Is it really possible for a woman leader and mom to have it all?

For this Women of Color Rise podcast, Analiza talks with Maddy Niebauer, Founder and CEO of vChief. After a career as a consultant and non-profit Chief of Staff, in 2016 Maddy launched vChief. vChief provides chief of staff services to support leadership, strategic planning and communications for organizations. In 2022, vChief was named to the 2022 Inc. 5000 Fast-Growing Private Company List.

Maddy isn't just a CEO. She's also the mom of three kids. While launching vChief, Maddy lived in South America with husband and her young family, living her vision of world schooling and running a company.

In this interview, Maddy shares tips about how she is able to have her all - and others can too.

• Get clear on what most matters - It's not just work. Think about those non-work priorities, which could include spending time with kids or traveling.
• Be creative - You don't have to live the traditional textbook life where you need to work at a company and be in person. It's possible where the woman is the breadwinner in the family. It's possible to live abroad.
• If you want to live abroad, figure out what income you need and home and school logistics - If you want to live abroad, will you live off your savings or continue to earn an income? Will you rent your current home or leave it empty while you are abroad? Will you world school or get a tutor?
• Stop trading your time for money - Maddy learned this lesson from Tim Ferris' 4 Hour Work Week. Instead of being a Chief of Staff herself, Maddy took the risk to hire Chiefs of Staffs and focus on building the business.
• Take action - Don't just dream. Act. It's possible to make your dreams come true.

Get full show notes and more information here: https://analizawolf.com/ep-42-how-to-have-it-all-maddy-niebauer

Is it really possible for a woman leader and mom to have it all?

For this Women of Color Rise podcast, Analiza talks with Maddy Niebauer, Founder and CEO of vChief. After a career as a consultant and non-profit Chief of Staff, in 2016 Maddy launched vChief. vChief provides chief of staff services to support leadership, strategic planning and communications for organizations. In 2022, vChief was named to the 2022 Inc. 5000 Fast-Growing Private Company List.

Maddy isn't just a CEO. She's also the mom of three kids. While launching vChief, Maddy lived in South America with husband and her young family, living her vision of world schooling and running a company.

In this interview, Maddy shares tips about how she is able to have her all - and others can too.

• Get clear on what most matters - It's not just work. Think about those non-work priorities, which could include spending time with kids or traveling.
• Be creative - You don't have to live the traditional textbook life where you need to work at a company and be in person. It's possible where the woman is the breadwinner in the family. It's possible to live abroad.
• If you want to live abroad, figure out what income you need and home and school logistics - If you want to live abroad, will you live off your savings or continue to earn an income? Will you rent your current home or leave it empty while you are abroad? Will you world school or get a tutor?
• Stop trading your time for money - Maddy learned this lesson from Tim Ferris' 4 Hour Work Week. Instead of being a Chief of Staff herself, Maddy took the risk to hire Chiefs of Staffs and focus on building the business.
• Take action - Don't just dream. Act. It's possible to make your dreams come true.

Get full show notes and more information here: https://analizawolf.com/ep-42-how-to-have-it-all-maddy-niebauer

Is it really possible for a woman leader and mom to have it all?

For this Women of Color Rise podcast, Analiza talks with Maddy Niebauer, Founder and CEO of vChief. After a career as a consultant and non-profit Chief of Staff, in 2016 Maddy launched vChief. vChief provides chief of staff services to support leadership, strategic planning and communications for organizations. In 2022, vChief was named to the 2022 Inc. 5000 Fast-Growing Private Company List.

Maddy isn't just a CEO. She's also the mom of three kids. While launching vChief, Maddy lived in South America with husband and her young family, living her vision of world schooling and running a company.

In this interview, Maddy shares tips about how she is able to have her all - and others can too.

• Get clear on what most matters - It's not just work. Think about those non-work priorities, which could include spending time with kids or traveling.
• Be creative - You don't have to live the traditional textbook life where you need to work at a company and be in person. It's possible where the woman is the breadwinner in the family. It's possible to live abroad.
• If you want to live abroad, figure out what income you need and home and school logistics - If you want to live abroad, will you live off your savings or continue to earn an income? Will you rent your current home or leave it empty while you are abroad? Will you world school or get a tutor?
• Stop trading your time for money - Maddy learned this lesson from Tim Ferris' 4 Hour Work Week. Instead of being a Chief of Staff herself, Maddy took the risk to hire Chiefs of Staffs and focus on building the business.
• Take action - Don't just dream. Act. It's possible to make your dreams come true.

Get full show notes and more information here: https://analizawolf.com/ep-42-how-to-have-it-all-maddy-niebauer

How do you go from burnout to building a business about self-care… alongside Venus Williams?

