Career Cheat Code
Welcome to Career Cheat Code, a podcast that explores the stories of everyday people making an impact in the world through their careers and loving every minute of it. Whether you're already on your path or searching for your purpose, this podcast is for you.
Join us every Monday as we uncover the secrets behind successful careers and inspire you to make your own mark. Formerly known as Thank God It's Monday | TGIM, don't forget to subscribe for updates and share with your friends!
Career Cheat Code
061 | Empowering Entrepreneurs feat. Taylor Overton
Ready to uncover the secrets to empowering minority and women-owned businesses? Join us as we welcome Taylor Overton, the inspiring Director of Small Business Development and Entrepreneurship for the Kansas Department of Commerce. Taylor's journey from Kansas to a high-profile tech role in San Francisco, and ultimately back to her roots, offers a treasure trove of insights on simplifying certifications and leveraging state and federal programs like the State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI). Her heartwarming commitment to her community and family values shines through as she discusses making entrepreneurship more accessible and less risky for future generations.
Taylor’s return to Kansas after an impactful career at Tesla and the Western Regional Minority Supplier Development Council (WRMSDC) is a story of passion and purpose. She shares the importance of nurturing the next generation of business leaders and the economic potential of minority businesses in Kansas. From networking and mentorship to succession planning, Taylor provides practical advice and personal anecdotes that underline the magic of calling Kansas home.
Listen as Taylor reflects on her transition back to Kansas, balancing professional work with personal entrepreneurship, and the significance of family legacy in her career choices. With insights from experiences with companies like YouCo and DiverseLink, Taylor highlights the intersection of family values and business impact. Her recommendations, such as "Hacking Supplier Diversity" by Scott Vowles and "The House of Responsible Sourcing" by Rod Robinson, offer valuable resources for anyone interested in supplier diversity. This episode is a testament to collaboration, mentorship, and making meaningful connections for broader societal benefits.
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Host - Radhy Miranda
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Producer - Gary Batista
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One of my favorite things to say at work is I'm Kansas born and raised. Kansas made me, built me Okay, cynthia Eubanks made me. Thank you, mom. But Kansas is a huge piece of who I am, and growing up I thought that success was leaving Kansas. So I left. I got a job at a large tech company with a very flashy title. I thought that you know, and my mom's sitting around a Bible study that's what she wants to share is hey, look how awesome Taylor's doing she lives in San Francisco. But that wasn't success for me.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Career Cheat Code. In this podcast, you'll hear how everyday people impact the world through their careers. Learn about their journey, career hacks and obstacles along the way. Whether you're already having the impact you want or are searching for it, this is the podcast for you.
Speaker 3:All right, taylor. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 1:Hello, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 3:Of course, let's do this again. You know, we tried it once and the microphones on my end were not working, but we're here to re-record and make it work, so thanks for being flexible.
Speaker 1:Always, always, we have to.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So let's dive right in. Let's tell the world what it is you do for a living.
Speaker 1:My name is Taylor Overton and I focus on supporting businesses small businesses, minority businesses with finding pathways to generational wealth, whether that be in the space of procurement, in the space of go-to-market strategies, whatever it is connecting those businesses with the resources that they need to then scale and leave the world better than they found it.
Speaker 3:That's beautiful. Where do you do that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I work for the Kansas Department of Commerce, actually in a brand new role. I started with the Kansas Department of Commerce in February and I was their Minority and Women Business Development Director. Right after I took that role, a new role was announced to create an Office of Small Business Development and Entrepreneurship. The state has never had this office, so I stepped into a new role within gosh a month of being there. Now I am the director of small business development and entrepreneurship.
Speaker 3:Wow. So it's like you basically got a promotion within, like your first like 60 days in office. I love that for you.
Speaker 1:I did. I was in a meeting with a couple of my leaders the other day. They said we like you so much we hired you twice in one quarter.
Speaker 3:And I was like, yay, that's awesome, taylor, is this what you always wanted to do for a living?
Speaker 1:No, no, entrepreneurship is such a risky space and I think that as we are raising you know, I won't even say black and brown children as I was being raised, I was raised not to take risks, and this is the biggest one.
Speaker 1:It's kind of interesting because both my parents are entrepreneurs. They had really stable and steady businesses, so watching the things that they went through their payment terms being extended After Hurricane Katrina, my dad actually moved to New Orleans for a long time, so I saw that work separate our family and I didn't want the problems of entrepreneurship around myself as I grew. So I always said that someone would be signing my check. I was going to work in human resources and never have to worry if I was going to make ends meet for my children and myself. I was going to stay very far away from that world. Now here I am, an entrepreneur myself and taking it a step further, advocating to make sure that no other black and brown children any children for that matter have to view entrepreneurship as a risk. I want them to view it more so as a human right.
