My mother-in-law died in early October, two days before my 60th birthday. We ended up spending almost three weeks in the UK, preparing for her funeral and grieving with family. 

And now, just after we were beginning to emerge from the worst of the grief cycle, our family and friends are plunged right back into deep grief after the election.

I feel numb. My husband and I went to the Japanese Garden yesterday. It was a beautiful day in Portland. We were not alone in seeking solace in the beautiful fall colors. I found myself staring out over our skyline and feeling single tears leaking out of my eyes.

I have not had a huge cry over the state of the world. Just single leaking tears.

I feel devastated for the country, the world, and the planet.

This is my lament.

I’m rebooting my podcast to focus on communicating for change. This week we’re going to talk about how to uplift people of Hispanic descent. I share statistics about the prevalence of people of Hispanic descent in the U.S. workforce and why it's important to uplift them.

In the U.S., National Hispanic Heritage Month is observed from September 15 to October 15. It’s a time to celebrate the histories, cultures, and contributions of Americans whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. In this podcast I share four strategies to celebrate and support people of Hispanic descent during this month and all year long.1.   Know your terms

Let’s begin with Hispanic, which means someone descended from Spanish-speaking countries. 

A Latino or Latina is a man or woman of Latin American descent. Latinx and Latine have emerged as gender-neutral alternatives to Latino or Latina, which encompass Hispanic people from all racial backgrounds and those who identify as LBGTQIA+. The terms “Latinx” or “Latine” are not widely accepted though, especially among older generations.

Others prefer to identify themselves by their country of origin, similar to some Native Americans preferring to be called by their Tribe or some Black people disliking the term “BIPOC.” It’s more respectful when you name someone’s origin instead of lumping them together.

Ask people of Latin-American or Hispanic descent what terms they prefer.

2.   Avoid cultural appropriation

In a Great British Bakeoff Mexican-themed episode a few years ago, the hosts wore ponchos and sombreros and made insensitive jokes. As we approach Halloween, this is a good time for my annual reminder to not appropriate other cultures.

Unless you are Latine, avoid:

·      Wearing Mexican or Indigenous traditional costumes or Chola style outfits 

·      Getting culturally themed tattoos

·      Celebrating Dia de Los Muertos without understanding its deep cultural meaning

·      Using Cinco de Mayo as an excuse to party without participating in the cultural elements

3.   Celebrate with culturally appropriate activities 

Celebrating cultural holidays, traditions, and events can be a powerful way to show support. Ask your Latine colleagues or community members for ideas, but avoid singling them out or requiring them to lead or participate. 

Here are some ideas to consider:

·      Feature culturally inspired music, food, films, and art

·      Sponsor a book group with selections by Latine authors

·      Discuss Latine diversity, equity, and inclusion

·      Host an educational session led by Latine professionals 

·      Celebrate the contributions of your Latine employees or community members

·      Spotlight Latine businesses

·      Host celebrations and workshops, encouraging employees to share their own experiences and customs

Make sure your activities are respectful and inclusive. Do your research and check in with Latine folks to make it fun and educational. 

4.     Offer support to Latine employees in the workplace all year long

Any attempt to celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month will be inauthentic unless you work toward everyday inclusion. With their rich cultural heritage and diverse perspectives, Latine employees contribute significantly to the workforce. However, they face everyday prejudice and need specific support. This support could include:

·      Fostering cultural sensitivity and awareness. Educate employees about diverse cultures, traditions, and languages. Break down stereotypes and create a more inclusive atmosphere.

·      Addre

Dr. Ronnie Taylor was born to extremely young parents who divorced after a few years of marriage. His mom converted to Mormonism and moved the family to Salt Lake City to start a new life. Unfortunately, the missionary who converted and recruited her failed to tell the church Ronnie’s family was Black. They weren’t exactly welcomed with open arms.

His mom worked and went to college full time, and eventually she remarried. Growing up in Utah as a Black Mormon was tough. Ronnie moved out when he was 17 and tried to build a life for himself, but he kept getting targeted by police. 

“In my life to date, I've been pulled over by the police about 55 times and I've been beaten by the police five times. Also been arrested over a dozen times.”

Ronnie cashed two checks for $300. He didn't have the money in his bank account, but he thought he could just pay the money back and it would be okay. He didn't think the penalty would be that severe…but it was two felonies with zero to five years jail time. He was sentenced to three years, probation, 178 hours of community service, and 6 months house arrest. He also had to pay the restitution and a fine. 

