Inclusivity

October 19 2022

Feeling Inclusively Home

Rose Kaz Boss Blog, Inclusivity Inclusive, Inclusivity 0

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.

And prior to that moment, we saw such other moments of global uprising with the movements like #metoo, Fair Fight, Transgender Law Center and The National LGBTQ Task Force because 2020 was certinaly not made in a vaccum.

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!)

Feeling inclusively home by Rose Kaz

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 .

Feeling inclusively home by Rose Kaz

We connected women in our audience to leaders like Demetra Presley , Brianna Westbrook , Tamara Johnson Shealey with organizations sendings reps from Planned Parenthood & Super Majority . All this civic engagement was supported with sweet sounds of healing songs by Natalia Clavier and breath work by Davlyn Hill; all made technically possible with support from Rach 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??

Click here to come Backstage TONIGHT @ 8pm EST

See you there!

Love,
Rose

More About Rose Kaz:

Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn

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.

June 22 2022

Belonging and Inclusivity: Our Founders Origin Story

Rose Kaz Boss Blog Core Values, Inclusivity 0

I never really felt I belonged. Anywhere. Until one day I began to notice why and how I could maybe, just maybe one day, find belonging.

Sure. Maybe as someone who appears to be ‘white’ and from a ‘nice family’ I ‘should’ have a sense of belonging, be grateful for my privilege and find somewhere to sit nicely and not complain about feeling included. But the truth was, I simply didn’t feel I had a place where I felt truly seen, as myself and ultimately, included.

I was born out of wedlock into a ‘nice’ and kind home of my mother’s Eastern European family who saw that I was fed, clothed and to school on time. Outside of those basic necessities, emotional support in the early 1980’s was to be found elsewhere. My mother was initially shamed by her father, my grandfather for having gotten pregnant and not being married. Eventually, my grandfather accepted my mother & me so we are allowed in the house to be raised by my mother’s mother and her mother.

I am effectively a matriarchal baby with much love from 3 amazing generations of women. Yet I still wasn’t sure I belonged with these kind folks. My father, for his small part, wasn’t available for child rearing nor did my mother want his ‘overbearing’ Italian/ Spanish family involved. To this day, I wish I could have had more time with those loud folks bc maybe, I would have felt more included in that tribe. And even more so, my mother wanted to raise me in the guit-light Luthern church and not in the seemingly domineering worship that was my dad’s Jewish / Catholic roots. Sure, there were certainly lots of options on where I could be included but not really any one space where I felt HOME or even really deeply connected.

I’ll pause here to insert the idea of INCLUSIVITY for femmes, thought leaders, industry disruptors and women in business that we aim to have established on the LBI Backstage Pass. Historically, we have been told to play small, be quiet and just allow the status quo to be, even if it has us feeling less than included, sitting on our hands and accepting that stupid af statement ‘it is what it is’!!

The notion of making space to include ALL of us is truly radical. It’s honoring each person as we are, not as we could be if we were different. It may seem simple but as it turns out implementing inclusivity for one self or for the many is a hard job because it actually means leaning into community but first that community needs to be welcoming. It’s kind of a classic example of chicken vs egg, cart vs horse. As business activists, I suggest that we can do this together AND first we need to understand our own roots of being, feeling and having an included sense of self in order to find, share and make space for others.

I wanted to be open with my own upbringing to share that it may be possible that many folks, like myself, didn’t know what inclusivity realy meant until I found it for myself. As I began to discover for myself, I decided I wanted to make space, build bigger stages and bust open doors for ANY and ALL folks who have ever felt the same about their own sense of belonging.

I know that there remain many, many reasons for the lack of inclusivity which include but are not limited to racism, misogyny, bigotry and a whole list of -isms that one can spend their entire life attempting to dismantle. Please know that in no way do I consider my not being included the same as yours. The point I’d like to make is that we can find empathy through our own experiences, albeit the experiences are different but similar in the feelings they can create.

