View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, the podcast where thoughtful leadership meets meaningful impact.

This week we’re honored to be joined by Jenn Tardy for a powerful discussion.

🎧 Grab your headphones, hit play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS JENN:

• The money that goes into a persons pocket is the money that goes into their home and feeds their home and their community.
• Money gives you access to people, places and things… whether you like it or not.
• There is so much conditioning with being Black and marginalized, being a woman and being marginalized, even today, there are still places that she can feel discouraged and realizes its conditioning.
• There are things you can have access to simply by the way you identify. It shapes how you view the world.
• If we can own we have a unique lived intelligence and employers can recognize the lived experience, imagine the innovation that can now happen.
• It’s not just your lived experience, it’s your lived experience intelligence. If you’re hiring someone people on how they identify, it’s as if you’re placing a period at the end of a sentence that needs a comma… this is not the “IT” factor, there is an intelligence from your lived experience.
• Oppression brings a unique skill set to innovation.
• If you’ve grown and been conditioned to constantly fight your way to success, then that intelligence is coming with you.
• Gravity has always been there, someone just identified it and named it. All I’m doing, is saying, the intelligence has always been there, but if we can’t name it, we can’t add value to it.
• Who’s nurturing you?
• I don’t care that we change the name, I just care that the work continues.
• When seasons change, it forces the pendulum to swing back to the other side.
• If history was written by the victors, the future is here for the visionaries. We can create what we want to see in the future!

🟣 CONNECT WITH JENN:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifertardy

Website: https://www.jennifertardy.com

Jenn's Book: https://www.jennifertardy.com/the-equity-edge

Lived Experience Intelligence: https://www.livedexperienceintelligence.com

🟣 CONNECT WITH NWC:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/

NWC Website: https://nikawhite.com

🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤

Looking for a speaker for your next keynote, workshop, continuing education or panel, Dr. Nika White is actively booking for Q4 and Q1 2026 events now!

CLICK HERE TO GET THE CONVERSATION STARTED: https://www.nikawhitespeaks.com/

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations!

This week we were honored to be joined by Shayla Atkins for a powerful discussion on authenticity and what that really means, future-proofing for leaders, how to practically do that and why we all need more S.P.I.C.E.

🎧 Grab your headphones, hit play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM SHAYLA:

• The future-ready leader and work is NOW. It is what we’re living in today.
• They’re changing the approach of soft skills to no longer soft, they’re necessary, but really elevating soft skills and a human centered approach.
• There is a myth with authenticity, it’s not how real you can be, it’s about being in alignment with your values and how you show up.
• Telling our brains that our natural selves are not enough and that makes a trauma response every time, that activates your fight / flight response.
• We have to know how to lead self before leading others.
• You'll get compliant teams, but not committed teams.
• Understanding resilience, but it isn’t resistance, these 2 are conflated. It is taking the time to sit and plan, be strategic and proactive and the 1st thing is taking a Stress Inventory.
• Stress inventory - what is activating stress? What is a high fatigue period? Is it cyclical in nature? Put proactive strategies in place, you can do it with yourself, your team, your organization.
• We aren’t going to power through until the rubber band pops, we’re going to stretch, power down, cool down, recover.
• On your teams, are you planning and anticipating change and disruption?
• WHAT IS S.P.I.C.E.? It’s a ROAD Map and a guide to ascension that is aligned and strategic in nature.
• S - Savvy (Black women are most educated women on the planet. We are not able to translate our biz education to biz outcomes.)
• P - Performance
• I - Image / Your authentic brand
• C - Communication
• E - Exposure
• Data should drive and inform strategies and leadership, often it is missing, even the maturation of the data. We get qualitative data daily... when you blend the quantitative / qualitative - that is what gives you the human approach.
• Level setting on perspective, we understand long term sustainability over short term gains.
• "If you cannot be who you are, where you are, change where you are, not who you are." Carolyn Wanger - Former CEO of Essence

🟣 CONNECT WITH SHAYLA:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shayla-n-atkins

Website: www.theatkinsimpact.com

Book: Women Redefining Leadership With S.P.I.C.E.

Book: Black Women Lead With S.P.I.C.E.: Effective And Authentic Leadership Without Sacrificing Your Identity

🟣 CONNECT WITH NWC:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/

NWC Website: https://nikawhite.com

🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤

Looking for a speaker for your next keynote, workshop, continuing education or panel, Dr. Nika White is actively booking for Q4 and Q1 2026 events now!

CLICK HERE TO GET THE CONVERSATION STARTED: https://www.nikawhitespeaks.com/

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations — the podcast where thoughtful leadership meets meaningful impact.

In this episode, we sit down with Charlotte Otter, author and reputation management expert, to explore what reputation truly means, why the world is calling for new leaders, and the essential qualities those leaders need today.

🎧 Tune in for a conversation that blends insight, challenge, and inspiration.

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM CHARLOTTE:

• Storytelling reminds us how human we are.
• It is so important in this AI age to privilege this human connection and emotion.
• Vulnerability - stories show our human side and how vulnerable we are.
• Leaders think they need to be seen as the most powerful person in the room, but it’s when they crack and show a little bit of vulnerability, they are so much more likely to create the fans they need to change their ogranizations.
• If your words and your actions don’t match, that is a credibility gap.
• No leader ever gets up and says everything is gonna stay the same, all communication is about change.
• Leaders have gone through obstacles, obstacles teach empathy and that makes them amazing leaders.
• Trust is reputation’s closet sibling - so it’s very important!
• Important for people to say their values out loud, tell the stories that match their values
• The best way to counteract bias is a stellar record of success.
• By living your reputation out loud as a leader, your creating a bridge for the next generation to cross.
• Leaders who are single loop learners, leaders who are double loop learners, fix the problem, but they ask what was it in my behavior that caused this problem and what can I do in my future to not do it again! The single loop leader never wants the feedback. But the double loop leader wants to know more.
• If you’re leading change, spend a LOT less tie talking and a lot more time listening.
• The hierarchy breaks when you have that expoenentional amount of pressure… to future proof themselves in a culture of high autonomy and high freedom. Single loop learning leaders don’t like this, but it is the only way that managers will be able to cope with the pressures on them.
• AI is super useful for 1st drafts, don’t rely on it for the final copy.
• It will always be incumbent on humans to tell human stories. Leaders who understand this and know their stories, these are the leaders and brands that survive.
• To be a good communicator, you have to understand what you’re communicating.
• We privilege confidence over competence.
• The key to breaking the LOUDNESS is authenticity! Being prepared to be vulnerable, being prepared to show everything isn’t perfect, being prepared for feedback. Knowing who you are as a leader is the prototype to breaking the archetype of a noisy, loud leader.
• A new leader is someone who knows their values, tells stories, who’s behavior matches their stories and values, and has strong communities. It is not enough to talk about yourself, you need others to confirm your reputation.
• Writing is a way to figure out what she thinks. But it takes the writing down of ideas to work out what they think. And it’s a place of flow and joy.
• Think about your reputation as vitamins, not aspirin. Your reputation protects your immune system and it’s a way to help you succeed.

🟣 CONNECT WITH CHARLOTTE:

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/charlotteeliseotter

Website: www.charlotteotter.com

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/charlotter1968

Newsletter: https://otterc.substack.com/

🟣 CONNECT WITH NWC:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/

NWC Website: https://nikawhite.com

Looking for a speaker for your next keynote, workshop, continuing education or panel, Dr. Nika White is actively booking for Q4 and Q1 2026 events now!

CLICK HERE TO GET THE CONVERSATION STARTED: https://www.nikawhitespeaks.com/

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, the podcast where thoughtful leadership meets meaningful impact.

This week we’re honored to be joined by Lisa Hurley for a powerful discussion.

🎧 Grab your headphones, hit play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• I’m an introvert, so I’m not protesting in the streets but I still want to contribute to the movement, so how can I use my talents to help the movement?
• I grew up in Barbados, and my upbringing was soft. I was driven to school, and it was safe, no bullying. The island closed down at noon to 1p, and the entire island would rest. This informs how I show up in my life.
• Soft centered serine life: Life work balance vs. Work life balance. Life has to come first. Include a strong sense of self and a group of people to support you.
• It can’t be work life balance, what if you lose your job. Then what? This can’t be the center. You have to be the center. Your wants, needs, health, happy, must be centered for you and then there’s everything else.
• When I think of balance everything isn’t always 50/50... sometimes it’s 70/30.
• I love to speak with people who are thinkers because they make you think more.
• I love words. I had to delete 30,000 words from my book. I called my dad and sister for advice. They said to eliminate the breathing exercises and meditation prompts, but I couldn’t... that’s my book! I edited another way.
• Anyone that’s stressed, sometimes you need someone to say I understand, here’s something that you can do. We’re not use to people offering help. This is what this book (Space to Exhale) is for. Let me help uplift you.
• I have difficulty prioritizing, I call someone to help me prioritize (do the least and get the most benefit from).
• The work is always going to be there, but the people and moments are gone. You can’t get them back.
• I have a Budda sitting under the tree as inspiration. That is not me... I have some wisdom, but I am not perfect.

🟣 CONNECT WITH LISA:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iamlisahurley

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelisahurley

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thelisahurley

Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thelisahurley

Book: www.spacetoexhalebook.com

🟣 CONNECT WITH DR. WHITE:

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/nikawhiteconsulting

Facebook: https://facebook.com/nikawhiteconsulting

Instagram: https://instagram.com/nikawhiteconsulting

Website: https://nikawhite.com

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, the podcast where thoughtful leadership meets meaningful impact.

This week we’re honored to be joined by Gisele Marcus for a powerful discussion on networking!

🎧 Grab your headphones, hit play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Make sure you’re visible to people when you’re away.
• Always hear, “Keep your head down, do your job and by doing those things you’ll get promotion”, but the networking piece is what was missing.
• There is a special art to networking… lots of times people say networking and it’s not really networking.
• The term “networking” has gotten a bad rap. It’s really about building a 2-way, authentic relationship.
• It has a negative connotation when people are doing it in an inauthentic way. When it feels like you’re pushing it and not doing it in a natural way.
• On LinkedIn, 95% of people she actually knows who they are, why she’s connected and how she’s connected to them.
• Always know how you know someone. First or 2nd DM on LinkedIn is how am I connected to them.
• People love to hear things about themselves, so if there’s someone you want to meet… find out something you have in common with that individual.
• Connecting with them on something that is a connection with them. To ask someone to do something for you and you do not have the pleasure of meeting them, that is not authentic.
• She never connects to someone with a cold connection. Use the tools that you have to grab someone’s attention.
• People want to connect with you because they want to follow you.
• When you walk into an in-person event, see groups of people chatting with each other, as an introvert you do not want to jump into the conversation, look for the other people who are by themselves. That person would love to talk to someone.
• Introvert don’t appreciate back to back meetings. To get the best outcome, be prepared to plan in a way as if they were introverts. That way there is a comfort to receive the information, you’re not sending them home totally exhausted.
• Conversation starters are good for you to have in your hip pocket - “What brought you to this event?” “What high school did you go to?” “What church do you go to?” Give a compliment. “I see you’re here by yourself, are you meeting anyone?” Not too invasive as well.
• Don’t let opportunities slip by, use the resources you have and use the spaces you’re in because you never know when it will land you where you want to be.
• On the days you’re in the office, make the most of those days. Be politically astute at work, part of that is being visible.
• Just walk around, but also have at least one meeting on her calendar, not even with an agenda, but just to get to know someone better.
• You can still network virtually!
• It is a lot easier to hold onto a job when people know who you are.
• What advice for people who don’t like small talk?
• They have a decision to make… does it serve you well to just cut the networking out. What are you missing out on? Or commit to it for 10 - 15 minutes or meet 1 - 2 people, then walk away. You don’t have to stay forever.
• Don’t allow networking to be the one TON guerrilla in your mind. Move it out of the way so that you can have a better path to fulfilling the goals you have.
• Don’t allow the heaviness of networking get in the way of you propelling the goal you have, think about it accelerating where you actually want to be!

🟣 CONNECT WITH GISELE:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/giselemarcus

Website: https://giselemarcus.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Gisele_Marcus

🟣 CONNECT WITH NWC:

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/nikawhiteconsulting

Facebook: https://facebook.com/nikawhiteconsulting

Instagram: https://instagram.com/nikawhiteconsulting

Visit our website to learn more: https://nikawhite.com

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, the podcast where thoughtful leadership meets meaningful impact.

This week, Dr. Nika White is joined by LaShawn Davis, founder of The HR Plug and creator of The Greatness Lab, for a transformative conversation on leadership, identity, and purpose in the workplace.

Together they explore:

✨ What companies must redefine to retain talent and foster equity

✨ Why so many Black women are leaving corporate America—and what that means for the future of work

✨ LaShawn’s three types of leadership and how to identify your own

✨ What comes next once you understand the kind of leader you are

✨ Insights from her powerful new book and how The Greatness Lab is shaping the next generation of leaders

🎧 Grab your headphones, hit play, and join us for this timely and empowering episode.

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to keep the great conversations flowing!

🟣 KEY TAKEAWAYS LASHAWN (We had SOO many key takeaways from this one, so don't just read them, you MUST listen to this episode!)

• You’re not meant to survive your work, but you’re meant to live your greatness! It’s not something you have to chase or define, it’s already in you.
• If I can’t attract one paying client, then it is not what I was created to do!
• There are NO failures in life, there is ONLY learning! The areas you learn from the most are the areas you’ve encountered the most in life. You have a whole master class from what you’ve learned.
• What are you struggling with in a business? What are you struggling with in a career goal? It’s probably because its not what you’re meant to do, you are just out of alignment.
• One way that we can lean into alignment is through emotional regulation. Don’t suppress the emotion, it’s a sign.
• Emotion is the very thing we give other people too much power over.
• The best revenge is your paper! Let you outcomes speak for you!
• There is power in agreement - focus on making YOU better and how that translates in work and what that requires.
• We’ve allowed our success in careers, to be determined by our job titles, etc, that we become strangers to who we are. Then you return as an indespensible asset.
• Start showing our value, identity, and powerfully so they know they can’t operate without YOU.
• We need to unlearn how we have defined professionalism, it isn’t what you look like, professionalism is simply how you show up to do what I’ve hired you to do.
• If you’re praying and not seeing results, it might be time for you to stop and listen.
• Thoughts come and go but when you write it down, it’s conditioned to stay there.
• You can condition your mind to receive what you’re putting on paper!
• Emotional regulation - we don’t realize how much we relinquish - stop emotionally relinquishing and start emotionally regulating!
• Knowing and articulating who you are - how do you expect people to respect you if you don't know who you are?
• Once you learn who you are, and the things you thought were bad, and that there is NOTHING wrong with you, once you know who you are, you’re able to flip that and explain why that is a power move instead!
• Black women are exiting corporate America faster than any other race.
• Tap into who you are because you cannot be rejected!
• 3 types that you lead in your life: discovering what type of leader are you: Visionary (see the future / plan for it), Alignment leader (get people together on one course), Execution (administration, planning, organization). We aren’t supposed to lead in all three, but we try to.
• What type of leader OF your life are you? Then knowing the type of leader you are, helps you understand the make & model God designed you to be.
• What assignment is on the earth for me to fulfill that’s tied into the leader I am, then that’s where your purpose comes from which is not assigned to you, but the people who are assigned to you, and that’s how you serve.
• Once you learn who you are, you can stand confidently in knowing that God’s got me.
• Discover who you are, what type of leader you are, no one will buy from you, if you’re not willing to invest in yourself first!



🟣 CONNECT WITH LASHAWN:

LinkedIn: @lashawndavis and @thehrplug

Website: https://www.thehrplug.com

FB: @theworkplacefixer

IG: @thehrplug

🟣 CONNECT WITH NWC:

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/nikawhiteconsulting

Facebook: https://facebook.com/nikawhiteconsulting

Instagram: https://instagram.com/nikawhiteconsulting

Visit our website to learn more: https://nikawhite.com

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, the podcast where thoughtful leadership meets meaningful impact.

"Emotional regulation is for YOU! You get the benefit first!"

In this powerful episode, Mikki Bey—the “Queen of Emotional Regulation”—shares why managing your emotions is essential for your health and success. Discover what suppressing emotions does to your body, her top 3 tips to start practicing emotional regulation today, and how embodiment can help you lead with confidence and clarity.

Keep reading for more of her key takeaways and tips!

🎧 And grab your headphones, hit play, and let this conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

🟣 KEY TAKEAWAYS MIKKI:

CHECK OUT MIKKI's EMOTIONAL REGULATION BUNDLE

• Don’t believe in giving the world your best until you have the best for yourself.
• I was clinically burnt out - that looked like no longer could I push through - when you have burnt out, it’s not an option. I got to a point where I wasn’t taking care of herself or my child, that’s when I discovered emotional regulation, which literally saved my life!
• Many people don’t know what it is, but they can identify with it.
• Emotional regulation is not luxury, it is a necessity.
• 90% of emotional regulation is learning what you do when something happens.
• Being in control means you’re regulating, that is not right. When we’re constantly controlling our emotions, we’re suppressing. You will either implode or explode.
• Most people aren’t calling out because they’re sick, they’re calling out because they’re overwhelmed. This goes directly to the money you can make because your workforce is out.
• You cannot be future-proof if you cannot regulate your nervous system. Your brain isn’t working, and your making decisions from lack and from scarcity. The idea is to get back to a neutral state, because you and also not listen to guidance when you’re in fight or flight.
• How do we future proof? You start with your internal environment, meaning you have to be able to pinpoint what you are feeling in the first place.
• There is no such thing as a good or bad emotion, it’s just trying to send a message. You have to take account to what the emotion is trying to tell you.
• You have to GO IN before you GO OUT!
• Suppression is like a bucket… and it can only be suppressed for a time. If you aren’t moving the energy, it has to go somewhere. It will create disease of your body or you will have an outburst.
• Your triggers are a map to where you still need to heal. You will be triggered mostly by people you have a connection to!
• When triggered, it is your responsibility to clean up the trigger, it isn’t the persons.
• When you start to become aware of what your triggers are, now you can interrupt your nervous system.
• A Trigger is an ever evolving capacity of healing - the trigger may never dissipate fully, but you can get it to a point where it is very, very manageable.

3 TIPS TO MAKE EMOTIONAL REGULATION PRACTICAL

1. Start to embrace the pause, take a breath, then you choose your response. Take your breath in through the nose, then out through the nose. Do not feel like you have to make an action after you pause.

2. Name it to tame it - When your emotions are strong and pestering, it wants you to say I realize I’m angry.

3. Journaling - One of the best tools you can use because you don’t have to edit yourself.

4. EMBODIMENT is how you self sooth and show up.

5. Before you get to embodiment, you have to choose your identity. Strip away who you think you’re supposed to be and decide who you want to be. Once that’s intact, then you decide to be her day in and day out.
6. Make decisions like that person, your habits, my thoughts, at some point it’s gonna match up.
7. You cannot draw anything into your life when your nervous system is fried.
8. Choose to be the person living an abundant life across the board because your nervous system is primed and ready tor receive that.
9. High achievers isolate for healing. The vulnerability is important, when you get in community you learn you aren’t the only one.
10. It is important because there is an energy in a container, in a community you start to develop a co-regulation with those people in the group with you.

🟣 CONNECT WITH MIKKI:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mbcmba/

Website: www.GetMikkiBey.com

🟣 CONNECT WITH NWC:

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/nikawhiteconsulting

Facebook: https://facebook.com/nikawhiteconsulting

Instagram: https://instagram.com/nikawhiteconsulting

Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/@nikawhiteconsulting

Visit our website to learn more: https://nikawhite.com

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER:

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, the podcast where thoughtful leadership meets meaningful impact.

This week we’re honored to be joined by Dr. Rosalind Cohen for a powerful discussion.

🎧 Grab your headphones, hit play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

I think, I belong, I feel. I belong and I feel can be changed with how a manager acts and you can teach it. Orgs and managers can’t affect this. How can HR people discover how to learn about the “I think” part. Managers should walk through what the job is and activate people connecting with it and making sure the right candidate is stimulated by it.

We don’t engage with the employees and employers on how they can create a mutual relationship of trust, respect and belonging. There needs to be mutual accountability.

You should not have to ask for respect, but there can be a conversation about what that looks like between the employer and the employee. For example, “How do you want to be recognized?”

People are afraid to do something that could hurt someone else or put the spotlight on them because of cancel culture. If you have trust and respect, then you can ask/answer whatever question and you know I’m not trying to hurt you.

Leaders need to be vulnerable enough to ask questions and not assume to know what they want.

Upcoming book is titled Hiring for Engagement: How to Create a Culture of Belonging.

Employers need to look at what behaviors/attributes are more successful in their organization: threshold attributes. If they have them it doesn’t matter how they got them.

How can you stop culture fit? It becomes wanting to be about people like me. Work success has to do with work attributes, organizational values, and behaviors and not social and sameness.

Vulnerability is critical. Leadership started with top down with no vulnerability. What works is acting as humans and creating relationships. Showing up authentically

We should assume that everyone is not ready to be a people leader. Just because you are good at your job doesn't mean you can lead a team: give feedback, create an inclusive culture, have tough conversations. We need to give them the skills and tools to lead, because they may know how to teach and not manage.

In what ways can I give back to make it better, how do I repair it. People in power have a responsibility to make the world better. What can you do daily?

🟣 CONNECT WITH DR. ROZ:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosalindfcohen/

Website: https://drrozcohen.com/

🟣 CONNECT WITH NWC:

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/nikawhiteconsulting

Facebook: https://facebook.com/nikawhiteconsulting

Instagram: https://instagram.com/nikawhiteconsulting

Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/@nikawhiteconsulting

Visit our website to learn more: https://nikawhite.com

Check out Dr. Nika White’s book, Inclusion Uncomplicated: https://nikawhite.com/inclusionuncomplicated

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, the podcast where thoughtful leadership meets meaningful impact.

This week we’re honored to be joined by Peggy Sullivan for a powerful discussion.

🎧 Grab your headphones, hit play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS EPISODE:

Busy Busting Survey: https://www.peggysullivanspeaker.com/busy-barometer

TedX Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo1Bmz8q-BM

• 83% of workers spend their time in meetings, but 1/3 of them are unproductive. We are spending on average 5 hours of unproductive time.
• Identify and Eliminate the busy traps!
• It is very hard to step out of habits.
• It can be small, subtle things that are going to be able to help us reduce our busyness.
• Flywheel effect - when we do less, we can achieve more. Because we are more intentional, more focused and really working on one thing at a time.
• Addiction is habitual - we get a hit of dopamine when we get something done. Busyness is so addictive because we are forever chasing the dopamine high.
• Happiness is not a soft skill, it is a super emotion! When we’re happy we have more mental and physical energy, we are more charismatic, we fight off disease. We as Americans put it in a category, but it is a super power.
• The small micro-moments, the things that are doable make a difference.
• Step 2 - Mojo making - creating intentional happiness rituals
• 3-minute happy moments - Cubicle dance parties, told jokes, watched funny videos, sang songs - after 6 short weeks, employees improved.
• Having happiness in the workplace is an accelerator!
• Step 3 - Values management as a replacement for time management (4 Core values)
• What core values equate to the feeling of getting something meaningful done?
• Self care
• Growth - learning something new on regular basis (A day without learning something new is a lost opportunity. When we learn we learn how to flex our resilience muscle.)
• Human connection - understanding the people you work with, how can you support them
• Authenticity - remembering not everyone is like me, it’s ok to be open minded, empathetic
• 94% of us don’t have time for what’s important, like time management .
• Maybe we say yes too much, being intentional means saying, that would be nice, but it’s not the right thing to do right now.
• Is it the right thing, at the right time, for the right reason?
• When we lead with intention, it means making choices.
• Every single person has strength and weaknesses, everyone wants to do a good job. We just need to set them up to be successful. It’s about all of us living a life that is meaningful and purposeful. Be willing to help.
• Our society thinks more is more, but we don’t realize less is more and we can achieve more by doing less.
• Try it!! If you don’t feel your performance is rising, your focus, your happiness, then don’t do it. But the research shows most people get 5 - 7 hours back in their week!
• This is your life and you can shape it into something that you really want it to be! We are not victims... we are what we choose to become. We are the decisions we make. And we can make better decisions every day!

CONNECT WITH PEGGY:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peggyasullivan?original_referer=

Website: https://www.peggysullivanspeaker.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/peggysullivanspeaker/

CONNECT WITH NWC:

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/nikawhiteconsulting

Facebook: https://facebook.com/nikawhiteconsulting

Instagram: https://instagram.com/nikawhiteconsulting

Subscribe to NWC YouTube channel: youtube.com/@NikaWhite2015?sub_confirmation=1

NWC Website: https://nikawhite.com

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, the podcast where thoughtful leadership meets meaningful impact.

This week we’re honored to be joined by Valarie Sandjivy for a powerful discussion.

🎧 Grab your headphones, hit play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS EPISODE:

• Stretch more! To be in the position of CEO is really to stretch your capacity to hold more
• You must be able to be on your own emotional journey, be able to see things with a different perspective, give answers, facilitate growth for a team, have a conversation every 5 minutes.
• We need to change the narrative, if you are a leader, it doesn’t mean you aren’t human.
• We need to stretch our nervous system. How can my body sustain more? If I don’t eat, sleep, rest, my body won’t be able to hold more.
• Emotions - We have to find ways to take care of the emotions.
• We are in a world that is always going to change. Life is all about cycles. We will be stronger if we adapt ourself.
• We will be triggered by people… how can I recognize that I’m triggered right now, but not take it out on the person who is doing it.
• Ask myself, Did the emotion get entangled with the mind talking?
• Go for a coffee and then you come back! You put fresh air in the mind!
• You need to give space for the intuition to come in, then you follow. It is the difference between over-thinking and over-doing and thinking you haven’t done enough.
• We are transforming all the time. Am I expecting the change or accepting the change.
• Look around you, you will have all that you are looking for.
• We need to have a solid foundation.

CONNECT WITH VALARIE:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/valeriesandjivy/

Free leadership assessment: https://www.ellips.us.com/quiz

CONNECT WITH NWC:

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/nikawhiteconsulting

Facebook: https://facebook.com/nikawhiteconsulting

Instagram: https://instagram.com/nikawhiteconsulting

Subscribe to NWC YouTube channel: youtube.com/@NikaWhite2015?sub_confirmation=1

NWC Website: https://nikawhite.com

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, the podcast where thoughtful leadership meets meaningful impact.

This week we’re honored to be joined by Dr. Ingrid R.G. Waldron for a powerful discussion.

🎧 Grab your headphones, hit play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE CONVERSATION:

From CHELSEA - Community and partnering has given me the opportunity to be less selfish.

Ask questions, really be clear about your why and be clear about what you’re getting, but also what you’re giving.

From DR. VENESSA - Continue to be curious, ask community, clients how can you help them, how can you serve?

FROM DAWN - Give yourself the gift of breaking up with busyness and bow up with authenticity.

Helps to create space for joy, community, connection.

CONNECT WITH NWC:

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/nikawhiteconsulting

Facebook: https://facebook.com/nikawhiteconsulting

Instagram: https://instagram.com/nikawhiteconsulting

Subscribe to NWC YouTube channel: youtube.com/@NikaWhite2015?sub_confirmation=1

NWC Website: https://nikawhite.com

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, the podcast where thoughtful leadership meets meaningful impact.

This week we’re honored to be joined by Robyn Hicks-Guinn for a powerful discussion.

🎧 Grab your headphones, hit play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

Estate Planning, Guardianship, and Business Succession in Minority Communities The minority community is less likely to make comprehensive estate plans. * For baby boomers, there’s a hesitation to even have the conversation. Their children are asking for it, but the parents won’t engage. It’s important to explore what’s causing the resistance — sometimes it’s a lack of trust, other times it's fear of death. * Many in the community simply don’t see the value in planning. But at some point, you have to ask: What am I leaving behind? Or… Do I want the state to decide for me?* * It’s important to have minority representation across the board — because trust in the process starts there.

Business Succession PlanningBusiness succession clients are typically small to mid-sized businesses. Important questions to consider:

• What does retirement look like for you?
• When do you plan to retire?
• Will you sell your business, transition it, or close it down?

If you don’t plan for the unseen, you're not only failing your business — you may also be failing your clients and your future retirement.

And when a business shuts down without a plan, you're unlikely to receive the full value from it.

If your goal is for your children to take over, get them involved early. Let them start with small tasks to see if they share your passion for the work.

The Role of an AttorneyAn attorney’s job is to protect everyone’s rights — and to educate clients on how the law applies.

When it comes to guardianships, the right person is someone willing to rise to the occasion and serve. Many family members are reluctant to take on the role, and that’s okay. A good attorney will start the conversation with:

“I’m not here to judge. I’m here to protect the person who needs to be protected.”

But the best way to avoid guardianship altogether?

➡️ Set up a Healthcare Power of Attorney and a Durable Power of Attorney.

Without them, the court may appoint someone your loved one would never have chosen.

Estate Planning and Children* Estate planning affects children more than we often realize. * If something were to happen to you, who would care for your kids in the short term? * Estate planning is really about this question: * How are we protecting our children from themselves? * Creditors can access these assets — so choose someone who aligns with your values and vision for your children’s future. * A guardian becomes a pseudo-parent. And it’s critical to understand: * Custody and guardianship are not the same.

Hot Topics Covered:* How are your assets being protected? * What’s your plan for business closure or succession? * What does it mean to name a guardian — and what happens if you don’t?

Life Outside the LawEngaging in outside activities helps her reset. Traveling makes her feel grateful for the family and home she has.

What Do You Recommend For Next Steps? * Whether it’s scheduling a free consultation or just learning more, take the next step toward protecting what matters most. * Estate planning, probate, and guardianship are critical — and every family deserves guidance. Seek out an attorney in your local community who can walk with you. * Attend seminars. Ask questions. And start the conversations today.



🟣 CONNECT WITH ROBYN:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rhicks8/

Website: https://www.hicksguinnlaw.com/

🟣 CONNECT WITH NWC:

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/nikawhiteconsulting

Facebook: https://facebook.com/nikawhiteconsulting

Instagram: https://instagram.com/nikawhiteconsulting

Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@NikaWhite2015

Visit our website to learn more: https://nikawhite.com

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, the podcast where thoughtful leadership meets meaningful impact.

This week we’re honored to be joined by Dr. Carleen S. Carey for a powerful discussion.

🎧 Grab your headphones, hit play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS DR. CARLEEN:

• Having animals and agriculture for children is necessary for the soul and good for regulating their emotions. Having a pet to talk to is good for students.
• Kids want to get out of the classroom and have hands-on experience. Kids want to get out into the world.
• Not just your nervous system benefits, but your digestive system.
• When thinking about environmental racism, lower income areas have less shade and are hotter which influences asma and other issues.
• COVID showed inequities in schools through lack of access and technology. Also lack of testing to create IEP or 504s to support students. Some students didn’t find out they had a learning disability until high school.
• Students were accessing school through a phone and not a laptop
• How do we think about immigrants, teacher training on technology, first generation students, and having a print-rich environment
• Brains that rely heavily on AI are deteriorating. I have a lot of questions around AI also deteriorating our environment.
• What’s the intersection between race, authorship and power: who is telling the story and who benefits the most and the least, why is it told that way?
• What stories do I believe about myself?
• What stories do people easily believe about me?
• Reciprocity and respect are a two way street
• Healthy skepticism is good for a critical thinking mind.
• How do we correct the past because it’s still relevant, if we’re still talking about it today?
• Those historical narratives come back around and can affect you today.

🟣 CONNECT WITH DR. CARLEEN:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/akomaleadershipconsulting/

Website: https://www.akomaleadershipconsulting.com/about

🟣 CONNECT WITH NWC:

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/nikawhiteconsulting

Facebook: https://facebook.com/nikawhiteconsulting

Instagram: https://instagram.com/nikawhiteconsulting

Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@NikaWhite2015

Visit our website to learn more: https://nikawhite.com

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, the podcast where thoughtful leadership meets meaningful impact.

