Madame Speaker Says

Learn how to Speak up for Your Excellence: https://lovekindcure.kit.com/b80a66aa37

You don’t need to bounce back — you need your voice back. That’s not a discipline problem and it’s not unique to whatever
knocked you flat. This is the story of the year that took my identity, my title, and my ability to talk about either one and the
two years it actually took to rebuild all three.

🌿YOU'LL GET
— Why “bouncing back” is the wrong goal after a year that wrecks you — What actually rebuilds your voice (it's not what you think)
— The real difference between grieving who you used to be and building who you’re becoming (most people mix them up)
— What I started doing differently once grit and hustle stopped working 
— The one shift that actually rebuilt me

Picture 2023: my debut book, Innards, just came out, I had a newborn, and I was breastfeeding backstage before walking onstage to deliver a keynote in Hong Kong. Girl, I was in my power. Trumpets-announcing, Netflix-special energy. Then 2024 hit — and I mean hit. I was on the bathroom floor, completely forgot that woman I’d just been, and spent all of 2025 trying to “bounce back” to her. It doesn’t work like that. There’s nothing to bounce back to — that version of you is gone and grinding harder just keeps you standing in the same wrecked conditions.

So, I did something different -- my family and I didn’t just move zip codes — we moved countries. We traded more hustle for different ground.

If losing your identity (or your title, or both) in a year that flatlines you —and then feeling pressure to “get back to normal”— is something you’re carrying, you’re not alone and this video was made specifically for you. Buckle up. 

YOUR TURN
👇🏽What’s the year that completely flatlined you? 
Lmk the 4 digits.Mine: 2024. 
Drop yours in the comments.

CHAPTERS
0:00 The Comeback That Never Comes
0:55 Why ‘Bouncing Back’ Is The Wrong Goal
1:50 The Comeback Myth, Explained
2:10 My 2023: The Book, The Baby, The Keynote
4:21 2024: On My Knees In The Bathroom
6:39 Why We Moved Countries
7:08 Change The Conditions, Not Yourself
8:07 Bouncing Back Is A Myth
9:17 Rebuilding Starts With Your Voice
10:43 The Client Who Got Gagged
13:22 The Two-Sentence Exercise
15:25 The Call To Action — Drop Your Year
15:54 Close
16:05 Learn More: The Whole Damn Talk

RESOURCES
📚Innards — My debut, a short story collection and among Guardian Best Fiction Books of 2023.
👩🏽‍💻Work with me. Learn more about The Whole Damn Talk: https://madamespeakersays.com

LET'S CONNECT
DM me on Instragram: https://www.instagram.com/madamespeakersays/
 Storytelling website: http://www.magogodi.com
 Madame Speaker Says site: http://www.madamespeakersays.com


#ComebackMyth #RebuildingYourself #IdentityAfterBurnout #StartingOver

📧 JOIN -  Expect fresh newsletters every week or so, where I share bare truths, storytelling tips and plenty of F-bombs.

📺 WATCH - Enjoyed this episode? Get actionable videos to level up your public speaking & communication, on my YouTube channel Madame Speaker Says.

🎙️ 💥 Learn how to Speak up for Your Excellence: https://lovekindcure.kit.com/b80a66aa37

They clapped. They cried. They told you it was the best thing they'd ever seen — and then nobody hired you. That's not a talent problem. It's not even a confidence problem. 👀 What's actually going on? 

THIS VIDEO UNPACKS:
-- Why your talk needs a "job" before you ever walk on stage — and the one question I ask every client before we even get on a call
-- The exact window after you speak when people are primed to say yes and how fast it slams shut
-- The one sentence that decides whether people leave inspired or leave ready to hire you.

A couple years back I led a retreat for a room full of corporate executives, and when I tell you it was stiff — you could've dropped a pin and heard it echo. One guy, built like a big buffy bear, came at me sideways the second I asked an opening question, like I was there to run some cute little woo-woo thing on him. By the end of that session? Same guy is walking side by side with me, telling me everything about his company. People were crying. The room was electric. Electric. 🔥

And it still didn't book me again. Not because the work wasn't real — because that retreat didn't have a job. I never architected it to convert. That's mistake number one, and it's probably costing you clients right now too.

