How Black Talent Imagines and Builds the Future w/ Janeen Uzzell

it's kind of ambiguous. Actually, um it it can be. You know, an entrepreneur feels that their their company is worth this amount um from an investor's perspective, if they are tangible things like revenue, right, I'll look at that um and then apply a multiple towards that that revenue. So let's say other companies in the space are let's call it trading at a COREX multiple. I would apply that four rex too to that revenue number, and that's

how I get my my valuation. But then there are other things you gotta consider too, like, you know, is this a return founder um? Has she sold a company before for a lot of money? Has she taken a company public before. Is it's the same team. You give them some credit for that. So the valuation starts to inch up, right, Is it a UM? Is it a really new and hot space? Is this deal really competitive?

Is UM you know Bryan overack k for Capital trying to steal the deal from me and I gotta and I gotta out price him or something like that, right, So UM, A lot of things go into it, but generally try to find markers and and uh industry markets to help you figure it out. I'm will lucas Mrs Black Tech, Green Money. I'm gonna introw this you to some of the biggest names, some of the brightness minds and brilliant ideas. I feel black and building simply using

tech to secure your back. This podcast is for you. Janine Zealous an American global technology executive and CEO of NEBI National Society of Black Engineers. She previously served as Director of Healthcare Programs in Africa and Head of Women in Technology for GE and s c o oh of the Wikimedia Foundation, which runs Wikipedia. As Janine about the global perspective and if traveling abroad is imperative for the

success of a black engineer. Let me say that for a world class black engineer, it is a game changer, and I want to put it at the forefront of

the way, um, black techies, black engineers prioritize their decision making. Um. My father, who is deceased, was a guy from the South, came up to New Jersey as a part of the Great Migration, saying some doot and then you know, hustled his way to raise a family, and he was like, I cannot afford to give you this world, but I'm going to give everything I have to educating you and

you get yourself there. The career that I had at General Elector gave me an opportunity to say yes to things that black people traditionally we don't say yes to. And as a result, it took me around the world multiple times. Doing that as a black person makes a world of difference because you do not see us in those spaces internationally, We're not there. Yeah, so it changes,

it changes everything, and so I mean it's different. I would imagine being a resident being from you know, domestic United States, and then you know, having the experiences we have here, you know, growing up and wherever whatever we grow up, you know, we deal with certain issues, and I wonder, you know, for black people who are working abroad and do get those opportunities that the kind that you've had an experience, um the privilege to experience, how

do we prepare for those global assignments? I imagine you know, being in foreign lands. You know, how do you control your safety? How do you prepare before you get the opportunity? You know, I'm going to say that, Unfortunately, there's there's no training ground for us in that space, right, the average black person, we probably don't. You know, my parents were members of any country club, and you know, we went to church and that was our social life, right.

We went to church, we went acquire her sol and we had some family you know, some family events in the process. So there's there's not a way, honestly, to learn that unless those of us that experience it make ourselves available. And that's that's why I talk about it whenever I'm in our community. I'm like, you all need to say yes to some of these assignments and then you start to teach them, you know, how to go about it. One of my greatest mentors, who was one

of my my dear friends to this day. Paula Madison. She the things that she coached me on when I was a leader in GE were things that I'd never heard before and I've never known we should learn. And those are things like how to ride on a corporate jet, the things that you're supposed to do, you know, be paying attention to, but you know, listening for ways to address as a woman in leadership, um, how to respond

and act in different spaces. Those things did not happen for me until much further along in my career, and I'm very grateful that that she's been a part of that development. But we have to bring those into the conversations that we have. There's not many of us that get to do that, and so there's not many having

the conversations. But what will need to happen is that, Um, whenever I speak, whenever I'm in front of audiences, I always talk about the global experience and what it can mean, because the training ground needs to be as intense as the actual leadership role that you have and as simple as how you pack and respond and talk and and carry yourself in in those environments. And I learned those all by default. Um, you know, but you you learn them.

