Episode 51: Regina Jackson from Race2Dinner on "What it means to call yourself an ALLY?"

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In this episode Regina Jackson of Race2Dinner joins the Embracing Only Podcast where they deconstruct how being nice has not stopped racism. Thorugh her work and lived experiences over the last 72 years she is on a mission to change the status quo she co-founded Race2Dinner with Saira Roa. They took the experiences from these dinners and developed a documentary with film maker Patty Ivins called Deconstructing Karen. In the words of the filmaker’s themselves “It is a provocative documentary, white women experience RADICAL HONESTY ABOUT RACISM…their daily role in upholding it, their conditioning to ignore it and the essential part they can play in tearing down the systems that are killing black and brown people every single day.”

How does this translate into the workplace?

  • It provides thought provoking questions to consider if you call yourself an Ally at work?

  • It challenges you to start with yourself in deconstructing your beliefs and triggers first

  • It leaves us with key messages to ACT as there is urgency in having honest discussion however uncomfortable that make us feel. Only then can we seek to make the impact we seek within the Employee Resource Groups (ERG’s) or diverse teams we are leading in organizations.

  • Finally, a recognition that is a constant journey of learning, recognition and evolution

If you are ready to join in on this journey to deconstruct your own racism we encourage you to engage in the following way.

  • Purchase their book “White Women: Everything You Already Know About Your Own Racism and How to Do Better”. You can purchase it here or anywhere you read books. https://www.amazon.com/White-Women-Everything-Already-Racism-ebook/dp/B09RPPV3B8

  • Watch their movie “Deconstructing Karen”. You can watch it by purchasing it on iTunes or on YouTube

  • Engage with the Race2Dinner Community if you recognize as a white woman. If you are ready to unravel, connect and commit. You can buy one for yourself and gift one to another friend here through January 2023. https://www.race2dinner.com/race2community.

  • Register for the Race2Dinner Self Actualization Program if you identify as a person of color. An opportunity to dive deep, live authentically and free. https://www.race2dinner.com/race2selfactualization

  • Host a Race2Dinner with a group of your girlfriends. Reach out to Saira Rao and Regina Jackson here. They have SOLD Out of their dinner in 2023 but be on the watch out for more in 2024

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Episode 50: The year that was 2022 and how we allow it to shape us

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Archita and Olivia tie a bow on the year that was 2022, with their bonus 50th episode. They focus on transitions during this dynamic time in the workplace and economies and how continued focus on controlling the controllables, recognizing where our fear response stems from and allowing for the rest and help we all need.

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Episode 49: Leadership and Feedback with Olivia and Archita

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In the Season 5 Finale Olivia Cream and Archita Fritz tackle two key topics “Only’s” navigate in the workplace leadership and the power of feedback.

Here are some key takeaways from the episode:

  • Cancel the noise around not waiting to ask for permission for a title or for a place at a table because you are leading always in your own space in your own way!

  • You performing at your job is the ticket to the ball, yes! But what you do in terms of focus, in terms of advocacy, in terms of intentional networking, in terms of getting mentors that align with your goal. That’s what makes the difference in you reaching and ultimately achieving

  • Get that driver seat of your career warmed up, it has got to be you in it

  • Leadership journey when moving from the military to the civilian world shifts from one of Command and control to trust and inspire

  • You have to be aware of your battlefield and you have to understand the spoken or unspoken criteria for success in that environment

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Episode 48: Do What Matters with Katherine Byam

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Katherine Ann Byam is a best selling author of “Do What Matters”, sustainability activist, coach and consultant for business resilience and sustainable change, partnering with leaders committed to a shared future. Katherine chose “Doing what matters” after 20+ years in big corporate. She has developed a model to build your own career transition process. As ‘an only’ thriving in spaces across Corporate Audit, to ESG to the big tech she has always lead with a mind of abundance to take up space as a courageous leader. In this episode she navigates how to thrive as ‘an only’, how to work on yourself and discover your biases and those of others with curiosity and in doing so get curious about the planet. She is on a mission to engage and empower more businesses and individuals to lead net positive lives.


Key takeaways from this episode:

  • A company‘s culture when weaponised can be a blueprint for bias.

  • As long as your brain functions there is some kind of bias in you

  • You need to work through vulnerability on your own, make sure you are speaking from your scar not your wound

  • Take time to understand what leading a net positive lifestyle can mean for you

  • Questions are your friend, conclusions are your worst enemy

  • Black women don’t start off wanting to be a stereotype and be labelled a troublemaker.

  • Diversity created our one blue planet and inclusion will help us save it

Episode 46: Limitless Leadership - consciously driving change

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"In life, you genuinely can't control what others say, what others do." - Meghana Rao Pahlajani

Meghana a multifaceted sustainability professional in the development sector has driven conscious impact across coal, natural gas and solar from rural India to large power plants in the Midwest USA.

In this episode she shares her limitless leadership lessons navigating being 'an only' leading a coal plant, to breaking the bias on maternity leave in corporate India, navigating loss due to COVID and raising conscious consumers. She challenges us to rethink resilience as a badge of honor one must endure alone and instead embrace it as a team sport. She leaves us with an emphatic and tangible call to action to leave the world a better place than we found it.

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Episode 44: Start where you are with Coach Brandi Thompson

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In this episode we are thrilled to welcome #OperationGrowthCoach Brandi Richard Thompson! An expert coach and entrepreneur Brandi Thompson shares her journey from a college dropout to transformational growth strategist. She highlights how she recovered from failure; how she battles fear and perfectionism; and how history plays a role in helping Brandi understand the dynamics of interracial relationships.

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Episode 41: Kill the fear, step into your power

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In this episode Olivia and Archita dig deep and unpack doomsday scrolling within the backdrop of the ongoing war in Ukraine and share tangible ways to focus on our controllables. They tackle Olivia’s personal journey of defining ‘What it means to be a woman’ after life altering changes due to surgery or illness. They wrap up with questioning what our legacy is in a world that seems to be constantly hustling and performing.

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Episode 39: Embracing Only with Olivia and Archita →

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The Embracing Only podcast introduces ordinary women who have defied the odds as they navigated their professional careers as 'an ONLY'. In this episode Archita Fritz and Olivia Cream engage, inform, empower and provide actionable ways in which the listeners can see the change they seek to rise and shine in their professional space as we continue to navigate uncertainty, loss and see more women join the influx of the Great Resignation.

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