Intentional Conversations

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business. This week we welcomed Jelisa Dallas to Intentional Conversations! So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!** Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing. **KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM JELISSA:Remember to let your soul work, be your best work, to a better you.Fear of failing and success can coexist.GO BRAVE FRAMEWORK - this started out being for me first, a personal revelation that I needed to work through G - Growing your mindset O - Optimism B - Boldness R - Resilience A - authenticity - own who you are and operate your authority V - Victory / Virtue - always operating in integrity E - Empower people in their purpose PRACTICAL WAYS TO GO BRAVEAlways learning! When you stop learning, you stop growing. Be willing to unlearn things that have been rooted as fact or truth. Rest! Not just sleep, putting phone down, taking walks outside, etc… Recognize what we have and being grateful for that… not just what we can leverage like credentials, but who do we have. Rest and resilience - sitting in the moments of adversity and saying what was my responsibility and what wasn’t. We take it all in and try to move forward with all the baggage, but it does nothing for us. We can only control ourselves and influence others. Give Courageously - our giving can be from the cup and not from the overflow. Typically when we give, we reduce the amount of what we’re giving. Take a step away from life, as much as you can, need to identify it, what gives you reprieve. Only from a place of overflow, can we give abundantly. We don’t do much work, it just naturally comes from the overflow. CONNECT WITH JELISSA:On LinkedIn | YouTube Visit her website JELISSA'S BOOKS:The Emotional Intelligence Guide To Allyship Soul Work LET'S STAY CONNECTED:🟣 Follow NWC: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram🟣 Subscribe: NWC YouTube Channel (New videos weekly!)🟣 Explore: NWC Website🟣 Inclusion Uncomplicated Dr. White's latest book (Hard copy & NEW Paperback version available)🟣 Join: <a href="https://my.captivate.fm/#" rel="noopener...

Welcome to Season 5 of Intentional Conversations, the place where we have discussions that inspire inclusive cultures, belonging and excellence! Led by award-winning author, speaker and practitioner, Dr. Nika White and team. We're so grateful you're here. Let the conversation begin! For Episode 1 of Season 5, we welcomed Kellina Powell, and WOW! Kellina is deaf and an advocate/coach/mentor, mainly for the deaf community. BIG TAKEAWAY FROM KELLINA: Do not be afraid to come out of your comfort zone, you have one life to live. So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!** Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing. **KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM KELLINA:She chose to go into coaching, teaching, and writing because she wanted to let deaf people know they are not alone in the world. Deaf people need paper and pen. I noticed when people do a workshop, they will use someone who is not disabled, be mindful to bring the right people and the right topics. Build a good networking space Be cautious with your surroundings. Be sure emergency indicators flash or have some type of visual / or accountability partner Build a relationship with someone who has a disability. Best way to ask companies is to say “Please educate me.” Policy review needs to be consistent. What do you never again want people to say, think or do regarding deaf people? 1 - Replace the term "Hearing impairment" with "hard of hearing" or "deaf". It is ok to say "deaf". 2 - When speaking with someone, be sure your face is forward so they can read your lips. 3 - If you’re wearing masks, find the clear masks or take off your mask. 4 - Do not shout, talk softly. 5 - Don’t rephrase what you’ve said, just repeat it. It’s not an understanding issue, its a hearing issue. CONNECT WITH KELLINA:On Instagram | FB | LinkedInOn Youtube Visit her website Get her book "Everday I Am Just Deaf" LET'S STAY CONNECTED:Follow NWC: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, XSubscribe: NWC YouTube Channel (New videos weekly!)Explore: NWC WebsiteInclusion Uncomplicated Dr. White's latest book (Hard copy & NEW Paperback version available)Join: Weekly Newsletter