You know, when we think about engineering, were thinking about these these your people who build things or design systems or etcetera. And in the world we live in, and you call it yourself a globalist before I've heard you

called yourself a globalists. And does having that global experience being across the world being you know, having actual firsthand experiences, is that required today of any engineer you can, like, can you make a case for if you want to be an engineer, if you're going to college, or if you're finding your first opportunity in school post school, can you make a case for traveling abroad? And why should those people prioritize getting that experience because you're not just

building for domestic audiences anymore. We're building for the global world, right it is? Is it a requirement? No? Would I want to make it a requirement. Absolutely. My I have two female cousins that studied engineering, both of them. I said, you've got to go abroad. You have And I talked to their parents, who are my first cousins, like, you have to let them do this. I think it's imperative. It changes the way that you think, the way that you solved and engineering all they already gives you a

very critical, strategic, different way of solving problems. So it's it's an incredible education and it's it's such a wonderful curriculum to study because you can use it whether you

stay in the world of tech or not. Just the way that you think and you approach UM solving the problem, but when you take that and you partner it with UM a global perspective, the way that you lead, the way that you build and solve, I think, the way that you are as a person and a human human being, your perspective changes and it could be you know, I could give you tons of examples of what it what it meant to solve problems in India and Indonesia and

Africa and Saudi as a black woman from you Jersey, UM, and it makes all the difference. The other thing that it does is it puts you in a very um unique and sometimes isolated space because you become so incredibly different and sometimes that that's UM, that's a lonely and sometimes difficult place to be. Let's talk about talk about what that what you mean by that? You know, it's it's you know, things change the way that the way

that you might eat the things that you like. I fell in love with African fashion and design and maybe before it became popular, um, socially here you know, you may change some of your Western ways. Uh. You know, I worked in Saudi had to wear burka every day. I'm like, you know, what does this mean to my faith? I thought I was cheating on Jesus, you know, I was like, should I be doing this? But culturally what I needed to do, um to fit into that space?

You know? Um, what it means to work in a place where when the Internet goes out, it's not just like on your block, Like, no, the entire city of across is out of the Internet a while. How do we work? You know, if I'm not trying to build, I would imagine you would admonish folks. But if I'm not trying to build, you know, the next Facebook or the next Google. But let's say I just want to build a really good you know, we can call him

lifestyle company. I just want to build something a great you know, or engineer systems for a small business, UM in my hometown. Doesn't having a global perspective matter to you?

And that is if I'm not trying to build, you know these trillion dollar comp Well, again, I'm speaking to an audience of of of black techys, and I would say that any perspective that you bring, whether you bring it from New Orleans or Oakland, North New Jersey, it's almost going to be global too to the world that you're in because we're or from uh is all is often so very different. We're other than everyone that we're

usually around. I would say that, Um, if you're given an opportunity, you're going to always hear me say that globalism is a way of life, and it is a way that not only the things that we bring to a place, um, the experiences that we bring back with the experiences that we take in. I was a Black American living in Africa. I was still a Black American, right, and I was home so to speak. Right, Africa is everything to me, but I was still a Black American,

so I was bringing something to them as well. And um, it certainly isn't a bad thing to bring into anything you're trying to build from lifestyle. M a friend that has that runs a lifestyle business and she's focused on tease and and you know, some of her best products are international tea leaves, that she mixes with you know, American flavor. So I think that there's always UM a case for what we can bring to the world and what the world can give to us. Yeah, I love that.

I love that, you know, speaking UM about you know, our contributions to culture, like there are people who would be watching or listening to us who may be anywhere in the world. UM. And for black people, particularly black engineers, how can we better leverage our contributions to culture UM for our own wealth opportunity? Its specifically, like how can engineers take on like an owner's equity mentality and not

just build something that makes other people wealthy? Well, it starts with an entrepreneurial mindset and as an engineer, Like when I was in school, I studied mechanical engineering and it's super hard, and I was just focused on trying to learn thermodynamics and and things like that. I wasn't thinking about what it could mean to build something that UM was going to be great for myself as an

independent leader. Universities now offer entrepreneurial tracks, and I think that integrating that into UM the engineering and the tech platforms are critical. You'll see it UM maybe in software engineering and computer science because a lot of those folks move into that VC space. I think we need to put that same kind of trend, in that same track into the engineering mindset. I'm I'm trying to do that

here at Nesby, where I'm the CEO. It's it's important for me to have us think in ways that can bring about independent design strategies. We have so many great solutions. We know how to take things down and rebuild them and bring them into better spaces for the world and for us. UM. But sometimes we as engineers can get so head down sleeves rolled up solve solve, solve soft solved, that we forget, uh to look at what this could mean for ourselves. I was very much like that, you know,

and I think we we can miss that. So there's um there's an entrepreneurial training that I think would be relevant so that we can know what the opportunities are for us to create structures and solutions that will be just as independent or create an independent wealth for us, which is something that I'm so committed to now because I've had a chance to build wealth in a way that I wasn't thinking about when I was in college.