As I entered grade school and on into high school, my identity was stewed in a variety of places that really never felt like me. My mother sent my sister and I to a Christian day school that was essentially free if we were members of the church. Not exactly church going Jews, I found a lot of the teachings of this school to be really archaic and confusing when taught just before science class. As a result, I often found myself in trouble at school because I would ask many questions that would ultimately land me in the principal’s office. I saw the ‘trouble’ I was causing to not be problematic as asking questions shouldn’t be a crime, right? The questions were viewed as disruptions & asking why the status quo was the status quo wasn’t the sort of thing teachers appreciated.

High school wasn’t much better with its express lane socialization and mean girl groupies around every corner. Though I was social in many groups, my peers on the soccer team didn’t really embrace me for the mash up of ethnic convergence I was beginning to see myself as. Becky always asked me why my dad never came to the games. Back off Becky!

I did feel somewhat accepted by my theater nerd friends as my quirky self but not entirely the slightly queer, bi sexual I was blooming into. And my fella student council members saw my outgoing nature as helpful but sometimes too loud and often asked if I could tone it down some!! I’m tiiiiiiring but it was and still is generally a futile attempt. PS that loud voice got me elected as Student Council president, sorry not sorry.

Then I got to college and learned about learning. I came to understand that the small world I was raised in with limited emotional bandwidth and paid for on food stamps could be changed for access to more information, more community and even more sense of belonging. I began to see inclusivity as a feeling and not a destination . I began to understand my early days as a ‘problem child’ were really just training grounds to be a thought leader, industry disruptor, and ultimately, a business activist.

And now as a woman in business, particularly in the business of helping to dismantle oppressive systems by building better ways of doing things, I recognize this ongoing process of finding belonging with oneself so I can continue to build welcoming spaces for others. We as human beings are social creatures that require community and the inherent sense of belonging that I would argue is in our souls’ longing. I’ve felt the lack of this much of my life and am eager to find abundance of it as we build more inclusive ways of doing business as the change makers we are! After all, we all deserve to be here.

So I leave this entry with a question for the reader: Do you live more quietly than you’d secretly wish to? What have you done today to question the status quo? How can we together see each other as value add to this incredible world we get to live in AND also fulfill our own wildest dreams without excluding? I have some theoretical answers to these questions and I would love to keep the conversation going with you, dear reader.

If you are interested in talking more about your feelings of belonging, of being included and advocating for inclusivity for our world, I want to talk to you. I mean it. Please join our larger coverations happening 24/7 on the LBI Backstage Pass by sharing your thought leading insights on this social media platform built by women for women. I want to connect with you directly so once on the platform, please send me an DM and let’s keep this conversation going.

Love, Rose Kaz

Our Founder, Rose Kaz

Bio:

Click here to come Backstage, meet Rose and the entire community of femme forward leaders.

June 17 2022

Inclusivity in Coaching Through Exclusion

SayHiLBI@gmail.com Boss Blog, Coaching, Uncategorized Inclusivity, Women in Business 0

…and how it creates safer practices for all

Article written by Kitty Kistler

The term “safe space” isn’t new. In fact, safe spaces began in the 1960s during the women’s movement and continue to gain traction 60 years later. But, like most things, such space warrants a two sided argument to why they’re still needed and if they cause more harm than good.

Siding on the idea of a necessary space that provides common ground, these spaces were -and still are- never intended to make others feel left out, but instead provide a place where people are not subject to bias, discrimination, and criticism from the outside world.

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Offering someone protection inside of a safety net might feel like the logical solution to helping others thrive in the world, but the conversation comes with debate. One, not of diversity and inclusion, but of tolerance and intolerance.

Intolerance demands comfort, understanding, and conformity, which makes the uncompromising more critical inside spaces where lack of prejudice is not only necessary, but sometimes a matter of life or death.

Tolerance, on the other hand, demands the discomfort of awareness while often lacking the need for formal understanding and conformity. Tolerance accepts and honors differences and allows exclusive boundaries to protect the person and honor the progress.

