The Culture Soup Podcast®

As we continue to celebrate the launch of my book, No Thanks: 7 Ways to Say I'll Just Include Myself, I'm bringing back conversations with voices that are featured therein.  If you haven't listened intently before to the podcast, now is the time.  This is the context and the inside scoop that you're craving.  Sheryl joined me this week on the local NBC affiliate to discuss her tips in the book abo...

Covid and politics and elections, oh my!  I don't know about you, but all this has caused it's quite a thing at my house.  How about yours?  Are you frustrated?  I am.  It's not all unicorns and rainbows  Just ask my 8 year old, who makes a cameo because...that's how it is, and I'm known to keep it real.  How are you coping?  Do you have hope?  We end the show on a high note because, we really, di...

Today's episode of The Culture Soup Podcast® takes a cue from today's #nscrockstarleadership tip of the day: be intentional about your personal brand.   My guest is someone who is absolutely leaning out to lean in. Shannon LaNier ( https://www.linkedin.com/feed/#) isn't only a news anchor for Houston's CW39, he is also the ancestor of Thomas Jefferson and his slave Sally Heming, and a dedicated hu...

Sometimes they call rockstar leaders nuts. When Jamie Roberts ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/ACoAAAx2vlgBE4U0-kcxbUgc28bzmWKnRLoCopQ) told friends and colleagues he planned to launch a radio station in the #1 media market, they told him he couldn't do it. They really thought he was nuts when he planned to do it in the middle of a pandemic. But he did it, and he's doing it! 108soul.com ( http://108s...

Sometimes they call rockstar leaders nuts. When Jamie Roberts told friends and colleagues he planned to launch a radio station in the #1 ( https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/1/) media market, they told him he couldn't do it. They really thought he was nuts when he planned to do it in the middle of a pandemic. But he did it, and he's doing it! 108soul.com is a reality. If he had asked me, I wou...

It's back to school, but not the way any of us like it.  In the pandemic age, how has university life changed?  How are students coping?  My friend and colleague is guest host.  He turns the tables on me to ask what students should be thinking and doing now to step up and lead.

Throwing it back to our Valentine's Day Bonus episode...as I highlight the people in the acknowledgements in my new book No Thanks: 7 Ways to Say I'll Just Include Myself. Enjoy!

Revisiting Episode 76 with Valorie Burton.  It also inspired the way I approached my new book, No Thanks: & Ways to Say I'll Just Include Myself: A Guide to Rockstar Leadership for Women of Color in the Workplace.  It's a coaching tool!  You can coach yourself right into the C-Suite if you do the work.  Listen in to this conversation between myself and my sisterfriend and mentor coach to understan...

It’s a special "Coaching Corner" episode of The Culture Soup Podcast with a live reading from my new book and some discussion on the topics. The book is No Thanks, I’ll Just Include Myself: A Guide to Rockstar Leadership for Women of Color in the Workplace. Want to support the launch of No Thanks on social media? Order the book, then post a photo of yourself with the book or your device. Write a c...

Diversity in Action: Moving from Middle Management to the C-SuiteI'm dropping gems with this amazing panel about how to actually and literally be yourself in the corporate workspace that does not center people of color. This is how it’s done and I get extremely granular on the topic in my book No Thanks, 7 Ways to Say I’ll Just Include Myself: A Guide to Rockstar Leadership for Women of color in t...

My new book is launching soon.  Aug 10, look for No Thanks, 7 Ways to Say I'll Just Include Myself: A Guide to Rockstar Leadership for Women of Color in the Workplace.  Preorder your download for Kindle today on Amazon at  https://amzn.to/3jSOrJ7 ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08DG8MBZG/ref =dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0).  Paperback preorder will happen next week.  I wanted to celebrat...

Today's #TBT is my powerful chat with Tiffany Hendra, former Housewives of Dallas cast member. It's all about walking in your power.  And I make an announcement as I'm walking in mine. As always...fresh monologue here for you.  Be sure to go by lmichellesmith.com to get on the bandwagon.  BTW, do you have a list?