Then there's the flip side — missing the moment entirely. I once sat through a multi-day experience so good the whole room felt like friends by lunch. The founder never made the ask in the room. I got in my Uber, called my baby to say Mommy's flying home, landed, walked into my house — still nothing. Days later, an email shows up trying to recreate a moment that was already gone. 😬

YOUR TURN
Of the 3 issues we talk about in the video—your talk as no job, you missed the moment, or your promised land is unclear--which one is showing up in your talks right now?
👇🏽 Drop it in the comments, I've got popcorn and I'm waiting...

CHAPTERS
0:00 They Loved Me, Nobody Hired Me
2:00 The One Thing Your Talk Needs Before You Walk On Stage
4:50 The Retreat That Never Rebooked Me
7:00 You're Missing the Conversion Moment
7:35 The Keynote Where the Ask Came Too Late
10:25 The Promised Land Problem
12:10 What TED Gets Right About Selling Without Selling
13:40 Learn More: The Whole Damn Talk

RESOURCES
📚Innards — My debut, a short story collection and among Guardian Best Fiction Books of 2023.
🎤 Work with me. Learn more about The Whole Damn Talk: https://madamespeakersays.com

LET'S CONNECT
📲 Are we instagram friends? https://www.instagram.com/madamespeakersays/
👩🏽‍💻 Storytelling website: http://www.magogodi.com
🎤 Madame Speaker Says site: http://www.madamespeakersays.com

#PraisedNotHired #GetHiredMore #ClientAttraction #BusinessGrowth #TheWholeDamnTalk

📧 JOIN -  Expect fresh newsletters every week or so, where I share bare truths, storytelling tips and plenty of F-bombs.

📺 WATCH - Enjoyed this episode? Get actionable videos to level up your public speaking & communication, on my YouTube channel Madame Speaker Says.

Learn how to Speak up for Your Excellence - The Whole Damn Talk.

We've told brilliant women one of the most expensive lies in the world--that if the work is good enough, it'll speak for itself.

It won't.

I just closed out a season of interviews with women whose work has shaped institutions, ideas, their communities and countries—Wanuri Kahiu, who became the first Kenyan director to take her film to Cannes, Lebo Mashile who turned Sarah Baartman's story into a play and now an opera, Alicia DeLia, reimagining how we move money in the Global South, Rachel Cargle on the personal renaissance, Dr. Kemi Doll revolutionizing gynecologic care for Black and Brown bodies and Dr. Djamila Robeiro, the woman who disrupted a white-centric publishing industry and gave Brazil new language for dissecting power. 

On paper, completely different lives. Underneath, the exact same pattern: not one of them got here by quietly becoming excellent and waiting to be discovered. 

Each one learned how to make others being understand why her work mattered.That's the skill. And we celebrate it far too little.

In this episode, you learn:

• Why "your work will speak for itself" is costing you the opportunities that are actually yours
• How you're already a public speaker every single day — whether you'd ever call yourself one or not
• Why the skills don't change whether you're in front of 2 people or 2,000
• What I actually do (hint: I can't make you smarter — I help the room understand how smart you already are)
• And what's coming next

If you're an expert with a body of work you've spent forever building, this one's for you.

🎙️ Hit subscribe so you don't miss the next episode. 

💬 Got a question about translating your own expertise? Send it my way, here. 

Chapters 

00:00 — The one thing every guest had in common
01:04 — The women of this season, and why they could all speak to their work
02:13 — The expensive lie: "work hard and your work will speak for itself"
03:17 — Translation is a skill (send me your questions)
04:20 — You're already a public speaker, even if you'd never call it that
05:32 — Two people or two thousand: the skills don't change
06:29 — "I can't make you smarter. I make the room understand how smart you are."
07:32 — Turning expertise into bank: 18 crisp minutes that move people to act
08:37 — The throughline I didn't expect to find
09:45 — What's next: turning the lens on you
10:46 — Why I'm betting on Black and brown women

Resources

📚 Innards — My debut, a short story collection and among Guardian Best Fiction Books of 2023.

