BsquaredC Podcast: The Black Woman Corporate Career "Brownprint"

🚀 𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐌𝐎𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐈𝐍 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐑? 🤔💼

🎙️ This month's guest is the fearless Grace Kibwana, a seasoned risk management professional who has skillfully maneuvered her career across diverse industries and geographies 🌍. In this episode, Grace shares her journey from starting out her career in Nairobi, how she found her advancement opportunities and her eventual move to Berlin. Her biggest ingredient for success? 🤫  Being strategic and intentional in everything, from  building relationships and how she navigated the online professional world🤝. 

🔍 Tune in to this episode for and be inspired by Grace’s BOLD journey marked by resilience, determination and an unwavering belief in herself. Discover practical strategies for finding mentorship and how to harness the power of LinkedIn for your career success! 🌟🚀 🌐.  Let Grace's intentional approach in this space  ignite your own career leaps! 

Three wisdom gems from Grace:

1. Be intentional about the relationships you create 

2. Honor people and so many doors will unlock for you

3. Go for what you want and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise 

🚀 Don't miss out on this opportunity for inspiration. 💪. 

If you loved this episode, buy us coffee, wine or water with the link below!

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BsquaredC

Stay in the loop and be the first to know about our latest initiatives, groundbreaking episodes, and empowering content. Sign up for our  newsletter using this link: https://bit.ly/BOLDmailinglist

Nominate yourself or another BOLD black woman you know for a chance to be featured on the podcast: https://bit.ly/Boldnominations.

Follow BsquaredC on our socials with the links below: 

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

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

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@BsquaredCPodcast/ 

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

To all the black women in the corporate world out there, KEEP MAKING BOLD MOVES AND KEEP TAKING UP SPACE🎙️🎊 

🎙️ Welcome to the first reflection episode of Season 3 of BsquaredC Podcast!  🎉

Every month Nancy and Akosua will be digging deeper into the conversations with our guests, sharing their own experiences and stories on the themes illuminated in each guest episode.

 In this episode they reflect on the gems shared by our powerhouse guest this month, Katekani Mabasa. So much of her stories resonated with the ladies, including the discussion on resilience of black women in career growth and how she harnesses her strengths for career success. Nancy and Akosua share their own experiences with resilience and delve deeper into the reservoir of their own strengths, exploring how these very strengths have taken tangible form in their professional trajectories. 🚀💼

Buckle up an insightful conversation and actionable tips to apply to your own career. 

💎 Three wisdom gems from Nancy and Akosua 

1. Embrace every opportunity you get even if it's not what you want at that time. Make the best of it while keeping your eye on your north star. 
2. Taking tests like the 16 personalities test, are a great way to illuminate your strengths and understand yourself better
3. Success comes from being aware of who you are and your strengths  inform your value.

Listen to the related episodes below: 

Katekani’s episode: https://bit.ly/BsquaredCKatekaniEp

Season 3 opening episode: https://bit.ly/BsquaredCSeason3Ep1

If you loved this episode, buy us coffee, wine or water with the link below!

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BsquaredC

Free personality test: https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test

Stay in the loop and be the first to know about our latest initiatives, groundbreaking episodes, and empowering content. Sign up for our  newsletter using this link: https://bit.ly/BOLDmailinglist

Nominate yourself or another BOLD black woman you know for a chance to be featured on the podcast: https://bit.ly/Boldnominations.

Follow BsquaredC on our socials with the links below: 

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

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

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@BsquaredCPodcast/

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

To all the black women in the corporate world out there, KEEP MAKING BOLD MOVES AND KEEP TAKING UP SPACE🎙️🎊

🎙️ Welcome to the sensational first guest episode of Season 3 of BsquaredC Podcast! 🎉

🌍 Get ready to meet Katekani Mabasa, an unstoppable finance guru who's now making waves in her 5th international destination. Originally from South Africa 🇿🇦, Katekani boasts an illustrious career across the finance landscape, fearlessly pursuing her dreams and ambitions. 🚀 Join us for this insightful conversation as we dive into Katekani's awe-inspiring career journey. Discover her unique insights on how the life experiences of black women enrich our perspectives. 🌟 Uncover how she harnessed her strengths and the game-changing influence of mentors and sponsors on her path.

💎 Three wisdom gems from Katekani:

• Be disruptive and embrace your ambition, you will be surprised at the doors that open for you after
• As a black woman do not get stuck with what other people think should be your life. Go for what you want!
• Support other black women! That is  the only way we succeed in numbers. 

If you loved this episode, buy us coffee, wine or water with the link below!