This week we’re honored to be joined by Dr. Joel Pérez for a powerful discussion.

🎧 Grab your headphones, hit play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:

How To Cultivate Genuine Self-Awareness And Propel Your Leadership

How to Achieve Organizational Excellence through Cultural Humility

KEY TAKEAWAYS DR. JOEL:

• Cultural competence is the foundation for working towards developing a posture of cultural humility.
• Every leader can benefit from cultural humility.
• I want to create space for people in the middle who are struggling to find answers and are afraid to ask questions from either side of the argument. These people isolate themselves because they are afraid to ask questions.
• The conversations I love having are those coming from a place of curiosity.
• What is the ideal state you want to be in, instead of what do you want to fix? We’re so conditioned to fix things.
• Always focused on the things you want to fix first and that is the wrong place to start.
• Individual - what biases do you have - we all have them. They never go away, but you can do things to mitigate their impact. Ask yourself “What biases do I need to check before I talk to this person?”
• Get clear about your identities and how are they present in the work you do.
• Developing “other” awareness - as you get to know your people, ask questions, but it must be modeled, so share more about yourself.
• You cannot force people to share more about themselves, and you shouldn’t.
• In the process of people feeling comfortable sharing more about themselves, you can begin to identify where the problems are.
• Find people around you that you trust who can give you honest feedback.
• Being reflective, how did I show up and how was that perceived?
• Yes do conferences, read books, get certificates, but if you’re relying on that only, you have to do it in community, you cannot do it in isolation.
• Self awareness is central!
• We spend so much money to get clear on who we are, but what do you do with it!

WHAT ARE COMMON PITFALLS INDIVIDUAL LEADERS FALL INTO WHEN TRYING TO CREATE INCLUSIVE ENVIRONMENTS?

• They’ve not developed their curiosity. We don’t listen, not deep listeners and we don’t train ourselves to be deep listeners. We like to tell people what to do when the better idea is to say 'Tell me more about your decision making process', is it ok if I give you feedback?
• Leaders really struggle with developing the ability to be deeply curious and deep listeners.
• Maybe just learning how to breathe.
• Create a 15-minute gap between meetings.
• You have to do this work in community, not by yourself.



🟣 CONNECT WITH DR. JOEL :

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelperezphd/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/apoyocoaching01/

Website: https://apoyocoaching.com/home-5144

🟣 CONNECT WITH NWC:

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/nikawhiteconsulting

Facebook: https://facebook.com/nikawhiteconsulting

Instagram: https://instagram.com/nikawhiteconsulting

Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/@nikawhiteconsulting

Visit our website to learn more: https://nikawhite.com

Sign up for our weekly newsletter, The Inclusion Insider: https://nikawhite.com/newsletter

Check out Dr. Nika White’s book, Inclusion Uncomplicated: https://nikawhite.com/inclusionuncomplicated

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, the podcast where thoughtful leadership meets meaningful impact.

This week we’re honored to be joined by Dr. Sylvia Rohde-Liebenau for a powerful discussion.

🎧 Grab your headphones, hit play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM DR. SYLVIA:

• Being an artist (dance, acting, and singing) has always been a part of my life which impacts my work.
• Art brings a different perspective to life and work. It’s very helpful for people not usually in the arts to engage in artistic expression.
• Power is the ability to achieve intended outcomes.
• Power shows up similarly around the world. It shows up in an old understanding of power, influenced by patriarchy. By clinging to power they diminish their own power and community.
• Clinging to power comes from fear. A fear state guides this. This is where embodiment comes from. Grounded authenticity allows you to tap into humanity.
• Embodiment is being present in our body. Being in your body protects your authority and power. You can regulate more and sense other people’s feelings. By connecting with ourselves, we can connect with others.
• Book mentioned: Who’s in Charge
• If leaders lack professional, personal power they’re not engaging with their employees. If leaders are transactional, instead of transformational, everyone suffers.
• We need a more contemporary view on power.
• By being more in the body... aware of the body and moving intentionally. It transform the leader from a talking head to a person and can bring people along.
• When we physically move our bodies, we are more present.
• Many people believe emotions should stay out of work, but it’s much better than 10 years ago.
• The fear of emotions is because people don’t want to be seen as weak.
• But emotions is about being vulnerable and honest. Not showing emotions makes you seem closed off and distant which undermines your leadership.
• Coaching begins with identity: Who are you? Who are you at your essence?

🟣 CONNECT WITH DR. SYLVIA:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sylviarohdeliebenau

Website: https://www.smartpowermethod.com/

🟣 CONNECT WITH NWC:

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/nikawhiteconsulting

Facebook: https://facebook.com/nikawhiteconsulting

Instagram: https://instagram.com/nikawhiteconsulting

Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/@nikawhiteconsulting

Visit our website to learn more: https://nikawhite.com

Sign up for our weekly newsletter, The Inclusion Insider: https://nikawhite.com/newsletter

Check out Dr. Nika White’s book, Inclusion Uncomplicated: https://nikawhite.com/inclusionuncomplicated

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, the podcast where thoughtful leadership meets meaningful impact.

This week we’re honored to be joined by Dr. Ingrid R.G. Waldron for a powerful discussion.

🎧 Grab your headphones, hit play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

DR. INGRID'S KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• When you have the challenges of not being promoted, you begin to blame yourself, but she realized it wasn’t her, it was the system.
• Racism has an impact on our mental health.
• What’s problematic - people assume its about Black people and about race, it’s about so much more. People focus on the race.
• There’s a specific flavor of racism for Blacks, so don’t get it confused or forget about it
• The way we label people and the way we see people very much collides with our ideologies of mental illness.
• It sounds great for Black women to say we’re strong, but then we’re not seen as not deserving of care or empathy.
• There’s not one way to be a Black woman.
• If you’re having problems with employment or settling in, those lead to mental health issues or stressors.
• A barrier is the infighting, we need to stop that. We need to come together without all the egos, we are our own worst enemy.
• If future health professionals aren’t being taught, they will provide clinical care without thinking about race, particularly, anti-Black racism.
• Policy is the root of everything, who are the policy makers… do they look like me?
• We need to diversify who we’re hiring for: mental health policy makers, diversity the health systems work force - more Black nurses, Black mental health therapists, Black psychologists.
• Seeking help for mental illness is a weakness, Black people are better than that, Black people don’t do that, it’s a white people thing… mental illness is not a weakness, seeking help is not a weakness. Being vulnerable is a strength.



🟣 CONNECT WITH DR. INGRID:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ingrid-waldron-ph-d-2908a725/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/waldroningrid/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ingrid.waldron/

Her Book: https://www.amazon.com/There%C2%92s-Something-Water-Environmental-Communities/dp/1773630571

🟣 CONNECT WITH NWC:

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/nikawhiteconsulting

Facebook: https://facebook.com/nikawhiteconsulting

Instagram: https://instagram.com/nikawhiteconsulting

Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/@nikawhiteconsulting

Visit our website to learn more: https://nikawhite.com

Sign up for our weekly newsletter, The Inclusion Insider: https://nikawhite.com/newsletter

Check out Dr. Nika White’s book, Inclusion Uncomplicated: https://nikawhite.com/inclusionuncomplicated

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Hady Mendez to Intentional Conversations!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

🎯 KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HADY MENDEZ:

• “Graffiti art is the voice of the people who are not the majority.” Hady is also an amateur graffiti photographer.
• Her work with incarcerated women reinforced the importance of empowering others to advocate for themselves — not just helping, but teaching.
• Underestimated professionals often face confidence issues due to being told they’re “too much” or “not enough.” Mentorship and sponsorship are critical.
• Lack of exposure to corporate success skills and limiting beliefs can hold people back. Fear of speaking up is common.
• Allies can uplift underestimated professionals by affirming their value, crediting their ideas, and ensuring they’re included in key conversations.
• Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) are thriving — especially multigenerational ERGs, with Gen Z bringing assertiveness and openness to the table.
• Leaders should help identify and challenge the limiting beliefs of their team members, especially those from underestimated communities.
• Hady’s upcoming book (Sept 2025) explores how women of color can disrupt and lead in the workplace. Each chapter shares personal stories and practical takeaways.
• Assimilation shouldn’t be the cost of success. Hady encourages others to lean into their superpowers and show up boldly and authentically.

🟣 CONNECT WITH HADY:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hadymendez

Website: https://boldlyspeaking.com

🟣 CONNECT WITH NWC:

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/nikawhiteconsulting

Facebook: https://facebook.com/nikawhiteconsulting

Instagram: https://instagram.com/nikawhiteconsulting

Subscribe to our YouTube channel:

https://youtube.com/@nikawhiteconsulting

Visit our website to learn more:

https://nikawhite.com

Check out Dr. Nika White’s book, Inclusion Uncomplicated

https://nikawhite.com/inclusionuncomplicated

Sign up for our weekly newsletter, The Inclusion Insider:

https://nikawhite.com/newsletter

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Elise Ahenkorah to Intentional Conversations!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM ELISE:

• You should be involved with your communications leader from the outset of the work, executive team, HR team and comms team all need to work together to say how it is going to work.
• We don’t need to change the language or how we communicate this work, based on who is in the office.
• When DEI is done really well, it creates talent and business outcome.
• Systems driven work, tied to real business outcomes, is key.
• The most impactful change does not occur for employees based on events, inclusion propels performance.
• Trust is the foundation for high performing teams, when you center belonging, it is where trust comes in. It is critical to have this woven into your values.
• Trust is the area where you have the most agency and control, in an area where you don’t have a lot of control over other factors.
• Know you have an open door policy, no misconceptions about what’s occurring behind the scenes, this is a leadership principle, a cultural experience, can’t control much but can control how I show up
• Be honest about the visibility that you can provide as a leader.
• Provide as many resources as you can.
• The person your teammate wants to hear from most is the people leader.
• The human approach to leadership gets lost when we’re in the middle of volatile times.
• Executive and middle manager buy-in - if the executives buy-in and middle managers don’t, there’s going to be issues.
• Shifting from one-off events, but moving to systems driven inclusion work that drives measurable thought around inclusion, engagement, retention, profitability.
• Whatever works for your team, it doesn’t matter the word, it’s what makes your employees feel respected, valued and heard.

CONNECT WITH ELISE:

Visit her website - www.inclusionfactor.ca

On IG - @inclusionfactor.ca

LET'S STAY CONNECTED:

Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram — just search “Nika White Consulting.”

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel: new videos weekly! Search “Nika White Consulting” on YouTube.

Visit www.nikawhite.com to learn more and sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Check out Inclusion Uncomplicated by Dr. Nika White — now in hard copy and paperback on Amazon.

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Kelley Cornish to Intentional Conversations!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM KELLEY:

Vision - a world where every community thrives. Financial inclusion, workforce readiness, community action and wellbeing.

Corporate people align with his vision, they may not agree with his religious take.

Don’t have to step into a church to align with the vision.

IMPORTANCE OF RADICAL CARE

I need for you to go and deal with whatever you’re feeling about this situation, then come back. I need you 100%, I can’t have 50% of you.

You don’t realize how much you have to deal with until you get in an intentional space to deal with it.

When you’re called, the passion begins driving you so much, you lose the passion for the work.

When you’re not feeling right, you’re feeling weird, listen to your body.

SYMPTOMS OF BURNOUT

What are the burnout triggers? What are the burnout safeguards?

Burnout triggers are: Irritated easily, not listening well, being very direct, when I get tired thinking about the future, not eating good food When the sleeping pattern is so disruptive, know on the verge of hitting a wall.

Our work is so much bigger than us, so when we don’t take the time to understand that, it can overwhelm you.

Sometimes you can have too many voices around you, all well intended, this is also a sign, when I have too many people speaking into my life about what I need to be doing.

Burnout can be not thinking straight, making poor decision, judgment off, not negotiating well… it’s NOT just I can’t get out of the bed. Look for it during the day to day.

Be unapologetic about who I need, don’t need, who I need in my space, don’t need in my space.

When you’re doing good, it doesn’t feel like work.

It’s not all about the money, it’s about the intrinsic value. In the US, people are trying to figure out how they can bring purpose and meaning to someone’s day. Realizing they have been capitalistic and where is it going to take us?

LIFE and LEADERSHIP UNPLUGGED PODCAST

What do you do to reset?

What is your purpose and how are you going to sustain in your purpose without burn out?

This is across every sector, everyone deals with burnout.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Your “why” does evolve and each layer brings in new people to chase purpose.

My hope for you is that you continue to trailblazer, show up as your authentic self as you always do and continue to fight the good fight. The hope, strength and tenacity and the burgeon passion to always do what is right. Use your voice to speak to power as you have so eloquently done for years.



CONNECT WITH KELLEY:

Follow on Instagram - search @lifeleadershipunplugged and @kelleycornish

Visit her website - kelleycornish.com

On LinkedIn - @kelleyfcornish

Binge her podcast, Life and Leadership Unplugged 

LET'S STAY CONNECTED:

Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram — just search “Nika White Consulting.”

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel: new videos weekly! Search “Nika White Consulting” on YouTube.

Visit www.nikawhite.com to learn more and sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Check out Inclusion Uncomplicated by Dr. Nika White — now in hard copy and paperback on Amazon.

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Shari Dunn to Intentional Conversations!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM SHARI:

“I wouldn’t take anything for the journey now.” -Maya Angelou

• My background as an attorney, teacher, and journalist brings depth and multi-approach to DEI consulting. This comes into play every day.
• New book, Qualified, Black women are the canaries in the coal mine and they have been signaling that something is wrong for a long time.
• There’s too much trend, this isn’t happening in isolation.
• Inhospitable for Black women, means it’s going to be inhospitable for many other people.
• Competency checking, name it, describe it and what to do about it.
• There are people in the pipeline, but the pipeline is blocked by competency checking.
• Imposter syndrome is the symptom of competency checking.
• Youth and competency checking. Try not to put the burden on Black people. Structures and institutions should change, show kids that this isn’t a reflection on them so they can see it and know it’s not about them. Give them a historical context.
• Must pull apart these large terms to get the appropriate solutions. Not surface level solutions.
• You can’t outlaw the word Diversity and Equity.
• Make the unconscious, conscious: Until we make unconscious ways, conscious, we will say its fate.
• Need to remove the barriers so people can naturally move forward, and systems can change.
• People are rightfully nervous or fearful because the mindset now is that people want to say it’s fate, and not make the unconscious, conscious.
• The difference now is that more White people are seeing it, there’s an opportunity to stop the mindset.
• Storytelling and messaging is key. People on this side have not been very clear. Don’t want people hung up on the word, describe the term so people understand.
• To have a diverse environment, you must go slow to go fast.

CONNECT WITH SHARI:

Visit herwebsite

OnLinkedIn

Purchase Shari's book,Unqualified

LET'S STAY CONNECTED:

Follow NWC: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram

Subscribe: NWC YouTube Channel (New videos weekly!)

Explore: NWC Website

Inclusion Uncomplicated Dr. White's latest book (Hard copy & NEW Paperback version available)

Join: Weekly Newsletter

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Jil Littlejohn Bostick to Intentional Conversations!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:

https://www.blackfolkscamptoo.com

https://outdoorafro.org

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM JIL:

• Leaders need to be clear, transparent, consistent and focus on the why.
• Stop looking at the work of diversity, equity and inclusion and if you can focus on it being a part of the core values, you will continue to see the work go forward. Just start taking the practices, and embed them across the board.
• Do the right thing. Put people first. Be the best. All of our work (Winnebago) is based on these core values. It’s not about a name or an acronym.
• Embedding these values will lead to inclusive action and inclusive leadership.
• What we don’t know and understand is when we allow a narrative to create for ourselves or that someone else creates.
• Black folks camp too!
• If you aren’t learning, you’re not growing.
• Corporate responsibility is a shift from compliance, this is what you have to do, to strategy, how do companies do well and do good. It allows the work to take place, what is the true driver around innovation and talent retention, it’s not a “nice to have” it’s a business imperative.
• Do well and do good!
• The idea people aren’t hearing and get misconstrued is that ultimately we are better together.
• When you are strong and performing, it allows me to see the possibility of what could be. We have been fighting against each other. When we get to a point where we understand, we will be at a better place. We are better together.
• Work/life balance doesn’t exist, but I believe in integration! Having the trust and psychologically safe at work to do what you need to do at home determines how you show up for family and work. Focus on family and show up and produce the results that are needed for work.
• When your parents are gone, you can’t get that time back!

CONNECT WITH JIL:

On LinkedIn

Visit Jil's website

Pre-order her book

STAY CONNECTED TO NWC:

Follow NWC: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram

Subscribe: NWC YouTube Channel (New videos weekly!)

Explore: NWC Website

Inclusion Uncomplicated Dr. White's latest book (Hard copy & NEW Paperback version available)

Join: Weekly Newsletter

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect inclusion, belonging, leadership and all things business! We are thrilled you are here.

What a fantastic episode our Q2 Reunion show was. Emmanuel Kulu and John Graham joined Dr. Nika and the IC community for an hour of intentional conversation.

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Upfront.love

John's Book - Plantation Theory

Emmanuel's Books

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

• We can’t have the reparations conversation if we don’t talk healing first.
• There is a lot that can help heal some wounds, but it can’t happen without building the trust.
• The same hands that built the pyramids built the White House.
• When are we going to start working together building our own and having success?
• What are we doing to make them suffer? If we withheld our funds from companies we know are intentionally racist, we could make a difference.
• If the only time you are experiencing community is at work, that’s a problem.
• How many are viewing people as colleagues and cofounders, we see each other as competition.
• Why are people so upset over the rollback of DEI when we’ve not seen a systemic change in the lat 60 years.
• DEI was never intended to do what you thought it was.
• If your activism is limited to the confines of a corporation. You’re cooked.
• Emmanuel - Faith has kept me grounded.
• John - From reconstructing to 1978 we were most married group in country - today least married - How can we start to restore community through virtue of impacting strong marriages?



CONNECT WITH NWC:

Follow NWC: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram

Subscribe: NWC YouTube Channel (New videos weekly!)

Explore: NWC Website

Inclusion Uncomplicated Dr. White's latest book (Hard copy & NEW Paperback version available)

Join: Weekly Newsletter

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Amri B. Johnson to Intentional Conversations and if there is one phrase that summarizes this entire episode, it is #BounceHigher.

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM AMRI:

• When you’re in the midst of chaos the best thing to do is act. You learn, you sense, you respond to that and you do it again.
• When you get close to a disability, you’re seeing the world in a completely different way.
• People are more than just that part of who they are, it has to be addressed as the whole human. My niece is not her prosthetic, she’s Jasmine. She’s fun and she’s compassionate, bi-sexual, into old school hip hop.
• People want you to honor whatever helps them thrive.
• Emerging inclusion framework - how do we build capacity to get stronger after stressors?
• DEI has been heavily focused on racilization and we were not always as prudent who that was about and for as what we should have been.
• We need to be honest enough to move where we want to be.
• I love to be right, it’s one of my favorite things. Rightness has never transformed anything. If we’re only focused on being right, we probably won’t have very much transformation.
• The lines and boxes don’t exist, because they put us in the space of “what” and we need to be more focused on “who”.
• Leadership is the capacity of a human community to shape its future. That means we all have to be a part of that dance and all of us can make a contribution inside of it. If we want human flourishing, we need to do it when we are all responsible.
• The way your muscle grows is to tear it down and then build it back up with diet and rest, in a way, you’re always gonna have a certain amount of stressors, and sometimes you avoid them, the avoidance actually makes them more difficult. The stressors are opportunities and not something you’re a victim of.
• Resilience gets you back to baseline, anti-fragility gets you better.
• It’s not I get better and you don’t, it’s we get better or we don’t. You don’t get too far by yourself.
• Lean into love and do whatever you have to do to get to where you want to together. Sometimes you need to have someone that is that caring, unconditional space, and we all need to cultivate that.
• Not super human, we need to be super connected, that is the only way I know to bounce higher!



CONNECT WITH AMRI:

On LinkedIn | X

On Substack

Visit his website

Get his book, Reconstructing Inclusion

NWC WANTS TO CONNECT:

Follow NWC: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram

Subscribe: NWC YouTube Channel (New videos weekly!)

Explore: NWC Website

Inclusion Uncomplicated Dr. White's latest book (Hard copy & NEW Paperback version available)

Join: Weekly Newsletter

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Dr. Kim McLear to Intentional Conversations!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM DR. KIM:

• I’ve always been someone that is driven to learn, live and laugh.
• Sharing space with someone is powerful and sacred and speaks to co-creation.
• If the intentions are to have something beautiful emerge from our connection,
• Intentionally put herself in uncomfortable places to work through her comfort zone boundaries.
• I’m going to demonstrate radical belonging.
• It was a reflection about how unaccountable systems are.
• Designed a movement around joy, aliveness, rhythm, tempo - all centered around how do you expose unaccountable systems but live your life with joy, indignity and integrity.
• Individually we are all powerful, but what is more important, especially now, is that we find our community.
• There is strength in silence.
• There is power in observation, power in documenting what you’re seeing even if you don’t have the power to change it. That helps to reclaim the narratives for how to fight back.
• Find your confidantes, find your community, lean into trusted relationships. When you find your senses are being inflamed, lean into those trusted relationships. Have a space to be with others and cultivate spaces of love. Nourish your mind, your bodies and observe how you feel when you’re in those spaces of love. That is where we will have an abundance of intentional actions, not from toxic spaces.
• Right the ship wasn’t just about the Coast Guard, it’s about this country, any organization that is failing and not doing the business of the people.
• Used my talent and reputation as strategy and community.
• Tremendous power in how we move, what we feed our minds and you never know what will emerge in the future.

CONNECT WITH DR. KIM:

OnLinkedIn

FollowThe Art of Civics Project on LinkedIn for updates about her future events

Visit her website

CONNECT WITH DR. WHITE & NWC:

Follow NWC: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram

Subscribe: NWC YouTube Channel (New videos weekly!)

Explore: NWC Website

Inclusion Uncomplicated Dr. White's latest book (Hard copy & NEW Paperback version available)

Join: Weekly Newsletter

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Tommi Paris to Intentional Conversations!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM TOMMI:

• As referees, we are absorbing chaos and create calm.
• Try to create calm by underlining needs and values that are connected to what I’m seeing in someone else.
• Even when I’m 100% right and someone else is 100% wrong, I still want to understand what’s going on.
• I rarely look to agree, especially in this work, we’re not going to arrive at agreement. I generally look for closure.
• My goal and my motive isn’t going to be to change their mind, it’s impossible… but trying to achieve closure is the key.
• We’ve lost the art of nuance… and we’re atrophying our muscles around dialogue and really centering understanding, versus agreement.
• We don’t have the hard conversations becuase they aren’t safe, so as a leader what am I doing to create a safe space where taking a risk is ok?
• Your orientation to learning has to be humility.
• It really moves people when there is no difference in status, people who are seemingly untouchable, versus the people who are always getting ganged, when we reduce the strata, and someone is called in of a high status, how you show up in those moments will shift an organization overnight.
• You might be rocking it out on the spreadsheets, but you’re leaving dead bodies behind you.
• Inclusive leadership is our access to high performance. If we stay the course it will be a beautiful thing.

RESOURCES SHARED DURING EPISODE:

https://www.nikawhite.com/from-the-hardwood-to-history-dawn-staley-s-uncommon-favor-and-the-power-of-storytelling

CONNECT WITH TOMMI:

OnLinkedIn

LET'S STAY CONNECTED:

Follow NWC: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram

Subscribe: NWC YouTube Channel (New videos weekly!)

Explore: NWC Website

Inclusion Uncomplicated Dr. White's latest book (Hard copy & NEW Paperback version available)

Join: Weekly Newsletter

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we were joined by Diya Khanna!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM DIYA:

• Community is more important than ever. All of that other stuff is majoring in minors and we should be saving our time and energy for other things to move this work forward.
• You learn and grow from places of discomfort, as long as they are safe places.
• Challenge each other in a way that is respectful and mindful of others competencies. Don’t discount other people’s competencies.
• Community doesn't come overnight. We need to invest in community.
• We’re stronger when there’s more of us with the same message. When we begin echoing what someone else says, people begin to listen.
• If someone is speaking up, amplify out loud so they don’t feel alone. Show up for your community.
• Equity of opportunity! Give people the opportunity to share their skills. If we don’t people wait in the shadows, when we do that we are all better for it.
• People are in different areas of their learning journey. Allow people the space to be on their journey.
• There’s power in asking questions. Rather than tell, ask. Inspire curiosity.
• Lean into storytelling, it’s so impactful for DEI.
• There’s nuanced differences in how we approach this work. Invite the differences.
• Don’t give people mass information, give them prompts to get their minds thinking.
• You can have similarities, but always invite the differences and being challenged.
• The best way to shape mindsets is to spend time around that difference.
• VUCA is an acronym that stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity, and it's a framework used to describe the turbulent, unpredictable nature of the modern world, particularly in business and leadership contexts. The reframe is Vision, Understanding, Clarity, and Agility.



CONNECT WITH DIYA:

OnLinkedIn | Instagram

Visit her website

LET'S STAY CONNECTED:

Inclusion Uncomplicated Dr. White's latest book (Hard copy & NEW Paperback version available)

Follow NWC: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram

Subscribe: NWC YouTube Channel (New videos weekly!)

Explore: NWC Website

Join: Weekly Newsletter

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Ernesto Aguilar & Paige Barnett to Intentional Conversations!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM ROBERT & PAIGE:

DOWNLOAD THE DEI COUNCIL RESOURCE GUIDE**

• Change is non-linear.
• When organizations are resistant to change, there are typical indicators we see at the corporate level. When organizations become reactive, there is a lot of burnout, leaders are anxious, there is a sense of exhaustion and overwhelm across the board.
• When you’re proactive about culture change is when organizations begin to see progress.
• The goal is being strategic about culture change and it’s possible.
• TRUST is the through line. Trust is the currency of change.
• To change your organization it is the responsibility of the people with most power.
• Make sure you’re mature enough about building trust with staff and building systems of trust with staff.
• They communicate, they participate, they show up, they’re grateful and express gratitude.
• For the people who are volunteering or volun-told, have a budget or at the very least recognize them.
• Being genuinely curious and really listening and taking that to heart and responding and reacting in a time bound fashion with people.
• Councils are not HR.
• Communication is key.
• The little behaviors or resistance keep staff from participating, but ultimately keep people from staying.
• Write this into your recruitment strategy.
• Senior leaders show up less defensively with staff for councils that are growing.
• Never take for granted the work you are doing and the impact you are having, they may not see in 5, 10, 30 years the impact you’ve had, but quietly they are saying thank you!

CONNECT WITH ROBERT & PAIGE:

Paige's LinkedIn

Roberto's LinkedIn

Visit Robnett Consulting website

LET'S STAY CONNECTED:

Follow NWC: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X

Subscribe: NWC YouTube Channel (New videos weekly!)

Explore: NWC Website

Inclusion Uncomplicated Dr. White's latest book (Hard copy & NEW Paperback version available)

Join: Weekly Newsletter

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Naaima Khan to Intentional Conversations!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM NAAIMA:

• Abundance, authenticity, asset-based core values behind her business… we live in a world where people are really feeling the scarcity, enough time, enough money, whatever, we’re always trapped in this scarcity mindset. But what if we were to break that pattern, inner thinking?
• It reminds us that we are enough, we have enough, just because we are feeling lack in one way or another doesn’t mean that becomes the defining factor in our lives.
• Mindset abundance isn’t always operating in the “I need more” mindset.
• It is critical to establish the needs that communities are facing to help funders understand what the need is.
• Organizations will use diversity, but they don’t know how to really use that when it comes to bringing people to the table.
• Identity is such a hyper-indivualized take, focusing on me, which is important to a degree to have that. This is how I connect and resonate to people as I pursue my journey through the world.
• Have we gone through times of instability before? And how did folx historically participate? Putting into perspective, yes this is our current context, yes it’s uncomfortable, and do we find a way to navigate through it that makes our ancestors proud.
• What we see today is not from an overnight shift.
• How do you center equity? Really embed a decolonized lens, to really see every community’s lives as valuable.
• If you’re not willing to slow down to some degree, you’re probably not setting yourself up for success in equity work.
• I ask my clients, what is the long term effect?
• There are other ways to practice smaller wins to help people to understand the longer term. It does take an intentional and planned investment to stay connected to equity work.
• People don’t pay enough attention to the cost of equity work. It costs in employee retention, in terms of being effective, in terms of having more quality ideas.
• Narratives shape mindset.
• Stories really impact us at a deeper level than we understand. They socialize us, they are all things that impact our world view and directly impact our actions. So critical to build that level of consciousness.
• Take the time to say what calls our spirit to the higher things in life.



CONNECT WITH NAAIMA:

OnLinkedIn



STAY CONNECTED TO NWC:

Follow NWC: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X

Subscribe: NWC YouTube Channel (New videos weekly!)

Explore: NWC Website

Inclusion Uncomplicated Dr. White's latest book (Hard copy & NEW Paperback version available)

Join: Weekly Newsletter

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, the podcast where we engage in bold dialogue at the intersection of diversity, equity, inclusion, leadership, and business.

I’m Dr. Nika White, your host, and I’m thrilled to have you join us!

This week, we had an inspiring conversation with Janet Stovall, diving into

So, grab your headphones 🎧, hit play, and let’s get started!

✨ Be sure to SUBSCRIBE so you never miss a conversation that matters. ✨

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Taught lesson vs. bought lesson… it is the one place that it has the ability and true incentive to do the work. It is not going to be easy, but I think people will figure out they need to keep doing it.
• Infinity groups are about identity, ERG’s are about advocacy and that’s when you provide value to the company.
• ERG's don't happen organically, if you don’t support your people on the first 2 levels, identity and advocacy, they will never get to the 3rd level of value.
• “Companies can mandate diversity, but they have to cultivate inclusion.” We focus on getting bodies in the building, but that’s not enough. Inclusion has always been the most important of inclusion, diversity and equity. Most of us think inclusion as feeling, I define it as behavior.
• Diversity is not a problem to solve, it solves problems. Inclusion is not feeling valued, it is being able to deliver value. And equity…
• You cannot just create a “space” of belonging, then you say “sense” of belonging, but the onus of inclusion is on the person that has been excluded. The only way to create belonging is you have to focus on inclusive behaviors.
• If you’re trying to decide whether you’re going to go public and say something, ask yourself 5 questions, is it: Deliberate, Educated, Purposeful, Tailored, Habitual?
• Sometimes we go up, then we come right back down. In 2020, we went way up, but now we need to expect that we’re going to come way down. What gives me hope is we are still moving all along the continuum.
• I follow what pisses me off, I don’t follow what makes me happy.
• What keeps me in this work… understanding who I uniquely am, where I am doing the work, and identifying the unique barriers to inclusion.
• The data shows up Black women are effected more than anyone else in the workplace.
• Everybody has some aspect seen or unseen of diversity.
• Being a communicator is incredibly important because you have to help people understand how it effects them.
• The heart and mind will never change as long as the behavior doesn’t change.
• We have to keep doing this work, but it has never been easy. We live in an inequitable world, and in that world, equity is a disruption. If we don’t, we see where the world would like to be!

CONNECT WITH JANET:

On LinkedIn | Instagram

On her website

Listen to her podcast

Get her book - The Conscious Communicator: The Fine Art Of Not Saying Stupid Sht*



LET'S STAY CONNECTED:

Follow NWC: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X

Subscribe: NWC YouTube Channel (New videos weekly!)

Explore our NWC Website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated Dr. White's latest book (Hard copy & NEW Paperback version available)

Join the NWC Weekly Newsletter

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

We’re shaking things up with a special reunion episode to celebrate our 5 year anniversary of the Intentional Conversations vodcast!

We kicked off the reunion episode with four incredible women, and past guests, who returned to catch up, share insights, and reflect on the world today—plus what they’ve been up to since their last visit.

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel—we’re all about keeping the great conversations flowing!

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM ALL:

Minda - This is a marathon, not a sprint.

Minda - I had to talk to myself nice… what does my life look like? I had to ask myself those questions, putting my stake in the ground, I’m an advocate, will still encourage people. The strategy might change, but the game is still the same.