I was just like get this degree graduate of probably working manufacturing, and I'm gonna have a great job and a great career one day and just work, you know, because it's so interesting hearing you talk about that, and I want you to correct me if I'm wrong. But I look at people, well, I find it interesting when I talked to folks who maybe engineers or you know, maybe their product designers or elsewhere, and they work on solutions at big companies and they help those companies get

rewarded patents in et cetera. And I always have wondered like that, it feels like a giveaway. To me. It feels like you did all this work and now this big organization has this reward for your efforts. And I've never under I'm an entrepreneur first, like that's what I'm first at. And so help me understand from the thinking behind it is that erroneous or was like it was there something that was missing from the conversation. There's a

greatness there when it comes to patents. I can't speak to how every company works, but many times there's a couple of things that happen. When you join a multinational. You know, you'll sign u and say, you know, these ideas that we build and here belong to the company. There are some companies that when you are in the room, depending when you're in the room, when concepts are developed, your name becomes a part of the design or the

patent that's created for that product. And in some companies, when your name is on a patent, you receive what's called a patent bonus. So you're not giving it all away, because you can receive a patent bonus for the life of how of how that technology may be used. So imagine someone that's was in the room for the design of the electronic battery that that fuels you know, the

electronic vehicles. Now they're still getting rewarded for that. So there are instances where, um, you know, my college room and she's got two or three patents of black female material science engineer and I'm not sure how the company she works for does it. But other companies will allow

you to receive a bonus. Here here's the tricky piece, and this is where gender um and disparity and gender in the area of engineering comes into play will and that is because many times women are left out of conversations where the patent discussion or design is being held. We may be in the initial piece and then we

may be towards the end. But that piece in the middle where the names get on that paper there and you're actually going to be a part of that design patent, there's a gap there and that sometimes comes from our inability to be brought in to discussion. Sometimes we don't push ourselves into the room um and and so we can miss out on that. So we always want to inspire and encourage women to make sure that they get

in the room and stay in the room. Again, every company does it different, but there are many times when you can create a patent and you'll be given a bonus for that. The other thing that you always have to be mindful of, particularly you're an entrepreneur first, so when you build things, you're building them in your brand. Depending on who you work for, anything that you design or build, even if it's outside of that building, it could be a conflict of interest, and so you have

to be very careful. It's why many times m will leave the workforce if we do get kind of bit by that entrepreneurial person. We're like, I gotta I gotta lead from here because this is dipping into my right pocket. Right. My dad always told me, you can't let your right pocket know what your left pocket is doing. You gotta you gotta keep them both overflowing. Yeah, because that was always my thinking. I'm like, you're creating things, like why

are you doing it there? Like you could be doing it under your own Well, now we know your show talks about this often. You know how hard it is for black people to start entities and to start businesses and technology companies labs, and what it costs to operate in a lab or two. If you're working with chemicals

or machinery, that is expensive. So if you think about you're doing a startup and you're in a room co creating ideas, tossing stuff on the board, and imagine if you had to build a mechanical system to actually as a template for how that would work. These things are expensive. And so to say that we have the opportunity financially, and this is why we have to go back and be able to fund these types of businesses and ideas.

