Tamara Johnson-Shealey is our next guest. On this episode, she talks about reaching across the aisle and discusses POLITICS, and what it means to her.
Tamara is a former 2022 Candidate for the United States Senate representing Georgia. She also had a huge hand in introducing a Legislative Session to address the impact of Slavery and Jim Crow on Descendants of Chattel Slavery in Georgia.
Tamara is also involved in The Concerned Beauty and Barber Professionals, an advocacy group that addresses the need to protect the health and safety of Licensed Beauty and Barber Professionals and the clients they serve.
Tamara is an amazing role model in her community with a strong work ethic!
You can find Tamara Johnson-Shealey on her website www.tamarashealey.comand on Instagram, Facebook, and Linked in @tamarashealey.
Welcome to the Podcast where we talk all things Money, Sex & Politics as they pertain to women thought leaders, industry disruptors, and business activists.
In this episode, we are talking POLITICS and reaching across the isle.
Don’t worry, we promise to keep it light and bright with f-bombs delightfully placed 🙂
Seriously, it’s mostly comedy & errors with suggestions on how we can maybe, probably do better & asking leaders if they agree!
We know that a women lead world will be better for us ALL; particularly when we look at how the power inherent in Money, Sex & Politics are accessed.
YOUR HOST OF MONEY. SEX. POLITICS PODCAST
Join host Rose Kaz, serial boat burner, humanist & social entrepreneur as she digs into conversations with a variety of female-forward visionaries who actualize their big visions into real-life actions.
These leaders push forward to a world where women are equal to men, underrepresented skin tones find safety, and folks who identify as theys and thems are valued.
JOIN US BACKSTAGE
Our talks here point to the shift we are building digitally to build a better world by doing social media differently. See what are we building behind the curtain, come Backstage, and get involved.
Contact us at SayHiLBI@gmail.com for inquiries and questions. We love to discuss Money, Sex, and Politics!
“ It’s very important, I think for us to stay unified in our mission. Even if we have different copy, we have the very same mission of making a more equal world striving for a more just experience for all humans, not just the lady bosses around us. Although we do know that when we have more women at the helm of roles of leadership, like political office, we often see a better experience for the whole world..” – Tamara Johnson-Shealey
It feels a little trite to write but we are all diverse.
In fact, if someone is speaking on diversity as something outside of themselves, it feels to me almost rooted in white supremacy; like ‘Oh, let’s work on making this place more diverse because it’s been so homogeneous and really we didn’t mind that until that gatekeeping got canceled.’ And to be fair, many of us perhaps didn’t realize we were gatekeeping until we’ve been made aware.
We Are Waking Up
And now that we are waking up to what a truly inclusive world looks like as we recognize the myriad of experiences that make up the human condition, let’s try to activate actually doing things differently in each small circle we can.
Since many of our cultures have racism, sexism, ableism and well, all the -isms, basically baked into the bedrock of our current human experiences, it may seem almost impossible to actually create a diverse world that totally removes the power over dynamic that any -ism seeks to create. This is where I love to not only theorize on solutions but also actualize them into activated conversations that affect social change.
I’ve often been called the sledge hammer in most of my collaborative circles ( cue Peter Gabriel ) because theoretical, armchair conversations on changing the status quo bores me to pieces.
It’s action that makes a damn difference.
In my many collaborations in conversations with thought leaders, industry disruptors and business activists globally these past two years, I have garnered that the world is ready for a new way of considering the diversity of our shared human existence; in a nutshell we are all very different but also very same. Whilst our differences make our outlooks unique and thereby valuable, we all bleed red ya’ll.
How can we actually do something about this wake up call?
What we are building through the LBI Digital Ecosystem is more than just various channels where we connect with Women globally; more than a podcast, a blog or a new way of doing social media.
We are looking directly at ways that we can pull back the curtain on how we have historically done business and flip the script on how we are sharing our tools & resources.
And we cannot just do that by using old models of production, of tech and thereby use of the digital world. Our approach is directly aimed at equipping more women with access to information around money, sex & politics because we know that when Women have more knowledge, this equates to more power. And when Women are more supported, the entire village thrives. And as many of you know, it takes a village to raise anything or anyone up. When Women rise, humanity rises. Again, our differences can create the great equalizer needed so desperately in our world today.
