have the resource to do that. You're doing really good Taylor, you're killing it. You're in the top of the industry. You're still not going to go out and drop a hundred thousand dollar retainer on an attorney cause you don't need it. Right. It just doesn't make any sense. Your wife would be like, are we getting a divorce? Why do you need the a hundred thousand dollars retainer? Um, so it's just something that you don't think you need until you need it.Speaker 3 (00:12:15):Right? And so it's much better to have my legal team on standby to have our CPAs answer really hard questions to have my tax strategies that you normally only invest in. If you make, you know, $10 million in profit a year or more, uh, be available to you guys. And we do it in a mastermind setting so that we can share the knowledge, um, pretty openly, but with only guys that we want to hang out with, right? There's some guys in masterminds, I'm sure you've been to events and things. You're like, I'd rather not go hang out with a guy afterwards. So we definitely want to make it a group of guys where we stay together for a really long time. And then we want to see your businesses grow, you know? And, um, I would love to see your podcast. I was saying 500,000 listeners earlier.Speaker 3 (00:12:56):I'm not joking about that. I'd love to see your podcast expand to grow. You know, when people talk about the solar guys are listening on podcasts, that should be at my let you know, Jordan Bell Ford and Taylor Armstrong like that. I mean, that's really, when it comes to selling, how many viewers do you need to have listening? And because it's a lot of valuable things, I literally think anyone not listening to your podcast is probably selling the wrong thing. Like they're, they're probably selling cars. They're probably selling watches at a jewelry store, probably selling cell phones. And they're all listening to the wrong podcasts. They think that ed, my let's going to make him rich or grant Cardone and they're not, solar's going to make him rich and they need to be listening to the right box.Speaker 2 (00:13:33):Okay. There's no doubt about that. I mean, I always say we're the Navy seals of the sells industry. No one's selling like we are so we can learn how to sell solar. Then it's like, I mean, that's why we got so much money in this and yeah, yeah. I can translate to anything else to,Speaker 3 (00:13:46):For sure. Yeah. And we definitely have to get good. We got to hone our skills because, um, it's not about how much money even make per job. It's about how much money you make at the end of the year. And we know that this is the gold rush right now. Um, but the guys that made the most money during the gold rush, you know, you've heard the saying that they sold the shovels and they were the support guys. They built the businesses around it. And so yes, we need to be Navy seals. But the reason to hone our skills that much is because it's not going to pay this much forever five years down the road, let's say the average commission is, you know, a thousand dollars a job then instead of 2,500 or more now, um, that's going to be devastating for someone that hasn't hone their skills.Speaker 3 (00:14:26):If they're used to a 5%, 10% close rate and they think they're killing it because they live in California and they're making serious money per sale, uh, that's not going to be around forever. And so the reason why you have to hone your skills is yes, it's nice to make a million dollars a year. This year, selling solar by having a 40% close rate would be awesome. Right? But the real reason is because, um, in five years you're going to have to close at a 40% rate to make the same amount of money you're making today. So if you, this is the training time, view it as a quick start bonus viewed. As you know, the companies are encouraging you to get out there and sell. It's not going to be like this forever. The whole, the law of supply and demand means that the more people that want to sell solar, the less money the companies will pay to sell for us to sell solar.Speaker 3 (00:15:08):Now they're always going to have all commission jobs. So you're always going to be able to make serious money selling solar, you know, look at the other industries, the pest control, the roofing a thousand dollars per sale is still super competitive. And I really believe that's probably where we're going over the next five years. And so we've got to hone those skills because a lot of us that are selling four jobs a month, five jobs a month, a thousand dollars a sell is not going to cut it. We need to be selling, you know, sitting in three appointments a day and selling, you know, one of those a day. Then we start still making good money. Even with the money being turned down, we're still turning out 200,000 a year or more. Um, even when the industry changes, we also need to prep our skills because there's a few times where your skills mean more than just, um, what you can do with them.Speaker 3 (00:15:53):Navy seals end up retiring from the Navy seals. They go into contracting work and there's companies that will pay them millions of dollars to train other people how to do those skills. So when we talk about honing our skills, it's not just about what you can do with the skills, it's about how you can leverage that to help others. And when we, when we talk about even the big guys in sales grant, Cardone never made as much money as he's making until he made a decision to help other people make money. And, uh, same thing with a lot of the other trainers, right? They could go out. There's only so many hours during the day. So, um, they're only gonna make so much money guys like ed, my left that are worth hundreds of millions of dollars, did it by having thousands of people underneath of him selling stuff.Speaker 3 (00:16:35):And that's really what we have to think is I have to get my skills to a level where I can leverage that to help others and in helping others solve the problem, they're going to give me a small amount of a percentage of the problem I solved. So if you help them make a thousand dollars, maybe they're willing to give you a hundred bucks, but while you can only run five appointments a day, guys that are on your teams, running stuff for you could be running hundreds of appointments a day. So it's just the economies to scale are where it's going to be at. So I encourage the guys, listen to this podcast and, um, and really being interested in solar to hone your skills, stop thinking about even your close rate today. Think about what it'll allow you to build in a year and two years and three years, because the economy is not always going to stay the same. So your skills have to up-level. Yeah,Speaker 2 (00:17:20):No, I agree. A hundred percent. And that's why I talk about on the podcast too. I, I encourage all the people listening. I'd go out and