- Welcome to Balancing Life's Issues, the podcast.
Today we're here to continue the celebration
of Black History Month,
and of course, I'm joined by Senior Trainer
and DEIB contributor James Francis. How are you today?
- Doing well, Kai. Doing well. Thanks for having me.
- Of course. So, today we wanted
to talk about black entrepreneurship
by sharing some facts with all of you.
And, and later on we'll be introducing today's guest,
Letitia b Russell, as well as a bit
of a dive into the first black female CEO
of a Fortune 500 company.
Do you happen to know who that is, James?
- I have an idea, but I'm not sure. .
- Okay, great. Well, we'll, I'll, I'll spoil it later on.
So, um, and the stats I'm about
to share come from a brookings.edu research article titled,
who is Driving Black Business Growth.
So James, I got a question for you. Ready? Shoot,
- Go for - It.
All right. Did you know that
before the COVID-19 pandemic black owned business was on the
rise having increased by 13.64%?
- Absolutely. I believe that it was even increased in my
household with my wife
and my children. So I believe that.
- Oh, that's amazing to hear. Fantastic.
Okay, so lemme ask you this.
If black business ownership continues
to grow at its current rate,
how long do you think it would take to become equitable
with the proportion of white business owners in America?
- Honestly, uh, my guess would easily be at least a hundred
years, if not more.
- It'd be a lot higher than that 256 years. Wow.
At the current growth rate
to reach an equitable proportion of white business owners.
And all this research that has come out is recent
because it stems from the murder of George Floyd.
Uh, the social justice movement that resulted
was not only calling out policing, it was also calling,
calling out the inequities
that black business owners were facing at
that time when it came to the government loans
that were helping businesses stay stay afloat.
So, last question. Did black women owned employer businesses
outpace women owned businesses or black owned businesses?
- It outpaced both based on the friend and family around me.
- It outpaced both. All right, great.
It was a trick question. It was both.
And that is a perfect segue into today's guess.
Letitia b Russell is a renowned emotional wellness
and leadership coach, author and transformational speaker
and founder of Letitia b Russell, LLC, and Russell.
Craig will HR Consulting.
Welcome to the podcast, Leticia.
- Thank you for having me.
- Of course. Can you tell us a
little bit about the work you do?
- Absolutely. I would love to.
So ultimately I serve as, um, an emotional wellness coach
where I really support all things mental health
and emotional wellness and fostering that in organizations.
And earlier you talked about covid, right?
Even though these things existed pre covid,
they really exist and show up today in organizations.
And so my goal and job
and role is really to help organizations navigate
that while they increase their productivity, retention,
and hopefully preventing the quiet quitting
that you hear about as well.
- Yeah, yeah. No, and like your role is so vital
because we are seeing businesses really pivot
to emotional wellness and providing that as a benefit.
And it sounds like you are a crucial piece in that puzzle
to getting businesses to really open
themselves up to that opportunity.
So thanks again for being here. Absolutely.
And uh, James, I know you have a whole list
of questions ready to go, ,
so I'm gonna pass out all over to you.
So go ahead James.
- Absolutely, absolutely. And Letitia, please let me know
what does Black History Month mean to you?
- Ooh, , you know so much, right?
Black history is really for me, right?
It's American history in every aspect of the word.
And so it's black excellence
and to me it's really been woven into the fabric
of just this country.
And so when you think about just black history,
the first person that sacrificed
their life was a black person.
And so we as a culture, you know, have
to really stop tiptoeing around having
to explain the black contributions of, you know,
this country, um, a fear
of really making others uncomfortable.
And so when you think about black history
and when you say it, I mean,
it is truly what's woven into us day in and day out.
- Absolutely. Becoming a business owner.
What role has education played in your journey overall?
- You know, education is, it shows me education has been,
let me backtrack, has been great,
but real life experiences are the things that have shown,
like really shown me what it's made of, right?
And so, mm-hmm, the contributions around just
what we've done, the struggles, um,
the equity, the inclusions.
And so while we get those things in education,
let's be honest, we get them in real life
and real world experiences
and the things that we see, um, day in
and day out. Wonderful.
- And, and as a black woman,
what role has resiliency played in becoming a business owner
and, and just an experienced trainer overall? Yeah.
- Um, it, it's vital.
It's, it's at the top of everything that I do
because as an entrepreneur, as a business owner,
you'll likely get more nos than yeses, right?
And so you've got to figure out how to pivot
and turn that no into what lesson do I take from this
and do better or do it differently the next time.
And so in all things that we do,
and I have to keep using the word shrink, so many times
we do find ourselves shrinking
because we are so afraid of getting the, no,
I don't wanna bug anybody, I don't wanna be aggressive,
but I always tell people, you have to ask yourself
and tell yourself that there is a very stark difference
between being assertive and being aggressive.