As Women in business, we have an inherent ability to see many facets of a big picture. We can stitch together a network of community through our generations of women leaning into another for support in any facet of humaning; be it child rearing or idea sourcing, meal prep or logistics, long hugs or quick side eyes. Women work quickly to offer outside of the box solutions to big & small problems alike.
Many men will tell you, Women have a unique way to handle even the most daunting challenge. And so as we lean back into embracing our own differences as strengths, I wonder how we can also learn more from the diversity of emotions all humans can feel as a result of accessing more of our passionate or female side. Some may call this being ‘too emotional’. May I suggest it is actually being more human than robotic. Emotions are helpful and show our diversity of emotional intelligence.
A good cry or long embrace isn’t showing weakness, it’s showing connection. That diversity of emotional experience can truly change an otherwise numb human existence into a fully feeling & actualized human moment; even if it’s totally different than your go to feels of ‘powering through’, ‘getting shit done’ or otherwise operating in full logic instead of from the heart. Also, no one ever said they felt worse after a good cry. Just sayn’ !!
Easily noticed but a much more challenging lesson I’ve been learning about having to suit up daily as a Women in tech, is to be more bold than I’ve ever been with my idea of using tech to build bridges of diversity; tucking away my often more emotional side and leaning across the isle to learn other languages of business, art and leadership.
Embracing Diversity
With intersectionality at the forefront of the digital ecosystem we are building, it has become one of my biggest lessons learned to embrace the diversity around me instead of shunning it as something I can’t learn to lean into, even as someone who thought I was so ‘open minded’ and willing to learn new things. That is to say, as a leader of new ways of embracing tech, I cannot simply shun old ways of thinking. I have to learn from and then build better. That old adage of not throwing the baby out with the bathwater has never rang more true. By the way, who throws babies out anyways??
Notably, all big, global tech to date has been built by one particular sector of humanity, white men. Simply based on their experiences alone, that specific tech ( any of it arguably, from Facebook to Twitter, LinkedIn to Apple) has not been built in consideration of the diverse voices of ALL humans including, Women of all skin tones and gender identities, humans of varying accessibility and socio economic status.
What we are building through LBI is a way to utilize all the incredible resources that modern technology offers us in a way that authentically honors diversity instead of segregating it out of the equation. We aim to connect the many incredible communities of Women forward movements like Women owned & operated banking platforms like Elle Vest , access to health & wellness resources that Planned Parenthood purveys through the SuperMajority Education Fund, and the leaders of democracy at League of Women Voters .
All these groups separately aim to lean into the diversity of tools & resources our shared human experience calls for. We are working to activate all these thought leaders together by way of our global hub for Women who seek to live in a recognizably diverse, kindly celebrated, most equitable world.
Rose Kaz is the Fem Founder and she’s done this a time or two. Her photo & video production company has taken her around the world but her new app allows her female clients & even women she hasn’t met yet to lean into each other, learn about our opportunity as business activists to support, grow & shop directly from one another. We are building a new economy, globally. WOW!
And the app we are talking about is that which Rose + the LBI Crew has launched where the ask for women is to: ‘ take center stage in their lives; to stand up, speak out & get GLOWING like never before’ Think activism meets B school meets super hip, online resource center! Sprinkle in some new school networking and POW The LBI Backstage Pass is #trending!
Click here to come Backstage, meet Rose and the entire community of femme forward leaders.
Anne Hodder-Shipp is our second guest discussing SEX, and what it means to them. Anne is an expert on INTIMACY. CONNECTION. EMOTIONAL EMPOWERMENT! They are also the author of Speaking from the Heart: 18 Languages for Modern Love, and recently published a new workbook to guide you through the text. Anne is also an esteemed sex and relationship educator and is taking on new clients now!
You can find Anne Hodder-Shipp on their website www.annehoddershipp.com and on Instagram @theannehodder.
“I spent a lot of time in the library, pre internet, of course, looking at the card catalog, trying to find books, or early any old magazines that had anything to do with like sex that could just give me information, because for me in information, lead to safety, through the ways of understanding things that nobody else wanted me to or people intentionally, like, we’re just leaving out of conversations.” – Anne Hodder-Shipp
On the Podcast, we talk all things Money, Sex & Politics as they pertain to women thought leaders, industry disruptors, and business activists.
In this episode, we are talking SEX and emotional empowerment.