teach your teams to sell, develop that skill, to like present to others, to teach other people, you know, they've got all sorts of things. Like you can go to the Toastmasters, the speaking trainings, things like that. I think that's a huge skill to learn because yeah, we're not always going to be, like you said, making as much as we are in solar necessarily right now. So it's important for people that develop those other skills, which are money-making skills, presenting others, training other people, and then you have a whole different set of skill set you can do when maybe solar isn't as good. So, um, yeah, that's huge, Jerry. And, um, we're going to have your partner Austin in, he's going to also talk about pipes and they get to, so we'll leave, um, some, some stuff for him to talk about that too. Um, but yeah, with you, I wanted to hear, I know you talked about a little bit about your background, how you started in selling, but I wanted to hear, how did you transition, uh, specifically into solar sales? And can you talk about how you started your first company with that? And this is obviously super.Speaker 3 (00:18:22):Yeah, so it was a, it was a rough, um, transition. I had, um, gone home and I was selling ADT as a director level. So nice house, no debt. Um, I had everything we needed was making 200,000 a year, thought it was at the top of my game. Um, and then a solar company kept stealing my top reps. So I managed a three or four state region. Um, and they kept stealing reps and it was always my best ones, always the guys that were making 30 deals a month now, all of a sudden our solar reps. So I decided to go to this company because I'm pretty mad. So I'm just going to walk in, I'm a straight forward guy and say, Hey, stop selling my people. I train these people, you know, it's unfair. And the guy said, let me vent for a little while.Speaker 3 (00:19:06):Then he goes, well, don't you ask yourself why they are selling solar? Don't you want to know how much money you could make selling solar. And so I listened to the pitch and I was like, dang, it it's a good pitch. That's way more money than security. Right. And so I was like, okay, I need to take this seriously. So I go home and I talked to my wife and say, Hey, I think we have to make this transition. I had already noticed some of the writing on the wall. ADT had actually not brought on more customers than it canceled since the time that I've been there over the few years that I've been there. And so that was worrying, you know, if we couldn't outsell the cancels, that's a bad thing. And so how ADT dealt with it as they would acquire other companies and kind of fluff their numbers because they're publicly traded.Speaker 3 (00:19:47):So it never looked like they lost subscribers. Um, but it wasn't because of sales. We could not outsell the cancels. Yeah. And so that doesn't sound sustainable to me. So I had already had some fear that no matter how good we sold, it was just a matter of time, five years, 10 years, 20 years down the road that nobody's going to want to buy security door to door for $60 a month payment. Right. So I was just a little bit worried. So I went home and I talked to my wife and we decided to go ahead and me take an offer, you know, and, and go into that. I accepted the offer within the first 30 days. Um, I thought it was going to make all kinds of money and I made one sale. And some, my wife's like, you gotta tell me what's going on here.Speaker 3 (00:20:32):This is crazy. I would also driving three and a half hours to get to the field. So I was at the time because we were trying to save money. I was like, I'm going to do this as cheap as physically possible. I'm going to drive back and forth, you know, as much as I can. And if I have to, I'll just sleep in the car, get up, knock turf in the morning and, and go at it. I had a, a nice SUV. So I lay a whole air mattress. One of those that you see on Amazon where you pump them up, you know, they cover the seats. I was like, this is going to be cool. Yeah. Just hit the doors. It's parked right there. So I was grinding, right. I was not going like 12 hours a day. And uh, my only break for air conditioning was like, maybe go watch a movie or something like that.Speaker 3 (00:21:10):Well, I was like, if you watch a movie, why can't you just go get a hotel? I'm like, well, maybe it's 12 bucks. Like I don't want to stay in a $12 hotel. That's disgusting. And, uh, but it was a grind right. For a whole month and I made one deal and I thought, this is, this has gotta be over. I think our average commission back then was $1,500. So I traded somewhere around $20,000 a month. In that first month I went down to about 1500. And of course you don't get it until they install it. So they gave me like a little bit and they were like, oh, and you'll get the rest just whenever we don't know. And I'm like, oh, I'm in trouble. ADT was like, next day, you know, somebody would be out there installing it. So I misunderstood that coming into solar.Speaker 3 (00:21:48):Where was, where were you selling that? Kansas city. Okay. Yeah, not a great market. It was only about six years ago. Okay. So, and, um, they had a huge rebate in Kansas city and the rebate had gone away the month I started. So we went from having, I think the state level was up to a $2, a watt rebate then had gone down to a dollar watt and then it kind of went away. Well, $2 watt rebate is huge. So our average sell price was like $3 a watt. And, um, between the rebate and the ITC at the time was 30%. We literally were giving away solar for free. So when I accepted the job, I thought I was going to go door to door and just give it away for free. And then like the week I started, they're like, Hey, the rebate's gone away.Speaker 3 (00:22:28):You really guys, it's not free anymore. You need like 25 to $30,000 on every deal. And I'm like, what? I thought we gave stuff away for free. Well, what's going on with this. And so it kind of changed the game really quickly on me. Uh, I adjusted though. So then, um, once I figured out how to sell, I realized that it was a lot about understanding the benefits, understanding the tax taxes, really understanding how much money they would save because I was so new. It allowed me to adjust faster than the guys that have been doing it two years with this huge rebate and everything. And so the next, uh, three months I had made about a hundred sales, I think 102 sales in the next three months. So it really kicked in and I did really, really well. What's strange is you have these self limiting beliefs though.Speaker 3 (00:23:15):I always believed in ADT that I had to sell 30 deals a month and I really peaked out around the same thing. So it's almost like this mindset that I was a 30 deal a month, a rep I carried over into solar as well. And it's just recently that I realized that mindset's completely