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BsquaredC

Stay in the loop and be the first to know about our latest initiatives, groundbreaking episodes, and empowering content. Sign up for our  newsletter using this link: https://bit.ly/BOLDmailinglist

Nominate yourself or another BOLD black woman you know for a chance to be featured on the podcast: https://bit.ly/Boldnominations.

🎉Season 3 of BSQUAREDC Podcast is  finally here! 🎉

After over a year and a half hiatus, we are thrilled to announce the long-awaited return of BsquaredC! 🎉🎊 We're back on the mic, ready to embark on another incredible journey of sharing the inspiring stories of black women in the corporate world. 💪💼.  Tune in to this episode to catch up on everything that's happened since our last episode in December 2021. 🗓️ Discover our fresh approach to the podcast and the BsquaredC space, along with some exciting twists that will make this season an unforgettable experience! 🌟

As mentioned in the episode, you can read Nancy's mental health crisis story on this link: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/slowing-down-my-mental-health-crisis-what-i-am-from-nancy

If you loved this episode, buy us coffee, wine or water with the link below!

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BsquaredC

Stay in the loop and be the first to know about our latest initiatives, groundbreaking episodes, and empowering content. Sign up for our newsletter using this link: https://bit.ly/BOLDmailinglist

Nominate yourself or another BOLD black woman you know for a chance to be featured on the podcast: https://bit.ly/Boldnominations.

Follow BsquaredC on our socials with the links below: 

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

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

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

Get ready for an empowering and uplifting season as we continue celebrating the brilliance and resilience of black women in the corporate world! 🎙️🎊

Happy end of 2021 BsquaredC squad!

2021 was a year of a lot of personal growth for me in many ways. Besides the honor of telling stories of so many brilliant black women, I myself also learnt a lot through reflecting on these conversations. In this episode I am sharing my  personal top 3 lessons of the year from the podcast whose messages I will be carrying proudly into 2022. They are on the topics of purpose, confidence and impostor syndrome.

Top takeaways are

Embrace and own your journey- My  episode 14 guest Busi Sizani, a woman who knew her purpose since she was a kid inspired me to reflect on my own purpose journey. I love my job in the healthcare industry and my mission in it is to bring equity to how vulnerable populations access and experience healthcare. For a while I thought I would only have the impact I aspired to when I reach the pinnacle of leadership in my industry. However, having clarity on my purpose has expanded this view to that I am living out my purpose and having the impact I wish for now as a 9-5er and entrepreneur. I need to stop and embrace my journey! Check out episode 15 for this reflection! https://bit.ly/BsquaredCReflection15

Other people’s perception of your confidence do not have to phase you-  Inspired by my conversation with Stephanie Goseine in Episode 12, who believes everything is hers for the taking, I got to reflect on the phenomenon of confidence and the battle of perception that often mars people from marginalised groups when it comes to it. For example the same behavior coming from men is not perceived the same when coming from women, let alone women of color. In episode 13 I shared  my top tips for staying grounded in your confidence in the middle of the perception battle we often are in as women of color.  Check out episode 13 for this reflection! https://bit.ly/BsquaredCReflection13

Impostor syndrome is more a systemic problem than an individual one- My guest Faith Opiyo from episode 16, who often experiences self doubt as a brilliant woman in tech, opened the door for me to explore impostor syndrome beyond the individual and think about its root cause. For too long all the solutions for impostor syndrome have been about fixing individuals and too little is discussed on  why people feel like this in the first place. The root cause of impostor syndrome is toxic environments riddled with systemic bias and we need to challenge them to truly fix this problem. Check out episode 17 for more on this. https://bit.ly/BsquaredCEp17

If you loved this episode, buy me a coffee on here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BsquaredC

Also follow BsquaredC on:

Instagram: https://bit.ly/BsquaredCInsta

Linkedin: https://bit.ly/BsquaredCLinkedIn

Facebook: https://bit.ly/BsquaredCFacebook

This month we are reflecting on tone policing and the angry black woman stereotype.

Our guest this month, Odelia Djoe used to stand up for herself against racial comments from her classmates when she was younger. Unfortunately this was interpreted as behavioral problems by her teachers, a phenomenon that is common for a lot of black girls even when they are just being “normal”  kids and teenagers.  According to a study by the New York Times, black girls are over five times more likely than white girls to be suspended at least once from school. This is the beginning of the experience of tone policing for a lot of black women and it follows black girls throughout their lives, manifesting as the "angry black woman" stereotype. A lot of black women, from Michelle Obama to Serena Williams to all of us have battled this stereotype in many ways. It ranges from microaggressive comments about how loud we laugh to being told to calm down in moments of passionate contributions. The angry black woman stereotype  is one of the many reasons why a lot of black women feel like they cannot show up their full selves in predominantly white spaces.

