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Episode 76: How to own your voice with Jasmine Escalera

Welcome to The Career Clarity Show, where we help you find a lucrative, soulful, and joyful career path for you!

Today’s conversation will be a really good eye opener for you about the types of things that different people struggle with in the workplace. We are discussing owning your voice, claiming your voice, understanding how who you are and the experiences that you’ve had shape how you show up in your work, and in your life. This is very intertwined with thinking about what kind of career is going to feel fabulous for you. 

This is for you if you are trying to hide from your past, hide from your values and beliefs or if you’re in a place that is making you play small, where you feel like you can’t bring your full self to work. It can be really hard to feel fulfilled, satisfied, and like you’re in a sustainable fit. Our guest expert, Jasmine Escalera, is joining us to crack open the key to moving into work that feels good, that feels safe and that feels empowering for you.

Want to learn more about our strategic framework for successful career change? Download The Roadmap to Career Fulfillment ebook right here!

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Transcript:

Lisa Lewis Miller  0:04  

Welcome to the Career Clarity Show. If you want to create a career path you’ll love, you’re in the right place. I’m Lisa Lewis Miller, career change coach, published author and your host, and each week, we’ll bring you personal transformation stories, advice and insights from experts about how you can find a more fulfilling, soulful and joyful career. You’re listening to the Career Clarity Show. Hello, and welcome, clarity seekers. I’m your host, career change expert, author and the founder of the Career Clarity Method, Lisa Lewis Miller. And I am so delighted that you are with us today. 

Lisa Lewis Miller  0:44  

Today on the podcast we are talking about a topic that I think some people who are listening to this show will absolutely resonate with immediately because it’s so in line with their own experience. So in line with what they’ve seen happening in the workplace, and for others, today’s conversation might be a really good eye opener for you about the types of things that different people struggle with in the workplace. Today on the podcast, we are talking about owning your voice, claiming your voice, understanding how who you are and the experiences that you’ve had shape how you show up in your work, and in your life. And I am so excited to dive on into some of the juicy elements of this topic. Because it’s really intertwined with thinking about what kind of career is going to feel fabulous for you. If you are trying to hide from your past, hide from your values, hide from your beliefs. Or if you’re in a place that is making you play small, where you feel like you can’t bring your full self to work. You can’t talk about what matters to you. You can’t bring your perspective from your past life into what you’re doing. It can be really hard to feel fulfilled, satisfied, and like you’re in a sustainable fit. So part of what we are cracking open today is going to be part of the key to moving into work that feels good, that feels safe and that feels empowering for you.

Lisa Lewis Miller  2:07  

I am so excited to bring on the podcast, Jasmine Escalera is here to talk about how her story has shaped her background, what she’s doing now how she empowers others to use their voices powerfully and own their stories, and it’s gonna be a really exciting conversation. Jasmine is a New York based certified career and life coach with over a decade of experience in nonprofit management, recruiting and staffing. She has spent years providing professional development and leadership coaching to companies and clients across the globe. Jasmine has worked with clients within a range of industries and experience levels. She earned her BS in biochemistry from Pace University and her PhD in pharmacology from Yale. She’s an experienced executive level programming operations director with a passion for designing research programs that increase the quality of life and healthcare options for underserved populations. Jasmine, welcome to the Career Clarity Show today.

Jasmine Escalera  3:00  

Thank you so much for having me. And thank you so much for that lovely introduction.

Lisa Lewis Miller  3:05  

Well, one of the things that struck me about you when we first met was how clearly you tie what you do, and how you want to serve to who you are and where you’ve been. Because for so many people. There’s this belief, and sometimes it’s adaptive and helpful. And sometimes I think it’s not as adaptive and helpful that your work self and your personal self need to have some sort of separation, that there’s a bifurcation that there’s like one of you that goes to one place one of you that’s in the other place, and never the two shall mix. And while that way of being might work for some people, I think for most of us, that mode of really slicing yourself in half feels feels empty, it feels shallow, it feels like we’re not bringing our full selves to the table. And I know that this is an area of deep passion and excitement for you. So will you share with listeners a little bit about your backstory and what makes this so meaningful and so important to you?