Soon he found himself falling into a never-ending series of bad situations that kept getting worse, and he was only 20 years old. 

“And if you can't get a job or vote or all these other myriad of consequences that come from a conviction, then you're largely excluded from society as a whole. Being in that situation was much harder because it meant years of job insecurity and financial insecurity…And if you can't make money, you just can't participate in life in many ways.”

The only solution he could find was to move out of state and lie on his job applications. While living in Rhode Island, Ronnie met his wife Kerala and they moved to Washington DC. 

“She says I romanticized living in DC, but I remember really enjoying it partially because it's a mostly Black city. We used to call it Chocolate City. It was the first time in my life where I lived in an environment where I was just not special. I was just a normal, everyday person who got to walk around and not have to deal with a lot of the things that I have to deal with. There was also the reverse where, being in a predominantly Black environment that people think I act too white. I don't fit in anywhere." 

He went into paramedic school and tried to get his record cleaned up. Eventually he had to pay a lawyer to get his record expunged. 

Ronnie realized he didn’t want to be a paramedic his whole life so he went to George Washington University and graduated summa cum laude while also working full-time. 

Ronnie’s doctorate program brought the family to Portland, OR. He earned his doctorate in occupational therapy and now he’s on track to become certified as a hand therapist.

Listen to the podcast to hear about growing up as a Black Mormon, how he turned his life around, and what life is like today.

Please drop me a line at [email protected] or on social media to let us know what you thought about this episode.

I help professional services firms avoid BORING and boost employee engagement, productivity, and readership. I translate technical, complex, and lackluster language into accessible, dynamic, story-driven text. Get known in your industry through outstanding thought leadership content. Walk your talk through outstanding, effective communications with your employees and clients.

As a podcaster for justice, I stand with my sisters from the Women of Color Podcasters Community. We are podcasters united to condemn the tragic murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and many others at the hands of police.

Dr. Melissa Jenkins Mangili is a neuropsychologist and medical school faculty member who has reinvented herself as a fashion and fitness model. 

Her life began with grit and resilience. She and her three siblings were was raised in poverty in rural Maine by a single quadriplegic mother. 

 “The nice thing about being from a small town is that everybody knows each other…and rallied to help us. (My mother) couldn't drive at first. She had to relearn how to drive and get an adapted car. Eventually we were able to build a wheelchair-accessible home…and she was able to drive independently…as we got older, we were able to help more.”

Melissa had her first job at age 9, with a paper route. By age 12 she was working 50 hours a week babysitting during the summer. She worked at McDonald’s in high school and as a second job during college summers. 

In spite of the hardships, she had a happy childhood. 

“…the experience made us closer and happier in a lot of ways, because even though things were tough, we were in it together. We all had a common mission of taking care of our mom and taking care of each other and doing everything that we could to contribute to that common mission…we became very close and we learned how to be very self-sufficient. We're all very successful as adults.”

Thanks to her intelligence and hard work, she graduated second in her college class. That’s just the start of her educational journey. She camped across the country to California for graduate school because she heard education was more financially accessible there. Then she worked her way through UCSD.

Fast forward to her academic career and private practice as a neuropsychologist. Until recently, Melissa taught at Brown University medical school. During the “great pause” of COVID, she took a sharp left turn and become a fashion and fitness model. 

“I think it is radical to step in front of a camera and do it as yourself, not with artificial enhancements or extreme workout regimens or any of that kind of perfectionism, but just to step in front of the camera or out on a runway and model, as a not-25-year-old model and be visible and represent our generation.”

She loves advocating for more diverse representation in modeling. 

Melissa is also enjoying the freedom from not having to fit into the conservative norms of academia. She’s embracing her reinvention as a model!

Melissa is currently featured in Model Billboard magazine and has been on the runway in Rhode Island, New England, and New York fashion weeks. To see her portfolio or hire her for modeling, check out her Instagram page.

Please drop me a line at [email protected] or on social media to let us know what you thought about this episode.

I help professional services firms avoid BORING and boost employee engagement, productivity, and readership. I translate technical, complex, and lackluster language into accessible, dynamic, story-driven text. Get known in your industry through outstanding thought leadership content. Walk your talk through outstanding, effective communications with your employees and clients.