wrong listening to some of your podcasts with guys. I think you said recently you had someone on that sold 68 deals in a month. So more than double, more than double what I was selling. So I looked back saying, man, I wonder if I totally just carried over a self-belief from selling security that had nothing to do with solar, but I consistently would put up 30 deals a month. The cool thing about solar is there's commercial too. So my last month I killed it. Um, commission wise, I probably would've made somewhere around 280 5k in 30 days.Speaker 3 (00:24:00):So it was incredible. I went home, talked to my wife, we're super excited. We're like, man, this is it. We're making, we love this company. The company's like, Hey, by the way, we can actually afford to pay you that much. And we're nine months behind on install. And I'm like, oh wow, that's crazy. Some of you listening have probably heard words similar to that before, um, from a solar company. So I decided really quickly to go out on my own. Cause I was like, how much worse can it be if they can't pay me? And it takes nine months to install, I'm sure I can do better than that. So, um, the trouble was, I had to walk away from all of that commission and then, um, didn't have a lot of money in the bank. And so cause you know how far behind commissions are.Speaker 3 (00:24:41):So really I walked away from even more than that. And um, but I had no debt on my house and everything. So we had to sell our house. We had to cash out, 401k, invest, everything we had into starting a solar company. And when you tell your wife that it's time to sell the dream house, to go door to door again and sell more solar, it was a hard conversation. I'm so thankful that she supported me through that though and made that leap. Um, it took about three more years of making really minimal amount of money. I think I pulled maybe $30,000 a year out of my company. Okay. The first six months I, uh, you couldn't hire an EPC like you can now they just really didn't exist. Right? And so I had to hire a, uh, NAVSUP trainer to come in and train me to install.Speaker 3 (00:25:25):So the next six months I installed all my own jobs, uh, realized really, really quickly that I was bad at paperwork. So I had to hire administrative shin assistance and people do net metering. And then I realized I didn't like talking on the phone. So I had to hire, uh, an admin person to answer the phone. Then I had to hire, um, um, a phone sales person to answer all the incoming calls. And I'm like, man, this is crazy. Now I have like 14 people that work for me. I gotta, I gotta start making a lot more sales. So, uh, it was kind of the, you know, they say the, the mother of invention is necessity and that was it. I had to learn how to sell a lot more just to support the company, but selling 30 jobs a month, you know, a lot of solar companies don't even do that much.Speaker 3 (00:26:06):So me myself could go out and support my whole company, but then I just kept growing it. You know, when I brought on other sales guys and, but I stay very conservative. So a lot of owners, you know, brag about their, their fancy watches or the drive fancy cars right away. I always knew this was a long-term play for me. And if I was going to expand faster than my competitors, I had to do it, um, through really being wise with my resources. And so I reinvested almost all the money for three years. We lived on about $30,000 a year. Now I had retired from the military. So I lived in California, man. No, no. I lived in Missouri. Yeah. And started the company headquarters. I also had my military retirement. So the medical and I had some pinching coming. So I had more money that, but out of the company, I only pulled the very minimum that my CPA told me.Speaker 3 (00:26:52):I had to pay myself to be legitimate where I wouldn't have probably pay myself anything. And that allowed me to reinvest in marketing and tools and a better management. And you know, it's kind of crazy there for a while that everyone at my company was making more money than me. But at the same time, I knew that long-term, I was gonna make a lot more money than everyone else. So, you know, that's the old saying that you've all heard, but do things that others aren't willing to do. So that later on you can do a lot. And so that's what was able to happen in my life is that there's three years of really investment allowed us to build out a fully integrated solar company. And we were able to get into things that other companies weren't, you know, we go as far as doing the customer's taxes for up to five years after they buy solar, we do internal financing.Speaker 3 (00:27:35):Um, 2020, we did $50 million in internal solar, solar loans, ourselves without paying finance fees. So you just can't do that without a significant amount of resources, but you only have a significant amount of resources when you don't spend resources. And so it was, um, one of those things that we just chose to stay in Missouri, live frugally, know all of our installers. We have a very different, uh, formula to install. They all live out of Missouri and making 2020 $5 an hour in Missouri is incredible. You know, that they can live really well by their home buy nice cars. They live really well. And so they're willing to travel out of Missouri, take the solar panels and go to Minnesota or go to Florida or go to Texas or go to they'll drive all the way here to Vegas to, to install solar panels. Now we try to rack up several jobs in the same week and our teams are really well-trained.Speaker 3 (00:28:25):So a team of three guys can install a job in one day and so they can stack up, um, you know, two teams can travel out here to Vegas knockout, you know, quite a few jobs in 10 jobs in a week and then travel back, you know? And so it's just a different way to look at business. So we try to solve problems, not necessarily spending more money on it, but how do we actually solve the problem? You know, and the most people would say, well, let's just hire a big EPC in Vegas or California or Florida, because that's easier. Cause that also costs a lot of money. And so we make a lot more money in a lot more profit margin because of that. We're also what I would call a white glove service with doing the customer's taxes. So make sure your benefits to the client.Speaker 3 (00:29:07):We are probably one of the more expensive solar companies in the country, um, which is a hard thing, right? Like it's, it's means that some sales reps don't want to work for us because they want to sell for a more competitively priced company. What we do is a process called value stacking, where we believe that once your value stack exceeds the price, that it doesn't matter what the price is, the client will buy it. So we just try to deliver such a tremendous amount of value that we're still able to sell at a higher