Meet the Chief Librarian!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Strategy, growth, excellence. Welcome to What's Next, the podcast where we explore life's pivotal moment and the decisions that shape our next chapter. I'm the Chief Librarian, your host. Each week I sit down with inspiring individuals who dare to shift gears, whether in their careers, relationships, or personal world. Together, we'll uncover their stories, challenges, and lessons to inspire your own journey. So are you ready to find out what's next? Let's dive in. Hi, Makia.

SPEAKER_05 0:40

Hi, Tiffany. How are you?

SPEAKER_00 0:42

I'm okay. How are you?

SPEAKER_05 0:43

I'm doing amazing. Thank you so much for allowing me to be on the first episode of What's Next and to the opportunity to interview you.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

I wouldn't have it any other way. Would it be a thing?

SPEAKER_05 0:57

Right. So in this episode of What's Next, um, I get to sit in the chair that you'll be in going forward, and I get to ask all of the questions that you'll be asking people in the weeks to come. I'm super excited. I am too. I'm interested to learn new things about you that I may not know.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

There's always something. I'm an onion. You're gonna peel us back. Serious.

SPEAKER_05 1:20

And we're gonna go into some layers. Some things will be super simple and some things may not be, but we'll see.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

That's what I'm here for.

SPEAKER_05 1:27

Okay, cool, cool, cool. So um, why what's next?

SPEAKER_01 1:34

Why not what's next? Um, I mean, I am a native New Yorker. I mean, if you can't hear it, I don't think I have to explain it to people. But Bronx born, Harlem raised. Um, from I feel like humble but beginnings. Grew up in a household with my mom and my dad. My mom was a social worker, my dad a correction officer. Four daughters is what they had Carol's daughters and Johnny D um daughters, but we were really Carol's daughters. So that was before the Carol's daughter. We were the original. Um, we've learned so much. Like our parents were devoted servants, um, public servants, yeah. Social work. My mother worked um with mental health clients, um, people who were addicted to to drugs, and you know, people who really needed help. And she did so every day with Grace. She was fly. Um, she was no nonsense, she didn't play, yeah, but she loved what she did. So watching that growing up, it it kind of, I didn't realize how much she set the tone for what's next through my whole life.

SPEAKER_04 2:49

Yeah.

unknown 2:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

Um, and same with my dad. My dad, listen, if we thought my mom was no joke, Johnny, Johnny D, quiet, cool. He doesn't speak much, but when he speaks, we listen.

SPEAKER_04 3:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

So, you know, growing up there, um, they were focused on their girls had to be educated. It wasn't anything about the world, it was about what their expectation of us was and that we had to do it for ourselves.

SPEAKER_05 3:17

Okay, okay. So, growing up in New York City with parents dedicated to social work and corrections, how did their professions influence your perspective on leadership and community service? So you said that educate uh education was important, but what else? Like, what else did you learn?

SPEAKER_01 3:32

Oh, my work ethic. So getting up and going to school. So that whole, oh, you don't feel well, you have a tummy ache didn't exist when we were growing up. We knew work ethic. You got I mean, if you were sick, sick took care of you, but you thought you were sick and you didn't feel well, there was no option to stay home and relax. Okay, so we get up, we go, we push through. Um, my dad, I mean, they had to work overnights. My mom and my dad at one time were switching what their hours were. My mother worked in a social and a um in a group home so that my dad can do what he needed to do. They they sacrificed a lot, not just for us, but for themselves. Like not even being together as a couple, yeah. You know, for some hours because they wanted to make sure that it was always someone there for us when we got home.

SPEAKER_04 4:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

So I mean, that's work ethic came from getting up, going to school, making sure we were prepared. That homework was done, those clothes were laid out, they were ironed. Oh my god, and my dad can press some clothes. To this day, I cannot stand ironing.

SPEAKER_05 4:38

What did they teach you about leadership?

SPEAKER_01 4:41

Um, they taught me that leadership comes from within. Um, my mom and my dad were hard workers. They were they were more so focused on what they did. My my dad was more cool and chill. My mom was the go-getter. Okay. So my mom would go to work and she would make sure in her, in every role that she had, she was a lead.