A wonderful brand awareness tactic for your personal branding efforts is to get out and speak. But is everyone cut out to be a speaker? It is an indeed learned and honed craft. The key is to not only refocus your mission to message delivery, but you need to take the focus off of yourself (or even your company, if that is your situation) and place it squarely on the people you're speaking to and wh...

Entrepreneurship is unique. It isn’t self employment. That’s where you simply try to make enough to pay yourself, and that’s enough. It isn’t a hustle. Hustlers live for the next get and no real plan for what that might be. They don’t have credentials either. Entrepreneurs put the processes and people in place to scale and grow so that things run whether they are there or not. There’s also a visio...

Dr. Jeff Gardere is back on this #ThrowbackThursday to talk about something that is as American as apple pie: privilege.  It's time we actually understood it.

Dr. Jeff Gardere is back on this #ThrowbackThursday to talk about something that is as American as apple pie: privilege.  It's time we actually understood it.

Sis, it's time we had this conversation. Someone asked me what is Bozoma Saint John's "secret sauce." While I have only met and spoken to her once, she demonstrates the traits of someone who understands that she is entitled to have it all and the way she wants it because she knows her value. She has centered herself and is the CEO of Brand Boz. That scares many of you. The second reason is this: s...

When your college roommate and sorority sister grows up to be a full on BOSS and a hero, you must share her with the world. She is decorated military and now the Chief Nursing Officer and Chief Operating Officer at one of the largest health/hospital networks in the country. She has leadership lessons for us from the front lines of fighting a pandemic and insights into a day in the lives of her tea...

When your college roommate and sorority sister grows up to be a full on BOSS and a hero, you must share her with the world. She is decorated military and now the Chief Nursing Officer and Chief Operating Officer at one of the largest health/hospital networks in the country. She has leadership lessons for us from the front lines of fighting a pandemic and insights into a day in the lives of her tea...

If there is anything that this movement is teaching us, it is that we can no longer be silent.  How are you impacting change where you live?  In your house? In your pocketbook?  In your career?  Systemic racism is pervasive and in the corporate workplace, it's a part of the furniture.  How can you leverage this moment in time to get what is rightfully yours?  I'm calling back this episode with my...

But what will @dallascowboys owner Jerry Jones do? He’s quiet as a mouse on this topic of social justice, and Clarence Hill, Jr says “That’s not like him.” Even I said, “Come on out to the picnic, Jerry! It’s a good move!” He also says that the @nfl got “punked” by @nascar with their bold removal of the confederate flag from all their events. We talk leadership lessons in all of it. What will team...

EP 103 TCSP Clarence Hill TEASER

*Sips Tea* ☕️ But what will @dallascowboys ( https://www.instagram.com/dallascowboys/) owner Jerry Jones do? He’s quiet as a mouse on this topic of social justice, and Clarence Hill, Jr says “That’s not like him.” Even I said, “Come on out to the picnic, Jerry! It’s a good move!” He also says that the @nfl ( https://www.instagram.com/nfl/) got “punked” by @nascar ( https://www.instagram.com/nasca...

*Sips Tea* But what will @dallascowboys owner Jerry Jones do? He’s quiet as a mouse on this topic of social justice, and Clarence Hill, Jr says “That’s not like him.” Even I said, “Come on out to the picnic, Jerry! It’s a good move!” He also says that the @nfl got “punked” by @nascar with their bold removal of the confederate flag from all their events. We talk leadership lessons in all of it. Wha...

Part 2 in my series What Does the Civil Rights Movement Mean for the Workplace? continues tomorrow with a very special guest. Lafern K. Batie and I met last March outside Atlanta, Georgia at the CaPP Institute coaching intensive. She was one of my trainers, and in our first interaction, we became fast friends. I consider her to be one of my mentor coaches because she taught me a lot of what I know...