You know, I long for the day when I'll be able to have a black tech accelerator and we'll be able to drive these engineering solutions through there and fund them ourselves and create something like that. That's the big dream for sure. And I was watching a talk you did, and you're talking about, you know, when you are doing that hard work, that's where the value like you do

the work nobody else wants to do. And you spoke about when that work ultimately does then become sexy, those opportunities start to get taken away from us, and how we have to own our contributions to the creation of that value and be bold about it, be confident about it, and fight for you know, that value that we created. You know, what are some of the lessons you learned about how to show up boldly when others want to, you know, place you in or keep you in and

inferior your position. You know, I had, Um, I've had so many disappointments, and honestly, I think I've I've not tried to live my life in a state of regret. But if I had to say something that I regret, it will always be not standing up for myself soon enough, not um taking a bold enough step to say regardless, this is you can't have this, this is mine. UM. You know, we're just I was taught differently. I was young and I didn't know, you know, the fight or

the pushback. There's a tipping point in something that happens when you just say, I'm not going to take it anymore. Um And sometimes me watching the younger generation show up in boldness around me has empowered me to to stand up very differently because I want to be something different for the generations that I speak to. And honestly, I started to take a look at what legacy was gonna look like for me, and I had to decide was legacy going to be for me an amazing career at

a company, which is nothing wrong with that. I was raised that way, both my parents did that, or was it going to be an opportunity to take my brand and say that the groundbreaking work that I've been a part of has been done under the USEL watch and not every other entity that I've been a part of. And that was something I really wanted to do. I had, you know, my brother said to me once, I'm not sure why you show up every day like Daddy's name

is on the side of that building. It's not. And he was and I was just like, He's like, why why are you so upset? These people aren't your aren't your parents. You know, if you're gonna do this, let's let's build something for us. And so now you know, even here at Nesby, it's because I want to bring back the information and the things that I've learned in the passion that I have and do something great for

black people. And I think that, you know, if I can share some of the secrets and some of the lessons that I've learned, then I'll be able to say, this is a legacy that I wanted to take a look at. And I also believe that, you know, I've had an opportunity to create a pathway to wealth. Like I said that I was. I didn't even know I could think my way through at one point. And now

I'm not letting anybody get in the way of that. Yeah, yeah, I mean when I met you, um a little over a month ago, maybe two months ago, and I saw you with your blue hair, your phoney glasses, I'm like, yeah, I'm never gonna forget her, right, I'm never gonna you

can't forget her, you know. And I remember, you know, listening to this talk Jay Z gave about, you know, how he shows up in every room as himself he's not putting on any airs, and he is not, you know, changing the way he talks like he's and I'm and I'm thinking the one side, and it's like, yeah, well you're jay Z, like you don't have to, you know, do that. And then I look at you and I'm like, she's got her blue hair, And I would imagine there was a Daniel career where you couldn't walk in with

blue hair. And I guess my question is, is at what point is it okay to completely show up as ourselves when we're walking in these corporate spaces, when we're walking in these you know, career roles. How do we get past the idea or can we get past the idea that we have to you know code switch like at at what has to happen so that we can just be who we are and provide value. So I no longer ascribe to the model that says I have to be different in other places. Um, I'm already different

in every place. Because as as Shanna Ryan talks about this, the first, the only, the different, the five she talks about that particularly Black women, in most places we ever go to, we're usually the first, the first to trail blaze something we're usually the only when it comes to women,

and we're always different. So if that's always the case, and if the one thing that the world is most conditioned to understand and relate to our white men, and I can never ever be that in my life, that I'm just gonna ascribe to being myself because I'm never gonna be what's the traditional world will always want in

anything that they do. And while you can look at a photo montage of me throughout my career and see that it's only the past maybe five years or so that I've presented myself in that way, what I wish and now I ascribed to is being that person up front. You know, if if Nesbie didn't think that I could lead as CEO because of blue streaks in my hair,

then I probably just didn't need to work here. They don't affect my ability to solve or the way that I think, and the way that I can is money and balance a budget and build a P and L and lead people um And as long as the way that I present is not offensive to a culture UM or a space where I work, or something that I'm bringing into a place where it's gonna create some sort of offense. You know, I'm not gonna wear a tube

top shorts in the middle of Saudi. It's illegal, first of all, insufensive, right, But my intentions aren't to be offensive or to make people uncomfortable, to just to make me, to make me comfortable in a space where I'm always uncomfortable and no one is ever ascribing to make sure that I'm okay. And if all I need is a little bit of blue streak and one of my tattoos out, that's the worst that it can be, then we probably need to um to readdress the way that we prioritize

how we take people seriously or not. I'm watching people in the world do some of the most amazing things, and they either have hair or don't have it, or it's whatever color it needs to be. I don only wish I had done that sooner. Yeah, I mean, we've got folk um inevitably watching this or listening to this, who are black techies who work for the Facebook's, the Google's,

the you know, snapchats of the world or whatever. And you know, we live in a world where, at least in tech, we're often contributing the systems, products, processes or whatever that don't always totally align with our values to achieve.