Right? Absolutely. And so that follow through is everything
that resiliency is everything.
And so that is at the top of everything that I do. Can we
- Circle that point a little bit, Letitia, for us?
Because I, I think
for the listeners it's like understanding like the systemic
issues that black Americans face and,
and like having a seat at the table
and you know, the version of self
that we bring to the workplace.
- Yeah. So, you know, thank you for that.
And you hear the terminology a lot about, you know,
creating your seat at the table and, but it's real, right?
And I can't remember when we, when we really started
to say it even more, but let's talk about it.
And what that really means is a lot
of times you'll hear the terminology, right?
You often hear people say, let's create
that seat at the table, but what does it mean?
And to me it means not shrinking, it means speaking up.
It means, you know, when you are put in a situation
where yeah, you are, you are
provided an opportunity to speak
and you have played out this speech in your head, right?
I'm gonna show up 110% mm-Hmm. .
But then when you step in front of a room or into a room
and everybody that you look at are your,
your white peers, right?
And so we tend to shrink
and we say 30%
of what's on our mind when in essence we really
want it to say a hundred percent.
And so I always say, you know, fear is really being judged.
It's not being seen, it's not being heard.
But I challenge people to just really say, you know,
it is time for me to step out of my comfort zone, right?
And get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
And that is what creating a seat at the table is.
- I mean, you just said so many profound things
and something that jumped out to me.
It's never a loss, it's a lesson.
And with these lessons,
where do you feel we are today when it comes to equity?
- Yeah. Um, we're behind, right?
Um, it, it's, it saddens me to see where we are.
Um, it's not that, you know,
and I'll bring up the fact that we are as women and,
and as a black race,
I think we are paid less in many instances, right?
I do think in many instances we are fearful of stepping up
and talking and showcasing who we are
and the knowledge that we have
because we have been told
that we are less than, right?
Again, so this isn't every everybody's story,
but it's a lot of people's story, right?
And so we feel that we have to continually prove ourselves
when our white counterparts do not
necessarily have to do the same.
And so I do feel that we are behind
when it comes to those things.
And that's why it is so important to just make sure
that we continue to show up, right?
Making sure that we continue to mentor and coach
and bring people along with us.
I think sometimes we have this mentality that, man, I can't,
you know, give away what I know, right?
But that's how we learn and that's how we grow
and that's how we get ahead of this.
When, when you think about equity and inclusion,
- I love that.
And, and James, I heard this from you in,
in a different context, but I dunno if you could speak
to it a little bit bit, but the
difference between equity and
- Equality.
Yes, absolutely. Two words that are joined at the hip,
- They're very different.
I'm looking at the definition
- Here, .
They are, they are vastly different.
They're vastly different.
Kai and Uhhuh treating you equally
as I would treat your child or my child is saying one thing
and I'm providing, right?
We're speaking the same, we're providing the same respect.
An equitable practice is to provide something
that you may not have but you need and you know, who has it?
James Francis. So an equitable practice would provide Kai
with the same resources
and provide 'em with the same opportunity
as James Francis has.
Mm-Hmm. those are equable
- Practices.
Right? Right. And I think a little the difference,
or maybe it's the thing to circle,
there are circumstances That's correct.
Right. Even though your circumstances differ, you
allocate the exact same resources.
That is correct. And opportunities, you know,
talking about seat at the table and, and,
and speaking of, you know, seat at the table and,
and opportunities, I wanted to, uh,
introduce our black American figure today in 2009,
Ursula Burns was named CEO of Xerox
becoming the first black woman
to head a Fortune 500 company.
And it was the culmination
of an amazing life journey from a Manhattan tenement
to the c-suite of one of America's most iconic companies.
She led Xerox for seven years
and subsequently served as CEO
of the global telecom telecommunications firm, Von
and still sits on several major corporate boards.
She's an outspoken champion of inclusive capitalism
and racial equity.
Equity. Um, so this comes from the Harvard Business Review,
and I just wanted to read, um, a couple of the answers
to some questions she was asked.
'cause I know I have a feeling you guys, um,
might have some thoughts on it.
So the first question that was asked was,
how prevalent was prejudice in your non-professional life?
And her answer, when I was growing up, I came face to face
with racism or sexism almost every day.
I became numb to it.
I vividly remember walking into Barney's,
the clothing store with my son.
One day I was already a senior executive
and making quite a bit of money.
But it was the typical situation
where somebody is watching you the whole time.
I'd experienced that a lot,
but that was the first time I said, this just isn't right.
Sure, we feel good when other people say, oh yeah, she's one
of us, but we need to get to a point
where this elite society structure no longer exists.
Does that resonate with either of you?
- With me? A thousand percent.
Um, it's kind of like the phrase Kai when someone says,
well James, I don't see color.
