Podcasts about kat gordon

Kat Gordon and Jennifer Chandler talk about the evolution of Muddy's Bake Shop, and share how you can enjoy a behind-the-scenes opportunity to visit the bakery.

In this episode originally recorded as a community call, Jennifer is joined by Kat Gordon, a trailblazing leader who has made significant contributions to the fields of advertising, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and leadership coaching. As the founder of the 3% Movement, Kat has been a driving force in increasing female representation in creative leadership positions within the advertising industry. Drawing from her personal and professional transitions, Kat shares valuable insights on navigating change, embracing authenticity, and fostering personal growth. With her background as an advertising creative director and her current role as a leadership coach, Kat offers a unique perspective on the power of emotional intelligence, psychological safety, and the importance of creating more equitable and diverse workplaces.   

Last week, Muddy's Bake Shop celebrated its “Sweet Sixteen,” and Chris Herrington talked to owner Kat Gordon about the accordion-style expand-and-contract evolution of a little bakery that's become a Memphis institution. On this week's “Sound Bites,” he and Holly Whitfield discuss some different angles of that story.

Every February, around this time, approximately 8 billion small heart-shaped candies are created and exchanged.  These candies bear messages of love and care, and are often used as gifts to express feelings for another person.   In each episode featuring a guest, we ask them if there are any words of wisdom they might share with their younger selves. These words of wisdom are like those Sweetheart treats, but instead of representing love for someone else, they are messages of love directed to our guests themselves, and by extension, to all of us.  We are so inspired by the wisdom our guests shared, so we put all these beautiful words together, as a little love treat for our listeners.  Enjoy!   Thank you to our amazing guests for their words of wisdom: Donna Peek, Darren Gold, Leslie McGuirk, Mike Robbins, Susan Olesek, Laila Tarraf, Nichelle Trambell Spellman, Rachel Bitecofer, Bridgette Corridan, Mary Lin McBride, Ali Ingersoll, Cara Jones, David Richman, Chris Pierce, Chris Tsakalakis, Jill Santa Lucia, Forrest Wright, Aisha Ponds, Donna Rhode, Kristin Firpo, Marney Sullivan, Deborah Egerton, Rebekah Rotstein, Daryan Rahimzadeh, Kat Gordon, Kat Williford, Jeff Slater, Bryan Gillette, Oneika Mays, Vanessa Loder, Kerri Kelly, Seane Corn, Sarah McDonald, Mary Felice, Shelly Tygielski, Joe Walsh, Rebecca Ward, Nicole Swiner, Natalie Grumet, Marti Grimminck, Ava Lashay, Maureen Aarons, Josh Izenberg, Trish Hegarty, Kim Hunter, Ashleigh Parker, Chris Hendricks, Danny Rosin, Michelle Simmons, Katherine Kennedy, Tony Lillios

In this episode, Kat Gordon & Francisco Lillo together with Evan Hirsch, talk about Ayahuasca for Personal Development. Francisco and Kat work closely with ancient wisdom holders as bridges between the ancient and modern worlds, specifically bridging between the Andean and Amazonian indigenous knowledge ways and the modern, Western world. Both spent over a decade living in Peru on their personal journeys of learning, exploring and working alongside indigenous wisdom holders. They are dedicated to the plant and consciousness path and to the expansion of human consciousness through ceremonial immersions. Francisco is originally from Chile and has explored alternative healing and consciousness expanding practices for over a decade. He is dedicated to the facilitation of sacred ceremonies and music. He weaves experience from his world travels and studies into his work with Amazonian indigenous leaders and spiritual guides. Kat is from California and works as an herbalist, plant spirit guide and sacred ritual weaver who immerses herself in alternative wellness practices, nature based rituals, yogic philosophy, and plant and human consciousness. Kat has worked with sacred ancestral knowledge ways for over a decade. She is dedicated to learning from and sharing the ways of ancient wisdom holders. To learn more about Kat Gordon & Francisco Lillo, please visit: https://form.jotform.com/233475473994168   For more information about Evan and his program, Click Here.   Prefer to watch on Youtube? Click Here.   Please note that any information in this episode is for educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice.  

Kat Gordon is back on the pod! A few weeks ago, Kat, the founder of the 3% Movement, released a Substack article, The Rise of Introverts. In her article, Kat outlines how leadership in corporations has historically over-indexed with extroverts, but the future will see a lot of shared traits among introverts being in demand because they will fuel inclusive cultures and ground-breaking creativity. Listen, then subscribe to her Substack to read the article https://katgordon.substack.com/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Kat Gordon, Founder/CEO, of The 3% Movement, predicts that the job of the future is the “Creative Entrepreneur in Residence”, WFH will become just W, and introverts and empaths will rise as the next creative leaders. Further reading links: https://www.3percentmovement.com/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17D7LEH6tlo Susan Cain's Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking https://tinyurl.com/2p89a4tu

Walking into Muddy's Bake Shop in Memphis, Tennessee is more than entering a carb-lover's utopia; it's a living, breathing master class in customer service. And even further behind the curtain is Kat Gordon, the shop's founder and owner, and the brains behind her company's stellar service and top-notch customer experience. Inside Source asked Kat our questions about the importance of a supportive community, learning from failures, and why we need to give (and receive!) “fearless feedback.”

Maria and Sean sit down with Kat Gordon, founder and CEO of 3%, a movement dedicated to increasing the number of female Creative Directors. Kat dives deep into how the 3% movement has been able to help the number of female Creative Directors jump from 3% to 29% in just a few short years, how to take an intersectional approach to increasing diversity, and how allyship can be utilized in movements. Kat talks about what being radically inclusive looks like, and how increasing diversity, inclusion and belonging translates to increased creativity and ultimately profitability in businesses.

Kat Gordon is a plant spirit guide, herbalist, and founder of the Yarrow Resilience Institute. She is originally from California but now spends most of her time living and working in the Sacred Valley of Peru. She leads workshops, retreats, and transformational guidance centered on connecting people with skills for resilient and holistic living. Yarrow Resilience Institute grew out of years of working with the land, food systems, herbalism, and humans in many capacities. *Disclaimer: this episode briefly discusses abortion healing* In the episode, we discuss: - What brought Kat to herbalism and working with the plants as teachers and healers - Womb healing and why it's essential to connect with our wombs - Our wombs as our temple within and ways to tend to our temple - Kat's favorite practices and plants for womb healing - The one herb Kat would give to all of humanity for the times we're living in today You can find Kat's incredible work at her website: yarrowri.org and on Instagram: @katgordon_ You can also download Kat's free Womb Connection Resource which includes plant allies for moon cycle thriving and womb nourishment on Kat's website: yarrowri.org/womb-connection-resource   If you'd like to support this totally independent podcast you can do so on my website. I am so grateful for your support! Donate securely online: waverlydavis.com/podcast If you're interested in booking a Singing The Womb Session or a sound bath you can learn more on my website: waverlydavis.com Follow along on IG: @heywaverlydavis For full show notes, links, and resources, visit the episode website

Whether reflecting on her first mentors, encouraging her children to create strong friendship groups or starting an entire movement to support women in Creative Leadership roles, Kat Gordon lives her belief that we all need to surround ourselves with people who will help us celebrate when things are going well and be there for us when life inevitably gets tough. She calls this group her scaffolding. Kat is herself a tremendous role model for others. She started the 3% Movement, which led to an increase in female Creative Directors from 3% to almost 30%. And she's now “walking her talk” by shifting her focus with the support of the amazing team she has assembled. Kat told us “when something gets heavy, you put it down,” Her mission remains the same, but she is streamlining the focus of her organization and is putting down the pieces that got heavy due to the pandemic.  Please listen in to hear Kat's perfectly imperfect journey.     Bio Kat Gordon Founder/CEO The 3% Movement   Kat Gordon has been called the “triple threat” of an entrepreneur, ad woman + marketing to women expert and was named one of "30 Most Creative Women in Advertising" by BusinessInsider in 2016, "Visionary of the Year" from Advertising Age in 2018, and one of “Forty Over 40” women disrupting the world in 2014. She is the visionary behind The 3% Movement. Started as a passion project to spotlight a huge business opportunity in advertising -- the lack of female creative leadership and its impact on connecting with an overwhelmingly female marketplace -- the 3% Movement has grown exponentially since its 2012 launch: hosting events in 17 cities globally, and offering consulting and certification programs that amplify creative cultures. Today, female creative directors have gone from 3% to 29%.   Kat serves on the Board of The Representation Project and as an advisor to 600 & Rising, WPP and Empower Work. She is passionate about elevating the contributions of women and people of color, especially as they relate to innovation. She currently serves as "Creative Entrepreneur in Residence" at Eleven, working to rethink the creative process, workflow and client engagement to build internal cultures and external messaging that embrace everyone.

#037 What does it mean to be an advocate? How can leaders set an example when it comes to mental health and self-care? How do we fairly distribute the gains and burdens of a rapidly evolving work culture? How much should we even be working?These are some of the massive questions Kat Gordon is taking on as the visionary behind The 3% Movement, an organization she founded after recognizing that only—yep—3% of creative directors were women, and very few were people of color.Kat has done and is doing some amazing things—and SPI's Director of Operations, Sara Jane Hess, joins Jillian today to soak up Kat's wisdom and share some of her own insights on building a better, more inclusive machine wherever you work.Show notes and more at SmartPassiveIncome.com/cx037See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On this episode of Own It, Christy Hiler talks to Kat Gordon, founder of The 3% Movement. She has spent the last 10 years championing female creative talent and leadership. She's been called a triple threat; entrepreneur, ad woman and marketing to women expert.  We encourage you to connect with Kat on LinkedIn and follow the great work of the 3% Movement. Also, join us in our celebration of women and non-binary ad agency owners by rating and sharing this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Audible, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts. And if you or someone you know is a badass female or non-binary agency owner, we want to know about them. Just drop their information off at our website at untilyouownit.com.

Kat is an herbalist, plant spirit guide, weaver of sacred spaces and the founder of Yarrow Resilience Institute. Having recently relocated to California, Kat lived in Peru for nearly ten years working first with regenerative agriculture and land based practices and then in close relationship with plant medicine wisdom holders of the Brazilian Amazon.Her journey began with a mission to heal the soil and the global food system; however, after years of traveling and working in regenerative agriculture, food justice and non-profit fundraising, Kat realized that to show up for the well-being of our communities and environment, we must first show up for ourselves, and so her life project was born.Kat's passion is activating the power of plant spirit guides and reconnecting all beings to nature to reconnect to self. She believes that nature can guide us in dropping out of our head and into our heart, living from the center of our unique and innate wisdom and connecting with our most inspired sense of self. She designs immersive experiences through workshops, retreats, and 1:1 transformational journeys centered on connecting people with this innate wisdom.Her offerings are woven from the various modalities she has immersed herself including cacao ceremonies, plant immersions and dietas, plant spirit work, yogic philosophy, reiki, traditional herbalism, and the wisdom of the ancient Amazonian Huni Kuin lineage she has learned so much from.In this episode, Beth and Kat discuss …Healing disconnection from self, the land, and life itselfTranslating the concept of a traditional master plant “dieta” to working with plants growing locallyPlant spirits and their messages for usThe healing power of being in a deep, reciprocal relationship with a plantHow working with plant medicine is about much more than our personal transformationGrowing in confidence in one's own gifts as an entrepreneurComing out of hiding and breaking out of imposter syndromeHow stepping publicly into our truest essence and affects our personal relationshipsKat's Links & ResourcesWebsite: https://yarrowri.orgInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/katgordon_Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1227319Kat's new flower dieta and plant spirit immersion program "Flower in Relation to Self”: https://yarrowri.org/flower-in-relation-to-self