price. And then we have a very good margin and then we reinvest that margin. And so last year we were able to break $101 million in revenue. I'm extremely profitable. And uh, we owe no money. We have no debt. We have three years of operating capital on hand at all times now.Speaker 3 (00:29:51):So we're the only, debt-free um, three years worth of capital company. I know of specifically in solar, it's nearly unheard of, um, through COVID we had, um, 24 dealerships that were sub-dealers basically under our brand and we were able to support all of them and their reps through COVID. We're able to support all of our staff, even though we shut down operations for install, all the installers cup paid, all the office workers got paid. Wow. And so it's something we're pretty proud of, but it's also means that while other companies buy Ferrari's, I'm still going to be here in 10 years so they can enjoy their Ferrari's and I'll enjoy my, my safety net, uh, money in the bank. It also allows me to have money to help other companies. So I'm an investor in over 50 companies at this point and, um, own equity in those.Speaker 3 (00:30:36):And so, um, those create passive income streams for me, which help, but it's also just a way that I can help other companies because they need the money. And they, unfortunately, most of them weren't good at saving money. They were the guys buying the Bentleys or Ferrari's. And so they come to me and, uh, ended up needing to, to borrow some funds. And I'm happy to do it as long as it's going to help the company and help them longterm. And obviously it helps me if I can own a chunk of their company as well. For sure.Speaker 2 (00:31:01):And now that's one thing I've noticed about you. Jerry is you're very giving gay. I mean, I'm not part of your company or anything, but I come in here, Jerry treats me like family and he's like, dude, all I'll get you a hotel. First thing he says, when I come into their house here, it's like, Hey, I'll get you a hotel room. We don't have like the best beds and stuff here. I'm like down, like, dude, I'll sleep on my couch, no longerSpeaker 3 (00:31:22):Talking about it. And this is a house for doorknockers I ever real bad, but everyone else has twin size bunk beds. And there's a bunch of, bunch of them upstairs, but we were thinking, Hey man, this guy just drove five hours and now he's going to sleep in a bunk bed. We all kind of had this moment where we're like, we probably should have thought this thing through. So we were like, do you want to hotel? Are you cool? And he's like, no, I'm cool. And then right after he said, he's cool. I see one of our guys carrying in a queen size, like Peloton matches. I'm like, thank goodness that somebody went out and bought a bed for this guy. So, um, but yeah. So thanks for saying that, man. I, I believe in this, this theory about investing where, um, if you're investing in the right people, um, there's no bad investment.Speaker 3 (00:32:04):And so even though it may not make monetary sense today or tomorrow, I invest my time, energy and resources and money into people that I want long-term relationships with. Because even though you don't work for me and you may never work with me, or we may never do anything specifically together, maybe you, um, send me a referral and you're like, Hey, am I coming? He doesn't cover Maine because it's the polar opposite side of the country from San Diego. Could you, do you want this referral in Maine? And absolutely I would. And I'll figure out a way to get in and installed a main, even though my install crews, if they're listening right now, we're like, what's Jerry talking about, I don't want to go to Maine. We would figure it out and make money on it. So I just believe in being very giving.Speaker 3 (00:32:44):And I think people will reciprocate that now I'm not stupid about it. I don't give to everybody. I, I give of my time. Um, most sparingly my time is the resource that I can't get back money. I can make more of time. I can't. And so I invest my time into things like the mastermind into my company and to the people I mentioned or indefinitely into things like this podcast, which I think is going to bear fruit for both your podcast and my companies. So by being a sponsor. And so I look forward to, uh, developing our relationship and um, giving him next week, he's going to email me and be like, Hey man, I really need a new Tesla. I was just wondering if he could spot me 120 K cause it's a plan.Speaker 2 (00:33:23):Yeah. I'm not, that'd be the sponsor. Find me a TeslaSpeaker 3 (00:33:28):It's company is going to be like, why is the side of your Tesla say Pi Syndicate on it? That's really weird.Speaker 2 (00:33:35):Yeah. But no, I, I definitely agree with that cause um, I worked with, you know, several different companies at this point too. And um, we were having conversations before this out. You know, some people are more giving stuff than others. And uh, so I think it pays dividends as long as you're smart about it. Like you're saying is just be that guy. That's not like the cheap guy. That's like, oh, this guy is going to nickel and dime me. But if you're investing into relationships, especially, you know, on business level, um, I think it pays dividends. Like I just, matter of fact, last week I did my, a church mission in Columbia down there and that's one of the things and you know, these south American countries, a lot of them are super poor. And so I get hit up all the time about people, ask them for money and stuff like that. So yeah, you gotta get ready, selects selective. But I just sent, you know, 500 bucks last week for a family's funeral that I knew down there and yeah, like, they're like, oh, um, we'll pay you back. We promise, I know 99% chance. They're not going to be, they're not going to pay me back because you know, yeah.Speaker 3 (00:34:31):I've decided, I've decided that, um, I do sometimes give loans, but if, if it's, if you like that, and I think that you're right, you know, there's a good chance. They won't be able to pay you back. I'm very upfront with it and say, it's a gift. And then say, if you're ever at a time in your life where you can give something to somebody else, go ahead and do that because they're going to feel guilty if it's dead, right. They're good people. I'm sure they are. And eventually that's going to wear on them and it's going to impact their life negatively because they're not going to pay you back. Chances are, um, cause they may not have the resources and stuff like that to do that. And so, so think about doing stuff like that as gifts I give my time, lot, I gift things, not connected to any type of repayment.Speaker 3 (00:35:12):Um, and gifting seems to reward me a lot better than loans. So now in businesses, if you want, um, a hundred thousand dollar loan, I'll do that too, but that's a lot, normally stuff