Let's say, you know, if if Mark Zuckerberg takes a position on something, that doesn't mean everybody at Facebook believes that thing, right, and so does that mean that you know, because we're building things that impact how the world works fundamentally, um, and I think most of us would agree with you know, spectically social media it impacts how we work, um. Regardless of how how do we having convictions continue to make

impact there? Or is it like I don't believe in what this is doing to our us as a society or do we give in or do we continue to stay and continue to carve out our way of internally fighting the battle when they have global societal cultural implications. If we are going to throw in the town, well, then you know, we what's what? What on earth are

we here for? Every day? And I believe that every day that we're giving life and breath, then we're giving purpose and we're called to do something that creates change. And that's in whatever area of your life, whether it's your your profession, your vocation, your advocation, your your familiar life, whatever it is that you're called to do. I believe that. You know, we all have a reason for why we get two ft on the floor each and every day.

And I never ever thought that my life would be revolutionary. In fact, for the longest time I was working with my coach, I couldn't even say the word. I didn't want to use that word in a sentence because I'm like, no, that's not who I am. I don't want to rock

the boat. But everything I've ever done in my career, even when I was just trying to not rock the boat, was rocking it and it was setting me up to being a position of leadership like where I am today, where I now get to say we're going to rock the boat and on my watch, we're gonna tip it, flip it, and do it again. And when when we're in these seats, it's not just being in the room,

it's not just sitting at this seat. What are we going to do with the positions and the opportunity like how you're using your microphone, the stories we're going to tell, the influence that we're going to make. So no, we we cannot give up. I believe strongly in this. It's a little preachy, but this is this is what I believe.

I believe that the black tech movement is positioned right now to move our community of people forward just as heavy and just as impactfully as um the days when our ancestors and family members were walking across bridges and pushing for voter rights and fighting in the same way. Technology and the impact of technology on black people and the influence that we need to have in the design of technology for solutions in the world is the movement, absolutely,

and so we cannot stand down. We have to get into the movement, and we have to push our way in because the world doesn't want us in that space because they know what the outcome will be. And when technology goes wrong on our watch, will people die. It's not just a bad user experience. Oh I hate these earbuds. It is artificial intelligence. Is mixing your face up with someone else, and that impact your life. It's very dangerous and I'm very, very passionate about that. So I do

not believe that we can stand out. I believe that we have to equip one another to stay in the fight. And that is tribal community. You know, work like this podcast, like this story, is like this, people like this that are coming together there's enough. There is so much out there world. There's enough for all of us. What we have to do is come together and be able to bring this revolution together ourselves. Yeah, so let's let's go

a level deeper. Because you've you've achieved, you know, like as you describe, you know, a revolutionary career, you know, a revolutionary contribution to technology. You know beyond g I mean CEO at Wikipedia, you know, with rant Wikipedia, I mean one of the biggest websites in the world, and running nasby and you know, with the black spack. And I want to talk about that because you know, you've you're sitting in some seats that UM have a heavy

contribution to UM. What what what you talked about earlier is that we should be a to fund other companies by black folks. We should we should be in a position of wealth that we can fund things that should

exist for our people. I want to talk about how you feel or whatever responsibility you feel in roles such that you sit in and if you could speak on the black aspect um a little mixing this, how do you feel the responsibility of these roles too enable those coming beside you and behind you and UM opening up the doors of wealth, opportunity and leadership opportunity for them. So I feel, um a way of responsibility that I think is necessary, um to stay humble. I think there's

something my parents taught me. I believe, similarly to the question you asked me earlier, that if I have to change something about me that's just you know, unique and critical to who our am, like the color of my hair, to be in a room, then I don't want to be in that room unless that room is like, you know, you should come in this room anyway. These people don't think we're all crazy. Okay, great, let's do it, um, because that's the kind of pot that I want to start.