Jasmine Escalera  4:08  

Yeah, and I love the way that you mentioned it about the sort of separating the two individuals. And for so long, that’s what I was doing. And I have to say that it created a level of unhappiness in my life and in my work life. So I was going to work as a completely different person. And I didn’t ever feel as though anyone actually knew who I was in the workplace. And then I would come home and almost shed that off and become my true authentic self and then repeat next day and repeat next day. And it almost got to the point where I was like, dreading going into work just as this inauthentic being. So you know, for me, I just knew that that’s not how I wanted to be and my story really begins with the little girl who grew up in the projects in in Brooklyn and I grew up really having a very difficult and challenging life being a Puerto Rican woman in New York City growing up in the projects during the 80s and 90s, when things in general, not just in the city, but in the country were incredibly challenging. You know, my parents, although they wanted to provide the best for me, my dad hadn’t even graduated high school. And my mom at that time had not even entered into college. 

Jasmine Escalera  5:21  

So this, the things that they could provide were pretty limited. But what they could provide was the value of education. And although you know, the environment that I came from, it was challenging for others to kind of continue on in their schooling and in their education. My parents really pushed me with that. And I always tell everyone that I had the absolute best childhood, because I loved school. And it was just recognized that that’s something that I was really good at. So not only did my parents advocate for me, but my community advocated for me as well. My parents didn’t actually leave the projects until I was well into my 20s. And I remember being at Yale, getting my PhD and coming back to my community, and people would just be like, what’s up? Oh, my God, how’s Yale, how’s it going? I mean, I had this, this family that extended beyond my own family. And you know, what ended up happening to me in particular, was as I started to get older, and as I started to kind of venture out of the projects, and outside of my community, I started to recognize that I was incredibly different. So not just because of the color of my skin, not just because I was a woman of color. But because other people had things that I never even knew existed. I remember going to a friend’s house when I was probably 10 or 11 years old, and she had stairs in her home. And I was like, Wait a second, like, stairs, there’s a whole nother level in this house. So it was, you know, I started to recognize that I grew, I grew up very differently, and other people had different lives. And then at that moment, I started to almost feel, I would, I would almost say embarrassed in a way of how I grew up. 

Jasmine Escalera  7:09  

And as I continued on in my education, especially in the field of STEM, where there’s such a limited amount of women and limited amount of people of color, I really started to almost kind of like, shy into myself, so almost kind of pull into myself and I started to lose that sense of community, I started to lose that sense of myself, I started to disconnect from the story. And it was so impactful for me to recognize that because my story was exactly what had brought me to that moment. You know, those challenges built the resiliency for me to actually continue in my education, the the commitment, the love, the support that I got from my community, was exactly what I needed to be able to love myself enough to go through every single challenge. And for some reason, I started to pull away from that and disconnect from that, and almost, in some ways, shy away from it. And so, you know, coming into the workplace, and even going through grad school, I would say it really started in grad school where I started to feel almost kind of like an imposter, a fraud. I just didn’t want to own myself and my truth.

Lisa Lewis Miller  8:21  

There’s so much in your story that feels important, it feels like we should be highlighting and underlining about the importance of community, the importance of feeling like you belong, the wonders and questions that can come up that are completely unrelated from your performance, right, completely unrelated from anything that you are doing purely just based on the environment and the context that you find yourself in. And I know that one of the things that that you and I have talked about before that is really important to you and your story and to the work that you do is this idea that you can’t know where you’re going until you know, or you claim or you own, where you’ve been, and where you’re from, and what your identity is. And so I’m wondering, and thinking about that version of Jasmine in grad school, feeling like an imposter, feeling like you don’t have that sense of a warm, loving community that you remember having growing up. How did that moment and how you move through that moment, shape your relationship to both where you are going, and how you can claim and own who you are and who you’ve been.

Jasmine Escalera  9:41  

So to be 100% honest with you. I did not claim my power. I did not own my story until much later in my career when I was in graduate school. I think the feelings of being an imposter and being in a fraud were so heavy on me. I remember getting accepted to Yale. And the first thing that I was telling everyone, after they were congratulating me was Oh, yeah, no, I mean, obviously, they just had to fill a quota. So I started my track in Yale with this feeling of I don’t belong here. And when you’re in an academic environment of the caliber of Yale with individuals from all over the world, who are extremely intelligent, and you don’t believe that you belong there, it’s hard to step out of that environment. So I started to feel like a fraud. 110%, the minute I stepped out of the projects, the minute I left my community, the minute I left, my comfort, my family, my friends, and I started to recognize, wow, like, there are other people out there who are brilliant and intelligent. That’s the moment I started to doubt myself. And so going through the experiences of Yale were incredibly challenging. And I have to be completely honest with you that I thought that was the most lost, I felt my entire life, I was doing something that I enjoyed. But I knew it was the wrong fit. For me, I was getting my PhD in pharmacology, and I had this idea in my head, I’m going to go into the pharmaceutical industry, I’m going to make tons of money. And that was all I was sort of geared towards, because I still had this desire to claim something to make myself feel better. And I attributed that to money. 