For this Women of Color Rise podcast, Analiza talks with Stephanie Morimoto, the Owner and CEO of Asutra. She shares how she started her journey from 18 hour work days and burning out before she turned 30. She was so tired on weekends that she couldn't even get to bed and would crash on the couch. Stephanie decided to make a change. She decided to focus on self care and get clear on who she wanted to be in life. This led Stephanie to buy a small business called Asutra, which is woman-owned, women-led, and a team of 60% people of color. Asutra's mission is about active self care, offers 50+ natural remedies to help people take care of themselves on purpose so they can get the most out of life. The products are so good that Venus Williams (yes that Venus Williams) was already using Asutra's products and reached out to Stephanie. Venus is now a part owner and Asutra's team as Chief Brand Officer.

Here are tips Stephanie shares:

• Practice self-awareness – Get a good therapist to understand your patterns, often tied to what we learned in childhood.
• Embrace that we are enough – We don't need to be productive to prove our worth.
• Take time to reflect – Stephanie was able to take time to reflect and get clear on who she wanted to be. She also used The Artists Way to journal and find a way she could be creative and give back to the community.
• If you want to contribute, take care of yourself – To take care of our world, we need to be in community and take care of each other. To take care of each other, that means we need to have a reservoir of energy, which means taking care of ourselves. Everyone deserves to be happy.

Get full show notes and more information here: https://analizawolf.com/ep-41-how-self-care-saved-my-life-stephanie-morimoto-owner-and-ceo-asutra

How do you go beyond diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) to justice and liberation?

Leaders talk about DEI. But is it more talk versus action? Is DEI enough? Or do we need to move to justice and liberation?

For this Women of Color Rise episode, Analiza talks with Jessica Santana, Co-Founder and CEO of America on Tech. She's on the Forbes 30 under 30 list and the New York Non-Profit Media's 40 under 40 Rising Stars list. A graduate of Syracuse and Columbia, she's spoken at Google for Entrepreneurs, the White House, and Bloomberg.

When Jessica started her career in technology, she found that the game had been rigged. While she had done everything she was supposed to do and beaten the odds - graduating as one of 18 of a starting class of 118 from high school and then graduating from Syracuse as one of the few women with degrees in Accounting and Information Technology – she realized the truth. She had been fooled by organizations claiming to value diversity, equity, and inclusion, when the reality was that organizations had few leaders who looked like her. In fact, the entire system is designed to leave people of color out. "Genius is equally distributed. Opportunity is not."

In Women of Color Rise we discuss how to Be the Change. Jessica is a great example of this. Without role models who looked like her, Jessica set out to Be the Change and co-founded America on Tech. Her goals were to move beyond diversity, equity, and inclusion and create an organization that could actually disrupt the system. With this in mind, America on Tech focuses on decreasing the racial wealth gap to

1. Be able to back the politicians to build local businesses to pay for basic resources
2. Economically empower people to so that they can make decisions for themselves
3. Support people of color in operating from a space of abundance instead of scarcity

America On Tech focuses on technology since it is the highest growing industry in America. For one software engineer with a starting salary of 88K, they make two times Black and LatinX household income..

Jessica also shares how she has moved from burn out to valuing herself and self-care. Quoting Audrey Lord, "Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare."

Get full show notes and more information here: https://analizawolf.com/ep-40-lead-with-justice-and-liberation-jessica-santana-ceo-america-on-tech

Episode Description:

Have you ever struggled with deciding to leave a job?

For this Women of Color Rise episode, Analiza talks with Dr. Tequilla Brownie, CEO of TNTP. TNTP sits at the cross-section of education practice, research, policy, and community to disrupt education inequities so that America can deliver on its promise of education being the great equalizer.

Growing up as a Black female and poor in the deep South, Tequilla shares how her grandparents and teachers instilled in her high expectations, the value of education, and that she can choose her own path. She applied to two colleges, including Yale, because her uncle and guidance counselor had recommended it. After graduating from Yale, Tequilla was a school social worker, then a leader focused on teacher effectiveness for nearly a decade in Memphis City Schools.

This is where she hit her rock bottom moment. The organization was facing a merger and the culture between adults was difficult. Tequilla found herself no longer gratified. But the work was not yet complete. Should she stay or go?

Tequilla shares the principles that guided her to eventually decide to leave:

1. She had self-awareness that she had a choice.
2. She knew her worth. She would not be driven by fear. She was confident she could find another role and organization where she could have impact and values alignment.
3. She asked herself… If she were 20 years old and white, what would she do?
4. She made a list of what was most important to her: be able to contribute her strengths, learn and grow, feel gratified…
5. She also knew that she could find a manager and organization that had her best interests at heart and could provide her psychological and mental safety.

In Women of Color Rise, we talk about how breakdowns can lead to breakthroughs. Tequilla shares her gratitude for this rock bottom moment because it led to her finding TNTP and catapulting her career to eventually become CEO.

