Speaker 1: Hey, hey, hey, we're black, We're brown. Wait, we're back,
Speaker 1: we're black, We're brown ambition, hey, Mandra.
Speaker 2: And all black and brown lives matter. Yes, I've loved
Speaker 2: the little tweak that people are making to that hashtag.
Speaker 2: Now all black lives matter. Yes, it's one of the
Speaker 2: highlights of the week. I am you know what I
Speaker 2: have tapped into my college freshman self. I feel like
Speaker 2: a bright, ad, bushy tailed eighteen year old Mandy Lee
Speaker 2: out of the house, let loose on a campus an
Speaker 2: hour and a half away, and so excited to sign
Speaker 2: up for all the career fair, you know, not career fair,
Speaker 2: all the activity at the activities fair, you know when
Speaker 2: you're a freshman. But I don't have the stamina that
Speaker 2: I quite did, so I think I've signed up for
Speaker 2: a few too many things the past week, and I
Speaker 2: am tired. But it's a good kind of tired feel.
Speaker 2: I know that there are so many people and you
Speaker 2: have every right to be exhausted and just drained and sad,
Speaker 2: and I know that there are plenty of you. I mean, listen,
Speaker 2: I'm from Atlanta and my heart is bleeding for that city.
Speaker 2: My family is there, my brother was out there in
Speaker 2: the streets protesting yet another killing, this time a young
Speaker 2: man named ray Shard Brooks, who just you know, you
Speaker 2: guys have probably seen the video. Don't have to get
Speaker 2: into it, but there's a lot of heaviness out there.
Speaker 2: What I will say is, I've chosen I've chosen to
Speaker 2: This is gonna sound kind of like crappy, but I
Speaker 2: feel like we have to take advantage of people's guilt, y'all.
Speaker 2: And you know what people I'm talking about. And people
Speaker 2: are feeling real sorry because they have been to face
Speaker 2: theirselves in the mirror for the first time and face
Speaker 2: their own their own what do you call it, their
Speaker 2: own complicity in allowing these types of things to continue.
Speaker 2: And people are acknowledging, oh shit, I could have done
Speaker 2: something all this time and I never? Why did I never?
Speaker 2: What do I think this is? Did I think this
Speaker 2: was okay all this time? And they're really people. And
Speaker 2: I'm talking not just about people like in my family,
Speaker 2: but but companies too. A lot of businesses out there
Speaker 2: are trying to talk to their employees, talk to the public,
Speaker 2: and rise to this occasion. And for me, for me,
Speaker 2: it feels like a call to action. I really have
Speaker 2: felt this calling. I know I joked about it, but
Speaker 2: I feel like, if you're out there and you want
Speaker 2: to be an ally, I'm not quite I I we
Speaker 2: all have every reason to be cynical about the people
Speaker 2: who are stepping up now, reaching out of hand to
Speaker 2: lift us up. Why weren't you here, you know, hundreds
Speaker 2: of bodies ago, Why weren't you here deck ago? They're
Speaker 2: here now. And I personally have chosen to go with hope,
Speaker 2: and I've chosen to go with optimism. I've chosen to
Speaker 2: reach out, grab their hand, but pull them where I
Speaker 2: want them to go, and lead them the direction that
Speaker 2: I want to go. And I and I think if
Speaker 2: if you're not tired enough, or you're not tired and
Speaker 2: you're not exhausted, I encourage you to look at this
Speaker 2: as an opportunity. This is the moment finally people are listening.
Speaker 2: So what can we ask for? What can we what
Speaker 2: can we do to lift black Americans up at this time?
Speaker 2: And that is Yeah, that's how I'm doing. But it's
Speaker 2: been a it's been a hell of a week. But
Speaker 2: it feels good. It's like it's like when you work out,
Speaker 2: which you know I don't do anymore, but you're good. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I just you know, what about you? What's happened in
Speaker 2: the budget needs to land.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I just feel like I think opening
Speaker 1: up talking about like what does it look like to
Speaker 1: be allies? Just a great opening because I did this
Speaker 1: this movement called Share the Mic. Now, some of y'all
Speaker 1: might have sinked it. It was awesome. It was put
Speaker 1: together by Lovey, my friend Lovey, my friend Bozima, and
Speaker 1: Stacey Bennett. I think of alex Olivia and oh it
Speaker 1: was another woman's name. I'm sorry, I'm forgetting her name. Basically,
Speaker 1: two white women, two black women decided, let's get together
Speaker 1: and do something to amplify the voices of black women.
Speaker 1: And so what they did was they found fifty black
Speaker 1: women and fifty white women, and the white women had
Speaker 1: like a collective audience size of like something insane, like
Speaker 1: two hundred and eighty million or something like that. And
Speaker 1: so they had everyone from Allen to Courtney Kardashian to
Speaker 1: Julia Roberts to just like just every type of woman,
Speaker 1: to Hillary Clinton to Chelsea Handler, I mean some of
Speaker 1: the largest names that you know out there, and they
Speaker 1: gave their platform for the day. There Instagram platform to
Speaker 1: a black women that they were paired with. I was
Speaker 1: paired with soccer superstar Ashlyn Harris. She's totally badass and
Speaker 1: she uh she was in the She won the Feet
Speaker 1: for World Cup with her and her team last year,
Speaker 1: and then I think in twenty fifteen, she and her
Speaker 1: and her wife live in Florida. She played soccer for
Speaker 1: the Orlando Pride. Honestly, she's just dope all around. So
Speaker 1: we got on the phone ahead of time and she
Speaker 1: was like, honestly, Tiffany, do whatever you need to do.
Speaker 1: Like I was like, well, how's your audience gonna take it?
Speaker 1: She's like, no, there used to be standing up. I
Speaker 1: stand up for LGBTQ whites all the time, and I
Speaker 1: stand up for black lives matter as well. So I
Speaker 1: was a little nervous. So I started off like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you guys.
Speaker 2: Don't interrupt you. But to interrupt you, I watched and
Speaker 2: it was I wondered because you posted on her account
Speaker 2: thereout the day, and I wondered how you picked because
Speaker 2: this was a big opportunity for you. Yes, I and
Speaker 2: you were so articulate. I know you had some technical difficulties,
Speaker 2: but on the other end, coming in and watching it
Speaker 2: after you. It didn't don't worry because I thought it
Speaker 2: was great. It was still fantastic, But I did wonder,
Speaker 2: how did you pick and choose the stories you shared
Speaker 2: with that audience, because you know, it was it was
Speaker 2: a moment to rise to the occasion.
Speaker 1: So beforehand, Ashley and I spoke on the phone the
Speaker 1: day before and she, you know, I just told her,
Speaker 1: what do you think is going to be most impactful?
Speaker 1: And she was like, honestly, storytelling, And I said, I agree,
Speaker 1: that's my natural nature anyway, but I wanted to see
Speaker 1: with her audience because who would know best. And so
Speaker 1: once we just decided that, like you know, storytelling is
Speaker 1: going to be super impactful, I really sat with myself
Speaker 1: and I said, what is it that I want people
Speaker 1: to take away from this? Folks that the point of
Speaker 1: taking over an Instagram account of a white woman, it's
Speaker 1: because her audience is likely not to know me, and
Speaker 1: so I get to be in front of an audience
Speaker 1: so they can hear me and see me. Because you
Speaker 1: love this particular woman, you follow her. And so I
Speaker 1: decided I wanted to open up with just some facts
Speaker 1: that was like my well, my first everybody's first had
Speaker 1: to be about themselves, like, you know, allow me to
Speaker 1: reintroduce myself. My name is be right. So that's what
Speaker 1: I did my first post. My second post, I really
Speaker 1: wanted to share some facts, but easily digestible facts about
Speaker 1: how on every aspect of life, race plays a role
Speaker 1: in a way that negatively impacts African Americans. So whether
Speaker 1: it's employment, whether it's health, whether it's even a student,
Speaker 1: like black children are three times more likely to be suspended,
Speaker 1: you know, even healthcare that doctor sixty seven percent of
Speaker 1: doctors said they have a bias against African American patients.
Speaker 1: That's crazy, sixty seven percent. So I just wanted to
Speaker 1: share like those, like something that people can visually see,
Speaker 1: and so I shared that first, and then I thought, Okay,
Speaker 1: how do I get people to see that racism is
Speaker 1: not just the dead black bodies you see on social media,
Speaker 1: It's the systematic thing. And so the second post I
Speaker 1: did was myself when I was when I experienced my
Speaker 1: first overt experience with racism when I was nine and
Speaker 1: I was followed in the store and basically the lady
Speaker 1: told me to get out because I was black nine
Speaker 1: like knock need like I had like a Jerry Crow afro,
Speaker 1: not intimidating, you know, like just nine years old. And
Speaker 1: I ran home to tell my mother and she told
Speaker 1: me that she too had been put out of that
Speaker 1: store in Westfield, New Jersey, shout out to barons, Hey bitch.
Speaker 2: So so that was the second that's the opposite of
Speaker 2: a shout out, you know.
Speaker 1: And then from there I was like, Okay, now I
Speaker 1: have to take over. I think the third post I
Speaker 1: did was just like, hey, I'm going to go live tonight.
Speaker 1: So when I went live and sharing the stories, I
Speaker 1: really wanted to illustrate that racism wasn't just this like
Speaker 1: getting punched in the face getting that it was these
Speaker 1: like the seemingly innoculous innoculo, innoculous, inoculus, innoculus anoculous. Oh
Speaker 1: my goodness, I swear no words.
Speaker 2: Through Well, you used to probably go to Manhattan through
Speaker 2: the oculus, which I don't even know what it is,
Speaker 2: the shopping mall, the Freedom Power Area, Okay, go ahead.
Speaker 1: So they don't seem so big, but they add up.
Speaker 1: So I shared stories like from what I was really young,
Speaker 1: because I wanted them to be bite sized. I shared
Speaker 1: stories from when my sister was in second grade and
Speaker 1: someone rode on a wall in the bathroom. My baby sister, Lisa,
Speaker 1: and we lived in Westfield, where I grew up a
Speaker 1: Lajoriti white town. So some kids said that with Lisa
Speaker 1: it was not But that wasn't the hard part. The
Speaker 1: hard part was they brought her into them principal's office,
Speaker 1: and they basically threatened her and said they were going
Speaker 1: to call the police on a second grader. Meanwhile, did
Speaker 1: never call my parents? She's hysterical crying. They're like, you did,
Speaker 1: do it? Send her back to class. She comes home
Speaker 1: later on that day crying and telling my mom what happened.
