What Rules!?: A career podcast for women of color

It's our 100th episode! Since launching in 2020, we've been amplifying the voices of multicultural women in leadership—because our power, our stories, and our impact matter more than ever. Today, we celebrate the strength found in moving forward together, this year’s theme for Women’s History Month.  Our conversation explores how multicultural women can turn challenges into assets, support ea...

Did you know? Women who experience high levels of stress are 46% more likely to seek new job opportunities. We take a holistic approach into the critical topic of wellness in the workplace and how it intertwines with our overall career satisfaction and significantly impacts how we show up in our personal lives. HR executive Dr. Merary Simeon and career coach Courtney Copelin share their insights o...

We’ve got a lot to say after LeanIn and McKinsey & Company's recent Women in the Workplace 2024: The 10th Anniversary Report.  HR executive Dr. Merary Simeon and career coach Courtney Copelin reflect on the ongoing challenges faced by multicultural women and argue the continued need for systemic change.  We get candid about the barriers to advocacy and provide a variety of ways multi...

Feedback is a powerful tool for growth if you can harness it effectively. We dive into the critical role that feedback plays in professional development, especially for multicultural women who are trying to advance their careers.  We tackle the significant gap with feedback in the workplace: many women report not receiving the feedback they need, or when they do, it lacks relevance and action...

Fortune 30 C-level executive Maria Lensing tells us about the many rules—both corporate and cultural—she’s broken to advance her career. This Latina powerhouse from Peru has been a leader at Walgreens, McKesson and AT&T, and is now the Global CIO & CTO at Sorenson Communications. In this super candid and honest conversation celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, we chat with Maria about the...

Hosts Alisa Manjarrez and Dr. Merary Simeon get real about the current landscape for women in the insights industry during this live recording at IIEX North America, one of the largest insights conferences in the world. Alisa and Dr. Merary highlight the crucial role of advancing multicultural women in the insights field and its positive impact on businesses. They also share three actionable strat...

One of our core themes is Create What You Want to See. This is nothing new for Krystal Solorzano, Principal of Business Development at 10SB, a global architectural firm.  Krystal has been charting her own career course since her 20s, from moving solo to South America to embarking on a new adventure in Singapore with her husband. This fearless Latina shares her insights on why working abroad c...

We’re celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month with Denise Vu Broady, a Vietnamese refugee who has climbed the corporate ladder into the C-suite and is now a mentor to other women in the tech industry. Denise shares her inspirational story of how she blossomed from an introverted young girl to the outspoken powerhouse she is today as the Chief Marketing Officer at Coll...

If you’re comparing yourself to others, wondering if you should be further along in your career, our guest today shares how to get ahead at your own speed.  While we’re encouraged to advance as quickly as possible, Paula Ramos, Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer, at Kimberly-Clark, believes in the opposite. Paula tells us how she has broken the rules by looking at her career as a sailb...

For Women’s History Month, we debunk three myths many multicultural women have about supporting each other in corporate America.  Do you think you’re only one person and can’t change the status quo?  Are you afraid to sponsor another woman of color because she may make you look bad?  Do you believe everyone should pay their dues as they climb the ladder? These are all myths! Check o...

It’s Black History Month and Meredith Harper is on a mission—to empower women and people of color to embark upon careers in tech. Black, Latina and Native American women make up only 4% of tech roles in the U.S. Meredith is the Chief Information Security Officer at Synchrony, a Fortune 500 company that is one of the largest issuers of store credit cards in the U.S. She shares how she has often bee...

Let’s advance together in 2024! Today, we chat about lifting others to get ahead collectively with Cindy Tran, Managing Director at Slalom, a global business and technology consulting company. As an Asian American, Cindy talks about how she was raised to be empathetic with everyone and how it’s helped her advance in her career.  “That general commitment to adding value and helping others succ...

Are you thinking about leaving corporate America? You’re not alone. 1 in 3 women of color currently in the workplace plan to leave their jobs over the next year.  We’re here to tell you why multicultural women are needed in corporate America and what it means if more of us decide to leave. Before you choose the path of entrepreneurship or the corporate world, check out our convo! Episode High...