As a podcaster for justice, I stand with my sisters from the Women of Color Podcasters Community. We are podcasters united to condemn the tragic murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and many others at the hands of police. 

 Fertile Ground Communications LLC is a certified women-owned business enterprise, disadvantaged business enterprise, and emerging small business.

Vernita L. Bowe is a survivor. As a smaller-than-average child, she experienced bullying in school. When she grew up she married the wrong man and wasn’t able to get out of that marriage for 24 years, three kids later.

Parenting has been about huge loves and losses for Vernita. Her middle son landed in prison, and four years ago her oldest son Byron died in a car accident.

“You really don't wanna bury your children. But what I've learned is all of the promises are gone…all of the things that you and he were gonna do together…and all of the things that he wanted to do with his life. All gone…and let me tell you something. People say that you should get over a loss and I just wanna say this for the listening audience: You never get over a loss. You learn how to live beyond it. But you never really get over it.”

After Byron died, the griefs kept coming. Byron’s godfather and Vernita’s mentor died, and then her mother…next she and her father contracted COVID at the same time and ended up in the hospital, both on ventilators. Unfortunately, Vernita’s dad passed away while she was still on the ventilator.

In spite of the great griefs she has suffered…or because of them…Vernita has embraced life and is living it to its fullest! She recently got a passport and took her very first airplane flight! That’s just the beginning of the living and traveling she has planned for herself.

Please drop me a line at [email protected] or on social media to let us know what you thought about this episode.

I help professional services firms avoid BORING and boost employee engagement, productivity, and readership. I translate technical, complex, and lackluster language into accessible, dynamic, story-driven text. Get known in your industry through outstanding thought leadership content. Walk your talk through outstanding, effective communications with your employees and clients.

As a podcaster for justice, I stand with my sisters from the Women of Color Podcasters Community. We are podcasters united to condemn the tragic murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and many others at the hands of police. 

Fertile Ground Communications LLC is a certified women-owned business enterprise, disadvantaged business enterprise, and emerging small business.

Happy Pride! What better month to launch this fun episode and celebrate a wonderful queer story.

Growing up in Germany, when Nicole moved to the U.S. as a teen she never felt like she fit in. Then she joined the military during Desert Storm, and she ended up playing Taps for 600 funerals of her colleagues. That nearly broke her. She married a man before coming out as gay, and her dad and sisters rejected her.

Around the same time of that rejection, her beloved mom—the only family member who truly embraced Nicole for who she was--suddenly died at the age of 51. 

When COVID hit, Nicole and her wife took a wild cross-country trip in an RV. They experienced discrimination and many, many vehicle troubles. (Who knew buying a brand-new RV would turn out to be such a headache?!?) 

Then when they returned to Southern California, she landed a job reporting to a toxic boss who had a history of discriminating against queer people. She’s now in a much happier place, working at Toast, where she feels completely affirmed and embraced.

Nicole more grit and resilience than I even expected before I interviewed her! I loved listening to her colorful, varied stories of her life so far. If you want ideas on where to travel in the U.S., I highly recommend Nicole’s Instagram page, @chocoandchaitourtheus.

Please drop me a line at [email protected] or on social media to let us know what you thought about this episode.

I help professional services firms avoid BORING and boost employee engagement, productivity, and readership. I translate technical, complex, and lackluster language into accessible, dynamic, story-driven text. Get known in your industry through outstanding thought leadership content. Walk your talk through outstanding, effective communications with your employees and clients.

As a podcaster for justice, I stand with my sisters from the Women of Color Podcasters Community. We are podcasters united to condemn the tragic murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and many others at the hands of police. 

Fertile Ground Communications LLC is a certified women-owned business enterprise, disadvantaged business enterprise, and emerging small business.

This week on the Finding Fertile Ground podcast, I interview Cheryl Parks, sales and mindset coach. Cheryl works with my business coach, Liz J. Simpson, and has provided me invaluable advice and confidence boosts as I reboot my business. 

Cheryl and I immediately connected, and I was especially lucky to meet her in person in early March, since the Big Money Movement coaching program happens all on Zoom and social media. It was a delight to delve into her background and discover how many ways our lives overlap and connect.

I was surprised to discover that Cheryl has not always been a confident, outgoing, and self-assured businesswoman. At one point she was so shy she wouldn’t ring the bell to get off a city bus.

