This week, we’re getting real and diving into the deep end with the incredible Joi Louviere from the Werk Stories Podcast. Our conversation pulls no punches as we talk about the brutal realities of toxic workplaces, especially through the lens of a Black women.

Joi and I discuss how the prevailing political environment—specifically the Trump administration—has created an even more difficult and exhausting landscape. We tackle the specific challenges of both the nonprofit and corporate world, where passion often masks a lack of resources, and how Black women and other women of color are forced to constantly innovate in order to survive their work environment. If you’ve ever felt depleted, undervalued, or just plain tired of the professional struggle, this episode offers a supportive voice and a path toward survival and lasting resilience.

About Werk Stories Podcast

Birthed out of back-to-back discriminatory work experiences, the Werk Stories creator decided to turn her trauma into community by developing a safe space for other Black women and women of color to speak about the things that have happened to them in their workplaces.

By opening up, women of color can empower each other to persevere and know that they are not alone. Werk stories works with therapists, HR professionals, and employment lawyers to provide advice on how this community can best create change in their industries.

Take this journey with us and listen to the stories of these amazing women, and most importantly, believe them!

About the Creator: Joi Louviere

Joi honed her passion for storytelling in college while studying journalism at her beloved HBCU, Hampton University. As a radio host and staff writer, then editor, in the student newspaper, she learned the many ways to tell a thoughtful story. After some newspaper work, Joi’s career pivoted to more broad communications, production assisting, public relations and magazine work. After getting her Master’s in journalism from Georgetown University, Joi sold all her things and traveled the world for 3.5 years. Her nomadic lifestyle was freeing, but more than that it highlighted the many stories that needed to be told and she began nonprofit work. She started by using her comms skills to nurture programming for children at a small, but impactful organization, and then matriculated to college access work, both roles requiring a savvy for social media and marketing leadership. While nonprofit work is rewarding, Joi could not escape the workplace bias and discrimination and overall racism present in every corner of of the nonprofit world. Werk Stories was born from a breaking point, and Joi hopes it inspires many more moments of realizations for Black women and women of color who are tired of the unnecessary obstacles just to do their jobs. With the vulnerability of brave Black and brown women and work of focused allies, Joi is sure Werk Stories will be one of many contributors to the overhaul of United States work culture. Joi currently lives, writes and (werk) stories in Dallas, Texas.

Follow Joi:

Instagram: Werkstories

LinkedIn: Joi Louviere's LinkedIn