Season 1 Episode Finale:

Why are most leadership books written by white men? Eugina Jordan read nearly 50 leadership books during COVID and of those books, only 3 of them were written by a woman or person of color. As an immigrant woman herself and leader in the Telecomm industry, Eugina decided she needed to do something about it. So, she wrote and published a leadership book (linked below.)

Why?

Well, for one, a need for greater representation. On the other hand, and very important to consider: Leadership books written by men don't take into account the experience of women, people of color, immigrants, or other underrepresented groups. If we want to continue to increase diversity in the workplace, then we need more solutions and more representation created and promoted by underrepresented people.

In this episode we discuss:
- Eugina's journey as a leader and author
- The important need of sponsorship in the careers of women, BIPOC, and immigrants
- Tactical ways that you can seek out mentorship and sponsorship
- A call to action for leaders and how they can be a part of increasing diversity and helping the next generation of leaders

Diversity is the present and the future of our world. Organizations that understand that and invest in a diverse workforce will be more successful in the long run. This episode is for anyone that wants to be a part of creating a better workplace for the now and for the future.

Resources mentioned in this episode: 

• UNLIMITED: The 17 Proven Laws to Success in a Workplace that was not Designed for You written by Eugina Jordan 
• Multipliers written by Liz Wiseman
• Women Who Run With Wolves written by Clarissa Pinkola Estes

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Humans want to fit in. We want to be included. Perhaps it is human nature, the need to be a part of the group. And when it comes to success, assimilating yourself has often been a part of survival. However, navigating the world looks different for marginalized groups.  Homogenous groups are continuously trying to show why they are different, to stand out from the group... while marginalized groups are trying to find ways that they can fit in.

Though, we are also told to bring our authentic selves to work, to "just be you". But for those who are from marginalized groups, whether you are a person of color, a woman, LGBTQIA+, an immigrant, a disabled person, or any combination, bringing your "authentic self" to work hasn't always been met with open arms.

'Yes, we want you to bring your authentic self to work! Oh, but not like that. That's too much.'

How many folks have experienced this?

In this episode, Darren Isom and Chava Vietze break down these narratives and discuss the power and beauty of diversity. It is our future and we need to embrace our difference, be proud of it, and understand that our difference is pivotal to our success.

There are several key takeaways here, but if we have to highlight just one:

Find environments that value your unique difference and see how your difference not only adds value but is pivotal to your community's and organization's success.

About the guest: Darren Isom is a Partner at The Bridgespan Group in San Francisco where he advises mission driven organizations and philanthropic foundations in support of equity and justice and supports the firm's work with arts and cultural organizations. He co-leads the firm's commitment to advance racial equity and is  the host of the podcast Dreaming in Color, creating new narratives in leadership, which offers leaders of color space to share how they have leveraged their unique assets and abilities to embrace excellence, drive impact, and more fully define what success looks like. 

Books, movies, and podcasts referenced in this episode: 

• Being Black Zen and the Art of Living with Fearlessness and Grace written by Angel Kyodo Williams
• Covering written by Kenji Yoshino
• Hidden Figures, 2016 Film starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe, and Kevin Costner
• The Known World written by Edward P. Jones
• Dreaming in Color Podcast hosted by Darren Isom 

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Have you ever experienced something in life so incredibly substantial and life-changing that it led you to reevaluate your why?

Many have, many will, and many currently are. We lived through a world pandemic. We're fighting for equal human rights. We're going through market shifts. These events, plus so many others, are influential in history but more specifically, impact us personally.

Domenique Rice is an activist, a laid back California transplant savvy, Brooklyn Girl, wine and liquor sales guru, DEIB advocate, incredible mother of five, and she is an unapologetic truth teller.

In our episode, we discuss Domenique's story - from losing her son in 2017 to pandemic parenting in 2020 to a layoff in 2022. We navigate what Domenique calls her "reawakening" and discuss what it means to reclaim your voice, define your values, and reignite your fire.

Join us for the conversation and reflect on your own path and learn about ways to find your voice, discover your values, and become inspired to live them proudly every day.