like that as somebody in need it, you know, give it as a gift and um, you'll see dividends of that. It also helps you feel a lot better right away. Like it felt good giving them a loan if you had made the decision to just give it to them as a gift, which is basically, it sounds like what you did. But if you had said that in your head, I'm going to give it as a gift and tell them I'm giving it as a gift. It would have had a little bit more positive impact even in your inside yourself. Um, you know, the gratitude that you felt, being able to help someone.Speaker 3 (00:35:48):And so it's a cool way to, to manage your money like that. That the thing that I, uh, one of the things I talk about when I talk about gifting though, is my time. And so I don't know if you've ever heard a term called time vampires, but I, I definitely believe in the concept that there's some people that just siphon away your time. And so while I'm very free to help people and to mentor them and stuff like that, be selective on who you help. Just like you said, you get hit quite a bit for money, the same thing with time. And you're an influential person. You have a lot of value to add to other people's lives, but you have to start being selective. And one of the rules that I've set for myself is that I only interact daily on a day to day basis with 10 people.Speaker 3 (00:36:29):So if I ever get to a point where I'm talking to someone every single day, I either need to figure out if there's somebody I'm mentoring or if they're somebody that needs to be communicating with one of my 10 people. Um, and I have a wife and four kids. So that means I only have five people outside of that to communicate with on a day-to-day basis. So my, my intimate little work circles about five and it makes for some hard decision-making. I talked to the general manager of solar solutions. Um, she's in training for all intensive purposes. She's the CEO. And, uh, I've talked to her one hour in the last week and she's running a multimillion dollar company for me. And I trust that she's doing a great job. Um, but I don't have time. Day-to-day, she's not by any means a time vampire she's listening, but, um, I don't have time.Speaker 3 (00:37:17):So, but making those decisions, even when they're hard decisions like not to talk to your GM every single day, um, mean that it makes it much easier to make a decision about talking to a friend from high school that just wants to chat about video games or fantasy football. Yeah, I cut. I cut them out pretty quickly because if I don't have time for, you know, my GM, I really don't have time for them either. And so setting up some type of structure in your life to make decisions based on time and who you're going to invest time in is very, very important to go a lot further in life if you invest your time correctly.Speaker 2 (00:37:50):Yeah. I agree. That's a good point. So yeah, for all our listeners, I think it's a good thing to do. If another thing I've talked about is just, you know, a time audit, just really tracking what you actually did with your hours, how you spent your time. It's a lot of times we think we're being super productive, smart with our time, and then we actually check it. We just spent two hours talking about fantasy football to someone or, you know, playing a game on the phone, whatever, things like that.Speaker 3 (00:38:15):Yeah. With strangers now that I, uh, last year I had done the math on, you know, how much money I was making per hour that I worked. And the number was much, much larger than what I had previously thought about it being. And, um, in the last few years, it's led me to really, really feel guilty about wasting my time. So like, I, I love video games. I love world of Warcraft back in the day and things like that. There's zero chance that I could open up a computer, get on world of Warcraft tonight and play for four hours without having this tremendous amount of guilt. You know, just because my time is, I know what my time's worth right now. And if someone would ask me, Hey, would you give me $25,000 to play world of Warcraft? I would say, no, I'm not going to give you 25 grand to play a video game. But that's exactly what we do in investing our time and activities that don't actually generate income or generate a better relationship with those around us is it's time that we're really, really stealing from ourselves. Yeah.Speaker 2 (00:39:12):A hundred percent. So now that's a good, a good point with that. And so going back a little bit at Jerry, um, something I wanted to ask you about, we were talking before we started recording here is just like you're saying, um, so many people just sell their prices low. Um, you said you're like one of the higher price companies that sell solar. And I think that's awesome. I started out with the company that was kind of similar to that. They tried to bundle in like some solar cleaning in some like a, I dunno, yearly checkup type things dated. It kind of found some loopholes around it. And I think it made a few customers mad cause they put in the fine print that they would only do that if the customer like contacted them. And It was kind of a, maybe not.Speaker 3 (00:39:54):Yeah. The whole thing about being the most expensive company is you also have to do the best job. And so you can get away with that. What's crazy is it's easier if you're a good salesperson to sell being the most expensive than it is being the cheapest. The only person that thinks it's easier to sell being the cheapest are bad salespeople. That's what it comes down to. You're probably not listening to this podcast. If you think the only way to sell is by lowering the price. That's probably not your target audience. People are trying to learn. They're trying to get better. We grade sales reps, um, AB and C sales reps, um, see sales reps are sell by being cheap. And that's how we remember it. If the only way that they can sell is by being the cheapest in the room and they're not selling based on anything else.Speaker 3 (00:40:39):Then they're a C sells rep. There is definitely room in the solar industry for C sales reps. So if you sell based on price, don't feel bad about it. Just either educate yourself to get better or find a company that really is the cheapest. And that's where you need to, to be out, to make money. Um, be sales reps are those that, um, really are good at one or two things. They either technical experts or they are expert closers. And it's one of two things they're either the best closer in the whole world. I would refer to like, um, Mike O'Donnell or, uh, Taylor McCartney, you know, incredible closers, but I know more about solar than either one of them. So the other, the other B sales rep is, um, someone that, um, is very, very technical. I would look at, um, you know, um, quite a few people in the marketplace that I would look at Jake Hess