SPEAKER_04 5:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 5:15

She was the go-to person. She was the people. Where's Carol? Where's Carol? Was Miss Austin in yet? They were looking for her. She knew her craft, she knew it well, she didn't step on toes, she was straightforward about her business. And I I just watched that growing up. I'll never forget a time where I was little, maybe about eight, seven or eight, and we were walking down the street in Harlem, and my mom worked in East Harlem. And there was um a gentleman, and he was nodding off. And she was like, Hey, Jose. And I looked, I said, Mom, why are you talking to him? My mom has her nephiteri hat and this long coat, and she's gliding. And she looked at me, her head whipped so fast. I said, Well, I thought her head was gonna fall off her shoulder, uh, her neck. And she said, What do you mean? I said, Why are you talking to him? Look at me, Kim Bailey. She said, Oh no, we don't do that. That is not what we do. We don't know his story. And that is a person, that's what I see. Yeah, and for that shaped me who I was. I said, Oh, okay, so that's what we do. So now when you walk in the street with me, you don't want to actually because I'm talking to the janitor, I'm talking to the homeless gentleman. Hey, Mr. Walter, how you doing today? Did you eat?

unknown 6:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

And I'm talking to the CEO the same. Hey, how you feeling today? Like a person. Yeah. But I learned that from my mom, telling me not to judge someone based on appearance.

SPEAKER_05 6:44

Yeah. So as far as leadership goes, um, it seems like she taught you the highest level of humanity. Absolutely. Yeah, I love that. I love that. So another thing you touched on just now is that growing up in a two-parent home, right? Mom around, dad around, um, we often think that we learn leadership from the father figure. Right. Or the male figure. Right. And to hear that your mom took the lead role in all of the roles that she played in her life, I want to touch on some of the roles that you play in your life.

SPEAKER_00 7:23

Yes, all of them.

SPEAKER_05 7:25

Do we have time? Let's talk about the top five roles. Okay. Okay. Okay. And if you miss one that I want to talk about, we'll talk about the top six.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

I got it. I'm right here with you. Very cool. But the number one role that I play the lead in is being a mom. Being a mom to a dynamic 15-year-old girl who is so spoiled and so her heart is so big and she's so determined and she's so precocious, even at this big age. And um uh I love her with all of my heart. And I love who she is. Yeah, I love her just the way she is. I love how she shows up. I love how she loves on herself because at 15, I didn't love on myself the same way that I watched this young lady show up. Um, so I am a mother. I am uh the chief of public services uh for the DC Public Library. So I do um in my in my day-to-day, in my nine to five, so to say, and I have to do air quotes because there's no nine to five, but my day job, I am an a C-suite administrator um in DC, which to me, to this moment, um I'm still shocked, but not because of the leadership, it's because I've always tried to lead from behind. Yeah. That's the type of leader that I am. And every time that I try, the more I try to sink back, the more I'm pushed forward. Um, and so that's the second. I'm also the chief librarian. I am the chief librarian of excellence established my own, the CEO and principal of my own business, which I totally love. And that is something that I never imagined being a business owner. You know, someone who watched my parents, a social worker and a correction officer growing up. I didn't know anything about having a business, about being the principal, a CEO, the founder of something. And so I'm just so thankful to have that opportunity. Um, and my sisters will probably disagree with this, but I'm the leader of Carol's daughters. No, I'm not. We we take turns. Okay, but that is one of my roles.

SPEAKER_05 9:38

But you're a sister.

SPEAKER_01 9:39

I am a sister. Um, I am a sister, and I, you know, love the relationship that we have, and we do take turns with that. So I love that there when there are times when I can't show up, we show up for each other. Um, I'm a I'm a friend. I mean, I I don't, and when I tell you friend, my friends are not friends. I don't take that word lightly. My friends are family. And you know this. Your sons are my nephews, and I mean it with every being in my heart. If they need me, they know they can reach out to me.

SPEAKER_05 10:12

That's the type of friend I was actually the role I was like, if it doesn't hit number five, we'll talk about number six.

SPEAKER_01 10:17

Yeah, but that that's it, right? I mean, of course, a daughter, I love my dad. My dad will be 80 years old in July. Congratulations. Pop pop is what I call him. That is amazing. And to this day, I still listen to everything he says. He thinks I don't, yeah, but I hear him.