I don't want to do the traditional work, where I believe that I'm called to do some things that are going to be very, very different, and um, the experiences I've had it brought me here, and so I feel incredibly responsible. I don't have children of my own, but I have nieces and nephews and tons of cousins, and some of them have also studied engineering, and my push to get them to be global or to get them to do some other things. I believe that's a part

of my responsibility. Whether I'm I volunteer on boards or you know, even my leadership role at Wikipedia. I was hired to be the CEO, and then when the Black community came and said, hey, we want to elevate um content on Wikipedia, I couldn't say that's not my job. I'm supposed to run operations. These are things that they just become a part of your responsibility because they've never

seen anyone that looked like me in leadership. They've never had anyone advocate for the stories of black people on that platform less than of the stories and the content on Wikipedia is about women less than one percent or about black people. How could I say no just because it wasn't a part of, you know, delivering operational rigor. I had to say yes. And my my leadership role on the SPACK. So I'm a chairwoman of a SPAC and for audience members, you know, a SPACK is a

special purpose acquisition company. It is a way to um be a part of building wealth. And I think that in the black community this is something that another way an opportunity for us to to create an avenue um to growth. The reason I chose to to chair Grade Ridge Acquisitions is because it's an all black spack. We have a strong own commitment to HBCUs where most of us were educated, and because we want to be able to create an opportunity that will continue to build wealth

in the black communities. You know, we are under certain guidelines where I can't say as much as I would like to now, but what I do want to leave with this audience is that a spack is yet another way for us to close the racial at the gap in in wealth that can happen from a racial perspective. I think the other way is education. When we have an opportunity to go to college and you don't have debt.

I was very fortunate to not have that, which means I have a ten year leap on anyone graduating because it usually takes about ten years to pay off your student loans. So that's one way. And what do we do with that wealth in the process. My dad was like, you got to buy a house, You gotta do things

like we have to. We have to have people teaching us that being able to be a part of venture capital groups and organizations like um teams, like a spack or yet another way for us to disrupt the communities of color, and not just in how we solve a problem,

but how we build wealth. And so these these are all really important to me because as black people, most of us and this is this is honorable, So I'm not I'm not shooting down for most of us had the bulk of our wealth tied up in four O one case, which is you know, look great, have you've been able to build a four one K year over year for all these years? That is noble. It's just there's a there's a diversity that can come to our portfolios,

where there's a tipping point for wealth. Um. And once you experience that, I believe that you you take on a different mindset and there's a that's where all the boldness and the leadership and wanting to bring others along, that's where tipped and shifted for me. You're one of the original concepts that got me into storytelling about technology,

and particularly even via podcasting. UM, was that the rules of engagement regarding startups and fundraising weren't equal for everybody, and that the information that was coming out of Silicon Valley about how to fundraise wasn't working for me in Ohio, right, and when many of us you know, championed the genius of Steve Jobs and his and and tried to mimic the way he behaved. You know, we found out that would land us in jail. You know, we can't behave

like Steve Jobs behaved or Elon Musk today. Um, the things that white startup founders can get away with, like repetitive failing, we don't have that luxury. And so how do we, you know, particularly black founders, black entrepreneurs, black engineers, UM, with the tools that we have helped to reshape that narrative so that because even still today in many respects, how to fundraise that education comes out of Silicon Valley? Well, we really in Silicon Valley, right, And so how do

we with the tools that exist today? Let's take it from an engineering perspective, how do we create a new pathway so that our folks can get faster, so that engineers can get faster to what you talked about earlier, that entrepreneurial mindset. You know, I love that you asked that because I like to think of NESBI as like one of the first black text startups. Because NESBI was founded by to Purdue undergraduates Edward Barnett and Fred Cooper.

They founded Nesby back in nineteen seventy five. We're gonna be We're gonna be fifty years old in three years. So, you know, you have these two brothers that are like the Steve and Steve of of of of Silicon Valley startups. And they're sitting there at Purdue University, like, you know, this thing is hard and and there's no black people?

