Black. Queer. Reverend.

In this episode of Breaking Rank, Rev. Don Abram refuses to choose between the parts of himself the world keeps asking him to separate. Don grew up in a hand-clapping, toe-tapping Baptist church on the South Side of Chicago, raised by a Jamaican Patois-speaking grandmother who dragged him to service every Sunday. He shares the story of a recurring dream that called him to the pulpit, and the moment his grandmother told him she couldn't interpret it for him, because only he knew what God was telling him. That moment became his first real introduction to queer theology.

Don makes the case that the church has been naming the wrong sin all along, and it has nothing to do with who anyone loves. He also talks about the manufactured care crisis he sees playing out across institutions, the belief that care is a limited resource that only belongs to some, and what it would take to build systems from a place of abundance instead.

This conversation covers his founding of Toward Pride, formerly Pride in the Pews, and what's next for the organization, including a new initiative supporting people living with HIV and a research partnership with Northwestern University exploring faith as a determinant of health.

This is a conversation about theology, identity, and refusing to shrink any part of yourself to be accepted by a room.

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#breakingrank #theology #queertheology #faith #queer #leadership #authenticity

What if we looked for the remarkability in people instead of the disability?

July is Disability Pride Month, which marks the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, so there is no better time to share this conversation.

In this episode of Breaking Rank, the podcast where we lead without permission, I sit down with Roxy B. Rocker, a disability advocate, consultant, and broadcaster, and the founder of Embracing Disability. Roxy has lived with disability her whole life, and she has spent decades turning that lived experience into advocacy, education, and community for others.

We talk about what it means to carry multiple visible and invisible disabilities, and why so much of what people navigate every day is something the rest of the world never sees. Roxy is honest about the discrimination and bullying she has faced, about being told she could not be a leader, and about being doubted even now by people who question whether her disabilities are real.

She shares the turning point that led her to found Embracing Disability: a stretch of hospital stays in 2021 that ended with a serious accident and eleven days in a hospital bed, where she found herself asking for something as basic as dignity. That experience became a mission. Embracing Disability is now a media and education platform built around disability stories, representation, and inclusion, with a magazine, an adaptive clothing line called Roxease, a television project, and a growing community. Roxy is also working to turn it into a nonprofit that teaches broadcasting and hosting skills to people with disabilities.

We get into the psychology of the word "disability" itself, why it can trigger pity instead of connection, and how Roxy reframes her work around inclusion, relationships, and community. We also talk about advocacy and leadership: the history of the disability rights movement, the fight for accessibility and independent living, and her belief that we all have a seat at the table, even when someone would rather we were not in the room.

This is a conversation about dignity, visibility, and the kind of leadership that refuses to disappear. As Roxy puts it, learn, listen, ask questions, and look for the remarkability instead of the disability.

In this episode:

Learn more about Roxy's work at embracing-disability.com.

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#BreakingRank #leadership #authenticity #reinvention #resilience #disabilityawareness #DisabilityPrideMonth #ADA

What does it take to stop proving your worth to everyone else and finally live on your own terms?

In this episode of Breaking Rank, I sit down with my longtime friend Nicole Steiner, someone I've watched grow over 20 years of friendship into one of the most driven and authentic leaders I know. Nicole grew up as a brown girl in a white family in Oregon, then spent her early adulthood chasing every external marker of success: the master's degree at 23, the six-figure income, the house, the titles. From the outside she looked like she had it all figured out. On the inside, none of it was filling the cup that actually mattered.

We get into the moment everything cracked open about five years ago. Walking away from a lucrative marketing career. Getting sober. Spending six weeks in Africa. Rebuilding her whole life around boundaries, self-worth, and a simple line she once read on a therapist's wall: you matter.

