Speaker 1: I would consider you. I'm you are a d e
Speaker 1: expert and if you would call yourself that, but you're
Speaker 1: somebody who speaks on d e I and you know
Speaker 1: are paid to speak on d e I. Uh. What
Speaker 1: is interesting about the current conversation about d e I
Speaker 1: that we're having, particularly at the corporate level. Let's start there.
Speaker 1: Like some companies believe if they put some money into
Speaker 1: some inner city, you know, youth programs, then they're being
Speaker 1: diverse and you know they're they're doing their job. Other
Speaker 1: other companies believe if they hired black d e I officer,
Speaker 1: they're doing their job. Um, what is interesting about this
Speaker 1: conversation to you? And how do we know if we're
Speaker 1: doing right as corporate executives? Yeah, I would say spicily. Um,
Speaker 1: most of the the conversation interests may be because it's a
Speaker 1: lot of window addressing. UM. Which is not to say
Speaker 1: that investing in a playground in um community is not
Speaker 1: a great thing, that's fantastic for the community. That is
Speaker 1: not a sufficient d e I response for any corporation
Speaker 1: of any significant size. It's the initial drop in the bucket.
Speaker 1: For example. The reason I say that is the question
Speaker 1: I always ask people. And this is particularly after George
Speaker 1: Floyd and everybody's getting involved with you know, d I
Speaker 1: trying to figure out racial injustice and and and what supremacy, etcetera.
Speaker 1: The question I would ask what people would come to
Speaker 1: me and say, hey, what do I love your help?
Speaker 1: I said, well, what are you trying to do it for?
Speaker 1: How does this connect with your business model? This is
Speaker 1: a question you started with and then there's like often
Speaker 1: a silence. I said, yeah, you need to figure out
Speaker 1: whether how it's connected to your business model. So that's
Speaker 1: the first thing is is it connecting your business model?
Speaker 1: And many people don't have that. Those that do start
Speaker 1: to start to make progress in ways that others do not. Um.
Speaker 1: I think the other thing that's interesting me about the
Speaker 1: conversation at the moment is the impact of remote work
Speaker 1: and how the market changes if you are now not
Speaker 1: just located in particular place, but actually can remote and
Speaker 1: expansively across the country. We've been promote since first since
Speaker 1: two thousand twelve. We wanted to have a diverse company.
Speaker 1: We're like, well, there isn't a full diversity here in
Speaker 1: the Bay Area, and those who are here are going
Speaker 1: to be heavily competed with um for talent and we
Speaker 1: have oh, by the way, we have Google and Facebook
Speaker 1: who can PLoP a bonus um larger than someone's annual
Speaker 1: sale at our company. So we went to rest of
Speaker 1: the country and we have people in three states, and
Speaker 1: we have black folks all over, and Hispanic or Latina,
Speaker 1: Latino x Um and Mina and and and but the
Speaker 1: located where they and so that gets much more sustainable
Speaker 1: from Mark perspective. Now we have to go to the
Speaker 1: next level because other people have discovered it as well,
Speaker 1: so we have to figure out the next thing. But
Speaker 1: we developed this networks of community. I think they're going
Speaker 1: to be sustainable in the long run. It's black tech,
Speaker 1: green money. Share this podcast with the people you're closest to.