Jasmine Escalera  11:30  

You know, I saw other individuals who had money and houses. And I thought that was what was going to make me happy. So going through my experience at Yale was when I honestly felt one of the lowest and one of the most disconnected from my true self I’ve ever felt, I didn’t really start to be honest with you owning my story, until I started going through my career. And I started to climb the career ladder and really recognized, if I don’t own my, my strengths, if I don’t own my gifts, I’ve just already hit the ceiling, I’m not going to be able to go anywhere. Because as a woman of color, and as people of color, when we enter into the workplace, there are a tremendous amount of barriers that are already placed on you. So if you don’t own your power and your strength, you’re giving up, and you’re allowing all of those external barriers to keep you right in the pocket that they want to keep you. So it wasn’t until I started to move up the career ladder that I really recognized, if I don’t own all of my unique attributes, all of the uniqueness that I can bring, and I bring it every single day, this is it for me, and I’m never going to be able to achieve the success that I truly want. And at that moment, the success that I wanted was just to be able to own who I was, and give back to my community in the way that they gave to me.

Lisa Lewis Miller  12:56  

It sounds like there was a really profound shift for you in the story that you were telling yourself about what your uniqueness meant, in that moment at Yale, versus what your uniqueness means, you know, much closer to now in your timeline and in your time frame. And I’m wondering, can you share a bit about what, what shifted?

Jasmine Escalera  13:19  

Yeah. So I attribute a large majority of the what shifted to actually a great friend of mine, who’s currently now in medical school. And, you know, we met when I was in college, and she just owns every single aspect of herself. And she saw something within me, she saw that greatness that I had within myself. And every single time, she would just say you have to share your story. And she used to tell me that the way to own your power was to get comfortable with the person that you are and share your story. So every opportunity that she had, even when we were, you know, older, and she was teaching she was for a while she was teaching in California. Every time I went out to see her, she was like, Okay, I want you to speak to my high school students, because she was working at King High School. And the population there was very similar to the population of kids that I grew up with. And she was like, they need to hear your story. And I would go in there and I would tell these kids my story about like, Oh, I went to Yale and everything is so peachy keen. And she was like, No, no, no, no, no, you need to tell them your real story. So it wasn’t until I started to really mentor other individuals. And I started to actually connect with them in terms of not just the accolades. Like that’s not what it’s about when I started to connect with them about the challenges when I started to connect with them about the struggles when I started to tell them that yeah, this is who I was, and this is what I went through. But while that all that did for me builds character, it builds resilience, it built a person who is more capable of moving and navigating through the world. So it wasn’t until I started to really connect to my story and tell it like, verbally speak it to the world and listen to it myself, that I really started to say, well, damn, I mean, it’s power, you know, that story is power. And the more you speak it, the more you say it, the more you own it, that’s when you really start to come into that authentic self that everyone is always kind of talking about.

Lisa Lewis Miller  15:35  

I love that. And I think that one of the biggest sticking points, or one of the biggest tricky spots about this is that a lot of people might be listening to this and thinking like, well, Jasmine, I just want to feel more confident before I tell my story. And I think there’s a real interesting paradox of as you were just sharing your story, you didn’t start out competent. Where for you did the confidence come from?