Don’t worry, we promise to keep it light and bright, f-bombs delightfully placed 🙂
Seriously, it’s mostly comedy & errors with suggestions on how we can maybe, probably do better & asking leaders if they agree!
Join host Rose Kaz, serial boat burner, humanist & social entrepreneur as she digs into conversations with a variety of female-forward visionaries who actualize their big visions into real-life actions.
These leaders push forward to a world where women are equal to men, underrepresented skin tones find safety, and folks who identify as theys and thems are valued.
We know that a women lead world will be better for us ALL; particularly when we look at how the power inherent in Money, Sex & Politics are accessed.
JOIN US BACKSTAGE
Our talks here point to the shift we are building digitally to build a better world by doing social media differently. See what are we building behind the curtain, come Backstage, and get involved.
Contact us at SayHiLBI@gmail.com for inquiries and questions. We love to discuss Money, Sex, and Politics!
Susan Shloss is our next guest discussing MONEY, and what it means to her. Susan is a Certified Money Coach with over 20 years of experience in financial services. She believes money is a portal for transformation in all aspects of life. Susan loves empowering women to embrace their relationship with money. She also believes that by changing our story with money we also have the opportunity to change our culture of inequity to one of equity and inclusion. Even healing collective trauma. Look for more on her Money Justice and Spirituality Summit coming soon!
“I’m a spiritual teacher at heart. And I’ve been on the spiritual path since I was 12 years old, meditating almost every day for all these years, many, many years. And so the money piece just started calling to me, probably 20 years ago, and I ended up doing a bookkeeping business, which was not my passion. So then, I started to think about being a financial coach or money coach.” – Susan Shloss
On the Podcast, we talk all things Money, Sex & Politics as they pertain to women thought leaders, industry disruptors, and business activists.
In this episode, we are talking MONEY and money wisdom.
Don’t worry, we promise to keep it light and bright, f-bombs delightfully placed 🙂
Seriously, it’s mostly comedy & errors with suggestions on how we can maybe, probably do better & asking leaders if they agree!
YOUR HOST OF MONEY. SEX. POLITICS PODCAST
Join host Rose Kaz, serial boat burner, humanist & social entrepreneur as she digs into conversations with a variety of female-forward visionaries who actualize their big visions into real-life actions.
These leaders push forward to a world where women are equal to men, underrepresented skin tones find safety, and folks who identify as theys and thems are valued.
We know that a women lead world will be better for us ALL; particularly when we look at how the power inherent in Money, Sex & Politics are accessed.
JOIN US BACKSTAGE
Our talks here point to the shift we are building digitally to build a better world by doing social media differently. See what are we building behind the curtain, come Backstage, and get involved.
Contact us at SayHiLBI@gmail.com for inquiries and questions. We love to discuss Money, Sex, and Politics!
Ber-Henda Williams is our first guest discussing POLITICS, and what it means to her. The Power of Girlhood Project was founded in 2021 by Ber-Henda.
The Power of Girlhood was founded to support girls in tapping into their power to create community, discover their value and voice, find career paths and change the world! Ber-Henda is a light and is doing AMAZING things in this world. You can find Ber-Henda on her website www.thepowerofgirlhood.org and on Instagram @Ber-HendaWilliams.
We know that a women lead world will be better for us ALL; particularly when we look at how the power inherent in Money, Sex & Politics are accessed.
“ So I think what really led me there was, I’m a very spiritual person. So I was communing with spirit. And I’m like, Okay, now what? What is the work really, right? Because I work with highly sensitive empathic women who care about social justice, equity inclusion and want to create a culture shift. So the revelation was a cultural shift term. Because in the feminine, there is this dynamic gift of empathy and wisdom, and intuition, community building placemaking agility, these are some of the things that we see femora fest out in the world.” – Ber-Henda Williams
On the Podcast, we talk all things Money, Sex & Politics as they pertain to women thought leaders, industry disruptors, and business activists.
In this episode, we are talking POLITICS and Politic Light.
Don’t worry, we promise to keep it light and bright, f-bombs delightfully placed 🙂
Seriously, it’s mostly comedy & errors with suggestions on how we can maybe, probably do better & asking leaders if they agree!
YOUR HOST OF MONEY. SEX. POLITICS PODCAST
Join host Rose Kaz, serial boat burner, humanist & social entrepreneur as she digs into conversations with a variety of female-forward visionaries who actualize their big visions into real-life actions.