Speaker 1: I mean my mother the way she flew down to
Speaker 1: the school the next day. She let them know, I'm
Speaker 1: going to call every new station, every magazine, every every
Speaker 1: outlet possible and tear this place up. But that is
Speaker 1: so I wanted to show that, like second graders getting
Speaker 1: the police called on them because someone said you've run
Speaker 1: in the bathroom or all. That's what it is to
Speaker 1: be black, you know, in this country. And I moved
Speaker 1: up to when I was in college and how we
Speaker 1: were talking to my friends and I were talking to
Speaker 1: some boys outside we were all teenagers, maybe like nineteen
Speaker 1: at most, and how the police pulled up and the
Speaker 1: boys lived in the city in New Brunswick, it's a
Speaker 1: very college town, and the police pulled up and we
Speaker 1: were just talking. I didn't think anything of it until
Speaker 1: the boys got up and spread their legs and their
Speaker 1: arms and leaned against the gate as if this was
Speaker 1: just what happens every day, because it did that every day.
Speaker 1: A couple times a day, the police pull up and
Speaker 1: they're expected to be inspected like modern day slaves. And
Speaker 1: I was like, this was like, I mean, I'm forty,
Speaker 1: this was twenty years ago, you know. And then now
Speaker 1: when getting my house appraised, because it was always my
Speaker 1: intention to have my white friend pretend to be me,
Speaker 1: because I know that homes of black folks are are
Speaker 1: not a praise as high and sometimes discounted to up
Speaker 1: to twenty three to twenty five percent. And sure enough,
Speaker 1: you know, I had a realter come in before, and
Speaker 1: sure enough we came in. She told me at least
Speaker 1: four hundred thousand, but likely up to four twenty five,
Speaker 1: and we got three ninety. And I was like, and
Speaker 1: I couldn't have my white friend Catherine pretend to be
Speaker 1: me because it was quarantine. So I was just like,
Speaker 1: but you know, like it's just I wanted people to
Speaker 1: just see that, you know, racism takes different forms, and
Speaker 1: so it was just really powerful. And well, I have
Speaker 1: to say this about Ashlyn's audience. They were amazing. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's one thing to post something on the page and read,
Speaker 1: but to go live and not one negative comment. I
Speaker 1: just I told her it was a testament to her
Speaker 1: character and how she shows up because her audience was like,
Speaker 1: thank you so much. I'm here to learn. I can't
Speaker 1: believe it. What can I do? And then something that
Speaker 1: was really important was shared Mike was that they also
Speaker 1: wanted you to provide two solutions. So I shared two
Speaker 1: solutions about what you can do as an ally, and
Speaker 1: one is to be a miss the Daya that was
Speaker 1: my next door neighbor when somebody tried to burn our
Speaker 1: house down and the police try to blame it on
Speaker 1: us and said my sister Lisa, say Lisa had a blowtorch.
Speaker 1: It just was ridiculous. But missus Dadeya, who's white, she
Speaker 1: went to bat for us, and she used her privilege
Speaker 1: as a shield, and because of her, they listened and
Speaker 1: because of her we got everything we were supposed to
Speaker 1: get and because of her we were protected. And so
Speaker 1: be a mister Daya. Use yourself as a shield because
Speaker 1: the consequences for you as a white person are not
Speaker 1: the same as it is for someone who's black. And secondly,
Speaker 1: I said vote with your dollars, that your money and
Speaker 1: your spending should be in alignment with your values. That
Speaker 1: if a company is disparaging against black folks lgbtqs, something
Speaker 1: that you just know is not to not write, then
Speaker 1: why are you spending money with them? That we can
Speaker 1: shut down almost anything by just refusing to patronize them.
Speaker 1: So those are my two solutions. But honestly, it was
Speaker 1: just really powerful. I mean really powerful. I think they
Speaker 1: got over a billion impressions from Share the Mic now,
Speaker 1: and you can learn more. Their Their ig is at
Speaker 1: share the Mic Now and you can learn more and
Speaker 1: see some of our stories there, and you can go
Speaker 1: to if you haven't watched my Share of the Mic
Speaker 1: Now video. Ashland is as h l Y N Harris
Speaker 1: h A R R I S twenty four. I guess
Speaker 1: that's her number, So Ashland Harris twenty four and you
Speaker 1: can see my brown face all up on her ig
Speaker 1: feed and you can see like what happened. It was awesome.
Speaker 2: What I loved about the talk that you gave was that, well,
Speaker 2: the story that broke my heart the most is one
Speaker 2: that you didn't just mention in your recap, which was
Speaker 2: about your little sister. It was Tracy or Lisa, Lisa,
Speaker 2: probably Lisa, who went to school and was put into
Speaker 2: classes that were not they were like remedial or yep,
Speaker 2: just the basic classes, and she was basically underestimated from
Speaker 2: the minute that she went to that new school. Right
Speaker 2: that's apps I mean not. And I think each of
Speaker 2: your stories, if you really look at it, and this
Speaker 2: is so true to your platform and what you stand for.
Speaker 2: It you were sharing how the simple, the simple color
Speaker 2: of your skin, something that is out of your control,
Speaker 2: can literally set you behind economically. So imagine if your
Speaker 2: mother had not gone to that school and advocated for
Speaker 2: your sister like she did, to get her put in
Speaker 2: classes that were, you know, that matched her level, that
Speaker 2: matched her intelligence, she would have been maybe not prepared
Speaker 2: for college. Mm hmm, you know that may or she
Speaker 2: might have been prepared, but her her I almost said, resume,
Speaker 2: what do you call it? In school. Yeah, your transcript,
Speaker 2: you know, you wouldn't have the classes that maybe they
Speaker 2: wanted you to have at a certain college you wanted
Speaker 2: to go in, and then you just it's a domino
Speaker 2: effect and it and the point about home ownership. You know,
Speaker 2: if you if your house is undervalued, like you shu
Speaker 2: about your parents for years and years and years, I mean,
Speaker 2: that is diminishing returns on your investment. I mean, your
Speaker 2: race is actively working against the growth of your investment.
Speaker 2: It's just it's important and storytelling is very important and
Speaker 2: I thank you for sharing because it's fucking hard to
Speaker 2: I mean I could tell you were raw. I think
Speaker 2: I texted you after like, God, I hope you are
Speaker 2: somewhere just doing whatever it is that makes you relax,
Speaker 2: because it's exhausting to give to relive those experiences which
Speaker 2: are traumatic and you work so hard to get past them,
Speaker 2: and yet people still need to hear them. And that
Speaker 2: is what has been proven. People need to know these
Speaker 2: personal stories in order for them to feel the empathy
Speaker 2: that is required for them to take action. And yeah,
Speaker 2: so I commend you for that and thank you for
Speaker 2: it because those seven hundred thousand. However, many followers she had. However,
Speaker 2: many people tuned in. Those are people who are walking
Speaker 2: away with a bit like you force them to see
Speaker 2: and she helped force them to see you. And that
Speaker 2: movement is so great and I hope, I hope there's
Speaker 2: more of that And that is me too. That is
Speaker 2: the definition of allyship, when you get out of the way,
Speaker 2: when you put someone else, put a spotlight on someone
Speaker 2: who deserves and doesn't usually get a spotlight, whose stories
Speaker 2: are maybe not as palatable to your audience, but by
Speaker 2: virtue of your own endorsement of them, or you stepping
Speaker 2: aside and putting them in front of your people, that
Speaker 2: you help them be seen and heard. And I wish
Speaker 2: more people understood that, people who wanted to be an
Speaker 2: ally It's not about you using the hashtag, it's not
Speaker 2: about you retweeting or sharing. It's about how can I
Speaker 2: And it's as simple as I love that anecdote about
Speaker 2: your neighbor. Yeah, it's as simple. And it's fucking sad
Speaker 2: that she had to do that for you, but in
Speaker 2: your family. But it's about you, know, in whatever moment
Speaker 2: you have, how can you help lift someone up and
Speaker 2: recognize that you have something to offer them? Just because
Speaker 2: people see you and see you differently, and they see
Speaker 2: them much differently based on this color, the color of
Speaker 2: their skin. And yeah, I I so let's talk more
Speaker 2: about allyship because I know it is such a loaded word.
Speaker 2: And there's this new phrase, not new, but the phrase
Speaker 2: that's going around now is performative allyship, which is to
Speaker 2: be uh, we should all be very weary of performative allyship.
Speaker 2: And how would you describe performative allyship?
Speaker 1: These damn companies in my inbox talking about black lives matter,
Speaker 1: but you have nobody black on your board or who
Speaker 1: works in any position of power, Like, please miss me
Speaker 1: with that. It's like when all these brands who years ago,
Speaker 1: when I reached out to them said I want to
Speaker 1: help black women and they were like, oh girl, no
Speaker 1: Now they begged me. Literally, if you see my inbox,
Speaker 1: like ebany, my admin is like what is this? I'm like,
Speaker 1: it's called the first girl and they don't care, and
Speaker 1: so I don't care. Like that's why you rarely see
Speaker 1: me partner with anyone because quite honestly, where were you
Speaker 1: when we really needed to help? Now that I got
Speaker 1: my Now that I got my folks, I got them big,
Speaker 1: good so that's what it is. It's it's when you
Speaker 1: say a thing, but you don't do a thing that
Speaker 1: is performance allyship.
Speaker 2: So it sounds like you're totally like for businesses that
Speaker 2: are stepping up now or not stepping up, that sounds
Speaker 2: like they're doing something. But for businesses that are looking
Speaker 2: for a way to respond to this moment, do you
Speaker 2: generally look at them with that level of cynicism, like,
Speaker 2: what's what's the what's an example of a business that
Speaker 2: maybe is doing something that could because I you want
Speaker 2: to people to feel called to the moment, but I
Speaker 2: totally get it. You know, they're not walking the walk.
Speaker 2: There's lip service, you know.