Minda - Root yourself into 2 - 3 things you care deeply about and focus your time and energy on those things.

Deepa - Found myself really burnt out in a deep way, took time at the end of last year to say what does my life really need to look like?

Deepa - Find the joy where you can… do the small things, it feels overwhelming. But also get smarter to see how you can engage in the conversation.

Deepa - Community is what will help us get through this.

Nika - Strategic patience is so important right now.

Ritu - If there has ever been a moment for us needing to be in community, needing to be witnessed, it is this moment.

Ritu - In moments of darkness, the thing we need most is light. We will have moments of joy and light and whatever they are, those are the moments we’ll gravitate to.

Ritu - Joy is resistance.

Tara - When we have to tear things apart, I can rely on the good reason and the good reason will give me some semblance of peace. So I focus on what I can do to take care of myself, pave the way on how to show up for myself and others.

Tara - What does it mean when things are consumed by fire? That things have the space to be born.

Tara - You are before the world, if you don’t take care of you, you can’t do Sh-t. You sometimes have to pave the way before other people can see clearly enough to move. Human beings are before systems.

Ritu - I am still showing up because I recognize the importance of connection.

Ritu - It’s important to view our actions through everyone on this planet is effected by what I do and say.

Deepa - We underestimated the impact in gender. A lot of companies just weren’t thinking it wouldn’t go there.

Deepa - So much of my work is focused on the we and the me, we need to talk about doing both and how we make it through this time. How do we make change together.

Deepa - Some people worry about themselves, some include their family, some see their community, some may see their state or country, but there are lots of us that see us before the world.

When asked the question, "How did we get here?"

Ritu - Capitalism is destroying our planet. It is the fundamental root problem that connects with power and greed and the mistaken belief in scarcity. There is abundance in the earth and universe and we have brought into the false belief of scarcity.

Tara - Race and gender are like Trojan horses, they really aren’t the point. I feel like greed and power are the point. People know gender, race, civil rights is an emotional issue.

Minda - We’ve always been here… because we had a little more power, we forgot about the other stage, but they were already pulling things together. I’m very optimistic about the future.

Deepa - It’s a last dance… people who historically had power felt like things were shifting. If the stories and things we care about aren’t updated, the sense of winner take all, if we don’t change those narratives, we don’t teach the younger generation how to live. There is more of us in the circles together, and that’s what we need to do more too!

Nika - Don’t stop what you’re doing!



CONNECT WITH NWC:

Follow NWC: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X

Subscribe: NWC YouTube Channel (New videos weekly!)

Explore: NWC Website

Inclusion Uncomplicated Dr. White's latest book (Hard copy & NEW Paperback version available)

Join: Weekly Newsletter

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Dr. Adriane Johnson-Williams to Intentional Conversations!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM DR. ADRIANE:

1. What do you want your company to do for people so that when you’re putting your strategies together, they are human centered.
2. Strategies can shift when you think about the people at the heart of your work.
3. Human beings are not machines.
4. As a leader how do you lead something you don’t live?
5. If you are the most powerful person in an organization and you don’t understand at a personal level, why having people from all sorts of backgrounds is vital, then it is going to be very hard to lead.
6. Everybody has “average-ness” in their group.
7. What does it mean to be a team that institutionalizes equity… changing what you’ve done as a team would require disrupting core operations. If you’re really working as a team and you’re weaving in equity principles into everything you do, it becomes virtually impossible to back out of it.
8. You can call it whatever you want, words don’t matter any more, but do the work.
9. Look at every aspect of the way we function, all of the policies, procedures, hidden rules, that is where inequities live, and that takes work. It takes you to be clear headed and honest.
10. That attitude isn’t applied to how people make money, if Apple did things the way they did in 1994, no one would be paying attention to them anymore. BUT… they will say it all day long about policies and people.
11. If you’re serious about getting where you want to go, equity is in there.
12. Take care of yourselves and activate the joy that is within her to effect her work.
13. Reflective practice works - think about what’s working, think about what’s failed, not just for you, but for the emerging field.
14. You cannot do clear level reflection if you are overstressed, overwhelmed and trying to take care of the world.
15. In this current climate, now is not the time to worry about how you talk about things. It is the time to worry about how you DO things. Don’t talk about it, be about it.

CONNECT WITH DR. ADRIANE:

On LinkedIn

Visit her website

Listen to her Podcast

Get her book - Not Your Father's Capitalism

CONNECT TO NWC:

Follow NWC: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X

Subscribe: NWC YouTube Channel (New videos weekly!)

Explore: NWC Website

Inclusion Uncomplicated Dr. White's latest book (Hard copy & NEW Paperback version available)

Join: Weekly Newsletter

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Michael Paciello to Intentional Conversations!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS MICHAEL:

1. When building a website, build a mindset of "think accessibility", then it becomes easier, it will be built into your digital environment.
2. Most companies come to them because there is a level of urgency, a lawsuit, the real thing comes back to how do we get the C-suite folx to indoctrinate a culture of inclusivity? 5 - 10 years, is using the accessibility maturity model. If you start with this, you’re saying Who are we? What do we have in place where disabilities and inclusion are concerned? And where do we need to improve?
3. Be sure your leaders buy into this! This is where the crux of the problem comes in.
4. Making it accessible in theory sounds easy, but that’s not true.
5. Marketing has been built based on the “trust marketing ethic”, be truthful about what your products can and cannot do, and who they serve.
6. There is a difference between making something accessible and making it usable.

7. 1 challenge is bias in AI - it is all about math.

8. How can we scale accessibility? Get better and better every day!!

CONNECT WITH MICHAEL:

OnLinkedIn | Facebook | X | YouTube

Learn more about Audio Eye

LET'S STAY CONNECTED:

Follow NWC: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X

Subscribe: NWC YouTube Channel (New videos weekly!)

Explore: NWC Website

Inclusion Uncomplicated Dr. White's latest book (Hard copy & NEW Paperback version available)

Join: Weekly Newsletter

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Katrina Jones to Intentional Conversations!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM KATRINA:

1. One of the ways we cope is by disconnecting, but in that you miss the opportunity to be present and be with what’s right in front of you.
2. A common misconception is that DEI is short term work, it’s work you can set immediate goals and money around and it will be fixed within a years time, but it’s taken centuries to get to where we are now. Setting goals and giving a timeline is not going to happen.
3. As much as it is about having a plan, it’s about doing so for the long term.
4. DEI serves everyone… not just certain communities.
5. People want to go where things are good.
6. People need to understand the optics of DEI are bigger than people know.
7. The partners we’re working with don’t fundamentally understand DEI and if they don’t understand, they don’t necessarily believe.
8. It can sound like organizations have stepped back from their commitment to DEI, but does that mean they’re eliminating everything? Absolutely not.
9. Extend more grace to folks, we don’t know anyone’s individual situation or what commitments they have, sometimes, they just cannot speak out.
10. I always ask myself am I the best person to talk about this? Is there work I can do in other places? It might not be seen, but it will have an impact.
11. Rest instead of burn yourself out!



CONNECT WITH KATRINA:

On LinkedIn

LET'S STAY CONNECTED:

Follow NWC: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X

Subscribe: NWC YouTube Channel (New videos weekly!)

Explore: NWC Website

Inclusion Uncomplicated Dr. White's latest book (Hard copy & NEW Paperback version available)

Join: Weekly Newsletter

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Dr. Karen Hills Pruden to Intentional Conversations!

Dr. Pruden ended the Intentional Conversation with this challenge - "Let’s create our own community, be a part of a community and let’s soar!"

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

1. What you’re known for is more important in the workplace, now more than ever.
2. When I say community, I’m talking about someone you can have an unfiltered conversation about what you really feel.
3. Those of us in leadership may feel we don’t have a safe space because lots of eyes are on us.
4. A trusted person can be 1 person, you don’t need 50.
5. Intersectionality is important - we cannot look at our employees without this. As a business or as an employer, you need to understand that individual. No more surface relationships. You need to know your people.
6. What you don’t measure can create a problem, you can’t hold people accountable.
7. Tying the metrics for DEI into leadership, we have to hold people accountable. If you believe in it, it needs to be tied into the metrics for our leaders.
8. If organizations keep in mind the business case for DEI… they tend to be more profitable, they tend to be viewed better, get feedback from customers / workforce, and their workforce is more representative of their customers.
9. You cannot dispute quantitative data.
10. Biggest misconceptions I see is equity and equality are synonyms for one another, they are not.
11. Tips for making employees feel seen & heard: Talking to employees, email that employees can use, town halls, regular departmental meetings, and messaging happens to the masses.
12. Walk in and talk to your people, we miss lots due to communicating through email.

CONNECT WITH DR. KAREN:

On LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram

Visit her website

Learn more about the upcoming Sister Leaders Conference

Feedback and FREE Download Link: 10 Ways to Stand Out in an Anti-Diversity Workplace:

STAY CONNECTED WITH NWC:

Follow NWC: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X

Subscribe: NWC YouTube Channel (New videos weekly!)

Explore: NWC Website

Inclusion Uncomplicated Dr. White's latest book (Hard copy & NEW Paperback version available)

Join the NWC Weekly Newsletter

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Zach Nunn to Intentional Conversations!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

1. Let’s get away from the jargon, that I did not create and let’s figure out what it is… it is about experience!
2. EVERYBODY deserves a fair and respectful experience.
3. When you’re working with clients or your own team, there will always be opportunities for misalignment, but when you level-set up front, uncomfortable conversations become not so uncomfortable.
4. 99.999% of the time, when you’re up front and honest, regardless of race, it is all good.
5. A lot of the ideas are cute in presentation… every seat isn’t equal. One of the most invisible letters in DEI is “P”, for power. The truth is the meeting has already happened before the meeting.
6. A lot of people are just happy to be at the table, so they can say they were at the table.
7. Leaders have to be comfortable in sharing power, people receiving the power have to have the courage to be courageous and then have the ability to use the power.
8. If you’re just trying to reserve your seat, your not going to give, but you’re not going to receive either.
9. Giving full opportunity of success to others, means we have to share power.
10. Curiosity is how to give everyone a spot to be heard.
11. An attitude of service and support is easy to build an environment of inclusion and excitement because feel like they’re being considered. Be quiet, ask more questions and listen more than you’re speaking.

CONNECT WITH ZACHARY:

Visit his Linktree to access ALL Zach's got going on

LET'S STAY CONNECTED:

Follow NWC: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X

Subscribe: NWC YouTube Channel (New videos weekly!)

Explore: NWC Website

Inclusion Uncomplicated Dr. White's latest book (Hard copy & NEW Paperback version available)

Join: Weekly Newsletter

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Jelisa Dallas to Intentional Conversations!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM JELISSA:

• Remember to let your soul work, be your best work, to a better you.
• Fear of failing and success can coexist.
• GO BRAVE FRAMEWORK - this started out being for me first, a personal revelation that I needed to work through

G - Growing your mindset

O - Optimism

B - Boldness

R - Resilience

A - authenticity - own who you are and operate your authority

V - Victory / Virtue - always operating in integrity

E - Empower people in their purpose PRACTICAL WAYS TO GO BRAVE

• Always learning! When you stop learning, you stop growing. Be willing to unlearn things that have been rooted as fact or truth.
• Rest! Not just sleep, putting phone down, taking walks outside, etc…
• Recognize what we have and being grateful for that… not just what we can leverage like credentials, but who do we have.
• Rest and resilience - sitting in the moments of adversity and saying what was my responsibility and what wasn’t. We take it all in and try to move forward with all the baggage, but it does nothing for us.
• We can only control ourselves and influence others.
• Give Courageously - our giving can be from the cup and not from the overflow. Typically when we give, we reduce the amount of what we’re giving. Take a step away from life, as much as you can, need to identify it, what gives you reprieve. Only from a place of overflow, can we give abundantly. We don’t do much work, it just naturally comes from the overflow.

CONNECT WITH JELISSA:

OnLinkedIn | YouTube

Visit her website

JELISSA'S BOOKS:

The Emotional Intelligence Guide To Allyship

Soul Work

LET'S STAY CONNECTED:

🟣 Follow NWC: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram

🟣 Subscribe: NWC YouTube Channel (New videos weekly!)

🟣 Explore: NWC Website

🟣 Inclusion Uncomplicated Dr. White's latest book (Hard copy & NEW Paperback version available)

🟣 Join: Weekly Newsletter

View Details

Welcome to Season 5 of Intentional Conversations, the place where we have discussions that inspire inclusive cultures, belonging and excellence! Led by award-winning author, speaker and practitioner, Dr. Nika White and team.

We're so grateful you're here. Let the conversation begin!

For Episode 1 of Season 5, we welcomed Kellina Powell, and WOW! Kellina is deaf and an advocate/coach/mentor, mainly for the deaf community.

BIG TAKEAWAY FROM KELLINA: Do not be afraid to come out of your comfort zone, you have one life to live.

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM KELLINA:

• She chose to go into coaching, teaching, and writing because she wanted to let deaf people know they are not alone in the world.
• Deaf people need paper and pen.
• I noticed when people do a workshop, they will use someone who is not disabled, be mindful to bring the right people and the right topics.
• Build a good networking space
• Be cautious with your surroundings.
• Be sure emergency indicators flash or have some type of visual / or accountability partner
• Build a relationship with someone who has a disability.
• Best way to ask companies is to say “Please educate me.”
• Policy review needs to be consistent.

What do you never again want people to say, think or do regarding deaf people?

• 1 - Replace the term "Hearing impairment" with "hard of hearing" or "deaf". It is ok to say "deaf".
• 2 - When speaking with someone, be sure your face is forward so they can read your lips.
• 3 - If you’re wearing masks, find the clear masks or take off your mask.
• 4 - Do not shout, talk softly.
• 5 - Don’t rephrase what you’ve said, just repeat it. It’s not an understanding issue, its a hearing issue.

CONNECT WITH KELLINA:

On Instagram | FB | LinkedIn

On Youtube

Visit her website

Get her book "Everday I Am Just Deaf"

LET'S STAY CONNECTED:

• Follow NWC: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X
• Subscribe: NWC YouTube Channel (New videos weekly!)
• Explore: NWC Website
• Inclusion Uncomplicated Dr. White's latest book (Hard copy & NEW Paperback version available)
• Join: Weekly Newsletter

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Valda Valbrun to Intentional Conversations!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• The role of education is to make kids curious!
• A big part is not just about making sure the curriculum reflects it, but that the school experience is not one that feels so isolating.
• Think through how do I accept my students as they are and how do I learn from them and incorporate that into my instruction.
• When I engage in content, I should see myself in it.
• When we think of being culturally competent, how do I as a teacher or leader invite students into that?
• Most students of color experience up to 90 microagressions in school.
• What culture have we created where self advocacy gets you in trouble?
• We never know what someone is experiencing in their world, everybody has something.
• For educators, we need to realize that we don’t know all there is to know about them, especially with young people.
• Students spend more time at school than they do with their families… schools should be an environment where they can come and be their full self.
• Culturally relevant books are being banned and that’s ok because we can still talk about it.
• If I learn something that is relevant to my life, and I can make it work with my lived experience and culture, it is enduring understanding.
• DEI work is important, but I’m not going to allow it to take away from the things that I know are important, not at the expense of my health and well-being.
• Real inclusion is saying who has been left out that we need to include.
• Given where we are, who do you want to be?

CONNECT WITH VALDA:

On LinkedIn

Visit her website

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Connect on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | X

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (New videos and more weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated (Paperback out in January 2025!)

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter!

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Yolanda Webb to Intentional Conversations!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

** SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube channel for sooo much more content!

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Attention is a choice. Intention is a choice.
• Attention bias is being very selective about what you’re focusing on.
• What you focus your attention on is what is going to be the outcome.
• At the end of the day, when you go to bed, recall every single thing you did. It helps you to redirect your attention.
• The debate is not that DEI is wrong, the debate are the letters.
• I don’t chose to give time and energy to the people who have said this has no value.
• The opposite of courage is not cowardice, but compromise.
• Goodwill is measurable. It is selective attention.
• Small acts of goodwill refocuses our attention. The folx who don’t agree with me, now see my humanity.
• So much of our attention is internal and it needs to be more external.
• Tools we can use to change our attention to focus on something new:
• Embrace your vulnerability and your authenticity.
• Expand your view. Look at new resources, listen to something new.
• We have to focus on the small stuff!
• Purpose driven culture - The final decision should rest with you, but the decision making shouldn’t rest with you. All of your people should have a voice in any decision making.
• Purpose driven - I already know when I start my day what I want my outcomes to be, that’s purpose driven.
• Helping your team internally to get to the outcomes externally you want, if your team is unhappy internally you will not get to the external outcome you want.
• Performance evaluations is not an evaluation of your culture.
• Where do I need to create space for growth? We can only grow when we are self aware and vulnerable. The first place we show up vulnerable is to ourselves. But often times our ego gets in the way of the vulnerability.

CONNECT WITH YOLANDA:

On LinkedIn | Facebook

Visit her website

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Connect on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | X

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (New videos and more weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

Get the weekly newsletter!

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Natasha Wade to Intentional Conversations!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM NATASHA:

• Its important to have a sacred brave space to name your shame, fears, and name your calling.
• Your activism and advocacy should be grounded in your lived experiences.
• "I’ve never lost when investing in Black women."
• When it comes to Black women we are not allowed to be anything but perfect…with Natasha Wade Black women are invited to be vulnerable and human.
• There is nothing at all wrong with centering Black women with our work.
• One-on-one coaching is powerful. However, cohort-based learning is on the rise for 2025 because of the community aspect ingrained within it.
• “Act our wage”, it is important to be able to express yourself without being career limited.
• I am not doing this to you, I am doing this for me.
• A lot of the times we go into our businesses due to what we lack.
• We (Black women) are often fueled based on what we missed out on.
• Sometimes when we work in silos, we think our reality is the reality and that is not always the case; that is why community is important.
• Never rob yourself of any resources you can have from the resources you have access to.
• How do we reimagine our workspace? What does a liberated workspace look like?
• In a liberated workspace, Black women are very unapologetic about the people we bring inside our organizations and ask them the hard questions.
• A one size approach is not going to get the job done, we have to learn our people one-by-one to create human-centered approaches.

CONNECT WITH NATASHA:

On Instagram

On her website

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Connect on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | X

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (New videos and more weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

Get the weekly newsletter!

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Amanda Miller Littlejohn to Intentional Conversations!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM AMANDA:

• People spend a lot of energy trying to produce with perfection instead of just producing as they go. Perfection shouldn’t be the goal… progress should be.
• Work as worth - machine mindset dictates your output, your level of doing as work in the world, determines your value. We find ourselves over working to try and make up those deficits, even though we are inherently valuable as we are.
• If you’re chasing your self worth - via the work you produce - and you forego rest to do that, you can see how burnout lives.
• Muscle memory is why we ignore humanity.
• If working twice as hard is tangled up in your self worth, you will never be able to satiate it. Working twice as hard is detrimental when you prioritize it over everything else. Working twice as hard sometimes doesn’t yield the results you are wanting.
• Burnout is caused by a series of misalignments across the board... our time, our ambition, our relationships, our relationship with ourselves.
• Rest is very important piece of burnout.
• Recognizing your humanity and reminding yourself that it is ok to feel what I’m feeling.
• The people who make a permanent shift actually change their lives.
• Realignment is a daily practice.
• Become a student of yourself!

CONNECT WITH AMANDA:

On Instagram | X

Get Amanda's Book!

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Connect on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | X

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (New videos and more weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

Get the weekly newsletter!

Want to be the first to know about upcoming events, tips and more? Sign up for our SMS list. We promise no spam, just the good stuff!

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Wade Hinton to Intentional Conversations!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Wade's TEDx Talk

• Business strategy needs to fill like it’s a part of the work, not something separate.
• "People want to feel like you did something with them, not to them." - Shirley Franklin
• Leaders set the tone for their company culture. It is being created with or without your guidance.
• Give your employees space and time to process so that they feel valued.
• Organizations need to really understand what your values are and put them where people can see them.
• Create space for people to feel like they can come to you as a leader.
• Allow check-ins - doesn’t require solutions, but let’s you make sure your team members can be heard.
• Make sure the resources are available for people to use those.
• His ebook provides a framework for how to have conversations - BUILD is an acronym for: Be curious, Understand, Impact, Learn, Determine
• When you are curious and willing to listen and learn, that can change the conversation.
• We sit, listen and talk to organizations, there are some really practical things that can be done, by just a small tweak, but it makes all the difference in the world.
• Pay attention to your own mat!
• Make sure you have a learning culture, where you do not have to be perfect on day 1.
• Let’s make some space for grace.
• Have the courage to say, "Here’s what I’ve learned… "

CONNECT WITH WADE:

Purchase Wade's EbookBridge Building

On Instagram | LinkedIn

Visit his company's website

Learn more about Wade

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Connect on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | X

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (New videos and more weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

Get the weekly newsletter!

Want to be the first to know about upcoming events, tips and more? Sign up for our SMS list. We promise no spam, just the good stuff!

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where diversity, equity, and inclusion meet leadership and business in a powerful dialogue.

This week, we’re thrilled to feature Rochelle Younan-Montgomery!

So grab your headphones 🎧, hit play, and dive into the conversation with us.

Don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE—there’s always more great content on the way!

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Find other ways to connect - send a voice memo, take a breath, slow down, think before sending the email, what is an unmet need and identify what it is to think what can bring resolution and solution, and include humor.
• Going from Conflict Avoidance to Conflict Curiosity often involves true mindfulness.
• Conflict curiosity allows for restoration.
• Great leaders understand the power of a pause.
• Open The Front Door Method - rooted in non-violent communication
• O - Observe
• T - what you Think of that
• F - what you Feel about it, rather than leading with the emotion, you bring it into the conversation
• D - what is the Desired outcome (We’re unclear about our unmet needs, but we go in fighting, need to know what you desire as a part of the conversation.)
• We are less effective when we are burnt out. Often we are making things worse for ourselves and others when we’re working from a place of depletion.
• RESET framework is:
• R - Reflect - slow down and ask a powerful question “How might we be out of alignment with our values?”
• E - Embodiment - slow down and tapping into our inner wise guide for clarity
• S - Strategize - what do we need to do differently, both individually and as a team
• E - Experiment - culture of learning
• T - Trust / Tending / Tether - how do you really bring together the head and the heart
• Human centered approach means I’m modeling it. Acknowledging the work your team is doing. Allowing for moments of gratitude and praise, but not forcing it.
• Impossible standards are not the same as human standards.
• Compassionate leadership gets a bad rep.
• Be fiercely clear about what is and is not ok. Am I cultivating a daily practice outside of work in the way I talk to myself? What am I taking in on a daily basis that’s informing my world?
• When teams see a leader modeling the behavior, they know it’s ok to do the same.

CONNECT WITH ROCHELLE:

Sign up for Rochelle's FREE webinar, Monday, 11 /11 - Stay True, Handling Difficult Conversations With Calm And Clarity

Connect on LinkedIn

Subscribe to Rochelle's newsletter, at the bottom of the website!

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Connect with us: LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | X

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel for new weekly content!

Visit our website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated (Paperback Coming Early 2025!)

Get the weekly newsletter!

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Simma Lieberman to Intentional Conversations!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

1. People have different strengths.
2. Ask, "What can I do to make people comfortable?"
3. It’s not your fault you don’t know about groups of people, science has shown you get to be more comfortable with them as you spend time with them.
4. Most people don’t talk about race with people who don’t look like them.
5. People make assumptions about other people because they just don’t know them.
6. Not everybody has the same way of showing respect, there isn’t a right or wrong way.
7. An inclusive culture means people are more comfortable coming to work and contributing.
8. Everyone wants to feel a part of something greater than themselves, they want to feel part of the community.
9. People are willing to take risks when they feel included. When they don’t feel included, they’re keeping their genius to themselves.
10. If you’re the leader of an organization, you have to be willing to be wrong and don’t put people down because you don’t agree with them.
11. When people feel included at work, they want to make others feel included.

CONNECT WITH SIMMA:

OnLinkedIn | Instagram

Visit her website

Simma's Books

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Join our weekly newsletter!

Connect on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | X

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (New videos and more weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Dr. White's book: Inclusion Uncomplicated

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Carolina Barsa to Intentional Conversations!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

SPECIAL OFFER FOR IC COMMUNITY!

For Online Store, 30% off entire order! Discount code: INTENTIONAL

Applies to subscriptions and one-time purchases (limited to 1 recurring payment, No minimum purchase requirement.) Cannot combine with other discounts.

CAROLINA'S KEY TAKEAWAYS:

1. Growing up as a first-generation American and daughter of immigrants, education was instilled in me, but not how to understand the processes of education.
2. Having mentors helped me understand the nuances of navigating the professional world.
3. My team is diverse, and that leads to diverse thought. People, specifically women, have the opportunity to speak up and say what’s on their mind.
4. Our vision is about studying the healthiest and diverse people. We study those biomes. We study diverse groups and listen to feedback from diverse consumers to ensure generational healthy living.
5. 60% of Americans are battling some type of chronic disease.
6. Your gut controls a lot of your health. Promoting gut health will reduce chronic pain and fatigue and increase longevity.
7. People are looking for holistic healthy choices.
8. It takes women 10 years to get diagnosed, so we need to focus on preventative care.
9. There’s a strong gut and brain connection; if you don’t feel well, you can’t show up as your best.
10. Companies that are led by women are more productive.

CONNECT WITH CAROLINA:

On her website

CONNECT WITH DR. NIKA & NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Connect on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | X

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (New videos and more weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

Get the weekly newsletter!

Want to be the first to know about upcoming events, tips and more? Sign up for our SMS list. We promise no spam, just the good stuff!

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Christina Blacken to Intentional Conversations!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS & RESOURCES:

• Storytelling is your most powerful tool for trust building. Story helps in finding meaningful connection beyond transaction.
• Leadership is a practice, it is not just about title status and appearance.
• If your culture is toxic and unsafe and full of inaccurate stories, people will not want to stay.
• How do you create when all you're talking about is what’s bad and what’s wrong?
• It can be difficult for companies to shift cultures without a change management strategy.
• Recognizing what the positives are in the change… how does the change actually express your values?
• Leaders need to be clear on your transformation story, if you’re not doing this, people will insert their own story.
• Telling story Pulling from lived experience is important. These steps sound intuitive, and not difficult, but a lot of people are not doing it.
• What are you regularly consuming? What you are consuming has an impact on the internal narratives you have.
• Practice. Get clear on your values and create a structure of story-telling around your values.
• Psychological safety is very important when telling stories, affirming what you’ve heard deepens trust.
• Whatever narrative you’ve picked up from your family will show up in the workplace.
• Slow down the stories you assume about others. Ask "Is the story I’m attaching to this person in this moment inaccurate and am I asking enough questions?" It will create changes we didn’t know was possible.
• When things are falling apart, it is a great time for regeneration.
• Christina's LinkedIn Course

CONNECT WITH CHRISTINA:

On LinkedIn and Instagram

Visit her website



CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Connect on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | X

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (New videos and more weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

Get the weekly newsletter!

Want to be the first to know about upcoming events, tips and more? Sign up for our SMS list. We promise no spam, just the good stuff!

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Shani Dellimore Barrax to Intentional Conversations!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Cultural competence is turning the mirror outward, learning about other people.
• Cultural humility is turning the mirror inward and thinking more about your own identity and how it’s juxtaposed to others.
• Everything is relative!
• To apply the DEI concepts to real life, you have to engage with other humans.
• DEI is both head work and heart work.
• Psychological Spanx - we all think about as women the standards of beauty, there are white standards of beauty which dictates what our hair, body and skin should look like and, we as Black women, will alter our bodies to that beauty.
• Why can’t we get past race? We have to go through it. You can’t resolve something by just passing it, but you have to stop and engage.
• The only way you move through tolerance is through understanding, otherwise you stay in the spaces of willful oblivion.
• ERG’s and the associated broader programs are trying to facilitate bonding and bridging capital. You get the collective support when working with people who are like you.
• DEI is an art and a science.
• Service and progress are inextricably linked.
• Why complain if you’re not going to be part of the solution? You have to be willing to use those gifts to do something.
• Without struggle there is no progress, power exceeds nothing without command.

CONNECT WITH SHANI:

On LinkedIn

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Connect on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | X

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (New videos and more weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

Get the weekly newsletter!

Want to be the first to know about upcoming events, tips and more? Sign up for our SMS list. We promise no spam, just the good stuff!

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Yeruwelle de Rouen to Intentional Conversations!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM YERUWELLE:

• Color is the denotion of how we interact with each other, especially in the US.
• Always be scanning for who is not here, who is not being included.
• Not only Black women and men being at the table, but specific indigenous voices, that’s where our power comes in to name it and bring it in.
• The recognition for all of us is weighty… there is not another person who is having the same experience as us.
• How do I work in relationship with people? I don’t have to pretend, or not show up as fully myself, but working for myself has allowed me to do that.
• Restorative justice is an indigenous process about calling people in. The point is to rebuild community.
• Starts with the position of self and then turning it outward and seeing how it interacts with others.
• When we begin to align my desires with your desires, we will both win.
• When we feel a sense of psychological safety, it will create a heightened awareness of stepping out of our comfort zone.
• The issues that people have are intricately connected to their families.
• Economics is wholly tied to every decision that has been made since the beginning of western civilization. I don’t know of a system that has been created to be equitable. If we can start from knowing that systems weren’t set up to help, then we can realize the world is actually waiting for us to recreate it.
• When it is a process that lives only in the C-suite, it isn’t real.

RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:

Restorative Leader Watch List

CONNECT WITH YERUWELLE:

On LinkedIn

On her website - IntersectionalInnovations.com

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Connect on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | X

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (New videos and more weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

Get the weekly newsletter!

Want to be the first to know about upcoming events, tips and more? Sign up for our SMS list. We promise no spam, just the good stuff!

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Shelmina Abji to Intentional Conversations!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• This one exchange changed her whole career. Where do I want to go and being driven by that definition of success every single day.
• "When you see a turtle on the ledge, you know it had help getting there."
• When you show up every day to show your worth, you will achieve success.
• Success is not about overnight, it is about our daily habits and that can look different from person to person.
• Intentional Value Creation - When you’re intentional about creating value, the value you create will far exceed anything that is expected of you. And that’s where you begin to have transformational success instead of incremental success.
• Aim high and get outside your comfort zone! To shoot for something you don’t believe you can actually achieve.
• When you start by defining what 5-year success means, then you define a 6-month or 12-month definition of success and that becomes a stepping stone.
• Gratitude and ambition co-exist.
• The value you are creating is based on your current competencies. If you intentionally grow competencies you will continue to move toward incremental success.
• Take on projects that scare you!
• For transformational growth, you have to step outside your comfort zone. When you step outside of your comfort zone, there is no such thing as failure!
• The world takes you at your own estimate. If you won’t take a chance on yourself, you cannot expect someone else to take a change on you. We have to own it.
• Power quotient - it is your ability to intentionally pick an empowering response to a disempowering stimulus. Whether it is internal or external.
• People will not always be the way you want them to be, but they don’t define you! Your response to that circumstance defines you.
• Every challenge is an opportunity.
• To show your worth, you must first know and internalize your worth. Once you know it, you will never become a victim of anyone else.
• Ask for help! No one ever has achieved success without someone’s help.
• Your career is a long game, not about one project. The experiences do not matter, but who you become will stay with you forever.
• If we look for easy, we achieve incremental success.
• As you achieve success, please bring others with you.

RESOURCES IN THIS EPISODE:

Show Your Worth

CONNECT WITH SHELMINA:

On LinkedIn

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Connect on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | X

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (New videos and more weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

Get the weekly newsletter!

Want to be the first to know about upcoming events, tips and more? Sign up for our SMS list. We promise no spam, just the good stuff!