After 13 years in business, Muddy's Bake Shop has become a local favorite, built on the stilts of hands-on help and encouragement from Kate Gordon's community.  You'll hear her optimistic and quirky personality come through as she talks about her experience opening a bakery during the 2008 financial crisis, and what it's been like living and operating through the COVID-19 pandemic. She shares her passion for all things baked and sweet, as well as a few secrets and pro-tips for the best pie's you've ever tasted.  What you'll learn with chef Kelly English What it was like opening during the financial crisis of 2008 (3:58) Where the idea to start a bakery came from (5:17) What she learned about “emergencies” from starting her business (8:22) How community helped her business survive and thrive (10:10) The home-style concept of Muddy's (11:05) Best sellers to whet your appetite (12:42) The birth of her now legendary Pecan Pie (16:12) Where she sources inspiration for her menu (20:17) Seasonal favorites, and the secret of her Peach Pie (22:28) The “best thing you can do with ginger” (24:41) Ingredients she refuses to work with (27:10) What makes her Chicken Pot Pie so good (29:33) Pie advice for beginner bakers (32:33) A culinary tour through Memphis (36:15) The cookbook she can't put down (39:21) What she'll bring if you invite her over for dinner (42:17) Why you won't see her in TV cooking competitions (44:19) Series of rapid-fire questions. Link to the podcast episode on Apple Podcast Links to other episodes in Tennessee Conversation with chef Levon Wallace from Fatbelly Pretzels in Nashville Interview with Chef Kelly English from Memphis Conversation with chef Matt Bolus from the 404 Kitchen in Nashville Links to most downloaded episodes (click on any picture to listen to the episode) Jeremy Umansky in Cleveland 3 Chefs in Austin - What is more important: techniques or creativity? Misti Norris in Dallas Carlo Lamagna in Portland #gallery-1 { margin: auto; } #gallery-1 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 25%; } #gallery-1 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-1 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */ Muddy's Bake Shop Chocolate Dream Pie Muddy's Bake Shop icing process Pie selection at Muddy's Bake Shop in Memphis Kate Gordon's Peach Pie Click to tweet You don't know what you don't know. And you know, if you're dumb enough to try doing it, and the height of a recession, well, maybe it'll work.
 Click To Tweet All my family and friends were like, “Are you crazy? I think you should think about this more.” Every single one of them when I said, “Well, I signed a lease and I'm doing it!”... every single one of them said “Okay, well, I think you're crazy, but how can I help? Click To Tweet I'm a home baker at heart. I haven't been to culinary school, I didn't work in a bakery, just self taught from cookbooks, on the internet, and honestly, a lot of trial and error. But that's also the part of it that's maybe a strength and a weakness. For me, and for the business. Click To Tweet I'm a big fan of having limited seasons for things, that way we appreciate it more.
 Click To Tweet Social media Muddy's Bake Shop Instagram Facebook Twitter Links mentioned in this episode Muddy's Bake Shop Spots in Memphis recommended by Kat Gordon: Restaurant Iris Restaurant Beauty Shop Payne's BBQ Bangkok Alley Casablanca restaurant

On this episode of Retention Chronicles, Kat Gordon, Head of Customer Success at Malomo, Sarah and Mariah discuss customer retention as it pertains to Black Friday Cyber Monday. We first focus on why it is important to concentrate on customer retention during the hectic holiday season. Obviously, brands want to keep the customers they gain during the holiday season and maintain those they already have. Kat, Sarah, and Mariah discuss some strategies on how to do exactly that. We first kick it off by covering how to adjust and troubleshoot, why it's smart to optimize for mobile, as well as how to handle a surge in website traffic and shipping fulfillment. Then, we dive into some initiatives to reward loyal customers, from both the customer success and marketing avenues. Then to finish out the episode we dive into the post-purchase experience and how to provide the best support possible to increase customer retention. Stay tuned until the end to hear Sarah and Kat's advice as to what they have carried with them from each holiday season to the next and for the fact check where I will make sure we cover all the bases we ran through in this episode. Be sure to subscribe to stay up-to-date and checkout Malomo, the leading order tracking platform for Shopify brands at gomalomo.com. Try our free trial today!

Depressed, anxious, and don't know what to do with your life? That's where my guest, Kat Gordon, was before she went all-in on cupcakes with her company Muddy's Bake Shop. Listen to her journey from panic attacks in her neighbor's front yard to building a... stool— of outstanding experiences, delicious food, and healthy profit. Kat is also a professional visioneer who teaches leaders and businesses how to write their own vision. Find out how your "prouds" can help YOU pull out your vision starting today.   Check out Muddy's Bake Shop! Sign up for our HIT the ground running newsletter Alec's linktree

Kat Gordon. A force for belonging at work and in advertising, she's contributed to transforming the advertising space and moving the needle on helping women gain decision-making roles in advertising.  Are you building a team or business? Do you want to bring out the best, most courageous, most creative ideas? Belonging is the unlocker.  This conversation will help you tackle belonging as a business edge and bring more humanity into work. Kat and her team conducted a white paper that details the experiences of women in Advertising and the details don't add up to belonging (linked below).  Kat's work continues.  Follow her today and listen to this episode now. Kat Gordon:https://katgordon.com/ @katgordon (Twitter)@katch_phrases (Instagram)The 3% MovementUse the code DIA to get a 10% discount on a ticket to the 2021 fall conference3% white paper Elephant On Madison AvenueZoe Scaman's Article: Mad Men, Furious Women 

Have you ever felt lost in your career? Are you concerned about feelings of purposelessness and discomfort? Today Dr. Candace talks with Kat Gordon, Founder, and Owner of Muddy's Bake Shop, about her journey into entrepreneurship, why it is critical to match your passion with your purpose, and the difference between being on a waterwheel and a hamster wheel. She also highlights the power of visioning your future and defines if you want to be effective or efficient. Check out Dr. Candace's website: https://candacesteeleflippin.com/ Check out Muddy's Bake Shop https://www.muddysbakeshop.com/

Dive Deep with the Founder of the 3Percent Movement, Kat Gordon. Together we reveal the core of what drives Kat Gordon to fight for equality. From her humble beginnings to the spark that led her to ignite an undeniable revolution for in the Advertising's creative fields. Listen in on how she tirelessly works to close the gap. Learn more about upcoming guests & episodes at DesignedBy.Show 

The infamous Marie Antoinette line felt appropriate for all guests on this episode! First up we have Alese Taylor (Collegiate engagement Manager at New Memphis) and Madison Mullis (University of Memphis grad student + AutoZone intern) to share why access and free resources (cough, cough provided by New Memphis) are changing the game for college students entering the workforce. (Something Marie could've taken some pointers from in our opinion!). Then (the more obvious correlation!), head gnomie of Muddy's Bake Shop, Kat Gordon, shares the most meaningful day of being a shop owner and entrepreneur (hint: it was in 2020!), and how she managed to check a bucket list item off her checklist, too! This extended cut offers nearly 15 extra minutes not heard live on radio, so you don't want to miss out!

My guest this week is Kat Gordon. In her mid 20’s, Kat opened Muddy’s Bake Shop thinking it likely wouldn’t make it. Thirteen years later, Muddy’s is one of the top bakeries in the United States.   This pandemic has been incredibly difficult for businesses across the country, and Muddy’s is no exception. Muddy’s completely shut its doors for several weeks before reopening one of its locations, but things are not as bad as they may sound for Kat. This episode may take a different turn than you expect!   Download this episode if you want to learn more about:  Taking advantage of a do-over What’s something I care so much about that I’m willing to be bad to be good at it Thinking about selling What it’s like when you start to break down How to make significant changes Feeling alive again How the pandemic can jumpstart change Taking advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity And more!   I had a great time recording this episode with Kat. Happy New Year to you and yours!   RECAP 4:27 Making people feel special and loved 6:28 After the pandemic 6:57 What happens when water isn’t flowing in? 7:15 Starting to break down 10:28 Should I sell the bakery? 11:50 How to think about making major changes 13:00 How to do visioning 14:25 We all have great advice for ourselves that we don’t take 15:49 Low stakes way of me playing with the future 19:20 The fact that I didn’t want to pick up that vision again 24:13 How the pandemic can jumpstart change 24:00 What’s most important 25:00 When the world shifted I knew what we needed to do 27:00 I wanted people to feel that they were at my house 34:10 Game over if your burned out in first month 39:35 The difference between receiving a compliment and someone telling me how to live my life 41:00 Doing stuff for the sake of others 50:00 Creativity thrives with boundaries 56:45 Take this once in a lifetime opportunity      RESOURCES https://www.muddysbakeshop.com/ https://abjets.com/