Speaker 1: Yes, so a business an ideal business, right who is
Speaker 1: not performing as an ally because they were an ally
Speaker 1: before ring an after? Is Ben and Jerry's like they
Speaker 1: those are some GE's boy like banning. Yes, have you
Speaker 1: seen their ig? You know they about that life.
Speaker 2: I can't say I've ever thought to follow them. Yes,
Speaker 2: I do enjoy their non dairy selection. They have improved
Speaker 2: it over the years. They are my ally and continuous.
Speaker 1: And so if you go to Ben and Jerry's website,
Speaker 1: they have this whole educational component for Black Lives Matter.
Speaker 1: That's why I pulled a lot of the visuals that
Speaker 1: I used on Ashland's page from Ben and Jerry's icteam page.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine like they have all this research they posted.
Speaker 1: I mean, they've been about that life. But Ben, like
Speaker 1: if you they were interviewed for how I built this
Speaker 1: a podcast that we like, But they have always been
Speaker 1: their old school hippie so they've always been like, you know,
Speaker 1: anti establishment and what's right is right, what's wrong is wrong,
Speaker 1: and so I mean they are I mean, if I
Speaker 1: had to say an A plus plus gold star ally,
Speaker 1: it's Ben and Jerry.
Speaker 2: That is amazing. That's amazing. Yeah, well, I'm glad to
Speaker 2: hear you say that, because I do think that there
Speaker 2: are some companies and you're right, but then there are
Speaker 2: the ones that maybe haven't done anything, or there's there's
Speaker 2: an there's over on what was it. I feel like
Speaker 2: Silicon Valley, I don't know, maybe ten years ago, I
Speaker 2: forget now had that big wave where they started publishing
Speaker 2: diversity stats and it was appalling. It was like one
Speaker 2: percent of your staff as black, like thousands and thousands
Speaker 2: and thousands of people, and it was just it was
Speaker 2: just replicated across Silicon Valley and that put a lot
Speaker 2: of pressure on corporations to step up, and so you
Speaker 2: saw people appoint heads of diversity or you know, start
Speaker 2: departments dedicated to within human resources, dedicated to inclusion and
Speaker 2: having you know, trainings and unconscious bias and things like that.
Speaker 2: But still, I genuinely don't think those things move the
Speaker 2: needle at all because it was just sort of a
Speaker 2: box you could tick. And also on the list of
Speaker 2: priorities for a big company, whether private or public, often
Speaker 2: there is no one preaching the value and diversity, and
Speaker 2: diversity is an indirect it has indirect value on a
Speaker 2: company's bottom line. And companies are so used to focusing
Speaker 2: on how do I spend a dollar and get ten
Speaker 2: Like give me that idea and it's you know, advertising
Speaker 2: or just very like straight, that straight idea of capitalism
Speaker 2: is what drives them. And so when it comes to
Speaker 2: issues of inclusion and diversity, it's just not always in
Speaker 2: the top of the list.
Speaker 1: How has your company showed up that do you feel
Speaker 1: comfortable and the way they showed up. I know we
Speaker 1: talked about you feeling nervous about you know, wanted to
Speaker 1: ask for a moment of silence, How are you feeling
Speaker 1: now about it?
Speaker 2: And wasn't that telling? I've had to reflect on the
Speaker 2: way that I felt. So I can't say that my
Speaker 2: company has been doing great because I, as an employee,
Speaker 2: was nervous to do a moment of silence, to acknowledge
Speaker 2: the death of another black man and to acknowledge the
Speaker 2: protests and everything that was going on. That being said,
Speaker 2: I believe, and you know, I work for a company.
Speaker 2: It's not on the scale of Amazon. It's not massive,
Speaker 2: but it has, you know, hundreds of employees and I've
Speaker 2: been there three years, so I feel like I've got
Speaker 2: some I have definitely, and I've been watching and I've
Speaker 2: been listening, and I've been in those rooms when they have,
Speaker 2: you know, acknowledged, Oh, hey, you know, we understand. Our
Speaker 2: c suite is white guy, white guy, white guy, white guy.
Speaker 2: And the act of acknowledging it, I could tell to
Speaker 2: them felt like progress, like, oh, look at us, we're great.
Speaker 2: We acknowledge that we know there's a problem. Look at us.
Speaker 2: We understand we're white. Hey we see color.
Speaker 1: We know.
Speaker 2: But still there was no action behind it, and I'm
Speaker 2: busy build my little team, taking advantage of my you know,
Speaker 2: taking advantage of my position, hiring I don't know, at
Speaker 2: least a couple dozen people over the last three years,
Speaker 2: and doing it purposefully in a way that was inclusive.
Speaker 2: And that's why you see my team now as forty
Speaker 2: percent black, Indigenous or person of color BIPOC is what
Speaker 2: I'm calling it. I don't know if you can say BYPOC,
Speaker 2: but that's how I've been pronouncing it. They BIPOC, and
Speaker 2: that is not evident to me across the company. So
Speaker 2: for me, I think there's a lot of good intentions
Speaker 2: at my company, but I have not seen actions. And
Speaker 2: so I hopped on the phone with one of my colleagues,
Speaker 2: who he yeah, talk about like the what's the opposite
Speaker 2: of imposter syndrome? This guy walks through the world and
Speaker 2: God bless him. God bless him because he walks through
Speaker 2: the world like and what are you going to give
Speaker 2: me today? And I used to think he was kind
Speaker 2: of a dick, but honestly, I have so much respect
Speaker 2: for him because he actually he actually encourages me to
Speaker 2: kind of have I'm not going to go to that
Speaker 2: level because not you know, being a woman and having
Speaker 2: that attitude it will not get you. Honestly, it's sad
Speaker 2: to say and not going to get me very far.
Speaker 2: I'll become a bitch in a minute, according to everyone
Speaker 2: who interacts with me. But anyway, I talked to him
Speaker 2: and I found out that he was going to be
Speaker 2: emailing the CEO, and I started to think, like, I
Speaker 2: have something to say here. And I saw you know,
Speaker 2: human resources starting They were doing these you know, group
Speaker 2: small group discussions on Zoom and there was a slack
Speaker 2: channel diversity and Inclusion with hundreds of people in it,
Speaker 2: and it was I'm sorry, a lot of non black
Speaker 2: people talking about what they've learned, and it got very
Speaker 2: annoying very quickly, so I muted it. So I sat
Speaker 2: down and I thought, I'm like, what what can I
Speaker 2: what can I ask for? I have had a unique
Speaker 2: position in this company where I've been able to hire
Speaker 2: and I've seen, I seen where we're falling short, and
Speaker 2: I'm tired of it. And I can feel that they
Speaker 2: want to do something more than just send an email out,
Speaker 2: and so I sent, I penned an email to I penned,
Speaker 2: I typed an email to our CEO. Let's be real, okay,
Speaker 2: And there was six points in my email, and I'll
Speaker 2: go through them really quickly because I think if you
Speaker 2: are in a position of and you think you need
Speaker 2: to be this is the beautiful thing about this moment.
Speaker 2: I think any like it gives you if you're a
Speaker 2: person of color in a company, there's many of us
Speaker 2: out there, okay, And if you feel like if you're
Speaker 2: at a town hall and they have an open mic,
Speaker 2: I think we have. There's a little bit of like
Speaker 2: this halo of protection around us right now. And you
Speaker 2: know your company better than I do, but I do
Speaker 2: feel like it is being champion and celebrated people of
Speaker 2: color speaking up and calling out their companies right now.
Speaker 2: So I would be a little bit braver than usual
Speaker 2: if you feel like you have something to say to
Speaker 2: your company, whether it's an email or you know, speaking
Speaker 2: up at an open mic or whatever. But here are
Speaker 2: the six things that I asked for based on my experience.
Speaker 2: So One, publish diversity statistics on employees because people like I.
Speaker 2: I pay attention to that and I actively try to
Speaker 2: improve it on my team. But you know it's work,
Speaker 2: and it's already hard enough recruiting, and I know it's
Speaker 2: not going to happen until we as a company face
Speaker 2: the music. What are our diversity stats? What what are
Speaker 2: the demographics of our workers? And where do we where
Speaker 2: do we stand and where you know, how can we improve?
Speaker 2: Those have not been published. They've been talked about. I
Speaker 2: think they exist, they haven't been published. The next one
Speaker 2: is commit to inclusive hiring practices and training. This is
Speaker 2: key training for hiring managers and unconscious bias because a
Speaker 2: lot of companies, you know, they get people power to
Speaker 2: hire people, but they when you don't set people up
Speaker 2: in a way that helps them recognize their own their
Speaker 2: own bias and the way that they're recruiting people or
Speaker 2: who they're going to to recruit people. And whether you
Speaker 2: work for a company you own your own business, the
Speaker 2: same applies. This is how you end up with executives
Speaker 2: that all look the same or employees across the board
Speaker 2: who all look the same because of recruiting practices. And
Speaker 2: this is a big one for me. I personally worked
Speaker 2: very hard. I mean it took me six months to
Speaker 2: recruit my number two, which is a senior position on
Speaker 2: my CMP, because I was determined. I wasn't determined to
Speaker 2: turn down people who weren't people of color.
Speaker 1: But I was.
Speaker 2: Determined to cast my net wide enough so that I
Speaker 2: felt like I had enough people of color in the mix,
Speaker 2: just just to like have a shot at it, you know,
Speaker 2: and a very and very few people, in my opinion,
Speaker 2: take that time and have that patience. But I you know,
Speaker 2: it's not and people will. I know that they will,
Speaker 2: maybe not our listeners, but if someone were to hear
Speaker 2: this who is more conservative, or maybe the Black Lives
Speaker 2: Matter movement, you know, makes them nervous for whatever reason,
Speaker 2: because oh no, there's not enough for everybody, and they're
Speaker 2: going to take mine. The mentality is that, oh, well,
Speaker 2: you're just taking away jobs from people who are qualified. No,
Speaker 2: And this is a very important point. The key to
Speaker 2: inclusivet inclusive hiring is that you are casting a wide
Speaker 2: enough net so that everyone starts from the same position
Speaker 2: and you are getting more people than what you may
Speaker 2: get by just reaching out to the person you know
Speaker 2: at your last job or reaching out to your alma mater.