During our episode, we reference the following communities and non-profits: 

• The Hue Society - A community-based organization committed to creating access and resources for Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities while providing enriching cultural wine experiences for consumers and brands alike.
• PUSH for Empowered Pregnancy - A non-profit organization on a mission to end preventable stillbirth. Through partnerships with health providers and aggressive awareness campaigns, PUSH empowers expectant families with the equitable, evidenced-based medical care and education they need to advocate for a healthy pregnancy, providing parents and babies with the best possible chance to make it home safely together.

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Lori Mazor is the CEO and Founder of Synthetivity, an innovative company at the leading edge of executive education, specializing in training professionals on the transformative applications and implications of Generative AI (artificial intelligence) in various industry sectors.

Synthetivity is a part of her fourth complete career transformation and is paving her path in Artificial Intelligence as an advocate for inclusive and responsible AI and as an educator, guiding organizations towards a future of creativity, collaboration, and growth with Generative AI.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is and can be an extraordinary technology, allowing us to be more productivity, spend more time enjoying our lives, and push us forward in medicine/healthcare, education, transportation and more. But, we need to do it responsibly and inclusively. In our episode, we'll discuss why we need to pay close attention to the advancement of artificial intelligence, the importance of educating everyone on how AI works, implications at work and in regulations, and what it means for equity and equality. 

Resources referenced in this episode: 

• White Women (Everything You Already Know About Your Own Racism and How to Do Better), written by Regina Jackson and Sara Rao. 
• Lori Mazor's company, Synthetivity (including classes and bootcamps)

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Katharine Smith, MA, CPCC, ACC is an Organizational Psychologist and Executive Coach. She has a unique approach to helping her clients prioritize their higher purpose, avoid burnout, redesign their relationship with work, and phase out fear-based cultures. 

Katharine and Chava dive into the conversation that really blossomed from a catch up where they were discussing "well what the heck is success?" In this episode, you'll learn about:

• how our unique conditioning throughout our lives requires well, unique solutions. 
• how to start "editing" your career and making decisions of what to carry with you and what to let go 
• why rituals help us become happier people and better leaders and how to make small behavioral changes
• why those who have a great relationship with work (and boundaries!) also make great coworkers
• and... how all of this knits together!

Resources referenced in this episode: 

• Mountain Valley Coaching (Katharine's Company)
• Lori Santos - The Power of a Made-up Ritual (Podcast Episode) 
• Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg (Book) 

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Sara Chandran is the Founder of Fresh and Fearless, a consultancy that helps organizations build brave initiatives to create a workplace that is inclusive for all.

Sara is an empathetic, people-first leader and change-maker. Throughout our episode, Sara gets real about the founder journey - the joys and the difficulties. She'll share how her personal experiences, including loss, grief, and redundancy, have helped inform the type of organization that she is building - one that supports its people (its employees) both personally and professionally, and one that champions vulnerability and celebrates diversity.

We discuss the importance of finding and building community, loneliness and mental health, creating companies that fully supports your values, and how to be fresh and fearless in everything that you do.

"At the end of the day, we're hiring humans, we're hiring people. We're not hiring machines, we're not asking machines to do this work.

So that means emotions, that means mental health issues. That does mean different aspects that people will be bringing to work. And you have to flex to be able to enable someone to do their best work." - Sara Chandran

Learn more about Sara's growing company by visiting: https://www.freshandfearless.uk/

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Did you know that stillbirth is still very prevalent today, that it is often preventable, and that the U.S. falls well behind other first-world countries in stillbirth prevention and research? For most, the answer is no. We continue to fail pregnant people and families.

Elizabeth O'Donnell, the Founder of Aaliyah in Action and Co-Director of Awareness for PUSH for Empowered Pregnancy is trying to change that. Through her work she is support pregnant people and families at all stages. Through PUSH for Empowered Pregnancy, she and her colleagues are working tirelessly to end preventable stillbirth. And through Aaliyah in Action, she is offering grief support to families who have lost a child.

We cover a lot of ground in our conversation, from discussing Liz's personal journey to how we must better support pregnant people and families, and more. You will come away from this episode with more information on how to build inclusive policies for families who are experiencing loss, how you can support empowered pregnancies and women's health, and how you can be supported through Aaliyah in Action or PUSH for Empowered Pregnancy should you need it. 