would be the one that comes to mind, very, very technical, closer, you know, through, um, his academy.Speaker 3 (00:41:34):He trains people how to be very technical. And then the AA sales rep is those that combine both. So yes, Taylor and Mike can definitely answer those technical questions or they know how to pivot really well. And so they're a sales reps because at the end of the day, phenomenal closers and they know everything they need to know about solar to get the sell closed. Now Taylor's kind of bizarre because he does know it just a little bit, but he's that good of a sales rep that he's still in a sales role. And I was talking about something one day. He's like, I don't even know what you're talking about. It's like, okay, I guess I'm more of a technical sales rep instead of as good of a closer isSpeaker 2 (00:42:11):PESI oh, you asked him one time. Like, I don't even know what an inverter is.Speaker 3 (00:42:15):That's what he told me. That's what we were talking about us. I went different numbers, to be honest, I don't know what you're talking about. He's like, but I sold the last 14 doors I knocked on and I was like, wow, that's a that's okay. There's definitely some benefit. I noticed that they and Jake has been hanging out and I'm like, well, uh, hopefully those guys learn a lot from each other because of your powerhouse. Um, but yeah, and so the sales reps are like that. We specifically hire the sales reps because they have to be good closers and they have to know a lot about the technical side. Cause we have to justify our higher price. And um, explain why we're higher. One of the things is we give her a warranties instead of just fake claims. We also give free maintenance, but we give a 25 year true labor warranty.Speaker 3 (00:42:56):Um, anything that goes wrong. A lot of guys in the solar industry don't realize, but they're selling, what's called a workmanship warranty. And under a workmanship warranty, you would assume that if say a panel stops working, that the company would come out and fix it for free without charging the customer a fee, the truth is a workmanship warranty covers bad workmanship. So if they installed it incorrectly, which caused the panel to stop working a good company would come out and fix it. But a good company would do that for free. Even without a warranty in writing, they would say, yeah, you're right. That's our fault. Let us fix that. So it's pretty much just acknowledging that, Hey, we're a good company, which is, which is nice of them to say there's a 20 five-year workmanship warranty, but, uh, under the warranty and most of the terms of that panel stops working.Speaker 3 (00:43:39):It's the manufacturer's fault. You would have to pay that solar company labor to come out and replace that solar panel. And there's almost zero sales reps that understand that concept. And I guarantee you no homeowner understands that concept. So when they get into these 25 year loans, when you talk about company evaluations and how to evaluate the value of a solar company, those that give away a workmanship warranty are basically locking in that customer on a service plan for the next 25 years, that increases the company evaluation because they know they're going to make X amount of money servicing that system over the next 25 years at a company like mine. It actually decreases our company value because we know that the relationship with that client will just cause, um, cost over the next 25 years. So, um, was very few companies like ours that are giving free labor away, true free labor for the whole time, but we definitely do.Speaker 3 (00:44:32):And so we align ourselves up with even our battery manufacturers are full 25 year warranties. So everything we do as a 25 year warranty or more included with labor too. So even the solar panels and the batteries, if we were to go out of business, uh, they'll hire an electrician to come out and service it. So it's just a different pitch, but a good sales rep always feels more comfortable being the guy saying, I'm the best buy for me, then I'm the cheapest, you know, let's, it's a good deal. Let's do this, you know? So you'll kind of weed, weed out those people that aren't quite as.Speaker 2 (00:45:03):Yeah, I know. Yeah. It's interesting. If you go to these like marketing conferences and stuff, and then the online marketing and they say, there's no competitive advantage to being like, you know, unless I made all of the pack pricing, you're either like the cheapest or you're in the most expensive and you add more value, but there's no like advantage at all as being kind of like middle soSpeaker 3 (00:45:23):No, and you kind of disregard all the middle companies too. Um, and so I, I definitely think one of our strategies is we know we're going to be the most expensive. So we get that out of the way right away. We tell them we are, we actually tell them to shop around. And if they choose to go with a cheaper company, we'll even pay $50 per quote, that they give us from the other companies that they've shopped around with. So we encourage them to give us, go shop around with four quotes and then we'll come back and be the final one in the door, propose our price a hundred percent of the time. They're expecting us to undercut the cheapest bid. Um, cause they think it's a gimmick, right? You're giving me these quotes, you're going to undercut their price and then try to close me a hundred percent of the time.Speaker 3 (00:46:01):We make sure we're more expensive. In fact, if we're not the most expensive person, we raise our price by a thousand dollars and make sure because it's easier to sell in the most expensive. Now, not everyone buys though. And so just like a car lot, you you're the most expensive your Lamborghini dealership or whatever. That's how we treat it. But at the end of the day, if you say it's too expensive and you're getting ready to walk out, we say, hold on, wait a minute. Let's see if we can throw something else in. So we try to do value, add. So we may replace their air conditioner or we may help replace the roof or whatever it is. But very rarely will we do just a straightforward discount. We're never going to be like, okay, you're right. Let us let us price it out for $10,000 cheaper. There's probably not going to be us, but we'll win.Speaker 2 (00:46:42):Yeah. I think that's awesome. Because especially in California, there's no excuse for people to be selling like rock bottom prices. I mean, San Diego, you can sell a system, you know, $6 a watt, super expensive, and you're still saving them. You're still cutting their bill by 30%. Yeah. So it's like these companies that try to sell rock bottom line, what are you guys doing? We're still saving the customers.Speaker 3 (00:47:03):I think we all need to be on the same team, right? Like, um, I think there's places out there for the cheapest guys. The