🎤 The Whole Damn Talk: https://madamespeakersays.com

Connect with Magogodi 

Magogodi: http://www.magogodi.com 

Madame Speaker Says: http://www.madamespeakersays.com 

📧 JOIN -  Expect fresh newsletters every week or so, where I share bare truths, storytelling tips and plenty of F-bombs.

📺 WATCH - Enjoyed this episode? Get actionable videos to level up your public speaking & communication, on my YouTube channel Madame Speaker Says.

Rachel Cargle on the quiet years behind "overnight" success — building The Loveland Foundation from one Instagram post, self-knowledge, and real thought leadership.

You keep watching other people blow up overnight. Meanwhile you've got the idea, the skill, the whole thing — and it's still just sitting in your notes app. So what are they doing that you're not?

"All I had to do was usher them into place — because I had already dreamt it out." — Rachel Cargle

These days, The New York Times calls and quotes Rachel Cargle. But the moment that "made" her wasn't luck and it wasn't sudden. One Instagram post — asking if we could pay the therapy bills of Black women — raised $10,000 in 24 hours and grew into a foundation that's funded over $10 million in mental health care. It looked like an overnight win. It wasn't. That post sat on top of almost 20 years of quietly curating herself — all the way back to a 10-year-old practicing handwriting she admired until it became her own. So by the time the money and the right people showed up, she already knew exactly where everything went. 

This episode is the part nobody posts: the long, quiet work that makes the loud moment land. You'll learn:

• The real reason your idea hasn't taken off yet — and the unglamorous work that actually changes that
• How Rachel turned one vulnerable post into a $10M movement, and why it wasn't the post that did it
• What those 20 quiet years actually looked like — and how to use the years before anyone's clapping so you're ready the day they are
• How to get so clear on what you want that the right people and money come find you
• Why she walked away from a Columbia degree, and what she chose instead
• One small move you can make this week to start

Here's the thing: the talk inside you is the same kind of quiet work. The Whole Damn Talk is the three hours where we build it — the talk that makes a room not just nod, but book you, sign up, join what you're building. I only take five clients a month. Book a call at madamespeakersays.com.

New episode every Sunday. Follow Madame Speaker Says so you don't miss one.

Chapters
00:00 — The authority The New York Times calls now
00:00 — Curating yourself since age 10: the handwriting story
00:00 — Why she left Columbia
00:00 — Building rooms instead of waiting to be invited into one
00:00 — One post, $10,000, 24 hours: the Loveland Foundation
00:00 — Why it wasn't actually overnight
00:00 — What being public really costs
00:00 — Your move this week
00:00 — Rapid fire

Resources

📚 A Renaissance of Our Own: A Memoir & Manifesto on Reimagining: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/635409/a-renaissance-of-our-own-by-rachel-e-cargle/

🌿 The Loveland Foundation: https://thelovelandfoundation.org

🎤 The Whole Damn Talk: https://madamespeakersays.com

Connect

• Rachel Cargle: @rachel.cargle
• Madame Speaker Says: @madamespeakersays 

📧 JOIN -  Expect fresh newsletters every week or so, where I share bare truths, storytelling tips and plenty of F-bombs.

📺 WATCH - Enjoyed this episode? Get actionable videos to level up your public speaking & communication, on my YouTube channel Madame Speaker Says.

What does it cost to keep waiting for the world to confirm what you already know about yourself?

Djamila Ribeiro's answer will stop you: "People didn't give the opportunity to me, so I created the opportunity — because I knew my value."

Djamila Ribeiro is one of the most important philosophers at work in the world right now. She coined a concept that gave Brazil new language for power. When the publishing industry couldn't hold her work, she built a publishing house. When 90% of books in her country had been written by white people for fifty years, she launched a collective that published 80 Black authors. When the United Nations needed someone to speak on the International Day of Recognizing the Victims of Slavery, they called her — the first Brazilian civilian ever invited to that stage. She gave herself three words before she walked up: speak unapologetically.

This is a masterclass in what happens when you stop waiting for permission and start building from what you already know.