Speaker 2: You are purposefully putting people in the pool that are
Speaker 2: reflective of the population so that you have a chance
Speaker 2: to run across people who are not just one type
Speaker 2: of person. And I think that's very important and it
Speaker 2: requires it requires you to admit and make it okay
Speaker 2: to say I see color or I may have a
Speaker 2: bias against certain names. Like the data is out there,
Speaker 2: we have it, you know, so we need to recognize
Speaker 2: that and train people for it, because I think it's
Speaker 2: irresponsible not to. And anyway, so the third thing, I know,
Speaker 2: I said it'd be quick, but here I am improve
Speaker 2: how we recruit and retain BIPOC talent, retain black talent.
Speaker 2: It's not just about getting them in the door. You
Speaker 2: need to understand they may not feel welcome, they may
Speaker 2: not feel safe, they may not feel confident and raising
Speaker 2: their hand asking for what they need to work. They
Speaker 2: may feel isolated if there's not very much diversity, they
Speaker 2: may be facing microaggressions every day. You need to make
Speaker 2: it a safe place for them. And so I ask
Speaker 2: not just to improve retainment, but let's look at attrition
Speaker 2: rates of black employees. What can we glean from exit interviews?
Speaker 2: Why are they leaving? What do they say? Let's talk
Speaker 2: about that and let's face and commit to making them
Speaker 2: feel more included, you know, And there's small things that
Speaker 2: you can do to do that. Commit to eliminating pay
Speaker 2: disparity for black employees people of color in the company.
Speaker 2: This is a big one, and it can be done,
Speaker 2: and maybe companies are doing it in the background, but
Speaker 2: actually telling, like being transparent about it, telling your employees, hey,
Speaker 2: we have consultants or we have whoever looking at pay
Speaker 2: inequities across our company. That kind of thing matters. And
Speaker 2: I've been at and it's not just the company I'm
Speaker 2: working for now, but when it comes to deciding compensation,
Speaker 2: you have to look at who is in that room,
Speaker 2: who's at the table, and who values what Are there
Speaker 2: people at the table who value things like pay equity
Speaker 2: Because I'm telling you now, I have had to fight, fight, fight, fight,
Speaker 2: fight to get equal pay for people on my team
Speaker 2: over the years, and often I'm the one who cares
Speaker 2: the most and I'm just annoying enough to get it done.
Speaker 2: It shouldn't have to be that way, you know. So
Speaker 2: that's a big one, showing a commitment to the advancement
Speaker 2: of black employees in the company. So this is key
Speaker 2: sometimes and this is not just for black employees, it's
Speaker 2: for every employee. Like you need to level the playing field,
Speaker 2: and one way to do that is to explain how
Speaker 2: the game works. It should not be a mystery because
Speaker 2: you do not have the benefit of having uncle or
Speaker 2: a cousin or a friend from college who had been
Speaker 2: there before you, or know someone who know. If someone
Speaker 2: who knows how it works and can, like you know,
Speaker 2: take you aside and explain you know how negotiation works,
Speaker 2: or how do promotions work, or how do you get
Speaker 2: to the c suite? How do you get to the
Speaker 2: c suite?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 2: How? And why is it a secret? Why should it be?
Speaker 2: I think education and knowledge is the great equalizer, or
Speaker 2: one of them, and you should give that to your
Speaker 2: employees so that the path is clear for everyone. And
Speaker 2: if employers can't answer that question, that is a real
Speaker 2: clear sign to me that there's issues there there. If
Speaker 2: you're not if you're not dictating and able to explain
Speaker 2: to me the career path, then how he or she
Speaker 2: or whoever got to the top. If it doesn't make sense,
Speaker 2: or if it's happening for random reasons, then you're actively
Speaker 2: I think working against underrepresented employees, especially black employees. That's
Speaker 2: just I just can't I can't sit and know that
Speaker 2: as a com company, we're not transparent about that kind
Speaker 2: of thing and telling people. Here's how you do it
Speaker 2: like it just shouldn't be a secret. And the last one,
Speaker 2: and this is one that I encourage people to look
Speaker 2: at because you may not realize this, but many many
Speaker 2: corporations out there have political action committees. Do we know
Speaker 2: what a pack is? No political action committees? So this
Speaker 2: is you know how there's limits on how much you
Speaker 2: can donate to a political candidate you personally, tiffany or
Speaker 2: as a business. So what they do is they set
Speaker 2: up a political not they, but you can set up
Speaker 2: a political action committee and then people can contribute to that.
Speaker 2: And that's how you can have so you have packs
Speaker 2: for all different kinds of ideologies, all different kinds of
Speaker 2: businesses and industries. Like a pack that supports reproductive rights
Speaker 2: is going to raise money and then give it to
Speaker 2: candidates who have policies in line with their beliefs. So
Speaker 2: my company has a pack and it's one of those.
Speaker 2: It's an open secret. Literally you can go to OpenSecrets
Speaker 2: dot org, look up the name of your company and
Speaker 2: find out if they have a pack, and if they
Speaker 2: have a pack, who they're contributing to. And in my
Speaker 2: in the email to our company, our CEO said that
Speaker 2: he supported Black Lives Matter and he wanted to be
Speaker 2: an ally. I'm not quoting him directly, but that was
Speaker 2: the message. I want to be an ally. I'm here
Speaker 2: to help. I believe in this cause, I believe in
Speaker 2: racial equality. I have a lot to learn. Okay. I
Speaker 2: went to OpenSecrets dot org looked at who we contributed
Speaker 2: dollars to, and no, I didn't recognize all their names
Speaker 2: or senators from local races house, you know, legislators from
Speaker 2: all over. So what you can also do, and I
Speaker 2: recommend this, open a new tab and go to the
Speaker 2: NAACP scorecard because they have a beautiful PDF where they
Speaker 2: literally give every senator and every representative in the House
Speaker 2: a grade on how they vote according to NAACP important issues,
Speaker 2: so usually issues of civil rights in racial justice. So
Speaker 2: I could look, and I could and I could compare
Speaker 2: and see the vast majority of Canada's are pack contributed
Speaker 2: to scored an f Wow, you and you talked about
Speaker 2: Tiffany like voting with your dollars. This is literally a
Speaker 2: company voting with its dollars. And corporations often you know,
Speaker 2: big businesses, of course they and we're in the financial sector.
Speaker 2: Of course, you want to support policies and candidates who
Speaker 2: probably have more leniency toward tax structure, corporate tax structure,
Speaker 2: real estate, if you're building a new office or whatever.
Speaker 2: I get that, But if you're going to tell your
Speaker 2: employees that you really and truly care about these issues
Speaker 2: impacting the black community, that does not jive to me.
Speaker 2: That to me is hipocrisy at its highest level. And
Speaker 2: I called that out and I'm not the only one
Speaker 2: at the company. It's just it's one of those things
Speaker 2: that like people have asked about or it's known, but
Speaker 2: I never really had a good answer for it, and
Speaker 2: I'm tired of it now. I'm like, tell me, why
Speaker 2: why do we need to contribute to these campaigns or
Speaker 2: these candidates if they're not in line with the issues
Speaker 2: that you say are important to you.
Speaker 1: Exactly because you vote with your with your dollars. A yes,
Speaker 1: your money is in alignment with what you truly think
Speaker 1: and feel. And so what you're telling us is that
Speaker 1: you say one thing, but you're doing another. So why
Speaker 1: shouldn't I Why should I show up fully for this
Speaker 1: place in space? So one of the things we did
Speaker 1: for because you know, my company is largely I mean
Speaker 1: there's literally one person that's not African American. And I
Speaker 1: know it's honestly, it's been like today, you know, we're
Speaker 1: taking on Monday. So on Monday, you know, I don't
Speaker 1: know if y'all know, but we have our Monday mental
Speaker 1: health check in Mondays and we just honestly, we did
Speaker 1: a lot of venting because all last week because it
Speaker 1: was just so heavy. So last week I basically gave
Speaker 1: the whole company the week off. I was like, yo,
Speaker 1: hung your babies, relaxed, relax. So we rotated like so
Speaker 1: you knew what days that, you know, because we it
Speaker 1: was such a short notice. So we did three days off.
Speaker 1: So you met with your team lead and they organized
Speaker 1: a schedule when you had your three days off, and
Speaker 1: we plan on I want to do a full full
Speaker 1: week where you know, but it's just like I said,
Speaker 1: literally it was like a Thursday, and I was like,
Speaker 1: you know what, next week, let's take three daggs off
Speaker 1: east just to wusan that whole week. And we did.
Speaker 1: So it was so nice to slow down so much.
Speaker 1: So even today we had our calls and stuff. If
Speaker 1: we weren't all backed up like we usually are, we
Speaker 1: didn't have like a ton of things. It's just there's
Speaker 1: just so much going on and it's so heavy, and
Speaker 1: I wanted to honor the fact that you are human
Speaker 1: being and you feel and you're afraid and you're scared,
Speaker 1: and you're frustrated and you're angry and you're mad. We
Speaker 1: talk about it on Slack like, yo, you see this BS,
Speaker 1: like you know you are free to express yourself completely
Speaker 1: and fully, and it's honestly expected. But I get it.
Speaker 1: It's different because it's black folks talking to black folks. It'spending.
Speaker 1: The only one non black person has not said anything,
Speaker 1: which is hilarious. I guess keeps keeping in lights. I
Speaker 1: suppose in more ways than one, which is funny. But whatever,
Speaker 1: But I'm here. You're here, so you know, you'll you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe to be fair, maybe he just
Speaker 1: feels uncomfortable, like it's not my place to say anything,
Speaker 1: but you will listen because we talk about it at
Speaker 1: our team meetings. We talk about it and we will
Speaker 1: continue to talk about it because we serve black women.