Listen to Odelia’s episode here: https://bit.ly/BsquaredCOdeliaEp

Article on the historical perspective of the angry black woman stereotype: https://www.ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow/antiblack/sapphire.htm

Business insider article on tone policing https://www.businessinsider.nl/how-to-identify-and-help-stop-tone-policing-in-workplace-2020-8?international=true&r=US

https://www.inhersight.com/blog/allyship/tone-policing

Article about Serena Williams and the angry black woman stereotype: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45476500

If you loved this episode, buy me a coffee on here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BsquaredC

Also follow BsquaredC on:

Instagram: https://bit.ly/BsquaredCInsta

Linkedin: https://bit.ly/BsquaredCLinkedIn

Facebook: https://bit.ly/BsquaredCFacebook

Up until now, this podcast has leaned heavily expat because that is largely the network we have access to, but I finally landed a native Dutch guest!

I am excited to introduce you to our November guest,  Odelia Djoe; Surinamese by birth and grew up in the Netherlands. Odelia has been designing her life on her terms while navigating her black Dutch identity, an often complicated topic in this culture. Our conversation covered all sorts of ground, including her upbringing and navigating the NL education system as a black kid, how she stepped into the corporate world and her passions outside of this space. Besides being a corporate badass in change management. Odelia is also a writer, passionate about song writing and education. She dedicates one day of her work week to that, as part of the 4 day work week phenomenon that is common in the NL, and she had interesting insights into that too. Odelia is an incredible ray of sunshine and positivity and a must hear story for a perspective of how it is to live life on your terms and embrace your identity, despite the systemic challenges she grew up in as a person of color. Have a listen to the episode for more.

If you loved this episode, buy me a coffee on here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BsquaredC

Also follow BsquaredC on:

Instagram: https://bit.ly/BsquaredCInsta

Linkedin: https://bit.ly/BsquaredCLinkedIn

Facebook: https://bit.ly/BsquaredCFacebook

Our guest this month is the incredible Faith Opiyo who has proven over and over again that she is the master of her own fate! Born and raised in Kenya, Faith’s journey has taken her to Russia where she lived for 10 years, through several career pivots and into where she is now as one of the few black women in cybersecurity. In this conversation amongst other things, we talked about Faith’s experiences with racism as a black person in Russia, how she started her career and pivoted industries to chase new goals, being a black woman in tech and fighting impostor syndrome. She is also a co- host on the podcast, Out of Band, where they are making careers in cyber security accessible for all with some great interviews of professionals in their space. Faith is a true go-getter with immense resilience and she has been using her voice more and more as she continues on her journey. Have a listen to Faith’s story.

Listen to Faith’s podcast here: https://open.spotify.com/show/6q7bbcQUXEn1kjbRwcsAA6

If you loved this episode, buy me a coffee on here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BsquaredC

Also follow BsquaredC on:

Instagram: https://bit.ly/BsquaredCInsta

Linkedin: https://bit.ly/BsquaredCLinkedIn

Facebook: https://bit.ly/BsquaredCFacebook

Inspired by the incredible story of my guest for this month, Busi Sizani, who knew her purpose from such  a tender age, in this episode I reflect on my own purpose journey. I only discovered my purpose much recently through a series of experiences and in this episode I share how I got to this realization.

I am a multi-hyphenate corporate healthcare professional, entrepreneur and storyteller who is passionate about equity. I get a lot of energy from solving problems around how to create opportunities, resources, spaces and platforms that connect and support the goals and dreams of systematically excluded groups, women and people of color in particular. Having clarity on my purpose has freed me in so many ways. It has allowed me to embrace that everything happens for a reason. I have embraced my own journey and stopped comparing myself to others. Most of all it has helped me shift my mindset from the rat race I thought I was on to get to the top in the corporate world. I am no longer in a hurry, because I realised my impact is actually happening now. I am living out my purpose as we speak. Most of all it gives me time to make calculated moves towards my corporate leadership goals without fear of not ever having a legacy. Listen to this episode for more!

Listen to Busi’s episode here: https://bit.ly/BsquaredCBusiEp

My first article on my purpose journey: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/my-purpose-shattering-social-inequity-one-day-time-kasvosve-mba-mph/

The episode on my immigrant journey: https://bit.ly/S1Ep7Dreamdeferred

The  story of BsquaredC: https://bit.ly/BsquaredCEp1

If you loved this episode, buy me a coffee on here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BsquaredC

Also follow BsquaredC on:

Instagram: https://bit.ly/BsquaredCInsta

Linkedin: https://bit.ly/BsquaredCLinkedIn

Facebook: https://bit.ly/BsquaredCFacebook