In this episode, Djamila breaks down:

• Why the moment she read Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye at 19 didn't just change her — it issued her a demand, and what she did with it
• What it actually means to know your value before the academy, the industry, or the institution confirms it — and how that self-knowledge becomes the foundation everything else is built on
• How she diagnosed a market that wasn't built for her work and built an alternative market instead of waiting for it to change
• What happened the day she found out a stranger had built a community library by hand in a poor neighborhood and named it after her work — and what it teaches you about building something that outlasts you
• The one concrete move she gives her students before she sees them again — not over the course of the semester, but before next time
• The three words she gave herself before walking onto the floor of the UN General Assembly — and why they are the only preparation that mattered

🔔 Subscribe to Madame Speaker Says - new episodes every Sunday. 

Join the conversation - madamespeakersays.com

Chapters
00:00 Introduction — Djamila Ribeiro
02:30 Toni Morrison at 19 — What Recognition Demands of You
08:00 Brazil's Racial Landscape — The Last Country to End Slavery in 1888👀
13:30 University at 27 — Self-Knowledge Before the Degree
19:00 Lugar de Fala & the Feminismos Plurais Publishing Collective
27:30 The Library in Campinas — When the Work Leaves Its Creator
33:00 What Brazil Can Teach the Rest of the World
37:30 Take the Floor — Rapid Fire
44:30 The UN General Assembly — Speak Unapologetically
48:00 The Whole Damn Talk — Work with Magogodi

Resources Mentioned
📚 The Bluest Eye — Toni Morrison
📚 Where We Stand — Djamila Ribeiro (Yale University Press, 2024)
📚 Letters to My Grandmother — Djamila Ribeiro

Connect with Djamila
🔗 djamilaribeiro.com.br
📱 Instagram: @djamilaribeiro1

📧 JOIN -  Expect fresh newsletters every week or so, where I share bare truths, storytelling tips and plenty of F-bombs.

📺 WATCH - Enjoyed this episode? Get actionable videos to level up your public speaking & communication, on my YouTube channel Madame Speaker Says.

What does it cost to let a machine make you sound smooth? Because the machine is trained for smooth. And smooth is forgettable.

In this solo episode, Magogodi —host of Madame Speaker Says— goes deep on the move most people get exactly backwards. Feed AI "here's the assignment, just write it for me," and you'll sound like a corporate talking machine — forgettable, in a room you fought to get into. 

The fix isn't to stop using AI. It's to stop letting AI write for you, and start using it as the most ruthless editor you've ever had. Magogodi walks through the exact process she used to write an application against 1,300 people — owning every first draft herself, then handing it over to sharpen, fact-check and remember what she forgot. And she's been edited by big thinkers at the Iowa Writer's Workshop, Harvard Review and W.W.Norton, so she doesn't say "ruthless editing" lightly.

In this episode, Magogodi breaks down:

• Why you own the first draft, every time—so the thinking stays yours, plus the voice-note hack for when you freeze
• The five words that turn AI into a beast editor—and why they surface what most human editors miss
• How to use AI as your fact-checker and your memory bank—the kind that sifts your own life and hands you back the story you forgot was the best part
• How to protect your idiosyncrasies—your singular unique phrasing, weird jokes and tone— so your talk still sounds like a human, not a panel
• Why ethics matters around here, and why use Claude over the rest.

Your authority is in how unmistakably yourself you sound when you connect with folks through the real AF human stuff they're navigating. Used right, AI doesn't flatten that —it makes you clearer, sharper and more obviously, you.

When you're done, do the one thing no machine can do for her: rate Madame Speaker Says 5 stars on Apple Podcasts and leave a review.