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Susanne to Intentional Conversations!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Susanne takes a quarterly retreat to just rest, pray and do yoga.
• She started working at 14 with her dad as a bookkeeper, who was a CPA and had his own firm. By the time she got to college, the tests were so easy. She was an expert by the time she was 24.
• The gift we give our children is not just our money, but our experience and knowledge.
• As entrepreneurs, we start our business because it’s something that we. We would probably do it for free. Just because we work hard, super serve our clients, it doesn’t mean we’re going to be profitable.
• We need to take our profit first as entrepreneurs. We need to be creating profitability in our business. Our family is sacrificing when we’re doing the entrepreneur thing.
• The more we have of something, the more we’re gonna spend, but Profit First says set up bank account for the profit first. Accounts to set up include: income, profit, owners pay, taxes, and operating expenses
• Unless you have a process in place to create profitability, you will always be in the same cycle.
• Regardless of the level of business you’re at, you do need some level of advisory accounting services.
• Success doesn’t just impact me, but it effects our children and our legacy changes based on our success.
• Not all contracts are good contracts.
• In 1971, President Nixon, the US dollar is just paper, I think we’re all worth more than a piece of paper. The dollar is NOT backed by gold. Who has the right to say you’re worth only 100 pieces of paper. We’re worth more than a piece of paper someone has assigned us to.
• FIGURE OUT YOUR WHY!?! Once you know your “why”, then create the outcomes and processes to get to the WHY.

CONNECT WITH SUSANNE:

On LinkedIn

Check out her website

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Connect on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | X

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (New videos and more weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

Get the weekly newsletter!

Want to be the first to know about upcoming events, tips and more? Sign up for our SMS list. We promise no spam, just the good stuff!

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Erica Lin Hering to Intentional Conversations!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• In hard moments, it is so easy to focus on our own reactions. How do we center and love those people who are hurting and not center ourselves.
• Emotions are data, emotions are valid.
• We each contribute to how others feel silence.
• What role will silence play in our lives and on our teams?
• Voice is not just the words we say in a meeting, but how we move through the world.
• Battle hypothesis around leadership - 80% of conversations are dominated by only two people in meetings, often we code leadership potential based on the quantity of speech, not the quality of speech
• If we spend our life channeling others voices, solving others problems, we lose the sense that we could show up and engage with agency. Basically saying “Who am I?”
• Ask 2 questions - "What do I think?" and "What do I need?" This starts to recultivate the sense of self that gets lost as you move through the world.
• Where we live is just one dimension, not to discount it, but none of us are monoliths and what’s most interesting from working on 6 continents is… people are people.
• Silence can be strategic. It is part of our tool set and part of our self preservation.
• In what ways have I learned silence? In what ways is my voice worthy or worthwhile? What ways do I unintentionally silence others?
• Let's normalize there are different ways of showing up, different ways of thinking.
• People don’t intend to silence each other, but we do incline each other towards silence by making it harder and easier for people to show up as they are.
• We are enough! What if we are enough as we are? Loving ourselves is a way to show up for each other.

CONNECT WITH ERICA:

OnLinkedIn

Visit her website - www.elainelinhering.com

Purchase her book - Unlearning Silence

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Connect on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | X

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (New videos and more weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

Get the weekly newsletter!

Want to be the first to know about upcoming events, tips and more? Sign up for our SMS list. We promise no spam, just the good stuff!

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Tai Christensen to Intentional Conversations!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM TAI:

• You can be proud to be the first, only, different person in the room and bring that perspective.
• You never know what is going to be the one vehicle of wealth ownership for your life.
• Bringing the gift that my ancestors gave I am the hope of the slave - Maya Angelou
• One decision can deeply effect the trajectory of your children, grand children and even your great grand children lives.
• Housing education through HUD is the best way to help Black / Brown community. Housing education is not telling people they need to buy a house… it’s property taxes, appraisal, HVAC, floor updates, maintenance… all these small things matter. The education component is so big.
• When we provide housing education, it’s not about interest rates or community location, it is teaching people how to care for their property adequately, so they can get the most return on their investment.
• The home is a long term asset, it will take time to increase in value to maximize it at it’s highest potential.
• Every housing payment you make, rental or mortgage, is going to someone’s bottom line. I would rather that investment be mine! At the end of the day, I want this resource for myself to use it in a way that benefits me, not my landlords family.
• Even if it’s not your dream home, not in the neighborhood you want, you have to start somewhere.
• The housing industry needs to be sure we’re disseminating trusted information to communities.
• Always trust yourself, don’t be nervous about deep thoughts you don’t want to confront, change is hard. Lean into the uncomfortability and see where the journey takes you!
• Sometimes the worst decision you’ve ever made turns out to be the best thing for you!

RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:

https://axis360lift.com/

CONNECT WITH TAI:

On LinkedIn

ArriveHome.org

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Connect on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | X

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (New videos and more weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

Get the weekly newsletter!

Want to be the first to know about upcoming events, tips and more? Sign up for our SMS list. We promise no spam, just the good stuff!

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Daisy Auger-Domínguez to Intentional Conversations!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

DAISY'S KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• We don’t get rid of marketing or product functions when the economy changes, but we do this for DEI. We need to use this time to restrategize and execute this work better, not giving up. It’s to companies detriment when you give up on DEI.
• Acknowledge that some things didn’t go as planned, but that’s life. Use this time to make it better, that’s business.
• DEI has always been questioned and DEI practitioners have always been devalued... this isn’t new. Ebs and flows always happen with DEI work. Society is reactive and the media plays into it.
• Sensationalizing DEI for clicks and likes, makes light of terms that affect people’s life and how they are treated in society.
• Simone Biles, brought to the forefront wellbeing and moving away from something you love for mental health and coming back. She represents strength and resilience on her own terms.
• Reshaping systems is always met with push back.
• Radical Sabbatical to deal with years of stress, chronic health problems, and burnout.
• To lead well, we have to live well: https://www.daisyauger-dominguez.com/books For managers of people.
• There’s only one side of DEI work... inclusion is for everyone. We need a collective and inclusive approach where everyone feels included. You can’t be on the wrong side of DEI.
• Allyship during this election. Find your what and why? How do you leverage your power to include a Black or Brown person.
• Allyship: Think about the stories you include/know and the ones you are overlooking because they’re uncomfortable.
• The pursuit of DEI is a shared responsibility and business imperative.

CONNECT WITH DAISY:

On LinkedIn | X

Visit her website

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Connect on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | X

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (New videos and more weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

Get the weekly newsletter!

Want to be the first to know about upcoming events, tips and more? Sign up for our SMS list. We promise no spam, just the good stuff!

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Dr. Erica Wallace to Intentional Conversations!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

1. The juxtaposition of the Kamala Harris and the murder of Sonya Massey shows the Black experience in America.
2. Holding space for the joy and the tragedy is the Black experience.
3. DEI hire sounds like the affirmative action discourse. Ask people what they mean... then you can identify the coded language and know where they stand.
4. Peer mentor programs for students of color on predominately White institutions helps retention. Those programs help students feel like they belong.
5. The "Superwoman myth" means creating an environment where Black women feel like they have to do it all, do it well, and do it on their own.
6. The superwoman role can be taken on by Black women to survive.
7. Women of color experience the Superwoman myth just like Black women.
8. Many people learn the Superwoman myth behaviors from family members.
9. The Superwomen phenomenon can be a blessing and a curse... navigating the tension points can be difficult.
10. But when we have needs sometimes they’re overlooked
11. Suppressing your emotions has an emotional effect but also physical effects, such as higher auto immune diseases.
12. When combating the Superwoman myth, make sure you do it out loud so others know it’s okay to practice self-care.



CONNECT WITH DR. ERICA:

On LinkedIn

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Connect on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | X

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (New videos and more weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

Get the weekly newsletter!

Want to be the first to know about upcoming events, tips and more? Sign up for our SMS list. We promise no spam, just the good stuff!

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Dr. Sayantani DasGupta to Intentional Conversations!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• We all have the power and responsibility to tell our stories.
• Narrative erasure is a type of psychic violence, when her own children were experiencing it, she couldn’t stand back and let it happen.
• Human beings make sense of ourselves through story. They’re particularly powerful in moments of transition, deep personal or cultural change. In medicine, there has been a kind of belief, that although stories are a part of central healing, we can’t train for them.
• The ability to attend to story is not mythical or magical, it is trainable.
• It isn’t the teller's job to educate on the story, it is the listener’s responsibility to listen to learn.
• Be ready to live in a way your children are safe is health. The ability to be free from violence, is health. We are all in the work of improving our communities, personal and national health.
• The person seeking healthcare is to speak, speak often and speak loudly. If something feels wrong, even on an intuitive level, it is time to seek another opinion.
• Do healthcare in community.
• For those going into a profession of listening, it requires you to be on a constant journey of education. It must be approached from a position of humility, not mastery. Every human being has elements that are unknowable, but we can approach with humility and ask “What do I need to know about you?”
• Stories are good medicine!
• We have to dream something into existence before we can make it.
• Actively, together, dream for a more healthier world. We are deeply powerful in community with one another.

RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:

TedTalk - Narrative Humility

Docs With Disabilities Podcast

The Nocturnists Podcast

CONNECT WITH DR. SAYANTANI:

On LinkedIn

Visit the website

Her Books

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Connect on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | X

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (New videos and more weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

Get the weekly newsletter!

Want to be the first to know about upcoming events, tips and more? Sign up for our SMS list. We promise no spam, just the good stuff!

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Jad-Évangelo Nasser to Intentional Conversations!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Identity and lived experiences are very important. Intersectionality is different in different countries.
• Some people use intersectionality to brand themselves and advance in DEI spaces. Intersectionality should be used for education.
• Use intersectionality to understand the interconnectedness of the world. Dig into the history of the country that shapes your identity.
• When someone says they don’t like a specific word, even if you don’t agree, respect it.
• Global leadership requires you to break down walls and challenge previous boundaries and thoughts... you must immerse and decenter yourself and learn things we don’t know.
• You don’t have to travel to learn about other countries and become a global leader, you have to take the time to learn about global narratives.
• Becoming a global leader takes time, questions, and conversations.
• Global leaders are curious.
• Adapting business culture uses inside research, unbiased data and surveys...however, it’s limited... lived experience is needed.
• Global events help us to look at local events from another angle that maybe we haven’t thought about before.

Article shared in this episode: A Multicultural Manager or Boss of the World Gives Companies An Edge in the Global Marketplace

CONNECT WITH JAD:

OnLinkedIn | Instagram

On his website

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Connect on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | X

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (New videos and more weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

Get the weekly newsletter!

Want to be the first to know about upcoming events, tips and more? Sign up for our SMS list. We promise no spam, just the good stuff!

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Dr. Jade Singleton to Intentional Conversations!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

1. Black women are burnt out at work!
2. One thing I’ve never done is sat back, listened to a stat, then just went on with my day. There is something I can do.
3. Corporate gaslighting - Power struggle and the tactics that are used are done to manipulate and confuse your reality. Socialogists have found is it is even more painful in the workplace, because corporate gaslighting brings in other’s to confound this.
4. Attributional ambiguity - this is NOT imposter syndrome - it is the question and hyper-vigilance you have that is “What is causing this?”
5. Corporate gaslighting is deeply rooted within systems, so much so, that if we are victims of it, we don’t even realize we are.
6. It’s really important to understand where we pick up behaviors.
7. How are folx getting feedback? It’s a push-pull effect, instead of fire-hosing.
8. People will have the same issue over and over because it is what they know and they don’t have the opportunity to heal it.
9. Survivorship bias - when someone has a reaction to someone saying they went through a work trauma. They can be incredibly destabilizing.
10. More organizations should have clearer communication on how to be promoted.

RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:

Subscribe to the Ikoni Newsletter

The Phenomenon Of Institutional Betrayal by Dr. White

Center for Institutional Courage

CONNECT WITH DR. JADE:

On LinkedIn

Visit her website

Visit ikoni.org

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Connect on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | X

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (New videos and more weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

Get the weekly newsletter!

Want to be the first to know about upcoming events, tips and more? Sign up for our SMS list. We promise no spam, just the good stuff!

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Dr. Nicole Price to Intentional Conversations!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

1. Everyone has an opinion about race. But hardly anyone has an informed opinion.
2. I think about DEI the same way that I think about engineering, you do not put someone in calculus class who has not had pre algebra. Yes, you can, but they will fail miserably. You don’t put someone in calculus class, just because they're married to someone who knows calculus, or just because their grandchild knows calculus, you only put someone in calculus class because they've had the prerequisites.
3. I learned that there were five different types of empathy. And pretty much there's, some of them cannot be taught. But cognitive empathy, or the mental ability to understand or put yourself in another person's shoes that can be taught.
4. How do we mobilize the woefully ignorant?
5. What if we truly understood the people in the middle? The people who are dangerously indifferent, the people who are influenceable. What if we weren't focused the most hateful in our society? And what
6. If we were able or to mobilize the people who are just silent, either because they don't know or because they have great shame.
7. Ashamed adults are not learning adults.
8. Reading fiction builds our empathy muscles.
9. Tactical empathy doesn't create a liberated society. We need cognitive empathy.

CONNECT WITH DR. PRICE:

Visit her website

On IG | LinkedIn | Facebook

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Connect on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | X

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (New videos and more weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

Get the weekly newsletter!

Want to be the first to know about upcoming events, tips and more? Sign up for our SMS list. We promise no spam, just the good stuff!

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Abi Adamson to Intentional Conversations!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Being a DEI consultant was born out of survival.
• In the US we can see the problem, it’s not visible in the UK.
• Black people are not allowed to be less than.
• Allyship is like “brushing your teeth”. It is a muscle you have to train all the time!
• Everyone has some kind of privilege.
• Allyship and micro aggression - all the ism’s flow into the same river.
• You will never combat microaggressions if you have no concept of the privilege that you hold.
• One of the reasons leaders aren’t doing what they need to through being invested in equitable practices is the notion that vulnerability says you’re weak.
• Leaders that will say “I don’t know”, I can work with them.
• Leaders need to unlearn that confrontation is bad. The level of toxic niceness will be the death of everyone.
• Toxic niceness is worse than being passive aggressive.
• Healthy conflict is something we don’t value and appreciate as much as we should.
• Just ask the question.
• Organizations need to understand that DEI isn’t a tick the box exercise, you will always have people... be proactive, rather than reactive.

RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:

How Privileged Employees Can Help Protect Victims of Microaggressions

Leaders, Are You Ready To Unlearn? Here Are 5 Lessons To Unlearn Today

CONNECT WITH ABI:

On LinkedIn

The Diversity Partnership

CONNECT WITH DR. WHITE & NWC:

Connect on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | X

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (New videos and more weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

Get the weekly newsletter!

Want to be the first to know about upcoming events, tips and more? Sign up for our SMS list. We promise no spam, just the good stuff!

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Nirupa Netram to Intentional Conversations!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Model minority - high achieving, hard working, very ethical - lots of pressure that comes with this but we still face barriers in the workplace.

Bamboo ceiling - the barriers that Asian Americans face in the workplace in achieving the top leadership roles, despite the fact they are more than well qualified and have the skills. They can be visible or invisible.

57% of Asian American women say the “bamboo ceiling” has effected their careers.

Conversation is the key, including men, with moving forward.

Treat people how they want to be treated and recognizing the individual preferences because they matter.

Every day we need to strive to inspire, uplift and encourage another human being. As a human being, we have a duty to help each other. Whether you’re climbing or whether you’re falling, you can do it.

DEI is about doing something simple every day.

How are you doing? Going off agenda and having a moment for everyone to share what’s going on with them and what do they feel. When you make the space for people to share their opinions on things that are impacting them. And asking how can we support you?

Reading articles, attending webinars, listening to podcasts, connecting to thought leaders, staying informed. Read papers from people who are positive.

I stay away from people who are filled with hate and incivility.

Be vocal about why DEI matters to you.

CONNECT WITH NIRUPA:

On Nirupa's LinkedIn

Lotus Solutions LinkedIn | Twitter | Tiktok

LotusSolutions.biz

CONNECT WITH DR. WHITE & NWC:

Connect on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | X

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (New videos and more weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

Get the weekly newsletter!

Want to be the first to know about upcoming events, tips and more? Sign up for our SMS list. We promise no spam, just the good stuff!

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Casey Ariel Thobias to Intentional Conversations!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• BLAZE means Building Leaders and Accepting Zero Excuses®️.
• Entrepreneurship frameworks that we see in the Black community, we don't call entrepreneurship.
• Black entrepreneurship is pervasive in our community- we need to tell our own stories, with our own language.
• In the last 10 years, we’ve seen big business pick up the speech of Black women, even though Black women have had to scrub themselves away in big business.
• Organizations need to listen better and reflect on what’s already working and then change. Use creativity to lift communities. Don’t use mainstream form of thinking to try to change a community that businesses weren’t meant for.
• Big challenges for Black women: lack of funding- less than 2% receive grants, business loans, or crowd funding
• Banking industry solution- if a Black woman opens a business account, then tell them they receive business banker... tell people what they need to know
• Entrepreneurship Mental health is a huge issue we don’t talk about- 4 out of 5 report elevated stress
• We need to do a better job articulating the challenges of entrepreneurship
• There is a price to scaling your business.
• It’s difficult to scale relationships, but the hope is to scale culture.
• It’s not cheap because it’s cheap. It’s cheap because someone is being exploited.
• AI engineers biases are being engineered into the products. Use a third party to check those biases.
• I want marginalized communities to have what they need, not what I want them to have.

CONNECT WITH CASEY:

Participate in the 2024 State of Black Women-Owned Businesses Report: blazegroup.io/survey

Learn more about Blaze Group at blazegroup.io

CONNECT WITH DR. WHITE & NWC:

Connect on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | X

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (New videos and more weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

Get the weekly newsletter!

Want to be the first to know about upcoming events, tips and more? Sign up for our SMS list. We promise no spam, just the good stuff!

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Paul Ladipo to Intentional Conversations!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Nice racism - don’t talk about things that are not nice. But being nice isn’t a way to end racism. If you don’t understand racism, nothing is fixed.
• We need to understand what racism means, it’s not just "I don’t like somebody because of their skin color", it’s a system of inequity.
• Start now! It doesn’t matter who is in office, DEI is always going to be needed.
• Anti-DEI folks are committed and have shown it by repealing affirmative action. Don’t let who’s in office determine if you do the work or not.
• I believe it is going to take another moment that shocks people to get people back on track.

CONNECT WITH PAUL:

On LinkedIn

Visit his website

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Connect on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | X

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (New videos and more weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

Get the weekly newsletter!

Want to be the first to know about upcoming events, tips and more? Sign up for our SMS list. We promise no spam, just the good stuff!

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Amber Ontiveros to Intentional Conversations!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM AMBER:

• Understand Your Woundings: Recognize and heal the four core woundings: "I am not worthy," "I am not enough," "I have to win," and "I don't have enough."
• Mindful Listening: Use this technique to understand underlying beliefs within your conscious mind, aiding emotional regulation and empathy.
• Manage Your Emotions: Slow down your mind to soothe your emotions by focusing on your breath and practicing mindfulness.
• Belief Shapes Reality: Beliefs create thoughts, which generate emotions and lead to actions.
• Self-Empowerment: Taking back your power and practicing self-love is crucial for healing.
• Empathy in Communication: Approach difficult conversations with empathy, compassion, and love.
• Question Assumptions: Challenge how policies and behaviors are formed by asking if they are written for you or based on someone else's understanding.
• Awareness of Self: Be self-actualized to recognize and understand unfolding situations.
• Emotional Signals: Emotions are signals from your higher self, prompting self-awareness.
• Positive Self-Talk: Speak to yourself kindly, especially during failures and mistakes, as these moments are key for growth.

CONNECT WITH AMBER:

On LinkedIn

Visit her website

RESOURCES:

Heal the Four Woundings: Amazon Link

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Connect on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | X

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (New videos and more weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

Get the weekly newsletter!

View Details

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• You can't hustle healing!
• In a colonial project, you are treated like you are perceived.
• Your oppression may not be the same as someone else, but it is a problem we are all facing.
• Hire the people that you are trying to make inclusive - we don’t need a spokesperson, we need access to spaces.
• You cannot be an ally to all people.
• Co-creators is a word that works, ally is fighting the system.
• The first marginalization that shows up in a white society is your race, when you can get the white people engaged in their own oppression, now you’ve got a fight.
• Boundaries are what you do to protect yourself.
• Decolonialization work is about collaboration work.
• Always choose you!

CONNECT WITH DESIREÉ:

IG | TikTok | LinkedIn | FB | YouTube

Visit her website

Desireé's Books

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Connect on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | X

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (New videos and more weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Julia Rock to Intentional Conversations!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Nothing wrong with a 9-5. Entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone and that’s ok.
• Often, companies try to solve the problem, once employees get there. You must ensure alignment before hiring.
• Employers must ask, are you providing meaningful work?
• Optimize what you are testing in the interview process to find alignment instead of dragging it out and asking people to just have conversations.
• Where are you in your leadership journey? A new and seasoned leader needs different training.
• Assess if leaders want to be leaders. Many are just made leaders because they have the technical skills or have been at a company for a while.
• Employees want leaders with integrity, authenticity and courage to take up for employees.
• People don’t understand the responsibility they have when becoming a leader. You can now impact employee livelihood and mental health.
• Before shifting careers, discover and be able to discuss transferable skills.
• Before shifting careers, create a strong desirable brand.
• Don’t suffer in silence.
• Assess staying at a company by asking: What can I do, what will do and what won't I do?
• Companies can’t continue without productive, engaged and motivated employees. Don’t forget you have just as much power as an organization.

CONNECT WITH JULIA:

On Instagram | X

Visit Rock Career Development

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Connect on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | X

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (New videos and more weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Dr. A.C. Fowlkes to Intentional Conversations! Right at the beginning of the podcast, Dr. F said, "It is hard to hate up close." That struck us all deeply and the rest of the podcast was full of so much wisdom.

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

It is hard to hate up close.

When we engage with people who are not like us, we give ourselves the opportunity to learn and grow and become better people. There is beauty in not being just like other people.

My goal is no longer assimilation, it was at one point, but now it is I want to show up 100% as myself and for that to not just be ok, but valued and honored.

Not all trans people, transition.

Medical, legal and social transition - 3 recognized forms of transition

Medical transition is what the media promotes, social transition is what we experience the most, legal transition is the change of your name, etc… People will transition in some of the ways, but not all. And sometimes they don’t transition in any of the ways, but it doesn’t make them any less trans.

Dispel the myth that trans folx are trans… trans is about gender not about transitioning.

More important than that is being a good human being. We do that by holding space for everyone.

It is important to ask the question, does this need to be gendered? There are so many things we gender that don’t need to be gendered.

It’s very important for us to understand that transgender folx, although they experience a lot of maltreatment in the workplace, what we know from research, is they don’t report it.

We need to stop relying on our employees to teach us. We need to invest in education and subject matter expertise. We need to compensate people for their expertise.

• We have to normalize the sharing of pronouns.
• Honor a person’s chosen name.
• Not all trans people transition.

Dont’ just talk about it, be about it.

CONNECT WITH DR. A.C.:

On LinkedIn

Visit the website

CONNECT WITH DR. WHITE & NWC:

Connect on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | X

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (New tips, vodcasts and more!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Dr. Shinika McKiever to the Intentional Conversations co-host chair and just wow! Dr. Shinika has shared so much wisdom in our time together. We wanted to share a couple of quotes that really resonated with our community:

"My light warms, it doesn’t burn!"

"Confidence is a stain that can’t be wiped off. Know who you are and be confident in that!"

If you are an entrepreneur and working daily to realize your dreams or maybe you haven't quite gotten there yet, this intentional conversation will encourage and inspire you to keep going!

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

RESOURCES:

Empower Her Summit

The Brown Girl Collective

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• What happens when you wait? Everything you thought you were gonna do, the complete opposite of that happens... The journey of Plan B!
• When you’re supposed to move, you become uncomfortable.
• Where are you feeling stuck? Awareness of self, awareness of culture, awareness of how you’re showing up in your community; what is the purpose of your business, alignment which is around aligning your purpose and passion with your individual talents.
• You have to have passion around business, it cannot be motivated by making money.
• People don’t leave jobs, people leave people.
• Lead in a way that feels comfortable for you as an individual.
• You have to learn you're not always gonna be everybody’s cup of tea, but you still have to respect it.
• With white women glass can be broken, but with women of color, concrete has to be penetrated.
• Community is important to be around like-minded people you can trust and bounce ideas off of. If the space doesn’t exist, create your own.
• Perfection is unattainable in entrepreneurship.
• As women entrepreneurs, we hold ourselves to crazy standards; learn to give yourself some grace.
• If you’re not willing to make the investment in your business, it’s gonna show up!
• You have to be willing to take the risk on yourself.
• Everybody is not made for a management role. Recognize there is a big difference between leadership and management.
• Seeking to make a meaningful impact? Show up and be willing to take a risk. What we think are challenges are often our biggest opportunities. Know who you are and fall in love with yourself.
• It is very hard to be an imposter in a system that wasn’t designed for you.
• GO where you are celebrated, not tolerated. You have to learn and value what you bring to the table. Know your worth and don’t compromise.
• If you're the big fish in the pond, you can only adapt and expand so much, but when you’re the big fish in the ocean, you’ve got all the room in the world!
• Recognize that you were called to do something, nobody else on earth has the talent or ability to do what you were called to do.

CONNECT WITH DR. SHINIKA:

On Facebook | LinkedIn

Visit the website

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Connect on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | X

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (New tips, vodcasts and more!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Yvonne Alston to the Intentional Conversations co-host chair.

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• We should normalize difficult conversations.
• Arizona upholding an 1864 abortion ban has many implications. 1864 ruling brings us back to the last century when women couldn’t vote and slavery was upheld.
• There is a regression. Many people are using their privilege and power to create boundaries and limitations.
• We need to keep our foot on the pedal with a brick to keep DEI going.
• We are experiencing modern-day civil rights.
• Working in corporate America showed me that people (with awareness) are doing harm to others through bias or lack of self-confidence.
• The best version of us is the most innovative and empathetic - creating change takes that of us.
• I am an unapologetically authentic amplifier of DEI. Took me several years to get here because I was accustomed to code-switching and assimilating. I don’t diminish myself to make myself more palatable to others.
• We all have power and privilege. We need to acknowledge our shared history and level set. How does power and privilege show up… it’s not an “always” and “in always” thing.
• It’s uncomfortable to address inequality happening at the moment. Allyship should cost something.
• People are afraid to do the wrong thing, so they do nothing. We must do something to make a change.
• DEI can be a tool for meaningful change.

CONNECT WITH YVONNE:

On Instagram | LinkedIn

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Connect on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | X

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (and never miss new content! Coming weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Tara Turk-Haynes to the Intentional Conversations co-host chair.

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• When you are in the room, how are you creating access for other people?
• Companies need to think about how to embed equitable practices in a practical way.
• Your customer base, which is your candidate base, is going to look very different in 20 years.
• We talk a lot about middle managers, but we don’t talk to them directly.
• Middle managers are winging it. Of course they’ll be terrified, they don’t even know if they’re saying the right things. How can we expect them to embed DEI into their meeting structure.
• Must have a mindset of continuous learning and it starts with middle managers.
• Manager training is asking how can you allow people to show up at the workplace so people show up and be their best selves?
• We need to standardize the training we’re doing so people are set up for success! Don’t roll your eyes when you have a company that cares.
• Data tells the story of what’s going on in your company! (ie. engagement surveys, talking to HR business partners, who is getting hired, etc.)
• Belonging means "Do I feel like I belong and contribute, and do I have a path forward?"
• People should not only look at their consultant partners as auditors, but look at them as partners for success. We can be automatically guarded, but they are not trying to show us what’s wrong.
• We are regressing in our conversations about equity and politics… it is important for company’s to be able to hold space. If you’re a people leader or a company, be mindful how you are taking care of people to be their best at work. What are you doing to help people exhibiting high amounts of stress in this political world? How are we taking care of each other?

CONNECT WITH TARA:

On LinkedIn | Instagram | Twitter

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Connect on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter / X

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (We ever miss new content! Coming weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Inclusion Uncomplicated by Dr. Nika White

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcome Tiffany Castagno to the Intentional Conversations co-host chair.

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• I don’t want people to fear HR.
• Leaders leaning into their own vulnerability and admitting they don’t have all the answers is important.
• You can’t just post and ghost as a leader.
• Getting to the root of things, hearing feedback, having hard conversations, and feeling not equipped, can cause leaders to shy away, but we need to do the hard things... We have to get to the root of things, or it will continue repeating itself.
• Privilege does not have to be a dirty word.
• Talent benchmarking and succession planning are important - the higher you go in an organization; the less diverse it becomes.
• Recognition and awareness are great places to start! Take a step back and understand who you want to be. Start with little things… asking questions and getting curious.
• My work is always about people!
• Just because you’re different doesn’t mean you have to treat people different.
• The power of community and the power of collectiveness is the strength as DEIB continues to be under threat. You don’t have to do it alone; we elevate it together.

CONNECT WITH TIFFANY:

On LinkedIn

On Facebook

On Twitter / X

Visit her website

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Connect on LinkedIn

Be Facebook friends

Engage on X

Connect on Instagram

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (and never miss new content! Coming weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcome Abenaa Hayes to the Intentional Conversations co-host chair.

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Even among the noise, there are people who still want to do this work of DEI.
• Communication is a discipline that helps us accomplish so many things. It helps to create communities and can drive and power movements.
• Communication has the power to unite people.
• You need to communicate in a truly inclusive way to reach and touch the people we want to engage.
• Words have the power to harm, but also uplift and empower. You have to be intentional around the words you use.
• DEI is in need of a reframe and a redefinition. The work of DEI is so much more than the sum of its parts.
• It is a pivot around servant leadership and truly collaborative approaches to helping people with their careers.
• DEI needs to be a part of the company and brand, it should be part of who you are… your vision, mission and values.
• We’ve lost the art of civil discourse, but we’re coming into a time where we are going to need to lean into this again. How are you supporting your people?
• Be ruthlessly focused on what your programs are… as much as BRG / ERG leaders carry the water on the work, the only way it’s impactful is if the executives are locking arms and supporting it. This helps to embed the work so that not a singular group of people is doing the work.
• If you want to amplify people, be sure you do it in an authentic way!

CONNECT WITH ABENAA:

On LinkedIn

Visit her website

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Connect on LinkedIn

Be Facebook friends

Engage on X

Connect on Instagram

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (and never miss new content! Coming weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcome Janice Omadeke, Founder of The Mentor Method and author of Mentorship Unlocked: The Science And Art Of Setting Yourself Up For Success, to the Intentional Conversations co-host chair.

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Stats are real - you can advance your career 4 - 5x faster with mentors.

7 types of mentors everyone should have across their career - not all at once:

Company Insider

Skill Master Mentor

Money Minded Mentor

Industry Mentor

Network Mentor

Influential Ally

Peer Mentor

How do you navigate high stress situations in the world? Journal and write down all thoughts and feelings… The more you understand yourself and how to navigate high stress situations the better you are. And give yourself grace. The pressure to be perfect or align to what “Fast Company” says is a leader could be really hard to attain.

Mentors aren’t there to make decisions for you, they are there to inspire.

Why do people not ask people to mentor them? Fear of rejection / Not understanding what they’re asking for, but knowing they need it (ie. I’m sick, but I don’t know if I need a Tylenol or a flu shot?)

Diversify the mentors you work with - it reduces the anxiety, stress, fear of rejection that can blur the lines of mentor and emotional rejection.

Choice Driven Mentorship - allows mentees and mentors to take the pressure off

Having a fulfilling career is a fundamental right, don’t let anyone tell you you don’t deserve it!

CONNECT WITH JANICE:

On LinkedIn

On Instagram

Visit her website

Pre-Order Mentorship Unlocked: The Science And Art For Setting Yourself Up For Success

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Connect on LinkedIn

Be Facebook friends

Engage on X

Connect on Instagram

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (and never miss new content! Coming weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcome Kelly George, founder / CEO of Real Resilience, where she helps leaders and organizations create emotional ecosystems with the neurodiverse in mind, to the Intentional Conversations co-host chair.