Speaker 3:I love that. It is, and it's very much an opportunity right, especially in this country, right, like that's part of the American dream and the promise is come here here and you know you can build it here and we will support you and all the things, so like you're helping people achieve that.
Speaker 1:So that's remarkable, exactly exactly, and there's so many resources that exist. How do you navigate this landscape? How do you find capital? It's way too complicated. There is a simple solution. If we have Facebook, we can have a simple solution for creating spaces for entrepreneurs to thrive.
Speaker 3:So what happens when you walk in on Monday? What's your day look like?
Speaker 1:Within this new role. We are creating it from the ground up and we're creating the Office of Small Business and Entrepreneurship as well, but the Office of Minority and Women Business Development still lives within my team, so I'm still responsible for that space. We provide certification support, but a huge question that I receive is what happens after you get certified. It takes a long time to get an MBE or WBE certification, not to mention if you're looking at federal certifications, that's even longer. So what are the benefits of taking time away from your business to invest in certification? So we build programs and we build cohorts, if you will, around those certified businesses and connecting them with other certifying boards that might not be state or federal. We had a phone call last week with an NMSDC affiliate and once a business goes through our certification in Kansas, we also want them to be eligible for certification with one of the councils through NMSDC.
Speaker 1:So what does that reciprocal certification look like? We do a lot of those partnerships. Just to make things easier. Those certifications can take up to 60 days to complete and six months to process. Let's make it worth the entrepreneur's time. So that's a big piece of my day. I also deal in SSBCI.
Speaker 3:What are these acronyms you're saying?
Speaker 1:All the entrepreneur acronyms are so great. We have the State Small Business Credit Initiative and that's through the Department of Treasury. Kansas was granted an amount of funds through SSBCI and we're getting those out to entrepreneurs. Kansas is very lucky to have an organization called Network Kansas and they deploy those funds. They support entrepreneurs through that growth. But what happens when entrepreneurs aren't ready to take out a loan and they aren't ready for that gap financing? So there's some really cool technical assistance programs coming out very soon to be able to build that bankability, if you will. So that's a huge part of my role as well is looking at those equity gaps and realizing, hey, maybe everything we have is helpful, but maybe it's not accessible.
Speaker 3:What's your favorite part of your role?
Speaker 1:My favorite part of my role would be looking at the data and the impact that we're having, meeting the businesses that are behind that data. It's not just one business, that is one mother, that is one family, that's an income and just meeting the faces behind the data and then coming back to that data and being able to say, hey, we're driving economic equality in the state of Kansas. We're making an impact. Kansas is a powerhouse when it comes to our economic footprint and the way that we are innovating and changing what people think Kansas is. It's not just some dirt roads. We have some really awesome initiatives. Last week, love Kansas. It's a campaign for individuals like me who have left the state of Kansas but decided they want to make their way home and want to reintroduce themselves to Kansas as a professional, so bringing that talent back and circling it back. It's called a boomerang. I'm a boomerang, so that's my favorite part really meeting the people behind the data and sharing all that Kansas has to offer that I love so much.
Speaker 3:That's great. Do you have a specific most challenging part of your role so far? I know it hasn't been that long since you're in it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, yeah, that's a great one. I would say I don't have a huge challenge right now and watch me walk into work on Monday and find that challenge. My biggest concern is succession planning. I think that within supplier diversity, within the space of just all things minority business we don't have a really good plan for when these powerhouse leaders leave. There's not a lot of people my age I just hit 30 in the supplier diversity field, so that's something that we really are staying focused on, and I stay focused on constantly.
Speaker 1:I love meeting younger folks that are interested in how do we drive the needle, how do we find more businesses, support more businesses, grow more businesses? And once this current generation leaves us, do we have enough knowledge to approach their problems that they solved proactively and then look at our problems with that historical and that institutional knowledge, if you will? It doesn't have to be brand new. We can take what they have left us and innovate it for our current challenges, and I think that's my biggest concern that keeps me up at night just getting more people into the space of advocating for minority women, lgbtq, disabled business owners.
Speaker 3:You seem very passionate about Kansas. Let's backtrack. Let's talk about where we were born, where we're raised, all the good things.