02:31 - Karen’s Superpower: The Ability to Simplify Things * Simplifying in a Team Context 05:55 - Better Allies (https://betterallies.com/) – Everyday Actions to Create Inclusive, Engaging Workplaces; Triaging and Curating Research * @BetterAllies (https://twitter.com/betterallies) * Better Allies: Everyday Actions to Create Inclusive, Engaging Workplaces (https://www.amazon.com/Better-Allies-Everyday-Inclusive-Workplaces/dp/1732723303) (Book) * The Better Allies™ Approach to Hiring (https://www.amazon.com/Better-Allies-Approach-Hiring-ebook/dp/B082WR7F86) (Book) * Present! A Techie's Guide to Public Speaking (https://www.amazon.com/Present-Techies-Guide-Public-Speaking-ebook/dp/B01BCXHULK) (Book) 14:15 - Maintaining Anonyminity (at first); Prove It Again Bias (https://genderbiasbingo.com/prove-it-again/) * Channeling White Men; Men Listening to Other Men * Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do (https://www.amazon.com/Whistling-Vivaldi-Stereotypes-Affect-Issues/dp/0393339726) (Book) * [Podcast] 'Whistling Vivaldi' And Beating Stereotypes (https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125859207) * Reduce the influence of unconscious bias with these re:Work tools (https://rework.withgoogle.com/blog/fight-unconscious-bias-with-rework-tools/) * Build the Culture Instead of Fit the Culture 26:09 - Culture Add + Values Fit * Recognizing Bias Instead of Removing It * Meritocracy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meritocracy) 32:11 - Network Effect: Venturing Beyond Homogenous (https://www.dictionary.com/browse/homogenous) Networks * Marginalization + Privilege Can Be Self-Reinforcing * 50 Potential Privileges in the Workplace (https://betterallies.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/50-potential-privileges.pdf) 41:58 - Doing This Work is Everyone’s Job 48:12 - People to Follow * Minda Harts (https://twitter.com/MindaHarts) * The Memo: What Women of Color Need to Know to Secure a Seat at the Table (https://bookshop.org/books/the-memo-what-women-of-color-need-to-know-to-secure-a-seat-at-the-table/9781580058469) * Jeannie Gainsburg (https://www.savvyallyaction.com/about) * The Savvy Ally: A Guide for Becoming a Skilled LGBTQ+ Advocate (https://www.amazon.com/Savvy-Ally-JEANNIE-GAINSBURG/dp/1538136775/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=savvy+ally&qid=1608561617&sr=8-3) * David Smith (https://twitter.com/davidgsmithphd) & Brad Johnston * Good Guys: How Men Can Be Better Allies for Women in the Workplace (https://www.amazon.com/Good-Guys-Better-Allies-Workplace-ebook/dp/B08412XCHB/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=good+guys&qid=1614095097&sr=8-3) * Corey Ponder (https://www.coreyponder.com/about-me) * Learning the ABCs of Allyship (https://www.coreyponder.com/single-post/abcs-of-allyship) 51:13 - The Decline of Gender Parity in the Tech Industry * Women in Tech -- The Missing Force: Karen Catlin at TEDxCollegeofWilliam&Mary (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uiEHaDSfgI) 58:15 - Making Statements and Changing the Status Quo Reflections: Rein: Getting better at praxis: for every white dude with a beard you follow on Twitter, go follow 10 Black women in tech. Damien: How bias can interfere with an action right before the action happens. Chanté: We’re all allies. We cannot do this work alone. Today you might be the ally, tomorrow you may be the bridge. Arty: Expanding our homogenous networks. Change takes courage on all of our parts. Karen: Turning period statements into questions or adding “until now” to those statements. This episode was brought to you by @therubyrep (https://twitter.com/therubyrep) of DevReps, LLC (http://www.devreps.com/). To pledge your support and to join our awesome Slack community, visit patreon.com/greaterthancode (https://www.patreon.com/greaterthancode) To make a one-time donation so that we can continue to bring you more content and transcripts like this, please do so at paypal.me/devreps (https://www.paypal.me/devreps). You will also get an invitation to our Slack community this way as well. Transcript: PRE-ROLL: Whether you're working on a personal project or managing enterprise infrastructure, you deserve simple, affordable, and accessible cloud computing solutions that allow you to take your project to the next level. Simplify your cloud infrastructure with Linode's Linux virtual machines and develop, deploy, and scale your modern applications faster and easier. Get started on Linode today with $100 in free credit for listeners of Greater Than Code. You can find all the details at linode.com/greaterthancode. Linode has 11 global data centers and provides 24/7/365 human support with no tiers or hand-offs regardless of your plan size. In addition to shared and dedicated compute instances, you can use your $100 in credit on S3-compatible object storage, Managed Kubernetes, and more. Visit linode.com/greaterthancode and click on the "Create Free Account" button to get started. REIN: Welcome to Episode 224 of Greater Than Code. Take two. So full disclosure, we recorded this or more specifically, didn't record this conversation so we're going to do it again. I'm your co-host, Rein Hendricks, and I'm here with my co-host, Damien Burke. DAMIEN: Thanks, Rein. And I'm here with my co-host, Chanté Thurmond. CHANTÉ: Everyone, Chanté here. And I'm here with Arty Starr. ARTY: Thank you, Chanté. And I'm here with our awesome guest today, Karen Catlin. So after spending 25 years building software products and serving as a vice-president of engineering at Macromedia and Adobe, Karen Catlin witnessed a sharp decline in the number of women working in tech. Frustrated but galvanized, she knew it was time to switch gears. Today, Karen is a leadership coach and a highly acclaimed author and speaker on inclusive workplaces. She is the author of three books: "Better Allies: Everyday Actions to Create Inclusive, Engaging Workplaces," "The Better Allies™ Approach to Hiring,” and "Present! A Techie's Guide to Public Speaking." Welcome, Karen to the show! KAREN: And it is a pleasure to be back with you and to be having this conversation today. Thanks so much for having me. ARTY: And we very much appreciate you being here again with us. So our first question we always ask at the beginning of the show is what is your superpower and how did you acquire it? KAREN: Okay so, my superpower is the ability to simplify things and I joke that I think I acquired this superpower simply as a coping strategy because there's so much information out there. We're all bombarded with things and maybe my brain is just not as big as other people so I constantly am trying to simplify things so that I can understand them, remember them, convey them, and so forth. And I'll share, I think it served me well, not only as I embarked on my computer science programming school and just trying to like grok everything that I was trying to learn as well as then entering the field initially as a software engineer. Again, simplifying things, divide and conquer, break things down into those procedural elements that can be repeated and generalized. Certainly, then as I moved into executive roles as a vice-president of engineering, you're just context switching all day long. Again, I just had to simplify everything that was going on so that could really remember things, take notes on things, and make decisions based on what I thought I needed to do. Yeah. So that's my superpower. ARTY: That's a great superpower. So in the context of the workplace and you've got teams trying to things out, maybe a design problem you're working on, trying to solve. How does simplifying things come into play in a team context like that? KAREN: Well, it comes into play a lot of ways. I'm remembering one example where there was some interpersonal conflict between two people and I was hearing both sides, as one does, and talking to them both. I got them both in a room because they just weren't seeing each other's point of views, I thought, and they were just working at odds to each other. Hearing them both talk, I was able to say, “So at the heart, this is what we're all trying to do. This is what we are trying to achieve together,” and I got them to confirm that. That was the first step in simplifying just the discussion. They were getting a little emotional about things. They were bringing in a lot of details that frankly, weren't necessary to really understand what was going on and I was able to focus them on that shared purpose that we had for the project. It doesn't even matter what it was. Actually, it was so long ago now I can't quite remember what the issue was, but I remember hearing afterwards one of the people say, “You are so good at simplifying things got down to the heart,” and I'm like, “Yes, I am. That's my superpower.” ARTY: It sounds like even more than that, or maybe a slightly different frame of just the example you just gave. It's not only simplifying things, you are distilling the essence of what's important or what someone is trying to say, and getting at what's the underlying message underneath all the things that someone's actually trying to communicate, even if they're struggling too, so that you can help two people may be coming from different directions, be able to understand one another. That's pretty powerful. KAREN: Well, thank you and I love the way you've just framed it, Arty and oh, those are big shoes to fill. Woo! I hope I've been able to do that in a number of different settings as I think back, but that's yeah, it is powerful. I think I probably still have some stuff I can learn there, too. CHANTÉ: Arty, thank you for teeing up this because what I am curious about in relation to what Karen just mentioned as her superpower, which I think is amazing, is obviously, you have authored a number of books. When it comes to allyship, it sounds like this is a great time where we can get somebody to distill and to simplify and not to oversimplify because there's an art to it. But I would love if you could maybe take us down the pathway of how did you arrive at this moment where you are authoring books on allyship and maybe you could give us a little bit of the backstory, first and then we could get into the superpower you've used along the way in your tech journey. KAREN: Okay. CHANTÉ: And how you're coaching people. KAREN: All right. Chanté, thank you. Yes, I'm happy to. So the backstory, first of all, I never set out to become an author, or to become a speaker, or this expert that people tap into about workplace inclusion. That was not my goal. I was doing my job in tech. I was a vice-president of engineering at Adobe. I was leading engineering teams and realizing that there was a decline happening before my eyes in gender diversity. Now I started my career in tech a long time ago and I started at a time when there was sort of a peak period of women studying computer science in the United States. And so, when I started my career, it wasn't 50-50 by any means, but there was plenty of gender diversity in the teams I was working on, in the conference rooms I was in, in the cube lands that I was working in and I saw a decline happening. So while I was still at Adobe, I started our women's employee resource group—goes back gosh, like 14, 15 years now—and I've started mentoring a lot of women at the company and started basically, being a vocal advocate to make sure women were represented in various leadership meetings I was in, on stage, at our internal events and conferences, giving updates at all-hands meetings, like well, thinking about that. I love doing that work so much and loved doing that work less so my VP of engineering work, I must admit. So about 9 years ago now, I decided to do a big change in my career pivot in my own career, I started leadership coaching practice. A leadership coaching practice focused on helping women who are working in tech in any capacity, any role. But women working in this industry, I wanted to help them grow their leadership skills so they could stay in tech if that's where they wanted to be and not drop out because they felt like, “I just can't get ahead,” or “I'm seeing all the white men get ahead,” for example, “before me.” So I started this coaching practice. I soon realized, though that I had a big problem with my coaching practice and the problem wasn't with my clients—they were amazing. The problem, I don't think was me. I think I'm a decent coach, still learning, still getting better, but decent. And realized the problem really that I was facing is that before I could truly help my clients, I needed to make their companies more inclusive. All of them were working at tech companies where the closer you get to the leadership team, to the C-suite, to the CEO, just the mailer and paler it got. With all due respect to anyone who's male and or pale, I'm white myself, anyone who's listening, who's male and/or pale, like that's just what the demographics were and still are in most of our companies. Also, that coupled with this mentality of, “Hey, we are a meritocracy. People get ahead in our company based on their merits, their accomplishments, the impact to the business.” When in reality, that's not what happens because if it were then the demographics across the company would be uniform, regardless of what level you are at. So the white men were getting ahead more than others. So I was like, “I need to make their companies more inclusive. In fact, I need to make all of tech more inclusive to really help my coaching clients,” and yeah, laugh, right? A big job, one person over here. Now, what's the first thing anyone does these days when they want to change the world? You start a Twitter handle. So I started the Twitter handle @betterallies. I started in 2014 with a goal to share simple everyday actions anyone could take to be more inclusive at work. In hindsight, I was leveraging my super power as I started this Twitter handle. I leveraged it because I started looking at the research that social scientists do about diversity in the workplace and not just gender diversity, but diversity of all kinds. The research that shows that they were uncovering, that shows the challenges that people of non-dominant genders, as well as race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, identity, age, abilities, and so forth. What are the challenges these people face in the workplace as they navigate that? Others are doing this great research and I really am—and this builds on what Arty was saying—I used to think I curated this, but really, I was triaging the research. I was triaging it to simplify it, get it to its essence, and figure out with all this great research that gets published, what is someone supposed to do with it? How is the average person who works in tech supposed to take action with this great research that's out there? So I triage and curate and I do it not just based on the research, but also what I'll call cautionary tales that appear in our news, in our Twitter feeds, and so forth. I'll give you two examples to make it real. One is based on research. There's research that shows that men interrupt women more than the other way around and so, based on that research, I go over to Twitter and I type in something like, “I pledge to notice when interruptions happen in the meetings I attend and redirect the conversation back to the person who was interrupted with a simple, ‘I'd like to hear Chanté finish her thought,’” and something like that that's research-driven. Then the more, the cautionary tales that pop up in the research or in the news that we consume, I remember a few years ago when there was so much that was coming out about Uber and its non-inclusive workplace. Just one of the many things we learned about was that the CEO at the time and founder, Travis Kalanick, he was using the nursing mother's room for his personal phone calls. That's not cool because then the nursing moms can't get in there to do what they need to do. So I would go over to Twitter and just a little bit of snark added, I was like, “I pledge not to use the nursing mother's room for my personal phone calls unlike Travis Kalanick at Uber,” [chuckles]. That kind of thing. So I'm just tweeting a couple times a day. I start getting Twitter messages to this anonymous Twitter account—by the way, it was anonymous at the time—and these Twitter requests would be like, “Hey, does anyone at the Better Allies Initiative do any public speaking?” and I'd be like, ‘The initiative? Huh, it's just me tweeting a couple of times a day. Okay.” But I wanted to speak about this topic and I want to retain my anonymity. So I would write back and say, “Yes, one of our contributors does some public speaking. We'll put you in touch with her,” and I go over to my personal Twitter account type something in like, “Hey, I'm Karen Catlin. I contribute to Better Allies. I love public speaking. What do you have in mind?” So I started speaking on this whole approach of everyday simple actions people could take, the Better Allies approach, and every time I gave a talk, someone would ask, “Hey, Karen, do you have a book? Because we want more of this.” For a few years, “I kept saying, no, I don't have a book. I don't have a book. I don't have a book, sorry.” But I did finally write my book. In fact, I've written two books on the topic—"Better Allies" and also, "The Better Allies™ Approach to Hiring.” The Better Allies book, I just released a second edition. It's been out there for 2 years. I've learned so much that I wanted to do a full update on the book. So I've just released that a few weeks ago. CHANTÉ: I have a follow-up question then, because Karen, you mentioned that you wanted to maintain your anonymity when you started off that handle and I would just love to hear maybe why that's so important when you're doing this work of allyship and accomplishing in this space? KAREN: Yes, and I don't know if it is important for everyone—and I'm not anonymous anymore. I have claimed credit for this. As soon as I published my books. Writing a book is a lot of work; I'm going to claim the credit. But I didn't in the beginning because okay, I'm going to say this. A lot of people thought it was a man behind the Twitter handle and I must admit, I was kind of channeling white men that I have worked with over my career and thinking about what would they really do? What could I get them to do? All of my tweets are first person, “I pledge to do this,” “I will do this,” I'm going to do this,” and there were people I have friends even who were like, “Hey, have you seen this @betterallies Twitter handle? I wonder who's behind it. I'd like to interview him for my podcast,” That type of thing. So I think that there were people out there who thought it was a white man behind the Twitter handle and I was comfortable with that because not only was I channeling these white men I had worked with in the past, but I also think that there's power in men listening to other men. I'll just say that. I have actually gotten speaking engagements when I've said, “I'm a contributor.” They're like, “Are there any men who could speak because we think men would like to hear this message from another man.” So anyway, that's kind of why I started out with that anonymous Twitter handle and with this character behind the scenes of this fake man. [laughs] But now it's okay. I say that I curate it, it's me, and I'm comfortable with that. I still do it first person because I think that white women can also be allies. We all can be allies for others with less privilege than ourselves in the workplace and I think it's important for us, everyone to be thinking, “This is a job I can and should do to be inclusive at work and to look for these everyday situations. I can take ally actions and make a difference.” ARTY: How's that changed things like, revealing your identity and that you're not actually a big white dude? [chuckles] KAREN: I know. Well, I never really said I was a big white dude! Or even a small white dude, or whatever. But I think it's fine. I claimed the association with the Twitter handle when I published my book and it was just time to just own it. It's not like people stopped following me or stopped retweeting or anything like that. It's only grown since then. So Arty, it's a good question, but I don't know. I don't know. REIN: And this is more than a little ironic because when you were talking about your coaching—and I'm going to read into this a little bit, but I think you can confirm that it's backed up by the research—to appear equally competent or professional, women have to do more and other minoritized groups have to do more. So what I was reading in was that part of the problem you had with coaching was that to get them to an equal playing field, they had to be better. KAREN: Yes. What you're describing, Rein is “prove-it-again” bias and this is well-researched and documented. Prove-it-again means that women have to prove themselves over and over again where men just have to show potential. This often happens and I'm going to give you just a scenario to bring it home. Imagine sitting in some sort of promotion calibration discussion with other managers in your group and you're talking about who gets promotions this cycle. Someone might say, “Well, I'd like to see Arty prove that she can handle managing people before we move her to the next level.” When Arty, maybe you've already been doing that for a few years; you've already managed a team, you've built a team, whatever. “I'd like to make sure she can do this with this additional thing,” like, make sure she can