Follow these links to learn more about both non-profits:
https://www.aaliyahinaction.org
https://www.pushpregnancy.org

You can also follow them on Instagram: @AaliyahInAction and @PUSHPregnancy

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May is AAPI+ Month (Asian American and Pacific Islander + Month). During this month, we celebrate, commemorate, and honor the accomplishments and contributions of Asian Americans throughout history. This is also a time that we can discuss and bring more awareness to the continuous work that still needs to be done to create more equity in our world.

In this week’s episode, I am joined by Kim “Kimfer” Flanders-Rye, Founder of Inclusion Equals for a discussion on busting the “model minority myth”. Key takeaways from our discussion include: 

• Defining what is the model minority myth and where/when it came about 
• Discussing stereotypes and tropes in the media and how they display in the workplace 
• Understanding why the model minority myth is so dangerous and how we can work to dismantle it as a part of broader diversity and inclusion efforts
• What is code-switching and why is it so detrimental in the workplace 

...and more!

Enjoy this episode? Share it with a friend or colleague!

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Over and over we are seeing articles talking about mental health in the workplace. Finally, it's starting to take center stage! The importance of caring for one's mental health and the immense influence that work has on our mental health.

Still, we continue to see burnout, unhealthy work environments, and teams unequipped to manage the stress that we endure.

So whose responsibility is it anyway? Who should support employees mental health and wellbeing?

In this episode, Chris Henrichs, Cofounder and Head of Partnerships at Boon Health, joins me to discuss the role of employers in supporting employees' (peoples') mental health and how it directly impacts their performance, personal, and professional development. Key take aways will include statistics and ROI (return on investment) of investing in employee wellbeing along with discussions on how organizations are helping ease the transition during layoffs for both those departing the organization and those remaining. 

• Employers interested in working with Boon Health can learn more here. 
• Coaches that want to work with Boon Health can learn more here. 
• Individuals interested in self-pay can visit here.* 

And if you'd like to recommend Boon Health to your employer, visit this URL and scroll down to the button that says "Recommend Boon to Your Employer".

*If you are experiencing a crisis and/or need mental health support, you can call 988 24 hours a day.

 P.S. If you enjoy this episode, we hope you'll leave us a review! 

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Acey Holmes is a play advocate and enabler and the founder of BoredLess. She wants adults to engage in more play and thinks that they deserve more play. But why and what does that mean? As a former speech and language pathologist, Acey has decades of experience studying the effects of play and flow on the brain and behavior. Her passion for empowering adults to rediscover the joy of play has led to transformative success for both individuals and organizations.

In this episode, Acey joins me to discuss what is play, what it isn't (hint: we'll talk about gamification), how play can be integrated into the workplace, and the neuroscience behind it all.

Key takeaways? Learn how adults can learn new tricks at any age, how to liven up work and in doing so, increase productivity and collaboration (and heck, make it way more enjoyable), and how your brain reacts to all the "cool drugs" that naturally occur in your body (hint: dopamine!)

Links to books and more referenced in this episode:
Joy Inc. by Richard Sheridan
Creativity Inc. by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace
Flow The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (or anything else he has written!)
Using Play to Rewire and Improve Your Brain by Andrew Huberman

While Stop Blaming Avocados has no affiliation with any specific bookstore or publisher, we encourage listeners to shop at their local bookstores and support small businesses.

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Lech calls himself a "cultural square peg". What is that? I mean literally, it's that he doesn't fit into the typical "mold" in traditional organizational practices that pigeon-hole people. Lech is a generalist. Guess what? So is your host, Chava. This fun conversation will go in a few different directions, but if you can stay with us, we hope you'll walk away with at least one or two key take aways.

The term "generalist" hasn't yet been fully embraced. But it isn't a dirty word and it isn't a bad thing either. In fact, in this episode, we make a case for celebrating generalists because we need them. We need both specialists and generalists in our world for true progress.

But generalists are a little hard to "pin down" and understand. Many don't know what to do with them. They don't "fit" into specialist roles and their expertise spans multiple disciplines and sometimes, multiple industries and more, which may or may not on the surface "make sense". But there is immense power in being a generalist and if you are a generalist you can tap into that power to find success. Generalists bring immense value to any table they sit at and we're hoping that this conversation might inspire someone... even just a little bit.

