8 Years of amplifying bold, diverse, dynamic voices. Here's to infinite possibilities!
Gender equity activist/speaker and trans pastor Paula Stone Williams writes, "Spending time in the place called ālostā is essential to the heroās journey. After you learn the lessons that can only be learned in that difficult place, you finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.ā For many in the trans community (and their loved ones), the inevitability of feeling lost in mourning your former identity can be made worse by a lack of acceptance. Paula lived that, and still does often, but she also found light out of her experience. She now spends much of her time speaking about her unique lived experience as a man and a woman to ensure gender equity everywhere.
In honor of yesterdayās Transgender Day of Visibility, never forget that these people are our friends, our family, our peers and they, too, deserve compassion, joy and acceptance.
Throwing it back to a clip from our She Means Business interview in 2022, highlighting the reasons why we founded our women-owned speaking agency. As we continue to focus on building the platforms of the underrepresented, especially women, we salute those businesses, founders, and supporters who are also doing the work to elevate women around the world.
Happy International Women's Day!
Caitie Bradley Tara Berthier Tori Marra
Why empathy? Well, why not, we say. Empathic leadership expert Michael Ventura teaches us why, now more than ever, we must learn empathy as a tool to better human understanding.
Cancel culture = silenced, excluded, disempowered and disinvitedāsomething we're all too familiar with in a time where we have access to spread messages of mass shaming farther and wider than ever before. But have you ever considered who has been canceled by just existing?
At TED 2023, Sarah Jones shared her journey of being recently canceled professionally as well as introducing the concept of the "pre-canceled"āknowing what it's like as a person to have cancel culture baked into her identity. A call to action for us all to engage and disrupt injustice instead of giving in to further division, Sarah shares the an alternative understanding of cancel culture as well as encourages us to find a better, more productive way to discuss our differences.
Watch the full keynote here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8kr_V3fEGA
Feeling the burn(out)? Need to reset? Outspoken speaker Ximena Vengoechea, a former UX research leader at Pinterest, LinkedIn and Twitter, shares a roadmap for conquering burnout and finding balance in her new book Rest Easyāout today! Read more about her antidote to burnout culture in todayās blog and be sure to get your copy via the link in the comments!
www.outspokenagency.com/blog/2023/9/26/rest-easy-release-ximena-vengoechea
This Hispanic Heritage Month, we must ask ourselves how we continue to exclude and erase the Black Latinx/e communities from these great stories and foundational narratives of the nation(s) they helped build. How do they get included or excluded from this month's celebrations? Through Outspoken speaker Dr. Lorgia Garcia Penaās scholarship, she helps us to understand how colonial histories continue to shape present-day oppression of minoritized people of color, including those who are a part of the Black Latinidad, and how we must create networks and communities of empowerment and hope for all.
For over two decades, Michael Ventura has helped organizations, large and small, instill more empathy in their culture, elevating employee retention and the bottom line. Described as āone of the most impactful programs Iāve ever experienced as a leader,ā his immersive workshops can change the course of your organizationās future. Some of his most popular topics include:
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Hybrid working best practices
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Onboarding and peer mentorship
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Cross-departmental collaboration
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Culture building opportunities
Thereās no better way to learn something new about others than to share your own stories. We often realize we are more alike than we are different.
On Trans Day of Visibility, we invite you to listen and to learn why telling stories can open your eyes to new perspectivesāfor transgender people, women, or otherwise. In conversation with trans pastor and gender equity activist Paula Stone Williams, media personality Laura Brown and Outspoken CEO Caitie Bradley Shea, check out this clip from our recent webinar about the power of storytelling.
Hey, folks! Devin here. Outspoken is closed for the holidays, but I couldnāt pass up a chance to get my final Christmas letter out to Santa. I hacked into our social media accounts, hoping it will help my wishlist make it to jolly old Saint Nick before itās too late. Hope my colleagues donāt mindā¦ š