🔔 Subscribe to Madame Speaker Says — new episodes every Sunday. madamespeakersays.com

Chapters 

00:00 Introduction & What You'll Learn Today 

02:00 The Fear: AI Is Making You Sound Like Everyone Else 

04:00 The Machine Is Trained for Smooth — and Smooth Is Forgettable 

06:00 Move 1: Own the First Draft — Pretend the Internet Doesn't Exist 

08:30 The Voice-Note Hack for When You Freeze 

10:30 Move 2: "Show Me My Blind Spots" — AI as Beast Editor 

14:00 Move 3: AI as Your Fact-Checker — More rigorous than The New Yorker 

17:00 Move 4: AI as a Memory Bank That Sifts for What Matters 

20:30 Move 5: Protect Your Idiosyncrasies — Keep the Weird Jokes 

24:00 Why Claude, and Why Ethics Matter Around Here 

27:00 Your Move This Week 

29:00 The Whole Damn Talk — Work with Magogodi

Resources Mentioned: 

🤖 Claude — claude.ai 

📚 Innards — https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324051008

Work with Magogodi 

The Whole Damn Talk — 3 hours, one-on-one. Your hook, your spine, your one-liner, your business case. Built from scratch. Five spots a month. 

Learn More → madamespeakersays.com

📧 JOIN -  Expect fresh newsletters every week or so, where I share bare truths, storytelling tips and plenty of F-bombs.

📺 WATCH - Enjoyed this episode? Get actionable videos to level up your public speaking & communication, on my YouTube channel Madame Speaker Says.

What does it cost to put something sacred on a term sheet? For women in leadership and impact investing, this question is everything.

Alicia DeLia's answer will stop you: "I don't think there's a cost in putting it there. I think there's a cost in not putting it there. And that's what we've seen this world become."

In Part 2 of this two-part conversation, Alicia — founder of Buen Vivir Capital Institute — goes deep on the building of something entirely new. She tells the story of growing in a multi-class family, with ambassadors on her Cameroonian chief father's side and watching her Salvadoran immigrant mother put in overtime to make sure the check cleared for her school field trip. That childhood became the architecture of everything Alicia is building. 

Alicia breaks down:

• What Buen Vivir actually means — the Ubuntu of Latin America — and why pairing an Indigenous philosophy with a capital institute is not an oxymoron, it's the point
• How growing up multi-class — not just multiracial — shaped her entire approach to fundraising and who gets funded
• Why she built an institute and not a fund — and what thinking in 40-year infrastructure actually looks like
• The real reason she chose Mexico City over New York or DC for her launch — and what it teaches women in leadership about where to seek your first yes
• Why "it's fun to do capital this way" is not soft — it's the most subversive thing you can say in a funding room
• How to curate a room where power shifts without anyone having to announce it

Haven't listened to Part 1? Go back. This conversation builds on everything there.

🔔 Subscribe to Madame Speaker Says — new episodes every Sunday. madamespeakersays.com

Chapters 

00:00 Introduction & What You'll Learn Today 

03:30 Why She Left the Consulting Seat 

07:00 Growing Up Multi-Class — Ambassadors and $15 Field Trips in the Same Week 

13:00 What Buen Vivir Actually Means — The Ubuntu of Latin America 

18:30 Pairing Something Sacred With a Term Sheet 

24:00 "I Don't Think There's a Cost in Putting It There" 

29:00 Why She Chose Mexico City Over New York or DC 

35:00 How to Curate a Room Where Power Shifts 

40:00 It's Fun to Do Capital This Way 

44:00 Right Relationship — Credit to Jessica Norwood and RUNWAY 

48:00 Building for 40 Years — Why It's an Institute Not a Fund 

52:00 The Money Game — Rapid Fire 

57:00 The Whole Damn Talk — Work with Magogodi

Resources Mentioned: 

📚 The Body Keeps the Score — Bessel van der Kolk 

🌺 VidaAfroLatina — Lori Robinson → vidaafrolatina.org 

Connect with Alicia 

🔗 LinkedIn: Alicia DeLia 

🏢 Buen Vivir Capital Institute: linkedin.com/company/buen-vivir-capital-institute

Get Madame Speaker Says Coaching The Whole Damn Talk in 3 hours. Your hook, your spine, your one-liner, your business case. Built from scratch. Five spots a month. → madamespeakersays.com

#ImpactInvesting #WomenInPhilanthropy #BlackWomenLeaders #BuenVivir #MadameSpeakerSays

📧 JOIN -  Expect fresh newsletters every week or so, where I share bare truths, storytelling tips and plenty of F-bombs.