Jasmine Escalera  16:03  

I think the confidence came from recognizing that if I was going to really change someone’s life, I couldn’t hold back on the messy right, there was, there’s no way to hold back. Like if you really want to connect to someone, if you really want to change someone’s life, you have to let them in on every single piece and part of you. And the messy is really where people actually connect to you more. So I didn’t feel competent. When I started to tell my story. I didn’t feel good, if I mean, just even talking about that moment in my life now actually making me sweaty. But it didn’t come naturally. And I don’t think that it will come naturally in the beginning. But I think recognizing that the way to really create impact not just for yourself, but in the lives of others is to allow them to understand and to see the struggle, the messy, and how you came out of it. Because in essence, one of the things that I really, truly believe is that you cannot be what you don’t see. So for me, I was the first person who went to college and my family, I was the first person who went to graduate school, I was the first person who made a six figure salary, I was the first person to start a business, no one could help me. I remember the moment in high school, I think I was in probably 10th grade, when my dad and it could tell it broke his heart said to me, like I can’t help you anymore. You know, because he used to help me with homework or read some of my essays. And he just said flat out, I can’t help you anymore. So it’s it’s important that we show the younger generation, you can go through all of the things you’re going through every single moment, and you can still come out of it successful, whatever amount of success you want. And we have to if those kids, if those individuals that are, you know, step a few steps below us don’t have the see, like they can’t see it, then you have to be the see. So I think that that’s incredibly important for individuals to know is that it’s more, it’s more than you. And it’s more than about you. So you got to put take yourself out of it for a moment and recognize Yes, it’s going to be a little bit uncomfortable. But if we really want to create change, if we really want to create a path for these other individuals, we have to be the see.

Lisa Lewis Miller  18:44  

I love centering this in it being bigger than you and being bigger than any one individual decision or any one individual job. I think that’s amazing. And I’m wondering, knowing that you had this incredible mentor and sponsor who is giving you opportunities to tell your story and tell your story authentically. I can imagine that a lot of people listening especially women, especially people of color, when they think about sharing their story. There’s probably a very visceral fear that pops up, that I need to be bulletproof. In this story, I need to be flawless, I need to be perfect. I need to leave no places to be criticized or to be seen as being weak or vulnerable. Because so much of the world around me already makes me feel like I’m I’m exposed, that there’s a target on me that I am going to be more likely to be criticized, more likely to be cut down. And so I’m so curious in your own story. How did you work through any fears like that that might have been popping up for you?

Jasmine Escalera  19:58  

There are two things I tell individuals around that. And the first thing is like, Who the hell cares? I mean, really, you know, perfectionism is this idea that other individuals are going to judge you. And first off, like, Who cares if they do, like you walked your story, you know, and I love that Brene Brown quote, where it’s like, don’t, you know, you can’t make comments, if you’re not in the arena like, that is truly brilliant, because no one gets to judge your story. Only you lift it. So for me, it’s, it’s, I think we have to get over that idea of like, judgment. You know, it’s, who cares if somebody doesn’t, if someone thinks that it’s imperfect, it’s, it’s got to be authentic to you, and not even perfect to you, it’s just got to be authentic to you. And the other thing that I like to tell individuals is like, we have enough judgment in this world. So when we kind of have this ideology of it needs to be perfect, because I don’t want anyone else to judge me. You’re putting judgment on other people by thinking that someone doesn’t actually want to hear what you have to say, or that someone’s going to think a certain thing about what you have to say. So I don’t like to, you know, live that idea of putting judgment on others, I like to speak what I have to say. And if you want to hear it, then you listen. And if you don’t, that’s the beauty of the world, you can just go another way, you know, so it’s when we think about things like even social media, you see people putting out this content that is so amazing, and vulnerable and open, and they get judgment all the time. And it’s like, do just move another way, like there’s no need for that. I think it’s about just owning yourself, and putting that judgment aside, and not really caring if someone else doesn’t think it’s perfect, but also not judging that there are people out there who don’t want to hear the message. 

Lisa Lewis Miller  21:53  

Well, something really important that that I think came up as a part of what you were just sharing is, is how by being worried about judgment from others, you’re actually judging other people and projecting some of your stuff onto them. And I think a flipside of that is that if you’re worried about being judged in your story, it’s likely tied to you not having totally accepted and come to peace with and and you haven’t yet learned how to truly love and embrace the elements of your own story as being perfectly imperfect and real and necessary components of allowing you to have a knowledge and the experience and the ideas and the compassion and the values that you have today. So what advice would you give somebody who might be realizing, you know, oh, gosh, I thought I was really worried about judgment from other people about my story. But I’m realizing I am my own worst critic, and I am judging the hell out of my own story, and I want to come to more acceptance and more peace about who I am. What’s unique about me that I bring to the table, what my backstory is, what my heritage is, all those pieces?