Speaker 1: So how dare we not honor the fact that this
Speaker 1: is a community that has long since suffered and something
Speaker 1: needs to be said. One of the things I said
Speaker 1: that someone told me resonated with them when I took
Speaker 1: over Ashland's ig accountants that I said, you know, it
Speaker 1: hit me that, which is also a very ironic word,
Speaker 1: that I and myself and other black African Americans are
Speaker 1: are in an abusive relationship with the with America. That
Speaker 1: because I was wondering to myself, why am I so angry,
Speaker 1: so sad, so frustrated. I mean, this is not the
Speaker 1: first time something like this has happened, but this time
Speaker 1: felt different, and I realized that you we have been
Speaker 1: getting I have been getting hit my whole life by America,
Speaker 1: right so like second grade, third grade, fourth grade, I mean,
Speaker 1: my whole life nine years old. Get out, nigga, when
Speaker 1: I used to work at Balley's at nineteen, like just
Speaker 1: my whole life hit hit and sometimes you duck and
Speaker 1: you dodge, and you you and but you've normalized the
Speaker 1: abuse because it happens so consistently. This happens, so you adjust,
Speaker 1: You say, Okay, in order to not get abused here,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have my white friend Catherine come and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna put away all my black pictures, Okay, in order
Speaker 1: to this. I'm gonna make sure that I go to
Speaker 1: this school and I'm going to make sure that I'm
Speaker 1: not too loud, okay, in order to be like, we
Speaker 1: make these adjustments to minimize the abuse, and we normalize that.
Speaker 1: And what this, what's happened now, is that you couldn't
Speaker 1: It's like someone you are at your doctor's office, sitting
Speaker 1: in the in the examination room with no clothes on,
Speaker 1: and all of your bruises, some of them faded, some
Speaker 1: of them fresh, some of them new. You are fully
Speaker 1: bruised up, and now you're exposed. That's why that's why
Speaker 1: there's such this rage and anger and sadness, This universal
Speaker 1: just I'm over it is because you finally look down
Speaker 1: and you just see just how much abuse you've taken,
Speaker 1: and you realize it's not normal and normal.
Speaker 2: You also feel you remember things that you that you forgot, like, yeah,
Speaker 2: have you had those I've heard from people time and again.
Speaker 2: I thought this was normal. Now when I look at
Speaker 2: it through the lens of what we're going through, now,
Speaker 2: that's not okay. That wasn't okay, But you're right, it
Speaker 2: became so normal and just to get through the day
Speaker 2: just like you would it would protect yourself to get
Speaker 2: through another work week. Just get me to Friday, just
Speaker 2: make it payday. I'll leave these people behind. And it's
Speaker 2: it's sad. It's very No, you're right, it's very very sad.
Speaker 1: Yeah, knowing, like even grown as I am now, it's
Speaker 1: much money to have my bank account. Now, I dare
Speaker 1: not touch something in certain stores if I'm not buying it,
Speaker 1: because it's going to be a problem. Like that's crazy.
Speaker 1: There's something to be said around living around black folks.
Speaker 1: I was considering moving from Nework, and if I do move,
Speaker 1: I'm certainly moving to another black city because I refuse
Speaker 1: because I love going the Whole Foods and the security
Speaker 1: yard is black. He's like, what upsys, I'm like, what up?
Speaker 1: The cashier is black, the stock boy is black. I'm
Speaker 1: not followed. I don't feel any kind of way like
Speaker 1: I honestly, more now than ever, I realized that because
Speaker 1: I grew up in an all white town and I
Speaker 1: understand why my parents brought us there because the school
Speaker 1: system was so great, but I.
Speaker 2: Don't want it.
Speaker 1: It's yeah, it's it just took an emotional toll in
Speaker 1: exchange for that education. It's like it took such an
Speaker 1: emotional toll, and I look at my husband and there
Speaker 1: ain't a way in hell. You know, it's hard enough
Speaker 1: living across the street from the neighbors, right, but ain't
Speaker 1: no way in hell that I'm putting him through, like
Speaker 1: to live in a different neighborhood, putting him through what
Speaker 1: that would look like when when when his nephew comes
Speaker 1: to visit, or when you know, my sister comes to
Speaker 1: visit and like you being followed, the neighbors call the
Speaker 1: police on you and your own house. I'm just not
Speaker 1: with it. And so yeah, it's just that's why allyship
Speaker 1: is so important. That's why you've heard black folks say
Speaker 1: that this is not a problem that we can fix.
Speaker 1: Because I can't fix the fact that someone says my
Speaker 1: house is worth less because I'm black. Someone has to
Speaker 1: step in, someone has to be missed the DAYA.
Speaker 2: And white that it is now they're white. People in
Speaker 2: power are white, and so it's not until they recognize
Speaker 2: the until they recognize the power they have and that
Speaker 2: they have something to contribute and they can make meaningful change,
Speaker 2: which hopefully I hope is happening now. We can't do
Speaker 2: it alone. And that's why it's been so fucking exhausting
Speaker 2: because you feel like you're fighting and banging your fist,
Speaker 2: you know, at the very bottom of the ladder, and.
Speaker 1: It's like one thing. I will say that, like the
Speaker 1: something happened in the comments when I share the story
Speaker 1: about my house, someone was like, I'm a president of
Speaker 1: a of a credit union and I did not know
Speaker 1: of those stats. He said, I am going to when
Speaker 1: I get back, I'm going to talk to my team
Speaker 1: about looking at our appraisal process and what we can
Speaker 1: do to help circumvent that. You know, I could have wept.
Speaker 1: I could have wept with joy because sometimes people don't
Speaker 1: know because it's not happening to you. You're not getting hit,
Speaker 1: so you don't realize other people are getting hit every day.
Speaker 1: And so just hearing that that's Allyship, that's Allyship. I
Speaker 1: hear you, I see you. I'm listening. I act that
Speaker 1: is Allyship.
Speaker 2: And I encourage I mean you, you know, I will
Speaker 2: bring up I know my mom is listening to the
Speaker 2: podcast now, which makes me very like, makes me very
Speaker 2: self conscious because I'm like mom. We talk about raise
Speaker 2: a lot anyway, but we had a very frank discussion
Speaker 2: with as a family this week. My mom is white,
Speaker 2: my sister is white. My little brother and I are
Speaker 2: biracial anyway. But we had like a like a two
Speaker 2: and a half hour conversation, and my mom is really
Speaker 2: going through it. It is like she has she has
Speaker 2: woken up to her own privilege and it's all hitting
Speaker 2: her at once, and we're trying to like, I'm very
Speaker 2: happy for her, but I'm just like, you need to
Speaker 2: just you know, you have a lot to educate yourself on.
Speaker 2: You need to catch up. We are happy for you,
Speaker 2: but you need to do this on your own time.
Speaker 2: And there's a lot of willingness out there, and a
Speaker 2: lot of a lot of willingness for white Americans to
Speaker 2: finally admit that the story that they've been telling themselves,
Speaker 2: a story that the America has told them for so long,
Speaker 2: that you got where you got because you're good, and
Speaker 2: you're better, and you are more educated, and you're smarter,
Speaker 2: and you deserve it and you worked hard. And everyone
Speaker 2: who's not here often Black Americans lazy, always asking for things,
Speaker 2: don't rely on, you know, relying on other people to
Speaker 2: give them what they need. That toxic mentality, and then
Speaker 2: I know a lot of white people. You know, I've
Speaker 2: grew up around them my whole life. I mean, not
Speaker 2: that they're the endangerous pecies obviously their majority, but who
Speaker 2: believed that that toxic mentality? And you really have got
Speaker 2: to It takes work. You have got to actively rewire
Speaker 2: your brain to look at a black family, to look
Speaker 2: at a black girl in the second grade coming to
Speaker 2: your school, and tell your brain, this person has great potential.
Speaker 2: I don't need to make any assumptions about this person
Speaker 2: not being ready for that or you know, being this
Speaker 2: type of person because of the color of their skin.
Speaker 2: And you have to acknowledge. You have got to see it.
Speaker 2: You've got to admit that color changes the way you
Speaker 2: perceive people. Forgive yourself, I guess, for having this toxic mentality,
Speaker 2: and then commit yourself to doing your every day doing
Speaker 2: the work of changing it. It's not going to be
Speaker 2: an overnight change. It's not because it's not all people
Speaker 2: out there with nooses running around in KKK robes that
Speaker 2: is racism. But it is the intrinsic, systemic racism built
Speaker 2: into the fabric of our life every day that truly
Speaker 2: is killing and damaging people. And it's very, very important
Speaker 2: and Yeah. The one thing I do want to say,
Speaker 2: just to wrap up to the credit of the people
Speaker 2: that I work with, is I do have a meeting
Speaker 2: with the CEO next week along with a couple other people,
Speaker 2: and we'll see what happens. But I want that to
Speaker 2: be you know, for those who are listening work for corporation,
Speaker 2: you're thinking about sending a similar email or speaking up
Speaker 2: at a town hall or whatever, there is some hope,
Speaker 2: you know. I'm walking into this meeting with an open mind,
Speaker 2: and I genuinely believe that the people I work with
Speaker 2: are great and the well meaning, and we have so
Speaker 2: much potential, and if it can't happen here, I kind
Speaker 2: of feel like it can't happen anywhere. So I'm I'm
Speaker 2: determined and I still have enough energy to try. But
Speaker 2: I also recognize I'm after this. I can't keep doing that.
Speaker 2: I can't you know, who knows how long I'll stay
Speaker 2: at this company, But I can't go like I can't
Speaker 2: go to another place and have to do this all
Speaker 2: over again. The next job that I choose, where I
Speaker 2: will take my talent, they will have a proven track
Speaker 2: record of serving their black employees, lifting them up, and
Speaker 2: I can't settle for anything less. And I think for
Speaker 2: and not everyone has that position or aren't in that
Speaker 2: position where they can choose. You know, you just take
Speaker 2: the job that you need a paycheck, and lord, you
Speaker 2: know I'm saying I can do that now. But because
Speaker 2: I have a job, hopefully I'm in a position where
Speaker 2: I can choose like that. And I believe when the
Speaker 2: talent starts going to companies that are demonstrating their commitment
Speaker 2: to racial issues and their commitment to inclusive hiring and
Speaker 2: retainment and all those things and pay parody, that's a
Speaker 2: clear message we can send because talent drives revenue, and
Speaker 2: revenue is what talks. And exactly that's all I'm won't
Speaker 2: say about that. Yeah, maybe I shouldn't. Maybe I shouldn't
Speaker 2: end it with the bubba bubba gum. I just I
Speaker 2: know when we talk about corporate refugees, and I just
Speaker 2: feel like for the long term success of Black Americans
Speaker 2: and for not just success to not just get a
Speaker 2: job and get a paycheck, but to thrive to reach
Speaker 2: levels of success that haven't been attainable, we need these
Speaker 2: companies to get it, and we need to get in
Speaker 2: the boardroom now fast. It needs to happen so that
Speaker 2: future generations don't have to work this hard. And just
Speaker 2: because we're in the door does not mean that we've won.