More about the guest: Lech Guzowski is a Workplace Culture Facilitator. In his work, he supports organizations in cultural transformation by designing more human, innovative and adaptive workplace cultures and improving their ways of working. Lech's methodology in the form of the Culture Design Blueprint is based on a facilitative, interdisciplinary and action-driven approach.

To learn more about Lech's work, you can visit the following:
Culture micro-practices - https://www.human.pm/culture-micro-practices and Culture design workshop - https://www.human.pm/culture-design-blueprint-workshop

Books referenced in this episode: 

• The Hundred Year Life
• The Dip

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Throughout her career, Shandia Drummond-Butt has remained rooted in her values and the concept that “if this is the place for me, then it will be for me. If it’s not, then I’m going to find the right place.” Shandi is the Director of People and Culture at IMPACT and she’s found that by leaning into her courageous voice, she’s been able to build a career that she is passionate about while creating supportive environments that not only she can thrive in, but that her colleagues can thrive in. 

Our conversation is both inspiring and proof that creating supportive, safe environments allow people to BE who they are: humans! Who learn, fumble, make mistakes, excel, and evolve. 

A must listen for anyone looking for a bit of inspiration on finding their own courageous voice or to learn how organizations can step up, take action, and influence cultural change. 

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Carrie Allen (founder of The Human Array) joins Chava Vietze to discuss truly how powerful "power skills" (formerly known as soft skills) are. We discuss:

• How to embrace your power skills and how to lean into them while acknowledging your areas of improvement
• How to embrace other people's power skills to do amazing work together
•  Why language is so important and how we use it to talk to ourselves and our colleagues
• How leaders can better help to better empower people and Carrie's take on one of the top things holding leaders back from progress

Carrie Allen is the founder of The Human Array, which is launching this April, 2023! The Human Array is a community hub dedicated to personal and professional growth. It will launch to fill the gap of an interactive community support group and a resource directory for coaches and their programs.

Check out The Human Array here and follow them on Instagram @thehumanarray. 

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We all want to feel good and that takes continuous work overtime. Life will ebb and flow and external factors can be intruding.  But you are worth investing in. Your wellbeing is worth investing in.

Teresa Clark joins Chava Vietze to understand how we can meet ourselves exactly where we are right now and how we can find our flow with our own wellbeing. These skills will evolve overtime as we evolve. Listen to hear anecdotes from Teresa and Chava about how they each have worked to find their flow, how we can develop habits to help us maintain a state of flow, and how to protect your flow, your wellbeing, and your energy. 

About this week's guest: Teresa Clark is the  founder and alchemist of The Wellness Revolution, a pioneering culture and employee experience company reimagining the workplace to unleash human potential. Built on the belief that the world of work plays an important role in transforming society and that by supporting people to live happier and healthier lives we can co-create happier and healthier societies together.

A public speaker, facilitator and resilience expert, Teresa’s moving personal journey as a woman who received a 4-year prison sentence for the deaths of 3 of her friends in a car accident where she fell asleep at the wheel after a festival, has led her on a turbulent journey of personal recovery from extreme physical injury, psychological and emotional trauma. The deep remorse and transformative journey of finding peace and amends birthed a life trajectory driven by a magnanimous compassion to create positive social change centered around a deep passion and purpose to help others. 

With 12 years of experience working within mental health for the criminal justice system, NHS, and charity sector, she has consulted at local and national levels and led cultural change across organisations through the design and development of award-winning programmes and services. Through her work, she has empowered thousands of people to reconnect with their authentic selves and transform their lives creating synergistic outcomes from collective shifts in mindset to social impact. She is deeply passionate about social justice, human flourishing, and the power of creativity to transform society.

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People Leader? Candidate? Manager? IC? Wherever you fall, you'll likely find at least one takeaway from my conversation with Lia James, founder and CEO of & Human. Lia is a executive coach, facilitator, career designer, and part-time woodworking (you'll learn about that toward the end of our episode.) 

In this episode, we discuss... 