Jasmine Escalera  23:10  

Yeah, that’s a heavy question. And I think for for me, you know, some of the tools that I utilize to just start getting comfortable with who I was, was, I actually started to journal a lot. So when I was first going through this experience of trying to really come to terms with my story, reconnect with my community, and almost kind of identify who it was that I wanted to be in the world, and who I wanted the world to see me as I really got deep into reconnecting with myself through journaling. And I think that it was a lot easier for me to tell my story to myself through written words, than it was to just go out into the world and be like, you know, shout it to the roof from the rooftops, like, that’s, you know, that’s very challenging, and it would have been extremely challenging for me. So I think for me, the the reconnecting to myself, first off came from there. And it also came from, I remember having deep conversations with my dad, who is just a lovely individual, lovely human being. And I remember having a lot of conversations with him just about the difficulties and the challenges of growing up. So starting almost kind of with individuals that I felt safe with, so that I felt a lot of safety around. And also talking to you know, my friend that I mentioned before, so, for me, really, it was about telling my story to individuals that I felt very safe with first so that I knew that I could get vulnerable to a level that it was safe for me. And then it was also about doing a lot a lot of journaling around my story and really looking at Those words reading them back to myself taking them in. And and starting to almost craft, the who I was, and also the who I wanted to become.

Lisa Lewis Miller  25:12  

I think that there are a couple of really profound pieces in what you just shared that I want to make sure to underline for listeners. Thing number one being having trusted, listening ears and trusted confidant and trusted cheerleaders in your corner, is in valuable. So if you don’t have a couple people in your life that you feel like you could trust and you could be that vulnerable with it is a fabulous time to start reassessing who you are letting have time and your energy and have your brain have your heart. Because you want to be surrounding yourself with people that you trust and who you believe love you unconditionally, and will support you and lift you up. But there’s another piece to this around the journaling and the processing. And I wonder too, if, if for people listening, it might resonate as coming to have different beliefs about who you are and who you’re supposed to be. And I mean that in the way of releasing perfectionistic pressures that there is one right story and every other story besides that is wrong, releasing internalized narratives from the patriarchy, from bias around different people, or different experiences being worth more or less or being more or less valuable or being more or less important in the workplace. Because it feels like there are some beliefs like I am enough, I am worthy. My experience is valid. What I have to say is important. That kind of underpin all the rest of this, that if you’re not on board with those beliefs about you and your story, the kind of confidence that kind of self assuredness and the kind of platform and visibility, it sounds like you’ve been able to achieve is going to be way way more difficult, if not impossible to get to.

Jasmine Escalera  27:12  

 100% Yeah, I mean, if you know, we would never have been able to have this conversation, even five years ago, you know, like, if you had come to me and said, I want you to talk about your story and owning your story out a bit. I mean, I would have just said, I don’t even know what you’re talking about, like so, you know, I I had to come to a point where I opened myself to be able to accept those affirmations in the first place. I think I was living almost kind of with an armor around myself. I didn’t want to let anybody in. And I didn’t want to let anything out. And that I’m not even going to say that I wasn’t successful at it, I achieved a level of success, even with that armor, and I think that’s interesting is that we can go through life, never claiming this, and still end up being successful. But I can tell you that I didn’t feel good about myself, I didn’t feel authentic, I didn’t love myself, there was nothing true about what I was doing. I was conforming, I was allowing for the external world to tell me who I was supposed to be. And it wasn’t until I started to recognize that I didn’t want to live like that. And I started to make those kinds of thoughts of I need to change that I at least started to chip away some of that armor enough that things like positive affirmations, things like changing your mindset, things like meditation, and journaling actually started to crack me open further. But if you don’t, if you don’t have that little crack, those things are just not going to resonate, they’re not going to come through. So I think it’s important, the very first thing that you have to recognize and ask yourself is are you really happy? Is this who you really want to be? And if your answer is yes, and you can say that with 100% confirmation in yourself, then this isn’t going to resonate with you at all. But I can bet that the vast majority of individuals out there if you ask them, are you truly happy? I don’t know if they’re gonna answer yes to that question. And if you’re not, then I think that’s where you have to start the journey of putting that little crack in that armor and letting all these things really help you get to the point of where you want to be. And owning that story is a huge component of it. And

Lisa Lewis Miller  29:36  

I love that there’s a another coach out there named Rich who says that “Vulnerability is perfect protection.” You know, we can spend all this time trying to create this armor of being either invisible so nobody can see you and nobody sees the true you. Or this sort of facade right the polished like beauty pageant called We’d kind of like very airbrushed, very touched up, maybe not super real version of who you are, you can put those out there thinking that that’s going to be your protection. But the most authentic, the most honest protection is usually the most vulnerable. And the most real, and it is incredible how much people will respond to that. If you feel like you are in a place of acceptance of your own story, to be able to share that and to be able to have those cracks to let the light in and to let the love in and to let the visibility in.