Are there other black people studying this? And I can only imagine in the seventies what it looked like may have looked like to be at Purdue and a big afro the studying you know, quantum physics and and you know thermodynamic theories. And these two guys started Nesby and then they built a community. Nesby has you know, over twenty thou student members now and uh they cover we cover programs that start all the way from uh Nesby junior high school students all the way through UM your

collegiate years. And then the professionals which are Nesby graduates. And you have this community and this tribe with people that are finding their way to how to solve and build and create teaching curriculum and ways to do that that have diverse mindsets and showing them early on that

this is what technology looks like. Imagine you want you have to come to our convention in Marchville, because I want even as a hybrid, we're gonna have over six thousand black black engineers there on any and in any normal circumstances have over fourteen thousand. I just want to walk Silicon Valley through there and let them see that,

look at look at what this community looks like. And UM, these are the types of people that you need on your teams, on your design teams, in your building UM obsessions, creating and strategizing and building ideas for the world, because this is what the world looks like, and so you know, we have to do more of that. We have to I'm I'm currently now collaborating with a group of women

UM and and I'm speaking at Afrotech. Morgan is one of them, just to talk about what it means to be a group of black women leading these huge technology efforts and how do we create a tribe amongst ourselves in a community. I wish that we will have more of these and more opportunities for us to gather and UM to help create cohorts of of communities of color that are working in this as it's not. We're not far off. This isn't a dream that can't be achieved.

We're literally here doing it. We just have to show the world more of us, because you're right, what can happen in Silicon Valley. Unfortunately doesn't. We can't get an idea and then all of a sudden, I just got this great idea and somebody tend into it out. You know, we've got to have the entire thing built with proof points. You know, har it is, it's an absolute fact. Right. You were doing a talk at a leadership summit. I don't remember the name of the leadership something, but I

was watching the video. You were talking about how you were compelled to have a word of the year, and I want you to take us through this exercise. First on educate us on why it's important, and then how can we find our word and put it into practice so for the rest of you know, give us how we should do this and playing for the rest of the year, and then we can prep perhaps. Okay, So

the word concept came from a group of friends. We've been friends for over twenty years and there was a group of us and we I think someone brought it to us and said, um, what's an area where you want to focus? And you know it starts out with these long note you know, overtime, me iterat and how can we get it down to word because we really like to make things a little extra little, a little harder, so we were trying to whittle down to one word. The framing of it came from my my business coach.

Her name is Rhadayah Rhodes and she is a black engineer from Nesby that now has um a training business, Evoke and and she has been coaching me year after year and every quarter. Now we do this process where we beprint my life and um be printing your life is meaning you're setting the design for the things that you want to accomplish. And we do it quarterly because most businesses operate like that as well. And it could be everything from my business, my entrepreneurial work, my volunteerism,

my family, my personal life. But um, what is it that I want to design and what is the name of the game or the thing that I'll be doing that quarter? And then for me, I like to whittle it into a word and I'm focusing on UM some of my goals spiritually, financially, socially, what I want to bring to the world, on what I want to receive and I actually do it at the start of my birthday will, which in my birthday was just last week.

So I just NW, thank you. I just picked my word for the year and UM, and I'll share it because I'm fine. For the longest time I work was freedom. I have a tattoo of that word because it was so important for me to break through and be comfortable, like I said, being myself and environments that weren't comfortable with me and weren't trying to make me so comfortable. Right. So now my word for this year is abide um A B I D. And when you abide in something,

it means like you kind of set up residents. It's like the difference between you know, CouchSurfing and moving into your own place and decorating it and making it look like the way you want it. And I chose that word because the work that I want to do right now and that i'm I know that I'm called to do in the space of black technology, whether it's at nesbe, whether it's on this fact that I'm a part of some of the boards that I'm gonna that I'm a

part of. I want to abide in there. I want to be so confident, confident, and so comfortable and so assured with what I'm bringing into that space that I'm open to learning. I'm confident with limiting, I'm okay when we get it right, I'm humble when we get it wrong. And I'm abiding in this space so that I figured I'm able to bring my best self into the places. And this is where I'm called too. So I've had that word before, but it meant something different to me.