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation go!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM KELLY:

• Isolation is what stifles us moving through difficult times. When you name it, you get power over your emotions and the steps you must take next.
• Bipolar is a hidden disability.
• Neurodiversity focuses on how your brain processes and takes in information.
• Making conversations normalized really starts with being able to take care of yourself well.
• For neurodivergents - give your employees space to create their plan if they’re not well.
• When someone is not at their best, they retreat into themselves. So make your wellness plan part of onboarding.
• Do we do heart, mind and body check-ins?
• Make space to witness yourself. Celebrate yourself and journal about it. Getting it on paper makes it feel real.
• How do I self regulate? Think about your legacy and what you want it to be.

CONNECT WITH KELLY:

On LinkedIn

On Instagram

Visit her website

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Connect on LinkedIn

Be Facebook friends

Engage on X

Connect on Instagram

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (and never miss new content! Coming weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Kamini Wood to the Intentional Conversations as our guest co-host.

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation go!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM KAMINI:

Kirsin Neff's 3 pillars of self-compassion:

• Self-Kindness
• Common Humanity
• Mindfulness

47% of our day we're either in the there or the then.

Self compassion says we’re coming back to this moment, where I am right here, right now. Allows us to shift from the place of judgment about ourselves. We can identify moments and say what can I learn from this or what can I take away from this?

When we get stuck in judgment, we shut down.

There is no weakness in sharing our vulnerabilities. Asking others what they’ve experienced and how they’ve gone through it themselves.

Mindful work is a continual work. It isn’t about shaming ourselves.

Nexting - thinking about what comes next

Mindfulness shifts us from human doings, into human beings.

It’s very difficult to hold space for others if you can’t do it for yourself. Utilize self compassion to hold space for yourself. Self acceptance is I love all parts of myself.

Shame fits in on many levels, because most often we don’t know we’re shaming ourselves. It needs to be called out or it will continue.

Understanding allows room for possibility!

Reminding people it is about agency and autonomy and how important that is. Paying attention to your values and needs and taking actions based off of that.

CONNECT WITH KAMINI:

On Instagram

On Pinterest

Visit her website

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Connect on LinkedIn

Be Facebook friends

Engage on X

Connect on Instagram

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (and never miss new content! Coming weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Dr. Julia Wiener to the Intentional Conversations as our guest co-host and she shared so much wisdom and grace in our time together.

So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation go!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM DR. JULIA:

There’s magic in our experiences and in living out the unfair things. Magic in saying I’m gonna use this to my advantage.

Own your stuff!

6 things leaders should ask:

• What are they looking at?
• How do they respond to critical events?
• How do they allocate resources?
• How leaders allocate rewards and status?
• How do recruit, select, promote and fire?
• Deliberate Role modeling

It’s not just what you do, it’s what you DON’T do.

Be honest, check yourself, how will this sound? When you as a leader ask for feedback, when the person of color or marginalized individual says, that made me feel bad. That’s the time to be quiet and ask “Tell me more about that.” Not the time to defend.

Language matters.

There is strength in vulnerability. There is strength in being who you are. Whatever it is that you’ve been through, talk about it… You never know who will want to connect with you because of that.

RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:

Nitara Osbourne

Chad Sanders, Black Magic And What Black Leaders Learned From Trauma and Triumph

CONNECT WITH DR. JULIA:

On LinkedIn

On Instagram

Visit her website

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Connect on LinkedIn

Be Facebook friends

Engage on X

Connect on Instagram

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (and never miss new content! Coming weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Amira Barger to Intentional Conversations. And here is what one of our attendees had to say... "Wow, what a powerful segment today. It was amazing!"

We agree Shelia!

So, grab those headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation go!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• DEI and communications have more in common than people realize.
• Her mantra - Be inconvenient today.
• Words matter, but keen on ensuring the work continues to happen. Even if the advancement has to be quiet, as they work on the words to use.
• Misogyonoir effects Black women's career advancement, sense of belonging and overall well being.
• The lack of representation in the workplace for BIPOC women is a huge barrier.
• We shouldn’t assume people know and understand the process of voting, we need to educate them.
• She believes in calling in and calling out.
• Design thinking is a problem-solving approach that prioritizes empathy, collaboration and iterative process to address issues. To get to solutions that are built by the people who are impacted and for the communities they belong to. It is a powerful process that helps you to think very meaningfully - helps to go slow, to go fast.
• I believe there is enough sunshine for all of us and we can all live under the sun.
• Find others who are doing this work and partner with them to be apart of something more than predictable allyship.
• True allyship costs you something.

Favorite Articles Amira's Written:

1 - https://www.msnbc.com/know-your-value/out-of-office/black-history-month-amira-barger-hopes-her-daughter-n1302786

2 - https://www.fastcompany.com/90911029/the-head-of-dei-should-not-report-to-hr

RESOURCES FROM THE SHOW:

https://www.thc.texas.gov/public/upload/preserve/museums/files/White_Supremacy_Culture.pdf

CONNECT WITH AMIRA:

On LinkedIn

On Twitter

On Instagram

Visit her Website

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Connect on LinkedIn

Be Facebook friends

Engage on X

Connect on Instagram

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (and never miss new content! Coming weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

View Details

Tammy Darmel Moore, founder of Footprints In Africa joined NWC and team for Intentional Conversations this past week!

We discussed purpose-driven work, the importance of it and how to sustain that type of work.

Tammy shared so much about her "third baby", Footprints In Africa! An organization she started in after visiting Africa and seeing more footprints, than shoeprints, she came home and went to work. And to say she hasn't slowed down since would really be an understatement. Today, Footprints In Africa is helping to feed over 5000 children daily, donating shoes so children are able to attend school, and helping in so many ways.

Tammy inspired us all!

So, grab those headphones 🎧, press play, and listen to the conversation! And be sure to check out Tammy's links below for Footprints In Africa's shop, website, and more.

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM TAMMY:

Purpose driven work - If it’s tugging at you, take the steps to make it happen.

Don’t wait for others to support you, you will find your village along the way.

Don’t do it for awards and accolades. It has to be bigger than you for it to be sustained. If you’re doing it for selfish reasons, it won’t be.

All of her background has prepared her for such a time as this.

Never demise showing up in small ways, it can be life changing for someone else.

• The Marketplace Presented by Footprints in Africa Tickets, Sat, Mar 30, 2024 at 10:00 AM | Eventbrite

CONNECT WITH TAMMY AND FOOTPRINTS IN AFRICA:

OnFacebook

On LinkedIn

On X

On Pinterest

On Instagram

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Connect on LinkedIn

Be Facebook friends

Connect on Instagram

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (and never miss new content! Coming weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

Engage on X

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Mareisha Reese, President & COO of The Winters Group, to Intentional Conversations as our guest co-host.

Humble and wise, Mareisha shared the important lessons and wisdom she has learned in her own journey.

So, grab those headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation go!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Being the only Black woman in professional places has helped her to empathize.
• DEI is alive and well!
• The importance of leaders knowing their individual employees is so important.
• Organizations don’t talk about polarizing topics because it is hard, but you can’t just not say anything. Silence is not the answer.

RESOURCES FROM EPISODE:

Racial Justice At Work: Practical Solutions For Systemic Change

We Can't Talk About That At Work! (2nd Edition)

Racial Justice At Work Summit (April 23 - 25) - Learn more & register!

CONNECT WITH MAREISHA:

On LinkedIn

On Instagram

Visit The Winters Group website

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Connect on LinkedIn

Be Facebook friends

Engage on X

Connect on Instagram

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (and never miss new content! Coming weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

This week we welcomed Tomi Fadeyi-Jones to Intentional Conversation as our guest co-host.

We talked about the importance of talking about DEI with your children, how DEI is very misunderstood, and Tomi shared her simple definition of what DEI means to her.

So, grab those headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation go!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

DEI is not always to fix a problem, sometimes it's to take you from good to better to best.

You are never done getting better.

DEI impacts every, single person and is very misunderstood!

Try not to say “BUT”, use “AND” instead.

You want DEI to be included in the by-laws because it takes lots of steps for it to change. It doesn’t need to be easy to change.

If we keep trying to focus on the ones who are not on board with us, we won’t make any progress.

The focus of DEI is we are all human, we are all people and the idea is creating environments where we can all be our best! It is not any more complicated than that.

CONNECT WITH TOMI:

Via LinkedIn

Website: www.myhrconsultantllc.com

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Connect on LinkedIn

Be Facebook friends

Engage on X

Connect on Instagram

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (and never miss new content! Coming weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

It was an honor to welcome a dear friend and fellow author, Ritu Bhasin, to the Intentional Conversations mic this past week.

What a rich conversation we had, full of much learned wisdom. You're going to need paper and pen or your Notes app open for this one.

So, grab those headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation go!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Belonging - the profound feeling that we hold inside of ourselves of being honored and accepted for who we are, first and foremost by our own selves, and this is what empowers us to claim belonging with others

Belonging is about being who we are - it is about authenticity.

Belonging is the OUTCOME of cultivating authenticity.

Core wisdom - the inner knowing that we hold that enables us to understand what we feel inside of us

Helps us to clock what is going on in my mind and what is going on in my body

It is important to understand that when we do our personal healing and growth work, even through the systems is entrenched in inquiries and is designed to hate on us, we still belong to ourselves and there is no greater feeling.

As human beings, we are created and wired for belonging.

Surrender goes hand in hand with our healing work around woundedness and trauma.

We are all on a journey and doing our best!

Authenticity is contagious.

Live a life that is more still and rooted in ease and peace. Chaos is around me, but it doesn’t need to be inside me.

RITU'S BOOKS:

You Got This

The Authenticity Principle: Resist Conformity, Embrace Differences, And Transform How You Live, Work, and Lead

CONNECT WITH RITU:

On Instagram

On X

On LinkedIn

On YouTube

Learn More on her Websites: Ritu Bhasin & Bhasin Consulting

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Connect on LinkedIn

Be Facebook friends

Engage on X

Connect on Instagram

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (and never miss new content! Coming weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

It was an honor to welcome a dear friend and fellow DEI practitioner, Natasha Bowman, to the Intentional Conversations mic. This was a conversation we had been looking forward to for a long time and it did not disappoint!

So, grab those headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation go!

Be sure to subscribe to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM NATASHA:

Language matters.

If we’re having the uncomfortable conversations for how we work and the organizational leaders are equipped, perhaps at the end of the day we can cultivate cultures of wellness.

Ask yourself… does your profession define you?

The needle is not moving forward, it is going backwards.

You cannot assess someone’s emotional capacity by just looking on the outside.

Be more disappointing.

The more families talk about mental health, the better. At some point we will all find ourselves challenged with mental health issues.

CONNECT WITH NATASHA:

Via LinkedIn

On her website

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Connect on LinkedIn

Be Facebook friends

Engage on X

Connect on Instagram

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (and never miss new content! Coming weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business.

In this first episode of Season 3, our host, Dr. Nika White, has a compelling dialogue with Shanté S. Gordon, a seasoned head of DEI strategy and wellness facilitator at the Norfus Firm.

Together, they explore the challenges and successes of individuals in DEI leadership roles, emphasizing the importance of personal well-being and advocating for equitable opportunities in the workplace.

So, grab those headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation go!

Be sure to subscribe to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing.

This Week's Key Topics from Shanté:

1. Importance of DEI Strategy and Wellness for Employees:

• Aligning organizational values and strategies with actions

• Providing support to employees to champion DEI values

2. Navigating the New Normal: Remote Work and Employee Well-being:

• Impact of remote work on work dynamics and individual preferences

• Employers' communication and considerations for returning to the office

• Evolving role of people leaders and managers in a distributed workforce

3. DEI as Essential for Organizational Success:

• Framing DEI as good business practice for attracting and retaining talent

• Change management strategies for navigating diversity initiatives and remote work

4. Shanté S. Gordon's Career Journey and Experiences:

• Transition from the music industry to wellness and DEI work

• Challenges faced in the music industry, including discrimination and body representation

• Understanding the need for self-awareness and empathy in corporate environments

5. Shift in Mindset and Systemic Support:

• Shifting from a "sink or swim" mentality to address systemic oppression

• Promoting inclusive leadership and providing opportunities for underrepresented groups

6. Wellness, Mindfulness, and Employee Support:

• Importance of mindfulness and staying present in preparing for the new year

• Employer support and space for employees' concerns in the context of wellness

• Human-centered approach and building high-quality connections to support employees

7. The Zero Sum Game Concept and Equal Opportunities:

• Understanding the zero sum game concept and its relationship to DEI in the workplace

• Addressing "hyperindividualism" and resistance to creating equal opportunities

• The importance of believing in equal access to opportunities for success

8. Promoting Equity and Equal Opportunity:

• Cultural differences in approaching individualism and collective support

• The need for both individuals and the system to adjust to support diverse perspectives

• Emphasis on allowing people of color and underrepresented backgrounds to ascend to leadership roles

9. Focus on Wellness and Personal Development in the Workplace:

• Trend of people choosing one word or making resolutions in the new year

• Employers' role in holding space for employees' needs and wellness support

• Encouraging the sharing of resources and questions for audience engagement

10. Practical Tips for DEI in the Workplace and Engagement:

• Details of Shanté S. Gordon's podcast "What's the DEIL?" and its focus on DEI

• Offer for further conversation on DEI topics with the audience

Connect with Shanté:

Slide into her LinkedIn DMs.

Visit the website for an extra dose of inspiration.

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Connect on LinkedIn

Be Facebook friends

Engage on X

Connect on Instagram

Subscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (and never miss new content! Coming weekly!)

Visit the NWC website

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

View Details

We welcomed Priscilla Wallace to our weekly Intentional Conversations vodcast this past Friday and it was the perfect way to end this 3rd season of IC!

We can't wait for you to listen. Grab your headphones (or earbuds) and press play to listen to the full encore episode now!

Be sure to subscribe to our channel to never miss an episode.

You can also watch the full replay on the NWC YouTube channel HERE

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM PRISCILLA:

1. Be a part of the solution, not the problem!
2. We can’t say change your organization and we’re not willing to change our own organization.
3. Keep the main thing, the main thing. You can be in the workplace and be a man or woman of faith.
4. Have people around you speaking life to you, reminding you of who you are. This is important in having a foundation.
5. Your peace, your joy, your foundation matters… it is what defines you. It is what helps you make the hurdles of life.
6. When people read your obituary are they going to focus more on your accomplishments or how you made a difference in the world?
7. When decluttering, one of the biggest questions to answer is “What needs to go?” And "Are things in my current lifestyle reflecting the season that I’m in?"

CONNECT WITH PRISCILLA:

Via LinkedIn

Visit the website

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Follow NWC On Facebook

Engage with NWC on Twitter/X

Be a part of the conversation on Instagram

Watch all the new NWC videos on their YouTube channel

Learn more about NWC

Be a part of the conversation on NWC's LinkedIn

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

View Details

We welcomed Marie Deveaux to our weekly Intentional Conversations vodcast this past Friday and our hands hurt from taking so many notes!

We can't wait for you to listen. Grab your headphones (or earbuds) and press play to listen to the full encore episode now!

Be sure to subscribe to our channel to never miss an episode.

You can also watch the full replay on the NWC YouTube channel HERE

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM MARIE:

1. Often it is the experiences of trauma that allows us to figure out what we need to do. If it can happen to me, it can happen to other people.

2. Workplace trauma does require healing and introspection to push through.

3. When you’re in difficult situations, instead of asking ourselves “Do I stay” ask “Why do I stay here?”

4. “I am enjoying the sound of my feet walking away from something that no longer serves me.”

5. When others refuse to acknowledge you, your greatness and gifts, it is always your job to validate yourself.

6. You don’t need external validation to do what you’re doing.

7. Your experiences are real and the value you bring is real, so remind yourself of that when others make you smaller.

8. Trauma directly impacts our mental health.

9. We are not defined by our experiences.

10. People are not their behaviors and they need to hear this.

11. When you deal with trauma at work, remember your first priority is to yourself and your well being.

12. Asking people what they need is a powerful question because they don’t hear it enough.

13. 2 powerful questions for people who work in difficult spaces:

How can I acknowledge you?

What do you need?

1. Once we’re good at understanding and owning our triggers, we can then start to feel empowered when we address what is happening for someone else.

2. Are you grounded enough in who you are and your position that when someone comes at you, you can absorb it. It’s ok if you don’t have the capacity to absorb other peoples stuff! Allow yourself some grace and compassion.

CONNECT WITH MARIE:

Connect on LinkedIn

Visit her website

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Follow NWC On Facebook

Engage with NWC on Twitter/X

Be a part of the conversation on Instagram

Watch all the new NWC videos on their YouTube channel

Learn more about NWC

Be a part of the conversation on NWC's LinkedIn

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

View Details

We welcomed Minal Bopaiah to our weekly Intentional Conversations vodcast this past week and she shared so much wisdom!

We can't wait for you to listen. Grab your headphones (or earbuds) and press play to listen to the full encore episode now!

Be sure to subscribe to our channel to never miss an episode.

You can also watch the full replay on the NWC YouTube channel HERE

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM MINAL:

When we design for equity we have to question some of the assumptions we make for this.

You have to design for how humans are, not how you think they should be.

We have to think beyond this just being about people being nice or good.

Equity and equality are not synonymous!

If you have to think about how long you have to wait until you get the end stage of justice, you will be disappointed. The world evolves… We will never hit the state of equality and equity for all. The question is “How do you spend your time on earth?”

Doing the work of DEI is about your effectiveness in it.

Allyship gets very problematic when people want to base their identity as being a good person. People who’s identity is built on being a good person has a hard time hearing when they’re doing something wrong.

How do you avoid falling into the divide and conquer mentality? Be aware you’re being played.

I’m not going to be used as your pawn to oppress another group so my group can get ahead.

As a leader you need people you can trust and that comes down to the quality of the relationship.

Take time in the winter months to rest and spend time with people you love. Everything is on fire, but everyone I know is doing something they love and making the world better.

CONNECT WITH MINAL:

On LinkedIn

On Instagram

On X / Twitter

Website

Get Minals' Newest Book

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Follow NWC On Facebook

Engage with NWC on Twitter/X

Be a part of the conversation on Instagram

Watch all the new NWC videos on their YouTube channel

Learn more about NWC

Be a part of the conversation on NWC's LinkedIn

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

View Details

Christine Scott, founder of Christine Scott Lanagues was our Intentional Conversations guest co-host this past week!

Being bi-lingual is a gift, she said. We can't wait for you to listen to this episode.

Grab your headphones (or earbuds) and press play to listen now!

Be sure to subscribe to our channel to never miss an episode.

Or if you prefer to watch the encore episode, you can do that HERE

CHRISTINA'S KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• It is never too late to learn a language! It is a gift to be bi-lingual.

• Being from a different family allowed me to be open to learning something different.

• An adult can become fluent in a new language in a shorter amount of time by:

• Getting connected to the community and / or colleagues that are fluent in the language you want to learn.

• Encourage your colleagues to practice with you in their native language.

• Take a sabbatical and immerse yourself by being in the country.

• The more we show up as unicorns in spaces, we feel a sense of belonging.

• The work that DEI practitioners are doing is making leaps and bounds for language services.

• A benefit to having language services is they come in as a neutral voice.

• The goal when using language services is to alleviate stress, not add to it!

• Do no trust Google Translate, they don’t get it right every time.

RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:

Christine’s Spanish On the Go Manual (Coming in 2024) - You can DM Christina to get information prior to the launch

Duo Lingo

Word Reference

CONNECT WITH CHRISTINA:

On LinkedIn

On Facebook

On Instagram

On X / formerly Twitter

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Follow NWC On Facebook

Engage with NWC on Twitter/X

Be a part of the conversation on Instagram

Watch all the new NWC videos on their YouTube channel

Learn more about NWC

Be a part of the conversation on NWC's LinkedIn

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

View Details

We welcomed Dr. Mary B. Rice-Boothe to our weekly Intentional Conversations vodcast this past week and she shared so much wisdom!

We can't wait for you to listen. Grab your headphones (or earbuds) and press play to listen to the full encore episode now!

Be sure to subscribe to our channel to never miss an episode.

You can also watch the full replay on the NWC YouTube channel HERE

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Let me give something that I wish I had was the impetus for writing the book!

3 Tips from Dr. Mary's Book: Leading Within Systems Of Inequity In Education

1. Practice LOVE and RAGE
2. Take a STAND.
3. Create a COALITION

People who are leaving DEI are not leaving the work, they are leaving the institution. This is a huge call for our educational systems to ask them, how are you taking a stand?

Our next generation is something else… they have strong beliefs and opinions and they are not interested in following the status quo. They want something different and will say and do whatever they need to to make things happen.

How do I keep the work going? I may have to say it differently.

Do not do this work alone, do it in community. Find your people.

Push the system… we’re in an inequitable system that needs to change. Be sure you don’t get distracted by window dressing changes, so the work will stay.

Ask yourself “What more can I do today?”

If I’m making a decision that doesn’t make me feel uncomfortable in my belly, I’m probably not doing enough.

CONNECT WITH DR. MARY:

Get connected on LinkedIn

Be a part of the conversation on Instagram

Join the newsletter

Learn more about Dr. Mary's work here

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Follow NWC On Facebook

Engage with NWC on Twitter/X

Be a part of the conversation on Instagram

Watch all the new NWC videos on their YouTube channel

Learn more about NWC

Be a part of the conversation on NWC's LinkedIn

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

View Details

We welcomed Dr. Marilyn Fraser to our weekly Intentional Conversations vodcast this past week and she shared so much wisdom!

We can't wait for you to listen. Grab your headphones (or earbuds) and press play to listen to the full encore episode now!

Be sure to subscribe to our channel to never miss an episode.

You can also watch the full replay on the NWC YouTube channel HERE

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Arthur Ashe created the Institute for research, community engagement, and preventative care for POC in the US and abroad.
• The Institute created middle and high school programs to increase the pipeline for students of color to the healthcare profession.
• Health care professions sometimes weed out BIPOC students within the first year because of monetary and social reasons. The Arthur Ashe Institute creates support for these students.
• The Institute created the Barbershop Talk with Brothers and Heart of A Woman to visit barbershops and salons to integrate health messages in genuine conversations.
• Meet communities where they are to increase access to information and make an impact.
• Stress impacts the body and health.
• People of color have gone through a lot of trauma and continually do that creates a layered weathering effect. Stresses have been compounded.
• There are different cultural ways people of color have dealt with stress. It’s important to go back to those traditional ways to address stress.
• As POC we have normalized heightened stress.
• COVID has put us into a cocoon; we need to get back to the community.
• Radical self-care- Make sure to take care of yourself so you can take care of others.

Things we can do for radical self-care to address daily stresses:

• Go for a walk
• Write down what you’re grateful for
• Call a friend
• Eat fruits and vegetables
• Meditate or praying
• Journaling

CONNECT WITH DR. MARILYN:

Be a part of the conversation on LinkedIn

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Follow NWC On Facebook

Engage with NWC on Twitter/X

Be a part of the conversation on Instagram

Watch all the new NWC videos on their YouTube channel

Learn more about NWC

Be a part of the conversation on NWC's LinkedIn

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

View Details

We welcomed Dr. Ella Washington to our weekly Intentional Conversations vodcast this past week and she showed up!

We can't wait for you to listen. Grab your headphones (or earbuds) and press play to listen to the full encore episode now!

Be sure to subscribe to our channel to never miss an episode.

You can also watch the full replay on the NWC YouTube channel HERE

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Be aware of the cultural differences when teaching DEI abroad.
• Rally around centering humanity and amplifying difference in the workplace.
• How do you have conversations with someone with a different opinion? Studies from Duke University show that we struggle to have conversations with people with different opinions even though we know we should.
• Allyship can look different for different people. What’s the best way you can show up and be effective?
• What is the DEI journey? “The Necessary Journey” by Dr. Ella Washington demystifies DEI with 9 business case studies.
• We’ve all felt the DEI whiplash. Since the 1960s the pendulum has swung back and forth. The challenge is knowing that it will and will continue to swing. I’m surprised by how quickly the pendulum swung...it usually takes a decade.

Trends for the changing DEI landscape:

• Organizations that weren’t committed can now use this to move away from DEI and pull back like not backfilling DEI positions or not using resources to continue DEI strategy.
• Committed organizations may be confused about how to continue with the changing landscape. They are now working closely to their law department.
• What does the workplace look like that you can thrive in? This is different for each person... what is your workplace utopia? Share this with leadership and see what overlaps.
• Organizations can’t make change when we keep running into the same pitfalls and don’t learn from historical challenges.

CONNECT WITH DR. ELLA:

Engage on X / Twitter

Be a part of the conversation on LinkedIn

Learn more on her website

Get your copy of The Necessary Journey

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Follow NWC On Facebook

Engage with NWC on Twitter/X

Be a part of the conversation on Instagram

Watch all the new NWC videos on their YouTube channel

Learn more about NWC

Be a part of the conversation on NWC's LinkedIn

Get your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated

View Details

We welcomed Y-Vonne Hutchinson to our weekly Intentional Conversations vodcast this past week and what a fantastic conversation it was!

We can't wait for you to listen. Grab your headphones (or earbuds) and press play to listen to the full encore episode now!

Be sure to subscribe to our channel to never miss an episode.

You can also watch the full replay on the NWC YouTube channel HERE

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

1. Our job is to help people and support people through the chaos and we don’t get to opt out of it.

2. Regarding Israel/ Palestine: Be thoughtful, deliberate, cheerful and kind in our response. If we do not meet this moment, the criticisms of what DEI is, and what it is supposed to be, become more salient.

3. Identity confers benefits and disadvantages.

4. When in a difficult conversation, we need to know how we’re being perceived. You need to think strategically, be honest with yourself about how the other person is seeing you.

5. Your identity and power impacts your message.

6. Do not do this alone.

7. Change does not happen through the sheer force of one person’s individual will, it is a collective force.

8. How do you keep yourself resilient during times of chaos?

Reconnecting with friends

Therapy

Exercise

Prayer

Clarity breaks

1. True change does not happen within a conversation. You’re going to have to check back and follow up on it.

CONNECT WITH Y-VONNE:

On LinkedIn

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Follow NWC On Facebook

Engage with NWC on Twitter/X

Be a part of the conversation on Instagram

Watch all the new NWC videos on their YouTube channel

Learn more about NWC

Be a part of the conversation on NWC's LinkedIn

View Details

Wow, wow and wow!

We welcomed Christy Rutherford to our weekly Intentional Conversations vodcast this past week and she showed up!

We can't wait for you to listen. Grab your headphones (or earbuds) and press play to listen to the full encore episode now!

Be sure to subscribe to our channel to never miss an episode.

You can also watch the full replay on the NWC YouTube channel HERE

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

1. Choose how you use your super power! You can walk around as a 20,000 watt light bulb and light up the city or burn it down.
2. Distorting your energy to make people ok with who you are... over time that turns into pain, which turns into hell.
3. Being uncommon is very lonely.
4. It is no one else’s responsibility to fix what is broken, it is ours.
5. Authenticity is the younger version of who we are.
6. We need to stop and smell the roses we’ve planted, stop and look at what we've done. Count it all joy and live from that place.
7. When we break the glass ceilings, there are women who have been broken by the shards of glass. We don’t have to die in the fight and battle and succumb to the wounds that happened during the battle.
8. We will die with our dreams unfulfilled because we don’t slow down long enough to ask the question.
9. Your employer is not responsible for your mental health, you have to ensure your own so you don’t die waiting for someone to do something for you!

CONNECT WITH CHRISTY:

Connect On LinkedIn

Join the conversation on Facebook

Follow on Instagram

Watch videos from Christy on her YouTube channel: The Vision Finder

Visit Christy's website

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Follow NWC On Facebook

Engage with NWC on Twitter/X

Be a part of the conversation on Instagram

Watch all the new NWC videos on their YouTube channel

Learn more about NWC

Be a part of the conversation on NWC's LinkedIn

View Details

We welcomed Dr. Ciera Scott to our weekly Intentional Conversations vodcast this past week. Dr. Ciera was so transparent and honest during this intentional conversation and we can't wait for you to listen.

Grab your headphones (or earbuds) and press play to listen to the full encore episode now!

Be sure to subscribe to our channel to never miss an episode.

You can also watch the full replay on the NWC YouTube channel HERE

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Folx are the expert of their own experience.

Recalibrate means - creating individual and group spaces where people unlearn how they’ve been impacted by white supremacy and other biases. Recalibrate first by building self awareness around what folx have been taught.

We’ve been taught that the mind and body are separate, but indigenous heritage teaches us they are very connected.

All the -isms continue to thrive when we are not talking about it. When we create safe spaces where people can talk about it in community, then you can heal in the community.

Workplace community needs around self-care can change.

If you are not taking care of yourself and the vicarious trauma, the work will not be sustainable.

When you give ambiguous feedback people are likely to become defensive.

Ways to refuel yourself:

Naps

Reading

Cooking and trying new recipes

Meditate

Journaling

Connecting with Community

CONNECT WITH DR. CIERA:

Be a part of the conversation on LinkedIn

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Follow NWC On Facebook

Engage with NWC on Twitter/X

Be a part of the conversation on Instagram

Watch all the new NWC videos on their YouTube channel

Learn more about NWC

Be a part of the conversation on NWC's LinkedIn

View Details

We welcomed Dr. Dana Murray Patterson to our weekly Intentional Conversations vodcast this past week. She brought so much wisdom and innovative ideas around belonging.

Do yourself a favor and grab your headphones (or earbuds) and press play to listen to the full encore episode now!

Be sure to subscribe to our channel to never miss an episode.

You can also want the full replay on the NWC YouTube channel HERE

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

It is important for Black women to show up in academic spaces. It is absolutely necessary to share their story in the effort to support others as they come that way.

Showing up authentically - more Black women are embracing their natural beauty, their dance, the way they articulate themselves and present themselves and not willing to have that be silenced or diminished by anyone!

Tell your truth! When you start to share your truth, there will be a resistance, because your perspective is very unique.

If you have a platform, don’t be selfish about this platform, but use it to amplify other’s voices.

I am strong, educated and female and that is enough.

All of who you are is so valuable, not one part of it should be deleted.

RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:

Divorcing the Doctor

CONNECT WITH DR. PATTERSON:

Join the conversation on LinkedIn

Learn more her website

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Follow NWC On Facebook

Engage with NWC on Twitter/X

Be a part of the conversation on Instagram

Watch all the new NWC videos on their YouTube channel

Learn more about NWC

Be a part of the conversation on NWC's LinkedIn

View Details

We welcomed Dawn Christian to our weekly Intentional Conversations vodcast this past week. She brought so much wisdom and innovative ideas around belonging.

AND... don't miss the exclusive coupon code, under RESOURCES, Dawn is sharing just with the NWC community for her two upcoming leadership development cohorts.

Do yourself a favor and grab your headphones (or earbuds) and press play to listen to the full encore episode now!

Be sure to subscribe to our channel to never miss an episode.

You can also want the full replay on the NWC YouTube channel HERE

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Leadership / wellness / belonging: Connection to each other is belonging and a human need. It centers humanity, effective leaders center humanity, wellness centers humanity.

Belonging becomes the intervention - how do I get a more connected team? To get someone to show up and be more entrepreneurial? That can’t happen if you aren’t showing up. Showing up brings more agility and nimbleness.

Your purpose is not your productivity - what matters to you, what motivates you, what are your needs, what are your beliefs, what holds you accountable.

Take your lived experience and turn it into a stepping stone for purpose.

We need squad! Join a cohort and be in community with leaders who can be with you.

Invest in yourself… this helps with your own wellness.

Establish belonging as a leadership competency.

Leadership, belonging and wellness are behavioral competencies, not trainings... they are learning journeys.

RESOURCES DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:

BeLonging / An Executive Leadership Cohort

Be Seen Cohort

OCTOBER ENROLLMENT OFFER: Text BELONGING to 66866 to connect and receive 10% off Dawn's upcoming cohort.