These leaders push forward to a world where women are equal to men, underrepresented skin tones find safety, and folks who identify as theys and thems are valued.
JOIN US BACKSTAGE
Our talks here point to the shift we are building digitally to build a better world by doing social media differently. See what are we building behind the curtain, come Backstage, and get involved.
Contact us at SayHiLBI@gmail.com for inquiries and questions. We love to discuss Money, Sex, and Politics!
Dr. Sarah Luna is our first guest discussing SEX, and what it means to her. Sarah’s mission is to become a feminist anthropologist who writes and teaches about sexuality. Sarah is now teaching at Tufts University.
Sarah just returned from Mexico City working on a second project about pleasure activism and sexual pedagogy among queer activists in Mexico City. She is also the author of Love in the Drug War: Selling Sex and Finding Jesus on the Mexico-US Border. She does it all!
You can find Dr. Sarah Luna on her website www.sarahlunaphd.com and on Instagram @saritaluna.
We know that a women lead world will be better for us ALL; particularly when we look at how the power inherent in Money, Sex & Politics are accessed.
“I’m a cultural anthropologist. And I’ve always been interested in issues of sexuality. I think maybe starting in college when I was an undergraduate at UTSA, I helped found a feminist organization that we call lips ladies incensed by a patriarchal society. So, I came from a rather conservative and religious family in San Antonio, but very loving. And I think that that’s part of like why I because I learned about sex being as something that’s like really about marriage and I even like had a chastity ring when I was in high school. So I think that that might explain a lot of my kind of, you know why my academic study has kind of gone in this direction but also in great part because of the force stigma and the way that people who are considered either actual sex sex workers or people who get labeled divorce stigma end up being persecuted in different ways. That really kind of motivated my research.” – Dr. Sarah Luna
Welcome to the Podcast where we talk all things Money, Sex & Politics as they pertain to women thought leaders, industry disruptors, and business activists.
In this episode, we are talking SEX with an Anthropologist.
Don’t worry, we promise to keep it light and bright, f-bombs delightfully placed 🙂
Seriously, it’s mostly comedy & errors with suggestions on how we can maybe, probably do better & asking leaders if they agree!
YOUR HOST OF MONEY. SEX. POLITICS PODCAST
Join host Rose Kaz, serial boat burner, humanist & social entrepreneur as she digs into conversations with a variety of female-forward visionaries who actualize their big visions into real-life actions.
These leaders push forward to a world where women are equal to men, underrepresented skin tones find safety, and folks who identify as theys and thems are valued.
JOIN US BACKSTAGE
Our talks here point to the shift we are building digitally to build a better world by doing social media differently. See what are we building behind the curtain, come Backstage, and get involved.
Contact us at SayHiLBI@gmail.com for inquiries and questions. We love to discuss Money, Sex, and Politics!
Nicole Cacal is our first guest discussing MONEY, and what it means to her. Her consultancy, Forbes Ignite, convenes conversations with business and nonprofit executives around hard-to-tackle issues.
She is an amazing Ladyboss whose mission is to help with financial inclusion. You can find Nicole on her website www.nicolecacal.com and on Instagram @nicoleccacal.
We know that a women lead world will be better for us ALL; particularly when we look at how the power inherent in Money, Sex & Politics are accessed.
“My background is in financial management. I worked in the investment management industry for close to a decade. I also studied finance in undergrad. I thought that my whole career trajectory was going to be in investment management. I went back to school, I did my first graduate degree at the Parsons School of Design where I teach now. There, I learned about business design. Really, it’s just using design to solve challenges for businesses. Creating solutions within a set of constraints. That’s all that it is. I use those design principles in order to create solutions for people and for the planet. My mission, going from the investment management world into what I do now, at Forbes Ignite, is specifically to create financial inclusion.” – Nicole Cacal
On the Podcast, we talk all things Money, Sex & Politics as they pertain to women thought leaders, industry disruptors, and business activists.
In this episode, we are talking MONEY and financial inclusion.
Don’t worry, we promise to keep it light and bright, f-bombs delightfully placed 🙂
Seriously, it’s mostly comedy & errors with suggestions on how we can maybe, probably do better & asking leaders if they agree!