- Mm. - And it's, yeah,
that's always an interesting one. We've seen a lot
- , we've been seeing a lot of that lately,
- Right?
They, and, and some, for some they may mean well,
but I clarify immediately, like, well, I do, right?
I, I see height. mm-Hmm ,
I see the beautiful reds,
I see the wonderful greens, I see color.
And that is okay, right? Yeah. And, and that is okay.
But you know,
it's played an everyday role in my life as well.
Not only in how I am perceived,
but how I perceive myself that has changed my life.
And, and that's a message that I ch I give
to my children, right?
People see color, your color may be different, your shades,
your hues may be different,
but you always bring your authentic self
and that's what really should matter.
And that's something I really, you know, kind
of the message I send to my children.
- Awesome. Awesome. Anything to add, Letitia?
- Yes. Right. I, I very much live by something very similar
and a lot of times, you know, bringing your authentic self,
it is, it is something that we should do, should be able
to do more of right.
Without the fear of judgment.
Um, and so, yeah, I just, for me,
I do tell my little ones the same thing, right?
There will peop there are people
that will consistently not like what, what you do
and will consistently find something to say.
Yeah. And so I always say,
clearly you're doing something right, , right?
Yeah. When they're talking.
And so show up in your true, authentic being.
- Absolutely. Uh, okay, cool.
So I'm gonna do one more, um, question.
You write that your peers at college could deal
with your success as a black woman only
by mentally elevating you to a kind of exceptional status,
viewing you as almost frequently gifted.
Meaning they couldn't accept that other talented,
hardworking black people could make it as well.
Did you experience that throughout your life?
Answer, absolutely.
Even in the latter part of my career, people would say,
oh my God, you're so amazing.
I finally realized that
what they were saying without knowing is that in order
for me to lead a task force to be CEO, they would have
to identify me, identify me as spectacular
or else acknowledge that others who look like me,
who act like me, who come
for I come from can be at the table as well.
I'm not amazing. I'm here because I'm as good as you.
- Um, man, , yes.
I think, you know, at the, the end of the day, it is, I take
so much away from that.
But what I will say is, I'm here
because I deserve to be here, right?
Because I'm as good as the next person
and the thing that I live by, um, it's a, it's,
it's very much similar to that.
And that's, success is not final
failure is not fatal, right?
It's the courage to continue the counts.
And a lot of times we don't have the courage to continue
because of the fear of
what other people are saying or doing.
But at the end of the day, you deserve
to be here just like the next, next individual.
- Any anything to add there, James?
- I mean, she, she actually kind of said it all.
And, and I just love that quote.
That's a quote that I'm really gonna take away from today.
You are there for a reason. You are there for a reason.
And I say you, because this is something
that I suffered early in my career.
Maybe I wasn't good enough for that promotion.
Well, maybe I was not selected for this program.
Absolutely not. And I think back
and revert earlier to my career
and my life, I deserve things, things that I work hard
to achieve, things that I continue to work
and strive for on an everyday basis.
So I totally, um,
that totally resonates with me and my life.
- And I think it's, it's kind of coming back to the hallmark
of that episode one, which is this idea of it black history
has its negatives that brought upon resilience
and then that brought upon celebration,
which is what we're doing today.
You know, we're celebrating black history
and black entrepreneurs.
I think for me, as I read through this
and as I listened to you guys, I just,
I'm just thinking about the beauty of
what happens when we share our experience with the world,
and especially in positions of power.
Ursula is someone who is vulnerable
and she was true to herself,
and she wrote her own history as a result.
Thank you so much, Letitia, for being here today.
Were there any, any parting words for a, uh, a potential
entre black female entrepreneur who's,
who's listening out there today?
- You know, I'm going to, I'm gonna repeat
what I said earlier because I think
it's so important, right?
Success is not final. Failure is not fatal.
It is the courage to continue that counts.
And as an entrepreneur, as a business person,
you will have those moments
where things didn't pan out in the manner
that you saw fit, right?
But that doesn't mean that you don't get back up
and do it again, right?
And you continue to do it.
And so I just encourage you to do it,
even if it means doing it afraid.
- All right, well said. And any parting words, uh,
as we end episode two here, James?
- Absolutely. It is a continual, continual celebration
of black and American history that should not
and will not be ignored. So thank you all.
- Alright, so that wraps it up.
This is Balancing Life's Issues, the podcast.
And don't forget to join us Friday, February 23rd
for our free live webinar titled DEIB,
navigating the Difficult Conversation, hosted by myself,
and facilitated by the wonderful James Francis here.
Registration info is available@bliinfo.com slash
free webinars.
Until next time, daycare,
this has been a production of Balancing Life's Issues
with your hosts, Kai Sorenson
and Wendy Wallner, produced by me Kai Rate.
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Email me, k i@balancinglifesissues.com. Anything to add?
Miles.