CONNECT WITH DAWN:

Get connected with Dawn on Instagram

Connect with Dawn's growing community on Instagram

Be a part of the conversation on LinkedIn



CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Follow NWC On Facebook

Engage with NWC on Twitter/X

Be a part of the conversation on Instagram

Watch all the new NWC videos on their YouTube channel

Learn more about NWC

Be a part of the conversation on NWC's LinkedIn

View Details

We welcomed Dr. Meika Neblett to our weekly Intentional Conversations vodcast this past week.

So grab your headphones (or earbuds) and press play to listen to the full encore presentation now.

Be sure to subscribe to our channel to never miss an episode.

You can also want the full replay on the NWC YouTube channel HERE

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

If we have completely homogenous provider space in the medical space, then when they see someone different from them, they won’t know what to do or what questions to ask.

If you are not honest, you will not get a good diagnosis, you will not get a good treatment.

Regarding implicit bias, the first and hardest step is starting the conversation.

Saying you have implicit bias does not mean you are racist.

Talking about it (DEIB) begins to put it into the consciousness and that is a big deal.

CONNECT WITH DR. MEIKA:

Be a part of the conversation on LinkedIn

Follow on Facebook

Engage with Dr. Meika on Twitter/X

Connect on Instagram

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Follow NWC On Facebook

Engage with NWC on Twitter/X

Be a part of the conversation on Instagram

Watch all the new NWC videos on their YouTube channel

Learn more about NWC

Be a part of the conversation on NWC's LinkedIn



View Details

We welcomed Daniel Sims to our weekly Intentional Conversations vodcast this past week. He shared so much wisdom our pens couldn't keep up!

So grab your headphones (or earbuds) and press play to listen to the full encore presentation now.

Be sure to subscribe to our channel to never miss an episode.

You can also want the full replay on the NWC YouTube channel HERE

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

For the uninitiated, unconscious bias is the crown jewel of the DEI cadre that needs to be worked into their organization to move it forward or just check a box.

Unconscious bias - What are the shortcuts that lead to the snap judgments we make that undergird our decision-making in society?

Biases are involuntary, widespread and beyond our control.

Black and Brown people are in training spaces that are more harmful than healing.

Be intentional when moving an organization forward by leaving minimal damage to those it is trying to support.

Questions to ask after a DEI training:

• In what way did the presence of the trainer increase your knowledge
• How else could the trainer have showed up to increase your knowledge

These questions don't put the trainer in a negative light and helps to value the attendee.

CONNECT WITH DANIEL:

Engage on LinkedIn

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Follow NWC On Facebook

Engage with NWC on Twitter

Be a part of the conversation on Instagram

Watch all the new NWC videos on their YouTube channel

Learn more about NWC

Be a part of the conversation on NWC's LinkedIn

View Details

We welcomed Rhonda Midgette to our weekly Intentional Conversations vodcast this past week and discussed the intersection of HR and DEI. Rhonda shared much wisdom from her many years of learned experience, we know there will be something for you to apply!

So grab your headphones (or earbuds) and press play to listen to the full encore presentation now.

Be sure to subscribe to our channel to never miss an episode.

You can also want the full replay on the NWC YouTube channel HERE

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Potential team members want to know up front what compensation and benefits you can offer.

Don’t do a survey if you’re not going to pay attention to what people ask for in the survey.

You do NOT have to go outside of an organization to find talent, develop from within.

Recognize leaders (ERG / BRG leaders, etc.) and if it’s not through consistent compensation, offer it other ways… a one-time bonus, time off, etc.

Open the door to make it safe for people to step up… don’t suffer in silence at your organizations.

When you meet with your HR professionals, bring your problem but also bring solutions. Be sure to do your homework.

CONNECT WITH RHONDA:

Be a part of the conversation on LinkedIn

Follow Rhonda on Facebook

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Follow NWC On Facebook

Engage with NWC on Twitter

Be a part of the conversation on Instagram

Watch all the new NWC videos on their YouTube channel

Learn more about NWC

Be a part of the conversation on NWC's LinkedIn

View Details

We were thrilled to have Dr. Stephanie M. Kirkland join us for our weekly Intentional Conversations vodcast. She shared so much wisdom with passion and excitement, it was difficult to end. We are already looking forward to having her back!

So grab your headphones (or earbuds) and press play to listen to the full encore presentation now.

Be sure to subscribe to our channel to never miss an episode.

You can also want the full replay on the NWC YouTube channel HERE

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM DR. STEPHANIE:

1. Identity work is leadership work. You cannot have leadership without understanding who you are and leading yourself first.
2. Everybody wants to know their purpose, people don’t need to be convinced that they have one.
3. What is the message your life is called to speak?
4. Our impact is US, we are the gift to the world!
5. We exchange the greatness for who we are for assimilation.
6. You have to do the work for leadership development and it will then increase your capacity to appreciate other people’s difference.
7. When we know ourselves, we know how our “philosophy” will impact other people.
8. If you don’t know your identity blueprint, you become unconscious to how you impact the world around you and interpret the world around you.
9. Redefine what unity means. For most organizations, unity is centered on a social identity theory, all come together around a social understanding and that creates relevance. Unity is coming together to go towards the goal, toward the end, for organizational productivity.
10. We are existing, we need to learn how to live!
11. If I didn’t define myself for myself, I would be crushed in other’s peoples fantasies of me and eaten alive.
12. When you exist in spaces that weren’t built for you, remember that sometimes just being you is the revolution.

RESOURCE SHARED: The Portrait Of A Leader

CONNECT WITH DR. STEPHANIE:

Connect on LinkedIn

Be friends on Facebook

Get connected on Instagram

Learn more about Identity Dynamics

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Follow NWC On Facebook

Engage with NWC on Twitter

Be a part of the conversation on Instagram

Watch all the new NWC videos on their YouTube channel

Learn more about NWC

Be a part of the conversation on NWC's LinkedIn

View Details

We were honored to welcome Melissa Watson Ward to the Intentional Conversations vodcast and are thrilled to share this encore presentation with you!

Be sure to subscribe to our channel to never miss an episode.

You can also want the full replay on the NWC YouTube channel HERE

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM MELISSA:

1. Women issues are community issues. When women do well the family does well and when the family does well, the community does well.
2. We need more women at the table to address core issues.
3. America is browning.
4. You can’t build without the people you are trying to build it for. Without the community at the table, you are going to fail.
5. Don’t assume that I don’t have the money, ask me! We can find money for things we believe in.
6. Be intentional to actively seek out diversity.

CONNECT WITH MELISSA:

Connect with Melissa on LinkedIn

Facebook: Melissa Watson Ward

Instagram: melissawatsonward

Twitter: MelissaNWatson

Learn more about Emerge

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Follow NWC On Facebook

Engage with NWC on Twitter

Be a part of the conversation on Instagram

Watch all the new NWC videos on their YouTube channel

Learn more about NWC

Be a part of the conversation on NWC's LinkedIn

View Details

We were honored to welcome Jaya Saxena to the Intentional Conversations vodcast and are thrilled to share this encore presentation with you!

Be sure to subscribe to our channel to never miss an episode.

You can also want the full replay on the NWC YouTube channel HERE

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM JAYA:

1. Our society has a positive view towards extroverts, but we need all personality types in our workplace and society.

2. We do not need to talk about aspects of our identity in silos.

3. There is NO singular way to be a successful leader.

4. There needs to be an understanding of what our roles are in the race conversation, it does no one any good to be silent.

5. DEI is so very interesting because there are constant evolutions.

6. Just because something worked at one company doesn’t mean it will work in another, you do want to adapt your work.

7. To ensure DEI work is sustainable - really make sure there is the leadership commitment, a strong culture of measurement and accountability, and think boldly around initiatives related to inclusion.

8. If you have inclusion - diversity is the outcome.

9. Hold onto hope… it is natural to be disheartened, but remaining hopeful is vital.

RESOURCES SHARED DURING THIS EPISODE:

Quiet by Susan Cain

Harvard Business Review Article by Lily Zhang

CONNECT WITH JAYA SAXENA:

On LinkedIn

Engage on Twitter

Be a part of the conversation on Instagram

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Follow NWC On Facebook

Engage with NWC on Twitter

Be a part of the conversation on Instagram

Watch all the new NWC videos on their YouTube channel

Learn more about NWC

Be a part of the conversation on NWC's LinkedIn

View Details

We were honored to welcome Lillian Forsyth to the Intentional Conversations vodcast and are so excited to share this encore presentation with you!

Be sure to subscribe to our channel to never miss an episode.

Want to WATCH the full replay? Visit the NWC YouTube channel HERE

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

The foundation of equity for all humans is that we are all inherently valuable.

Equity is taking a look at the outcomes we want from an organization… who’s voices get heard? Who influences decisions?

Wherever there is inequity - you will not get the most out of your systems. Equity is the end goal and the other areas are steps along the way to equity.

In all that you’re doing, how do you think forward, are my actions increasing equity or decreasing equity?

Always be thoughtful in how you show up and how we fit into the puzzle.

We cannot ask clients to do something that we are not working on.

Always be centering the voices of a diverse team, but in particular the people most impacted by the work you are doing.

Your work is not just about the results you’re getting, it is about how you are doing the work.

When communication is the presenting issue, the underlying issue is trust.

CONNECT WITH LILLIAN:

Engage with Lillian on LinkedIn

Learn more about Lillian's work here

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Follow NWC On Facebook

Engage with NWC on Twitter

Be a part of the conversation on Instagram

Watch all the new NWC videos on their YouTube channel

Learn more about NWC

Be a part of the conversation on NWC's LinkedIn

View Details

We were honored to welcome Aaisha Joseph to the Intentional Conversations vodcast and are so excited to share this encore presentation with you!

Be sure to subscribe to our channel to never miss an episode.

Want to WATCH the full replay? Visit the NWC YouTube channel HERE

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM AAISHA:

No need for surface level DEI. We need faster substantial impact and change.

Empathy and curiosity encourage civil discourse by trying to understand why people think the way they do.

Center humanity... acceptance doesn’t mean agreement.

Some POC are so steeped in White supremacy and centering Whiteness that some may shame you because they believe you must conform to Whiteness, or I look bad.

DEI skills are leadership skills!

The system wasn’t set up to encourage the success and liberation of Black people.

To decolonialize yourself, look at your behavior when you’re in predominately White spaces. Take note of what changes and why.

CONNECT WITH AAISHA:

Stay connected to Aaisha on Instagram

Be a part of the conversation on LinkedIn

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Follow NWC On Facebook

Engage with NWC on Twitter

Be a part of the conversation on Instagram

Watch all the new NWC videos on their YouTube channel

Learn more about NWC

Be a part of the conversation on NWC's LinkedIn

View Details

We were honored to welcome Jessica Pharm to the Intentional Conversations vodcast and are so excited to share this encore presentation with you!

Be sure to subscribe to our channel to never miss an episode.

Want to WATCH the full replay? Visit the NWC YouTube channel HERE

JESSICA'S KEY TAKEAWAYS:

To be a free-thinking HR professional, you need to think about DEI realistically and holistically.

Having a problem with DEI content signifies a problem with you, not me.

Talk to managers about what you want, goals, and expectations... don’t ask for permission!

Manager red flag: when they are intimidated by you asking for what you want to help you thrive. Good managers want to help you excel.

Own your career, don’t put it in the hands of your manager.

Black people aren’t given grace when a mistake is made, like their white colleagues, so you fear asking for challenging work.

White mediocrity is rampant in the workplace. Black people are usually overqualified for positions because they aren’t given breaks.

Black people are hired based on experience and White people are hired based on potential.

Companies shouldn’t ask employees to bring their full self to work if they haven’t created a safe environment for that.

DEI should not report to HR. HR is there to protect the company which does not align with DEI, it's parallel.

CONNECT WITH JESSICA:

Connect with Jessica on LinkedIn

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Follow NWC On Facebook

Engage with NWC on Twitter

Be a part of the conversation on Instagram

Watch all the new NWC videos on their YouTube channel

Learn more about NWC

Be a part of the conversation on NWC's LinkedIn

View Details

We were honored to welcome Dr. Shaunna Payne Gold to the Intentional Conversations vodcast and are so excited to share this encore presentation with you!

Be sure to subscribe to our channel to never miss an episode.

Want to WATCH the full replay? Visit the NWC YouTube channel HERE

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM DR. SHAUNNA:

Students need to be able to navigate the workplace, not just understand the work of DEI.

Generation Z'ers are making a conscious decision on how to work based on how they were raised and educated.

We forget that for many of us, our hair tells a history of a people!

How ridiculous is it to connect hair style to talents, skills and abilities!

We typically do DEI work within the confines of white comfort and once you start pushing outside of that box, it becomes problematic.

We need to move people from DEI programmers to DEI strategists.

One big thing that is needed is connecting systems and innovation, having strong dialogue facilitators, and training in change management that involves people in the process along the way.

What is important about the acceptance of change, even when people disagree, they feel committed to it, if they were apart of producing the outcome.

DEI should not be situated in HR spaces, but you need to play nicely. We don’t know each others history until we study it.

DEI is a profession. It is not an appendage, or an add-on.

The acronym ADKAR means: Awareness, Desire, Knowledge (do you know what you need to know to change), Ability (too many roadblocks in the way), Reinforcement (to be sure we don’t go back to what we used to be)

If you’re going to work in the DEI space, assume resistors and then figure out how to contain them - how can you make sure they don’t effect what you’re trying to change or effect it less. This could be through confronting them, in a good way, typically this means from a dialogue perspective. Some folks need to be removed - maybe not from the organization, but to a different space.

Be ready with your action plan before these resistors pop up.

Hang in there and take care of yourself!

CONNECT WITH DR. SHAUNNA:

Learn more about Dr. Gold

Join the conversation on LinkedIn

Follow on Facebook

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Follow NWC On Facebook

Engage with NWC on Twitter

Be a part of the conversation on Instagram

Watch all the new NWC videos on their YouTube channel

Learn more about NWC

Be a part of the conversation on NWC's LinkedIn

View Details

We were honored to welcome Netta Jenkins to the Intentional Conversations vodcast and are so excited to share this encore presentation with you!

Be sure to subscribe to our channel to never miss an episode.

Want to WATCH the full replay? Visit the NWC YouTube channel HERE

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM NETTA:

DEI is much more expansive than race and gender.

True transformation happens when we can transfer the work to all.

An Actionist is someone who is working to advocate, they want to see an impact, a clear result at the end of the day. An activist not only advocates for an individual, but takes action to redirect opportunities for others to advance.

We need to move to conscious bias. People will continue having the same behavior or pattern, even when they are told how bad it is. Behavior that happens over and over and you continue to do, even after you’ve been told it is bad, is now conscious.

Before you start consulting or join an organization, you must ensure the organization answers these questions:

Do you have a DEI budget?

What are some results you would like to see?

Who am I reporting to?

What is the policy for me to take a break when I need it?

Do I have a team?

When we believe something will come to pass, we must prepare.

Boards need to do a better job making it known how to get on a board.

DEI is simply removing barriers and is simply a lense people apply to their work.

CONNECT WITH NETTA:

Learn more about Netta

Buy her book: The Inclusive Organization

Connect on LinkedIn

Follow Netta on Facebook

Engage with Netta on Twitter

Be a part of the conversation on Instagram

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Follow NWC On Facebook

Engage with NWC on Twitter

Be a part of the conversation on Instagram

Watch all the new NWC videos on their YouTube channel

Learn more about NWC

Be a part of the conversation on NWC's LinkedIn

View Details

We were honored to welcome Dana Brownlee to the Intentional Conversations vodcast and are so excited to share this encore presentation with you!

Be sure to subscribe to our channel to never miss an episode.

Want to WATCH the full replay? Visit the NWC YouTube channel HERE

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM DANA:

1. We continue to exist in the “animal farm” equality. We’re all equal, but some are just more equal than others. We see this in broader society and our workplaces.

2. How can we begin to create real equity? You have to have 3 critical components: Racial literacy (we need to know what we’re talking about), Racial humility (you can know a lot, but need to remain teachable), Racial stamina (needed to lean into the work).

3. If you don’t have the racial literacy, you cannot have a conversation about real equity.

4. The education and the study is ground zero. You cannot be competent in this space without the education.

5. What can you commit to daily in increasing your knowledge and education particularly in the DEI space?

6. Have you ever seen a complex problem solved by not discussing it?

7. To be better sometimes requires discomfort… this isn’t bad.

8. Individual guilt and shame is different from collective guilt and shame. Everything is not about you, depersonalize it, don’t look at everything through the lens of yourself or how it makes you feel personally.

9. We usually start by 'calling in’, which generally doesn’t work… what do we do when calling in is not effective? Typically people do nothing… this is not acceptable.

10. Part of the reason we’ve made little progress is using the meek approach, focused on comfort, not taking risks, so when nothing happens, get ignored, gaslighted, the conversation ceases. Focus more on the progress, than on the level of comfort.

11. “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world, in fact, it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Meade

12. We can’t wait for people to save us, we have to take that power each and every day by speaking up, speaking out and living our values.

CONNECT WITH DANA:

Be a part of the conversation on LinkedIn

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Follow NWC On Facebook

Engage with NWC on Twitter

Be a part of the conversation on Instagram

Watch all the new NWC videos on their YouTube channel

Learn more about NWC

Be a part of the conversation on NWC's LinkedIn

View Details

We were honored to welcome Future Cain to the Intentional Conversations vodcast and are so excited to share this encore presentation with you!

Be sure to subscribe to our channel to never miss an episode.

Want to WATCH the full replay? Visit the NWC YouTube channel HERE

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

1. People forget to breathe.. use it when you need to get back to calm, lower stress! Just breathe…

2. Life isn’t either / or, it is filled with many both / and.

3. We can’t create social awareness if we aren’t even aware of how we show up.

4. Self awareness is a coin, one side is about you knowing you and the other side of the coin is how people are receiving you.

5. We are Houdinis of sitting with our own emotions, we will do anything to escape them.

6. Our self awareness is important because if I can’t see me, I can’t see you.

7. Failing is our first attempt at learning!

8. We don’t put enough emphasis into getting to know another human being.

9. Your body will manifest what you are holding onto and not talking about.

10. The weight of inclusivity is typically on one persons shoulder and equity is the work of all.

11. You can’t change a system, unless you listen to the people in the system who are being oppressed.

12. We have to remember to fill our buckets up with joy. What am I waking up to? Protect your mind because that protects your body and your spirit. Pour into yourself, not just water, but good stuff for your mind, body and spirit.

13. Celebrate the people who are joining the marathon of DEI, but also let those know if they aren’t ready yet for the journey, they can join when they’re ready!

14. How is your heart? Ask yourself daily, how is my heart? If you’re feeling a way you don’t want to feel, what actionable steps can you take that will help you to experience joy? Your wellness will be top and center!

CONNECT WITH FUTURE:

Link up with Future on her LinkedIn

Be a part of the conversation on Instagram

Send Future a tweet

Learn more about Future and her company Future of SEL

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Follow NWC On Facebook

Engage with NWC on Twitter

Be a part of the conversation on Instagram

Watch all the new NWC videos on their YouTube channel

Learn more about what NWC

View Details

We were honored to welcome Dr. Venessa Marie Perry to the Intentional Conversations vodcast and are excited to share this encore presentation with you!

Be sure to subscribe to our channel to never miss an episode.

Want to WATCH the full replay? Visit the NWC YouTube channel HERE

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

We are now starting to see a slowing down of people talking about DEI and racial equity. Things are changing.

The evolution of the nomenclature of DEI has become somewhat of a contentious point, people can get so tied up in what they call it that it keeps us from doing the work. Let’s just do the work!

DEI or DEIB - it all means the same thing. What matters most is the impact and the outcomes.

DEI is organizational development and change management and if you don’t understand that, you will have a difficult time with this work. It is about increasing the capacity of individual’s in organizations to be sure they are individualistically and holistically performing.

DEI is relational work.

People don’t understand that well being is actually several pieces, it’s not just physical or emotional. We are talking about education, socioeconomic status, where you live, your transportation, childcare issues, even your diet.

CONNECT WITH DR. PERRY:

Follow Dr. Perry on LINKEDIN

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Follow NWC On Facebook

Engage with NWC on Twitter

Be a part of the conversation on Instagram

Watch all the new NWC videos on their YouTube channel

View Details

We were honored to welcome Dr. Katrina Hutchins, affectionately called Dr. K, to the Intentional Conversations vodcast and are excited to share this encore presentation with you!

Be sure to subscribe to our channel to never miss an episode.

Want to WATCH the full replay? Visit the NWC YouTube channel HERE.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Grief is something we don’t talk about enough.

Ask the question, “Where can my voice be the most powerful?”

Collectively we must start thinking about how to amplify our voices together. The days of a lone voice are long gone, we need to be looking for ways to collaborate.

People are consumed by the power of “they” and must move beyond the fear of what will “they” say? What will “they” think?

Think of sharing your voice as an opportunity, not an obligation.

Ask yourself, “What if I don’t do it?”

When you consider cause and effect, move beyond your head into your heart. Heart gives us the ability to be sensitive to people, places and circumstances. Ask do I have the heart to act? Do I have the heart to use my power for good? Do I have the heart to step into and create brave spaces?

Only 7% of our voice shows up in words, the other 93% is our presence, our attitude, and our disposition.

Voice positioning requires critical thought, mindfulness, strategies and self reflection and introspection about the condition of our voices.

You can exist in silence for so long you become desensitized to the weight of being in that state.

Sometimes we expect people to change things for us in not being heard or seen, but it’s our own voice that will bring the change.

If we have seats at tables and we’re unaware of our voice’s power, we can become the meal.

Obligation is I have to… understanding if something is an obligation is being able to step back and ask, “Can I find the honor in this?” If there is nothing that can connect to it and find the honor in it, it is probably not for me. Our yes should always be connected to “I GET TO!”

CONNECT WITH DR. K:

LinkedIn

Website

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

YouTube

View Details

We were honored to welcome Tara Robertson to the Intentional Conversations vodcast and are excited to share this encore presentation with you!

Be sure to subscribe to our channel to never miss an episode.

Want to WATCH the full replay? Visit the NWC YouTube channel HERE.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Leaders need to take a stand and be clear on their values. When meeting resistance, knowing your core values will help your response. Do you have the backs of your employees and clients?

When making decisions around DEIB, determine who caused the harm and who’s being centered? Do those answers align?

Develop regular mental health practices. How are you continuously filling your cup, not just during Mental Health Month?

When coaching WOC, nothing is broken so there’s nothing to fix. Just shine a light on them, be with and walk with them.

Who you’re being influences what you’re doing. I can show up for WOC differently when coaching.

When we make decisions on brand for our values, it makes us feel happy and fulfilled and determines what we should do during our work and our personal lives.

We must interrogate the avoidance of discomfort during DEI conversations.

CONNECT WITH TARA:

Website

LinkedIn

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

YouTube

View Details

We were honored to welcome DeAnna Minus-Vincent to the Intentional Conversations vodcast and are excited to share this encore presentation with you!

Be sure to subscribe to our channel to never miss an episode.

Want to WATCH the full replay? Visit the NWC YouTube channel HERE.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Housing: People should have it and it should be affordable.

It’s critical for Black women to seek careers in health care to ensure we are listened to and cared for.

It’s critical for Black women to seek careers in health care to change policy and procedures to ensure doctors are asking the correct questions and POC feel ok asking questions. We also need allies who can tell the message.

We need to look at DEI as everyone’s responsibility, not just a person or department. DEI must be written into policies and procedures and needs to start at the top and move to everyone and every department.

We need to be courageous enough to point out racism.

DEI must be built in not bolted on.

To move forward, we must remove outdated systems and stats and serve the whole, diverse person in health care.

Black women have been leaving corporate America, which is great for entrepreneurship, but bad for Corporate America.

Make sure to create tangible DEIB changes and structures... what are people actually doing?

CONNECT WITH DEANNA:

LinkedIn

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

YouTube

View Details

We were honored to welcome Rahimeh Ramezany to the Intentional Conversations vodcast and are excited to share this encore presentation with you!

Be sure to subscribe to our channel to never miss an episode.

Want to WATCH the full replay? Visit the NWC YouTube channel HERE.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

1. Why isn’t there a term for blended immigrant families where one parent is an immigrant and the other is not?

2. Intercultural communication is very important to learn and should be included in DEI strategy when trying to bridge gaps and understanding.

3. Direct communicators should give grace to indirect communicators. Make sure to view nonverbal cues, facial expressions, jokes and the context of the joke.

4. Faith and religious identity are a huge part of an individual's identity. You can’t check it at the door because faith is deeply embedded in people.

5. Best practices for organizations

a. Religious harassment needs to be in the HR policy

b. Training for managers for religious inclusion and psychological safety

c. Don’t set boundaries for success

1. We need to work towards creating an intergenerational mentoring process.

2. Leaders must build trust; you can’t just say or perform inclusion and show that they will make structural changes.

CONNECT WITH RAHIMEH:

Website

LinkedIn

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

YouTube

View Details

We were honored to welcome Ann Kowal Smith to the Intentional Conversations vodcast and are excited to share this encore presentation with you!

Subscribe to our channel to never miss an episode.

Want to WATCH the full replay? Visit the NWC YouTube channel HERE.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM ANN:

1. No matter how you see yourself, people will see you how they want to. DEI matters because we all have something to contribute.

2. Flipping understanding– some people believe what they see is reality. Life experience colors us in different ways... we need to understand someone else's world as much as possible.

3. 5 pillars of collective intelligence: 1) listening with humility, 2) asking good and curious questions, 3)challenging assumptions, 4) disagreeing with respect and without retribution, and 5) widening the circle of empathy.

4. Leaders should not manage diversity but lead it. Build social sensitivity to build diverse teams which will make them even better because they may begin with challenges.

5. Collective intelligence is about being able to work together, not individual intelligence.

6. Psychological safety is needed to be a fundamental driver of learning at an organization. Good leaders talk about psychological safety.

7. Distinguish between Learning meetings vs. Decision meetings...learn and share before deciding.

CONNECT WITH ANN:

Reflection Point

LinkedIn

Forbes Contributor Page

Twitter

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

YouTube

View Details

We were honored to welcome Valerie Williams to the Intentional Conversations guest co-host seat and are excited to share this encore presentation of the live vodcast with you here!

Be sure to subscribe to never miss an episode.

And you can WATCH the full replay on our Nika White Consulting YouTube channel HERE.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

The dangers of overlooking microaggressions: Tiny acts of aggression accumulate into trauma.

I have experienced racism in every country I have visited regardless of if it’s White majority or Black majority. White supremacy and systematic racism are built into many systems; however, your life is at risk in the US.

Shadeism has decreased over the years, however, it’s still prevalent.

Where there’s Black and Brown people who are decedents of slavery, there are different variations of shadeism.

We all have a part to play in breaking the cycle of harmful racist attitudes and acknowledging privilege of your history.

We’ve done a lot just by surviving.

The systems we are raised in are steeped in White Supremacy and center Whiteness. Even Black and Brown people can perpetuate racism.

You must take a break from doing this work. It can get heavy.

Anti-racism is foundational to DEI. When you undo the harms of racism you benefit all disenfranchised groups.

Nothing about us, without us. It’s hard to do anti-racism work without credentials and lived experience.

CONNECT WITH SHARON:

Website

LinkedIn

Instagram

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

YouTube

LinkedIn

View Details

We were honored to welcome Valerie Williams to the Intentional Conversations guest co-host seat and are excited to share this encore presentation of the live vodcast with you here!

Be sure to subscribe to never miss an episode.

And you can WATCH the full replay on our Nika White Consulting YouTube channel HERE.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

1. When building DEI programing, cross functional efforts work best. Organizations must also have some type of process and strategy and be crystal clear and their ‘why.’

2. If an organization isn’t clear on their ‘why’ they may end up just trying things and won’t understand why nothing their efforts aren’t working.

3. When building DEI programing, ask yourself: How do we create a program that honors all opinions of stakeholders and is stainable? Start with understanding your ‘why?’ Why DEI? Why now?

4. DEI practitioners need to hear from all stakeholders, so your goals and strategy feel authentic.

5. DEI work can be isolating. Create a community for collaboration, conferences, and get direct help with efforts.

6. Organizational support starts with resources. Support your DEI leaders in an uncertain economy by repurposing resources.

7. Workplace wellness is important. Organizations should create infrastructure for people to recharge in many ways.

8. The concept of diversity opens if you work with virtual or hybrid individuals.

9. As DEI practitioners, take a pulse on your employees when creating new policy. How are people feeling? How do we measure impact and tell that story which will impact development?

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

YouTube

LinkedIn

View Details

We were honored to welcome Jacquie Abram to the Intentional Conversations guest co-host seat and are excited to share this encore presentation of the live vodcast with you here!

Be sure to subscribe to never miss an episode.

And you can WATCH the full replay on our Nika White Consulting YouTube channel HERE.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM JACQUIE:

• Covert racism is hidden, it’s harder to prove, and the people experiencing it can’t tell that they're experiencing racism and as a result it is socially acceptable.
• Many organizations don’t want to tackle covert racism because it is uncomfortable to do a deep dive into what the root of the issues are.
• The people who lead DEI discussions about what Black people struggle with and often this is deprecating to the cause.
• It's important to document all pertinent information to build your case when you are feeling racially targeted in the workplace.

CONNECT WITH JACQUIE:

LinkedIn

Hush Money - Jacquie's Book

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

YouTube

LinkedIn

View Details

We were honored to welcome Joquina Reed to the Intentional Conversations guest co-host seat and are excited to share this encore presentation of the live vodcast with you here!

Be sure to subscribe to never miss an episode.

And you can WATCH the full replay on our Nika White Consulting YouTube channel HERE

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Any attack on democracy is an anti-blackness attack.
• Urgency is a tenant of supremacy culture, but when it subsides the activity goes away.
• Divesting from whiteness is not subscribing to the belief that whiteness is the standard of living.
• Look at results and budgeting within an organization to know whether their actions are performative or not.
• DEI work and initiatives should be budgeted within the operational costs.

CONNECT WITH JOQUINA:

Website

Instagram

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

YouTube

LinkedIn

View Details

We were honored to welcome Anton Gunn to the Intentional Conversations guest co-host seat and are excited to share this encore presentation of the live vodcast with you here!

Be sure to subscribe to never miss an episode.

And you can WATCH the full replay on our Nika White Consulting YouTube channel HERE

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Everyone asks the same 3 questions and how you respond impacts your leadership. The questions are "Do you care about me? Will you help me to be successful? And can I trust you?"
• 50% of people are living in an oblivion of what’s occurring in an organization. 35% are suffering paralysis by analysis and are not taking action for the problems they see. 10% of people have the greatest awareness of what’s wrong and they don’t do anything because they’re benefiting from all that is wrong.
• Woke is about consciousness, and being aware of your surroundings, being in tune with your community and acknowledging the shifts that occur.
• Find allies who can help elevate the issues with you, so you’re not on an island. We all must find those times in our lives that require us to standup and be a catalyst for change.
• Don’t worry about taking credit. You can't work alone and be successful, and don’t be afraid to do the dirty work. If you do your job well your team will win.

CONNECT WITH ANTON:

LinkedIn

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

YouTube

LinkedIn

View Details

We were honored to welcome Francine Parham to the Intentional Conversations guest co-host seat and are excited to share this encore presentation of the live vodcast with you here!

Be sure to subscribe to never miss an episode.

And you can WATCH the full replay on our Nika White Consulting YouTube channel HERE

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Align yourself with those individuals that are doing what you would like to do as these individuals become your mentors.
• We must start with our mindset to move the needle for success and think strategically.
• As women we must understand the environment we are in and how your voice can show up. Who are the voices in your organization?
• Men are often judged by their potential, and women are unfortunately judged by what proof there is that shows success.
• There is weight in your name when you have ally’s that mention it to others in rooms you are not in. You don’t have to have a lot of people talking about you, but the impact of a few can be profound.
• We all need to understand our social currency and how we spend it.
• Never bring an issue to the forefront that you don’t have a solution for.

CONNECT WITH FRANCINE:

Website

LinkedIn (Francine Parham & Co.)