Speaker 2: And there's so much work that companies can do, and
Speaker 2: I I they just have to get it. They just
Speaker 2: have to freaking get it. And I hope this is it.
Speaker 2: I hope this is it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then if they don't, don't be afraid to
Speaker 1: start something. Here's the thing. Small business drives this country.
Speaker 1: You know. Not everyone's going to be you know, Jeff
Speaker 1: Bezos whatever, and that's okay. You might be a small
Speaker 1: business that can hire three employees, but then another small
Speaker 1: business another three. You know, almost fifty percent of all
Speaker 1: employment in the United States it can be attributed to
Speaker 1: small business. So you can make a big difference with
Speaker 1: a small business. So knowing that you can create a
Speaker 1: safe space for people like you, so don't discount that
Speaker 1: as well.
Speaker 2: I feel like the budget Nesta is the Wakanda businesses, right.
Speaker 1: I mean it's not it's not easy, Jazz. It's not easy.
Speaker 2: It's not easy, but it's worth the work and no,
Speaker 2: absolutely at least I think. So all right, well that
Speaker 2: is your heavy, heavy, buzzworthy segment. Let's take a quick
Speaker 2: break and come back with your questions.
Speaker 1: So it's up a question, maybe question like singular, because
Speaker 1: we haven't had a heavy, a long, buzz buzzworthy segment, segment.
Speaker 1: What's you think one question?
Speaker 2: Let's see, well, the first one's kind of a comp
Speaker 2: Let's start off with a compliment. You guys have been
Speaker 2: so nice sending us so so so many questions. I
Speaker 2: feel give a lot of new listeners to because other
Speaker 2: we have I don't know, we've been tagged in more
Speaker 2: podcast listicles than I can name, which is fabulous. Like,
Speaker 2: we'll take all the free publicity you feel guilty talk
Speaker 2: about our podcast, get some points. But thank you to
Speaker 2: any new listeners welcome. Here's a message from an Instagram listener.
Speaker 2: She says, I'm a longtime listener, kudos. While binging some
Speaker 2: of your earlier shows, I came across a show where
Speaker 2: Tiffany told a story of a man who planted a
Speaker 2: farm of pecan trees. I think was it acorn tree, Tiffany, I.
Speaker 1: Think it was palm trees. Keep keep telling the story
Speaker 1: off sem trees.
Speaker 2: Okay, that's a very different type of tree. Okay, Tiffany
Speaker 2: told the story of a man who planted a farm
Speaker 2: of pecan trees. I think, knowing that he would never
Speaker 2: reap the benefits, but instead of trees, palm trees. Okay,
Speaker 2: he did it for his future generations. I have two
Speaker 2: middle school boys, and I think about this story often
Speaker 2: because I wasn't raised this way. I was raised with
Speaker 2: the mindset I got mine, you need to get yours.
Speaker 2: I keep trying to explain this concept to my family,
Speaker 2: but I'm hit with what if the kids don't do
Speaker 2: right by what is left for them? I want to
Speaker 2: play that part of the episode for my family since
Speaker 2: it resonated so close to me. That was really speak
Speaker 2: comment and that is such an important anecdote. So palm
Speaker 2: tree is okay?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I thought, well, because palm oil in Nigeria is
Speaker 1: one of the most it's like they call it liquid
Speaker 1: gold because palm trees take almost like one hundred years
Speaker 1: to reach full maturity before they can before they can
Speaker 1: yield the fruit where you can get the palm oil from.
Speaker 1: They use palm oil to cook. It's a it's a
Speaker 1: it's an oil that it's very popular for cooking in Africa.
Speaker 1: So that's why. So if you plant a palm tree.
Speaker 1: Now you're not going to be able to you're never
Speaker 1: going to see in your lifetime that palm tree yield
Speaker 1: the palm fruit that yields the palm oil. So for
Speaker 1: my uncle to have a farm that was that was,
Speaker 1: you know, hundreds of trees deep. That means his great
Speaker 1: likely great grandfather planted that knowing I am not going
Speaker 1: to reap the rewards, but my grandson or my great grandson,
Speaker 1: or my great great grandson or my great great granddaughter,
Speaker 1: well in Nigeria's grandson unfortunately, but that they will reap
Speaker 1: the rewards. And so yes, we have to think like
Speaker 1: that that I always think, not just when it comes
Speaker 1: to your family. I believe to who much is given,
Speaker 1: much is required, and that in every blessing there is excess,
Speaker 1: meaning that when you have something that comes to you
Speaker 1: your intelligence, your looks, your position, your money, whatever that is,
Speaker 1: it is meant for you to enjoy that blessing like
Speaker 1: ooh yes I'm so cute, yes fabulous, I'm so smart, great,
Speaker 1: I've got money, awesome, But there's excess in that blessing
Speaker 1: that access should be set aside to help others. And
Speaker 1: so I think if you keep that in mind. That's
Speaker 1: how we keep blessings flowing. And the more you do that,
Speaker 1: the more you're given. People always ask all the time,
Speaker 1: like tivity, you know, how did you get here? I
Speaker 1: mean literally ten years ago I was a preschool teacher
Speaker 1: and now I run five businesses, one of the mix
Speaker 1: seven figures a month. That's crazy how And honestly, I
Speaker 1: attribute a lot of that to sticking to that in
Speaker 1: every blessing there's excess. So I'm very mindful of managing
Speaker 1: that X and really trying to navigate living a life
Speaker 1: of service. And I think as you do more mores
Speaker 1: given than you do more and mores given, and you
Speaker 1: do more and mores given. So yes, what do you
Speaker 1: speak to your family? Yeah?
Speaker 2: What do you say to her to what her family
Speaker 2: is saying in terms of like, well, what if the
Speaker 2: kids don't do right by what we leave for them?
Speaker 1: And so one of the things you have to do
Speaker 1: along with, you know, the leaving of the things for
Speaker 1: the kids, is to talk to your children. So my
Speaker 1: father didn't just like leave us with like, you know,
Speaker 1: whatever financial things that he gave us as far as
Speaker 1: like paying for college and things like that, but we
Speaker 1: had regular talks We had family meetings every single week
Speaker 1: where we talked about grades and chores, but we also
Speaker 1: talked about finances and the families finances, so we were
Speaker 1: really those things were ingrained in us. And so you
Speaker 1: can't help how your kids turn out, but you can't
Speaker 1: help what you put in. And so that's all I
Speaker 1: can say is that, like, there's no guarantee for anything.
Speaker 1: You know, we might not even be here here tomorrow.
Speaker 1: There might be a meteor. Remember they said there was
Speaker 1: bees coming this way. We were like, what now?
Speaker 2: How about a killer mistake? Is that the saying I
Speaker 2: didn't google it?
Speaker 1: So with all that said, you know, you do your
Speaker 1: best by pouring into them regularly, and so you know
Speaker 1: good good seeds, beer, good fruit. So I'll just say
Speaker 1: that that there's no way to know for sure, but
Speaker 1: it's still better to pour in than not to.
Speaker 2: That's beautiful and I think it's very very important. This
Speaker 2: is a mentality This is a mentality shift for I mean,
Speaker 2: I'm speaking for my family, my black my black side.
Speaker 2: That sounds stupid, but whatever, my dad's family. There is
Speaker 2: this like there is this this lack of planning for
Speaker 2: the future because you're spending so much of your mental bandwidth,
Speaker 2: trying to get through today, trying to pay this week's
Speaker 2: this week's bills, next week's bills. You know, paycheck to paycheck.
Speaker 2: That's the classic definition of paycheck to paycheck. And we
Speaker 2: need to get to a place where we can think
Speaker 2: long term for our children and and also see the
Speaker 2: value in planting seas now and understanding how you know,
Speaker 2: it's not just it's not just about going and getting
Speaker 2: your minimum wage or getting your part time job or
Speaker 2: whatever and earning your hourly wage. We have to educate people,
Speaker 2: especially Black Americans, and it's your family. Educate your family.
Speaker 2: If you know something about building wealth, how to invest,
Speaker 2: the importance of not trying to say home ownership is
Speaker 2: the best way to build wealth, but it is certainly
Speaker 2: an important way and a huge way to build wealth,
Speaker 2: generational wealth in this country. Life insurance, even we talked
Speaker 2: about life insurance and how that is not just about
Speaker 2: I mean that literally is ensuring that your heirs are
Speaker 2: taken care of, your children. Whoever you have doesn't have
Speaker 2: to be your child. It can be a charity, it
Speaker 2: can be a God's god daughter, a god son. It
Speaker 2: can be you know, a friend, whoever you want to
Speaker 2: leave your you know, make your beneficiary. But these are
Speaker 2: really I mean, this is how we chip away, chip
Speaker 2: away at not just income inequality, but general rational wealth inequality.
Speaker 2: And I think about that all the time, Like what
Speaker 2: am I building? Do I have enough to to reach
Speaker 2: beyond just you know, my my son, Like could I
Speaker 2: create something that my family, my children's children's children's children's
Speaker 2: could benefit from. I mean, that would be a beautiful thing.
Speaker 2: It's just a it's a big leap for especially if
Speaker 2: you come up in a family where just getting through
Speaker 2: today is an act of you know, is you consider
Speaker 2: that to be a blessing? We need to just aim higher.
Speaker 1: Yes, just remind him, like Dame Dad you know Dame Dash. Well,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you don't, because you know Mandy
Speaker 1: sometimes you'd be surprised me. You don't know no millennial things.
Speaker 1: So Dame Dash was the manager of jay Z. Do
Speaker 1: you know? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Is he the yes? Uh huh. I'm just gonna say
Speaker 2: yes before I say anything else. Makes me sound stupid, now.
Speaker 1: No, So Dame Dash manager of jay Z. He was.
Speaker 1: He's kind of like the wild boy of hip hop. Anyway.