Speaker 1:One of my favorite things to say at work is I'm Kansas born and raised. Kansas made me, built me. Okay, cynthia Eubanks made me. Thank you, mom.
Speaker 1:But Kansas is a huge piece of who I am, and growing up I thought that success was leaving Kansas. So I left. I got a job at a large tech company with a very flashy title. I thought that when my mom's sitting around a Bible study, that's what she wants to share is hey look how awesome Taylor's doing she lives in San Francisco. But that wasn't success for me.
Speaker 1:So then most of my professional career has been on the West Coast, whether it's San Diego, san Francisco, it that wasn't success for me. So then most of my professional career has been on the West Coast, whether it's San Diego, san Francisco. It's been out West, and just hearing people say I'm Bay Area born and raised it would hit my soul a little different. I wanted to invest in the space and the people that invested so much in me. So when we decided my husband and I decided to move back to Kansas to raise our family it was very intentional, and being able to say Kansas born and raised everywhere I go has a feeling that I cannot explain to anyone. It's pure magic, it really is.
Speaker 3:Let's talk about that part. So when you were in high school, you were in high school in Kansas. What did you think you were going to do at that point in life? Was it like already human resources and what actually happened after, like graduation, like what did you end up doing?
Speaker 1:So that's a good one. So I did not want to go into human resources. When I was in high school I would tell people I wanted to be a housewife because I associated financial stability with safety, with security, and that seemed like the easiest route. So you know how? How was I making it to said housewifeness? No clue. But you know, I knew I had to go to college. That was something that was not afforded to my ancestors, even my grandparents, so I knew that that is something I wanted to accomplish.
Speaker 1:I come from a tennis family. All of us play tennis competitively. I actually still play competitively, and so I got a scholarship to play tennis and I actually ended up at Morgan State University. Coming from Kansas to Morgan State, I wasn't quite ready for the culture shift. I don't think my parents were ready for the amount of danger that their little 18, 17, 18-year-old Taylor was going to face. So I ended up back at a small school in Ottawa, kansas, ottawa University, where I finished my undergrad and did my master's there as well In my master's program. That is where I identified human resources and recruiting, because I found a space where I could explain to individuals and I could share access to different careers. I could help diversify businesses through unique recruitment channels and things like of that nature. So that is where I where I stayed for a long time until I found supplier diversity as human resources.
Speaker 3:Wow. Ok. So you go to school in Baltimore. You at some point midway through that say you know what, let me go back home. You make it back home and you enroll in a program that also then becomes presumably this is one of those like you finish undergrad and then you work directly towards your grad degree right away and through that you develop this desire to go into human resources. Did you see yourself as like a recruiter or like a head of human resources? Like were you already meeting other professionals in the field that you felt like you know what their job seems pretty cool, or like how did that happen?
Speaker 1:No, so actually I did have a little bit of gap in there. So once I graduated undergrad, I started working full time. My parents and my family needed some help, so I went to work full time, make some money, help my mom and dad. I ended up working for a nonprofit out of Coke Industries here in Kansas. I was the development officer, so I was doing a lot of recruitment of donors and things of that nature.
Speaker 1:Still wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do, though, so I got a call from one of the coaches, actually at Ottawa university. She coached me in high school in cheerleading, and then once the cheerleading coach at Ottawa. I wasn't ever good at cheerleading, it was just something that was mine. None of my siblings did it and I loved it, so I was always around the team. I was always helping when they had recruits, and she called me one day and said hey, I need an assistant coach and I want you to come back and coach with me. And I was like I can't even do a toe touch. You know, you know what? What good would I be to you? And she said you recruit like no one else and you're a fantastic recruiter. I want you helping our program. I want you to build our program.
Speaker 1:So the year I came back I recruited over 20 people to the team. The largest class they had had before that it wasn't even 11, I want to say so doubled what we were looking at historically and was really able to positively impact the diversity of campus from my recruitment efforts and I thought that was cool. With this coaching position I was also introduced to the master's program. I was able to do my master's for free. Human resources was one of the areas in which I could focus in my MBA. So that's sort of how I was routed. That way was just someone recognizing hey, taylor's a recruiter. She might not be a cheerleader, but she can recruit cheerleaders. She's passionate about the school. So it was her actually telling me that I was good at something and that's how I ended up. There was that realization.
