The Culture Soup Podcast®️

In this episode, I take time to reflect on 5 lessons I've learned over the past five years of running my professional private coaching practice. We are celebrating NSC Coaching's 5th anniversary all this month, and we are also observing International Coaching Week. Listen for what I learned along this journey so far about perseverance, determination, focus, relationships and other important lessons that you can take away for your journey as well. I also tease a big announcement that's forth coming. It's a special episode, so tune in!

In 2019, I did what many corporate types would call "the unthinkable."I walked away from opportunities at a Fortune 10 after being "surplussed" without a job lined up. Sure, I had opportunities externally. Yes, I had a seedling of a business that I had started, but I wanted to take the time to think through my next step methodically.I had a mission that only a few were aware of, and that drove me to seek out the one thing that I needed to activate it. Could I do it and remain in corporate?I had interested organizations telling me that I could do both-pursue my calling to author books and speak across the country and internationally and work for them.But I knew that would eventually cause friction. I'd lived it already.That one piece was missing that would activate my mission, and a scroll through Instagram and an ad from a longtime sisterfriend and former client would ultimately become the the gateway to my destiny.I let that sisterfriend turn the tables on me this week, and I thought it would be great to finally share my story: how I went from there...to here, five years later with a thriving, global executive and personal coaching and consulting practice, a publishing journey that has been extraordinary and the speaker tour that began in 2015 and has yet to end.What took me from a 25+ year-long career in strategic communication, agency side, agency owner, and client side to here?I pass Valorie Burton, MAPP, MCC (https://www.linkedin.com/in/valorieburton/) the mic on my show, The Culture Soup Podcast ® as she featured me in her global preview call for The Coaching and Positive Psychology (CaPP) Institute (https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-coaching-and-positive-psychology-capp-institute/). That is where I earned my certification that would tee me up for credentialing at the world's most respected coaching organizations, International Coaching Federation (https://www.linkedin.com/company/international-coaching-federation/). I began with her Coach Training Intensive (CTI). So it's befitting that I allowed Valorie to throw back the covers on my purpose-driven story.My pen as my sword, my speaking as my munitions, evidence-based coaching, I discovered, would ultimately become my armor.Join me and Val for this inspiring and powerful conversation about what it actually takes to take on coaching as a profession in this special, extended video edition of The Culture Soup Podcast ® brought to you in part by The CaPP Institute. We're continuing to celebrate the five years anniversary of NSC Coaching, and six years for the podcast with this exclusive rebroadcast of "Conversation with a Coach", and it streams everywhere Thursday afternoon.

Where have I been? What have I been up to, you ask? This episode will catch you up, and drop some Nuggets that you probably weren't expecting.

The Culture Soup Podcast LIVE: A C-Suite ChatWe're kicking off a series that will take us into fall...The Culture Soup Podcast®️ presents A C-Suite Chat, where we highlight voices from my new book, Yes Please! 7 Ways to Say I'm Entitled to the C-Suite.This episode, we are featuring Kecia Kelly DNP, RN, NEA-BC, FACHE, SVP and Chief Nursing Officer at one of the largest healthcare networks in the nation.Dr. Kelly and I discuss

This special episode is dual streamed and sponsored by The Culture Soup Podcast(r) and PR Yourself Podcast with Leah Frazier who is my guest host for today's show. It is a replay of the DFW Book Signing for Yes Please! 7 Ways to Say I'm Entitled to the C-Suite. It was recorded before a live audience. Listen to part one of the Fireside chat between myself and Leah and then tune in to Part 2 on TCSP After The Show, exclusively on Apple Podcasts. It includes more of the conversation, my reading from the book and the Q&A, which took a surprising and delightful turn. TCSP After the Show is available on a subscription basis. Subscribe today! #YesPleaseBook #TCSPAfterTheShow #TheCultureSoupPodcast

Yes Please! Release Day Launch EventBe a part of the crucial conversation as award-winning, best selling 3X author L. Michelle Smith is joined by guest host Condace Pressley, host of Perspectives/WSB-Atlanta for an in depth fireside chat about the new book Yes Please! 7 Ways to Say I'm Entitled to the C-Suite: Secrets Women of Color Need to Know Now to Find their Happy and Win in an Exclusive Corporate Culture. We will also welcome special guest Dr. Jeff Gardere, "America's Psychologist" who penned the foreword for the new release.Yes Please! is a leadership development tool and coaching guide that is grounded in applied positive psychology and neuroscience that supports women of color in finding happiness in the midst of the uniques challenges they face as women of color. #YesPleaseBook #LiveEvent #BookLaunch #WomenLeaders

Ever finally get that sponsor and your high hopes are dashed because they just didn't deliver?My conversation with Dr. Christopher Butts, Learning & Development and DEI expert and a voice in my upcoming book Yes Please! 7 Ways to Say I'm Entitled to the C-Suite...we delve into the idea of sponsors who just aren't cutting the mustard and more reasons why Black women are stalled on their way to the C-Suite in droves.Check out part 2 of my conversation, and be sure to preorder the Kindle version of the book on Amazon leading up to pub day on Jun 15.  Also, don't miss next week's episode where special guest host Condace Pressley of WSB-TV in Atlanta turns the mic around on me and special gues Dr. Jeff Gardere, America's Psychologist for a lively conversation about the book!#TheCultureSoupPodcast #YesPleaseBook #WomenLeaders

I grabbed some much needed catch-time with my friend Dr. Christopher Butts, Learning & Development and DEI Expert to talk about themes from my upcoming book, Yes Please! 7 Ways to Say I'm Entitled to the C-Suite. He is one of the expert voices in the book, and we discuss the pitfalls of sponsorship, especially for Black women and other women of color and what allies can do to step up fill these crucial gaps. We get pretty specific too. I hope you're ready.

Everyone is so concerned about getting that elusive sponsor, but what happens after you get one? I talk about it with Dr. Diana B. Allen, women-in-tech empowerment advocate and senior cyber security expert in part 2 of our conversation which began in Ep 177. We get down to business with this conversation, and you won’t want to miss it. It will stream live on LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and TheCultureSoup.com Thursday and the audio will stream wherever you get you podcasts. Also, if you are on Apple Podcasts, don’t forget to subscribe to our bonus content called TCSP After the Show & Duets. We’ll be posting another one of our favorite shows to the archive with a guest we all know and love. Subscribe to find out who it is. One hint—-he can find out all about your great granddaddy and where your people originated. It’s a classic.Check it out!

Let's take a look back at my conversation with one f the world's most loved historians, Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. This takes us back to Episode 51 where we discuss his hit show Finding Your Roots and his journey to the show.