📺 WATCH - Enjoyed this episode? Get actionable videos to level up your public speaking & communication, on my YouTube channel Madame Speaker Says.

What does it cost to spend 20 years raising money for other people's stories — and then decide your story is worth funding?

Alicia DeLia has been in the impact investing sector since before it had a name. She worked at FINCA International when microlending was a radical idea. She raised capital for movements. She built a consulting firm. And somewhere in the middle of all of that, she watched the sector she believed in get watered down — from bold, disruptive activism into "profit as usual with a sprinkle of impact."

In Part 1 of this two-part conversation, Alicia breaks down what it actually takes to take up space in impact investing when the sector wasn't designed to see you — not as a leader, not as a founder, not as someone whose story is fundable.

Alicia breaks down :

• Why following your curiosity is more reliable than following your purpose 
• How to know when you've outgrown your plant pot — before you talk yourself into staying 
• What the impact investing sector got wrong — and what taking up real estate in a broken space actually looks like 
• How a woman singing in Spanish in a side room at a conference in Atlanta became one of the most important partnerships in Alicia's work 
• Why the ancestors conspire — and how to train yourself to follow the signal

In Part 2, Alicia breaks down the building of Buen Vivir Capital Institute — the philosophy, the Mexico City launch, and what relational infrastructure actually means for women moving capital in 2026.

Subscribe now so Part 2 lands straight in your feed.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction & What You'll Learn Today 

03:30 Meet Alicia DeLia — 20 Years in the Money Game 

07:00 The Belief You Have to Shed Over and Over to Take the Leap 

11:30 Your Body Knows Before Your Brain Does 

14:00 Follow Your Curiosity — Not Your Purpose 

17:30 "I Never Feel Like the Boxes Are Checked. I Just Do It." 

22:00 Where Does Audacity Actually Come From? 

26:00 The Worst Case Scenario Is Lovely Most of the Time 

30:00 What's Wrong With Impact Investing Right Now 

35:30 "The Gatekeeping Is So 40 Years Ago" 

38:00 The Woman Singing in Spanish — And What the Ancestors Knew 

44:00 On Not Shedding What Is Sacred to Do This Work 

48:00 Right Relationship — What Capital Can Actually Feel Like 

51:00 The Whole Damn Talk — Work with Magogodi

Resources Mentioned:

📚 The Body Keeps the Score — Bessel van der Kolk 

🌺 VidaAfroLatina — Lori Robinson → vidaafrolatina.org

Connect with Alicia

📸 Instagram: @adelia4peace 

🔗 LinkedIn: Alicia DeLia 

🏢 Buen Vivir Capital Institute: linkedin.com/company/buen-vivir-capital-institute

Get Madame Speaker Says Coaching

The Whole Damn Talk — 3 hours. Your hook, your spine, your one-liner, your business case. Built from scratch. Five spots a month. → madamespeakersays.com

#ImpactInvesting #WomenInPhilanthropy #BlackWomenLeaders #BuenVivir #MadameSpeakerSays

📧 JOIN -  Expect fresh newsletters every week or so, where I share bare truths, storytelling tips and plenty of F-bombs.

📺 WATCH - Enjoyed this episode? Get actionable videos to level up your public speaking & communication, on my YouTube channel Madame Speaker Says.

You said yes to the keynote. The panic slammed into you, right after.

Because yes, you have the expertise. You have the receipts. What you don't have is a way to turn twenty years of knowledge into a keynote that lands. Because knowing your field and knowing how to give a keynote are two completely different skills — and nobody told you that until right now.

Your expertise won't give the keynote for you. Clarity will. Structure will. The right story will.

In this solo episode, host Magogodi gives you three concrete moves to build a keynote that sounds like you, commands the room, and travels long after you leave the stage.

You will walk away knowing how to: 

• Name what you actually stand for, not your title, your argument
• Find the one story that makes your authority land and stick
• Build the 90-second spine that becomes your keynote and rewrites your bio

No speechwriter. No TED coach. Three public speaking moves. Doable before your keynote date.

Ready to build your whole talk? 

The Whole Damn Talk is a 3-hour one-on-one intensive. We build your keynote from scratch — hook, spine, one-liner, business case. Five spots a month. madamespeakersays.com.