SPEAKER_05 10:32

Yeah, that is a blessing to have your dad around until 80. Absolutely. So, rules, mom. Yes, um, I want to dig a little bit deeper into that. Okay. So, Taylor, uh, one of my favorites. Also, consider myself an auntie to her as well. Um, I love her deeply. So, when thinking about how loving she is and caring she is to herself and how you can't couldn't relate to that. Um what do you think has changed in you that's allowed that to develop in her?

SPEAKER_01 11:19

I mean, what's changed in me is loving myself out loud. Loving myself with the joy, the peace, the healing that I have worked on. Yeah, especially since her her being a preteen.

SPEAKER_04 11:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

I was determined. Um, I grieved. My mom passed away when I was 29. So I'm 46 currently, and I'm not somebody who's like, oh, I'm not gonna tell my age. No, I'm 46. I love it, I'll be 47 in May, Taurus season. Um, and I lost myself for a very long time. Yeah, I lost myself for a very I grieved. I didn't even know I was grieving. I was angry, I was frustrated, I was annoyed, I was hostile. I would I didn't understand, but I still pushed, I still persevered.

SPEAKER_04 12:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:12

And um, you know, I made some decisions that I might I might have not made if I wasn't grieving. Yeah, but the best decision I made was um creating my baby girl. Yeah. Um, and I just showed her through, well, the thing is, I'm I can't even say it showed her through challenges because this child lives a soft life.

SPEAKER_04 12:36

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 12:37

Very soft life.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

A very soft life.

SPEAKER_00 12:40

I'm talking about, oh, where are we going for vacation this year? What? We're not going on vacation. What does that look like?

SPEAKER_05 12:47

Very soft.

SPEAKER_01 12:48

Very, yeah. Um, but what I think what I showed her is joy.

SPEAKER_05 12:52

She must have misunderstood me. You haven't planned the right. She's like, not yet. Yeah, not yet. Not yet.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

Somebody come get these.

SPEAKER_05 12:59

Yeah, because there's no way we went on four last year, and you're saying budget better.

SPEAKER_01 13:03

From from little.

SPEAKER_05 13:04

Right.

SPEAKER_01 13:05

But the thing is, as a single mother, yeah, I decided not that we were so much better, but I was like, look, girl, if I'm going, because I need this break, you probably need one too.

SPEAKER_04 13:16

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:17

Okay. And so I what didn't realize even in my hurt and my grief, I was showing her how to show up and take care of yourself.

SPEAKER_05 13:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:25

I was modeling it.

SPEAKER_05 13:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:26

To say.

SPEAKER_05 13:28

She absolutely shows up in this world. Um, I mean, she's she's tall, right? Statue. Beautiful. You can't you can't miss her. Yes. Right. So um, I love that. I love that you have taken leadership even on how she shows up in the world. Absolutely. So mom was the first role. You're nine to five.

SPEAKER_01 13:48

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 13:49

Let's talk about that. Um, so you're in a C-suite now. I am. But as of May, you've been doing this for 30 years?

SPEAKER_01 13:58

May. Well, May 17th, 1995. I started my career and my journey uh in librarianship. Because, you know, no matter what you do in a library, you're a librarian. Um, May 17th, 1995.

SPEAKER_05 14:15

30 years in librarianship.

SPEAKER_01 14:17

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 14:17

What has that looked like for you?

SPEAKER_01 14:19

Oh my, what has it not looked like? I mean, again, I have had the opportunity to grow and thrive in ways that people probably don't believe. Yeah. That people are are impressed by, people are frustrated by, people, you know, I um had wonderful mentors. Okay. Okay. And one of them in particular is um, and I and I have to name her. This is Phyllis G. Mack. She was the regional librarian. I started at the New York Public Library, and she was the regional librarian who embraced me for exactly who I was. And I think it was in that moment that that woman embraced me and let me know that it was okay. Then she had to do some refining, let's be clear. A little, you know, a little, a little sass, a little rough around the edges. But she accepted me for who I was. Yeah. And it was in that moment that I accepted myself, and I and I decided I was not gonna show up any other way except authentically.

SPEAKER_05 15:21

Yeah. So she accepted you for who you are. Who are you?