LinkedIn (Francine Parham)

Facebook

Twitter

Francine's Audible Page

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

YouTube

LinkedIn

View Details

We were honored to welcome Aubrey Blanche to the Intentional Conversations guest co-host seat and are excited to share this encore presentation of the vodcast with you here!

Be sure to subscribe to never miss an episode.

And you can WATCH the full replay on our Nika White Consulting YouTube channel HERE

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM AUBREY:

• DEI practices we created from an anti-racism lens naturally extended itself into gender discrimination.
• Equity order of operations in essence you focus on anti-racism which starts to dismantle other areas of discrimination.
• It could feel like a trade-off, but we need to understand the benefits we all reap when one group has access to equity.
• Listen to those who are disabled, and they will tell you if they’re experiencing ableism. Also, listen to people with a broad sense of disability.
• Even the most well intentioned people can’t assist you if you don’t ask for support.
• There is no cost to foster a culture where your team can feel confident and safe to name their disability needs.

CONNECT WITH AUBREY:

Linkedin

Twitter

Website

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

YouTube

LinkedIn

View Details

NWC was honored to welcome Farah Harris as an Intentional Conversations vodcast guest. We are thrilled to share this encore episode with her key takeaways below.

Be sure to subscribe to never miss a new podcast. They release every Tuesday at 9am.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM FARAH:

• Emotional intelligence, or EQ, is the ability to be comfortable and aware of your emotions and that of others and be able to manage them. This includes being able to read the room.
• People want to feel like they were considered before they entered the room and EQ means we are leaning into asking ourselves, "What is the impact of what I'm doing on others?"
• EQ is not a soft skill but a strength skill and there is power in the “pause” when we hold space for others.
• You can’t practice high EQ without self-care. The more we are self-aware the more we can be aware of others.
• Sometimes we don’t event know our boundaries are being crossed until it happens.
• We all use EQ in different ways, and it depends on our societal surroundings and upbringing.
• Practice your self-awareness by asking yourself how you are feeling, in the morning when you wake up and when you go to bed. The more you start doing that you become well inept to manage your emotions.

CONNECT WITH FARAH:

LinkedIn

Website - WorkingWellDaily.com

Twitter

YouTube

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

YouTube

LinkedIn

View Details

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Culture does not take a long time to shift. It takes action and intention from leadership to make it a priority.
• Many people who are interested in getting into this work now draw their passion from personal experience, however you must put your own biases on the sidelines to truly be inclusive of all that you work with.
• DEI sentiment is being politicized and I think it normalizes and amplifies the animosity that DEI professionals may face.
• You have the influence to move the needle in your own way.
• It is okay to create strategic plans and initiatives as women of color who are executives within organizations.

CONNECT WITH DR. HORNE:

Website

LinkedIn

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

YouTube

LinkedIn

View Details

Melinda Briana Epler joined Dr. Nika White and the NWC team for an intentional conversation. We hope you enjoy the encore replay.

Be sure to subscribe to our podcast to never miss a new episode.

CONNECT WITH MELINDA:

Website

Twitter

LinkedIn

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

YouTube

LinkedIn

View Details

We were honored to welcome Erica Shaw as the guest co-host for Intentional Conversations.

Enjoy the encore presentation below!

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

CONNECT WITH ERICA:

LinkedIn

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

YouTube

LinkedIn

View Details

We were honored to have Monique Gibson join us as the guest co-host for Intentional Conversations!

We hope you enjoy the encore presentation below.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• If you’re confident your light cannot be dimmed from shining light to a fellow woman thriving.
• Be authentic in the way you build relationships and network. It is critical to the success you are seeking.
• Be conscious of not allowing negativity in your space, there’s value in protecting your emotional mindset.
• Women strive to be seen as leaders and prioritizing your well being is a key driver despite societal pressures to take care of others ahead of your own needs.
• When it comes to entrepreneurship there might not ever be a best time to take the leap, but you must commit to the time and ensure you have the right support.
• Surrounding yourself with mentorship and empowering support is a key component to success.
• To be in the position of giving and being authentic will naturally bring a full circle into you receiving.

Be sure to subscribe to never miss an episode!

CONNECT WITH MONIQUE:

LINKEDIN

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

YouTube

LinkedIn

View Details

We were honored to welcome Amber Thompson to the Intentional Conversations vodcast! We hope you enjoy this encore presentation.

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to never miss a new weekly Intentional Conversation.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

We cannot have diversity as a silo, every person needs to take part in being their own chief diversity officer. This work is horizontal, not vertical in its entirety.

We have seen DEI budgets begin to get decreased due to the economic downturn, which is why this is an external and internal opportunity to do what we can to push the work forward.

There’s a lot of work that still needs to be done in regard to benefit corporations title. It is a model that has potential with benefits.

Internal DEI leaders can connect the corporate work of activities by utilizing community and grassroot resources.

Policy drives equity! We must follow the DEI mindset with behaviors that make the fundamental changes.

Technology can strengthen organizational change because it’s the only way to capture the necessary data. It is costly, but highly effective to automate the data.

When there are competing priorities, DEI must be pushed forward with the demand for equitable changes in policy.

CONNECT WITH AMBER:

LinkedIn

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

YouTube

LinkedIn

View Details

We were excited Giovanna Burgess Geathers as the Intentional Conversations guest co-host. And equally excited to share the encore episode below.

As always, thank you for listening and be sure to SUBSCRIBE to never miss a new podcast!

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Authenticity is one of the biggest ways to gain trust and we must be consistent about it especially when we facilitate space.

Intentional and conscious breathing is powerful and effective in communication and utilizing it in stressful conversation is a great way to center your thoughts and calms your nervous system.

Its very difficult to deep breath and remain stressed at the same time. If you are feeling upset and triggered, then take a moment to breath.

Psychological safety needs to be understood and respected within us to be able to contribute to a dialog. The safer people feel in their work environment the more they will be empowered to contribute.

This is important because someone who needs to feel save to voice their opinion could be the one who has the solution to the problem.

The culture we care with us as we switch departments or organizations is infectious to the group, you could be influencing the culture positively or negatively.

So often we are either worry about the past or focusing on the future which means we are very often in our heads. Sematic therapy allows us to be centered.

The more we practice this the better we impact our health in all areas and it translates into the workspace.

CONNECT WITH GIOVANNA:

Website

Facebook

Book

LinkedIn

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

YouTube

LinkedIn

View Details

We were honored to welcome Claudia T. Miller as guest co-host on Intentional Conversations. Listen now to the encore episode and be sure to check out her key takeaways below.

SUBSCRIBE to never miss a new podcast and always be a part of the conversation!

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM CLAUDIA:

When we have 30% or more women in leadership, data shows companies tend to be more profitable.

A two-part effort is required to achieve women in leadership from the company and from the individual. You must advocate for yourself, and companies need to cultivate this initiative.

When you connect accountability with compensation you will see the results.

30-40% of applicant pool should include underestimated talent before the process can even begin.

Be aware of the value of your transferrable skills, and not focus on the salary offered that includes skills you don’t yet have.

Confidence can cost you the offer or have you short changed, assess the value you bring before interviewing and use that as a guide.

CONNECT WITH CLAUDIA T. MILLER:

LinkedIn

Website

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

YouTube

LinkedIn

View Details

We were so honored to welcome Emmanuel Kulu to the Intentional Conversations microphone. He shared so much wisdom and knowledge and educated us all regarding African history.

Grab your headphones and listen now to this encore episode from the live Intentional Conversations vodcast.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

The miseducation of African history led from the idea you cannot allow a people to know how great their history was and this still affects the workplace today.

History is a big part of the DEI space because it solidifies your value wherever you go and demands acknowledgement.

You cannot limit 3000 years of Black history to one month, it is a conversation that needs to happen more throughout the year, as well as recognizing the accomplishments of the African American people.

We are in the age of information, being ignorant to the facts is no longer an option.

For misinformation to fly, everyone must be deceived for it to continue, and this is what we need to rectify.

African history is Black history, all pieces of the puzzle are important to holistically understand it.

Culture is to human as water is to a fish and if we are stripped from it, we are disconnected from the truth.

Africa has produced more women rulers than anywhere else in the world.

CONNECT WITH EMMANUEL:

LinkedIn

Instagram

Emmanuel's Books

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

YouTube

LinkedIn

View Details

SEASON 2 of Intentional Conversations with Dr. Nika White and the NWC team kicked off on Friday, January 6th with our very first guest of the new season, Zenica Chatman!

And what a fantastic way to start a new season. Zenica shared so much wisdom from her learned experiences specifically with a workplace bully. It was encouraging to hear her story and how she grew through a very difficult season and emerged stronger.

SUBSCRIBE to the podcast to never miss an encore episode!

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM ZENICA:

1. Workplace bullying is often psychological harassment, and its effects can be lasting.

2. The power of being an ally to someone experiencing workplace bullying can be profoundly career changing for that individual.

3. Once you understand how common workplace bullying is, you can then begin to obtain the resources you need.

4. It’s important to allow people to acknowledge what happened to them and the feelings around it.

5. Reclaim your power and know yourself before you experienced the events that questioned your identity.

6. You must know what your boundaries are and hold tight to them. When they are crossed, we must trust ourselves that what we are experiencing is not acceptable.

CONNECT WITH ZENICA:

Website

LinkedIn

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

YouTube

LinkedIn

View Details

What an amazing last Intentional Conversations of 2022 we had with guest, Neha Sampat. We hope you enjoy this encore presentation of the vodcast.

CONNECT WITH NEHA:

LinkedIn

Website

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

YouTube

LinkedIn

View Details

Nika White Consulting was honored to have Dr. Towanna Burrous join us for a very intentional conversation. We discussed how successful leaders are great coaches.

We hope you enjoy this encore presentation.

You are invited to join the NWC team LIVE, every Friday at 11am (EST) for another Intentional Conversation.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER NOW!

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

The core competencies on how to be a coach is only the baseline. Coaching is also your commitment, shifting mindset and behavior, and what makes you connect with others and are you curious to learn more.

Every people leader needs to understand the value of talent and be open to coaching to truly make an impact.

Coaching competency requires training and certification. Too much bias and opinion of own lived experience can take over if the credentials are not acquired that allow you to have steady waters.

You are measured by the success of your team according to traditional leadership balance. Leaders need to shift accountability and empower their team to fill in the gaps.

In order to be a powerful coach, you must know who you are yourself, including your biases, triggers, etc. otherwise you wont operate at your best.

Anyone can coach transactional. Transformational space however requires the student to go through that in dept understanding of themselves and deep dive into their values.

Group coaching should be mindful to use coaching skills in the moment, but you’re limited to 11-12 people. There should be a common denominator with all individuals to collectively grow despite learning at different rates.

CONNECT WITH DR. TOWANNA BURROUS:

LinkedIn

CoachDiversity

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

YouTube

LinkedIn

View Details

It was an honor to have Martine Kalaw join us for Intentional Conversations. We hope you enjoy this encore podcast.

You are invited to join the NWC team LIVE, every Friday at 11am (EST) for another Intentional Conversation.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER NOW!

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

1. Many of us rely on the academic definition of diversity and get tripped up on educational phrases and language. It results in us being afraid to ask questions.

2. So often we have discussions of bringing C-suite execs into the conversation, we neglect the importance of the role middle managers play in the discussion and outcome.

3. Allow yourself to give people the benefit of the doubt. Ask yourself if you think this person has ill will or can this be a learning experience?

4. All data is opportunity. Yes it creates responsibility, however it is about progress, and not perfection.

5. DEI is not about giving people a pass, but about opening the door to bring in diversity with qualification.

CONNECT WITH MARTINE:

Website

Youtube

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

LinkedIn

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

YouTube

LinkedIn

View Details

Jenn Tardy joined the Intentional Conversations vodcast and shared so much wisdom! Listen now to the encore presentation. You are invited to join the NWC team LIVE, every Friday at 11am (EST) for another Intentional Conversation. CLICK https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIpd-isqzgiGdTvYqf-WFAG3c991PqrghNK (HERE TO REGISTER) NOW! KEY TAKEAWAYS: Our lived experiences are shaped by the way we see the world. (LI) LEI is what we have, and LEQ is what we use. (Lived Experience Intelligence vs. Lived Experience Quotient) Its profound to mention a new hires LEI during the onboarding process when introducing to the broader team. Anyone who is working in DEI today and who must work in conjunction with recruitment should leverage career coaches as well to assist with under-represented candidates. Recruiters and hiring managers are on the frontlines of increasing diversity however, increasing diversity is everyone’s responsibility. Increasing diversity on the professional level often increases as we increase diversity on our personal level. Diversity of thought is a widely overlooked representation. A recruiter is accountable to increasing diversity within the candidate pool. Ideally, a hiring manager should not know the demographic of the pool; however the hiring team has to remove all their biases. CONNECT WITH JENN: https://www.jennifertardy.com/ (Website ) https://www.youtube.com/diversityrecruitercentral (Youtube) https://www.facebook.com/groups/465564763961092/ (Facebook) https://www.instagram.com/increasediversity/ (Instagram) https://www.linkedin.com/company/careersuccess/ (LinkedIn)

CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (Facebook) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LinkedIn)

View Details

Dr. Nika White and team welcomed Lisa Ong to the Intentional Conversations vodcast. We are honored to share an encore presentation of the LIVE vodcast here. You are invited to join the NWC team LIVE, every Friday at 11am (EST) for another Intentional Conversation. CLICK https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIpd-isqzgiGdTvYqf-WFAG3c991PqrghNK (HERE TO REGISTER) NOW! KEY TAKEAWAYS: You can’t teach DEI just from a training perspective, however if the story can be relatable to individuals’ personal lives than we begin to draw a bridge. Be compelled to allow others to wish out loud not just for others but for themselves. Storytelling often has the power to shift one’s perspective on matters that affect anyone. The more we share our experiences the better we strengthen our outlook. We all have our own “growth edges” areas of our wheel where we can learn more. If you are not centered and grounded, you might get activated to react at a whim. This work starts with “me, we, and then us.” Inclusive leadership skills do not develop overnight, it takes work, giving and receiving feedback. CONNECT WITH LISA: https://www.linkedin.com/in/onglisam/ (LinkedIn) https://www.wishingoutloud.com/ (Website ) CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (Facebook) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LinkedIn)

View Details

Dr. Tana M. Session joined Dr. Nika White and team for another Intentional Conversation. We wanted to share the encore episode below. You are invited to join the NWC team LIVE, every Friday at 11am (EST) for another Intentional Conversation. CLICK https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIpd-isqzgiGdTvYqf-WFAG3c991PqrghNK (HERE TO REGISTER) NOW! KEY TAKEAWAYS: 1. If you’re strategic about DEI, you will realize it is a change management process. You hold yourselves accountable and let your employees know where the change is happening. 2. If you’re being intentional and strategic, not performative and checking a box, you will see the effects of the work. 3. The hope is HR is no longer traditional, and that it evolves into something new. HR holds the data the diversity and executive teams need to make impactful decisions around onboarding, recruiting, etc. 4. It's important for the HR entity to be separate from the DEI team and initiatives, though still co-operating. 5. Managers need to look at a new lens of management skills to adapt to this new workforce culture we are experiencing in America today. Employees are asking more questions about how they work and where they work, and this shift will be ever evolving. 6. Women of color often navigate the power structure. It’s imperative we understand what our “no” is. Understand what the expectation of your role is and how to best prioritize it using resources to be efficient and still manage your time. CONNECT WITH DR. TANA: https://www.tanamsession.com/ (Website) https://www.linkedin.com/in/drtanamsession/ (LinkedIn) https://www.facebook.com/drtanamsession/ (Facebook) https://www.instagram.com/drtanamsession/?hl=en (Instagram) CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (Facebook) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LinkedIn)

View Details

Lisette Martinez joined Nika White Consulting and team for an Intentional Conversation around the importance of using minority owned businesses as suppliers and more. Listen now to this encore episode of the LIVE vodcast. And be sure to join the NWC team, every Friday at 11am (EST) for another Intentional Conversation. CLICK https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIpd-isqzgiGdTvYqf-WFAG3c991PqrghNK (HERE TO REGISTER) NOW! KEY TAKEAWAYS: 1. The word minority hits a lot of buttons for a lot of people. The nomenclature is however there for a reason and at the end of the day when we are looking at black and brown organizations in the supplier diversity sector it is still the primary issue. We need to focus on the impact of the changes we as leaders are looking to make in our communities. 2. Activity to impact is a shift that will yield us our desired outcomes in this work of DEI. 3. Supplier diversity is foundational as you have a budget within any department of an organization. As a leader of our departments, we must get involved in theses decisions of how we spend our money and where opportunity is distributed. 4. What gets measured doesn’t always get done. If its not tied to your performance management and incentives, it may not get done. The reality is we are human being and there are many measures, and the incentives are crucial in getting things done. 5. Anytime you have an opportunity that will benefit the growth of the economy in your community speak up! 6. Contracts that are held by organizations, often people assume they must be 100% or nothing. Remember you can split the work and create a partnership that may help a smaller organization grow. CONNECT WITH LISETTE: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisettemartinez/ (LinkedIn) CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (Facebook) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LinkedIn)

View Details

It is always a treat when we welcome two guests to the co-host chairs for our LIVE Intentional Conversations vodcast. We were so excited to have Anu Mandapati and Elonda Johnson join us to discuss developing leaders in a more inclusive way. KEY TAKEAWAYS: 1. When we think about retention, we should consider the reasons people chose to stay and go. When their experience is not as positive is when transitions start to occur, especially with people of color and not experiencing a sense of belonging. 2. It’s imperative to embrace the diversity of what a leadership may look like. Its time to create space for a different type of leader. 3. Increase visibility and build those relationships with those whose voice may not be in the room with the right people. 4. We all have leadership capacity; we lead at home at work and in different forms of our lives.  Leadership is not necessarily by title but is impacted by the influence we have. 5. Its not about perfection in this work as that can create stress and anxiety, but rather it’s about progress. Providing that psychologically safe place in coaching allows for sensible action plans to grow. 6. Supporting other coaches, leaders, and sponsors and hold spaces for different organizations checking our own bias’s along the way is key. 7. We should call out when power dynamics exists and understand those conversations might be uncomfortable. Acknowledge it and seek the support you need. CONNECT WITH ANU: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anumandapati (LinkedIn) CONNECT WITH ELONDA: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elondajohnson (LinkedIn) http://elondajohnson.com/ (Website) https://www.instagram.com/coachelonda/?hl=en (Instagram) CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (Facebook) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LinkedIn)

View Details

Nika White Consulting was honored to have Dr. Carey Yazeed join the Intentional Conversations vodcast. Listen to the encore episode now! KEY TAKEAWAYS: 1. Often when individuals speak up on issues in workspaces, it allows others to feel empowered to speak as well. 2. Keep a researcher’s perspective to give a voice to the voiceless, empower yourself to question and be curious of all lens’s in this field. 3. There is value in having an open pay discussion and know what your counterparts are earning. It allows you to know your worth and stand by it. 4. It's imperative to site other's work, as many Black and Brown women are dealing with theft of intellectual property. 5. Understand you are different because you are bringing frustrations from generational and systemic racism that were never addressed. 6. It is important to document your experiences at work no matter how small, because when things steam roll into something greater, you can back up your claims. 7. Most corporations focus on the numbers and forget about the people. Behavioral scientists provide data that represent the voices of the employees, especially those on the frontline. 8. Change management often means we have to come in and change the mindsets of leadership first. The disconnect happens when leadership never talks to those workers in the frontline positions. 9. Imposter syndrome is common with people of color, partly due to how much Black and Brown women have been gaslighted in their workplace. Learn to reclaim your voice and reclaim your power. CONNECT WITH DR. YAZEED: https://drcareyyazeed.com/tag/diversity-and-inclusion/ (Website ) https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-carey-yazeed-09526457 (LinkedIn)  CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (Facebook) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LinkedIn)

View Details

We were honored to welcome Dr. Theresa White to the Intentional Conversations vodcast and excited to share this encore presentation of her episode. KEY TAKEAWAYS: When children are expelled from school early, research shows it sets the idea that they’re not belonged and leads them into a negative pipeline. Teachers struggle with aggressive behavior and send children home, instead of dealing with what their needs are. Its important to call an early intervention agency and address the root of the issue. We must look at the antecedents and what preceded this behavior and what changed. Often, we can notice environmental changes that initiate adverse behavior and be proactive about their outcomes. Higher education institutions need to look at their implicit biases to the deepest level. If you don’t think a child can learn based on their color, age, gender, socioeconomic status, you are going to compartmentalize them and that will hinder their performance. Let’s switch thinking from “tolerating” children to “honoring” them. As educators we must make sure our students are being included that the classroom is an acceptable environment and expose them to real cultural experiences. Closing Remarks: Remember parents really do care about how you treat their children, they are reading your eyes, body language, and it is our moral responsibility to ensure our kids feel heard, included, and celebrated. Its okay to stretch them and pull them to show that you love and care for them and their achievements. It creates a culture around everyone that they all matter. Notice those that are around you, if there is a celebration going on then join in. CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (Facebook) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LinkedIn)

View Details

NWC welcomed Andrea G. Tatum to the Intentional Conversations vodcast and we are honored to share this encore episode here. Subscribe to our https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube channel )to never miss a LIVE episode. KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM ANDREA: Language is so important in DEI work, and it begins with asking the right questions and thinking more broadly about the outcome you are seeking. You can’t help anyone else until you help yourself, and it can look like giving yourself a break when doing DEI work. You must protect your peace and your power. Create conversations to leverage support around the authority you must implement and the change you work for, before you get to the burn out stage. Find your community. Do not sacrifice yourself for companies that don’t show you the same love back. Know what you’re fighting for, but it comes down to prioritizing yourself. Document your wins, when you do something well, write it down, share it and cheer about it. When you do get those “no’s” remind yourself of your wins by reflecting on them. Therapy, rest, and diving into your personal interests are just some ways to stay balanced with the impact DEI work can have on your life. CONNECT WITH ANDREA: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreagtatum (LinkedIn) https://www.andreagtatum.com/ (Website ) CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (Facebook) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LinkedIn)

View Details

We were honored to have Chelsea Williams join us for the Intentional Conversations vodcast and hope you enjoy this encore presentation! KEY TAKEAWAYS: We have to sit back and listen to the experiences the new generation of employers are having and what that looks like in the workplace What is occupational identity: What do you believe you can be? Who do you believe you can be? It is the foundation and life cycle approach to building confidence and being able to tap into the experiences of this population What does occupational identity look like in practice: Asking the nontraditional questions? What are your values? What are you passionate about? Conscious Career development means being your authentic self when you’re seeking and interviewing for employment CONNECT WITH CHELSEA: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelseacwilliams?trk=org-employees (LINKEDIN) https://www.reimaginetalentco.com/ (WEBSITE ) https://www.instagram.com/iamchelseacwilliams/ (INSTAGRAM) CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (Facebook) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LinkedIn)

View Details

Ceah Justice joined Dr. Nika White and her team for the Intentional Conversations vodcast and we are so excited to share this encore presentation with you. We add new podcasts weekly, so be sure to subscribe to never miss an episode! KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM CEAH: 1. Employee resource groups create a space for people to be more productive and to show up at their best. They can be a real big catalyst for change. 2. Companies should leverage ERGs to a greater capacity and really get to know how their employees are doing, especially around mental health. 3. Life doesn’t happen to us it happens for us, and it all becomes a part of our testimony and how we can share our journey with others. 4. Our intersectionality’s give us a lens that others might not have but it bridges the gaps to trust in our peers. 5. If we want DEI to be rooted in the organization, a part of that is we need to have a cultural shift, not to get caught up in the words and the description of what that is but shaping what we stand for. 6. People accept change but there are always limitations to it. It’s important to do the research to understand the true climate within an organization and be strategic in how you implement it. 7. Link new hires with someone from and ERG within the organization to help them answer their questions. 8. You can show up as your authentic self and still recognize who your audience is.  CONNECT WITH CEAH: https://twitter.com/ceahjustice (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/sistertribevibes/?hl=en (Instagram) CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (Facebook) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LinkedIn)

View Details

We were thrilled to welcome John Graham to the Intentional Conversations vodcast and can't wait for you to listen to the encore presentation. Key Takeaways: We are often in a Dr. office version of DEI where we are writing the prescription, but not getting to the root cause of the issues that are compromising diversity, equity, and belonging. I don’t use the term "white supremacy", but "white insecurity" based on centuries of scarcity. Insecurity plus fragility equals rage. If you are a Black American descendant of enslaved people, you were brought here specifically to work. That relationship was defined by a colonial construct that still exists today. Our relationship to work is defined by how it was started, you must work twice, three times as hard to get results. Who does it benefit for us to work twice as hard? Our twice as hard output we believe is an asset, but it shows a spotlight on someone else’s ineptitudes. We believe the pathway to success is so narrow that we shy away from bringing others along the way with us. Diversity requires a standard to be diverse from, equity requires somebody giving something up to level the playing field to be equitable and inclusion requires somebody to accept you. How do we define success? What does good look like? This is widely centered around euroideology. It doesn’t mean flipping to the opposite, but it starts with where do you choose to live, who do you choose to interact with, what values are being exchanged at schools? Not everybody is taught to be entrepreneurs, we’re taught to be employees, but the mindset shift is the way it starts. CONNECT WITH JOHN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johngrahamcreative (LinkedIn ) CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (Facebook) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LinkedIn)

View Details

We were honored to have Deepa Purushothaman join us for Intentional Conversations! The conversation was rich and encouraging. We hope you enjoy the encore presentation. SUBSCRIBE to never miss a podcast! We add 2 new ones weekly. KEY TAKEAWAYS: The message of do more mentality is easy to get stuck in if you are not mindful of it and it’s one of the most harmful things for women of color. Some individuals must make a choice based on personal boundaries how much they’re wiling to change in their workspace. It is common for women of color to feel they sit in a seat of power but don’t feel powerful. We often feel pain and shame in instances of microaggression. It is helpful to practice and write your responses to really express what you are holding. Its important to create better and safer places for people to tell their truth. Women of color are often truth tellers and companies need to get better at listening and creating the forums to do so. There’s a lot more to the justice work that the DEI work doesn’t solve for however they are both significant to move the needle forward. CONNECT WITH DEEPA: https://www.deepapuru.com/ (Website ) https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepapuru (LinkedIn) https://www.instagram.com/deepa.puru/ (Instagram) https://twitter.com/deepapuru (Twitter) https://www.facebook.com/deepa.purushothaman.75 (Facebook) CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (Facebook) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LinkedIn)

View Details

We were honored to have Camille Tate join the Nika White Consulting team for our weekly vodcast, Intentional Conversations! We hope you enjoy this encore presentation. CONNECT WITH CAMILLE: https://www.linkedin.com/in/camillehtatemba (LinkedIn) CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (Facebook) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LinkedIn)

View Details

Lisa Gelobter joined Nika White Consulting for Intentional Conversations and we learned so much! Listen now to the encore replay of her vodcast. And be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to never miss a vodcast! KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM LISA: 1. Tech is everywhere and everywhere is tech. BIPOC and women are instrumental in how tech influences our lives. We can set direction and contribute. 2. We can harness technology to make instrumental impacts at scale in our societies. 3. 78% of employees report experiencing some form of unfair behavior or treatment. 4. It's important for people to have an outlet to express themselves and their lived experiences to help them cope and understand what action items need to occur, especially in the workspace. 5. Self-reflection and self-agency is key to navigating through workplace dynamics of microaggressions. 6. Sometimes wide perception of inequality and inequity within an organization is just as important as whether these events are happening. Getting to the root cause of why your employees feel this way is imperative. 7. Ask the right questions to help people reframe their own mindset when faced with difficult situations. CONNECT WITH LISA: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisagelobter (LinkedIn) CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (Facebook) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LinkedIn)

View Details

Kim Crowder joined us for Intentional Conversations as a fantastic guest co-host. We are excited to share this encore presentation with you! KEY TAKEAWAYS: Cultural humility is understanding the humility that you will not understands everyone’s journey and struggle. DEI work is organizational work not a single person's (CDO, CHRO, etc.) responsibility. When you build a departmental initiative, it captures a diverse representation and perspective. It is important that we are yielding to the cultures we've invited to the conversation Leadership doesn’t look like any one criterion. You can be bold and be a leader, you can be an introvert and be a leader. ERG work should be reconsidered, if you want them to give dedicated time you should compensate them. Final remarks: Community and solidarity are the cornerstone of change. Do your homework and find out what that’s looked like in our history. Also, find time to take breaks and remove yourself from the work for yourself. CONNECT WITH KIM: https://www.kimcrowderconsulting.com/ (Website ) https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimcrowder/ (LinkedIn) https://twitter.com/IamKimCrowder (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/iamkimcrowder/ (Instagram) CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (Facebook) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LinkedIn)

View Details

Nika White Consulting was so honored to welcome Dr. Jen Fry to the Intentional Conversations guest seat! This conversation was full of passion, wisdom and insight. We hope you enjoy the encore presentation here. SUBSCRIBE to our vodcast to never miss a LIVE episode: https://bit.ly/3PFtJLr (https://bit.ly/3PFtJLr) KEY TAKEAWAYS: Helping people be culturally competent helps people develop great humans in any field. Ask yourself how you’re managing your biases personally before cultivating it in others. Its not about treating people the same but about treating them fairly. Different causes conflict, and people don’t often know how to handle it and try to limit their exposure to others differences. Athletic directors must acknowledge what type of emotions are acceptable. What characteristics do we accept in our coaches in the sports field. Get to the root of your biases. When you peel back where did you learn what you know then we can start seeing the differences in the athletic space and DEI. There is no bad or good emotion. Our emotion is there to protect us however, we have to reframe how we process that emotion to handle the conflicts we face. If you’re not holding people accountable in your personal circle when it comes to anti-racism you can’t speak on it elsewhere. CONNECT WITH DR. JEN: https://jenfrytalks.com/ (Website ) https://www.instagram.com/jenfrytalks/ (Instagram) https://twitter.com/jenfrytalks (Twitter) https://www.facebook.com/jenfrytalks (Facebook) CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (Facebook) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LinkedIn)  

View Details

Grab your headphones and get ready to be inspired and encouraged in this encore presentation of Brittany Janay Harris's Intentional Conversations vodcast. KEY TAKEAWAYS: My hope that this work of DEI is facilitating some unlearning, as we show up as our most liberated selves. It is important to grant yourself permission to see how you have internalized colonialism and return that in a form of love for your community. You can love your work and be incredibly exhausted by your work. A part of community care is having the right people in your circle. https://podcasts.apple.com/pw/podcast/a-liberated-love-note-for-black-folks-in-dei-when/id1562713049?i=1000541136009 (A Liberated Love Note For Black Folks in DEI when Doin’ the Work No Longer Feels Like Enuf:) A loving note of accountability I hope is nourishing to black folks specifically as we navigate this unique time. There will be moments when I feel like I don’t belong, I will not internalize those moments as deficiencies, but will remind myself that I belong. Your worth and legitimacy are not dictated by white institutions. Know that Imposter Syndrome is the system. The system is working as it is intended for you to feel this way. The beauty of developing the critical consciousness is that it brings you to understand these systems further. The more you know about yourself, the less you let imposter syndrome affect you. Exercise Tip: Write out all your values, and group them in values fulfillment and in value violators. What does it mean to be rooted in something other than what you do? If there was a call to action, what values are you rooted in? Closing words: “I am loving, gracious, and invested in the growth of those of whom I am in relationship with, still I will not internalize, or own others work as my own. They are not our work.” CONNECT WITH BRITTANY: https://podcasts.apple.com/pw/podcast/a-liberated-love-note-for-black-folks-in-dei-when/id1562713049?i=1000541136009 (Podcast) https://www.linkedin.com/in/harrisbrittanyj (LinkedIn) CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (Facebook) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LinkedIn)

