BsquaredC Podcast: The Black Woman Corporate Career "Brownprint"

I am on a mission to create a space for black women in the corporate world to connect, inspire and support each other as we navigate our careers. I am strongly convinced of our presence in the corporate world to influence how companies reach our communities with their products and services. BsquaredC is more than just a podcast, and in order to allow myself time and space to extend the idea, I am changing the frequency of this podcast from weekly to bi weekly. That means having one interview and one reflection episode per month every two weeks. I am excited to start bringing to life the vision I have for this platform. Listen to this bonus episode for more.

Here is the article about people of color in the VC world that I talked about.

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Following my great conversation with Courtney Bradwell about moving to the NL as a black professional today, I am reflecting on one of the key things that helped my guest Courtney to position herself in her new job market, and that is investing in yourself.

She spent a pretty penny on coaches who helped mer translate her skills from the American job market to the Dutch job market and more. Putting money on it, is one way to invest in yourself. Some of us fail to even just make the time to learn new skills towards our career. In this episode I reflect on this topic and give you three ways to think about investing in yourself. It does not always have to take money but it is about investing time to plan things that help you level up in your career journey. This includes utilizing your company development resources and budgets and seeking out strategic side gigs. Have a listen to this episode for more.

Links to mentions in the episode:

Courtney’s episode: https://bit.ly/BsquaredCCourtneyEp

Whitney White website: https://whitneyawhite.com/take-back-your-time

HBR article on strategic side hustles: https://hbr.org/2020/05/the-strategic-side-gig

If you loved this episode, buy me a coffee on here:

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Meet this week’s badass black corporate woman, Courtney Bradwell. Having been raised in Ohio, she always dreamed of traveling the world,  but she didn’t have many examples of people that looked like her  making such bold moves. This perspective changed with  a trip to Europe in 2014 that opened her up to the possibility to call this continent her second home at one point. In this conversation we went into Courtney’s journey of moving to the NL, including cracking the NL job market and navigating cultural differences between the US and NL as a black professional. Give this episode a go and listen to the transformation of who we now get to call Courtney Bradwell, a dreamer, a badass black woman that goes after her dreams in spite of it all.

Links to mentions in the episode

OMEK community: https://myomek.com/

Netherlands black women community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/weouthereamsterdam/

Article on black professional migrating out of the US: https://fortune.com/2020/08/10/black-african-americans-leaving-us-moving-abroad-professionals-race-opportunity-careers/

Courtney's coaches

Ashley Cash: https://www.ashleyncash.com/

Magali Toussaint: https://udiverseglobal.com/

If you loved this episode, buy me a coffee on here:

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Welcome to the first reflection of season 2!

Following my riveting conversation with the insightful Kelly Morales, in this episode I am bringing back the topic of feeling invisible in predominantly white spaces as a person of color for more exploration.

As Kelly pointed out on Ep 2, feeling like you are invisible is a common phenomenon amongst black women including Michelle Obama and Kamala Harris. People sometimes treat us like we are not there and actively ignore our opinion and experiences.The experiences women of color have with this phenomenon range from being ignored in meetings and people taking credit for our ideas, all the way to life and death situations.For instance, black women are 3-4 times more likely to die during childbirth, because healthcare professionals, who are often non-black, just do not listen to us or take our pain seriously. We almost lost Serena Williams to this issue. 

 Listen to this episode for my experiences  with the phenomenon of visibility and some tips that have worked for me to actively gain visibility in the workplace.

Read more about this topic on the links below:

Article on invisibility of Black women: https://www.inc.com/magazine/202009/teneshia-carr/black-women-invisible-discrimination-racism-employee-customer.html

Article on allyship: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-can-we-become-better-allies-each-other-nancy-kasvosve-mba-mph/

If you loved this episode, buy me a coffee on here:

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BsquaredC

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Welcome to the first interview episode of season 2 of BsquaredC podcast!

Meet our opening badass, Kelly Morales an ambitious, entrepreneurial Colombian woman whose discipline and life philosophy is awe- inspiring to say the least. After moving from Colombia for her studies, Kelly found herself  liking the Netherlands a lot and 8 years later is still here and chasing her dreams in corporate NL. Her long term vision is to lead innovation in the Fintech industry and impact her home, Colombia. Get your notebook ready because this conversation was just filled with gems on gems on gems!

Kelly took us through the roots of her work ethic and life philosophies, that included a beautiful story about her upbringing and her mother. We also talked about experiences like feeling invisible in predominantly white environments and how that led her to start the Black employees inclusion group, BEING at her company, way before the black lives matter events of last year. Kelly is also passionate about giving back to her home of Colombia, and is the founder of tuma codes, an organization teaching the youth to code in the pacific coast of Colombia, where she is from, as a means for upward social mobility. Tune in to this episode for more wisdom from the incredibly refreshing Kelly Morales!

Check out Kelly’s organization on the link below and donate to support it. https://tuma.codes/

If you loved this episode, buy me a coffee on here:

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BsquaredC

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We are back baby! Welcome to season 2 of BsquaredC podcast!

This season we are celebrating stories of women of color in corporate Netherlands, my new home. As you all may know I have since settled in the Netherlands two and a half years ago. I am excited to highlight the black women who have crossed my path and to experience new ones as I continue to build my network here and make my home.

