Beyond Blending In

I am elated to have my latest guest on the Beyond Blending In Podcast, Shakur Collins, who was also one of the powerful women of color leaders in my Diverse Leadership Cohort with Realitychangers.  As a young African-American woman, Shakur Collins grew up feeling like she had to work extra hard, overachieve and people-please to be accepted in society. Upon graduating from high school, Shakur had a 4.67 GPA and was admitted into 14 universities. Within a matter of weeks, Shakur had lost most of her eyesight and was legally blind. In this podcast, Shakur opens up about her journey, the challenges, how she's overcome and dealt/dealing with the tribulations she faced and the healing process. Now, Shakur is an inspiring young professional, who uses her story and experience to make a difference in the community with her advocacy for people with disabilities, people of color and other people from marginalized groups. 

Shakur Collins is a young professional who is devoted to creating spaces of inclusion and belonging for individuals from marginalized backgrounds. Shakur received two Associate's degrees from Grossmont College. One degree being in Psychology and the other in Social and Behavioral Sciences. Most recently, she graduated from UC San Diego with a Bachelor's of Science in Psychology with a specialization in social psychology. Outside of her academic achievements, Shakur currently has three jobs in which all the roles are centered around facilitating the success of underserved and underrepresented individuals. She is a psychology tutor at Grossmont College, a trainer for the National Conflict Resolution Center, and a Career Navigator for Access Inc. Outside of academia and work, Shakur is also a competitive a cappella singer in the San Diego Chorus as well as a martial artist with a first degree green belt in Tekio Jutsu. Recently, Shakur has been admitted into the San Diego State University Master's in Education with a concentration in counseling program with certifications in trauma informed care and restorative justice. Shakur plans on continuing to support the San Diego community by furthering her education and eventually receiving her doctorate degree in education.

Shakur is an emerging young professional who is equity-minded, organized, and team-oriented looking for opportunities to support individuals and communities from underserved backgrounds. She hopes to do this by building a career in higher education. Shakur is passionate about working with students of color, but this passion translates to her devotion to advocate on behalf of all students who possess various marginalized identities. Ultimately, Shakur is a person dedicated to working in initiatives which support diversity, inclusion, and belonging for all.

In this episode, we interview, author, Kara Johnson on her new book: Digital Tidiness. We talk about her experience growing up as Tongan-American, bi-racial woman mainly in Virginia. We cover her journey of going Beyond Blending In to put her passion for tidying digital spaces into the world.

Kara Johnson is the founder of Tidy Digital, a service with the mission to create a culture around maintaining clean digital spaces. Her book Digital Tidiness will help readers establish productivity, empowerment, and wellness through a healthy relationship to digital spaces. It includes practical instructions on how to tidy email, desktops, photos, and more. Digital Tidiness came out November 29 as the #1 new release in Document Management on Amazon.

Twitter: @tidydigital

TikTok: @tidydigital

Facebook: @tidydigital

Instagram: @tidy_digital

I got to interview the amazing Kendra Lewis who is an entrepreneur and life-long learner. We talked about what it was like for her to grow up bi-racial, how she learned to build bridges between the white and black people in her life, what it was like to move to San Diego (which has a small African-American population), being a black business owner, the power of building generational wealth and ancestral healing.

Kendra's Bio is Below:

Owner/founder/CEO of The Zoomies Dog Walking. Specializing in pack walks, dog adventures and dog obedience. My goal is to have all owners build a stronger, more fun relationship with their dog through individualized and appropriate training for each dog reinforced with weekly pack walks! Outside of my business, I enjoy working out, playing soccer and my viola. I love being outside and if it's adventurous and spontaneous count me in! I'm most proud of the reputation, connections, and relationships I have built in my community with my company and the resulting friendships! 

I got to interview the most recent cohort of the latest Slay and Play Sisterhood: a group of incredible, powerful, vulnerable, deep and playful women of color: Michelle Fujisaki, Alicia Hilbert, Kara Johnson, Kendra Lewis and Denise Li (see bios below) . During this program, these amazing women let go of scarcity, cultural limiting beliefs that no longer served them and defined their own version of success with joy. They delved deep in their identity and bonded in ways that you can only with people who get you. They grew their businesses, started businesses, wrote a book, created art, danced, wrote a song, played video games, created an empire, delegated more and worked less, surfed and skateboarded, got promotions, created additional income streams, made more money, supported each other, delved deep and spoke their truth, all with fun and play incorporated. In this episode, they share this experience. 

I am kicking off another cohort in early July and I’m looking for women of color who want to slay, play and support other powerful women of color to do the same. I’m selective about who can participate as I want this group to have the right chemistry. Are you ready to stop holding back your greatness and to be supported? Taking applications here: slayandplaysisterhood.com Apply today!