“I became so shy. People they'd say, oh, I know you from, and I would say, no, you don't know me. I know you don't know me. You probably know my cousin. You probably know my sister. There were so many times Marie. I was just shrinking and shrinking and shrinking. I literally stayed in my room.” 

After a successful corporate sales career, Cheryl now has a growing sales and mindset coaching and consulting practice. She trains leaders and founders to sell in their own unique voice without being salesy or scripted.

Before she turned 30, she found herself as a shy single mom of two. She realized her shyness was going to derail all of her dreams, goals, and plans for life. 

She created a plan and took intentional action steps to march herself out of debilitating shyness and into a successful corporate sales career, which lasted for over 25 years and $25M in sales. 

“There's still a shy part of me…but for the most part I'm in control of the shy girl and say, ‘okay, you gotta be quiet for a minute because I have some things I have to handle.’ So the great part is just being in control of that and not having the shy girl overwhelm everything else.” 

Cheryl’s greatest passion is helping people who don't feel they have a voice discover their unique style and voice. Every day it amazes her that she stands out front: visible and proud to be her!

Please drop me a line at [email protected] or on social media to let us know what you thought about this episode.

I help professional services firms avoid BORING and boost employee engagement, productivity, and readership. I translate technical, complex, and lackluster language into accessible, dynamic, story-driven text. Get known in your industry through outstanding thought leadership content. Walk your talk through outstanding, effective communications with your employees and clients.

As a podcaster for justice, I stand with my sisters from the Women of Color Podcasters Community. We are podcasters united to condemn the tragic murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and many others at the hands of police. 

Fertile Ground Communications LLC is a certified women-owned business enterprise, disadvantaged business enterprise, and emerging small business.

Michele Heyward is a civil engineer who built the U.S. power grid. Now she's a tech startup founder building the future of work at PositiveHire. 

Michele grew up in rural South Carolina in a three-bedroom house full of kids. She had four siblings. She describes herself as the weird kid, really good at math.

Encouraged to pursue science and engineering, she went to engineering camp 30 years ago at 13 years old.

“But what really got me sold on engineering was when I was 12, a Category Five hurricane hit South Carolina and my mom's younger sister and her family live near Charleston where the hurricane hit...They had a newer brick home that was destroyed during the hurricane while they were in it. I couldn't understand: how could a home that new be destroyed by something called a hurricane? And that's how I literally got interested in civil engineering and decided to major in it.”

She learned about people who had designed an indestructible egg-shaped home on the coast, and she thought,

“How do you build a home or structure like that? It really started me into the path of civil engineering.” 

After working in the corporate world for many years, Michele got tired of being “the only.”

“Something that is really common, unfortunately, is the ‘only’ experience for a lot of Black, Latinx, and indigenous women in STEM. What I mean is you're the only one, you're the only Black woman. You're the only Latina engineer on your team, group, department, company. For years out in construction, I was the only Black woman engineer. I was only Black woman, period…so many other women quit.”

Michele stayed at her her previous environmental engineering firm for 12 years.

“I told myself somebody else is going to come who doesn't have the wherewithal to do what you've done this amount of time by yourself being the only.”

Then she received a message from God that said, “you're not supposed to be here.”

“I cried. I'd been through so much being the only, but it was time for me to go and build out something else…now it's time to go execute. It was time for me to go put in the work.”

Michele founded a company, PositiveHire, that connects Black, Latinx, and Indigenous women who are experienced scientists, engineers, and technology professionals to management roles.

“As a Black woman engineer I've seen companies complain they can't find diverse talent, when their real issue is retaining Black, Latinx, and Indigenous talent in STEM. The issue isn't a pipeline problem but the lack of responsibility that management teams have in creating workplaces which will retain and attract Black, Latinx, and Indigenous talent.”

Michele and I had a fruitful discussion about what it’s like working in spaces run by white men and how important it is to change the culture of a company before focusing on recruiting people of color. We also talked about how to write inclusive job descriptions and postings that bring in diverse candidates.

Please drop me a line at [email protected] to let us know what you thought about this episode.

I help professional services firms avoid BORING and boost employee engagement, productivity, and readership. I translate technical, complex, and lackluster language into accessible, dynamic, story-driven text. Get known in your industry through outstanding thought leadership content. Walk your talk through outstanding, effective communications with your employees and clients. 

Fertile Ground Communications LLC is a certified women-owned business enterprise, disadvantaged business enterprise, and emerging small business.