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business. This week we welcomed Valda Valbrun to Intentional Conversations! So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!** Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing. **KEY TAKEAWAYS:The role of education is to make kids curious! A big part is not just about making sure the curriculum reflects it, but that the school experience is not one that feels so isolating. Think through how do I accept my students as they are and how do I learn from them and incorporate that into my instruction. When I engage in content, I should see myself in it. When we think of being culturally competent, how do I as a teacher or leader invite students into that? Most students of color experience up to 90 microagressions in school. What culture have we created where self advocacy gets you in trouble? We never know what someone is experiencing in their world, everybody has something. For educators, we need to realize that we don’t know all there is to know about them, especially with young people. Students spend more time at school than they do with their families… schools should be an environment where they can come and be their full self. Culturally relevant books are being banned and that’s ok because we can still talk about it. If I learn something that is relevant to my life, and I can make it work with my lived experience and culture, it is enduring understanding. DEI work is important, but I’m not going to allow it to take away from the things that I know are important, not at the expense of my health and well-being. Real inclusion is saying who has been left out that we need to include. Given where we are, who do you want to be?CONNECT WITH VALDA:On LinkedIn Visit her website CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:Connect on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | XSubscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (New videos and more weekly!) Visit the NWC websiteGet your copy of Inclusion Uncomplicated (Paperback out in January 2025!)Subscribe to our weekly newsletter!

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business. This week we welcomed Yolanda Webb to Intentional Conversations! So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!** SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube channel for sooo much more content! **KEY TAKEAWAYS:Attention is a choice. Intention is a choice. Attention bias is being very selective about what you’re focusing on. What you focus your attention on is what is going to be the outcome. At the end of the day, when you go to bed, recall every single thing you did. It helps you to redirect your attention. The debate is not that DEI is wrong, the debate are the letters. I don’t chose to give time and energy to the people who have said this has no value. The opposite of courage is not cowardice, but compromise. Goodwill is measurable. It is selective attention. Small acts of goodwill refocuses our attention. The folx who don’t agree with me, now see my humanity. So much of our attention is internal and it needs to be more external. Tools we can use to change our attention to focus on something new:Embrace your vulnerability and your authenticity. Expand your view. Look at new resources, listen to something new. We have to focus on the small stuff!Purpose driven culture - The final decision should rest with you, but the decision making shouldn’t rest with you. All of your people should have a voice in any decision making. Purpose driven - I already know when I start my day what I want my outcomes to be, that’s purpose driven. Helping your team internally to get to the outcomes externally you want, if your team is unhappy internally you will not get to the external outcome you want. Performance evaluations is not an evaluation of your culture. Where do I need to create space for growth? We can only grow when we are self aware and vulnerable. The first place we show up vulnerable is to ourselves. But often times our ego gets in the way of the vulnerability. CONNECT WITH YOLANDA:On LinkedIn | Facebook Visit her website CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:Connect on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | XSubscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (New videos and more weekly!) Visit the NWC websiteGet your copy of Inclusion UncomplicatedGet the weekly newsletter!

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business. This week we welcomed Natasha Wade to Intentional Conversations! So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!** Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing. **KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM NATASHA:Its important to have a sacred brave space to name your shame, fears, and name your calling.Your activism and advocacy should be grounded in your lived experiences."I’ve never lost when investing in Black women."When it comes to Black women we are not allowed to be anything but perfect…with Natasha Wade Black women are invited to be vulnerable and human.There is nothing at all wrong with centering Black women with our work.One-on-one coaching is powerful. However, cohort-based learning is on the rise for 2025 because of the community aspect ingrained within it.“Act our wage”, it is important to be able to express yourself without being career limited.I am not doing this to you, I am doing this for me.A lot of the times we go into our businesses due to what we lack.We (Black women) are often fueled based on what we missed out on.Sometimes when we work in silos, we think our reality is the reality and that is not always the case; that is why community is important.Never rob yourself of any resources you can have from the resources you have access to.How do we reimagine our workspace? What does a liberated workspace look like?In a liberated workspace, Black women are very unapologetic about the people we bring inside our organizations and ask them the hard questions.A one size approach is not going to get the job done, we have to learn our people one-by-one to create human-centered approaches.CONNECT WITH NATASHA:On Instagram On her website CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:Connect on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | XSubscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (New videos and more weekly!) Visit the NWC websiteGet your copy of Inclusion UncomplicatedGet the weekly newsletter!