SPEAKER_01 15:26

Oh, I am sass, a frass, I am sarcastic, I am loving, I am giving, I'm very generous, um, I am very honest. I show up for people in always. Um, I can I I would say the people who I've worked with along the years can say, oh, she's tough, but she's fair. Yeah. I'm empathetic. But I also don't BS me. Yeah. This is not why we're here. Right? Like sometimes I like to see how far people go. And then we talk about it. Um, but I am a complete woman who loves herself, who loves her family, who loves to spend time. Oh my goodness, traveling. Traveling is one of the hobbies that I love and shopping. I just throw shopping in there just a little bit. Um, but you know, just loving on myself and taking the time.

SPEAKER_05 16:24

Okay. I love that. So back to this librarianship thing. Because anything that you do for 30 years, you have to love. And anything that you do this long and achieve the level of excellence that you've achieved, you have to love it. So, favorite books.

SPEAKER_01 16:39

Oh my goodness. Well, let's start with um one of my favorite people in the world is Maya Angela. Now, poetry wasn't always my thing, but let me tell you something about Maya, the way she spoke. I connected with that woman in so many ways. I don't show up, and this is why people are put off by me. I am a large, dark-skinned woman with strong features and this sass and this confidence. Where who who do you think you are? I am Tiffany Evette Alston. That is exactly who I am. Heavy on the Evette. Okay. Um, and my sister named me. My older sister tried to name me Tiffany Taylor. And my mother was like, Well, you get the Tiffany, but I get the middle name. Yeah, yeah. But then Desi got her Tiffany Taylor because what is my daughter's name?

SPEAKER_05 17:33

Taylor, right. She got her Tiffany Taylor.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

She never went to it, right? So a nod to, right? So I'm thoughtful um in everything that I do. Yeah. And my daughter is the first girl, so you know the first granddaughter. So I have a ton of nephews, like all these boys, and then here comes this thing. Spoiled. Um, but yeah, that's yeah.

SPEAKER_05 18:00

I um was just holding on to the thought of Maya Angelo being um such a pivotal person in your life because you know she's also one of my favorites. Absolutely. Um, and we talk about that often. Like you had to be talented back then to not have pretty privileged. Yes. And whatever that looked like for um society. Because not to say that she wasn't a looker, but she didn't lean on her looks. That's right. Right? So, once again, to do anything that long, you have to do it and be skilled and be um and show excellence. So, what's your second? You didn't say a book, you said.

SPEAKER_01 18:45

So, I was gonna say I did say I did say my poet, but I love, um, I know why the cage birds sing, so that's why I brought up Maya. Um, that was something that I had to read when I was young. Yeah. And I reread it again as um older and I understood it differently.

SPEAKER_05 18:59

Is it on one of the is it on the band list now?

SPEAKER_01 19:02

I'm sure it is. Oh, banned books, girl. We could sit and talk all day about band books, but yes, of course it is, right? Um, another one is um, so I was a part I had the pleasure of being a part of accountability group over these last few years since I've been down here in the DMV. And um, we read The Artist Way.

SPEAKER_04 19:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 19:24

And the Artist Way has helped me in so many ways, and that was about maybe two, two years ago, a little over two years ago, right? Yep. Um, and the artist way is about breaking your life up. I'm just gonna sum it up like this breaking your life up in quarters and four quarters, and each 12 weeks is a year. Yeah, so setting goals and reaching those goals. I have been able to do that model for the last few years, even without I still reread the book, um, but even without being a part of the accountability group because it was is it was so pivotal. The journaling, the reflection, the really digging deep with myself. And I had the opportunity to do this with a group of six women.

SPEAKER_04 20:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 20:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

Um, so that's one of my favorites. I mean, of course.

SPEAKER_05 20:17

And once again, another book that was written 30 years ago. Right? It came, it fell into our hands after 30 years, and it was just like something that because of the times, it felt like it was what we needed then, but it felt like it had just been written too. Like every time we got to a new section, it was just like, how did she know this 30 years ago? Listen, I'm an old soul too.

SPEAKER_01 20:45

So, like, it's it's funny that I lean on wisdom. I lean on I I feel like I stand on the shoulders of my ancestors and I listen, I listen. Yeah, I listen to discernment. I try there's often times where I can't explain why I feel the way I feel, and um it's discernment, it's just it's intuition.

SPEAKER_05 21:05

So, who knows why the cage bird saying the artist? Give me one more.

SPEAKER_01 21:11

Let's see.

SPEAKER_00 21:14

Do I want to go to Shelly to Michelle Obama?