Jasmine Escalera  30:38  

Yeah, 100%. I love that I think that is so it’s so beautiful to say it in that way. And it’s so true. And I can tell you for a fact that I had that armor on for an incredibly long time. But it didn’t, it didn’t actually really serve me. And

Lisa Lewis Miller  30:58  

So I imagine there are people listening to this who are thinking, What’s shifted in your life, since you’ve taken that armor off, and started leading more authentically and owning your story and being willing to share even the messy pieces of who you are and what you value and how you got to where you are now. 

Jasmine Escalera  31:18  

Well, I will be 100% honest and say that there were some good things and there was some bad things. I was working on a particular organization in which I had conformed 100%. And I was doing all of this work as I was working at that organization. And once I stepped into this kind of power, this sort of power of my story and who I wanted to be, it was actually pretty insane because people recognize that I was walking into rooms and walking into spaces. And taking up the space that I deserved. Like there was a complete shift in my energy. I didn’t power I was like, open. And that’s what this really does to you. But what that ended up creating, because I work in a very white white male dominated space of STEM. What that ended up creating was a lot of hostility, because individuals were used to seeing me as the person that I would just get the job done. I didn’t ask questions, I didn’t push back, I just got the job done. So when I finally came to my voice, and I was like, well, I want a promotion, I want a pay raise, I want what I deserve. I’m doing like the work of 15 people here, you know, when I finally started to advocate for myself, use my voice take up space, I actually got a lot of hostility back from that. And it became such a hostile workplace that I actually had to leave. But the beauty that came out of that was not just owning my own story, but recognizing that there were other women of color who needed to own their hours, and who needed to declaim their space and take up their space in the workplace. And so that brought me to my passion, which is my business in which I really help women of color, who were going through the same thing that I was going through and who are going through it currently, to really be able to step into that power, and to claim and own their power. And to do it in the workplace, and, of course, a very professional way, but frankly, to be able to take up the space that they deserve. So although there were many challenges, and I think a lot of individuals were kind of like, Whoa, who is this person, I started to recognize myself so much more, I started to become the person that I knew I was. And I really started to recognize that if I’m going through this, other people are going through too. And you know, the beauty of it all is really I found my passion and I found my purpose. So that that was really the best thing that could have possibly came out of it.

Lisa Lewis Miller  34:01  

Mm hmm. I love that. And I think that being willing to experience whatever the consequences are of being your true and false self in the workplace is a huge power move. Right? That is a huge leap of faith and a huge willingness to choose vulnerability and competence and courage over playing small and conforming. And you know, one of the big things that we talked about with the career clarity process, and we help people navigate what’s next is that one of the biggest drivers for if a role is going to feel like a good fit for you is what we refer to as personality fit. And that’s our third pillar of fulfillment. Because we talk about if you are in an environment where you feel like you can’t bring your full personality to the table and you can’t bring the full personality to life, for whatever the reason is. That’s not going to be a sustainable, healthy fit for you. It doesn’t mean the job is wrong. Doesn’t mean the industry is wrong. It doesn’t mean what you’re looking for in terms of your management and your team and your lifestyle is wrong. But it means that that particular organization doesn’t have the kind of culture that aligns enough with your values for it to be worth it for you to give your yourself and your heart to that organization. And with a little asterisk and a caveat of personality fit, it can also be sort of a big catch all for avoiding places that tend to perpetuate racism, classism, sexism, a lot of the biases and a lot of the bigotry and a lot of the sort of patriarchal social norms that make it so that women and people of color, don’t feel like they can be bringing their full gifts to the table. And I know that Jasmine, you and I both love Minda Hearts. And if you guys haven’t heard her I’m like Career Clarity Show, she’s on a past episode, and we will link to her in the show notes for today. So you can listen to her episode too. She just put out a version of her book, The memo in paperback and had this incredible event to celebrate. And one of the things that she said in that event that I think is so important, is she said, racism kills careers, right? sexism kills careers, bigotry kills careers. And I know that part of our mission here at Career Clarity Show and I know part of your mission do is to make that not be the case anymore, to help people find places where they can thrive. And they can step into their full voice and their full power to help people find places where whether it’s somewhere corporate working for somebody else, or working on their own, that they can create the world that they want to see. And they can be the sea like you were talking about. And so I think it’s really important for anybody listening to this, as you’re asking yourself that beautiful question that Jasmine articulated about, are you happy? also asking yourself the question of Can I fit here? Do I want to fit here? And if not here? Am I am I ready? Am I prepared? Am I willing to look at other places where they will see more of my gifts? appreciate respect and compensate? more of my gifts appropriately?

