What Rules!?: A career podcast for women of color

"Jefa" means boss in Spanish and today, we chat with Viviana Maldonado, creator of The Jefa Life, a platform that encourages Latinas to be the boss of their careers and lives. Viviana recalls the big bold move she made when she left her Nebraska home to go to college, leaving her family behind. She then moved to Los Angeles by herself and built relationships to get ahead. 

Viviana tells us how knowing your strengths (hers are connecting with others, choosing to be positive and taking action) can help you overcome adversity and make big bold moves in your career—even when you're fearful.

“Titles come and go, but a jefa mindset stays forever,” says Viviana. “It’s living a life where you’re leading change and you’re leading by example.”

Theme: Turn Your Adversity into Your Strength

Episode Highlights:

• Making big bold moves
• Putting yourself first
• Connecting with others and building relationships to get ahead
• Taking action when you're fearful
• Choosing to be positive despite having experienced diversity
• Reframing a situation
• Maximizing your strengths
• Rooting for ourselves

More from Viviana Maldonado: TiKTok and The Jefa Life

Learn more about the CliftonStrengths Assessment

Take the HIGH5 Strengths Test

Connect with us on social media: Instagram and LinkedIn

More from Alisa Manjarrez: Instagram and LinkedIn

More from Courtney Copelin: Instagram and LinkedIn

More from Dr. Merary Simeon: Instagram and LinkedIn

Learn more at www.whatrulespodcast.com.

Ask yourself this question the next time someone says you can't do something: Is this a roadblock? "We are all wired to just do what we're told, but sometimes, we need to think about who's making those rules," says Nicole Todd, Vice President of Human Resources for Blackstone, one of the largest private equity firms in the world. 

Nicole, a Black American, shares how she found mentors and sponsors who helped advance her career. She recalls how her street smarts from growing up in the Bronx, NY, developed her unique strengths and became transferable skills in the workplace. She also tells us about the 3 L's to consider when you're stuck about making a career move.

Theme: Turn Your Adversity into Your Strength

Episode Highlights:

• Questioning authority when it's a roadblock
• Asking for and taking feedback to improve in the workplace
• Developing your strengths even when growing up with adversity
• The real meaning of courage
• Paying it forward by mentoring other multicultural women
• Finding the right mentor and sponsor
• Setting up informational interviews
• Being intentional with your career
• The 3 L's to help you make a career move—level, learnings and location

Connect with us on social media: Instagram and LinkedIn

More from Alisa Manjarrez: Instagram and LinkedIn

More from Courtney Copelin: Instagram and LinkedIn

More from Dr. Merary Simeon: Instagram and LinkedIn

Learn more at www.whatrulespodcast.com.

Get the inside scoop on how multicultural women leaders are strategic with their next career move from executive coach Kanchan Prinsloo, CEO of KaPri Consulting.

As a South Asian woman, Kanchan explains how your culture, like being raised by immigrants, is an advantage that can help you change course quicker with your career and without hesitation. "As women of culture, we really need to honor our past, bring it forward and know that we are the women we are today in the world today for a reason," says Kanchan.

Theme: Change Course Without Hesitation

Episode Highlights:

• Breaking cultural rules
• Fitting in vs belonging in the workplace
• How to ask for specific feedback to develop your voice and be heard
• Having a trusted person who can give you honest feedback
• Being strategic with your next career move
• Getting clear on when it's time to pivot
• Getting help working out when to change course

More from Kanchan Prinsloo: KaPri Consulting and LinkedIn

Connect with us on social media: Instagram and LinkedIn

More from Alisa Manjarrez: Instagram and LinkedIn

More from Courtney Copelin: Instagram and LinkedIn

More from Dr. Merary Simeon: Instagram and LinkedIn

Learn more at www.whatrulespodcast.com.

Coca-Cola Company SVP Tanika Cabral shares how her motto, “Learn, Lead, create a Legacy and Leave,” can help you advance your career. Tanika, a Black executive who grew up in a Brooklyn housing project, has climbed the ladder to become Senior Vice President of Customer Leadership at The Coca-Cola Company. She reminds us that part of knowing what you want is knowing what you DON’T want.

Tanika also credits her curiosity and courage to ask "why?” for getting further faster in her career and in life. "Rule-breaking is all about knowing that you can push past what someone has told you that you can't do," she says.

Theme: Know What You Want

Episode Highlights:

• Be curious and ask "why?"
• Question authority to go further faster
• Getting your voice back after it's been squashed
• The 4 L's for career advancement: Learn, Lead, create a Legacy and Leave
• Part of knowing what you want is knowing what you don't want
• Deciding when to leave your job

Connect with us on social media: Instagram and LinkedIn

More from Alisa Manjarrez: Instagram and LinkedIn

More from Courtney Copelin: Instagram and LinkedIn

More from Dr. Merary Simeon: Instagram and LinkedIn

Learn more at www.whatrulespodcast.com.

