Most people think professionalism is about fitting in, but what if it’s actually the reason we feel disconnected from ourselves? This podcast explores the tension between who we are and who we feel pressured to be at work, in relationships, and in everyday life.

Through candid conversations, we unpack how different environments shape our behavior, how limiting beliefs form, and what it looks like to actually understand yourself beyond the roles you play.

Tools like ⁠⁠⁠Plurawl⁠⁠⁠ can help you break down your thoughts and understand what’s driving them → https://plurawl.com/

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Every Tuesday, we will continue bringing you a new guest to join us for a candid conversation around the conflict they've experienced between professionalism and authenticity.

Now, we have launching a new weekly series called Thursday Thoughts. During each conversation, we will share a current event that's impacting the culture as well as thoughts on how it's related to professionalism & authenticity. To close each episode, we will even leave you with thought starters that will help you reflect and continue your career growth.

This week we discussed the unexpected benefits that therapy has on our personal and professional lives. 

Most people think professionalism is about fitting in, but what if it’s actually the reason we feel disconnected from ourselves? This podcast explores the tension between who we are and who we feel pressured to be at work, in relationships, and in everyday life.

Through candid conversations, we unpack how different environments shape our behavior, how limiting beliefs form, and what it looks like to actually understand yourself beyond the roles you play.

Tools like ⁠⁠⁠Plurawl⁠⁠⁠ can help you break down your thoughts and understand what’s driving them → https://plurawl.com/

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This week, we have the pleasure of speaking with Pedro Martinez. He is a Dominican-American raised in Washington Heights, NY. Raised by a single mother, Pedro was the first in his family to graduate from college, and first and only in his family to work in the tech world. 

In his own words, "I have a strong background in customer experience and experiential engagement. I have a proven track record of success in managing and executing executive briefings, driving customer satisfaction and creating a positive work culture at Salesforce (current employer). I operate in a kindness-first mindset with every engagement. If you’re up for an in person or virtual authentic coffee chat or just to learn about Salesforce or what it’s like to work in tech - hit me up!"

For Pedro, family comes first before anything. In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with family, trying new restaurants, and traveling.

Most people think professionalism is about fitting in, but what if it’s actually the reason we feel disconnected from ourselves? This podcast explores the tension between who we are and who we feel pressured to be at work, in relationships, and in everyday life.

Through candid conversations, we unpack how different environments shape our behavior, how limiting beliefs form, and what it looks like to actually understand yourself beyond the roles you play.

Tools like ⁠⁠⁠Plurawl⁠⁠⁠ can help you break down your thoughts and understand what’s driving them → https://plurawl.com/

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Most people think professionalism is about fitting in, but what if it’s actually the reason we feel disconnected from ourselves? This podcast explores the tension between who we are and who we feel pressured to be at work, in relationships, and in everyday life.

Through candid conversations, we unpack how different environments shape our behavior, how limiting beliefs form, and what it looks like to actually understand yourself beyond the roles you play.

Tools like ⁠⁠⁠Plurawl⁠⁠⁠ can help you break down your thoughts and understand what’s driving them → https://plurawl.com/

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Lexie Perez - Global Planning Director

Here's a quick bio...in her own words. 

As an Afro-Latinx Bronx-raised woman - I bring the intersections of gender, class, and race to my strategic and marketing practice. My specialties include: Advocate for unheard voices, speak truth to power, interrogate binary ideas and assumptions, identify humanity beyond data, translate insights into actions, look inward and outward for fresh perspectives. As a natural outsider, I bring the outside in. I help brands see the world through the eyes of real people and real-world culture - not only consumers, not only data points, not only users. I bring an entrepreneur mindset & spirit to every project. 

Before diving into agency planning 12 + years ago, I was a TV producer in broadcasting, telecommunications marketer, entrepreneur, and hip hop music writer.  These experiences shaped my passion for human behavior, storytelling, technology, and culture. They also helped me translate my non-strategy skills into strategy skills.  Today my credentials span across CPG, B2B, consumer tech, retail, and entertainment, fintech - at both global and regional levels.

I started out my career as a content creator, specialized into social /digital, and now live in the worlds of brand strategy and research. As a partner and t-shaped strategist, I bring a new perspective on helping brands move with the culture. I help them identify new opportunities for solving business problems beyond advertising and marketing. My specialties include high-level brand strategies, integrated creative strategies, people / cultural research, and granular digital/social programs. I think holistically, not in channels. 

If you’re a dreamer, a rule breaker and view the impossible as a dare, or just a good human - let’s connect.

Most people think professionalism is about fitting in, but what if it’s actually the reason we feel disconnected from ourselves? This podcast explores the tension between who we are and who we feel pressured to be at work, in relationships, and in everyday life.

Through candid conversations, we unpack how different environments shape our behavior, how limiting beliefs form, and what it looks like to actually understand yourself beyond the roles you play.

Tools like ⁠⁠⁠Plurawl⁠⁠⁠ can help you break down your thoughts and understand what’s driving them → https://plurawl.com/

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This week we discussed Black History Month in the US.

Most people think professionalism is about fitting in, but what if it’s actually the reason we feel disconnected from ourselves? This podcast explores the tension between who we are and who we feel pressured to be at work, in relationships, and in everyday life.

Through candid conversations, we unpack how different environments shape our behavior, how limiting beliefs form, and what it looks like to actually understand yourself beyond the roles you play.

Tools like ⁠⁠⁠Plurawl⁠⁠⁠ can help you break down your thoughts and understand what’s driving them → https://plurawl.com/

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This week, we have the pleasure of speaking with Jason Rosario...who is the Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer at BBDO Worldwide. 