When Gresh was a kid, his military dad worked overseas for a year and this English major/entrepreneur started a family newspaper to keep his whole family up to date on what was going on. His first business was born!

This week on the Finding Fertile Ground podcast, I interview Gresham Harkless, Jr., founder of CEO Blog Nation and Blue 16 Media, and host of the I AM CEO Podcast + CEO Chat Podcast. Gresh graduated from Howard University and Georgetown and has interviewed more than 1,000 CEOs, entrepreneurs, and business owners, including me!

Life hasn’t always been easy for him, though. He graduated in 2009 during the economic crisis and felt like he did all the things he was supposed to do to position himself for success. But he had to learn it all on his own, because each of the companies he went to, he lacked mentors. With layoffs and tearing his achilles tendon, he felt like a ship lost at sea. 

Gresh is a wonderful, warm human being and I enjoyed hearing about his life journey and how he ended up building two successful businesses at such a young age.

Listeners, did this episode inspire you? I’d love to hear from you. If you have any questions or have an idea for a guest or topic I should cover, drop me a line at [email protected]. 

I help professional services firms avoid BORING and boost employee engagement, productivity, and readership. I translate technical, complex, and lackluster language into accessible, dynamic, story-driven text. Get known in your industry through outstanding thought leadership content. Walk your talk through outstanding, effective communications with your employees and clients.

As a podcaster for justice, I stand with my sisters from the Women of Color Podcasters Community. We are podcasters united to condemn the tragic murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and many others at the hands of police. 

Fertile Ground Communications LLC is a certified women-owned business enterprise, disadvantaged business enterprise, and emerging small business.

This week on the Finding Fertile Ground podcast, I interview Chantal Cox, a special educator, author, speaker, and Transformation NeuroCoach™. 

Chantal lives in Wichita, Kansas, now but she grew up all over the world. Her birth dad is Mexican, but her mom remarried when she was three years old. Her adopted dad was in the army, so the family moved every two years. They lived in several states as well as Panama, Luxembourg, and The Netherlands. 

Chantal was born a shy, timid introvert. Being the new kid every two years was traumatizing but forced her to get some coping skills.

Being the only brown-skinned person in her family created some difficult conversations each time the family moved. 

“Here's the Cox family. Who are you just standing with this family? When we lived in Panama, people assumed I was Panamanian, but when we lived in Washington, DC, we lived in a high Pakistani, population so people assumed I was Pakistani. And in Wyoming people assumed I was Native American.  That caused some different things in my head, some different stories to be created that I latched on to and became part of my identity… that I don't fit in anywhere.”

Chantal struggled with anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem. 

 “I was very pessimistic, very much the glass is half empty. What's going to go wrong next? Life was not happy. If there was something good that happened, I tried really hard to find the bad in it. I just lived in this space and then the low self-esteem and self-worth led me to be in not great relationships because you attract what you put out.”

Soon after she began working as a special ed teacher, her high stress levels led to her developing an autoimmune disease called alopecia areata, where her immune system was attacking her hair follicles, causing bald spots. Not long after that, she found herself in an abusive marriage.

“I attracted people who treated me the way that I felt I deserve to be treated. And so that led me to being married to a man who was not very nice. It started with some control and then emotional, manipulative abuse, and eventually went into physical abuse towards the end.” 

She left on her 30th birthday and moved back to Wichita, where her support system of family and friends supported and loved on her. 

“My dad stepped in and took over all communication. I've never seen or spoken to my ex-husband again. And that is a huge blessing. My sister let me stay with her until I got up on my feet.”

Chantal now helps women experiencing life transitions create a new vision for themselves, reconnect with their passion and purpose, and turn their transition into their triumphant transformation. Check out her book, Create a Life You Love: 10 Healthy Habits to Transform Your Life Now, and her podcast. 

Next week on the Companies That Care podcast, I interview Kim Malek, cofounder of Portland’s famous Salt & Straw ice cream, which now has 25 locations and growing!

If you enjoyed this podcast, please give us a rating and subscribe to hear our next episode. 

I help professional services firms avoid BORING and boost employee engagement, productivity, and readership. I translate technical, complex, and lackluster language into accessible, dynamic, story-driven text. Get known in your industry through outstanding thought leadership content. Walk your talk through outstanding, effective communications with your employees and clients.