problem is, um, those guys need to go move to Missouri or Kansas or somewhere with 10 cent per watt, kilowatt hours of they want to sell cheap California. You're not competing against each other. You're competing against a utility company. So $6 a watt is completely fair price to charge. If you're versing the utility company, what that allows you to do as a company is make more profit. There is absolutely nothing wrong with profit. If you're helping the client, because that means you can take that profit and go make more clients. You can spend more money on marketing. You can spend more money on paying your people. You can spend more money on office space. You can do everything you can to grow.Speaker 3 (00:47:47):And at the end of the day, we all want to have more solar customers. We all believe the solar is good for the environment. And so at the end of the day, our mission is to sell as many people as we can. And people get twisted. People that are new to business think selling cheaper will help them sell more. It absolutely will. Not their resources you gain from selling a fairly priced product. That's beating out your competitor, which is the utility company is the correct price. And so I would never charge somebody. One of my ethical roles is I never charge more than what they're paying on the utility company. So solar solutions is a little different. They have to be able to pay the system off within 10 years through savings. And they have to be able to have a payment that's cheaper than their utility bill from day one, or we won't quote them.Speaker 3 (00:48:30):The system will tell them that they w we don't advise them to go solar in California. That wouldn't happen very often though. It's so good of a deal for everybody. Even as $6 a watt, you should be doing that, just make sure you're not going out and buying Ferrari's. You need to be reinvesting that money in yourself. And for you specifically in your podcast and your recruiting budget to help others come on board, because you're not going to be able to sell a prices like that forever. And we know that. So you use those resources to expand, to grow, to really make a dent in the industry. And it's so cool. I, I learned something from you earlier. We were talking to our guys about how saturated Las Vegas is. I don't think anyone would argue that San Diego's, if not the most saturated market, one of the most saturated markets in the United States, very cool market.Speaker 3 (00:49:17):And you still go out and door knock every day, and you still run into people that need solar and once solar. So it's incredible. We, we need to stop thinking of the scarcity mindset, where we're competing against other solar companies. We're still not even in San Diego. We're not. Um, and the truth is you mentioned it too, but those companies may knock the door once and you're going to knock the door five or more times. And so, um, I'm okay with competition as long as I'm better than them. And it sounds like you're, you're beating them so that that's healthy competition. Um, and so I think that that's a really cool thing to think about. We all need to keep our prices higher because in San Diego, if you can sell $6 a watt in the most competitive thing in the whole United States, that everybody should be pricing their structure out right below the utility company, let's do better than the utility company. But that means I operate in mainly the Midwest states. That means we don't sell as high in Kansas. We don't sell high in Texas. We don't sell as high at all in Tennessee. So it, it just all depends on where you're at, what their pricing is because the utility is the competitor, not, not the other solar companies. Yeah.Speaker 2 (00:50:21):I think that's a good rule to go by though, cause you don't want to charge them way more than they're paying forSpeaker 3 (00:50:26):Electricity. Heard some interesting guys pitch it. And if they knocked on my door, their ride, I probably would've bought it cause they're good enough to pitch, pitch it as an investment. Um, my individual role with investing is I want my money back within 10 years. I want it to completely be liquid. And, and that's really comes into about a 7% compounded interest rate or above. And so, um, I wouldn't personally make an investment that, that wasn't going to happen. I put all my money into investments like that. So why would solar be anything different if I'm going to put it on my house? I still want that kind of ROI. And so, um, I think I just ethically on a personal side, uh, that's translated to the ethics of my company to say, look, we're not going to sell it unless, unless they meet the standard for Jerry thinking, it's a good thing.Speaker 3 (00:51:13):Right? And that's my standard. There's, there's been some guys though that I talked to that view it as a financial investment in states that have very low prices and I don't think they're wrong. And there's also a lot of speculation about the price of utilities, really jumping up over the next three years. A good friend of mine, Mike [inaudible] talks about it. He's extremely convincing, right? Like he's the guy that I've listened to enough where I'm like, you know what, even if they are spending $20 more a month, Mike's probably right. It's, it's going to be okay. It's just not a company thing that we do. So that's our litmus test is we try to price it right below. Um, but definitelySpeaker 2 (00:51:48):Don't price it a dollar 85 watt. I think we can all agree that if you're the guy out there selling at a dollar 85, a watt, you need to listen to the podcast more often and learn how to sell more because there's no reason to do that. And at the end of the day, what I tell customers that are getting an incredible deal as I run the numbers and I say, Hey, your sales reps making $500 on this deal. Uh, who is it? Oh, it a power I've never heard of power. That's interesting. It must be a power app. Um, the sold out for a $500 commission. And I say, think about this, it's a 25 year agreement. Uh, you, you need customer service for the next 25 years. If something goes wrong, right. They're like, yeah, nice. Well, how much do you think the $21 a year is going to buy you in time for that guy to pick up the phone and answer your questions?Speaker 2 (00:52:33):The truth is, think of his commission, like prepaying to have an advocate for you for the next 25 years. And in my opinion, $500 is not enough money for a 25 year relationship. So we need to pay our reps well enough that they're do very good customer service or the company needs to make enough profit that they take that role on themselves. That the rep isn't the one responsible for customer service and taking care of. Cause if we sell somebody a $25,000 system, it is definitely our responsibility to take care of them for the next 25 years. Like that's, that's just the way it is. That's