Chapters:

00:00 You're Not Being Rejected. You're Not Even on the List. 

02:30 What You're Walking Away With — Stay for All Three Moves 

04:00 Your Excellence Is Not Going to Save You. Here's What Will. 

06:30 "I Don't Have a Talk Right Now" — And Why That Sentence Is the Problem 09:00 Lebo Mashile: She Built the Vision Before Anyone Co-Signed It

13:00 Wanuri Kahiu: She Named the Genre Before the Genre Existed 

17:30 Dr. Kemi Doll: She Made Her Excellence Impossible to Ignore 

21:30 Move 1 — Name It. Your Argument. Not Your Title. 

25:00 Move 2 — Find the One Story That Proves You're Right 

28:00 Move 3 — Build the 90-Second Talk That Gets You on the Shortlist 

31:00 The Whole Damn Talk — What We Build Together in 3 Hours 

34:30 Your Work Will Not Speak for Itself. That's Your Job.

Episodes Mentioned

🎙️ Dr. Kemi Doll: Your Excellence Is Not Enough. On Black Women's Health, Authority & Building in Public → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/madame-speaker-says/id1814213243?i=1000767012758

🎙️ Fear, Faith & Afro Bubblegum: Wanuri Kahiu on Following the Idea That Won't Let Go → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/madame-speaker-says/id1814213243?i=1000763653315

🎙️ Fame, Shame & The Freak Show Part II: Lebo Mashile on Turning Pain Into Power → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/madame-speaker-says/id1814213243?i=1000762218836

Work With Magogodi 

The Whole Damn Talk — 3-hour private coaching intensives. Learn More → More madamespeakersays.com

📧 JOIN -  Expect fresh newsletters every week or so, where I share bare truths, storytelling tips and plenty of F-bombs.

📺 WATCH - Enjoyed this episode? Get actionable videos to level up your public speaking & communication, on my YouTube channel Madame Speaker Says.

You have been excellent your entire life. You did the work nobody else would do. You stayed late. You got the credentials. You built the thing — and then you kept quiet about it, because somewhere along the way someone told you that talking too much would make you look like you weren't serious.

And so you stayed silent. And excellent. And invisible--This episode is your wake up call!

Dr. Kemi Doll is a double board-certified gynecologic oncologist, Professor at the University of Washington, Founding Director of The GRACE Center, co-founder of ECANA — the first-ever national advocacy organization for Black women with uterine cancer — and the author of A Terrible Strength, out now. She spent over a decade inside the institution doing the science no one else would do. And then she posted on Instagram and sent out a survey — and built a movement.

By the end of this conversation, you will know exactly why your excellence has been working against your authority, what it actually cost her to build in public, and the one move that changes everything — starting this week.

Here's what you'll walk away with:

• Your work will never speak for itself — and brilliant women who keep waiting for it to become footnotes
• A fellowship office, 5:30 PM, one tap on the shoulder — and who gets to write the story of your excellence
• The Instagram post and survey that became ECANA — and the architecture behind turning a decade of expertise into a movement
• She stopped doing one thing — and it unlocked everything
• Why she flew Black women with uterine cancer to Hawaii — and what institutional tools look like in service of community
• What visibility actually costs — and the thing everyone's scared of that nobody says out loud
• What your body has been trying to tell you that the medical system decided you didn't need to know
• Fearlessness is a scam — here's what you actually do with the fear

This is an episode about the moment you stop letting other people write the story of what your excellence means.

Chapters
00:00 — Introduction
03:00 — The tap on the shoulder: who gets to write the story of your excellence
11:00 — The one thing she stopped doing that unlocked everything
19:30 — The Instagram post, the survey, and the birth of ECANA
28:00 — The Hawaii meeting: institutional tools in service of community
36:00 — Survivor-led, not physician-led: how stepping back compounds authority
43:30 — The real cost of visibility — and the fear nobody names out loud
50:00 — A Terrible Strength and what your body has been trying to tell you
57:00 — Rapid fire: fearlessness, the wildest dream, and building your ECANA

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