In this episode, I am setting the context for the season, in particular the differences in how race is viewed in the European/Dutch context vs America. There are far fewer people of color in the corporate world in the Netherlands than America, and it is not a coincidence. While the Netherlands is one of the most progressive countries on many issues, including gender and sexuality, religious freedom and use of soft core drugs, there is massive denialism about the extent of racial prejudice in this society. This is in my perspective, partially due to how badly the education system here addresses the dark history of this country’s contribution to past and present global racial inequalities, and the lack of collection of racial ethnic data that goes back to post WW2 practices.The result is the masking of racial inequality and the perpetuation of the false narrative that racism is exclusively an American problem.

Listen to this episode for more on this and subscribe to not miss upcoming episodes.

References made in the episode:

Nicaila Okome site: https://www.sidehustlepro.co/

Women of color podcasters site: https://wocpodcasters.co/

Paola’s site: https://www.paolasalvianophotography.com/

Article on challenging the lack of collection of racial ethnic data: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/16/france-and-germany-urged-to-rethink-reluctance-to-gather-ethnicity-data

Season 1 Episode 29: What Doing This Podcast Meant To Me- https://bit.ly/BsquaredC29

Season 1 Episode 30:  On Black Sisterhood, Corporate Ambition & 2020- https://bit.ly/Bsquaredseason1finale

If you loved this episode, buy me a coffee on here:

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To close off BsquaredC podcast season one, I am bringing you the wisdom of four past guests, Stephanie, Ruva, Brittany and Ru. We came together in the “zoom where it happens”  to reflect on the stories they shared on their respective episodes, the aftermath of it and their view of their futures in the corporate world. We communed on stories of how they heard from people they had not heard from in a while post their BsquaredC podcast appearance, their advice on showing up authentically; one of the biggest themes across all the conversations on this podcast this year, and the future of corporate #blacklivesmatter conversations. This episode is rich with introspection, celebration and wisdom and I am so proud and in awe of all of these women! I cannot wait to tell more of our stories in 2021.

Related episodes:

1. Ruva- https://bit.ly/BsquaredCInterview2
   
2. Stephanie- https://bit.ly/BsquaredC21
   
3. Brittany- https://bit.ly/BsquaredCinterview16
   
4. Ru-https://bit.ly/BsquaredC12
   

If you loved this episode, buy me a coffee on here:

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BsquaredC podcast will be going on a short hiatus to rest and plan for season 2. Thank you all for listening, for sharing, and for supporting the voices of women of color in the corporate world!

Happy holidays everyone! We are almost at the end of BsquaredC podcast season 1 and I decided to share a reflection on what doing this podcast has meant to me as my Christmas gift to you all and to myself. First off doing everything about this podcast all on my own, from scripting, to producing to marketing really challenged my ability to commit to something and stick to it. It stretched my capabilities, letting me grow a new skill set and strengthened my belief that I can do anything if I put my mind to it. Secondly this podcast was very cathartic for me, as it was my way of contributing to the global conversation about institutional racism that overtook the world this year. Thirdly this podcast already gave birth to a lot of good things from some of my guests and it was validating for their stories to go further to help then get new opportunities and connect more with their co- workers. Lastly all of you listening to this podcast, sharing it and messaging me about how much the stories meant to to, gave me a lot of energy and kept me going. 

I will take 3 months off to plan season 2 and I am looking forward to continuing this journey with you all! 

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

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My guest from last week Arlyne Simon is a multi passionate genius, out there inventing, writing, starting up companies and inspiring all of us! However even as talented as she is she still has moments of doubting herself experiencing impostor syndrome.  She shared her experiences about this stepping into corporate America for the first time and this is a phenomenon that is common to a lot of people, mostly minorities and women. That is because it is about belonging. In the majority cis-white male corporate environment, it is easy to feel out of place and on this episode I shared my experience with impostor syndrome in my career and some of my favorite tips for combating these feelings. Have a listen to it!

Article on impostor syndrome: https://so06.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/IJBS/article/view/521

Article on impostor syndrome in minorities: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/12/smarter-living/dealing-with-impostor-syndrome-when-youre-treated-as-an-impostor.html

Arlyne’s company: https://www.timouns.com/

Follow Arlyne on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arlynesimonphd/

If you loved this episode, buy me a coffee on here:

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BsquaredC

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Do you know what you want to be when you grow up? If your answer is no, according to my guest on the podcast today, Arlyne Simon, that's ok. She still doesn’t know what she wants to be when she grows up and she lives what she calls a multi-passionate life, as an inventor, biomedical engineer, an author, an entrepreneur and who knows what’s next? When she is not inventing or leading project teams developing medical diagnostic equipment, Arlyne is inspiring little girls into STEM careers through her writing. She takes them on science adventures with the main character in her books, Abby, a little black girl with huge afro puffs who is curious about the world and invents stuff she wants to see. Arlyne inspires me to dream the life I want  and I am sure she will light the same fire in you after listening to her story.

Three takeaways from this episode:

Bet on yourself- believe in yourself enough to put your passions and voice out there in the world and trust that it will bloom.

Your got this- your perspective is appreciated and welcome in all spaces and you belong in all of them

You don’t have to know what you want to be at all times of your life- follow your curiosity and don’t box yourself

Arlyne’s website: http://arlynesimon.com/

Arlyne’s company: https://www.timouns.com/

Follow Arlyne on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arlynesimonphd/

If you loved this episode, buy me a coffee on here:

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BsquaredC

Also follow BsquaredC on:

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

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