do it with an offshore team or something. “I want to see her do it again.” Whereas a man's like, “Ah, Damien's great. I know he can do the job. Let's promote him.” Okay, totally making this up. But you see what I'm saying is that this is what the prove-it-again bias is. So whether it is women have to be twice as good or something like that, I don't know if that's exactly what's going on, but they have to deal with this bias of once again, I have to prove that I'm worthy to be at this table, to be in this conversation, to be invited to that strategic planning meeting, to get that promotion, and I don't want to coach women to have to keep proving themselves over and over again. Instead, I want to change the dynamics of what's happening inside these organizations so it is a better playing field, not just for my clients who are mostly women, but also, anyone out there who's from an underrepresented group, who might be facing challenges as they try to navigate this world that really has been designed for other people. ARTY: Wow, that's really enlightening. I'm just thinking about this from a cognitive science perspective and how our brains work, and then if you're making a prediction about something and have an expectation frame for that. If I have an expectation that someone's going to do well, like I have a dream and image in my mind that they'll fit this particular stereotype, then if they just show potential to fit this image in my head, I can imagine and envision them doing all these things and trust that imaginary dream in my head. Whereas, if I have the opposite dream in my head where my imagination shows this expectation of this person falling on their face and doing all these things wrong, I'm already in a position of having to prove something that's outside of that expectation, which is so much harder to do. So this is the effect of these biases basically being baked into our brain already is all of our expectations and things are set up to work against people that culturally, we have these negative expectations around that have nothing to do with those actual people. KAREN: Thanks. Arty, have you ever read the book, Whistling Vivaldi? ARTY: I haven't. I am adding that to my list. KAREN: It explores stereotype threat, which is exactly what you've just described, and the title, just to give you some insight into this, how this shows up. The title, Whistling Vivaldi, is all about a story of a Black man who had to walk around his neighborhood, which I believe is mostly white and got just the concerns that people didn't trust him navigating this public space, his neighborhood. So what he would do, and I don't know if it was just in the evenings or any time, he went out to walk to be outside, he would whistle Vivaldi to break the stereotype that he was a bad person, a scary person because of the color of his skin. Instead, by whistling Vivaldi, he gave off the feeling that he was a highly educated person who studied classical music and he did that so that he could navigate his neighborhoods safely. It's awful to think about having to do that, but this book is full of these examples. It's a research-driven approach so, it's a great book to understand stereotype threat and combat it. DAMIEN: So in the interest of us and our listeners, I suppose being better allies, you spoke about stereotype threat and gave an example there. You spoke about prove-it-again bias and specifically, with prove-it-again bias, I want to know what are ways that we can identify this real-time and counter it in real-time? KAREN: Yes. With prove-it-again bias—well, with any bias, really. First of all, reminding yourself that it exists is really important. At Google, they found that simply reminding managers, before they went into a calibration, a performance calibration meeting, probably some rank ordering exercise of all the talent in the organization. Before they started a calibration meeting, they were all given a 1-page handout of here's the way bias can creep into this process. That simple act of having people review the list of here's the way bias creeps into the process was enough to help combat it during the subsequent conversation. So I think we have to remind ourselves of bias and by the way, this resource I'm describing is available as a download on Google's re:Work website. I think it's R-E-: work. There's a re:Work website with tons of resources, but it's available for download there. So that's one thing you can do is before a calibration meeting or before you're about to start an interview debrief session with a team, is remind people of the kinds of bias that can come into play so that people are more aware. Other things, and I'll talk specifically about hiring, is I am a huge proponent of making sure that before you interview the first candidate, you have objective criteria that you're going to use to evaluate the candidates because otherwise, without objective criteria, you start relying on subjectivity, which is code for bias. Things will start to be said of, “I just don't think they'd be a culture fit,” which is code for bias of “They're different from us. They're different from me. I don't think I'd want to go get a beer with them after work,” or “If I had to travel with them and get stuck on a long layover somewhere when we can travel again, I don't think I'd enjoy that.” People just instead say, “I just don't think they'd be a culture fit. So you get away from that by, instead in your objective criteria, looking for other things that are technically needed for the job, or some values perhaps that your company has in terms of curiosity or lifelong learning or whatever your company values are. You interview for those things and you figure out how you're going to measure someone against those objective criteria. Other way bias creeps into interviews is looking at or saying something like, “Well, they don't have this experience with Docker that this other candidate has,” but really, that wasn't part of the job description. No one said that the candidates needed Docker experience, but all of a sudden, because one of the candidates has Docker experience, that becomes important. So instead of getting ahead of that, make sure you list exactly what you're going to be interviewing for and evaluating people for so that the bias isn't there and bias, maybe all of a sudden Docker becomes an important thing when you realize you could get it. But it may be that it's the person who seems the most like the people in the team who has it and that’s another – you're just using that as a reason for increasing that candidate’s success to join your team because you'd like to hang out with them. You'd like to be with them. You would want to be getting a beer with them. Does that help, Damien? DAMIEN: Yeah, that's very helpful. The framing is an absolutely pre-framing before an evaluation, before an interview what biases can happen. That's a wonderful tool, which I am going to be using everywhere I can. And then what you said about culture fit and really, every subjective evaluation is, I think the words you used was “code for bias.” Like, anytime you have a subjective evaluation, it's going to be biased. So being able to decide in advance what your objective evaluations are, then you can help avoid that issue. Culture fit is just such a red flag for me. You said, I wrote down the words, “culture built,” right? Decide what the culture is – because culture is important in the company, decide what the culture is you want and then interview and evaluate for that. KAREN: Yeah. Oh, I love that. Build the culture instead of just fit the culture. I've also heard people say, “If you ever hear someone say, I don't think they'd be a culture fit, respond with ‘Well, I think they'd be a culture add,’” or Damien, to quote you, “I think they build our culture instead of just fit in.” Really powerful, really powerful. CHANTÉ: Yeah. I agree with you all and Karen, I'm not sure if you knew this, but one of the many things I do, which takes up most of my life, is I'm a DEI practitioner and I have a firm, and I also work in-house at a company, Village MD, as a director of DEI there. So one of the things that I talk a lot about is culture add and one of the things I'd love to see more companies do is to think about like, basically take an inventory of all the people on your team and try to identify where you're strong, where you're weak, and look for the skills gap analysis, basically and say, “What don't we have here,” and then, “Let's go hire for that skillset or that expertise that we don't have that we believe could help us build this thing better this year.” That's going to require people to do that exercise, not just once because your team dynamic shifts usually a few times a year. So if you're a high growth company, you should be doing that probably every quarter. But imagine what the difference would be if we approach interviewing and promotion building from that lens instead. KAREN: Yeah, and Chanté, the way you framed it is amazing. I love it. You said, “What do we not have that we need to build our product to deliver to our customers?” I don't remember the exact words you used, but that I think is important because I've also, in conversations I've had around culture fit and culture and everything, someone say to me, “Well, wait a second, Karen, what if you we're evaluating a white supremacist? It's clear, there are white supremacists and we don't have one of those yet on the team. Does that mean we should open the doors and let them in?” That's when it's like, you can use the way you've just framed as “Well, if we're building a product for white supremacists, then yeah, probably.” But to be more serious about this, it's like what's missing from our team structure, from the diversity within this team, that is going to allow us to deliver on our product, on our offering better? I think that's important. Another lens to apply here is also you can still do values fit. Make sure people fit with the values that you have as a company and that should allow you to interview out people who don't fit with your values and just to use that example of a white supremacist. That would be the way to do that, too. REIN: I think it's really important to say that ethics still matters here and values fit as a way to express that. One of the things that I would maybe caution or challenge is—and this isn't a direct challenge to you, Karen, I don't think—but it's been popular in the industry to try to remove bias from the equation. To do debiasing training and things like that and I think that that's the wrong way to go because I don't think it's cognitively possible to remove bias. I think instead what we should do, what I think that you're talking about here is being aware of the biases we have. Accounting for them in the way that we hire, because the same heuristic that leads to a bias against certain demographics is the one we use to say, “We don't want white supremacists.” KAREN: Yeah. Plus a hundred, yes. [laughs] I agree. What I was going to say, Rein to build on what you just shared is that it's important to see things like color, for example, to understand. Even if you feel you're not biased, it's important to see it, to see color, to see disability, to see someone who is going through a transition, for example, on their identity. It's important to see it because that allows you to understand the challenges that they are facing and if you say, “I don't see color, I just see them as their new identity, post-transition. I don't see their disability; I just see the person,” it negates the experience they're having, as they are trying to navigate the workplace and to be the best allies, you need to understand the challenges people are facing and how you can take action to help them either mitigate the challenge, get around the challenge, whatever that might be, or remove the challenge. ARTY: So you're not being empathetic to the circumstances by pretending that they don't exist. KAREN: Yes. Well said, yes. REIN: It’s the idea that you can be on bias that I think is dangerous. I want to call back to this idea of a meritocracy; the idea that every choice we make is based on merit and that whatever we choose is indicative of the merit of that person is the bias that is harmful. KAREN: Woo, yes. I can't wait to refer to that. I can't wait to come back and listen to you. What you just said, Rein that is powerful. REIN: Because becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, right? We're a meritocracy so everything we've chosen is means – if we chose someone that means that they have merit by definition. There's no way out of that trap. KAREN: Right on. CHANTÉ: Yeah. When you say that, it makes me think, too of just the sort of committal to always transforming and iterating. So if you come in the door saying, “Listen, there's no way we can eliminate bias all the time.” We're going to make the assumption that we're always being biased and therefore, what things can we put into place and what tools can we use? What resources can we leverage here to make sure that we're on a pathway for greater inclusion, greater accessibility? Therefore, making our organization more diverse and more innovative. I think, like Rein, I just want to really underscore that because that is something that I've had to really try to lead with versus add to the conversation later. So I'm appreciating that you brought it up today. Thank you. REIN: It’s like some of the choices, some of the evaluations we're making are subjective. We can't make them objective in every case; I think what we want is a framework that allows us to do these subjective evaluations in a way that accounts for bias. DAMIEN: So that's amazing. Where do we go from here? ARTY: One of the things we talked about last time with regards to various people getting promoted, this effect of maler and paler as you get closer to the C-suite, is that one of the effects of that is when you're sitting down to hire someone, well, who do you know? Who's on the list of people that I know within my network? So one of the huge biases we end up having isn't necessarily a cognitive bias, it's just a effect of where our attention has been and who we've been hanging out and who we have relationships with that are preexisting. These existing network effects also keep us in the thinking and stuff and making decisions within the context of those networks. We promote people that we know. We promote people that we have relationships with. So even just some of the dynamics of if you've got existing C-suite dynamics that is dominated by men and you've got these dynamics where it’s difficult for men and women to have relationships for various reasons, things that get complicated, that those sorts of things can end up creating a self-reinforcing effect, too. I'm wondering what are some of your thoughts on some of the ways that we can expand our networks and expand the people that we know to shift some of those systemic effects? KAREN: Yeah. Most of us have homogenous networks. Homogenous networks meaning people who are just like us because we have something in common with them, whether that is hobbies that we share, music we like talking about, food we like to go out to enjoy whatever we have things in common. So most of us end up having a –and it's true. Most white people have networks that are full of other white people and this also is friendship circles. There's again, social science research out there that shows that we tend to have networks full of people just like us. As you just were saying, Arty this impacts so many aspects of work in terms of who we hire, who we recommend, who we promote, who we even ask to take on some like stretch assignment or tasks such as giving the update at the all-hands meeting for our team, or going in and exploring some new technology that might be on the horizon that we could leverage. Who are we going to trust with these stretch assignments are people that we know and the people that we know are the people in our network. So it is important to look to diversify our network. There's so many ways to do this. When I give talks, I share some of these ways. One is literally when new people join your team or from a different demographic than you, get to know them and get to know their work and their career goals and down the road, look for how you might be able to connect some dots. But really, take the time to get to know people who you might otherwise just like, “Oh yeah, they're joining the team, whatever,” but set up that virtual coffee or whatever. The other thing you can do is join Slack groups or other discussion forums at your company for people from that demographic. After checking first, if you'd be welcome and invited, of course, but many of these groups will be open to allies and if you are wanting to join that discussion groups so that you can sort of understand the conversation, understand the challenges, get to know some of this talent. That's a great way to do it. You can also go to conferences that are designed for members of other groups that you're not a part of. Again, asking first permission, if you'd be welcome as an ally, but in tech, there's so many of these, but there's lesbians who tech, there are Black women in tech or Black coders conferences. There are Latinas in tech. Meetups and things like that. So there's so many opportunities to go and hear incredibly talented speakers talking about the technology and the projects and the work that they do and it's a great way to expand your network. I'll share my favorite hack that I do when it's in-person and I'm going to a meetup or an event. I'm an introvert, I will let everyone know that. It's hard for me to go into a networking group like the meetup that's happening and there's some pizza and some drinks before it starts, or that conference reception. It's hard for me to go into a room like that. So when I do, I quickly scan the room and I look for someone who's standing by themselves or sitting by themselves, who is from a different demographic and I go over and say, “Hi.” That's the easiest introduction for me as an introvert is to go find someone who's all by themselves and maybe feeling a little awkward that they're all by themselves too and it's a great way to strike a conversation and again, to expand my network, meet some new people, not just my friends that might be coming to the same event. DAMIEN: So one of the things that I want to call attention to, too with what you're saying there is that this marginalization and privilege is self-reinforcing. You don't have to have – even though we all have cognitive biases, they aren't actually necessary for marginalization and privilege to self-reinforce and in fact, because that actually takes effort to undo these things. If we just go along, if we pretend not to see color, or whatever, we are actually reinforcing the problems that exist. KAREN: Yeah, and Damien, on that note. In my book, and it's also a free download on my website, betterallies.com. I have a list that I've curated of 50 ways you might have privilege in the workplace. I like people to read through this list and think about all the ways they have privilege that others might not. The top of the list are “I'm a male,” and “I'm white,” and those are the top two things. But then it gets into more nuanced things and nuanced things being, “I'm not the primary caregiver for someone else.” Well, why is that something we should be aware of as allies? Well, when you're the primary caregiver, that means you may have to drop things at a moment's notice to take a child or a parent to a doctor's appointment, for example, or you might be interrupted in your work. So there's privilege when you don't have that caregiving responsibility. Another one is that you actually have budget enough spare money so that you can do after work outings with a team that aren't company sanctioned. Like, “Yeah, I can afford to go out to dinner,” and gosh, this all sounds so weird now with the pandemic and how long it’s lasting. But “Yeah, I can go out for drinks or dinner with my team after work and pay my way,” or “I can do that whitewater rafting trip on the weekend that people are getting together with.” Even though it's not company work, it's still networking and that builds bonds that builds relationships and sure, work is going to be discussed. It also includes things such as “I am not holding a visa,” which means that I have confidence that I maybe can take some risks with my career. “I can move teams, move to another manager, try something new out because I have confidence that I'm not going to potentially lose my job, which means losing my visa, which means losing my ability to live in the United States.” So there's so many ways that we have privileged that I think at first blush, we might not realize and I think building on your point, Damien it's important for us to understand this privilege so that we can be understanding of how and why we should be diversifying our network and getting to know people who have different levels of privilege than ourselves. REIN: And if you're like a white dude who's like, “This is a lot to keep track of.” Yes. When you don't have them, it's obvious. KAREN: Yeah, you can be oblivious. Otherwise – not that you would be, Rein. I'm not saying that, but one can be very oblivious. REIN: I’m probably oblivious of like, at least 30 of them, so. DAMIEN: For people who are marginalized every axes, we really cannot be unaware. It's dangerous. Those of us who were unaware of it, suffer disastrous consequences. So in