Nicole also shares how she found real purpose in energy-based medical technology, where she became a top global sales rep by leading with kindness instead of a script. That work is also what allowed her to give her own son a laser treatment that helped him breathe and sleep through the night, which she describes as one of the most meaningful moments of her career. We talk about why she refuses to hide anything, from her plastic surgery to her mental health, and what she's learning about being neurodivergent in a world that expects everyone to be the same. As she puts it, if you expect a fish to climb a tree, it will always look like a failure.

This one is about identity, reinvention, and choosing yourself first. If you've ever felt like the outsider, or like you had to earn your place by becoming whoever everyone else wanted you to be, this conversation is for you.

In this episode:

Connect with Nicole on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicole-steiner-44298833/

Find every episode and more at breakingrankpod.com. If this episode moved something in you, share it with someone who needs to hear that they matter first.

#BreakingRank #leadership #authenticity #reinvention #resilience #adversity

In this episode of Breaking Rank, we sit down with Nadira Ford-Robbins for a conversation about courage, adversity, and the kind of leadership that gets built in the middle of a crisis instead of before one.

Nadira takes us back to her childhood in Staten Island, growing up in a family of eight with a mother who put herself through nursing school while raising her kids largely on her own. That early exposure to grit and grind followed her into adulthood, through marriage, motherhood, a divorce that reshaped her entire world, and ultimately into a leadership role she wasn't sure she was ready for.

We talk about what it means to lead while you're still rebuilding, how she became chapter president of her organization in the middle of her divorce, and the leadership lessons that carried her through it, including failing forward, eating the frog first, and learning to let criticism roll off without letting it stop her. Nadira also opens up about raising a Black gay son and helping him navigate identity and rejection in a world that isn't always built for him.

This is a conversation about resilience, reinvention, and refusing to let one devastating season define the rest of the story. Nadira reminds us that leadership doesn't always look like the version we were sold, and that showing up in your own way still counts.

Reinvention isn't a one-time event. Just ask David Ackert.

David Ackert is the co-founder and CEO of PipelinePlus, bestselling author of The Short List, Gold Award winner for nonfiction book of the year, and one of the most respected voices in legal industry business development. But before all of that, he was an immigrant kid navigating the hostage crisis, a bullying victim who found refuge in theater, and a trained actor who landed roles on The West Wing, CSI: Miami, and JAG before walking away from Hollywood entirely to build something of his own.

In this episode of Breaking Rank, David opens up about what it really means to reinvent yourself, not once, but multiple times, and what leadership looks like when your path doesn't follow any conventional playbook. We talk about growing up between two cultures, the typecasting he faced in Hollywood, the moment he decided to leave it all behind, and how he built PipelinePlus into a firm that now serves some of the most elite law firms in the country.

We also get into the mindset behind it all, including why David swears by Theodore Roosevelt's "comparison is the thief of joy," and why he believes the legal marketing community is more capable of reinvention than it gives itself credit for.

This is one of those conversations that goes way beyond business development. It's about identity, resilience, and what becomes possible when you stop letting the world decide who you are.

Topics covered in this episode:

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What does it really mean to lead — and who gets to do it?

In this episode of Breaking Rank, host Diana Lauritson sits down with her best friend and HR veteran Angela Jones for a no-holds-barred conversation about leadership: where it comes from, who it's designed for, and what it costs to show up in spaces that weren't built with you in mind.

From the earliest leadership examples they witnessed growing up (a single mom grinding through it all, a dad whose influence wasn't always healthy, and a corporate mentor who led with empathy instead of ego) Diana and Angela get real about the moments that shaped how they understand power, authority, and what it actually looks like to lead well.

They go there on the tough stuff too: the exhausting reality of walking into rooms where your race arrives before you do, the double standards Black and mixed-race professionals navigate every single day, and why "being professional" often just means being someone you're not.

But this episode isn't just about what's broken. It's about what's possible. Diana and Angela dig into what it means to lead without permission, to stop waiting for a stamp of approval and start showing up with intention, integrity, and a little less need for the crowd's validation.

Whether you're deep in your leadership journey or still wondering if there's even a seat at the table for you, this one's for you.