Bios:

Kara Johnson is a Technical Program Manager with 7+ years in the tech industry. During the Slay & Play program she founded Tidy Digital, a service that teaches people to maintain tidy electronic spaces like email, photos, and documents. Her book, Digital Tidiness, will release on Kindle in October 2021. Kara is of Pacific Islander and European descent.  Twitter: @tidydigital, TikTok: @tidydigital, Facebook: @tidydigital, Instagram: @tidy_digital

Denise Li works as a Governance, Risk, and Compliance Analyst in information security. She authored The Ocean Accepts All Rivers: Life and Money Lessons from My Taiwanese American Upbringing and she moonlights as a blogger, vlogger, and personal finance coach. During the Slay & Play program she wrote a super secret love song for her husband, began working with a personal trainer, attained her CRISC professional certification, and got promoted.

I had the joy of interviewing Carolina Bravo-Karimi who is a partner at Wilson Turner Kosmo LLP. Carolina is bi-racial and half-Chilean Catholic and half-Iranian Muslim. She is a member of the firm’s employment law and class action groups with her practice focused on representing employers in a variety of employment disputes including wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, and wage and hour litigation. She also regularly advises employers regarding diversity initiatives and provides implicit bias, equal pay, and anti-harassment training.

We had a great discussion hearing about Carolina's cultural upbringing, integration v. assimilation, experiencing otherness in the law industry, and work she's done to bring great diversity, equity, and inclusion to the law industry.

See complete bio below:

Carolina Bravo-Karimi received her bachelor’s degree, cum laude, from Harvard University in 2002, Master of Science degree in Gender Studies with merit from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2004, and Juris Doctor degree, Order of the Barrister, from USD School of Law in 2008.

Bravo-Karimi is a Partner at Wilson Turner Kosmo LLP. She is a member of the firm’s employment law and class action groups with her practice focused on representing employers in a variety of employment disputes including wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, and wage and hour litigation.  Bravo-Karimi also conducts workplace investigations, including those requiring Spanish fluency.   She also regularly advises employers regarding diversity initiatives and provides implicit bias, equal pay, and anti-harassment training.  

Prior to joining Wilson Turner Kosmo, Bravo-Karimi served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Louisa S Porter of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. 

Bravo-Karimi is currently the Co-Chair of the Steering Committee for Just the Beginning, a pipeline program for underrepresented high school students.  She was President of the San Diego Chapter of the Federal Bar Association in 2018.  She served as co-chair for the 2017 San Diego Volunteer Lawyer’s Women and Families Resource Fair, and served as Chair of the Outreach Committee in 2018.  In addition, she is a Regional Deputy for the Hispanic National Bar Association and was named a “Top Lawyer Under 40” by the HNBA last year.  She has been named a “Rising Star” by San Diego Super Lawyers from 2015-2020.  She also received San Diego Metro’s 40 Under 40 Award in 2018, was named a 2019 Woman of Influence by SD Metro, was a 2019 Finalist for San Diego Magazine’s Celebrating Women Award, and was named a Woman Worth Watching by the Diversity Journal in 2020.

Bravo-Karimi is actively involved with USD School of Law as a member of the Law Alumni Board since 2015 and is currently President-Elect and #HireUSDLaw program chair.  She is also a former Executive Moot Court Board faculty advisor and former adjunct faculty member.  Passionate about promoting student success and diversity in the legal field, she is a proud mentor to more than fifteen current and former USD School of Law students.  To recognize these efforts, she received the 2017 Rising Star Recent Alumni Award.

Bravo-Karimi is fluent in Spanish, Italian, and Farsi and resides in San Diego with her husband Andrea and their two children Ana Sofia and Santiago.   

I had the pleasure of interviewing Maya Hu-Chan who is a globally recognized keynote speaker, best selling author, leadership educator, and Master Certified Coach.  We had a great conversation talking about addressing anti-Asian hate, what to do when you don't fit the standard profile,  assimilation and how to use your uniqueness to your advantage. 

Maya specializes in global leadership, cross cultural management, diversity, equity and Inclusion.  

Ranked Top 8 Global Solutions Thinkers by Thinkers50, World Top 30 Leadership Gurus, and Top 100 Thought Leaders in Management & Leadership, Maya has worked with thousands of leaders from Global Fortune 500 companies and public sectors around the world.

Maya is the founder and president of Global Leadership Associates, a global consultancy that partners with organizations to build leadership capabilities and enable profound growth and change. 