YOUR HOST OF MONEY. SEX. POLITICS PODCAST
Join host Rose Kaz, serial boat burner, humanist & social entrepreneur as she digs into conversations with a variety of female-forward visionaries who actualize their big visions into real-life actions.
These leaders push forward to a world where women are equal to men, underrepresented skin tones find safety, and folks who identify as theys and thems are valued.
JOIN US BACKSTAGE
Our talks here point to the shift we are building digitally to build a better world by doing social media differently. See what are we building behind the curtain, come Backstage, and get involved.
Contact us at SayHiLBI@gmail.com for inquiries and questions. We love to discuss Money, Sex, and Politics!
Today at LBI, we are celebrating 1 year of being alive, as part of a new digital ecosystem that connects women & femme forward people globally. In our first year, we launched our digital platform, a new gathering place for thought leaders, industry disruptors and business activists called The Backstage Pass.
I am thrilled to announce we are also cheering on our next digital baby to join the family that drops TODAY, at the end of this blog entry!!
If you’ve read any of my previous articles here on the Boss Blog you’ll notice I really want you to know about where I’ve come from and why I am building The Backstage Pass to be truly inclusive and feel like home, like Grandma’s house. Everyone has a different version of home but often Grandma’s house is safe, has some Big Mama energy & her own fair rules.
And inclusivity matters a lot to me and it has since I’ve learned out to love at inception. Not only is inclusivity one of our core values but it is this month’s theme on the BsP. So I wanted to write this reflective, 1 year in the making post from the lens of seeing how inclusive I have really been as a leader, as a marketer, as a writer, an activist, a friend and a human; a short retrospective to see how I’ve done and where I can improve.
And, whilst this entry will certainly touch on my WHY of starting an ecosystem like LBI, I really want you, dear reader, to know HOW we have been accomplishing our big, inclusive vision to build the most important place on the internet for women thought leaders, industry disruptors & business activists.
In 2020, I was devastated. Not fully by Covid, though I did get in my feels deeply about it briefly. I quickly realized that our world, the planet, was making a cry for help; more like a scream really, asking the citizens of this world to have better respect for our health, our resources and ultimately, our people; and at very grave costs of many, many lives. And that cry was amplified and broadcast globally by such groundswell movements like BLM. Rest in power dear George Floyd.
There are many groups both online and off who have been calling for a system upgrade for many, many years. Not only because of lack of inclusivity but also for years and years of systemic injustices & oppression.
As a woman in business who also sees herself as an industry disruptor, I am very grateful for these movements, their leaders & endless dedication to a just equitable world. I activate alongside them as frequently as I am able. And, I still think we can do better to mobilize and organize these various groups with incredible missions TOGETHER. Can we have an inclusive, connective thread to draw these movements together, a network that unites those various missions into one central HUB?? Kind of like the way FB was started with an aim to connect people globally, but instead of being built on a premise informed by dudes slutshaming women in the dorm room, ( fact check, it’s true!)
We are building this safe space where we can amplify both groups & individuals who want to see a more equitable world come to fruition. We are laying the foundation with empathy & kindness, access & inclusivity, collaboration & connection.
In these foundational years, we are focusing on bringing together any human who identifies as a woman, from any and all backgrounds, skin tones, hair styles, income levels, all fields, and all walks of life because when more women have more access to, to resources & tools that are generative instead of extractive, to a community of like minded, humanist leaders, we will see the needle of progress be shifted.
When I sought out to start the BsP, there was not a safe place online where women could honestly and without criticism engage in empowering, equalizing and fundamentally different ways of using social media and I wanted to change that. So how exactly are we doing that?? I’m so glad you asked!!
In the last year since we launched The Backstage Pass, we have held many events, both virtual and in person. We met Backstage before and after our events to organize & mobilize our meetups!
We met in Asheville, North Carolina to connect inside the Asheville Masonic Temple, a space historically not the most welcoming of women as guests, particularly darker skinned women. There we reached across the aisle to talk about funding, access to more monies for business development, education and other financial tools for women & underrepresented groups.
We had great support from local groups also seeking to see a more diverse populace thrive. The NC SBTDC, Mountain Biz Works and local women leaders & business women held down the panel conversations whilst attendees shared their access to tools & resources in our meet & greet.
We hosted conversation about what it means to really lean into other women’s lived experiences in Miami, Florida at the Melanated Beauty Spa with Maghan Morin & Quadeera Teart . We shared lunch, snapped headshots and made great connections to amazing women doing amazing things!