SPEAKER_01 21:18

Um, and why and I love all I love first of all, I love Michelle Obama like like like I called her Shelly, like she knows who I am. I have been to her becoming, yeah, is one of my favorites. I have it in print and I have it on audiobook. And I went to her um tour where um Ellen DeGeneres was her narrator, was her motor. Her moderator. I felt my heart was so full to be able to be in a space with this woman who I admire so much. Yeah. Why the first African American woman in the White House.

SPEAKER_04 21:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:59

And she had to, when everybody else went low, she went high. Oh my goodness. You know how hard that is.

SPEAKER_05 22:07

I I assume it's really hard.

SPEAKER_01 22:08

I'm still working on it.

SPEAKER_05 22:09

Yeah, me too.

SPEAKER_01 22:10

Okay, I'm a work in progress.

SPEAKER_05 22:12

I'm gonna tell you exactly how hard it is one day.

SPEAKER_01 22:15

Oh, yeah. We know, we know, but so that that would be my third, like I I love a lot of things, but I also love when someone tells their real story and they are honest about who they are. And she always showed up, yeah. Right? She showed up for herself, she showed up for her family, she showed up for the nation.

SPEAKER_05 22:34

Yeah. So we have your favorite books. You were just speaking on um when talking about the artist way, we were talking about like you following your intuition. So let's take a leap and jump into faith. What does that look like for you?

SPEAKER_01 22:49

Um, you know, that's very interesting. I would consider myself more spiritual than anything. Um, I have been um going to church from a from a young lady, sat in church with my mother. There's always gonna be a funny story as I think about things. I remember my mother telling the story. I mean, to this moment, she probably hovering over now, rolling her eyes, because she said that I we were in church one day. It was Easter, as a matter of fact, as Easter is coming up. And this little girl rolled her eyes, so I rolled my eyes. So she rolled her eyes twice, so I rolled it three times. And my mother is telling, she's like, I'm looking, I could strangle. We're in church, and she's like, I had to like finally pinch you because you were gonna keep going. She's like, Why is my child like this? That is why that is the only thing that I can give you that can demonstrate who I am. I am consistent. I who every space that I go in, so I have a hard time finding a church home that fits me because when I feel or get the sense that people aren't who they say they are or they don't show up the way that that is authentic, yeah, then I that makes me just a little it it turns it turns my stomach a little bit.

SPEAKER_05 24:17

That's so funny. I I love church probably for all of the wrong reasons, right? I like the theatre. I like the theatrics of it. Oh, yeah. I did, it's a show, and that's probably why, you know, towards the end, I was playing the roles that I was playing because I needed to add a little bit of that. Like I like to frame it the way that it was framed, because in my mind, church was all about the theatrics, right? Like, so a good Sunday for me was praise and worship was first and foremost on point, right? And then, you know, the pastor comes out and do what the pastor does, but somebody falls out, somebody runs around, somebody like I was there for the theatrics of it all, right? Like, yes, because so much of my intimate relationship with God happens outside of the church, I could be there and enjoy the oh that's the show. Or I can't, or when I was younger, Miss Vicky was blind, she was um a blind lady on the on the choir and sung like an angel. I had never heard anybody sing like that, but it was something about her being blind, and I remember thinking like God doesn't miss out on blessing anybody uh in a special way, right? And I was young thinking that like it's so many people who have vision in this church that wish they could sing the way she did. Say it again, right? And Miss Vicky voice was so pretty that it sounded like an instrument, and it was right, and it she she was just the n she was the sweetest lady, but I remember like like I said, from a little girl being like it's always gonna be something in life that we wish we could have, that we don't have, and something that we have that somebody else is gonna wish that we could have, right?

SPEAKER_01 26:17

Listen, that's the big behind that I always wanted and I don't have. So I understand.

SPEAKER_05 26:24

Listen, and I the people are getting rid of their big behinds these days. So once again, to your point, to our point, right? Like we wish we have it if we don't. But so you're rolling your eyes in church, but faith, what does faith mean to you?