our job. Yeah. So yeah, I just got a call actually like a couple hours ago from Gaia sold four years ago. Call me just barely ins. Yeah. Luckily I made more than 500 bucks, but yeah, that's a good point though. Like I'm only making 500 bucks and it's a guy that's taken up all this time. That's time suck then. Uh, yeah. It's um, like you want to be making, you know, your time worth some money for sure. Yeah. Um, and yeah, the other thing that's, uh, I forget, I forget the question. I was going to ask you where I was going with.Speaker 3 (00:53:41):Well, we were talking a little bit, uh, before we started and you were, you were basically saying, um, you know, why did I step away from solar solutions? And, um, you know, I thought that was a really interesting question that I wanted to say for the podcast. Yeah. So the reason why is because I, I believe that the solar industry is at its peak right now. I think it's incredible. It's the new gold rush. Everyone we know in sales should be going into solar right now. It is the biggest opportunity. If you're not telling your friends and family members and neighbors, neighbors, that they should be selling solar, and they're working at a library or they're working at Starbucks, you're doing them a disservice. You should be so convicted that it's time to get into solar, that I needed to transition what I'm doing to align with that.Speaker 3 (00:54:26):So if I believe everybody should get into solar, that I need to build a company that isn't one of the most difficult sales processes that requires a rep like you with all your knowledge, to go out and sell for $6 a watt, I would need to do something more moderate. So energy co is meant to recruit anybody. You know, we're here at a recruiting class. I'm glad that you're able to say Hey to them while you were here. And there's some kids are now in this class that are 18 years old. There's not a lot of solar companies. I'd be excited about hiring a 18 year old. Right. And I had to go back to a training model that allowed me to recruit literally anybody off the street. Like I worked in a Starbucks that teacher, the person that's struggling. Cause they got a degree in psychology and they haven't worked since they graduated.Speaker 3 (00:55:12):They're like, what just happened? I paid all this money for a degree and I don't have a job. I wanted to go back to the days, like when we worked at security or pest control that literally anybody could do it. Right? Like you just had to knock doors. Solar gets more complicated than that sometimes. And so our whole concept here at energy co is a division of labor. So we split it into the, the setter, the educator and the closer they work together as a team, you know, there's a whole bunch of people that can set cause anybody can set just like in pest control security. He just got to say, even if they're terrible and they're like, Hey, do you want solar? Eventually somebody's going to say yes. Whereas the educator's a little bit harder. You've got to explain the one-on-ones and how solar works.Speaker 3 (00:55:51):But there are a whole bunch of second grade teachers out there that would absolutely love to make money per job. Um, in 30 minutes of work, right? And then our closers are definitely the rarest people. It takes a very specific skillset. And so w

Nicole Britenriker, says "Don't T.I.P."! Listen as this former volleyball student-athlete for the University of Kentucky Wildcats, and always gives love to OH-IO!!! She has served in the professional and collegiate sports landscape in a variety of roles including sponsorship, sales, corporate partnership development, ticketing and now talent acquisition. We talked through her navigation as an athlete from armature to pro as well as the ups, stress an decision in between. We talked about the excitement around the NBA's 75th season as Nicole currently holds the role as Senior Team Talent Advisor for NBA. EJ recalls meeting Nicole during their time at Learfield. Prior to Learfield, Nicole was with the NFL's Cincinnati Bengals, working in ticket sales and premium seating for three years. We wrapped up talking with about Madam VP Nicole for the Black Sports Professionals, North Texas and what that has meant for her and the BSP as a whole. Tap in for this one.For more with Nicole Britenriker:IG: @nicsavvywww.linkedin.com/in/nicole-britenrikerFor more Black in Sports additional content on our podcast see linktree: https://linktr.ee/blackinsports |Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/blackinsports | YouTube - @blackinsports | Instagram - @blackinsports | Twitter - @blackinsports | Website - https://www.blackinsports.com/ | Thank you & we appreciate you! #awardwinningpodcast #bestsportspodcast #blackpodwinner#fortheculture #blackinsports #sportsbusiness #podcast #tellingblackstories #blackowner #Blackeffect #sportsbiz #BlackPlayersForChange #sportsnews #blackowned #blackmedia #HBCULeaguePass #blackpodcastmatter #DEI #NBA

Host Brett King leads us off this week with news and a chat with Nigel Verdon, CEO & Co-Founder, RailsBank. Railsbank has some exciting news for consumers. Thereafter we go back to M2020 and learn from industry leaders. David Reiling, Chairman and CEO, Sunrise Bank, a socially responsible bank, and also host of our NextGen Banker, on trends he's noted at M2020 -- BaaS, Crypto. Real-Time Payments, Identity, Data Privacy, Corporate Responsibility. DEI to name a few. Last, an insightful segment with Matt Wallaert, Head of Behavioral Science at frog on how banks can propel change and adoption with behavioral science. Desire, energy and curiosity are not just for the young and hip, leaders need to to encourage curiosity for change and innovation. All behaviors on table for change. Banks can't afford to NOT mess up. https://youtu.be/79xSEI3jNLg

Zach sits down with Félix Manuel Chinea, MD, the head of DEI at Doximity, to talk about the intersection of health, equity, and tech. Want to know more about our LinkedIn Learning courses? Check them out! https://bit.ly/3k4havy You can connect with Félix on LinkedIn and Twitter. https://bit.ly/3bVhARd https://bit.ly/303jBYP Find out more about Doximity on their website. https://bit.ly/3HgFG7B Check out Living Corporate's merch! https://bit.ly/375rFbY Interested in supporting Living Corporate? Check out our Support page. https://bit.ly/3egO3Dk

Do you believe in second chances? What about for the formerly incarcerated? Get your pen and paper ready because we're talking about What the DEI space is Doing for the Formerly Incarcerated In today's show we discuss several things including: Why Stigma Plays a role in excluding the Formerly Incarcerated How the Formerly Incarcerated have … Why Diversity & Inclusion Ignore the Formerly Incarcerated Read More » The post Why Diversity & Inclusion Ignore the Formerly Incarcerated appeared first on Element of Inclusion.