places where you are privileged, if one of the privileges is to not be aware of it and yes, it is a lot to keep track of and yes, as everybody else has to keep track of that stuff. KAREN: Yeah, and building on what you both just said, this is just like technology in some ways and let me explain what I mean by that. Let's not take it out of context because there's some nuanced stuff I'm about to share. But in tech, there are so many areas of specialty, whether that is in data science or product security or accessibility related engineering or internationalization engineering and, and, and like, there's so many areas of expertise. And Rein, you’re like, “As a white guy, how am I supposed to keep track of all of this?” Well, it's hard. I get it because the field keeps changing, things keep getting innovated on or brought to the surface and the same thing, I'm sure that Chanté sees this in the DEI space. We are learning all the time about how to create more inclusive workplaces where everyone can do their best work and thrive. It's the same as like what am I learning about writing the right kind of code that is going to have lasting impact, that is going to not cause incidents over the weekend [chuckles] when we all want to be doing something else? When it's not going to down the road because technical debt that is going to have to be retired? So yeah, it's hard work. I don't mean to say it's not, but we need to make sure we have people who are thinking about this around us, who are reminding us, who are teaching us the best practices so that we are getting ahead of this versus falling behind. REIN: One of the things you said last time that I really want to make sure we bring back up is that doing this work is everyone's job. KAREN: Yes. Yeah, and Rein, I think we got into that conversation talking specifically about product security, software security. You can have a team of people who are software security specialists/experts. In fact, when I was at Adobe in my department, that was one of the groups in my department was cross-engineering product security specialists and they know this stuff. They are paying attention to the landscape. They know when those zero-day incidents happen and what the response is like, and what bounties are being paid and they know all of that because they love it. They're paying attention to it, but they can't solve the problem for the whole company. They cannot make sure that every piece of code is hardened so that the viruses don't get injected. There aren't security violations. What they need to do is educate others, be there to support them when things go bad. But it's really about educating every engineer to be using the libraries the right way, to be allocating memory in the right way, whatever so that we don't have those security violations and it's the same thing with being inclusive. I have so much respect for anyone and Chanté, it sounds like you do this work, but like, you are responsible for diversity at a company and are looking top down at what are the measurements we're going to have? What are the quarterly or annual goals that we want to have to improve our diversity? How are we going to measure that, make it happen? But we also need people in every corner of the organization, in every code review meeting, in every interview debrief, in every casual hallway conversation, or a chat in a Slack, we need all of those people to realize they have a role to play in being inclusive and have some awareness of what it looks like to not be inclusive. What someone from a different demographic is experiencing in a way you might not and what are some of the ways you can take action? So I see so many parallels there and I firmly believe, it's something I say all the time like, you don't have to have the words “diversity inclusion” belonging on your business card to make a difference. It's inclusion as a job for everyone. CHANTÉ: Yeah. That's one of the things I wrote down that I wanted to make sure that we directed folks to. I love that on your website. That was one of the things that before I ever even knew you were going to be a guest here. That's why I started following you. I love that and I want to actually dive into that because one of the things that I hear often from people when I'm doing this work, they're like, “You're so good at this.” I'm like, “Yeah, but this is a skill that you have to work towards.” So it's just like any other thing you want to make a lifestyle. You have to wake up that day and make a decision. If you're somebody who wants to eat healthier, then you wake up every morning and you have decisions to make. If you are a yogi like me, you might decide that you want to get on your yoga mat or you might want to pick up a book and read the philosophy instead. So it's a lifestyle. I'd love it if you could maybe tell us a little bit about your journey because it's humbling to hear that you got into this work knowing that you wanted to coach women in tech, but you didn't necessarily aspire to be thinking about and writing about allyship, but that became a part of it. So what are some things that you did early on, or what are some things that you're doing now in terms of showing up every day and being a better ally? KAREN: Yeah. I think that one thing you have to be comfortable with and it's hard, but I do this a lot is being an ally means realizing you're going to be wrong some of the time, because you are constantly stepping outside of that comfort zone that is just so safe—"I know how to navigate this kind of conversation, using these kinds of words and everything”—and you have to keep stepping outside that comfort zone so that you are taking some risks and you're going to make some mistakes. You are. I make them pretty regularly. I might put something in a newsletter. I send out a weekly newsletter called 5 Ally Actions with 5 ideas and things people can take and I get emails back from people who disagree with me or say, “If I had written that, I would have changed it slightly this way,” or whatever, and I'm comfortable with that because I approach everything with this mindset of curious, instead of furious. I want to be curious about why someone's giving me the feedback and what's underneath there and what can I learn from it as opposed to getting furious at them for giving me feedback and like, assaulting my expertise, or whatever, or my voice. So curious, not furious, I think is an important thing here and I want to give a shout out. I learned that phrase from a podcast I was listening to and it was Kat Gordon, who has something called The 3% Movement, which is all about getting more gender diversity in the creative industry, like the ad industry. So hat tipped to Kat Gordon for that. So getting back to you got to get comfortable with making mistakes and when we make a mistake, acknowledge it, apologize. Heartfelt apology, folks. Apologize and then figure out what you're going to do differently the next time. That's what it's all about. So the journey is real. No one ever gets an ally badge or an ally cookie. In fact, I will tell you, I recently searched on LinkedIn in job titles for ally. I was curious to see how many people put in their job titles. There are people out there who have claimed it and I don't think that's right. Unless someone else has told them that, in which case, okay, someone else has said, “You are an ally,” maybe you can put that in your title and claim the badge, but it's really not about that. It's about being on a lifelong journey really, to be inclusive, to keep learning, to keep understanding how things are changing, and not putting the spotlight on yourself. Opening the doors for other people and just stand right behind that door and realizing that it's not about you. It's so hard to do this at times because we all want to be like, “Hey, look at the cool thing I just did for somebody else.” We want that feedback, but being an ally means stepping out of the limelight and letting someone else shine. CHANTÉ: Those are great. Thank you so much, Karen, for that. I want to ask one more question since we're there. In terms of not making it about ourselves and not necessarily centering ourselves and taking action in the moment and not giving ourselves the allyship title, if you will, who are some people that you either align yourself with or that you learn from, whether it's up close and personal or from a distance? Like who are people that you feel are providing you with gems and knowledge so that you are then sharing with folks like us, that we can at least either put in the show notes or give a shout out to? KAREN: Yes! Oh, I love this. So many people. One, I will say right off the bat is Minda Harts. Minda Harts is a woman, a Black woman, and she wrote a book called The Memo: What Women of Color Need to Know to Get a Seat at the Table, I think is the byline. She and I spoke on a panel together a few months ago and I learned so much from her. I learned a lot from reading her book about the experience with Black women in the workplace, but then also, on the panel and since then, I feel that we have a nice professional, Twitter kind of friendship going on, which I just value so much. So I learned from her and what she shares all the time. Another person I learned from is Jeannie Gainsburg. Jeannie Gainsburg is an LGBTQ educator and wrote a book called The Savvy Ally and The Savvy Ally is all about – the funny thing is she and I connected. We realized we went to college together or the same class, but we didn't know each other in college, but we have the same mindset of understanding something and then distilling it into how an ally can show up. With her perspective, it's all about being an ally for the LGBTQ community and I've learned so much from her. In fact, I've quoted both Minda and Jeannie in my second edition pretty heavily. I also have learned a lot from David Smith and Brad Johnson. They recently published a book called Good Guys and their approach is also incredibly similar to mine, but they focus completely on how men can be allies for women and they don't focus on other aspects of allyship. But very much I learned about, they're the guys who are talking to other guys and basically saying, “Hey dude, it's your responsibility as a man in a professional setting to be an ally.” Like, it's part of your job to meet with the women on your team and sponsor them and support them. So, they tell it in a real way. Oh my gosh, I feel like I learned from so many other people, too and I'm forgetting, I'm not thinking holistically. So anyway, those are four people it's nice to give shout outs to. CHANTÉ: We put you on the spot so thank you, Karen. [laughs] KAREN: Okay. Here's another one. Corey Ponder, he works in tech, but he also does speaking and writing about diversity and inclusion on the side and he is a Black man. I just learned about his experience and perspective in such a real, raw way and I value that a lot. DAMIEN: Karen, I'd like to ask you a bit about something you brought up really early in our conversation today. You mentioned that before you got into this work with Better Allies and that sort of work, before you became a executive coach, leadership coach, you noticed a decline in gender parity in the tech industry. Can you talk about what that decline was, how it might've happened? KAREN: Yeah. So first of all, Damien a question for you. Were you surprised when I said that? DAMIEN: [chuckles] Well, no, not at all. I actually just today read about one of the earliest computers at NASA which is a woman, a Black woman, that the astronauts explicitly by name depended on, for example, Apollo 13. So I wanted to hear your story about what happened. KAREN: Yeah. Okay, okay. I asked only because there are many people who, when I just drop that into the conversation, they ended up coming back to it minutes and minutes later or towards the end of any kind of interview. At any rate, what happened? So I have theory and actually I gave a TEDx talk about this, exploring the theory. I won't do all 20 minutes of my TEDx talk, but when I decided to study computer science, I was a senior in high school trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life kind of thing, what I wanted to study in college. My father said to me, “Hey, well, Karen, you're really good at math and you enjoy making things. You're always crafting and sewing and knitting, and you like solving problems. I've just been reading this article about this new field called computer science which seems like it would combine all the things you're good at and maybe you would enjoy making software and by the way, this is what people earn in this field.” [chuckles] I have to admit, I grew up in a very humble financial household and so, I wanted to make sure I could support myself and earn a living when I graduated from college. So I'm like, “Okay, I'll study computer science. I'll learn how to build software.” That was 1981, the year I graduated from high school. Now get this, I had never touched a computer. Okay, we didn't have – I mean, 1981 was the year the IBM PC was released into the field. The Macintosh did not come out until 1984. So in my home, we did not have computers in the part-time jobs I had after school and summers, no one had computers and certainly, we didn't not have computers in my high school where I could learn to code where it would probably would have been in basic. This was a situation for many people across the United States. Going to college in the early 80s, if you wanted to study computer science, many people were coming with no experience. Maybe a little more than me. Maybe they had taken that basic class, but very little experience. It was almost like a level playing field at that point and we were encouraged to pursue this. My graduating class from college, I went back through my yearbook not too long ago to count, there were 38% of the computer science degrees went to women in my class and that statistic 38% is very similar to what was happening across the whole United States. According to the Department of Education, the year 1985, when I graduated from college, 37% of all computer science and information science degrees went to women. So that was pretty good. Now, fast forward 20, 25 years and that number dropped to a low of about 17%, I think and the overall number also went down of how many women were getting these degrees. And now, you don't have to have a computer science degree to work in tech necessarily, but in many tech environments and tech companies, the engineers are incredibly valued and are very visible and are paid very well. They are an incredibly important part of any tech company. So my point is that there used to be a lot more women computer scientists and it did drop. I do think it's this level playing field that I started at, but the decline happened because I believe a society, we as a society, started thinking and encouraging our young boys to get involved with robotics, with tinkering, with coding classes, with summer camps where you might learn to do coding or programming robotics. We encouraged our young boys more than our young girls and over time, that meant that a girl, if she wanted to go to the summer coding camp in her neighborhood, would show up and see only boys there, or see only a very small number of girls and be like, “Well, maybe this isn't for me.” Or coding assignments in colleges that were much more aligned with masculine interests and more feminine interests. Things that might be more – oh, I don't even really want to get into stereotypes. I don't even want to go there, but things that would be more appealing to an 18-year-old boy than an 18-year-old girl who just have different interests and just became self-fulfilling. What we're seeing now though, is that graph is moving in the right direction. The numbers are inching upwards because there's been so much focus across the United States – and hopefully, around the world, but across the United States, in terms of gender diversity is important in this field and we should be welcoming of all and we're making changes to all of these programs and encouraging our young girls to study this field, get involved with STEM, and pursue it when they get to college and beyond. DAMIEN: Yeah, you avoided giving an example so I'll give one that you reminded me of, which is for a very long time, the standard, the most common image used as an example of compression algorithms was that of a undressed woman and so, we can – KAREN: Lena. Her name is Lena. Yes, actually I know her name. She was someone when they were working on an image compression algorithm like, “We need a picture,” and someone just grabbed the Playboy magazine from their cube, took the centerfold out, and used that. REIN: You do. [laughter] Or at least as you did. The effect here is really interesting and also, really, it makes me very sad, which is that computing became seen as a prestige job. Once men realized that there was something to this, it requires expertise, they decided that they were going to do it and when they did—there's research that shows this both ways. When men enter a field, it raises the prestige and increases wages. When women enter a field, it lowers the prestige and decreases wages. KAREN: Yeah, that's a problem, but real. I don't mean to at all disagree. It's a real problem. ARTY: Just curious. Do we reinforce these things by saying them as a statement like that with a period versus bringing it up as a question? REIN: Yeah. ARTY: I'm just wondering. REIN: What I’m trying to do is describe and not be normative, but I think that's a valid point. ARTY: In my life coaching thing recently, we were talking about statements with periods and it's really easy to define the world of expectations of ourselves, define the world of expectations of everyone else for all time and all affinity as a statement with a period. As we go and do this, it creates these reinforcing effects, and then we go and do things and enact behaviors that reinforce those belief systems. So we're sitting here talking about biases and how all of this stuff gets baked in her brain and one of the ways that it gets baked into her brain is by making statements of “Well, this is how it is period.” I realize you’re making a statement of something to challenge, but I think it's something that we really need to think about that if we want to change the status quo, it starts with reimagining it different. Coming up with a different statement, with a period even as a starting point, and then letting that lead to questions of how do we go and manifest this new reality that is more what we want. KAREN: Can I embarrass myself? [laughs] ARTY: Yes, of course. KAREN: Okay, right. [laughter] KAREN: So I have two children. That's not embarrassing. They're in their early 20s now. That's not embarrassing. I had read, when they were younger, that there is research done that said that if you tell a girl just before she takes a math test, that girls aren't good at math, that her score will actually go down. This is the embarrassing thing. So before dropping my daughter off for like her PSATs and SAT exams, I just said, “Remember, girls are really good at math and you are really good at math, too.” [chuckles] So maybe already changing the narrative by using different periods statements, too [laughs] making up alternate realities. Oh gosh, I can't believe I just shared that story. My daughter would probably be so embarrassed. DAMIEN: That’s a modern story and I don't think there's anything to be embarrassed about there and I think Arty brings up an amazing and very valuable points. The suggestion I want to make in response to that is, because what Rein was describing is a fact and I’m sure it's important to know about and to know that it happened—and I'm already using that language now: it happened. In the past when men went into a field, it became more prestigious and higher paid. When women into a field, it became less prestigious and higher paid. And that's what has happened in the past and by stating it that way, now we can go, “Okay, what are we going to do now?” REIN: There's a thing I learned from Virginia Satir that I probably should have done here, which is when you find one of those ends with a period sentences Arty, like you're talking about, you add until now at the end. So when women enter a male dominated fields, wages go down until now. ARTY: And now they go up. Now they go up because everyone wants women because they're so awesome. Women bring so much awesomeness to the table so wages go up. The more women you have, the better the wages. CHANTÉ: Period. KAREN: Yeah. [laughter] Yeah, and—yes, and—the other kind of way to look at this is, I've been doing a lot of work with how might we statements and so the question is, how might we change the trajectory? How might we imagine the future of work where all people and all identities are welcome and we are building towards a future that is literally more equitable and more accessible for all? So how might we do that? We can maybe answer that question today, or we can invite folks who are going to listen in to weigh in when we post this online and talk to us on Twitter. ARTY: I love that, though. I mean, I think if we really want to change the status quo, part of that is realizing that we're the ones who make it. We're the ones that create our reality and our culture is just a manifest of all these beliefs and things that are in our head emerging from all of us. If we realize that we're actually the ones that are in control of that, that we're the ones that are manife