SPEAKER_01 26:38

So faith means to me, um, every morning I wake up and I do a daily devotion. Well, before we get there, every morning my I pop my eyes open. I thank you, Lord, because you did not have to wake me up. So that's the first thing. And then I dive straight into devotionals um where I take my time, I take my few minutes, five to ten minutes, depending on the moment in the day, to read the word um and to reconnect myself and ground myself. It really is a grounding, yeah. Right? So I actually do physical grounding, I'll go in my yard and I walk around on the front yard mostly. Um that but I the grounding starts from my heart. Yeah. So my faith is listen, the faith of a mustard seed is real. Okay. The the not knowing, the putting myself out there, me sitting here doing a podcast right now is the faith of a mustard seed. You may not have known this, or you may you may notice. I hated my voice for years, especially growing up. The cadence, the tone, the deep hello, sir. And I'm like, ma'am.

SPEAKER_05 27:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:52

And the fact that I am out here speaking on a podcast.

SPEAKER_05 27:55

Yeah. And in front of people several times, and public speaking. And public speaking, right? But then we land in rooms where we all have the same cadence. We all could be one time or another recognized as a male. Um, it's so funny, right? Because we all think that we live these very, very different lives, and then you find your tribe and realize that you kind of all have lived in some way or another the same kind of thing, right? So I'm gonna leap, I'm gonna lean back into this faith thing one more time because losing your mom at 29 had to be hard. Right. And then becoming a mom after she was gone. So her not being able to see your little one, the first girl of the grandkids. Um, how did you get through that?

SPEAKER_01 28:54

Faith. Um, honestly, I cried most days of my pregnancy because I miss my mom so much. Yeah. I was 31 when I had Taylor. My mother was 31 when she had me.

SPEAKER_04 29:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:09

Um, my mom died at 60. So I turned 32 later that year, but I was 31 years old and miss my mom so much. Um, but I have my sisters, I have good girlfriends. I'm talking about I have been blessed in abundance with good, good friends. Um, I mean, like I, you know, family, community, village. All of those things are are words that I don't throw around lightly because it's so meaningful to me. And I would not be where I am without my village, my community, my family. Um, and I and I do not do not take that for granted.

SPEAKER_04 29:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:56

Um, in any way. So um Losing losing my mom and raising my baby on faith, there were times where that's all I had. I didn't even know how I was gonna do this. How am I gonna be a mother? Why did God trust me with this little girl? What am I supposed to do with her? The first time that um Taylor's dad left to go to work after Taylor was born, I I looked around. I said, You're leaving me here with this baby? And he looked at me like I was crazy.

SPEAKER_04 30:30

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:30

And then I was like, Oh my, I mean, I cried. I called one of my good girlfriends. She and I was living in Westchester at the time, and she was in Harlem. Do you know? I don't she got there. I it felt like 20 minutes later. It probably was. So when I mean, when I talk about village, when I talk about family, Taylor has been blessed. So yes, she doesn't have my mom physically, but I know she has my mom's spirit. Taylor understands that my mom used to love um elephants. Every oh, we would be bumping in the elephants. And she had a whole armoire, and everything is elephants. Taylor has an elephant charm on her Pandora bracelet. When Taylor went to her homecoming, she wanted to wear my mother's elephant charm. She wants to be so connected to her in every way, and I love that.

SPEAKER_05 31:24

Yeah, or she is connected.

SPEAKER_01 31:25

Or she, oh my, and I know she whispers in her ear.

SPEAKER_05 31:28

Because sometimes I'm like and she's able to get a little piece of her from all of you.

SPEAKER_01 31:32

Yeah. Oh, well, we are we are Carol's daughters in every sense of the word, okay? My mother used to be very Scorpio, November 21st, and she was quiet. Um, but then she was, she wasn't uh very charismatic, yeah, very, very family, very um, very private, but very open. Yeah. And that's like a unique skill that I didn't realize at the time that I was absorbing. I'm really I'm really gonna say I'm most like my mother. And I'm not saying that like to own.

SPEAKER_05 32:06

I really, when I the older I get and I say stuff, I'm like, we are often joking about how Glendor and Carol comes out of us regularly. Okay, that is you live long enough and you become Glenny, you know. I mean, I always knew I looked like her, but I say things on a regular basis, and also like one of my friends, I can be on the phone, she'd be like, that was such your mother, just like and I'm just like, deal with it because that's it's who you are.

SPEAKER_01 32:39

Listen, I tell you all the time, and I told you Sunday. I said, hmm, Glendora, right? Uh Keanti may sound like her, but you are her, you know, and I love that for me, right?