An Afro-Latino native New Yorker, Jason Rosario has spent most of his life breaking down barriers and building up inclusive cultures. He is passionate about innovation and the power of creativity to drive change.

Jason is Global Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer and sits on the BBDO Worldwide Board of Directors. In this role, he impacts agency diversity policy, influences the agency’s creative to ensure it reflects inclusive principles, and counsels clients on inclusive marketing best practices. As part of the OPEN Leadership team, he partners with other Omnicom agencies to help execute the holding company’s diversity and inclusion strategy.

Jason is an expert at helping brands identify and implement inclusive practices at the enterprise level, having worked with top clients including Netflix, Yahoo!, Spotify, and Huffington Post. Prior to joining BBDO, Jason worked for Verizon Media Group as Manager of Global Diversity & Inclusion and was the Executive Producer and Host of the Yahoo! News original web series “Dear Men.”

In 2017, he founded The Lives of Men, a social impact creative agency that explores themes around masculinity, mental health and culture. And in 2022 was recognized by ADCOLOR as the first ever DE&I Executive of the Year. He is a MBA graduate of NYU’s Stern School of Business and sits on the board of Made of Millions, a non-profit organization changing the negative stigmas around mental health.

Most people think professionalism is about fitting in, but what if it’s actually the reason we feel disconnected from ourselves? This podcast explores the tension between who we are and who we feel pressured to be at work, in relationships, and in everyday life.

Through candid conversations, we unpack how different environments shape our behavior, how limiting beliefs form, and what it looks like to actually understand yourself beyond the roles you play.

Tools like ⁠⁠⁠Plurawl⁠⁠⁠ can help you break down your thoughts and understand what’s driving them → https://plurawl.com/

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Most people think professionalism is about fitting in, but what if it’s actually the reason we feel disconnected from ourselves? This podcast explores the tension between who we are and who we feel pressured to be at work, in relationships, and in everyday life.

Through candid conversations, we unpack how different environments shape our behavior, how limiting beliefs form, and what it looks like to actually understand yourself beyond the roles you play.

Tools like ⁠⁠⁠Plurawl⁠⁠⁠ can help you break down your thoughts and understand what’s driving them → https://plurawl.com/

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Today we have the pleasure of speaking with Joel Duran, who was born in Dominican Republic raised in East New York, Brooklyn. Today he is a Product Manager at Microsoft working on Windows but his journey was filled with adversity. Growing up on section 8 he held different jobs and entrepreneurial endeavors in his journey to americanize and fit in socially. 

Joel currently uses the title Corporate Hussla as you will learn it was always about hustling in his house. Outside of corporate he gives back working with non profits to Black and Hispanic youth on how to break into tech. He hopes to continue spreading his impact through his story of perseverance and sharing what he’s learned along the way!

Most people think professionalism is about fitting in, but what if it’s actually the reason we feel disconnected from ourselves? This podcast explores the tension between who we are and who we feel pressured to be at work, in relationships, and in everyday life.

Through candid conversations, we unpack how different environments shape our behavior, how limiting beliefs form, and what it looks like to actually understand yourself beyond the roles you play.

Tools like ⁠⁠⁠Plurawl⁠⁠⁠ can help you break down your thoughts and understand what’s driving them → https://plurawl.com/

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This week we discussed the a news of Missouri State lawmakers revising their dress code for Women. The updated dress code requires female legislators and staff members in the State House of Representatives to wear a jacket, such as a blazer or a cardigan. Here's the link to the article. 

Most people think professionalism is about fitting in, but what if it’s actually the reason we feel disconnected from ourselves? This podcast explores the tension between who we are and who we feel pressured to be at work, in relationships, and in everyday life.

Through candid conversations, we unpack how different environments shape our behavior, how limiting beliefs form, and what it looks like to actually understand yourself beyond the roles you play.

Tools like ⁠⁠⁠Plurawl⁠⁠⁠ can help you break down your thoughts and understand what’s driving them → https://plurawl.com/

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Yovy Daniels, Panamanian born with Afrocaribeña -West Indian Afro-descendant. Her maternal grandmother and aunt raised her. A by-product of generational inheritance from relatives that worked on the railroad and for the canal brought up in a middle-working-class family. She is the first grandchild of nine grandchildren and her mother's only child. Her single mother came to the US for better opportunities, working two jobs and even three to support her mother and Yovy in Panama. Inevitably, she can't escape the immigrant narrative story of sacrifice.

Moving forward, Yovy landed in Miami. She's the second in her family to complete college and earn a bachelor's degree in Liberal Arts and a Minor in Television Production. However, it took her ten years to do so because she worked full-time and paid her way through college.   Thus, she exceeded herself in being the first family to achieve a master's degree specializing in organizational management. She couldn't see herself not having one.

Professionally she's known as a former tv corporate broadcast media planner who worked in the US Spanish-speaking/LATAM division for networks like Fox, Sony, RCNTV, and Univision.

Her avid curiosity and accent became her assets. She knew that being a Spanish speaker Latina, Black, College educated, and exposed to unseen educational ladders and different career spaces. Based on that, Chombita chronicles podcast was born, mainly a story-telling format podcast advocating and mapping Afrolatinx individuals' personal stories on self-identity, self-awareness, and the global multicultural experience.

The good news, she's back in broadcast, working full-time. After hours she's either doing media consulting under her firm Alkiria Media Branding Consulting (AMBC), or freelancing on Other podcast projects under her production company: Alkiria Media Productions, LLC. She loves podcasting and is currently a virtual panel ambassador speaker. She's happy, and life is getting exciting.