Originally airing on February 25, 2021 on WYXR 91.7 FM, this episode of Faithfully Memphis is hosted by the Reverend Scott Walters, Rector of Calvary Episcopal Church. Join him for conversations with Heidi Rupke, Kat Gordon, and Mak Clayton. Heidi organizes Calvary's annual Lenten Preaching Series and Waffle Shop. Kat is the founder and owner of Muddy's Bake Shop. Mak is the Director of Outreach for the Hospitality Hub in Downtown Memphis. All of these Memphis institutions have transformed their operations in serving the community through the COVID-19 pandemic. To learn more about Lent at Calvary, click here: https://calvarymemphis.org/learn/lenten-preaching-series/ To learn more about Muddy's and Kat Gordon, click here: https://www.muddysbakeshop.com/pages/about-muddys To learn more about the Hospitality Hub, click here: https://www.hospitalityhub.org/ About Scott Scott joined Calvary's staff as the 22nd rector in 2017. Previously, he was the rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he served since 2005. Before seminary, Scott worked as a carpenter and contractor, which began a curiosity about the way the "built environment" impacts Christian discipleship, especially with regard to stewardship of creation and Jesus's charge to welcome the stranger. A native of Arkansas, Scott received his Bachelor of Arts in English from John Brown University and a Master of Divinity from Virginia Theological Seminary. Scott enjoys playing guitar (and a little mandolin), riding bikes, carpentry, poems, and walking, whether on a path in the woods or a sidewalk in the city. He is married to Ardelle, who is a counselor and faculty member for CREDO, a clergy wellness program of the Church Pension Group. Ardelle and Scott have two children, Alden and Kate. FEATURED MUSIC "Higher Ground" by Stevie Wonder "Until We're All Free" by John Kilzer "You Are Not Alone" by Mavis Staples