Get full show notes and more information here: https://analizawolf.com/ep-39-when-to-leave-with-tequilla-brownie-ceo-tntp

Women of Color Rise supports more diverse leaders at the table, especially women and people of color. We'll be talking with CEOs and C-suite women leaders of color and learning about their leadership journeys.

Have you taken deliberate steps to heal from trauma?

For this Women of Color Rise episode, Analiza talks with African American leader Zawadi Bryant, President, Acute Care Pediatrics for Pediatrix Medical Group. Zawadi co-founded and was CEO of Nightlight Pediatric Urgent Care for fourteen years before the company was acquired by Pediatrix Medical Group in March 2021.

Zawadi shares how she deliberately took steps to heal from her childhood. We might think, "We turned out ok." But it's important to take deliberate steps to heal trauma.

How?

Trauma is generational and bondage. We need to deliberately seek help and learn new tools.

Our parents did the best they could. It's important to reconcile these relationships and not harbor hatred. There are some upsides to what we learned as a child. For example, Zawadi learned grit, determination, and the power of community..

We have the power to create new realities different from what we experienced as a child - new views on parenting, discipline, relationship with partner.

We also have the power to create boundaries to be with the people we care about. For example, Zawadi created boundaries around giving her father money.

To heal, we also need to create affirmations of self-love and safety.

Get full show notes and more information here: https://analizawolf.com/ep-38-steps-to-heal-from-trauma-with-zawadi-bryant-1

What is the secret to having it all?

For this Women of Color Rise episode, Analiza talks with Erica Manuel, CEO of the Institute for Local Government, the nonprofit education and training affiliate of the League of California Cities, the California State Association of Counties, and the California Special Districts Association.

As one of the few Black students at her school, Erica shares how her mantras used to be, "Never let them see you sweat," "Be perfect," "Work twice or three or four times as hard," and "Never ask for help."

When Erica was a Stanford student working jobs to pay for school herself and she got an overdue credit card bill, she decided not to ask for help, moved out of the dorm quietly over break, and leave Stanford. Without a degree, Erica struggled to find a job. She ended up becoming an intern and wowed leaders with her work ethic, and was offered multiple jobs.

Erica later graduated from Stanford and married early. They had a son and later divorced; Erica's advice – make sure you know yourself and find a partner who can grow with you.

Erica has found that she can have it all – as a mom and leader. How?

In Women of Color Rise, we talk about the power of knowing yourself, believing in yourself, and leading as yourself. Erica is a great example of this. Erica shares the importance of knowing what is most important to being happy, living your life based on what you want written on your tombstone, and being confident to let go when your team or organization doesn't allow you to lead as yourself.

Get full show notes and more information here: https://analizawolf.com/ep-37-ep-37-you-can-have-it-all-with-erica-manuel-ceo-of-the-institute-for-local-government

Do you deliberately seek out opportunities where you might fail?

For this Women of Color Rise episode, Analiza talks with Taiwanese American Melissa Wu, CEO of Education Pioneers. Melissa believed the myths about meritocracy, striving for achievement, achievement as the ultimate in fulfillment, and to avoid risk and failure at all costs. But then Melissa discovered the truth - things aren't fair by design, achievement doesn't lead to fulfillment, and if she really wanted to learn, that would mean deliberately seeking out opportunities where she could fail.

Melissa shares her failures and how as hard as they were, they allowed her to stretch and grow. By deliberately seeking out opportunities that were more risky, she also opened a surprise door to becoming a CEO of Ed Pioneers. Melissa also shares her tips on being both a CEO and a mom, specifically setting boundaries and prioritizing doing enough of the most important things at a "good enough" level.

Get full show notes and more information here:https://analizawolf.com/ep-36-the-beauty-of-seeking-out-risk-and-possible-failure-with-melissa-wu

Do you deliberately seek out opportunities where you might fail?

For this Women of Color Rise episode, Analiza talks with Taiwanese American Melissa Wu, CEO of Education Pioneers. Melissa believed the myths about meritocracy, striving for achievement, achievement as the ultimate in fulfillment, and to avoid risk and failure at all costs. But then Melissa discovered the truth - things aren't fair by design, achievement doesn't lead to fulfillment, and if she really wanted to learn, that would mean deliberately seeking out opportunities where she could fail.

Melissa shares her failures and how as hard as they were, they allowed her to stretch and grow. By deliberately seeking out opportunities that were more risky, she also opened a surprise door to becoming a CEO of Ed Pioneers. Melissa also shares her tips on being both a CEO and a mom, specifically setting boundaries and prioritizing doing enough of the most important things at a "good enough" level.

Get full show notes and more information here:https://analizawolf.com/ep-36-the-beauty-of-seeking-out-risk-and-possible-failure-with-melissa-wu