We indulged in a handful of awesome online events including a gorgeous collaboration of poetry & self care co hosted with Chioma Ossai . We got inspired in deep talks about owning your financial worth in relationships with Hilda Zamora Esq & Dr. Jackie Black.
We activated and connected over 40 women running for office in various roles of leadership from every corner of the United States. Women running for seats in the state Senate, House and for City Council, School Board and a variety of NGO leaders all crossed paths in an online forum. I was honored to co produce with the amazing Berhenda Williams, Jenn Buck, Abi Green .
So we’ve made some friends, we hope we’ve influenced some people but more importantly we hope to keep doing so!! The work around equity is not light and needs community to progress. This is no small task and we are here for it ! The BsP is the uniting HUB on the internet that brings thought leaders, industry disruptors and business activists together, in one safe digital space where we can organize and mobilize for that most equitable world.
And as we have connected to women at a global scale talking about hot topics like Money, Sex & Politics as they pertain to our various lived expereinces & how we can build equity and activate these convos outside the Backstage Pass platform, we are excited to bring our second channel live from the LBI Network.
Our Money, Sex & Polotics Podcast will be our second channel in the LBI Network that connects women globally to one another and to more tools & resources to build that equity. Through conversation on the pod about these 3 hot topics, Money, Sex & Politics, we will stream to even more incredible thought leaders, industry disruptors and business activitists just like YOU.
Be sure to have a listen and once you have, please do like, subscribe and share the MsP! Then, head on over to the BsP to meet all the amazing people you will hear on the pod!!
And if you haven’t yet RSVP’d to the big 1 year celebration DIGITAL DANCE PARTY… WHAT ARRRRE YOU WAITING FOR??
Rose Kaz is the Fem Founder and she’s done this a time or two. Her photo & video production company has taken her around the world but her new app allows her female clients & even women she hasn’t met yet to lean into each other, learn about our opportunity as business activists to support, grow & shop directly from one another. We are building a new economy, globally. WOW!
And the app we are talking about is that which Rose + the LBI Crew has launched where the ask for women is to: ‘ take center stage in their lives; to stand up, speak out & get GLOWING like never before’ Think activism meets B school meets super hip, online resource center! Sprinkle in some new school networking and POW The LBI Backstage Pass is #trending!
Click here to come Backstage, meet Rose and the entire community of femme forward leaders.
I started my first business under my bunk bed selling Bubblicious Gum to the neighborhood kids. I did!! Once I realized I could buy 5 packs of the same gum for $1.59 instead of 1 packet for .59 cents, I was like, ‘Girl, we gotta boss up!’ I picked up a couple chores from my family members and stashed some cash away to purchase my inventory.
When my Mom found my safe box with a pile of dollar bills, ordered and stacked along with enough gum to blow a bubble to outer space and back, she had questions.
I promptly told her it was, ‘My business!’
To which she said, ‘No! Your business IS MY BUSINESS!’ and in gleeful ignorance I replied:
‘Yes! It is my business and it’s so fun!’ As I pulled out the raffle tickets I was planning to sell at the annual block party to pawn off my kid sister’s bike she didn’t like and that was too big for me. Naturally.
You may be thinking, ‘Wow, such a stellar free market capitalist!’
Little 6 year old Rose started to scale her neighborhood chewing gum racket and by the next summer, we had established our operational headquarters in my grandma’s backyard hedgery.
As swiftly as I could, I got my work permit at age 14 and following a handful of odd jobs at pizza joints, cafes and a few moonlighting occasions as gal Friday, I quickly leaned into one of my inherent skills: being market savvy & community oriented.
I learned quickly that doing business is relationship building!
And a lemonade stand always brightens up the neighborhood, even if it is a sales funnel to my larger network of My Little Ponies and last season’s Barbies from my sister’s discarded toy chest.
And a handful of decades later, I proudly call myself a serial boat burner, a conceptual visionary and a social entrepreneur. The responsibility of upgrading social systems that have long been outgrown falls into the laps of innovators in all fields, not just business.
And it’s my hypothesis that given the chance, women in roles of leadership in all industries can activate innovation at lightning speed.
And before I jump into my current trajectory for inspiration as we launch another LBI channel this October 2022 supporting my creative concept du jur, I need to give credit where credit is due.