In this episode:

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What does it actually look like to build wealth, lead at the highest level, and never lose yourself in the process? Shomari James, Founder and CEO of Equity Now, Inc., is living proof that success without selling out is not just possible. It is powerful.

Shomari grew up getting kicked out of nearly every school he attended. He was raised by a mother who kept him grounded and a father who told him to push every limit. Those two forces shaped a leader who went on to spend 21 years in Fortune 500 boardrooms, build a thriving consulting practice, and found a nonprofit dedicated to closing the wealth gap through financial education. And through all of it, he never performed a version of himself that was more acceptable to the room.

In this conversation, we go deep on what that actually takes. We talk about the three sides of Shomari James and why he keeps all of them close. We talk about why leadership is an art and management is a science, and why confusing the two is costing organizations. We talk about the inner work that changed everything for him, including what a closed door taught him about a trauma he did not even know he was carrying. And we talk about what it means to hold the ladder steady for the next person coming up.

This episode is for anyone who has ever felt the pressure to leave parts of themselves behind to be taken seriously. Shomari James is your reminder that those parts of you are not the obstacle. They are the edge.

Episode 12 of Breaking Rank. Let's go.

What does it mean to build something that outlasts you when no one built it for you first?

In this episode of Breaking Rank, Diana sits down with Carl Gray III, founder and CEO of Raising Founders and Launch with Carl. Carl grew up in DC navigating a dual life between the streets and the church pew, with a father in and out of jail and a mother who earned her diploma the same year Carl graduated college. The odds weren't in his favor. He didn't just survive them. He built a movement because of them.

Carl didn't set out to work with youth. He said he'd never get into education. Then, in the middle of grief that would have stopped most people cold, losing his niece and goddaughter in separate car accidents in the same week, he showed up for a room full of young people anyway. What happened next changed everything.

This episode gets into what Breaking Rank is really about: the moment you stop waiting for the systems around you to give you permission to become who you already know you are. For Carl, that reckoning came at 40. A prayer that sounded more like a demand. A beautiful house that felt completely hollow. And the recognition that the people who loved him most were the ones holding him back.

Carl and Diana go deep on:

This one will stay with you.

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The legal profession has never made it easy to be a present father. Matthew Korn decided to change that.

Matthew is a partner at Fisher Phillips and the founder of Dad, Esq., a community built specifically for lawyer dads navigating the intersection of high-stakes careers and hands-on fatherhood. In this episode, he and Diana dig into why working dads face a unique and largely invisible set of pressures, what it cost him to start talking about it openly, and how he turned that honesty into a movement.

From the mental health realities of life in law to the power of community to his vision for a profession where fatherhood is normalized rather than hidden, Matthew's perspective will challenge the way you think about success, leadership, and what it means to show up fully in every role you hold.

This one is for the dads, the lawyers, and anyone who has ever had to choose between ambition and presence. Spoiler: Matthew doesn't think you have to.

Follow Breaking Rank on Instagram and YouTube @breakingrankpod. Learn more about Dad, Esq. at dadesq.com.

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What happens when the plan falls apart and you build something better?

In this episode of Breaking Rank, host Diana Lauritson sits down with Jessica Aries, founder of By Aries and Legal Marketing Association International board member, for a conversation that covers it all: growing up in a single-parent household in Austin, TX, walking away from a law career, launching a business in the middle of a pandemic, navigating the emotional weight of IVF, and becoming one of the most recognized voices in legal marketing today.

Jessica's story is one of reinvention at every turn. From a childhood where her father's early influence sparked a lifelong love of technology, to a viral LinkedIn post during COVID that brought 9 law firms to her inbox in a single week, to building By Aries into a thriving consulting practice, Jessica does not just talk about playing big. She lives it.

In this episode, you will hear:

Whether you are a legal marketing professional, a woman considering entrepreneurship, or someone sitting on the edge of a career pivot, this episode will meet you where you are.

Subscribe, like, and share if this conversation moved you.

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