Speaker 3:That's great. So tennis and cheerleading, and then the universe kind of circling back and bringing people back into your life that recognize something in you and recognize you were good at something maybe not specifically in that field yet, but you were good at the thing. So as long as we can get you in the field, we can figure the rest out. I love that and I also appreciate you sharing, you know, going to school and getting a master's right, like that's what I did, which is the only way that I would have gotten an afforded a master's. So you know, I think that's one of the biggest career cheat codes I've seen, which is go work at a university and get a master's program out of it.
Speaker 1:Yes, I still have dreams that I am working at the university and interfacing with students and keeping up with the lingo. I think that that is a huge leg up is to have that experience working with so many generations in one space, because we have more generations in the workforce right now than ever before. It's hard. I have a little brother that is in college and talking with him, I'm on Google. You know what mid is, what you know checking, what do these words mean? So the time I spent in the university really helped me identify the power within generational diversity, and I think that's why I am so focused on succession planning within supplier diversity. I know what's coming and we need to have more professionals prepared to take on. That's great. Take on that work.
Speaker 3:Okay, so tell me what happens after graduation from your master's program. So you finish your MBA with your concentration in HR. You're, at that time, still working at the university. What happens?
Speaker 1:So after I leave the university, I was offered a role at a construction company and I was working as a corporate recruiter um, actually, on the West coast, everything wanted me to be West coast but I was recruiting oh gosh engineers, safety professionals, things that you would recruit in the construction industry for a general contractor or a sub contractor, and I did that for a while. But I really was struggling with my mental health and my fiance at the time, who's now my husband, said you know what? Drop everything, come out to San Diego where he was working, and find peace, find your happiness what is that? What are the things you love to do? And just hit reset. So that's what I did and ended up walking people's dogs for a while and tripped and ended up at Tesla, recruiting at Tesla for engineers as well.
Speaker 3:What does that mean? How do you trip and fall into Tesla? That's like a huge organization.
Speaker 1:You know it was. It was awesome. An individual that I actually was in eighth grade choir with was living in LA and he worked for Tesla, and so one day I just reached out and was like hey, do you like working there? And it turned out they were actually hiring like 30 recruiters. I interviewed on Monday and I started on Wednesday, so it was the fastest interview process I've ever experienced and just so timely. But I really didn't know what I was getting myself into in the Tesla world when I accepted that role. It really changed my life.
Speaker 3:Wow, tell me about your role there. What did you end up doing? What kind of roles were you recruiting for? How was that entire experience there?
Speaker 1:When I first started I was on the energy team and my husband is a battery storage engineer, so it was perfect. Any words, I didn't know jargon. I was turning around and asking him but I was looking for like journeyman electricians and individuals for the supercharger team and stuff that I didn't know much about solar installers. But I learned really quickly and we had a lot of high volume roles. I had not done high volume recruiting before, so finding quality candidates when I'm looking at a requisition of 600 candidates was was eyeopening, really eyeopening.
Speaker 3:What year is this? So we have a sense, because Tesla has been continuously growing right Over the last few years.
Speaker 1:So this was gosh 2019, 2020. So, right as we're going in, the pandemic is gosh 2019, 2020.
Speaker 3:So, right, as we're going in the pandemic, Got it Okay. So you're, you stick around there. Um, you do that for about two years, you stick at Tesla, right, and then you made a move that ultimately brought us together.
Speaker 1:I did Where'd you end up going after that. And why did you? Why would you ever leave Tesla?
Speaker 3:Why do people leave Tesla, Not people?
Speaker 1:but why did you feel like it was the right time to do that? To this day, I still get LinkedIn messages saying like, hey, how do I work at Tesla? How do I get in there? I found a mentor within Tesla. Her name was Ebony and she was phenomenal and she was working on the DEI team with supplier diversity. My parents were diverse suppliers, my parents, you know. I knew all of this language from the supplier side, but I hadn't practiced supplier diversity in what we know it to be today.
Speaker 1:Ebony was going out on a leave and I was asked to step in and submit some hub reports historically underutilized business reports for the state of Texas, for Austin. So I stepped in and really immersed myself in all things supplier diversity. I was introduced to the National Minority Supplier Development Council and all of these other huge, huge players within the industry and it was phenomenal. I loved everything I was doing. I was introduced to a woman-owned, minority-owned business out of California called Charger Help that was just doing phenomenal work.