SPEAKER_05 32:53

I love that for me. Um, okay, so we've touched on a lot of things. We touched on a lot of the people in your life, your life. We've talked about the transition from New York to DC to Baltimore and um 30 years in librarianship, yeah. Which means even at this early age of yours, you could consider retirement soon if you wanted to.

SPEAKER_00 33:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 33:27

What does that look like to you? Does that still look like is Baltimore so much a part of your life now that you have is this home at this point?

SPEAKER_01 33:40

Baltimore is definitely home. Yeah. Um, there's a connection that I've always had to Baltimore. My sister came here 20 plus years ago at this point, um, after leaving college. She graduated from college. I think she can't a brief stint in New York City, like maybe three to six months. Even Ebony. And then the next thing you know, she was in Baltimore purchasing a home.

SPEAKER_05 34:03

And so we got everybody down here except Desi.

SPEAKER_01 34:05

Well, yeah, you know, Desi. Sometimes, you know, it's always one of us. But Desi's still connected. Desi waiting for her rancher. She got she wants she wants a specific house. Okay. She's like, I'm not doing all of these townhouses and three floors, and y'all.

SPEAKER_05 34:18

I love that. She knows exactly when it's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_01 34:21

She's like, and and she was like, and I want my rancher. So much so she was like, I'll know when it's time. Okay. Um, but I used my connection to Baltimore started way before we lived here. Okay. I would visit when Taylor was so I had I was fortunate enough the first year of Taylor being here, I was able to take that year off of work and just spend time with her. And I truly believe that is where our bond and connection started. Just to be again, it was it was just me. I'm like, I gotta figure this out. And we would come down here so often that Ebony's friends would be like, Tiff Livia now.

SPEAKER_00 35:04

Because I mean, right.

SPEAKER_01 35:06

I just came home from work, is she here? Um, so yeah, Baltimore will always be home. Okay, Baltimore to me is um my second home.

SPEAKER_04 35:17

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:18

I mean, you know, as a native New Yorker, I I feel such a connection here. And I and I build a tribe and a village here, yeah, and I'm deeply grateful for that.

SPEAKER_05 35:28

Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. So we've talked about a little bit of everything. We've talked about faith and religion. We've talked about your favorite books, we've talked about your family, we've talked about your career. Yeah, well, we've talked about one part of your career. We've talked about how you never thought entrepreneurship was a part could be a part of your plan. What do you love the most about coaching?

SPEAKER_01 35:56

I love to see people grow. I love to see people thrive, I love to see people blossom in coaching.

SPEAKER_04 36:07

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:09

It's like you plant a seed and then you watch it blossom into this beautiful flower that people don't always know is there.

SPEAKER_04 36:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:21

And why I love it so much is because yes, I've done some training, and yes, I am in a process of being certified, but it it's been natural, it's been something that I've been doing my whole life.

SPEAKER_05 36:36

Yeah, it's such a calling. Oh my goodness. It's a gifting, it's a calling, it is a gift, it's a responsibility. Heavy. It is a responsibility. Um it is not one of those things that you can take for granted.

SPEAKER_01 36:50

And I don't.

SPEAKER_05 36:51

Yeah. Um I love that. How important do you think coaching is for other people?

SPEAKER_01 37:01

Coaching is one of those things that if you don't do it, you can miss so many opportunities for yourself. Right? People often overlook it. Um it's not like therapy. It's like therapy, but it's not like therapy. Um, because coaching, I mean, so the so here are the similarities. You have to do your own work. Yeah, people often don't understand. They think that if they go to a coach, that the coach is gonna give you the answers. That is not why I'm here. What I'm here to do is to help you bring out the best in yourself. I'm here to help you tap into that, what is already within you. I'm here to help you build on yourself. Yeah. Um, and so coaching is so important because without it, I wouldn't even be sitting here where I am. I've had an executive coach in my professional career. Um, and and I embraced it. Yeah. Embraced it so much that the coach, I think they were like, oh, this sassy thing, it's not gonna work. And by the end, my last session, you get a six-month session for executive coaching. And I think they kind of went in, like, okay, she's a, you know, all right, we'll see how this goes. By the end of it, my last session, he was saying, and then, and she's done this and she's grown. And I was like, Yeah, what he said. Because I think that he was even impressed at how serious I took coaching. Yeah, and it was from that, and honestly, even in that moment, I didn't know I wanted to be a coach, but it was from that moment that I understood the value of coaching. Yeah, and I talked to everyone about it. Like, you yeah, let me tell you about my journey. Because this is the other part. As I sit here with you all and I'm talking about this, and we're on this podcast. Let me explain something to you. Even though I am shooting I'm reaching for the stars and I'm doing all the things and putting myself out there, when I tell you the challenges, the blows come, yeah, I am fighting for my life every day. Yeah, making it look easy so much so that people get frustrated with me.