Speaker 1: He he was on a podcast and he said, I
Speaker 1: wish these young men. He didn't say young men, but
Speaker 1: that's what I'm gonna say. I wish these young men
Speaker 1: and just really young people out here understood the purpose
Speaker 1: of work. The purpose of work is to own, it
Speaker 1: was so eloquently said, because we forget you're not just
Speaker 1: supposed to be working for work's sake. Ownership equals wealth.
Speaker 1: You are supposed to work, Yeah yeah, pay your belt,
Speaker 1: that's cool. Yeah yeah, go out and have fun, that's cool.
Speaker 1: But you were supposed to work to set aside money
Speaker 1: so you can save. And then you save so you
Speaker 1: can own. Whether it's it's real estate, whether it's it's bonds,
Speaker 1: whether it's stocks, whether it's businesses, whether it's it's rights
Speaker 1: to a book or rights to your music. The purpose
Speaker 1: of work is to own. If you are not working
Speaker 1: toward ownership, you will always work because eventually the things
Speaker 1: that you own, this is the goal. You want to
Speaker 1: put them to work for you so they can replace
Speaker 1: you working. So you work to own. You might own
Speaker 1: ten properties and all of a sudden, the rent from
Speaker 1: those properties can replace your income, and you can you
Speaker 1: can continue to work at your regular job or not,
Speaker 1: or you work work, work, you start a business, all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, the business can replace the income from
Speaker 1: from your from your regular job. So just reminding yourself
Speaker 1: that that the purpose of work is to own, so
Speaker 1: the things that you own can put you out of work.
Speaker 2: I love that. That's a way more eloquent way of
Speaker 2: saying it than my Olshpiel girls stock.
Speaker 1: I started from Dame Dash, girl, I stowed it up
Speaker 1: from Dame.
Speaker 2: Dash, same dash. But that's what I was saying. Well,
Speaker 2: thank you for your comment. It was sort of a
Speaker 2: comments last question, but it's a really meaningful anecdote, especially
Speaker 2: in light of what's happening today. We've got to be
Speaker 2: helping teach generational wealth to to our families and the
Speaker 2: importance of that. I'm going to inherit my dad's sock drawer,
Speaker 2: and who knows what I'm going to find in there,
Speaker 2: a lot of world quarters, I imagine, bless his heart. Okay,
Speaker 2: he's a lost generation. All right, Okay, cool, Well, thank
Speaker 2: you for your questions again. Hit us up on Instagram
Speaker 2: if you go to brand ambishenpodcat ask fund us in
Speaker 2: the gram where you can email us at Brandon Mission
Speaker 2: Podcast at gmail dot com.
Speaker 1: Fuck em so now It's time to boost a break
Speaker 1: for the ba Family new tune. Are you gonna boost?
Speaker 1: Are you gonna break? What you're gonna do? Mandy Well,
Speaker 1: I was flat at the end, but what else?
Speaker 2: I think you might still owe a cut to Mickey
Speaker 2: Bounce like it's a little close. They're gonna have to
Speaker 2: settle that in court we didn't do. I'm gonna do
Speaker 2: a boost. I'm gonna do a boost. So I feel,
Speaker 2: I mean, I feel like it's just I feel. I
Speaker 2: don't know, I feel some type of way about this,
Speaker 2: But I never knew that my alma mater hads And
Speaker 2: I don't know why. I mean, I guess you're just
Speaker 2: living in Georgia growing up. You just have to you
Speaker 2: just have to, you know, not look at things too deeply,
Speaker 2: just to get through the damn day because there is
Speaker 2: so much intrinsing racism and in that state. Bless bless
Speaker 2: their hearts and all of their hearts. But anyway, I
Speaker 2: went to the University of Georgia, and there are Hella
Speaker 2: buildings on that campus that are named for people who
Speaker 2: own slaves, who are white supremacists, etc. My journalism school,
Speaker 2: I found out not too long ago thanks to some
Speaker 2: high school students in Atlanta who started their own petition
Speaker 2: to get their high school renamed because it was named
Speaker 2: for the same man that my journalism school was named.
Speaker 2: So I have to give the youth credit. They inspired
Speaker 2: someone on my campus to speak out about the name
Speaker 2: of our journalism school, and I have hopped right onto that. Well,
Speaker 2: I was dragged onto the bandwagon. But I'm on this
Speaker 2: task force now that we were working very hard to
Speaker 2: get the attention of the board of regents in our
Speaker 2: state to get this college renamed at a minimum, this college,
Speaker 2: and not just drop the name of the school and
Speaker 2: just call it the School of Journalism, but to in
Speaker 2: place of the name that we have now, which is
Speaker 2: it's the school's name for Henry W. Grady, who was
Speaker 2: a white supremacist but a famous He had a famous
Speaker 2: newspaper called the Atlantic Constitution, which today is the Atlanta
Speaker 2: Journal Constitution. But he was a big deal. I see
Speaker 2: why his contributions to journalism were recognized by naming him
Speaker 2: for this building. However, he wanted to oppress the black
Speaker 2: race and talked about, of course, how white Americans were superior,
Speaker 2: and gave speeches on this, and I mean in twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: Do we really want to have a school in themed
Speaker 2: after him? I sure don't want to. I'm embarrassed. I'm
Speaker 2: embarrassed that I didn't know this sooner. So we've got
Speaker 2: a petition, change dot org and I always want to
Speaker 2: boost the task force putting the putting the petition together,
Speaker 2: and our next steps are to rally if we need to.
Speaker 2: I'm hoping we don't need to. I'm hoping that people
Speaker 2: help us make enough noise on social media that the
Speaker 2: pressure is boiling, and that the university and the border
Speaker 2: regions will just give us what we want and rename
Speaker 2: the school, because why just do it? It's easy, it's simple.
Speaker 2: It's a show of support and solidarity. But we are
Speaker 2: working very hard, and I'm going to post the link
Speaker 2: in our show notes. It's changed dot org slash rename Grady.
Speaker 2: You don't have to have gone to my school. I
Speaker 2: know y'all probably never heard of it, but please go
Speaker 2: and sign the petition because we're trying to get to
Speaker 2: at least ten thousand signatures this week. I don't I
Speaker 2: think we're at eight thousand already. We're catching up, and
Speaker 2: I'm going to be tweeting and sharing on Instagram and
Speaker 2: if y'all can retweet, if you can share my Insta
Speaker 2: tag people that you may know in George or anybody,
Speaker 2: so that we can get more momentum behind this movement.
Speaker 2: I really I feel this is a small contribution that
Speaker 2: I can make, and it's a small It's sort of
Speaker 2: like I talked about us making an impact in our
Speaker 2: communities and our families, and this journalism school is my family.
Speaker 2: I mean, I've treated them like my family for so long,
Speaker 2: and I think it's time for us to have a
Speaker 2: talk y'all, like a little family meeting about the name
Speaker 2: of our college and get it right. But we can't
Speaker 2: do it without y'all support. I am really it's trouble.
Speaker 2: And you know what I talked about, like we kind
Speaker 2: of forget the microaggressions that we've encountered over the years,
Speaker 2: and it's it's bringing me back to all the things
Speaker 2: that happened to me while I was at UGA and
Speaker 2: talking to my brother about his experience there and how
Speaker 2: sort of like how it just resentful he is about
Speaker 2: his experience. In some ways, there is a lot of
Speaker 2: systemic racism in Georgia and even at the university that
Speaker 2: I come from that I that I was educated by,
Speaker 2: and we have unfortunately, we have to break through to
Speaker 2: again the people in power to get them to make
Speaker 2: this change. So help me be the squeaky wheel. Help
Speaker 2: us get it out there. Check out my insta, check
Speaker 2: out on Twitter Mandy wood Druff or my Instagram is
Speaker 2: at Mandy money and I can really I oh, thank
Speaker 2: you Mandy with an eye. Hope my aunt is listening.
Speaker 2: It's with an eye yeah, and thank y'all in advance.
Speaker 2: And I will continue to have my son provide free
Speaker 2: advertising for our cause.
Speaker 1: And he is so doorable. I was like, look at
Speaker 1: him in his summer gear. Yes, oh you saw it? Cool?
Speaker 2: He gets way more likes than anything else I post.
Speaker 1: So well, yeah, yeah, babies always do because he's adorable. Yeah,
Speaker 1: those curls.
Speaker 2: It's a trick.
Speaker 1: So I am going to booz. So I had a
Speaker 1: really good like leadership lesson. Usually we've been like in business,
Speaker 1: there's always you can always do better. So we've just
Speaker 1: been struggling with like kind of like new direction and
Speaker 1: how fast to grow and what ways to grow and
Speaker 1: just like how much to spend, how little to spend. Anyway,
Speaker 1: it's not been easy. It has not been easy. So
Speaker 1: as we struggled with I mean, I tried all the
Speaker 1: tools that I knew. How So finally I reached out
Speaker 1: to a friend and she said, hey, you know, one
Speaker 1: of our other mutual friends just brought on a business coach,
Speaker 1: like a high level business coach. And I was like, huh.
Speaker 1: So I called our mutual friend and she was like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, he's amazing, this business coach. It's not
Speaker 1: just Sam. He's got a whole team. He's not cheap. Girl.
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, So my business partner and I
Speaker 1: met with the coach. He was more amazing, and honestly
Speaker 1: I anticipated. We had two kind of preliminary calls that
Speaker 1: were like an hour and some change each and those
Speaker 1: were transformative. And so you know, his price was natty.
Speaker 1: Let's just say you could get two really nice expensive
Speaker 1: cars for what he costs for two months. And well,
Speaker 1: I'll just say it's seventy thousand dollars for two months,
Speaker 1: because you know me and my numbers don't.
Speaker 2: Well, if you run a business, it's not like Tiffany
Speaker 2: is paying. Oh you're your pocket, right, I mean, you
Speaker 2: can rune that all for whatever Your phone seven biggures
Speaker 2: you make money. We heard you tell us.