Speaker 1:But ultimately, tesla did away with supplier diversity efforts. There wasn't a need anymore. And Tesla did away with supplier diversity efforts. There wasn't a need anymore. So anyone that was working in that space, we were all let go, all done. So I had another role I was able to go back to within recruitment, but it His name is Cecil Plummer and he said hey, I need a director of minority and corporate business development. Can you come work at this nonprofit? And I was like you know, I have a little nonprofit experience, but sure, let's do it. So that is where where I ultimately met you. So it was through the connections that I made that was able to pull me out of Tesla and keep me in the supplier diversity space and keep me challenged.
Speaker 3:You know for sure, shout out to Cecil. Cecil is an amazing human. You know. He and I had some good conversations while he was leading the WRMSDC, which is a regional affiliate, I guess, of the MSDC. I'm like there's so many acronyms.
Speaker 1:You have all the acronyms. I'm telling you we need a book.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, I love it. So you know that's really when our paths crossed. Right In my time here at Rockefeller, at the Rockefeller Foundation, we partnered and did some work and are still ongoing with some work there for some minority and woman-owned businesses in the Bay Area right, just making sure that they have some opportunities for contracting and some other work. So really proud of the work that we're doing there in partnership. So you know that role really brought us together, so I also appreciate it for that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that that role I made connections that I'd never made, that caliber of connection before and I think in a text message to you a couple of weeks ago I was like, hey, I'm not going to bother you on this anymore. And you said this isn't bothering, this is networking. And I really sat back and thought about that comment. And so often we don't ask the people that we meet hey, what do you think about this, or what are your thoughts on this work? I know we've done this work together in the past, but can I get your feedback? And so that statement alone that you made to me this isn't a bother, this is networking. It's so true, and that's a culture shift that we need to make.
Speaker 3:I appreciate that we often forget how powerful our networks are and we definitely don't leverage them enough.
Speaker 3:And part of that, you know, may very well be the I don't want to bother folks. I don't want to, like you know, be in people's business or like let people know my business or whatever, but, like, the whole point of having a powerful network is to leverage it. Otherwise you're misusing the network. And, um, you know, know, I appreciate when you reach out and ask for questions or thoughts or feedback, because I will absolutely do the same thing and you know we will sharpen each other and we'll make it work and ultimately it's for the work that we're doing. Right? So, if you're dedicated to the people of Kansas and to entrepreneurs in Kansas, it is absolutely your duty to use every lever at your disposal to try to benefit entrepreneurs in Kansas. I love it and, you know, I just encourage others to make sure that they leverage their networks as much as possible, because otherwise you're like, what's the point? Right, just to say you know people and they know you. Like, how is it? How is it benefiting society?
Speaker 1:So true, so true. It's not just a LinkedIn connection.
Speaker 3:Exactly, exactly. So tell me what happened. So you stick around there for at WRMSDC. Which means what again? Remind us what, what, all these activities.
Speaker 1:Western Regional Minority Supplier Development Council.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so you stick around there. Yeah, I know Right. So you stick around there for a little bit and tell me what were some of the things that you were working on specifically while you were there and what ended up being the moment that brought you back home.
Speaker 1:So what I always say was my baby was something called the Corporate Ready Program, crp. Corporate Ready was running when I got to WRMSDC and I saw several spaces for opportunity for growth and the leaders within WRMSDC were open to my feedback and I was like this is awesome. So we were able to implement changes that were actionable not only actionable. Implement changes that were actionable not only actionable, but supported the business's daily operation. They could actually see okay, when I implement this ESG policy, I'm going to be asked for it on an RFP or when you know things that were necessary.
Speaker 1:But as business owners, we don't think, hey, I'm going to sit down and write an ESG policy today just because I've got time. No one has time for that. So, teaching these businesses how to be competitive in the marketplace and how to stand out your certification does not get you there. It is having the policies in place, having the know-how and having the business acumen to interface with these corporate supply chain leaders and buyers and be memorable. We called it polite persistence. So that was really. My baby was updating and innovating that program. That's something that still runs today within the council. I go to the website pretty often just to look at the graduates and see who has gone through it. If I know any of them, I'll send them a quick LinkedIn message and congratulate them. But there's so much power in working on something tirelessly and then seeing it still run when you're not there. It's super cool. It's a really cool feeling.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. I was in Chicago a few weeks ago with a former colleague of mine at Columbia University. I was in Chicago a few weeks ago with a former colleague of mine at Columbia University and it was really her brainchild. But I was there from the beginning and supported it and helped run this program. It was a supply diversity program and this was maybe 2014.