You see, I am a matriarchal baby. I am the daughter of a single mother who made her way through fashion design school in the 1990’s with two small children. She is the daughter of a woman who gladly wore shoulder pads to hustle up the corporate ladder in the 1980’s, thanks, Reaganomics!!
And all of us existed only because of her mother, a German immigrant to the US, a mother to 2 sets of children, 4 of whom perished in the Spanish Flu and 4 of whom she brought into life in the New World shortly after she immigrated, as a window.
I am the result of their labors, triumphs and human struggles.
A scrappy, gregariously fabulous friend raiser, I naturally rally groups to unite around collective missions. And into my more recent years of entrepreneurialism, I’ve been integrating both the bootstrapping nature of invention and the luxurious possibilities of big visions that can and will change the world.
When I had the opportunity to pause my women owned & operated production company during covid and adjust course, it seemed like a ‘now or never window’ to lean into better ways of doing business by looking closely at my inherent skills once again & asking other women forward leaders I respect for their insights & wisdoms.
In 2017, I began polling the audience of women I’d built community with in conversations around money, sex & politics with thought leaders, industry disruptors and business activitsts.
During covid closures, I took these conversations online and now we are a year into the build of our own LBI network and supporting app, The LBI Backstage Pass.
The LBI Backstage Pass is a digital platform that provides business and social connections through event programming & content networking in our Ladyboss Lounges, accessed globally on our app and locally in pop up events as we connect social media into the organizing and mobilizing lanes of unity for an equal world.
We generate access to additional civic resources in our Ladyboss Library , host conversations around money, sex & politics in a curated & inspired way where thought leaders, industry disruptors and business activists unite to support, elevate & collaborate through our e commerce lane, The LBI Mall.
This digital access point is part of a larger network build to support systematic upgrades towards equality led by women forward leaders. LBI houses a new way to do social media and thereby, business through our app, podcast and into a multi channel ecosystem.
We’ve been talking about women in roles of leadership for a long time and that can be its own inspiration ! Though sometimes it can feel that the progress we make gets pulled back in time when political power shifts hands and womens’ experiences aren’t as valued as mens’.
In the last few years, such movements as the Great Resignation, #BLM and #metoo, make the stage perfectly set for systemic change, upgrades of how we have access to and redistribute power.
So then, how can we, all with our own origin stories of specific human experience that form our empathy, our capacity to care and our ability to adapt, be inspired to connect beyond the current conditions in which we find ourselves??
What about this for a cup of visionary inspiration: Can we bring all the women thought leaders, industry disruptors and business activists together, into one digital space where we can unite around a collective mission to collaborate, elevate and inspire with each other and use social media as a generative tool instead of the extractive machine it currently is??
Can this online HUB serve as a collective pool of inspiration for those who have historically been left out of both leadership roles and help us to effectively use our voice to advocate for access to many of the resources we need to gain progress on our own dreams and super powers?
If we can do that, can we then also begin to mobilize and organize the many eager for this groundswell of women forward leadership to cross connect our networks for greater strides towards equality of opportunity for all genders??
MY INSPIRED ANSWER IS A HOWLING HELL YES WE CAN!
I’m eager to know your answers and would love to read the comments below!!
And if you are so inspired to comment within the community of Bosses here leading the way and connecting Backstage, click here to come Backstage!!
As a thought leader and a woman in business, I’ve always been curious to push the envelope on how we can use tech for more effective altruism.
Last year at this time I was teeing up the launch of this big idea I had during Covid closures in 2021 on how we could better connect women to the tools & resources we need to be effective and strong leaders. You know, like a boys club but instead for women leaders who want to see the world change.
The Great Incubation
I now refer to this interesting time in history as The Great Incubation. I have noticed so many interesting and thought changing business concepts emerging from that dark & somber pause for the planet, particularly women lead initiatives that offer a more collaborative way of organizing.
We won’t get into who paused when and for how long but the larger point I’d like to call attention to is that we had a global time out in our regular programming of human-ing and we are now seeing our fella humans churning out solutions to the variety of large problems we’ve seen most highlighted in recent years: systemic meltdowns & failures that don’t fully support our basic human needs & right to advance to our highest potential.
Over the course of the last two years we have seen more clearly how we need a full system upgrade regarding everything from our health systems to our political processes, from the way we gain access to funds as marginalized groups to when or how we are expected to pay debts.