Are you looking for a mentor? We’ve got a surefire way to get as many mentors as you want, thanks to Shellye Archambeau, a Fortune 500 board director and one of the first Black female CEOs in the tech industry. Shellye learned early in her career that you should have multiple mentors and she figured out how to do that—without asking! And it’s easier than you think! Suffering from impostor syndrome...

We chat with Brianna Hinojosa-Smith, Chief Legal Officer of Digital & Technology for Yum! Brands, the world’s largest restaurant company. Brianna was doing just fine as a senior patent attorney at Microsoft before Yum! Brands came calling (during the pandemic!) with an opportunity to switch to the restaurant industry, a new field for her.  “Here I was looking to do something completely di...

Where there’s a will, there’s a way. That's the motto that's taken Wendy Wu far—from Microsoft to Google, and now to software developer SailPoint, where she is the Chief Marketing Officer. Wendy believes that “you have to be the owner of your own career,” and that means defining what you want outside of your current role. She tells us about the time she did just that at Microsoft when her position...

Welcome to the Own Your Power Series! In three short episodes, we’ll help you advance your career as a woman of color. AND we provide leaders with surefire ways to advance the multicultural women at their organizations. In this episode, we show you the first step to owning your power: how to own your identity. Why is this important? “Your identity shapes how you experience and see the world,” says...

In Part 2 of our Own Your Power Series, we share how you can leverage your strengths to get ahead in your career.  Discovering and growing your strengths is worth it. Research says people who have the opportunity to focus on their strengths every day are six times as likely to be engaged in their jobs. We offer tools that will help you identify your strengths and build on them. “We all have a...

The #1 question we get from women of color is, how do I find a mentor and sponsor?  In Part 3 of our Own Your Power Series, we reveal why you need both. “If you’re not sure what you want to do, go to a mentor,” says co-host Alisa Manjarrez. “As soon as you know, go to a sponsor.”  We tell you how to find a mentor who you can trust and is a good fit for you.  We also fill you in on h...

Shiseido exec Agnes Landau has an accent and speaks with her hands—two things she tried to tone down at the start of her career. Not anymore!  Today, Agnes is the Chief Marketing Officer at Shiseido U.S. and she credits her differences for standing out and getting ahead in the workplace. “Because I have an accent, people listen more closely,” says Agnes, who’s Puerto Rican.  We chat abou...

When others see potential in you and offer you opportunities, take them even when you’re scared. It’s paid off for Cartier exec Erica Lovett.  At age 32, Erica is the first DE&I leader at Cartier, the global luxury jewelry company. She shares how she’s followed her instinct to create her own career path to become the Head of Diversity & Inclusion at Cartier North America.  Erica...

Learn how to build a community that will open doors and grow your career, thanks to Ivonne Valdes, Chief Channel Officer at Sorenson Communications.  Cuban American Ivonne shares how everyone around her, from neighbors to recruiters, have contributed to her career success. She has secured mentors and sponsors at every job and she has built an advisory board that helps with her career moves. W...

Get ready for a deep dive into vulnerability with Mimi Park, a Field Chief Technology Officer at Databricks. Mimi grew up in Korea, where she “essentially didn’t have a voice,” she tells us. So when she started her career in the U.S., “I wanted to be like everyone else, but me.” Thanks to a personality assessment, Mimi learned it was ok to be herself and she began to open up to her co-workers. Tod...

What’s more badass than talking about money? Although most of us cringe at the thought of sharing our salary with others, Slack exec Rukmini Reddy believes it’s one of the best ways to advance your career. As the SVP of Engineering, Platform at Slack, Rukmini tells us about the “network of incredible women” in her industry, who are open about sharing compensation data with one another. The results...

Did you know there could be one million more women in management in corporate America if the “broken rung” was fixed? The broken rung, the biggest hurdle multicultural women face climbing the corporate ladder, is a systemic issue. That’s why we’re covering what organizations can do to fix it in our last episode of our Broken Rung series. We talk about the holistic strategies companies can implemen...