SPEAKER_04 39:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:18

And I'm talking about swinging.

SPEAKER_05 39:20

And also, just let's be very honest. You have lived a life that hasn't come with a silver spoon, a silver sword, or just a book, right? Or a manual. Right? We don't get one for parenting. No, we don't get one for black women in the C-suite.

SPEAKER_01 39:43

At all.

SPEAKER_05 39:44

Right? We don't get one for executive coaching when we didn't even know that that was a thing for years, right? And they other cultures and ethnic groups have been previewed to it, but we we didn't know, right? Right. So you're showing up in all of these spaces and being sometimes the first in your group, the first in your family, the first to do it, right? So just thinking about that, how important is visibility to you? Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01 40:18

So visibility has become so much more important to me because I value and love who I am. And every space that I show up, yeah, I'm a black woman first. Yeah, this is not discounting anyone else, yeah, but I embrace who I am. Yeah, you're going to see me before you hear me, before I speak, before you know anything about me, you see black woman. And so, because of that, it's so important for me to help people navigate the workplace politics that we normally don't get to navigate because we have to be quiet, because we don't want to show up like the angry black woman. So I help people navigate their their worlds, being able to speak to be heard.

SPEAKER_04 41:07

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:10

No, no, I'm going to speak up. And yes, um, it may feel don't uh mistake my me being assertive for aggressive because of maybe how you feel about yourself. And be again, I have to continue to go back to I'm a large, I'm 5'8, a large black, dark skin, and I show up in spaces and and I'm not what people consider a librarian. Let's be clear. When people see me, they do not see librarian. So to be the chief librarian, to be the person who is overseeing 26 libraries, coordinating services, yeah, uh remarks at events, speaking with authors, speaking with children, every space that I walk in, I show up. And they're like, oh, and who are you? And I'm like, Oh, I am, you know, the chief of public services. What does that mean?

SPEAKER_04 42:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:08

And it means everything that you touch when you come into this space is I oversee those spaces.

SPEAKER_05 42:14

And people are like, You had to touch it first. Yeah, yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 42:18

I oversee dynamic groups of individuals who do this work, who lead the teams that do this work. I get the opportunity to do that, and that's how I try to show up.

SPEAKER_05 42:28

Yeah. So Tiffany Austin.

SPEAKER_01 42:31

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 42:32

What's next?

SPEAKER_01 42:34

Oh, what's next? So I have built my career on supporting individuals, um, supporting their growth. What's next is me focusing on Tiffany, leaning into myself, um, putting myself out there in ways that I encourage others to do. Taking leaps and not playing it small.

SPEAKER_05 43:04

Yeah. Big faith.

SPEAKER_01 43:06

Big faith. Big mind faith. Um, yeah. That's it. And what that looks like, I can't even tell you, but I know we'll we'll probably you'll be on this journey with me.

SPEAKER_05 43:19

We shall see. We shall, I know I will be on a journey with you, but we shall see what's next.

SPEAKER_01 43:24

Oh, we will see what's next.

SPEAKER_05 43:27

Do you ending? Thank you. Thank you so much once again for giving me the privilege to start off once uh quarter two of 2025. You know, we we have seen several things happen in quarter one. It was interesting, but today proved that quarter two, and I believe going forward is gonna be such an amazing year.

SPEAKER_01 43:53

Well, thank you for taking the time, you know, to spend this. I don't take it lightly that you took time to spend with me and pour into me. Yeah. Um, and so thank you, Mikeia, for always being available, making yourself available, and for supporting me.

SPEAKER_04 44:07

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 44:09

So thanks for tuning into What's Next. I hope today's conversation sparked new ideas and gave you a fresh perspective on life's transitions. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, or share it with someone who might need a little bit more inspiration. For more stories and updates, follow me on IG, TikTok, and LinkedIn at the Chief Librarian. Until next time, stay bold, stay ready, and keep pushing towards what's next. I'm your host, the Chief Librarian.