• Generational differences and similarities between Gen-Xers, Millennials, and Gen-Zers. 
• How you can combine your passions and interests into your work (but hint, that doesn't mean if you love flowers you need to go become a florist). 
• How work is evolving to meet the needs and wants of newer generations who have entered the workforce. (By the way, great listen for any leader shaping their workforce or who wants to take an introspective look at how they view work.) 
• Plus more :) 

P.S. Want to learn more about Lia's work? Click here and check out her YouTube Series which is now live here. 

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Anu Menon is the Executive Director of Oasis for Girls, a non-profit based in San Francisco focused on empowering girls and supporting them with resources to enact equitable, inclusive change. Anu's career has been rooted in a passion and desire to help heal the world's problems.

In this week's episode, Anu and Chava discuss wage justice with a focus on the non-profit sector where there's a stigma that to do non-profit work, folks have to accept that they will earn below market-rate wages while they're doing pivotal, life-changing work for their communities. Anu shares success she's had in helping to improve wage inequality for non-profits, challenges that non-profits have and continue to face, and to help donors, organizations, and more by sharing an inside look into how non-profits can be better supported. As Anu says, "The conversation is around the myth of nonprofit workers being paid substandard wages and accepting that. Because the other side of it is that there's a high cost to low wages, right? So you have a systematic devaluation of nonprofit employees."  Listen to learn more. 

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Kristen Bakalar is a workplace innovator and diversity advocate and she’s tired of performative diversity, equity, inclusive “initiatives”. Our conversation gets real about the work that needs to be done still and touches on what is going well across industries. You’ll learn a ton and I’m hoping you’ll walk away as inspired as I was to help continue to improve our workplaces. 

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Catharine Montgomery is the founder of Better Together, a VC-funded, purpose-driven, Black and woman-founded, Public Relations and Communications agency. In this episode, Catharine shares her founder journey, which was the result of a culmination of her impressive career, taking a chance on a Slack message, and a ton of hard work. She celebrates her highs and highlights her support system helping to get her through the lows. Listen to learn more about how Better Together plans to influence and support social change, an inside look at Catharine's journey as a founder, along with learning about purpose-driven work and a reminder about where we are in terms of founder representation. Click here to learn more about Better Together. 

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Layoffs suck. And most of us will go through at least one layoff in our lifetime. But why is it that nearly every time layoffs are done they're done so with an archaic playbook?

Kelly Ceynowa joins Chava to throw away the 40-year-old playbook and discuss what it means to look at layoffs through a new lens.

Will it take creativity? Absolutely. Listen to learn where you can start, how these recommendations can work for both private and public companies, how to flip the table on how layoffs are done, and so much more. 

This is an episode that you don't want to miss. If you're a leader, you'll walk away with new ideas and conversation starters to bring to your team.  If you're an individual contributor, you'll be armed with knowledge on how to assess your employer's layoff preparedness and/or provide you with questions to ask your manager or a future employer. 

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On this episode, Chava is joined by Cindy Tsai, MD, the award winning, board certified internal medicine physician, TEDx speaker, and best-selling author to discuss: Breaking the cycle of chronic stress and approaching our health with integrative wellness.  After experiencing the health implications that chronic stress can have on the body, Cindy set out to change how we approach our own health. Listen to learn practical approaches to transforming stress into strength.

Cindy's book mentioned in the episode can be purchased here. 

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Welcome to Stop Blaming Avocados, hosted by Chava Vietze. Throughout episodes, Chava speaks with guests from many walks of life hoping to elevate their voices and their stories. Stop Blaming Avocados was created to break from "tradition", have thoughtful conversation about human-first work and inspire a more human-first approach to life, community, and organization.

Don't forget to hit the subscribe button so you don't miss out on upcoming episodes!

About the host: Chava is a people-first advocate, problem solver, dot connector, and creative strategist. She's worked in startups, people experience, and the tech industry for over a decade where she's been an integral part of building organizations from the ground up and worn a handful of hats and titles while doing so. Now, she's taking her experience and creating something new with Stop Blaming Avocados. Join her on this journey as she welcomes and speaks with guests who are doing inspiring work. 

Follow us at @stopblamingavocados on Instagram.