Beer for dessert? Maybe. Sisco Larson and Kat Gordon talk with Jennifer Biggs about what to pair with your last course.

Jen sits with Kat Gordon of The 3 Percent movement to talk about 2020 and 2021, diversity in the workplace, and of all things...a coup!

My guest this week is Kat Gordon. In her mid 20’s Kat opened Muddy’s Bake Shop thinking it likely wouldn’t make it. Thirteen years later, Muddy’s is one of the top bakeries in the United States. This pandemic has been a massive issue for businesses across the country, and Muddy’s is no different. Muddy’s completely shut its doors for several weeks and has opened one of its locations back, but it is not as bad as it sounds for Kat. This episode may take a different turn than you expect. Download this episode if you want to learn more about:      Taking advantage of a do-over What’s something I care so much about that I’m willing to be bad to be good at it Thinking about selling What it’s like when you start to break down How to make significant changes Feeling alive again How the pandemic can jumpstart change Taking advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity And more!   I had a great time recording this episode with Kat. Happy New Year to you and yours!     RECAP 4:27 Making people feel special and loved 6:28 After the pandemic 6:57 What happens when water isn’t flowing in? 7:15 Starting to break down 10:28 Should I sell the bakery? 11:50 How to think about making major changes 13:00 How to do visioning 14:25 We all have great advice for ourselves that we don’t take 15:49 Low stakes way of me playing with the future 19:20 The fact that I didn’t want to pick up that vision again 24:13 How the pandemic can jumpstart change 24:00 What’s most important 25:00 When the world shifted I knew what we needed to do 27:00 I wanted people to feel that they were at my house 34:10 Game over if your burned out in first month 39:35 The difference between receiving a compliment and someone telling me how to live my life 41:00 Doing stuff for the sake of others 50:00 Creativity thrives with boundaries 56:45 Take this once in a lifetime opportunity    RESOURCES Muddy’s Bake Shop Matt Haaga State Farm AB Jets

Join Change Catalyst Founder & CEO Melinda Briana Epler in conversation with Kat Gordon, CEO and Founder of the 3% Movement, as Kat talks about the evolution of gender equity in the advertising space. Melinda and Kat go deep on:Kat's background as a creative director and what led her to create the 3% MovementHow she helped move the industry from 3% of female creative directors to 29%How to create a culture of belonging in the workplace, and the importance of putting people at the centerHighlights from the Conversation"Working from home in an absolutely impossible situation where society has failed us and I am nervous that the motherhood penalty is being reinforced with every Zoom call where a child is there, needs something, interrupts or the mother attends to the child at a particular point."“I think so much of belonging is about having the courage to ask and engage your employees in ongoing conversation about what's working for them, what's making them anxious, what do they need."Learn more about Kat Gordon and The 3% Movement at https://www.3percentmovement.com/Additional Resources“50 Things to Create a More Anti-Racist Workplace” by The 3% Movement“The Elephant on Madison Avenue” by The 3% Movement“Permission to Feel” by Mark BrackettLeading With Empathy & Allyship Episode 13: "Women Championing Women with Brenda Darden Wilkerson”[image description: image of Kat Gordon (a White woman with short hair, smiling) and Melinda Briana Epler (a White woman with red hair and glasses, smiling), with the text "how to create a culture of belonging at work: put people at the center" and a black and white background with white text]⭑⭑If this is helpful, don't forget to subscribe to our podcast and like this episode!⭑⭑Producer: Juliette RoyProject Manager: Sally MoywaywaFinance & Operations: Renzo SantosDiversity & Inclusion Specialist: Antonia FordCreated by: Melinda Briana EplerFor more about Change Catalyst, and to join us for a live recording, visit changecatalyst.co/allyshipseriesYoutube: youtube.com/c/changecatalystTwitter: twitter.com/changecatalystsFacebook: facebook.com/changecatalystsLinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/changecatalysts Support the show (http://patreon.com/changecatalysts)Support the show (http://patreon.com/changecatalysts)

Today’s guest opened Muddy’s Bake Shop on February 29, 2008.  It was the perfect day for a leap of faith!  Over the years she has served not only as the owner and founder, but also dishwasher, copywriter, trainer, baker, cashier, and chief cake taster of Muddy's Bake Shop.  She adores Memphis and all the incredible stories, projects, and individuals who make this city so special.   She also adores cake, pie, cookies, and cupcakes... hence the bakery.  Lately, her favorite part of her job is teaching workshops and helping develop leaders both within and outside of Muddy's and exploring ways that a small, independent business with limited resources can still contribute at a high level and make a truly meaningful impact in its community... it's exciting stuff! Today’s guest is entrepreneur and vision-expert- Kat Gordon  Kat’s top five Clifton strengths are: Input, Intellection, Ideation, Responsibility, and Strategic Learn more about Gallup CliftonStrengths Finder @ https://youtu.be/2Jxn9Idbfl4 Podcast Art: Alec Ogg Podcast Music: I Need Pizza by Memory Box https://musicvine.com/browse/artist/memory-box#share Produced by Parasaur Studios © 2020

70% of freelancers report working with diverse teams compared with only 59% of traditional employees. Open the workforce strategy and suddenly, achieving diversity and inclusion requires far fewer committees and initiatives, and our creative work starts to reflect the world we actually live in. In this episode of the Rosie Report podcast, Steph sits down with Kat Gordon, Founder and CEO of The 3% Movement and author of the forthcoming book “The Future Belongs to Belonging: How Inclusive Cultures Unlock World-Changing Creativity.” Kat founded The 3% Movement 9 years ago due to the fact that only 3% of Creative Directors were women and very few were people of color. Through the work and influence of The 3% Movement, Kat and her team are continuing to improve the ratio. Tune in as Kat and Steph cover everything from how change actually happens in our industry, to the radically inclusive future of work that just so happens to be the reason Steph started We Are Rosie as well as the theme of the upcoming virtual 3% Conference taking place at the end of this month! Did we mention Steph has the honor of speaking at the conference? You won't want to miss it. Kat Gordon has had over 20 years of marketing experience working with major brands and many of Silicon Valley's most exciting start-ups. She started her copywriting career at Cosmopolitan and then as the youngest copywriter ever at Sports Illustrated. In 2008, Kat made her first move in pursuing her passion for gender equality in the workplace by launching her own agency, Maternal Instinct, dedicated to the woman consumer. Often called a “triple threat” of an entrepreneur, advertising woman, and marketing to women expert, Kat was named Visionary of the Year by Advertising Age in 2018 and one of the 30 Most Creative Women in Advertising by Business Insider in 2016.

In this episode, we catch up with Kat Gordon (Owner Of Muddy's Bake Shop) to talk about what's been going on since her last appearance, why she has started giving cooking tutorials, and more.  Check out Kat's first appearance on The Startup Life Follow Muddy's: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MuddysBakeShop/  Twitter: https://twitter.com/muddysbakeshop  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/muddysbakeshop/  Muddy's Locations: 5101 Sanderlin #114 Memphis, TN 38117 901.683.8844 Open: Mon-Thu 10am-9pm, Fri-Sat 10am-10pm Closed Sundays 585 S. Cooper St. Memphis, TN 38104 901.443.4144 Open Mon-Fri 6:30am-9pm, Sat 7am-9pm Closed Sundays    Visit our website TheStartupLifePodcast.com Follow The Startup Life Podcast Facebook Page Want gear from The Startup Life? Check out our gear! Check out other great podcasts from The Binge Podcast Network.   Written by: Dominic Lawson Executive Producers: Dominic Lawson and Kenda Lawson Music Credits: **Show Theme**  Behind Closed Doors - Otis McDonald  **Break Theme** Cielo - Huma-Huma  Sponsors/Partners If you're concerned about the safety of your employees and the sustainability of your organization, you need the resources and connections RIMS provides. Learn more at www.rims.org/Podcast. You can save 25% off a year-long membership.  Go to Payoff.com/TheStartupLife to learn more. Go to the Phillip Stein and use code SLEEPEZ to get 10% of your new Philip Stein Sleep Bracelet.  Go to Save the Children dot org slash save kids orwww.savethechildern.org/savekids Get 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code THESTARTUPLIFE at Manscaped.com. That's 20% off with free shipping at manscaped.com, and use code THESTARTUPLIFE. It's spring cleaning baby and your balls will thank you! 

Kat & Jennifer talk about Muddy’s birthday, vision parties and cookie complications.

After a course-altering realization that the consumer segment with the most influence and buying power in America was largely underestimated by and underrepresented in advertising, Kat Gordon pivoted her focus from a successful career in advertising to a successful career diversifying advertising. Since starting the 3% Conference in 2012, she’s branched those efforts into a [...] Read More... The post The Emperor’s New Clothes appeared first on It's Worth Doing Right.

Oh yeah! It's the first episode of season 3 and we are so pumped to kick it off with Kat Gordon! Kat is the owner of Muddy's bake shop in Kim's hometown of Memphis, TN. Kim has been enjoying the delicious baked goods, and we do mean DELICIOUS, at Muddy's for several years now so it was really cool for Kim to finally get to sit down and chat with Kat. In this episode, Kat talks about life before Muddy's. Sometimes we have to try other things to figure out they aren't for us. Spoiler alert: Real estate wasn't for Kat. Kat talks about when her love for baking began and how she turned that into a business that is thriving today. Both women talk about being entrepreneurs and the importance of building a brand that you can be proud of and one that keeps your customers coming back again and again. Spoiler Alert 2: If your product and customer service aren't consistently good, the number of followers you have on social media matters not. Kim and Kat chat about the "not so glamorous" side of owning your own business and the mistakes they have made along the way and what they have learned from those mistakes. Kat also opens up about how she deals with competition and how she quiets the insecurities that creep in from time to time. And of course, they talk about all the baked goods. They are so DELICIOUS!!! Kat might even share a secret ingredient or two! This episode is about so much more than cupcakes and it's a great one for all the entrepreneurs out there or anyone that just wants to hear two women chatting about real life experiences. https://www.muddysbakeshop.com/ Hey! Since you are already here, don't forget to subscribe for weekly updates from WTFeminine! Let's get connected! Kim's website WTFeminine of instagram Kim on instagram Kim on Facebook

Kat Gordon is the CEO and Founder of Muddy's Bake Shop and we continue our conversation. Kat wanted to pick my brain some about the Enneagram. This is one of my most vulnerable episodes I have ever released. We cover quite a few topics including the Enneagram 1 and 7. I touch on time orient of times, some inner critic, why I love using the Enneagram and the power of self-awareness.  Muddysbakeshop.com Connect with us Website - DoItForTheGramPodcast.com Instagram - @DoItForTheGramPodcast Email - DoItForTheGramPodcast@gmail.com Support Us Patreon.com/doitforthegram Subscribe To This Podcast and Review Us Need Career or Life Coaching using the Enneagram? Contact KaizenCareers.com Join Enneagram901 at Facebook and Instagram

This episode continues our new series, "In Your Skin"! In this series I interview a person in each Enneagram type that has done a lot of growth work. In this episode I interview Kat Gordon! She is an Enneagram 1! Kat Gordon is the founder is founder and owner of Muddy's Bake Shop. A local Memphis dessert shop that has some of the best sweet treats in the world! Seriously! Muddysbakeshop.com In this episode we cover: How being a business owner has helped her 1ness The Strengths and Struggles of being a 1 Inner Critic of the Enneagram 1 Misconceptions of the 1   Connect with us Website - DoItForTheGramPodcast.com Instagram - @DoItForTheGramPodcast Email - DoItForTheGramPodcast@gmail.com Support Us Patreon.com/doitforthegram Subscribe To This Podcast and Review Us Need Career or Life Coaching using the Enneagram? Contact KaizenCareers.com Join Enneagram901 at Facebook and Instagram

 Keynote speaker, advertising director, and founder of the 3% Conference, Kat Gordon, discusses the efforts and success that she has had in challenging the lack of female creative directors in advertising. Kat shares her earliest experiences which led her to become aware of diversity and inclusion and reveals the common denominator that she sees in the early experiences of allies. Discover how men can best support women in inclusion efforts, why brands need to find the courage to take action and the opportunities that arise in learning from mistakes.

It is 2019 and I am so excited to start a new year with the podcast! As I started to think about 2019, I turned to some wisdom from my friend Kat Gordon of Muddy's Bake Shop. Last fall, I had the awesome privilege of hosting the Positively Creative Summit. Kat shared a bit of her story and the power of visioning at the Summit and I'm excited to share it now with you! The Positively Creative Summit and the Positively Creative Workshop Series are a collaboration with Memphis College of Art and Rising Tide Society Memphis Chapter. You can get information on Kat's full Visioning Workshop at: http://mca.edu/community/community-education/positively-creative-series/     Website: https://www.muddysbakeshop.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/muddysbakeshop/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MuddysBakeShop/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/muddysbakeshop Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/muddysbakeshop/   To get 50% off your first year with Honeybook, go to positivelycreative.net/honeybook!   About The Positively Creative Podcast: The Positively Creative Podcast was created by Dorothy Collier, artist of Dorothy Art, for creative entrepreneurs. When Dorothy started having a positive outlook on every aspect of her life, including her art career, the creativity and opportunities started overflowing! Join her as she chats with other small business owners, discussing the ins and outs of how to run a creative business and how they make it in their respective fields. To learn more about The Positively Creative Podcast, visit our website or head over to our Patreon page! You can also find Dorothy on Instagram at @positivelycreativepodcast and @dorothyart!          