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business. This week we welcomed Amanda Miller Littlejohn to Intentional Conversations! So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!** Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing. **KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM AMANDA:People spend a lot of energy trying to produce with perfection instead of just producing as they go. Perfection shouldn’t be the goal… progress should be. Work as worth - machine mindset dictates your output, your level of doing as work in the world, determines your value. We find ourselves over working to try and make up those deficits, even though we are inherently valuable as we are. If you’re chasing your self worth - via the work you produce - and you forego rest to do that, you can see how burnout lives.Muscle memory is why we ignore humanity. If working twice as hard is tangled up in your self worth, you will never be able to satiate it. Working twice as hard is detrimental when you prioritize it over everything else. Working twice as hard sometimes doesn’t yield the results you are wanting. Burnout is caused by a series of misalignments across the board... our time, our ambition, our relationships, our relationship with ourselves. Rest is very important piece of burnout. Recognizing your humanity and reminding yourself that it is ok to feel what I’m feeling. The people who make a permanent shift actually change their lives. Realignment is a daily practice. Become a student of yourself!CONNECT WITH AMANDA:On Instagram | X Get Amanda's Book! CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:Connect on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | XSubscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (New videos and more weekly!) Visit the NWC websiteGet your copy of Inclusion UncomplicatedGet the weekly newsletter!Want to be the first to know about upcoming events, tips and more? Sign up for our SMS list. We promise no spam, just the good stuff!

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business. This week we welcomed Wade Hinton to Intentional Conversations! So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!** Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing. **KEY TAKEAWAYS:Wade's TEDx Talk Business strategy needs to fill like it’s a part of the work, not something separate. "People want to feel like you did something with them, not to them." - Shirley Franklin Leaders set the tone for their company culture. It is being created with or without your guidance. Give your employees space and time to process so that they feel valued. Organizations need to really understand what your values are and put them where people can see them. Create space for people to feel like they can come to you as a leader. Allow check-ins - doesn’t require solutions, but let’s you make sure your team members can be heard. Make sure the resources are available for people to use those. His ebook provides a framework for how to have conversations - BUILD is an acronym for: Be curious, Understand, Impact, Learn, Determine When you are curious and willing to listen and learn, that can change the conversation. We sit, listen and talk to organizations, there are some really practical things that can be done, by just a small tweak, but it makes all the difference in the world. Pay attention to your own mat! Make sure you have a learning culture, where you do not have to be perfect on day 1.Let’s make some space for grace. Have the courage to say, "Here’s what I’ve learned… "CONNECT WITH WADE:Purchase Wade's Ebook Bridge Building On Instagram | LinkedIn Visit his company's website Learn more about Wade CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:Connect on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | XSubscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (New videos and more weekly!) Visit the NWC websiteGet your copy of Inclusion UncomplicatedGet the weekly <a...