Her new book “Saving Face: How to Preserve Dignity and Build Trust” was Amazon #1 Best Seller in 3 categories (Berrett-Koehler 2020). She also co-authored “Global Leadership: The Next Generation”, a Harvard Business School Working Knowledge book.   She is a contributing author of 10 business books and a columnist for INC.com and CEOWorld.

Born and raised in Taiwan and living in San Diego, California, Maya is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and English.  She earned her M.A. from University of Pennsylvania and B.A. from National Chengchi University in Taiwan.

Maya has lectured at the Brookings Institution, University of California, San Diego, University of Chicago, University of Southern California, and Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.  

In this episode, we interview Dr. Stacey Diane Arañez Litam in a fascinating conversation covering mental health, internalized racism, colorism, white proximity, anti-blackness and assimilation in the Asian-American Pacific Islander Community. 

Stacey Diane Arañez Litam (she, her, hers) Ph.D., LPCC-s, NCC, CCMHC, is an Assistant Professor of Counselor Education at Cleveland State University. Dr. Litam is a researcher, educator, clinical counselor, and social justice advocate specializing on topics related to human sexuality, sex trafficking, Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) concerns, and the phenomenological experiences of individuals who have intersecting marginalized identities. As a researcher and scholar, Dr. Litam actively contributes peer-reviewed publications in journals, books, and edited volumes.

Episode 11-What Can One Person Do?

I learned so freaking much from this episode. Nikki Blak is our special guest (see bio below). We discussed the impact of black women influencing art, parenting black girls, how one person can make a difference when you feel overwhelmed, how to use your privilege to empower others, how to protect your energy and medical racism. I guarantee you will learn something valuable from this episode.

Nikki Blak is a literary artist, sociologist, womanist, and intersectional feminist whose thought leadership and radical education work centers marginalized and oppressed populations in the United States. Her specialized areas of study include the social sciences, child development, history, and reproductive justice, which she uses in tandem with her lived experience and ancestral knowledge to create incendiary art, provide unrelenting socio-political critique and activating liberatory praxis to dismantle systems of oppression. She holds a B.A. in Sociology, a Master of Arts in Social Justice and Community Organizing, and is talented at utilizing a critical race theory framework to interrogate anti-Black ideologies and challenge patriarchal cultural norms.

As a public speaker and performer, Nikki's work has been featured on radio, national television, and at college universities and historic performance venues across the country. As a celebration of her work, her likeness has been depicted in public art installations throughout Los Angeles for nearly two decades, with the most recent being a Michael Massenburg mosaic, commissioned for the Metro Expo. She is the founder of The Interrupting Series, a virtual workshop and lecture program that creates an anti-oppression curriculum and provides education and resources to interrupt racism and patriarchy.

An author, music lover, and proud Los Angeles native, Nikki resides on unceded Tongva land with her partner and children where she works to make her ancestors proud and leave a just, equitable society for her descendants.

Episode 10-Beyond Obstacles and Shame. This definitely is my most controversial podcast episode to date. I got to interview one of my favorite people, Kimra Luna, who has overcome and gone beyond circumstances to become a super successful entrepreneur and has recently transitioned to step out and follow her passion of empowering people in their sex lives. During this interview, we learn of Kimra's cultural background, being half-Mexican and half-white, how that affected her childhood and her progression to becoming a super successful entrepreneur and then transitioning to sex coaching. My thinking was really challenged, but I also learned a lot. We also covered religious trauma, the power of sexuality, can moms still be sexy, BDSM, sex work, etc. Please let me know your feedback.

Here is Kimra's bio:

Kimra Luna is a Cosmic Sensuality coach, pleasure activist, host of Riot Doll podcast, and founder of the Cosmic Connection Coven the ultimate Discord resource community for all things sex, love, and relationships.

Kimra is here to disrupt the status quo to help you discover pleasure you've always dreamed of while shedding your sexual shame so you can channel your inner creatrix and live the life you deserve.

Kimra is devoted to supporting you in designing rituals that lead you to more fulfilling relationship with yourself and your partners.

You can find her works at kimraluna.com or on Instagram at @kimraluna or on Twitch at https://twitch.tv/riotdollpodcast

Episode 9 - Transgender and Triumphant. Got to interview the inspirational, Jamila Huerta. Jamila Huerta is an openly transgender woman of color, DACA recipient, a survivor of sexual exploitation, and a recent first-generation college student graduate from San Diego State University. She has been supporting and empowering oppressed communities to overcome life hardships since 2016. She has been featured in the documentary, “Dear People” and San Diego State University’s 3rd Annual Diversity Dialogue Workshop Series as a keynote speaker. Her mission is to make people become comfortable with the uncomfortable and unapologetic. 

We talked about her struggles with acceptance from her family, self-love, self-acceptance, her work serving the transgender community and intersectionality.