Speaker 3:And we just started catching up and I was like, hey, how's the program going? Because I know it's still running. And she's like, oh, you know what, since we started that program, it's now provided over $125 million to entrepreneurs. I'm like what just happened and this is work that literally would not have happened if that group of people were not there at that moment and then continued and then passed the baton to other folks that can continue to like you said right, come in, iterate it, grow it. Like one of the things they're doing now is like growing it so that more entrepreneurs get opportunities, and like that's what it's all about you create a thing and let people come in and support it and grow it and scale it from there.
Speaker 1:I think that that's a challenge that we all face. We see the entrepreneurs that are visible in our urban communities, right, but what about the rural spaces in between? What about those small grassroots businesses that are just trying to make it day to day? So when we scale and we grow these programs, we're able to include those rural communities and those growing communities and I yeah, I think it's just beautiful the way, the way these programs grow.
Speaker 3:Let's talk about the transition back home. What was the moment like? What brought you to say you know what the Bay Area is great, I'm having a good time, but let's go back home and do some good work.
Speaker 1:I, like I mentioned earlier, I'm a mom. I have a two-year-old little boy and when talking to my husband about his upbringing, what are the things that are important to us about his upbringing? What are the things that are important to us? What are the things we want to instill in him? So many of those things were back here. My family is here and my mom has been pretty ill. She's not doing well so we moved back to support and to help family and my son actually is enrolled in the same Montessori school that I went to Growing up.
Speaker 1:I was in a lot of I don't know if you call we called them special education classes back then. I was not good at reading, not good at math, and they thought that I had issues understanding and comprehending the content that was being taught. So I was often in different classes than my peers and the Montessori school system really elevated that. It taught me a lot of empathy. It taught me how to work with those that might not be on the same level playing field with me academically or intellectually, whatever it might be, and I really wanted my son to go to that school. It's called Raintree Montessori School. We tried to find a Montessori that matched the things that I experienced in the space and we just couldn't. We wanted to find a Montessori that matched the things that I experienced in the space and we just couldn't. We wanted to come back home. So he'll be in that school. He's two, he'll be there until he's in eighth grade and we just think it's really impactful. And then to have his Mimi and his grandpa pick him up from school, and those are values and things that we can't replace and time that we can't replace.
Speaker 1:I also saw the landscape of minority business in the state and the individual that had my role prior to me. Her name's Rhonda Harris. She had been in this role, in the minority and women role, for over 30 years. She took the role in 1994, the year I was born. I met her when I was eight years old and she changed the landscape for minority businesses drastically during that time, including both my parents' companies. So, looking at the impact she was able to have and then stepping into this role after her retirement, I'm ready to make an impact and I'm ready to see programs that are in New York, in the Bay Area, right here in Kansas. In those in-betweens and I don't want to be thought of as an in-between? Our Super Bowl championships? Don't think of us as an in-between. Why should our economic impact so really just bringing that energy to our businesses?
Speaker 3:In this type of career right, it's very impactful and I am very clear on folks don't have to sacrifice doing well for doing good. Can you tell folks generally how much money people can make in this type of field?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so in my role can make about, and in Kansas cost of living is way less. About $85,000 to $95,000 a year is about where you would be for director level and that's a state job. States historically pay a little bit less, but that's about what you would see.
Speaker 3:Got it Great. So, aside from your choir tennis cheerleading, let's talk about your entrepreneurship, right? So, like, what else do you do outside of your nine-to-five role, that kind of, and being a mom, right, like they kind of fill the the spectrum of all the layers of of taylor I always say that I've seen every single phase of entrepreneurship, to like startup, scale, growth and even closing a business.
Speaker 1:I've seen all of those spaces. But I am a contractor. We have a family contracting business. Ever since my family could, on my father's side, work for ourselves. We did as carpenters or contractors. I actually found a picture. My dad is in his seventies Gosh, he's 74 this year. I found a picture of him at eight years old in front of my great grandpa's Eubanks and Sons trucks which, thinking back to when that was like gosh in in the 50s a Black man having a construction company and a vehicle to go along with that construction company. It was super cool to see. So my maiden name is Eubanks, so I framed that little picture of my dad and that family business goes on.
Speaker 1:While that's not my primary focus, I want my children to have the opportunity to choose if they want to continue the family business, if they want to continue growing what is now called YouCo. It used to be YouBanks and Sons, but my dad had daughters. So what do you do? So, yeah, that is one of the things that we do. I also have a business called DiverseLink. I don't use it anymore. I don't do much in the business anymore, but I helped businesses navigate certification. It is so confusing, so what certifications are beneficial for you and the different industries that businesses are in? When I left WRMSDC, I really missed interfacing with businesses and supporting certification, so I started that up to kind of continue to dabble in the space and support business owners.