Kat Gordon is the founder of the 3% Movement. Kai has nicknamed her KGTB--Kat Gordon The Boss--because she is not playing any games. She is determined to increase the number of women in leadership and make the advertising diverse and inclusive. Listen in to get her perspective on the conference and its evolution.

Check out this SPECIAL episode of the AAFOC Podcast Video series, which features a panel discussion on the 3% MOVEMENT. This 3% Movement is about changing the conversation on diversity and creativity in the advertising and marketing industry. This episode features the founder of the 3% Movement, Kat Gordon. She will share how it started, the value of attending the conference and why this moment is so important for the industry. The panel also features Angela Zepeda, the Vice President of Business Development at Innocean who will be talking about the 3% Movement from an agency perspective. And our guest host is Rachel Svoboda. In addition to being the President of the American Advertising Federation in Orange County, she is a partner and Senior VP at Gigasavvy. You will not want to miss this episode! . To watch the video version of this interview on YouTube, visit https://youtu.be/6Bo5KZGjHdQ . Kat Gordon - 3% Movement Founder https://www.linkedin.com/in/katgordon/ . 3% Movement Website https://www.3percentmovement.com/ . Angela Zepeda - VP of Business Development, Innocean https://www.linkedin.com/in/angela-ze... . Innocean https://www.innoceanusa.com/ . Rachel Svoboda - AAFOC President & Partner/SVP, Gigasavvy https://www.linkedin.com/in/%E2%98%85... . Gigasavvy https://www.gigasavvy.com/ . American Advertising Federation of Orange County https://aafoc.org/ . Canvas Worldwide - Filming Location http://www.canvasworldwide.com/ . Sparkhouse - Video Marketing Agency - Filmed Episode https://thesparkhouse.com . Rob Patterson - Introduction & Editing https://www.linkedin.com/in/robjpatt/ https://www.instagram.com/robjpatt/ http://robjpatt.com . Referenced during the panel discussion: . Girls Lounge - Organization https://www.thefemalequotient.com/the... . Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls - Book https://www.rebelgirls.co/ . Amusement Park - Ad Agency http://www.amusementparkinc.com/ . BMW https://www.bmwusa.com/ . Pants Schmants - Children's Book Kat would like to get published

Kat Gordon is the Founder of The 3% Movement and Advertising Age's Visionary of the Year for 2018. Find her at katgordon.com or follow her at @katgordon. This episode is sponsored by the GPS program, a step-by-step system that helps entrepreneurs become professional speakers. Our global GPS community is in 100 cities, 23 countries, and 5 continents. Join us here: christopherkai.com.

'The Gymnast'. My conversation with Kat Gordon - founder of the 3% Percent Conference and CEO of the 3% Movement. Kat started 3% in 2008, to highlight the fact that only 3 percent of creative directors at major ad agencies were women Kat is a change agent, moving into previously unoccupied spaces, doing things that hadn’t been done before. A revolutionary in a time of revolution. I wanted to understand where that willingness to take on the status quo in such a public and sustained way comes from. 

A five minute edited highlight of our full conversation.

Northern Line is set during the Second World War. Grace, who works in the box office at a London theatre, finds herself caught at Hampstead tube station during an air-raid shelter. The action unfolds in the claustrophobic platform setting and the story explores equality and social responsibility. Kat Gordon read English at Somerville College, Oxford and worked at Time Out briefly after graduating. She has travelled extensively in East Africa where she also worked as a teacher and an HIV counsellor. She received a distinction for her MA in creative writing from Royal Holloway and her second novel The Hunters is out this month. Kat has lived in Budapest and Reykjavik and is currently settled in north London with her partner and young son. Underground: Tales for London features original short stories by London-loving authors from across the world. Each story, written by a Borough Press author, will be available to Evening Standard readers as a free podcast, from standard.co.uk. You can buy The Hunters by Kat Gordon here See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

 Keynote speaker, advertising director, and founder of the 3% Conference, Kat Gordon, discusses the efforts and success that she has had in challenging the lack of female creative directors in advertising. Kat shares her earliest experiences which led her to become aware of diversity and inclusion and reveals the common denominator that she sees in the early experiences of allies. Discover how men can best support women in inclusion efforts, why brands need to find the courage to take action and the opportunities that arise in learning from mistakes.

We spoke to Founder of the 3% Conference, Kat Gordon about the awareness of culture in a corporation or agency, the future landscape for agency assessment and how we are changing the way we perceive content.

We spoke to Founder of the 3% Conference, Kat Gordon about the awareness of culture in a corporation or agency, the future landscape for agency assessment and how we are changing the way we perceive content.

Kat Gordon is the founder of the 3% Conference which has now become the 3% Movement. The number, 3%, comes from her original calculation that showed that 97% of creative directors in the advertising business were men. And a mere 3% were women. Kat set out to change this abysmal ratio. And in six short years she has lead nothing short of a revolution and moved the number to 29%. Her work isn’t done by any stretch. So listen in to this compelling and inspirational Disruptor Series Podcast as Kat tells Rob where she’s taking the Movement, the flashpoint where it all started and what you can do if you see injustice in the world.   Credits Host - Rob Schwartz  Intro/Outro Voiced by Theresa Howard/Sophia Barnett Executive Producer - Dan Bradbury Audio Engineer/Sound Design - Corey Bauman

Diversity in leadership is not only good for culture, it's good for business. On today's show, Kat Gordon, the founder of the 3% Movement, shares insights into how the movement began and how leaders of organizations can build more diversity into their teams to help them better serve their clients. Join us at the 3% Conference in November. See the 100 Things PDF here. ==== Today's episode is sponsored by Freshbooks. To claim your free month trial – with no credit card needed – visit Freshbooks.com/accidental. The intro music for the AC podcast is by Joshua Seurkamp. End remix is by DJ Z-Trip. All other music in this episode is from the Wanderlust project.

Today on Positively Creative Dorothy chats with Kat Gordon, owner of Muddy’s Bake Shop in Memphis, Tennessee.  She takes us behind the scenes of the 50+ employee, tri-location bakery business from Mud Lab, the test kitchen club which has a lengthy application process for creating a new recipe for the bakery to the Muddy’s volunteer community outreach program for her employees.  Book clubs, employee retreats, art market, custom kitchen…what does Muddy’s not do?!     “I feel like this is the secret of visioning and why visioning works is that once you are open about what it is you want, people want to help you.” -Kat Gordon, on working to fulfill the Muddy’s team's 2020 vision of launching a pie in the sky!   “My business is my medium.” -Kat Gordon   “We get so caught up in the grass is always greener, but it’s easy to just not totally appreciate the challenges for the gift that they are.” -Kat Gordon   See more of Muddy’s:   www.muddysbakeshop.com www.instagram.com/muddysbakeshop     Follow along and join the Positively Creative Community:   www.positivelycreative.net www.instagram.com/positivelycreativepodcast www.facebook.com/groups/positivelycreativepodcast     On Today’s Show: (4:00) How Muddy’s became a company, even without a grand opening (11:30) Muddy’s community service program (17:30) Memphis Indie Spring Market (19:00) Muddy’s Book Club (21:00) Ego is the Enemy (22:00) Kitchen Tours (26:00) Muddy’s retreat (28:00) Kat’s new teaching workshops (35:00) Muddy’s Test Kitchen (46:00) Custom Kitchen / Johnny’s Christening Cake (47:00) On auditing product prices (49:00) Her thoughts on the business’ growth (56:00) The hiring process (1:00:00) Mail Order Muddy’s (1:06:00) Artist & Fabulous mother-in-law Nancy Cheairs (1:07:00) Flicker Street Studio (1:08:00) Jeni’s Ice Cream (1:14:00) Host a Front Porch Party!  

Dove's latest "body positive" campaign has created different bottles of body wash designed to emulate various body types -- but some women are accusing it of "body shaming." Advertising creative director Kat Gordon joins Catey Hill and Quentin Fottrell to discuss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, we sit down with Kat Gordon as she explains where the name Muddy's came from, why she loves learning, and why entrepreneurs should always be informed about the world around them. Check out Muddy's Online: https://www.muddysbakeshop.com Follow Muddy's: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MuddysBakeShop/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/muddysbakeshop Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/muddysbakeshop/ Muddy's Locations: 5101 Sanderlin #114 Memphis, TN 38117 901.683.8844 Open: Mon-Thu 10am-9pm, Fri-Sat 10am-10pm Closed Sundays 585 S. Cooper St. Memphis, TN 38104 901.443.4144 Open Mon-Fri 6:30am-9pm, Sat 7am-9pm Closed Sundays Recommendation from Kat: “For Better or For Work” by Meg Hirshberg Maggie Bayless of ZingTrain.com For ACT Prep from OWLS: https://the-owl-academy.teachable.com Teaching Resources: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Teaching-With-Owls Have comments or want to advertise on The Startup Life? counsel@askowlsolutions.com

After working the advertising industry for almost 30 years, Kat Gordon saw first-hand how the lack of female creative directors at ad agencies (at that time, just 3% of creative directors were women) impacted the way women were depicted in advertising media. In this episode, Jess and Kat discuss how she turned her love for writing into a career in creative advertising and the growth of inclusion that she’s built for her industry along the way. Once Kat realized what was happening to female creatives from inside the ad-world, she connected with people who supported her mission and trailblazed a movement to take the percentage of women in creative advertising beyond 3%.   

According to Kat Gordon, founder of the 3% Conference, she’s always been “used to being the only woman in the room.” Three brothers. Time at Sports Illustrated, PowerBar and other male-centric brands. Now, with her husband and two sons — the greatest gift she’s ever been given. A few years ago, as she puts it “the advertising world was just a little too male even for someone like me who is used to being the only chick in the room.” This is where social change and a movement began — the annual 3% Conference, dedicated to championing creative female talent and leadership. Though there has been improvement, with senior female creative leaders now making up about 11% of the industry, Gordon and the industry acknowledge there is still substantial progress to be made. In our conversation, a number of topics are covered. Getting enough sleep (she’s a big fan and takes it seriously), non-conformity (she suggests a wonderful book by Adam Grant), avoiding the trap of popularity contests (counterproductive, she mentions) and the wisdom of Cindy Gallop (she’s a role model) are just a few morsels of a delicious dish of insight and a peek in to a more exciting future — something the world is ready for — that empowers everyone in the industry.

Kat Gordon is the founder of -- and the visionary behind -- the 3% Conference, a social change movement started as a passion project to spotlight the scarcity of women in creative leadership in the advertising and communication fields. Kat is also the founder and creative director at Maternal Instinct, a marketing agency focused on communicating to women as well as consulting with start-ups in Silicon Valley. In 2013, Advertising Age magazine named her as one of the Top 10 Women To Watch and one of Forty Over-40 Women Disrupting The World in 2014.In this episode, Kat's message is simple: it's in everyone's best interest for there to be more equal gender representation in the creative process. “The fact that men and women are different should be celebrated. There's a reason we were designed differently. You need very diverse perspectives to problem solve creatively.” The era of the lone genius is over, she observes. We live in a more collaborative world.

Grant and Vince welcome Kat Gordon, creative director and founder of the 3% Conference to discuss the trend of overworking and blurred boundaries between personal and work life in the creative industry, and the negative effects it’s having on creative culture.

The ad industry draws plenty of women, but hardly any of them end up making the creative decisions that influence the marketing messages we see every day. In this episode of the show we ask why so few women end up in top creative roles at ad agencies, and talk to Kat Gordon, founder of the 3% Conference, about what she's doing to try to change the status quo. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Maria speaks with Kat Gordon, Founder and Creative Director at Maternal Instinct. As she began helping clients in the mom business with strategy and copywriting projects. She tells us about reaching Moms even if you don't have a big budget.