The systems are a changin, ya’ll.
And that big message I keep hearing loud and clear from The Great Incubation is that to solve these systemic problems which require systemic upgrades, we need the thought leaders, industry disruptors and business activists to stand up and lead the way, to elevate our systems but raising the bar of that which we accept as acceptable.
Activate Your Innovations
Now is the time to take these innovations we’ve dreamed up during that global pause & activate them as creative, business solutions accessible to all. And with this collective groundswell of female forward leadership, we will begin to see new systems built.
The big idea I offer to support the major updates required for our species to evolve forward include elevating those from historically marginalized communities who have not previously been shown access to all the tools & resources each human deserves.
From Survival to Thriving
ELEVATING our experiences as women in business from mere survival to extreme thriving by using the superpowers of the world wide web and re-visioning how we use social media and thereby the internet.
The LBI BACKSTAGE PASS Crew & I are doing this by centering the lives, voices & access of black & brown women, our LGBTQAI family and any thought leaders, industry disruptors and business activists that seek to integrate a female forward leadership at higher levels using technology.
This idea of building a better way of doing social media by first creating safe space online for female leaders to connect was born out of a deep desire to have a safe place for myself and other women interested in building new systems that care for our entire planet, not just a select few.
And in this particular time of our growth, the process of keeping the idea elevated, the team in a good state of positive inertia and to continue to connect with more thought leaders, industry disruptors and business activists is not for the faint of heart.
Start with the end in mind, they say.
But also keep iterating and resetting to the present moment at the same time bc …we’ll how else do we keep the mission going if not adjusting course as the course calls for it? Is it possible to consider both the end and the current, at the same time?
After some thought, I don’t think either is mutually exclusive. If we truly look at starting with the end in mind, working backwards on a messy, possibly volatile trajectory will automatically be riddled with opportunities to bob & weave, circle back and recalculate the flight path.
Afterall, being a woman in business within the current patriarchal order is clearly not the path of least resistance. But then again, being a person in any marginalized community isn’t easy either.
This entire process of making progress feels a bit like rubbing the belly and patting the head.
In fact, much of what I’ve noticed in getting a concept elevated to activate a big idea feels counter intuitive!
When considering all the moving parts that need to be in a perfect, chaotic symphony do we still continue with the end in mind? Maybe its more like starting with the end in mind whilst simultaneously keeping measure of how far the end appears to continue to move away from the starting point!?
Maybe because as we elevate, we are gaining speed, traction towards that end goal?? But is this an optical illusion?? Or maybe it’s the future of tech?? Is this how Web 3 works ?? 🙂
For example for an airplane to get off the ground, it needs support: the onboard crew, air traffic controllers and tarmac staff. The ticketing agents and even the silly social media trailers that get you to click on the ticket in the first place. Then, as if by magic, you are floating through the sky on like a million pounds of metal.
Collaborate to Elevate
Oh but wait, there is more working behind the scenes to keep this physics conundrum safely hurling at the speed of light to gracefully land in another city, sometimes even traveling back in time and into foreign lands.
So much collaboration on that elevation, ya’ll!!
Now that we have taken this metaphorical flight with little to no delays, zero turbulence and no crying babies, let’s keep an eye on how this example pertains to building a tech concept whilst it’s flying and keeping the trajectory upwards, even if entropy is real! I’d love it if you followed along on our journey to elevate US together.
We are building a big fat vision of tech glory and we need you to help this plane soar.
If you haven’t already checked out the LBI Backstage Pass, I invite you to come Backstage and see what we are building. It’s not an optical illusion but you can bet your ladyboss dollar that we will be elevating to Web 3 soon!
Rose Kaz is the Fem Founder and she’s done this a time or two. Her photo & video production company has taken her around the world but her new app allows her female clients & even women she hasn’t met yet to lean into each other, learn about our opportunity as business activists to support, grow & shop directly from one another. We are building a new economy, globally. WOW!
And the app we are talking about is that which Rose + the LBI Crew has launched where the ask for women is to: ‘ take center stage in their lives; to stand up, speak out & get GLOWING like never before’ Think activism meets B school meets super hip, online resource center! Sprinkle in some new school networking and POW The LBI Backstage Pass is #trending!
Click here to come Backstage, meet Rose and the entire community of femme forward leaders.