Speaker 3:Yeah, okay, that's great. Are there any forms of media that have helped you personally or professionally? This can be books, podcasts, anything that you would want to share with folks.
Speaker 1:So the first one I always tell everybody interested in the supplier diversity space or even just helping disadvantaged businesses I call it the fab five but minorities, women, veterans, lgbtq or persons with disabilities I always say you should start by reading Hacking Supplier Diversity by Scott Vowles. Start by reading Hacking Supplier Diversity by Scott Vowles. I had the opportunity to meet Scott when I was working at WRMSDC and not only is he a phenomenal human, he used to play tennis and just had a ton of insight. And all of that information is in that book of how you build a business case for supplier diversity in your company. What does that business case then do? How do we activate it? How do we mobilize it? So that's a great starting place is hacking supplier diversity.
Speaker 1:Another one that I really like is just a very short read by Rod Robinson, whom I have never met, but I will one day. It's called the House of Responsible Sourcing House of Responsible Sourcing, and it just talks through where does DEI, supplier diversity, tier two, tier one, all of these programs that live within procurement and responsible sourcing how do they work together and how do we build that space to have a solid foundation and be able to continue forward? So those are the two things that I tell any person interested in supplier diversity to read.
Speaker 3:I have like two more questions for you. One, you know, I think part of it is it's easy to look at you and say you know you're 30 years old, where you're so accomplished. You have your own businesses. You have worked at organizations that are, like, internationally known. You continue to do great work on behalf of the state. Were there any points, either personally or professionally, that you've had to overcome? Something that would just kind of overthrow that notion that you know life has always been great and PG and you've always had it all figured out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, back when I was early. I'm still early in my career, but earlier in my career I had a really bad habit of tying my productivity with my worth. So I would directly correlate how productive I was for the day with how I saw my self-worth, and even in making a mistake with how I saw my self-worth and even in making a mistake, a simple mistake at work. That would plummet my view of myself and my mental health to the point where I was in a really unhealthy space trying to please managers, leaders and show my value. I wasn't focused on a mission. I wasn't doing anything except for the transactional tasks that were required of me. I wasn't looking at how to innovate process. I wasn't. Whatever I thought I was doing, I wasn't doing it well. So I always challenge people early in their career and later in their career not to tie those two things together. Your productivity has nothing to do with your worth.
Speaker 1:When I stopped working for that short time and moved to San Diego, I was walking people's dogs. I think I made like $4,000 one month just walking people's dogs. You know that's more than some people make. You know, in a quarter my gosh. But understanding that, my mental health when that was stable, when my mental health was stable, when I felt good, when I felt confident, my work reflected that feeling. My work and you know, those around me could feel my impact, they could feel my positivity. So just focusing on my mental health is really where I grounded myself and that's really when the jets kicked in. That's really when things started aligning for me and just finding good mentors that will tell you the honest truth. Those are the two things that have propelled me into the space that I'm in so early.
Speaker 3:How does one find good mentors?
Speaker 1:propelled me into the space that I'm in so early. How does one find good mentors? What a loaded question. Another thing I struggled with I really gravitated towards Black women in professional settings and it's really hard to find a mentor that looks like you as a young Black woman. Some might say that there's a mindset of you know there can only be one, or you know I don't want to hook on to the other Black person because there's only two of us here, but what I have done is ask questions that I am ready to receive the answer from.
Speaker 1:So when I first met Cecil, there were some questions that I asked him. I was not ready for the answer. How do I grow in the space of supplier diversity? You've got to see some really tough stuff. You have to see some businesses you really believed in close to feel this invested in the industry. You have to see the rollback of policies and businesses. Large corporations that have been so invested in supplier diversity pull the plug because they didn't feel like it anymore, and a lot of those questions I wasn't ready to receive. So I wasn't a good mentee. So when I started asking questions like, hey, is there a toolkit for somebody who's starting out in supplier diversity that wants to do good work can leverage and go to. And he said you know, let's make one. And that is when I started to develop the mentor-mentee relationship with Cecil was when I started asking questions. I was ready to receive and then turn around and put action behind those, those answers.
Speaker 3:That's great and you know, I think it's important to latch on to people like that right, like I've had supervisors that have definitely become lifelong mentors and friends well beyond right, and part of it is them being invested more in me and my career than me in my role at that time and how I can serve them in that organization.