We're back with a new season and new co-host! Join us as we welcome Courtney Copelin, an accountability and mindset coach, to the What Rules!? podcast. Using her psychology background, Courtney will bring a wellness perspective to each episode to help you speak, lead and execute better in your career. She'll also ask the bold questions you want to know from our guests!

So, get ready for a new season of brave chats and amazing advice on how to advance your career from top multicultural executives at some of the biggest companies in the U.S.

Theme: Own Your Power

Episode Highlights:

• Connecting with others when networking
• Don't hide behind a screen—go directly to the source.
• Personal connections are worth making.
• Persistance pays off.
• Asking those bold questions!
• Trusting yourself and showing up!

Welcome our new co-host, Courtney Copelin, on social media: Instagram and LinkedIn

More from Alisa Manjarrez: Instagram and LinkedIn

More from Courtney Copelin: Instagram and LinkedIn

More from Dr. Merary Simeon: Instagram and LinkedIn

Learn more at www.whatrulespodcast.com.

Get ready for a new season of brave chats and amazing advice on how to outsmart the game to advance your career from top multicultural executives at some of the biggest companies in the U.S.

Connect with us on our social media: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn

Join our LinkedIn community where we discuss rule-breaking strategies for multicultural women.

More from Alisa Manjarrez: Instagram and LinkedIn

More from Courtney Copelin: Instagram and LinkedIn

More from Dr. Merary Simeon: Instagram and LinkedIn

Learn more at www.whatrulespodcast.com.

​While we work on our re-launch (coming soon!), catch up with us in this special episode. Hosts Alisa Manjarrez and Dr. Merary Simeon chat about the rules they're breaking lately and Dr. Merary's new book!

Connect with us on social media: Instagram and LinkedIn

More from Alisa Manjarrez: Instagram and LinkedIn

More from Dr. Merary Simeon: Instagram and LinkedIn

Learn more at www.whatrulespodcast.com.

It's our 2022 Summer Series finale, yay! As we gear up for a new season of empowering stories, we thought it best to send our summer off with a look back at what we've learned along the way.

As much as we'd all like to forget it, reflecting on the past is essential to planning our future. Listen as Alisa, Rosa, and Merary wrap the year (originally recorded in Dec 2020) with 5 questions meant to put things into perspective. Here's to moving forward!

Questions in this episode:

• What happened in 2020 that you want to celebrate?
• When did you have the most fun?
• What do you simply need to stop doing in order for tomorrow to be better than yesterday?
• What would you like to create more of?
• What's your biggest lesson from 2020?

Join our LinkedIn group!

More from Rosa Santos: LinkedIn

More from Dr. Merary Simeon: MerarySimeon.com

More from Alisa Manjarrez: The Happy Cactus

Next up in our 2022 Summer Series is an amazing conversation we had early last year with Nadia De Ala.

Have you ever felt that being a woman of color has prevented you from getting paid what you're worth? That feeling is exactly why leadership and negotiation coach, Nadia De Ala, has made it her life's mission to get women of color hella rich. Listen as she shares her story and three things she's learned about how to charge your worth.

"You're somebody else's glass ceiling. Break yours accordingly so that someone else can enter and reach another level after you." – Nadia De Ala, Negotiation Coach

Topics discussed in this episode:

• Getting your mindset right
• Always be negotiating
• How to do market research
• Coaching vs therapy
• Charge your worth and add tax
• Negotiation as activism

More from Nadia De Ala: Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook

More from Rosa Santos: LinkedIn

More from Dr. Merary Simeon: MerarySimeon.com

More from Alisa Manjarrez: The Happy Cactus

Part 2 of our Summer Series is an amazing conversation with Alisa, Rosa, and Dr. Merary about working with what you've got to create what you want to see in the world. Enjoy!

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If someone handed you a brick and asked you to come back in an hour with a product, what would you make of it? How do you innovate with little more than a single block with which to build? How do you put aside all the rules the world gives you about what's possible and just... create?

This week, Alisa, Rosa, and Dr. Merary get deep into the cracks of what it means to be creative and how innovating using only what you already have is an essential part of every great Rulebreaker's toolkit.

"Achievers have an enabling attitude, realism, and a conviction that they themselves were the laboratory of innovation. Their ability to change themselves is central to their success. They have learned to conserve their energy by minimizing the time spent in regret or complaint. Every event is a lesson to them, every person a teacher." — Marilyn Ferguson, author of The Aquarian Conspiracy

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Join our LinkedIn group!

More from Rosa Santos: LinkedIn

More from Dr. Merary Simeon: MerarySimeon.com

More from Alisa Manjarrez: The Happy Cactus

Get transcripts and more at colorforward.com