As much as you want to believe the world has changed, progress has occurred, and equality is the new norm, the reality is the tremendous amount of work left to do, especially in a progressive and rapidly growing industry such as personal development and wellness.

From the outside looking in, the coaching industry might appear to relate only to a certain level of readiness, discipline, and self indulgence–leaving behind a mysterious sense of elitism that only the wealthy and truly motivated are privy to.

By not showcasing the industry’s diversity, a huge gap remains in the mission to serve all, because not everyone sees a familiar representation of who they are.

To confront this issue head on, the International Coaching Federation (ICF) released a statement of inclusion and diversity asking it to be at the forefront of the mission.

“Our mission is to lead the global advancement of coaching. To do this, we must reflect on our blind spots and be aware of opportunities for improvement.” – ICF

However, as a self regulating industry with no one authority over its mission, it seems blind spots still exist and a lot of misinformed mainstreamers are left to believe coaching is a luxury not often afforded to those in “ordinary” lifestyles.

Diversity within the industry does exist, but you have to invest the time and patience to find the space that you identify with–as both a client and a colleague. The exhaustion of seeking support but not knowing how or where to find it, actually provides a higher likelihood that someone won’t find the safe space they need–or worse, they won’t ask for help because of the possible rejection of not fitting in.

As the world shifts and ‘coaching’ becomes a household word, a lunch and learn workplace opportunity, a conversation in schools, and (yes, of course) an internet buzzword, the need for accessible and visible inclusion remains high on the list of righting wrongs.

It might seem easy to cross inclusion off the to-do list when you’re supporting an audience of ten to 100 members, but how does a coach grow their business AND show inclusivity AND provide a safe space when they’re just one person or a very small team?

This is where waters get muddy, nuance is critical, and self awareness is vital to maintaining your position and authority in your market.

The purpose of a safe space, or being a ‘safe harbor’ coach, is to allow members to feel comfortable enough to ask for support around their own needs, but also understand that the advocacy inside of the group must be heard outside of the space to actually invoke the change.

Safe spaces offer the necessary protection of one’s identity, while also allowing a collective need for progressive tolerance and inclusion to become more recognized within society.

The best way to become a lighthouse and beacon of safety is to lead by example.

Know your audience and be exclusive for them–provide them a safe space that is private and non judgemental, be willing to exclude those who would feel unsafe/harmful or have opposition to the culture you’re creating.

Stay curious and allow open dialogue–especially difficult ones, but know when to step in and offer insights, moderation, and critical thinking to promote further tolerance and the group member’s growth as well.

Practice inclusivity and tolerance in your daily life–weave it into your values, content, programming, and service offers, and make others feel safe and acknowledged even when they know they aren’t your target audience.

So, what makes putting this into practice so hard?

Social influence has programmed the belief that inclusivity means inclusion for all, without exception.

However, being a safe harbor must also include exclusion for the safety of its members. Without this exclusion, members will feel threatened, they’ll be less likely to share, seek, and advocate for themselves, and the group is more vulnerable to intolerant thoughts and actions.

The coaching industry must work together and adopt the ideology of being all-human embracing to remove the harmful narratives that have created so much bias.

Maintaining exclusive safe space does not mean you don’t love, honor, and respect all others, but it does mean you recognize, see, and validate someone who might not know where they belong. Coaches must choose to be leaders who understand that everyone has a story and a wound that needs to be healed, but they’re also worthy of living a life of liberated happiness.

When you practice inclusivity, exclusion becomes less about elitism and more about the humanness of providing someone with the community support they need.

Find Kitty here:

Facebook // www.facebook.com/groups/howtolifecoach

Instagram // @ kitty_kistler

LinkedIn // @ kittykistler

Kitty Kistler is an experienced Life Coach + Business Mentor.

Driven by a desire to see integrity within the coaching community she created Ready, Set, Coach Academy to teach aspiring coaches, course creators, influencers, and social marketers how to coach professionally and build sustainable heart + values centered businesses. Her goal is to expand and diversify the industry while helping more coaches become successful, profitable business owners as well.