Speaker 1: So, but still that's a lot of money, you know,
Speaker 1: and you know, but I'll say this, We've tried everything,
Speaker 1: and so we had our first meeting on Friday and
Speaker 1: it was my business partner, I and his team and
Speaker 1: it was so great. What I really love is that
Speaker 1: he's equal parts the soft skills and equal parts like
Speaker 1: the hard thing. So he's got like a financial expert
Speaker 1: on his team that's going through our books. He's got
Speaker 1: a marketing digital marketing expert that's going to be going
Speaker 1: through all of our campaigns and our spending. He also
Speaker 1: has hr expert to make sure everyone on the team
Speaker 1: is like it's working in their genius zone, is actually happy.
Speaker 1: You know that he's working with myself and my business partner.
Speaker 1: We're meeting with him weekly individually and joint and really
Speaker 1: just working on are we working in spaces that bring
Speaker 1: us energy and what we can do to shift to
Speaker 1: make sure we're all working happily. It is so amazing.
Speaker 1: The it's just so amazing. And when I tell you already,
Speaker 1: he already said that you'll make your money back, honestly, honestly,
Speaker 1: with some of the changes we'll make that money back
Speaker 1: in like two or three days. Hands down, just a
Speaker 1: few tweaks. I'm like, in two or three days, we'll
Speaker 1: see that money back. So it was worth its weight
Speaker 1: in gold. So I just share that because in all things,
Speaker 1: you might find yourself stuck, and you might find that
Speaker 1: you've done all that you know how to do, and
Speaker 1: so there is no harm or shame in asking for help,
Speaker 1: big or small, because sometimes that is the thing. Because
Speaker 1: I kept telling myself, how do I not know how
Speaker 1: to fix it? And I'm like, well no, I finally
Speaker 1: realize that what I was supposed to do is ask
Speaker 1: for help. It was not meant for me to fix it.
Speaker 1: Was meant for me to find an outside tool to
Speaker 1: come in to help fix this issue. So yeah, honestly,
Speaker 1: I'm super excited. My business partner is super excited, the
Speaker 1: team is excited, and it just, yeah, I'm proud of
Speaker 1: myself for like reaching out and asking for help and like,
Speaker 1: you know, paying for help because sometimes, you know, especially
Speaker 1: as a new entrepreneur, you don't have any money, so
Speaker 1: everything seems like a scam. But as you start to
Speaker 1: lean into business a little more, you grow to understand
Speaker 1: that some things cost nothing and they're amazing. Some things
Speaker 1: cost a little and they're amazing, and some thing's called
Speaker 1: a hell of a lot of money and they're amazing.
Speaker 1: And being able to vet the difference, like I said,
Speaker 1: worth its weight and goal, we will make that money
Speaker 1: back in two or three days max. So yeah, so
Speaker 1: just like boosting, like my business coach, his name is Zion,
Speaker 1: and we did this last week. I talked about a
Speaker 1: Instagram Maybe I'll make this like a thing, an Instagram
Speaker 1: account that I think we could all use for some musa.
Speaker 1: So I told you guys about wordy dot talk on IG.
Speaker 1: This time, I think I want you guys to follow
Speaker 1: Tony Baker comedy. Huh freaking larious if you need a
Speaker 1: reprieve from all that is happening. He is hilarious. Yes,
Speaker 1: he is a black comedian and he I just he's hilarious.
Speaker 1: So he needs yourself a giggle. Now he does post others.
Speaker 1: You know, he's very socially conscious, so you're gonna see
Speaker 1: some black lives matter. But in betwixt in between, you
Speaker 1: were going to get your GIGGLEA on Tony Baker Comedy
Speaker 1: on IG.
Speaker 2: Oh well, I want to respond to your first point,
Speaker 2: but you just made another one. Go ahead, go ahead,
Speaker 2: And I love that you're doing business coaching. And I
Speaker 2: feel like if I were an employee at the Budgetista,
Speaker 2: I would be so excited and so motivated because I mean,
Speaker 2: I feel like the way that you're feeling trickles down
Speaker 2: to your employees. And if you're feeling like, you know,
Speaker 2: you're you're stymied or whatever, you're not happy with certain things,
Speaker 2: they're probably feeling that too, and it's nice to know
Speaker 2: that they were. I would say, if I were you,
Speaker 2: look at Tiffany. She is she is humble enough to
Speaker 2: admit when she needs help, and she also is not
Speaker 2: just doing this for herself, but it's also for the company.
Speaker 2: And yeah, absolutely, I mean this is you wouldn't do
Speaker 2: open heart surgery on your own body, right, And I think,
Speaker 2: I mean, this just sounds like a really smart business decision,
Speaker 2: and it's also something that I think a lot of
Speaker 2: companies can be doing. This is why consultants are important.
Speaker 2: I know that everyone thinks of consultants like, oh, it's
Speaker 2: a scam, but genuinely having a fresh pair of eyes
Speaker 2: on the way you've been doing her every day is
Speaker 2: so I mean, I had. One of one of my
Speaker 2: favorite professional relationships was a former content director from a
Speaker 2: company that we acquired who was kept on as a
Speaker 2: consultant and she literally just became my coach for six months.
Speaker 2: And just having someone else to talk to at your
Speaker 2: level who's not someone that reports to you or something
Speaker 2: like that, or there's you know, or a friend in
Speaker 2: your company that you know, it's just it's going to
Speaker 2: be I'm excited, and I'm also excited for you to
Speaker 2: share the advice that you get from this person so
Speaker 2: we can get it full free at friend.
Speaker 1: Ambitions and I certainly will. Yes, absolutely, I would say
Speaker 1: first things first, just one of the things that helped
Speaker 1: me is identify. He asked us to identify the things
Speaker 1: that you do that give you energy, like you know
Speaker 1: for the business, and the things that you do that
Speaker 1: take away energy. That was for me that was life changing.
Speaker 1: I was like, huh, what are the parts that I
Speaker 1: really like? And I didn't And it made me realize
Speaker 1: that I'm gonna make a huge shift in change already.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna let the team know before I let y'all know,
Speaker 1: so because you know, be listening like what like ooh,
Speaker 1: tea girl, I will do it at team meeting. But
Speaker 1: so she's like Jotna Lie is on our team. She
Speaker 1: works for, works for, works with us. So yeah, it
Speaker 1: made me realize, huh wow, when I started to really
Speaker 1: think about the things that gave me energy and the
Speaker 1: things that took away energy, and it made me realize
Speaker 1: that I need to be in a different position. So
Speaker 1: that's something I'll leave you with that. That was a huge, huge,
Speaker 1: So so yeah, that was awesome.
Speaker 2: And I love that his name is Zion. I know
Speaker 2: that sounds biblical and powerful.
Speaker 1: I know, because that doesn't Zion I mean like Paradise
Speaker 1: or like the Promised Land donuts.
Speaker 2: I don't really not really religious, but it sounds and.
Speaker 1: Like Rastafarian religion. That's what That's what I remember. Mourn Hill,
Speaker 1: she had that song and the joy of my world
Speaker 1: is in Zion. Her son. She named her son Zion.
Speaker 2: It's like a lot of hospitals are named Mount Zion.
Speaker 2: I feel like it's like I say, it's powerful.
Speaker 1: It is powerful.
Speaker 2: So yeah, Zion is coming to the Budgeonesea wawanda wakanda, yes,
Speaker 2: oof okay ooof well all right, well I'm again grateful
Speaker 2: for this hour that I get to spend with you
Speaker 2: every week hour and a half because you know we
Speaker 2: we uh chit chat before the show. But yeah, thank you,
Speaker 2: and thank you for continuing to share your stories. Tiff. No,
Speaker 2: you have been doing it for so long, and I
Speaker 2: feel like I have been working for so long and
Speaker 2: you feel like you're working. Uh well, it's like people
Speaker 2: recognizing your value is never too late, I feel like,
Speaker 2: and even though it seems like people may be recognizing
Speaker 2: the value now because it's trendy or it's mainstream now
Speaker 2: or whatever, and oh, we need to align ourselves with
Speaker 2: people like the budget Neista, or hey, we want to
Speaker 2: promote people like Bandy. I mean, I'm gonna take that promotion.
Speaker 2: That's okay, because we want to elevate women like take
Speaker 2: it whatever, like they're here, they're wanting to give, ask
Speaker 2: and take it. And don't feel guilty about that because
Speaker 2: ultimately that is the goal, right for each other and
Speaker 2: everyone to be lifted up and amplified. And I hope
Speaker 2: this continues. And one last thing I will say to
Speaker 2: your point about the comedian that you mentioned, I love
Speaker 2: that he addresses black lives matter but then also makes
Speaker 2: you laugh. We have got to laugh yes, we do.
Speaker 2: We have got to what do you say, wusaw? We
Speaker 2: have got to woo saw. You have to woo saw
Speaker 2: and then get back at it. I made a rule
Speaker 2: for myself that if the group chat goes a day
Speaker 2: or two without mentioning anything happening with BLM, I'll bring
Speaker 2: it back, just because I don't want people to forget
Speaker 2: and I don't want people to get too comfortable with uh,
Speaker 2: you know, ignoring it again, because that is very important.
Speaker 2: But I also you have to allow yourself some levity.
Speaker 1: And yes, there is so much joy to be had.
Speaker 2: There is, there is, there's a lot of ship. There
Speaker 2: always has been a lot of shit. We will get
Speaker 2: through this, we always do. But you've got to give
Speaker 2: yourself some grace, have a have a giggle. I hope this,
Speaker 2: I hope this show is a little bit of a
Speaker 2: reprieve for you. Yeah, keep it, just keep trying, just try,
Speaker 2: just try, and keep saying we're all doing our very best.
Speaker 1: Hmm.
Speaker 2: I'm done now.
Speaker 1: Ask for you.
Speaker 2: Love you girl, Oh, I love you too.
Speaker 1: Virtual hugs you already know someone to me the other
Speaker 1: day and she was like, so, I know you don't
Speaker 1: like huggs, but I'm saying you want anyway. If you're
Speaker 1: O G listener, you know I'm not really a huggy person,
Speaker 1: but Mandy insists upon it. I'm like, okay, girl.
Speaker 2: I can't wait to actually well, I feel like we've
Speaker 2: been socially distanced for a few years now from each other.
Speaker 2: I know, want To't we ever going to see each
Speaker 2: other again?
Speaker 1: Oh my god, we will, We will see you.
Speaker 2: Gotta meet my baby.
Speaker 1: He would, I know.