View Details

The Intentional Conversation with Jared Karol was full of information and insights, we hope you enjoy this encore presentation of it. KEY TAKEAWAYS: DEI work is not telling people what to do, it doesn’t have to be aggressive. Its helping people how to be through 4 principals: Social Justice, EQ, Mindfulness, and Storytelling. There are degrees of discomfort. Level 1 is I don’t want to sound uninformed; level 2 is I don’t know if I belong, and level 3 is I don’t feel safe here. Don’t let someone’s level one trump someone’s level 3. Vulnerability is significant to anyone who has a lot of influence to any organization. Its important to let it impact your public narrative. To be an ally you should start by believing people, if they say something happened, if they say they feel a certain way believe it. From here you start to see the humanity that is around you. Stay curious about what you don’t know about and what you know little of. Judgement is so easy to arrive at, and we need to move away from it as much as possible by asking more questions. Shedding your notions of who other should be from your lived experiences is a road to new perspectives. Tone policing is the practice of reminding others to be respectful with their opinions and it often has physiological implications such as maintaining one’s power. Corporations should take a social justice stance; the challenge is so many do and its superficial and performative. There needs to be more constancy and intentionality around it. CONNECT WITH JARED: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaredkarol (LinkedIn) https://jaredkarol.com/ (Website ) CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (Facebook) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LinkedIn)

View Details

We were thrilled to welcome Maikel Groenewoud to the Intentional Conversations guest microphone and hope you will enjoy this encore presentation of his vodcast! KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM MAIKEL: 1. Ethical AI requires Ethical People! 2. Anti-racism work is global. This is not just an issue centered in the US. 3. AI in of itself cannot create an inclusive and equitable workplace; those can only be achieved thru the trust earned in lived experiences 4. Bias in technology can happen when applying for a loan to recruiting to oxygen meters. People think if you have a lot of data you're ok, but you have to wonder, is the data balanced? 5. Pan African Mindset- black people all over the world have connections because we have similar histories. We need to change our mindset and the way we look at each other. CONNECT WITH MAIKEL: https://nl.linkedin.com/in/maikel-groenewoud-924044177?trk=author_mini-profile_title (LinkedIn) CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (Facebook) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LinkedIn)

View Details

We were honored to welcome Dante King to the Intentional Conversations vodcast and hope you learn something new, are challenged and encouraged by this encore presentation. KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM DANTE: How we unlearn anti-blackness depends on where you sit in the racial hierarchy. The higher your seat you have the most at risk. The notion of implicit bias is not so implicit. There are many layers to where our bias’s come from. Macro aggression is acknowledging there’s nothing micro about something that takes away someone’s self-worth and value. We all have value whether we achieve white measures of success or not. We must be willing to dedicate the time, money, energy, and patience to the process that is required of this work.  CONNECT WITH DANTE: https://www.danteking.com/ (Website ) https://www.facebook.com/dantekingofficial (Facebook) https://twitter.com/danteking2020 (Twitter ) https://www.tiktok.com/@dantekingauthorofficial (TikTok) https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/exploring-racism-with-dante-king/id1477344254 (Podcast) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC79_GdE_a2KIn8bWmNlIPcQ?view_as=subscriber (Youtube) CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (Facebook) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LinkedIn)

View Details

Intentional Conversations welcomed Rico Jacob Chace to the guest co-host microphone and what an amazing conversation we had. We hope you enjoy this encore presentation of the original vodcast! Prefer to watch?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDjQhRdBjAI ( Check out the full vodcast here)! KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM RICO JACOB CHACE: Your diet is not just what you eat, but the people you surround yourself with. Your identity should not be based on your job title and its stereotypes. Gender fluidity has always existed, and colonialism created a hierarchy of marginalized communities. There needs to be ramifications for those who discriminate in the workplace, especially from positions of leadership. CONNECT WITH RICO JACOB CHACE: https://www.instagram.com/rjchace/?hl=en (Instagram) https://twitter.com/rjchace (Twitter) CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (Facebook) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LinkedIn)

View Details

We were so honored to welcome Cosette Strong to Intentional Conversations to discuss DEI and how it intersects with leadership development. Listen now to this encore presentation of our weekly vodcast! Let the conversation begin... CONNECT WITH COSETTE: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cosettemstrongdei (LinkedIn ) CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (Facebook) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LinkedIn)

View Details

We were honored to have Dr. Christen Behzadi as a guest on Intentional Conversations and excited to share her encore episode with you here! KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM DR. BEHZADI: Institutional accountability is not just the individuals that are going to make your space responsive and inclusive. As an organization you have a responsibility to model that in your practices and procedures. We must assist others to train up and skill up. Acknowledgment is step one, and then we must be skilled to act. The two main things we face in the healthcare industry is extreme power imbalances and the idea of decision makers. Physicians and mid-level providers are not making (Should there be a word here?) decisions but critical life changing decisions. So, when you come in with DEI conversations you must change your approach. Agency is key, let them decide what communities they want to support, the key is to practice equity skills. We cannot assume training alone can get the job done. It is only a piece that must be paralleled with ideas that impact systems. You can still deliver the impact without mentioning specifics. The key is to get the work done when considering institutional limitations on what you can and cannot say. Activism, specifically in the anti-racism realm, is a high level of equity work that requires specialized knowledge and equity skills. DEI organizations are not the conduit for activism work because we are working with organizations deeply rooted in the capitalistic mantra. Push your clients to look at the qualitative data and to close that loop by providing specifics. Focus on the action you are able to take from it. CONNECT WITH DR. BEHZADI https://www.linkedin.com/in/christen-flack-behzadi-md (LinkedIn) https://www.iicfirm.com/ (Website ) CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (Facebook) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LinkedIn)

View Details

It was so much fun to have Shalynne Jackson & Joe Gerstandt on the Intentional Conversations vodcast! They not only are fellow DEI practitioners, but the two of them have a fantastic friendship that has spanned years. We hope this conversation encourages you! KEY TAKEAWAYS: When you’re together with a team of people that you work with, do you feel safe taking risks? Do you feel safe being vulnerable? That is psychological safety. It doesn’t matter how different our perspectives and identities are if we can’t share them with those around us. As DEI practitioners, we need space to not have it all together, the world is happening around us as well. If you’re the leader then you must prove insistently that telling the truth is encouraged, even if it’s a disagreement from leadership. Reward people for disagreeing with you, bad news is valuable information. Psychological safety is different from safe spaces. Safe spaces are preventing people from injury or harm, whereas psychological safety is having those uncomfortable conversations. Leaders often don’t realize the impact of their power. There are real and perceived consequences on your actions. CONNECT WITH SHALYNNE: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shalynnejackson (Linkedin) CONNECT WITH JOE: https://www.joegerstandt.com/ (Website ) https://twitter.com/joegerstandt?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor (Twitter ) https://www.linkedin.com/in/joegerstandt (LinkedIn) CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (Facebook) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LinkedIn)

View Details

It was an honor to welcome Melissa Smith to the Intentional Conversations vodcast. We hope you enjoy the encore presentation of her live vodcast. KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM MELISSA: 1. In order for DEI change to be made, it takes all of us - not just the person with "the title". 2. Passion only carries us so far... what are the ways you are equipping yourself to do the work? 3. Many feel pressured to fit into the existing narrative in order to get ahead, but it can take a toll on your self-esteem and self-concept. 4. Healing, hope and liberation should be the goal. 5. Data shows Black women have a disproportionate rate of mental and physical illness and a lot of that stems from stress - you have to set boundaries and decide to "take a break" for self care. 6. Self-development means prioritizing boundaries, resting, advocating, practicing, and creating psychologically-safe space for yourself and others. 7. Be aware of the "emotional tax" you can impose on yourself in an effort to assimilate. 8. Resting is a form of resistance - usually power is associated with busyness. Women of color have to work twice as hard to get ahead, which can weigh on your mental health. 9. Set a path to become authentically grounded. 10. Get real with YOURSELF and THEN you can talk about disrupting the systems of oppression. 11. Have transparent conversations at the forefront and have them facilitated with thought leaders if needed. 12. A work/life blend is important so you can intentionally support, and show up, for both your colleagues at work and your family. 13. You don't have to feel alone in the work - there are SO MANY DEI practitioners, forums, counselors and organizations available to nourish you and help you do the work! CONNECT WITH MELISSA: https://twitter.com/meli_smith3 (Twitter ) https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-smith-authenticallygrounded (LinkedIn) CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (Facebook) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LinkedIn)

View Details

We were honored to welcome Olanike to Intentional Conversations! We hope you enjoy the encore presentation of her live vodcast! KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM OLANIKE: Start paying attention to your surroundings, inequity and injustice is at work wherever you are and is a part of the global story. Figure out where you have influence even if you don’t have authority or power to make your starting point. The work of DEI belongs to everyone despite of having DEI titles, we all can make incremental changes. We should show up with a curious nature to always learn in the spaces we are in. We need leaders to hear and respond to the issues of DEI. Feedback needs to be given to people of color in all issues affecting DEI because it coincides with what leadership looks like. Live at the intersection of difference. A belonging survey can be useful to consultants and DEI professionals alike to gauge how individuals truly feel in their workplace. Regardless on where an organization is on their DEI work, that does not always mean some individuals are in a good place for retention. We cannot dilute the work but bring truth to power. Whiteness is a construct with a PR team created for power and wealth building. It is not factual, but the impact of the construct is what we often live with now. We need to acknowledge the history and intention of whiteness, so we can really tackle the injustice it inflicts today. CONNECT WITH OLANIKE: https://www.mosaic4equity.com/ (Mosaic Consulting ) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jombp5QRSb0 (TEDxTalk | The Big Lie) CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (Facebook) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LinkedIn)

View Details

It was an honor to welcome Vince Pierson to Intentional Conversations. We learned so much and hope you will enjoy this encore presentation of his live vodcast! KEY TAKEAWAYS: 1. It is easy to see why powerful figures, in sports for example, are seen as inspirational. 2. You can experience peace when you go to work and go home, but when you voice your advocacy and use your agency it is often at the sacrifice of your own peace. 3. We all have something to gain by paying attention to what’s happening in the sports space. 4. If sports is not your forte, then leave it on the bench! However, if it does make sense it can be a unique way to lean into the conversation around DEI with unifying topics, but it has to be organic. 5. The new decision on student athletes receiving compensation is a step in the right direction for equity for all. 6. As practitioners we struggle with having clients at the expense of negative news, but our goal is to be intentional about what changes can be brought forth, so we condition ourselves to be supportive. 7. If we’re not careful as entrepreneurs, we can find ourselves losing sight of the cause. It is important to redefine our purpose and how we can challenge the ways our leaders in this space are thinking about the work. 8. It is important to be mindful of how we define good and how we define impact. There is a difference between activity and impact. 9. As DEI practitioners it's beneficial to think about how you can create things that are not reliant on partners who don’t show up to the table. CONNECT WITH VINCE: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vince-pierson (LinkedIn) https://www.instagram.com/vince_vsp/ (Instagram) https://www.vincentpierson.com/ (Website ) CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (Facebook) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LinkedIn)

View Details

Nika White Consulting welcomed Sarah Noll Wilson to the Intentional Conversations vodcast and we learned so much! Check out the encore replay of the episode and see Sarah's key takeaways below. Key Takeaways From Sarah: Avoidance can come from a place of conscious or unconscious protection, and it could be for a variety of reasons, including culture, upbringing, trauma etc. Curiosity can feel simple or benign, but to get curious when its uncomfortable or when its hard is the intersection of bridging connections. Notice and name when avoidance is happening because when we can see our conversations differently that is when we can start to show up. The goal isn’t to not have discomfort, but how do we not let the discomfort stop us. Acting for feedback is one of the most powerful ways to build trust. You should know if you’re someone that it’s okay to disagree with. The experimenter’s mindset is the willingness to connect the dots of what we want to know and what we know now. One of the ways we can build our muscle on tackling complex situations is going through the good and uncomfortable conversations. Assuming good intent is not always applied to everyone.

CONNECT WITH SARAH NOLL WILSON: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahnollwilson (LinkedIn) https://twitter.com/sarahnollwilson/status/1269418317695123456 (Twitter) Sarah's Book: Don't Feed The Elephants: Overcoming The Art Of Avoidance To Build Powerful Partnerships CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (Facebook) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LinkedIn)

View Details

Yalonda Brown, DEI leader and activator and President of Diversity Initiatives for Engage Mentoring, joined the Intentional Conversations vodcast. We are excited to share the key takeaways from this rich conversation below. Key Takeaways From Yalonda: 1. Mentoring is a way to recruit and retain employees. 94% of people would have stayed at an organization if they felt like they could grow and make meaningful connections. 2. Mentoring creates a more well-rounded work force. 3. Great mentees have the ability to not just show up, but a desire for others to meet their greatest potential. 4. Mentors need to be what they want to see in others. 5. Speaking life into youth matters. This makes them have more confidence and builds self-love. 6. The business case for mentoring: mentoring improves culture. Regardless of level everyone has the capacity to lead.     7. Mentors need mentors too.     8. The Great Resignation is now the Great Reassessment. 9. Mentors and mentees are match based on topic, not industry or level. This creates more meaningful connections. 10. It's critical for organizations to ensure leaders are mentoring individuals out of their circle who don't look like them. 11. Authentic friendships are very important. 12. If we don’t ask girls their interest, how will we know what to nurture? 13. Entrepreneurship is a great way to have a presence and influence in the world. 14. How do you find a mentor? Make a list of individuals you admire, respect and have influence. Find professional networking events- being in rooms that can enrich your life are important Join groups/organizations aligned with your passions/purpose to build community and networks with others You probably have people in your life that are pouring into you and don’t call mentors… lean into them.

1. We have to be open to receiving from others. CONNECT WITH YALONDA: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yalonda-brown-msol-cyc-p-315bb723?trk=public_post_share-update_actor-text&original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fposts%2Fyalonda-brown-msol-cyc-p-315bb723_join-us-for-a-series-of-discussions-with-activity-6905558215581323264-HkF2 (LinkedIn) https://engagementoring.com/ (Engage Mentoring Website ) CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (Facebook) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LinkedIn)

View Details

We were honored to welcome Anu Mandapati to Intentional Conversations. Listen now to the full episode and check out her key takeaways below. 1. Learned / Amplified / Sustained Model: Any type of learning experience typically means it is one and done. So how do we ingrain what we've learned into our everyday practices? We need to amplify it and practice it to sustain it. 2. The most impact comes from the day-to-day practices because it fosters great feedback and sustained learning.

1. Cultural change happens at the individual level, the interpersonal level and the team level.

4  Application and interactions with other people are what makes learning as an adult stick.

1. As a team establish team commitments which speaks to how everyone will show up and what feedback will look like with one another.

2. Culture carriers vs. culture co-creators: We need to be culture co-creators because it says my actions will matter, and that makes me want to do something different.

3. DEI is not just a DEI officer’s responsibility, it is everyone’s.

4. Space and Grace X 3 - this is all practice, not perfection. Space and Grace for me: I will fumble and make mistakes and it is okay, this is a learning journey for all, not a destination Space and Grace for someone else: When you are in an interaction Space and Grace when receiving feedback: How do you receive feedback so it doesn’t create aggression with you? Remember, feedback is about taking IN and not taking ON!

5. DEI leadership is a calling, it is a very personal position.

6. How do you sustain longevity in the work of DEI? (1) The most important part of ensuring longevity in DEI leadership is self-care (2) Community (3) Knowing who is advocating for you within your organization / company

7. Organizations need to really look at their commitment to DEI, what they want the role to look like and how are they going to support the individual. If there is not a buy-in from the organization, it will be very tough to move the organization forward.

CLOSING REMARKS: Always be kind to yourself, this is a journey. Practice. It’s not about being perfect, it’s about practicing. Practice creates progress. “Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go, they merely determine where you can start.” CONNECT WITH ANU: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anumandapati (LinkedIn) CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (Facebook) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LinkedIn)

View Details

Leah Smiley joined the Intentional Conversations vodcast in the month of June and we wanted to share her episode here. It is full of practical, applicable DEI tips. Listen now and be sure to check out her key takeaways below: 1. When the pandemic began 60% of DEI roles were downsized.  But now, there is an increase in DEI positions roles because of many factors where organizations realize that DEI is infused in every aspect of the business 2. LinkedIn and Indeed report the DEI role has grown significantly over the last 3 years, and that growth will continue 3. Have a BEANS approach to how you develop and implement your DEI strategy. BEANS = Behaviors, Expectations, Attitudes, Needs (that are changing) 4. Diverse organizations managed well will perform better over time 5. Best place for the DEI role is an independent office reporting directly to the CEO 6. The earliest indicator of where change will occur is the household. If you do not have kids in the house, go to the schools 7. Toxic places within an organization will affect everyone   How do practitioners remain up to date? Things are moving so quickly, what was advanced 2 years ago, is now old news. 9. Be connected to people in the industry and not just the veterans, but the new individuals coming in. 10. Read - not just the stuff you’re comfortable with, but also the differing opinions. (Fox News, CNN etc) You need to know what they are saying, so you are in a position to know how to respond. 11. As a DEI practioner, we need to have executives prepared for all scenarios so they are ready with talking point. 12. How do you stay cool and calm? Take time to center yourself before starting your day. Prayer, meditation… Find the thing outside of work that gives your life and do it!

1. We can’t be people who save the world if we are not saving ourselves. Don’t become what you say you don’t want to be. * Other people's baggage can hurt you if you aren’t taking the time to refresh yourself.
2. YOU are the most important factor in the equation. CLOSING THOUGHTS - the field is changing, stay on top of what’s changing:  be intentional and strategic, and proactive about the changes going on, take the time to ask the right questions, and get the right people on the team so as not to be disconnected from the future of the field and what the work will require. CONNECT WITH LEAH: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leah-smiley-cde%C2%AE-idc-eie%C2%AE-292148b?trk=public_profile_browsemap (LinkedIn) https://www.facebook.com/people/Leah-Smiley/100007335525908/ (Facebook) https://www.societyfordiversity.org/ (Society For Diversity ) CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (Facebook) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LinkedIn)

View Details

We were thrilled to welcome Sacha Thompson to the Intentional Conversations vodcast and the encore presentation of our conversation is ready to share. We hope you enjoy it! Be sure to join us every Friday at 11am (EST) for the LIVE vodcast. Register by clicking this link to join the LIVE vodcast every Friday: https://bit.ly/3zLzfYQ KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM SACHA: We must go beyond just checking the box and truly impact those communities. You may be causing more harm to your brand and to those impacted by simply checking boxes. We must create opportunities for those we claim to stand by. It is necessary to go beyond tokenizing diversity to truly sharing a platform to provide support for the cause. When we focus on inclusion and identify what that looks like for everyone, we can only then discuss the road to equity. Passion is wonderful, but you need both will and skill to do the work of DEI effectively. DEI needs to be in an organization’s DNA. This is done by having that lens in all departments of the business. DEI efforts often fail if they just sit with human resources. It needs to be in partnership with all aspects of the business. CONNECT WITH SACHA THOMPSON: https://sachathompson.com/ (Website ) https://www.facebook.com/theequityequation (Facebook) https://twitter.com/petite1908 (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/theequityequation/ (Instagram) CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (Facebook) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LinkedIn)

View Details

We were honored to have Catarina Rivera as a guest on Intentional Conversations and wanted to share this important episode with you here. Be sure to join us every Friday at 11am (EST) for the LIVE vodcast. You can register here: https://bit.ly/3zLzfYQ KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM CATARINA: Disability is not always visible; we often assume someone is not disabled if we don’t see identifying traits. 79% of disabled employees do not disclose their disabilities. The largest minority group in the workforce belongs to the people with disabilities. Disabled individuals are often over working because they’re expending energy to adapt to an environment that was not built for them. When we discuss equity, we need to ensure we look through it with an intersectional lens. ADA does not enforce inclusive workplace but standardizes the bare minimum. Just because an employee’s particular need is accommodated does not mean the work environment is automatically inclusive for the person with the disability. Organizations benefit to lean into cultivating a culture that supports disability conversations as the norm. Be conscious of the ableism around you and how it impacts those in the disabled community.

CONNECT WITH CATARINA: https://www.instagram.com/blindishlatina/ (Instagram) https://twitter.com/catarinarivera (Twitter) https://www.facebook.com/BlindishLatina/ (Facebook) https://www.linkedin.com/in/catarinarivera?original_referer= (LinkedIn) https://www.catarinarivera.com/ (Website) CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (Facebook) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LinkedIn)

View Details

Nika White Consulting welcomed Aiko Bethea, equity consultant, speaker, author, executive leadership coach and NYT best seller to the Intentional Conversations vodcast. Here are the KEY TAKEAWAYS from Aiko's conversation: It is a necessity to make sure you’re not just working with the C-suite employees. We need to ensure the people that are most pained by incompetence are seen. Empathy and understanding people who have not walked in your shoes is difficult when someone hasn’t experienced the adversity you have, but we need to open that understanding. Often when we think about empathy, we think we must go through what someone else has experienced, in a way that could diminish their experience. The way that creativity comes through this, is people who read literature can walk through and exercise what this person’s lens and perspective on life might be. Use creativity for world building. There is a lot of effective learning to be had through literature. Can you read diverse literature and relate to characters as human? And if not, why not? Leadership inherently centers whiteness, and we are already working at a deficit when other voices are not at the table. We are at a competitive disadvantage, and a humane disadvantage, when we are not inclusive of other ideas and walks of life. If someone must ask you to prove the case for DEI, maybe they’re not the right client. CONNECT WITH AIKO: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aikobethea (LinkedIn ) https://www.rarecoaching.net/ (RARE Coaching) https://www.instagram.com/rare_coach/ (Instagram) https://www.facebook.com/RARECoach (Facebook ) CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (Facebook) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LinkedIn)

View Details

Dr. Nika White and her team welcomed Kobena Collins to the Intentional Conversations vodcast and of course wanted to share the encore presentation with you here. Key Takeaways From Kobena: Cultural competency is ever evolving, there are generational differences within our own cultures. Cultural competency is always a moving target. There’s a difference between leaders and management. Leaders need to be open to feedback and if they don’t have followers then he/she/they are just going for a walk. We should be looking for leaders who seek to promote others as opposed to themselves. DEI is change management in essence., and we must bring awareness to the why in our stories. Recruitment, retention, reputation, and representation, Resources are the 5 R’s and shape the outcome of what you bring to others. No one population is a monolith, you will have differentiating opinions within one group of people, and they are all valid. When we think about the mental state of DEI leaders, they’re working with varying degrees of push back. The work of DEI can test your self-confidence, because one you’re pushing against the norm. People don’t care how much you know until they realize how much you care. Learn about others so it becomes an authentic conversation.

CONNECT WITH KOBENA: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kmjcollins (LinkedIn) CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (Facebook) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LinkedIn)

View Details

We were honored to have Dr. Pascal Losambe join us for our Intentional Conversations vodcast and wanted to share this encore presentation! We hope it inspires and teaches you as much as it did us. KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM DR. PASCAL LOSAMBE: As we obtain mindsight, we start to develop an appreciation for taking agency over how we behave in different situations, and we build our capacity for empathy. Cultural intelligence - think about what skills and tools do I have to use my cultural understanding to relate to others to achieve a desired outcome. It's not something we do, but more of a mindset. Am I humble enough to accept that I don’t know everything there is to know about someone I encounter from a different culture? Am I humble enough to revise my perspective continuously so I can have a successful outcome? Cultural intelligence acknowledges you have a specific frame of reference someone else doesn’t share. When we engage with others, we subconsciously are processing, can I trust you, is this a safe space, is there a behavior that reminds me of a lived experience? In our humanity, we share the same fundamental needs. They involve physiological needs such as air, food and water. Psychological needs and your purpose needs are among them as well. If a lower-level need is not fulfilled you cannot move up the triangle to reach self-actualization. Ask yourself how is my behavior impacting others in these core needs? We need to acknowledge the uniqueness of others, without any preconceived notions. When we understand others better, it enhances our ability to show empathy. When we achieve this, we can reach our desired outcomes. Race is one of those categories your mind has you pay attention to as we move through the world.  As an educator, it’s important to engage students with their prior knowledge, to foster an environment of autonomy related to the theme you’re trying to bring forward and try and connect it to their world. Our frontal lobes are where we gain a sense of self, and with students this is still under construction. It really starts to impact their sense of who they are, and this happens unconsciously. It holds weight when they interact with professionals and leaders who speak to their identity. If we can provide educators with the framework to focus on their cultural competence, we can achieve great things. Diversity needs to be valued, and its important to manage the dynamic of differences. When you can identify your triggers, your mind can activate from the unconscious to the conscious.

CONNECT WITH DR. PASCAL LOSAMBE: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pascal-losambe-ph-d-a6392834 (LinkedIn) CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (Facebook) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LinkedIn)

View Details

Key Takeaways from Ricardo's Intentional Conversations vodcast: At its deepest level belonging is about ownership. Its not about a sense of affinity but “is it mine.” When both identity and identification are aligned. If you don’t have a clear understanding of your own identity, it is difficult to ask others to create that space of belonging. Sometimes what makes you feel like you belong, might make someone else feel like they don’t. Empathy is critical, and it must be compassion towards people, belonging is the outcome. It is hard for any person to show up at their best in any environment if they’re always questioning whether they belong. Allyship needs to be taken further into mentorship, sponsorship, etc. This reframing is critical. The beginning of allyship is education. We cant lead people to the highest levels until we know them at the deepest levels. Instead of asking yourself how you can be more culturally sensitive ask yourself how you can be more culturally skilled.

CONNECT WITH RICARDO GONZALEZ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ricardogonzalez1 (LinkedIn) https://ricardogonzalez.com/ (Website) https://bilingualamerica.com/ (Bilingual America) CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (Facebook) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LinkedIn)

View Details

We were honored to welcome Rachelle Carrie to the Intentional Conversations vodcast where we discussed biases (implicit and explicit) and ways to manage these in the workplace. Here are the Key Takeaways from this conversation: 1. Being in this space there’s a certain level of tolerance some might feel we have, but it does not take away the human aspect of who we are as practitioners. 2. Use your voice to channel your energy to make the greatest impact in times is disparity. 3. It is imperative for organizations to understand the importance to lean into the uncomfortable conversations. People will be feeling triggered at work, and it needs to be acknowledged. 4. Silence from leadership can come off as unaware to colleagues who are going through the heaviness of tragic events. 5. There is a lot of misinformation as to what to do as a company. It is not about marketing, it is about how to change policies and regulations within the organization. 6. Self-management and self-awareness are important aspects of strong emotional intellect. 7. We do not proactively practice active listening enough. 8. Have a conversation with somebody, and verbatim in 10 seconds repeat what they have said. Once you have done that you have already built empathy with the other person because you have repeated what they said, and you’ve given them that space. You listened, repeated, and that leaves the space for more communication and less misunderstanding. 9. Starting with family and friends is a good way to build empathetic skills so we can bring a more human connection. CONNECT WITH RACHELLE CARRIE https://www.instagram.com/my_warrior_princess_/?hl=en (Instagram) https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachellecarrie (LinkedIn) https://deiwithrachelle.com/ (Website) https://www.facebook.com/rachelle.jcarrie (Facebook) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPslWWGqtBSnDSdHKJGzzwA (YouTube) CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (Facebook) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LinkedIn)

View Details

This encore presentation of the Intentional Conversations Vodcast with guest co-host, Dr. Melissa Horne, was originally recorded in March 2022. Here are the Key Takeaways from this Intentional Conversation: Microaggressions can erode a company’s morale, but what does that look like and how do we approach it? It is important to have group sessions as they are certainly powerful. It’s important to work on the “forgetting curve”, to improve our retention within these important conversations by spacing them out. There is a rich history in the US and Canada of activism in ways we have been able to affect the system. There are all the things that make the news, but it’s the small acts of resistance that can make a huge difference in someone’s life. It is important to empower individuals in the workplace to advocate for change. It is important to pull from the science as we aim to change people’s behaviors around DEI. Learning and development is just one part of a holistic approach to DEI advocacy. Companies need to invest in their DEI work just as much as they invest in any other area of business. You need both subject matter expertise and direct lived experiences to support DEI work in this space. Often people want to say and do the right thing, but they don’t speak out of lack of confidence. If companies invest in training their staff to have these conversations, we lead for a better workplace. Inclusive behaviors are a skill that can be taught, learned, and needs to be practiced. Its important to just start and that discomfort goes away with practice as we build our confidence.

CONNECT WITH DR. MELISSA HORNE https://ca.linkedin.com/in/melissa-horne-phd-2b8b3a9a?trk=public_post_share-update_update-text (LinkedIn) CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (Facebook) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LinkedIn)

View Details

Janelle Benjamin joined Dr. Nika White and her team for the latest Intentional Conversations podcast, where they discussed issues of exclusivity, how leaderes can effectively support DEI practitioners, and religious accommodations in the workplace. Here are the Key Takeaways from this #IntentionalConversation: 1. Black women are indiscriminately terminated in a phenomenon of “pet to threat.” Often valued when showing up, but as soon as black women start voicing and speaking up on issues they believe in, it is perceived as a threat. 2. If you are an inclusive leader there is always something that needs to be relearned and listened to. If you claim to be an ally and you’re doing the work to center the voices of those marginalized, you must listen. 3. Floating holidays are a great way to promote religious diversity, allowing others with varying religious beliefs to take time away to spend the holidays that are important to them. 4. Believe in yourself. If you have a skill or talent, leverage your abilities to find ways to connect with people around what you’re doing and market it. 5. The days of unpaid labor are over, if you ask individuals to show up in a different way at work and lead an event or initiative, ask for compensation. CONNECT WITH JANELLE BENJAMIN https://ca.linkedin.com/in/janellebenjamin (LinkedIn) https://www.allthingsequitable.ca/ (Website) https://twitter.com/JB_Equitable (Twitter) https://www.facebook.com/allthingsequitable (Facebook) https://www.instagram.com/allthingsequitable/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/allthingsequitable (YouTube) CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (Facebook) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LinkedIn)

View Details

In this episode of Intentional Conversations with Nika White Consulting, we are joined by Dr. Shelton Goode to discuss DEI efforts that yield measurable and sustainable results and DEI in a post-Covid world. Here are the Key Takeaways from this #IntentionalConversation: We are in a new world where employees are voting with their feet. They are asking for what they need upfront. What’s hindering management is a denial of reality of what we’ve gone through and what we are going through post pandemic. We can’t have gone through this without the impacts affecting “business as usual.” Create a space where conversations can take place, It is important for the phychological safety of all. Companies owe it to the organization to create these spaces for people to have these kinds of conversations. The problem is we don’t have people equipped to have them. The work we do has always been about trying to help the organization and everyone in it to be better. It was never designed for an example to only benefit women and people of color at the expense of white men. If your workplace is toxic, you are not going to be in the best place to acquire the best talent. Leaders need to listen before they learn and learn before they aim to fix. We need to continue to identify inequities that are impacting everyone from reaching their potential. Meet people where they are so they can understand you and what you are trying to accomplish. There is no us and them, we all want the same thing, healthy communities and companies and a country that lives up to its expectations.

CONNECT WITH DR. SHELTON GOODE: https://www.amazon.com/Dr.-Shelton-J.-Goode/e/B07L7FCGJP%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share (Amazon) https://twitter.com/myabdnetwork (Twitter ) https://www.linkedin.com/in/sjgoode (LinkedIn) CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (Facebook) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (Twitter) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (Instagram) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YouTube) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LinkedIn)

View Details

Welcome to Intentional Conversations with Nika White Consulting. An encore presentation of our weekly vodcast where we intersect DEI, business and leadership! In this episode, Dr. Nika White, our founder, is joined by Jason Gant, and they discuss the correlation of mental health and DEI, as well as the importance of mindfulness and well-being. Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to the podcast to never miss an episode of Intentional Conversations! CONNECT WITH JASON GANT on https://www.linkedin.com/in/myvillagetribe/ (LINKEDIN) CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikawhite/ (LINKEDIN ) https://www.instagram.com/nikacwhite/ (INSTAGRAM) https://www.facebook.com/nikacwhite?fref=ts (FACEBOOK) https://www.youtube.com/c/NikaWhite2015 (YOUTUBE ) https://twitter.com/NikaWhite (TWITTER )