Speaker 3:So once I saw people pouring into me in that way, they just kind of elevated the relationship right From a supervisor's worker relationship to like oh no, I would actually talk to you once I leave here, right, and like I've had like supervisors that have worked with me through my job search but I'm like you know what I? I need to figure out my next move. This is like great, but I need to go do something else. And they're like great, what do you want to do? Let's introduce you to some people in that space, right, and like it just kind of elevates the relationship and it shows it showed me at least that these folks were really invested in me well beyond my time in that organization, which has paid off.
Speaker 1:Exactly, and I think that, for a young person looking for a mentor, reach out, reach out to somebody that you admire, send a LinkedIn message. Will they respond? Maybe, maybe not, but one thing I can guarantee you is, if you ever see them in person, you say, hey, I sent you a LinkedIn message once. I really love your article, rod. I'd love to connect sometime and discuss how you came to that understanding of the House of Responsible Sourcing and hey, that was written in 2018. Can we talk about what that would look like post COVID? That's an impactful statement, not, gosh? I really wanted to message you one day, but I didn't. So, leading with that, they might not respond to you, but I'm going to remember you if you said that to me, and so I think just leading with that intention and that willingness to receive it's really powerful.
Speaker 3:Yeah, definitely, and you know I think. One more thing on mentorship is mentors play different roles in my life, right, so there are some mentors in my life that I call when I'm debating the next career move. There are some that I literally just needed you to exist in my life so I can see something that I could strive for. And you may never help me get a job or help me think through a job, right, but like purely existing and having access to you is important to me and it helps me work on the stuff that I need to work on going forward. Right, so you know, just understanding that you may have this like group of mentors or board of directors that you work with, either because you messaged them blindly on LinkedIn or because you worked for them at some point or worked somewhere in the space of them before and just connected with them. Like everyone doesn't have to play the same role. You don't have to be the same active, needing guidance, every single relationship, right, like they're just different iterations.
Speaker 1:Exactly, and I think that I always say representation matters. There are women in the supplier diversity industry. Right now that I have I have on a list. I want to meet them before they're out, before they are retired, and I we don't have access to that knowledge and so just just charting that out, who are people that have done work that you want to follow in behind, charting that out for yourself, I think is very powerful and then if I see them at a conference, you, I've got my questions ready, I've got, I've got my my elevator pitch ready, as an entrepreneur would, because those are people that the representation has mattered so much for me in the space, and taking whatever time I'm able to in that introduction, in that segment with them and leveraging that to elevate, that's exactly what I'm going to do.
Speaker 3:Is there anything else we haven't discussed today that the world should know about Taylor?
Speaker 1:Gosh, I always lead first with my identities when I'm going into spaces, especially now as a mom. I didn't realize how important that was for me. Growing up, I thought, you know, I'm Black, I can only be Black, I'm a Black woman. We know what that life is going to be. I didn't think about the intersectionality of the spaces that I occupy. So I invite people to just lean in to those things that are true to you.
Speaker 1:I'm a black, neurodivergent mother, working mother. Make that list long and find those people that are also identifying the way that you do and occupy those spaces. One of my mentors a long time ago told me no challenge you face is going to be unique to you. So identify the people that have gone through those same challenges and ask them how they navigated. Are you going to navigate it the same? Probably not, but it's helpful to have that knowledge so you're not going in blind. So I, just I encourage people. You might feel like you're in too many spaces or you're not going in blind, so I, just I encourage people. You might feel like you're you're in too many spaces or you're too many things, but as a mother, I'm. I'm a working mom, but you're going to get 150% of this working mom. Anytime I'm there, I'm just owning that.
Speaker 3:I love that Great Thank you. Thanks for joining us today for the second time, even though the folks would only hear once you are appreciated.
Speaker 1:No, thank you so much for having me. Thank you for the work that you do connecting professionals and helping us elevate. It's really powerful. So thank you.
Speaker 3:Appreciate it. That's the goal. We're building our own X-Men-like secret society, right? Stay tuned, people.
Speaker 1:And we'll get it done.
Speaker 3:Love it.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 2:I Stay tuned, people, and we'll get it done. Love it, thank you. I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, and believe on the mission we're on, please like, rate and subscribe to this podcast on whatever platform you're using, and share this podcast with your friends and your networks. Make sure you follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn at Career Cheat Code and tell us people or careers you would like to see highlighted. See you next week with some more cheat codes. Peace.