Then it meant like not being so wigged out all the time. In this case, it means I'm bringing an assurance that that man comes with experience and with age and otherwise. Um. And that's that's how I did it. And I would say, if we get how we're going into the last two months of the year, and you know, next today when we're recording, the next week starts a new month, so I'm not sure when this will air, but you've got you know, sixty plus days to to

close it out. I would pick something that would help you finish the year strong. What is and whatever finished strong means to you personally familiarized in your career. What's the word that's going to help you get to the end of the year. And then when you get a chance to reset in January, how do you want to to lead and to be um and everything that you do in that year? And here's the thing. If you decide you've accomplished it midway and you want to change,

you know there's no rules here. You know, no one's gonna grade you on this. This is just something you get to do for yourself. So have some fun to the real quick intense seconds like how do we use it? Like? Is this a word that we write on our mirror? Like how do you stay reminded of it? I keep it in my phone. I often tie um either a

scripture or a motivational quote or something to it. I put ideas around it, bullet points of this is what it means for me, because trust me, you will forget or you'll get so stretched in your your year that you'll you'll need to remember why you wrote that down. So you always have to write your why. And then I want to go back to it because I need to be reminded why I chose this who I want to be as I take on this word and what

I want to give. As a result of having that experience, I keep in my phone or I use you know, electronic notes these days, you know, just as a way to keep reminded. And it's something I put into practice, I try anyway. The Internet at its core, you know, is like a system that provides access on a global scale, where there it be between people or between systems, you know,

in the in the blink of an eye. I remember hearing the technologists say several years ago that there will come a day where we won't even call it the Internet because it'll be it'll just be. It'll be something that's so ingrained that we won't see it as separate from us. You know. Imagine what you know ten years, fifteen or twenty you pick um what it looks like. And how do we as black engineers play a role in creating that future. Well, I would say first of all,

that we're already probably living in that world, right. Remember when we used to call it the worldwide When do we'd say we're getting online? Now we say we're googling stuff. Everything is I had to google that, I gotta do that or we're just doing and most of the time that means it's something related to the web. Right, that's how we do life now. It's what happens on our refrigerators and you know everything is electronic, Google Series, add

to my shopping list, whatever. Right, it's just the way we do life now. Ten years from now. You know, twenty years ago they said there was a digital divide, that blacks were not going to be a part of the Internet and revolution because we didn't have access to WiFi, our phone lines and things like that. Now, anywhere you go in the world, Africa, anywhere, every black person's got two or three phones, difference carrier provider, smartphone. My ninety year old mom has her Star phone and tech and

chat centers and little Champagne Smiley ass or whatever. So this is a part of our life, right, and she's ninety. I love that she's like always wants to learn and how to get in the zoom chats and work it. Ten years from now, when I'm using a certain platform and I won't name it because I don't want you

to edit me out. When I'm on a platform and I can't find an automatic round thumbs up so that when we're in the chat in a meeting, you know, I refused to use any type of emoji in this one recular system because they only they don't have brown fingers. You can't change the shade right when those things, you know, and I hate it, and I'm like, so I refused the thumbs that I just write thumbs up. I have to write it because I refused to use it until

they fix that tech. Those are things that that next generation, the teen year old that's born, the kid that's born today that will be ten, never experienced. Just like my nephew has never seen. You know, I don't know what he means to have a Reno t V. Everything is a smart TV. He thinks everything swipes left and right right. The Internet and the the tech world will speak to us in a way that is not a secondary source.

We are primary as women people of color. We will be the dominant community in the world in ten years from now. So those are things that we should be held up by. They should just be formulated. It is a part of the design process. And um, when there are gaps in access to WiFi and things like that.

There's so many open source and communities that are helping make sure that everyone everyone has that, and we have to continue to support and fund that because these should not be things that hold us back in the future, and they won't be. Black Tech Green Money is a production of Black of the Afro Tech on the Black Effect podcast Network and Ihearted Media. It's produced by Morgan Dabon and me Well Lucas, with additional production supported by

Love v sim Rissa Lewis. Special thank you to Michael Davis. Adam Simms is the Carsavan young you know like the wine. Yes, that's his real name. Learn more about my guests and other texts up as an innovator to afrotech dot com video versus of this episode, we'll drop the Black Tech Green Money on YouTube, So tapping enjoy your Black Tech Green Money, leave us a five star rating on iTunes. Go get your money, Peace and love