Jasmine Escalera  37:26  

Yeah, yeah. Well, first off, I love Minda. I mean, she is fantastic. I actually went to her under your direction. I went to her one of her book virtual book launches for the paperback. I’ve read her book twice now. It’s fantastic. And she’s absolutely right. And I think that we have to take to heart the hard data that is showing that there is a large percentage of black women who are deciding to forego corporate and forego the workforce and just do it on their own. And I think that that piece of data in itself is showing exactly what she means by racism kills, kills your whole entire career. As a black woman, as a woman of color, these are things that are happening on the daily. So we have to really acknowledge that. And there are organizations out there that will allow you to bring your true self to work. And the number one thing that I tell individuals, especially during a job search is not just to find the right job. But to find the right company like that, to me is even more important, because you can find a position. But if you don’t actually feel like you fit into the company, you’re never going to make it and that’s just the thing, you are stalled, you’re stagnant and it’s not going to happen for you. So cultural fit is so important.

Lisa Lewis Miller  38:59  

I love that. Well, Jasmine for somebody who’s been listening to our conversation today and who has just been loving everything that you’re sharing and wants to learn more about you and how you help people find their voice and step into their power and find things that feel more like they fit that are more authentic, that are more real, what are the best places for people to keep in touch with you.

Jasmine Escalera  39:23  

I am very active on Instagram. My handle is @JasmineEscaleraCoaching and I like I just love posting tips and tricks and different things that people can really use in terms of their career development. And also just personal things about myself. I’m also on LinkedIn at Jasmine Escalera so you can find me there as well. But those would be the two best places to really connect with me and see what I’m all about.

Lisa Lewis Miller  39:52  

And y’all if you’re not following Jasmine on Instagram but you are on Instagram you are missing out. I have gotten constantly feeling so inspired by all the amazing things that you’re putting out into the world and how helpful it is and how real it is and the incredible truth bomb. So if you’re on Instagram, if you’re not already following Jasmine, I probably share her stuff in my stories once a week or so. So make sure you connect and take in all the goodness that she is sharing there. But Jasmine, thank you so much for coming on the Career Clarity Show today.

Jasmine Escalera  40:26  

Thank you so much. This was a joy to be able to really discuss this important issue.

Lisa Lewis Miller  40:32  

I totally agree. And I’d love to hear your feedback to know what you thought of today’s episode. Whether it is a direct email to me You can reach me at Lisa@GetCareerClarity.com or you can leave us a review on Apple podcasts to let us know what you think what we should cover next time What was the biggest truth bomb that resonated with you. We are trying to put out as many resources to help support you in navigating periods of career questions and career changes to move into the happiest healthiest possible work fit for you. So any advice that you have on things that we can be putting out into the world to help support you is super appreciated. And don’t forget to go pick up all the goodies including those links like we were talking about to both Jasmine’s properties to Mendez books, all that good stuff at GetCareerClarity.com/podcast. And if you don’t already have your hands on the Career Clarity Show book, please go ahead and go to GetCareerClarity.com/book to pick up your own copy because I’d love to hear what you think about that and how it helps and supports you on your journey as well. So remember, if you don’t love your work, we should talk because life is way too short to be doing work that doesn’t light you up. Talk to you next time.

About the Author Lisa Lewis

Lisa is a career change coach helping individuals feeling stuck to find work that fits. She helps people clarify who they are, what they want most, and what a great job for them looks like so they can make their transition as easily as possible. Lisa completed coaching training in Jenny Blake’s Pivot Method, Danielle LaPorte’s Fire Starter Sessions, Kate Swoboda's Courageous Living Coaching Certification, and the World Coaches Institute. In addition to that, she apprenticed with the top career coaches in the country so she can do the best possible work with — and for — you. She's helped more than 500 individuals move into more fulfilling, yummy careers and would be honored to get to serve you next!

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