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where diversity, equity, and inclusion meet leadership and business in a powerful dialogue. This week, we’re thrilled to feature Rochelle Younan-Montgomery!So grab your headphones 🎧, hit play, and dive into the conversation with us.Don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE—there’s always more great content on the way!KEY TAKEAWAYS:Find other ways to connect - send a voice memo, take a breath, slow down, think before sending the email, what is an unmet need and identify what it is to think what can bring resolution and solution, and include humor. Going from Conflict Avoidance to Conflict Curiosity often involves true mindfulness. Conflict curiosity allows for restoration. Great leaders understand the power of a pause. Open The Front Door Method - rooted in non-violent communicationO - Observe T - what you Think of that F - what you Feel about it, rather than leading with the emotion, you bring it into the conversation D - what is the Desired outcome (We’re unclear about our unmet needs, but we go in fighting, need to know what you desire as a part of the conversation.) We are less effective when we are burnt out. Often we are making things worse for ourselves and others when we’re working from a place of depletion. RESET framework is: R - Reflect - slow down and ask a powerful question “How might we be out of alignment with our values?” E - Embodiment - slow down and tapping into our inner wise guide for clarity S - Strategize - what do we need to do differently, both individually and as a teamE - Experiment - culture of learning T - Trust / Tending / Tether - how do you really bring together the head and the heartHuman centered approach means I’m modeling it. Acknowledging the work your team is doing. Allowing for moments of gratitude and praise, but not forcing it. Impossible standards are not the same as human standards. Compassionate leadership gets a bad rep. Be fiercely clear about what is and is not ok. Am I cultivating a daily practice outside of work in the way I talk to myself? What am I taking in on a daily basis that’s informing my world?When teams see a leader modeling the behavior, they know it’s ok to do the same. CONNECT WITH ROCHELLE:Sign up for Rochelle's FREE webinar, Monday, 11 /11 - Stay True, Handling Difficult Conversations With Calm And Clarity Connect on LinkedInSubscribe to Rochelle's newsletter, at the bottom of the website!CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:Connect with us: LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | XSubscribe to the NWC YouTube channel...

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business. This week we welcomed Simma Lieberman to Intentional Conversations! So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!** Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing. **KEY TAKEAWAYS:People have different strengths. Ask, "What can I do to make people comfortable?" It’s not your fault you don’t know about groups of people, science has shown you get to be more comfortable with them as you spend time with them. Most people don’t talk about race with people who don’t look like them. People make assumptions about other people because they just don’t know them. Not everybody has the same way of showing respect, there isn’t a right or wrong way. An inclusive culture means people are more comfortable coming to work and contributing. Everyone wants to feel a part of something greater than themselves, they want to feel part of the community.People are willing to take risks when they feel included. When they don’t feel included, they’re keeping their genius to themselves. If you’re the leader of an organization, you have to be willing to be wrong and don’t put people down because you don’t agree with them. When people feel included at work, they want to make others feel included. CONNECT WITH SIMMA:On LinkedIn | Instagram Visit her website Simma's Books CONNECT WITH NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:Join our weekly newsletter!Connect on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | XSubscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (New videos and more weekly!) Visit the NWC websiteGet your copy of Dr. White's book: Inclusion Uncomplicated

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business. This week we welcomed Carolina Barsa to Intentional Conversations! So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!** Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing. **SPECIAL OFFER FOR IC COMMUNITY! For Online Store, 30% off entire order! Discount code: INTENTIONAL Applies to subscriptions and one-time purchases (limited to 1 recurring payment, No minimum purchase requirement.) Cannot combine with other discounts. CAROLINA'S KEY TAKEAWAYS:Growing up as a first-generation American and daughter of immigrants, education was instilled in me, but not how to understand the processes of education.Having mentors helped me understand the nuances of navigating the professional world.My team is diverse, and that leads to diverse thought. People, specifically women, have the opportunity to speak up and say what’s on their mind.Our vision is about studying the healthiest and diverse people. We study those biomes. We study diverse groups and listen to feedback from diverse consumers to ensure generational healthy living.60% of Americans are battling some type of chronic disease.Your gut controls a lot of your health. Promoting gut health will reduce chronic pain and fatigue and increase longevity.People are looking for holistic healthy choices.It takes women 10 years to get diagnosed, so we need to focus on preventative care.There’s a strong gut and brain connection; if you don’t feel well, you can’t show up as your best.Companies that are led by women are more productive.CONNECT WITH CAROLINA:On her website CONNECT WITH DR. NIKA & NIKA WHITE CONSULTING:Connect on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | XSubscribe to the NWC YouTube channel (New videos and more weekly!) Visit the NWC websiteGet your copy of Inclusion UncomplicatedGet the weekly newsletter!Want to be the first to know about upcoming events, tips and more? Sign up for our SMS list. We promise no spam, just the good stuff!